Spaces & roles: how community works in locali¶
At a glance. A space (in German "Raum") is a named group with its own feed, calendar and membership — organised by municipality, club or topic. How you join is set by the join mode. Within a space there are clear roles — from Guest to Owner — that define exactly who may do what. Spaces have a simple lifecycle (active → archived → deleted), and moderation keeps things fair and up to date.
Screenshot: Space with feed, tabs and membership badge — assets/screenshots/community-overview.png
What is a space?¶
In locali there is no single, overwhelming timeline. Instead: spaces — each with its own feed, its own calendar and its own membership. A space can be a municipality, a district, a club or a topic. You are a member of several spaces at once and only see what is relevant to you.
Every space has an address (a "slug", e.g. /spaces/musterstadt), a description and, optionally, a code of conduct that is shown before you join.
Space, organisation, or place? A space is a group with a feed and membership where people get involved. An organisation is an actor (club, authority, business) with its own profile that feeds in content (→ Organisations). A place is a point on the public map — no members, no feed (→ Places).
For everyone / members¶
Joining a space¶
How you become a member depends on the join mode set by the owners:
| Mode | How it works |
|---|---|
| Open | Anyone can join directly — membership is active immediately. |
| Request | You send a join request; a moderator approves or declines it. |
| Invite | Joining only with a valid invitation code. |
| Managed | No self-join — owners or moderators add members specifically. |
If a request is declined, you can try again after a short waiting period (7 days by default). You can leave a space again at any time.
What you can do as a member¶
| Role | What you can do |
|---|---|
| Guest | Read the feed, see events — no posts of your own. |
| Member | Create posts, comment, react, report content, RSVP to events. |
| Moderator | Everything a member can + create events, pin posts / mark them as announcements, review reported content, handle join requests, ban or remove members. |
| Owner | Everything a moderator can + edit the space profile, appoint/remove moderators, curate routing, archive or delete the space. The highest role. |
Which role new members receive when they join is set by the owners (default: Member).
Get involved¶
In every space you can get involved: request help, offer something or look for volunteers. These posts sit in the same feed as everything else — they are part of what is happening locally, and that is precisely why they get seen. They are still recognisable at once: by a category, by a badge naming their kind (help request, offer, volunteers needed) and by a coloured edge on the card.
So that a burst of them cannot take the feed over, never more than two stand directly in a row while there is anything else to show. The rest slips in behind the next entry — nothing is lost, it is only spread out. → Features & possibilities
For moderators & owners¶
Moderators and owners work in the space's management area (reached via the gear icon). It is organised into tabs — including Content, Settings, Moderation (landing point), Members and Routing (owners only).
Moderation: two tasks¶
- Review reported content — Posts and comments reported by members land in the moderation queue. You confirm a report (violation, will be handled) or dismiss it (no violation).
- Handle join requests — For "Request" spaces you approve or decline new requests; you can also ban, remove or reactivate members.
Two small badges on the tabs show you live when something is waiting: open join requests on the Members tab, open reports on the Moderation tab. The numbers update in real time — without reloading the page.
Screenshot: Moderation queue with confirm/dismiss — assets/screenshots/community-moderation-queue.png
The owner model¶
A space is never "ownerless": whoever creates a space automatically becomes its first owner. The owner model follows a few clear rules:
- Owners are assigned by an operator (hub admin) — there is no verification code as there is for organisations.
- A space can have up to three active owners — handy for stand-ins and handovers.
- Only owners may curate a space's routing (which sources and topics land here) and archive or delete the space.
The lifecycle of a space¶
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Active | Fully usable, accepts members. |
| Archived | Temporarily suspended and read-only — reversible. |
| Deleted | Permanently removed. Reachable only from "Archived" (a deliberate two-step). |
For admins & operators¶
As a hub admin you steer the bigger picture in the governance hub (→ Management).
Platform rights stay with you¶
Some settings are deliberately always the platform's responsibility — regardless of whether a space already has owners:
- managing invitation codes (for "Invite" spaces),
- changing the join mode and basic settings,
- assigning or removing owners.
The stand-in rule¶
locali separates platform management from space stewardship. As soon as a space has an active owner, you as an admin stay out of day-to-day business: you do not moderate, you do not edit the profile — that is the job of the owners and moderators.
Only when a space has no active owner do you step in as a stand-in and can moderate and manage until someone takes on the responsibility again. This keeps self-governance the rule and intervention the exception.
How admins create spaces and maintain settings is described in Management → Spaces and the space settings.
Notifications¶
Important events — an approved join request, a new report in moderation, a role change — reach you as a notification in your inbox. New notifications arrive in real time. → Notifications
Frequently asked questions¶
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is the difference between a moderator and an owner? | A moderator looks after content, events and members. An owner can also edit the profile, appoint moderators, curate routing and archive/delete the space. |
| Can a space have no owner? | On creation, the creator automatically becomes owner. If, exceptionally, an owner is missing, a hub admin steps in as a stand-in. |
| How many owners are possible? | Up to three active owners per space. |
| Can I leave a space again? | Yes, at any time. After a decline, a new request is possible after a short waiting period (default: 7 days). |
| Can a deleted space be restored? | No. Deletion is permanent and only possible from the archived (reversible) state. |