Tildes – a non-profit community site(tildes.net)
tildes.net
Tildes – a non-profit community site
https://tildes.net/
76 comments
Thanks! Keeping the site minimal and fast is definitely one of my main goals, and I'm never going to add any third-party assets, advertising, or anything like that (for both speed and privacy reasons).
There's quite a bit more info about my approaches from a technical perspective here: https://docs.tildes.net/philosophy/site-implementation
There's quite a bit more info about my approaches from a technical perspective here: https://docs.tildes.net/philosophy/site-implementation
I only browse reddit on https://i.reddit.com for that reason. You can disable thumbnails and then the front page weighs less than 1MB.
umatrix says there is one site: tildes.net no subdomains, no cdns (which nowadays track instead of cache), no third party anything. refreshing.
Signed up and it looks great! Looking forward to seeing it grow.
The main reason I actually use Reddit is because there's a community for almost anything. I had a quick browse through the issues/roadmap but; do you have a plan to allow user-created groups or subgroups? For example, ~food is too general for bread-making and so reddit has communities like https://old.reddit.com/r/breadit, which is a great place to ask for baking advice specific to baking bread.
The main reason I actually use Reddit is because there's a community for almost anything. I had a quick browse through the issues/roadmap but; do you have a plan to allow user-created groups or subgroups? For example, ~food is too general for bread-making and so reddit has communities like https://old.reddit.com/r/breadit, which is a great place to ask for baking advice specific to baking bread.
Yes, that's definitely planned over the longer term, but the community is too small to support highly-specific groups for now. Various other "reddit clones" have made the mistake of allowing users to create communities immediately, and they ended up with thousands of inactive, abandoned ones.
Even reddit itself didn't support subreddit creation for over 3 years. It takes a long time to have a userbase large enough for it to work.
In the meantime, Tildes has a pretty flexible tagging system to help categorize topics, and tags can transition into formal groups quite nicely.
Even reddit itself didn't support subreddit creation for over 3 years. It takes a long time to have a userbase large enough for it to work.
In the meantime, Tildes has a pretty flexible tagging system to help categorize topics, and tags can transition into formal groups quite nicely.
(Tildes is my site)
The best explanation of the site's goals is probably still the original announcement blog post: https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes
Here's the discussion on HN at the time (note that the site was totally private at that time and you couldn't even view it without an invite yet): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17103093
Feel free to ask any questions, and if you're interested in an invite please just email the address in the blog post and I'll send you one soon. It's not intended to be difficult to get an invite, I just want to keep the growth controlled while a base site culture and more features get built up.
The best explanation of the site's goals is probably still the original announcement blog post: https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes
Here's the discussion on HN at the time (note that the site was totally private at that time and you couldn't even view it without an invite yet): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17103093
Feel free to ask any questions, and if you're interested in an invite please just email the address in the blog post and I'll send you one soon. It's not intended to be difficult to get an invite, I just want to keep the growth controlled while a base site culture and more features get built up.
As an avid Redditor I love this!
The company I work for, Coil, is specifically looking to enable sites like this have an alternative revenue model that is not based on ads[1]. If you have any questions you can reach out to me matt[at]companyurl
I would also suggest you check out https://www.grantfortheweb.org/
[1] https://coil.com/creator
The company I work for, Coil, is specifically looking to enable sites like this have an alternative revenue model that is not based on ads[1]. If you have any questions you can reach out to me matt[at]companyurl
I would also suggest you check out https://www.grantfortheweb.org/
[1] https://coil.com/creator
Wow. These links opened new doors I didn't know existed. I've been experimenting with sponsorship ads to fund my sites because I'm very against the current advertising model. However, Coil looks to be an interesting alternative to the ad model as a whole.
What tech stack you are using?
Ok found from ur link, sorry, here it is[0]
https://docs.tildes.net/philosophy/site-implementation#use-m...
https://docs.tildes.net/philosophy/site-implementation#use-m...
The post states you're supported by donations. How do you go about keeping the site up and financially healthy based on just donations?
