Content operations
Proposal process
How new guidance and changes to existing recommendations are proposed, debated and decided — in the open.
When a proposal is needed#
- Adding a new guidance page
- Reversing or materially changing an existing recommendation
- Adding or changing a standardised term (e.g. the Nigerian English vocabulary table)
Typos, clarifications and new examples that support existing guidance go straight to pull request.
The process#
- Open a proposal issue using the proposal template: the problem, the proposed guidance, the evidence, and what it replaces.
- Community comment stays open for at least 14 days. Disagreement should engage the evidence, per the code of conduct.
- Editorial decision. Editors decide by consensus, in writing, in the issue: accepted, accepted with changes, or declined with reasons.
- Implementation PR turns the accepted proposal into a page that meets the editorial standards.
- Changelog entry records the change and credits the proposer.
What counts as evidence#
In rough order of weight: usability testing with Nigerian users; support and complaint data; established standards (WCAG, CBN guidance); analogous research (GOV.UK, Nielsen Norman Group); expert consensus. "Our team prefers it" is a starting point, not evidence.
Anatomy of a strong proposal
Problem: Products disagree on "reversed" vs "refunded" vs "returned", and our support data shows users don't trust "reversed" without a timeframe.
Proposal: Standardise on "returned to your account within [time]".
Evidence: 412 support tickets tagged 'reversal confusion' (anonymised summary attached); usability test of 8 participants, Lagos and Ibadan, March 2026.
Related guidance#
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