# Manifesto

Social media is broken.

We all know it; explicitly, or as a nagging feeling after doom-scrolling another evening away.

The companies behind it have grown beyond all reason. And it still isn't enough. They'll say whatever they have to to continue as they have, chasing revenues for shareholders by using every means at their disposal to eke out that last bit of your attention; keep you looking for that minute longer, holding up their golem in pride, for advertisers to fight over.

You have no power in this.

You are the product.

And the more attention you have on offer, the better that product.

It's your data that sweetens it.

Your data: your likes, your hesitations, your clicks. With every new piece, more of your nature is revealed; more of what makes you tick.

And they use it against you.

Every trick of human psychology; all the white lies our brains tell us every day; all the myriad sources of dopamine; it's all employed to one end.

To keep you in that app, on that page.

You are the product, and you're making them rich.

And you're sick of it.

We all are.

You want to be where everyone knows your name.

Or no one.

What you want is control. You want to decide, each and every hour of each and every day; and to have the freedom to change your mind, as often as you like.

And that starts with two things:

1) Neutral ground, free of tricks and hooks that mess with you; and

2) Control of your data; the freedom to provide as much or as little as you're comfortable with, with the knowledge that it won't be used, for any purpose -- for or against you -- without your consent; and maybe most importantly, the freedom to pick it all up and leave, easily and without consequence.

Welcome to yarn.social.

We've designed it with your brain in mind. The only dopamine hits on offer here are those that arise from genuine human connections, much like you'd get from a yarn over a cuppa or a pint with family or good mates.

We don't keep your data. *Bit about how the email is stored for account recovery*

And it's all based on text; the simple, elegant twtxt protocol.

Join a pod of like-minded fans. Or one of total strangers. It's up to you.

And yarn.social is lightweight: stand up a pod for you and your mates; or a family pod. It'll run on your laptop, or the cheapest cloud server you can find. Or we can run one for you.

The choice is yours.

And it doesn't affect your freedom to listen, to whoever you want; be it on your pod, your mate's, or to someone halfway around the world. Carry on, naturally, as if you were all yakking on the same platform, or having a yarn down at the pub.

So, have a look around, take a look at the files underpinning all this; we're confident its simplicity will bring a smile to your face. Say 'Hi!', post a gif, develop a client! Whatever strikes your fancy!

We're happy to have you here! Welcome!

## Notes/Ideas

- Own your data = Own what you say
- Clarify how the email address is used, if it's supplied
- Link to PRIVACY.md

- Freedom to listen (not freedom of speech)
- inspired by Shuttlebutt

- Postcards... (worried about stepping on Postsecret's toes?)
- Photocopied, and given out on the street corner

- No ads
- No central point, for aggregation, or of failure
- No curation: read yarns as they're posted
- Casual; no sense of urgency or FOMO; no pings (ref Snormal)
- No doom-scroll; configurable pagination
- Genuine interactions: no automated or 'easy' means of sharing or supporting; just good ole conversation**
- All designed with our brains in mind. Expand your mind; keep your time.

## Credits
- Feedless/Rogerio
- https://medium.com/swlh/user-engagement-is-code-for-addiction-a2f50d36d7ac
- Snormal design choices: https://tinyprojects.dev/projects/snormal
- Many others, that I've read; need to find them and remind myself of their main points
- ** [Nature article, on how chasing likes messes us up](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03344-2)