Ten years of the big Z!
May 31, 2005 7:26 PM   Subscribe

Jeffrey Zeldman's site is now a decade old!
posted by riffola (22 comments total)
 
On a related note 0sil8 is 9 years old today.
posted by riffola at 7:30 PM on May 31, 2005


*crickets*
posted by quonsar at 7:42 PM on May 31, 2005


And thus the circle-jerk continues.
posted by docgonzo at 7:45 PM on May 31, 2005


Eh if you don't like it, not my problem, I feel this belongs here since it was something mentioned back in the early days of MetaFilter too.
posted by riffola at 7:48 PM on May 31, 2005


I wrote him a nice note on the post, but I'll repeat the sentiment here: Zeldman was one of the only guys out there sharing what he learned online back then, and I always respected him for that. He found workaround and hacks to just about every limitation that Netscape 2, 3, and 4 (and IE 3, and 4) presented, with code examples. I learned a great deal and have always enjoyed his work.

I distinctly remember reading his nightly updates page and thinking how insane it was that every night, this guy could update info on 2 or 3 pages of his massive site. What with all the pain of hand coding, testing pages, then FTPing them one by one, it totally astounded me that some guy would go through all the trouble of updating on a daily basis, while the most I could muster was once a month or two.

And now we're all blogging, posting a ton every few hours.
posted by mathowie at 7:56 PM on May 31, 2005


Mmmm, boy! Best 'o' the web!
posted by buriednexttoyou at 7:56 PM on May 31, 2005


It is appropriate for MetaFilter -- but that says as much about the occasional navel-gazing of MeFi as anything else.
posted by docgonzo at 8:04 PM on May 31, 2005


I distinctly remember reading his nightly updates page and thinking how insane it was that every night, this guy could update info on 2 or 3 pages of his massive site... And now we're all blogging, posting a ton every few hours.
The only way I could ever match the output of the Z-man would be with blogging software that reads my brainwaves and translates it into coherant English.

And thus the circle-jerk continues.
It's the Circle of Life, doctorgoodwretch. I'm just glad I'm not buried next to a newbie. And you might try cleaning your navel occasionally...
posted by wendell at 8:07 PM on May 31, 2005


He's just now hitting ten years? What a n00b.
posted by keswick at 8:26 PM on May 31, 2005


Like what, Wendell? Writing eyeglazers on Everybody loves Raymond?
posted by docgonzo at 8:52 PM on May 31, 2005


I haven't been to his site in a long time but I appreciated his knowledge back in the day. The first blog I had was in 1995/6 and it used some of Zeldman's free icons. I remember there was a tiny skull, and Betty Page, and Brando... (I sucked at making my own so really appreciated him offering them up for free.) The site won a few awards and one of the prizes was a Softride mountain bike. I was thrilled. I wrote Jeffrey to thank him and he wrote back right away with a "Congrats" letter. Seems a lot longer ago than a decade ago.
posted by dobbs at 9:17 PM on May 31, 2005


dobbs, it's not just "back in the day."

JZ was instrumental in founding the Web Standards Project. That wasn't all that long ago and their work has been, at least partially, responsible for the way sites are being built today. You think it was easy to get rid of tables?

Accessibility, validation and compliance were little more than buzzwords five years ago... now they are standards. The result is that the sites we depend on, more and more everyday, work better in more environments than ever before.

docgonzo, it's not a "circle-jerk". It's giving props to one of the people who made the sites you read every day possible.
posted by cedar at 9:45 PM on May 31, 2005


I was using "back in the day" to mean when I visited his site, not when he was (most) useful. I'm aware of his more recent accomplishments and, yes, they're nothing to sneeze at.
posted by dobbs at 9:51 PM on May 31, 2005


Respect.
posted by 27 at 9:51 PM on May 31, 2005


It's also worth mentioning that he is one of us.
posted by cedar at 10:03 PM on May 31, 2005


nothing but love for zeldman. he helped me get started in web design, at the age of 15 i suppose.
posted by puke & cry at 10:07 PM on May 31, 2005


I'm just glad I'm not buried next to a newbie.

Hey, Zeldman's great, I love my copy of "Designing with Web Standards," but this post could have used a little more meat. Celebrating ten years deserves more than one link.

I would love to see that Batman Forever site...
posted by buriednexttoyou at 10:20 PM on May 31, 2005


Having met with Jeffrey while visiting New York, I can say he is without a doubt one of the nicest people on the planet.

Many have learned a ton from his efforts and as his site is 10 years old he deserves all accolades which come his way.

Zeldman is a class act.
posted by bwg at 11:06 PM on May 31, 2005


I would love to see that Batman Forever site...

Well, there's the 1997 version...
posted by Katemonkey at 1:57 AM on June 1, 2005


Damn, that is a long time to be online. Testament.
posted by sciurus at 4:50 AM on June 1, 2005


The FPP made me realize I've been Web surfing for eleven years now. That's longer than my son has been alive. Probably pretty banal to the rest of you, but I'm still surprised at how new the Web seems even after all this time.
posted by alumshubby at 8:37 AM on June 1, 2005


we named our '72 orange beetle after him.
posted by whatnot at 8:56 AM on June 1, 2005


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