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  • Showing only topics in ~tildes with the tag "ask". Back to normal view / Search all groups
    1. Cosmetic bug: a.link-group:visited in groups list has same colour whether subscribed or unsubscribed

      See this image. Which groups are unsubscribed? All of the ~sports.X groups are unsubscribed, but american_football, basketball, football, and motorsports have been visited. The link-visited colour...

      See this image.

      Which groups are unsubscribed? All of the ~sports.X groups are unsubscribed, but american_football, basketball, football, and motorsports have been visited.

      The link-visited colour set by a.link-group:visited is taking precedence over the default colour otherwise set by .group-list-item-not-subscribed a.link-group, hiding the colour change associated with -not-subscribed. This is particularly troublesome when unsubscribing from a group, since one must go to the group's page – visiting the link – in order to unsubscribe.

      6 votes
    2. Does Tildes offer a personalized RSS feed? If not, could it?

      With the introduction of the new groups, I now, for the first time, have unsubscribed from some groups here on Tildes. I've been subscribed to the fire hose feed in my feed reader, but I'd love to...

      With the introduction of the new groups, I now, for the first time, have unsubscribed from some groups here on Tildes. I've been subscribed to the fire hose feed in my feed reader, but I'd love to get a feed that is personalized with only my subscriptions. Does this exist? If not, could it?

      19 votes
    3. Bug with notifications

      Apologies if this isn’t the right place to put bug reports. I’ve noticed an issue where comments which are bookmarked don’t display as such in my notifications. For example: A bookmarked comment...

      Apologies if this isn’t the right place to put bug reports.

      I’ve noticed an issue where comments which are bookmarked don’t display as such in my notifications.

      For example:

      A bookmarked comment displaying as Unbookmarked in my notifications.

      Is anyone else seeing the same ?

      10 votes
    4. What happens if Deimos can't host the site anymore?

      I'm sorry if this was already answered in the docs somewhere but similarly to the question "What happens to my Steam games when Valve goes out of business?" I was wondering what happens to Tildes...

      I'm sorry if this was already answered in the docs somewhere but similarly to the question "What happens to my Steam games when Valve goes out of business?" I was wondering what happens to Tildes if Deimos can't sustain it anymore for whatever reason (e.g. death, prison, going off the grid and starting from scratch in Ecuador...)?

      Is there some kind of backup plan in place?

      79 votes
    5. I'm from the Reddit exodus. I'm really liking it here. What should I know?

      What do you long term users want to share about the culture? What about growth plans? The erudite discussion with (presumably) real people is what I love most, but I miss the really niche subs....

      What do you long term users want to share about the culture?

      What about growth plans? The erudite discussion with (presumably) real people is what I love most, but I miss the really niche subs. That needs more people.

      I just want to make sure this isn't "eternal July".

      109 votes
    6. Best way to share / integrate photos on Tildes

      Hey gang, I’m a rather novice / hedonist tildes user and have just been posting links to uploaded images by hosting them on ibb and then sharing https://ibb.co/PF5nFf9 https://ibb.co/10pV1wB...

      Hey gang, I’m a rather novice / hedonist tildes user and have just been posting links to uploaded images by hosting them on ibb and then sharing

      https://ibb.co/PF5nFf9
      https://ibb.co/10pV1wB
      https://ibb.co/1GgyWCT

      Is there a better place to host and better way to post images?

      Thanks in advance. Sorry for any eye rolls I may have caused!

      14 votes
    7. [SOLVED] Question about post voting locking

      Hi, I was wondering if the current duration before voting gets locked on a post is still 30 days? I tried to find the answer in the docs but didn’t see it (apologies if I missed it) and all I...

      Hi, I was wondering if the current duration before voting gets locked on a post is still 30 days? I tried to find the answer in the docs but didn’t see it (apologies if I missed it) and all I turned up in a search of the site was a topic from 3 years ago mentioning the 30 days, so I wanted to see if that’s still accurate.

      Thanks !

      14 votes
    8. T-Mobile SMS is filtering tildes.net

      I just noticed that when I sent an invite to family member over SMS it never arrived. After experimenting it looks like if text contains "tildes.net" it is filered. This also happens with another...

