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

Friends page with Friends, Requests, Sent, Blocked, and Groups tabs

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)

Discover People page with search and ranked suggestions

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.

Notifications page with Preferences and Mark All Read controls

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