Wyrdways is a map and register of strange places across Britain. Anyone can browse it. If you create an account you can add pins and comments, and that is where these rules matter. This page covers what is allowed, how we check what people post, and what we do with your data. By signing up you agree to it.
Wyrdways is run by its owner (we, us). For anything in this policy, including removal requests and data requests, contact admin@wyrdways.uk.
Accounts and age
You sign in with your email address. We send a one time link, so there is no password to store or leak.
You must be 16 or over to create an account.
Browsing the map and the register is free and needs no account. Adding pins and comments needs an account with an active subscription.
You are responsible for what is posted from your account. Do not share your sign-in links.
Acceptable use
Whatever you post, you agree not to:
use slurs, or target people because of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender identity or disability;
harass, threaten or pile onto anyone, or tell anyone to harm themselves;
share other people's private information, such as a home address, phone number or photograph, without their consent;
post anything illegal, or anything that encourages trespass, vandalism, or entering private land or buildings without permission;
pretend to be someone else, or post as part of a campaign to mislead people;
post spam, advertising or links whose only purpose is to sell something;
copy other people's writing or images that you do not have the right to reuse;
try to get round the checks described below, or use automated tools to post in bulk.
Strange stories are the point of this site, so dark folklore, ghosts, curses and old witchcraft cases are fine. The rules are about how people are treated, not about spooky subject matter.
Rules for pins
UK only. A pin must be inside the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. Anywhere else is refused automatically, and the check is made on our server as well as on the map.
Say what it is. A pin needs a name (3 to 120 characters), a category, a place name and a description of 20 to 4,000 characters. Describe a story or sighting that is genuinely connected to that place.
Be honest about certainty. Pins from visitors are not drawn from our published sources and are labelled as community pins. Do not present invented material as documented fact.
Protect private places. If a location is private, a home, or somewhere the owner would not want visitors, tick the sensitive location option. The public map then shows the position rounded to roughly 110 metres, and no directions link is offered.
No pins at someone's home to target them. Never use a pin to point people at a named individual or their property.
You can edit or delete your own pins at any time from your account.
Rules for comments
Comments are 2 to 2,000 characters and sit in a single thread under a record or a community pin. There are no replies to replies.
Keep them on topic: the place, the story, sources, and what you know about it.
The acceptable use rules above apply in full. Disagreeing is fine, attacking people is not.
You can edit or delete your own comments. Comments appear under your display name, or as "A visitor" if you have not set one. Your email address is never shown.
How content is checked
Pins and comments are checked automatically when you submit them, in this order:
Location check (pins only). Pins outside the UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands are rejected.
Language filter. The text is checked against a short, fixed list of slurs and harassment or self harm phrases. It is deliberately narrow so that ordinary folklore words such as "hell", "devil" or "curse" are never caught. A match is declined straight away. The declined post is kept on record with the reason, and a moderator can overrule the filter if it got it wrong.
Published, then reviewed. A post that passes goes live immediately. There is no human review before publication. We rely on reports and moderator review after the fact, so something can be visible for a while before it is looked at.
No automated check is perfect. These filters will miss some things and may occasionally catch something they should not. If your post was declined or held and you think that was wrong, email us and we will look at it.
Reporting and removal
Any signed in user can report a pin or comment and give a reason. Reporting is free, with no subscription needed.
When a post receives 3 reports it is taken off the map automatically and goes to a moderator.
Moderators can approve, reject, flag, edit or remove any pin or comment. Approvals, rejections and flags are logged.
Where a post breaks these rules we may remove it, and for serious or repeated breaches we may limit or close the account.
If you are the owner of a place or the subject of a post and want it changed or removed, email admin@wyrdways.uk.
What we collect
We keep to what the site needs to work.
Account: your email address, an internal account ID, a role (user or admin), when you joined, and an optional display name.
Policy acceptance: which version of this policy you agreed to, and when.
Subscription: your subscription status, renewal date and your Stripe customer and subscription IDs. Card details go straight to Stripe and never reach us.
What you post: the pins you submit (including exact coordinates, even for sensitive locations, which are only rounded when shown publicly), your comments, your favourites, and the reports you file.
Moderation records: the result of the language filter for each post, any moderator notes, and the moderation actions taken.
Notifications: alerts such as a new comment on your pin.
Cookies. We set only the cookies needed to keep you signed in, plus a short lived one that carries your policy acceptance from the sign in page to your account. There is no advertising, no tracking and no analytics, so there is no cookie banner.
Public or private. Approved pins and comments are public. Your email address, favourites, reports and subscription details are private to you and to the moderators who need them.
Why we use it, and for how long. We use it to run your account, show what you post, keep the site safe and take payment. We keep account data while your account exists. If you ask us to delete your account, your profile and everything linked to it is deleted with it: your subscription record, favourites, notifications, pins and comments. Payment records held by Stripe, and any copies we are legally required to keep, are handled under Stripe's and the law's own retention rules.
Who else sees your data
We do not sell your data. These services process it on our behalf or as part of how the site works:
Supabase stores accounts, pins, comments and sign in.
Stripe takes subscription payments.
Netlify hosts the site.
Map tiles (Esri) are loaded straight from Esri to your browser, so Esri sees your IP address like any website.
Place search sends what you type in the map's search box to postcodes.io (for postcodes) or OpenStreetMap's Nominatim (for places and addresses). Do not type anything you would not want those services to see.
We may also share information if the law requires it, or to protect people from harm.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask to see the data we hold about you, correct it, have it deleted, restrict or object to how it is used, or receive a copy. Emailadmin@wyrdways.uk and we will respond within one month. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).
Changes
If we change these rules in a way that matters, we update the date at the top and ask you to accept the new version the next time you sign in. Continuing to use the site after that means you accept it.
Rules for comments