We do not score anything on an unnamed source
Every score on this site traces to a document a reader can open. Where we quote a person who is not named, here is what that means and what it can never be used for.
No rating, score or ranking published by The Sales Traveler may rest on an unnamed source. The Index Desk scores published commitments only — what a company has stated in writing, on a page a reader can open and check for themselves. An anonymous account of what a brand does privately is not evidence under this method, and it cannot move a score by a single point.
Most publications need an unnamed-sources policy because their reporting depends on people who cannot speak on the record. This one is built the other way round: the entire instrument is the public record. That makes the rule simple to state and simple to keep.
What can an unnamed source never do here?
Change a score. Every check in every index is scored against a document with a URL and a date. If a claim cannot be traced to one, it scores No — the same result as an unstated commitment, a “varies,” or a “contact sales.” That rule exists so a buyer can plan on what they read, and an anonymous assurance is exactly what a buyer cannot plan on.
The same applies in reverse, which matters more. A private account of a brand behaving badly does not lower its score either. The Index measures what was promised in public; it is not a channel for unattributed complaint.
When would we quote someone unnamed at all?
Only in editorial writing, never in scoring, and only where naming the person would expose them to professional retaliation for describing their own experience — a traveler describing how a policy affected them, or a practitioner describing their own programme. Their account is presented as experience, labelled as such, and never as a finding about a vendor.
Where that happens, the editor knows the person’s identity. Anonymity to the reader is never anonymity to the desk.
Who decides, and who answers for it?
One named person. Rachel Julian, founder and editor, edits every word that publishes and owns every verdict. There is no anonymous masthead and no undisclosed committee, so there is no one to hide behind if this rule is broken. Corrections run in both directions and are logged publicly.
How is this enforced rather than asserted?
By construction. Scores are reconstructed from published category breakdowns on every build, and a figure that cannot be derived from the data layer fails the build rather than publishing. A commitment nobody can verify is a commitment nobody should believe — including ours.
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