# What comes next %% Put your actual draft between this comment and the '\%\%' symbols at the bottom %% ## tldr; - what made us love Posts was the community, not the tech - the Next Thing™ needs to stand on its own, it won't survive purely off of nostalgia - we need a plan for what happens when the Next Thing™ also goes away - we don't need a Posts.cv replacement *tomorrow*, we've got some time ## People, not tech No doubt, [the Posts team](https://read.cv/teams/newlayer) shipped *impressive*[^postsTeam] stuff. But as great as those things are, we wouldn't be here without the community. It's not the whole picture but part of what allowed Posts.cv to be great was its small size. If you posted something, you knew that it would show up in the 'Everyone' tab, including replies. The community was capable of self-regulating behavior to a large degree. Like every other social network, most people are lurkers and rarely post. For those that *do* post, many of them don't stay more than a few months. Those that lurk are only incentivized to do so if there is a steady stream of new active users staying consistent for months-on-end. You need those people who act like glue, holding the rest of the quieter community together. And you don't just need _them_, you need to constantly attract replacements as some of them drop off over time. This doesn't even touch on all of the other work that goes into moderating spam, dealing with bad behavior, and shining a spotlight on content in the community. If you build out a pretty interface that loads fast and is easy to use but you don't continually invest time/effort into making people feel seen and safe, **in six months the only thing you will have left is that pretty interface**. ## Okay, but the tech matters too Setting aside the problem of maintaining a community, there are *still* some tough design and engineering tasks. Replicating a 1:1 of just Posts.cv is already a massive task that requires consistent resources. That means money (covering operating expenses) and time (things to be built, bugs to be fixed, moderation). We can't rush solving those problems. People are (understandably) resistant to subscriptions. How do you convince them it's worth it? If you introduce a subscription, will you be excluding people who can't afford it? Will you be self-selecting your new community based on their countries GDP, people who have yet to break into the industry, or people who have been laid off and can't afford luxuries like this? Are there other ways you can generate revenue to sustain what you build? Are you building something that you can maintain for the long-run in the spare time that you have? What happens if life throws a curveball, are you setup for someone else to take over? Are you making sure you're not a [single-point of failure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_point_of_failure)? ### What happens when The Next Thing™ goes away too? Part of what makes this experience sting so much is that you invested time here! You built relationships, you found a rhythm for sharing work, and you chose to do that here instead of investing that effort somewhere else. So what happens when the Next Thing™ finds itself in a similar position? ==Software is inherently ephemeral==[^ephemeralSoftware], part of our responsibility as makers is considering what happens when it's time for our creations to go away. I can't speak for anyone else, but I will be incredibly hesitant to join any new platform that doesn't explicitly have a plan for this that I find satisfactory. I think you should be hesitant as well. ## The Next Thing™ We *love* Posts. You wouldn't be reading this if that weren't true. This is also the most active I've seen the Posts community be in a very long time. This fervor is not going to last forever. If we want this community to continue to thrive, it needs to evolve into something new. I'm sure that if Andy and the team started from scratch today, whatever they built would be similar in some ways and very different in others. The context changed. The state of the web, design, and tech in 2025 is already slightly different than the state they found themselves in when they launched Read.cv in 2020 or when they launched Posts.cv in 2023. ## We've got time If we want lightning to strike twice, I don't think what comes next should be something that is rushed out in front of people as soon as possible. Posts is still live until late February and even if that deadline passes, many people have since migrated (temporarily?) to Bluesky[^bskyBias]. If jump into the next thing too quickly or too often, we're prone to the community fracturing, getting burned out, and completely disappearing. ## Fine. What's next then? I don't know. I do have faith that *someone* is going to build something dope and maybe they've already started. For those that have, I hope this hasn't dissuaded you from trying but given you new things to consider so that you succeed. If you've got thoughts, I plan on sharing a scheduling link for another virtual Posts—_eh…_ **Next Thing™** meetup soon. [Follow me on Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/taurean.bryant.land) to keep an eye out for that. [^postsTeam]: [Posts.cv](https://posts.cv), [Read.cv](https://read.cv), [Sites OS](https://read.cv/sites/about), the Read.cv Frontpage, [Writing](https://read.cv/about/writing), [Search](https://read.cv/about/search), analytics, [team profiles](https://read.cv/about/teams), the newsletter, [job postings](https://read.cv/about/job-listings), the team had hits! [^ephemeralSoftware]: Everything eventually goes back to the earth and that's especially true for software. Software is inherently dependent on the vehicles we access it through. That's true for physical hardware and that's (unfortunately still) true for the internet. [^bskyBias]: As a heavy Bluesky user already, I'm aware I have a bias lol. That doesn't mean that's not true! Also, if you want to join Bluesky but don't know where to start, [[A Post Alumni guide to bluesky|I've got you covered]]. %% --- ## Private notes: There's been _a lot_ of discussion around what will be The Next Posts. ## tldr; - design and development is hard, but sustaining community is harder. This means: - solid moderation - Constant user-aquisition - Constant community building - A plan is needed to keep costs low - A plan is needed for income supporting what’s next - A new identity is needed - “what happens if this loses steam” needs to be considered -