This new startup wants to be your escape from the noise of Twitter and Facebook

Today, the phrase “social media” is often used to refer to a small number of websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. But Raftr, a new startup recently launched by former Yahoo president Sue Decker, is betting that you’re sick of all those sites.

Decker and one of Raftr’s investors, Harrison Metal founder Michael Dearing, explained on the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher that Raftr encourages you to follow topics rather than people and is designed to discourage abuse and self-promotional noise. For example, user accounts are tied to phone numbers, rather than email addresses, making it harder to register multiple times as one can today on other platforms.

“I think I follow 800 people on Twitter,” Dearing said. “That’s like 800 megaphones. That’s not 800 conversations.”

“Using Raftr is like going to a really great dinner party where there’s little rooms talking about different topics and you can move from room to room, but you know that if you go into the ‘White House discussion room,’ there’s going to be some people who take this seriously and want to hear from others,” he added. “It’s not a shouting fest, it’s not megaphones. It’s a conversation.”

Raftr

Decker said the success of sites like Slack and Nextdoor has demonstrated that Facebook and Twitter are not the end-all be-all of social media and says Raftr will give people the opportunity to find new like-minded friends.

“They typically start more general and then more specific ones crop up, to address a specific interest,” Decker said of social networks. “Once the more general ones get so broad, it’s hard to find what you’re looking for.”

You can listen to Recode Decode in the audio player above, or subscribe on iTunes, Google Play Music, TuneIn, Stitcher and SoundCloud.

If you like this show, you should also sample our other podcasts:

• Recode Media with Peter Kafka features no-nonsense conversations with the smartest and most interesting people in the media world, with new episodes every Thursday. Use these links to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play Music, TuneIn, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
• Too Embarrassed to Ask, hosted by Kara Swisher and The Verge's Lauren Goode, answers the tech questions sent in by our readers and listeners. You can hear new episodes every Friday on iTunes, Google Play Music, TuneIn, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
• And Recode Replay has all the audio from our live events, including the Code Conference, Code Media and the Code Commerce Series. Subscribe today on iTunes, Google Play Music, TuneIn and Stitcher.

If you like what we’re doing, please write a review on iTunes — and if you don’t, just tweet-strafe Kara.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple reasons that we can't rely only on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on.

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. We can’t do that if we have a paywall.

That’s why we also turn to you, our readers, to help us keep Vox free. If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via