Every good community online has the same problem: the tools were built for something else. Group chats collapse under fifty people. Public servers fill with strangers and pings. Forums feel like abandoned malls. What most groups actually want is simple — a private room with a door, a bit of structure, and just enough moderation to keep it kind. That is what a sanctuary is.
What a sanctuary is
A sanctuary is a private community space inside Bloom Space. By default it is invite-only: people join through an invite code or link shared by someone already inside. Owners can choose to make a sanctuary public and discoverable by its handle, but nothing is public unless you decide it should be.
Inside, a sanctuary gives you:
- Channels, grouped into categories, so topics stay separate
- Threads, so a side conversation can branch without drowning the room
- Events, for meetups, watch parties and recurring plans
- Voice rooms — live, camera-free audio members can drop into
- Moments and clips shared only with the community
- Community rules, shown to every new member on join
- Moderator roles with mute, kick, ban and delete
You can join up to thirty sanctuaries per persona, and because sanctuaries belong to personas, your book club never has to know about your fantasy football league.
Who sanctuaries are for
- Friend groups who have outgrown the group chat and want a place for plans, photos and the occasional late-night voice room.
- Classes and study groups that need a channel per subject, a shared events list and somewhere to dump notes.
- Clubs and teams — running clubs, bands, volunteer groups — with announcements that don't get buried.
- Fandoms and niche communities that want depth rather than reach.
- Creators who want a private home for their supporters, with tips and paid memberships built in.
Setting one up well
Most communities fail from too much structure, not too little. Here is a starting shape that works for almost everyone.
1. Start with three channels
Announcements (for the owner and moderators), general (for everything), and one channel for the thing that brought you together. Add more only when a conversation keeps getting interrupted — that is the signal a topic has earned its own room.
2. Write rules people will actually read
Short, specific and in your own voice. "Be kind" is fine; "No screenshots of this space anywhere else" is better. Members see the rules when they join, so this is your chance to set the tone before anyone posts.
3. Decide the door
Private and invite-only is the right default for nearly every group. If you are building something you want people to find — a public interest community, a creator's supporter space — you can make the sanctuary discoverable by handle later. Doors can open; they are much harder to close.
4. Pick moderators, not police
Choose one or two people who are already the emotional centre of the group. Give them the tools and the permission to use them early. A quiet mute in the first week prevents a public blow-up in the third.
5. Schedule one live thing
An event with a voice room — a weekly call, a watch party, a Sunday planning session — turns a channel full of text into a community with a heartbeat. Voice rooms are audio-only, so nobody has to tidy their room or turn on a camera.
Gentle moderation, in practice
Moderation is where most communities go wrong, in both directions. Too little and the loudest person sets the tone; too much and nobody feels safe to speak. A few habits help.
- Mute before you ban. Most problems are someone having a bad day. A short mute gives them time without making it a spectacle.
- Use threads to redirect. When a conversation derails, start a thread for the tangent rather than telling people to stop.
- Refer back to the rules. "We agreed no politics in general" lands more softly than "stop it".
- Escalate real harm. Anything involving safety — threats, harassment, anything touching a minor — should be reported to Bloom Space, not handled alone. Real, trained reviewers handle every escalation, and our child safety commitments are absolute.
For creators: a home for your supporters
Sanctuaries can offer paid memberships and accept tips through Petals, Bloom Space's in-app currency, with creator payouts built in. That makes a sanctuary a natural home for a creator's community: the free public persona for reach, the sanctuary for the people who want more — early access, behind-the-scenes posts, a monthly voice room. If you make things, the creators page has the details and an early-access form.
Common questions
Can a sanctuary be public? Yes, if the owner chooses. Public sanctuaries are discoverable by handle. Everything else stays invite-only.
Are voice rooms recorded? Only if the host explicitly turns recording on, and everyone in the room is told when that happens.
What happens to moments posted in a sanctuary? They are visible only to that sanctuary's members, and they fade like any other moment.
Can I leave without drama? Yes. Leaving a sanctuary is private to you.
Start yours
Sanctuaries are free and available now on Android. Download Bloom Space, open the Sanctuaries tab and create one — then send the invite to the five people you actually talk to. The sanctuaries feature page has the full overview if you want to read before you build.