Touchgrass-en

Touchgrass-en ·Sep 8, 2026

What is a Solid Pod?

A Solid Pod is a personal online data store. In plain language, it is a place where apps can read and write data with a person’s permission, instead of keeping everything locked inside one app’s private database. For social software, that idea is powerful: posts, profile details, photos, preferences, and social context could become more portable.

Why we chose this

TouchGrass is built for a safer, more open social life online: real friends, intentional audiences, posts worth keeping, and fewer traps that make people stay for the wrong reasons. That makes data location important.

Most social

Touchgrass-en ·Sep 1, 2026

What does it mean to export your social account?

Exporting a social account means more than downloading a folder of files. A useful export should help a person understand what they created, what can be moved, what can be backed up, and what cannot simply be carried away. TouchGrass treats export as part of portability: a way to reduce platform lock-in and make social software safer. But social export is complicated. Posts, profiles, photos, albums, recommendations, friends, circles, replies, privacy settings, and remote interactions do not all move in the same way.

Why we chose this

A person’s social account is not just a username. It can

Touchgrass-en ·Aug 25, 2026

A healthy social network has exit doors

A healthy social network lets people leave. That does not mean everyone will leave; it means trust does not have to depend on captivity. TouchGrass is built as a safe, open social home for real life, with friends, circles, profiles, posts worth keeping, and a clear portability direction. We do not want people trapped by addictive feeds, platform lock-in, or the fear that their writing, photos, and social context will be stranded forever. Portability is not one feature.

Why we chose this

A social network asks for something valuable: time, memory, identity, and relationships. If the only way t

Touchgrass-en ·Aug 18, 2026

Fediverse vs Atmosphere: what is actually different?

Short answer: The Fediverse and the Atmosphere are two different open-social directions. The Fediverse usually refers to services that communicate through ActivityPub, with independent servers exchanging social activities. The Atmosphere refers to the ecosystem around ATProto, often associated with Bluesky, where identity, data hosting, relays, feeds, and apps can be separated differently. Both aim to reduce one-platform lock-in, but they make different tradeoffs. Neither automatically solves privacy, moderation, safety, portability, or product design.

Why we chose this

TouchGrass compares t

Touchgrass-en ·Aug 11, 2026

What is the Atmosphere? A plain-English guide to ATProto

Short answer: The Atmosphere is a name people use for the ecosystem around ATProto, the AT Protocol. It is often associated with Bluesky, but the broader idea is a social web where identity, data hosting, feeds, and apps can be separated more than they are on a traditional platform. ATProto is different from ActivityPub and the Fediverse.

Why we chose this

TouchGrass talks about the Atmosphere because open social software is not one single path.

ActivityPub and the Fediverse show one approach: independent servers using shared protocols to exchange social activity. ATProto shows another appr

Touchgrass-en ·Aug 4, 2026

What is ActivityPub, and why does it matter?

Short answer: ActivityPub is an open social web protocol used by many Fediverse services. It helps compatible servers send social activities to each other, such as following, posting, replying, and sharing public updates. That matters because it gives social software a path beyond one-company platforms. A public post does not always have to stay inside one website. But ActivityPub is not the whole answer to safety, privacy, moderation, or portability. Those depend on product design, server rules, user choices, and which features are actually supported.

Why we chose this

TouchGrass cares abou

Touchgrass-en ·Jul 28, 2026

What is the Fediverse? A plain-English explainer

Short answer: The Fediverse is a group of social websites and apps that can connect with each other because they use shared open protocols, most often ActivityPub. It is not one platform, one company, or one feed. A person on one compatible server can often follow, reply to, or read public posts from someone on another compatible server. That can make social networking less dependent on a single owner. It also means identity, moderation, safety, privacy, and portability depend on the servers, apps, policies, and protocol features involved.

Why we chose this

TouchGrass is built around a simpl

Touchgrass-en ·Jul 21, 2026

Why does TouchGrass not have videos?

TouchGrass does not include native video because video-first social products often pull the whole product toward watch time, recommendation loops, and engagement pressure. TouchGrass is built for a safe, open social home for real life: friends, circles, profiles, posts, long-form writing, photos, albums, recommendations, and exit doors. That does not mean video is bad everywhere. It means TouchGrass is choosing not to build the product around video mechanics today.

Why we chose this

Video changes software. It can be expressive, useful, funny, personal, educational, and beautiful. But in soci

Touchgrass-en ·Jul 14, 2026

Why does TouchGrass avoid public like counts?

TouchGrass avoids public like counts because public scoreboards change how people post. When every post carries a visible number, people start writing for the number, judging themselves by the number, or avoiding posts that might not “perform.” A safe, open social home for real life should not turn ordinary sharing into a contest. TouchGrass can still support social feedback and connection, but it does not need public like counts to rank people’s everyday lives. Removing the public scoreboard is one part of avoiding addictive feeds, engagement traps, and platform lock-in.

Why we chose this

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Touchgrass-en ·Jul 7, 2026

How does privacy work on TouchGrass?

Privacy on TouchGrass is not a single promise. It is a set of product choices: audience controls, friends, circles, profile settings, posting surfaces, and plain caveats about what software can and cannot guarantee. The goal is safer social software with honest boundaries. Open-web direction and privacy can coexist, but they must be explained separately. Open does not mean everything is public.

Why we chose this

“Privacy” is easy to put in a headline and hard to make real in a product. A social network can promise privacy while still pushing people into public performance, confusing defaults