Changelog

Every material change to the data, bench, or site — dated, newest first. Scoring changes have full release notes: scoring release notes.

DATE	TYPE	WHAT CHANGED
2026-10-20	[SITE]	Pages arrive faster. A page is now built once each time our data changes, compressed, and handed to every visitor who isn’t signed in, instead of being rebuilt for each visit; Cloudflare keeps a copy for a minute. The stylesheet is a file browsers keep, and the quarter marks beside each part score are drawn by it, so the board’s page is about 30% smaller. Signed-in members still see their own weights and controls, built for them.
2026-10-19	[SITE]	Review fixes. A steak sold out at our last check says so: a “Sold out” badge on its page and a grey “Sold out” link where its Buy button was, on the board and cards too. Search matches the start of a word, so “omaha” finds Omaha Steaks and not tomahawk steaks; searching “ribeye” alone says every steak here is one. Phrase dictionary 1.12: text a seller’s page encodes twice reads as words (Omaha Steaks’ “–” and “’” had shown in its quote). Seller counts agree everywhere: ranked means a steak on the board, and a seller off it says why. New sellers’ shipping terms are read from their sites, and shipping we haven’t read says “Not checked yet”. A pack’s size says it’s a pack, and one price per pound isn’t shown as a range.
2026-10-19	[SITE]	On a phone the ranking comes first: the board’s first steak is on the first screen (the picture, the introduction and the trust line wait for a wider screen; the quick filters scroll sideways), each steak takes about a third less height, and a seller’s page shows its ranked ribeyes right under its tabs. The methodology, the scoring canon and the dry vs wet guide no longer squeeze their text into a narrow column on a phone, and comparing two sellers fits a phone’s width.
2026-10-19	[SITE]	A price check now says whether the steak can be bought: a steak the seller’s page shows as sold out or unavailable is listed as sold out, and one shown for sale comes back in stock (two Omaha Private Reserve steaks reported “Temporarily Unavailable” had stayed in stock on the board). Each steak’s price box has a way to check its price: “Report the price” opens the form at the price, and an admin records one in a click. Admins have a Price ages page listing every price by how long since a check confirmed it.
2026-10-18	[SITE]	Review fixes. A member’s proposed fact shows on the line it would change (Antibiotics, Aging…), named and marked “Unreviewed”, and links to its own row; the form’s wording is used everywhere (“Antibiotics only to treat illness”, not “Therapeutic only”). “Record as” suggests a value only when the words say exactly one (Seven Sons’ dry-then-wet was suggested as Dry-aged). Any member can report a steak’s price, the same as ours or not, with a link or a screenshot (PNG or JPEG; where and when it was taken is removed); an admin’s own is recorded at once. A steak’s price history lists the weekly checks that couldn’t confirm it, its page and board row say how old a price is, and the comparison box names its Price score and says why when it disagrees with the price per pound. The header search keeps your words, the board’s title follows its sort, a search with no results offers Clear all and nothing else. Settings name the board’s sorts and show each weight’s share of the score; deleting an account sits behind its own fold. Posting a comment is confirmed; a general note is always a comment; near-duplicate facts are offered once; the Propose form shows the “say what” box and the days only when they apply. Profiles list accepted facts on their own. Cards carry a stamp of the steak’s aging or grade instead of one picture for all; “Not stated” lines and empty $ marks are darker; the filters stack at tablet widths and 200% zoom, the header search has room at 175%, the Beef Wire wraps at 400%, and a short page no longer shifts sideways. The admin queue states the self-approval rule once, folds Decline away and sets the decided ones apart.
2026-10-18	[BENCH]	Scoring v8.2. A steak whose price no check has confirmed for 8 weeks leaves the ranking until our weekly check or an accepted member price check confirms it; it’s listed under the board. Good Chop (no price without a subscription) and two Omaha listings leave now; D’Artagnan’s nine, blocked since Sep 28, on Nov 23 unless confirmed. Aging gains dry-aged, then wet-aged, scored as the better of all its days as wet-aging or its dry days with the dry-aging premium; a member’s aging fact carries its days.
