Zivile Helden

Liebe Jodler,

unsere Mission bei Jodel ist es, euch mit den Leuten in eurer Umgebung zu verbinden. Was ihr aus dieser Idee gemacht habt, ist beeindruckend: Durch gegenseitige Unterstützung und positive Kommunikation unter dem Motto #goodvibesonly habt ihr eine Community geformt, auf die wir alle stolz sind. Dass ihr mehr seid als nur eine zusammengewürfelte Gruppe, die sich gegenseitig Witze erzählt, ist inzwischen über die Grenzen der App bekannt.

Genau deshalb möchten wir euch ein Projekt vorstellen, das wir in Zusammenarbeit mit der Polizeilichen Kriminalprävention zunächst in Stuttgart und Berlin testen werden: Die Beratungsstelle der Polizeiprävention will euch eine Möglichkeit zum Austausch auf Jodel bieten! Deshalb habt ihr ab sofort im Rahmen der Kampagne “Zivile Helden” die Möglichkeit, im Channel @DeinPolizeiRatgeber Fragen zu Zivilcourage sowie richtigem Handeln und Eingreifen in Extremsituationen zu stellen.

Die Polizei wird ausschließlich in beratender Funktion auf Jodel unterwegs sein, ihr müsst euch also keine Sorgen machen, dass sich diese Kooperation auf euer Jodeln auswirkt.

Eure Fragen dazu könnt ihr ebenfalls im Channel @DeinPolizeiRatgeber stellen.

Wir freuen uns auf diese Zusammenarbeit und wünschen euch viel Spaß und Zivilcourage,

Franjo & das Jodel Team

Jodel bleibt bunt

Bei Jodel gibt es keinen Platz für jegliche Formen von Gewalt und Hass.

Was bedeutet für uns, dass Jodel bunt ist? In einer Zeit, in der politische, kulturelle und religiöse Meinungen immer weiter auseinandergehen, möchten wir den gemeinsamen Austausch und damit die Mitte der Gesellschaft stärken. Auf Jodel siehst du ohne Filterblase Konversationen von Leuten aus deiner Umgebung. Wir möchten deine lokale Community zusammenbringen, nicht auseinander treiben. So bunt wie die Farben in unserer App sind auch die Nutzer auf unserer Plattform. Damit möchten wir einen Austausch fördern, der in gesitteter Form stattfinden kann, mit Liebe statt Hass, mit Verständnis statt Anfeindungen. Wir lehnen Extremismus in jeglicher Form ab: ob nach rechts oder links, oben oder unten, vorne oder hinten.

Gerade heute ist es wichtig miteinander zu reden und dass der Ton dabei gewahrt wird. Jodel ist ein Ort an dem viel diskutiert wird. Wir arbeiten hart daran, dass jeder auf Jodel seine Meinung sagen kann, dabei aber Hass kein Gehör findet. Dies ist nicht immer einfach. Derzeit arbeiten wir sehr stark daran unser Moderationssystem zu verbessern und dieses unabhängig von Meinungen, aber gegen sämtliche Formen von Aggressivität zu machen. Features hierzu wirst du in den nächsten Wochen in unserer App finden. Die Arbeit wird nie zu Ende sein, doch wir lassen uns nicht entmutigen.

Was uns eint sind unsere Werte

Wir sind ein Team in Berlin, mit den verschiedensten Charakteren. Unsere Mitarbeiter kommen z.B. aus Brasilien, China, Deutschland, Finnland, Großbritannien, Indien, Irland, Jordanien, Lettland, Nigeria, Norwegen, Pakistan, Polen, Portugal, Saudi-Arabien, Schweden, Tschechien, Tunesien und USA.

Was uns eint, sind unsere Werte, die wir vor einiger Zeit firmenintern aufgesetzt haben: Offen & Bescheiden, Verspielt & Freundlich, Clever & Bestimmt.

