Why Communities

You are probably sceptical of the need to build yet another social platform, and rightly so. There are already plenty of digital products offering ways to engage us socially. Yet trends all around the world seem to show that people are feeling increasingly lonely and isolated.

With the rise of the internet, we are more connected than ever, and still we know less about our neighborhood, we know more people, but fewer of them are friends, we have more reach, but care less about the people we end up reaching. More and more we are becoming an a-social species, held together by a shared economy rather than interpersonal relationships.

While one could argue on the merits of such a society we can clearly see it is neither healthy nor natural for us. We evolved in highly social environments, members of small and tight communities of people who depended on each other. A collective way of life makes us happy and fulfilled. So why do we seem to be moving away from it?

The Social Human

Finding the cause of this problem seems elusive at first, but it becomes clearer once we dive into human nature, game theory and network effects.

Let's begin at the heart of the matter, what does it mean to be Human? At our core we seem to be like any other biological being, a bundle of genes carefully crafted and selected for by nature over millions of years. A long and complicated process that fine tunes the biological foundations of a living being. Genes underline a lot of what we are, a big chunk of what we call human, they can explain our physical traits, biology, and even our behaviour. Yet it's fairly obvious that it's not the whole story, genes alone cannot explain the complex structure of modern society. After all our genes have stayed fairly the same for tens of thousands of years, yet the differences in the way of live are vastly different.

The missing piece is the environment. Admitedly, the definition of what the environment means has been slowly changing, in recent years it's becoming synonymous to the word nature. But here we use its original meaning as in - "The surrounding conditions or circumstances that encircle or enclose something.", in other words your environment is what surrounds you. What this encompasses is not trivial, depending on your view, your environment will be your home, your neighborhood, your friends, the city you live in. It will be the laws that govern your state, the music playing in bars or the shows that play on TV. It is your body, the experiences and beliefs you have formed, heck even a sip of coffee can end up being in the sum of your environment. And yes, it also is the parks, forests, oceans and the very air you breathe.

So what makes you human? It's not merely the expression of your genes in your body but rather it's their expression within our human cultivated environment, stripping that away we end up with a very different animal. This is a key realization to further the understanding of our behaviour and to make sense of the self-destructive aspects of it. While it may take thousands to millions of years to fundamentally change an organism, changing its environment can radically change its lifestyle and behaviour within a single lifespan. And so looking at core of ourselves we are the same being roaming the earth for tens of thousands of years, however the environment we have shaped today is profoundly different than the one we evolved in.

This makes us humans extraordinary, the only animal we know of that is actively outpacing it's own evolutionary process. This feat however comes with some interesting implications, when we move faster than we can naturally adapt we risk of not being well suited for the situations and circumstances we end up facing. The same impulses that helped us survive and prosper in a primitive environment can now hinder our progress and well-being.

But this is not something new, society has been keenly aware of this problem for a very long time. And we've developed an ingenious way to address it, social infrastructure. Over millenia we've created a sets of rules and practices that help us deal with our destructive impulses. It started simple, we used stories, myths and rituals to present the correct way to behave or dangers to be avoided. These concrete examples and easy to follow practices, became a simple and effective strategy that could be passed on through generations. As we continued to grow in strength and shaped our environment further, we began developing more sophisticated social infrastructure, yoga, organized religion, laws, sports, educational and political systems, cities and economical systems, all exist to guide us in a world where we've surpassed our primal instincts and natural lifestyle.

Unfortunately as we advanced the knowledge of shaping social infrastructure thing took a darker turn. People or institutions seeking personal benefit found ways to exploit our instincts and impulses to benefit themselves at the expense of others. The very same strategy that guided us started being used to also manipulate us. The gambling industry, advertising, and sometimes even media tend to prey on our natural urges for their benefit, not to mention the various other industries that can depend on our tendency to become addicted to substances. This terrifying irony can be explained by making sense of game theory and it's dynamics in networks.

In short, game theory is the study of how decision-makers interact in situations where the outcomes (their reward) depend not only on their own choices, but also on the choices of others. It boils down to the examination of wether an actor would benefit more from cooperating or defecting (betraying). Network science, on the other hand, studies how networks form and their properties. Intersecting these two fields we get Networked Game Theory, and that is where things get really interesting. In this emmerging field we study the dynamics of game theory on a network of actors. It began with the work of Martin Nowak & Robert May (1992–1995), who observed that as the number of actors in uniform network increases we tend to see that defecting strategies get more favorable. And as we improved our understanding of how networks form and operate trough the paper of Duncan Watts & Steven Strogatz (1998) we gained the foundations for this new field.

