Hey all,

I bet a lot of you thought that you'd never hear from me again, huh? Most of you are probably wondering, "Who the hell is Digital Boy?" I missed you all a lot over the past few months, but I think I may try and show my face a little more now.

I have two questions:

1) I am currently working on my own freelance business and a I have a few sites nearing completion. I took a look around the web and I noticed that the standard "created by" button is all but gone. Has this practice become taboo?

2) I am also finishing up the final touches on my own site. Someone recently told me that the 3D look was, well... "tired" and that I should go for a more modern, flat (i.e. flash-like) look. Now I'll be honest, I've used flash and I like it... for certain things, not all things (I think it's starting to show its age in some ways). I personally am a big fan of the 3D look. How do you all feel? Would you rather surf a site that looks like a NeoPlanet browser than one that looks like Macromedia's website or does it not matter?

Thanks for your feedback. Sorry I can't show you the full site yet, but you can get a glimpse of the main idea by looking at the splash screen that is up now:

http://home.earthlink.net/~mtorbin/

- DB

1. Plastering your name all over someone else's site isn't cool. If they paid for it, then give it to 'em! The "cool" buttons these days are the W3C valid code buttons (i.e. XHTML, HTML, CSS).

2. Get inspired!
http://coolhomepages.com/
http://linkdup.com/
http://2advanced.com/
http://threeoh.com/

2) I prefer the 3D look.

Thanks all. I appreciate the responses.

- DB

Howdy Matt, good to see you around I like the design you have on your splash page.

In all matters of design preference, the customer's preference is what matters most. Have some examples of each style and be prepared to go either way.

Good to see you again DB!

1. I think it kind of depends on the site. I still do see the "created by..." buttons on almost every band site I visit. Especially if it's a big fancy flash/shockwave thing (which most are these days). Corporate sites are probably different, though, cuz they're trying to keep a uniformity and blah like that to their corporate presence, and "created by blargh" works against that principal.

2. Depends on what kind of 3D look you mean. If you're talking about bevelling text and lines and stuff, yeah, that's kind of "out", and flat is in. Note how a lot of sites now use either CSS or the same method as UBB to make table borders that are a single flat pixel, instead of the bevelled one that browsers make automatically. But a whole different look - the combination of flat elements and nice rendered 3d work - is "in" and looks very nice. Deviantart has a lot of this type of stuff, especially in the wallpaper sections. A lot of other art groups are using this style as well. I'm trying to teach myself how to do 3d model work like that so I can do some stuff in that style, cuz it's a really pretty form of art imho.

---Skorpion

DB!

How's the City of??

Navaho -

Thanks for asking! Yeah, living in the city (Philadelphia) is great! Before I was laid off, I used to go to punk shows at least once a week! It was totally amazing! My girlfriend, however, once learning what a "mosh pit" REALLY was did not look so fondly on me going, especially after I took her to Reggie and the Full Effect and she saw some guy get pulled out covered with blood. Hey, for those of us big enough to handle it, it's a blast!

Once I find a job again I'll be back in the pits. Yeah, I've missed this place...

- DB

Ah man, that sounds great. I wish I was in Phili, they have great shows over there. And yes, mosh pits are great if you can handle it. If it's not too crazy, another cool thing is people will help you out in them. A few times, I've seen people fall, and everyone stop and help them out before going at it again. Anyway, have fun over there.

its nice to see you again matt