Reading experience

  • Dark / light mode — toggle in the masthead; respects system preference on first visit; preference saved to localStorage
  • Reading progress bar — fixed at the top of article and library pages; stops at the end of the body text
  • Focus mode — hides the site masthead for distraction-free reading; persisted in localStorage; available on articles and library texts
  • Reading settings — font size slider (14–24 px) and typeface choice (Serif / Sans / OpenDyslexic); preferences saved to localStorage
  • Read aloud — Web Speech API text-to-speech with play/pause/stop, speed presets (0.75×–2×), and voice selector
  • Table of contents — auto-generated from h2/h3 headings on article pages with scroll-spy highlighting; floating within-chapter TOC on library pages (≥1200 px screens)
  • Heading anchor links — link icon appears on hover for every h2/h3 for deep-linking to any section
  • Back to top button — appears after scrolling 400 px on articles and library reading pages
  • Reading percentage — shows how far through the current text you are; visible on articles and library reading pages
  • Reading time — calculated from word count at build time; shown on every article card, article page, and library reading page
  • Word count — displayed next to reading time on articles and library reading pages
  • Pullquote sharing — select any text in an article body; a share button appears; shares via Web Share API or copies to clipboard
  • Text selection colour — pansy purple, consistent with the publication's identity

Article actions

  • Save to reading list — bookmark any article in the browser; no account required; accessible at /reading-list/
  • Share — share panel with X/Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Bluesky, Mastodon, copy link, and email
  • Download — export article as plain text (.txt) or Markdown (.md)
  • Print — print-optimised CSS suppresses all chrome and renders clean text; works for PDF saving
  • Cite — citation modal with APA, MLA, and Chicago formats; one-click copy for each
  • Annotation footnotes — inline tooltip footnotes via shortcode; no jump to the bottom of the page

Public Domain Library

  • Library homepage at /library/ — featured works grid and full catalogue with subject and era filters
  • Work landing pages — introduction, chapter list, reading progress indicators, and Continue Reading detection
  • Chapter reader — all eight article reader tools available on library reading pages; word count, reading time, back-to-top, and reading percentage also included
  • Reading panel — slide-out panel with Contents (chapter list), Bookmarks, and Notes tabs
  • Annotation toolbar — highlight and annotate selected text; highlights and notes persist in localStorage
  • Reading position — scroll position saved per chapter to localStorage; restored on return (30-day expiry)
  • Chapter completion — chapters marked complete at 88% scroll; progress visible on the work landing page
  • Bookmarks — bookmark any scroll position within a chapter; listed in the reading panel
  • Floating within-chapter TOC — auto-populated from headings with scroll-spy; visible at ≥1200 px
  • Browse by Subject at /library/subjects/ — tag cloud and per-subject work listings
  • Browse by Author at /library/authors/ — author biographies and collected works

Navigation & discovery

  • Full-site search via Pagefind — built at deploy time, no backend; section filter bar included
  • Section navigation — dropdown menus per section showing recent articles; Library, Projects, and Games have curated dropdowns
  • Mobile nav drawer — full site navigation in a slide-out drawer with primary sections and secondary links
  • Surprise Me — button in the masthead that redirects to a random article
  • Reading time filter — filter articles by All / Short reads (<5 min) / Long reads (>15 min) on section pages
  • Related articles — ranked by shared tags with section fallback; shown at the bottom of every article
  • Backlinks — each article shows other articles on the site that link to it, discovered at build time
  • Tags / topics index at /topics/
  • Archives at /archives/ — articles indexed by date
  • Editions at /editions/ — articles grouped into numbered editions; edition pages are printable with a full article text section included after the contents listing

Publishing & editorial

  • Corrections log — articles carry corrections in front matter; aggregate view at /corrections/
  • Suggest a correction — mailto link on every article
  • Article series — numbered parts with previous/next navigation
  • Inter-article response system — responseTo front matter links articles with banners shown on both
  • Argument map — structured Claim → Evidence → Conclusion box for opinion pieces
  • Dates link to archives — every date on articles and cards links to the corresponding archive anchor
  • Contributors index at /contributors/ — bio cards and article links
  • Per-author pages — bio and article history for each contributor
  • Per-author RSS feeds at /feeds/[author-slug].xml with link autodiscovery
  • Document library at /documents/ — primary source library for FOIA responses and public records
  • Changelog at /changelog/ — public record of site changes

Newsletter

  • Newsletter page at /newsletter/ — signup form, what to expect, past issues link, alternative follow options
  • Buttondown integration — subscribe forms embedded across the site (inline, sidebar, footer variants); no backend required
  • Confirmation redirect at /newsletter/confirmed/ — shown after clicking the confirmation link in Buttondown's double opt-in email
  • Welcome redirect at /newsletter/welcome/ — shown immediately after form submission
  • No open or click tracking — Buttondown's open and click tracking are disabled; links include a UTM tag for aggregate site analytics only

Infrastructure & performance

  • Progressive Web App — web manifest, cache-first service worker, offline fallback at /offline.html
  • XML sitemap at /sitemap.xml — all articles, library pages, and key static pages with lastmod dates
  • Google News sitemap at /news-sitemap.xml — news:news namespace with publication, language, date, and title
  • RSS feed at /feed.xml covering all sections
  • Per-author RSS feeds at /feeds/[author-slug].xml
  • robots.txt — allows all crawlers including Googlebot-News; declares both sitemaps
  • JSON-LD structured data — NewsArticle on article pages; Book and Chapter on library pages
  • Open Graph social card images — auto-generated per article at build time
  • Print CSS — suppresses nav, sidebar, and all non-essential chrome across article and edition pages
  • Bunny Fonts — privacy-friendly font CDN; no IP logging, no cookies, no tracking
  • Hosted on Cloudflare Pages

Analytics & privacy

  • Umami analytics — privacy-first; no cookies, no personally identifiable information; public dashboard
  • No first-party cookies — all reader preferences and state stored in localStorage
  • No advertising networks or tracking pixels
  • Privacy policy at /privacy/

Translation & accessibility

  • GTranslate widget — nine languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese); floating selector
  • Skip-to-main link — first element in the page for keyboard and screen reader navigation
  • OpenDyslexic font — available via the reading settings panel; loaded on demand
  • ARIA labels on all icon-only buttons; aria-expanded on all interactive toggles

Intellectual projects

  • Freethought Glossary at /glossary/ — terms with etymology, key figures, related terms, and A–Z browse sidebar
  • Thought Experiment Library at /thought-experiments/
  • Freethinker's Bookshelf at /bookshelf/ — annotated reading list with category, difficulty, and best-for metadata
  • Trials of Thought at /trials/ — landmark trials where ideas were the defendant; chronological from 399 BCE
  • Games at /games/ — Fifteen Puzzle, Freethinking Trivia, Word Scramble, and a Crossy Road variant

Transparency

  • Features page at /features/ — this page; complete inventory of site features
  • Changelog at /changelog/ — public record of every site change
  • Public analytics — live Umami dashboard readable by anyone
  • Editorial handbook at /editorial/ — public standards covering accuracy, sourcing, corrections, AI use, and complaints
  • Corrections log at /corrections/ — aggregate view of all published corrections

Last updated: 19 March 2026