Public Voting
Public Voting gives visitors the enabled Add, Remove, and Random buttons that affect a lock. Visitors can use a direct voting link, and eligible sessions can also appear on the public voting page.
The wearer and keyholder keep their existing roles. A voting link does not transfer ownership; see Invite a Keyholder for that. For configurable bundles of other actions, see Control Passes & Shared Control Links.
Configure Public Voting
Open Public Voting Settings from lock setup or the active lock's module settings when your role allows configuration.
During an active self-lock, the wearer can edit these settings. In a shared lock, editing requires the current trusted keyholder. The wearer's listing and automatic-shock consent controls remain separate from permission to edit the module.
- Use Enable "Add Time" vote option and Enable "Remove Time" vote option to choose which fixed-time buttons are available, then set their amounts. Both remain enabled by default.
- If using Random, set its minimum time removal and maximum time addition. Each random vote can produce a different result.
- Set Vote Cooldown and whether to Require Chastify account.
- Review Require votes to unlock, optional Close voting after enough votes, and any shock settings before enabling them.
- Choose Save Settings, then check the saved configuration and copy its Share Link. Use Generate Share Link if a link is not yet available for the active session.
First-time setup enables voting when saved. Merely changing fields in the setup dialog does not save them. The wearer's separate Your voting settings controls save immediately, as described below.
Add, Remove, and Random can be enabled independently, including a Random-only configuration. At least one option must remain enabled; to stop all voting, pause Public Voting instead. Turning an option off hides its amount controls but retains the configured values for re-enabling. Disabled choices are hidden on the voting link and public list, skipped by automatic voting, and rejected by the API. Existing defaults and permission rules are unchanged.
The editor permits 1 minute–24 hours for a fixed addition or removal. Random can range from no removal up to 24 hours removed, and from no addition up to 48 hours added. Vote cooldowns range from 1 hour to 7 days. Review the actual saved amounts rather than assuming every lock uses the defaults.
Share a Link or List the Session
Copy the voting link from Share Link or the lock's Public voting summary, then send it to the intended audience. Opening the link displays the voting page; pressing a vote button submits a real action.
Show on public voting page controls whether visitors can discover the session without receiving its direct link. The wearer can change this under Your voting settings in the lock's voting summary or settings.
Anyone who already has the direct link can continue using it while voting remains available. Requiring a Chastify account restricts voting to signed-in users, but does not restrict the link to named recipients or make its page private. Review the public information before sharing.
The public list also applies eligibility filters, including recent wearer activity. A session can disappear from the list while its direct link still works. A missing listing alone does not mean voting has been disabled.
Who Can Vote and How Often
| Setting or visitor | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Require Chastify account enabled | Visitors must sign in before submitting a vote. They can still open the shared page without signing in. |
| Account requirement disabled | Anonymous visitors can vote, subject to the link's availability, cooldown, and request limits. |
| Signed-in voter | Cooldown is tracked by account for this voting link. |
| Anonymous voter | Cooldown is tracked by IP address for this voting link. People sharing a network can therefore share an anonymous cooldown. |
| Wearer or keyholder | These roles are not automatically excluded from voting. The same applicable vote checks still apply. |
The page shows You can vote again in… when a cooldown is active. Changing the button from Add to Remove or Random does not give a separate allowance: they share the voter's cooldown for that link.
The required-vote count measures accepted votes, not unique people. Another vote after the cooldown can count again. A recorded vote is not an ongoing permission to send other commands or edit the lock.
What a Vote Changes
For a timer lock, an accepted vote adds or removes time according to its button or random result. Existing maximum-duration and lock-state rules still apply. A frozen countdown does not make the session immune to time changes; an adjustment can affect the time remaining when it resumes.
For a card-game lock, time adjustments use the lock's time-to-card conversion. Smaller adjustments can accumulate until they make a complete red-card change. A vote therefore does not necessarily add or remove a whole card immediately, and it does not directly award a green card. Removing time cannot remove red cards that are not there; unused removal credit is discarded once no red cards remain.
Removing time does not itself reveal a combination or physically unlock a device. Ordinary release can still depend on minimum duration, task points, required votes, and other conditions. See Unlock Your Lock.
Required Votes and Automatic Closing
These settings have different purposes:
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Require votes to unlock | Adds a vote-count condition to ordinary timer-based release. Reaching the target does not remove the remaining time or satisfy other release conditions. |
| Close voting after enough votes | Stops accepting further votes when its count is reached and removes the public listing. It does not itself end the lock. |
Vote-count settings allow 1–10,000 votes. The editor keeps the close threshold at least as high as the configured required-vote target. Requiring votes to unlock is unavailable for card-game locks, whose ordinary release is controlled by green cards.
