Editorial policy

We write for real gifting dilemmas. Every published guide should help someone decide what to buy — and what to skip — with clear reasons.

Standards for guides

Recommendations must fit a stated recipient profile and budget.
We explain tradeoffs and what to skip, not only what to buy.
Item counts, FAQs, and meta descriptions must meet audit thresholds before publish.
Banned empty marketing phrases are rejected by automated checks.

AI drafts vs publish

Guide Studio and backlog generators can draft outlines and copy, but drafts are marked for human review and are not auto-published. Editors confirm claims, URLs, and fit before a guide goes live. Intent-cluster generation creates missing series members as drafts only.

What a “Reviewed” stamp means

Published guides show when they were last reviewed. Internally we track a review-due date (about 90 days). Overdue or missing stamps surface in Guide Studio and freshness audits so editors re-verify picks. A fresh stamp should mean an editor actually checked:

Picks still fit the recipient profile and stated budget.
Blurbs still explain fit and what to skip without overclaiming.
Shopping links (search or product) still resolve and match the labeled idea.
Obvious discontinued or mismatched items were replaced or removed.

Corrections

If a product is discontinued, a link breaks, or a recommendation no longer holds up, we update the guide and refresh the review stamp. Contact hello@giftcompass.io. For how scoring and exclusions work, see how recommendations work.