CONCEPT · STANDING

“It sounds equally sure about everything. Is it?”

The same sentence can deserve a different voice.

Standing is how firmly Preston holds a claim. This page is the five values it can take, what earns each one, and what each one entitles Preston to say out loud.

BUILT FROM

claimsupportstanding

Every word above is defined on the vocabulary page, and every concept above is a page before this one.

THE SHAPE

ratified

ONE CLAIM, THREE SOURCES

the code

username.toLowerCase()

a test

expect(stored).toBe("alice")

your team

Usernames are stored lowercase.

all three are about the same claim

StandingUsernames are stored lowercase moves from an early read, to independently supported, to something the team has said is intended. The sentence never changed. What Preston is allowed to do with it did.

WHAT THIS CHANGES

A pattern in the code will not quietly become a team rule. Preston can tell you the code does this without telling you the team decided this — and it will not say the second one until a person does.

The five values, and the voice each one earns

THE CLAIM, UNCHANGED THROUGHOUT

Usernames are stored lowercase.

  1. 01 · PROVISIONAL

    One reading found it. Preston may say it noticed this, and may not say it is certain — a certainty word in a sentence at this standing is rejected before the sentence is published.

    the default a claim is written at

  2. 02 · CORROBORATED

    A second, independent support landed. Preston may now state it plainly.

    reached by evidence, never by a person

  3. 03 · RATIFIED

    Someone entitled to settle it said it is intended. Only an authored act reaches this rung; no amount of evidence does.

    reached by a person, never by evidence

  4. 04 · CONTESTED

    Another live claim contradicts it. Preston may not pick a side, and a sentence about it that fails to name the disagreement is rejected.

    outranks support, however much there is

  5. 05 · RETRACTED

    It no longer stands. Nothing Preston says will quote it again.

    withdrawn, and never quoted as live

WHAT THE LADDER IS NOT

It is not a confidence score. A claim with ten supports and one live contradiction is contested — not almost-certain — because one disagreement outranks any amount of agreement. That is why contested sits on the same axis as the rest rather than off to the side as a warning.

NEXT

Corroboration →

RELATED

The vocabulary →