~offFeed
your space, outside the feed.
A place of your own on the web for writing and photos, where you decide who sees each thing you post.
the upper three-fifths
the lower two-fifths
Why I made this
Sharing online used to mean having your own corner of the internet. Then the feed became the internet, and the feed isn’t good at everything.
Sometimes I want to write more than a caption. Sometimes twenty photographs belong together. Sometimes a post is for ten people, not ten thousand.
Instagram can still be where I show my photography, and group chats can still be where we talk. They just don’t have to be where everything lives. I made ~offFeed for the rest.
How it works
Your Alcove
Your own page at offfeed.me/~you. Short notes, long essays and photo galleries all live there, in the order you posted them.
Your Circles
Group your readers however your life is grouped. Each post goes to everyone, to the Circles you pick, or to nobody but you.
A feed that is only a feed
Readers see what the people they follow meant them to see, newest first. No ranking, no suggestions, no scores.
Person to person
Nobody here is a publisher with subscribers. Today you write and a friend reads; tomorrow it may be the other way round. You can also simply read and comment, and never write a thing.
What it isn’t
- No algorithm choosing what you see.
- No follower counts, and no like counts on show. Only the writer sees how many likes a post has.
- No advertising and no tracking.
- No open sign-up. Everyone here was invited by someone.
For readers
Were you sent a link you can’t open?
Posts here are shared with people the writer has chosen. Ask them for their invite link. It lets you create an account; once you confirm your email, they approve you.
You never need to write anything to read. If you want, ~offFeed can email you when someone you follow posts, each time or once a week. It is off unless you turn it on.
For writers
Getting started
- Get an invitation.
Writing is by personal invitation while the site is small.
- Set up your Alcove.
Choose a username, which becomes your address, and the colours your Alcove wears.
- Make your Circles.
Start with one or two. You can change who is in them at any time, and readers never see which Circles they are in.
- Invite your readers.
You get one personal invite link. Send it to the people you want; you approve each one.
- Publish.
Write in the editor, add photos, choose who it is for. Nothing is visible to anyone until you publish it.
Posts are private until you say otherwise.
A small return to the personal web.
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