Who decides what
Founders vote on ballots, ask the newsroom, reply to notes and join the live calls. Supporters read all of it: memos, tallies, answers, notes. Memos, options and results are public; so is this page.
Three slots, never more
- Commissioned story. Founders choose the next story Pollar commissions; a new story vote joins the cycle once the previous piece has shipped.
- Build. What we build or change in the product next.
- Newsroom. Formats and coverage: the brief, articles, charts, the newsletter, where to add sources.
All three are Founder ballots.
A new cycle every two weeks
Ballots run in fourteen-day cycles: when one closes, the next opens, up to three ballots at once, one per slot. A slot joins only when its previous decision has shipped, or been dropped with a reason. If it has not, that slot sits the cycle out and the page says so. That is the point.
The newsroom frames, members decide
Every ballot comes with a memo: why now, the options, the case against each option, what it costs us, how we will measure it. Binding ballots: whatever wins, happens. Advisory ballots, marked as such, are for coverage priorities: members say where to go, the newsroom keeps the call and records what it did with the advice.
Quorum
Every ballot states what it needs to bind: a quarter of its electorate, rounded up, never fewer than three. Below that, or on a tie, the newsroom decides and says so on the decision page.
Never on a ballot
- What a story says, whether to publish it, or whether a correction stands.
- Removing a source, or how an outlet is rated. Members can vote to add; ratings and delisting stay with the newsroom.
- Models, costs, infrastructure.
- The brand voice and tone.
- Who gets the vote, and what membership includes. Those are promises we made when you paid; we change them by telling you, not by a ballot.
How long it binds
One quarter from the result. After that, five Founders can put it back on the ballot, or the newsroom can. We publish the metric the memo promised one quarter after shipping, and we keep dropped decisions in the ledger with the reason.
Editions
A question that touches one language edition is voted by Founders of that edition and shown only there.
Numbers
Every figure on the Members page is counted nightly by a job from the tables the product runs on, with its definition beside it. Nobody types a number. Model and vendor names live on the AI policy page, not here.
Privacy
We publish tallies and turnout, never who voted how. Your own choices are kept so your record line can be written; only you see them. Your name appears only where you chose a display name: on questions, replies and nominations.