Welcome to Sane’s monthly roundup edition #4. In these newsletters, we share an update of what’s been happening on Sane recently. Today, we’re particularly excited about two developments. 1) (My)Spaces on Sane! 2) Elliott Etzkorn has joined us as a Founding Engineer. 💗
To celebrate, we created this little video.
(My)Space just made a comeback
We felt nostalgic and decided to bring back the glory of Myspace! You can now curate your nostalgic profile space with all your favourite things. The template will be added to your dashboard whether you already have an account or sign up for the first time.
What does this mean? Kind of whatever you want it to mean!
Add images, fill out a quiz, link your favourite music, and give people a glimpse into your world. You can get as creative as you want with it.
This is our first, more public release and we can’t wait to see what people end up sharing.
A new and improved nav
For those of you already in Sane, you might notice it looks a little different.
We’ve redesigned navigation throughout the app! The new UI lets the content inside spaces shine, and leaves more space for the canvas — especially on smaller screens. With this updated navigation, we’re streamlining the create-to-share flow, clarifying access levels for spaces, and highlighting sharing outside of Sane as a key action.
We’re also enabling canvas view for spaces on mobile. While the browser-based canvas is a challenging experience to build for mobile, this is a first step in bringing Sane to all devices and letting users browse when they’re not in front of the screen.
Templates
(My)Space is our first trial with templates, but more is coming soon! In this spirit, we want to ask you:
What kind of template would you imagine wanting to see and use on Sane? Is there a template you’d like to create and share with your own community? Dare to be wild and dreamy! We can make it happen.
Email us at hello@sane.fyi 🙂
Meet Elliott, our newest teammate!
We’re so excited to share that Elliott Etzkorn has joined Sane as a Founding Engineer! To celebrate, we asked Elliott to take the spotlight for this month’s roundup feature.
Who are you and what do you care about?
I am a programmer and artist. I care most about the emotional impact of the things I make. Through all forms of expression the message I am trying to communicate is: “you are not alone” to others, and: “you are not alone” to myself too.
What do you spend most of your time on?
I spend most of my time thinking and worrying about the balance of lights and objects in my home. This is where I lived in Berkeley, before I moved to New York City.
At one point I ran a niche social network called Dwelling where people shared pictures of their rooms with one another. I met many friends on that platform, including one of my best friends who is now my roommate Laurel Schwulst.
I moved to New York City in part through Laurel, and became acquainted with the team at Sane via mutual friends made on Dwelling.. so really my involvement here all started with an interest in light.
Describe your dream internet:
Four US states currently ban billboards. I think it is probably not a coincidence that those states, Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont, are known for their natural beauty. It might be true that we do not protect the internet because we do not see it as inherently beautiful. I see the internet as inherently beautiful, and it is covered right now with billboards. My dream internet is light, creative, simple, and the experience of using it will leave you feeling as restored as going out in nature.
How would you describe Sane and your first experiences with it?
My feeling right away on Sane is that it is a platform with heart, which matters to me more than any other thing. So much of the web now is sanitized, copy-cat, and a bit scared. I think we are nostalgic for the early internet in part because anyone could curate it, and it was full of wonderful human flaws as a result.
I am drawn to the content that I am seeing on Sane, which so far indicates a community of people yearning to make connections between the new and the old, across media types, with a bit of risky self-expression offered generously. I think I will find wonderful things here.
Link your favorite spaces!
fran’s formula - fran is a genius
silly little squiggles - something i would lay out in my room
cupid’s courtyard - so short and sweet and real..
Thanks all! Happy creating! We can’t wait to hear your thoughts.
— Ida, Tiina, Dane, & Elliott