Terms of use

These terms govern your use of Reside Atlas, an independently operated directory and experience-report platform for intentional communities. By using the site you agree to them. They are written to match how the site works; where the editorial policy sets a standard, the editorial policy governs.

Last updated 14 September 2026.

What Reside Atlas is. A record. Every fact on a community's page shows its source and date. Every experience report comes from a person whose relationship to the community we verified. Communities do not own their pages and cannot pay for placement, listing, removal, or any change to what is here. There is no advertising and no sponsorship. Reside Atlas is not a party to anything between you and a community.

Accounts. You must be 18 or older. You sign in with a link sent to your email; there is no password, so keep the link to yourself. One person, one account; we use a one-way hash of your email to prevent duplicates. You must give a real first name, last name and phone number, which staff use only to verify who you are; see the privacy policy. We may restrict, suspend or delete an account that breaks these terms or the editorial policy. You may delete your account at any time; the privacy policy says what that does.

Experience reports. You may write a report only about a community you have an eligible relationship with, as the editorial policy defines it: visitor, applicant, resident or former resident. Current members, officers, employees and family of officers may write, and their reports are labelled as affiliated. We verify the relationship with evidence you provide, and you confirm that evidence is genuine; the privacy policy says how evidence is handled and when it is destroyed. What you write must be your own experience and true to your knowledge, and you mark material claims as observed, told, or opinion. Staff review every report before it is published and may ask for more evidence, ask for changes, or reject it with the reason. One published report per community per twelve months. After publication you can fix typos for fifteen minutes; later changes are a new version with a visible revision marker. You may add one clarification after a community responds, and you may withdraw a report. Reports are published under a pseudonymous byline made of the relationship and dates; a display name is optional and is used once.

Your content and our licence. You keep ownership of what you write. You give Reside Atlas a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, display, reproduce, excerpt and archive it as part of the site, and you confirm you have the right to give it. Because published reports are the record, they remain after your account is deleted, under their bylines, and they leave only under the editorial policy's standards.

Corrections, removals and challenges. Content is corrected, redacted or removed only under the editorial policy's standards: privacy and identification of individuals, prohibited content, an ineligible or misrepresented relationship, demonstrably false objective claims with evidence, safety, or a legal order. A community's disagreement is not a ground. Removed content keeps its address, hides its body and shows the reason. Every staff action is written to an audit log with the reason. Anyone may report a piece of content with a reason. We acknowledge privacy and safety reports within one business day and other reports within seventy-two hours, and we decide claims within ten business days. A legal complaint locks the content while it is reviewed. To appeal a decision, write to hello@resideatlas.com.

Communities and claims. A person who holds a role at a community may claim its page. Claims are approved by staff and expire after twelve months unless reconfirmed. A claimant may propose corrections, which staff publish, set contact and visiting information, choose whether the map shows an exact or an approximate location, add a logo, and post one response to each report. A claimant cannot delete, hide or reorder anything, edit facts from public sources, see who wrote a report, or affect ranking or search. A response is up to 1,500 characters, editable for thirty minutes, after which changes show as revisions. A response may not link to an individual's social accounts, identify the reviewer, or threaten legal action. Where two people hold valid claims, the page is marked disputed and both may respond. Misrepresenting a role or authority ends the claim and may end the account.

Facts and their limits. Facts are collected from public sources and from claimants' proposals reviewed by staff, each shown with its source and date. They can be out of date or wrong, and we do not guarantee them; check before you act on one. A listing is not an endorsement. Communities are independent of Reside Atlas, and we are not responsible for what they do.

Founder tools. The Community Feasibility Model is a one-time purchase through Stripe. It gives you a personal licence to use the model for your own project; you may not resell or redistribute it. You may ask for a refund within fourteen days of purchase by writing to hello@resideatlas.com, and a refund ends your access. Research briefs and the model are general research and financial modelling, not legal, tax, engineering, zoning or investment advice. Rules change and parcels differ; confirm everything with the agencies named and with professionals licensed in your jurisdiction before you buy land or form an entity.

What you may not do. Write about a community you have no eligible relationship with, or misrepresent your relationship, identity or authority. Submit fabricated evidence. Write a report for payment or under pressure, or pay or pressure anyone to write or withdraw one. Identify, contact or harass a reviewer. Post content that is unlawful, defamatory, threatening, or that reveals private information about an individual. Use another person's account or sign-in link. Collect personal data from the site, or scrape it at a scale or in a way the robots file does not allow. Interfere with the service, or try to get around verification, access controls or rate limits.

Availability and changes to the service. The site is provided as it is. We may change, pause or end features, and we try to give notice when a change matters to you. We do not promise uninterrupted availability.

Liability. To the extent the law allows, Reside Atlas makes no warranties about the site or its content, is not liable for indirect or consequential losses, and limits its total liability to you to the greater of the amount you paid us in the past twelve months or one hundred US dollars. Nothing here limits liability that the law does not allow to be limited.

Legal notices. Send copyright notices, including notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and other legal notices to legal@resideatlas.com with the details the law requires. We act on valid notices, which may mean locking or removing content.

Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Tennessee, United States, and disputes are heard in its courts.

Changes to these terms. When these terms change, this page changes with it and the date at the top moves. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept it.

Contact. Questions: hello@resideatlas.com. Legal notices: legal@resideatlas.com.