The Hickensian

12.07.05

62 comments

This is not, the greatest blog in the world, this is just a tribute

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No.1

Chris J. Davis said 1452 days ago:

Well done Jon.

As I noted on my site his voice will be missed. I hope his time away gives him what he needs.

No.2

Baz said 1452 days ago:

I’ve not been doing this web design thing long, but John was an instant inspiration, and his sites last design will be one I remember.
Hope he can come back soon.

No.3

Matt Wilcox said 1452 days ago:

Joshuaink was much more than ‘just a web standards blog’, and I’ll be missing Johns amusing and insightful commentry. I hope he’s OK and that he can return having found peace of heart and mind.

No.4

tom said 1452 days ago:

Indeed. I certainly enjoyed John’s web commentary and I will be missing John’s sarcasm and half-assed attitude that gave me chuckles from time to time.

No.5

Brian Middleton said 1452 days ago:

John will be missed. I always looked forward to reading his posts and was always amazed at how prolific he was. Insightful, funny, crude, down-to-earth, just a few words to describe Mr. Oxton (and that is just from reading his blog). I hope all is well with him.

No.6

Michael Greene said 1452 days ago:

Excellent tribute, Jon. Unfortunately, it seemed things were going this way when John announced his shift in site focus a couple of weeks ago, and the personal issues must have topped it off.

No.7

Stuart Maynard-Keene said 1452 days ago:

His site was the first to make me scream since gabocorp.com back in the day.

I hope he can overcome any problems or heartache to beset him, and let him know there are a great deal of bloggers’ shoulders he can cry on if that need should ever arise.

Till the next time.

No.8

John Oxton said 1452 days ago:

So, who wants to buy the flowers then? No wait.. that’s not right is it…

Thank you everyone, this is all a little strange but n’er the less still quite touching—in a non-physical hetrosexual sort of way you understand! Not that I have anything against gay people you understand, some of my best friends are gay. Oh look there’s a big hole, I think I’ll jump in it.

Thank you! Lovely people—well apart from Tom.

No.9

Graham Bancroft said 1452 days ago:

I’m glad to see the back of him to be honest.

No.10

Timmargh said 1452 days ago:

:^(

No.11

Faruk AteÅŸ said 1452 days ago:

What the… :’((

No.12

Anders B. said 1452 days ago:

In the words of Darth Vader: Noooooo!

No.13

Ben said 1452 days ago:

I clicked on this morning, expecting to pass the first hour at work pretending to moderate Oxton’s forums. Got a bit of a shock when I saw his message…

You’ve done him a fine tribute, Jon, though I do now have Jack Black’s singing stuck in my head (and my mind is wandering and wondering if Jack and John might ever have looked alike).

John, you get a standing ovation from me. You’ve entertained, helped, maybe even befriended me over these last few months. And you taught me swear words I’d never thought of before.

Best wishes and good luck in your real life, although I am gutted that the Kitchen pages are no-longer accessible, I’ve got an aubergine and I don’t really know what to do with it…

No.14

Matt Robin said 1452 days ago:

I dearly hope John has all the time he needs to deal with his grief in the way that is comfortable for him and he has my deepest regards.

I have enjoyed blogging on his site – and hope to do so again when it’s appropriate, right here and now though – blogging, web design and the whole Internet should be the very last thing on John’s mind – and I respect that.

Matt

No.15

Matt Robin said 1452 days ago:

Graham: Get me more coffee damnit! ;-)

No.16

Richard Dunlop-Walters said 1452 days ago:

I always enjoyed reading Joshuaink, his writing style was brilliant. I’ll miss it.

No.17

Faruk AteÅŸ said 1452 days ago:

Is there a goodbye message he left somewhere that I’m missing?

No.18

Andrea said 1452 days ago:

I will definitely miss John’s site—it was a great mix of knowledge and humanity.

No.19

Steve Hubbard said 1452 days ago:

It’s a little disheartening to wake this morning and discover that Design In-Flight is no longer, only to then discover that the bus full of hippies has departed as well. Many thanks for the ride John….

No.20

Matt Robin said 1452 days ago:

Faruk: Tom (above, in the blog thread) has it posted on his site and I have a copy of it scratching about too (if needed).

John might be offline – bu he won’t be forgotten! ;-)

No.21

goodwitch said 1452 days ago:

John, your special brand of ink will be missed. Thanks for all you did share.

Wishing you peace and healing and joy.

No.22

Mario said 1452 days ago:

Hey Mr.Ink, going to miss your site.. I was surprised when I went to check it this evening and nothing came up…I swore Firefox was assing around (no offense Jon). It was wonderful place, loved your attitude lol. It’ll be missed

No.23

Callum Mcleod said 1452 days ago:

‘Tis a pity to lose such a great site. I always enjoyed reading his posts

No.24

Michael Heilemann said 1452 days ago:

Insert guitarsolo here. Good luck Joshua.

No.25

YaaL said 1452 days ago:

He will be missed.
And – one might hope – he will be back, sooner or later.

No.26

Jens Grochtdreis said 1452 days ago:

So why did he close the site? And why did he close it totally instead of leaving the old entries for the interested public?
It’s sad he finished publishing. I hope he will prevail and return.

No.27

Jordan Moore said 1452 days ago:

I have only known of John’s site since I first saw his URL in my referrer logs nearly a week ago for his “Help Me Pick a Gem” post. Just over the past week, I grew to enjoy his style of writing, and loved his design. He will be missed.

