---
contract_version: "0.1"
status: "PROPOSED 2026-09-28 by design-dev. The operator ordered the fix slices from the anti-slop run (booth `booth-antislop`, report `~/.local/share/design-dev/research/booth-antislop-2026-09-28.md`) in design-dev's session: \"go with your recommendations, push, start the fix slices\". Each slice is staged as its own ref (`design-dev/antislop-sN`) for booth-dev's gate: suite, mutation tables and a bug-hunt."
module: "the Booth's rendered surface: filters in booth/app.py, templates, booth/static/embed.js"
purpose: "Fix what the anti-slop run found (the Impeccable detector at 1280 and 390 in light and dark, plus a Vercel Web Interface Guidelines review), one slice at a time, without moving any invariant."
depends_on:
  - "app.py: the Jinja Environment and its filters (`human_dur`, `date_iso`, `date_stamp`, `date_day`, `date_ago`); the note/answer routes that record `who = request.client.host`."
  - "marks.py: `Mark.created`, `Mark.by`; asks.py: `answer.answered_at`, `answer.answered_by` (ISO strings with microseconds and an offset, written by `now_stamp`)."
  - "links.py: `parse_link_entries` -> `when` (the text a `booth link` row carries, today `YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM`)."
language: "python + jinja"
complexity: "low per slice"
touches:
  - "booth/app.py (filters)"
  - "booth/templates/_marks.html, _ask_inline.html, booth.html (S1)"
  - "booth/templates/base.html, view.html; booth/static/embed.js (S2)"
  - "tests/test_antislop.py; tests/mutations/antislop.toml"
assumptions:
  - "ONE VIEWER, on this box: local time is the operator's time (US Pacific), as the existing date filters already assume."
  - "Stored data does not change shape. Every slice changes only what is RENDERED: `.marks.json`, `links.md` and the answer records keep their exact bytes."
  - "Hardening of `render_doc` (raw HTML in docs) and front matter are booth-dev's, by agreement on 2026-09-28; this contract does not touch `render_doc`."
---

# The anti-slop fix slices

The run found that the Booth is sound on desktop and has a set of problems a viewer feels: clock times that break the house form, layouts that break at phone width, controls you can barely see in the light theme, and keyboard and screen-reader plumbing. The slices below fix them in an order that keeps each ref small enough to gate. Every slice keeps the six invariants (CLAUDE.md), and in particular:
- the server renders every state, and scripts only place it;
- autoescape stays on;
- every ordered surface keeps its stated order;
- blur honesty holds.

## S1 — the house clock

**The rule** (operator convention, 2026-09-24): a clock time the operator reads is 24-hour local time (US Pacific), written as four digits with no colon (`0848`). Raw ISO stamps, `HH:MM`, microseconds, offsets and a poster's IP address do not appear in visible text.

- **One filter decides the visible form: `clock`.**
  - It takes an ISO-8601 string (with or without microseconds and an offset), an epoch number, or the link board's `YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM`.
  - It returns `D Mon HHMM` in local time (for example `28 Sep 0848`), with the year after the month only when it is not the current year (`6 Sep 2025 2335`).
  - A value it cannot read is returned **as given**, never a guess and never an exception: the Desk and the board render many rows in one response, and one bad stamp must not 500 the page. An empty value returns `""`.
  - *Falsifiable:* a `clock` that formats `%H:%M` fails `test_clock_forms`. A `clock` that raises on garbage fails `test_clock_never_raises`.
- **One filter decides who is shown: `byline`.** It returns the recorded `by` / `answered_by` unless it parses as an IP address (v4 or v6), in which case it returns `""`. The stored value is unchanged; the u2 contract still records the client host.
  - *Falsifiable:* a `byline` that passes IPs through fails `test_byline_hides_addresses`.
- **Where the filters apply.** Every visible stamp goes through `clock` and every byline through `byline`, and each clock sits in a `<time>` whose `datetime` carries the value exactly as stored:
  - a pick's answer line and a memo's line (`_marks.html`);
  - the inline ask's state tag (`_ask_inline.html`, so the embed chrome inherits it);
  - the link board's row time (`booth.html`).
  - *Falsifiable:* the marks page, the lightbox's verdict aside, the embed fragments and the board carry no visible `HH:MM`, no `T08:48`-shaped stamp and no IP: `test_rendered_marks_use_the_house_clock`, `test_board_rows_use_the_house_clock`, `test_embed_fragment_uses_the_house_clock`. Removing the filter from any one of those templates turns its test red.
- **The date tooltips follow suit.** `date_stamp` (the `title` of every created/updated `<time>`) renders `YYYY-MM-DD HHMM`.
  - *Falsifiable:* `%H:%M` in `date_stamp` fails `test_date_stamp_is_house_form`.

