This is a really significant development in the web creation tool world that will appeal to many Weavers. Huge contratulations to the UK Blocs team who had the vision and skill to pull this off.
I am seriously considering a new iPad just to use this.
Update - Heres an interface introduction video that shows how Blocs works on iPad. Note how smooth and instantly synced multiple preview windows work.
Thanks for sharing this, exciting times ahead 😎
Although Blocs looks to be a really great product and may or may not be something I adopt as a future product depending on what happens in the hopefully near future, I thought this was a RW/Stacks forum, it does seem to be turning in to a Blocs love forum more and more, with the intention of driving folk away from Stacks towards Blocs. I don’t see any postive mention of Stacks on the Blocs forum and encouraging folk to move to Stacks. If you are a Foundation user then Joe’s forum is great, if you are a Foundry user then Adam’s forum is great, however I’m starting to feel a little lost that the RW4All forum is becoming more intesified at being a join Blocs forum. Where do I go? Which forum should I be joining for a positive community on Stacks, because I sure as anything support Issaiah’s stacks development and his genuine human approach to his customer base, it must be quite hurtful when his product has provided so much for many for quite some time, had a really rough deal dealt his direction and is working hard fighting the clock to get it somewhere for the existing and future Stacks userbase, but then see that the community surrounding it is cannibalising his (and our) product. I love and use Foundation, I love and use Foundry, (haven’t used source yet, but imagine I will be), should I be sticking to those forums instead, just doesn’t seem like there is the glue needed between them to say Stacks, which is why I joined RW4All. I know I will probably get the online forum equivalent of being beaten over the head with a stick to say this, but where do I go when a Stacks forum us getting more and more about promoting a totally different product and implying misgivings with Stacks and my investment with indie dev’s stacks appearing to be suggest as being more and more been pointless. I’ve bought so many stacks, have a huge library of them, big investment, and now I do feel that I am being gradually coerced in to starting over again with a different product. Should I be buying all over again from a dev that has jumped ship or is gradually jumping ship, doesn’t sit right with me that notion.
Final summary, genuinely, I do believe Blocs is a great platform, I believe the dev is fully behind the product, but it does seem a bit sinister the constant promotion of Blocs on here , and that puts me off Blocs, feels a bit like a Realmac practice of doing business taking opportunity whilst Issaiah is in a vulnerable place at this moment with his product until it can be fully released.
Which forum should I be more invested in that is investing themselves in Stacks and forthcoming Staks app? Any suggestiions greatly appreciated. I want to continue to support Stacks and the Stacks indie devs that support Stacks and their stacks.
To put things into perspective, from overall 2,800 topics, we have approximately 50, where Blocs was just mentioned. A subset of them where someone praised Blocs, so maybe a 0.1% love Blocs forum.
We have always be a forum for all kinds. See the WordPress, Elevator, Divi discussions etc.
In fairness just done a search for Blocs and it trawls up 81 posts discussing Blocs, and there a great many that are long threads, which is where the sting is as they can be very influential on readers with continuous countering of discussion or views, but it is not really about the number of posts but the increasing intensity over recent times where Blocs is being hawked to what I’ve always thought was a Rapidweaver/Stacks userbase highlighting the positives of Blocs and the negatives of Stacks. I have nothing against Blocs or the developer or third-party developers, competition is good and fires the need and want to better each product and introduce new things, it may even be a product I’ll adopt in the future (?). Just doesn’t sit well with me having to be retold that my investment with Stacks and stacks was a great thing a few years ago but now I have been wasting my time and money in doing so as it’s not very good anymore, has limitations, doesn’t do this and that out of the box etc. Also just doesn’t sit well with me that the Stacks developer Issaiah who has been there for us when needed, developed a platform that created a system for users and business opportunity for developers and sincere with it needs support of that userbase to keep encouragment flowing otherwise there will be no userbase left when his hard work bears fruit as many have been encouraged to go elsewhere.
If RW4All is intended for all web-building platforms then fair enough, I get it completely and that’s a great thing if that is the case and intention, why not then possibly consider putting a pinned post at the top stating that, other forums have pinned posts at the top outlining their intentions. Maybe even possibly consider changing the name from RW4All to something more relevant for multiple platforms? That would bring in more variety of app users and encourage the notion that this is a forum for all apps and platforms?
As I say just doesn’t sit well with me to be made to feel like a mug the last six months having invested in all this library of stacks I’ve bought from indie devs, when I’m reading that I should have been investing elsewhere and I’m foolish not to have been doing that.
That’s your view on it. I would put my worries away and wait for Stacks Pro 😉
Dare I point out that maybe you have spent too much time on other RW commercial focussed forums where you are being fed this narrative? Does Blocs even get discussed on those forums? Several of the biggest threads here have been about Blocs, so perhaps if you had read those threads, you would have known what Blocs can do that no RW/Stacks/Framework/stacks (big $$$) combination can do. It’s up to you to figure out if the Blocs iPad proposition for just £3.99/month is interesting or not.
