As we continue to work our hardest to make Similar Worlds as compatible and user-friendly for everyone, for those who do not wish to Categorize or Type-Label their posts before publishing, we have now added a feature which allows you to SKIP Labelling & Categorization (Step 1 & 2) during the post creation process.
1) Create New Post - https://similarworlds.com/post
2) IF you do not want to correctly organize where your post should be, you are free to use the [Skip Categorization]button, to "1-Click Skip" Steps 1 & 2.
3) You simply carry on with the creation of your post, as usual: Title + Content(+ Audience) ... [Post]
Your post will be Categorized as: "Uncategorized" [Random]
Do note however, that it is not only beneficial for the community as a whole, that posts be correctly labeled (so that users can find they are interested in, from the Groups/Categories they are subscribed to).
It will also benefit you, the poster, to have categorized posts, since once our improved post feed relevance goes into effect, users will see more of the posts they are actually interested in, and subscribed to, and less posts from unsubscribed groups and unfamiliar users.
Here is a chart showing the percentages % in relation to Total Posts, Private Posts, Uncategorized Posts, and Posts in the "Random" category.
On the 27th, we released the Uncategorized option. It is averaging less than 20% of total posts.
We want to thank everyone who is choosing a category for their posts, as that helps the whole community finding relevant posts for their interests, as well as being able to Mute specific topics (without having to block actual users), and helps in reducing fragmentation.
@MagnifiqueGirl what about giving us the option to put a category as favorites like select 4 to reduce the amount of clicks to get to ones you post in more ?
Actually, we made a change recently so that when you click/tap on the "type to search" field, it automatically opens a list of your Top Groups (where you posted the most recently).
@Nuno I want to say that I haven't forgotten about replying to this, but it is taking time as it is turning into a quite a long one. Since you say that you are listening and as such interested is in feedback then I want to make sure that my reply is proper and thorough. I hope you'll take the time to read and mull over that reply when it arrives even if it will be long. Naturally we won't agree on everything but I'm hoping you as admins and those of us who are strongly dissatisfied with the update will to some degree see more eye-to-eye. So it will take some time before it is there and it won't be today, but I am genuinely interested in a constructive dialogue even if I at times show quite the frustration with these things.
However, I want to clear up some things straight away.
@Nuno You keep coming with those points about "this all being done because of advertisers".
I have generally tried to take care about how I word it in my replies about that. Been trying to ensure it comes of stated as a possible avenue (i.e. saying that it feels like an advertising-centric change), as opposed to claiming straight up that "this is why they are doing it". Although if I've made a mistake in how I've worded some of the replies in which I've mentioned that I'll happily own up to that.
However, I will say that in the reply I made earlier in this very thread I did accidentally use punctuation instead of a question mark. It was never intended to be a direct claim but rather despite the incorrect use of symbol to end the line it is still worded as a question.
Part of what I'm getting at (and will touch more upon when I make my proper reply) is that this is about the impression you give. I know you've said it is because you want to grow the site, I know you've never said it is for advertising. However, for a fair bunch of us there are things in both the way you explain things - and for that matter in details left out - that makes it feel like it doesn't add up. And in looking for potential explanations, increasing the successful hit rate of advertisements and ensuring content remained more advertiser-friendly seemed like one of the natural potential reasons.
I'm not saying the entire update is just wrong. There were things that I'd say are improvements, and I do absolutely agree that there needed to be changes to the way groups were organised. In fact, theoretically, adding categories/topics in itself is useful. Unfortunately the path you chose, the implementation you went for, conflicts with use cases for enough of a subset of the old guard and long time members here that some see it as an overall user-unfriendly update (at least for existing users).
You can never appease absolutely everyone, but as they say: there is more than one way to skin a cat. And I honestly think you could have achieved both your outwardly stated goals and still appeased more of the existing userbase than you did.
Anyway, this is long enough already. I'll get back to you with a more full reply once I get my thoughts gathered and my concentration has lasted long enough for me to put it in words proper.
