Edition Log

Added

• Live Stripe products and prices wired for all three Editions (Preparedness Kit Digital $14.95 · Hearing Pack $9 · Library Edition $29.95). The Buy button is no longer 'Coming soon.'
• Edition + Bundle buy redirect routes (/editions/$slug/buy, /bundles/$slug/buy) that open Stripe Checkout in one tap. Server-side allowlist validates the price id — never trusts the client.
• Real thank-you page at /support/thank-you — retrieves the Checkout Session and branches on fulfillment: digital download vs. shipping address echo vs. donation purpose. Receipt page /support/receipt/$orderId uses the same lookup.
• Bookstore rebuild at /shop — three browse doors (Situation · Collection · Format), Featured Editions row with real covers, Editor's Picks / New This Month shelves, six editorial Bundles, five Audience doors, and the search bar demoted into a disclosure.
• Six editorial Bundles at /bundles — Neighborhood Starter · Public Hearing · Public Records · Organizer · Reporter · Library Collection. Each is a real product page with hand-picked contents, lifecycle chip, Give-One toggle, and Buy button.
• Five Institution doors — Libraries · Schools & Teachers · Churches · Reporters · Neighborhood Groups — each with audience-specific framing. New /institutions/quote intake for bulk pricing, PO, Net-30, tax-exempt, W-9, and complimentary review copies.
• Four Donation Purposes (Mission · Publishing · Community · Preservation) on /support with default amount ladders. Same checkout surface; the thank-you page honors the purpose.
• SupportRibbon mounted in __root.tsx above the SiteFooter on every content page; inline variant on About and Contact. Suppressed on /shop, /editions/*, /bundles/*, /support/*, print routes, and admin routes.
• Primary nav: a 'Support' link sits next to 'Shop' so a donate path exists from every page in one tap.
• LifecycleChip rendered on every product card and product page (Available default is silent; Coming Soon / Updated / Revised / Superseded / Archived each carry a chip).
• Give One — opt-in $5 line item on every paid product. Never pre-checked. Receipt explicitly thanks the buyer for funding a neighbor copy.
• AlsoOnThisShelf — editorial cross-sell ('the librarian recommends…') hand-picked from src/lib/commerce/companion-map.ts. No algorithm, no 'customers also bought.'
• Two long-horizon pages: /support/legacy (estate · memorial · named fund · endowment) and /support/grants (foundation · government · historical preservation · civic education · library · journalism) — each with the editorial-independence clause.
• Commerce Maturity Ladder pinned in docs/commerce-maturity-ladder.md. V1 ships at Stage 2 (Professional Bookstore) with Stage 3 (Institutional Publisher) doors visible.
• Institutional pricing bands documented in docs/institutional-pricing.md — Library $19/copy @ 5+ · Classroom $15/copy @ 10+ · Net-30 on request · Tax-exempt supported.
• Pass 21 — Commerce, Sustainability & Public Launch bylaws (mem/preferences/pass-21-revenue-bylaws.md): Shop is a bookstore · every paid page has a working Buy button or no Buy button · only persistent donate affordance is the SupportRibbon + nav link · Stripe loads only on checkout / buy / thank-you · no cart, no accounts, no subscriptions in V1 · print fulfillment manual through V1 · every Buy/Support button states what happens next · editorial firewall · institutional discounts never apply to individuals · Give One always opt-in · no stock or AI photography · cross-sells are editorial · lifecycle visible on every product · mission metrics alongside revenue · donation purposes honored.

Improved

• Refund policy now explicitly covers Editions, Bundles, digital and print. A 'Refund within 30 days · Stripe-hosted · No account' line sits under every Buy button.
• Edition bumped to 15.0 — 'The Bookstore Opens.' The Public Beta chip stays on until the Launch Readiness Gate passes.

Added

• Civic Library rebuilt at /library — editor's note, four primary shelves (Community · Decision · Records · Reference), a single expand control for the rest, Recommended Library Paths, and the full catalog demoted to the bottom.
• Edition Intelligence — a standardized ten-row block appears on every publication, in fixed order: Series · Shelf Number · Current Edition · First Published · Last Reviewed · Next Review · Corrections · Related Publications · Reading Time · Print Friendly. Hairline, no color, no animation.
• Recommended Library Paths replace 'Related Products' everywhere — now six paths: notice received · heard about a project · first meeting · organizing neighbors · public records · building a civic library.
• Before You Begin block on every major handbook — Estimated reading · Estimated preparation · Items to gather.
• Before You Buy block on every paid Edition — answers five plain questions: Who is this for? What problem does it solve? What stays free? What does this edition save you? Why buy this edition over the free version?
• Compare Editions page at /editions/compare — one restrained table covering inclusion, print quality, writing space, reference tabs, companion materials, ideal-for, delivery, and price.
• Scenario A — Rezoning — ends with 'What changed because the neighbors prepared?' and a three-bullet 'What we learned.' This pattern becomes the template for every future Scenario.
• Pass 20 — Civic Library & Launch Readiness bylaws (mem/preferences/pass-20-library-bylaws.md): library-as-front-door · four primary shelves · shelf metaphor canonical · ten-row Edition Intelligence · Library Paths replace Related Products · pass-it-on opt-in end-of-checkout only · one Stripe path · seven-point live cutover gate · Editor's Letter reserved · restraint check recurring · completion percentages only (no gamification) · time-saving covenant · positive framing · scenarios end with What Changed + What We Learned · Before You Begin on every handbook · shop is need-first.

