Welcome to Not the Bee! If you're reading this, I can only assume that you're a balloonhead and have no idea what's going on with this website. It's ok, we've all been there: overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of something, to the point that you have to actually stop and read the user's manual. Don't worry, we've got you covered.
What is Not the Bee?
Not the Bee (NTB) is a brand new website from the makers of The Babylon Bee and Disrn. It's a humor-based news, opinion, and entertainment site. Like the name suggests, it'll feature some absurd and hilarious (but real) news; it'll also have opinions, videos, personalities, memes, viral stuff, and more. It fits perfectly right in between Disrn and The Babylon Bee.
And oh, guess what ... NTB is also a fully functional social network where you can interact with others, post your own thoughts and links, and discuss whatever you want with the other NTB members (click the "Social" tab when you're logged in to see it in action).
Why would I want to join another site from these knuckleheads when I'm already paying for a Bee and/or Disrn subscription?
That's a good question, balloonhead! If you already have a premium subscription to the Bee or Disrn, your membership to this site is included, completely free of charge! As long as you maintain your subscription to one of our other sites, your NTB subscription will also stay active. And if you ever decide to ditch your other subscription because you find NTB is all you really need, there will also be an option to transfer your payment method over to this site exclusively.
Wow, that's amazing! How do I take advantage of this unprecedented offer?
It's pretty simple. If you already have a membership to one of our other sites, just head over to the login page and choose to register with either the Bee or Disrn. This will send you back to the other website briefly to confirm your subscription. Once you've done that, you'll be redirected back to NTB and asked to provide some basic details before confirming your registration.
What if I don't have a subscription to the Bee or Disrn?
Well, then you can just subscribe here, of course!
Wow, that's a lot of money! What exactly can I do at Not the Bee to justify such extortionate pricing?
NTB offers tons of exclusive content that's publicly available, but the real magic comes with a subscription to our premium content and social platform. We don't want to brag, but we really feel like we've built the best social network for Christians/conservatives out there. The site gives you the opportunity to share your thoughts directly with a huge community of likeminded folks, join groups of users with similar interests, follow your friends, and comment directly on NTB news articles. It's basically like Twitter meets Facebook, but without all the toxicity or hostility toward conservative values. Our most popular user communities include prayer groups, book clubs and fantasy football league hangouts, amongst tons of other interesting topics.
I like the idea, but I'm afraid of getting doxxed or fired for sharing my views in a public forum.
That's fair. It's sad that we live in a country where so many people feel this way, but it's definitely fair. And that's why we have decided to make this a private community of subscribers rather than open the network completely to the public. We've also given the user complete control over their personally identifiable information, so that your name/location/email will never be shared if you don't want it to be. Can we ever guarantee that our site will be completely free from users that have ill intent? Unfortunately, no, but we are putting our best foot forward in attempting to create a social network that is open to all, but has no tolerance for people that are aggressive, bullying, or using the site against its intended purposes.
SOLD! So what's next?
The following is a more detailed FAQ about some of the most commonly asked questions from our NTB community. We hope it helps you find your way. If you can't find the answer here, you can always contact us and we will try to get back to you as quickly as possible!
I don't see any ads on the site. How do you monetize?
At launch, we will not have any ads on the site. We will instead focus primarily on building an audience. Our goal is to have minimal ads, even after we do launch them, and these ads will only ever be on the public facing portion of the website. Subscribers will always have a 100% ad free experience when logged in.
What does it mean to "follow" another user?
Following another user means that you will be notified about their activity and see their content featured in your Social Feed. If you follow a friend and they make a social post, you will see a notification pop up at the top of your screen.
You'll also receive notifications when somebody likes a comment you make, replies to you, or follows you. If you join a group, you'll also see notifications when other users post something on the group's page.
What is the Social Feed?
The Social Feed is the hub for NTB's social network. It's where you'll find a snapshot of all the activity happening around NTB. In order to visit the Social Feed, you'll first need to login, and then click the link at the top of the page (desktop) or in the hamburger menu (mobile).
There are two types of content you'll find on this page. Social Posts, and Article Comments. Social Posts are like Tweets or Facebook posts, meaning they aren't linked to a specific article and are just something that you want to share with the world. This could be a picture, a link to an Instagram video, or just a thought about something that happened to you today.
When you make a Post from the Social page, it will be visible to all subscribers, but not to anybody else that is not a member of the website. If you want to share something even more privately, you can also make a Post inside of a User Group. These posts will only be available within that group and will not be featured anywhere else on the site. If you make a post in a private group (we'll get to the details about Groups later), those messages will ONLY be visible to other members of that group.
The Social Feed features a mix of these public Posts, with an emphasis on showing you posts from users that you follow. It also mixes in some comments from recent articles, so that you can see what people are chatting about. At any time, you can filter your Social Feed by choosing to only see Posts, only see Comments, or see both.
How do I only see posts from users I follow?
That's easy! Next to the filters for social posts, you'll see a toggle switch that defaults to "Global."
When the switch is on the "Global" setting, it means that you're viewing all users' posts, even those that you don't follow. This is a great option because it allows you to find new friends and new people to follow. In order to see posts only from those you already follow, just hit the toggle switch! Now you will have a fully customized Social Feed!
NOTE: This article is a work in progress and more information will be added here periodically. Please check back often if you're interested in learning about all the features our site has to offer!
