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  • Showing only topics in ~tildes with the tag "ask.survey". Back to normal view / Search all groups
    1. Is it time for a user growth campaign?

      Take a look at the Tildes Statistics site. Couple things: 1, and most obvious: there has been a decline in users over the past few days for the first time that I'm aware of. 2: (I was going to...

      Take a look at the Tildes Statistics site. Couple things:

      1, and most obvious: there has been a decline in users over the past few days for the first time that I'm aware of.
      2: (I was going to make this point before the user decline occurred but it's probably moot now) Due to the scaling of the Y-axis, it appears that there is healthy user growth in the site. But if you look at the numbers, we're talking about user growth of roughly 60 people over the past month.

      I know we want controlled growth, and I know we don't want to open it up to the masses. But we also want this site to succeed (i.e. provide interesting discourse and keep people coming back on a regular basis). I don't believe success can happen when growth is stagnant (or, declining!)

      I don't think that the conversations are necessarily stagnant per se, in fact there's an impressive amount of thoughtful discussion relative to the size of the user base. But if a given topic is too niche (e.g. MLS football or MUDs, two of my interests), the odds of finding like-minded users to discuss with is obviously lower.

      Is it time to consider some sort of growth campaign (one that is not reactionary a la the Reddit API changes) in order to infuse some new life into this awesome site?

      37 votes
    2. What do you think about other users' usernames?

      This is kind of silly. I've been tild'ing a lot recently and have come to recognize some other users, and am wondering how accurate my simple reactions are, or whether they're shared by anyone...

      This is kind of silly. I've been tild'ing a lot recently and have come to recognize some other users, and am wondering how accurate my simple reactions are, or whether they're shared by anyone else.

      • deimos - Moon of Mars, and also a character in either one of the early Unreal Tournament games or Quake 3 Arena. Uh, also a figure from Greek or Roman mythology or whatever šŸ˜…
      • cfabbro - "C fab bro" - Identifies as a "bro", and does something involving fabrication?
      • douchebag - Expects to get hated on maybe?
      • akir - For some reason makes me think of Admiral Akbar from OG Star Wars.
      • algernon_asimov - Has been explained. I too love Flowers for Algernon and Isaac Asmiov.
      • boxer_dogs_dance - I picture three dogs on their hind legs "holding" each other's forepaws, merrily dancing in a circle. It makes me happy šŸ˜…

      Sorry if I've forgotten your username! Reply and I'll tell you what yours makes me think, I'm feeling associative.

      53 votes
    3. Why did you select your username for Tildes?

      I always try this name first when signing up for accounts but it is always taken. Listen closely, my friend, because I'm about to blow your mind wide open. You see, 'King of the Hill' isn't just...

      I always try this name first when signing up for accounts but it is always taken.

      Listen closely, my friend, because I'm about to blow your mind wide open. You see, 'King of the Hill' isn't just some ordinary animated series. It's a diabolical government project aimed at documenting every aspect of my life! They've been watching me, tracking my every move, and mocking me through the fictional character of Hank Hill. It's all a clever ruse to hide the truth from the masses!

      In every episode, they carefully weave in details from my life, the people I know, and the secrets I've uncovered. The creators are agents of the government, skillfully disguising their surveillance operation as a simple sitcom. They want the world to think it's just entertainment, but it's so much more!

      Think about it! The show portrays Hank as a patriotic, average American, while I, Dale-ahem uh, Rusty Shackleford, the one who truly understands what's going on, am portrayed as a paranoid conspiracy theorist. It's a calculated move to discredit me, to make the truth sound like fiction!

      Every time I see the show, I feel their eyes upon me, laughing at my expense. The characters, the scenarios, they're all just tools to manipulate public perception. It's a mind-control experiment! MAKE SURE YOUR MOUNTAIN DEW IS SAFE.

      But don't worry, my friend. I won't let them silence me. I'll continue to expose the truth, fighting against this government conspiracy, no matter how deep it goes. They can't hide forever!

      Sha-sha-shaaaaa! pocket sand

      103 votes
    4. 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
    5. 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
    6. 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 ā˜¹ļø does anyone else feel the same way ?

