
Tildes – a non-profit community site - nbrempel
https://tildes.net/
======
jagger27
What struck me immediately was how fast this site loaded. No font popping, no
cookie waivers, no newsletter nagging, no huge images, no JavaScript fade-in,
no scrolljacking, no signup wall. Funny how practical it is to make a
functional forum and news aggregator that Just Works.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this and would love to get an invite!

~~~
Deimorz
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](https://docs.tildes.net/philosophy/site-implementation)

------
chrysoprace
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](https://old.reddit.com/r/breadit), which is
a great place to ask for baking advice specific to baking bread.

~~~
Deimorz
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.

------
Deimorz
(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](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](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.

~~~
matdehaast
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/](https://www.grantfortheweb.org/)

[1] [https://coil.com/creator](https://coil.com/creator)

~~~
hmhrex
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.

------
astrea
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.

~~~
Deimorz
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.

~~~
city41
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!

~~~
Deimorz
You can see the site's current expenses and donations here:
[https://tildes.net/financials](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.

~~~
stevewodil
+1 for transparency of financials, that's a really awesome idea

------
stevewodil
EDIT: All invites are now gone, sorry

I have 10 invites available, send an email to stevewodil@gmail.com for an
invite code. Include your Hacker News username in the message so I can verify
you.

EDIT: All invites are now gone, sorry

------
LargoLasskhyfv
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?

------
mrzool
So is this kind of like HN but for everything? I’m digging it.

~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
Reddit clone? I think HN was a redditclone too right?

~~~
earenndil
To be fair, reddit was originally a usenet clone.

------
bartread
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.

~~~
panarky
Tildes is a nice community. We don't tolerate assholes. If deimorz lets you
in, please do better than this comment.

~~~
Fjolsvith
This could also be described as being cliquish, or an echo chamber.

~~~
panarky
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.

~~~
Fjolsvith
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.

~~~
panarky
Sounds like Tildes is not the right community for you.

~~~
Fjolsvith
Exactly. Not as wide of a variety of ideas, opinions and world views as you
make it out to be.

~~~
scrollaway
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.

~~~
Fjolsvith
Perhaps. But culling an invite-only community tends to result in an echo
chamber.

~~~
scrollaway
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".

~~~
Fjolsvith
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.

~~~
scrollaway
> _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.

------
kidfiji
By any chance does anyone else have an extra invite?

~~~
byproxy
Yep. Dunno the best way to send it out, though.

------
bananamerica
I have 10 invites available, send an email to mrbig033@protonmail.com for an
invite code. Include your Hacker News username in the message so I can verify
you.

------
johnnyAghands
This looks great! Can anyone sponsor an invite for me?

~~~
raptorraver
I’d be very happy if someone could invite me aswell. This looks really
promising.

------
Semaphor
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 ;)

~~~
Semaphor
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.

------
aabbcc1241
How is it better than here?

(I like both at the moment.)

------
dredmorbius
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.

------
rglover
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...](https://tildes.net/~talk/l4d/you_must_time_travel_to_any_time_before_1799_and_never_come_back_where_do_you_go)

~~~
squiguy7
I can send you a code if you drop me a message. My email can be found in my
profile.

------
chrisfrantz
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.

------
nbrempel
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.

~~~
elric
> 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.

------
petecox
Top discussion currently is on Hitler.

No thanks, I'll give it a miss.

~~~
bananamerica
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.

~~~
petecox
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.

~~~
bananamerica
I am truly sorry my thread offended you. I assure it was not my intention to
provoke that reaction in anyone.

------
_fs
[https://tildes.net/register?code=EPFF9-HWU9Z-4D5U6](https://tildes.net/register?code=EPFF9-HWU9Z-4D5U6)

[https://tildes.net/register?code=B2M91-W6VD5-ABFG8](https://tildes.net/register?code=B2M91-W6VD5-ABFG8)

[https://tildes.net/register?code=LGG9Q-26K5G-LU8RK](https://tildes.net/register?code=LGG9Q-26K5G-LU8RK)

[https://tildes.net/register?code=GBLXM-N3GPO-V4MN4](https://tildes.net/register?code=GBLXM-N3GPO-V4MN4)

[https://tildes.net/register?code=MWMSC-2970F-VPWYM](https://tildes.net/register?code=MWMSC-2970F-VPWYM)

[https://tildes.net/register?code=2LDQG-
FJ1N2-SM8F0](https://tildes.net/register?code=2LDQG-FJ1N2-SM8F0)

[https://tildes.net/register?code=GLF5C-JHMWP-
MV4YH](https://tildes.net/register?code=GLF5C-JHMWP-MV4YH)

[https://tildes.net/register?code=9HBBF-WC5CC-
LBJQX](https://tildes.net/register?code=9HBBF-WC5CC-LBJQX)

[https://tildes.net/register?code=ASYR8-V3KQJ-U96N7](https://tildes.net/register?code=ASYR8-V3KQJ-U96N7)

~~~
Deimorz
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](https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes)