      I just noticed that when I sent an invite to family member over SMS it never arrived. After experimenting it looks like if text contains "tildes.net" it is filered. This also happens with another family member's phone. It is weird why would those companies want to filter it.

      I also checked and the message didn't show up in spam & blocked. Does anyone else observe the same thing?

      41 votes
    9. Should Twitter links be banned?

      Or at the very least, should there be a requirement to have users take screenshots of Twitter content if they want to link to it? It feels a little backwards to have to make an account for another...

      Or at the very least, should there be a requirement to have users take screenshots of Twitter content if they want to link to it? It feels a little backwards to have to make an account for another website in order to consume certain content on this site.

      104 votes
    10. Is there a way to filter YouTube links?

      I lurk here at work and don't watch YouTube in general. Often it's annoying to see something of potential interest and it's a YouTube video. Is there a way to filter youtube.com here or an...

      I lurk here at work and don't watch YouTube in general. Often it's annoying to see something of potential interest and it's a YouTube video. Is there a way to filter youtube.com here or an extension enabling that functionality?

      Thank you.

      10 votes
    11. Is searching for comments possible?

      I never noticed this before today, but I don't seem to be able to search for comments. Is that supposed to be doable on Tildes? It took me way too long to figure out that the links at the top of...

      I never noticed this before today, but I don't seem to be able to search for comments. Is that supposed to be doable on Tildes?

      It took me way too long to figure out that the links at the top of the search results page are sort options; I had been clicking "Comments" hoping to see comment search results, and I was a bit confused why only full topics were still being listed. I guess comment search doesn't currently exist?

      12 votes
    12. Tildes constitution

      Looking at the current top thread in ~talk, it seems many of us were forged in the fires of Mount Digg, and now suffer again through the great Reddit diaspora. Perhaps it is here our journey ends?...

      Looking at the current top thread in ~talk, it seems many of us were forged in the fires of Mount Digg, and now suffer again through the great Reddit diaspora. Perhaps it is here our journey ends?

      I am not from the US of A, but one thing I have always found fascinating about that country is the concept of the constitution. I believe it was so incredibly well conceived, the three legged stool, with all the thought that went into how it might be attacked and edge cases, that the founding fathers would have made excellent software testers. The fact American democracy has stood this long is some feat.

      Which brings me to my question. Should Tildes create some form of constitution? A set of principles that binds and guides it? I believe something like that would make questions like this easier to answer. A founding set of ideals from which everything else should derive.

      We have something akin to this at my company, where the founding principle is the customer is always our main priority. This has served our business well for decades; is everything we do in service of the customer and their needs. You would honestly be amazed at the loyalty and trust this builds over time.

      Anyway just some food for thought. I think I will be calling this my new home for now - it feels very much like the Reddit of old right now, a feeling I haven't felt for a great age.

      17 votes
    13. Do you spend more time creating a Tildes reply than on other platforms?

      So like many others, I'm a refugee from the Rexxit, and the collaborative, positive enthusiasm here is infectious. I've had an odd observation about my brief time here - when I think I can...

      So like many others, I'm a refugee from the Rexxit, and the collaborative, positive enthusiasm here is infectious.

      I've had an odd observation about my brief time here - when I think I can contribute to a thread, I find myself trying to step up my posting game - doing a bit of extra research, making sure I add links, and double checking my grammar (as best as I can!). I want my thoughts to have value or be meaningful here, moreso than anywhere I've contributed to in the past.

      Do others feel the same way?

      95 votes
    14. What's your favorite theme on Tildes?

      I adore the available themes and it makes browsing quite pleasing to do. Currently I'm in a fight between Solarized Dark and Dracula. I'm curious though if there's a clearly preferred theme here...

      I adore the available themes and it makes browsing quite pleasing to do. Currently I'm in a fight between Solarized Dark and Dracula. I'm curious though if there's a clearly preferred theme here or if people are using all kinds of stuff.

      Some previous threads on themes (some are about themes in general and aren't Tildes specific):

      28 votes
    15. Is anyone else anxious about using the bookmark feature on Tildes?

      Maybe it's just because I've lost my bookmarks so many times, one way or another. I now avoid using website-specific bookmarks, you never know when the website could shut down or you could lose...