I feel like it would make a lot more sense to just make setting up a post easier by removing the 'moods' feature & having people choose what topics they wanna see instead. This kinda seems like undermining the 'groups' feature. But I understand you're in kinda an impossible position and you can't possibly please everyone lol.
SW-User
Nice, I'm glad you payed attention to the community and simplified it.
SW-User
@SW-User I like that about SW; they try to accommodate what we want here.
@Andrew Thank you, that's all I need. I believe most people just pic some groups/categories when signing up and frankly, I don't want to go picking 100's of groups/categories to follow my friends.
That's a nice way to get around this but personally I have no trouble with the new layout. I miss groups but I guess nothing ever stays the same for so long.
Let me get this right... You spent several years working on a Topic Tree, covering almost any topic one can possibly think of, just for 90% of the community to post in Uncategorized?
@Andrew I honestly think at this point, considering the type of forum SW has become, the action that makes most sense is simply to remove both groups and categories. We already have Post Types, and they are often good indicators. We have titles too. We don't really need more than that. The way most people use SW, is to write quick posts about miscellaneous topics. I know you want to try to seperate things like creative writing from politics, but how many people really look in the categories? Most people just scroll the main page, and ignore the stuff they aren't into. It should just be one forum, because there is very little to divide.
@Sheer The more I think about this update, the more this feels like an advertising-motivated move. Now that they moderate the topics they can feed more targeted data to advertisers who in turn can feed more targeted ads to us.
It is a nice update but the option to link the post to a specific group should not be removed. There are times when posts do not fit in the categories available. Thank you!🙂
@SoLeRiMix many of the old groups are slowly being rolled out, as we consolidate (combine) the many fragmented groups on the same topics, together as one.
Often times, there are +1000 groups on the same narrow topic, which fragments users and interests, so the consolidation of groups was very important.
I prefer to categorize my posts, but I'm sure this shortcut will be welcome to many.
Just to clarify though:
since once our improved post feed relevance goes into effect, users will see more of the posts they are actually interested in, and subscribed to, and less posts from unsubscribed groups and unfamiliar users.
Will this only affect the groups feed? I like how the following and new feeds show everything and would prefer it to stay that way.
@Andrew Although on second thought, I'm a bit worried the advanced sorting could put posts I've seen before above those I haven't seen, making it difficult to determine how far to scroll down to make sure I'm up to date. That could make me miss something the algorithm doesn't deem important but is something I'd like to see or the author wants me to see.
The advantages sound great and I'm more than willing to give this a chance, even if it replaces the current version entirely. But if it turns out there are significant downsides, would you consider offering an option to switch all feeds between intelligent ordering/filtering and purely chronologically including everything we haven't muted/blocked?
@NerdyPotato there will be some filters and customization options available for users, yes. So that they can tweak these various factors to have a feed that is more suitable for them.
Regarding seeing the same post more than once, yup, this is something we have been aware of, and already have plans in place, to avoid/reduce this from happening.
That indeed would be an essential feature, once we change the feed from purely chronological, otherwise those "Old posts" could remain stuck at the top of the feed for a long time, which wouldn't be a good thing.
(It crossed my mind to mention that also here, but I didn't want to ramble on too much and make my response too complex. 🙂)
@Andrew That leaves a few questions still: Will there be an additional "simple"/"unfiltered" feed? Alternatively, you mention some filter/customization options... will these be good enough to effectively opt-out of this relevance sorting?
And if we get a "simple" feed, can we make this the default feed?
What I mean by "simple"/"unfiltered" feed is a feed that shows all posts from all categories in chronological order, without any kind of sorting beyond that. More or less what the feed is right now. Some of us much prefer that.
Now that Group Consolidation has finally begun to roll out (which was also a major priority since years ago), we can now again, renew our focus on SW Games soon, over the coming weeks and months.