It really doesn't take much when your goal is "sustainable". The site's actual expenses have always been more than covered from donations, and the current servers can probably easily handle at least 100x the traffic. The goal now is just bringing in enough to be able to pay myself a somewhat respectable salary.
Here's the current month's financials (this is linked from below the donation goal meter on the home page): https://tildes.net/financials
Here's the current month's financials (this is linked from below the donation goal meter on the home page): https://tildes.net/financials
Thank you for creating Tildes, and open sourcing it.
I was wondering if federation, like with GNU Social/Mastodon, was part of the overall roadmap. I.e., having two separate Tildes instances that can interact with each other.
EDIT: Ok, I see it isn't planned according to the discussion here: https://tildes.net/~tildes/c8p/how_would_federation_work_wit...
I was wondering if federation, like with GNU Social/Mastodon, was part of the overall roadmap. I.e., having two separate Tildes instances that can interact with each other.
EDIT: Ok, I see it isn't planned according to the discussion here: https://tildes.net/~tildes/c8p/how_would_federation_work_wit...
What's to stop this from falling into the same trap as always? They grow, user donations aren't enough to sustain them anymore so they have to look into alternative ways of getting money, users hate it, they start a spinoff that promises to be better, rinse and repeat.
That trap happens because of sites basing themselves on venture capital, advertising, and chasing growth/profit.
Tildes is a non-profit with no advertising or investors, so none of that pressure is there. There's no danger of donations not being enough to sustain it. The expenses are already far more than covered and it could easily stay running in its current state forever.
Tildes is a non-profit with no advertising or investors, so none of that pressure is there. There's no danger of donations not being enough to sustain it. The expenses are already far more than covered and it could easily stay running in its current state forever.
How do you know donations will keep up with usage? I felt like the OP was referring to a situation where Tildes takes off and becomes large organically.
I'm currently building a site that I am considering attempting to make possible via donations, much like Tildes. Any advice you can share? How well have donations been working? Any gotchas? Thanks for any insights you can share!
I'm currently building a site that I am considering attempting to make possible via donations, much like Tildes. Any advice you can share? How well have donations been working? Any gotchas? Thanks for any insights you can share!
Not OP but server costs are not that expensive in the grand scheme of things. A $5 DO droplet can easily sustain 500-1000 active users. If you were doing video or audio streaming I could see concerns, but at the core of it all the server is doing is reading and writing strings and that's not a very intensive process. A $200/mo server could handle millions of daily visits, and you'd likely not grow further than that without running into the actual wall: labor.
That's where things get dicey. You have to pay people, and ideally yourself, for the labor you invest into the project. As Tildes is a non profit it's already clear that the developer is building it out of love and not a desire to sustain his or her lifestyle. If the developer wanted a developer salary or enough income to hire another developer, though, I agree that donations wouldn't be adequate enough. That's when you turn to selling features (i.e. Reddit coins) or selling ads.
That's where things get dicey. You have to pay people, and ideally yourself, for the labor you invest into the project. As Tildes is a non profit it's already clear that the developer is building it out of love and not a desire to sustain his or her lifestyle. If the developer wanted a developer salary or enough income to hire another developer, though, I agree that donations wouldn't be adequate enough. That's when you turn to selling features (i.e. Reddit coins) or selling ads.
You can see the site's current expenses and donations here: https://tildes.net/financials
The costs to keep it running are already covered by over 10x with the current donations, and I believe the existing servers could easily handle at least 100x the current traffic level.
In terms of advice, I'd say:
- Don't go into debt (or take any investments) to launch the site.
- Build something lightweight so the costs are low. Use dedicated server(s), avoid cloud hosting like AWS.
- Incorporate as a non-profit if you can.
The costs to keep it running are already covered by over 10x with the current donations, and I believe the existing servers could easily handle at least 100x the current traffic level.
In terms of advice, I'd say:
- Don't go into debt (or take any investments) to launch the site.
- Build something lightweight so the costs are low. Use dedicated server(s), avoid cloud hosting like AWS.
- Incorporate as a non-profit if you can.
