The internet, sorted smarter.
Sift is a next-generation search and content sharing platform that delivers the results and information you want to see, from people just like you. It combines the best parts of search engines and social media platforms in a new way to create a unique, user-driven experience.
Join to share content, comment, and build your community.
Content discovery made personal.
Who would you rather trust to give you a good restaurant recommendation – a complete stranger, or someone who shares your love for sushi? It’s common sense that people who like the same things as you are more likely to give good recommendations about new things to try.
Sift applies this same model to help you discover new content tailored to your preferences, based on the recommendations of users with similar interests.
Finding your way around Sift
Explore
The Explore tab is your main feed of (hopefully) interesting content and discussions. Tell us how good or bad the recommendations are and we will use that information to help refine what we show you and others.
There are three options for focusing your feed on what you want to see:
- The arrow buttons below the tags tell us what topics you want to see more (or less) of. Upvote or downvote to refine your feed.
- Upvoting or downvoting an item will influence how much you see other items like that. It also provides a useful signal so we know if that is something others like you might want to see.
- You can click on a user’s name and follow them from their user page. When you follow a user you’re much more likely to see content they have upvoted (and not that they have downvoted), so follow those with good taste to refine your feed.
Tag Search
You can search for specific topics in the search bar on the upper right. Simply type in your search term and see top voted content tagged with that term. By default, we search within tags and ignore capitalization, so food will also match Comfort Food. If you don’t want this, say for a tag like ai (artificial intelligence), you can quote the tag "ai" to search only for exact matches. If you include multiple tags separated by commas (food,boston), sift will search for links tagged with both. If you want to share a list of links, search them up and share the page url (address).
In the top left, there are buttons to select sorting order: Hot (recent items with good scores), Best (highest scoring items of all time) and New (most recently submitted items). There is also an toggle (looks like a bookmark icon) which gives you the option to have the feed show you only new items (ones you did not submit or vote on)
User
The User tab is where you go to see what a specific user has submitted and upvoted on Sift and any information they want to share about themselves. Use this to determine if they are a user you want to follow to improve your search and feed, and when you find someone you like, click the follow button at the top.
Your own user page has everything you’ve interacted with and a filter to help you find the one you are trying to recall. If your opinion changes, you can also update it here. We hope you’ll find or submit links to Sift that you want to go back to.
Optionally you can also use our Pandoc flavored markdown to create a custom header and sidebar that other users will see when they land on your user page.
Submit
Use the Submit tab to tell us about something good (i.e., a news article, a website, a restaurant, a product, a TV show) you would recommend to your friends. Please consider adding tags to describe its topic, location, or other qualities. It’s also fine if you don’t since Sift lets you and other users add tags later. An (optional) submission comment can be used to add context.
You can also post your own thoughts or content in text through the submit tab. This does not need a link, and can be for starting a discussion or just sharing with the Sift community.
Comments
Sift has threaded comments with voting and Pandoc flavored markdown support.
Library
We hope you’ll find or submit links to Sift that you want to go back to. Your Library tab has everything you’ve interacted with and a filter to help you find the one you are trying to recall. If your opinion changes, you can also update it here.
Joining Sift
Sift is currently invite only as we work on scaling. If you know someone with a Sift account you can request an invite from them if you do not please click here (button) to join the queue for when we send out the next batch of invites.
Feedback
Last but not least there is the Feedback button at the bottom of the page. We’re trying to make Sift as useful as we can, but more perspectives are always helpful. Please use this to tell us about things you do or don’t like, features you wish we’d develop, or to report bugs. We check this on a regular basis and will address your feedback accordingly.
Content Policy for sift.quest
Sift seeks to create a safe, fun environment where everyone can participate without being harassed, bullied, or threatened. Beyond that Sift seeks to be as inclusive of as much content, opinions, and beliefs as possible. Sift tries to expose individuals to only content they want to see, but to do that by giving users tools to control their content, rather than by excluding the content.
