zero-slop 2.5.8 → 2.7.0

package/references/tells.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # The Tell Taxonomy
 
-A hundred and five tells in six families, merged from WP:AICATCH (Wikipedia's editor
+A hundred and thirteen tells in six families, merged from WP:AICATCH (Wikipedia's editor
 catalog, built from thousands of caught instances), the de-slop/stop-slop
 detector line, petergyang/no-ai-slop, blader/humanizer, the academic
 lexicon studies (Kobak, Liang, Juzek & Ward), and community taxonomies of
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ as weak evidence unless it is generic in context or appears in a cluster. A
 lone dash, formal sentence, transition, or supported contrast remains a style
 choice. See `evidence.md` for the study, limitations, and adoption decision.
 
+Contextual review names six checks explicitly: paragraph-order dependence, unsupported novelty, self-labeling significance, moral-adjective category error, recap-flattery, and wall-of-text reply.
+
 ## 1. Lexical
 
 | Tell | Fix |
@@ -76,6 +78,8 @@ choice. See `evidence.md` for the study, limitations, and adoption decision.
 | Mechanical sentence openings: several consecutive sentences begin with the same subject or frame without building deliberate rhythm | Merge or vary the sentences; preserve purposeful anaphora |
 | Jargon compression: invented compound terms in place of explanation — "threshold cliff", "length-blind floor", "pinned high forever" | Unpack into the plain explanation once, then a short name only if the document truly reuses it; the fix is unpacking, not a synonym |
 | Stat pile-up: several datasets or tests crammed into one paragraph with no connective explanation | One test per paragraph, opening with what the test checks in plain words ("The first test checks that the score falls as humans get more involved"), numbers after the plain-language setup |
+| Paragraph-order dependence: prose paragraphs can be shuffled without changing the argument | Rebuild a progression in which each paragraph earns the next; exempt FAQs, reference entries, independent findings, and genuine lists |
+| Wall-of-text reply: an answer hides distinct steps or decisions in one unbroken block | Add only the paragraph breaks or list structure the reader needs; length alone is not the signal |
 
