Editorial Standards

1. What Chatterbox Is

Chatterbox is an automated local-information aggregator. It collects items from public and licensed sources, matches them to places, and links readers to the source. It does not operate a newsroom, employ a routine editorial review desk, or promise original reporting.

2. Source and Attribution

• Each feed item identifies and links to its source.
• Cards may show the source title, publisher, date, and source-provided excerpt.
• Chatterbox does not publish AI-written news summaries.
• The linked source, not the feed card, is the record for the underlying information.

3. Local Relevance

An item must match the geography of the ZIP feed or location page where it appears. Automated systems use source metadata, place names, addresses, and geographic data to make that match. An item may be withheld when the location signal is missing, contradictory, or too broad.

4. Automated Quality and Safety Gates

Sources and items may pass through automated checks for duplicate content, sensitivity, source quality, age, and geographic fit. Failure or uncertainty can keep an item out of public feeds. A review queue is a withheld state, not a promise of human review or a publication deadline.

5. Sensitive Information

Crime, arrests, deaths, minors, elections, litigation, school safety, and public-health claims require stronger source and eligibility signals. Chatterbox may withhold these items rather than publish uncertain material. An arrest is not a conviction, and source wording should not be read as a Chatterbox finding.

6. Social Platforms and Community Submissions

Social-media posts are not used as feed sources. Community submissions are not guaranteed publication and remain offline unless they pass the applicable product and safety checks. Submitting material does not create an editor-review commitment.

7. Sponsors

Paid placements are labeled and kept separate from source items. Payment does not buy coverage or change source eligibility. Sponsor creative must pass its own automated review before delivery begins.

8. Corrections and Takedowns

Readers and source publishers can use the correction and takedown channels linked on this site. Chatterbox may update, suppress, or remove a feed item when its source, attribution, geography, or eligibility is wrong. A source publisher controls corrections to its own underlying page.