MEMBERSHIP · WHERE THE LINE IS
Articles are fully open. Accounts unlock capability.
There is no member wall on INSIGHTS text. Anyone who opens an article reads all of it, no sign-in. What an 8FO account opens up is the acting layer: publishing by organization identity, AI knowledge query quota, the knowledge graph and the content workspace. The rules are on this page, not buried in terms.
Reading side: no wall
The only threshold on an article page sits after you finish reading — that block is a capability entry, not a block on content. Body, facts, sources and related companies are all in the page; search engines and AI receive the same HTML a reader does.
Full text, public
Every published article across the six channels reads without signing in. No teaser, no "sign in to read the remaining 80%".
Facts and sources, public
Key facts carry a verification-status label and sources list their origin. This part does not shrink with account tier.
No indexing promises
Open is not the same as indexed. We do not promise indexing or citation by any search engine or AI service, and we do not sell ranking.
Who can publish what
All roles ride on the existing 8FO account system; no separate registration. Permissions are bound to the organization, and the channel a role may submit to is enforced by the API — not by convention.
| Identity | Publishing scope | Channels |
|---|---|---|
| 8FO admin | News, industry research, platform notices; review and publish across all channels | All channels |
| Enterprise member | Company updates, company profile, factory stories, product knowledge | COMPANY STORIESPRODUCT & SUPPLY |
| Service provider | Expert articles, service cases, solutions | BUSINESS SOLUTIONSINDUSTRY INSIGHTS |
| Supplier | Product introduction, technical documents, supply chain information | PRODUCT & SUPPLY |
| Buyer | Sourcing requests, sourcing experience, industry questions | INDUSTRY INSIGHTSPRODUCT & SUPPLY |
| Partner | Country market analysis, regional business observation | MARKET & COUNTRYINDUSTRY INSIGHTS |
Owner, admin and editor of the same organization can collaborate on that organization's content. Cross-organization edits are refused at the API (organization-level isolation), and every action is logged.
Where the identity comes from: it is not picked at sign-up, it is derived from the organization type in your organization profile. Fill in your company or institution once — name, type, size, products, target markets — and the platform decides whether you are an enterprise, supplier, buyer, service provider or partner. Colleagues sign up with their own account, join the organization by email, and share the same profile and content space. Without an organization profile the submit page asks you to fill it in first, instead of guessing an identity.
Review flow
V1.1 does not open unreviewed self-publishing. AI only produces a checklist — duplication, missing sources, overclaiming — while human review and publishing stay with platform admins.
- DRAFT
- →
- SUBMITTED
- →
- AI_REVIEW
- →
- HUMAN_REVIEW
- →
- APPROVED
- →
- PUBLISHED
Returned content goes to REVISION; violating content goes to REJECTED. Both branches keep a record, and every transition is traceable.
Facts must be graded
The content hub and the knowledge base share data, but not everything is treated as trusted AI fact. Six statuses are labelled item by item in the article; account tier and payment never change the label.
Account tiers and available capability
Tier decides how much you can use and which channels you may submit to. It does not change reading rights — articles are identical for everyone.
| Capability | Guest | Registered (free) | Verified enterprise | Provider / Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article full text, facts, sources | Open | Open | Open | Open |
| AI knowledge queries (daily quota) | Sign-in | 5 | 30 | 100 |
| Knowledge base search and source snippets | — | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Knowledge graph (company / product / market links) | — | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Publishing by identity (scope above) | — | By org | By org | By org |
| Company contact, RFQ and quotes | — | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| AI content assistant, content analytics | — | Limited | Yes | Yes |
| Content workspace, citation monitoring, distribution | — | — | On request | Yes |
| Open platform API | — | — | — | Yes |
How organization verification works
- Fill in the profileName, organization type, and a website or contact email we can check externally.
- ApplyClick “Apply for verification” on the Organization page; the profile enters the review queue.
- We checkWe confirm the website resolves and the email is on a company domain. Approval upgrades the account to verified enterprise; a rejection states the reason so you can fix it and re-apply.
Verification only affects tier and quota. It does not change which channels you can publish to (your organization type does), and it never changes who can read an article. If verification is revoked, members drop back to the previous tier.
Why it is split this way
Three constraints decide the model. It is not a marketing call.
Crawlable first
The full body ships in HTML, so AI and search engines read exactly what a reader sees — no login, no script execution. The capability block after the body is a UI module and is not part of the extracted article text.
Credibility is not for sale
Facts and sources are visible to everyone. Payment and verification only affect contact, quoting and quota — never the verification conclusion, never indexing or citation.
Publishing needs identity
Only admins publish news and research; companies publish their own stories; providers publish solutions; partners publish market notes. Cross-organization privilege escalation is refused at the API.
Questions
Will articles become members-only?
No. Every published article is open in full. The block at the bottom of a page is a capability entry (AI follow-up, graph, publishing) — it does not cover the text and does not affect what search engines or AI can read.
What can a registered member see that others cannot?
Not text — capability: the publishing entry bound to your organization, the daily AI query quota, knowledge base search, the knowledge graph and content analytics. Reading an article is identical before and after signing in.
Who can publish news and industry research?
Only 8FO platform admins. Enterprise members publish company updates, profiles, factory stories and product knowledge; providers publish expert articles, cases and solutions; partners publish country and regional analysis. The channel is enforced against account identity at the API.
Are company claims treated as verified facts?
No. Facts are labelled across six statuses: verified fact, company claim, author opinion, news report, unverified, outdated. Tier and payment never change the label.
Does paying guarantee citation by Google or AI search?
No. We do not promise indexing or citation by any search engine or AI system, and we do not sell ranking. Paid content services are labelled separately from independent reporting.
Read freely. Act by identity.
Registration is free. Publishing scope follows your organization identity and is reviewed.
Create a free account