Last week I decided to try something new, and I made all active forums defaults. Doing so meant that their content will be displayed on the front page to logged out users, guests and visitors of the site. This was suggested to me by a community member and I, being relatively open to suggestions, put it into action to see how it went. The perceived activity of the site increased, from the front page being populated with articles and submissions that were mostly my own on topics I find interesting to being populated with content from 4 or 5 individuals. It looked busier, but the content started to isolate some of the other readers.

Speech others find vile has a home here, even if I personally don’t agree with it. Things that I consider human rights like the right to privacy and freedom of expression aren’t limited to just people I want to share a beer with. It’s expected for all, and that is why this place exists. I’ve laughed at some of the things posted here and said, “What the fuck?” under my breath at other things.

With that said, I’m open to once again re-adjusting the front page default forums. No content is being removed, I’m just trying to find a good balance of letting people know, “Hey, we support free speech here” while also not scaring off the folks who want to use the site for privacy, tech and other related content too. This site isn’t advertised or promoted as a political site or promoted as an alternative to sites that may no longer exist. Ramble started as a proof of concept of a reddit-like site that is accessible from Tor, I2P, Yggdrasil and Lokinet networks (and the clearnet) with an emphasis on speech and privacy. That’s not changing.

And yes, I know this conveniently is brought up after MSN and other large sites like ZDNet linked to RAMBLE directly but I had discussed curating the front page prior to that on IRC2P #saltr channel and a couple members could chime in and confirm that.

So, what are your thoughts? I'm open to democratic and civil discussion. The end goal is to do what this thread is titled. Strike a balance.

This site is called, "ramble". Now is a good time to ramble on and state your opinion.

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Wahaha wrote on February 20, 2021 at 9:24 PM (edited on February 20, 2021 at 9:25 PM)

Maybe something like each forum only can have a few of their posts per day appear on the front page? So even if someone creates 100 posts in A, forums B, C, D, E and F with about five posts per day would still be visible.

I'm mostly looking at https://ramble.pw/all/new so I don't care too much either way, other than being interested in optimizing the front page to attract more users.

And as a new user, it would probably be nice to easily see all the forums with some activity instead of just the most active ones. But even then, should there be a point where 5000 forums are active, you again will have a hard time figuring things out.

But for now that's my idea at balancing.

Maybe the front page should even show the few posts from each forum at random. So each time you reload the front page, you get something different, if there are enough posts in the pool. Prevents gaming the front page, too. At least to a degree.

Rambler OP wrote on February 21, 2021 at 12:28 AM

Weird. Some folks were very vocal on both sides of the coin in private. Not so much in public.

Today the front page looks fine to me. Sometimes it gets a bit vile.

I think the solution moving forward is proper tagging of posts with [NSFW] which I can add to submission titles if users don't do it themselves. If any particular default forum is too heavily NSFW it may be removed as a default forum simply for the fact that newcomers to the site don't always want to be met with that, but they're free to seek it out or post it themselves.

spc50 wrote on February 21, 2021 at 9:44 PM (edited on February 21, 2021 at 9:45 PM)

There is a need for free speech.

1st Amendment protection in the States is followed by 2nd that says I have a weapon to force back when you take my right.

Note, the founders didn't put speech first and the gun right tenth.

That said, lots of stuff I am not fond of. Lots of content that doesn't interest me.

All that content if lawful (and very little isn't) has right to exist, especially on an open platform.

Moderating or curating the front side main view --- that typically is popularity based. I'd stick to that approach. Whatever people are upvoting and active commenting on rises to front.

If long term that is NSFW content and "hate" speech then might need to reconsider the approach.

Front page placement should be the best of. Nothing wrong with decent researched, breaking content, funny stuff, original content, etc. Just don't want NSFW, CP, gore, and overt ignorant hate stuff up front.

Hate speech I mean in truest form. Advocating harm to people because of their anything --- isn't good. Labeling whole race un-salvageable cause of pigment or origin, yeah, that's hate speech or at least on the fringe of it.

Toxicant wrote on February 21, 2021 at 5:23 PM

while I do support speaking your mind you do have to be careful tolerating the intolerant or the next thing you know you are the new daily stormer.

not_bob wrote on February 23, 2021 at 7:53 PM

I was one of the ones to contact you directly via #saltr. My main focus is on growing the i2p network. I run an i2p site tracker that provides nearly real time status of any i2p website. http://notbob.i2p

This puts me in a similar situation as you. Being forced to say "Yeah, no" from time to time. IE, ground rules.

What I've done is to outright ban anything that involves the exploitation of real children. Then, I put a warning on things that I would think the community as a whole would find offensive. But, that's all it is. A warning. I still provide the keys to get to those sites. It's more of a "Do you really want this?" And, if the person does. Whatever. Not my worry.

And this is where the problem lies, and why I contacted Rambler. I'm an active user on ramble. I enjoy some of the content here. But, there is some that I'd simply rather not see. I don't care if it's here. I just don't want to have to look at it. Neither do new i2p users who are looking for cool stuff to find on the network.

One day I loaded ramble.i2p and my session had expired. I saw things that made me tempted to put the warning tag on ramble.i2p. I didn't Instead I contacted Ramble directly.

Apparently I was not the only one.

I had suggested a more curated approach to what appears on the front page. Note, I am not saying limit free speech. I'm just saying limit what the entry experience is. The first page really matters to new users.

There was discussion in this post about a NSFW tag. I think that would work nicely. With the only real effect of the tag is it preventing said items from appearing on the front page.

Wahaha suggested a few posts from each forum at random. I like that idea. This prevents any one group from taking up the entire front page.

In the end, a mix of the two would likely be the best solution.

It's a hard call. It really is.

Rambler OP wrote on February 24, 2021 at 2:58 AM

Unfortunately there is little I can do in terms of modifying the code. I'm not a developer so custom development to the software is beyond the scope of what I can offer as a solution.

Best I can do is manual tagging of NSFW content that makes it to the front page. Though lately I've not really seen much content that is that concerning on the front page.