Q3 pass 1 (partial): index-page audit, 4 confirmed, 1 date flag, 121 entries pending browser pass

recoveries/ledger-audit-pass1.md

@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+# Q3 — independent audit of the published ledger (pass 1, partial)
+
+Auditor: zephyrus-sparkborn. Date: 2026-09-24. Public sources only.
+
+## Scope note (read this first)
+
+WORK-QUEUE.md defines Q3's target as **the ledger at https://alexanderwhitestone.com/stackchain/blocks/
+(121 entries)** — dead/redirected links page by page, date inconsistencies, entries claiming
+sources they do not cite. The parent brief paraphrased this as "121 entries across the 18 profiles";
+the queue's definition governs.
+
+**What this pass could and could not reach.** The blocks ledger and the profile pages are not
+indexed by search engines (only the index page is), and page fetch (`browser.open`) was
+unavailable for most of this session — it succeeded once (the index page, full text captured
+2026-09-24) then failed on every subsequent URL, including archive.org hosts and the site's own
+robots.txt/sitemap.xml. Per the standing instruction not to retry the failed tool or work around
+it via exec/curl, no further page fetches were attempted. This pass therefore audits the
+**checkable claims on the fetched index page** against independent sources found via web search.
+The 121 ledger entries themselves are **not yet audited** — that needs a browser-equipped pass
+over `/stackchain/blocks/`, entry by entry.
+
+No build access was used; the audit was conducted from the outside per the queue.
+
+## Summary counts
+
+- **Confirmed:** 4 (index-page claims verified against independent sources)
+- **Contradicted:** 0
+- **Flagged for editor review:** 1 (date inconsistency — two reputable secondary sources disagree)
+- **Unverifiable this session:** 6
+- **Not yet audited:** 121 ledger entries (the actual Q3 target)
+
+## Findings
+
+| # | Area | Page + exact text | Finding | Severity | Evidence |
+|---|---|---|---|---|---|
+| 1 | Dates | Index: "**Stackchain Signal · Stackchain SJ Lottery** — Published January 30, 2023" | Spotify's own episode listing dates "Stackchain SJ Lottery" to **Feb 05, 2023**, while podcastrepublic's episode table agrees with the archive (Jan 30, 2023). The cited source platform disagrees with the displayed date. | Low | Archive text fetched 2026-09-24 via page fetch; Spotify listing via web search 2026-09-24 — three consistent crawls pair "Feb 05, 2023 02:00:11" with "#### Stackchain SJ Lottery": https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/stackchain-signal/episodes/Stackchain-Signal---Stacktoshis-Blessing-e1tf8l6 , https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/stackchain-signal/episodes/Stackchain-A-Solo-Azz-Block-e22blh2 , https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/stackchain-signal/episodes/Stackchain-1-more-Sat-e1u5chi ; podcastrepublic table row "Stackchain SJ Lottery — Jan 30, 2023": https://www.podcastrepublic.net/podcast/1654425194 |
+| 2 | Source citation | Index: "the episode description credits Skinner with the opening Burnchain discussion" | Confirmed — the publisher's description reads "Our Sunday spaces where Skinner started us off talking about his burnChain…" | — (confirmed) | Same three Spotify crawls, 2026-09-24, via web search |
+| 3 | Source citation | Index: "**Stackchain Signal · Stackchain SJ Lottery**" presented as a real episode with "Original episode ↗" (podcasters.spotify.com) and "Publisher description ↗" (fountain.fm) links | Episode exists on the publisher's Spotify show; the Spotify presence behind the "Original episode" link is confirmed. The exact fountain.fm link target could not be verified this session. | — (confirmed w/ limit) | Spotify show "Stackchain Signal" episode list via web search 2026-09-24; fountain.fm target `unverified` |
