- Can I send to you a MS-Word file or an audio file? What about a video file?

No, we strongly suggest to use a graphic file format like JPG or GIF because they are absolutely viewable by all internet users without problems. Please try to keep the file size around 100-200 KB maximum.
All you need to do is: compress the file with WinRAR and encrypt it before sending it.
You must be aware that other kind of files are not standard in the internet world. For this reason, if you want all the people to be able to read your information, use JPG or GIF.

- I'm really curious, is it possible to know in advance the password to unlock a specific file you published onto your portal?

No, sorry. We haven't the password until the circlemakers send it to us.
Once we receive the password and we check the consistency of the file we will send the password to everybody.

- I'm a circlemaker, how can you guarantee that I will remain anonymous?

We won't know your identity if you send a rar-encrypted file from an anonymous email address.
Furthermore we promise not to expose the email address you used to send the file.

- I'm a circlemaker and I sent you a formation. You said you will not expose my email address, but could my IP address be used in the future to investigate my identity?

We are not interested in knowing your identity, after we send a YEF we regularly delete the related source email from our server.

- I don't see my file over your web site, how can I know that my file has been really published?

We suggest you to subscribe to the mail-list, only the mail-list will guarantee that your file has been released.
The web site could be not aligned for some reason to the files already published.

- Should I subscribe to the mail-list with the same address from which I'm sending my files?

Absolutely not, we don't want to have this cross-info.
It's up to you, just create a new account and subscribe to the list or subscribe to the list with the same address.

- Can I know who are the subscribers of the mail-list?

Sorry, you cannot.
The subscribers are not shown for privacy purpose.

- Can I send my file directly through the mail-list?

Absolutely not, only the moderator may post messages to the mail-list.
Subscribers only receive files sent by the moderator.

- I'd like to receive emails from circlevault mail-list with Daily digest modality. Is it possible?

If you choose Daily digest modality you will not receive email attachments. This means you will not receive encrypted formations. For this reason you should prefer Individual emails modality.

- I'm a circlemaker, I sent you a file and you already published it...

I wrote in it several insults, defamations and jokes so when everyone opens the file I'll have a laugh.

That's not possible. Before sending the password for a specific file we check if the password really will unlock the file and we check also what is the content of the file.
If we find a bad content we simply don't send the password. If the file content is ok (or not) is up to our judgment.

- Ok, but now I wrote in it several insults, defamations, jokes and I don't want to reveal it also to you. How can I do?

Just don't send us the password for that file.

- Now I made the circle and I want to reveal the password but I forgot it. How can I do?

Sorry, only you knew the password. You missed the opportunity to prove to the world you made that circle.

- I'm a circlemaker, I sent you my password but you didn't yet published it...

Why?

We strongly suggest every circlemaker to send his password after the 1st October of the current year, during October-November period.
Anyway, circlevault will keep a minimum 30-days delay (file received ==> password publishing) before publishing the password.
When did you send us your file? When did you send us your password? More or less than 30 days has passed? If less, that is the reason. Just wait a little bit and your formation will be available to everybody. If this is not the case then it was our mistake, please resend it again.

- What is the reason for this 30-days delay?

Really this is to help you just to avoid to reveal the formation too much in advance. Crop circle researchers need time to investigate it. We think 30 days is an acceptable delay.

- I made the formation and I have the password of the file, when should I send it to you?

You are really encouraged to send your password during October-November of the current year, but you are not obliged to send any password. When you want to do it, simply send us the password from the *same* email address you sent the file.
We will not check passwords received from unknown email addresses against a YEF.

- Ok but I had to change my email address, how can I do now to send my password?

We will not publish passwords received from a different address because we want to be sure you were the creator of the file. If you changed email address just simply send us again YEF (you already sent us from your previous email address) and the password from the new email address. You are the only one able to send YEF again, nobody else could do it.

- What is the best period to send my password?

The best period is October-November of the current year.

- Why WinRAR to compress & encrypt the files?

WinRAR is a very well known popular software used all over the world and furthermore it's multiplatform. For this reason you don't have to care if you encrypted your file(s) on a specific Operative System (like for instance Windows, Mac or Linux).

- Can I use Winzip or other similar software to compress & encrypt my files?

Absolutely not. We accept only files compressed with WinRAR. For a WinRAR vs Winzip comparison, read here.

- Ok, I'm not the creator of a specific file, what if I find the password for that file and I see the encrypted formation in advance?

We don't think it's so easy, once we receive the encrypted file, we:

• check the encrypted file
• encrypt it again with a second very long password (99 characters)
• publish it

We are not so sure that you'd like to spend a very (very!) long time in trying to crack two passwords, we are talking about years and years and years (and years...) of machine time.
If you were successful let us know.

- Ok, but let's suppose you (at circlevault) found the first password before sending the encrypted file to the mail-list, so you could change the file content and send to the mail-list a file different from the original one sent by the circlemaker, isn't it?

We created this process and we have no interest in damaging it. We built this web-solution just to give all circlemakers the capability to prove 100% that at least circles contained in their published files are man-made.
Furthermore it's not so easy for us to find the password by chance in a limited timeframe (received date ==> published date) and we are very keen in trying to make this timeframe as short as we can. Anyway, you have to trust us, we have no interest in doing that.

- How do you manage the fact that I can see an image of a formation over the web or in the field, create a graphic file and pretend to be the circlemaker for that formation?
Do you check also if a formation was discovered before someone sent a file?

When we receive the file, we will check if the file is ok, if it is really encrypted, and other things.
When we will publish it we will also send basically two information: timestamp when received and timestamp when sent to the mail-list. That's all.
After you send the password for a specific file we could also check if the formation appeared very close to when we received the original file.
If that happens it means that everybody cannot be sure if that specific formation was 100% man-made.
If you really want to prove that a specific formation is man-made you need to send the file quite in advance in order to avoid this kind of situations.

- How much time you will take to publish the file? Is it in real time or not?

No, this process it's not in real time.
Of course publishing could be very quick (during the same day you sent the file) but you could consider at least 2 or 3 days before your file will be published.
The reason could be due to email delay or other problems.

- How could we be sure that a discovered formation is exactly the one published in a file?

The information contained into the file should give you this certainty. Anyway the judgment it's absolutely up to you.

- I sent you an encrypted formation, and we realized it. The problem is that we didn't finish it and we made also a mistake but it has already been discovered.

It's up to you. Just decide if you want to send us the password for that file or not.

- I sent the wrong drawing, I changed a little bit the formation, can I send the new file? What about the old one?

Of course you can send all files you want, we obviously suggest to encrypt each file with a different password. As per the old file, don't send us the related password.

- Must I subscribe your mail-list if I want to send you a formation?

No, you are free to send your formation without being subscribed to the mail-list.

- You are encouraging the circlemakers activities. Don't you think that your web site encourage their vandalism?

No, we obviously invite circlemakers to ask the permission of the land owner before making the formation. We don't want to encourage vandalism.