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Show HN: I built an active community of trans people online
A year ago I surveyed the internet and noticed there was only one popular space for trans and gender-non-conforming people to meet; Lex.
Lex is not well liked by its users. Its software feels heavy and it is full of cash grabs and anti-patterns. It was recently acquired and is sure to only become more hostile to its users as it turns towards profit generation.
With this in mind I built t4t, an alternative specially designed for not only queer people, but specifically trans people.
It is an extremely lightweight service. I built it with my most ideal stack: Flutter, Svelte, Supabase, Posthog.
It has grown in the last year to about 4,000 monthly active users. I think it could grow way beyond that this year.
- somename9 2y ago[flagged]
- CharlesW 2y agoBecause it uses Flutter?
- t4tofficial 2y ago[flagged]
- replwoacause 2y agoI like the minimalist design! And it’s fast to load too. Good job
- t4t 2y agoThank you!
- xrd 2y agoAs someone who isn't familiar with the norms of this community, the first few posts were somewhat surprising. I mean to say, they were overtly sexual and public. I have many trans friends and gay friends so I'm not saying I've never heard terminology like that, but it was usually in a closed conversation. I wonder if those are spam comments? It would be interesting to hear how you plan to guard against people who will probably see this as a good place to hunt for vulnerable people. I'm interested because I thought this might be a good place to help find ways to support my friends in an awful time. But I am not sure I would want to participate in the community just given the first few posts I saw.
- t4t 2y agoI don’t think the thirst posts are trolls, but I do know what you mean. One of my top priorities this next month is adding NSFW filtering to the app to allow people to toggle that sort of content on and off.
- segasaturn 2y agoI'm glad that you're making it a toggle and not banning it outright. This is my biggest gripe with BlueSky at the moment.
- mbStavola 2y agoI'm not sure what you mean? On Bluesky they just apply a label and users are free to toggle it as show/warn/hide. At least, this is what I've personally experienced using the site.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- raincole 2y agoIsn't BlueSky doing the exact thing you want: making it a toggle?
- raincole 2y agoBy the way this isn't a snarky rhetorical question. I wonder whether people do experience censorship more than the built-in preference filters on BlueSky.
- nyanpasu64 2y agoFor one thing, BlueSky blocks NSFW images from being embedded in RSS feeds, so I have to use third-party services like https://bluestream.deno.dev/ https://bluestream.deno.dev/ to generate RSS feeds which embed images in my RSS reader.
- azeirah 2y ago
- KomoD 2y agoLooks more like a community of horny people and other weird stuff. I immediately saw: - Someone who wants to be treated as a dog - Someone who listed their "new experiences" which included "getting fisted", "being fucked with a (fake) knife", "sleeping in a dog crate" and more. - Someone looking for sex WTF?
- gemerald 2y ago[flagged]
- t4t 2y agoOkay posting this is really reminding me to prioritize a smart nsfw toggle. My guess is that if you just scrolled twitter or whatever by new exclusively unfiltered you wouldn’t have that different an experience.
- lazyeye 2y agoI dont think this is true at all.
- 13_9_7_7_5_18 2y ago[dead]
- recursive 2y agoI just logged in to my twitter account for the first time in years to test this. I'm not sure if I'm "scrolling by new unfiltered", but one of two things is true. 1. The experience is different. I'm not seeing any of that type of content. or 2. It's not obvious how to "scroll by new unfiltered". If I'm not doing it, I can't see how to do it. I would never do it accidentally.
- kikokikokiko 2y ago[flagged]
- 2y ago
- myheartisinohio 2y ago[flagged]
- zadge 2y ago[flagged]
- dang 2y agoIt's time you stopped creating accounts to prosecute this fixation on HN.
- zadge 2y agoI'll stop.
- dang 2y agoThanks.
