Rec
👎
@TYLER
please let us be free from the commodification of the data generated from our social, whimsical, and sincere, free expression
the sincerity of this app is because it’s different from those other apps :/ why do we need metrics on how we socialize? 🫩🫩🫩🫩😮‍💨😮‍💨
i’m curious as much as i am sad about the decision to make the star count visible. is that what its proper name is? or are we calling it likes? 👀
Apr 23, 2025

Comments (28)

Make an account to reply.
image
ok period this kinda popped off yall 😅😭
Apr 24, 2025
1
image
I am star 112 on this post
Apr 23, 2025
5
image
@YUMYUMHAMBURGERS thx 4 shooting w us 🌠💫
Apr 24, 2025
image
kinda agree about not wanting to see a numerical value, but also from a ux perspective the counts feel a little more cluttered
Apr 23, 2025
8
image
Yeah made me immediately feel irrelevant LOL
Apr 23, 2025
5
image
@EATGRAEPS like i knew i was but the like count kinda takes the fun out of posting but also it might force people to think harder about their recs idk
Apr 23, 2025
9
image
@EATGRAEPS gal if ur irrelevant i am dead cos u certainly are relevant to me and also I agree i did momentarily ponder on thinking more about what I’m rec’ing but that felt like surrender into the popularity contest I constructed in my mind
Apr 23, 2025
6
image
@EATGRAEPS oh god bless your soul!! yeah also i feel like there’s a psychological effect where i am more likely to like stuff that already has likes too. throws off the balance
Apr 23, 2025
3
image
Opening up a torch and pitchfork pop up for the big “ like count update riot” of 2025. Let’s get em girls 🫵🏻😳.
Apr 23, 2025
4
image
@GLOMBROSKI maybe it doesn’t have to be this way 🤞🏼🥹😇
Apr 24, 2025
image
I completely get why it’s been done after reading the comments but now it’s group mentality almost like oh the herd agreed with that one but this one not so much 😵‍💫😵‍💫
Apr 23, 2025
2
image
@CHOC_ORANGE tell me more <3
Apr 24, 2025
image
FRRRRRRRR I HATE LIKE COUNTS
Apr 23, 2025
3
image
10000000%
Apr 23, 2025
2
image
Same. I liked that I could see it if I went searching for it but otherwise didn't see it. The numbers everywhere really breaks everything up and makes the view less relaxing too.
Apr 23, 2025
8
image
i kind of like the star count. it's cool to see how many people appreciate or agree with my stuff, but i've never been super caught up on likes and whatnot. i think there should be an option to disable it like that other commenter said.
Apr 23, 2025
3
image
I really don’t like the star count. I know the number of likes I get doesn’t say anything about me or my posts etc. but deep down, I’m still influenced by how many stars someone else’s post gets. It felt so different and freeing to not immediately see how many people liked something. If the star count really does not matter then why have it in the first place?
Apr 23, 2025
9
image
Kinda agree. It’s not going to affect how or what I post, but I did also find it refreshing that there wasn’t any directly visible measurement of likes.
Apr 23, 2025
5
image
Maybe an option to disable it But doesn't bother me at all
Apr 23, 2025
3
image
i lowkey dig it, my recs come from the heart, the amount of likes it gets has 0 relevance to how good the rec is. My recs are for me to share myself, and therefore, they're perfect :)
Apr 23, 2025
6
image
It doesn't even register as a count to me. Just ahh cute starburst time
Apr 23, 2025
5
image
@1STRAWBERRYSECRET hahahah yessss
Apr 23, 2025
1
image
but also sincerity is what you make of it- don’t let a # get in the way of expressing yourself! everyone by default follows me and sometimes my recs only get 1 or 2 likes lol doesn’t bother me at all :)
Apr 23, 2025
15
image
@TYLER i actually really like the fact we see celebrities getting not a K amount of stars, makes it down to earth, reminds me constantly they are human humaning
Apr 23, 2025
5
image
@TYLER this is true but there was something rly refreshing about not having it at all
Apr 23, 2025
9
image
i posted about this earlier on my profile, but the decision mostly came from custom themes having endless color combos that made it difficult to differentiate between the various star “states” - we’re going to keep thinking about how to avoid this
Apr 23, 2025
14
image
@TYLER oooooooo gotcha
Apr 23, 2025
1
image
@TYLER regardless like i love yall and i love this app!!!!!! ♥🤠
Apr 23, 2025
3

