Newsletter identity
Buttondown username goodmorningstalbans, public archive route and confirmation language match the St Albans site.
Buttondown live-wiring preflight
Make the St Albans subscriber path testable before it goes live.
Use this page before enabling real Buttondown automation, referral scoring, welcome emails or public leaderboard refreshes. It keeps the newsletter Buttondown-first while preserving the approval boundary.
No Buttondown automation, live subscriber email, public leaderboard, sponsor contact, public post or paid action is enabled by this static page.
Account checks
Verify before touching live settings
Signup metadata
The embed form preserves metadata__referral_source, metadata__reader_token, metadata__signup_market and tag=website-subscribe.
Credential boundary
API keys, raw exports and subscriber emails stay outside the public repo and outside generated HTML.
Internal tests
Run these before any public claim
Referral round-trip
Submit an internal-only address through /subscribe/?ref=test-preflight and verify Buttondown receives the referral metadata.
Leaderboard dry run
Generate a redacted placeholder projection with no emails, no raw subscriber IDs and no unconfirmed referral counts.
Rollback
If metadata, confirmation, analytics or dedupe fails, keep the site on static subscribe/share pages and do not publish rankings.
Live test matrix
Pass these before referral scoring moves
Buttondown form · Operator
metadata-round-trip
Submit an internal-only address through /subscribe/?ref=test-preflight and confirm Buttondown stores referral_source, reader_token, signup_market and website-subscribe tag.
Evidence
Private screenshot or export note stored outside the public repo; never commit raw subscriber email or API response.
Pass condition
Confirmed subscriber record contains all expected metadata fields with the test referral token intact.
Live blocker
Do not enable referral counts or welcome copy that claims referrals are tracked.
Private ledger · Operator
confirmed-only-counter
Build a local count from confirmed Buttondown subscribers only, excluding pending, unsubscribed, deleted and manually imported records.
Evidence
Redacted count summary with no emails, subscriber IDs or raw Buttondown payloads.
Pass condition
Every counted referral points to a confirmed subscriber and a non-empty referral_source.
Live blocker
Keep leaderboard rows empty and reward tiers as placeholders.
Private ledger · Operator
dedupe-and-abuse
Deduplicate by subscriber email and reader token, then flag same-token bursts, disposable domains, self-referrals and suspicious same-IP clusters if IP data exists.
Evidence
Manual review note containing counts only, not personal data.
Pass condition
Suspicious clusters are excluded or manually cleared before any public rank is generated.
Live blocker
Do not publish prize eligibility or sponsor-backed rewards.
Static artifact · Operator
redacted-public-json
Generate /leaderboard/leaderboard.json with only rank, displayName, area, confirmedReferrals and rewardTier.
Evidence
Committed static JSON diff showing no private email, subscriber ID, IP address, API token or raw metadata.
Pass condition
Public JSON passes privacy review and contains only the approved public columns.
Live blocker
Keep placeholder leaderboard JSON in place.
Launch approval · Editorial
approval-gate
Review referral copy, reward language, public leaderboard projection, fraud handling and any sponsor-backed prize terms.
Evidence
Fresh explicit approval recorded in Linear before live refresh, public announcement or reward fulfilment.
Pass condition
Approval is current, specific to Good Morning St Albans and covers the exact public action.
Live blocker
No public refresh, subscriber email, social post, sponsor prize or reward fulfilment.
Public artifact contract
What may and may not leave the private ledger
Allowed public fields
Public field
rank
Public field
displayName
Public field
area
Public field
confirmedReferrals
Public field
rewardTier
Never publish
Private field
email
Private field
subscriber_id
Private field
ip_address
Private field
buttondown_api_response
Private field
raw_metadata
Private field
api_key
Linear proof
Track against MY-2571 and MY-2577
MY-2571
Buttondown referral/live leaderboard wiring: metadata contract, dry-run export path, redacted leaderboard JSON and fraud checks.
MY-2577
Newsletter empire build loop proof: generated static pages, validation gates, GitHub commit and no irreversible public action.
Approval gate
Confirm internally before live automation, subscriber email, public leaderboard refresh, paid ads, sponsor prize fulfilment or domain/payment action.