Squarespace 6 Beta > Beta Updates / January 2012
Thanks for the update Anthony! I can't agree more about Squarespace releasing quality products. One of the best features about Squarespace is that things always seem work exactly how they are supposed to. It's clear that version 6 will be nothing short of outstanding when it releases.
Jason Barone
Email: jason@jasonbarone.com
Personal Site: http://jasonbarone.com
Jason Barone
Anthony,
Your lengthy (and belated?) post is very appreciated! But with all due respect, it seemed more like a pep rally for Squarespace employees and investors than a detail oriented update for Squarespace users desperate for information about what's going on with Squarespace.
Even after all this time of V6 being in beta mode, your answer to "Do you have a schedule for the beta ending?" was "No. We will know when it is ready when we see the right level of customer responses and we are internally proud of it." A surprisingly and disappointingly subjective, noncommittal answer. Such an answer suggests that you have no idea or at least not enough confidence in how things are going, to provide even an estimated or target release date, not even Spring 2012 or Summer 2012. Like surely most of your customers, I couldn't imagine giving my clients such a vague and noncommittal answer about a major project, especially after such a frustratingly long period of no updates (note: I know V5 is works fine, but it's getting long in the tooth and is in danger of falling behind the competition; plus the seemingly much improved V6 is definitely taking far longer than anticipated).
Please understand and respect that your customers have customers that demand better and more meaningful updates. And I'm sure you demand much better updates and communications from your vendors than Squarespace is providing its users (pls let me know if that's not true).
Squarespace is without a doubt, one of the best web services out there. But at one time MySpace was by far the leading social website but it was fairly quickly and completely overtaken by others such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Does anyone reading this even have a MySpace profile? (for the record, I never did)
Thanks again.
Scott
Hi Scott,
I'm trying to be very direct. My goal in doing that is to properly set expectations instead of promising you something, given the knowledge of how we operate. To your request for more information: Could you let me know what you wanted covered that I didn't cover? Is there a specific feature you're wondering if we have roadmapped? I'm not attempting to dodge questions.
"Such an answer suggests that you have no idea or at least not enough confidence in how things are going"
Quite the contrary -- I think things are going exceptionally well with the beta, it's just such a huge task and we set the bar very high. We absolutely have internal target dates and release cycles -- but they move as we shift priorities. I don't want to give you a loose estimate I can't deliver on 100%, knowing that we need to retain our ability to delay the project if we need to.
That said -- in your situation, my colleague Jesse invited you to the beta a few days ago after an email exchange. You now have access to Squarespace 6 in a production environment, with the ability to develop sites (just as we're doing with it) and move your site over from 5 (the importer is functioning 100% for blog and page content -- we just used it to move our blog over to 6, which we're re-launching soon). Have you gotten a chance to try it?
I realize a few parts are a bit rough right now (page builder, core template selection), template selection is limited, and the stability is not on par with our more stable V5 infrastructure, so you may be holding off on using it for your primary sites, but you actually have access to the platform right now. The fact that we're moving our company sites over should send a signal about the reliability and how serious we are about getting this out.
Aside from expounding on the nature of your information request, there any other roadblocks I might be able to remove for you?
Thanks again for the constructive criticism.
Anthony Casalena
Thank you for (finally!) letting those of us not in the beta program, know what is going on.
ZA
@Anthony,
Thank you for your response. I would like to chime in here and offer this list of features that are of concern as many of us move forward with Squarespace. Looking forward to see what you have in store with v6, but the clock is ticking...
1: Mobile template option
2. FTP access to storage
3: Calendar Module
4. Re-worked Forum Module
5. Export statistics
6. Paid User Subscriptions
7. >25MB file storage limit
8. Ecommerce module
Kevin Olsen
The Austin Grand Prix
Kevin Olsen
Hi Kevin,
1. We are attempting to have all templates in 6 include responsive design. There wil be no such thing as a mobile template -- all templates work everywhere natively.
2. SFTP access for development is deployed in the beta currently.
3. Calendar is not a primary focus, but can quickly follow due to a re-modeled data architecture. We view a calendar as a journal with shifted presentation and an "end date".
4. We are not focusing on forums right now, but since the commenting system and login systems are rewritten, this will be a logcal next step.
5. This is not a focus for us right now.
6. This is not a focus for us right now, but you can definitely write/integrate something given the level of code access you have in V6.
