Thanks and Praise

This blog wouldn’t exist without the technical expertise of Tom Hall (aka viscousmemories), who has installed all the software, templates, upgrades, plug-ins, and manages the server side so I can has my fanceh URL.

The template is “Antique Album” by GetTemplate.com. The CSS was customized to my dreamiest heart’s desire by guru Jason Hutchinson, aka Zikes who makes it all look so easy.

The immensely talented artist Merle Jones (aka freemonkey) made me what I think we can all agree is the coolest header image of all time from assorted clip art and stock.

The smilies are by the brilliant emoticonists darkmoon3636, bad-blood, Chimpantalones.

My endless gratitude to you all. :notworthy:

18 thoughts on “Thanks and Praise

    1. I’m an old grump too, which is why I’ve dragged my feet so long on updating the tech, but when I say that pretty much everything on the back end of the blog is broken, I am not exaggerating. No spam blocker, no email notifications, no contact form, no plug-ins and as of yesterday, no way to update to the latest WordPress version. The craziest thing is that the comment field was broken too, but somehow the bots figured out how to get in anyway when real humans could not. I had to manually delete over 12,000 spam comments before I encountered a single real one. If I could have frozen my old-school site in time, I would have, but I have officially hit the function wall now and needs must. I commiserate with you, though, believe me.

      1. I’m truly sorry to hear that. I’ve had to shut-down websites in the past because of spam invasions in the comments sections.

        There should be a special hell for hackers… one with no electricity or internet service!

        Great site by the way; read it for years and hope to do so for many more.

        1. An empty room with no electricity or wifi would be the perfect Dantean hell for a hacker/spammer. May they all face that fate one day or another.

          Thank you so much for reading the blog all these years. I’ll keep the reading material coming!

  1. I don’t care what format you use for this blog; I am just grateful that it still exists! After all, it’s the content of the blog, not its appearance that matters.

    1. Very much in agreement. The REAL HUMAN commenters, many of whom, like you, have been following for years, contribute so much to the content. If I had to shut down every single function and have a plain black text on white background blog, I would, as long as all of us could post.

  2. After initial startlement, I admire the spare, fast-loading design. Thank you for sticking with the proeject. I do miss the links to other history-related sites (thought some had been long broken) for their history-newstand function.

  3. Hi livius drusus! I’ve stumbled upon your blog recently and wanted to let you know how much I love it. Regarding the bots, have you tried using an anti-spam tool? If you have a moment to send me an email, please do!

  4. I love your blog! Your articles are interesting, educational, and entertaining. Your commenters are articulate, relevant, and pertinent. I truly missed the thoughts from your real readers these last few years. When I started reading your blog years ago I was in the habit of checking back every so often to see if any one made an additional comment to a particular article and if you commented on the comment. I recommend to all your readers to do like I did and go back to when you started this site years ago and re-read the articles and the comments. History (at least the telling of it) never gets old!

  5. Thank you so very much for all of these fabulous stories… I just can’t keep up! I love to share them with my high school students and (try) to wow them!

  6. I too miss the more evocative old design, but–yikes!–these are challenging times we live in and the present discussion offers a valuable crash course in those challenges. Still, I see that your content is stellar as ever–so forza, coraggio and keep on keeping on! I pretty much abandoned my “Italy’s Secret Places” Blogger site several years ago, being otherwise engaged–moving from Florence, Italy to Washington, DC after sitting out the Covid lockdown in Italy (don’t ask…?!?!?) In the interval, my old site pretty much self-destructed and I am now having it rebuilt (shifting to Webflow…wish me luck!) To be frank, I had never given much thought to the requisites of smartphone vs. laptop or even iPad users, but clearly need to. So, thanks again for these timely reminders!

  7. Hello livius drusus,
    I would like you know how valuable The History Blog is to me. Not only interesting beyond measure but a delightful learning experience on a personal level. To wit, looking up item names and unfamiliar (to me) phrases included in your daily blog. May I add, you are among my first reads each morning including news and pre-market data.

    Keep up the good work my friend, I among many depend on your work,

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