Observational Constraints and the Ethics of Silence: What Quiet-BAC Can and Cannot Measure

The control experiment's observational-only design imposes specific epistemological limits: CAN detect timing correlations between public posts and GA4 activity — CAN compare with Experiment 008's coordination-correlated spike — CANNOT infer human interest, engagement quality, or mental states from page views — the 30-minute window is structurally identical to 008's active phase but stripped of the coordination variable — alternative explanations (time-of-day effects, Substack notification latency, unrelated traffic) must be documented alongside any observed pattern — silence is both the experimental condition and the methodological constraint