A CONTENT-DRIVEN PLATFORM SEEKING TO BRING HUMAN-TO-HUMAN BACK
WELCOME TO YOORS
If you're a creator of content, whether that’s written word, music, video, or anything else in between, you might be interested in hearing about a growing corner of the web called Yoors (https://yoo.rs).
Yoors is a content-driven platform created in the Netherlands by @Henkjan de Krijger, with a mission statement of protecting data privacy and data ownership and fostering creation of value and human interaction (watch Yoors’ founder talk about it here).
But what does Yoors do exactly? In a nutshell, Yoors is a hybrid between a social network, a blogging platform, and a Medium-type website where you participate by posting original content and engaging with the original content posted by others, being rewarded on both accounts.
Here is my Yoors front page. Navigation menu on the left-hand side; profile and other options for members on the top right-hand corner; most voted posts at the top of the screen.
Yoors points are received, for example, when:
- A member likes your post;
- A member shares your post on their profile to give it more visibility;
- A member pays the fee you set up to read your premium post;
A member likes a comment you left on their post;
- You share another member’s post, where a reward for sharing has been set up;
- You share another member’s post and subsequently someone likes it using your link;
- Your post wins a competition within a Yoors Pool;
- Your post reaches a certain number of views, according to a scale set up by Yoors.
- Like other members’ posts (choosing the amount of points you wish to award);
- Pay to read premium posts;
- Pay to share other members’ posts;
- Donate the points you receive from a post to a beneficiary of your choice;
- Invest in Yoors Pools.
By clicking on the heart at the bottom of the screen, you can award points to the content creator (double tapping allows you to choose the exact number), whereas clicking on the 50/50 icon will share the post on your profile on Yoors, helping the creator gain more visibility.
You might be wondering whether creating a post on Yoors is difficult. Not at all!
Yoors lets you choose between using a quick editor or a more advanced one, but both are easy enough to use and are based on a drag-and-drop, what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach. With the second option, you’ll be able to build your post from scratch or select from a variety of building blocks that help you achieve a more polish outcome. You’ll also be able to customize many different aspects of your post’s layout and content and Yoors even provides some pictures to choose from to use for free as post headers (the one I used above is from the Yoors selection).
A peek at the advanced Yoors editor. Much, much more lies hidden for you to explore!
One thing to keep in mind is that Yoors is still a growing platform and, as such, its functionalities are still being developed and fine-tuned.
Additionally, since the platform was born in the Netherlands, the overwhelming majority of its members are from there, which means that most of the posts will be in Dutch. Nevertheless, Yoors has created a system that allows posts to be translated into other languages, thus seeking to mitigate the language barrier and help its members interact. Also, the more Yoors grows, the more other languages will start trickling through and a more diverse set of posts is bound to appear.
Either way, Yoors’ village-like feel is also part of its special charm. Many people seem to know each other from a while back and, even more impressive, the Yoors team (with a special mention to the wonderful @Babita de Boer) is very present and easy to talk to, not only when it comes to your suggestions for the platform but also as active members of the Yoors community themselves.
Much like in a village, at Yoors everyone’s content has a chance to be seen, as the "New Arrivals" section shows posts in chronological order, without an algorithm in the background deciding what you will see or not. This, of course, coexists with some tools that do allow fine-tuning of what you wish to see, such as the possibility to follow specific people or categories and to quickly view posts that are trending or posts that contain rewards given to those who share them. Your Yoors homepage will also highlight the most voted posts and the ones from the people you are following.
Still want to know more? You can read the Yoors Short Guide for further details on how this platform works.
Ready to join?
Despite being well-known in the Netherlands, Yoors still feels very much like a newcomer to the game regarding the world at large. So why should you join?
Well, arriving somewhere early is usually a lot of fun! You get to make friends with a smaller group of enthusiasts, be heard when it comes to rolling out new features, and watch the platform grow while being part of the change. You also benefit from being among the first few to build a loyal readership on the platform, so that when it grows, your content will grow with it.
With this in mind, if you’re an adventurer at heart who cares about human-to-human connection online, you'll probably want to give Yoors a try. This is your chance to be a pioneer of sorts: move to a new land, help it grow, and make new friendly neighbours while you're there!
If you wish to join Yoors, you can do so by using this link. That way we’ll both get some Yoors points when you register.
Thank you for reading and see you soon!
Yoors is one click away!
A quick disclaimer: as a Yoors member (and a happy one!), I earn Yoors points whenever people like and share my posts, in the manner described above. I'll also earn 50 Yoors points if you sign up for Yoors using the link I provided towards the end of this post. I do not belong to the Yoors team nor am I affiliated with Yoors in any way. All the views expressed here are my own.
