Monthly
The editor's note
Once a month, two or three paragraphs from Rukmini Shrestha on what we published, what we got wrong, and one thing in the research that changed our minds. No promotions, because we have nothing to promote.
Sign-up component — every state
The same inline form in all five states it can reach. Note that “already subscribed” uses neutral copy and no .inp.err , because the reader did nothing wrong — and the wording never confirms whether a given address is on the list.
Default
One email a month. Unsubscribe in one click.
Invalid email
That address is missing a domain ending — did you mean shrestha.com?
Already subscribed
If that address is on our list, it is already set up — nothing more to do. The next issue goes out on 1 September.
Submitting
Check your inbox
Double opt-inCheck your inbox — one more click
We have sent a confirmation link to tomas.kaya@example.org. Click it and you are on the list. We use this two-step process deliberately: without it, anybody could sign anybody else up to a publication about a poisonous substance, and that is not a thing we are willing to make possible.
If it does not arrive
- Give it five minutes — we send from a small server and it is not instant.
- Check the promotions or spam folder, and mark it “not spam” so the monthly issue reaches you.
- Still nothing? Send it again or use a different address.
The link expires after 48 hours. If you do nothing, your address is deleted from the pending table automatically — we do not keep unconfirmed addresses.
/newsletter/confirm, which is a real page with header and footer, not a bare white screen.Where this component appears
End of every article
Inline, single field, one line of frequency copy. Never as a pop-up, never as an interstitial, never on a timer — if the writing was not good enough to earn a sign-up, an overlay will not fix it.
Footer band
Compact variant: label visually hidden, placeholder carries the field name, button reads “Subscribe”. Present on every page except this one, where it would be duplicated.
Safety articles
Suppressed. On a page about poisoning symptoms, a sign-up form is an intrusion. The emergency routing block sits where the form would otherwise be.