building in the open

Nothing's built yet. Here's the plan, out loud.

last updated: 2026-07-11

The honest status: Waveback is one person building a waitlist. There is no app to log into yet - just a promise to build it somewhere you can watch, argue, and keep the receipts. This page is that promise. It changes in public, never quietly.

The apps in this space go quiet for a year, then ship a bug-fix. You are allowed to expect more, and to check. So here is everything: what's real today, what we're building, what we'll ask you before we build it, and what we're choosing not to build at all.

Where it is right now

// phase 0 - the waitlist

A waitlist and this handful of pages. That's the entire product today. No app, no matches, no room to walk into yet. And no theatre about it - no fake member counter, no bot profiles, no "10,000 people are waiting." If you join now, you are early for real, and the number is whatever it honestly is.

What we're building toward

// commitments, not features - none of this exists yet

Hard region and language filters. Set your language and your continent and that's genuinely all you'll see - people who speak it and are awake when you are.
Chat from the first hello. Free, inside the app, and it never blurs or paywalls mid-conversation. No reason to swap Discord handles just to say hi.
18+, verified, with a human if it breaks. Age checked through a third party who we never let hand us your documents - and if it flags you wrongly, a person looks at it and tells you why. Not a silent lockout.
One pool, intent up front. Friends, something more, or both - and a wave sent across intents always lands as friendship, never a romantic ambush.
Matches that end honestly or grow. A gentle nudge to either keep going or let it go, so the app isn't a graveyard of conversations that died at "hey." (Still figuring out the exact shape - we'll show our work.)

On the radar, not promised yet: matched mini-hangouts - a handful of people who fit each other, one world, one evening. Group hangouts take the pressure off one-on-one, and the group-dinner apps are proving the format works right now. It only makes sense once the room has enough people in it, so it waits its turn.

We'll decide some of this with you

// the questions we genuinely don't know the answer to

These aren't rhetorical. They're real forks where guessing wrong builds the wrong app, and we would rather ask the people who'll live in it. When the waitlist Discord opens, these are the first things we'll put to you:

How many free waves a day feels fair while the room is still small?

Everyone hates a surprise wall. We'd rather set the number with you than spring it on you.

Would you rather 50 people in your exact timezone and language - or 5,000 worldwide?

Hard filters are the whole pitch, but on day one they might show you a very quiet room. Which trade do you actually want?

Verify your age before your first wave, or before your first shared photo?

Verification protects everyone, but asking for it too early scares people off. Where's the right line?

Are you here for a dating app that welcomes friends, or a friends app that allows dating?

The honest split decides which one we lead with.

What would a chat need for you to not immediately move it to Discord?

Voice notes? Photo unlocks? Something else? Tell us before we build the wrong thing.

What we're choosing not to build

// i'd rather ship less and get it right than fake a finished app

A solo project that promises everything ships nothing. Some things we could build and are deliberately not - at least not soon, and here's why:

Weekly live events one person can't sustain. A missed ritual hurts more than a ritual that never existed. One monthly evening event, on European time, once the community can help host it.
A second, pricier "VIP" tier. One honest premium: see who waved at you, plus convenience. We will never stack extra limits onto people who already paid.
An AI writing your opening lines. If we help you start a conversation, it's built from what you two actually have in common, and it's free. No chatbot ghostwriting your first hello.
Voice and video calls at launch. A surface we cannot keep safe yet, so we won't pretend to.
A giant, loosely-run Discord. Small and tightly moderated while it's one person watching the door, not a free-for-all we can't police.

The receipts

// every change to this plan, dated, in public

2026-07The site went live at waveback.net - and it now updates itself straight from the code whenever I change something.
2026-07waveback.net registered, and the Discord opened its doors - come lurk.
2026-07Waitlist opened. Name chosen (Waveback) and cleared. The safety standard and privacy promises published before a single line of app code.

This list grows as things actually happen - not as things get announced.

Want a say in the answers? The waitlist is where the questions above get asked first. Join it, and you're early enough that what you tell me actually changes what gets built. Or just say it straight into the Discord.

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