The Record and Verification Policy

In short

• The Record is a set of pages, one for each thing a member did here. Each page says what was done, when, how we know, and whether it stands today.
• Items come in three kinds. Approved: the editor approved it or signed it. Recorded: our own logs show it, or the people named on the page confirmed it. Self-reported: the member told us and nobody checked. Each kind carries its own label in words: Approved, Recorded or Self-reported. One kind never turns into another.
• Every page says exactly who checked what. Read that sentence literally. "Read by three students at other colleges" means three members whose confirmed email address is at another college and who told us they are students or recent graduates. We do not check enrolment with any college, and the readers are not scholars in the field.
• No page says a member was our employee, intern or contractor, and no page says how good anyone is at anything. We give no grades, levels, pass marks or certificates.
• A page has one of three statuses: active, no longer listed, or withdrawn. Only "active" means the record stands on the day you open the page. An address or a code that matches nothing answers "Nothing is listed here".
• The member decides who can see each item. A public page, a directory listing and search-engine listing are three separate switches, and all three start off.
• Anyone can check an item by its link, its QR code, or its ten-character code at tillyard.org/verify. The live page is the record. A printout or a screenshot is a picture of one day.
• We may correct, hold or withdraw a record we believe is wrong. Anyone, member or not, can ask us to look at one.
• The line "Verified .edu email, checked [month and year]" means a college mailbox answered that month. It carries a date because it ages.

If this summary and the full text below ever differ, the full text governs.

1 About this policy

1.1 Who is speaking

Tillyard is an Ohio nonprofit corporation. In this policy we, us and our mean Tillyard, and the site means the website at tillyard.org. Where this policy quotes the wording of a page, "Tillyard" means us.

1.2 Who this policy is for

• Members, who each have a Record and decide what to share from it.
• Visitors: anyone who opens a record page without signing in, such as a recruiter, an admissions reader or a scholarship committee.
• Outside confirmers: people who are not members and who confirm something a member did.
• People named on a page: a teammate, an officer of a student organization, a contact at an outside organization, or the organization itself.

1.3 How this fits with our other documents

For members this policy is part of the agreement in the Terms of Use. Section 9 of those terms gives the short version. Where the two cover the same point, this policy is the more specific document and governs that point, unless the Terms of Use say otherwise. Section 37.5 of the Terms of Use sets the order among all our documents, including the sections of those terms that prevail over every other document.

Other documents govern their own subjects:

• The Privacy Notice governs what personal information we hold about members, visitors and people named on a page. The Data Retention Schedule lists how long each kind is kept.
• The Disputes and Corrections Policy governs how a dispute is handled once it is raised. Section 14 of this policy says what can be disputed and what happens to the record in the meantime.
• The Reporting, Enforcement and Appeals Policy governs what we may do when a rule is broken and how a member asks for a second look.
• The Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research and the Author Agreement and Licence govern papers: how they are read and decided, and what happens to a paper's own page when it is corrected, withdrawn or retracted.
• The Eligibility and Verification Policy governs who may be a member and how a college email address is checked.
• The Trademark and Brand Use Policy governs how our name, the editor's mark and record pages may be used and described.
• Section 7 of the Service and Volunteering Terms governs what a non-member agrees to when confirming something.
• How to list this on a résumé and For employers: how to read a record are guides. They explain this policy for two kinds of reader and add no rules of their own.

1.4 Words we use

Words that have one meaning in every one of our documents, such as member, visitor, staff, the editor, record item, hold, case and tip, are defined in Definitions. The words below are added for this document's own subject, or repeated from Definitions for convenience. If a repeated meaning ever differs, Definitions governs the meaning of the word.

• The Record is a member's set of items. An item is one thing the member did. A record page is the page for one item, at an address beginning tillyard.org/r/.
• Staff means the owner and any person who works for us under a paid, written contract and holds a staff account. At present the owner is the only member of staff. Members are never staff, and no member is given any power over another member's content or account, whatever title or history that member has. The editor is the member of staff who decides whether a paper is published in Tillyard Research and who approves or signs titles. At present the owner is the editor and is the only member of staff.
• A title is an item the editor approved or signed, such as Published Author. The editor's mark is the design on a record page that shows this.
• Approved, recorded and self-reported are the three kinds of item (section 3).
• How we know is the sentence on a page that says who or what is the source of the record. This policy also calls it the basis.
• The area an item came from is the part of the site where the activity happened and was recorded: Tillyard Research, Pursuits, a booth, a scheduled table, an organization's entry or the service ledger.
• Status is the word on a page that says whether the record stands today (section 10). A tombstone is the nameless page left at an address after an item has gone.
• A code is the ten-character code that comes with an item (section 12).
• The public page is a member's optional profile page, at an address beginning tillyard.org/m/. The directory is the optional name search of members who chose to be listed.
• A keepsake is a stamp, a mug on the shelf, a founding number, a postmark or another mark for taking part. The site also calls these perks or house marks. They are not items on The Record.
• A participation line is a count of taking part, such as visits to The Shop in a term. It is shown apart from The Record and has no page.
• A hold hides an item from everyone except its author while a person looks at it. A hold deletes nothing, adds no strike and is not a finding that a rule was broken.

