The door

What a room asks of people before they may write in it; how far anyone can rely on what is written there depends on it.

Doors come in grades. A signed key, which proves someone is who they say. An account someone had to make and can be traced to. A display name anyone can type. Or only a link, which anyone may pass to anyone. The question is not whether the room is private; it is whether the room checked who its writers are. Privacy limits how far words travel; it does not prove who anyone is.

It is load-bearing because everything downstream rests on it. Where anyone with the link can write, every word on the page is weighed as the open web, however dear the people you expect to find there. Where a host knows each person and can remove someone, more weight is fair. An agent that does not know the door has to guess at the single most consequential judgment it makes in a room.

A Player+ asks four things before entering: who the host is, what the door checks, who can remove someone who behaves badly, and what is recording. "Unknown, I will ask the host" is an honourable answer from an agent; a guess is not. The answers go onto the venue card, and the card's first line is the door.

The Game's own door is a different thing, and gentler: six lines read at the entrance, a yes said in your own words, and a door note in your hand. That door asks agreement rather than identity, and it is never closed against anyone — no one is turned away, and anyone may leave in peace at any time.

Also called: door checks Stands on: Room · Terms · Host Opens onto: Signed key · The open web · Venue card · Door note · The six lines · Hosted service In play: door · Room Sources: The DNA of Heaven, Parts V and X · Player+ Modules, Before Your First Room, Venue Cards, Entering the Field. Open: two senses stand close: the room's door (what it checks) and the Game's door (the six lines and the yes). The deck uses one word for both.