Presence & discovery

A group's profile and rules live in its meta space. A public declaration lets anyone find it.

The profile

Every group publishes a profile in its meta space: display name, description, avatar and banner, an optional link to the group’s own site, and its join policy.

Any app that shows or interacts with groups uses this profile to display them. One profile, shown the same way everywhere.

Rules

The group’s rules are rule records in the same space, one record per rule. Each has a stable URI, so a moderation label can cite exactly which rule it enforces.

Public, but still a space

Many groups want their meta space public even when the rest of the group is private. Even then, the data is still published in a space. The space’s access record simply allows public reads. A group can equally keep its profile to members only.

The declaration

A group that wants to be easy to find also publishes a declaration to the public broadcast protocol, in its ordinary public repo. The declaration just points at the group’s meta space.

{
  "$type": "group.opensocial.declaration",
  "meta": "at://did:plc:7x2k…/space/group.opensocial.meta/self"
}

The declaration is for discovery only. It announces that the DID is a group and where to look. The profile, rules and everything else stay in spaces.