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Moments

On Main's World, a post is called a moment: a photo or a video with a short label, recorded where you are and when you are. (The whole app has a 90s home-video feel, so expect cassettes and rewind buttons everywhere you look.)

Every moment has a place and a time​

Two things make a moment different from an ordinary post:

  • Where. A moment is anchored to the spot on the map where it was recorded.
  • When. A moment remembers the time it happened, not just the place.

That's why Main's World is a map you can travel through. The rewind button at the bottom of the screen unfolds a tape deck — playback controls for the map itself. Drag the dial (or press anywhere on its timeline) to scrub back through time, skip from moment to moment, or jump straight back to the very first one; eject and you're back at now. The app calls all of this time travel, marked ◀◀: revisit what happened somewhere earlier — your own story, and the shared story of a place.

Browsing a busy corner of the map​

Where several moments share a spot, the map gathers them into a small stack of photo cards with a count of how many are inside. Tap a stack and the map glides closer while the feed opens, listing just the moments in that stack. One more tap opens a moment itself, and the map flies to where it was recorded behind it; closing the moment returns you to the list. Browsing a busy corner feels like flipping through a box of photos, not scrolling a feed.

Finding a moment​

The bar at the bottom of the app holds three things: moments, the camera button, and vibes. Tapping moments slides up a list of everything you're allowed to see, newest first, across all three worlds.

Two controls sit at the top of that list:

  • Search. Type a word and the list keeps only the moments whose label contains it. You are only ever searching what you could already see.
  • Filters. The settings button opens a short menu with three choices:
    • How far the list reaches — only what's around you, or everywhere.
    • Whose moments are in it — everyone, the Mains you've connected with, the Mains you follow, or only your own.
    • Whether moments that arrived from another app count. This one waits on connections to other apps, which aren't live yet.

Your choices are remembered on your device, so the list opens the way you left it. Whenever a filter is narrowing what you see, the app marks the settings button and names the filter above the list, so a short list always explains itself.

How long a moment stays on the map​

The map shows what's current, not everything that ever happened. A moment stays on the map for two weeks, and appreciation keeps it around longer: each thumbs up a moment collects adds about half a day to its stay, up to a maximum of four weeks for the most loved ones.

A moment never dims early. It looks just as bold on its last day as on its first, and only in its final half hour does it quietly fade out.

Leaving the map is not being deleted — the moment keeps its place and its time, and time travel will always find it. Rewind to when it was fresh, and it's right there again.

Throwbacks​

Not every moment gets recorded the instant it happens. A throwback is a moment you post from your photo gallery after the fact. It keeps things honest: the timestamp is when the photo was actually taken, not when you posted it, and the moment wears a small ◀◀ THROWBACK marker so no one mistakes it for a live one. Time travel to the day it happened and it's there, in its place.

Appreciation, not likes​

Instead of "likes," Main's World has appreciation. Giving a moment a thumbs up is a genuine gift to the person who made it — it's the one and only way anyone earns the community's currency. There is no downvote: if a moment isn't for you, you simply move on. You can take a thumbs up back at any time and give it again later, and you can even give one to your own moment — though appreciating your own work never pays you anything.

You can also comment on a moment, and comments can collect a thumbs up of their own. Comments follow the moment's world, so a comment on a private moment stays as private as the moment itself.

To learn what a thumbs up actually gives someone, read The economy.

Sharing a moment outside​

Every moment can be shared as a link. A public (SKY) moment's link opens for anyone, since the moment was public to begin with.

For a moment in LAND or DEEP, sharing it as its author creates a special link — a web link that lets anyone watch that one moment in any browser, no World App and no account needed. It's view-only, and you can revoke it whenever you like from the moment's edit screen, which instantly kills every copy of the link. The details live in the worlds & privacy.

Next: Vibes — when moments become a gathering.