In terms of 'onboarding' or 'going-to-market', this approach was something I had considered.
However, the hassle along some of my prior experiences in similar user workflows did deter me from following through.
If you're an archivist sort of individual, I imagine this would definitely not be your cup of tea.
For what it's worth though, If you're the poster of the thought, the post along with responses are available to you forever. They just 'die' from the point of view of the collective.
Of course, I understand this doesn't necessarily speak to your specific 'needs' but it is an overlap I kept in because I do resonate with your desired approach.
whoops, will look into why that is and fix! thanks for pointing it out!
wrt to scaling, you're right. The idea is definitely for people/communities to start their own interest-based gardens. The 'community garden' is just meant to be a general common space and a taste of the platform, if anything.
I agree with you, my titling was unintentionally misleading from a fair few points of view and I apologize.
I wasn't specifically trying to solve for 'digital identity' thus email wasn't something I was problematizing with this go and my 'improvements' were more to do with design context and other interactivity but I get where you're coming from, badrabbit.
I agree with you, the title was definitely be one of my lesser moments. Apologies if it annoyed you! You're title suggestion was what it should have been. Will do better going forward!
Also, I get where you're coming from about the flash-and-fizzle nature of these kinds of projects. I do hope it grows, too. Thank you so much!
I see where you're coming from. However, the slight shift, I think, is that nothing lasts forever or changes about the individual in an 'on-platform' way. You can't discern posts by users who came yesterday from a year ago or someone who has received a lot of responses like 'karma' would. The individual user can, of course, by tracking their 'achievements' progress but the validity or interactive nature of the thought is time-bound and 'in the moment'.
wrt to the upsides and downsides of social media, I think this is trying to provide an alternative to the, I've said this in another reply too, 'list style' design choice of most social media. In my personal opinion, I think it's a bit brutish from a design standpoint.
Along with the 'repository' that you can always go back to that makes positing feel like climbing an infinite mountain as opposed to 'theoretically' moments of potential delight that come and go.
This is definitely just a few of my subjective points about what I think Bloom addresses, but I appreciate your point of view!
wrt birthdays and emails: date of birth is important to ensure no one under 18 can theoretically access the site. Emails are also just a far more common and straightforward way to index users and also maintain a general sense of 'accountability'.
I don't think these things will change any time soon, apologies!
A long term plan I do have is to have users be able to customise their 'gardens' to whatever their own community's vibe is. Perhaps a 'moonscape', a 'wasteland', etc. They could possibly even design their own primitives to match, moving away from flowers to something else.
I appreciate you taking the time to leave me your thoughts, jp57!
I definitely see where you're coming from. Personally, I find the metaphor interesting insofar as that there isn't a 'linearity' of threads. One of my personal peeves with HN/reddit/discord/forums which I'm inspired by is the 'list-style feed' of it all. It doesn't sit well with me as a design choice, if that makes sense.
Another thing is for sure the 'metaphor'. I think that switching the design/psychological context of what you're doing adds a bit of respite from the, in my opinion, brutish psychology of these other conversational platforms.
That being said, I don't oppose your interpretation. From a technical standpoint I believe what you're saying is more than fair and possibly stemming from my own need for growing/learning more as a programmer.
i imagine a possible solution to this problem would be to hover over a seed to sneak a peek on desktop and perhaps long pressing on mobile. long press obviously doesn't seem like the best solution but I will give this more thought. Thank you for this! I appreciate you :)