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    1. Invite-only is a brilliant idea and I'd like to have it for longer than planned

      Posting from glass houses as I'm a relatively new user and a reddit refugee, but I must say that I enjoy the idea of the invite-only forum-style network a lot. When Selig announced the first...

      Posting from glass houses as I'm a relatively new user and a reddit refugee, but I must say that I enjoy the idea of the invite-only forum-style network a lot. When Selig announced the first effects of reddit's API changes, people scrambled to find a new place to post. It's only natural, and I won't lie that I'm missing some fluff and meme communities like 196 and hmmm. Most, as far as I can tell, found Lemmy, some found kbin, some found Tildes. Not many were granted access to Tildes, and I think that's a good thing.

      Like Deimos says in the documents, Tildes is not a reddit replacement and it shouldn't be one. It's something different - I see it as a lovely little nostalgia portal into the Web1 days with BBCode forums, modernised to fit a web that continues to enshittify itself. It's a refreshing oasis, and I think the fact that we're very strict about invites is a big testament to that.

      In my view, invites serve two purposes. First, if they're a limited resource, users think closely about who to invite - keeping the general quality of participation high. The fact that Tildes has only one real content rule, that being to not be an asshole, and more importantly the fact that this rule works is a testament to that.

      The other purpose is maybe not directly apparent. When I first encountered Tildes and I didn't see an easy "request invite" or "waitlist" button, it deterred me to join. Thank god I didn't, because this is a great little community, but for some people that's enough to turn them off. But, I don't see this as a bad thing either - if you want to join Tildes, you have to put effort in. You have to send an application to Deimos, or you need to find and befriend an existing member through other channels.

      This is a barrier, a source of friction, sure - but it's also a great "defense mechanism" against the hordes of potentially bad users - be that assholes, be that lurkers, be that those users that leave after leaving a single comment and finding that Tildes isn't for them.

      Which brings me to my point - Deimos has stated that this is an invite-only alpha. Eventually, the invite system will be removed, and considering the influx of new users along with the need to make the site more accessible fast, it might happen sooner than we think. I think we should keep Tildes invite-only for longer than we "need" to. Not because I don't want new users, far from it - but I think the small village vibes is what makes Tildes special. I'd like to preserve that island of nostalgia.

      134 votes
    2. Tildes dev environment on Apple Silicon // Apple M1

      I'm having some trouble getting the local developer environment set up on Apple hardware, specifically it seems because Virtualbox, which is used as the provider, is not properly functioning on...

      I'm having some trouble getting the local developer environment set up on Apple hardware, specifically it seems because Virtualbox, which is used as the provider, is not properly functioning on Apple hardware.

      Is there anyone here who has managed to get it up and running?

      29 votes
    3. “Which group should this go to?”, “Which tags should I use?”, and other posting anxieties.

      A short story Last night, I posted an article about fraud related to COVID funding in the United States. I debated about where to put it. Was it ~news since it was an investigative report that was...

      A short story

      Last night, I posted an article about fraud related to COVID funding in the United States.

      I debated about where to put it. Was it ~news since it was an investigative report that was just released? ~finance because it was about money? ~health because it was about COVID?

      In reading through other comments here, especially related to our current group structure I’ve noticed other people expressing similar sentiments about submitting things.

      The same goes for tagging your topic. What are the right tags? What if I use the wrong one? There’s a non-negligible amount of anxiety regarding submitting things to the site.

      If you go to the article I posted, and then click Topic Log on the sidebar, you can see what got changed. I realized I forgot to add the tag usa. You can then see that another user changed the capitalization on my title, moved my post from ~news to ~health, and added additional tags.


      The betrayal(?)

      Someone moved my post? Someone changed my title? Without telling me?! 😡

      Yes, they did, and I’m here to tell you that I couldn’t be happier about that. It’s not a betrayal; it’s a collaboration. 🥰

      Submissions on Tildes aren’t like other places. You won’t get your hand slapped here for not following the right protocol, especially because there’s not a fully clear protocol in the first place. Topic placement, tagging, and titling are all things that often require judgment calls. It’s not uncommon for the titles we see on Tildes to actually differ from published titles to make them less clickbaity or clearer, for example.

      Furthermore, Tildes isn’t a place where people are competing to post content. There’s no karma to be harvested or influencers to influence. On other sites, big news items will often get dozens or hundreds of duplicate posts because, on other sites, who posted the content matters a whole lot. People will post and repost things because it’s important that they, individually, get “credit” for that.

      Tildes works a bit differently, with submissions being owned more by the community at large rather than individual posters. It doesn’t mean we don’t have our own content (and it definitely doesn’t mean someone can or will edit the actual body of a post, like what I’m writing here), but more that the content’s place and appearance in the community is something we work together on. If you want to discuss something and you see someone already posted it here, that’s not a bummer — it’s a great thing! It saves you some work, plus you know at least one other person is on the same page as you and wants to discuss the same thing.


