Re: Where I’m at on the whole CSS-Tricks thing
Published March 2, 2024
Update 2024-03-04: I found out today that on March 1st the CEO of DigitalOcean posted (1, 2) that he met with Chris Coyier and they are “find[ing] a path forward to bring CSS-Tricks back” that “hopefully includes Chris Coyier in some capacity.”
Re: Chris Coyier’s recent post where he gives a 2-year post-mortem on selling CSS-Tricks and some behinds the scenes details & thoughts: https://chriscoyier.net/2024/02/28/where-im-at-on-the-whole-css-tricks-thing/
I got published on CSS-Tricks about 2 years ago, right after the acquisition happened. In fact, it was during the editing loop that I caught wind of the pending acquisition. It delayed the process by several weeks, but hey, I guess I got paid slightly more from DigitalOcean.
Initially, I was skeptical but optimistic. DO’s content is generally pretty high quality and I agree with Chris that they had strong backend & devops-y content but were lacking on the frontend. I did miss the detail where they kept Geoff on—he was great to work with during the editing process.
For the first 6+ months it all seemed well. I even attended an AMA with Chris Coyier hosted by Blogging for Devs in November 2022. I distinctly remember the WiFi being abysmal in the Ann Arbor, MI cafe I was at, but the overall tone & vibe was positive. Fast forward a couple months, and I guess DO axed the team supporting CSS-Tricks, including Geoff.
I was surprised to read the details of how Chris attempted to get CSS-Tricks back. I particularly like the framing of getting DO’s brand fixed e.g. getting ’em on the list of deploy guides for Astro. Ultimately, I’m not particularly surprised DO wasn’t game with plan but still bummed. But hey, as Chris says, if you wanna learn about passkeys then CSS-Tricks is the place. :)
I was slightly surprised that there was no mention of Frontend Masters’ Boost publication which Chris Coyier is directly responsible for running along with collaboration with the fine folks at Frontend Masters. To me, it feels like the spiritual successor. I’m hoping to write for them in the future. Maybe you could too?