The house guide to private storytelling.
Everything the house believes about telling true stories privately, in one place. Written by the house, kept current, and linked from every note in the journal.
1 · What a private house is, and is not
A public feed sells attention; a private house keeps company. Ivory is a small, members-only world where real-life stories are written, spoken and filmed for adult readers who came on purpose. Nothing here is indexed for strangers beyond these public rooms; nothing is advertised against; nothing is mined. The public pages — this guide, the journal, the press room — exist so that anyone can understand the house before knocking.
The difference matters in one sentence: public platforms optimise for reach, the house optimises for trust.
2 · Consent comes first, always
- Members write their own stories. A member’s story is never another member’s material, ever.
- Names, faces and identifying details of real people outside the house stay out of the house.
- Private Line drafts are held, not sent, until the writer chooses; fifteen places a day, never more than forty.
- Every session is private by design: the house keeps no recording of what members read or hear together.
- Anything can be withdrawn. The delete-account room empties a member’s shelf completely.
These are not features; they are the walls. The full wording lives in Content & Conduct.
3 · How the house keeps time
The Ivory Ladder turns at four in the morning, house time — India time, wherever you are. Twelve rungs light bottom to top across the day. The Vault opens at midnight and keeps what members entrust to it for ten days. The Four Bells walk a 202-day ring; the shape of that ring, bell by bell, is published in the Bell Calendar. The Firstlist is chosen in order, and the order is Ivory’s.
The whole table of hours — ladder, Vault, line lengths, weekly rhythms — is published in the House Hours.
These rhythms are the house’s heartbeat: slow on purpose, so that reading stays an occasion and not a feed.
4 · How to write real life well
- Begin where it hurt or where it glowed. Not at the beginning — at the weight.
- One true detail beats ten fine adjectives. The staircase, the smell of rain on a uniform, the exact song.
- Mercy is a craft choice. You may tell your truth without prosecuting anyone in it.
- End before the explanation. Let the reader feel the last line land, then stop.
- Read it aloud once. The ear catches every lie the eye forgives.
Members practise these in the weekly Sunday Question, in the app; the journal carries each week’s question publicly.
5 · Safety, plainly
Adults only, verified at the door. No nudity or explicit content. No in-person meetings, ever — the house is a reading room, not a rendezvous. Reports reach a human admin, not a queue. The support room answers within a day, and the privacy policy says exactly what little the house holds.
6 · Where to begin
Read the notes from the house to hear its voice. Study the Bell Calendar to feel its year. Check the press room if you come on behalf of someone else. And when you are ready to step inside, the Android release page holds the door.
The house writes back. That is the whole idea.