Mainchan.com monthly update
Posted by CiceroMainchan@reddit | RedditAlternatives | View on Reddit | 21 comments
Hey everyone! Creator of mainchan.com here with a monthly update.
But first, for those who don't know, Mainchan is an anti-censorship reddit alternative that does not plan to monetize via ads. We have features such as optional anonymous posting/commenting, a feed for users you follow, save folders, comment images, etc. etc. (you can find more features here: https://mainchan.com/about)
Since my last post here, there's been a few changes to mainchan.
First new feature is top comment previews. Basically just click the "preview" button on a submission and you get to preview the top comment!
Second, there's now a subchan list to help with subchan discovery. There's also the "trending subchans" on the top of the front page.
Third, there's now a karma leaderboard found here: https://mainchan.com/leaderboard For this feature I'm just testing the waters. If users start taking it too seriously then I'll take it down. But for now it's a fun little thing.
Lastly, I released mainchan.fr for french users. I don't plan on being very active on this website (despite speaking french), so it might get a little wild-west-ish.
I'm also currently learning react native to provide a mobile app for mainchan.
Happy to answer questions as always!
_by_me@reddit
make it possible to selectively block subs, for example I don't mind most NSFW subs appearing in the homepage, but I'd rather not watch some stuff like furry porn, or the like
CiceroMainchan@reddit (OP)
Only subs you're subscribed to show up on the homepage. You mean on /all ?
Howaboutnopers@reddit
Anti-censorship=It's a place to platform Nazis.
How about nope.
_by_me@reddit
yes, you can filter subs from r/all, at least on old.reddit
CiceroMainchan@reddit (OP)
I could add that to my to-do list, sure.
BeatlesTypeBeat@reddit
Filtering subs in all should be a big priority.
_by_me@reddit
thanks for considering it
Living_Resource5278@reddit
NSFW is uncommon but it exist
and porn related stuff is very rare
i probability bet that there is only 13 porn post
or less idk
This_Platypus_55@reddit
Can you lure the top mod teams to your platform? I think that will be the best marketing strategy of any alternative.
CiceroMainchan@reddit (OP)
I mean, I'd love to, but how would you propose that would work?
This_Platypus_55@reddit
Direct msg them from reddit
wtf_asshole@reddit
I would allow night mode and nsfw content to be viewable without having an account.
The night mode would be nice as it will allow someone passing by the site to get a feel for the night mode.
For NSFW content you can have an are you 18 thing pop up like reddit does it. Sometimes you just don't want it on your browser history. I also view some stuff in incognito on reddit to make sure my comment or post actually goes through the filter.
tunachilimac@reddit
Can you elaborate on your anti-censorship stance? Do I need to worry about your site becoming a platform for groups kicked off reddit like jailbait and n*ggers?
If you don't plant to monetize with ads, what is your plan for paying the bills?
CiceroMainchan@reddit (OP)
Jailbait/loli isn't allowed on mainchan. As for racism, that falls under NSFL (not safe for life/shocking content). You can read more under the content policy: https://mainchan.com/content-policy but here is the relevant excerpt: "Content involving graphic or disturbing content that risks psychological trauma to those viewing it should be tagged as NSFL. This includes any form of discrimination against others due to immutable characteristics."
Private feeds. Basically onlyfans. Content creators can have private feeds that users can sign up to, and mainchan takes a small cut.
tunachilimac@reddit
So if someone wants to create a subchan or whatever named "n*ggers" that promotes that completely unfounded idea that black people are inferior that's allowed so long as they don't directly call for violence against them?
CiceroMainchan@reddit (OP)
I thought of this.
This would be considered a NSFL subchan by nature.
In subchan settings, you can deem a subchan to be political/nsfw/nsfl in nature. This means that all posts made would forcibly have those global tags.
But I figure that some users would just want to troll and not abide by that. So if some user made a subchan called /s/insertracearesubhumans or whatever, I've already created a system where I can easily, as an admin, force that setting on a subchan, and mods would be unable to unset it.
tunachilimac@reddit
I don't care that I can hide it. I care that I'd be supporting a platform that has explicitly designed a safe space for hate groups to congregate and grow.
BeatlesTypeBeat@reddit
lol
CiceroMainchan@reddit (OP)
Clear cache. Not sure why this was happening today but clearing cache fixed it. Something to do with cloudflare?
busymom0@reddit
Hopefully you have good experience with it. I haven't used react native but have used Flutter (was building a reddit client) and I won't recommend it for a complex app like Reddit. Scrolling performance with heavy widget trees was absolute dog shit, especially on Android. Went back to native development via Swift and Kotlin instead.
So, before you sink in a lot of time on cross platform, I would recommend building a 2 page app with complex (lots of UI elements) scrolling and see how it performs. Also test out how transitioning from one page to another performs. Also test out animations/transitions beforehand as those are where a lot of these cross platform frameworks suffer.
CiceroMainchan@reddit (OP)
Thanks! I chose react native because, from what I've read, it's the easiest to learn for webdevs since the skills more-or-less translate.
The initial mobile app for mainchan is going to be pretty bare-bones but I'll work on it little by little, just like mainchan.