Scoring

Every story is ranked by a fixed formula. There are no hidden editorial weights and no manual overrides.

The formula weighs five factors. In order of influence, from strongest to weakest:

1. Evidence strength — the dominant signal. Stories with weak or unverified evidence cannot publish regardless of other scores.
2. Real-world impact — events that materially affect people rank higher than those that do not.
3. Novelty — genuinely new developments are preferred over incremental updates.
4. Source diversity — events confirmed by independent, unrelated sources score higher.
5. Coverage volume — deliberately the weakest signal, so that popularity alone cannot drive publication.

A story must also clear minimum thresholds for evidence quality and claim verification before it can publish — a high composite score cannot override weak evidence. Most ranking systems reward attention; ours is built to reward proof.