Hi friends!
As I mentioned in the intro thread, I’m coming here with some ideas for facilitating anonymous and anon-ish communities in a way that could replace or provide alternatives to centralized platforms that don’t always have their best interests in mind.
My primary example right now is Fetlife, the “Facebook for kinky folx” platform. It’s very similar to Facebook in that it is for connecting and socializing, and is explicitly not a dating platform like Feeld (Tinder for kinksters). It has a news feed, profile pages, status updates, photo/video posts, polls, AMAs, groups, event posts, etc. and you can advertise your interests and follow tags for your favorite fetishes.
It is the primary way for the BDSM community to find each other and organize in-person munches (vanilla hangouts at bars and restaurants), parties, and other events. Vetting people with whom you might interact in a very intimate way is important, so meeting them IRL in a neutral space and finding shared connections online and off is important.
Anonymity is also important. People who engage in kink can be ostracized in their work or religious environments, and in some jurisdictions that disallow certain sex acts, non-monogamous relationships and other alternative lifestyles they can be charged with crimes.
The unfortunate effect of its centralization is that decisions about the platform are controlled by a very small group of people who, by several accounts, are not maintaining a healthy working environment and, most recently, taking concerning stances on racism and white supremacy.
Starting another centralized competitor seems like a recipe to reproduce those problems. And the legal hoops that must be jumped through to safely and legally host nude or pornographic imagery and content are a big blocker for most who’d be willing to try.
These challenges seem like a perfect fit for a federated or decentralized platform: servers, users or sub-communities could choose their own policies for what content to allow or deny; anonymity; privacy; ownership and control of one’s data. And, if the tools are built well, it could provide the means for other non-kink anon communities to do the same.
So, I guess what I’m here to do, initially, is validate the idea with the people who understand Goblins and OCap better than I do. And then, if there is any interest, I would love to chat about architectural ideas and work toward a small prototype.