Submission Guidelines

Submission Guidelines

Read before you post.

Document something real. Film it yourself. Submit it in the right format. No AI. That's most of it.

The Format

Every submission to r/TheSaltbox should follow this structure. You don't need to use headers exactly like this but all of this information needs to be somewhere in your post.

SALTBOX ARCHIVE—FIELD SUBMISSION FORM
Fondation Pastore / SBX intake—unauthorized public mirror

INCIDENT DATE:
INCIDENT LOCATION: (city / state / coordinates if known)
DURATION OF EVENT:
SUBMITTER STATUS: (witness / affected party / third party)

INCIDENT SUMMARY:
(Two or three sentences. Police report style. What happened, where, when.)

FULL ACCOUNT:
(Everything. First person. Don't editorialize—just describe what you experienced
in the order you experienced it. Specific details only. Times, sounds, smells,
textures. Vague accounts don't get reviewed.)

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE:
(Embed your video directly in the post. Mandatory. Describe what the media shows
and how it was captured.)

CURRENT STATUS OF ANOMALY:
(Is it ongoing? Resolved? Unknown? Is it still at the location?)

WHY PASTORE SHOULD INVESTIGATE: (optional—but reviewed faster)

The Rules

01 Video is mandatory.

Every submission requires a video uploaded directly to your Reddit post. Not a link to another platform. Not a photo. A video. If you only have photos, layer audio over them and export as video. CapCut is free. There are no exceptions to this rule.

02 No AI. Ever.

No AI generated audio. No AI generated visuals. No AI generated writing. Not partially. Not as a base that you edited. Not "just for the thumbnail." If your submission contains AI generated content in any form it will be removed. This rule exists because the Saltbox requires something real. AI is not real.

If we flag something as potentially AI and we're wrong—if it's Blender or practical effects or something else you actually made—tell us what software you used. We'll review it. We don't accuse, we ask.

03 Anything qualifies subject-matter-wise.

A creature. A place. A sound. A person. A room. A road. A vending machine. A recurring dream that leaves physical marks. Whatever it was. Subject matter is not the filter. Execution and authenticity are.

04 Quality is the only gate.

We don't reject entries for being too weird or not weird enough. We reject entries for being vague, unspecific, poorly documented, or clearly fabricated. If it feels like something a real person experienced and documented because they had to, it belongs here. If it feels like someone sat down to write a horror story, it doesn't.

05 The review process takes time.

We're humans. We have jobs. Getting classified can take days or weeks depending on the queue. The community vote in Stage 1 is what moves things forward—engage with the community while you wait.

What To Expect

If your submission gets classified:

  • It receives a permanent designation number. That number is yours.
  • It goes live on thesaltbox.org.
  • A Pastore response is appended. You'll be notified.
  • The Pastore response will not explain your anomaly or add to your lore. It will tell you what Pastore assessed and what they intend to do. That's their department.

If your submission gets marked Unresolved:

  • We couldn't assess it. Not enough information, or the video wasn't sufficient.
  • You can revise and resubmit up to five times (R1 through R5).
  • At R5 the entry closes permanently.