Marginal's social layer is small and deliberate. There is no feed and no follower count. Sharing is always a directed act: you choose a specific person, and a specific thing.

Adding a friend

Open Friends, tap to add, and type a person's exact username, then Search. Send the request; they'll get a notification and can accept or decline. Free members can hold up to 3 connections, premium up to 50.

If someone declines, there's a short cooldown before you can ask again: a gentle guard, not a permanent wall.

What a friend can see

By default a friend can see the books on your shelf and their statuses, never the content of your Ideas. You control this two ways:

• Hide a book entirely from friends with its "Visible to friends" toggle. A hidden book simply doesn't exist as far as friends are concerned.
• Share specific Ideas when, and only when, you decide to.

Two ways to share

• Share one Idea: open the share control on a single Idea row and turn it on for a chosen friend.
• Share the whole Thought: the Thoughts-level toggle shares all of a book's Ideas with a friend at once. Turning it back off is a complete reset: it removes every share for that friend on that book.

You can share Ideas on a locked Thought, too. The only thing that is never shareable is a Hindsight. Those are permanently private.

Requesting access

When you can see that a friend has written an Idea but hasn't shared it, you can request access. They'll get a notification and can approve or decline. While a request is pending it shows as "requested"; if declined it shows quietly as denied. Approving it shares that Idea with you.

You can request access to as many different Ideas as you like. For any one Idea you can have a single open request at a time, and if it's declined, there's a 24-hour wait before you can ask for that same Idea again. A gentle pause, not a wall.

Common questions

Q: When can I share an Idea? As soon as it has content. The share control appears on an Idea once you've written something in it. An empty Idea has nothing to share, so it shows no share option. Write first, then share when you're ready.

Q: Why am I limited to 3 friends (or 50 on Premium)? On purpose. Marginal is built around privacy and intimacy, not reach. The cap is a quiet reminder to share your reading mind only with the people who are genuinely worth it, not to collect an audience. Fifty is already far more than most people will ever want here.

Q: Can anyone see how many friends I have? No. Your friend count and friend list are never shown to anyone else.

Q: I removed a friend. What happens? Everything between you is undone: the connection, anything either of you shared, and any pending requests.