Alistair

Front end web developer and accessibility advocate at Series Eight.

Work: Front end development, CSS, accessibility, web performance

Personal: Mountains, snowsports, hillwalking, craft, outdoors, music

Edinburgh, Scotland 🏳️‍🌈 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

There's no LGBTQIA+ without the T 🏳️‍⚧️

Website: https://alistairshepherd.uk
Email: [email protected]
Pronouns: they/he

Public Key

npub1ugarrmcywknp5yrl087759ajs9t90w8pjv6grjlxfxfp4n6df0aqmk8k7p

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqswyw33auz8tfs6zplhnl02z7egz4jhhrsexdype0nynys6eax5h7spz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds96jzng

Publishing to

nostr.wine

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1ugarrmcywknp5yrl087759ajs9t90w8pjv6grjlxfxfp4n6df0aqmk8k7p

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Last Notes

2026-05-30 08:31:53 UTC

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Yeah I do a lot of stickers based on that goose stealing things or getting up to various trouble.
It's an easy inspiration that most people like whether or not they know the game!

2026-05-29 14:58:50 UTC

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I saw on Vinted someone had cross-stitched a full-on aurora scene across the front of a black denim jumpsuit. It was stunning!
Oh boy I was in so much danger seeing that, considering a project that would actually take me years 😅

2026-05-29 13:04:13 UTC

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omg cross stitch is such a big rabbit role, when I started to realise that any pixel art I could cross stitch I had to stop myself from starting like 10 projects haha

2026-04-30 12:22:20 UTC

Scottish politics
https://cdn.masto.host/frontendsocial/media_attachments/files/116/493/629/030/191/665/original/fdfac0b5e56fde15.jpg

2026-04-01 10:04:23 UTC

All I want for my birthday is no April's fools jokes 🙏

2026-03-26 16:02:31 UTC

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Yeah I started with Umami and found it hard to maintain and unreliable.
I think functionally Goatcounter is there for me but I have got on my 'ideas' list forking it with a new custom theme!

2026-03-26 10:00:10 UTC

New blog post! 🥳
It's about using Goatcounter for small projects as a simple and cheap analytics tool that's pretty good privacy-wise compared to other options.
This post has been sitting in my drafts since September last year. 😅
https://alistairshepherd.uk/writing/simple-website-analytics-with-goatcounter/

2026-03-23 12:13:30 UTC

Tell me you're a JS developer with no CSS knowledge without words
https://cdn.masto.host/frontendsocial/media_attachments/files/116/278/427/387/301/178/original/757135a371f50a72.png

2026-01-22 11:19:04 UTC

Anyone have any particular insights on headless CMS' for enterprises? Either specific ones or general thoughts.
I'm considering suggesting a switch from Craft to a headless setup for one client, it would be good to know a bit more about how others have fared with them.
Sanity and Contentful are our frontrunners at the moment, any thoughts on either or both of those would be amazing. But I'm probably going to look into a few more.

2025-07-22 14:35:52 UTC

New blog post! 🚀
A few months ago a media org demanded a license fee for an open graph image I linked. I paid the fee because I was worried, but it raises serious questions about open graph usage on the web!
This goes through how it went and my thoughts.
https://alistairshepherd.uk/writing/open-graph-licensing/
https://cdn.masto.host/frontendsocial/media_attachments/files/114/897/381/787/090/638/original/aa17332fce632171.png

2025-07-16 18:38:19 UTC

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Ooooh shit mate that's rough. Wish you the best recovering

2025-04-11 17:01:50 UTC

Do I know any front-end dev freelancers with Shopify or Craft CMS experience who have availability?
We have a bit of a crunch at my work at the moment so we're looking for some contract support over the next couple of months.

2025-04-01 17:18:23 UTC

28 today! Happy birthday me 😁
Celebrating with an evening of wine and Balatro I think!

2025-02-25 15:39:02 UTC

Every time someone answers a question with "Here's what ChatGPT said" instead of "I don't know" I lose respect for humanity

2025-02-18 19:26:27 UTC

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Ah yes, it's not the prettiest! I've come to really appreciate the user experience of it — by far the easiest analytics tool to get info from I've used before.
I'm not aware of any alternative dashboards but there is an API so definitely possible

2025-02-18 16:29:53 UTC

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I'm using Goatcounter — https://goatcounter.com/ — not self-hosted (generally) but free, simple, respectful and data isn't sold.

2024-11-15 07:49:24 UTC

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I saw them back in 2015 for the Race for Space tour and haven't since then — which I'd like to change!

2024-11-12 07:50:10 UTC

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I'm pretty sure with latest updates for me it's gotten a lot worse! My 1440 displays go slightly out of focus now and again but look great on Windows

2024-11-06 13:31:26 UTC

New blog post! 📝
"My anti-overlay client letter" — I'm often asked about accessibility overlays, and this is the email I send to clients when that discussion gets serious.
It may be helpful to others making the case against overlays and laying down the facts.
https://alistairshepherd.uk/writing/accessibility-overlays-email/
#webdev #accessibility

2024-10-07 21:03:12 UTC

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it was 2021 when I built my current site that I properly looked into it though, and a lot of things have changed! Hopefully you can find a method!
Perhaps an edge function with Netlify to swap out the `disabled` attribute depending on a cookie?

2024-09-12 11:50:30 UTC

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Are you able to share what "seat filler" lists you use? I have an account with one but it would be helpful to be aware of others!

2024-09-09 21:00:52 UTC

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Someone recommended Goat Counter to me which is completely free most of the time: https://www.goatcounter.com/
Haven't used it or looked into it yet but plan to for your exact reasoning.

2024-08-24 13:16:32 UTC

I've written to the UK Competition and Market Authority about PWAs and Web Apps on iOS: https://alistairshepherd.uk/writing/cma-mobile-browsers-remedies/
You should too!
@npub1kn4…3asa has a great article on why and what: https://open-web-advocacy.org/blog/uk-browser-and-cloud-investigation-may-fail-to-allow-web-app-competition/#we-need-your-help!-act-today!
So does @npub1duh…4el7: https://brucelawson.co.uk/2024/web-apps-on-ios-is-the-cma-missing-the-point/

2024-08-21 20:22:09 UTC

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And if you want your SVG dividers looking like mountain ridges and generative I've got you! 😉
https://alistairshepherd.uk/writing/svg-generative-ridges/
https://cdn.masto.host/frontendsocial/media_attachments/files/113/001/867/511/642/156/original/76a111599b011f63.jpeg

2024-08-08 10:50:51 UTC

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Exciting news!
P.S. It would be worth reviewing your alt text on that image, looks like the auto detect has made a mess of it!

2024-08-02 16:40:03 UTC

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For my own stuff I use rem, at work good ol' postcss-pxtorem has our back when we write in px.

2024-08-01 16:32:57 UTC

Just tried and failed to apply to a Barclays bank account on three different devices. The errors I received:
- Check Gateway Response
- INTERNAL SERVER ERROR
- ERROR T0006
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