![\"front](\"https://wp-devil.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-11-at-03.45.47-fullpage.png\")
It’s just as I’ve feared (and probably many others): After the sell-out of CSS Tricks in 2022, its new masters let it tatter on for about a year, and then stopped publishing any new content around mid April of 2023.
\nSo now its only reason for existence is content, content, content = SEO paradise, and the almanac (which is also “content content content”).
\nThat 15 years project is getting now an even worse treatment than other long-time runners got, ie. letting it slowly fade-away into triviality.
\nProbably, in another few months, its gonna be folded into another “exciting adventure” of its current masters, and then disappear from the web entirely.
Although it could be revived, like other sites were in the past, for example:
\nSelfHTML – originally an introduction and daily helper in terms of how to use HTML + CSS, and to some extends, also Javascript. Eventually it was turned into a (somewhat medicro) wiki and the supporting people founded an association (Verein), but it is still active and around.
\nRecently, they even asked themselves whether SelfHTML is still valid to be around, but come to the conclusion, that yes, esp. for native German speakers, and beginners, its still a valid and solid introduction and reference.
A List Apart – from the originally ground-breaking tutorials and articles, its turned mostly into a teaser-orgy for other peoples grand books on topic xyz, and the rest is filled with essays about work, but sometimes, there still is useful content to be found.
\nSmashing Magazine – has grown tremendiously and despite having a phase of stand-still a few years ago, seems to have climbed out of that valley. Today I went to their front page, and the “top links” / introduction section about helpers and tools was indeed a tremendous help. A lot of the articles posted there are not my cup of tea, but they have definitely broadened their spectrum, and despite that mentioned “valley of stand-still”, seemingly have managed to avoid turning into yet another run o’ the mill, “jack of all trades” magazine.
\nTympanus Codrops – does still the same, ie. posts of CSS / JS / Web design experiments, but mixes and breaks up things with a bit more lively, varied content.
\n", "content_text": "It’s just as I’ve feared (and probably many others): After the sell-out of CSS Tricks in 2022, its new masters let it tatter on for about a year, and then stopped publishing any new content around mid April of 2023.\nCurrent front page of css-tricks.com as of December 11th, 2023: No new content was added past April 2023\nSo now its only reason for existence is content, content, content = SEO paradise, and the almanac (which is also “content content content”).\nThat 15 years project is getting now an even worse treatment than other long-time runners got, ie. letting it slowly fade-away into triviality.\nProbably, in another few months, its gonna be folded into another “exciting adventure” of its current masters, and then disappear from the web entirely.\nAlthough it could be revived, like other sites were in the past, for example:\nSelfHTML – originally an introduction and daily helper in terms of how to use HTML + CSS, and to some extends, also Javascript. Eventually it was turned into a (somewhat medicro) wiki and the supporting people founded an association (Verein), but it is still active and around.\nRecently, they even asked themselves whether SelfHTML is still valid to be around, but come to the conclusion, that yes, esp. for native German speakers, and beginners, its still a valid and solid introduction and reference.\nA List Apart – from the originally ground-breaking tutorials and articles, its turned mostly into a teaser-orgy for other peoples grand books on topic xyz, and the rest is filled with essays about work, but sometimes, there still is useful content to be found.\nSmashing Magazine – has grown tremendiously and despite having a phase of stand-still a few years ago, seems to have climbed out of that valley. Today I went to their front page, and the “top links” / introduction section about helpers and tools was indeed a tremendous help. A lot of the articles posted there are not my cup of tea, but they have definitely broadened their spectrum, and despite that mentioned “valley of stand-still”, seemingly have managed to avoid turning into yet another run o’ the mill, “jack of all trades” magazine.\nTympanus Codrops – does still the same, ie. posts of CSS / JS / Web design experiments, but mixes and breaks up things with a bit more lively, varied content.", "date_published": "2023-12-11T16:03:49+01:00", "date_modified": "2023-12-11T16:03:49+01:00", "author": { "name": "fwolf", "url": "https://wp-devil.com/author/fwolf/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c2a31599f60eec1232806bfc26066ed2?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://wp-devil.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/by-tzimt0ms.jpg", "tags": [ "almanac", "blog", "css", "magazine", "Life and let die", "Webdesign", "Work" ] }, { "id": "https://wp-devil.com/web-performance-optimization-in-a-nutshell/", "url": "https://wp-devil.com/web-performance-optimization-in-a-nutshell/", "title": "Web Performance Optimization in a nutshell", "content_html": "After doing this for over 20+ years, and having seen a lot of fancy stuff come and go, my game in optimizing load times and rendering speed hasnt change that much.