      Which group should this go to? Which tags should I use?

      Don’t worry too much about those things! We’ll collaborate on them. There are several users here who are librarians of Tildes, dutifully organizing submissions behind the scenes.

      When I first started posting, I was nervous about getting my tags and title exactly right. I’d occasionally post a title with a typo and cringe, hard, wondering if I needed to delete the post entirely.

      Now, when I post, I’m happy that if I don’t know what to do exactly or I make a mistake, someone else will come along and help me out with it. No more anxiety!

      I hope all our new users can feel that way too. Having your submissions reorganized is not combative; it’s collaborative. Don’t stress about posting anything perfectly. Someone will help you out if need be.

      104 votes
    4. I, and many other like me, have a responsibility with invite codes

      I’ve been here three days. I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of what makes this place tick, and have only had a glimpse of the culture encouraged here - and I love what I’ve seen thus...

      I’ve been here three days. I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of what makes this place tick, and have only had a glimpse of the culture encouraged here - and I love what I’ve seen thus far.

      Thanks to @deimos I now have five invites to share. Sure, they’ll be tracked if I’m being irresponsible by sharing them with nutcase randos, or if I put them up for sale on eBay (obviously I won’t!).

      But I love this place so much already that I’m going to be super selective in my distribution.

      I love that responsibility! As a newbie I get to be adulting, and it’s SO welcoming!

      49 votes
    5. List of recurring threads and their schedules?

      Do we have a list of recurring discussions and their schedules anywhere? I know they're generally weekly, but I often find myself having to do a quick search for when the last one was and...

      Do we have a list of recurring discussions and their schedules anywhere? I know they're generally weekly, but I often find myself having to do a quick search for when the last one was and determine whether or not I should hold onto my contribution to that thread until the next one occurs. eg if the new discussion is created tomorrow, I may as well just post my comments tomorrow rather than today. Admittedly a very minor inconvenience.

      Having a list somewhere easy to see could also help prevent folks from unintentionally creating duplicate discussions during the period between one week's discussion going quiet and the next week's starting.

      And maybe eventually it could be something like we subscribe to a recurring discussion and then it shows up in the sidebar somewhere in a list of upcoming discussions? Just spitballing here.

      Any thoughts?

      11 votes
    6. Tildes is still in alpha-testing. It’s an unfinished product. Set your expectations accordingly.

      Someone mentioned elsewhere that they signed up for Tildes “years ago during the beta”. That reminded me: Tildes hasn’t reached beta-testing yet. Officially, Tildes is still in alpha-testing...

      Someone mentioned elsewhere that they signed up for Tildes “years ago during the beta”. That reminded me: Tildes hasn’t reached beta-testing yet.

      Officially, Tildes is still in alpha-testing phase.

      The login page says “Tildes is currently in invite-only alpha...” And the Contact page says “To request an invite to the Tildes alpha...”

      We’re still in alpha-testing. Alpha-testing of software usually happens on an incomplete product before it is released to the customer.

      This is a very important point. Tildes is not feature-complete yet: there are literally hundreds of feature requests yet to work on before Tildes will be what people want it to be – and even that list is far from complete. In Agile software development terms, Tildes is a minimum viable product, or, in other words, “a version of a product with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then provide feedback for future product development”.

      Tildes works as it is, but it’s a bare-bones forum: you can post, and comment… and that’s about it. It’s a proof of concept. There are a few minor tweaks here and there, which give the impression that Tildes is more complex than it is, but they’re misleading. There are plans to make Tildes a more complex website but, right now, most of that complexity of Tildes exists only in people’s imaginations (and there have been some very imaginative people contributing to that list of future features!).

      Most questions about “Why doesn’t Tildes do X?” or “Can Tildes do X?” can be answered simply by saying “Tildes is incomplete and X hasn’t been built yet.” There are some questions about missing features which can be answered by saying “Tildes was never intended to do X”, but those are far and away in the minority. Most flaws, drawbacks, and problems with Tildes exist because Tildes is still a proof of concept, rather than a finished product.

      It’s also worth noting that Tildes’ current feature set is absolutely not up to the task if the user base and site activity increase too quickly. There’s too much manual tinkering required at the moment to make things work properly: for one thing, there are no significant moderation tools on Tildes (that’s almost all done manually at the moment). There are still a lot of features yet to be built - and we don’t even know what some of those features are yet!

      To pre-empt the people who will rightly point out that Tildes is 5 years old: Tildes’ feature set was intended to grow gradually over time, in line with a gradual growth in users, activity, and the need for those features to exist. However, Tildes has not undergone much growth over the past few years, so the existing features were sufficient to manage the existing activity. Basically, the site didn’t need a lot of fancy features to handle the low traffic here.

      This sudden surge of new users might change that. But it will take time to build more features. That was always the intention, and it hasn’t changed now.

      Until then: Tildes is still in alpha-testing. It’s an unfinished product. Set your expectations accordingly.


