- Column should be the following:
- On First Installation:
- Column will explain to you that you are creating your own truth system and that what you do on Column matters in relation to how you experience the internet now.
- The user is invited to make a decision as to their goal on Column, which is explained as a desire (just examples below):
- I want to have a better, holistic, understanding of the news I read.
- I want to see what people who disagree with me say in relation to the news I regularly consume.
- I want to see what people who agree with me say about the news I regularly consume.
- Based on that desire they should form a metric statement for themselves in grading each Column (or article) they read - this is their truth metric. We suggest a few options (these will be 1-5 ratings):
- "better, holistic understanding" -> "This column's conclusion was supported, logically, by the facts it included, _regardless of whether I agree with the statement of the facts, or not - merely assuming them as true_"
- "disagree/agree" -> "I (dis)agree with this column's conclusion and position"
- These options and questions should be devised to encourage users to set up truth systems based on the logical viability of argument, rather than mere agreement (though we recognize we can't actually stop users from just using it to say I agree)
- I am told that one option is to use Column to decrease the amount of limbic response I get from the news cycle, by bringing Columnists with varied but reasonable viewpoints to my experience, such that each piece of news I consume is more carefully construed across a few viewpoints.
- Lifetime Loop:
- I can subscribe to my favorite thinkers' Columns. This subscription will include:
- Original Articles
- Articles Responsive to News Items/Articles
- Articles Responsive to other Columnists Articles
- I can browse the internet while I'm in column. If a page I'm looking at has been commented on by a Columnist, I am alerted to that fact.
- I can read articles from Columnists that are responsive to the webpages I'm browsing, and further, I can read articles responsive to those article, should those exist.
- If a page has not received responses, or not from the Columnist I'd like to see review it, I can submit the page for their review - perhaps they will respond.
- On submitting or tracking a page while browsing the internet, I store a plaintext copy of it whereupon I can note any changes should the page be edited later (see: [@nyt_diff](https://twitter.com/nyt_diff)).
- I can also pin any article or response from a Columnist with the same `diff` capacity
- If I pin a page or article or response to either, and there are responses or changes to that pin, I am notified, even at some length into the future, so that I can continue to be updated to the latest state truth consensus
- I am able to curtail this post-facto alerting at some point in the future, such that I don't receive updates to decades old matters that are otherwise trivial
- Each time I read an article or response, I am invited to rate it based on my truth metric, in the subject-matter professed by the writer (that way I am using their own terms to judge their work). This data is available to me in the future, so I know how much I "trust" someone's opinion, in a given subject matter
- If I strongly disagree with someone, or strongly agree with someone's article or response I am always asked to revisit that decision 1-2 weeks later to help me differentiate my immediate response from my measured response later on.
- Creator Loop:
- I can continue to create on all my platforms of note and merely cross-post the data (maybe we build API plugins for twitter etc) for my general column.
- I am alerted as to articles/websites that my subscribers are bringing to my attention (e.g. "10 of your subscribers have flagged this new CNBC article for your review - would you like to respond?")
- I am able to pin my response to a given website or other-Columnist's-article; others are able to do the same to my response, to create threaded dialogues.
- I am able to receive payment from my subscribers for my services.
- I am able to receive payment from non-subscribers who view my columns for free, after a paid advertisement, on their devices.
- I am able to enmesh myself in my reader's internet lives, and am able to be responsive to effectively any namespace
- Urbit Loop:
- I am informed, as a user of Column, over time, that my freedom to track articles with permanence and to create my own metric of truth comes from a decentralized platform
- I am informed that, well, we kinda lied last time - you're using an almost-decentralized server, but we're hosting it for you. You could run your own.
- I am informed of the nature of other products on urbit that also take advantage of this characteristic decentralization, private chat messages other social platforms etc.
- I am instructed as to how I can install other Urbit applications on my extant Urbit server, now that I know I have one.
- I am given instructions as to how I might "escape" hosting.

- Revenue Model
- Users pay 2(X) for Hosting + Column + 1 Subscription
- If users host their own urbit, they pay X
- If users subscribe to additional columnists, they pay per columnist at a rate set by the columnists, per month, with Y% coming to Column's core development team from those subscriptions