CSS Chronicles XLII | CSS-Tricks

Remember that? Chris wrote an occasional post to chronicle the happenings on the old CSS Tricks site. It has only been 969 days since the lastmore or less. Just think: Back then we were Writing CSS in JavaScript and slowly start to be happy about a number of proposed new colour features which are largely implemented today. We are Nesting CSS rules Now. Container queries became an actual thing.

CSS has gone completely crazy. Probably not the “best” time to take a break from a site about CSS, right?

So I thought I’d dust off the chronicles. It’s been a hot time and there’s a lot going on around CSS tricks these days.

I’m (somehow) back

We might as well start here! Yes, I was “fired” last year. There was no #HotDrama. A lot of really good people – everyone on the DigitalOcean community team – were let go at the same time. It was a business decision, whether you liked it or not.

After that, things changed at DigitalOcean. A new leadership team is on board and with it a new focus on restoring the community side of things. That and Chris has published a meaningful post about the situation at CSS-Tricks from his perspective. Coincidentally or not, a new job opened up that was very similar to my old job. I had feelings about thisNaturally.

That little hustle led to a phone call. And a few more. And now I’m back to help get the good old CSS Tricks engine up and running again and hopefully make it the valuable resource we’ve loved for so long. I’m on contract at the moment, feeling my way.

Until now? Man, it feels great to be back.

What I did during the “lull”

I jumped to Smashing Magazine. My goodness, this team is incredible. I’m glad we still have Smashing Magazine. And here’s a little something for your next front-end cocktail party: Smashing Magazine was launched in September 2006only 11 months ago Chris published the very first article here on CSS-Tricks.

I also spent my time teaching frontend development at some colleges near me in Colorado. I had already taught, but increased the teaching hours. But not to a lot because I decided this was as good a time as any to start working on a master’s degree, so I enrolled and split my days as a part-time editor, part-time teacher, and part-time student.

The completion went faster than I expected, so I used the remaining time to finish an online course I started a few years earlier and finally got around to publishing it! It’s probably not the kind of course for anyone reading this post, but for absolute beginners who are probably writing their very first line of HTML or CSS. Have you ever been asked how to build a website but don’t have the energy (or time) to explain everything? Yes, me too. Those are the people this course is for. And my mom.

I call it The basics – and I would love for you to share it with anyone you think could use it as a starting point for web development.

What I want for CSS tricks in the future

This site has always been great, even long before I came on board. Historically it was more of a personal blog that later evolved into a multi-author blog with a steady stream of content. There’s nothing wrong with that at all.

What is missing, however, is structure. Almost everything we publish is treated like a blog post: write it, hit the publish button, and leave it at the top of the stream until the next blog post comes along. We’re talking about a time-based approach, where posts become a timeline of activity in reverse chronological order. Where do you find that one post you came across last month? It’s probably buried by now, and you’ll either have to look in the post archives or try to search for it by keyword. That might work for a blog with a few hundred posts, but here there are more than 7,000, and searching has become more like looking for the metaphorical needle in the equally metaphorical haystack.

You may have noticed that I’m switching things up. Everything is still a “post,” but we now use a category taxonomy more effectively than in the past. Each category is a “type” of post. And the post type is determined by what exactly we want to accomplish with it. Let’s break this out into its own section, since it’s a significant change with some explanation around it.

The “types” of things we publish

OK, so everything used to be an article or a almanac Entry. We still have “articles” and “entries,” but there are better ways to classify and differentiate them, especially with articles.

This is what the result looks like:

• Article: The tutorials that have always been the be-all and end-all of CSS tricks
• Instructions: Comprehensive in-depth coverage of a specific CSS topic (such as Flexbox Guide)
• almanac: Reference pieces for understanding CSS selectors and properties that can be cited in articles and tutorials.
• Notes: A post about taking notes on things we learn. They’re meant to be loose and a little rough, just like notes you’d take in a lecture – only we’re taking notes on the things others in the community (like you!) are writing about.
• Left: Things we read that we find interesting and want to share with you. A link may later evolve into a note, but they are also useful resources that can be cited in the almanac, a guide, or an article.
• Quick hits: I hate that name, but the idea is to have a place to post little one-liners, like a thought, an idea, or maybe a breaking news story. I’m happy to take suggestions for a better name for this.

That is what we are currently investigating, but of course there are other ways to split content. For example, we have a Archive of “snippets” that we have buried for many years but could be useful. The same applies to Videos. And more, if you can believe it. So there’s plenty to do to keep us busy! It’s still very early. You’ll probably experience some turbulence during your flight. And that’s okay with me, because this is a learning place and the people who work here are learning too.

Yes, I just said “people”, more than one person, because I…

Welcome some new faces!

What I enjoy most – even more than the ice cream truck my daughters – is taking new people along. Doing CSS tricks is a gigantic job (no matter how easy I make it look ). So I brought a few people along to help me share the load!

Juan Diego Rodriguez

Ryan Trimble

I met Juan Diego when I was editing for Smashing Magazine. He had already written several articles for Smashing before I joined and his latest work, the first part of a series of articles discussing the “headaches” of working with Gatsby landed on my desk. It’s really, really good – you should check it out. What you should know about Juan Diego, what I learned is that the guy cares a lot about the web platform. Not only that, but he also pays a lot of attention to it. I’m pretty sure he reads the CSSWG specs for fun over a cup of tea. His love and curiosity for all things front-end is infectious and I’ve already learned a lot from him. I know you will too.

Ryan, on the other hand, is a total design systems nerd who advocates for accessible user interfaces. He actually contacted me on Mastodon when he got wind of me needing help. The timing was perfect and I couldn’t be more grateful that he nudged me when he did. The more I get to know him, the more I realize how versatile his skills are. Working with “design systems” can mean many different things. For Ryan, it means consistent, predictable user interfaces based on modular and reusable web components – specifically, web components that are native to the platform. In fact, he’s currently working on a design system called Platform user interfaceI am also a fan of his personal blogespecially his weekly summaries of articles he finds interesting.

You’ll see Juan Diego and Ryan here often! They both work hard to keep the trusty almanac up to date, but will also publish articles. No one works here full-time, myself included, so it’s truly a team effort.

Please welcome both of you!

This is all a work in progress

…and it probably always will be! I love that CSS Tricks is a place where everyone learns together. Maybe it’s directly about CSS. Maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s only tangentially related to web development. Maybe it’s just a rough idea that’s not quite fully developed yet, but we’re bringing it out there and learning new things together. We’re open to the fact that the web is a huge place where everyone can contribute and has a unique perspective that we all benefit from – be it a specialization in CSS, semantics, performance, accessibility, design, typography, marketing, or whatever.

Do you want to write for CSS Tricks?

You can and you should! You get paid, readers learn something, and that leads to people coming to the site. Everyone wins!

I know that writing is not everyone’s greatest skill. But that’s exactly what the team is here for. You don’t have to be a great writer, just be willing to write something. We’ll help you nail it and make it something you’re extremely proud of.

More than 200 Web developers, designers and specialists like you have written for this website. They should Apply to write an article and join the club!

So, yes: CSS Tricks is back!

In his own strange way! In My In a perfect world, there would be no doubt about whether CSS Tricks publishes content on any given day. But that’s not entirely up to me. It has to have at least some value not only to people like you who depend on sites like CSS Tricks, but also to DigitalOcean. It’s a delicate dance, but I think everyone is on the same page and has a shared interest in keeping this site alive and healthy.

I’m thrilled that I can be here. And that Juan Diego and Ryan can be here too. And you too.

We are all there together.