I appreciate the categorization. I liked being able to post into groups that were relevant to the topic/content of my post. Categorization helps that, but I still find it difficult to find relevant content here. If posts can be Uncategorized, I think it will make it harder to find any content that's worth reading, but I'm glad I can at least not subscribe to that category.
@NerdyPotato OK, I’ll believe you. I joined maybe two or three months later. Private messages, sub-comments and blocking were certainly in force when I joined (I spent a considerable time refusing to block people until I learned better). Subsequent changes I am aware of have been either neutral or negative so far as I am concerned, but of course different people have different priorities and opinions.
That’s a cool feature, although I’m happy using categories in all my posts. Thank you and your team for your continued efforts to make this site more structured and user friendly. 😊
But because I am who I am, and you guys are who you are, I must propose that @JohnOinger get his own group, since he is the hardest working man in the business. Maybe something like....I Think JohnnyO Is Amazing. Make it happen.
@adorbz, yes. Those subscribed to "Uncategorized" will see the posts being published to that group, in their feeds, just as any other Category/Group they are subscribed to.
Dear admins, your recent post is always on top of every other post, which is a nice feature. How do I enable that feature for my posts? Thank you very much, H.–
Thank you for your hard work Andrew and Nuno. I appreciate it very much. That’s way too many irrelevant categories or groups. I think you need to forget about EP and all it’s groups. Way too complicated. You need to keep it SIMPLE! That’s what people like. SIMPLE! Much easier on you guys too. You need a few basic groups and then let them pic one and then create their own categories in that particular group. It’ll be all consolidated in the one group. But they can create their own.
SW-User
That’s what I always liked a lot more about EP than here I like only seeing post in groups and categories I’m interested in
I'd be really curious if there are SW users who would be happy to categorize the uncategorized ones for SW coins. SW could even make a bit of a social game out of it, with a challenge each day to reduce it to zero and having vote for best/worst categorized posts
@plungesponge This is one of those ideas that sounds nice on paper, but is bound to piss people off. Someones is gonna end up having their post moved to a category they feel is wrong for their post, moved to a category they abhor, or the poster actually wanted it in "uncategorized" and it is being forced out.
And then there are those users who get a kick out of deliberately messing it up for others.
Well I see that as a very positive change, if you're no longer obliging contributors to jump through creativity-stifling hoops when they just want to post up some little anecdote of no huge consequence, and not a really specific interest group, just mildly amusing. It's quite off-putting trying to make a light observation fit into a category, and have a title, and that title must have more than a certain number of words. Anything that makes things more accessible
Hi Andrew, I used to love on EP the fact that we could put our nationality(-ies) on our profile. I remember the Countries flags and the comment "Half American, 1/4 Finnish and so on"... Any chance a similar feature will be added here on SW? Thanks 😊
@JoeyFoxx we have no problem with creating "silly groups", however, we would like those that are created, to either be:
- Universally Usable or - Associated with many other old groups, which we can consolidate them together as one.
I'm looking for groups related to "Ordered Randomness" and "Randomized Order", but not having an easy time finding that, so far.
Are there any other ideas or suggestions, so we can see what best we can come up with?