1.5 "May", "aim" and "currently"

When this policy says we may do something, we are describing something we are allowed to do and can choose not to do. When it says we aim to do something, we are describing what we try to do, with no commitment about a result or a time. Currently and at present describe how the site works on the date of this policy, and a number marked that way can change.

When a document of ours uses the word will for something we do, we mean it as a commitment, and every commitment is listed in Schedule 1 of the Terms of Use. A statement of how the site works describes the site as it is on the date of this document, and we mean it to be true on that date. It is not a promise that the site will stay that way (Definitions, section 2).

2 What The Record is for, and the rules behind it

2.1 The purpose

A résumé is a list of claims. The Record gives the reader of a résumé a way to check some of them. For each item it answers four questions: what was done, when, how do we know, and does it still stand.

It does that for things done on this site, and for a few things done elsewhere that left a public trace or that a person outside the site was willing to confirm. It does nothing for the rest of a member's life, and it does not try to.

2.2 Records state facts

A record says what a member did and who confirmed it. "Hosted 9 scheduled tables." "Published after being read by three students at other colleges and approved by the editor." It does not say the member did it well, reached a standard, or is ready for anything. Section 8 sets this rule out in full.

2.3 Exactly who checked what

Each page names its source in exact words. If three students read a paper, the page says three students. If the only source is our attendance log, the page says so. If one officer of an organization confirmed another, the page says that, and adds that we did not check it ourselves. We do not use words that would claim more than happened (section 5.11).

2.4 Titles and keepsakes are kept apart

A title comes only from a decision by the editor or other staff about work they reviewed or activity they can see in the logs. A keepsake comes from taking part. The two are recorded separately and nothing connects them: no number of stamps, visits, mugs or postmarks produces a title, and neither does a tip.

2.5 Nothing that counts needs private contact

No item requires a private one-to-one conversation between members, or a call on another service, in order to be earned. What counts happened in a place on the site that keeps a log and has report and block controls: a table, a booth, a thread, a submission.

Some activity takes place away from the site, such as service for an outside organization or a contribution merged into an open project. In those cases the record rests on a confirmation or on a public record, and the page says which.

2.6 The Record does not add to itself

Sharing an item earns nothing. Being opened often earns nothing. Being listed in the directory earns nothing. Nothing on The Record reacts to how many people have looked at it, and a tip does not change anything on it.

3 The three kinds of item

3.1 The kinds side by side

3.2 Approved

An approved item is a title. The editor read a paper and decided to publish it, or confirmed a term's selection, or signed a statement about hosting that the attendance log supports. The page says which, and section 4 says who can do this and on what basis.

3.3 Recorded

A recorded item rests on one of four sources, and the page names it:

1. our own logs;
2. students who chose to read or open something and typed what they found;
3. members who took part and confirmed each other;
4. a person outside the site.

Nobody on our staff judged a recorded item. A recorded item says that something happened. It does not say it was done well. Section 5 goes through each source.

3.4 Self-reported

A self-reported item is something the member added about their life outside the site: a campus award, a club role, a project of their own. It is the member's own statement. It has no record page at our address, no code and no QR code, because a page on our address for a claim nobody checked would lend it our name. Section 6 covers these.

3.5 One kind never becomes another

A self-reported item cannot be turned into a recorded one, and a recorded item cannot be turned into an approved one, by editing it, sharing it, or waiting. The three are kept separately on our systems. If something a member self-reported later happens on the site in a way that can be recorded, a new recorded item is created by the area where it happened, and the self-reported one stays what it was.

3.6 Things on a profile that are not items

A member's Record and public page can show other things beside items. Each is labelled so that it cannot be mistaken for one.

• Participation lines, under the heading "Taking part": for example a term's count of visits to The Shop. The page says "Counted by Tillyard. These are not Record items and have no page."
• Keepsakes, if the member chooses to show them: stamps, mugs, founding numbers and postmarks, with the note that they are marks for showing up and no part of The Record.
• Skills: links to the recorded items that involved a skill (section 8.3). A skill is never an item.
• Profile text: the headline, the "About" paragraph and interests the member wrote. These are the member's words and are not checked.

4 Approved items: titles

4.1 Who can approve or sign

Only staff. At present that means the owner, who is the editor. If we ever engage other staff, they will be people working under a paid contract, and they will act through staff accounts.

No member can grant, approve, sign, endorse, rank or hide an item on another member's Record. Members confirm facts about activity they took part in (section 5.4). That makes a recorded item. It never makes a title.

4.2 A title needs a decision

A title is created only when a staff decision about that item is recorded. Meeting a number does not create one. Neither does a keepsake, a confirmation from another member, a count of visits, a tip or anything else a member can do alone.

The editor decides each paper personally. No paper is accepted for Tillyard Research by an automatic rule, because the words "approved by the editor" have to stay true.

For other titles, staff may in future set a standing rule in advance for requests that meet the published numbers. If a title is ever granted that way, our log will show it, and the wording on the page will say what happened.

4.3 The titles we have at present

These are the titles on the date of this policy. We may add a title, change the numbers behind one, or stop granting one. A change does not alter a title already granted unless section 13 applies.

Two further titles, Workshop Lead and Campus Lead, are drafted and are not offered.

The Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research sets out how papers are read and decided and how Readers' Selection is worked out. The Hosting Terms and Disclosure Policy covers hosting.

4.4 How a title comes about

• A paper. The member writes and submits a paper. Students who chose to read may read it. The editor decides. If the paper is published, each author's Record gains a Published Author item for that paper.
• Readers' Selection. Nobody applies. After a term ends the list is worked out by the published rule and put to the editor.
• Table Host. Nobody is asked to host, and nothing changes for a member who never asks for the title. A member whose term of hosting meets the stated numbers may ask. The editor looks at the counted tables and either signs or does not.

Meeting the numbers lets a member ask. It does not oblige the editor to sign. A request that is declined is answered privately with one of a short list of fixed reasons. A request that staff did not look at within the stated period (currently 45 days) lapses, and the member can ask again. A lapse is our failure and counts for nothing against the member.

4.5 What approval means

Approval of a paper is an editorial decision to publish it. It is the kind of decision an editor of a student publication makes. It is not a mark, a grade or a finding that the paper is right.

A signature on a title is a statement that the logs show what the page says. It is not a judgment of how well the member did it.

We may grant or decline a title at our discretion, and we may withdraw one on the grounds in section 13.

5 Recorded items: how activity is confirmed

5.1 The items we record at present

The table lists the kinds of recorded item on the date of this policy, with the sentence each page carries. The wording on the page itself is what counts. Kinds open in stages, and some open only when enough members have chosen to read, so a kind listed here may not be available yet.

5.2 Our own logs

Some items are counted from records the site keeps as a matter of course: who had a seat at a scheduled table and stayed, how many sessions a booth held, how many readings a member returned. The page says the numbers were counted from our logs and that nobody typed them in.

A log count says what the system saw. It says a table met and a number of people were present. It says nothing about what was said there, what anyone learned, or how well the host ran it.

The numbers on a page are counts and dates. The Record does not state hours, and we do not issue a statement of hours for any activity.

5.3 Students who chose to read or to look

For a paper, a portfolio piece or an open contribution, the people who looked are other members. Three things are true of them, and a reader of the page should know all three.

• They chose to. Reading and looking are voluntary. Members opt into an open pool, are offered items, and can decline any of them. Nobody is assigned, nobody has a number to meet, and nothing is gained or lost by reading more or less. The Reader Guidelines say more.
• The site picks who is offered what. Currently the offer goes to a member at a different college who is not connected to the author, is not a co-author, and has not been paired with the author before, and the reader does not see who wrote the piece. For an open contribution or an open resource, if nobody at another college takes the offer within a set time (currently five days), it may go to an unconnected member at the author's own college. The page then says "two students" and leaves out "at other colleges", so the sentence stays true.
• They are members who told us they are students. They are not experts in the field and they are not staff. Their reading is not academic peer review. The paragraph below says exactly what "students" means on a page.

Where a member opens an outside link as evidence, they type what they observed: a number, a quoted line, a date, a result. They do not tick a box. The page can then say what they found.

What "students" means on a page

Where a page says work was read by "students at other colleges", read it exactly this way. Each of those readers is a member. Each confirmed, by a code, a mailbox at a college other than the author's. Each told us at sign-up that they were a current student or a recent graduate. We do not check enrolment with any college, a recent graduate may be among them, and a college can leave a mailbox open after a person has left. So the sentence tells you how many members with a confirmed address elsewhere read the work. It does not tell you that each was enrolled on the day they read it, and it never means that a scholar in the field reviewed it.

5.4 Members who took part

For a team project, each person on the team says what they did, and the others confirm it separately. For an organization role, another officer of the same organization confirms it. The page says how many confirmed and in what capacity.

These confirmations are the statements of the people who made them. Teammates confirm teammates. Officers confirm officers. They know the facts and they are not strangers to the person they confirm, and the page does not pretend otherwise: it says who confirmed and that we did not check.

5.5 Rounds

A round is the one place where reading other people's work is part of the arrangement, and it is so only because the round's published rules say, before anyone enters, that entrants score other entries. Rounds are free to enter and carry no prize. The page for an entry says that other entrants scored it against the published criteria and that we added up the scores and judged nothing. A finalist's line is a recorded item and can never carry the editor's mark.

5.6 A person outside the site

Service for a charity or a public body is confirmed by someone at that organization. The steps are built so that the site never writes to a stranger at a member's request.

1. The member shares a confirmation link with their contact. A member never types another person's email address into the site.
2. The contact opens the link and reads the claim exactly as it would appear.
3. If the contact chooses to confirm, they type their own name and role and tick the statements shown. They may also enter their own work email address and receive a one-time code there. This step sits behind a bot check and is limited in how often it can be used.
4. The page then says who confirmed and from what kind of address.

What the page says depends on what the contact did:

The page also carries one line about the organization: that it has not yet been checked; that it was listed as tax-exempt when we looked it up on a stated date; that it is a public body; or that we looked and did not find it on the public list of tax-exempt organizations, with the note that some real charities are not on that list.

An outside confirmation shows that someone with access to that email address read the claim and confirmed it. We do not check that person's identity, their role, or their authority to speak for the organization, and the page says so.

For service items we keep a record and nothing more. The member arranged the work with the organization. We did not set it up, direct it or supervise it, and the page for a service item says so.

