Diamond Stone: the catalogue
Date: 2026-11-11. Revision 1. Drawn in docs/catalogue-map.html; screens in
docs/ui-shell-mockup.html under "Catalogue: one stone record, everywhere" and
"Catalogue: the names, in public".
How a stone is added, named, changed and withdrawn in one place, and how that one record reaches the website, the store, product listings, quotes, purchase orders, stock, documents and social posts. A large part is about names: the supplier's name for a stone, the names the market uses, and our own.
Research was done on 11 November 2026. Points marked (unverified) were not read at their source. Legal points are for a lawyer to confirm. Nothing here is built.
1. What existed, and what was missing
| Was planned | Was missing |
|---|---|
"Stones with finishes, sizes, thicknesses and alternate names" (one line in docs/PLAN.md) |
What a stone record holds, and who may change what |
| "One record, many outputs" for the website | The same for quotes, purchase orders, stock, documents and listings |
| "Edit a stone", undrawn | Adding a stone; names; variants; readiness; withdrawing |
"Trade names are unreliable" (docs/EDITORIAL.md) |
A model for the names, and rules for where each may appear |
| What happens to open quotes and issued papers when a stone changes | |
| The supplier's name kept private everywhere |
2. Six rules
- One record per stone. Everything else refers to it. Nothing about a stone is typed anywhere else: not on a quote, not on a page, not on a purchase order.
- A stone has many names, each of a stated kind, and each kind has rules for where it may appear (section 4).
- What is sold is a variant: a stone in a finish, a thickness and a format. Prices, codes, weights and samples belong to the variant.
- Live places follow the record; issued papers do not. The website changes when the record changes. A quote sent, an order and an invoice keep the name and values they were issued with.
- Each place has its own readiness list. A stone appears on the website, in the store, in listings or on a quote when that place's list is met, not before.
- Nothing is deleted. A stone is withdrawn, replaced or brought back.
3. The stone record
| Group | Holds | Changed by | Approved by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | Our name (English and Arabic); what the rock is (limestone, marble, travertine…); typical colour; country and region of origin; a short description | Marketing | Owner |
| Names | Every other name (section 4) | Marketing, sales, purchasing | Marketing; owner for a name that becomes public |
| Variants | Finishes, thicknesses, formats (slab, tile, cut to size, finished pieces; never blocks), sizes; for each: our code, weight per m², customs code, whether a sample exists | Purchasing | Owner |
| Facts | Each test value with method, date, laboratory and report; uses it suits; care notes | Quality | A second person (docs/EDITORIAL.md) |
| Photographs | Whole slabs, a "range" set showing variation, close-ups, finishes side by side; each with date, lot, rights, and "may be shown" | Warehouse, marketing | Marketing |
| Suppliers | Who can supply it, their name and code for it, usual time, last price, minimum | Purchasing | Staff only, never public |
| Prices | Price lists by customer type and currency, with dates in force | Sales manager | Owner |
| Stock | Lots, bundles and slabs held or on order | Warehouse | |
| Downloads | Datasheet (made from the record), textures, specification text | Automatic; marketing | |
| State | Draft · live · to order · withdrawn · replaced by | Owner |
The description that travels with a stone. The European standard for naming stone (EN 12440) requires four things together: the traditional name, the kind of rock, the typical colour and the place of origin. It was read directly and it says so because, in its own words, "the same name is used to denominate different stones". So every place that shows a stone shows these together: "Sahara Beige · limestone · beige · Oman", never the name alone.
4. Names
The kinds
| Kind | What it is | Example (sample data) |
|---|---|---|
| Ours | The name we sell it under, in English and in Arabic | Sahara Beige |
| Market | A name other sellers and buyers use for it | Omani Beige, Desert Beige |
| Supplier's | What a supplier calls it, and their code | "SB Premium", SB-P |
| Another language or script | A translation or transliteration | An Arabic or Hindi spelling buyers type |
| Spelling | A common misspelling | "Sahara Biege" |
| Former | A name we used before | After a rename |
| Customer's | What one customer calls it on their orders | Their part number |
What is recorded for each name
The name; its kind; language and script; who uses it and where that was seen; whether it is also used for other stones; whether it is known to be a registered trade mark or an association's name; how often it is searched for (on our site and in search reports); and how far it may travel (below).
