Editorial policy
Editorial Policy and Corrections
What we will and will not claim, where every figure has to come from, and a public log of everything we have got wrong.
The short answer
Sourcing standards
| Claim type | Required source | If unavailable |
|---|---|---|
| Product specification | Manufacturer spec sheet or retail listing, named on the card | Row reads Not published |
| Horticultural fact | University extension service or RHS, linked at the point of claim | Claim is not made |
| Computed interval | Published inputs plus arithmetic shown in full | No figure is published |
| Price | Live price layer with a capture date | Button reads Check price |
| Manufacturer duration claim | Quoted from the manufacturer, checked against our arithmetic | Not quoted |
We do not cite competitor blogs for horticultural facts. Where we cite another publisher it is because they did something original we are reporting - the one first-hand account of using watering globes that we quote on the globes page is the clearest example, and it is attributed to them by name.
Claims we will not make
- That we tested anything. No lab, no test bench, no units we bought. “We tested”, “in our testing”, “hands-on” and “expert-tested” do not appear on this site.
- Credentials we do not hold. No horticulturist, no expert panel, no professional qualification. See the about page for what the author actually is.
- Tenure. “Long-time”, “veteran”, “seasoned”, “years of experience”. This site is new and we say so.
- Fabricated reviews or testimonials. There is no testimonials section anywhere on this site, because we have no real reviews to publish and we will not invent any.
- Invented numbers. No estimated capacity, no guessed price, no recalled specification. If it is not sourced, it is not here.
Structured data
Our visible product scores are editorial judgment applied to published data, and they are deliberately not marked up as ratings in the page’s structured data. Emitting a review rating for a product we have not tested would contradict the paragraph next to it and would misrepresent an editorial opinion as a review to search engines.
Similarly, an offer node only appears where the live price layer currently holds a price. No price data means no offer, rather than an invented one.
Review and update cadence
| Asset | Cadence | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Prices | Daily | Automated price layer |
| Roundup specifications | Quarterly | Manual re-verification against listings |
| Extension citations | Every six months | Link-rot check; unreachable links are dropped |
| The refill-interval method | Annually, or sooner | New published guidance |
| Guides | Annually | Or immediately on a correction |
A refresh that changes nothing does not get a date bump. Bumping a modification date without changing the content is the same dishonesty as a build-stamped sitemap, just slower, and it trains search engines to ignore the field.
Corrections
Corrections go ahead of everything else. If you have found an error, cite the source and send it through the contact form or email info@wiltandwater.com.
When we correct something material - a wrong specification, a mistaken calculation, a claim that turns out not to be supported - we fix the page, note the change here with the date, and update the modification date on the page itself. We do not silently edit.
How first-hand experience gets added over time
We start with none and we do not pretend otherwise. If that changes, it changes under these rules:
- A testing claim may only ever cover the specific units actually acquired, with the date and method stated. This site does not silently become “expert-tested”.
- Reader-reported outcomes, if we collect them, will be labeled as reader-reported with a sample size - never presented as our own testing.
- Analysis of the gap between a manufacturer’s duration claim and what the capacity arithmetic supports is original work we can do today, and we do it. It is analysis, not testing, and we describe it as such.
Independence
No sponsored placements, no free products accepted in exchange for coverage, no paid rankings, no guest posts with embedded commercial links. The affiliate disclosure sets out how the site is funded and the specific, checkable ways commission is kept out of the picks.