> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rescueconsole.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# When somebody disputes a listing

> How a person on the Public Registry answers a flag about them, who has to weigh that answer, and how to settle one.

A flag on the [Public Registry](/registry/flags) is an allegation about a real person, and that person can answer it. This page is what happens when one does.

Anybody who has been told they are listed can fill in a form at **rescueconsole.com/registry/dispute**. It is on our own site, not yours, and it needs no account: the person who needs it does not have one.

## What we do before it reaches you

<Steps>
  <Step title="We never tell them whether they are listed">
    A page that answered that question would let anybody check somebody else, one name at a time. The form takes what they want said and gives the same receipt whether or not anything matched.
  </Step>

  <Step title="We match on what a rescue would hold">
    Their email address, and their phone number if they give one, against the identifiers on the flag. Somebody who knows nothing about the person they are trying to disrupt cannot produce a match.
  </Step>

  <Step title="We confirm the address">
    We email them a link. Nothing reaches you until they use it, and it stops working after seven days.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  **A confirmed email address is control of a mailbox, not proof of identity.** Every screen says so: "somebody who says they are Jordan Ellis". Nothing about the flag changes on their word alone, which is why this is safe to act on at all.
</Warning>

## How it reaches you

The bell and an email, to everybody at your rescue who may **Change** on Registry, the same people who are asked to review a flag. The notice says a listing has been disputed and nothing else: what was said is read on the flag, behind your sign-in, next to the narrative it answers.

On the flag, the account appears **under the narrative**, so both are read together. Your own **Public Registry** list and every registry search mark the flag **Disputed by subject** as well, because the rescue who needs to see it is the one about to act on the flag.

## Who answers it

| The listing                               | Who weighs the answer                                                                                                                     |
| ----------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Private** (only your rescue can see it) | **You.** Nobody else can read it, so nobody else can weigh it.                                                                            |
| **Network** (shared with every rescue)    | **The rescues that reviewed it.** They are asked again, with the account beside the original, and each can change its review or leave it. |

<Note>
  A listing shared with the network is not yours alone to settle, and the page does not offer you the buttons for it. Change your own review on the **Reviews** tab, or revoke the listing if you no longer stand behind it.
</Note>

## Settling a private one

On the flag, under the account:

* **It stands** keeps the listing, and asks why. The reason is required, because whoever reads the listing next is deciding whether to act on it, and it is kept with the flag for them.
* **Revoke the listing** takes it off the registry for everybody.

Either way the person is told which it was. **Your reason is not sent to them**: it is your words about them, and we pass on the outcome rather than the commentary. Their account stays on the listing whatever you decide.

## What the listing does while a dispute is open

Nothing changes. An **active** flag stays active and stays findable, with the dispute beside it.

That is deliberate, in both directions:

* **Hiding a listing because somebody objected** would hand anybody who objects a clean window, whatever they had done.
* **Hiding the objection** would leave a registry that names people and cannot be answered, which is not a registry any rescue should rely on.

Both sides, visible, is the version with no trapdoor in it. On a network listing, if the rescues reviewing it change their minds, the ordinary vetting rules apply: two disputes mark a flag **disputed**, and it stops being shown to other rescues. The person is told that happened.

## What we cannot do

We do not decide what your rescue records, and we do not remove a listing because it was contested. Somebody who says a listing about them breaks the law where they live is told to write to **[legal@rescueconsole.com](mailto:legal@rescueconsole.com)**, and that reaches us rather than you.