CommonYard News

Also new: a yard's week instead of a leaderboard, and Show me as here

2026-10-12T00:00:00Z

A few smaller things that went live over the last two days.

A yard’s week, not a leaderboard

Inside a yard, GAMES no longer ranks the yard’s members by name. Where Leaderboard was, This week. now says what the yard did together, like 12 people took part · 140 things done. Under it, only you see your own week: how many things you did and the points they earned. Switch between THIS WEEK and LAST WEEK as before. Game winners still get their own boards. See Your yard’s games and ladder.

Show me as here

Rather not be seen? Tap YOU, then the gear for Settings. Under Privacy and safety, turn off Show me as here. Then nobody sees that you’re in a yard or when you were last on. You won’t see when others were last on either.

Your pace

Also in Settings, under Your pace:

Streak reminders — turn off the streak prompts on HOME and your profile on this phone. Your points and streak record stay.
Games you didn’t play — turn off the HOME recaps of games where you held a seat but didn’t play.

Your own posts nag you less

A post of yours that nobody has answered yet no longer says No votes yet or No reactions yet.
A poll or ask of yours that is still open is mentioned once, for a while, as Your poll is still open, with SEND IT to share it with one person. After two days it is let be.

Yard names are shorter

A new yard’s name, or a sub yard’s, can be up to 20 characters. See Make a yard.

HOME opens on your yards

2026-10-12T00:00:00Z

When you open CommonYard, HOME now starts with your yards, side by side on a plain page. The busier a yard is today, the bigger it is.

Your yards, one shape each

HOME opens on your yards. The busier, the bigger.

Tap a yard to go into it. Its posts come up, newest first.
Each yard shows its name, how many are here now (by the green dot) and how many members it has. A + and a number beside a yard is what your posts there gained.
In more yards than fit? The last shape says + and a number. Tap it for all your yards.
Explore is the way to find a yard to join, and Start a yard (or New yard, when it is small) the way to make one.

What happened to your things

Along the top, beside your picture, is a row of small cards, like Your poll got busy: new votes or replies on something of yours, a yard you joined this week. Tap one to go to it. When nothing has happened yet, it says Nothing new on your posts yet.

Swipe up for your feed

Swipe up and the yards fold into a row of small tiles under the top bar. The posts come up under them.
The first tile is CommonYard, the whole Yard. Tap a tile to change yard. You can also swipe sideways on the posts.
Under the tiles, a line says which yard you are reading and what is on there. Tap the small arrow beside it to go Back to all your yards. A yard you run has its gear there too, for Manage yard.
At the end of a yard’s posts, NEXT YARD takes you on to the next one.
Your next move and Happening now are still there, at the top of the posts.

See Get started on CommonYard and Find and join a yard.

CHAT on every bar, and see who's typing in your yard's chat

2026-10-10T00:00:00Z

Chatting in your yards got easier to reach, and a little more alive.

CHAT on every bar

CHAT is now on the bar at the bottom wherever you are, not only inside a yard. It reads HOME · CHAT · GAMES · YOU. Tap it to see your chats in one place.

On the whole Yard, every yard you can talk in is listed, with the last thing said and how many you haven’t read.
Inside a yard, that yard’s chat is at the top. Tap it to go in.

Who’s typing, and who has seen it

When someone is writing, a line under the messages says so, like Ama is typing.
Under your newest message it says Sent, then Seen by and the names of the people who have read it. Tap that line to see everyone who has seen it.
Rather keep that to yourself? Turn off Show when I have read at the bottom of your chats. Then nobody sees when you have read their messages, and you don’t see when they have read yours.

Forward a message

Press and hold a message and tap Forward, then choose the chat to send it to. It arrives marked Forwarded.

For people who run a yard

The lock at the top of the yard’s chat is Who can send messages. Choose Only admins and mods to mute the chat for everyone else while you make an announcement, and Unmute when you’re done.

