Corrections

Everyone publishing at volume gets things wrong. The distinguishing question is what happens next. This page is the standing record and the process behind it.

The log

Substantive corrections are recorded here with the date, the page affected, what was wrong, and what it now says. The article itself also carries a dated note. Nothing is removed from this log once added, including corrections that are embarrassing to us.

No substantive corrections have been issued yet. This section will list them as they occur, oldest at the bottom. An empty log is a statement about how long we have been publishing, not a claim to be unusually accurate.

What counts as a correction

A correction is issued when a factual claim was wrong: a wrong figure, a misattributed statement, a mischaracterised document, a broken causal claim. These get a dated note on the article and an entry here.

A clarification is issued when a statement was accurate but could reasonably be read to mean something we did not intend. These get a note on the article; whether they appear here depends on how materially the reading differed.

An update is new information added to a still-developing story. Updates are timestamped in place. An update is not a correction and we do not use the word to disguise one.

Fixing a typo, a broken link or a formatting fault is none of the above and is done silently. If a typo changes a number or a meaning, it is a correction.

What we will not do

We will not silently edit a published claim so the record shows we were always right. We will not delete an article to make an error disappear — if a piece is fundamentally unsound it is retracted, and the retraction stays up in its place explaining why. We will not describe a correction as an “update” to make it sound smaller.

Reporting an error

Use the contact page. The most useful report names the page, quotes the sentence, and states what the correct figure or fact is. You do not need to be certain. We would rather check ten reports and act on one than have the wrong number stay up because someone assumed we already knew.

We will tell you what we concluded, including when we conclude the original was right — and if you make the case better than we make ours, the correction is issued and this log will say so.

A note on live data

The figures on The Bitcoin Signal and in the tools are fetched from public sources and change constantly. A number that has moved since you read it is not an error. If a metric is displaying something the underlying source does not support — a stale value shown as current, a miscomputed derivation, a mislabelled unit — that is an error and we want to hear about it. Every metric on the board names its source so you can check the original.