2026-10-18	[RESEARCH]	Dictionary 1.11. “Similar … as” is a comparison (Snake River Farms’ “similar ranching practices as Japanese Wagyu” had read as Japanese A5 and as from Japan); what a breed does in general isn’t a grade (its hormones sentence had read as “Grade: Wagyu”); a quoted first-person testimonial isn’t the seller’s statement; and a sentence about another animal and no beef says nothing about the beef (55 sentences about chicken, pork, lamb or seafood had read as sellers’ statements, and Crowd Cow’s chicken had set the lowest type of beef it lists). The re-read also restored what dictionaries 1.9 and 1.10 had read: the Monday job ran an old copy on Oct 12 and put back Allen Brothers’ Stone Axe and Meat N Bone’s Australian Wagyu as Japanese A5. Those two versions score as Wagyu again (Stone Axe 3.9 → 2.8); no ranked steak’s score or rank changed. The Monday jobs now run whatever was last deployed.
2026-10-12	[SITE]	Review fixes: a steak’s page names its own listing in the breadcrumb and comparison (Allen Brothers’ Stone Axe showed Westholme’s name), lists other products that share its board row apart from its sizes, and no longer claims that row’s rank. Seller pages count versions as well as listings, and give the aging of all versions beside the ranked ones. “Record as” fits a long value and suggests the scale value its words match; your own proposal’s button reads “Accept my own proposal”. The admin overview names each evidence count. A proposal is confirmed at the top of the page too; the Propose form says what “not on our scale yet” means and where a general note goes; profile counts link to their lists; Cards view says what Rows add.
2026-10-11	[BENCH]	Scoring v8.1: price for its cut. A steak priced under the median of its cut (the same grade and aging method on our board) adds up to 3 to its price score, all 3 at half the median or less; the dollars-only score and the $ marks are unchanged. Wild Fork’s $34.98 Wagyu (median $103.05) rises from #13 to #8, Meat N Bone’s $25.58 G1 Choice+ from #7 to #4; Pat LaFrieda and Riverbend stay #1 and #2. Each steak’s Price row and the board’s Price popup say what its cut adds.
2026-10-11	[RESEARCH]	Dictionary 1.10: “as close as you can get to Wagyu A5” and “close to A5” are comparisons, like “closest to”. Meat N Bone’s Australian Wagyu BMS 8-9 reads Wagyu, not Japanese A5 (grade 10 → 8.5).
2026-10-11	[RESEARCH]	Dictionary 1.9 and origin. Breeding words are genetics, not grade or origin (“descended from 100% Japanese Black Wagyu bloodlines”), so Allen Brothers’ Stone Axe Australian Wagyu reads Wagyu from Australia, not Japanese A5 from the USA. A title’s country names the steak (Chicago Steak Company’s Australian Wagyu), and “Raised and Processed in the USA”, “born, raised, grazed, and processed in the USA” and “All of Riverbend Ranch beef is…” now read. A listing whose pages don’t say where its beef is from now takes our July research of its seller when that found all its beef American; a seller found to sell beef from several countries leaves it not stated, and the steak page says so. Rastelli’s and Omaha Steaks are recorded as mixed, as their research notes say. 238 of 261 listings now show where the beef comes from (USA 198, Japan 20, Australia 18, Uruguay 1, Argentina 1), up from 99. Origin is still informational and doesn’t change any score; generic Wagyu is now labelled “Wagyu” rather than “Wagyu cross”.
2026-10-11	[SITE]	Review fixes: one Origin line on each steak page (“Also on file” no longer repeats origin or diet); a filtered or re-sorted board says what # and ↳ mean, and “Another version of #41” links to #41; searching “ribeye” finds every ribeye, and under “Every version” the filter counts are versions; deductions show as −0.25 everywhere (the scoring canon said −0.3), and pages that still said aging is 30% now say 25%; the aging guide counts dry-aged steaks the way the board’s filter does; seller pages say aging across all their listings. Members: a confirmation after proposing a fact, a larger note box, plain “Grain-finished” on the raising list, “Not on our scale yet” explained, a general note about a seller (posted as a comment), a comment box for news as well as orders, links from each profile count to where it’s done. Admins: review rows stack so the fact is readable and the buttons stay on screen; “Record as” is wide and suggests the scale’s values; “Not a claim” is the highlighted choice on unread sentences. Phones: board cards give values the full width.
