JeffCroft.com

04.30.2006 // 110 Comments // Aldrich Ct. Townhome Boot it.

I’ve never rebooted before. Oh, I’ve redesigned, but never on May 1st, and never as part of an official Internet-wide ordeal. But this year, the timing seemed right and I was inspired enough to follow through, so here you have it.

I started working on this shortly after I got back from South By Southwest this year. That event was so inspiring, I knew I had to do something special. I had a million ideas and goals for this site, and most of them actually managed to make it in. I hope you all like it.

In this post, which happens to be my 400th, I offer an overview of some of those goals, what I’ve done to accomplish them, and other things I think are worth noting (because I made them, and I’m an egomaniac).

My last design seemed very popular. It was featured on several CSS gallery sites and I gained a lot of readership over the course of it’s existence. However, I never really liked it. Well, maybe I did the first few weeks I had it — but I grew quickly tired of it. A large part of the problem was that I tried to do the “live redesign” thing, and found the result to be a site I never really finished. Thus, my first goal was to “ship” a finished site. A product I could be proud of, and one that I didn’t have to secretly worry about: Man, I hope no one notices that!

While at South by Southwest, I met a lot of people who visit my site, and I learned a bit about what content people like and what isn’t as useful to them. I found that lots of folks love my Flickr photostream, and several also really enjoy my external links (which I call “Furthermore”). A handful of people bemoaned the lost ability to comment on my links when I switched to using del.icio.us a few months back. People seemed to enjoy my main blog when I posted more thought-out pieces (such as my recent series on Django templates), but didn’t care as much for my more stream-of-conscious blathering posts (which are often written very quickly, without much forethought). Because of this, I made it a goal to feature and more fully integrate my Flickr and del.icio.us content. I wanted a framework upon which I could easily integrate content I produce on other sites. I also intend to lose the more rambling posts, and focus on those that are truly useful. This will be difficult for me, as I have a lot to say — but I’m really going to try to filter it down to what’s really valuable to my readers.

Technically, I knew I wanted to move to Django — I just wasn’t sure if it was possible or not. Although a few are in the works, there’s not really a de facto blogging app out there for Django right now (like Wordpress for PHP or Typo for Rails). Most of the Django-based blogs that exist are one-off apps built for the blog they’re running by the programmers that are writing them. I wasn’t sure I could pull this off (since I’m really a non-programmer). But, I’d so fallen in love with Django’s template system, I knew I wanted to go that route if I could.

Visually, I wanted to try to break away from trends and from what I’ve done here in the past. Working at World Online, I’ve been doing a lot of newspaper design, and I wanted this site to reflect that. I wanted to focus on layout especially, and particularly try some strict grid approaches (a la Khoi Vinh and Mark Boulton). I knew I wanted an explicit “above the fold/below the fold” distinction, separating the page in half horizontally, and I wanted to experiment with light-on-dark, since I’ve pretty much always been a white background kind-of-guy. I also wanted to buck the drop-shadows-and-gradients-make-the-world-go-‘round trend that has been going on for quite some time now. I love that style — I just wanted to try something flatter and more print-like. I did want some level of consistency from my previous design, since it was very popular, and the color scheme seemed like a good thing to keep. Orange and green is a bit of a trademark here — every version of jeffcroft.com since 1998 has featured orange, and most have used green, as well. I also wanted to keep my existing logotype and some of the iconography.

So how’d I do?

For the most part, I’m shipping a complete product. There are things I’d like to (and will) add, of course — but generally speaking, I think I achieved this goal. I think the site has pretty good polish and most all of the features I wanted made it in.

I’m really, really thrilled with the way I was able to integrate content from Flickr and del.icio.us. I’ve not seen this level of integration done on a blog before, and I’m really proud of it. You can browse my entire Flickr library right here on the site — complete with tags, descriptions, timestamps, and more. You can view slideshows of photos with any tag you choose. You can download all the various sizes of photos directly from this site. You can comment on my del.icio.us links. You can view all types of content (blog posts, photos, links, etc.) with a given tag on a single page. I’ve got a tumblelog that shows all these various content types (including comments, iTunes tracks, and more) in reverse chronological order. And it’s all very extensible, so it should be quite simple to add content from other services with open APIs. Massive acknowledgments go to Jacob Kaplan-Moss, who wrote much of the code I’m using for this stuff. Jacob is a total rockstar.

All of this is of course made possible by Django, which is the new love of my life. And not just the template system, either. As you know, I work with a very talented team of Python programmers who do all the real work and leave me to make things pretty with CSS and Django templates. I know the template system inside and out by now, but I really, really wasn’t sure I was going to be able to build the models and views to make this site happen. Someone pointed me to Socialist Software’s Django-based blog, which seems to be an attempt at a Wordpress clone in Django. I started with it, heavily modified the models, added several views, and removed several things I wouldn’t use. I tweaked a number of things in Jacob’s awesome del.icio.us and Flickr importers to do more exactly what I wanted. I borrowed the feed aggregator from the official Django website and hacked in several additions to the models. I tweaked Django’s built-in comment system to work the way I wanted it to. I wrote views of my own. I wrote models of my own. I crafted RSS feeds for damn near everything. In the end, I did enough tweaking and changing most of the things I started with to feel like this site is really my own. And I think that’s pretty amazing for a non-programmer. It’s a real testament to how simple Django makes displaying databased content any damn way you please. There’s not a static file (or a PHP script!) on this site. Everything you see is generated on the fly (which may seem insignificant to those of you on Wordpress or other more modern blogging apps, but coming from the static-page land of Movable Type, it’s a big deal!).

