Matters Reader Toolbox | A must-see for newbies (updated 2020.11.24)

This series of guides is designed to help new users become more familiar with the Matters community.

This article is a frequently asked question for readers. If you want to find a good-looking article, and want to know how to better support excellent authors, all the related questions about "Reading Articles" are here. If you have any missing questions, please let us know. We, let's keep updating this guide!

• Who are the authors of Matters? How do I find authors that interest me?

Matters' authors come from all over the world, with a wide variety of writing themes and styles. You can see all authors in "All authors" and enter their creative space to read articles. In addition to the author list, you can also find excellent authors recommended by the community in #myprivateauthorlist .

When you meet an author you like, be sure to press the "Follow" button. Next time the author publishes a new article, the "Follow" column on the left side of the homepage of the website will be displayed, so that you will not miss any work!

• How do I find articles that interest me on Matters?

Matters has a wide range of topics, you can find more topics you are interested in in "All Tags" and follow these tags. When these topics are updated, they will automatically appear in your "Following" column.

You can also refer to other people's featured articles. For example, the user Mute Muter opened the telegram channel "Matters Reading Collection" , those who are interested in subscribing to the channel can refer to this description .

• What is the Appreciation Key and the Clap? How to use the Appreciation key?

Since October 2019, Matters has teamed up with LikeCoin to introduce LikeCoin, a cryptocurrency based on the creativity of writers, into Matters, allowing creators to truly own content and get substantial rewards. For more information, see Appreciate the Citizen Slack Pack .

Every Matters article now automatically embeds the Appreciation key, and authors don't need to install it additionally. Each registered Matters user can use the Appreciation key, clap up to five times, and the clap is irrevocable. Each of your "likes" will be converted into the author's income, so please applaud your favorite works a lot.

Matters users need a set of Liker IDs to clap. When registering, you can choose to have Matters automatically generate a Liker ID for you. If you already have a Liker ID, you can bind it directly with Matters ID. Note that once Matters has generated or bound a Liker ID, it cannot be modified or unbound.

• Can I just register Matters without generating or binding a Liker ID?

Can. However, please note that without setting a Liker ID, your value tagging tool on Matters will not be enabled, and you will not be able to post new articles and give credits. If you are an old user who holds MAT, you cannot manage or withdraw the LikeCoin that is converted from MAT and continuously accumulated from old works. But you can still use Matters to read and comment, and your old work can continue to be appreciated.

• I clapped my hands for the author, do I need to pay?

If you are a free Liker (every Matters user who binds a Liker ID is a free Liker), you don't need to pay any cost to support the author.

If you join the monthly fee system "Appreciate Citizens" launched by LikeCoin, you spend five dollars a month, and this money will be distributed to the author of your applause with each like you click. For more information, read the Appreciation Citizen Slack Pack .

• How much LikeCoin is a clap worth? Why is applauding citizens' hands more valuable?

Part of the LikeCoin that the author gets comes from the matching fund of LikeCoin, which allows readers to receive LikeCoin without spending money to clap their hands; the other part comes from the monthly fee for appreciating citizens .

The LikeCoin that can be converted by each clapping is not a fixed value, and it fluctuates according to the currency value and how many authors share the monthly fee matching fund on that day.

Every clapping of appreciation citizens has a much greater impact on the distribution of the "Monthly Fee Matching Fund" than the "Free Liker". Appreciated Citizens have an additional $5 per month "Approved Citizens Monthly Fee" to allocate. If you are a general Liker, you can join the Appreciation Citizen , so that your clapping will earn the author more income.

• What is Super Like?

Super Likes are an opportunity to appreciate citizens helping good articles get more exposure. As long as you are an appreciative citizen, there will be two Super Like opportunities (updated at 0:00 and 12:00) every day. After you pat an article five times, the sixth is a Super Like. Articles that get Super Likes will appear on Liker Land for more exposure.

Authors cannot clap for their own articles, but they can give Super Likes for their own articles.

• Besides clapping, how can I support my favorite authors?

You can use support functions developed by Matters. There is a "support author" button at the bottom of each article, and a "support author" button at the end of each article. You can use Hong Kong dollars or LikeCoin to encourage the author. In just two minutes, the author can earn substantial creative income. If you have any questions, you can refer to the Matters payment function guide .