2026-10-09	[RESEARCH]	Dictionary 1.8: where the beef comes from, read from each listing's own words (“Product of Australia”, “Country of Origin United States”) or the seller's statement about all its beef: a country tag beside the cut on the board, an Origin filter, and an Origin line on each steak page. Informational only; it doesn't change any score. 99 of 261 listings say: USA 63, Japan 19, Australia 15, Uruguay 1, Argentina 1. ButcherBox's, D'Artagnan's grass-fed and Wild Fork's grass-fed tomahawk ribeyes are Australian.
2026-10-09	[BENCH]	Scoring v8.0: value is quality per dollar. A steak's price counts in full only when it eats well (grade and aging at about Choice+ aged three to four weeks); below that it counts in proportion. Grade now counts 20%, price 30%. Pat LaFrieda's 45-day dry-aged Prime is #1; Wild Fork's organic ribeye falls to #19; sellers of ungraded grass-fed beef fall.
2026-10-09	[BENCH]	Scoring v7.7: an organic steak also counts as pasture-raised where its pages don't say how it was raised, and organic's add-on drops from 1.0 to 0.2, since its antibiotics, hormones and pasture now count in Healthy and Raising. Wild Fork's Organic Ribeye: 7.9 → 7.1, still #1.
2026-10-09	[BENCH]	Scoring v7.6: an organic steak counts as never given antibiotics and no added hormones where its pages don't say, because the USDA Organic standard requires both. Wild Fork's Organic Ribeye Steak is the new #1 ribeye (7.9).
2026-10-08	[SITE]	Settings save your profile and your weights separately, each with its own button, and say which was saved; deleting your account is its own section at the end. A new member's profile shows where to start. Seller pages show who accepted or declined each proposed fact. An “Every version” switch on the board lists every bone style, aging length and way of raising as its own row.
2026-10-08	[SITE]	Fixes from review: a version that shows on its own in a search, filter or sort is marked as a version of its steak (↳ and the steak's number) instead of taking its number; Lowest $/lb shows each steak's cheapest version, so the cheapest steak comes first; options say what differs (grade, raising, organic, bone, aging); a steak's Healthy line says what its listing and seller say about antibiotics and hormones, not a fixed claim; the price comparison counts every version; 'Prices checked' is the last weekly price check; the board's footer gives the price quarters; the aging guide counts steaks the way the Dry-aged filter does and uses the methodology's bands of days; Settings' default sort is the board's sorts, and the board opens on it; the evidence docket shows accepted aging facts and labels steak evidence as such; admin evidence review opens on the tab with something in it; the phone ticker keeps the median and lowest price; profiles explain each kind of contribution and link Edit profile.
2026-10-08	[BENCH]	Scoring v7.5: a seller that doesn't deliver nationwide loses 0.25 (was 1.0), flagged in red as “Deduction for limited delivery options” wherever its delivery line shows, with what we know of its delivery beside it. Wild Fork rises from #16 to #8.
2026-10-07	[DESIGN]	Quarter marks: beside every Cut, Herd and Price number, four marks show which quarter of the board it falls in (a ribeye for Cut, a steer for Herd, $ for Price, where $ is the cheapest quarter). Price tiers and the price filter now use those quarters instead of fixed dollar bands. A BeefShopper Score filter on the board selects by the same marks. Holy Grail's Sanuki Olive A5 Wagyu ribeye, its only ribeye in stock, is listed.
2026-10-07	[BENCH]	Scoring v7.4: price counts twice as much, 37% of the score, so low prices show more in the ratings (Good Ranchers, Good Chop, ButcherBox and Wild Fork rise). Steaks sold out at every price check for more than six weeks leave the ranking until they're back in stock; they're listed under the board and say why on their own pages. Rastelli's sold-out organic ribeye leaves #1; Pat LaFrieda is the new #1 seller.
2026-10-07	[RESEARCH]	Dictionary 1.7, from a sweep of every seller's own pages for statements about all its beef: “All cuts offered through Riverbend Ranch are certified 100% USDA Choice or Higher” now counts, so Riverbend's standard ribeye reads USDA Choice (Riverbend #5 → #3). Also read: “All of our livestock…”, “All ButcherBox meat is…”, “Every item you'll find on Crowd Cow…”, FAQ answers starting “No, our beef is…”, and “Every cut…”/“Each steak…” on about and FAQ pages. A statement naming two grades (“Prime or Choice”) counts as the lower, so Four Sixes' listings that don't state a grade read Choice (5.0 → 4.6).