      Maybe it's just because I've lost my bookmarks so many times, one way or another. I now avoid using website-specific bookmarks, you never know when the website could shut down or you could lose the bookmarks some other way. not saying Tildes will shut down; I'm sure it won't be any time soon, but I still can't get myself to use it even though it's so convenient ☹️ does anyone else feel the same way ?

      22 votes
    16. Question on sorting for new comments on old posts

      Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask this question, but is there a way to search which would list comments made on any topic in chronological order regardless of how old the original post...

      Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask this question, but is there a way to search which would list comments made on any topic in chronological order regardless of how old the original post was made? Meaning, even if a post was one of the first on Tilde, if someone commented within it in the last few minutes, it would be displayed before a newly created post that hadn't had a comment in several hours.

      I tried all of the sorting options and didn't seem to find one that performed this function. Any assistance would be appreciated.

      7 votes
    17. Where to ask Tildes dev questions?

      If I have a quick Tildes dev question, where should I ask it? For an example that is not actually just an example, but the actual question which drove me to post, where can I found logging output?...

      If I have a quick Tildes dev question, where should I ask it?

      For an example that is not actually just an example, but the actual question which drove me to post, where can I found logging output? Specifically, if I want to print out something every time a request comes in, how should I do so?
      18 votes
    18. Tildes CSS and Android accessibility

      Hi all. On my Pixel phone I have the accessibility option for font size and display size turned up a notch or two but noticed that not all of the text in Tildes adheres to this. Some front page...

      Hi all. On my Pixel phone I have the accessibility option for font size and display size turned up a notch or two but noticed that not all of the text in Tildes adheres to this. Some front page topic text is bigger, some of them remain small.

      Is this something that can be quickly tested and fixed if it's a bug? It might drive poor sighted people away from the site.

      I'm assuming it's not me, as my Pixel 7 is quite new .... but I am on the Android beta program.

      Can anyone else try and see if it's a localised issue or more global?

      I can post screen shots of needed but not sure what image sharing sites you prefer to use in here!

      Edit:

      Fixed with a chrome flag....

      the text-scaling is being replaced by the "Accessibility Page Zoom" feature (currently hidden behind the feature flag in chrome://flags)

      23 votes
    19. Invite system

      Hey everyone! Can I get a rundown on how to earn an invite link? I've got a friend who is interested in migrating off of Reddit and I'd like to be the one to invite him :)

      12 votes
    20. How does the "collapse old comments when I return to a topic" feature work?

      I have the "collapse old comments when I return to a topic" setting turned on, but I can't quite figure out how it works. For example, when open a new topic for the first time and scroll through...

      I have the "collapse old comments when I return to a topic" setting turned on, but I can't quite figure out how it works. For example, when open a new topic for the first time and scroll through the comments, the next time I open the topic, they're all still open.

      Does anyone have more details about how this feature works or how I should be using it?

      Thank you!

      19 votes
    21. Self-hosting Tildes?

      Any how to that explains how to selfhost Tildes? I checked gitlab page, but it doesn't explain how? I would love to start a local community in my native language based on Tildes.

      26 votes
    22. Under what group would, for example, cars or motorcycles go?

      For many they are considered ~hobbies so ~hobbies.cars and ~hobbies.motorcycles would be a logical place. I don't know if ~transport would be a suitable main category for this since then trucks,...

      For many they are considered ~hobbies so ~hobbies.cars and ~hobbies.motorcycles would be a logical place. I don't know if ~transport would be a suitable main category for this since then trucks, tractors, trains and boats could also go there without bloating hobbies' sub-groups too much.

      I'd like to hear your input on this, cheers.

      23 votes
    23. Do you think there should be more customization of user profiles on Tildes? If so, what should be added?

      When talking about adding new features to tildes, many people talk about adding more ways to customize your profile, since right now we only have the username and the user bio. The most common way...

      When talking about adding new features to tildes, many people talk about adding more ways to customize your profile, since right now we only have the username and the user bio. The most common way other sites do this is by having profile pictures, but considering tildes is text based that wouldn't work out well.
      Another way of doing this would be signatures. Not only would that distinguish tildes from reddit and HN, but it would be text based and look ok on the tildes layout. But what do you guys think? Would it be neccessary?

