[DupySite] Redesign Sneak Peek

If this website is getting too boring for you, take a look at KylanRobinson.com. This is a taste of what's to come, and is only a small portion of what I'm starting to call "The Dupyshon Network" or "The Dupyshon Universe" or "The DupyVerse" or "The Dupyshon Metaverse." Obviously there's still a lot of work to be done, I haven't even settled on a moniker yet!

[DupySite] Site Redesign

Right now I'm working on a complete redesign of Dupyshon.com. That's why the activity on this blog has been pretty stagnant lately. Stay tuned, this will definitely be the best iteration yet of my website.

[DupySite] Finally a Favicon

For the first time in Dupyshon.com history, I implemented a favicon for the site. You should be able to see it on your address bar when you go to the Home Page. As you can see, I'm not much of an artist!

[DupySite] Content Management Experiments

Over the past few days, I've been working on a new website for my KylanAndKristen.com domain. Since the wedding is finished, a redesign is due. The wedding website will be preserved under www.dupyshon.com/wedding, so you can still visit and sign the digital guestbook, if you like.

Anyway, I wanted to try something new with this site. In the past, I've coded up all of the HTML and CSS on my own. It's been a fun learning experience, but it also takes a lot of work. Additionally, since I'm not a graphic design guru, the sites end up looking less polished than I would like. This time around I decided to try my hand at implementing a content management system that can handle all of the backend details. I tried out three different options:

TextPattern

At first I was sure that TextPattern would be the right tool for me. My friend Mike Sun runs a photoblog called Sojourning Days using this software, and it looks really classy. TextPattern is extremely simple, almost to the extent of being bare-bones, but that let me feel like I had a lot of control. There were some issues regarding navigation between pages and auto-generated content, though, so I decided to move on.

Joomla

Joomla had the advantage of working right out of the box. However, it seems like this product is meant for a much larger-scale implementation. The support for many users, polls, and other features were just overkill for what I wanted. Plus, most of the extensions and themes are non-free, making customization much more difficult than I would have liked.

Wordpress

I've been wanting to try Wordpress for quite a while. I really like the way users can create blog posts as well as web pages. There is quite a large community supporting this product, which means that there are plenty of free extensions, widgets, and themes. Out of these three, Wordpress is easily the best choice for KylanAndKristen.com.

KylanAndKristen.com is now up and running, with pictures from our wedding to be posted later this week. Stay tuned, because the site should grow pretty quickly over the next couple of months.

[DupySite] The Wii Page

I've made a new addition to Dupyshon.com, and I'm calling it The Wii Page. This is where I'll record all of my Wii-related information. You can expect to see game reviews, etc. in the future, even though the page is pretty bare right now.

[DupySite] Become a Contributor

This is a golden opportunity! Now you can apply to become a Dupyshon.com contributor. Contributors control the content and message of the website, and they act as ambassadors between the site and the rest of the world. Contributors also have a huge amount of say concerning the evolution (or, maybe, feature creep) of the website. The process of becoming a contributor is largely undefined at this time, but this is by design. We wanted to give applicants as much freedom as possible to prove their merits. All you have to do is email applications@dupyshon.com with an application packet.

Q: What is an application packet?
A:

Anything (and everything) you want it to be. Your application packet can take any number of forms. It can be a traditional email, a link to a YouTube video, an attached PDF, or anything else. Creativity is the key here, and it can get you major bonus points.

Q: What kinds of things will the evaluators be looking for?
A:

The overall qualification we need to see is that you would be a good fit in the Dupyshon.com community. This means that we need to get a good impression of your personality and disposition, and you have to prove that you will be able to add to the spirit of Dupyshon.com. Please address your concept of what Dupyshon.com is, and where you see it headed in the future. Also, if you became a contributor, what would you bring to the table? Examples of past work could help a lot. How would you help Dupyshon.com realize its greatest potential?

This is one question that you must answer in order to get the job: What does "dupyshon" mean to you?

Q: When is the deadline for application submission?
A:

For now, there is no deadline. We will welcome applications for the foreseeable future.

Q: How many positions are available?
A:

This is undetermined, although we will probably accept up to 2 or 3 new contributors.

Q: What does the position pay?
A:

If you're in it for the money, this job's not for you. Annual salary: $0. Hey, we do this for the love of everything Dupy. That should be enough for you, too.

[DupySite] New Feature Ideas

Here are two ideas for new features for Dupyshon.com that I've been thinking about:

• Status Updates

Lately I've become intrigued by the concept of microblogging. Often, I feel like I have something worthy of posting on Dupyshon.com, but it's not enough to merit a full post in the DupyBlog. I simply don't have that much to say. Examples might include "My test went well this morning," or "Matlab is not a real programming language." I can also use it to emulate the Facebook status feature. There are a number of microblogging applications out there, but I think I like Twitter the best. If I can do a little hacking on their API, I might be able to integrate it into my website. Then I can replace my GTalk status badge on the Contributors page, and maybe even move it to the homepage.

• Bookmarks

Right now DupyLinks is powered by Blogger. It does its job, but it's a little clunky. In the near future, I might be changing it over to del.icio.us. There are a few reasons that del.icio.us does a better job than what I have now. First of all, it allows for easy posting. All I need is a bookmarklet on my Firefox toolbar. Second, it lets me include comments with links. I can do this with my Blogger setup, but that takes more work. Finally, links are taggable.

Dupyshon.com - always evolving and/or improving and/or giving in to feature creep!