Diese haben wir vor einiger Zeit dann auch in Werte definiert, die wir in unserer Community erwarten (https://jodel.com/blog/jodel-values/):

• Positiv und freundlich: Wir wollen, dass die Jodler in unserer Community immer positiv und nett zueinander sind. Good vibes only!
• Hilfsbereit und unterstützend: Wir wollen, dass die Jodler einander helfen. Tue gutes und das Karma wird mit dir sein!
• Bunt und vielfältig: Unsere verschiedenen Farben repräsentieren die Vielfalt der Menschen und Themen in unserer Community. Wir feiern und wertschätzen die Vielfalt. Vielfältigkeit macht das Leben bunt.
• Authentisch und kreativ: Sei du selbst und teile deine eigenen großartigen Gedanken! Wir schätzen Kreativität und neue Ideen. Sei einfach wie du bist.
• Respektvoll und menschlich: Vergiss nicht, dass du mit Menschen interagierst, nicht nur einem Bildschirm. Behandle andere, wie du selbst behandelt werden willst, sei freundlich und habe Respekt!
• Jodelahuiiitiii: Unterschätze nicht, wie wichtig Spaß ist. Nimm das Leben nicht zu ernst, lächle und genieße die Reise.

Wir erwarten von euch nicht, dass ihr alle dieselben Meinungen habt oder gleichgeschaltet denken sollt. Ganz und gar nicht. Wir denken, dass gerade die Diversität Jodel zu etwas einzigartigem macht. Wir erwarten von euch jedoch, dass ihr euch diese Werte zu Herzen nehmt. Seid offen, toleriert andere Meinungen, diskutiert, tauscht euch aus. Geratet dabei nicht in Konflikte oder Aggressionen.

Nutze den Hashtag #Jodelbleibtbunt in Posts um zu zeigen, dass du diese Werte repräsentierst. Nutze den Hashtag #Jodelbleibtbunt in Diskussionen, um uns alle daran zu erinnern, dass wir uns nicht anfeinden sollten. Erinnert euch mit #Jodelbleibtbunt daran, sachlich und konstruktiv zu bleiben. Wir möchten einen liebevollen Umgang miteinander, weil wir alle Liebe dem Hass vorziehen.

Jodel ist bunt, Jodel bleibt bunt.

Collapsed Comments

Dearest Jodelers,

As you know, our mission at Jodel is to connect you with the people around you. We always work hard to make sure our app facilitates great conversations. Today, we’re excited to bring you our newest feature: the ability to see comments even after they’re downvoted to -5.

In the past, all -5 comments were immediately hidden, which  made discussions hard to follow. More and more of you pointed this flaw out to us in your #feedback. As we always aim to improve Jodel with our community, we jumped on the opportunity to develop a feature with you.

This feature is a massive change in thread dynamics, so we thought long and hard about how to built it. We wanted to improve  readability of conversations while maintaining positive vibes. In the end, we landed on collapsing all comments that reached -5. This way, users who want to read out-voted comments can expand them, while users who don’t can simply scroll through undisturbed. You can also now continuously vote on -5 comments, meaning they have the potential to be revived (in case it was rashly outvoted) or further penalized (in case it was… well… you know the ones).

We’ve been testing it in a few communities over the past month and feedback has been very positive. We love this feature and hope you will too!

With love and #goodvibes,

Amanda and The Jodel Team

Introducing channels

Jodel now has channels! In this post we will introduce you to this new feature to make sure you have the best possible start.

Wait, what? Channels…?

Exactly! Imagine there was a place on Jodel for you to discover, build and join specific local communities. A place where you could find and talk to all people around you sharing your passions and interests. A place where musicians can find people nearby to jam with and gourmets could exchange tips about the best restaurants in town. Channels will enable all this and much more!

When you subscribe to a channel, everything that Jodelers around you post in it will automatically appear in your home feed. This will give you the power to decide what you see when you open Jodel. To read only one specific channel, simply tap on its name, either in the home feed or in the channels tab.

