VoteMap.caMembers vote. Everyone watches.

Rules of the room

Rules of the room

Voluntary participation, consent over authority, transparency over enforcement. Nothing is hidden from members, nothing is coerced, and every stage leaves a public, timestamped status behind.

1 · What a member ballot may be

  • A community vote, a petition, an advisory ballot, or participatory input.
  • Never an official government election, and never worded to look like one.
  • About a thing, a place, a policy, a service. Never about a private individual.
  • Within Canadian law. Anything the Criminal Code prohibits is out of scope, full stop.

2 · How it must be built

  • The five-question chain, facts before judgment. The create tool enforces the order.
  • No leading phrasing. "Obviously", "everyone knows", "don’t you agree" will not pass the reviewer.
  • Facts on file are cited. A fact you cannot source is an opinion; put it in the sponsor’s case, not the facts.
  • Quorum and close date declared before the first vote. Visibility (anonymous tally or public roll-call) declared before the first vote.

3 · Whose name is on it

  • The sponsor’s. A member-made ballot carries the member’s name and the tag "member-made".
  • You are responsible for your work: the wording, the facts, and how you promote it.
  • The platform may close a ballot that leaves the guidelines. The record of it stays; nothing is deleted.

4 · Comments

  • Members only. The public never sees comments, on any ballot, ever.
  • Members vote comments up and down and can flag them.
  • A comment at score −2 or lower, or flagged, is hidden in plain view: one grey line, openable by any member. It is not deleted.
  • Say what you saw. Facts help more than volume.

Why hidden in plain view

Deleting a comment makes a moderator. Hiding it in plain view makes a room. Members decide what sinks, the record stays complete, and anyone who wants to check the room's judgment can open the line and read it. That is city hall from the roots up: the same rule the whole platform runs on, applied at the smallest scale first.

VoteMap runs community votes, petitions and advisory ballots. It does not run official government elections, and never claims to.