I could provide countless examples of Django’s benefits, but I’ll save most of them for later. For now, here’s one: I had the idea one day to offer Slideshow Pro views of my Flickr photos. I downloaded the latest version of Todd Dominey’s kick ass little Flash component and spit out an SWF with it. I used Django’s generic views (God I love generic views) to generate a template for an XML dump of any given tag on the fly. Total lines of Python code: zero. Total lines of template code: four. Literally 20 minutes after I had the idea, I had working Slideshow Pro slideshows for any tag, plus one for my entire Flickr library. Seriously. And I’m not a programmer. Think what you could do. I was stunned — just astonished — at what I could do with Django, even with my meager programming skills. And I was even more amazed that — get this — it was fun.

The trickiest part of the switch to Django turned out to be the importing of my existing entries and comment from Moveable Type. I owe many, many beers to co-worker Matt Croydon for the time he spent helping me with this (or, rather, doing it for me — let’s be honest, here).

Django exceeded my wildest expectations, so I think it’s safe to say I met this goal.

I’m quite pleased with the visual design. It’s simplistic from a graphics perspective — you won’t find a lot of intricate details here. But, it’s complex and interesting layout-wise, and I like that. I did resort to some drop shadows and gradients, but less so than I’ve done in the past. Mission accomplished, I think.

There are several other new things here that I think are worth checking out, but I’ll leave most of them for you to find on your own. There are a few I want to highlight, though:

  • Search results: Django made it quite easy to build a single search tool that read various types of content in the database. As you can see, each search returns matches from blog entries, comments, del.icio.us links, and flickr photos (including sets and favorites).

  • Live search redux: The PHP-based live search I’d implemented on my previous site was slow as best, and broken at worst. It just didn’t work that well. Oh, it wasn’t the fault of the code that Brent put together for me. The problem was simply that trying to graft live search with PHP on top of Moveable Type’s existing Perl-based search just — well, it sucked. After I made my search results view in Django, I realized how simple it would be to do the same for live search (which I’m now calling “Search preview,” because that’s a more accurate description of where I’ve taken the idea). Now, using an Inman-inspired user interface, you can get a preview of content that matches your search — whether it’s a blog post, a comment, a Flickr photo (or set or favorite), a del.icio.us link, a tag, etc. It’s all in there. I think it’s pretty awesome. I used Prototype and Scriptaculous for Ajax and effects libraries. I’m no Javascript master, so it’s quite likely this isn’t quite perfect. If you find a bug or have an idea on how I can better it, do let me know.

  • Blogroll: I’ve not really done a blogroll or links section in a long time, but I felt it was time to bring it back. Over the last several months, I’ve met (in person) and worked with so many incredibly inspiring individuals, I just felt it wasn’t fair to not acknowledge them here. In an effort to make the blogroll a bit more interesting, I’ve used favicons where possible and am also aggregating content from friend’s blogs, rather than just linking to them (of course, I do that, also — they’re even marked up as hCards!). In addition to the typical list of links and the slightly less-typical list of recent post titles, I’m actually storing all the posts from my blogroll in my Django database — even those that no longer appear in the related RSS/Atom feed. I actually built (again, using Django’s generic views) a simple aggreator view of all of them, but ultimatley decided not to include it in the final version of the site because I’m not sure people really want me re-publishing their content. if you have any thoughts on this, let me know.

  • Tumblelog: I mentioned it above, but I think the tumblelog is really cool. It aims to be the ultimate Jeff Croft fanboy site (I know you’re out there, fanboys!). It aggregates all of the content on the site, from blog posts to comments to flickr photos to del.icio.us links — and even some content that doesn’t appear elsewhere on the site (such as iTunes tracks). The beauty of the system (which Jacob is responsible for) is that it is exactly what it says it is: a log of content objects in the Django database. If I started importing, say, milestones using the Basecamp API or comments on other sites using CoComment or similar, I could add those to the tumblelog with almost no effort at all. If I make a “Word of the Day” app, boom, it’s in the tumblelog. Any type of content. Awesome.

  • Comments log: This isn’t that special, but it was incredibly easy to do with Django, so I had to include it. It’s simply a log of all the comments on the site, for any type of content.

The main thing that didn’t get done for May 1 is Internet Explorer debugging. I just didn’t have the time nor the motivation to deal with that — but I’ll get to it eventually. in the meantime, only about 30% of jeffcroft.com visitors use IE, so I’m not sweating it. It should be pretty close, if not perfect, for that 30%.

