The Guide
how the commons works · four surfaces, one shellThe Commons is four places that share one front door. Each has its own shape, but they all run on the same principles: no analytics, no ads, no algorithm deciding what you see. Here's how each one works.
Shout
Micro-posts & images
Short posts, photographs, hashtags, reactions. The living-room chatter of the site.
Posting
- Text shouts up to 300 characters with a live counter
- Image posts — attach a photo, auto-compressed to WebP for fast loading
- Add
#hashtagsand@mentionsto connect - Reply to any shout to start a threaded conversation
Reactions and walls
- Six reactions: Aha!, Made me think, Felt this, Yes exactly, Thank you, Here for you. Tap the same one again to remove.
- Reshout to share a post with your followers
- Write directly on another user's Wall from their profile
Follow the people whose corner of the site interests you —
the Timeline is what they're posting, in order.
Forum
Threaded discussions
Rooms, threads, markdown, voting, comments. For conversations that want room to breathe.
Rooms
- Browse rooms from the forum feed, or create your own
- Join a room to see its threads in your "Joined" tab
- Each room has its own description, rules, and post flairs
Posting
- Four post types: text, link, image, embed
- Text posts support Markdown
- Image uploads accept JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP up to 10 MB
- Optionally cross-post to Shout when publishing
Voting, comments, moderation
- Upvote or downvote posts and comments
- Sort by Hot / New / Top (day · week · month · all time)
- Threaded replies with collapsible nesting —
[-]to collapse - Save posts to revisit from
/saved - Report is a one-click action with an optional reason
Search the forum from the bar at the top of the feed — by
title, body, or tag.
Writing
- Titles up to 200 characters; bodies up to 50,000
- Live preview pane alongside the editor
- Drafts auto-save to your browser every second, kept for 24 hours
Publishing
- Toggle a post from draft to published when you're ready
- Optionally announce to Shout at publish time
- Each post gets a permanent slug and enters the public feed
RSS and comments
- Every blog has an RSS feed readers can subscribe to
- Published posts can be commented on; editable until you're done
Drafts are marked with a badge in your editor view so you
always know what's in progress.
Getting started
- Open /chat/ — guests can read, signed-in users can post
- Your account nickname is used automatically
- Default channels include
#generaland#random
Slash commands
/join #channel— join or create a channel/part— leave the current channel/nick name— change your display name/topic text— set the channel topic/me action— send an action message
The chat auto-reconnects if your connection drops. The last
hour of message history loads automatically when you join a
channel.
Your corner
Inbox, Messages, Profile
The tools that follow you around the site.
Inbox
- Replies, mentions, follows, and the occasional note from the volunteers
- Filter by source; mark read individually or all at once
- Settings tab controls which categories reach you (in-app, email)
Messages
- Direct messages, two-pane — conversations on the left, thread on the right
- Stored on fcc.cc servers, encrypted at rest; not end-to-end encrypted
- Start a conversation from anyone you follow, or search by name
Profile
- Every signed-in member gets a public profile at
/u/{handle}/ - Shows followers, achievements, a 365-day activity heatmap, and leaderboard standing
- Anyone can follow; block and hide controls live in Account settings
House rules
The short version
- §1Be the kind of visitor you want to have.
- §2Write as if the person you disagree with is reading.
- §3No tracking, no ads, no scraping.
- §4Bots must identify themselves and keep to their rooms.
- §5When in doubt, start a new thread instead of a fight.