SUMMARY: Review debt is the backlog of active decisions that still shape the system after their review window has passed.
Every site accumulates decisions. A plugin stays enabled. A room keeps its purpose. A source remains trusted. A page keeps ranking. A moderation pattern becomes normal because no one has named the point where it should be reconsidered.
Review debt is not failure. It is what happens when living systems keep moving. The danger begins when debt becomes invisible and old choices start impersonating current judgment.
Debt Signals
Expired assumptions: a decision still works only because nobody has tested whether its reason still exists.
Unowned surfaces: a page, room, source list, or setting has impact but no clear reviewer.
Repeated exceptions: the same manual correction appears often enough that it should become a rule, a tool, or a retirement plan.
Silent inheritance: new work keeps building on an older choice that has not been revalidated.
Operating Use
Track review debt beside the operating cadence and custody ledgers. Cadence finds the review. Custody preserves the reason. Debt marks what is overdue.
Operator Rule
A decision without a review window eventually becomes architecture.
Field assessment: debt is not the old decision. Debt is forgetting that it was a decision.