Policies & Guidelines
Last updated: October 6, 2026
NIPNews is a crowdsourced local news and historical photo archive. These Policies & Guidelines explain what contributors may submit, what information should accompany a photograph, how NIPNews handles moderation and corrections, and the standards that apply to individuals and organizations using NIPNews.
Our goal is to make it easy for people to document their communities while preserving a useful, trustworthy and broadly accessible visual record.
What You Can Contribute
NIPNews welcomes photographs that document real places, events, people, organizations and everyday life.
A contribution does not need to depict a major news event. Ordinary photographs can become valuable historical records over time.
Examples may include community events, government meetings, schools, sports, businesses, buildings, streetscapes, weather, public gatherings, construction, changes to a neighborhood, local organizations and everyday community life.
Contributors should submit photographs because they genuinely document something that happened, existed or was observed.
Photos Should Represent Reality
NIPNews is intended to document the real world.
Do not submit fabricated, AI-generated or materially AI-altered photographs as documentary photographs.
Ordinary photographic editing is permitted when it does not materially change what the photograph represents. This may include reasonable cropping, straightening, exposure adjustment, contrast adjustment, color correction and similar normal photographic processing.
Editing should not add, remove or materially alter people, objects, events or circumstances in a way that changes the factual meaning of the photograph.
Accuracy and Contributor Information
Contributors are responsible for the information they submit.
Provide the most accurate information you reasonably can about what the photograph shows, where it belongs and when it was taken.
If you do not know something, it is better to leave it unknown or indicate uncertainty than to invent an answer.
NIPNews may analyze submitted information, compare it with other information, identify inconsistencies, request clarification or suggest corrections.
An inability to independently verify information does not necessarily mean that information is false.
AI Suggestions
NIPNews may use artificial intelligence and other automated systems to help suggest subjects, descriptions, locations, dates, tags, associations and other information.
AI suggestions are suggestions, not independent verification.
Contributors should review suggestions before accepting or publishing them.
NIPNews should not silently replace a contributor’s deliberate edits with later AI suggestions.
Places and Locations
Place is a fundamental part of the NIPNews archive.
Contributors should identify the primary place that the photograph documents as accurately as reasonably possible.
The place shown in a photograph may sometimes differ from the location where the photographer was standing when the photograph was taken.
GPS, image metadata, geocoding and automated analysis may help identify a location, but those tools do not automatically override the contributor’s intended Primary Place.
NIPNews may normalize geographic information so photographs of the same real-world place can be found together on Places.
Dates and Times
Provide the capture date when it is known.
NIPNews allows different levels of date precision because historical photographs and other contributions may not always have an exact date.
If an exact date is not known, use the most accurate level of precision available rather than inventing a specific date.
Metadata may be used to suggest a capture date when available.
Subjects, Descriptions and Context
Subjects and descriptions should help another person understand what the photograph documents.
Descriptions should be factual and useful.
Do not knowingly provide false or materially misleading descriptions.
Relevant historical or contextual information is welcome when it helps explain the photograph.
Photo Credit
Photo Credit identifies how the photographer or source should be credited publicly.
A Photo Credit may be provided or left blank under the applicable contribution rules.
Leaving the Photo Credit blank is not the same as contributing a photograph anonymously.
A blank Photo Credit does not, by itself, transfer copyright.
Anonymous Contributions
Anonymous contribution is a separate, explicit choice.
If a contributor chooses Anonymous, that choice is irreversible for that photograph and includes the applicable copyright assignment to NIPNews.
Anonymous contribution should not be confused with simply leaving the Photo Credit blank.
The detailed legal effect of a contribution is governed by the Legal & Privacy page and the applicable contribution terms.
Copyright and Rights to Submit
Only submit photographs that you have the right to submit to NIPNews.
For ordinary contributions, the photographer or other copyright owner retains copyright while granting NIPNews a non-exclusive license to host, display, reproduce, resize, crop, archive and promote the photograph in connection with NIPNews.
Choosing Anonymous is different and is governed by the separate Anonymous contribution rules.
Do not submit photographs in violation of another person’s copyright or other legal rights.
Content We Do Not Allow
NIPNews does not allow the platform to be used to promote hatred, harassment, discrimination, threats or hostility toward people or groups.
Do not submit content intended to harass or threaten people, expose private personal information, or impersonate another person or organization.
NIPNews does not publish sexually explicit material or nudity that is inappropriate for the documentary purpose of the platform.
NIPNews does not publish gratuitously graphic violence, gore or images of serious injury presented primarily for shock value.
