Every line in a read that states something says where it came from. Either it ends in numbers that open its sources, or it carries a label in words. There are five labels, and each is set in type, so you can tell them apart on a screen with no colour or on a page printed in black.
Fig. 1 · The five labels
How we judge explains why we hold every line to this. This table shows each label as it appears in the sample read.
| Label | What it means | A line from the sample read |
|---|---|---|
| Sourced | we found it | Parents describe repeating the same dinners and running out of dinner ideas. |
| Your assumption | you said it | Parents will pay $5 a month for the meal planner. |
| Our estimate | we worked it out from a named figure | The working paid cost is $12 per free signup, using the cautious end of the Ryze 2026 $5–$12 benchmark. |
| Your plan | you set this figure yourself | None on the sample, because nobody changed the spend on its paid place. |
| No source says this | we looked and found nothing | No supplied parent account establishes payment for a planning tool or who approves a household subscription. |
On screen, a line we found ends in small numbers in place of the word, one for each source it rests on. The other four labels sit after their line, written out.
Fig. 2 · When we estimate a figure
Some lines rest on neither a post nor your words. The usual case is a cost, such as what one signup costs on an ad platform, where we take a published benchmark and name it in the line. Those lines say "our estimate". We never mark our own figure as your assumption, because then you couldn't tell what you said from what we guessed. When you change the figure yourself, as with the monthly spend on a paid place in Distribution, the line switches to your plan.
Fig. 3 · How a source opens
Each source in a read has one number, and it keeps that number everywhere in the read. Clicking a number opens the list of sources on that entry. On a wide screen the list is a column beside the page, and on a phone it slides over the page. A quote shows who wrote it, where and when, and opens the post itself.
A line can only point at a source the read actually holds. If a line claims a source we can't show you, it loses the claim and reads "no source says this".
Fig. 4 · Your words against what we found
Under the running head of a section, one line sets what you said beside what we found, when the two differ. On the sample's count of what argues against the idea, it sets "You said $5 a month" against a yearly plan a seller prints at $4.17 a month. That line only quotes you when you said it. A price we read from your words, or one you set later, is never put in your mouth.
Fig. 5 · What we leave out, and where you can see it
Some posts never reach a line at all. On page two we set aside posts that sell something and posts that read as written by a machine, and the section says how many it set aside. The sample set 12 of 113 quotes aside. A quote older than 24 months doesn't count either, because what people use changes from month to month.
The same labels travel with the read. The document writes each one in square brackets after its line.