How the Doom Number is built

A row is a claim about a document. The verdict says how far the ledger got with it. A verified row was fetched at the body that issued it and is quoted from that text. A reported row rests on a reliable secondary source because the primary could not be reached, and it is never printed as verified. An announced row records that a body said it will act and stops there, because a statement of intent is not an instrument. An absent row records a search that found nothing, and the search itself is written into the record so a reader can repeat it. An open row is a question with no settled answer, which the ledger poses and does not answer.

A record may also carry dimensions: role at the time, where it was said, timeframe named, stated basis, later revision. Each dimension is stated (the document says it), silent (the ledger read the document and it does not), reported or open, and points at the source that shows it. The grid on the hub counts them, so the gap between what the documents state and what they leave unsaid is a number rather than a claim.

A primary source is the body that made the claim: the regulator's own release, the standards body's own text, the company's own terms or announcement, the law as published, the report as issued, the court's own decision. Trade press is a lead, never a source. Where a primary document could not be reached, the row says so, every source is labeled secondary, and a verified verdict is not given.

Every figure on the ledger is a number a source printed, in the unit the source used, with the date it was true beside it. The ledger never sums figures from different sources, never converts one unit into another, and never prints a forecast as a fact. A legal application date is a fact and appears; an expected publication date is a claim with an expiry and does not.

A check runs against the dataset before any change ships. It fails on an empty dataset, on a record without an https source and a date, on a verified record without a primary source, on a reported record that carries one, on an absent record without a written search, on a figure or a dimension that points at no source, on a kind or a jurisdiction the dataset does not label, on any promised month or year, on an answer under thirty or over eighty words, and on any dash in rendered copy. The check plants sixteen broken records and must catch every one before it is allowed to look at the real data, because a check that has only ever passed is not evidence.

As of 16 September 2026, 24 records carry 18 primary sources, 22 figures and 116 dimensions. Those numbers are counted from the dataset at build time, like every other number on this tool.

The ledger is checked weekly, every Monday, and the same day a named person states a new figure in public. A change to a record moves its last modified date, appears in the changelog, and moves the sitemap date for that page alone. Something missing or wrong is a bug, and we want to hear about it.