Trust Signal Critical
Never fabricate social proof numbers, and never place trust badges on every section. These are the two highest-severity mistakes in trust signal design.
$ aoe install @community/rule-trust-signal-criticalProjection
Always in _index.xml · the agent never has to ask for this.
TrustSignalCritical [rule] v1.0.0
Never fabricate social proof numbers, and never place trust badges on every section. These are the two highest-severity mistakes in trust signal design.
Loaded when retrieval picks the atom as adjacent / supporting.
TrustSignalCritical [rule] v1.0.0
Never fabricate social proof numbers, and never place trust badges on every section. These are the two highest-severity mistakes in trust signal design.
Meta
- License: Apache-2.0
- License Provenance: package-authorship-claim
Applies To
- Social proof numbers (user counts, uptime SLAs, revenue figures)
- Trust badge rows (security, compliance, reliability badges)
- All testimonials and review counts
Loaded when retrieval picks the atom as a focal / direct hit.
TrustSignalCritical [rule] v1.0.0
Never fabricate social proof numbers, and never place trust badges on every section. These are the two highest-severity mistakes in trust signal design.
Meta
- License: Apache-2.0
- License Provenance: package-authorship-claim
Applies To
- Social proof numbers (user counts, uptime SLAs, revenue figures)
- Trust badge rows (security, compliance, reliability badges)
- All testimonials and review counts
Examples
- BAD: '100,000+ happy customers' when actual users are under 500
- BAD: Trust badge row in hero, features, pricing, and footer
- GOOD: Real, auditable user count with '+' suffix to indicate minimum floor
- GOOD: One badge row placement — directly below the primary CTA
Relations
related: [@community/pattern-trust-badge-row, @community/pattern-trust-social-proof-numbers, @community/rule-trust-signal-placement, @community/anti-pattern-fake-trust-signals]
Rationale
Fabricated metrics (made-up user counts, invented uptime stats) destroy trust the instant any visitor does verification — the discovered lie causes more distrust than no claim at all, plus creates legal liability. Over-repeated badges lose their meaning through signal fatigue: a badge on every section communicates nothing.
Meta
- License: Apache-2.0
- License Provenance: package-authorship-claim
Applies To
- Social proof numbers (user counts, uptime SLAs, revenue figures)
- Trust badge rows (security, compliance, reliability badges)
- All testimonials and review counts
Source
aoe-engine/examples/frontend-design/primes/compiled/@community/rule-trust-signal-critical/atom.yaml