Improved

• Shop reframed from product-first to help-first — 'Choose the help you need' lanes (Notice · Meeting · Records · Evidence · Research · Organizer · Reference Library) sit above the featured Edition.
• 'Pass it on' is an opt-in question on the support thank-you page only — never on a product page, never before purchase. The metric is 'Editions shared with neighbors.'
• Edition bumped to 14.5 — 'Civic Library & Launch Readiness.' Public Beta chip stays on until the Launch Readiness Gate passes.

Added

• Decision filter (permanent bylaw): every new feature must answer 'Does this help preserve civic knowledge, reduce confusion, or help people participate more effectively?' before it ships.
• Community section at /community — three lanes (Starter Kits · Organizer's Handbook · Group Workflows) plus Meeting Packets, Block Edition, and the Civic Toolkit. No accounts, no backend group state.
• Neighborhood Starter Kit at /community/starter-kit — five free printable pages for the first three neighbors on a block.
• Printable Meeting Packets at /community/meeting-packets — Kitchen-Table Meeting, Pre-Hearing Huddle, After-the-Hearing Debrief.
• Block Edition at /community/block-edition — a stapled pack-of-three for distribution at a kitchen-table meeting. Free.
• Group Workflows at /community/shared-record — a local-only shared workbench. Export = printable group binder. Import = QR or JSON. No accounts, no server sync.
• Civic Toolkit at /community/toolkit — window signs, door notices, sign-in sheets, agenda/question/name cards, binder spine labels, project box labels. The publication's physical handshake.
• The Community Organizer's Handbook at /handbooks/community-organizer — a free handbook for calling the first meeting and keeping the record. No 'lead organizer' framing; spotlight communities, not individuals.
• Series hub at /series — publications now read as Series: Community (01), Records (02), Decision (03), Reference (04). Series numbers 05–08 reserved for Research, History, Field Reports, and Annual Editions.
• Series pages at /series/community · /series/records · /series/decision · /series/reference — each lists publications in publication order with a library-style shelf code (CS-101, RS-101, DS-101, FS-101).
• Institutions hub at /institutions — Library · Church · School/Teacher · Reporter · HOA · Neighborhood Association · Historical Society kits. A separate door, not a separate paywall.
• For Teachers at /institutions/teachers — a one-period lesson plan, a semester reading list, and printable worked examples for high-school civics, community college planning, public administration, urban planning, and journalism.
• For Librarians at /outreach/libraries — a printable one-pager with a suggested catalog entry, PO information, and a request line for complimentary review copies.
• Public refund policy at /support/refunds — 30-day no-questions refund. Linked from checkout and footer.
• Receipt re-download page at /support/receipt/$orderId — permanent placeholder for every order; wired to real downloads alongside the live cutover.
• Editorial Handbook at docs/editorial-handbook.md — the single entry point that indexes every editorial rule across the project.
• Community Pillar Standards at docs/community-pillar-standards.md — voice, format, and 'no individuals named' rule for everything under Community.
• Publication Lifecycle at docs/publication-lifecycle.md — the seven visible stages (Research → Draft → Editorial Review → Publication → Correction → Revision → Archive) and the five Maturity Status labels (Emerging · Stable · Evergreen · Archived · Superseded).
• Pass 19 — Adoption & Community Readiness bylaws (mem/preferences/pass-19-adoption-bylaws.md): twenty-five bylaws covering the decision filter, refined goal, commerce serves not sells, communities as first-class readers, Binder Tab G, 'Pass it on,' Series numbering, Shelf codes, the Library Effect, Publication Lifecycle and Maturity Status, Reader Journey, and an explicit list of what remains deferred.
• Pass 19 checkout audit at.lovable/pass-19-checkout-audit.md — every paid surface inventoried, every blocking question routed to the next cutover pass.

Improved

• Footer reorganized — Start columns lead with the new Community and Series sections; About & Trust adds Refunds, Receipt, and Editorial Handbook references.
• First Steps becomes a three-door entry — 'Something on my street' · 'I'm worried about a project' · 'We're a group of neighbors.' Removes the implicit assumption that every visitor is solo.
• Shop verbs upgraded from 'Preview' to action-oriented 'Get the Digital Edition' / 'Order the Library Edition' / 'Get the Hearing Pack,' with 'Preview Sample Pages' as the secondary.
• Edition bumped to 14.4 — Adoption & Community Readiness. The Public Beta chip stays on until the Launch Readiness Gate passes; cutover remains one commit.

