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RFC-0002in-commentopened 2026-04-25comment until 2026-05-02

Anti-Platitude rule (5th anti-inflation rule, v1.1.0)

Lines that resolve with generic emotional summaries ("all I need is love", "this is my truth", "love wins") hit the lowest Specificity + Voice band regardless of surface polish. Documented inline so implementers cite a published rule rather than discover it empirically.

Motivation

The four pre-1.1.0 anti-inflation rules (Gravity, Burden of Proof, Antagonist Ceiling, Historical Context) defended against score inflation in general but did not name the single most-common failure mode in baseline AI lyric output: the closing platitude.

A line like "all I need is love" or "this is my truth" or "love wins" is technically grammatical, scans, and rhymes. The base rubric without explicit guidance was scoring these lines in the mid-band on Specificity (their imagery is "love", which is concrete-adjacent) and the mid-band on Voice (the narrator *sounds* sincere). The Anti-Platitude rule rebuckets them.

Proposal

Definition

A **platitude** is a line that resolves with a generic emotional summary using one or more of the following patterns:

1. Abstract noun + universal claim ("love wins", "truth matters") 2. First-person + universal need ("all I need is X") 3. Possessive + abstract noun ("this is my truth") 4. Imperative + abstraction ("believe in yourself") 5. Tautological emotional verb ("feel the feelings")

A line that uses one of these patterns AND adds no concrete detail (named object, named place, named person, time-marker, or sensory anchor) within ±1 line is platitude.

Scoring impact

When a line is identified as platitude:

  • **Specificity** for the section containing the line drops to the lowest band (12–20 absolute points).
  • **Voice** for the section drops by 8–15 points (a platitude reads as un-narrator-like by definition).
  • **Truth** for the section drops by 5–10 points (a generic emotional summary is the rubric's anti-pattern for Truth).

Surface

The eval response now includes a `platitudes` field per section, listing every line flagged. The seal field's `rubricVersion` reads `1.1.0` for any score that applied this rule.

Examples

**Platitude (would trigger):**

  • "All I need is love."
  • "This is my truth."
  • "Love wins in the end."

**Not platitude (named anchor within ±1 line):**

  • "All I need is the key under the planter, the one she said she'd leave for me." (specific anchor)
  • "Love wins in the kitchen at 11pm." (sensory + place)
  • "This is my truth, told by the radio that got my mother through the chemo year." (named subject)

Out of scope

  • The platitude detector itself (regex + LLM hybrid; lives in the eval pipeline, not in this RFC)
  • Genre carve-outs (worship + gospel intentionally use the platitude pattern as part of the form; future RFC will document the per-genre carve-out logic)

Comment window

This RFC is open for comment until 2026-05-02. Email support@songforgeai.com with the subject `RFC-0002` to leave a comment.

Resolution

(Pending — will be filled in after 2026-05-02. The rule itself shipped with v1.1.0 in B1240; this RFC is the formalization artifact RFC-0001 requires for MINOR bumps.)