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Making A Better…
Written by Scrivs on October 3, 2007
You hear the phrase “someone needs to make a better…” or “we just created a better…” many times on the web today. Maybe someone is set on making a better Digg or a better Google. With every new version of 9rules we set out to make a better 9rules than one before. How well we succeed each iteration is up to the users, some like the new stuff, some prefer the old stuff. Either way, each version of 9rules has improvements and offers a small change in direction.
The next version of 9rules is no different. Except that Ali2 is the first 9rules that I can remember that took longer than six weeks to develop. We have been working on it since April and what is interesting about it isn’t that we needed to work night and day to code and design it, but every time we reached a finished product we took a step back and figured we could do better. So we went back to the drawing board and continued to improve upon it.
Internally we kept on setting deadlines for when we figured we would launch and every time we reached that date we weren’t satisfied with what we were left with. However, each internal launch date we could have made the site live and it would have been better than the current site you see now, but that wasn’t good enough for us. I can’t say what the difference is with this version versus prior ones, but our mentality has seemed to change with it. There is a drive behind Ali2 that wasn’t present with previous editions of 9rules.
We have literally tweaked the design and how things work 5-10x over and after the 10th time looked at it to see if we were happy. It wasn’t about being satisfied with what we did, but we wanted to be happy and satisfied. If one of us didn’t like something about a page we made sure to let the others know about it and we tried to fine tune it. Doing this across three different states wasn’t always easy, but we got it done and next week we can’t wait to show the world what we have worked so hard on.
Ali2 launches on October 9th so be sure to pull up a chair because we are making a better everything.
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:38 pm
I know you guys have worked very hard and I am sure the finished product will be great. Now maybe you can get back to training your brother in soccer some.
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Can’t wait to see the new changes fellas. I just added the date to my calendar. Keep up the great work!
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Do you guys ever get nervous about how the community will take big changes to the site?
October 3rd, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I am looking forward to seeing what big changes you have up your sleeves. I’m sure they are all great.
October 3rd, 2007 at 4:54 pm
@JPhill: Every waking second of the day my friend. Actually when we are developing the stuff we get excited and of course think it is the greatest idea in the world, then around launch time we get nervous or at least I do.
October 3rd, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Nothing wrong with a little extra hype, right?
Good luck with the launch and final delivery of the ever-changing all-singing, all-dancing Ali 2.0. Whilst there is obviously a ton of work being poured into it (must be given 6+ months have passed) it’s really starting to sound a bit like Duke Nukem Forever.
I’m sure it will be worth the hype and wait.
October 3rd, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Oct 9! Can’t wait to see it!
October 4th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Aiming for (near) perfection is always a good thing. Of course, with every project there comes a time when you have to launch; I suppose you guys feel that very acutely now. The bonus, in the end, is that your audience can never say you didn’t try hard enough and odds are they will indeed like it. It’s gonna be great; I’m convinced of that. Counting down!
October 4th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
It’s good to not settle. I applaud you guys for not doing so. How special it must be to see your final revision go live!
October 5th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
I’ll be there at launch time.
Probably (as usual) a bit before.
Let’s hope your servers can handle the load.
Looking forward to seeing what you guys cooked up. If all my guesses are correct, you’re gonna be out of that coral with guns blazin’. I also have the feeling that a whole bunch of people need to take cover.
Cya then …
October 7th, 2007 at 3:49 am
Change can be good. Change can be for changes sake. Different doesn’t necessarily make it better. But change is always happening as nothing stays the same…..maybe that’s evolution. Looking forward to seeing how we’ve evolved…