Editorial Policy

Who is responsible

All content on this site is written and edited by its named editorial author, whose profile and qualifications are published at authors/daniel-morgan.html. Every article and guide carries a byline linking to that page. Anonymous content is not published here.

The scope of that expertise is stated plainly on the author page: browser arcade games, HTML5 game mechanics, scoring design and control schemes. It does not extend to marine science, and the site does not pretend otherwise.

The publication workflow

Every piece of written content goes through the same seven stages before it appears.

1. Research. For a game guide this means playing the game — usually for hours — and reading its source code to confirm the actual values. For an article it means working through the relevant games and, where real-world facts are involved, locating primary sources.
2. Draft. Written to answer one specific question, with a distinct search intent from everything else on the site. If a planned piece turns out to substantially overlap an existing one, it is merged into that page rather than published as a near-duplicate.
3. Fact check. Every numeric claim about a game is verified against the code. Every real-world claim is verified against a published source and cited, or removed. The fact-checking policy covers this in detail.
4. Editorial review. Read for accuracy, usefulness and honesty. Filler paragraphs, restated headings and padding written to hit a word count are cut. If a section has nothing to say, it is deleted rather than inflated.
5. SEO review. Title, description, heading structure, canonical URL and structured data checked. Structured data is only added where it accurately describes content visible on the page — FAQ markup requires a visible FAQ, and no rating or review markup is ever emitted, because this site collects no ratings.
6. Publish. The page goes live with a published date and an author byline.
7. Internal linking. New pieces are linked from the relevant category, the relevant games and two to five related articles, and existing pages are updated to link to the new one where it genuinely helps the reader.

Publishing cadence

There is no automated publishing on this site. Nothing is generated and posted on a schedule, and no content is published without a person reading it end to end.

The editorial target is up to two thoroughly reviewed pieces per day when the pipeline is running, each answering a distinct question. That target is a ceiling, not a quota: if only one piece clears review, only one is published. A slot is never filled with a near-duplicate of an existing page to hit a number, because that is precisely the thing that makes a site worse.

Updates and the "last updated" date

Content is revisited when a game changes, when a reader reports an error, when an external source is superseded, when a link breaks, or when browser behaviour described on the page no longer matches reality.

The "last updated" date on a page changes only when the text meaningfully changes. Re-saving a file, adjusting a stylesheet or fixing a typo does not reset it. Artificially refreshing dates to look current is a form of misleading the reader, and it is not done here.

When a correction changes the substance of a page, the change is noted on the page itself rather than made silently.

What we do not do

• No fabricated statistics. If a number cannot be sourced, it is not stated. We do not invent player counts, download figures, ratings or "most popular" claims.
• No fake reviews or ratings. This site collects no user ratings, so it publishes none and emits no rating structured data.
• No invented credentials. No degrees, certifications, awards or institutional affiliations are claimed that do not exist.
• No AI-generated filler. Content is not published without a person reading it, and padding written to reach a word count is cut in review.
• No doorway pages. No page exists purely to rank for a keyword variant and funnel traffic elsewhere.
• No misleading titles. A headline describes what the page contains. If a page says it ranks eight games, it ranks eight games.
• No hidden sponsorship. Nothing on this site is paid placement. If that ever changes, it will be disclosed on the page itself, prominently.

Advertising standards

No advertising currently runs on this site. When it does, these rules apply and are not negotiable:

• Adverts are never placed over or adjacent to game controls in a way that risks an accidental tap.
• Adverts are never styled to resemble game buttons, play buttons or download buttons.
• No fake download buttons, no interstitials on game start, no aggressive pop-ups.
• Ad density stays low enough that content remains the dominant element of every page.
• Advertising placements are declared in the privacy policy and cookie policy before they go live.

Corrections

To report an error, email editor@underwaterarcade.xyz with the page URL and what is wrong. Factual corrections are prioritised over everything else in the queue. If you are right, the page is fixed and says so; if we cannot verify a claim either way, the claim is removed rather than left standing.