How far each kind may travel
| Kind | Staff search | Site search | Main stone page, the quiet "Also sold as" line | Its own page | Product listings | Quotes, papers | Purchase orders |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ours | ● | ● | Title | The stone page | Title | ● | With the supplier's beside it |
| Market | ● | ● | ● if true for this stone; not shown to a visitor who arrived under a market name | None. Its address leads to the main stone page, headed by that name (Revision 2) | One, in the description | Only if the customer used it | |
| Supplier's | ● | Never | Never | Never | Never | Never | ● to that supplier only |
| Another language | ● | ● | On that language's page | In that language | |||
| Spelling | ● | ● | Never | ||||
| Former | ● | ● | For a year | The old address redirects | |||
| Customer's | ● | That customer's only |
Why the supplier's name never leaves the building: it can identify the quarry. The brand rule is that the public sees "Oman" and never a supplier. This needs no law, only that the field cannot reach any public place, which the system enforces by kind.
Rules
- A market name is attached to a stone only when someone can say where they saw it used for this stone. The source is kept.
- A name used for more than one of our stones is attached to each. The owner chooses which one answers in public; staff screens show both (Revision 2).
- A name known to be someone's registered mark is kept for search only, and shown publicly only after the lawyer's view.
- A name that states a place the stone does not come from is never used as if it were the origin.
- Renaming a stone keeps the old name as "former", redirects the old address, and changes nothing on issued papers.
5. Pages for the other names: how far this can go
Replaced on 11 November 2026 by "Revision 2: the customer keeps their name" at the end of this document. The owner rejected the explanatory "name page" and "which stone?" page: they made a buyer doubt at the moment of choosing. The evidence on search engines below still holds and is why the new design keeps one page per stone. The ladder's fourth and fifth rungs are withdrawn.
The owner asked for public pages for every other name, so the site is found under all of them. The research says most names should not have their own page, and the stone can still be found under them.
What the evidence says
| Finding | Source |
|---|---|
| Pages "created to rank for specific, similar search queries", and "substantially similar pages", are doorway pages: a spam violation | Google's spam policy, read directly |
| Generating many pages by swapping in synonyms is named as scaled content abuse | The same policy |
| A bare list of names counts as keyword stuffing. A sentence, or a labelled table of names, does not | The same policy |
| Google already matches synonyms and corrects spelling; this improves "over 30 % of searches". For niche stone names it is not guaranteed, so each name must appear in visible text on the stone's page | Google's own description; a Google spokesman's hedged remark |
| Advice from Google's staff: "spend your energy on a fantastic page", not on duplicates | John Mueller, 2025 |
| How an encyclopaedia does it: other names and spellings redirect to one article, and are named in its first lines | Wikipedia's redirect rules |
| For AI answers, Google states no special markup is needed; the one controlled study found stuffing keywords lowered visibility, and clear statements with sources raised it | Google; Aggarwal and others |
| Third-party stone databases already carry wrong origins for Omani stones, which AI answers may repeat | Seen on one supplier database during research |
The ladder
Superseded on 12 November 2026 by "Revision 2: the customer keeps their name" at the end of this document. Kept for history; do not build from it.
