Why we're building Campfire

It's hard to find your people online

It should be easy to talk with people who share your passions.

But it's 2024 and there still isn't an easy way to find a community for your industry, hobby, or passion project.

Imagine...

∙ You're starting a new career and need advice.
∙ You're picking up a hobby and want buddies to talk with.
∙ You're working on a side project and want to hack with someone.

Where do you go? The internet isn't much help.

What's missing in existing platforms?

On one hand, we have broadcast platforms like Twitter, Threads, and Instagram. They're just not built for communities. There are no shared spaces, and instead of joining a group, you have to follow people one-by-one.

On the other hand, we have anonymous forums like Reddit and Discord. They're organized for groups, but they feel so impersonal that it's hard for relationships and a sense of community to form.

The web needs a place to talk that feels personal and is built for communities. That’s why we’re building Campfire.

Individual Broadcasts

Groups & Communities

Personal

Twitter
Threads
Instagram
TikTok

campfire

Anonymous

N/A

Reddit
Discord

How Campfire is different

Campfire is built for friendly communities. Here's how it works:

1. Camps: people who share your passions

Campfire is built around camps. Camps are communities of people who share an interest: a hobby, an industry, a fandom, a sports team, a neighborhood.

Camps make it easy to find your communities and hear what people are saying—just join camps for what you’re into.

And when you're ready to share, camps are an instant audience of people who are interested in what you have to say.

2. Merit: rewards for contributing

Merit measures your contributions to a camp. People earn merit by having conversations, inviting others, and moderating to keep camps safe.

Camp members award merit to each other. The math is inspired by Google's PageRank algorithm: when you give someone merit, the amount scales with your merit. This helps senior members steer camps.

3. Identity: everyone’s verified

Everyone on Campfire is verified as a real person.

Verification gives you confidence that you’re talking with real people, not bots. It also keeps camps safe from spam and manipulation by limiting people to one account.

Today we verify campers via SMS, with more options coming.

4. Moderation: crowdsourced and aggressive

We believe platforms have a duty to create a safe, fun, welcoming space for everyone. This means aggressively moderating harassment, hate speech, and disinformation.

The merit system crowdsources and rewards moderation. In the future, we’re planning for camps to make their own rules via merit-based voting. This is a new form of digital governance and we’re excited to pilot it.

5. Compass: a map of your people (coming soon)

Compass is a map that shows you people nearby with similar interests. It’s totally opt-in, and you decide which interests to share and which to keep private.

From the map, you can see neighbors, their camps, and what they’re looking for: new friends, study partners, gym buddies, parenting support, dog dates...

We’re focusing on nailing the rest of Campfire before we launch Compass. But we can’t wait for it to connect us with the people around us.