From 7cbfa0825d7ab6043ceaef6e25ab0f1e79461b24 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Boyd Cohen Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2026 18:34:52 -0600 Subject: [PATCH] CONVENTIONS 21: $forbidden establishes that a stem is absent, not that a claim is Ruled 2026-08-24. architecture.html's Layer 03 paragraph restated the retired reputation and verified-transactions model in words that trip no stem, and every green build since 2026-08-09 was read as evidence the prohibition held. A green $forbidden is evidence about vocabulary. The sweep that sized it, and the two prohibited families with no stem at all, are recorded. --- .github/CONVENTIONS.md | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 30 insertions(+) diff --git a/.github/CONVENTIONS.md b/.github/CONVENTIONS.md index 2990c61..54a27a7 100644 --- a/.github/CONVENTIONS.md +++ b/.github/CONVENTIONS.md @@ -899,3 +899,33 @@ a cache of an artifact, and the same discipline applies. And it is why the pream here record dated findings: **this file is itself a relay** between sessions, and a sentence in it is a claim about the day it was written. +## 21. `$forbidden` establishes that a stem is absent, not that a claim is + +**A green `$forbidden` is evidence about vocabulary.** It says no page contains `scor`, `reputat`, +`at-ars` or `at_ars` at a word boundary outside the allowlist. It says nothing about whether the +claim those words used to carry is still being made. + +**The instance.** On 2026-08-24 `architecture.html`'s Layer 03 paragraph read: *"VACs attest to +verified facts: economic activity, payment history, counterparty network, and KYB linkage."* That is +the reputation and verified-transactions model, ruled off this site on 2026-08-09 (§2f-pre, §12), in +words that trip no stem. It had passed every build since the stems were installed, and every session +in this estate, this file's authors included, had been reading that green as evidence the prohibition +held. §12 already records the same shape one level down (a tier ladder with none of the words); this +entry records that the check's green was being read as the claim's absence. + +**The sweep that sized it**, run with `scripts/sweep-sentences.mjs` over every page the same day, +subject-first on paraphrases rather than stems (standing, track record, tier, badge, payment history, +economic activity, counterparty network; verified transaction / payment / settlement; revocation as a +noun in a list; trust threshold; shared budget): nine live restatements on six served pages, one +qualified on its own page, and the dated papers and the v0.1 spec carrying the model under their +2026-08-09 editor's notes. Two of the families it found, *verified transactions* and *revocation as a +capability*, have **no stem in `$forbidden` at all**: they are prohibited in this file (§2, §2f) and +policed by nothing. Only the Layer 03 paragraph was corrected in that pass; the rest is reported and +open. + +**The rule.** When a concept is ruled off, the stem check is the floor, not the control. The control +is the sweep in §12's fourth step, phrase → subject → stem → **mechanism**, and it has to be re-run +by reading, because a paraphrase is by definition what the stem does not match. Report a green +`$forbidden` as *"the stems are absent"*, never as *"the claim is gone"*. `DO-NOT-CLAIM.md` (untracked, +at the root) carries the same limitation beside its entries. +