Aside

Join circles. Write threads. Let AI summarize the rest.

Artificial Intelligence

Hey Product Hunt — I’m Zhiwen, maker of Aside. I built Aside because I kept losing good conversations. A thread would have a great debate, someone would ask the exact question I had… and a week later it was buried under noise. Forums had memory but felt stale. Social feeds had energy but no depth. I wanted something in between: real discussion that sticks around, with AI that helps you catch up instead of replacing what people wrote. Aside is a discussion platform built around circles. You join or create a room around a topic, write threads and replies, and come back later without starting from zero. AI can summarize what you missed, rank what’s worth reading, help you draft posts, find circles to join, and search across threads by meaning — but humans still write the threads. A few things I’m especially proud of: Circles with memory — discussion lives somewhere durable Digests & briefs — catch up on your terms Find circles with AI — describe what you want (“health careers,” “indie game dev”) and get matches with reasons Circle guides — living summaries distilled from what the community actually said Best / Latest / Discover — see what’s active in your circles or beyond Browsing, posting, and joining circles are free. AI uses a simple credit pool when the model actually runs — I wanted AI to feel useful, not like a paywall on conversation. I’d love your honest feedback: What circles would you join on day one? What would make Aside your daily place for discussion? Anything confusing in the onboarding or AI flow? Thanks for checking it out — happy to answer questions all day.