Interview - Instagram Live Q&A with Le Wagon

Thanks to Le Wagon, the world #1 coding bootcamp, for having invited Walter, our founder, to their first Instagram Live Q&A session.

Walter had the opportunity to exchange with Celine from Le Wagon about his experience completing the 6 months coding bootcamp but also about the genesis of TRIBAM:

• From the original idea to the launch

• The values and principles which drive TRIBAM

• And why TRIBAM tries hard to be the answer to some of the increasing issues of historical social networks

Walter also answered a series of great questions directly from the audience.

That was fun ! 😄

Hope you you will enjoy watching it (even though the video quality of the replay from Instagram is not always perfect. Thanks Instagram 🤔)

Any more question - just reach out: info@tribam.com

Enjoy and stay safe !

Team TRIBAM

Introducing TRIBAM v2.0 with "Discovery" 🤩

Hello Tribe -

(🇫🇷 version française 👇)
 

We are very excited to release v2.0 of TRIBAM today !

Thanks to all the great feedback we have had from the community*, we are adding a new page in the TRIBAM app: we call it "Discovery" and you will find it behind the Eye.

Discovery is a fun new way to get inspired... Ready to play the "Discovery roulette" ? 🤩
 

*Particular thanks to our members Eric V., Spencer T., Brice A., Christina B., Nicola H. for their direct input into the design of Discovery 🙏.
 

PS: looking for the Search page ? We just moved it to the home Feed, on the top right of the screen.

As always - looking forward to your feedback, suggestions. And any question, any, just let us know ! info@tribam.com.


Of course - if you have not yet downloaded the App - you can do so at the link to the right.

Stay safe and enjoy ! 🤩

Team TRIBAM

🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 


Hello Tribu -
 

Nous sommes très (très !) heureux de vous présenter la version v2.0 de TRIBAM aujourd’hui.

Grâce à la contribution directe de notre communauté*, nous avons rajouté une nouvelle page dans TRIBAM: nous l’avons appelée “Discovery” et vous pourrez la trouver derrière l’Oeil.

Discovery est une façon ludique de trouver de l’inspiration... Prêts à jouer à la roulette Discovery ? 🤩
 

*Nous tenons à remercier particulièrement nos membres Eric V., Spencer T., Brice A., Christina B., Nicola H. pour leur contribution directe au design de Discovery 🙏.

PS: vous noterez que nous avons déplacé la page recherche (Search) sur l’écran principal, en haut à droite.

Comme toujours - merci de votre feedback, vos suggestions et toutes vos questions ! 
Pour nous contacter:
info@tribam.com.


Et bien sûr, si vous n'avez pas encore downloadé l'App, vous pouvez le faire dans l'Apple Store au lien ci-dessus ☝️☝️☝️.

Prenez soin de vous et á bientôt ! 🤩

Team TRIBAM

12 Books Which Will Make You Thankful for the Lockdown

We certainly hope you all continue to stay safe at home, taking the time do things you would not be able to do usually. Like digging into that great book…

Similar to the recommendations for Movies, TV Series, Music, Restaurants or Hotels, our members have posted quite a diverse selection of Books on TRIBAM. Here are 12 of them.

To get the summary for each, to see who recommended them, their rating and comment:

• Tap on any of the Books below from your iPhone

• It will open straight into the TRIBAM app (if you have it installed on your iPhone) 🤯

[🇫🇷 Hello Tribu -
Nous espérons que le confinement se passe aussi bien que possible pour vous. Certainement le moment de faire les choses qu’on n’a pas le temps de faire d’habitude. Comme se plonger dans un super livre…

Tout comme pour la Musique, les Films, Séries, Restaurants ou Hôtels, nos membres ont un goût pointu et divers pour ce qui est des Livres. En voici une selection de 12.

En ouvrant le lien ci-dessous sur votre iPhone / iPad - sélectionner l'un des Livres vous amène directement à sa fiche dans l'App TRIBAM 🚀.]

Bad Blood

John Carreyrou

Born A Crime

Trevor Noah

Magnum

Russell Miller

The Art of Photography

Bruce Barnbaum

Mon Yoga, Mon Equilibre

Karine Kleb

Happiness - A Philosopher’s Guide

Frederic Lenoir

A Short History of Europe

Simon Jenkins

The Book of Why

Judea Pearl

The Beta Mum

Isabella Davidson

Barbarian Days - A Surfing Life

William Finnegan

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Lori Gottlieb

The Power Of Now

Eckhart Tolle

Do not hesitate to recommend your own books, biographies, fictions… We are all looking for new inspiration !

