# Hylo Steward Guide *** ### 1. The One Question That Drives Every Decision Before you create your group, it's essential you ask yourself - **What do you want people to actually do here?** What actions, exchanges, conversations, and contributions do you want to see happening in this space? This question is the foundation of every good setup decision on Hylo. The answer shapes your navigation, your post types, your chat rooms, your onboarding flow, your agreements, and your moderation approach. Groups that skip this step end up with cluttered menus, confused members, and low engagement — not because Hylo doesn't work, but because the setup didn't reflect a clear intention. Come back to this question at each step in this guide. When you're not sure whether to add a feature, create a chat room, or write a new agreement, ask: *does this serve what I want people to do here?* {% embed url="" %} #### Common Answers to This Question Different communities answer it differently. Here are a few examples and how they translate into setup choices: **"I want members to share resources and support each other."** → Prioritize Requests and Offers. Seed the space with your own requests and offers first. Make mutual support visible in your navigation. **"I want members to show up for events and stay connected between them."** → Put Events front and center. Use chat rooms for between-event conversation. Use posts for follow-up and reflection. **"I want members to participate in decisions."** → Set up Governance early. Write clear agreements. Use proposals for real decisions, even small ones, to build the muscle. **"I want members to learn and develop skills together."** → Build Tracks and structure your onboarding as a learning journey. **"I want members to know each other and build relationships."** → Prioritize the Member Directory and profile completeness. Use discussion posts for introductions and storytelling. *** ### 2. Creating Your Group To create a group, click on the (+) icon in the bottom left corner of Hylo and hen on Group. You will be prompted to choose your **Home** View - this can be changed. #### Basic Setup When you create a group on Hylo, you'll set up the following: **Name.** Choose something clear and recognizable. This is how people will find and identify your community. **Purpose statement.** A short, single-sentence description of why this group exists and what it's working toward. This appears prominently on your group's page and in the Group Explorer. Make it specific, "A community of regenerative farmers in the Willamette Valley sharing knowledge and resources" is more useful than "A group for farmers." **Description.** A longer description with more context — who this is for, what members can expect, how to get started. This is a good place to include your community's values and any context a new member would need. **Location.** Add a geographic location if your group is place-based. This makes your group discoverable on the map. **Avatar and banner image.** Visual identity matters. Even simple, clear images make a group feel intentional and distinct. * **Image Ratio for Group Avatar:** Square ratio (size between 512x512px and 1024x1024px) * **Image Ratio for Group Banner**: Cinema 16:9 ratio (1600x900px) **Related Skills.** Set related skills relevant to your group. When folks sign up, they will be asked if they have any of these skills. By clicking on a relevant skill, this will automatically be added to their profile. ### Set your Privacy Settings There are two dimensions to privacy: visibility - who can see your group, and accessibility - who can access your group. #### Visibility Settings **Public.** Anyone can find and see your group's content. Good for communities that want broad reach and discoverability. **Protected.** The group is visible and findable, but content is only visible to members. People can request to join. **Private.** The group is not visible to non-members. Access is by invitation only. Choose visibility based on who you want to find you and what you want them to see before they join. #### Access Settings **Open.** Anyone can join immediately without approval. **By request.** People can request to join and stewards approve or decline. You can add Join Questions to gather information during this step. **Invite only.** New members can only join via a direct invitation from a steward or existing member. invitation from a steward or existing member. *** ### 3. Setting Up Your Welcome Page The Welcome Page is one of the most valuable tools available to stewards. It's a dedicated page configurable in your group settings that new members see when they arrive, and that any member can return to for orientation and guidance. Think of it as your group's front door: it sets the tone, explains what this space is for, and tells people what to do first. {% embed url="" %} #### What to Include A strong Welcome Page typically covers: **A warm welcome.** Acknowledge that someone new has arrived and express genuine enthusiasm for having them here. This doesn't need to be long — a sentence or two goes a long way. **What this community is.** A brief description of who this group is for, what it's working toward, and what makes it distinct. New members should finish reading this and feel clear about whether they're in the right place. **Community agreements and norms.