Updates Coming to The Court Jeweller!

Swap out your tiaras for construction helmets, everybody: some changes are coming this week to The Court Jeweller! (I’ll have Queen Maxima help me explain.)

It’s tough to believe, but The Court Jeweller was launched more than seven years ago! Over that span of time, there have been changes in the way that content is published and delivered online. To keep up with the times and the technology, I’m moving the website to a new platform, offering us more flexibility and durability to help make TCJ relevant and easy to access in the years to come.

The platform move is tentatively scheduled for this week. If all goes as planned, we shouldn’t have significant downtime, but there may be a few hiccups along the way as we get all of the switches flipped. If you notice that the website is down briefly, that comments are not loading, or that other parts of the site seem broken, just note that we’re aware of the issues and that we’re tinkering behind the scenes to have them resolved as quickly as possible.

The platform changes will hopefully make the site speedier and smoother to load, too. They will also give me the opportunity to make the content more accessible to all readers. The addition of more accessibility features will be a gradual process that I plan to work on for the rest of the year.

As the site’s house is moved on to its new foundation, I’m also planning on making an alteration to the content calendar. During the pandemic, I’ve been thrilled to be able to offer readers three original posts every single day. Now, as the world begins tentative steps out of isolation, I’m debuting a new schedule. 

I’ll be posting my usual article at midnight (in my time zone) every single day, including Saturdays and Sundays. In place of the current Daily Diadem and Nightly Necklace/Evening Earring posts, I’m launching a new afternoon feature on weekdays: the Sparkling Spotlight. This post will cover a bejeweled appearance from a royal lady, complete with a discussion of all of the jewels worn on the occasion. These posts will include more text and images than the usual afternoon/evening posts, giving us more to enjoy and more to discuss.

As always, I cannot thank all of you enough for reading, commenting on, and sharing articles from The Court Jeweller, especially during the last year. I’m so happy to have been able to be a bright spot for you during the past year, and I’m hopeful that these changes will help TCJ continue to shine in the future. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much for your wonderful support—and thanks for sticking with me as we do a little construction work this week! If you have any questions, let me know in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer!