I was fortunate to find ALA when I first got into web design in 1998. It has been a most valuable resource and I thank you for that! Here is to another 10 (at least) years of being a leading in the advancement of the web.
I’ve been following ALA since I started in web design and alongside a multitude of great books, ALA has provided an invlauable reference. We are lucky to have this year won the McFarlane Prize for our efforts at best practice and we credit this in no small way to the authors and contributors along the way who not only showed us the way but showed us that it was right and good!
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Muhammad Dahri
I learn a LOT of stuff from ALA, learning, reading and practicing articles about standards and best practices improves my work quality as Front-end Developer greatly.
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Charles Roper
Ah, the good old days. I was on the old list. It was a real buzz getting your message on there. Happy days. This could be a good answer that classic meme, “You know you’re old when… You were on the ALA mailing list”.
Thanks for all of your hard work over the years. I still cite ALA as being my favourite website of all time. It is the very embodiment of style and content. Long may it reign.
I must say that A List Apart has been invaluable throughout my career, ranging from being the webmaster of my middle school all the way up to being a full-time Ruby on Rails developer today!
OK, I think I didn’t start reading until high school, but you get the point.
Also, a tiny typo fix: The name is Damon Clinkscales, not Damon Clinksales.
Congratulations to everyone who made ALA a reality this last decade. I’ve been following the website ever since I started on my road towards web design back in 2003 and it’s been probably the best resource I’ve ever came across.
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david jarvis
Jeremy
I’m not the first and I won’t be the last to congratulate you & the ALA team here.
The ALA site is a beacon of fine, fine writing and laser guided design in a crowded mass of blessays and podgrams (thank you “Stephen Fry”:http://www.stephenfry.com).
Now, having said that… WHAT’S NEXT?
I would like to see you guys reaching out beyond the web-addicted community that clearly frequents these regions. How about touching some of those business leaders that are still – unwittingly – yet to fully digest the concept of Cluetrain almost 10 years down the track?
Here’s to the next 10. I watch and wait with anticipation.
DJ
Thank you for constantly demonstrating that open communication builds communities and relationships. Thanks for always having something valuable to contribute to the discussion. Thanks for helping to bring unity to this wildfire. :)
Congratulations, and thank you so much for creating this site. May you continue to teach and to inspire great web development and design for years to come.
ALA used to be my no.1 place since around 2000 when it came to everything new and actually usable within website design. Now, with a bit of sadness, i find that i visit this site less and less often because many articles just aren’t that good or inventive any more.
Either the articles don’t live in the real world at all or they seem to have been written with the complete newbie in mind OR they actually seem to be written by a newbie in the business that just doesn’t have the skill that we have been used to see here at ALA. Yes – some of the business practices etc. are great and do take some actual skill to both acknowledge and circumvent, but that is only the non-website fluff.
Where did all the inspirational and groundbreaking WEBSITE articles go? :/
It seems ALA has became “FORPEOPLETHATWANT TO LEARNTHEWEBSITEDESIGNBUSINESS” instead of “FORPEOPLEWHOMAKEWEBSITES”.
Bring back the old style. The style that set you APART from every other web site about web design out there. The style that made this a website that always was recommended when asked – the style that you´ve gotten famous for.
Hearty Congratulations to all at ALA. I have been a regular reader since quite some time now. Kudos to your mission of enlightening people on the web about the web!
Keep up the good work!
ALA used to have a great forum. I found it very useful. Then one day it closed. A message informed visitors that it was being remade by waferbaby. I waited and waited. But it never returned. That’s the only sad memory I have of ALA. I wonder what happened.
That’s so long ago! I don’t remember the exact sequence. We had a forum by Evolvs and a forum by Waferbaby. There may have been issues with a migration. Or possibly the forum was lost during the two years that alistapart was temporarily housed at alistapart.zeldman.com due to a mistake by Network Solutions and a grab by a company I won’t name.
I remember the forum working well during the time that Webchick very kindly list mom’d it. She was great (and “still is”:http://webchick.org/). I don’t remember precisely why or how the forum broke or when and why we came to the decision that it was better not to resurrect it. Sorry you miss it! Thanks for all your work over the years, and thanks for reading ALA.
When I took my first web design and seo job in 2000, ALA already seemed like it had been around forever—a testament to the excellent content and great community it had even back then. Keep up the excellent work!
Thanks again for everything that ALA has done over the past 10 years! Knowing that much of your information has been a resource for developers, as a “strategery” person, it has been most helpful in qualifying the importance of approaching projects from the right perspective and how other disciplines relate and can learn from the development path.
Wow, ten years is not a long time and how many changes that amaze me.
I wonder how about ALA site in the next ten years.
“cyclocross veldrijden”:http://www.crosstube.net/
46 Reader Comments
Back to the ArticleJeremy Techtmann
I was fortunate to find ALA when I first got into web design in 1998. It has been a most valuable resource and I thank you for that! Here is to another 10 (at least) years of being a leading in the advancement of the web.
Jorge Mesa
You teach me to say goodbye to table layouts.
Damien Buckley
I’ve been following ALA since I started in web design and alongside a multitude of great books, ALA has provided an invlauable reference. We are lucky to have this year won the McFarlane Prize for our efforts at best practice and we credit this in no small way to the authors and contributors along the way who not only showed us the way but showed us that it was right and good!
Muhammad Dahri
I learn a LOT of stuff from ALA, learning, reading and practicing articles about standards and best practices improves my work quality as Front-end Developer greatly.
