A better sense of the decisions made where you live.

Most decisions are made close to home

Politics mostly reaches people as two teams shouting about Washington. Most of the decisions that touch your week are made much closer: a city council rezoning a block, a state legislature setting what teachers are paid.

So the news in ConCensus is split into three levels: National, State and Local. Stories come from real outlets, and each one links out to the full piece. The aim is that you can see what is being decided at each level without going looking for it.

Your answer, without your name

When you first open the app, you answer a set of questions about the issues. Those answers become an anonymous issue profile. It tells the app roughly where you sit, and your name is never attached to a vote.

That is on purpose. It should be easy to say what you think about a school budget or a tax plan without it following you around.

Where people actually land

Polls in ConCensus are about real issues. You vote, and then you see where the voters behind each answer sit: left, middle and right. Hot takes do the same thing with a single line. You swipe agree or disagree, then see the split.

Some questions split along party lines. Many do not, and the app shows you which is which.

Which way your news leans

It helps to know where an outlet is coming from before you read it. Under every source in the app, a ten-step bar shows which way that outlet leans, from left to right.

We do not rate outlets ourselves. The bar is a blend of the published ratings from four independent raters: AllSides, Ad Fontes Media, Media Bias/Fact Check and Biasly. An “i” beside the bar explains the source and the calculation. If none of the four has rated an outlet, its bar stays empty. The app never guesses.

For a story that several outlets covered, “See other perspectives” shows how the others handled it, grouped left, center and right. There is also a “Common misconceptions” guide that links to primary sources, and a tracker for the midterm results.

A reason to come back

Keeping up with politics can feel like homework. The notebook’s answer was to borrow from games: points, ranks, streaks and badges for reading, voting and taking part.

Town Hall is where the discussion happens. Threads are sorted by topic, and there is reporting, blocking and moderation so that people can disagree without things getting out of hand.

What the numbers can and cannot tell you

Poll results show the people who answered in the app. They are not a scientific sample and should not be read as one.

The app is new. While it is, some polls and takes include a sample crowd, and the app says so wherever one is counted.

Outlet ratings come from outside raters. Where they have published nothing, the app shows nothing.