The belay check · Shift 7, people not a ranking

Checked once, here. Findable on Saturday.

Before anyone can be asked to hold someone else’s rope through our Pools, one of our floor staff watches them do it. The check is a curator’s vouch, local to Belay Partners §4.4. Here is Halima, new in town, from Tuesday night to Saturday morning.

Tuesday 22 September, 6:40 in the evening

Eight things Pilar watched

Floor lead · checks on Tuesdays
Pilar Echeverría
Signed in with OAuth
Belay check
Halima Osman
Checked by
Pilar Echeverría
When
Tuesday 22 September
Counts in
Belay Partners, and nowhere else
Belay checked here

01Harness on, buckled and snugLeg loops and waist belt on, buckles done, nothing twisted.Seen by Pilar
02Figure-eight follow-through, dressed, with a tailTied through both tie-in points, dressed so the strands run parallel, with a long enough tail.Seen by Pilar
03Partner check, out loudBoth climbers check each other’s knot, harness and device, and say so out loud.Seen by Pilar
04Device loaded and the carabiner lockedThe rope through the device the right way round, and the locking carabiner locked.Seen by Pilar
05Brake hand never off the ropeThrough every pull and every pause, the hand below the device stays on the rope.Seen by Pilar
06A caught fallA short fall, caught with the brake on, without letting the rope run.Seen by Pilar
07A smooth, slow lowerDown at walking speed, hand over hand, to the mat.Seen by Pilar
08The calls, both ways“On belay?” “Belay on.” “Climbing.” “Climb on.” “Take.” “Lower.” Both ways, every time.Seen by Pilar

Checks run on Tuesdays from 6 to 7 and Saturdays from 10 to 11, with Pilar Echeverría or Emil Kowalczyk. They come with getting in the door.

When it does not pass

“Not yet” is written down nowhere

A check that does not pass is said to you on the floor, with what to practice. It goes in no Pool, on no block list, and into no app. There is nothing for anyone else to read, so there is nothing to follow you.

Block lists are for identities with confirmed abuse §7.3. A missed brake hand on a Tuesday is not that, and never will be.

Belay check
Someone, some Tuesday
Checked by
Pilar or Emil
When
any check night
Counts in
(nothing is listed)
A check that does not pass. Said on the floor, written down nowhere. Try again next week.
Not yet · try again

A vouch is local

Where Maya is vouched for, and where she is not

Maya Lindgren is in three Pools that mention her. Each level is on the entry, not on the person, and each vouch counts only where it was given §4.4 §4.5. She keeps a separate climbing page for the gym, so her date-me doc is in none of ours.

Face Up

Face Up: Cascadia

Vouched for by the curator

Face Up’s trust desk checked that her face is the one in the photos on her own page. That is Face Up’s own vouch, local to its Pool. It says nothing about a rope, and we never read it.

https://faceup.example/pools/face-up-cascadia.json
profile: docs.example/d/maya-lindgren-date-me
added_by: brody@mail.example

Heartwood

Heartwood: Nearby

Email verified

No vouch at all: she is email verified there. Her entry in Heartwood’s own Pool never carries our check, because a vouch is local to one Pool and does not travel.

https://heartwood.example/pools/heartwood-nearby.json
profile: docs.example/d/maya-lindgren-date-me
added_by: harriet@mail.example

Drip Line

Belay Partners

Vouched for by the curator

Emil watched her belay on a Saturday in March. Our vouch, on her climbing page, in this Pool only. Her entries in Face Up’s and Heartwood’s Pools show none of it; an app that opens this Pool, as Face Up’s Climbing deck does, shows it on her card from here and nowhere else.

https://driplineclimbing.example/pools/drip-line-belay.json
profile: docs.example/d/maya-lindgren-climbing
added_by: emil@mail.example

Said plainly

What the check does not mean

A vouch is a small, exact thing. Here is everything it is not, so nobody reads more into a tag than one Tuesday on our floor.

It is not a grade. It says you can hold a rope safely, here, on the day we watched. It says nothing about how hard you climb.
It is not a certificate. Nobody can take it to another gym, and another gym’s check does not count here. Each gym watches its own floor.
It does not travel. No other Pool sees it, not Face Up’s, not Heartwood’s §4.4. An app that reads this Pool shows it on your card from here, and on no other card. Out there you are what you were.
It does not replace the partner check. You still check each other’s knot and device before every climb. Staff still watch the floor every day.
It is not forever. If staff see an unsafe belay, they talk to you on the floor and ask you to check again; until then your tag comes off.
Nobody owes anyone a yes. Being checked means you can be asked. It never means you have to say yes to anyone.

Tuesday, 7:05 · the Pool asks

Halima says yes, or doesn’t

A vouching-required Pool adds the check before the handshake. It cannot take away the owner’s no, or her leave §5.4. The request went to the address on Halima’s own page; it waits 14 days §5.2.

This is the same handshake as on Your answer, where the log, the JSON, “ask again” and “let the window pass” live. An answer here is an answer there.

Waiting for her answer

Belay Partners
Halima Osman
Email verified
she/her · Seattle, Washington
halima-osman.notion.example
Climbed for three years at a gym in Minneapolis, then moved to Seattle in July for a job at the port. Top ropes, is learning to lead, and does not know anyone here to climb with yet.
climbing · belay · new-in-town · friendship
Checked by Pilar Echeverría, Tuesday 22 September
Takes messages from anyone verified.
Waiting for an answer

Saturday 3 October, 10 in the morning

Findable on Saturday

Maya has asked for a partner and Beto has offered to belay anyone checked. Bellows shows them to everyone who reads Belay Partners; only people in it can answer. Try it: each button is checked with Kindling’s rules in this page §7.

In Bellows · Belay PartnersAsk

Maya LindgrenVouched for by the curator

Partner for Saturday, 10 to 1. Top rope and a little lead, around 5.9 to 5.10. I like a long warm-up and I bring snacks.

For Saturday 3 October · open Bellows

In Bellows · Belay PartnersOffer

Beto AguilarVouched for by the curator

Free Saturday from 10 to noon to belay anyone checked, and happy to go first if you are new here.

Who can answer

Beto Aguilar
André Baptiste
Signe Dahl
Maya Lindgren
Jules Marín
Fatima Al-Sayed

Halima is not on this list until she says yes.

Not tried yet.

Maya’s message to Halima, as JSON

{
  "schema_version": "0.1",
  "message_id": "msg-drip-line-maya-halima",
  "type": "intro",
  "sender": {
    "identity": "maya@mail.example",
    "display_name": "Maya Lindgren",
    "verification_level": "curator-vouched",
    "profile_url": "https://docs.example/d/maya-lindgren-climbing"
  },
  "recipient": {
    "identity": "halima@mail.example",
    "profile_url": "https://halima-osman.notion.example"
  },
  "via_pool": {
    "url": "https://driplineclimbing.example/pools/drip-line-belay.json",
    "id": "drip-line-belay",
    "name": "Belay Partners"
  },
  "sent_at": "2026-09-28T17:30:00Z",
  "subject": "Partner for Saturday?",
  "body": {
    "content_type": "text/plain",
    "content": "Halima, I saw you were checked on Tuesday. Welcome. I am looking for a partner this Saturday, 10 to 1: top rope and a little lead, around 5.9 to 5.10, with a long warm-up. If you would like to, meet me at the front desk at ten. Maya"
  },
  "transport": {
    "type": "email"
  }
}

An ask or an offer has no message type in v0.1, so Bellows keeps them itself. Answering one is an ordinary intro message, sent by email through the Pool §6.1. messages/maya-to-halima.json

Shift 8 · safety that travels

Two lists we did not write, honored at every door

Every one of our Pools subscribes to the Kindling public block list and the Circular consortium’s list §7.3. So does every compliant client that reads them: Bellows, Familiar Faces, or one that does not exist yet. The last button above shows it: bulk-intros@relay.example is on the Circular’s list for spam, so it cannot answer Maya, through any app.

What travels is confirmed abuse, by identity. What stays at the gym is everything else: a failed check, a word on the floor, who comes on which night.

Both lists, in full

The lists we honor

Kindling public block list, version 3: 2 entries, by identity, Pool or implementation.
The Circular consortium block list, version 8: 4 entries, by identity, Pool or implementation.

A failed check, a floor note, or who climbs on which night is on neither, and never will be.