The Social Network for Real People. Built for connection, not addiction. 60,000+ members. Made in Canada 🍁
What is Gander Social? Canada’s New Homegrown Social Media Platform
Gander Social is Canada’s answer to mainstream platforms, putting control back in users' hands with a privacy-first, local-first approach.
Gander: The Social Media You Want, Built in Canada
Fun, private, and ethical. We're changing the way social media is done around here, all without your personal data taking an unexpected trip down south.
Why Gander Social?
A lightening talk showcasing Gander Social. Why we exist and how we interoperate.
Social Networking Utopia — Matt
In discussing the network topology of social networks — whether centralized like Facebook or federated like ActivityPub — I think the ult...
The Social Network Doling Out Millions in Ephemeral Money | Backchannel
Steemit is a social network with the radical idea of paying users for their contributions. But in the crypto gold rush, it's unclear who stands to profit.
NorthStar Social: About Us
NorthStar Social is where your public and private social networks converge. The world's first decentralized local-first social network to keep you in control of your data. Your privacy is too precious to leave in the hands of corporations and billionaries who don’t have your best interests in mind. Privacy is built-in. Your public and personal social connections in one app.
A Toonie to Confirm You’re Human - Gander
There's a new way to complete Human Check on Gander, and it's even going to help put food on the table for Canadians who need it. TL;DR Gander now lets you complete Human Check through a $2 Interac Money Request initiated on Gander. You pay through your own online banking, and the full $2 goes
Bonfire
A federated social network for individuals and communities to design, operate and control their own digital lives.
NorthStar Social: People. Privacy. Period.
NorthStar Social is where your public and private social networks converge. The world's first decentralized local-first social network to keep you in control of your data. Your privacy is too precious to leave in the hands of corporations and billionaires who don’t have your best interests in mind. Privacy is built-in. Your public and personal social connections in one app.
MintStars (@mintstars.bsky.social)
A sex-positive platform where creators & fans earn more. 0% fees for creators, immediate payouts, low censorship 💚 linktree.com/mintstarsreal Team: @jessicavanmeir.bsky.social, @dbs.bsky.social, @fraserb.bsky.social
SocialWeb.Network - Your Gateway to Decentralized Social
Comprehensive resources for decentralized social web protocols including ActivityPub, AT Protocol, Nostr, and more.
Later today, we’re inviting more Canadians to invest and become co-owners of Gander. Yup. We’re doing it again. Complete with bonus shares and all. It’s part of a bigger raise, but we’re keeping… | Ben Waldman
Later today, we’re inviting more Canadians to invest and become co-owners of Gander. Yup. We’re doing it again. Complete with bonus shares and all. It’s part of a bigger raise, but we’re keeping room for regular Canadians to own a piece of the thing they’re helping build. The first time around, we welcomed in 2,517 Canadian co-owners, and raised over C$2M. We’ve grown Gander to over 66,000 members since our launch in July, and folks from every coast are posting, connecting and doing all of things people do on social media. But without the blind outrage. And our community investors are a big reason we got here. It’s huge. Especially when it comes to getting a big, ambitious, and unconventional idea off the ground. Like a lot of startups, we’re plenty hopeful that Canada’s latest efforts to encourage investment will help more big Canadian ideas get funded. There’s certainly no shortage of those. But, as BetaKit reported, just five funds accounted for 83% of all the money raised by Canadian venture capital funds in 2025. Yes… FIVE. I’ve had bigger group chats. Are we talking to angels and impact funds? Mais oui. See “big and ambitious”, above. That said, community ownership is what makes us tick, and shows just how much Canadians want this. For us, it’s meant that everyday folks have not only bought in with dollars, but they’ve helped us build. They’ve invited friends, reported bugs, suggested features and told us what we’ve got wrong. Sometimes in a surprising (and at times painful) amount of detail. So now we have a vision for what’s next. Not just refining Gander’s app experience and features... expanding on Groups, News, Local, and giving creators tools to build community... but deploying national-scale sovereign infrastructure that’s connected to the open social web. All without giving up Canadian governance. And we’re ready for more Canadians to own this big, ambitious, and unconventional thing with us. Link is in the comments, and questions when you have them (ideally via FrontFundr). We’re happy to answer. If you’re Canadian, care about where social is going, and want to see Canada own it’s digital future, we’d love to have you along for the ride as a co-owner. Hope to have you with us. — P.S. Every creative bone in my body wants to leave this post as it is, but our lawyers would slap me silly if I didn’t add: Investing in exempt market securities is risky. Please refer to our FrontFundr page and the offering document for this opportunity. Link in the comments.
Open Social Network Cookbook
The Open Social Network Cookbook is the collective product of the Open Social Incubator, a cohort that MEDLab hosted from Fall 2024 to Spring 2025. At the heart of our work together was the question: How can the online communities that we participate in use tools that truly reflect our values?
