Bitcoin Weekly's New Look

[kiba]

http://bitcoinweekly.com/

Been working my butt off all night to make bitcoin weekly even more minimalist. 

Love it or hate it, let me know.

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[whenhowwho]

Not bad. I think if I were doing it I would make one of the articles show on the main page or at least a larger portion of it. 

[Serge]

"We're sorry, but something went wrong.

We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly."



that's as minimalist as I have seen

EDIT it works now!  it's better than before although personally i'm not a fan of bare naked type of minimal style

[kiba]

"We're sorry, but something went wrong.

We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly."



that's as minimalist as I have seen

Gone like the wind.

[Indemnified]

Got the error message too, buy ok now. Site works for me, although I also am not a minimalist fan. I like color. Thanks for your contribution.

[MiningBuddy]

"We're sorry, but something went wrong.

We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly."



that's as minimalist as I have seen

Gone like the wind.

And back like magic  

[lacedwithkerosene]

Functionally, none of the links on the top of the page are working for me, it's like it's an image instead of links.
How about some padding between the columns, and some between the horizontal lines and the headings.

Honestly if I were you I would run it as a wordpress blog.

[kiba]

Functionally, none of the links on the top of the page are working for me, it's like it's an image instead of links.
How about some padding between the columns, and some between the horizontal lines and the headings.

Honestly if I were you I would run it as a wordpress blog.

Very strange. I started getting it too.

[kiba]

Functionally, none of the links on the top of the page are working for me, it's like it's an image instead of links.
How about some padding between the columns, and some between the horizontal lines and the headings.

Should be fixed. Let me know if it ain't?

Honestly if I were you I would run it as a wordpress blog.

Why would I want to do that? I would need to learn php and learn how to write my own plugins.

[lacedwithkerosene]

Functionally, none of the links on the top of the page are working for me, it's like it's an image instead of links.
How about some padding between the columns, and some between the horizontal lines and the headings.

Should be fixed. Let me know if it ain't?

Honestly if I were you I would run it as a wordpress blog.

Why would I want to do that? I would need to learn php and learn how to write my own plugins.

Nah the links don't work yet.
And umm, that is not a requisite for wordpress. I can't write for shit - I don't write at all on either of my sites. Most everything you want is there for you, it's popular because idiots like me can use it.

Seriously, go make a wordpress site asap to prove to yourself how you don't need to learn php or write your own plugins. If you don't have a spare domain I will lend you one as a testing facility.

[Xephan]

I tend to like clean site designs but in this case I'd say it's gone beyond minimalistic to looking like the webmaster didn't care to put time into making it look good.

Why would I want to do that? I would need to learn php and learn how to write my own plugins.

Unless you want to do something fanciful, the default Wordpress installation, existing themes and plugins should cover all the typical webzine needs. No programming needed and you get something that can look very professional without looking cluttered if you pick a right theme and get rid of unnecessary links.

[kiba]

I tend to like clean site designs but in this case I'd say it's gone beyond minimalistic to looking like the webmaster didn't care to put time into making it look good.

It looks better to me than what I got yesterday.

Unless you want to do something fanciful, the default Wordpress installation, existing themes and plugins should cover all the typical webzine needs. No programming needed and you get something that can look very professional without looking cluttered if you pick a right theme and get rid of unnecessary links.

I don't need all the bell and whistles of wordpress.

[lacedwithkerosene]

I'm only going to try once more : it should be more about what your readers want than what you want to do. first impression really does matter.

once you install wordpress, you can make it as simple as you want it to be, and it takes no time to add new posts.

e:your link buttons work now.

[kiba]

I'm only going to try once more : it should be more about what your readers want than what you want to do. first impression really does matter.

Dunno. I am going to wait for feedback from more people. I like it better than the old ones, plus they told me to get rid of the borders.

If people told me in significant number(say, 30%), I will revamp it until it works.

