Make informed choices on Changemappers

Changemappers is built on a different premise: useful relationships matter more than visible ones. There are no follower counts, no viral rankings, no attention economy.

• There is no ranking by likes, star ratings, or reach metrics. Recommendations are based on fit and consent, not performance.
• The platform is built around contribution, reciprocity, and reflection — not broadcasting. Popularity is not a signal the system optimizes for.
• Every recommendation should be explainable: the system shows you people, causes, and communities because of shared context, not because someone paid for placement.

Changemappers helps changemakers find the right people, communities, and opportunities for regenerative collaboration — locally and across networks.

• The platform values useful, trustworthy relationships and shared growth over popularity or attention metrics.
• Reflect, Discover, Connect, and Act are the four core movements: knowing where you stand, finding relevant others, building relationships, and doing meaningful work together.
• The goal is to reduce wasted connections by asking for enough context — role, offers, needs, cause focus — to make recommendations meaningful rather than random.

Start with account verification, identity setup, matching setup, and visibility choices. You do not need to fill everything in at once.

• Create an account, verify your email, and complete the onboarding steps. Each step unlocks more of the platform.
• The matching setup step collects the minimum context for useful recommendations: role labels, offers, needs, cause or RDG focus, contribution seed, and availability. Without it, you can browse but will not receive meaningful match suggestions.
• Set profile visibility for location, avatar, profile fields, map presence, and what others can see — you can change these any time from profile settings.

The app reveals more tools as they become relevant so the first session stays navigable — not because some features are more important than others.

• New users start with essential discovery, reflection, profile, and connection tools visible in the menu.
• More advanced coordination, systems, and governance tools appear as your use deepens, or can be enabled from settings.
• This sequencing is guidance, not a value judgment. The interface is trying to reduce overload, not rank your development.

Most app activity fits into Reflect, Discover, Connect, and Act — four movements that build on each other.

• Reflect: check in on your availability, focus, values, and energy before diving into external activity. This is the compass that keeps your participation intentional.
• Discover: find people, communities, events, causes, stories, and map-based proximity that match your context and needs.
• Connect: send requests, start messages, accept conversations, and build relationships that can carry real collaboration.
• Act: offer or request training, mentoring, coaching, peer support, contributions, community work, and initiative support — routed to people who fit.

The matching setup step collects the minimum signals needed for local recommendations: role, offers, needs, cause or RDG focus, contribution context, availability, and explicit consent.

• Role labels (e.g. practitioner, researcher, organiser, funder) tell the algorithm what kind of collaboration you are likely to offer or need. Offers and needs are weighted highest in matching — they define the exchange surface.
• Cause and RDG focus narrow geographic and thematic routing: the system tries to suggest people active in the same context, not just anyone with similar interests globally.
• These are contextual routing signals, not permanent identity labels or public scores. Incomplete matching setup means you can still browse allowed surfaces, but you will not receive meaningful recommendations until it is complete.

Availability tells the system whether to route new connection attention toward you right now. It is a protection mechanism, not a performance signal.

• Between projects and Building are open states. The algorithm routes new recommendations and requests to you normally — you appear in match results for others.
• Delivering reduces your recommendation weight. The system can still surface you, but with lower priority, because you are in active delivery and likely less available for new asks.
• Reflecting and Resting are protection states. You may browse freely, but you will not be surfaced as a new recommendation to others. Incoming connection requests are also deprioritised. These are valid, intentional states — not failures or gaps.

Safety controls include reporting, role-gated admin areas, privacy controls, and availability protection. You are in control of your exposure.

• Suspicious or harmful behavior can be reported from any profile or content card. Reports go to role-gated admin areas — not other users.
• Sensitive fields (location precision, cause details, personal context) can stay private by design. Visibility controls independently shape profile, search, map, and card exposure.
• Availability is part of safety: Resting and Reflecting prevent the system from routing new asks to you. No one can see your current availability state — only its effect on routing.

Profile visibility and matching consent are related but separate controls. You can change either independently at any time.

• Profile, search, map, and card visibility settings control what other people can see when they browse or search. Each surface has its own toggle.
• Algorithmic matching consent controls whether your offers, needs, and role signals may be used to compute match scores. Sensitive matching consent is a separate, explicit opt-in for processing personal context fields.
• From account privacy settings you can fine-tune visibility, restrict processing, export your data, request deletion, or withdraw sensitive matching consent. Withdrawal takes effect within the next matching cycle.

The feed shows what is happening across your network and relevant causes — ordered by time, not engagement score.

• Feed order is chronological. There is no algorithm boosting posts by likes or reach — newer content appears first regardless of who posted it.
• Reactions are typed and specific: inspired, learned, can help, can connect. These are contribution signals, not vanity metrics. They help the system understand what kind of value a post has.
• RDG tags and curated cause annotations add geographic and thematic context to posts without turning the feed into open hashtag clutter. You can filter the feed by cause or community.

Your matching answers are adjustable as your situation, focus, and energy change. Low-resolution answers are fine at the start.

• You can modify your role labels, offers, needs, cause focus, contribution context, and availability from your profile at any time. Changes are reflected in the next matching cycle.
• Changing availability pauses or resumes how much new connection attention reaches you — useful when moving between projects, recovering, or shifting focus.
• Deliberately vague answers are acceptable at registration. Refine them when you know more precisely what kind of help, collaboration, or contribution you are ready for.

Training, mentoring, coaching, peer support, and contribution are intentionally different kinds of help — each with a different relationship dynamic.

• Training transfers a skill or method from someone with direct knowledge to someone who needs it. It is asymmetric and structured: there is a syllabus or defined outcome.
• Mentoring offers judgment from lived experience. Coaching helps you find your own answer through questions rather than advice. Peer support is time-bounded mutual accompaniment between equals.
• Completion is documented through reflection and learning notes, not numeric ratings or popularity scores. The focus is on what changed, not on performance.

Share enough to make useful connections, but do not disclose more than you are ready to have used in recommendations or profile context.

• Choose availability honestly. Resting and Reflecting are complete, valid states — not gaps or failures. Choosing them signals self-awareness, not disengagement.
• Use needs and offers specific enough to guide matching without revealing private details you do not want processed. You can be specific about the type of collaboration without naming personal circumstances.
• If a visibility or consent setting feels too broad for where you are right now, choose the narrower option and expand it later. Settings are reversible; disclosures are harder to undo.