# Contributing

This list only stays useful if it decays slower than the tells do. Contributions that keep it current are the whole point.

## What makes a good entry

An entry documents a pattern, not an opinion. Each one needs:

1. A short, specific name. "Colored left-border accent strip", not "bad cards".
2. What to look for, in one to three sentences a non-designer can apply.
3. Why models produce it, if known. Training-data bias, toolchain default, preference tuning, or feedback loop. "Unknown" is acceptable; speculation labeled as speculation is acceptable.
4. False positives. This is mandatory. Every tell in this repository has legitimate human uses; an entry that omits them will not be merged. If you cannot think of a false positive, you have not looked hard enough.
5. At least one citable source: an article, a dataset, a research paper, a documented tool, or a reproducible demonstration (for example, a prompt that reliably produces the pattern). Personal observation alone is not enough for a new entry, but it is enough for an issue.
6. Reliability (strong / moderate / weak) and status (active / fading / mostly fixed), with your reasoning in the PR description.

## What gets merged

- New tells with sources.
- Status updates: a model generation fixing an old tell is as valuable as a new tell. Move dead entries to "Signs that no longer work" rather than deleting them; the decay record is part of the document.
- Better false positives for existing entries.
- Sources for entries currently marked anecdotal.
- Translations.

## What does not get merged

- Entries that name and shame specific small creators or individual designers. Naming tools, model families, and large documented phenomena is fine.
- "This style is ugly." Aesthetic judgment is out of scope; this is a detection reference, not a taste manifesto.
- AI-generated entry text pasted in unedited. Yes, we check. The irony would be fatal.
- Duplicate entries phrased differently. Search first.

## Process

Open an issue for discussion or a PR for a concrete change. Keep entry format identical to existing entries. One tell per PR where practical, so status debates do not block each other.