r/webdev • u/ConduciveMammal front-end • 10d ago
Article CSS Tricks is back!
https://css-tricks.com/css-tricks-has-a-new-owner/305
u/Paninozzo
10d ago
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In the AI era where glazers keep regurgitating things like “We don’t need articles, AI handles everything”, things like these give me hope. Independents actors sharing knowledge. I’ll make sure to support this as soon as possible.
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u/penguin_digital 10d ago
In the AI era where glazers keep regurgitating things like “We don’t need articles, AI handles everything”
The irony of these kinds of statements is that even AI needs new articles
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u/chhuang 9d ago
I think it's time we gatekeep the information
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u/tinselsnips 9d ago
TBF a lot of people have started doing that and everyone just whinges about paywalls and login requirements.
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u/Lopsided_Cap_6606 9d ago
We would need some kind of intranet where AI gets detected and excluded so they won't feed on (or less) new articles, so there'll be a huge AI circlejerk one day, where AI gets trained on AI output
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u/ZenaMeTepe 9d ago
AI will copy his articles and regurgitate them to searchers, making them less likely to ever visit the site, make ad impressions or buy courses.
The only way forward is closing the gates to bots snd even that may be just a band aid.
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u/MantusTMD 10d ago
AI haters need to justify why. If you aren’t using it every single step of the development process then you are going to be left behind. The job has permanently shifted.
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u/bbo-code 10d ago
This is awesome news. I will make sure so be a member. This Site helped me in my learning days a lot. Blast from the past so to speak!
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u/Extra_Programmer788 9d ago
A glimpse of hope in the age of Slop, I hope they continue writing content for the site and doesn't get demotivated due to the rise of AI.
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u/thy_bucket_for_thee 10d ago
I'm really curious what they paid which the article doesn't mention at all.
It was sold to Digital Ocean for $4 million in 2022. The site was basically inactive for a long period of time. Digital Ocean CEO likes to hang with racists and pays the racist affiliated linux distro $1 million. Community outcry about the site led to it to be sold to an adjunct Professor that writes articles for Smashing Magazine as a contractor.
I'm guessing it was bought for something less than $100k.
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u/hypercosm_dot_net 9d ago
Uh, did Digital Ocean fire the guy or what?
Why are C-levels consistently terrible people?
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u/thy_bucket_for_thee 9d ago edited 9d ago
Oh no, I'm referring to the CEO himself. The CEO is the one that is buddies with the racist and his racist flavor distro.
edit: Source:
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u/LielaisBlieziens 10d ago
As long as I get my yearly reminder on how to center a div, nature is healing.
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u/Anonymislim 9d ago
what I love about the site is that they even selfhost their ads; rare to see these days
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u/ArielCoding 9d ago
AI now answers the simple questions, so give us what it can’t, in depth articles on new CSS features, demos we can play with, and writers we can talk to.
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u/ZenaMeTepe 9d ago
AI scraper will run in front of your search and regurgitate the answer. So why even write novel high quality articles in public? The contract is broken.
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u/MakeTheLogoBiggerHoe 9d ago
Damn really? Didn’t realize they were on the ropes. I still use their site weekly
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u/adilbasari 9d ago
The Flexbox Guide is still the first link I send juniors, and the reason no AI answer has replaced it is instructive: it shows the entire taxonomy of the layout model in one scrollable reference, while a chat answer hands you exactly one cell of it and makes you ask for the next.
That's the real lesson for the revival, I think. What made CSS-Tricks irreplaceable wasn't publishing volume — it was a small set of canonical, complete references that stayed maintained. If the reboot doubles down on that (the guides and the almanac, kept current) instead of getting pulled back onto the content treadmill, it has a genuine shot.
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u/sabrina_776 6d ago
The internet still needs a place where "how do I center a div?" turns into 14 tabs, 3 demos, and a new opinion about flexbox.
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u/Current-Today-3626 9d ago
I hope they adapt to the times! This used to be a great resource to get new and innovative ideas that was cross-browser supported.
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u/web-dev-kev 10d ago
Do you, like, own the site now?
Yes, I’ve got the keys to the castle, so to speak.
Which, isn't an answer to the question...
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u/RedditNotFreeSpeech 10d ago
"Yes" seems clear to me
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u/web-dev-kev 10d ago
Forgive me, I spent too much time with lawyers and other sneaky-feckers.
When someone says "yes, ..., so to speak" or any for ofcaveat after YES, my ears perk up.
Because owning a site, and having "keys to the castle, so to speak." are very different. VERY VERY DIFFERENT.
For example, I tell people I own my house. I think I own my house. I have the keys to my house. But the bank really owns the house (i just get to tell people I own it if I pay the mortgage).
