Welcome To The Retconn Platform

Retconn connects and facilitates productive peer feedback groups for all types of writing. Let's write out creative blockage together.

Why does this exist?

It can be daunting to share your work with others. When we get stuck, you may feel lost or hopeless in how to progress.

But with thousands of strangers on social media, it's difficult to trust or gauge one's intentions. The most provactive and sensational prevail to the ailment of courtesy and constructive dialogue on our platforms. Despite the promises of connection, we may not feel personally addressed in these conditions.

Some may consider friends and family too close to share with, whether due to embarassment or bias. But sharing to the worldwide web may feel like throwing papers into a void. We can faciliate a collaborative environment to help each other along our creative journeys, and ours alone.

How does it work?

We want to provide reach so that your work is seen for feedback. However, we also want to minimize unproductive or inflammatory discourse. Motivations showcased to a widespread stage often differ than in small groups, the latter which Retconn will faciliate.

  1. Select your matching preferences. The currently selectable dimensions are genre, age, word count, and response time.
  2. Retconn will notify you when a group matching your preferences has been initialized. Groups comprise of at least 5 members.
  3. Upload the portion of your writing you'd like feedback on.
  4. Introduce yourself and get to know a few of your group members through 1-to-1 direct messaging.
  5. Each group member will provide 1 note/explanation on a place for improvement for all other member's writing.
  6. For each writing's notes, including their own, all members select and explain who's other note they think is most and least important to address. The rest are marked neutral.
  7. Feedback is ranked and displayed based on most to least concurrence. This completes a round.
  8. Members can agree to reconvene with the same group for another round later. There must be at least 3 members to continue.

Who engineered this platform?

The Retconn Collaborative Platform was conceptualized and built by Justin Yee, a San Francisco native. The idea came on a Sunday morning in August, merging aspects of his experiences with alternative social media, writer's block, and inspiration from working on applications with civic organizations.

He's worked with multiple organizations as a volunteer software engineer since graduating with a Computer Science degree in 2022. His interests are not limited to software, but also writing, music production, art, and videography among others. He believes his insight into these domains intersects with technological solutions in interesting ways.

Above all, he believes in utilizing technology for positive impact instead of exploitative profits, and reinvigorating one's humanity in a digital world. You can read more about his thoughts and experiences on his personal site, or see his work history on LinkedIn.