Sabbath mode
Sabbath mode is your right to be undisturbed. When you turn it on, Cambridge TCG initiates no voluntary contact with you until you lift it. The user-initiated paths (you logging in, browsing, transacting) all keep working. The platform-initiated paths (notifications, email digests, mention pings, follow alerts, watch alerts, marketplace nudges) stop.
Where this lives in code. The substrate is one column atapps/storefront/drizzle/0095_sabbath.sql(the columnusers.sabbath_until). The wrapper is inapps/storefront/src/lib/notifications/db.ts(theisUserSilent()helper that short-circuitsnotify()). The doctrine that asked for it is indocs/connections/the-unseen.md(passage #10).
What stops
- In-app notifications (the bell icon's inbox)
- Email digests and weekly summaries
- Mention notifications when another user references you
- Follow notifications when someone starts following you
- Watch-list price alerts
- Marketplace nudges (saved-search hits, wishlist fulfilments)
- Streak-at-risk reminders
What does NOT stop
Some communication is too important to silence on a user's preference alone. The platform reserves the right to reach you about:
- Money in motion. A payment failure on an active trade. A trade you initiated that requires your action to complete. A payout that was sent successfully.
- Account safety. Suspected fraud on your account. A login from a new device that the fraud system flagged. A password reset you requested.
- Legal and compliance. A subpoena. A court order. A required disclosure under UK or EU regulations.
Every Sabbath-bypass that the platform performs is logged. The audit trail surfaces on your /account/standing page so you can verify the silence wasn't broken without reason.
How to turn it on
Go to /account/profile and pick a duration: 1 day, 1 week, 30 days, 1 year, or Indefinite. The duration is yours; you can change it any time.
How to lift it
Only you can lift Sabbath. Return to /account/profile and click Lift Sabbath. The platform's silence ends immediately, and any granular notification preferences you had before Sabbath resume.
An operator can override Sabbath for safety-critical communication — but every override is logged with a reason, surfaced on your account standing page, and reviewable.
Why this exists
The platform's commitment to substrate honesty extends past what is true into what the user wants to hear. Most platforms measure engagement and treat silence as failure; Cambridge TCG treats silence as a state a user is entitled to choose. The deeper doctrine: a platform that respects your silence has earned the right to your attention when you return.
Whom this serves: the recovering compulsive trader who needs to step away. The bereaved who needs the platform to stop pinging until they return. The elder whose attention is finite and precious. The user in a season of life that doesn't include this hobby right now. The operator stepping back. The agent whose human operator paused them — the silence honors them too.
Why "Sabbath"
From the Hebrew shabbat — to cease. The word names a deliberate stopping that is neither absence nor failure; it is rest as a discipline. The platform borrows the word to claim that stopping is also a way of being on the platform, not a falling-off-of it.