Our community is the heart and soul of SitePoint. Here’s a quick roundup of what’s been happening in our community over the last little while.
In Memory of Dan Schulz
We were very sad and shocked to learn that a well-loved SitePoint Forums member, Dan Schulz, passed away suddenly last week. Dan was a member of our community for a long time, and his posts helped all kinds of people. He won several community awards, including our Member of the Year award in 2007, and was an Advisor in the Design forum.
You can read more about what happened, and see some of the reactions to this news, in this special announcement. The outpouring of responses are a testament to just how much we love and miss him already.
This Month’s Community Crier
The Community Crier is SitePoint’s monthly newsletter of what’s happening around our community, and Issue #164 landed in our subscribers’ inboxes on Wednesday. It was also my first issue as Crier editor, taking over the reins from Linda Jenkinson. Linda, you’ve done a great job, and thanks for your hard work in the past!
Unfortunately, I already need to issue a correction. In the introduction, I’d mentioned our fearless Forum Administrator, Sarah, like so:
…you may have seen me running around there wearing a shiny new red Administrator’s badge, along with Sarah Taylor.
This should have read Sarah Large — Sarah Hawk Taylor is actually our equally fearless support ninja. I’m very sorry for the mistake and apologise to all readers — especially to the two Sarahs!
Subscribing to the Crier and our other newsletters is super easy and takes just a few minutes. We don’t share your email address, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Check them out!
Facebook Fans Build Neat Stuff
Our Facebook page has over 1800 fans — designers, developers, bloggers, and entrepreneurs, all working hard on their respective projects. We put a shoutout to our Facebook pals to see what they were working on. If you’re not a fan yet, come and check us out!
On the Blogs
SitePoint readers have heaps to say about all kinds of things! Here’s a roundup of some of the more interesting discussions:
- The hottest debate by far this week was Dmitry Baranovskiy’s scathing critique of Google’s Closure library. Hot air or legitimate problems?
- There’s lots to worry about where the Eolas Ajax patent is concerned — or is there? See what readers think.
- Sean collected heaps of great shopping cart solutions, with some more solutions, tips, and tricks offered by our readers.
- There’s some mixed feelings about the EU’s investigation of Oracle’s Sun takeover bid. Does Oracle’s takeover spell doom for MySQL, or will the project continue as normal? And what about forks?
Happy birthday, SitePoint Podcast!
Episode #36 of the SitePoint Podcast marks one year since the podcast began. If you’ve yet to subscribe, you’re missing out on heaps of great interviews, reviews, and tips. Come and wish them a happy birthday over in the forums, or why not leave them a note in the episode’s comments?
In the Forums
Whatever you’re working on, there’s a place for it at the SitePoint forums. Here are some of the interesting threads that have popped up over the last few days.
- We’re lucky to have oodles of options for content management. What’s your favourite CMS?
- How would you go about presenting an offline portfolio?
- Popular and busy sites shouldn’t have performance bottlenecks. What are some of the techniques we can use for busy web sites?
- What are some of the reasons you might choose PHP over ASP.NET, or vice versa?
- We all know some people browse without JavaScript on, but what are some of the reasons you might do so?
- Business administration degrees — do you have one? Is it worth it?
- How do you feel about the ethics of copyright circumvention?
That’s it for now — I hope you’ve enjoyed this taste of what’s been happening around the SitePoint community!
Pic by lusi
Raena Jackson ArmitageRaena Jackson Armitage is an Australian web developer with a background in content management, public speaking, and training. When she is not thinking about the Web, she loves knitting, gaming, all-day breakfasts, and cycling.
