Just A Thought Content Architecture

Just A Thought Content Architecture

Version: 1.0
Status: Canonical
Adopted: 2026-08-04

Purpose

Just A Thought is a growing library of thoughtful, biblically grounded writing rather than a chronological blog alone. Readers should be able to discover content by editorial format, reader journey, specific theme, series, and Scripture.

Published post front matter is the single source of truth. The site will not require a separate database of existing or future posts.

Metadata Responsibilities

Each field has one responsibility:

Field Question it answers
categories What kind of article is this?
collections Where should readers discover it?
tags What specific ideas does it explore?
series What larger intentional conversation does it belong to?
scripture Which biblical passages are central to it?

Metadata should not duplicate the responsibility of another field.

Article Types

Article types are stored in Jekyll’s categories field. A post should normally have one article type.

Official values:

  • reflection
  • devotional
  • bible-study
  • resource
  • series-introduction
  • guest-post
  • announcement

Reflection

A thoughtful essay that connects Scripture, personal experience, relationships, work, culture, technology, creation, or ordinary life.

Devotional

A focused, usually shorter piece centered on a biblical passage and its spiritual application.

Bible Study

A deeper exegetical, theological, historical, linguistic, or contextual exploration of Scripture.

Resource

A practical reference such as a guide, reading plan, workbook, study aid, or downloadable tool.

Series Introduction

The opening article that frames the purpose, scope, and direction of a series.

Guest Post

An article written primarily by a contributor other than Jeff Thomas III.

Announcement

Site, ministry, publication, or project news. Use sparingly.

Reader Collections

Collections are broad reader-facing pathways. A post may belong to multiple collections when the overlap is central and useful.

Official values:

  • faith
  • marriage
  • leadership
  • technology
  • culture
  • creation

Collections drive homepage topic cards, collection landing pages, and related-content pathways.

Tags

Tags identify specific ideas, themes, practices, audiences, tensions, passages, or subjects.

Rules:

  • Use lowercase.
  • Use kebab case for multiword tags.
  • Prefer specific terms over broad labels.
  • Avoid duplicate meanings and spelling variants.
  • Avoid using collection names as tags unless the tag adds a distinct meaning.
  • Prefer stable concepts that can connect multiple posts.

Examples:

  • biblical-marriage
  • identity-in-christ
  • spiritual-growth
  • artificial-intelligence
  • servant-leadership
  • biblical-meditation

Series

Series metadata is independent of categories, collections, and tags.

series: "The Daily Death of Pride"
series_order: 1

Series order must be numeric. A prelude may use 0.

Scripture

Scripture references should be stored as a YAML array, even when only one reference is present.

scripture:
  - Hebrews 10:19-25
  - Hebrews 11:1-12:2
  - James 1:2-27

Use standard English Bible-book names. Use an en dash in published prose when appropriate, but use a standard hyphen in YAML ranges for predictable processing.

Contributors

Use machine-readable contributor metadata.

author: Jeff Thomas III
contributors:
  - Samatra Thomas

Do not place contributor credits inside the author string.

Standard Front Matter Order

---
layout: post
title: "Post Title"
subtitle: "Optional subtitle"
description: "Optional description"
date: YYYY-MM-DD
author: Jeff Thomas III
contributors:
  - Contributor Name
categories:
  - reflection
collections:
  - faith
tags:
  - specific-tag
excerpt: "Short summary"
image: /img/posts/post-image.jpg
background: /img/posts/bg-post-image.jpg
scripture:
  - Scripture Reference
series: "Optional Series Title"
series_order: 1
---

Omit optional fields when they do not apply. Do not leave empty keys solely to preserve the template.

Recommendation Priority

Future related-content scoring should generally prioritize:

  1. Same series
  2. Shared collections
  3. Shared tags
  4. Same article type
  5. Shared Scripture book or passage
  6. Editorial overrides

The purpose is not to maximize clicks. It is to help readers continue thinking through naturally related ideas.

Browse Paths

The site should eventually support browsing by:

  • Collection
  • Article type
  • Series
  • Scripture
  • Tag
  • Search
  • Curated reading path

Governance

Changes to official article types or collections require an update to this document and an entry in the changelog.

Changelog

1.0 — 2026-08-04

  • Established front matter as the content database.
  • Defined article types through categories.
  • Defined six reader collections.
  • Established tag, Scripture, series, and contributor conventions.