How Steereh works

Facts are stated by their sources

Every line on an event is an attestation: this source says this. That is something anyone can check by opening the source. Steereh asks the Wayback Machine to keep a copy of every new link, and uploads keep documents that could disappear.

Sources that relay another source point back to it. An event backed by fourteen articles that all repeat one press release has one independent root, and the page says so.

Disagreements sit side by side

When sources disagree about a date, a number or what a clause meant, the disagreement becomes a question with positions, each tied to its sources. Nothing is voted away. For numbers, each figure carries its own definition, because most disputes about counts are disputes about what is being counted.

Narratives are argued in debates

Debates run in rounds between two people, in public. When they end, the audience votes on who argued better from the sources. A result records the better argument, not the truth, and a concession is part of the record.

Posts, and stories that grow day by day

Posts are members writing in their own words: what happened today, a find in an archive, an argument. A post can stand alone, be tied to the events it is about, or join a story. A story gathers posts about one unfolding thing, and its page lists them by the day they cover, so a week of posts reads as a timeline.

A post is its author's word, not a source. When a post describes something that belongs on the timeline, anyone can put it on the record as an event, with the source it relies on, and the post is tied to it.

Standing, and the red check

Every member has a standing, built only from what other people decide about their work: debunks upheld on open review, sources others went on to cite, events others added sources to, blanks others filled, posts others put on the record, and debates won. It falls when moderators take a member's content down, when their debunks are overturned, or when something they posted here is debunked. Posting more earns nothing on its own.

Credit from any one person is capped, and credit from members who have standing themselves counts for more, so a circle of friends can't build it. It fades by half each year. The red check is earned at a standing of 250, with credit from at least eight people, on an account at least 90 days old, and kept while standing stays above 200. It is lost at once on a suspension or when moderators take a member's content down, and can't be earned back for 90 days. Nobody hands it out, moderators and admins included. Each profile shows what its standing is made of.

A green check, separate from the red one, will mark names verified with ID once that check opens.

Ties

A member's profile lists ties that could bias how they write about these subjects: work for a government, a military or security service, a party, a lobby or advocacy group, a media outlet, a company with a stake, an NGO, a university or a religious body. Members disclose their own. Other members can report a tie the member hasn't disclosed, with a public source; it goes up only after several members report the same tie and moderators or members with the red check confirm it. An AI reads the reports and the sources and points reviewers to what each page says. It suggests; people decide.

A tie confirmed by others that the member never disclosed is marked so, shown beside their name in their debates and posts, and costs standing. Disclosing a tie up front carries no mark. Members see what was reported about them, never who reported it, and can answer under any tie or ask for it to be reviewed again. An ordinary employer, family or where someone lives never counts as a tie: reporting those breaks the rule on doxxing.

Every member's library

Each profile has a library: a bookshelf of the books they have read, a desk with what they are reading now, and a drawer for the articles, studies and papers they have finished. Anything a member cites on the timeline is filed there by itself. Every entry is a source on Steereh, so a source's page shows who has read it. Reading earns nothing; the library is a shelf, not a score.

Duels, featured debates and their pieces

Members can challenge each other from a profile: to a debate, to a game of chess played here on the site, or to a chronology duel, where both players put the same events from the timeline in order without seeing their dates. Each has its own rating, which moves only with results.

Every so often Steereh hosts a featured debate. Members who have contributed something that stood can enter; two are drawn, and the winner is awarded a one-of-one chess piece made for that debate. Pieces are never sold by Steereh and can't be earned by activity alone. They can be kept, played with as your king, or given to another member, and each keeps its full record of hands.

Documentaries tell the story, with the record inside

A documentary is one member's narrated walk through a stretch of the timeline. The events it covers sit inside the narration as they are on the record, with their sources and any open disagreements, so a reader can check each step without leaving the page.

The narration is its author's reading, signed with their name. Anyone who reads the record differently can challenge it in a debate, and the debate is listed under the documentary.

Gaps are marked

Long silences in a lane show up as hatched rows on the timeline. People can flag events that are mentioned but missing, events that rest on a single source, and sealed records: evidence that is known to exist but is withheld by an archive or a government. A sealed blank needs a source showing it is withheld.

Propaganda debunks and the Wall of Shame

A debunk takes one claim, made on Steereh or anywhere on the web, and sets the sources against it. Tied to the events the claim is about, it shows on those events' pages too. Reviewers endorse or challenge it under a published policy. Reviewers stay anonymous; their reasons are published.

Upheld debunks of public figures, organisations, outlets and public accounts are listed on that subject's wall. Members are listed only for what they posted on Steereh. Private individuals are never listed. Every subject can reply on their wall and on each debunk, and corrections they make are counted in their favour.

Real names, and your privacy

Everyone on Steereh uses their real name: at least a real first name, with the last name in full, as an initial, or left out. Names appear beside everything a member adds. A photo is optional and appears on the profile only, never beside posts or in debates.

Pages load nothing from YouTube, X, Meta or Google until you choose to play an embedded post. Fonts are served by Steereh itself. Sign-in cookies cannot be read by scripts.

The person in charge of protecting personal information at Steereh is Omar Alahmad. To see, correct or delete what Steereh holds about you, write to legal@steereh.com.

Moderation

Moderators remove what breaks the rules; they do not decide what is true. Every decision and its reason is on the public moderation log.