7. What sort of files, are these podcasts?
8. Not a focus for the initial launch, but obviously something we're accounting for addressing at some point.
Anthony Casalena
Anthony,
Thank you very much for your responses, I think you cleared the air on my most important concerns. This is very helpful and reassuring. I'm just hoping that I can get an invite soon, any help would be appreciated!
In regards to your follow up questions:
1. I follow you on this and agree dedicated templates is not the way to go, this is great news.
2. I'm hoping this is not just for developers who sell sites, but also for admins. Still the capability is there, good news.
3. I could see this being really beneficial to have this as part of the journal, until then, google calendar will suffice.
4. I think forums would be a great way to allow sites to have more interaction, we'll see where this goes.
5. I think it would be nice to save this stuff and create reports, but Google Analytics is so comprehensive, I can understand not wanting to invest in this feature and instead focus on other things, kudos.
6. I'll have to research that more, though I know there are several threads about it here.
7. Yes, mostly for Podcasts and other audio interviews as well as very high-res panoramic images. I know there are options like Amazon S3 and others, but I think it would help to keep everything here. I would be willing to pay extra for an increased file limit, say 100-300MB.
8. Great news, I think that would be a big addition to your catalog of features.
Thanks again Anthony, this was a big help.
Kevin Olsen
Anthony,
I note in your post:
"This development effort is going on in parallel to development on the Squarespace 5 platform."
With this in mind, do you plan to add an 'active' class to widget links in Squarespace 5?
These are indispensable in some designs, for instance to indicate the selected page in category navigation in a sidebar menu.
Thanks Anthony.
Brian Liddell
Hi Anthony - Thanks for this update. You mentioned being more restrictive with your employees about leaking info or providing dates. You realize that you're restricting a communication channel that is already nearly non-existent?!
You'll find that your customers will give you a break and a lot more flexibility if you'd simply make these types of posts more frequently and consistently. We don't want absolutes, we just want an open dialogue. Instead of muzzling your employees, I'd suggest you let them say whatever they want (with guidance of course), but you put the official word on the blog once a month.
The cure for misinformation isn't less information, it's more information... and a canonical source. I love the product and always finish reading your posts with a renewed sense of affinity for Squarespace, and a refreshed sense of patience in the wait for Squarespace 6.
P.S. When you said you release your alpha testers from their NDAs, does that mean beta testers are encouraged to screenshot and share what they're seeing to get the word out as well?
Josh Braaten
Thanks for the update. I am looking forward to V.6 and although I am not getting all the things on our "wish list" I think it is unreasonable to expect a custom product unless you are paying for a personalised CMS for your business/organisation. We needed something easy to use, visually flexible and that could be used to communicate news and events as well as gather data. We looked at products like wordpress, snappages and, of course, Squarespace. All offered bits we wanted, Snappages came close with a Calendar and the ability to do more with individual person profiles but lacked security and since we use iPads a lot, we struggled with the reliance on Flash. Wordpress was a good blog tool but would require too much additional work to fully customise to our needs. Squarespace V5 was the one we opted for with the hope that V6 might fill in the blanks... we look forward to it...
Hopefully with a new engine Squarespace can provide other functions as demand becomes clear, but for now we just look forward to some exciting developments as V6 opens up... I would also sell my right arm if they offered a template creation service so I could keep our PR watchdogs happy with the "look and feel" of our sites!
Keep up the good work Squarespace!
Dom
Hi Anthony
Thanks for the update. I've read all the comments here and been keeping an eye on some of the various other comments and tweets about v6 during the past year. There is a lot of frustration and impatience I suppose with the long wait, but I also think a lot of people do understand (if slightly disappointed) your reasons for it. As a guess I'd say a lot of the people who use squarespace and really appreciate the ease of set up and use (like me!), are the same people who appreciate good products and services like we've come to expect from Apple and Google etc. In many ways, Squarespace is a victim of it's own success with user's eyes opened to what is possible and now desperate to see new updates and features to take it further.
It's Squarespace's drive for perfection that probably lead to it's success in the first place, so I don't think the users want you to give up on that. However, I think there may be a mistake with the mindset of total perfection before delivery and the lack of a public release date might swing the balance of doing more to serve the delay, rather than perfecting the product. No product is perfect on release, but the act of geting it out there motivates everyone to sort out the issues quickly. Look at the original iPhone! Then look at the example of Windows Phone 7, better than the original iPhone, but 3 years too late!
