FAQ
Chat communities giving people who want to be heard a place to feel connected
Social Communities & Activities
“Social” to us means open communication
- without fear (of being judged, etc)
- with positive intentions
- in a way that is genuinely helpful
Our communities are real-time collaborative chat & activity groups that people can create, visit, and join. In Ugeddit communities, people can
- send and receive messages, or audio/video chat with other members, in the community lounge
- explore and hang out in community rooms meant for specific topics or activities
- participate in community polls to help decide what activities and events will happen
People who benefit the most from Ugeddit communities are
- students and professionals who want to
- feel more connected with people
- learn more about their interests
- find good people to do projects with
- startup founders and entrepreneurs who want to
- have support from other founders
- share their experiences and help others
- find people they can trust
- teachers, professors, and public educators who want to
- connect better with their students
- let their listeners connect with them as well as each other
- foster positive community & values
People in other areas will also find value, because everyone improves with good-intentions and helpful advice from those who listen, understand, and are willing to help.
People visit our communities because they want to
- learn, and help each other improve and grow
- receive and give advice on how to overcome obstacles
- get to know each other as trusted friends and advisors
- partner up and do exciting projects together
Online communities where people truly get to know each other are rare.
- The biggest social media companies have shown their lack of genuine concern for people’s wellbeing and success, instead prioritizing and profiting off of attention and conflict, leading to the stereotypes of the “comments section” and many serious emotional, political, and sociological problems
- Q&A forums are good for answering questions, but there’s no real connection
- Many online event platforms have low engagement or accountability for both attendees and organizers
- Online expo platforms are like a multi-room Twitch chat where, even if there are 1-to-1 networking features, it’s still difficult for people to feel like they’re together during the event
- Direct video-chat would be the closest to real connection, but has no community in itself; It’s just for talking in-the-moment, and disappears after the call ends
In addition to group text, audio, and video chats, community members can
- post and answer help requests for other members
- vote on polls to
- decide future events & topics
- improve the community
- improve the platform
- join collaborative events
Organizer teams (volunteers, moderators, etc) typically
- help members feel welcomed
- introduce members to what the community is about, etc
- help coordinate events
- answer questions specific to community/events
- ensure members are getting along as well as possible
- deal with disruptive influences in an effective manner
- help events stay on schedule and on topic
Organizers can
- manage members and their organizer team
- set up polls
- create and schedule events
Other platforms have chat without activities, or activities without intuitive chat, and most we’ve found lack essential elements that would help people feel more connected
- With social networks, for example the current largest and apparently hated social network deliberately reduces reach and visibility over time to people’s own friends and networks, among many other issues which go against its values and mission. Despite the lack of alternatives, millions have been leaving the platform
- With popular video chat platforms like Zoom, people can share their screen but have to use a separate app like Miro to interact with each other better
- With expo platforms like Hopin, the only on-platform activity is the polls section which distracts you from the event speaker and also takes you out of the chat
- With event platforms like Meetup, people set an event and attendees meet somewhere else like Zoom
- With collaboration platforms like Miro, they’re good for brainstorming and focused work, but it lacks connection; it’s a bunch of cursors on a screen
Helping People Who Understand Isolation
Because of what many social media companies have been doing and have not changed, such as inflating and propagating people’s disruptive behaviour, encouraging and profiting off of divisive conflict, and providing echo chambers for disturbing behaviours to fester and silos to form around unethical and/or counterproductive propaganda,
To change this, we at Ugeddit are dedicated to
- facilitating intention-based communication, so people can
- better communicate what they mean
- understand what others really intend to say
- holding people accountable to their behaviours online by
- showing people’s track record for their behaviours
- ghosting, scamming, and other trust-destroying behaviours
- engagement, helpfulness, gratitude, and trust-building behaviours
- showing people’s track record for their behaviours
- helping people freely express themselves with less fear of judgement or impact on sensitive people
In our beta stage, we will be available to help
- By request
- when someone wants to talk to people, overcome social anxiety, or surpass other things which prevent them from feeling connected with their community, we can share advice and give them helpful resources for them to learn and succeed
- when there is a conflict, misunderstanding, or discomfort between two or more people or groups, we can help resolve the core issue, find each person/group’s true positive intentions, and help them move forward
- On-demand
- by sharing our documentation from our beta phase interactions on the platform
- by giving organizers highlighted access to
- resources they and their members can learn from to communicate better
- guides & walkthroughs for conflict resolution, communication excellence, and relationship-building
- Preemptively
- by training our team to observe and/or work with communities that want our ongoing help to
- notice when conflicts may be about to start
- help people resolve conflicts effectively
- help members overcome any awkwardness or discomfort with one another
- help members connect more effectively and meaningfully
- by training our team to observe and/or work with communities that want our ongoing help to
Other platforms, as far as we’ve researched, do not resolve conflict, but merely remove it, censor it, shame it, or worse promote it for popularity. All of these have been shown to create worse problems including echo chambers and nonviolent—even violent—hate groups.
