JeffCroft.com

05.24.2005 // 48 Comments // And now it’s time for a breakdown.

This site has been in need of a mass overhaul for some time. My code has been messy (by my current standards), my design was old and dull, my directories are full of orphaned files, etc. However, I simply don’t have the time to do a full-on redesign right now. So, I’ve taken the “live redesign” approach.

I’ve stripped the site down to the bare minimum (actually, I’m still stripping), and I’ll be slowly putting to back together — hopefully with a fresh new design. So, fell free to look around, but please excuse my mess. This site will probably be a little sloppier than normal for some time to come. I’m hoping, though, that having a sloppy looking site live in the web will be just the kick-in-the-ass I need to finally get it redesigned and reorganized.

Thanks for visiting — we’ll try to return you to your regularly scheduled programming as soon as possible.

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  1. 001 // Jeff Croft // 05.25.2005 // 1:21 AM

    Just a test!

  2. 002 // C // 05.25.2005 // 7:30 AM

    Looking forward to seeing what you come up with, Jeff.

  3. 003 // Rob Mientjes // 05.25.2005 // 8:51 AM

    Wow. Like all the trends are being tossed in. Ajax, scrolling comment form. Where’s the elastic layout? ;)

    I’m sure it’ll kick ass Jeff, don’t worry :)

  4. 004 // Brent O'Connor // 05.25.2005 // 10:19 AM

    If a kick-in-the-ass is what you needed you should have said something to me sooner… I could have supplied you with your kick-in-the-ass! :)

    I think you should just leave the site like it is. Anything is better than that tired old site you had before! j/k

  5. 005 // Brian Ford // 05.25.2005 // 10:37 AM

    You’re never gonna get it. Never gonna get it. Whoa whoa whoa whoaaaaaaaaaa.

    Seriously. You’re never gonna get it.

    (Never get it.)

  6. 006 // Jeff Croft // 05.25.2005 // 10:46 AM

    Glad someone got it.

  7. 007 // Keith // 05.25.2005 // 10:59 AM

    Can’t wait to see what you’ll do! I see you’ve got the “content switcher” working. I’ve been playing with that myself and hope to roll something out for that soon.

    I think it’s very useful for getting people into older entries if they want.

  8. 008 // Noah Stokes // 05.25.2005 // 12:38 PM

    Glad to see the ‘Once original, now on everysite’ type of layout has changed to something more original and clever. That is, until someone copies this one from ya…

  9. 009 // Jeff Croft // 05.25.2005 // 12:42 PM

    Well, it’s not all original, that’s for sure. I got the fixed comments idea from Johnathan Snook and the pull-down AJAX content-changer on the frant page from Jason Kottke.

    But still. :)

  10. 010 // Brian Ford // 05.25.2005 // 12:59 PM

    I’m somewhat up in the air about your comment box. It sort of throws me at first for the box for typing is over to the right. On the other hand, once I start typing, I like that it’s easier to see the text as it’s input. I guess once you get over the initial shock of… where is it…. it makes sense.

  11. 011 // Brian Ford // 05.25.2005 // 1:12 PM

    Though… it -isn’t- easier to see if the box that shows your comment is all the way at the bottom of a long list of comments that you haven’t scolled through.

  12. 012 // Jeff Croft // 05.25.2005 // 1:33 PM

    Brian-

    Do you think the new “preview comment” link solves that issue?

    I’ll probably make it look nicer and stuff — but does the sort of functionality take care of it?

  13. 013 // Dan // 05.25.2005 // 1:35 PM

    I like the AJAX based navigation box, but it still suffers the same problem as on Kottke where in Firefox/Windows; it flickers as you move down the list. I was doing a little investigation this afternoon and came across this on Wasabicube that you may be interested in - article. Have fun :]

  14. 014 // Jeff Croft // 05.25.2005 // 1:41 PM

    Dan-

    Thanks for the article. I had planned to go back and try to solve that flickering issue. This should help. :)

  15. 015 // Brian Ford // 05.25.2005 // 1:44 PM

    Yeah, that helps.

  16. 016 // Jeff Croft // 05.25.2005 // 2:04 PM

    Testing comments functionality — please ignore.

  17. 017 // Mike Purvis // 05.25.2005 // 8:20 PM

    “Live Redesign” is a dreadful trap to get stuck in. My site is perpetually in a state of “live redesign” with incremental changes moving from a development subdomain over to the live one. My last design really suffered from it, since I specifically created it for a couple features that never really happened.

    So those spaces remained big empty blobs… forever.

  18. 018 // Michelle Foster // 05.26.2005 // 8 AM

    Not that an opinion of someone who knows very little about web design matters, but I really like what you’ve done so far! I like this one better than the previous one. :)

  19. 019 // Michelle Foster // 05.26.2005 // 8:01 AM

    Oh yeah…I got it too ;)

  20. 020 // Mike Stenhouse // 05.26.2005 // 10:47 AM

    How about writing the content switcher on the home page out with JS so it doesn’t get shown with JS off? Or use Aaron Gustafson’s nice select restyler in a traditional form that will resort your content?

    Looking forward to seeing what you come up with…

  21. 021 // Jeff Croft // 05.26.2005 // 11:59 AM

    Mike-

    Good idea. I will definitely eventually get around to doing something to handle users w/o Javascript.

    Thanks!

  22. 022 // Brian Ford // 05.26.2005 // 2:39 PM

    I sort of like the idea of having the preview box fade away after you hit “Preview Comment” but I absolutely -hate- the yellow that you use.

  23. 023 // Jeff Croft // 05.26.2005 // 2:48 PM

    I hate thte yellow too. I’m using a canned script to do that and it comes as yellow. I’ll be modifying it to a more appropriate color — just haven’t gotten to it yet.

