Data Changelog

This page lists confirmed changes to Areazine data handling, index-surface decisions, and methodology surfaces. We record only changes that can be checked against a commit, an ETL refresh, or a documented editorial action. Routine agency polling (recalls, weather, earthquakes) continues on the schedules in methodology; those refreshes are not re-listed here every cycle.

August 9, 2026

• Unmatched-place cities off the city sitemap. City detail pages marked unmatched_place stay noindex and are no longer advertised in sitemap-cities; matched Census Place cities and the /cities hub remain.
• Noindex /zip hub dropped from the static sitemap. The dead zip class hub was removed from sitemap-static so noindex URLs are not advertised; the empty zip sitemap shard stays registered for coverage checks.
• Public data changelog + corrections alias. This page and a /corrections redirect to the editorial corrections process were added so accountability paths resolve instead of 404.

August 8, 2026

• Honest per-route sitemap lastmod. Static and hub sitemaps now stamp lastmod from page vintage instead of a single portal-wide fingerprint.
• Answer capsules on INDEX hubs. Guides, tools, topics, and cities index surfaces carry a machine-legible answer capsule for citation clarity.
• AU/CA/UK topic hubs advertised. Country explorer hubs that were already live and indexable were added to the sections sitemap shard.
• Dead archives omitted from the sitemap index. Empty archive sitemaps whose hub URLs 404 are no longer advertised in the sitemap index.

August 7, 2026

• Unmatched-place population suppression. City pages without a matched Census Place no longer show county-scale population figures that overstate the named place.
• Em-dash cleanup in city prose. Servable city-page copy no longer uses em dashes that tripped data-truth gates.

August 6, 2026

• Dead-class surface contraction. Zip detail, month archives, and research hub classes that failed index-surface tests were marked noindex and removed from advertised sitemaps where appropriate.

Reporting a possible problem

If a figure or alert summary looks wrong, use the corrections process or email hello@areazine.com with the page URL and the field in question. We verify reports against the linked government source, correct confirmed issues at the data layer, and add a dated entry here when the change is published.