The Build Room
The work as it happens — what shipped, what broke, what was reversed and why. The same log the founder reads.
Why this isn’t a withheld fact: It is process, not record. Nothing civic is in it that is not already public on the site.
Outpost · first 90 days
The Founders' Circle
The first ninety days, from the inside.
A room of a few hundred people who show up before there is anything to show up to, get the build as it happens, and get a recorded say in the decisions that are still open.
The facts are never the perk.
Most of what we are building is free to everyone forever and always will be. What the circle gets is not better information — it is earlier, closer, and louder. If that is not worth your time, the whole app is still yours and nobody will ask you for anything.
Free to everyone, forever
- Every civic fact, and every source behind it
- The Citizen's Guide, the Academy, the Founders' Library, the Story Shelf
- Every game, for adults and for kids
- The Watch — its beats, its data, and what it cannot show
- Every explainer, every correction, and every record of us having been wrong
What the circle gets
- Process — the build as it happens, decisions before they are settled
- Earliness — features in preview before they are public
- Voice — a recorded, answered say in open questions
- Credit — your name in the record, if you want it there
- Access — a direct line to the founder
Hold us to it: If a member of the circle knows a civic fact a member of the public cannot look up, the line has been crossed and it is a defect, not a feature.
Not membership in anything. Not a donation. Not a political affiliation. Not a subscription you have to buy. Joining changes nothing about your legal relationship to any organisation and costs nothing.
What you get
First Look
Features in preview before they are public, including the ones that are still wrong. You will see the version that gets thrown away.
Why this isn’t a withheld fact: Earliness, not exclusivity. Everything in preview ships publicly, and quickly.
The Founder's Table
A standing weekly thread where the founder answers directly, in his own words, unfiltered. Not a newsletter and not a broadcast — a conversation you are in.
Why this isn’t a withheld fact: Access to a person, not to information. A summary of what was discussed is published publicly afterwards.
A recorded say
Real open questions put to the circle before they are decided. Your answer is counted, published, and answered — including when the decision goes the other way.
Why this isn’t a withheld fact: Voice, not information. The questions and the results are published publicly; the circle gets to answer first.
First Verifier
The fact-checking backlog. Every externally checkable claim on this platform has to be opened and confirmed by a named human, and no machine is permitted to do it. Take a claim, open the source, confirm or dispute it. Your name goes on the record permanently.
Why this isn’t a withheld fact: It is the opposite of a secret — it is the work of making the public record checkable, done in public, credited in public.
This is the perk that is actually a job, and it is the one most likely to matter. The verification standard is in docs/PROFESSIONAL_STANDARDS.md and the tooling is apps/api/scripts/verify_claims.py.
Named in the record
Your name in the founding record, permanently, if you want it there. Opt-in, removable by you alone, at any time, without asking anyone.
Why this isn’t a withheld fact: Credit, not information. The founding record is a public page — the perk is being on it, not being able to read it, and anyone can read it.
The Red Team
Try to break it. Find a claim that is wrong, a source that does not say what we said it says, a gate that does not bite. Confirmed findings are published with your name and a note of what was fixed.
Why this isn’t a withheld fact: Every finding is published, including the embarrassing ones. That is the point.
Free months of the product
Complimentary access to any paid product tier for the founding window, and beyond it for people who did the work.
Why this isn’t a withheld fact: It is product access, not information. Every civic surface is free to everyone regardless.
Product subscription access ONLY. This buys app features. It is not membership, not a donation, not a contribution, not donor status, and must never be described as any of those. See the Track D payment firewall in CLAUDE.md.
A recorded say — and what that does and does not mean
- 1An open question is posted to the circle before it is decided, with the actual trade-off stated rather than a leading summary
- 2Members answer. Answers are counted and the count is published, whatever it says
- 3The decision is made by the people who are legally responsible for making it
- 4The decision and its reasoning are published to the circle and to the public — including when it goes against the count, and then especially
This is not a binding vote. Decision-making authority in a not-for-profit corporation sits with its board, and it cannot be given away by a website. Telling a community it decides, and then overriding it the first time something matters, costs more trust than never having claimed it. Advisory and honest beats binding and false.
What makes it real anyway: The count is published even when it loses, and the answer explains itself. A community that can see it was overruled, and why, has more evidence of being listened to than one that is told it decides and cannot check.
Never put to a vote
- Anything about a named living person
- Whether a fact is true — that is a question for a source, not a show of hands
- Anything that would breach the party firewall, the campaign prohibition, or the age floor
- Whether to gate a civic fact. The line is not up for a vote.
Where it lives
Discord
The room · 16+Persistent rooms, threads, voice, and roles. It is where a community that talks to each other lives, and it is the only one of the three where members can hear each other rather than only us.
Goes here: The circle: build room, first look, the founder's table, advisory questions, verification work.
Not open yet — no invite exists to hand out. When it does, it will be linked from this page and nowhere else.
Telegram
The signal · 16+One-way broadcast that reaches a phone on a bad connection, anywhere in the world, with no account on our side and no app to install. It is the right home for The Watch's digests, which are chronological, occasional, and want no discussion attached.
Goes here: The Watch digests, corrections, and launch notices. Public channel, no membership required, nothing gated.
Not open yet — no invite exists to hand out. When it does, it will be linked from this page and nowhere else.
Postiz
The megaphone · 16+Scheduling to public social accounts from one place, self-hostable, so the posting queue is ours rather than a platform's. Outbound only.
Goes here: Public posts: what shipped, what The Watch found, corrections. The same material as the site, shaped for each surface.
Not open yet — no invite exists to hand out. When it does, it will be linked from this page and nowhere else.
No Outpost room is a party room
No Outpost community space is a party space. Not the Discord, not the Telegram channel, not the social accounts, not a private room inside any of them.
Outpost Civic Education is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation preparing an application for recognition of exemption under Section 501(c)(3). Federal law bars a 501(c)(3) from participating or intervening in any political campaign. A community platform is the easiest place in the entire operation to breach that, because it is conversational, fast, logged permanently, and screenshottable by anyone in the room.
Who it binds first: Us. The founder is the most likely person to breach this by accident, because he holds both roles and the app has no way to tell which hat he is wearing when he types.
Before you join
16+. Discord's own terms set thirteen and some jurisdictions set higher. Outpost has a kids' surface, an Academy, and twenty-five games, so children are genuinely in this audience — and pointing a child from a kids' page at an adult chat room is a safeguarding failure before it is a compliance one. Sixteen is above every platform floor and leaves no ambiguity.
What we ask for: An email address, and which of the six roles you would actually do. Nothing else.
What we never ask for: Money, in any form, at any point; Party affiliation, voter registration, or political preference; A phone number, a home address, or a government identifier; Anything about a person under sixteen.
Nothing is scored. Nothing a person does in a community space affects what they are shown anywhere, ranks them against anyone, or is counted toward a status. There is nowhere in the system for such a number to go, which is the only way to be sure.
Leaving: A person can leave, unlink, and remove their name from the record alone, instantly, without asking anyone and without being asked why.