Why we curate news — standards, safety and how to use this feed
The News section is not an aggregator for sensation; it is a carefully curated resource that prioritises verifiable facts, practical relevance and safety. We live in an era of accelerating information where unverified claims about health, spiritual practices or community happenings can cause harm — especially when those claims concern treatments, herbal preparations, or public gatherings. Our objective is to make it easy for our community to find trustworthy updates while also giving readers the context and caveats necessary to evaluate applicability and risk.
Items appear in this feed only after passing a set of checks. We prioritise reports that either originate from a reputable institution (government health departments, peer-reviewed journals, established news organisations, reputable ashrams and NGOs) or that contain verifiable contact details and specific, reproducible facts (dates, locations, organisers). For clinical or health-related items we add explicit advisories and — when appropriate — links to authoritative guidance that readers can consult before acting.
Curation is a process: our team fetches candidate items via trusted RSS sources and manual submissions, then applies rapid verification steps. When possible we find the original source, confirm publication date and author, and look for corroboration. If an item is ambiguous, speculative, or lacks verifiable provenance we either exclude it or publish it with transparent annotation (for example: “Unverified; source claims X but no institutional confirmation found”). For items describing a novel treatment or a clinical claim, we explicitly flag them as informational only and recommend consulting licensed clinicians.
What we check (short list)
- Source confirmation: Does the item link to an original report on an official site?
- Attribution: Are author and publication date present and plausible?
- Cross-check: Can the claim be corroborated by an independent, reputable source?
- Local verification: For events and announcements, do contact details or registration links work?
- Risk flagging: For health claims we add an advisory and reference to a government or peer-reviewed resource where relevant.
In practice this means the feed contains three broad item types: (1) verified announcements and event notices that we can confirm and provide scheduling details for; (2) curated summaries of research, official guidance and policy updates where we add short, practical commentary for readers; and (3) community notices and small-scale updates that are verified to the extent practical (e.g., festival changes, clinic schedules). We intentionally avoid republishing unverified rumours or promotional material presented as news.
How to use this feed safely
Use the feed as an indexed doorway to primary sources. If a news card references a medical advisory, follow the link to the institution that issued it. If an item concerns a treatment, consult clinical guidance or a licensed practitioner before making any changes to your care. For community events, call the organiser or check registration pages — we include links and contact details when available. Treat the short commentary we add as contextual summary rather than definitive medical advice.
We also keep an audit trail of fetches and editorial actions in the admin area so that if a reader asks “where did this item come from?” we can show the original URL, fetch time and reviewer note. Corrections are published prominently when we find errors: we either remove the item or annotate it with the correction and the reason.
Editorial principles — transparency and minimal harm
Our editorial priorities are transparency, traceability and minimizing harm. We do not publish sensational headlines and avoid amplifying unverified claims. When an item could plausibly lead readers to change medical behaviour we add a clear advisory and a pointer to authoritative resources (WHO, national public health agencies, or peer-reviewed summaries). For spiritual or ritual practice items, we add cultural context and safety notes where needed.
If you are a reviewer assessing the site, the principal things to check are: (a) each item is traceable to a source, (b) health claims are flagged and linked to authoritative guidance, and (c) editorial provenance (owner/curator) is visible — all of which we provide here.
We welcome feedback — if you believe an item is incorrect, incomplete, or potentially harmful, please contact us at debesh_r@vividashram.com. We investigate reported issues promptly and publish corrections when appropriate.