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Speak Up v2.1 : : Bigger, Badder, More Gentle

After three months of after-hours labor the new version of Speak Up is finally ready. The majority of the suggestions you submitted through our poll were taken into consideration for this spankingly fresh and updated site.

The first thing you will notice is the menu to your left. Yes, more sections. Think of them as little rooms filled with information where you can frolic until you satisfy most of your graphic pleasures and longings. Business, books, advice, news, events… it’s all here under one roof. Just for you. To your right you will find Word It, a small, square space for you to contribute. Click slightly above it to learn more. All around you will find new and exciting things and some major usability improvements. Again, just for you.

I will certainly not end this without thanking some people. First of all my lovely wife who put up with my absence while I worked my ass off to get this done. My two cats for keeping me company during those late nights. Christopher May for pushing the site, and me, to where it is right now and for the added strategic thoughts on what and why we are doing this. The helpful folk over at the MovableType Support forum who patiently answered some of my questions. Steve Liska for sharing some of his free time off his busy schedule to help us understand the business side of things. And all of you, for making this place what it is today.

I also want to extend an official welcome to the latest authors of Speak Up. Both are outspoken, creative and rarely capitalize. Welcome aboard patric king and Felix Sockwell.

And lastly, I just want to thank all the readers again for stopping by and making this such a great place to waste business hours. I hope you enjoy it.

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ENTRY DETAILS
ARCHIVE ID 1427 FILED UNDER Miscellaneous
PUBLISHED ON Apr.14.2003 BY Armin
WITH COMMENTS
Comments
Martin Jacobsen’s comment is:

Beautiful!!

I haven't had the time to really look around yet but the general impression is that this was an upgrade well worth waiting for.

Minor Issue: Opera isn't doing too well with the pop-up windows. In fact it won't open them at all. I'm using the latest version for Mac OS 10.2.

Having found that out I quickly checked the site in Safari, IE, Netscape and Camino (Mozilla) as well and all of them handled everything smooth so far.

Thanks for the great makeover. I'll be sure to keep visiting the site regularly.

-M

On Apr.14.2003 at 08:50 AM
Martin Jacobsen’s comment is:

Duh... Nevermind.
It just opened up behind the current window. My bad. - Opera OK'ed.

-M

On Apr.14.2003 at 08:52 AM
brook’s comment is:

looks great, armin. i tried posting a link in the website section of recommended. it wouldn't show anything past where the html for the link started. i'm using safari, so maybe that's the issue.

On Apr.14.2003 at 09:05 AM
Sam’s comment is:

Looks great, Armin. Seems to be working fine in dear old OS 9.

One tiny thing, in the code above this comments box, the target="_blank" is missing a close-quote mark. Could be Trouble.

On Apr.14.2003 at 09:12 AM
Kiran Max Weber’s comment is:

Armin, amazing job. Your hard work is certainly appreciated. The HTML quick tags are a great idea as is word it. Speak Up is a wonderful site and community to be a part of. It's a pleasure visiting it each morning and throughout the day. It's inspiration itself! Now if I can only get to my bio... :)

On Apr.14.2003 at 09:14 AM
Armin’s comment is:

C'mon guys, just use Explorer and support Microsoft. Naw, seriously, thanks for the technical feedback.

Good catch Sam, I already fixed it.

On Apr.14.2003 at 09:47 AM
Joy Olivia Miller’s comment is:

Very nice work, Armin. The site is super great, in fact.

Quick question -- would it be too much trouble to allow for one or two sentences from each designer explaining (if they want) any madness behind their illustrations for the Word It? While most I've seen so far are pretty self-explanatory, I'm sure a couple would be even more fun if they were accompanied by the usual witty text that Speak Up'ers write. If nothing else, it would be fun to know what tools, font face, etc. Just a thought.

On Apr.14.2003 at 10:25 AM
Marcus Webb’s comment is:

Site looks phat, fersur, Armin. But on the posts on the frontpage you need hook up a 'border="0"' tag in the section images link things. The 'icon_misc.gif,' etc etc. You know what I mean.

PS. Will I ever get to be on the speakup writer's list ?

On Apr.14.2003 at 10:57 AM
Su’s comment is:

Priddy.

Some of your vertical dotted borders are misbehaving in Mozilla for Windows. Can send a screenshot if you don't have access to a copy. Odd, since they seem to be the same as before, which were fine.

Really like the comment form buttons.

On Apr.14.2003 at 11:19 AM
Josh Dura’s comment is:

This looks great. A lot more organized, and much easier to understand than the previous incarnation. Great work!

On Apr.14.2003 at 11:19 AM
Kevin Lo’s comment is:

Very, very nice work armin. Really love the WordIts along with everything else. Beautiful work.

