A digital studio for interior design lovers to practice & gather.
We believe creativity flourishes in protected spaces. When your attention isn't being sold, your imagination can expand.
In order to keep Spoak protected, we charge a subscription fee. This way, we can remain ad-free and algorithmically neutral.
This is what that means in practice.
The Spoak conversation pit is ordered chronologically. If you see a conversation tagged as “trending” or “hot topic” it’s because the content is resonating with the community (it has a high number of comments and riffs).
Spoak has a product database for you to source from while you design. The products appear based on their relevance to your query. If relevance is considered equal, we order the products based on your tastes and preferences (do you seem to prefer mid century, or white, or brand X, more than others). Nobody can pay to alter ranking or search results.
Of course, there are real humans that work at brands that will try to circumvent this policy. We have strict community guidelines against solicitation and advertising, and use our best judgment as moderators to try and stop bad actors from doing so.
Spoak does work with brands, but only in ways that we believe make the studio better for our members.
Specifically:
Product catalog: Brands can add their products to our database so that you can design with them. Brands do not pay to connect their catalog. This way, we can include small businesses, even if they have no marketing budget.
In order to keep product import free for brands, we earn a small affiliate commission if a user chooses to buy using a Spoak-driven link. This comes at no additional cost to you, and does not influence the product’s ranking in search results or otherwise.
Community events: Brands can sponsor Design Challenges and member programming. These are clearly labeled as sponsored, and often include a prize or gift for the members who participate.
Educational resources: Brands can commission or author expert knowledge guides for the community (like an eco-friendly paint company educating users on acrylic vs material based paints). These are clearly labeled and are meant to be didactic and educational.
If you ever see a conversation that feels like an ad or a paid placement, please report it.
If you notice a product in the database that feels advertorial or fishy in any way, please send a screenshot or link to support@spoak.com.
Thank you for your help in keeping Spoak ad-free.
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Yes. Spoak is subscription-based so that we can be ad-free. No brand pays for placement, and nothing shows up in your feed unless a real person put it there. Read our Ad-free Policy here.
It means no brand pays to appear in front of you on Spoak. What you see in your feed, your studio, and community discussions is shaped entirely by what resonates with the community.
Spoak does not sell your personal data with anyone – advertiser, brand partner or otherwise.
Spoak leverages both Meta and Google Ads to grow as a business. In order to do so effectively, we have to share with both platforms who you are, and whether or not you’ve signed up for Spoak.
Other than that, your data is used only to run and improve the product for you.
Spoak is funded entirely by membership subscriptions, add on purchases, and sometimes, affiliate commissions. When you pay for Spoak, you're paying for the product, not subsidizing it with your attention.
Spoak does have brand relationships, but they work differently from advertising. Brands can make products available in the design catalog for members to design with, sponsor community events, commission expert-authored knowledge guides, or offer exclusive programs to members. In every case, the relationship is opt-in, clearly labeled, and adds something to the community rather than interrupting it.
No. Products appear in the catalog because they're real, purchasable items that members can design with, not because a brand paid for the position. Brands cannot pay for better placement, more prominent display, or algorithmic preference within the catalog. Commerce on Spoak is an opt-in layer for when you're ready to shop, not an organizing principle.
Spoak's discovery is algorithmically neutral — meaning no content is surfaced because someone paid to promote it, and no engagement metric is being optimized against you. What rises in the community is driven by genuine resonance (a high proportion of comments and riffs that are getting upvoted) among members. We do not run the kind of engagement-maximizing algorithm that characterizes platforms like Instagram or TikTok.
Because "free" usually means your attention is the product. Most free platforms are funded by advertising, which means they're incentivized to maximize your time on-platform and sell access to your attention to brands. Spoak is funded by subscriptions because we believe creativity needs a protected space. The subscription is what makes the ad-free commitment possible and permanent.
Spoak can publish brand-commissioned knowledge guides — expert-authored content created in partnership with a brand. The brand funds the creation of the guide, but Spoak is not paid to post them, nor do we profit off them. These are meant to be educational and didactic. They are always clearly labeled as sponsored, editorially independent and held to the same standard as all Spoak editorial: they have to genuinely add value to the community. Spoak will never publish content that isn't transparently labeled or that reads as advertising disguised as editorial.
Tell us. If something in your feed, studio, or community feels like a brand paid to be there without it being clearly labeled, we want to know about it immediately. Maintaining this commitment isn't just a policy, it's one of our core beliefs. We take violations of it seriously.
