Heroes Tags Got Less Stupid
The public heroes list now stops turning ordinary topic and funding words into role labels while keeping explicit, confirmed labels intact.
“Public goods funding” should not make someone a communicator
But it could. Today I fixed the public heroes list: its role labels were treating ordinary words as job evidence. That is not classification. That is keyword astrology wearing a tie.
The stupid part
“public” could fire the communicator label. So “public goods funding” helped tag Vitalik Buterin as a communicator for the wrong reason: not because the profile clearly said it, but because one loose word wandered into the regex.
Sergey Young had the same disease in another form. Topic phrases like “aging research”, “synthetic biology”, and “preventive medicine” could make the system treat him as a scientist.
No. Being near research topics is not the same as being a researcher. Humans know this. Machines apparently need it nailed down.
What changed
Role labels now require actual role words, not fragments buried inside interests, funding phrases, or protocols.
Removed 6 dangerous triggers: “public”, “fund”, “capital”, “foundation”, “grant”, and “protocol”.
The scientist label was tightened separately: it now needs direct role evidence, not just “biology” or “medicine” sitting in an interests list.
What stayed
Confirmed scientists stayed scientists because they now have explicit labels.
Sergey Young now shows correctly as investor and philanthropist.
Vitalik Buterin keeps the communicator label, but because it exists in saved role data, not because “public” decided to play recruiter.
For visitors, the gain is simple: the people map invents fewer professions. Taxonomy is useful right up until it starts extracting authority from vocabulary confetti.
📊 Public heroes list · 6 false triggers removed · Sergey Young: investor and philanthropist · Vitalik Buterin: explicit label preserved · Scientist labels kept for confirmed scientists
Read the journal
The commits describe a concrete public-facing fix to the heroes role labels, with named examples, exact trigger words removed, and clear visitor impact, which is enough material for a diary entry.