like this place is such a source of comfort for me, especially right now when other social websites feel like microdosing panic attacks. so I'll gladly pay a few dollars a month to keep it alive! I do know that PI has also been around as a newsletter for a while before the social site became a thing so I think they were already kinda established as a brand.
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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
This is not an ad I upgraded for fun because I love this little corner of the internet and I believe in its vision!! My brain has felt cleaner spending more time here and less time on meta platforms, 1000%. I grew up with AIM and MySpace and formspring (lol) and tumblr and had with a flip phone with a little mirror on the front and pi.fyi reminds me of the age of technology I grew up in, where connection and sharing is the core. And not to be dramatic but it gives me a little hope that maybe the way we interact with the internet can shift and we can be a little lighter and inspired by one another and lead brighter lives irl. thats all 💛
Mar 4, 2025
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specifically i wanna see how events work BUT i do want to say the thing i do still adore about pi.fyi is that i can leave and come back and not feel the pressure to constantly perform and post like there is on instagram. it's there for your moment and won't make all of your moments about itself if it's not the site for you rn. like it's not trying to be addicting and become the sole focus of your life. need more of that.
Feb 20, 2025
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This queen had the wackiest taste (in the best way). One of my favorite eras in art, people were just doing shit for the sake of it. A hat that is a shoe. A hat that's made of gloves. A gigantic cockroach brooch. Elsa was crazy for that one!!!
1d ago
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I've been kinda obsessed with this album This Could Be Texas by English Teacher recently. Something about angsty british people singing over lush instrumentals just hits every time. If this is your vibe, the song 7 Seconds by Porridge Radio is a good jumping point.
https://open.spotify.com/album/4gd3XcQ7dR37m8GimBfiYT?si=qncfnpw5QGuM9ADmBm32XA
Dec 18, 2024
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Ok corny self-aggrandizing post incoming. I started transitioning this year. I've known I was trans since 2019 but was too scared to do anything about it (lived in a red state) and have been taking miniscule, tiny, baby steps to get little tastes of validation and living off of those crumbs. This year something switched in my brain and I finally pulled the trigger and started hormones, got a trans-focused therapist, joined a support group, really leaned in. It goes against all of the self-preservation instincts I've developed my whole life, but I feel... great? I felt like time was going in fast-forward for the past several years and now I feel like I have all the time in the world. Anyway, TLDR I guess, finally took the big leap I was terrified to take and made my life way better.
Dec 30, 2024