Hiatus Schmiatus
[I promised myself to never apologize for not posting since it inevitably leads to never-ending pleading for mercy. I’m so sorry.]
The reason for the hiatus has been a part of my personal reconciliation with the This Day in Type main site. It has been a success by being a place for people to contribute and experiment with type, but it has been a failure by not generating a wider audience or creating an impact on design as a whole. I think the main reason for this failure is my own inexperience in generating deep and cohesive web sites. I can picture in my mind or in Illustrator how to solve many of the problems with the site, but I can’t fix them myself due to a lack of webdev training or money to throw at the problem.
As of today, I am going to put the main site into deep freeze (while still allowing everyone to access everything that has already been published). It has been fun to try this, and I want to thank all the people who posted artwork. It was always great to open up my inbox and see what people were making! The whole experience makes me want to improve my own skills and come back to this project or new ideas in the future.
The potential renaissance of the site (as I see it) would be closer to something like Screenalicious, with easy access to voting, commenting, alternate artwork and would include dynamic updating. The calendar would integrate into the page, and whole site would be more accessible and easy to navigate. If anyone out there wants to collaborate in developing such a piece of work, email me! I don’t want to kill the site, but I don’t want it to limp along either.
September 12th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
As someone who has dutifully downloaded an image to be the day’s desktop nearly every single day since the site has been up, I’m disappointed. I kinda want to say to give it a little more time, at least a year, for it to start building momentum. That said, I’m really looking forward to the next incarnation of This Day In Type.
September 12th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I just found you last week…Best wishes and hope to see you later.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Love what you have done with This day in Type. It was always fun to come by and see what people have done on a daily basis. It’s a great concept that I hope that you’ll continue in the future!
September 13th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I agree with Brad that it may just need some more time. Every website can’t boom overnight.
Really wish I could help you, but I also lack the webdev skills. Hoping someone out there can help, and look forward to seeing TDIT again in the future.
September 13th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Hey, thanks for the words of encouragement everybody. I wanted to respond to the “too soon” comments because I think they are a valid reaction. I didn’t expect to end this so early either: my stats were showing that I was getting pretty good rates of fresh faces near the beginning. Unfortunately, there was a huge drop-off in return visits to the point that my audience was only in the double digits near the end. That just wasn’t enough to get submissions. I had to interpret the numbers to mean that the concept was strong enough to get some interest, but that the site itself wasn’t engaging people.
September 21st, 2007 at 5:51 am
I also just discovered your site due to your mention in the current issue of PRINT magazine. I imagine that has the potential to bring more traffic to the site. I also have been pointing my students to the site. Good luck and please come back soon!
September 27th, 2007 at 11:33 am
I must add my 2 cents to these. I loved the site, contributed when I could and activly participated. I too look forward to what’s next. All the best.
DC
October 7th, 2007 at 6:34 am
I just found the site today (oct 7/2007). Love it.
Agree that a year of doing it would likely be needed to start to build up some momentum.
Hope you get it going again!
March 8th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Still on hiatus?