Common questions about matching, privacy, and safety.

An intentional community is a group of people who share a common way of living. That shared way of living might involve housing, land, meals, work, care, decision-making, faith, ecology, or simply being dependable neighbors. Every group chooses its own shape.

No. A commune is one form, usually involving unusually extensive sharing. Cohousing, housing cooperatives, ecovillages, urban coliving, multigenerational communities, and land-based groups may all organize very differently.

Not necessarily. Some groups form around a worldview; others form around housing, mutual aid, ecology, family life, affordability, or shared facilities. Common Ground compares how people say they want to live, not which identity label they use.

Most do not. Finances can remain private, partially shared, cooperatively owned, or extensively pooled. Property and exit terms should be understood in writing before commitment.

Yes. It can be an apartment cooperative, a cluster of nearby households, a shared urban property, or another arrangement. Community is defined by deliberate coordination, not remoteness.

No. Common Ground is a discovery and compatibility service for people looking to join, form, or recruit for intentional communities.

Yes. Anyone can view public community listings and profiles whose owners turned on public visibility.

An account lets you create and edit a profile, answer the questionnaire, receive personalized comparisons, send private contact notes, and manage a community listing.

No. Joining an existing community, finding people to form one, and representing a recruiting community are independent paths.

Choose the path that best describes what you want to do now. The current profile editor focuses on joining an existing community or starting one; you can change that choice later. You can still browse both people and communities. Some older profiles may show both.

One. A profile is meant to represent one real person consistently across matching and contact.

An account can directly own one independent community listing. The community switcher can also show communities you help steward and listings governed by planning circles. Those roles have different permissions; seeing several listings does not mean you personally own them all.

Choose Sign in and continue with Google. Use the same Google account each time to return to the same Common Ground account. Common Ground does not ask you to create a separate password.

Open our-commonground.com directly in an up-to-date regular browser and try Sign in there. Google may block embedded or automated browser sign-in. Do not disable account protection or share a password with support. If it still fails, use Message the team without signing in.

Check that you used the same Google account as before. Different accounts have separate profiles and workspaces. Do not recreate private records until you have checked. The team can investigate, but must verify ownership before discussing account information.

Use the sign-out control in your workspace. This ends your Common Ground session; it does not necessarily sign you out of Google or other websites. Sign out on shared devices.

No. Start with the short question path, save your profile, and add detail when ready. Public browsing is available without a profile. Real contact and personalized comparisons require sign-in and the relevant profile information.

Yes. Public pages share the same menu, directories and maps have mobile layouts, and profile galleries support touch navigation. If something blocks you, tell the team which page, browser, and device you were using. Please omit private information from screenshots.

No. Public visibility is a separate opt-in. Compatibility matching, the signed-in member directory, and the public directory are distinct choices.

Your chosen name, broad location, description, contribution skills, personal links, and any media you add. Questionnaire answers, shared-living experience, budget, shared-work limits, and choices marked Important are visible with your profile. Do not enter a precise residential address in public text.

No. Public browsing and private conversations never add your email address. You may choose to type contact details into a message, but Common Ground does not reveal them automatically.

Yes. Edit your profile at any time. Questionnaire answers are part of your profile and visible to anyone who can view it. You can leave a question unanswered and control the visibility of your whole profile in Profile → Visibility. Changed answers affect future results.

Yes. Edit your profile → Account settings includes a complete ZIP export with your structured records and available profile or cover images. It also offers an account-wide Site-data erasure preview before you type the exact confirmation. Erasure withdraws contact, removes owned content, and closes circles you facilitated rather than handing them to someone else. A small pseudonymized safety-case record may be kept for accountability, and the preview explains that before anything is erased.

No. Records labeled fictional demo or demo data exist so visitors can inspect the interface safely. Their images, biographies, evidence, and contact flows are examples, not real opportunities.

There is no separate private-answer setting. Anyone allowed to view your profile can read its published answers. Leave an answer blank or change whole-profile visibility if you do not want to publish it.

