![[Assets/wusoup-help-lg.png]] # Welcome (**start here!**) Greetings, this is the new **Wusoup help portal**! 👋👋🎉 Here you can learn about Wusoup and its community. Also sometimes nonsense 🫶 ## What is Wusoup? Wusoup is an **online text chat community** designed to **spark joy** :-) It's privately run, and focused on: quality over quantity, optimism, kindness, and **meaningful connection**. There's very strict rules against dating/sexual and aggressive content. Log in to Wusoup at [www.wusoup.com](https://www.wusoup.com). Or **keep scrolling** 👇👇 for more info... ## Convince me this is cool I'll do my best- You've found a weird thing on the internet, *squee*! 🦑 This is **Wusoup**! It's [[About/Development Story|one person's]] experiment in creating a **little online haven** free of sleaze, toxicity, advertising, and other bullshit. It's a simple, meaningful thing: **a safe place to text with random strangers online**. An old-school idea on a [[About/Mission|delusional mission]] to tackle today's rampant cynicism and disconnection. It's a throw-back to an earlier internet full of **wonder**, **possibility**, and **silliness**. Of uplifting serendipity and **real one-on-one human connection**. Of friendship and understanding. Of diversity of experiences and beliefs. Of **community** and of **optimism**. It's an unashamedly *exclusive* community designed to *exclude assholes*. There are [[About/Community Standards#2. No **dating** or **sexual** content|SUPER strict rules]] against dating/sexual and aggressive/hateful content, and the rules are enforced **by the community**. Unique [[Usage/Reputation|reputation]] and [[Usage/Karma|karma]] systems **incentivise kindness over rage bait**, and **respectful debate** over snap judgements. Users [[Usage/Kudos|award each other]] for being inspiring, supportive, and empathetic. Admission is limited [[Getting Started/How to Join#By invitation|by invitation]] of an existing member, or [[Getting Started/How to Join#By application|by application]] for approval by existing members. Members are held responsible for those that they invite. Learn more about: [[About/Mission|Wusoup's mission]], [[About/Community Standards|community standards]], [[About/Development Story|development story]], or keep reading... ### The **problem** There are **awesome, friendly** people all around you. Interesting, smart, and funny people with cool stories and weird hobbies. People that **want to connect**. But how on earth do you **find them**? Social apps keep you trapped in your **old circles**, or just reinforce the same **old bubbles**. And people on dating/hookup apps aren't looking for friends, they're there to get laid or fish for sexual content. Half the accounts you encounter online are trying to sell you something or get something from you, *if* there's even a real human on the other side (good luck). And in these environments, the truth is that even if you *do* luck out and cross paths with someone cool, **everyone's guard is up** because \<gestures at the internet>. **Human connection needs a baseline level of trust**, and most online communities just don't provide that today. Trust is fragile - it takes only a handful of jerks to ruin it for everyone. So typical random chat apps predictably and quickly degenerate into cesspools. Walking through the door means signing up for unsolicited dick pics and crypto scams. Yaay. ### The **solution** Wusoup innovates in my favourite way - by **being lazy**, and just doing the **common-sense stuff** that somehow no one else seems to be doing. 1. Wusoup has a **high barrier to entry**. Folks join [[Getting Started/How to Join#By invitation|by invitation]] or [[Getting Started/How to Join#By application|by application]]. And members are **responsible for those they invite**. The goal is **not** to grow at all costs as quickly as possible (gasp!). It's to grow with care, tending to the community's [[About/Mission#Core values|core values]] and ensuring that the unique culture is protected. 2. Wusoup has [[About/Community Standards#Rules|strict rules]], and **enforces them**. People are held accountable for bad behaviour! 3. Wusoup's [[Usage/Reputation|reputation]] and [[Usage/Karma|karma]] systems **incentivize good behaviour** and **communal responsibility**. What's the best way to meet good people in real life? **Through a mutual friend**. Because if your friend vouches for someone, that person is less likely to be an NFT-pushing axe murderer. By acting as liaison, your friend is putting their own **reputation on the line**. And the same principle applies here. Vouching for someone has been a fundamental mechanism of human trust for thousands of years. Meeting new people on Wusoup is like meeting people through a mutual friend - except that **the whole community is that mutual friend**. The Wusoup community carefully *vets each member*, and **holds them to a high standard**. Folks not acting in accordance with the community's [[About/Mission#Core values|core values]] **are actively banned**. When a small minority of assholes is allowed to run amok and ruin things, they scare off everyone else - amplifying the misleading and disheartening perception that everyone online is just an asshole. They're *not*, the apps just suck. ### **Serendipity**, the app Think of Wusoup as a small members-only club of amazing and friendly humans from around the world - all here to **text with strangers**, to **connect in kindness**, to **make friends**. It's **random chat**, without the random genitals or scams. Focused on **quality over quantity**, substance over superficiality. A place for **chance encounters** where the sun seems a little brighter, the