Preservation Efforts
Flash has gone but Doodlelong has returned online with some compromises.
Website address change
Doodlelong.com is moving to the Frosty Badger website.
8 Years and Still Doodling
It has been 8 years since doodle #1 started it.
News
Preservation Efforts
You may have noticed the web has (long ago) moved on from the use of Adobe Flash on web pages. I'll leave you to investigate the reasons why (hint: constant security flaws and Apple). Here at Doodlelong that kinda put a serious crimp on things, given our core drawing and browsing app was built with OpenLaszlo (also no longer around) which compiled to a Flash app.
There's no easy way to get the drawing bit of Doodlelong back up and running without rebuilding it from scratch for the modern web (and maybe even mobile). And unfortunately, I don't think it's worth the payoff, given only a handful of visitors stumble onto this site from time to time.
As a compromise, I've spent a few hours updating the site to explain what's going on and why things aren't working. I've fixed links, put a notice on the homepage and I've added a dynamic image of what the Doodlelong app used to look like (beneath the Flash message). By "dynamic" I mean... if you click on any of the doodle thumbnail links throughout the site - the ones that used to take you to the homepage and load that doodle up in the app - they'll still show you doodle (the app just won't let you scroll or draw like it used to).
You can still browse the gallery, videos, stats and all other areas of the website too. I'll continue to try and keep this little social art experiment alive online for historic preservation.
Thanks, Dom.
Posted by Dominic Manley, 24th November 2021
Website address change
This is just a short announcement to say the doodlelong.com domain will be retired soon. The website will continue on though at its new website address...
http://www.frostybadger.com/doodlelong/
Posted by Dominic Manley, 22nd October 2017
8 Years and Still Doodling
Doodlelong launched online on 27th November 2006. It has now been over 8 years since my (rather ordinary) first doodle started the collaborative and creative task of doodling the longest doodle in the world.
The website hasn't had much activity in recent times. New doodles occasionally trickle in as visitors stumble upon the link but our regular artists, such as the awesome Brice, have moved on to find other distractions.
All the same, I made a promise to myself (and visitors) that I'd try to keep things ticking over here for as long as possible. That just involved having to migrate Doodlelong onto a new server. It went well and along the way I fixed up a few things, including the Twitter integration which now lets admins tweet doodles with images attached. I'm sure that'll be a boon to all 6 of our followers!
Sometimes it's just fun to do these things, even if no one ever sees them. That has been the story of Doodlelong from the beginning... I never expected it to have the buzz it initially enjoyed. It was just an interesting pet project that could flex my web development skills.
These days I'm focused on mobile apps. I wish I had more time free because I'd love to see Doodlelong on my iPhone (either through Safari or as a native app). Maybe one day.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone.
Posted by Dominic Manley, 14th December 2014
Doodlelong now on Twitter!
It seems everyone is setting up a Twitter account these days and I didn't want Doodlelong to be left out. You can now follow news and highlighted doodles at http://twitter.com/doodlelong.
And if you weren't already aware, you can also follow things using our RSS feeds. They're linked over on the right-hand side there.
Posted by Dominic Manley, 8th August 2009
World Doodle Project
It has been some time since Doodlelong last got my attention but today I got a lovely e-mail from Annette who has enticed me to revisit the site and post this message.
Annette runs a website called the World Doodle Project. Its purpose is to celebrate doodles and doodling creativity. Instead of providing a means to purposely doodle online, like we do here, Annette is trying to capture those doodles that people draw day to day in their natural surroundings. You know, the kind you do when on the phone at work or when day-dreaming unknowingly.
The site has a gallery of doodles submitted by people from different walks of life. There are doodles by doctors, architects, artists and more... demonstrating there's creativity in all of us whether we actively tap into it or not. It'll be interesting to see, as the project's collection expands, whether different professions show patterns of doodling in certain ways.
So if you have any interesting doodles lying around, consider scanning them in and uploading them to the World Doodle Project.
Posted by Dominic Manley, 1st August 2009
