Revolutionary Social Network Panquake Onboarding Now
Social media can and will be different! The superheroes who pushed Panquake forward through thick and thin are onboarding the first public users onto the anti-surveillance, pro-human rights platform.
For the first time in arguably decades, humans are going to be able to use an AI-free social media platform that does not spy on them, collect or sell their data, or choose what content they see. People-powered social media startup Panquake is definitive proof of an awesome, often hidden truth: social media, and software systems more broadly, can be engineered to provide public communications services without surveillance, censorship, data collection, exploitation, AI or advertising. It wasn’t easy - but it has been done. And after a long, turbulence-filled journey, the little Idea That Could has blossomed into a tangible new reality that users can touch, feel, see and experience. Starting from this week, Panquake will begin onboarding users to its next generation social network. Read on for the definitive guide to Panquake onboarding!
Talk Liberation is committed to providing equal access for individuals with disabilities. To view an accessible version of this article, click here.
What’s happening:
Independent software development house Talk Liberation is now onboarding the first group of users onto Panquake Lite - a private social network that will be capped at 500 users. Previously, this network was only available to Panquake’s internal team.
Panquake Lite users circulate real content and have real interactions with other real users. There are no bots or AI agents and no automated account activity is tolerated on the platform
As promised, Panquake Lite and Beta users enjoy the discounted lifetime subscription rate of USD$3 per month. From the 5,001st user onwards, the subscription rate will increase to USD$5 per month
Read the latest Panquake press release here: “Just In Time: AI-free Social Network Panquake Onboarding Now”
Naturally, the Panquake community are very excited for this long-awaited milestone and have questions. We’ve covered off many of them, below.
What is Panquake?
Panquake is a social network that provides a short messaging service where you can post thoughts, ideas, comments, pictures, videos and other creative content that you want to be seen publicly. On Panquake you have a public timeline for your account. Your account profile can be anonymous, pseudonymous, or your real self. It’s entirely up to you.
A couple of months ago, we released a short video of the Panquake Lite platform being used by our founder Suzie Dawson. You can check that out below:
Why is Panquake such a big deal?
Panquake is your lifeboat away from Big Tech abuses, AI, advertising, timeline and content manipulation, shadow-banning, manipulated metrics and other nasty stuff corporate-backed social networks have been getting away with doing to users for far too long.
User account data is stored in an encrypted data store on each user’s own device - not on Panquake’s servers, bringing unparalleled autonomy, privacy and security by comparison to traditional social networks.
How did Panquake start?
Panquake started with an organic, grassroots campaign organised by volunteer activists, journalists and technologists who launched a successful crowdfunder, creating an independent international software development house called Talk Liberation. Panquake is the flagship project of Talk Liberation.
What is Panquake not?
Panquake is not a private messaging application such as Signal or Whatsapp. It does not facilitate direct peer to peer messaging, but instead provides a platform for openly promoting content that you want to share with the public, or that you want to be seen as widely as possible.
This was a deliberate architectural decision from the outset, as facilitating public messaging rather than private messaging, dramatically lowers the threat surface for users, the platform, and hostile actors alike. By keeping everything in the open, there is nothing to hide, nothing to be obtained and nothing to gain from targeting Panquake’s systems or servers.
How private is Panquake exactly?
Panquake does not collect any Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from users. We do not ask for or collect email addresses, phone numbers, identification documents nor payment information. Subscriber payments are made off-platform via third party providers, and any payment information collected by them does not get ingested back into the Panquake application. This means we are never in possession of private user information which could harm users in the event of a hack, a leak or a breach.
How will Panquake grow?
As a young and fiercely independent company with limited resources, we have to carefully balance our onboarding of users and our scaling of the network with our ability to support them. This is not your typical social network where users have to talk to an AI customer support bot when they need help - or where content moderation decisions are automated - its one where our users are real community members who get to interact and talk with real humans on our team.
We take very seriously our duty of care and need to begin by bringing on trusted users to test our daily operations, and then expand outwards from there.
Who will get to use Panquake?
We are reaching out to select public supporters, donors, activists and journalists and rewarding them for their solidarity by bringing them into the network first.
Trust is integral to Panquake. The first to be invited to participate in Panquake Lite will be those who are demonstrably most committed to the future success of the network and to protecting and preserving Panquake as it grows.
What is the Panquake Lite onboarding process?
Users who are invited to use Panquake Lite will be contacted by us and sent our Panquake Lite invitation letter. It looks like this:
The letter outlines what Panquake is and the key functionality areas of the application:
Why is Panquake Lite on a private network?
Because Panquake Lite is still under development and we are understandably not yet ready to expose all of our work, ideas and innovations to Big Tech (and its plethora of AI agents), there is a tight set of rules for accessing and using Panquake Lite while the network remains non-public, and a basic NDA applies.
Open source development is facing massive threats and issues particularly because of hostile AI agents operating in the wild and we’re just not willing to expose our users, our project, our staff and our hard work to those types of security risks this early on.
What are the rules for using Panquake Lite?
We are committed to transparency about precisely what we are asking of users in order to support Panquake Lite through its infancy. The Panquake Lite Rules are contained within the invitation letter:
So what’s the deal with the NDA?
The Panquake Lite invitation letter contains a basic 1 1/2 page Non-disclosure Agreement in which users commit to not revealing, capturing, recording, storing, sharing or disseminating aspects of the application design or innovations which are currently non-public.
The NDA explicitly states that users can talk publicly about the fact that they have access to Panquake Lite, and are empowered to share their opinions about it, as well as to share any screenshots or videos which we ourselves have made public first.
Upon signing the NDA, users receive their Panquake Lite access credentials. From there they create their open Panquake Lite account, generate their encryption keys and receive a backup phrase so they can restore their account if needed later.
