Core rule: no guilt by proximity. Presence in a document, image, email, flight log, timeline, search result, or receipt card does not imply conduct unless the source record and lawful adjudication support that narrow statement.
Source-first standards
Records before conclusions
Pages should show the source lane, source path, confidence level, and open gaps before asking the reader to interpret a record.
Confidence labels
Confidence labels describe source posture: found, contextualized, review lead, source-locked, or open slot. They do not describe guilt.
Open receipt slots
An open slot means a source check is unresolved. It is not proof, not a hidden conclusion, and not a substitute for records.
How claims are limited
- Presence does not imply conduct.
- Chronology does not prove causation.
- A flight-log or tail-number record does not prove purpose.
- A redaction does not prove what is underneath it.
- A FARA review signal is not a FARA accusation.
- Search results are finding aids, not findings.
Publication test
Before a page is treated as an indexable public result, it has to pass a publication test. The page should identify the source family, show why the route exists, name the narrow fact being established, and state the main limitation before the reader reaches a conclusion. Thin generated pages, search interfaces, language shells, raw readers, source directories, and machine-extracted entity pages fail that test unless an editor has added document-specific analysis.
The same rule applies to titles and descriptions. Metadata should describe the exact page, not recycle a generic archive slogan. A source-card title should name the document or evidence question. A methodology title should name the actual rule being explained. If a page cannot support a unique title, unique description, and source-specific H1 without filler, it should be noindexed or merged into a stronger page.
Sensitive records and allegation surfaces
The archive keeps sensitive investigations, raw documents, source readers, search results, unverified allegation surfaces, and protected reader routes ad-free. AdSense ownership verification may remain present as a single meta tag, but live ad scripts stay disabled unless a route is explicitly approved. Advertising eligibility is separate from editorial value: a page can be indexable and still be excluded from ads because the subject matter is sensitive or because the reader needs an evidence-first environment.
Revision mechanics
When a source review changes a page, the preferred change is narrow. A sentence can be caveated; a confidence label can be downgraded; an alias can be preserved as an OCR variant; a route can be removed from the sitemap; a duplicate can redirect to a canonical route. The underlying record should remain available unless the issue is unlawful material or a privacy/safety problem outside normal public-record handling.
Corrections
Correction requests, broken-link reports, and durable source tips are routed through Corrections and Source Tips. When a correction changes the read of a public page, the site should preserve a clear correction posture instead of silently escalating a claim.
Reader path
Readers should start with Start Here and Methodology, then move through dispatches, evidence lanes, and search. This keeps the archive useful without making route lists or raw files do the work of explanation.