📈 Similar Worlds #️⃣ pages Indexed, UP 3x since Group Consolidation 🚀

@Andrew YEP, it would be nice to have these options of visability 😊👍

... And to change the visability of old posts too would be a great service.

Everyone uses the internet and this site differently :
Some just surf and shit post, some - it's meaningful and relevant.

For some... This place is like a diary of sifting through the issues they are dealing with.

And - we are at all different levels of tech savvy.
Ignorance isn't a sin, it just takes time to learn.

So for some those not bought up on the internet, or who are neurodiverse, they need simple options to choose, and help them understand what each does.

Many of us love, and chose this site for its level of privacy above all other reasons.

Thankyou for working on varied solutions so quickly Andrew.

I don't want to have to delete every sensitive post I have....this site has been very valuble for me in getting perspective, venting and finding like minded people.
Simply finding a person who 'gets' you... So you don't feel like you're crazy, can be very helpful in calming a mind.
But one has to post the trauma to find them.

I do have a question though:

Do posts we have already posted stay on Google, even if we privatise them at a later date?

@OogieBoogie Please read the announcement just posted: https://similarworlds.com/groups/admin-announcements/4021582-Limited-Posts-Edit-Existing-Visibility

@Nuno thanks.

I'd texted this just moments before that was posted.

But I appreciate you noticing and responding, thanks 😊👍

@SweetNSassy thank you for the support

@questionWeaver you ain’t got no support from me lol

@Viper no but that might affect it? Relevant users are people who you regularly interact with in the feed. Turn comments on in your feed and that probably uses the same list

@adorbz oh? So in the feed?

@Viper mostly I think. I have not really paid attention to this feature before I always have comments set to friends only 😅

@Nuno what kind of data is being hidden?

@Jabulani Andrew means any data in general. Of course every company has loads of data, analytics, metrics/stats, etc, that is private. We can't share *everything*. No company does that.

All Andrew is saying is that we can't be ONLY based on user feedback. We have to analyze EVERYTHING involved in the company, to keep the company sustainable and growing.

@DeluxedEdition honestly they could change everything here and I bet most everyone will stay lol

@SweetNSassy you know they will😹

@DeluxedEdition

@Keepitsimple
Anything specifically? 🙂

We do have a large backlog of requests, we are still slowly getting through, and attempting to fulfill.

There is still the "SW Games" for example, which we really are excited about as well (we wish we could already have them live here now...),

but some of these tasks are very large and demanding, and will take a little more time to be fulfilled,
but we will keep working to get as many user requests done as we can. 🙂

---

Also to add:


As mentioned,
in the coming weeks, once we are able to release the improved Relevant Algorithms,

you should be able to see much more interesting content in your feeds, that are relevant to your interests.

Right now, feeds are still very fairly disordered, and every day, most users see random things in posts they are not subscribed to.

We are aiming to have feeds finally show more of what users actually want/are subscribed to (Friends, Groups, Interests).


Also importantly, we are working on changes that will allow you to see interesting posts from your friends, even made hours, or days before you signed in.
So you should be able to see relevant content you may have otherwise missed in the current, purely chronological format.

Like things that bring us together. Better emoji’s in comments, maybe a spot to put peoples names next to their user names cause I always forget, maybe the ability to not be seen at all on here, changing the color of the feeds, things of that nature. I don’t care about the algorithm stuff.@Andrew

Do you mean, a way of Noting a Name/Nickname you assign to a user, next to their username?

That may be a decent idea.
We'll note this idea, and discuss about it.

Your other ideas good as well, and we will take these into consideration. :)

@DeWayfarer I agree with this. Feedback only exists because we give it so I think it’s good to make these complaints as non confrontational as possible, especially if they are working towards a solution 🙂

@DeWayfarer Good luck with that. I've tried to suggest and request a fair bit over time. Like 95% of the time the response falls either in the "we've already made up our mind, here's why you are wrong [username]" category, or the "let's pretend we didn't see this" category.

