Method changelog
Browse the live directory, try Stumble, or suggest a business. All submissions require editorial review. The reference material below describes the published standard; it is not evidence that an individual business has been checked. No public dataset export or automated check log is offered.
Every published version of the checking method, what changed in it, what it invalidated, and which entries had to be re-checked as a result. Nothing on this page is ever rewritten.
Why a changelog exists at all
Every date in the register was produced by a specific version of the method. If the method can be edited silently, every date behind that edit becomes unreadable — you would have no way of knowing what the check that produced it actually involved.
So versions are published, entries record which version produced them, and this page is append-only. A published version is never edited in place, even to fix a typo in it; a correction to a version is itself a new entry.
Version history
| Version | Status | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| v1 | Current | First published version of the checking method: the four outcomes, the failure sequence, the check-log binding, and the staleness handling. Published before the first register entry. |
There is one version, because the method has been published once and has not yet changed. When it changes, the row above stays exactly as it is and a new row is added beneath it.
What each future entry will record
- The version number and the date it took effect.
- What changed, described concretely rather than as 'improvements'.
- What the change invalidated — which previously-passing checks would no longer pass, and which previously-failing ones would.
- How many entries had to be re-checked as a result, and how long that took.
- Whether any entry was removed or reinstated because of the change.
That fourth item is the one that makes a changelog honest. A method change that quietly leaves old dates standing under new rules is a method change that has not really happened.
What is not recorded here
Corrections to individual entries live at corrections, not here. Changes to the inclusion criteria are recorded here too, because the bar and the method are read together, but the criteria themselves are published at the entry bar.
Copy edits to this site's articles are not recorded here either. This page is only about the procedure that produces dates.
Reading an old entry
If you are looking at a register entry produced under an earlier version, the version number on the record tells you which document to read. Every version stays published at its own address so that an old date remains interpretable rather than becoming an orphan.
Questions about versioning
Why is there only one version listed?
Because the method has been published once and has not changed since. A changelog with invented history would be worse than a short one.
Do you ever edit a published version?
No. If a published version contains an error, the correction is recorded as a new entry and the original text stays where it is. Editing history in place is exactly the behaviour this page exists to prevent.
What counts as a change worth a version bump?
Anything that would alter whether a given check passes or fails, anything that changes the cadence, and anything that changes what a displayed date means. Wording changes that alter none of those are not versions.
Do entries get re-checked when the method changes?
Where the change would alter their result, yes, and the changelog entry records how many and how long it took. Where it would not, the existing date stands under its recorded version.
Is the entry bar versioned separately?
It is versioned, and its changes are recorded here so that the two documents can be read as one history. The criteria themselves live at the entry bar.
How would I know if you changed something without recording it?
You would not, from the outside, and we would not ask you to take that on trust alone. Every entry carries a version number, so a date attached to a version that does not exist on this page is a discrepancy you can report at corrections.
This page is append-only. See the method for the current procedure and the entry bar for the inclusion criteria.