What is insp.re?

It's a place where you can discover, collect and share books & music.

How does it work?
There are 2 ways to discover new books and music. You can start from our discover page by clicking through random people's discoveries and get lost from there. Or you can follow specific people and organisations and browse through their dots.

How can I collect a book or an album?
Make sure you are logged in and click on the icon next to the book or album title. The item will then be visibile on your profile page. Your followers will see your discovery on their dots page.

How can I remove an item from my page?
Just click on the icon next to the book or album title and it will be removed from your profile.

How can I follow someone?
Go to a person's profile page and click on the circle next to their name. Alternatively you can also follow people from the following or followers tab from someone's profile page.

How do I see the items from the people I follow?
Your dots page is a personalised page with all the items from the people you follow. If someone (that you follow) adds an item to their profile, it will appear there.

How can I find interesting profiles to follow?
Every book or album is linked to a profile. Click on the name of the person under the cover of an item to go to that person's profile page. You can browse through the following and followers tab on the profile page to discover new people. Every dotted item also has a list with all the people that have added that item to their profile. Just click on the item to so who has added the item.

Is my collection visible for other people?
Yes. The music and books you share are public. It makes it easier for other people to browse and discover new work and new people. We might offer the option to connect as a private user in the future.

How can I find a specific book or album?
Go to the search page and enter your search query. First we will look if someone else has already dotted the item, if not we search the web for your item. It might happen that a certain cover will not appear immediately, but no worries, our search engine will go and look for it so it should appear a couple of hours later.

Can I add a book or album myself?
Yes! If your search didn't return any results, you can add a book or an album yourself. Gather all the info you need and enter it in the entry form. After that it will be stored in our database so other people can discover it.

Why are there no "Buy this book" links on your website?
We don't only love independent publishers, we love small and independent bookstores as well. By not linking to the well known online bookstores we would like to encourage people to buy those books in your local bookstore. Yeah, very old fashioned, but think about how boring a city would be without those lovely places.

What happens when I follow someone?
If you follow someone and that person adds an item to their profile it will appear in your feed (dots). The more people you follow, the more active your feed will be and the greater the chance to discover that next great album or book. The person will also receive a message that you are following him or her. With a bit of luck that person will follow you back and who knows what happens :-)

How can I unfollow someone?
Go to their profile page and click on the circle next to their name. Alternatively you can go to the following tab on your profile page and click on their profile picture to unfollow the person.

Will the person I unfollow be notified?
No, but you will no longer appear on their followers tab

What are the notifications on my profile page?
Whenever someone follows you or dots something that you discovered first on insp.re, it will be listed there.

What data do you have?
Besides your username and the email address you use to register, we know which items you add to your list, who you follow and who is following you.

What happens with my data?
We use your data to make suggestions about profiles that might interest other people. We send out a monthly(ish) newsletter containing recommendations and your dotted items or your profile might appear in that newsletter. In doing so we hope to grow our community so you can discover more interesting profiles or items. Your privacy is important to us, please read about it here.

Will you sell my data?
No! We hate it when our data is sold to advertisers, so we definitely won’t sell yours! You have our word.

Can I delete my account?
Yes you can!

Who's behind insp.re?
Insp.re is made with a lot of love by a small team of internet wizards. We don’t have or want venture capital funds. Our aim is to be a fresh, friendly & independent social platform 🤘

Why did you do it?
We love books and we love music. We also love small and independent publishers and want to promote their releases. We want to create a nice community with lots of nice books and music to discover.

What can I add to my profile?
Although our aim is to promote those small and independent publishers, feel free to add whatever you want (but keep it decent)!

Help, I've found a bug!
Bugs or requests can be sent to dots@insp.re and are very much appreciated!