Thank you very much and Happy birthday.
Robin Jakobsson
Thank you very much for all your hard work!
Your high quality is showing this medium the respect it deserve.
Charles Roper
Ah, the good old days. I was on the old list. It was a real buzz getting your message on there. Happy days. This could be a good answer that classic meme, “You know you’re old when… You were on the ALA mailing list”.
Thanks for all of your hard work over the years. I still cite ALA as being my favourite website of all time. It is the very embodiment of style and content. Long may it reign.
Grant Hutchins
I must say that A List Apart has been invaluable throughout my career, ranging from being the webmaster of my middle school all the way up to being a full-time Ruby on Rails developer today!
OK, I think I didn’t start reading until high school, but you get the point.
Also, a tiny typo fix: The name is Damon Clinkscales, not Damon Clinksales.
Jeffrey Zeldman
Yike! Fixed. Thanks, Grant. Sorry, Damon.
And thanks, everyone, for the kind words.
Luis Nabais
Congratulations to everyone who made ALA a reality this last decade. I’ve been following the website ever since I started on my road towards web design back in 2003 and it’s been probably the best resource I’ve ever came across.
Keep up the great work.
david jarvis
Jeremy
I’m not the first and I won’t be the last to congratulate you & the ALA team here.
The ALA site is a beacon of fine, fine writing and laser guided design in a crowded mass of blessays and podgrams (thank you “Stephen Fry”:http://www.stephenfry.com).
Now, having said that… WHAT’S NEXT?
I would like to see you guys reaching out beyond the web-addicted community that clearly frequents these regions. How about touching some of those business leaders that are still – unwittingly – yet to fully digest the concept of Cluetrain almost 10 years down the track?
Here’s to the next 10. I watch and wait with anticipation.
DJ
Katja Schiemann
Congrats and thanks to all the authors for the interesting articles.
Mike Cherim
…on your tenth!
Jonathan Landrum
Congratulations, guys, and here’s to another ten glorious years.
Sean McCambridge
Thank you for constantly demonstrating that open communication builds communities and relationships. Thanks for always having something valuable to contribute to the discussion. Thanks for helping to bring unity to this wildfire. :)
Michal Furmaniak
I’m a recent reader, and I owe you so much! Thanks. Great statement about HYBRIDS!
Ben Ellis
Over the past 8 years ALA has been a constant source of information and inspiration whether it be standards, accessibility, IA, design et al.
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone involved who has shared their experiences and knowledge.
kim d
Congratulations, and thank you so much for creating this site. May you continue to teach and to inspire great web development and design for years to come.
Tommie Hansen
ALA used to be my no.1 place since around 2000 when it came to everything new and actually usable within website design. Now, with a bit of sadness, i find that i visit this site less and less often because many articles just aren’t that good or inventive any more.
Either the articles don’t live in the real world at all or they seem to have been written with the complete newbie in mind OR they actually seem to be written by a newbie in the business that just doesn’t have the skill that we have been used to see here at ALA. Yes – some of the business practices etc. are great and do take some actual skill to both acknowledge and circumvent, but that is only the non-website fluff.
Where did all the inspirational and groundbreaking WEBSITE articles go? :/
It seems ALA has became “FOR PEOPLE THAT WANT TO LEARN THE WEBSITE DESIGN BUSINESS” instead of “FOR PEOPLE WHO MAKE WEBSITES”.
Bring back the old style. The style that set you APART from every other web site about web design out there. The style that made this a website that always was recommended when asked – the style that you´ve gotten famous for.
Erika Meyer
I’ve looked for ALA list archives a few times. It was high-art in plain-text. I would get so excited when I had a post selected. :)
Maneet Puri
Hearty Congratulations to all at ALA. I have been a regular reader since quite some time now. Kudos to your mission of enlightening people on the web about the web!
Keep up the good work!
Chris Hester
ALA used to have a great forum. I found it very useful. Then one day it closed. A message informed visitors that it was being remade by waferbaby. I waited and waited. But it never returned. That’s the only sad memory I have of ALA. I wonder what happened.
Jeffrey Zeldman
Chris Hester:
That’s so long ago! I don’t remember the exact sequence. We had a forum by Evolvs and a forum by Waferbaby. There may have been issues with a migration. Or possibly the forum was lost during the two years that alistapart was temporarily housed at alistapart.zeldman.com due to a mistake by Network Solutions and a grab by a company I won’t name.
I remember the forum working well during the time that Webchick very kindly list mom’d it. She was great (and “still is”:http://webchick.org/). I don’t remember precisely why or how the forum broke or when and why we came to the decision that it was better not to resurrect it. Sorry you miss it! Thanks for all your work over the years, and thanks for reading ALA.
piyush kotadiya
When I took my first web design and seo job in 2000, ALA already seemed like it had been around forever—a testament to the excellent content and great community it had even back then. Keep up the excellent work!
Jack McDaniel
Congrats! What’s surprises me is how long I’ve been hanging around here!
Can’t wait for the next ten years.
Shawn Keith
Thanks again for everything that ALA has done over the past 10 years! Knowing that much of your information has been a resource for developers, as a “strategery” person, it has been most helpful in qualifying the importance of approaching projects from the right perspective and how other disciplines relate and can learn from the development path.
James Hunt
Wow, ten years is not a long time and how many changes that amaze me.
I wonder how about ALA site in the next ten years.
“cyclocross veldrijden”:http://www.crosstube.net/