Managing Your Commitments

Your Helping tab shows every active exchange you're part of — requests you've offered to help with, matches proposed to you by an admin, and exchanges you've already completed. Cards are sorted by what needs your attention most urgently.

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Action-Priority Ordering

Commitments are sorted into three tiers, and you always see the most urgent tier first:

Tier	Status	What it means
1	Needs Your Response	A match has been proposed and is waiting for you to accept or decline
2	In Progress	You've accepted and the exchange is underway
3	Completed	The exchange is done

Within each tier, commitments are ordered newest first. This means a match proposed five minutes ago appears above one proposed yesterday — but both appear before anything "In Progress".

This ordering is intentional: proposed matches have a real person waiting. Responding promptly is part of building trust in your community.

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The Step Indicator

Each commitment card shows three dots near the top right corner. These represent the three stages of an exchange:

• ● (filled dot) = current step
• ○ (empty dot) = future step

So a card at the "In Progress" stage shows: ○ ● ○ — past, current, future.

Hovering or tapping a dot shows its label (Proposed, In Progress, Completed).

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Accepting a Proposed Match

When a match appears in "Needs Your Response":

1. Read the request details on the card
2. Click Accept to confirm you can help
3. The card moves to "In Progress" and the requester is notified
4. Use the inline conversation to coordinate timing and logistics

If you accept and then realize you can't follow through, cancel promptly so someone else can step in. Reliability is your most visible reputation signal.

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Declining a Proposed Match

If you can't help:

1. Click Decline on the "Needs Your Response" card
2. The card is removed from your commitments
3. The request returns to open status so another helper can be found

Declining is always better than accepting and not showing up.

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The Inline Conversation

Every commitment card has a built-in conversation so you can coordinate without leaving the page.

To open the conversation: Click the chat icon on the commitment card. The conversation panel expands inline below the card details — you don't navigate away.

While open:

• Send messages directly to the other person
• See your message history
• The unread count badge on the chat icon updates in real time

To close the conversation: Click the chevron (∧) button at the top of the expanded panel. The panel collapses back to the card's compact view.

The conversation stays open as you scroll — it only closes when you explicitly click the chevron.

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Completing an Exchange (Two-Phase Confirmation)

Completion requires both parties to confirm. This prevents karma from transferring until the help has genuinely happened.

How it works:

1. After the help is done, both the helper and the requester click Mark Done / Confirm Done on their commitment card
2. The first person to click sees: "Your completion recorded — waiting for the other party"
3. Once the second person confirms, the exchange is fully completed:
   • The card moves to the Completed tier
   • Karma transfers from the requester to the helper
   • Your trust score updates to reflect the exchange

If the other party doesn't confirm: The exchange stays "In Progress." You can message them via the inline conversation to let them know you've marked your side done.

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Withdrawing an Offer

If you've offered to help but circumstances change before the requester accepts, you can withdraw your offer:

1. Find the proposed commitment in the "Awaiting Acceptance" section of your Helping tab
2. Click Withdraw Offer
3. The offer is removed and the request returns to open status

You can only withdraw before the requester accepts. Once a match is accepted ("In Progress"), reach out via the inline conversation instead.