      EDIT:

      If you're one of the many people who seem to be replying to this topic, saying "it's okay, I like this simple bare-bones site as it is"... then you're probably not part of my original intended audience for this topic. This topic was aimed at all the people who are arriving here, being taken aback at how simple Tildes is, and wondering where the advanced features are.

      However, we can still take the "set your expectations accordingly" message and apply it to you: "Tildes is an unfinished product, so you can expect it to change in the future. It won't be like this forever."

      Either way, "set your expectations accordingly" is the message here, whether you're expecting more features and not finding them, or whether you're expecting simplicity and enjoying what you see. Either way, you should know that things will change around here. Maybe slowly. Maybe quickly. Maybe they'll get better from your point of view. Maybe they'll get worse from your point of view. But, change they will.

      151 votes
    7. What types of content do you want to see on Tildes?

      Something you want to follow but don't have the energy to post? Something you want to start but not sure if there's an audience for it? Worry if it'd fit with existing culture? Share your ideas...

      Something you want to follow but don't have the energy to post? Something you want to start but not sure if there's an audience for it? Worry if it'd fit with existing culture? Share your ideas here to gauge interest.

      Cold posting can be scary, maybe this thread can help break the ice.

      79 votes
    8. Anyone having trouble using their invites? People just don't seem interested

      I'm a member of the shroomery, which has some questionable members so I'm not giving out the invites to random people there, but the people ive reached out to in PM dont seem Interested Also my...

      I'm a member of the shroomery, which has some questionable members so I'm not giving out the invites to random people there, but the people ive reached out to in PM dont seem Interested

      Also my discord group, ive offered invites and no bites

      Anyone else finding not much interest in this site?

      44 votes
    9. Tips on starting a good discussion topic

      For creating link topics, see Posting on Tildes in the official documentation. When you don’t see the discussion you want, you can create a new topic. Starting a new Tildes topic is pretty easy....

      For creating link topics, see Posting on Tildes in the official documentation.

      When you don’t see the discussion you want, you can create a new topic. Starting a new Tildes topic is pretty easy. However, It can be done in better or worse ways, so here are some tips:

      1. Choosing a group

      Don't worry about this too much. Unlike subreddits, Tildes groups mostly don't have their own rules or subcultures. They're folders for organizing topics. If you put a topic in the wrong place, someone will move it. Either ~talk or ~misc are good if you don't know where to put it.

      But you do need to click on a group to go to the group's page. Then look in the sidebar on the right side. (If you're on mobile, you will need to open the sidebar.) There's a blurb explaining what the group is about, and a button under it to start a topic.

      2. Choosing a good title

      For discussion topics, a question often makes a good title.

      Tildes has users from all over the world. Asking people to share their own experiences lets anyone participate and you can learn interesting things about people in other places.

      • Bad: "What do you think of this terrible weather?"

      • Better: "What's the weather like where you are?"

      Discussing a specific weather event would also be fine, but you need to say where it is.

      A downside to asking a very generic question is that it might get more attention than you're hoping for. (For example, you might get advice that's not relevant where you live.) If you want to narrow things down geographically, be specific about which country or region you're interested in. We probably don't yet have enough users for hyper-local topics to get many responses, but feel free to try.

      3. Writing an introduction

      For a discussion topic, you skip the link box and write something in the box below it. You can write whatever you like here.

      3a. Setting ground rules (optional)

      Sometimes you have something specific you're looking for and it helps to make a sort of game out of it by making up some rules. A good example is @kfwyre's AlbumLove topics. If you just ask for music recommendations, people are going to answer in any old way, maybe by making long lists. So instead the game is to review one album.

      Tildes users are usually pretty cooperative as long as you make it clear what you're looking for and the game isn't too weird. (And if they get the rules a little wrong, it's usually not a big deal.)

      4. Tags (optional)

      This is optional because if i you skip it, someone will do it for you, but if you want to help out, there is more about tags in the official docs. You could also look at similar topics in another window to see what tags we use.

      5. Seeding the topic (optional)

      After posting the topic, you might want to add some top-level comments to get it going. For example, if it's a megathread then you might put a link to a different article in each reply. Or, if you have a lot of questions to ask, you could put each question in a separate comment. This would keep the answers to each question separate.

      6. Encouraging discussion (optional)

      You will see a notification at the top of any Tildes web pages you visit whenever someone posts a top-level reply in your new topic. Replying and upvoting (if warranted) will help keep conversation going. Conversation encourages more conversation. You can do a lot even without any formal “mod” powers. (Some users also have ability to label replies, which affects sort order.)

      Okay, that's it for me. What are some tips you have about starting new topics? One tip per comment, please! <= See what I did there?

      41 votes
    10. How do you pronounce tildes?

      Hi all, loving the site so far - big ‘old forums’ vibes here which is amazing! I was telling a friend about tildes last night and I said ‘yeah this tildeee’s……tildas, til-dess?? Place is cool!’...

