> A private social-media platform like Raya can certainly be safer. It is also by nature less open and more stratified than we’ve come to expect social networks

> A private social-media platform like Raya can certainly be safer. It is also by nature less open and more stratified than we’ve come to expect social networks to be. This matches well with lots of the smaller social networks that have enthusiastic memberships, SSB[1] is one of the first that comes to mind. With a small membership, you get a community of like-minded people--but to keep membership small you either need to be a niche (like SSB) that doesn't (yet?) have broad interest from the greater population, or you need to create imposed exclusivity like Raya does. However- the game could change if you're not trying to provide a layer of discovery. If "discovery" means going out into the world and meeting new people out-of-band, then your existing group of friends and family can provide the same experience of an exclusive network. That's the tack I propose with open-source Haven[2]: self-host, and grant access to others instead of letting them search and request access. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Scuttlebutt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Scuttlebutt [2]: https://havenweb.org https://havenweb.org