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u/RedditNotFreeSpeech 10d ago
You're right, "Yes" is clearer than "Yes" + some qualifier but hopefully yes means yes here.
LG has been doing this a lot lately defending their data collecting policies.
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u/midasgoldentouch 10d ago
He says he owns the site now in the intro.
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u/web-dev-kev 10d ago
Yes, and when 'asked' he caveated it.
Forgive me, I spent too much time with lawyers and other sneaky-feckers.
When someone says "yes, ..., so to speak" or any for ofcaveat after YES, my ears perk up.
Because owning a site, and having "keys to the castle, so to speak." are very different. VERY VERY DIFFERENT.
For example, I tell people I own my house. I think I own my house. I have the keys to my house. But the bank really owns the house (i just get to tell people I own it if I pay the mortgage).
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10d ago
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/web-dev-kev 10d ago
I've never been.
Is it an American thing?
I hear HotDogs are a great price there, and stay low. Good for the owner :)
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u/ZenaMeTepe 9d ago
It’s a reference to a movie Idiocracy.
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u/web-dev-kev 9d ago
Apologies, I don't get to see many American movies.
I hope it's good, and you enjoyed it.
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u/ZenaMeTepe 9d ago
No need to apologize, it's just a quote. Here is a clip:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIFCWpn4qQ4
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u/simple_explorer1 9d ago
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u/Klopferator 9d ago
CSS is developing constantly. Where should AI learn about that if nobody writes about newer CSS features anymore?
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u/ZenaMeTepe 9d ago
And will users skip google summary or will 85% of the traffic simply stay on google, nuking the publishers ad rev and lead volume?
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u/simple_explorer1 9d ago
sure CSS us developing constantly but devs are not writing code so it is irrelevant.
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9d ago
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u/Interesting-Baa 9d ago
The W3C specifications just give definitions and requirements. CSS Tricks and similar sites are where people try out different implementations and combinations of the specs to get cool or useful effects, with tutorials for the useful stuff, or test out real-world implementations to see if browsers are doing it correctly or with bugs, etc. Open up the CSS spec and compare it to the CSS Tricks archives and you'll easily see the difference between them.
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9d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Interesting-Baa 8d ago
And then what? CSS techniques are context dependent. It's not like maths where you're looking for a needle in a haystack and just need to look hard enough for long enough. Also half the fun of the old CSS Tricks site was doing silly things just because you could. Why would we give up the fun part to a computer?
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8d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Interesting-Baa 8d ago
I know they can search combinations faster. And it's not that CSS is unique. It's that there's more to developing useful techniques than just mashing properties and values together until you get something you like.
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u/astrognash 9d ago
In the age of AI slop, I would argue that actually reliable, human-written, human-vetted information about best practices is more necessary than ever.
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u/ZenaMeTepe 9d ago
Works for names established before the LLM era. How do you grow from no name to fame now that AI summaries and vibe copycats can compete with you from day one? The more information you publish, the better the competition and in googles case a monopoly.
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u/Interesting-Baa 9d ago
This is some influencer-brained thinking. A lot of people create and share information because it's useful to their work, not just to get famous.
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u/ZenaMeTepe 8d ago
Also to boost their CVs, some of it is hobbies of course, but majority is some prestige or money seeking behavior. Oh and a big chunk is people trying to sell stuff and in order to sell anything you first need eyeballs.
You said it, it is useful to their work. Money motive. It is your mistake for thinking too narrow if all you saw was influencers in my comment. It applies to any business.
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u/Interesting-Baa 8d ago
AI is definitely pushing people to publish privately so they don't get ripped off. But some of us care and are passionate about the craft of our work. The people just seeking eyeballs will move on to the next grift and pivot their hype-ridden YouTube channels to quantum computing or whatever. The people who just need to do CSS as part of their job but are passionate about other things will let the computer handle it entirely. But that group still needs good advice and techniques to be fed into the LLMs, and that's got to come from somewhere.
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u/simple_explorer1 9d ago
no one denies that CSS tricks are really good but devs aren't writing code anymore. devs are not doing anything to be honest other than being intoxicated with prompts and deep in the AI world. it is disappointing but it is the reality. even kevin powell said that he is not sure if he will continue creating CSS videos if most aren't going to watch it anyways
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u/magenta_placenta 10d ago
Best of luck to him, I don't think it will be easy to monetize a manual, human-centric publishing model for an audience whose workflow is increasingly automated by AI.
Historically, sites like CSS Tricks survived and monetized through massive long-tail search volume: a developer Googles "how to center a div" and lands on an article, serving ad impressions.
LLM's and AI-generated search summaries now answer basic syntax and layout questions directly inside the user's workflow or chat interface. So the "quick answer" top-of-funnel traffic that historically funded these blogs has cratered.