Confirmed Identity
Each member participates under a verified legal identity, current country of residence, verified contact details, and one personal account. A display name may be used publicly, but Redwoods knows the person behind the account.
The Redwoods Audience Cohort
Audience Cohort Rules
Broad access to original work depends on personal trust, verified participation, and clear accountability. These rules protect creators while preserving the openness and independence that give the cohort its value.
They are not employment rules and they do not create a hierarchy within the cohort. They are the shared conditions under which people can encounter unpublished work safely and respond to it honestly.
Original thought. Creative freedom. For the audience, by the audience.
Verified Participation
Open to Perspective. Accountable by Identity.
Credentials, professional status, education, age, and industry access do not determine whether someone has a valuable audience response. Identity verification serves a different purpose: it makes access personal and responsibility real.
Every application and account must be accurate. A false, incomplete, borrowed, duplicate, or misleading identity is incompatible with cohort membership.
Current Affiliations
Applicants disclose current creative, publishing, production, representation, acquisition, financing, platform, or other relevant media-industry affiliations and keep that information current during the term.
Conflict Honesty
An affiliation does not automatically disqualify an applicant. It allows Redwoods to identify conflicts and decide whether a particular work can be made available without compromising the creator or the audience response.
Younger Members
A younger member participates through a verified parent or guardian and only within the Children’s Education & Entertainment lane. Adult sections and adult work remain inaccessible.
The Access Model
Broad Access That Develops With Participation
Active membership lasts one year. Access is deliberately broad, but it is not an entitlement to a fixed number of works or an unrestricted archive.
During the Active Year
There is no single numerical cap announced in advance. The amount and pace of original work made available can expand or contract with each member’s established pattern of participation.
After the Active Year
A member completing the term in good standing may join an annual paid subscription reserved for the past cohort. Its price, scope, and eligible original work will be stated before renewal.
What Informs Access
- Thoughtful completion of accepted assignments
- Reliable and timely participation
- Meaningful use of the Audience Response Journal
- Responsible account and access behavior
- Content fit and stated boundaries
- Continuing compliance with these rules
Access is never expanded, restricted, or withdrawn because a member votes Strong Yes, Yes, No, or Strong No. Redwoods values independent opinion; participation behavior and account integrity—not agreement—govern availability.
Before Any Original Work Opens
A Specific Confidentiality and Non-Use Agreement
The Audience Cohort Confidentiality and Non-Use Agreement is a separate legal instrument. Accepting ordinary website terms is not enough to activate cohort access.
Membership becomes active only after identity verification, affiliation disclosure, and execution of the agreement. Assignment-level conflict confirmations may also be required.
The Agreement Prohibits
- Sharing access credentials or allowing another person to view protected work
- Copying, downloading, photographing, screen-recording, or otherwise capturing protected work
- Publishing, posting, transmitting, distributing, or discussing protected work outside Redwoods
- Using, adapting, developing, pitching, registering, financing, producing, or exploiting protected work or material derived from it
- Trying to identify or contact a creator, another panel member, or anyone connected to the work
- Using an affiliation, relationship, financial interest, or competing project to influence an audience response
Confidentiality and non-use obligations continue after an assignment closes, membership ends, or a past-cohort subscription is cancelled.
Protected Viewing
Personal Access With an Evidence Trail
Redwoods uses technical and administrative safeguards intended to restrict unauthorized copying and make account activity attributable to the verified member.
Protected work is presented through a controlled, view-only environment rather than as a freely downloadable file.
Sessions may use personal watermarks, device and session controls, and restrictions on copying, downloading, recording, printing, and common screen-capture methods.
Access records may include the account, work, device, session times, sections viewed, completion activity, and detectable attempts to bypass platform protections.
A detected copying, downloading, capture, recording, or transfer attempt results in immediate account suspension pending investigation.
Active Participation
One Year in the Audience Cohort
Members may decline an invitation without penalty. Once an assignment is accepted, however, the work and the rest of its 100-person Audience Panel depend on timely, independent participation.
A first missed accepted-assignment deadline is recorded as a strike. A second missed accepted-assignment deadline ends active membership immediately.
Respond Independently
Do not coordinate, compare notes, campaign, or try to influence another audience member’s response.
Think as the Work Develops
Use the Audience Response Journal during the experience, at natural breaks, after completion, and after reflection.
Explain the Response
Identify what impressed, attached, surprised, weakened, endured, or changed—and explain why.
Make a Clear Final Call
Conclude with Strong Yes, Yes, No, or Strong No. There is no neutral option and no requirement to agree with others.
Strong Yes
Yes
No
Strong No
AI and Process Integrity
AI Helps Organize. People Form the Opinion.
AI supports administration, feedback processing, response intelligence, and integrity monitoring at scale. It does not tell an audience member what to think or make Redwoods’ final decision.
- Organize applications, disclosures, assignments, deadlines, and completeness checks
- Structure feedback while preserving disagreement, nuance, and the audience member’s own language
- Analyze psychological response patterns before using demographic context
- Identify unusual access behavior or possible circumvention for human investigation
- Keep identity and administrative information separate from independent audience opinion where appropriate
The Human Boundary
An automated flag may suspend access to protect the work, but it does not by itself establish a final breach. Redwoods examines the relevant account activity and circumstances before reaching an outcome.
Accountability
What Happens When Trust Is Broken
Creator protection requires both prompt action and a fair examination of the evidence. Suspension protects the work; investigation determines the final consequence.
- A detected security event or credible report can immediately suspend the account and all access while Redwoods investigates.
- Relevant access records, platform events, communications, and submitted responses may be preserved and examined.
- The member must cooperate truthfully and may be asked to provide information needed to resolve the event.
- A confirmed breach permanently ends active membership, past- cohort subscription eligibility, and all Redwoods access.
- A breach of confidentiality or non-use is a contractual violation and exposes the member to legal remedies pursued by Redwoods and, where applicable, the affected creator.
- Redwoods may preserve and provide relevant evidence to the affected creator and take protective or legal action consistent with the agreement and applicable law.
Before Applications Open
One More Piece: The Participation Agreement
These rules establish the operating standard. The Audience Cohort Confidentiality and Non-Use Agreement will establish the binding legal obligations every accepted member signs before identity verification is completed and original work becomes available.
Broad access. Verified participation. Serious protection for original work.
Audience Cohort Application — Coming After the Agreement Return to Audience Cohort