The Best Will Now Cost You

PIE Goes Commercial

[createErrorMsg]

Let me preface this by saying I'm amazed the great content on PIE (positioniseverything) has been freely available for as long as it has. I would guess nearly every seasoned CSSer has relied heavily on Big John and Holly's tutorials and bug walkthroughs at some point or another in their learning process. I, for one, regularly visit and refer, read and re-read, every word they put online. PIE is, hands-down, one of the top authority sites for battling CSS bugs.

So I suppose it's not too surprising, and perfectly understandable, that getting access to some of that great content will now cost us $2.00 a pop.

Visiting the site earlier today in order to drop a relevant bug-fix link into a post here, I noticed that the pages now reside on the CommunityMX site, and the PIE article page has the following statement...

Some of these articles were written for publication at Communitymx.com. The CMX partner agreement prevents us from publishing them here, so those CMX articles are linked from this page.

The links lead to a purchase page where the user must pay, subscribe, or seek knowledge elsewhere.

While I do not in any way begrudge PIE or CMX for this move, I still lament this as The Day the Best Free Advice on the Internet Died.

I don't have anything against paying for the articles, mind you, they're all well worth it. What saddens me is the fact that they can no longer be used as a reference source when explaining a complex concept or bug fix. Not only can they not be linked directly to, but linking to their current location would deliver users to the CMX purchase page and would be tantamount to advertising the article, something noone wants to see happen here on WebmasterWorld.

And so farewell, sweet IE Float Model page. Adieu, fair Box Model explanation, you were lucid and clear, simple in your complexity, and ideal for dropping as a reference for confused newbies. You will be missed.

cEM

[DrDoc]

I guess we'll just have to add some structure to the many posts here in the WebmasterWorld CSS forum that discuss the exact same thing, many times from additional angles.

[4css]

CEM,
If you read the note that BigJohn has on his site, this is only for the articles that he writes for CMX.

Note where in your quote it says

some of these articles were written for publication at Communitymx.com.

This isn't for his articles on bugs etc..that he writes on his own to share with everyone who studies css, and the bugs that come along with the browsers. This is only for the articles that by contract he writes for CMX.

The articles are only two dollars if you don't wish for a membership. And they have a trial 10 day membership, so you can try it out and if you don't like it, you don't need to stay. I don't think two dollars is too much for the great information that John provides for those of us in search of terrific CSS information.

I know John, he is a friend of mine. A very good friend. And whatever John has on his site, is still there for those who are in search of a reference to his material. Except of course, that which he writes for CMX.

[incrediBILL]

I took a quick peek and IMHO, the invaluable information they have on that site is underpriced @ $2

My $0.02

[createErrorMsg]

I don't think two dollars is too much for the great information that John provides for those of us in search of terrific CSS information.

I agree 100%, and said so in my original post. I wasn't being critical of the decision, merely pointing it out and feeling sad that those articles can no longer be referenced.

cEM

[martinibuster]

Looks like the previous site is still available at the Internet Archive... To tell the truth, I have never heard of this website before. Guess I'm not the only one. I used to read A List Apart and the Erick Meyer sites, but it's been a long time. hehe

[4css]

CEM, His original site is *still up*. The articles on his site are availble for referencing. Those that is that are written on his own, and not contracted via CMX. I have been there, he has wonderful articles that are still on there for everyone to use and link to should they wish to.

His guidelines with CMX keep him from letting those articles that he writes for that site be posted on his site.

Anyone who wishes to read what is on PIE, this is still there for you to read.

CEM, its not that I felt you were being critical. I thought that your statment that PIE is now commercial is not a fair statement to make. Its **not a commercial site**. ONLY those articles he writes FOR CMX are for sale. And as I previously stated, you don't *have* to sign up at CMX to obtain these articles. Only if you wish to do so. $2.00 per article, not bad. If this were really about commercialisim, the price would be higher. I"m sure that the price basically amounts to the runing of the site on cmx.

After all, give the guy credit where its due. Johns intelligence has helped many through tons of problems. And a good deal of that he gives freely, of which I don't think he had to do. The guy is a intellectual gem when it comes to knowledge in regards to css.

I keep telling him he needs to write a book. One that I feel would be a best seller almost instantly.

He and Holly give an extordinary amount of their time to CSS and the problems that you might run across. They are both extremly involved in the CSS-D list. And are both more then happy to help out a fellow
CSS-er in need. ;)