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Invented example · built on Kindling · Why Kindling · The library · The spec · The Circular

Seen WorkTrades referrals · harbor counties

Seen Work · trades referrals in Port Ellery

We vouch for what we saw.

Seen Work is a referral circle for the trades around Port Ellery and the harbor counties: electricians, carpenters, plumbers, welders, tile setters and sound. Nobody gets in on a résumé. A member who worked beside you nominates you in their own words, and a curator checks the work and vouches. When a contractor needs someone, a curator asks the people who fit, one at a time, and introduces only the ones who say yes.

Ask for a referralHow a vouch is made

No referral fees, from either side. No ratings, and no résumé site in the middle.

Seen bySam AdebayoSigned in with OAuth
The work ofMarcus HaleVouched for by the curator

Seen by Sam Adebayo

Worked beside him on the Pilot House refit, spring 2026. Scribed the new wainscot to walls that have not been square in a hundred years.

Pilot House refit · spring 2026

Vouched by Rigo Paz, curator, on 6 MaySigned in with OAuth

Counts in Harbor Trades only. Not on Marcus’s page, not in any other Pool.

What a vouch says here

A line scribed by someone who was there

A fitter scribes a witness mark across a joint to show two parts belong together and that someone checked. A vouch here is that mark: one person saw another’s work, and says so in plain words, on one job.

  1. 1

    The words

    In the voice of the person who saw the work: the job, the season, and what they saw. Written once, by hand, and never edited into a score.

  2. 2

    Who saw it

    A member who worked beside them. Nobody vouches from a résumé, a photo or a friend’s say-so.

  3. 3

    Who vouched

    A curator, with their verification level beside their name. In Kindling v0.1 only a curator can vouch §4.4, so the curator checks, then records it.

  4. 4

    Where it counts

    In Harbor Trades, and nowhere else. It is not on the person’s page, it does not follow them into other Pools, and no app can carry it out of this one §4.4.

What a vouch never says

  • Stars
  • Ratings out of five
  • Number of jobs
  • Response time
  • Top pro
  • Years on the platform
  • Paid placement

Seen by Marcus Hale

Worked beside her on the Pilot House refit, spring 2026. Set the washroom floor tight to my cabinets and came back a week later to check the grout.

Pilot House refit · spring 2026

Vouched by Delphine Arceneaux, curator, on 20 MaySigned in with OAuth

Counts in Harbor Trades only. Not on Thandi’s page, not in any other Pool.

Seen by Delphine Arceneaux, curator

Ran the plumbing on the Sea Scouts boathouse for me, summer 2023. Replaced the old galvanized under a floor nobody wanted to open, and left it cleaner than he found it.

Sea Scouts boathouse · summer 2023

Vouched by Delphine Arceneaux, curator, on 10 MarchSigned in with OAuth

Counts in Harbor Trades only. Not on Oskar’s page, not in any other Pool.

  1. 1

    A member nominates

    Someone in the circle who worked beside you writes it down: the job, the season, what they saw with their own eyes. You cannot nominate yourself.

  2. 2

    A curator looks

    Delphine or Rigo calls that member, and goes to see the work if it is still standing. If it is not, they ask a second person who was there.

    Pre-handshake steps §5.4

  3. 3

    An invitation you can refuse

    It says who is asking, the words of the vouch, who can see the Pool and how to leave. A no is remembered, and nobody asks again without your say-so.

    The handshake §5.2

  4. 4

    The vouch is recorded

    Your card in Harbor Trades reads “Vouched for by the curator”, with the curator’s name and the date. The words go in our vouch record beside it.

    Curator vouching §4.4

  5. 5

    Referrals ask you first

    When a contractor asks, a curator asks you before anyone learns your name. No, thank you needs no reason.

    No cold messages §7.2

Why a member nominates and a curator vouches. Kindling v0.1 lets a curator vouch for someone inside their own Pool §4.4, and nobody else. The file records who vouched and when, and has no place for the words. So the person who saw the work writes them, a curator checks and records the vouch, and we keep the words in our vouch record. What the schema can’t say yet.

For contractors

A contractor asks. We ask you first.

Write to the desk with the trade, the job and the dates. A curator reads Harbor Trades, asks the people who fit, one at a time, and introduces you only to the ones who say yes. You never see the list, and you never learn who said no.

Ask for a referral

Asked byWendell AshbySigned in with OAuth
Asked firstMarcus HaleVouched for by the curator
Asked byWendell AshbySigned in with OAuth
Asked firstLeo MarchettiVouched for by the curator

Wendell Ashby needs a finish carpenter for the Net Loft. Delphine asked Marcus and Leo first. Play it yourself.

No résumé site in the middle

Nobody stands between you and your own work

There is no profile to fill in here, no account to keep up, and nothing we hold that you would lose by walking away.

Your page§2.1 · §2.5

Your work lives on your own page.

Write it wherever you already keep things. The Pool keeps the words it parsed and a link §3.4. Photos stay on your page and are never copied §2.5. Change your page and the Pool reads it again §2.6. Nobody here can edit it, rank it or hold it back.

sam-adebayo-electric.example

Union electrician, inside wireman. Service upgrades, knob-and-tube coming out, power for boat sheds and stages. Short jobs and weekends when the hall has me on days.

Sam keeps this work page apart from their other pages. Nothing on it points to them, and nothing here mentions them.

