What's going on?

at 14:48 on 22 June 2006, Simon wrote:

Wrong place Steve ... but lets run with it until it turns into the negative energy time bomb you have primmed it for.

OK Steve, What's changed?

Yes, the forum is broke. That is addressed already in another news post. So what else?

at 14:55 on 22 June 2006, Tim wrote:

I have to agree; the quality of this site has plummeted in the past two months. Too much SPAM for new, “old” sites that get submitted.

It’s been going on a lot longer then the sale, but something needs to be done because it’s slipping fast…

at 15:03 on 22 June 2006, Simon wrote:

OK, What do you mean by this? "Too much SPAM for new, “old” sites that get submitted."

So Steve says it's all gone down hill since I took over, and you say it was going down hill before that. And the going down hill is related to what you said? So if you can just clarify what you mean that might help in understanding the issues you have.

at 15:20 on 22 June 2006, Kris Gosser wrote:

The only thing broke is the Forum. There are new features that are being rolled out soon.

Secondly, just because the sites being reviewed are 'older' (which is an exaggeration), doesn't mean anything. While David was running it, there was a huge slip in the number of reviews, and we felt there were a few that were missed and should be featured.

at 15:23 on 22 June 2006, schnuck wrote:

i believe the majority does not think this site is going downhill. i still come here several times a day and i do not plan to stop that in future.

at 15:23 on 22 June 2006, Oliver Turner wrote:

@Simon - I'm sorry to say I have to agree with the nay-sayers: numerous recent posts have led to completely blank entries (not counting the advert that sits in the place of the usual slug), while an example of old content being flagged as news would be the frankly bizarre recent inclusion of Dustin Diaz's Top 10 JavaScripts, a post dating back to November and now partially obsolete (per DD himself).

at 15:33 on 22 June 2006, brent wrote:

I have noticed an increase in spam coming up from people just trying to drive traffic to their own sites in the public news section. (This really spiked just before David announced he was selling).

As far as old content goes, I think he's talking about the fact that sites that are being featured have already been up and around already, or have already been featured on other sites for a while. Also, there are not as many sites being featured as their used to be. This could be a lack of attention or lack of quality sites being created.

Another thing people might have a problem with is it appears that the sites being featured now are being shown for aesthetical reasons only. Sure they look great and are visually unique (don't have a dictionary in front of me), but in the past this site never really focused on mainly visually stunning pieces. It was about standards, and how people coded their sites to make them accesible to the masses, while making them visually appealing.

at 15:35 on 22 June 2006, Simon wrote:

@Oliver

Where is this news post now. The top 10 Java scripts one that is? Was it deleted as soon as it was flagged as old or is it still there to bother you? I believe it was deleted as soon as it was flagged but please feel free to prove me wrong.

What do you mean by news with blank entries? I don't understand the point you are making there. Please eloborate so I know what you are saying.

at 15:42 on 22 June 2006, Simon wrote:

@Brent

Because a site has been featured somewhere else does not mean that it is not worthy of Stylegala attention. I would be amazed frankly if someone creates a great site that it only ends up on stylegala.

Sites that look different seem to be the only thin seperating quality sites right now. Seems that Standards compliant sites are all the rage and the onlything seperating the wheat from the chaffe so to speak is the look of the site. This is my take on it after viewing hundreds of sites that have been submitted to the gallery recently.

Why is it that new sites being launched are still doc type transitional too? Surely these sites being new should be strict? Anyway, the quality of sites added for review varies from just very bad to good. Exceptional are few and far between.

As far as I understand the Stylegala members want to see great looking sites that follow standanards. Sites that just follow standards seem to be 2 a penny.

at 15:44 on 22 June 2006, Tim wrote:

@Simon:

You can't deny that most public news posts in recent weeks have been SPAM. I remember that in the last half of last year I found tons of useful things each week through it. Now I'm happy to find a couple of things in between SPAM posts.

Hellgate London was featured on dozens of sites when it was released in the beginning of may, before it was added here on the 13th of June.

In recent weeks this side has become but a shadow of what it was half a year ago...

at 15:46 on 22 June 2006, Steven Tew wrote:

Oops, my bad Simon (notice I know your name now.) I can't believe I missed your 'Forum updates' post.

I've had a quick skim; probs with updates, probs with the tech guy, no DB back-up, lost members list (answers my question), lost the tech guy, found really old members list ...

cool - i'll re-sign-up. You could probably do with a big announcement on the top of your pages, somewhere where even I could find it, explaining what's happened and what you need us to do. I'm an in-and-out quick kinda guy. Don't often have time to read all links to find burried stuff.

So have we lost posts as well? And any idea when you expect things to back up and running?

