Update on the Reddit alternative I posted here: Otto is now Topicle, with 400 signups and almost two months of changes

Almost two months ago now I [posted here about Otto](https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/1sc7ui8/otto_a_reddit_alternative_ive_been_building_since/), a Reddit alternative I've been building solo since 2023. No ads, no algorithmic feed, moderator accountability, visible country flags, hosted in Australia. Since then it's picked up 400 signups and 12k visitors from an Australian community launch. I've also renamed it to **Topicle** and shipped a lot of new functionality, so I wanted to give an update. It's at **[topicle.com](https://topicle.com)** if you want to take a look. All old otto.talk links still work and redirect. **Why the rename?** The reason is boring but unfortunately a showstopper - trademark clearance. After posting here, [I got some useful negative feedback on the name](https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/1sc7ui8/otto_a_reddit_alternative_ive_been_building_since/oeho7rp/). I did the due diligence I should have done earlier and found that "Otto" had US trademark conflicts in the exact space I'm operating in (NICE class 38, 41, 42, 45). Rather than build on a name that was already effectively claimed, I renamed while the user base was still small and the cost of switching was low. "Topicle" is a portmanteau of "topic" and "article" which are both discussion platform-related. It is also a play on words - "topical" (relevant, current). The .com was available on the second-hand market from a defunct startup, and the trademark path was open. I incorporated a company (Topicle Pty Ltd) and filed a trademark before doing the cutover. There's a more detailed explanation at **[topicle.com/why](https://topicle.com/why)** if you're curious about the reasoning. **What's new since the last post** The most useful thing from the past two months has been real user feedback. After a recommendation from a user on /r/RedditAlternatives, u/Falafels in the previous thread, [I posted the site on /r/BuyAussie](https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/1sc7ui8/otto_a_reddit_alternative_ive_been_building_since/oldtdn5/) which ended up being well received, resulted in a wave of signups, and a lot of the changes below came directly from their requests and bug reports. Things like image replies, the comment formatting toolbar, profile bios, and sports auto-flairs all came from specific user requests. Here are the highlights: *Posting and comments* - **Image replies in comments.** You can attach an image to any comment, not just top-level posts. Drag and drop or use the toolbar icon. Images open in a lightbox. - **Post title editing.** Authors can edit titles within the first 15 minutes. Moderators can retitle posts at any time. Full edit history is visible. One of those things Reddit has never allowed. - **Translation.** Non-English post titles are auto-translated, and comments can be translated on demand with a click. Language is detected automatically. Multilingual communities work without everyone needing to speak the same language. - **Spoiler system.** Manual spoiler tagging with content masking across all surfaces. For sports communities, spoilers are detected automatically from post content and tagged with the relevant league. - **Formatting toolbar for comments.** Bold, italic, links, quotes, and image upload accessible from a toolbar above the comment editor, not just markdown syntax. - **Post drafts with autosave.** Drafts save automatically as you type and persist across sessions. Named draft slots so you can work on multiple posts. *Discovery and real-time* - **Live updates via WebSockets.** While reading a thread or browsing a feed, a banner appears in real time when new posts or comments are available. No manual refresh needed. DMs, notifications, and mod queues all update live too. - **Thread subscriptions.** Subscribe to any thread to get notified of new comments, similar to "follow this post" on other platforms. - **RSS feeds.** Every community, user profile, and the front page has an RSS feed. Autodiscovery tags are included so your reader picks them up automatically. - **Search improvements.** Sub-scoped search (search within a specific community), time-range filtering, and a persistent search bar in the header. Trying to improve on Reddit search here. - **Mentions and hover cards.** Type u/username or t/community in a comment and it auto-links. Hover over any username anywhere on the site to see a summary card with their stats, badges, and account age. - **Keyword muting.** Define keywords in your settings to hide posts and comments containing those terms. Useful for filtering out topics you don't want to see. *Moderation and data* - **Moderator transparency.** A dedicated mod log page showing all moderator actions in a community, visible to members. Public community stats page with a graph, growth and activity trends. - **Expanded data export.** GDPR data export now runs as a background job and includes all user data categories: posts, comments, votes, messages, notifications, moderation history, and more. *Quality of life* - **Interest-based onboarding.** New users pick their interests from a visual grid and get subscribed to matching communities automatically, instead of being given a default set. This was necessary because users were complaining the defaults had topics they weren't interested in - US Politics, Formula 1, Tennis. Some users seemed to be mass downvoting US Politics as a form of protest against being subscribed to it. - **DM improvements.** Edit and delete sent messages. Opt out of send-on-Enter. Hide deleted messages. Existing thread detection when starting a new conversation. - **Improved mobile experience.** Bottom sheets instead of dropdowns for many actions, proper edge-to-edge layout, mobile-optimized navigation, and create button that allows both posts and communities to be made. There's more on the [about page](https://topicle.com/about), but these are the changes most relevant to daily use. **Roadmap** Here's what's coming next, prioritized based on user feedback: - **iOS app** (in progress, Android to follow). App was highly requested and a hard pre-requisite for some users to join the platform. I thought apps were passe and PWA was sufficient, but not so. - **Sign in with Apple.** Somewhat more privacy preserving than Sign in with Google, due to anonymous email relays. - **Optional "verified human" badge.** This came up repeatedly as people want to know they're talking to a real person and seemed surprisingly fine with whatever verification means are required to make it happen, even if it was invasive. - **Age verification.** Required legally to offer NSFW in a growing number of countries now, and there is quite an appetite for this. - **Animated gifs in comments.** Toggleable per-community by moderators, off by default. - **Video posts.** - **Mod-selectable rule sets per community** (strict, standard, loose) instead of one-size-fits-all rules. **What hasn't changed** The core principles from the [original post](https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/1sc7ui8/otto_a_reddit_alternative_ive_been_building_since/) still apply: no ads, no algorithmic feed, moderator accountability, visible country flags, no private profiles, hosted in Australia, GDPR/CCPA compliant, VPNs blocked for writes. The feedback button is still on every page, and I'm still actively building daily. If you visited before and were put off by anything, it's worth another look. A lot has changed. I would love to hear any feedback, thoughts or criticisms you have. Thanks for all your previous feedback which has significantly improved the site as a result. **[topicle.com](https://topicle.com)**