Your privacy on The Wheel

The Wheel lists what is on, finds people for the shifts that need filling, and keeps who you are to you.

What holds today

• No phone number. The Wheel asks for no phone number to look, to add a listing, or to help. A number is your legal name in another form.
• The organiser keeps the door. Listings link to the organiser's own page when there is one. Tickets and shift sign-ups happen there, with them.
• A person checks every listing. Each one waits for a reviewer before it shows as checked, and links to where it was found.
• No ads, no analytics. The Wheel carries no advertising and no tracking code of its own. What it knows about anyone stays off the market.
• Phone-free accounts. Joining makes a key on your device and gives you a pen name. Adding and reviewing listings are tied to that pen name, so spam has a cost.
• Proof in place of a list. Members prove they belong, and that they turned up, with zero-knowledge proofs: The Wheel learns that a member checked in, and which member stays with them. The proof protects more as more people join; the Roadmap shows the count.
• Reputation that rewards the long run, earned by listings and reviews that hold up, set after a study of how it can be gamed. How rep works.
• Group chats kept to members. A group's invite link goes to signed-in members, with the organiser's OK, and senders' names and numbers come out of a pasted announcement before it is read. Joining group chats.
• Links and feeds. A shared link shows a preview in the chat it lands in: the chat app reads the listing's name, date and place from The Wheel. Calendar and feed apps ask for the whole list, the same list for everyone who follows it. The weekly digest comes from our own push server, ntfy.aureliusxradix.com, which sees the phones subscribed to it and holds each week's message for two days.
• Kept on your device. Reading settings, favourite kinds and, once installed as an app, a copy of the page and the last list stay in your browser.
• Reports. Reviewers read a report's reason and note; the pen name that sent it stays on the server.
• Organiser accounts stand apart. An organiser account is its own key with a public name. It travels separately from your pen name, so the two stay unlinked.
• An open record. The moderation log lists every check, fix and steward decision by role. Appeals go to fresh reviewers, or to the stewards for a rank reset.
• Where it runs. Listings and accounts live on a machine we own and look after. The page reaches you through Cloudflare, and a post or flyer you add is read by Anthropic's Claude to turn it into a listing.

What comes next

The Roadmap holds what opens up as more people join.

Compared with a phone-number login

gather.rsvp quotes read from gather.rsvp/legal/privacy on 20 October 2026.

Roadmap

What The Wheel does today, and what opens up as more people use it. Some steps wait for a number of members, because the privacy a check-in gives grows with the crowd.

Active members have rep from work other members confirmed. Check-in cover counts them, so spare accounts leave it as it is.

Live now

• One list, three modes. Day for workshops, skillshares and volunteer shifts. Night for gigs and evening gatherings. Recovery for retreats, sound baths and rest.
• Listings people add. Paste a post or a link, or drop in a flyer. The Wheel reads it into a listing, and members check it before it shows as checked.
• Review weighted by rep. Each review counts by the reviewer's standing, and a listing settles once the reviews reach 70% sure.
• A pen name on a key. Joining is one tap. The key stays on your device, and with a copy of it you sign in anywhere as the same pen name.
• Accounts that stay personal. New members' reviews settle a listing together with a Regular or above, joining takes a few seconds of work on your device, and a pen name keeps its key for life.
• Simple or everything at once. The switch beside the name moves between a list-first view and every filter and tool on the screen.
• Organisers on The Wheel. An organiser account with its own key proves its page, keeps its listings right, posts updates, and opens check-ins with a door code that changes every minute.
• Getting events to you. Links to share, Add to calendar, calendar and RSS feeds, a weekly digest to your phone, and The Wheel as an app on your home screen.
• Trust in the open. Reports, appeals, a moderation log anyone can read, and copies of the same listing folded into one.
• The code, public. On GitHub under GPL-3.0, for anyone to copy and run their own Wheel.

Added since going live

Newest first. Going live was 20 October 2026.

