Editorial policy

How Reside Atlas works. Reside Atlas is an independently operated record of intentional communities with published editorial standards. Communities do not own their pages, cannot pay for placement or favorable treatment, and cannot remove independent content.

Pages. Every page is created from public sources, each shown with its source and date. A community may claim its page to propose corrections, add contact and visiting information, and respond to experience reports. Claiming does not grant control over independent facts, experience reports, or tour videos. Pages for closed communities remain, marked closed.

Experience reports. Reports are written by people with a verified relationship to the community: visitor, applicant, resident, or former resident. We verify the relationship with evidence we review under a published retention rule. Verification confirms the relationship, not every statement in the report. Reports appear under a byline that states the relationship and dates; the writer may add a display name. We know who they are; readers and the community do not.

What we correct, redact, or remove. Content is corrected, redacted, or removed only under published standards: privacy and identification of individuals, prohibited content, ineligible or misrepresented relationship, demonstrably false objective claims with evidence, safety, or legal order. A community's disagreement is not a ground. Material corrections and removals are noted on the page where privacy and law permit.

Right of reply. A claimed community may post one public response per report. Responses follow the same standards.

Tours. Settle Into Root visits communities and publishes what it finds. No community pays for a visit or approves the cut. Where a community has hosted a paid tour group, or the founder has any financial relationship with it, the page says so. The founder does not file experience reports on communities he has filmed.

Money. Reside Atlas earns from people, not communities: founder tools and advisory. It does not accept sponsorship, donations, or advertising from listed communities or their related entities, and does not sell seeker information.

Corrections. Anyone may request a factual correction with evidence at /community/[slug]/correction. Accepted corrections are noted on the page.

Evidence retention. Verification evidence is held encrypted for 30 days after a final decision, then destroyed. A file fingerprint is retained to detect repeat fraud.