- 93po 2y agodang, you have my endless gratitude for not allowing transphobia on HN
- bun_terminator 2y ago[flagged]
- dang 2y agoRegardless of your views on social issues, you can't post like this here. Since we've warned you before and you've continued to break the guidelines, I've banned the account. If you don't want to be banned on HN, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
- bun_terminator 2y ago[dead]
- t4t 2y agoThe biggest piece of feedback I think I have gotten from posting here is that the nsfw content is a bit shocking which I get. Sorry about that. My guess is that if you just scrolled twitter or whatever by new exclusively unfiltered you wouldn’t have that different an experience. On the one hand I do think there is something interesting about the rawness of this network but also some sort of smart nsfw filtering is clearly needed, and I've been in the bubble of making this long enough to have become a bit desensitized. I will get that shipped within the week!
- Atotalnoob 2y agoYou probably shouldn’t show NSFW to non-logged in users. Otherwise you could run afoul of various laws, since technically minors can access it
- t4t 2y agoI will add a tagging system and hide nsfw posts from non-logged-in non-opted-in users this weekend.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- cynicalsecurity 2y ago[flagged]
- Atotalnoob 2y agoI’m talking about NSFW posts, not a blanket statement about trans people. I would urge you to reread my post.
- dang 2y agoPlease don't post in the flamewar style to HN. We've had to ask you this more than once before. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- hnusersarelame 2y ago[dead]
- dang 2y ago(Sorry for the offtopicness but would you mind emailing hn@ycombinator.com? I have some information that might potentially be relevant.)
- t4t 2y agoOh sure, will do
- Animats 2y ago> It has grown in the last year to about 4,000 monthly active users. I think it could grow way beyond that this year. Is it really a good idea to paint a bullseye on this group in the US right now?
- whalesalad 2y agoHow is creating or operating a community “painting a bullseye” ? And tbh now more than ever I think it’s important for communities like this to exist.
- quesera 2y agoInterpreting Animats' question as concern for the user population, I think it's a valid one. The new administration in the US is openly hostile, and a lot of damage could be done to peoples' lives if, say, the community was hacked and private email addresses (or other PII) was leaked. And I also agree with you -- now's the time for those of us who can afford it, to fly our ally flags as loudly and proudly as possible. OP: Please make sure your secure coding and operational security practices are excellent and meet the challenge here.
- t4t 2y agoI am taking security very seriously. All sensitive rows are protected by RLS, and I have gone even further by adding random noise to all location data. Locations are locked down, but in the unfortunate event of a hack what would be leaked is location within a 5 or so mile range, not exact location. If it is possible on Supabase I would like to eventually obscure emails and oauth info.
- nemomarx 2y agonon content related feedback I like how minimalist the UI is, but I might want a little bit of padding on the sides? I feel like HN does that part pretty well even though it's a little more decorated than this. Also it wasn't obvious to me that the website is sort of a "preview" of the front page and the app is the main platform, i'll have to check that part out too.
- t4t 2y agoThank you for the feedback. As a design decision I did want to completely forego landing pages and upsells, both the sites and the app just "drop you in". I could probably make it a bit more clear without losing the minimalism of the page though that the real experience is in the app, not on the site. The site serves mostly to allow people to share public posts and profiles from the app.
- asdf6969 2y agoWhat’s wrong with Grindr, the biggest app for queer and trans people to meet?
- xemoka 2y agoI... am not sure if this is a joke or not. Grindr is not a community or posting tool. It's a hookup app.
- morkalork 2y agoIn a sense it is almost an anti-community tool, I've heard it being partly to blame for the decline in business at some bars.
