This Letter is a Response
to Community's Letter

Remembering a Personalised Era


from: @kimtendo91

Dear @manspeterson,

Looking back, it's amazing how much has changed since my first tentative steps on the world wide web. I realize that I haven't spent much time reminiscing the past, but your letter got me all nostalgic. And maybe, even a bit sad about the current state of social media. Especially, this part:

Things were bumpy and personalised. And fun. Now they are... smoooth. What happened to customizability?

During the early 2000's there was a Swedish youth community called Lunarstorm. It had for the time being a really futuristic, yet playful, look based upon some earthy tones of blue and orange. (Still today, I haven't seen this color combination used anywhere else, but it somehow made perfect sense.) There was of course a guestbook, DMs and a forum but what made it special was its profile pages.

Profiles on Lunarstorm was called "krypin", which can be translated to something like a cubby-hole. And you furnished your "krypin" using HTML and CSS. This simple, yet ingenious, decision to let people build their own profile pages not only generated fascinating art, but made a good portion of Swedish ten to fifteen year olds become self-learned web designers.

I'm positive, all those "krypin" have a lot to do with Sweden having so many tech and design companies today. They certainly changed my trajectory of life. Even if I didn't realise it at the time. Do you recall any communities that have made a mark on you?

It's fascinating what influence seemingly trivial things can have on people. And I guess that's part of why I'm feeling sad about where we at today. By trying to please everyone, our tools and platforms have lost their charm and personality. We can no longer customize our online presence. And that must be a lost? But again, people find other ways of being creative...

Sincerely yours,
@kimtendo91

An Introduction to
Slow Thoughts Network

slo-th.network is an ongoing experiment that tries to bring back the dimension of time to communication. A slow-paced social network focused on reflection and expressed through letters. An oasis in the attention economy, if you like. It's not meant to replace fast social media, or your email inbox, but rather to give you a just break.

Most distinctively, the slo-th.network delivers new letters only once a day. No pull-to-refresh here. And unlike most social media, there is no news feed to be found. No hierarchies, algorithms, search and sort options, or even an overview. Just one letter at a time, to pause and reflect upon.

When ready, you are invited to reply with your own thoughts or read another letter. But, to further optimise the conditions for reflection, letters can only be written with Wi-Fi turned off.

As you will find, navigation between letters is, contrary to the norm, random. This might feel disorienting at first but this is for your own good; to foster serendipity and occasionally have you revisit, and reevaluate, old thoughts. But the randomness also implies that every response letter should be able to stand on its own. Therefore it's suggested to exercise your paraphrasing skills.

What's being discussed is also defined by time, or as we say; a season. Instead of relying on hashtags, the community corresponds on one particular topic at a time, to eventually shifts its focus over to another. We feel like this makes it easier for us all to stay in tune with each other.

As we are a community, every mailbox is open for anyone to slide into. Interventions and hijacking of correspondence are also highly encouraged. But, to circumvent the noisyness that often comes with social media every user receives only seven stamps a week – so, you'd better collect your thoughts mindfully.

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