Help & FAQ

Everything you need to know about Pholk.

What is Pholk?

Pholk is a local social network for the Pacific Northwest. It's a place to discuss what's happening in your neighborhood, city, and region — from restaurant recommendations and neighborhood news to local politics and community events.

Unlike national social networks, Pholk is scoped geographically. The content you see is relevant to where you actually live. You can browse hyper-local neighborhood posts or zoom out to the full Pacific NW — it's all organized by scope.

Who is Pholk for?

Anyone who lives in or cares about a Pacific Northwest community. We launched in the Portland metro area first, covering the full Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro including cities, suburbs, and small towns across Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Columbia, and Yamhill counties (OR) and Clark County (WA). More regions are on the way.

Is Pholk free?

Yes, Pholk is free to use. We're in beta right now, which means you're one of the first people helping us shape what it becomes.

How Phorums work

A Phorum is a community organized around a topic — think of it like a neighborhood notice board, but for any subject: cycling, restaurants, local history, dogs, neighborhood news, and more.

How do I join a Phorum?

Visit any Phorum and click Join. Joined Phorums appear in your left sidebar and your feed. You can leave at any time from the same page.

How do I post to a Phorum?

Click the + Post button — top-right on desktop, center of the bottom nav bar on mobile. Select a Phorum, write a title and optional body, then submit. You can post text, links, or images. GIFs are available in comments.

How do I save a post?

Click the bookmark icon on any post card to save it. Find all your saved posts at /saved or via the user menu in the header.

Can I set a flair in a Phorum?

Yes — if a Phorum has flair enabled, you'll see a flair widget in the Phorum's sidebar. Depending on how the mod has configured it, you can either type a custom flair or choose from a list of options set by the moderators. Your flair appears next to your name within that Phorum.

Who moderates a Phorum?

Each Phorum has one or more moderators who can remove off-topic posts and comments, pin important announcements, ban members, set community rules and description, and manage flair options. Site admins can also act across all Phorums.

Can I create my own Phorum?

Yes — click Create a Phorum in the left sidebar or browse phorums page. You'll set a name, scope, and whether the Phorum allows NSFW content. You automatically become the first moderator.

The scope system

Every Phorum has a scope that describes its geographic reach. This helps you understand which communities are hyper-local versus region-wide.

Neighborhood

A single neighborhood within a city — the most local scope. Content here is just for people in your immediate area.

Metro

A full city or metro area (e.g. Portland, Beaverton). Good for city-wide topics like transit, local government, and big events.

Region

A broader regional area — everything from the Oregon Coast to the Columbia River Gorge, reaching as far as the southern tip of the Willamette Valley. Topics that span multiple cities.

Pacific NW

The whole Pacific Northwest. For topics that touch everyone — PNW weather, regional politics, travel, and more.

Voting & Root Score

Every post and comment can be upvoted or downvoted. Upvotes signal quality and relevance; downvotes push low-quality or off-topic content down.

What is Root Score?

Your Root Score is a measure of your standing in the community, calculated from the net votes your posts and comments have received over time. It's displayed as a tier badge on your profile and next to your name on posts.

What are the tiers?

Tiers reflect your cumulative Root Score:

🌱Seedling0 – 99
🌿Sapling100 – 999
🌲Rooted1,000 – 9,999
🌳Established10,000 – 49,999
🌳Old Growth50,000 – 99,999
🌳✨Ancient100,000+

Can I vote on my own posts?

Yes — you can upvote or downvote your own posts and comments.

Direct 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?

Any Pholk member can send you a message request. You can accept or decline from your Messages page. Once accepted, the conversation is open. Phriends — members who follow each other mutually — skip the request step entirely and can message you directly.

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.

Account & privacy

How do I change my location?

Go to Settings → Location to update your city and neighborhood. Your neighborhood appears on your posts and helps connect you with nearby Pholks.

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?

Go to Settings → Account → Change 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 in p/PholkBetaTest — our dedicated feedback Phorum. 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.