** A brief summary of how members are expected to show up, or a link to your full agreements page. Setting expectations early prevents confusion later. **How to get started.** The two or three most important first steps for a new member. Be specific: "Introduce yourself in #introductions," "Fill out your profile including your skills and location," "RSVP to our next community call." Don't give them ten things, give them three. **How to navigate the group.** A brief orientation to your Group Menu, what the main sections are and where to find things. This is especially helpful if your navigation has been customized significantly. **Who to contact with questions.** Name a steward or point of contact so new members know who to reach out to if they're confused or need help. **Note:** The Welcome Page can be added to the Group Menu so folks can refer back to it. #### Finding the Welcome Page Setting Go to **Group Settings → Welcome Page** to create and edit your Welcome Page. You can use rich text, include links, and embed media. You will see a toggle at the top of the page to set the Welcome Page as the first thing folks see when they enter the group for the first time. **Note**: you can include the Welcome Page in your Group's navigation so it is easily referable. *** ### 4. Configuring Your Navigation The Group Menu is your community's front door. Stewards can fully customize what appears there, which views, which chat rooms, which links, and in what order. To edit your Group Menu, scroll to the bottom of the left-hand menu and click **Edit Menu**. {% embed url="" %} #### The Setup Guide When you first create a group, you'll see a Setup Guide widget in your Group Menu. This displays remaining setup tasks and disappears section by section as you complete them. Use it as a checklist for getting your group ready to launch. #### Choosing Your Home View The Home view is the first thing members see when they enter your group. By default this is the main chat room, but you can change it to any view, a stream of posts, an events calendar, a custom landing page, or a specific chat room. To change the Home view, click the **Home icon** on whichever view you want members to land on first. Whatever you choose as Home cannot be moved or reordered in the menu. **Ask yourself:** What's the first thing you want a new member to see and do when they arrive? #### What to Include in Your Navigation Less is more. A cluttered menu signals that you haven't made decisions yet. Show only what's relevant to your community's core activities. You can always add more later as your community grows into it. **Always include:** * Your primary communication channel (main chat room or stream) * Whatever drives your community's core activity (Events, Requests & Offers, Governance, etc.) * Members directory **Include if relevant:** * A custom welcome view or pinned orientation post * Secondary chat rooms * Custom views for filtered content your community uses regularly **Leave out (initially):** * Features you haven't activated yet * Views that don't serve what you want people to do here **Note:** Even if you don't include a view in the group menu, folks can always access it by clicking on the **All Views** button at the bottom of the menu. #### Adding and Rearranging Views In Edit Menu mode: * Click the **(+)** icon to add a view * Drag views using the drag handle to reorder them * Remove a view by dragging it to the top of the menu where it says "Drag here to remove" * Click **Done Editing** to save #### Container Views Container views let you group related content — chat rooms, custom views, posts, or member lists, under a single menu item. Useful for organizing complex group structures or highlighting specific content. Create one by clicking **Add New View → Add Container** and selecting what to put inside it. #### Custom Views Custom views let you create filtered lenses into your group's content, a stream filtered by topic, a collection of specific posts, or an external link. Add them by clicking **Add New View** in Edit Menu mode. {% embed url="" %} *** ### 5. Setting Up Communication Hylo supports two primary modes of communication within a group: **posts** and **chat**. Understanding when to use each — and helping your members understand this — is one of the most important setup decisions you'll make. #### Posts vs. Chat — The Core Distinction **Chat** is for real-time, informal, fast conversation. It's great for quick questions, coordination, announcements, and the kind of back-and-forth that doesn't need to be found again later. Chat is ephemeral by design. **Posts** are for anything that deserves permanence — decisions, resources, events, requests, knowledge, and conversations that the group should be able to search and reference over time. Posts are threaded, rich, and persistent. A common mistake in new groups is defaulting everything to chat and then wondering why institutional knowledge never accumulates. Cultivate a culture where important things live in posts, not buried in chat history. {% embed url="" %} #### Creating Chat Rooms To create a new chat room, navigate to the **Chats** section of your Group Menu and click **Add New Chat**. Give it a clear, specific name. Chat rooms are denoted with a hashtag (#room-name). **How many chat rooms should you create?