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From VibeConnect to CrowdWide

A while ago, I started building a social platform called VibeConnect. It was mainly a learning project where I experimented with authentication, posts, communities, profiles, and other social features.

But it had serious problems — weak security, incomplete media handling, missing features, and no proper 2FA.

Instead of endlessly patching it, I decided to start over.

That's how CrowdWide began.

Why CrowdWide?

While building and sharing projects, I noticed how difficult it can be for smaller creators and communities to get discovered. Established accounts already have momentum, while a new creator can spend weeks building something and barely get noticed.

So CrowdWide is built around communities, creators, and discovery — giving smaller communities an initial opportunity to be seen without guaranteeing popularity.

What I've Built

CrowdWide has grown far beyond the original idea.

• Posts, articles, polls, drafts, scheduling and media uploads
• Reactions, comments, bookmarks, sharing and threaded discussions
• Public/private communities with roles, moderation and approval systems
• Profiles, followers, privacy controls and saved posts
• Personalized feeds, trending content, recommendations and search
• RSS support and a posts API
• TOTP 2FA, recovery codes, session management and rate limiting
• Reports, moderation queues, audit logs and data export/deletion

I've also been experimenting with the feed algorithm, currently giving 40% of initial distribution to newer users/smaller communities, 55% to established communities, and 5% to trending content. It's an experiment, not a permanent rule.

What's Next

There are still plenty of things to finish: stronger automated testing, staging, monitoring, better spam detection, moderation improvements, API documentation, and more.

I'm building, breaking, fixing, and learning along the way.

That's where CrowdWide is today.

#crowdwide #buildinpublic #webdev #opensource #socialmedia