Available is not authentic
Why a responding endpoint proves nothing about who runs it, and how WikiHidden keeps the two questions apart.
Updated
Most directories of hidden services answer one question: does it load? That is the least useful thing to know. On networks where anyone can stand up a convincing copy of a site in an afternoon, a page that loads tells you that something is answering. It does not tell you who.
WikiHidden treats these as two separate questions and never lets the answer to one stand in for the other.
Availability
Availability is a measurement. A check was made at a known time, from a known source, and something either responded or did not. Every availability status on this site carries the time it was last observed, the time it was last checked, and where the evidence came from. It is reported as an observation — “observed online 8 minutes ago” — not as a fact about the present.
Identity confidence
Identity confidence is a judgement about evidence: how well is it established that this is the entity it claims to be? It is built from signals that can each be inspected on the profile:
- Independent references — how many sources that the entity does not control describe it.
- Identity continuity — whether the identifying material seen today matches what was on file before.
- Historical consistency — whether the record has been stable or keeps contradicting itself.
- Recent observation — whether anything has been seen lately at all.
- Conflicting reports — whether more than one party is currently claiming the identity.
How they combine
They do not. A profile can read “Observed online · Low confidence”, which means: something answers, and there is little reason to believe it is the original. It can also read “Seized · High confidence”, which means: it is gone, and that fact is well documented. Both are useful. Collapsing them into a single green tick would hide exactly the cases where people get hurt.
For the rules behind each level, see How we assess.