atmosphere a little more *hopeful*. Kumbaya. ### The **anti-Tinder** Wusoup's not another skeevy dating/hookup app or place that **claims** to be about friendship, when everyone's clearly just there to get laid or sext. There's enough of those already (good grief). Wusoup's about **chat for chat's sake**. For fun, for **making new friends**, for **good conversation**. Human to human. It's a new spin on the excitement of old-school **anonymous internet chat**. As we remember it (i.e. better than it ever actually was). ### A strictly **creep-free** zone Chatting to purely random strangers can be fun, until it isn't. Trolls and other creeps tend to accumulate and ruin the experience. So Wusoup's randomness is backed by carefully designed systems that help **keep out idiots** and **maximize message reply rates**, even as the community grows. Which means a **uniquely friendly, uniquely active** group of people from around the world. Members breaking the rules are downvoted and banned. ### **Zero** bullshit No spam, scams, lies, ads, bots, clickbait, tracking toolbars, microtransactions, contact harvesting, bogus user numbers, fake messages, or other nonsense. Wusoup's handmade by [[About/Development Story|one human]] (hi! 👋) that's been working on this for (check's notes) _16 years_. I'm "okay", I promise. ### Members that **actually reply** No zombie accounts! A big problem with other attempts at friendship apps that I've seen: **no one ever replies to messages**! Most of the accounts you see are fake, duplicates, or long dormant. Companies are strongly incentivized to inflate their user numbers, so is it any surprise that they do? Insiders report (dude I knew at a dating app said) that as many as 80% of profiles on dating apps are fake - often bots run *by the apps themselves* to encourage paid subscriptions. So people start treating messages as disposable trash, since you're expected to send 100 messages to get 1 reply. Is it any surprise that almost 90% of initial messages are less than 6 words long? Generic zero-effort garbage! "But there's so many users!!". Does anyone actually enjoy this charade? In contrast, Wusoup does everything it can to **maximize real message reply rates**: - Email addresses are **regularly re-verified**, preventing dormant disposable-email trash accounts. - Fake or duplicate accounts are **strictly** and instantly **banned**. - Unresponsive and low-quality accounts are **automatically hidden by default**. Wusoup **respects your time** and won't lie to you to try keep you online. If there's no one good available right now, Wusoup will say so. **It's okay to go offline**. Have a walk. It's not okay to have to wade through infinite muck to find one good conversation - **you've got better things to do**. So again: **quality, not quantity**. ### **Privacy**, anonymity Wusoup doesn't tie you to your Facebook or Google identities, and its [[Legal/Privacy Policy|privacy policy]] is short, and in plain English. Share whatever info you'd like about yourself, or don't. Anonymity is fine, just [[About/Community Standards#5. Don't **lie about who you are**|don't lie about who you are]]. Completely **nuke all your data at any time**. And no need to fight obnoxious defaults: privacy is the norm unless you say otherwise. ## Wusoup might be for you **if** - You want to make **new friends** or **penpals**. - You want **clean**, one-on-one, long-form **text chat**. - You want to to participate in [[About/Mission|Wusoup's mission]]. - You don't mind (even embrace!) the idea of being held to [[About/Community Standards|high standards]]. ## Wusoup's probably **not** for you if ### You want a dating/hookup app Members posting stuff that'd fit a dating/hookup app **will be banned**, simple. There's enough places online if you're looking for that kind of thing. Wusoup's a refuge for the rest of us. ### You want to filter who you see Wusoup's about **spontaneity** and **surprise** - not micromanagement :-) ### You want video/room/group chats Wusoup rocks **1-on-1 text chat** only, sorry. This is just the best way to get the kind of **substantial personal interactions** that Wusoup's all about. Also, words are nice - we like them here. ### You want a native mobile (iOS / Android) app Wusoup's currently implemented as a **mobile web app only**. It's designed for use on all kinds of devices - including mobile phones, tablets, and desktops - but only in a **web browser**. It works reasonably on mobiles this way, but native's of course nicer - and it's not native. The reason for this is practical- Wusoup has only a [[About/Development Story|single developer]] and I'd rather focus my effort on improving the core experience than on maintaining different native apps. (At least for now). ### Your idea of a quality message is 4 words long What's wrong with a message like "heyyy", or "hi, how r u?". Quite a bit actually. Aside from being dull af, this kind of generic zero-substance nonsense isn't going to lead to the kind of connection we're aiming for here. These messages don't tell the other person anything about you, and they show that you've spent zero effort reading the person's profile. If a bot from 2010 could provide a more stimulating conversation, there's a good chance you're going to just attract downvotes. So please take advantage of Wusoup's high response rates by actually **putting some thought** into your content. You may be pleasantly surprised to see how effort pays off here. ### You're going to be creepy / try to hit on people Honestly, you'll just get downvoted and banned. Also, I'll be disappointed in you. Don't think I'm kidding... ### You don't think funny hats are funny ಠ_ಠ