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Custom Domains on iCloud Email

I’ve been concerned for a while about Apple’s long-term commitment to iCloud email, and have been considering the painful task of switching my primary email address from my 10+ year old @me.com address[1]I managed a free MobileMe subscription back in the day. Remember paying for MobileMe‽ to one at my domain. That is not to say I think they’re actually going to shut down iCloud email, but their apparent lack of interest in the service is enough for me to wonder…

This past summer Apple announced we’ll soon be able to use custom domains with iCloud email. So as soon as I could (right in the middle of an important active email thread… do not recommend) I made the DNS changes to point my domain’s mail to iCloud. Now I can make the transition in email addresses slowly without needing to manage two inboxes. I feel better knowing that if they decide they don’t like email some day (like SD cards) I’d be a DNS change away from packing up my email address and moving it elsewhere.

Apple uses something I’ve not run into yet in the many email configurations I’ve come across; a redirect SPF record.

The switchover was painless, and the UI for the change was as pleasant as DNS can be. I would (subjectively) say it was the nicest onboarding experience for email I’ve been though.

 

References
↑1 I managed a free MobileMe subscription back in the day. Remember paying for MobileMe‽
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Exclude posts from WordPress’s Sitemap

Starting with 5.5, WordPress now generates its own sitemap.xml without the need of a plugin. It’s possible to filter the results to exclude a specific post using the below filter:

function remove_page_from_sitemap ($args, $post_type ) {
    if ($post_type === "page") {
        $posts_not_in = [ 1234 ];
        
        if ( isset($args['post__not_in']) ) {
            $posts_not_in = array_merge( $posts_not_in, $args['post__not_in'] );
        }

        $args['post__not_in'] = $posts_not_in;
    }

    return $args;
}

add_filter( 'wp_sitemaps_posts_query_args', 'remove_page_from_sitemap', 10, 2);

That filter takes a familiar WP_Query argument, so it’s quite simple to add any additional filters, for example if you wanted to exclude posts from a specific term or from specific authors, using any existing WP_Query parameters.