Reader's Guide
Welcome to Plainly. Plainly does two things: it gathers headlines from trusted outlets so you can scan the day quickly, and it produces original reporting you won't find anywhere else. This page shows you how to get around — and what all those unusual section names actually mean.
Finding your way around
On your phone
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Prefer to read it as a list?
- 1. The wordmark — Tap 'Plainly.' anywhere on the site to return to the homepage.
- 2. Light/dark toggle — Switch between light and dark reading modes.
- 3. The menu — The full map of the site. Every original feature, the archive, your saved articles, and our standards live here.
- 4. Plainly Put, today — Our original daily synthesis, one tap from the top of the feed. The 'Original' banner and solid border mean we wrote it ourselves — aggregated headlines never get that treatment.
- 5. Across the Wire — Headlines gathered from trusted newsrooms. Tap any of them and you'll read the story at its original source — that's their journalism, and the byline stays theirs.
- 6. The lead story — Chosen by how widely it's being covered across outlets, not by us — the note above it says exactly that. The source and timestamp are always shown.
- 7. Topic chips — Filter the wire by category, or jump straight to our original sections.
- 8. Home — Back to the main feed.
- 9. Today — Plainly Put, our original daily synthesis.
- 10. Facts — Where Things Actually Stand, our fact-check section.
- 11. Alerts — Notifications (sign in to use them).
- 12. Me — Your profile and settings (reads 'Sign in' until you're signed in).
Tip: the top and bottom bars tuck away as you scroll down and return when you scroll up — the screen belongs to the story.
On a desktop
Shown in light mode. Tap a number to learn what it does.
Prefer to read it as a list?
- 1. The wordmark — Home, from anywhere.
- 2. Primary links — The core original sections, one click away: Plainly Put, Downstream, Fact Checks, Daily Call, and Overlooked.
- 3. Light/dark toggle — Switch between light and dark reading modes.
- 4. The menu — The full map of the site: every original feature, the archive, your saved articles, and our standards.
- 5. The Original banner — Anything we wrote ourselves is marked 'Original' and framed with a solid border. Aggregated headlines never get this treatment.
- 6. Topic chips — Filter the wire by category, or jump straight to our original sections.
- 7. Across the Wire — Headlines gathered from trusted newsrooms. Tap any of them and you'll read the story at its original source — that's their journalism, and the byline stays theirs.
- 8. Original to Plainly rail — Today's Daily Call, the latest Downstream entry, and today's Fun Fact, always at a glance.
Worth knowing
The border means it's ours.
Anything Plainly wrote itself — Plainly Put, fact checks, Downstream, Ripple Effects, Opinion — carries a solid border and a section label. Aggregated headlines from other outlets never get that treatment. If you see the border, a human at Plainly stands behind every word inside it.
What to watch for
Plainly's original features, and how to spot them.
Plainly Put
Our original morning synthesis. One clear write-up of what actually happened and why it matters — written plainly, sourced carefully, and published daily. This is the "Today" tab in the bottom bar.
Where Things Actually Stand
Our fact-check section — verdicts with receipts. Every claim we check gets one of six verdicts:
- TRUEThe claim holds up.
- MOSTLY TRUEAccurate on the whole, with minor caveats.
- TRUE BUT MISSING CONTEXTTechnically accurate, but leaves out something that changes the picture.
- DISPUTED / UNSETTLEDCredible sources genuinely disagree, or the facts aren't in yet.
- UNSUPPORTEDThere isn't good evidence for it.
- FALSEThe claim is wrong.
Two things make our fact checks different. Living Verdicts: if new evidence changes a verdict, we update it and show a dated changelog — we don't quietly memory-hole our old call. The Balance Ledger: a public running tally of whose claims we've checked and how the verdicts fell, so you can audit our balance instead of taking our word for it.
Call It
On every fact check, before we show you our verdict, you're invited to make your own call first (or skip straight to the verdict — no pressure). Once you've called it, you'll see how other readers voted and where the evidence actually landed. It's a small habit with a big payoff: you find out where your instincts and the evidence part ways. And to be clear — verdicts are determined by evidence, not votes.
The Daily Call
One claim a day. You make the call — true or false — then see the verdict and the receipts. Build a streak, share your results. Think of it as a daily workout for your judgment. Play today's Daily Call.
Downstream
Short, structured entries documenting how government decisions actually reach people's lives. Every entry carries an honest causation label: Direct (the decision clearly caused this), Contributing (it's one clear factor among several), or Associated (connected, but we can't prove cause). We label the strength of the link because claiming more certainty than we have would break the one promise this site is built on. Read Downstream.
Ripple Effects
Our deep-dive investigations — the long-form version of Downstream. Every Ripple Effects piece is required to include two sections: Competing Explanations (the other plausible readings of the evidence, stated fairly) and What We Can't Yet Say (the honest limits of what we know). If a story can't survive those two sections, we don't publish it. Read Ripple Effects.
Overlooked
Stories that deserve more attention than they're getting. Each one carries a source-transparency label so you know exactly where it came from and how it was vetted. See Overlooked.
Opinion
Signed opinion pieces — clearly labeled, every time. Opinion is argument, not reporting, and we will never let the two blur. If it's someone's viewpoint, it says so before you read a word. Read Opinion.
Fun Facts
Verified, sourced trivia. Even the fun stuff gets a citation here. See Fun Facts.
Today in History
One event from this date in history (1850–1989), drawn from Wikimedia. See Today in History.
Originals
Everything above, in one place — the full index of what Plainly makes, as opposed to what it aggregates. Browse Originals.
The feed itself
The headlines on the homepage come from trusted outlets, and the lead story is ranked by coverage breadth — how many distinct outlets are covering it, weighted by recency. It's a mechanical signal, not an editorial one, and it's disclosed right on the page. Our standards for all of this live at Our Standards.