CSS-Tricks Chronicle XXVII

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Chris Coyier on (Updated on )

Summer! It’s been too long since I chronicle’d at ya. You know, where I chitchat about what’s been going on in life, around here, and on my other projects.


A big new thing here on CSS-Tricks is the email newsletter. We thought it would be a more compelling read if we hand-crafted it each week rather than just spitting out an RSS feed into an email. Robin Rendle has been largely heading that up, but we all contribute.

There is no web archive of it yet! So if you wanna read it, you gotta subscribe. There is a subscription form on this page. We experiment with the format a little bit each week.

We put a new feature into the Forums as well: live preview of new posts. You can always edit your posts/replies on the forums as well, but it’s nice to have that live preview tab to see how things are going to be before you publish. We have live preview in the comments here on the blog, so it’s nice to have that feature in the forums now as well.

The last five screencasts have been “pairing” style, where it’s one person teaching another person something. I put one out not so long ago. I’d like to do more, but admittedly don’t have much planned right now. Wanna do one with me? You should teach me something! Get in touch.


I’ve been keeping my speaking schedule pretty light on purpose. Takin’ a little break from that. I do have one talk coming up this fall though: An Event Apart Orlando which is October 3-5. It’s their bigger special edition version. I’ll be putting together a new talk around SVG I’m calling 10 Things You Can and Should Do With SVG.

While I’m not speaking, I am going to be at a number of upcoming conferences, doing other types of things.

  • June 23-24, Web Design Day, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Live ShopTalk Show!
  • October 17-19, 2016, CSS Dev Conf, San Antonio, Texas – CodePen Show & Tell!
  • October 26-29, 2016, Made By Few 2016, Bentonville, Arkansas – Hosting the Fireside Chats!

I’ve been spending most of my time working on CodePen. We’ve been cranking on a number of big projects. Some internal that you likely won’t notice, some huge new things you will definitely notice. I can’t say more yet, but stay tuned.

We haven’t stopped development elsewhere just for these big new things though. In fact, we just had a record streak (6 weeks!) where we published something new every work day. The biggest stuff? PRO Perks, Embeds v2, and a new Details View, along with largely keeping up on bugs, updates, support, and security stuff.

CodePen Meetups have been huge too. We’re slated to have record numbers of them going on around the world this summer. Lots of new ones in new cities. That’s partially due to us having new partnerships with meetup sponsors who can help pay for things at the meetups. We made a page to explain what it’s like to host a meetup. If you’ve ever thought about it, check that page out.

We’re also coming up on 100 episodes of CodePen Radio! Woot!


Over in ShopTalk land, we’ve been doing a lot of double-guest episodes. I think we’ve done about 10 of them and I’m really liking them. More brains, wider perspective, more topical.

I’m very much looking forward to doing a live show at Web Design Day with Dave next week! We could use some questions from the audience, if you’re gonna be there.

I’ve also realized lately that some of my favorite episodes are when just Dave and I get to chat. I don’t get to see Dave as much as I’d like, so getting to chat with him on the show is my only pittance. Maybe we’ll do a whole season of Dave and I.


Life! Now that the weather has been good here in Milwaukee, lots has been going on. Camping, for example. I’m publishing this post from a camping chair at sunrise. There has been landscaping work on the house, gardening, running, crossfitt… I started writing it all up here, then figured it’s best for my personal blog.


Let’s see. What else. Oh yeah I have a book coming out! Sooooooon.