Unlisted/Hidden Posts Guide

Overview

This site supports publishing posts that are accessible at their direct URLs but are hidden from all on-site listings (home, tags, categories, books page, related posts, and prev/next navigation).

Set either flag in a post’s front matter:

---
title: Example Post
layout: post
post_hidden: true  # preferred
# or
hidden: true       # also respected
---

The post will still build at its permalink and is reachable via direct link or external referrers (e.g., Google), but won’t be discoverable through your site’s internal navigation.

Configuration

Default values were added so posts are visible unless explicitly hidden:

# _config.yml
defaults:
  - scope:
      path: ""
      layout: "post"
    values:
      hidden: false
      post_hidden: false

Templates updated to respect hidden flags

The following files now exclude posts where hidden: true or post_hidden: true:

index.md (Latest and Popular sections)
_layouts/posts_all.html (All Posts listing used by /writing)
_layouts/posts_by_category.html (category/tag landing pages)
tags.html (tag index page)
books.html (book notes list and count)
_includes/related.html (Related Posts)
_layouts/post.html (prev/next navigation)
_layouts/book_notes.html (prev/next navigation for book notes)

No changes are required in individual posts beyond setting the front matter flag.

Notes and optional settings

Direct URLs remain public. This is “unlisted,” not “private.”
Search engines: If you want unlisted posts to be non-indexed, add a front matter flag and a <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> when set. Example:
```
# in a post
seo_noindex: true
```
Then emit a meta tag in the site <head> (e.g., in _includes/head.html or the base layout):
```
  
```
Sitemap/feed plugins:
- To keep specific pages out of the sitemap (jekyll-sitemap), add sitemap: false in the post front matter.
- If you want to exclude hidden posts from the Atom feed (jekyll-feed), we can add a custom feed template or configuration—ask if you want this wired up.

How to test

Create or edit a post and set post_hidden: true.
Run the site locally: bundle exec jekyll serve.
Verify the post does not appear on home, writing, tags, categories, books, related, or prev/next.
Visit its permalink directly to confirm it’s accessible.

Change log (summary)

Added default post_hidden: false alongside hidden: false in _config.yml.
Updated templates to filter hidden posts from all lists and navigation as listed above.

If you want “unlisted + noindex + excluded from feed/sitemap,” say the word and we’ll add those toggles next.