0sil8 is 4 years old

0sil8 is 4 years old today, which as it happens is same birthday as Zeldman.com. I want to say more here, but I just don’t have the energy right now.

Meg’s post about her favorite episode of 0sil8 got me thinking about what my favorites are. Here are a few 0sil8 episodes I like the best, for one reason or another:

   Silkscreen - Silkscreen isn’t anything new, but I was frustrated by the lack of small free fonts out there, so I made this one. As time goes by, I see it used in more and more places, and it makes me feel good that people are finding it useful.

   The Great Mother’s Day Car-be-que of 1999 - This is just a flat-out kooky story, almost too good to be true. With the great pictures that Nichol took, it was really easy to craft a story around it.

   Remember a Movie - So many great stories from people about movie-going experiences.

   Web98: A Fantastic Voyage - The story part of this episode is nothing special, but the splash page where the frames spell out 0sil8 gives me a good feeling each time I look at it because I’m pretty sure no one had ever used frames like that before that point in time. Being able to do something for the first time ever, even if it is something small and frivolous like that, is pretty neat, especially on the Web where absolutely everything has been done somewhere else…and better than you did it to boot.

   Top Ten Secrets of a Successful Web Site - The only reason I like this one is because I still occasionally get email from people thinking that this list is serious and thanking me profusely for showing them the way. Hee hee.

   I Love This Game - One of my earlier and funnier episodes. At least I laugh pretty hard when I read it…your mileage may vary.

   God.com - This one is pretty funny as well, and I like what I did with the layout, for the most part. It’s interesting to look back on these older episodes because they were done so long ago that I really don’t remember writing them and can approach them impartially and objectively, laughing and cringing because the writing is at times both good or awful.

The rest of 0sil8 I could really take or leave. There are some interesting bits here and there, but a lot of it doesn’t stand the test of time. Some episodes in particular are pretty shallow and ill-conceived, done for the moment, looking as out-of-place now as Crockett’s attire in old reruns of Miami Vice. Part of me wants to scrap it all and start over, while most of the rest of me wants to scrap the whole thing and not do anything with it ever again. However, a very small part of me wants to leave it just the way it is and add to it when I’ve got the time. That small part will probably win out in the end…old habits die hard.