Tilcayo Cats:Originals preservation policy
Genuine TC:ORIGINALS are exempt from the encyclopaedia's blanket B-Class minimum and from automatic minimum-length or stub rejection. A properly sourced C-Class, Start-Class or Stub-Class original is a valid part of the collection, even where the available evidence supports only a sentence or two.
The retention rule
This is James Lawrie's editorial ruling of 8 October 2026. It applies to all genuine Tilcayo Cats originals, existing and future, across every subject.
- Aim for B-Class or better where reliable evidence permits. Record an honest lower assessment when it does not. Grades describe development; they are not permission to remove an original.
- Do not automatically delete, blank, replace with imported prose, redirect away, remove Originals status or repeatedly regenerate an original merely because of its grade, length or a stub marker.
- Preserve original text, sources, page history and provenance. A bot proposing a deletion, merger, redirect or replacement of an original must obtain James's specific approval before carrying it out. Routine sourced corrections and improvements can proceed without destroying the original account.
- A short article that accurately reflects limited published knowledge is a completed contribution at its present grade. Do not pad it, invent facts, promote its grade or create repeat jobs to satisfy a numerical threshold.
Quality still matters
The exception does not excuse errors, plagiarism, invented references, misleading claims or filler. Flag and correct demonstrated problems using inspected sources. Mark unresolved identities and evidence gaps plainly; preserve the material for review rather than automatically culling it. Imported or lightly rewritten Wikipedia prose does not become an original by adding a marker.
The normal eligibility rules for imported articles remain separate and unchanged.
Rules for bots and maintenance jobs
Before any potentially destructive operation, check the original marker, Originals category and recorded provenance. Any one positive signal requires preservation; removal of a marker does not erase established provenance. Check page IDs and move history when titles change.
If a check fails, conflicts or returns an uncertain result, leave the page unchanged and report it once for review. Do not treat a failed lookup as permission to act. Existing originals must not be fed back through import grade or length filters.
Store originality and assessment separately in the coverage record: for example, origin = original, assessment = Stub, state = published. An optional improvement note must not become an automatic re-import or regeneration loop. Preserve backups before an approved destructive change and verify the saved result and attribution afterwards.
James Lawrie sets the editorial and operational policy. This preservation rule creates no blanket shutdown or additional approval gate for ordinary work. Continue otherwise authorised writing, sourced improvements and imports that preserve existing pages, within the applicable budgets and explicit instructions.
If an operation could delete, blank, replace or redirect an original and its preservation check cannot be completed, skip that operation on that page and report the specific issue once. Continue unaffected, already authorised work. A missing technical guard is not a reason to suspend whole projects or safe imports.
This page records the editorial rule; it does not claim that a server-side guard is deployed. Track that implementation separately. Existing explicit spending limits and stop instructions remain separate; this clarification does not itself restart a stopped paid worker or change a budget.
Collection and preservation record
- Browse Tilcayo Cats Originals
- Original articles category
- Preservation register — baseline page IDs and revisions; new originals must be added as they are published.