---
slug: oip-designer-legibility-policy
title: Designer Legibility Policy — A8 Feature vs Operator Exposure
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/oip-designer-legibility-policy
---

# Designer Legibility Policy — A8 Feature vs Operator Exposure

## §SELF — oip-designer-legibility-policy

**What this page is:** the boundary A8 made necessary — what about the designer is **deliberately legible** vs **incidentally leaked**.
**What it explains:** the philosophy mandates maker-through-artifact audit; it does not mandate doxxing the operator.
**Why read it:** success of A8 is a personal risk if the line is default, not decision.

### Deliberately legible (feature — A8)

- **Judgment and commitments** encoded in system behavior (defaults, gates, refused actions).
- **Ought externalized** as rules, risk ceilings, objection intake, kill switches.
- **Operating profile** as orientation for *authorized* collaborators (`?profile=1` class surfaces) — judgment, not street address.
- **Ledger of decisions** (what the system did and denied) as audit of the maker's bled priorities.

### Not intended as public legibility (incident / minimize)

- **Legal name** in error strings, UI chrome, or public group selftest prompts ("Ask <owner name>") — hygiene: use role ("owner") unless the owner opts in.
- **Machine identity, local paths, schedule, precise location** in public receipts or error text.
- **Private chat content** and credentials.

### Decision rule

| Question | Default |
|---|---|
| Does revealing X help audit the *ought*? | May be legible |
| Does revealing X mainly identify the *person/device* without aiding audit? | Not public by default |
| Error strings | Role-based ("owner"), not personal name |

### Operator action

Owner may tighten further (strip profile fields, imessage gates). Philosophy says: **legible judgment is the feature; incidental identity is a bug unless explicitly opted in.**

### Links

- [A8](/a/oip-axiom-a8) · [A8×A5](/a/oip-axiom-a8-times-a5)
- [Designer that is not God](/a/grain-the-designer-that-is-not-god)