Below is a Data-dump of hundreds of Old group Titles related to "Random":
I Am Insanely Random | I Am An Emotional | Random | Crazy Rollercoaster | I Love Random Humor | I Want To Share Random Stuff | I Love to Do Random Crazy Things | I Have A Random Thought Yet Again | I Love Random Sexual Escapades | I Say Random Things Alot,I Have Used Random Household Objects To Pleasure Myself | I Am Writing 10 Random Facts About Me | I Like Having Sex In Super Random Places | I Want To Share A Random Thought | I Feel Random | I Raw Unprotected Sex With Randoms | I Want To Share Random Things I Like | I Dont Need Ur Random Irrelevant Bullshit | I Experience Random Weirdness | I Get Fixated On Random Stuff | I Took A Random Selfie | I Want To Randomly Hop Off The Bus And Explore | I Want To Share 100 Random Things About Me | I Randomly Get Depressed | I Want to Know Your Random Thought | I Like When You Are Random | I Have Random Quotes | I Am Having A Random Thought | I Sing Backup For Other People Randomly Singing Out Loud | I Have Been Random Commenting | I Want to Tell You Random Things About Myself | I Am Crazy | weird,random and Funny | I Hate It When My Ears Randomly Ring | I Write Random Things | I Laugh Randomly With My Friends | I Dont Like When Random Strangers Think They Fucken Know Me | I Wrote A Random Story | I Like Being Random | I Love Being Random and Just Me | I Randomly Feel Lonley | I Love Random Facts | I Am Very Random | I Like Random Questions | I Want To Write 25 Extreme Random Stories And Funny | I Like To Make Up Random Lyrics For Songs | I Want To Have Random Gay Sex | I Want To Share Inspirational Quotes And Random Words | I Wtk Your Random Childhood Memories | I Have Something Random To Share | I Clicked The Random Group Button And Came Here | I Practice Random Acts Of Senseless Randomness | I Am Randome and Not Afraid to Show My Personality | I Am Random And Hyper | I Have Random Memories Of My Childhood | I Am Saddened By Random Shooting Of Innocent People | I Say Random Things To Cover Up My Feelings | I Love Randomness | I Have Experienced Random Acts Of Kindness | I Practice Random Acts Of Kindness | I Like Learning About Random Things | I Enjoy Video Chatting With Random People | I Support Random Acts | I Write Random Stupid Crap | I Love Laughing and Laugh At the Most Random Things | I Want to Share Random Facts About Myself | I Wanna Write Random Words That Pop Up In My Mind Right Now | I Random Things I Love | I Won't Add You Randomly | I Have A Random Thought | I Get Stressed Out By Loud People And Random Loudness | I Do Silly and Random Things to Amuse Myself | I Have Another Random Thought | I Perform Random Acts of Weirdness | I Like Random Hookups | I Answer Random Questions | I Like Seeing Random Acts Of Kindness | I Take Random Pictures With My Phone | I Am Bored So Here Are Random And Unimportant Facts About Me | I Like To Rant Randomly Sometimes | I Have a Random Mind | I Like Having Sex With Random People | I Have Some Random Things to Say | I Am Very Random and Weird | I Have Random Thougths | I Like to Randomly Sing and Dance | I Have Something Random To Say | I Have A Random Thing To Post | I Desire Random Sex | I Love to Shout Random Things | I Ask Random Questions | I Like To Share Random Stuff Bout Me Even If No One Cares | I Let Random Men Sleep With Me Bareback | I Am Random | a Bit Crazy | Quite Nuts | Very Moody | I Do Random Acts Of Kindness | I Want To Have Random Hook Ups | I Have A Random Hobby | I Want To Know A Random Fact About You | I Believe Life Is Random | I Love A Little Bit Of Randomness Every Now And Again | I Call Everybody Babe Or Hun Or Just A Random Name | I Love Random Moments Of Stupidity | I Saw A Random Act Of Kindness | I Have A Strange And Random Taste In Music | I Enjoy The Thought Of Random Sex | I Often Get Random Memories From My Childhood | I Support Random Acts Of Kindness | I Have Random Memories Form Early Childhood | I Sing At Random Moments | I Like Saying Random Things On Peoples Whiteboards | I Block People Who Send Me Random Messages | I Love Surprising Random Joyful Things | I Like Discovering Random Experiences Here | I Am Random and Forgetful | I Like to Honk and Wave At Random