Editorial Policy
We make confusing aging-parent problems easier to understand and act on. This policy is how we keep that promise: we separate evidence from opinion, recommendations from advertisements, and ordinary practical guidance from professional medical, legal, and financial advice.
Content classes
Every piece of content is treated according to how much harm a mistake could cause:
| Class | Examples | Standard |
|---|---|---|
| A — Ordinary practical | Phone setup, organizing a move, choosing a remote | Standard quality review; corrected on report. |
| B — Safety / scam / home-risk | Scam response, verification methods, bathroom safety | Authoritative sourcing (government/regulator first) and trust review. Marked with a "Safety content" badge. |
| C — Medical, legal, financial | Medicare, capacity, wills, taxes, individualized care | General guidance only, clearly labeled, with professional-review boundaries. Never individualized conclusions. |
Evidence hierarchy
When we make a material factual claim, we prefer sources in this order:
- Government, regulator, or standards body (FTC, FBI/IC3, CISA, CFPB, SSA, CMS, state agencies)
- Original manufacturer documentation for device behavior (Apple, Google, Microsoft support)
- Peer-reviewed or systematic evidence
- Recognized professional organizations
- High-quality original reporting
- Documented first-party testing (we will say so if and when we do it)
- Reputable secondary sources
- Community anecdotes — treated as qualitative signals only ("people struggle with this"), never as medical or legal facts
Each safety-relevant page lists its key sources with retrieval dates. Material claims carry a claim ledger entry behind the scenes; when evidence is superseded, every affected page is updated and the change logged.
Freshness
Pages state their freshness class:
| Class | Meaning | Review cadence |
|---|---|---|
| F0 | Near-static method (decluttering, family coordination) | Annually or on user report |
| F1 | Slowly changing (home-safety principles) | Every 6–12 months |
| F2 | Changing products/devices (iOS/Android menus, prices) | Every 30–90 days or on release signal |
| F3 | Regulatory/program/scam alerts | On source update plus scheduled checks |
AI and content volume
AI is a production tool, never a justification for volume. We don't publish pages whose only value is paraphrasing others, swapping city or device names in a template, stitching search results, or generating every query variation. We publish a small number of strong pages and maintain them. We also never invent test results, star ratings, quotes, or purchase experiences.
Reviews and labels
If we ever test products, we'll use these labels, and only with the evidence to back them: Tested by us (documented protocol), Researched recommendation (documented external evidence), Reader favorite (measured reader data), Sponsored (prominently labeled and segregated from independent ranking). Today, our recommendation guides are researched recommendations — nothing on this site has been hands-on tested by us, and we don't claim otherwise.
Corrections
Every page links to report an error. Material corrections are logged at Corrections. Serious safety errors get immediate repair or unpublishing — we don't wait for a normal editorial cycle when a mistake could cause harm. If we got something wrong, we say so plainly, in the correction log and on the page.
Affiliate and commercial disclosure
Any page with a financial connection uses plain language like: "We may earn a commission if you buy through links on this page. That does not change our rankings or what we recommend." A bare "affiliate link" label isn't enough. Details in How We Make Money.
Tone
Be candid and useful. Humor should reduce the reader's stress, never the parent's dignity. We don't do fear marketing, "senior" condescension, or startup baby-talk.