What is this website?

Public figures can influence the lives of many with their promises and predictions. Many abuse this opportunity by making many of them and then just "forgetting" the statements that don’t come true, while boasting with the ones that do. Sadly, it is often the "forgotten" words that have already affected others negatively.

The goal of this website is to bring accountability to the web and make people think twice before speaking, and also stand by their words, good or bad, right or wrong.

How it works

  1. Someone submits a quote of a person making a prediction or a promise
  2. We assess the quote and if it meets the basic requirements we move it to the sandbox. There it can be upvoted or downvoted by users expressing their interest in the outcome of the quote.
  3. Once the 'due date' is reached we open the floor for voting. Voting means users can tell us whether this quote is correct, incorrect or undecided. This is no longer about interest or agreeing with the quote, so standard is higher here: we require a source for your vote.
  4. Based on the votes we receive and our own research we decide whether the prediction is correct. The quote is then closed.

1. Submitting new quotes

Anyone can submit quotes, and we rely heavily on user submissions for content. In order to maintain a high level of quality and relevance, a quote has to be:

  • a promise or a prediction: the event/action it refers to has to be in the future relative to the date the statement was made.
  • a public statement made by a public figure: a person having a Wikipedia page or a Twitter or Reddit account with a significant following. This is to limit the selection to quotes which can influence many people.
  • verifiable: it should have multiple credible sources, a single dubious blog post won't do.
  • falsifiable by a specific date: at or around the quote's due date we should be able to verify whether this prediction has come true based on objective sources. Many quotes which do not mention a specific date will not meet this requirement.
  • relevant to society: think climate change, rather than weather forecast.
  • not taken out of context: we don't like playing word games.

We review all quotes ourselves and ultimately reserve the right to refuse any quote. We try our best to motivate our decisions.

1.1. Submitting via the website

You can submit via this website by clicking the new quote link at the top of the page. You will only be able to select authors which have an English Wikipedia page. You can find more details on the each of the fields you need to fill in (don't worry, there aren't that many) on that page.

1.2. Submitting via Twitter

If you have a Twitter account and see a prediction you would like to submit (or would like to make a prediction/promise yourself), we have a bot which can help you with that. All you have to do is reply to the tweet mentioning @OnTheRecordBot, followed by the due date of the prediction. Our bot will submit the quote for you and let you know once its status changes. You can also send our bot a direct message for more information.

Examples

@OnTheRecordBot
Submit a quote of the tweet containing this message if it is an original tweet, or the tweet it is replying to if it is a reply and set its due date at one year from today (the default is no date is specified).
@OnTheRecordBot 30 days @OnTheRecordBot 2 weeks @OnTheRecordBot 3 months @OnTheRecordBot 2 years
Same as above, but specify the due date relative to today in a human readable format.
@OnTheRecordBot 2020-09-01 @OnTheRecordBot September 1 @OnTheRecordBot September 1st @OnTheRecordBot 1 Sep

Same as above, but specify the due date as YYYY-MM-DD or one of the other short formats. The date will be the first match in the future if the year is omitted (September of next year, if September 1st of this year has already passed).

Warning: other date formats may cause unpredictable results

1.3. Submitting via Reddit

If you have a Reddit account and see a prediction you would like to submit (or would like to make a prediction/promise yourself), we have a bot which can help you with that. All you have to do is reply to the submission or post mentioning u/OnTheRecordBot, followed by the due date of the prediction. Our bot will submit the quote for you and let you know once its status changes. You can also send our bot a private message for more information.

Examples

u/OnTheRecordBot
Submit a quote of the parent comment or submission and set its due date at one year from today (the default is no date is specified). Take care to reply to the appropriate comment or submission, as the bot will only consider the direct parent of the comment which mentions it.
u/OnTheRecordBot 30 days u/OnTheRecordBot 2 weeks u/OnTheRecordBot 3 months u/OnTheRecordBot 2 years
Same as above, but specify the due date relative to today in a human readable format.
u/OnTheRecordBot 2020-09-01 u/OnTheRecordBot September 1 u/OnTheRecordBot September 1st u/OnTheRecordBot 1 Sep

Same as above, but specify the due date as YYYY-MM-DD or one of the other short formats. The date will be the first match in the future if the year is omitted (September of next year, if September 1st of this year has already passed).

Warning: other date formats may cause unpredictable results

2. The sandbox

Once approved, the quote moves to the sandbox, meaning it meets our minimum requirements and we are giving the community a chance to express their interest. Anyone can do so by upvoting or downvoting the quote. We may have missed something, of course, so if you think this quote should not have been accepted, please report it to us.

3. Open quotes

Once its due date has passed and if the community shows interest or we find it especially relevant, we will open the quote for voting. You can now assess the quote and let us know whether it is correct (the prediction has come true/promise has been kept), incorrect (the prediction has not come true/promise has not been kept). You can also report the quote if its outcome is no longer decidable (conditions have changed so much that the original quote is no longer relevant).

4. Closed quotes

We leave the quote open for approximately two weeks and then, based on the votes you've submitted, decide its outcome: is it correct, incorrect or undecided (we cannot determine the outcome based on the available information)?