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 to keep those things is to stay inside one platform forever, the relationship between the service and the person becomes unhealthy.
TouchGrass is not anti-social media. It is pro-social software. We want people to keep in touch, share photos, write posts, recommend things, and maintain profiles that feel like places. But a good place needs doors. A person should be able to understand what they have created, what they can take with them, and what depends on other people, servers, protocols, or apps.
Exit doors also make everyday product decisions clearer. A network designed for lock-in tends to reward constant consumption: algorithmic feeds, public like counts, infinite scroll, video loops, and engagement traps. A network designed with exits can focus on durable social context instead: friends, circles, intentional audiences, long-form writing, albums, recommendations, and profile pages that are useful even when you are not chasing a feed.
Portability also helps safety. When people know what is exportable, what is not, and what remains dependent on others, they can make better choices. Open does not mean “everything is public.” Open means the system should support choice, interoperability, and user leverage. Privacy still needs its own rules, its own warnings, and its own limits.
How this works on TouchGrass
TouchGrass centers real friends and intentional sharing. Profiles are treated as places people can keep and return to, not just as cards attached to a feed. TouchGrass supports posts, long-form writing, photos and albums, recommendations, and privacy-aware sharing patterns.
TouchGrass also avoids several mechanics that make social software feel extractive: no addictive algorithmic feed, no infinite scroll as the main product shape, no public like counts as social pressure, and no video-first engagement loop.
On portability, the direction is open and deliberate. TouchGrass is designed around the idea that people should not be locked into one app forever.
Worth knowing
Moving a social account is not the same as moving a text file. A person may be able to export posts, but relationships, replies, circles, permissions, albums, recommendations, and remote interactions can be harder.
Private sharing also has limits: it cannot prevent screenshots, copied text, recipient misuse, or unexpected behavior from remote servers in interoperable systems.
A healthy exit door should reduce lock-in, not pretend the whole internet is one perfectly synchronized address book.
FAQ
Is TouchGrass an open social network?
TouchGrass is built with an open-web direction. That includes portability, federation, and interest in interoperable social data. But “open” does not mean every post is public, and it does not mean every protocol direction is complete today.
Why does an exit door make a network safer?
Because people have more leverage. A platform that knows people can leave has to earn trust. Portability also encourages clearer privacy explanations, better data boundaries, and fewer tricks designed to keep people scrolling.
Can private posts be exported?
Private or limited-audience content needs careful handling. An export cannot make recipients forget what they saw, stop screenshots, or control every remote server.
Keep reading
Portability
See what you can do
Why we chose this
A social network asks for something valuable: time, memory, identity, and relationships. If the only way to keep those things is to stay inside one platform forever, the relationship between the service and the person becomes unhealthy.
TouchGrass is not anti-social media. It is pro-social software. We want people to keep in touch, share photos, write posts, recommend things, and maintain profiles that feel like places. But a good place needs doors. A person should be able to understand what they have created, what they can take with them, and what depends on other people, servers, protocols, or apps.
Exit doors also make everyday product decisions clearer. A network designed for lock-in tends to reward constant consumption: algorithmic feeds, public like counts, infinite scroll, video loops, and engagement traps. A network designed with exits can focus on durable social context instead: friends, circles, intentional audiences, long-form writing, albums, recommendations, and profile pages that are useful even when you are not chasing a feed.
Portability also helps safety. When people know what is exportable, what is not, and what remains dependent on others, they can make better choices. Open does not mean “everything is public.” Open means the system should support choice, interoperability, and user leverage. Privacy still needs its own rules, its own warnings, and its own limits.
How this works on TouchGrass
TouchGrass centers real friends and intentional sharing. Profiles are treated as places people can keep and return to, not just as cards attached to a feed. TouchGrass supports posts, long-form writing, photos and albums, recommendations, and privacy-aware sharing patterns.
TouchGrass also avoids several mechanics that make social software feel extractive: no addictive algorithmic feed, no infinite scroll as the main product shape, no public like counts as social pressure, and no video-first engagement loop.
On portability, the direction is open and deliberate. TouchGrass is designed around the idea that people should not be locked into one app forever.
Worth knowing
Moving a social account is not the same as moving a text file. A person may be able to export posts, but relationships, replies, circles, permissions, albums, recommendations, and remote interactions can be harder.
Private sharing also has limits: it cannot prevent screenshots, copied text, recipient misuse, or unexpected behavior from remote servers in interoperable systems.
A healthy exit door should reduce lock-in, not pretend the whole internet is one perfectly synchronized address book.
FAQ
Is TouchGrass an open social network?
TouchGrass is built with an open-web direction. That includes portability, federation, and interest in interoperable social data. But “open” does not mean every post is public, and it does not mean every protocol direction is complete today.
Why does an exit door make a network safer?
Because people have more leverage. A platform that knows people can leave has to earn trust. Portability also encourages clearer privacy explanations, better data boundaries, and fewer tricks designed to keep people scrolling.
Can private posts be exported?
Private or limited-audience content needs careful handling. An export cannot make recipients forget what they saw, stop screenshots, or control every remote server.
Keep reading
Portability
See what you can do