¶ FROM THE MASTHEAD
How the Dispatchis made.
THE STANDARDS BEHIND THE BYLINE · READ ANYTIME
The Dispatch is Hey Sini's field guide to living in Melbourne. It is written to be useful and true, which means being plain about how it is made. Here is who writes it, how we check it, and what we will not print.
WHO WRITES IT
Pen names, real reporting.
The Dispatch is written under pen names by Hey Sini's editors. The reporting is real; the bylines are a house tradition.
Each correspondent has a beat so the byline matches the piece, but the desk is one small editorial team, not a newsroom of strangers. We use house names the way a lot of mastheads always have. We never publish under a real member's name, and a byline is never the founder pretending to be a reporter.
HOW WE SOURCE IT
Time-sensitive claims get a real source.
Anything a reader could act on, a date, a rule, a number, gets checked against the people whose job it is. We link the source so you can check it too.
- Events, dates, opening hours
- the official event or venue page
- Transport, Myki, tram zones
- Public Transport Victoria
- Visa and work rights
- the Department of Home Affairs
- Tax and TFN
- the Australian Taxation Office
- Renting and scams
- Consumer Affairs Victoria
- Student support
- Study Melbourne or the university
- Research claims
- the original paper or university release
- Venue recommendations
- a first-hand visit, the official venue page, or clearly labelled opinion
COVERS AND IMAGES
Labelled, always.
Photographs are licensed and credited. Where a cover is made by AI, it carries an "AI-generated image" label on the image itself. We never present an AI-generated scene as a real event, and we never use a stock or generated person as if they were a Hey Sini member.
CORRECTIONS AND UPDATES
We fix what we get wrong.
Every article shows when it was last updated. For time-sensitive guides, that date matters more than the day it first ran, so we revisit them when the facts change. If you spot a material error, tell us and we will correct it. The desk is reachable from any article footer or the contact page.
WHAT WE NEVER PUBLISH
Some lines we do not cross.
- Geopolitics, or anything that picks a side in a conflict.
- Medical, legal, visa or financial advice. We link the people whose job it is.
- Anything that targets or describes people by race, ethnicity, religion or nationality.
- Fabricated places, fake reviews, or invented social proof.
- A real member's words or face without their say-so.
Back to The Dispatch, or read the manifesto.