I have this idea for a web application and I think with the right group (*cough* Mike and Colin who are extrememly busy) it could be done in a single weekend. Then I started to think about a lot of the web 2.0 apps out there now and I am starting to think that most of them could be done in a weekend and now I’m curious as to how long it took for these applications to be developed.
Also, why don’t you see more efforts from small groups to just have marathon sessions where they scratch an itch so to speak and pump something out? Hosting is basically free along with domain names so the only investment is time. I know time is a big thing for a lot of people, but if you can’t sacrifice enough hours to build something quickly then you have bigger fish to fry.
What happens if the application is a flop? Just move on and create another one. I’m sure this type of stuff happens all the time, but I never hear about it. Does anyone have any stories about these kinds of things? I think that would be totally awesome and a cool kind of geek rush.
Of course I don’t code or design anymore so I would just be along for the ride on IM continually pressing refresh to see the progress of the project. But I can live with that.
Whitespace is a conversational site. It’s a site where you get to see the business side of Scrivs so to speak. Things might get heated every once in a while, but it will always be a bit timid. Nothing wrong with that, but that’s not really the type of person I am.
I’m a nice guy. I’m an asshole. I’m quiet and a loudmouth. I am a lot of things and last week all of them came out offline. My partners kind of imposed a vacation on me to get away from things and it has helped tremendously. There were a lot of things that happened last week and a lot of words were said, lies spread and none of them by me for once.
A couple weeks ago I asked the question of what is too serious and I did so because I could feel myself falling into this trap of thinking that I had to act a certain way to keep the company safe. No matter what happens with 9rules, good or bad, it always seems that people say Scrivs did this or that and never 9rules. It makes sense because 9rules has been with me since its inception and it is something that will probably never change. Overall I think all of us (Colin and Mike) have taken ourselves too seriously and forgotten what has gotten us here.
We are a fun group and with the addition of Tyme things have only gotten a bit more fun and a tad bit raunchier since now those sex jokes can actually be applied to a woman (damn, don’t know how that is going to sound). In any case, I didn’t want a personal site so to speak, but I also didn’t want to turn Whitespace into my playground and stop the conversations that we have here on an almost daily basis. So what did I do? I created the Oreo CEO.
Here is where offline Scrivs meets online Scrivs as I am tired of the two being separate. This is where the fun begins and the trouble….errr, I guess begins again.
No comments. No color, but all color. (Ever had one of those entries you just didn’t know how to end? Yeah, I’m stuck)
I remember when I was trying to learn how to design (which obviously still never worked) and looking at many different designers and picking my favorites and then copying their designs. Not for the public to see, but for my own practice. I wonder though how harmful this is because you might end up creating a style that you believe is your own, but in actuality is just another’s creativity shining through to you.
But how can one learn quality design if not emulating the people we respect? Should you emulate their style and then push it to further lengths so it becomes your own? I really don’t have an answer to that because I never reached the point in my life where I considered myself a designer.
Rundle’s dirty little secret (he is out of town so I can say this) is that he emulates many other designers, but he is able to bring in certain qualities and adjust them with his own tastes so that the style becomes his own. Is this how everyone else does it?
I know eventually you get to the point where you know your style and that’s what you always run with, but it certainly can’t be like that in the beginning, right?
Short and sweet. What’s the one quality in a person labeled as a leader that you look for?
I want to say consistency, but that means so many things to me that I’m not sure I can explain exactly what I mean by it. Hopefully someone can provide a better answer.
Today was supposed to be Fun Friday over at Whitespace, but then Rundle asked me if I had heard about Ed Dunn calling Mike Arrington racist. Now I don’t have an opinion on whether or not Mr. Arrington is racist because I don’t even know the guy and I don’t play the race card. I’m half-black, half-white and found out a long time ago that any barriers can be overcome if you feel race is an issue.
What I do have an issue with is how Ed Dunn is going about all of this. I will keep this short as possible because really I don’t care to say everything that is on my mind, but if you feel like you are being snubbed because you are Black then it’s your duty to put out a product that people can’t deny rocks major ass. Simple as that. I believe 9rules is doing a very good thing, nothing major at the moment like Google or anything, but we do good things for good people and we have yet to hit major coverage anywhere.
And you know what? We know it’s because we have to push harder to make something that appeals to more and more individuals (marketing helps as well) and we are getting there. Traffic is growing monthly and more people are becoming aware of who we are. I’m not stupid enough to believe that some people don’t have it much easier due to their connections and whatnot, but I do believe the web is an open playing field where everyone gets a chance and if you don’t make a success out of things, you should try looking at yourself first to understand why.
Now, so we don’t spoil the Friday Fun with this “serious” stuff here are some pics that clearly prove Mike Arrington does indeed like black people.
Hell he even likes non-white women.
So let’s cut the bullshit and get back to creating products that people use regardless if you are a man from Idaho who is purple with 7 legs, 2 penises, 3 ears, and 1 tooth.
