EDITORIAL POLICY

How we source BTS facts.

Source hierarchy, confidence labels, what we will and will not publish, how we credit fan creators, and how we fix mistakes when we get something wrong.

1. What we believe

We write the way a kind, well-read ARMY would write to another ARMY. We are accurate, never breathless. We translate Korean carefully, credit translators, link to official sources, and never pretend we are official. We do not gossip. We do not invent. We do not push. Every fact we publish is anchored to a source we can point you to, and every claim we cannot anchor stays off the page until it can be.

2. Source hierarchy

Every fact on the site is tagged with one of five tiers. The tier is visible to readers as a small chip next to the claim. The chip tooltip shows the source URL and the date we last checked it.

Source hierarchy, five tiers of evidence used on btsarmy.io, from Tier 1 Official down to Tier 5 Unverified.
TierVisible labelExamples of allowed sources
1OfficialBIGHIT MUSIC, HYBE, Weverse, BANGTANTV, member official accounts, the official tour site (btsworldtourofficial.com), BTS Linktree.
2Reputable mediaBillboard, Variety, AP, BBC, NPR, Reuters, Forbes, NYT, Rolling Stone, Yonhap, KED Global, UNICEF, UN.
3Established fan resourceBANGTAN SUBS, doolset, BTS Archive, US BTS ARMY, ARMY Project 529, always credited and linked back to the original work.
4Fan culture / Fan interpretationWidely-accepted fan lore that lives in the fandom rather than in official text, Pomichodai, BTS o'clock, the I-Need-U-era hair dye story. Always labeled "fan culture."
5UnverifiedRumors, anonymous tips, screenshots without provenance, machine-translated quotes without a verified source. Reserved for internal admin pages only, never published on the public site.

Default behavior: if a claim doesn't have a source, it doesn't ship.

3. Confidence labels

The tier sets the confidence label that appears with the claim. Here is what each label looks like in practice.

Tier 1, OfficialLabel on the page: "Confirmed"
  • BTS released their 5th studio album ARIRANG on March 20, 2026 (Source: BIGHIT MUSIC).
  • j-hope was discharged from military service on October 17, 2024 (Source: BIGHIT MUSIC notice via Weverse).
Tier 2, Reputable mediaLabel on the page: "Reported"
  • ARIRANG debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 with 641,000 first-week units (Source: Billboard).
  • RM addressed the 73rd UN General Assembly in September 2018 (Source: AP).
Tier 3, Established fan resourceLabel on the page: "Fan-translated / fan-curated"
  • English translation of the Spring Day bridge (Source: doolset, credited and linked).
  • Era timeline cross-checked against BTS Archive (Source: BTS Archive).
Tier 4, Fan culture / Fan interpretationLabel on the page: "Fan culture"
  • BTS o'clock, the in-joke nickname for the chaotic time-zone math fans do to catch a Weverse live.
  • The I-Need-U-era hair dye story, fan memory, not officially confirmed but widely retold.
Tier 5, UnverifiedLabel on the page: "Unverified"
  • A screenshot circulating on social platforms without a primary source or named outlet attached.
  • An anonymous tip about an unannounced schedule, handled internally, never published.

4. What we will not publish

The list below is non-negotiable. If a draft contains any of these, it doesn't ship, no matter how much traffic it would bring.

  • Rumors, anonymous tips, or screenshots without provenance.
  • Private schedules, leaked flight info, or anything that helps a stalker find a member.
  • Full lyric reproductions, we quote at most one line, in Hangul + romanization + English, with the translator credited.
  • Stolen or uncredited fan translations. If we can't credit the translator, we don't quote the translation.
  • Member rankings, "best," "most beautiful," "most talented," "true bias." We are OT7 every page.
  • Sasaeng content, fancams shot in airports, private addresses, behind-the-scenes audio recorded without consent.
  • Sexualized speculation about the members, their bodies, their dating lives, or their families.
  • Anti-fan content, pieces written to humiliate another fanbase, another artist, or another group of ARMY.

5. How we credit fan creators

Fan translators, archivists, photographers, illustrators, and researchers built the public memory of BTS. We will always credit you by name (or chosen handle), link to your original post or project, and ask permission before quoting more than a sentence. If we missed a credit, used your work without asking, or you want your name removed, check the correction log and intake status. The verified contact route is not live yet, so this page does not publish a role address or promise a response time. We do not repost subtitle archives, paid translations, or anything a creator has explicitly asked the fandom not to re-host.

6. Visual sourcing

The digital-card feature locally serves seven official BIGHIT MUSIC member profile portraits and one official OT7 promotional portrait. Every revealed card links to the official profile source; the underlying rights remain with their rights holders. Elsewhere we use locally served decorative stage artwork, official social embeds, privacy-enhanced official YouTube video, and small album covers for editorial commentary. We do not use AI to imitate a recognizable member's face or present generated imagery as a real photograph. A missing credit or valid removal request is treated as a correction and recorded transparently.

7. How we correct mistakes

We get things wrong. When that happens, the goal is to fix the page quickly, credit the reader who flagged it, and leave a public trail so the correction is verifiable.

  • Confirmed corrections are published publicly in the log at /corrections#log, nothing is buried.
  • Correction, credit, and removal intake remains paused until a verified contact route and response workflow are live.
  • Major corrections to chart records, dates, or source attributions remain visible in the public correction log. The planned Bangtan Briefing may summarize them after it launches; it is not sending today.
  • We don't delete history. We annotate it: the original claim, the correction, the date, and the source that resolved it stay visible.

8. Found something wrong?

The public log remains available, but intake is paused until domain email delivery and a verified response path are tested. The status page explains what evidence to keep in the meantime.

View correction log and intake status

9. Changelog of major editorial changes

Material changes to this policy, new tiers, banned-content additions, credit-process updates, are recorded here in date-stamped entries so the editorial standard itself stays auditable.

  • Clarified that the Bangtan Briefing is a planned publication, not a live newsletter.
  • Initial editorial-policy publication.

Last updated: Β· See something wrong? Check correction status β†’