Add non-endorsement copy to the Guides website

[christophermather]

A description of the work

Per https://github.com/18F/TLC-crew/issues/341, we need to add non-endorsement copy to our Guides website.

Background: we've already added appropriate icons to external, non-federal links. Now, we need language that clarifies our non-endorsement policy.

Other sites seem to address this by having a specific page that articulates the non-endorsement policy (sometimes alongside other website policies). This includes the 18F website. Examples:

• 18F linking policy
• USWDS website policies (scroll to "Linking Policy")
• USA.gov linking policy

Suggestion:

• We model ourselves after these websites and create a linking policy page.
• We could/should use similar or the same language as the 18F website policy
• If we adjust the language, we should determine if the 18F website language needs an update, as well
• We could link to the linking policy in the Guides sub-footer (see below)

Point of contact on this issue

@christophermather

Reproduction steps (if necessary)

No response

Skills Needed

• [ ] Any Human
• [ ] Design
• [ ] Content
• [ ] Engineering
• [ ] Acquisition
• [ ] Product
• [ ] Other

Does this need to happen in the next 2 weeks?

• [ ] Yes
• [ ] No

How much time do you anticipate this work taking?

No response

Acceptance Criteria

• [ ] The 18F Guides have a "Linking Policy" page with approved language
• [ ] The "Linking Policy" page is accessible from any 18F Guides page

[peterrowland]

One complication is that there is no landing page within the guides repo or place for common content within the guides repo.

It may be more practical to simply add a link to the existing 18F linking policy, which should equally apply to the guides anyway.

[christophermather]

This makes sense to me, @peterrowland.

What about something like the below?

Add text that says "Learn more about our linking policy" (where "linking policy" links to https://18f.gsa.gov/linking-policy/)

Pinging @adunkman for gut check. Summary:

• In order to be compliant w/ non-endorsement regulations, we need to include specific language on our websites where we link to non-fed resources
• The Guides (obviously) have a lot of links that point to non-fed resources
• Other sites (including 18F) address this need by including a "Linking policy" page that they link to in the footer
• We discussed creating our own "Linking policy" page specifically for Guides
• Peter is suggesting that we simply link to the 18F site "Linking policy"instead

Let us know what you think.

[adunkman]

Yes, please proceed with the plan to link to 18F’s Linking policy — we have similar challenges with our blog, and it’s best to keep one policy rather than duplicate. Thanks for the run down! 👍