Work out what to do next

Acting on itUpdated 1 Oct 2026

Open Work and start with the first item on the To do tab. It names a topic where a rival is named ahead of you. Press I am on it, do the work, then mark it published and BotSay shows what happened.

What does each Work tab hold? #

Work has five tabs, each with a count: To do, Waiting for you, Doing, Done and Not for us.

To do: items nobody has started or set aside, ranked. When there is something to show, two cards sit beside the list: the first two decisions under Waiting for you, and the latest result that could be read under Is it working.
Waiting for you: decisions about sites and names that would change a number.
Doing: items someone pressed I am on it on, most recently moved first.
Done: items marked published or done, most recently moved first, with a result where one exists.
Not for us: items set aside, most recently moved first, with the reason if one was given.

The tab you opened is kept in the page address, so a link opens the same tab for a colleague.

What kinds of item are on the list? #

The line above each title names its kind: Write a page, Take part or Ask to be listed.

Write a page: a topic where a rival is named ahead of you on more questions than chance would explain. It has a brief you can copy.
Take part: communities and video sites the engines read or linked on answers that named a rival. One item covers all of them.
Ask to be listed: one item per company site that is not a rival and could list you. At most five show.

Take part and Ask to be listed items come from the Where to get in list, described in Find pages to get your brand onto. Its link on Work is Which videos and threads or Which pages.

How is the To do tab ordered? #

Write a page items come first, ranked by how many questions you lose on the topic. Ties go to the topic with the widest gap, then A to Z. The line above the title carries the rank: "1. Write a page. 3 questions".

Take part and Ask to be listed items follow, ranked among themselves by how often the engines read or linked their sites. They are never mixed into the first group, because a count of questions and a count of readings cannot be compared.

The ranking is worked out again after each weekly reading (see When readings happen), and the list changes when you move an item.

What does the line under an item say? #

For a Write a page item, one short paragraph says why the topic is here. For example: "You lose 3 of 5 questions on this topic. Novaly is named in 93 of 156 answers, Pinefield in 80, you in 10. The engines lean on 4 pages you could answer better."

"Lose" means a question on that topic where a rival is named ahead of you. If every active question on the topic is lost, it reads "You lose every question on this topic." The sentence about pages appears only once the weekly page figures exist, and BotSay stays silent on it rather than print a zero it has not measured.

Links under the paragraph are The 3 questions, The pages they cite and What the engines say. They open the topic page or the cited sites in Evidence.

Start working on an item #

Press I am on it on a To do item. It moves to Doing, and the line above the title records who and when, for example "Write a page. 3 questions. You since 8 Sep 2026". A colleague sees your email address in place of "You".

From Doing, the link Back to To do returns the item.

A Take part or Ask to be listed item has Mark done instead of Mark published. It moves to Done without a result, because it has no questions to compare before and after.

Set an item aside, and bring it back #

Press Not for us on a To do item, add a reason if you want one, and press Not for us again. The item moves to the Not for us tab.

On a To do item, press Not for us.
In the dialog titled Not for us, answer Why? (optional, shown to colleagues). It is one line of plain text, up to 255 characters.
Press Not for us again to confirm.

The reason shows as 'You said: "A reseller of a rival."'. A colleague sees your email address in place of "You". Press Bring back to return the item to To do.

Mark a page as published #

Press Mark published on a Write a page item in Doing, then fill in the dialog Mark as published.

Under When did it go live?, check the date. It is set to today (UTC) when the dialog opens. It cannot be later than tomorrow in UTC, or before 1 Jan 2020.
Under Where is it? (optional), paste the full web link, starting with https:// or http://. A link needs a date with it.
Press Mark published.

A note under the date says how many questions the page targets and when the first result shows. The item moves to Done, with the date in its line and the address as a link. A date in the future gets "The published date cannot be in the future".

When does a result appear? #

The first result appears once one whole week after the publish week has finished. BotSay compares the weeks before the day the page went live with the weeks after it.

The week that holds the publish day belongs to neither side, because the page went live somewhere in the middle of it. If you publish on 10 Sep 2026 (the week of 7 Sep), Done reads No result yet until the week of 21 Sep 2026, and the dialog note names that date.

