> Canonical: https://atalk.tv/methodology/
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Atalk.TV standards
# Methodology

How Atalk.TV discovers, clusters, verifies and ranks trending topics without pretending to own proprietary search-volume data.

## Editorial Trend Signal

The Atalk.TV Editorial Trend Signal is a qualitative editorial indicator. It considers the number and quality of sources connected to a topic, recency, cross-region relevance, update frequency and whether a meaningful new development occurred.

## What the signal is not

It is not Google Trends, X Trends, Reddit official data, a search-volume estimate, a social mention count or a proprietary audience panel. Atalk.TV does not publish fabricated percentages or scores.

## Clustering and deduplication

Stories are grouped using shared topics, entities, source URLs, keywords and title similarity. A highly similar event should update an existing page unless a genuinely new angle needs its own durable URL.

## Source confidence

The standard event-review gate expects at least two reliable source records before a story is treated as publication-ready. Consequential or high-risk claims require stronger corroboration, ideally a primary source plus independent reporting, or multiple independent reports when primary material is unavailable. A single primary record may establish a narrow official fact, but should not be stretched beyond its scope.

## Source hygiene

Affiliate disclosures, Buy Now or Shop Now prompts, newsletter calls-to-action, advertisement labels, cookie notices and publisher navigation boilerplate are removed from discovery summaries and must not be presented as Atalk.TV editorial copy.

## AI role

AI can accelerate discovery and organization. The publishing standard is still traceability: important claims should be attributable to visible sources and uncertainty should remain visible.