1. SPAGHETTI FLOWS FREELY: The codebase is large enough to require some refactoring, but very little of it has ever been done.
2. OUTDATED PLATFORM: The site is using outdated technology that no good developer really wants to touch anymore (i.e. Microsoft ASP, data-processing-centric Java, VB.NET, etc.)
3. EXPERIENCE SUCKS: The site is ugly, hard-to-use, etc.

If your app passes on any of the three, it may be worth salvaging the app. 3 strikes, it’s out.

Side note… who is to blame for an application to get to the point that it needs tossed out the door? If resources were unreasonably constrained by non-IT management against the recommendations made by IT, then the non-IT management is to blame. However, if IT never asked for additional resources to avoid the 3 strikes, then it must take full responsibility for the impending death of a codebase.

It’s been 6 weeks since surgery, 8 weeks since the rupture.

I went to see my doctor today. Here’s what I learned:

• I am allowed to put as much weight on my left foot as possible without major pain.
• He told me to go down to one crutch when I feel ready for it.
• I got my “prescription” to begin physical therapy.
• I’ll get to ditch the boot in 4 weeks, and so will end “the summer of the boot.”

It’s still a long, long road back, but each stage is getting more bearable.

I’ll never take for granted the “miracle of walking” again :)

So ASP.NET MVC Preview 4 is about to hit the streets. I have been watching, waiting, hoping that the ASP.NET effort at copying Rails would be so compelling that I could stomach investing in .NET programming again.

The new preview 4 features:

• filter interceptors (before + after hooks for controllers)
• outputcache filters (action caching)
• handle error filters (custom error page)
• authorize filter (role-based authorization)
• accountcontroller class (wrapper to ASP.NET membership API)
• minor improvement to testing
• some ajax stuff

They are incorporating community-driven features, which is good. But I don’t think the project has anywhere near the velocity it needs. It’s taken them 2 months to get this new functionality out the door… I’m not very excited, because it’s hard not to compare what’s going on to present-day Rails, which is years ahead.

The big concerns I have about ASP.NET MVC are:

• still not opinionated enough. Rather than simplifying .NET web development, they are giving more choices
• the names they are giving features… ugh! Give me the silly Rails “plugin_fu” and “sexy_plugin” names any day vs. filter, filter, filter
• documentation not at your fingertips—maybe it’ll get there, but I bet there will never be a docs site for ASP.NET MVC as simple + easy to use as RailsBrain
• no plugin system that I’ve heard about
• not Restful… /:controller/:action/:id is so 2005. And I suppose for webservices, they still want developers to use SOAP?

I actually want the project to succeed, because it’s tough for organizations who have invested in .NET system to consider switch. And I want my .NET friends to be happier. They truly don’t know what they’re missing in the amazing Ruby community—Rails, Github, Merb, nginx/thin, Sinatra, Radiant, Shoulda, RSpec, and literally dozens of other interconnecting projects.

About a week ago, I was googling (I don’t remember what) and on multiple occasions bnet.com results popped up. Site looked nice, content was relevant to my search. Honestly, I don’t even know why I registered at the site… but I did. Maybe there was some protected content that required account. In any event, I signed up.

A successful conversion! Their web + SEO team should feel proud.

July 8

I got 3 email from the site—pretty cool, pushing out some information to me. I note that perhaps it’s “over communication” but a couple of the articles interested me.

July 9

Just one email. Fine.

July 10

4 email! I get enough email in general, and the stuff they’re pushing to me really isn’t relevant, so I decide to unsubscribe. Plus the emails are quite laced with ads. The unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email didn’t work, but finally I figured out how to unsubscribe from the 4 categories of messages. End of story, right? Wrong.

July 11

Today I still got 1 email, so I figure out how to unsubscribe from all CNET email, from a link on the original unsubcribe page, which bnet.com seems to be affiliated with. They say it’ll take 10 days to process my request!

Total brand experience == sucks

My point of all this is how shitty an experience it’s been as a new user of bnet. What it tells me is that the business has not managed the balancing act of “serving the advertisers” vs. “serving the audience.” Their website looks nice, and I had a good experience with it. Their email strategy was horrendous, and I judge them on the “total brand experience.”

Update

Since I started writing this post, 2 more of their email have hit my inbox. I just made my first Gmail filter to automatically delete emails with subject line starting with “BNET Alert”. Side note, the Gmail filter setup process was a great experience. All hail Gmail!

The current “logo” for anotherventure.com is actually just from a free css template. This knowledge was nagging at me, so I gave 99designs.com a spin, after Clark saw great results on his new company’s logo. So I started up a $200 contest, an a week later, after 77 submissions, I chose the winner.

Very cool process, and great way to get creative done, in my opinion.

I got invited to private beta of Dropbox and it’s very cool—beta account has 2GB storage, and you can share files across computers, mac + PC, etc.

I dropped all the family photos on my computer on it, shared with wife, she’ll delete the ones that are junk, organize into folders, touch up, and then I can just upload to flickr from my computer. The files are sync’d instantly, and it was a very quick install.

I have 10 beta invitations I can share, let me know if you’re interested. First come first serve!