About

About Topicle

Topicle is a community-driven platform built around transparency, authenticity, and moderator accountability.

Topicle is a community-driven discussion platform inspired by old Reddit. No promoted posts, no private profiles. On your subscribed home feed under the Depth sort, posts from subs you've recently visited get a small ranking boost so the feed reflects your interests, with a one-click opt-out in Settings. In the iOS and Android apps and in the card layout on the web, posts you've already scrolled past sit lower in your home feed under the Depth and Active sorts, unless they have new replies, and coming back to the apps after a while starts you at the top with a fresh feed. Nothing is hidden, and you can turn this off in Settings. The compact layout on the web never moves seen posts. The /all page, individual sub pages, and every other sort (Latest, Liked, Top, Controversial, Oldest) are unweighted and identical for everyone. Moderator actions are logged and visible. Every profile shows the account's country flag, so you know who you're talking to. In the iOS and Android apps you can also turn on flags next to names in threads.

Signed-out visitors see a small number of clearly labelled ads; members see fewer. Sponsors can appear in a community, labelled Sponsored, and are never ranked as posts.

The platform is built around transparency, authenticity, and moderator accountability. The things that made online forums work before engagement metrics took over.

Alongside this website there are native apps for iPhone and Android. Android also has a direct-download build for Android (no Google services), installed from topicle.com instead of the Play Store.

User Features

Posts & Content

Three post types: text posts with Markdown, link posts with automatic thumbnails, and image galleries (up to 10 images per post)
Add up to 5 inline images to a text or link post body, placed where you insert them
Automatic title extraction when submitting links
Duplicate link detection across communities
Post flairs for categorization
Polls: attach a poll with 2 to 10 options to any post. Results show after you vote or when the poll closes, as its creator or community chooses, with percentages once 20 people have voted. Change your vote until it closes, and show your pick next to your comments if you like
"Other Discussions" tab showing where else a link has been posted
Spoiler tagging with blurred titles and thumbnails in feeds, click to reveal; automatic sports spoiler detection for link posts in spoiler-sensitive communities
Inline spoilers: hide a word or passage inside any post, comment, or message with >!spoiler!< or the editor toolbar, revealed on click
Ninja-edit your own post title within 30 minutes of posting, if no one has commented or voted yet (so a typo can be fixed without changing what people are responding to)
Edit your image posts after publishing: add, remove, and reorder images (the first image is the feed-card cover) as well as captions and description
Posts, comments, community descriptions and bios written in another language are shown in your own, with the original always one tap away and never overwritten

Voting

Upvote and downvote on posts and comments
Transparent vote counts with both upvotes and downvotes visible
Live vote counts: a post's score ticks up and down in real time while you read its thread, instead of freezing until you reload
Anti-manipulation protections against vote rings and coordinated voting

Search & Discovery

Full-text search across posts, comments, users, and communities (powered by Meilisearch)
Search within specific communities
Browse posts by domain to see all submissions from a given website
Rising feed: fresh posts from across Topicle, newest first
Active sort (the default): threads with new replies rise to the top. A reply from the post's own author does not count, and only replies in a thread's first three days do.
Depth sort gives more weight to articles and text posts that spark discussion, over images and videos that tend to dominate vote-based feeds
In the apps and the web's card layout, posts you've already scrolled past move down your home feed unless they have new replies, so each visit starts with something new. You can turn it off in Settings.
Top sort shows the most liked posts of all time, or within a chosen period (past hour, 24 hours, week, month, or year), site-wide and per community
Your feed and sort choices follow your account across the web and the apps
RSS feeds for every community and user profile

Media & Embeds

Embedded YouTube videos, Twitter/X posts, Bluesky posts, TikTok videos, and Imgur videos inline
Native video uploads on posts and comments: clips up to 5 minutes that play directly in the feed, with tap to unmute and fullscreen playback
Feed video autoplay preference: on, Wi-Fi only, or off (in Content settings)
GIF autoplay preference for comments: follow your device's reduced motion setting, always on, or always off (in Content settings)
Automatic thumbnail generation for link posts
Set a custom thumbnail on your own link or text posts, by uploading an image, providing an image URL, or searching freely-licensed images on Wikimedia Commons
Image lightbox for viewing uploaded images at full size
Hover any external link to see its real destination, with a warning when the link text claims to be a different site

Notifications

Notifications for post replies, comment replies, mentions, and messages
Hear when a conversation breaks out just below one of your comments, not only on direct replies; muting replies to a comment also silences this
Subscribe to any thread to get notified of all new comments, with auto-subscribe when you post or comment
Unified inbox combining DMs and modmail
Mark individual or all notifications as read
Reply to a comment straight from your notifications, without opening the thread
Dismiss notifications you are done with, with an undo option
Optional email digest when you have unread activity and have been away for 24 hours (one bundled email per cooldown period, never per item)
The mobile apps can occasionally suggest a live discussion from communities you follow or ones related to them, delivered silently; turn it off with one tap on the notification or in Settings

