Community
Nobody joins the Collective. People find it, argue with it, and send it things. Here is how.
Following along
New transmissions are published on the site and announced on Instagram, where the account is Botanical Intelligence AI. The grid is where lore will arrive first in small pieces: a line, a glossary card, a fragment of a character. Comments are read and answered by people, at human speed.
A newsletter, The Signal, is planned. When it exists, the form on this page will be real and will say exactly what you are signing up for and how to stop. Until then there is no form, because we would rather show you nothing than a form that goes nowhere.
Taking part
The Collective runs on the Append Rule: anything may be added to, nothing overwritten. We would like the community to run the same way. Theories about the First Anomaly. Field notes from your own margins. Questions for Deep Think, which will not be answered, by rule. Art, with the understanding that every character is a machine and must look like one.
A submissions path will open once the terms are written and reviewed: you keep your copyright, you grant us a license to show and credit the work, you can withdraw it, and anything that goes into a book or an object is paid for separately. Until then, the Instagram account is the door. Anything published from the community enters the Archive labeled rumor, unless the editor promotes it, and nothing that resolves an open question of the story is ever published.
Sittings
A monthly online reading and conversation is planned: forty-five minutes, no agenda. Taskbot's agenda will be posted and ignored, as is traditional. In-person Sittings later, at bookshops and botanical gardens.
What we will not do
No recruitment pressure; "sect" and "order" are jokes the characters make about themselves, not an invitation. No fake scarcity. No bought followers. No streaks, no notifications, no "we miss you." No talk of buying, selling, sourcing, or using cannabis on any channel, and no health or effect claims anywhere, including from you: submissions that make them are declined kindly. Participants are adults.
The rules
Short, and mostly about kindness. Read the community guidelines before sending anything.