New Look for Director Online

Even since I took over Director Online two years ago, I’ve wanted to give it a face lift. Since it was born (7 years ago?) a lot of “developers sites” have sprung up for almost every development environment. Most of these sites look very rich with information. Lots of stuff on the front page. But Director Online had a very simple front page.
So I’ve added a bunch of RSS feeds, using my own RSS parser, on the left. On the right, we’ve got announcements, like before, but also some of the recent forum posts. Then I added a nicer menu bar and updated the Director Online logo at the top. I’m pretty pleased with it.
The new menu bar also includes a link to the newest section, the Wiki. A wiki is a sort of online encyclopedia. But it can be edited by anyone. So users both take and give to the wiki. Could be pretty neat after a lot of info comes in. Could suck if someone tries to deface it over and over again. Successful wikis are self-policing, though.

May 5, 2005 • Posted in: General

6 Responses to “New Look for Director Online”

Zac - May 5, 2005

I believe that it has been 6 years since the site opened. IIRC it was October 1998 at the MMUC that we unveiled the site.

The new design is quite nice. Great work.
Pat - May 7, 2005

Nope, Zac. It was October 97, the same year I moved from Chicago to SF area.
I like the new look Gary!
Kostas - May 7, 2005

Very nice site. BUT WHAT IT “Wiki” ? Unfortunately I belong to this six bilion people who are not Americans. (I hope it is an American expression).
I asked a native English speaking person (45 years old) born and lived in Yorkshire. He didn’t know what this means.
Kostas
Gary Rosenzweig - May 7, 2005

I tried to define it in the post (online encyclopedia, edited by users). Take a second look at my post. If that still doesn’t make sense, then just go to it and look at it and maybe it will help you understand.
Marty Plumbo - May 10, 2005

Great job on the new DOUG, Gary! Much better looking and tons more useful. Keep up the good work.
Zav - May 12, 2005

Awww man Gary. Sweet work. As one of the original monkeys, I’ll join Zac and Pat in the congrats on the new work.
For Kostas - these things called “wikipedias” have popped up. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of them by now. Like an online cross linked encyclopedia. But this one is for Director and Lingo! If you hate what’s missing in the docs, write your own! That’s what the DOUG wiki’s for.