See Chat in your yard.

A new top for HOME

2026-10-09T00:00:00Z

The top of HOME has a new look. Everything you could do there before is still there, in fewer places.

Your yards, in one cluster

HOME: your yards together on the sky, then your next move and what is happening now.

Your yards now sit together on the sky, packed round the one you are reading. That one is in the middle, with a ring, and its name under it with a short line like 41 here · 3 new.

Tap another yard to bring it to the middle. The posts below follow it.
The livelier a yard, the bigger it is. A yard at the side shows how many new things wait there, or live when a game is on.
In more yards than fit? The last place says + and a number. Tap it for a list of all your yards.
Find a yard stands beside the cluster. Making a new yard is at the bottom of that page, under Can’t find yours?
A yard you run has its gear when it is in the middle. Tap it for Manage yard.

You can still swipe sideways on the posts to move to the next yard.

Under the yards

Your next move is one thing to do now, picked for you. Not for you? Tap Something else. When your streak ends tonight, the card says so.
Happening now lists the games that are on or about to start: Join one that is live, tap Remind me for one that starts soon, or Play when it is your turn in a duel. All games opens GAMES.
Came back for you lists what came back to you — a reply, a poll that closed — and what of yours moved.

Then come the posts, under Fresh in and the yard’s name, with how many came in today.

See Get started on CommonYard and Find and join a yard.

Next up: the next thing comes to you

2026-10-09T00:00:00Z

Two changes to the posts on HOME.

NEXT UP

When you vote in a poll, answer a quiz, take a side or do anything else a card asks, the next thing to do moves up right under it, with NEXT UP over it. The page moves down to it after a moment, so you see your result first and then carry on without scrolling to look for more.

It works inside a post too: the next thing shows under the post, before the replies.
It mixes things up. What you are into comes first, and after a poll you are more likely to get a quiz, a swipey or a petition than another poll.
A post to just read comes only when there is nothing left to do.

Videos lead their card

A video on HOME now runs across the whole top of its card. How long it has left is in the bottom corner, and the sound button is on the other side. The person who posted it and the words come under the video, with the ••• menu beside the name. Tap the video to watch it full screen.

See Watch clips and Get started on CommonYard.

A simpler profile, game invitations as cards, and more

2026-10-08T00:00:00Z

A few changes that went live this week.

Your profile, simpler

YOU now leads with your photo and name in the middle, then three figures in a row: your posts, yards and points. Under them are two tiles, your streak and your level, and How points, streaks and levels work to explain them. Saved, Your people and What you made are tiles, your posts show as a grid, and What you’re into is at the bottom. Impact and contribution are no longer on the profile. See Your profile and interests.

Invitations in the chat are cards now

When someone shares a CommonYard link to a game or a yard in a yard’s chat, it shows as a card instead of a blue link: a Guess the Number duel, a Ludo table, a night of Sasabonsam, a Troll War, a trivia Beat my score, a friend’s call on a poll, or a yard’s own invitation. One button on the card takes you in. See Chat in your yard.

Swipe across the posts to change yards

On HOME you can now swipe sideways anywhere on the posts, not only on the sky at the top. The next yard’s name shows at the edge as you swipe. See Get started on CommonYard.

Troll War explains itself

The first time you set up or open a Troll War, a short card shows how it works in four steps: two teams, troll each other, everyone else judges, most 🔥 wins. Tap How it works in the lobby to see it again. See Play Troll War.

Swipe through your yards on HOME

2026-10-07T00:00:00Z

The top of HOME works a little differently now.

Swipe from yard to yard

Your yards sit on the sky, one big in the middle. Swipe left or right to move to the next one, or tap a smaller one at the side. The posts below follow the yard in the middle.

CommonYard, the whole Yard, is always first.
A yard you joined this week comes right after it.
The last page is More yards, with Find a yard and New yard.