Enjoy and stay safe !

Team TRIBAM

You can help - Love your locals

Hello Tribe -

(🇫🇷 version française un peu plus bas)
 

Those new and uncertain times may be unpleasant for some of us, they are really tough on others.

First, those around us whose health is impacted by the Covid-19. To those, all our energy we want to send.🙏
 

But also very tough for all the independent businesses, local restaurants, cafes, bars, shops which make our neighbourhoods but are actually in danger.

We have all heard about the forced or voluntary closures from London to Paris, New York and everywhere in the world....
 

Why do we need to help them ?

Simply because they are the lives of our neighbourhoods, they are the places where we built our memories over the years, where our kids have built their own memories, they are the gift of their owners and staff to us all. 🤩 Day after day, year after year, without even us realising. But they are in grave danger. They are.
 

What can we do ?

We know that each of us will find our own ways to help and contribute. Be it continuing to order take-aways and deliveries where possible. Be it buying coupons for future meals... 🤝
 

Help your locals on TRIBAM

We, the TRIBAM Community, can help as well. Simply and efficiently.

Let's just each recommend some of our local restaurants, cafes, bars in the App. Those you may see from your window now, those around the corner, the places you have enjoyed again and again... Share who they are on TRIBAM so that your friends and family (and the broader TRIBAM community) will know of them and when the time comes, soon, will be able to enjoy visiting them.
 

We all have a bit more time these days, so go to TRIBAM now and share your locals. ✊

Help your locals.

#loveyourlocals ❤️

As always - looking forward to your feedback, suggestions. And any question, any, just let us know ! info@tribam.com.


Of course - if you have not yet downloaded the App - you can do so here.

Stay safe and enjoy ! 🤩

Team TRIBAM

🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 


Hello Tribu -

Ces temps ne sont pas agréables pour nous tous, et encore plus difficiles pour certains.

D'abord, ceux d'entre nous ou de nos proches dont la santé a été impactée par le coronavirus (Covid-19) . Vers eux nous envoyons toute notre énergie la plus positive...
 

Mais aussi très difficile pour tous les commerces indépendants, les restaurants du coin, les cafés, les bars qui sont essentiels à nos quartiers mais qui sont vraiment en danger.

Nous sommes désormais tous familiers avec les fermetures volontaires ou forcées, à Londres, Paris, New York et de part le monde....
 

Pourquoi devons-nous les aider ?

Simplement parce qu'ils font la vie de nos quartiers, ce sont les endroits dans lesquels nous avons construit nos souvenirs au fil des années, dans lesquels nos enfants ont construit les leurs, parce que leurs propriétaires et employés nous ont donné tellement. Jour après jour, année après année, sans que nous nous en rendions compte. 🤩
 

Que pouvons-nous faire ?

Nous savons que chacun d'entre nous trouva une façon d'aider et de contribuer. Que ce soit en continuant à commander à emporter ou à se faire livrer, quand possible. Que ce soit en achetant des coupons pour des repas futurs... 🤝
 

Aidez vos endroits à vous, sur TRIBAM

Nous, la communauté TRIBAM, pouvons aider. Simplement.

Il vous suffit de recommander dans l'App ces restaurants, cafés, bars qui font votre quartier. Ceux que vous voyez de votre fenêtre, qui sont au coin de la rue, dans lesquels vous avez tellement eu de plaisir à retourner, encore et encore...

Partagez qui ils sont sur TRIBAM pour que vos amis et vos proches (mais aussi la plus grande communauté) les découvrent et, le moment venu, puisse aussi avoir le plaisir de leur rendre visite.

On a tous un peu plus de temps ces jours-ci, alors allez sur TRIBAM maintenant et partagez vos restaurants et cafés de quartier ✊
 

#loveyourlocals ❤️

Comme toujours - merci de votre feedback, vos suggestions et toutes vos questions ! 
Pour nous contacter:
info@tribam.com.


Et bien sûr, si vous n'avez pas encore downloadé l'App, vous pouvez le faire ici dans l'Apple Store.

Stay safe and enjoy ! 🤩

Team TRIBAM

Listen to "The Sound of TRIBAM" on Spotify and Apple Music 🎧

Hello Tribe -

(🇫🇷 version française un peu plus bas)
 

Another great surprise from the TRIBAM community: the songs recommended are just amazing ! As diverse and edgy as the community. 🎧
 

So good that, for the last couple of weeks, we at TRIBAM have set up playlists to listen to them while working. And working-out. And showering. And walking. And driving. And running. And enjoying our friends...🎵🎶

And then realised. Let’s not be selfish !

