Layer 10: Fact Lifecycle

What this means

The entire Open Lore Network is built on a foundation of canonical Facts — Subject-Predicate-Object triples that constitute the shared truth of each Franchise. "Luke Skywalker's lightsaber color in Return of the Jedi" is a Fact. "Stormtroopers are soldiers of the Galactic Empire" is a Fact. Facts are what content on the platform is grounded in.

But Facts aren't static. They evolve. Before a movie releases, there's only speculation. When a trailer drops, there are fragments of canon plus fan inference. When the film comes out, there's a burst of new Facts that need to stabilize. Over time, some Facts get retconned, some get preserved as historical, and some stay canonical for decades.

This Layer defines the Fact lifecycle — the states a Fact can be in, how Facts move between states, and how content on the platform relates to Facts in different states. It's how OLN handles the reality that fandoms engage with material before, during, and after its release, and that canonical truth itself changes over time.

The AI-assisted authoring system uses this lifecycle to help writers ground their content appropriately. The dispute system uses it to determine what's contestable. The spoiler system uses it to determine what to obfuscate. This Layer is the epistemic infrastructure of the whole platform.

Formal Text

Article I: Fact States

Facts exist in one of six lifecycle states.

1.1 Speculative. No canonical source exists. Pure community theory. Example: fan predictions about unreleased material.

1.2 Pre-Release. Derived from official pre-release material (trailers, teasers, official marketing). Content may reference these with proper attribution, but claims are understood as fragments pending full context.

1.3 Provisional. Source material has released but the grace period has not elapsed. Claims from the source are allowed but have not stabilized. Dispute during the grace period keeps the Fact Provisional until resolved.

1.4 Canonical. Source released, grace period elapsed, Fact has been ratified (automatically or by review). Normal authoritative Fact graph treatment applies.

1.5 Historical. Previously Canonical, now superseded. Preserved for reference. Content that was published when the Fact was Canonical retains its attribution; new content should reference the current Canonical Fact.

1.6 Retconned. Explicitly reversed or contradicted by later canonical sources. Marked as Retconned rather than simply Historical to preserve the narrative record that the change was intentional rather than gradual.

Article II: State Transitions

2.1 Speculative → Pre-Release. A Fact moves when official pre-release material provides a canonical source for it, even if incomplete.

2.2 Pre-Release → Provisional. A Fact moves when the full source material (the movie, book, episode, game) releases. Content that was Pre-Release is preserved intact; new content references the Fact in its new state.

2.3 Provisional → Canonical. Automatic after the grace period elapses, unless the Fact has been flagged for dispute during the window. Disputed Facts remain Provisional until resolved.

2.4 Canonical → Historical. When a later canonical source supersedes the Fact. Content referencing the old Fact remains valid at time of publication but is flagged for potential update.

2.5 Canonical → Retconned. When a later canonical source explicitly reverses or contradicts the Fact. Retconning requires Franchise Team ratification; automatic transition does not occur.

2.6 Facts can move forward through states but do not move backward. A Retconned Fact does not return to Canonical even if a later source reverses the retcon; a new Canonical Fact is created instead.

Article III: Grace Periods

Grace periods determine how long Provisional status persists before auto-ratification to Canonical.

3.1 Default grace periods by source type:

• Theatrical release (movie): 24–48 hours
• Per-episode release (TV, streaming): 24 hours per episode
• Full-season release (streaming binge model): 7 days
• Book (novel-length): 30 days
• Video game: 14 days
• Short-form or supplementary material (short story, companion piece): 7 days

3.2 Franchises may adjust grace periods within Franchise Constitutions (Layer 2), with Network guardrails:

• Minimum grace period: 24 hours
• Maximum grace period: 90 days (longer periods prevent any meaningful Fact stabilization)

3.3 Grace period starts at the public release date/time of the source material. Limited preview releases (press screenings, early access) do not start the grace period.

Article IV: Pre-Release Content Handling

4.1 Pre-release content (content authored during Speculative or Pre-Release Fact states) is allowed and encouraged. OLN recognizes that pre-release fandom engagement is a significant and valuable form of contribution.

4.2 Pre-release content must be tagged with the Fact state of its references at time of authoring.

4.3 When source material releases and Facts transition, pre-release content is preserved intact by default. Automatic rewriting of pre-release content to match post-release canon is not permitted.

4.4 Creators may choose to:

• Leave pre-release content as-is (historical artifact of what fans thought)
• Update the content to reference post-release Facts (the pre-release version is preserved in edit history)
• Archive the content
• Expand the content into a post-release analysis comparing predictions to outcomes

4.5 Pre-release content is readable post-release and can be valuable as "here's what the community thought before we knew."

Article V: Leaks

5.1 Leaked material (unofficial early access to source content) cannot ground Canonical Facts. Facts must have official sources.

