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With a mission to challenge the way we engage with new concepts and ideas, The Doe was formed to help people confront their own thoughts and opinions.
On June 1st, 2020, The Doe was born, ready to disrupt an audience of people who were sleepwalking through life with a range of preconceived ideas. As a news website, The Doe is committed to protecting their staff and contributors so that stories remain anonymous, meaning that people can get to the truth without fear of repercussion or victimisation.
The Doe doesn’t give writers a template to put their story into; it gives contributors a platform to share their personal experiences, whistleblow, or create debates. Each narrative on the site is a personal account that is created and shared in the way the writer wanted.
Why Do We Need The Doe?
As people, we like to think we are right. In fact, we will go out of our way to make ourselves feel right, and this includes seeking out news, articles, or opinions that are similar to our own. Our unconscious bias leads us to select headlines that appear to resonate with our own viewpoints, or even to select articles written by people that we feel are like us. This means that when we read further, we manage to reinforce that our viewpoint is correct, and so the cycle continues!
The Doe is here to challenge that. The anonymity of the authors means that you simply aren’t able to look at the name or photo of the person producing the narrative and make a judgement about whether we want to read it or not. The Doe encourages you to dive in and read, regardless of where you stand on any particular issue.
By reading more widely around topics you care about, topics you haven’t thought about, or topics you may have been unconsciously avoiding, you will open your mind to understanding not only other people better, but also yourself.
What Will You Find On The Doe?
Creator of The Doe, Milan Kordestani, and Editor-in-Chief Colin St John are keen to bring a different way of reporting to the people’s webpages. The site doesn’t contain ‘articles’, as these are usually written from a particular perspective with a particular purpose. The Doe isn’t interested in curated articles written by authors trying to build a reputation for themselves. Instead, readers will find a site full of personal narratives. These are unfiltered perspectives that aren’t pretending to be something they are not.
There will be particular themes each month that will delve deep into a topic and will attract a variety of contributors providing narratives that are not guided by the managed direction of a magazine. This allows people to explore topics that they may not know much about, or on which they may have already formed strong opinions. By making a topic the focus of an entire month, this allows people to really share their thoughts and opinions and get a healthy debate going. The Doe isn’t designed for people to try and get others to change their views, it is designed to allow people to challenge their own opinions and recognise their own bias within a safe and engaging community.
Etiquette On The Doe
There is no denying that much of the narrative shared on The Doe is sensitive, controversial, or likely to inspire a lively amount of debate! This is the whole purpose of the site. This also means that there needs to be some ground rules for everyone using engaging with The Doe. The creators of this disruptive platform want to encourage ‘honestly, civility, curiosity and debate’ but will not tolerate ‘inciting violence, harmful or dangerous content, harassment or outing’.
The topics may be hard-hitting, but the etiquette rules in place make sure it will be a safe space for people to share their personal accounts and opinions.
Within The Doe, you can expect to find no advertisements, no selling of your private data and a privacy policy that does actually keep your personal information secure. You can sign up, safe in the knowledge that whether you are sharing your voice, or reading other people’s, you can do so anonymously.
Do You Want To Get Involved?
It’s quick and straightforward to get involved with The Doe. You can head over to the site and read a limited number of narratives without giving any details. If you want more narratives, you can sign up for free and read up to 10 narratives a month. If you want access to even more narratives, you can pay to join. There is no set fee, you can simply pay what you can, and this money is used to support a variety of charities. Paying a fee gives you access to all narratives on the site, and also discounts on merch.
If you want to share your story, the process is equally as simple. Send a short pitch sharing what your story is about via the secure website submission form. The editorial team initially screen each pitch, and then due diligence is employed to ensure the legitimacy and ownership of the narrative. Once this has been completed, and if your pitch is approved, you will be sent details on how to write and submit your story. The Doe team will then work with you to finalise the narrative you are happy to share.
Whether you want to share your experience or find out more about other people’s viewpoints, The Doe is a great place to feel uncomfortable, and explore narratives that don’t match what you think you know. You may find other people’s narratives reinforce your opinion, but you may also find that they don’t! The Doe is the place to explore this and acknowledge that most topics are rarely black and white. The grey area in the middle, the confusion and the questioning of your own views, are what makes The Doe a powerful platform that everyone should be checking out.
If you want to step away from curated, purpose-driven propaganda, and engage in real narratives that are shared simply for the purpose of sharing a personal account, The Doe is definitely the place to be!
