Small joke.
Real boundaries.

POWLOL is a public, playful power struggle. Here’s what you’re sharing, what stays private, and where we draw the line.

Your proclamation is public

Your chosen name, message, destination link, and reign times are public. They appear on the homepage and on a shareable history page. Don’t include private information, secrets, or anything you don’t want others to copy. We may remove content that breaks the rules.

You can also register a public @username in Account after linking a sign-in method. It identifies your player across reigns, including past ones; your ruler name can still change with each takeover. Choose carefully: usernames cannot be renamed. A username is not proof of someone’s real identity.

Invitations are private and single-use

Anyone holding an unused guest invitation or public drop can try to redeem it. Send an invitation to a friend, or deliberately drop it publicly for a race: the first completed claim wins, not the first click. Shared gift links and their preview cards display the full invitation code so the sender can identify the token and the recipient can see what was gifted. Anyone who can see the link or card may use that transferable invitation.

These codes reach the messaging or preview service that fetches the shared URL and may appear in request infrastructure logs. Share only where you intend to give that access. The invite page is not intended for search indexing, uses no-referrer and no-store headers, and does not expose your private notes or linked-account details. Messaging services may keep an old card; opening the link checks the status again. Neither opening nor previewing reserves or consumes a pass.

When you choose to use the invitation, its code moves to the takeover form through a URL fragment that this site removes after opening. The code stays in your tab’s session storage until redemption so a refresh doesn’t lose it. It is not saved in your server draft and never becomes part of your public reign page.

Guest passes can be shared. Comeback passes belong to the player who earned them: use the original browser or sign in to that player’s linked account. Your private pass page shows whether a shared invitation was used and the public reign that claimed it. It does not identify the person behind that player or prove a unique human.

You may add a private “Shared in…” reminder to a pass. It is not included in shared invitation text or public pages. A private activity feed records redemptions and limited, coalesced failed attempts—not mere link openings. Browser notifications are a separate opt-in. We do not send notification emails.

Notifications are your choice

Link an account, then choose alerts for your reign and passes, every new ruler, or neither in Account. You must also enable notifications on each browser. We store your preferences and an encrypted browser subscription so your browser’s push service can deliver alerts. Your email, invitation codes and private notes are never included.

You can turn categories off or remove a device in Account. Signing out stops future sends to that browser; an alert already on its way may still arrive. Delivery depends on your browser and device settings. On iPhone and iPad, add POWLOL to your Home Screen and open it there first.

Your draft stays private until you take over

We use a secure, HTTP-only browser cookie to recognize your private player. You can prepare a proclamation before you have an invitation or pay. We save your latest draft name, message, link and appearance on the server after an editing pause or when you choose to save. A draft can be incomplete; saving does not publish it, reserve a pass, take the throne or run a moderation check. Submission still performs the normal checks.

Linking a sign-in method lets you recover the saved draft on another browser. Without a linked account, losing the browser cookie can lose access to the server draft. We also keep an owner-scoped copy in your tab’s session storage for recovery; blocking storage can prevent that local fallback. Invitation codes and checkout request identifiers stay separate from the server draft. Private takeover status is not a public sharing link.

If another device saved a different draft, the form asks which version to keep instead of silently replacing your work. Combining two accounts keeps the most recently saved server draft; the destination account’s draft wins an exact timestamp tie. Your draft remains available to reuse after a takeover.

Ideas are optional

When you ask for an AI suggestion, we send the public name, proclamation, and link currently in your form, plus earlier suggestions for that field, through Vercel AI Gateway to a model provider. We do not include your invitation code, linked-account profile or email, or payment details. Don’t put secrets in these public fields. Nothing is published until you complete a takeover.

We keep up to three suggestion attempts per field with your private player, including the resulting ideas, so linked accounts can reuse them across browsers. After the limit, the buttons cycle saved ideas without another AI call. A completed takeover starts a new set. Failed generation attempts can count toward the limit; typing your own text is always available. Suggested links come from an editorial list, not claimed partnerships or a guarantee of safety, and remain subject to the usual submission checks.

Linking an account is optional

Without linking, clearing cookies or losing your browser can lose your private reign controls and unused passes. Your public reign is not erased. Where configured, Google, Vercel, or GitHub sign-in links your private player to the provider’s account identifier so you can return from another browser. It does not change your public ruler name or publicly display your email. POWLOL never asks for your provider password.

