Version 5.0 – September 24, 2025
- Made legacy pocket guides free; added direct download and removed checkout process
- New main header image on homepage
- Compliance with PHP 8.2
- Removed Google Analytics
- Blocked, where possible, AI agents from scraping content
- All form submissions now auto-expire personal data after 180 days
- Tweak: Added date information to post bylines
- Tweak: Integrated comment counts into post byline more seamlessly
- Tweak: Added source attribution for link format posts
- Tweak: Video posts now show video embed directly in feed on front page, blogroll, and archive pages
- Tweak: Adjusted top level menu items
- Tweak: Made search bar in the side menu always open
- Tweak: Added newsletter signup to homepage featured blocks
- Tweak: Added TikTok account to sidebar menu
- Tweak: Switched from Open Sans font hosted on Google Fonts to self-hosted Open Sans Variable
- Tweak: Updated iPad mockups for Becoming the Reel Deal landing page
- Tweak: Many performance improvements
- Tweak: Many security & privacy improvements
- Bugfix: Becoming the Reel Deal landing page displaying poorly and not working
- Bugfix: Added back “Related Posts” to single post pages
- Bugfix: Resolved all jQuery issues related to jQuery migrate
- Bugfix: Updated all forms to newest version of Gravity Forms and confirm operation
- Bugfix: If video link is broken for video post, a featured image will be shown instead of nothing
- Removed: Bespoke video playback features on video posts. Default player is YouTube.
- Removed: Pocket Guides promotional banner on post pages
- Removed: All jQuery code from theme and replaced with vanilla Javascript
- Removed: Social media icons from featured blocks on homepage
- Removed: Topics from collapsed submenu so they are always visible
- Removed: All mentions of X account (formerly Twitter) since deleted
- Removed: All customer, payment, download, and shopping data for pocket guides (deleted off server)
- Removed: All stored entries of email addresses and related data from form submissions for newsletter signups
Version 4.2.2.1 – February 17, 2017
- Set countdown timer for maintenance mode
- Bugfix: Social icons not displaying in maintenance mode
Version 4.2.2 – February 17, 2017
- Feature: Added Facebook Video as embed option for video post types
- Feature: Added Amazon Payments as payment method to checkout page
- Tweak: New homepage hero image
- Tweak: Replaced Pinterest social media icons/mentions with Instagram
- Tweak: Significant image compression on pocket guides purchase page
- Tweak: Removed AJAX cart from pocket guides purchase page
- Tweak: Visual design of pocket guides purchase page
- Tweak: Visual design of checkout page
- Tweak: Newer iPad graphics for Becoming the Reel Deal page and promo graphics
- Tweak: Removed Visual Website Optimizer code that is no longer used
- Tweak: Minification of most CSS and JS files
- Tweak: Merged custom plugins for photo credit, video post-type, and social media buttons into theme
- Tweak: Refactored a lot of functions to be faster
- Bugfix: Responsiveness of checkout progress bar on checkout page
- Bugfix: Hero images and titles now appear again on category pages
Version 4.2 – July 5, 2015
- Feature: Overhaul of Cinematography Apps page
- Tweak: Performance improvements for Read Next on single posts page
- Tweak: Added scroll down arrow to UI on homepage
- Tweak: Updated download links for cinematography apps
- Tweak: Compatibility with updated shopping cart platform
- Tweak: Compatibility with updated popular posts plugin
- Bugfix: Problems with welcome video playing on iOS devices
- Bugfix: Social button counts not showing up due to change in Shared Count API
- Removed: Recent/Popular post selector
Version 4.1 – March 20, 2014
- Feature: Added new “Hero” section on homepage with welcome video
- Feature: Added new featured resources section on homepage
- Feature: Added external link post-type for shorter, daily updates
- Feature: New featured post blocks on homepage instead of carousel slider
- Feature: Added a sponsorship platform (details here)
- Tweak: Minor changes to typography
- Tweak: Added back the ability to zoom on touch devices
- Tweak: Social media counts in byline link to direct shares now
- Tweak: Updated styling of Depth of Field Test to match Delta redesign
- Tweak: Several performance improvements
- Tweak: Several security improvements
- Bugfix: Tapping outside main menu to exit would sometimes click elements on page
- Bugfix: Fixed comment count button on blog page to actually take you to comments
- Bugfix: Added delay to drop-down menu when scrolling up
- Bugfix: Fixed substantial number of HTML validation errors (HTML5 validated)
- Bugfix: Fixed several CSS validation errors (CSS3 validated… sort of)
- Bugfix: Fixed several PHP errors related to missing arguments
- Bugfix: Issues with animations in Chrome on ebook signup page (thanks @nicolasthemovie!)
- Removed: Recent/Popular post selector
- Removed: Explore topics in site footer
- Removed: Social media buttons on post footer
Known Issues:
- Problems with welcome video playing on iOS devices
Version 4.0.1 – October 17, 2013
- Tweak: Adjust video size default based on window screen size
- Tweak: Change behavior of video player border radius
- Tweak: Only load thumbnails for popular posts when hovering over selector
- Tweak: Replace “Read More” arrow with font character instead of image
- Tweak: Use default logo image for lazy loading images
- Tweak: Smooth scrolling to comments when clicking comment button
- Tweak: Combine CSS stylesheets to improve performance
- Bugfix: Fix issue with tapping on “Topics” in menu
Version 4.0 – October 1, 2013
- Launch: New design launched with changes and features covered in this post.