Rules of the road

01. No trespass bait

If a place is private, restricted, closed, unstable, hazardous, or accessible only through an authorized operator, the file says so plainly. A photograph is not worth an arrest, an injury, a rescue, or a damaged site.

The Atlas never publishes fence gaps, unofficial entrances, coordinates to closed structures, service-road directions, access codes, tunnel or drainage entrances, off-trail routes, advice for avoiding security or law enforcement, night-entry guidance, illegal parking suggestions, instructions for entering active infrastructure, directions to private homes connected to folklore, or exact claimed cryptid encounter addresses.

Every pin is a public place: the site itself, its lawful public entrance, an authorized tour meeting point, a visitor center, or a regional visitor anchor. Where a coordinate would point at restricted ground, the file carries the public anchor instead.

02. Fact before folklore

Documented history and local legend are labeled separately on every file. A good story does not need fake evidence. The Atlas uses three evidence classes, explained in the methodology, and never labels a place haunted as if that were a fact. No haunting meters, fear ratings, cryptid probabilities, encounter heat maps, or user-submitted sightings exist here, and none will.

03. People are not props

Hospitals, prisons, cemeteries, internment and incarceration sites, plantations, memorials, battlefields, disaster sites, execution spaces, Indigenous cultural sites, and places associated with death or suffering require restraint. We visit to understand, not to perform. No dares, no survive-the-night language, no most-haunted lists, no badges, streaks, points, leaderboards, selfie challenges, costume prompts, ghost-hunting instructions, or jokes about victims.

Sensitive places

Files carry a sensitivity class when the history calls for it. The class changes the presentation: context first, conduct expectations up top, no playful discovery features, and the most restrained visual treatment in the Atlas.

Memorial: This is a place of remembrance. Keep voices, photography, and behavior restrained.
Cemetery: Active burial ground. Do not interrupt services, climb monuments, or treat graves as props.
Incarceration history: People were held here. Read the records before the architecture.
History of enslavement: Center the people who were enslaved here. Do not stage the landscape as scenery.
Indigenous history: Use the interpretation offered on site and by tribal sources. Do not reduce the history to fort nostalgia.
Battlefield: Stay off earthworks and out of closed areas. Many battlefields include national cemeteries.
Disaster site: Casualties are documented history, not a spectacle. Follow the site's guidance.
Medical history: Patients were treated and confined here. Visit for context, not shock value.
Execution history: Interpretation, not spectacle. Treat the subject with restraint.
Mass-casualty site: People died here. Give the memorial the conduct it asks for.
Active place of worship: Follow the community's rules for visitors.
Active community: People live and work here. Stay in public space and do not disturb residents.

When a place is closed

Closed means closed. The file keeps the history, drops the directions, and points to the official source for any lawful program that opens the place. If you find a file that reads like an invitation to somewhere it should not, send a correction.

On the road

Check the primary source before leaving home. Practical details carry the date they were last checked, and conditions change.
Book the tour, not the trouble. Where an operator, a ticket, or a ferry controls access, use it.
Stay on public land, marked trails, and visitor routes. Respect closures, cemeteries, earthworks, and residents.
Never approach or pursue wildlife, and never search for a creature at night. The creature is folklore. The hazards are real.