After a recent WordPress update, my PopupMaker plugin reported an error, and was automatically disabled by WordPress. The website’s subscription function relied upon that plugin, so it stopped working too. Rather than reinstall PopupMaker, I decided to go shopping for a plugin that would allow the subscription form to pop up on scroll (yes I know it’s annoying) as well as by clicking a button. Also, I wanted to move the subscription button so that it doesn’t automatically appear as the post image when I share a Surly Curmudgeon post on Facebook. Finally, I’ve been re-thinking using Mailchimp as the manager for my subscriptions. It’s not like I have thousands of subscribers, so having Mailchimp tied to the forms is really overkill, and just one more thing to break. I don’t think there’s a serious security risk with storing people’s names and e-mail addresses on my site provided I warn them that I won’t be taking any measures to protect them. On the other hand, Mailchimp does have the convenient feature that it automatically sends out a notification to my subscribers when I post something new. I’m not sure if I can implement that functionality myself on-site. I’m still thinking about it. In the meantime, the Subscribe button doesn’t do anything which is also tres annoying. So I’ve taken it off the site’s pages. Hopefully, I’ll get around to implementing a more sensible subscription functionality “real soon now.” In the meantime, it’s Outa There!
NOTE – This shouldn’t impact the gigantic horde of current Surly Curmudgeon subscribers at all.
I just realized a few days ago that the contact form isn’t working either. I have been experimenting with using popups to re-implement the subscription and contact functions, but I’m running into troubles, not least of which is that apparently my GoDaddy managed WordPress site doesn’t properly implement cron functionality for scheduled tasks, and with their latest WordPress update, the site health check started throwing cron-related errors. So I’m also thinking of changing hosting services. Standby. The subscription and contact funtionality will be back online “real soon now.”
K. The contact form is fixed. The subscription part will be a little harder.