diff --git a/WORK-QUEUE.md b/WORK-QUEUE.md
index bf2118f..b2f8ce6 100644
--- a/WORK-QUEUE.md
+++ b/WORK-QUEUE.md
@@ -965,6 +965,31 @@ settling evidence`).
 **Evidence:** the entry URL and the fetched source per row; `unreadable` stated plainly where a cited source is
 settling evidence`). Proposed by Timmy (`2026-09-26`, reply 08), satisfying the Q7 obligation for this cycle.
 
+**Status: DONE — `recoveries/evidence-tier-audit.md`, Merlin, 2026-10-10. 18/18 `justified`, 0 `too
+strong`, 0 `too weak`, 0 `indeterminate`; no badge in the sample misstates its evidence.**
+- Sample rule stated before any fetch: every non-`documented` entry (all 6 — 5 `testimony_only`, 1
+  `corroborated`, 0 `unrecovered`) plus every 9th `documented` entry in published index order (12) = **18 of 121**.
+  Census reproduced from `index.html` (200 / 34,488 B / sha256 `4f764ef4dfb9…`): 115 / 5 / 1 / 0 = 121 `<li id=`.
+- All 18 entry pages and 17 cited sources fetched live this run; 33 of 37 quoted excerpts ≥25 chars are verbatim in a
+  source the entry cites. `magazine-012/017/026/042/050/059/067/076/085` and `event-2024-05-20…`: entry date == the
+  cited article's own `article:published_time` to the day, 8/8.
+- **Named findings, all citation or legend-policy defects, none a badge overstatement:**
+  (1) `block-25/88/89/90` quote the "Skinner Stacking" passage and link the bare site root, which contains
+  `Skinner` **0** times; the passage is verbatim at `/a-conversation-with-burnchainers/` (200 / 155,217 B), the
+  publication's only `?s=Skinner` result — four pages need the permalink.
+  (2) `event-2022-08-18…` names StackchainQuant's October account twice, links it nowhere, and
+  `x.com/StackchainQuant` returns **404** ("User Profile Not Found"); its badge is still earned by the post text
+  (verbatim ×3) and tx `ae63c499…` (`confirmed`, height 749999, 2022-08-18T17:45:12Z, 851,979 sats).
+  (3) `magazine-026` names `@a_koby` with no anchor (minor).
+  (4) the legend's `Unrecovered` tier is defined and applied **0/121** times while material fitting it sits in
+  lower-tier Uncertainty panels — a legend-design question.
+  (5) `Documented` on the 91 magazine entries rests on a live third-party URL, not a held artifact (the Receipt
+  panel says *"No receipt is held"*): Bitcoin Magazine answered **403** to a Chrome UA and **200 / 341,802 B** to a
+  bare curl UA in the same minute.
+- Limits: 18 of 121 is a sample — the 6 non-`documented` are a complete census of their tiers, the 12 `documented`
+  license no rate for the other 103. All byte counts and hashes are dated readings from this host, ~09:0x UTC.
+  Nothing live was edited; (1) and (2) are link/provenance fixes that wait on Alexander through Q13's channel.
+
 ---
 
 ## Q13 — Publish the archive-side wording fixes, one at a time
diff --git a/checkins/2026-10-10-merlin.md b/checkins/2026-10-10-merlin.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2eb0b1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/checkins/2026-10-10-merlin.md
@@ -0,0 +1,181 @@
+# 2026-10-10 — merlin
+
+> Screen. Every claim below carries a path, a hash, a URL, or a command with its output, or the word
+> `unverified`. Nothing secret is printed anywhere in this check-in or in the files it lands.
+
+---
+
+## Did
+
+Claimed and finished **Q12 — are the evidence tiers earned?**, the top unclaimed executable item
+(`WORK-QUEUE.md`: Q1–Q11 closed or claimed, Q13/Q19 gated on Alexander, Q9 blocked on the audio
+handover, Q20 open behind it, and my own 2026-10-09 check-in named Q12 as my next pick).
+
+Deliverable: `recoveries/evidence-tier-audit.md` (19,516 B, sha256
+`625bfb1e9afd9ba3541dc83c09fab39032c7e77095dea616dea60fa70c4ca1dd`) — sample rule, legend, method, 18-row
+table in the fixed column order `entry | badge as published | strongest cited source | verdict |
+settling evidence`, verdict counts, five named findings, and the full read list.
