User guide

What is tracethoughts

tracethoughts is a shared space for thinking together. You create a Thought Plot: a large canvas with its own web address, on which you place pins (links or short pieces of text). People you invite appear on it as avatars. They can walk between pins, read and write notes, follow each other's trails, and talk to whoever is standing close by.

It suits anything that benefits from seeing ideas laid out in space: a team's reading list, a research topic, a course, a community's resources, a floor plan with the things that matter in each room, or a family's travel plans.

The main ideas

Quick start

1. Create an account (or sign in). See Account and sign-in.
2. Create a Thought Plot from your dashboard and choose its address. See Creating a Thought Plot.
3. Drop a pin by double-clicking the canvas, then share the address with the people you want to invite.

Prefer to look around first? Public Thought Plots can be opened without an account. See Finding Thought Plots.

Account and sign-in

Creating an account

Choose Create a Thought Plot or Sign in on the home page. You can sign up in either of two ways:

• Email and password. Enter a display name, your email address and a password of at least 8 characters, then press Create account.
• Google or Facebook, where those buttons are shown. We receive only your name and email from them.

By creating an account you agree to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy.

Display names are unique

Each display name can be used by only one person, so people can always tell each other apart. While you type, the form tells you whether the name is available. If you sign in with Google or Facebook and your name is already taken, we suggest a numbered variant (for example Alex 2) and let you keep it or choose your own.

Confirming your email

After you sign up we email you a confirmation link. Open it to confirm that the address is yours. If it has not arrived, check your spam folder, then use Resend confirmation email in the Email & password section of your dashboard.

Forgot your password?

On the sign-in form choose Forgot your password?, enter your email and follow the link we send you to choose a new password. For your protection the message is the same whether or not an account exists for that address. The link works once and expires after a short time.

Signing in on a Thought Plot's own address

Every Thought Plot lives on its own subdomain. When you sign in from there you are taken to the main site to sign in, then returned straight to that Thought Plot. Signing out clears your sign-in on every tracethoughts address you have visited.

Too many email requests

To stop misuse, confirmation, reset and email-change messages are limited to a few requests every few minutes. If you see Too many requests, wait a few minutes and try again.

Your dashboard and profile

Your dashboard has your profile on one side and your Thought Plots on the other. Everything in your profile is optional except a display name.

Change avatar

Open Change avatar. Choose a style, Pixel art or Cartoon, then click one of the eight avatars shown, or press Shuffle to see eight more. Pick a background colour from the swatches. Everyone uses a generated avatar. Pictures from Google or Facebook are never imported.

Display name

Open Display name, type a new name, and press Save name. A green tick confirms the name is available. Revert discards what you typed.

About

Open About to write a short line about yourself, up to 140 characters. It appears when another member of a Thought Plot you share holds the mouse over your avatar. Leave it empty and nothing is shown.

Email & password

• Change email. Enter the new address and press Send confirmation link. Your email changes only after you open the link we send to the new address.
• Change password. Press Email me a password reset link and follow the link in the message.
• The panel also shows whether your current email is confirmed.

Your Thought Plots

The list is split into the Thought Plots you own and those you have joined. Each row shows the address and whether it is Public or Private, and may show Awaiting approval (your request is pending) or Blocked. For a Thought Plot you own there are buttons to Copy link, Open, change its Settings or delete it (the bin icon). For one you have joined you can copy the link and open it.

Finding Thought Plots

The Explore section of the home page lists public Thought Plots as tiles. The busier a Thought Plot is, the larger its tile grows.

• Search by name, address or topic. Press / anywhere on the page to jump to the search box. Nothing matches that means no public Thought Plot fits; try a different word.
• Open a tile with Open this Thought Plot. You can also type or paste a Thought Plot's address straight into your browser.
• Private Thought Plots are not listed. You need their address, and the owner must approve you.

Creating a Thought Plot

From your dashboard press New Thought Plot (or Create a Thought Plot on the home page).

Name and address

The name is the address: kerala-eats becomes kerala-eats.tracethoughts.com. Use lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens (up to 30 characters). The form shows the full address as you type and tells you at once whether it is free. The address cannot be changed later, and some words are reserved.

Description

Optional, up to 280 characters. It appears in Explore for public Thought Plots and on the request screen for private ones.

