Reflections on recent events; the neccessity of consistent, transparent communication; and our plan for building a separate community.
(On the banner of the thumbnail image, it is written "We are open".)
This past week has been one of the toughest in my life. My mental state has been shaken pretty badly to be honest. I bet I just went through one of the most intense experiences a person can have.
A lot of thoughts have come across my mind. Having spent most of my life lurking in various online communities, I thought I had a decent idea of how these things tend to play out. But it turns out, when you’re the one in the hot seat, thinking properly gets a lot harder.
Despite all of that, my team decided to keep pushing forward. Even in the midst of chaos, and with rushed, insufficient explanations of our service, there were people who saw the vision and stuck with us. This post is dedicated to them.
YoursAI is nonethless open for business.
The Importance of Consistent and Transparent Communication
Looking back to the past recent events, the biggest mistake I made was not communicating enough. Whether the other side was using a temporary account or not, I should have made more of an effort to engage. I underestimated how much people care about their community spaces.
I’m not sure what people might think of me based on the stuff floating around online. I’m an introvert at heart and one of those (unfortunately) awkward founders who would rather be coding than networking. As things started to escalate, I was just focused on pushing out a product as fast as possible, thinking, “Who knows how much time we have?”
But now, I’m committing to better communication. This post is part of that effort. As we head towards our November launch, I’ll try to keep sharing fun stories and updates here on the blog.
I want to share what we’re doing with YoursAI as openly and honestly as possible—no fluff, no BS. I hold no ill will toward anyone personally. If you’ve got feedback or thoughts, feel free to hit me up via email or Github issue.
The Plan for a Separate Community
Earlier, I mentioned that my judgment was a bit clouded.
Luckily, one of my best friends, who’s even more deep into the community scene than I am, gave me some solid advice. The gist of it was, “Look, you’re not exactly ‘normal’ either, trying to make an AI girlfriend with your real name attached, but you’re definitely not part of their crowd.”
We’ve realized that the type of community we want to build is pretty different from the one we were engaging with. Now, I’m not saying everyone in the AI chat world is looking to plaster their real name everywhere (like I do!), but I do want to build a space without cliques—where it’s easy for newcomers to join and enjoy high-quality AI chats.
So, we’re going to cut ties with that previous community and start fresh with a new one. It’ll start small, probably just a tiny Discord server, but we’re going for it. (Pre-registrations are always welcome!)
We’re also thinking about a broader audience: not just for hardcore AI enthusiasts, but also for people who might be coming from platforms like Zeta or Character.AI, looking for a deeper AI chat experience. It’s kinda like custom keyboards: you might start off casually, but before you know it, you’re fully hooked.
“So, What Makes You Different from -AI?”
I’ll admit, I’m a bit bummed that our development process got exposed before we were ready.
But since things have slowed down a bit, we’re trying to use the extra time to add a killer feature that was part of the original plan. Trust me, it’ll be worth the wait.
For those of you who are just learning about us: We’re the Pygmalion Team, a startup on a mission to create an immersive(!) AI companion experience. YoursAI is an open-source, customizable AI companion frontend tool built for AI chat enthusiasts, and we’re on active development for a late November release.
- If you’re interested in being a part of it, shoot us an email (contact@yoursai.app) with a free-format resume. We’d love to hear from you!
Thanks.
Sincerely,
narayo9 from YoursAI Team