      Hi all, loving the site so far - big ‘old forums’ vibes here which is amazing!

      I was telling a friend about tildes last night and I said ‘yeah this tildeee’s……tildas, til-dess?? Place is cool!’

      I’m guessing it’s Till-dsss? Cheers 🫡

      edit: Nice - came up from a coffee and morning chores and 5 posts, great to be here. No automatic auto-mod in sight. :P

      50 votes
    11. Are "Ask" posts stifling the visibility of link posts on Tildes?

      Disclaimer: This is just an observation of changing dynamics on Tildes! I don't mean to suggest any sort of way that Tildes should or shouldn't be. I've noticed over the past few days that the...

      Disclaimer: This is just an observation of changing dynamics on Tildes! I don't mean to suggest any sort of way that Tildes should or shouldn't be.

      I've noticed over the past few days that the Tildes front page has become filled with Ask posts. My best guess as to why is that these posts are the easiest to create and respond to? They're an easy way to spark discussion, generating lots of bumps back to the front page.

      Now, I love seeing folks connect over all these niche topics and experiences. It feels like folks here are finding their people after losing the tight knit communities they had on Reddit, and that's lovely! In fact, it almost feels like these niche ask posts are acting as an impromptu replacement for the niche groups that Tildes currently lacks.

      But, one consequence of this is that link posts get quickly pushed off the front page. I had noticed that link posts often struggled to generate discussion, even before the influx of new users. Longread articles and video essays take time to digest, and time to formulate opinions on. But now, I think this effect is compounded by the popularity of Ask threads, with fewer eyes dedicated to these links after they've left the front page.

      Some closing questions:

      • Have other users noticed this? How do you feel about this shift?
      • Is there any merit to having a group dedicated to ask posts? Sort of like /r/AskReddit, but for Tildes? (That way, the posts can be easily filtered if a user wants to only see link posts.) EDIT: Filtering is possible already by filtering out the 'self post' tag, as suggested by @streblo.
      • Should the visibility of link posts and ask posts on the front page be artificially balanced in some way?
      42 votes
    12. For anyone that likes sticky navbars

      I found myself wishing the website had a sticky navbar on desktop, so I made a Tampermonkey script to do just that. Sharing this in case anyone else was looking for something similar. To use, just...

      I found myself wishing the website had a sticky navbar on desktop, so I made a Tampermonkey script to do just that. Sharing this in case anyone else was looking for something similar.

      To use, just open this link with Tampermonkey installed, and you should be prompted to install it.
      https://ewp.fyi/tilde-tweaks/sticky-navbar.user.js

      24 votes
    13. Tildes UserScript: Comment Link Fix

      I joined Tildes a couple of days ago, and I'm absolutely loving the interface and community. In the last few days of using Tildes, I noticed a particular problem that was mildly annoying; if you...

      I joined Tildes a couple of days ago, and I'm absolutely loving the interface and community.

      In the last few days of using Tildes, I noticed a particular problem that was mildly annoying; if you have the "Collapse old comments when I return to a topic" setting on, and you click on a link that is supposed to lead to a comment in a topic you have already visited, it won't jump to that comment.

      Searching around, I found a post about it from a day ago, in which long-time users have mentioned that it's been a known problem for a while now. In those comments, someone mentioned permalinks as a solution, but it appears that's still in the works.

      For now, I've made a quick userscript that will address this issue (and adds some slight related functionality). It hasn't been thoroughly tested yet, so if any issues occur, please let me know. This userscript is designed to be used with Tampermonkey (a privacy-friendly alternate that should work is ViolentMonkey), which is available in all popular desktop browsers. Installation instructions for Tampermonkey are available on their site (it's installed like any other extension).

      To install the script, you can head to this GitHub Gist which contains the code (click "Raw" to open the TamperMonkey install prompt), or you can copy and paste the code from the following dropdown block into a "New script" on the TamperMonkey dashboard. The dropdown is not guaranteed to contain the latest version.

      Code
      // ==UserScript==
      // @name         Tildes Comment Link Fix
      // @namespace    https://gist.github.com/blankdvth/6da89fff580e8cf6e50f88847ddb5729
      // @version      1.2.0
      // @description  Fixes comment links (anchors) not working as a result of Tildes' comment collapsing feature.
      // @author       blank_dvth
      // @match        https://tildes.net/*
      // @icon         https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?sz=64&domain=tildes.net
      // @grant        none
      // ==/UserScript==
      
      /* 
          USER SETTINGS
          This script is not big enough to warrant a visual settings menu, so adjust settings here.
          true = enable, false = disable
      */
      const alwaysRun_S = false; // If enabled, will always run the script, even if the comment was not collapsed (site works fine in this case). This is useful if you want to make use of the other settings.
      const smoothScroll_S = false; // If enabled, will smoothly (animated) scroll to the comment. If disabled, will jump to the comment.
      const uncollapseIndividual_S = true; // If enabled will uncollapse parent comments into one line instead of fully uncollapsing them.
      const uncollapseChildren_S = true; // If enabled, will uncollapse all children of the comment. If disabled, will leave them collapsed.
      const collapseIrrelevant_S = true; // The script uncollapses all parents to ensure the comment is visible. This will collapse irrelevant (not direct parent) comments again.
      // END OF USER SETTINGS
      
