How to launch a new site in 24 hours

For me, launching a new site has always taken at least a few months to get everything right. I decided around 24 hours ago that I'd see what I could throw together in the latter part of a weekend.

A bit of history

Back in March, I launched a total revamp of this site using Django, a Python web framework. It was a great learning experience for me, and was my first Django site that ever made it to a public facing web server.

But, there were problems. I did a bit too much with my code and ended up with a site that just wasn't as fun to maintain as I had hoped. Writing a blog post, probably the most important function of the administrative area, was something I hadn't really thought about. Using the built-in django.contrib.admin application isn't too bad, but I was having to write HTML into a web form. Even adding a WYSIWYG editor to the Django Admin didn't help, as the markup produced by editors can be interesting.

My new setup

So what do you do when you've launched a new site that needs a few tweaks to really fit your needs? I just went ahead and wrote an entirely new site. Using pluggable Django applications and some other code I had laying around, this was much easier than it might seem. I'm running Django 1.0-alpha1 with the following pluggable apps:

• Basic blog, media and inlines (from the django-basic-apps project)
• Django-tagging
• lifestream (An app I put together that captures Friendfeed data)

Also, I've outsourced my comments section to a Django startup, Disqus. I expect this type of outsourcing might be a bit controversial to some, but I'm interested in trying the service out.

My first act as benevolent dictator of this domain was to throw away all of my previous blog entries. Much of my old content was dated, no longer working or just plain terrible writing. By throwing away my old content, I'm forced to write again. It's been a while since I've been confident enough in my writing to post, but I hope this will spur a turnaround.

More to come

With all of that said, the site still needs lots of polish. I've yet to get the syndication framework working to my liking, and I need to build the footer, which is actually going to be an important part of the new site.

Hopefully I can find time to get those features added in the next 24 hours.