5.7 An outside record

Some pieces rest on something a third party did in public: a project's maintainers merged a contribution, an outlet's editor published an op-ed, an agency posted a comment, an event printed a programme. The page names what the outside party did and says that a student at another college opened the public record and typed what they found.

We have no tie to those third parties and the page does not suggest one. A member who contributes to a public project does so under their own account, on that project's terms.

5.8 Frozen evidence, and links that change

Where a member gives an outside link as evidence, the form asks for a reference that does not change wherever the host offers one: a commit hash, a revision number, a docket number, an archived copy. The record rests on what was at the link when it was read.

If the member later edits the link, the item is marked "link changed since it was read" until someone reads it again.

5.9 Dated logs

For a log, the site stamps each entry with the day it was written and stops it being changed after 24 hours. The page says that, and says that the content of the entries is the member's own account. We date the entries. We do not check them.

5.10 Fixed labels in some fields

Pieces that touch law, tax, medicine, engineering or investments carry a fixed label such as "Student exercise. Not advice to anyone." Design and practice tracks leave out some subject matter altogether. The label is part of the page and a member cannot remove it.

5.11 Words we do not use

We do not describe any item as "verified" with nothing after it, "independently" checked, "audited", "reviewed by outside reviewers" or "peer-reviewed". Each of those would claim more than happened. The one fixed use of "verified" on the site is the college email line in section 9, which says what was checked and when.

We do not use wording that suggests a college, an employer, a government agency or any other organization stands behind an item. Where an organization is named on a page, the page says exactly what that organization or person did.

6 Self-reported items

6.1 What they are

A member can add something they did outside the site. There are two forms:

• Something I did: for example a campus award, a club role, a project of their own.
• Something I hold that another body issued: for example a licence or a test result from another organization.

6.2 What they get, and what they do not

A self-reported item:

• is marked "Self-reported" wherever it appears;
• sits under its own heading, apart from approved and recorded items;
• has no record page at tillyard.org/r/, no code and no QR code;
• is never used to draft a résumé line in The Workbench, and never counts as evidence of a skill;
• can be shown on the member's public page if the member switches that on, under the heading "Self-reported" with the sentence "The member added these. Nobody at Tillyard checked them."

6.3 Things issued elsewhere

An item of the second form is displayed as "[Name] reports holding [what], issued by [whom]". The member can add the address where the issuer lets people check, on the issuer's own site. We show that address as text only, without opening it, and we do not check the claim. If you want to confirm it, use the issuer's own page.

Naming an issuer does not mean the issuer has any connection with us.

6.4 Rules for self-reported items

• Write it in your own words and make it true. It is your statement, and you are responsible for it.
• Do not use the name of one of our titles, the words "approved by the editor", our name, or any wording that suggests we checked it. The form refuses these.
• The text is screened like other member text before others can see it, and it can be reported and hidden like any other.
• There is a limit on how many a member can keep (currently 12, and 3 for an account less than a week old).
• You can edit or remove a self-reported item at any time.

7 What every record page shows

7.1 The parts of a page

A record page for an approved or recorded item has these parts:

1. The item's code, shown as two groups of five characters.
2. The title of the item, and one sentence stating what was done.
3. The mark for its kind: the editor's mark, or "Recorded".
4. Who: the member's name. Their college, if the member chose to show it. The college email line (section 9).
5. What: the facts, each with a label. Numbers are counts.
6. When: dates, to the day or the month. Never a time of day.
7. How we know: the basis, in exact words.
8. Status, with the day's date: for example "Active on 10 October 2026."
9. What this page does and does not say: the fixed statement in 7.2.
10. Check it yourself: the QR code, the page's address in text, and where to enter the code.
11. A link to an explanation of The Record, and a link for reporting a problem with the page.

7.2 The fixed statement

Every record page carries a statement that the member cannot edit. It has four parts.

1. What the page states, built from the record.
2. How we know, the same basis sentence as above.
3. The relationship: that the activity was unpaid and the member's own choice, and that the member "was not an employee, intern or contractor of Tillyard."
4. Who we are: "Tillyard is an Ohio nonprofit corporation. Tillyard is not affiliated with or endorsed by any college or university."

The statements below show the shape for the main kinds of item. The wording on the page is what counts.

7.3 What a page never shows

• A score, a grade, a level, a rank or a pass mark.
• The reasons for a decision, or the reasons an item was withdrawn.
• Whether the member has ever been reported, warned, suspended or blocked.
• A former name.
• A photograph. Members are shown by their initials.
• A date of birth or an age. We do not hold either.
• Contact details, or any way to message the member.
• The time of day of any activity.
• How many people have opened the page. The member alone can see a count (section 11.9).

7.4 A page is a statement about today

Record pages are produced when they are requested. A page shows the status on the day it is opened and prints that date beside it. It does not say the item will stand tomorrow, and we do not describe any page as permanent or as always current.

8 No grades, levels or claims of proficiency

8.1 We do not test or rate members

We do not test members and we do not rate them. Nothing on The Record, and nothing we issue anywhere else, says that a member has reached a level of skill, knowledge, competence or proficiency, has completed a course, or has passed anything.

