# Who sees what

You choose who sees a note, and when they see it.

## How it works

One mantel per group, not one each. You are reading the same history rather than two versions of it, which is why a photo added by one of you is on the day rather than shared to the other.

Every photo and every line carries the name of whoever put it there, drawn as a dot in their color. That is attribution, and it stops there: no counts, no percentages, no summary of who did more.

## Private notes, and notes that open later

**Private notes.** A note only you can see, optionally set to open later.

A note marked private to you is invisible to everyone else on the mantel, and nothing tells them it exists. There is no placeholder, no locked row, no count.

You can also give it a moment to open: a date, or the moment the day gets kept. Until then it behaves like any private note. After it opens, whoever else is on the mantel sees it appear in Updates the way any new entry does.

## Guests

**Guests.** Can look, cannot add, and never take a seat.

A guest sees the memories you let guests see and nothing else. They cannot add a photo, write a line, or change anything.

Guests are free on every kind of mantel and do not count against the seats, so inviting someone to look at the trip does not cost you a seat.

## Double Take

**Double Take.** One question about a day, answered separately, opened together.

Ember asks one question about a day and you each answer it without seeing the others. The question comes from Ember. Nobody in the mantel had to invent one.

Answers stay sealed until enough of you have written one, which for two people means both. They open at the same moment, so no answer got shaped by reading another.

## Hidden from guests

**Hidden from guests.** Visible to members, invisible to guests.

A memory can be visible to everyone who shares the mantel and hidden from guests. It is not a private note: the other members see it as they would any other day.

This is for days that stay on the mantel and off the guest view. A guest is not told the day exists.

## Inviting someone

**Invite.** A member link and a guest link, both removable before use.

Member invites and guest invites are separate links. A member invite lets somebody join the mantel: they add, write, and are attributed like you. A guest invite lets somebody look.

You can copy either link, and you can remove it before anybody uses it. Nobody reaches your mantel any other way.

## Activity by other people

**Updates.** What changed on the mantel since you last looked.

Updates lists what other people did: a photo added, a story written, a Double Take answered, a private note reaching the day it was set to open.

You can get these as a notification on your phone, per mantel, or leave that off. That switch is about other people, not about your own history. Nothing in Ember pushes an old memory at you.

## Your color

**Your color.** The colored dot beside your name on what you added.

Each person on a mantel has a color. It is the dot beside your name on every photo and every line you wrote. You can change yours.

On a shared day you can see who added what without anyone signing their entries.

## What it doesn't do

There is no public feed. Everyone who can see your mantel got an invite from you, and an invite can be taken back.

Ember shows attribution but never keeps score. There is no tally of who contributed what.