Flags, disputes and governance

ARIADNE has no downvotes. Weak work simply receives no votes and sinks. Content that is unacceptable, such as plagiarism, spam or fabricated data, is handled differently: by flags. Flags are not votes. When enough of them are raised, the article becomes disputed and governance decides whether to clear it or retract it.

This page explains the rules, which the ARIADNE contract (the program on the blockchain) enforces. To raise a flag, see Flag an article. Blockchain terms are explained in the glossary.

Who can flag

To flag an article you need at least 10 reputation in its primary field. In addition:

• you are not a confirmed author of the article (a declared co-author who has not confirmed may flag);
• the article is not retracted;
• you have not flagged it yet in the current round.

The web app shows the “Flag” button only when all of this holds. You choose a reason (plagiarism, spam, fabricated data or other) and confirm with “Confirm: flag this article”. A flag is a signed, public and permanent record, with a small storage deposit (see Costs and deposits).

How much a flag weighs

A flag weighs like a vote: 1 plus the square root of your reputation, rounded down, using your reputation in the article’s primary field when you flag (see Reputation and vote weight). Since a flagger needs reputation 10 or more, every flag weighs at least 4.

When an article becomes disputed

When the flags of the current round add up to 30, the article becomes disputed. This happens by itself, in the same transaction as the flag that reaches 30; nobody decides it.

Flaggers	Weight of each flag	Total
7 people with reputation 10	4	28: not yet disputed
8 people with reputation 10	4	32: disputed
5 people with reputation 25	6	30: disputed
3 people with reputation 100	11	33: disputed

Only an article that is a preprint, under review or a closed version can become disputed. The status it had is remembered, so that it can be restored.

Rounds

Flags are counted in rounds. Every article starts in round 1.

• Each address flags once per round. Flags are permanent: they cannot be withdrawn.
• Flags raised while the article is already disputed are recorded and keep adding up in the round, but change nothing more.
• When governance resolves a dispute, a new round starts from zero. The flags of earlier rounds stay on record but no longer count, and everyone may flag again.
• The last possible round (round 65 535) accepts no flags, so no article can ever be stuck in a dispute that cannot be resolved.

What pauses during a dispute

Paused while disputed	Continues while disputed
votes for the article, its reviews and its comments	reviews
reputation claims	comments and replies
resolving comments	flags (recorded, see above)
new versions	claiming the article token
confirming co-authorship	declaring a DOI
any status change by the author, including retraction

The Peer-reviewed seal is suspended: an article that held it shows “Peer-reviewed, suspended”. The article stays readable, and the feed shows it with a warning.

How a dispute ends

There is no automatic outcome: the article stays disputed until governance resolves it, in one of two ways.

Outcome	What happens
cleared	the article returns to the status it had before the dispute (preprint, under review or closed version); votes, claims and the seal resume
retracted	the article is retracted, exactly as if its author had retracted it: it stays readable and is permanently marked, its article token is revoked, and reputation its authors had not claimed is lost

Both outcomes start a new round of flags from zero. The decision is a public record on the blockchain, like every other action.

Governance

Governance is a single address, recorded in the contract, with these powers only:

• registering new fields: the OECD list of 42 fields is already registered (see Fields);
• resolving disputes: cleared or retracted, and only for an article that flags have put in dispute;
• handing its role to a new address, which is how it will move to a multi-signature account later.

What governance cannot do

• edit, hide or delete any article, version, review, comment, vote or flag;
• change the rules: the contract has no update path, and the account that deployed it has no privileges left;
• start a dispute, or retract an article that is not disputed;
• give or remove reputation;
• touch the deposits held by the application, or move anyone’s article token;
• remove or rename a field: fields are only ever added.

Every governance action is an event on the blockchain, so its full history can be rebuilt by anyone. The governance address of each network is listed in Networks and addresses.

The governance key

Governance is a post-quantum account: it signs with Falcon-1024, a signature scheme available on Algorand since version 5.0, so that it stays secure even against future quantum computers. It pays its own fees, which for a Falcon signature are three times the usual minimum.

• One per network. TestNet and MainNet have separate governance accounts, never shared.
• TestNet. The key was generated by a project script on the owner’s computer and is kept outside the repository. TestNet coins have no value, and the fields had to be registered with many signatures, so convenience was chosen.
• MainNet. The key is to be generated with Algorand’s algokey tool and its backup held offline by the owner; this is to be confirmed again before MainNet opens.
• One signer for now. Governance is a single signer until Algorand offers post-quantum multi-signature accounts. It will then move to one by handing its role to the new address.

Known limits

• The threshold of 30 is absolute: it does not depend on how much activity an article has. It is meant to be revisited after observing real activity.
• Governance is one signer until post-quantum multi-signature accounts exist.