Civic · Transparency
Who decides? What does my contribution mean? What happens next?
What would you like to participate in?
The rules, methods and numbers behind participation on LaSocialOffline.
Who decides
Participation on the platform informs and organises. It does not replace the bodies that hold authority.
- Community idea
- Written by residents. It carries no official status.
- Community recommendation
- Agreed by a group, assembly or citizen panel. It advises; it does not decide.
- Consultation input
- Collected for a consultation opened by a responsible organisation.
- Institutional proposal
- Put forward by a responsible organisation for comment.
- Authorised decision
- Decided by the body that has the authority to decide, on the record.
- Implemented project
- Carried out; the outcome is documented.
LaSocialOffline has no partnership with any public body unless one is signed and published. Items marked Illustrative show how a process or response appears; they are not actions of a real institution.
Roles and permissions
Mirrors the checks inside the engines.
| Action | Who |
|---|---|
| Read, explore, download briefings | Visitor |
| Ask, contribute, weigh statements, support | Member |
| Start an idea, issue or proposal | Member (then Contributor) |
| Form a project team, post project updates | Project lead |
| Record contributions collected at a meeting | Facilitator (Cercle facilitator or mediator) |
| Open under review / discussion | Moderator, responsible organisation |
| Open prioritisation, record a decision | Institution (authority account), moderator |
| Record an authorised decision | Institution (authority account) only |
| Publish an official response or official information | Institution (authority account) only |
| Open a consultation, citizen panel or budget | Institution (authority account) only |
| Create an assembly or public meeting | Community leader, organiser, institution |
| Publish volunteer roles and resource requests | Project lead, organisation, institution |
| Verify citizen-science observations | Organisation or researcher running the programme |
| Hide contributions, handle mediation and appeals | Moderator (appeals: a different moderator) |
| Approve photographs, change process rules | Administrator |
Methodology
Consensus map
Statements are weighed once per person (agree / disagree / unsure). With at least 8 responses: broad agreement ≥ 70 % agree; partial agreement 50–69 %; disagreement when fewer than 50 % agree and at least 30 % disagree; needs more information when 40 % or more are unsure. Shares are of respondents to that statement only. Nothing is weighted by who people are, and no opinion is ranked above another.
Participatory budgets
Eligibility rules are published on each budget. Each person chooses up to the number of proposals the budget allows; the most chosen proposals are funded in order until the allocation is used.
Citizen panels
Draws are made from the pool of volunteers, balanced as described on the panel page, with a reproducible seed. Panels recommend; the convening body decides and must record its decision.
Evidence
Every contribution states what kind of information it is: experience, opinion, suggestion, question, evidence or research (with a source), expert contribution, organisation information, or official information (authority accounts only). They are shown with different labels and are not presented as equally authoritative.
Recommendations and feeds
Personal feeds use only what you told us — city, interests, communities, follows. No inferred political beliefs, no targeting, no persuasion ranking.
Moderation, disagreement and appeal
Clarification → disagreement → mediation → escalation → decision in words → appeal to a different moderator → follow-up.
| Kind | Status | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Escalation | Decision upheld | Contribution hidden: it named a private individual. The author may repost without the name. |
| Mediation | Follow-up scheduled | A site walk with both groups is scheduled; the alternatives are listed side by side. |
| Disagreement | Resolved | Statements merged into one; both authors agreed to the wording. |
| Clarification | Resolved | The contributor added the survey name and year; the evidence label now shows its source. |
Numbers
Aggregates only — never individual behaviour.
Your data
Participation can involve sensitive information. You control it.
- Contribute publicly, privately (moderators and the responsible organisation only), or anonymously.
- Locations are city-level for people; issue locations are rounded to about 100 m and describe a public place, never a home.
- We keep what the process needs and nothing about how long you read or what you scrolled past.
Process changes
- 2026-09 — Governance 4.0: one lifecycle for issues, ideas, proposals, projects and consultations; typed contributions; consensus map with published thresholds.
- 2026-09 — Contributions collected at meetings, on paper or by phone can be recorded by facilitators, with the channel shown.
- 2026-09 — Appeals against moderation decisions are reviewed by a different moderator.
Institutional enquiry
Run a participation process with your community
Municipalities, public bodies and associations: talk to us about consultations, budgets or panels. No partnership exists until both sides sign one.
- You tell us what you are looking for.
- A person — the organiser, host or our team — answers by email.
- You meet in person, when you are ready.