English Product Guides

Membership in EarthCoop System and User-Created Groups

EarthCoop does not use one universal “find a group and request to join” model. The membership path depends first on whether the group is an official system group or a separate user-created group.

System-group membership is automatic

System groups are resolved from the member's canonical profile dimensions. After the required registration steps are complete, EarthCoop can create or assign the relevant memberships automatically from:

• Primary Residence and the applicable governance hierarchy;
• profession/occupation;
• expertise/specialty;
• age/gender dimensions used by the system.

These memberships include public assemblies, professional/specialty groups, and age/gender groups across the applicable geographic levels. A member does not need a group invitation code or a Manager's approval to acquire an official system membership that follows from those canonical dimensions.

Residence determines the public-governance path

The Primary Residence selected through the canonical Location/Governance flow determines the member's local/base public-governance relationship and the applicable wider hierarchy.

The path is topology-aware. A city without an urban region, an urban region without a neighborhood, or a village without a neighborhood can become the valid base when no lower governance unit exists. See Location & Governance for the full rule.

A valid proposed base location may remain pending review while the product preserves the related pending memberships. Community support can move the proposal toward review readiness, but support is not approval.

Participation is not identical at every level

Automatic membership does not mean identical rights in every system group.

• The relevant Active membership at the member's local/base governance level can carry direct participation rights under the current group/domain rules.
• Applicable higher-level system memberships can be Observer memberships. Being represented at a wider level does not automatically grant the same direct participation rights as the local/base Active role.
• Temporary Active may enable limited participation where the policy permits it, but it does not create systemic-election voting/selectability rights.
• Elected Inspector and Manager roles retain their personal systemic voting/selectability rights under the current election-eligibility contract.
• Guest and Observer roles do not gain systemic-election voting/selectability simply because they can see a group.

User-created-group membership is separate

User-created groups can have separate membership or invitation workflows where the current product exposes them. Those flows must not be confused with official system-group eligibility.

Joining a user-created organization does not:

• change your Primary Residence;
• make that organization an official public assembly;
• create official professional/specialty eligibility by itself;
• grant systemic-election rights in an unrelated system group.

Likewise, an account-registration invitation code is not a general-purpose mechanism for assigning official system-group membership.

When profile data changes

If your Primary Residence, profession, or expertise changes, use the corresponding canonical profile/Location & Governance flow rather than trying to leave and rejoin official system groups manually. EarthCoop uses those source dimensions to reconcile the relevant system memberships.

Residence changes are especially significant because they can change the local governance base and the upstream public/professional/specialty group relationships connected to it.

What to expect in My Groups

“My Groups” can therefore contain different states and roles at the same time:

• Active local/base memberships;
• Observer memberships at wider levels;
• pending memberships connected to a pending valid location proposal;
• professional/specialty memberships derived from your profile;
• age/gender system memberships;
• separate user-created-group memberships where applicable.