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# Social Connections

Connect with fellow volunteers through friend requests, activity feeds, team groups, and real-time notifications. Enable via Settings > Feature Toggles > Social Connections.

## Friends

- Send requests — search for other volunteers and send friend requests
- Accept / decline / cancel — manage requests from the Friends page
- Mutual friends — view shared connections between users
- Block / unblock — blocked users cannot send requests or appear in suggestions

## Discover

The Discover page suggests potential friends using a ranked scoring algorithm based on:

- Household/family connections (highest priority)
- Mutual friends
- Shared shifts (co-volunteers from the last 90 days)
- Shared campaigns (co-participants from the last 90 days)

## Activity Feed

The Social Feed at `/volunteer/feed` shows recent activity from your friends:

- Shift signups, campaign emails, canvass sessions, and response submissions
- Limited to the last 30 days (max 50 items)

## Groups

Groups are automatically created based on platform activity:

- Shift teams — created when 2+ volunteers share a shift
- Campaign teams — created when 2+ users participate in the same campaign

## Profiles

Each volunteer has a social profile showing volunteer stats, achievement badges, friendship status, and recent activity.

## Pokes

Send a friendly nudge to any accepted friend (24-hour cooldown per pair).

## Privacy Settings

Setting | Default | Description
--- | --- | ---
Show online status | On | Whether friends see you as online
Show in friend activity | On | Whether your actions appear in feeds
Allow friend requests | On | Whether others can send you requests

## Digest Emails

Opt into periodic social digest emails with friend activity, unread notifications, and pending requests. Choose daily or weekly frequency.

## Notifications

The notification center at `/volunteer/notifications` collects friend requests, pokes, achievement unlocks, and group activity. Use Preferences to choose which notifications appear and Mark All Read to clear the badge.

## Volunteer Routes

- `/volunteer/feed` — social activity feed
- `/volunteer/friends` — friends, requests, blocked, and groups
- `/volunteer/discover` — ranked friend suggestions
- `/volunteer/profile` — your social profile
- `/volunteer/profile/:userId` — another volunteer's profile
- `/volunteer/notifications` — notification center and preferences
- `/volunteer/groups/:id` — group detail with member list