Every name sits on one of five rungs. Most stop at the second.
| Rung | What happens | For |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Search only | Finds the stone in site search and staff search. Not shown | Misspellings; names that are someone's mark; names we are unsure of |
| 2. Also known as | Written on the stone's page, in a sentence near the top and in a small table of names (name, language, who uses it). Included in the page's data for search engines | Every market name that is true for this stone |
| 3. A redirecting address | The name's address leads to the stone's page | A name people type or link to; a former name |
| 4. A name page | Its own page: what the name means, who uses it, which stones it covers, how to be sure which one you are buying, and the stone we supply under it | Only when there is something true to say that the stone page does not: the name is ambiguous, or is used for stones from several places, or has real search demand |
| 5. A "which stone?" page | A page for a name that covers two or more of our stones, showing each | Where it applies |
The test for rung 4, applied at the publish check: does this page say something the stone page does not? If it is the stone page with a different heading, it is refused. Which names earn a page is decided from the search reports, each quarter: a name people actually search for, where we appear but are not chosen.
Why this still gets the stone found under every name: the name is in the visible text and the data of a strong page, in the right language, and people searching the name see it in the result. That is what search engines and AI assistants read. A separate thin page adds risk, not reach.
In practice
- Arabic names are on the Arabic page, which is linked to the English one. Search phrases are researched in Arabic.
- Listings: the title is our name plus the kind of rock; at most one well-known market name in the description. Google's merchant rules forbid stuffing names into titles or attributes.
- Site search treats a market name as leading to our stone, and gives the visitor's own word back as the name of the result. It does not say which name matched (Revision 2).
- Answers: there is no public "Which stone is 'Omani Beige'?" page. The name's address leads to the main stone page under that name (Revision 2).
6. Two things about the names already in use
The research raises two points about the catalogue's existing names. Both are for the owner and the lawyer; neither stops the plan.
- "Marble" for a limestone. Several stones are limestones sold as marble, which the trade does everywhere. The standard, and Oman's consumer law, point the same way: say what the rock is, beside the name. The Consumer Protection Law (Royal Decree 66/2014, read in its official English text) requires accurate information including the product's name and country of origin, and forbids advertising that deceives "directly or indirectly", with fines up to OMR 50,000 and imprisonment. It counts companies as consumers, so trade buyers may be covered. The plan already shows the kind of rock everywhere; this makes it a rule, not a courtesy.
- Names with a place in them. The naming standard says geographical names unrelated to the real origin "shall be avoided" in a stone's traditional name. "Sahara Beige" names a desert the stone does not come from. As a commercial name shown with the true origin it is defensible (this is inference; no source says so directly), and many sellers do the same. It should never be shown without "Oman" beside it.
A third point pulls against a brand rule. For stone sold into Europe with a CE mark, the same standard asks for the origin "as precise as possible": town and province, not just country. The brand rule is that the public sees only "Oman". Where a declaration of performance is required, the precise origin goes on that document and not on the website. Whether any customer needs one is a question for sales and the lawyer.
7. Variants: what is actually sold
| Matter | Rule |
|---|---|
| A variant | Stone × finish × thickness × format. Sizes within a format are a list |
| Switching one on | Makes it available to quotes; asks for what each place needs (a photograph, a sample, a price) |
| Our code | One per variant, made by rule (stone, finish, thickness), never reused |
| Units | Sold by m², slab or piece. The record holds weight per m² and usual slab size, so conversions are worked out, never typed |
| Customs code | Held per variant (rough, sawn and worked stone have different codes). Needed for export papers and, from 2027, for every invoice line (docs/DOCUMENTS.md) |
| The sample | A product of its own, tied to the variant: price, stock, delivery. It is what search engines list (docs/WEBSITE.md section 15) |
| Finishes, thicknesses, formats | Company-wide lists under settings, so "honed" is one thing everywhere |
8. Stone changes over time
A named stone is not constant: a quarry's benches differ, and the standard itself recognises varieties within one name. So:
- Every photograph and every test report carries its date and its lot.
- The public page shows a "range" set of several slabs, not one flattering slab, and says when they were photographed.
- A test report older than a set age (two years proposed; the standard's own interval is unverified and to be read) raises a Halo ring and is marked with its date on the page until renewed.
