Authority
Who can still change the metadata? If an update authority remains, the picture and the trait text can be replaced by whoever holds that authority. If it has been cleared, the record is meant to stay. Neither state is a moral verdict. A living artist may want room to correct a mint mistake. A collector who wants a fixed text will look for the cleared line and write it down.
The Care shelf files examples of both, with the date the room last looked. Public records move. A note in pencil always carries the day it was made.
Host and issuance
The second check is the host behind the URI. The third is whether issuance is concentrated: one creator key behind a vast set, or many participant mints, or a compressed tree whose proof structure needs a different kind of reading. Compressed collectibles have their own thin folder now, added in 2025 after repeated Saturday questions. The folder explains the shape of the record in ordinary sentences and sends the technical proof back to the public explorer the visitor already uses.
The fourth check is dull and decisive. Does the image path still answer on the day of the visit? A broken host is a care problem, like a photograph stored under a leak. It can be described without drama.
What the list refuses to do
The card does not score collections out of ten and does not tell anyone to buy. It keeps a table from talking in circles. After the four checks, the group either moves to the artist file or admits the room does not hold enough and a brief would be the honest next step.