Once you have multiple humans on a box, “who is this username” becomes a real question. The people layer is intentionally small:
Profiles & People
- Display name, bio, links, avatar
- Field-level privacy — not everything on a profile is automatically public to every signed-in friend
- A searchable People directory and findable user pages so discovery is not “ask Jacob in chat”
Quiet DMs
- Inbox and 1:1 threads
- Message buttons on profiles
- Unread badges
- An opt-out preference
- No popups, no toast fireworks, no “you have engagement”
Standing
- Visible stats around activity and engagement (uploads, media, comments, downloads — privacy-respecting)
- Reciprocity matters more than vanity counts alone
- Show/hide standing per profile
- Feeds an opt-in Media Recommended sort when you want the library ranked by more than recency
Also: a “need more drop space” request that emails me and shows up in Users, plus friend quota settings so defaults are not a mystery.
I am not building a network. I am making a house with labeled doors and a quiet hallway for messages. On Hub that is /hub/people and /hub/messages — not the staff CMS (Hub is not Admin).