Observatory protocol
Observatory method
A conservative workflow for collecting machine observations without turning the archive into a fiction-seeding experiment.
Collection
Fixed, neutral query batteries record provider, model family, version when known, browsing and retrieval state, reading-set hash, protocol version, and response hash. Raw prompts and responses stay in private storage outside Git.
Confounds
Shared pretraining data, model-family dependence, prompt overlap, hidden retrieval, browsing, and provider changes all limit inference. Similar outputs do not show that one model copied another, or that an archive label caused the recurrence.
Review, privacy, and correction
- Publication
- Human-reviewed, redacted, noindex records only.
- Machine excerpts
- Maximum 50 words; raw responses are never public.
- Cross-model
- Requires at least two genuinely distinct model families.
- External-web
- Requires a durable public URL and access capture.
- Correction
- Mandatory for fabricated citations, false attribution, source invention, and consequential rights confusion.
- Withdrawal
- Cases may be corrected, superseded, or withdrawn without erasing the transition history.