What Are Ink and Tella? A Beginner's Guide

When you join Inktella, you'll come across two important things: Ink (💧) and Tella (✦).

Although they're both earned by being active, they serve very different purposes.

Think of it this way:

• Ink rewards participation.
• Tella recognizes trust, quality, and positive contributions.

Together, they help keep Inktella welcoming, helpful, and focused on great poetry.

Ink (💧): The Participation Currency

Ink is the everyday currency on Inktella.

You earn it by taking part in the community, such as writing poems, reading, and giving feedback.

You can also spend Ink to publish poems, encouraging thoughtful sharing rather than spam.

The more you participate, the more Ink you earn.

Tella (✦): Your Reputation

Tella isn't about how active you are. It's about how valuable your contributions are.

You earn Tella when other members recognize your helpful feedback and positive impact on the community.

As your Tella grows, so does the community's trust in you.

That trust unlocks new levels and new responsibilities.

The Community Levels

Observer

Everyone starts as an Observer.

Observers can:

• Read poems.
• Save poems.
• Publish poems.
• Like poems.
• Give feedback.
• Like feedback.

This is where every member begins their journey.

Guide

As you earn more Tella, you may become a Guide.

Guides can do everything an Observer can, plus:

• Highlight feedback that deserves more attention.

This helps great advice reach more poets.

Critic

Critics are trusted community members who have consistently shown fairness and helpfulness.

Critics can do everything Guides and Observers can, plus:

• Mark feedback as Helpful.
• Down-rank poor or unhelpful feedback.
• Help select poems for the Picks feed.

No single Critic can decide that a poem belongs in the Picks feed. Instead, multiple Critics must independently support it. This collective approach helps ensure that featured poems reflect the community's judgment rather than one person's opinion.

Can You Lose Tella?

Yes.

Tella reflects your current reputation, so it can go up or down.

If many trusted Critics consistently down-rank your feedback because it is unhelpful, disrespectful, or low quality, your Tella may decrease.

If it drops far enough, you may move to a lower community level.

However, no single Critic has the power to lower another member's level. It takes consistent feedback from multiple trusted Critics before reputation changes significantly.

Fairness Comes First

Community privileges exist to help writers grow—not to give members power over one another.

To protect the integrity of the system, Inktella monitors for privilege abuse.

If someone misuses their abilities, administrators can review the situation and step in when necessary to keep the community fair and balanced.

Why Does This System Exist?

Great poetry rarely happens alone.

It grows through thoughtful reading, honest feedback, careful revision, and encouragement from other writers.

Ink rewards participation.

Tella rewards trust.

Together, they help build a community where everyone—from a first-time poet to an experienced Critic—can learn, improve, and help others do the same.