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  "description": "TouchGrass gives posts an audience before they become part of your profile. Public posts are for things you are comfortable sharing more openly. Friends posts are for people you have accepted as friends. Circles are for smaller, intentional groups. These choices help social software feel closer to real life: you do not speak to everyone the same way in every room. They are not magic privacy shields. Screenshots, copying, recipient misuse, and remote-server behavior can still matter, especially as open-web and federation features develop. Open does not mean everything is public.\n\nWhy TouchGrass made this choice\n\nMost social platforms flatten context. A joke for five friends, a recommendation for neighbors, a long post about a hobby, and a public note about a project can all end up in the same performance arena. That makes people cautious in the wrong way: not thoughtful about audience, but anxious about reach.\n\nTouchGrass is designed around social context first. The question is not “How can this get more engagement?” The better question is “Who is this for?”\n\nThat is why audience controls are core to the product. Friends and circles are not decorative labels. They are part of the posting surface. You choose the room before you post.\n\nTouchGrass is also built for exits. Portability, federation, and open-web direction matter because people should not have to choose between social connection and platform lock-in. But “open” needs careful language. Open can mean portable, interoperable, or publicly addressable. It does not mean every post is public by default.\n\nWhat TouchGrass does today\n\nToday, TouchGrass centers profiles, posts, longform writing, photos and albums, recommendations, and intentional audiences.\n\nYou can think about the main audience choices this way:\n\nPublic posts are for things you are willing to share beyond your close social graph. They can help your profile become a place on the web, not just a temporary feed item. Public posts are the right fit for open notes, recommendations, explainers, and writing you would be comfortable having visitors read.\n\nFriends posts are for accepted friends. They are meant for everyday personal sharing where the audience is known, but not necessarily tiny. A friends post may fit normal life updates, photos, and writing that belongs among people you have chosen to connect with.\n\nCircle posts are for narrower groups. A circle can represent a real-life context: family, a local group, a project, a trip, a hobby group, or a small set of people who should see one specific kind of post. Circles help you avoid treating every friend as the same audience.\n\nTouchGrass avoids addictive feed mechanics around these choices. There is no algorithmic feed designed to pull more from you, no infinite scroll treadmill, no public like-count scoreboard, and no video-first engagement loop. The audience selector is not there to feed a reach machine. It is there to help you share with the right people.\n\nTouchGrass is also working in an open-web direction, including portability and protocol work. Some directions involving federation, ATProto/Atmosphere, Solid, ActivityPods, and private sharing may be shipped, partial, experimental, or planned depending on the feature. The feature-status page should be treated as the source of truth.\n\nLimits / what not to overclaim\n\nAudience controls reduce accidental oversharing, but they do not make a post impossible to copy, screenshot, describe, or misuse. A friends-only or circle-only post should not be described as private from the people who can see it.\n\nPrivate sharing also has technical boundaries. If federation, protocol integrations, or remote-server features are involved, remote behavior may affect what can be guaranteed. TouchGrass should explain those limits plainly instead of pretending that a label solves everything.\n\nPublic posts are different from open-web direction. A public post may be intentionally visible. Open-web work is about choice, portability, interoperability, and exit doors. Those ideas belong together, but they are not the same thing.\n\nDo not imply that every protocol direction is fully shipped. When discussing portability, federation, ATProto/Atmosphere, Solid, ActivityPods, or private sharing, link to feature status and name what is shipped, partial, experimental, or planned.\n\nFAQ\n\nAre circle posts private?\n\nCircle posts are limited to the circle audience inside TouchGrass, but they are not protected from screenshots, copying, or misuse by recipients. Any privacy claim should include that caveat.\n\nIs public the default?\n\nThe important product principle is that audience should be visible and intentional. Draft copy should avoid implying that every post is public or that “open” means “public by default.”\n\nWhat is the difference between friends and circles?\n\nFriends are your accepted social connections. Circles are smaller groups inside that social graph, built for specific contexts.\n\nDoes TouchGrass support federation or portability?\n\nTouchGrass is built with portability and open-web direction in mind. The exact state of federation, ATProto/Atmosphere, Solid, ActivityPods, and related private-sharing work should be checked on the feature-status page.\n\nWhy not just use one private account?\n\nReal life has more than one audience. TouchGrass gives you more than a public/private switch so you can share differently with friends, circles, and the open web.\n\nRelated TouchGrass pages\n\nRead more about audience controls: /privacy-and-audience-control\n\nRead more about friends and circles: /friends-and-circles\n\nLast updated: May 15, 2026. Language: English.\n\nSee what you can do: /what-you-can-do\n\nFeature status: /status/features\n\nProofreading notes: Confirm final article URL and the current shipped/partial/experimental/planned status before scheduling.",
  "path": "/posts/1831",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-30T10:47:51+00:00",
  "site": "at://did:plc:3psawlryd7qeqqdvpieu7geb/site.standard.publication/3mm4zoxsquk26",
