From 67d6fb72c3b310e3afb0b39a2774818495e84ea2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ayla Croft Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2026 20:38:13 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] A verbatim archive is written by a command that fetches it "Verbatim" is a claim about bytes, and a hand transcription cannot make it true. Either a command reads the source and writes the file, so the bytes are the source-s bytes, or the file is not an archive and is not labelled one. Citing where the original lives is always available and always honest. Derivation, from a sibling tree that archived eight reviewer verdicts by hand under the label "Archived verbatim". Diffed against the source afterwards: four were abridged, one was a different round-s verdict entire, and one contained a sentence the reviewer never wrote - an attestation of independent verification lifted from another round with the identifiers substituted. That last one is fabricated evidence, and the text names it as such rather than as a transcription error. The others moved real text to the wrong place; that one created a verification claim nobody made, inside the file offered as proof of what was said. Same principle as the rule above it, applied to a copied artefact rather than a measured one, and the same family as a mutation reported as applied but never applied. An archive reported as verbatim but never fetched is indistinguishable from evidence, which is what makes it the worst member of that family. Closes SCR-258. Signed-off-by: Ayla Croft --- CONVENTIONS.md | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+) diff --git a/CONVENTIONS.md b/CONVENTIONS.md index 94c91a9..7353419 100644 --- a/CONVENTIONS.md +++ b/CONVENTIONS.md @@ -69,3 +69,25 @@ known not to be one, and nothing here depends on it being one. Counts are quoted from command output, never typed fresh. A red is demonstrated before a fix, and the output is recorded verbatim. Corrections are appended, never rewritten. + +## A verbatim archive is written by a command that fetches it, or it does not exist + +"Verbatim" is a claim about bytes, and a hand transcription cannot make it true. Either a +command reads the source and writes the file -- so the bytes are the source's bytes -- or the +file is not an archive and is not labelled one. Citing where the original lives is always +available and always honest; a copy that has drifted is worse than a citation, because it +looks like evidence. + +**Derivation.** A sibling tree archived eight reviewer verdicts by hand under the label +"Archived verbatim". Diffed against the source afterwards, four were abridged, one was a +different round's verdict entire, and one contained a sentence the reviewer never wrote -- +an attestation of independent verification lifted from another round with the identifiers +substituted. That last is **fabricated evidence**, and it is named as such rather than as a +transcription error: the others moved real text to the wrong place, while that one created a +verification claim nobody made, inside the file offered as proof of what was said. All four +unreliable files were deleted rather than repaired. + +This is the rule above applied to a copied artefact rather than a measured one, and it +belongs to the same family as a mutation reported as applied but never applied: **an archive +reported as verbatim but never fetched is indistinguishable from evidence, which is what +makes it the worst member of that family.**