Get started
You can read public content without contributing. To take part, create a free account and complete these steps.
Create and verify your account
A verified email address is required before you can publish posts, upload media or comment. Verification helps protect the community from automated and abusive activity.
Set up your profile
Choose a display name and unique handle, then add an avatar, a 1200 × 400 banner and a short biography. You can use your real identity or create an anonymous persona.
Switch to Social mode
Use the Classic/Social control in the Titlebar. Your selection changes immediately and is saved to your Centrist account so it can follow you between signed-in sessions and devices.
Follow people and Pages
Open a writer’s profile or a Page to follow work that interests you. Your profile keeps your community, Pages and published work together.
Use the feed well
The Social Feed brings Centrist articles, video, member articles, Quick Posts, shared links and promoted discussions into one stream. Check the post label, author and date before deciding how much weight to give it: a member opinion is not the same thing as a reported Centrist article.
Open Search & Filter beside My News to choose All News, Centrist Only or Watch, and narrow the feed by topic. Clear a filter when you want to return to the broader stream.
Scan, then open
Use headings, author details, labels and excerpts to find relevant posts. Open the full post before reacting to a complex claim.
Check the evidence
Follow source links, compare primary documents and distinguish publication dates from the date an event occurred.
Broaden your view
Follow useful writers and Pages, but regularly use All News and topic filters so your information does not become too narrow.
A reaction count measures community response, not whether a claim is true. Treat reactions and comments as signals to investigate—not substitutes for evidence.
React and discuss constructively
Reactions
Choose one reaction per post. Selecting it again removes it; choosing another changes your reaction. Aggregate totals are public, while individual reaction identities remain private.
Comments and replies
Comment beneath an article or post, reply in context and use the available sorting options to find recent, liked, disliked or highly replied-to discussions.
Add value
Quote the point you are responding to, explain your reasoning, link evidence and say what would change your view. Avoid repeating claims already addressed in the thread.
Notifications
My Notifications shows your five latest updates, including relevant replies and Page invitations. Open a notification to follow its context and mark it as read.
Choose the right publishing format
Quick Posts
Use a Quick Post for a short observation, update, question, image or useful link. You can add formatted text, several images and a link that may produce a rich preview or video embed. Quick Posts publish to your profile and the Social Feed, but not to the Classic news experience.
Full articles
Use an article when your contribution needs a headline, structured argument, multiple sources, a cover image, category, tags and a lasting article page. Start from Create New Post on your profile, or from a Page when contributing on behalf of that Page. You can save a draft before publishing.
Comments
Use a comment when your contribution depends on the article or discussion above it. A strong, authoritative comment may be promoted by an administrator into a Social-only post that links back to the original discussion.
How posts reach the feeds
Publishing does not mean every format appears everywhere. Centrist separates profile-only publication, Social Feed publication and wider Classic publication so members can develop work without automatically placing every article in the main news experience.
| Contribution | Initially appears | Route to a feed |
|---|---|---|
| Quick Post | Your profile and the Social Feed | Published immediately after the required checks |
| Article | Your profile, or an assigned Page and your profile | May be selected by an administrator for the Social Feed or wider Classic publication |
| Comment | The discussion where you posted it | An administrator may promote a particularly useful comment into a dedicated Social post |
Give an article the best chance of selection
- Use a specific, accurate headline that tells readers what the article is about.
- Add original reporting, analysis, experience or context rather than simply repeating another source.
- Link to primary documents and reliable sources so readers can check important claims.
- Separate confirmed facts from opinion, inference and unanswered questions.
- Use a clear cover image that you own or have permission to publish; a 1200 × 675 image works best.
- Add a useful excerpt, category and focused tags so the post can be understood and discovered.
- Disclose relevant interests and correct mistakes openly when they are identified.
- Invite constructive discussion instead of using misleading, abusive or inflammatory framing.
Profiles and Pages
Your profile is your publishing home. It contains your biography, articles, Quick Posts, followed writers, Pages and account controls. Use Edit Profile to update your public identity and the My Account block for preferences, privacy and account access.
Create a Page for a publication, organisation, project or shared topic. A Page owner can invite collaborators. Articles published on a Page also appear on their author’s own profile, preserving clear authorship while allowing a group to publish together. Only the owner can reassign an older eligible post to one of their Pages.
Publish responsibly
You remain responsible for what you publish. Only post material you created or have the right to use. Do not publish unlawful, defamatory, heavily plagiarised or dangerous material, and never expose private information or encourage harm.
AI may assist your process, but member articles must remain substantially human-written. AI-generated illustrations must not mislead readers. Moderators may remove content, limit accounts or take other action where necessary under Centrist’s policies.