How the community layer works
What this is
Every fact on Cracked Buckeye has buttons. You can vote on it, report an error in it, or add what you know about it. That goes for the facts about a ZIP code, a town, a county and a water system, for every candidate, race, filing, claim and insight on the political pages, for the findings, and for every card on the map.
Voting and reporting need nothing at all. Adding a note, a document or a dated photo needs a free account. A member's first addition, every photo and every suggested edit wait for a moderator; once one of theirs has been approved, a member's notes and entries appear at once, labelled "not yet reviewed" until a moderator has looked at them (when what you write appears). Whatever members write always appears apart from the sourced facts, under a heading that says "From the community."
Where to find the buttons
- At the top of every page, under the page's name, a row of four labeled buttons is about the page as a whole: Looks right, Looks wrong, Report an error and Add information.
- Beside each fact (a number, a table row, a candidate's filing, a line on a history timeline) is a small round button with three dots. Tap it, or point at it, and the same four buttons open for that one fact. Hold the pointer over any of them to see its name.
- On the map, the open card carries the four labeled buttons, every tile under "What is here" has its own round button in its corner, and so does each fact inside the card. A vote on the map and a vote on the page count as one: they are the same fact.
What a vote means, and what it does not
A vote is a signal, not a correction. Tapping "Looks right" or "Looks wrong" never changes a number, a name, or any other sourced fact. What it does is tell us where to look: a fact with a lot of doubt gets checked sooner. Vote counts are public right away, next to the fact they belong to. Anyone can vote, with or without an account, and you can change your vote at any time.
What happens when you report an error
A report (we call it a flag) is a request for a person to look. Pick the reason closest to the problem: the value is wrong, it is out of date, it belongs to the wrong place, it does not match its source, it is offensive, or something else, with a short note if you like. Every flag is reviewed by a person, not resolved automatically. If we agree something needs to change, we correct the sourced record the same way any other correction is made, and it goes into the public log at Corrections with the date and what changed. If we do not find a problem, the flag is closed and the fact stands. Flag counts are public right away; what we decide about them is not always instant.
Who can add what
Voting and flagging need nothing at all. Adding a note, a photo, or a suggested edit needs a free, verified account, so a moderator knows who wrote what and can follow up with questions. Signing up asks for your email, a password, your name and your ZIP code, nothing more; you can add your city and your expertise or connection to a place later in your profile. Your email and ZIP code are never shown to other visitors; they exist so we can verify you and reach you about what you send in. See the privacy policy for the full detail on what is collected and what is ever public.
Ohio Price Watch
The same account sends prices to Ohio Price Watch: a photo of an everyday item and its price tag from any Ohio store, with the store's name and address. A moderator checks every photo against the numbers before it counts. Together the reports track what things cost across Ohio over time, and which stores and areas charge the most. It opened on September 25, 2026 and has very few reports so far.
What makes a good contribution
The best contributions come from firsthand knowledge: you ran the plant, you have lived on the street for thirty years, you found the county record that settles it, you took a photo yesterday of the thing in question. Say how you know what you know. "I worked at this treatment plant from 2004 to 2019" is more useful than "I heard this is wrong." A link to a document, a news article, or a public record helps a moderator move faster, even when it is not required for a firsthand note.
House rules
- Be accurate. Say what you know, not what you assume.
- Cite what you can. A source makes review faster and the result more trustworthy.
- No personal attacks, on anyone.
- No private information about other people: no addresses, phone numbers, or other details that are not already public.
- No advertising of any kind.
- No photos you do not have the right to share. Take your own, or have clear permission from whoever did.
Content that breaks these rules is rejected, and an account that breaks them repeatedly can be banned. See the terms of use for the full rules.
What moderators do
A moderator reads a member's first addition, every photo and every suggested edit before it appears anywhere on the site, and checks later notes and entries after they appear, against the house rules and, where one is given, the source. Some things wait for a moderator whoever writes them; the terms list them. A moderator can hide a version, roll a note or an entry back to an earlier one, or take it down, but never rewrites what a member wrote. Approved contributions appear under "From the community" with your public name, expertise and city, clearly separate from the sourced facts above them. Rejected ones do not appear at all, and you get an email saying why. We do not promise a review time; most contributions are looked at within a few days.
Fixing or removing your own contribution
Sign in and open My contributions to see everything you have sent in and its status: pending, approved, rejected or withdrawn. You can withdraw anything of yours that is still waiting, and a published note or entry of yours while nobody else has changed it; once another member has, it belongs to the shared history (changing each other's words). To fix a note or an entry, edit it: every change is kept in its public history. A photo or a suggested edit cannot be edited; withdraw it and send a corrected one.
Report a problem
If you see a contribution that breaks the house rules, a photo that should not be there, or anything else wrong with the community layer itself, email hello@crackedbuckeye.com with a link to the page. A person reads every message.