Join the work
Contribute
Values Commons grows by visible corrections, better sources, useful forks, and new instances. The best contribution is one that makes a real decision more trustworthy. No account is required. Nothing is sponsored.
Contribution doors
Choose the smallest useful move
This project gets stronger when the facts are clearer, the protocol is easier to implement, and the public story is easier to trust.
Correct a sourced claim
Add a better URL, date, or note. Keep claims neutral and values-relative.
LensAdd a missing option
Fill a mainstream gap, values niche, or honest floor. More rows only help when they change a decision.
SpecReview the standard
Test whether the passport, lens, assembly, slate, and instance grammar stays portable.
InstanceSteward a domain front door
Scope the decision, audience, starter lens, passport bridge, and contribution route before building.
OntologyImprove the Weave
Make relationships across domains more honest: ownership, alternatives, resemblance, and practical paths.
SupportBack the uncapturable core
Help keep the core open, static, no-account, and no-pay-to-rank.
Instance steward
Scope the next domain before anyone codes it
A new instance starts as a public-interest brief. The contribution is not only the finished page; it is the scoped decision that lets a community decide whether the domain is worth building.
Name the real choice
What should people rank, compare, switch, fund, avoid, or adopt?
Draft the starter set
List 8-20 options and 3-7 criteria that would be enough to test the domain honestly.
Map portable values
Say which universal values carry into the domain and which should remain visibly not transferred.
Plan the contribution route
Name how corrections, missing options, source disputes, and forks should reach maintainers.
Contribution ladder
From noticing to improving
Useful work should travel as a small, reviewable patch: what changed, why it matters, where the evidence lives, and what decision becomes clearer.
Name the decision
Say which category, lens, route, or instance is affected.
Anchor the claim
Provide a URL, date, dataset, method note, or public artifact.
Make it specific
Propose the row, score, copy, edge, or option that should change.
Leave a trail
Keep the rationale visible so others can inspect, fork, or reverse it.
Useful shape
Make the next action obvious
A good contribution carries enough context that another person can verify it without guessing. Prefer one sharp correction over a broad wish.
Correct a sourced claim
Include the category, item, what should change, a source URL, and an as-of date.
Add a missing option
Name the category, region, why the option is mainstream or a values niche, and the sources that support the scores.
Request a category
Name the decision, who needs it, 5-10 recognizable options, and any open dataset or trusted source that could seed it.
Add a Weave relationship
Name both nodes, the relation, why it changes a decision, and the source or computed basis.
Build an instance
Name the domain, likely users, starter lens source, license posture, and how the Values Passport should carry over.
What does not help: affiliate pitches, unsourced scores, brand copy, vague "add more" requests, or pressure to rank by payment. No ads, no pay-to-rank, and no sponsored placement.
Current posture
File-first now, community later
The public core should keep working as files even if every optional community server disappears. Community discussion, ratings, identity, and moderation can arrive later as an opt-in layer, but the standard should never require it.
That keeps Values Commons useful to one person on a laptop and to a group passing files around at the same time.