      22 votes
    7. 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
    8. 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. (Iā€™m choosing not to link to any examples, because I donā€™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 youā€™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 theyā€™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 ā€˜Noiseā€™, 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 ā€˜Noiseā€™ 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, thereā€™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
    9. 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
    10. 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
    11. 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
    12. How do you pronounce tildes?

      Hi all, loving the site so far - big ā€˜old forumsā€™ vibes here which is amazing! I was telling a friend about tildes last night and I said ā€˜yeah this tildeeeā€™sā€¦ā€¦tildas, til-dess?? Place is cool!ā€™...

      Hi all, loving the site so far - big ā€˜old forumsā€™ vibes here which is amazing!

      I was telling a friend about tildes last night and I said ā€˜yeah this tildeeeā€™sā€¦ā€¦tildas, til-dess?? Place is cool!ā€™

      Iā€™m guessing itā€™s Till-dsss? Cheers šŸ«”

      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
    13. What brought you here?

      Hey guys I'm a new account here just wondering what brought everybody here. I'm sure this has been asked to death but I'm quite curious. I'm originally a redditor, as I think all of us are, and I...

      Hey guys I'm a new account here just wondering what brought everybody here. I'm sure this has been asked to death but I'm quite curious.

      I'm originally a redditor, as I think all of us are, and I came here hoping to escape the growing toxicity of reddit and also to help developers a new community. I also personally believe reddit is making anti consumer choices as of recent and want to move to a nonprofit site such as this one.

      50 votes
    14. 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
    15. How do you think we should deal with compliments?

      Compliments are, technically, to be tagged as 'noise' and often also 'offtopic' for usually being only loosely related to the commment or post they're replying to. But the warm fuzzies empathy is...

      Compliments are, technically, to be tagged as 'noise' and often also 'offtopic' for usually being only loosely related to the commment or post they're replying to. But the warm fuzzies empathy is pretty important in a community, and I don't remember seeing an unnecessary compliment anywhere so, unsurprisingly, people don't noise compliments. But they still might clutter space for a potential reply giving advice. So do you think the current arrangement is fine? I personally would probably make a label for compliments which would either be neutral or slightly positive, and maybe publically visible so everyone can (but don't have to) see the compliments of the receiver but I haven't thought about this too deeply.

      5 votes
    16. What kinds of content are you hoping to see on Tildes?

      There's been quite a bit of discussion lately about people don't want to see, but not that much about what sort of content we do want to see. What would you like to see more of? For the official...

      There's been quite a bit of discussion lately about people don't want to see, but not that much about what sort of content we do want to see. What would you like to see more of?

      For the official stance, I'll repost the instructions that most of us are probably skipping over by now.

      Tildes prioritizes high-quality content and discussion
      Please post topics that are interesting, informative, or have the potential to start a good discussion.
      Please avoid posting topics that are primarily for entertainment or that don't have discussion value.

      This seems vague, and we probably have different ideas of what's high-quality and what counts as good discussion?

      I'm also wondering if we should be here more for the links or for the discussion. When I arrived, I was just happy to find a quiet place where I could post links to articles that I found elsewhere and were particularly interesting to me. (But I think I had gotten into a rut for a while after getting obsessed with the pandemic and politics.) Maybe we should try posting more links?

      28 votes
    17. Statistics on bans and transparency

      Do we have any statistics on how many users have been banned and why theyā€™ve been banned? What information should be or remain public? Some forum sites let you see the banned users post and...

      Do we have any statistics on how many users have been banned and why theyā€™ve been banned? What information should be or remain public? Some forum sites let you see the banned users post and comment history from prior to their ban; is there any value in that?

      Unrelated; how many Tildes-ers are we up to now?

      18 votes
    18. If bringing/migrating r/askbiblescholars to Tildes turns out well, what other subreddits/subreddit groups would you like to see here?

      I've heard many people here like truereddit and the depthhub network and so would probably pop up a lot here but I wonder what other suggestions we might have. I'd probably like r/imaginarymaps...

      I've heard many people here like truereddit and the depthhub network and so would probably pop up a lot here but I wonder what other suggestions we might have.

