Needed Fri 2 Oct · 8:00 pm
A horn sub for Friday
Horns and Strings · Ferry Room Players
Open until Fri 2 Oct, 8:00 pm
Kofi said yes
Bellows · ask your people for a hand, or offer one
Say what you need. The hands go up.
A sub for Friday, a ride to the clinic, a generator in a storm, an electrician somebody has seen work, a mentor who went first. Bellows reads the Pools you and your neighbors already keep, finds the people who said they can help, and asks them by their own rules.
Free for people. Nobody pays to ask, to be asked or to be introduced, and nobody can pay to put an ask on top.
Needed Mon 28 Sep · 2:00 pm
A generator, today
Lend and Borrow · Foul Weather Friends
Open until today, 2:00 pm
Waiting on June and Wes · by hand
Needed Mon 12 Oct · 8:00 am
A vouched electrician
Seen Work Curators
Open until Mon 12 Oct, 8:00 am
With Delphine, the curator
What it is
An app for asking and offering, with nobody in the middle
Ask
Say what you need, by when and where, and which Pools to ask in. Bellows shows who in those Pools said they can help, from their own tags and words, and why each person is shown. Then one breath: the ask goes to all of them at once.
Offer
What you can give lives on your own page, in the Pools you said yes to. Bellows shows which of those Pools ask for it, and which others do, so you can say yes to them on their own sites.
Asks to you
An ask reaches you only through a Pool you said yes to, and only if your rules let it. Yes and Not this time are the same size. A no costs nothing, and nobody asks why.
How an ask travels
By each person’s own rules, every time
You say what, when and where
“A horn sub for Friday.” Bellows reads the Pools you are in or keep, and the public Pools for asks, and finds the people whose own words fit. It never reads an invite-only Pool, and reads an unlisted one only for its members §3.2.
A standing yes answers at once
Some people keep an auto-accept rule. Mae Castellano keeps one for drum subs. When an ask fits it, the rule says yes in the same minute and Bellows tells Mae every time. She can undo it §5.5.
A window that ends on a day and an hour
An ask stays open until you need it, or until its Pool’s own window ends. Friday Subs closes asks after 48 hours, because a gig does not wait §5.2. After that it lapses, and nothing else happens.
Some asks go to a curator
A referral goes to Seen Work’s curators, who ask the people they have seen work, one at a time. A mentor ask goes to Midspan’s coordinator, never to a student. A meal goes to Hester, with the household’s yes. Bellows shows these as asks to the Pool’s keeper, and says why.
Who said they can help
The same ask, three people, three answers
Kofi MensahSigned in with OAuthThrough Horns and StringsSays: horns, session. “Trumpet and flugelhorn. Reads charts, writes horn lines, shows up early.”Reaches Kofi by hand
Kofi MensahSigned in with OAuthSession PlayersIn Session Players, Kofi takes messages only from people who are in the Pool too. Lena is not, so that way is held.Held by his rules there
Mae CastellanoSigned in with OAuthFriday SubsFor a drum sub: her own rule says yes to drums + sub from curators signed in with OAuth, in public Pools, and always tells her.Would say yes at once · her rule
Why it opened full
A new app with people in it on the first day
A closed app starts empty, and asking for help in an empty room is pointless. Bellows started with everyone already in the library’s Pools: 16 public Pools and 1 that it reads only for their own members, kept by 9 sites. It hosts no Pools and owns no list. Every one of those people said yes to their Pool on its own site, and each still decides who may write to them §3.5 §5.1.
That is also why leaving costs nothing. Your page stays where you keep it, your Pools stay yours, and your conversations were email all along §6.1.
People are drawn, not photographed. Every person in this example is invented, and their portraits are illustrations described on their own pages. Bellows never copies anyone’s photos §2.5.
Who runs it
A small company in Port Ellery
Bellows is run by a small team in Port Ellery. It keeps your asks and offers until you close them or leave, and nothing about you beyond what your own page says. It hosts no Pools, so its well-known file lists none §10. Write to hello@bellows.example.
Money
Free for people. Organizations may pay for scheduling tools.
Asking, being asked, offering and being introduced are free, for everyone, always. Nothing is charged at the connection layer §1.3.
Organizations that run many Pools, such as a venue with a standing sub list or a union hall with a referral circle, may pay for scheduling tools: shift calendars, repeating asks, and a shared view for their keepers. Those tools help a keeper organize their own Pools. They never put an ask on top, never reach anyone whose rules say no, and never show a payer first.
