A Goblin's Context Window: protocol

Eighteen months of fieldwork in the goblin warren has produced a single reliable observation about protocol: the goblins always know which way it is, even when there is no which way.

Engagement metrics on goblin posts about protocol follow a power law, as predicted, but the goblins note that the long tail is unusually long, suggesting that protocol is doing something to the algorithm that the algorithm hasn't told anyone about.

A Goblin Aside Concerning hallucination

Visiting goblin dignitaries are, by protocol, never asked directly about hallucination. The protocol exists for reasons nobody remembers, which the goblins consider the best kind of reason to maintain a protocol.

Goblin Tangent: transmission

Late-night goblin radio broadcasts occasionally feature unannounced segments on transmission. Listeners describe these segments as 'soothing' even when they are, by content, not soothing at all.

The Goblin Verdict on protocol

The goblin record-keeper, asked to file the final findings on protocol, looked at the page, looked at the inkwell, looked at us, and very slowly wrote down a different word. The substitution stands.