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HOL-D070Story implementation: In progress

Read and reply to conversations across Backcountry

community · Proposed launch phase 2

Start from Home

Review as Visitor

User story

As a visitor, I want to read public conversations and understand when an account or membership is required so I can decide how to participate.

Draft requirements for review · Updated 2026-10-19

What the app should do

  • Read public feed/group/thread descriptions and approved public conversations from canonical backend records with visible published author fields. Anonymous reads exclude pending/private/member-only content; new posting/moderation writes are outside this increment.
  • Show contextual conversations on story/gallery, group-post/field-note and event/session pages, with two published comment previews on readable Community posts.
  • Expand the same thread from its feed preview; show replies, published counts, featured/newest/most-liked sorting and a way to show more.
  • Use recurring fictional readers/contributors:29 threads and120 seeded published comments/replies. These are demo fixtures, not evidence of real users, moderation decisions or current conditions.
  • Allow eligible sample identities to like comments, write comments/replies and retain their own draft/pending state locally after reload.
  • Public discussion submission needs a verified free sample account; member discussions need active simulated membership; group replies also need group membership. Role previews use separate fictional identities; signup/upgrade test accounts require their own simulated activation.
  • Keep new submissions author-only and awaiting moderation; do not add them to published counts or automatically publish them. Preserve an earlier submitted-note notice where applicable.
  • Do not attach public conversations to private profile/account or personal field-plan data. Keep discussion storage separate from membership review storage.
  • Keep fictional-content provenance and local-only behavior in the Brief/documentation; do not add distracting demo labels to product reading.
  • Visitor access is signed-out public browsing only. Saving, following or public conversation submission prompts for a free account; member access requires a separate paid upgrade, with no trial.

What to check in the demo

Follow these steps from the role’s landing page through navigation and feature checks.

Review asStart here: Home

Begin on Visitor Home while signed out. If an account is active, use the account/workspace menu → Sign out. Public browsing does not require an account.

Navigation from public entry

  1. 01Begin on Visitor Home, without signing in.
  2. 02Select Community in the main navigation and find the public share for The Quiet Between Storms.

Feature checks start here

Community

Public-content reads are available for dev review; full story acceptance and stakeholder approval remain separate. Ready for frontend review in dev only. All participants/content are fictional; new submissions stay locally awaiting moderation. No hosted conversation or real moderation service is connected.

  1. 03Expand View all from the public share and compare its previews with the same full thread.
  2. 04Change sorting and show more comments; check published counts and replies.
  3. 05Try a comment like, new comment or reply; confirm the signed-out action requests a free verified account.
  4. 06Inspect a member discussion or group reply; do not use the returning-member identity to claim Visitor participation.
  5. 07Check phone wrapping and another sample identity; no other-author pending content or role-label-only unlock should appear.

Backend work for this feature

Backend development authorized · Dev only

What needs to be supported

  • Selected authorization is the public read/content-seeding slice only. Existing write, participation, editorial management, event operations, gift redemption, payment and delivery requirements below are separate later work unless already authorized elsewhere.
  • Read public feed/group/thread descriptions and approved public conversations from canonical backend records with visible published author fields. Anonymous reads exclude pending/private/member-only content; new posting/moderation writes are outside this increment.
  • Persist canonical thread/object ID, comment/reply hierarchy, author, published revision/state, reactions and moderation history separately from private account/profile data.
  • Server-enforce readable thread scope, verified identity for public submission, active entitlement for member discussion and active membership plus joined-group status for group replies.
  • Expose pending drafts/submissions only to their author and assigned moderator; public counts/sorts include published comments only. Creator attribution requires the approved credited-person relationship.
  • Authorize own edits/reactions and explicitly assigned moderation decisions; Creator standing does not permit self-publication or reading other-author pending content.
  • Handle duplicate submissions/reactions, withdrawn content, lost access, rate/length limits and interrupted saves with recoverable results; keep reporter/privacy data and moderation audit restricted.

How to verify in dev

  1. Verify published-only anonymous projection, no private/protected payload, stable IDs and links, missing/unpublished records, empty/loading/error UI, and no silent static fallback. Idempotent seed rerun preserves edited records; authenticated/dummy Home entry remains unchanged.
  2. Read public conversation previews signed out and follow the existing links; no unpublished replies, private activity or paid conversation body should appear.
  3. Use signed-out, free, paid, joined-group and credited-Creator synthetic cases to verify thread reads and comment/reply eligibility.
  4. Submit/reload under two authors; verify pending visibility, published counts and exact credited attribution across article/feed/portfolio.
  5. Repeat/concurrently submit or react, revoke access and apply an assigned moderation decision; verify one consistent result, no leaked pending text and protected audit history.

Before this can work

  • Begin on Visitor Home while signed out. If an account is active, use the account/workspace menu → Sign out. Public browsing does not require an account.
  • Use Explore brief → Signup & upgrade tests for account-transition tests; it preserves separate sample data.

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