There are no paid boosts, no “urgent” upsell, no priority for payers, no blurred answers and no limits we do not publish.
What it reads
Every Pool in the library, and what Bellows does with it
Built from the library’s own files. Bellows reads a Pool a site names for it, the Pools its brief names, and any other public Pool whose tags are for asks and offers. New sites’ Pools appear here on their own.
| Site | Pool | Visibility | Bellows | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Many Moons | Many Moons: Harbor Counties | public | Not read | A dating Pool. Apps with a dating mode may read it; Bellows is for asks and offers, and does not. |
| Many Moons | Solo Poly Supper Club | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: non-monogamy, solo-poly, friendship. |
| Many Moons | The Orchard Street Household | unlisted | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: household, non-monogamy. |
| Hearthhold | Platonic Life Partners | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: platonic-partnership, chosen-family. |
| Hearthhold | Intentional Co-Parents | unlisted | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: co-parenting, chosen-family. |
| Hearthhold | Later-Life Housemates | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: housemates, later-life, friendship. |
| Late Supper | Late Supper Matchmakers | public | Not read | A dating Pool. Apps with a dating mode may read it; Bellows is for asks and offers, and does not. |
| Late Supper | The Tuesday Table | unlisted | Not read | A dating Pool. Apps with a dating mode may read it; Bellows is for asks and offers, and does not. |
| Late Supper | Second Chapters | unlisted | Not read | A dating Pool. Apps with a dating mode may read it; Bellows is for asks and offers, and does not. |
| Scattered Light | Scattered Light Stewards | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: peer-support, stewarding. |
| Scattered Light | The Heron | invite-only | Never | Invite-only. It has its own home, and no app reads it. |
| Foul Weather Friends | Lend and Borrow | public | Reads | Foul Weather Friends names it for Bellows. |
| Foul Weather Friends | Rides to Appointments | public | Reads | Foul Weather Friends names it for Bellows. |
| Foul Weather Friends | The Check-In Circle | unlisted | Never | Foul Weather Friends names it for no app. Its address travels by hand, it is never copied or printed, and who checks on whom is written nowhere else. |
| Foul Weather Friends | Meals When It’s Hard | public | Reads | Foul Weather Friends names it for Bellows. Foul Weather Friends names it for Familiar Faces. Bellows reads it only to reach Hester, who keeps it, because the people who need meals are never listed. |
| Midspan | Midspan Mentors | public | Reads | Mentors are public so people can see who is out there. Asks go to a coordinator, never to a mentor directly, and never to a student. |
| Midspan | Midspan Students | invite-only | Never | Invite-only, and only Midspan’s two coordinators read it. A mentor never writes to a student; a coordinator asks the student first. |
| Seen Work | Seen Work: Harbor Trades | unlisted | Only for members | The trades circle itself. Unlisted, so Bellows reads it only for its own members, and asks still go through a curator. |
| Seen Work | Seen Work Curators | public | Reads | Public on purpose, so any contractor or homeowner can find a curator to ask for a referral. |
| The Board at Port Ellery Free Library | Tuesday Morning Walkers | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: walking, friendship. |
| The Board at Port Ellery Free Library | Seed and Cutting Swap | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: gardening, friendship. |
| The Board at Port Ellery Free Library | Conversation Partners, Any Language | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: conversation, language-exchange, friendship. |
| The Board at Port Ellery Free Library | Carpool to the Coast | public | Reads | Shared rides to the coast towns. People with seats say yes. |
| The Board at Port Ellery Free Library | Chess After Close | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: chess, friendship. |
| The Board at Port Ellery Free Library | New in Town | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: new-in-town, friendship. |
| The Board at Port Ellery Free Library | Fix-It Friday Volunteers | public | Reads | Volunteers who fix things in the library basement on the first Friday of the month. |
| Ferry Room Players | Friday Subs | public | Reads | Players who fill in on short notice. Its keepers say yes ahead of time with auto-accept rules, or answer each ask as it comes. |
| Ferry Room Players | Start a Band: Port Ellery | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: band, music, friendship. |
| Ferry Room Players | Horns and Strings for Records | public | Reads | Horn and string players for records and shows. The Pool only makes the introduction. |