@GLITTER Your a sweetie! 🤗

@questionWeaver 👍🏾

@PrivateHell I understand your points, and don't necessarily disagree with what you said.

Quora was a quick and simplistic example made, to attempt to explain:


My general answer was that:
The Quality of a site/community, doesn't really correlate with the number of users (Increase or Decrease),

but rather, factors such as:

1) Rules and Guidelines

2) Format and Layout

3) Culture


What we have been mostly working on, is improving the Format and Layout available, which also means improved organization, so that users can find more of what they actually want here (relevancy).



I agree that SW can be fun for many, especially to Ex-EP users, who are used to the culture here,

however:
a) The remaining remaining supply of Ex-EP users, has completely dried up, so that cannot be relied on for continued growth of this site.

b) A large number of Ex-EP users have simply moved on, and left SW also.


Which only leads us to the option of adjusting our site to a more understandable, more organized format, that can interest newcomers.


As mentioned in another comment above, SW easily has over 100,000 unique visitors here each month.
However, only a small percentage stay around to join the site.

This is because, the previous, unstructured/chaotic format, is difficult for most outsiders to understand.

Remaining that way, would only cause SW to die a slow but sure death, as our user base slowly dries up.

@Andrew

One last advice from a retired director of large organizations (not bragging about me... just want you to think about the advice more carefully and seriously):

Your most valuable asset is Your reputation...

Please listen to your users more carefully... put together their feedback and be innovative in finding solutions for the benefit of your users first and then yours.... part of a healthy marketing

put quality above quantity... gradually this will make you a classy website and more expensive advertising clients will approach you....
think big but not cheap....

gradually make convenient and better changes ..... restructuring and reorganizing....

Change is good... it is a blessing only if the right changes...

that will build you good reputation... a huge asset... your logo will be respected and loved... SW will be the virtual home of more users everyday...

Remember: this might become the culture that you want to build.....Home is about feeling safe and sound... family and support...

🤗🤗

@Soossie Many years ago YAHOO ANSWERS had a culture that was its most valuable asset... a friendly culture... A home .... One big family ..... Support...

There were many things here you can get away with that would have been deleted on Y!A.

If you want a NO nonsense answer of facts & not fiction then you go to Quora.

YIA died because the Management TEAM made changes that NO user wanted.

STUPID changes that only put a nail in its coffin every time they made a different change.

ANDREW, be very careful

@AthrillatheHunt

We had about 90,000 pages indexed by Google (which means ~90,000 pages that could be found in Google search results), before Group Consolidation.

That number has since Tripled (3x), in under one month,
to ~270,000 pages from Similar Worlds, which may show up in various Google Search Results.

This means, there are now more chances of when someone searches for various terms in Google, a page from SW shows up in those search results.

@Andrew the last paragraph is all that I understood and I like it !

@Andrew Destroying the site, to bring aboard the curious .. can never be considered a valid "growth strategy".

@questionWeaver site usage/user activity, is slightly up compared to before Group Consolidation.

This suggests we haven't been destroying the site with these changes,
rather, "Changing" things for the long-term better of the SW Community.

@Andrew

I definitely saw an increase in activity both after groups and downvote changes went up. I saw a whole lot more posts about people being annoyed with the downvote and arguing about the group consolidation than before the change.

🤣

@Soossie Oh I do realize all this and I concur.
But I have seen quite a bit of rude commentary from some other members since the DV feature and in other threads. The disrespect I can't tolerate well.

Indeed. I am all for that.

💕🌹

@Magenta

I truly appreciate your understanding... thank you beautiful lady... 🙏🙏🌹🤗

@Soossie Likewise, lovely one. 🤗

@Disney 🤷‍♀️ what ever turns you on

@ExtremeNext So you feel the need to be sarcastic after I said I'm trying to be more civil here? I don't understand your way of thinking.

