Important information for email subscribers

Unfortunately, the third-party platform that the British Library uses for email notifications for our Blogs is making changes to its infrastructure. This means that, from mid-August 2021, we anticipate that email notifications will no longer be sent to subscribers.

To find out when new blogposts are published, we also recommend following us on Twitter (@BLMedieval) or checking this page on the British Library website where all our Blogs are listed.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope you will continue to keep up with the latest stories on the Medieval Manuscripts Blog.

Miniature of the evangelist Luke depicted as a scribe, with his evangelist symbol, the bull, in the Grimbald Gospels (Christ Church Canterbury, early 11th century): Add MS 34890, f. 73v

Honestly and sadly, I suspect I will never look at the blog again -- I completely rely on the email to tell me if there is something that I or my students are going to find interesting. And some of us truly loathe Twitter, so I won't be hearing about cool things there. I wish there were some other way for you to keep in touch with "us"!

Posted by: Louisa | 19 August 2021 at 08:53 PM

I am disappointed about this move. I think that members of the public need prompts and email reminders to remain engaged and to feel involved with BL blogs. Without the email notifications, I can see interest and engagement dwindling.

Posted by: Lis Rusby | 19 August 2021 at 09:31 PM

This is a retrograde step. It means that I will have to actively look for new blogposts rather than have them ‘pushed’ at me. There will be days (or even weeks!) when I just haven’t the time to go searching for what’s new and am sure I’ll miss posts that I’d like to see. Also, it means that the BL will be reducing its engagement with the wider public. Surely it can’t be too difficult to send out regular emails with updates? The smallest website seems capable, so why can’t the BL?

Posted by: Dave Hayden | 19 August 2021 at 09:35 PM

That’s a real shame. I don’t use Twitter and so will miss out on fascinating information.
I’m amazed that the email blog could not be funded.
I’ve learnt a great deal from the regular emails.

Posted by: S Edwards | 19 August 2021 at 09:41 PM

Very disappointing. Why not change the platform?

Posted by: Keith Bennett | 19 August 2021 at 09:55 PM

I love getting the notifications on my email but suspect I'll rarely visit the website. Poor treatment after following you for so many years. You're letting your platform push you around, and clearly letting me know I'm unimportant. Wretched end to an enjoyable experience. Shame on you.

Posted by: Katie Scaife | 19 August 2021 at 10:09 PM

This is very sad. I do not do Twitter and don’t intend to. Have learned a great deal from the blogs but suspect that I’ll look at the blog much less frequently without the reminders. You are getting poor service from your platform.

Posted by: Christine | 19 August 2021 at 10:37 PM

Well, it's probably goodbye. Sorry you are doing this.

Posted by: Donald A Hoffmann | 19 August 2021 at 10:39 PM

For what it's worth, the blog still has a working RSS feed! I've been using that for years.

Since it's not in the original post, here's that:

For those who complain about not getting notifications, if you add an RSS reader plugin to your browser or a reader app to your phone, you can just add this blog's RSS url (and any others you might like to follow -- a good reader can take the root url of a blog and try to locate its feed), and it will check for updates somewhere between every 10m and every 24h depending on the software and your settings.

Posted by: Amberley Jones | 19 August 2021 at 10:51 PM

Another unhappy camper. I concur with the many previous comments (pick one, any one) and will miss you. Not enough time in my days to keep searching if you posted something or not.

Posted by: Andi Bartnek | 19 August 2021 at 10:55 PM

Hugely disappointing. I too haven't time to keep checking online for new blog posts. I find it rather odd that we are expected to do this. This will probably be the last post I read. As a History of Art student and avowed medievalist I've enjoyed your blog immensely. Shocked that the BL can't do something better than this!

Posted by: Joanna Pál | 19 August 2021 at 11:05 PM

Could the blog not be published on another platform such as WordPress?

Posted by: Anne Stark | 19 August 2021 at 11:05 PM

Disaster. This is my favourite blog, nevertheless I refuse to be pushed into using the odious twitter. I hope you find a way of keeping your loyal followers by reversing this unfortunate proposal

Posted by: Crayfish | 19 August 2021 at 11:21 PM

so very sorry to hear this ,please try to find an alternative platform for those of us who do not do social media. my very favorite blog
Angela Australia

Posted by: Angela Delves | 20 August 2021 at 12:00 AM

That's a shame. The same happened to another blog and they switched to 'follow.it' Would this work for you? I'm already following you on twitter but really liked the ease of your email in my inbox - I never missed it then. I've saved a number and do refer back to them! Thank you for the posts.

Posted by: Christiane Kroebel | 20 August 2021 at 06:46 AM

Really sorry to hear I'll no longer get these emails. Like many others, I don't use Twitter, so will miss out on new blogs which I've found fascinating and very useful. Such a shame.

Posted by: Jenni Hepworth | 20 August 2021 at 07:01 AM

Very sad news…

Posted by: katia weber | 20 August 2021 at 07:31 AM

I agree with many of the comments already posted. Please find a way to keep informing us via email of your always wonderful posts.

Posted by: Pam Connor | 20 August 2021 at 07:40 AM

This is lunacy! Why use Twitter at all? No one in their right minds uses Twitter! Yours is the best blog in the English language. Why resort to a platform that might even one day censor your posts for being offensive? I have followed Medieval Manuscripts for years, and saved all your posts, as they form an invaluable reference. It’s beyond a shame – it’s a tragedy the British Library has joined the Twitter herd. Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! I shall never read your blog again, as trawling through Twitter garbage for the occasional pearl is a very tiresome and irksome business.

Posted by: Nicholas Shea | 20 August 2021 at 08:18 AM

This is very sad news. I love this blog, one of the few I subscribe to. I tried Twitter for barely a fortnight before giving up in horror of being overwhelmed at stuff I don't want.

Posted by: Ian Campbell | 20 August 2021 at 08:21 AM

A very sad day. Some of us have no knowledge of things like an RSS and are completey dependend on your excellent e-mails.
Has there been any count of the number of keen people who receive your e-mails? That schould put some weight in the scale.

Posted by: GerhardMark van der Waal | 20 August 2021 at 08:35 AM

Set up a followthatpage.com alert for https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/index.html . It just alerted me to the appearance of the above comments, I've not yet found a way to just get alerts for new blog entries.

Posted by: Peter Alefounder | 20 August 2021 at 10:13 AM

I find this very upsetting. I do not use Twitter or RSS and at 90 will not do so. I treasure yourBlogs as they appear in my Inbox and am most unlikely to remember to check a Website.

Posted by: Shirley Levy | 20 August 2021 at 11:12 AM

HI, estoy muy triste, uno de los mejores blogs con talento fascinantes e interesantes, divertidos y educativos, por favor no lo hagais, ya es bastante triste como van las cosas.
Os quiero un saludo cordial
Gracias

Posted by: fidel igual | 20 August 2021 at 11:15 AM

I have enormously enjoyed following these posts via email, and have learned a great deal from them. Not everyone browses Twitter (or indeed wants to). Surely it must be possible to find an alternative?

Posted by: George | 20 August 2021 at 11:31 AM

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