\nIf I was asked for the main contenders for improving loading times, in 2022, it still boils down primarly to the following ones:
\nOther common factors nowadays:
\nThis is just a quick notice – for now. I’m going to add detailed articles to several topics when I get some time to spare, and link to them from here, as soon as they are up \ud83d\ude42
\n", "content_text": "After doing this for over 20+ years, and having seen a lot of fancy stuff come and go, my game in optimizing load times and rendering speed hasnt change that much.\nIf I was asked for the main contenders for improving loading times, in 2022, it still boils down primarly to the following ones:\n\nImages – too big in both dimension and file size, but also using the wrong file format (eg. PNG instead of JPEG for photos)\nRender-blocking scripts / CSS / embeds\n(No) Caching policy – whether that just means caching rules or actual pre-caching, eg. static HTML\nRequests – numbers of overall resource requests of the page\n\nOther common factors nowadays:\n\nCDN – not using one, or not properly using it (also related with bad or missing caching policy)\nMassive HTML DOM structures – take much longer to parse and render; known also under the moniker “divitis” or just “HTML tag orgy”\nMedia Queries – improper use of such, eg. missing, badly set breakpoints or missing optimization of the whole site towards these breakpoints\nLazy-loading / picture / srcset – not using those techniques, but also not knowinng how to properly apply them; eg. lazy-loading can be used for ALL sources, not just images\nIcon fonts / Data URL – if you use an icon or small image everywhere across your site, why not instead rely on either icon fonts, which already supply these, and are loaded only once, or data URLs, which help in similar ways, if the image in question is on the smaller side (file size)?\n\nThis is just a quick notice – for now. I’m going to add detailed articles to several topics when I get some time to spare, and link to them from here, as soon as they are up \ud83d\ude42", "date_published": "2022-06-09T21:58:00+02:00", "date_modified": "2022-06-09T21:58:00+02:00", "author": { "name": "fwolf", "url": "https://wp-devil.com/author/fwolf/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c2a31599f60eec1232806bfc26066ed2?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://wp-devil.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/gt3rjumq2zm.jpg", "tags": [ "loading speed", "loading times", "web performance", "development", "Webdesign", "Work" ] }, { "id": "https://wp-devil.com/finding-the-right-tool-whiteboards/", "url": "https://wp-devil.com/finding-the-right-tool-whiteboards/", "title": "Finding the right tool: Whiteboards", "content_html": "The story so far: About 4 weeks ago, I set out to find a proper helper to both depict the thought process that goes into developing a specific site element – in my case, the footer area of a shop.
\nEither collaborative whiteboards are not the tools I think they should be, or most of the competition didnt understand what they are, and either just built the basics and then stopped … or overloaded them with anything but the kitchen sink, to turn them into an shiny-looking excuse for not using Trello plus any kind of project managament tool in the first place.
\nThe different types of white board I found can be roughly sorted into 2, maybe 3 categories:
\nMost of these get the essential part of a whiteboard done – which is scribbling down some graphical stuff, taking a few notes, etc. They are built more or less for the usage on tablets, touch-enabled devices and also digitizer tablets, eg. tablets like the iPad (Pro), or convertible devices like the Lenovo / ThinkPad Yoga, Microsoft Surface or Dell XPS 13 2-in-1.
\nA few offer importing your own images, and sometimes also media embedding. Sometimes, there are export options, too. But you just could take a screenshot and be happy ever after. Interfaces vary, from looking rather dated (like mid to late 2000s), up to current “en vogue” flat visual styles.
\nSelected candidates:
\nConclusion: They are what they are – simple up to really decent helpers for online tutoring and enhancing an existing presentation, on specific types of devices.
\n– Stormboard
\n– Miro
– ConceptBoard
\n– AwwApp
Background story: When recently stumbling into this big hole of missing out on jobs, that’s been caused by that friendly virus called CoVid-19, I started taking on a few jobs for a member of my family. I did a few smaller ones for them before, like fixing hacked WP sites, replacing a borked newsletter system for another, and so on. Mostly administrative tasks. Now, we started working on “the real thing”, in this case, getting a shop based on WooCommerce all up and running. Tasks like importing products from the old, pre-existing, custom-built shop, and setting up ClassicPress + WooCommerce, are pretty easily done.
\nNot so easily done are things like brainstorming, and working on important parts of the site together.
\nSo, this is a specific, but very common work scenario: The client wants something done, you work with the client, and the designer, both as developer and webdesigner / usability pro, and push this part design to and fro, until there is a prototype or a final version. No matter if this is done on the live site, there is a few prototypes and then done to a development site, etc.
\nThe normal approach would be to use e-mail and any kind of document. That would include eg. writing up or putting together a document in LibreOffice, Word or Photoshop, add screenshots, notes, etc. pp., and send it over to the designer and client. Designer adds their notes, back to us and the client. The clients adds notes and replies to specific parts of the mail, and so on.
\nNow, my thoughts are: Why not improve on this process? Isnt there a solution that skips over this closed document thing, having to send it all around the time, keeping track which version is which, what edits were made to it, or having to redo it altogether, because it became too cluttered? Isnt this online collaboration thing the “new thing” nowadays? Esp. thanks to the pandemia and all the people suddenly having to work from home? There are things like online whiteboards, and other tools like mind mapping, project managing tools, and also stuff for task planning / handling, like Trello and Basecamp.
\nSo, chances are high that there is something pretty decent around already – I just to have to find it \ud83d\ude42
\nTurns it: It aint that easy.
\nLooks like the agile rapid prototyping craze has mostly swallowed up any proper approach for this … pretty common task.
\n.. But lets not jump ahead \ud83d\ude09
My premises, call them requirements, are rather simple: I want to do some collaborative work on the footer design of the shop system.
\nBack in the spring day of Responsive Webdesign, footers were mostly used as a main navigation replacement, and maybe optionally, for adding a quick contact option, thats available everywhere. But nowadays, it plays a bit of a different role. Both vital for placing assets like newsletter subscription, all the legal mumbo-jumbo links, but also just sprucing and spicing up your site with eg. all of those fancy payment options, promises like “delivery in x days” and so on.
\nHence, elements or features I expect from anything calling itself a “collaborative whiteboard”, are as follows:
\nSo far, I’ve looked at least at 30 or more options. Most of the over-loaded ones, which seem mostly to be a fancy project management suite, never made it into the actual testing at all. But for completeness I’m going to list them as well \ud83d\ude42
\nResearch has been done using a lot of intense nitpicking of the right keywords on several search engines, including DuckDuckGo, but I’ve also been rummaging through the following articles and lists:
\n