Policy 09: Bad Faith Submissions

Overview

Aevum Encyclopedia exists to cultivate a trustworthy, accurate, and collaborative knowledge ecosystem. To maintain academic integrity and public trust, we strictly prohibit submissions made in bad faith. This policy outlines what constitutes bad faith behavior, how it is detected, and the consequences for violations.

All contributors, editors, and automated agents are expected to operate in good faith, prioritizing verifiable information, neutrality, and the collective mission of knowledge preservation.

Definition

A bad faith submission is any edit, article creation, media upload, or community interaction that is deliberately designed to:

• Mislead readers or distort established facts
• Manipulate search visibility or platform algorithms
• Undermine the collaborative editorial process
• Promote undisclosed commercial, political, or ideological agendas
• Harass, defame, or target individuals or groups

Recognizable Patterns

While bad faith behavior can take many forms, our moderation team and AI systems monitor for the following categories:

1. Vandalism & Disruptive Editing

• Blanking articles, inserting nonsense, or repeatedly reverting consensus edits
• Creating duplicate or mirrored pages to confuse navigation
• Using edit warring to force a specific narrative

2. Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest

• Paid editing or promotional writing without transparent disclosure
• Creating or heavily editing articles about oneself, employers, or clients
• Using multiple accounts to simulate community consensus

3. Systemic Misinformation & Bias Injection

• Deliberately inserting false citations or cherry-picked sources
• Reframing well-documented events to match a political or ideological agenda
• Coordinated campaigns to degrade or remove specific topics

4. Spam & SEO Manipulation

• Inserting external links solely for backlink generation or affiliate marketing
• Keyword stuffing or meta-tag manipulation within article structures
• Creating low-value stub articles to capture search traffic

5. Harassment & Defamation

• Creating biographical articles with malicious intent or unverified negative claims
• Doxxing, sharing private information, or targeting editors
• Using talk pages or comments to threaten, bully, or intimidate

Detection & Enforcement

Aevum Encyclopedia employs a multi-layered defense system to identify and neutralize bad faith submissions:

• AI-Assisted Screening: Real-time analysis of edit velocity, semantic anomalies, citation validity, and account behavior patterns.
• Peer Review Queues: High-risk edits are automatically routed to subject-matter experts before publishing.
• Rollback & Protection: Verified vandalism is instantly reverted. Repeated violations trigger page protections or account restrictions.
• Escalation Protocol: Severe or coordinated campaigns are escalated to the Trust & Safety Board for comprehensive review and permanent action.

Sanctions range from warnings and temporary editing restrictions to permanent bans and legal reporting in cases of defamation, doxxing, or criminal activity.

How to Report

Community vigilance is essential. If you encounter suspicious behavior:

1. Use the "Report Edit" button on any article or user contribution
2. Provide specific examples, timestamps, and relevant discussion threads
3. Our Trust & Safety team will triage reports within 24–48 hours

For urgent threats or legal concerns, contact trust@aevum.org directly. All reports are handled confidentially and without retaliation.

Appeals Process

We recognize that automated systems and human moderators can make mistakes. If you believe your account or edits were flagged in error:

• Submit a formal appeal through your dashboard or appeals@aevum.org
• Include context, source documentation, and a clear explanation of your intent
• Appeals are reviewed by an independent editorial panel within 5 business days
• Decisions are final but may be revisited with new evidence