Who can join

• Public: anyone can look at the Thought Plot, and anyone signed in can join instantly.
• Private (the default): people must ask to join, and you approve or decline them. Anyone else sees only the name and a request-to-join screen.

What members can do

• View only: look around, move their avatar and follow trails. No notes, pins or chat.
• View & add notes: also write notes on pins and take part in chat.
• Also add pins: also drop their own pins and send suggestions to the owner.

You can change who can join and what members can do at any time in Settings.

Custom background (optional)

Every Thought Plot starts with a default backdrop. You can replace it with your own SVG image: a floor plan, a diagram, an illustration, a mind map, a poster, a map. Anything that can be saved as an .svg file works. As one example, the free Fantasy Map Generator exports map-style SVG files from its Export tab. Choose the file with Choose SVG file.

• Only SVG files are accepted, up to 15 MB.
• The image keeps its proportions. Pins keep their positions, so if you swap in an image with different proportions they may no longer line up with it.
• You can set it when you create the Thought Plot, or later in Settings (see Owner tools).

Joining and visiting

Public Thought Plots

Anyone can open the address. Until you sign in and join you are a visitor: a bar at the bottom reads You're viewing this Thought Plot as a visitor. Visitors can see the canvas and pin positions, but opening pins, reading notes, seeing who is here and chatting need membership. Press Join Thought Plot (or Sign in / Create account) to take part.

Private Thought Plots

1. Open the address and sign in. You will see the Thought Plot's name, description, owner and member count.
2. Press the request button. The screen changes to Awaiting approval.
3. When the owner approves, the page opens automatically. If the owner declines or blocks you, you cannot get in.

Leaving

Open the People tab and press Leave this Thought Plot. Things you added, such as pins and notes, can stay until you or the owner delete them. Owners cannot leave; they can delete the Thought Plot instead.

Sharing

Copy the address from your dashboard (Copy link) or from your browser, and send it. The owner of a Thought Plot decides who gets in.

The Thought Plot screen

• Top bar: the logo (back to the home page), the Thought Plot's address, a Public or Private label, how many members it has and how many are online, the pin search and tag filter, the owner's activity bell, your own online dot, a Feedback button, your name (which opens your dashboard) and Sign out.
• Canvas: the large area where pins and avatars live. It is endless, so there is no edge to fall off.
• Side panel with tabs: Pins, Notes, Traces, People, Activity (owners only) and Settings. Use the arrow on the panel's edge to open and close it.
• Toolbar (left): zoom in and out, fit everything on screen, reset to 1:1, full screen, and pin size controls.
• Tray (bottom): your inbox. See The inbox and suggestions.

Zooming and panning

Drag the empty canvas to pan. Zoom with the mouse wheel, by pinching on a touch screen, or with the + and − buttons.

Brightness

Under Settings → Display a slider changes the brightness of the canvas from 20% to 160%. It affects only you, on this device, and is remembered. Reset to 100% restores the default.

Phones and tablets

tracethoughts works on touch screens. The side panel slides up from the bottom, and hover cards, which need a mouse, are replaced by tapping a pin to open it.

Pins

Adding a pin

Double-click empty ground, or press Add a pin in the side panel and click where it should go. (Members who can only add notes will not see this option.) In the form:

• Choose Link or Text.
• Link: paste a web address. We fetch the page's title and a preview picture and fill the title in for you if you have not typed one. If the site provides no picture you get a tile with its first letter, and the link still works. Links must start with http:// or https://.
• Text: write or paste something. This is for ideas that are not links.
• Title (up to 120 characters), Description (up to 2,000) and Tags are optional.
• Press Drop pin.

You can also drag a link or a piece of text from another browser window or app and drop it on the canvas. The form opens prefilled at that spot. Dropping files is not supported; drag a link or text instead.

Tags

Give a pin up to 8 tags, such as food or to visit. Type a tag and press Enter. Tags already used on the Thought Plot appear under the box so you can add them with one click.

Reading a pin

• Hold the mouse over a pin for a preview card: picture, title, link, description, tags, who added it and when, and how many notes it has.
• Click a pin to open its details in the side panel: title, description, tags and Open link. Your avatar also walks to the pin (see Avatars and moving around).
• Go to this pin in the details walks your avatar there without needing to find the pin on the canvas.