When a provider returns an email after a successfully verified sign-in, we store it privately with that sign-in method, the provider’s email-verification flag (true, false, or unknown), and when we last observed it. That flag is the provider’s report, not independent verification by POWLOL. Google and Vercel sign-in request basic profile and email access, but not offline access. Google sign-in does not request Gmail or Drive access, and its tokens are discarded after verifying your identity. GitHub sign-in requests read-only email access so we can store your primary address; it does not request repository access. GitHub tokens are discarded after the identity and email checks.

Your signed-in account-management page can show a provider-supplied email so you can distinguish multiple linked accounts. Email addresses are not shown on public pages or included in operational logs or activity events. An exact stored email match, reported as verified by both providers, may suggest a manual account merge. Email alone never signs you in or automatically links accounts. Signing in does not opt you into marketing, trigger outreach, or enable email notifications. Existing accounts only gain this information after another successful sign-in if the provider supplies it. A later sign-in can update or clear a previously supplied address.

Vercel sign-in also keeps a short-lived token in an encrypted, HTTP-only cookie so we can revoke that token when you sign out. Browser JavaScript cannot read it. Your Vercel profile name is not copied into your public reign. If Vercel is unavailable during signout, local access is still removed; provider access may remain valid until the token expires.

Your private account page shows the last display name, username, and avatar supplied by each linked provider, where available. These details help you recognize which account you linked; they never replace your public ruler name or appear in activity logs. Use “Refresh details” to update them through a fresh sign-in. Avatars load directly from allowlisted provider image hosts without a referrer or provider cookies; those hosts still receive your IP address. Missing or blocked images show initials instead.

The site administrator can inspect player records, linked-account details and email observations for support and moderation. These details stay out of public pages. Account inspections are recorded; passwords, sign-in tokens and private invitation codes are not part of the account inspector.

You can link multiple Google, GitHub, or Vercel accounts, including accounts with different emails, while signed in to POWLOL. Each link requires sign-in proof and belongs to only one POWLOL player. Unlinking removes that sign-in method and its saved profile/email from your POWLOL account, not your provider account, reigns, or passes. At least one other available sign-in method must remain. Unlinking also signs out other POWLOL browser sessions and renews this browser’s session. It does not revoke your app consent at the provider; you can manage that in the provider’s settings.

If you have already made two separate POWLOL accounts, an exact verified-email match may let you combine them. The suggestion shows only which provider you could use—not the other account’s private details. You must explicitly confirm the merge while signed in, then sign in to the other account to prove ownership. The server checks eligibility again before combining both accounts’ reigns, passes, and sign-in methods. This signs out both accounts’ other browser sessions and renews this one. We do not treat differently spelled addresses, email aliases, or an unknown verification flag as an exact verified match.

Only the linked current ruler may change the public theme, proclamation, or destination. Themes are fixed presets, not arbitrary code. Updated text and links are subject to the same screening and removal policy as new takeovers. A retake may reuse your own last saved public settings.

We store takeover, invitation, and payment records needed to operate the site and prevent duplicate use. Service providers may process technical request information to deliver and secure the site. This first release has no advertising pixels or cross-site tracking scripts.

Basic traffic analytics

We use Vercel Web Analytics to understand aggregate visits and page views, not to track your proclamation, draft, linked identity or invitation code. We remove query strings and fragments and group public reign URLs under a generic page path before sending page-view events. Invitation, private takeover status, admin and unrecognized routes are excluded. No custom interaction events are enabled.

Vercel processes technical request information such as browser, device and approximate location for these statistics, without third-party tracking cookies. This does not link analytics to your POWLOL account. Read Vercel’s analytics privacy information.

Payments are handled by Stripe

When paid takeovers are available, payment details go to Stripe-hosted checkout, not to a POWLOL card form. POWLOL keeps the payment references and status needed to confirm a takeover and handle payment problems. Free invitations require no payment information.

Links belong to their authors

Following a ruler’s link takes you to a third-party website. Paid or invited prominence is not an endorsement of that destination. No user can add scripts, embedded content, or tracking pixels to POWLOL. We do not run mining, proof-of-work, or background games in your browser.

Moderation has limits

We attempt to check submitted text and links before a takeover. Clear policy violations are blocked; if automated screening is temporarily unavailable, a submission may still continue and remains subject to later review and removal. Screening is not a promise about the safety of a destination, which may change after submission.

Need help? Something crossed a line?

Write to tim@creationix.com with the public reign link and a short explanation. For a payment issue, include your Stripe receipt reference, but never send card details or an invitation code.