Bonfire — Case studies

How communities are using Bonfire.

The goal each one wanted, the space they shaped, and the iteration that got them there. Some we co-designed closely with; some we've never met.

What they were after

“Readers who debate, organise and build solidarity, not an audience that reacts to articles and leaves.”

Jacobin · a magazine

“Somewhere people can be honest about their mental health, without it being public, permanent, or profitable to anyone.”

Mentaal · a mental-health network

“A town that can organise itself, without routing its neighbourhood through a global platform.”

Totnes Pulse · a neighbourhood

“Science that stays open. Findings, arguments and data that don't evaporate into a journal's archive.”

Open Science Network · researchers

Jacobin Social, a federated comment section for the German edition of Jacobin magazine

A magazine · Independent media ◼ Co-designed with us

Jacobin: From audience to community

What they were after

Readers who debate, organise and build solidarity together, not just an audience that reads an article and then leaves.

A comment section wasn't going to be enough, and neither was sending readers to a platform someone else owns. So they kept publishing articles on Ghost while giving their community a home for real conversations: federated, in their own hands, organised with the groups, topics, and boundaries their community actually needed.

Read the full story Visit jacobin.social ↗

Different goals. Same foundation.

Some of these we co-designed closely with the team. Others took Bonfire's building blocks and assembled it themselves.

Research · co-designed together

Open Science Network

“Scholarly conversations that don't evaporate. Findings, arguments and data that stay open, citable and out of the journals' hands.”

Researchers shaped Bonfire around how science actually works: sign in with ORCID, publications on your profile, papers that unfold with their DOI.

◼ In developmentopenscience.network ↗

Neighbourhood network · co-designed with us

Totnes Pulse

“A town that can organise itself, with local infrastructure rather than depending on a global platform.”

Small, local, and specific: the kind of community the big platforms are worst at serving, and the kind Bonfire was built for.

◼ Planned

The next story here could be yours.

Already running Bonfire?

Then you have a story worth telling, however small. A book club, a union local, a fan community. The ones that matter most aren't the big ones; they're the ones that look like the reader.

Tell us your story →

Want a hand building it?

If your community needs something that doesn't exist yet, we can research and design it with you, and whatever we build together contributes to the commons.

How Mosaic works →