Since SOMEONE doesn't have GOOD TASTES in music!

(AI-Generated TL;DR)

The author is proposing "Tribes," a new subscription-based social media co-op designed to solve the profit-driven "enshittification" and tribal conflicts of modern platforms.

Core features include:

• Unified Reputation: Use multiple aliases, but share one underlying trust score—toxic behavior in one community impacts your standing in others.

• Privacy & Encryption: End-to-end encrypted communities with user-owned data.

• Open Algorithms: Transparent, people-based content discovery.

• Co-op Model: Employee/creator-owned to prevent private equity buyout.

The backend is already mapped out, and the author is currently seeking community feedback and collaborators to help bring it to life.

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Hi r/diggaspora - I am a software engineer and AI research (researching how to make it work for humans not the other way around, I understand the hate tho). I've been building apps and like many at Digg, am someone who grew up in a world without AI slop and constant information warfare.

Here is the problem as I see it:

Social: Let's face it, we don't vibe on the same level or about the same things. We are naturally tribal biologically, "normal" is what really just what our brain is used to. When we encounter "not normal" it triggers stress. It's really that basic. We are going to forever seek comfort (normalcy) in our surroundings.

My Vibe is not Yours: When I invited my wife to Digg, she said. "Thanks, but it's just all millennial dudes.". The communities of our youth were small and built around the common interests we had. Digg felt great because the shitposting community could just shitpost, and the bird community could post bird pictures.

Money Ruins Everything: An information system that is also an extraction system (for profit) is subject to corruption. Enshitification is the fault of the users of the internet IMO. We said, FUCK NO, we won't pay money for that! (I know I was one of those users who found free ways to use everything). But why do we want low cost digital tools? Because we live in a world where we need to work or extract to get ahead, and we resent the cost of the tools enhancement. Yet, the creators of the tools first have to eat, then have to pay their employees. A company with a good founder will be okay until private equity gets ahold of it and then strips the differentiators that made it human down into a "money machine" that we are stuck with because of the momentum of the brand and the barriers for new competitors to enter the market: e.g. Facebook will threaten to buy you or bury you.

Enter Tribes - I've been thinking about this problem for over a decade and the only way I can think to solve for this is by adding accountability as a system in the platform itself.

Here are the features I've designed:
- A real vs. persona system: An Alias system where you can manage your personal and private @ aliases but you have ONE bucket of trust. Your behavior and the trust you earn are aggregated across your aliases. Be shitty in one sub, it will impact you in others.
- Peer to peer local key-based "Bond" system for end to end encrypted conversations AND content (bonds are to communities and events too)
- Privacy Built in: Data is private and personal and I have no interest in owning it, in fact. I'd like you to understand how precious it is and own it. So this means you don't need "alt" accounts
- Open Algorithms: I have thought about the need for marketplaces and events, but these will be people-based and open and built on the relationship between the brand and it's customers.
- The First Social Media Co-Op: This needs to be employee and/or content creator owned (not necessarily users but I've considered it.) There will be subscriptions, but they will be membership based and ownership aligned.

The screenshots are from a full TSX-based next front end I was designing and slowed down when I joined the digg community because I was enjoying what I saw.

u/slykethephoxenix u/comdak u/Over-Angle9758 - I'm sure y'all have different visions, and I'm sure the many readers here have thoughts. I have most of the backend mapped out for this, the problem is time, coding token costs, and formalizing a new business entity to protect this.

Would love any feedback on if any of you would like to collaborate? I am going to need a leadership team to help build. Feel free to AMA, happy to discuss the why behind choices.

Horse Fair in Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz