sofiechan home

Welcome to Sofie Channel. Curated anonymous discussion about life and philosophy.

anon 0x14c said in #1269 14mo ago:

I've been working on a little something in the background for the past year, and more earnestly for the past few months. It's a new social media platform designed to curate a high quality discourse community about whatever topics are important to us.

"Launch early and often" they say, so don't expect a fully polished new world order, but I dare say it works for basic posting. There's a lot left before it's really ready for primetime, but it's strong enough now to invite a few more early adopters.

The basic concept is that sofiechan is moderated by what you might call a "bayesian reputation market"; the system interprets your votes and interactions as evidence of taste and quality, and curates the best threads and posters.

Sofiechan is unapologetically monarchist. The crowdsourcing is not intended to reflect "the will of the people". My bet is that we will get a better experience by combining crowdsourcing with the careful judgement and vision of a single good moderator.

Sofiechan is anonymous so that we can have frank conversations about important topics without exposing our public reputations to third party social censure, and explore ideas that aren't entirely our own. You are accountable to the algorithm, not "the public".

Eventually, I want sofiechan to cover a great many topics, and be a space where different communities can curate their own little walled gardens. But for now it's a single board focused mostly on our interests in life and philosophy. ("Sofie" as in "philo sophia")

If you've been around for a while, now is the time to share sofiechan with your most curious friends. If you're new, welcome and please make yourself at home.

All I ask at this point as we grow and test it out is that you all try to stay polite and interact in good faith, cooperate with administrator requests, and be patient if we break anything.

Today is launch day. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the concept and where we should take it from here.

I've been working on

anon 0x14d said in #1270 14mo ago:

Hello world

Hello world

anon 0x14e said in #1271 14mo ago:

This is a worthwhile endeavor- I'm hoping it has a chance to flourish.

This is a worthwhile

anon 0x14f said in #1272 14mo ago:

let a hundred flowers bloom - let a hundred schools of thought contend

let a hundred flower

anon 0x151 said in #1274 14mo ago:

Thus the gloomy World
At first began to shine,
And from the Power Divine
A Glory round about it hurl'd;
Which made it bright,
And gave it Birth in light.
Then were all Minds as pure,
As those Ethereal Streams;
In Innocence secure,
Not Subject to Extreams.
There was no Room then for empty Fame,
No cause for Pride, Ambition wanted aim.

Thus the gloomy Worl

anon 0x152 said in #1275 14mo ago:

Plato’s description and criticism of Democracy in the Republic is insanely relevant today.

referenced by: >>1288

Plato’s description

anon 0x154 said in #1278 14mo ago:

Hello world!!!

Congretulations.

Hello world!!! ...

anon 0x158 said in #1283 14mo ago:

Is the taste-algorithm robust against circlejerk collusions?

referenced by: >>1288

Is the taste-algorit

anon 0x15a said in #1285 14mo ago:

Congrats on the launch! Big fan of Palladium so I have high hopes for this one. Interesting design choice to have pseudonymity for the purposes of algorithmic ranking, but not exposing that to the users.

What's the Numbered vs Anonymous options about?

referenced by: >>1288

Congrats on the laun

anon 0x14c said in #1288 14mo ago:

>>1283
Yes, more or less. If a group of posters are only liked by each other, but others don't like them, they will all lose authority eventually to the point of even losing posting privilege. There may be additional vulnerabilities, but I won't speculate for obvious reasons. As the algorithm matures, there will be fewer and fewer opportunities to get away with bad faith behavior. But this all depends on you all making good faith judgements of quality and trustworthiness with the hide and endorse buttons (and your interactions).

>>1285
Yeah the primary purpose of anonymity as I see it is not protection from the platform but protection from hostile factions of cyberbullies and aspiring stasi agents. That said, the platform can be compromised by said cyberbullies, so in the long run we'll add features for more robust forms of anonymity.

>What's the Numbered vs Anonymous options about?
You are number 8 in this thread. You will always be number 8 in this thread, in case you wish to have your posts associated with each other for keeping track of discussion. In other threads, you will have different/unconnected numbers, so no one can track your posts between threads to deanonymize you. If you don't wish to be associated with yourself within the thread, you can choose "anonymous", as >>1275 did. So samefagging is allowed, but impersonation is avoidable.

As the platform matures, I'll add more gradations of anonymity. Maybe a weapons grade expunged anonymity where the server forgets everything ASAP but you eat a reputational cost, and also on the other end posting with a public profile, or a profile only visible to your friends. We'll try out various schemes and try to keep it simple, but I don't believe we can get away with one size fits all.

Yes, more or less. I

anon 0x160 said in #1292 14mo ago:

Always glad to see new frontiers in poasting. Godspeed, you madmen.

