Editorial standards

How a story reaches the site

We only write up an event that at least two independent sources have reported. One account of something, however confident, is not enough, so a story with a single source is never drafted.

A draft publishes on its own only when three things are true: at least two separate outlets are among its sources, its picture is one we are allowed to use (our own library, a frame from an official video, or our own branded card), and the draft passed our check for copied sentences. Anything else waits in an approval queue for an editor.

An editor can edit, unpublish or remove any article at any time, and every automatic publication is logged with the time and the rule that allowed it.

Where AI is used, and where it is not

A language model drafts our news. It reads the material we gathered from the sources and writes an article in our own words, using only facts those sources contain. It is told never to copy a sentence, and a draft that repeats a source word for word is rejected before anyone sees it.

Software also works out which film or person a story is about, and which picture illustrates it. A film is linked only when the headline names it. Merging two records of the same person is decided by a person, or by the system only when both records carry the same external id, and every such merge can be undone.

An editor's change is final. Once a person has edited a field, the pipeline will not write over it on a later pass, so a correction made by hand stays corrected.

Sourcing

Stories are built from public material: broadcaster and studio announcements, official social accounts of the people involved, official videos, press releases, and established entertainment outlets.

We do not publish claims that originate only in anonymous accounts, screenshots with no provenance, or aggregator posts that cite nobody. Rumour is reported as rumour or not at all.

What we will not do

• Invent a quote, or tidy a real quote into something the person did not say.
• Publish a private address, phone number or document.
• Run a morphed or AI-generated image of a real person as though it were a photograph.
• Report on the private life of someone who is not a public figure.
• Present our own poll as the broadcaster's vote. Every poll here is labelled unofficial, on the page and in the page's own text.

Polls and the projection

Our polls measure what Clapnumber readers think. They are not the show's vote and they change nothing about any result. Our read on who is likely to win a season is an argument assembled from public activity over a rolling window, and we publish the weights behind it so you can disagree with it on the merits. It has not been validated against a completed season, and we say that on the page rather than in a footnote.

Corrections

When we get something wrong we fix it and we say that we fixed it, on the story itself. We do not quietly edit a published claim out of existence.

If you have found an error, tell us at clapnumbergrievance@clapnumber.com or through the contact form. Include the page and what is wrong with it, and we will come back to you.

Independence

We are not owned by, funded by, or affiliated with any studio, broadcaster or streaming service. Nobody pays for coverage here, and no coverage is withheld because of a commercial relationship. If that ever changes, it will be disclosed on this page before it affects a single story.