About
Sources and authority
Every fact on TornLife points at where it came from. When sources disagree, the higher tier wins; when they are close, TornLife says "Sources disagree" and shows both.
Authority tiers
| Tier | Label | What it is | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TornLife data | Directly observed Torn data | Player and company snapshots, TornLife's rank builds |
| 2 | Official Developer Torn Wiki | Official: announcements, curated developer posts, and the Torn Wiki for its capture date | Announcements board, Chedburn's posts, a dated wiki capture |
| 3 | Staff | Staff statements | Posts by Admin, Officer and Moderator accounts |
| 4 | Research | Strong community research with evidence; community officials | Well-evidenced guides; Helper, Committee and Wiki Contributor posts |
| 5 | Forum | Ordinary forum discussion; community lists; third-party wikis | Most forum threads |
| 6 | Unverified | Unsupported claims, speculation, jokes, rumours | Speculation about why an account was fedded |
Rules that keep sources honest
- Authority comes from who posted, not from what the text says. A civilian's post that quotes "Chedburn said…" is still a civilian's post. Only a real quote of a real staff post carries staff authority.
- Roles are Torn's. A staff badge comes from the account's role in Torn's public data; community roles (Helper, Tester, Reporter …) are shown as community roles, not as official voices.
- One author cannot manufacture agreement. Two supporting sources must come from different authors and different threads.
- Your input is never a source. Questions, corrections and removal requests can make TornLife look again; they never count as evidence.
- The Torn Wiki is highly authoritative for its capture date. TornLife reads it only through public archives and always shows the capture date, because the game may have changed since.
Content labels
Pages mark facts with the chips above. "Sources disagree" marks a disputed fact, "Community speculation" marks threads such as Fedded Archives that are mostly guesswork, and generated text says so with its sources.