So here they are. We called them “The Sound of TRIBAM” and they are available on:

• Spotify

• Apple Music

We will update them regularly as you recommend new music.

(If you are using other streaming services, just let us know and we will do our best to set them up.)

Time to sing. And dance. And just enjoy ! 🤩
 

As always - looking forward to your feedback, suggestions. And any question, any, just let us know ! info@tribam.com.


Of course - if you have not yet downloaded the App - you can do so here.

Enjoy !

Team TRIBAM

🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 


Hello Tribu 

Une autre belle surprise de la communauté sur TRIBAM: la musiquerecommandée est incroyable ! Aussi diverse et pointue que notre communauté. 🎧
 

Tellement incroyable que, depuis 2 semaines chez TRIBAM, nous avons créé des playlists pour pouvoir les écouter en travaillant. En allant à la gym. Faisant notre jogging. Sous la douche. En marchant. Conduisant. Et quand on se retrouve avec nos amis... 🎵🎶
 

Et ce matin nous nous sommes dit: ne soyons pas égoïstes !

Alors les voilà. Nous les avons appelées "The Sound of TRIBAM", et elles sont disponibles sur Spotify et Apple Music (aux liens ci-dessus dans la version anglaise).

Nous continueront à les mettre à jour avec la nouvelle musique que vous recommandez.

(Dites-nous si vous utilisez d'autres services de streaming, et nous ferons de notre mieux pour les y rendre disponibles).

Grand temps de chanter. De danser. Enjoy ! 🤩
 

Comme toujours - merci de votre feedback, vos suggestions et toutes vos questions ! 
Pour nous contacter:
info@tribam.com.


Et bien sûr, si vous n'avez pas encore downloadé l'App, vous pouvez le faire ici.

Enjoy ! 🤩

Team TRIBAM

Have questions about TRIBAM ? Suggestions ?

Hello Tribe -

Two things have surprised us since the launch of the TRIBAM App a little more than 1 week ago:

• The speed at which our community is growing every day, with new members joining from all over the world (UK, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Israel, Dubai, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US,...)

• And even more - the amazing engagement with our members: asking questions, proposing new ideas, spotting bugs...

To facilitate this 2-way engagement that we love around the App, we have set up a Group for our community, on Facebook. With a uber-creative name: "TRIBAM Community" (🤯😉).:

• Ask questions

• Get tips and tricks

• Share suggestions

• Get updates on new features

We actually just posted the first 2 Tips about the App, in the group. Make your way there to learn about those tricks we have embedded in the App for your delight !

See you on TRIBAM !
 

Team TRIBAM 

Already more than 300 recommendations

Hello Tribe -

Barely 4 days after going live we already have more than 300 amazing recommendations from our growing Community.

A few examples:

• Oklava - a restaurant in Shoreditch (London) which re-invents Turkish cooking in a great setting

• Fish Pot - a small restaurant literally on the beach in Barbados, serving the fish caught in the morning

• False Flag - a fast paced and intense spy Series which is said to be even better than Fauda

• Indigo Night - a deep, moody song by Tamino, combining Middle-Eastern influences with western beats

And this is only the beginning ! 🚀

Thanks a lot to all those who have already contributed. And a dear welcome to all those about to join us on TRIBAM ! 🤩😀

See you on TRIBAM !
 

Team TRIBAM 

We are live !

Dear Tribe -

So exciting !

TRIBAM is now available on the Apple App Store 🚀.

For real 😉. 

Your turn:

1. Download the app - at the link below

2. Start posting and discovering Recommendations - with your friends and the broader TRIBAM community

3. Share the App with your tribe - better for them (such a great app !) and more useful and fun for you the more friends you can share with in TRIBAM. (Easy, just forward this email).

 

Yes - so exciting to see what you do with TRIBAM in your hands. 

Thanks again for all the input over the last few months and can’t wait to hear your feedback and suggestions. 

Enjoy !
 

Team TRIBAM 

Sneak Peek - Key Features

Dear Tribe -

As we are making good progress on the Beta version of our TRIBAM app, we wanted to share with you more details about some of TRIBAM’s key features.

As you will see below, our core values drove every design and experience decision behind the development of our “social tool”: Simply, Transparently, Beautifully.

