We decided to build this company because of the increasing enshittification of existing platforms. We feel the internet and, to some extent, humanity have strayed far from the path.
We all grew up in a time when the internet was more distributed and was built and populated by ordinary people sharing their passion or trying to make the world a better place. These days, just a few corporations control and/or host a majority of the web.
When those issues are coupled with the constant desire to make increasing profits, we are left with an internet that bears little resemblance to the free and open internet that we grew up with.
Social media is now a hellscape dominated by algorithm-driven infinite scrolling that doesn't encourage or promote human connection.
We believe it's still possible to do things right. Prioritizing human connection and mental health over profits is a core principle of building products that don't exploit people or their attention for monetary gain.
There's still hope for a world where:
- Your feed is populated only by content from your real friends, not by strangers, influencers, or content farms.
- You can reach the end of a feed. You can choose to log off or contribute your own content instead of being coerced into staying on a platform for small bursts of dopamine.
- Messaging remains private and secure between you and the recipient(s). When you delete a message, it's gone forever, not stored secretly on a server somewhere.
- Your data is always yours. Delete your account whenever you want.
- Your operating system isn't bloated with telemetry, required account sign-ins, and forced hardware requirements.
- You shouldn't have to fix problems with your OS using a command line and a nixCraft article that you barely understand. Drivers, desktop environments, and the kernel should just work.
Our principles
Security, privacy, and safety
These are requirements from the start of a project, not features we add once something gets popular.
- We collect as little as possible, because data we never hold cannot leak.
- No third-party trackers, advertising networks, or invasive analytics.
- Sane and safe defaults. You should never have to harden our software yourself or turn knobs, unless you really want to.
Deliberate scope
Every feature must earn its place. We focus on doing a few things well instead of becoming a bloated corporate beast that tries to do everything at once.
Build what matters. Make it dependable. Stop before complexity becomes the product.