SocialBe is the platform. The meetup is yours.

Let me tell you about the best first meetup I have had through SocialBe. Coffee in Observatory, a Bee called Thandi who knew every second-hand bookshop within walking distance, and a two hour booking that turned into a three hour walk because neither of us wanted to stop. Nobody from SocialBe was there. Nobody from SocialBe needed to be.

That is the whole point of this post. A rent a friend platform in South Africa works because of the people on it, and the people on it are responsible for themselves. We give you the tools. You bring the Saturday.

What SocialBe actually is

SocialBe is a platform. It is the place where someone who wants company for a hike, a gig, a market or a quiet coffee finds someone nearby who would enjoy that too. You can be new to a city or have lived in it your whole life. Either way, there is a Bee within a few kilometres who knows a spot you do not.

We do the connecting. We verify every person, we moderate what goes on a profile, we keep the chat inside the app, we put a check-in button on every booking, and we have real humans reading every report. That is the service, and we take it seriously enough to have built the app around it.

What SocialBe is not

We are not in the room with you. We are not a chaperone, a bodyguard, a bank or an insurer. Once two verified adults decide to meet, what happens next is between them.

So, plainly: SocialBe cannot take responsibility for any person's actions, in the app or in person. We cannot answer for harm to you, to your things, or to your identity. We work with integrity, with safety in mind and with respect for your data, and we would love a world where nobody ever needed this paragraph. But for now, we still need this paragraph.

Every person on SocialBe is responsible for their own conduct, their own content and their own choices. That includes Bees, Client Bees, and the two of us at the bookshop.

Why the chat stays in the app

Here is the part that people skip and should not.

The SocialBe chat is the one place we can actually help. Messages in the app are on record. If a booking goes sideways, if someone asks for money upfront, if a conversation turns into something that is not platonic, a person on our team can see what was said and act on it. Move the conversation to WhatsApp and we are blind. We cannot help with what we cannot see.

So when a Bee or a Client Bee says "let's just chat on WhatsApp", the right answer is a friendly no. Not because they are dodgy. Because the app chat is the safe room, and the safe room only works if you are in it.

The rules that keep the Saturday good

None of these are new. All of them are worth repeating.

• Meet in public. A busy cafe, a park with people in it, a market. Never a home, yours or theirs.

• Check in. Tap check in on the booking when you arrive. It takes a second and it puts the meetup on record.

• Pay in cash, on the day, at the price agreed to in the booking. Nothing before. Nobody on SocialBe should ever ask you for money upfront, a deposit, airtime, or a "small something to hold the slot".

• Tell someone. Who you are meeting, where, and roughly when you will be back.

• Get yourself there and home. Your own car, a ride-share, the train. The booker's car is not recommended.

• Trust your gut. Uncomfortable? Leave. You do not owe anyone an explanation, and you can report from the booking afterwards.

A word about profiles still under review

Everyone has to pass verification before they can book or be booked. Profiles are also moderated, and sometimes a photo, a voice intro or a bio is still waiting on a SocialBe Team member when you first see it. So every user should take full responsibility and always consider many things when viewing a profile that a person setup.

Treat it the way you would treat a stranger who waved at you from across the street: polite, curious, and absolutely in public. The same goes for anyone you meet outside the app entirely. If it did not go through SocialBe the SocialBe app, SocialBe cannot help or moderate anything.

The community is the safety feature

The thing I did not expect when I started using SocialBe in closed beta is how much the people on it look after each other. Reviews are honest. Reports get filed. A Bee who hears that a Client Bee was pushy posts about it in a review for others to see or reports that user in the app, and so do the Client Bees. Nobody is anonymous, so nobody gets to be careless.

That is the platform working as intended. We build the walls, the locks and the lights. You and everyone else on SocialBe keep the neighbourhood good and each other inline.

So go and find your crowd. Pick someone who knows the bookshops. Meet in the sun. Keep the chat in the app. And if anything feels off, tell us, because a real person will read it from the SocialBe Team or other Bees.

If you are the one who knows every bookshop, coffee shop or hiking trail, become a Bee. Connect with other like minded people, and create beautiful memories together. Ready, set, go!