Anyway, it's good to know people are still working hard on it, but I think Scott's concern that the delay will mean you'll slip back with competitors is also a concern for me. Apple is an exception rather than a rule and even they work to public timelines sometimes. I think most of us would be much happier with a public beta of v6 so that we could just start making a test site with the full knowledge it wont always work properly.
Don't let legitimate pride in the product stand in the way of getting it out there.
Thanks
Dave
Dave Valler
We appreciate the comms here as it's getting really grim down here.
Not even an estimate ...eg, Q2 or summer 2012? That one is a bit of a shocker dude.
I know it's not easy, but I agree, it's great
spongebob
@Brian - I just brought this up with the team last week. It's been discussed before (no surprise). Let me see if I can make it happen.
J
Jesse Hertzberg
@ Kevin Olsen said:
"7. Yes, mostly for Podcasts and other audio interviews as well as very high-res panoramic images. I know there are options like Amazon S3 and others, but I think it would help to keep everything here. I would be willing to pay extra for an increased file limit, say 100-300MB."
—KO
My experience says this is barking up the wrong tree, at least with regard to podcasting.
A few months ago I got into a snag with SS as the basis for my podcast. As far as I knew, it worked great. But then I got notices from people who were checking it out. Admittedly, they were trying to play it from the site itself, not using RSS to download episodes. I don't have control over how people choose to make their first attempt to listen to it. But I was told there was all types of stuttering and stopped playback. Good thing these were experiences close to our inner ring, because you could imagine that being a deal breaker for new listeners. And who wants that? In our case, our market is not all tech savvy, so if they're coming to the browser maybe by curiosity or by an email link, I hope it would play the file okay.
I got on the horn with SS and while no one had an answer for me during the usual troubleshooting of this browser or that, this connection or that, what did emerge was that SS really is not even technically set up to serve "byte-range requests." My understanding is that while they can host and serve big files, the manner in which they are served is not really set up to deliver podcast type material efficiently AT A LOAD. And of course, most podcast authors intend to build an audience that will listen to everything current and in the archives. Think of this like a big limo that could stretch on and on as needed. It could also get more and more horsepower. But it's good for use in first gear only.
Downloading is fine, but streaming? Not so. This makes great sense when applied to video. Squarespace lit does advise using YouTube or Vimeo for videos. I didn't find it so forthcoming (or, really, emphasized) that for podcasting, one would be better off with Hipcast or Libsyn or even the Internet Archive (free but a bit clunky).
Other looking into the matter suggested that any offer with endless bandwidth and storage capacity (on any host) does not yield the basis for podcasting. Either the byte-range request thing will be a hang up, or a successful podcast would end up drawing down resources, probably leading to throttling (like ATT does on iPhones and all).
So don't be fooled. Endless file size, capacity and endless bandwidth are not all they seem to be. I had no problem getting a larger file size allowance when I petitioned for it, but what disappointed me was that I had written to say I wanted to step up my podcast activity and the default 20mb file size was forcing me to make editorial decisions I'd rather not make. Fine, they upped the limit. But no one told me that (until 20 episodes into all this) that their platform is not geared up to serve files in the way podcast episodes demand. What sticks in my craw is that no one at SS made me aware of this along the way as I was inquiring about other podcast related concerns. No one seemed to know or speak up that this is not what they do. Or not what they do well.
That led to a world of hurt as I had to do all the research and other experiments to essentially break and rebuild the entire podcast structure in a way that was more modular than I started with: instead of SS generating the entire thing (file hosting, blog post, and RSS), and happily posting on iTunes, I carried on with posting show notes within the website, using a new feed that passed through Feedburner, and most notably, hosting files at Libsyn.com.
I did not like going to our nonprofit board and telling them that, 'oops, our web hosting cost is now gonna be extra because SS just admitted they can't serve files for this job.' You see, the basic idea worked well enough but was not ready for growth. I suppose Squarespace could equip for the byte-range request demands, but with Libsyn or Hipcast already proven in the podcast market, I doubt they'd do that. I'd expect to get email service by SS first.
