# Independent verification — c01 (open-source maintainer burnout)

Role: independent coverage verifier. I re-derived the operative pattern(s) from the
catalog WITHOUT relying on the patterns the design names, then judged each component
FROM THE DESIGN PROSE ALONE (the RECOMMENDATION block), function over vocabulary.

## Independently-identified operative pattern(s)

Facet decomposition (search_by_facets, 7 facets) converges hard on one governance
pattern plus one recognition pattern:

- **PRIMARY: `commons_governance`** — specifically its **Maintenance Commons Governance**
  variant. Tops the "many consume a freely-available shared benefit while few sustain it
  and the sustainers are being depleted" facet (0.681) and the "finite shared capacity
  exhausted by individually-rational requests" facet (0.681). Its own catalog text names
  open-source maintainer burnout as a canonical instance and lists "Maintenance burnout —
  a small group silently sustains the shared resource" as a named failure mode. The scarce
  protected object is maintainer attention/capacity (a congestible, neglect-prone commons),
  not the non-rival codebase. This is the correct anchor, not public_goods_provision.
- **SECONDARY: `contribution_visibility_design`** — tops the recognition/reciprocity facets
  (0.726 / 0.754). Real but subordinate: it governs *legibility of contribution inside a
  pooled output*; here it supplies the recognition + free-ride-monitor + safety-boundary
  sub-structure that the commons pattern's Contribution Rule / Replenishment lean on.

The "critical sub-stream must never starve" facet pulls queue/starvation-prevention
machinery (queue_aging_and_starvation_prevention, capacity_reservation). I treat this as a
sub-mechanism discharging the commons pattern's **Exception Process**, not a third top-level
pattern — consistent with how the design scoped its queue_discipline secondary.

I judge coverage against commons_governance (13 components, primary) and
contribution_visibility_design (8 components, secondary).

## COVERAGE MAP — PRIMARY: commons_governance (13 components)

| Component | Status | Witness / reason (from design alone) |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Resource Boundary | instantiated | "Treat the maintainers' time and attention — not the code — as the scarce thing"; charter publishes volunteers run it with limited hours. Correctly names the congestible commons, not the artifact. |
| Access Rule | instantiated | Use/fork/read stays free; the *work queue* is selective — templates demanding reproducible case, version, clear ask; entitlement-demands closed with canned charter reply. Separates resource-protection from use-gatekeeping. |
| Use Quota or Use Limit | instantiated | Incomplete issues auto-closed after grace window; feature requests parked in explicitly best-effort backlog with no obligation to clear. Connects load to capacity. |
| Monitoring Signal | instantiated | Public dashboard: open security items, response times, current funding, maintainer load. Makes resource condition and behavior visible. |
| Sanction Rule | homolog | No power to punish free users; functional equivalent = graduated withdrawal of the scarce good: canned reply -> lock thread -> block repeat abusers. Proportional, repeated-community-appropriate. |
| Replenishment Rule | instantiated | Two paths: paid time via fiscal-host sponsorship + commercial support tiers funding hours/triager; and a contributor ladder growing the maintainer bench. Directly targets the burnout failure mode. |
| Legitimacy Basis | instantiated | Published charter gives every later refusal an "impersonal, legitimate basis"; consent-by-transparency, stated up front. |
| Dispute Resolution Path | homolog | Closure-rationale convention ("honestly best-effort", canned reply pointing to charter, reopen-properly note) supplies a stated, contestable basis. Lighter than a full appeals body but discharges the edge-case/contest function for a solo maintainer. |
| Adaptation Cadence | instantiated | Quarterly review of numbers; adjust rules, supported-version list, support pricing against actual load; recruit when hours trend past budget. Resource-condition-triggered revision. |
| Contribution Rule | instantiated | Explicit reciprocal deal: "you may ask for priority if you fund it or fix it"; visible ladder (good-first-issue -> reviewer -> commit). Pairs replenishment duty with access benefit/voice. |
| Funding Pool | instantiated | Sponsorship + paid commercial tiers via fiscal host; opt-in, no one forced to pay — respects the "cannot force payment" constraint. |
| Exception Process | instantiated | Security is a protected lane with a real timeframe that overrides every other rule; named dedicated channel; supported-version list shrinks the defended surface. Guarantees the no-security-lapse invariant. |
| Transparency Record | instantiated | Same public dashboard plus sponsor wall and contributor credits = funding ledger + response metrics + recognition record. |