Unlisted§3.2 · §8.3

Your employer can’t see you here unless you say so.

Harbor Trades is unlisted: it is in no directory, not in our discovery file, and its address travels only between members and curators §3.2 §8.3. A contractor never sees the list; they ask a curator. Want it known? Say so on your own page. We never will.

The honest limit: unlisted is not locked. Anyone who holds the address can read the file §3.1, which is why we do not hand it out.

One action§5.3

Leaving costs nothing.

One action, processed within sixty seconds §5.3. Your page, your photos, your customers and anyone you were introduced to stay yours. The vouch goes, because it only ever counted here. No fee, no exit interview, no notice period.

Come back later and a member can nominate you again. Try leaving.

The money

Nobody pays a referral fee, on either side

It costs very little to run, and the Harbor Trades Hall pays it from its education budget. The Hall lends the back room for the monthly walkthrough, does not choose who is in the circle, and you do not need to be in a union.

Free for everyone, always

What nobody pays for

  • Being nominated, checked and vouched for
  • Being listed in Harbor Trades
  • Being asked about a job
  • Being introduced to a contractor
  • Asking for a referral, as a contractor
  • Hiring someone we introduced
  • Leaving

No monthly plan, no charge per lead, no cut of the job, no fee to see who said yes.

Paid by the Harbor Trades Hall

What it costs to run

  • A web host for this site and the Pool files
  • A post box for the desk
  • Coffee at the monthly walkthrough, in the Hall’s back room

The two curators are volunteers. If the Hall stopped paying, a member would move the files to a free host, and nothing about the Pool would change §1.3.

What we don’t doWhat we do instead
No stars, no ratings, no reviewsA named person’s words about a named job, with the season and who checked it.
No charge per leadNobody pays for an ask or an introduction, on either side, and we take no cut of the job.
No selling one job to five peopleA curator asks the people who fit, one at a time, and asks them first.
No paid placement, no “featured” membersThere is nothing to buy. Members are listed in the order they said yes.
No response-time scores, no reminders to hurryNo, thank you needs no reason, and no answer is fine too.
No bidding against each otherPay is agreed between you and the contractor, directly, and paid by them.

Shifts 7, 1, 4 and 5

Why this needs an open protocol

A referral site in the middle is worth only as much as the people already on it, so the biggest one near you wins, and it is paid for every lead, so it earns while everyone waits. Kindling makes the pool a commons: your page stays yours, and a Pool is an open file that any client can read, with its members’ consent.

  1. Shift 7 · people, not a rankingTwo names from someone who was there.

    A closed referral site ranks people so it can sell the top of the list, and it scores them on what it can count: stars, speed, jobs done. Here a curator who knows the work asks two or three people who fit, and each carries a vouch in a colleague’s words. A vouch is local to one Pool §4.4. It cannot be bought, and it cannot be carried somewhere it was not given.

  2. Shift 1 · the Pool is a commonsThe list is an open file, and nobody owns it.

    Harbor Trades is a JSON file that validates against the public schema §3.1. Profiles are coupled to it by address only §3.5, so any client its members choose can read it. If Seen Work stopped tomorrow, the file and every member’s page would still stand, and the members could pick a new curator §9.3.

  3. Shift 4 · leaving costs nothingYour page, your customers and your work stay yours.

    On a closed site, leaving means losing your reviews and starting again somewhere else. Here your work was always on your own page. Leaving is one action and takes effect within sixty seconds §5.3. The vouch goes, because it only ever counted here. Try it on the right.

  4. Shift 5 · no money on the waitWe charge no one, so we have no reason to keep anyone waiting.

    A service paid per lead earns while a contractor waits and while tradespeople wait for work, so it has reasons to sell the same job to five people and to charge for the front of the line. Kindling defines no chargeable surface at the connection layer §1.3, and we add none.

  5. And safety that travelsSomeone refused elsewhere is refused here.

    Harbor Trades subscribes to the Kindling project’s block list and the Circular consortium’s. Anyone on either, for spam or for listing people without asking, is refused before they can write to a member §7.3.

Which apps can read our Pools. Bellows, the app for asks and offers, reads Seen Work Curators, which is public, and reads Harbor Trades for any member who gives it the address themselves. Card Catalog files both in its Trades drawer, and Face Up, Heartwood and Sundial open both under their own names: the curators for anyone, and Harbor Trades only for a member who gives it the address, with every referral ask still going to a curator. Threshold is our curators’ desk: Delphine and Rigo keep Harbor Trades, record vouches and answer referral asks from it.

No dating or friendship app reads either Pool, and none should: this is work. Both apps are being built now, so their links may not open yet.

Join

Nominate someone whose work you have seen

Members nominate; curators check. Write what you saw with your own eyes, on a job you worked, and when. Not a member yet? Ask someone who has worked beside you, or write to desk@seenwork.example and a curator will ask around.

CuratorSeen Work

Delphine Arceneaux

Signed in with OAuth

delphine-arceneaux.example

Curator at Seen Work. Ran job sites around the harbor for thirty years as a superintendent and retired last spring. Still carries a flashlight to look behind things.

CuratorSeen Work

Rigo Paz

Signed in with OAuth

rigo-paz.notion.example

Curator at Seen Work. Pipefitter and plumber, and steward at the Harbor Trades Hall. Will tell you who does good work and who does fast work, and which is which.