Help

Getting an account

Press Continue with Google to create or access your account. The screen after that asks for your username, which is what appears on everything you post and what other people search for. A username needs at least three characters.

Email and password sign-in is disabled. Keep access to the Google account you use here, because that is how you return to your account.

Writing an opinion

The box at the top of Home is where you write. The Post button in the sidebar opens the same box in a window, so you can write from any page. An opinion is up to 280 characters; the row of buttons and the character count appear under the box as soon as you click into it, and Post stays switched off until there is something to publish.

Nothing can be edited once it is published. The only way to change an opinion is to delete it, from the ⋯ menu on your own post, and write it again.

Filing it under a topic

Add up to two hashtags directly in your opinion, such as #technology or #football. Hashtags use letters and numbers only, without spaces or symbols. They show as small labels and are used in search and trends.

Voting

Every opinion has an arrow up, a number and an arrow down. You get one vote on it and the vote is final. Both arrows lock as soon as you have used one, and there is no changing it and no taking it back. Nothing else on the site works this way, so it is worth knowing before you press.

The number in the middle is the total with downvotes subtracted, and that total is all anybody sees. The author is not told how you voted, and neither is anyone else.

Replying

The speech-bubble button beside the arrows opens the replies underneath. A reply is up to 500 characters and Enter sends it. The number on the button is how many there are.

Saving one for later

The ⋯ menu at the top right of any opinion has Save opinion. Everything saved that way collects under Bookmarks in the sidebar, which only you can see.

Following, and who can read you

Follow is on every profile. The feed is newest first, with no ranking of any kind, nothing promoted and no advertising.

Every profile, opinion and reply is visible to signed-in accounts, except where either account has blocked the other. Somebody who is not signed in sees none of the feed, profiles or opinions.

Blocking and reporting

Both are in the ⋯ menu on an opinion and on the account’s own profile. Blocking takes that account out of your feed, hides your opinions from it and removes any follow between you in either direction. Unblock is in Settings, where every account you have blocked is listed.

Reporting sends the account to be looked at by a person. For suspected illegal content, include the direct link and a clear explanation by writing to NicolasUnica@proton.me; this is also the route if you need to report a specific reply. One report is enough. The menu tells you it has yours, and a second one changes nothing. What is worth reporting is set out in the Community Rules.

Finding people, hashtags and opinions

The search box at the top of the right-hand column searches all visible opinions by text and hashtag. Underneath it, matching people are listed.

That column is hidden on a narrow screen, and the search box with it.

Notifications

Three things reach the bell: votes on your opinions, replies to you, and new followers. Each of the three has its own switch in Settings, the badge counts what you have not read, and Mark read clears it in one go.

Your history

History has three tabs and all of them are private to you: your recent activity, the opinions you have published, and the ones you upvoted.

Settings, and where the menu is

The account button at the bottom of the sidebar opens View profile, Settings and Log out; on a phone the same menu sits behind the profile icon in the bottom bar. Settings holds Google account information, authenticator controls, notification switches, device-wide logout, blocked accounts and permanent account deletion.

Google account access

Opinion-Talk does not accept passwords. Your Google account controls access, so manage its password and two-step verification from Google’s security settings.

Logging out, and leaving

Log out is in the account menu. To delete the account and everything in it, open Settings and use Delete account. Type DELETE in the confirmation window: it is permanent, cannot be undone, and the same Gmail mailbox cannot create another account afterwards.

When something does not work

Write to NicolasUnica@proton.me and say what you were doing and what happened instead. It is one inbox, read by the person running the site, usually answered within a few days. The same address takes anything this page, the Community Rules, the Terms and the Privacy Policy do not answer.