      I'd probably like r/imaginarymaps and a lot of related fantasy subreddits. It would probably also be interesting to call more hobby/social/'extravert' subreddits (or, odds are, any subreddit about anything that requires going outside, physical effort/tools or requires multiple people.)

      It would probably also be interesting to bring some subreddits for minority/discriminated against groups like r/ainbow, r/TwoXchromosomes or r/transgender.

      Lastly, there are namesake subreddits like r/hobbies.

      24 votes
    19. Do you use the ignore feature? What type of posts do you ignore?

      I've found myself ignoring a lot of posts that are simply lifted and reposted from the front page of HN without any meaningful discussion on them. I wish there was a magic filter that'd...

      I've found myself ignoring a lot of posts that are simply lifted and reposted from the front page of HN without any meaningful discussion on them.

      I wish there was a magic filter that'd auto-ignore posts for me that are currently trending on HN or Reddit, as I only really come here for the niche topics and discussions.

      This got me thinking: what does the rest of the community use the feature for?

      17 votes
    20. How do you know whether a back-and-forth conversation is productive and/or appreciated?

      Sometimes I get into a back-and-forth... heated interaction with someone, and it goes on for a while, and then they stop responding. Afterwords, I might wonder if it was worthwhile. Maybe they got...

      Sometimes I get into a back-and-forth... heated interaction with someone, and it goes on for a while, and then they stop responding. Afterwords, I might wonder if it was worthwhile. Maybe they got tired of arguing with me, or maybe they just thought the conversation reached its natural endpoint? Rarely, the conversation might end with us explicitly agreeing it was a good discussion, but that's kind of formal and not the usual case online.

      Just stopping is my habit as well. If I don't want to talk anymore, I upvote the last comment (if I thought it was good) but don't reply.

      In the case of repeated interactions like this with the same person, sometimes I wonder if I'm annoying them by replying to their comments too much, particularly if we disagree often. I've never been explicitly told to go away, but people are often reluctant to say things like that, for good reason since you never know how people will react.

      It seems to me that upvotes don't tell me this. Upvotes tell you whether your comments make sense to the crowd. They don't tell you whether the person you're talking to liked your reply. Which seems like it would be good to know. It would be valuable feedback if the goal is to be a better conversationalist. That seems like a good goal to aim for?

      I guess we could get in the habit of saying "good point" and all that, and sometimes things can be inferred from what people say if you're good at taking hints, but not all of us are. But we are all trained to upvote things we like already, and it seems like it would be nice to take advantage of that.

      To the extent that people like to gather internet points, I wonder what sort of conversation would be encouraged if you got them by writing a good reply from the perspective of the person being replied to? But I guess it could be gamed pretty easily if two people cooperate, so we probably shouldn't keep a total.

      Also, think about how this looks from the outside: if you are reading a conversation by two other people in a heated back-and-forth, how do you know whether they're having a good time or not? Maybe it seems obvious, but in some cases a heated discussion might look worse to outsiders than participants. If you could see that they liked each other's comments then it would seem friendlier.

      Note that Facebook does tell you who upvoted a comment, but since it tells you everyone who upvoted it, it's even more information, maybe too much.

      (This is a followup to @NaraVara's previous topic, focusing on a particular aspect of it.)

      13 votes
    21. Thoughts on feeling like you're posting too many links when there is not enough content

      It seems like there are not that many new topics posted on Tildes, and that we could post a lot more. But I sometimes find myself reluctant to do so. Don't I post too much already? Recently there...

      It seems like there are not that many new topics posted on Tildes, and that we could post a lot more. But I sometimes find myself reluctant to do so. Don't I post too much already?

      Recently there was a survey and apparently many people think Tildes is too tech-oriented. I don't think it's all that tech oriented, not like Hacker News or lobste.rs, but that makes me a little more reluctant to post tech links. (Though, really, other people should post more of the kind of links they want to see.)

      I suspect it's not just me. Periodic topics sometimes get a lot of comments. Periodic topics have been started specifically to avoid having too many top-level topics on one subject.

      But, why are we avoiding this? What's wrong with posting more links? If this were a social bookmarking site, I'd be saving more links. Maybe I'd save a bunch of accordion links, without any regard for whether people are interested?

