Current month is current
Only the latest live analysis should describe itself as the current warning. Older months must be labeled as prior, archived, or backfilled.
Publishing Standard ยท Version control for public warnings
Each month becomes a record, not a rewrite.
Democracy Redline is built as a monthly public warning system. The score can move, the evidence can deepen, and corrections can be made, but each published month should remain understandable as its own historical record.
Why this exists
The project needs a visible standard for continuity, corrections, and trust.
A warning system loses credibility if old months silently change, if live pages conflict with archived pages, or if readers cannot tell the difference between a current update and a preserved historical record. This standard keeps the monthly publishing process disciplined.
Archives are preserved
April, May, June, and future monthly pages should remain standalone records that explain what was known and judged at that time.
Corrections are visible
Material changes should be documented as corrections, clarifications, or version updates rather than silently rewritten into the record.
Automation supports review
Intake scripts, feeds, and spreadsheets can surface candidate developments, but the published score requires human editorial judgment.
Monthly cycle
The publication sequence should be repeatable.
Intake window
Collect candidate developments from official records, court actions, watchdog materials, major journalism, election-administration sources, civil-liberties organizations, and democracy trackers.
Cluster and category review
Group related developments, remove duplicates, identify category relevance, and distinguish score-moving events from background signals.
Evidence discipline
Separate fact, interpretation, and score impact. Stronger documentation, institutional reach, recurrence, and democratic consequence receive more weight.
Score decision
Apply the weighted nine-category rubric. Note what worsened, what held steady, what improved, and which institutional brakes still mattered.
Publication package
Update the live analysis, formal report page, PDF, archive entry, evidence note, resources links, share assets when needed, sitemap, and current asset references.
Post-publish QA
Check every current/prior reference, navigation path, PDF link, image zoom behavior, social preview, archive order, and mobile layout before treating the month as locked.
Versioning
Use clear labels when something changes.
Publication record
Each monthly page should include its month, score, status, prior score, publication label, and whether the page is current, prior, formal, archived, or backfilled.
Correction note
Use when a factual error, broken link, incorrect source attribution, or meaningful misstatement is fixed after publication.
Clarification note
Use when language is tightened for readability or context without changing the underlying score, evidence judgment, or category conclusion.
Version note
Use when page structure, visuals, PDF design, navigation, or scoring framework documentation changes in a way readers should understand.
Publishing QA
The monthly QA checklist should catch credibility leaks before readers do.
Continuity
Current month, prior month, score, velocity, status, archive order, and report labels agree across homepage, analysis, archive, reports, evidence, resources, and PDFs.
Evidence
The evidence note explains which developments were score-moving, which were background, and which were countervailing brakes.
Links
All CTAs, PDF downloads, report links, archive links, evidence pages, share assets, and footer links point to the intended current or historical page.
Visuals
Current assets use current aliases. Historical pages use frozen month-specific visuals. Charts and graphics are readable, zoomable, and not reused in misleading ways.
Accessibility
Images have useful alt text, buttons have readable contrast, keyboard navigation works, and mobile views remain legible.
Preservation
Prior months remain live and understandable as standalone records. New work builds from the latest package, not an older site state.
Release package
Every monthly package should include the same core pieces.
Live analysis
The public current-month narrative and score explanation.
The public current-month narrative and score explanation.
Formal report page
A durable structured version with a consistent report format.
A durable structured version with a consistent report format.
PDF report
A downloadable record that can be shared or archived outside the website.
A downloadable record that can be shared or archived outside the website.
Archive entry
A month-specific preserved page once the next report publishes.
A month-specific preserved page once the next report publishes.
Evidence note
The public source spine for score-moving developments.
The public source spine for score-moving developments.
Data references
Updated metadata, sitemap, current asset aliases, and month-specific frozen assets.
Updated metadata, sitemap, current asset aliases, and month-specific frozen assets.
How to use this standard
Use this before publishing the next monthly warning.
When July or any future month is ready, this page becomes the reference point: publish the new current warning, preserve June as a standalone archive, update report and evidence pages, then run the continuity QA pass before deployment.
Publishing standard for monthly score continuity, corrections, versioning, and preservation.