What’s new, yard by yard

Under the sky, a short list says what’s new in the yard in the middle — like 2 new things in CommonYard — with a button on each. Tap Later to put one away for now.

Your streak is on the top bar

Your streak — a flame and how many days — now sits on the bar at the top, beside Search and the bell. Tap it to open YOU.

See Get started on CommonYard and Find and join a yard.

Also new: series from the post screen, and fewer interruptions

2026-10-05T00:00:00Z

A few smaller things that went live over the last days.

Series, right on the post screen

Posting something in parts? Under PART OF A SERIES on the post screen, add the post to one of your series as you write it, or start a new one. A post that’s already up can join one from its three-dot menu, with Add to a series. See Post a series, and follow one.

A gear on the yards you run

On the sky at the top of HOME, every yard you run — as its owner, an admin or a mod — has a small gear on its island. Tap it to go straight to Manage yard.

Reset a yard’s link from Invite people

Owners and admins can reset a yard’s link straight from Invite people in Manage yard. Resetting a public yard’s link makes it private too, and CommonYard says so before it does. See Run your yard.

No interruptions mid-game

While you’re playing, CommonYard holds its pop-up banners and asks nothing of you. They wait until you’re done.

The birthday ask moved

If your birthday is missing, CommonYard asks once on your profile, not on HOME. See Add your birthday.

Every yard you're in, on your home

2026-10-05T00:00:00Z

The sky at the top of HOME used to show three of your yards. If you were in more, the others were hard to reach. Now:

Up to five yards float on the sky — the one you’re reading, biggest and ringed, and up to four more around it, the livelier ones bigger.
All yards takes the last place when you’re in more than fit. Tap it for Your yards, a list of every yard you’re in, and tap one to open it.
A yard you’ve just joined appears at once — join one from Find a yard and it’s on your home before you’ve even opened it. For its first week it always keeps a place.

See Get started and Find and join a yard.

Press and hold a clip for more

2026-10-05T00:00:00Z

Videos on CommonYard play one after another, full screen. Now a long press does more.

Hold in the middle

The clip pauses and a menu opens:

Save, Share and Copy link
Full screen — just the clip, nothing over it
Auto scroll — the next clip starts when this one ends
Speed — 0.5×, 1×, 1.5× or 2×
Not interested — hides the post from you
More options — report, block and the rest

Hold an edge

Press and hold near the left or right edge, and the clip plays at 2× for as long as you hold.

See Watch clips.

Games now start on time, by themselves

2026-10-04T00:00:00Z

A game used to wait for its host to press start. If the host was busy, everybody waited. Not any more.

What changed

Every game starts at its time. A quiz night, a word scramble, a survival room — when the clock reaches its start, it starts.
And runs itself to the end, question by question and round by round.
Too few players? It waits a quarter of an hour for more, then calls itself off.

You can still run it yourself

In What you made, under Games, tap Take control on any of your games to run it by hand. Hand back puts it back on autopilot. See Make a game.

Games made for a yard

A member’s game for a yard waits for one of the yard’s owners or admins to allow it, on the yard’s own GAMES page. An admin’s goes up at once. See Your yard’s games and ladder.

Search finds more, and shows you pictures

2026-10-03T00:00:00Z

Search used to need the exact words. Not any more.

Any of your words

A search now finds things with any of the words you typed. The ones with the most of your words come first. Small words like “the” are left out, and “dresses” finds “dress”, “selling” finds “sell”.

Pictures on the results

Every result shows what it looks like: a post’s photo, a swipey’s first card, or the first frame of a video, with a play mark.

See Search CommonYard.

Troll: a roast with rules

2026-10-03T00:00:00Z

Some posts are asking for it. Now there’s a proper way: Troll, on the post screen.

