Editorial policy
Editorial policy
What counts as a source here, how we handle being wrong, and the one rule about dates that automation makes easy to break.
Independence
Rankings on this site are not for sale, and there is no mechanism by which they could be. No advertiser influences placement, no manufacturer sees a page before it publishes, and nobody has ever asked us to change one.
Sponsored placements: 0. Paid rankings: 0. Free products accepted: 0. We will keep publishing those for as long as they stay true, and if any of them changes, this page changes first. How the site is actually funded is on the affiliate disclosure.
What counts as a source
Every factual claim on this site traces to something in the table below, cited inline or in a Sources block with the date it was read.
| Tier | Source | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Manufacturer spec sheets, installation manuals, warranty documents, official product pages | Capacity, dimensions, materials, mounting requirements, warranty terms |
| Primary | Published span and load tables from recognized structural references | All load-guide arithmetic |
| Retail | Live retailer product data via our price layer | Price and availability only. Never hand-copied into an article. |
| Aggregate | Recurring owner reports in retailer reviews and enthusiast forums | Reliability patterns, and always attributed as what owners report — never as our finding |
| Not citable | Another affiliate site's rankings, our own inference stated as fact, AI-generated summaries | Nothing |
The rule that matters most
A claim that cannot be sourced is not published. Where a figure is unavailable we write "not published" rather than estimating one.
That is why several good products score low on published capacity in our rankings — not because they are weak, but because the manufacturer does not publish the number and we will not invent it on their behalf. It is also why our installation cost guide has no dollar figures in it: we could not source an authoritative published range we were willing to stand behind.
No fabricated experience
We do not test products, and no content on this site is presented as first-hand product experience. Not in body copy, not in a heading, and not by implication.
This includes structured data: our editorial scores are visible on the page and are deliberately never emitted as review or aggregate-rating markup, because that would tell a search engine we performed an evaluation we did not perform. The full statement is on how we pick.
Nor do we present AI-generated text as human experience or as a source. Where this site states something as fact, a human read the source it came from.
Corrections
Report an error to info@railandrafter.com. Include the source if you have one — a manufacturer page contradicting ours is the fastest possible correction.
What happens then:
- We check the primary source ourselves rather than taking either version on trust.
- If we are wrong, we fix it, and the page's visible "last updated" date changes.
- Where the error changed a recommendation rather than a detail, we say so on the page rather than editing silently.
- We aim to act on a credible report within 48 hours.
If we cannot verify either version, we mark the figure as unverified rather than leaving a number we no longer trust.
The rule about dates
A verification date only moves when a real check happens
Every research-bearing page carries a line at the foot: "Manufacturer documentation, manuals, warranty terms and exact product models reviewed [date]".
That date changes only when somebody actually re-reads the sources. A build does not touch it. A deploy does not touch it. The scheduled price refresh, which redeploys the whole site, does not touch it.
This is the rule automation makes easiest to break and it is a fabrication if broken — a page claiming to have been verified on a date nobody verified it is lying about the one thing it is asking you to trust. The same principle governs the sitemap, whose modification dates come from real content dates rather than from the build timestamp.
How often things get re-checked
| What | How often | What triggers a check |
|---|---|---|
| Live prices | Daily, automated | Scheduled refresh; stale data stops rendering after 48 hours |
| Roundup picks | Quarterly | A model discontinued, a spec revised, or a pick persistently out of stock |
| Spec claims | Quarterly, with the picks | Manufacturers revise specifications quietly |
| Load tables | Annually, or on a code revision | Published span table changes |
| Cost guidance | Twice yearly | Installer and retailer pricing drift |
| Corrections | Within 48 hours | A credible report from a reader |
Safety-adjacent content
Our load guides are arithmetic to inform a decision. They are not an engineering sign-off, and every one of them says so on the page.
Published span tables tell you which design case your framing is consistent with. They do not account for what the roof above is doing, for a previous owner's modifications, for notched or drilled joists, or for a point load concentrated on two of them. Where a situation is marginal we say to ask a structural engineer, and we mean it — that is a cheaper conversation than a ceiling repair.
Authorship
Everything here is written by Scooter M., described accurately on the about page: an enthusiast, with no credentials in this field and none claimed. Bylines on this site name a real person and the structured data matches what the page says.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the date at the top of the page changes with it. It has not changed since the site launched.