      It seems like we need something like folders. When new links are posted in a folder, they don't get listed individually at top-level. You could drop a bunch of links in a folder if you felt like it, without feeling like you're monopolizing conversation, because people would have to open the folder to see what's there. Or maybe instead of folders it would be something like creating a playlist. You could start a topic that's basically a list of links, and then anyone can add links to it if they want.

      It seems like groups don't really do this, somehow? They feel a bit too open and exposed. Everything shows up on the front page regardless of group. (I mean, you can filter or unsubscribe from groups, but many of us don't. Partly because they're too broad. Who's going to unsubscribe from music just because they aren't interested in some music?)

      So instead we use topics and post links as comments. It sort of works, but it's given me a lot of practice at writing markdown-formatted links on a mobile keyboard, and they appear differently in search and aren't tagged.

      It seems like links posted within a topic and posted top-level should be more similar in the UI. Maybe if there's some conversation about a link within a topic, a moderator could promote it to top-level? Maybe a lot of topics would start that way, and then the site would feel a bit more full.

      25 votes
    22. Should we be able to view comments/posts where mods/admins are doing their roles and not doing them separately?

      What I mean by this is: Sometimes @Deimos posts something related to his mod/admin work, like saying he will be locking a thread or adding something new, but that's not all he does, he makes...

      What I mean by this is:

      Sometimes @Deimos posts something related to his mod/admin work, like saying he will be locking a thread or adding something new, but that's not all he does, he makes regular topics and comments about regular things, he doesn't have need to use an alt-account for that. I feel that when he's talking or posting about his mod/admin work and talking about anything else that interests him should be able to be viewed separately.

      Thoughts?

      9 votes
    23. What are your default settings for the Tildes homepage?

      So much for being a privacy conscious site /s Anyway, my default setting is activity for the last 7 days mainly for the weekly recurring threads, otherwise I'd probably use 3 days. (Mildly...

      So much for being a privacy conscious site /s

      Anyway, my default setting is activity for the last 7 days mainly for the weekly recurring threads, otherwise I'd probably use 3 days.

      (Mildly offtopic but an option to separate recurring threads from normal threads might be nice, since if you're using a shorter period for stuff to show up on the homepage, the weekly recurring threads which should be used/active for the whole week kind of don't.)

      11 votes
    24. What level of conversation is tildes aiming for?

      One thing I'm uncertain about Tildes is how informative its posts are meant to be. I've been keeping myself from posting hype threads about upcoming movies (Dune, Ride Your Wave, etc.). What type...

      One thing I'm uncertain about Tildes is how informative its posts are meant to be. I've been keeping myself from posting hype threads about upcoming movies (Dune, Ride Your Wave, etc.).
      What type of balance is tildes trying to strike? I'm in favor of shitposting, but against images, since I think text encourages the type of discussion I'm looking for a community. So I'd like to see copypasta, but I'm not sure what the general consensus is.

      Edit: I'm looking less for general examples than some sort of hard and clear rule. I'm seeing comments which disagree somewhat and leave ambiguities, but I believe the criteria should be better laid out.

      12 votes
    25. Is there such a thing as too many tags?

      This post has twelve tags My intuition says thatā€™s too much. Iā€™ve noticing that most people use a lot more tags than I do, but I donā€™t really know how they work, hence the question: is there such...

      This post has twelve tags

      My intuition says thatā€™s too much. Iā€™ve noticing that most people use a lot more tags than I do, but I donā€™t really know how they work, hence the question: is there such a thing as too many tags? Whatā€™s the best practice?

      9 votes
    26. How do you use Tildes' labels?

      One of the unique feature of Tildes when it comes to content moderation is the usage of "labels". While there are guidelines, there are no hard and fast rules as to when to use one label or the...

      One of the unique feature of Tildes when it comes to content moderation is the usage of "labels". While there are guidelines, there are no hard and fast rules as to when to use one label or the other (nor should there be!). I am curious what criteria you all use when deciding whether or not to apply a label to a comment, and also how frequently you find yourself labeling things. For reference, the current labels are:

      • Exemplary
      • Offtopic
      • Joke
      • Noise
      • Malice

      Are there labels you find yourself using more than others? Are there some you think are unclear? I feel like this is an often overlooked and underused feature, but that may just be because I personally do not use them that frequently. For example, I have only given a few Exemplary tags, a few noise, and I don't think any of the others.