- When new lots look different from the range set, the warehouse flags it at goods receipt, and marketing decides: new photographs, a new variety name, or a new stone.
- The customer approves the range before accepting a quote, and the layout of their own job (or photographs of the actual pieces, for a small order) before loading (
docs/MATCHING.md). This is what protects against all of the above.
9. States, and what each place needs
States: draft → live → to order (no stock, can be ordered) → withdrawn. A stone may be "replaced by" another.
| Place | Needs before it shows the stone |
|---|---|
| Staff search and quotes | Our name, kind of rock, one photograph, at least one variant with a price in force |
| Website page | Names approved; three whole-slab photographs with rights; description; kind of rock and origin; at least the basic facts; Arabic reviewed (if Arabic is live) |
| Datasheet | Facts in date, with their reports |
| Samples store | A sample product with price, stock, delivery and returns |
| Product listings | The store's needs, plus a main photograph of the required size |
| Purchase orders | At least one supplier mapped, with their name and code |
| Export papers | Customs code confirmed for the variant |
| Social posts | A photograph marked "may be shown" |
Drawn as "Ready for": each place with a tick or the one thing missing.
10. Where the record goes
| Place | Takes | When the record changes |
|---|---|---|
| Website: stone page, landing pages, answers, guides | Names, description, facts, photographs | Rebuilt at the next publish, after review |
| Datasheets | Facts, variants | Remade; the old one is kept with its date |
| Samples store and product listings | Variants, sample products, photographs | Updated that night |
| Site search and staff search | All names | At once |
| Quote builder | Variants, prices, weights | New quotes use it. Sent quotes do not change |
| Orders, invoices, packing lists | Name, variant, code, customs code | Fixed as issued |
| Purchase orders | The supplier's name and code beside ours | New orders use it |
| Goods receipt, lots, labels | Variant codes | New labels use it |
| Landed cost and stock value | Variant | |
| Inbox and drafted replies | Names, facts | At once |
| Social posts | Names, photographs | Scheduled posts are re-checked |
| Portal | The customer sees the stone under the name they used; our name where they used none (Revision 2) | |
| Reports | By stone and variant |
Before any change is saved, the screen shows what it will touch (drawn as "Where used"): how many pages, datasheets, listings and open quotes. A change that affects a public place goes through review; one that affects open quotes tells sales.
11. Adding a stone
- The least first: what we call it, what rock it is, the country, the supplier and their name for it, one photograph. Saved as a draft. About a minute, on the phone, at the supplier's yard.
- "This may already exist": as the name is typed, and again when the supplier's name and photograph are added, the system looks for the same stone under another name. A person decides.
- Enrich: variants, more photographs, facts from the test report (read by the document reader, confirmed by a person), names.
- Readiness shows what each place still needs.
- Approval by the owner makes it live, place by place.
Starting the catalogue. The earlier work lists nine stone folders: Cloud Marble, Dyno, Elegant Grey, Imperial Cream, Moon Beige, Narcissus, Omani Black, Pearl White and Sahara Beige. They are brought in as drafts, one at a time, with their photographs and papers attached; none goes live until its record is complete and its names are checked.
12. Withdrawing and replacing
One action, by the owner (drawn). The website page says "no longer supplied" and offers the nearest stone; samples leave the store and the listings that night; the addresses of its other names follow its own; sales are told about open quotes; purchasing can no longer order it; every past order and paper is untouched. A stone replaced by a true successor redirects to it. One with no true successor returns "gone", because search engines treat a redirect to something unrelated as an error.