As usual, your feedback, comments and suggestions are more than welcome (info@tribam.com). And do not hesitate to share with the people you trust !

Team TRIBAM

Welcome to TRIBAM

TRIBAM allows you to share and access recommendations you can trust.
Be it for Restaurants, Hotels, Books, Music or Movies - TRIBAM gives you control of the source of the Recommendations.
Your friends and family. Your tribe.
People you know.
People you trust.

Connect with Others

Connect to people you know, so that they can see the Recommendations you post and you can access theirs.

Easily find people you know who are already on TRIBAM, or simply invite your friends by email, message, WhatsApp…

Define Your Tribes

Organise your connections in tribes, to control the recommendations you see at any time.
Or just access your own recommendations.

Friends & Family (Your closest connections)

Village (All your connections)

World (The whole TRIBAM community)

Rate With Rockets

Post Recommendations and communicate how positive a place or an experience has been.

No bashing on TRIBAM !

Like and Save to Collections

Tap on the ‘Heart‘ once to like a Recommendation - and easily access it later.

Long press the ‘Heart’ to save that Recommendation into a specific Collection.

Article | From Recommendations and Reviews to Fines and Jail

Dear Tribe

As mentioned in our previous Newsletter, we are keen to share with you some of the thinking and rationale behind the development of TRIBAM.
Our article below summarises one of the key drivers, which has accelerated over the last few years.
We hope you will find it useful.

And please, do share it with your friends and family - that will help us get our word out !

Until next time,

Team TRIBAM

Recommendations, reviews - what’s new ? Reviews and recommendations are a central part of our assessment of products and services: restaurants to book for our next date night, hotels to visit for our next family vacation, goods to purchase… 97% of the adults surveyed by Which? (the UK consumer association) use online customer reviews when researching a product.

What is new is that reviews and recommendations can lead to jail. Or being fined tens of millions of dollars.

That is how serious reviews and recommendations are. That is how seriously harmful fake reviews and fake recommendations can be.  

Spreading like a virus

Incumbent online platforms offering consumer reviews, after years of benefiting from the engagement coming from consumer exchanges on their platforms, are facing an increasing challenge: a growing portion of the reviews and recommendations on those platforms are fake. Manipulated. Fabricated. Plain and simple.

In a recent investigation, it took less than a couple of hours to Which? to identify more than 10,000 fake reviews on Amazon just looking at 24 models of headphones. 10,000 in less than 2 hours.

But this is just anecdotal evidence of what is the tip of the iceberg. Even more concerning: an iceberg which, unlike our real ones up North, is growing in size exponentially. By the day. 

For a simple reason: the unchecked conflicts of interests in the digital world have created tremendous economic incentives to manipulate reviews, since those reviews have significant value to the consumers and the businesses. To the point where a complete ecosystem has been created to monetise the opportunity to “manipulate” reviews and recommendations.

Companies have been created, some legitimate, some full-blown fraudulent, to leverage that opportunity.

But what has now changed, is that regulators, consumer agencies and the general public are finally waking up to this critical issue. Critical for the consumers (us). But also critical for the businesses unfairly targeted by negative reviews.

From fake reviews to jail

Fraudulent businesses have been created around the globe offering brands and businesses to write fake reviews and fake recommendations against payment. A very simple and efficient business model. 

Just earlier this year, following a review of the web over a 6 months period, the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) in the UK identified more than 100 businesses advertising their services on eBay: selling fake reviews and recommendations. Over the same period, they identified more than 26 Facebook groups where similar businesses were recruiting people to be paid to write fake recommendations.

Below: exchange between an employee of Which? (during an undercover investigation) and a company offering fake reviews.
 Click on any image to enlarge. Full article here.

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On the other side of the pond, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged and fined a “marketing” company selling fake reviews on Amazon more than $12m. That was a first ever for the FTC. Probably not a last.

And back closer to us on the Continent, at the end of last year, the owner of another “marketing company” was convicted by the Italian court, in a landmark fraud ruling, for selling fake reviews on TripAdvisor to hundreds of hotels and restaurants. If you want to know: they charged €100 for 10 reviews, €170 for 20 and €240 for 30. The sentence ? 9 months in jail.

Shades of grey - from manipulated reviews to multi-million dollar fines

But some of the conflicts of interest are more subtle. More difficult to identify. With consequences as severe, if not more. 

