Spotted an Error?

We read and re-read everything before it goes up, but mistakes still slip through. A step in the wrong order, a menu that has since been renamed, a word that means something different on the other side of the ocean. When you notice one, telling us is the kindest thing you can do for the next reader.

How to tell us

Send a short email through the Reach Us page. It helps if you include:

• the name of the article or its web address,
• the sentence or step that seems wrong, copied word for word if possible,
• what you believe is correct, and where you found that information.

Certainty is not required. "This does not match what my stove manual says" is a perfectly good report.

What happens next

Auberon reads each correction note first and matches it to the passage concerned. The writer who looks after that subject then checks the claim against the best source available, usually a product manual, official guidance or the original source we used.

• If the article was wrong, we fix the passage and update the article's modified date.
• If the article was right but easy to misread, we reword it so the next reader does not stumble in the same place.
• If the article was right as written, we explain why in our reply, with the source we relied on.

Either way, you will hear back from us.

Safety problems come first

Some errors matter more than others. Anything that could lead someone to get hurt, such as a missing warning about fire, heat, ladders, gas or electricity, jumps to the front of the queue. We correct those as soon as we can confirm them, and if in doubt we add a caution while we check.

That is one reason our practical guides, like How to Build a Fire Pit in the Backyard, lean towards more safety notes rather than fewer.

What we do not change

We will not soften fair criticism simply because someone asks, and we cannot change anything on other websites. Questions about a page elsewhere need to go to the people who run it.

Small slips

Typos and broken formatting are fixed quietly, without a note. Larger changes to the meaning of an article are reflected in its updated date, so returning readers can tell something has moved.

Thank you

Several of our guides are clearer today because a reader took a moment to write in. If you would like to know more about how a piece is put together in the first place, see Behind the Front Porch.