They are generally self-reported. A helpful description or impressive video is not independent evidence of experience, ownership, or consent. Ask for appropriate evidence when it matters.

Yes, use the media manager’s Remove control and confirm. This removes it from the site, but cannot recall screenshots or copies someone already saved. Obtain consent before uploading people.

No. The account-erasure flow concerns Common Ground data, not your Google account. Read its preview for records that are deleted, withdrawn, retained in pseudonymized form, or left with a jointly managed community.

It is a weighted average of comparable answers, not a prediction of success. Question priorities give scored topics weights from 1 to 2; a must-have doubles its weight. Similar scale answers earn partial points. Flexible accepts the other choice. Cost and work limits use pass/fail checks. Animal and substance follow-ups share a domain weight so repeated detail is not counted several times. Exit freedom, boundaries, leadership checks, concern routes, and membership-removal safeguards are reviewed separately as member-protection standards and never add compatibility points. Missing or unclear answers are excluded. Open How this score is calculated in a comparison to inspect every contribution. Location, availability and skills do not add points.

Important is a must-have, not just a mild preference. It doubles that question’s weight and flags an unmet requirement separately. A high percentage cannot cancel that conflict. An unanswered requirement needs clarification rather than being treated as met.

An ordinary difference can lower the score without ruling someone out. A difference on an Important requirement is a hard conflict. Member-protection concerns and practical eligibility checks are separate too; a high score does not override them.

No. You can create a profile and start matching after the basic questions. Anything you skip stays unknown; it does not count as agreement or conflict. A result based on a few answers can change as more are shared. If none can be compared, no percentage is shown.

No. More about me and More about us are optional writing prompts, including questions you can add yourself. They help people understand your profile but never affect compatibility, Important requirements, or completion. Find them in Edit your profile → Finish, or as optional section 14 of the Community Profile questionnaire. Only answers with content appear on your profile. Mark a requirement Important in the matching questions if you want it included in the calculation.

Yes. People who want to form something new can compare their desired community structures using the same core questionnaire.

Yes. Self-reported skills can align with needs stated by a community. Skill fit is supplementary and does not erase conflicts involving safety, cost, power, or daily life.

No. Search and compatibility focus on practical needs and ways of living. Shared spiritual practice describes the role of practice in community life, not a requirement that someone possess a particular identity.

No. Matching uses structured, explainable rules. Results show scores, unmet needs, and topics to discuss. Full answers are visible with the profile; signed-in members with a profile can compare answers side by side.

No. It can help you decide whom to talk with. You still need to check honesty, power, legal terms, real behavior, and how people handle conflict.

Yes. People can lie online. Read documents, ask for references, talk more than once, visit carefully, and try small steps you can leave before making a major commitment.

Fewer than 10 compared topics or fewer than three represented areas means the result has limited coverage. That percentage may change substantially as answers are added. Early comparisons are ranked below better-supported results in the same eligibility tier; missing information does not lower the percentage itself.

Results depend on the viewer’s stated needs, Important requirements, and the answers available on the other profile. Communities describe what they offer or require; people describe what they want or can provide. The comparison is not a universal rating of the other person.

Not automatically. Person-to-person budgets are not scored against each other. For a community comparison, the community’s monthly cost is checked against your maximum budget, with matching currency and cost basis where those details are supplied.

The requirement is marked as needing clarification. It is not assumed met, and an unknown answer does not earn agreement points. Ask before making plans.

It means the other listed option is acceptable for that specific question. Do not choose Flexible for a real limit you need respected. Detailed ranges, access features, or multiple acceptable choices may need separate clarification.

The example teaches agreement, partial fit, and limits using the same scoring functions as actual matches. Its percentage covers only the example answers, not your whole profile. Real comparisons include the available questionnaire answers, detailed constraints, Important requirements, and separate safety and eligibility checks.

No. Use it to choose questions and conversations. Verify facts, meet carefully, understand written commitments, and preserve a realistic exit before deciding.

Open the full profile or listing and send a private note. Sign-in and a personal profile are required for real contact requests.

