Editorial Standards

Editorial Standards

Last updated: 2026-05-15.

This page documents how byyours produces its troubleshooting library. We publish it because every reader deserves to know who wrote the article, how it was verified, where the limits of our knowledge are, and what we’d do differently if a vendor paid us to take a position. The short version: no vendor pays us to take any position. The long version follows.

Who writes for byyours

Every article is written by a member of our editorial team. We do not accept guest posts. We do not outsource writing to content mills. We do not republish lightly-edited articles from other publications.

Our current editorial team consists of three working spreadsheet professionals with combined experience of more than 30 years in financial modeling, business intelligence, and accounting close cycles. Full biographies, including past employers and areas of specialization, are on the Team page.

When a single author writes an article, they are credited inline at the top of the piece. When two authors collaborate (e.g., a primary author and a technical reviewer), both are credited.

How we choose article topics

We choose topics from three sources, in this priority order:

  1. Reader requests. Every message that comes through the contact form is logged. When we see the same problem reported three or more times, we prioritize writing a guide.
  2. Search-intent signals. We monitor what readers are actually searching for when they land on byyours. If a search consistently fails to find a matching article, we write one.
  3. Editorial judgment. When a Microsoft or Google update introduces a new failure mode, we publish a guide before the support forums fill up with wrong answers.

We do not write articles to chase trends, hit volume quotas, or fill out a content calendar. If we don’t have something genuinely useful to say about a topic, we don’t write about it.

How we verify a fix

Every article goes through the following verification before publication:

  1. The author reproduces the failure in a test workbook. If the failure cannot be reproduced, the article is held until it can be.
  2. The author applies the fix and confirms the workbook is restored. The article is written from notes taken during this exercise.
  3. A second editor re-runs the steps on a separate machine. Different Excel version, different operating system, or different Google account, to catch version-specific issues.
  4. An editor checks the article structure against our checklist: 60-second diagnostic, step-by-step, information-gain section, comparison table, FAQs.
  5. A copy editor reviews for language, accuracy, and clarity.

Articles that fail any of these checks are revised before publication.

Sourcing and attribution

When an article relies on:

  • A Microsoft or Google official documentation page, we link to it in the relevant step.
  • A community discovery (Stack Overflow, MrExcel, Reddit r/excel), we credit the original poster by handle in the article footer if their answer materially informed our procedure.
  • A specific blog post by another author, we link to it directly in the relevant section.

We do not pretend to have originated procedures that came from elsewhere. The Excel community has been solving these problems for 20 years; our value is in organizing, verifying, and presenting the fixes — not in pretending we invented them.

Currency and updates

Every article is dated at the top of the page (publication date) and updated at the top when re-tested (last-tested date). We re-test an article when:

  • A reader reports the steps no longer work
  • Microsoft or Google ships a relevant UI or feature change
  • We discover a better fix through our own work
  • 12 months have passed since the last test (for high-traffic articles)

When we update an article, we keep the original URL and add a change log at the bottom describing what changed.

Corrections policy

If a published article contains a factual error:

  1. We fix the error within 14 days of being notified.
  2. We add a correction note at the bottom of the article describing what was wrong and when it was fixed.
  3. For material errors (a step that could damage a workbook), we add a prominent correction notice at the top of the article and date it.
  4. We credit reader-reporters by initials in the change log unless they ask not to be named.

Submit corrections via the contact form or by emailing contact@byyours.com.

Independence and conflicts of interest

byyours is editorially independent. Specifically:

  • No vendor sponsorships. We do not accept payment from Microsoft, Google, or any add-in vendor in exchange for editorial coverage, recommendations, or placements.
  • No sponsored articles. We do not publish content paid for by a third party and presented as editorial.
  • No gifted products presented as editorial. If we evaluate a product that was provided to us at no cost, we disclose that fact in the article.
  • Affiliate links are disclosed. When an article contains an affiliate link, we say so near the link and again on our Disclaimer page.
  • Advertising is separated from editorial. Display advertising (via Google AdSense) appears in clearly labeled ad slots. No editor sees a list of advertisers before writing an article.

If an editorial team member has a personal financial interest in a product mentioned in an article (e.g., they work for the vendor or hold equity), they recuse themselves from writing or editing that article.

AI policy

We use AI tools (large language models) as part of our editorial workflow — for spell-checking, structural review, and occasionally for drafting boilerplate sections (intros, conclusions, FAQ formatting). We do not:

  • Publish AI-generated articles as if they were human-written
  • Use AI to invent fixes that have not been verified by a human author
  • Use AI to fabricate sources, citations, or expert opinions

Every published article reflects the verified judgment of a human editor who has personally reproduced the failure and confirmed the fix. AI is a writing assistant, not the author.

Plagiarism and originality

We do not copy from other publications. When a procedure was first described elsewhere, we attribute it and link to the original source. When we present a comparison table, FAQ, or information-gain section, it is original work produced for byyours.

If you believe an article on byyours copies your work without attribution, contact us at contact@byyours.com with the subject line “Attribution claim” and we will investigate within 14 days.

Reader engagement

We do not host an open comments section because moderation at scale tends to drown out the article. We do read every message that comes through the contact form, and we use those messages to improve the library.

Contact

For editorial questions, corrections, or feedback on these standards, contact us at contact@byyours.com.