Though, I should buy hire a CSS designer because I don't actually have design sense or perhaps just buy a template. I like doing it too much.

once you install wordpress, you can make it as simple as you want it to be, and it takes no time to add new posts.

It's true that I could just have used wordpress and be done with it.

But I took bitcoin weekly as an opportunity to learn web development. Plus, I do ruby on rails development at my day job anyway. In doing the revamp, I learn a lot about sass, which make it really easy for me to do CSS customization!

[kiba]

Add padding to front page. Linkify Bitcoin Weekly logo. Center navigational bar. Change font to verdana and improve layout of articles.

Probably more work to do, but I been at this like six hours stright. Good morning. See ya in the afternoon.

Also, don't forget to leave feedback.

[bbit]

I love bitcoinweekely

[kiba]

I love bitcoinweekely

Nice to know that someone appreciate my magazine, but that doesn't tell me anything about the site's new look.

[Xephan]

I tend to like clean site designs but in this case I'd say it's gone beyond minimalistic to looking like the webmaster didn't care to put time into making it look good.

It looks better to me than what I got yesterday.

Unless you want to do something fanciful, the default Wordpress installation, existing themes and plugins should cover all the typical webzine needs. No programming needed and you get something that can look very professional without looking cluttered if you pick a right theme and get rid of unnecessary links.

I don't need all the bell and whistles of wordpress.

Kiba, you sound like me when I first started doing web stuff
Like I said, I like clean designs, probably a lot to do with the fact I am lousy with aesthetics and design. So in the early days, I pissed off quite a few people when I told them I thought MY design look clean and good and refused to entertain "fanciful" requests. I quickly learnt, and unfortunately so did those clients who accepted my bullish stand then, that it does NOT work that way. Sites that generally look half-baked and poorly designed just don't become successful, because first impressions make a huge difference.

Same reason why most people recommend that you don't try to promote a site when things aren't working right yet

If the only reason you're doing Bitcoin Weekly just for your own satisfaction and don't care if nobody else bothers to read it, then feel free to ignore us.

Otherwise, seriously consider using a platform (doesn't have to be Wordpress, I'm sure there gotta to be some CMS done on Ruby if you really insist) that was built for webzine/blogging in mind. While you might not need the bells & whistles now, it would be far easier to add those bells & whistles when you do need it if the platform is already designed to have them.

If you want to learn more about programing and CSS, working on an existing CMS would help you too if you need to start messing with plugins or customizing themes. What people have done can also serve as a basis for learning, either because it's really bad or it's really good.

Finally, it's always useful to know another language/platform or two, especially if you ever need to find a new job. Depending on who's stats you're looking at, PHP has 5x to 120x the market share compared to Ruby so don't get stuck on Ruby alone

[Serge]

+1 to post above

my honest feedback: when i sow your site it wasn't worth spending any time on it , it straight up told me - there's nothing to see
that bare naked no style approach only good for developing some functionality you test in private/local environment.   for the readers, aesthetically it is not acceptable and will do more harm by driving them off

[kiba]

+1 to post above

my honest feedback: when i sow your site it wasn't worth spending any time on it , it straight up told me - there's nothing to see

You don't like the look now? I thought I improved it quite a bit.

[kiba]

If you want to learn more about programing and CSS, working on an existing CMS would help you too if you need to start messing with plugins or customizing themes. What people have done can also serve as a basis for learning, either because it's really bad or it's really good.

Dunno. I thought ruby on rails is a platform.

[Xephan]

If you want to learn more about programing and CSS, working on an existing CMS would help you too if you need to start messing with plugins or customizing themes. What people have done can also serve as a basis for learning, either because it's really bad or it's really good.

Dunno. I thought ruby on rails is a platform.

Ruby on Rails is a programming framework written in Ruby, it isn't specifically tailored for use as a particular application platform. There are many sites out there which discuss the pros and cons of using RoR. It works better for certain purposes and not for others.

CMS platforms like Wordpress, Drupal and Joomla are made specifically to enable content sites such as webzine and blogs.