It might be a kinder act to be supportive of me

And then they block me 🤣

@nedkelly we listen to users, and fulfill many of their requests, each and every weeks.


• We have reinstated lots of groups, as specifically requested by users, this week.

• The option to Move/Edit posts between Groups, has been very recently added.

• Improved Search feature has been recently fulfilled.

• The option to "1-Click Skip" Categorization, has been recently added.

and the list goes on and on...


All of these, were requests, asked of by SW users, which we did fulfill.


We cannot fulfill each and every request at the same time,
and some requests and features take a lot more time and work to develop.

Then there are also many features which may benefit some users, and not others,
or may serve to benefit the community in whole, in the long run, yet many specific members may be upset by those changes.

Again, we cannot do everything each users want, at the specific time they want.
And we cannot please every user and request,
especially while also when having to cater for other, incoming and new users, who may not be familiar with the old EP culture, yet still need to be accommodated.

And the Mute Group button!

@Nuno can we get a mute stupid button? That would come in handy if it could just filter out the stupid 🤣🤣

@Carazaa אמן

@SW-User אמן🙏

@DeluxedEdition
The searches are top secret! 😅

@Pfuzylogic 👀i wasn't even judging you before but now i am ahahahahahahhaahahah

@DeluxedEdition
Judge away!
We all have something.

@ExtremeNext Awww, you are so sweet and kind to say that. I really needed to hear that now. You are such a delightful and dear friend.

I always love, being sweet to you and this is why. I am so lucky to have a beautiful friend in you! I will never let you forget how I feel about you.

You are also gifted with a very quick witted sense of humor that is adorable.😊🤗🤗🥰💜💐

@Oster1

@ExtremeNext Awww, That’s my favorite GIF. 😊🤗🌷

we are now google stars people

and I guess we can complain to google much easier now too

User Feedback = A Very Strong Decision Factor

User Feedback alone, simply cannot equate to a "Final Staff Decision",

because:
"There will always be a lot of crucial data that is only available to SW Staff",

which also factors into our final decisions.

@TexChik That's not why EP closed down. A woman was killed by a man she met on EP, and the operators felt that they couldn't maintain the required member anonymity in the face of demands by law enforcement to turn over members' account information. EP was also used for drug dealing and other criminal activity. Of course, criminals shouldn't be protected, but it's a civil liberties issue, where eventually everyone's information can be divulged.

For example, everyone is cheering about Apple checking users' photos against child sex trafficking databases, but it won't be so great when some grandmother is arrested for sharing a photo of their grandbaby taking a bath. The other thing Apple is doing is, if an adult sends an explicit photo to a minor, the photo is blurred, and if the minor opens it, their parents on their family plan are notified. Sounds great, right? Except when a 18 year old black guy sends a photo to his 17 year old white girlfriend, and her racist parents have him arrested.

@TexChik You said "EP grave yard," so I assumed you were referring to how EP closed.

EP definitely deteriorated toward the end. It was obvious the site owners were trying to save money. I don't know if that's happening here. I think the SW owners are just trying to maximize profits. And if they can increase ad revenue through google indexing, of course they will do that. As long as the site stays anonymous, I don't see the problem.

The alternative would be changing it to subscription only. I like this site, but not enough to pay a monthly fee for it.

@questionWeaver Retaining who you have is much less expensive than finding new users. It's two steps back for one step forward when the attrition increases.

@carpediem These guys are not following any business school teachings

@questionWeaver well who knows? Maybe this place will catch on with new users. Not sure they make money. But surely they have that worked out.

@SW-User quite likely

@Nimbus Only for those who want to impose maximum drama for something most claim is something they don't take seriously and do just to pass the time. For those who do take it seriously, they demand a series of entitlements that isn't theirs to have.

In the end, a business even if it's a website designed around the concept of community has to balance the interests of its customers/users with the needs of the business as defined by those with a vested and financial interest in that business.