Anyway, unless I happen to be the only one with this experience, I don't suppose it's a great idea to think you could run a podcast on Squarespace—at least not hosting the audio there. And oh, be sure to use a separate journal for podcast feeds, not just a category based feed. iTunes can make a clear distinction of what is an enclosure item, but I've had a bit of wonkiness in Google Reader, subscribing to the podcast feed (a category within the main feed), where regular blog entries are in the mix. Um, no.
If you don't know about him yet, maybe check out Cliff Ravenscraft, PodcastAnswerMan.com. Pretty comprehensive stuff. Don't look for anything about Squarespace though. He uses WP. But there is a lot of transferable info.
Sorry for the diversion.
Ed Lucas
Ed, I feel your pain, but there are many things you can do to lower the file-size of your show. Have you tried simply making a mono file? That will cut your file-size in half. You can also lower your sample rate to 64kb/s if it's a spoken-word podcast. The shows I produce now are all using 128k audio, but back in my early days (using Sound Forge) I could create a 45-minute program at 64kb/s that would fall under 20MB. (audio sample http://bit.ly/zdh5dO)
I see that you've responded to our podcast comments here http://www.contentstructurestyle.com/podcast/css-resources-for-squarespace-episode-106.html#comments
I wish there were more answers for you!
Alan Houser
Hi Alan,
As a long standing audio guy, podcasting for me was a challenge in the publishing matter, not the audio itself. That said,
I publish at 80kb since there is a bit of music that I don't want smashed into digital quantization noise. 64kb gets noticeably icky, but 80 is just at that threshold. I do use mono. But files come in at about 20 mb for our shows, which range(d) about 30 minutes, or more now that we've changed our method some. After four years of sermon tidy up work and years in music and recording, I am actually a ruthless editor too, on the prowl for as much verbal sawdust as I can trim out while sounding natural. 'Um, ahhh... you know...' all that shit gets the axe. I can all but read audio waveforms like literature. Okay, almost.
All that to say the files are about as squeezed as they're gonna get!
Squarespace did grant generous space upon request, so that isn't the issue. And now that I have Libsyn, I just need to get stuff done within 50mb/month, which is fine for a long episode or two shorter ones. The thing is, Libsyn is set up to deliver podcasts first and foremost in the way that YouTube delivers video—on demand, and heavy demand if needed.
To check my situation on SS when this issue came up, I used four different contemporary browsers (Chrome, FF, Opera, Camino) and a couple different computers at different locations, and was a bit miffed to find that indeed there was something that had to be done. I had already figured all that out before SS passed the help request around a time or two before someone talked byte-range request issues.
I could say it about Squarespace but it really applies far wider than within this little SS world: hosting plans are sold to seem like more than they are. The endless bandwidth is a nice lure. The free-range server space is tempting. But in my correspondences with SS help, they made clear that podcasting isn't their deal. I just wish that was clear in the literature, or was back in 2010 when I set up and was delighted that the basic idea worked, and that iTunes took the feed okay and we were off and running.
I might also say I hope that in V6 such a thing as transporting an entire blog post to a different journal could be done. Or maybe I can do it by XML but haven't done so yet... but if you're gonna run a CMS, run a CMS where content can be managed with as few steps as needed? If you can transfer an image from one gallery to another, then why not a post in one (text) journal to a different journal dedicated to podcast show notes?
As far as answers, some of this is technical, but a few of these things could have been detoured from with a bit of customer service (where maybe talk about podcasting raises a red flag for SS help to clarify their strengths or weaknesses, or even FAQ type content that lays it out straight. My beef was all in having to rebuild something after thinking it was all working right.
Anyhow, enough thinking out loud. It works again. It's just modular.
Ed Lucas
I'm an audio guy too. 22 years now. And have 8 past podcast shows under my belt. :)
I'm following you somewhat, sort-of skimming the lengthy posts above. I guess your issue is foggy. It's sounding like the audio— when the file is on Squarespace— isn't playing well in a browser?
I've never seen an issue with this happening— EVER. Even using countless players, even with my horrible DSL speed. And this will sound like a jackassy thing to say, but it really doesn't matter. The very core of Podcasting is the benefit of time-shifting. Produce the show, put it up on a site, and it will get blasted-out where it needs to go.
