
Be a JavaScript Rockstar (jQuery site redesign) - danw
http://jquery.com/#
======
sutro
I've been touring the world lately, doing huge amounts of drugs, destroying
hotel rooms, having sex with random hordes of hot women, and making giant
piles of money. Given that lifestyle description, I think it's pretty obvious
what I do for a living, but in case you're still wondering: I'm a JavaScript
Rockstar. And yes, I use jQuery.

Excuse me, I have to go have more sex.

~~~
WilliamLP
I just drink Rockstar(tm) energy drink. And wonder why the fuck my JS doesn't
work on IE 6.

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goodkarma
Dude, it's just a javascript library. And a pretty damn good one.

I think you guys might be a little too uptight..

~~~
shabda
Try telling that to clients!

> And a pretty damn good one.

And thats why I want to use it, and would hate to use say, prototype, just
because the clients thought Jquery was immature.

~~~
invisible
> [I] would hate to use say, prototype

Haha? Joke, right?

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ionfish
How absolutely ghastly. I'm not sure which I hate more: the copy, the style or
the illustration.

~~~
Xichekolas
Yeah, this is what I wish it looked like:
<http://img397.imageshack.us/my.php?image=testscreenna8.jpg>

~~~
whatusername
It does look like that doesn't it? What am I missing?

~~~
Xichekolas
Well, for about a day it looked like the screenshot here:

[http://ajaxian.com/archives/jquerycom-redesigned-with-a-
rock...](http://ajaxian.com/archives/jquerycom-redesigned-with-a-rock-star)

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pistoriusp
Shockingly disgusting... I'm incredibly embarrassed, imagine trying to
convince your boss that you should be using jQuery.

~~~
goodkarma
With a list of "who's using jQuery" that includes Google, Bank of America,
Dell, CBS, NBC, Netflix.. your boss might not be the sharpest tool in the shed
if "be a javascript rock star" bothers them..

~~~
gaius
What does that _actually_ mean, tho'? That they're running mission-critical
apps on it? Or that some third party ad agency they subcontracted something to
happened to use it on one project? Or something in between?

I'm always suspicious of client rosters like that because in a big enough
company, pretty much _everything_ is being used in one way or another, even if
it's only for someone's pet project. It doesn't mean a thing.

~~~
seano
It's not hard to find out, go to the app, click view source and search for a
jquery import. I just checked dell.com and they are using it on the front
page.

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HansF
If the jQuery people, who produce this great framework at no cost AND under an
open source licence, want to put flashing yellow polka dots in a marquee tag
on their site, then that's fine with me.

If this disturbs you so much, then you have two options: don't use it or fork
it. They won't loose a penny by you doing so.

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gigawatt
I had to check the URL to make sure it didn't end in /thisisajoke. I guess if
you got rid of the illustration banner it wouldn't be that bad. Whose idea was
it to use My Chemical Romance to market jQuery?

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ericwaller
The worst part is the docs, they've become significantly less readable, and
the content doesn't start until much farther down the page.

~~~
Xichekolas
They seem just as readable to me color/font-wise, but the width of the content
definitely bothers me.

I realize there is a maximum width the human eye can easily read, but the docs
seem much narrower than before, and over half my browser window is wasted with
empty space to the left and right.

As for the design itself, I enjoy project sites with a familiar style, but
this looks like something out of a commercial for Fruit Roll-ups or something.
Very appealing to a 10-year-old I'm sure, but kind of garish.

Oh well, at least jQuery itself is still great. That's all that really matters
anyway.

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pius
Oh, the melodrama.

Well, I love it. Sure, the "rock star" thing is a little edgy and not to
everyone's taste, but with the comments here, you'd think the design were
truly bad. It's not.

It's worthwhile to distinguish between designs that are not to your aesthetic
and designs that are poorly executed.

~~~
jraines
It's not edgy, it's already old and stale.

~~~
jamesbritt
"It's not edgy, it's already old and stale."

Thank you. "Rock star" and "guru" make me think of the clueless IT recruiter
who's looking for people with JAVA and PERL skills or 10 years of Rails.

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iuguy
The problem I find with illustrations of that size and in that position on the
page is that I have to scroll down before I get to anything meaningful. By the
time I've reached any content the website has already frustrated me as a
browser.

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carlos
Against most opinions I love it.

Why do code/opensource/... sites had such a serious designs?. I think JQuery
site design is great, it will take a while to get used to it but surely others
will follow.

(In any case, what we have to really care is about the library itself)

~~~
mtoledo
I also loved. I didn't expect it would have such bad reception.

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truebosko
The site re-design makes jQuery look more complete, like an actual product
that is ready to be used and I think that's what they were aiming for.

The rockstar thing, kind of lame but I'm sure you guys can live. (Especailly
with the links to Google, IBM, etc right under it)

~~~
tdupree
I agree, it looks more like an actual product, more polished and professional.
People need to lighten up a little bit. Rock Star aside, I think the site
looks pretty nice.

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river_styx
I'm shocked. Really. It's breathtakingly awful. And as I asked in the Scribd
thread below, why, oh why, would you put resources into creating this
abomination rather than into improving and expanding the framework itself?

edit: On second look, it would be dramatically improved if the "rock star"
conceit were replaced with something more professional.

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jfarmer
Rockstars and Ninjas need to die.

~~~
dmose
1 for 2

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ii
Nice. This whole "Rock star" thing looks to be here only to generate a lot of
buzz. I bet they will change it in a week.

~~~
ii
I should have said "in a few hours", lol.

[http://jquery.com/blog/2008/08/29/death-to-javascript-
rock-s...](http://jquery.com/blog/2008/08/29/death-to-javascript-rock-stars/)

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pmsaue0
This was the alternative:
<http://flickr.com/photos/psauerbeck/2809426844/sizes/o/>

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louislouis
Love the design, the rockstar toon is badass. Certainly doesn't tie in with
the geeky/professional stereotype designs these frameworks are subjected to,
but fuck it, who says the site needs to look square.

Too bad their 'documentation page' is wrecked on IE7. They could also improve
on the page load times.

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ionfish
They seem to have removed the banner.

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daleharvey
on the front page, press up up down down left right left right b a nice

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jimbokun
I've been learning Prototype, just because I'm working on code that already
uses it.

Anyone have a Cliff's notes of the key differences between jQuery and
Prototype?

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adilsaleem
I think jquery site now looks different from all other javascript
frameworks...If I was a new comer, I would immediately prefer jquery over
other frameworks

~~~
pistoriusp
Because the site looks different?

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neovive
As long as the library is solid, the docs are complete and the tutorials and
demos are great, it doesn't really matter what the site looks like.

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iamah
I love to play with JS and greasemonkey, and etc.. but sometimes it seems it's
an underrated language

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jamesbritt
But I don't want to be a rock star.

I want to be a postrock star.

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ia
questionable design aside, i'm just happy the documentation is back up and
loading quickly. without that, i don't know if i'd ever be able to achieve
javascript rockstardom.

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dpatru
Dignity is deadly.

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hs
i prefer ninja, but then u won't see anything