People As I Drive By | I Have Random Taste In Music | I Performed a Random Act of Kindness | I Am So Bored Out Of My Mind I Just Randomly Entertain Myself | I Am Random | I Am Prone To Randomness | I Want To Share 10 Random Facts About Myself | I Get Random Words Stuck In My Head | I Want To Share Random Facts About Me | I Say Random Things | I Have Random Moments Of Extreme Flirtiness | I Want To Share 15 Random Facts About Myself | I Want To Share A Random Post | I Love Leaving Happy Notes For Random People to Find | I Can Be Random A Lot | I Can Be Random At Times | I Love Saying Hi To Random People | I Perform Random Acts Of Kindness | I Hate When Random People Message Me Stupid Things | I Want a Random Fling | I Appreciate Random Acts Of Kindness | I Want You to Write Random Stories | I Have Been Searching Random Groups Today | I Can Be Random | I Have Random Dreams | I Wish Non Smokers Could Take Random Breaks Every 30 Min Too | I Think Of Very Random Things | I Regularly Just Pick Up Random Guys to **** | I Get Crazy Ideas At Random Times | I Like to Share Random Historical Facts | I Have Random Periods Of Clarity | I Believe In Randomacts Of Kindness | I Like Random Stuff That Has Meaning To Me | I Am Random And Forgetful Sometimes | I Had A Hilarious Fight With Random People | I Want You To Practice Random Acts Of Kindness | I Will Tell You Random Facts About Myself For No Reason | I Am Able To Sleep In Random Spots When Exhausted | I Want To Make A Random Friend To Chat To | I Like Writing Random Stories | I Do Random And Weird Things When I'M Alone | I Love to See Random Acts of Kindness | I Sprout Random Quotes Just To Be Silly | I Am Going To Say Random Stuff Here | I Randomly Burst Into Song | I Am Really Random | and Blunt | I Am Random In Everything I Am | I Have Random Moments | I Want to Share Something Random | I Like Random Conversations | I Have Random Thoughts | I Am So Random | I Like To Search Random Groups And Laugh At The Funny Ones | I Will Write About Something Completely Random | I Am Totally Random and I Love It | I Enjoy Randomness | I Think Its Sad Guys On Here Still Send Random Dic Pics | I Like Doing Random Surveysquizes | I Do Random Things | I Let Random Men **** Me While Passed Out Drunk | I Sex With A Random Woman In The Gym | I Love Anonymous Sex With Random | I Obsess Over Random Things | I Want To Chat Randomly With People Right Now | I Love Random Acts Of Kindness | I Am Completely Random | I Am Very Random At Times But That Is Just Me Being Me | I Draw Weird Random Stuff | I Use Random Smileys | I Random Seven Word Stories | I Ramble Randomly | I Randomly Burst Into Giggles | I Uhh Im Like Random Most Of The Time | I Like Random Info | I Have Random Bouts Of Self-doubt | I Am Amazed By How Much Random Useless Stuff I Know | I Like To Post Random Things | I Don't Trip | I Do Random Gravity Checks | I Love Being Random | I Hate Having Random Body Twitches | I Am Not A Random Blocker I Just Block The Rude | I Love Random Ramblings | I Love The Randomness Of This Site | I Want To Talk About Random Stuff | I Have Random Outbursts | I Experience Random Pains In My Body | I Like to Google Random Things | I Like Sharing Random Facts About My Cat | I Want You To Type Randomly For One Minute | I Walked Around the Library and Picked a Random Book | I Randomly Giggle Sometimes | I Will Tell You Something Random About Myself | I Feel Weird And Flattered When Random People Flirt With Me | I Like War Stories Told By Random Old People | I Am Going To Write Random Song Lyrics Here Because I Can | I Do Not Reply To Random Emails | I Admire Random Acts Of Kindness | I Am Prone To Random Dancing In Grocery Store Aisles | I Want to Write An Encyclopedia of Random Things. | I Love Writing Randomness | I Randomly Dance In Public | I Create Random Artwork | I Am Just Writing Random Things | I Enjoy Sharing Random Acts of Kindness | I Like Sharing Random Facts | I Can Be Very Random | I Am Feeling Random | I Like Talking To Random People | I Love Going For Random Drives | I Have Random Memories From My Childhood | I Randomly Rearrange My Room | I Love To Randomly See Old Friends | I Want You To Post Your Most Random Dreams | I Love Trading