+1 for transparency of financials, that's a really awesome idea
You could throttle (or even drop) connections from non-donor users, calculated to just be enough keep a manageable load on the servers.
Then, if users don't like it, they can pay for it. But with the throttling it actually has a direct affect; they can immediately see an improvement, rather than just an abstract 'vote with your wallet', 'oh if everyone thought like that [why pay, SEP] there would be no server' payment.
Then, if users don't like it, they can pay for it. But with the throttling it actually has a direct affect; they can immediately see an improvement, rather than just an abstract 'vote with your wallet', 'oh if everyone thought like that [why pay, SEP] there would be no server' payment.
Starting a spinoff is encouraged - it's open source: https://gitlab.com/tildes/tildes
EDIT: All invites are now gone, sorry
I have 10 invites available, send an email to [email protected] for an invite code. Include your Hacker News username in the message so I can verify you.
EDIT: All invites are now gone, sorry
I have 10 invites available, send an email to [email protected] for an invite code. Include your Hacker News username in the message so I can verify you.
EDIT: All invites are now gone, sorry
Hm. This is rare (for me). Something i liked because at first glance nothing which is disturbing or annoying from a design point of view. Has usable themes even, with the exception of the solarized ones. Always wondered who the people are which would profit from that, or what displays?
Could maybe use some setting for different padding.
Edit: Different padding as in tiny/small/compact/cozy/comfortable/large/huge view like in some google apps?
Edit: Different padding as in tiny/small/compact/cozy/comfortable/large/huge view like in some google apps?
So is this kind of like HN but for everything? I’m digging it.
Reddit clone? I think HN was a redditclone too right?
To be fair, reddit was originally a usenet clone.
correct
Better Reddit is more like it.
This is great: fast, interesting content, comments, voting, but... I can't do anything until I get an invite.
Tedious.
This invite only model sucks an 18-metre radius dog anus. We've seen it far too many times before. It's really boring and overdone and needs to die. Seriously, just let us in.
And I know what you're thinking, "Wow, this comment is super-obnoxious and we don't want this kind of person in here", but check my karma: it's pretty good. You've just crossed a line.
The problem here is I'm getting old and one day I'm going to die and I only have so much breath left in my body, so I don't have the time or the patience for your infuriating invite only model.
Please: stop arsing around and open it up.
Tedious.
This invite only model sucks an 18-metre radius dog anus. We've seen it far too many times before. It's really boring and overdone and needs to die. Seriously, just let us in.
And I know what you're thinking, "Wow, this comment is super-obnoxious and we don't want this kind of person in here", but check my karma: it's pretty good. You've just crossed a line.
The problem here is I'm getting old and one day I'm going to die and I only have so much breath left in my body, so I don't have the time or the patience for your infuriating invite only model.
Please: stop arsing around and open it up.
I have no dog in this fight, but
(I'm sure that the response would be "the invite-only model merits being a jerk in response", but given the topic is community it feels like believing something that self-serving/self-perpetuating of malbehavior ought to be disqualifying.)
check my karma: it's pretty good. You've just crossed a line.
(I'm sure that the response would be "the invite-only model merits being a jerk in response", but given the topic is community it feels like believing something that self-serving/self-perpetuating of malbehavior ought to be disqualifying.)
Tildes is a heavily moderated community with strict guidelines. Right now it doesn't have the advanced moderation tools required to accommodate an unlimited number of people while still enforcing quality content and civil interactions.
Anyway, you haven't got an invite yet, send an email to [email protected] asking for invite code. Please include your Hacker News username in the message. We'll be happy to have you!
Anyway, you haven't got an invite yet, send an email to [email protected] asking for invite code. Please include your Hacker News username in the message. We'll be happy to have you!
Tildes is a nice community. We don't tolerate assholes. If deimorz lets you in, please do better than this comment.
This could also be described as being cliquish, or an echo chamber.
I've found Tildes to be welcoming to a wide variety of ideas, opinions and world views.
We're hostile to trolls, saboteurs, personal attacks, self-promotion and repeated empty or trivial junk comments.
