The Early Bird Gets the Worm
As you may or may not know, I’ve been compiling sites for Web Simple, a gallery of simplicity in web design. The idea was to show screen shots of websites and then allow comments through Moveable Type. Like many other personal projects, I wanted to launch it a long time ago, but I’ve had to postpone it because of other website affiliations and personal projects.
Well a few weeks back, someone named Jarrod Piccioni contacted me and told me about a project he was working on. He was compiling minimalist websites in order to eventually list them on Textbased.com, his website. Since I was working on basically the same thing, I asked him if he had any interest in combining our efforts. I never heard back from him so I assumed he wasn’t interested. Today, via Harrumph, I found that the site had launched and is called the Minimalist Web Project. It’s hosted at Textbased.com, yet another green website. What’s funny is that even though we corresponded about the project, my own “minimalist” website is mysteriously missing from the pack.
So here’s the question: do I
- develop Web Simple as I envisioned it?
- repurpose it but still do something on the topic of simplicity?
- do something completely new and exciting altogether?
What do you think?
Update: Jarrod contacted me today and apologized for our miscommunication. Apparently, he did reply and I somehow never received the email. I apologize for the misunderstanding.
Update #2: The Web Simple project is over.
Comments
I think you should keep going in your original direction. It would be impossible for one site to know of every single simple Web site out there. What you should do on top of that is figure out how to make your project stand out from the rest. Do some research into other projects similar to yours and write down what you like and dislike about them. What would you change? What would you add? Then do that with your project.
By the way… check out my business site at www.mantis-design.com. I’m not sure if it qualifies for a simple site, but I consider it a simple design. I’ve had Kristoffer Bohmann (don’t know if you know of him) give me his feedback on the site and he likes it.
Chris on 11 Jul 02
Joshua Kaufman is considering what to do with his Web Simple project. Someone else has started something similar, and Joshua
TrackBack from chrisruzin.net on 11 Jul 02
Hi Joshua,
Actually, I do remember your e-mail and did reply regarding the partnership you had mentioned. If for any reason you didn’t get it, I do sincerely apologize and would like to rectify the situation as soon as possible, so that we may find a way to work together with our similar projects.
I hope you don’t bear any ill will against me for the missing e-mail, and I have made sure to include your site on the list at the top of the ‘Persona - HTML’ section.where it rightfully belongs.
Again, I do apologize for any misunderstandings here, I hope we can come to a mutually beneficial conclusion.
Hope this reaches you soon,
Jarrod
P.S. I would very much hope that you DO proceed with Web Simple, I would hate to think that one missing e-mail would cause the end of a project that I’m sure you’ve worked very hard on…
Jarrod on 11 Jul 02