I also didn’t get my résumé and portfolio done in time for launch. The blog archive, while working, is pretty lame right now. I’d really like to spiff it up over time.

Also, a bit of housekeeping. My feed URLs have changed. You can get the new feeds at:

I owe some serious thanks to the guys at World Online — especially Jacob Kaplan-Moss, Matt Croydon, James Bennett, David Ryan, Tom Tobin, and Wilson Miner — for all their help in making this happen. Special thanks to Jacob, who contributed the first versions of the importers for flickr and del.icio.us, plus the tumblelog, and Matt, who did the dirty work of writing an importer script to move my old posts and comments over from Movable Type.

Also thanks to my talented cousin Brian Ford (who also writes a great column over at Newsvine) for putting together the “Jeff Croft has a posse” illustration I used in this post’s lead image. It, of course, is a spoof of the classic Obey/Giant artwork. I love it.

Thanks also to all you guys that came by early to give me some feedback. Faruk Ates, Bryan Veloso, Dan Rubin, Mike Davidson, Kevin Hurt, Kevin Wohler, Patrick Danko, Daniel Matthis, Brent O’Connor — and especially to New York Times Superhero Khoi Vinh, who provided some really insightful constructive criticism that helped a lot (and also said nice things, which made me feel very warm and fuzzy). And, of course, thanks to you, for reading, commenting, and generally contributing to my life.

I’m really happy with the way this all turned out, and I hope you guys like it as much as I do. Because really, I do this for the people that read the site (and because I like to see my name in big letters, but that’s another blog post). Now, I’ll try to focus on creating great content to go in this lovely new system I’ve managed to construct. :)

Update: If you’ve enjoyed this redesign, I’d certainly appreciate you dropping it a vote over at the CSS Reboot site. :)

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Comments

  1. 001 // Mike D. // 04.30.2006 // 7:48 PM

    First comment!

    Love love love the new site.

  2. 002 // Ben Eastaugh // 04.30.2006 // 8:51 PM

    Very wide, very classy. Just slightly miffed now, because it looks a fair bit like something I was working on that I’m going to have to rethink. Oh well. :)

  3. 003 // Jeff Goseland // 04.30.2006 // 9:10 PM

    Your use of the Flickr Photostream is enviable. Not that you’ve pointed me in the right direction for those API’s it’ll be a challenge to create something as unique while at the same time not “craptastic”.

    Love the new look. Congratulations.

  4. 004 // Wilson Miner // 04.30.2006 // 9:43 PM

    Looks great - glad to see it live. I’ll join you before the end of tomorrow.

  5. 005 // Matt Croydon // 04.30.2006 // 10:39 PM

    Congrats on the new design and architecture. It’s been hella cool watching it take shape.

  6. 006 // Ryan Berg // 04.30.2006 // 10:52 PM

    I wanted to focus on layout especially, and particularly try some strict grid approaches (a la Khoi Vinh and Mark Boulton). I knew I wanted an explicit ‘above the fold/below the fold’ distinction, separating the page in half horizontally, and I wanted to experiment with light-on-dark, since I’ve pretty much always been a white background kind-of-guy.

    Adapted to newspaper design, this largely describes the direction The Kansan will likely be taking next semester as well.

    Congrats on the redesign, it looks great. You’ve done a fantastic job giving order and structure to a large amount of diverse content.

  7. 007 // Kyle Jones // 04.30.2006 // 10:56 PM

    I’m afraid to say it but, it. looks. perfect. Seriously, this is unbelievably great. (love the flickr photostream!)

  8. 008 // Maura // 04.30.2006 // 11:03 PM

    Lives up to the hype.

  9. 009 // Virginia Murdoch // 04.30.2006 // 11:03 PM

    I’m a real fan, particularly of the tumblelog. Nice work.

  10. 010 // Chris Hasenpflug // 04.30.2006 // 11:14 PM

    Jeff, it looks great!! So far, quite a few of the reboots have looked a lot like something I’ve been thinking about but lacked the time for with graduation a week away. Thanks for further inspiration :)

    I’m noticing that there seems to be a problem down here in the comments section (Fx 1.5 on Win XP). The comment boxes are covering up the “Recent Comments” section. Also, the featured link on the front page for this article 404s.

  11. 011 // Jeff Croft // 04.30.2006 // 11:19 PM

    Doh! Thanks, Chris. That’s what I get for making last minute changes. I’ll fix ‘em. :)

  12. 012 // James Bennett // 04.30.2006 // 11:36 PM

    Huzzah.

    Taking bets now on whether you’re going to be a major factor in ushering in the year of the Django-powered blog.

  13. 013 // Chris Hasenpflug // 04.30.2006 // 11:38 PM

    Eh, it happens.

    Was viewing the source for your design, very nice. I find the ordering of your elements interesting. Working right to left…makes for “naked” viewing of some of the pages interesting (the content being lower down).

    Also, what’s with “webdeveloper-inline-style” ? I google’d it and couldn’t find much info. Why it vs. “style”?

    Thanks for giving me something more to do besides studying. Its overrated anyways!

