Help

A few technical issues and problems have arisen since the switch to the new system in mid-March. I hope the following brief comments help resolve these if they apply to you.

No sign-in link or new post announcements?

When subscribers or sponsors (subscribers who pay for premium content and to support The Apiarist) sign in to the site, they are sent an email with a 'magic link' that avoids the use of passwords. The same email address is used to send you announcements of new posts.

Neat ... but not a lot of use if you don't receive the email ... 😥.

And, if you don't, it is probably due to one of the following reasons:

• you either entered an incorrect email address, or subscribed using a mistyped email address ... or, in very rare cases, sponsored the site using an email address with a typo in it. The Stripe payments system I use makes no checks on the validity of the email address provided ... you should get a digital receipt.
• the email was sent but reported as spam by your client and either added to your spam folder, or rejected outright (bounced) ... if the latter occurs more than a couple of times, my bulk emailer adds your email address to a 'suppression' list and stops sending emails.
• you unsubscribed - deliberately or unintentionally - or reported previous emails as spam.

All automated emails - for the sign-in link, or announcing new posts - are from the following addresses:

Try adding one or both to your address book (or email them - you will get an automated reply, but the accounts are unmonitored) and this may increase the chances of you receiving the sign-in links, or post announcements.

Comments

If you are signed in to The Apiarist and get the following error message in the comments section at the foot of the page ...

... it is because there is no name associated with your email address due to the way they were imported from the last server. The fix is easy. Click on the 'Account' button in the top right corner and then the Edit option, which will then allow you to provide a name and/or change your email address.

You should then be able to comment 😄.

I'm considering doing a global edit of usernames, inserting something like 'Beekeeper' to everyone who has no username. If I do this, you can change your name to something more 'personal' via the account button.

Images

Any posts since 15/3/24 will mainly contain images in WEBP format. If the images do not display in the email newsletter or online, then check if your web browser or email client are up-to-date.

All mainstream web browsers have supported WEBP since 2020 or earlier.

If your email client does not support WEBP format images - all I've tested do - then click on the 'View in browser' link below the newsletter title and try viewing the post on the web.

Subscriptions

A few hundred subscribers who signed up before March 2015 via wordpress.com were not transferred to the new system as their email addresses were not available for download (thanks a bundle WordPress!). Please re-subscribe using the button in the top right corner of the screen.

Footnotes

I'm aware that footnotes appear behind the two buttons in the bottom corners of the screen when viewing a post on a smartphone. I'm currently looking for a workable solution, but it's not straightforward.

It was straightforward 😉.

iPhones with a notch at the bottom of the screen still obscure some of the footnotes. I've no idea whether this is 3 readers or 3,000. Until I can afford an iPhone for testing, this is unlikely to be fixed.

Don't hold your breath.

This page will be updated should additional issues appear.