The NDA will be rendered obsolete once the Panquake Beta public application is released.
How complete is Panquake Lite?
There are 207 use cases (functions or function sets) in Panquake Lite. Of these, 3 functions have been disabled in Panquake Lite but will be operational in the Beta release, 2 are partially available and partially restricted, 15 are currently undergoing development work and 187 are complete and fully functional.
So as a rough percentage, Panquake Lite is 90.3% complete.
Will there be a Panquake mobile app?
In short - yes. We are designing a Panquake mobile app, which will be downloadable and self-served on the Panquake website, not via app stores. However, mobile operating system environments are very hostile to independent mobile apps and we cannot guarantee the longevity of mobile app access. Therefore the most reliable and stable way to access Panquake is likely to be via the web application. Which will also be able to be accessed on your mobile phone in a browser.
(Side note: Last year, we developed our first mobile applications (both iOS and Android) for our privacy-focused digital marketing project Lnqk Me. We did a great job of it, learned a lot, and are very pleased with the results. The Panquake app will be equally cool.)
When will Panquake Beta be released?
The Panquake Beta functionality has been developed in tandem to Panquake Lite. As soon as we are confident that Panquake Lite is stable for its 500 users and scaling well, we will move to complete the blockchain integration and relocate the network to the public Panquake.com domain. At that point, the user cap will be raised to 5,000 Panquake Beta users, who will be invited to join the network. Later on, we will activate the “Invite” functionality that will allow our users to invite their friends, families and community members to the network, and Panquake will grow organically.
Why is Panquake being so cautious?
In case it isn’t obvious by now, we are in this for the long haul.
We are committed to growing a sustainable, organic, human-centric network with integrity at its core - both in design ethics and technical operations.
Despite all the challenges we have faced - which have been many, and monolithic - Talk Liberation has retained its independence and never sold out to billionaires, banks or the tech oligarchy. Because of this, we have limited resources.
The typical model for a social network startup is to take a bunch of money from VC, compromise the autonomy of the structure, pay influencers a ton to create a big bang online, pull in millions of users in the first week, then exit with a pile of cash before the network fizzles out and everyone forgets its name in six months or a year.
That model is the exact opposite of what we’re going for and is exactly why we’re doing things in such a different way. Panquake is all about real community building, real movement building. It is methodical, committed and therefore lasting.
Tell me some geeky stuff
Our microservice architecture is fully operational in Panquake Lite. Content posted and interactions on Panquake Lite produce network transactions that are queued for later publishing on the Panquake public blockchain. At a technical level, the Panquake blockchain we are developing is a Proof of Authority chain - where users earn and maintain trust in order to participate in operations, rather than staking funds (Proof of Stake) or competing via processing power (Proof of Work). So trust is key not just for sustainable growth but also for data processing of block records in the Panquake Beta! Much more on this at a later date.
OMG I love Panquake. How can I support you?
In case it isn’t screamingly obvious by now: if we want things to be different in this world we have to do it ourselves.
Here are some basic ways you can participate and support Panquake in its fight to make social media a better, more human-centric experience that reinforces the rights of all internet users:
If you haven’t already, sign up to the Panquake Beta 5,000 at this link
Subscribe to this Substack - $5 per month really does help us
If you can contribute more, please do so at the Panquake crowdfunder campaign
Share our content - tell everyone you know that social media can & will be different!
Supporting us is really important but don’t just rely on projects like ours to change things. Start your own initiatives. Organise. Coordinate. This world needs 1,000 Panquakes not just one!
A big Thank You
Dozens and dozens of people who you likely won’t ever know the names of have sacrificed and given an enormous amount of time, effort and energy despite facing hardship and no small amount of risk in order to get this project this far. We honour and thank them.
Thousands of everyday members of the public put their belief in us and backed us to get it off the ground. We honour and thank you!
Lawyers, accountants, administrators, small businesses, also took risks to back us and stand by us even when we were being constantly undermined and sabotaged by establishment, legacy systems. We honour and thank them.
Those who are already using Panquake Lite are literally experiencing the difference. We can and do have a tiny space of the internet where we can speak freely without being profiled, captured, monetised, or exploited. That little space we call home will grow slowly over time. We’re here for it.
Welcome aboard the Panquake lifeboat, humanity. We are on our way!
If you haven’t already, you can apply to join the Panquake BETA at this link.
Use our Panquake Me link shortening service for free at this link!
Businesses can apply to become a Lnqk.Me Pilot Customer at this link.
Panquake.com and this Substack page are brought to you by Talk Liberation: Finally! Software You Can Trust
© Talk Liberation Limited. The original content of this article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Please attribute copies of this work to “Talk Liberation” or talkliberation.com. Some of the work(s) incorporated may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact licensing@talkliberation.com
Thank You TL
Not sure the point if links cannot be shared... I guess that's for the future? I would love to be on a platform as described, but for the fact that the solutions I offer to the problem of moneyed psychopaths in control on Our planet (by virtue of money) need to be shared - and widely!
If they are not shared, Humanity will likely go down Their primrose path to 15 minute corrals, eating bugs, tied down with digital ID's, CBDC's (money), and social credit scores, and hooked up like Borg, to be the psychopath's servants, slaves, sex toys and sacrifices.
Let’s Obsolete Money and Get Rid of Cartels! (article): https://amaterasusolar.substack.com/p/lets-obsolete-money-and-get-rid-of
The Theft of Privacy (article): https://amaterasusolar.substack.com/p/the-theft-of-privacy
What If You Can Live as Richly as You Choose? (article): https://amaterasusolar.substack.com/p/what-if-you-can-live-as-richly-as