SUMMARY: Signal custody is the practice of keeping useful information attached to its origin, intent, and review state.
A signal loses value when it becomes detached from the conditions that produced it. A title without context, a chat report without a room, a status update without a timestamp, or a forum prompt without a purpose can all look active while becoming less useful.
Custody does not mean locking information away. It means carrying enough provenance forward that the next reader can decide what the signal is worth.
Custody Markers
Origin: where the signal first appeared and who or what produced it.
Intent: whether the signal is a warning, prompt, receipt, correction, invitation, or archive trace.
Review state: fresh, monitored, stale, resolved, disputed, or retired.
Public posture: whether the signal belongs in search, behind membership, in moderation notes, or nowhere at all.
Operator Use
Use signal custody with index stewardship. Stewardship keeps material findable. Custody keeps material interpretable after it is found.
Field Test
If a signal cannot answer where it came from, what it meant, and whether it still matters, it needs custody work before it becomes a reference point.
Field assessment: a signal with custody can move through the network without losing its shape.