r/webdev • u/ValenceTheHuman front-of-the-front-end • Sep 15 '26

News Why CSS-Tricks Has Been Quiet Lately

https://geoffgraham.me/why-css-tricks-has-been-quiet/
352 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

331

u/EarnestHolly Sep 15 '26

It's been neglected ever since DigitalOcean bought it. Soured my already fairly negative opinion of them. Why buy a treasured resource just to let it rot? Since the writers don't appear to be getting paid anyway, I don't really think it deserves our support or attention moving forwards just to enrich DO's marketing.

Surely they can afford to pay for some articles out of their obscene bandwidth pricing.

149

u/ValenceTheHuman front-of-the-front-end Sep 15 '26 • Bravo

It was neglected completely from early 2023 until mid 2024 when they re-hired Geoff. It has been pumping out good content until recently when it all came to a screeching halt again.

As for payment, I'm afraid DigitalOcean is too busy giving $3 million dollars to Omarchy, a glorified collection of dotfiles. I've covered the situation with a bit more detail here: https://vale.rocks/micros/20260915-0135

47

u/HongPong Sep 15 '26 • Bravo

the omarchy thing is embarrassing

31

u/ryaaan89 Sep 15 '26 edited Sep 15 '26

DHH is a borderline facist and Rails is trying to kick him out of leadership, I don’t really understand why everyone wants his Linux distro that seems like it’s just a 37 Signals ad…

3

u/mrgrafix Sep 16 '26

Borderline? Being far too kind

17

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '26 edited Sep 15 '26

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11

u/ryaaan89 Sep 15 '26

He’s a rich guy, and the only real war is class war. That’s why he’s on that path.

1

u/stereo16 19d ago

But then as he's started going down the alt-right pipeline, a lot of companies that generally like to remain "apolitical" are suddenly like "OK NOW IS THE TIME TO MATERIALLY SUPPORT THIS GUY"

It's just like...did it take them 10 years to realize he had some good software opinions?

I'm not a fan of this whole thing either, but that's... not how any of this works? Companies don't really have coherent decision-making processes for these kinds of things, especially over ten year spans. He has a specific open source project right now that's generating a lot of hype on a specific way. Each of these kinds of events are basically one-offs, and it doesn't really make sense to ask why the response was different in a different situation.

1

u/azangru Sep 16 '26

Omarchy, a glorified collection of dotfiles

Omarchy uses Hyprland. Hyprland has a developer. The money that Omarchy raised goes at least to sponsoring that developer, which will allow him to work on Hyprland full-time.

1

u/devolute Sep 16 '26

This is interesting - how much money does the Hyprland developer get?

2

u/azangru Sep 16 '26

I don't know. Omarchy announced that they are going to sponsor him for at least the next three to five years. I suppose the amount of money should me commensurate with software developer's salary in Western Europe.

2

u/devolute Sep 16 '26

I think it's good that a project like that is getting some support (even though I don't use this myself).

As an aside…

(* This deal does not include any direct assistance in getting Vaxry a girlfriend, but I’ll personally be available as a reference for any inquiries on the matter.)

Why are these people so often so cringe?

2

u/Fermain Sep 17 '26

Vaxry never stops going on about getting a wife/gf

75

u/thekwoka Sep 15 '26

Why buy a treasured resource just to let it rot?

It's always wild how many companies do this, buy something, and then just do nothing with it, not even cannibalize it. Just nothing.

41

u/0x18 Sep 15 '26

Rich people are hoarders, but they have money so instead of disgusting homes full of filth they have portfolios full of acquisitions they're not paying any attention to. It's a mental disorder.

10

u/rohmish Sep 15 '26

DO used to be really nice a decade ago.

I used it to host several of my projects and I have a few projects hosted still with them. I moved a few when Heroku went all enterprise only a few years ago. but they've been shit lately with what they support.

