Guilds, calendar, and inbox: decisions that stay binding¶
Technical version: Guilds, Calendar and Inbox — binding design decisions
Date: 2026-08-05. Epics: Guilds (WING-335), Calendar & application tracking (WING-357), Inbox response detection (WING-364).
This is the human version of why certain product constraints exist. Unverified research leftovers in the technical doc are not decisions.
Events and communities without sketchy APIs¶
Major event platforms either retired public search, need paid organizer access, or ban commercial use of free tiers. WorkWingman’s base layer is therefore:
- a curated catalog (content)
- real ICS/RSS feeds and open conference data where available
- deep links into Slack/Discord/subreddits with zero API calls when needed
Meetup is deep-link only with a visible “needs login / unsupported” state — not a silently empty list. Virtual coverage must come from sources that publish real feeds (professional associations, workforce boards, universities, and similar), not from Meetup as a hidden dependency.
Occupations use a SOC / O*NET spine so nursing and trades are not forced into a tech-only conference taxonomy. Prefer curating feeds over one-off events that die in six weeks.
Affinity and protected characteristics¶
Affinity personalization ships in v1 only with hard prerequisites Andrew required: separate encrypted affinity store, export stripping so a guild cannot out someone on a résumé, consent, and additive-only behavior (affinity may add suggestions, never filter people out of the rest of discovery).
Recommendations cite the catalog tags you opted into, never “people like you” framing. Membership is not consent to be profiled. Shared-device risk is warned; optional lock is available; affinity stays hidden by default with a fast hide path.
Virtual events are first-class¶
Distance may rank. It must never filter out every online event just because you set a city. Online is included by default; exclusion is an opt-out. Missing map coordinates are not treated as “far away.”
Every catalog entry still needs a career or professional-development reason to exist — community chat graphs are out of mission.