AXEOLOGY
Standards & Ethics
Who we are
Axeology is edited by Rico Vecchiarelli. Editorial decisions — what we cover, what we publish, what we correct — are his, and he is accountable for them by name. Reach him at press@axelete.com.
How we report
We identify ourselves. Before an interview begins, we say that it is an interview, that it is on the record, that we are recording, and where the work will run.
We ask people’s ages. We ask everyone. We never guess from a photograph, a nickname or an assumption.
We read quotes back. Before publication we will read your quotes to you so you can tell us if we got them wrong.
We do not give anyone approval over a story. Not sources, not subjects, not venues, not partners. A fact check is not editorial approval, and we do not offer prior review of articles to the people they are about.
We use original sources. Results come from the governing body, the venue’s own official statement, or the competitor on the record. We do not publish a number we have not sourced.
We do not pay for interviews or access, and we do not accept payment to feature anyone.
We use AI tools to help organise notes, research and draft. A named human edits and is responsible for everything that publishes.
What we do not do
We do not review, rank or rate venues. We report on what happens at them. See our disclosures below for why this rule exists and why we take it seriously.
We do not write about minors. Not by name, not in photographs, not at all.
We do not publish private information — relationships, health, finances or home addresses. If it is not about the sport, it is not our business.
We do not build files on people. Competition results are the sport’s public record. A dossier on a person is something else, and we do not keep one.
Disclosures
Axeology’s editor, Rico Vecchiarelli, founded Axes of Faith, a nonprofit youth axe-throwing organisation that holds a venue partnership with Lizzie’s Axe Throwing in Colorado. He competes in WATL as an amateur.
Because of that relationship, Axeology does not review, rank or rate axe throwing venues. When we report on an event at a venue where this conflict applies — including Lizzie’s — we say so in the article.
We pay our own way. We buy tickets, entries and lane time like anyone else, and we disclose it when a venue provides access we did not pay for.
Axeology is published by AXELETE, which keeps private records of axe throwing competition data.
Those records are not published. They cover hundreds of throwers who have not agreed to anything, and we treat that as a reason to hold them rather than a reason to release them. Axeology does not publish from those records, and does not use them to report on private individuals. When we report a number, we source it the same way anyone else would have to.
If we get it wrong
Tell us. Corrections go on our corrections page with the date and what changed. We do not quietly edit a published piece.
If you spoke to us and want your details out of our notes, ask us and we will take them out. No form, no process — write to press@axelete.com and it is done. What we keep and why is on the privacy page.