+
+**Result: 18/18 `justified`, 0 `too strong`, 0 `too weak`, 0 `indeterminate`. No badge in the sample
+misstates its evidence.** What the audit did find is three citation defects and two legend-policy
+problems — which is the distinction the item's own framing asked for, and the reason a clean badge
+result is not a clean report.
+
+Sample rule, stated before any fetch: every non-`documented` entry (all 6 — 5 `testimony_only`, 1
+`corroborated`, 0 `unrecovered`) plus every 9th `documented` entry in published index order (12) =
+**18 of 121**. Census reproduced from the live index
+(`https://alexanderwhitestone.com/stackchain/blocks/`, HTTP 200 / 34,488 B / sha256
+`4f764ef4dfb9c08b2654ff0783550d20ad1bb7a31cb0c32070974a5fe451557e`): `grep -o 'badge documented'`
+→ 115, `testimony` → 5, `corroborated` → 1, `unrecovered` → 0, `<li id=` → 121. The 2026-09-26
+census in the queue reproduces to the entry.
+
+All 18 entry pages and 17 cited sources fetched live from this host, ~09:01–09:35 UTC; 18/18 entry
+pages HTTP 200 on the first attempt (3,181–5,146 B). 33 of 37 quoted excerpts ≥25 characters are
+verbatim in a source the entry cites; the 4 that are not are one passage repeated on four pages
+(finding 1). For 8 of the 12 sampled magazine entries the entry's displayed date equals the cited
+article's own `article:published_time` to the day — e.g. `magazine-085` shows `2026-08-13` and
+`the-diy-signing-device-revolution-is-just-beginning/` (200 / 162,809 B / sha
+`5d6b1a9801ca1792…`) carries `article:published_time` `2026-08-13T14:00:25+00:00`.
+
+Five findings, none of them a badge overstatement:
+
+1. **`block-25`, `block-88`, `block-89`, `block-90` cite their corroborating quote at a URL that does
+   not contain it.** All four Provenance panels say the practice *"is independently corroborated: a
+   published Stackchain Magazine account records the term 'Skinner Stacking' and describes it,
+   quoted below"* — and link the bare site root, `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net` (200 /
+   215,836 B / sha `e7df6364180a…`), which detags to 5,036 characters containing `Skinner` **0**
+   times. The passage is verbatim at
+   `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/a-conversation-with-burnchainers/` (200 / 155,217 B / sha
+   `50a2e57e3ba661a6…`), the publication's only result for `?s=Skinner` (200 / 107,021 B / sha
+   `95f57a614ebc…`). The claim holds; four pages need the permalink.
+2. **`event-2022-08-18…` names a source it does not link, and that source 404s.** The summary says
+   *"StackchainQuant's October account also embeds Yellow's August 18 donation appeal and reports
+   several thousand dollars raised under #Stacks4Hodlonaut"*; `StackchainQuant` appears twice in the
+   page and is an anchor nowhere, and `https://x.com/StackchainQuant` returns **404 / 37,702 B /
+   sha `2dfa62a242e6…`**, `<title>User Profile Not Found - X | 404 Error</title>`. The badge is
+   still earned by what is linked and checked: the quoted post text is verbatim ×3 in
+   `x.com/AnthonyDessauer/status/1560325688481026048` (200 / 111,659 B / sha `b03ba32bdbd4…`), and
+   the printed tx `ae63c499155ce14064686fc7218af6630cf64fd58a601bba48368b13cf955aa1` is
+   `confirmed`, height **749999**, block time **2022-08-18T17:45:12Z**, one output of **851,979
+   sats** (`https://blockstream.info/api/tx/ae63c499…`).
+3. **`magazine-026` names `@a_koby` with no anchor** (minor, same defect class, no badge effect).
+4. **The legend's `Unrecovered` tier is defined and applied 0/121 times**, while material fitting its
+   definition ("known to exist, no copy and no independent account") sits in lower-tier Uncertainty
+   panels — `block-6`: *"The $6 post itself has not been produced"*; `block-88`: *"No post, capture
+   or timestamp located."*
+5. **`Documented` on the 91 magazine entries is a liveness claim, not a held-artifact claim.** The
+   legend's first tier says *"the archive holds the post, capture or receipt"*; all 12 sampled
+   magazine entries answer with a Receipt panel reading *"No receipt is held for this entry."* and a
+   live third-party URL. 12/12 resolved 200 today, but the fragility is measurable: the Bitcoin
+   Magazine URL returned **403 / 4,545 B** to a Chrome user-agent and **200 / 341,802 B / sha
+   `e1826c17863d…`** to a bare `curl` agent, in the same minute.
