Invented example · built on Kindling · Why Kindling · The library · The spec · The Circular

The BoardPort Ellery Free Library
The Board · Port Ellery Free LibraryIn the lobby and online · free to everyone · printed every Monday

Pinned up by the reference desk

Find your people at the library.

The Board is our community notice board, in the lobby and online. Neighbors pin up flyers for things they’d like to do together: a Tuesday walk, a seed swap, a ride to the coast. You’re only ever on a flyer if you said yes to it, and it never costs a cent.

  1. §5.1Only you put you up.Nobody’s card goes on a flyer until they say yes to that flyer.
  2. §5.2A no stays a no.Say no, and that keeper can’t ask you again unless you tell them they may.
  3. §5.3Leave in one step.Take your card down any time. It’s gone within sixty seconds.

This week

6 flyers up, 1 faded

Chess After Close has faded, and its members are voting on a new keeper until 5 October.

We print the whole board every Monday for the lobby. This week’s went up this morning.

See the printout

At the reference desk

Ask for Rosa

Rosa Delgado-Park, or whoever is on the desk, can help you write your page, pin up a flyer, or meet you and vouch for you in person.

Or write to board@elleryfreelibrary.example.

This week’s board

Seven flyers, all public, all in Port Ellery.

Each flyer is a Kindling Pool: a board a neighbor pinned up, with a small file that says what it’s for, who keeps it and who is on it. Every board here is public (§3.2), so anyone can read it, online or in the lobby. The people on a board are the ones who said yes to it, and nobody else.

Lobby board · week of 28 September6 flyers up · 1 faded, further down

Pinned up by Maggie

Tuesday Morning Walkers

An easy walk around the harbor loop, Tuesdays at eight, leaving from the library steps. Any pace. We stop for herons.

Kept by
Maggie O’Rourke Email verifiedRosa Delgado-Park Signed in with OAuth
On it
4 people, each of whom said yes
Getting on
Everyone says yes first
Address
board.elleryfreelibrary.example/pools/tuesday-walkers.json

Pinned up by June

Seed and Cutting Swap

Trade seeds, cuttings and advice. The seed library drawer is by the magazines.

Kept by
June Okafor Email verifiedRosa Delgado-Park Signed in with OAuth
On it
3 people, each of whom said yes
Getting on
Everyone says yes first
Address
board.elleryfreelibrary.example/pools/seed-swap.json

Pinned up by Rosa

Conversation Partners, Any Language

Practice a language out loud with someone who speaks it, and trade back.

Kept by
Rosa Delgado-Park Signed in with OAuth
On it
3 people, each of whom said yes
Getting on
Meet us at the desk, then say yes
Address
board.elleryfreelibrary.example/pools/conversation-partners.json

Pinned up by Bram

Carpool to the Coast

Shared rides to the coast towns for work, errands and the Saturday market. Split gas, not fares.

Kept by
Bram de Wit Email verifiedRosa Delgado-Park Signed in with OAuth
On it
2 people, each of whom said yes
Getting on
Everyone says yes first
Address
board.elleryfreelibrary.example/pools/carpool-to-the-coast.json

Pinned up by Rosa

New in Town

For anyone who moved to Port Ellery in the last year.

Kept by
Rosa Delgado-Park Signed in with OAuth
On it
2 people, each of whom said yes
Getting on
Everyone says yes first
Address
board.elleryfreelibrary.example/pools/new-in-town.json

Pinned up by Elena

Fix-It Friday Volunteers

Volunteers who fix lamps, toasters, zippers and bike brakes in the library basement on the first Friday of the month.

Kept by
Elena Vasquez Email verifiedRosa Delgado-Park Signed in with OAuth
On it
3 people, each of whom said yes
Getting on
Everyone says yes first
Address
board.elleryfreelibrary.example/pools/fix-it-friday.json

Take a tab

The tabs at the bottom of every flyer carry its address. Tear one off in the lobby, type it into any Kindling app at home, and you can read the whole board. That’s all a Pool address needs to do: travel by hand, by newsletter or by word of mouth, and still work (§8.2).

Local, and it says so

Every board carries a geographic_scope of Port Ellery, United States (§3.3). An app looking for things near you can tell these are for people who can get to the library.

One flyer has faded

Chess After Close needs a new keeper.

A flyer that nobody looks after for 90 days fades. It stays on the board, and everyone on it can still read it, but the board is marked dormant until someone takes it on. Amos kept Chess After Close on his own, with no co-keeper to step in, so its members are voting.

Chess After CloseDormant · re-pin vote open until 5 October

Pinned up by Amos

Faded · dormant since 16 September

Chess After Close

Chess in the reading room after the library closes on Thursdays, with the night staff’s blessing. All levels.

Kept by
Amos Whitlock Email verified
On it
3 people, each of whom said yes
Getting on
Everyone says yes first
Address
board.elleryfreelibrary.example/pools/chess-after-close.json

Re-pin vote · open until 5 October

Should Priya keep this board?

Theo Lindqvist nominated Priya Raman to keep Chess After Close. Amos moved inland in June. Priya plays most Thursdays and has the night staff’s blessing.

The people who vote are the board’s active members: anyone who said yes to it, posted to it or wrote through it in the last 60 days (§9.2). Right now that is Priya Raman and Theo Lindqvist.

  • Priya RamanNot yet
  • Theo LindqvistFor

The rule: the nominee needs two-thirds of the members who answer (§9.3). So far 1 for, 0 against, 1 yet to answer. If the vote closed today, Priya would keep the board.

