Our feed and map allows you to view locally relevant content in a single location. We encourage all users to create, share, comment, upvote, or downvote posts to get the most out of the Howl experience.
ℹ️ Make sure you share your📍current location with Howl in order to get the best user experience on our feed and map!
What type of content does the Feed and Map contain?
The Feed and Map are made up of posts from regular users and featured users (businesses, bloggers, influencers, etc.).
How does the feed work?
There are many factors that determine which posts are displayed on the Feed. The primary factor is your location:
- If you have allowed Howl to use your current location, posts will be displayed based on your current location.
- If you have not allowed Howl to use your current location, posts will be displayed based on your verified home address (or provided town for unverified users).
Here are some additional factors that determine what posts are displayed to you on the feed:
- Posts with the most recent creation date are displayed first in the feed, with older posts displaying as you scroll down.
- Posts that are nearest to your current location / verified home address
- If you are in a new town or joined without many town or street members, we got you covered! We setup the feed to expand in increments of 5 miles so that we can always find you posts, they may just be a little be further away in distance. The farthest we will show you is 20 miles away from you, to ensure posts are locally relevant.
- Posts with upvotes will be prioritized higher in your feed for a longer period of time, this means the community and those nearby have found the post locally relevant.
- Posts that only have downvotes or have more downvotes than upvotes will be displayed towards the bottom of the feed. Eventually, downvoted posts may be removed from the feed earlier than 7 days. Downvoting is one way that Howl users help to moderate the feed, keeping all valuable and locally relevant content at the top of the feed.
ℹ️ Posts are removed from the feed after 7 days.
What happens after I create a post and publish it to the feed?
- Your post will display to Howl users based on the selected post location. When the post's location is 5-20 miles away from a user's verified home address, they will view it on their feed.
- You can quickly find all your posts by selecting the Profile option and navigating to My Posts.
- You can edit or remove your post at any time, and respond to user's comments.
- You will receive notifications for users engaging with your post, whether by comments, or upvotes and downvotes.
- The location of your post will be pinned to the Howl map, where you can view it and take action.
- All posts follows the rules as outlined in the section about "How does the feed work?"
Why is my feed empty?
Behind the scenes, we have already checked within 20 miles of your current location or verified address if there are locally relevant posts. If your feed is empty, then there are not enough members of your town surrounding towns. Start growing your town by inviting friends and neighbors. Check out how to refer here in our Referrals knowledge base.
Why is a star displayed on posts?
The star represents a Featured User in the product, who is a local publication, business influencer, blogger, and so much more that creates and shares locally relevant content. Right now, you reach out to support@howl.com, if you'd like to become a Featured User.
What are the different categories for?
Our Nearby, News, and Events categories are the primary areas that you will see locally relevant posts. The Nearby category displays posts from all categories. We are working hard behind the scenes to determine what categories would be useful to Howl users! You can submit feedback to support@howl.com to tell us what would be useful or valuable to you. Our business and causes categories are still in the works and subject to change!
What does Howl News mean?
Our goal is to provide you with the best locally relevant information and news in a single location. When you view a post from Howl News, this means it has come from a reputable news source or publication and was posted nearby your current location or verified home address. Posts from Howl News are locally relevant pieces of news, business, or local information.