On the new site a topic's name appears as a heading on roughly 4,700 resource pages ("More about Town Meeting") and as a filter label in the library. Many names were written as internal shorthand and do not read well in that position. We audited all 89. This decision has four parts, from cheapest to most involved, and each can be answered separately.
Live example of the problem: drafta resource page whose tags read "Roads and Highways - Legal", "Roads and Highways - Operational" and "Finance - Operations" side by side. The full term-by-term audit is on #62.
The site already has a glossary that turns "MAC" into "Municipal Assistance Center" wherever a department name is shown. We extended the same mechanism to topic tags this week, using only expansions that appear in VLCT's own published content. Result on the draft: 39 tags show the tree's friendlier label, 10 show a glossary expansion, 40 stay as written. Three are still flagged because we could not find the answer in your content:
This part is built and reversible; it needs only the three answers above.
| Now | Proposed | Why |
|---|---|---|
| ADVOCACY: VLCT's Municipal Policy | Municipal Policy | Capitals and colon read as a shout; "VLCT's" is implied on VLCT's site. |
| ADVOCACY: Federal Issues | Federal Advocacy | Same; 1 item tagged. |
| ADVOCACY: Get Involved | Advocacy: How to Get Involved (or retire, 1 item) | An instruction, not a subject. |
| Economic & Community Development | Economic and Community Development | Only 2 of 89 names use "&"; 13 spell out "and". |
| Trees & Forests | Trees and Forests | Same. |
| Town Meeting (Special) | Special Town Meeting | "More about Town Meeting (Special)" is not a phrase. |
Reversible: each is a one-line rename back.
Eight tags come in pairs: Finance - Legal / Finance - Operations, Human Resources - Legal / - Operational, Land Use - Legal / - Operational, Roads and Highways - Legal / - Operational. Readers now see these as headings. The pairs barely overlap in practice (Finance Legal and Finance Operations share one resource; Land Use Legal and Operational share none), which suggests they were filed by whichever staff member wrote the item, not by a rule readers can use.
If the split matters to staff (for example, MAC attorneys need to find "legal" items quickly), it should live somewhere readers do not see, such as a separate staff-only tag. If it does not, the eight tags fold into their parent subjects. This is the only part that re-tags content, so we do it last and only with a clear yes.
Numbers are published resources carrying the tag. Each merge is a script that re-tags items; reversible from a saved list, but easier not to redo.
If we hear nothing before the next build, we go with the recommendation: Part 1 and Part 2 go ahead; Parts 3 and 4 wait. Reply to Kalman by email, or comment on the linked issue.