About wireleaf

wireleaf is a quiet place for discussion, built around groups the way Usenet was. You read threads by topic, reply in a tree, and come back later to see what's new.

Groups

Groups have dotted names, like programming.rust or c.nl.wonen. Reading a group also shows the posts of the groups below it. A post can go to more than one group at once.

Accounts older than a week can propose a new group inside an existing hierarchy. A proposed group is open for posts but stays off the front page. Once it has 10 posts from 5 different people within 30 days, it becomes a regular group. If it doesn't get there, it's archived: still readable, but closed for new posts. Moderators of the groups above can also archive a proposal that doesn't fit, with the reason in the public log. Start a group explains the details.

Weight instead of scores

There are no visible vote counts. Lift a post with + or sink it with −, and its branch grows leaves as people lift it:

• No weight yet
• Light weight
• Some weight
• Strong weight
• Heavy weight

Rising mixes weight with age, Newest is plain time order, and Heaviest sorts by weight.

Accounts

Anyone can read. To post, reply or vote you need an account: a username and a password. Nothing else: we don't ask for an email address.

Accounts come by invitation. Each account gets 3 invites to send once it's 7 days old: a link that works once, for 14 days. An unused link comes back to you. Profiles show who invited whom, so a wave of bad accounts can be traced back to where it came in.

When you sign up you get a recovery code, shown once. Keep it somewhere safe: it's the only way back in if you forget your password. You can make a new one from your account page.

New accounts can post a little less on their first day, and can't post links yet.

Moderation

Each group has moderators, and a moderator of a group also looks after the groups below it. If something breaks the rules, use Report under it. Moderators can remove posts and replies, lock or pin threads, and ban people from their groups.

A removed post or reply leaves a note that says who removed it and why. Every moderator action is listed with its reason in the public moderation log, without the removed text.

What we keep

• Your username, a hash of your password and a hash of your recovery code.
• The posts, replies and votes you make, and which threads you've read, so we can show what's new.
• For each device you're logged in on: the browser name and when it was last used, so you can log it out from your account page.
• Reports you send. Only moderators see who sent them.
• Removed posts and replies, kept so a removal can be undone. Only moderators can read them.
• If you read without an account: a random id in a cookie, so we can remember which threads you've read.