1. I don't want AI matching, I don't want AI anything.
2. Rep/skills based on Github contents? Firstly isn't that a form of the gatekeeping you called out as a problem? Secondly, most of the code I have ever written lives in proprietary repositories. Because I was paid to write it.
3. How does this not become another mess where there are two camps. The people shouting advertisements into the void and the people shouting "I need a job" into the same void?
You’re also totally right about private repos. We’re thinking of adding self-declared skill tags so devs who build behind the scenes aren’t excluded.
And your last point? Super valid. We’re working on light friction + curation to prevent the “job-seeker spam” effect.
Would love your take on what would make it actually useful for someone like you.
The things I would find most compelling:
1. A centralized place where I don't have to join a specific server to scope out the community (like you do with Discord servers)
2. Dev people instead of business people. I refuse to go back to LinkedIn
3. As a proactive user, I would value the ability to see a feed (that I can curate) of people posting stuff they are working on, and then be able to click on their profile and see more of what they are up to if I am interested
4. I really really really want strong filtering. I don't want to see people's political takes or world news stuff in a space like this. I also want to be able to filter out all of the AI company/startup stuff. The main problem I have with things like Bluesky feeds (which are overall pretty good) is that the software dev feeds are FULL of the AI glazing slop that has taken over a lot of those spaces.
There's a fair amount of overlap with the stuff already mentioned on your home page, that's intentional. Those are the things that motivated me to comment.
Appreciate the nudge these small details matter. BTW do you have any advice regarding this, like what do you think of the idea I'm just validating it rn! before actually coding everything out
Hindol007•7mo ago
I got tired of how awkward it is to connect with like-minded devs online. LinkedIn feels too corporate, Discord is chaotic, and most platforms aren’t focused on helping people who just want to build together.
So I built *Campfire* — a lightweight tool where developers can:
- Sync their GitHub profile - Search for collaborators by stack or language - Optionally match with devs via a basic AI matcher - Skip resumes and “networking” in favor of shared projects
It’s still early (no monetization, no onboarding friction), but it’s live and working.
Would love your feedback — especially critical thoughts about direction, incentives, or how it could actually support real collaboration.
Here's the link if you're curious: https://campfire-8c27.onrender.com