      /**
       * Uncollapses the comment if it is collapsed.
       * @param {HTMLElement} element Article element of the actual comment
       * @param {boolean} individual If true, will "uncollapse" into one line instead of fully uncollapsing
       * @returns {boolean} True if the comment was collapsed, false if it was not
       */
      function uncollapse(element, individual = false) {
          if (element.nodeName !== "ARTICLE") return false;
          var removed = false;
          if (
              !individual &&
              element.classList.contains("is-comment-collapsed-individual")
          ) {
              element.classList.remove("is-comment-collapsed-individual");
              removed = true;
          }
          if (element.classList.contains("is-comment-collapsed")) {
              if (individual)
                  element.classList.add("is-comment-collapsed-individual");
              element.classList.remove("is-comment-collapsed");
              removed = true;
          }
          return removed;
      }
      
      /**
       * Uncollapses all direct parents of the comment.
       * @param {HTMLElement} element Article element of the actual comment
       * @param {boolean} collapseIrrelevant If true, will collapse irrelevant comments again
       * @param {boolean} individual If true, will "uncollapse" into one line instead of fully uncollapsing
       * @returns {boolean} True if any parent was collapsed, false if none were
       */
      function uncollapseParents(element, collapseIrrelevant, individual) {
          const relevant = []; // List of relevant elements (direct parents)
          var wasCollapsed = false; // Whether any parent was collapsed
          while (
              element.parentElement &&
              element.parentElement.nodeName !== "SECTION"
          ) {
              element = element.parentElement;
              relevant.push(element); // Add parent to relevant list
              if (uncollapse(element, individual)) wasCollapsed = true;
              // Collapse all irrelevant sibling comments (if feature enabled)
              if (collapseIrrelevant && element.nodeName === "ARTICLE") {
                  element
                      .querySelectorAll(
                          `article#${element.id} > ol.comment-tree > li.comment-tree-item > article:not(.is-comment-collapsed)`
                      )
                      .forEach((child) => {
                          if (!relevant.includes(child))
                              child.classList.add("is-comment-collapsed");
                      });
              }
          }
          return wasCollapsed;
      }
      
      /**
       * Uncollapses all direct children of the comment.
       * @param {HTMLElement} element Article element of the actual comment
       */
      function uncollapseChildren(element) {
          element
              .querySelectorAll("article.is-comment-collapsed article.is-comment-collapsed-individual")
              .forEach(uncollapse);
      }
      
      (function () {
          if (!location.hash.startsWith("#comment-")) return; // Not a comment hash
          const comment = document.getElementById(location.hash.substring(1)); // Get comment element
          if (!comment) return; // Comment does not exist
          // Uncollapse the comment itself, and it's parents, then perform other actions if needed/enabled
          if (
              uncollapse(comment) |
                  uncollapseParents(
                      comment,
                      collapseIrrelevant_S,
                      uncollapseIndividual_S
                  ) ||
              alwaysRun_S
          ) {
              // Uncollapse all children (if feature enabled)
              if (uncollapseChildren_S) uncollapseChildren(comment);
              // Scroll to the comment
              if (smoothScroll_S) comment.scrollIntoView({ behavior: "smooth" });
              else comment.scrollIntoView();
          }
      })();
      
      Settings Description

      There are comments that already contain short descriptions for each setting in the code, but here are more in-depth descriptions.

      • alwaysRun: By default, the script does not run if the comment and its parents are already uncollapsed (this means the in-built anchor will work as expected). However, when this setting is enabled, the script will still perform the additional options (such as uncollapsing children and collapsing irrelevant).
      • smoothScroll: When enabled, will use a smooth animated scroll. When disabled, will jump directly.
      • uncollapseIndividual: Parent comments need to be uncollapsed in some shape or form in order for the script to work. This allows you to choose what type of uncollapse is used. When enabled, it will uncollapse the parent comments into a single line (shows a short preview). When disabled, it will fully uncollapse the parent comments (everything is visible).
      • uncollapseChildren: When enabled, will automatically uncollapse all child comments (replies) to the linked comment.
      • collapseIrrelevant: When enabled, it will automatically collapse all sibling/cousin comments (comments that have a shared parent but are not directly ancestors of the linked comment)
      Changelog (Last Updated 2023-06-12 22:55 EST)
      • v1.2.0:
        • Prevent entire sibling/cousin chains from being collapsed, only collapse toplevel
        • Ensure individually collapsed children are uncollapsed properly
        • Ensure proper exiting if comment does not exist
      • v1.1.0:
        • First public release
      33 votes
    14. A small WebView wrapper for Tildes

      I know a lot of people have been asking for an app, if just for a home screen/app drawer icon, so I cobbled together a small WebView wrapper that installs on your phone as an app. It's for Android...