** Start with fewer than you think you need. One general chat room is enough for most new groups. Add topical rooms as the need becomes evident, not in anticipation of it. Empty chat rooms make a group feel inactive. **Common chat room structures:** * **#general** — the main room for community-wide conversation * **#announcements** — a lower-traffic room for important updates * **#introductions** — a dedicated space for new member welcomes * Topic or working-group specific rooms as needed #### Chat Room Notifications By default, members receive notifications for all messages in the main chat room and mentions-only in other rooms. Once a member participates in a room for the first time, they're subscribed to all messages in that room. **Remind members they can adjust this via the Bell icon at the top of each room.** #### Announcements As a steward, you can send a blast announcement from any chat room by clicking the announcement icon. Announcements are promoted to members' inboxes and sent as push/email notifications, regardless of their usual notification settings for that room. *** ### 6. Set Group Agreements Agreements are the written commitments, norms, and codes of conduct that define how your community operates together. They're one of the most powerful and underused features on Hylo. To set your Group Agreements, navigate to Group Settings and then to **Agreements.** #### Why Agreements Matter Agreements do two things. First, they set explicit expectations for members before they join and participate — reducing misunderstandings and making accountability conversations easier. Second, they anchor your moderation. When a member flags content on Hylo, they identify which specific agreement is being violated. Moderation grounded in shared commitments is far more legitimate than moderation based on individual judgment. #### Writing Your Agreements Navigate to your group's settings and find the **Agreements** section. Write agreements in plain language. They should be specific enough to be actionable but short enough to actually be read. Common agreement types: * **Community norms** — how members treat each other, expectations for discourse * **Purpose alignment** — what this space is for and what it isn't for * **Decision-making protocols** — how the group makes decisions * **Participation expectations** — what stewards expect of active members * **Code of conduct** — behavior that will result in removal #### Consent Tracking When a new member joins, they're presented with your group's current agreements and asked to consent before participating. If you update your agreements, members are prompted to review and re-consent. This keeps your community aligned as norms evolve, and gives you a clear record if accountability conversations become necessary. *** ### 7. Join Questions Join questions are asked of prospective members when they request to join a protected group. Their answers are visible to stewards during the approval process. {% embed url="" %} #### Setting Up Join Questions Go to your group settings and add join questions. You can create as many as you need, though two to three focused questions tend to work better than a long intake form. #### What to Ask **Ask questions that help you make a good decision about membership.** Useful questions might include: * How did you hear about this community? * What are you hoping to contribute or get from this group? * Are you based in \[region]? (for place-based groups) * What's your relationship to \[topic/mission]? **Avoid questions that could be answered with a simple yes or no** unless you're using them as a genuine filter (e.g., "Do you agree to our community agreements?"). #### Join Questions as Onboarding Join questions also function as the first step in onboarding, they prompt the prospective member to reflect on their intentions before they enter the space. Well-crafted join questions set a tone of intentionality from the very beginning. **Note**: Join questions are great content to use when introducing new members to your community! *** ### 8. Roles and Responsibilities Roles let you recognize and organize the different kinds of contributors in your community. To distribute stewardship of your group, assign members to roles! {% embed url="" %} #### Default Roles Every group comes with three default roles: **Coordinator** — administrative powers. Can manage group settings, members, and content. **Moderator** — content management powers. Can remove posts, manage topics, and act on flagged content. **Host** — welcoming and inviting powers. Can invite new members and help orient them. #### Custom Roles You can create roles specific to your community - Garden Coordinator, Outreach Lead, Finance Steward, Elder, Council Member. Custom roles can carry platform responsibilities (like moderation powers) or simply name real-world functions without granting additional platform access. To create a custom role, go to **Group Settings → Roles** and click **Add Role**. Give it a name, description, and any platform responsibilities you want to attach. #### Role Badges Roles display as badges on member profiles and next to member names throughout the platform. When another member