This forum has no commercial pressure to promote a line of stacks or framework, but it does do a pretty decent job of presenting factually correct and knowledgable views about web design with a past focus on Stacks.
Elements was and still is, IMHO a Weaver attractant joke and never got further than a devious scribble on the back of a vegan fast food napkin.
There is a strong expectation and genuine hope that Stacks Pro will come to fruition, but only when it is ready for release, and Isaiah’s lack of communication is just the quirky way he works.
What we are seeing across all Stacks forums, is a steady decline in forum activity, new stacks, a loss of developers and essentially nothing significant going on that moves the game on. Not wanting to be seen to be coercing you again, but the Blocs forum is regularly more active that all the stacks forums together. So the writing is on the wall about where things seem to be going, yet deep down we know that Isaiah can pull that magic rabbit out of that hat, before it’s too late.
Yeah that’s relying on quite a bit of presumption and assumption and a tad offensive that I’m daft in the head and fall for a pitch. I use the same handle Tophat in all of them and my activity can be seen. Haven’t been on the Realmac one for a long long time, I’m mainly only active on the Foundry 3 forum (because I’m new to the party with Foundry and love it) and this one RW4All. The Foundry forum is very helpful and you feel encouraged to help others. There is no financial incentive as the framework has already been purchased so it really is about what can you do with the framework and the additions and enhancement developed at no extra cost.
On all other major forums I see no mention of Blocs, which is honourable, the users remain instead positive and helpful about their own products instead.
Seemed that way to me also. An attempt to get everyone on board, a gamble that ruined everything.
If stacks is the past focus then that is absolutely fine by me, truly, so long as I know and that is clear to all others. My investment, like many others, doesn’t want to be belittled and thrown away, it’s not a sunk investment either. The shear variety of different approaches different devs have to a functionality is fantastic. I can use one of One Little Designer’s menus for one project and then Will Woodgate’s Mega Menu for another. I can use Webyep for one project and Alloy for another, Quick Editor Admin for another and so on. So many different approaches and angles to mention.
Stacks provides a healthy competition and innovation platform with the variety of stacks, which myself and others have benefitted from dearly.
This has been great for stacks development with devs employing unique approaches and features, however I can understand it is not so good for template/project devs as it adds too many variables in to the pot, a template/project dev would need to stick to just the core elements to reach a wider audience or invest in all the multitude of stacks and then only have the appeal of the template/project catered for to those that posses those individual stacks. I can fully understand where Blocs has it’s appeal there and there is a $$$/£££ mine to be tapped in to for templates/projects.
Maybe Stacks needs its own dedicated forum then, a positive forum all about Stacks, maybe it will come, because it can be disheartening when Stacks is ‘allowed’ to be receive a regular beating, but if anybody makes even a slight criticism of Blocs they get jumped on for it. It can worryingly lead down a path towards a cliquey community where you are only allowed to have the one opinion of the loudest… I love this forum, it has been really helpful in the past and I would hope I can contribute help where I can to folk where I have experienced a similar problem and solved it, but you have to be really cautious when posting or being able to offer advice as a response, you have to think “should I post, should I reply, i think I know the answer to the question, but not 100% sure, better not as I’ll get gunned down for it”. maybe that’s why activity is declining?
Anyway if it helps, I’m wrong with everything I’ve said, I’m truly sorry for that, please blockquote that so it stands out to people that skim posts and get the core nugget of the discussion.
I think that you argued your position fairly - not to belittle any other product, but simply that praising other products make you feel uneasy about your financial and emotional investment into Stacks. Not everyone has to feel the same way, obviously, but we should acknowledge your statement without judgment. I appreciate your honesty. Please don’t take some responses here personally.
RW4All will certainly remain the ‘go to’ place for anything RW/Stacks related - I am generally in awe about the support that is freely given here by other experts to novices like myself. As for discussing other products in one or another thread, I don’t take offense in it, but rather see it as a conveninient opportunity to learn a little bit beyond the Stacks scope - if it’s too much, I can always skip reading ;) I would venture to say that Isaiah is OK with what’s discussed here on RW4ALL … and once StacksPRO becomes available, I am sure, there will be again a lot of Stacks related topics here.
Back to Blocs for iPad. If you read this Blocs for iPad blog post you will notice the following:
For those who already enjoy building websites with Blocs for Mac, you’ll be happy to hear that Blocs for iPad uses the same file format (.bloc) meaning you can work on Blocs projects between both Mac and iPad, for an insane level of productivity and flexibility in your web design workflow.
But, that’s not all, Blocs for iPad also supports all of your Blocs add-ons and custom desktop fonts, making it the perfect addition for those who already use Blocs for Mac.
