Our Digital Third-Space

Our Digital Third-Space

notes on connection, bloomscrolling & Perfectly Imperfect.

Mapu

Sep 07, 2026

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despite how many of us are here, it’s not easy to feel connected within this speaker/audience format, or overall in the social platforms that we attend to every day. that’s why i’ve been working on building a room—over on

Perfectly Imperfect

—alongside the stage.

a place for

Instead of Doomscrolling

members to have fun, find authentic connection, share knowledge, and create mutual support.

i want to build a genuine space for community where we can recommend, ask, rant, and most importantly, create something special together.

it’s called

bloomscrolling

<3

i have been on PI for a looong time now, and it is truly one of the most special places on today’s crazy internet. the process of building this with the 9k members who are already there, the PI team—and now you guys over here from Substack—is something i’m honored to be able to do.

over the past month, i’ve been working on it and experimenting to make sure everything is ready. even just in this short period of time, though, something beautiful has been blooming.

here are some of my personal favorite recs that have been shared on

/bloomscrolling

by fellow community members:

join them on /bloomscrolling :)

i’ve loved PI since before i started sharing anything online, so having the chance to work with and alongside them throughout this wild ride of building IoD has genuinely been a dream. i started a weekly column—as their first recurring contributor—where i shared

things to do instead of doomscrolling

. this was a career-defining moment where i figured out what it meant to allow myself to share who i was beyond what i had to offer to others. i will forever be grateful for that. who knows if i’d be here if i hadn’t taken the leap?

now that we are working on this and other fun things, i wanted you to get to know Tyler—and PI overall—a little better so that you get an idea of why this space means so much to me.

P.S. a big thank you to Vivi, Barr, Alex, and the other members of the team who have been just as warm and welcoming as Tyler—who has been kind enough to let me do a little interview for this announcement <3

a chat with

Tyler Bainbridge

founder of Perfectly Imperfect & fellow college dropout

he also loves and lives in NYC

M

: I’m introducing Perfectly Imperfect to my mom now that it’s becoming such an important part of the IoD ecosystem. I would love to know how you would explain what it is to her?

T

: First off, she should follow my mom (who snagged the username

@tylersmom

lol)! Okay so Perfectly Imperfect is basically

a place to discover from real people, in an age where the Internet has lost its soul. Use it to find new recipes, interior design inspiration, restaurants, clothing, music, movies, books, etc, endless potential!

We also have a newsletter we’ve been running since 2020 that’s featured all kinds of icons like

Olivia Rodrigo

,

Francis Ford Coppola

,

Charli XCX

, and

hundreds more

.

my feed + their latest interview on the editorial tab

M

: You started on Substack back in 2020, what drove you to leave and create something of your own? What do you think that version of you would have hoped PI looked like today?

T

: If I could, I’d give everyone on the planet a Perfectly Imperfect interview! But unfortunately, that’s impossible…which is exactly why we created our own platform.

Now everyone can get in on the fun of logging their taste, discovering from real people, and making friends.

I was also growing frustrated with Substack’s community+monetization tools and feeling disconnected from our lovely readers. By building a home for our audience, I can see what they’re recommending and follow them to find more :) It’s been really fun.

Honestly, exactly what it became. That’s not even a cop out response. Everyone thought I was insane for thinking we’d eventually feature the people we have (since I was basically a random guy with zero industry connections lol), and in parallel I’d always wanted to build the taste platform because I’ve hated how there are 10 different apps for your interests (Letterboxd, Beli, etc) and wanted a unified home for all parts of my taste.

Tyler’s PI profile!

M

: I’ve said this to you and I’ll say it here again;

I like to think of PI as a digital third space.

Especially with the recent developments, what do you think sets it apart?

T

: That’s such a kind compliment! I really like to think you can feel the soul behind the project. I reply to every email, I’m in everyone’s comment section, and the site is full of tiny mistakes and imperfections. At the end of the day, this is a DIY passion-fueled project. I think that kinda thing really builds trust with our users, something that’s been lost in the modern Internet age. Everyone’s been burned, and trust in big tech is at an all time low.

a screenshot of their weekly feedback threads

I think it’s also because people on our site are kinder, gentler, and more curious.

It’s a group of 500,000 who all came here to remind themselves how the Internet used to feel—back when forums were filled with helpful strangers, websites didn’t all look & feel the same, and the web felt like this exciting place to explore and discover.

a re-rec from a while ago that warmed my heart <3

M

: From experience, it’s not easy to find people online, let alone ones I would meet up with in person. PI is built to blend the best of url and irl to connect with others. How?

T

: Having shared interests is such an amazing building block for connection, which is why so many relationships + friendships have formed here. Some of my very best friends are a direct result of loving the same music or films. PI also has a rich history of throwing events in NYC (and beyond) and we built upon this when we added an Events feature on the platform. So now anyone can get people together by throwing a party, a meet-up, an IRL bookclub, or a simple birthday party!

some of the upcoming events posted

M

: PI is unlike anything I have experienced in this age of enshittification, it’s one of the aspects that drew me in in the first place. I would love to know about a decision or direction you’ve taken regarding the way that you run PI that’s against this current.

T

: I think I have a pretty strong moral compass and contrarian spirit. Could I have made “better” decisions on how to grow faster and/or get users addicted to the app? Probably! But that’s not why I’m doing this.

I’m out here trying to inspire real change and build a place that feels distinctly human in an age of ai slop + big tech bull shit. I want the next generation of nerds to have a real online home.

The project is ultimately “perfectly imperfect” in the literal sense—and that simple phrase has subtly informed a lot of our decisions over the years.

M

: If PI had a sun, moon, and rising—in emojis—what would they be?

T

: ☕️🚬🎧

start sharing on PI & /bloomscrolling

i felt like sharing this news this way really comes to show what this space is to me, and now, hopefully, to you as well. despite what i may show, i actually suck at sharing big milestones or being proud of my accomplishments—something i’m trying to address lol—but it felt natural to answer this question that

@geebie

asked on

/bloomscrolling

.

what’s something you’ve done recently that you’re proud of?

honestly, at first i didn’t even consider replying. again, feeling proud of myself is not quite my strong suit. however, as i started reading other people’s answers, i felt so proud of them that i decided to at least try to extend this feeling toward myself—so i shared the big news.

i’m writing a book !!!!

you can read the rec for more deets, but my point here is that the amount of love and support i received after feeling comfortable and safe enough in this space is something i profoundly cherish.

i’ll keep sharing more on this, and my life overall, in our digital third space—so i really hope to read about yours as well if i see you there :)

thank you for your attention,

become a /bloomscrolling member <3

your support is what makes IoD possible. consider becoming a free or paid sub so i can keep supporting and writing about other independent spaces myself—while making this one sustainable <3

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