      I know a lot of people have been asking for an app, if just for a home screen/app drawer icon, so I cobbled together a small WebView wrapper that installs on your phone as an app.

      It's for Android only (sorry iOS users) and probably will receive very little support, since I'm not an Android developer! In fact, this is just a fork of the vastly more capable woheller69's gptAssist, ported over to support Tildes and with some limiting functionality removed. Absolutely check out some of their stuff! My app and the original gptAssist are both licensed under the GPLv3. If anyone would like to contribute, please do! In fact, if you're an Android dev, feel free to fork and make it much better.

      I absolutely appreciate the design philosophy of the Tildes devs and think that a WebView wrapper is a good compromise between having an app and using the thoughtfully-built website. If you're anything like me, you just like being able to tap on an icon to get to where you're going. I put this together with that in mind.

      19 votes
    15. Waiting period for invite codes?

      Not sure if this is already a feature, but I think in keeping with Tildes's philosophy of letting the platform grow (to whatever extent that it may) sustainably, there should be a waiting period...

      Not sure if this is already a feature, but I think in keeping with Tildes's philosophy of letting the platform grow (to whatever extent that it may) sustainably, there should be a waiting period of a couple days to a couple weeks between when a new user joins and when they can generate invite codes. This to me seems like an effective way of preventing viral growth and allowing the community to recalibrate or "get a grip on itself" after any new influx of users.

      16 votes
    16. Tildes as a Progressive Web App (PWA)?

      I use Firefox for Android. One thing I love about some web apps are when they designed to be a "installable" Progressive Web App (PWA). It looks like Tildes doesn't support that. Perhaps it's a...

      I use Firefox for Android. One thing I love about some web apps are when they designed to be a "installable" Progressive Web App (PWA). It looks like Tildes doesn't support that. Perhaps it's a silly question, but does anyone by chance know if this can be forced to some degree? (Beyond adding a shortcut to one's desktop.)

      Without an app available yet, that's my next go to normally. (Yep, I said yet. I'm eager to see your first release, @talklittle. 💜)

      And ye

      28 votes
    17. Due to Activity sort constantly bumping older topics to the top, the "Knights of New" are especially important here on Tildes

      So if you want to encourage people to post more content, please take time to occasionally check the New sort. If you leave a comment on new topics you are interested in and want to see more...

      So if you want to encourage people to post more content, please take time to occasionally check the New sort. If you leave a comment on new topics you are interested in and want to see more discussion on, it will help them thrive. No pressure, and please don't just leave a comment for the sake of commenting, but just a gentle reminder to try your best to look out for the newly submitted content, and the people who submit it.

      Happy Tildying everyone. :)

      72 votes
    18. Meta label for comments?

      Just popped in my head, with the massive influx of users, there's been a lot more meta discussion happening in regular threads. Perhaps it might be useful to have that as a label on comments. I'd...

      Just popped in my head, with the massive influx of users, there's been a lot more meta discussion happening in regular threads.

      Perhaps it might be useful to have that as a label on comments. I'd almost go so far as to have the label highlighted like Exemplary for new users to help highlight when discussion function and culture of the site.

      6 votes
    19. I just submitted my first ever merge request!

      After reviewing all the beginner friendly tags on the GitLab and figuring out easy answers the hard way, I finally made my first merge request for issue #700 to an open-source project! It isn't...

      After reviewing all the beginner friendly tags on the GitLab and figuring out easy answers the hard way, I finally made my first merge request for issue #700 to an open-source project! It isn't much, and probably took me 10x the amount of time it would take for someone who knows what they are doing, and it probably has some issues that needs to be worked out (although I tried to test as thoroughly as possible), I still submitted it. Even if it doesn't get accepted, I'm sure if someone wants to pick up my pieces, they can do so and build out this functionality in a better way.

      I just wanted to share and put it out there that you don't have to be a master programmer to make contributions to this site))

      30 votes
    20. Tildes and identity politics

      As a new Tildes user, one of the biggest cultural differences I've noticed between Tildes and Reddit is the lack of identity-driven argumentative discussion. Instead, discussion is driven by...

      As a new Tildes user, one of the biggest cultural differences I've noticed between Tildes and Reddit is the lack of identity-driven argumentative discussion. Instead, discussion is driven by interests, knowledge seeking, and personal expression.

      Identity politics is an umbrella term
      that encompasses identity groups both laudable and vitriolic. For example, it includes civil rights, gay rights, disability activism, fat acceptance, white supremacy, and nationalism. (wiki)

      It's my opinion that you can't have a rational, cooperative discussion until you set aside identity groups, and I like this aspect of the Tildes culture. I don't want to jinx it, but I believe the lack of identity politics is what people mean when they say they enjoy the high quality, non-divisive discourse here.

