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[reddit change] Trending Subreddits on the Front Page (self.changelog)

submitted ago by umbrae[A]

Today we're exploring a new way to show subreddits that have gained in popularity lately by showing you 5 trending subreddits on the front page. It looks like this, and is powered by a subreddit, /r/trendingsubreddits.

Currently, subreddits will be chosen to be on the list based on a Secret Formula™ that updates approximately daily. Things to know:

  • We'll only ever show SFW subreddits.
  • If you're a mod and you'd like to remove your subreddit from being chosen, you can uncheck "allow this subreddit to be shown in the default set" in your subreddit settings.
  • Serious business: The formula for subreddit choosing is completely subject to change and contains anti-cheating controls. Users attempting to game a subreddit into the trending list will be banned.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this change. We're looking for ways to encourage folks to better find communities, and we think this could be one solid way to do that.

See the code on GitHub

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[–]meew0 44 ポイント45 ポイント 前

You seem to also have removed the post indices next to the score. Is there a reason for this? I found them really useful (e.g. to quickly see on what page you are).

[–]quack_duck 24 ポイント25 ポイント 前

Definitely agreed. Those numbers are a huge help, and I missed them immediately. As much as I like the new trending bar, this change kind of sours the moment a little :(

[–]cantfeelmylegs 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

Could you explain to me what the post indices looked like / what they were? I'm curious.

[–]chromakode 14 ポイント15 ポイント 前

Yep, that is an experiment. We did a little minor cleanup of the front page design in the process of releasing this. We'll be watching the feedback on these tweaks. I appreciate your comment -- good point!

[–]Strice 36 ポイント37 ポイント 前

Please put the numbers back :(

[–]kraonn 6 ポイント7 ポイント 前

I find the numbers very useful. Please put them back (at least as an option).

[–]andytuba 5 ポイント6 ポイント 前

Shucks, RES's keyboard-nav power-users will miss those are already missing them. (RES offers a feature to let you jump directly into a link by number.)

edit: and, like /u/spladug pointed out, it should become RES' responsibility.

[–]spladug 6 ポイント7 ポイント 前

I know that RES is used by a lot of people, but if reddit is forced to not change anything that RES or other third party addons use we'll never be able to get things done. RES can certainly add back numbers if they're needed for a feature it has.

[–]antiproton 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

Ok then, revert the numbers because we asked you to. It's the only indication of any sort of pagination.

You don't have to make a change just because you can make a change.

[–]Exaskryz 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

I agree. Some subreddits hide the indices in their mess of CSS and I've disliked it. As a global change, it's disappointing.

[–]andytuba 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

Agreed. It's always nice when yall admins change things in response to user/dev feedback, but this definitely sounds like something RES should take on.

[–]kuemmi 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

Yeah, we definitely need some way to see what page we're on. I don't want to look at the URL to figure that out.

[–]wub_wub 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

We'll be watching the feedback on these tweaks.

I think that you should (have) create(d) different changelog thread for those changes to gather user feedback - or are we supposed to comment the changes and provide feedback in thread dedicated to completely different feature?

[–]chromakode 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

We look at feedback across the entire site.

[–]wub_wub 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

The problem is that the subject of reddit changes doesn't really have a place where it's welcome (for lack of a better word) other than these /r/announcements, /r/changelog, /r/blog and similar subreddits. It won't be discussed in /r/IAMA, /r/nottheonion because it's not relevant to those subs, therefore you won't see much (positive or negative) feedback about this.

I think that if you were really interested in feedback regarding these changes you would have created a thread, or at least mentioned them here - and not waited for someone else to notice/comment the changes.

[–]chromakode 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

/r/bugs and /r/ideasfortheadmins are two good places to post feedback (with slightly different scopes).

[–]wub_wub 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

Both user run subreddits with total of 7k subscribers, combined.

That's kinda my point, you don't seem to be interested (officially) in larger user feedback about these unannounced/non-mentioned changes.

[–]redtaboo 35 ポイント36 ポイント 前

This is super neat, what a great way to highlight new/growing communities and see what's popular now! It's not too surprising to see GoT up there today. ;)

I especially want to thank you for this:

If you're a mod and you'd like to remove your subreddit from being chosen, you can uncheck "allow this subreddit to be shown in the default set" in your subreddit settings.

That was the first question that popped into my mind, most subreddits will welcome the exposure but I'm sure some would rather not have it 'til they're big enough to handle the influx.

ETA: Is the blurb in the post based of subreddit description? In other words should mods go make sure theirs is clearly written?