So unless your intention is to develop a CMS platform based on RoR, it doesn't make sense to spend time hammering away at RoR when better and immediately usable solutions exist. The time saved from making the site look good could be better invested in new articles and learning new things that could be more useful for your career.

[Serge]

+1 to post above

my honest feedback: when i sow your site it wasn't worth spending any time on it , it straight up told me - there's nothing to see

You don't like the look now? I thought I improved it quite a bit.

You did improve and I'll give you that. But it is still too plain and boring.. (keep in mind i hate slashdot/reddit designs as well, it feels they were done by coders with no sense for usability and aesthetics)

such 'design' as yours i do locally developing stuff, when functionality done - it needs to be brought to life with stylizing, typefaces, color pallets/contrast, all little details such as borders, separators, different backgrounds etc all need to work in harmony to provide pleasant user experience) - with all that, minimalistic feel can be achieved to let readers focus on content in a cozy, comfy way/environment.
just to give a couple of examples I like zappos.com design  here from community bitcoinwatch.com .. there are tons of good examples  just search in google design tutorials and you will see plenty of minimal blogs that don't push away their readers but provide pleasant user experience to focus readers on tutorials and ads

your site sends clear subliminal message to me "i'm not ready to see the world just yet"

[Serge]

if your main goal to learn php.. setup local apache/php/mysql and have at it or keep working on the site and dismiss my design critique as it is totally irellevant to php dev.
but if your goal developing successful site, good professional looking design will play a major role in it.

[kiba]

CMS platforms like Wordpress, Drupal and Joomla are made specifically to enable content sites such as webzine and blogs.

I used Drupal for the last bitcoinweekly website. It was ghetto and horrible.

The time saved from making the site look good could be better invested in new articles and learning new things that could be more useful for your career.

I could have hire a designer or buy a template and be done with it. I don't need to go full CMS. Thus, from a tradeoff perspective, it would be better that I wait a few more weeks after my dollars are translated into bitcoin(Why? So I can support the bitcoin economy) and spent that time investigating technologies, reducing my OODA loop latency, or any number of beneficial activities.

It is also uncertain to me what CMS that I should use for ruby on rails. My job will be forcing me to use a CMS framework probably pretty soon, though right now I am working on an ecommerce site. This provide me an automatic avenue of investigation and if I think the tradeoff in converting Bitcoin Weekly to use a rails CMS is good enough, I will convert to it.

Right now, I have more pressing needs concerning revenues:

1. Upgrade the VPS so that I can run bitcoind on it.

2. Write the ransom system.

3. Follow through on the verbal deal that I made with tcatm.

Anyway, thanks for the discussion. I am a much more rational businessman.

[Serge]

your best bet probably would be getting a template from one of template selling sites..

http://themeforest.net/   is a good one

good designers cost good penny or btc in this case

[Serge]

Drupal is massive and complex so as Joomla. 

WP is very elegant to run a simple blog type of site and sophisticated enough to turn it into backbone of any other type of site.
It is effortless just keep adding content that's all

[Xephan]

I used Drupal for the last bitcoinweekly website. It was ghetto and horrible.

I have to agree Drupal has a steep learning curve and isn't the most user-friendly to start with, especially if you don't have a PHP background. But Wordpress should do fine, most of the time, I don't even need to tell my clients how to use it once it's setup.

I could have hire a designer or buy a template and be done with it. I don't need to go full CMS. Thus, from a tradeoff perspective, it would be better that I wait a few more weeks after my dollars are translated into bitcoin(Why? So I can support the bitcoin economy) and spent that time investigating technologies, reducing my OODA loop latency, or any number of beneficial activities.

Huh? You could get Wordpress installed with a new theme in less than 30 minutes without paying a single cent. So from a trade-off perspective, be it in terms of MHash/sec or value of your personal time, or the long term success of your site, it doesn't make sense for you to keep doing the work of a CMS developer when you are supposed to be an editor/writer for Bitcoin weekly.

