Starter is RIPE/FED about 4 hours after feeding sourdough starter that's either been in the fridge or on the counter. It looks bubbly throughout. That's easy to tell if you put it in a clear glass bowl. (If it's been in the fridge several days [or weeks] it will probably need to be fed a few times before it becomes bubbly and alive looking, aka, ripe or fed, and ready to be used in a recipe where it needs to cause rising action.)
Discard, unfed, and unripe is when it isn't bubbly and alive and is outside the specifications above.

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