      17 votes
    27. What is your default sort for Tildes?

      Pretty much self explanatory: what did you set for your default tildes.net post sort? I currently have it set to top activity in the last three days, but I'm not sure if that's the optimal way to...

      Pretty much self explanatory: what did you set for your default tildes.net post sort?

      I currently have it set to top activity in the last three days, but I'm not sure if that's the optimal way to find posts that are likely to have ongoing conversation. On the other hand, filtering to just the past day often eliminates too many posts.

      12 votes
    28. Any custom themes using Stylus?

      I switched to the light theme the other day. I'm typically all-in with dark themes for everything, but there was some convincing research. I started working on a light theme, but it's fairly...

      I switched to the light theme the other day. I'm typically all-in with dark themes for everything, but there was some convincing research.

      I started working on a light theme, but it's fairly basic.

      I was digging through the old thread and found a few gems, but I'm wondering what everybody has been up to since. Time for some show and tell!

      10 votes
    29. Which Tildes Theme are you using?

      Personally I'm partial to solarized dark since I also use that in my IDE's usually. Dark but not too harsh, since tildes supports a bunch of themes by default. I'm wondering which one are you...

      Personally I'm partial to solarized dark since I also use that in my IDE's usually.
      Dark but not too harsh, since tildes supports a bunch of themes by default.
      I'm wondering which one are you using and why?

      29 votes
    30. What's the community's opinion on "The Right to be Forgotten?"

      This is kind of a question for Tildes as well as a discussion topic on Social Media more generally. For context, "The Right to be Forgotten" is an idea being kicked around in international law and...

      This is kind of a question for Tildes as well as a discussion topic on Social Media more generally. For context, "The Right to be Forgotten" is an idea being kicked around in international law and human rights circles. It's kind of a corollary to the "right to privacy" and focuses on putting some guardrails around the downsides of having all information about you being archived, searchable, and publicly available forever and ever. It's usually phrased as a sense that people shouldn't be tied down indefinitely by stigmatizing actions they've done in "the past" (which is usually interpreted as long enough ago that you're not the same person anymore).

      This manifests in some examples large and small. Felony convictions or drug offenses are a pretty big one. Another public issue was James Gunn getting raked over the coals for homophobic quotes from a long time ago. Even on a smaller scale, I think plenty of young people have some generalized anxiety about embarrassing videos, photos, Facebook statuses, forum posts, etc. that they made when they were young following them around the rest of their lives. For example, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez had people try to shame her for dancing to a Phoenix song in an amateur music video. An even darker version of this happens with people who might be the victims of targeted harassment. Often doxxing happens by people digging through peoples' histories and piecing together clues to figure out who they are or at least narrow down where they're from, where they work, etc.

      In the context of Tildes, this would basically be a question of how do we feel about peoples' comment history lingering forever? Do we care about/agree with this "right" in principle and if we do, what should be done about putting it into practice?

      The root of the issue is the existence of archives of data about yourself that is 1.) searchable, 2.) publicly viewable, 3.) under someone else's control, 4.) forever. Even if the ability to delete comments exists, it's infeasible for any individual to pore over the reams of data they create about themselves to find the stuff that might be problematic. The solutions would revolve around addressing any one of those numbered items. Unfortunately, hitting any of those has upsides and downsizes. Some examples:

      Some people like being able to look back on old contributions and having them get deleted after a period of time (hitting problem #4) would be a bummer unless there is a system to selectively archive stuff you want to save from atrophy, which would be a function/feature that would take a ton of thought and development. What's more, there is no point in just saving your own comment if everyone else's stuff is gone because comments without context are indecipherable. It could work in a more selective way, so rather than a blanket atrophying of posts, but then you have the context issue again. Someone you were having a discussion with might choose to delete their entire comment history and there goes any sense of logic or coherence to your posts.

      We could address the searchable bit by automatically or selectively having posts pseudonymed after a period of time. But in a lot of cases a pseudonym won't work. People tend to refer to each other by username at times, and some people have a distinctive enough style that you could probably figure it out if they're well known and long-tenured.