When I noticed my name missing from the members list, I ran a search on my name to see if I could find anything I'd posted. The engine gave me a count of how many results it had found, but no links to them.

at 15:47 on 22 June 2006, jason wrote:

In Simon's defense the spam in the public news was happening way before it was sold. With that said he should've stopped it by now.

BTW, could you make it to where this comment box remembers my info? that would be great.

at 15:58 on 22 June 2006, Simon wrote:

@Jason,

What spam do you see in the public news. I monitor this like a hawk. If I see Spam it's gone as soon as I see it.

Site requests in the forum please (oops...forum broke :( )

@Steve,

Good point about making a banner. Should have thought about that earlier. I am really praying we will have a useable forum later today. No post will be lost but users will. Anyone who signed up after about March 2005 ish will likely need to resign up again. Posts that have been made since that date will be re-assigned to an existing user.

at 16:08 on 22 June 2006, brent wrote:

@Simon:

I never said that it's not ok to post a site that's already on another gallery. I stated that they already been there for a while, meaning StyleGala is algging behind.

It's a not wether or not standards driven sites are the rage, you're missing that the community of THIS site comes here to learn and discuss standards. (Read your newly purchased logo caption).

Your comment about doctype makes no point. There are several articles that have been written about proper use of doctype that you can find if you browse through this site.

You make this site whatever you want. But in your own words, sites that only focus on design in general are 2 to a penny.

at 16:11 on 22 June 2006, Simon wrote:

@Tim,

Sorry Tim I missed you there.

Yes I can deny that most public news post are spam. How many on display Tim are Spam? If I see spam it's gone.

Hellgate London was commented on in a news post for it's outstanding design. This was a lot earlier than the actual review. One of our new site reviewers (new since I took over) did a great review on the site and since then it has received much critical comment and praise. Many have also voted on it. That means that some people at least think we did a good job getting it up. Even if it was later than other sites.

at 16:17 on 22 June 2006, Simon wrote:

@Brent

You miss quote me there.

I said design is the one thing seperating the sites right now. Many sites submitted are standards compliant and are doing nothing different or new. The differences right now seem to be in the design. So it's a combination, great use of standards, accessibility, usability and design.

at 16:22 on 22 June 2006, Dan Fris (ephtek) wrote:

Why did accounts from after March 2005 get deleted from the forum? That's weak. What about my "preferred member status" ..

Starting over sucks.

at 16:25 on 22 June 2006, Simon wrote:

@Dan,

This was due to an error with no back-up to correct the mistake. Yes it sucks big time. You can read the full history of this in the Stylegala News section titles Forum updates in progress.

at 16:40 on 22 June 2006, Bill Walsh wrote:

What do you mean you don't see any spam? You may remove it the second you see it, but by that time, we've already seen it in the RSS feed and clicked on it.

Whenever someone posts a link to their school's Flash gallery (which should win an award for "most inaccessible art on the planet"), or a link to their own blog story about what a bitch it is to install Adobe Acrobat, it wastes our time. We don't read Stylegala to see Flash galleries and read off-topic posts. And we think to ourselves, our time would be much better spent reading "alistapart" or "cssbeauty" where the content is edited properly.

(BTW, if you have to ask why a link to a Flash Gallery is spam, then you probably shouldn't have purchased the Stylegala).

We all like Stylegala a lot, and it's been a terrific resource over the years. But, I'm this close to removing it from my RSS reader.

at 16:47 on 22 June 2006, Steven Tew wrote:

@ Simon

"Posts that have been made since that date will be re-assigned to an existing user."

Could better to re-assign to a dummy member - then posts are not credited to people who didn't write them.

I'm sure there are a few posts out that that nodoby would want to claim ;-)

And this way, users would know that the post was a stray.

at 16:50 on 22 June 2006, Simon wrote:

@Bill

David started the public news as an experiment. It's a free for all to post valuable news the community can share. It's run on trust. That was the goal. I have not changed that at all. It's the same now as it always was. I think the spam needs addressing but as yet no solutions have been implemented.

When did I ask if the link to a flash gallery is spam? Is that some hypothetical question are are you saying I asked that?

My resons for buying Stylegala were to see the community thrive. That is still my goal.

Don't let me stop you doing anything Bill. If you want to remove Stylegala from your RSS reader, nothing I say to you will stop you doing that.

at 16:55 on 22 June 2006, Simon wrote:

@Steven

This is what is going to happen. Great minds think alike :-)

at 17:03 on 22 June 2006, Mark Otto wrote:

I think a lot needs to change for Stylegala to be put back on the top. But honestly, I was never here when I believe it was on the top. Since I have been here, I have seen it slip over and over again, but not because of any one in particular.

