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
- From your dashboard, click Create Community
- Give it a name and description — be clear about who it's for
- If you want a pre-configured starting point, choose a template — otherwise proceed to the trust model questionnaire
- Answer six questions about how your community thinks about trust and relationships — the system infers config parameters from your answers
- Review and customize in the config editor (optional — click "Skip & Create" to go straight through)
- Publish
See Setting Your Community's Trust Model for a full explanation of each question and what it controls.
Community Configuration
Access configuration from the Config tab in your community (founder only).
The trust model questionnaire pre-fills all parameters when you create the community. You can always edit individual values directly in the config editor for fine-grained control.
Revisiting Your Trust Model
As your community matures, the answers that made sense at the start may no longer fit. You can revisit the questionnaire at any time:
- Open your community → Config tab
- Click Revisit trust model
- Answer the six questions reflecting your community as it is now
- Review the diff: see exactly which fields would change, with current and proposed values
- Apply all changes, apply only selected fields, or discard
This makes it easy to evolve your trust model gradually without touching every setting.
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 (dog walking, language exchange), create custom types via the Schema Manager linked from your admin panel.
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
Admin: Browsing Requests
From the Requests tab (admins only), you can browse all requests in your community:
- Filter by status: Open, Pending, Matched, Completed
- See who requested, what they need, and when
- Useful for high-touch communities where admins play an active matchmaking role — spotting needs and connecting requestors with potential helpers
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.
Handle problems early. Address issues before they affect the community's trust in each other.