Editorial Policy

This is how RacketStack handles editorial decisions, sponsored content, user-generated content, and corrections.

Editorial independence from commercial relationships

Editorial scoring and ranking are produced before any commercial relationship (affiliate, sponsorship, partnership) is established. Once a relationship exists, the editorial score does not change to favor the partner. If scoring methodology updates would change rankings, we apply those changes consistently across sponsored and non-sponsored listings — no exceptions.

Pay-to-rank is prohibited

We do not sell positions in organic editorial articles. A vendor cannot pay to be ranked #1 in "Best Padel Club Management Software." This is the line that separates RacketStack from pay-for-play directories that erode reader trust. The organic ranking is editorial and credibility-driven. Sponsorship is a separate, badged tier of visibility — never a ranking shortcut.

User-generated content

User reviews on listing pages are subject to pre-publication moderation. Reviews must come from verified email accounts. We reject reviews that contain personal attacks, undisclosed vendor affiliation, off-topic content, or unverifiable claims. Vendors may not submit reviews of their own products under any pseudonym. Users may not submit multiple reviews of the same product from the same account.

Corrections

If a published review contains a factual error, we correct it and add a visible correction notice on the affected page.

Material corrections (those that would change ranking, score, or recommendation): a dated correction note appears at the top of the page describing what was wrong and what was changed.
Minor copy corrections (typos, formatting): made silently.

We do not delete reviews that contain factual errors — we correct them and acknowledge the correction.

Sources and citations

When we cite external data (third-party studies, vendor disclosures, regulatory filings), we link to the source. When we quote a vendor's marketing claim, we mark it as a quote and attribute it. When we publish original data (survey results, benchmark tests), we describe the methodology in the article or link to a methodology page.

AI-generated content

We use AI assistance for research synthesis, citation lookup, summarization of vendor documentation, and formatting. We do not generate primary review content with AI. Every score, verdict, and recommendation is produced by a human reviewer (named or under the collective byline). If an article contains a section that was AI-assisted (such as a multi-language summary of a vendor's foreign-language documentation), we mark the section accordingly.

Sister-property handling

Reviews of products we own (PadelLocos, Rallyo, padeltrainer.ai) are cross-validated by an outside reviewer before publication. Owned-product listings carry a visible ownership disclosure on the listing card, the listing page, and any roundup they appear in. We do not score our own products more favorably than competitors. If our own product scores lower than a competitor on a criterion, we publish that as-is.

Reviewer training and standards

The Stack Team operates under a written internal review standard that mirrors this public editorial policy. Reviewers are required to document their hands-on testing log for each review (workflows tested, durations, version numbers tested). Editorial leadership audits a sample of reviews quarterly to confirm methodology adherence.

How to flag a problem

If you believe a review is inaccurate, biased, or violates this editorial policy, write to editorial@racketstack.com with the specific concern. We respond within 14 business days and publish corrections where warranted.