      Edit: u/TooFewColours said this and i think it seems good. I've also heard about allowing your username to be a certain font:

      I'd be opposed to profile pictures, but maybe simply being able to choose a single colour that decorates your profile page in a simple way would be a cute addition. Given the colours in the logo, I think it would be on-brand.

      32 votes
    24. Prevalence of AI generated text in Tildes

      I've recently noticed that some particular users, who post/comment quite often, frequently contribute with high quality content across an impressive spectrum of themes. These posts/comments...

      I've recently noticed that some particular users, who post/comment quite often, frequently contribute with high quality content across an impressive spectrum of themes. These posts/comments usually go into great detail, an approach suitable of a "semi-expert", that honestly baffles me.

      This lead me to think that Tildes users might be using AI language models to aid in the writing of their posts/comments. This possibility is quite disheartening since I found Tildes to be an extraordinarily engaging community, with a distinct human element that I haven't seen in other bigger forums. The possibility of a significant portion of Tildes content being generated by AI makes this sentiment a mere illusion.

      So here are my questions:

      1. Is there any reasonable way of determining which posts were written with the aid of AI?
      2. Is the Tildes community okay with the content being generated partly, or entirely, by AI?

      Please forgive me if I'm being a cynic, I've spent too much time in forums with significantly lower quality content than Tildes.


      Edit 1: Just wanted to cite this paper to somehow justify my uneasiness when it comes to writing texts with AI in command. As I've commented below, LLMs might get in the way of learning the person's true idea/opinion.


      Edit 2: As I've said in the comments below, I had no intention of accusing any particular user with this post. Clearly, I've failed to convey my intent so I'll try to clarify my original idea a bit more:

      Because I'm new to Tildes and haven't got any other forum experience besides Reddit, I was amazed with how much and how fast some users post extremely high quality content, since this was certainly not the norm in Reddit. As with many other online platforms, spammers armed with AI can be a difficult problem to deal with, so I've made this post with the intent of starting a discussion about this matter and to understand the Tildes community stance. My relatively negative view of the use of AI is due in part to my experience with such spammers in the past. Forgive me if I've assumed the worst...

      From the little time I've spent in Tildes, I'm quite sure the community grew to know each other and I'm hopeful that my post will not cause undue witch hunts. And I've also learned that because people got to know each user's stylistic voice, it's fairly easy to spot a possible AI spammer.

      Thank you for the insightful discussion so far !

      62 votes
    25. Username similarity?

      I tried to register here the other day with my preferred username, which was taken, so I replaced an S with a 5 as I've done in the past. Now I realize that might have been a bit deceptive -...

      I tried to register here the other day with my preferred username, which was taken, so I replaced an S with a 5 as I've done in the past. Now I realize that might have been a bit deceptive - someone reading my comment might think it's coming from the other user or vice-versa, and I don't want to be that guy. What's the vibe here about that? Should I invite myself under a new name once I'm approved for invitations, or keep this username? I'd just DM the other user if that was an option on tildes.

      edit: Thanks, all! I'll keep it until/unless the other user feels strongly about it.

      15 votes
    26. How do Tildes users feel about an OP that takes part in their own thread?

      Bit of an odd question but one I'm becoming a little self conscious of. I posted a thread earlier today on ~LGBT asking people to share their experiences of coming out. Because it's a somewhat...

      Bit of an odd question but one I'm becoming a little self conscious of.

      I posted a thread earlier today on ~LGBT asking people to share their experiences of coming out. Because it's a somewhat sensitive topic and sharing your experiences can be a little vulnerable I've been taking part and interacting with everyone who's shared their experience.

      Im being sure to try and actually contribute, bring my perspective and continue the conversation, and importantly thank people for being open about something that can be difficult.

      My problem is that I worry that this is a habit I'm bringing over from Reddit that's perhaps not suitable for Tildes, but I'm not sure?

      I generally see it as a good thing when an OP takes active part in a discussion they started, but maybe it's more of a hindrance here?

      I'm not sure how I feel, and I'd like to get the opinions of other regular users on what would be appropriate?

      Edit: I should specify and make it clear in my case I'm talking about actively replying to most or all top level comments. Not necessarily replies but still a fair number. I worry about crossing a line into just contributing to noise.

