Community
Your community
A private space on your portal where your members meet, post, ask questions, gather live and get to know each other.
Your Community is a members' space that lives inside your portal. Members create a short profile, share posts, ask questions on a board, join smaller Circles, come to live Gatherings and receive thoughtful introductions to each other. You hold the room: you set the tone, welcome people in and keep it safe.
Each portal has one community. It lives at https://bringsoul.life/portal/<your-handle>/community.
When to use the community
| If you want… | Use |
|---|---|
| An ongoing space where members talk with you and with each other | Your Community |
| A smaller room for a cohort, a topic or your paying members | A circle inside the community |
| A live audio session for your members, with no tickets | A gathering |
| A public or ticketed experience anyone can register for | An event |
| A one-to-one booking | A session |
| A real-time group chat, free or paid | A chat space, which you can link into the community |
| News emailed to your subscribers, leads or customers | An announcement |
Community members are not the same as subscribers. A member can join for free, and a paying subscriber may never join the community. The two lists and their counts are separate. Your paying audience lives in Business → Customers & Subscribers.
What your members experience
- They open your community from your portal, or from a link you share, and click Join the community (or Subscribe to join if you require a paid membership).
- The first time, they read your guidelines under "Before you step in" and accept them with Enter the community. They walk through your welcome steps and can answer your profile prompts, or Skip for now.
- Inside, they can share posts, heart and reply, ask and upvote questions, join circles, RSVP to gatherings and open your materials.
- If you turn on connections, they may receive an introduction to another member, which they can accept or decline.
See the member guide: Community.
Anatomy
The community is made of these building blocks. Everything is managed from the Community pillar of your dashboard.
| Building block | What it is |
|---|---|
| Members | Everyone who has joined. You always see who is behind a name, even when someone posts anonymously. |
| Posts | The community feed: reflections, updates and replies. Posts can be community-wide or inside a circle. |
| Questions | A Q&A board. Members ask and upvote; you answer, pin and mark questions Addressed. |
| Circles | Smaller rooms inside the community, each with its own members, posts, questions, gatherings, materials and chat. |
| Gatherings | Scheduled live sessions. Members RSVP and join a live audio room, or an external link such as Zoom. |
| Connections | Introductions between two members who might be glad to meet. |
| Materials | Files you share and recordings of past gatherings. |
| Onboarding | Your welcome steps, guidelines and profile prompts. |
| Moderation | Reports from members, posts held for review, and a log of every action you take. |
| Chat Spaces | Real-time chat rooms linked into the community or a circle. See chat spaces. |
Every community setting
Community → Settings holds "How your community looks, sounds, and behaves." Click Save changes when you're done.
| Section | Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | Name and tagline | The name and one line that introduce your community. | Your portal name, no tagline |
| Guidelines | (link) | Opens Onboarding → Guidelines, where you write your house rules. | Empty |
| Behavior | Question board | Lets members post new questions. You can also flip this from the Questions page. | On |
| Anonymous posting | Members may post without their name. "You always see who is who." | On | |
| Member directory | Shows the directory so members can find each other. | On | |
| Open questions per member | How many open questions one member can have at once (1 to 20). | 3 | |
| Connections | AI connections | Lets Soul suggest members who might resonate with each other. | Off |
| How introductions happen | Automatic schedules and sends introductions for you after a review window. Manual leaves every suggestion for you to introduce. | Manual | |
| Suggestion cadence | How often a fresh round of suggestions is produced: Weekly or Monthly. | Monthly | |
| Introduction expiry | How long an introduction stays open for members to respond: 24h, 36h, 48h or Custom (1 to 720 hours). | 36h | |
| Content moderation | Policy text | Describe what doesn't belong. New posts are checked against it, and anything that may cross the line waits in Moderation. Up to 500 characters. Leave blank to publish every post immediately. | Blank |
| Profile prompts | (link) | Opens Onboarding → Profile prompts. | Five starter prompts |
| Membership | Require a paid membership | Only members with an active paid membership can be in the community. Others are paused until they subscribe. | Off |
| Add new subscribers automatically | Anyone who starts a paid membership from now on joins the community without asking. | Off | |
| Lifecycle | Active / Read only / Archived | The overall state of your community (see below). | Active |
| Public link | (read only) | Your community's address. Tap it to copy. Changing your portal handle breaks old links. |
Connections only start suggesting pairs once your community has about 20 members. See Introduce members to each other.
