House rules · Rev. 2
Editorial immune system

How we don’t get sued

The site is satire, but the receipts are real. House rule: make the joke sharp, keep the claim boring.

Claim ladder

Four rungs. Know which one you’re on.

Every sentence on this site stands on one of these. The higher the rung, the flatter the tone. The lower the rung, the louder the label.

Primary record

The document itself. Court filings, agency notices, patents, company filings and investor materials.

DOJ · FDA · WHO · PAHO · CDC · SEC · court dockets · patents

Reputable reporting

Named outlets with editors and corrections policies, reporting on records we can’t reach directly.

Reuters · Scientific American · major health and science desks

Observation

Things anyone can check: dates, market moves, public timelines. True on their own. Prove nothing together.

“The stock closed at its low on Analyst Day.”

Speculation

Clearly labeled, preferably funny, never stated as fact. It lives in captions, not in claims.

“Not saying anything. Just an annoying calendar.”
The four stamps

Every claim gets ink.

These are the only grades. There is no fifth stamp called “trust me.”

Verified

A primary record or solid reporting says exactly this.

Not “roughly this.” Not “this, if you squint.” The scope of the stamp is the scope of the source.

e.g. Moderna had a hantavirus mRNA program before MV Hondius — EurekAlert · the Cutter Incident — CDC
Weak signal

Something real is pointing this way, but the source is thin.

Single-source reporting, secondhand confirmation, or a claim that still needs its documents. Worth tracking. Not worth stating.

e.g. Moderna’s USAMRIID preclinical work (press reports quoting Moderna) · polio definition-change claims (source stack needed)
Dead end

We looked. Nothing there.

A connection people assume exists, that searching did not find. It stays on the board so nobody re-digs the same hole.

e.g. Moderna ↔ Argentina’s ANLIS-Malbrán / INEVH labs — no verified link
Do not claim

Unsupported, defamatory, or both.

Usually causation dressed up as timing. It appears on the site only to be named and rejected.

e.g. “the hantavirus came from a lab” · “polio was caused by DDT” · “the stock bottom proves insider knowledge”
Forbidden moves

Things we don’t do, even for engagement.

forbidden

Accuse without evidence

No saying named people or labs caused an outbreak. Proximity is not a perpetrator.

forbidden

Medical advice

None. Not even a little. If you’re sick, see a doctor. Do not ask a memecoin.

forbidden

“This proves insider trading”

A chart is an observation. An allegation needs a regulator, a filing, or a court.

forbidden

Fake numbers

If a number isn’t in a source, it isn’t on the site. Approximate numbers say “~” and say where they came from.

forbidden

Screenshots as sources

Not when the primary link exists. A screenshot is a rumor with a border.

allowed

The annoying calendar

“No proven connection. Weird enough to put on the board.” Timing, labeled as timing, with links. That’s the whole act.

Receipt math

The totals are raw sums.

Read this before you screenshot the big number.

Read me
Receipts list headline amounts.

Each receipt shows the amount its source announced — settlement, fine, forfeiture, judgment. That is not the same as cash actually paid, and payment schedules can run for years.

Read me
Some deals overlap.

Example: Purdue’s 2020 federal resolution and the 2025 Purdue–Sackler settlement with state attorneys general are both on the wall. They are related chapters of the same saga, and parts of the money may overlap.

Verified
So the counter is a raw sum.

Add up every receipt and you get a gross headline total, not net cash. It’s a measure of how much got announced, not a ledger of what landed.

Corrections desk

Found an error? Good.

We would rather be corrected than confidently wrong. Send three things:

The page

Which case room or receipt.

The exact sentence

Quote it. “The hanta page is wrong” is a mood, not a correction.

A better source

Higher on the ladder beats lower. A primary record beats everything.