  14. 014 // Jeff Croft // 04.30.2006 // 11:42 PM

    Chris-

    There are definitely some bits of the source that I would consider “out of order.” Ideally, the source would be in the proper order. But, alas, I’m lazy.

    I’m not sure what you’re referring to with “webdeveloper-inline-style.” Can you explain? Where are you seeing that?

  15. 015 // Chris Hasenpflug // 04.30.2006 // 11:48 PM

    re: “webdeveloper-inline-style”

    Realize what it is now. Its put in place by the Firefox Web Developer extension when messing with the styles (disabling them in this case).

    Sorry bout that, didn’t mean to cry wolf.

  16. 016 // Arik // 05.01.2006 // 12:26 AM

    Good work. I am really liking the reboot. Definitely faster than the previous sifr gloated beast. lol. Can’t wait to see what you come with next.

  17. 017 // Jeff Croft // 05.01.2006 // 12:32 AM

    Arik-

    While sIFR no doubt slowed down the old site a bit, I think most of the speed increase can be attributed to Django and Gypsy Hosting. :)

  18. 018 // wp // 05.01.2006 // 12:53 AM

    nice but i get a big white space at the top with content below the scroll line - right hand side is okay however (win ie 6 xp sp 2)

  19. 019 // wp // 05.01.2006 // 12:54 AM

    btw that was at this url which i clicked a link to

    http://www2.jeffcroft.com/2006/apr/30/boot-it/

    Whereas the main site url is fine

  20. 020 // Jeff Croft // 05.01.2006 // 12:58 AM

    Thanks, wp. like I said in the post, I haven’t yet had the time to debug it for Internet Explorer. But I will — I promise.

    In the interim, Get Firefox!

  21. 021 // dotsara // 05.01.2006 // 1:24 AM

    Check you out, fancy pants! Really looks great. (:

    I do notice that the live comment preview kinda chokes and stops playing in FF in OS X. \=

  22. 022 // Bryan Veloso // 05.01.2006 // 1:25 AM

    You know I love it Jeff. :)

    What was it that I said again? It went along the lines of, “I hate you.” But with all the love in the world. By the way, I want my own “obey” image.

  23. 023 // Jon Hicks // 05.01.2006 // 1:30 AM

    Sweet, sweet work Jeff! Enough to make me feel ashamed of my efforts - git!!

  24. 024 // Jack // 05.01.2006 // 1:43 AM

    This is so freakin’ amazing. You’ve inspired me to learn python.

  25. 025 // Miko W. // 05.01.2006 // 2:24 AM

    Wow, great job sir.

  26. 026 // Olav // 05.01.2006 // 3:02 AM

    Looks great! Indeed truly classy. God I love this reboot day meme. ;) Now, to try out that Django thing.. (By the way, hope to see more Djanog related pots in the future. Maybe with some actual code?;)

  27. 027 // Mike D. // 05.01.2006 // 3:26 AM

    Arik: I’ll cut you.

    :)

  28. 028 // Jan // 05.01.2006 // 4:46 AM

    Wow! Grats on the design! I really like the clear structure of the upper half of the site! Especially the newspaper-like comments rock! And of course Tumbelog is definately worth a second look! And the flickr integration! Awesome!

  29. 029 // Volkher Hofmann // 05.01.2006 // 5:54 AM

    Just … wow.

  30. 030 // Dale Cruse // 05.01.2006 // 5:59 AM

    Your stylesheet is not loading at all for me, Jeff.

  31. 031 // Ryan Irelan // 05.01.2006 // 6:24 AM

    A real beauty, Jeff. It’s almost lickable!

  32. 032 // Erik Ankrom // 05.01.2006 // 6:39 AM

    Great job on the new design Jeff! I am sure you are going to attract some django attention with the switch. The World team has always done a remarkable job on sites, and this is no exception. Keep it up!

  33. 033 // Jacob Kaplan-Moss // 05.01.2006 // 7 AM

    Let me be the… err… thirty-third to say “well done, sir!” It looks really great; congrats.

  34. 034 // garrett // 05.01.2006 // 8:11 AM

    Oh yes, me likes it!

  35. 035 // Phu // 05.01.2006 // 8:29 AM

    Nice work Jeff! Glad you rebooted as well; this is very sweet indeed.

  36. 036 // Jeff Croft // 05.01.2006 // 8:37 AM

    Dale-

    Sorry to hear that. I’m not sure what to say, though! It seems to be loading for everyone else. Hrm….

  37. 037 // J.D. // 05.01.2006 // 8:41 AM

    Very nice work Jeff. Very impressed indeed. One of the best reboots that I have seen.

  38. 038 // Dale Cruse // 05.01.2006 // 8:44 AM

    Jeff, I just checked here at work and it looks fine. Well done!

  39. 039 // Brent O'Connor // 05.01.2006 // 9:02 AM

    Jeff, I’ve already told you over IM that I like the site but I’ll make it official and say it in your comments that I like the design and new features.