Where it lives in the dashboard
| Community pillar item | What you do there |
|---|---|
| Overview | A summary of today: what needs you, recent activity, a 7-day pulse (new members, posts, questions, upvotes) and upcoming gatherings. A brand-new community shows a four-step checklist instead. Invite Members is in the top right. |
| Community Members | The roster. Tabs: Active, Inactive, Requests. |
| Circles | Create and manage circles, and approve join requests. |
| Posts | Read, write and remove posts. |
| Chat Spaces | Chat rooms linked into the community. |
| Questions | The Q&A board. |
| Gatherings | Schedule and host live gatherings. Tabs: Upcoming, Past. |
| Connections | Suggested and sent introductions. |
| Materials | Files and Recordings. |
| Onboarding | Tabs: Welcome steps, Guidelines, Profile prompts. |
| Moderation | Reports, held posts and replies, held questions and answers, and the Audit log. |
| Settings | All the settings above. |
Numbers next to Community Members, Circles, Questions, Connections and Moderation show what's waiting for you.
Lifecycle
| State | What members experience |
|---|---|
| Active | "Open to new members and new posts." |
| Read only | "Members can read, but no new posts or joins." Useful between seasons or while you step away. |
| Archived | "Closed and tucked away." History is kept. |
Member statuses
On Community Members and a member's page you'll see:
| Status | Means |
|---|---|
| Active | In the community and able to take part. |
| Left | Left on their own. |
| Removed | You removed them. Their posts stay. |
| Wants to rejoin | A removed member asked to come back. They wait under Requests. |
| Subscription inactive | You require a paid membership and theirs has lapsed. Their access is paused, nothing is deleted. |
| Muted | Can read but can't post, comment or ask. |
| Blocked from board | Can't post to the question board. Everything else still works. |
| Host | You, the person who holds the community. |
Being found
Having a community link is not the same as being listed. Your community shows up as a card in Soul's discovery and on your portal feed once both of these are true:
- you've written a Tagline or Guidelines of your own, and
- someone besides you has joined, or there's something inside (a post, a question, a circle, a gathering or a welcome step).
Until then it's reachable by its link only. To show it on your portal, turn on the Community section in My Portal. See Your portal.
Limits and good-to-knows
- One community per portal.
- Circles need a Soul plan. Without one, creating a circle shows "Circles come with a plan." See Your Soul subscription.
- Community content can't be pinned to your portal's Highlights. Posts, questions, circles and gatherings live inside the community. A linked chat space is the exception.
- Posts are plain text. There's no bold, headings or bullet formatting in the feed. Use short paragraphs and paste links as they are.
- Members can't message each other directly. You can introduce them.
- Removing a member doesn't delete what they wrote. To take content down, remove the post or question itself.
Guides
Name it, set the tone and invite your first members.
Set up onboarding and guidelinesWelcome steps, house rules and profile prompts.
Make your community members-onlyRequire a paid membership and bring subscribers in automatically.
Create circlesOpen, invite-only or held for paying members.
Post to your communityShare a reflection with everyone or one circle.
Run a Q&A boardAnswer, pin and close out member questions.
Host a live gatheringSchedule, shape the run-of-show and open the room.
Introduce members to each otherSuggested and hand-made introductions.
Share materials and recordingsFiles and gathering recordings members can return to.
Care for your membersFind people, keep private notes, message and add them to circles.
Moderate your communityReports, held posts, mute, remove and the audit log.