Gothic.Black Evidence and AI Labeling Guide
Website page draft | Version 1.0 | September 17, 2026
This guide governs photographs, video, audio, documents, maps, sketches, screenshots, device recordings, environmental measurements, and other submitted material.
Required Evidence Labels
• Original file
• Web copy
• Cropped
• Resized
• Compressed
• Color adjusted
• Audio enhanced
• Stabilized
• Annotated
• Recreated
• Illustrative
• AI generated
• Origin unverified
Original Files
When practical, preserve the original submitted file separately from the derivative public copy. Retain the original filename, submission date, submitter, claimed creation date and location, file type and size, available metadata, integrity hash, processing history, and permission status.
Verification Checklist
• Identify the original creator and obtain the earliest available file.
• Review metadata and file history.
• Compare the claimed location with maps or reference imagery.
• Compare weather, terrain, landmarks, shadows, and visible conditions.
• Search for earlier online appearances or alternate captions.
• Check for cropping, recompression, manipulation, staging, or AI generation.
• Ask what happened immediately before and after recording.
• Document what was confirmed, contradicted, and left unresolved.
Unverified Evidence
Evidence may be preserved even when it cannot be authenticated, provided the limitation is prominent.
Origin not independently verified. Preserved as submitted.
AI and Recreations
AI-generated, AI-enhanced, staged, illustrative, and recreated media must be clearly labeled. Such material may support illustration, reconstruction, maps, conceptual diagrams, or show visuals, but must never be represented as original evidence, witness photography, recovered footage, historical documentation, or an unaltered statement.
Enhancement Rule
Enhancement must not be presented as recovered information when the process introduced or inferred detail not present in the original.
Rights Are Separate from Authenticity
A file may be authentic without Gothic.Black having permission to publish it. A submitter must confirm ownership or authority to share. Record whether permission covers private review, website publication, forum publication, livestream use, podcast use, clips, promotion, and public download.