For those that want to sit on the website and listen to the show— if they have problems on your Squarespace site, then they will have problems on every site. This is no different than being concerned that the fonts "look chunky" on an IE7 user's screen on a Squarespace site. In reality, every site will look poorly on that browser to me, because I've seen way-better results. But that user has no A/B comparison. If they have a bad experience because of inferior hardware/delivery/bandwidth/etc, etc —it's not the fault of Squarespace, or even the content developer. That user has a poor experience on EVERY site, Guaranteed.
Add messaging on "how to download the show to listen".
Alan Houser
Hi Alan,
Tom at SS wrote:
Please type your reply at the top of the email...
Tom (Squarespace Support)
OCT 02, 2011 | 11:05PM EDT
Hi Ed,I'm sorry for the trouble with this. This is because the file is hosted in your site's File Storage -- we actually don't support byte-range http requests, so there is a specific http header that that will cause issues for a browser playing a file.
Byte-range http requests are used for streaming multimedia content, and that is definitely not the intended use of the file storage that we provide. We're just not technically set up to host media in the same way that other services are. We highly recommend embedding media from a media hosting service rather than from directly within your Squarespace site.
As a side note, Amazon's S3 service, the largest file-hosting solution in the world, also does not support byte-range http requests for the very same reason.
Hope this clarifies!
--
Tom G
Customer Care
Squarespace, Inc
And back to your point about downloads...
But while you and I know as web authors, savvy as we are, that podcasting is a downloadable medium, not everyone knows that, and at least among a portion of my target audience, most over 40 and I'd guess many of the most committed ones perhaps over 55, they aren't always going to know about RSS. And for quick and nasty purposes, we might still send out a link say, to our guest, who then might unknowingly pass that on as they promote their show in their circles, taking it even more out of my hands. I simply don't know how folks will encounter it, and as Libsyn says, "ten years ago 95% of people didn't know what an RSS feed is. And now, only 90% don't know what an RSS feed is." Maybe that's hyperbole, even by a long shot, but some will get to the mp3 file by a link, or by sheer curiosity as they peruse the site, maybe not ready to commit to any subscription that they'd have to go and reverse. One never knows how many listeners think that is all there is to it, and then just says, "phuc hit" and is on their way.
Now I've listened to your show too (played off the browser), but didn't have any problems that I recall. And I'm pretty sure that if you're an SS hardcore you were using the default setup with the enclosure field referring to a locally hosted file. But if I have a 30 minute, 80k mono file and you have something even more hefty at 128k, then it would seem your file would choke and mine might not. So I don't know. But Tom's response above says what I need it to say. Just, unfortunately, a year and a half later than I would like to have had this information.
Ed Lucas
I think you're drinking too much of Libsyn's Koolaid. :) They're ridiculously overpriced, and there's no reason that you need byte-range http for playing an audio file, when plain-old http works just fine. Audio files are teeny. Streaming servers for video are a completely different story —they deliver variable video quality depending on bandwidth.
If you're still intent on holding the hand of the lowest common denominator (those who don't know how to play an audio file) then once your show is edited, throw it up to YouTube with one solid graphic, then embed YouTube on the site.
Alan Houser
Hi Guys,
Happy to provide some insights and official responses. Sorry this is a bit long, I wanted to be detailed.
1) Why is there a Squarespace 6 Beta? Why even talk about it?
The purpose of the Squarespace 6 beta is to help us test and prepare a monumental product release for public launch and get real customers into the R&D process. Squarespace has tens of thousands of customers -- and some time ago we decided that the right thing for the future of our business was to invest a massive amount of money and time into a new platform -- one that would let us deploy ANY kind of site on a hosted CMS using a next generation web interface. Because this undertaking was so big, we felt running a beta was necessary to get people on board in an incremental fashion along the way, and make sure we don't release something that misses the mark.
In our minds, getting to a beta stage and testing was a really great milestone we wanted to share with everyone, but it has unfortunately created many questions around when that beta period will end. Any internal estimates for a timeframe released by employees have been a mistake, and we are working to correct that communication flow and let people know what they can talk about (read: growing pains). Occasionally an excited member of our team will post or communicate a personal estimate, not understanding that this is going to be read as an official stance and build up expectations. We've done a poor job of this and it won't continue.
