The questions people actually ask us
The answers are sorted by theme and written the way we'd say them out loud. If yours is missing, the Contact page is two clicks away.
The project 4
Is it really free? Where's the catch?
Free, no account, no ads, no premium tier. The project is run by a non-profit educational organisation: its “return on investment” is you leaving with the reflexes. There is nothing for sale. Which happens to be reflex 7.
Who is behind this site?
ODERSA, a French non-profit organisation that makes education freely accessible: academic, civic, cultural. This site is one of its critical-thinking projects. Details are on the About page.
Are the cases true stories?
No, by design: every case is fictional, with no real brand or person, so you can train without putting anyone on trial. But they are modelled on very real mechanisms. You will recognise situations you've lived.
Why not fact-check the news for me?
Because the fishing rod beats the fish. Dedicated fact-checking services do that job well; here you learn the method that works for any information, including tomorrow's. We judge no news story and no side.
The method 3
Why these 10 reflexes and not others?
They condense what public media-literacy frameworks teach: identify the source, date it, cross-check, question images, numbers and intentions, and watch out for yourself. The references we built on are listed in the credits.
From what age?
The site is written to be readable from around age 14 and stays relevant at any age: the traps never retire. For classroom use, the Teachers page gives level-by-level guidance and a ready-to-run workshop.
I've been fooled before. Is that bad?
Welcome to the club: everyone has been fooled, us included. These traps are built by people who do it for a living; falling for one says nothing about your intelligence. The only real mistake would be concluding that nothing can be done: a few reflexes defeat most of them.
Your data 2
What do you do with my data?
Nothing: we don't want it. No account, no cookies, no tracker, no request to any third-party server. Your scores stay in your browser; the “erase everything” button in the settings deletes them. The Privacy page explains how to verify all this yourself.
Why is there no cookie banner?
Because a banner exists to ask for consent, and there is nothing here to consent to: zero cookies, zero trackers, zero advertising. The missing banner is not an oversight; it's the most visible proof of the promise.
Reusing & everyday use 3
Can I reuse the content in class, in a workshop, in a newspaper?
Yes: everything is published under CC BY 4.0. Copy, print, adapt, translate; just credit “Avant d'y croire / Before You Believe It” with a link. The cases can even be downloaded as JSON from the settings panel.
I found an error. What do I do?
You're doing us a favour: write to the “report an error” address in the footer, with the page link if possible. We read, we check, we fix, and the correction appears in “What's new”. That's reflex 10, applied to ourselves.
Does the site work offline?
Largely, yes: once visited, it stays readable offline on recent browsers (and it's lightweight, built for slow connections). For full zero-network use, there's the printable booklet.