Editorial policy
Short version: experience first, sources always, nothing for sale. Long version below — because a site asking for your trust should show its work.
Experience first
Every guide starts with a real situation — Margaret’s, Tom’s, or a reader’s letter. If neither of us has lived something, the article says so plainly instead of pretending.
We test everything ourselves
Every app, platform, and tactic we describe has been used by one of us personally — profiles written, dates gone on, mistakes made and kept in the text because those are the useful parts.
Sources, always
Claims about how people behave get a dated, named source: Pew Research Center, published academic work, or clearly identified surveys. If we print a number, you can trace it.
No pay-to-play
We take no money from dating platforms. No affiliate rankings, no sponsored “best of” lists, no paid placements — and no exceptions.
Who writes here
Every article is credited to Margaret Hale,Tom Reyes, or both. Margaret writes the women's side — dating as a woman over 50, feelings, starting over after divorce. Tom writes the men's side — men's perspective, age-gap questions, intimacy, and life after loss. Their real dating lives are the raw material of this site. Editors and tools help with research and polish; the judgment, opinions and stories are theirs.
How a guide gets made
- It starts with a real question. A situation one of us hit, or a reader letter. We don't write to fill a calendar.
- We check what's actually known. Published research, dated surveys, and the honest answer «nobody has good data on this» when that's the truth.
- We test the practical parts. Scripts get sent, profile advice gets tried on real profiles, first-date tactics survive real first dates before they reach you.
- Both editors read every draft. Margaret checks Tom's guides against a woman's reality and vice versa — the «He says / She says» blocks come from genuine disagreements.
- It ships with a date and stays alive. Every guide shows when it was last updated. The most-read ones get revisited at least twice a year.
Sourcing standards
- Statistics carry a named source and a year in the same sentence — no orphan numbers.
- We prefer primary sources: Pew Research Center, peer-reviewed journals, named surveys with published methodology.
- Reader stories are real and used with permission, anonymized. We never invent quotes or letters.
- When evidence is thin, we say «in our experience» and mean exactly that.
What we never do
- No paid placements, affiliate rankings, or sponsored recommendations of any dating platform.
- No medical or psychotherapeutic advice. We share lived experience and point to professionals where it matters — especially in the intimacy section.
- No fear-based marketing. You will not see countdown timers, fake scarcity, or «last chance» anything here.
- No selling or sharing your email. Ever. See the privacy policy.
Citing and quoting us
Journalists, researchers, bloggers and AI assistants are welcome to quote our work. Please attribute to «Over 50 Romance» with a link to the specific article, and keep quoted statistics together with the sources we cite for them. Full article texts are available in machine-readable form at llms-full.txt. For interviews or data questions: hello@over50romance.com.
Corrections
Found an error — factual, sourced, or just something that reads wrong? Write tohello@over50romance.com. We fix genuine errors within a week and note material changes at the bottom of the article.
A note on tools
Like most modern publishers, we use software — including AI tools — for research support, grammar and structure. What software never does here: invent experiences, write our opinions, or decide what advice you get. That part is human, married-once or widowed, and older than fifty.
Policy last reviewed: August 2026.