hovers or taps a badge, they see the role description and responsibilities. This makes visible who does what in your community, reducing the "who do I ask about X?" friction that slows down new members. #### Custom Responsibilities Beyond platform-level powers, you can create custom responsibilities that represent work members do outside of Hylo, including facilitation, coordination, outreach, technical maintenance. These can be attached to roles and displayed publicly so everyone can see who holds what responsibility. *** ### 9. Onboarding Members with Tracks and Actions Tracks can be used as a powerful onboarding tool. A well-designed track walks a new member from "I just joined" to "I know what this community is, why I'm here, and what to do next," without requiring steward time for every new person. #### What Tracks Can Do * Guide new members through a structured orientation sequence * Deliver content, prompts, and tasks in a specific order * Gate access to certain areas of the group until a member has completed orientation (track-gated access) * Award badges on completion that unlock roles or permissions * Run structured learning programs, courses, and cohorts #### Designing a Welcome Track A good welcome track typically does the following in order: 1. **Orient** — explain what this community is, who it's for, and what the norms are 2. **Connect** — prompt the member to introduce themselves, fill out their profile, or join a relevant chat room 3. **Activate** — invite the member to take their first meaningful action (post a request, respond to an offer, RSVP to an event) 4. **Belong** — help them understand how to stay connected and what to expect going forward Keep it short enough to complete in one sitting. Four to six steps is a good target for a welcome track. Save deeper content for follow-on tracks. #### Creating a Track Go to **Group Settings → Tracks** and click **Add Track**. Build each step with content, media, prompts, and actions. Order them intentionally — each step should build on the last. #### Track Actions Actions are individual checkpoints within a track that members complete as they progress. An action might be: "Post an introduction in #introductions," "Add your location to your profile," or "RSVP to the next community call." Completion is tracked per member so you can see who is progressing and who might need a nudge. #### Tracking Progress From your group settings or member directory, you can see who has started a track, where they are in it, and who has completed it. #### Paid Tracks Tracks can be gated behind a payment, handled via Stripe integration. This allows you to offer premium learning content or paid programs within your Hylo group. Manage subscriptions and access from your group settings. {% embed url="" %} *** ### 10. Activating Mutual Support through Requests and Offers Requests and Offers are the trust-building engine of Hylo. Every fulfilled exchange is a visible deposit in your community's social fabric. But this feature requires activation by group stewards. {% embed url="" %} #### Seeding the Space The single most effective thing a steward can do to activate Requests and Offers is to **post the first ones yourself**. Members take cues from what already exists. If the Requests and Offers view is empty, it feels like a feature that isn't used here. If it has five or ten well-crafted posts, it feels like a living practice. **Post a request** — something you actually need. This models vulnerability and signals that asking for help is welcome here. **Post a offer** — something you actually have to give. This models generosity and shows members what a good offer looks like. #### Completing Exchanges When a request or offer has been fulfilled, mark it as complete and select the people who helped. This creates a visible record of mutual support and helps the community see its own generosity over time. Stewards should model this behavior — close out your own requests and offers promptly. **Cross-Posting Requests and Offers** Requests and Offers can be cross-posted to parent or peer groups to extend their reach across your network. This is especially powerful for bioregional or networked communities where the right person to help might be in a connected group. {% embed url="" %} *** ### 11. Governance — Setting Up Proposals and Decision-Making Hylo's governance tools support communities at every stage — from simple temperature checks to structured consent-based decisions with quorum tracking and formal outcome records. #### When to Use Proposals Use proposals any time you want to: * Make a group decision with a visible record * Gather structured input before committing to a direction * Check the group's sense of a proposal before full implementation * Ratify agreements, policies, or commitments Even small decisions, when run through proposals early on, build your community's governance muscle. The goal is to normalize participatory decision-making before high-stakes decisions arrive. #### Voting Options Hylo supports two allocation models for funding rounds: **co-budgeting**, which uses real currency, and **priority voting**, which uses distributed tokens. Stewards choose the model that best fits their community's process and goals. #### Quorum Settings Set a minimum participation