Added

• Trust Architecture (docs/trust-architecture.md) formally names four systems — Publishing, Civic Knowledge, Trust, Preservation. Every future feature declares which system(s) it serves.
• Trust Dashboard at /about/trust consolidates publication standards, editorial process, evidence ladder, revision history, corrections policy, publication schedule, launch gate, field reports, impact, status, and contributors.
• 'As corrected' badge on TrustStamp surfaces a small chip linking a corrected publication to the relevant row in /about/corrections — trust earned by visible repair.
• Corrections carry severity classes — Minor · Editorial · Substantive · Legal · Withdrawn — and the page now explains each class above the log.
• Field Reports gain two outcome classes — Pending (still ongoing) and Updated (a prior report revisited) — and an optional Editorial Note added on revisit, so older reports cannot silently become misleading.
• Friends of the Record at /support/friends reframes membership as a PBS / Wikipedia register. Hard bylaw: no essential civic information ever behind any tier.
• Sponsor Criteria at /support/sponsor-criteria publishes the editorial firewall verbatim — sponsors cannot review, edit, approve, delay, or remove publications.
• The Prepared Neighbor monthly dispatch (signup live in the footer, archive at /dispatch). Plain text. Double opt-in. No tracking. Framed as publishing, not marketing.
• Hall of Contributors at /about/contributors — editors, researchers, illustrators, reviewers, libraries, archives. Empty rows remain empty until a real contributor earns the line.
• Editorial Calendar at /about/editorial-calendar shows stages (Coming Soon · Currently Reviewing · Research · Writing · Illustrating · Editing · Publishing), the seasonal civic cycle, and a retired / superseded section.
• Publication Quality Index (docs/publication-quality-index.md) — internal-only 14-criterion score per handbook that drives the Evergreen Review Queue. Never public.
• Pass 18 bylaws (mem/preferences/pass-18-bylaws.md): Knowledge compounds · Four-system Trust Architecture · As-corrected badge · Correction severity · Search confidence · Field-report Editorial Notes · Spotlight communities not individuals · Friends of the Record · Sponsor firewall · Stable pricing (no A/B) · Newsletter is publishing, not marketing · Sell saved time · Physical-language for paid products · Retire SaaS vocabulary · Zoom 125/150/200% · Illustration Retirement List.

Improved

• Impact page rebuilt with four sections — Platform Counts, Editorial Metrics, Community Impact (from Field Reports), Preservation Metrics — plus a stated 'never display: visitors, downloads, users, ratings, reviews' bylaw.
• Footer adds Trust Dashboard, Contributors, Editorial Calendar, Friends of the Record, Sponsor Criteria, and The Prepared Neighbor — plus a compact dispatch signup beneath the columns.
• Edition bumped to 14.3 — Public Trust & Adoption. The Public Beta chip stays on until the Launch Readiness Gate passes; cutover remains one commit.

Added

• A Publishing House bylaw: Before They Build is a publishing house first, and a software platform second. Software exists to support the publications — not replace them.
• BTB Design System 1.0 (docs/design-system-1-0.md) freezes vertical rhythm, card cadence, type scale, button sizes. Three card templates only — Featured, Standard, Compact. Three button sizes only. Future passes may add but not redefine.
• Launch Readiness Gate (docs/launch-readiness-gate.md) — seven categories (Trust, Usability, Accuracy, Performance, Operations, Advocacy, Community). Beta cannot be removed until every category is signed off in.lovable/pass-16-audit.md.
• Glassmorphism, mesh gradients, and hyper-real 3D product renders permanently rejected. Backgrounds are paper, stone, ink, or natural vignette.
• Every product now carries Volume, Series, and Edition. New publishing-metadata strip renders on every product page (Volume · Series · Edition · Format · Pages · Updated).
• Product hero objects: every product page leads with a grayscale line-art plate from the existing PLATE/FIG register. Commissioned editorial photography ships in Pass 16.5.
• Concrete preparation hours on every product page (Typical preparation, unaided 6–10 hours · With this edition 2–3 hours) replaces the adjective-driven preparedness line as the hero claim.
• Most Printed strip — four-tile institutional row above Start Here. No counts, no stars; label 'Most printed' only.
• Header subtitle on desktop (≥lg): 'A handbook for prepared neighbors.' Hidden on mobile to preserve nav density.
• Press Kit at /press — one-paragraph project description, founder statement, fact sheet, downloadable assets, Organization JSON-LD.
• Outreach Kit at /outreach — pre-written email templates segmented by audience (neighbor, journalist, librarian, association, environmental group, church, teacher, council member).
• Partners page at /partners — open call for libraries, churches, universities, newsrooms, nonprofits.
• Advocacy follow-up playbook at /resources/after-the-hearing — six steps for the week after a hearing, plus thank-you templates.
• Where this is going at /about/where-this-is-going — an honest six-month roadmap (Pass 16 → 20).
• First Reader Quotes component with three reserved slots and 'Be one of the first → /contact?subject=Testimonial.' Honesty bylaw — no fake quotes, no fake metrics, no fake reviews. Empty is honest.
• Admin Launch dashboard at /admin/launch — read-only Launch Readiness Gate state plus a metric stub. Helps the operator hold a single screen before flipping LAUNCH_GATE_PASSED.
• Public health endpoint at /api/public/health for uptime monitors and the Launch Readiness Gate.
• Support playbook (docs/support-playbook.md) — SLAs per topic, canned responses, escalation rules. /contact form expands with topics: Outdated info · Accessibility · Legal clarification · Refund · Press · Jurisdiction request · Testimonial.
• Incident response (docs/incident-response.md) and product roadmap (docs/product-roadmap.md).
• Jurisdiction Engine scaffolded — Jurisdiction type lives in src/lib/jurisdictions/index.ts. The bylaw is set: a jurisdiction page may only ship when every deadline has a citation. Three seed jurisdictions ship in Pass 17.
• Footer publishing imprint line: 'Before They Build Press · An imprint of ShellMiddy Inc. · Independently published. No advertisers. No partisan funding.' Plus a purpose line above the legal copy: 'Helping communities understand local decisions before they become permanent.'
• Eight new bylaws (mem/preferences/pass-16-bylaws.md): Publishing House · Rejected aesthetics · Featured-treatment cap · Publishing identity · Navigation · Jurisdiction citation · Launch Readiness Gate · Honesty · Enduring-assets test.

