What DFOS is becoming

This weekend I purposely didn't touch a computer. After a month straight of heavy DFOS usage, being the always-present community manager, I needed to step back.

The space was helpful. Rather than trying to perform, I was able to instead feel. Great products understand our emotions. Did I understand mine?

The honest question

The first and hardest question I was sitting with: is DFOS different enough?

When I open the app and see notifications across multiple spaces and conversations, I sometimes feel a wave of anxiety. The same anxiety I feel opening Slack. The same tilt toward "just give up" that every noisy platform produces. If being part of DFOS means your phone is always on, always asking something of you, then we've accidentally rebuilt the thing we're trying to replace.

I shared this with the team and it turned out everyone was feeling versions of it. Lena went to a cafe with only a notebook because the information flooding had become overwhelming. Brandon has also started dedicating Saturdays to being offline. Ilya pointed out that chat creates an instant daily to-do list — it's hard to control your level of participation, things age fast, and spaces can feel stale without someone constantly tending them.

What came out of the scroll session

To help break the cycle, I made the choice this morning to start the day by scrolling at the big butcher paper in the office rather than going to my computer. I began with a simple sketch of what a "Today" view might look like — one calm surface that shows you what matters across your spaces:

But then something bigger showed up.

I started imagining what the homepages of actual spaces might look like when admins have real control over them. We've always seen each space as being different, but this morning the mechanism by which that can happen finally became clear: use the same function as iOS — add to homescreen:

As a DFOS space admin, you should be able to the same: add anything to your homepage — a specific post, a chat channel, a post tag, an app. Name it, choose an icon, and it becomes a tile on the home screen. Like adding apps to your phone's home screen, but for your community.

The A-Corp space might pin the legislation tracker, a research library, and an AMA space. A music collective might feature a group posting feed and a treasury. A solo creator might make a voyeur window into their creative process.

The NCE space might feature CHORUS and NCE Updates as two big tiles, plus a link to the members page showing subgroups and a photo gallery.

Each space tailored to exactly what's important and nothing else.

A much clearer experience

This answers the question I started with about whether DFOS is different enough. DFOS is different because every space can be a different product. Discord and Slack are fixed shells — channels on the left, messages on the right, same for everyone. What we're building is a system where the shell itself is the creative medium.

What we're using right now is DFOS as a raw firehose. No editing, tightening of notifications, or ability to tell a story by what's here. This is DFOS at its most chaotic. But it's clear how this will change. Some spaces will be fast and alive. Some will be slow and reflective. DFOS won't prescribe the rhythm, but it gives you the tools to build the one that fits.

This also connects to something about subgroups that I think could be huge. We're in the midst of rolling out more granular roles, labels, and abilities. This points to something even bigger: what if they became groups you could join within a space? Join a subgroup and you subscribe to their content, their chat, their posts. You only see what you opt into. A 500-person space can feel intimate to every member depending on which subgroups they're in. You don't have to tend a massive community — you tend your corner of it.

Two kinds of attention

Thinking more about this question of noise and how to make these spaces manageable, this process also revealed two layers of information: things you'll want to know about immediately, and things we can create a more considered, campfire experience around.

Immediate things that should be pushed: DMs, replies to your comments, replies to your posts. These are someone talking to you. They deserve real-time attention.

Things that should roll into a TODAY update: Posts from people you follow, updates in channels you're part of. The life of the space, which should feel editorial — curated, designed, something you check in on when you're ready. Not a firehose.

Push things always go out if you've turned them on. Everything else rolls into a Today view that feels like a morning briefing, not an inbox. Maybe a daily or weekly email too.

This is another way the space can take more specific shape, especially as we let admins dictate the rhythm and means of communication in the future.

Where this goes

Spending time in this emotional space was very helpful. We're in the stretch where DFOS needs to find what it specifically is, beyond a set of features and functions. It's clear what that is: DFOS is a platform where every community designs its own internet. Not just a template, but actually designs the surface, the information architecture, the attention model, the economic layer, and with cryptographic proof that it's really yours.

This was rawer than what we expected to be sharing this morning, but why not. Where does this take you? How are you feeling? Maybe more importantly, how do you want to feel?