If it's cliquish to discourage activity that makes social spaces miserable, then that's the kind of clique I'd like to belong to.
We're hostile to trolls, saboteurs, personal attacks, self-promotion and repeated empty or trivial junk comments.
If it's cliquish to discourage activity that makes social spaces miserable, then that's the kind of clique I'd like to belong to.
Personal attacks and derision of my point of view were what I experienced right before being called a troll and banned.
Its unfortunate that some social spaces are uncomfortable with divergent viewpoints.
Its unfortunate that some social spaces are uncomfortable with divergent viewpoints.
Sounds like Tildes is not the right community for you.
Exactly. Not as wide of a variety of ideas, opinions and world views as you make it out to be.
Or maybe it is wide, and your opinions are just really out there (or you really were in fact an asshole.).
If everyone keeps calling you out, it's possible the problem isn't with everyone. I'm not saying that's always the case, I'm just pointing out the odds aren't in your favour.
If everyone keeps calling you out, it's possible the problem isn't with everyone. I'm not saying that's always the case, I'm just pointing out the odds aren't in your favour.
Perhaps. But culling an invite-only community tends to result in an echo chamber.
I don't remember how many bans there have been on Tildes to date but it's either two or three, and they're always a big deal. So I don't know about your definition of "culling".
Culling means the removal of something with undesirable traits.
And when the mod locks an account without explanation, I'm sure that the community doesn't notice.
And when the mod locks an account without explanation, I'm sure that the community doesn't notice.
> Culling means the removal of something with undesirable traits.
You just defined "moderation". Just because you call it culling doesn't make it so. And your bad-faith approach in this thread makes me think if you were indeed banned from Tildes (which I'm starting to doubt), it was the right call.
Question yourself.
You just defined "moderation". Just because you call it culling doesn't make it so. And your bad-faith approach in this thread makes me think if you were indeed banned from Tildes (which I'm starting to doubt), it was the right call.
Question yourself.
I have 10 invites available, send an email to [email protected] for an invite code. Include your Hacker News username in the message so I can verify you.
This looks great! Can anyone sponsor an invite for me?
I would also be interested in an invite, this looks like the type of community I've been wanting.
I’d be very happy if someone could invite me aswell. This looks really promising.
[deleted]
there are several people asking for invites. pm me or reply here and I'll invite you (Until my ten invites run out). In roughly 7h because I'm going to sleep now.
In a recent census we realized we have very few non-tech people and women, so please help us even the scales by reaching out if you see this ;)
In a recent census we realized we have very few non-tech people and women, so please help us even the scales by reaching out if you see this ;)
Sadly I’m out of the edit window, so I’ll do it as a reply: If you don’t have any contact information in your profile, I really can’t send you an invite.
Hope it's not too late. Do you have one left for me?
I would also like an invitation.
This is how I felt when Gmail started.
This is how I felt when Gmail started.
I would love an invite, thanks.
I'd also like an invite!
I'd love an invite!
I would love an invite!
may I have one, if you still have some available?
May I have one?
How is it better than here?
(I like both at the moment.)
(I like both at the moment.)
I've been on Tildes since Early Days, same username, really like the features and development.
And I've got a few invites. Reply and ping via email (see my HN user page) if interested.
And I've got a few invites. Reply and ping via email (see my HN user page) if interested.
Any chance of an invite from an existing user? This post alone has me thrilled: https://tildes.net/~talk/l4d/you_must_time_travel_to_any_tim...
I can send you a code if you drop me a message. My email can be found in my profile.
Just email your request to [email protected]
Is this the official launch?
Tildes is great, glad it’s getting exposure here. It was interesting watching the community unfold on a subreddit before eventually migrating over to a hosted third party site.
Tildes is great, glad it’s getting exposure here. It was interesting watching the community unfold on a subreddit before eventually migrating over to a hosted third party site.
I discovered Tildes several months ago. I have no affiliation but I thought the HN crowd might appreciate it.
I like the approach the creator is taking with the site and is a great candidate for a Reddit-like community with more intelligent discourse.
