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 suuuuuuuuuucks right now.
Ads everywhere.
Popups over popups. With those tiny Xs you can't find.
AI garbage taking over.
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?

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, events to attend, new restaurants to try, new music to listen to. And once you find something to do... get off the internet and go do it. This place isn't designed to suck you in and keep you here.

Back to the good old internet

No AI. No chatbots or assistants. No algorithms. No gambling or sports betting or "prediction markets". No crypto or blockchains. No metaverse (whatever that is).

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

It's more of a live encylopedia of Minnesota.

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 2009. Or use one of the several chat apps you probably already have. Or print it and mail it!! We event spent extra time making sure the pages look nice when you print.

Please be patient for a bit

Things.mn is a new, free project. No employees, no investors. Just one person (using "we" everywhere else because it sounds better). I am working on it in my free time outside of my regular job that pays money.

So certain things will take priority as it gets going - some bugs may stick around a while.

If you like this project and want to support it - 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!

Finding or knowing about cool places in Minnesota you could add to the database
Web development - HTML, CSS, Javascript. More specifically Svelte, Appwrite, MapLibre
GIS - Speficically MapLibre or an interest in map design and (MN) location data.

thank you, be nice, and find cool things