@TomFulp @sheepwave Something about NG that holds is back is also something that has probably helped it. We were accustomed to users who would never stop the back and forth "flame wars" in the forums so when we made the review system, we set it up so the author could reply but that was it - no back and forth. It has likely prevented a ton of discussion but I imagine has also prevented a lot of drama. I wonder what conversations we've missed but also wonder what authors might have been chased away by endless antagonizing in their review space.
Blogs were set up kinda similar, where people could post replies but only the blog owner had a response box - something to empower the owner while minimize the topic getting derailed (can always go to the forums for that). This has loosened up over the years now that anyone can @ reply within a blog thread; it's more like a Twitter thread than a traditional comment thread. We should probably go full-on traditional with blogs though, this system does feel weird now.
TomFulp
Following tags is a really cool idea. I've noted it in our internal Feed ideas list so we don't forget it as things progress. Also keen on having tags for artists to create a better recommendation system for who to follow... I feel like many years ago I totally underestimate just how powerful tags were and would become. The cool thing is we set up an Elasticsearch cluster, which gives NG a lot more potential for powerful search and filtering features, vs what we had a few years ago.
We are planning a reblog feature / activity feed on user pages but I do hope the vibe stays chill and relatively drama-free like it has for years now... Hard to predict what will happen there.
The "X votes to see score" feature was added yesterday and we made a list of other areas where it needs to be addressed (namely search results and forum links), however we're leaving that be while getting back to some other updates.
sheepwave
Having slept on it, the "meritocracy" nature of voting might be enough to prevent toxic callout feedback loops from getting out of hand. tumblr's problem was that once something got going, the only way to interact with it was via positive feedback.
If reblogging and non-creator "aggregators" featuring of links to work on thier own feed for your own followers is something you guys think will work for your vision of your site, then go for it, but definitely don't fall into the trap of changing your own culture completely.
also, me from ten years ago is currently in shock im actually responding to something tom fulp said to me. lol.