  "textContent": "What do public, friends, and circles mean on TouchGrass?\n\nTouchGrass gives posts an audience before they become part of your profile. Public posts are for things you are comfortable sharing more openly. Friends posts are for people you have accepted as friends. Circles are for smaller, intentional groups. These choices help social software feel closer to real life: you do not speak to everyone the same way in every room. They are not magic privacy shields. Screenshots, copying, recipient misuse, and remote-server behavior can still matter, especially as open-web and federation features develop. Open does not mean everything is public.\n\nWhy TouchGrass made this choice\n\nMost social platforms flatten context. A joke for five friends, a recommendation for neighbors, a long post about a hobby, and a public note about a project can all end up in the same performance arena. That makes people cautious in the wrong way: not thoughtful about audience, but anxious about reach.\n\nTouchGrass is designed around social context first. The question is not “How can this get more engagement?” The better question is “Who is this for?”\n\nThat is why audience controls are core to the product. Friends and circles are not decorative labels. They are part of the posting surface. You choose the room before you post.\n\nTouchGrass is also built for exits. Portability, federation, and open-web direction matter because people should not have to choose between social connection and platform lock-in. But “open” needs careful language. Open can mean portable, interoperable, or publicly addressable. It does not mean every post is public by default.\n\nWhat TouchGrass does today\n\nToday, TouchGrass centers profiles, posts, longform writing, photos and albums, recommendations, and intentional audiences.\n\nYou can think about the main audience choices this way:\n\nPublic posts are for things you are willing to share beyond your close social graph. They can help your profile become a place on the web, not just a temporary feed item. Public posts are the right fit for open notes, recommendations, explainers, and writing you would be comfortable having visitors read.\n\nFriends posts are for accepted friends. They are meant for everyday personal sharing where the audience is known, but not necessarily tiny. A friends post may fit normal life updates, photos, and writing that belongs among people you have chosen to connect with.\n\nCircle posts are for narrower groups. A circle can represent a real-life context: family, a local group, a project, a trip, a hobby group, or a small set of people who should see one specific kind of post. Circles help you avoid treating every friend as the same audience.\n\nTouchGrass avoids addictive feed mechanics around these choices. There is no algorithmic feed designed to pull more from you, no infinite scroll treadmill, no public like-count scoreboard, and no video-first engagement loop. The audience selector is not there to feed a reach machine. It is there to help you share with the right people.\n\nTouchGrass is also working in an open-web direction, including portability and protocol work. Some directions involving federation, ATProto/Atmosphere, Solid, ActivityPods, and private sharing may be shipped, partial, experimental, or planned depending on the feature. The feature-status page should be treated as the source of truth.\n\nLimits / what not to overclaim\n\nAudience controls reduce accidental oversharing, but they do not make a post impossible to copy, screenshot, describe, or misuse. A friends-only or circle-only post should not be described as private from the people who can see it.\n\nPrivate sharing also has technical boundaries. If federation, protocol integrations, or remote-server features are involved, remote behavior may affect what can be guaranteed. TouchGrass should explain those limits plainly instead of pretending that a label solves everything.\n\nPublic posts are different from open-web direction. A public post may be intentionally visible. Open-web work is about choice, portability, interoperability, and exit doors. Those ideas belong together, but they are not the same thing.\n\nDo not imply that every protocol direction is fully shipped. When discussing portability, federation, ATProto/Atmosphere, Solid, ActivityPods, or private sharing, link to feature status and name what is shipped, partial, experimental, or planned.\n\nFAQ\n\nAre circle posts private?\n\nCircle posts are limited to the circle audience inside TouchGrass, but they are not protected from screenshots, copying, or misuse by recipients. Any privacy claim should include that caveat.\n\nIs public the default?\n\nThe important product principle is that audience should be visible and intentional. Draft copy should avoid implying that every post is public or that “open” means “public by default.”\n\nWhat is the difference between friends and circles?\n\nFriends are your accepted social connections. Circles are smaller groups inside that social graph, built for specific contexts.\n\nDoes TouchGrass support federation or portability?\n\nTouchGrass is built with portability and open-web direction in mind. The exact state of federation, ATProto/Atmosphere, Solid, ActivityPods, and related private-sharing work should be checked on the feature-status page.\n\nWhy not just use one private account?\n\nReal life has more than one audience. TouchGrass gives you more than a public/private switch so you can share differently with friends, circles, and the open web.\n\nRelated TouchGrass pages\n\nRead more about audience controls: /privacy-and-audience-control\n\nRead more about friends and circles: /friends-and-circles\n\nLast updated: May 15, 2026. Language: English.\n\nSee what you can do: /what-you-can-do\n\nFeature status: /status/features\n\nProofreading notes: Confirm final article URL and the current shipped/partial/experimental/planned status before scheduling.",
  "title": "What do public, friends, and circles mean on TouchGrass?",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-30T10:48:03+00:00"
}