- asdf6969 2y agoThat used to be true but Grindr has pivoted and now advertises itself as a 2SLGBTQIA+ community app
- groby_b 2y ago"Grindr advertises itself as community app" is about as meaningful as "Fast Food advertises itself as healthy" :) (Also, for those who were confused by 2S - "Two-spirit". That one's new to me in terms of adding it to the acronym list)
- PaulHoule 2y ago[flagged]
- groby_b 2y ago[flagged]
- spencerflem 2y agoCultural Appropriation is super often misused (as it was in this case), but does describe a real thing. Just like how people complain that 'crypto' now only means cryptocurrency, or people complain that the new star wars movies 'killed their childhood' etc, having something that you have a strong connection to have its meaning distorted sucks. Imagine if seeing a holy cross, the first thing you thought of wasn't the religious meaning but that it was the logo for some company. One of many terms that got taken way out of context and abused by lots of people, some with good intentions and some not
- kurisufag 2y ago[flagged]
- _cenw 2y agothat place is catastrophizing central and i would recommend against getting attached to it in any way
- blast 2y agoSorry for being ignorant but what is that place?
- StefanBatory 2y ago4chan place
- dgares 2y agoIt's a moniker for the 4chan board /lgbt/. The name comes from "To tell the truth," namely due to the reputation of trans 4chan users to be very harsh to one another.
- wizzwizz4 2y agoFor those watching at home: being harsh is not the same thing as being truthful.
- nemomarx 2y agothat's a backronym at best the original joke was that despite being called /LGBT/ like 80 percent of all threads were about trans topics for a while at the start, with wlw and mlm general threads kinda on the side so "trans trans trans trans"
- mrtesthah 2y agoGood work! Let’s say this network continues to grow; how do you anticipate funding its future operations?
- t4t 2y agoA decent percent of people are voluntarily paying for it right now, enough that it is already profitable at about a 10:1 ratio of profit vs cost of operation. The platform can grow quite a lot without expenses going up since my main expense is just server power, and I am not using much of that at all right now. I think I have engineered it all to scale well, and I don't anticipate costs increasing. The plan right now is to not run ads, and to make almost all features free for all users in perpetuity.
- sfink 2y agoPlease be very, very careful with security. That includes logging as little as you can get away with. Your site is a tempting target for a certain class of people.
- josefritzishere 2y agoIt's horrible that you have to issue cautions like that but it's true.
- thealistra 2y agoliterally my first thought - would be a nightmare if the user list leaked with emails or something
- nikolay 2y agoDon't trans people usually date/meet with non-trans people!?
- Melonai 2y agoNo, trans people dating other trans people is actually extremely common (both homo- and heterosexual). Often because both (or more) people often understand each others struggles and wants way better than cis people do, and simply because if you like spending time primarily in trans-heavy communities, you will likely fall for someone who's also trans.
- popcalc 2y ago[flagged]
- gowld 2y agoCan you cite any trans person who publicly agrees with your description of them as "HSTS"?
- popcalc 2y ago[flagged]
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y agoThe HSTS / AGP dichotomy is not taken seriously among trans people or care providers, don't listen to this person.
- popcalc 2y ago[flagged]
- wizzwizz4 2y agoIn the post-Karl Popper academic landscape, it's hard to beat the absurdity to explanatory-power ratio of Sigmund Freud's "penis envy", but Ray Blanchard's ravings about trans people are certainly a contender. The "science experiments" he ran to "support" his "theories" aren't quite Philip Zimbardo levels of unethical quackery, but I'm still not sure how attaching electrodes to people's genitals and making them watch porn is a sensible way to categorise anyone, even ignoring the fudging required to make his experiments show the "correct" results.
- 13_9_7_7_5_18 2y ago[dead]
- ninalanyon 2y agoThe low contrast in the app makes it distractingly uncomfortable to read.
- wjbolles 2y agoIf you've created a service with that many users, that could be a target for malicious actors, and also hosts NSFW content, you may want to look over this article and protect yourself by forming an LLC. https://denise.dreamwidth.org/91757.html https://denise.dreamwidth.org/91757.html
- t4t 2y agoThanks!
- echelon 2y agoIf you have time for a web interface, that would probably give some folks a better sense of security.
- m00x 2y agoLLCs won't protect you completely. That's a myth.