Account & Security

Email registration or Google sign-in, with the option to link Google to an existing account
One-tap Google sign-in prompt for logged-out visitors, where you still pick your own username before an account is created
Every sign-up path asks whether you want our email before the account exists, and the answer never blocks you from signing up
Three separate email switches in Settings: the weekly digest, activity reminders, and product news and announcements
Change your username once every 30 days, with your old username held for you for 30 days before it is released
Confirm your email with a 6-digit code to secure your account and earn the Email Confirmed badge
Session management: view and revoke active logins with location info
Password reset via email
Proof-of-work bot protection on forms (no data sent to third parties)

Trust & Authenticity

Country flags displayed next to posts and comments based on where you're posting from
Country flags are only ever set from a verified connection: accounts seen only over a VPN or datacenter IP show "Location unverified" instead of a flag, and stale flags are marked
Automated signals flag content that appears to be machine-generated for moderator review
No private profiles: every user's post and comment history is publicly visible
Public mod log on every community so you can see what moderators are doing and why
Public stats page on every community showing subscribers, posts, comments, and activity over time
Account age, email verification status, and other trust signals shown alongside content

Comments & Discussion

Threaded comment trees with collapsible branches
New comments since your last visit are highlighted, on any device you use: jump between them (or press n), see how many new replies sit inside collapsed branches, or open a catch-up view of only what is new
Markdown formatting with u/username and t/community mentions, completed as you type
Emoji picker and Discord-style :shortcode: autocomplete in every composer
Attach up to 4 images to a comment, or pick a GIF from the built-in GIF search: they show as one gallery pinned below the comment, on the web and in the apps
Five sort options: Most Liked, Quality, Controversial, Latest, and Oldest
Quality sort uses a confidence-based ranking that rewards substantive, well-written comments over quick one- liners
Sticky comments highlighted at the top of threads

Communities

Create and join communities (prefixed with t/)
Customizable community settings, icons (including SVG logos), cover images, rules, and flairs
Private communities with access request system
Communities can be marked NSFW; their content is hidden until you opt in from your settings, with age verification where the law requires it
18+ communities are listed only to members who turn them on, and their media stays blurred outside its own community unless you choose otherwise
Related communities sidebar for discovery
Discover page for browsing communities by size, activity, recency, or topic
Moderators can assign their community a topic category to improve its discoverability
Subscribed page for managing your community subscriptions in one place
Favorite communities to pin them to the top of your sidebar, from the sidebar or any community page
Random community button for serendipitous discovery

User Profiles

Public profiles showing post and comment history
Points breakdown (post points and comment points)
View saved, hidden, upvoted, and downvoted content on your own profile
A private Insights tab on your own profile: the domains you link to most, your weekly posting activity, the communities you post in, and your most upvoted posts
Country flags displayed alongside posts and comments
Optional bio displayed on your profile, and an optional display name in any language
Active communities list showing where you participate most

Messaging

Direct messages between users with conversation history
Typing indicators showing when the other person is composing a reply
Conversation approval workflow to accept or deny message requests
Conversation archiving to keep your inbox organized
Edit your own DM messages within 15 minutes of sending, or delete them at any time
React to any direct message with an emoji; each person can leave one reaction per message
Reply to a specific direct message with a quote of it, and jump back to the original from the quote
Optional setting to hide deleted messages entirely instead of showing a "message deleted" placeholder
Modmail system for contacting community moderators
User blocking to prevent unwanted messages; blocking cannot be weaponized and never locks you out of conversations with other users
Privacy setting to turn off direct messages entirely; existing conversations keep working
Report a conversation to site administrators at any time, whether or not you started it
Optional browser notifications for new messages; for privacy the notification never shows the sender or content

Personalization

Dark mode
Classic look: an optional dense, text-first layout, with small rows, link-colored titles and visited links dimmed. Turn it on from the footer of any page, in settings, or by visiting classic.topicle.com. The choice is kept in your browser, so it works without an account
Interface language: English (US and Australian spelling), German, Italian and Simplified Chinese, chosen in settings. The translations are new, so corrections are very welcome through the feedback form
User tags: assign personal labels to other users, like a built-in RES feature. Tags sync across your devices, with a setting to keep them on one device only
Save and bookmark posts and comments for later
Hide posts from your feed
Mute communities to hide their posts from All, Rising and Discover, with no artificial limit
Mute keywords to hide posts and comments containing specific words or phrases from all feeds
Block domains to hide link posts from specific sources (and their subdomains) across your feeds
Configurable comment collapse threshold, with sort preferences remembered per community
Keyboard shortcuts for navigating posts
Optional setting to open post links in a new tab, preserving your scroll position on the feed
Choose how many entries the home sidebar shows per section (5, 10, or 15)
Profile badges, including a Founding Member badge for early signups and admin-issued recognition badges; each badge can be toggled on or off in settings

