I’ve worked on this project for a while to create a new design for Ping-o-matic, a service provided by WordPress & Automattic. It’s taken a while, since IntenseDebate todos are always prioritized, but overall I’m really happy with how it turned out in the end.
Check out Ping-o-matic’s new design here: Ping-o-matic
For anyone that cares, this is what I’ve done on the project: Designed a new logo, new favicon, complete site redesign, modified existing code to fit the new design as well as created some new elements, all-new CSS which uses a CSS sprite for all graphics used on the site which decreases load time and server pressure a good bit, some simple javascript to show/hide the Learn more text and the function to uncheck all ping services (if you’ve already checked all). Also a PHP function that switches between navigation tabs when you go to different pages. I was heavily influenced by Jon Fox’s work for that one.
Apart from that.. well..
- Created a basic new color palette for the service.
- CSS3 rounded corners on many objects = less graphics needed, while still rendering perfectly acceptable in browsers that do not support this feature yet.
- All CSS is kept in one document, no browser-specific fixes besides the ones contained in the main stylesheet.
I’m really happy with it, simply put.
Thanks to Matt Thomas and Matt Mullenweg for all the feedback along the way.
CSS sprites are awesome, read more about them here.
February 20th, 2009 at 3:22 am
Good sharp design, but the service n longer pings. It is, if effect, a homepage consisting of a single-line form field. On opening, it invites the visitor to enter blog details as "blog name". Apart from this being unclear as to whether it refers to title or URL, on entering both, alternately, and hitting return my browser displayed a white page with simple text line: "No blog URL?" How can I get Ping-o-matic to display the full form whereby I can enter details of my blog and get pinging?
I'm sick of writing one or two posts per day and nobody knowing I exist. If the system doesn't work, all blurb referring to it should be removed. The last ping-o-matic blog entry at wordpress.com. for example, appears to date back to 2006.
Makes me think, "If it ain't broke…"
February 20th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Sorry you're experiencing difficulties. I've only performed a redesign
of the service, haven't touched the core.. As far as I know it works
perfectly though.
The blog has been sleeping for a good while, we might take it down
since there is not much happening to the service generally
March 5th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
[youtube CVNycEoGtnQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVNycEoGtnQ youtube]
March 5th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
:'(:x[youtube CVNycEoGtnQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVNycEoGtnQ youtube]
March 5th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
April 5th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Hey Isaac,
Thank you for what you do, I am just a guy trying to reach a dying world in need of salvation and Jesus Christ. I have stumbled across
Intense Debate & Ping-O-Matic and I have found getting exposure can cost you. I am fairly new to all this and I went on faith when entering my site on these webs! As far as I could tell, is Ping for getting more traffic?
Thank you for your time and God bless you and all you do.
Chris Peterson
<'((><
April 5th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Ping-o-matic is a service that automatically pings a number of blog
indexing services for you. These services index blogs and collect blog
posts from them, to generate more traffic to the end blog owner. It's
simply another channel to reach out to your readers.
Good luck!
April 25th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Hi Isaac,
I too cannot get the full front page of ping-o-matic. I was trying to update several of my sites with pings, after about five updates in a row, it wouldn't open fully. After 24 hours still having the same issue. The first line where you put the title in is the only thing that shows. Not the line for the URL.
Would you please let me know what to do to resolve this issue.
Thank you so much.
July 23rd, 2009 at 7:06 pm
[...] WordPress.com has automatic pinging (pingomatic built in). You do nothing. When you publish your post the electronic ping will be sent from your blog to summon the search spiders to come and get the packet of information and index it. Pingomatic will receive the ping and then notify several other services. See also: Ping-o-matic redesign now live! [...]
July 29th, 2009 at 4:40 am
What?,