Anchor does not calculate, score, accumulate, or maintain reputation. Reputation is an interpretation or assessment that belongs to the institution, community, system, or process that produces it.
Anchor's role begins only when a reputation-related signal, summary, statement, score, record, or Trust Statement should have its integrity preserved through an Integrity Reference.
Reputation may be derived from history, behavior, certifications, attestations, observations, community judgment, or other factors.
Anchor does not determine how those factors should be weighted or interpreted. It preserves only the integrity of the defined reputation-related artifact.
A Reputation Artifact is a score, summary, signal, assessment, statement, record, or other governed representation expressing reputation-related information.
FoundationThe institution, community, system, or process that produced the reputation artifact remains authoritative for its meaning, methodology, and lifecycle.
FoundationAnchor should define the exact representation and boundary covered by the Integrity Reference before generating integrity material.
FoundationAnchor may preserve an Integrity Reference that lets a later reviewer determine whether the reputation-related representation remains consistent with the state that was originally anchored.
FoundationAnchor preserves the artifact's integrity context. It does not reproduce the methodology used to calculate reputation unless that methodology itself is the artifact being anchored.
Chronicle may preserve qualifying historical Occurrences through Chronicle Entries. Reputation may later be inferred from that history, but Anchor does not convert historical records into reputation.
Attestor or another institution may issue a Trust Statement or attestation that contributes to a reputation assessment. Anchor may preserve the artifact's integrity without judging its weight.
Certification may influence reputation, but Certifier remains authoritative for certification. Anchor does not transform certification outcomes into reputation scores.
Reputation may inform trust, but the concepts remain distinct. Anchor preserves neither concept as an institutional judgment; it preserves the integrity of artifacts produced by the systems that do.
A numerical score, grade, rank, label, or signal may be anchored if it is part of an authoritative reputation artifact.
Anchor should preserve enough metadata to identify the representation and Source Institution, but it should not imply that the score is objectively correct merely because the artifact's integrity is verified.
A reputation methodology, scoring model, weighting framework, or calculation specification may itself be an Anchor candidate.
In that case, Anchor preserves the integrity of the methodology artifact. It still does not adopt or endorse that methodology.
Reputation-related artifacts may change as new information, methodology, policy, community judgment, or trust context develops.
Anchor should preserve the integrity lineage of the representation it actually anchored rather than treating reputation as a permanent state.
If the Source Institution changes a reputation score, assessment, methodology, or signal, that is a Source Artifact change.
If Anchor recorded the wrong representation, digest, timestamp, Source reference, or other Anchor-owned integrity metadata, that may require an Anchor Correction.
Reputation systems may involve sensitive judgments about individuals, organizations, systems, or communities.
Anchor should not expand the exposure of personal or evaluative information merely because a reputation artifact can be anchored. Integrity preservation should follow the minimum-necessary-data principle.
Anchor does not convert these artifacts into a reputation system.
Anchor should preserve the integrity of a reputation-related artifact when that preservation has durable value, while leaving reputation calculation, interpretation, methodology, and judgment to the Source Institution responsible for those functions.