When a timer reaches zero, voting can remain available if its required-vote target is still unmet. Card-game voting does not close merely because a displayed time estimate reaches zero. Session-ending conditions can still close either kind of link.
Automatic closing preserves the voting token and recorded counts. To reopen an automatically closed round, an authorized editor must also raise or disable the already-reached closing threshold. Re-enabling with the same met threshold closes it again.
Overlapping votes are checked against the latest lock state before acceptance. Only one vote can take the final slot at the automatic-close threshold. If voting or its settings change repeatedly during your request, the app can ask you to try again.
Automatic Voting
When offered on the Public Voting page, signed-in users can open Auto-voting preferences and arrange the priority of Add, Random, and Remove. The first available permitted action is used. Preferences are saved to the account.
Choose Start auto-voting to submit at most one vote per eligible listed session during that run. Sessions on cooldown or marked Manual only are skipped. This runs while the page is open; it is not a scheduled service that keeps voting after you leave.
Stop auto-voting stops further work in that run. Votes already submitted remain applied, and a request already sent may still finish. Review the completion message for submitted votes and failed requests before starting another run.
Shock-triggering automatic votes need Include shock votes enabled in the voter's preferences and permission from the wearer. Under Your voting settings, the wearer can enable Block automatic votes that trigger shocks. This setting applies to Public Voting and Pillory; it does not block manual votes or ordinary time-only automatic votes.
Optional Shocks on Votes
An eligible active device session can offer Shock on public votes. Choose the trigger actions: Add votes, Remove votes, and Random adds time. Set the displayed duration and optional hourly and daily limits. In this editor, duration is 3–15 seconds; a limit of 0 means unlimited.
The shared page identifies vote actions that can trigger a shock. A visitor's manual vote does not require the automatic-voting Include shock votes preference, so read that notice before pressing a button.
The time vote can be recorded even when a shock is skipped or unavailable. Device connection, queue rules, sleep settings, and shock limits affect delivery. Hourly and daily shock limits use their own elapsed windows, not the voting cooldown or a midnight reset.
See Shock Delivery & Queues for delivery progress and stop controls. A vote's success message is not proof that physical output occurred.
Pause or Disable Voting
To pause ordinary voting, open Public Voting Settings, turn off Public Voting, select Save Settings, and confirm. This makes the link inactive while keeping its settings, token, counts, and history. An authorized re-enable can make the same copied link usable again.
On a self-lock, Disable Features → Public Voting is a separate one-way restriction for the wearer. It clears the current voting link and round counters, and the wearer cannot re-enable it through normal settings. A trusted keyholder can have different permissions if the session later becomes shared; an administrator can also override the restriction. Previously applied effects and grouped activity records are not erased.
Permanent disabling also prevents generating a new voting link or accepting votes through an old link. Use the ordinary Public Voting toggle when you only want to pause the current round.
Neither pausing nor disabling voting reverses time or card changes already applied. Hiding the listing is also separate from both actions.
Public Information and Voting History
A shared voting page can display the lock title, wearer and keyholder identities, elapsed time, vote totals, configured vote effects, and voting impact. A hidden timer can hide the current remaining-time display while leaving those other details visible. Do not treat the account requirement as a privacy setting for the page itself.
The wearer and authorized owner/keyholder can open Public voting → Voting History to inspect recorded votes and their effects. Signed-in votes can show the voter's username and avatar; anonymous votes may show approximate country information. Anonymous voting does not mean that no record is kept.
Use Download voting history (CSV) to export the available history, including timestamps in UTC, manual/automatic classification, vote type, and time changes. Keep exports private if they contain other users' information. History may take a short time to catch up with an accepted vote.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
| Lock Not Found | The link may be invalid, voting may be disabled or automatically closed, or the session may no longer be eligible. Ask the wearer or keyholder to check its current status. |
| Sign-in is required | Sign in, then return to the voting link. Opening the page alone does not satisfy its account requirement. |
| A cooldown appears before an anonymous vote | Another person on the same network may have used that IP address's allowance. Wait for the displayed cooldown. |
| The session is missing from the public list | Check listing consent, wearer activity, current eligibility, and the list's refresh state. The direct link has separate availability. |
| A vote target was reached but release is unavailable | Check remaining time, minimum duration, other unlock requirements, and whether the lock uses cards. |
| Voting closes immediately after re-enabling | The automatic-close target may already have been reached by the preserved vote count. |
| A card count did not change | A partial time adjustment can remain in the card accumulator until enough time has accumulated for a whole card. |
| A vote succeeded but there was no shock | Check shock trigger settings, limits, sleep settings, device connection, and queue state separately. |
| Auto-voting skips a session | Check cooldowns, Manual only, voter preferences, wearer shock consent, and whether automatic voting is available. |
For an unresolved problem, contact Support with the error, approximate time, and vote action. Avoid posting an active voting link publicly when asking for help.