13. Problems, and the answer to each
| # | Problem | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The same stone entered twice under two names | The duplicate check on name, supplier's name and photograph; merging two records keeps both names |
| 2 | A page for every name, and the site is penalised | One page per stone. A name's address leads to that page; no name has a page of its own (Revision 2) |
| 3 | A market name implies another origin or rock | The description always travels with the name; the rule in section 4 |
| 4 | A name turns out to be someone's trade mark | The flag; search only until the lawyer's view |
| 5 | The supplier's name appears on a quote or a label | Blocked by kind, in the system, not by care |
| 6 | Sales call a stone one thing, purchasing another | Staff search finds it by any name and shows ours first |
| 7 | A customer orders by their own name for it | Their name is held on their account and printed on their papers, with our item code (Revision 2) |
| 8 | A stone is renamed and old links break | Former names redirect for good |
| 9 | A change silently alters a quote already sent | Sent quotes are fixed; only new ones use the change |
| 10 | The website says one thing, the datasheet another | Both are made from the same facts |
| 11 | Photographs no longer look like what is delivered | Dated range sets; the flag at goods receipt; the customer's approval of the range, then of the layout or the actual pieces |
| 12 | Test reports quietly go out of date | A review date on every fact |
| 13 | A variant is sold that has no sample or customs code | Readiness, per place |
| 14 | Two names for one finish ("honed", "matt") | One company-wide list |
| 15 | A name is used for two of our own stones | The owner chooses which one answers; the other appears lower down as a similar stone. Staff see both (Revision 2) |
| 16 | A withdrawn stone still appears in listings or posts | Withdrawal clears every place in one step |
| 17 | Arabic names differ between pages | One Arabic name per stone, reviewed once |
| 18 | An AI answer gives our stone the wrong origin | A clear, sourced page; the same facts on our public profiles. It cannot be fully prevented |
| 19 | Someone finds us under a name and thinks it is a different stone | The page is headed by the name they used, with the rock, the colour and "Oman" beside it. Which of our stones it is shows on staff screens only (Revision 2) |
| 20 | Too many fields, so nobody finishes a record | The least first; readiness shows only what the next place needs |
14. Settings
Under Control → Catalogue: the lists of finishes, thicknesses, formats, uses and rock kinds; how codes are made; what each place needs (section 9); who may add, change, approve and withdraw; the age at which a test must be renewed; how long a former name is shown; the rule for market names becoming public (proposed: marketing proposes, the owner approves).
15. For the lawyer
- Showing "limestone" beside a stone sold as marble: is the plan's wording enough under the Consumer Protection Law?
- Commercial names that contain a place the stone is not from.
- Using a market name that another company coined or registered, as "also sold as" or as the heading a visitor arrives under.
- Whether any customer needs a declaration with the precise origin, and how that sits with keeping the quarry private.
- Any confidentiality terms with suppliers about their names and quarries.
16. Decisions for the owner
- One page per stone; no name gets a page of its own. Settled by Revision 2: a name's address leads to the main stone page, headed by that name.
- The kind of rock is shown beside every name, everywhere. Proposed: yes.
- Whether to keep names with unrelated places in them (such as "Sahara") or choose new ones while the catalogue is small.
- Who approves a market name going public. Proposed: the owner.
- Test reports renewed every two years unless the standard says otherwise.
- Region of origin: "Oman" only, or a region where a customer's paperwork needs it.
17. Sources
Read directly: EN 12440:2008 (preview of clauses 3 and 4 and the introduction); the Building Research Establishment's guide to CE marking of stone; Google's spam policies, its notes on duplicate addresses, localised versions, how ranking treats synonyms, AI features, product results and merchant listings; Merchant Center rules on titles and product details; schema.org; reported remarks by Google's John Mueller on doorway pages, abbreviations, pages competing for one search, and redirects; Wikipedia's redirect rules; Oman's Consumer Protection Law in its official English text; trade articles on stone naming (Stone Specialist; Litos on Crema Marfil; Stone-Ideas); Wang and Strong on data quality; Baymard on search. From summaries only (unverified): the 2017 edition of EN 12440; a Portuguese review counting 53 shared names; ASTM C119; retest intervals; the e-invoicing code length; trade-mark law in Oman; catalogue software practice. Not researched: Oman's trade-names law; standard sizes and grading.
