Community Guidelines

Places We Remember is built around real communities, real places, and the memories people attach to them. These Guidelines explain the standards for participating in the project. They work together with the Terms of Use.

1. Contribute in good faith

Share information you reasonably believe is accurate and relevant.

• Do not knowingly submit false, fabricated, or deceptive information.
• Correct or update information when you learn that something is wrong.
• Distinguish personal memory from established fact when that difference matters.
• Include useful sources or context when you have them.
• Do not use contributions primarily for spam, unrelated promotion, or manipulation.

2. Keep contributions tied to real places

Places We Remember is about geographically identifiable places and the stories connected to them.

Good contributions may include places that are gone, closed, substantially changed, or still present. A place does not need to be famous or officially historic to matter.

Do not create duplicate place records when an appropriate record already exists. Use the available update, memory, photograph, or reporting tools instead.

3. Be respectful of people and communities

Local history can involve disagreement, difficult events, and conflicting memories. Discuss those subjects without targeting people.

Do not:

• harass, threaten, stalk, or abuse another person;
• use hateful or demeaning attacks against protected groups;
• publish private contact information or sensitive personal information without a legitimate reason and lawful basis;
• use memories or replies to continue personal disputes unrelated to the place;
• impersonate another person or misrepresent your relationship to a place, organization, or source.

4. Memories and replies

Memories and replies are public community contributions once published.

• Keep them meaningfully connected to the place or to another memory in the thread.
• Personal recollections are welcome, including details that would never appear in an official history.
• Avoid presenting rumors or accusations about identifiable people as established fact.
• Do not use replies to provoke, harass, or derail another contributor.
• Remember that people connected to the place may read what you write.

5. Place submissions and updates

When adding a place or suggesting an update:

• choose the most accurate location you reasonably can;
• provide a useful description of what the place was or is;
• select classifications and dates in good faith;
• use location notes for finding the place rather than for unrelated narrative;
• avoid duplicates; and
• provide source information when it would help reviewers or future readers.

Submissions and updates may be reviewed, accepted, declined, changed, or returned for clarification.

6. Photographs

Photographs should help document or understand the place.

Only submit a photograph when you have a lawful basis to share it for the uses described in the Terms of Use. That may include a photograph you created, one you have permission to use, public-domain material, or another lawful basis.

When known, provide useful attribution, source, photographer, collection, caption, or date information.

Do not upload:

• photographs you know you do not have a lawful basis to share;
• unrelated stock or decorative imagery;
• exploitative, unlawfully invasive, or sexually exploitative imagery;
• graphic material without a genuine historical or documentary reason; or
• photographs used primarily for spam or unrelated promotion.

More detailed photograph guidance remains available during the upload process.

7. Advertising, promotion, and conflicts of interest

Places We Remember is not a general advertising directory.

A business owner, organization, historical group, family member, or other interested person may contribute when the contribution genuinely documents the place. Do not disguise advertising as historical content or use contributions to crowd out competing viewpoints.

Sponsorship does not purchase editorial control, preferential moderation, or ownership of a public place record.

8. Reporting content

Use the ordinary reporting tools for concerns such as inaccurate information, harassment, spam, inappropriate content, privacy concerns, or other community-rule issues.

For formal photograph copyright or other photograph-rights matters, use the Copyright Concerns process.

Submitting a report or concern does not automatically remove content. Reports are reviewed separately from the underlying contribution.

9. Moderation

Places We Remember may review, delay, decline, hide, archive, restore, remove, or otherwise limit content when needed to enforce these Guidelines, the Terms of Use, applicable law, or the integrity of the project.

Depending on severity and history, we may also:

• limit contribution privileges;
• require corrections;
• suspend an account; or
• close an account.

Moderation decisions are based on the information available to us and may not resolve every factual, historical, or legal dispute between contributors.

10. Help us preserve useful local history

The best contributions leave something useful for the next person who finds the place: a clearer location, a better description, a photograph with context, a source, or a memory that would otherwise disappear.

Questions about these Guidelines can be sent to support@placesweremember.com.

Places We Remember is operated by Ancestor Maps, LLC.