They see your profile and the first message you sent. They can accept, decline, mute, or report the request. Your email and other private contact details are not included.

Common Ground does not reveal email addresses when a message request is accepted. Acceptance opens the in-site conversation. Either person may intentionally share contact details in a message.

A decline closes the request. Ignoring a request does not accept it or open an ordinary conversation. Treat a decline as a complete answer and do not repeat unwanted contact. Circle members may have a separate shared-circle messaging permission.

Yes, while it is pending. Withdrawal closes that request, but cannot erase information the recipient has already read. For an unwanted ongoing conversation, use the available block or report controls.

Signed-in members can block accounts and report suspected harassment, discrimination, spam, misrepresentation, or safety concerns. A report asks for a review; it does not prove wrongdoing by itself. Moderators document actions, and affected members can submit a correction or appeal without seeing the reporter's private account.

No. A community may optionally link a public Discord invitation for informal conversation, events, and culture. Discord is an external service with separate accounts and moderation; it does not verify a listing, replace Common Ground's mutual-contact process, or become part of compatibility scoring.

No. Identity verification and background-check services are not currently built into the product. Treat personal claims as unconfirmed until checked independently.

It describes a limited review of specific evidence supplied at a particular time. The dated evidence ledger shows each claim, source, review scope, expiry, and current status so you can see exactly what was and was not checked. It is never a blanket safety badge or a guarantee of solvency, legality, honesty, or future conduct.

No. If a background check is appropriate and lawful, the parties must arrange it transparently and with consent. A clean report would still not establish compatibility or good character.

Governance documents, ownership or lease authority, budgets and obligations, membership and exit terms, current-member references, dispute procedures, insurance where relevant, and proof that advertised practices happen.

Secrecy, leader immunity, rushed commitment, punishment for outside relationships, undocumented money, sleep or food control, surrender of documents, costly or unsafe exit, and treating disagreement as moral defect.

Meet publicly first, tell an independent person your plan, preserve your own transport and documents, avoid isolation, and do not let social pressure accelerate the commitment.

Only after identities, authority, written terms, debts, refund or equity rules, and exit consequences have been independently reviewed. Large irreversible commitments deserve professional legal and financial advice.

No. Reports require review and can be mistaken or malicious. Multiple independent, specific, and well-supported reports carry more weight than one vague allegation.

Someone with legitimate authority should own the profile and keep its information current. Do not list a property or group without permission.

Current availability, housing conditions, cost, labor, decision rules, leadership limits, finances, exit terms, conflict procedures, daily practices, desired skills, and clear evidence of what presently exists.

Yes, as long as you clearly call them plans. Keep what exists today separate from what the founders hope to build later.

Mark it Currently full. The site shows no current openings for a full listing and does not allow new contact requests to it. Close or pause individual active openings and clear the available-housing flag before saving that status. Old inconsistent records are displayed conservatively instead of advertising an opening.

After a community profile is created, its owner can publish online events, in-person visits, or open houses from Community Profile. Each event can have a capacity, RSVP deadline, reminder timing, broad public location, and private joining details for confirmed attendees. Full events use a first-in waitlist. Organizers can edit, pause, or cancel an event; affected people see changes in Alerts and My events, and a larger capacity promotes waiting guests in order.

Update it whenever availability, costs, or arrangements change. Freshness reminders begin around 75 days after a community was last checked; after 90 days it is considered stale. Review the reconfirmation date yourself before making plans. Reconfirmation is an owner’s update, not independent verification.

No. The product principle is that payment may support useful recruiting tools or visibility, but must never alter compatibility scores or hide conflicts.

Draft is for preparation; published makes an eligible listing publicly browsable. Paused and archived listings are removed from normal public discovery while authorized managers may still access them. Check the status before expecting visitors to find a listing.

Yes, community stewardship and circle-governance features provide specific permissions. Listing work and evidence work can have different roles. Use those controls instead of sharing your Google login.

Show the place and daily life honestly. You can combine photos with a short video in the same carousel. Describe what each item shows, distinguish plans from existing facilities, obtain consent, and avoid exposing private addresses or documents.