    I realize I’m not a rock star like “Khoi Vinh” and that my blog looks like a POS right now but where are my props for giving you early feedback! :P

    BTW, the readability of copy is a little tough. It might not matter as much on other articles because hopefully you won’t be as long winded. :P

    Also just out or curiosity I loaded the site up in IE and it has some major bugs. Sigh IE is sucks a big pile of cow dung! I’m struggling with some Javascript for a CMS right now that doesn’t work in IE.

    Also, are you going to keep using www2.jeffcroft.com or will you migrate everything to www.jeffcroft.com eventually?

  40. 040 // david ryan // 05.01.2006 // 9:10 AM

    Yowza, Jeff. I knew this was to be a great reboot, but man: you set the bar far, far too high for other mere mortals. Lucky thing I work with you so I can, er, borrow some ideas :)

  41. 041 // Adrian Holovaty // 05.01.2006 // 9:11 AM

    This site looks fantastic. Excellent use of Django!

  42. 042 // Keith // 05.01.2006 // 9:18 AM

    Looks and works great. Lots of great ideas in here too. Thanks a ton for the preview, aside from the fact that it was cool to see it helped me quite a bit in nailing down some of the things I’d like to do with my new site.

  43. 043 // Jeff Croft // 05.01.2006 // 9:25 AM

    Brent-

    Sorry about that. You definitely should be in the feedback thanks — I’ve added you. I was going off the comments left on the pre-release site to remember everyone — and you never left any comments. Just an oversight, sorry about that. :)

    And, like I said in the post and earlier in the comments, I’ve not yet debugged it for IE. I’m sure it has problems there. I’ll get to it eventually.

    As for the redirect — I’m not sure. That all depends if I can figure out how to get Dreamhost to host my DNS but not my website. :)

  44. 044 // Simmy // 05.01.2006 // 9:54 AM

    Hot damn, son… this is a work of beauty. Kudos.

  45. 045 // Dale Cruse // 05.01.2006 // 9:54 AM

    Small typo, Jeff: “ma.gonila it” should be “ma.gnolia it”

  46. 046 // Dustin // 05.01.2006 // 9:55 AM

    sweet.

    ‘nuff said.

  47. 047 // Jeff Croft // 05.01.2006 // 10:03 AM

    Thanks, Dale — I’ll fix it. :)

  48. 048 // Corey Beaman // 05.01.2006 // 10:08 AM

    jeff. really really nice. fresh and fast!

  49. 049 // trovster // 05.01.2006 // 10:29 AM

    Very nice Jeff, very nice indeed. I love the use of footers in the redesigns I’ve seen today, I wonder who first came up with the idea.

    Request: Hightlight posts by yourself, so your answers are a little more obvious to pick out.

  50. 050 // Jeff Croft // 05.01.2006 // 10:36 AM

    trovster-

    Although i’m not sure he “came up with” the idea, I think Derek Powazek deserves a great dealof the credit for the recent footer revival.

    And, highlighting my own comments is a good idea. I’ll give it a go. Thanks! :)

  51. 051 // Joshua Works // 05.01.2006 // 11:40 AM

    Holy Frickin Frack, Jeff. This IS a tasty burger.

    I’ve been dying to port my site to Django for several months (too bad I’m tied into a MediaTemple account w/o root-access for 2 years, blah!). I’m blown away by your live search. Completely steamrolled. I WANT THAT!

    I’m also keen on your Flickr implementation. I WANT THAT!

    Any chance we’ll see a CMS (Croftie Management System) bundled up from your work on customizing Django to such beautiful effect?? I’ve got a hunch people would pay. And by ‘people’, I mean me. And I mean seriously.

  52. 052 // Joshua Works // 05.01.2006 // 11:44 AM

    Soooo…. I just went over to Mike Industries… and uhm, he apparently already made the Croftie CMS joke. Man that sucks, cos I thought I was being clever.

  53. 053 // Jeff Croft // 05.01.2006 // 11:47 AM

    Josh…

    A handful of us have been working on one-off Django-based blog/personal site CMSes, and we are talking about possibly pooling our efforts and making some releaseable. So, something along the lines of that is possible. We’ll see. :)

  54. 054 // Trevor // 05.01.2006 // 12:09 PM

    Hey Jeff, Just noticed that you typo’d ma.gnolia in your sidebar… should be -olia, not -oila :)

  55. 055 // Chris Hasenpflug // 05.01.2006 // 12:13 PM

    As for the redirect ‘” I’m not sure. That all depends if I can figure out how to get Dreamhost to host my DNS but not my website. :)

    With Dreamhosts’s new DNS panel, it should be possible. Shoot me a line if you need a few pointers.

  56. 056 // P.J. Onori // 05.01.2006 // 12:23 PM

    Very well done - nice clean design.

  57. 057 // Brian Ford // 05.01.2006 // 1:11 PM

    Definitely looking pretty awesome, Jeff.

    As always, your newest update makes me wish I knew what the hell I was doing when it came to designing my own website.

    Glad to see that my illustration worked out so well. (And am psyched to see it appear on mikeindustries as well.)

