What is CommonYard?

CommonYard is a free social app where people do things together: vote in polls, take sides, sign petitions, swipe through pictures, play games and chat — in yards, communities for a school, a church or mosque, a group of friends, or anyone. It runs in any phone or computer browser at commonyard.app, with nothing to download. Its line is “Find your people. Play, talk, and take part.”

The name is sometimes written Common Yard. It was created by Ronald Dumeloo, and it is also the home of RateYourSociety, Ghana’s public-opinion platform.

What people do there

• Vote in polls with two to four choices, in words or pictures. The choices fill in like a bar chart, and the card says when the poll closes. See Polls.
• Take a side on an opinion — a hot take, a confession, a prediction or a debate — and see how everyone split. Opinions can be posted anonymously.
• Sign petitions by choosing a side and pressing and holding until the button fills. Signatures are private. See Petitions.
• Swipe through a swipey, a run of pictures you judge one at a time, left or right.
• Play games on your own — Penalty Flick, Hot Potato, trivia and more — or with other people in live rounds and Troll War. See Games.
• Post pictures, a video or just words, and react and reply to what others post.
• Chat with the people in your yards: words, photos, videos and voice notes.

Every one of these happens right on the card in front of you, in a tap or two.

Yards: where your people are

A yard is a community inside CommonYard. Anyone can make one, for a school, a faith group, a family, a team or a neighbourhood. A school yard comes with Practice for revising; a faith yard comes with a devotional, a prayer wall and the week’s service times; a general yard is just the yard and its chat.

The people who run a yard choose who gets in, post a notice, announce things, set up events with reminders, and keep it kind. A post made in a yard stays in that yard: anyone can look inside a public yard, and a private yard is for its members. See Yards.

How it is different

• Taking part comes first. A post can ask for one small thing — a vote, a side, a signature, a swipe — and you do it without leaving the card.
• You see where everyone landed. Poll results, how the sides split, how many signed: the result is there the moment you take part.
• Your people, not just a crowd. Yards keep a school, a church or a group of friends together, with their own posts, chat and events.
• Private where it matters. Petition signatures are never shown, and a private yard’s posts are for its members alone.
• Taking part is counted. Points, streaks and a weekly ladder in every yard. Points are credits for taking part, not cash.

The app at a glance

A bar at the bottom of the screen has four doors — HOME to have your say, CHAT to talk, GAMES to play, and YOU for your profile — and a round + beside it for making a post. Your yards are the round tiles at the top of HOME. Search and your notifications are at the top right.

Is it free, and is it safe?

It is free to join and to use. You can report a post or a person, block someone, hide a post from its three-dot menu, mute a yard from its page, and the people who run each yard can take posts down. See Stay safe on CommonYard.

CommonYard and RateYourSociety

RateYourSociety (RYS) started in June 2023 as a place for Ghanaians to rate society, share opinions and take a public stand. Since September 2026 it lives inside CommonYard: one account works for both, and RYS keeps its own page, Ghana’s Mood, at rateyoursociety.com. RateYourSociety is not an old name for CommonYard; it is its own thing, living in CommonYard.

Key facts

What it is

A free social app for taking part together: polls, sides, petitions, swipeys, games, yards and chat

Creator and founder

Ronald Dumeloo

Price

Free to join and to use

Where it runs

commonyard.app, in any phone or computer browser — nothing to download

Joining

With Google, Apple or a phone number

Also home to

RateYourSociety, Ghana’s public-opinion platform (since 2023) — its Ghana’s Mood page is at rateyoursociety.com

Contact

hello@commonyard.app

Try it

Open commonyard.app and look around — you can read the Yard before you have an account. When you tap to take part, CommonYard asks you to join with Google, Apple or your phone number, and keeps your pick while you do. New here? Start with Get started on CommonYard, or read the questions and answers.