Trail Guide · 07
Your name, and what the Ward knows
There is no Ward account. No email address, password or real name is required to look around or take part.
The Ward remembers only what it needs to remember for the things you choose to do.
Your handle
When you want to post, review or message someone, choose a handle. It can be 3–20 letters, numbers or underscores, and it must be unique.
Your handle is how other people know you in the Ward. It doesn’t have to be your name, but choose one you like: once you set it, it stays with you.
You can also choose an avatar: an emoji on a colored background. Your avatar can change whenever you like.
Your devices
By default, your phone and your computer look like two different neighbors to the Ward.
You can link them if you want the Ward to recognize both as you. Your handle and Standing will travel between them.
Signing out removes the Ward’s memory from that device. It doesn’t erase what you’ve posted.
What other people see
What accompanies you depends on where you are.
A review carries your handle. A Lobby post carries nothing. Bulletin can let you choose, and some kinds of posts are anonymous by default.
When someone replies to a review on behalf of a Place, you see the Place—not the individual Guardian or Keyholder who wrote it.
What the Ward knows
The Ward can recognize a device, that it has been around the neighborhood, that it belongs to a Resident, or that it has been entrusted with a Place.
It doesn’t need your real name to know any of those things.
The Ward can’t produce a list of its residents because it never collects the information it would need to make one. Identity is collected only when something genuinely requires it.