The Guide

Notifications gathers the things that need your attention in one place. Open it from the bell in the header. Items mark themselves read once seen, and you can clear them when handled.

• A Bond offered to you, or a response to a Bond you offered.
• A collar request you have received, or a response to one you sent.
• A new Correspondence message, or a reply in an open thread.
• A House admission decision, or a request to join a House you lead.
• A Chamber invitation or join decision involving you.
• An editorial decision on anything you submitted — a Manuscript, an Archive contribution, a Lexicon entry, an Instrumentarium item, a Library suggestion or a Gallery work.
• A decision on a verification request, an honorific title, or a request for assistance you raised.
• An administrative measure recorded against your account.
• A Ceremony you are named in.

Editorial notifications follow the state changes described in Editorial Lifecycle: you are told when a submission is published, returned for refinement, or declined.

The Cellars prefers a small, useful stream. Direct actions involving you produce notifications; passive activity does not. New Manuscripts, new Archive contributions and House notices appear in their own listings, not in your notifications.

There are also no email notifications, no push notifications, and no external notifications of any kind. The bell in the header is the only place new activity is gathered.

Use search from the header to look across the site. Type at least two characters; results return from a few public collections:

• Published Archive contributions.
• Published Manuscripts.
• Published Library books and authors, including their alternate names.
• Published Gallery works and creators — a creator's name reaches their works.
• Published Lexicon entries.
• Published Instrumentarium items.
• Active Houses (with raised Towers).
• Public Ceremonies.
• Members with visible profiles.

Search finds what shares a word. Deliberate relationships between records are held separately — see Knowledge Graph.

• Private profile fields and anything you have marked hidden.
• Correspondence and Chamber messages.
• Verification materials and any verification data on accounts.
• Moderation records, reports, and staff notes.
• Hidden profiles and accounts that have opted out of discovery.
• Anything not Published, and any record marked Duplicate Of or Merged Into.

Search only sees what has already been made public on the site. Hiding a profile or un-publishing a piece removes it from search at the same time. The Cellars does not send your search terms to any outside service.

Notifications speak when something needs you; search waits until you ask. Neither is a feed, and neither leaves the site.