New website - further explanation about the free content, PDFs and blog posts

There's an awful lot of changes going on and I'm wanting to explain as much as I can where I can, and keep everyone in the loop. I'm not building it though, so there are some things I can't answer but I'll do what I can!

This is a long post that I’ve broken down into sections and short paragraphs.

The blog is hard to read, the images are large and the font small.

I know my current website isn't accessible, that's why the new site is being built. How it is now is not how it's staying, the new site hasn't launched yet!

There are some things I'm not able to change with the current site, either because it's not a feature within Squarespace, or that I don't know how, or that I'm not physically able to do it. I've a lot of help currently but there's only so much that can be done for me, and I've got to put what energy I have into the new site.

As I've been converting the free patterns and tutorials to blog posts I've been reformatting the images and making them a much more manageable size, one that doesn't obliterate the screen (Squarespace's focus is photography portfolio style sites). How the blog post layout will change on the new site I'm not sure yet, but as these posts go live later in the month on the current site they will be more readable than recent general posts.

I’m not keen on the large image format either, but it’s only a recent feature. As I went through 15 years worth of blog posts it was really apparent how each platform or website builder differed in their layout options. What I’m aiming to do with the free pattern and tutorial posts is make them more consistent, not just with the image sizing, but also with the layout, language used and so on. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of choice for the layout on the blog of the new site but I don’t know how much we’ll be able to recode old blog posts from the backend, so all of these updates and changes are happening from the frontend, as they need to be done before the site changes over. That’s a lot of work, with roughly 150 posts being updated or rewritten, and all their images reformatted.

Squarespace is a 'what you see is what you get' website builder, meaning a site is built from the front end in a modular way. They're ideal for quick simple sites and for folks who don't know enough to code their own sites from scratch. They have a lot of limitations, though, and I knew when I built the current site 6 years ago that I needed something better for something this size, but I didn't have the know-how to do it myself or the financial means to outsource it. My website has needed rebuilding for some time.

You've talked about Internet accessibility but are removing the free PDFs?

Yes, I have. And yes, the free patterns and free tutorials are changing format. But the PDFs aren't going for good.

I’ve outlined how and where the free content will still be available in PDF format. Ensuring that folks with poor internet access can access my resources is still important to me, we’re just changing how we do it.

The primary reason for this particular change is that when the blog posts are live after the 23rd, any help or support needed can be answered right within the comments. This is important, especially as we’ve lost Ravelry as an accessible central community point; not everyone has a point of support while we wait for the new site to be finished. Even when the new site, with it’s forum, is ready not everyone will want to sign up to ask for help with the free content and the blog posts will be there as an easy support option for folks.

The second main reason for this change are the translations. While the PDFs are hosted as they are, most of them are only available in English, and that’s a problem for tutorial and technique support. A lot of my patterns are available in a number of different languages and they’ll all be hosted on the new site. By having the technique and support articles as blog posts they’ll be included in the language feature of the new site, allowing folks to access the tutorials or articles in their own language. This won’t work so well for the free patterns, and translating those is something we haven’t finalised yet, but for everything else it’ll be especially useful.

I did mention in the newsletter that we're looking at possible options for the blog on the new site, such as ways of enabling a print to PDF option right within the blog post - like a lot of the cooking websites have, where you can print the recipe without all the extra chat or the adverts. This in my mind would be the ideal solution, as it’ll still allow a support point and work with the translations. It also means you'll only download what's needed, and at the same time reduce the storage, fees and bandwidth usage on the site.

The current PDF layout is also pretty static, and isn’t very accessible. For the premium patterns we’ve developed a new accessible template that’s both large print and screenreader friendly. I can’t say at this point whether a print to PDF option within the blog posts will have the same accessibility features, or whether it’ll be keyboard operated, but these features are usually in plain text with little formatting and I’m optimistic that we can make the free content more accessible than it is now.

But I'm not coding the new site and I can't promise how this will all work, if at all, as that's not been sorted out yet. As and when it is, I'll let you know!

Why don’t you just add a bit of code to stop the hotlinking if that’s the problem?

