MOBA
Questions Mwirians ask — and straight answers
You sat in the same classrooms, ate from the same dining hall, ran the same hill, and feared the same teachers. Then you scattered — to Kampala, Jinja, Nairobi, London, Dallas, Dubai — and the only thread holding the class together became a WhatsApp group that loses its history every time someone changes phones.
The MOBA register is the register the school never kept for us. Every Old Boy, findable. Every class, together. Every teacher, remembered. Kept by the Mwiri Old Boys Association, for Mwirians.
This page answers the questions you will have. Where something is not built yet, it says so plainly. Nobody is going to sell you a feature that does not exist.
Before you start
What is the MOBA register, in one breath?
A register of Mwiri Old Boys where you can find anyone you studied with, keep your own place in the record, follow the life of your class and your house, and see the school's memory kept properly — with money and giving to come later, once the community is standing.
We already have a WhatsApp group. Why do we need this?
Because the WhatsApp group cannot answer the question where is Ssemakula from the class of 1996? It has no memory of who is in it, it forgets everything when the admin's phone is stolen, and it cannot hold a whole school's Old Boys. Keep your WhatsApp group. The register is not trying to replace the chat. It is the thing the chat never had — a register, a directory, and a memory that does not disappear.
Is this MOBA's own?
Yes. This is the Mwiri Old Boys Association's register, kept in its name. The power to confirm an Old Boy directly is the association's to give, and it rests with the MOBA executive.
Then what is the name in the small print?
The platform the MOBA register runs on. Twasoma Fenna means we studied together; it is built so that other schools' associations can keep their own registers, each entirely separate. You will see the name once on a page, in the fine print, and nowhere else. The MOBA register is kept by MOBA, and MOBA decides what is on it.
What does it cost?
Joining is free. Being found is free. Your profile, the directory, your class page, your house, the teachers' pages and the school's history cost nothing today. Some things will cost money later — promoted business listings, for example, and membership tiers once MOBA sets them. When something costs, it will say so in plain language before you touch it. Nothing will be charged to you quietly.
Will it eat my data bundle?
It is built for a cheap Android phone on a metered bundle in Jinja, not a laptop on office Wi-Fi. Photographs are compressed hard. Pages are light. We are also building it so that pages you have looked at can open again without a connection — that part has not yet been tested on real phones, so treat it as coming, not as a promise. If a page ever feels heavy, that is a fault, and we want to hear about it.
Getting in
How do I join?
Someone who is already a verified Old Boy invites you, or you arrive through your class's link. You give your name, your email address, your years on the Hill and your house — and your phone number if you wish — and you choose a password. One email arrives to confirm the address: open it, press the button, and your account is live. Then Old Boys who were at Mwiri with you confirm you — two of them, or a MOBA executive member. That is it.
Do I need a code every time I sign in?
No. Your email address and your password, and you are in. Tick "keep me signed in" on your own phone and you will not be asked again on it. The only time we ask you to confirm anything by email is once, at the start — and if you ever forget the password, a link to choose a new one. If you sign in from a device we have not seen, you get one email telling you, with a button that signs it out. Signing in with your phone number, and with fingerprint or face, are not built yet.
I confirmed my email. Am I verified now?
Your account is. You are not yet, and the difference matters. The email proves the inbox is yours; it does not prove you were on the Hill. Two Old Boys of your year saying "yes, he was there" is what makes you a verified Mwirian — or a MOBA executive member confirming you directly. Until then you see the same numbers about your class that anyone can see, but not the directory, anyone's details, or the rest.
What is vouching? Why can't I just sign up?
Because the register is only worth something if everyone on it is really a Mwirian. There are no leaving certificates to scan — nobody has one — so the school's own method is used: the people who were there with you say you were there. Two or more verified Old Boys from your years confirm you, and you are in. Every confirmation is recorded, with the name of the man who gave it. That record is what makes the directory trustworthy, and later it is what will make any giving through the platform trustworthy too.
I left in 1985. Who is going to vouch for me?
The older the class, the more it matters that you are here. If nobody from your years is on the register yet, a MOBA executive member can confirm you directly. And once you are in, you can confirm the rest of your class. The first Old Boy from a year opens the door for the others.
I was at Mwiri for A-level only. I left before S4. I was suspended in S3 and never went back. Am I an Old Boy?
If you sat in a Mwiri classroom as a student, you are a Mwirian and you belong here. Your years are your years, whatever they were. Questions about formal MOBA membership categories are for MOBA to answer; the register is for everyone who was there.
There is a man on here claiming to be a Mwirian and I know he is not.
Tell a MOBA executive member, or write to admin@mwiri.com. Reporting a profile from the profile itself is not built yet. Every verified member can be traced back to the men who vouched for him, so a false claim can be found and unwound — including the confirmations that let it in.
