How someone gets on the roster

Step 1 — anybody recommends

Any user — signed in, signed out, admin or not — may recommend somebody. This was a promise the product made in its own navigation spec before it was implemented, and it is now real.

A recommendation needs a name, a reason, and at least one source pointing at something the person actually said or did.

Step 2 — only an admin approves

Approval is gated. Nothing about a living person appears on the public roster because one person typed it, and an unreviewed recommendation is never rendered publicly.

Trust affects how quickly your recommendation is looked at, never whether it is accepted. A citizen who has done a lot of verified work sorts higher in the queue. Nothing is ever auto-approved, at any trust level. Trust buys attention, never authority.

Step 3 — the record starts mostly empty

An approved record joins the roster in the unknown Flamingo state with a low percent-known. That is honest: we have a name, a reason, and a source, and not much else.

Step 4 — the record fills in

From there it grows by contribution. Citizens add channels and appearances; transcripts are gathered from material that already exists; assessments run against the published rubrics as enough material accumulates. Adding a video or a channel is itself a logged, credited action.

Step 5 — a legacy record, if they have one

If the person has previously held office, their voting record is a separate thing and stays separate. They carry a voting-record award on one side and a Flamingo state on the other, rendered side by side, neither one leaking into the other.