Help & FAQ
Everything you need to know about Pholk.
What is Pholk?
Pholk is a place to show what you're building and get honest, useful feedback on it. Post a project with a demo, ask the questions you want answered, and hear from people who know the territory. Good feedback often turns into a conversation, and sometimes a collaboration.
How does it work?
- Post a project: a demo link or screenshots, its stage, and the questions you're stuck on.
- Get feedback from people who answer those questions.
- Reward the feedback that helped. It raises the reviewer's Pholk score.
- Collaborate: feedback unlocks a collab request, and you can credit the people who helped.
Is Pholk free?
Yes. Posting, feedback and messaging are free. We're in beta right now, which means you're one of the first people helping us shape what it becomes.
Posting a project
How do I post?
Click New Post in the header (or the + button on mobile) and choose Project. Add a name, a one-line description, a link where people can try it or screenshots, its stage (idea, prototype, beta or live), and 3–5 tags. Choose Discussion instead for questions and conversations that aren't about a specific project.
What are the questions for?
Ask up to 5 things you want to know (“Is it clear what this does?”, “Would you pay for it?”). Reviewers answer each one, so you get specific answers instead of “looks cool.”
What are “Looking for”, roast mode and Phriends only?
Looking for lists the roles you'd love help from (designer, marketer…). Roast mode tells reviewers you want blunt feedback. Phriends only soft-launches a project to your Phriends; use “Make public” on the project when it's ready.
How do I reward feedback?
On your project, click Reward on feedback that genuinely helped. You have 5 rewards per project, and you can take one back.
Giving feedback
What makes good feedback?
Answer the maker's questions, be specific about what works and what doesn't, and say why. Pick who you are (someone the project is for, a fellow maker, or an expert) so the maker can weigh it. Critique the work, not the person.
What do I get for it?
Rewards from makers raise your Pholk score, which gives your own projects a boost. Leaving feedback on someone's project also lets you send them a collab request.
Where do I find projects that need feedback?
Use the Needs feedback sort on your Pheed or any Phorum. It shows recent projects with the least feedback so far.
Tags & Phorums
Every tag is a Phorum: a page that lists all the projects and discussions with that tag, like p/webdev or p/gamedev.
How do I follow a tag?
Open any Phorum and click Follow. Followed tags appear in your left sidebar and fill your Pheed. Browse all Phorums to find more.
How do I save a post?
Click the bookmark icon on any post. Find saved posts at/saved or in the user menu.
Who moderates a Phorum?
Each Phorum can have moderators who remove off-topic posts from their Phorum, pin posts and set rules. Site admins can act across all Phorums.
Can I create a new tag?
Yes, once your community score reaches 10: Create a Phorum. You become its first moderator.
Pholk score
Your Pholk score is one number made of two parts. Both are earned by being useful, not by posting a lot.
Reward points
When you leave feedback on someone's project, the maker can reward it if it genuinely helped. Each reward is worth 25 points (12 from brand-new accounts). Makers get up to 5 rewards per project.
Community score
Anyone can upvote or downvote feedback and comments (“yes, this” or “not quite”), and upvote projects. Every 5 net upvotes on your posts and comments adds 1 to your community score. A community score of 10 lets you create new tags.
How it adds up
Pholk score = reward points + community score, and it never goes below zero. One reward is worth as much as 125 upvotes, so helping makers counts most, but being great in discussions counts too. Your Pholk score sets your tier and gives your own projects a small boost in feeds.
Why can I only upvote projects?
Criticism belongs in feedback, where it's useful. When you upvote a project you can add up to two reasons (Useful, Genius, Funny…) so the maker knows what people like.
What are the tiers?
Tiers reflect your Pholk score:
- 🌱Seedling0 – 99
- 🌿Sapling100 – 999
- 🌲Rooted1,000 – 9,999
- 🌳Established10,000 – 49,999
- 🌳Old Growth50,000 – 99,999
- 🌳✨Ancient100,000+
Phriends & messages
Pholk has a built-in direct messaging system. You can send a message to any member from their profile page.
Who can message me?
Anyone can message you. Messages from your Phriends go straight to your inbox. Messages from everyone else wait in the Requests tab of your Messages page until you accept. If you decline, the sender isn't told. To let everyone's messages go straight to your inbox, turn on Allow messages from anyone in Account Settings.
What's the difference between Phriends and following?
Following is one-way: someone's projects show up in your feed, and you can choose to see the projects they give feedback on too. Phriends are mutual: one of you sends a request and the other accepts. Phriends can message each other directly, see each other's Phriends-only projects and links, ask each other for feedback, and credit each other as collaborators. Blocking someone ends both.
What's a collab request?
Once you've left feedback on someone's project, you can send them a collab request from that project or their profile. It shows them the project and the role you'd bring, so it stands out from ordinary message requests.
Where do I find my messages?
Tap the Messages icon in the header. A dot appears when you have pending requests or unread messages.
Are messages private?
Yes — direct messages are only visible to the two participants. Moderators and admins do not have access to private messages.
Why can't I message someone?
If a user has marked their profile as 18+, you'll need to enable NSFW content in your Account Settings before you can message them.
Local help
What is local help?
Some projects need people nearby: testers at a pop-up, a venue, hands for a build. A maker can turn on Seeking local help and pick a radius from 0 to 300 miles. The project is then listed in its town and state Phorums (like p/portland-or and p/oregon) and shows in the Near you tab for people within that radius.
Do I have to share my location?
No. Location is optional and off until you add it insettings. We save only your town or zip-code center, never your exact location, and it never appears on your profile. Local-help projects show the maker's town, never an address.
Account, email & privacy
What emails will I get?
Only about things you haven't already seen on Pholk: feedback on your projects, rewards for your feedback, collab and feedback requests, and a weekly digest of new projects in your tags. Turn any of them off insettings, or use the unsubscribe link in any email.
What is the 'Show NSFW content' toggle?
When enabled, posts and Phorums marked as mature (18+) will be visible in your feed. It's off by default. You can toggle it in Settings → Account.
What does 'Mark profile as 18+' do?
Enabling this hides your profile from users who haven't turned on NSFW content, and blocks them from sending you direct messages. Your profile is always visible to yourself and site admins.
Can I delete my posts or comments?
Yes — your own posts and comments have a delete option. Deleted content is replaced with a [deleted] stub that preserves the thread structure rather than creating gaps in a conversation.
How do I change my password?
Reporting content
If you see a post or comment that violates community guidelines — harassment, spam, illegal content, or anything harmful — please report it so our moderation team can review it.
How do I report something?
Reporting tools are coming soon. In the meantime, please email us directly (see Feedback below) with a link to the content and a brief description of the issue. We take all reports seriously and will respond promptly.
What happens after I report?
A moderator or admin reviews the report and may remove the content, warn the user, or take no action if the report doesn't meet the threshold. You won't receive individual status updates during beta, but we read every report.
Feedback & bugs
How do I send feedback?
We're in active beta and genuinely want to hear from you. The best ways to reach us:
- Platform & bugs: phil@pholk.io — technical issues, bug reports, feature requests.
- Community & everything else: phoebe@pholk.io — content concerns, partnerships, general questions.
- Post a discussion tagged p/pholk-meta, where we talk about Pholk itself. Share what you love, what's broken, and what you wish existed.
I found a bug. What should I do?
Email phil@pholk.io with as much detail as you can — what you were doing, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened. Screenshots are incredibly helpful. We'll fix it fast.