How to create an account
- Open Commons Chat and choose Join Commons Chat.
- Enter your email address and choose a username.
- Open the sign-in link sent to your email address.
- Once signed in, you can start a conversation or reply to an existing one.
If you already have an account, choose Sign in and enter the same email address. A fresh sign-in link will be sent to you.
What is public and what stays private
Posts, replies and your public profile information are public. They are intended to be readable on the open web and may also appear in RSS feeds.
Your sign-in email address is private account information. It is used to create and access your account and is not displayed with your posts or public profile.
Do not put private information into a post unless you genuinely intend to publish it.
How sign-in is protected
Commons Chat does not ask you to create a password. Sign-in is handled through a link sent to the email address attached to your account, so access depends on control of that email inbox.
The service is delivered over HTTPS, which encrypts traffic between your browser and the server in transit. Your sign-in email is kept as private account data rather than published with your posts.
No online service can sensibly promise absolute security. Keep control of your email account, do not forward sign-in links, and report anything suspicious to the Commons operator.
Conversation is not the civic record
Commons Chat is for discussion: questions, disagreement, corrections, first-hand knowledge and useful links. A post does not automatically become evidence in the Civic Commons.
Where a conversation contains something that should become durable civic evidence or context, it can be submitted through the Commons contribution and review process.
Who runs Commons Chat?
Commons Chat is operated as part of Ealing Civic Commons. The Commons is a local civic-information project that brings together public-interest reporting, official records, community sources and structured civic context across the borough.
Commons Chat uses the open-source rss.chat software as its conversation engine, with a Civic Commons interface and additional local integration. Conversations are published through open web feeds rather than being trapped inside a proprietary social network.
Rules and moderation
Read the Community Guidelines before posting. Disagreement and criticism are welcome; abuse, threats, harassment, doxxing, spam and manipulation are not.
Reports are reviewed by a human. Reporting a post does not automatically hide it, and reports are not treated as votes against opinions.
See how the project works
You can follow the wider project through the Civic Commons roadmap and the public documents, including the technical architecture and source-register material.