Trinary is a subscription-only, ad-free, social platform where the user is the customer.
The mission of Trinary is to create an online platform that enhances users' everyday lives and strengthens their interpersonal relationships – without creating an addictive relationship or pulling them to embrace their own worst biases and insecurities.
This vision will be realized when users feel connected to their communities and relationships without feeling compelled to use other, ad-based, platforms.
Trinary is built around three core components: a user-controlled feed, an event hosting and discovery platform, and a community management tool.
Trinary will provide users with the ability to quickly decide for themselves who they want to see. There will never be any ads on the platform, and user data will never be sold.
A better online social experience is possible – but not until we change how a platform is built.
The Costs of the Status Quo
Existing social media companies do not see users as customers; they are viewed as products.
This stance forces companies to adopt an “attention at all costs'' mentality to grow their ad revenue and creates a negative user experience which presents in three key areas:
Algorithms that prioritize addiction amplify attention sinks over meaningful connections, build radicalization rabbit holes, and push polarizing content that feeds off users' biases.
The entrapment of users’ attention by maliciously designed platforms, tracking as much personal information as possible, commercializing the users’ data, and creating incentive systems that foster an addictive relationship with the platform.
A barrage of bots, scams, and organized misinformation campaigns, which platforms condone to boost user counts and engagement metrics for advertisers while providing ready content to keep users endlessly scrolling.
The manipulative algorithms and addictive design of social media result in unsatisfying and even harmful experiences for users, ranging from time wasted mindlessly staring at a screen, to negatively impacting users' emotional well-being, and even extremist and radicalized behavior.
Trinary seeks to escape the binary of users being obliged to either accept these malicious features into their lives or otherwise deprive themselves of a connection to a core component of modern life.
Why Subscription-only, ad-free
Trinary’s subscription model allows the focus to be on creating the best user experience possible, without pressure to escalate the collective time spent on the platform to maximize revenue.
This means users will be able to see what is actually happening in their network, seeing their friends and not just curated professional content. Discover events and experiences that are actually recommended to them, and not just those that have spent the most on marketing.
Many users of current social media platforms try and fail to resist their addictive designs. A subscription-based model ends this predatory relationship and creates a framework for continued innovation that prioritizes quality interactions over the quantity of engagement.