      That's just some general food for thought. I'll yield the floor

      38 votes
    31. How does Tildes feel about recruiting?

      This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, especially in light of some recent threads, and because my own account here is nearing 1 year old. I don't think I've seen this come up...

      This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, especially in light of some recent threads, and because my own account here is nearing 1 year old. I don't think I've seen this come up yet, but it's possible I missed something. I'd really just like to see what the consensus is here, especially now that the site is fairly large.

      Anyways, what I define as 'recruiting' is responsibly (preferably privately) messaging someone who hasn't posted on the /r/Tildes subreddit or reached out in some other way, and asking if they would be interested in joining the platform. My reasons for wanting to do this are two- fold:

      For one, on the rare occasion that you come across someone who seems like a good fit for this site, and who is trying to contribute meaningfully to reddit but obviously getting frustrated, it just seems like the right thing to do. Wouldn't you want someone to reach out and let you know there is something better?

      Secondly, it's a good way to grow representation of niche ideas, which could later evolve in subgroups. Have a favorite programming language you'd like to see represented here more? Maybe a favorite hobby? Whatever the case, I think most people are part of some kind of niche interest that they would like to see more of here.

      22 votes
    32. A collection of notable Tildes threads!

      Hello! Have a good or unique thread that you found on this website that you want others to see? Feel free to suggest some and I will update them in this list! After a thread is added, I will also...

      Hello! Have a good or unique thread that you found on this website that you want others to see? Feel free to suggest some and I will update them in this list! After a thread is added, I will also sort it by category.

      Here's a wiki for it like @Algernon_Asimov suggested
      Here's another wiki although this isn't specifically focused on notable threads.
      Here's a google document for it

      Meta

      By making both "high-quality discussion" and "transparent community development" a core part of its identity, Tildes will always be dominated by people with "moderator/power user" personalities. - A thread discussing content elitism on tildes.

      Scenario

      If you found the secret to immortality would you tell anyone? - Self-explanatory title.

      25 votes
    33. What is, in your opinion, missing on Tildes?

      Pretty much the title. What do you think is missing on tildes? What is something that you'd like to see on tildes that is currently lacking? It could be discussion wise, a feature, or anything...

      Pretty much the title. What do you think is missing on tildes? What is something that you'd like to see on tildes that is currently lacking? It could be discussion wise, a feature, or anything else really.

      48 votes
    34. Do not bump topics from offtopic comments?

      Should offtopic comments bump up topics? IMO, offtopic discussion is not ā€œrealā€ discussion. Seeing a topic at top with 7 new comments only to discover that all of it is offtopic, meta discussion,...

      Should offtopic comments bump up topics? IMO, offtopic discussion is not ā€œrealā€ discussion. Seeing a topic at top with 7 new comments only to discover that all of it is offtopic, meta discussion, is annoying and disappointing.

      As an example, there is one topic on the front page (donā€™t want to link it), that was bumped by the biggest offtopic discussion Iā€™ve seen on Tildes so far. The discussion itself is not wrong, and is quite interesting, but itā€™s not about the post. The comment chain should IMO either be in itā€™s own topic, or not bump the topic up.

      11 votes
    35. Suggestion for users: avoiding excessive use of acronyms

      The internet slang is full of acronyms. Some are harmless and well known, such as "lol" or "IMHO", but others not so much. Tildes is explicit by design, with a preference for clear text labels...

      The internet slang is full of acronyms. Some are harmless and well known, such as "lol" or "IMHO", but others not so much. Tildes is explicit by design, with a preference for clear text labels instead of icons. In my opinion, that's a great design choice, and maybe we should take inspiration from that in our communications. On Reddit, it's common to find obscure acronyms. Some subs require glossaries to understand their particular lingo. Sometimes this is necessary, but, in excess, acronyms can be annoying and even excluding, especially for non-native speakers. Because there are situations in which the use of acronyms is required, I don't think there should be a rule on the matter. That's merely a suggestion. What you lovely Tilda Swintonsā„¢ think about it?

      22 votes
    36. How is Tildes doing?