| Ferry Room Players | Songwriters’ Demo Swap | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: songwriting, demos, music. |
| Ferry Room Players | Door and Sound Crew | public | Reads | Volunteers for the door, the merch table and the monitor mix, in exchange for the show. |
| Correo Lento | Español ↔ English | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: language-exchange, spanish, english, letters. |
| Correo Lento | Português ↔ English | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: language-exchange, portuguese, english, letters. |
| Correo Lento | Français ↔ English | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: language-exchange, french, english, letters. |
| Correo Lento | Tagalog ↔ English | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: language-exchange, tagalog, english, letters. |
| The Circular | Circular Correspondents | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: writing, editing, volunteering. |
| Drip Line | Belay Partners | public | Reads | Drip Line names it for Bellows. |
| Drip Line | Tuesday Regulars | public | Not read | Drip Line names it for Familiar Faces. |
| Drip Line | The Saturday Run | public | Reads | Drip Line names it for Bellows. |
| Drip Line | New to Climbing | public | Not read | Drip Line names it for Familiar Faces. |
| Drip Line | Thursday Night: Women and Nonbinary Climbers | unlisted | Never | Drip Line names it for no app. |
| Ada Quillon | Ada Quillon’s Listeners | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: music, listening, friendship, songwriting. |
| Ada Quillon | Release Night: Kitchen Light at the Ferry Room, Friday 16 October | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: music, show, kitchen-light. |
| Ada Quillon | House Show in Tacoma, Saturday 17 October | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: music, show, house-show, kitchen-light. |
| Ada Quillon | Portland, Friday 23 October | public | Not read | Not for asks and offers. Its tags: music, show, kitchen-light. |
| Rain Check | Rain Check: Everyone | public | Not read | Rain Check names it for Familiar Faces. |
| Rain Check | Port Ellery Thursdays | public | Not read | Rain Check names it for Familiar Faces. |
| Rain Check | Olympia Thursdays | public | Not read | Rain Check names it for Familiar Faces. |
| Rain Check | Tacoma Thursdays | public | Not read | Rain Check names it for Familiar Faces. |
| Rain Check | Portland Thursdays | public | Not read | Rain Check names it for Familiar Faces. |
| Rain Check | Big Game Day | public | Reads | Rain Check names it for Bellows. |
| Slack Water | Slack Water 2026 | public | Not read | Slack Water names it for Familiar Faces. |
| Slack Water | Slack Water 2025 | public | Not read | Slack Water names its Pools for apps, and not this one for Bellows. |
| Slack Water | Session Players | public | Reads | Slack Water names it for Bellows. |
| Slack Water | Crew and Volunteers | public | Not read | Slack Water names it for Familiar Faces. |
| Slack Water | Rides Home | public | Reads | Slack Water names it for Bellows. |
| Wren’s List | Date-Me Docs: Cascadia | public | Not read | A dating Pool. Apps with a dating mode may read it; Bellows is for asks and offers, and does not. |
| Second Tide Books | The Singles Shelf | public | Not read | A dating Pool. Apps with a dating mode may read it; Bellows is for asks and offers, and does not. |
| Queer Harbor | Queer Harbor: Dating | unlisted | Not read | A dating Pool. Apps with a dating mode may read it; Bellows is for asks and offers, and does not. |
| Cape Tarrow Alumni | Cape Tarrow First-Gen Alumni | public | Reads | Public on purpose, so any college or program can show students who is out there. Each person decides who may write to them. |
What Bellows will never do
Things this app does not do, to anyone
- Sell a place at the top. Nobody can pay to put an ask first, and there is no urgent button.
- Send an ask that someone’s rules hold. It says why instead, and does not tell them you tried.
- Read an invite-only Pool, the Check-In Circle, or Midspan Students, for anyone.
- Read an unlisted Pool for someone who is not in it.
- Write to a student about mentoring. Midspan’s coordinator asks the student first.
- Say yes for anyone without telling them. A standing yes always sends its owner a notice, and they can undo it.
- Count down, streak or nag. Windows end on a day and an hour, written in words.
- Copy a photo, sell data, or keep anything about you after you leave.
How to leave
One action, from the You screen
Press Leave Bellows. Bellows deletes your asks, drafts and saved offers, and tells anyone still waiting on an open ask that it is no longer needed. What stays with you: your page, every Pool you are in or keep, and your conversations, which were email all along §5.3 §6.1.