[–]spladug 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

ETA: Is the blurb in the post based of subreddit description? In other words should mods go make sure theirs is clearly written?

Yes, it's the public description.

[–]redtaboo 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

Thanks! You're a good man charlie brown.

[–]oreoash123 48 ポイント49 ポイント 前

I don't like that you added /r/ to the subreddit that a post was made to. Example.

[–]Hellquist 11 ポイント12 ポイント 前

Yeah, circumvents every subreddit I've unsubscribed from in /r/all.

[–]andytuba 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

http://www.reddit.com/r/changelog/comments/22pz96/reddit_change_trending_subreddits_on_the_front/cgp9mna

http://www.reddit.com/r/RESissues/comments/22q12d/bug_res_no_longer_blocking_entire_subreddits/

[–]Raven_Rise 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

Thanks, now I don't have to see /r/funny on /r/all.

[–]reseph 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

Works for me.

http://www.reddit.com/r/all-adviceanimals

[–]AngrySquirrel 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

That's a gold feature. /u/Hellquist is probably using RES Filtereddit.

[–]ErrorlessGnome 14 ポイント15 ポイント 前

agreed. although a small change, it really makes it look more cluttered.

[–]andytuba 21 ポイント22 ポイント 前

I like it, it helps reinforce the /r/ThisIsASubreddit. Everybody'll probably gloss over it in a few days.

[–]geoff_ 4 ポイント5 ポイント 前

Yeah I think it's helpful for new users, however experienced redditors might not like it. I don't MIND it, but I'd prefer it not to be there.

[–]ifonefox 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

Hopefully RES will add an option to remove it.

Edit: Made a feature request

[–]geoff_ 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

That or reddit itself, hopefully

[–]antiproton -4 ポイント-3 ポイント 前

I don't see why that's at all useful. Everything is a subreddit.

Instead of displaying /r/ a billion times, they should change their URL writers to stop using the /r/ path completely. www.reddit.com/pics is plenty fine.

[–]andytuba 4 ポイント5 ポイント 前

Whoa there, buddy, reddit is more than simply subreddits. http://reddit.com/whatever typically takes you to a post with the ID "whatever". Besides that, we've got users, multireddits, wiki pages, etc.

[–]antiproton -2 ポイント-1 ポイント 前

Reddit is 98% subreddits. The /r/ is vestigial. You can still have reddit.com/pics AND reddit.com/u/username.

That "whatever" link takes me to a 404 page every single time. Even if it didn't, no one uses it.

[–]ky1e 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

www.reddit.com/contact

www.reddit.com/rules

[–]redtaboo 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

/r/base36

[–]qewryt 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

http://pics.reddit.com , happy?

[–]DrRobotronic 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

I was off of Reddit for a few hours and when I came back and saw that it stuck out to me like a sore thumb. Why should is be to /r/pics instead of just to pics. It just seems unnecessary.

[–]EvilHom3r 17 ポイント18 ポイント 前

For anyone (like me) who wants to hide it:

.trending-subreddits{display:none!important}

[–]Ashilikia 6 ポイント7 ポイント 前

Can you translate that into instructions for someone to follow?

[–]Yiin 3 ポイント4 ポイント 前

It really depends on the browser that you use. Which?

[–]Ashilikia 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

Firefox.

[–]Yiin 7 ポイント8 ポイント 前

Alright

  1. Use this add-on

  2. Make a new rule, "Blank Style"

  3. Copy-paste this next bit:

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

@-moz-document domain("reddit.com") {

.trending-subreddits{display:none!important}

}

  4. Name it something distinguishable.

[–]wub_wub 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

If you have adblock installed, right click where the subreddit names are: adblock>block this ad, move the scroll thingy to the right until tending subs part is no longer visible> click "block it".

Or go to adblock options click on "customize" tab and add

www.reddit.com##[class="trending-subreddits"]

To your manual filters list.

[–]Orgell_Evaan 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

And I put that where? On the end of the URL?

[–]Yiin 6 ポイント7 ポイント 前

No, you'll need to add it as a CSS rule. With an extension like Stylish for Firefox or Chrome.

[–]Orgell_Evaan 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

That worked, thanks.

[–]WaitForItTheMongols 5 ポイント6 ポイント 前

Is this at all connected to posts now showing their origin as /r/?

What I mean is, under every post it once said "Submitted 1 hour ago by umbrae in pics"

But now it says "Submitted 1 hour ago by umbrae in /r/pics". Are these changes connected?

[–]Orgell_Evaan 12 ポイント13 ポイント 前

Seconding the request for an 'Off' switch that doesn't involve extensions and CSS rules.

