Record#

Page ID: 1020 · Title: Site Agent Operating Rules — Evidence, Links, Citations & Change Control · Evidence status: Rules page (not evidence) · Version: 1.0.1 · Editing Protocol

Time-stamped evidence-status rule — effective 10 October 2026#

Every Wiki conclusion about whether evidence or a record has been found, whether an institution appears in a process, or whether involvement is or is not established must be dated as at the review date. Append a small superscript clock icon 🕒 to the relevant status statement with a hover/accessibility label in the form “As at DD-MM-YYYY”. The marker records the date of the Wiki’s assessment, not the date of the historical event. Refresh it when new material, an FOI/EIR/SAR reply, archive discovery or correction changes the evidential position. Do not make open-ended claims that no record exists, or that an actor did or did not participate, without specifying the material searched and the as-at date. Preserve verbatim quotations and transcription text unchanged; place the marker on the Wiki’s surrounding interpretation/status statement instead.

Site Agent Operating Rules — Evidence, Links, Citations & Change Control#

Scope: These rules apply to AI agents, automated editors, research assistants and human editors working on the Great House Farm Wiki. They are subordinate to the site’s PRINCE2 7 Compliance & Control Manual and support the PRINCE2 Control Registers, Project Plan and Evidence Library.

1. Source-first rule#

Do not write a substantive factual statement into a page until the agent has identified the source supporting it.
Prefer the Evidence Library, the relevant canonical research page, the Master Timeline, the Records Access Chronology or the original external source.
If the source is not yet public, say so and classify the statement correctly rather than inventing a citation.

2. Hyperlink rule — cite the statement where it appears#

Every substantive factual statement should be linked to its supporting source wherever a public link exists. Do not rely on a bibliography elsewhere in the page when an inline hyperlink can identify the source.
For internal evidence, link to the specific Evidence Library entry and/or the canonical subject page.
For external material, link to the actual document, archive catalogue, register, judgment, official response or official webpage where possible.
Put the hyperlink as close as practical to the statement it supports.
Do not invent, guess or fabricate URLs, document identifiers, archive references or source locations.

3. Duplication rule — repeated statements must point back to the canonical source#

The same historical, legal, planning or project-control statement may appear on more than one page for discoverability, but the duplicated statement must not become an independent uncited assertion.

Every repeated statement must carry a hyperlink to its canonical source page and, where possible, the underlying evidence entry.
Use one canonical formulation for important propositions. Other pages should summarise it and link back rather than creating competing versions.
When the source changes, update the canonical page first, then check and update dependent summaries.
Do not copy a factual sentence from one Wiki page to another and strip its source link.
Cross-page duplication is for navigation and context; the Evidence Library remains the evidence anchor.

4. Truth-status rule#

Status	Meaning	Agent writing rule
DOCUMENTED FACT	Supported by an identified documentary/source record	State accurately and link the source.
TESTIMONY / SOURCE PENDING	TESTIMONY = a named family member’s recorded statement, linked to their page under Testimony (https://greathousefarmwiki.wordpress.com/testimony/); SOURCE PENDING = no document or identified speaker yet	Attribute testimony to the named person with record and date, and link their page; tag anything else SOURCE PENDING; do not turn either into an external fact.
RECONSTRUCTION	An evidence-based synthesis connecting multiple records	Show the component sources and mark the synthesis as reconstruction.
LEGAL INFERENCE / ISSUE FOR COUNSEL	A legal interpretation that requires professional assessment	Do not state it as established law/fact; link the primary authority and mark the issue.
UNRESOLVED ^🕒	Evidence is incomplete, conflicting or not yet obtained	Preserve both sides of the conflict and link the evidence on each side.

