The Redesign of Jumpseatnews

I placed a cracked logo of Jumpseatnews up on the site today. It will remain there as a reminder until the new Jumpseatnews is launched.

Here's what's going on with this:

The idea for the 3rd redesign of Jumpseatnews began in mid-2006. At that time, I wanted this to be a major redesign. I designed several hundred new features that would take this web site to the next level. It was to be the most extensive upgrade in the site's history. The new design and features would take United Airlines flight attendant resources and put them on steroids.

About 1/3 the way into the reprogramming of JSN, the iPhone was launched. Then, Android and iPad.

Suddenly, all hell broke loose in how people interact with, and use, online tools, user interfaces, and web sites.

In the months to come, I found myself flailing about, trying to keep up with the new paradigm shift to mobile. Many ideas were tossed out. Sections were rebuilt, torn apart, and the rebuilt again. A new logo was created. Then discarded. Then created again.

I had to keep the old site going, and all hell was breaking down there as well: the web host couldn't handle the traffic, the databases were failing, and the pages were timing out. It was, and still is, a complete mess.

At the same time, social media grew. Facebook began consuming web sites, eroding personal blogs, diluting creativity, weakening brands, and using a proprietary network that ran (and still runs) contrary to the spirit and open nature of sharing on the internet. I was caught up in the hysteria at the time, and created this page for Facebook.

Instead of spending time and energy on my own site (jumpseatnews.com), I was spending more and more time contributing content and traffic to facebook.com, twitter.com, etc. In other words, adding fuel to other people's web sites and not my own. Dumb. A big mistake.

So, on July 26, 2011, I quit Facebook.

Shortly after that, I took some time off from the digital age. I stopped checking email all the time, quit carrying my laptop everywhere, no longer following web and social media trends, and even declared a recent Email Bankruptcy (sorry about that) and brought my inbox back to zero.

Then, one night, I decided to revisit Jumpseatnews---but with a new perspective.

It actually made me cry.

You see, I was the college kid returning home between semesters. I walked in the front door all high on myself (hey, I had a pretty good run with this site don't you think?) to suddenly discover that the family dog I grew up with (but stopped spending time with once girls became more imporant) had gone ahead and grown old. He no longer could run or play, or even jump up and greet me at the door. He just slowly wagged his tail and gazed up at me with sad but happy eyes----with a haunting you-forgot-all-about-me-but-I-still-love-you look.

I actually started to write a "Time for Jumpseatnews to Close" article and start a 30-day countdown to end this site for good. I was so depressed as I went through the over 4,541 files that comprise this site. So many of them are shit. They are outdated. Links are broken. Images are missing. Nothing makes sense and stuff is difficult to find. JSN became pointless to use (beyond an easy-to-remember way to get to Unimatic.). SkyNet was supposed to be difficult to use, not JSN! I remember just staring at the screen in complete and utter frustration.

The next day, I went for a long walk.

People also told me that I was nuts for starting a web site called Jumpseatnews and that having a web site wouldn't really be of much use to flight attendants because they were always away flying, and never near computers.

That freed up my time a bit (

With all my free time (you see kids, I was no longer spending hours 'checking facebook' when

The ugly cracked logo is more for myself than anyone else. I need to be reminded that this web site continues to become outdated and completing the redesign is long overdue.

ng opens today.  This will be the single most important vote of our career and there’s a great deal at stake.

I’ve sat back and watched during the past few months as emotions, tension, and attacks between fellow flying partners have escalated.  It’s been very sad and unsettling.

Therefore, I’ve made the decision to disable user wall posting of headlines on the JSN Facebook page until 1400 Eastern Time, June 29.

I’m not interested in this JSN Facebook page being used as a campaign back-and-forth between the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) and the International Association of Machinists (IAM).  Commenting will still be possible on articles that are published there, and I’m sure you will still see some campaigning creeping in with that, but a majority of the election cross-back-and-forth-wall-post-attacks are going to be eliminated.  Everyone needs time to reflect, focus on the facts, make their own decision, and vote.

Often with Facebook, it’s an overblown, over hyped, overused media platform for people to tell me things that I either don’t care about (“I’m sitting here in downtown Buffalo eating a hamburger.  Boy, is this ketchup coming slowly out of the bottle. Golly!”) or post messages that they are trying to ram down my reader’s throats (“YOU!! VOTE FOR US!! YOU ARE AN IDIOT IF YOU DON’T, YOU IGNORANT DUMBASS!”).

To be clear: I’m not shutting the JSN FB page down, but I am keeping it in check with what I believe to be the spirit of JSN.  All this antagonism between UAL and CAL (an unfortunate side-effect of this election and certain individuals that get a real hard-on with this sort of thing) has led to this decision today.  There are plenty of other FB pages and internet chat boards that openly allow, and often encourage, this kind of silly social media promotion and attacks on flying partners and passengers.  The JSN Facebook page is not one of them.

The facebook page will return to normal after June 29.

I hope you can respect this decision.