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Contact the Editorial Desk: Corrections, Closures and Additions

One address for corrections. Naming the page and quoting the sentence is what makes a correction fast.

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Editorial

Email[email protected]Corrections, closed sources, and suggestions for the index.
Editorial deskCorrections, closed sources and additions to the indexWhere a factual error is confirmed, the page changes and its review date moves with it.
LanguageEnglishThe catalog is published in English only.

What to include

Four lines are enough and they save a great deal of back and forth. The address of the page. The sentence or the source line the message is about, quoted rather than paraphrased. What is wrong with it. And, where the point is factual, something that settles it: a link, a document, a date. A message that contains all four is usually actioned without a reply being needed first.

Reporting a source that has closed

This is the most useful thing anybody sends, and the most common. Every source on the site carries the date it was last reached, and a date is a claim that can go stale: a page that resolved in August can be gone in November, and nothing about that failure announces itself. If an annotation describes something that no longer answers, saying so is a genuine contribution.

When a source has closed rather than moved, the entry is rewritten to say so and to keep the record, rather than having the line quietly removed. That is deliberate. The report on closed measurement tools exists because the closures turned out to be the more interesting half of the subject, and the same principle applies at the level of an individual line.

Suggesting an entry

The index records well over a hundred terms and keeps a handful as full entries. A term is promoted when it still has a real, checkable set of sources worth annotating, which is a judgement about the sources rather than about the subject. If you know of a term in the index where that is true, it is worth saying which sources you have in mind.

What this address is not for

It cannot look a domain up for you. Nothing on the site queries anything: the reference section explains how to read a registry record, a DNS record and the estimated figures, and the decoders name the fields in a record you already have, in your own browser. Running the query is something to do yourself, and the pages set out how.

Wanting the traffic is not what puts a source on a list. A source is listed because a reader would want it, described accurately, with its class and its date stated. That is the whole basis on which the catalog is worth anything.

Frequently asked questions

What is worth reporting?

Three things above all. A factual error, quoted so it can be found. A source that has closed or moved, because an annotation describing something that no longer answers is worse than no annotation. And a term in the index that has a real, checkable set of sources worth writing up as a full entry.

How long does a correction take?

Where a factual error is confirmed, the page changes and its review date moves with it. Adding a source, or promoting an indexed term to a full entry, is slower work, because it means reading the sources rather than accepting a suggestion.

Do you accept link submissions?

Suggestions of sources are welcome and are treated as suggestions. A source is added only if it still resolves, holds something a reader would want, and can be described accurately, which is checked rather than taken on trust. A request to be listed is not itself a reason to be listed.

Can you look up a domain for me?

No, and nothing on the site does. The reference section explains how to read a registry record, a DNS record and the estimated figures, and the three decoders will name the fields in a record you already have. Actually querying a registry is something to do yourself, and the pages say how.