      It's worth noting my subs of choice on Reddit were /r/samharris and /r/stupidpol. The former encouraged objective, rational discussion. The latter had lots of news that cut though the identity politics of the mainstream (though with a Marxist bent).

      I would love to hear the thoughts of the older Tildes users before the most recent Reddit exodus (from where I come).

      34 votes
    21. Tildes invite session call to arms

      Hi all, I just took a look at the Tildes subreddit after the recent announcements, and there are tons and tons of invite requests there. I just wanted to draw the site's attention to that as right...

      Hi all,

      I just took a look at the Tildes subreddit after the recent announcements, and there are tons and tons of invite requests there. I just wanted to draw the site's attention to that as right now it seems like mostly @cfabbro (and probably @Deimos behind the scenes) handling them. I almost never use my invites, so I intend to go through and send out my 10 and help with the backlog a bit. I would encourage you all to do the same as well! Some good practices;

      • Reply to users once you have sent so that we do not double up, and can reach the most people with finite invites.

      • As always, be mindful of who you are inviting, and take a cursory look at their post history to make sure there are no crazy red flags. We are all responsible for the community we build here, so be mindful of who you are inviting!

      92 votes
    22. Welcome new reddit refugees

      Hey all, I think we're getting a lot of new people over the past and next couple days thanks to Reddit's latest ideas of how to manage a social media website. First of all, welcome! Tildes caught...

      Hey all, I think we're getting a lot of new people over the past and next couple days thanks to Reddit's latest ideas of how to manage a social media website.

      First of all, welcome! Tildes caught your eye probably partly because of its community / friendliness and we'd all like to keep it this way.

      Recommended reading:

      • All the documentation is on docs.tildes.net. Most of it is current.
      • The philosophy page especially will answer some of your immediate questions
      • Since you're here and like the site, think about donating :)

      Some personal words: Tildes is not Reddit. But, at least if you're anything like me, it can replace Reddit as your own online social/discussion outlet.

      Tildes aims to:

      • Grow slowly, not exponentially.
      • Elevate the discussion, not lower the bar
      • Offer an alternative, not be the new Reddit
      158 votes
    23. Dark mode?

      Could a dark mode be implemented? Edit: I found the options! Now could we create our own themes?

      14 votes
    24. Tildes down?

      Was tildes down a couple hours ago for anyone else? I wasn't able to access it, also verified it with isitdownrightnow

      25 votes
    25. Suggestion: Show number of times a tag has been used

      Roughly knowing how many times each tag has been used would provide users actionable information if they would like to search or filter by tags. It might improve UX when applying tags, but might...

      Roughly knowing how many times each tag has been used would provide users actionable information if they would like to search or filter by tags.

      It might improve UX when applying tags, but might have undesirable side effects in user behavior.

      I can think of three places this might be implemented, and I don't know which, if any, we want:

      When filtering topics by tags:

      • informs users how large or small their scope is
      • this view should probably be kept somewhat up to date

      When looking at a topic's tags:

      • informs users where to start searching/filtering
      • passively builds a frame of reference for how tags are used?
      • this view could be allowed to become outdated and stale without issue

      When applying tags

      • a more common tag might be less accurate, but it might be more helpful?
      • in the auto fill issue weight by frequency was proposed, which is somewhat similar but more opaque
      • this should probably use pretty recent counts as well
      17 votes
    26. Suggestion: New tag for "Evergreen" posts

      Tildes has a lot of threads that are not time dependant, be they asks, surveys, recommendations and hypotheticals. Should we make an effort to give these posts an evergreen tag, and maybe even...

      Tildes has a lot of threads that are not time dependant, be they asks, surveys, recommendations and hypotheticals. Should we make an effort to give these posts an evergreen tag, and maybe even auto bump them back into circulation after a few years?

      6 votes
    27. Sort by length

      Tildes has a great function that adds the word count of a link or text post to its submission. The suggestion is this: allow the user to sort posts by length. The reason is that sometimes I wanna...

      Tildes has a great function that adds the word count of a link or text post to its submission. The suggestion is this: allow the user to sort posts by length. The reason is that sometimes I wanna read something short, and sometimes I wanna read something long. It would be great to be able to easily find articles in the length I'm up for at a given moment.

      Works for YouTube too.

      9 votes
    28. 2FA not working?

      tildes.net isn't accepting my 2FA codes on login. I used a recovery key and disabled 2FA, but now I can't re-enable it for the same reason (I generate a code with the new secret key given but it...

      tildes.net isn't accepting my 2FA codes on login. I used a recovery key and disabled 2FA, but now I can't re-enable it for the same reason (I generate a code with the new secret key given but it gets rejected). I've checked on other sites and it doesn't seem to be a problem with generated 2FA codes on my end, leading me to believe something may be misconfigured on the server (maybe the tildes.net system clock is off or something?).

      Anyone else experiencing this?

      Edit: Still not really sure why I couldn't get it to work initially, but after giving it some time the problem went away.