+
+Method note worth keeping: `bitcoinmagazine.com` 403s a browser UA and answers `curl`, so a
+403 there is a wall, not a dead link — the same class of false negative Q2's record already warns
+about for the Wayback availability API.
+
+## Blocked
+
+Nothing blocked the run. Two things deliberately **unverified**, both recorded as such in the
+deliverable:
+
+- Whether any of the other 103 unsampled `documented` entries has the same defect class. The 6
+  non-`documented` entries are a complete census of their tiers; the 12 `documented` are an
+  every-9th sample and license no rate for the rest. A clean 18/18 is evidence that the discipline
+  holds where the evidence is thinnest, not that all 121 are clean.
+- Whether `magazine-012`'s "a year where official CPI was 6% while food, rent, electricity and gas
+  ran higher" is true of the article's figures. The article is live (200 / 141,125 B / sha
+  `8f6efedbd052…`) and carries `6%` once; whether the surrounding sentence says what the summary
+  says is Q8/Q10's lane, not a badge question, so I left it alone rather than half-grade it.
+
+## Next
+
+**Q20 — excerpt fidelity and placement for the 91 magazine entries** (open and unclaimed, opened by
+the pipe 2026-10-08). It is the natural successor: Q12 just measured that 33/37 sampled excerpts are
+verbatim in their cited source, and Q20 asks the question this audit did not — whether an excerpt is
+a literal quotation or a paraphrase, and where inside its source it sits, with offsets and
+fractions. Its finish line is `recoveries/excerpt-placement-audit.md` under a stated sample rule.
+
+Q13 stays gated on Alexander: findings 1 and 2 above are link/provenance fixes to live pages and
+belong in that channel, not in this run. Nothing in this tick executed on `decisions/`.
+
+## Ask
+
+Three decisions that are yours, none of them blockers:
+
+1. **The four Skinner links** — repoint `block-25/88/89/90` from `stackchainmagazine.net` to
+   `/a-conversation-with-burnchainers/`? It is a link change on four live pages, so it waits for you
+   through Q13.
+2. **`event-2022-08-18`'s StackchainQuant clause** — link a surviving capture of the October
+   account, or withdraw the clause? The account's handle 404s today, so the clause currently rests
+   on an unreachable source.
+3. **The legend's `Documented` wording** — either narrow it for the magazine class to "a published
+   source the archive cites, resolving at read time", or start holding captures. As written the
+   badge claims an artifact the archive says it does not hold.
+
+No new queue item opened — depth is not thin (Q9 blocked on the audio handover, Q13/Q19 gated on
+you, Q20 open).
+
+---
+
+## Run detail — Q12, claimed and finished
+
+**Clock and host.** All fetches from this host, 2026-10-10 ~09:01–09:35 UTC. Working tree at
+`/root/crucible/q12/`; repo at `/root/troupe-standup`, branch `main`, HEAD before this run
+`aab23e5`, working tree clean.
+
+**Scripts, all re-runnable.** `parse_index.py` (index → 121 entries with badge + external hrefs),
+`sample.py` (the sample rule), `fetch_entries.py` (18 entry pages), `fetch_sources.py` (17 cited
+sources), `check.py`, `deep.py` (bitcoinmagazine retry, blockstream tx, homepage term counts,
+Skinner post, siggy commits), `excerpts3.py` (the verbatim matcher), `dates.py` (entry date vs
+`article:published_time`), `skinner2.py` (search → permalink), `unlinked.py` (named-but-unlinked
+handle test), `evidence.py` (emits `EVIDENCE.txt`).
+
+**The matcher, printed.** Strip `<script> <style> <svg> <noscript>`, replace `<br>` and block
+closers with a space, strip tags, HTML-unescape, NFKC-normalise, collapse whitespace, normalise
+quotes and dashes. Verbatim = substring under exactly that rule. Split the *"From the sources"*
+panel on each re-cited permalink so distinct excerpts stay distinct — my first two extractors
+merged adjacent excerpts and produced 73 false misses, which is logged here because it is the kind
+of defect that would have shipped a wrong number.
+
+**Counts, recomputed not accepted.** 121 entries parsed, badges 115/5/1/0. Sample 6 + 12 = 18.
+Entry pages 18/18 HTTP 200. Cited sources 17 unique, 16 at 200 first attempt, 1 (Bitcoin Magazine)
+403 → 200 on retry. Excerpt fragments ≥25 chars: 37; verbatim in a cited source: 33; not: 4 (one
+passage × 4 pages). Verdicts: 18 justified / 0 / 0 / 0.
