What is BeetleBug?
Software by BugGirl
Beetlebug is a social network.It is like a website with an email inbox atatched to it.
Just like Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, X, and Medium, users can make posts. People can make posts of all types--short tweet-like posts, photos with captions like Instagram, share personal stuff like Facebook, events like on eventbrite, longform articles like on medium.
However, we do things a little differently.
For starters, we give people their own personal, customizable website.
When you make a post, you can choose if it appears on your website or not and/or in your friends and followers inbox.
You can customize algorithm
At its core, is like a personal blogging website. However, instead of needing to tell people about your post, it shows up in their inbox.
builder, but when you add content to it gives you the ability to make
choose what posts you see, what networks you federate with.
Be as private or public as you want to be, as expressive/creative as you want to be
Second, we are built on a decenralized social media protocol called ActivityPub.
ActivityPub is to social media what SMTP is to email: a protocol any company can use to build a network.
Because of this, you can connect with millions of people across Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, and more---all without needing to make an account on those.
To make an analogy, it’s as if you could follow someone on Linked-in from your Facebook.
Third, we let you customize nearly everything, from looks to functionality, privacy to algorithms.
Fourth, we do not run ads for revenue. Instead, we operate on a freemium subscription model. Basic accounts are free, and more perks, bandwith, etc. cost extra. We try to be fair in our pricing, and we will use any leftover profits to contribute to helping solve social problems in the world. Check out our What We Care About section to learn more about our goals.
Fifth, we have a marketplace to let people sell and get paid for their designs.