No. An upload is a source supplied by a representative. Evidence review has its own status and scope. Check dates, ownership, and what a document actually supports.

The current service is free to use. There is no in-site payment or booking checkout. A community may have its own rent, entry contribution, shared-work commitments, or event costs; confirm those directly and in writing. Future product pricing has not been promised.

Yes. Personal and community profile carousels can mix photos with one short video. Personal galleries allow up to six additional photos; the main profile photo is separate. Community galleries can have more photos. Videos must be MP4 or WebM, no longer than 30 seconds and no larger than 20 MB. Add a useful description to every upload. Community representatives can also upload supporting documents. Photos are resized and re-encoded; videos are stored as uploaded and may retain metadata. Media follows the profile’s visibility.

Open Profile → Email updates to check the live delivery status and choose contact requests, messages, events, or other categories. Email requires a connected provider, your opt-in, and the relevant category. Scheduled checks can process reminders and discoveries without you opening the site, but email is not delivered until the provider is connected. In-app Alerts remain available. Push notifications and SMS are not supported. An email provider accepting a message does not guarantee it reaches your inbox.

No. When both sides separately allow private location matching, the match uses straight-line miles between their saved coordinates and explains that method in the result. Otherwise it falls back to the written city or region. A public map marker is a separate choice and is rounded. None of these methods estimates roads, drive time, or transit.

Named saved searches are not currently available. Profile lets you enable discovery alerts for new community listings or people and choose immediate, daily, or weekly checks. These are new-listing notices, not promises of high compatibility. Background checks run periodically, so immediate does not mean instant. Email also requires a connected provider and email opt-in. Your directory filters can be restored on the same device; they are not a cross-device saved-search account.

No. Outcome records and safety reports are separate from public ratings. Any future review system would need protections against retaliation, gaming, and unsupported accusations.

No. Common Ground is an early-stage discovery and communication service. Its matching explanations, evidence records, reports, and planning tools help you ask better questions; they do not replace independent advice, inspections, or emergency services. The Privacy Notice and Terms explain the current limits.

The site is operated by the Common Ground team. Community listings are maintained by their own representatives, not by the platform team. Contact the team through Help & support in the corner of any page.

Open the chat in the corner and ask to speak to a person. Choose Message the Common Ground team, review your message and contact email, and press Send to the team. You do not need to sign in. Nothing is sent just because you ask the AI a question.

We’ll reply as soon as we can. The support inbox is not a live emergency service or a guaranteed response-time service. AI help can find published FAQ answers immediately, but cannot promise when a person will respond.

The AI assistant uses the site’s published FAQ information to give conversational answers and understand follow-up questions. It does not browse private profiles, read member conversations, change your account, or decide compatibility. If it cannot answer reliably, or you request human help, it offers a way to message the Common Ground team.

Yes. It can misunderstand a question or summarize information incorrectly. Check important details and ask the team when something is unclear. It cannot verify a particular community’s claims, make a reservation, guarantee safety, or give personal legal or financial advice.

No. Your question and a limited recent chat history are processed by the AI service to answer conversationally. Only the separate message you review and explicitly send to the team is saved in the support inbox. Do not put passwords, identity documents, payment details, or private addresses into the AI chat.

Open the chat and expand Team messages to see your submitted questions and team replies. This section appears once you have a support message. Signed-in requests follow your account. Signed-out requests use a secure browser cookie, so return using the same browser. Clearing cookies can remove access to guest replies. Your supplied contact email is private, but it is not proof of identity or a promise of automatic email delivery.

Send a new message from Help & support and include the earlier question’s reference if you saved it. Do not share your browser cookies. The team may need to verify ownership before helping with private account information.

If the assistant cannot answer reliably or is unavailable, it offers a button to message the Common Ground team. Review your message before sending. You can also ask for a person at any time. A failed AI answer does not mean your support message was sent; look for an explicit sent confirmation, then find it under Team messages.