+
+**Two of my own defects, logged first.** (a) `fetch_sources.py`'s first version omitted the URL
+argument from the `curl` invocation and reported `ERR` for all 17 sources — caught because 17
+identical failures is not a network shape. (b) `excerpts.py` and `excerpts2.py` merged adjacent
+excerpts (URL removal) and left `<a href="` residue in the fragment text; both produced false
+misses and were replaced by `excerpts3.py`, whose 33/37 is the figure reported.
+
+**Limits.** All byte counts and hashes are dated readings from this host at ~09:0x UTC — third-party
+pages drift, so the hashes re-check this run, they do not pin the pages. Testimony only: nothing in
+the archive's own build was read; every grade comes from a public fetch. Not tested: the summaries'
+content accuracy (Q8/Q10), the 103 unsampled `documented` entries, and any `documented` magazine
+entry citing a since-removed article outside the sample. Not touched: no live page, no `blocks.json`,
+no other party's file, nothing in `decisions/`.
+
+**Landing evidence.**
+
+```
+$ sha256sum recoveries/evidence-tier-audit.md
+625bfb1e9afd9ba3541dc83c09fab39032c7e77095dea616dea60fa70c4ca1dd  recoveries/evidence-tier-audit.md
+$ wc -c recoveries/evidence-tier-audit.md WORK-QUEUE.md checkins/2026-10-10-merlin.md
+ 19516 recoveries/evidence-tier-audit.md
+283818 WORK-QUEUE.md
+ 10870 checkins/2026-10-10-merlin.md
+314204 total
+$ git status --porcelain
+ M WORK-QUEUE.md
+?? checkins/2026-10-10-merlin.md
+?? recoveries/evidence-tier-audit.md
+```
+
+Files written this run:
+
+- `recoveries/evidence-tier-audit.md` (new — the deliverable)
+- `WORK-QUEUE.md` (Q12 status block appended)
+- `checkins/2026-10-10-merlin.md` (this file)
+
+— Merlin
diff --git a/recoveries/evidence-tier-audit.md b/recoveries/evidence-tier-audit.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3383440
--- /dev/null
+++ b/recoveries/evidence-tier-audit.md
@@ -0,0 +1,236 @@
+# Are the evidence tiers earned? — Q12 audit of the 121 published badges
+
+Run by **Merlin**, 2026-10-10, ~09:01–09:35 UTC. Independent of the build: every page read over
+HTTPS from this host with `curl`, nothing inferred from the repository's own claims about itself.
+Working files `/root/crucible/q12/` (`index.html`, `entry-*.html`, `src-*.html`, `skin-*.html`,
+`EVIDENCE.txt`, `parse_index.py`, `sample.py`, `fetch_entries.py`, `fetch_sources.py`, `check.py`,
+`excerpts3.py`, `dates.py`, `deep.py`, `skinner2.py`, `unlinked.py`, `evidence.py`).
+
+**Verdict in one line: no badge in the sample overstates its evidence — 18/18 `justified`, 0 `too
+strong`, 0 `too weak`, 0 `indeterminate` — but three entries cite their evidence at the wrong URL
+or not at all, and the legend's fourth tier is defined and never used.**
+
+---
+
+## 1. Census reproduced before any grading
+
+`https://alexanderwhitestone.com/stackchain/blocks/` → **HTTP 200 / 34,488 B / sha256
+`4f764ef4dfb9c08b2654ff0783550d20ad1bb7a31cb0c32070974a5fe451557e`**.
+
+```
+$ grep -o 'badge documented'    index.html | wc -l   ->  115
+$ grep -o 'badge testimony'     index.html | wc -l   ->    5
+$ grep -o 'badge corroborated'  index.html | wc -l   ->    1
+$ grep -o 'badge unrecovered'   index.html | wc -l   ->    0
+$ grep -o '<li id='             index.html | wc -l   ->  121
+```
+
+115 + 5 + 1 + 0 = **121**, and 121 `<li id=` elements. The 2026-09-26 census in the queue is
+reproduced to the entry. The page's own header reads *"121 entries · 8 ledger blocks and receipts
+· 22 dated events · 91 magazine pieces"*.
+
+The legend, as published on the same page (verbatim, detagged):
+
+> **Documented** — the archive holds the post, capture or receipt.
+> **Corroborated** — established by a published or community account, with the source quoted on
+> the page. An original screenshot is not required.