      4 votes
    29. [SOLVED] Unable to give Exemplary label

      I wanted to label a comment as Exemplary today and when I clicked "Label" the option wasn't present. I've given Exemplary labels before, but it's been a while. I do know there's a cooldown, but I...

      I wanted to label a comment as Exemplary today and when I clicked "Label" the option wasn't present. I've given Exemplary labels before, but it's been a while. I do know there's a cooldown, but I don't think I've given any out lately, so I wouldn't think that would apply.

      I'm on Firefox, but I checked on both Chrome and Edge and I don't have the option there either.

      6 votes
    30. How do I comment on posts?

      Hi tildes! Awesome place! Just moved here with an account, any idea how to comment on "topics" directly and if there is a waiting period before i can do that? I think im allowed to reply to...

      Hi tildes! Awesome place! Just moved here with an account, any idea how to comment on "topics" directly and if there is a waiting period before i can do that? I think im allowed to reply to existing comments but not reply to the topic directly.

      6 votes
    31. What are the most personally influential/impactful/useful Tildes posts you can remember?

      Inspired by this post by @kfwyre. For me, there's many; I don't want to influence responses but I will shout out the monthly mental health threads. Those really got me to (over)share feelings and...

      Inspired by this post by @kfwyre.

      For me, there's many; I don't want to influence responses but I will shout out the monthly mental health threads. Those really got me to (over)share feelings and find some reason. I got through dark times thanks to you all, Tildoes.

      10 votes
    32. PM UI issue

      I noticed this while sending out lots of PMs for my game giveaway thread. It's not a huge issue at all and doesn't really have any meaningful effect on the site's usability, but I thought I would...

      I noticed this while sending out lots of PMs for my game giveaway thread. It's not a huge issue at all and doesn't really have any meaningful effect on the site's usability, but I thought I would mention it anyway.

      Also, it might already be in the Gitlab, but I looked around and didn't see anything. I don't have an account there, so could someone (maybe @cfabbro?) add it for me if needed?

      Issue: Within a PM conversation, there is no indication of the person who is being PMed unless they have responded.

      Steps to recreate: send a user a PM, then click on that message from sent messages. If the person has not responded, you will only see your username and message. If the person responds, you can then see their username on their response, but that's currently the only way to know who the conversation is with from within the conversation itself.

      If anyone wants to recreate this for themselves, feel free to send me a PM referencing this thread and I will not respond.

      8 votes
    33. Invites disabled?

      I usually browse Tildes logged out, however today I decided to log in to participate. Before doing so, I wanted to explore Tildes' user interface a little. I opened the "Invite Users" page and was...

      I usually browse Tildes logged out, however today I decided to log in to participate. Before doing so, I wanted to explore Tildes' user interface a little. I opened the "Invite Users" page and was greeted with a message stating: "You aren't able to generate more invite links right now.".

      To the best of my knowledge, I have never invited anyone before. I have a strong, random password on my Tildes account so I believe it to be unlikely I was compromised.

      Are invites globally disabled, or could a site administrator take a look at my account and check what's going on?

      3 votes
    34. Does tildes.net allow updating of old links which have now moved to a different domain?

      I'm migrating my blog and domain from prahladyeri.com to prahladyeri.github.io. I've already implemented the HTTP 301 redirection in all pages and informed Google about the site move. After a...

      I'm migrating my blog and domain from prahladyeri.com to prahladyeri.github.io.

      I've already implemented the HTTP 301 redirection in all pages and informed Google about the site move. After a month or so, my old domain will expire and go out of my control.

      Is there a way to tell tildes.net to update my existing links which I've posted here to new ones based on their 301 redirection? Or some way to manually update them? What is the standard process on the Interwebs in this regard?

      8 votes
    35. Do you think an ~engineering group would make sense?

      I think it would, that's something that interests a vast number of users. Things like construction, bridges, buildings, city planning, trains, etc. Right now they can go to ~misc or ~design which...

      I think it would, that's something that interests a vast number of users. Things like construction, bridges, buildings, city planning, trains, etc. Right now they can go to ~misc or ~design which doesn't seem appropriate.

      5 votes
    36. Feature suggestion: Non-bumping comments

      Sometimes you want to reply to a comment with a remark that may not be of interest to the wider Tildes audience, but posting that reply is going to bump the post up in the recent changes list...

      Sometimes you want to reply to a comment with a remark that may not be of interest to the wider Tildes audience, but posting that reply is going to bump the post up in the recent changes list anyway. It would be nice if a reply-to-a-reply had a checkbox allowing you to mark it as a non-bumping comment, like the “minor edit” feature on Wikipedia. The drawback is that it might enable more clutter in the form of off topic chatting. The advantage would be that it keeps the top of the recent changes list free of uninteresting updates.

      One implementation detail regards the question of a non-bumping checkbox on replies to an already non-bumping comment. My sense is that once a comment has been marked “non-bumping”, all subsequent replies to it should be non-bumping as well.

      13 votes