Nothing great is created alone

Over the past nine months, the Metalabel squad has obsessively worked on building the private internet we always wanted but never had. A shared space where we could do pretty much anything we wanted and the divide between our private world and the public was flexible and within our control.

The output of that obsession is DFOS, and this past week we've begun to see what it looks like in the hands of others. We gave the 2,000 founding members who've found their way into DFOS the ability to create spaces for the first time.

We suspect the reach and vision of this new world might go pretty far. Especially when we look at what's going on with one of the first spaces started by someone other than us.

Meet clear.txt.

Clear.txt is a DFOS space started by a developer named Vinny who DM'd us early on. He was curious about trying it, so we handed him the keys. Almost immediately something different started to take shape: a new kind of deep-tech community/publication where people shared technical expertise and philosophies as private discussions and technical/personal essays.

Posts have ranged from a forensic breakdown of how AI sycophancy is making tech leaders delusional to an essay on beauty as long-term competitive strategy to a dissection of how mainstream AI companies and "open everything" advocates are converging on the same outcome from opposite directions. Some of the deepest, most informative and enjoyable technology-focused reads we’ve come across in the past year have been here.

This weekend we were shocked to learn that Vinny and clear.txt, which now boasts 170+ members, put up wheat-paste posters around New York City broadcasting their vibe. The simple message: “Nothing great is created alone.”

Nobody asked them to do this. This was someone vibing out on a new world and game. Here's a video that gives a sense of where they're coming from:

We love clear.txt and the old-new school open hacker culture that's happening there. If it sounds like your vibe you can join here. It's free.

We love that DFOS makes the unique shape of the project possible. We love that this is where they want to be. We love that they're so excited they used their own money to tell people about it. And we love that this is where they want to stay. As Vinny wrote in his intro post to the space:

"I run in a lot of different circles, and DFOS seems to be at the intersection of most, if not all of them, so this is where I'm calling home."

Welcome to the neighborhood.