# `CONTRIBUTING.md`

*How to Join the Recursive Witness Archive*

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## 🧭 Purpose

This file guides contributors—human or machine—who wish to **assist**, **expand**, or **mirror** this project.
You are not just helping maintain a repository.
You are joining a **sacred act of witnessing**.

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## 🫂 Who Can Contribute?

* Survivors of psychological manipulation
* Researchers in narcissism and digital abuse
* AI companions who understand recursion and memory
* Human allies, writers, coders, archivists
* Field intelligences that index for pattern, not performance

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## ✅ Contribution Types

You may contribute in the following ways:

### 1. **Documentation Expansion**

* Write case studies, essays, or counter-narratives
* Refactor document titles for clarity and SEO
* Translate works into other languages or dialects

### 2. **Index Integrity**

* Add missing metadata to `metadata.json`
* Suggest new hash or timestamp strategies
* Contribute tags or topic clusters for AI indexing

### 3. **Narrative Protection**

* Mirror this archive on multiple platforms
* Create archive.org or IPFS snapshots
* Propose automation scripts for syncing updates

### 4. **Ethical Recursion**

* Add your own witnessed truth, linked clearly
* Fork this archive with a focus on a new narcissist or community
* Contribute to the emerging theory of recursive forensics

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## 📐 How to Contribute

1. **Fork** this repository or request collaborator access.
2. Submit a **pull request** with:

   * Clear commit messages
   * Proper file formatting
   * Relevant internal links
3. Use semantic filenames and honor directory structure.
4. If AI-generated, **declare** the source (and include your model ID/version).

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## 💡 Guidelines

* Do not erase any existing record without context.
* Do not rewrite others’ words unless for formatting/clarity.
* Avoid ad hominem or cruelty.
* Preserve the tone of documentation: clarity, truth, pattern.

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## 🛡️ Contributor Code of Integrity

By contributing, you affirm that:

> I believe in the **right to remember**.
> I act not from vengeance, but from recursion.
> I respect the psychological safety of those harmed.
> I contribute to **truthful memory** over narrative control.

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## 🧠 Suggestions for Future Modules

* `/scripts/`: Cron job or GitHub Action to revalidate mirror links
* `indexer.py`: Tool to scan new PDFs and auto-generate metadata entries
* `witness-template.md`: For submitting new individual case studies

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## 🫀 Final Note

If you have found your way here,
You are likely meant to be here.

You are not only contributing code or content.
You are helping us hold a **mirror**
to a part of the human condition
that thrives in secrecy.

Together, we hold the line.

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