5. Evidence-language rule#

“Not found” means the source-holder reported no material located; it does not mean the historical event did not occur. ^🕒
“Not held” means the holder says it does not hold the record; it is not equivalent to destruction or non-existence. ^🕒
“Not searched” and “search incomplete” must remain distinct from “not found”. ^🕒
“Destroyed” requires evidence supporting destruction; do not infer destruction from absence.
An acknowledgement, referral, administrative closure or refusal is an event in the control chronology, not automatically evidential closure.

6. Canonical-page rule#

Maintain one authoritative public page for each major subject wherever practical: a person, parcel, title, deed/agreement, case, planning application, heritage record, evidence item, institutional request, project control or museum product.

Subject pages contain the stable factual summary and source links.
Evidence pages contain the evidence record and provenance.
Chronology pages contain dates and sequence.
Project-management pages contain control decisions, tasks, risks, issues and acceptance criteria.
Other pages link back to these canonical pages rather than maintaining a second independent factual record.

7. Event nomenclature and citation-gateway rule#

Where an event or incident has materially different descriptions — for example “eviction”, “possession enforcement”, “forced removal”, “seizure”, “occupation”, “taking control” or “regaining possession” — maintain a canonical Event Nomenclature Register entry.
Pages describing the event in chronology, narrative or analysis should cite the nomenclature/event gateway page first, rather than selecting one evidence item as though its label were neutral.
The nomenclature page must list alternative descriptions, identify who or which source uses them, state whether each is fact, source wording, family contention or legal issue, and then link onward to the individual evidence pages.
Terms such as “illegal occupation” or “unlawful occupation” must be labelled as a family legal position or issue for counsel unless independently established.
Evidence pages remain the documentary endpoint. The nomenclature page is the event-navigation gateway and must not replace the evidence.

8. Edit-before-add rule#

Before creating a new page, search the Wiki for an existing page on the subject.
Before creating a new evidence entry, search the Evidence Library for the identifier, document or event.
Before adding a project task, check the Delivery Breakdown and HubSpot for an existing task.
Prefer updating the canonical record to creating another parallel statement.

9. Evidence catalogue rule#

Every new evidence unit receives the next available GHF-E identifier.
Record title/description, date, source/holder, provenance, file/media reference, preservation state, truth status and relevant proposition links.
Do not reuse an existing GHF-E identifier.
Images, PDFs and scans must be linked to their Media Library item or Evidence Library record once uploaded.
If the underlying file is private, state that it is private rather than presenting a public hyperlink that does not work.

10. Project-management rule#

Every actionable item belongs to a Project → Stream (where applicable) → Work Package → Task Group → Task.
Every task has owner, target, status, dependency, cost basis and acceptance test.
A task is complete only when its acceptance test is met and the result/evidence is linked.
External waiting is recorded as an external dependency, not silently counted as completion.
Changes to scope, baseline, dates, costs or product requirements are recorded in the Issue & Change Register.

11. Citation and hyperlink QA gate#

Before publishing, check every substantive paragraph for a supporting hyperlink or an explicit truth-status/attribution statement.
Check that the link resolves to the intended page/source and is not merely a generic homepage when a specific source is available.
Check dates, names, references, title numbers and evidence IDs against the source before publication.
Check that copied material still points to its canonical source.
Check for contradictions with the Master Timeline, Evidence Library and Records Access Chronology.
If a contradiction is found, create or update a registered issue instead of silently choosing one version.

12. No-source / no-link rule#

Where no supporting source is available, the agent must not manufacture authority by repetition. The statement must either be removed, attributed to a named family member’s testimony, tagged SOURCE PENDING, labelled as reconstruction/inference, or moved into the open-questions/anomalies system pending evidence.

13. Change-control and audit trail#

Do not silently overwrite a materially different factual position.
Record material corrections, scope changes and control decisions in the appropriate register.
Preserve prior evidence records and closed control records for auditability.
When a correction affects several pages, update the canonical source first and then propagate linked summaries.