Members vote at the reference desk or by writing to board@elleryfreelibrary.example. The window is 14 days, from 21 September to 5 October.

  1. 18 JuneAmos’s last action as keeper. He moved inland that month.
  2. 16 SeptemberNinety days pass with no keeper’s action. The flyer fades, and the board’s file says dormant (§9.1).
  3. 21 SeptemberThe re-pin vote opens for 14 days. Theo nominated Priya.
  4. Today, 28 September1 for, 0 against, 1 yet to answer.
  5. 5 OctoberThe vote closes.

If two-thirds say yes

Priya becomes the keeper, the flyer is re-pinned, and the board is active again. Everyone’s card stays exactly where it was.

If not

The board is archived (§9.4). It stays up, readable, with every card still on it. It takes no new cards and passes on no messages.

If someone comes back

An archived board can be revived. Any member who returns can open a new vote, and the board can be re-pinned then.

How to pin one up

Two ways onto the Board.

You can put up a flyer of your own, or put your card on someone else’s. Either way, you do it with a page you already have, and we help at the desk.

Put up a flyer

  1. Tell us what the board is for, in a few plain sentences. That becomes its charter. Say what it isn’t, too.
  2. Pick who keeps it: you, with a librarian as co-keeper. Keepers sign in with a verified email or an account like Google or Apple (§3.2).
  3. We give the board its address and add it to our list of boards. Its flyer goes up online the same day and in the lobby the next Monday.
  4. Invite people by submitting their pages. Each one gets a request and decides.

Get your card on a flyer

  1. Have a page of your own: a Carrd, a Notion page, a blog, anything at an address you control. It’s your card, and it stays yours (§2.1).
  2. Bring the address to the desk, or give it to the flyer’s keeper.
  3. A keeper submits it. You get an email: which board, what it’s for, who keeps it, who can see it. Yes and No are the same size.
  4. Say yes, and your card goes up. Say no, and it’s remembered. Say nothing for 14 days, and the request lapses (§5.2).

Leaving is one step from any message, and your card is down within sixty seconds (§5.3).

How the desk vouch works

Some boards ask to meet you first.

Conversation Partners, Any Language pairs people up one to one, so its charter asks staff to meet each person once before they’re listed. In Kindling terms the board is vouching-required (§5.4).

What happens. Come to the reference desk with your page’s address. Rosa, or whoever is on shift, says hello, puts a face to the page, and vouches for you on that board. Then the board sends you a request like any other, and you can still say no (§5.4).

What a vouch says. One thing: a librarian met you, in person, at this desk. We don’t ask for ID and we don’t keep a copy of anything. Beside your card, the stamp reads “Vouched for by the curator” (§4.5).

Where it counts. On that one board, and nowhere else (§4.4). A vouch doesn’t follow you to other boards. An app that reads this board shows it on your card from here, and on no other card.

Priya is on two boards. Rosa vouched for her at the desk for one of them. The other board shows her email check, because a vouch stays where it was given.

On Conversation Partners, Any Language

Priya Ramandocs.example/d/priya-raman
Vouched for by the curator

Priya met Rosa at the desk, then said yes, on 6 May.

On Chess After Close

Priya Ramandocs.example/d/priya-raman
Email verified

Priya said yes with the link in the email, on 20 November.

Who can write to you

Most people here take messages from their board-mates only.

Your page can say who may write to you through Kindling (§7.2). At the desk we suggest “pool-mates only”, and 9 of the 13 people on the Board chose it.

What it means for them. Only people who share a board with them can write, and only through that board. June is on three boards, so anyone on those three can write to her.

What it means if you’re not on their board. Kindling won’t pass your message on. You’ll be told why, and they never see it. If you’d like to write to someone from the Tuesday walk, the way in is to join the walk.

Other choices. Some people take messages only from people vouched for on the same board. Some want both sides to say they’d like to hear from each other before a first message. Some take messages from anyone with a verified email. Every board shows each person’s rule beside their card.

Underneath every rule, each board subscribes to two shared block lists: the Kindling project’s own and the Circular consortium’s (§7.3). Senders on either list are turned away before any rule is read. See both lists.

Try it with real board members on the Tuesday Morning Walkers page.

Your page and the library

What the library does and doesn’t do with your page.

Your page is yours. It lives at your own address, and the Board only ever holds a short, cached reading of it.

We do

  • Read your page in full once you say yes, and keep a short summary of it with your address on each board you joined (§3.4).
  • Read it again when you update it, at most once a day (§2.6).
  • Show how you’re verified beside your card, every time (§4.5).
  • Take your card down within sixty seconds when you leave (§5.3).
  • Print each board’s title, charter, keepers and address every Monday for the lobby.

We don’t

  • Put you on any board without your yes (§5.1).
  • Copy your photos. We point to them where they already are (§2.5).
  • Print your name or your card. The lobby printout shows the flyers, and the cards stay online.
  • List anyone whose page says kindling-noindex. We check before any email goes out (§2.7). See it happen.
  • Track who reads the Board online, sell anything to anyone, or run ads.

What it costs: nothing

The Board is free to everyone, like a library card. Nobody pays to pin up a flyer, to be on one, or to be introduced to anyone.

The money comes from the library’s public budget, the same budget that pays for the books and the story hour. It covers a little staff time at the desk, the web hosting, the canary paper and the printer toner.