- dbmnt 2y agoParent didn't say anything about complete protection? An LLC does offer some level of protection, albeit mostly liability protection (as implied by the name, Limited Liability Company), and in this case I would be more worried about the need to defend against overzealous law enforcement requests. I'm not sure an LLC really helps much in that context. It's more about being able to afford a good legal team.
- m00x 2y agoFor what they're referring to, there is no personal protection. You can be personally liable for neglecting to protect against illegal sexual content even through an LLC. This is what keeps most people from hosting user content. It's very easy to do, but it opens you to massive personal liabilities.
- buro9 2y agoBeware if you have UK users, you should read the new law in the UK called the online safety act. Your site has young trans people, sexual content, and would also be a target for grooming from chasers. The risks, for you, are very high.
- tasuki 2y ago> The risks, for you, are very high. Is the creator in the UK? Or do they visit regularly? It wasn't mentioned in the original post.
- buro9 2y agoThe law has ridiculous overreach, that's true. And we haven't seen what international enforcement of it looks like yet. But to deal with the facts as they are now, the law states that it applies if you have UK users, and that the personal liability for officers of the company can be up to £18M... The overreach continues because it also covers "harmful but not illegal" content. The app publishing didn't exclude the UK, it probably should.
- tasuki 2y agoNo, the law cannot possibly apply "if you have UK users". The law applies if you're in the UK or in a country the UK can persuade to extradite you.
- buro9 2y agoI don't agree with the law, there's no point in using emphasis to labour the point, the UK Govt advice on who it applies to is here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-explainer/online-safety-act-explainer#who-the-act-applies-to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act... and feel free to read it. As to enforcement, it's a new law so there has been none, hence no-one can speak to that, but you're right that extradition is the path and on that front if a similar law exists and agreements are in place, then for example most European countries would extradite. We don't know where the author is, but they posted on here in the morning of European time zones, and all I suggested is that they do their diligence on their personal risk as a result of laws that do claim to apply their service. No-one should dismiss the risk, the person should speak to a lawyer.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y agoMobile app only and no source code? I appreciate the effort but I'll stick with Mastodon for now.
- fourside 2y ago> no source code? The way that some people on HN so casually demand someone to build something and then completely give it away never ceases to disappoint. Thankfully the fact that this community is growing tells me this is not how most people think.
- Diti 2y agoWith the current politics, how do you expect minorities to trust a product with their identity and (sometimes) life, if you can’t inspect what’s being done with your data?
- kenjackson 2y agoReal question : how do you verify that the source code matches the code of the service you’re using? Is there some service that builds and hosts and you can verify what it builds against the hosted location?
- thrance 2y agoYou can only ever really ensure the client you use wasn't tampererd with, by carefully reading all of its source code and then building it yourself. For every update. Realistically, you will always need a minimum amount of trust, just don't misplace it.
- beeflet 2y agoThe minimum amount of trust is clearly a lot less for open source software because anyone can view the source and whistleblow vulnerabilities (and many will regularly do so to contribute or modify it anyways). Also, compiling and verifying software updates is pretty easy for typical application programs. I do it for cryptocurrency software, you just look over diffs and make sure it matches up to the changelog.
- iceenforcer 2y ago[flagged]
- offeringcons 2y agoSuch an interesting and so minimal! Gonna check it out after work. Nice job!
- DoctorOW 2y agoAs a trans woman I gave it a go. I find the interface a little confusing and unappealing but the featureset for profiles is actually what I'd be looking for.
- anaisbetts 2y agoCool app, I'll give it a try. Thanks for sharing, and I definitely appreciate feeling the need for an alternative to Lex (which is sad! they took VC money then had to hypergrowth or die, my prediction is that it will be the latter tbh). If they would've kept super lean and focused on a sustainable business model, they could've been a pretty big success
- empressplay 2y agoThere are also a number of high-user trans-specific and 2SLGBTQI+ Discord servers with varying degrees of activity (although the more fun ones tend to be private and you need to get an invite from a public server) You can find some on Disboard or in Discord's recent server search facility.
