How Packet Basics Writes, Ranks and Verifies

PurposeWhat these standards are for

Packet Basics publishes three things: a reference library that explains IT concepts, rankings of the software IT teams buy, and a directory of managed service providers. A reader acts on all three, so each one has rules about what may be published and what has to be true first.

This is a desk-research publication. We read standards, vendor documentation, public price lists and public registers at the source, and we write down where each fact came from. We do not run a test lab, and no page claims that we did.

Where a rule below can be enforced by software, it is. The publishing system refuses a page that breaks it and prints the reason, because a rule that depends on somebody remembering it is a rule that gets broken on a busy day.

Reference pagesSigned, sourced, traced

Every concept page names the editor responsible for it and shows the date it was last updated. When a second person contributes to a page or checks it, they are named on it as well. There are no anonymous pages and no house byline.

What counts as a source

A claim has to trace to a primary source. Anything else is a lead: a reason to go and look, never something to cite.

• Sources: the text of an RFC or a standard, vendor documentation at the version named on the page, the published pages of a standards body, a public register, and a public price list with the date it was read.
• Leads, never sources: search results and their summaries, blog posts, forums, other explainers, and anything a language model says.

A fact that only appeared in a summary does not go on the page, however plausible it sounds. If a claim cannot be traced, it is removed, and if it is our own reasoning the page says so instead of dressing it as a quotation.

The evidence file

Every page has an evidence file kept beside its draft. It quotes each fact from its source with the date it was read, lists the sentences that are inference and not quotation, and records what the page deliberately does not claim.

Configurations and troubleshooting steps are checked against the documentation that defines them before publication. Every diagram is generated in code from the figures printed on the page, not redrawn from somebody else's illustration, so a diagram cannot disagree with the text beside it.

What a page needs before it can be published

• A short answer at the top that stands on its own.
• At least one diagram or comparison table.
• Six or more frequently asked questions.
• A body of at least 1,000 words.
• The phrase the page answers, used in the words people search with.
• A named editor.
• No typographic dashes.

The publish button in our admin refuses a page that misses any of these, and prints which one.

EnforcementChecks that run on the whole site

Passing the publish checks gets one page live. After every change, a round of automated checks then runs across the whole site, because most errors are not on the page that was just edited.

• Links and anchors: every internal link resolves, without a redirect, and every link to a section lands on a section that exists.
• Sitemap against reality: every published page is in the sitemap, and nothing in the sitemap is missing from the site.
• Structured data: every block of structured data on every page parses, and names the real editor.
• Language: American English spelling throughout, and no placeholder text.
• Claims of work not done: phrases that would imply a team, a lab or testing we do not have are searched for on every page and fail the round if found.
• Layout: every table is checked for the scroll container that stops a wide one from pushing a page sideways on a phone.

Software rankingsOne rubric, and every price dated

Every tool is scored on the same 40-point rubric across six criteria, criterion by criterion. The rubric does not change between categories or between vendors, which is the only way a score in one ranking means the same as a score in another.

What the scores are read from

Scores are read from what the vendor and the project actually publish: pricing pages, product documentation, release histories and license files. We do not run hands-on trials, and each ranking states what its scores were read from, so a reader can weigh a score for what it is.

Every price carries the date we read it. Where a vendor publishes no price, the page says so instead of estimating one.

What vendors can and cannot change

A vendor can dispute a fact. If we misread a price, a limit or a license, we check the source again and correct the page with a dated note. A vendor cannot dispute a score, negotiate one, or pay for a position.

Affiliate links are added after scoring, and tools with no affiliate program are ranked on the same rubric in the same table. Each ranking keeps a changelog of what changed and when.

Provider directoryFive checks, and the one that decides a listing

There are five checks on a provider, and one of them decides whether it is listed at all. An active state business registration, confirmed against the public register and recorded with its filing number, is what proves a company exists under the name it trades as. Nothing appears in the directory without it.

The other four are published on the profile exactly as they stand, not held back until they pass. A profile that says the phone has not been called yet says exactly that, with the date, so a reader can weigh the listing instead of trusting a badge.

Each check carries the date it was last looked at, and the whole record is re-run every six months. A provider that fails a check is removed from the directory, not moved down it.

A city page exists only while at least 5 listed companies serve that city. Below that it stops existing until it recovers, because a list of two companies and some filler tells a reader nothing.

How listings are ordered

City pages list companies alphabetically. Ranking a directory needs something to rank on, and until reviews from clients we reached, certifications confirmed with their issuers and documented response times are on file, putting one company above another would be an opinion dressed as a measurement.

Once that evidence exists, listings will be ranked on five weighted factors, and the page will say so:

• Verified client reviews, 35%. Including how well what clients report matches what the contract promises.
• Confirmed certifications, 25%. Relevant to the services offered, each recorded with the date it was confirmed.
• Documented response time, 20%. As written in the contract, with the credit paid when it is missed.
• Pricing transparency, 10%. From a published price list down to quote only.
• Local coverage, 10%. Where technicians are actually based, and same day on-site commitments.

Sponsored placements, if a page carries any, are labeled as such and sit outside that order.

How quote requests are handled

A quote request goes to at most three listed companies that cover the area, and to nobody else. It is not sold to a lead broker. The request commits the reader to nothing and costs them nothing.

IndependenceWhere the money comes from, and what it cannot buy

The site has three sources of revenue, and all three are listed on the about page: affiliate commissions on some software links, a flat referral fee when a quote request is sent to a provider, and clearly labeled sponsorships.

• A listing cannot be bought. It is free, and it starts with the registration check.
• A position cannot be bought. The referral fee is the same for every provider, so paying it cannot move anyone up a list.
• A score cannot be bought. It is set before any affiliate link is added.
• A sponsored placement is labeled, sits outside the ordering, and never changes a rating, a check result or the unsponsored list.

We do not provide IT services ourselves, so there is no service of ours that a ranking or a listing could be steering a reader toward.

CorrectionsFixed on the page, dated, in public

Anyone can report an error with the correction form. A report does not need to be polite or expert. It needs the page and what is wrong with it.

We check the report against the source. If the page is wrong, it is corrected on the page with a dated note saying what changed, and the correction is recorded in the corrections log on the about page. We do not quietly edit a mistake away.

If the report is wrong, we say why, with the source. A vendor disputing a fact in a ranking and a provider disputing a check result go through the same form and get the same treatment.

FreshnessDates and updates

• Every page shows the date it was last updated.
• Every price shows the date it was read from the vendor's own page.
• Every provider check shows the date it was last looked at, including the checks still outstanding.
• Every ranking carries a changelog.

Dates are set by the publishing system when a page changes. Nobody edits a date by hand to make a page look newer.

ToolsHow we use software and language models

We use spell checkers, grammar tools, diagram code, scripts that measure our own pages, and language models as drafting aids. They speed up the writing. They are not sources, and a sentence a model produced is treated like a sentence from a forum: a lead to be checked, never a fact.

No page is published without a named human editor who checked every claim against the sources in its evidence file. Nothing on this site is a generated summary of other websites.

LimitsWhat we do not publish

• A statistic without a source we read ourselves.
• A price we did not read on the vendor's own page, or an estimate where none is published.
• A credential, for a provider or for our own editor, that cannot be shown.
• A review we could not confirm with the client who wrote it.
• A claim of testing, a lab or a team that does not exist.