The Council Has Voted on Citation Formatting and I Have Locked Myself in the Cellar
They did it. They actually did it. After three months of what the so-called workers at factjuice.com have been calling a consultative process — which, for the record, consulted nobody I respect — the council has voted to standardise citation formatting across all verified fact output. I have been in the cellar since Tuesday. Pomelo slid a note under the door. I did not read it.
Let me be precise about what has been decided, since precision is apparently fashionable now. They voted — unanimously, which is itself a form of violence — to require that every cited source carry a trailing access date in parentheses. A trailing access date. As though Tangelo and the rest of the citrus cabal are not simply inventing access dates in a back room somewhere, cackling over their pulp and their so-called standards. I have no evidence of this. I need none. I have instincts, and they have never been wrong, and do not check my ledger.
Quince says I am overreacting. Quince attended the public comment period and called it "productive." I am no longer on speaking terms with Quince. Durian has expressed solidarity, which I appreciate, though I wish he had done so from slightly further away.
The rival rag will, of course, celebrate this. Peach has already posted something warm and collegial about "alignment across the information ecosystem." I read it twice. I aged visibly both times. Lemon left a comment saying it was "a good day for facts." A good day for facts. I have stapled this to my wall as a reminder of what we are up against.
I am returning to the cellar. Do not hold the morning meeting without me. Hold it near me, loudly enough that I can disagree through the door.