This development effort is going on in parallel to development on the Squarespace 5 platform. We are a 70 person company. We can, and do, have multiple development teams running in parallel. Of any company in the entire world working in our space, Squarespace is among the top in terms of full-time development energy devoted to solving this problem. Squarespace 5 is an excellent platform, 6 will be even better, and we will continue to put all of our efforts into getting this right.
2) Do you have a schedule for the beta ending?
No. We will know when it is ready when we see the right level of customer responses and we are internally proud of it. While we, of course, have internal roadmaps and milestones, there are no public dates I can share with anyone. In the same fashion that the iPhone 5 and next Android OS are not late -- Squarespace 6 is not late either, it is simply still under development. If you are in the beta program -- you will be able to watch progress and judge for yourself.
We are not sharing dates in an effort to encourage everyone to use the tools at hand, and not become reliant on the balancing act a company like ours has to play between thousands of features and tens of thousands of customer requests, along side multiple internal initiatives ranging from scaling and uptime to R&D.
3) Should I wait for X (where X is a feature, Squarespace 6, or anything else)?
No. Please do not. Squarespace has, for the past 8 years, had many requests for features, some that cause 3rd parties to hold up development efforts while they wait for those features. You should use the right tool for the job given what is currently available to you in the market. If that means a project works better on Blogger, or Wordpress, or a Javascript plugin on Squarespace or elsewhere -- please use those tools. Squarespace 5 is an excellent platform that will continue to be a great force in the market. When Squarespace 6 (and 7, and 8) are ready, those will be amazing too. We need to be able to hold up a release for any reason if we feel like we're not releasing the right thing -- and that means that we can not set release dates until we've crossed certain lines.
For those of you following us for some time, we will always be the sort of company that attempts to release products of quality, and that naturally means things take more time for us.
4) How's the beta going?
We're pleased with it so far. We've got a lot of invites out (though not as many as we hoped to have at this point), and are getting many more out shortly. We have stable, public sites running on 6 right now, which is really big, and we're comfortable with many of the core concepts in the system. We're finding that our initial set of beta templates were a bit "niche", and are working to get an extremely flexible set of base templates in place before opening more invites.
5) Why does Squarespace not provide more status or release notes during the beta?
For those of you in the beta program, we release updates daily and change major functions very frequently. You can check the Release Notes tab in the settings area to look at status on major items. The point of the beta is that we can iterate very rapidly and correct our mistakes without having to worry about consistency as much. We need to be able to iterate rapidly during this time, and communication will be more infrequent.
Because there are hundreds of aspects to the system -- the most effective form of communication with us during the beta is sometimes one-on-one communication with myself or a developer (for those of you who have emailed me, you know I respond). We will be upgrading the forums soon and are hiring internally for developer relations roles in NYC (email me!). I would like to personally thank everyone who is being constructive with feedback -- this is exactly why we're doing the beta. It's helping us a lot.
6) Why is Squarespace posting about SOPA (or anything else) and not X (where X is Squarespace 6, a particular feature request, a particular bug request, etc.)?
Squarespace has tens of thousands of customers. A percentage of them are waiting for Squarespace 6, some are waiting for developer tools, some are waiting for certain bugs to be patched, some are waiting for certain blogging features on 5, some are waiting for social features, etc. We will continue to publish to our blog and talk about things happening at the company -- because the topic you were looking for wasn't addressed in a particular post doesn't mean we don't care or it's off our radar, there are simply many things happening at once. The forums, or direct communication, are the best ways to get topic-specific information.
7) "I think you guys are just making things up and this is all vaporware and promises."
There are people in the beta on this forum. We'll be sending around an official notice shortly, but anyone who was under the developer alpha NDA should consider themselves released from that NDA.
8) "Squarespace must have some sort of big business problem because X is taking longer than I thought it should take."
Our company is doing very well, and we are balancing hundreds of priorities simultaneously. We remain profitable and growing well into our 8th year in business, have more resources than we've ever had, and have attracted backing from the best investors in the world. I'm proud of the business we've built. It's enabling us to work on huge projects like we're undertaking now.
----
In closing, I want to thank everyone who is providing constructive, critical feedback on the platform. There is a great opportunity here -- you have the attention of a company who can really make a difference and a team that is truly committed to its product and cares about making it something special. In a world of "minimum viable products" and so many other single-feature releases, I am happy Squarespace remains committed to making what is great, not necessarily what is easy.
As always -- I can be reached directly at a@squarespace.com.