Annelies Kamran, Ph.D. The funky treehhouse comes from trying to build distributed social media in a way that prioritizes the distributed element. Too much of the focus has been on emulating centralized systems, making the federation element seem like a meaningless and superfluous complication of something else the big platforms have seemingly figured out.
We need to make this a place that has a raison d’etra other than “we didn’t go to BlueSky” or “too edgy for Reddit”. That reason is smaller, more focused communities where you can actually talk to real, recognizable people, while also not missing out on the silly drama of the wider network.