Coming soon: a way to completely customize your Posterous theme

Hundreds of thousands of people have found Posterous to be the smartest and easiest way to blog. I switched a couple years ago after becoming frustrated with the hassles of maintaining a self-hosted Wordpress blog.

While people love Posterous, a pain point has been theme choices and customization. While Posterous has been busy beefing up the selection of themes (see here and here), I am constantly asked questions like "How do I change the date format of my posts?" to "How can I upload my own background image?" and "How can I add my Twitter feed?" Up until now, these changes have required digging into code. But not anymore.

Today, I'd like to present my solution: My own easy-to-use theme editor with a bajillion options that will let you tweak the heck out of your theme without dealing with any code. Oh, and it will be free! =]

This editor is a perfect complement to the built-in theme editor provided by Posterous. And with new changes Posterous has made for developers, you can install these themes in one simple click, without having to copy and paste code whatsoever.

Oh, and along with this editor will be coming a whole slew of new themes, both free and premium.

Over time, all of themes I've ever built will be offered through my new editor. While I'm busy putting the final touches on the system, you can sign up to be the first to find out when I launch. Sign up for updates at http://themes.posterous.com or follow me on Twitter.

Haters gonna hate

Last night, I was @replied by someone on Twitter asking for my email address.

A few hours later, I received a forwarded email thread. As it turns out, my recent post about Apple.com vs Microsoft.com homepages was the topic of debate. This guy and a group of his friends had been analyzing my post and ripping it apart. Along with a couple valid points came a lot of hate because they thought I was an Apple fanboy (which I'm not). Here are a select few of the quotes from different people in the thread:

He doesn't even raise a single valid point.  Nothing he says is backed up by any reasonable evidence. Everything little thing he says basically screams "I'm a f***ing idiot. I don't get any of this."  If he's trying to make any coherent thoughts, valid points, or striking debate, he's absolutely failed in every way imaginable. I'd be floored if this guy had ANY experience in web design, front or backend work.

The fact that this poor dope couldn't debate his way out of a wet paper bag, or construct a tangable thought and effectively convey it to sway opinion, I have to say he appears to simply be another uninformed apple fanboy trying incredibly too hard to bitch about the big guys.

There is so much more I could have ranted about with what this dips*** said. I could have delved in depth about design process, the backend of why things are done a particular way in web design, etc, etc. This guy is a troll in a way. I think he really does stand behind his ideas and opinions, no matter how slanted and ignorant they are. 

Somewhere down the road, only having one mouse button to lick must have made cognitive thought / basic problem solving skills go right out the f***ing window with this dumb sap.

I certainly don't credit him as some kind of intellectual duelist, hell, I'm no debater myself, but as far as making a point and swaying opinion go, it looks like he barely got his out without causing his Macbook Air to go up in flames from the amount of drool that likely seeped out of his slack jawed mouth while typing this mindless heap of s***.

And then one of them suggested sending the thread to me, to which one replied:

I hope you do, that dumb f*** needs some help.

I remember seeing this kind of pointless hate when I use to hang out in digital video newsgroups back in high school. People would rag on others for no reason. I've never understood the mindset or the insecurity (possibly?) of those who have nothing better to do than to type long responses with mostly four letter words to others. Note that there is a difference between constructive criticism and ranting, and just general, pointless hate and running of the mouth. You don't see this kind of behavior in face to face confrontations, and I don't see why there has ever been a point to it online.

And that's one of the things I love about the Posterous community as a whole. About 99.9% of the people on Posterous are genuinely nice people, and a joy to interact with. So if you're part of that 99.9%, I'd just like to say thanks. It's been fun getting to know some of you over the past year, and I look forward to interacting with more of you in the future.

Homepages: Apple.com vs Microsoft.com, and why Microsoft has an image problem

In today's lesson about how NOT to design a homepage, we're going to focus on Microsoft.com.

First, go to http://apple.com. Nice, huh? Alright, now compared that to http://microsoft.com.

Now let's note some key differences:
  • Apple.com looks like it was made in 2009. Microsoft looks like it was made in 1999.
  • Apple.com is sleek. Microsoft.com is...very blue and cheesy.
  • Apple uses little color, which can be a detractor. Microsoft uses way too much color.
  • Apple's navigation highlights several core products. Microsoft tries to cover everything in the kitchen sink.
  • Apple features a single product, while Microsoft tries to promote three.
  • Apple has four small boxes to promote different things at the bottom of their homepage. Microsoft throws in random links and lists to fill up space. Oh, and a random ad.

Companies pay big bucks for usability and design reviews. But because I'm such a nice guy, I'm going to review Microsoft's homepage for them for free.

(Having trouble reading my notes? At the bottom of the image, click Download full size.)

I point all this out because I am a big fan of Microsoft. Everyday, more and more people switch their allegiance to Apple, simply because "they get it." While Microsoft makes some good products, they certainly don't go out of their way to prove it.

When I visit Microsoft.com, I should be greeted by the latest and greatest, not some website clearly assembled by a marketing department to "cover all the bases." This homepage serves no purpose, other than to make sure that everybody within Microsoft is happy that they got their little share of the homepage.

Microsoft needs a leader who can communicate with the world that they are still relevant. This homepage certainly doesn't do the company any justice.