- cobertos 2y agoAnecdotally I never found Disboard servers to be of quality (as of 2 yrs ago). The low user count servers were more engaging but there were not a lot of good ones on Disboard. I tried making a web crawler that found invite links in common crawl data to find more authentic low user count servers. There was something off about servers that self-selected by taking the time and effort in adding the Disboard bot. The crawler actually worked well. I had about 10k online servers before I stopped and a handful of low user count servers in my niches. Made a few friends in these but none of them stuck long-term. So far I'm back to just a few private servers I'm active in. 50% from IRL connections, 50% from online friend connections. I struggle so much to find new spaces or to make my current ones work better for me
- jl6 2y agoThe app seems to be marked 17+ on the App Store, which means it may have “Infrequent/mild sexual content”. The very first entry on the recent posts list is: “tell us about your cum!” I think you need to make a choice between being strictly adults-only and strictly SFW-only. If you allow under 18s and show them that kind of content, there will be headlines.
- fkyoureadthedoc 2y agoReddit seems to do fine with mixed content. Just need to have good controls for it in app imo.
- intended 2y agoReddit has absolutely massive amounts of free moderation being done every day, and users are constantly being split into smaller groups to handle scale and nuance. The admin team sits on top of that. And they have access to NCMEC along with full fledged data science teams. Reddit is VC funded.
- saagarjha 2y agoReddit gets very thorough scrutiny from the App Store review team. They have policies on it.
- numpad0 2y agoReddit changes behavior depending on signup path, and is also aggressive with admin deletions, but hides acts well. It's in perception only that Reddit still has everything dirty in the open.
- gemerald 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- mmooss 2y ago> A year ago I surveyed the internet and noticed there was only one popular space for trans and gender-non-conforming people to meet How is that possible? On the infinite Internet, where there is online space for much smaller communities, how can there not be far more - on Reddit, Discords, FB, IG, other platforms, phpBB, etc etc.
- t4t 2y agoI should have been more specific - I meant a popular platform
- Karawebnetwork 2y agoI hate to ask this, but with the timing of the current US elections and presidential mandate, seeing this appear out of the blue scares me more than anything. Do you have any existing handles or presence in the community I can use to double check? Thanks.
- t4t 2y agoYou can check the review history on either app, the project has existed for a full year. The timing is a coincidence, but I do understand the paranoia.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- slutd 2y agopeople are criticizing the minimal text interface, but i really appreciate it. it's very nice in w3m, a tui browser. but spacing between each post (none), and among posts and their metadata (one line) needs some tuning, because it clusters each timestamp footer with the user header for the next post. i would suggest avoiding `<li>` for feed items and use more general-purpose elements. is there a reason you're not simply hosting a mastodon instance?
- chocolatemario 2y agoMastodon isn’t particularly good for monetization.
- ausbah 2y agoamazing that the t4t handle hasn’t already been taken lol. also def feel like this has a large slant towards mtfs, any idea on demographic breakdown?
- alicesmemories 2y agoit looks really slick but the timeline scrolling is a little heavy. also fwiw no way to filter location for posts without sharing your own...
- t4t 2y agoI am curious if you mean heavy in terms of the physics of the swipe, or heavy in terms of something like the layout?
- CaptainFever 2y agoSaw a post that says they found the website via the "terrible orange site"?! Grumble grumble. /jk In all seriousness though, this is great! And good timing too, such a community is needed now more than ever before. Does this website cater to otherkins too, or is that a separate concern (which is completely ok too)? About the funding: are you basically just using lightweight services to keep the cost down, while paying for it out of pocket or with donations? Is there a contingency plan if -- touch wood -- you go rogue or shut down the app?
- cubefox 2y ago[flagged]
- cubefox 2y ago[flagged]
- saagarjha 2y agoBecause focusing on biological ratios is generally considered to be incredibly rude in such a community (and probably most communities?)
