Discussing Nexirift

To preface this blog post, I thought I'd mention this fact: this is NOT a solo project like Nexify. We have multiple people working on it and have already some moderators who are above the age of 18. This means that on launch, we'll have a team, unlike last time.

What is Nexirift?

Nexirift is an upcoming social media platform that we've been working on. The platform's goal is to promote free speech but without the hate speech that comes common with these "free speech" platforms.

What was Nexify?

Nexify was a social media platform that we built in 2023. It was a platform similar to Nexirift that used the ActivityPub protocol (Soapbox). It exploded in popularity which is something that I had not expected. Due to the traffic and various controversies, it had to be shut down.

I've talked about Nexify more previously in other posts: here and here.

Concerns

I understand that people may have a lot of concerns about the platform and I feel like we need to address these before continuing with the project.

Privacy

One of the main concerns is privacy. One of the main causes of this concern was the fact that I was 15 years old. This concern is 100% valid and I understand why people were sceptical. Anything could've happened to the data if the server was compromised.

How we are addressing this concern

Nexirift will be released after I turn 18. I'll be able to take a more active role in the development of the platform. I'll be able to work with the team to make sure that the platform is secure and that the data is protected.

Moderation

Another concern is moderation. At the time of Nexify, we didn't vet any moderators who were being allowed to join the staff team. This led to issues that were not properly addressed. Additionally, I didn't vet the next CEO, who turned out to be a very disgusting person.

How we are addressing this concern

We're working on a more versatile moderation system. Moderators will be vetted before they are allowed onto the staff team. Those who have already been approved have been checked over by me and the staff team as a whole has agreed to allow them to join our team.

NSFW

When Nexify launched, there weren't many NSFW posts. However, days later there were reports of NSFW posts being published. There was no way for this content to be filtered for underage users. This is a huge concern and most likely would break child safety laws.

How we are addressing this concern

Nexirift will employ techniques to identify adult content and automatically mark it. If a user fails to mark their account as NSFW after a certain threshold has been posted, the user's account will be forced into an NSFW state until they contact support to have it reverted.

Data Breaches

On Nexify, there were rumours that a data breach had occurred. The original post was spread by a user who had been impersonating me. The post was NOT real, Nexify had never had a data breach and the user in question did not represent Nexify in any way.

How we are addressing this concern

Despite the fact that the post was indeed fake, we are implementing preventions to ensure that this will never actually occur. In addition, we have created integrity systems to allow users to identify fake accounts.

Furries

When Nexify was released, it was promoted by me, whose followers consist of mostly furries. This meant that the platform was considered by outsiders to be a "furry" platform. This was not the case but there was no way to prevent this from happening due to the demographics of my followers.

How we are addressing this concern

We can't really address this concern. This will end up happening as the site will be promoted by furries. We can't prevent this from happening but we can try to make it less likely by promoting the platform to a wider audience.

Transparency

We weren't that transparent with Nexify. This led to users who were untrusting of the platform. Additionally, we had a terms of service that was not very clear, this is because it was the default one provided by Soapbox. We had the real ToS on a different page but I was unaware of the other page.

How we are addressing this concern

We've completely rewritten the terms of service and it is now much more clear. We've also added a privacy policy that is more in line with the rest of the site. To be clear, content that is uploaded to the site is NOT owned by us.

Features

Oh boy, if you thought the earlier sections had a lot of writing, just wait until you see this.

All features listed here are subject to change at any time.

• Confirmed: The feature has passed our idea phase and is confirmed to be in development.
• Unconfirmed: The feature has not yet passed our idea phase and is not under development.
• Complicated: The feature is complicated and we're unsure of how to implement it right now.

User Planets

Status: Confirmed ✅

User planets are a feature that'll appear in Nexirift. Users can have multiple user planets and they can be used to create posts to only a select number of users. This will eliminate the need for additional accounts to be used to post sensitive content.

NSFW

Status: Confirmed ✅

Nexirift will have an NSFW feature that will allow users to mark their posts as NSFW, as well as their whole account. This will prevent users from seeing NSFW content if they do not wish to see it. Additionally, we'll check the birthdays of users to ensure that they are not underage.

Organisations

Status: Confirmed ✅

Organisations are a feature that will be available to companies. They can be used to affiliate users, this will help uphold integrity on our platform and prevent fake accounts. Please note that while accounts can be verified via organisations, they will still need to undergo the same verification process.

Themes

Status: Complicated ➖

Themes are a feature that will be available to users. They can be used to change the look and feel of the site. This will help to make the site more visually appealing and help users to better understand the content they are viewing.

Rift Context

Status: Confirmed ✅

Rift Context is a feature that will be available to users. It will allow users to create a context for their posts. This will help to make the content more relevant to the user and help to prevent fake accounts. Additionally, it will help to prevent the platform from being used to spread fake news.

Gallery

Status: Unconfirmed ❌

The gallery is a feature that will be available to verified artists. It will allow them to upload their artwork and display it on the site. Uploaded artwork will be "owned" by the user, this means that they can request other posts using the same artwork to be removed.

Polls

Status: Confirmed ✅

Polls are a feature that will be available to every user. They can be used on posts to ask for opinions and to gather feedback. This will help to make the content more interactive, the owner will not be able to see the answers and the user will not be able to vote more than once.

Raffles/Giveaways

Status: Confirmed ✅

Raffles and giveaways are a feature that will be available to verified artists and organisations. They can be used to give away free stuff (such as art, games, etc) without the need to manually check if all users have met the specified criteria.

Our Gaming Studio

We are planning to expand Nexirift and if everything goes well, this includes a gaming studio. We are unsure if the studio will go ahead or not, but we have big ambitions and plans for the games we publish. This division of the company may be under management by someone else.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this really long post about Nexirift. To those with concerns, I hope this post has addressed them for you. If not, feel free to reach out to me and I'll update this post with more information.