An open letter from Stanton
First and foremost, I'd like to offer an unreserved apology to everyone who's reading this, everyone who continues to visit this site even though it's been neglected for the past year.
As you can probably see, the *new and improved* design I gave the site has been binned, and the 'good old design' is back, I've always been a proponent of the 'If it ain't broke...' philosophy but failed to take my own advice when it came to this site, I've always suffered from a constant desire to try new things and over the past 9 years when web design and development was a mere hobby, Homeofmuppets was my main creative outlet, it was my drawing board, my playground, a place where I could experiment with new things and hone my skills as a web developer. Normally that's a great thing, but when you're also trying to build and maintain a community, change can also be a bad thing.
When I finally landed a full-time gig as a web developer, I'd take a look under the hood of this site and the 6 years of spaghetti code it contained and I felt embarrased. The sheer mess of code on which this site ran made me feel amateurish (as indeed it was built by an amateur) and it didn't reflect my current skills as a web designer and developer, I felt that any potential employer taking a look under the bonnet would recoil in horror and think that the code I wrote 6 years ago would reflect my current ability.
What I failed to keep in mind is that the most important thing on Homeofmuppets is you, the small but loyal group of friends who I've had the pleasure to interact with, and watch interact with each other. The people who I've travelled the world to meet and had sleep on my floor on occasions, times when we crammed into a tiny car and drove 10 hours to celebrate a birthday, got drunk in a log cabin in the middle of the snowy Norwegian wilderness, soaking wet at the foot of Niagara Falls, and far too close and personal with a drag queen in New York City, What does it matter if the code I've written looks ugly when people can share their lives with each other in this way and make memories that will last a lifetime.
I always felt like Facebook would mean the end of this site, indeed many of you interact over on there, but even though it's an absolutely perfect site to interact with friends on, it's always felt too impersonal, too public, and recently I've yearned for 'the little corner of the net' which we used to have. I feel a new-found determination not to squander the opportunity of maintaining a permanent home for us even if bigger and better places do exist. I wonder if any of you feel the same?
So I'm writing to ask if you can accept my apology, The site will be back, and it'll work properly this time! I feel like I abandoned you all, or at least alienated you with my desire to live up-to sites like Facebook, or use HoM as a showcase of my abilities. I want the good times back, and more than that, I want our little corner of the net to be as good as it once was! Some of you might have noticed that Homeofmusic finally died, I'd hate for that to happen here, we go way back, you and me, and I love ya!
Stanton