We kind of crossed wires here… it was suggested yesterday that we have a Network Upgrade category to discuss protocol/consensus changes via ZIPs and the moderators voted that a more generic “protocol” category made sense to allow for a broader set of discussions under the category. This is where the unused “protocol” category comes from. I made it yesterday.
I think instead of also doing a ZIP category, we have and additional category for governance discussions (this would include discussions on process ZIPs). (Just called a vote from moderators on this as I did for the protocol category.)
This way, all ZIP types (consensus, standard and process) could be discussed under one of these two categories but we could also have other protocol and governance discussions within them respectively that don’t necessarily imply association with a ZIP.
Check out the description of the protocol category: About the protocol category
I assume this same language would be adapted for governance when that category is created.