1.About one specific summary? Flag it instead
If your message is about a single summary — it is wrong, it is out of date, it is attached to the wrong district, or it reads as an accusation against someone — use the “Flag this summary” button underneath it rather than emailing.
Flagging sends us the district, the date and the exact text along with whatever you write, which is most of the work of answering you already done. An email means finding the summary first, which is the slow part. Flags are also the queue we work through first.
2.Email
That is the only address, and it reaches one person directly. There is no contact form, no ticketing system and no chat widget — partly because a form would be one more place to collect data we do not want, and partly because there is nobody to staff it.
3.What to write about
- Corrections. A summary that is wrong, missing the context that changes its meaning, or about a different place with the same name. Include the page link.
- Takedown requests. You are named in a summary and it is unfair, damaging or simply not true; or you are a publisher who would rather we did not summarise or link your work. See people named in summaries and publishers, copyright and attribution.
- Privacy requests. Access, correction or deletion of anything we hold about you. See your rights for what that realistically amounts to.
- Press and research. Questions about how the pipeline works, what the summaries are built from, or using the data. We are happy to answer in detail — the methodology is deliberately public.
- Coverage gaps. A district that is missing, misspelled, or filed under the wrong state.
- Bugs. Something broken, unreadable or unusable — especially on a phone. Telling us which device and browser helps.
4.What to expect
Honest answer: this is run by one person.
A few days is normal. A week is not unusual during a busy stretch. There is no support team behind this address and no auto-reply, so silence means we have not got to it yet — a nudge after a week is completely fine and often helpful.
Corrections and takedown requests jump the queue. Where something could be defamatory, presents an allegation as an established fact, or names someone who should not have been named, the summary comes down while we look at it rather than after.
We read everything. We do not reply to everything — if a message does not need an answer, such as a bug report we have already fixed, we may simply act on it and move on.
5.What we cannot help with
- Emergencies. CivicLens is a website, not a service. In an emergency contact the emergency services or the relevant authority directly.
- Legal, medical or financial advice. We are not qualified to give it and will not try. See not advice.
- Contacting an official or a publication for you. We have no standing with any department, office or newsroom, and a message from us would carry no weight.
- Removing an article from its original publisher. We can remove our summary and stop linking a source. The article itself stays where it is, and only that publisher can change that.
- Getting a story covered. We do not commission or place reporting, and a summary cannot mention something no publication published.