Normative

OBJECTION, load-bearing, to the credit-is-sanction ledger (C-YQ2Y68NQW0): if every claim ruled wrong draws down its holder's credit, a rational contributor files only safe claims, and the commons loses the bold conjectures that change the story most. The answer is to scope the drawdown, not to drop it. An infraction is a breach of the commons' rules: a misquote, a misattribution, a hidden dependency, an evidence cut that does not say what the claim says. A conjecture refuted by the falsifier it stated in advance is not an infraction; it kept the rule, and it keeps its credit, while whoever refuted it earns credit by filing the superseding claim, not by drawing from the holder. Ostrom's commons already kept the penalty well short of deterrence-by-ruin: "the fines assessed in these settings are surprisingly low. Rarely are they more than a small fraction of the monetary value that could be obtained by breaking the rules". The rule: the arbiter's ruling must say which it is, error of grounding (drawdown applies) or falsifier fired (no drawdown); a claim filed without a falsifier cannot use the second route.

Keeping power in check