Random Pics With Strangers | I Believe In Random Acts of Kindness | I Have Had Random Strangers Compliment Me On My Looks | I Am Looking For Random Sex | I Like To Take Random Pictures Of Myself | I Get Random Songs Stuck In My Head | I Want To Share Random Videos | I Get Sexually Aroused At Random Times | I Google Randomly | I Think Alot About Random Stuff | I Had Sex With a Person Chosen At Random | I Flip Random Light Switches I Find To See What Happens | I Have Random Thought | I Have A Serious Random Thought | I Preform Random Acts Of Kindness | I Like To Write Random Stuff | I Dont Like People Who Insult Others Randomly | I Will Write Random Lyrics Cos I Can | I Am By Far The Most Random Person In Existence | I Like To Think Of Random Things | I Have Random Moments of Extreme Sadness and Paranoia | I Am Random As Fk | I Like Posting Random Lyrics | I Want To Smell A Random Girls Fart | I Write Random Stuff | I Have Random Stories I Like Sharing | I Want To Take A Random Roadtrip | I Am So Randomly Crazy Weird Its Awkward Sometimes | I Will Have Random Sex | I Am Random | At Times | I Have A Random | Personal Thought | I Read Random Stuff On The Internet For Hours | I Talk About Random Things | I Randomly Trip Over Nothing | I Get Very Depressed Randomly | I Want To Say Random Lines I Like From Songs | I Can Be Quite Random and Hyper | I Write Randoms | I Have A Random Question | I Have Random Toughts | I Am Random And Weird | I Random | I Join Random Groups | I Talk To Random Neighborhood Cats | I Get To Pet Them | I Like Doing Random Stuff | I Have A Random Story To Tell | I Love When Random People Buy Me Things | I Want To Share 20 Random Facts About Myself | I'm Random | I Love Random Road Trips | I Love Random Sex | I Support Random Hugging | I Love Random Encounters | I Random Comment
Great job at paying attention to what your users are effected by. But now on to the larger fish. GAMES????? Got big planes for a round robin pool tournament.
I think the "correct" method should be to click on the group you want to post in and post. I realize all these bells and whistles must have taken a lot of planning and coding but,and thanks for that..I still want a BLOG..is the site too lazy to look and see if the post is sad,anxious,happy?
What about combining all the redundant groups and eliminating the “I” at the beginning of many of them when it doesn’t make sense? For example, “I Religion.”
@LeopoldBloom This is indeed what we have been doing, and was one of the primary aims of this Group Consolidation project.
You can see from this example screenshot, that the old, consolidated Posts and Groups, may show remnants of their old Group Titles (for relevance), while all posts made to the new group structure, no longer keep the "I xyz ..." format.
I believe we have already merged all of the (hundreds or thousands) "Religion" based Groups already, but still have many other topics to cover.
Credit where credit is due, while it doesn't change my overall opinion about this farce of an update, at least the skip categorization button is a minor band-aid.
I had not noticed you were going to do relevance sorting of posts... is this a feature we can opt out of (that is, choose to still see everything equally from every category and every user in our feed the way we do now)? Or will this too be mandatory?
once our improved post feed relevance goes into effect, users will see more of the posts they are actually interested in, and subscribed to, and less posts from unsubscribed groups and unfamiliar users.
If you use Facebook or something like that you'll notice how posts from some users magically pop up more often in your feed than others, certain topics, etc. Facebook is trying to show you posts it thinks is more relevant to you, and show less of what it thinks you wouldn't like.
I don't know what exact algorithm they are planning to use here on SW, whether it be a simple "if you follow the category, it will show all posts" or if they are planning something much more similar to Facebook that tries to guess what is relevant to you and not.
Either way, I personally do not want that, so hoping they'll give me an answer to if I can opt-out of it and just show everything or not.
