A few days ago, we talked about AI, creativity, and something that feels increasingly rare online – genuine human connection, experiences, and creation. Sure, AI can be useful and fun (at what cost, though?). But it can’t replace lived experience, shared emotion, or the chaotic, beautiful process of being human. Especially a creative human.

And as of today, we’re not just talking about it. We’re doing something about it.

This Friday, DIYP is opening user registration as we aim to exchange ideas and opinions with you: real users, real humans, real creators. And that’s just the first step.

Why Registration, Why Now?

Over the years, the internet has changed. If you’re around my age or older, you remember forums and endless exchange of opinions and experiences with other people (and occasional trolling, of course).

As social media, algorithms, and ultimately AI entered the chat, we realized that it’s becoming more difficult than ever to just have a conversation with someone online and keep having conversations with them in a meaningful way. In an era of AI summaries, bot comments, scraped content, and engagement farming, it’s getting harder and harder to connect to real readers. And we miss connecting with you and reading your thoughts. After all, you read ours.

If we’re going to keep talking about protecting human creativity and human experience, we need to build a space centered on actual humans talking to each other.

What’s Changing and What Are You Getting?

Starting Friday, February 27, 2026, you’ll be able to register on DIYP.

Registered users will:

• Be verified as human
• Have a profile page
• See what they’ve commented on and interacted with
• Become part of a visible, growing community

For now, you won’t notice much difference, other than being able to register, log in, and have a profile page. And on each profile page, you’ll be able to see which articles they’ve posted, commented on, or replied to. It kind of reminds me of a crossover between the old Facebook “Wall” and a forum, and it gives me different layers of nostalgia and joy.

But Wait, There Is More

We’re starting with registration as the foundation. We wanna interact with humans and read their comments. As the community grows, we will start building features only they can use. We can only give you a teaser for now, but we plan to expand and interact with you in additional ways than just comments under DIYP posts.

Speaking of posts, they will always stay there, available to anyone – you won’t have to register in order to read them. But if you want to comment, you’ll have to create a profile and join our little online village.

This registration move is us putting our money where our mouth is. We want real photographers sharing real experiences. We’re even cool with disagreement and criticism (as long as they’re not downright insults). Even some trolling is okay, bring it on, we’re old-school. 🙂

In short, we want imperfect, passionate, occasionally chaotic discussions between people who care about what they read and what they interact with.

We’re a little tired of AI being in all pores of the internet. We miss simpler times and more complex human interactions. Maybe that means we’re old – or maybe we’re just fed up and scared of the direction the world is moving towards.

All in all, we’re happy to welcome you here, with all your thoughts, opinions, experiences, and with whatever you have to say.

Welcome aboard!

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