A well-timed new-look Sox Machine
When I started redesigning Sox Machine a few months ago, I expected its launch to usher in a more exciting era of White Sox baseball. Little did I know it’d be running stride-for-stride with the era of no baseball of any kind, at least domestically.
That said, it still marks a new era of Sox Machine, because this look reflects the start of making this site my full-time concern.
For the first 14 seasons writing about the White Sox, it had to take a back seat to my day job. I’m fortunate that I had tremendous bosses who understood and encouraged this because they had secondary pursuits of their own, but I had to make sure I paid the bills while avoiding burning the candle at both ends. (Shout out to everybody here and SSS that allowed me to take needed breathers.)
My move to Nashville — and your support on Patreon — afforded me the opportunity to give it a full-time shot. It’s just taking a different shape for the time being. I envisioned seizing opportunities to write three different posts about a game that warranted it, rather than choosing the one that made the best use of my two hours that morning. I pictured logging lots of miles on I-65 to Birmingham, and I-40 into North Carolina.
Instead, I’ll be practicing social distancing just like everybody else, except with more time to read some intriguing new releases and dig into topics I’d kept in my back pocket in case of a work stoppage.
So that’s what this redesign means to me. What does this all mean for you?
More time to chat: Given that I use my real name, I didn’t want to push my luck assigning timestamps to internet activity unrelated to my day job during work hours. That’s no longer a concern, so we’ll take a look at different methods of exploring this freedom.
Au revoir, old annoyances: If the lack of carriage returns in Firefox comments or the floating header on Android bothered you, I guarantee you that it bothered me more.
Enhanced designs for posts: There are some cool bells and whistles I’ll be playing with as the material warrants.
Customizable category pages: If you go to the White Sox prospects page, you’ll see my Prospect Week coverage at the top before the daily stuff. If and when the MLB draft gains steam, you’ll see Josh’s highlighted posts and resources for easy access.
Store infrastructure: You might’ve sensed it from the emphasis on merchandise in the Sox Machine survey, and if you didn’t participate in that, you might’ve noticed the cart icon above. This version of Sox Machine is indeed wired up to support a storefront. In fact, I had tested it and had it ready to go.
As it stands, it’s not particularly responsible to burden postal personnel with unnecessary trips and packages, so that aspect of the site can wait. I’d encourage you to support local businesses and organizations in the interim. You know, the ones with the physical spaces you hope will be around when we’re allowed to go outside again.
In the meantime, the baseball downtime means we can direct our focus on strengthening the community here, so that’s my plan for the months ahead. I’m also anticipating the need to make tweaks to resolve issues that the Sox Machine staff didn’t encounter in testing, so let me know if something doesn’t look right. Besides the general lack of baseball, that is.
Author
Wow Jim. This is great move, and I hope it works out. The layout looks great although the main article occupies all the real estate and more, but it could be my monitor that I had to improvise here at home. I’ve been WfH for the last 3 weeks. I have noticed some weirdness in the layouts of some website I frequently visit.
I have never mentioned it, but if you ever have any tax question (sales taxes or income taxes), please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Even if it is a small consult. I’ll be glad to help. I live in Canada, but I work with a multinational company and I do global taxes. I know the US income and sales tax system pretty well.
Good luck in Nashville, and stay safe.
The main article takes up the whole front spot because with the stoppage, I figure there’s only going to be one main event a day. I have some other ideas for the actual season.
I’ve been reading you for at least twelve years, and have always been amazed at the amount of quality content you’ve generated while doing this as a hobby/side gig. Behind that amazement was always a concern that you’d wake up one day and say “this is crazy,” and you’d decide that you have to drop this pursuit in favor of paying the bills/life in general. I couldn’t be happier that you’re now able to make this your main gig.
The editing process of the last White Sox Outsider is the closest I came to burning out. I wrote myself a note dated for the following October saying, “Remember how much this sucks.” Given that the team was drifting further away from being interesting by itself, they ended up making that decision for me, or at least alongside me.
Now, that (or a similarly sized project) is something I might be able to bring back with full-time bandwidth. But baseball needs to happen first.
Nice new digs.
Unveiling a site redesign at the same time you are moving house would seem stressful in normal times, let alone now. Hats off to you, Jim.
Congrats and good luck! Site looks great on my phone, and good riddance to the jumpy banner.
Amen
This is great Jim! I couldn’t be happier for you. I echo RWShow’s comments and dreaded the day you might give it up. And the fact that you wrote about this damn team every day for years during the most incredible suckage most of us have ever seen .. wow. There is nothing more White Sox than that. I really look forward to reading you write about them in good times. If they indeed ever do come.
Looks great to me!
Much cleaner on mobile, which is how I read SoxMachine most of the time.
I really hope we get some baseball at some point, but until then I’ll keep checking back for baseball-adjacent content because I’m so starved.
Site looks great! Main update still needed is Jim’s profile pic under the masthead with a Sox hat on rather than an Expos hat. It’s a disgrace! 😉
It is not a disgrace at all. Edit: now I notice the emoticon you used, so I get what you say now 🙂
The new format is great! Much more friendlier to navigate on an iPad. Thanks Jim-stay safe!
OMG CAN I REALLY HAS CARRIAGE RETURNS?
I CAN! HOORAY! ALL HAIL THE NEW SITE!
No more floating header!!!!
Love the content Jim, but there is no way the floating header bothered you more. It was like watching one of our “hitters” strike out with a runner on third and one out, only to watch the next hitter hit a fly ball. You knew it was coming, but each time was more frustrating than the last.
You know, white sox baseball circa the 2010s.
Congrats on the move and the loss of the day job!
Looks good. Congrats on all the great changes in your life. I can support this for sure.
Good luck in your new home! Can’t wait for the season to start – any season, something, please. I can’t imagine how good your posts will be now that you don’t have the nettlesome distraction of a day job.