 ## 3. Rhetorical
 
@@ -86,6 +90,9 @@ choice. See `evidence.md` for the study, limitations, and adoption decision.
 | Manufactured stakes: "in today's fast-paced world", "now more than ever" | Start where the reader needs to start |
 | Performed candor: "let's be honest", "here's the thing", "truth be told" | State the point |
 | Rhetorical-question openers: "Ever wondered…?", "What if I told you…?" | The answer, as a statement |
+| Unsupported novelty: "the problem nobody is naming" without a comparison or source | Make the narrower supported claim, or ask for the missing basis |
+| Self-labeling significance: "this matters", "this is important", or "the key insight" substitutes a label for a consequence | State the concrete consequence and let it carry the weight |
+| Moral-adjective category error: a technical choice or metric is called brave, honest, ethical, or courageous without a moral agent or decision | Name the engineering property or trade-off; preserve a real moral judgment when the source supports one |
 | Throat-clearing: "The uncomfortable truth is", "Let me be clear" | Cut; the claim stands alone |
 | Emphasis crutches: "Make no mistake", "Let that sink in", "Read that again" | Show the weight with the fact itself |
 | Meta-commentary: "In this post we'll explore", "Let me walk you through" | Just do it |
@@ -113,6 +120,8 @@ choice. See `evidence.md` for the study, limitations, and adoption decision.
 | Hyperbole universals: "nothing on earth", "on the planet", "in history", "known to man" | State the actual scope; the honest comparison is smaller and stronger |
 | Cute meta-taglines and campaign framing: "a meter you can argue with", "the fight against X" as a slogan | Describe the thing; "posts about writing quality" beats a campaign poster. "The fight against" is real usage in history and civic prose — flag the marketing register, not the phrase |
 | Staccato antithesis: two short balanced sentences, the second landing the twist — "Not perfect. Honest.", "Slop isn't a vibe. It's measurable.", "The draft was cheap. The signal it sent was not." | One plain sentence with the claim; at most one antithesis per piece |
+| Unmarked antithesis: the same figure with no negation marker at all, so the whole "not X, it's Y" family walks past it. Four shapes — bare subject swap ("Llama is open-weights. Dolma releases the data."); isocolon, one verb frame with both arguments swapped ("Open weights let you adapt a model. An open stack lets you adapt the machinery that created it."); the stock closer ("Ai2 argues for a principle. This is what that principle looks like."); unmarked reversal ("No frontier lab had to decide. Thai researchers made that call themselves.") | State the claim once, plainly. The meter now catches the last three (`isocolon-ditransitive`, `this-is-what-looks-like`, `no-x-had-to`); bare subject swap stays a judgment call. **Count them** — one is a device, three in a short piece is the register |
+| Significance scaffolding: a sentence announcing that a point matters instead of delivering it — "Here's the detail that matters:", "This is what that principle looks like when it works." | Delete the announcement and keep the point. Budget: zero |
 | Extended conceit: a process or abstraction dressed as physical drama — billing ("the bill lands on reputation", "gets billed to a reader"), courtroom ("never allowed to convict"), forensics ("rhythm leaves prints"), machinery ("opens the hood"), recipe ("has four ingredients") | At most one metaphor per piece, then plain language; name the actual mechanism |
 | Vibe-slang: "just a vibe", "vibe check", "argue with vibes", "has receipts" | The plain word: impression, judgment, evidence |
 | One-word drama beat: "Fine." dropped between claims as a rhythm device | Cut it or fold it into the sentence it interrupts |
@@ -125,13 +134,28 @@ same costume seen at detection time instead of rewrite time. The scorer
 catches the mechanical subset (`hired-adversary`, `turns-out-payoff`,
 `has-receipts`, `hyperbole-universal`, `argue-with-artifact`,
 `vibe-register`, `where-x-lives`, `billed-conceit`, `on-the-tin`,
-`minding-own-business`, `economics-brutal`, `opens-the-hood`, and the
-rider-gated "fight against"); epigram cadence, staccato antithesis, most
-conceits, jargon compression, and tagline register need the judgment pass,
-because their literal forms are legitimate in news, history, crime, and
-civic writing. The human-flagged spans that motivated the family live in
+`minding-own-business`, `economics-brutal`, `opens-the-hood`, the
+rider-gated "fight against", and — since v2.5.10 — three of the four unmarked
+antithesis shapes: `isocolon-ditransitive`, `this-is-what-looks-like`, and
+`no-x-had-to`. Epigram cadence, marked staccato antithesis, bare subject swap,
+most conceits, jargon compression, and tagline register still need the
+performed-register pass, because their literal forms are legitimate in news,
+history, crime, and civic writing.
+
+`isocolon-ditransitive` is worth reading closely, because it marks the boundary
+between what a rule can safely reach and what it cannot. It fires only when the
+**same verb** is repeated in a give-you frame across a sentence break. That
+identity requirement is the whole safety property: rhetorical anaphora repeats
+its frame with a *different* verb every time — "we can not dedicate, we can not
+consecrate, we can not hallow" — so the rule cannot touch it. Relaxing the
+backreference from the verb to the frame was tested and fires on the Gettysburg
+Address, the Federalist, and an ESL engineer's email. Do not relax it.
+
+The human-flagged spans that motivated the family live in
 `data/corpus/performed-register/` — the mechanical half is regression-tested,
-the judgment half is the read-aloud pass's fixture list.
+the judgment half is the performed-register pass's fixture list. Files move
+between the two halves in both directions: `verdict-arithmetic.txt` graduated
+from judgment to mechanical in v2.5.10 when a safe rule finally reached it.
 
 ## 4. Punctuation & formatting
 
@@ -153,6 +177,7 @@ the judgment half is the read-aloud pass's fixture list.
 |---|---|
 | Assistant voice: "Great question!", "I hope this helps", "I'd be happy to" | Delete |
 | Reflexive agreement or praise: approving the premise before checking it, flattering the writer, or refusing to take a supported position | Answer the substance first; agree, qualify, or disagree according to the facts |
+| Recap-flattery: a reply opens by praising and paraphrasing the question before answering it | Start with the answer; keep only context the reader actually needs |
 | Chatbot residue: "Would you like me to…", "Let me know if you'd like…", "my training data" | Delete — it is proof of paste, not style |
 | Knowledge-cutoff residue: "as of my last update", "not widely documented" | Delete; verify the claim |
 | Passive or subjectless wording that hides an actor who matters | Name the actor and use the direct verb; keep passive voice when the actor is unknown, irrelevant, or native to the genre |