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Community guidelines

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MossAtlas works because readers can trust what they find: real places, real observations, real people behind each profile. These guidelines apply to posts, profiles and replies alike.

Share your own fieldwork

Publish what you wrote, photographed or otherwise have the right to share. Short quotes are welcome when they are marked and credited. Copying someone else’s article, photos or route notes and presenting them as your own is not. If a post is a translation or an adaptation, say so and link to the original.

Link to your sources, to maps and guides you used and to your own website. Every link should go where its text says it goes and help the reader. Links that hide their destination or try to trick people will be removed.

Be who you say you are

Write under your own name or one consistent pen name. Your portrait, bio and website link should really be yours. In replies you may use any name, as long as it does not pretend to be someone else.

Keep threads kind and on the trail

The best replies add something: a question, a correction, a sighting of your own. Disagree with ideas, not with people. Spam, self-promotion, personal attacks and off-topic replies are not approved. Every guest reply is read by a moderator first, so a missing reply is either still waiting or was declined.

Never allowed

  • Anything illegal, or content that helps someone break the law.
  • Malware, phishing or pages built to collect people’s details by deception.
  • Deceptive or harmful links, including links that disguise where they lead.
  • Harassment, hate or threats against anyone.
  • Other people’s private information, such as home addresses, phone numbers or private messages.
  • Impersonating a person or an organisation.
  • Plagiarism or other copyright infringement.
  • Any sexual content involving minors.

What moderators do

Moderators may remove posts or replies that break these guidelines. A profile that breaks them seriously or repeatedly may be closed. We try to respond in proportion: an off-topic reply simply is not approved, while a phishing link is taken down at once.

Seen something wrong?

Use the contact page and choose Report a post or reply, or Copyright if your own work was copied. Include the link. Every report is read by a person.