Editorial policy
How we research, source, verify, illustrate and correct.
1. Real places only
Every location covered by Hiddencorners is real, findable and verifiable. Each dossier carries coordinates, an embedded map, a gateway city and the practical access situation, so any reader can independently search for it, cross-check it and travel to it. We do not invent destinations, composite locations or fictional "secret spots".
2. Desk research, declared
Our dossiers are desk-researched. They are not written from personal visits. Every article states this in a visible panel at the top. We do not manufacture first-person experience, invent local characters, or imply we have stood somewhere we have not.
3. Source hierarchy
No dossier is built from a single source. Each uses a minimum of five independent references, and which source is allowed to support which kind of claim is not negotiable:
- Regulatory, legal and safety claims → official bodies only. National parks, meteorological offices, road and coastal administrations, search-and-rescue organisations, UNESCO, government advisories.
- Scientific claims → scientific institutions only. USGS, NASA, universities, peer-reviewed or institutional publications.
- Events and incidents → established news organisations.
- Practical detail (tour length, meeting point, equipment, minimum age, indicative price) → licensed operators. Commercial operators are never the authority for a safety or scientific statement.
Every source is listed and linked at the foot of the article, with the reason it was used and the date checked.
4. Claims are written to the evidence
If a source only partly supports a statement, the statement is rewritten until it matches what the source actually says. We do not attach a citation to a claim it does not prove. We avoid absolute constructions ("never", "always", "the only") unless a source establishes them. Where sources conflict — and on remote places they frequently do — we print the conflict.
5. Facts that expire
We separate the two kinds of information explicitly:
- Relatively stable — geology, how a landform works, history, geography, general environmental principles.
- Changing — prices, tour availability, access, road and weather conditions, seasons, permit rules, operator requirements. All of this carries a check date and an explicit instruction to verify before booking. Indicative price ranges are never presented as current quotes.
6. Safety content is not softened for tone
We would rather lose the poetry than lose the warning. Safety statements are specific, sourced and blunt. We do not publish instructions that would encourage unguided entry into hazardous terrain, and we do not invent legal requirements to make a warning sound stronger — the truth is usually alarming enough.
7. AI imagery — full disclosure
Hiddencorners does not publish photographs. All artwork is generated with AI image tools, directed in-house, and is interpretive rather than documentary. A disclosure appears at the top of every article, in every image's alt text, and in the footer of every page. Images are not real-time, do not depict current conditions, and must never be used for navigation, route-finding or hazard assessment. Full statement on the disclosure page.
8. Advertising will never touch editorial
No advertising is currently running on this site. When it is introduced, advertisers will not receive advance sight of dossiers, will not be able to commission, kill or amend coverage, and will have no influence whatsoever on a Silence Index score. Any commercial relationship will be disclosed inside the article it affects, not buried in a footer.
9. Respect for the people who live there
Many places we cover are home to small communities, unwritten languages and living sacred sites. Our standing guidance — to readers and to ourselves — is: use local guides, ask before photographing people, pay community operators directly, take your rubbish out. Where a place asks not to be publicised, we do not publicise it. Where an access cap exists, we support the cap and we never publish the workaround.
10. Corrections
Errors are corrected in place and dated. Material corrections are noted at the foot of the article. We do not silently edit. See the corrections policy.