The trust ladder

The five rungs

New — you just arrived. You can read everything and contribute anything. Nothing is closed to you; your contributions simply carry no extra weight yet.

Identified — you are a persistent, distinguishable participant. Note carefully: this does not mean you disclosed who you are in the world. It means you are consistently the same participant here.

Contributing — you have done work the install can point at: proposals filed, corrections accepted, sources added, actions logged and corroborated.

Established — your work has been corroborated by other trusted citizens. This is the first rung that depends on other people, and it is where the ladder stops being a solo climb.

Steward — sustained contribution over time, with accuracy that held up as the record filled in.

The next rung is always visible

A ladder whose next rung is invisible is not a ladder — it is a patronage system with a nicer name.

So the product tells you, on your own page, what would take you to the next level: the specific criteria you have not yet met and the work that would meet them. The same surface states what would raise your merit score.

Demotion is symmetric and audited

Merit falls the same way it rises. If a criterion lapses, the rung goes down and the lapsed criterion is named — you are told which one and why, the same way you were told what earned it.

Past sealed records are never rewritten. What the movement believed at the time, and acted on, stays part of its record.

Anonymity never caps the ladder

A fully pseudonymous citizen can reach Steward and full merit weight. Merit here is about work produced, not identity disclosed. This is a deliberate design commitment, not an oversight: requiring people to expose themselves to be heard would filter for who can afford the exposure, which is a selection effect nobody wants in a political movement.