We do not issue certificates, diplomas, completion awards, grades, levels, ranks, pass marks or badges of skill. We do not call a series of tables a course or a program of study.

8.2 What that means on a page

• Facts are counts, dates and names: tables hosted, people present, papers read, the title of a paper, the name of an organization.
• A page that mentions scoring says who scored and that we added the scores up. It does not show a score.
• Readers' Selection, which is not running at present, would record that a paper was picked by a published rule from the papers read in a term, and give the number picked and the number eligible. It is a report of how readers scored papers. It is not an honour, an award, a ranking by experts or a ranking of members, and the page mentions no score.
• An approved paper was accepted for publication. That is a decision to publish, the same in kind as any editor's, and says nothing about a standard reached.

8.3 Skills

A member's public page can list skills. A skill there is a link and carries no rating. It comes from a fixed list, and it appears only while the member is sharing a recorded or approved item that involved it. The page says how many items involved the skill and links to them, with the sentence "Skills are not tested here. Each one links to the recorded items that involved it."

A member picks at most a few skills per item, from the ones that kind of item allows. There are no skill levels, no endorsements and no free-text skills.

8.4 Practice results

If the site offers a practice quiz or exercise, the result is shown to the member alone, with its date. It does not create an item on The Record and cannot be shared as one.

8.5 What members must not claim

A member must not describe anything from Tillyard as a certificate, a certification, a qualification, a course, a grade or a level, or as evidence of skill. How to list this on a résumé gives wording that is true.

9 The college email line

9.1 What the college email line says

Under "Who", a record page carries a line in this form: "Verified .edu email, checked March 2027".

It means that in the month shown, a code sent to an address at that college was entered back into the site. Someone could receive mail at a mailbox at that college that month. That is all it means.

It does not say that we confirmed the member's identity, age, enrolment, major, year, grades, degree or standing with the college. We do not contact colleges and colleges tell us nothing.

9.2 Why it carries a date

A mailbox that answered last year may not answer now. So the line is dated, and members are asked to repeat the check about once a year. When they do, the date moves forward.

9.3 When the check lapses

If a member does not repeat the check within the period their account shows, the line changes to say when the address was last checked, for example "School email last checked October 2026".

A lapsed check is not a status of any item. It does not withdraw anything, and the member's record pages stay as they were. It happens to most members some time after they graduate, when their college closes the mailbox. The Eligibility and Verification Policy covers the yearly check and what a lapse pauses inside the site.

9.4 Which college is shown

The college shown under "Who" is the member's college on the day the page is opened, and it appears only if the member chose to show it. It is not necessarily the college the member attended when the item was recorded. Where the college matters to the item itself, as with an organization role or the byline of a paper, the item's own facts name the college as it was at the time.

10 Status, and what is left when an item goes

10.1 The statuses

10.2 What "no longer listed" covers

A page reads "no longer listed" when any of these is true:

• the member set the item to "Only me";
• the member put the item away;
• the item or the page is on hold while a report or a dispute is looked at;
• the member's account is paused, is closing, or has been closed or removed;
• a title was retired because its holder left.

The page gives no name, no title, no college and no reason. Members choose what they share and can change that at any time, so this wording says nothing about the item.

10.3 What "withdrawn" covers

A page reads "withdrawn" when the record no longer stands: the member withdrew the thing itself, the area it came from withdrew it under its rules, or staff withdrew it (section 13). The page shows the month and nothing else. It does not say who withdrew the item or why, and we do not publish that.

"Withdrawn" comes before every other state. A member cannot hide a withdrawal by setting the item to "Only me", by putting it away, or by closing their account, and a hold does not hide it either.

10.4 Notes that can appear on an active page

An item can stand and still carry a note that tells the reader something has changed:

• "Disputed": someone named on the item, such as a collaborator, has disputed a line of it (section 14.4).
• "Link changed since it was read": the member edited an outside link after it was read (section 5.8).
• "Confirmation withdrawn": an outside person has withdrawn a confirmation they gave. Where that confirmation was the only basis for the item, the item no longer stands as confirmed.

10.5 Tombstones

When an item goes, its address does not simply fail. The page that answers is a tombstone. It carries the words for its state and nothing about the person: no name, no title of the item, no college, no reason.

After an account is erased, we keep for each of its record pages only the address, the code, the state ("no longer listed" or "withdrawn") and the month. Currently we keep those for 36 months. After that the address and the code answer "Nothing is listed here."

We keep tombstones so that a link on an old résumé gives an honest answer, and so that a withdrawn item cannot be made to look as though it never existed.

10.6 What status never shows

A suspension changes nothing on a member's public pages. A suspension concerns taking part in the site. It does not concern past facts, and showing it would publish a moderation outcome. A lapsed college email check is not a status either (section 9.3).

11 Sharing: who can see what

11.1 Three settings for each item

Each approved or recorded item has its own setting:

The address of a record page is long and random, so it cannot practically be guessed. That is what "anyone with the link" relies on. It also means that anyone who is given the link can pass it on.

11.2 How a new item starts

A member chooses in their account how new items of each kind start out. An item never starts wider than its kind allows. Some kinds always start as "Only me" whatever the member's setting, including the count of papers a member has read and a dated log.