threshold for a vote to be valid. If quorum isn't reached by the deadline, stewards are notified. Quorum settings help ensure decisions reflect genuine community participation rather than a small vocal minority. #### Voting Timeline Set start and end times for voting periods. Proposals move through phases automatically, or you can manage timing manually. Give members enough time to participate — at least 48 to 72 hours for asynchronous communities; longer for communities spread across time zones. #### Outcome Tracking When a proposal closes, document what was decided and what happens next in the **Outcome** field. This is one of the most important and most skipped steps in community governance. A proposal without a documented outcome is a conversation without a conclusion. The Proposals view shows completed proposals with their outcomes, creating a searchable record of your community's decisions over time. #### The Governance View The Governance view shows active proposals at the top and completed decisions below. It also displays your group's purpose, values, and agreements — making it a useful reference for the community's commitments and decision history. *** ### 12. Using the Map for Your Community The map is more than a geographic display — it's a coordination layer that helps members understand and organize around the places they share. #### Setting Up Your Group's Location Give your group a geographic location in your group settings. This places your group on the platform map and makes it discoverable by members searching by region. #### Encouraging Members to Share Their Location A member directory with locations visible on the map is one of Hylo's most distinctive features for place-based communities. Encourage members to add their location during onboarding — even at neighborhood or city level. Emphasize that location precision is their choice and that obfuscation is built in to protect privacy. #### Ecological Map Layers Hylo supports watershed and catchment basin layers on the map. For bioregional and ecological communities, enabling these layers helps members understand and organize around their actual landscape rather than arbitrary political boundaries. Access map layers via the **Base Layers** icon in the lower right. #### Native Territories Layer Hylo displays indigenous territories as a map layer using data from native-land.ca. This is available to all groups and can be a meaningful addition for communities working with land, place, and ecological stewardship. #### Saved Map Views Stewards can create saved map views — a specific geographic area with specific filters applied — and share them with members. This is useful for communities that organize around a bioregion or watershed and want members to see activity within a defined territory. #### Embedding the Map You can embed a Hylo map view on your organization's website using a custom iframe code block. This brings the living community map to wherever your audience already gathers. Find the embed code in your group settings. *** ### 13. Moderation — Keeping Your Community Healthy Hylo's moderation system distributes responsibility to the people closest to the community while providing clear escalation paths. Moderation is anchored in your written agreements — not arbitrary judgment. #### How Community Flagging Works Any member can flag a post they believe violates a group agreement. When flagging, they identify which specific agreement is being violated. Flagged content is blurred for other members while under review. Other members can agree or disagree with the flag, creating community input before stewards act. This distributed model means moderation isn't the sole burden of stewards — it's a community responsibility. Your agreements do the heavy lifting; stewards make the final call. #### Steward Moderation Powers As a Moderator role holder, you can: * Remove content that violates agreements * Remove members from the group * Manage topics * Review flagged content and make final decisions All moderation actions are logged. #### Setting the Right Tone Early The most effective moderation is preventative. Groups with clear agreements, a strong welcome track, and early steward presence in the first weeks of launch have far fewer moderation issues than groups that set up agreements and disappear. **Show up in the first few weeks.** Post regularly, respond to members, model the behavior you want to see. Your presence sets the tone more than any written policy. #### Platform-Level Enforcement Hylo's platform stewards monitor the public commons and handle cross-group or platform-level violations. Hylo's code of conduct applies everywhere. If you encounter something that rises to a platform level issue — harassment, illegal content, threats — flag it for the Hylo team. *** ### 14. Nested Groups and Peer Relationships One of Hylo's most distinctive architectural features is its ability to connect groups — creating networks that mirror how communities actually organize in the world. #### Nested Groups (Subgroups) Create groups within your group to any depth. A bioregional hub can contain neighborhood groups. A network can contain working committees or project teams. Each subgroup has its own space, agreements, and stewards while remaining connected