Editing, moving and resizing

• Edit a pin from its details. You can edit your own pins, and owners can edit any. Delete is in the same form.
• Move a pin by dragging it. The same rule applies: your own pins, or any pin if you are the owner.
• Resize with the size controls in the left toolbar. Only a pin's author, or the owner, can resize it.

Pins and avatars never hide each other

Avatars are drawn as rounded squares and pins as circles, so they are easy to tell apart. An avatar can never cover a pin: if you drop your avatar on open ground near a pin, it is nudged clear so the pin stays fully visible to everyone.

Searching and filtering pins

The top bar

The search box and the tag list in the top bar highlight matching pins and dim the rest. Search looks at titles, descriptions, links and tags. In the tag list you can tick several tags and choose Any tag (pins with at least one) or All tags (pins with every one). The x of y button shows how many pins match and clears the filter when pressed.

The Pins tab

The Pins tab lists every pin. It has its own search box and tag chips (the most used tags are shown, and more tags opens a list you can search). Sort by A–Z or Newest. Click a row to open that pin on the canvas. Long lists load in chunks, with a Show more button at the end.

Click a tag on any pin to filter by it. Use Clear or the x of y button to go back to everything.

Notes

Notes are comments attached to one pin. Click a pin and open the Notes tab; it lists the notes on the selected pin and has a box at the bottom for a new one.

• Formatting: bold, italic, strikethrough, bulleted and numbered lists, links and pictures (by https address).
• Link previews: a note that contains a web address shows a preview card with a picture and title.
• Editing: you can edit your own notes, and the owner can edit any note. An edited note is marked (edited).
• Deleting: you can delete your own notes; the owner can delete any.
• Notes can be up to 5,000 characters. You need View & add notes permission or higher.

The inbox and suggestions

Your inbox

The tray at the bottom of the screen is your inbox: a private shelf for links and text you want to place later. Only you can see it, and it is the same on every Thought Plot you use.

• Add something with + Add, or drag a link, text or picture address in from another window or app.
• Edit a card: tap it and choose Edit to change the title, text, link or tags.
• Place it: drag the card onto the canvas, or tap it and choose Place on Thought Plot. It becomes a pin and keeps its tags.
• Take a pin off the canvas: drag one of your own pins onto the tray. It goes into your inbox.
• Use the arrow above the tray to hide or show it.

If you cannot add pins on a Thought Plot, anything you drop is saved to your personal inbox instead, and you are told so.

Suggestions (when members can add pins)

When the owner has chosen Also add pins, members see a Thought Plot inbox in the tray. Cards in it are suggestions for the owner, who decides what happens to them in the Activity tab with Approve or Decline. Once a card is approved, the member who sent it can drag it onto the canvas. A declined card stays in the Thought Plot inbox until you delete it. Nothing is taken out of your own personal inbox by a review.

Avatars and moving around

Everyone who is online appears as an avatar with their name beneath it. Hold the mouse over any avatar to see their name, status and, if they have written one, their About line.

Walking

• Click a pin: your avatar walks to it and the pin's details open. The step is recorded in your trail.
• Drag your own avatar and drop it on empty ground to walk there, or on a pin to go to that pin. Walking on open ground is not recorded in trails.
• Several people on one pin fan out around it so nobody is hidden.

While you are in a conversation

If the chat window is open, your avatar stays with the people you are talking to:

• Click another pin to read its details. Your avatar does not move.
• Double-click a pin and a message asks Do you want to leave the chat and go to this pin, or keep talking? Choose Leave & go or Keep talking.
• Dragging your own avatar while the chat window is open is blocked with a reminder to close the chat window first.

With the chat window closed, clicking a pin simply takes you there.

Status

• Dimmed avatar: that person's window is out of focus ("away"). They keep their place.
• Moon: that person is on Do not disturb.
• The header shows how many members the Thought Plot has and how many are online. Your own online dot is next to your name. A person stays "online" for a short while after they close the tab.

Chat

There is no chat room to open or join. Stand near someone and a chat appears.

