FAQ
How it works
The platform is built for fast-moving crisis information. It favours recent, attributable updates over permanent posts.
What is this for?
How Long's The Wait? is for fast, practical ground reports about essential needs: water, food, fuel, shelter, medical help, communications and access routes. It is not a social feed and it is not an official emergency service.
What does a report mean?
A report means a signed-in person has submitted what they saw at a place. Other nearby users can tap ‘Still accurate’ to confirm it, or dispute/update it if the situation changed. New reports are shown as new, then confidence grows through confirmations, media and recent activity.
When do reports expire?
Reports are designed to be temporary. Active reports expire automatically if they are not refreshed, and stale reports are archived after roughly 72 hours without activity. Availability updates extend the useful life of a report because disaster-zone information changes quickly.
When is media deleted?
Proof media is temporary by design. Videos are kept for about 24 hours and photos for about 48 hours unless moderation requires earlier removal. Expired media is cleaned from storage and no longer appears on public cards.
Can I edit a report?
Reports are not silently rewritten because that would damage the audit trail. Instead, use ‘Update / correct this report’ to add the latest status, note and optional proof. The card updates while preserving accountability for what changed and when.
Can I share a report?
Yes. Report cards include sharing tools for the device share sheet, WhatsApp and link copying. Instagram does not allow direct web posting from most browsers, so copy the report link and paste it into a story, post or DM.
How is privacy protected?
Public pages do not expose private user ids, emails or phone numbers. Public coordinates are rounded, reports use public display names/references, and sensitive database tables remain protected by row-level security and server-side checks.
Who moderates reports?
Admins can hide unsafe or abusive content, resolve flags and suspend accounts. Moderator roles are prepared in the code and database so a dedicated moderation workflow can be enabled later without changing the public trust model.