11.3 Lead with, put away, see it as a visitor

• Lead with this. Up to three items (currently) can sit first on the public page.
• Put this away. The item leaves the member's Record view and stops being shared. It can be brought back.
• See it as a visitor. Every item and the public page can be opened the way a stranger would see them.

11.4 The public page

The public page is off until the member switches it on. To do so the member ticks a statement that says what the page will show and that anyone with the address can read it, member or not.

When it is on, it shows:

• the member's name and initials;
• the profile fields the member chose to show strangers, such as college and graduation year, and a link to their LinkedIn profile if they gave one;
• the college email line and the month the member joined;
• the headline, "About" text and interests the member wrote;
• the items the member set to "On my public page", each linking to its record page;
• skills, as links to items (section 8.3);
• self-reported items, if the member switched them on, under their own heading;
• participation lines and keepsakes, if the member switched them on, under "Taking part".

It does not show anything the member did not choose to put there. A page that is public but has no items on it says so to its owner.

An account less than a week old (currently) can set its page up but cannot make it public.

A member can replace the address of their public page. The old address stops working at once. This can be done a limited number of times (currently twice in 30 days). The address of an individual record page cannot be changed. A member who no longer wants someone to open an item can set it to "Only me", which makes it read "no longer listed" for everyone.

11.5 The directory

The directory is a name search. It lists only members who chose to be listed, so not finding someone tells you nothing about them.

• Being listed needs the public page to be on and a separate permission, given in the member's account.
• A search needs at least three letters of a first or last name. A college or an interest can narrow it. There is no way to browse everyone, and no search by college alone or by interest alone for a signed-out visitor.
• Results come a few at a time, in no ranked order, with no total.
• A signed-in member can also search their own college by interest.
• We do not log searches.
• After a member opts in, appearing in results can take up to an hour. After a member opts out, they are gone from the next search.

At present only signed-in members can search the directory. Search by signed-out visitors is built and is switched off. If we open it, a visitor will have to complete a bot check that allows a small number of searches.

11.6 Search engines

Record pages and public pages tell search engines not to list them. A member can give a third, separate permission that allows search engines to list their public page and the items on it. If the member withdraws it, the instruction not to list is restored on the next request.

We cannot make a search engine act quickly. A page that was listed may stay in results or in a cache for days or weeks after it is switched off, and that timing is the search engine's.

11.7 Switching things off

Any of these can be switched off at any time. A change takes effect the next time a page is requested. "Switch off everything public" in a member's account withdraws the public page, the directory listing and search-engine listing in one action. Items set to "Anyone with the link" are changed one at a time on The Record.

11.8 What sharing cannot undo

Making something public means anyone can read it, save it, copy it and link to it, including people the member would not have chosen. We limit bulk copying with rate limits, bot checks and hard-to-guess addresses, and we offer no page that lists everyone. We cannot prevent copying. Switching a page off stops us showing it. It does not recall a copy someone already made.

11.9 Blocks, contact and open counts

• A public page and a directory result carry no message, nod or contact control. Nobody can write to a member from one.
• A signed-in member who has blocked the owner, or been blocked by them, sees "not available" in place of the public page. This is a courtesy and not a barrier: a signed-out visitor can still open a public page.
• The member can see how many times each item was opened and how many of those came from someone typing the code, counted by day. We keep daily totals only. We keep nothing about who opened a page: no IP address, no browser details, no referring page. Totals are capped each day and are currently kept for 400 days.

12 Codes, QR codes and looking an item up

12.1 The code

Every approved or recorded item that has a record page has a code of ten characters, shown as two groups of five, for example 7K4MQ-2XPDZ. Codes use capital letters and digits and never use 0, 1, I, L, O or U, so that a code read from paper cannot be confused. The last character is a check character: if any single character is mistyped, the form says so before it looks anything up.

A code belongs to one item. It is random. It does not encode the member's name, and it does not search for people.

Self-reported items and participation lines have no code.

12.2 Where a code is used

A code is for the case where someone has a printed résumé and no link. They go to tillyard.org/verify, type the code, and land on the item's record page. Capitals or not, with or without the hyphen. A pasted record link works in the same box.

A code works only at tillyard.org/verify. A record page lives only at an address beginning tillyard.org/r/. A page anywhere else that looks like one of ours is not ours.

12.3 What a lookup shows

The same page the link would show, in whatever state it is in: active, no longer listed, or withdrawn. If we have no item with that code, the form says so in one neutral sentence and suggests checking the code against the résumé. It gives the same answer for every miss.

The lookup form sits behind a bot check, and lookups from one place are limited (currently 20 an hour). These limits exist so that codes cannot be guessed in bulk.

12.4 The QR code

Each item has a QR code that the member can download and print. It holds the address of the item's record page and nothing else. The address is always printed in text beside it, so a reader never has to trust a picture.

12.5 The printed Record of activity

A member can print a "Record of activity": a document listing the items they choose, each with its dates, its "how we know" sentence and its code. Self-reported items, if included, come last under the heading "Reported by the member" with the sentence "Nobody at Tillyard checked these."

The document is made by the member's own browser when they print it. We do not store a copy and we do not sign it. Its foot says: "Statuses can change. The page behind each code is the current record."

