The inbox
One queue of things to do, each with its evidence.
The inbox
Section titled “The inbox”The inbox is one queue for everything Staleless thinks needs writing or correcting.
What arrives in it
Section titled “What arrives in it”| Item | Trigger |
|---|---|
| Stale page | Pulse evidence, or an overdue review. |
| Knowledge gap | Repeated searches or questions with no answer. |
| Broken link | A link or asset the linter found. |
| Undocumented API | An operation no page mentions. |
| Code impact | A merged change to code a page describes. |
| Support gap | The same question answered repeatedly in your helpdesk. |
| Overdue review | A schedule that passed. |
Every item carries its evidence
Section titled “Every item carries its evidence”An item is not a hunch. Each one states:
- what triggered it;
- the evidence, quoted, with a line number where there is one;
- a confidence level, where the rule has degrees;
- which pages are affected;
- the code or API diff, where one is relevant.
Note
A suggestion a writer cannot audit is a suggestion they learn to ignore, and an inbox people ignore is worse than no inbox at all. That is why the evidence travels with the item rather than the conclusion alone.
Five actions
Section titled “Five actions”Apply. Where the item proposes a change, this stages it on a branch. You still read the diff and you still merge.
Edit. Take the proposal and change it first.
Ignore. Not a problem. The same item does not come back unless the evidence materially changes.
Not relevant. The rule was wrong here. This is feedback on the rule.
Snooze. Right, but not now.
Clustering
Section titled “Clustering”Equivalent requests are grouped. delete account, remove account and
close account are one item with a count, not three items with one each.
The count is the argument for writing the page:
47 searches asked how to cancel a subscription and no authoritative page exists.Support queues
Section titled “Support queues”Where a helpdesk is connected, the questions your support team answers over and over become inbox items. Nobody has to write that list down, because the helpdesk already did.
Customer text is redacted before it reaches the inbox. See Privacy.
It never writes by itself
Section titled “It never writes by itself”Applying an item stages a change on a branch. Publishing is still a merge, and still a person. An agent writing to the live site would route around the editorial model, and the editorial model is the product.