MacStories One Week Later: An Update and a Look Ahead

It’s good to have everything in one place. Finally.

A week ago, we merged Club MacStories and AppStories into MacStories.net. It was the culmination of months of work, which, along with a new tech stack we implemented last summer, allows us to iterate on MacStories faster.

As with any large project, there were a few bumps along the way. However, we’ve been able to address them quickly thanks to the site’s new architecture. In fact, since last week, we’ve:

significantly improved the load times of the Club MacStories landing page;

restored Discord access for Club members who have joined since the launch;

added a MacStories-only feed for Club members who want to separate free content from Club content;

reimplemented JSON feed support;

enhanced the AppStories+ RSS feed to better differentiate it from the free, ad-supported version of the show;

updated the Club RSS feeds to work with Readwise Reader;

added new category pages for Club members where they can access Federico’s Automation Academy column and my Mac Hacks column;

removed ads from Club-only content;

updated FAQs, author pages, and other pages across MacStories;

eliminated visual glitches, restored missing content, and fixed broken links across the site;

improved the layout of Club newsletters published on MacStories;

resolved caching and URL redirect issues; and

fixed various other smaller bugs and issues.

Club members’ special RSS feeds.

A big thanks from all of us here at MacStories to everyone who has visited the site to check out the changes and share your feedback and bug reports. Your feedback and support have been terrific. As always, if you see something or have an idea you’d like to share with us, the best place to submit it is this Notion form, which goes directly to Federico, our developer, and me. Also, for any Club members who have not yet logged in on MacStories, resubscribed to AppStories+, and browsed where all your perks now live, Federico’s announcement post and my follow-up article have all the details to guide you.

One week later, the dust has finally settled, and we’re beginning to take the next steps towards redesigning MacStories. So far, most of the work we’ve done has been behind the scenes, but it sets the stage for ideas we’ve tossed around for years. Soon, we’ll settle on a path forward that’s designed to accomplish two things:

Create an experience for readers and listeners that will make MacStories their favorite place to visit on the web; and

Do it in a way that is sustainable and reflects the values that guide us.

Our ambitions are big, but our love for MacStories and the community surrounding it is even bigger, so while we can move faster than ever, we’ll also be taking the care needed to preserve what makes MacStories special even as it changes. We can’t wait to share more with you soon.