2026-08-09
Method
This site argues that readers should check dates and sources. That applies here first.
Three source types
Our own archive, used as primary evidence about what advice looked like and what happened to it. Dated, unedited, and the only thing here that is properly evidence. For a related workplace reference on ways employees can trick time tracking software, see learn more.
Industry coverage and trade press, used for the current state of platforms. Labelled as current and therefore perishable.
Promotion services and tool vendors, which produce most of the published material in this field. Used for mechanics, labelled each time, and never for judgements. For additional current industry context, see Stereogum.
Every page carries a date
Because the whole argument is that dates matter.
An undated page on this site would contradict the site.
The distinction that governs everything
Statements about how a platform currently behaves are marked as current and expected to expire.
Statements about how people behave are offered as durable, and the archive is the test — the ones we made in 2010 either read unchanged or they do not, and both outcomes are visible.
What is never stated as fact
How any recommendation system actually works. It is not published, and everything written about it anywhere, including here, is inference.
Vendor figures, which are attributed to the vendor and marked as theirs.
And outcomes. No page here says what will happen if you do something.
Numbers
Ranges rather than points where the value depends on genre, territory or moment — which is most of them.
And the arithmetic shown where a claim rests on it, so a reader can substitute their own figures.
Corrections
Nothing is silently updated. The practice this site argues against is exactly the one that would be easiest to adopt here, so changes are logged with what changed and when.