node.you - Interact with real people

What is node.you?

Imagine a clean space where you can post freely, but only those you care about - communities, friends and family - can comment and vote back? No bots pushing misinformation and no manipulative algorithm deciding what you see? A place for your content and real people engaging with it? That's node.you.

Nodes

Your node is your online identity backed by public-key cryptography. When you create a node, it goes live at a web-address known as your node-URL like


                  
                    someuser.node.you

Your public-key is available at your code-URL like


                  
                    someuser.node.you/code

If your node is linked to an active profile, then your node-URL lands there. Otherwise, your node-URL redirects to your code-URL.

Key Custody

You can decide between hosted and self-custody for private-key management.

Provider-Custody

Your private-key is generated and encrypted by your host provider
No manual key management
Log into your account to control your node from any device

Self-Custody

Your private-key is generated and encrypted on your device
Manually export and backup your key
You must import your key to any device that you want to control your node from

Services

Services are web-hosted systems linked to your node. Only those you verify can interact with your services.

The first available service is the profile service.

Hosting

You can either let us host your nodes and services or host them yourself.

Hosting with node.you

We'll be your host provider
Your nodes use our domain node.you
We host nodes free of charge ¹
We host services for $5/service/month ²
Recommended option for non-technical users

Follow others to build your feed and get verified to interact with others' services - all with just a node
Service price is locked when you launch your first service with us. Your price will never go up.

Self-hosting

Be your own host provider
Your nodes use your custom domain like someother.site
You manage the cost of running your own infrastructure
For technical users who prefer being in control of their online services

Self-hosting guide and tooling are in development. The server-side code is already open source.

Profiles

Your profile is your social page for posting. Profile Device Models Image.

Posts

Posting is how you share content on your profile. You post content for your followers and your verified users can interact with it.

Every post has a title, limited to 300 characters.

Body Text

The body text can be much larger, up to 40,000 characters. The mobile app and web clients also support Markdown rendering of the body text.

Visibility

Posts can either be public or private.

Public

Anyone can see your public posts

by visiting your URL and viewing your profile,
through sharing to other platforms,
and via external search.

Public posts are search-indexable No sign-in required

Private

Only users you've verified can see your private posts Private posts are not search-indexable Verified sign-in required

Attachments

Posts can include different types of attachments.

Images

Supports JPEG, PNG, GIF, and WebP
Limit 20 per post

Videos

Supports MP4, MOV, and WebM (server trancodes to H.264/AAC MP4)
Limit 1 per post

Image and video attachment types cannot be used together in the same post Clients display attachment labels ( 1, 2, 3, etc.) that can be referenced in the body text with the following syntax:

Inline attachment: ![[1]] Inline image/video limited to 200px width: ![[2|200]]

Attachments not referenced in the body text appear below it

Comment Anonymization

Your profile protects the identities of verified users that comment on your posts. Comments are anonymous unless the viewer has been verified by the commenter.

To prevent others from tracking your activity across profiles, your anonymous ID is different for each profile that you comment on.

See someuser.node.you only if they've verified you, otherwise you will see an anonymous ID

Authentication

Each profile exists in a container maintaining its own authentication of verified users. You don't use your account credentials to sign-into profiles. Instead, you sign-in by sending the destination profile a valid node signature.

You can sign-into your own profile, or any profile whose owner has verified you.

No manual authenticating required when accessing profiles in the mobile app The mobile app silently handles all profile authentication for you

Browser Sign-in

When you visit a profile directly in the browser, you need to manually sign-in.

The top of the page includes a Sign in option, and clicking it presents a QR code that can be scanned to submit your node signature:

Just scan the code to sign-in

Contacts

Contacts are other users that you follow and verify.

Follow

Posts from users you follow appear in your feed. Follow anyone to see their public posts in your feed, no verification needed.

If you're not verified back by a user you follow, you cannot:

Comment or vote on their posts
View their private posts

Verify

Users you verify can:

Comment and vote on your posts
View your private posts

Adding Contacts

Search for others in the Add contact interface: Add Contact Screenshot.

Press Add to reach the confirmation page where you'll be able to follow and verify them

QR Scanning for Convenience

You can also scan someone's QR-code to add them. QR-codes are displayed on profile sidebars and within the mobile app.

This option is for convenience. Scanning codes is not required to add contacts since the search option is also available. Code Scanning Image.

The mobile app prominently displays QR codes for quick in-person scanning

No bots. Just people.

Create your node.you account