While sometimes we need somewhere to chat about different topics that interest us, it can be quite difficult to setup such a place – easily and privately. Forget installing bulletin board software, giving more details to Facebook or just waiting for the first ads to creep up in your private discussion. For all your interests – there’s Interests.Me!

While we announced the launch of Interest.Me, lets see how easy exactly it is to launch. Logging into Interests.Me with your Twitter account or registering with your emails will show you the platform’s dashboard, from where you can either join an established group such as “Paleo” or “Small Business Law” – or create your own like we’ll do today.

Not a Social Network

Interests.Me’s Paul Fisher took the time to outline why exactly the group started this project and did so in a form of a manifesto. In it, Fisher explains that they want to bring back meaningful conversations into the modern age across all your devices while at the same time respecting both your personal privacy and the privacy of the discussions:

Interests.me is not a social network. Social networks connect you with people. Interests.me connects you with your interests and with the discussion. Who you are is much less important than what you have to say.

Each group is led by its creator, who is visibly noted above the group’s description. To join a group, you’ll be asked a couple of questions after which the creator / moderator will go over your application to approve it.

A group, as you can see from .Me’s example, is made out of threads which you can reply to – or just follow to keep up with what other users are writing inside the thread. As an admin, you can always pin important threads to the top of the group: such as announcement, important FAQ, etc. Users are divided into 2 groups, similar to other discussion platforms. While normal users can post or reply to threads, moderators can edit them – as well as keep the “peace” in an otherwise heated discussion.

How to Create a Discussion Group in Interests.Me

To create a group, you’ll need to, first of all, decide on its name which Interests.Me suggests to “make snappy”, as well as a unique web address. The web address (in our example domainsarewhat.interests.me) lets you link someone to the group so that they don’t need to find the group among all the others in the system.

You can also add a description of the group and definitely you email – a way of making it possible for Interests.Me to communicate with you. While you do have just one Interests.Me account, you can have multiple identities or usernames to use in different groups.

Making a Private Group – More Private

While Interests.Me is not the most public place in the world, you can setup two settings that will make it even more private. The first, setting the group not to be discoverable, will make it accessible just through going through the extensive list of domains or through the web address we already mentioned.

On the other hand, if you want to moderate discussions inside the group, you can always make it possible for just moderators to post new threads. No other users will be able to start new topics, just reply to the ones you post.

Because you have to approve members before they join your group, a bit more information would prove useful. That’s why Interests.Me lets you ask optional questions that will either let you identify that the person is someone you invited (ask for a password) or just learn if their interests align with the group’s.

An Ad-Free Discussion Area

While Interests.Me will always be ad-free, unlike most social networks today, the team believes they can monetise the projects in the future by offering additional features and value for users that need it. Still, Paul says the platform will be free to use for most of its users:

Most groups will be free to use. Only if you join many groups and become a super user, will we ask you to pay a small amount for interests.me. And if group leaders want to charge a small amount to users for exclusive entry to some valuable groups, we’ll allow this.

Now you have a group, and according to Interests.Me’s manifesto, you can use it for free and ad-free being sure that you are using a private space which isn’t a social network that wants to know everything it can in order to show you ads. It’s all about your interests – so the name does fit! What do you think of Interests.Me?