Finding genuinely interesting people to follow online has become strangely harder, not easier. Algorithms keep recycling the same loud voices, and the people doing quiet, original work rarely surface on a feed. The pin that brought you here was a simple nudge: follow each other, find each other. So this list is built around that idea — 17 real websites and tools that help you discover new accounts, creators, and communities worth your attention, without relying on the same tired recommendation engine.
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Why Following the Right People Changes Your Feed
Every social platform optimizes for engagement, which means it shows you what keeps you scrolling, not what keeps you curious. The people you choose to follow act as a manual override on that system. When you follow a ceramicist in Lisbon, a compiler engineer in Osaka, and a film photographer in Ohio, your feed starts reflecting taste instead of trend.
The catch is that discovery tools rarely suggest the quiet accounts. They suggest the ones already winning the algorithm. The sites below solve that in different ways: some surface new creators by project rather than by follower count, some let you browse by niche community, and some deliberately downrank popularity entirely. Each one is a small door into a different corner of the internet where people are making things and talking about them.
1. Product Hunt : Find makers the day they launch something
What it is: A daily leaderboard of new products, each posted by the person who built it.
Category: Startup and maker discovery
Why it stands out:
- Every listing links to the maker’s profile, so you can follow builders before they get famous
- Comment threads are full of founders and early users having real conversations
- Daily cadence means there is always something new to browse
Best for: People who want to follow indie founders and product designers from day one.
2. Indie Hackers : Follow solo founders sharing real numbers
What it is: A community forum where independent founders post revenue milestones, failures, and lessons.
Category: Founder community
Why it stands out:
- Profiles show what each person is building, so following feels intentional
- Milestone posts often include exact revenue figures, which is rare and refreshing
- Small enough that a thoughtful reply usually gets a real answer
Best for: Anyone curious about the people quietly building small internet businesses.
3. Hacker News : Meet the sharpest commenters on the web
What it is: A link-and-discussion site run by Y Combinator, focused on technology and science.
Category: Tech discussion
Why it stands out:
- Usernames are clickable, so a great comment can lead you to a whole person’s history
- Threads regularly include the actual authors of papers and projects being discussed
- The no-frills design keeps attention on the ideas
Best for: Readers who want to follow engineers and researchers by the quality of their thinking.
4. Lobsters : A smaller, calmer tech community
What it is: A community-curated link site for computing, similar in spirit to Hacker News but smaller.
Category: Tech discussion
Why it stands out:
- Invite-based membership keeps discussion unusually civil and focused
- Tags let you browse only the topics you care about, like databases or security
- Frequent posters become familiar names, which makes following natural
Best for: Developers who want a quieter room with the same quality of links.
5. GitHub Explore : Discover developers through their code
What it is: GitHub’s discovery page, surfacing trending repositories and topics.
Category: Open source
Why it stands out:
- Every repository links to its author, so a clever project becomes a follow
- Topic pages cluster related projects, making it easy to find a whole scene
- You can see what a developer is working on right now, not just what they post about
Best for: Coders who want to follow builders based on actual output.
6. DEV Community : Follow writers who explain things well
What it is: A blogging platform where developers publish tutorials, opinions, and experiments.
Category: Developer writing
Why it stands out:
- Authors respond to comments, so a good article often starts a conversation
- Tags like #beginners or #webdev make niche browsing easy
- Many writers are early-career, which means you find voices before they blow up
Best for: Learners who want to follow explainers, not just experts.
7. Are.na : Follow people by what they collect
What it is: A platform for building visual and textual collections, called channels.
Category: Creative research
Why it stands out:
- Channels reveal taste directly, which is a better signal than a bio
- You can subscribe to a channel without following the person, or do both
- The community skews toward designers, writers, and researchers
Best for: Anyone who wants a slower, more thoughtful social feed.
8. Substack Discover : Find newsletter writers before the crowd
What it is: Substack’s recommendation surface for finding new publications by category.
Category: Newsletters
Why it stands out:
- Categories range from food history to local politics, so niche writers are findable
- You can read free posts before committing to a subscription
- Writers often link to peers they admire, creating natural follow chains
Best for: Readers who prefer long-form voices over short posts.
9. Goodreads : Follow readers with your exact taste
What it is: The long-running book catalog and review community owned by Amazon.
Category: Books
Why it stands out:
- Reviewers can be followed directly, and their shelves show everything they read
- Listopia lists surface readers who care about very specific genres
- Friend recommendations are built from actual reading history
Best for: Readers who want recommendations from people, not bestseller charts.
10. Letterboxd : Follow film lovers with great taste
What it is: A social platform for logging and reviewing films.
Category: Film
Why it stands out:
- Lists like “films for a rainy Tuesday” reveal personality better than ratings
- Reviews range from one-liners to essays, so you can pick your follow style
- Popular reviews surface writers you would never find on a streaming app
Best for: Movie fans who want a watchlist built by real people.
11. Bandcamp : Follow musicians and small labels directly
What it is: A music marketplace where artists sell albums and merch.
Category: Music
Why it stands out:
- Fans can follow artists and get notified of new releases
- Genre tags like “ambient” or “math rock” lead to entire micro-scenes
- Buying an album often means the artist sees your name directly
Best for: Listeners who want to support independent musicians, not just stream them.
12. Behance : Follow designers by portfolio, not follower count
What it is: Adobe’s portfolio platform for visual creatives.
Category: Design
Why it stands out:
- Project pages show full process, from sketch to final, which tells you a lot about a person
- You can follow individual creatives and get updates on new work
- Filters by city and discipline make local discovery possible
Best for: Designers and art directors scouting talent or inspiration.
13. Dribbble : Spot UI and illustration talent early
What it is: A showcase site where designers post small snapshots of their work.
Category: Design
Why it stands out:
- Shots are short and scannable, so you can browse dozens in minutes
- Following a designer fills your feed with their newest experiments
- Tags like “onboarding” or “iconography” narrow the field fast
Best for: Product designers looking for fresh visual references and people to follow.
14. Kagi Small Web : Random gems from personal blogs
What it is: A curated feed of posts from independent personal websites, built by the search company Kagi.
Category: Indie web
Why it stands out:
- Every entry is a real person’s blog, not a content farm
- The randomness is the point: you meet writers you would never search for
- Most posts link to the author’s homepage, making a follow easy
Best for: Readers who miss the era of stumbling onto a stranger’s blog.
15. Marginalia Search : A search engine for the non-commercial web
What it is: An independent search engine that deliberately favors small, text-heavy, non-commercial sites.
Category: Indie web
Why it stands out:
- Results are full of personal pages, hobbyist wikis, and old-school forums
- Its “random” button is a genuine discovery tool, not a gimmick
- Filters let you search only for pages with no ads or tracking
Best for: Anyone tired of the same ten results on every search engine.
16. IndieWeb Webring : Hop between personal sites the old way
What it is: A directory of webrings, the classic tool for linking personal websites in a loop.
Category: Indie web
Why it stands out:
- Each ring groups sites by theme, from crafting to retro computing
- Clicking “next” walks you through real people’s homepages one by one
- Many sites include RSS feeds, so following is a single click
Best for: Nostalgists and anyone building a personal site of their own.
17. Mastodon Explore : Find people on the open social web
What it is: The discovery tab on Mastodon, the decentralized social network.
Category: Social discovery
Why it stands out:
- Trending posts and tags are shown per server, so communities differ by instance
- Following is portable: your list belongs to you, not a platform
- Smaller servers often have tight-knit, topic-specific crowds
Best for: People who want a social feed without an engagement algorithm.
Bonus Mentions
Neocities Browse : A directory of handmade personal websites
What it is: A hosting platform for personal sites, with a browse page full of them. Best for: Finding hobbyist pages you can follow via RSS.
Ravelry : A social network for fiber crafters
What it is: A community for knitters and crocheters with project pages and forums. Best for: Following makers in a genuinely niche hobby.
Last.fm : Follow listeners with compatible taste
What it is: A music tracking site that builds taste profiles from what you play. Best for: Finding people whose listening history matches yours.
Instructables : Follow makers who document their builds
What it is: A project-sharing site for DIY builds of every kind. Best for: Following tinkerers and crafters step by step.
The Internet’s Best-Kept Follow Lists (So Far)
None of these sites will hand you a perfect feed on day one, and that is the point. The value comes from the act of choosing: clicking a username because a comment was sharp, subscribing to a channel because the collection was odd, following a maker because the project was half-finished but honest. Over a few weeks, those small choices compound into a feed that feels like yours instead of a slot machine.
Start with two or three from this list that match how you already spend time, whether that is code, film, music, or design. Follow five people, read what they post, and unfollow anyone who does not earn the space. The internet is still full of people worth following; they are just not always the ones being promoted to you.
Which site on this list sent you down the best rabbit hole? Share your own hidden-gem discovery in the comments.
