Overhaul MeshCore Canada: task-first journeys, structured communities, and safer delivery

[n30nex]

Status

Draft — please do not merge yet.

PR #66 remains the working overhaul branch. Its exact head is live for review in English and French on Canadaverse. meshcore.ca remains unchanged.

The site still needs maintainer review of RF and hardware facts, community freshness, region authority and naming, French wording, privacy language, and hands-on assistive-technology behaviour before it is ready to merge.

What this overhaul changes

• organizes the site around six clear paths: Start, Communities, Devices & Builds, Network Tools, Learn, and Contribute
• gives companion, repeater, room-server, and observer users a direct setup path with a practical working check
• turns community information into structured data, a searchable directory, and province or territory pages that still work without JavaScript
• gives region lookup, the map and editor, observer tools, submissions, privacy, hardware, and contribution pages one responsive design
• searches the Canadian region list first, then automatically uses geocoding when needed
• loads OpenStreetMap tiles automatically, without a consent checkbox, while keeping useful loading, retry, failure, and privacy information
• aligns desktop search, highlights the Observer setup card, and keeps its decorative sparkle out of assistive technology
• makes the experimental 1 W solar repeater guide easy to find from the hardware landing page
• makes wide build tables readable as labelled cards on phones instead of forcing horizontal scrolling
• adds deterministic builds, route-scoped assets, accessibility checks, whole-site layout tests, Lighthouse budgets, and a rollback-safe preview deployment
• removes generated site/ output from source control

French version

This branch includes a complete first French draft rather than a partial landing page:

• 57 English Markdown pages and 57 French counterparts
• a route-preserving English / Français switcher in the top header
• French navigation, site search, community directory, regional labels, forms, analyzer, map controls, and configuration editor
• French routes under /fr/, with matching English and French canonical and alternate links
• localized visitor-facing labels while preserving radio values, region codes, data keys, URLs, and other machine-facing values
• a short feedback invitation so francophone visitors can report wording that feels unclear or unnatural

This is ready for community language review, but it is not being presented as native editorial approval.

Language and content cleanup

• removes stiff Outcome:, Expected result:, and similar template labels from visitor guides
• replaces internal process language with direct wording such as “Make sure it works,” “What’s next,” and “What to share when asking for help”
• removes stale old-site and migration commentary from visitor pages
• removes duplicate role, firmware, hardware, and directory pages in favour of one current route for each task
• keeps the important erase, recovery, private-key, credential, TLS, antenna, battery, electrical, and structural warnings
• the main copy-pruning pass removed 4,338 words across 52 Markdown pages

PR #75 and later community work are included

PR #75 is closed because its work now lives in this overhaul branch:

• Alberta MeshCore Networks, Airdrie, Calgary, Edmonton, and yegmesh.ca entries
• refreshed YQLMesh web, regional, Discord, map, and social links
• StoonMesh updated to the requested 3-byte path hash mode
• all 26 submitted URLs retained

The current structured directory also includes the later YQRMesh addition from main. It now has 22 listings: 20 described by their sources as active and 2 as forming. Listings without a public contact say so directly; no contact details or verification dates were invented.

Live Canadaverse test

• English preview: canadaverse.org/meshcore-canada
• French preview: /fr/
• hardware landing: /hardware/
• French hardware landing: /fr/hardware/
• experimental guide: 1 W solar repeater DIY build
• French region editor: /fr/config/editor/
• manifest: site-manifest.json
• exact branch head: 5550be3a5194af84f142a069a731845624d12cca
• exact artifact SHA-256: e1edeb15e93c4b0ed257d3f8f38e8dcb048faa700d5773a1a97c2a4344ac2a13
• Pi container image: sha256:ed836fb1af9267831af7db9b4d65fc18ec77e46519747231a817eec90e45f520
• 128 rendered pages: 70 English/static routes and 58 French routes
• all 128 preview pages contain noindex, nofollow; the preview sitemap has zero indexed URLs
• the Pi container is healthy, has zero restarts, has no runtime mounts, and serves the same exact manifest from host source, container, and public HTTPS
• the Canadaverse root page stayed byte-identical through both cutovers
• the route-scoped Caddy policy now preserves no-store/noindex preview headers and permits the exact inline hashes needed at every English/French page depth and by legacy redirects
• the pre-overhaul image and source backup remain available, as does the immediately previous preview image splashpage:rollback-pr66-pre-csp-c9d4431e9864
• Pi storage has 20 GB free, temperature was 52.1 C after deployment, and throttled=0x0