Yes, there are options available for preventing hotlinking and stopping the search engines crawling the files but there isn't a way to do it effectively within my version of Squarespace, or at least not without compromising other areas. Not hosting the PDFs directly is a much cleaner solution and it allows us to consider other options for the new site.

My free patterns and tutorials have been offered as PDFs for over a decade - if the hotlinking was the biggest issue changes would have been made long before now. So yes, its an issue I'll be glad to see the back of but it's not the only area of concern that's driving changes.

Changing how the free patterns and tutorials are presented on my site hasn't been an easy choice at all. Honestly, I'd not be too impressed either with a website pulling all of their PDFs. But please bear in mind that the PDFs aren't going forever from everywhere and that we'll do what we can to find a way to allow them to be saved from the new site. I also appreciate that not everyone is happy to sign up to receive free content but The Woolly Hat Society is free to join, and it provides a good solution for now and a not unreasonable compromise should we not find anything better.

How does all of this affect my patterns?

If you haven't already downloaded a free pattern or PDF then please do so soon, as the files will be removed from my site on the 23rd of January. The new site won't be launching then so we'll be entering a transition stage of sorts.

None of this affects your purchased patterns at all. They're still be in your libraries or accounts, depending on where you've purchased them. This particular change is about the free patterns and tutorials only.

Even when the new site is launched, your purchased patterns won't change then, either.

I've no plans to remove my pattern sales from Ravelry, purely because I can't afford to. I'm not comfortable at all with having my patterns for sale there and should I be at a point in the future when I can afford to change that, they'll all still be searchable on and listed on the Ravelry database.

Why is the new website not ready yet?

OK, this is a huge website! It's something I've been working backend on solidly since July. I've got help from a fantastic group of people with skills way, way beyond mine but I can't afford to pay them all full time and honestly, its not a task to be rushed - some of our best solutions have come about because we're taking our time, because there's been delays.

Yes, there have been delays. It happens. We're all human and did you meet 2020?

Where there's been delays I've done what I can to let folks know, and talk about progress here on this blog, on my Instagram account and in my newsletter. We've picked up pace again and I should have a better idea soon of how some aspects of the new site will look and function.

I’ve been building my own site forever, moving around from one website builder to another for 15 years. That all means that the site is different things patched together and what's been needed is a fresh start. Thousands of images have been re-edited and resized; 15 years worth of pattern and book data has been collected, formatted and edited so that we can organise it all properly for the search function on the new site AND improve all of the information and how it's presented. There's a whole lot of new articles and features that are being developed, too, not to mention new translations, new accessible pattern formats and more.

None of this could happen quickly, even with a limitless budget to throw at it!

We're making these changes in stages, as there's too much for me to manage in one go, and because I don't want there to be any nasty surprises. Sometimes that means that there's a lot to keep track of and I get it, sometimes you just want it done. But we're not a huge team and I'm not a big corporation, rolling these things out in stages is our only way. We can test, take feedback, rethink where we need to.

How do I get the free PDFs while I can?

They’re all still available on the Free Patterns page - each image that has a downwards arrow offers a PDF download, the rest are for patterns hosted off site.

Likewise on the Tutorial pages, look for the images with a downwards arrow to download that particular technique.

All of the current PDFs will be going on the 23rd January, download as many as you wish before then!

———————————————

I’m starting to understand why some folks don’t announce changes, or why they just launch a new website without warning - there’s a lot to explain and of course we can’t please everyone. Sometimes explaining everything means not everyone will read or will skip through, or maybe I might not be as clear as I could be, but I’d rather explain what I can when I can as I’d prefer to keep you in the loop than not. It certainly would be an awful lot easier to not tell you, put it that way!

One of the biggest challenges with a site this big is organising things so that everything works together, and that means the changes we’re making as well. It’s a huge logistical challenge! I suspected this change might not be popular and I wanted to get the news out as soon as I could, but I also hope folks understand that the PDFs aren’t going away forever, and that there are many reasons for taking this step.

You’ll still be able to get all future free content in it’s current PDF layout via The Woolly Hat Society. In the near future, all of the tutorials PDFs as they are will be linked to from all premium patterns (this will roll out over a few months). And if all goes to plan, the current free patterns and tutorials will have a print to PDF from within the blog posts on the new site.