Community Guidelines

Still Mill™ is a collaborative archive for organizing, documenting, researching, and sharing historical photographs and their research histories. These Guidelines protect research integrity, contributors, depicted people, descendants, and the community. They apply to photographs, metadata, evidence, proposed identities, comments, messages, profiles, and other activity.

• Cite sources when possible and accurately describe what each source supports.
• Clearly distinguish a documented fact from an inference, family memory, working theory, or unverified lead.
• Do not change, crop, edit, or summarize a source in a way that creates a misleading impression.
• A suggested identity is only a lead. It does not become official without the authorized evidence and verification process.
• Correct mistakes promptly and preserve a transparent research history when appropriate.

• Remember that photographs depict real people and may affect living relatives.
• Use respectful language about race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, sex, gender, family structure, poverty, health, criminal allegations, enslavement, violence, and other sensitive subjects.
• Do not harass, threaten, shame, exploit, or target another person.
• Do not publish private addresses, telephone numbers, financial information, government identifiers, medical information, or other sensitive personal information about a living person without a lawful and necessary reason.
• Do not turn uncertainty into accusation, scandal, or sensationalism.

Upload only photographs and materials you have the right to share. Credit the photographer, family, repository, publication, collection, or source when known. Follow access, reproduction, and citation conditions imposed by archives or rights holders. Finding an image online or owning a physical print does not necessarily mean you own its copyright.

Community Members may browse, follow activity, save favorites, comment where permitted, and suggest leads. Only approved users may add structured evidence, manage cases, recommend verification, or advance identification status. Do not bypass permissions, represent yourself as an approved Identifier when you are not one, or pressure another member to change a finding.

Do not use Still Mill to:

• submit unlawful, infringing, deceptive, defamatory, hateful, pornographic, exploitative, or malicious content;
• impersonate another person, fabricate credentials, falsify evidence, or coordinate deceptive activity;
• promote violence, target protected groups, or glorify abuse;
• distribute malware, spam, scams, unsolicited advertising, or fraudulent fundraising;
• scrape, mass-download, republish, sell, or train artificial-intelligence or biometric systems on Service content without written permission and all legally required rights;
• identify, track, profile, or make high-impact decisions about a living person; or
• interfere with moderation, security, access controls, or another person’s use of the Service.

Keep messages relevant to photograph identification, historical context, collections, contributor questions, or Service support. Do not send repeated unwanted messages. Do not move a dispute into public comments to intimidate another person. Administrators may review reported communications and take proportionate action.

Use the reporting tools or email sce@thesynergyexperience.co to report suspected errors, disputed identifications, rights concerns, privacy concerns, or harmful conduct. Include the relevant photograph or case URL and supporting information. Good-faith disagreement is not misconduct. Do not retaliate against someone for reporting a concern.

Depending on severity, history, and risk, Still Mill may provide guidance or a warning; label or correct a record; limit visibility or features; remove content; restrict roles; suspend or close an account; preserve evidence of misconduct; notify affected users or rights holders; or refer unlawful conduct to appropriate authorities. We may act immediately when necessary to protect people, evidence, security, or the Service.

Questions about these Guidelines may be sent to sce@thesynergyexperience.co.