Hi HN,

I’ve been working on a project called CivicHalls and wanted to share it here.

The starting question behind Civic was simple:

What if people could control the perspective through which they explore conversations online instead of relying on algorithmic feeds?

Most social platforms today optimize feeds around engagement. While that can be effective for discovery, it often means the feed gradually becomes shaped by what drives reactions rather than what helps people explore ideas more intentionally.

CivicHalls is a small experiment in structuring discussions differently.

Instead of a single algorithmic feed, Civic organizes conversations around “lenses” — perspectives such as philosophy, technology, economics, politics, culture, anything you want really.

Users can switch lenses to explore discussions through different viewpoints. The same conversation might appear under multiple lenses, allowing people to navigate ideas based on perspective rather than engagement signals.

Another design idea in Civic is location scope.

Users can explore discussions happening in: their city their country or globally

This was intended to make it easier to see what people nearby are discussing while still keeping access to broader global conversations.

Civic also includes communities, but they work a bit differently from typical groups.

Instead of communities starting empty and relying on members to constantly generate posts, communities can choose which lenses and geographic scopes they want to follow. The community space then imports relevant discussions from across Civic.

For example, a community might import:

technology discussions happening globally

economic discussions happening within a country

cultural discussions happening in a specific city

The idea is that communities can function as shared discussion spaces around ongoing conversations, rather than needing someone to constantly seed content.

This project is still very early and very much an experiment in alternative feed structures.

I’m especially curious about a few questions:

Does organizing discussions by perspective make exploration more intentional?

Could location-scoped discussions make online conversation feel more connected to real-world context?

Are there better ways to structure communities so they don’t start empty?

I’d really appreciate feedback from HN on the idea, the design, or anything that feels off.

CivicHalls: https://civichalls.com