- whoah111 2y ago[flagged]
- saagarjha 2y agoYes, because there are very few instances where you would genuinely need to know that information. If you are in one of those (hint: you are my primary care physician or romantic partner), I will offer it to you freely. I believe this even though my biological and expressed gender align. There are plenty of characteristics that are rude to ask even when they are factual. Asking people their age is often rude, even though it's not something they can change. Nobody is offended by the fact that they are not 21 but they can definitely be offended if you point that out to them.
- cubefox 2y agoAsking people's age for statistical purposes or reporting that statistic is not at all rude. It's anonymous.
- meiraleal 2y ago> and I would avoid communities where it would be seen as wrong are you part of this t4t community?
- mmooss 2y agoEither HN suddenly became far more constructive and considerate, and on an inflammatory topic, or dang is doing an incredible job moderating this discussion. I'll just hazard a guess and say - thank you dang! But dang - please don't let this off-topic comment sit at the top of the page and distract from t4t's post.
- bragr 2y agoIf you turn on "show dead", there's an unusually large and alarming number of dead replies on this ranging from fairly banal flame baiting to outright bigotry and slurs. That alone probably shows the value in having these kinds of dedicated niche community sites.
- dang 2y agoUnfortunately I think it's more a function of forum size than topic. I say 'unfortunately' because there's a nasty feedback loop of site-being-good -> site-getting-bigger -> site-attracting-badness -> site-getting-worse. Sometimes I describe this as "there's a cap on how good HN can ever get", but HN is just a placeholder there for any forum of comparable size. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20%22cap%20on%20how%20good%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- achierius 2y agoAre you actually the only mod? I'm shocked at how you seem to show up in every other thread, even cases like this where you're replying to a comment that itself was probably not flagged (and thus put on your queue).
- DonHopkins 2y agoHe's an interdimensional being who exists outside of time, like Palmer Eldritch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Stigmata_of_Palmer_Eldritch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Stigmata_of_Palmer_E...
- FrustratedMonky 2y agoNot sure if mentioned. But add some encryption, and some way to identify bad actors. With the recent executive orders, it might become dangerous to be trans. Yes, it has always been dangerous. But now more like 'the purge' type dangerous with roving gangs with dogs chasing trans people through the country side. I'd think trans people would be in 'hide' mode. Generally, I wonder if anybody not a maga brown shirt, is in 'hide' mode. So trans people, it is no longer about 'being true to self', and now is 'i better hide to survive'. Suddenly feeling how the 'chill' of retribution is stifling all discourse. There is real fear. So generally, the app should be more on the 'hide'/anonymous features. How can I connect to others like me, in an environment where we are both being hunted.
- squigz 2y ago> But now more like 'the purge' type dangerous with roving gangs with dogs chasing trans people through the country side. Do you honestly believe anything like this is going to happen?
- Hikikomori 2y agoThey used to do it with black people, still do it but used to too. Probably not roving gangs but targeted attacks, which have happened. The current political climate and people in charge are going to get plenty of people dead.
- FrustratedMonky 2y agoYes. They are already being fired. They are told they don't exist. (imagine telling a redhead that they are fake and then firing them). Changing how they dress in order to hide. They were singled out as a group to isolate and torment by the ruling government. How many steps do you need to see a trajectory.
- sapphicsnail 2y agoIt hopefully won't come to that but things are starting to get pretty scary. It's slowly becoming illegal to be trans. I have friends that moved away from Florida because it's effectively illegal to get hormone therapy for adults. I'm generally perceived as a woman and have weird men hit on me or even follow me home and there are states where I could go to jail if I use the women's room. This hasn't happened yet but some red states are trying to make it illegal for me to wear women's clothing. Most of the trans women I know have been threatened or harassed on public. I live in CA and have had this happen to me multiple times. I don't think there will be a formal government purge but I'd bet money that we'll see an uptick in random violence directed at us in the next 4 years.
- cperciva 2y agoI am very concerned about this being a target for malicious actors. I'd offer to help you with security but I've never even heard of some of your stack so I'm probably not in a position to help. Is there anyone here who is familiar with OP's stack and has security experience?
