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Soft-launch
We've soft-launched 77 Square. It's like launching, but the job isn't done. There's marketing to do.
I both adore and despise the
soft-launch. It's an opportunity to put the new product out
in the wild and get feedback without an unknown error blowing up on
a large scale. Visitors (hopefully) let us know about problems not
found during development and we run around (hopefully) fixing
them. The end result is a more-polished product.
But, it can feel like a job that's never done. Like
laundry. At what point is the laundry 'done'? Never,
unless one makes arbitrary definitions like 'laundry from this
week'.
Refactor
Which brings me to my next most unfavorite word, 'refactor'. When we finally decide to really launch the site and consider version 1 'done', the next job is to begin refactoring. Take the good and make it better, take the not-so-good and make it go away. End result? Version 1.1. Rinse. Repeat.
Right now we're still in the world of soft-launch. Refactoring is next week's laundry.
As we transition from a daily paper with a website to a breaking news website and a weekly news and opinion magazine, we will blog our progress and seek your feedback.