News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by FemmeAndroid on Sunday May 31, 2020 @09:53PM (#23374842)
Hey,

Thanks so much for checking this out. I made this site as part of Ludum Dare 46, a game jam. The theme was "Keep it alive." I wanted to do something that was positive and that would give people an outlet to write about their experiences related to Covid. I've had to deal with some abuse, particularly after the first week, but overall it's been an incredibly positive experience.

There are certainly a lot of improvements I hope to make soon. I honestly built it in an evening and expected it might be dead within a day or two. That it's lasted over a month is incredible.

With a large influx of new readers, I'm sure you'll come across a few less savory posts. I'd encourage you to click the report button on the bottom of the page.

Thanks so much for checking it out!

Edit: Since this is HN, and I'm bound to get the question - It's built with Rails and Vue, with PaperCSS for the styling, Postgres for the database, and Redis is being used as part of the spam mitigation system. Oh, and the DB really will wipe itself if it goes more than 24 hours without a post.

Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by NikolaNovak on Sunday May 31, 2020 @10:06PM (#23374898)
1. Thank you for doing this

2. It's strange how the simple things, efforts and connections mean so much these days

3. It is joyous and comforting how many interesting, loving, quirky, emotional, sincere messages I've found, and how few trolls I've stumbled upon. Hope it stays that way (understanding that it may be unlikely if it keeps getting more visibility).

4. I have no idea if by deleting reported spam you become more culpable/liable for any offensive messages you don't remove, or any freedom of speech issues - check the laws in your region I guess, and yes it's sad that one has to think about these things :-/

5. Best of luck! :)

Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by FemmeAndroid on Sunday May 31, 2020 @10:21PM (#23374967)
Thanks for the kind words.

Honestly, regarding 3, I've been really impressed by how positive people have been. When this was near the top of Reddit about a month ago, I really spend about 48 hours frantically coding and moderating. Those 48 hours taught me a lot about content moderation though.

On the whole, it's been an _incredibly_ positive community of people writing letters. We've received over 115,000 letters, and they've been read over 15 million times. Many of the first 75,000 letters were spam and highly moderated content. But I've been able to read most of the past 35,000 or so, and an astonishing number are kind, thoughtful, or heartbreaking.

We've also had a lot of positivity coming from non-english countries, which I've encouraged and enjoyed seeing on social media. It's been a bit of an excuse to brush up on my French. I'd eventually love to have a better native experience for non-english speakers, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Thanks again for the kind words.

Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by the_af on Monday June 01, 2020 @09:49AM (#23378389)
I think it's something about the earnestness of your website. The welcome message is friendly and it sets the tone. It didn't even occur to me to write something nasty, and this was before I even checked what others had written.
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by NikolaNovak on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @10:43AM (#23391530)
Agreed - it's a great intro that really sets the tone :)
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by kuzimoto on Monday June 01, 2020 @01:31AM (#23375686)
Regarding 4, it's a private website. I don't think freedom of speech applies. If you have some sources that say otherwise I'd be interested to read them.
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by NikolaNovak on Monday June 01, 2020 @09:42AM (#23378314)
Right, should edit/correct (but can not in original message), I don't think it is a freedom of speech issue; rather, a defamation/libel issue which is complex internationally and very different in otherwise similar jurisdictions.

My understanding that (recent news notwithstanding), generally publisher vs utility law in USA regarding ISPs, social networks, forums, etc, does take into account whether you are simply a platform (you don't moderate, just host) or publisher (you do write and moderate content), and protection against libel etc is different.

I am EXTREMELY not a lawyer but I do understand private websites have been bitten over their content once they started moderating / taking responsibility for it, i.e. unwittingly changed their status under that statute.

My suggestion to the author is merely to ensure they are taking the course that's wise and protective for themselves, in their particular jurisdiction, for their specific use case.

Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by cyphar on Monday June 01, 2020 @04:18AM (#23376325)
The recent Section 230 executive order[1] would be relevant here. Normally social networks have immunity from prosecution if they publish a defamatory or libelous statement (this is the so-called "magazine stand" model). But if the executive order is legal then selectively censoring (or "moderating") what your users post means that immunity no longer applies and you can be sued for any statement that you allowed a user to publish on your network.

This isn't directly related to First Amendment freedom of speech rights, the issue is one of liability (but the purpose of the liability is -- allegedly -- to force platforms to uphold the principle of freedom of speech).

[1]: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-or...

Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by EGreg on Monday June 01, 2020 @08:15AM (#23377646)
Democrats in Congress specifically grilled social network execs in the wake of the perceived “fake news” crisis in 2016 and pushed the social networks to adopt these fact-checking measures. Now the White House wants to strip their immunity for it. So, which is it? Rock and hard place?
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by eyelidlessness on Sunday May 31, 2020 @10:48PM (#23375084)
Have you written about your experience with abuse, or are you willing to share? It's absolutely awful that you would experience that for something so obviously positive, but if you have thoughts you want to share on that it could be helpful for those of us who want to continue to challenge abuse in tech generally and might be educational for people here (maybe me) who engage in harmful behaviors and don't realize it.

(It's also not your responsibility to publish your abuse, I'm only opening up the opportunity to say more if you want to.)

Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by FemmeAndroid on Sunday May 31, 2020 @10:56PM (#23375114)
I definitely will once it's no longer up. I might before then, once I improve the moderation tools a bit more. But between just being a neat thing to spam, and specifically targeting me as a trans woman, a lot of people seemed to enjoy posting hateful messages on the site when it was popular on reddit.

The anti-trans messages were really important for me to remove. They weren't particularly hurtful to me, but a good portion of my webcomic's audience are trans teens, and I _really_ didn't want their first experience at this website I made to be hate directed at them.

Thanks for asking. I'll definitely write more at a later date. :)

Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by eyelidlessness on Sunday May 31, 2020 @11:17PM (#23375203)
Thank you for this response. I'm sorry that it's been a magnet for abuse at all, I'm glad it hasn't been particularly hurtful to you, and I'm especially glad that you're taking moderation seriously. I will keep an eye out for whatever you write up and amplify it when that time comes.
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by geitir on Monday June 01, 2020 @12:35AM (#23375486)
May I suggest an upvote and downvote system for each message? With 3 downvotes removing the message
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by forgotmypw17 on Monday June 01, 2020 @01:24AM (#23375664)
Three-reports-to-remove, along with moderator review for the removes, seems to be the golden standard for machine-aided moderation since the days of AOL.

The downside of it is that by the time you have 3 downvotes/reports, at least 3 people have already been exposed to the content. It might not seem like a lot, but that's 3 people who had to read something unpleasant, hurtful, or just a plain old waste of time on your resource.

Minimum 3 readers, usually many more, because people rarely report things, per spam/troll adds up fast.

Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by Gigablah on Monday June 01, 2020 @12:12AM (#23375396)
I just want to say this: the angled design is absolute genius because it lets me hold my phone at an angle without bending my wrist. I thought it was a cute gimmick at first but turns out there’s a huge usability factor!
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by Miraste on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @01:05PM (#23393294)
Not so for those of us of the left-handed persuasion, sadly (I suppose there could be a button to flip it)
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by jooize on Monday June 01, 2020 @05:24AM (#23376653)
Makes me wonder how an ergonomic phone could be shaped. I imagine placing all content at an angle would be problematic. Anyone have RSI from holding a phone?
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by snazz on Monday June 01, 2020 @08:11AM (#23377622)
I'm guessing that RSI from holding a phone is not nearly as significant of an issue as RSI from using a keyboard, since there are quite a few more hand positions in which to hold the phone where you can scroll comfortably. Also, your wrist is never in a strange position holding a phone compared to a keyboard.
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by outofe on Monday June 01, 2020 @02:44AM (#23375920)
Does the game Queers in Love at the End of the World have an influence on your website? You mentioned your audience is very LGBT. This, combined with the "time is running out" feeling of your website, made me think of that game immediately.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queers_in_Love_at_the_End_of_t...

Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by FemmeAndroid on Monday June 01, 2020 @08:12AM (#23377625)
While I don't know that I was thinking about Queers in Love at the End of the World specifically while making this, Anna Anthropy's games are definitely an inspiration for me more broadly.
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by GTP on Monday June 01, 2020 @07:12AM (#23377289)
I really like your idea and I felt like leaving a comment on your website! But I have a question: what does the heart button below other people's comment?
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by rhyneav on Monday June 01, 2020 @07:06AM (#23377264)
Thank you for using PaperCSS! It’s always a lot of fun seeing it used in projects out in the wild :)
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by _nalply on Monday June 01, 2020 @04:16AM (#23376317)
A technical question, how did you make these borders? With Bézier splines?
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by computerex on Monday June 01, 2020 @04:38AM (#23376431)
Simple CSS

         border-bottom-left-radius: 15px 255px;
         border-bottom-right-radius: 225px 15px;
         border-top-left-radius: 255px 15px;
         border-top-right-radius: 15px 225px;
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by _nalply on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @10:56AM (#23391673)
So simple and beautiful.
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by enz on Monday June 01, 2020 @10:49AM (#23379032)
Just curious, what is the script/SQL to wipe the DB?
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by keithnz on Sunday May 31, 2020 @10:09PM (#23374918)
Is there anything cool that happens when it does go boom?
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by FemmeAndroid on Sunday May 31, 2020 @10:39PM (#23375044)
Not at the moment. I'll probably do something if it lasts six months. Right now, I've still got some accessibility and legalese changes I'd like to make before I work on that. Right now, if it stopped getting messages, after 24 hours it would just error out.
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by battery_cowboy on Sunday May 31, 2020 @11:10PM (#23375169)
Put it into a docker container, run with the `--rm` flag, then when it expires have it delete it's own git repo and other data before exiting, then it'll really be dead.
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by eddieoz on Monday June 01, 2020 @04:04AM (#23376264)
Very nice social experience and it is a playground to test many things on game theory.

I think managing the spam could be the worse part, but best of lucky

Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by makotoNagano on Monday June 01, 2020 @11:38AM (#23379697)
going through the responses, i've yet to hit a spam response which is pretty incredible
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by taigi100 on Monday June 01, 2020 @03:57AM (#23376231)
Very cool idea, keep it up! It's one of the coolest projects I've seen in a game jam!
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by bathtub365 on Sunday May 31, 2020 @10:01PM (#23374879)
Interesting website. How will the database wipe itself?
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by FemmeAndroid on Sunday May 31, 2020 @10:39PM (#23375047)
DROP TABLE table_name;
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by anticensor on Monday June 01, 2020 @07:02AM (#23377236)
DROP DATABASE website;
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by battery_cowboy on Sunday May 31, 2020 @11:06PM (#23375154)
I wrote this earlier, I love art projects like this, it's better than a million Ubers to me.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23346004

Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by FemmeAndroid on Sunday May 31, 2020 @11:10PM (#23375172)
Thanks so much for the kind words! I agree. I love the internet for the weird and interesting things you can find. I’m glad this one has resonated with so many people.
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by onemoresoop on Monday June 01, 2020 @01:21AM (#23375653)
Dear website, Bring the old internet back, Pleeeease
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by amelius on Monday June 01, 2020 @06:04AM (#23376896)
Yes, before it is too late (eventually nobody will know what the old internet was like).
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by gprasanth on Monday June 01, 2020 @05:07AM (#23376588)
The skewed elements gave me a headache! :(
Re:This Website Will Self Destruct by rurban on Monday June 01, 2020 @02:42AM (#23375914)
I'm not impressed with the concept of the website but your comics are really good. Even excellent. No contract yet?