Credibility Standards

There are a few credibility standards that must be met by website owners in order for their webpage(s) to appear in the NobleSearch results. These standards exist to protect our users from non-credible content, and in turn, improve our users' search experience. Moreover, some standards may differ depending on how your website is classified.

Domain Whitelist

The first requirement to listing your webpage(s) on NobleSearch is to whitelist your domain(s). This requirement applies to all website classifications.

Once a domain is whitelisted, all webpages on that domain can be added without verification by any registered DBN News user. As such, we require that all webpages of a domain comply with our credibility standards in order for us to to consider the domain eligible for approval; in addition, we expect continued and indefinite compliance with our standards of credibility. We reserve the right to disapprove and remove any domain (and its webpages) without notice, should it fail to comply in the future.

Original Content Producers (OCPs)

An OCP (e.g. a blog or podcast), whether it is commercial or not, may fail to have its domain approved on the following grounds:

  • Circular sourcing: The practice of sourcing a source whose source(s) eventually source back to the original author or a party who has an interest in being partial to the author(s).
  • Pretense of impartiality: The pretense that the content produced is in no way influenced by any personal bias whatsoever.
  • Pretense of benevolence: In the case where the content produced advocates in favor of an outcome, that the outcome is desirable only for humanitarian or benevolent reasons.
  • Pretense of compassion: The use of compassionate language in a manner that belittles, demeans, or otherwise condescends against a particular community.
  • Hate speech: The advocacy of genocide against any community, as defined in Article II of United Nations resolution 260 A (III).
  • Obscenity: Content that is widely considered lewd, filthy, or disgusting. Exceptions are made when such content is used in a scientific context.
  • Illegal Content: Any content that violates applicable laws.

Non-Original Content Producers (NCPs)

An NCP (e.g. social media or archive) may fail to have its domain approved on the following grounds:

  • Fake Community Guidelines: Inconsistent or discriminatory application of community guidelines.
  • Non-Compliance: Failure to remove content that is illegal, obscene, or hateful within a reasonable period of time.

Government Content

We only ask that government content abide by applicable laws.