      45 votes
    27. Anchor text at the top to reply without scrolling?

      Edit — thanks to all who replied and educated me on this. I thought I'd do this rather than pollute the thread with single thank you posts while I learn the ropes here. Hi, I'm brand new here so...

      Edit — thanks to all who replied and educated me on this. I thought I'd do this rather than pollute the thread with single thank you posts while I learn the ropes here.


      Hi,

      I'm brand new here so this could well be answered and I'm just being stupid. Very probable tbh!

      I'm on a macbook and iphone and one thing I noticed was it's a bit of a trek scrolling down to comment. Not that I've done that much.

      Now I love, really love, the lightweight and speedy nature of this site (and incidentally looking forward to brushing up on my Markdown) and am hoping that with the influx feature bloat doesn't happen but would a small anchor text link somewhere up top be in order to quickly get to the comment field?

      Let me know how idiotic I am and why or.. if I'm lucky.. how much of a genius I am!

      Thanks,

      Rodney

      6 votes
    28. SEO for niche topics

      Hi All, As yet another reddit transplant (YART) I've been watching the drama on that other platform and reflecting on what the most important aspects of successful online discussions are for me....

      Hi All,

      As yet another reddit transplant (YART) I've been watching the drama on that other platform and reflecting on what the most important aspects of successful online discussions are for me.

      One of the things that I value(d) most about reddit was the ability to use the keyword reddit in DuckDuckGo or Google searches to help me find more relevant and helpful content about a variety of niche subjects. So far, it seems to me like Tildes has some potential to fill this role based on its emphasis of thoughtful text content. Also, these types of searches add credibility to a site when random internet browsers stumble across a thread discussing their exact question.

      One thought that I had along these lines was that people who care about this type of thing could make a concerted effort to transport content from reddit and other sites to be shared here. I don't think it would be appropriate to just copy and paste text without adding at least a bit of original thoughts or context. However, I often find myself researching niche products or ideas to such an extent that I could write up a nice summary of all my findings. A post like that could be a nice crash course to others or a fun way to introduce people to ideas they didn't know about.

      Would people here be interested in consciously doing this type of thing? We could all make nice amalgamations of information we think is important as we independently research topics and post them here to boost discussion and boost Tildes threads in web search results.

      18 votes
    29. Quote-only orphan comments: useful context or noisy clutter?

      Some of you may have noticed that the threads under some topics include a comment which consists only of some paragraphs quoted from the article posted in the topic, posted by the same user who...

      Some of you may have noticed that the threads under some topics include a comment which consists only of some paragraphs quoted from the article posted in the topic, posted by the same user who posted the topic. (I’m choosing not to link to any examples, because I don’t want to single anyone out for special attention, in case they feel persecuted by this.)

      @cfabbro and I were discussing this in a quiet corner of an old thread, and we came to the conclusion that this was a topic which should be discussed by more than just us two, in the hope of finding a Tildes-wide consensus about a consistent way to treat those quote-only orphan comments.

      The Context

      These quote-only comments are a side-effect of a deliberate feature of Tildes. When you create a topic there are three fields to be completed. The combination of fields you complete determine the type of topic you’re making.

      • Title All topics must have a title. This is compulsory.

      • Link A field for a URL linking to an article or video or other off-site content. This is optional.

      • Text A field for adding text to your post. This is optional.

      If you complete:

      • Link but not Text - this creates a simple link topic: the topic consists only of an off-site link.

      • Text but not Link - this creates a simple text topic: the topic consists only of user-provided text.

      • Link and Text - this produces a complex link topic: the topic consists of an off-site link plus user-provided text. However, the user-provided text is not incorporated into the actual topic, but is split off into a stand-alone comment.

      Some people who post links also like to include a relevant quote to summarise the article they’re posting, to let readers know what the article is about before they click the off-site link. But, as above, this quote gets split off as a stand-alone comment. It is no longer part of the post. It becomes an orphaned comment consisting only of the quote.

      The Question

      Given that these quote-only orphan comments exist, the question arises: how should we treat them?

      It has been observed that there are two diametrically opposed approaches to this:

      • Some people vote on them, seeing them as useful summaries of the posted article, providing some context for the discussion.

