The bank
Every topic, published
This is the whole of it. No account, no email, nothing held back for members — you can read every topic and every option before you pay anything, and decide from that whether the product is asking the right questions.
What is in it
228 topics across 9 dimensions. 205 topics asked everywhere, 18 topics asked in one country, and 5 topics asked in one city. A topic is proposed at the narrowest scope that fits: Chicago votes on the CTA, Stockholm on congestion charging, and everybody votes on homeschooling.
Ten of them are the Core Ten and are asked when you join. Everything else is optional, and “prefer not to say” is a real answer rather than a gap.
Where the bank stands
Health
25 topics- Alternative medicineFounding bank6 options
- Animal testing for medicineFounding bank6 options
- AntidepressantsFounding bank6 options
- Assisted dyingFounding bank6 options
- ChiropracticFounding bank6 options
- Cosmetic surgeryFounding bank6 options
- Dietary supplementsFounding bank6 options
- Egg freezingFounding bank6 options
- Fluoridated drinking waterFounding bank6 options
- Gene editing in humansFounding bank6 options
- Home birthFounding bank6 options
- HomeopathyFounding bank6 options
- How do you approach medical care for yourself?Founding bank5 optionsCore Ten
- How would you want your children vaccinated?Founding bank6 optionsCore Ten
- Injectable weight-loss drugsFounding bank6 options
- Mask mandates during outbreaksFounding bank6 options
- Medical cannabisFounding bank6 options
- Opt-out organ donationFounding bank6 options
- Private health insuranceFounding bank6 options
- Psychedelic-assisted therapyFounding bank6 options
- Raw milkFounding bank6 options
- Talk therapyFounding bank6 options
- The Affordable Care ActFounding bank6 optionsAsked across US
- Ultra-processed foodFounding bank6 options
- Vaccine mandatesFounding bank6 options
How a topic gets in, and out
- A member proposes it. Any verified member whose account is at least 30 days old, one proposal per member per 30 days.
- 50 members second it within 30 days, or it goes no further. That is what keeps the ballot from filling with things nobody but the proposer cares about.
- Members vote, for 30 days. A simple majority of the votes cast adds a topic; retiring one needs 60%, because removing a topic takes away a filter other people are relying on. Either way the ballot has to reach a quorum of 3% of the members eligible at its own scope.
- An editor words it. The editor may not decline a topic members voted for. They decide only how it is asked, and the wording goes back to members for review.
- It enters the bank, with its whole history attached.
A topic existing in the bank is not an endorsement of any answer to it. Answering anything outside the Core Ten is optional, so adding a topic coerces nobody — which is why the bar to add one is deliberately lower than the bar to take one away.
What the bank is not
Nothing topical shipped in it. Not a court case, not a war, not a bill going through a legislature. Those arrive the other way: a member proposes one, members vote it in, and members let it lapse when they are done with it. Anything the company preloads is the company deciding what matters, which is the thing this product exists to stop doing.
The topics that did ship are the ones that have ended relationships for generations — children, faith, money, monogamy, medicine, abortion, and where somebody’s politics sit. They are deliberately few and deliberately durable.