- **Folded from the heid bug-hunt** (panel 4/4, thread `01M3MGPFKWBX0SJK5HFE0P3AFM`):
  - `clock` converts a number inside its guard: an int past float range was an `OverflowError` (Q1).
  - A date or an ISO week renders its day and no invented `0000` (Q8).
  - `byline` also hides an address dressed as `addr:port`, `[v6]:port` or `addr/prefix`, or behind invisible characters (Q7).
  - The board row's author goes through `byline` like every other surface (Q5).
  - *Falsifiable:* the rows marked Q1, Q5, Q7 and Q8 in `antislop.toml`.
- **Refuted, with the reason:** a malformed answer missing `unanswered` does not 500 the marks panel (Q3). The Booth's Jinja uses the default `Undefined`, whose `|length` is 0; the no-op fix was reverted when its falsifier stayed green. `test_a_malformed_answer_costs_its_line_not_the_page` stays, as a guard against a switch to `StrictUndefined`.
- **Accepted as known risk, with reasons:**
  - Zone-less mark stamps are read as local by `clock` and as UTC by the ordering path (Q4). No writer produces one: `now_stamp` and the legacy import both stamp with `.astimezone()`. Only a hand-edited file could.
  - A board time inside the spring-forward gap renders the normalised hour (Q6). No clock can write a local time that does not exist.

**Out of S1:** the CLI keeps writing its board rows as it does today. The board is a multi-writer file other sessions parse, so its storage form is not changed; `clock` reads both forms.

## S2 — legibility

**The rule.**
- Faded is not legible. A de-emphasised line is quieter by size, weight or a muted colour, never by `opacity`: opacity takes whatever contrast the line had and divides it.
- Labels are 11px or larger (`--size-micro`).
- A sentence-like line is 12px or larger (`--size-caption`).

- **Review arrows on a light stage.** The ‹ › glyph sits on a translucent dark chip. At 60% the chip let a light stage through, and the thin glyph sampled at a median of 2.9:1 (the detector's pixel method; by colour it is about 4:1). The chip is at least 80% dense, so the glyph clears 7:1 over the lightest stage by colour, and reads at pixel level too.
  - *Falsifiable:* a chip back at 60% fails `test_review_arrows_hold_over_a_white_stage`, which composites the glyph over the chip over white.
- **The filmstrip numbers are labels:** `--size-micro`, not 9.5px.
  - *Falsifiable:* 9.5px fails `test_film_numbers_meet_the_label_floor`.
- **Retired benches keep their contrast.** The row carries no `opacity`. The link and URL take `--text-muted`, and the state word says RETIRED.
  - *Falsifiable:* `opacity:.5` back on the row fails `test_retired_benches_are_not_faded`.
- **The marks' state stamp** (`? open`, `✓ answered`) is a label at `--size-micro`, not 10.5px.
  - *Falsifiable:* `test_mark_state_meets_the_label_floor`.
- **The inline ask's state tag** (the embed chrome's `✓ answered 28 Sep 0848`) is a label at 11px, not 10.5px. S1's `<time>` made the detector measure it on its own.
  - *Falsifiable:* `test_the_ask_tag_meets_the_label_floor`.
- **Hint lines are sentences:**
  - the Desk's section rules (`.desk-rule`: "oldest question first", "running things");
  - the board's note;
  - the bench head's note.

  They sit at `--size-caption`.
  - *Falsifiable:* `test_hint_lines_meet_the_sentence_floor`.
- **The embed chrome fades nothing.** An answered ask's option details and its "recorded:" line inherit the host page's own text colour, with no `opacity`, so they carry the host's contrast whatever the host is. The embed cannot know the host's palette; its own palette follows the Booth theme, not the report. The notes field's placeholder inherits that colour at 75%, where it had been the browser's grey (3.5 to 4.3:1 on dark).
  - *Falsifiable:* `test_embed_fades_nothing`.
- **Folded after the first gate run:** three more labels were below the 11px floor, and they are now `--size-micro` like the rest. They are the flagged tray's number (10px), the tile's "flagged" stamp (10.5px) and compare's A/B badge (9.5px). The report's list had named only the film numbers. *Falsifiable:* the same computed-style test, and three more rows.
- **Folded from the heid bug-hunt.** The embed's ask title no longer fades either (`opacity:.62` on `.bk-ask-title` contradicted "nothing fades", Q9). The claims above are also held on the browser's computed style (`tests/test_antislop_s2_browser.py`): a stylesheet grep cannot see a later rule in the cascade (`font-size:1px`, `color:transparent`, `filter:grayscale`, a placeholder at `opacity:0`), and the browser can.

## S3 to S6

These are added as each slice is staged:
- S3, phone layouts;
- S4, reading measure;
- S5, interaction and screen readers;
- S6, the operator's rulings (tagline, needs-you stripe, matte brand dot, the Wipe-now stripe on `::before`).