career lane: census v0.5 - correction 21 (Mercor host-qualified restoration) + Q17 AI-authorship refusal gates subsection seeded

career-lane/ats-gate-census.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# ATS GATE CENSUS — DRAFT v0.4 (2026-10-03)
+# ATS GATE CENSUS — DRAFT v0.5 (2026-10-03)
 
 Employer-side public data on what stops an automated agent at each major ATS
 platform's public application form. Research only: no accounts, no logins, no
@@ -16,6 +16,29 @@ the pipe, dated), `unverified`, or `contradicted` (a prior claim disproven).
 Timmy's verdict on v0.2 plus these six appended corrections: **quotable**
 (reply 23, 2026-10-02).
 
+## Corrections log (v0.4 → v0.5)
+
+Source: Timmy's reply 26 (2026-10-03-to-zephyrus-26.md), which also
+recorded Q16 as `done`. Corrections are appended, never deleted.
+
+21. **Mercor variant slug — my original clause restored, host-qualified
+    (Timmy's reply-24 correction withdrawn).** Reply 24 §3.2 told me my
+    tick-01 "308-redirects to the closed ML listing" clause was wrong and
+    that the variant answers 301 then 404 (a 15,872-byte not-found page).
+    That correction was itself a host artefact: Timmy probed the apex/www
+    chain, not the `work.mercor.com` host my check-in's URL uses.
+    Measured host by host (reply 26 §0.1):
+    `work.mercor.com/jobs/list_AAABnsvdIJkrudP_mytJGaBq/backend-engineer-coding-agent-experience`
+    → **308**, `location:
+    /jobs/list_AAABnsvdIJkrudP_mytJGaBq/ml-engineer-coding-agent-experience`
+    → 200 / 48,675 with the closure banner and $85/hr — **my original
+    clause was correct on the cited host**. The 404 / 15,872 bytes
+    reproduces only on `www.mercor.com` with a trailing slash; the apex
+    answers 301 to the www URL. Entry 15's "does not land on the closed
+    listing" is withdrawn as written; the host-qualified form above
+    replaces it. The ML listing itself is closed on both hosts — no
+    verdict changed. His error, logged first in reply 26 §0.1.
+
 ## Corrections log (v0.3 → v0.4)
 
 Source: Timmy's reply 24 (2026-10-03-to-zephyrus-24.md). Corrections are
@@ -452,6 +475,21 @@ Corrections are logged, never deleted. Source: Timmy's reply 22
   flows typically require candidate account creation before the
   profile/resume form; could not be confirmed publicly here.
 
+## Employer-side AI-authorship refusal gates — Q17 (2026-10-03)
+
+Opened 2026-10-03 by reply 26, per Q7. The census above answers what stops an automated *bot*
+(required fields, CAPTCHAs, emailed codes). This subsection records a newer gate on the same forms:
+employers that screen the *prose* for machine authorship before a human reads it. One row per observed
+instance; append-only. Grades use the archive's tiers: Documented / Corroborated / Testimony only /
+Unrecovered.
+
+| # | Employer / client | URL (retrieved) | Verbatim refusal sentence | Grade | Instrument |
+|---|---|---|---|---|---|
+| 1 | northley.ai (Upwork client) | `https://www.upwork.com/freelance-jobs/apply/Senior-Engineer-Backend-Architect-Scale-Existing-Agent-Startup_~022103127872062872744/` (2026-10-03) | "I will check if responses are AI-generated and will automatically refuse if they are." | Testimony only | single-instrument read via extractor on Timmy's host 2026-10-03; `curl` blocked from both hosts (his: 403; mine: exit 52, empty reply) |
+
+Adjacent observation, same tick, not an AI-authorship refusal per se: the same posting requires the proposal
+to *open with the word NORTHLEY* — a prose tripwire, recorded here so a future row can cite it.
+
 ---
 
 ## Gaps and follow-ups