Key work by Santos & Pacheco (2005–2006) and Perc & Szolnoki (2010s) shows that when networks grow too large and the connectivity is high, it allows defectors to spread and undermine cooperation dynamics of a network, causing cooperation to collapse. But they also found that cooperation performs better on heterogeneous networks (networks with many smaller hubs). Fowler & Christakis (2010) studied how cooperative behavior spreads in human social networks and found that if one person behaves cooperatively, it increases the likelihood that their friends also cooperate, however this cooperation boost tends to dramatically decrease after 3 "hops" in the network. Overall the 21st century has seen a lot of research being done in this field all pointing to the same thing, the shape of the network can radically change the behaviour of actors, and large widely interconnected networks seem to promote defection.

In practical terms what this means for us is that how we connect matters. While cooperative behavior thrives in local, repeated interactions, it breaks down in large, anonymous networks where people seldom meet again. It explains why people can be kind in person but toxic online, why people tend to be less empathetic in cities or even why whole industries will capitalize on our misfortune when we are seen as just numbers on a report. Most importantly it explain our natural tendency to want to belong and cooperate as we evolved in small tight communities (tribes) for the majority our human history where cooperation is the dominant strategy. In essence this means that as globalization and large interconnected networks increase we risk of making defecting strategies more favorable transforming us into a a-social species.

What we learn from this is that it's becoming more important to design social infrastructure in a way that favors smaller interpersonal networks, and tighter connections, which in effect makes cooperative strategies more viable. Infrastructure does not only affect our behaviour but in fact it will form our habits, transforming the very core of our being.

With that in mind let's go back to our original question, do we need yet another social platfrom? And to that I would ask the following. Do the existing social platfroms provide the appropriate infrastructure to support cooperative strategies, or do they push us towards defecting?

Social Infrastructure of the Internet Era

Looking at what the social platforms in the internet era are trying to solve today we can see 5 board categories.

• Social Media - content sharing (entertaiment)
• Social Networks - finding and connecting with others
• Messaging apps - communication
• Dating Apps - finding romantic partners
• Event Platforms - finding events

Most platforms address not one, but multiple of these problems at once. The focus however should not be which social problems they try to solve but rather on how. Most of the platform we use today rely on broad interconnected networks where one-off interactions with strangers is common. The very same type of networks in which we would expect defective behaviour to thrive, and that might very well explain the reason we often see them being polarizing, hostile and manipulative. The very way they connect us promotes unempathetic and non-personal interactions, it's a problem at the core of how these platforms operate that cannot be solved unless they are completely restructure themselves.

Social media poses yet another risk, their business model. They monetize primarily through advertising, they do this by studying user behavior at scale to make their ad inventory more valuable to advertisers. This isn't a moral judgment, it's the reality of their incentives. A company's business model sets its direction and when the customer is the advertiser, human attention becomes the product. That's how social platforms become Ad Marketplaces, companies whose primary focus is to maximize screen time and monetize your data.

The advertisement industry definitely falls in a moral gray area, however on social platforms it downright dangerous, since attention is the source of value, the whole ecosystem starts operating as an attention economy, everyone starts competing for attention. Users start chasing followers to grow their reach instead of seeking genuine connection, and ofcourse the platform starts rewarding what grabs attention even if it's polarizing or psychologically damaging. People are no longer seen as participants in a social network, but rather as content producers and consumers whose attention and preferences can be mined for profit. Now, there is nothing inherently bad with ads, advertisers, or attention economies, they have been part of human society for as long as we can remember and they play an crucial role in our lives and modern economy. The issue is when we treat these platforms as social networks, and use them in hopes to get social connection and validation.

The near future promises to intensify these trends. As AI generated media becomes more capable of capturing attention, ad-driven systems will eagerly distribute it. But more engaging content doesn't necessarily mean more meaning, value or happiness, only that the battle to capture the human gaze will grow ever more efficient and aggressive. Content sharing networks running on attention economies will never meaningfully fulfill our social needs. So the danger is not in the content they serve us, but rather in believing the story that they will help us connect and find a sense of belonging.

On the positive side not all social platfroms operate on these models, messaging apps have made it easier than ever to stay connected to the people you care about. Event platforms inform people about what is happening around them and can help them get together to form real relationships. And dating apps even though they have their problems have helped countless people to find a loving partner. Most of these platforms don't rely on attention economies to make profit, avoiding most of the core issues that go with that.

Most notably in recent years we've seen a rise of pro-social platforms whose primary purpose is helping people connect, be more communal and support each other. In Europe platforms like Commu make it easier to for people to provide and receive help for everyday tasks, the app has been used during the war in Ukraine and even received a peace award from United Nations. Mijnbuurtje has been operating for years helping local neighborhoods to organize themselves and providing them with learning resources, today it's a key factor in strengthening the social vitality of Dutch communities. In a simmilar fashion Hoplr has been operating in Belgium, helping local goverments rebuild social capital by engaging citizens in meaningful ways to support their local community. Mobilizon and Bonfire are building federated, decentralized apps to enable communities to be fully autonomous and own their data and infrastructure. In fact it seems that all around the world the apetite for authentic human connection keeps growing, with new ideas on how to do that sprouting everywhere!