You set the rules

Who gets trolled — you, or a school, an event, a celebrity, a politician, a business, a team, a place or something else.
What’s off limits — kind choices are on from the start: no family jokes about you, nothing about a school’s people or party politics.
House rules of your own — Pidgin only, one line only, rhymes only.
The heat — 🌶️ Mild, 🌶️🌶️ Hot or 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Shito. All of them friendly.
Shots — one each, or three — and how long it’s open: an hour, a day or three days.

The crowd decides

People take their shots and laugh 😂 at the ones that land. When it closes, the shot with the most laughs is crowned. The host can stamp a favourite, clap back once at any shot, red-card one that broke the rules, or close it early.

Some rules are always on, whatever the host picks: no hate, no threats, nothing sexual, no private details, nothing made up about real people, and never children.

See Start a troll and Take a shot at a troll.

Weigh in: seven ways to ask, and you can do it anonymously

2026-10-03T00:00:00Z

Take a side on the post screen is now Weigh in, and it does more.

Seven forms

Pick what you’re posting, and the three sides people choose from are worded to fit:

Hot Take — Agree · Not sure · Disagree
Confession — Same · No judgement · Not me
Question — Yes · Maybe · No
Pick a Side — With it · On the fence · Against it
Prediction — Will happen · Not sure · Won’t happen
Story Time — Believe it · Hmm · No way
Debate — For · Undecided · Against

You can still rename the sides yourself, and now the names you give them are kept.

Anonymously

Switch on Post anonymously and the post goes out with a mask and the name Anonymous — no photo, no profile. You still see it’s yours, still hear about replies, and can still edit or delete it. It can still be reported like any other post.

See Weigh in and Post anonymously.

A calmer CommonYard

2026-10-02T00:00:00Z

CommonYard got a new look from top to bottom today. Everything works as before; it’s easier to read.

The home

Your yards float on a sky that follows the hour and the weather, with the one you’re reading biggest. Under them sit Find a yard and New yard, then what moved on your own posts, then the newest posts. When a game is live, a strip says so, with Join. See Get started.

The cards

Every kind of post has its own colour and a calmer card. Tap a poll’s choice and the result grows in front of you. A petition shows a ring for how close it is to its goal, and you sign on a SIGN HERE bar.

The post screen and the thread

The post screen matches the home. Under a post’s replies, MORE POSTS carries on with the next ones, so you can keep reading without going back.

What you made

Your studio is gone. What you made — under YOU, and behind the square button on the post screen — holds everything you’ve posted and every game you made, each with Edit and Delete. The + on every bar now opens the post screen. See What you made.

Notifications, in plain words

The notifications page and its settings were rewritten. What you hear about has one switch for each kind — replies, yards, games, points, news — and Quiet at night. See Turn on notifications.

GAMES

The games page wears the same sky, with the hall of fame’s leaders on it and the four doors underneath. See Play games on CommonYard.

Find what you hid, and change your name in one tap

2026-10-01T00:00:00Z

Two small things you asked about.

Hidden posts

Hiding a post used to be a one-way trip. Now every post you hide is kept under Settings → Help & legal → Hidden posts, newest first, with Show again beside each. The note that pops up when you hide something has a Hidden posts button too. See Find the posts you hid.

Your photo and username, where they are

On your profile, tap your picture to change it, and tap the pencil beside your @username to pick a new one. CommonYard checks the name is free as you type. And a photo you change now stays changed — signing in again no longer puts the old one back. See Change your photo and username.

Every guide now shows you the screen

2026-09-29T00:00:00Z

Reading “tap the three dots” is one thing; seeing them is better. CommonYard’s guides now show the app’s own screens beside the steps.

What’s new

Pictures in the guides — the poll card before and after you vote, the petition bar while it fills, a swipey mid-swipe, the post screen, a yard’s page and more.
Three new guides: Post to several yards at once, Play Guess the Number and Add your birthday.
Every guide checked against the app as it is today.

The people and yards in the pictures are invented. No member’s account appears in them.

Sasabonsam: hide, and hope it doesn't find you

2026-09-29T00:00:00Z

Sasabonsam followed the drums out of the forest, and it has come to CommonYard.