Improved

• Shop now leads with a single Featured kit (Digital Edition) — wider, taller, no stars, no badges. Bylaw: at most one Featured treatment per page section.
• Shop search promoted to library-search status — wider, taller, larger type, with seed-term autocomplete (hearing, rezoning, solar, records, FOIA, permit…). Declarative filter — ShopFilterContext replaces the Pass-15 DOM-mutation.
• Shop section order: Hero → Search → Featured → Most Printed → Situation → Start Here → Preparedness Kits → Cards & Printables → Community Tools → Compare → First Readers → Trust Foundation.
• Cards & Printables and Community Tools render as two-column reference lists with hairline dividers — the library-index feel — instead of uniform card grids.
• Comparison table: free-foundation rows ship in full ink; paid-feature rows render in muted ink so the eye reads 'free is the foundation; paid is organization.'
• Situation chooser wording: 'I have a public hearing soon' · 'I'm tracking a project' · 'I want a permanent reference' · 'I want to learn first.'
• Public-facing edition bumped to 14.2 — Public Launch Readiness. The PUBLIC BETA chip stays on until the Launch Readiness Gate passes; flipping LAUNCH_GATE_PASSED in src/lib/site/edition.ts is the cutover.

Added

• A Shop at /shop — organized by urgency (Need help today · Need help this week · Long-term reference · Everything free), not by SKU. Search across every product, free or paid, ships with day one.
• A Situation Chooser on /shop and /editions — three plain rows ('I have a hearing next week', 'I'm following a project', 'I want a permanent reference'). Never a quiz.
• A 'What changed in this edition' block on every product page — four hand-written bullets so buyers see the publication evolving.
• A 'Revisions: …' line in every buy card so readers know how often the edition is updated before they pay.
• A 'Bring this to:' line under every Table of Contents (Hearing · Planning office · Neighbor meeting · HOA · Church). People rarely ask what something is; they ask when to use it.
• A 'Continue learning' block (component-level) for the bottom of answer-style pages. Hand-curated topical clusters, never 'People also ask'.
• Seven Pass 15 bylaws: Preparedness, Three-question, Readiness filter, Vocabulary, One-next-step, Institution voice, Delight. A Launch Gate Checklist (docs/launch-gate-checklist.md) becomes the permanent governance gate for every future major edition.
• Shop is now in the main navigation between Resources and About, and in the Start Here footer column alongside Editions.

Improved

• Paid editions renamed: Public Hearing Pack → Hearing Preparedness Pack · Digital Edition → Preparedness Kit (Digital Edition) · Library Edition → Preparedness Library. URLs and prices unchanged.
• Every product page now leads with a single italic line naming the time saved or uncertainty removed, replaces the page-count noun with what you walk away with, and promotes 'Why isn't this required?' to a bordered call-out above the buy card.
• Trust Foundation: 'Selling me something?' becomes 'Do I have to buy anything?' — the way Linda would actually ask. A seventh question is added: 'Will this replace an attorney? No. When legal advice matters, we say so.'
• Community Bundle export: the 'Save.btb file' button becomes 'Download Community Bundle' with a small line beneath: 'Opens in Before They Build. Drop the file onto the Import area on another device.' File extensions never appear in primary buttons.
• Workbench Bundles renamed 'Community Bundles' in the page header. Import copy drops the literal.btb extension.

