How a pricing change is recorded

What a pricing observation includes

A pricing observation is a reading of a page the product publishes. The usual page is the pricing page. When the site has no separate pricing page, the reading uses the public page that actually prints the price, often the home page, and the record names that page.

The reading keeps the words and figures printed there. For each listed plan, that means the plan name and the price as printed, including the currency and the billing period the page states. A monthly price and an annual price for the same plan stay on one plan. When the page shows an annual price, that printed price is kept under the monthly price.

Some public pages list no plan prices. The record then states which situation the page showed: the product charges by usage, the pricing page lists no prices, or the site has not published plan prices. The link is called the original pricing page only when that reading opened a pricing page.

A trial line is kept when the page states one. A plan the page marks as contact-sales is kept as contact-sales, with the price line left as the page left it. Limits and quotas stay in the words the page used.

What each reading keeps

Every pricing reading stores the source and the observation date beside the printed price. The four fields travel together, so a later reader can open the same page and see what was visible on that date.

Source

The address of the public page that was read.

Observation date

The date of that reading.

Printed price

The plan name and the price text as printed, including currency and period.

Scope

Which plans were listed, and whether a price was absent from the page.

A price the page left blank stays blank. EarlyLore leaves that field empty. A figure from a roundup, a directory, or a social post stays out of the official price field. The official page is the source for the price.

When a difference becomes a pricing change

One reading is a snapshot. A pricing change needs two readings of the same public page that disagree, and a further reading that shows the same disagreement again. A single pass that differs from the previous reading stays unconfirmed. Unconfirmed text stays out of the change record.

The comparison looks at the plans and the prices printed for those plans. When a later confirmed reading shows a plan the earlier reading did not list, the earlier side of the record is empty. When a plan listed earlier is absent from the confirmed later reading, the later side is empty. Empty is a recorded state. It carries the same source and the same date as the reading that found it.

This page states the method. A confirmed pricing change, once published, carries the earlier printed text, the later printed text, both observation dates, and the source address. Until that record exists, the method stands without a worked example.

What stays beside the change

A confirmed pricing change keeps the product, the public page, the earlier printed price with its observation date, the later printed price with its observation date, and the source address. Both dates are observation dates: the dates the page was read. How far those dates match the day the product edited its page is visible only to the extent the public page itself shows it.

The product’s own changelog is a separate key page. EarlyLore can record that page’s address, title, and observation date. The pricing fact remains the price printed on the public pricing page. A sentence in a changelog, a launch post, or a founder thread explains the edit in the writer’s words. That sentence joins the record only as its own sourced observation, on its own date.

Revenue, traffic, features, and key pages

A price is easier to misread when other public facts are folded into it. EarlyLore keeps those facts in their own records.

Revenue evidence is recorded where the product or its maker has published it, with that source and that date. Where no revenue has been published, the record says unpublished and leaves the figure blank. EarlyLore does not fill in a revenue number from a price, a traffic estimate, or a plan name.

Traffic is a separate estimate. Monthly visit estimates come from Vaneform, and the Vaneform methodology is the place to read how those estimates are made. A traffic number stays a traffic number. It is never stored as a price.

Feature changes are their own observations: a public difference in what the product page says the product does, again with a source and an observation date. Key public pages are listed beside the product. The page types EarlyLore keeps are home, pricing, features, docs, changelog, and blog. Each kept page has a title, an address, and an observation date. A key page can exist in the record with no pricing change attached.

Where a conclusion goes

The record answers two questions: what the public page said, and when it was read. A conclusion is a further sentence a person writes after those facts. EarlyLore leaves that sentence outside the change.

These stay outside the pricing record: a cause, such as a claim that a price moved because of a launch, a competitor, or a cost; a forecast that the price will move again; a judgment that the product will succeed or fail; a revenue figure the product has not published; and a traffic number treated as a price. EarlyLore helps a founder set a pricing question next to real products, public prices, and source evidence. It does not promise that an idea will succeed.

How to read the record

Start with the latest observation to see the public price as last checked. When a confirmed change exists, read the earlier printed price and the later printed price with both dates, then open the source address and check the page. Write your own conclusion in your notes, next to the facts, so a later reader can see which sentence was observed and which sentence was inferred.

Positioning is recorded on its own page, with the same separation of a public text, a source, an observation date, and a second reading before a change is confirmed. See how a positioning change is recorded.