hi there

Things.mn is a new website to find... things...... in Minnesota.

A single place to explore all of Minnesota's great places, events, restaurants, shops, activities, arts, entertainment, public services, local journalism, and so much more.

Why?

The internet sucks right now.
Ads everywhere.
Popups everywhere. With those tiny Xs you can't find.
Subscriptions to remind you to cancel your subscriptions.
Invasive tracking of everything you do and look at.
Annoying people who have to comment on everything.
Algorithms designed to show you things that make you mad.
Creepy out of touch billionaires with no real morals.

But we all keep scrolling. What else are we going to do?

Re-enter the real world. Instead of building the new Facebook or a magical ~global town square~, we're focusing locally.
Local businesses, local people, local things. Only for Minnesota.

Find things to do, places to go, protests to join, new restaurants to try, new music to listen to. Meet new friends to hang out with in real life.

Anti- Anti-User

These days, too much of the internet exists just to trick us into doing something or forcing things on us nobody asked for or wants.
wtf is a metaverse

That's not us.
No AI. No algorithms. No chatbots or assistants. No gambling or sports betting. No mark zuckerberg or elon musk. No putting up with bullying.

What to know

This is very new. Things will change. Things will break.

Instead of trying to explain everything while we're not even 100% sure what direction some things are going... just click around.

Everything on things.mn is viewable without an account.

Create an account if you'd like to start saving things or submitting your own things for other people to find.

Not a social network

More of a Wikipedia for Minnesota than a social network.

There is not and will not be any direct messaging, user post feeds, or public comment sections.

If you want to share a cool event or place with a friend, copy the link and text it to them like it's 2008. Or use one of the several chat apps you probably already have.

However we will have things like reviews, groups, and discussion areas.

Who are we?

"We" are mainly one person with the occasional help from friends. My name is Mitch - I was born and raised in Faribault, moved to Wisconsin (sorry) for a few years for school, then moved to Minneapolis in 2017.

I'm still going to use "we" and "us" throughout pages though because it sounds weird to use "I".
It's the website and me. "Us".

Keep in mind

Things.mn is a new, free project. No employees, no investors. I am working on it in my free time outside of my regular job that pays.

Because of that, I may be slow to fix some bugs, reply to feedback, etc.

If you like this project and want it to succeed - upgrade your account, tell your friends about it, or just send some positive feedback.

Help wanted

If you this idea want to get involved, send an email to hello@things.mn.

Again, this is a new project and there is no money behind it, so we can't pay anything (yet..?) - but if your hobbies include any of the following, please reach out!

Adding cool places from around your area to the database
Moderating content - checking reports, warning users, etc
Web development - HTML, CSS, Javascript. More specifically Svelte, Firebase, Leaflet
Database development - Firebase
GIS - Speficically Leaflet or an interest in map design and (MN) location data.
Graphics - this website is mostly text right now. We need some more graphics.