Added

• Trust Foundation — a six-question strip on the home page, every handbook, every answer page, every edition page, and the support page. A first-time visitor can answer 'what is this, who is it for, can I trust it, is it trying to sell me something, what if I don't buy, can I use it today' in under thirty seconds.
• Editions hub at /editions — introduces the Three Ways framing: Free (everything you need), Digital Edition (everything organized), Library Edition (everything preserved). The Free column links back to the canonical handbooks; the paid columns are previews until checkout opens.
• Digital Edition preview at /editions/digital — what's inside, who it's for, who it's not, sample pages, edition history, and a 12-month included-revisions promise. Buy button is a placeholder until prices are finalized.
• Public Hearing Pack preview at /editions/public-hearing-pack — a smaller $9 edition focused on the next hearing. Speech worksheet, timeline, questions, checklist, evidence sheets, meeting notes.
• Three new bylaws in mem/preferences/edition-14-bylaws.md — Revenue (paid products save time, never lock essential knowledge), Trust (whenever trust and conversion conflict, trust wins), and Simplicity (every purchase decision understandable in thirty seconds).
• A 'Why isn't this required?' paragraph on every product page, with the answer: 'Because the free handbook already contains everything important. This edition simply saves you time.'
• A mission line near every Buy button: 'Your purchase keeps every core handbook free for every neighbor.'
• Linda's First Dollar — a placeholder in the Edition Log waiting for the first ordinary citizen to purchase a handbook because it solved a real problem. The entry will preserve the search query, landing page, and time-to-purchase as company history.

Improved

• Trust Strip rewritten to four locked checks: Everyday language · Free forever · Evidence based · Print ready. 'Free forever' replaces 'Free to start' on purpose — it is the public commitment behind the new Revenue bylaw.

Added

• Where to Start (/where-to-start) — a, neighborly orientation page that meets visitors who have just discovered a proposed project. Six steps for the next thirty minutes, four steady habits for the months that follow.
• The Prepared Neighbor Card — a single-page printable companion to Where to Start. Filed in Binder Tab A so it lives next to the hearing materials.
• A fifth tile on the Common Situations strip: 'I'm feeling overwhelmed and don't know where to start.' Links to Where to Start. The label names a need, never an emotion.
• A new editorial principle — Turn concern into understanding — that guides any surface where readers may arrive with strong feelings. Pair acknowledgment with action; never spend more than one paragraph on the feeling before pivoting.
• Two new bylaws: Begin with capability (orientation pages open with what the reader can do, not with limitation or warning) and Preparation beats reaction (the editorial filter for civic decisions).

Improved

• Notice and Proposed stage pages now offer a inline link for readers who arrived without context: 'Just learned about this? Start with Where to Start.'

Added

• The Kitchen Table bylaws: a Neighbor Test, a Positive-Before-Defensive rule, a One-Privacy-Line-Per-Page rule, and an Editorial Consistency Governance Rule that requires every editorial decision to be applied across the entire publication, not just where it was first flagged.

Improved

• Every page heading now answers the question that brought the reader. 'Reach the editorial desk' → 'Questions, corrections, or partnerships.' 'A knowledge center for neighbors' → 'A civic learning library.' 'Written for everyone who lives somewhere' → 'Who this is for.' 'Does one of these sound like you?' → 'What's going on?'
• The Evidence Helper now opens by explaining what good records build (a clearer picture over time) rather than what they prevent (being dismissed). The whole 'Why evidence matters' block is rewritten.
• How It Works no longer brags about not needing a legal degree. The new title — 'Four clear steps from notice to record' — describes what you'll do. The 'Why Remember' section becomes 'Why preserving history is its own step'.
• The 3-Question Guide and the Community Guide now promise the same thing in the same words: 'We'll build a plan just for your situation.'
• Feedback blocks ('Was this helpful?') now read as a request, not as telemetry. The old 'Anonymous improvement signals' becomes 'If you'd like to share feedback, your note goes to the editorial team to make this guide clearer.'
• The Contact hero promise changes from 'Corrections jump the queue' to 'Error corrections are worked on first' — same priority, friendlier voice.
• Resource summaries no longer reassure readers that hearings 'are less intense than they sound' — they describe what to expect instead.

Removed

• Duplicate privacy banners on My Community Record and the Evidence Helper. Each page keeps its strongest single privacy line.
• The 'private handbook' framing on Plate I — 'Your handbook' is enough; the privacy line lives in the breadcrumb.

Added

• Prepared Neighbor is now a protected brand phrase. The footer carries a five-line Prepared Neighbor Checklist (recognition, not gamification) that prints inside binder covers.
• An editorial motto: 'Understand. Prepare. Participate.' Visible under the footer wordmark and on printed frontispieces.
• Two new bylaws — Preserve Dignity ('Every interaction should leave the reader more informed, more prepared, and more respected than when they arrived.') and Editorial Humility ('We do not assume we know more than the reader.').
• A 'Better Information → Better Preparation → Better Participation → Better Communities' progression replaces the single-sentence editorial stance on the About page and the Response Directory.

Improved

• The hero subline and the 'Built for the neighbor' section both stop defining Before They Build by what it isn't. The new line: 'Built to help communities get informed and involved.'
• 'Pick the situation that matches your week' becomes 'What do you need help with?' across the home page, the intake index, and the FAQ — the way real people actually phrase the question.
• The Civic Atlas section title becomes 'What's being built?' — closer to how a neighbor thinks about a new project.
• 'Find the door that fits your week' becomes 'Where would you like to begin?' under a 'Starting points' eyebrow.
• 'A taste of what's coming' becomes 'Decode the notice.' under a 'Notice Decoder' eyebrow — it is a tool, not marketing.
• 'Trust is the product' becomes 'What we provide' — same trust signal, plainer noun.
• The four steps are now 'practical' rather than '' — the last lingering use of the sedative.
• The About page mission softens from 'extraordinary stewards' to 'thoughtful stewards' — aspirational without sounding heroic.
• The site footer paragraph swaps 'remembering' for 'preserving' — the word a homeowner reaches for when describing the work.