To give you a head start we propose some simple first channels we consider important for any local community:

• 🙌JodelersHelpJodelers is the part of your local community that aims to deliver a great local question & answer experience. What was the loud noise 2 minutes ago all about? Why do all people nearby suddenly wear red sneakers? This is a place to help each other and satisfy your curiosity.
• 😻Jodelzoo is the home for all of our petlovers. Here you can get your daily dose of cuteness to get you through a rough day.
• 📅HappeningToday! is the place where fellow Jodelers keep each other updated about cool stuff to do in their city. There’s some awesome show in your neighbourhood? A new shop is opening up? Drop a message and receive some love!

Awesome! But how do I follow / unfollow a channel?

Wherever you see a box next to the channel name you can tap it to either follow or unfollow it. You will find such a box either in your channel overview, in the search results or directly in the channel feed.

To post, reply or vote on a channel post you must also follow it.

Makes sense! Where do I find the channel for my passion?

In the channels tab you have a bunch of tools to explore other channels or search for a specific one.

You can click on “discover more channels” to get a list of all channels available in your area. This is a great place to get inspired and see what is out there.

By tapping on the magnifying glass you can also search for a specific channel. While typing you will see some existing communities that match your search. On the right you will see the button to follow / unfollow it. The counter next to the button shows you how many Jodelers around you are currently following this channel.

If the counter shows a “0” it means that in your city no one follows this particular channel, yet. Be the first one and start building your local community.

Great! Anything else I should know?

There is also the possibility to link to a channel to help others find the right one.

Type “@” + “channelname” (e.g. “@selfies”) to create a clickable link to the channel.

Of course, it goes without saying, that our community values and guidelines also apply to all channels. So keep up the good jodling and stay positive! #GoodVibesOnly

Ok, now you are a master of channels. Spread the knowledge and help other Jodlers. The more use it, the better it gets.

We will continuously improve channels in the future. As always, make sure you add #feedback to all your suggestions so they reach and inspire our team (in 🇬🇧 if possible so everyone in the HQ can understand you 😌).

Have a great time and enjoy the endless possibilities to discover and talk to like-minded people nearby!

Much love and good vibes from the Jodel-HQ

Niklas and the Jodel Team

Jodel Grows Up

Dear Jodeler,

In the past three years we have continuously worked towards growing the Jodel community and providing new features to better connect you with Jodelers in your city. Today, we are proud to have built a positive and caring community that shares fun and interesting experiences, helps each other out and even meets up. We were impressed and moved by the countless stories of Jodelers forming friendships, getting married, and even having babies. Jodel today is the place where people come to connect with the nearby community and we are thrilled to continue building this further in the coming years. There are a few new features we’re working on that we’re especially excited about right now.

In order to continue building our community, we also want to work on the financial sustainability of the company. Enabling and developing Jodel means enormous costs that have so far been covered via external investors. This will likely still happen in the future, but depending only on investors of course comes with high risk. As Jodel means a lot to all of us, our financial sustainability is essential.

In the near future, we will thus start to experiment with revenue streams and you may see some occasional ads. There are currently a few formats we are thinking about. Some will be tested earlier, others later. It is important to us and we are determined to…

• …only show ads in formats that will not negatively influence the current usage of Jodel. We won’t destroy our colourful design and the philosophy behind it with banners and interstitials. We actually believe we’ve found ways to incorporate ads that improve your experience on Jodel.
• …only show ads very occasionally. At the beginning, you will have to be lucky to actually see one.
• …make ads as funny and relevant as possible. Although, like anyone, you probably want to earn 500€ overnight, we won’t show you crypto traders trying to get your money. Or should we? As usual, tell us via #feedback.

Much love and good vibes from Berlin, we are looking forward to the future!

Tim and the Jodel team

Celebrating the New Year

Dear Jodelers,

Another year has come to an end — and it has surely been an exceptional one. We would like to take a short journey with you and revisit the best moments of 2017.

So grab a cup of tea, hot chocolate or mulled wine if you will, and let us travel back in time to reminisce on the happy times.

Beginning of the year, we celebrated the first successful year of user moderation. The local sheriffs (our amazing Jodel moderators) have done a great job restoring order and keeping the peace. If you’d like to learn more about user moderation, feel free to read the original blog post here

We released several cool features that transformed the Jodel experience around the globe. Check out the following links to read more about them.

