A viable alternative
Since starting tuhat, I've had one major goal: that tuhat be useful. For it to be like any good tool, enabling you to do more of what couldn't be done without it. While at the same time to be built on radically different principles than the status quo tech platforms that we've all become used to over the past 25 years.
Those that claim to be free, all the while commoditizing every interaction you have with them. This warped incentive inevitably leads to keeping you online as much as possible; the more time you spend on them, the more money they make.
The challenge is to build something that is a maximally useful tool, but one its user controls, not one that controls its users.
Status Quo
Today there are multiple routes for creatives, nonprofits, and organizations of varying shapes to get the word out there and build a community around their endeavors. Though the majority are captured by two platforms which vary in little more than name. Substack and Patreon hold the lion's share, and their business model is built on taking a 10% cut. This means their claims to value free speech are more likely about projecting their bottom line; they don't ultimately care what their users are saying if their 10% cut is big enough.
Further, both rely on Stripe and sometimes PayPal to actually move money, so another ~5% goes there. That's ~15% of the money to support the world's creative and social projects going towards a handful of US tech giants, all seeking profits over all else. Even radical groups of varying stripes who are deeply against the principles and approaches of these platforms use them as they need the support and either aren't aware of or don't think there are viable alternatives.
What's missing?
What leads to those who you'd think would eschew such platforms using them? If you have an idea, I'd greatly appreciate if you could fill out this survey. It should take less than a minute. I'd like to stress that I don't want to add everything to tuhat. The best tools do one or at most a few things well, not everything. There may be some major feature missing from tuhat, or perhaps there is a space for a complementary tool to be used alongside it.
Building for you
The beauty of building a shared platform like tuhat is the community around it can make it better for everyone that uses it. I'm here to enable the goals of this community, not the goals of shareholders. Further, this instance of tuhat doesn't need to dominate the world, later this week I'll be open sourcing tuhat here both so people can contribute directly but also so they can run their own instance if they so desire. I've looked at federated solutions but I don't think they solve a problem tuhat has, the way articles are shared, Web/RSS/Email are already distributed and don't really benefit.
I'd greatly appreciate knowing what you think would help platforms like tuhat be viable alternatives to the status quo, please share you thoughts here