Editorial standards

This page says who writes Velvet Ropes, how the research gets done, where AI fits, and what happens when something here is wrong. If you clicked a byline to get here, the next section is the person behind it.

Who runs this

I'm Aleks Drogobetski. I live in Nashville and I run Velvet Ropes by myself. There is no editorial team behind me and no desk to hand a problem to. I write or edit every article on this site, and my name on a page means I am the one who checked it.

I came up with Velvet Ropes in 2014 and built the first version of the site while I worked on the patent behind it, US 9,430,498, for a digital celebrity map tour guide. It launched in 2016. Along the way I've worked as a frontend engineer, a backend engineer, and a product manager. The longer version of how the site started, and who started it with me, is on the about page.

How I research

Primary sources first, always. For a property that means the county parcel and deed records, National Register of Historic Places filings, and the municipal paper trail: planning commission agendas, permit files, variance rulings, historic district surveys. For a person it means their own words before anyone else's, so memoirs, interviews, court filings, and statements they put out under their own name.

Reporting from outlets with a masthead comes after that, and it corroborates a primary source rather than standing in for one. Wikipedia is fine for a biography and never for a property claim. If a claim is not common knowledge and I cannot point at a source for it, the claim comes off the page rather than shipping hedged.

Every article ends in a Sources block. I link each source wherever I can. Some public records are not online, like a copy of a deed from the county office, and a record with no link to give does not always make the list. If you want to check my work, start there, and if a record you expect is missing, ask me.

How I use AI

AI assists the research and the drafting here: it is fast at assembling a first pass on a person or a property, and fast at surfacing the records worth reading. I review every article before it publishes, verify each claim against its source, and I am accountable for what ends up on the page.

Addresses

Before a new page here ties a person to a house, I look for that connection in a public property record and in at least 1 other reputable source. When the record names a trust or a company rather than the person, I look for at least 2 reputable sources that make the connection. Every new address is checked against county property records before it publishes. When those records are unclear, I go to the deed records, recorded mortgages and property transfers, and permit history, or I file a public records request. Pages from the site's early years are being re-checked the same way.

What the articles and the free pages give you is the neighborhood, the block, the architecture, the property details, and the story. The precise address is the part we keep behind the ropes. You unlock 1 address at a time with credits. A single purchase can take a whole category in a city, a whole city, or a tour.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, tell me and I will fix it. Corrections run through the same mailbox as everything else: Velvet Ropes support address: Email us. It reaches me directly, and I answer a correction within 6 to 7 business days.

Put the page URL and the specific claim in your first line. A source helps and is not required. A claim I cannot re-verify comes off the page while I check it, rather than staying up on the strength of having been published once. When a correction changes what an article says, I update the article and say what changed.