Removed

• The Plate of the Week block on the home page — the Plate Registry link in the footer is enough.

Added

• A Reader Covenant on the About page: every visitor is presumed to be acting in good faith. Three short tests (Respect, Empowerment, Trust) now govern every sentence we publish.
• An 'Assume Courage' clause acknowledging that participating in civic life takes time, effort, and sometimes personal courage.
• An editorial Vision on the About page: 'We help ordinary people become extraordinary stewards of their communities.'

Improved

• The 'General information only' warning banner across packets and helpers is now a Editorial Note — same disclosure, none of the alarm.
• The Trust Strip on the home page replaces 'What we don't do' with 'You bring the initiative' — same trust signal, opposite posture.
• The Contact page's 'What we don't do' card becomes 'Where to go next', pairing every limit with a positive redirect (legal → attorney; casework → ombudsperson; advocacy → civic association).
• The 'What we deliberately don't do' block on How Recommendations Work becomes 'What we promise', restated as four positive commitments.
• The About page's 'What we are not' card becomes 'Where to go instead' — every 'not' paired with the right channel.

Clarified

• Reassuring adjectives are retired from page headers and reader-directed copy (it survives only inside scripts that advise how to speak at a podium).
• The Privacy page leads with 'Your work stays on your device.' The Terms page rephrases reprint permissions as a friendly invitation rather than a warning.
• The Public Records Handbook now says 'no justification required' instead of 'you don't have to explain why'.
• The home page's stage picker leads with 'What stage is the development in your area?' instead of the more clinical 'Where are you in the process?'

Removed

• The evidence form's 'MisuseNotice' is renamed MatchHint — the name itself was the problem. The hint is now neutral, not an accusation.

Added

• The Civic Library at /library — every handbook, packet, field guide, field report, collection, and citation in one browseable place. Filter by kind or topic.
• The Civic Canon at /canon — an editorial top-ten reading list. Not an algorithm; a decision.
• The Plate Registry at /about/plates — every illustration we have ever shipped, indexed by Roman numeral with caption, edition, and rights.
• A 'What next?' strip at the foot of every publication so no page is ever a dead end.
• Reading status dots (New · Reading · Done) on publications. Stored on this device only. Cleared with one button.
• A 'From the field' strip on the home page that promotes the two most recent Field Reports — they were hidden behind the Workbench before.
• A 'Plate of the Week' on the home page that rotates through the illustration registry so every visit feels alive.
• On My Community Record: a 'Save a copy as a Bundle' and a 'Start a Project Tracker' card so the Pass 22 tools are one click away instead of buried in the Workbench.
• An Edition 13 changes page at /about/edition-13-changes — a, human-readable diff for this edition.

Improved

• The footer was collapsed from six encyclopedic columns to four editorial ones. Less to scan, more obvious where to go.
• The Workbench tiles were reordered by likely first-use instead of by date built.
• Every handbook now ends with a 'Spot something wrong? File a correction.' line.

Clarified

• Software jargon swept toward civic language: Export → Save Copy, no Sync, no Cloud, no Account. The audit is published at docs/civic-language-audit.md.

Added

• Copy a template now actually copies — clipboard plus a toast — so you can paste it into email without scrolling and selecting.
• An Editorial Console at /admin replaces the old 404, with cards for the Feedback Inbox, the Search Dashboard, and a placeholder for the Editorial Queue coming in the next pass. Still admin-gated; nothing public changed.
• A desktop-only 'document corner' cursor, with a 'compass pin' cursor on the Field Guide. Phones, tablets, reduced-motion users, and anyone who toggles 'Use system cursor' on the Accessibility page never see it.

Improved

• The Public Records Handbook is now action-first: a Do This hero with Copy-a-template and Start-a-request, a 'Who usually holds this' table, three worked project examples (Solar Farm · Data Center · Rezoning), and the legal definition moved below the fold.
• Field Guide pages (/observations) now lead with 'Do this first' — save the notice, photograph it, write down the deadline, open the next step — instead of explaining the page format.
• First Steps now opens with 'What's in this guide' and a one-sentence reason these five steps matter. The closing CTA is 'Back to home / How it works' instead of duplicating 'Pick your path'.
• The 3-question Guide shows '1 of 2 selected' on the concerns step and ends on a Civic Action Card with Start over and Back home — never a dead end.

Fixed

• Hover pointer states audited across the Guide, Concern tiles, Civic Action Card, and Now/Next/Later rails.

