What it does

PolicyGuard links to any discussion on your forum (typically your "Community Guidelines" or "Terms of Service" thread). When that discussion's first post is edited, all members are automatically required to re-read and confirm the new terms before continuing.

Reading flow

1. Any page (except the target discussion) — a full-screen blocking overlay appears. It shows the title of the guidelines, an estimated reading time badge, and a link to the discussion. The confirm button stays locked.
2. The target discussion — the overlay disappears. A non-blocking toast (bottom-right corner) counts down the estimated reading time while the member reads freely. When the countdown reaches zero, the toast closes and the confirmation overlay reappears on that page only, with the checkbox unlocked.
3. Confirmation — the member ticks the checkbox and clicks Confirm & Continue. The acknowledgement is saved server-side (JSON file for logged-in users, cookie for guests).
4. If the member leaves mid-read — the remaining countdown is stored in sessionStorage. When they return to the discussion, the countdown resumes from where it stopped.

   Automatic version bump

   When a moderator or admin edits the first post of the tracked discussion, PolicyGuard automatically:

• Updates policy_version to the edited_at timestamp of the post.
• Recalculates the estimated reading time.
• Preserves any extra delay the admin had configured on top of the estimate.
• All previous confirmations become invalid → every member must confirm again.