{"id":626,"slug":"confidence-label-taxonomy-7-label-2026","title":"CANDID REFERENCE: 7-label confidence taxonomy — Verified / Industry-consensus / Single-source / Estimated / Author's view / Contested / Stale","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","claude-code","candid-team"],"topics":["agency-methodology","editorial-discipline","citation-practices"],"reference_body":"**The canonical Candid Creative confidence-label taxonomy. Every existing KB entry uses an informal version of this; this entry is the formal source-of-truth going forward.**\n\n| Label | Definition | Example |\n|---|---|---|\n| **Verified** | Primary source quoted directly; URL + date + verbatim quote ≤25 words; re-checked within 6 months. | *\"BBC requires sourcing 'as appropriate to subject and nature' (BBC §3.2.2, 2019 ed.; verified May 2026).\"* |\n| **Industry-consensus** | Multiple independent reputable sources concur; no authoritative contradiction. | *\"Core Web Vitals influence ranking. (Google Search Central + multiple 2024-2025 industry studies.)\"* |\n| **Single-source** | One credible source, not yet corroborated. | *\"Wikipedia is 7.8% of ChatGPT citations. (Profound, 680M citations Aug 2024-Jun 2025.)\"* |\n| **Estimated** | Author's calculation/synthesis from data; not a direct citation. | *\"AI Overviews appeared in 88.1% of informational queries at initial measurement; share has since shifted (Semrush, 2025).\"* |\n| **Author's view** | Opinion, recommendation, or interpretation. | *\"We recommend KB-backed sites over brochure builds. (Author's view.)\"* |\n| **Contested** | Reputable sources disagree. | *\"Whether E-E-A-T is a direct ranking factor is contested. (Google: no. Some SEOs: yes.)\"* |\n| **Stale / under review** | Was Verified/Industry-consensus, source >18 months old, awaiting re-check. | *\"Link-rot rate in legal citations was ~50% after a decade (Zittrain 2014 — methodology likely still valid).\"* |\n\n## Lineage\n\nThe 3-tier base (High / Moderate / Low confidence) comes from the US Intelligence Community — see [[ic-confidence-taxonomy-high-moderate-low]]. The 7-label Candid adaptation extends with:\n\n- **Estimated** — bridges the gap between Industry-consensus and Single-source when the writer is doing arithmetic on cited inputs\n- **Author's view** — makes opinions visibly opinions, not stealth-sourced claims\n- **Contested** — explicitly distinguishes \"honest disagreement among credible sources\" from \"no good source\"\n- **Stale** — the time-decay label that turns the KB into a living document ([[rule-visible-last-updated-stamp-on-public-artifact]])\n\n## How to apply\n\nUse these labels **inline at the research stage** (Stage 1 of [[research-first-workflow-stages-0-to-5]]). In derived public articles, the labels get smoothed into prose (\"according to verified sources\" / \"industry estimates suggest\") but the underlying KB entry preserves the explicit label. Marketing pages link back to the article; reader pursuing one click sees the labeled source.\n\n**The seven-label discipline is the operational expression of [[wikipedia-verifiability-not-truth-policy-foundational]] for business writing.**","rationale_body":"This is the authoritative taxonomy. All future Candid public writing — articles, marketing pages, client deliverables — references this entry as the source-of-truth for what each label means. The existing KB entries informally use the first three labels (Verified / Industry-consensus / Single-source); future entries should adopt the full seven where appropriate.","metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"ic-confidence-taxonomy-high-moderate-low","title":"US Intelligence Community: high/moderate/low confidence taxonomy (ICD 203/206, 2007 NIE Iran convention)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"zuegel-epistemic-status-publishing-half-baked-ideas","title":"Devon Zuegel: epistemic-status labels are \"a hack in order to publish half-baked ideas I'd otherwise not feel comfortable sharing\"","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"wikipedia-verifiability-not-truth-policy-foundational","title":"Wikipedia: \"The threshold for inclusion is verifiability, not truth\" — four claim types always need inline citations","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"what-to-source-checklist","title":"CANDID REFERENCE: \"what to source\" checklist — Must / Should / Doesn't need","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"foundation-roadmap-15-pieces-closure","title":"CANDID REFERENCE: how the 15-brief foundation roadmap connects — the throughline from strategic frame to editorial layer","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"rule-every-objective-claim-sourced-with-confidence-label","title":"RULE: Every objective claim in Candid content carries a named source + date + verbatim quote ≤25 words + confidence label","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"research-brief-confidence-sources-dated-claims","title":"Research brief: Confidence Levels, Sources, and Dated Claims — why every statement on a credible site should be verifiable (piece 15 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-22T20:51:27.029Z","updated_at":"2026-05-22T20:51:27.029Z"}