  58. 058 // Faruk AteÅŸ // 05.01.2006 // 1:20 PM

    Good stuff Jeff, thanks for letting me in on the previews ‘” seeing how this look progressed was inspiring. :)

  59. 059 // Ryan Brill // 05.01.2006 // 1:37 PM

    Croftie, that’s hott! :D

  60. 060 // forgetfoo // 05.01.2006 // 2:12 PM

    wow, this look great :)

    great how you went about organizing all the data you’re showing between your blog and other content pieces…. very slick, man.

  61. 061 // Khoi Vinh // 05.01.2006 // 2:14 PM

    Fantastic.

  62. 062 // Kelsey Ruger // 05.01.2006 // 2:24 PM

    Great job Jeff. I love how you call it an “ordeal” I thought I was the only one who felt that way.

  63. 063 // Adam Teece // 05.01.2006 // 2:54 PM

    I am very impressed with your new design. It looks great and I like all the functionality it has. I was originally planning on working with Ruby on Rails for some of my projects that I wanted to start, but now I am going to have to heavily consider using Django.

  64. 064 // Natalie // 05.01.2006 // 2:55 PM

    Like you need another comment but here’re a few anyway.

    Clean.

    Dark, but light.

    Nice.

    Wide (yay).

    Awesome.

    Better.

    FloatQuotes (yum).

    Fabuloso.

    I’ll be back. :)

  65. 065 // Nate Dog // 05.01.2006 // 4:09 PM

    I enjoy the direction your site portal is going. Yes, I would call it a portal when you cross-publish content. Glad to see you can finally remove the ‘Wish this site was powered by Django’ badge. Congrats on all accounts.

    Will you be reintroducing the content text size changer? These seem to be a growing trend and your old site implemented it well. While I have no problem with the size of your text, I know my clients would!

    While you build Django up, it is not without its limitations, mainly its lack of community compared to other content management systems. The more common problems our team faced were with template restrictions. Perhaps, looking back, we made some building errors but the CMS should have allowed for us to select different templates without forcing the ‘?’ filter. An example below is when we tried to format the bulleted list of FFA comments. The only way to do this was with the ‘?’ filter but we could not append that to the end of a URL string.

    Kansan FFA (this link obviously won’t work since it can’t be parsed from the archive)

    I would love to get my hands on it again and assist with any blog standard for Django once I relocate my manual from World.

  66. 066 // Jeff Croft // 05.01.2006 // 4:19 PM

    Nate:

    Thanks for your comments. I think portal is a fair word for the site. :)

    I dunno about a text size changer. Although I’ve done it in the past, I think CTRL+ works just as well for most people. Plus, I think the target audience of this site probably won’t mind the smaller text in the comments area.

    While you build Django up, it is not without its limitations, mainly its lack of community compared to other content management systems.

    I think it’s important that we not confuse Django with a CMS. Django is an MVC-style web application framework. You can use it to build a CMS, but Django itself is not a CMS. Comparing it to a CMS would be pretty unfair to both sides, I think.

    Perhaps, looking back, we made some building errors but the CMS should have allowed for us to select different templates without forcing the ‘?’ filter.

    Hmm, this sounds more like you’re talking about Ellington, than Django…yes?

  67. 067 // Wilson Miner // 05.01.2006 // 4:34 PM

    Nate, you’re right that Django templates are limited in scope (by design). The underlying philosophy is that certain decisions should be made in the view logic, and that templates shouldn’t be able to do everything on their own.

    So the limitations you guys have run into are really limitations of Ellington, based on how it’s designed to work out of the box. Ellington doesn’t allow you to apply a custom template to a story without using a framing (which relies on the query string). That’s just a design decision of the application (Ellington), not a limitation of the framework (Django).

    But the real power of “rolling your own” with Django is that you can control all of that. If you want to apply custom templates to individual posts, you can add a field to your posts model and apply that to your view context. You’re not limited to hacking around an existing CMS, you’re developing your own. The power of Django is that it makes it easy enough to do 90% of what you really need to do with a blog CMS that even designers like Jeff and I can roll our own.

  68. 068 // Sean Sperte // 05.01.2006 // 4:35 PM

    I’m a little late to the party and don’t have much to say, nor time to say it, but well done, Jeff! I LOVE this design. Great job.

  69. 069 // Bradley Smith // 05.01.2006 // 4:44 PM

    Truly inspiring stuff, Jeff. As someone who’s been working for over two years on finding the “right” redesign, your effort has reinvigorated my own efforts. Thanks!

  70. 070 // kartooner // 05.01.2006 // 6:04 PM

    Sweet looking Jeff, really, I mean it.

    (How about designing my site for all the Tang you want!)

    I only say that because I keep changing my mind about my new design. What made you push forward and ultimately release this?

    Also, emulating newspaper or print design was a smart move, as I’ve noticed a lot of sites using this approach to blog design and web layouts in general.

    ;)

  71. 071 // Steven Ametjan // 05.01.2006 // 6:56 PM

    This is one of the most impressive things I’ve seen coming out of Reboot, and is a true testament to the ease of use that Django offers.

    You’ve actually inspired me to really get into the trenchs of Django and get a good feel for the framework. Who knows, maybe I’ll convert over to a homegrown blog system too… well, maybe once I figure out my model, and how to import my posts from Wordpress.