to the parent. **When to use subgroups:** * When a portion of your community needs a distinct space with different privacy settings or agreements * When working groups or project teams need their own coordination space * When you're building a network architecture with a hub group and multiple member communities To create a subgroup, go to **Group Settings → Subgroups → Create Subgroup**. Content can flow between parent and subgroups through cross-posting, and members can see the full network structure in the Groups tab. #### Peer-to-Peer Group Relationships Peer groups are two independent groups that choose to share a relationship — without hierarchy. Peer groups can see each other's public content and members, enabling coalition-building across organizations. **When to use peer relationships:** * When two allied organizations want to share visibility without one being "inside" the other * When building a coalition of equals * When you want members to discover and connect with a partner community To add a peer group, go to **Group Settings → Related Groups**. {% embed url="" %} #### Cross-Group Posting Members can post content to multiple groups simultaneously. A single post lives in all selected groups with no duplication or drift. This is the primary way information flows across a network, stewards should model and encourage it for content that's relevant across multiple communities. *** ### 15. Paid Groups and Paid Content Hylo supports group monetization — allowing stewards to sustain their communities through member dues or premium content offerings. **Launching Spring 2026.** #### Paid Group Membership Set up a paid membership tier for your group. Members pay a recurring subscription to join or maintain access. Stripe handles all transactions. Stewards manage membership and access from group settings. #### Paid Tracks Individual tracks can be gated behind a one-time or recurring payment. This allows you to offer premium courses, learning programs, or structured onboarding experiences as a revenue-generating product within your community. #### What This Is Not Hylo's monetization tools are designed for **community sustenance,** member dues, program fees, cooperative resource management, not for brand marketing or audience monetization. Hylo will not be building advertising tools or audience conversion features. If your primary goal is brand building or customer acquisition, Hylo is not the right platform. *** ### 16. Funding Rounds Funding rounds let groups pool resources and collectively decide where to direct them. This is participatory governance made real, communities allocating actual money through democratic process. #### When to Use Funding Rounds Funding rounds are designed for communities that want to: * Run participatory budgeting processes * Distribute grants or pooled funds democratically * Allocate collective resources across proposals * Make resource decisions visible and accountable to the whole community #### Setting Up a Funding Round Go to **Group Settings → Funding Rounds → Create Round**. Configure: * Total amount available * Timeline (submission, discussion, voting, and outcome phases) * Submission criteria — what a valid proposal must address * Voting method — how members allocate the pool across proposals * Whether submissions are visible during the submission phase or hidden until voting begins #### Guiding Your Community Through a Round **Submission phase.** Communicate clearly what kinds of proposals you're looking for. Send announcements to prompt submissions before the deadline. **Discussion phase.** Encourage members to engage with proposals — ask questions, offer feedback, surface concerns. This is where the quality of the final allocation is built. **Voting phase.** Send reminders. Participation drives legitimacy. A well-configured quorum requirement can help here. **Outcome phase.** Publish results transparently and document the rationale. Completed rounds become part of your group's permanent decision history.
{% embed url="" %} *** ### 17. Export Data Navigate to Group Settings and click on "Export Data" to create a CSV file of all member data. **Note:** only the information entered by members in their profile will display in the CSV file. *** ### Quick Reference — Steward Decisions at a Glance | Decision | Guiding Question | | ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Visibility setting | Who do you want to be able to find you? | | Access setting | How much control do you need over who joins? | | Navigation structure | What do you want members to do first? | | Number of chat rooms | What conversations need their own dedicated space? | | Posts vs. chat | Does this content need to be findable later? | | Agreements | What do members need to commit to before participating? | | Join questions | What do you need to know before approving someone? | | Welcome track length | How much context does a new member need before they can contribute? | | Voting format | What decision-making culture does your community practice? | | Subgroups vs. peer groups | Is this community inside yours, or alongside yours? | *** --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://hylozoic.gitbook.io/hylo/guides/hylo-steward-guide.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.