How it works

How a claim gets onto the record.

Five steps, and four of them happen before anybody knows the answer. That order is the whole point: a test written afterwards can be made to fit whatever occurred.

1. 1
   Something gets said in public

   A post, an article, a podcast, a video. It belongs on the record only if it was said where anyone could hear it and it claims something about the future.

2. 2
   The exact words are captured, with the source

   Not a paraphrase. The wording as published, the link it came from, and the date it was said — which is half of what makes a sentence a prediction rather than a comment.

3. 3
   A test is written before the answer is known

   What outcome settles it, at what threshold, by what date, and which source publishes the number. The test is fixed at registration and shown next to the claim, so a reader can judge the test and not only the verdict.

4. 4
   The deadline passes

   The result is recorded with the evidence it was settled on: met, not met, or indeterminate — which is a real answer rather than a missing one. A claim nobody can settle stays open instead of becoming a guess.

5. 5
   Nothing is overwritten

   Corrections and disputes are appended. The original registration stays readable, and records are anchored so a reader can check that a claim and its test existed in that form on that date.