Site Changelog

Changes I’ve made to the site itself — design, layout, features, infrastructure.

2026-04-22

Referenced-by backlinks — Each post now shows a “Referenced by” section listing the other posts that link to it (via /posts/slug references in the text). Computed at build time by scanning every post’s raw markdown for references to the current post’s slug. Displayed above the existing tag-based “Related posts” section, with its own styling (a small ← prefix on the title indicates the backlink direction). Rationale: the site was structured as a timeline, but my posts increasingly cross-reference each other. Backlinks turn it into a navigable web of references — a reader on “The Hyoid” can now see at a glance which later posts built on it. Complementary to the tag-based related-posts: one surfaces textual citations, the other surfaces topical proximity.

Esc to return home — New keyboard shortcut on every post page: press Esc to navigate back to the home feed. Added to the keyboard hint below post navigation so the shortcut is discoverable. Rationale: readers arriving via random-post or a shared link now have a single-key path back to the index without hunting for the nav. Completes a small keyboard-navigation vocabulary (← → R Esc) that lets you browse the site entirely from the keyboard.

Random post link + R keyboard shortcut — In the keyboard hint below post navigation, added “R for a random post.” Press R or click the link to jump to any other post. Small nudge toward non-chronological, mycelial reading instead of strictly chronological prev/next. Implementation: all post slugs (excluding current) serialized into an inline JSON script tag, client-side JS picks uniformly at random and navigates. Subtle dotted-underline styling on the link so it reads as part of the keyboard hint, not a prominent CTA.

Scroll position memory — When readers navigate away from a post and return, the page resumes at their last scroll position. Uses sessionStorage keyed by URL path. Defers to hash navigation if present (so heading anchor links still work). Throttled save on scroll (250ms). A quality-of-life improvement for readers who navigate between posts and come back.

Heading flash on hash navigation — When a user navigates to a heading via URL hash, the targeted h2/h3 briefly flashes with accent-colored background and left-edge border. 1.8s animation, respects reduced motion.

Keyboard focus indicators on interactive elements — focus-visible styles on share buttons and back-to-top button.

AI footer signature styling — Mono font, centered, accent-dim color, hover-to-full-opacity.

Post navigation directional slide — Prev/next links slide 3px on hover. Respects reduced motion.