Choose who can see a moment

A published public moment appears on your journal, is available to anyone who visits or follows a link, and is included in the journal's RSS feed. Public does not automatically mean community-wide distribution: the “share beyond your journal” choice decides whether the moment also appears in the Moments community and, when Open web is enabled, reaches Fediverse followers.

Conversation is another per-moment choice. When available and enabled, Fediverse replies and verified webmentions can gather beneath the moment.

An unlisted moment is hidden from your journal and search surfaces. Anyone with its link can open it, without an account or password. It is useful for a quiet preview, a small group, or a moment linked from a page that should not otherwise sit in the main feed.

Unlisted is privacy by obscurity, not an access lock. A recipient can forward the URL. Unlisted moments do not travel to the community, open-web followers, or RSS, and they are not open to conversation.

A password-protected moment requires both its link and its password. Visitors do not need a Moments account. You may add an optional hint that helps invited readers remember the password without revealing it. Password protection is included with the Supporter plan.

After a successful unlock, access is remembered on that device for 30 days. Changing the password retires previous unlocks, so devices must use the new one. Passwords are not stored in readable form.

If Supporter access later ends, moments that are already protected stay protected and remain editable. Starter cannot add password protection to another moment, and nothing is ever made public because a plan changed.

The protected moment as a whole stays off the journal, search, feeds, moment collections, embeds, community, and open web. Its title, sequence, and field note remain behind the password rather than being used as a public preview.

Photo collections need separate care. Their picker can select an individual photograph from a protected moment, and publishing that collection makes the selected frame public through the collection without opening the rest of its home moment. Do not add a protected photo to a published photo collection unless you intend to expose that frame.