A post can be edited.
The public record cannot.
What your village publishes is part of the public record. Municiply keeps its own copy — the wording that went out and the moment it went out, written as publication is confirmed. A FOIL request becomes a search instead of an afternoon of scrolling.
Today: Facebook posts published through Municiply, captured automatically the moment publication is confirmed. Instagram publishing is in development, and nothing reads resident comments from a platform yet.
The request arrives on an ordinary Tuesday.
Everything it asks about happened in March.
Photo: FOCA Stock · Photography & sources
The page shows today.
The question is about then.
A feed shows the current version. A records request asks about an earlier one, and the two stop matching the first time somebody fixes a typo.
An edit replaces the words.
Correct a date on a published post in the Facebook app and the original wording is gone from the page. The version residents actually read is the one nobody can produce anymore — unless a copy was taken when it went out.
A takedown leaves nothing.
A post removed from the platform is removed from every search of it. Municiply’s copy survives that removal — but Municiply cannot see the removal happen, so the fact of the takedown is yours to record.
An account export is not an answer.
A platform download is organized around the account. A request is organized around a subject, a date range, and the staff member who has to answer by a deadline.
Captured as published.
Counted against what you published.
A total on its own proves nothing. Forty records is either the whole year or a third of it. So the page shows what the archive holds as a share of everything the village published through Municiply, and it shows the gap instead of a reassuring number.
- Every post published successfully through Municiply, in the wording that went out.
- A published post is final in Municiply: there is no way to edit or delete one there, so the archived wording stays the wording that actually went out.
- Event time and capture time stored separately, so a later capture never passes for a live one.
- A SHA-256 content hash on every record, written at capture. It is tamper evidence — it makes two captures of the same wording visibly the same, and a later alteration detectable. It is not proof of immutable storage, and we will not describe it as such.
- Append-only in the application: Municiply issues no update and no delete against an archive record, and offers no screen that could. That is a property of the software, not of the underlying storage.
A publication is captured automatically, the moment Municiply confirms the post is live.
Nobody presses anything. A reconcile sweep also runs with the publishing cycle and fills any gap it finds, and staff can start one from the Archiving page at any time. What no sweep can see is the platform itself: Municiply records what it published and does not read Facebook back.
Find the four posts.
Not the four hundred.
Search by words, channel, event type, and date range. The count above the table is every matching record in the archive, not just what fits on the screen.
- Filter by words in the record, channel, event type, and date range.
- Open any record to see the wording, capture time, media file, permalink, and content hash.
- Export every match as CSV or JSON. An export carries the whole matching set, not just the page on screen.
- Each export is logged with the staff member who requested it.
Log it, answer it,
and show your work.
The request lives next to the records that answer it, so the question and the answer never end up in two different inboxes.
Log what was asked.
Record the requester, the subject, and the date window the request covers. It stays in the open count until somebody answers it.
Search, then export.
The logged date window carries straight into the search. One export hands over every matching record with its timestamps and hashes attached.
Mark it fulfilled.
The record count on a fulfilled request is calculated from the archive, not typed in, so the number on the request always matches the records behind it.
Set the term.
Lose nothing.
Set a term in years or keep records indefinitely. Turn on a legal hold when a matter requires it, and leave a note explaining the choice for whoever reads the policy next.
- Your Records Management Officer and counsel set the term, based on the LGS-1 series your posts fall under. Municiply holds the term and shows who last changed it.
- A legal hold is a single switch, recorded with the rest of the policy.
Setting a term does not purge.
Municiply has no purge operation today, so a number typed into a policy field cannot remove a record. If one is ever built, it will be a separate operation that has to be approved, and it will be logged.
Honest about
the edges.
An archive that implies coverage it doesn’t have is worse than no archive, because somebody will answer a records request from it.
Today
Facebook posts published through Municiply, captured automatically the moment publication is confirmed, with coverage shown against everything published. Search, CSV and JSON export, FOIL request tracking, retention settings, and legal hold.
Not yet
Resident comments and replies. Nothing reads them from a platform yet, so if your village moderates or removes comments, keep a separate archive for them.
Anything done to a post on the platform itself — an edit, a deletion, a comment hidden in the Facebook app. Municiply records what it publishes and never reads the platform back, so a change made there leaves no trace in the archive.
Instagram, and networks beyond Facebook. Instagram publishing is not built, so there is nothing on it to capture.
A public archive portal for residents.
Website page snapshots.
Municiply is not a complete public-records compliance archive. Review your retention, capture, and export requirements with your Records Management Officer and counsel.
A few things
worth knowing.
Does this replace our retention schedule?
No. It holds the social media part of the record and makes it searchable and exportable. The schedule, the LGS-1 series that applies, and the decision about what counts as a public record belong to your Records Management Officer and counsel.
What happens if we delete a post?
Municiply has no way to delete a published post, so the question is really about the platform. If somebody removes the post in the Facebook app, the archived copy stays exactly as captured — nothing on the platform can reach it. What the archive will not show you is that the removal happened, because Municiply does not read the platform back. If a takedown is the thing somebody may ask about later, record it yourself.
What if we edit a post after it is live?
You cannot. Once a post is published, Municiply treats it as final: it offers no edit and no delete, and the approval that sent it stays attached to it. That is why the archived wording and the wording that went out cannot drift apart through Municiply. They can drift on the platform — somebody with Facebook access can edit the post there, and Municiply will not see it. The archive answers “what did we publish, and when”, not “what does the post say on Facebook right now”.
Do you capture resident comments?
No. Nothing reads comments from a platform into Municiply today — not into the archive and not into the Community Inbox — so there is no comment data to capture. It becomes possible once a channel is connected live and the platform grants the permission. Until then, keep comments in a separate archive if your village moderates or removes them.
Can we get the data out?
Yes, as CSV or JSON. You get the whole matching set, with event time, capture time, channel, permalink, actor, and content hash on every row. Nothing is locked inside a screen.
Which networks are covered?
Facebook, for posts published through Municiply. Instagram publishing is still in development, so there is nothing on it to archive yet; Google Business Profile and Nextdoor are planned. A network starts being archived when Municiply can publish to it — see what is available today.
The next request won’t give you notice.
Bring one post, one date range, and one question somebody asked you last year. We’ll start there.