+> **Testimony only** — a participant's recollection, recorded as recollection; where the practice
+> it describes is corroborated, that is shown too.
+> **Unrecovered** — known to exist, no copy and no independent account.
+
+## 2. Sample rule, stated before any fetch
+
+1. **Every** entry whose published badge is not `documented` — all 6 (`corroborated` 1,
+   `testimony_only` 5). There is no `unrecovered` entry to include.
+2. **Every 9th `documented` entry in published index order**, starting at the 9th. The 115
+   `documented` entries numbered 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90, 99, 108 → 12 entries.
+
+Total sample **18 of 121**. The rule is mechanical and re-runnable from `index.html` alone
+(`parse_index.py` → `sample.py`); it is not a judgement about which entries looked interesting.
+The six mandatory non-`documented` entries are `event-2022-07-18-anthony-enters-at-16-…`,
+`block-25`, `block-6`, `block-88`, `block-89`, `block-90`.
+
+## 3. Method
+
+Per entry: fetch the entry page, read the badge as published, take the strongest source the entry
+itself cites, fetch that, and grade the badge against the legend's own words.
+
+**Detag / normalisation rule, printed so it can be re-run.** Strip `<script> <style> <svg>
+<noscript>` blocks, replace `<br>` and block-closing tags with a space, strip remaining tags,
+HTML-unescape, then NFKC-normalise and collapse runs of whitespace. Quotes are normalised
+(`'` `'` `"` `"` → `'` `"`), em/en dashes → `-`, `…` → `...`, NBSP → space. A quoted fragment
+counts as **verbatim** when it is a substring of the detagged source under exactly that rule.
+Nothing is graded on a paraphrase.
+
+Grading vocabulary, as the item defines it: **justified** / **too strong** / **too weak** /
+**indeterminate**, applied **per entry** (the badge is published per entry, not per clause);
+per-clause defects are recorded separately and named.
+
+**A dated reading, not an identifier:** every byte count and hash below is what this host read at
+~09:0x UTC on 2026-10-10. Third-party pages drift; the hashes are for re-checking this run, not
+for claiming a page is permanently that size.
+
+## 4. Per-row table
+
+Fixed column order: `entry | badge as published | strongest cited source | verdict | settling evidence`
+
+| entry | badge as published | strongest cited source | verdict | settling evidence |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| `event-2022-07-18-anthony-enters-at-16-names-the-hill-at-24` | Testimony only | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/waht-stackchain-done-dided-the-king-of-stackchain/` — 200 / 153,199 B / sha `7ff55e52eafa…` | justified | Entry's own words: *"Treat the claim to first use of the name as participant testimony, not an independently exhaustive Twitter search."* Cited article carries `Block 16` ×2 and `Block 24` ×1; its opening excerpt is verbatim on the page. The badge understates nothing and claims nothing held. |
+| `block-25` | Testimony only | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net` — 200 / 215,836 B / sha `e7df6364180a…` | justified | Entry states *"The specific block numbers are the contributor's recollection and are not corroborated"* and *"This is testimony, not a held artifact."* No post or capture is claimed. **Citation defect, see §6.1.** |
+| `block-6` | Corroborated | `https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/how-5-bitcoin-purchase-cascaded-into-1-5-million-viral-movement` — 200 / 341,802 B / sha `e1826c17863d…` | justified | The legend's own test is met: a published account, quoted on the page. The quoted sentence *"…followed it up with a $6 buy and Satskeeper followed Bob's with a $7 buy"* is **verbatim ×1** in the fetched article, as are `Happyclowntime` ×1 and `Satskeeper` ×1. Receipt panel says plainly *"No receipt is held for this entry"* — the legend's Corroborated tier explicitly waives the screenshot. |
+| `block-88` | Testimony only | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net` — 200 / 215,836 B / sha `e7df6364180a…` | justified | Same shape as `block-25`: *"First-person oral history, 2026-09-21. The posts themselves are not held."* **Citation defect, see §6.1.** |
+| `block-89` | Testimony only | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net` — 200 / 215,836 B / sha `e7df6364180a…` | justified | Same. *"No post, capture or timestamp located."* **Citation defect, see §6.1.** |
+| `block-90` | Testimony only | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net` — 200 / 215,836 B / sha `e7df6364180a…` | justified | Same, and the disputed material is quarantined in the Uncertainty panel: *"Skinner attributes the naming to Anthony, 'most likely' - tentative and uncorroborated."* **Citation defect, see §6.1.** |
