Principles
What Together will never become
Before building anything, I asked how Together could go wrong: how it could turn into a dating app, a popularity contest, a profiling engine, a tool for harassment or persuasion, or another endless feed. Each risk now has a rule against it.
Not a dating app
There will be no fields for appearance, age, gender preference or relationship status. Photographs of people will never be used to decide who meets whom, and asking someone for romance or sex will be against the rules.
Not a popularity contest
No followers, likes, reactions, rankings, streaks or badges, and no counts of how many people accepted or passed. Passing on someone will always be private and change nothing for them.
Not a way of profiling people
Together will never guess anyone's religion, politics, ethnicity, sexuality, health, disability or immigration status. Statistics about a country describe the place, never the person. Your name, language and time zone will never be used to sort you.
Not a debate arena or a persuasion tool
No one will be paired because of their politics, nationality or religion, and there will be no sponsored prompts or campaigns. The facts Together shows describe places; they never draw conclusions about groups of people.
Not a feed or an engagement trap
No infinite scroll and no notifications designed to bring you back. Time spent on the site is not a measure of success.
No score
There is no compatibility, similarity, trust or "better place" score, and there never will be. Every connection has to point to real evidence: something a person wrote, or a named public source.
Not a replacement for help
Together is not therapy, a crisis service, a translation service, a research panel or an advertising audience. If you are in danger, contact your local emergency services.