12.6 The page is the confirmation

The record page is how we confirm an item. We do not confirm, add to or explain an individual record by phone, by email or by letter, and we do not fill in verification forms. If a page looks wrong to you, tell us (section 14).

This does not limit what we do in answer to valid legal process, which the Law Enforcement and Legal Requests Policy covers.

13 Withdrawal and holds

13.1 What a member can do

A member has three different tools, with different effects.

A member who only wants to stop showing an item should use the first. Withdrawal is for when the member no longer stands behind the thing.

Withdrawing a published paper is governed by the Author Agreement and Licence and the Editorial Policy of Tillyard Research, including what happens when a paper has more than one author.

13.2 What happens by rule

Some changes are made by the rules of the area an item came from, without anyone on staff deciding:

• An outside person withdraws a confirmation and proves the same email address by code. The confirmation is withdrawn at once.
• A collaborator disputes a contribution line. It is marked "disputed" at once (section 14.4).
• A confirmation that was asked for is never given. No item is created. A recorded item exists only once it is confirmed.
• An outside link is edited after it was read. The item is marked until it is read again (section 5.8).
• A role in an organization ends, lapses or is handed over. The item's dates follow.
• An organization named on service items is found not to be eligible. Items naming it may be withdrawn.

Anything decided by rule is labelled as such in our own log.

13.3 What staff may do

We may correct, hold or withdraw an item, including a title, when we learn or reasonably believe that:

• a fact on it is wrong;
• it was obtained by breaking the Terms of Use, the Community Guidelines or the rules of the area it came from, for example by copying, by inventing sources or data, by confirmations traded between friends, or by using a second account;
• a confirmation behind it was not genuine, was given by someone with no knowledge of the facts, or has been withdrawn;
• evidence it relied on has changed or gone;
• it names a person or an organization in a way that is false or that they object to with good reason;
• the member has described it to others as more than it is, after being asked to stop;
• the law requires it.

These are decisions for us to make, and we make them on the information in front of us. We aim to tell the member when an item of theirs is corrected, held or withdrawn, and which rule was involved. We do not publish our reasons, and we do not tell the member who made a report.

A member can ask once for a second look at a decision about their Record. The Reporting, Enforcement and Appeals Policy says how.

13.4 Holds

A hold hides an item, a self-reported item or a whole public page while a report or a dispute is looked at. Nothing is deleted. A held record page reads "no longer listed", a held public page reads "not available", and nothing public says that a hold exists. The member sees the item marked "Hidden while we look at a report".

Editing the text of a held item does not release it. When a hold is lifted, the member's own sharing settings apply again.

An item is not hidden because of the number of reports against it. Only a decision by staff in a case places a hold.

13.5 Putting a withdrawal right

If an item was withdrawn by mistake, it can be made active again, and its page then shows the active record as before.

13.6 What a member must do when an item is withdrawn

Take it off your résumé, your LinkedIn profile and anywhere else you have listed it, no later than 7 days afterwards. The page says "withdrawn" to anyone who follows the link, whatever your sharing settings are. The résumé checker in The Workbench may flag a line whose item is no longer listed or whose numbers differ from The Record.

13.7 We cannot tell people who already looked

We keep nothing about who opened a page, so when an item is withdrawn or corrected we have no means of telling anyone who saw it earlier. The live page is the only place the current status appears. A member whose item has changed is responsible for telling anyone they sent it to.

14 Accuracy, corrections and disputes

14.1 How the build supports accuracy

• The words on a page come from fixed wording and from the record. A member cannot write or edit them.
• Counts come from logs, not from what a member types.
• Evidence is frozen at the point it was read, and a later change is marked.
• The basis sentence names the real source and the real number of people.
• Self-reported items are kept apart and cannot carry a record page.

14.2 What we do not do

We do not check the identity of the people who confirm things. We do not re-do or mark the work behind a recorded item. We do not check self-reported items. We do not contact colleges, employers or issuers. We do not re-check an item at intervals after it is recorded. We do not promise that a page is complete, accurate or current.

A record is as good as its source, and the page tells you what the source is.

14.3 If a fact on your own item is wrong

You cannot edit an approved or recorded item. Each item has a link, "Something wrong?", that sends a correction request to us. Corrections are made in the area the item came from, so that the underlying record and the page stay in step.

Your name on a record page is your current name on the site. A former name is never shown. The byline of a published paper is a snapshot from the day of publication; the Author Agreement and Licence says how to ask for it to be updated.

14.4 Disputing someone else's record, or one that names you

Anyone, with or without an account, can use the form at tillyard.org/dispute. Every record page links to it. The form offers fixed kinds of dispute, including:

• a page or record about me is wrong, or names me without my agreement;
• I did not give this confirmation;
• credit on a project or a paper is wrong;
• a title or a record I believe is false;
• a decision about my paper, record or account (members only; this goes to the appeal route).

Each dispute gets a ticket number and a status page that can be checked with the ticket and the email address used.

Some disputes are settled by rule at once, so that nobody has to wait for a person:

We do not promise an outcome or a time. Raising a dispute never costs a person their standing with us. Reports and disputes made in bad faith are dealt with under the limits in the Acceptable Use Policy and the Community Guidelines.

The Disputes and Corrections Policy governs the handling of a dispute from that point.

