Earthback is designed around genuine commitments and the people who make them. Here's how trust is built, how the community stays healthy, and what it means to build with intention and reciprocity.
This is the shared commitment. It's not a checklist of approved activities or a litmus test. It's a question: does what you're doing give something back?
If you're working on something that improves the land, the community, or the future — there's a place for you here. Whether you're building, learning, teaching, organizing, or just figuring out where to start.
Earthback doesn't have a 47-page terms of service written by lawyers to protect the platform. It has a Core Constitution written by the community to protect the people in it — and a shared standard that everyone who joins agrees to uphold.
The standard is intentionally human and intentionally high. Someone building a straw-bale home, organizing a food forest, running a mutual aid network, stewarding a shared water system — or someone who just found out these things exist and wants to learn more. Everyone here shares an orientation toward the collective good.
The community self-governs in the way that any good community does: by holding its members accountable, by maintaining honest records of what was committed and what was delivered, and by having clear expectations about what happens when someone falls short.
The platform is a tool. The community is what makes it work.
Trust in Earthback is built the same way it's built in any real community: through repeated interaction, fulfilled commitments, and the honest record that accumulates over time.
Every commitment you make — time, skills, resources — is recorded. Every commitment you keep adds to your track record. Every commitment you miss, with no explanation, also stays on the record. Future project members can see who shows up.
This isn't punitive. Life happens and commitments fall through. But honesty matters. If you can't make it, say so early. If something went wrong, say why. The record is honest, not ruthless.
Within a circle, members can vouch for each other — an explicit signal that says "I've worked with this person and I'd work with them again." Vouches are public and carry weight.
A vouch is a form of accountability for the voucher as well as the vouched. If someone you've vouched for behaves badly, that matters. The social accountability is intentional.
Certain types of activity can be verified by other project members — attendance at a build day, delivery of materials, completion of a task. Verified actions are distinct from self-reported ones and carry additional weight in your profile.
As the platform matures, reputation from verified activity becomes the primary trust signal in the network — more than any identity check or self-description.
These aren't rules invented by the platform. They're the expectations that naturally emerge from a community of people trying to do something real together. The platform makes them explicit so there's no ambiguity.
Be specific about what you're committing to. "I'll help" isn't a commitment. "I'll bring my transit level and 6 hours of labor on March 8" is. The difference matters — to the project and to the people depending on you.
Communicate early when something changes. Dropping out of a commitment is sometimes unavoidable. Disappearing without notice is not acceptable. Give the group time to adjust. The earlier you communicate, the less it costs everyone.
Be honest about your skills and resources. Don't claim expertise you don't have, or resources you can't actually provide. A project that's counting on your contribution can't easily replace it at the last minute.
Keep what you learn in the circle. Circles are spaces where people share real information — techniques, resources, failures, lessons learned. That information belongs to the circle. It's not for sharing outside it without consent.
Engage in good faith. Disagreements happen. Disputes over how a project is going are normal. Work through them within the project or circle. Don't take disputes public in ways that harm other members.
Moderation in Earthback is not automated or algorithmic. It's a human process, handled by circle moderators and the platform's community stewards, with graduated responses and a clear path to resolution.
Earthback collects the minimum data needed to make the platform work. Here's what you share with whom, and what stays private.
Your name or display name, your circle memberships, your public posts and project activity, your commitment track record (what you committed, what you delivered), and vouches you've given or received.
The details of your specific commitments (when, what, how much), task assignments, and any contact information you choose to share with a project group. Project members can see this; your broader circles cannot.
Your email address, your location beyond what you choose to share (e.g., "Taos NM" is voluntary), any direct messages, draft posts and projects you haven't published. This data is never shared with other members.
Earthback does not sell your data. It does not share your data with advertisers, data brokers, or third parties for marketing purposes. Ever. This is a constitutional commitment, not a policy that can be quietly updated.