I started this post with a cheesy sentence about how the weather is changing, autumn is coming, and the leaves are falling...but you know all of that. If you've subscribed to this newsletter or regularly read this blog, you're here for an update on what's going on at Magic Pages - not a weather forecast 😄
So, let's have a look 👇
⚙️Custom configuration values
If you've been around the Ghost forum or looked at the PageSpeed Insights of a Ghost website before, you know that Ghost has one notorious problem: it's loading external scripts for certain components (specifically comments, membership portal, and search).
Now, the content delivery networks Ghost is using aren't evil. They have a place in the world of web technology. But...they do slow things down. And the solution is easy: just edit your Ghost configuration file and add a direct link to a local version of these scripts.
Oh wait...that does sound pretty complicated.
And yeah, it is. Especially if you're on a managed Ghost hosting provider like Magic Pages, the answer has always been "Nope, can't do that. If you want to edit your configuration, you have to self host".
Well, I was fed up with that. I looked into the technical possibilities and realised that it is actually pretty straightforward, from a technical standpoint.
A few weeks later, and custom configuration values on Magic Pages are now a thing, making it the first – and only – managed Ghost hosting service that allows you to edit it.
Head over to the new Configuration tab in the customer portal to try it yourself.
📂Subdirectory installations
Magic Pages has always supported subdirectory setups, but so far nobody has jumped the gun on this, since it involves quite a bit of technical work from your end.
However, recently I got another request for these types of setups, and decided to write it all down. There is now a new tutorial on how to set these up:
Jannis Fedoruk-Betschki
Still some tech work involved, but having it written down like this makes it a little less scary, hopefully (you tell me 😄).
🎨Kyiv Theme updated to v2.0.0
More and more of you started to use the Kyiv theme for their Ghost sites and shared valuable feedback with me. After several bug fixes, I have taken a deeper look at things and released v2.0.0 a few days ago.
Jannis Fedoruk-Betschki
There are still a few things that need to be changed, so keep an eye out on the Changelog page.
📧Update on the migration to Mailgun
As teasered in the last update, Magic Pages is moving its email infrastructure from Amazon SES to Mailgun. The majority of the work has been done, but since this is a breaking change, I want to make sure things are properly tested.
On the price side, I have done some calculations. And while I will personally take a hit, it looks like i can keep the $5.00/10,000 emails as it is. Now, this is not set in stone, and I believe it is in all of our interest that all costs are covered. So, depending on how this evolves over the next few months, I might need to change something here as well.
From a technical perspective, all of you will need to change some DNS records, so be prepared for that. There will be a period of 1-2 months where both SES and Mailgun will work simultaneously, but if you want to keep sending emails on Magic Pages, you will need to take action at some point. Rest assured, there will be a separate email specifically about this.
💸Supporting open source
As a software developer, I strongly believe in the power of open source. I am using open source tools on a daily basis, and my business – Magic Pages – wouldn't exist without them. Most importantly, Ghost, of course.
The idea of supporting open source projects financially has been floating around in my head for a few months already, but the recent drama around WordPress has inflated the amount of time I thought about it.
While I already supported an amazing project that enables the entire Magic Pages infrastructure, I have decided to formalise this commitment.
5% of Magic Pages revenue will go to open source projects that enable Magic Pages as it is. Now, Magic Pages is making low 4-figures on a monthly basis now, so the amount is not out of this world. But as the business grows, this pot will also grow.
The October pot supports the hetzner-k3s project, Ghost itself, and Cathy Sarisky (who has made some pretty amazing contributions to Ghost).
Since revenue is fluctuating, the amounts will change over time, and new projects will be added to the list.
👻 What has happened on Ghost's side?
Quite honestly...A LOT.
I am very impressed by the recent releases, which all contain some small but powerful bug fixes, new features, or improvements of existing functionality.
Special shoutout to Cathy Sarisky (who is running Spectral Web Services), who has pushed some features and improvements that have been discussed in the community for some time now. Every time I opened the release notes in the last few weeks, I got really excited. Once again, thank you for these contributions, Cathy!
My personal favourites:
- You can now exclude the
{{ghost_head}}from your themes. This gives theme developers (and all of us, really) superpowers in how to load different things into our themes: https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/pull/21229 - Newsletter strings are now translatable: https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/pull/21433
- Two new handlebar helpers for themes, giving more possibilities for integrations: https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/pull/21331 & https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/pull/21151
- Lots and lots of internationalisation with new and improved languages.
As always, if you have questions or feedback about anything, please let me know. Always happy to chat :)