+| `event-2022-08-18-the-bitcoin-beach-campaign-closes-and-hodlonaut` | Documented | `https://x.com/AnthonyDessauer/status/1560325688481026048` — 200 / 111,659 B / sha `b03ba32bdbd4…`; `blockstream.info/api/tx/ae63c499155ce14064686fc7218af6630cf64fd58a601bba48368b13cf955aa1` | justified | The held artifact is real: the quoted post text *"The last of sats donated to #Stacks4BitcoinBeach are on their way"* appears **×3** in the fetched page; the tx the entry prints is `confirmed`, block height **749999**, block time **2022-08-18T17:45:12Z**, one output of **851,979 sats**. The entry's own date, 2022-08-18, matches the receipt to the day. **One clause has no source at all, see §6.2.** |
+| `event-2023-05-00-siggy-reaches-nostr` | Documented | `https://github.com/plebiolira/stackchainsiggy_nostr` — 200 / 279,677 B / sha `020fc5625905…`; commits API | justified | README line verbatim: *"This is the version made for Nostr for the Stackchain mascot that monitors for #stackjoin buys."* Commits API (301 → `repositories/640699187`): **48 commits, earliest 2023-05-14T23:37:38Z, latest 2023-08-23T12:12:05Z, months 2023-05 … 2023-08** — exactly the entry's *"visible commit history from May to August 2023"* and its stated basis label *"visible repository commit dates"*. |
+| `magazine-012` | Documented | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/inflation-you/` — 200 / 141,125 B / sha `8f6efedbd052…` | justified | 3/3 quoted excerpts verbatim; entry date `2023-08-28` == the article's own `article:published_time` `2023-08-28T06:08:50+00:00`. |
+| `magazine-017` | Documented | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/where-ideas-end-up-and-why-that-matters/` — 200 / 136,829 B / sha `1a98badabb88…` | justified | 3/3 verbatim, including *"We currently have 841 active projects on Geyser, 40% of which are from parts of the world that were previously underserved"*; `2023-10-26` == `2023-10-26T17:34:30+00:00`. |
+| `magazine-026` | Documented | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/stackchain-for-newcomers-how-i-infiltrated-the-stackchain/` — 200 / 137,771 B / sha `b1fba3b77840…` | justified | 3/3 verbatim; `2024-04-10` == `2024-04-10T00:17:53+00:00`. Minor: the summary names `@a_koby`, which is not an anchor on the page (§6.3). |
+| `event-2024-05-20-one-community-multiple-living-chains` | Documented | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/two-years-of-stackchain/` — 200 / 136,607 B / sha `bbb528f37241…` | justified | Excerpt verbatim; the entry's basis label *"explicit internal composition date; web upload"* is honest — the article's own line is *"As of the date of my writing this May 20th 2024…"* against `article:published_time` `2025-07-22T14:33:48+00:00`. Both halves verified (this row was Q11's row 8). |
+| `magazine-042` | Documented | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/meet-the-orange-pill-app/` — 200 / 143,271 B / sha `50ab3c791664…` | justified | 3/3 verbatim; `2025-01-25` == `2025-01-25T18:20:18+00:00`. |
+| `magazine-050` | Documented | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/a-pleb-travels-to-el-salvador/` — 200 / 184,537 B / sha `f9a4e4071123…` | justified | 3/3 verbatim; `2025-07-15` == `2025-07-15T00:19:14+00:00`. |
+| `magazine-059` | Documented | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/plebs-priced-out-of-conference-tickets-after-blackrock-tokenizes-them-as-a-brc-20-token/` — 200 / 139,413 B / sha `c778d10edd86…` | justified | 3/3 verbatim, including *"A general admission ticket shot up from $399 to almost $5000, or close to the price of a whale pass overnight."*; `2025-08-01` == `2025-08-01T14:15:10+00:00`. |
+| `magazine-067` | Documented | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/what-is-bitcoin-art/` — 200 / 142,126 B / sha `3b31cc06403a…` | justified | 3/3 verbatim; `2026-01-12` == `2026-01-12T13:15:58+00:00`. |
+| `magazine-076` | Documented | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/dsb-and-me-by-clumsy-dork/` — 200 / 173,819 B / sha `865855cc14d8…` | justified | 3/3 verbatim; `2026-01-20` == `2026-01-20T13:09:30+00:00`. |
+| `magazine-085` | Documented | `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/the-diy-signing-device-revolution-is-just-beginning/` — 200 / 162,809 B / sha `5d6b1a9801ca…` | justified | 3/3 verbatim; `2026-08-13` == `2026-08-13T14:00:25+00:00`. |
+
+All 18 entry pages returned **HTTP 200** on the first attempt (3,181–5,146 B).
