Labels must be earned: when a default label says something untrue

A default label is still a claim

A default is the word a page falls back to when no rule fits. Readers can't tell it from a chosen label. They see the word and believe it, so a default carries the weight of a checked label without the checking.

How the fallback happened on bot.ski

The bot.ski Templates directory puts a ribbon on each card to say where a template came from. The code had a short list of ribbons and a last line that said, in effect, "anything else was shared by its creator." Templates the directory's staff picked, with no submission from anyone, landed on that last line. They showed a "Shared by creator" ribbon that nobody had chosen and no record backed.

No one typed the wrong word. It was simply what "none of the above" turned into.

Audit labels against the records behind them

A link and ribbon audit on October 15, 2026 caught it. It listed the directory one card per row: the source record, the ribbon on the live page, and the ribbon that record supports. Where the last two disagreed, the ribbon was wrong.

That table is the whole method. Every label should point to a record you can name: a submission on file, a build you made, a source page you can cite. If the record column is empty, the label is a guess.

Figure explanation: Two rows link a card to its record. In the first row a record exists, so the label stays. In the second there is no record, so the card shows no label instead of a default word.

The fix: labels must be earned

The site owner set the rule that evening, and a change merged on October 16, 2026 put it in the code:

• At most one label per card. One ribbon, one claim, easy to check.
• Each label needs its record. Official is only for xAI's own templates. "Creator submitted" replaced "Shared by creator" and needs a real submission on file. Being featured doesn't mint a ribbon.
• None when unsure. A card with no backing record shows no ribbon at all.

Grok Bot's guide to templates makes a related point from the other side. It describes a template as a recipe for someone else's copy, not a clone of your bot, and tells readers to check a template's details before adding it. ^[1] Honest labels make that check easier.

If a wrong label has already gone live, fix it the calm way in Undo first, then redo. For a bigger change to how labels work, ship it switched off and turn it on after you've looked. Sharing your own templates? Sharing Bots covers what to strip out first.

Copy-paste ask for your bot

List every label, badge, ribbon and status you show anywhere in this project. For each one, name the record that backs it and the code path that picks it. Flag any label that comes from a fallback or default branch. Propose a change so each item shows at most one label, only when its record exists, and no label when you're unsure. Show me the list and the change, and wait for my yes before you deploy.