Your profile
What goes on my profile?
Your name and your school nickname. Your years at Mwiri and your house. Where you live now — city and country, or only the country if you prefer. What you do. A photograph then and a photograph now, if you have them. How to reach you — on your terms. And any badges MOBA has given you.
Why does it ask for my nickname?
Because half your classmates do not remember your surname, but every one of them remembers what they called you. The nickname is searchable. If a man is looking for Kadogo from the class of 2002, he should find you.
I do not want the whole world knowing where I work.
Then it will not. Every field on your profile has its own setting. You can show your profession to your own class and nobody else, or hide it entirely. A senior man at a bank does not have to announce it to every Old Boy on the register. That is your call, field by field.
Who can see my phone number?
Nobody, unless you choose. Contact details are hidden by default. You can open them to your class, to your house, or to all verified Old Boys, or keep them closed. And when someone invites a man who is not yet on the register, the invitation is sent — his number is never shown to anyone.
Why does it ask for the day and month of my birthday but not the year?
Because your class wants to wish you well on the day, and nobody needs your birth year to do that. Your name, your number and your full date of birth together are most of what a fraudster needs. So the register does not store the year at all.
What are badges?
Marks of what you were and what you have done: Life Member, Founding Member, Class Captain, House Captain, Prefect. They are given by MOBA, not earned by tapping. There are no points, no scores, and no rankings of members against each other. You will not find a leaderboard anywhere on the register.
Finding people
How do I find someone I lost twenty-five years ago?
Search by a name or a nickname — the search forgives spelling, because memories do. Or open your class page or your house page and simply look at the faces.
What is the Missing List?
Your class page shows who from your year is here — and who is not yet. The Missing List is the second half. It is the list of your classmates who have not arrived, with one button beside each name: invite him. It is the fastest way to bring a class back together, one man dragging in the next.
What is the reunion countdown?
The register shows the days until MOBA's next reunion, once MOBA has set the date. Milestone reunions for each class — ten out, twenty-five out, forty out — are not built yet.
Can I look at my house across all the years?
Yes. Your house page shows every Old Boy of your house from every era. Some of the best conversations start there — the man who slept in your bed thirty years before you.
Staying in touch
What is a Huddle?
A room for a smaller crowd. Your house. Your class. Old Boys in one town or country. A club, once MOBA creates one. You are placed in the Huddles your profile earns you; others you can ask to join. Every Huddle has a named moderator.
What is the weekly digest? Can I switch it off?
One message, not twenty: who from your class and your house has joined, and the life events posted to your class or your house. It reaches you by email today. You control how often it comes and you can switch it off with one tap. Two honest limits: a weekly Alumni of the Week is planned but is not part of the digest yet, and the digest is built but not yet scheduled to go out — nothing is being sent to anyone until it is switched on.
Will it remind me of birthdays?
That is how it is built: your classmates' birthdays reach you on the morning itself, because a wish a week late is worse than none — never more than one birthday message a day, and if three men share a birthday you get one message with three names. Like the digest, it is built but not yet scheduled, so it is not sending yet.
How do I announce a wedding, a promotion, a bereavement?
From your class page or your Huddle: post a life event about a wedding, a promotion or a new job, choose who should hear it — your class or your house — and the right people are told. It stays in the record. Bereavement, funeral and illness notices are different: they are posted by a moderator or a MOBA executive member, never as an ordinary post, and never by the man they concern. Years from now a man will find the notice of his father's passing and the names of those who came.
Why can't people react to a funeral notice?
Because a death is not content. Bereavement, funeral and illness notices carry no reactions, no counts, no ranking — nothing that turns a family's loss into a number. A way to write a condolence is not built yet.
The school's memory
What is Teachers Through Time?
The record we owe them. For every teacher within living memory: what he taught and which classes he taught. His page shows the classes he taught. You can add what you remember of a teacher — the subject, the years, the story — and it is checked before it goes up. It is built, but it is not open to real teacher records yet: the data-protection footing for people who never signed up has to be settled first.
Can I see where my old Physics teacher is now, and call him?
Only if he says so. What a teacher did at Mwiri is school history and belongs to all of us. Where he lives now, what he does, and his phone number belong to him. A teacher can claim his own page, and then he decides — field by field — what to show and to whom. Until he does, you will see his Mwiri years and nothing private. He can withdraw any of it at any time.
My teacher has passed on.
Then his page becomes a memorial: his years, his subjects, and what his students remember. No contact details, no appeals, nothing that does not belong at a graveside.
Can we support our old teachers through the register?
Not yet. It is planned, and it will be done properly — through a MOBA-administered Teachers' Fund, only for teachers who have asked to be included, with a public account of what the money did. There will never be a donate button on a man's page without his consent.