How it plays

Everybody hides. When a round starts, tap a place in the yard. One tap and you’re hidden — no moving after.
It searches one place a round. Anyone hiding there is taken. There are fewer places to hide every round.
The last one hiding wins. They see the sunrise.

Two kinds of night

Public survival — anyone with the link, 5 to 100 players, last one standing.
Yard vs Yard — everybody hides for their own yard, and the last yard standing wins.

A night can start when its host says, or by itself at a set time. Start one from GAMES → TEAMS, or from the +.

Sasabonsam takes the place of The Floor Is Lava. See Play Sasabonsam.

Yards get sub yards, a study shelf, and games of their own

2026-09-29T00:00:00Z

Three things for the people who live in yards.

Sub yards

A big yard can now hold smaller ones: a hall inside a university, a class inside a school, the choir inside a church. Each has its own posts, chat and admins. The yard’s owner and admins make them from Manage yard → Sub yards, and members see them near the top of the yard, with Join beside each. See Sub yards.

A study shelf for school yards

Under PRACTICE, school yards now have Study materials: slides, notes and past papers the yard’s admins upload — PDF, PowerPoint, Word, Excel or text, up to 50 MB each — and every member can download. See Share and download study materials.

A yard’s GAMES is its own

Inside a yard, GAMES now opens that yard’s own page: what it has on now and coming up, the yard’s weekly leaderboard, its challenges against other yards, and everything it has already played. Nothing from other yards leaks in. See Your yard’s games and ladder.

CommonYard now has guides and news

2026-09-24T00:00:00Z

Starting today, CommonYard has a public home on the web for two things: guides and news.

Guides

The guides are short how-tos, each one saying where to tap and what happens next. There are guides for getting started, voting, signing a petition, making a post, making and running a yard, playing games, points and streaks, and staying safe. More will come as the app grows.

News

This page is where announcements live — what is new in the app, what changed, and why. Newest first. If you use a news reader, follow the news feed.

Readable by anyone, and by AI

Everything here is plain text on plain pages, so it loads quickly on any phone and can be read by search engines and by AI assistants. If you ask an assistant how something on CommonYard works, these pages are where it can find the answer. For assistants, there is a short guide at /llms.txt and everything in one file at /llms-full.txt.

GAMES looks like a game now

2026-09-24T00:00:00Z

The GAMES door used to read like a list. Today it looks like what it is: a place to play.

What changed

A world behind it. The whole page sits on a sky by day and a starry night after dark.
Your player card up top. Your place in the hall of fame, your wins, and a jump to the rounds coming up.
Big buttons for the three parts: ROUNDS to play with others, SOLO to play alone, and TEAMS for yard and friends games.
Rounds as arcade cards you can tap straight into.
Solo games as a grid, with one featured game on top.
Halls of fame as podiums, in each game’s own colours.

Nothing about how games are played has changed — only how the door looks. New to games? Start with Play games on CommonYard.

Points now come as one summary

2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Almost everything you do on CommonYard earns points — a vote, a reply, a signature. Until today, every one of them sent you an email and a notification. On a busy evening that was a lot.

What happens now

Your points are added up quietly as you earn them.
Then they arrive as one email and one notification for everything together — at most about once a week, at six in the evening, Accra time.
If you earn only a little, the summary waits until there’s something worth telling, or three weeks, whichever comes first.
A big game win is the exception. You hear about that straight away.

Your points themselves haven’t changed — only how often we tell you about them. See Points, streaks and your figures.

Troll War: the crowd decides

2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Troll War is a battle of comebacks, and from today the crowd decides it directly.

How it works now

Reactions are the score. Every reaction on a comeback in the arena is one point for that comeback’s corner, shown as it lands.
The most reactions wins when the clock runs out. Level is a draw.
Fighters can’t cheer themselves. Players and captains can’t react in the arena. The supporters' room stays open to everyone, and it doesn’t touch the score.
Voting is gone. No more ballots or judges' panels — the room decides.

