Every topic, published

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

228 in the founding bank0 added by vote0 with a retirement proposed0 under a retirement ballot now0 retired

Nothing has been contestedNo member has proposed adding, retiring or renewing any of these topics, and no ballot has ever been held. Every topic here shipped with the bank. That will change the first time somebody proposes something, and when it does it will show up on this page and in the ledger, including if it fails.

What is being voted on Every proposal there has ever been

Money

24 topics

Borrowing to pay for a degreeFounding bank
6 options
Buy-now-pay-laterFounding bank
6 options
Carrying credit-card debtFounding bank
6 options
CryptocurrencyFounding bank
6 options
Expensive engagement ringsFounding bank
6 options
Federal student loan forgivenessFounding bank
6 optionsAsked across US
GamblingFounding bank
6 options
Gift-giving at ChristmasFounding bank
6 options
Home ownership as a financial goalFounding bank
6 options
Interprovincial trade barriersFounding bank
6 optionsAsked across CA
Joint bank accountsFounding bank
6 options
Leaving an inheritance to your childrenFounding bank
6 options
Lending money to familyFounding bank
6 options
Multi-level marketingFounding bank
6 options
Payday lendingFounding bank
6 options
Prenuptial agreementsFounding bank
6 options
Regular charitable givingFounding bank
6 options
Retiring earlyFounding bank
6 options
Side hustlesFounding bank
6 options
Splitting household bills in proportion to incomeFounding bank
6 options
Splitting the bill on a dateFounding bank
6 options
Sports bettingFounding bank
6 options
Supporting your parents financiallyFounding bank
6 options
TippingFounding bank
6 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.

The five rules a vote cannot override Every topic in the bank

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.