Really? That's pretty wild. Could the switch be down to mistaken identity between 'f' and 'ſ' (he asked without a shred of evidence or conducting a moment's research)? That is, did the word change because its typography changed?

So, what are my options for comments and email subscriptions that don't cost the earth and which let me reduce rather than increase the complexity of the blog? All ideas gratefully received!

For instance, phpList looks quite powerful, but its configuration and styling options are extremely deep - and by using a server-side product, I'm back to managing and backing up a PHP app and its accompanying database.

Lastly, running an email list seems to me to be the most problematic part of all this. Short of paying what feels like quite a lot of money for a commercial provider, I'm left with self-hosting. Unfortunately, my host supports PHP only, more or less, which limits my choices.

I might also have to consider running a small Fedi instance to get this to work cleanly, which moves away from the idea of reducing rather than expanding my footprint.

I had thought about some sort of Fediverse integration as an alternative (for instance, publish a Fedi post for every blog post and dynamically pull responses into the front-end), but the majority of my commenters aren't familiar with the Fediverse.

For comments, right now I'm planning to accept emails, then rebuild and publish the site to make them public.

It's quite lo-fi, and less immediate than the current WP system, but it means I don't need a database or anything dynamic on the back end. The site stays fast and easy to maintain.

For the front end, I'm planning to use 11ty. I've been using it for some side projects for a while (I like it!), and I have a static version of shadycharacters.co.uk waiting in the wings.

But there are two things stopping me: I'd like to continue to offer comments and email subscriptions.

I've been using self-hosted WordPress for years now with a complex theme and some DIY plugins, but WP feels increasingly at odds with my needs (a simple, fast website; text-based post authoring) and my expertise (I'm not a DB admin, nor do I use PHP except for shadycharacters.co.uk).

I’ll be unable to work at all for a few weeks, then at reduced capability for several weeks. I would never ask for charity when so many people are desperately in need of aid in the world. But I do write and publish books that make great birthday and holiday gifts—for yourself and others.

I really enjoyed talking to Kerry about our respective writing endeavours. She got me thinking about the writing process in a new light, and I must thank her for having me on! Find out more at Kerry's website at www.klprovenzano.com/.

Amazing! All I did was email my publisher. Fingers crossed it really does arrive!

In honour of the ampersand, then, here is a link to Shady Character's most popular post, a rumination on the ampersand and what it means for electronic text: shadycharacters.co.u....

I'll let you know what I hear back!

How odd! Let me ask the publisher and get back to you. If the worst comes to the worst I can send you a copy myself.

Hi there - I have no idea, I'm afraid! Where have you ordered it?