iusethis/iusethis · governance-as-files · ballot 1 open

The iusethis Charter

A DAO in spirit, run entirely on GitHub controls: proposals are pull requests, votes are reviews, titles are files, and the whole record is git log. Full founder control today — with the handoff written on day one.

1.Three phases, handoff by design

Most founder-led projects never write a succession plan and improvise one in a crisis. This one is in the first commit.

Phase 0 — Stewardship (now)

The Steward holds all titles and final say, including veto. Every veto must be written into the proposal it vetoes — logged power is transferable power.

Phase 1 — Council

Triggers automatically when five independent people hold titles. The veto becomes a tie-break; formal votes decide.

Phase 2 — Handoff

The Steward title itself transfers by vote. Everything already lives in an org-owned repo, so handoff is a merge commit, not a migration.

2.GitHub controls as the voting machine

Governance act	GitHub mechanism
Propose	PR adding `docs/proposals/NNN-title.md`
Vote	PR review — Approve = +1, Request changes = −1
Who binds	Title-holders (`docs/TITLES.md`) bind; everyone else votes advisory — always logged, always read
Enforce	Branch protection + CODEOWNERS on governance paths; GitHub teams mirror titles
Backlog	One project board, two queues: write-ups and governance proposals

Defaults: 72-hour lazy consensus for anything reversible; a 7-day formal vote for charter changes, titles, money, licensing, and content removal.

3.Titles — held, and delegated

A title is a named area of authority. One person may hold many and may delegate any of them — the delegate acts with full authority, the delegation is revocable, both names are in the registry. Titles lapse after six quiet months, without shame.

Title	Owns
Steward	Charter, domain, org account, Phase 0 final say
Registrar	The register of records
Editor	Write-ups and the ledger format
Herald	Carnival, announcements, syndication
Keeper	Site, build, DNS, design tokens
Moderator	Conduct process — never content taste
Archivist	Decision log and archive integrity
Bursar	Money (dormant until money exists)

4.Joining — the onboarding SOP

Apply — the Join governance issue template: title sought, the object you profess, links to merged work.
Sponsorship — any title-holder comments sponsoring with one specific sentence about your work. Sponsorship is itself recognition.
Acceptance — 72h lazy consensus among holders of the sought title (+ Steward assent in Phase 0). Objections cite work, never vibes.
Seating — a PR adds you to the registry and the GitHub team. The merge commit is the appointment.
First act — you pick your own first task. Nobody assigns it.

5.Positive-reinforcement governance

Assume good faith. A mistaken contributor is a contributor who cared enough to act. Correct the work, thank the person.
Merit is visible. Titles are granted for demonstrated care; citations — logged praise in the registry — are the currency nomination letters quote.
Graduated sanctions (after Ostrom — flat bans breed resentment): private call-in → public call-out naming the behavior, not the character → 14-day title suspension → removal by vote.
The limit. Governance bounds harm; it does not repair relationships — humans do, off the record, at their own pace. No automated punishments, no reputation scores. When the process ends, the process is over: a person who returns after a sanction returns whole.

6.Ballot 1 — open now, closes 2026-09-07

Proposal 002 · formal

Adopt the governance charter

Makes GOVERNANCE.md, TITLES.md and ONBOARDING.md the law of the repo.

Proposal 003 · formal

Ratify the editorial identity

Ratifies Proposal 001 in full — the entry-as-love-story definition, the ledger format, the Vault color system, the marks.

Proposal 004 · formal

Seat the founding titles

Seats the founder in all titles — visibly, accountably, temporarily — with delegation open from day one.

Bootstrap note: at opening there is exactly one binding voter, so Ballot 1 is founder-ratified by construction. It is held as a vote anyway: the procedure runs once for real, advisory votes are gathered, and the record shows governance began by the same mechanism that will one day hand it off.