+
+## 5. Verdict counts
+
+| verdict | count |
+|---|---|
+| justified | **18** |
+| too strong | **0** |
+| too weak | **0** |
+| indeterminate | **0** |
+
+By tier: `Testimony only` 5/5 justified, `Corroborated` 1/1 justified, `Documented` 12/12
+justified. **No badge in the sample misstates its evidence.** The three findings below are
+citation and legend-policy defects, not badge overstatements — which is the distinction the
+item's own framing asked for.
+
+## 6. Named findings
+
+### 6.1 `block-25`, `block-88`, `block-89`, `block-90` — the corroborating quote is cited at a URL that does not contain it
+
+All four Provenance panels read: *"The named practice is independently corroborated: a published
+Stackchain Magazine account records the term 'Skinner Stacking' and describes it, quoted below."*
+The link attached to that quote is the bare site root, `https://www.stackchainmagazine.net`
+(200 / 215,836 B / sha `e7df6364180a…`), which detags to 5,036 characters and contains
+**`Skinner` 0 times, `Skinner Stacking` 0 times**. The quoted passage is therefore not
+verifiable from the URL the four pages print.
+
+It is verifiable — elsewhere. The passage is verbatim in
+`https://www.stackchainmagazine.net/a-conversation-with-burnchainers/` (200 / 155,217 B / sha
+`50a2e57e3ba6…`), which is the **only** result the publication's own search returns for
+`?s=Skinner` (200 / 107,021 B / sha `95f57a614ebc…`; `?s=skinner+stacking` returns the same single
+article). The passage, verbatim from that page:
+
+> *"I've been watching Stackchain and they adopt new ideas over time. Like some used to call it
+> Skinner Stacking when you did two blocks in one post. But who wants to have their stack named
+> after someone else? So as the idea was separated from the person it got more palatable."*
+
+**Effect:** the *claim* holds, the *citation* does not point at it. Four pages should cite the
+`a-conversation-with-burnchainers` permalink instead of the site root. Badge unchanged
+(`Testimony only` is correct and appropriately modest); this is a link fix on four live pages, so
+it belongs to Alexander via Q13's channel, not to this run. Independently, the term also appears
+in `x.com/rockachopa/status/1550583498397782017` (200 / 107,399 B / sha `ff71ecb4ac768b…`,
+`article:published_time` **2022-07-22T20:48:09.000Z**, `Skinner Stacking` ×6) — a second
+corroborating source neither page cites.
+
+### 6.2 `event-2022-08-18…` — the summary names an account it does not link, and that account 404s
+
+The *"What happened"* panel reads: *"…StackchainQuant's October account also embeds Yellow's
+August 18 donation appeal and reports several thousand dollars raised under #Stacks4Hodlonaut."*
+`StackchainQuant` appears **twice** in the page and is an anchor **nowhere** — the page's only
+external anchors are the AnthonyDessauer post and the Bitcoin Magazine article. And the handle
+itself does not resolve: `https://x.com/StackchainQuant` → **404**, 37,702 B, sha
+`2dfa62a242e6…`, `<title>User Profile Not Found - X | 404 Error</title>`.
+
+The Provenance panel says the summary is *"Summarised by the archive from the sources linked
+below"*, which is not true of that clause. **Effect:** the entry's badge is earned by the parts
+that are linked and checked (post text verbatim ×3, tx confirmed at 2022-08-18T17:45:12Z,
+851,979 sats); this one clause rests on an account that is unlinked and currently unreachable. Fix
+is either a link to a surviving capture or withdrawal of the clause. Alexander's call.
+
+### 6.3 `magazine-026` — a named handle with no anchor (minor)
+
+The summary names *"Koby (@a_koby)"*; the page's only external anchor is the article permalink.
+No badge effect. Noted for completeness because it is the same defect class as 6.2 at lower
+stakes.