As these other platforms expand and grow without handling conflict, the existing conflict grows with their platform, contaminating, infecting, and metastasizing throughout their platform. Clear examples are in the majority of posts and comments on f , YouTube, Twitter, and reddit, and the resulting stereotypes attributed to social media “discussions”.
People who understand isolation are people who have felt or know what it’s like to feel a clear lack of connection either online or offline. They understand what it means to
- feel others are emotionally distant, far away
- feel like people don’t listen, like they’re not being heard
- need to spend a lot of effort just to have a normal conversation that doesn’t devolve into negativity or argumentation
And they know the positive difference it makes to
- feel genuinely present and connected with someone, their friends or others as well
- be heard, feel listened to, like people are there and actually care about what they’re saying
- have talking and hanging out to be easy, to require no effort at all and feel good
These are people who want (or have a friend who could benefit from having) someone to
- talk to
- confide in
- ask for help
- help solve a problem they have
or a community to
- feel truly part of
- participate in and feel involved with
- value and where they feel valued by others
We’ve all seen the effects isolation has, exaggerated by the effects of COVID-19, and when people are not only physically but emotionally isolated, they’re more likely to
- close off
- indulge in negative habits
- become trapped in echo chambers of their own negative thoughts
- feel restless
- fall into depression
- and many others
However, when people are emotionally connected with others, and they feel heard, they are much more likely to
- open up
- feel heard
- strive to do better for others
- be open to other opinions
- feel valued
- feel like they’re part of something important, even if just another person’s life
- be more creative
- be lighter
- be happier, overall
Our mission is to dissolve every last conflict and unite the world into a positive, collaborative, global civilization where everyone helps each other achieve their dreams.
Truly Connected
As opposed to what modern social media has promoted up to this point, truly connected
is not
- fake connections
- digital “friends”
- contacts
- fake relationships
- likes
- reactions
- shares
- comments
is actually
Authenticity
- real connections and relationships
- people you often enjoy interacting with
- people you’ve helped in meaningful ways
- people who’ve helped you in meaningful ways
- people you appreciate having in your life
- people who appreciate having you in their lives
- people you can talk to all day, because you feel like they know you, even if you just met
We mean connected as in not isolated. As in
- not avoiding interacting with others
- not concerned about looking bad or stupid
- not afraid of offending people
- not being so filled with anxiety to not even be able to say “hello”
Connected means
- Knowing the value of saying “hi”
- Understanding mistakes can happen and be fixed
- Keeping in touch
- Sharing each other’s stories
- Listening to each other
- Being curious
- Learning from each other
- Doing things together
- Growing side-by-side
Online
Online as in any digital means making use of the Internet or other type of network
- Websites / social media
- Desktop apps
- Smartphone apps
- Videogames
For example
- Social media sites
- Event sites
- Chat apps
- Dating apps
And we’re not only helping people connect better online, but also offline, in-person, and by other means as well.
Online is enormous and underdeveloped. The Internet has existed for <40 years, and social media has existed for <25 years
Both the Internet and social media have taken over the world’s communication, but communicating online is naturally detached, with
- No physical presence
- no physical interaction
- no touch or warmth
- Subconscious deprivation
- fewer subtle body language cues
- lower speech sound quality and details
The lack of these causes our brains to automatically fill in the gaps with wilder and wilder assumptions, leading to further misunderstanding and even conflict.
Now, imagine the world where all of these have been solved, where connection happens easily and mutually; a place where people express themselves with technology as they do in body & soul, and where everyone is willing and excited to help each other achieve their dreams.
That place is Ugeddit, and it only gets better from here.