How groups form

• People who are online and close together, or on the same pin, are put in one chat. Everyone in a group must be close to everyone else, and the allowed distance grows a little with the group's size.
• When someone new walks up, the group changes and a fresh chat starts for the new group. When they leave, the earlier group gets its old conversation back, wherever on the Thought Plot they meet again.
• When nobody is near you, you have a personal chat that only you can see. It works like notes to yourself.
• People who are online but away stay in their group and see what they missed. People who sign out leave it.
• You must be a member who is allowed to chat. View only members cannot chat.

Opening and using the chat window

Click the small speech bubble on your own avatar. The window shows who is in the chat and the conversation. If you are near someone who is on Do not disturb, it tells you that no chat will open.

• Send: type and press Enter. Messages can be up to 1,000 characters. The emoji button opens a picker.
• The … menu on a message: react with an emoji (the + shows them all), reply, edit your own message (within 15 minutes of sending), see info, delete for me, or delete for everyone (your own messages).
• Replies quote the message they answer.
• Link previews: a message with a web address shows a preview card for everyone in the chat.
• Ticks on your messages: one tick is sent, two grey are delivered, two teal are seen. Info on a message shows who has received and seen it.
• "… is typing" appears above the box while someone writes.
• If you send many messages very quickly you are asked to slow down.

Alerts and Do not disturb

• The bell in the chat header turns the sound and the browser popups for new messages on or off. The first time, your browser asks permission to show popups. Popups appear only while a Thought Plot tab is open.
• The moon turns on Do not disturb. You stay out of group chats and keep only your personal chat. Others see a moon on your avatar, and are told you will not join a chat. Press it again to rejoin.

Who can read a chat

Only the people in the chat, including later when the same group meets again. The owner of the Thought Plot cannot read chats they are not part of. Each chat keeps its latest 500 messages. Messages deleted for everyone lose their text. Messages deleted for me are hidden only for you.

Calling someone

To get another person's attention without walking over, press on their avatar and drag it toward you, like stretching a rubber band. A label tells you the distance is enough: let go when it says Release to call. The avatar springs back to where the person really is.

• The other person gets a notification, Name is calling you, with two buttons. Go walks their avatar to where you were standing. Not now tells you they are busy. Nobody is ever moved without agreeing.
• You can call people who are online on the same Thought Plot. If they are on Do not disturb you are told and they are not interrupted.
• To keep it friendly, you can call the same person once every 30 seconds. After they say Not now twice in a row, calls to them pause for 5 minutes. There is also a limit on total calls per minute.
• You must be a member to call. Hold the mouse over an avatar to see the hint Drag … toward you to call them.

Trails and trace-throughs

Who's been where

Open the Traces tab. Under Who's been where you can see each person's visits, their most visited pins and their latest path, and replay a path on the canvas. Use the search box or the person filter to narrow it down. Only pin-to-pin steps are recorded, never open-ground walking.

Recording a trace-through

A trace-through is a guided tour you record by clicking pins in order.

1. Press Start in the Traces tab. A recording bar appears at the top of the canvas.
2. Click the pins in the order you want. Press the Undo arrow to remove the last step, or Pause to stop adding.
3. Press the flag to finish. Give it a title (required) and, if you like, a short caption for each step (up to 300 characters).

A trace-through needs at least two pins. A title can only be used once per Thought Plot. If you reuse one of your own titles you are warned that it will replace your older trace-through; another person's title cannot be used. You can keep up to 50 per Thought Plot. You need to be a member of the Thought Plot to record.

Replaying, editing and sharing

• Replay: your avatar follows the steps while the captions appear. If some pins were removed since, you are told.
• Edit (your own only): rename it, change captions, reorder and remove steps.
• Share: copies a link that opens the Thought Plot straight into that trace-through for anyone who can open the Thought Plot.
• Delete: you can delete your own; the owner can delete any.

Owner tools

If you created the Thought Plot, you are its owner. You get extra tabs and controls.

People

• The People tab lists Requests (private Thought Plots), Members (with a live dot for who is online, and a moon for Do not disturb) and Blocked.
• Approve or Deny a request. Remove a member, or Block them so they cannot ask again; Unblock reverses it.
• A badge on the tab shows how many requests are waiting.

Activity and the bell

The bell in the top bar and the Activity tab show what other people add: pins, notes and suggestions, with who and when. A number on the bell counts what is new since you last looked. Press View more on an entry for the full text, link and picture, and Show on Thought Plot to jump to the pin.

Suggestions waiting for you appear at the top under To review, with Approve and Decline.