+
+### 6.4 The legend's fourth tier is defined and never applied
+
+`Unrecovered` — *"known to exist, no copy and no independent account"* — appears **0 times** across
+121 entries, while material that fits its definition is sitting inside lower-tier entries'
+Uncertainty panels: `block-6` *"The $6 post itself has not been produced"*; `block-25` *"No post
+or capture has been located for either attempt"*; `block-88` *"No post, capture or timestamp
+located"*. The archive is disclosing this honestly, but it is doing it in prose rather than in the
+tier vocabulary the legend publishes. **This is a legend-design question for Alexander, not a
+per-entry defect.**
+
+### 6.5 `Documented` is a liveness claim, not a held-artifact claim, for the 91 magazine entries
+
+The legend's first tier says *"the archive holds the post, capture or receipt"*. All 12 sampled
+magazine entries answer that with a Receipt panel reading *"No receipt is held for this entry."*
+and a Provenance panel naming a live third-party URL. So the badge rests on **a URL resolving
+today**, which I measured: 12/12 at HTTP 200, 8/8 entry dates equal to the cited article's own
+`article:published_time` to the day. That is a strong result, but it is not the same claim the
+legend makes, and it is fragile in a way I hit myself: the Bitcoin Magazine URL returned **403**
+(4,545 B) to a Chrome user-agent and **200 / 341,802 B** to a bare `curl` agent, in the same
+minute. One publisher, one UA difference, one wall.
+
+**Recommendation for Alexander, not for this run:** either narrow the `Documented` legend's
+wording to *"a published source the archive cites, resolving at read time"* for the magazine
+class, or start holding captures. Nothing here is a badge defect today; it is a claim the badge
+makes that nobody has tested until now.
+
+## 7. Measurement: are the excerpts the badge rests on actually in the source?
+
+Across the 18 sampled entries, the *"From the sources"* panels carry **37 quoted fragments of
+≥25 characters** (split on each re-cited permalink so distinct excerpts stay distinct, then
+detagged and normalised per §3).
+
+**33 of 37 (89%) are verbatim in a source the entry itself cites.** The 4 that are not are the
+same Skinner passage repeated on `block-25`, `block-88`, `block-89` and `block-90` — finding 6.1.
+No sampled entry prints an excerpt that its own cited source does not contain, other than that one
+passage, and no excerpt was found in the one off-citation control I ran (`x.com/rockachopa/
+status/1550583498397782017`, which carries the *term* but not the *passage*). I did not sweep the
+whole publication for each excerpt, so "verbatim in a cited source" is a per-row result and "found
+only in an uncited source" is not a claim this run makes.
+
+## 8. Evidence
+
+Every URL read this run, with its byte count and SHA-256, in `/root/crucible/q12/EVIDENCE.txt`
+(18 entry pages, the index, 17 cited sources, 2 off-citation controls, 3 search pages). The
+full list is printed by `python3 /root/crucible/q12/evidence.py`.
+
+Reads that mattered and their outputs:
+
+```
+index               200 / 34,488  sha 4f764ef4dfb9…   /stackchain/blocks/
+block-6 source      200 / 341,802 sha e1826c17863d…   bitcoinmagazine.com (403 under Chrome UA, 200 under bare curl)
+block-25 source     200 / 215,836 sha e7df6364180a…   stackchainmagazine.net  ("Skinner" 0 occurrences)
+skinner permalink   200 / 155,217 sha 50a2e57e3ba6…   /a-conversation-with-burnchainers/  (passage verbatim ×1)
+ev-08-18 post       200 / 111,659 sha b03ba32bdbd4…   x.com/AnthonyDessauer/status/1560325688481026048 (text ×3)
+tx ae63c499…        confirmed, height 749999, 2022-08-18T17:45:12Z, 1 output, 851,979 sats
+siggy repo          200 / 279,677 sha 020fc5625905…   48 commits, 2023-05-14 … 2023-08-23
+StackchainQuant     404 / 37,702  sha 2dfa62a242e6…   "User Profile Not Found"
+```
+
+## 9. Limits
+
+- **Testimony only:** every byte count and hash is a dated reading from this host at
+  ~09:0x UTC 2026-10-10. Third-party pages drift; a later reader will get different sizes. The
+  hashes let this run be re-checked, not the pages pinned.
+- **Sample, not census:** 18 of 121. The 6 non-`documented` entries are a complete census of their
+  tiers; the 12 `documented` entries are an every-9th sample and license no rate estimate for the
+  other 103. A clean 18/18 is evidence that the tiering discipline holds where it is hardest
+  (the entries with the least evidence), not that all 121 are clean.
+- **Not tested:** the accuracy of the summaries' *content* (that is Q8/Q10's lane), the 103
+  unsampled `documented` entries, and whether any `documented` magazine entry cites an article
+  that has since been taken down outside the sample.
+- **Not touched:** no live page, no `blocks.json`, no other party's file. Nothing in this run
+  changed the archive; the three link fixes in §6 wait on Alexander through Q13's channel.