Creator Guide
Everything you need to launch and grow a community on Circus.
Circus is built around the relationship between a creator and the people who care about what they do. This guide walks you from “I think I want to start a community” to running one that members keep coming back to. It’s opinionated where it should be and quiet where you should make your own call.
Circus isn’t in the App Store or Play Store yet. Some features described here — particularly the Creator Fund — are still in development. We’ll mark anything that’s not yet live so you know what’s there now and what’s coming.
Before you start
You don’t need a following or a production setup to start a community on Circus — but a few things help.
- You’re 16 or older. The minimum age to use Circus is 16. To access Creator Fund earnings and monetization features, you must be 18.
- You have something to gather people around. A craft, a question, an obsession, a project. It doesn’t have to be a “niche” — just real.
- You have an email and a phone you can verify. Both are used for account security and (later) payouts.
- You’re prepared to show up regularly. Communities die from silence, not from a lack of polish. Decide your minimum cadence before you launch.
Who, specifically, is this for? Not “people interested in X” — who is the first real human who will love this? Build for them. The audience will widen.
Setting up your community
Your community is your own space inside Circus. Members join it directly; there’s no algorithm deciding who sees what. That changes how you set it up.
Community name
Pick something searchable and recognizable. If you already have an audience elsewhere, use the same name so they can find you. Avoid names that won’t age — communities have long shelf lives.
Community ticker
Up to 8 characters. Your ticker is your community’s short identifier — it appears alongside posts in the feed. All caps, no spaces. Pick something obvious: BAKING, FFILM, GOLF24. You can’t change it later, so choose carefully.
Community bio
Up to 100 characters. One sentence that answers: what is this and who is it for? Make a stranger able to decide in three seconds whether to join. Every character counts.
Community image
One identifiable image — you, your work, or your mark. Square crop, at least 400×400px. Plain, high-contrast images outperform busy ones at small sizes. Avoid AI-generated stock.
Community colors
Choose a primary and secondary color. These tint your community’s header, cards, and accents. Colors signal identity — pick shades that connect to your subject matter or existing brand.
Entry option
How members get in:
- Open — anyone can join without approval.
- With code — members need a code you share. Good for private or invite-only communities.
- With email verify — members confirm with a specific email domain or address. Good for organizations, workplaces, or alumni groups.
You can change this at any time from your community settings.
This is what your community looks like when members share it — the card that appears when your link is pasted into a message, social post, or email. Your name, ticker, and colors all show here.
Your first 30 days
The first month is when norms get set. Members learn what kind of place this is from the first ten posts they see, not from your rules document.
Post the welcome. Then post twice more that week. Reply to every comment, even the short ones. The goal is to make the place feel inhabited.
Tell your existing audience exactly once, in a way that says why this place is different from your other channels. Don’t beg. Don’t cross-post the same content.
Run one poll or ask one open question that invites a specific kind of reply. Give members something to participate in beyond reading.
Look at analytics: which posts brought new members, which sparked replies, which fell flat. Adjust. Don’t change everything.
A few dozen members who’ve each posted at least once. A handful of replies on every post you make. One member who’s started replying to other members without you having to. That’s the seed of a community.
The tools — at a glance
You don’t have to use all of these. Most communities run well on posts and replies alone.
- Posts & polls — text, images, links, polls. The bread and butter. Posts reach every member, not a slice.
- Analytics — what’s landing, what’s not, where members dropped off. Honest, not gameable.
- Moderation — invite mods, set role permissions, manage the queue. More on this in section 6.
The full feature run-down lives on the Creators page. A few formats in action:
Monetization
Circus supports creator income through the Creator Fund — a payment program that pays creators based on member engagement and contribution. The Fund is in development and will roll out after launch.
What we can tell you now:
- The Fund is the primary way Circus shares revenue with creators. It’s a real revenue mechanism, not an optional donations layer.
- Eligibility starts at 18. Account verification and a registered payout method are required.
- Final terms — including the share you receive — will be published before the Fund opens. We’re not putting a percentage on the page until it’s fixed.
The creators who do best when monetization opens are the ones who’ve already built a community that members would pay for. Build the community first. The economics come second.
Moderation & safety
Circus handles the heavy lifting of moderation so you can focus on your community. Our system screens content automatically and our trust and safety team reviews reports — keeping your community compliant without it becoming your full-time job.
As a creator, you have direct controls too:
- Ban or remove members. Remove anyone from your community at any time, with or without a reason.
- Mute and warn. Temporary limits for members who push the line but aren’t worth banning yet.
For anything serious — harassment, illegal content, doxxing — escalate immediately using the report flow. The Safety hub explains what happens next and what we’ll do.
Getting help
The pre-launch period is the noisy part. We’re around.
- Support — for account, app, or billing issues
- FAQ & Support — common questions, fastest answers
- Contact — direct routes to specific teams (creators, press, advertisers, safety)
- creators@circus.app — anything creator-specific. We read everything.