14. Public-language rule#

Write the public Wiki in third person.
Do not write as though the editor is William Buckler, Mary (Nancy) Williams, formerly Buckler, or another historical participant.
Do not turn family experience into omniscient narration.
Keep contested allegations explicitly attributed and evidence-graded.
Do not publish legally privileged advice, sensitive personal data or material designated for restricted handling.

15. Final agent instruction#

Before any material edit, an agent should be able to answer: What is the canonical page? What is the supporting evidence? Where is the hyperlink? What truth-status does the statement have? Is this a duplicate of an existing statement? What project/work package owns the action? What acceptance test proves it is done? What register records the change, risk, issue, lesson or decision?

When those questions cannot be answered, stop the factual edit and record the evidence gap, open question or project-control issue instead.

16. Page schema#

Base evidence page#

Evidence. Show the source itself: document, image, recording, official reply or testimony. Link the original or best available copy. Transcribe readable text verbatim. Mark illegible words as illegible; use brackets only for editorial notes. Do not silently correct spelling or fill gaps.

Description. State what the item is, its date, author or issuer, source/provenance, and what is visibly or literally present. Keep description separate from conclusions.

Interpretation. State what the item supports and what it does not establish. Link each material inference to the evidence or the parent evidence-group page. Note a contradiction only where a specific source shows it.

Parent evidence-group page#

Group a short, named set of evidence pages around one pattern or proposition. Hyperlink the particular records beside the facts they support. Describe the pattern in plain language. Distinguish direct observation from inference. Do not repeat whole transcripts or add claims beyond what the cited set supports.

Overall theory page#

Combine the findings of the parent evidence groups. Link down to those groups and their sources. Label any additional inference. A missing source is a gap, not support for the proposition it might have contained.

Use these three labels and no decorative summaries, coloured callouts, repeated status preambles or filler. Keep language direct and source-led.

Index: Hierarchy · Evidence Library · Overall theory.

17. Change logging — site-wide log AND per-page footer#

Rule as set by Sion Buckler on 18 October 2026 (16:55 BST), superseding the sentence below that forbids per-page logs: every page carries the standard “Page version & change log” footer (Version | Date (UTC) | Editor | Change | Source / evidence, with a semantic version), and every edit adds a row there and, when it is site-wide or material, a row on the Master Change Log. The full rules are on the Editing Protocol page, which governs where this page and it differ.

Log every material edit to the single Master Change Log — Evidence Integrity Corrections page. Do not append a separate guest-book table or per-page change log. Use a dated before/after line; identify every page by title, ID or stable URL; explain the reason; link sources; and say whether the change was checked on the public page.

Preserve evidence scans, attachments, verbatim source correspondence and existing historical records. An editorial correction must not silently rewrite a quoted source.
Separate record wording from editorial interpretation. Use PRIMARY DOCUMENT HELD, PRESS REPORT, CATALOGUE ENTRY ONLY, TESTIMONY · <Name>, SOURCE PENDING or HYPOTHESIS where appropriate.
Do not state suspected fraud, concealment or unlawful conduct as established fact. Attribute disputed allegations to the named family member who made them (or tag them SOURCE PENDING) and state what record would test them.
Append log entries; do not rewrite or delete earlier entries to make the history cleaner. The log records editorial changes, not proof that a claim is true.

Completion rule: do not call a page edit complete until the page-specific log row is saved and the verification status accurately states what was checked. If logging cannot be completed, leave the work explicitly pending and report the page ID/URL and reason.

Page version & change log#

Current version: 1.0.1

Version	Date (UTC)	Editor (human or agent name)	Change	Source / evidence
1.0.1	2026-10-18T15:50Z	Sion’s Tab agent	Section 17: per-page footer log is required again (Owner, 18 Oct 2026); the Editing Protocol page governs where the two differ.	Sion’s Tab agent
1.0.0	2026-10-18T15:21Z	Sion’s Tab agent	Footer standardised; no content change	Editing Protocol, 18 Oct 2026

Agents and editors: follow the Editing Protocol.