2026-10-07	[SITE]	An “In stock only” switch on the ribeye board's toolbar hides steaks that were sold out at the last price check (a steak with an in-stock version shows that version instead). It's also the first filter group.
2026-10-07	[BENCH]	Scoring v7.3: one steak per seller per grade group (Prime, Choice, Wagyu, ungraded); the board shows its best version and the rest open under it, so no seller has more than four rows. 50 ranked steaks. A grass-fed or organic ribeye is never shown as a size of another. Evidence that admins attach to a steak now feeds the weekly read, so Wild Fork's FAQ (wet-aged 17 days) counts. The fact form has Aging and “ribeye we don't list” topics.
2026-10-07	[RESEARCH]	Dictionary 1.6: Pat LaFrieda files its Prime Boneless Ribeye in its own “Dry Aged Beef” collection, so its 30, 45 and 60-day options now read as dry-aged (a seller’s collection named for an aging method is read as its statement about the products in it). Its “Fresh-Not Aged” options, which had read as aging not stated since 1.2, now read as not aged, so its fresh Prime and High Choice ribeyes rank as steaks of their own. Pat LaFrieda’s average is 6.4 (#5); its 45-day dry-aged boneless ribeye is #2.
2026-10-07	[RESEARCH]	Correction: Pat LaFrieda says on its own wholesale site, chefandrestaurantsupply.com, that its cattle live “a lifetime of antibiotic and hormone-free diets”. The evidence check now reads that site (sellers can have more than one site of their own) and the name it uses there, “Pat LaFrieda”. Since v7.0 its ribeyes had scored antibiotics and hormones as not stated; Pat LaFrieda is back to 7.0, tied for #1 with Rastelli’s, with three ribeyes at #2–#4. Nothing else moved.
2026-10-07	[BENCH]	Scoring v7.2: a steak is a purveyor's ribeye at one grade, aging method and way its cattle were raised, so grass-finished and grain-finished ribeyes rank separately. 83 ranked steaks; Meat N Bone, Crowd Cow and Seven Sons each slip a little.
2026-10-07	[SITE]	Fixes from review: an In stock only filter, and Sold out on cards. Filter values with nothing in them are hidden. The board's # is always a steak's rank, whatever the sort. Tied sellers share a rank (=). Steak pages say "Another version of #N", compare against the other steaks without counting themselves, show when a price was corrected and when a listing is sold as a pack, and mark superseded evidence. Seller pages: badges come from the ribeyes' own grades, no doubled quote marks, a separator in proposal snippets, and long forms fold away. Comments keep their line breaks and show long links short. The evidence docket groups repeated rows, and its topics add up. The aging guide counts the ranked steaks. The aging ladder lists every band of days. Profiles list comments. Admin members can be searched and sorted, with join dates and IDs. D’Artagnan's name has its apostrophe. Riverbend's ribeye is sold as a pair. The weekly price check now holds a listing whose store pack differs from ours.
2026-10-06	[BENCH]	Scoring v7.1: a member's fact that an admin accepted counts right away as a statement about all the seller's beef, where its listing and pages say nothing (welfare certifications alongside theirs). Snake River Farms rises to #12.
2026-10-06	[BENCH]	Scoring v7.0: every steak's facts are read from the words on its listing and its seller's own pages by a fixed phrase dictionary and one rule — the listing's words first, else what the seller says of all its beef, else (raising only) the lowest type it lists, else not stated. Each fact shows its words and source on the steak page; a listing that contradicts its seller shows the seller's statement for information. Seller pages show what their pages say. Release notes: /scoring/releases.
2026-10-06	[BENCH]	Scoring v6.1: how the cattle were raised follows one standard rule. A purveyor that lists one type of raised beef has every steak scored as that type; one that lists two or more has each steak scored as what its listing explicitly says, or else as the lowest type it lists — counting every type stated on its site, product pages included. Meat N Bone and Omaha state a grain-fed Wagyu, so their ribeyes that don't say score that way. Release notes: /scoring/releases.