It is humanly impossible to please everyone 100% of the time, in every hour during each day.

@Nimbus Already one down to Southampton

@nedkelly I know and not looking good.

@CookieCrumbs No one seems to know the actual conditions... at least no one I've come across. Don't think staff has shared those either.

What I've heard from others though means it is a complicated, multi-stage cooldown. Don't know the exact details, but some have said that attempting to delete something before it is done with the first stage of cooldown resets the timer to.

Saw someone mention deleting 20 posts within an hour I think before cooldown came into effect. I believe there is still an extra layer of cooldown outside of that too. It's just... needlessly complicated to get rid of your stuff.

I can't vouch for any of that info either.

@PirateMonkeyCabinet these feature requests have been noted, and are in considerations for scheduled development.

There are some challenges relating to "Mass Deletion", or any "Mass Actions" as a matter of fact,
which is also a factor in why there is a Limit in terms of how fast/often someone can Post, Comment, Heart/React, etc.. (apart from anti-spam measures).


1) Mass Deleting puts strain on operating servers.

Each time a Post is "Deleted", it isn't a singular action. A series of events need to unfold on the servers, one after the other.

There are lots of interlinking values associated with each posts, not only the actual content.

There are also internal values on:
- Subscribed users, and the various levels of subscription.
- Users who Blocked or Muted the post
- Report History
- Post Edit/changes data
- Views data
... and so on.

All of these values need to be broken/changed on various parts of the server database, as it relates to different users and groups.

Allowing a "Batch Operation", such as "Mass Deletion", can potentially overwhelm system resources, and cause performance issues for the rest of the site.



2) Deleting content, takes more Work/Processing than creating the same content would.

This is true in generally most cases (if not all).
This is because, from the moment a post or comment is created, more and more interlinking values/data becomes attached to that piece of content.

A new post, doesn't have much attached links or data.

An existing post, would have many associated values, such as:
- Subscriptions, Reports, Blocked, Views, etc...

Therefore, there is more work/processing involved, in deleting posts vs creating them,
yet still, we have the same limits in place to prevent users from "Mass Creating" posts/content.



3) A large % of deleting users, ask for their content to be restored.

Many times, a user may wish to delete content based on a short-term event or scare,
and may change their minds, afterwards wish to have that content back.

The existing "Speed Limit" of Deleting posts, also greatly reduces these types of requests, as it gives users more time to reconsider, what it is they really want, in the end.

@Andrew I understand that far from everyone here has the technical knowledge to understand how things work without a detailed breakdown, so hopefully that explanation you made will make sense to them.

That said, I'm well aware of the complexities related to many-to-many relationships as you describe. There are certainly considerations to make. As you say, the more interactions a post has had (be it comments or reactions) it has more links that need to be resolved properly. More links means more operations, more operations generally means more processing power used.

---

But okay, you say you're listening to users, so let's have a constructive discussion about this instead of just the constant explanations of why we don't get it or get how complicated things are. Instead of looking at explaining stuff away, let's discuss solutions instead.

Now let me preface this by saying databases has never been my primary field, so forgive me if my terminology is rusty or somewhat incorrect at times.

---

So my thoughts on this:

When attempting to delete a post some may get the option of hiding it instead of deleting it. Would it be reasonable to assume this is stored as a boolean or some equivalent to an enum? While it obviously still requires a fair share of processing power to handle a lot of posts at once, such operations are surely a lot cheaper than going through all links to break them at both sides.

So why not turn larger deletion batch jobs into a multi-stage process? Since hiding is cheaper than deleting, start by hiding posts at a reasonable rate. This should take the posts out of public circulation. Once that is done, then you start the deletion process. Since the posts are hidden by that point a user should be able to rest assured that the posts are not visible anymore and as such the deletion process can be done at a pace tailored to server load.

