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Steve's Outpost

Editorial

Editorial policy

What we will and will not publish, where the claims come from, and what happens when we get something wrong.

Last updated

Independence

No brand, retailer or network has any influence over what appears on this site or in what order. Nobody outside Type 5 Marketing LLC sees a page before it publishes. We accept no paid placement, no sponsored content and no review samples, and affiliate commission rates play no part in ranking — details on the disclosure page.

Sourcing standards

Every factual claim on this site has to clear one of three bars:

  • The manufacturer's own published specification. Blade steel, insulation weight, R-value, gear ratio, NRR, CFM, load rating. Cited by name, with a link, in the Sources block on the page.
  • A published standard or a regulator. ASTM F3340 for sleeping pad R-value, the ANSI/NEMA FL 1 flashlight standard, OSHA on noise exposure. Named and linked, never paraphrased as "studies show".
  • Arithmetic we show our working for. Where we compute something — MOA to inches at range, cooler volume against quarters of game, roof load minus rack weight — the calculation is on the page so you can check it.

Anything that clears none of those three does not get stated as fact. Where we are uncertain, the page says so rather than quietly omitting the question.

What we will not publish, under any circumstances

  • A claim that we tested something. We have no lab, no sample units and no range time. Every roundup says so in the same eyeline as the picks.
  • A fabricated review, testimonial, star rating or review count. This site has no customers and publishes no customer feedback. Not one quote, not one aggregate rating, not one "readers say" box.
  • An invented credential. No certifications, no letters after a name, no "expert panel", no "medically reviewed by". Stephen V. is an enthusiast and the site says exactly that.
  • A price we did not verify. Prices come from the live API or they do not appear at all.
  • A firearm, receiver or regulated part. The shooting-gear section is accessories only.
  • A stock photograph presented as our own. Ambient photography on this site is licensed stock and is never captioned or implied to be a product we own or a place we have been. Product images come from the Amazon Creators API and show the actual listing.

Review cadence

  • Prices: refreshed daily, automatically. A price older than 48 hours is removed rather than shown.
  • Product availability: checked on the same daily cycle. A delisted product is pulled from the page rather than left as a dead link.
  • Roundup picks: reviewed every 90 days.
  • Specification claims: reviewed every 90 days, or immediately when a manufacturer revises a model.
  • Guides and explainers: reviewed annually, or whenever a standard they reference is revised.

Corrections

Material errors are corrected in place with a dated correction note. The original claim is not deleted and the page is not quietly rewritten to look as though it always said the right thing. If a fact was wrong, the page will say what it said, what it should have said, and when it changed.

Typos, broken links and formatting fixes are made without a note — nobody needs a changelog for a missing comma.

To report an error, email info@stevesoutpost.com or use the contact form. Include the page and, if you can, the source that contradicts us. Corrections that come with a manufacturer specification attached get handled fastest.

Scores and ratings

The numeric scores on product cards are our editorial judgment from published specifications, against the rubric on the methodology page. They are not measurements, not customer ratings, and not aggregated from anywhere else.

They are also never emitted as structured rating data for search engines. A machine-readable star rating tells Google that a rating exists in a way that implies testing or customer feedback, and neither is true here. The score stays on the page as an opinion with its reasoning attached, which is what it actually is.

Affiliate links and editorial separation

Affiliate links appear only on commercial content — roundups, comparisons, reviews and buying guides. Trust pages carry none. Every commercial page shows a disclosure above the first affiliate link, not only in the footer.