ADR-065: Karmyq.org and Karmyq.com Domain Roles

Status: Implemented

Context

Karmyq now has two public surfaces that serve different audiences:

• karmyq.org — the public commons: manifesto, research, stories, architecture docs, and founding-circle invitations.
• karmyq.com — the working proof-of-concept platform where users can try the application.

The LinkedIn Launch Relaunch needs karmyq.org to invite specialists into a small founding circle without pretending the proof-of-concept is a fully mature public product. Mixing the roles creates confusing CTAs, overstates readiness, and makes the public site harder to review.

Decision

Treat karmyq.org as the narrative and governance-facing commons, and treat karmyq.com as the product proof-of-concept.

For the LinkedIn launch:

• The primary karmyq.org CTA is to join the founding circle by contacting contact@karmyq.org.
• The mailto: flow must encode every user-provided field before placing it in the href.
• contact@karmyq.org remains visible and copyable as a fallback when mail clients or protocol handlers fail.
• Links to karmyq.com are secondary "try the PoC" links, not the main launch conversion.
• karmyq.org keeps docs and research available for reviewers who want to inspect the system before joining.

Consequences

Positive

• Launch copy can be honest about maturity while still inviting useful participation.
• Specialists, organizers, builders, and researchers get a clearer action than "start a community" too early.
• The .org site can carry civic/research/governance context while .com remains the app surface.
• Reviewers can audit mailto safety with a focused regression test.

Negative

• The launch depends on manual email triage instead of a structured signup backend.
• Some visitors may miss the proof-of-concept if they expect the primary CTA to enter the app.
• Future marketing changes must preserve the domain distinction or intentionally supersede this ADR.

Alternatives Considered

Make karmyq.com the primary CTA

Rejected for the LinkedIn launch because the goal is founding-circle feedback, not broad product activation.

Add a backend signup form

Deferred. A mailto flow is intentionally lightweight for this sprint, but it needs encoding and visible fallback safeguards.

Keep .org manifesto-first

Rejected for launch timing. The manifesto remains available through site sections and docs, but the homepage now leads with a specific invitation.