Simon, you have the chance to make this site big. It's one of the few good showcase sites out there that offers tons of resources. Here are a few things that need to be done to get us up to par:

1) Rearrange the front-page: all I see when I land here is three websites, news, more news, ads, and more ads. The features need more spotlight and some updating - the Bullet Madness was my favorite.

2) Decide what Stylegala is to be: the title says "Web Design Publication," but I think this is more of a showcase at this point. Do you want articles, features, reviews, or what?

3) I look at the gallery and sigh: we need websites showcased. New or old, add them and review them.

I'm willing to help out as much as I can - just let

at 17:04 on 22 June 2006, Alen Grakalic wrote:

@ Tim: Do you really think that site that has been around for only a month and a half can be categorized as "old"?! My own site, back in April 2005 was more then 2 months old before it was featured on Stylegala.

at 17:20 on 22 June 2006, mdz61384 (Mark) wrote:

guys, give Simon a bit of a break. most of you remember how difficult it is to run a site like this. its in high demand, and as such, with high demand comes high expectations. Simon, these are the shoes you filled, but instead of being a critical community, we need to be the loving, supporting community we claim to be.

Mark Otto made a great post. We can sit here and nitpick, but what holds this site together is the community and I don't see us acting as a team right now. A lot of things DO need to be fixed, but we're here to help you. I agree, the front page needs a facelift, and if you ask from the community, we'll see what we can do. Other css sites like cssbeauty and the new design of cssvault will attract members. Personally, I go here and cssbeauty every day because of the news, cause no other sites in many ways contribute that. Lets all trust eachother like Simon said, accept there will be a few bumps in the road, and make this the best damn css site on the internet.

at 17:23 on 22 June 2006, Alen Grakalic wrote:

I think that certain part of the community should be more open minded and more understanding. When we heard the news about selling the Stylegala most of us were afraid because this site is our daily stop.

News spam is not a novelty and it has nothing to do with the new owner. It is a problem that needs to be solved. Lack of reviews was somewhat of a problem at the end of the “David’s time” also so Simon decided to gather up some new site reviewers. Isn’t that an improvement?

Taking over a site like this and filling David’s shoes is not an easy task so, people be patient. Personally I resent the news poster's phrase “crumbling before my eyes” because that is not what is happening here.

at 17:36 on 22 June 2006, Ricky Green wrote:

Hello, i think alot of you are commenting on problems that was here along time before simon took over.

Ok, hellgate london was posted along time ago on various other showcase sites but i beleive that was a fault or bad judgement on david's (monc) part.

How can simon possibly add that site when he didn't own the site then?

Simon: i think your doing a great job, alot of things where flying around before you took over and i think a few people are seeing you taking over as a chance to complain about what's wrong since david had a large fan base and people didn't like speaking so abrupt to him as they do the new guy.

at 18:33 on 22 June 2006, Seth Aldridge wrote:

Here is my take on it. The site went down hill as soon as it was announced it was going to be sold. Now it has been purchased from someone who looks like there going to work hard to get it back to where it was. This is not Simon's fault.

Don't blame the guy who is trying to save it.

We should work on helping with adding functionality. Have a place where next to all public posts you can check if it is spam and set it to 10 checks gets it automatically booted.

Don't complain about a problem and not offer a solution. This site can not control how many people post to it each day, but YOU can let them know if you find spam. We have to pull together to make this site great again, not bitch because it's going to take work.

at 18:54 on 22 June 2006, Kris Gosser wrote:

@Mark Otto:

Your third point is exactly the philosophy we are going to have: Showcase sites. That means sites that are 6 months or 6 days old will be showcased if they are felt to be top quality.

at 19:54 on 22 June 2006, Tim wrote:

@ Simon and Alan

You seem to be great at discussing the packaging, but not the message. We can debate how I word things or the actual issues.

Yes, SPAM posts are removed as soon as they're spotted but they shouldn't appear in the first place. This has been an issue for months now and nothing has been done about it. "Yeah, there's a problem there, but as soon as it pops up, I'm doing something about it!"

Do something to prevent it, I'm sure noone would mind a few hours delay in news if it keeps the kids from promoting their crappy sites.

Secondly, A month and a half is not old. But here I go debating words again, my point was: It's been featured on dozens of other sites a month and a half ago. Why still bother adding it here. It's like CNN having a breaking news flash because WW2 ended. There's no point in showing it.

Some members of the community report issues, instead of whining about what someone wrote. Do something about it. I'd like to stress I'm not blaming

at 19:57 on 22 June 2006, Carlos Bernal wrote:

I'm an hourly visitor to this site, and I can say with certainty that since the purchase I notice that posts are returning to their norm since before the presale talks.

