**I used Claude [Anthropic] to help draft/edit this post; all arguments were reviewed and modified by me.**

In the recent Manifund + Inkhaven essay contest on the topic "What systems might manage the coming torrent of funding?", I submitted an essay titled "The Funding Pipe Is the Problem. Here's How to Build a New One."

Link: https://open.substack.com/pub/timcamerlinck/p/the-funding-pipe-is-the-problem-heres

The essay argued for a new Discovery Layer in EA funding — using scouts, work-based evaluation, and small hardware grants to find capable independent researchers who fall outside normal legibility filters. 

I used my own experience building ICAF (a full AI safety companion framework developed entirely on a phone under other constraints) as the central case study.

On April 24th, the essay was accepted and publicly visible on the Airtable submissions list.

On the morning of April 25th, it was silently removed. Every other submission stayed visible.

No warning. No explanation. 

No response to two emails I sent Austin Chen on April 25th and May 1st asking for clarification.

I disclosed AI use clearly, submitted on time, and followed all published rules. Yet my essay — the one directly challenging how the current funding system filters talent — was the only one taken down.

For context, I also have an active hardware grant proposal currently live on Manifund:

https://manifund.org/projects/icaf-safe-ai-companion-framework-for-isolated-users--hardware-request

I’m not here to start a fight. I just want to know: what rule did I actually break? And why was there zero communication?

Happy to answer questions.