Validation

Exact-head GitHub Actions run: Validate site quality — green

• validate, browser, and Lighthouse jobs all passed on 5550be3
• 66/66 Node content tests passed
• 65/65 editor and submission tests passed
• strict normal and preview builds passed for all 128 rendered pages
• preview link audit passed for 12,885 local references
• whole-site public layout audit passed on all 127 non-404 rendered routes in both desktop and mobile Chromium, including 11 compatibility redirects
• 113 public critical-journey and accessibility tests passed, with 7 intentional desktop/mobile-only skips
• targeted mobile regressions also passed in Chromium and WebKit
• checks cover the exact manifest, English/French routes and switching, search, editor controls, automatic map tiles, aligned desktop search, mobile overflow, compact region search, labelled build-table cards, keyboard controls, and serious/critical axe violations
• public HTTPS responses include no-store caching, noindex, nofollow, CSP, HSTS, nosniff, frame denial, referrer policy, and permissions policy
• 22 community listings and all submitted links validate; expected missing-verification-date warnings remain visible

Review still needed before ready

• validate hardware and RF recommendations with maintainers
• confirm community contacts and settings, then add honest verification dates
• have francophone community members review the first French draft for natural wording
• review region labels, authority, and cross-province policy
• review privacy and retention language plus production submission behaviour
• perform a human screen-reader and keyboard review on representative devices
• configure an edge-level HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect for first-time Canadaverse visitors; HTTPS is configured correctly, but the preview host currently still serves cleartext HTTP

Closes #67
Closes #68
Closes #69
Closes #70
Closes #72
Closes #73
Closes #74

Supersedes #75.

[wykweb]

excellent news

[n30nex]

Public preview deployment verified

The Canadaverse test route is now serving this PR's exact head:

• preview: https://canadaverse.org/meshcore-canada/
• revision: 953e4cd82be426ec7cf2b2e9a040dd4c501b19f8
• artifact SHA-256: 49dfb3f609a8e41895b66c97be6b4a23e36041f72a15d5dc35b7a3d57fa768e4
• Pi container image: sha256:f14b20c7de9d93c39c9912ea9d955d7f37967685ee42af97445edf952928753a
• exact-head Actions run: https://github.com/MeshCore-ca/MeshCore-Canada/actions/runs/29914246869 — green
• public HTTPS browser test: 70 passed, 4 expected project-specific skips, 0 failed
• public Lighthouse budgets: passed
• desktop/mobile visual review: passed; no Canadaverse-origin console errors or CSP violations
• unrelated Canadaverse root: unchanged on the Pi

PR #66 remains draft and should not be merged until the review gates in the updated description are complete.

[n30nex]

Browser feedback and automatic map loading are live

The Canadaverse preview now serves the exact updated PR head:

• revision: fadb94afae7fe37b8120540ed225bde34c06d71c
• artifact SHA-256: 63e617c2fd63b6e3f50ab53ef37a59712e3c80eba63e3ad86a5083dce2852c32
• Pi image: sha256:23dffbbdfdaed9bd70dd5a810a8e802e55e858fd54e181b6b4d31ac691e91e78
• exact-head Actions run: https://github.com/MeshCore-ca/MeshCore-Canada/actions/runs/29917468239 — green
• public HTTPS critical journeys: 50 passed, 4 expected project-specific skips, 0 failed

This update applies the nine homepage comments, fixes the header-search geometry, highlights the Observer path accessibly, removes place-search consent controls, and automatically loads OpenStreetMap tiles on the region map. Public browser verification observed nine loaded tiles and no remaining search/tile consent gate. The unrelated Canadaverse root is unchanged, and the prior validated image remains pinned for rollback.

PR #66 remains draft and should not be merged until its remaining human-review gates are complete.