23 October

• A simpler phone view. The list first, filters behind one button, the tools in a Menu, and a switch beside the name for everything at once. The same header in both views, with Add a listing up top.
• Organiser accounts. Their own key and public name, proven by a code on their page or a steward's word. They claim their listings, post updates and open check-ins.
• A door code that changes every minute, shown on the organiser's phone, so a code passed around outside soon stops working.
• Communities and regular events. A board of the groups that keep meeting, a page for each regular event with all its dates, and "Also on" links between listings of the same event. Groups without dated listings can be added directly and checked by members, and proven organisers are listed there too.
• A moderation log and appeals. Every check, fix and steward decision written where anyone can read it, by role. A turned-down listing gets one more look by fresh reviewers; a rank reset goes to the stewards.
• A weekly digest, every Monday morning, through The Wheel's own push server or as RSS.
• Duplicates. Copies of the same listing on the same day show once; look-alikes go to Review for a person to merge or keep apart.
• Where the tickets are, on the card: "Tickets on Gather", Eventfinda, Humanitix and other sellers by name, linking straight there.
• Festivals stand out. A larger card with the flyer across the top, the dates and a badge; opened, the line-up, tickets, camping, ages and what to bring. Add a listing has a section for each.
• The Wheel's own AI, on this Roadmap with its fund and its four steps.

22 October

• Getting events to you. A link for each listing with a preview in group chats, Add to calendar, and a calendar or RSS feed for each mode.
• Report a listing as wrong, over or unsafe. Enough reports send a checked listing back to review.
• Reading and comfort. Bigger text, an easier font, more spacing, higher contrast and less motion, under Aa in the Menu.
• Install as an app. The Wheel on your home screen, opening with the last list it loaded when you are offline.
• Profiles and Supporter months. A profile where each item has its own audience, and prepaid months of extra looks, paid with a code.
• Accounts that stay personal. New members' reviews settle a listing together with a Regular or above, the check-in privacy line counts active members, joining takes a few seconds of work on your device, and Me says plainly what giving a key away means.

21 October

• Listings from group chats. A Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram or Discord group's invite link, shown to signed-in members when the organiser shares it openly, with the announcement cleaned of numbers and names. A guide to joining group chats privately.
• Search by date. Pick a day and see everything on it across Day, Night and Recovery.
• Suggested fixes. Below the Reviewer tier, send a fix and a Reviewer uses it or drops it.
• Review that remembers. Listings you've checked stay set aside after a reload, and your answer can still change.
• Clearer words. A steadier reader for volunteer calls, every line on the site reworded, and the Privacy page naming where The Wheel runs.

20 October

• Live. Day, Night and Recovery; listings from a post, a link or a flyer; review weighted by rep; pen names on a key; check-ins with a door code; Support.
• Finding your way. The first-visit guide, How rep works, and this Roadmap.
• Tidier lists. Review quick to work through, kinds kept tidy, favourite kinds, repeating listings on their next date, and where each listing came from.
• Open. The code on GitHub under GPL-3.0, and the page open to search.

As the crowd grows

1. 3 members: check-ins open. At an event, a door code lets members prove they came. A steward, or the organiser who claimed the listing, opens the check-in; an organiser's code changes every minute on their phone, and a steward's lasts 6 hours. They show or say it at the door. Members type it into the listing. The Wheel keeps a count for each event, held apart from pen names.
2. 10 active members: the small-crowd note lifts. Until then each check-in carries a note that a small crowd covers people less well.
3. 15 to 20 active members: the crowd covers each person. From here a check-in says one of many.

Next to build

At events

• Hosts scan each phone at the door, for events that want a check-in that holds firm.
• Anonymous interested counts. Members tap Interested and the organiser sees a number, proven like a check-in, with no list of names.

You on The Wheel

• Skills you can prove to an organiser, while the rest of your profile stays with you.
• The volunteer layer. Sign up for shifts under your pen name, matched to what a call asks for.
• Volunteer thanks. An organiser thanks the pen names who did a shift, and it counts toward their rep.
• Rep for the long run. Turning up and following through over months counts, once check-ins are hard to fake.