Those are driven by some members of another growing phenomenon on social media: the influencers, micro-influencers and other social media “celebrities”. Let’s be clear: most of them do a great and genuine job. Sharing their discoveries, thoughts and convictions with their followers, in an honest manner. The issue is the less scrupulous, less transparent subset: those who have identified the same opportunity to monetise the inherent conflict of interest in social media. 

The work of the less scrupulous ones is often facilitated by social marketing companies who are getting hired to help their clients “monetise their followers”. Basically, get them marketing and advertising contracts with brands and businesses. So far, so good. The problem arises when they do so without the minimum level of transparency vis-a-vis their followers. The consumers. Us. Simply: when they do not disclose that their post, communication, blog entry are supported financially by a third party. Basically, that they are advertisement.

That is where trust breaks. 

Increasingly concerned by those misleading practices, the CMA investigated a few “marketing” companies. They ended up convicting a handful including one of the largest global players for having “used its own social media accounts, and arranged for widely followed social media personalities, to promote films, games and takeaway and dating apps, without readers being informed that the content was paid-for advertising.” 

And to maximise the “Return On Investment” of those, the posts are purposefully designed to create the confusion.

As per the CMA: “these adverts may have been difficult for readers to distinguish from other posts, conversations and jokes they appeared alongside.”

To reiterate: a lot of the bloggers out there do a fantastic job. But their contribution is tarnished by that of the less principled ones.

Back to basics

We feel strongly that this is an area where social media and us, consumers, need to make some clear progress. From the professionals: by providing more transparency to the consumers. From the consumers: by being more sensitive to potential conflicts of interest.

How ? Simple: if we actually know the source of the review or recommendation, then the room for a potential conflict is greatly mitigated.

Back to basics: when we need a recommendation, let’s start by asking our friends and family.

(Credits: icons by Louis Prado, Anbileru Adeleru and Adrien Coquet from the Noun Project.)

We hope you found the above useful and interesting. We too were surprised when we discovered the extend of those misleading practices.

Please, do share this article with your friends and family if you found it useful - that will help us get our word out.

And, if not already done, sign up below to join the waitlist for the upcoming launch of TRIBAM.

Until next time,

Team TRIBAM

Blog | Introducing: Our Recommendations

Dear Tribe -

While we continue to work on the development of the TRIBAM App, we thought it could be useful for us to share with you some of our own Recommendations.

Clearly - not as good as Recommendations from your friends and family, from your tribe - but a collection of ideas we have curated over the years.

You can use the Search Bar to look for categories (hotel, restaurant, music, book,…), places or other tags.

We will be adding new Recommendations on a regular basis, therefore do come back to check them out.

If you have suggestions for the summer, do let us know !

www.tribam.co/our-recommendations

And as usual, do share this list with your tribe - the people you trust !

And please remind them that they can easily join the TRIBAM family by subscribing at www.tribam.co, or by simply replying to this email.

As usual, any thoughts, questions, suggestions, good jokes... are more than welcome. Don’t hesitate to reach out, we love to hear from you...

Until next time,

Team TRIBAM

TRIBAM Newsletter | Summer Update

Dear Tribe -

While we are all looking forward to the summer finally settling in, we thought it was the right time to give you an update on our work at TRIBAM.

The last few months have been very active and productive for us here:

• We have completed our user testing, allowing us to put the finishing touches to our Prototype

• With the help of our consulting CTO, we have selected and engaged the Developer team with whom we have now partnered to deliver the full working App. They are a great team based in Shoreditch (London), with a solid track record of delivering high quality user experiences. We are grateful to have them by our side.

• In addition to developing what we hope will be a great tool for all of us, our underlying vision is what drives us. We have started formalising that vision so that we can share it more broadly. More to come soon…

Also, we are very glad to see the increasing awareness around the issue of #fakereviews and #fakerecommendations. A couple of examples in just the last couple of months:

• Which UK, the consumer association, launched a month or so ago an ad campaign in the London tube highlighting the disastrous consequences of fake reviews (“Time. Money. Safety. The real cost of fake reviews”)

• The first legal case about fake reviews on Amazon was brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US

Helping avoid those conflicts of interest is at the core of TRIBAM.

As we leave you until our next update, please do not hesitate to share this one with your friends and family - the people you trust ! 

And please remind them that they can easily join the TRIBAM family by subscribing at www.tribam.co, or by simply replying to this email.

As usual, any thoughts, questions, suggestions, good jokes... are more than welcome. Don’t hesitate to reach out, we love to hear from you...

Until next time,

Team TRIBAM