Ensuring Quality Repair Information on iFixit

iFixit has been writing free repair manuals for electronics since 2003. Since then, we’ve expanded into the best free online repair database and community. The guides our technical writing staff make are some of the best repair instructions in the world.

But iFixit is a collaborative community effort—anyone can write a guide, answer a question, or translate a page—because we believe repair is for everyone. Our dedicated community contributes hundreds of quality pages every year, bolstered by our education outreach and international translation programs. Like Wikipedia, iFixit is the result of millions of small improvements from people like you.

So with all these different contributors, how do we ensure content on the site is accurate and reliable? How do we balance our tech repairability editorial stances and Right to Repair advocacy with objective technical knowledge? With the internet filled with machine-generated content, how do you know you can trust what’s on iFixit?

Here’s a look at the real humans behind the content on iFixit, an explanation of the types of content on the site, and an overview of our policies and procedures that ensure the highest possible quality while still embracing our community-centered ethos.

Patrol is the central moderation tool that lets the community submit edits for approval. Authors and members of their teams can always edit their own guides and wikis, but edits to other pages are subject to the rules of Patrol.

Every iFixit user earns reputation points by contributing to the site. Users can earn reputation points by being active on the Answers forum and writing useful guides.

When a new piece of content is created on the site, the author sets the minimum reputation level required to make edits directly. Users with reputation above this threshold can directly edit the content. Users with reputation below this threshold can suggest edits that are subject to review in Patrol.

Users with a lot of reputation can access Patrol and accept or reject edits.

All edits to guides and device pages are saved in the page's history. This includes a record of the edits, who made or suggested the edit, and who accepted or rejected the edit in Patrol (if applicable).

Users can access a page's history by clicking the downward arrow in the top-right corner of a guide or the three dots in the top-right corner of a device page.

Accessing a guide's history.

Accessing a device page's history.

iFixit hosts a few different kinds of repair information. Repair guides and their associated device pages are the foundation of repair knowledge on iFixit. We believe in step-by-step guides with concise text and quality photos because they’re easy to follow, and they can be created and improved by anyone with an internet connection and a camera. Device pages gather related repair info in one place, including guides, troubleshooting pages, relevant wikis, and device specs.

iFixit also hosts a robust repair forum we call Answers, the go-to place for questions when a repair doesn’t go as planned or for issues not covered by our guides.

All of these kinds of repair information can come from different places—iFixit staff, community members, and students—and the process for ensuring quality looks a little different in each case.

The technical writing team consists of technical writers, repairability engineers, researchers, editors, and content curators. This team is responsible for creating select repair information on the site, as well as content for our OEM partners as part of iFixit’s Manufacturer Solutions department. While members of the technical writing team have different job titles, they share many responsibilities.

Official iFixit guides are created entirely by members of the technical writing team. You can recognize official guides by the pure white backgrounds in photos and the Guide Team designation on the author’s iFixit profile. Technical writers thoroughly review their drafts to ensure they’re accurate and align with iFixit style and standards, then at least one other team member gives the guide a close look.

The technical writing team also creates select wikis, device pages, and troubleshooting pages. If you want to know whether a page was written by the technical writing team, just click on the author’s name to see their iFixit profile and check for the Guide Team.

Like every guide, wiki, and Troubleshooting page on the site, anyone can suggest an edit to official iFixit content. However, the reputation threshold to edit official content is set to infinity, so only iFixit employees and trusted site admins can approve edits. So, if you see anything created by members of the Guide Team, you know all of the information has been reviewed by our team of repair pros.

Meet the Technical Writing team

Amber Taus - Director of Solutions	Jeff Suovanen - Sr. Technical Editor	Arthur Shi - Sr. Technical Writer
Alex Diaz-Kokaisl - Sr. Technical Writer	Carsten Frauenheim - Repairability Engineer	Spencer Day - Technical Writer
Bill Gilbert - Troubleshooting Researcher and Editor	Nick Schultz - Jr. Technical Writer	Spencer Pennington - Jr. Technical Writer
	Kara Piepenbrink - Jr. Content Curator

The iFixit Technical Writing Project has partnered with more than 100 universities to teach repair and technical writing. Every year, teams of technical writing and engineering students create thousands of excellent repair manuals, troubleshooting pages, and device pages on iFixit, all supported by the iFixit EDU team.

The EDU team works with university instructors to give students the tools they need to create and publish repair information on iFixit. University students, usually majoring in engineering or technical writing, write the guides or pages.

Student-created content is reviewed by their peers and instructors before undergoing a final check by iFixit EDU staff, who flag any remaining issues. The content is then published and open to community edits through the normal Patrol process.

• See what the education team has accomplished.
• Learn more about the EDU team.
• Learn more about the iFixit Technical Writing Project.
• Browse guides made by awesome students.

Meet the EDU team

Marty Rippens - Director of Education Services	Kristen Gismondi - Sr. Education Specialist	Sarah Westberg - Education Specialist
	Connor Bassolino - Education Specialist

The iFixit community is international, diverse, and very passionate about repair. The iFixit Community Management team is composed of translators, community managers, and communicators. They interface with users and volunteer contributors through the Meta forum, and make sure community-contributed content is reviewed. Contributions in the Answers forum are reviewed through the community moderation system, and guide and wiki content is reviewed in Patrol.

The iFixit Community Management Team oversees content curation and patrolling, moderation, spam, and compliance with community guidelines, as well as site issues and community questions. The iFixit Translation team uses the same procedures to ensure that all languages follow the same quality standards and that content is accurately translated.

• Learn more about the iFixit Translation Project.
• Find out how to help build the iFixit Community.
• Report spam or a community issue.

Meet the Community and Translation teams

Kris Rodriguez - Community Manager	Sandra Hiller - Head of Translation and Foreign Languages Community	Claire Miesch - French Translation
Mariana Roca - Spanish Translation	Christian Kim - Korean Translation	Midori Doi - Japanese Translation

iFixit is more than just a repair database; we’re also leading the Right to Repair charge. We’re committed to spreading the word about repair, and the best way to do that is by writing high-quality, accurate, and engaging content. The Editorial team creates and manages our teardowns, blog posts, and YouTube channel videos. Whether we’re addressing unfair repair practices in tractors, tearing down consumer electronics, or talking about scandals and design failures, we’re working towards a world where we don’t have to complain so much.

Our advanced technical team collects and uncovers the most relevant tech stories. After verifying the accuracy of the claims or running our own tests, our team of writers, editors, and technical experts review the piece, ensuring an informed, quality result. Our editorial team is distinct from our sales departments, we disclose business partnerships, and we maintain our independent voice. If you have questions about our editorial work, would like to report a factual error, or would like to know more, the editorial team would be happy to investigate and address your questions.

• Learn more about our partnerships.
• Learn more about the Right to Repair.

Send an anonymous tip.

Kyle Wiens - CEO	Liz Chamberlain - Head of Advocacy, Sustainability, and Editorial	Michael Degnan - Managing Video Director
Jairo Valencia - Video Editor	Shahram Mokhtari - Teardown Technician	Thomas Opsomer - Sr. Advocate