Transparency

How We Verify Tracks

Every track on TrackFinder USA has a verification badge. That badge isn't decoration — it tells you exactly how we know what we know, and how recently we checked.

We borrowed the idea from ski resort snow reports: you shouldn't have to guess whether the gate is open. You should be able to see when someone last checked, and how they checked.

The 4 verification levels

Listed

Found in a public source — not yet verified by our team.

How it's earned: Assigned automatically when a track is added from a public directory, database, or rider submission. It means the track exists (or existed) — nothing more.

Expiry: Listed tracks with no activity in 180+ days show a red freshness indicator.

Confirmed

Phone-verified as currently operating.

How it's earned: An admin called the track and confirmed it is open. No rider visit required — just a voice on the other end of the phone.

Expiry: Confirmation expires after 180 days without a follow-up check or rider report.

Owner Claimed

Claimed by the track owner — actively managing this listing.

How it's earned: The track operator submitted a claim request, provided verification (business email, social proof, or docs), and our admin approved it. The owner now controls hours, description, and contact info.

Expiry: Claimed tracks retain the badge while the owner is active. If ownership is revoked, the track reverts to Listed.

Community Verified

A rider visited and confirmed info within the last 30 days.

How it's earned: A registered rider submitted a condition report — open/closed status, surface quality, crowd level — after a physical visit. This is the freshest signal we have: a real person was there recently.

Expiry: Community Verified automatically reverts to the prior level when 30 days pass with no new rider report.

Freshness color coding

Every track also shows a “Last Verified” timestamp colored by age. Verification level and freshness are separate signals — a claimed track can still have stale data if the owner hasn't updated it.

Fresh

Verified within the last 90 days

Aging

90–180 days since last verification

Stale

More than 180 days — treat with caution

How rider reports feed in

The fastest way to refresh a track's verification is a condition report from a rider who was just there. When you submit a report, three things happen:

  1. 1The track's Last Verified timestamp updates to today.
  2. 2If the report is within 30 days, the verification level upgrades to Community Verified (★).
  3. 3Your report — open/closed status, surface condition, crowd level — appears on the track page for other riders to see.

Condition reports are the most powerful signal in our system. A single rider visit can immediately flag a closed gate, surface a schedule change, or confirm a newly reopened track — faster than any admin check.

What we don't do

We don't auto-scrape Google and call it "verified." A listing that shows up in Google Maps is Listed — no more.
We don't hide stale data. If a track hasn't been checked in 6 months, the badge goes red. We'd rather show you uncertainty than false confidence.
We don't sell verification. Money never changes hands for a higher badge. The only way up is a real human check.

See something wrong?

If a verification badge is incorrect, a track is listed as open when it's closed, or you have information we don't, use the “Report outdated info” button on the track page — or email support@trackfinderusa.com.