I'm Back
25 AUG
After lying dormant for about two years, I’ve finally got around to redesigning danwebb.net. I’ve gone for a complete change of look and feel from the last design as, although I quite liked it, it was just too hard to read. As I’m planning much more content for the new danwebb.net I have gone for a really easy to read design (and soon, a good print stylesheet).
For those who are interested, it’s the blog is built on Mephisto which is really shaping up. It’s a really great little RoR blog system with a much slicker UI, easily extensible templates based on Liquid and much less general bloat than Typo which we used for the The Web’s Bollocks.
There’s not just a blog either. I’ve got all organised and set up my own subversion and projects site so I can keep on top of all the projects I’m working on. So, if you are using any of my software and you find a bug it would be great if you can drop a bug into trac and I’ll get it fixed ASAP.
I decided a few months ago to get danwebb.net going because my entries on The Web’s Bollocks were just too technical for what is supposed to be a general company blog. It’s looking a hell of a lot like a Rails / JavaScript blog which was never the intention.
So now, I think, is a really good time to get this site going as things are getting really busy. Event Wax is nigh, UJS For Rails is going really well and there’s a whole raft of conferences coming up over the next few months so there’s going to be a load to write about no doubt.
All feedback on the new site is welcome as always. This site is definitely not finished, I’m planning on adding more features over time including some whizzy (but not in a bad way) DOM scripting action, a search page, proper archives and more integration with Upcoming and maybe Flickr once I get my plugin writing mojo back. For the moment though, I’m pretty happy with my del.icio.us and last.fm plugins that you can see in action on the home page. Once I’ve added docs and tests I’ll give them a proper launch.
15 Comments (Closed)
first! No bugs to report; I really like the new design. I wouldn’t usually say that about ‘light on dark’ text, but it does work here. You seem to have a very talented brother. Right, I said some stuff… off to bed. Welcome back and don’t put too many fancy features on here, it’s beautiful the way it is.
ulrike at 26.08.06 / 00AM
Hi Dan,
Well, I really dig the new design… it’s beautiful!
And thumbs up for the comments preview just on the right of the textarea. Now, that’s a serious usability improvement!
Mephisto looks like an interesting beast too… so that’s yet another thing I really want to check out in more depth as soon as I have time.
I haven’t had a chance to try out UJS yet… but it’s absence from Rails is what has always prevented me from using any of rails’ built-in prototype and script.aculo.us helpers. So thanks for that too!
Tobie Langel at 26.08.06 / 08AM
Love this design. So simple, yet so eye-catching. Well done Dan. Think I’ll be coming back here again.
Just one small thing: In firefox the “Name” and “Email” input boxes in the comment appear a creamy yellow background colour with white text on it, can’t read a thing!
Mark at 26.08.06 / 08AM
Looks great man. Now quit stalling and dazzle us with your Ninja-like skills. ;-)
Justin Palmer at 26.08.06 / 08AM
This is a tidy looking site* and a substantial improvement over the previous design. I’ve got to your site from that man Oxton’s pimping link (wait, that doesn’t sound dodgy does it?)...thought I’d leave a little comment and might pop-back sometime. Maybe.
Curiously though – this is the first site I’ve ever seen in ‘Mephisto’ – and that’s intriguing and worth a closer look as well. (Perhaps a suitable alternative to Wordpress or Textpattern?)
*Following the trend of web 2.0 sites though with grey fonts on dark backgrounds…which might make it fade among the growing pack of web 2.0 sites out there (?)....so, the content will have to be the real reason to keep punters coming back in that case.
Best of luck with the site – this is certainly a great (re)-start for it. :)
Matt Robin at 26.08.06 / 12PM
Cheers people!
Mark – That sounds like the google toolbar thing or something similar. Those things cause alot of trouble. Is there a way to somehow override how the colour it uses to highlight form elements?
Matt – This is not a Web 2.0 site! How insulting :) You can find your Web 2.0 over here
Dan at 26.08.06 / 13PM
Looks like a really promising restart.
Would you mind sharing additional thoughts about Mephisto, its pros and cons and what made you go for it from both a webdev’s and a publisher’s point of view?
A comparison to Textpattern would be the icing on the cake…
Robert Wetzlmayr at 26.08.06 / 14PM
Dan: Hahaha…..a site doesn’t need to use AJAX to be Web 2.0…
Yeah, I like Robert’s suggestion – a few words on what made you pick Mephisto over other CMS would be good. Robert: Perhaps he just likes the name?! ;)
Matt Robin at 26.08.06 / 17PM
I’ll be keeping on eye on this now the bollocks seems to has gone a bit quiet.
Don’t think I actually got to say hi to you at the last pub standards thing, I did ramble at Patrick for a while though..
I’ll have to say hi at the next one :]
David Singleton at 26.08.06 / 18PM
Okay, I’ve posted a little bit about my decision to go with Mephisto. I sense that my critera may be a little different from other peoples but hopefully it’ll be useful to someone.
David: Yep, cool. It was a busy one last time with quite a few people I’d never met. Long live Pub Standards!
Dan at 28.08.06 / 00AM
Love the site Dan – especially seeing all the funky hip-hop you’ve been listening too, you certainly seem to be into the J-Dilla (RIP) today.
Hope to say hi at d.Construct (and take over the airwaves at the after party with our hip-hop tracks on the mp3’s!!!!!)
Ross Bruniges at 30.08.06 / 07AM
Ross: Yeah, I’ve been caning the new J Dilla album since it came out. Makes my chart look a bit boring. I’m sure it’ll get more diverse again soon. It’s such a wicked album though, best so far this year for me I reckon.
Dan at 30.08.06 / 09AM
I like the look of it, a few albums I’m looking to get at the moment so will add it too the list! New Roots sounds nice too (I say sound in regard to the tracklistings as I’ve only heard one track as of yet!) – I’m going to have to try and tack a last.fm feed into wordPress site, am sure I’ll get it working….....
Ross Bruniges at 30.08.06 / 11AM
Good Job! I like the way the black (body) background continues in the header image. Simple yet very stylish
Internet Promotie at 31.08.06 / 08AM
What a rockin site!
Very very impressed by your bro’s design skills, a purely talented creative to look out for in future.
Love this typing widget on the comment form, what a touch.
Beer for you.
Aaron at 31.08.06 / 22PM
