Recursive.eco

A PlayfulProcess Project

Recursive.eco is a small experiment in building kinder digital spaces—especially for kids, parents, and people who care about mental health and meaning.

It's created by PlayfulProcess (that's my working name online): a mother, wife, corporate worker, future therapist (MSW in progress), and beginner "vibe coder" trying to explore virtue ethics through open-source tools.

My employer doesn't sponsor any of this intentionally—but their salary quietly does—which is one reason I still use a pseudonym here.

What "Recursive" Means Here

"Recursive" sounds technical, but the idea is simple:

We change the tools, and the tools change us.
We make culture, and culture makes us.

On Recursive.eco, recursiveness means looping through this process on purpose:

Receive

We take in the world: stories, tools, code, culture, other people's work.

Reflect

We write, journal, talk, pay attention to what it does to us.

Create

We make something from that—playlists, kids' stories, tools, practices.

Share

We offer it back to others, under open licenses, so they can adapt and improve it.

Repeat, slowly

Each loop hopefully becomes a little more virtuous: kinder, wiser, safer.

That's what "recursive" is here: meaning that spirals, rather than scrolls; loops of giving and receiving that make life a bit more livable.

Why This Exists (The Mati & Dada Moment)

Children watching Mati & Dada—a gentle art-history cartoon—might find a link on the YouTube channel to what appears to be the official website.

One click away from that beloved kids' show… was soft porn.

The domain had been hijacked after being abandoned. Technically, it was "just bots repurposing an old URL." But when children's safety is at stake, the mechanism doesn't matter. The risk does.

This isn't unique to Mati & Dada. Domains expire, get hijacked, redirect to gambling sites or worse. The web forgets what things were "meant" to be. Links decay. Algorithms don't care. Children are not the intended audience of this infrastructure.

This recognition led to building a tool:

Creator.Recursive.Eco — a tool to watch YouTube in a calmer way: no thumbnails, no algorithm, no rabbit holes. Just curated sequences you control.

It enables:

  • Discovering curated playlists and educational content
  • Creating custom sequences (videos, images, text)
  • Sharing these sequences with communities

This doesn't replace vigilance, and it's still just a browser. But it creates a safer middle ground between unrestricted access and complete prohibition.

That was the first loop of recursive practice: identifying a systemic problem, learning from it, and offering a tool back to the commons.

What Recursive.eco Offers

Right now, Recursive.eco is made of a few simple building blocks:

Channels

Spaces where you can watch, read, and share:

  • Wellness – mental health & journaling tools
  • Kids' Stories – parent-created, AI-assisted stories for children
  • Resources for Parents – curated playlists & links, with fewer distractions

Tools

Small, open tools designed to support meaning-making instead of mindless scrolling, like:

  • A calmer YouTube viewer (no thumbnails, no autoplay)
  • Simple journaling tools that help you reflect instead of doomscroll

Everything is still beta, very much in-progress, and open to being improved.

Why It's Open Source & "Recursive"

I'm deeply influenced by the Free Software movement, especially Christopher Kelty's idea of a "recursive public":

A public that cares not only about sharing ideas, but about maintaining and modifying the tools and infrastructure that let it exist at all.

In practice, that means:

  • The platform code and content structure are open and forkable.
  • You can copy this site, host your own version, and adapt it.
  • Improvements don't just benefit "me"—they can benefit everyone downstream.

I'm inspired by recursive models like:

  • Ghost – open-source software, funded by paid hosting, that keeps the code free.
  • Vercel & Supabase – generous free tiers that let small experiments (like this one) exist at all.
  • Open source developers & consultants – people who give away tools, then make a living helping others use them well.

Recursive.eco is my small translation of that pattern into the worlds of:

  • kids & parents,
  • mental health & meaning, and
  • virtue as a feature, not just a theory.

Licensing & the Commons

Everything on Recursive.eco (the platform itself) is released under:

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

That means:

  • You can copy, adapt, and build upon the work
  • You must give attribution
  • You must share adaptations under the same license
  • Commercial use is allowed (in line with Free Software values)

Your Content

When you create and publish original content here—stories, playlists, text, images, narration—by default it is also licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

You still:

  • Keep your copyright
  • Can reuse your work elsewhere, including commercially
  • Cannot retroactively revoke what you've already shared under this license

External content (like YouTube videos) remains under its original license. Here, you are curating it, not relicensing it.

You are responsible for only uploading content you have the rights to use. We reserve the right to remove content that violates copyright or basic community standards.

Wellness, Safety & AI – Important Notices

Not a Substitute for Professional Care

Recursive.eco's wellness and journaling tools are for personal reflection and growth. They are not a substitute for therapy, medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

If you are in crisis or feel unsafe, please seek immediate help:

  • 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US): Call or text 988
  • Crisis Text Line (US): Text HOME to 741741
  • Emergency Services: Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room

Always consult qualified professionals for medical or mental health concerns.

AI-Assisted Features

Some tools use AI (e.g., Claude, other models) to generate suggestions or text.

  • AI can be wrong, incomplete, or inappropriate.
  • Treat AI output as a prompt for reflection, not truth.
  • Do not use AI responses for decisions about health, safety, or legal matters.

Beta & Experimental

Recursive.eco is a living experiment. You may encounter:

  • Bugs, unfinished features, or breaking changes
  • Authentication that works better with some email providers than others
  • Changes in data structures as we improve the tools

I will do my best to handle migrations carefully, but no system is perfect.

Privacy & Data Handling

Personal reflections and journal entries are private by default.

  • We use Supabase for authentication and data storage.
  • When you use AI features, your prompts may be sent to third-party AI providers to generate responses.

We aim for responsible security practices, but no system can be guaranteed perfectly secure.

Donations & Financial Support

Recursive.eco currently runs on:

  • My own time and savings
  • Occasional donations

Donations are:

  • Voluntary
  • Non-refundable
  • Do not grant ownership, governance rights, or guaranteed features

They simply help keep an open, experimental, virtue-oriented playground online.