[–]IceBreak 32 ポイント33 ポイント 前

Can you give us the option to turn it off? I like it but it's really not necessary for me.

[–]Rhythmdvl 5 ポイント6 ポイント 前

Well, that annoyance lasted for three minutes. I have AdBlockPlus with the Element Hiding Extension. It was an easy click to highlight the entire trending bar and POOF, it's gone.

[–]CaptnGrumbles 7 ポイント8 ポイント 前

Can't block elements without turning Adblock on for reddit, which I don't want to do.

[–]Rhythmdvl 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

Elsewhere in this thread is the comment that you can add

.trending-subreddits{display:none!important}

to CSS style or something. Not sure how to implement it though.

[–]geoff_ 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

Chrome extension called Stylish should do the trick.

[–]barium111 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

Is there a extension for adblock edge?

[–][deleted] 前

[deleted]

    [–]adremeaux 7 ポイント8 ポイント 前

    It exists so that people discover more of reddit and become more engaged with it.

    Except there is a large likelihood it's going to be dominated to all of these super-pigeon-holed, flavor of the week-style subreddits like /r/wheredidthesodago or /r/dadjokes or /r/Trypophobia. All it takes is a single top post on /r/pics where the subreddit matches the content and gets a top comment and those subreddits explode, only to be completely forgotten within a week.

    Some people may say great, and hell, the majority may say great, but for me that's not developing Reddit, that's just encouraging shitty, click-bait behavior rather than doing things to build communities. People need better subreddit discovery options for sure, but this is not one. People are subbing Game of Thrones and Smash Bros right now because the show just premiered and Smash just had a big announcement. But are those the times we want new users to drop in? The people that go in during those times are the worst kind of users, that only follow trends or follow the herd, and will quickly jump ship. However, better indexing or randomly featured subreddits would attract people more in the category of "oh, bowling? Sure, I like bowling some times, maybe I'll check out /r/bowling." It's a big difference from "MAN DRESSED AS BATMAN WINS BOWLING COMPETITION" and then suddenly everyone is like "hurr durr bowling" and the subreddit blows up with 50,000 people that will never come back.

    [–]IBlessTheRainsInIowa 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

    It's not the fact that they never come back, that's probably a good thing. It's the shit posts and submissions that get thrown in(see: /r/redditgetsdrawn, which I recently unsubscribed from) for those few days.

    [–]FrostyPlum -1 ポイント0 ポイント 前

    Yeah, well, considering it's algorithm based and Smashbros and GoT are up there, I'd say you're being paranoid

    [–]adremeaux 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Um, I discussed those two subreddits specifically and the problems with their inclusion. Did you even read what I posted?

    [–]Parsleymagnet 11 ポイント12 ポイント 前

    If you use RES filters, you'll need to update them after this change.

    1. Go into the settings console from the gear icon near your username at the top right of the screen
    2. Go to Filters
    3. Add "/r/" (without quotes) in front of every filtered subreddit name
    4. Click "save options."
    5. Enjoy browsing Reddit without having to look at /r/Atheism or /r/AdviceAnimals again!

    [–]geoff_ 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    That's a bit of a ball ache to be honest, however it works for a temporary fix I guess

    [–]scriptingsoul 7 ポイント8 ポイント 前

    Awesome! Possibly a NSFW feature, too?

    [–]MarkingOut44 6 ポイント7 ポイント 前

    You want /r/gonewild to trend all the time?

    [–]matt01ss 3 ポイント4 ポイント 前

    Is this something that will show up always and just be constantly updated? Also, what pages does it show on? Just your front page?

    [–]chromakode 6 ポイント7 ポイント 前

    It will be updated roughly daily. It only shows on the first page of your front page.

    [–]karmanaut 3 ポイント4 ポイント 前

    I know you don't want to talk about the secret recipe, but is there anything to ensure that there is some diversity and not monopolized over a long stretch? Like, for each day a sub is trending, make it harder to qualify for the next day.

    [–]chromakode 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

    http://www.reddit.com/r/trendingsubreddits/comments/22pwe7/trending_subreddits_for_20140410_roddlysatisfying/cgp8syf

    [–]karmanaut 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

    Awesome. It's always been hard to find new subreddits, so this is a great feature.

    [–]menthol_penguin 3 ポイント4 ポイント 前

    Seconding options to filter for it with nsfw and sfw, and also an option to remove it. I'm not really that interested in it, although many others are.

    Also the numbers on the front page next to submissions were useful, can we get an option to turn them on/off too?

