If you could change one thing about saidit's code, what would it be?

submitted by magnora7 from self.AskSaidIt

D3rr and I have 68 pending items in our to-do list to build things for saidit. I'm trying to better prioritize what's most important to our users out of those 68, so I decided to make this post to hear what you all care about. Please tell us what you think the biggest bug or code-based annoyance on saidit is, or most important improvement that needs to be made, or new feature that needs released. What's the "big fish" of all the things we could improve?

I'm not asking about community stuff like removing certain users or certain subs, or changing the site rules of what's allowed. I'm only asking about improving the code of the site so it works better. Building new features and functionality.

What would be the #1 best improvement to saidit's code you can think of?

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[–]zyxzevn 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (11 children)

tags/ keywords? Like flairs in reddit, but more useful..

[–]macadoum 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Tags could be nice, yes.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

What functionality do you see tags adding that we don't already have? Since we can already search keywords, and things are organized in to subs.

[–]zyxzevn 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I thought of something like in imgur.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (6 children)

Steemit has metatags too, Twitter hashtags galore, as do a lot of sites.

Would it be effective and simpler just to add it manually to every post and/or comment?

(#example, #search, #topic, #improved, #maybe)

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

But for what purpose?

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Search results, organizing, context. Why bother with having subs at all? Some people clearly don't sort their posts, always in the same few. But if you look at some you see they are all on that topic. Many posts can fit under many topics simultaneously. Though less orderly than Wikipedia, lots of people use Reddit and SaidIt for research, as well as other sites, and keywords and tags help a lot.

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Search results, organizing, context.

Those are already solved by search and subs. I don't think we need redundant parallel systems for those things.

A multi-sub crossposting system is in the works. It sounds like that's what you actually want.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I just hope for better search tools. Whether it's user or code driven, via subs or search, or whatever. Even if SaidIt had the best organization in the world, it would still be worth striving to make it better.

Crossposting gives me tingles every time you say it. Same with decentralizing.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yeah the search tools are okay, but the package they're built in is outdated. Honestly, for intense or specific searching, I recommend using google or duckduckgo with "site:saidit.net" added as a search term to limit the search just to saidit. This has always been the recommended method with reddit, so even though our search is mildly improved, it's still not as good as actual search engines and probably never will be.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thanks for the search tip. Would be good for the FAQ.

Maybe I was doing it wrong before. A year or more ago it seemed like DDG didn't know SaidIt existed. Then I could search it wonderfully for a while (maybe I was doing it differently). Then I couldn't again, like they dropped it. That "site:" might be the trick I forgot that I forgot. Might be neat to embed a second and/or third search with a G and DDG icon that automatically prefixes the search - or add it to the drop down advanced options.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

That's my #2.

[–]useless_aether 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

improve the title-fetch functionality so it works with more sites (twitter and bitchute are problematic) and even maybe make it so it does it automatically,

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

and even maybe make it so it does it automatically

Good news! I just finished implementing this feature for you guys.

Now when you paste in a URL for a post, and then click out of the URL field, it will auto-fill in a title if there's nothing there. If there is something already in the title box, then you can hit "suggest title" to make a new title, like usual.

So now it's automatic! I'm going to try and improve the actual fetching functionality now.

[–]useless_aether 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

wow! the quickness!

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Thanks for the suggestion. Of course the top-voted thing is something that's not even on the to-do list yet... haha.

I agree the title fetching can sometimes be spotty. I'll look in to improving it.

[–]useless_aether 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Of course the top-voted thing is something that's not even on the to-do list yet

:-))

[–]magnora7[S] 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

I wish we had an iOS app, that'd be my 1 thing as far as frontend stuff.

Maybe someday we'll find someone to help us port an open source iOS reddit app like "Beam" to saidit.

[–]mikipika 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Hmmmm. Youtube has screwed some people. So I pass up clicking on a link to them. If it looks really interesting, I'll bypass the link using invidio. Will it be possible to integrate that into the saidit platform? A setting or option to play any video link via a preferred site like vimeo, invdio, etc. if the user happens to post a youtube link? Apologies to all you savy code people, I don't speak the language.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

A setting or option to play any video link via a preferred site like vimeo, invdio, etc. if the user happens to post a youtube link?

It's possible, but difficult. It can be hard for software to tell if 2 videos are "the same video" unless they're completely identical, and even then it might be hard because the different sites might have different ways of compressing the video so even with the same video you'll get slightly different outputs.

It's a cool idea! Just not sure if it's actually doable because of how hard it is to find "the same video" with software, but it might be doable nowadays. They're certainly able to detect replications of videos on youtube for takedowns... so I guess you could probably use the same video comparison software...

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I like that, if it's what I think you mean...

Tagging a video with alternative options to the same video mirrored elsewhere.

Would need to be troll proofed. Maybe limited to friends? Maybe a auto-hash-comparison + time length comparison?

[–]realister 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

better mobile support

[–]go1dfish 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

https://saidit.net/.compact

[–]JasonCarswell 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There are 3 mobile modes: https://infogalactic.com/info/SaidIt#Mobile_modes

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Thanks. In what way exactly? The website looks pretty good on a mobile web browser, and we have an android app

[–]realister 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

like mobile notifications for trending posts and replies etc like the new reddit does or at least something similar to that.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (6 children)

How about a quick profile or personal bio section for users in their accounts, where people can write stuff about themselves to let the community know.

Like a quick description box in the user profile section. Its a small feature and doesn't need to be on top of the list.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

A vanity page or blurb that shows up on your user profile is not a bad idea. I like user avatars too.

You can already do something kinda like that now, if you really want, but it's out of the way.

At the bottom of this wiki page: https://saidit.net/wiki/index you can see "User's Wiki Pages" where I have one: https://saidit.net/s/SaidIt/wiki/jasoncarswell that I haven't touched in about 6 months, for reasons.

