Safe Submissions barely responded, but Submissions of dangerous/illegal places are approved?#356

I’ve seen numerous posts from months, to even a year ago of Atlas saying they’re trying to implement better ways of updating users on their submissions. I, and many others, have made numerous submissions with no response for months (I’ve been waiting for 6 months for mine). However, Atlas seems to be allowing places that are illegal to enter, or places that are dangerous with no warning that they are?

Amy, can you post the illegal/dangerous places that you’ve seen? I’ve seen a quite a few that are not accessible to the public. There is a report button on the app (though I haven’t seen it work yet).

There is also a Discord of place writers and some staff, if you want some feedback on your submissions: https://discord.gg/Z6hARQqUKV

@Mike Walker Hey Mike! Thank you for the discord invite, I’ll message you about some articles.

Hi @Amy Johnson! I’m so sorry about the delay on your submissions. We’ve had an especially high volume of submissions over the last year, and sometimes entries fall through the cracks in our editing system. I’ll take a look into yours that we may have missed and get them into the editing queue.

And if you’d like to share any place entries that you have concerns about, I’d be happy to look into those as well.

I’ll start: the following places are on highly secured government property - mostly military bases. They are not accessible unless you work on those bases.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lincoln-highway-bridge - Dugway Army Proving Grounds
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/atlas-i - Kirtland Air Force Base (though you can apparently see it flying out of ABQ, so maybe that counts)
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/starfire-optical-range - Also Kirtland Air Force Base
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-z-machine-albuquerque-new-mexico - Sandia National Lab, off-limits to the public
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/area-51 - Wildly famous Air Force base, and surrounded by signs promising to kill you if you get too close.

@Michelle Cassidy Hey Michelle, thank you!! I really appreciate your help!

Hi just a question. What makes a place dangerous and who would decide if it is dangerous? What sort of warnings would AO consider to be suitable?

@John McFadzean They could start by enforcing the guidance on their FAQ - “Things to avoid- Private property or illegal entry places”. They’ve removed dozens of places like this before, so it’s just a matter of being consistent with it.