Legitimate documentary or newsworthy material involving difficult subjects may require editorial review rather than automatic exclusion.
NIPNews may restrict or remove material that is unlawful, abusive, deceptive, dangerous, irrelevant to the purpose of the platform, or otherwise inconsistent with these Policies & Guidelines.
Political, Ideological and Sectarian Neutrality
NIPNews does not promote or favor a political party, ideology, race, religion, economic group or other sectarian viewpoint.
People with different backgrounds and points of view may document legitimate news and public events.
The fact that an event or subject is controversial does not by itself make it inappropriate for NIPNews.
However, NIPNews may restrict content whose purpose is to promote hatred, harassment, discrimination, threats, hostility or divisiveness rather than to document a legitimate place, event or subject.
Events
NIPNews Events are intended to help communities discover and document public events.
Future Events must meet the applicable NIPNews Event requirements.
Organization-created future Events must be public, and the creating Organization must be an organizer of the Event and authorized to submit and manage the listing.
NIPNews does not allow political rallies or partisan campaign events as future Event listings.
Neutral candidate forums may qualify when they are open to all candidates for the applicable race or office.
Single-candidate campaign events do not qualify.
NIPNews may screen Events for eligibility, duplicates and policy compliance before publication.
Past Events may remain part of the historical record even after they have occurred.
Organizations
Verified Organization accounts must represent real organizations.
Organization representatives must satisfy the applicable verification requirements.
An Organization account must be used consistently with the identity and legitimate activities of the Organization it represents.
NIPNews may review whether the ongoing activity, words and photographs associated with an Organization account remain consistent with the Organization’s stated identity and purpose.
NIPNews may restrict or remove an Organization account if it is misrepresented, abused, compromised or used in a manner materially inconsistent with NIPNews policies.
Organization contributions remain distinct from photographs contributed by other people that merely depict or relate to the Organization.
Tags and Associations
NIPNews may use tags and canonical entities to connect photographs with organizations, teams, events, subjects, landmarks and other real-world entities.
Contributors may propose or confirm tags on their own photographs.
AI or system-generated tag suggestions should not be silently added as contributor-confirmed facts.
NIPNews may correct, merge, normalize or remove tags and associations to maintain an accurate and useful archive.
Duplicate Photos
NIPNews keeps a record of each upload, but we do not publish multiple copies of the same photograph. If you upload an exact copy of a photo that is already published, NIPNews will recognize it as a duplicate and associate the upload with the existing published photo rather than create another published copy.
Repeated duplicate, spam or abusive submissions may result in additional review or account restrictions.
Moderation and Editorial Review
NIPNews may use automated systems, artificial intelligence and human editorial review to help moderate contributions.
Automated systems may identify possible problems or refer material for review.
Automated uncertainty should not automatically be treated as proof that a contributor has done something wrong.
NIPNews may hold, restrict, correct, withdraw or remove material when necessary to enforce these Policies & Guidelines, protect users, comply with law or maintain the integrity of the archive.
Corrections and Conflicting Information
Historical information can be incomplete or disputed.
NIPNews may distinguish between information supplied by a contributor, information that has been independently corroborated, information that has not yet been verified and information that conflicts with stronger evidence.
Failure to verify a claim is not itself evidence that the claim is false.
When better information becomes available, NIPNews may correct or update information associated with a Photo Record while preserving the integrity of the historical archive.
Reports and Requests for Review
Users may report content or request review when they believe something on NIPNews is inaccurate, inappropriate, infringes their rights or violates NIPNews policies. To do so, use Report / Request Review on the photograph, place, Event or contributor page concerned.
A report does not automatically mean that content will be removed.
NIPNews may review the report, the existing record and other available information before deciding what action is appropriate.
Where the reporting system requires email verification, the report must be verified before it enters the review process.
Enforcement
NIPNews may take reasonable action to protect the platform and historical record.
Depending on the circumstances, this may include requesting clarification, correcting information, restricting a contribution, removing content, limiting account privileges or restricting or deleting an account.
NIPNews may consider patterns of behavior over time rather than treating every uncertain or disputed submission as misconduct.
Photo Guidelines
NIPNews also maintains a shorter Photo Guidelines checklist for contributors preparing photographs for submission.
Questions About These Policies
These Policies & Guidelines are intended to explain how NIPNews operates in practical terms.
For information about copyright, licenses, privacy and other legal matters, see Legal & Privacy.
For an explanation of NIPNews’s mission and editorial approach, see About NIPNews.