The Notification Center

Share a Jodel

Thank a Jodeler

Mark Repliers

Slideshow

Drawing on pictures We certainly didn’t expect all the creativity Jodelers showcased with this feature! We are looking forward to see more of it in 2018.😊

You have posted some amazing stories revealing the love, care and togetherness shared in Jodel communities worldwide — so many we could write a book!

One Jodeler posted his story of sharing a hospital room with a poor homeless man named Andreas. His story touched the hearts of the Jodel community. Jodelers came together to help Andreas with a fresh start — a trip to the dentist, a new job and even an apartment! Best of luck pal!

Not all stories get the attention of thousands — often times they only touch the lives of few. The magic is what lies in each that brings us together and creates joy for Jodelers. 🤗

Last summer, our investors — big part of our Jodel family — expressed their trust and support. Not only they gave us valuable advices, but also invested in our ideas and vision.

We’re thankful for the opportunity to expand and grow our HQ team so much we needed a new office space!

Completely occupied ensuring the Jodel app runs smoothly, we almost forgot our birthday! Jodel turned 3 on 20th October! 🎂

So here we are, arriving back in present day. Thank you for taking part in the trip, it’s been an amazing journey filled with your amazing ideas!

You allow us to do what we ❤️ the most, bring people together and make a difference in their lives.

Before we all go back to our local communities, let us share a peek into the future.

As you all know, Jodelers have a lot in common, but we’re are also very unique. That is why we want Jodel to be a place where everyone finds what they like and people who share the same interests.

Unlike bears, we will not hibernate for the winter. We have some big things planned for Jodel in 2018! 😉

We look forward to continuing our journey together.

Happy New Year and keep up the good jodeling! 🎆

Barbora & the Jodel Team

Karma Reform

As we all know, the universe is responsible for distributing karma among us Jodelers. It rewards the positive and supportive while punishing the bad ones.

The more Jodelers do good, the better the vibe in the community around you and the more fun everyone has.

Now it is time to adapt our concept to all the new features and dynamics that didn’t exist when we first negotiated our karma deal with the universe. Your #feedback reached us, and we adjusted our systems. We specifically focussed on helpful and supportive actions within the communities. By this we want to help you spread positivity among the Jodelers.

Among others these two are the biggest changes:

One of our favorite features is OJ’s ability to give a thanks to other Jodelers that made his/her day. No matter if they helped you out, gave great advice or made you burst out in laughter, with a thanks you can show your appreciation. From now on this will also boost their karma accounts as the most valuable action.

Downvoting is a tool meant to help the communities to curate their feed in real-time. Only the good and engaging content stays while the negative disappears. Unfortunately, there are still some scattered members of the downvote mafia around. They are creeping through the feeds, trying to take away the well-deserved karma of others. To counter them, downvoting will now cost a symbolic amount of karma points (2). This will make the downvotes meaningful again and make sure they only hit the posts that deserve it.

The vast majority of us will barely notice this. The downvote mafia, however, will face a harsh and troublesome future…

Reporting abusive posts to our moderators is one of the most important things Jodelers can do. It helps keeping the Jodel world clean and fun (click the little three dots to report a post breaking our community guidelines). This is why we will from now on reward the correct flagging of abusive behaviour. Being a great karma-bountyhunter is also the first step to become a moderator.

You reported a Jodel that is not against the rules? Rest assured. You will not get any Karma for it but also not lose any. Making us aware of potential abuse already helped a lot. Better safe than sorry 😉

Abusing the reporting function by falsely mass-reporting good content still leads to a ban.

These are the most important changes to the system for now. We will of course update and twist it to make sure that the best users will always get the most karma. So stay tuned and keep up the good jodling.

To give us feedback on this article add #KarmaReform to your post and we will read it (please write it in EN 🇬🇧 or DE 🇩🇪 so we will be able to understand it 😉 ).

Cheers and enjoy your day!

Niklas & the Jodel Team