Reference reliability
Reference reliability asks: when someone (or an agent) follows a cite, do they still reach the same intended thing?
URL rot is the slice everyone recognizes. The same failure mode shows up in package names, Antora slugs, file paths, and secret names — any place a pretty label was used as the only wire.
Symptom → diagnosis (HCI owns the dialectic)
| Face | Surface |
|---|---|
Symptom |
|
Diagnosis / treatment |
An alternative to URLs — pretty names for humans; systems wire on content identity, mutable pointers, and reverse consumers |
DevCentr does not re-host that Mermaid treatise. This page frames the systems altitude: reference durability is Internet Reliability, not a docs-site quirk.
What to read next
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Deep diagnosis: HCI — Labels versus wires
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Substrate: connectome-fs
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Identity stack on this hub (orientation only)
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Near-term absorb — redirects and
CONSUMERS.mdwhile the world still wires on strings