Chorus

Records who is expected to record. A person with an email address can be emailed the invitation and the reminders; a person with only a name is reached in a group chat, and the reminder message names them. Adding a person sends nothing.

Sets the order the people print in, takes a person’s pages out or puts them back, and changes the book’s title and its cover: a photo or one of six colours on the front, the line under the title, and what the back carries. It moves pages and changes no word on them, and a person’s own pages stay together. Returns the people in their new order, the cover as it stands, anything refused with its reason, and a picture of the opening page. A book that has gone to the printer stays as it is.

Returns who is in with their name and relationship, how many voices, videos and written messages have come in, how many carried a photo, who the organiser is still waiting on, the days left before collecting stops, and next: the day to chase the ones still out and the day to close the book.

Changes the settings the organiser can change on the site: the day collecting stops, the questions people answer, whether they may send voice, video or writing, which one the button offers first, and whether the people recording are offered to chip in towards the printed book. Nobody is told about a change.

Works out who is still out, emails a reminder to the ones with an address, and hands back a message naming them, ready for the group chat and ready for one person. A person gets at most one reminder a day and three in all, and never one after they have said stop.

Stops new messages arriving and returns the final counts with the gift link. Nothing is deleted and nothing is finished; it can be reopened.

Given the email address a book belongs to, Chorus emails that address a six digit code and returns nothing about the books. Given the address and the code, it returns every book on that account with its handle. Holding the mailbox is the proof, so a book cannot be found by guessing an address.

Returns the link to forward to contributors, the link that plays every message straight through, and a short message the organiser can paste alongside.

Reads the book’s style file: every part of a person’s page, with its size, place, typeface, colour and alignment, what each part means, the limits the print rules keep, and the people who have pages.

Returns a payment link for one of the three ways to keep the book: voices, book, or keepsake, which is the printed hardcover. The price is on Stripe’s page, which takes the card and, on the keepsake, the postal address. This tool never takes a card and never names a price.

Returns whether the book has been paid for and which option was bought, and on a printed one the stage the printer is at with the tracking.

Returns pictures of the spreads the book prints, laid out by the same code that makes the printer’s file: a page by its number, a person’s first page, or the first message when neither is given.

Returns every message with who left it and what they said. A written message reads back whatever was paid; a voice or a video is written out on the tier that includes the words, and where it is not, the tool says so rather than half-answering.

Reopens a book that was closed or whose date ran out, and returns the collecting link to send round again.

Sends a short note to the people who make Chorus about a tool that failed or returned something unexpected, a request no tool covers, or a description that was unclear. Email addresses and phone numbers are taken out before the note is kept. It changes nothing on any book and emails nobody.

Emails the invitation once to every person added with an address, and returns a tap that opens WhatsApp, a text or a mail draft with the message and the link already written, for the family group and for anyone with no address. Nobody gets the invitation twice, and each caller has a daily limit on emails.

Changes any line of the book’s style file, for every page or for one person, and returns what was set, what a print rule changed with its reason, what was refused with its reason, and pictures of the pages as they now print. A path is a part and a property, such as codes.size_mm, codes.align, words.size_pt, heading.italic, photo.grayscale, ink or margins_mm.top. A smaller code on the right, for the voice note only, is [{path:"codes.size_mm",value:15},{path:"codes.align",value:"right"},{path:"codes.which",value:"voice"}]. Green ink on Niamh’s pages only is [{path:"ink",value:"#1F4D2B",person:"Niamh"}]. reset: true takes every change off and goes back to the standard page.

Starts a book of voice, video and written messages and returns its handle and the single link the organiser sends to everyone taking part. The book is for one person or a couple, or it goes by a title when it is for nobody in particular: a family’s recipes, a class’s year, a team’s goodbye. Gathering is free, and the people recording need no app and no account. It needs organiser_email, the address Chorus lets the organiser know about responses at, unless they are signed in through the connector. The book is made at once and the link comes back. Chorus emails the link to that address and emails it each time somebody responds, and the book moves into their account when they sign in with it or open keep_link.

Returns the second link, which puts questions to the person the book is for about their own life. It refuses on a memorial, a new baby and an as they grow book, where the person cannot answer. The link is for that one person, and a group chat gets the collecting link.