This site is NOT going downhill it's just in transition, instead of throwing rocks let's contribute.

at 21:05 on 22 June 2006, David B. wrote:

@tim

We have had many discussions with David Hellsing before the sale about the public news thread and the consensous was not to premoderate it because then it becomes the whim of whoever is moding it what is news and what is not, we had spoken about a voting up or down system and looked like that got most of the head nods it just was not emplemented by David. i think it was close to the time he went public with the sale news.

as far as not reviewing sites that have been in other galleries, i understand what you mean but you have to al be aware that most of the people coming to style gala, dontfrequent all the other galleries on the web and to a lot of people when style gala reviews something its the first time they have seen it.

indeed a lot of times, i know from my own experience, that i will see a site here and then visit another site and see it and think that they are the late ones because i missed the publish date or something...

at 22:34 on 22 June 2006, Ed wrote:

I think many of you are being harsh. Saying Stylegala went down hill as soon as it was announced that it was for sale is wrong. The only thing that was troublesome is the Spam in the public news. But like David B said this issue has been brought up time and time again. If it's moderatred it loses it's original concept.

But the big deal is the site was just sold to Simon. It's like being born and your parents expecting you to get a job and start paying the bills. It doesn't happen. Change will happen but like life it takes time. So instead of tearing the site apart.. which to me is what makes the site go downhill. How about contributing helping out. It's so much easier to complain then to do something. Considering that you don't pay to view this site.

As for the gallery, I'm glad it's getting sites added. Who cares if they are old or new. One thing I enjoy is that stylegala CRITIQUES the sites not just showcases. Something many showcases don't do.

So give Simo

at 23:40 on 22 June 2006, hilary wrote:

When I found this site, around two months ago I thought there would be a vibrant, energetic community. Instead I found that the same sites were featured on the front page for weeks at a time without being changed, and there were only a handful of active participants in the forum, which also seemed to get a lot of 'hey click this link' posts from total stragers, and they didnt stick it in the critique forum either!

I think Stylegala still has a good name, for the new owners sake, I hope he can make this better!!

at 00:33 on 23 June 2006, Chris wrote:

Some good comments here along with some decent constructive criticism.

Keep working on the site Simon and don't get discouraged. It's going to be my home page for a long time.

at 07:38 on 23 June 2006, Paul wrote:

Seriously, I'm all for Simon injecting a bit of life into this site. I'd actually stopped reading StyleGala as my morning websurfing, but with things starting to change (for the better, I might add) I'm picking up interest again.

Public spam is an annoyance, but there's not much we can do about it without regulating it ala Slashdot, which might not necessarily be a bad thing. Maybe we should add a voting system to the homepage and put it to the community?

at 09:16 on 23 June 2006, Simon wrote:

@Everyone

When I took over Stylegala, I said that I would not jump in and make changes all over the place and that I would sit back and learn for a bit first.

Some changes to the forum were vital though like the version of the back end code. Other forum mods were more community requests but as the work was being done anyway it was deemed a good time to do it.

Anyway, the upshot of all this is keep coming forward. There is a forum in the forums section called stylegala.com. If you would like to make a positive contribution to the community by making a suggestion then please feel free to add it in the forum. I can then get all these ideas and critiques in one place.

Lets now move over to the forum for any more posts about this topic.

Simon

at 09:19 on 23 June 2006, Alen Grakalic wrote:

@ Tim:

Hellgate has been showcased around the globe, but here on Stylegala it has been REVIEWED and you'll must agree there's a difference.

at 10:56 on 23 June 2006, foxyboy wrote:

I'm not going to gripe about what changes are being made o the site, because you have to expect change with new management/owners.

My gripe is that my forum membership has gone, and I can't renew it, because I don't receive an acivation email. :(

at 11:15 on 23 June 2006, Simon wrote:

@foxyboy:

Check your spam filters. I just signed up for a new account and received the activation email fine. Several others have also signed up today without difficulty.

at 14:15 on 23 June 2006, Jake Rutter wrote:

I also come to the site several times a day, I love the news sections. I usually spend about 15 minutes checking out new trends. I must say, Im glad there is more to this site than just a CSS galley.

There are at least 10 CSS Gallery sites out there, and most of them feature the same sites every week. Gets boring, Im glad stylegala can stand on its own two feet, and not have to rely on peanut gallery (ha ha).

at 14:46 on 14 July 2006, Steven Tew wrote:

Hi Simon,

I just want to round things off by saying thanks for all the effort you've put into fixing these issues. It was unfair of me to suggest that you were simply using Stylegala as a platform to branch out into the web market, and also unfair of me to suggest that David had sold Stylegala purely to the highest bidder without consideration to its community.

Apart from the forum search returning more results than it's willing to show me, the site is working well now.

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