Added

• A Civic Knowledge Engine behind every search and Guide outcome. The same library powers the Ask Bar, the 3-question Guide, the handbook 'Read next' rails, and the new Field Guide.
• A Field Guide at /observations — citizens browse what they saw on their street (orange flags, survey stakes, silt fence, hearing notice, posted sign) and we point to the handbook or tool that handles it.
• 'Now / Next / Later' on every recommendation — humans think sequentially. The Guide's Civic Action Card and the Ask Bar both use this.
• A 'Why this result?' panel on every recommendation. Everyday language. No black-box advice. Required on every search surface by the new bylaws.
• Three input modes on the Ask Bar — 'I saw…' / 'I received…' / 'I'm experiencing…' — to match how citizens naturally describe what brought them here.
• Recent searches — last three queries, private to this device, shown on focus.

Improved

• Search now handles plain-English questions ('what is a setback', 'who do I call about a wetland'), symptoms ('can't sleep', 'trucks idling'), and misspellings ('rezone', 'rezoneing', 'rezoning'). Glossary definitions appear inline.
• A 'Did you mean…?' chip appears when we spot a likely typo.
• When the deterministic engine finds a confident match, the AI helper is not called at all. When it is called, the AI picks from a short list rather than searching the whole site.
• About page is monochrome — the blue accent on '21st-century' has been removed. Tighter spacing between the closing 'What we are not' card and the colophon.
• Contact page mailbox plate now uses the standard paper-warm background like every other plate. The form's decorative subtitle has been removed; the eyebrow now reads 'Write to the editorial desk.'

Fixed

• Header navigation no longer overlaps the 'Before They Build' wordmark on desktop.

Added

• The 3-question guide at /guide: pick what's happening, pick your stage, pick your biggest concern. The system returns a personalized Civic Action Card.
• A 'Civic Action Card' — the result screen of the guide — includes a urgency label (Urgent / Important / Monitor / Information only), a numbered 'do this first' checklist saved privately to your device, and a 'Why this?' sentence that explains why we routed you to that page.
• A 'Continue where you left off' strip on the homepage that resumes the guide if you've taken it before. Saved to this device, never to a server, never to an account.
• Two entry points into the guide on the homepage: a project picker right under the search bar, and a small 'Take the 3-question guide' link under the search box itself.
• A '3-Question Guide' link in the top navigation, the footer, and as a small pill at the bottom of every handbook — 'Not sure where to begin?'

Improved

• The About page has been rewritten as the front of the handbook: an opener with a single museum plate, a serif pull-quote, a three-column ledger of promises (Understand · Document · Participate), a drop-cap essay with marginalia, a 'What we are not' card, and a colophon that closes with the permissions block.
• The Contact page has been rewritten as the back of the handbook: a plate opener, three contact lanes (corrections, reprints, press), a 'What we don't do' card, and a single message form on paper.

Clarified

• The Guide uses citizen language for the first question — Energy project, New development, Industrial site — instead of zoning categories. Internally we still map it to the right specific topic.

Added

• A Civic Atlas strip on the homepage: six grayscale plates — Solar, Data Center, Transmission, Rezoning, Environment, Construction — so you can pick the picture that matches what's happening.
• Six new museum-style plates drawn in the same civic-handbook register as the rest of the site: a ground-mount solar array, a data-center campus with cooling towers, a transmission tower, a curbside mailbox with a folded notice, a hearing-room interior, and a parcel-map showing an easement.
• Plate-first cards everywhere a topic or situation is offered (situation rail, four doors, topic destinations) — recognition first, reading second.
• Binder badges in every page header (A·Hearing · B·Records · C·Research · D·Response · E·Local Gov · F·Construction & Ops) so the website finally matches the printable binder tabs.
• A visual timeline on every topic destination — Notice → Application → Review → Hearing → Decision → Construction → Operation — with the current stage ringed.

Improved

• The homepage now opens with a full-bleed civic landscape — farmhouse, fields, transmission lines, distant skyline — that bleeds into the page instead of sitting in a frame. The headline reads as a caption to the place, not as a slogan over a picture.
• The Atlas cards have been re-cut as museum plates: an inset illustration well, a hairline bronze plate frame, a slim bronze topic rail on the left edge, and a soft paper-stack shadow underneath so each card reads as a printed plate rather than a website tile.
• The search bar reads more like a magnifier on paper and less like a frosted prompt — less blur, a hairline bronze border, the same gentle illumination sweep on focus.
• Cards now sit on warm-paper surfaces with layered shadows instead of flat white-on-white, and the whole site picks up a handbook-paper texture. Print stays hairline black-and-white as always.
• The homepage hero now reads as the opening plate of a civic atlas — a framed cover illustration captioned 'Fig. 00 — Cover,' a deeper charcoal headline, and a hairline bronze 'Community Record Series · Vol. 01' marker. Print pages are untouched.
• The Public Beta banner is now a small bronze-hairline seal that reads as a publication mark rather than a status message.
• The top navigation now floats as a translucent paper bar once you scroll, with a bronze hairline under the page you're on. The 'Start here' button has been re-cut as an ink-deep pill.
• The footer opens with a colophon strip — 'Community Record Series · Vol. 01 · Prepared for neighbors, communities, and local decision-makers' — and closes with a set-in line ('Set in Fraunces and Inter. Printed for the public record.').
• The 'What's happening near you?' search bar is now a frosted glass-paper element with a soft bronze illumination sweep on focus — the only place on the site where glass is permitted.
• Process cards now lead with the stage word — Proposed · Construction · Operating · Notice — so the choice is readable in a glance. The longer sentence moves to the helper line beneath.
• On phones, the 'What happened?' tiles compress to a quick icon + label rail so the most common starting points fit on one screen. Tablet and desktop keep the full museum-plate tiles.
• Common Situations moved higher on the homepage, right under the search bar — closer to how visitors actually describe what brought them here.

