Why I Built YourHerd

I built an app called YourHerd because I wanted a place that felt like coming home.

I moved a couple of years ago and have struggled to make friends in a new area. The social apps I tried felt like the wrong tools for what I actually wanted, which was real conversation — the kind where someone listens and you feel heard. I missed the days when that was easier to find online. Years ago, there were chat rooms where you’d drop in, settle in, and meet people who were doing the same. Small communities forming around shared interests, in real time, with actual humans showing up. There was something good about that, and somewhere along the way it got lost.

So I built something that tries to remember it.

YourHerd is a small social app designed around connection — the kind that grows from being heard, not from being seen. The whole platform is shaped to encourage real conversation between people who choose to be in the same place at the same time. Small rooms. Hosted voice and text sessions on a regular schedule. A board where you can post what you want to talk about and find people who want to talk about it too. Private rooms you make with people you trust.

The core idea is simple: I’m listening. Not a feature, not a button — a posture. When you drop into a hosted session, the host says hello and welcomes you by name. You’re free to talk, and just as free to stay quiet. “I pass” is always a real answer. Whether you speak or not, you’re in the room. You count.

Everything in YourHerd is built to let you decide how much you want to be there. You choose what to share about yourself. You choose who can find you. You choose whether to be in a room or quietly elsewhere. You choose to come, and you choose to leave. The platform doesn’t pull at you from outside itself — no notifications that demand your attention from your home screen, no badges, no streaks, no algorithms trying to keep you scrolling. When you’re inside, soft indicators tell you what’s new. When you’re not, your phone leaves you alone.

There are a few specific places where this comes to life:

Hosted sessions happen three nights a week — Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 8 PM Eastern. Voice on Sundays and Thursdays, text on Tuesdays. A host opens the room, says hello, and the conversation goes where it goes. About an hour, sometimes longer when it’s flowing. The gentle entry point if joining a room cold feels like a lot.

The Gathering is a noticeboard. You post what you’d love to talk about — a book, a hobby, an experience, a question — and others see it for a month. Reply if something catches you, or wait for someone to find your post. It’s how people who don’t yet know each other can find their way to a conversation.

Private rooms are spaces you create for people you trust. Permanent by default, because some conversations are meant to come back to. You choose whether they’re hidden, findable in search, or open for anyone to join. You choose who’s in them.

One open room at a time. You’re never spread across a dozen conversations. When you walk into a room, you’re there. When you leave, you’re gone. Attention is undivided by design.

It’s free, and it has no ads — and that will not change. The calm is the whole point, and advertising would only disrupt that.

YourHerd is built especially for people who typically don’t feel welcome on social platforms — those of us who find the existing options exhausting or just wrong-shaped. It’s not therapy, and it’s not a clinical service. It’s a small, quiet place where someone listens.

One thing worth saying: I’m a PhD candidate in EECS at Ohio University. I built YourHerd with help from an AI coding agent — the implementation was AI-assisted, but the design is mine.

I sit in The Porch on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings at 8 PM Eastern. Sometimes there’s no one there. Sometimes there’s someone. Either way, the schedule holds — because the listening is the point, and the listening only happens when the door stays open on time.

If any of this resonates, you can find YourHerd at yourherd.net. My username is davin. The schedule is in the main lobby.

No pressure to check it out. If it sounds like something you’d want, the door is open.

— Davin