Corrections Policy

Correction, clarification, update

These are three different things, and we say which one we are doing. A correction fixes something we got factually wrong: a wrong figure, a misspelled name, a quote attributed to the wrong person. A clarification means the facts were right and the writing still let a reader walk away with something untrue, usually through a missing qualifier or a headline that outran the story. An update adds new information to a story that was accurate when it published, which on a developing story can happen many times in a day.

The labels are not decoration. Calling a correction an update is one of the oldest moves on a news website, and we do not use it. If the first version was wrong, the note uses that word.

The note goes on the story, and the story stays put

Corrections are made on the original article at its original address. The note is dated, says what was wrong and what the fact is, and does not need hunting for: at the top where the error was material, at the foot where it was small. We do not quietly rewrite a sentence and let the page stand as though it had always read that way, because that hides the fact that a reader may have acted on the wrong version.

Two things get fixed without a note: a typing slip that changes no meaning, and formatting, tags, or a broken link. Everything above that line carries a note. Where the error was in the headline rather than the body, the note says so, because the headline is the part that travelled furthest.

What jumps the queue

Some errors matter more because people act on them. A wrong figure in a health warning, a wrong detail in a safety recall, a wrong result, a wrong court outcome, or a wrong number attached to a company or a market are handled the moment we can confirm the right version, ahead of everything else on the desk. Those are the facts readers make decisions on, and a wrong one does real harm the longer it stays up.

Next come errors that damage a person: a wrong name attached to an accusation, a wrong account of what someone said, a wrong claim about a private individual. Those are fixed the same working day, and where we can, the person affected is told the note is up rather than left to find it. Ordinary spelling, date, and arithmetic errors are done in the normal run of the day.

How a developing story is handled

Fast news is the hardest case, because the story is changing while it is being read. Our approach is to keep one authoritative story at one address and update it as the picture fills in, rather than scattering half-versions across many pages. When a material fact changes, we mark the change and timestamp it, so a reader can see that the earlier reading was superseded rather than wrong from the start. When an early report we relied on turns out to have been mistaken, that is a correction, and it is labelled as one even though the story was moving.

Live coverage and breaking updates carry more risk than a considered piece written a day later. We would rather be a few minutes behind and right than first and wrong, a choice explained on our about page and enforced through our fact-checking policy.

Telling us we got it wrong, and what you hear back

Write to support@playathomefest.com with CORRECTION at the front of the subject line. Give us the link, the sentence you are disputing, what you believe the correct fact is, and where that comes from if you have it. You do not need to be polite or explain who you are. The most useful message is the flattest: this figure is wrong, here is the official source that gives the right one.

You get an answer either way. If we change the story, we tell you what the note says. If we do not, we tell you why, and sometimes the reason is that the dispute is about framing rather than fact. Urgent safety and reputational errors are settled quickly. Everything else we aim to close the same working day and, at the outside, within two.

Chasing the error, and who signs off

A wrong fact does not stay only on the page where it was born. When we correct something that has already travelled, a social post carrying it is corrected or taken down with an explanation, and a newsletter that carried it runs the correction in the next edition. Where a story has been syndicated, we send the corrected copy and ask for the update, and because we cannot compel anyone we say what we asked for and what is out of our hands.

An editor owns corrections and decides whether a note is a correction or a clarification, where it sits, and how it is worded. The person who wrote the story does not make that call about their own work. Significant corrections are logged, and we go back through the log when the same kind of error appears twice, because a repeated mistake is a process problem, not one careless afternoon. We do not, as a rule, delete accurate stories, and the narrow exceptions are set out in our terms of service. If you have found an error, do not wait for someone else to report it.