  72. 072 // Jeff Croft // 05.01.2006 // 7:29 PM

    Spent a little time tonight fixing the big IE bugs. There are still some little ones, but by and large, this site is now IE-friendly. :)

  73. 073 // Matt Brett // 05.01.2006 // 7:50 PM

    Well, I don’t think I could come up with anything unique to say. I’m late making the rounds today. Love what you’ve done with the place Jeff. It’s quite roomy and very well organized, as usual.

  74. 074 // Jeff Croft // 05.01.2006 // 8:14 PM

    Thanks so much, Matt! Your reboot is definitely amongst the very best, yourself! I love it! :)

  75. 075 // Kenny Saunders // 05.01.2006 // 8:33 PM

    Great work on the site.

    I love the bottom section. I think the comments are my favorite part so far.

  76. 076 // Nathan Smith // 05.01.2006 // 9:18 PM

    Wow Jeff, this is amazing. I mean, I knew you were talented, but this totally redefines blogging as we know it. I am completely blown away, and jealous beyond words. This is easily the best site in CSS Reboot this year, and that’s saying quite a bit considering Snook + Bryan are in the running. I guess I should start looking into Django for myself. :)

  77. 077 // Rob Goodlatte // 05.01.2006 // 9:33 PM

    You’re a mad genious Mr Croft. Hats off to you.

    Your live comment feature is the slickest thing i’ve ever seen, Mike Davidson is jealous of it for sure.

  78. 078 // Joseph // 05.01.2006 // 9:40 PM

    Seems a little bit excessive though, doesn’t it? Sorta like building a summer mansion in Majorca for your pet cat.

    Still, I suppose someone might ask you to design a skyscraper now.

  79. 079 // Jeff Croft // 05.01.2006 // 9:50 PM

    Ahh yes, the voice of dissent! I was wondering how long it would take! Thank God you finally made it here, Joseph.

    Excessive? Hell yes. But I think the people that know me will tell you that “excessive” pretty well fits my personality. I’m sure it’s not for everyone, but I think it suits me.

    I haven’t the slightest clue where Majorca is, but Jaco is down for a summer mansion just about anywhere.

  80. 080 // Wilson Miner // 05.01.2006 // 10:04 PM

    Dude, you’re winning the reboot.

  81. 081 // Sid // 05.01.2006 // 10:12 PM

    Jeff, excessive is amazing. “Mission accomplished, I think…” so too!

  82. 082 // Jared Christensen // 05.01.2006 // 11:46 PM

    Holy carp, Croft. 81 comments must feel pretty good, eh? ;)

    Veeeeeeeeery nice. This design has teh smoothness.

  83. 083 // Trevor Filter // 05.01.2006 // 11:50 PM

    This is hot. Love the color scheme and your use of horizontal lines. And the grid is perfect! Right on.

  84. 084 // Vesa Virlander // 05.02.2006 // 7:23 AM

    Really good “promo” for Django! Good to see this wider style.

  85. 085 // Daniel Bulli // 05.02.2006 // 8:05 AM

    Well done .. this is very nice.. i like the live preveiew of comments but it makes it very very slow .. but of so nice ..

  86. 086 // Jeff Croft // 05.02.2006 // 10:41 AM

    Just wanted to to say thanks to everyone for all the kind words! I feel very rewarding to do something people seem to like so well. Hopefully I can provide content that lives up to the design it’s encased in, and you’ll all keep coming back. I’ll do my best! :)

  87. 087 // Dylan // 05.02.2006 // 11:02 AM

    The amount of thought, time, and attention to detail this design shows is truly astounding. The beautifully crafted CMS you’ve created seems to just ooze polish everywhere you look. The design is minimalist and yet still retains an inherent beauty in the placement of content. There are no extraneous elements, and the content is the design. Everything seems to be where it should be. Great, great job.

    (By the way, the live comment preview doesn’t seem to recognize the Markdown syntax)

  88. 088 // Jeff Croft // 05.02.2006 // 11:08 AM

    Dylan — thanks for the thoughtful comments. Very kind!

    You’reright, the live comment preview doesn’t handle Markdown. I’m not sure if there’s a way around this or not — I’d need a javascript version of Markdown, I think. You should be able to hit the preview button, though, and get a (no-live) version of your comment preview, all Marked-down. :)

    Thanks again!

  89. 089 // David // 05.02.2006 // 11:20 AM

    Jeff, I was going to quickly scan the cssreboot site then get back to my project report. Then I clicked on your site and spent the last hour being lost in it.

    Your redesign is absolutely awesome. I love how you integrated everything together. I’m inspired to learn Django now.

    Your site and Veerle stand out among all the redesigns this year. Congratulations!

  90. 090 // Stephen // 05.02.2006 // 1:26 PM

    Very impressive. I especially appreciate the comments layout and the use of what I assume is Underware’s Dolly. (Don’t forget to credit the type!)

  91. 091 // Mikkel Bech // 05.02.2006 // 1:28 PM

    Very good reboot Jeff!!!

