Joining a Group

How to become a member, what a member card is, and what leaving means.

#Before You Join

You join with an account: sign in with Google or connect a wallet first (see Authentication). The membership belongs to that account's address. Use the same account later to respond to the group's campaigns.

Each group chooses how people join. Its page says which ways it has, under About and on the button at the top: "Join", "Apply to join", "Join with an invitation" or "Take your seat". If the button says "Joining is closed", the admins closed every way in for now.

Joining is a transaction on the blockchain. With a Google account it is sent through the Logbook sponsor and costs you nothing; a wallet pays a small gas fee (see Who Pays in Groups).

#The Ways In

#Invitation Link

The admins hand out one link for everyone they invite. Open it, sign in, and press Join.

A link has a limit of how many people may use it and a last day. When either is reached, the link stops working
Admins can revoke a link at any time
Every join through a link takes one of its places, also when someone who left comes back
The secret part of the link stays in the link, after the #, and is never sent to a server. Your account signs your own address with it, so the signature that reaches the blockchain works for you only
A link can also be set to open an application instead of letting people in directly. The page then says "You are invited to apply"

#Application

You write a few lines under "Introduce yourself": who you are and how the admin can check it. An admin reads it and approves or rejects.

The text is encrypted for the admins of the group. Other members never see it. It holds about 500 bytes
Your address is public on the blockchain, also when the application is not accepted
If the group asks for a member card, the card goes with the application, and the admin reads it before deciding
While your application waits you are not a member, and no other way in works for this account. You can withdraw it
A group holds at most 200 waiting applications
After a rejection you can apply to the same group again when 7 days have passed. An admin can end that wait early. The wait holds back applications only: an invitation link still lets you in

#Join Button

Anyone joins in one click. Only public groups can have a Join button.

Joining just before a campaign does not get you into that campaign: a campaign counts the people who were members when it was created (see Campaigns for Groups).

#A Seat on the List

The admins upload the list of the community: one line, called a seat, for each member, flat or other unit. For each seat they hand out a personal link.

1Open your personal link. It leads to the group and carries the key of your seat
2Sign in
3Press "Take my seat"

Taking a seat ties it to your address in every group of the community. Nobody else can take it then
The link is the key to one seat. Whoever opens it first with their account takes the seat, so treat it like a key
The key stays in the link and is never sent to a server
You take a seat once, in the community. A subgroup that lets people in by its list then opens with the seat you already hold: nothing more is asked. If you try a subgroup first, the page tells you to take your seat in the community first
If the page says the seat was taken by another address and it should be yours, ask an admin: the owner of the community can free the seat and hand out a new link

#Organisation Mailbox

Not available yet. This way would let people in who sign in with a Google account on the mail domain of the organisation. It needs the Logbook check server, which is not running. The option is shown switched off.

#After You Joined

You are a member from that moment. Campaigns created from then on count you; campaigns created before do not
You are also counted in every group above the one you joined, while the links upward are active
The group shows on the Groups page under "My groups", and its unanswered campaigns under "Waiting for you"
In a private group you can now read the name, the description and the other members' cards

#The Member Card

Admins need names, and members want to see who is in the council. The blockchain only knows addresses. A member card fills that gap.

One card per group. A card exists only in the group you wrote it for. Other groups cannot match you through it, and it is never a public profile
The group decides what it asks. Its card form lists the fields, for example "Name", "Flat number", "Email". Each field is required or optional, and each is marked for the readers it is for
Two kinds of readers. A field marked "Members of this group" is read by the admins and the members. A field marked "Admins only" is read by the admins only. An email usually goes there
Encrypted. A card is encrypted in your browser. Only the readers above, and you, can open it, and only while you are a member
Size. A card holds 2,048 bytes once encrypted: about 1,590 bytes of text when only members read it, about 1,130 when a part is for the admins as well

A group can require a card to join. Then every way in takes the card together with the membership, and nobody becomes a member without one. The contract checks that a card is there. It cannot check what the card says: a card is a self-description, and nobody verifies it.

You fill in the card when you join, and change it later on the page of the group. The Account page lists the cards your groups hold under My data. It also keeps a draft that prefills the card of the next group you join; the draft is stored only in your browser.

Before you save a card, know its limits:

Leaving the group closes the card: nobody can open it any more. It stays closed if you come back, until you write it again
Anyone who read the card earlier may have kept a copy
The old version stays in the history of the blockchain, in encrypted form
You can remove your card, unless the group requires one: then you replace it, or leave

#Leaving a Group

"Leave the group" is on the page of the group.

Campaigns that are running keep their participants. You stay counted in every campaign created while you were a member, and can still respond to them
Campaigns created after you leave do not count you
Your card closes
Your address stays in the public history of the group, with the days you joined and left
A seat on the community's list stays tied to your address until the owner of the community frees it
You can come back the way you came in, while that way is open

#If an Admin Ends Your Membership

A removal lasts. Every way in that needs no admin stays closed for your address: an invitation link, the Join button, a seat on the list, even if you still hold the link or the seat. Only an admin lets you back in, by approving an application from you or by lifting the removal.

You stay counted in campaigns created before the removal. This is deliberate: an admin cannot remove people from a running campaign.