✦ Firefly Grove: Questions in the Twilight Answers for those tending their groves ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🌱 Getting Started Q: How do I begin my grove? A: It begins quietly, as all sacred things do. Create an account, and your grove awakens. The soil is dark, the field is open. Your first tree is waiting to be planted — a name, a life, a story worth keeping. Q: What is a Tree? A: A Tree represents a single life — someone you love, someone who mattered. Each tree stands tall in your grove, a living archive of one person's story. One person, one tree. Simple. Sacred. Q: What is a Branch? A: A branch is a collection of memories about that person — a perspective, a theme, a shared journey. One tree can grow many branches: • "My childhood with Grandma" • "Grandma's recipes" • "Grandma and Grandpa's love story" Each branch holds different memories, different angles of the same beloved life. You might create one branch. Your sister might create another. Both grow from the same tree. Q: Why separate Trees and Branches? A: Because one person contains multitudes. Grandma wasn't just your grandmother — she was also a daughter, a wife, a teacher, a friend. Different people remember different sides of her. Different themes deserve their own space. Branches let you organize memories by relationship, by theme, by time. They also let multiple people contribute their own perspectives to the same person's tree. One tree, many branches. One life, many stories. Q: What about groups? Like "My Kids" or "Wine Club"? A: Trees can represent groups, too. The metaphor stretches to hold what matters. **For a group like "Wine Club":** • Create one Tree called "Wine Club" • Add branches for different themes: - "2023 Tastings" - "Napa Trip 2024" - "Monthly Gatherings" **For "My Kids" (collective memories):** • Create one Tree called "My Kids" or "The Family" • Add branches for shared experiences: - "Summer Vacations" - "Holiday Traditions" - "Sibling Adventures" **For individual children:** • Create separate Trees for each child (Emma, Noah, Olivia) • Each gets their own branches with individual memories • Use "My Kids" tree for collective moments they all share The grove bends to fit your family. Use it however brings the most light. Q: What is a Firefly? A: A firefly is not decoration. It is memory made visible. Each photo, each story, each voice note becomes a small light that drifts around your trees. One memory, one firefly. Together, they turn your grove into a constellation. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🌳 Building Your Grove Q: How many trees can I plant? A: That depends on the size of your grove. • Family Grove: 10 trees ($9.99/year) • Ancestry Grove: 25 trees ($19.99/year) • Institutional Grove: 100 trees ($99/year) • Individual Tree: 1 tree ($4.99/year) Q: Can I invite others to my grove? A: Yes. A grove thrives when tended by many hands. Send an invitation, and they'll step into your twilight meadow. They can plant their own trees, add memories to yours, or simply walk among the lights. Q: What happens when I invite someone who already has their own grove? A: Your groves remain separate, but your roots connect beneath the surface. If you both plant a tree for the same person, those trees link automatically. One person, one shared story — no duplication, only connection. Q: Can I move a tree from someone else's grove to mine? A: Yes. This is called transplanting. If you created a tree in another person's grove, you can transplant it to your own. The tree, its branches, and all its fireflies move with you — nothing is lost. Q: What are "Rooted Legacy Trees"? A: These are memorial trees from the Open Grove that you care for and manage. They remain public memorials, but also appear in your private grove for easy access. Rooted trees don't count against your tree limit — they're guests in your garden. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✦ Memories & Fireflies Q: What kinds of memories can I add? A: Three kinds, each a different form of light: • 📷 Photos — moments frozen in time • 📝 Stories — words that echo across years • 🎵 Voice notes — the sound of laughter, of love, of goodbye Q: How do I add a memory? A: Click a tree or branch, and the memory panel opens. Choose your medium, upload or record, and watch a new firefly appear. It will drift gently around the tree, glowing warmer with each addition. Q: Can I share memories across multiple branches? A: Yes. Some moments belong to many hearts. When adding a memory, you can "tag" other branches — other people who were there. The same firefly appears in multiple places, connecting stories like roots beneath soil. Q: What if I don't want someone sharing memories to my branches? A: You can control this in Branch Settings. • Turn off "Allow shared memories" to opt out completely • Enable "Require approval" to review memories before they appear Every grove keeper decides who tends their light. Q: Can I make a memory private? A: Yes. Every firefly carries its own key. • Private — visible only to you • Shared — for trusted family and friends • Legacy — visible when you're gone Change this anytime. Your light, your rules. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🕯️ Legacy & Remembrance Q: What is Legacy Mode? A: Legacy Mode is for those who have passed from dusk into night. When you mark a tree as legacy, the fireflies slow their dance. They pulse softly, eternally — was, is, will always be. The tree receives a candle (🕯️), and its colors shift to amber and silver. Q: How do I enter Legacy Mode? A: In Branch Settings, enter a death date. This step is permanent. Legacy status cannot be undone. It's a sacred threshold — cross it with intention. Q: What are heirs? A: Heirs are the ones you trust to carry your light forward. Name them in Branch Settings, and when the time comes, they'll receive a Forever Kit: A digital archive of photos, stories, and voice notes — everything you kept safe. No passwords. No complexity. Just memory, delivered gently. Q: What is a Forever Kit? A: A Forever Kit is a keepsake — your memories bundled for safekeeping. Download it anytime as a backup. It includes: • Stories as text • Photos as images • Voice notes as audio files Your memories, preserved beyond the app. Just in case. Q: Can I transfer ownership of a legacy tree? A: Yes. In Branch Settings, you can transfer full ownership to a family member. They'll become the new caretaker, with all rights and responsibilities. Use this when you're no longer able to tend the grove, or when someone else should carry the torch. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🌙 The Open Grove Q: What is the Open Grove? A: The Open Grove is a public memorial space — a constellation of lights from those who chose to share. It's not social media. There are no ads, no comments, no noise. Just names, dates, and the soft glow of memory. Q: How do I share a tree in the Open Grove? A: In Branch Settings, enable "Public Discovery" for a legacy tree. It will appear in the Open Grove, searchable by name. Family can still access it directly; this just opens the gate wider. Q: What does "Leave a Light" mean? A: When visiting a memorial in the Open Grove, you can tap "Leave a Light." One of your fireflies drifts toward their tree, joining the glow. It's a small act — a witness, a prayer, a moment of shared humanity. Q: Can I adopt a tree from the Open Grove? A: Yes, if you have permission or are next of kin. Adopting moves the memorial into your private grove: • Unlimited memories (removes the 100-memory limit) • Enhanced privacy controls • Full ownership • Uses one tree slot in your grove Q: What's the difference between Adopting and Rooting? A: Two ways to care for a tree: • Root: Keep it in the Open Grove AND link it to your private grove (public + organized) • Adopt: Move it fully into your private grove (private + unlimited) Root when you want to honor publicly. Adopt when you need to protect deeply. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💳 Subscriptions & Renewals Q: How much does Firefly Grove cost? A: Your grove renews annually, like tending a garden each season: • Individual Tree: $4.99/year (1 tree) • Family Grove: $9.99/year (10 trees) • Ancestry Grove: $19.99/year (25 trees) • Institutional Grove: $99/year (100 trees) Q: What happens if I don't renew? A: Your grove rests. It doesn't vanish — it simply sleeps. • Fireflies dim to amber, waiting • You can still read memories, but not add new ones • Nothing is deleted. Ever. When you renew, the lights wake, and your grove blooms again. Q: Can I upgrade my plan? A: Yes. Visit the Billing page and choose a larger grove. Your trees remain; you simply gain more space for new ones. Q: What if my payment fails? A: Your grove enters "past due" status. You'll see a gentle reminder to update your billing information. After a grace period, the grove shifts to "resting" mode until payment resumes. Q: Do you offer refunds? A: Refunds are handled case-by-case. Contact support with your situation. We understand that life changes. We'll work with you. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔒 Privacy & Security Q: Who can see my grove? A: Only those you invite. Your grove is private by default. No one else can stumble upon it. Public memorials in the Open Grove are the only exception — and you control that setting. Q: Do you sell my data? A: Never. Your stories are yours. We don't scrape names, sell information, or show ads. Firefly Grove is funded by subscriptions, not surveillance. Q: Can I export my data? A: Yes. Download a Forever Kit anytime. It's your right to take your memories with you, in a format that lasts. Q: What happens to my grove if I die? A: Your named heirs receive access via the Forever Kit. If you've set release conditions (death verification, specific date, or manual), the system honors them. Your grove continues glowing for as long as someone tends it. Q: How do you verify death for legacy release? A: We don't automate this. It's too sacred. Family members can contact support with documentation (death certificate, obituary, etc.). We handle each case with care and respect. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔧 Technical & Troubleshooting Q: What file types can I upload? A: For photos: JPG, PNG, GIF For audio: MP3, WAV, M4A For videos: MP4, MOV (in memorial video collages) Q: Is there a limit to how many memories I can add? A: For private grove trees: No limit. Add as many fireflies as you wish. For Open Grove memorials (before adoption): 100 memories. Once adopted, the limit lifts. Q: Can I delete a memory? A: Yes, but we call it "withdrawing." Withdrawn memories move to trash and can be restored within 30 days. After that, they fade permanently. Q: What if I accidentally delete something important? A: Check your trash within 30 days. You can restore it. After 30 days, it's gone. This is by design — some closures are meant to be final. Q: My fireflies aren't appearing. What's wrong? A: Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, check your internet connection or browser cache. Still stuck? Contact support. We'll help you find the light. Q: Can I use Firefly Grove on mobile? A: Yes. The website is mobile-responsive. A dedicated mobile app may come in the future, but for now, your browser works beautifully. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 Support & Community Q: How do I contact support? A: Email us with your question or concern. We respond personally, not with bots. Your story matters. Q: Can I suggest a feature? A: Yes. We listen. Firefly Grove grows from the needs of those who tend it. Share your ideas, and we'll consider them carefully. Q: Is there a community forum? A: Not yet. Firefly Grove is about intimate connection, not public performance. If there's ever a community space, it will be gentle, moderated, and kind. Q: What if I find a bug? A: Report it via email or GitHub (if you're technical). We fix what breaks. Your grove should always feel safe. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🌟 Philosophy & Vision Q: What makes Firefly Grove different from other memorial sites? A: Three things: 1. No ads. No noise. No exploitation of grief. 2. You own your data. Export it anytime. Forever Kits ensure it survives beyond us. 3. It's built like a garden, not a feed. Slow. Intentional. Sacred. Q: Will Firefly Grove be around in 10 years? 20 years? A: That's the goal. We build for longevity: regular backups, immutable storage, export-first design. If Firefly Grove ever shuts down, every user gets their Forever Kit first. We're not building a startup. We're building a legacy. Q: Why fireflies? A: Because memory is light in the dark. Fireflies appear at dusk, that liminal hour between day and night. They glow briefly, but beautifully. They remind us: nothing lasts forever, but some things shine. Q: What do you hope people feel when they use Firefly Grove? A: Peace. A place to remember without pressure. To grieve without performance. To love without limits. This is not a platform. It's a lantern field for the soul. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✦ Final Words If you've read this far, you understand. Firefly Grove is not about technology. It's about continuity. Every photo, every story, every voice note keeps someone present. Your grove is your inheritance of light. Tend it well. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ For further questions, contact: support@fireflygrove.com