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What is Vent?

Vent is a semi-anonymous, text-based, social network that allows users to express their feelings and connect with others in a supportive mental-health focused environment. Vent was founded in 2013 and the first version of the app released for IOS in August 2014, with a second version + Android release in early 2015. In late 2022, a new Vent update was announced which would change the familiar layout of the app along with the engine it runs on. On the 30th of March 2023, the app was updated to Vent 2.0, after a narrow miss with shutting down completely.

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Vent Culture:

Here are some things that stand out to me about the Vent community.

Username Trading:

'Good' usernames are in pretty high demand among the userbase and are often obtained through trading. Users will list the usernames they own and are willing to trade and other users will offer their own usernames in response. Some users may offer real currency in exchange for highly sought after usernames, however this is against Vent rules. Valued usernames do not always have to be obtained through trading: inactive usernames are freed after a year or two and can be used again. Users may have a list of taken/deleted usernames they are "watching" so they can claim a desired username as soon as it becomes available. Groups like "Open UNs" let users post lists of available usernames for others to take from.

Vent 2.0 Usernames:

With the transfer over to the new engine, it became possible to own usernames with special characters such as unicode symbols, fonts, and emojis. An exploit of sorts was discovered where if using a unicode empty space character, previously taken usernames could be duplicated with little difference to the original. An example below: a unicode hieroglyph username, an emoji username, and a duplicated username.

Layout Making:

Many users of Vent like to have an aesthetically-pleasing layout in their dropdown, alternate bio account, or as a heading in their posts, leading to the use of user-made layouts and the creation of the layouts group. In this group, users can create their own templates often with ASCII art, borders, and copy-paste symbols and fonts. Other users can use these template for their own profile.

Tag Memes:

Similar to Tumblr's tag games and ask memes. This is a Vent post of questions for you to copy and paste onto your own post and answer yourself. After filling it out, you are supposed to tag a few users to complete the same set of questions on their own post. Tag memes follow different layouts, for example: longform answer, placing an emoji next to everything that applies to you, and placing an emoji next to something that applies to you in certain sections and whichever section has the most emojis determines your result.

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Emotion Sets:

Emotion sets are themed sets of post labels that can be used to signify a certain emotion you're currently feeling. Each set has a different colour scheme, and each emotion has a different set of reaction buttons users can press to show they've read a post or to comfort and show support to the poster. New sets are sporadically added but tend to come out once a month; they are modelled after major holidays and topics, often suggested by the Vent community themselves who can design their own emotion sets to post in the "Emotion Set Suggestions" group. Most emotion sets are behind a subscription paywall and must be gifted to the account if they are not a subscriber; default sets are available regardless of subscription, along with current holidays, user appreciation, community favourites, and new sets. Many Vent users will match the colour of a certain emotion set with their profile picture, called a default.

Defaults:

All Available Emotion Sets:

Click here to see screenshots of the emotions of every set. Thank you to Library on SpaceHey for getting these together!

Legacy set:

Sometime in mid-2020, the Legacy set was created to honour the staff team and developers. This set was widely viewed as inappropriate and condescending to the userbase, mostly over the "complaining" emotion. The set was soon removed.

KIN emotion:

In August 2020, Vent staff created the User Appreciation set, seemingly in response to the backlash over the Legacy set. In this, they included a "Kin" emotion to acknowledge the kin community on the app, leading to this legendary post:

Vent 2.0 Emotion Sets:

A few completely new sets have been released for the new version of Vent app, you can click here to see a collection of screenshots of those:

True Crime Set:

On the 3rd of April 2023, the True Crime set released, sparking outrage from the userbase over the set's insensitivity and inappropriateness for a mental health app. The set was renamed to Detective and then fully removed later in the day. An official apology post was issued.

Jamie's Duck Set:

The next day, as an apology for the True Crime set, Jamie's Duck Set was released. Initially stated as for a 24 hour period only, but as of writing this it's still available.

InVenting:

On the 24th of April 2023, an emotion set was built by the userbase via a contest of sorts that ran over the two days previous where ideas were put forward as comments and those comments were voted on by other users, the top 12 suggestions were used to create the emotion set.

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Vent Merch:

Sometime in 2016, Vent sold official wristbands and t-shirts with the default sets colours and the Vent logo on them. Little is known about them other than they existed and Vent staff, unfortunately, don't have any left over. If you happen to own a piece of official Vent merchandise from this era please email me I would love to see it.

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Why Do I Like Vent?

I joined the app in 2017 and have used it pretty consistently throughout my teen years as my main, and often only, active social media platform. While it has had its share of drama, drawbacks, and technical issues, I've made a lot of friends and trusted acquaintances through Vent, and I appreciate the supportive atmosphere my mutuals have provided me. I like the kin community on vent, and it was the only part of the community I had an active presence in for many years.

I've put a lot of money into subscriptions and emotion sets over the years and it is the only app I don't feel bad about spending money on, I just wish to give back at least a little to an app that's kept me happy for so long. I'm disappointed with the news about the major update and changes, but at the same time I accept that change has to happen to keep the community I love so much going. I wanted to make this page to celebrate what I like about this original version of Vent while I have access to screenshots of the features and such.