Research
Methods
How material gets onto this site, what the labels mean, and what you can check yourself.
Research methodology paper
Read the research methodology working draft. Version 0.1, October 27, 2026. It covers the case-study process, sources, competing explanations, uncertainty, human review and corrections.
NoteReviewed by a person on 2026-10-28.DetailsHide details
This is a proposed publication standard. It does not establish that existing pages meet it. Procedures that are not implemented remain proposed.
How the site currently works
The operational notes below describe the site's stated workflow. The research paper above sets out the broader proposed standard.
What the status labels mean
The Development Ledger records each decision about the site. A row is marked LIVE_VERIFIED only after a person opened the live page and the date was written down. IMPLEMENTED_PENDING_REVIEW, or a row that says it was merged, means the work is in the repository but a person has not yet checked the live page.
On a page, a label such as "initial draft, not independently reviewed" stays until a person has compared each claim with its sources. We do not remove a caveat to make a page look finished.
Sources
- A fact needs a source link. We do not publish invented numbers, quotes or sources.
- Source preservation is in progress. The intended record includes a dated original file, screenshot where needed, readable text, a fingerprint and provenance. Coverage is incomplete; a citation does not establish that a preservation copy exists. Evidence copies are kept outside the public repository.
- We respect robots.txt. Where a state host disallows automated download, the source is recorded as blocked and a second host is sought.
- AI-written prose is kept apart from quoted source text. See How we use AI.
News
- A collector runs every 2 hours and a weekly check re-runs the method. It gathers headlines and links by state.
- The site shows the newest 200 items per state and 3,000 overall. A private archive keeps everything collected, with the time each item was fetched.
- Links are collected automatically. A headline does not mean we agree with it, and a link may not lead where the headline suggests.
- Tags (place and ballot measure) are applied by software and can be wrong; the uncertainty is shown on the page.
Code and changes
- The site is static HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The source is public at github.com/wrxminion/The-way-site. The main branch is the live site and publishes within about 15 minutes of a merge.
- Larger changes go through a pull request that the maintainer reviews. Small fixes and the news data are committed directly by the maintainer's setup.
- Pages must work under a strict content security policy: no inline scripts, no inline styles, no outside images or fonts.
- URLs and record IDs stay stable. A page that moves leaves a redirect.
- Database definitions are in the repository under supabase/ as reference only; they are not deployed by the site.
What is not in the public code
| Item | Why |
|---|---|
| Passwords, keys, server rule files | Secrets and access rules. |
| Member data (accounts, posts, reviews) | Private. Held in a hosted database with row-level access rules. |
| Private news archive and evidence copies | Large, append-only, and some copies may not be republished. |
| Collector scripts and run logs | Not part of the site. |
Corrections
Corrections stay visible with a date and a reason. The repository history shows every change to every page.