Five Interesting Indie Platforms You Might Not Have Heard Of
After deleting my corporate social media accounts, I've discovered five interesting indie platforms and online communities you might not have heard of: Special Fish, Ctrl + Shift + 3, web1.0 Hosting, Pillowfort, and Blue Dwarf. A look at what makes each unique, from brutalist design to old-device accessibility, and a call to support the independent web financially.
t's already been almost a month (how??) since I [deleted all my corporate social media accounts](https://brennan.day/a-full-guide-to-properly-delete-corporate-social-media-accounts/). Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Discord, among others. And as a result I've found myself looking at other social platforms and communities to fill my time with.
Because social media is not inherently bad—it only starts becoming bad when multi-billion dollar businesses are created around using people as products and extracting as much information and value as possible out of every single one of them.
Now, I'm also a bit of a maximalist—that's one of the reasons I kept my corporate social media accounts for so long. I love being everywhere, trying out everything, and having a big-tent mindset.
So I already have a fair share of communities I'm already in. Of course I'm active on [Mastodon](https://social.lol/@brennan) and [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/@brennan.day). And there's [omg.lol](https://brennan.day/omg-lol-is-the-internet-we-need-right-now/), of course. And also forums I browse often like [32-bit Café](https://discourse.32bit.cafe/) and [Melonland](https://forum.melonland.net/). Then there's the [tildeverse](https://tildeverse.org/), which is extremely fun and a great way to get more comfortable and familiar with terminal. And the IndieWeb Wiki has many frequently occurring [Homebrew Website Club meetups](https://indieweb.org/Homebrew_Website_Club) which I need to attend more often.
But in the past couple weeks, I've stumbled upon and discovered even more niche websites that I thought I'd share. I don't think a few would be properly defined as "social media" platforms, but they're online digital communities of people nonetheless!
And because of my big-tent mindset, I'm certainly not afraid to share these places openly and have new people join—if a platform is interested on hiding away from people and practicing gatekeeping, then I'm certainly not interested in it. (All of these platforms are also genAI-free, as far as I can tell.)
I also want to note that I've only discovered these platforms myself recently, so I still am green and don't know that much about them. If any of my readers are users, please share!
With all that out of the way, let me begin my list.
## 1. [Special Fish](https://special.fish)
[special.fish](https://special.fish) describes itself as a "community word processor with light social features," which is a description I adore. It has a stark [brutalist web design](https://brutalistwebsites.com/) which I also really dig. It's been running since February 2, 2020.
Built and maintained by [a solo working artist](https://bellkiosk.website/) based in St. Johns, Oregon, special fish is funded directly by its users instead of ads or investment.
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