I was joking that I should start this post like all those terrible misleading Instagram ads that begin with a dramatic statement that turns out not to be true. Like, “Here’s Why I Don’t Like My Blissy Pillowcases,” and then the reason turns out to be, “Because I bought them BEFORE the two for one sale!!!!” Or, “We’re So Sorry,” and of course it’s because they told us they couldn’t possibly price their bags lower, and yet lo, they have! I hate that tactic so much. Our version would be, I guess, “WE’RE LEAVING…” and then eventually we’d say, “… our old content management system.”
In short: GFY is moving! What does this mean for you? Pull up a chair!
Where: This weekend, we are flipping the switch and moving this old girl onto Ghost. Ideally, you won’t even notice at first; our usual URL, GoFugYourself.com, should point you there. But in case that ever fails, and/or a cache-clearing doesn’t work, you might want to make an alternative bookmark for: https://go-fug-yourself.ghost.io. (This link probably does not totally work yet.) Or, follow us on Bluesky or Instagram — we’re fuggirls on both — where we can alert you if anything about the URL redirect has gone awry.
What it means for readers:
- Ideally, very little! As noted, you shouldn’t need to update your bookmarks if they point to GoFugYourself.com.
- Slideshow captions no longer roll up over the photos! No more covering shoes! WE’RE FREE! When viewed on desktop, they will load to the right of the photo; on mobile, they are underneath. Other navigation should remain the same, including using the arrows on your keyboard to go back and forth.
- The space for captions on desktop mode is generous, but we are who we are, so at times captions may run past that limit and require scrolling. (I already ran into this.) We’ll do our best!
- The site template on tablets is kind of a hybrid of desktop and mobile (I believe Ghost just lets us have one design and natively adjusts it based on the device). Before the iPad was hostage to a separate mobile theme and I don’t think it was great. Hopefully this is better.
- Ghost offers an announcements bar that can appear atop the site — you can close it — and I cannot promise I won’t put dumb stuff up there from time to time. Never give me toys.
- Ghost also automatically offers a tip jar, which we’ve never had before. You can access it here. I don’t know if we’ll actually put that permanently on the site anywhere, because we just discovered this, like, yesterday?!? But, it exists, and it is there. You do not have to use it. If you’re tempted, join us on a paid Drinks with Broads sub instead, it’s fun!
What this means for commenters:
- Comments can now be edited. I know! LIVING THE DREAM.
- We did NOT bring over your commenting information (email address, user name). It didn’t feel right to take that choice away from you. So once we’re live, you will have to re-register by clicking the “Sign In” or “Sign Up” button on the top right of the site.
- As a side note, this likely (I can’t confirm but I assume??) means you can’t comment with a fake email address anymore, which I know was a cherished approach for several people. Ghost has its own commenting platform and we can’t change how it works.
- Just as before, your e-mail address would only be used for automated notifications — such as confirmation of registration, or payment if applicable. If we decide to add any GFY newsletters, we would not send them to you automatically; you’d get to opt in.
- Related: Here is Ghost’s privacy policy, and ours.
- Comments will default to listing “Best” first; you can change that based on your preference, I believe? But right now Ghost doesn’t let us set that to “Oldest” as the default.
- If you use the same e-mail address as on Old GFY and you had a Gravatar, we THINK it automatically pulls that over once you sign up here (this was Jessica’s experience).
- No content on this site is behind a wall. Meaning, you can still read the entire site without ever registering to comment, if that’s what you prefer!
Things may be bumpy once we flip the switch — like, there will probably be archival posts that accidentally imported twice, or where the code went rogue, or a caption is missing. Feel free to let us know if you find any of those. We haven’t seen with ads yet, so that may take some doing also. And of course if you run into anything in your daily browsing that isn’t working, DEFINITELY tell us.
Why the move: Economics. Speed. Reliability. (Our friends at LaineyGossip made the switch to Ghost this year and had only glowing things to say; they’ve been a real lifeline.) And new code! GFY has always been independent and wholly owned by us, but we did for many years belong to a partner network that handled all the back-end tech — and that also meant controlling the site design. Once that ended and all the bills came to us, they let us keep the code, but we didn’t have the financial resources to change it. You know that scene in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure where the antenna on the phone booth breaks, and everyone chews as much gum as possible to try and stick it back together? That’s what it looked like under the hood. Stuff broke all the time and Tiffany patched it up as best she could, because it would have been an insane migraine to redo completely. For technical reasons I can’t even pretend to understand, switching to Ghost allowed Tiffany a cleaner and simpler way to build GFY.
On that note: I cannot say enough about Tiffany, our code warrior. We are thrilled we get to work with such a smart, badass woman; that this site EVER has functioned since 2017 is a credit entirely to her. And as if all that isn’t cool enough, she is basically getting up from her keyboard after this project to go volunteer at the polls through Election Day, because that’s the kind of person she is. We are lucky to be her clients, and even luckier to be her friend.
Onward!
