Far or Near is a privacy-oriented social network that connects people with shared interests and hobbies.

Get started right away, with communities

We have communities for many popular hobbies and interests that function like big groups, where you can discover and share content, create sub-groups and organize events.

What you see within a community is based on the geographic area you define. Choose a distance from your location, which can be updated at anytime, and we'll adjust what you see based on the geographic area you define.

Our goal is to represent all of the opportunities that exist in an area for an interest, so that enthusiasts can quickly get connected and find groups and activities nearby or in places they plan to visit.

We're an alternative to group sites

Unlike many groups sites, like Meetup and GroupSpaces, there is no need to wait for someone to create a group near you. You can get started right away by participating in one of our communities. And, if you do want to organize a group, it's FREE to do so.

We're obsessed with privacy

• Individually select which groups and events show up on your profile.
• When you delete a private message, the other users in the conversation can no longer see it.
• We never send the contents of private messages by email, which could be intercepted.
• We do not share your private information with third-party advertisers.
• We don't track your activity on third-party websites.

Security is important to us too

• TLS provides up to 256-bit encryption on all pages.
• We run a patched version of OpenSSL that is not affected by the Heartbleed bug.
• We already updated bash to address Shellshock.
• Passwords are never stored in the clear.

Common questions

If the service is FREE, then how do you make money?

At the moment, we don't. You can support our continued development and growth by making a donation.

In the future, we plan to offer both free and paid digital goods that align with the communities, such as video educational resources.

We're also planning to let event organizers collect payments for events where there is an attendance fee, of which we'll take a small percentage.

Finally, we plan to do advertising right, in a way that respects our users' privacy.

Will there be advertising?

We hate spammy advertising almost as much as we hate having our privacy violated and our information sold behind our backs. We're not like that.

We're planning to make advertising exclusive and promote only products and services we find exciting and think you will as well. We want our ads to be seen as resources, no less important than suggested groups and events. Right now, that probably seems far fetched, but we want to change the way you think of advertising.

We want to promote local brands and companies that are doing good things, not the largest advertisers with the deepest pockets.

We'll probably give a lot of advertising away, especially to student organizations and groups that have cool events that we think could use a little more attention.

Who is behind Far or Near?

Right now, it's just me - Joseph Grutta. I'm here to make your experience the best it can be. Let me know if you have suggestions for how I can make things better for you.