      I haven't been around here in a few months. Glad there's still some presence. What are your thoughts on the site overall now?

      59 votes
    37. How can a broke dude who can barely code help Tildes?

      Right now I'm not only utterly broke, but also don't have access to international payment methods (you may ask the reasons for this, but I probably won't answer :P). But I wanna give back to...

      Right now I'm not only utterly broke, but also don't have access to international payment methods (you may ask the reasons for this, but I probably won't answer :P). But I wanna give back to Tildes somehow.

      I know enough English to communicate and have a general understanding of programming (with a focus on basic Python and very basic C) but never did anything beyond book and class exercises. I'm also familiar with Regex, Vim (including patterns) and Emacs.

      I also have some Inkscape skills (not a designer), and wouldn't mind working with documentation and other things actual developers usually find trivial or dull.

      20 votes
    38. Does anyone else feel the default theme is too bright?

      I opened Tildes unlogged in an anonymous window and felt the amount of amount of white to be excessive, even for a bright theme. This feels a bit overwhelming. What do you guys think? EDIT: I...

      I opened Tildes unlogged in an anonymous window and felt the amount of amount of white to be excessive, even for a bright theme. This feels a bit overwhelming. What do you guys think?

      EDIT: I changed my theme to Solarized Dark a long time ago, I'm asking because now that an account is not required to view the content a lot of people will get to know Tildes, so maybe the default theme could be improved

      22 votes
    39. Content control features (and is there a feature roadmap?)

      I am wondering if it is planned to provide the user with methods to control the content they see, ie; filtering the topics in a group or comments in a topic based on various criteria including...

      I am wondering if it is planned to provide the user with methods to control the content they see, ie; filtering the topics in a group or comments in a topic based on various criteria including keywords.
      I looked around to see if this has been asked, or if there was a roadmap document, but did not find anything. (this is no criticism, I do realize we are early in the dev cycle and I cannot image just one person being able to do all this!)

      I do hope so. No matter how high the quality of the topics/comments there will always be things a user may not want to see.

      5 votes
    40. Isn't the number of groups too restrictive?

      I know that tildes is still a small community (sub 9k) but I find the number of groups too restrictive. I am mainly a redditor so I am used to subscribing to many subs, most of which are not...

      I know that tildes is still a small community (sub 9k) but I find the number of groups too restrictive. I am mainly a redditor so I am used to subscribing to many subs, most of which are not "main" subs.

      For example, shouldn't there be a group for "countries", so one could post in countries.germany or countries.finland in the future? Also, how come there is no videos? I can understand the reasoning that a video is (almost) always about a given subject but where should I post, for example, a video of "ASMR"? Should it go to health? Should chess posts go to "games" or "sports"?

      I find this idea of groups a bit too comfusing, perhaps because I am used to subreddits..

      Maybe it is not a bad idea to create some kind of map, with an handy link in the site, so one knows in which group one should post a certain something.

      27 votes
    41. What's the userbase of Tildes like? (+ some misc. Tildes questions)

      Hi, I just joined an hour ago or so. So far so good, site seems a welcome change as opposed to other certain content aggregators. I'm just wondering what the userbase is like: what's your age...

      Hi, I just joined an hour ago or so.
      So far so good, site seems a welcome change as opposed to other certain content aggregators.

      I'm just wondering what the userbase is like: what's your age group(not too specific if you want), occupation(again, vague is okay), continent of origin and gender? What draws you to this website as opposed to other social media? Do you expect Tildes to gain traction and grow to become a worthy Reddit(or other aggregator) competitor/successor?
      Just to get a taste of the crowd and what kind of people we'll find here.

      I'm in my 20's, currently studying engineering and living in western Europe. Applied to this website following a comment I saw that described the Tildes system compared to Reddit; seemed like a nice change on the clickbaity and sometimes not as fun-content on that website. Hoping this ends up a good place for discussion / quality content / fun chats, and also hope it can help me detox from social media by purposefully using a less active site(for now, of course).

      Small note: while the site is closed right now, it might be opened up later, which means this post might be visible to the internet whole. Please keep your personal info in mind and only share what you want others(including crawlers/scrapers) to know.

      35 votes