Quantcast Why Is My Blog So Ugly? - Anil Dash

Why Is My Blog So Ugly?

Donnie asks, "But why is your blog soooo damn ugly man?"

And the answer is, because I am a lousy designer. I'll probably be updating the site to use the spiffy new templates in Movable Type 3.2 once it's out.

Related Entries

17 Comments

Hi there Mr. Dash. Personally, your site doesn’t offend my eyes, and to be frank, I’ve seen much worse. I think our boy Donnie is a bit hyperbolic … .

Uhmm…maybe it’s because the way a blog looks is one of the least important attributes of it?

Purple is royalty, keep it.

I also see nothing wrong with the current version. But I mostly read it in a newsreader. If I was expecting a designer site, I might be miffed. I’ve never had that expectation based on the content.

The purple works for ya. The only thing I’d change is maybe the sizes and visited colors of links in the two sidebars. I’ve seen many million times worse man, you’re up there in the pretty-easy-on-the-eye department.

Pretty is good, but for what it’s worth, some people see a personal stake in a design, ugly or no, as possibly more important.

Donnie on the other hand, seems perfectly happy with hacking Bowman’s Minima at FasterSlower, and using a color scheme(And text style. And layout.) that’s distinctly…reminiscent of Garrett Dimon’s at his main site.
And that’s okay, too.

Pretty is good, but for what it’s worth, some people see personal investment in a design, ugly or no, as possibly more important. Donnie on the other hand, seems perfectly happy with hacking Bowman’s Minima at FasterSlower, and using a color scheme(And text style. And layout.) that’s distinctly…reminiscent of Garrett Dimon’s at his main site.
And that’s okay, too.

[Sorry for the repeat. Silly browser apparently tossed its cookies last night]

Yeah, our designs came out around the same time - I can change the color if you would like (to make you feel better). And you’re certainly not the first person to mention the Dimon similiarities - but I don’t mind, I didn’t know Dimon existed up until a month ago. Also, would you like me to appropriate Bowman’s work? Considering it was a template made for Blogger, I thought it would be fine to use (am I wrong?).

And just for the record, I wasn’t being hostile about Anil’s design - just poking a little fun.

Su, I found another person who hacked Bowman’s Minima - LOOK AT THIS! OH THE TRAVESTY! Better send him an email or something.

Purple’s a fav of mine, and your site’s got a LOT going on… keep up the good work !

Okay, I saw that post and wandered over here to see what an ugly blog looks like… and I’ve decided that Donnie doesn’t know jack. Okay, so the color scheme might not be hip, but the format is easy to read & follow, and the typeface is clean. Maybe it’s old, but don’t change for the sake of just changing.

Peace.

I don’t mind the layout… maybe it just needs a new colour layout. As they say purple means sexually frustrated or some such.

Anil, a quick question, how easy is it to transfer current blogger posts publishing via FTP to Moveable Type? I am doing some research before investing with a blogger program. So for MT looks the most appealing.

I am just curious, what does “ugly” mean? For me, nothing wrong with your site (design).

Well, isn’t that interesting? FasterSlower now sells calling cards to Africa. Hm.

Yeah, I temporarily took my blogspot blog down and it looks like someone snatched the domain - too bad for me I guess. Anyway, there are a ton of blogs out there who alter the templates provided by blogger. If you’re going to get mad or upset over a so-called “hack,” I think you have not spent enough time looking at blogspot blogs. There are literally hundreds out there who use Minima and alter it to fit their taste - if you want everyone to appropriate Bowman, then you better start writing some letters. As for my main blog, donniejeter.com - I have no problem with you accusing me of copying, because I didn’t. I had never seen Dimon’s site up until about 3 weeks ago. If anything, my site resembles that of 37signals - which in turn, also seems to look a lot like the Garret’s site. Feel free to email me.

I just think it’s freaking hilarious that this article comes just below your article slamming Google for being ugly.

Now that’s humor.

If the blog is important for you, please take some time to work on it. Nice design creates a special atmosphere, which will be appreciated by your visitors. My best wishes to you and look forward to the update!

Leave a comment

Explore This Site

Recent Comments

  • If I’m ever arrested on COPS I’ll be sure to shout your name, Ronnie Dobbs-style. Maybe ...

    Victor Agreda Jr
    Me and Your Bicycle
  • Thanks very much Anil! Also, you may want to know I also credit you for turning me on to ABBA. Or bl...

  • It’s a bit too much to credit Gates with “accomplishing” the desktop revolution. L...

  • For some reason the feed is coming through with markup errors when syndicated through LiveJournal h...

  • Meh. I knew about this site redesign like four days ago. Congratulations on nine years of being mor...

Recent Entries

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
  Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan
  Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb
  Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar
  Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr
  May May May May May May May May May
  Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun
Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul
Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug
Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep  
Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct  
Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov  
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec  
Close