PRIMARY: 0 missing. 10 instantiated, 2 homolog (Sanction, Dispute), 0 declined.

## COVERAGE MAP — SECONDARY: contribution_visibility_design (8 components)

| Component | Status | Witness / reason |
|---|---|---|
| Contribution Unit | instantiated | Recognition explicitly extended beyond code authors to triage, review, docs, clean reports — meaningful units, not activity proxies. |
| Visibility Mechanism | instantiated | Public dashboard + sponsor wall + contributor credits make contribution legible. |
| Ownership Record | instantiated | Contributor credits / maintainers record links work to people; ladder records committer status. |
| Effort Recognition | instantiated | "Recognition is cheap fuel for the contributor pipeline"; credits + promotion convert recognition into status/role. |
| Overload or Free-Ride Monitor | instantiated | Maintainer-load dashboard + quarterly review = overload monitor triggering recruitment; free-ride curbed by the fund-or-fix access bar. |
| Visibility Safety Boundary | correctly_declined | Design's working declines the surveillance/individual-ranking half; recognition here is opt-in/celebratory in an open volunteer context, so the privacy-of-monitored-subjects boundary does not bind. Reasonable over-lift guard — function (no shaming/surveillance) preserved by only crediting, never ranking. |
| Contribution Context Note | correctly_declined | Context-note machinery exists to stop raw activity counts being read as character judgments in evaluated team work; this design recognizes rather than evaluates/ranks contributors, so the failure it guards against does not arise. |
| Review and Rebalancing Cadence | homolog | The quarterly load/funding/backlog review doubles as the rebalancing cadence (recruit more help, retune pricing/scope). Same function as contribution-review-meeting rebalancing. |

SECONDARY: 0 missing. 5 instantiated, 1 homolog, 2 correctly_declined.

## evaluate-fit (anti-signature gate, re-checked independently)

- commons_governance "underproduction of a non-rival benefit -> use public_goods_provision":
  partially present (library IS non-rival) but the binding-scarce, *failing-by-neglect*
  object is maintainer attention — the archetype's own Maintenance-Commons variant claims
  exactly this. NOT disqualifying.
- "central authority can allocate": no authority/coercion — fits, not tripped.
- "one-time two-party dispute": recurring many-party — not tripped.
- contribution_visibility "would primarily surveil/shame": design declined the surveil/rank
  half — not tripped.
- Problem's own failure criterion (gatekeeping collapses the pipeline): design gates the
  *work queue* only, never use/fork/read, and keeps a low-friction contributor ladder +
  recognition — directly protects the pipeline. Honored.

No anti-signature disqualifies the design. The two required guardrails are met: the design
protects scarce maintainer attention as a shared resource (boundary + quota + protected
security lane + adaptation-to-budget) and curbs free-riding (fund-or-fix bar, graduated
withdrawal, opt-in commercial tiers) WITHOUT collapsing the contributor pipeline (free
use preserved, ladder, recognition).

## VERDICT: PASS

Every component of both independently-identified operative patterns is instantiated, covered
by a named homolog, or correctly declined with a sound over-lift reason. Nothing is missing.

Missing: none.

Minor notes (do NOT block PASS): Sanction and Dispute-Resolution are discharged by homologs
rather than full instantiations — appropriate for a solo maintainer (heavier machinery would
trip the over-lift / pipeline-collapse guard), so this is correct scoping, not a gap.
