Community standards & fact-checking

What we welcome

• Well-supported dissent, including minority or unpopular viewpoints.
• Respectful criticism of elected officials and public policies.
• Practical proposals, honest questions, and stories of what worked.

What we do not publish

• Harassment, profanity, personal attacks, discriminatory abuse, or threats.
• Spam, scams, gossip, or conspiracy claims presented as fact.
• Unsupported allegations against identifiable people or organizations.
• Private information about anyone.
• Demonstrably false factual assertions.

Ideological agreement is never a criterion. Standards apply equally across political viewpoints.

The review rubric

Each reviewer scores every submission on:

1. Local relevance
2. Respectful language & tone
3. Evidence; fact vs. opinion is clear
4. Fairness & privacy
5. Constructive value

How the panel votes

Each item is assigned a panel with an odd number of voting members — currently 3, never fewer than three. Reviewers never vote on their own material. A decision becomes final only when at least three people have voted and one outcome holds a majority of the entire panel. With three reviewers, two matching votes decide once all three have voted. With five, three matching votes are required. If no outcome has a majority, the item stays in review. Nothing is ever published automatically. A substantive revision restarts review with a fresh vote. Administrators cannot skip this process.

What AI does — and does not — do

Before human review, an AI assistant flags possible tone problems, lists checkable claims, and separates facts from opinions. Its report goes only to editors. It is not a final authority. It never publishes, rejects, or rates a person. It does not verify facts from memory. When evidence lookup is not available, claims are marked "Not checked — service unavailable". Panel approval does not mean every sentence was independently verified.

Corrections and appeals

Anyone signed in can request a correction from an article page. Material corrections are shown with a date — we don't quietly rewrite history. Authors can appeal a decision once; appeals go to reviewers who did not make the original decision where possible.

Ratings

Helpfulness ratings and comment thumbs show community reaction. They never publish or unpublish anything and are not scientific polls.