- system2 2y agoThis is exactly what I thought about when I first read the post. This is not a good idea in my opinion.
- southernplaces7 2y agoHow is it a bad idea? A community for trans people that's actively used by them because it works for their needs should be considered a bad idea because certain assholes can attack it? The bad there is in the assholes and effort is due in stopping them, not the existence for a specific type of useful community itself.
- saagarjha 2y agoIt's bad if the attack involves, say, doxing the users (who may not desire this or be in a place where it is safe fort this to happen).
- 0xEF 2y agoIt's a bad idea when countries like mine are actively passing legislation toward banning trans people from existing. Having a hackable dox-ready list of where to find them and who they are would be quite convenient for any regime or its fervent supporters that have the resources and skill to weaponize such a service against them. I get what you're saying, the assholes are the bad thing here...but they are also a clear and present danger that now has the power to do what they said they would do these people. This isn't just some malicious hate group from 4chan or whatever, these are government-backed actors interested in actually harming these individuals.
- 2y ago
- WillPostForFood 2y ago[flagged]
- etchalon 2y agoA great idea and deeply necessary.
- t4throwaway 2y ago[flagged]
- anonCoffee 2y ago[flagged]
- jncfhnb 2y ago[flagged]
- t4throwaway 2y ago[flagged]
- Uptrenda 2y agoText is barely readable. What part of this is trans friendly? Do trans people not have eyes?
- gemerald 2y ago[flagged]
- grogenaut 2y agoI'm not going to install the app, not sure what that blocks me from but not going to do it. and there's really nothing that tells me why I would like to use the app. I guess reply? or post? the web part seems pretty bare, I can't tell if it's meant to thread, or go longer with infinite scroll, or be a conversation, or just a wall of posts. I don't get the concept based on the website.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- pjbeam 2y ago(I work in social media content moderation.) Echoing some other comments here, I highly recommend (in strongest possible terms) that you sit down with a lawyer well versed in Internet law wherever you are based out of and lay all of this out on the table for them. All it takes is a bored official finding this thread or your site directly and your sincere effort here will transform into some kind of nightmare. Particularly given some of the major political swings recently, you have a target on your back and no megacorp legal team to protect you. It is crazy easy to end up hosting an image known to NCMEC as seriously bad news and have no idea. Or NCII and not have an adequate reporting/actioning mechanism. Or someone tosses your user DB and people get harassed, swatted, or worse. Not to mention you yourself are a target. By working on your passion project you've definitely already crossed lines that put you at physical risk if your info gets out. And over time the chance that it will climbs toward certainty. I don't mean to dissuade you or wrap subtext in plausible corpolegal BS. I do mean, one human being to another, that you aren't merely building a fun community for people, you've also entered a field where very real, very heavy consequences--legal or not--now need to be a core part of your daily risk calculus.
- brimwats 2y agoYes, huge +1 to this OP, especially if you're American bc you are heading for a big collision with FOSTA-SESTA and other legal issues that could put you and your users at risk of harm.
- jart 2y agoSomeone should set up a website with nothing but LLM generated content, to troll these officials.
- numpad0 2y agoGP mentioned NCMEC, those guys don't care if it's generated or not. Anything aligns their preference gets labeled as "nonconsensual child pornography" and they come after your hosting, DNS, payment, visas, so on. Consensus or IRL children aren't their concerns.
- jokoon 2y agoI wish I could do the same for people with depression
- fsflover 2y agoMake a Mastodon instance.
- m00x 2y agoPosthog was definitely a relevant choice for this project.
- jychang 2y agoThe icon is not religious-parent-safe. Why not offer other icons?
- paulcapewell 2y agoJust echoing other comments as the first post I saw was from someone who wanted a knife so they could "stab girls" while whispering in their ear that they are "getting their hormones". Wow.