Added after reading other companies' sites (11 November 2026)
From docs/COMPETITORS.md. A stone record also holds: a variation grade from 1 to
4, with a range of photographs from lightest to deepest and one sentence saying what
the photographs represent; what each finish is for; care notes; and similar
stones with what differs. A lot can be marked "show on the website", with its
slab count, sizes, whether it is bookmatched and where it is; this depends on the
open question of whether stock is held. Each finish has its own sample, and a sample
knows the lot it was cut from.
Revision 2: the customer keeps their name for the stone
Added 11 November 2026, by the owner's direction. It replaces the "name page" and the "which stone?" page of section 5, and the wording "some sellers use these names for other stones" on the stone page. Drawn in the mockup under "Catalogue: the names, in public" and "Catalogue: a customer's name for a stone, as staff see it".
The principle
A visitor who asks for "Omani Beige" gets Omani Beige. They land on a page under that name, order a sample under that name, and are quoted and invoiced under that name. Nothing is explained to them. Only staff see which of our stones it is.
A buyer does not want a lesson in how the stone trade names things. They want to know that we have what they asked for. Explaining that a name is ambiguous, at the moment they are choosing, hands them a doubt they did not have.
What the visitor sees
| Moment | What happens |
|---|---|
| They arrive under a market name (a search on our site, a link, a code, an address with that name) | The stone's page, headed by their name: "Omani Beige · limestone · beige · Oman", the slab, the sample with its price, "ask for a quote". No "also sold as" line, no explanation |
| They order a sample or ask for a quote | The form, the sample's label, the confirmation, the quote and every later paper say "Omani Beige" |
| They search on the site | Their own word comes back as the name of the result. Other stones appear beneath as "you may also like", never as "did you mean" |
| They arrive under our own name for it | The same page headed "Sahara Beige", with one quiet line: "Also sold as Omani Beige and Desert Beige" |
| The name could be two of our stones | One answers: the stone the owner chose for that name. The other appears lower down as a similar stone, as on any stone page. No choice is put to the visitor |
| The name is chiefly another country's stone ("Crema Marfil") | It is not answered as ours. They are offered our nearest match, plainly as a different stone ("Find a match") |
What always sits beside the name, whichever name it is: what the rock is, its colour, and that it is from Oman. That is what keeps this honest, and it is also what the naming standard and Oman's consumer law ask for. The name is the customer's word; the facts are ours.
What staff see
| Screen | Shows |
|---|---|
| An enquiry | "She asked for: Omani Beige" and, beneath, "Ours: Sahara Beige", with its code, sample stock and lot. And "could also suit her: Moon Beige" |
| A quote, an order | Two sides: what she sees (her name for it, the rock, the origin) and what we see (our stone, our code, the lot, the supplier and their name for it, the margin) |
| A market name | Which stone answers to it; which are shown beside it as similar; where the name works (search, its own address, samples and papers, product listings); the three checks passed before it was switched on |
| The customer's record | Her names for stones are remembered, so her next order uses them without asking |
On her papers: her name for the stone, the rock, the colour, the origin, and our item code. Never on her papers: our supplier, the supplier's name for the stone, or where the lot came from.
The two approvals settle anything a name leaves open: she approves the range before accepting the quote, and the layout of her job (or photographs of the actual pieces) before loading, whatever anyone called the stone.
Before a name is switched on
Three checks, made once by marketing and approved by the owner:
- It is genuinely used for this stone, and we can say where we saw it.
- It is not chiefly another country's stone. If it is, it leads to "Find a match", never to a page claiming the name.
- It is not known to be someone's trade mark. If unsure, it stays search-only until the lawyer has looked.
A supplier's name for a stone and a misspelling are never switched on; they only help staff and the search box find the stone.
