# Buoy Preferences

**Buoy is a community-based crisis response system.** Using the Buoy provided by this website, you can tell your friends where you are and what you need, even if you are facing an emergency situation. You can customize some parts of how Buoy works by configuring your preferences on this page.

Your [Buoy Preferences](#buoy-preferences) determine how Buoy works for you. You can configure:

* [Gender pronoun](#buoy_gender_pronoun_possessive). This option lets you set a gender pronoun to use in notifications.
* [Phone number](#buoy_phone_number). This option tells Buoy what mobile phone number to send SMS/txt alerts to.
* [Phone company](#buoy_sms_provider). In addition to your phone number, you must enter a phone company to receive SMS/txt messages from Buoy.
* [Crisis message](#buoy_crisis_message). This option lets you draft a default alert that will be sent to your team in case you don't have time to write on in an emergency.
* Whether or not to [list yourself as an available crisis responder](#buoy_public_responder) to other users of this Buoy. You should leave this unchecked unless you want to encourage other users to invite you to their teams.

For more information, read the [Buoy User Guide](https://github.com/meitar/better-angels/wiki/Buoy-User-Guide).