How Pnut Works

How do I use this? What am I doing here? Why should I join this, when I could be a pirate or a ninja on a bigger (or smaller) social network, instead?

These are just a few questions people often ask themselves when faced with our little corner of the Internet. Let's review the basic parts of the Pnut, and how they work together.

Short Messaging

Pnut.io is primarily a short messaging social network. A silo of information and a bunch of ways for people to kick bits and bytes around at each other. People can use it however they like, but the obvious use is to post topical content and interact with people from different backgrounds. Users claw their way through a world of information to only get pieces that they benefit from by curating the list of users they follow.

That's the Twitter-like functionality.

It also has private and group messaging, and "arbitrary streams". This is a blank slate that developers can use to build quite different applications.

API

The main thing that Pnut provides, the main way to get that information, is through its Application Programmable Interface. An API is a set of ways to get data in and out of the silo. If Pnut does its job well, you will have a fast, smooth experience working around each others' frustrations.

Access

Pnut has the data, and it provides the API to manipulate that data. Developers then build clients or apps to interact with the data in useful ways.

Content

Of course, you provide the content.

The Pub Model

Like a local bar stands between work and home, Pnut stands between the modern federated and decentralized networks of today, and the behemoth social networks of yesterday. It's not the city newspaper, and it's not love letters.

If you want to bring some of your home to Pnut, you're welcome to hook up an RSS feed from your little blog or striated-chat-system-thing to your Pnut account.

If you want to bring some of your work to Pnut, and there's a way to get something out of your Twitter or your Instagram, it's welcome here, too.