Search engines
Checked on 11 November 2026. One page per stone is still the rule.
| Finding | Source | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Several near-identical pages, one per name, each meant to be found, fit Google's description of doorway pages | Google's spam policy, read directly | One page per stone is indexed. Never one per name |
| What is written on an address that points to another as its original "generally doesn't get used" | A Google spokesman, 2018, as reported | A name must appear in plain text on the stone's main page to be found by it. So the main page, under our own name, keeps its one quiet line: "Also sold as Omani Beige, Desert Beige". A visitor who arrives under a market name sees that name as the heading and no such line |
| A redirect is the strongest signal of which address is the original | Google, read directly | A name's address redirects to the stone's main address, carrying the name with it. The page then shows that name as its heading and carries it into the sample and quote forms |
| Showing people one thing and search engines another is cloaking | Google's spam policy | The page's title and facts are the same for everyone. Only the visible heading follows the name the visitor came with, and the quiet line is left off for them |
| Good stone sites already do the quiet version | One large distributor shows "other industry names" as a plain line on a confident page | The same |
| A name can earn a fuller page of its own | Only with real demand and its own content: lots, projects and photographs under that name | Not done. No market name has a separate public page |
So the stone's main page is titled, for search engines, "Sahara Beige limestone (Omani Beige), Oman", and a visitor who came for Omani Beige sees "Omani Beige". The search result itself may show our catalogue name beside theirs; that cannot be avoided and does no harm.
A warning the research confirmed: another website already lists "Omani Beige, Sahara Beige, Desert Beige, Sohar Beige" as one stone with its origin given as Turkey. The same names are attached to other origins elsewhere. Stating "Oman" beside the name, every time, is both what protects us and what sets us apart.
How the mapping is kept safe
| Control | Why |
|---|---|
| One table of names to stones, with a first answer for each name; a customer may have their own | The same name always resolves the same way |
| The mapping is fixed on each quote line: her name, our code, the lot or the sample | A repeat order months later cannot quietly become a different stone |
| A name that could be two stones cannot be confirmed on an order until a person has chosen | The commonest mistake, stopped |
| Her approved range is attached before the order is confirmed | The stone is settled by what she saw, not by what anyone called it |
This is ordinary practice elsewhere: electronics distributors print the customer's own part number beside their own on labels and papers, and business software keeps a customer's name for an item against the seller's.
What the evidence does and does not show
Echoing a person's own words back to them has some support (a small study of restaurant tips; research on how ease of reading raises trust), but nothing tests it for buying stone. No study was found showing that an explanation of naming lowers orders. The change rests on the owner's judgement and on reasoning, and can be tested once there are visitors. The wording of Oman's consumer law on product names was read only in summary; the lawyer should confirm that a genuine market name, with the rock and origin beside it, is acceptable.
Settings
Under Control → Catalogue → Names: which stone answers to each name; whether our own catalogue name is ever shown beside the customer's (default: no); what goes on papers (default: the customer's name with our item code); who may switch a name on (default: marketing proposes, the owner approves).
Decisions
- The customer's name on their papers, with our item code and never our catalogue name. Proposed, as the owner asked.
- When a name could be two stones, the owner picks which one answers. Proposed.
- A name that is chiefly another country's stone is never answered as ours. Proposed; it is the one line that keeps this from misleading anyone.
Formats, selections and matching (added 11 November 2026)
The owner's rule: no blocks; what is promised is tiles and slabs that match. Planned in
docs/MATCHING.md. For the catalogue:
- Formats are slab, tile, cut to size, and finished pieces (steps, skirting, sills). "Block" is removed as a format.
- A stone has one to three selections, each defined by range photographs (lightest, typical, most veined) and one sentence. Selection names are ours; the trade's grade names are not standard.
- The variation grade stays, but the stone page now leads with the range and the line "what you receive stays within this range".
- A sample is a range set of three pieces in the ordered finish.
- A lot records tone groups, thickness readings, treatment, the customer it is reserved for, and the spare.