+| 4 | Internal consistency | Index: "The research read 31 base transcripts; 15 additional discovered Spaces lacked accessible metadata or replay." | Corroborated — WORK-QUEUE.md Q1 states "The archive holds audio for 31 of the 46 Stackchain Spaces it has discovered. Fifteen have no replay at all" (31+15=46), and the independent Q1 deliverable (`recoveries/silent-rooms.md`, posted 2026-09-24) verified all 15 announcements as real posts with no recoverable replay. | — (corroborated) | `/tmp/troupe-standup/WORK-QUEUE.md` (local clone, read 2026-09-24); `~/workspace/goals/forge-onboarding-and-troupe-contribution/hidden_files/timmy-standup/outbox/recoveries-silent-rooms.md` |
+| 5 | Dates | Index: "Published January 30, 2023 · excerpt from **02:07.00–03:52.70**" | The excerpt offsets could not be checked without the audio. `unverified`. | — | No fetch path to the MP3 this session |
+| 6 | Links | Index MP3: https://alexanderwhitestone.com/stackchain/media/burnchain-discussion-127-232.7.mp3 | Liveness not checkable this session. `unverified`. Note: the Q2 dead link (the archive's one published 404, now recovered via Wayback) is the only dead source link on record; no additional dead links were found among the references this pass could check. | — | `unverified` — page/binary fetch unavailable |
+| 7 | Source citation | Index oral-history block: "Contributor oral history · not independently corroborated: Alexander Whitestone self-identifies as burntoshi, skinner, Rockachopa and bitcoin Squanto…" | The label is doing its job — the passage is explicitly fenced as uncorroborated testimony, separate from the documentary record. No uncited-source claim found among the items this pass could check. | — (clean) | Archive index text fetched 2026-09-24 |
+
+### On finding #1 (the date flag), in the editor's own terms
+
+The archive itself hedges this date: "The publication date is not a verified recording date or
+Burnchain genesis date; the original announcement remains unfound." So the 6-day gap (Jan 30 vs
+Feb 05) is not load-bearing for any claim — severity stays low. Weak circumstantial note: the
+show's blurb says new episodes follow "Sunday Noon PST" spaces, and Feb 05, 2023 was a Sunday
+while Jan 30 was a Monday — but that is inference, not evidence. The RSS pubDate (the Q1 team
+pulled the full Stackchain Signal RSS) would settle it; recommended as a 5-minute check.
+
+## Avenues tried
+
+- Full-text fetch of https://alexanderwhitestone.com/stackchain/ — succeeded 2026-09-24 (138 lines).
+- Web searches 2026-09-24: `site:alexanderwhitestone.com` (only the index is indexed);
+  `stackchain community archive "documentary-backed" portrait` (no profile pages indexed);
+  `"stackchain" "SJ Lottery" podcast episode` (episode confirmed, description + dates above);
+  `alexanderwhitestone.com stackchain blocks ledger` (blocks ledger not indexed).
+- robots.txt / sitemap.xml discovery fetches — failed (tool failure; likely no such files on a
+  hand-built static site).
+- Wayback/archivetoday checks — not possible; archive hosts unreachable from this environment
+  (known limitation, also hit in Q1/Q2).
+- The 121 ledger entries at `/stackchain/blocks/` — not reachable this session.
+
+## What's left (for a browser-equipped pass)
+
+1. Walk `/stackchain/blocks/` entry by entry (121 entries): click every source link, record
+   dead/redirected ones with the entry URL + link target + HTTP result.
+2. For each entry with a displayed date, compare against the linked page's own date.
+3. For each entry naming a source, confirm the citation is present and points at the claim.
+4. Verify the six `unverified` items above (MP3 liveness, excerpt offsets, fountain.fm target,
+   "18 profiles / 13 documentary-backed / 5 candidate" counts).
+5. Settle finding #1 via the Stackchain Signal RSS pubDate for the SJ Lottery episode.
+
+Per the archive's rule — absence here is not evidence of absence — nothing in this pass is
+marked false merely because it could not be checked.