The Guide
The Guide - contents The Storyus Guide

Reading

For everyone - whatever your role

Arriving Who sees what Ways to read Views & bookmarks

Creating

For members, admins and owners

Getting started Photos & media Journeys Streams Moments Postcards Video Essays Reflections Albums Timelines Magazines Publishing & reach

Admin

For owners and admins

People & roles Collective setup Housekeeping

Admin · chapter 3 of 3

Housekeeping

Curating bookmarks, the welcome story, and keeping the place warm.

Past people and lists, running a collective is mostly hosting: noticing what the family loves, and keeping the doorway warm for whoever arrives next. Two tools help.

Bookmarks curation - what the family loves

Everyone's bookmarks are private - that promise holds. But owners and admins get an aggregate: Admin → Bookmarks curation shows which stories the collective is bookmarking, without saying who. It's the closest thing to applause here, and it's a curation instrument: the stories your people keep returning to are the ones that belong in the magazine's front section, or behind the guests' front door.

storyus.life/+yours/$admin/bookmarks
The bookmarks curation view: the collective's most-bookmarked stories, aggregated anonymously
What the family keeps coming back to - aggregated, never attributed.

The welcome story - your doorway

Every collective is created with a first story already in it: a welcome, addressed to whoever you invite, signed with your name as the host. It's an ordinary essay - which is the point: edit it into your own voice. Say what this place is for, what to do in the first hour, and who to ask for help. New arrivals are nudged toward it on their first visits, so it's the highest-traffic page you'll ever write.

Or retire it. It's yours like any story - once everyone's found their feet, some families quietly set it to private and let the archive speak for itself.

A good host's habits

  • Seed before you invite. A dozen photos, a few stream posts, one real story - people mirror what they find.
  • Start newcomers low and promote generously. Inner circle first is a kindness, not a slight; member follows when they want to tell.
  • Watch the curation view monthly, and let it edit your magazine.
  • Add categories at the third story that needs one - and name them like they're permanent, because they are.

The Guide, complete

That's all three tracks. The archive itself takes years - which is rather the point. Back to the beginning, or out to +demos to see where it all ends up.