Editorial policy

Everything below describes how What People Miss actually operates day to day — commissioning, checking, correcting, and the line between editorial and commercial.

Independence

Commercial and editorial are separate functions here. Nobody who sells advertising commissions, edits or approves an article, and no writer is told which advertisers are currently running. That separation is the point of it, and it is not negotiable per campaign.

There is no paid placement on this site — no sponsored articles, no paid links, no bought reviews. Should that ever change, such content would carry a label at the top of the page and would be kept out of the feed and the section listings.

How we choose what to cover

Ideas come from the writers, from readers and from what we can see is being explained badly elsewhere. The test for commissioning is simple: will a reader be able to do something differently after reading it?

Accuracy and sourcing

• Factual claims go back to a primary source before publication whenever one exists to go back to.
• Contested or wide-ranging figures are presented as contested, rather than reduced to whichever number reads best.
• Opinion is signposted as opinion. You should never have to guess whether you are reading evidence or a view.
• General information is never dressed up as advice about your circumstances, and we name the point at which a professional should take over.

Use of AI tools

AI tools are used in drafting. They are not used to publish: nothing goes live without a human edit, and the byline records who is answerable for the finished article.

We do not use AI to fabricate quotes, sources, statistics or people. Where a figure or a claim appears, it is checked before publication, and where we cannot verify something we leave it out or say that it is uncertain.

Every illustration on What People Miss is original and produced in-house. We do not use third-party stock photography, so nothing on this site is licensed from, or shared with, anyone else.

Corrections

If we publish something inaccurate we fix it. Substantive corrections are noted on the article itself with the date; typographical fixes are made silently. Nothing is quietly deleted to make a mistake disappear.

To report an error, write to corrections@whatpeoplemiss.com or use the contact form and choose "Correction". Tell us the article, the sentence and what is wrong; we aim to respond within five working days.

Right of reply

If you or your organisation is the subject of criticism in an article and believe it is unfair or factually wrong, write to editorial@whatpeoplemiss.com. We will consider a reply on the record.

Affiliate links and gifts

We do not currently run affiliate links. If that changes, affiliate links will be disclosed on the page that carries them and will never determine what we recommend.

Writers do not accept payment, gifts or hospitality from anyone they cover. Review items, where they exist, are returned or declared.

Reader data

How we handle your data is set out in the privacy policy and the cookie policy. In short: we collect as little as we can, we do not sell personal data, and advertising cookies only run if you agree to them.