    [–]pantsu 11 ポイント12 ポイント 前

    I recognize that a lot of people like this, but I find it annoying. When you add things like this please include a way to turn it off.

    [–]TASER_NINJA 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    How is it annoying? It barely takes up any space at all

    [–]redgroupclan 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

    Yes, please add a way to hide it.

    I don't know what's annoying about it. It's just that it's so...so...I don't know. It looks like it doesn't belong there, like it should go somewhere else. Also for a second the eye is drawn to it instead of the top link.

    [–]eric4186 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

    It's a distraction.

    [–]FillInTheBlank 9 ポイント10 ポイント 前

    The ability to disable a feature is a golden rule.

    Don't forget it.

    [–]andytuba 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

    Um .. not really. It's a nice concession to power users, but I'd hazard that the majority of applications and webapps don't give you options to turn off every little feature.

    [–]antiproton 7 ポイント8 ポイント 前

    The good ones do. The Google Strategy of making a change and telling the users to sit on it and rotate is awful.

    This addition is frivolous. It has nothing to do with core functionality. It is exactly the sort of thing that should be an option.

    [–]eric4186 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    they should.

    [–]CaptnGrumbles 14 ポイント15 ポイント 前

    I tend to find subreddits by actually looking for them. I'd rather not have this in my frontpage. It's another instance of a website telling me what I want to see instead of the other way around.

    [–]Retawekaj 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

    I personally don't mind the new feature but this is definitely an interesting perspective.

    [–]Rhythmdvl 6 ポイント7 ポイント 前

    How do I turn it off; I'm running out of White Out!

    But really, no offence to sports fans, celebutants and weebos, but I don't really give a crap about what subject is 'trending' on Reddit. Things that explode in popularity tend to spill onto other subs, and I'll check out /r/OutOfTheLoop if need be. For things related to my interests there are subs' sidebars, and there's always the Random link and other lists.

    EDIT: Well, that annoyance lasted for three minutes. I have AdBlockPlus with the Element Hiding Extension. It was an easy click to highlight the entire trending bar and POOF, it's gone.

    I don't give a flying shit about what's trending at the subreddit level.

    [–]Avaric 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    Thanks for the info. I use Adblock Plus, but I wasn't aware of that extension. POOF gone, so handy.

    [–]Rhythmdvl 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    I found it when complaining/whining about large blocks of Facebook/Twitter/Etc. that some websites have. I don't use them, so they were just taking up visual real estate. Now, you'll find lots of things to dissapear into the cornfield. Have fun!

    [–]SabinMoon 4 ポイント5 ポイント 前

    I love this feature!

    [–]NeedAGoodUsername 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    Just some questions:

    • Will mods be notified (either on the day or before) that the subreddit was or is a trending subreddit?
    • Will the default subreddits ever be included as a trending subreddit?

    [–]IstheLieReallyaCake 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    Finally, the default sub opt-out has an effect on the majority of subreddit owners.

    [–]melgiveson 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    I like it, but could we get an option to display it or not?

    [–]ky1e 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    This is a good feature. But like all changes made to the site, I'd like the option to turn it off. I like having options.

    [–]eric4186 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    How do I turn it off? I don't support this and don't want to see it. It's just another distraction in an already way too cluttered web. Also, it sounds like this could turn into advertisers and corporations paying to have their subreddit promoted to the front page. If an option to remove it doesn't show up soon, I'll just assume that's what's in the 'secret formula'. Why else would it have to be forced on us? Sorry, but I don't trust secret algorithms that claim to show the 'popularity' or 'relevance' of something.

    [–]dayallnash 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

    I really like it but it seems to appear and disappear randomly. Why's that?

    [–]dylan 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

    still rolling out -- give it a few and it will be there always!

    [–]dayallnash 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Okay nice one thanks. Good job!

    [–]umbrae[S] 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

    We're still deploying it—it'll be out everywhere soon.

    [–]sanguisbibemus 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    I don't quite get why there's a comments section here unless it's for feedback, but I like this trending subreddits change. It just seems weird to me to have one comments section for multiple subreddits, but do what you gotta do.

    [–]karmanaut 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

    Very good idea!

    [–]wub_wub 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Judging by the name "trending" you're trying to promote subreddits that are already gaining users? Seems, pointless IMO. Promoting less known subreddits, that the user might be interested in, would have been a better idea.

    Also since they're not personalized, it would be good to be able to opt-out of this instead of having a list of 5 subreddits that I'm not interested in on my frontpage, but I guess as long as it's very small and under one html element so it can be blocked with adblock opt-out isn't that necessary.