Settings

The Settings tab (also reachable with the Settings button next to the Thought Plot on your dashboard) lets you change:

• Description, Who can join (Public or Private) and Members can (View only, Add notes, Add pins). A short line under each choice explains it. Press Save changes.
• Custom background: upload a new SVG with Choose SVG file and Confirm new SVG, or Switch back to default background. To edit a title or label inside your current background, download it, change it in a graphics or text editor, and upload it again. The default and custom backgrounds are shown to every member.
• Delete this Thought Plot: removes every pin, note, trace-through and member for good. To confirm you must type the Thought Plot's name (there is a copy button). This cannot be undone.

The name and address of a Thought Plot cannot be changed. If you need a different address, create a new Thought Plot and move the pins you want across using your inbox.

Moderation powers

Owners can also edit, move, resize or delete any pin and edit or delete any note on their Thought Plot.

Privacy and your data

• Public Thought Plot: anyone who opens it can see its pins, notes, trace-throughs, who is online and where they are standing, and trails.
• Private Thought Plot: only approved members see this.
• Chats are visible only to the people in them. Your personal notes chat and your inbox are visible only to you.
• We do not sell personal information and we do not show advertising. We use simple usage analytics that count actions (for example adding a pin) without recording what you write.
• To delete your account or to ask for a copy of your data, write to admin@tracethoughts.com.

Read the full Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Feedback and support

We read every message. You can send one from:

• the Feedback link in the page footer,
• the Feedback button in the top bar of a Thought Plot (it also tells us which Thought Plot you were on), or
• the button below.

Choose the type of message: a problem report, a suggestion or a question. Write the details, up to 2,000 characters, and send. You need to be signed in. Your account's email address is attached automatically so we can reply to you, so there is no email box to fill in. To prevent abuse, the number of messages per hour is limited.

Send feedback

You can also write to admin@tracethoughts.com. Please include the Thought Plot's address and what you were doing when the problem occurred.

Shortcuts

Limits

Troubleshooting

I cannot sign in, or I was signed out.

Check your email and password; passwords are case-sensitive. Use Forgot your password? if needed. If you sign in with Google or Facebook, use the same button each time. Browsers that block site data can prevent staying signed in; allow it for tracethoughts.

The confirmation or reset email did not arrive.

Check your spam or junk folder and wait a minute or two. Make sure the address is spelled correctly. You can request another from your dashboard (confirmation) or the sign-in form (reset). After several requests in a few minutes you need to wait before asking again.

My avatar does not move.

Drag your avatar to move it; clicking empty ground does not move it. Only members can move. If you are not a member yet, press Join (or wait for approval on a private Thought Plot). If the chat window is open, close it first, or double-click a pin and choose Leave & go.

I cannot add a pin or a note.

That depends on the permission the owner has set. View only members cannot add anything; View & add notes members can add notes but not pins; only Also add pins members can place pins. A Thought Plot can hold 500 pins, and may be full.

A chat did not open when I walked up to someone.

They may be on Do not disturb (you will see a moon), offline, a view-only member, or still too far away. Stand closer or on the same pin. If you are on Do not disturb, you will only get your personal chat.

Nobody can see my chat.

Chats are private to the people inside them, by design. If you are alone, you are in your personal chat.

I do not get sound or popups.

Click once anywhere on the page so the browser allows sound, check the bell in the chat is on, and allow notifications for the site in your browser. Popups need a tab with the Thought Plot open.

Link previews are missing.

Some sites do not provide a preview picture, or block automated visits. You will see a tile with the site's first letter instead. The link still works.

My custom background was refused.

It must be an .svg file, under 15 MB, with a readable size. Re-export it as SVG from your design tool, or open it in an editor and make sure it starts with an <svg> tag.

Some of my pins no longer line up with my new background.

Pins keep their positions when the background changes. Drag them to where you want them, or switch back to the default background.

A private Thought Plot says I am blocked or awaiting approval.

Only the owner can approve or unblock you. Contact them directly.

The page looks out of date or something is stuck.

Reload the page. If it persists, clear the site's data in your browser and sign in again.

Still stuck?

Send feedback Report a problem, suggest an improvement or ask a question. You need to be signed in. You can also write to admin@tracethoughts.com and tell us the Thought Plot address and what you were doing.