Fixed

• The homepage landscape now spans the full width of the hero on every screen size — no more visible seam between the sky and the painting. Mobile visitors see the landscape as its own band between the headline and the search bar instead of a faint strip behind the chips.
• Removed a duplicated 'Where are you in the process?' section that was appearing twice on the homepage.

Added

• A new Start Here page (/intake) with two ways in — pick the situation that matches your week, or pick the concerns that brought you here.
• Personalized destination pages for solar farms, data centers, rezonings, warehouses, and transmission lines — each shows what it is, why it matters, and what to do next, above the fold.
• A short urgency strip ('Hearing this week / Within a month / No deadline'). Picking 'this week' jumps straight to the Meeting Helper.
• A 'letter or notice' quick path that asks one question and then opens the Notice Decoder.
• Recommendation cards that explain why the system suggested a tool — no black-box advice.
• Save my situation: keep your answers on this device so you can pick up where you left off. No account.
• Neighbor Mode: print a one-page flyer or copy a plain-text summary to share with people on your street.

Improved

• The homepage now leads with the seven situation tiles instead of the older four doors — situations are how people actually describe what's happening.
• Estimated time labels on every tile so you know what you're signing up for.

Added

• Four big doors right under the search bar — Understand, Prepare, Keep Records, Get Help Fast — so you can pick your goal before reading anything.
• A row of project-type chips (Solar Farm, Data Center, Transmission Line, Rezoning, Construction, Public Notice, Not Sure) that fill the search bar for you.
• A 'Common Situations' strip with five examples — tap one and the search bar does the rest.
• A short 'Avoid Surprises' list that explains, in five bullets, what this site actually helps you do.

Improved

• The hero now reads 'Understand what's changing before decisions are made.' — more focused, less generic, more honest about the timing problem.
• The search bar is bigger, with a typewriter prompt that pauses if you set Reduced Motion. New label: 'What's happening near you?'
• Process stage cards (Proposed · Construction · Operating · Notice) now sit higher on the page — they are the strongest navigation we have.
• Smarter local search — common synonyms (developer, council, letter, tower, …) now route to the right tool before the AI fallback runs.
• Mobile layout reordered: search bar first, then the four doors, then chips, then process cards. The illustration moves below the action.

Added

• A new "Tell us what's happening" bar on the homepage. Type a few words about your situation and it suggests existing pages on this site. No accounts, no tracking of who you are.
• An optional "Ask in everyday language" mode that calls a site guide when the quick match doesn't help. The guide only points to existing pages — it does not give legal or civic advice.

Improved

• Rewrote the homepage opener to name the projects this site helps with — solar farms, data centers, transmission lines, rezonings, and other major development — so visitors recognize themselves faster.
• Tightened the search behavior: the rotating example questions now pause the moment you start typing, so they never get in your way.

Added

• This Edition Log, so neighbors can see what changed and when.

Improved

• Moved the Print button into a dedicated action card at the top of every printable page so the main action is visible without scrolling.
• Tightened the spacing between sections on resource pages — the old layout read as 'something failed to load'.
• Rewrote the beta banner so it says what kind of feedback is useful (report errors, suggest features, share feedback) instead of the vague 'tell us what's off'.

Added

• Replaced the email handoff on the Contact page with an inline form, so feedback reaches us even on devices without a configured email client.
• Privacy-preserving safeguards on the form (no raw IP addresses are stored; daily-rotating hashes only) so the inbox can't be used to track readers.
• Status tracking on each entry so we can show that real feedback drives real changes.

Improved

• Cards on the home page now route to the most specific page that matches the card copy, instead of dropping you on a generic hub.
• Printable resource pages render a preview of what prints, so the page no longer looks broken before you press Print.

Fixed

• Repaired internal links that pointed to pages the team had renamed during the beta.

Improved

• Keyboard navigation and screen-reader labels on the top 20 pages.

Fixed

• Layout breaks on small phones (375 px wide) across the most-used routes.

Added

• Handbooks for hearings, permits, public records, easements, noise, water, and wildlife.
• Printable reports: Community Guide, Permit Checklist, Permit Response Card, Public Records Request Packet, Agency Contacts, and more.
• Interactive tools: Notice Decoder, Meeting Helper, Community Guide, My Community Record.
• Community Response Directory and Agency Library so neighbors know who to call about which kind of project.