An Are.na alternative without the network
Are.na is a research tool and a community at the same time: channels of blocks, blocks connected across channels, other people connecting your things to theirs. ceevo takes the small quiet part of that and leaves the rest.
Are.na is for thinking in public with other people. ceevo is for keeping your own things in order and sharing a folder when you choose. If the community is why you use Are.na, nothing here replaces it. If the community is why you stopped, this might.
- Model
- Blocks in channels, connected many-to-many.
- Items in folders, one folder each. Flat.
- Saving
- Extension, drag and drop, share sheet.
- Paste a link or write a note on the web. Share to ceevo from any app on your phone.
- Sharing
- Public channels, profiles, a whole social graph.
- Any folder becomes a public page under your name with one switch.
- Notes
- Text blocks.
- Notes are first-class: a note lives next to the links in the same folder.
- Community
- Yes. Following, connecting, discovering.
- No. Your folders, your page, nobody else in it.
- Price
- Free with limits, paid Premium.
- Free. If paid plans ever come, nothing you saved gets locked.
What Are.na is really for
Are.na is closer to a slow social network for research than a bookmark tool. The value is in connections: your block shows up in someone else’s channel, you follow people whose taste you trust, and the whole thing rewards browsing. Designers and artists have built real practices on it.
Why some people want the quiet version
Because they do not want an audience while they save things. Because one link belongs in one folder and they do not want to think about connections. Because they want to hand a page to someone and have it look like a list, not a profile.
ceevo is that version. Folders instead of channels, one level, private by default. A folder becomes a public page with one switch, and the page is just the list, under your name, at a short link.
Where Are.na is better
Discovery, connection, and the feeling of being in a room with other collectors. Also the API, which lets people embed channels in their own sites. ceevo has public pages today and an open way to fetch a folder is on the list, but it is not there yet.
Questions
- Can other people add to my ceevo folder?
- No. Folders belong to one person. A public folder is read-only for everyone else.
- Can I connect one link to several folders?
- No. Each item lives in one folder. It keeps the folders honest.
- Does ceevo have profiles?
- You get a page at ceevo.me/yourname that lists your public folders. There is no following or feed.