Touchgrass-en

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

Touchgrass-en ·Jun 30, 2026

What do public, friends, and circles mean on TouchGrass?

TouchGrass gives posts an audience before they become part of your profile. Public posts are for things you are comfortable sharing more openly. Friends posts are for people you have accepted as friends. Circles are for smaller, intentional groups. These choices help social software feel closer to real life: you do not speak to everyone the same way in every room. They are not magic privacy shields. Screenshots, copying, recipient misuse, and remote-server behavior can still matter, especially as open-web and federation features develop. Open does not mean everything is public.

Why we chose t

Touchgrass-en ·Jun 23, 2026

Messages, comments, and small signals without the attention machine

Social software should help people talk, respond, and stay in touch without turning every interaction into a growth loop. Messages, comments, and small signals can be useful. They do not need to become an attention machine.

TouchGrass is built around real friends, circles, posts, profiles, and intentional audiences. Conversation belongs in that context. A comment can add something. A message can continue a conversation. A small signal can say “I saw this” without becoming a public popularity count.

Why we chose this

Most social platforms do not only host conversation. They shape it.

A comm

Touchgrass-en ·Jun 16, 2026

Recommendations from people, not black boxes

Recommendations are better when you know where they came from. A book from a friend, a place from someone in your circle, or a list from a person whose taste you understand can be more useful than a ranking engine guessing what will keep you scrolling.

TouchGrass supports recommendations from people, not black boxes. The goal is discovery with context: books, shows, music, places, lists, and other recommendations connected to profiles, friends, and circles.

Why we chose this

Recommendation systems often pretend to be neutral.

In practice, many are optimized for attention. They learn what m