- saagarjha 2y agoWell it's important to note that they are stabbing them with a "hrt" knife.
- 2muchcoffeeman 2y agoThat makes it less strange and creepy?
- saagarjha 2y ago[flagged]
- 4gotunameagain 2y ago[flagged]
- janetmissed 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- gemerald 2y ago[flagged]
- LaGrange 2y ago[flagged]
- ThinkBeat 2y ago> NSFW should be opt-in, not default. > How do people report offensive, doxing and unsafe content? Do you have moderators, and can they scale if it comes lot more popular? > Why not also people to browse the web version? It can be a lot easier for accessibility. I sometimes need a bigger font than what the default is. Adjusting it on the mobile is ok but the screen is tiny so there is all manner of scrolling in all directions to read the content.
- wcerfgba 2y agoLast year I managed to connect with 10 other trans people in my Lancashire home town. This is a place with zero 'alternative' spaces, let alone dedicated queer spaces. I made a poster using the trans pride flag as the background, and wrote a bit of blurb on it and put an email address on. Then I stuck it up on community notice boards in supermarkets and in a pub window. My idea was that if you put these things in high footfall areas, someone is bound to walk past and get in touch. And they did! Plus, more pride flags being visible, especially if they are coming from the grassroots and not a giant company, shows that we are here and not alone, and makes us feel safer. So if you want to connect with people near you, maybe go analog and put up some posters ^__^
- jajko 2y agoThis would be too risky IMHO ie in eastern Europe (I don't mean sh*thole of russia where this is even much worse, just eastern EU). The general attitude is less tolerant. Most people in general population of course have 'live and let live' attitude, but small part of each country does actively attack such people, ie skinheads or other far right groups.
- wcerfgba 2y agoThis is exactly why it's important to find each other, so we can keep each other safe. There is strength in numbers. If you put up your posters on community notice board and use a non-personal email (I just made a new Gmail account for it) then nobody can be identified, the worst case is someone pulls the poster down.
- indulona 2y ago[flagged]
- dang 2y agoCould you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- master-lincoln 2y agoSeems fishy to require an app. BigCorp normally does this so they can skim off more user data and prevent ad blocking.
- jbirer 2y agoI've been disappointed to not encounter the hot trans girl content the comments are complaining about. How do you handle iOS testing? Do you have VPN blocking? What are some guerilla marketing tactics did you use? I am trying to grow a community in an unrelated topic and want to see what I could potentially do. Cool project by the way!
- mrgoldenbrown 2y agoIf the goal is to be lightweight why is it app only and not just a web page?
- runjake 2y agoWarning for those who visit the site at work, there is a lot of NSFW content.
- tedajax 2y agoIs there a way to sign up without using Google/Apple sign-in?
- elintknower 2y agoopen source?
- valval 2y ago[flagged]
- dutchbookmaker 2y agoAs a super straight CIS guy who worships Wendy Carlos and Selofan, I wish I could join too. I am sure ya'll talk about the coolest things. It just makes me sad how before the internet there really were not these barriers. The "freaks" of society all got together around art, music, fashion in an apolitical way. This ultimately is the opposite of "inclusive" but I get why. It still makes me sad.
- def13 2y agoNot a huge fan of lack of control over location in profile. I understand wanting location to show local posts much like lex, but right now all I can disable on my profile is "showing neighbourhood". The app grabs three locales of differing specificity, which I guess you think is Neighbourhood -> City -> Country. However what it has fetched as my Neighbourhood is my "Ward" which is a suburb subdivision in Australia that is never used for anything except for voting in local council elections. This is a truly overly specific location, 80% of people will have no idea what their ward is until they look at their voting paper for the council elections. The next most specific locale "City" is my suburb, which is also a relatively small location which I'm not comfortable sharing online. If it grabbed my metro city (i.e. Melbourne) I'd be happy to display that. Overall though, I think this should be an editable field so that people can share as comfortable. I'm fine that the app needs my location but why does that need to be displayed to other users?