How stories are chosen

Every headline from our source feeds is sent to Claude Haiku with this rubric:

• clearly_positive — makes the reader feel better about the world, humanity, or the future. Scientific breakthroughs, cures, kindness, underdog wins, ecosystems recovering.
• mixed — real positive elements but meaningful negative context (e.g., "record profits amid layoffs").
• neutral — factual, no clear emotional valence.
• clearly_negative — harm, loss, conflict, tragedy.

Only clearly_positive stories make it to the site. Pre-vetted positive sources (Good News Network, Positive News, Reasons to Be Cheerful) also accept mixed, since they already self-filter.

Hard rules: celebrity gossip is not positive. Stock market gains are neutral unless tied to broader progress. "Politician praised X" is neutral unless X itself is good news.

The classifier is not perfect. If a story slips through that does not feel positive to you, that is a real signal — email us and we will tune the rubric.