Kindness
Kindness is one of the most important things on the internet, and the easiest to lose. The top of this page is what it means and how we practice it. The bottom half is links, for anyone who came looking for them.
What we mean by it
Kindness is not niceness for show. It is treating the person on the other side of the screen like a person: assuming they are real, giving them the benefit of the doubt, and leaving every place a little better than you found it. On the internet we have, cruelty is cheap and it spreads fast, because outrage is what the machines reward. Kindness is the deliberate opposite: slower, quieter, and worth more.
It is also a design decision, not just a hope. A feed can reward the loudest voice or it can simply show people in order and let them talk. A community can let anyone in instantly or it can ask who vouches for you. Every choice either makes kindness easier or makes cruelty easier. We choose, on purpose, every time.
How we practice it
- Kind by design. Llama Chat is chronological, with no engagement bait and no pile-on mechanics. There is nothing to win by being mean.
- Guarded on purpose. E2's social spaces are vetted: members join by application and vouching, new members start on probation, and humans moderate. The rules are published, not secret.
- A welcome, not a wall. Every new E2 member gets a personal welcome video from Sally. Being greeted by name is a small thing that changes how a place feels.
- Kindness with a dollar attached. Clear Recipe is free forever. Readers who want to can send $1, and 100% of it goes to orphanages in Ecuador and Bolivia that our team has personally worked in.
- Assume confusion before malice. In our stories and in our moderation alike: most people who push back are confused, not cruel. Answer the confusion first.
Small practices, for anyone
- Read a post twice before answering it once.
- Thank people in public, correct them in private.
- Welcome the new person like someone once welcomed you.
- When you cannot be kind, be quiet. Silence is also a design choice.
The published rules that keep E2 kind: vouching with accountability, probation for new members, problems handled by humans.
Kindness as feed design: short posts from kind people, in order, nothing engineered to make anyone angry.
A short piece about loneliness and being noticed, which is where kindness usually starts.
Free recipes forever, and an optional $1 that goes entirely to kids in orphanages in Ecuador and Bolivia.
Kindness's partner value: saying the true thing, clearly. The two belong together; neither works alone.
The whole story of this network, including the rules everything here runs on.
If you find a corner of this network that is not kind, that is a bug, and it is ours to fix.