The rational businessman focus on spending time/resources where value adding work cannot be substituted, not in those areas where ready made solutions exist. In the case of Bitcoin Weekly, writing new original articles and perhaps drawing new comics are the value add, not trying to roll your own CMS and webzine theme when so many free one exists.

It is also uncertain to me what CMS that I should use for ruby on rails. My job will be forcing me to use a CMS framework probably pretty soon, though right now I am working on an ecommerce site. This provide me an automatic avenue of investigation and if I think the tradeoff in converting Bitcoin Weekly to use a rails CMS is good enough, I will convert to it.

Frankly speaking, for a CMS, I'd recommend you don't bother with finding on for RoR. RoR is a really niche language (even Twitter decided to abandon it for their middle/backend) and so there are less options for a CMS and correspondingly even less available themes and plugins you can just download and use.

So unless your job is forcing you to use a RoR CMS, you're better off getting a hang of the big 3 CMS. You've already tried Drupal, so it's down to Wordpress or Joomla

Right now, I have more pressing needs concerning revenues:

1. Upgrade the VPS so that I can run bitcoind on it.

2. Write the ransom system.

3. Follow through on the verbal deal that I made with tcatm.

Anyway, thanks for the discussion. I am a much more rational businessman.

1. You're going to start your own pool?

[AtlasONo]

Soo much unused space

[kiba]

Huh? You could get Wordpress installed with a new theme in less than 30 minutes without paying a single cent. So from a trade-off perspective, be it in terms of MHash/sec or value of your personal time, or the long term success of your site, it doesn't make sense for you to keep doing the work of a CMS developer when you are supposed to be an editor/writer for Bitcoin weekly.

My value proposition is no longer writing and editing, though I occasionally write an article. I exercise very little editorial control. What I merely did was I write a system that allow writers to review their work, thus removing me from the loop almost altogether. Then I encourage them to write in a very specific mindset. The last step I need to do is write down the policies and guideline of how Bitcoin Weekly writes article.

Instead, my time is spent on a lot on programming the CMS or promoting the content.

So unless your job is forcing you to use a RoR CMS, you're better off getting a hang of the big 3 CMS. You've already tried Drupal, so it's down to Wordpress or Joomla

Wordpress seems to be the best choice. Find a couple of plugin and be done with it. On the other hand, I like too much learning ruby on rails development.

I care about others appreciating my magazine and efficiency and making money, yes. But I also like doing rails development, therefore I will trade some fun for some inefficiency. End of story.

1. You're going to start your own pool?

Inaccurate. I need it because my business model needs it, unless there's a less hassle free way to do it. Manually ransoming articles and paying people takes quite a bit of time each week. I wish to automate that drudgery away.

[Xephan]

My value proposition is no longer writing and editing, though I occasionally write an article. I exercise very little editorial control. What I merely did was I write a system that allow writers to review their work, thus removing me from the loop almost altogether. Then I encourage them to write in a very specific mindset. The last step I need to do is write down the policies and guideline of how Bitcoin Weekly writes article.

Instead, my time is spent on a lot on programming the CMS or promoting the content.

Wordpress seems to be the best choice. Find a couple of plugin and be done with it. On the other hand, I like too much learning ruby on rails development.

I care about others appreciating my magazine and efficiency and making money, yes. But I also like doing rails development, therefore I will trade some fun for some inefficiency. End of story.

Ah, ok, I see I've misunderstood your role in Bitcoin Weekly, apologies for that

In which case yes, since your purpose is to enjoy doing Rails, it would make sense personally to continue doing this since the only reason left to move to something like Wordpress is to promote the content more efficiently by leveraging their built-in SEO. Have fun with Rails

But our comments about appearance being important still stand though

[kiba]

IF you guys have aesthetic suggestion, I am happy to hear them.

Also, I am happy to feedback, negative or otherwise on the look of Bitcoin Weekly.