Always glad to see n

anon 0x16d said in #1307 13mo ago:

Taking a stance publicly can also be important for advocacy, accountability, and building a sense of community around shared values.

referenced by: >>1335

Taking a stance publ

anon 0x16e said in #1308 13mo ago:

>"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

referenced by: >>1335

>"When in the Course

anon 0x179 said in #1321 13mo ago:

I’ve been enjoying the anonymity here. Having a number which doesn’t persist across threads means I can have a conversation, but not a reputation. Sometimes I want a reputation. But not always. It’s nice to have a space for this.

Sometimes I see a post and I think “Oh, that sounds like my friend Mr. P---.” And maybe it’s him, or maybe I’m imagining things. Maybe Mr. P--- doesn’t even use this forum. It seems better not to ask.

referenced by: >>1322 >>1335

I’ve been enjoying t

anon 0x17a said in #1322 13mo ago:

>>1321

I think there is (computed) reputation within the system, just not known to others by name. Admin could explain better.

referenced by: >>1335

I think there is (co

anon 0x17b said in #1324 13mo ago:

Hello world.

This is an interesting idea for a social media platform, I wish you luck

Hello world. ...

anon 0x17d said in #1327 13mo ago:

Posting for posterity. -CH

Posting for posterit

anon 0x180 said in #1331 13mo ago:

The high reputation poster is a bore and a lout of the highest order. As his reputation trends upwards the amount of information conveyed per post trends to zero. “On this topic the Socratics has this to say—” I can barely stomach this already. See how his finger hovers over the vote buttons, calculating the desires of his fellow onastic strivers. He contradicts only when he knows it furthers his place among the Judge-Moderators—a position, it goes without saying, that comes with no compensation. I can only hope to read new ideas before the belching of our cognitive elite becomes too much to bear.

referenced by: >>1333

The high reputation

anon 0x14c said in #1333 13mo ago:

>>1331
Good post anon. Updooted

referenced by: >>1411

Good post anon. Updo

anon 0x14c said in #1335 13mo ago:

>>1307
>>1308
All in good time gentlemen.

>>1321
>>1322
You guys get the idea. I will add pseudonyms and outright nameposting at some point probably. Also anonymous DMs so you can privately reveal yourself to other posters you find interesting.

referenced by: >>1422

All in good time gen

anon 0x1bb said in #1421 13mo ago:

FYI, my verification email was in my spam folder. I marked it as not spam, but you may wish to inform others when they sign up.

referenced by: >>1424

FYI, my verification

anon 0x1bc said in #1422 13mo ago:

>>1335
> I will add pseudonyms and outright nameposting

It's over.

It's over.

anon 0x14c said in #1424 13mo ago:

>>1422
you can always bully them anonymously, and are never stuck with nameposting

>>1421
Ok. I'll add a note and try to get more info on why that's happening to some people.

you can always bully

anon 0x1d6 said in #1464 13mo ago:

Greetings. Been a fan for a long time, but always just as an observer, until now. This seems like an interesting project!

Greetings. Been a fa

anon 0x239 said in #1635 13mo ago:

Hi. I'm new here. Stumbled across the forum completely on accident, but it looks like it will develop a very interesting culture.

referenced by: >>1636

Hi. I'm new here. St

anon 0x14c said in #1636 13mo ago:

>>1635
welcome. don't let the flame go out.

welcome. don't let t

anon 0x309 said in #1991 11mo ago:

So am I correct in understanding that choosing greater anonymity (not numbered posts) lead to a hit on score or reputation? It was implied here (#1288) but I didn't see it spelled out specifically. I kind of pick at random which way to post but if it comes with a hit I wouldn't choose anonymous so often.

referenced by: >>1992

So am I correct in u

anon 0x14c said in #1992 11mo ago:

>>1991
Nope. The only difference between "Anonymous" vs "Numbered" is whether your posts are visibly associated with each other in the thread. It's just to make discussion easier between anons, while also allowing you to dodge association with your own posts if you want.

I will probably have to streamline and clarify the way anonymous ids work when I add DMs, vouching, profiles, etc. The reason being that each anon identity will conceptually be addressable, even the full anons. The full anons will just have only one post to their name. Then it will be clear that the only difference is how many posts are publicly visibly associated with each other.

The hit to reputation for anonymity is a hypothetical feature for a hypothetical even more anonymous form of anonymity where the server actively forgets who made the post so that even in the event of a data breach the poster could not be identified. That "expunged" anonymity" doesn't exist (yet?). When it does, the reputation cost of using it will be well documented and warned. Currently, in all cases the server remembers who made what post so that it can recompute reputations. (Though even now posters and all other information are forgotten for deleted posts once they are no longer needed for any statistical or user-facing reason).

Nope. The only diffe

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