Reinvention
April 24, 2006 | 
47 Comments
I’m kind of sick of Asterisk. Why, you ask?
- The design, while usable, bores me.
- I feel like I’ve not zero time to write here any more (having to spend time on Lifehacker and Blue Flavored doesn’t help) and when I do have time I’ve been suffering from writer’s block.
- I’m blogging more and writing less. I don’t like that.
- My writing hasn’t really changed or gotten any better in months.
- I’ve get WAY more spam than I do real, relevant comments.
- The site feels old, outdated, clunky, brittle and full of cobwebs, duct tape and gremlins from a technical aspect.
- …eh, I just am.
I could go on, but I’d make you as bored with the whole thing as I am.
So, what to do? I’m going to kill Asterisk and try something new. I’m still not 100% sure how I’m going to do that (and I’d welcome ideas) but I know that Asterisk will be no more some time soon.
I thought about a redesign (that usually gets the creative juices flowing) but I don’t think that’d be doing enough. I want to reinvent my online presence. You know? Start completely from scratch. I’ve got a few ideas brewing and I’m starting the creative process (lots of lists! one of which you see the at the top of the page) and hope to have some kind of game plan soon.
Chances are it’ll involve a new domain (I’m done caring about pageviews and all that, so while I’ll keep this as an archive I’m fine with a fresh new start) and I’ll be sure and keep you up-to-date here as details arise, but don’t expect anything of any substance—you can look to Blue Flavored or my Del.icio.us RSS feed for that—in the next few months.
Update: Scratch that last bit. I will post something of substance in the coming months. I’ll post about this project here at Asterisk. I could use the feedback, it may be interesting to some of you and it’ll be a nice way to lay this old site to rest.
While I doubt I’ll be changing the world, I sure as hell hope I can come back with something that gives a bit more back than I have been giving of late and something that’ll keep me motivated and engaged for a while to come.
In the meantime, a question that might help me out. If you were to start a personal site today (blog, portfolio site, etc.) what CMS would you use and why?
Thanks and hopefully I’ll be back in action soon!
Filed under: Life
Keyword Tags: web+design blogging life
Comments
1. David Barrett said:
Keith, what is the point of this new “online presence”?
Until that’s figured out, any other work on it is going to be a waste of time. I know this from experience - my antidis.com domain has undergone about 5 different visual designs on my computer but I still haven’t figured out what exactly I want to do with the site.
Have you figured this out already, or are you just voicing your unease at your current site?
Posted on April 24, 2006 04:30 PM | #
2. Matt Turner said:
First To-Done, now Asterix?
“(I’m done caring about pageviews and all that, so while I’ll keep this as an archive I’m fine with a fresh new start)”
Online identity huh.. seems to me that is, whether you like it or not, yourself! Personally.. i could die tomorrow and i don’t think anyone notice if my site wasn’t updated. I’m kinda still half interested in page views, i check Mint reguarly to see what people are looking at and where they’re coming from. But i’m young and still in it for the fame and glory!!
I know you’ve heard it before, but i’m going to say it again anyway. Do what makes you happy! If you’re not sure, take your time and come back when you’re ready.
Posted on April 24, 2006 04:39 PM | #
4. Keith said:
David - It’s going to be a personal site. Blog, portfolio, personal space. Same point as Asterisk but without all the baggage.
I’ve had this site since…forever, and it’s never been quite right as I’ve used it for so many different things. It’s got an awkward history. My archives, for example, are totally messed up. The top level domain (7nights.com) isn’t really relevant anymore, nor has it been for years.
The goals of the site will be pretty similar to what Asterisk is/was. I just want a fresh start. I thought about a redesign but that would imply I’d have to work with what I’ve got – and that’s something that’d be a major barrier to me getting anything done.
I’m busy with work and I need something to keep me on track. A fresh start– a completley fresh start–should do that for me.
Posted on April 24, 2006 04:40 PM | #
5. Keith said:
Matt – You hit the nail on the head. Asterisk isn’t really fun for me anymore. Same thing with To-Done. You know when you spend more time dealing with spam than you do writing you’ve got a problem. Having a clean slate to begin with, as well as the ability to do whatever the heck I want, is what I’m looking for.
Posted on April 24, 2006 04:42 PM | #
6. Mike D. said:
Sorry to hear about that Keith! I have a feeling that there is one site in the May 1st reboot that might give you some ideas. Think pink.