5.2 Leak-derived content may ground Provisional Facts if:

• The content is clearly tagged as leak-derived
• The leak source is identified (to the extent safely possible)
• The speculative nature of the grounding is visible to readers

5.3 Post-release, leak-derived Facts may be elevated to Canonical if:

• The official release confirms the leaked information
• The Fact graph is re-grounded to the official source rather than the leak
• The leak-derived content is updated to reference the official source

5.4 Creators bear the risk of leak-based content. If the leak turns out to be inaccurate, their content becomes Retconned when the official source contradicts it. Creators are not compensated for revenue lost to leak-based content becoming inaccurate.

Article VI: Retcon Handling

6.1 When Franchise Teams ratify a retcon, content referencing the old Fact is automatically flagged in its metadata.

6.2 Grace period for content update: creators have 30 days to update or adjust before dispute-gating applies to their content (Layer 8 Article VIII).

6.3 Templated Fact references (content that referenced the Fact by reference rather than by hard-coded claim) auto-update to the new Canonical Fact without creator action, except where the retcon fundamentally changes meaning.

6.4 Content stating the old Fact as canonical (rather than referencing it) is flagged for update but not automatically demonetized during grace period.

6.5 Retcons are visible in the Fact graph history. The change and its ratification are public record.

Article VII: Dispute on Facts

7.1 Any contributor may dispute a Fact's accuracy, state, or interpretation.

7.2 Disputes are resolved by the Franchise Team with authority over the affected Facts.

7.3 Disputed Facts revert to or remain in Provisional state pending resolution.

7.4 If a dispute persists unresolved for 60 days, it may be escalated to the Arbiters for resolution on procedural or interpretive grounds (not substantive canonical judgment — that remains with Franchise Teams).

7.5 Disputes are public; resolutions are public; Fact graph is versioned such that historical states are preserved and auditable.

Article VIII: Canonical Tiers

8.1 Franchise Teams decide whether their Franchise uses a single-canon or multi-tier structure (Layer 2 Article V).

8.2 Multi-tier Franchises may have, for example:

• "Main canon" (films, official series)
• "Expanded universe / Legends" (ancillary material officially designated secondary)
• "Alternate continuity" (parallel canonical storylines)
• "Non-canonical" (explicitly declared outside any tier)

8.3 Facts are scoped to specific tiers. Content references Facts within a tier. Contradictions between tiers are not conflicts.

8.4 Tier structure changes require Franchise Team supermajority (2/3) and take effect at start of next quarter.

8.5 When media's canonical tier changes (e.g., a Legends book is promoted to Main Canon, or vice versa), Facts derived from that media transition accordingly, with Franchise Team ratification.

Article IX: AI-Assisted Authoring

9.1 The platform provides AI assistance to authors at time of writing, identifying:

• Claims that reference Facts
• Facts that are Disputed, Speculative, or in uncertain states
• Potential contradictions with the Fact graph
• Opportunities to template against specific Facts (so content auto-updates on Fact changes)

9.2 AI assistance is advisory, not gatekeeping. Authors may:

• Accept suggestions (tie content to Facts, mark as speculation, adjust wording)
• Reject suggestions and publish as-written (enters dispute queue if contradiction is clear)
• Mark content as "known debatable" or explicitly non-factual

9.3 Authors who disagree with AI flags may publish and await human review. Monetization is dispute-gated during review.

9.4 AI calibration is an ongoing operational concern. False positive and false negative rates are tracked and reported monthly. Franchise Teams can petition for AI tuning in their Franchise.

9.5 The AI does not replace Franchise Team authority. Franchise Teams have final authority on Facts within their scope; the AI flags issues for human attention.

Article X: Spoiler Handling

10.1 Facts carry metadata about the source media they originate from.

10.2 Content referencing spoiler-flagged Facts inherits spoiler status for readers who have not marked the originating media as consumed.

10.3 Reader profiles track media consumption. Readers may:

• Mark specific media as consumed (unblocks spoilers from those sources)
• Opt in to seeing all spoilers regardless of profile
• Be warned when content would spoil material they have not consumed

10.4 Before playing video or audio with spoiler content, readers are warned and given a list of prerequisite media.

10.5 Spoiler protection is an emergent property of the Fact-to-media relationship, not a separate curation task. This scales without manual intervention.

10.6 Contributors may also manually flag content as containing spoilers beyond what Fact-reference analysis would catch (e.g., spoilers for upcoming content not yet in the Fact graph).

Article XI: Fact Graph Versioning and Auditability

11.1 The Fact graph is versioned. Every change to a Fact — ratification, retcon, dispute, state transition — is recorded.

11.2 Content is locked to the Fact graph version at time of publication. Changes in the graph may trigger update notifications but do not automatically rewrite content.

11.3 Any contributor may audit the history of any Fact, including all transitions and the evidence supporting them.

11.4 Franchise Teams publish quarterly reviews of their Fact graphs, including added, modified, retconned, and disputed Facts during the period.