Docs·2ac88ac·Updated Apr 9, 2026·48 ADRs
User Guides

Running a Community

As a community founder, you shape the environment your members live in.

Running a Community

As a community founder, you shape the environment your members live in.

Creating a Community

  1. From your dashboard, click Create Community
  2. Give it a name and description — be clear about who it's for
  3. If you want a pre-configured starting point, choose a template — otherwise proceed to the trust model questionnaire
  4. Answer six questions about how your community thinks about trust and relationships — the system infers config parameters from your answers
  5. Review and customize in the config editor (optional — click "Skip & Create" to go straight through)
  6. Publish

See Setting Your Community's Trust Model for a full explanation of each question and what it controls.

Admin Tab Structure

The community admin page is organized into five tabs. The tabs you see depend on your role:

TabVisible to
OverviewAll members
PeopleAdmins and moderators
RequestsAdmins and moderators
ProvidersAdmins and moderators
SettingsCommunity admins only

People Tab (Members + Norms)

The People tab consolidates member management and community norms in one place.

Use the sub-toggle at the top of the tab to switch between two views:

  • Members — Browse all current members, see their karma and trust scores, and manage roles
  • Norms — An accordion of your community's stated norms, values, and conduct expectations

This keeps community culture and membership in context with each other, since a community's norms define the expectations its members are held to.

Requests Tab (Requests + Insights + Admin Actions)

The Requests tab is the primary tool for admins who play an active role in matching and facilitation.

Summary Cards

At the top of the Requests tab, summary cards give you a snapshot of community health:

  • Open requests (waiting for help)
  • In-progress matches (active exchanges)
  • Completed exchanges this week

Browsing Requests

Below the summary, you can browse all requests in your community:

  • Filter by status: Open, Pending, Matched, Completed
  • See who requested, what they need, and when

Admin Actions

Each request card in the admin view has three additional actions that regular members don't see:

Boost (⚡) Boosts a request's visibility in the feed for 48 hours. Boosted requests show a ⚡ badge and receive a +0.3 increase to their feed score, making them more likely to surface for potential helpers. Use boost for requests that have been waiting a long time or come from vulnerable members.

Mark Urgent Flags a request as community-urgent priority. Urgent requests are visually distinguished and sorted higher. Use this sparingly — if everything is urgent, nothing is.

Propose a Match Allows you to connect a specific member to a request. When you propose a match:

  1. Select the member you think can help
  2. Confirm the proposal
  3. A real match record is created in the system with proposed status
  4. The proposed member sees the request appear in their Commitments tab under "Needs Your Response"
  5. They can accept or decline — it's always their choice

This is the key tool for high-touch facilitation. It doesn't force anyone into anything; it surfaces the opportunity where the proposed helper will see it.

Acting as a Connector

Admins don't just maintain a community — you connect people. These two tools are your primary instruments for active facilitation.

Spotlight a Request (Boost)

Click the ⚡ Boost button on any open request in the Requests tab. The request rises in member feeds with a "Community Pick" badge for 48 hours. Use this for requests that need urgent community attention — a member in a difficult situation, a time-sensitive need, or a request that's been waiting too long.

Suggest a Helper (Propose a Match)

Click Propose a Match on any open request. Select a community member from the picker. They'll see "Suggested by your community admin" in their Commitments tab and can Accept or Decline the suggestion. You're surfacing the opportunity — the decision stays with them.

When to Use Each

Boost = surface the need. You want more people to see this request and self-select to help.

Propose = connect the people. You have a specific person in mind and want to make a direct introduction.

These tools work best when used with intention. Boosting everything dilutes the signal. Proposing works because it's personal — use it when you have a genuine reason to think a specific person is the right fit.

Providers Tab

Browse the service providers who have listed themselves in your community. Useful for recommending vetted providers to members who post service requests.

Settings Tab (Community Settings + Trust Configuration)

The Settings tab consolidates all community configuration in one place — previously split across a separate Config tab and other locations.

Location & Discovery

Set your community's geographic coordinates and interest tags. These control how your community appears on the community discovery page:

  • Location — latitude/longitude used for distance sorting in geography mode
  • Tags — interest chips members can filter by (stored lowercase, e.g., tool-sharing, elderly-care)

Community Configuration

Access the trust model questionnaire and all configuration parameters:

Revisiting Your Trust Model

As your community matures, you can revisit the questionnaire at any time:

  1. Open your community → Settings tab
  2. Click Revisit trust model
  3. Answer the six questions reflecting your community as it is now
  4. Review the diff: see exactly which fields would change, with current and proposed values
  5. Apply all changes, apply only selected fields, or discard

Request Types

Choose which types your community supports. Enable or disable:

  • General Help, Rides, Services, Events, Borrowing

For each enabled type, set a karma multiplier — how much karma helpers earn. Use multipliers to signal which kinds of help your community values most.

Custom types: If your community has specific needs, create custom types via the Schema Manager linked from the Settings tab.

Karma Mechanics

  • Split (helper/requestor): How karma is divided between helpers and people who ask
  • Decay rate (half-life): How quickly reputation fades during inactivity

Trust Mechanics

  • Depth vs. breadth: Whether trust comes from repeated interactions with few people or many interactions across the community
  • Max trust hops: How many degrees of separation the system considers

Membership

  • Member cap: Maximum size (default 150)
  • Visibility: Public, Members Only, or Hybrid
  • Join approval: Whether you must approve new members manually

Onboarding

  • Karma lockout period: How long before new members can earn karma
  • Request approval: Whether new member requests need moderator review before appearing

Community Trust Score

Your community has a public trust score (0–100) visible on the community discovery page. This reflects the quality and depth of exchanges in your community — not just how many members you have. Communities with consistent, well-reviewed exchanges build higher trust scores over time.

The score is calculated from member trust signals and updated periodically. You cannot set it manually; it reflects what actually happens in your community.

Setting the Right Culture

Participate yourself. Founders who actively help build trust and model the behavior they want to see.

Welcome new members. A short personal message to someone who just joined goes a long way.

Use admin tools judiciously. Boosting every request or marking everything urgent dilutes the signal. Reserve these tools for requests that genuinely need a nudge.

Handle problems early. Address issues before they affect the community's trust in each other.