FAQ
Questions we get asked often enough that a page seemed more efficient than answering them one at a time.
Are you affiliated with any government agency or university? No. Umbra is an independent, volunteer-run collective. We receive no government funding and have no institutional affiliation. Our footer says this explicitly because people ask often enough that it seemed worth stating plainly.
Do you charge for investigations? Never. We don't charge witnesses, and we don't sell case files, footage, or "exclusive access" to anyone.
What happens after I file a report? Every submission is read by at least one investigator within a week. Most reports don't become a formal case file — usually because there isn't enough specific, checkable detail to act on. If yours does become a case, we'll follow up directly.
Why do some cases stay "Unresolved" instead of closing? We only mark a case "Archived" when we have a reasonably confident explanation, mundane or otherwise. A case can sit as "Unresolved" indefinitely if we simply don't have enough to explain it — that's not a failure state, it's an honest one.
Can I join a field visit? Not as an observer, no — liability and site-access agreements generally don't allow it. We do run a volunteer program for logistics, archive, and audio-analysis support; see the Careers page.
Will you investigate my haunted house / cryptid sighting / missing time report? We evaluate every submission on the same criteria: specificity, consistency, and whether there's something we could actually check. Vague accounts are far less likely to become a case than detailed ones with a time, place, and something checkable.