In the meantime, I suggest that both you and Russell Beattie do a recursive 5-second meta-refresh to each other’s pages. That would be cool. It would be like a big page-view ping-pong match.
Posted on April 24, 2006 04:53 PM | #
7. Keith said:
Mike – Hahaha…totally. Anyway, I don’t expect to be out of action too long and one of the goals here is to get back at it better than ever. I’ve got a feeling it’ll work out and it’s fun to think that I’ve got a totally clean slate from which to create.
Posted on April 24, 2006 04:55 PM | #
8. Hans said:
By the way, I thought your company was “Blue Flavor,” without the -ed.
As for a CMS, I’d use Textpattern, because Movable Type is a beast, Wordpress is a little off-beat and uses ugly PHP in its templates, and all the others are just copy-cats. Textpattern is nice and neat, highly customisable, and lets you write.
(About that “highly customisable” part: my photoblog is powered by Textpattern, and the only text I ever type is the title of the photo!)
Posted on April 24, 2006 04:59 PM | #
9. Patricia said:
I use ExpressionEngine from pMachine to run my sites and it’s great. I went from Blogger to Movable Type to ExpressionEngine and each time I got more bang for the buck and wouldn’t think of going back. By the time I decided I needed something other than MT I had it hacked to pieces and each update was a pain because I had to keep track of all the changes I’d made. With EE, right out of the box, so to speak, I got a lot of functionality that I’d needed a bunch of MT plugins to accomplish. Content isn’t tied to any particular ‘blog’ and so I can share the same info across different pages or domains any ol’ way I please simply and efficiently. Plus, I got a free license way back when so how’s that for a great deal? They’ve released a free personal edition with limited functionality that is pretty darn cool but I find the other licenses quite reasonably priced too.
Posted on April 24, 2006 05:01 PM | #
11. Jorgeq said:
Keith, it’s very uncanny that you wrote this entry because it describes exactly what I’m going through. Sometimes re-designing in the same space doesn’t cut and just moving on to something new can be a great thing.
Posted on April 24, 2006 05:06 PM | #
12. Wilson Miner said:
2006 will be the year of the Django-powered blog, at least if Jeff and I have anything to say about it.
Think pink, but think green too.
Posted on April 24, 2006 05:12 PM | #
13. Keith said:
Wilson - I’ve been very interested about Django. We’ll see.
Posted on April 24, 2006 05:31 PM | #
14. Mike D. said:
Django kills kittens. 2006 is all about Hypercard. It’s back baby.
Posted on April 24, 2006 05:47 PM | #
15. Justin Perkins said:
Congrats on the decision, that’s a really happy decision to make. I know there are better analogies out there, but to me it’s akin to breaking up with somebody that you’ve been meaning to for quite some time.
As far as a CMS is concerned, I’ve been intrigued by ExpressionEngine and would encourage you to take this time to check it out. Sure Django is semi-popular, but I’m willing to bet you’d rather not write Python code if you didn’t have to :)
If you’re interested in Django, then that probably means you’re interested in Rails. Check ‘em both out, though I don’t think either one is quite what you’re looking for (you don’t want to write your own CMS, after all).
Posted on April 24, 2006 05:51 PM | #
16. Wilson Miner said:
Oh man, I wish I still had the games I made with HyperCard in junior high.
Posted on April 24, 2006 05:53 PM | #
17. Jan Brašna said:
Aaah, just don’t do it. Sit back, relax, have a bottle of wine or three, forget about the weblog entirely and after a month, two, you’ll see it’d get better. I feel like this every other day, so I hear you on this.
Actually, if you want to find a new motivation by a fresh start, I’d use the main 7nights.com domain if I were you. Some sexy WordPress template to get you going, hmm … ?
Fingers crossed.
Posted on April 24, 2006 05:58 PM | #
18. Jan Brašna said:
Forgot one thing - WP’s builtin spam killer (be it the intelligent blacklisting and/or vocabulary heuristics, or the Aksimet antispam plugin) will get rid of the spam comments you encouter now.
Posted on April 24, 2006 06:05 PM | #
19. Jeff Croft said:
While I completley agree with Wilson about Django (of course), Justin Perkins makes a relevant point, as well. Django (like Rails) is a web application framework, not a CMS. It can, of course, be used to build anything from a simple blog CMS all the way up to something that powers award winning newspapers.
The pro of going with a framework like Django – as I’ve found in working on my May 1 reboot – is that you end up with exactly what you want, rather than trying to fit your content into a pre-existing idea of what a personal site is. The disadvantage is that it’s more work than a 30 minute Wordpress install.