Related Recs

Rec
🫶
one of the worst features of many social media apps i think is the ability to see like/follow counts, because even if you don’t care about it it’s still kind of shoved in your face on those apps and definitely in the dominant/popular culture there’s this perception of follows/likes are an achievement of some kind. i really like that beyond the straightforward trending users/recs feature (which rotates pretty regularly, plus i think it still captures the fun of being like “hell yeah this post is a banger”), there isn’t any way to tell what or who is “popular” or “successful” or whatever else on this app, nor any incentive to try to be those things as a user in general i just think it leads to more natural and genuine interactions between users, because the only thing we can see about each other is our little bios, mutuals, and our recs which are the whole point of being on here anyway! so thank you to the people making this app for making pi.fyi that kind of space through features like this!!
Sep 9, 2024
Rec
💭
what does it mean to push against instead of playing to the crowd? is playing to the crowd antithetical to the authentic, pre-irony space pi.fyi organically echoes from earlier internet times? lots of ways to look at this! i get this and think it's easy if you're fluent in online spaces. i actually feel like this specific aspect of the app feels most on par with the general design and function of apps in general and thus a tiny drawback for me; seeing the sorta patterned language and text magnified in this way (i'm off all other apps). this dilution and self-referential talk kinda bums me out?? it is refreshing to see a rec that pushes against this with flowery, long passages that are less self-aware and more about actually communicating the thing than just signaling status or an in- the-knowness. me? i like a little of both...xo
Feb 13, 2024
Rec
📰
a couple of my friends who worked at the seattle times + seattle stranger posted screenshots of their newly minted pi.fyi profiles on their ig stories (presumably after hearing about it in some journalistic capacity) and i was intrigued
being on facebook twitter and instagram for p much the entire time those platforms have been around made me really jaded so i was just generally excitable about new social media (was semi-active on clubhouse when that first launched, got really excited about dispo before david dobrik got megacanceled, etc.) and pi.fyi fit the bill
microblogging is so intimate and human and just feels central to the early-00s "wild west" vibe folks loved about the internet, how it was a space for limitless expression and delightful serendipity of finding someone / something cool online and knowing that it was a real person being real with you. as the channels for that kind of expression became rapidly streamlined and commercialized, the "share what you like" charter felt so fundamental to what the internet should be to me and it seemed like tyler + staff were working really hard on figuring out how to build tech that intentionally facilitated that over "website is for advertising" like literally everywhere else
definitely behave differently on here than other platforms; i don't really post elsewhere. ~2022 i mass deleted every social media app (first twitter then tiktok then ig then reddit then youtube) and deactivated a bunch of accounts, eventually went back to instagram to be able to easily connect with folks i met irl / tap into events in my city but didn't really post to the account before this last december. i am verbose to a fault (which i can't / won't be on other platforms) but pi.fyi feels like an app where that's actually ok and kind of good maybe? being verbose about the stuff you like kind of feels like the point of liking stuff
i would / have shared this site with friends! but i'm not quite shouting from the rooftops that people should come here quite yet for the following reasons:
1. i think that twitter + ig have fried people's dopamine receptors to the point that "number get big" is the point of social media for a lot of folks; that doesn't really happen here
2. being earnest online is decidedly not the point of social media for a lot of folks; that does happen here and i think people finding it organically and intentionally participating is why it continues to happen
3. "every white person in (or thinking about moving to) brooklyn: the website" is not a super appealing sales pitch for my friends, who are largely not white (i do think that's just the case while the site is so young tho)
but yeah, perfectly imperfect fuckin' rips and i think within 48 hours of being on here i decided to pay for pro. really excited to see where it goes as editorial continues to flourish and people continue to sign up – there's something here that's been missing from digital space for a long time
Feb 13, 2025

Top Recs from @chronicwebuser

Rec
💸
you have SHIT at home
Rec
🌾
everytime i log on and see my web user homies posting, i be like 👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼 bonjour! or whatever the frig belle sings at the beginning of beauty and the beast 🥲 like i saw @MARXINISTA mornin post and i was like GM 😇✍🏼👋🏼 <3
Rec
🤝
YOU HAVE EVERYTHING TO GAIN!!!!!!
AND YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE EXCEPT A BRUISED EGO!!!!
what would the 65 year old version of yourself tell you do to? listen to their wisdom!!
please keep me in your mind and heart cheering you on to do the things that scare you, like talking to a cutie stranger or going to that event this weekend :)
you have every. thing. to. gain. i could probably write an essay about how fascist regimes thrive when people are isolated and alone. but someone probably already wrote it!!!!
our collective power is everything!!! rejoice in other humans, we’re never alone ♥♥
Jul 19, 2025