TalkShop - Woteetees?

In the first post for today, I will be going into a little detail explaining my core vision for the TalkShop idea and the key differentiators from other "competitors".

Have been getting a lot of queries about TalkShop from folks. Are we developing a competitor to Xwitter or Bsky? Who will pay to use something that is available for free? And so on! While I have been addressing these queries individually over DMs, today I will put down all my thoughts in one place and open it up for discussion!

TalkShop?! What kind of F***all name is that? 

TalkShop is merely a placeholder - a code that we use to refer to the project while we work on the branding and develop this product. It comes from the name of the original PHP solution we had developed years ago for our clients. Speaking of names and branding - I very much look forward to hearing ideas from brand gurus!

Competitor to Xwitter? 

Hell NO!! Not even close! That is the first misconception that I would like to address. Despite the similar looking "first-look" my Graphics team came up with, that is definitely NOT what I am trying to do here!

I grew up in the "Peth area" of Pune, Maharashtra - that part of town was "RSS Central" even in the 1980s! There we had these little Tea Shops in every corner called "Amrutulyas" which were hubs for spirited political discussions throughout the day and even midnight! I may adapt UI elements from them but Xwitter is not my inspiration. My inspiration is those "Amrutulyas" and corner "Kattas" where people gathered to discuss current events!

PS: Speaking of UI elements, I am considering a more reddit inspired look! But Early days! 👧

How it Began

Among the many people I approached seeking advice to launch a different commercial product idea was a former Wall-Street executive turned Economics Professor who has been something of a mentor to me. On one of our coffee-fueled discussions, the Professor, visibly upset over something that the South African arse**** had tweeted earlier that day, was ruing the lack of objectivity in Journalism today and the way billionaire owned platforms like Xwitter are manipulating the public discourse with fixed narratives.

We need a community-owned & operated platform where people can keep up with current events and put forward their views on these topics publicly without fear! 2 days later, I showed him a demo of the community website for Real Estate brokers that we had developed in PHP 4 years back and just like that the idea for TalkShop was Born! 

The idea has grown since then as we brainstormed on ideas over gallons of coffee! We now have a much better idea about the direction in which this is heading! But the idea is still growing and evolving! My big hope is that more people could get involved so we would have even more ideas while the product is being developed! This app is for the community and I would very much like the Community to get involved in building this!

News Syndication Service

TalkShop will be built around a News Syndication Service (NSS) that will collate News items of individual interest from various sources in one place and enable subscribers to comment on them. Subscribers will be able to curate their own news feed. News stories and "Trending" stories will be organic and filtered ONLY by the individual subscribers themselves and not by complex algos working in mysterious ways! I will be talking about the NSS core in greater detail in a follow-up post.

Building Communities

In nature, we have Tigers who are solitary creatures but we also have pack/herd animals like Wolves or Deers! Like it or not, Mankind falls in the latter category! We need each other to survive, to bounce ideas off, and fight off predators! We need each other to survive!

We need to build connections, support, and create a shared purpose among groups of individuals. We need to collaborate, share resources, organize & work in unison toward our common goals. Fighting a lone battle is all good but Building a Community promotes a sense of belonging & safety, which is vital for our mental well-being. Whether it is to organize a cleaning drive in our Condominium, annual meet for alumni groups, focus groups to discuss arbit interests like Aviation or Car-Camping or even organize protests against unjust Laws being passed by rogue regimes! In times of challenging situations like the one we are in, like during the Farmers Protests in India for eg, cohesive communities can provide a network of support and help organize resistance against an unjust system.

As a refugee who escaped Modi's India and faced persecution both for my gender identity as well as my political beliefs, I fully understand the importance of building communities! During the Farmers Protest, I saw first hand the role played by social media in helping people organize and set the narrative. If the Farmers need to hit the streets again, and I am certain they will have to given the way things are going, will they be able to find the same kind of traction they did on Xwitter in 2025 that we did in 2018? Who should set the narrative? Should we allow big business  or rogue regimes this prerogative or should We the People be presenting the other side? You and Me - We need to organize to take charge of the narrative!

By building communities, we strengthen our social fabric, enhance resilience during times of adversity, and create safe spaces where diversity and collective action can flourish.

That is part of the vision that is guiding me as I sit down to build TalkShop!