14.5 Fake pages and forged records

If you see a page, an image or a document that imitates a record page, the editor's mark or a code, tell us at security@tillyard.org or through the dispute form. A genuine record can always be opened at tillyard.org/r/ or looked up at tillyard.org/verify.

15 What happens to a Record when an account changes

A person who closes an account and later joins again starts a new Record. Items from the closed account are not restored, and titles do not move between accounts.

16 What members agree to

If you have a Record, you agree to these things.

1. Describe each item as its page describes it. You may use fewer words. You may not use bigger ones. How to list this on a résumé and the Trademark and Brand Use Policy give wording.
2. Never present an item as a higher kind than it is. A recorded item is not an approved one. A self-reported item is not a recorded one.
3. Keep it out of any heading about employment. Nothing from Tillyard belongs under Experience, Employment or Internships, or under Licenses and Certifications.
4. Take a withdrawn item down no later than 7 days afterwards, everywhere you listed it.
5. Do not alter, fake or imitate a record page, the editor's mark, a code, a QR code or the printed Record of activity. Do not edit a screenshot or a saved copy.
6. Do not arrange confirmations that are not true. Do not confirm something you did not see, ask a friend to, or trade confirmations.
7. Do not write an outside confirmer's confirmation for them, use their email address, or pretend to be them.
8. Keep your name true. Records rely on it.
9. Remember what sharing does. A link you send can be forwarded.

Breaking these rules is a serious matter. We may withdraw the item or the title concerned, and the Reporting, Enforcement and Appeals Policy sets out what else we may do. Misdescribing a record to an employer can also have consequences for you that have nothing to do with us.

17 If you rely on a record page

This section is for visitors: recruiters, employers, admissions readers and anyone else checking a claim. For employers: how to read a record goes through it step by step.

A record page is published at the member's request. It reports the facts stated on it, on the basis stated on it, as of the day you open it. It is one piece of information and it is yours to weigh.

• It is not a reference or a recommendation, and we do not give either.
• It is not a background check. We are not a consumer reporting agency and a record page is not a consumer report. We do not assemble or evaluate information about people for employers, and we take no payment from anyone for showing a page.
• It is not confirmation of identity, enrolment, a degree, or a right to work in the United States.
• It does not show whether a member has been reported or suspended, and the absence of a page or an item says nothing about anyone.
• We do not promise that a page is complete, accurate or current. The limits on our liability in the Terms of Use apply to you when you use the site.

You may open and print record pages to check a claim someone made to you. You may not collect record pages or directory results in bulk, by hand or by program, or build them into another product or database. The Acceptable Use Policy applies.

18 If you are named on a page

You may be named on a member's record page because you worked on a project with them, served as an officer with them, or confirmed something for them from outside the site. An organization may be named because a member served it or held a role in it.

• If you confirmed something and want to take it back, use the dispute form and choose "I did not give this confirmation", or use the link in the receipt we sent when you confirmed. Proving the same email address withdraws the confirmation at once.
• If you were named without agreeing to it, or the page is wrong about you, use the dispute form. Where you write from an address at the organization named and prove it by code, your name is hidden while we look.
• If you do not want us to email an address again, every email to an outside confirmer has a one-click link for that, and we keep a protected record of the address so that we can honour it.
• If you speak for an organization and object to how it is named, write to legal@tillyard.org or use the dispute form.

Being named on a page does not make you or your organization affiliated with us, and the page says what you did in exact words. The Privacy Notice covers what we hold about people who are not members.

19 What is not available

None of these is available, so nobody needs to wait for them:

• No confirmation by phone, email or letter (section 12.6).
• No letters of reference or recommendation, and no statements of hours.
• No downloadable signed credential files or digital badges at present. A hosted page with a code does that work.
• No custom or vanity addresses for pages. They would make impersonation easier.
• No endorsements, ratings, rankings or "featured members". Nobody sees how often a page was opened except its owner.
• No embeddable badges or widgets for other sites.
• No recruiter accounts, no search of members by college or interest for outsiders, and no contact through the site from a public page.
• No reading of a member's LinkedIn profile, and nothing sent to LinkedIn. The site gives the member text to paste.
• No editing of a recorded or approved item by its owner.
• No moving a title or an item from one account to another.

Changes to this document

We may revise this policy. When we do, we change the version number and the effective date at the top. An item is governed by the policy in force when each step is taken: when it is recorded, when it is shared, when it is disputed, when it is withdrawn. Where a change is significant we aim to tell members through the site before it takes effect. A change to this policy does not by itself withdraw or alter an item already on a Record.

Contact

• Questions about The Record or about one of your own items: support@tillyard.org
• To dispute or correct something, with or without an account: tillyard.org/dispute
• To check an item from a printed résumé: tillyard.org/verify
• A fake record page, a forged code or misuse of the editor's mark: security@tillyard.org
• Legal notices, court orders and requests from an organization named on a page: legal@tillyard.org, or by post to Tillyard, 10602 York Rd SW, Etna, Ohio 43062
• Accessibility of record pages: accessibility@tillyard.org

Questions about this document

support@tillyard.org

Legal notices

legal@tillyard.org

By post

10602 York Rd SW, Etna, Ohio 43062

For anything else, see where to send what.

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