New Tribes*

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4 comments

1. C. R. Culver

   20 June 2020

   Can we confront the fact that the Tribes system is a failure? Initially it seemed great that hitchhikers could find fellow hitchhikers to stay with, or vegetarian/vegan travelers could be sure that they would be staying in an animal-product-free environment. But instead, what happened is that a lot of people signed up and just subscribed to every tribe they saw, even if they don't actually have those lifestyles themselves. Hitchhiker-tribe hosts are not actually hitchhikers, Vegetarian-tribe hosts are not actually vegetarians, etc.
   
   The Dumpster Divers tribe, for example, is full of people who have almost certainly never dumpster-dived in their lives, and probably would not ever be willing to. A traveler can't even be confident that those hosts would accept a guest wanting to dive and bring back dumpstered food for dinner

2. Noah

   20 June 2020

   Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I agree with you that these so called 'Tribes' are not actually groups of people who dogmatically follow the rules that would come with it. Sometimes that makes me feel happy, sometimes I would like it to be more the way that I think you would like it to be.
   Anyway, we get a lot of feedback of people who are happy to have these filters and we are not limited in it the way it is now. We are actively developing and exploring realites. I am looking forward to seeing the next steps!

3. Mikael Korpela

   20 June 2020

   Hi there and thanks for your feedback!
   
   a lot of people signed up and just subscribed to every tribe they saw, even if they don’t actually have those lifestyles themselves
   
   I disagree, I don't think this holds true if you look at the statistics. We have 45,113 members, 31,993 members (~71%) have joined at least one tribe, and tribe numbers currently are:
   
   - Hitchhikers 26,017 members
   - Dumpster divers 14,797 members
   - Nomads 14,554 members
   - Vegans & Vegetarians 13,408 members
   - Ecoliving 8,932 members
   - Hikers 7,531 members
   - Foodsharing 6,906 members
   - Musicians 5,982 members
   - Cyclists 5,282 members
   - Artists 4,328 members
   - Yoga 3,514 members
   - Spirituals 3,295 members
   - Punks 3,211 members
   - Rainbow gathering 2,934 members
   - Hackers 2,871 members
   - Dancers 2,811 members
   - LGBTQ 2,735 members
   - Climbers 2,717 members
   - Buskers 2,362 members
   - Families 1,729 members
   - Sailors 1,324 members
   - Van life 1,110 members
   - Lindyhoppers 783 members
   - Acroyoga 709 members
   - Trustroots Volunteers 687 members
   - Slackliners 651 members
   - Jugglers 544 members
   
   Statistics aside, I know Tribes feature is pretty barebones right now, but I wanted to elaborate on what it is now and what it could be in future.
   
   Now
   
   - A way to show others your interests in your profile (we highlight common tribes between you and them)
   - A way to filter users via the map. You might want to stay only with hitchhikers when hitchhiking because they’d understand you can arrive whenever.
   - A way for us to communicate what’s the site’s core audience, a way to help people “belong” stronger (and the opposite is true of course.)
   
   Possible in future
   
   - A way to “sandbox” yourself to be visible only to your own tribes. Someone might, for example, want to be seen and be hosted only by cyclists. No matter how big the site, it would always feel small and cozy to them.
   - Give higher priority for tribe members. You could show up higher in the search list for fellow tribe members. You might want to have SMS sent to you if a fellow tribe member is writing to you, and regular notifications otherwise?
   - A way for communities to share and organize; there could be discussions under tribe.
   - Tribe specific meetings, visible only to tribe members, and listed at the tribe page.
   - Links to other communities outside Trustroots; e.g. joining a tribe could require being a member at another site, or require secret code shared in some outside community such as FB or Mastodon instance.
   - Closed tribes; you could join tribe only via invitation.
   - People creating their own, custom tribes, vs us moderating the list.
   
   Feel free to share your ideas as well! These were just from my perspective.
   
   Hope this helps!

   1. Mikael

      20 June 2020

      Number of people who are members of very many tribes are also quite low. Majority picks just a few tribes.
      
      1 tribe, 5,876 members
      2 tribes, 5491 members
      3 tribes, 5284 members
      4 tribes, 3961 members
      5 tribes, 2701 members
      6 tribes, 2073 members
      7 tribes, 1622 members
      8 tribes, 1207 members
      9 tribes, 870 members
      10 tribes, 693 members
      11 tribes, 599 members
      12 tribes, 412 members
      13 tribes, 275 members
      14 tribes, 210 members
      15 tribes, 159 members
      16 tribes, 122 members
      17 tribes, 83 members
      18 tribes, 66 members
      19 tribes, 56 members
      20 tribes, 61 members
      21 tribes, 34 members
      22 tribes, 19 members
      23 tribes, 15 members
      24 tribes, 20 members
      25 tribes, 19 members
      26 tribes, 25 members
      27 tribes, 37 members