And ladies, those pictures are from last SXSW a year ago. I look a little different now.
Are you a workaholic? I go through bouts where you can’t pull me away from my computer (not to play World of Warcraft, but actually working) and then I get burnt out and go through phases where thinking about the computer makes me sick. Still trying to get into a routine of moderation, but rarely has anything in my life been done in moderation. Are any of you out there workaholics? If you are a former workaholic how did you find the right pace of productivity and happiness?
It seems when I think I am not productive I bust my ass to try and catch up to make myself feel better when all along all I had to do is be consistent with my work. What I need to do gets done, that’s nothing to worry about, but it would be nice to get it done during a normal phase and not an “oh shit I need to get on the ball” type of phase.
I only bring this up because this funny commercial reminded me of what I never want to become:
Video via It’s Useless.
First let me apologize for the title, but my mind seems to be broken today and I am not quite sure what the appropriate terminology for what I am going to talk about is.
In the 9rules forums Paul Stamatiou posted a new CSS file for his Mint installation. He asked Mr. Inman and Shaun respectfully asked that he do not do so since a lot of the branding behind Mint is the aesthetics. Now I could immediately see where Shaun was coming from, but then wondered if it would indeed be better to allow custom themes to Mint installations as long the people know that future upgrades may break and it is up to the theme creators to make sure everything is good?
Shaun wasn’t saying you couldn’t post these public or create your own, but just asked that you do not. What if WordPress was the same way though? Is there a difference? I would think that Viral Branding would work wonders for your application. I know we didn’t put restictions on what our members did with the 9rules logos and some of them have come up with some great stuff.
So what do you think is best for an application, allowing a individual to publicly post skins/themes or to keep things under control so that you may avoid the hassle of the application breaking during updates?
Here were the entries now place your vote in the comments. Only vote once please and only vote for one. I tried to break away from the whole whitespace theme and let it be known a domain was already selected for the “new” site before this contest was even held.
Winner announced Monday.
- fffnbsp.com
- chocolateceo.com
- whitespace-vacuum-epitaxy-center.com
- validatedvoid.com
- improvedthoughts.com
- milkspace.com
- smallbreak.com
- theanticeo.com
- colorfreezone.com
- myownwebsitewithboozeandhookers.com
Yesterday we launched with a new homepage and Mike offered his thoughts with regards to why the changes were made. I have spent the last 2.5 years on this site critiquing and bashing a lot of other sites on the web and I only thought it would be fair to have a go at our own site for once.
What?! Why would someone in the company critique their own site? Wouldn’t it just be better to wait till everything is done perfectly before launching it? In our case Mike and I are two creative types (and I use “creative” loosely here) that differ on certain aspects of design. However, he is good at what he does and I have learned to trust him with certain issues when we can’t agree on them.
Take a look at my favorite version in comparison to the current version:
The old version had more visual pop to it. The color combinations that Rundle was able to pull off were something I had never seen before on the web. With the current version I feel that the gray background is just too bland for what many people might have loved about previous versions. The gray carries over to the navigation at the top and this is something that Mike and I disagree with on a daily basis. I personally can’t stand seeing a gray background and then the same gray used for the navigation. He likes it.
The gray makes an appearance again behind the ads. To nobody’s surprise I hate it there as well. I believe the ads can stand on their own without a background and if a gray background must appear somewhere in there to breakup the content then maybe it would best be served with information on how you can advertise on the 9rules homepage.
My final gripe (I just had to use the word gripe because I don’t think I ever had before) is the “From Our Featured Blogs” section. I think the green background is too light and the entries seems to run into each other. This is actually something Mike agrees with me on and we are thinking of simply placing a small border underneath each entry to break it up visually a bit better.
So Why Launch?
Again, I think a good question to ask is why launch if I have these issues. Well for one the site desperately need the new functionality displayed currently to drive more traffic internally towards our communities. Also when dealing with your own site I knew I had to watch out for being overly critical to the point of nothing ever launching. The problems I have with the site are aesthetic and shouldn’t effect the performance or usability of the site and therefore I felt it was okay to launch with these “issues”.
What are your thoughts? Am I insane or being too picky?
Last week I asked the question of whether or not I should move Whitespace and I received a lot of great responses. The comments started to turn into domain name suggestion type of contest so I figured why not make a full-fledged contest out of it. I’m still uncertain if I am moving this site to another domain, but if I do so I need to do it with a cool domain name so I am opening it up to the world.
The one gotcha is that the domain has to be available at the time of your comment. If someone snaps it up between your comment and whenever, then that’s fine, but it makes no sense to start spouting out domains that are already taken.
I’ll run this contest till tomorrow night and then post the top 10 domains on Friday so everyone can vote. For a prize I will include you in the text ad rotation on Whitespace till the end of the year (as long as it’s a decent type of ad).
And full feeds should be back in place.
