Now that I have your attention, I have a confession to make: I lied.
Well sort of… because Voat 2.0 doesn’t exist yet, but it will in the future, and this thread is the first in a series of Quarterly Reviews we will be doing to get your feedback on what we need, what we need to improve, and the direction we need to move as a company and as a community.
I can finally announce that Voat’s features (software-wise) are now in the ballpark of a semi-functional platform. I’m not saying Voat is perfect, nor am I saying the features are mature, rather I am saying that we are nearing "acceptable" as a basic functioning platform.
But a basic functioning platform was never our end goal, it was just the first milestone we needed to hit. Now that we are approaching this milestone we need to lay out our future direction.
Voat doesn’t want to be a “clone” any longer. We want to stand up and proclaim our uniqueness. We want to put our differences on display and stake our future on them. Voat can’t survive without redefining ourselves, without evolving into something bigger, something better, something unique and new.
This is the post where we get to dream big, have no boundaries, no constraints, and live in world where everything is possible.
Hypothetical
You have an army of programmers, mountains of cash to burn, and you are the only board member: What does Voat 2.0 look like?
Thread is marked Anon
Canary
https://voat.co/v/announcements/1330806
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8450765? ago
go1dfish here.
First feature request: I love the optional anon modes, but they should mix better. I should be able to choose to identify myself in anon threads, and (if the sub verse allows it) comment anonymously in regular threads. Allowing anon participation should be the default.
(Edit: plenty of folks, or one determined person has decided to help demonstrate why these features could be useful: https://voat.co/v/announcements/1727282/8450869))
The anon support is currently one of the biggest differentiating features from reddit and highly underused.
Second: separate the frontend, you are already planning on doing this.
Third: once the frontend is separated, it becomes a long running app on the user's machine. Voat already supports realtime chat (and message updates), give us realtime thread/comment updates (SSEs may be a lighter approach than the web sockets used for chat)
Fourth: Bitcoin tipping. Give every Voat user a bitcoin account managed on the server and utilities to easily send BTC between users (off chain in the Voat DB to allow minuscule payments without fees)
Ill update this or reply as I come up with more stuff.
Fifth: ditch default subverses and go to a normalized SFW /v/all for the frontage.
You/Voat should be as hands off as possible when it comes to what content succeeds or fails on the site, and the default sub verses are the biggest influence remaining in that sense that I can see.
One more thing: Make /v/TaxationIsTheft a featured subverse on or before April 15th ;) (Yes this is completely contradictory to my last point, so maybe featured sub verses shouldn't really be a thing at all)
8456659? ago
All Voat needs to do to support Bitcoin is display a Bitcoin (or other cryptocoin) address next to each name. Holding BTC or facilitating transfers between users is not needed.
8456671? ago
Sure, but with that level of support very few will use it, and network limitations will set practical lower limits on the amount that is practical to send to someone.