TalkShop will be the core around which we will build a number of Communities - there will be communities for Investors, Aviation News, Backpackers/Budget Travellers etc. At a later stage, Users can build their own private/public communities powered by our TalkShop API.

Other Features

When I first moved to this country as a refugee fleeing from a rogue regime, I didn't have access to Social Networks etc that are vital for survival! Finding a place to stay, finding jobs to keep the home fires burning etc etc! I eventually did find help from Church groups etc. It was quite a task but I got lucky! 

Thinking out loud, I think this is another potential use-case that I see this platform evolving into. Connecting people, especially vulnerable Refugees and minorities who need Jobs with folks who need people to work for them. A "Jobs syndicator" that syndicates job openings from across various sources is definitely the one the first "Plus" features I intend to develop once the core product has been launched.

TalkShop will be a community driven news platform for exchanging ideas and building communities. It will be geared towards Communities! It will certainly NOT be meant for content-creator folks seeking to monetise their content! There are other platforms out there better suited for them!

Again, this is another aspect where the "Founding Members" can help with. Contribute your own ideas as TalkShop is getting built!

Security & Freedom of Speech

Xwitter was a very different and at first refreshing place to be in when they started! But they were soon taken over by trolls who made it the less safe and more toxic place it has become now! Xwitter's algos, which I grudgingly admit are very well written from a Technical perspective, are increasingly being used to throttle the audience for Tweets restricting the reach of our posts and hence our audience. 

I first experienced this during the Farmers Protests and the protests against CAA/NRC years back. My account was actually barred in India for 3 periods of 3 months each - which means followers from India couldn't see my tweets unless they used a VPN or something. I got an email from Xwitter informing me of the barring each time saying it was "due to a Govt of India Request". I also had plain-clothes policemen standing outside my Building gate asking my friends/family weird questions about my links with Naxals! 🙄 But that is a long story I will tell some other day! But even before this official barring, i had noticed a distinct drop in engagement on the platform! And right now, I have noticed a distinct drop in engagement again for the past 2 months since I began talking about TalkShop! I don't think this is a coincidence! Xwitter algos are controlling the narrative by controlling what we see and what we don't!

This is especially the case after the South African arse**** joined the Orange Top's team. Now who he supports and what he believes in is entirely his prerogative! But the platform that he now controls has changed for the worse since then has it not?

I want TalkShop to be an open platform where people can express themselves freely irrespective of their political views or gender/ethnic identity! I want TalkShop subscribers to be able to view the posts made by people they follow in the order that they were made and not controlled by Algos that curate feeds based on corporate or other interests. Users should be able to view News items according to their preferences and not according to what the sophisticated Algos are pushing down on them!

Those are the first promises I make as I set out to create TalkShop! The freedom to speak your mind and Organic feeds delivered to you based on YOUR preferences! 

 

Thinking out aloud - Users will be able to block abusive Trolls who come trolling in the comments. When you block a User,  he will be able to still see your posts but he will no longer be able to respond to your posts and all replies to your comments will automatically be "disconnected" from your "Thread" - use Block wisely at YOUR discretion!

TalkShop will not block any user from using the service for expressing his opinion unless he breaks the Law. And I am very clear about what I consider "breaking the law". I do not consider speaking about Farmers Rights or against a law like CAA/NRC in that context. Even speaking for Freedom of Quebec/Texas or saying you hate XXX is not breaking the law - it is freedom of Speech! Your opinion is your own own and sacred! People on TalkShop will have the option of seeing your posts or blocking you for it!

There are only a couple of things that will get someone perma-banned on TalkShop - Child P***, Trafficking and condoning Violence of ANY kind!

Feature Idea (proposed): User Rating. Every user will have a calculated "rating" based on his followers, number of blocks he has received from other users and so on. This rating will be prominently displayed on his Profile page which can be read whichever way visitors may chose to interpret it! Would love to discuss the Ratings idea in greater detail with our Founding members.

 

Will TalkShop change once it is developed? The app will certainly evolve over time adding features as we go both on the main app and the "child-apps" that will follow! But One promise I make right at the outset - I will NEVER sell to corporate interests! TalkShop is and will always remain community driven and operated for ever! And after me, the app will be going to a Trust Fund managed by people themselves! I want TalkShop to forever remain a Community owned and operated safe space!

Competition

"Aren't you worried about competition?" "How will you compete with Xwitter?" "What if someone else develops something similar tomorrow?"