      • Some people label them as ‘Noise’, seeing them as pointless extracts from the article, cluttering up the discussion thread.

      In one recent extreme case, a quote-only orphan comment had both 16 votes and was collapsed due to ‘Noise’ labels.

      This is creating some confusion among newcomers to Tildes (as well as some of the old-timers). How are they supposed to vote/label these comments? Well, there’s no clear precedent for them to follow.

      @cfabbro and I decided to put it to all of you. Maybe by discussing this, we can come up with a consistent treatment for these comments.

      So what do you think about these quote-only orphan comments? Are they useful context or noisy clutter? Should we be giving them votes or labelling them as noise?

      37 votes
    30. Handling text reposts (recurring subjects)

      While browsing over the past little while I have noticed that I starting to see "text reposts". I did a quick search and saw that link reposts have been discussed in the past, but I didn't come...

      While browsing over the past little while I have noticed that I starting to see "text reposts".
      I did a quick search and saw that link reposts have been discussed in the past, but I didn't come across something in relation to text posts.

      To make it a bit more clear what I mean, a recent example:

      Generally speaking I don't mind reposts, certainly with "ask" topics new insights can be gained over time and different people might give different answers. At the same time I do think that the landscape around note taking software hasn't drastically changed in a week.

      To be clear, I am not saying that the OP of the most recent topic did anything wrong either. Even if you remember to check if a question has been asked before (I ironically almost forgot myself in this case) you might not find it.

      But I am wondering if more could be done to surface previous discussions. Not to specifically prevent these sorts of reposts but also to surface potentially valuable information of previous discussions.

      Something that does come to mind is having a mechanism that uses the title someone is typing as (part of) a search query in the same space. Matching topics could then be shown before submission.

      Or if we care more about making previous discussions accessible give the OP after submission the option to also link to previous topics around the subject. Interlinked topics is something that would be interesting to explore, basically borrowing from the "other discussions" tab idea but make it "similar discussions".

      I'm curious to see what others think about it.

      16 votes
    31. How to delete a Tildes account?

      I DM’d Deimos already, but maybe the community can help, too: I want to completely delete my account but don’t find anything anywhere. Can anyone point me in the direction?

      15 votes
    32. Does Tildes need a new icon?

      I was just thinking about it. Tildes' current icon looks like a /r/wallstreetbets graph, haha. I think we could use a nice mascot that's based on a cute animal of some sort. :) Would love to hear...

      I was just thinking about it. Tildes' current icon looks like a /r/wallstreetbets graph, haha. I think we could use a nice mascot that's based on a cute animal of some sort. :)

      Would love to hear our community's thoughts on this, thank you! :)

      22 votes
    33. Half-baked proposals for architectural changes to Tildes groups and tags

      This is a place to post your ideas about what to do about Tildes groups and tags. I'm going to write about some problems (as I see them) and save my ideas about solutions for the comments. The...

      This is a place to post your ideas about what to do about Tildes groups and tags. I'm going to write about some problems (as I see them) and save my ideas about solutions for the comments.

      The taxonomy problem

      We have tags and groups and they are somewhat arbitrary. A tag could be a group someday. A group can be downgraded to a tag if it's not used much.

      Topics can have multiple tags, but they can be in only one group (and its ancestor groups).

      It's hard to pick the right group. An example: a post about animals could go in ~enviro (for wildlife), ~hobbies (for pets), or ~science (for a scientific study). So where do you put news article about a scientific study of the effects of house cats on wildlife?

      Adding ~animals seems like it would be a good thing because now you have an obvious place to find all the posts about animals. Animal lovers rejoice! But from a taxonomy point of view, it makes things worse, because now you have another place where you could logically put an article and another place to go looking for it. More groups means more edges and more edge cases. It's enough to make you wish for crossposts.

      The competition problem

      Tags are better for taxonomy, so why not just have tags? Because classifying topics isn't the only thing we want to do. As Deimos wrote about, eventually we'd like to have somewhat more independent communities, closer to subreddits but hopefully without their downsides. It would be nice if subreddits that wanted to migrate to Tildes could actually do it. We also want to have a good mix of topics on the front page, while allowing some groups to have a lot more posts than others.

