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by louniks 4613 days ago
"We’ve re-built that thing from the ground up almost half-a-dozen times over the past few years."

Surely that's not a good thing. Surely.
2 comments
nathanperetic 4613 days ago
Mostly front-end and design. We started on Big Cartel, then switched to Shopify. Original site wasn't responsive because it was from 2010. Built the first responsive version, badly, in January 2012 then re-design and re-built it in September 2012 to make better use of the space on big screens and improve performance.

Here's a thing from when we launched on Big Cartel: http://www.fullstopinteractive.com/blog/2010/05/big-cartel-r...

Here's a thing from when we switched to Shopify: http://blog.unitedpixelworkers.com/2012/03/13/why-shopify

Here's a thing from when we tried to make amends for some of our initial responsive sins: http://blog.unitedpixelworkers.com/2012/09/19/introducing-un...

Unfortunately that's about all I've written regarding the technical changes to the site over the years. It might have been a bit clearer if I had said re-designed and re-engineered the front-end if slightly less pithy. Hope that makes more sense.

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manmal 4613 days ago
What do you mean? I don't grasp your intention. Rebuilding from scratch is not always bad. While Joel (on Software) said that it's the worst idea ever, there surely are situations where it makes sense. E.g. if your codebase is so rotten (from too many quick fixes on the initial MVP) that it's quicker to just rinse and repeat.
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louniks 4613 days ago
If situations where it makes sense to do a full rebuild come up 6 times in the space of a few years, to me that indicates a deeper problem.
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mrzor 4613 days ago
As they were previously running client jobs, I can see an attractive side to building up the team experience on new tech using their in-house project rather than on client projects.

Put otherwise, in their previous line of business, it matters to be current with regards to state-of-the-art application development. Where's the harm in experimenting with your 'on the side' app?

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nathanperetic 4613 days ago
Exactly. Pixelworkers was always a playground for us. Cotton Bureau was explicitly started with the intention of it becoming a business.
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jtbigwoo 4613 days ago
It might be more an exercise in keeping current on new technologies rather than fixing a broken codebase. I have friends who keep rebuilding the same hobby site as different technologies pop up. It sounds as if they treated it as a side project previously.
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logn 4613 days ago
With all the SDKs and APIs these days, I don't think a rewrite is what it used to be.
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