Finding your way

• A map of events, filtered by mode, on the areas already drawn.
• Share from your phone. Send a screenshot or flyer to The Wheel and Add a listing opens with it filled in, on Android once The Wheel is installed.
• Your own menu. Pick the mode you start in and pin the tools you use.

The Wheel's own AI

A local AI on The Wheel's own machine. It reads new posts and flyers into listings, watches the system and repairs what breaks, and stays free for the community to use for as long as the power, the internet and the web address are paid for.

All money through these channels goes to The Wheel. It's a passion project I work on for free, and that will stay so. To support me directly: Liberapay · my site.

• What the fund buys. The machine, with a graphics card able to read flyers; a second drive and a battery to ride out power cuts; and a reserve for the running costs: power, internet, the domain and hosting, and parts as they wear out.
• People still decide. The AI reads and repairs. Reviews, rep and steward calls stay with members.
• More privacy. The posts and flyers you add get read on The Wheel's own machine, in place of Anthropic's Claude.
• Every payment through The Wheel counts. Supporter months, Monero and cash all go toward the fund. Support The Wheel.
• Past NZ$10,000, money given to The Wheel goes to supporting local communities and events, and to building more tools that take the friction out of communities and cultures thriving.

Further out

• Beyond Auckland. Listings read in their own time zone, and areas drawn for any town that starts using it.
• Stewards chosen by members as The Wheel grows: by rep, by nomination, or by a vote of Reviewers.
• Te reo Māori alongside English, worked on with te reo speakers.
• An open feed for other sites. Checked listings offered to other community sites and other Wheels.
• A shared data hub. Listings held across many copies, so The Wheel carries on whoever looks after it.

Join on the Me page, add an event you know about, or check one waiting in Review.

How rep works

Rep is your standing on The Wheel. It grows when what you add and what you check holds up, and it opens more of the tools. Rep is earned here, by what you do.

What earns it

• A listing you added passes review: 2 points. One that reviewers turn down takes 2 away.
• Your review agrees with how a listing settles: 1 point. A review on the other side takes 1 away.
• A weekly limit: points count for up to 5 listings and 5 reviews a week, so steady use over months counts for more than a busy day.
• Points arrive once a listing settles, for the person who added it and for every review on it.

The four tiers

How a listing gets checked

Each review counts by the reviewer's tier at the moment they cast it. The reviews for a listing add up like this: two Regulars together reach 64%, one Reviewer alone reaches 70%. New members' reviews add up to 50% at most, however many there are, so every listing needs a Regular or above among its reviews to settle. At 70% sure, the listing settles as checked, or as turned down when the reviews go the other way.

Fair play

• You review other people's listings. Your own go to someone else.
• One key, one person. A pen name keeps its key for life, and whoever hands you a key still holds it, so a given account stays shared with the giver.
• A ban resets rank to zero. Your past reviews stay, so other listings keep their standing. You can ask the stewards to look again from your Me page.
• A turned-down listing gets one more look. Whoever added it can send it back to review once, to members who have yet to review it.
• Everything is on the record. The moderation log shows every check, fix and steward decision, by role.
• Turning up to events: check-ins stay apart from pen names by design. Counting them toward rep is on the Roadmap, once check-ins are hard to fake.

Version 1. The numbers will change as The Wheel learns what works. Your rep and tier are on the Me page.

Joining group chats

Some gatherings are organised in a group chat. The Wheel lists the gathering and, when the organiser shares it openly, the link to the group, for signed-in members. The group belongs to its organiser and runs on its app's terms: what you share there stays between you, the people in it and the app.

Before you join any group

• Everyone in a group sees your profile name and photo. A first name or a nickname works, and a photo of something other than your face.
• Anything you post can be screenshotted and passed on. Keep where you live, work and travel for people you know.
• A group link opens the group to whoever holds it. Pass it on the way the organiser asks.
• Leave a group once the gathering is over, unless you want to stay for the next one.