2026-10-06	[BENCH]	Scoring v6.0 and a new board. One row per steak: each purveyor’s ribeye at one grade and aging method is ranked once, on its best version, and its other bone styles and aging lengths open under it with their own scores. Each score shows as three numbers that add up to it (Cut, Herd, Price); click one to see how it’s made. The Herd column shows Raised on, Antibiotics, Hormones, Organic and Ethics. How the cattle were raised, and whether a steak is organic, are now read from each listing (all 260 read today); an organic steak adds a point. A seller’s score is the average of its ranked ribeyes, so sellers whose ribeyes aren’t aged can’t rank high. Members’ weights in Settings are the five steak measures and score both boards. Full release notes: /scoring/releases.
2026-10-06	[BENCH]	Scoring v5.0: a seller's claims count near the top on its word, and a third party's confirmation adds a small boost by what it confirms, never by who: hormones +1, antibiotics +1, grass-fed +0.25, welfare +0.2. Every welfare certification now scores the same. Every seller was checked against the certifiers' own lists; listed or not, each check is on the seller's page and in the evidence docket. D'Artagnan stays #1; Snake River Farms rises to #4 and Old Salt Co-op to #18. Meat N Bone's bison ribeye is off the board: Beefshopper ranks beef only. Full release notes: /scoring/releases.
2026-10-06	[MEMBER]	Members can propose a correction to any steak — its size, price per steak, aging or grade as the seller's page now states it, with the source. It's reviewed like a fact; while it waits, the steak page says a member reports it differently, and once accepted the board uses it (size and price changes go in the price history). Admins see recently accepted facts and corrections on the overview and can undo one, with a reason everyone can see. Saved filters are listed in Settings. The propose-a-fact form asks what the fact is about first, then lists only its values.
2026-10-06	[SITE]	Fixes from review: 44 Farms' USDA Choice tomahawk is 32 oz (its page says each is hand cut to 32 oz), not 48 oz, so it's $55.00/lb, not $36.67; the weekly price check now reads the size a product page states and holds a listing for review when it disagrees. Price history shows one row per day, with size, and change per pound. Evidence notes and member notes show in full behind "show more" (they were cut off), and can be up to 2,000 characters. The weights in Settings now actually re-rank the seller board for you; the ribeye board's weights are fixed and labelled so (later that day, scoring v6.0 made your weights score both boards). Counts say ribeyes and listings consistently. Scores are unchanged apart from the 44 Farms correction.
2026-10-05	[BENCH]	Scoring v4.0: aging is now scored by the days the seller states, whatever the method, with a premium for dry-aging, and it weighs 30% of a steak's score (was 22%). A 30-day wet-aged steak now beats a dry-aged one with no days stated. Seller scores use their top steak's exact grade and aging scores. D'Artagnan is the new #1 seller and ButcherBox falls to #4; Pat LaFrieda's 45-day dry-aged Prime ribeyes lead the steak board. The full rules are now published as a scoring canon at /scoring, with release notes for every algorithm change at /scoring/releases. Claims a third party confirms now carry a green check.
2026-10-05	[SITE]	Members now propose facts, not scores: what a source says, with a link and its exact words. An admin accepts a fact when the source says it, and it then counts by the same rules as every other claim; a declined proposal shows why, and new evidence reopens it. Anyone signed in can add evidence for or against any claim, and a dispute never stops a claim counting. We take sellers at their word: an orange "Seller claim" mark shows where no third party has confirmed a claim yet, and it counts either way. When a seller states several certifications, the best one counts. Recorded today: White Oak Pastures' Certified Humane, GAP Step 4 and Savory Institute EOV, from its own certifications page; ButcherBox's Certified Humane, from the certifier's own listing; Snake River Farms' BQA and Old Salt Co-op's Audubon certification, which aren't on our welfare scale yet. Scores are unchanged.
2026-10-05	[SITE]	Seller pages count ribeyes the same way everywhere: the header, the Ribeyes tab and the summary all count each steak once, with its sizes and packs shown as listings. Web addresses in comments are now links. Member research that's waiting for review and cites a source shows beside the score it would change ("pending 9.0") on seller pages and when comparing sellers; it doesn't change the score until an admin canonizes it. Research can now be filed as the seller's own claim, and a source on the seller's own website counts as the seller's claim, never as third-party evidence. Welfare certifications show their real names. Scores are unchanged.