      I'll start with an analogy: if a school has only one sport that matters, the people who are good at that sport win socially, and other people don't have as much of a chance. But if you have multiple sports and clubs that people care about, there are more ways to win at something. I don't believe pretending everyone is a winner works all that well, but more ways to win promotes diversity and creates useful social ambiguity.

      The front page of Tildes is the most visible and has limited space. That creates an all-against-all competition between topics. We also have groups with their own leaderboards, but they are lesser competitions and it's unclear if they matter yet. (I'm using them more, though.) Meanwhile, each topic has an independent leaderboard for its comments that doesn't conflict with any other game. (Maybe that's why I like megathreads?)

      I haven't been thinking of Tildes in terms of leaderboards, but maybe it can explain why old-timers are often reluctant to post topics? We aren't really trying to win, but we have ideas about fair play. When there's only one game anyone cares about, we don't want to drown out other worthy topics by entering too many contestants. We're also a bit reluctant to enter anything that's too specialized into the competition, because it doesn't "deserve" the attention. It's not a worthy contestant and it's just gonna lose.

      Also, sometimes this isn't a game you want to win. Entering a controversial topic into a competition can get you unwanted attention, and that's often no prize at all. When a game isn't one you wanted to enter, getting attention is more like losing than winning.

      For the front page, I expect this problem will get worse with more people. Entering the competition brings more attention than before.

      Note: thinking of a topic listing as a leaderboard for a game is only an analogy and I don't mean to promote competitiveness. They weren't designed to be leaderboards and I think we'd like to see design changes that reduce competitiveness. There are known downsides to competition that we don't want, like "cheating" to win with "unworthy" strategies and the rules-lawyering and jealousy that come with that.

      Ideas?

      Some rules for this "game": Please post one proposal per comment. If you have multiple independent ideas, you can post them separately, but post them together if they're interrelated.

      44 votes
    34. Women of Tildes, do we want or need a designated women's space?

      I'm relatively new here, and excited about the community. My question stems from learning that the usual way communities evolve here is by having specific topic information repeatedly surface in...

      I'm relatively new here, and excited about the community. My question stems from learning that the usual way communities evolve here is by having specific topic information repeatedly surface in more general category forums. If we do not create a women's community here, comparable to the one that already exists for lgbt, will we be less likely to create topics related to women's issues? Can we predict how it will evolve?

      What do you think?

      137 votes
    35. Why doesn't Tildes display a user's social score or karma on their profile page?

      I've noticed that tildes is somewhat different than other social networks in that it doesn't display a user's karma, neither on profile page or on the handle. On other networks, you'll always see...

      I've noticed that tildes is somewhat different than other social networks in that it doesn't display a user's karma, neither on profile page or on the handle. On other networks, you'll always see something like pyeri [100] at almost every place where pyeri posts.

      Is there any thought process behind this design decision? Do you think judging users by their social score might lead to "class conflicts" of sorts which might erupt in flame wars or something? Or do you think high karma will reach their heads and make them more narcissistic while a lower score will make them prone to imposter syndrome!

      But on the flip side, this karma score acts as a kind of street cred indicator. What the community thinks about a particular user is public and known to the community in the natural and organic course of content creation which is quite desirable.

      34 votes
    36. Considering image posts on Tildes

      Hi all, I'm a recent reddit refugee who is very happy with my transition here. I like the spirit of the community a whole lot and am a fan of the admin approach, which is designed to promote...

      Hi all, I'm a recent reddit refugee who is very happy with my transition here. I like the spirit of the community a whole lot and am a fan of the admin approach, which is designed to promote engagement and deep content and prevent a shallow (advertiser-friendly) scrolling experience.

      A the philosophy page on content says:

      In-depth content (primarily text-based) is the most important

      and

      In general, any changes to the site that will cause "shallower" content to gain an advantage should be considered very carefully.

      I agree with this fully. My thoughts, though, are that there are definitely forms of image post that are not just memes or jokes, and do lead to deeper discussion.

      For instance, if somebody has created some art and would like to post it for feedback (or just to share), this feels more like a discussion topic than a 'quick scroll' post. I feel that this kind of image post is 'pro community'. Somebody is posting something they care about and want to discuss.

