The problem organisation solves
Storing data is easy. Making it usable by someone who was not there when it was collected is the hard part, and it is a different problem.
An unorganised record set fails in a specific way. Entries cannot be found without searching, cannot be cited because nothing has a stable address, cannot be checked because the source is unstated, and cannot be trusted because there is no way to tell a verified entry from a guess. Every one of those failures is a property of the structure, not of the numbers.
Four practices fix all four. This archive applies them to 1,361 entries across 45 monthly pages, and they are the reason the rest of the site can be as plain as it is.
One date format, everywhere
Every date is stored in ISO 8601 form — 2026-03-14, year first. Not because it
reads well, but because it sorts correctly as text and cannot be misread.
A record set mixing 03-04-2026 with 4 March 2026 cannot be merged
with anything or verified against anything, because no reader can tell which convention any
given row is using. The ambiguity is silent: both forms look correct, and the error only
surfaces after something has been built on top of it.
A permanent address per page
Every year and every month has its own URL, and those URLs do not change. A link to March of a given year resolves to that month forever.
This is what makes the archive citable. Anything that moves — pages that get renamed, merged into a scrolling feed, or replaced when a new month opens — cannot be referenced, because the reference stops meaning what it meant. Permanence is not a nicety here; it is the feature that makes external use possible at all.
Gaps shown, never filled
Where no verified entry exists, the archive shows a gap. It does not estimate, interpolate or carry the previous value forward.
A visible gap is information: it tells a reader exactly where the archive is incomplete and lets them decide whether that matters for their purpose. A filled gap destroys that information, and it does so invisibly, because once a guess is rendered in the same typeface as a verified entry nothing on the page distinguishes them again.
The rule
A number on a page must be traceable to a source. If it cannot be, it does not go on the page — no matter how tidy the table would look with it.
A stated source and review date
Every reference page carries who maintains it, when it was last reviewed, and a link to the method behind it. Every archive page states how its entries were compiled.
Provenance is what separates a record from a rumour with a date attached. It also makes correction possible: a reader who disagrees with an entry has something specific to disagree with, and the desk has something specific to re-check. Without it, every dispute is one assertion against another.
What this buys a reader
Four practices, four concrete results:
- Findable. Any entry is three steps from the homepage: year, month, date.
- Citable. A link keeps meaning what it meant when it was made.
- Checkable. A stated source and an unambiguous date make a second opinion possible.
- Honest. The archive's limits are visible in the archive itself rather than buried in a disclaimer.
None of it requires sophistication. It requires consistency, applied to every entry including the boring ones — which is the part that actually takes effort.