Interests, interesting

Some info is already in this post, but it seems some more explanation is needed.

WHAT YOU WRITE ABOUT

First things first, the most important thing to realize is, setting interests for your account, in the wallet app, is about letting people know what you write about. What YOU WRITE about. This information is used when people use the Discover People feature.

Discover People

That is the part of the platform where people go looking for new friends, new members to follow. Without setting your interests, you will not show up on this page. Do yourself a favor, promote yourself by simply setting those interests.

Which ones to pick?

You can set five interests you write about, but you don't have to use them all. When you share pictures, mostly taken while you walk or travel, you could set it to Photography, Nature, Travel. Don't set it to Food, when your food pictures go no further than an occasional sandwich once every three months.

There is no use in setting interests you don't write about. People will get disappointed for not finding what you promised, and stop following you.

When you write a post

Setting interests for your posts is a different matter. That post with the occasional sandwich picture can now have the Food interest added to it. Simply because that is what the post is about.

Which ones to pick?

Again, be careful which ones to pick. Your first choice should be an interest that is listed in the predefined list of interests. When people browse their feed and want to check other interests they are more likely to click one of interests from the list that is displayed at the right side of the feed, than enter a not listed interest themselves. So, go for a displayed one first.

Then you can add whatever you want, for example more a tag than an interest to identify your post as an entry for a specific contest.

Make sure the interests you set are correct. A picture of your cat does not relate to nature. A picture of your friends hanging out at McDonald's does not relate to food. A close up from the food you ordered however would.

Interests and limitations

Since we are very much used to tags, it may feel interests are no good, too limited. Interests are just different. They cover a broader field. This makes the posts that can be found in these fields more versatile. Where tags focus on details, interests focus on the bigger picture.

From time to time it may be hard to find an interest that fits your post, go with the best fit, even if it is not perfect.

Request for additional interests

You can use the feedback channel on the Discord server to pitch an interest you would like to be added. It is up to the team to decide whether or not to actually add it.

A procedure that would make this a little easier would be if off-topic would be added to the list. It is automatically added to quick posts, but not traceable using the predefined interests list.
If people were to add off-topic to the posts they don't find a suitable interest for, the off-topic feed could be an instrument to use to determine whether new interests are needed.

In my opinion, pod, project, personal interests/tags should never be part of the predefined interests list.

I hope this helps someone.

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