User guide

Getting started

tracethoughts is a Thought Plot you think on, together. You make a Thought Plot, give it its own address, drop pins on it, and invite people in. Everyone who joins appears as an avatar and can walk around, follow trails, and talk to the people standing near them.

1. Create an account. Choose Create a Thought Plot on the home page, then sign up with your email and a password of at least 8 characters, or sign in with Google or Facebook if offered.
2. Pick your avatar on your dashboard: choose Pixel art or Cartoon, click one of the eight avatars, press Shuffle for more, and pick a background colour.
3. Create a Thought Plot and share its address with the people you want to join.

Creating and sharing a Thought Plot

From your dashboard press New Thought Plot. The Thought Plot's name is its address: kerala-eats becomes kerala-eats.tracethoughts.com. Use letters, numbers and hyphens. The address cannot be changed later, and some words are reserved.

Who can join

• Public: anyone can look at the Thought Plot. Anyone signed in joins instantly.
• Private: people must ask to join and you approve or decline them in the People tab. Others see only a "request to join" screen.

What members can do

• View only: look around, walk, follow trails. No notes, no pins, no chat.
• View & add notes: also write notes on pins and take part in chat. This is the default.
• Also add pins: also drop pins and send suggestions to the owner's inbox.

Change these any time with Settings on the Thought Plot or the Settings button next to the Thought Plot on your dashboard. Settings is also where you can delete the Thought Plot. Deleting is permanent, so you confirm by typing the Thought Plot's name (there is a copy button).

You can own up to 5 Thought Plots, and a Thought Plot holds up to 500 pins.

Pins, notes and the inbox

Adding a pin

Double-click empty ground, or use Add a pin in the side panel. Choose Link or Text, add a title and a description, and press Drop pin. A link shows a preview picture when the site provides one. If it does not, you get a tile with the site's first letter.

Tags and searching pins

Give a pin up to 8 tags (for example food or to visit) in the pin editor: type a tag and press Enter. Tags already used on the Thought Plot appear under the box so you can add them with one click. Inbox cards keep their tags when you place them on the Thought Plot, and you can add or change the tags of a card already in your inbox: tap the card and choose Edit. In the top bar, the search box and the tag list show only matching pins and dim the rest (tick several tags, and choose Any tag or All tags); the search looks at titles, descriptions, links and tags. Click a tag on a pin to filter by it, and press the x of y button to clear the filter.

Moving and resizing

Drag a pin to move it (you can move your own pins, and the owner can move any). Use the size controls in the left toolbar to make pins bigger or smaller.

Notes

Click a pin and open the Notes tab. Notes belong to that one pin. You can use bold, italic, bullet lists, links and https images.

The inbox

The tray at the bottom is your inbox: a shelf for links and text you want to place later. Press + Add, or drag a link, text or picture in from another browser window or app. Drag a card onto the Thought Plot (or tap it and choose Place on Thought Plot) to turn it into a pin. Drag one of your pins onto the tray to take it off the Thought Plot. Use the arrow above the tray to hide it.

If the owner has chosen Also add pins for members, members see a Thought Plot inbox instead: cards there are suggestions for the owner. The owner approves or declines them in the Activity tab. An approved card can be dragged onto the Thought Plot by the member who sent it. Nothing is ever taken away from your inbox by a review.

Moving around

• Click a pin and your avatar walks to it. This is recorded as a step in your trail.
• Drag your own avatar to move it: drop it on empty ground to walk there, or on a pin to go to that pin. Clicking a pin walks you there too (unless you are in a conversation: then it only opens the pin, and Go to this pin does the walking). Open ground is not recorded in trails.
• Pan by dragging the Thought Plot, zoom with the mouse wheel, pinch or the + and − buttons. The other toolbar buttons fit everything on screen, reset to 1:1 and toggle full screen.
• People who are online appear as avatars. A dimmed avatar means that person's window is out of focus ("away"). A small moon means Do not disturb.
• The header shows how many members the Thought Plot has and how many are online.

Trails and trace-throughs

Who's been where

Open Traces. Under Who's been where you can see each person's visits, their most visited pins and their latest path, and replay it. Use the search box or the person filter to narrow it down.

Recording a trace-through

A trace-through is a guided tour you record by clicking pins in order.

1. Press Start in the Traces tab. A recording bar appears at the top of the Thought Plot.
2. Click the pins in the order you want. Press Undo (the ↺ button) to remove the last step, or Pause to stop adding.
3. Press the flag to finish. Give it a title (required) and add a caption to any step.

