Light the street. Leave people out of it.Light the street. Leave people out of it.

Specific observations beat a verdict.

A Lantern records the conditions of a walk: lighting, people around, sightlines, open venues, and your comfort walking alone. Select the actual place and observation time. Share what you observed, and use an unknown option when you cannot tell.

An optional note is limited to 140 characters. Keep it factual and useful for someone making the same walk. A low score is not a label for the people who live there.

No descriptions of people. Ever.

Do not describe, identify, photograph for identification, or speculate about an individual. Leave out names, faces, plates, phone numbers, private addresses, personal routines, and details about children. Do not classify people by ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, disability, housing status, or appearance.

Do not publish allegations of criminal activity, harassment, or misconduct against an identifiable person or business in a Lantern. Report an urgent incident through the appropriate local channel. Aloka is not a live incident feed or a place to investigate people.

Describe an obstructed path, a broken light, or limited visibility directly. Do not use those observations as a pretext for targeting a group or community.

One walk is one piece of evidence.

Do not fabricate visits, submit copied or generated evidence as your own observation, coordinate score changes, or use multiple accounts to bypass limits. Do not submit paid endorsements or promotional claims.

Location verification is optional. Do not spoof a location to obtain an on-site badge. A nearby or unverified observation can still be submitted with its limits clearly recorded.

New contributions need corroboration. Public community readings require at least three distinct verified contributors in the relevant cohort. That delay is a trust safeguard, not a judgement about you.

Photograph a condition, not a person.

Use your own image of the lighting, path, or other relevant condition. Avoid faces, plates, homes, documents, screens, and other identifying details at the time of capture. Do not upload graphic injury, sexual content, or images of children.

Metadata removal and automated obscuring are safeguards, not permission to upload someone’s private information. Processed photos must pass human review before becoming public. Describe the visible condition in the caption or alternative text without identifying anyone.

Help us correct the record.

Use Report on a Lantern for identifying details, discriminatory content, fabricated observations, or another guideline concern. Explain what needs review. To flag a missing or incorrect place, use the map’s reporting flow or contact the team with a public place link.

Moderators can hold or reject content, review unusual changes, and freeze community influence while investigating. Notes and photos are reviewed before publication. Decisions are recorded so they can be checked.

If you think a decision is wrong, contact us with the relevant content link or request reference. Explain the correction without reposting someone’s personal information. Do not organize retaliatory reports or harass contributors or moderators.

No observation is worth a risky detour.

Contribute when it is comfortable and appropriate. Do not trespass, confront people, enter a closed area, or extend a walk just to verify a report. Attend to your surroundings before looking at a screen.

The map adds context; it cannot guarantee a safe journey. Contact local emergency services when urgent help is needed. Read how scoring and confidence work before interpreting a reading.