Last month marked the ninth anniversary of me starting this blog, more or less continuously updating since then. As I begin my tenth year here on dashes.com, I've made a few changes around the site.
First and foremost, there's a new look to the blog. My incredibly talented coworker Jim Ramsey created the basic theme, which I made a little bit uglier and naturally added some purple to. (Movable Type users can grab the Mid-Century template set upon which it's based.) I also owe a debt to Joi Ito for taking the original photo from which my little icon is based. There are more changes to come, but even at this half-complete stage, feedback is welcome.
Second, I finished something I've been meaning to do for ages, two new listings:
Both of these archives are exactly what you'd expect, with the Best Of featuring a number of my posts that I've been most proud of over the years, including some that were less popular but that I thought were worth featuring. There's also a more extensive list of all archives, organized into a calendar or by tag.
I've brought back the Action Streams that I had on the site earlier, and will be doing more to incorporate my various online presences into my site here. I don't plan to just dump my Twitter updates and my bookmarks and crap into the stream of posts here unless you folks think I should. (I'm guessing not.) There's also different ads on the site. I've experimented with a number of different advertising ideas over the years without much objection, so I'll likely continue to do so. Unsurprisingly, the ads are provided by SIx Apart Media.
I'll be doing more with giving folks the chance to vote on things on the site, as well. Coming up with my own list of my best blog posts seems a little ridiculous, even for someone who's as shameless as I am about self-promotion. I'd love to hear more from readers about what posts were interesting, or what I should write more about.
But that brings me to the most important point: Thank you! Over the years, I've seen my technical skills decline, my writing skills improve, my frequency of posting drop, and yet somehow the number of readers has consistently increased. Writing for this site is one of the most satisfying hobbies, most rewarding intellectual pursuits, and most unlikely passions that I've had in my life, and the biggest reason why is thanks to the relationships I've formed with people who've read what I write here.
So, I hope you'll take a minute or two to look over the best or at least most popular things I've written, to see if any of it strikes a chord. And I hope we're all still here having this conversation nine years from now.
This is looking great and I'm impressed/jealous by how quickly you got this out there. My one suggestion would be to turn off the bold on hovered links. When it pushes text onto a new line, it's a little distracting.
[this is good] Congrats on 9 years (and what Matt said about bolding onhover).
Great adaptation of Mid-Century. Love the archives home page with the calendar style display - we need to get Jim to fold that into core.
But most importantly - thank you Anil for your many years of blogging.
Thanks, guys! The bolding-on-hover is gone, and I added in a picture of some older designs of the site for comparison.
Looks fantastic. Now, when are you bringing the linkblog back?
Oh, man... if I had the time, I totally would. But it's amazing how much effort that feels like it took. And the audience for that stuff has changed so much in the 4 or 5 years since I used to do it regularly, before there was Digg or Delicious or Yahoo Buzz. I just don't think I'd find it fun anymore.
I think the favicon of your mug is my favorite part. It looks like it could almost be 8-bit.
not enough purple!!!
Note to self: create favicon out of own head.
awesome! more purple!!! you are the king after all..;)
Congratulations on 9 years! I love the new look!
Another thumbs up for purple.
One minor font issue: This may be just my particular set up (Firefox 2, Windows XP), but I find the sans serif font used in the post footers and sidebar to be difficult to read. It's not entirely the size, but that the characters aren't fully saturated, as if they've been faded in the sun.
The new site is gorgeous! Props to Jim for a job well done. And to you as well, the purple looks great.
Great design. Probably I will switch to MT :-)
I like the look, very inviting. Actually, I got to hitting links and nearly burned the marbled brownies for Six Apart.
Keep up the good work!
~ Georgia
Congrats Anil! Here's to many more years of your webby goodness :)
Meh. I knew about this site redesign like four days ago.
Congratulations on nine years of being more level-headed than 99% of the internet, man!
Anil (Jayz of Blogging)
So I once called your site ugly. At the time, I meant it. Now, after all these years, I realize that your site isn't about design or keeping up with trends. It's the content that keeps me coming back. You've taught me a lot about the web and you are one of the last genuine people that is still blogging like it is 2000 (before all the haters). Anyway, keep up the awesome work. You are what makes the web personal.
If nothing else, you taught me purple is for royalty.