Handbill culture

Since there is no central server, there isn’t really any prescribed culture. It’s up to you and your friends how you use it.

Having said that, here is some advice.

Tag everything

Every post must have at least one tag (things like #travel-vacation or #kids-family). The app is set up with a bunch of preset tags, but you can create a new one any time by just typing inline (like #nudgenudgewinkwink).

The purpose of this is for your friends to be able to filter what they see from you. Maybe some of your friends/family want to see your kid photos but hate hearing about your politics, or the other way around.

Take a couple of seconds to tag each post thoughtfully as you send it… use two or three tags when appropriate. Each tag is an opportunity for your friends to avoid the post. This is a good thing.

Share good stuff

If you pay attention to tagging, you can share a bunch of stuff without worrying about annoying people.

Remember, the ONLY CONTENT people will see is the stuff posted by you and the other users. So, if you want to just “lurk” and not post anything, you won’t be contributing to the experience.

Some ideas of stuff to share

  • Your own photos

  • Ideas you have or things you are doing

  • Music or movies or TV shows you like

  • Recommendations of products you bought that surprisingly don’t suck

  • Cartoons, artwork, old album covers.

  • Song lyrics, bad poetry

  • Memes or jokes from other sites... try to share screen shots rather than links (You don’t need to quit Twitter in order to use Handbill… just tag appropriately and don’t send anyone you care about there)

  • Links to YouTube videos (Handbill tries to strip out tracking info automatically)

  • Information or news coverage. (Try to cut and paste concise sections of the text as a preview instead of just mindlessly forwarding links)

  • Memories, plans, delusions

Be cool

Since there is no company, there is NO CONTENT MODERATION (just like with email). It is up to you and your friends to be cool. Note that this only works because it’s meant to be used within existing communities… it can’t be used to troll strangers.

Right now, if someone annoys you, you can:

  • Silence the appropriate tag

  • Respond to their post and tell them

  • Delete their contact and stop seeing anything from them ever again.

If you and your friends like to insult or offend one another for fun, then no one will stop you. However, if your friends are just jerks in real life, then no app in the world can help you with that. If you have trouble telling the difference, then I’m not sure what to say.

Be careful

This is NOT Signal. Handbill uses well established cryptography, but remember:

  • There is no army of volunteers testing it for bugs or vulnerabilities.

  • You are probably sending messages to many people at a time. Any one of them can copy and distribute anything you post.

  • If you have friends without the app installed, anything you post to them will be sent in the clear, which probably means it’s being read by mass surveillance software (remember Carnivore?)

  • Even if you only share with friends who have the app installed, the metadata is still unprotected. (Providers can tell who you’re communicating with and when).