A new coat of paint
By Steven Martinovich
web posted December 6, 2021
Welcome to a slightly new Enter Stage Right!
As you may have noticed, the look of the web site has changed slightly. A change probably at least a decade overdue but your humble editor is, at heart, a lazy sort.
The web site, in its current iteration, has looked more or less the same for the past twenty years (if not more) with some minor changes to the front page. This is largely due to my increasingly out of date skills when it comes to web site design. While its new gloss of paint hardly speaks of a radical change I thought it time to at least drag it into the early 2010s in form and function.
Unfortunately, given that ESR has been publishing on the web site June 1996, there are still thousands of pages to convert over to the new look (if that is ever accomplished), so you'll still find a titanic majority of the web site still retains the old look and colour scheme that I put together back in the late 1990s. Hopefully over time I have the, well time, to change those over as well. I also hope to refine the look of the web site over time to get it where I would like it to be.
I also hope to add some new functionality to the web site. Unfortunately many of the old services the web site offered, such as email updates of new issues, had to be stopped some years ago due to the web provider barring scripts that weren't provided by itself. They ostensibly mandate this for security purposes but I must also note that they charge money for the use of their scripts. Given the web site's non-existent budget, it's a cost that is difficult to bear for what is essentially a one-man operation on the back-end.
All that said, for those of you who have been patrons of the web site over the years I hope you find the minor update to be pleasing and if you're relatively new that we continue to earn your readership.
With the end of the year coming I'd like to thank all of you -- either old or new -- for visiting the web site. It is greatly appreciated. When I launched ESR as a humble column in a student newspaper back in the early 1990s I had no idea that not quite three decades later I'd still be posting up what I hope are interesting essays for people to discover and be informed by. Some of you have been a part of the ESR family for nearly 20 years as either contributors, readers or both. That is a humbling thing and for that I thank you.
To be honest, there have been many times in recent years where I have pondered ending the run of this web site but I must admit that I enjoy interacting with both the people kind enough to contribute essays and those of you who stop by to engage with what we have. The price of losing that always seems to outweigh my inclination to walk away from what is one of the oldest continuing publications on the world wide web.
At any rate, I hope the holiday/Christmas season is a kind one to you, your families and friends and that the world returns back to some semblance of normality in the new year.
Take care,
Steve Martinovich
Editor, Enter Stage Right 