Put a little notice on a users profile (only visible to user) that shows the progress of the batch deletion job (if it'll save cycles, maybe only update on refresh and only show changes once every certain amount of seconds/minutes). Only allow a user one active batch job at a time, but where each job can have a high amount of posts or comments). Include a notice when requesting deletion that it will happen in two stages to prevent overloading the servers, and that they can view the progress on their profile.

---

As for the whole thing about users regretting it, yep, can understand that it happens. I will admit I don't have as much of a suggestion for that as for the technical side.

That being said, what about those who won't regret it? Those who know very well that they want or need it done? They are stuck with an unreasonable job ahead of them that, depending on how much they've posted, can take everything from a day to weeks or more just to delete their stuff. There needs to be a better solution for these people too.

@SW-User I understand what you say, and thanks for the feedback.

Visitors can browse Similar Worlds as well, without being logged in (but they will have a more limited navigation experience).

Being able to see what content exists on a website, is what helps to allow new users to come to the decision to register and join a site.

We will still keep all these feedback and concerns in mind, and look into whether anything can reasonably be changed or improved.

@Andrew Thank you. So, if we don't want Google to see, post to people we follow only, correct?

@SW-User yes, I believe that is correct.
You're much welcome.

@Andrew you know what it indicates?
Contradiction.

You say that you consider it, then you rationalise your minimising it.

All the fancy wording doesn't discount that, in the end - it doesn't matter what we say.

And if our opinion DID matter in any way, you would have asked.

One proves themselves by their actions, not their words.

And this was action without user consideration.
And was done, even though past consultation indicated a negative response.

Much like 'easier to ask forgiveness than ask permission'...
this has been 'easier to do by ourselves, than work with our members' .

I understand you have a higher vision and understanding than we do.

But we loved how you consulted us on things... We felt involved.
We may not be able to change what you want to do, but we can help it's transition, and even offer suggestions on how things can be presented.

Like maybe the DV, could have been called an 'opt out'... It's less negstive sounding, and puts more weight on the user of it, than who it's used on. Does the same thing, but has less emotional impact.
And maybe been given a less offensive emoji, 🤫 or 🛑.



Consultation also gives us time to acclimatise to new things.
And we loved that you used to do this.
It made us feel that you were part of our community, just as much as we were.

If you had asked members here two years ago.... Most would have said "they aren't 'on' SW, they are part of it"


We really missed your asking our ideas and input on this change.

Please think about it in future.
Even if we input only 5%, knowing that we can, and do, and seeing evidence of it means so much to us.


I have never seen a user defend their admin staff on any googled review of any other site...

... Execpt for SW.


Wouldn't it be great to know that your users have this much faith in you, to keep praising what you do?

@OogieBoogie Good reply

@PirateMonkeyCabinet you kind said similar things as me.

I'm feeling miffed about the lack of consultation, learning that it was going to happen, having at least input on it, and it's implementation.

I miss the fact that admin USED to do this.

And I echo what you said about being on 'the ground floor'


Admin used to feel like part of the user community.
Currently this makes them feel like dictators.... And I hate that feeling.

And I agree, I don't think it's malicious, or even deliberately arrogant.... But this time, it came across that way.

Wjen they set the bar so high before, we admired our admin for it.
And I want to.

I was proud of our admin compared to all other sites. 😊

@LilMissAnonyMOUSE I suspect you only work to increase your income and for monetary gains for your own your personal reasons and it has very little to do to help your company, society, or serve the greater public good.

@bijouxbroussard if you bulk delete, the system stops you. There's a limit per day or per week I'm not sure.

@Mellowgirl it's per day and it's 20 posts like almost everything. But that time resets in a hour or two

Well NVM I could delete it after 40 min.

@Mellowgirl Actually, a little bit less.

@MrBrownstone Excellent point!

@MarineBob 🤭🤭

@Andrew hope you guys Create The John Olinger Group Page

@SW-User New account? Already kissing arse - no offence