2026-10-02	[BENCH]	Seller scores now rate each seller on the best steak it sells: grade, aging and price come from its highest-rated steak (an in-stock one if it has any), while antibiotics, hormones, pasture, welfare and delivery still come from the seller's claims. Each seller page names the steak. ButcherBox is now #1 and Pat LaFrieda #2, on its 30-day dry-aged Prime 850 Club ribeye. Crowd Cow rose from #23 to #14 and Pursuit Farms from #25 to #15; Rastellis fell from #11 to #25, because its highest-rated ribeye is an ungraded, unaged grass-fed steak.
2026-10-02	[SITE]	Compare sellers rebuilt on the current scorecard: it still showed retired taste, texture and cost rows. It now lists the eight scored axes and what drives each, price, shipping and every claim on file. Seller pages now say when the aging on file is their standard ribeye and they also sell it dry-aged: Allen Brothers, Chicago Steak Company, Holy Grail Steak Co., Meat N Bone, Omaha Steaks, Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors and Snake River Farms. Scores are unchanged.
2026-10-01	[BENCH]	Aging scoring: a steak counts as dry-aged only when the seller says so; otherwise it is scored as wet-aged, and every wet-aged steak now scores below every dry-aged one. Sellers that deliver only locally lose 1 point. Riverbend Ranch, whose site says its beef is aged 21 days without saying how, moved from #1 to #8; Pat LaFrieda's Prime 850 Club dry-aged ribeye is now #1. The 'verified' marks are removed while we design a trust score. New: the evidence docket at /evidence lists every fact behind the scores.
2026-09-28	[DESIGN]	New look: an illustrated field guide with cut-paper art, Rubik headings and a brighter palette. The ribeye board now shows one row per steak, with its sizes as chips (270 listings, 135 steaks), plus search and a card view. New bundle pages price each box per pound and, where the same seller sells the same steaks singly, against buying them one by one — the ButcherBox Ribeye Sampler costs $1.90 more than its four packs bought separately. New dry-aged vs wet-aged guide built on the board's own numbers. Scores and rankings are unchanged.
2026-09-22	[MEMBER]	Confirmation emails now actually send. Until today the double opt-in email was never sent, so anyone who registered was told to check their inbox and then couldn't log in. Every account caught by this has been sent its link, with an apology. New: if a confirmation goes missing, request a fresh one from the login page or /verify/resend.
2026-07-12	[MEMBER]	Member system live: accounts (email + password, double opt-in), verified-member company up/down voting with a VOTES ranking, comments with upvotes, and a research pipeline where super admins canonize third-party submissions into the Beef Score (turning it green). Self-serve account deletion and admin user management with full contribution preview; deleting a user removes every contribution and reverts any score it changed.
2026-07-12	[SITE]	Facet rail (filter by grade, raised category, antibiotic/hormone status, organic, welfare cert, price band — filter state lives in the URL and is shareable), side-by-side compare view (up to 4 companies, differences-only toggle), and this changelog page shipped.
2026-07-12	[PRICE]	Cost baseline set: lowest verified benchmark ribeye $/lb among listed companies is flagged [BASELINE] on the board. Recalculates whenever a new verified low lands.
2026-07-12	[BENCH]	Bench 1.0 published: taste 30% / healthy 25% / cost 20% / happy 15% / texture 10%. All scores render yellow — agent-researched, awaiting user + third-party verification.
2026-07-12	[QA]	18 corrections applied before publication: 7 verification-tier downgrades on claims that would have over-rendered a verified mark, aging values normalized across 6 companies (flash-freezing is not aging), 4 prices flagged as third-party-sourced pending first-party confirmation.
2026-07-12	[RESEARCH]	Round-1 agent research landed: 270 sourced claims, 25 benchmark ribeye prices ($13.98–$89.00/lb observed), 135 graded values across 27 companies. Every claim carries its source URLs, evidence class, and verification tier. Rastelli's observed storewide sold-out — listed, on inventory watch.
2026-07-12	[LAUNCH]	beefshopper.com live: 27 home-delivery beef companies listed, served from Cloudflare's edge. Costco excluded by policy (baseline concept deleted — owner ruling AP6).
2026-07-11	[DESIGN]	v1 design adopted: parametric-catalog layout, evidence-class model (self-claimed / user-reported / third-party), yellow→green score confidence, owner-canon research pipeline. Full spec and adversarial gap report in the repo.