

Slinkset (YC summer 08) downplays custom reddits, announces anonymous functionality - jmorin007
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/09/04/slinkset-downplays-custom-reddits-announces-anonymous-functionality

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ncbutters
Hey all, so "anonymous" is only days away (possibly this Monday). We're not
planning on releasing the feature to the general public until the 16th. But if
you'd like to be one the "special" users to test it out early please email us
and we'll set you up. Thanks.

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ph0rque
As I wrote in the feature requests slinkset, I really need the opposite
functionality: for all links/comments to be viewable by everyone, but editable
only by invited users. The lack of this functionality is really limiting the
userbase growth of one of my slinkset sites.

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ncbutters
You can set your site to "Editorial" mode which can be found on the "Settings"
tab and then go to the "Users" tab and set the users that you want as
"Editors". So the only thing missing is having it so other users don't have
the ability to comment or vote?

Out of curiosity what is the reason for allowing users to view but not
participate in any way?

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ph0rque
> So the only thing missing is having it so other users don't have the ability
> to comment or vote?

Exactly.

>Out of curiosity what is the reason for allowing users to view but not
participate in any way?

Certain subcultures on the internet have very... interesting troll types, and
what we're doing on one of the sites is essentially starting over on a forum
that's been tainted by some of these trolls. Thus the lockdown on any write-
participation. On the other hand, we want to be transparent about what we
discuss, and attract the members in the community who are _not_ the trolls.
(We are envisioning a registration process where new users tell about their
names IRL to discourage trollish behavior.) Thus the read-only availability to
anyone who comes by. Does that make sense?

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ncbutters
Yes, having the problem with trolls is obviously understood, this is why we
give you the admin the ability to "ban" a user, kill comments/submissions, as
well as set any other user as an admin to police the system as well. Granted
this could be time consuming for some, which is where I can see your use-case
coming into play (which we will look into).

My only other question is, if "good users" are coming to your site but now
have no way of participating (commenting/submitting/voting), how are they able
to prove themselves and get an "invite" to participate?

~~~
ph0rque
We plan to include a link to a submission form (similar to this:
<http://www.emailmeform.com>) in the sidebar.

~~~
ncbutters
Cool. We'll look into it.

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jmorin007
Congrats to Slinkset...this new functionality makes the service even more
versatile than it was before. Very nice work guys!

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ericwaller
This approach (both tech and social aspects) has huge potential if done well.
It's the pragmatic approach to the problem openID and the like are trying to
solve -- just forget about authentication all together.

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briansmith
I disagree with the Slinkset guy about reddit just a destination site. This
year, reddit has rolled out features that let you (1) create your own reddits,
(2) theme them, and (3) publish them on your own domain. Those features are a
clear indication that reddit doesn't want to be just a destination site. The
next logical step for reddit is advertising revenue sharing.