The difference for me was that I don’t want to think of jeffcroft.com as a blog anymore – or at least not just a blog. It’s my personal website, and I want that to encompass a lot more than just blog posts. As such, Django was perfect – it’s infinitely extensible, and the combination of Wilson’s beautiful built-in admin interface, generic views, and the powereful template language lets even us non-programmers make pretty awesome stuff damn quickly. I’ll show you what I mean on May 1 (or earlier, if you e-mail me for the super-secret beta URL). :)
Wordpress is a really nice blog app, no doubt. Just make sure you don’t want more out of your site than a blog before you pick a blog app as a CMS. I found myself pretty limited by MT, since it really wants to be “just a blog.”
Pink. It does more than you think.
Posted on April 24, 2006 06:50 PM | #
20. Keith said:
Jan – Using the 7nights.com domain at it’s toplevel is an idea. I’ll think about that. Not exactly a 100% new start, but…
Jeff – That is one of my goals in this as well, to go “beyond the blog”. I want a portfolio, blog, place to keep my stuff and maybe more. I don’t mind hacking but if I can work something especially for me without hacking, that’d be best.
As well, when it comes to Django, it’s something we’ve been interested in learning more about at work for various reasons. I love to kill two birds with one stone…
So, send me that link!
Posted on April 24, 2006 07:00 PM | #
21. Nathan Smith said:
In the meantime, a question that might help me out. If you were to start a personal site today (blog, portfolio site, etc.) what CMS would you use and why?
Textpattern baby, what else?
Posted on April 24, 2006 07:30 PM | #
22. Harry said:
On a day like today in Seattle how could you not want to redesign? Every tree, corner, and view is screaming out “spring cleaning in progress.”
I say go for it, in a very Rocky-Balboa-to-Clubber-Lang kind of way.
Posted on April 24, 2006 07:50 PM | #
23. Sean Sperte said:
I agree with Harry. It’s gotta be the weather up here.
And I disagree with Jeff and Wilson, though – 2006 is the year of ExpressionEngine. :)
Posted on April 24, 2006 08:33 PM | #
24. Kevin Tamura said:
Wow Keith. I’d like to say I’m surprised but thought this would happen sooner or latter, now that the BF blog is up and running. It still sadens me.
However a friend of mine, Jesse Doquilo, once told me that every couple of years or so you need to reinvent yourself. It keeps things fresh and helps you see things differently, especially when you’ve been feeling a little stagnant.
I’m looking forward to what you come up with when you’re back up and running.
Posted on April 24, 2006 09:23 PM | #
25. David Chen said:
I’ve definitely felt the same way, especially with the writing vs. blogging. I’d really like to write more, but it’s been difficult to polish something to that point.
I did recently switch over my blog (and about 15 of my friends’ that are hosted on my server) from MovableType to Wordpress, mostly to address spam problems. It’s been a huge relief; even though I do get spam, they’re held in moderation and I can just ignore them and let them auto-delete in 15 days. I haven’t used the other CMSs, though, and don’t know how they compare.
Posted on April 24, 2006 10:51 PM | #
26. Olav said:
Good luck to you! Always inspiring to start a new site. It’s like you don’t have the time to have a writing block..
Posted on April 24, 2006 11:05 PM | #
27. Jesse Skinner said:
Go crazy, Keith. Have fun, do whatever you like, whatever gets you excited. This is your personal site, your playground, so feel free to fuck around, experiment, whatever. We’ll be happy to stick around and watch what you come up with.
Posted on April 25, 2006 02:12 AM | #
28. Tom said:
Good luck Keith. I have to say in the last 6 months to a year, I’ve felt the same way (even though I’m a nobody and you’re a “somebody”). The blogosphere has exploded, literally, and you no longer gain readers or curious people just because you have one.
Blogs have become, in fact, just like saying “I have a web site” - in other words “so what? - so do a billion other people.”
In the mid 90’s it was enough to have a site, then you had to do more. In the early 00’s it was enough to have a blog, now you have to do more.
You either have to be extremely focused AND prolific or you have to offer something else compelling. The few blogs out there that do that keep their readers (a list apart for example).
I find the blogs I read now are tightly focused on a very specific thing (like illustration for example). Not generalistic at all.
I’ve found that my blog is pretty useless. I suppose we all had grandiose plans for them, but who has time? It’s been a good thing to have in terms of securing jobs, so I will keep it, but I also have to do something - something that is not post driven.
