Editorial Policy
AI assistance, stated plainly
Barefeed content is written with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. This is disclosed in the site footer, at the end of every article, and in the page metadata of every page, so it survives copying and republishing.
The division of labour:
| Stage | Who |
|---|---|
| Research and source gathering | AI-assisted |
| Drafting | AI-assisted |
| Claim verification against sources | Human |
| Final accuracy and tone review | Human |
| Publication decision | Human |
The human reviewer is accountable for every claim. AI assistance does not lower the standard; it changes who is responsible for meeting it.
Sourcing rules
- Primary sources first. Filings, papers, datasets, and official statistics beat secondary coverage. A trade article may be cited for context, never as the sole support for a factual claim.
- Name the source inline. Every non-obvious claim carries its citation at the point it is made.
- Attribute numbers to a year. A statistic without a vintage is a guess.
- Conflicts get reported. When two credible sources disagree, the article says they disagree instead of silently picking the more convenient one.
Confidence language
Conclusions are written to match the evidence:
- demonstrates / establishes — multiple independent sources agree
- suggests / indicates — a pattern holds but rests on limited evidence
- is contested — credible sources genuinely disagree
If the honest answer is that the evidence is insufficient, the article ends there.
What Barefeed does not do
- No fabricated quotes, studies, or statistics. Ever.
- No anonymous attribution. A source is named or the claim is dropped.
- No undisclosed sponsored content.
- No engagement metrics, no tracking pixels, no "read time to unlock" patterns.
Corrections
Corrections are made in place and noted at the foot of the article with what changed and when. Silent edits that change meaning are not acceptable; a reader who saw the earlier error can see that it happened and when it was fixed.