Corrections Policy
This page explains what we do when we get something wrong. It is short on apology and long on mechanics. Last updated: August 2026.
Every site says it corrects errors. The part worth checking is whether the note is still visible a year later, or whether the sentence was quietly swapped so the story reads as though it was always right. We do the first thing.
A correction, a clarification and an update are three different things
A correction means we published something factually wrong. A wrong figure, a wrong date, a wrong model year, a rule described as applying to tickets it does not cover. The fact changes and the note says what the story used to say.
A clarification means the facts were right and the wording let a reader reach a conclusion we did not intend. A sentence about a recall that was true of one engine variant but read as though it covered the range gets a dated note too. The reader who misread it was not being careless.
An update means the story is accurate and the world has moved. A manufacturer finally publishes the affected build dates, or a publisher reverses the patch. Updates are dated, and they never overwrite the original answer without saying so. In our format a stale answer does nearly the damage of a wrong one.
What the note looks like and where it sits
Corrections and clarifications go on the original article, in a labelled note carrying the date and the substance of what was wrong. On a material error the note sits at the top, where somebody arriving from a search cannot miss it. On a minor one it sits at the foot.
The note says what the story previously said and what it says now. This story has been amended is not a correction note, it is a way of admitting nothing. If the headline or the answer in the first two sentences was wrong, we say that specifically, because those are the only parts many people read.
Material errors, typos, and the line between them
Anything that changes what a reader would do is material. Figures, dates, names, eligibility, whether a rule applies to a purchase already made, whether a health claim is supported by the study cited. Those get a dated note and, where the story travelled, the treatment described below.
Spelling, punctuation, a broken link and a caption fix that changes no fact are corrected without a note. We are not going to hang a box on the page because we put a comma in the wrong sentence. Where the line is unclear we treat it as material, because we are the interested party in that judgement.
Telling us
Write to support@faq-ans.com with CORRECTION at the front of the subject line. Send the link, the sentence you think is wrong, and where the right version can be found. The third part is optional. You do not have to turn out to be right, and you do not have to be polite about it either.
We look at anything flagged as a correction the same working day where we can, and we reply with what we found even when we conclude the story was right. A confirmed error is fixed as soon as it is verified. If the fix needs a document we do not have yet, the story carries a note that the claim is under review.
Who decides
The editor who cleared the story handles the correction. The managing editor signs off anything going at the top of a page, anything involving a named person, and anything where the writer disagrees with the reader. A writer defending their own sentence is not the right person to rule on it.
Nobody on the commercial side is consulted, told in advance, or able to ask for a note to be worded gently. The subject of a story can tell us we are wrong and show us why. They cannot approve the wording.
The copies we have already sent out
A wrong sentence does not stay on our page. It goes out in the newsletter, onto our social accounts, into whatever aggregator picked the story up, and into any outlet republishing us under licence. Correcting the article and stopping there fixes the smallest copy of the problem.
So on a material error we fix the story, post the correction where the original was posted rather than deleting the post, note it in the next newsletter if the wrong version went out in one, and email every licensee. Carrying our corrections is a condition of republishing us, set out in our terms of service. Platforms we cannot edit get a notice anyway.
We correct, we do not disappear
Stories are corrected or updated, not deleted, and we do not take a page down because it has become inconvenient for somebody in it. Unpublishing is a way of making a mistake unfindable, and the archive is the only reason to believe anything else on this page.
The exceptions are narrow: a legal obligation we cannot argue our way out of, a real risk to somebody’s safety, or material we had no right to publish. In those cases the address stays live with a dated note saying the story was withdrawn and why. A blank page with no explanation is not something we do. Copyright requests are covered by our DMCA page.
The log
Significant corrections are logged with the date, the story and what was wrong. The real use of it is internal. Read three months in one sitting and patterns show up that no single correction does, such as one beat producing most of the errors.
Those patterns get worked through at the weekly meeting, alongside the file of questions we have failed to answer. Twice it has changed the checking process rather than the writer, which is the outcome we prefer. How claims are tested in the first place is in our fact-checking policy.
