Opening My Website Development Details

I can’t count the number of time I have come across a nice blog or website and wandered: how  was this constructed, what software powers it, what plug-ins are running, where did the icons or other graphical elements come from. So in the spirit of open web development and sharing I’ve decided to post the details of how I built my site just in case you feel like incorporating or remixing any of the elements into your own web project.

Below I have  listed a rundown of how I constructed  rebelliouspixels.com. It is my hope that this practice of opening up the details will one day become standard especially among bloggers and sites that are powered with open source platforms like WordPress.

Software:
My site is powered by WordPress version 2.8.2, a free and open source blogging platform. The WordPress moto “code is poetry” is fitting as it is by far the best, most flexible and intuitive blogging and content management system (CMS) software out there. Because it’s an open source platform that means the free resources, support forums and extensions are almost infinite.

Theme:
I have so heavily modified this theme that it bares almost no resemblance to the original template which was called Bluebird 2 Column designed by Randa Clay and released under GLU specifically to be easily customizable.

Plug-ins:
Click here for a complete list of active plug-ins running on my site thanks to the Plugins-Used plugin.

Coding:
My site mostly follows W3C code standards and validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional and as CSS level 2.1 via the W3C markup validation service.

Graphics:
The social networking icon buttons that appear on my sidebar were created by Loh Jun Wei at Quake9 Designs. The icon set is available for download here and are free to share under a creative commons license. In addition to his excellent set of 30 graphics I made a few of my own for miro, blip.tv and an alternate version for flickr.

Hosting:
I used Dreamhost.com to host all my sites, they are a small company, reliable and relatively inexpensive. The world of web hosting is overflowing with unscrupulous companies and in the past I have been burned on several occasions so it’s nice to find a reputable host. They even offer free hosting to non-profit organizations and claim to be a “green company” though its through the dubious process of buying and trading carbon credits which is totally cheating. Anyway I definitely recommended them. If you choose to sign up you can use my promotional code “1024PIXELS” to get 20% off 1 & 2 year plans – click here.

Licensing:
All the other original and derivative work in the site’s development is filed under this Creative Commons license. Meaning your free to use, share or remix the work under the conditions that you give attribution and that it is for mostly non-commercial purposes.