Our approach
FIMBY is designed to stay local, human, and useful.
Belonging over performance
FIMBY has no engagement metrics, no algorithm optimizing for time-on-screen, and no follower counts. There’s no audience to perform for.
Instead, you keep crossing paths with the same people — familiar faces first, real relationships after. That’s the point.
Consent, not assumption
During onboarding, FIMBY asks how you’d like to be cared for — not what you can give. What kind of support is welcome, what feels unhelpful, and how someone should reach out before helping.
Contact sharing is granular and per-field. Before you share anything, FIMBY shows exactly what the other person will see. Blocking is bidirectional and never forces re-contact. Account deletion is a right, and you can restore your account within a 30-day grace window if you change your mind.
The same principle extends to parent-managed family profiles. A child’s profile carries no shareable contact information, and a parent or guardian consents on their behalf — the child never accepts Terms of Service. Parents stay the ones at the keyboard. Neighbours just get to know the name.
How can your neighbours care for you well?
These help people know how to show up for you — on your terms. Everything here is optional.
Small enough to recognize each other
FIMBY is scoped to your immediate neighbourhood — not a city-wide feed, not a region. Just the people around you.
When a neighbourhood gets too big, it splits into smaller nearby neighbourhoods — like a healthy cell dividing. Each one stays small enough that you know who’s who. If it ever becomes a city-wide contact list instead of a neighbourhood, it has failed.
This is intentional. A neighbourhood that stays legible is a neighbourhood that stays safe, warm, and useful. Everything in FIMBY is designed to keep it that way.
Warmth by design
Most apps celebrate the metrics that benefit them — streaks, time on screen, follower counts. FIMBY celebrates the act of showing up for a neighbour, and tries to know what kind of moment it is.
Post an ask, and hands and hearts fall as confetti. Offer something, and it’s gifts. List a library item, tools and books. Return a borrowed thing undamaged, stars. The messages match: “Asking is brave. Your community’s got you.” on an ask. “Generosity looks good on you!” on an offer. First posts and milestones get a bigger fanfare. Seasonal moments change the emojis. Even the loading screens know where you are — “Checking the toolshed…” in the library, “The carrier pigeon is en route…” in messages.
None of this is decoration. It’s how an app says I noticed instead of keep scrolling. Too much whimsy? You can tone it down in Settings.
Your 5th ask!
First posts, milestones, and seasonal themes all trigger celebrations.
When should FIMBY rest?
Late at night, we rest — no buzzes, no pings. Your neighbours’ messages will be here in the morning.
A doorbell, not a slot machine
FIMBY’s notification system is intentionally quiet. You set quiet hours during onboarding, choose which categories you want to hear about, and FIMBY batches the rest into a daily digest.
FIMBY is designed for brief check-ins, not endless scrolling.
Even loading screens have personality — neighbourhood metaphors instead of spinners. Because if your app has to make you wait, it should at least make you smile.
FIMBY is resting right now, but you’re always welcome.
Restorative, not punitive
Language shapes behaviour. FIMBY deliberately chooses words that assume the best, not the worst. When something goes sideways, the system reaches for restoration — not punishment.
Forged in a real neighbourhood
FIMBY was shaped in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a neighbourhood marked by beauty, resilience, addiction, overdose, displacement, poverty, and deep community. We do not pretend an app can fix those things.
But we have seen what changes when people know one another by name. Community does not replace services. It helps create the soil they grow in.
Rooted in something deeper
FIMBY is for neighbours of all backgrounds. You do not need any particular faith, level of comfort with religion, or spiritual practice to belong here.
FIMBY was born in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, out of a church community that has spent 20+ years learning what it means to be neighbours — not perfectly, not heroically, but together.
The community that built FIMBY has spent years learning that faith lived faithfully looks like showing up for people who are different from you — not out of strategy, but because that is what love looks like in practice. That shaped how FIMBY is designed. It is open to everyone. Some neighbours share prayer requests because that is part of their life. No one is expected to join in. Prayer is welcome here, but it is never the condition of belonging.
Local organizations, churches, and community groups can also have a presence in their neighbourhood through FIMBY. They share events, meal times, programs, and practical information. It is one of the ways FIMBY helps informal care and formal supports sit closer together.
Community-owned, not ad-driven
No ads. No data harvesting. No engagement metrics. FIMBY doesn’t sell your attention or your information.
It’s a non-profit endeavour — sustained by donations, grants, and community contributions, governed by neighbours, and built to serve the people who use it, not the people who want to reach them.
Same screen. Opposite intentions.
The dominant platforms are built on a handful of choices about what you’re for. FIMBY was built by reversing them, one at a time.
Profit vs People
Wondering where this could lead? Read our vision.
Ready to meet your neighbours?
- Jeremy B. Merrill & Will Oremus, “Facebook prioritized ‘angry’ emoji reaction posts in news feeds,” The Washington Post (Oct 26, 2021) — internal documents show reaction emoji, including “angry,” were weighted five times a “like.” washingtonpost.com
- Mike Allen, “Sean Parker: Facebook was designed to exploit human ‘vulnerability’,” Axios (Nov 9, 2017) — Facebook’s founding president describes a “social-validation feedback loop” giving users “a little dopamine hit.” axios.com
- “How Meta Earns from Ads and Ventures into the Metaverse,” Investopedia — roughly 98–99% of Meta’s 2023 revenue came from advertising. investopedia.com
- “Myanmar: Facebook’s systems promoted violence against Rohingya; Meta owes reparations,” Amnesty International (Sept 29, 2022) — finds Meta’s algorithms “proactively amplified” anti-Rohingya hate ahead of the 2017 atrocities. amnesty.org
- Georgia Wells, Jeff Horwitz & Deepa Seetharaman, “Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show,” The Wall Street Journal (Sept 14, 2021) — internal research the company played down in public. wsj.com
Facebook and Instagram are owned by Meta Platforms, Inc. Everything above is publicly reported by independent journalists and human-rights researchers, linked here so you can verify each claim for yourself. This isn’t about vilifying anyone — just naming the choices FIMBY made differently.