Official announcements and happiness!
How do I use this thing?
Sorry if that sounds like an impertinent question. I've just been thinking about this platform and where it would fit in my social media life, what I want to use it for and what it could provide that other sites don't. I've got some questions and some recommendations, and I'm curious what other people are expecting from both developers and users.
Is this the place for that?




The ways I'm using Imzy mostly fall somewhere between reddit and my favorite old-school forums. If Twitter is an open-invite cocktail party: you can have really good conversations, but the odds of getting cornered by scary drunk people are also pretty high; and Facebook is Thanksgiving dinner with your extended family and a bunch of friends and all the intimacy and weirdness that entails and no real escape; Imzy is a low-key collection of interconnected themed salons.
For me, it's been most valuable for connecting with communities I was already part of to some extent: for instance, the podcast, which had a really active commentariat but no real platform for open posting and discussion that wasn't strictly top-down. And, critically, it feels like a safe place to do that: the fact that whatever I make or do here, I'm doing on the foundation of a really strong CoC and set of moderation tools makes me a lot more willing to go out on limbs and explore and participate in communities outside of my own usual circles.
(I'd actually really love to sit down and talk with you about this at more length in person next week--I think a lot of what's happening here dovetails kind of amazingly with some of your work WRT convention CoCs and safety.)
I like your analogies for different sites. To continue that vein, I've been looking for something a bit like having a house near town square, where I can putter around in my workshop in the back, place what I'm happy with in the front yard, and pop in at various shops or other people's houses to see what they're up to. (It's very Harvest Moon in my head, what can I say.)
Yes please share away! - I can only speak for myself but I'm using the site to replace my Reddit life, and as a blog type site for myself / youtube needs.
Also I've been working to create my own Website now for a bit. Imzy has replaced the need for that as I can do what I wanted here on Imzy.
So far the best use for this site that I have found due to the style of the site is... A Twitter / Blog site that allows a constant feed of information from communities you choose to follow. However this site excels to two areas for me so far. 1. Being the ability to tip for great content. I love this as I see a lot of little things one could use this feature for going forward since Imzy has made tipping so easy. 2. This site allows a better bigger conversation to go on from each post with its reddit type comment style.
Now you talked about ideas / suggestions... One thing I think will end up happening for Imzy down the road is that companies will start to use the site as a way to post updates and share information. Why do I think this will happen, well as a company if I was creating a new game and wanted to share it to a certain audience to test. I would highly consider sharing it to an audience that could provide some feedback in a group setting, and at the same time support my game with Tips very easily. As a small game developer or movie maker this could save me from having to create my own website with no following, and instead just post to a "movie" community with a major following that has easy access to donate without having to do anything more than click a button...
My idea of the site, and uses for it though on changing daily as the site grows and changes. With more and more new people coming to Imzy, and more and more features on the site coming I only believe this is the start to something great. Just glad to be apart of it.
I'd love to hear your thoughts as each persons pov or opinion can change mine to make it better or even just more refined :)
Great! I'll just sort of ask and answer my own questions, then.
1. What other social media sites do you use, and what do you use them for?
I have two primary desires in a social site: collecting and sharing. I'm a heavy Twitter and Tumblr user, and I have an Instagram account I use to feature my art. I have two Twitters (one private, one public) and six active Tumblrs. I like to collect and sort pictures, links and quotes, and I have a desire (and need) to compartmentalize different aspects of my life. While most content goes to my main Tumblr, I also have
Some of these distinctions are for me, and others were made as a nod to people who follow my main blog and don't have any interest in my side interests. For me, the ability to tag (and blacklist tags) is essential. One thing many people might appreciate having would be the ability to filter certain posts from specific people they follow. If X and I are really good friends but we completely disagree about my favorite show, I don't want to mute them OR the tag, but it would be great if I didn't have to see their posts.
2. What are you hoping to use imzy for, and what features would help you do that?
I've been in the market for a Tumblr replacement for awhile now. I don't really mind the ads -- they've done a pretty good job integrating them, and I understand the need to pay the bills -- but the staff has always been strangely out of sync with how we use Tumblr and add, remove, or ignore features almost at random. Multiple third-party extensions have stepped in to fill the gap, but Tumblr neither supports nor even imitates them despite their popularity.
I want a more responsive place to collect and share content, one which makes it easy to sort and retrieve my archives and which facilitates back-and-forth communication with other people. Both Twitter and Tumblr suck at threading in different ways; Twitter makes it difficult to look backwards and see what's been said previously, while Tumblr makes it cumbersome to go forward without reblogging the entire post and cluttering up everyone's dash.
I'm honestly less interested in subscribing to formally declared "communities", since in my experience they vary wildly in quality and usually dissolve into territorial drama. Subscribing to multiple communities generally leads to redundancy without always catching gaps in coverage; I always have the feeling I might be missing discussions elsewhere. Tracking tags or topics in general seems like a better way to go, and would make me feel more comfortable posting content without worrying "Does this fit this community?".
I definitely get the feel of a Tumblr dash/Twitter feed on the main page, and no real complaints there, except that it's a whole lot of white space on either side. I know you're still working on menus and so forth, but I'd personally like to have something like sorted/mini feeds on the side as a way to keep tabs on things that update infrequently or that might get lost in the shuffle for various reasons. Maybe you could choose to pin posts or threads you're following in particular, for instance. That would be nice.
3. What questions do you have about using imzy, and what might make it easier to understand current features?
I'm still not sure if I can post content outside of communities, which seems kind of essential! I love sharing, but I feel a lot of pressure from the idea of only being able to post in a space I'm very conscious is for everyone. I've been using forums since the 90s, but I've really gotten used to the idea of a personal page where I can talk to myself and people can come by or ignore me as much as they want.
I don't remember much introduction to the site, just a survey of my interests and a list of communities. I had to dig a bit to even find how to post a user icon. Some sort of guide would be very helpful, and I've mentioned that it would be nice to see featured accounts modeling how the platform was designed to be used, like an open house.
Also, I don't have a good feel for where the cutoff is for pictures or text on the main feed. If you could let us know how many characters or choose which part of a picture gets cropped, that would be a great way to give me a sense of finesse and control over what other people see. I like being able to look my best, if that makes sense.
I'm glad your here and willing to give us feedback! I'm the CEO and would love ALL of your feedback. Imzy' one intention is to be the place where you participate in all of your communities.
Ultimately how you participate in communities can be quite different depending on the community, which is why we are trying to build a flexible system. What you see here is just the foundation!
What we build on top of the foundation will be based on all the feedback we get from you and other users.
Thank you for your time, we value it more than you know!
I'm happy to help. Like I said, I've been looking for somewhere else to go other than Tumblr for awhile now, so the ability to possibly get something built to suit is a great opportunity!
High five!
oh, random other suggestion: imzy recommends other communities I'm not in yet. it'd be best for both of us if I had the option to tell you when I'm not interested, so you can make better recs in the future!
Wow never thought of this but I like it! Join/Pass?
Yes! That is on our list