I did not expect to be able to switch between the Mac and iPad version and work on the same project file with the same addons and custom fonts. That is an incredible feature and one that I thought was not possible within the Apple ecosystem.
There is a Discord space/place (not sure of the exact terminology) for Stacks that is run by Isaiah, Joe and others. Might be worth a look? Personally I don’t like the Discord experience, so not my go to place.
I do find it interesting to see discussions of other web building tools and topics, nice to see a wider view of the web building options, as the RW/Stacks/stacks combo is not always the best tool for all jobs.
It’s surprising how often people confuse their opinions for knowledge.
it looks cute!
The agency that promotes the app is professional, there’s an art director and good guys doing the media. This makes Block very interesting for users regardless of how it works. The company has invested a lot of money in advertising.
The RW community is big and professionals and private users have coexisted for many years and there are sites out there that are 10 years old and up to date, when Block has sites updated with at least 5/8 years I could make some comparisons. This also applies to Elements in Worpress (in about 2 weeks I had to do at least 4 security updates).
There is a Discord space/place (not sure of the exact terminology) for Stacks that is run by Isaiah, Joe and others. Might be worth a look?
+1
I second what Jannis says. Because of what stacks are, there is no reason to believe they will become obsolete. The web is based on standards, with serious concern for backwards compatibility, and stacks are simply templates bringing together HTML, CSS, JS and PHP files with a user interface. If I thought that RW/Stacks (or Stacks Pro) was being left behind by new web technologies, I’d be looking around at other products. But there is no reason to think that: in principle it will be possible to build a stack for all future standards-based web technologies, even with RW 8/Stacks 4.
If one has made a significant investment in learning RW/Stacks, is maintaining RW/Stacks sites and/or has spent a lot of money buying stacks, there is no reason to contemplate moving to anything else. It doesn’t make any sense. That said, it’s always good to hear what other products are out there, and Gary’s updates on Blocs have been excellent. I hope it will be an ambition to port Stacks Pro to iPad at some point in the future. But there is clearly more important stuff to do first.
I am cool with everyone having their own opinions on things. However, this statement is just utter non-sense. I launched madeforstacks.com back in March with 558 addons listed. As of today we are up to 582. That is 24 new addons in less than 3 months. Not every developer (you included) has decided to add your addons to the site. That is ok, that is your decision. I still have listed you on the developer page.
When launched there were 30 developers. There are now 31 listed. I know of at least 4 power users that are working on stacks to start selling later this year.
Traffic and interaction on the communities that I frequent are strong and vibrant.
100% I have thrown my hat into the ring and will be launching my stacks site soon. A completely nonsensical comment from @Webdeersign
Just to back this up with factual data. Traffic on the Weaver’s Space community has almost doubled in the last 12 months.
In all fairness, your uptick coincides with the implosion of the RW forum. Also you are one of the only outlets with activity from the host.
That said, congratulations! I hope it turns into a sustainable income. :-)
@joe
New posts per day is IMHO a more realistic metric. 3 days ago, even you (Joe) had only 1 new post in a day, and this very forum is starting to see that here. It was unthinkable before the Realmac debacle in March 22 that there would be only 1 post per day here.
Behind the scenes, there is growing concern, and the public facing activity is reducing and developers are seeing less revenue. Some developers are sitting it out until Stacks Pro arrives, but other’s have already left the building. Attracting new Stacks developers is key to going forward to take Stacks to where it should be.
Tophat’s frustration with his investment, on this thread, is clear when he sees something like Blocs for iPad being released. A RW/Stacks Pro for iPad that you can switch between the Mac version, with all your stacks, is the stuff of the wildest of Weaver dreams.
Your wonderful madeforstacks site is really more a growing catalogue of existing stacks and developers, so that doesn’t doesn’t really reflect new activity. In your Search, if you consider adding a Search that works for say CSS-Grid, Source, overlap, etc., and I’ll add to it. Currently everything I create wouldn’t show up.
P.S. The Blocs marketplace, built right into the app, with a 1-click download and install, all from within the App, is where Stacks Pro needs to be. Blocs used to be the puck we were chasing, but Blocs is now where the puck is going and is already the goal.
There’s a big frustrated elephant in the room, who is not going to go away until Stacks Pro arrives. As it is now June 23, I really hope that will be soon, so we can get back to using stacks with confidence.
I should also say that using Stacks5 with RW8 has never been better and continues to be perfectly serviceable for new and existing sites.
I’ve been travelling and must have missed this - what was the RW debacle?
Regarding the Blocs discussion, I am ambivalent - on the one hand it’s interesting to learn about new stuff and on the other I’m personally too invested in the Stacks universe to feel a need to change. Bring on Stacks Pro!
Perhaps we should rename this space ARightOldFree4All 🤔