Blogs are web logs - logging - and I don’t want to log anymore. I get the feeling you don’t want to either. I’ll be interested to see what you come up with!
Posted on April 25, 2006 04:38 AM | #
29. manu said:
I’d write my own CMS, probably with Ruby on Rails.
Why write my own? Well, i don’t really want just a blog! Plus the learning involved. Why Rails ? don’t know… because of Ruby, I guess ?!
Posted on April 25, 2006 05:23 AM | #
30. Jack P Toerson said:
I started a new blog(a)zine last week and I’ve chosen Wordpress 2.0.2 because, for me at least, it involved the least farting around. As a non-technical user, who can just about manage FTP’ing things, the plugin system has being really useful.
The multiple levels of user responsibility also help because I’m incorporating other authors and need to be able to delegate. The template system is also relatively simple and it’s all in one place. The array of pre-written plugins is really useful.
If I were to write a CMS I’d probably write it in something like Ocaml or Haskell. I’m not technical though. I tried to give up writing online a year ago, but I ended up getting the shakes as a result. It took a week or three…
Posted on April 25, 2006 08:25 AM | #
31. Nathan Logan said:
I really want to try Typo3 on a project. The fact that it’s enterprise-level really makes me want to get into it and see whether or not it’d be a good fit for my “day job” (a medium-size newspaper).
But TextPattern is the default for me, these days.
Posted on April 25, 2006 10:27 AM | #
32. Steven Birch said:
Medium size newspaper? You mean like are powered by ExpressionEngine? ;)
www.midweek.com
www.sacunion.com
www.inthesetimes.com
or just busy/popular web sites like www.ilounge.com
Just to name a few that I know of.
Posted on April 25, 2006 12:20 PM | #
33. Steven Birch said:
Oh by the way if you are looking for an interesting framework to build from scratch might want to look at www.codeigniter.com as well, from the writers of ExpressionEngine.
Posted on April 25, 2006 12:22 PM | #
34. Jason Grunstra said:
Whatever you do, please keep an archive available of past post you published here. There are some classics that should be inducted for the bloggers hall of fame… if that even exists?
Posted on April 25, 2006 01:02 PM | #
35. Keith said:
Jason – Of course! I’m actually thinking of using a different domain so that I can just keep this as is. I’m leaning toward using dkeithrobinson.com and just having 7nights stay as I leave it.
The creative juices are going…more to come.
Posted on April 25, 2006 01:37 PM | #
36. Carlos Porto said:
Well Keith its sad to see this site possibly go, but I understand. Whether you beleive it or not, your and artist and like most artists they have creative wanderlust. So good luck on the future.
As for a cms system. Take a look at symphony. http://www.symphony21.com/ its php based, but uses XSLT for its templating engine. Nothing like a standards based cms system from the get go. ;-)
Posted on April 25, 2006 01:50 PM | #
37. Ben said:
Keith, I’ve been following asterisk for a long time now and will keep reading your posts no matter where they turn out to be.
The key is to enjoy what you are doing. Feel free to recreate your visual identity, but your online prescence is something that could be difficult to change.
Posted on April 25, 2006 02:54 PM | #
38. Kevin said:
I prefer Movable Type myself. It has come a long way in the short time that I’ve used it and it is quite extensible, if you’re in to that sort of thing.
Posted on April 25, 2006 05:28 PM | #
39. Volkher Hofmann said:
Expression Engine.
Flexible and extendable, good support, steady development, relatively cheap and worth every cent.
A no-brainer.
Posted on April 25, 2006 06:11 PM | #
40. Jeff Croft said:
“Medium size newspaper? You mean like are powered by ExpressionEngine? ;)”
Hmmm…
Expression Engine powers medium-sized newspapers and isn’t free.
Django powers The Washington Post and nominees in eight different categories of this year’s EPpy award finalists and is free?
Doesn’t seem like a hard decision. :)
(Teasing, of course. I’ve never used EE, so I have no room to talk. I’m just playing devil’s advocate…or at least Django’s).
“As for a cms system. Take a look at symphony. http://www.symphony21.com/ its php based, but uses XSLT for its templating engine. Nothing like a standards based cms system from the get go. ;-)”
Ack! I can’t think of anything worse than using XLST as a templating language. Like all XML languages, XSL was designed to be read and written by machines, not people.
