Local Champion and the Original Mark Explained

Local Champion and the Original mark are two different things in the Mosey app. Local Champion is the title anyone can earn for a town by rating, answering Top 3 questions and making a list. The Original mark is an extra, offered only to the first 25 people in a town to earn that title, and it is entirely your choice whether to take it.

How do Local Champion and the Original mark fit together?

Think of Local Champion as the title and Original as a small, optional badge of timing. The badge reads as the town's name followed by the word Original, so a profile might say "Austin Original". It tells a reader that the person was among the first in that town to do the three title steps there. It says nothing about what they rated, which place they liked or how often they eat out.

The app puts it in plain words: Original marks the first people in a town to earn Local Champion there. It is earned by activity, and no place has a say in who gets it.

Who gets offered to be among the first people in a town?

Each town has room for 25 offers. A place is held for you the moment you earn the Local Champion title, if one is still free and your account is at least a week old. If the town's places are all taken, you keep the title and are just not offered the mark. Nothing about the town changes for you, and nobody is told that you missed out.

Offers go in the order people earned the title, and a place that frees up is offered to the next person waiting. A very small place, with fewer than five public places of its own, is counted with the nearest real town within about nine miles, so small-town readers are not left out. The number of places per town is a rule, not a score. The app never shows anyone a number or a rank.

Is the Original mark your choice?

Yes, and the app asks plainly: "Do you want to be" an Original, with Yes and No buttons of equal weight. The sheet reminds you that it is earned by what you did, that it says nothing about what you rated, and that nothing about you is public until you say yes. Saying no keeps your Local Champion title and passes the place to someone else in the town.

An offer that sits unanswered does not last forever. After about four weeks it lapses and is offered to the next person, so a place is never blocked by someone who never opens the app.

How long is the short wait before the mark shows?

Saying yes does not show the mark at once. It starts a short wait of about two weeks, during which the app checks the basics: that nothing about the account has been flagged, that the account is not banned, and that your five rated places still count. While it waits, the mark is private to you and the sheet says only that it is being checked. A mark that fails a check stays waiting and is looked at again the next day.

Even then, a town shows no Originals to the public until a few people there have said yes. A very small village, with only a handful of public places, never shows any.

Does your first name show with the town's Originals?

Only if you switch it on. The switch is off by default, the app asks once after you say yes, and nothing beyond the first word of your name is used. A town's Originals strip, which sits on the town's Top 3 page, lists opted-in names alphabetically, never ranked, and counts private accounts without naming them. If you do not want a name shown, the answer is the plain "No, keep it private" button.

Can you remove the mark later?

You can, from Settings, with the switch Show my Original mark. The app asks once to confirm, and removing is final: you cannot switch it back on, and the place goes to the next person in line. Your Local Champion title stays. If you stop rating and answering for a year, the mark does not vanish but shows more quietly, and the title is untouched.

What does the mark not do?

It brings no gift and no early access to anything. It does not make a rating count more or tell anyone what you thought of a place. Up to three marks can show on one profile, for three towns, and an invitation can mention that an inviter is an Original, with a name only if they chose that.

How can the Original mark and Mosey tools work together?

Before an Original is offered, you still have to do the ordinary work: rate places by the dish, tag them, answer questions and keep a list friends can add to. The Local Champion page shows the screens, and the full set of steps is in the how-to guide, and the earned, not bought guide explains why none of this can be purchased. A town example makes the timing concrete: the Minneapolis page and the Nashville page each describe the kind of rating a first-wave champion might do.

Mosey is free for a place to list, with no hidden fees and affordable tools, which is part of how supporting local works without anyone paying for a title. Browse the US food guides for more.

Download the Mosey app, start with your first rating and keep an eye on Home for the invitation to take the Original mark.