 

First off all, I am NOT competing with Xwitter and dont intend to! They have their own cosy little space for themselves! Secondly, There are many folks out there who are developing similar ideas!

Infact, a person who follows me on Xwitter has now started working on a similar idea himself! He thinks I don't know about it but I do! 👩 And I know this because the person he approached for funding in turn approached me to fund TalkShop! Funny how that works no? But see, heres the big difference between us sweetie! He is getting his app funded by a Corporate agency that is in turn close to a Political Party. His app will always serve that interest! I will NEVER touch that kind of money!

So I am not worried about Competition! I am sure about what I doing and how I am doing it! More the merrier I say! I have a solid product idea and my Neeyat/intent is in the right place! So BRING IT ON!

Funding

TalkShop is a project driven by my conviction so it will definitely happen! The Timeline will depend on whether we are able to raise funds in time! I don't have the Funds required to take the app into Production so I will have to give my team time to  execute the project in between other commercial projects we are executing which means it could take upto a year! If we manage to raise the funds now, I can put in dedicated resources to get this thing into Production within 5 months.

To set the record straight, I have been approached by 3 different entities so far who expressed interest to outright fund TalkShop - an Angel investor group based in Washington State, an opposition group from an East African country and finally a man who claimed to be representing an Indian politician. I must confess to being completely spooked by the last one! How did he get my number? But With all due respect, I must humbly decline!

Firstly, I don't need that kind of money to get this thing done! Secondly and more importantly, I simply do not want to take money from VCs or "interest groups" for funding this project because that would dilute the objectives we have laid out for this app and defeat the purpose! The app has to be built by the Community and so the funding for it has to come from within the Community - on that I am absolutely clear 100%!

I plan to raise funds by seeking donations from the public. The first 1000 members who contribute $25 and above will become "Founding Members" and receive free access for life. This will help me raise the seed cost as well a small corpus above that to keep the app running for the next year while we work on refining the product. 

Numbers? I need $6000 to get the first beta version out which will be ready within one month of Project start. That is the absolute minimum before we can begin work! We will have 3 servers running initially which will be scaled up as the subscriber base grows. The remaining core feature list will be developed and added incrementally in the following 3 months. We will begin accepting paid Subscribers within 5 months of Launch. The "Founding members" will be able to access the app from D+31 but it wont be available to the public. Founding members will also have access to  a private section of the app where we can discuss and prioritize feature list, pricing etc.

Our running costs are estimated to be $60000/year per 10000 users. These can be met through subscriptions. Once we build it, people will come!

Subscriptions

Why make the app subscription based? Who will pay money for something they can get for free?! As I have explained in Xwitter threads earlier, nothing is really free! Xwitter is making money off your content in other ways and they are controlling the narrative. 

Secondly, the subscription fee will be kept low - like $25/year for the base Tier. 

Subscription model will ensure 2 things. One it enables us to keep the app free from Commercial constraints like chasing advertisers and helps us deliver quality content! Two it ensures that people who subscribe are serious users and helps keep the riff-raff out!

The notorious "RSS IT Cells" that Indians are now familiar with take advantage of free accounts on Xwitter. Each employee of these cells is creating and operating a dozen "Anda" (Egg) accounts which exist purely to troll and abuse other Users as well as to push out Hateful propaganda and "Trends". They could certainly pay for a subscription and do the same but it will be a lot less cost effective for them to do so! I also intend to implement safety features to further filter out such elements at the sign-in stage itself!

Opting for a subscription model with low fees thus enables us to run our operations without corporate demands as well as to make the platform a safer and less toxic place!

TallkShop WILL be built. The only question is how long will it take for me to get this out with my limited means! You can help me get this Community App out NOW!

How can you help? You can share this article with minimum of 10 friends who you think might be interested - on WhatsApp, Xwitter/Bsky, FB - and everywhere else! Help share #TalkShop posts/tweets on your timelines to further get the message out! And finally, you can join the #TalkShop team as a "Founding Member" with a small contribution! As a founding member, you will be contributing ideas to help make this app a safe place for public expression.

While your contribution can be anonymous, make sure you send me your email separately at kaleshibua@g***l.com so I can send you an invite to the Beta site.

Thanks for listening! Let me know in the comments your thoughts on the idea! Looking forward to hear from all of you! 🙏