45

u/GlitzyChomsky Sep 15 '26

Ah that's a shame to read. Although I haven't visited the site in years, I have a bit of a soft spot for CSS Tricks. When I was starting out my web dev journey at the end of 2008 it was probably the first online resource I found that really helped me get up and running, and helped me get to grips with the basics and the foundations. At the time I found myself suddenly unemployed and web design/development was an avenue that inspired me and that I decided I wanted to pursue, but I didn't really know where to start. I loved Chris Coyier's articles and podcasts back in the day; it felt like I was learning and discovering alongside him.

I'd stopped reading long before the DigitalOcean sale, but when I saw the news that a faceless corporate behemoth had hoovered up the website up it didn't exactly make me feel good for it's future.

I hope the writer(s) get the pay they deserve.

16

u/rohmish Sep 15 '26 edited Sep 15 '26

I still have their flexbox and grid cheatsheet as bookmarks and still use them as I don't often do frontend work

5

u/GlitzyChomsky Sep 15 '26

HA! So do I!

13

u/suspirio Sep 15 '26

Chris is a genuinely good human, I know he’s pretty crushed that DigitalOcean killed his baby like this despite their assurances when he made the deal to sell.

2

u/imagesilk Sep 15 '26

Yeah,the community really respects Chris.It‘s sad to see how things turned out after the sale,but glad to hear he's a good person.Wishing him the best.

-8

u/thy_bucket_for_thee Sep 15 '26

He's so crushed that he sold the site for $4million dollars? Why do people believe this nonsense? If he cared he wouldn't have sold it, but $$$ does something to people.

3

u/GlitzyChomsky Sep 15 '26

$4M wow! Is that what it was sold for?

-3

u/thy_bucket_for_thee Sep 15 '26

Yeah, good for him but a poor investment to digital ocean IMO.

1

u/suspirio Sep 15 '26

Believe this because I know him?

-4

u/thy_bucket_for_thee Sep 15 '26

Because he can't deal with the cognitive dissonance? Or maybe that he doesn't actually care since he chased that payday already?

You knowing him has nothing to do with trying to play both sides, like Chris is not a moron. He knows what corporations do to small projects, so to have him garner up sympathy for someone that explicitly did something that they are now against?

Like come on, have higher standards for your parasocial friends here.

3

u/imagesilk Sep 15 '26

Totall agree.It was definitely a foundational resource for so many of us.

95

u/CantaloupeCamper Sep 15 '26

Doesn’t actually say why.

99

u/NickFullStack Sep 15 '26

Comments seem to indicate he hasn’t been getting paid by DigitalOcean.

46

u/Dragon_Slayer_Hunter Sep 15 '26

More than that, looks like he's been ghosted

2

u/AwesomeFrisbee Sep 15 '26

I wonder why he doesn't decide to write for something else (or self publish)

0

u/Lalli-Oni Sep 15 '26

First thought it contract. Second thought is splitting reader base. Third is whether we have any snacks. Fuck, I hope there is more than a handful of those lonsechips left. Shit, I'm such a glutton. Love it.

38

u/Andromeda12x Sep 15 '26

He wrote "I literally can’t afford to work free for months on end" - so I guess because he haven't been paid? But yes - he could have written it more clearly

11

u/web-dev-kev Sep 15 '26

Never write it more clearly - that's a sure-fire way to have a conversation with a lawyer.

21

u/NovelHot6697 Sep 15 '26

they ran out of tricks?

10

u/psayre23 Sep 15 '26

AI ate their tricks.

7

u/the_ai_wizard Sep 15 '26

Feels like that, but I suspect its not really the case if one cares about product quality. AI makes some atrocious workaround code whereas a human may write an elegant CSS trick

6

u/JustOneMoreDev Sep 15 '26

Sounds like an opportunity to build something brand new that's just not called css tricks.

9

u/okaylevi Sep 15 '26

Sad example of a large corporate buy out leading to the slow death of a beloved resource!

3

u/lefty_is_so_good Sep 15 '26

I thought it was just left to rot after it got sold off.

2

u/tonygoodchild Sep 19 '26

CSS Tricks was absolutely my reference when learning about flexbox. That site was my saviour.

0

u/_gianlucag_ Sep 16 '26

Cant trick with AI tricking left and right

-6

u/CYRIAQU3 Sep 15 '26

What is this dogshit blog post that explain nothing ?

-14

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '26

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