Sift will remove content that:
- Harassess, bullies, or threatens individuals, whether they be Sift users or not
- Is hate speech, or promotes hatred or discrimination towards any group
- Violates applicable law
- Links or directs users towards another site or other content that violates Sift's content policy
Sift will also ban users who are repeatedly submitting prohibited content or act with intent to degrade the experience on the site.
NSFW Policy
Sift seeks to be inclusive of NSFW content as well, however we don’t currently have the resources or features to properly handle NSFW content and ensure that it only is shown to users who want to see it.
Towards that end our current policy is:
- NSFW content may be submitted as long as it is tagged with the NSFW tag.
- No NSFW content will be made visible to users, it will remain in our database until we have the capability to support NSFW content.
In the future we plan on allowing and supporting NSFW content in line with our general policy. NSFW content will require clear tagging and detailed filter options so those who want to see it can, but everyone can remove what NSFW content they want from their experience.
Privacy Policy for Sift Technologies
At Sift, accessible from sift.quest, one of our main priorities is the privacy of our visitors. This Privacy Policy document contains types of information that is collected and recorded by Sift and how we use it.
If you have additional questions or require more information about our Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us.
This Privacy Policy applies only to our online activities and is valid for visitors to our website with regards to the information that they shared and/or collected in Sift. This policy is not applicable to any information collected offline or via channels other than this website.
Consent
By using our website, you hereby consent to our Privacy Policy and agree to its terms.
Information we collect
The personal information that you are asked to provide, and the reasons why you are asked to provide it, will be made clear to you at the point we ask you to provide your personal information.
If you contact us directly, we may receive additional information about you such as your name, email address, phone number, the contents of the message and/or attachments you may send us, and any other information you may choose to provide.
When you register for an Account the only contact information we ask for is an email address.
How we use your information
We use the information we collect in various ways, including to:
- Provide, operate, and maintain our website
- Improve, personalize, and expand our website
- Understand and analyze how you use our website
- Develop new products, services, features, and functionality
- Communicate with you directly including for customer service and to provide you with updates and other information relating to the website
- Send you emails for password resets, occasional feature updates (which you can opt out of) and other notifications you opt-in to.
- Find and prevent fraud
Log Files
Sift follows a standard procedure of using log files. These files log visitors when they visit websites. All hosting companies do this and a part of hosting services' analytics. The information collected by log files include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date and time stamp, referring/exit pages, and possibly the number of clicks. These are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable. The purpose of the information is for analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users' movement on the website, and gathering demographic information.
Cookies and Web Beacons
Like any other website, Sift uses "cookies". These cookies are used to store information including visitors' preferences, and the pages on the website that the visitor accessed or visited. The information is used to optimize the users' experience by customizing our web page content based on visitors' browser type and/or other information.
Cookie Policies
Sift uses only a single first party cookie to track your session
CCPA Privacy Rights (Do Not Sell My Personal Information)
Under the CCPA, among other rights, California consumers have the right to:
Request that a business that collects a consumer's personal data disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal data that a business has collected about consumers.
Request that a business delete any personal data about the consumer that a business has collected.
Request that a business that sells a consumer's personal data, not sell the consumer's personal data.
If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us.
GDPR Data Protection Rights
We would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:
The right to access – You have the right to request copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.
The right to rectification – You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request that we complete the information you believe is incomplete.
The right to erasure – You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
The right to data portability – You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us.
Children's Information
Another part of our priority is adding protection for children while using the internet. We encourage parents and guardians to observe, participate in, and/or monitor and guide their online activity.
Sift does not knowingly collect any Personal Identifiable Information from children under the age of 13. If you think that your child provided this kind of information on our website, we strongly encourage you to contact us immediately and we will do our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. Thus, we advise you to review this page periodically for any changes. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. These changes are effective immediately, after they are posted on this page.
Our Privacy Policy was created with the help of the Privacy Policy Generator
Contact Us
If you have any questions or suggestions about our Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us at privacy@sift.quest.