About Visibility

A Description is not always open to everyone. Visibility is the rule for who can read the record. Private fields are a second rule. They hide single values even when the record itself is visible.

Two visibilities

A Description is private or public.

Private is the default. Only you can read a private Description, unless you share it. A new Description starts private.

Public means anyone can read the record. The public registry lists public Descriptions. People can search those titles and open the record. Use public for sources that you are happy to cite openly.

Visibility does not change ownership. Only the owner can edit. Only the owner can remove the Description. Only the owner can change visibility.

Shares

You can share a private Description with named people. You name each person by email. After you save the Description, you add or remove those emails.

A person who signs in with that email can read the Description. They see it in the list of records shared with them. They cannot edit it. They cannot see your tags.

A public Description does not need a share for people to read it. You can still share it. The share is extra. It does not replace public listing.

Private fields

You can keep single fields private. The rest of the Description can stay public or shared. Non-owners do not see the value of a private field. They may still see that the field exists and that it is private.

You can mark these kinds of field private:

• the short summary
• the longer summary
• notes
• the pasted instance body
• the location of the copy
• authors, organisations, and platforms
• the date, format, version marker, identifier, and disambiguator

You cannot hide the title. You cannot hide the permanent identity. You cannot hide visibility itself. Those fields must stay readable so that other people can still find and cite the record.

Tags stay with the owner

Tags are how you file your own Descriptions. They are always owner-only. Non-owners never see tags. You do not need to mark tags private.

What a reader sees

The owner always sees the full record.

A public reader or a shared reader sees the record with private fields removed. Body fields that you marked private show as private rather than as empty. Identity fields stay. Tags do not appear.

If a Description is private and the reader has no share, the reader does not see the record.

Read Share a Description to set visibility and shares. Read Core Ideas for the rest of the model.