• What is an IPFS node? What is it used for?

IPFS is a distributed storage technology selected by Matters. Every piece of content published in Matters, including text, pictures, and links, will be uploaded to IPFS, but the comments below the article will not be uploaded. After the article is uploaded to IPFS, permanent storage is realized. The storage fee charged by IPFS, currently borne by Matters, will be paid in the future based on a certain percentage of the appreciation won by the content publisher.

The public node is the storage address of a work in the IPFS network, which can be regarded as a copy of the article. If readers cannot directly visit the Matters website due to various factors, the author can copy the public node of the article and spread the content. If you want to query the public node of an article, "Distributed Entry" will be displayed next to the title of the article, click on it to find the node address. Alternatively you can use the query tool developed by user Deserve .

• Does Matters have an app? I want to use Matters on my phone, how do I do it?

Matters currently does not have an app, but you can achieve almost the same effect as an app through the PWA function. PWA refers to Progressive Web App, which is a function of packaging a website into an App, which can occupy an icon position on the screen of your mobile phone, and operates much like a general App. For the specific operation method, please refer to the user guide written by user LeseTruck .

You can also log in to Matters through the Liker Land app to clap for Matters articles and use the bookmarking feature.

• Can I use RSS to read Matters articles?

You can subscribe to Matters through RSSHub. For the operation method, please refer to the user guide written by user Cerebrater , the user guide written by user Hymnsin , and the user introduction of user zlh .

• I am using Tor Browser but cannot log in to Matters website, what should I do?

Please use this link to log in to https://matters.news/login instead.

• Matters' articles are in both traditional and simplified versions. I'm not used to reading them. Is there any way to convert the font?

Matters users span across the four regions of the Taiwan Straits and the regions where Chinese is spoken around the world, so there will be articles in both traditional and simplified versions. The Matters website has a built-in translation function. When you read an article with a different font from the default, a "translation" with a globe icon will appear below the title. Press it to convert between traditional and simplified. Or you can also refer to this set of browser plug-ins for traditional and simple conversion introduced by user Hymnsin .

• Why can't I leave a comment below someone else's article?

After registering as a Matters user, you can publish articles on the site. When your work has accumulated more than 5 appreciations, or read more than 10 articles on the site, you can leave messages and interact with other authors.

Another situation is that if a user blocks you, you cannot leave comments on his articles.

• What can I do if I don't want specific users to speak under my articles?

You can block this user, after blocking, he will not be able to comment below your articles. If you want to block the site-wide speech of this user, you can use the site-wide blocking tool developed by user Deserve .

• I want to get in touch with an author, does Matters have a private message function?

Matters currently does not have a private message function, but you can refer to the key tool introduced by User Wall Shadow to replace the private message function. Alternatively, you can also leave the contact information you think is safe directly under the author's article comment area. Please note that Matters' articles and comments are all public, and any personal information you leave may be viewed by others.

• What if I see hateful, pornographic, violence-promoting speech in the community?

Matters launched the community self-governance system in 2019. Through community consensus, it regulates several kinds of speech that should not happen, including hatred and promotion of violence. If you see such remarks, you can tag Matty (ID: hi176) or leave a message in this article to inform the site, and the site will deal with or punish accordingly.

If you think that a user's speech is controversial, you can also initiate a lawsuit and ask the community to vote , and the community will decide whether to freeze or silence the speaker.

• Matters have fun! Are there any other interesting tools or ways to play?

Matters users often develop interesting new ways to play. You can see the tools developed by users for free in the "Matties Homemade Toolbox" .

For example, user Vibert Thio has created a third-party website that can be used to back up his articles on Matters. The peripheral website MatREQ developed by the user Tiugu, if you post a question on this website, the article will automatically appear on the Matters website and so on. For more gameplay, please click directly on the topic page~

• I want to communicate with other users instantly, where can I find you?

If you want to start a discussion about Matters or LikeCoin, you can tweet at Matters and @Matty or @Appreciate Citizens Republic .

You can also join Matters' Facebook Creators Association , Citizens' Appreciation Facebook Association , Matters' Telegram Group , and some authors will appear in LikeCoin User Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Unofficial Groups or Writing Village - Chinese Writing Exchange .