Signal

Signal shows your phone number only to people who already have it saved. To check: Settings, Privacy, Phone number. "Who can see my number" is set to "Nobody" by default. Set "Who can find me by my number" to "Nobody" as well if you'd like people to reach you by a username only, and pick a username in your profile.

WhatsApp

Everyone in a WhatsApp group sees your phone number. WhatsApp is rolling out usernames in stages through 2026: when your app has Settings, Account, Username, set one, and people see the username in place of your number unless they already have it saved. Until then, a second number (a prepaid SIM) keeps your own number to yourself.

Telegram

Telegram shows your number only to people you've saved as contacts, and you can post in groups with your number hidden. For more: Settings, Privacy and Security, Phone Number, and set "Who can see my phone number" to "Nobody". A username lets people reach you by name.

Discord

Discord shows your display name; your phone number and email stay with Discord. To keep strangers in a server from messaging you: User Settings, Content & Social, and turn off direct messages from server members. You can apply it to every server, or set it per server in that server's privacy settings.

Adding a listing from a group chat

• Paste the announcement and tick "It's from a group chat". The Wheel takes out senders' names, phone numbers, emails, @handles and chat links before it reads it.
• Add the group's link only when the organiser shares it openly: on a flyer, in a public post, or by asking for it to be passed on. Signed-in members see it; everyone else sees that the gathering has a group.
• Links to one person stay out: wa.me and signal.me links, and Telegram usernames.
• Check the cleaned announcement before you send it. Reviewers check the listing against it, so take out anything else that names a person.

Checked 21 October 2026 against Signal's and Telegram's own pages, Discord's help centre and reports of WhatsApp's usernames. Apps change their settings: the app's own help has the latest.

Communities

The groups that keep meeting: a weekly circle, a monthly open mic, an organiser with more coming up. Open one to see all its dates.

How a community gets here: from its listings, by itself: a listing that repeats, an event listed on several dates, or an organiser with two or more listings ahead. Proven organisers show here too. A group that meets without dates listed yet can be added below; it shows once members have checked it.

For organisers

Run a circle, a gig night or a beach clean? An organiser account lets you keep your listings right, post updates, and open check-ins with a door code that changes every minute. It's free.

Moderation log

Every check, fix, merge and steward decision, newest first, written where anyone can read it. Each line names the role that acted; pen names stay with their members. A turned-down listing shows as "a listing".

Reading and comfort

Text size, font, spacing, contrast and motion, chosen the way you read best. Each change shows at once, and your choices stay in this browser.

The Wheel as an app

Profile

Support The Wheel

this is a project of love towards our communities, I run this on my own hardware and is dependant on my time and use of my resources, support to the project via direct application, feedback, contribution, use and when possible financially would be much appreciated! This is a public an open source project in nature so feel free to replicate! Plans to create a decentralisaed datahub so that this lives on regardless of who maintains it is in the works as the project scales

A project by Aurelius × Radix → · The code, on GitHub →

Become a Supporter

Supporter months add looks to your profile: more colours, glyph styles, a status sign and the supporter mark. They pay for the machine and the time behind The Wheel. Rep, review and the daily limits stay earned, whatever anyone pays.

• Pay what you like, from NZ$2 a month, for 1, 6 or 12 months. Months run out by themselves; nothing renews.
• Every payment becomes a code. Use it on Me any day you like, or give it to someone. The Wheel keeps the code's fingerprint and the day it was used; the payment stays with whoever took it.
• Use your code a day or more after paying. Times that sit close together can be matched by anyone holding both lists.

Give

Every payment here counts toward The Wheel's own AI: a local machine that reads listings and keeps The Wheel running, with the fund shown on the Roadmap.

All money through these channels goes to The Wheel. It's a passion project I work on for free, and that will stay so. To support me directly: Liberapay · my site.

Other ways

• Use it. Add the events you know about, and check in when you go.
• Review. Mark listings right or wrong; your rep grows as your reviews hold up.
• Tell us what to fix. Feedback on what works and what to change is how it gets better.