Also new: challenge anyone

When you start a Troll War with friends, you can now search for anyone by their username and challenge them. They get a notification. If they are slow to answer, tap Remind — once every half hour — and you’re told when they take their seat.

See Play Troll War.

Yards get the tools to run them

2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

A yard is only as good as the people who run it, so today they get proper tools. Everything below is in Manage yard: open your yard, tap its name at the top.

Keeping it kind

Owners, admins and mods can take down a post from the yard, and put it back if it was a mistake.

Who gets in

A yard can be open to anyone with the link, need admin approval, or take nobody new for now. When someone asks to join, admins get a notification; when they are let in, so do they.

A voice for the yard

The notice sits at the top of the yard.
Announce to the yard sends one post to every member, once a day.

Events

Admins can add an event with what, where and when. Members say they’re coming and get a reminder an hour before.

The yard itself

A picture for the yard.
Hand the yard to someone else, or archive it and bring it back later.
For a new yard’s first week, a starter card with three things to get it going.
Members can see who else is in their yard.

Finding a yard

Search now finds yards members made, not just official ones. Open yards are ordered by how lively they are, can be narrowed to School, Faith or General, and yards that need approval show Ask to join. And a yard’s link now shows a proper preview when you share it on WhatsApp and elsewhere.

Posts stay where they’re made

A post made in a yard is seen by that yard only, and the composer says so before you post.

Read Run your yard for the full how-to.

Your petition signature is now private

2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Signing a petition is a public act. Who signed it shouldn’t be.

Until today, a petition could show a wall of the people who had signed, their faces, and some of their names. From today it doesn’t.

What a petition shows now

How many people signed.
How the sides split: agree, not sure and disagree.

What it never shows

Who signed.
Which side any one person chose.

Your signature is private. The people who run CommonYard can still look at a signature when they need to act on a report — the same as anything else that gets reported.

Nothing else about signing changes: choose your side, then press and hold until the button fills. See Sign a petition.

Every poll now says when it closes

2026-09-21T00:00:00Z

Polls used to run forever. Now every poll has a closing time that its maker chooses.

Making a poll

Under When it closes, pick a day, 3 days, a week or no end. A week is picked for you.

Changing it later

Open your poll’s ⋯ menu and tap Edit post. You can close it now, or move its closing time. Changing only the words leaves the closing time alone.

What voters see

The card says when the poll closes — “closes in 3 days”, “closes in an hour”. Once it closes it takes no more votes and shows its result.

See Make a poll.

RateYourSociety now lives in CommonYard

2026-09-21T00:00:00Z

RateYourSociety (RYS) started in June 2023 as a place for Ghanaians to rate society, share opinions and take a public stand. From today, its home is CommonYard.

What this means

rateyoursociety.com opens on Ghana’s Mood, RYS’s own page, with a button into CommonYard.
Everything else moved in. RYS’s other pages now open in CommonYard, and old RYS links bring you here.
One account. If you had an RYS account, sign in to CommonYard the same way and you’re in.

RateYourSociety isn’t a new name for CommonYard. It is its own thing, and now it lives here, beside yards, games and chat.

Two games to play alone — Penalty Flick and Hot Potato

2026-09-16T00:00:00Z

Two games you can play on your own, any time, from GAMES → SOLO.

Penalty Flick

Swipe to flick the ball past a keeper who walks from post to post — slowly at first, then faster and faster. A save or a shot wide costs a life, and you have three. Pick the country you play for from about seventy, Ghana first. Your best score goes into the Penalty Flick hall of fame.

Hot Potato

Pass the potato around a ring of game characters before it burns you. Every round it gets hotter and the time you can hold it gets shorter. Your best run goes into the Hot Potato hall of fame.

See Play games on CommonYard.