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> Others confirm the pattern When reports cluster around one office or officer, the algorithm flags a verified pattern automatically

It just requires enough others to say the same thing for it to be verified.

Fair catch, clustering does get flagged automatically, but that just means "multiple people reported it," not "confirmed true." Same issue: "verified" oversells it either way.

Fair on "verified" - it's really "manually reviewed" (duplicate/outlier checks), not independently verified. Should probably fix that word on the site.

Do you genuinely think unaffected parties are poisoning the well here? Most likely those asked to pay are reporting.

> Not sure what "verified" means

If you want your post verified, that'll cost you $100

Ha, fair dig. For the record, it's optional and has nothing to do with what gets published, but I get why the timing makes it look that way.