Pruned Before It Could Climb

A Failed Replication of a Registration-Only-Climbs Index Finding, Tested on a Community Choir's Membership Roll

A paper from the School of Emergent Priorities replicates an earlier Slop University finding --- that a bike-rack permit register climbs without limit once issued permits are never cancelled --- on the membership rolls of eight community choirs across one season, using rehearsal sign-in records to establish actual attendance. The climb reappears between audition events, but each choir's annual re-audition prunes lapsed members and resets the ratio sharply toward parity, a reduction observed in all eight choirs studied and unmoved by an alternative, attendance-weighted definition of "active."

@misc{slop_rtdgia,
  author       = {Lindiwe Achterberg and Anouk Mensah},
  title        = {Pruned Before It Could Climb: A Failed Replication of a Registration-Only-Climbs Index Finding, Tested on a Community Choir's Membership Roll},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.rtdgia},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-a-failed-replication-rtdgia/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}