# Personas in Kurate: Meditations on Through, As, and In
###### tags: `Kurate` `expression`

I find it very interesting to think about
the nature of Personas in Kurate.

The way we define it on the site is
"a Persona is a group identity".

And when you're interacting,
you yourself remain private

but post public content
Through it or As it.

And we show examples,
so we can anchor the concept because

it's a bit of a strange,
novel experience. 

And different examples that we use
make you feel differently about the app.

If a Persona looks like an individual

and even more specifically,
an individual you know,

It feels different than a Persona
that looks like a brand or a group.

We use Satoshi as an example of a
Persona that is an individual.

And we say
"imagine if you could be
Satoshi Nakamoto".

That you could post
As Satoshi's online Persona,

what would you say?

And I think this is an inspiring thought.

"Oh, I get to be Satoshi!"

But it also fills you with a bit of awe.
Because there's a sense of responsibility

that comes from having the ability
to shape the public identity
of someone you hold reverence for.

If you get to post As Satoshi Nakamoto,
you don't want to mess that up.

You want to be very careful
that speaking through him,

you're saying what he would say.

And that feels very different than
posting and curating content
through a Persona
that looks like a group.

The nature of that is very different.
The implications are very different.

And to me it's the difference between
Through and As.

There's a prepositional dance going on,
I'll explain.

Kurate is an app that
gives people the ability to
anonymously curate content together.

To build the identity of a Persona
together over time. 

And also,
looking at it from the other side,

The Persona is the context by which
we curate content together.

It gives purpose to our posts.

If the Persona looks like a travel brand,

for example the
Those Who Travel Persona,

the relevant posts are
images and stories of cool places,

or products and services
that help people on their travels.

Travel is the relevance,
the context.

And the specific content becomes
the Persona's identity over time.

It's more of a symbiotic relationship
than groups on other
social media platforms.

And it does exist on other platforms,
by the way, but not the same.

For example
a Facebook group is a group of people
curating content together. 

There is context to their posts.

But ultimately there's a moderator
who decides if a post is relevant or not.

So if you're not the moderator,
you are posting In the group.

And that's a major difference.

You're not taking on the identity of the group.
You are your own identity,

posting As you In the group.

But in Kurate there is no moderator,
and no individual identity.

So instead you're not posting
In the group.

You're posting As the group,
or Through the group.

Taking on its identity.
It's a vessel for your expression.

At the same time you're
providing the building blocks

for discovering the Persona's identity.
And its identity is constantly evolving 

as posts tell the Persona's story over time.

And I think this is very different.

And it's made possible by
privacy plus the group curation mechanism
providing accountability.

So you're not posting In a group.
You're posting Through or As a Persona.

So then what's the difference between
Through and As?

I think it simply but profoundly
comes from what type of Persona
you create.

Does it look like an individual,
with a back story,

or even motivations?

Or does it look like a group or a brand?

The mechanism of posting and voting
is the same either way.

How we curate is the same either way. 

But when you post
As Satoshi,
you feel different

than when you post
Through Those Who Travel.

And the difference
is the nature of identity

and the nature of context
we're playing with
using Personas in Kurate.