I like the approach the creator is taking with the site and is a great candidate for a Reddit-like community with more intelligent discourse.
> Reddit-like community with more intelligent discourse
I feel like that's an unfair assertion. There is a lot of intelligent discourse on Reddit. There is also a lot of utter garbage on there, sure, but byte for byte, there aren't many websites with as much quality content as Reddit.
I feel like that's an unfair assertion. There is a lot of intelligent discourse on Reddit. There is also a lot of utter garbage on there, sure, but byte for byte, there aren't many websites with as much quality content as Reddit.
> a great candidate for a Reddit-like community with more intelligent discourse.
Except the mod makes no effort to explain policies like HN mods do, and will ban accounts without explanation or recourse. Very clannish, IMHO.
Except the mod makes no effort to explain policies like HN mods do, and will ban accounts without explanation or recourse. Very clannish, IMHO.
Top discussion currently is on Hitler.
No thanks, I'll give it a miss.
No thanks, I'll give it a miss.
Have you actually read it?
Stories about killing Hitler and saving millions of lives are a staple of science fiction, and an interesting way to reason about time travel.
I created that thread as a creative exercise for others to partake in good, light-hearted fun. Despite the subject, there were absolutely no cases of misbehavior. That's what you get when you're in a heavily moderated community that takes being nice to each other very seriously.
Stories about killing Hitler and saving millions of lives are a staple of science fiction, and an interesting way to reason about time travel.
I created that thread as a creative exercise for others to partake in good, light-hearted fun. Despite the subject, there were absolutely no cases of misbehavior. That's what you get when you're in a heavily moderated community that takes being nice to each other very seriously.
Yes, I did. 'Light-hearted fun' perhaps but it strikes me as in very poor taste as someone whose parents lived through the 1940s. Okay, you went there - to its logical conclusion in which your time adventures messing around with the past inadvertently sees the Axis win the war and the 1000 year reign commences as forseen. And nobody wants that.
'a heavily moderated community that takes being nice to each other very seriously' would describe this forum, for the most part. Thus my reluctance to join another community comprised somewhat of HN invitees merely to discuss topics HN might find taboo such as time travelling assassination of historical figures.
'a heavily moderated community that takes being nice to each other very seriously' would describe this forum, for the most part. Thus my reluctance to join another community comprised somewhat of HN invitees merely to discuss topics HN might find taboo such as time travelling assassination of historical figures.
I am truly sorry my thread offended you. I assure it was not my intention to provoke that reaction in anyone.
https://tildes.net/register?code=EPFF9-HWU9Z-4D5U6
https://tildes.net/register?code=B2M91-W6VD5-ABFG8
https://tildes.net/register?code=LGG9Q-26K5G-LU8RK
https://tildes.net/register?code=GBLXM-N3GPO-V4MN4
https://tildes.net/register?code=MWMSC-2970F-VPWYM
https://tildes.net/register?code=2LDQG-FJ1N2-SM8F0
https://tildes.net/register?code=GLF5C-JHMWP-MV4YH
https://tildes.net/register?code=9HBBF-WC5CC-LBJQX
https://tildes.net/register?code=ASYR8-V3KQJ-U96N7
https://tildes.net/register?code=B2M91-W6VD5-ABFG8
https://tildes.net/register?code=LGG9Q-26K5G-LU8RK
https://tildes.net/register?code=GBLXM-N3GPO-V4MN4
https://tildes.net/register?code=MWMSC-2970F-VPWYM
https://tildes.net/register?code=2LDQG-FJ1N2-SM8F0
https://tildes.net/register?code=GLF5C-JHMWP-MV4YH
https://tildes.net/register?code=9HBBF-WC5CC-LBJQX
https://tildes.net/register?code=ASYR8-V3KQJ-U96N7
To save anyone else the trouble of trying, all of these links have been used now and are no longer valid.
If you want an invite, you can just email me as explained in the announcement post: https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes
If you want an invite, you can just email me as explained in the announcement post: https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes
I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this and would love to get an invite!