Editorial policy and fact labels

The policy in brief · as of 2026-10-25

Each fact on Starlink vs Leo carries a source link, the day it was last read and a label for how sure it is. What Amazon hasn't published, we call "not announced"; we never guess. AI helps us research and draft, and we say so.

Where facts come from

We use the most direct source that exists, in this order:

The company itself: Amazon's and Starlink's own pages, terms, help articles, results releases and filings.
Regulators and launch companies: FCC orders and filings, NTIA notices, and a launch company's own record of its own launch.
Press reports and satellite trackers, only when no primary source exists, and always labeled "reported".

Forums, social posts, comparison sites' estimates and AI-generated summaries are never sources. Starlink prices, plans, fees and referral rules come from one Starlink facts file, read from Starlink's own pages (prices last checked 2026-11-03; every fact shows its own check date).

How a fact is checked and dated

Each fact is stored with its value, a link to its source, the date we read that source, a status label and, where possible, the exact words it rests on. Quotes are matched word for word against the source text we fetched. Counts that companies don't publish, such as satellites in orbit, are cross-checked against two independent trackers and labeled as our calculation.

Every value shows its date. Next to each fact you'll see "checked YYYY-MM-DD"; hover or tap it for the source.
Each page shows its oldest check date at the top ("Facts checked"), and lists its sources, with retrieval dates, at the end.
Facts expire. A fact checked more than 30 days ago counts as stale, and the site's build tests fail until it is checked again.
A date changes only when we re-check. We never move a "checked" date to make a page look fresh.

How sure we are

Each fact about a launch, a service or a price carries one of these labels. The label is always written out, with a shape beside it, so it never depends on color.

Confirmed: Stated by the company itself (its own pages, terms or filings), checked on the date shown.
Announced: The company has announced it, but it is not live or available yet.
Planned: A plan or target the company or a filing describes; dates can move.
Reported: Reported by a secondary source (press or a tracker), not confirmed by the company.
Unconfirmed: Claimed or expected, but no primary source confirms it.
Not announced: The company has not announced this.
Our calculation: Our own calculation from the sourced facts shown next to it.
Sources conflict: Sources disagree, or an official date has passed or been replaced.
Unverified: No source settles this yet.

Rules for Amazon Leo

We never guess a price, a plan or a start date. If Amazon hasn't published it, it reads "not announced".
When a date Amazon gave has passed, or a newer statement replaces it, we keep it on the record and label it "sources conflict".
Prices and dates from other countries are never presented as US ones.
Speeds are Amazon's own figures unless an independent measurement exists, and we say which.
Amazon's "Join the list" is an email list for updates. We never describe it as a place in line, and we never sign anyone up.

Fair comparisons

When we compare Starlink and Amazon Leo, both get the same yardstick, the same type and the same space: a median against a median, a list price against a list price, and "not announced" where one side has nothing published. Charts draw both networks with equal weight. Status colors describe how sure we are, never which network is better. This follows the FTC's policy on comparative advertising (16 CFR 14.15), which asks that the basis of a comparison be clear.

AI assistance

We use AI tools (Claude, made by Anthropic) to help find and read sources, draft pages and write the site's code. How we keep that honest:

An AI's word is never a source. Every fact must trace to a page or filing a reader can open, stamped with the day it was read.
Quotes are checked by machine against the fetched source text, and a separate checking pass re-reads each source before a page is published, titles, descriptions and image text included.
A person signs off. The site's owner reviews each page before it is published. Bylines carry the site's name, Starlink vs Leo, not a person's; the About page explains why.
No AI images as photos. Photos are licensed and credited on the image credits page; any render is labeled as one.

People, quotes and reviews

We don't invent people, personas, reviews, testimonials or reader stories. Quotes come only from published sources, linked and dated, and are labeled when they reach us through a press report. Claims of first-hand testing appear only if the owner actually did the testing, and are marked first-hand. There are no Amazon Leo user reviews on this site because there are no Amazon Leo home customers yet.

News

We write a news post only when something changes for a US household: prices, orders opening, coverage, a dated launch or an FCC decision. Each post names the event date in its first line, cites the primary source and the day it was read, and carries no referral link. Everything else goes into the tracker as a dated row. Posts are dated records: if the story moves on, we add a dated update rather than rewrite what we said. See news.

Corrections and updates

A correction is when we got something wrong. We fix it, mark the item "Corrected" with the date, and list it in the corrections log with what it said before. An update is when the world changed, for example Amazon announcing a price: we add the new fact with its own date and source. We never quietly rewrite a fact without re-checking it.

The site's one source of income, and the pages where its referral link may and may not appear, are set out on the money page. Words like "inclination" and "phased array" are explained in the glossary.