A title can only be used once per Thought Plot. If you reuse one of your own titles you are warned that it will replace your older trace-through; another person's title cannot be used.

Replaying, editing and sharing

Press Replay on any trace-through: your avatar follows the steps while captions appear. Edit (your own only) lets you rename it, change captions, reorder and remove steps. Share copies a link that opens the Thought Plot straight into that trace-through for anyone who can open the Thought Plot.

Chat

There is no chat room to open or join. Stand near someone and a chat appears.

How groups form

• People who are online and close together (or on the same pin) are put in one chat. Everyone in the group must be close to everyone else, and the allowed distance grows a little with the group size.
• When another person walks up, the group changes and a fresh chat starts for the new group. When they leave, the earlier group gets its old conversation back, wherever on the Thought Plot they meet again.
• When nobody is near you, you have a personal chat that only you can see. It works like notes to yourself.
• People who are online but away stay in their group and see what they missed. People who log out leave it.

Calling someone

To get another person's attention, press on their avatar and drag it toward you. It stretches like a rubber band; let go once the label says Release to call and it springs back to where they really are. They get a notification, Name is calling you, with two buttons. Go walks their avatar to where you were standing, and Not now tells you they are busy. Nobody is ever moved without saying yes.

• You can call people who are online on the same Thought Plot. If they are on Do not disturb you are told, and they are not interrupted.
• To keep it friendly, you can call the same person once every 30 seconds, and after they say Not now twice, calls to them pause for 5 minutes.

Using the chat

Click the small speech bubble on your own avatar. You'll see who is in the chat and the conversation.

• Emoji button (left of the box) opens a picker. Press Enter to send.
• The … menu on a message lets you react with an emoji (the + shows all of them), reply, edit your own message for 15 minutes, see info, delete for me, or delete for everyone (your own messages).
• Ticks on your messages: one tick is sent, two grey are delivered, two teal are seen.
• "… is typing" shows above the box while someone writes.

Alerts and Do not disturb

• The bell in the chat header turns sound and browser popups for new messages on or off. The first time, you are asked to allow popups. They appear only while a Thought Plot tab is open.
• The moon turns on Do not disturb: you stay out of group chats and only keep your personal chat. Others see a moon on your avatar and are told you won't join a chat.

Only the people in a chat can read it, and that includes the Thought Plot owner. Each chat keeps its latest 500 messages.

People and moderation (Thought Plot owners)

• The People tab lists members and who is online. In a private Thought Plot, join requests appear here with Approve and Deny. You can also Remove or Block someone, and unblock them later.
• The bell in the header and the Activity tab show what other people have added: pins, notes and suggestions, with who and when. Press View more on an entry for the full text, link and picture, and Show on Thought Plot to jump to a pin.
• Suggestions waiting for you appear at the top of Activity with Approve and Decline.

Your account and avatar

• Your dashboard (Thought Plots) lists every Thought Plot you own or have joined. For each Thought Plot you own there are buttons to copy its link, open it, change its settings or delete it.
• Change your display name and press Save name. Avatar choices save as soon as you click them.
• Everyone uses a generated avatar. Your Google or Facebook profile picture is not used.
• To delete your account, or to ask for a copy of your data, write to admin@tracethoughts.com.

Shortcuts and tips

Questions and problems

My avatar does not move.

Drag your avatar to move it; clicking empty ground does not move it. Only members can move. If you are not a member, press Join first (or wait for approval on a private Thought Plot). People with View only can move but not add content.

Nobody can see my chat.

Chats are private to the people inside them, by design. If you are alone, the chat is your personal one. Check the moon in the chat header: Do not disturb keeps you out of group chats.

A chat did not open when I walked up to someone.

They may be on Do not disturb (you'll see a moon on their avatar), offline, a view-only member, or still too far away. Stand closer or on the same pin.

I do not get sound or popups.

Click once anywhere on the page so the browser allows sound, check the bell in the chat is on, and allow notifications for the site in your browser. Popups need a tab with the Thought Plot open.

Link previews are missing.

Some sites do not provide a preview picture. You will see a tile with the site's first letter instead; the link still works.

Limits

Up to 5 Thought Plots per person, 500 pins per Thought Plot, 300 items in your inbox, 50 trace-throughs per person per Thought Plot, notes up to 5,000 characters, chat messages up to 1,000 characters, and the latest 500 messages per chat.

Still stuck?

Write to admin@tracethoughts.com and tell us the Thought Plot address and what you were doing.