What is on the Heritage page?
The school's history, in the open — founding, the eras, the houses, the traditions — visible to anyone on the internet, so that a lost Mwirian searching from anywhere in the world finds his way home. And MOBA Leadership Through Time: each administration, term by term, the men who served and what they built, as the record is filled in.
What is the photograph archive?
Photographs and publications from the school's past, uploaded by Old Boys, checked by a named moderator before they appear, and browsable by era, house and class. If you are named in one, you can ask for it to be taken down.
What is Memory Lane?
Planned, not built. It is where the stories will live — your account of the night the dining hall flooded, what the headmaster said in 1994, the match against Namilyango that nobody will let go of. Stories will be yours, under your name. Other Old Boys will be able to mark a story I remember this too, and nobody will be able to vote a story down. If a story is wrong or unfair, a named moderator will deal with it — a human being, not a mob. Publishing will wait for MOBA's content policy.
Who chooses the Alumni of the Week?
Planned, not built. When it starts, a named editor will choose, against published criteria, from a queue of profiles prepared in advance — not a popularity contest, and not a parade of the wealthy. A nurse, a farmer, a young man two years out of school, a man who quietly pays fees for three boys: the point is to show the whole body what a Mwirian looks like, not only the loudest ones.
Business
Can I list my business?
Yes, free, on your profile: what you do, where, and how to reach you. Other Old Boys can browse the business directory by trade and by town. Mwirians prefer to deal with Mwirians; the directory makes that easy.
Does MOBA vouch for the businesses listed?
No. The register vouches that a man is a Mwirian, not that his plumbing is sound. Deal as you would deal with anyone, and report a listing if something is wrong.
Can I advertise?
Later, as a paid promoted listing in the directory and in the digest — clearly marked. There will never be advertisements in your feed, in your Huddle, or anywhere near a bereavement.
Money — plainly
Can I contribute to school projects or MOBA causes through the register?
Not yet. This is deliberate. Nobody sends money through a platform where he does not recognise anyone. First the register, then the community, then the giving. When it comes, it will work like this: mobile money first, a running total for every cause, your own contribution private unless you choose to be named, and no cause closed until MOBA publishes what the money did — with photographs. No leaderboards of who gave what. Ever.
Will I be asked to pay a subscription?
Membership tiers are MOBA's to set. If they are set, you will be told plainly what each one includes before anything changes for you.
The young ones
My son is in S6 at Mwiri. Is he on this?
Not on the Old Boys' register, no. Current students are children, and children do not belong on a register of adult men. A separate, walled space for leaving classes is being considered. Nothing has been built, and nothing will be until the school and MOBA have agreed how a child's information is protected. Nobody will ask a student for money.
Your privacy and safety
Who is responsible for my information? Where does it sit?
MOBA is responsible for it, on your behalf. The platform company that runs the register processes it only on MOBA's instructions; the written agreement between MOBA and the platform company will be signed by MOBA's president. We collect the narrowest thing that serves you — the day and month of your birthday, not the year; your city and country, or only your country if you choose. Anything the platform cannot explain the use of, it does not ask for. Read MOBA's privacy notice on the Privacy page, linked at the foot of every page.
Can I leave, and take my information with me?
Not built into the register yet — there is no button to close your account or to download what is held about you. Until there is, write to admin@mwiri.com and ask.
Someone is harassing me on here.
Write to admin@mwiri.com, or tell a MOBA executive member. Removal of a member is a decision made by a named person and recorded — never a crowd, never an algorithm. There is no appeals process built yet.
Is my class's information visible to other schools?
No. The platform underneath is built so that other schools' associations can keep their own registers, each in its own house. Busoga College Mwiri's register is Busoga College Mwiri's. No other school can see it, search it, or reach it. That wall is the first thing that was built and the most tested thing in the system.
What the MOBA register will never do
- Rank Mwirians against each other.
- Let a crowd vote a man down.
- Put a reaction button on a funeral notice.
- Show your phone number to anyone you did not choose.
- Publish where a teacher lives without his say-so.
- Sell your attention in your own class's feed.
- Ask a student for money.
- Charge you quietly.
What exists, and what is coming
Built and working now
The register — verification, profiles, the directory, the Missing List. The school's Heritage pages. Huddles and life events. The photograph archive. The business directory. The digest and birthday messages are built, but not yet scheduled to send.
Planned, not built
Sign-in by phone number. Reporting a profile. Closing your account and taking your information with you. Memory Lane. The Alumni of the Week. Milestone reunions for each class. A walled space for leaving classes. Giving — causes, the Teachers' Fund, and the accounting that makes giving worth it.
How will I know?
When something arrives, this page changes to say so. And if the platform ever promises something it has not built, hold it to that.