With social media still being the dominant social platforms it is important that we keep innovating and expanding the space of pro-social platforms, we believe they are essential in ensuring our prosperity in a time where technology dependance and political tensions are rising. We want to contribute to this growing movement of alternative platforms, by bringing our own voice and ideas, and that's why we are building Communities.

Communities: a community‑first, locally‑focused social platform

"A community is a group of people that agree to grow together." - Simon Sinek

Like other platforms in this space we stand by the significance of avoiding attention economies, being local and community-first. However we also believe it's important to give user the autonomy of creating their own communities. We build for the user!

Our core principles are:

The user is our customer. The users are our customers, and we build for them, not advertisers.

We aren't foolish, to make this work, we need someone paying for the service. But instead of relying on unethical practices, we will monetize functionality through subscriptions.

Most users will use the platform for free, but subscriptions will provide access to advanced features. Our initial focus will be on Community Subscriptions, building features that help communities organize themselves, grow and communicate with their members. Later, with User Subscriptions, we'll give users easier ways to find and connect with peers and their locality, advanced search functionality, recommendations, as well as cosmetic and configuration options.

Since users are our customers, you will be the ones to determine which features are most important to build. We will continue to develop our Interactive Roadmap so that you will have a direct impact on what is going to be build next.

With this business model, trust becomes one of the most crucial aspects for us. That's why we're committed to operating with transparency. Business decisions, financials, and future plans will be open for everyone to see. There's a lot to consider here, from making the platform open-source to integrating with open social web protocols like ActivityPub. The topic is broad and deserves its own article, so be on the lookout as we share more about our plans on user privacy and operating with transparency.

We solve real problems. We build tools that empower communities and nurture meaningful interactions.

Local communities face many problems: discovering nearby resources, relevant contacts, organizing their members, shared information, events and projects, sustaining engagement and growth, managing shared funds and assets, creating a fair and transparent spaces, and governance. Social media platforms aren't designed for these needs, and don't care to solve them. But we do! We are committed in providing the necessary infrastructure to enable local communities to solve the hard problems they face.

By helping you solve these problems, we hope that local communities can spend more time with each other, building up their relationships, spaces, and plan for their future.

We are creating a connection economy. Our goal is to help people grow strong and resilient communities. We want you to go offline, have in-person experiences, build local connections, and discover more about your neighborhood and region. Communities is focused on common goals and mutual prosperity rather than selfish incentives.

This minimizes the self-promoting behavior often found in attention economies and guides you to focus on what matters - growing together.

Can this really work?

Like in any large ambitious project there is no guarantee of success. However we think that having projects like this is truly important for a healthy and resilient society. And thus even at great risk of failure we feel obligated to give this one a go, besides, there are a few trends happening lately that make us believe this can actually work.

• Communities are having a moment. People crave connection, belonging, and purpose, perhaps more than at any time in recent memory. A community first social media is something that is still being explored, and a new platfrom can bring new ideas that resonate with users.
• People are becoming tired of attention economies. More users are recognizing how traditional social platforms prioritize engagement over wellbeing. There's growing awareness that the endless scroll, algorithmic feeds, and attention-grabbing content don't serve our deeper needs for connection and meaning. This fatigue creates demand for platforms that put people first.
• It's never been more feasible to build and serve products. Modern tools make it faster and cheaper to build software. While hardware is becoming more capable and affordable. And by not serving advertisers, we avoid the enormous costs of large‑scale behavioral analytics, so we can invest those resources in building value for users. This makes it possible for us to stay thin and focused on what matters.
• People increasingly pay for value. A decade or two ago, subscriptions for web products were a hard sell. Today, when a product provides real value, people are happy to pay for them. Services like Netflix and Spotify normalized subscription payments and it's been more common than ever to pay for a valuable service.
• AI content crisis. AI generated content is becoming mainstream, with most social-media already serving it. When all the comments become a discussion on wether it's AI generated or not content loses it's meaning, and people move on to more tangible experiences.
• We’re in this for the right reasons. Building a social network is hard work. It takes incredible passion and dedication. People who primarily care about getting a return on their investment have much better options. We truly believe in building a better platform to support today's social needs. Prioritizing this gives our team the energy to endure through tough and uncertain times.

And so there is a long road ahead with no guarantees. But we will never know unless we go for it. We believe people deserve platforms that put society first, and we're determined to build one. Are you with us?