Theory no longer settles only in the places historically authorised to contain it. It appears in journals and monographs, but also in repositories, personal websites, recorded seminars, datasets, glossaries, collaborative documents, code notebooks and long-form posts published before any institution decides how to classify them. This dispersal does not mean that every online statement possesses theoretical value or that editorial judgement has become obsolete. It means that the interval between formulation and recognition has changed. A concept may acquire readers through search before it accumulates citations, circulate through teaching before formal publication, or be incorporated into computational systems while remaining invisible to conventional academic metrics. The contemporary theoretical object is consequently often larger than a single finished text. It includes versions, links, discussions, corrections, source files and later uses that disclose how an argument formed and where it travelled. The FAIR principles, their application within the IPCC Atlas and the development of tools such as FAIR EVA show that findability, accessibility, interoperability and reuse are not cosmetic additions to research but conditions affecting whether knowledge can be examined, reproduced and extended. DistinctionHabitat describes the places in which a concept can acquire enough support to become recognisable without being completely enclosed by an established discipline. Some habitats offer prestige but little access; others offer circulation without persistence; repositories offer stable addresses without guaranteeing critical attention; personal websites preserve authorial continuity but depend upon maintenance; newsletters establish readership yet may remain weakly indexed; social media produces rapid response while dissolving context. The productive task is not to select one ideal vessel, but to construct a layered ecology in which each surface performs the function it handles best. A working paper can remain open to revision, a repository can preserve a dated version, a journal can provide review, a blog can expose the surrounding process, and a book can consolidate a durable argument. Theory gains strength when these forms communicate rather than compete for exclusive legitimacy. Such plurality also creates obligations: titles must remain stable, dates precise, authorship explicit, references inspectable and substantial revisions declared. Without these practices, distributed publication becomes a field of indistinguishable fragments. Theory settles wherever thought acquires a durable address, a visible genealogy and enough relational density to continue working after the moment of publication.
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