The Great Rewrite Announcement

I'm going to attempt my (hopefully) last rewrite of my website. I've had so many problems with the JavaScript version, and have had such a good experience with Go web dev, that I've decided it's time. But, I'm not going to simply do it and not tell anyone. I'm going to turn it into an educational experience. I'm sure that'll make it so much easier...right?

Read this email on the web.

New Website UI Change

Before I get to the Great Rewrite announcement I need to tell you that I've changed the website slightly to help with the rewrite. If you log in today and do a force reload (ctrl-shift-r) then you'll get the new design. Gone is the left side panel and in its place is a simpler navigation bar at the top. Click on it anywhere and it opens with options to do other things. As you navigate this bar will give you a classic "bread crumb" path as you traverse.

Let me know what you think and if you have problems with it. It may be temporary while I just do the Great Rewrite, but let me know and I'll consider keeping it going forward.

The Announcement Post

You can read all about the announcement and all the potential problems with a "Great Rewrite" in the blog post about it. In the post I explain this:

1. All the potential problems with rewrites in general and why people should usually avoid them.
2. My past experiences rewriting this site multiple times.
3. Why I'm ditching JavaScript for Go. Hint: It's the deployment stupid.
4. How I'm making one change to my product listing so that there's a risk involved if I don't finish. As you sportsball fans like to say, "skin in the game."
5. Finally where you can watch it if you want to see the whole process in action live.

How This Will Impact You

Hopefully it won't impact you if you're a current customer. There will only be one change that's significant for people who want to purchase courses while I'm working on it:

Starting March 1st, I am going to only sell the Epic Supporter Pack while I'm working on the rewrite.

This will hopefully motivate me to get it done and clean up my product offerings in the new version. It also makes the rewrite easier in the future. Who knows, maybe I just switch to the "life time purchase" model and really strip this down.

I'm Also Discounting the Epic Supporter Pack 15%

Not only am I only selling that one product, but I'm also going to discount it 15%. I main want this to be highly motivating to me, and knowing that I'm selling it at a discount is really going to kick me in the britches.

It's Also Pro-Rated Which Means...

The pro-rated option means if you spent $30 on a course then your price is lowered by $30, but I think some of you don't realize that the discount is the original price. Not the sale price. Why?

Because my site is so broken I can't even fix that. You see, I have to fix this pile of junk soon or I'm screwed.

Two More Projects Coming This Year

In addition to the Great Rewrite (which I have to do), I'm going to announce two new smaller projects I'll be adding to the site:

1. The Junior Developer Project -- I'll have more on this but basically I'll start a small open source project on github and I'll invite students looking to get into open source to come work on it under my direction. The project will most likely be a replacement for the current Apache Answers+Chat I have at the AskLCTHW Site. It'll me permissive licensed so that people aren't just working for me for free but actually creating something that helps other people and gets them recognition.
2. The Game Engine Jam -- This may take a while but I want to run a Game Engine jam. I have to work out the particulars, but I do want there to be judging and prize money involved (although not much because I'm poor). I really feel that people who are hacking on game engines don't get a chance to show off what they've done.

Thanks Again

Thank you again for your time, and please feel free to reply if you have some ideas. My email server was misconfigured the last few weeks so if you sent me something then please send it to me again.

Zed

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