Editorial methodology

What SpecCairn does and does not do

Guides explain computers, smartphones, monitors, storage, chargers and related accessories using documented capabilities and clearly scoped examples. SpecCairn does not currently test products. It does not publish invented benchmarks, scores or rankings, and it does not claim hands-on experience unless a page shows dated evidence of it.

Evidence for every specification

Every technical claim on SpecCairn must have traceable evidence. General explanations identify the standard edition, software version or documented context. Product specifications require the exact model, configuration and market. Source access is not permission to reproduce a document.

1. Standards-body publications and official software documentation, with their edition, scope and relevant section.
2. Manufacturer documents (user guides and specification pages) for the exact model, configuration and market.
3. Attributed independent test results, only with permission and their test conditions, never presented as our own.
4. Owner observations, only when they are real, and scoped to the actual product, configuration, date and method.

Retailer listings, customer reviews and retailer images are not used as product evidence.

Exact identity

Product-specific facts belong to an exact model, configuration and market. General technical explanations instead identify the applicable standard, operating system or documented context; they are never attached to invented products. Similarly named models and variants remain separate. Calculations identify their assumptions and are not presented as measured performance.

Review roles

Facts are collected with their source, passage and scope. A separate review role checks the claims against recorded evidence. For the five Apple-related guides in the initial publication set, the owner manually inspected the official pages. The independent reviewer assessed the owner's recorded reading, locators, scope and article wording; this is not represented as that reviewer directly inspecting those pages. This source-checking method is not hands-on product testing. Nothing becomes public because it was entered into a database or a draft. A page can be published only when every decisive fact it relies on is approved, its sources are current, and the owner has approved that exact version.

People and AI tools

SpecCairn uses AI-assisted tools to research facts in manufacturer documents, draft text and check sources against each other. These tools are not treated as evidence: every fact must point to the document and passage it comes from. The final approval to publish a page belongs to the owner of SpecCairn and is a separate decision; a tool cannot approve content. SpecCairn does not invent test results or hands-on product experience and does not claim professional credentials or laboratory testing.

Commercial relationships

Commercial relationships must not dictate product facts or recommendations. SpecCairn currently has none; see the affiliate disclosure.

Unknowns

When a document does not state something, the site shows Unknown with the reason. Unknown never means "no", zero or compatible. "Not applicable" and "not comparable" are separate labels.

Conditional recommendations versus rankings

A conditional statement says what a documented feature allows and which conditions must hold (for example, your computer's port and cable). It does not say one product is better overall.

Corrections and updates

If a source changes or a fact is found to be wrong, every page that depends on it is withheld until it is re-checked; corrections are logged with old and new versions. Dates shown are real publication, update and verification dates. The full process is on the corrections page; report an error to speccairn@gmail.com.