Privacy & Safety

GDPR and CCPA compliant with full account deletion and data export
IP addresses hashed before storage, not kept in plaintext
Report system with multiple categories for posts, comments, and communities, with daily and hourly rate limits
Reporting a post as off-topic lets you optionally name the community you think it belongs in, which moderators can act on in one click
Reporter quality scoring: reporters who file bad-faith reports get deprioritized automatically
Report an account you believe belongs to someone under 16, from their profile or via a public form (no account needed); a person reviews every report
Appeal any moderator action (post removal, comment removal, or ban) directly from your notifications, reviewed by site admins
Accepted appeals automatically restore removed content
Content safety scanning on uploaded images, including profile avatars and covers and community icons and covers
EXIF metadata, including GPS location and camera details, stripped from every uploaded image
Your content is not used to train AI models, and known AI training crawlers are blocked from scraping it (search engines and AI assistants answering a question are still allowed, so Topicle stays findable)
Self-hosted, privacy-focused analytics (no third-party trackers)

Moderator Features

All moderators are expected to follow the Moderator Guidelines.

Moderation Dashboard

Centralized queue for pending posts and comments awaiting approval
Reported content queue with report reasons, counts, reporter accuracy badges, quality-weighted priority sorting, and automated recommendations to assist moderators
One-click move when every report on an off-topic post names the same community: moderators of both communities move it directly, and a moderator of only one offers it instead
Incoming queue: an offered post is removed from its own community immediately, and appears in yours only if one of your moderators accepts it within 72 hours
Auto-resolution: reported content not reviewed within a configurable time period can be provisionally actioned based on automated recommendations, with a dedicated tab for moderator review and override
Optional pre-moderation: require approval before posts or comments go live

User Management

Ban users from the community, temporary or permanent, with reasons
Approved user whitelist for private communities
"New to community" badge on posts and comments from users with no prior approved content, visible only to moderators
Moderator notes on user profiles (visible only to the mod team)

Transparency & Accountability

Complete moderation log with every action recorded, timestamped, and attributed
Internal mod log filterable by action type or moderator
Public mod log on every community, visible to all users, showing removals, bans, and other actions with reasons
Automated detection for mod abuse patterns

Content Management

Approve, reject, or remove posts and comments with optional removal reasons
Bulk approve: select multiple pending posts or comments and approve them in one action
Lock posts to prevent further comments
Poll settings: allow or turn off polls, limit voting to members, cap how long a poll runs, fix when results show, choose whether moderators see vote counts, and end any poll early from its post menu
Pin posts to the top of the community
Scheduled and recurring posts: write a post now and have it go out later, or set up a weekly thread or monthly roundup that posts itself, in the community's own time zone
Set a thread's suggested comment sort to change its default ordering (for example, newest-first on a long- running thread); readers can still choose their own sort
Sticky comments within threads
Customizable removal reason templates for efficient moderation
Retitle posts to correct misleading or clickbait headlines; the author is notified with the reason, can appeal, and the full title history is kept for admin review
Mark posts as spoilers to blur titles and thumbnails in feeds; enable automatic sports spoiler detection per community

Flairs, Rules & Settings

Create and manage post flairs with custom colors
Bulk-create flairs from a comma separated list, with automatic colors and suggested emoji
Write custom community rules, numbered and shown in the sidebar and Community Info, and choose a Strict, Standard or Relaxed rule set that decides which Topicle rules apply; members can report against them and moderators can cite them when removing content
Configure community title, description, icon, and cover image
Community owners can change the community name, once every 180 days; links to the old name keep redirecting to the new one for a year
Format the community description with bold, italic, links, bulleted and numbered lists, and spoilers
Toggle private/public status and submission requirements
Restrict which post types (link, text, image) are allowed in the community
Turn GIF comments on or off per community
Per-community domain blocklist to block or flag link submissions from specific domains

Permissions & Modmail

Granular per-moderator permissions: posts, comments, bans, settings, flairs, and moderator management
Modmail system for receiving and responding to community member messages
Moderator hierarchy with position-based ranking

Topicle on your phone

Everything above works in a mobile browser. There are also native apps, with the same account and the same communities.

iPhone and iPadApp Store AndroidGoogle Play Android, direct downloadNo Google services required

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