Hublog

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Facelift, pt 6

[mood: reminiscent] [listening to: oldies, but goodies]

A little shocking, eh?

Those of you who have been here since the start know the drill. You've seen this site change seven times now, changing from flavor to flavor and look to look. I've had many-a-urge to scratch my web developing itch. For those of you who haven't been here since the start, well, just be glad you never saw Hublog 5... It was blue. And kind of ugly. Hint: Classic Hublog Blue still wasn't discovered yet.

But in any case, whether you were here when Asia was still making posts or you heard about this site with familiar ol' Jesus around already, lately you have heard me speak oft about Hublog changing to fit the needs of the community. Hublog 7 is the latest manifestation of this need.

Many members of the community have moved on to college, have increasingly diverse circles of friends, and are using other social networking tools and alternatives to Hublog such as Twitter and Tumblr. Rather than foster a sense of awkward competition with these other sites, I've chosen to embrace the current situation and realize that our use of the Web is growing more and more dependent on social networking. But with all these other networks around, where does Hublog stand?

Here's where the "Hublog changes to fits the need of the community" comes into play. There will still be posts and the Bloober, the custom tagline and eventually backgrounds (if you guys see fit). Comments are still around, and tags will be back soonish. But the greatest addition to Hublog 7 isn't really about Hublog at all... its about the community, and you've probably noticed it by now: the lone tab sitting to the left, disjoint yet still connected to the rest of the site. The Hub.

Yes, the Hub. What is the Hub (besides a clever play on HubLog)? It's just what it sounds like--a central place for all of us to come together, connect. It takes other parts of our presence on the Web and integrates it into one location. So far on the Hub, I've integrated the Twitter, Tumblr, and Xanga feeds of people relevant to our community. (If you'd like to see your content on there, drop me a line in the comments with your info) It would have been great to integrate Facebook feeds as well, but due to obvious security issues, that wasn't possible. But what's great about the Hub is that it intertwines these other feeds with Hublog itself. Posts, comments, and Bloobs show up in the Hub as well. In addition to eliminating the need for a "recent comments" section, you'll get a more coherent picture of the lives of people we care about on this site.

You'll notice other improvements as well. Authors have a new authoring system, which will make posts easier and livelier, especially for those who don't know HTML... and hopefully they'll be more frequent too. Many text boxes have evolved into a Facebook-style shrinking box, making the site officially "cool." But perhaps the biggest improvement of all is that I've rewritten the entire site in PHP again. Hublog 6 was a good experiment in Ruby on Rails, but in the end, flawed because it didn't do what a website should fundamentally do: exist. Every so often, there'd be a "Bad gateway" error and the site would be dead. I'm happy to say that this will no longer happen with Hublog 7.

You'll likely take note of other little things here or there, and I hope you'll welcome them as refreshing changes. For those that care, I've been developing this version since around October, and did most of the hardcore coding over this past winter break. Having time off from school and writing Hublog really did bring back fond memories of old times. I had originally intended to have it finished before break ended and throw a launch party, but alas, seeing as it's February, that did not happen. As always, there might be a few kinks here or there during the first few days, but let me know about any bugs you encounter in the comments and I'll try to iron them out.

I know this has been a long post, probably one of the longest Facelifts ever, but I really do hope that you read it over so you can better understand what direction I am taking the site. It's been a long journey for us, coming all the way here. Along the way, I hope you've enjoyed indulging the dream of a little boy who wanted to be a web developer as much as I've enjoyed living that dream. And I hope you will continue to do so. After all, like I've always said, Hublog wouldn't exist if it weren't for you readers. So, once again, thank you.

Now go be merry.

Humbly,

Your captain

Colloquy on Facelift, pt 6