This page describes what actually has to be true before something appears on
CaptionPicks. It is written so you can hold us to it.
Selection
A collection is built to be used, which means the constraint is variety rather
than volume. Forty lines that are meaningfully different beat a hundred that are
the same line reworded. What gets cut:
- Near-duplicates – if two lines differ only in word order, one goes.
- Greeting-card filler that says nothing anyone would actually post.
- Lines that only work with a very specific photo we cannot assume you have.
- Slang that has fallen out of use. Using dead slang is worse than using none.
Attribution
This is where sites in this category are least reliable, so it is where we are
most specific.
- Two sources. An attributed quote is checked against at least
two independent sources before it is published. Other caption listicles do not
count as sources – they are usually copying each other. - “Anonymous” is not a guess. Where a line is genuinely in
circulation but cannot be traced, we label it Anonymous. We do not attach a
plausible famous name to raise its status. - Disputed stays disputed. Where credible sources disagree, we
say so and name both claimants rather than picking whichever reads better. - The magnets. Misattributed quotes cluster around a small set
of names – Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Gandhi, Buddha. Anything
credited to these is checked harder than usual, because the prior probability
that it is wrong is genuinely high.
Accuracy of everything else
Song lyrics are checked against the recording or official lyrics, not
crowd-transcribed sites. Slang definitions describe how a word is currently used,
not how a dictionary first recorded it. Platform facts – limits, features – are
checked against the platform and carry a date; see
character limits for an example.
Rendering
Symbols and emoji are checked for whether they actually display before being
included. A character that shows as an empty box for half of readers is not
usable, however good it looks on the machine that found it. Our
symbol compatibility page explains what we
are checking for.
Evergreen
Pages avoid hardcoded years. A collection labelled with a year is wrong within
twelve months and quietly misleads everyone who lands on it afterwards.
Review before publication
Nothing publishes automatically. Every collection is read and approved by the
editor first. This is a gate, not a spot check – if it has not been approved, it
is not on the site.
Updates and corrections
Pages covering slang and platform features are revisited, and material that has
fallen out of use is removed rather than left to rot. When we get something wrong
we fix it and say what changed – see the
corrections policy.