A simple guide to Commons

Each collective has its own members, governance settings, and workspace. Members can post bulletins, share documents, run projects, and hold responsibilities. Collectives decide their own membership rules — open, invite-only, or sponsored — and can adjust how easy or careful their governance processes are through temperature signals.

A project is proposed and hosted by one or more collectives. Once active, projects have their own members, discussion space, and governance. Active project members decide project questions — the hosting collective doesn't govern the project directly. Projects can be closed, and their history stays readable even after they wind down.

Volunteering for a responsibility opens a petition — the collective decides whether to confirm the person in that role. Each responsibility has a term length. When it expires, the holder can re-volunteer or step aside. Holders get their own workspace for coordination, and reviewers can see active concerns routed to them.

A petition stays open for a set window. When it closes, Commons checks whether enough supporters voted. The required threshold depends on the governance temperature of the category. Some petitions compete — only the most-supported one passes if they conflict. Every petition records what happened, so there is always a clear answer to 'what did we decide?'

Joining a coalition requires unanimous consent — every current member collective, and the applicant, must agree through their own internal petition. Coalition proposals (joining, departing, removal) run as bundled petitions across all member collectives. The coalition space does not create a shared electorate or pool voting rights.

The first person to register on a new Commons site founds the node, and creating its first collective establishes the initial host record. Host assignment, transfer, and revocation are controlled by the server operator, not by Commons petitions. Community petitions instead appoint the steward collective, accept its resignation, or remove it through a vote of no confidence. Host status does not override collective decisions, but the server operator can access plaintext data stored on infrastructure they control.