A good template language ought to be as much like HTML as possible, integrate easily with your existing HTML editor, and not expect designers to be programmers.
Posted on April 26, 2006 12:11 AM | #
41. Gabriel Radic said:
Keith,
make sure you don’t miss Drupal. The coming-soon 4.7 version looks mighty interesting, and it’s the one I’m waiting for in order to do pretty much what you are.
Posted on April 26, 2006 02:53 PM | #
42. Adrian B said:
I’m going to say Textpattern as well. Having used it for everything from simple blogs to e-commerce and galleries, it’s flexibility still surprises and amazes me.
Posted on April 26, 2006 03:30 PM | #
43. Keith said:
re: Drupal – I’ve looked into it before and think it might be a bit much for me on this project.
re: Textpattern – I’ve looked into it before and wasn’t all that impressed, but I may do so again.
re: Django – Sounds interesting but I’m not sure I want to go there. Might be too much programming from scratch for me. I’d really like something easy-ish to implement so I can focus on design. Maybe I should just hire a developer…hmm.
re: Expression Engine – I’m interested to look into it. Basically I’ll compare it to MT and if it’s easy enough may look deeper.
re: Wordpress – Already use it and don’t think it’s something I’d use for this. Works great for really simple blogs, but again, might be lots of work for what I’m thinking for this.
re: Movable Type – I use that now and it’s possible I’d go there again. I do like it, aside from the spam issues, and I know how to hack the heck out of it. I guess my deal with MT is more mental, it’s what I use now and would like a fresh start.
First things first though, I need to figure out exactly what I’ll be needing from my CMS.
Posted on April 26, 2006 04:40 PM | #
44. beto said:
In regards to a choosing a CMS, I have dabbled between Movable Type, Wordpress and Expression Engine over the years. Recently, I dropped Wordpress for a blog I have in favor of EE - only to find out it takes a lot of time and a rather steep curve to get used to it, specially in regards to the tons of propietary code and unique syntax it uses, almost like starting from scratch. EE was rather an exercise in frustration for me - but that probably had more to do with being short in time to release the site (I switched back to WP), if you can afford to spend months on this project of yours and learn as you go without pressure, EE may well be the right choice for you.
I admit I liked the way how easy is to create your own custom fields in EE - a much-needed feature that can be hellaciously hard to implement with other CMSs.
Posted on April 26, 2006 05:20 PM | #
45. James Bennett said:
As a co-worker of Jeff and Wilson (disclaimer: we work at the home of Django. Counter-disclaimer: I work there because I liked Django, and liked it long before I was hired), I’ll chime in on the Django front as well, and offer a little bit of explanation for why I chose it over an off-the-shelf blogging solution (I’ll eventually write about this in more detail, but I’ve got a pesky May 1 boot to get out of the way first):
I’ve tried Textpattern and Wordpress, and as a freelancer I built my personal site and several client sites on Textpattern. It’s lovely, but it’s limited. And, inevitably, all the blogging systems and “lite CMS” products are limited in the same way – stray very far out of the blogging paradigm and you’re going to either write a lot of plugins or shoehorn functionality into places where it wasn’t meant to go.
Django, on the other hand, offers no limitations. It’s a framework, yes, but it’s a framework that’s meant to let you hit the ground running and get a lot done in very little time with very little “programming”. For example, if you want a weblog with a date-based archive, you have to:
1. Write up a list of the fields each entry will have (e.g., title, excerpt, body, date).
2. Decide how your URLs should look, and tell Django to plug those URLs into the date-based generic views.
3. Write your page templates.
And you’re done. That’s the beauty of Django – common, everyday things are stupidly simple and require almost no code, and complex, unique things become possible.
Plus, I’ve seen Jeff’s beta site, and I know he’s not a programmer; that he’s been able to do everything he’s done, in as little time as it’s taken and with very little in the way of “programming knowledge”, is a testament to how easy things can be.
So +1 for Django. Second place in my book would probably be Textpattern, since it’s got a bit more flexibility in terms of content types than Wordpress or the other blogging systems.
Posted on April 27, 2006 01:32 PM | #
46. Dave P said:
Hey Keith,
Interesting take - I did notice the lack of posts too, but you aren’t the only one… obviously, the work is picking up all around!
I’ve just started to develop my own “cms”/blogging software using Ruby on Rails. Not sure if you’d be interested, but I’ll be documenting my progress as I progress.
So far, I haven’t done much, but you can read about it here.
Posted on April 27, 2006 04:26 PM | #
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