    BTW, the live, iTunes-style search is now working on the homepage!

  24. 024 // Dan // 05.26.2005 // 5:23 PM

    Fade Anything Technique! And Live Preview! :D Good stuff.

  25. 025 // Dave Child // 05.27.2005 // 7:41 AM

    Like the preview and static comment box. All nice.

    I had an error the second time I used the livesearch on the front page though:

    “Got an error: You are currently performing a search. Please wait until your search is completed. Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/httpd/vhosts/jeffcroft.com/httpdocs/search/livesearch.php on line 17”

    When it worked it was rather smart though :)

  26. 026 // Brian Ford // 05.27.2005 // 9:09 AM

    The pink lines are -very- pink.

  27. 027 // Jeff Croft // 05.27.2005 // 9:22 AM

    Dave-

    Thanks a lot! I’ll look into that error…

    Brian-

    Yeah, they are the same color as the pink text (like the “Got a comment?” in the sidebar. Not sure if I’ll keep the pink lines yet, but so far I think I like ‘em.

  28. 028 // Brian Ford // 05.27.2005 // 9:42 AM

    Yeah, I like the pink when it’s applied conservatively to the text.

  29. 029 // Rob Mientjes // 05.27.2005 // 9:56 AM

    It keeps getting better and better. Sweet. Also, nice use of text-shadow on the nav. The Pink Fade is a bit scary, but it’s okay. Pink is nice.

  30. 030 // Jeff Croft // 05.27.2005 // 11:41 AM

    Dave-

    I think I’ve cleared up that error you received. Thanks again. :)

  31. 031 // Jeff Smith // 05.27.2005 // 3:30 PM

    I’m definitely liking the changes around here Jeff. Makes me wish that I had a little more time to add some bells and whistles to my recent redesign.

  32. 032 // Jonathan Fenocchi // 05.27.2005 // 5:38 PM

    Ooh! I like the pink! It’s about time you did a redesign, Jeff. ;)

    Wow, docked comments are all the rage suddenly, aren’t they? Good job! I’m liking what I’m seeing so far.

  33. 033 // Chris Vincent // 05.27.2005 // 6:44 PM

    I like it! Very refreshing.

    I know you’re still working on it, but…

    The header and entry date seem to have rather uneven kerning (Firefox/Mac). I’ve never really been satisfied with most browsers’ renderings of tighter letter-spacing.

    Anyways, cool stuff! Looking forward to seeing where you take it.

  34. 034 // David House // 05.28.2005 // 6:32 AM

    Yay! Static comment box. I so need to implement this for my site.

  35. 035 // Mike // 05.28.2005 // 9:43 PM

    Brian, You seem somewhat of the stalker type. You post and then re-post on what YOU previously said.

    Jeff, I would be scared of this guy.

  36. 036 // Jeff Croft // 05.29.2005 // 3 AM

    Mike-

    Brian is my cousin and business partner — I’ll let it slide. Thanks for your concern.

  37. 037 // oneighturbo // 05.29.2005 // 7:41 AM

    nice work jeff. great palette, clean and fast!

  38. 038 // Brian Ford // 05.29.2005 // 11:54 AM

    Mike:

    Even beyond your post being slightly confrontational in general, I re-read my comments and feel that they flow fairly naturally from one critique to the next.

    When I first commented, Jeff’s site was pretty much naked, and every comment after that was based on either something that he had added or on something that I just realized I didn’t like… either visually or functionally.

    I don’t think I make the same criticism twice in any of my comments. (Feel free to debate this by providing an example.) You should also note that all of my concerns were addressed and, therefore, legitimate.

    As the redesign was done publicly, the whole intent of the comment thread was (as I see it) to provide live feedback.

    So:

    “Mike, You seem somewhat of the asshole type. You post on what doesn’t need to be said at all.”

    I apologize if your post was a misguided and/or completely transparent attempt at well-intentioned humor. Somehow I doubt it.

  39. 039 // Brian Ford // 05.29.2005 // 11:55 AM

    Jeff:

    Mike’s post has brought up an issue. Long comments in progress (in Safari) eventually extend beyond your grey “live comment” box into the white background.

  40. 040 // Jeff Croft // 05.29.2005 // 1:21 PM

    Thanks, Brian — I’ll fix that. :)

  41. 041 // Mondo Dynamo // 05.30.2005 // 2:08 PM

    Looking good already Jeff. Nice and clean.

  42. 042 // Josh Dura // 05.31.2005 // 10:41 AM

    Nice work Jeff! This scrolling comments form is friggin sweet! No need to scroll back up to cut and paste things :)

  43. 043 // dustin // 05.31.2005 // 2:27 PM

    i love this side comment bar. also, i’m a big fan of the live redesigns. who knows, maybe after i send this comment i’ll see something new! the suspense is…suspenseful!

    i hope you’ll finally fix the ‘remember me’ dialogue on this comment form too.

  44. 044 // dustin // 05.31.2005 // 2:28 PM

    nope…didn’t remember me.

  45. 045 // Jeff Croft // 05.31.2005 // 3:28 PM

    Yeah, the “remember me” is most definitely broken and has been for some time. I’ll get around to fixing it — I promise! :)

  46. 046 // Jeff Croft // 05.31.2005 // 5:38 PM

    Remember me should now work. :)

  47. 047 // Brian Ford // 05.31.2005 // 6:10 PM

    Remember me dammit!

  48. 048 // Dan // 06.01.2005 // 5:46 AM

    The site’s looking very slick now. You’re doing a great job, and I especially like the buttons.

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