      On reddit, a sub I always liked was ImaginaryMonsters, where people post cool pictures of monster art and discuss them (either original art or properly credited). This is for people who want to admire and discuss artwork. Again, I don't think this necessary falls into the category of 'shallow content'.

      So, what am I suggesting?

      I think it would be good for the site to actively promote the posting of the right kind of image content in the right places.

      My angle is, essentially:

      • Some image content does promote depth of discussion.
      • This type of content may be quite vital for certain wedges of the community, especially moving forwards as the site grows (and making creatives feel more welcome).
      • Rules regarding self-promotion already exist in the Code of Conduct.
      • Because of how the web works, it would make sense to have limited embedding of certain images in at least thumbnail format (but it needn't show the full image in the feed like other scrollable 'content' sites). .
      • Creating certain groups/subgroups specifically for posting certain types of images doesn't need to be seen as a slippery slope, if the rules are clear.
      • There is even the possibility of purging image posts that don't have n amount of engagement within a specific time, so as not to end up with clutter.

      I should point out two things:

      • I am aware that images can already be posted as links on the site, and I applaud the reasoning for the overall tentative approach. Here, I'm talking about some select subgroups of the site that are specifically for certain types of image posting.
      • I don't necessarily think I'm right. I am new here and making observations - I'm thinking about things I'd like personally - I know I don't have all the information to understand the full impact of such things here, but I am interested in knowing what other people think.

      So, do you have an opinion on this? Thanks for reading!

      Edit:

      I just wanted to point out a couple of things based on responses.

      • When I mention image posts, I'm not talking about image hosting - that's a whole can of worms - the site already allows links. I'm just talking about image links (with maybe some QoL surrounding that).
      • I wasn't totally clear above, I'm not suggesting image posts everywhere, or even necessarily a whole new post type. My first thoughts were about one or two specific, limited subgroups with specific purposes.
      • Those concerned about moderation, I understand that angle, but I am keeping in mind this recent post by @Deimos, where they talk about expanding moderation, or even handing it off to individual communities, subreddit style:

      If the activity stays at this level or keeps increasing, we will probably need to add more moderators soon.

      • Those concerned about feeds being overrun by images, there were thoughts about this from Deimos in the same post:

      I think we should probably take advantage of this current high activity level to try moving the groups towards being more independent spaces. This would involve switching away from the current "opt-out" approach to an "opt-in" one, and would probably need updates to a few different sections of the site to support it.

      • I also think it's worth mentioning my thoughts above do not preclude having some minimum text requirement along with every image. I agree about not encouraging shallow content, and am attempting to focus on exactly where that line lies.
      • Finally, I do want to make it clear I'm not coming here as a new person trying saying "nice site, change it like this!" - which I think some people may have taken this as (I had one or two single-sentence responses). I genuinely like what I've seen so far because of what it is, but am also aware things may well be changing in some other ways already (as per the post I linked). Sorry if this seems like 'another reddit user trying turn us into reddit' - this is not my intent whatsoever, I am just interested in specifically how it could be done in a Tildes way. I am glad it started a half-decent discussion though!
      55 votes
    37. What is the best way to provide small bits of feedback about Tildes?

      I have a small suggestion for a change to Tilde's mobile design and I'm apprehensive about posting a whole new thread here since it's relatively insignificant. This makes me wonder in general what...

      I have a small suggestion for a change to Tilde's mobile design and I'm apprehensive about posting a whole new thread here since it's relatively insignificant. This makes me wonder in general what the best way is for me and others to submit ideas or issues without creating the clutter of a lot of threads.

      Would it be appropriate to create somewhat specific feedback threads? E.g. one for design issues and suggestions, one for feature suggestions, one for general bug reports, etc.? At the end of the day, I just want to let someone know about my suggestion without creating noise.

      17 votes
    38. What's the best way to make non-English posts on Tildes? Can you? Should you?

      I'm guessing that it might just be that Tildes is an English only site, but as an avid language learner, I'd love to have a place to see and post non-English discussions. Is there a best practice...

      I'm guessing that it might just be that Tildes is an English only site, but as an avid language learner, I'd love to have a place to see and post non-English discussions.

      Is there a best practice for making a non-English discussion? Is it simply not allowed? Is it allowed but discouraged?

      18 votes
    39. 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
    40. 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
    41. 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