web 4.0 with a lil 5.0 too who cares hell let's throw some 9.0 in there too

Are.na was born out of this desire to create a platform that helped you find people through information, and vice versa. That’s essentially the thing that Are.na does, plus enabling you to learn more about yourself through the information you collect.

For us, it’s been important to foreground what people are doing on Are.na, i.e. the thing . “Organizing” is not the word that I usually use when I describe that action, but when other people make software that is about organizing, a large part of the UI and UX design tends to attempt to remove friction.

For a lot of developers or people who are buil... See more

We wanted to explore what it would look like if we created a social-media platform that moves against hierarchy and making people into brands. What care and safety mean when creating online connections that feel more tender and meaningful and not so transactional and extractive. And we’re thinking about citation, ensuring that creators and people o... See more

That’s why Are.na is so refreshing, and so noteworthy. At every turn, it exemplifies this sense of generative generosity and thoughtful, user-first design. Built as a place to think, gather, reflect, and build bridges between ideas alongside others doing the same, it’s one of the only digital spaces where my mind feels enriched instead of deadened;... See more

Nadia described the Dark Forest as representing the next era of the internet — where we are now. Where instead of seeking to maximize status — which some of us still do — more of us find ourselves seeking safety and context online instead.

It’s important that people—actual individuals—are doing the work for themselves to decide how exactly they want to group information together, because it’s this exercise that hones a person’s unique intuition. It’s personal intuition that gives a piece of information a unique shape to live in, and it's the many connected shapes that make Are.na su

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There was a specific moment with myself, John Michael Boling, Damon Zucconi, and Dena Yago, where we had this discussion about whether we would use Are.na if we weren’t being paid to work on it. At that point we agreed that we wouldn’t. In that moment we asked, "What would it have to look like for us to actually be into it?"

So, there’s the trick. The path to taste is really as simple as writing a little plus and minus in the margin more often. If we apply this to digital space, we can turn them from an overwhelming and chaotic bombardment into a steady stream of things we find beautiful, that in turn, can define our tastes. For me, Are.na is a space for this kind of c... See more