Maintaining The Directory

This is a short user-guide for contributors and editors of the Directory of Manufacturers and Mowers (the "Directory"). It is not a manual explaining how to use the content management system underlying the website. It is likely that anyone who is editing or adding to the Directory will be familiar enough with the content management system to be able to create new pages and make changes to existing content.

The Directory was originally produced in 2000 by Christopher Thompson as a handy reference to lawn mower manufacturers and models dating from before 1970. It was never conceived as a comprehensive history of the lawn mower. Rather, the intention was solely as a reference guide to help enthusiasts identify machines and manufacturers with additional information such as age range, cutting sizes and so on.

From the outset the approach was only to include machines which Chris had either seen in person or where he had found a reference in in a catalogue, brochure, book etc. In this way the information could always be said to be "verified" even if other enthusiasts and collectors could sometimes claim that the listing was not comprehensive. Where proper evidence was available it was always possible to update the references.

The aim was to update and expand the Directory continuously so that any copy printed off would be the most up to date possible. In practice, the Directory was only updated three or four times over the years and not at all since 2006. This was largely because of lack of new information available for Chris to add and lack of time on his part.

Over the years it became clear that while the information in the Directory remained an invaluable resource there were better ways of compiling and editing the data. During 2012 the data was transferred to the Club's content management system so that it can be edited in the same way as the rest of the website. Only certain members with the proper access can edit the content (these are designated the role of "Directory Editor").