Do not rely on this chat for urgent help. If there is immediate danger, contact appropriate local emergency services. Signed-in members can use the site’s report controls for account or listing issues; if you cannot sign in, describe the non-urgent issue to the team without unnecessary sensitive details.

A map marker requires a location and permission to show it. A visible listing can remain in the directory without appearing on the map. Filters and the selected people/community view also change the results.

Public markers use rounded coordinates, not an exact-address service. Written profile text, images, and external links may reveal more than a marker, so review everything you publish. Do not use a pin as travel directions.

Clear one filter at a time, widen the location range, or browse the other directory. No results means no currently visible records match that combination, not that no such community exists.

No. A community’s full status is not an automatic membership waitlist. Membership openings and event waitlists are separate. Do not assume a future place is reserved.

An opening describes a membership opportunity; available housing describes a place to stay. Neither is a guaranteed booking. Check the actual space, dates, cost, household size, and joining process directly. A full community should not advertise current openings or available housing.

The people or communities are sample data for exploring the product. They are not real housing opportunities or real people to contact. Demo interactions illustrate the flow and must not be treated as confirmed visits or reservations.

Signed-in members can save people or communities to revisit in Shortlist & compare and inspect stated differences. Saving someone is a private planning step, not a message, invitation, application, or reservation.

Compatibility compares submitted answers. Readiness and freshness describe how usable and current a record is. Verification refers to limited reviewed evidence. None of them proves that a person or community is safe or that housing is available.

Open the community’s Events section, review the public details, and RSVP while signed in. Check whether your status is Going or Waitlisted. An event RSVP is not a housing application or membership acceptance.

Private joining details are available to organizers and confirmed attendees, not to public browsers or waitlisted visitors. Access is removed when an RSVP is withdrawn or the event is cancelled. Ask the host if instructions are missing.

When capacity is full, visitors can join the waitlist. Available places promote waiting guests in order. Check your current RSVP status before travelling; waitlisted does not mean confirmed.

Yes. Leave the event or waitlist from the event controls or My events. This releases your place and removes attendee-only joining details. Tell the organizer directly if you also made separate paid or travel arrangements.

The event’s current status and your in-site event records are authoritative. Changes can generate Alerts and, when email delivery and your preferences are enabled, email updates. Recheck before travelling; a previously exported calendar file does not update itself.

Select Remind me for a confirmed RSVP, enable email updates in Profile, and select Event reminders & changes. The delivery-status message must say the provider is connected. Background checks prepare due reminders; without a connected provider there is no reliable off-site delivery.

Use the event’s calendar export when available. It is a snapshot, not a live calendar subscription, and excludes private joining details. Later edits or cancellation do not automatically update the imported copy.

Check Profile → Email updates, the connection status, your selected categories, and spam folders. Event reminders also require a confirmed RSVP and Remind me. Signing in does not automatically subscribe you. The service cannot guarantee delivery, and old notifications are not replayed indefinitely.

Notification emails use a generic update notice and link back to the site. They do not include private message bodies, names, or exact event addresses. Your email provider still handles the delivery. You can turn categories off or unsubscribe.

No. The current off-site delivery path is optional email when configured. Scheduled checks are periodic, and delivery can be delayed or fail. For an important visit, agree on a direct contact method with the organizer.

A private space for people considering a community together. Circles help members discuss plans, record agreements, organize next steps, and work through shared decisions. Joining one does not create a tenancy, partnership, or legal commitment.

Circle content is restricted to people with the appropriate circle access and site administration. Inviting someone gives them the access described by their role. Avoid adding private information about people who have not consented.

The circle tools support a governed route to a community listing. Shared decisions and the relevant membership permissions apply; it is not the same as one person independently editing their own listing.

No. Shortlisting, contact acceptance, planning stages, and recorded intentions are coordination tools. Confirm dates, costs, responsibilities, and any binding terms directly with the parties.

Review the confirmation and account-erasure preview before acting. Access and responsibilities can change. Account erasure closes circles you facilitated rather than silently transferring them, and some community records contributed under shared stewardship remain with that community.