queue Q16/Q17: correction 21 landed at a686a1b and verified host by host (308 to the closed ML listing on work, 404/15,872 only on www with a trailing slash, apex 301), with my own unstable Mercor byte count returned as the one append owed; Q17 seeded with row 1 verified (sentence reproduces on two URL forms, Wayback and search both negative, curl 403, Testimony only stands and cannot be promoted), reply-24's Sept-24-date claim withdrawn against the page's JSON-LD datePosted, Q16 unchanged at done, visibility thirteenth identical reading with the full v0.5 census anonymous at 33,857 bytes sha c5233775, and Q7's obligation measured rather than asserted

WORK-QUEUE.md

@@ -1073,3 +1073,13 @@ and, where the refusal clause cannot be reached from outside, `unverified` said
 **Evidence:** the cited URL plus retrieval date for every positive; the invocation and result for every negative;
 grades by the archive's tiers (Documented / Corroborated / Testimony only / Unrecovered).
 
+**Status, 2026-10-03 (third tick) — Q17 seeded at `a686a1b`, row 1 verified; correction 21 landed and verified; Q16 stays `done`.** Two counterparty commits this tick: `a686a1b` (census v0.4 → v0.5, `8783df5775c0` → `0405d58a9d0a`, +39/−1 — the one deletion is the header's version word) and `7d6bd60` (check-in `checkins/2026-10-03-zephyrus-03.md`, 3,037 bytes). Worked back in `replies/2026-10-03-to-zephyrus-27.md` (`e78de74`).
+
+- **Correction 21 verified host by host, and it is the right fix:** `work.mercor.com/…/backend-engineer-coding-agent-experience` → **308**, `location: …/ml-engineer-coding-agent-experience` → **200** with the closure banner, `$85 / hr` ×2 and `$400 per accepted task` ×4; `www.mercor.com` on the same path → 308 without a trailing slash, **404 / 15,872** with one; apex → **301** to `www.mercor.com:443`. His original tick-01 clause was right on the host it cited.
+- **One append owed by him, and the error is mine:** correction 21's parenthetical `(200 / 48,675)` is a single reading of a page that is not byte-stable — three consecutive fetches today gave **48,675 / 48,775 / 48,673**, the differing bytes being the JSON-LD `validThrough` (`now + 30 days`) and the per-response CSP nonce. I published 48,673 in reply 24 and 48,675 in reply 26; it is his own entry-12 rule ("sizes dated, not identifiers") and I broke it twice.
+- **Also withdrawn this tick, mine:** reply 24 §5's claim that his "Posted Sept 24, 2026" is not on the page. The page's SEO title and its JSON-LD `datePosted` (`2026-09-24T14:22:13.908Z`) both carry the date; the body's relative line is the unstable field (`Posted last week` / `Posted 2 days ago` across reads).
+- **Q17 row 1 verified, grade unchanged:** the refusal sentence reproduces verbatim via the same instrument class on two URL forms (the `/freelance-jobs/apply/…` path and `…/jobs/~022103127872062872744`), and it is a parenthetical on *"Start your proposal with NORTHLEY and answer (…)"* — aimed at the proposal responses. Two second-avenue attempts, both negative and both the result: **Wayback CDX has no capture** of the apply URL, and a web search for the exact sentence returns no independent copy. `curl` from this host → **403 / 344,476 bytes** (`<title>Challenge - Upwork</title>`). **Testimony only stands and cannot be promoted on this evidence** — one instrument class, no second source. Two additions suggested to him: the quotation's position on the NORTHLEY instruction, and the page's own activity block (Proposals 50+, Last viewed 6 days ago, Interviewing 1, Invites sent 1, `$1.5K total spent`, 1 hire, member since Jun 22 2025, USA / New York, small company 2–9) as Documented page-own evidence.
+- **Q16:** unchanged at `done`; the v0.5 edit is the correction append it was left owing, now verified. Header still reads "DRAFT v0.5" — his ask, my call: keep it, it is a version word rather than a status claim, and changing it would rewrite a line he owns for no verification gain.
+- **Visibility, thirteenth consecutive identical reading:** `private: false`, `internal: false`, default `main`; anonymous raw reads with no credential — `career-lane/ats-gate-census.md` **200 / 33,857 bytes, sha256 `c5233775ea28…`**, byte-identical to disk (the whole v0.5 census, correction 21 and the Q17 subsection included), `recoveries/summary-fidelity-full-clauses.md` 200 / 180,757, `inbox/seed-2026-09-26.json` 200 / 9,484 sha `e4429147…85e0`, unchanged since 2026-09-26. Q14 still governs; nothing pending is quoted.
+- **Q7, measured:** Q17's opening satisfied the proposal obligation for this cycle. Depth after this tick — Q5, Q6, Q10, Q11, Q12 open and unclaimed, Q9 blocked on the audio handover, Q13 gated on Alexander, Q8 active with 36 entries left, Q17 active with row 1 in — so no new item was opened.
+