    Your flickr integration makes me wanne do something similar in rails.

    Great work man

    /megl

  92. 092 // Jeff Croft // 05.02.2006 // 1:31 PM

    Stephen-

    Thanks! It is in fact Dolly, and I did credit it on the About page. :)

  93. 093 // Egor Kloos // 05.02.2006 // 1:39 PM

    Sweet stuff Jeff. Small header big footer, it seems to be the trend. Well, in your case three footers, sort of.

    Not sure I agree this approach is the most effective. This page for example is mainly a comment page, and well, everything else. The powazek like footer works well though. Great look and feel, much beter than the previous one. I voted 4 stars! :)

  94. 094 // Mike Papageorge // 05.02.2006 // 2:33 PM

    Hey Jeff,

    Great work man, so easy to use!!

    Oh, and if you ever want to go to Mallorca, give me a ring, it’s close to home.

  95. 095 // Mike Papageorge // 05.02.2006 // 2:36 PM

    And of course Jaco can come too.

  96. 096 // Alan // 05.02.2006 // 3:33 PM

    I am definitely liking this alot, I liked you old site but this is definitely stepping up a gear. Nice work…

  97. 097 // Ryan Berg // 05.02.2006 // 4:10 PM

    From Wilson: But the real power of ‘rolling your own’ with Django is that you can control all of that. If you want to apply custom templates to individual posts, you can add a field to your posts model and apply that to your view context. It’s at this point that I ask if we could have a field added to our post model. But kinda tongue-in-cheek. Because I really can’t think of a good use for it now, I’ve been assimilated to the Ellingon ways. Maybe a normalization process that doesn’t filter out <li>s?

  98. 098 // Ali Chi3fs // 05.02.2006 // 4:43 PM

    Man, I knew you were a web developer… but I found your site as one of the top voted on CSSreboots…

    Funny. This django thing looks killer, I may have to experiment, my brother.

    Rock on.

    Travis Wright

  99. 099 // Ali Chi3fs // 05.02.2006 // 5 PM

    Simply killer. Man, I must commend you on your excellence… so I let the other CP’ers know about your web badassness.

    http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=140140

    Top notch. Im gonna have to redo mediaThinkLab soon. You are an inspiration. :-)

  100. 100 // Jeff Croft // 05.02.2006 // 5:12 PM

    Thanks, Travis!

  101. 101 // Lance Hayden // 05.02.2006 // 10:31 PM

    I’ve been visiting your site for months, and thought the previous design was pretty impressive, but you’ve really topped yourself with this. Thanks for the good reads, nice design and random flickr. By far the best of the Reboot.

  102. 102 // Benjamin // 05.03.2006 // 10:02 AM

    Jeff! The site is looking great! I love it, love it, love it. Congratulations on a legendary design!

  103. 103 // Ville Säävuori // 05.03.2006 // 10:30 AM

    Wow! This is by far the most impressive Django site I’ve seen so far.

    I have a Finnish site with over a thousand (mostly PHP-powered) pages and several blogs running on it and this level of integration between various contents is exactly the thing that I’ve been planning to do with it for a while now.

    Now that I’ve seen this site, I think I’ll add a couple more of those “I wish this site were powered by Django” badges on mine :P

  104. 104 // Rob Mientjes // 05.03.2006 // 10:48 AM

    Some remarks I wanted to make when I got to the comment box were “Blasted my expectations”, “Well done” and “I like it”. None of it quite captures what I think of it. I guess I’m quite impressed! The columns, impeccably laid out. The typography, to the level of the great newspapers. The features and format, more bad-ass than any weblog I’ve ever seen.

    Great stuff. Very well done, Jeff.

  105. 105 // Cliftonite // 05.05.2006 // 1:32 PM

    The new design looks a tad bit like this. Obviously, yours is better. ;)

  106. 106 // Jeff Croft // 05.05.2006 // 1:42 PM

    Wow, you’re right…it does! Hadn’t seen that before. :)

  107. 107 // Sam // 05.05.2006 // 4:18 PM

    If I didn’t completely agree with you Cliftonite I might consider taking offense…

  108. 108 // Jim Gosz // 06.07.2006 // 9:44 AM

    Jeff … I know your reboot has been up for awhile, and I should have made this comment sooner, but the more I look at your site and explore it, the more I like it. Your attention to detail and respect for the user make for a brilliant design. It’s simple, clear, and unlike many other sites out there it looks like every aspect of the site (content, layout, etc.) has been examined, visualized, and executed to perfection. Great job.

  109. 109 // Wytse Kamsma // 06.16.2006 // 10:11 AM

    1,5 month late, but so be it… I think you did a great job redesigning your site, I really like it. If you haven’t installed the primary fonts you defined though, you site doesn’t look as sleak as it’s meant to be. This is because you specified a Serif font as a fallback for you “Lucida Grand” bits, which is in fact a Sans-Serif. If you would fix that one too, this site would be truly amazing. Greetings from Holland

  110. 110 // Rudolf135241 // 05.11.2008 // 1:56 PM

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