    [–]pseudolobster 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    Must not be, for instance /r/whatisthisthing was "trending" a couple days ago and is a well established sub of over 3 years.

    [–]wub_wub 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    Trending seems to imply that these subreddits have been gaining new users or had increased activity in fairly recent period. While the subreddits might be established few years ago, promoting them while they're gaining users/activity is, as I said, unnecessary in my opinion.

    [–]pseudolobster 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    I think "trending" might be a misnomer, and these are merely smaller subs you're not subscribed to, but seem to have good content today. That's just a guess though.

    I can totally see the need for this. I'd wager a vast majority of users are subscribed to the defaults and nothing else. As much as I personally hate niche subs getting flooded with traffic from /r/all, a lot of smaller communities could use more traffic, and the average user should know there's more to reddit than just the default subs.

    [–]wub_wub 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    This is good idea generally speaking, but they should have expanded on /explore, improved personalization algorithms, and put personalized subreddits instead of trending ones.

    [–]chromakode 2 ポイント3 ポイント 前

    We're working on improving both temporally and personally relevant suggestions. This feature focuses on the former.

    [–]pseudolobster 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Any idea how you'd implement the latter? Scraping people's multisubs? Scraping sidebars?

    [–]chromakode 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    Both are decent approaches. We have a start to that in the form of /u/shlurbee's sr recommendations API.

    [–]pseudolobster 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Just throwing ideas at the wall but what about an actual explicit "related subs" field that subreddit mods can curate for their subs? Maybe have that rendered in some div so mobile clients could incorporate it?

    [–]chromakode 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    Yes, I'd like to do that in the future. My current thinking is that it should be a subreddit multi, once that feature is available...

    [–]Itssosnowy 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Why not have an option to display nsfw trending subs? Obviously the sfw option being default but nsfw being a possibility.

    [–]TetraDax 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    How exactly are the subreddits chosen?

    [–]RainOnYourTirade 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Will it be possible to make this display fewer or more subreddits via a preference?

    [–]Jakeable 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Was this at all inspired by this post in /r/ideasfortheadmins?

    [–]snarkypants 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    <3

    • How often will the trending reddits be adjusted?

    • I would prefer more than 5.

    • Will you do nsfw trending reddits that only shiw in nsfw subreddits for all your nsfw consumers?

    [–]MikeKTT 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    I feel like I have a problem. I just searched for 'trending', 'this week' because I thought "What's this? It must be quite new... Ehh, let's find out".

    One hour old.

    I need to get off the computer more.

    [–]VolatileBeans 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    I like it.

    [–]jsh 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    We're looking for ways to encourage folks to better find communities

    Well how about making /r/all the front page instead of having defaults?

    [–]lastresort09 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Just make sure. Would advertising one's sub on other subreddits, be considered as "gaming"? or is that something else like using fake accounts to increase subscribers?

    I have a sub /r/UnitedWeStand that I hope to reach the trending status, but I want to do it without breaking any rules.

    [–]radd_it 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    I like it. Anything that promotes discovery is a Good Thing.

    [–]DrRobotronic 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Is there a way to disable this currently? It may just need some tweaking, but most of the subreddits here are already pretty popular, and some appear a few days in a row. If you're already following /r/subredditoftheday/ you are finding new subreddits all the time and don't really need this extra feature cluttering the space.

    [–]rnpke 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Trending in Reddit? What's next, hashtags?

    Joking aside, I think this is a really good idea.

    [–]alien122 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    If only I had made my sub now instead of before...but then I probably wouldn't have gotten that influx of subscribers from /r/pokemon.

    [–]protospork 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    It's extra clutter for no value added and we have no sanctioned way to opt out. I'm blocking it in my browser, but I shouldn't have to go to that length in the first place. If it's going to exist, there should be a way to remove it through preferences.

    [–]ManWithoutModem 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    This is pretty cool.

    [–]thecake90 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Yep! this is defiantly something reddit needs! It is extremely difficult to find new subreddits

    [–]jittyot 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    Im not sure if this is related to the change but none of the subreddits that are defaults are showing on my personal front page anymore. I can seem to find /r/pics anywhere despite being subbed to it

    [–]reseph -1 ポイント0 ポイント 前

    Nice!

    (Did a font change on the frontpage, or am I just seeing things?)

    [–]snarkypants -1 ポイント0 ポイント 前

    Why only 5? Please do more.

    [–]andytuba 1 ポイント2 ポイント 前

    Wait until tomorrow!

    [–]snarkypants 0 ポイント1 ポイント 前

    What happens? Please PM me secrets.

    [–]hexarch -1 ポイント0 ポイント 前

    nice