On Apr.14.2003 at 11:56 AM
Su’s comment is:

Borders are all better now, in case you're messing with stuff right this moment. That, or it was my browser cache. Yay.

On Apr.14.2003 at 12:10 PM
Sam’s comment is:

What the?! That lady--she's nekkid!!

On Apr.14.2003 at 01:15 PM
Arturo’s comment is:

In one word GREAT, very good job Armin.

Word It section is really cool.

�Felicidades!

On Apr.14.2003 at 02:59 PM
Grant Hutchinson’s comment is:

Easy on the eyes. I like the simple, subtle improvements. My only complaint is that I'm still getting "invalid character" JScript errors in Mac IE5. Specifically, it's choking on the following tracking code which happens to sit outside of the <html> tag... (but that's another issue altogether).

<script src="/__utm.js"></script>

<script src="/__utm.gif"></script>

I suppose I could turn off script error warnings, but then...

On Apr.14.2003 at 04:14 PM
Jose Luis ’s comment is:

Armincito

Eres la neta, siguele echando ganas! se ve muy bien, te deseo lo mejor

On Apr.14.2003 at 04:15 PM
Armin’s comment is:

THANK YOU EVERYBODY!!!! for your nice comments and the techie feedback. I'll try to address some of this damn technicalities as soon as possible.

And to all those that have submitted Word Its I'll put up a new batch soon. They are all looking extra nice.

> What the?! That lady--she's nekkid!!

Yes! Very.

On Apr.14.2003 at 04:33 PM
armin’s comment is:

>My only complaint is that I'm still getting "invalid character" JScript errors in Mac IE5

That one was freaking me out. I already figured it out and have fixed it in this section. See what I got myself into? Now I need to fix 5 more sections... I need to get me some interns or somethin'.

On Apr.14.2003 at 05:15 PM
Don Clark’s comment is:

Armin, still my favorite design site on the planet. Great job. I am proud to be involved.

On Apr.15.2003 at 12:41 AM
Justin’s comment is:

Crap! Not often surprised like this. Still a gem. A bit shinier now, though!

Maybe an issue: the 'design help' (great idea) menus have a high screwiness factor. Appeared as below until switching to a designer-small. Very not-technical, I know.

On Apr.15.2003 at 01:59 AM
jonsel’s comment is:

Now that there are many sections to peruse, it might be nice if you added something on the home page to indicate when there's a new post in each section. I have no idea how difficult this is, so don't throw things at me. I'm all print, baby.

On Apr.15.2003 at 12:46 PM
armin’s comment is:

And would you like some caviar with that Monsieur?

I'm kidding. It might be a little complicated, but it's not a bad idea at all. I'll look into it.

On Apr.15.2003 at 12:57 PM
Sam’s comment is:

This may not seem related to Speak Up, but last night I dreamt that I worked for Coudal Partners, and Jim Coudal turned out to be a woman. It's true. I think all the changes in Speak Up invaded my subconscious. dreaming about blogging--how bad is that?

On Apr.15.2003 at 02:59 PM
Nick Finck’s comment is:

What a hotty! Hey guys, I just wanted to tell you how beautiful the site looks and how happy I am to see it progressing. It's a wonderful thing you guys are doing here, not just for the sake of design, but for the sake of the community. Keep it up, never get discouraged and remember, you are an inspiration to the rest of us.

On Apr.15.2003 at 03:45 PM
anthony’s comment is:

Thanks for all your hard work, it is definitely appreciated, and a daily diversion, from all things work.

On Apr.16.2003 at 12:27 AM
armin’s comment is:

Opinions please.

What do you guys and gals think of the new submenu, below the main menu? Too long? Not long at all? Helpful?

Thanks!

On Apr.16.2003 at 03:06 PM
Armin’s comment is:

>Opinions please.

Never mind. It's not working properly. Back to the drawing board.

I hate clichés.

On Apr.16.2003 at 09:06 PM
Corey’s comment is:

I wanted to comment on this earlier (and comment on the ethics thread), but have been up to my gills in work.

I think the site looks lovely - aesthetically pleasing, functional, easy to navigate and loads fast. What most websites only hope for.

Good job.

On Apr.17.2003 at 11:27 AM
Jose’s comment is:

I would like to commend Armin and all those who helped for a job well done.

On Apr.17.2003 at 12:34 PM
armin’s comment is:

Thanks again so much for all the support and lovely comments. They sure make up for all the hard work.

I'll be a little out of touch the rest of the week, as I'm in Toronto. But don't worry I'm still with you all.

On Apr.17.2003 at 01:29 PM