Anyone on SaidIt could make their own if they wanted.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Nice!

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

What's the point of having a profile section if you're just going to delete your account every time you post something? :P

We do have /s/introductions but I'll think about it

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

How about a time limit duration in between account creations from similar IP's in order to clamp down on suspicious behavior. Like 5 or 6 hours? or 24 hours? Whatever works best.

Accounts can still be deleted and IP's can be shifted via VPN, but back to back account creations should be discouraged at least a little, if you think it best.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

How about a time limit duration in between account creations from similar IP's in order to clamp down on suspicious behavior.

Not a bad idea. I think you might underestimate the percentage of people who would use VPNs while doing this.

Also we did add a captcha to the registration process a few months ago, that cut down on extraneous accounts quite a bit. I'll think about the per-IP registration limiting, maybe we can figure out an easy way to do it.

[–]go1dfish 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

This is three changes, but I think it covers the main blockers to making direct federation with the saidit codebase possible:

  • Collision proof content identifiers (Content based hashes or maybe just UUIDs) and/or allow api to specify I’d at content creation
  • Lightweight topic/sub initialization (possibly in parallel to existing subs)
  • Global changelog feed indexed by date recording votes, deletions etc... ideally using Server-Sent-Events with date based identifiers and Last-Event-ID support

That last one alone would be useful for keeping vote counts up to date with the existing mirroring to nab.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

By federizing (sp?) several things could happen. The sooner it happens, the sooner their potential of happening.
* Broader user base and broader code support.
* Greater chance for asstrolls to fork off.
* Less DDoS attacks aimed at asstrolls.
* More decentralization = greater resilience to the powers that be.

Lemme know if I'm in error.

[–]mikipika 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

To be honest, I love the site as it is. The highlighted bar when reading the comment threads makes it so easy to collapse the one I finished reading, making it easier to follow the rest. The insightful / fun choice of buttons is positive and makes me feel better at the end of a saidit-session rather than down like the other place. The tabs, the ability to see replies and to chat. I love it here!

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thank you, that's very nice to hear :)

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

How about a preview button for posts so that we can see what our content would look like before posting?

[–]happysmash27 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

The app could use a re-merging of some of the new features of RedReader, as well as a separate fun and insightful bar. I think if I could only change one thing, it would be the latter.

[–]One_Jack_Move 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Maybe I'm missing this, but I'd like to be able to see a list of posts where I voted Insightful and/or Fun.

I can see this on reddit from my userpage.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Hmm... perhaps a parental control feature to ban certain words pertaining to racism or vulgar comments? This isn't to ban freedoms, but there can be two dimensions of saidit. A logical fact-based discussion side and a nasty, insulting side filled with expletives. Of-course calls for violence should still be forbidden site-wide. And users can be in control of what type of content can be blocked or not.

Might be something cutting edge, if it could be worked out.

[–]Penelope 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Don't you already live in enough of an information bubble? On one hand you're talking about filtering vulgar speech, on the other you're talking about filtering ideas. Many fact based discussions can end in shit talking at some point anyway, so separating that would be hard.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Good point! I'm just brainstorming but you could have a filter that replaces vulgar or negative words with harmless variations of it. In this way, ideas don't have to get filtered.

Edit: Of-course, there are ways around everything. But in so far as developing features, something like that could be tested and perfected over time. May even help with keeping this place more civilized?

[–]Tom_Bombadil 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

The search functionality could be improved.

Also, possibly a search function for searching within one's own submission history, or comment history.

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I like your suggestion. Improving search can be very difficult though. You can search your (or anyone's) submission history by doing the following search:

author:magnora7 rothschild

This will show everything using the word 'rothschild' ever posted by me, for example.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Neat tricks like that would be worth adding to the FAQ.

[–]macadoum 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I think my idea to get an expando button to preview comments from the list is pretty good. What do others think about this ?

[–]useless_aether 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

yes

[–]sproketboy 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

I would change it to brainfuck.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I couldn't chose just one, so I'm promoting the concept of ranked choice voting (if not the first then the second, etc):

1) decentralizing with go1dfish

2) crossposting to multisubs and/or applying metatags
- allow modifications after posting
- allow your friends to tag your stuff

3) site-wide notifications
- in a little section above or below the submit buttons
- curated by admins
- maybe with a dedicated sub to discuss suggestions

4) flag/mark and/or read/unread
- to help better sort out where you've been and where you want to come back to
- could be similar to metatags

5) improved search and/or improved navigation
- more options than going back through history of pages one page at a time looking for something months ago is impossible

See also: /s/IdeasForSaidIt/wiki/feature_ideas

[–]bobbobbybob 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

be able to mute users/ subs easily.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

I shall mute you first!

[–]bobbobbybob 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

currently, u have to wait until i reply. But now you are [deleted] so no muting possible.

loser :D

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

sub muting works great, it's under every single post on the website, but we are working on user muting

[–]Chipit 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Being able to add comments about users. Too many names out there. RES lets you do this.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

https://saidit.net/wiki/index#wiki_web :

Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES) : builds, git source (official)
WARNING: stomps your RES for Reddit settings

I think they incorporated some/much of it directly into the SaidIt code.

[–]Chipit 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yeah, but I can't make notes about users, and I can in RES.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Did you install the SaidIt RES?

[–]DragonLover 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Sometimes there are just a few posts that I don't enjoy as much as the other posts. And because there's no way of marking those posts as "read" or "hide" or "not wanted" or "don't display this post", they keep coming up when I visit Saidit, which makes it difficult to enjoy the platform as a whole.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

in the find popular subs i wouldnt mind seeing a how many users here now amount next to them. and a way to place more active subs at the top.