Desk Lamps

Desk Lamps are close writing friends you add on the Community. When one of them starts a session in Radial Timeline and chooses to share it with you, their lamp comes on in your title bar: you can see who is at their desk, the kind of writing, and for how long. It's the feeling of two friends writing in the same room, without anyone having to post anything.

It's deliberately small. Both of you agree before anything is visible, every session is shared by choice, and nothing about a lamp is kept after the session ends.

Add a Desk Lamp

Desk Lamps are managed on the Community website.

1. Open a writer's page on the Community and click the lamp icon to the right of Follow (its tooltip reads Add to Desk Lamps; each state's tooltip says what a click does). They receive an invite.
2. The invite counts in their Mailbox, in the plugin and on the website, under Desk Lamp invites. They accept it under My Share → Desk Lamps or on your page. Before accepting, they see exactly what a Desk Lamp can see.
3. Once accepted, the relationship works both ways, and each of you still decides per session whether to share.

My Share → Desk Lamps lists invites you've received, your Desk Lamps, and invites you've sent. While an invite waits for you, the section's border glows gold, and Desk Lamp invites in the Mailbox opens straight to it. Removing a Desk Lamp with the lamp icon on their page asks you to confirm first. Declining, withdrawing, and removing are silent: nobody is notified.

The lamp in your title bar

On a vault connected to the Community, a ceiling-lamp icon sits right of the Mailbox in the Radial Timeline title bar once you have at least one Desk Lamp or an invite waiting. Its number counts the friends at their desks right now. A friend lighting a lamp changes the count and nothing else: no notice, no sound.

Click the lamp to see the list. Each row shows a friend's name, their city from their Community profile (if they've set one), the kind of writing (drafting, revising, editing, or planning), and how long they've been at it, or on a break. The freshest change is on top, so someone who just started rises to the top. When a friend turns their lamp off, a short-lived row says so, such as "lamp off after 2 h 10 min", and disappears after half an hour. Below the friends, the menu shows whether your own lamp is on, any invites waiting for you (such as "1 Desk Lamp invite waiting"), and Manage Desk Lamps…. Both open My Share's Desk Lamps section.

Looking at the list never lights your own lamp.

Light your lamp for a session

1. Open the session panel and press Begin Session. Under Desk Lamps, tick the friends who should see this session, or tick All. Radial Timeline remembers your choice for the next session.
2. While you write, the panel shows who your lamp is lit for, such as "Lamp lit for Maya and Priya". It reads "Lighting lamp for…" until the Community confirms, and "Lamp not lit" with the reason if it can't be lit. Change the list or turn the lamp off from there at any time.
3. Pause shows your friends on a break. Saving or discarding the session turns the lamp off.

Your lamp follows the session, not your keystrokes: switching to an outline or research note doesn't turn it off.

What your friends see

• Your name and your city, from your Community profile.
• The kind of writing: drafting, revising, editing, or planning.
• How long your lamp has been on, in five-minute steps, or on a break.

They never see your book, scene names, words, goals, notes, or exact times. Only the friends you tick for that session see your lamp: not your followers, and not the public. The server keeps one live row while your lamp is on and deletes it when the lamp goes off, so there is no history of past sessions.

Desk Lamps and your sharing level

Desk Lamps is separate from your sharing level. It works at every level, Private included, as long as the vault is connected. Pausing Community sharing turns your lamp off; you still see your friends' lamps. Disconnecting the vault turns your lamp off. Blocking someone removes them from your Desk Lamps, and deleting your account removes all of them.

To hide the lamp and keep yours off, turn off Show Desk Lamps in Settings → Advanced.