The comparison uses up to four whole weeks on each side. BotSay shows counts from the first result, and gives a verdict only when at least two weeks with answers exist on both sides.

How do I read a result sentence? #

A result sentence gives counts and, once enough weeks exist, one verdict. With fewer than two weeks on a side you see counts only: "Before the date, 4 of 35 of those questions named you. Since, 6 of 35. We cannot say yet whether that is a change."

With enough weeks, the sentence starts "6 of 35 of those questions now name you, against 4 of 35 before." and ends with one of five verdicts.

A rise larger than chance would explain.
A fall larger than chance would explain.
The figure leans one way but has not yet moved by more than chance would explain.
"There is no change we can call real yet."
"We cannot judge a change from these counts."

Why a number is blank or shows a range explains what "larger than chance" means.

Does a result show that my page caused the change? #

No. BotSay calls a change real only when it is larger than chance would explain, and it never says your page caused it. Pages often go live after a weak week, and some recovery follows on its own.

A small line under the item plots the weekly counts, such as "3 of 35", with a dashed marker labelled published. A week with no answers is left out and the line breaks there, so BotSay never draws a reading it did not take.

Why does a result say We cannot compare yet? #

BotSay compares like with like, and We cannot compare yet means the engines did not answer the same number of questions on both sides of the date.

The item gives the reason, for example "ChatGPT did not answer the same number of questions on the after side of the date, so a comparison would mislead." If there are no answers from before the date, it says "We have no answers to these questions from before the date, so there is nothing to compare with." Neither is a mistake on your side.

Why does Done say No published date? #

No published date means the item was marked done without a date, so BotSay has nothing to compare. The item says "This was marked done without a date, so there is nothing to compare."

This happens when you set the status to Done from the menu on a topic page instead of pressing Mark published. There is no control for adding a date to a finished item. Set the status back to In progress on the topic page, then use Mark published from Doing.

What is on the Waiting for you tab? #

It holds decisions about sites and names, and each one names the figure it changes, for example "Decide once. Changes Your pages cited".

A group of sites the engines cite under one domain: "The answers cite 4 more hosts under tessera.example". Press These 4 are mine, None of these or Let me choose to decide host by host in Setup. One host reads It is mine and Not mine. A rival's group reads, for example, These 2 are Novaly's and None.
Names the answers used that may be a brand you already track. Decide opens Setup, Brands.

A decision covers the hosts listed when you press it, and a host found later asks again. The note under the list says "Decisions take effect from the next reading". Past weeks are not rewritten. Set your brand, sites and rivals covers each decision.

What is on a topic page? #

A topic page is the page behind a Write a page item. With a brief it shows the title, a status menu (New, In progress, Done, Set aside), Copy the brief, and these cards in order: What we measured, What to cover, The questions it answers, What the engines credit the rival with, Why this is here and What this brief does not tell you.

What we measured gives your mention count out of answers read, and the range of rates that would look the same at that many answers. Why this is here names the rival and says how many of the questions where the two brands split it led on. It describes that week's panel and says nothing about next week.

A topic without a brief shows What we measured, Why this is here and The questions this topic loses.

Why is To do empty? #

An empty To do tab shows one of three messages.

We do not know which brand is yours: every item rests on which answers named you. Press Mark your brand to go to Setup.
Not worked out yet: "We work this list out after each reading." The date it fills is shown.
Nothing to do this week: no topic had a rival named ahead of you by more than chance, or every one is already decided.

What if Work says somebody changed an item? #

A colleague moved the item first. Nothing changes and you see "Somebody changed this since you opened it. Reload to see where it stands." Press Reload the list.

If a request goes unanswered you see "We stopped waiting for an answer, so we cannot say whether that saved. Reload the page to see what is stored." Reload before pressing again.

Who can use Work? #

Admins and members can both do everything on Work: start, set aside, bring back, mark published and decide found sites. Reasons are shown to colleagues.

Tessera, Novaly, Pinefield, Kestrel Pay and Orbita are invented brands, used here as examples.