The Vault @ The EERIE Files welcomes contributions from anyone with a case, a location, a story or a piece of research worth filing — but everything added to the Vault needs to respect other people's rights as carefully as it respects the stories being told. This page sets out what that means in practice.
The short version
- Write case files, profiles and assessments in your own words. Paraphrase and summarise sources — don't copy text from Wikipedia, news articles, books or other websites.
- Only upload images you have the right to use (see Images below).
- Always cite where information came from, using
{{cite web}}/{{cite news}}and a proper{{Reflist}}at the bottom of the page. - Short, attributed quotations are fine. Reproducing whole paragraphs, articles, song lyrics or entire chapters is not, no matter how well-sourced.
- If you didn't write it and don't hold the rights to it, don't paste it in — link to it instead.
Text
Every article in the Vault should be written specifically for the Vault, not lifted wholesale from another source. This applies even when a source is freely available online, in the public domain in some jurisdictions, or itself unsourced — copying it wholesale doesn't become acceptable just because it was easy to find.
What's fine:
- Summarising what a source says, in your own sentence structure and wording.
- A short, exact quotation (a sentence or a phrase) where the precise wording matters — a courtroom statement, a named claim, a memorable line from an interview — attributed with a citation.
- Linking to an original article, book or paper for anyone who wants the full text.
What isn't:
- Copy-pasting a paragraph (or more) from a news article, Wikipedia, or any other site, even with a citation attached. A citation tells the reader where a fact came from — it doesn't grant permission to reproduce the source's actual writing.
- Reconstructing an article by paraphrasing it sentence-by-sentence in the same order, covering the same points, in a way that just tracks the original's structure. That's still effectively a copy.
- Reproducing song lyrics, poems, or other complete short works in any amount, in a case file or anywhere else on the site.
If you're ever unsure whether something counts as "your own words," a good test is: could you show your draft next to the source and have it obviously look like a different piece of writing, covering the same facts? If not, go back and rewrite it, or shorten it to a citation and a link.
Images
Only add an image to the Vault if one of the following is true:
- You took the photo yourself and are happy to share it under the Vault's terms.
- The image is clearly in the public domain (e.g. very old photographs, US government works) or under a licence that permits reuse (e.g. Creative Commons), and you note the licence and source when uploading.
- You have explicit permission from the rights holder to use it, and can say so.
Images pulled from a quick search — official band/movie/press photos, professional photography, paparazzi shots, museum or archive scans marked "all rights reserved," or images with no clear source or licence at all — should not be uploaded, even for well-known cases. When in doubt, describe the image in the caption instead, and link out to where readers can see it on the original site.
User-submitted stories
Some of the Vault's most valuable material comes from people sharing their own encounters. If you're filing a story someone told you (a family member, a friend, a forum post, a Facebook Group comment), it's on you to:
- Have the teller's okay to share it, especially if it identifies them or their location.
- Say clearly in the entry that it's a personal account being relayed by you, and by whom, rather than presenting it as your own first-hand experience if it isn't.
- Avoid pasting someone else's exact written account word-for-word from elsewhere online without their permission — summarise it, and link to the original if it's public, the same as with any other source.
If something on the Vault shouldn't be here
If you believe a page, image or passage on the Vault infringes your copyright, or was uploaded without proper permission, contact us via the Facebook Group or Instagram with:
- A link to the specific page.
- A description of the material and why it shouldn't be here.
- Where possible, a link to the original source it was taken from.
We'll review it and remove or amend the material where the concern is valid. This isn't a legal process — it's a normal editorial one, and most issues get sorted out quickly and without drama.