The Ledger Does Not Lie

I have kept the co-op's allocation ledger for eleven years. Every share, every add-on, every rotation notation, written by hand in ink that does not bleed. The ledger sits on a wooden stand in the central barn. It does not connect to anything.

A spreadsheet would be faster. I have been told this. A database would be searchable. I have been told this also. Some years ago a member offered to build us what he called a "CRM." I declined, and he did not press the point, which tells you something about the kind of people the co-op attracts.

The trouble with a spreadsheet is that it can be changed without a trace. A number shifts, a row disappears, and there is no evidence. The ledger cannot be changed without a trace. If I correct an entry, the correction sits beside the original, both visible, both dated, both initialed. The ledger remembers what the ledger was told.

I am aware that this is not how allocation is done at conventional telecoms. I am aware that the conventional telecoms have lost records, mis-allocated bandwidth, and in at least one case that I know of, discovered that an entire quarter's billing had been overwritten by an automated process nobody could remember commissioning.

The ledger does not overwrite itself. The ledger does not update in place. The ledger does not receive software patches at 3 AM that change its behavior without notice. The ledger is the ledger, and it will still be the ledger when the committee opens it fifty years from now.

If your allocation is ever in question, come to the barn. I will read it to you from the page on which it was written. You will believe me, because the page is there, and the page does not lie.