No.28

Jacob said 1452 days ago:

Thanks Jon for prividing a platform shall we say. I was shocked to see Johns blog close and then I couldn’t even leave a comment on the site! Thank heavens we can count on mr Hicks.
Anyway if you read this John all the best to you, I really enjoyed your blog. Hope you do some of that resurfacing in the near future.

No.29

Aleksandar said 1452 days ago:

Few people mention grief…what exactly happened? Very sad to see a lovely site gone.

No.30

Matthew Pennell said 1452 days ago:

Nice work, Jon – so that’s what you really wanted the t-shirts for…! ;)

I second all the comments here – Joshuaink might not have been the greatest blog in the world, but it was certainly the most rock’n’roll one! :)

Ben – the John Oxton tribute forums are over here if you’re interested in taking up that moderator’s hat again…

No.31

ian said 1452 days ago:

err.. why did he go offline?

No.32

Mark Boulton said 1452 days ago:

Good tribute Jon.

John, your ‘I used to be a chef, and chefs swear ok?’ was, if only for a short time, a breath of fresh air.

You’ll be missed.

No.33

Guy said 1452 days ago:

Can somebody please just explain where and why he’s gone. There is no info about this anywhere, least of all on John’s site.

No.34

Olly said 1452 days ago:

Wha? NOOO! :-(

No.35

Massimo said 1452 days ago:

Ow! What is worse is that I never stumbled upon his site! Now that I read this, I wish I did!!! I feel stupid – left out… :-)

No.36

AkaXakA said 1452 days ago:

We’ll all miss him..

No.37

Simon said 1452 days ago:

I already miss him :(

No.38

Benjamin Jackson said 1452 days ago:

It’s time for my usual Joshuaink.com read and I am feeling the pain!

No.39

If..Else said 1452 days ago:

Nice tribute Jon, but I think Ben out-did you with his:
_“I am gutted that the Kitchen pages are no-longer accessible, I’ve got an aubergine and I don’t really know what to do with it…”_

Good luck John.

No.40

Tom said 1452 days ago:

You know when you dont check your feeds for a few days and you think the worlds gonna turn topsy tuvy, I think it just did.

viva le flowers.

No.41

Lisa McMillan said 1452 days ago:

Man. I hope he’s ok. I never understood why he got so much heat for his attitude. It was just honest and HIS. Dam refreshing if you ask me. Let me at the comment troll. Mama’s comin’ with a world of hurt.

John, you taught me a lot, you invited me to my first meme and you made me laugh. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I hope the world is good to you, and that if and when you’re ready there will be a pile of us here to support your return. Take care man.

No.42

Kitta said 1452 days ago:

I’m going to be lost without my daily Oxton fix.

No.43

Frode Danielsen said 1452 days ago:

¡!
This was not what I expected to find when returning to my computer and rss-feeds this evening… Oxton’s blog quickly became one of my favorites, and his design blew me away at first sight. I hope he finds his much deserved peace and personal space to return to “our world” later on.

Thank you for everything so far!

No.44

Kevin Marino said 1451 days ago:

Gack!

No I’ll never know about the question I asked about zucchini pancakes.

Since this seems to have become a “sort of” tribute link, would like to say will miss Jon. Only been reading the site for a few months and really enjoyed it.

Look forward to the second coming.

No.45

Robin Pelham said 1451 days ago:

I really hope he is ok and that he returns. His site quickly became my favourite blog on the net and his forums were just starting to take off. I’ll really miss his amusing posts and interessting take on things.

No.46

Philroche said 1451 days ago:

I read ton’s of sites every day, but the list of sites is always rotating, only a few are permanent. joshuaink.com was one of those.. a real keeper. What the hell am I going to assign to the “j” bookmark keyword, it’s bugging me bigtime. I press “j” on reflex and nothing happens.

If you’re listening John, it was great getting to know you (in malarkey’s dungeon and through your blog), I’ll be missing you chief.

No.47

Jens Meiert said 1451 days ago:

It’s a pity, but we are waiting for a breathtaking comeback :)

No.48

Dave said 1451 days ago:

He needed a break and that’s cool with me. However as Jens says I want a massive comeback with fireworks (the gunpowder type this time) and presents for all!

No.49

matthew said 1451 days ago:

That background image (heck the whole design) is just too good not to be on show somewhere.

Goood luck Jon.

No.50

Biggest Apple said 1450 days ago:

I too had commented on my site how odd it was to “miss” someone you don’t know, have no plans to meet, and in all likelyhood wouldn’t want to meet you.

No.51

Joey B. said 1450 days ago:

Mr. Oxton provided me with my first “celebrity” comment on my site, and he’ll forever have my gratitude for making me feel worthy (for the lack of a better word) that day. He will be missed while he’s gone.

And by the way, nice Tenacious D rip on the title there, Jon.

No.52

Patrick R said 1450 days ago:

Sorry to see him go! That feed was my first click when it came time to waste some time… in a high-quality kind of way.

No.53

Eugenio said 1450 days ago:

Funny stuff at times, and nice design, but the dude seemed to be taking the whole thing way too serious and seemed hyper-sensitive to the troll factor (or “fuckheads” I believe was how they were referred to).

Based on some of the final details and reflections (someone’s dead, should’ve stopped a while ago, it was causing grief, and a fear of “fuckheads”), it was DEFINITELY time to shut her down…..

No.54

John Oxton said 1450 days ago:

Eugenie, you are such a naughty boy, you can’t swear of Hicksdesign, it’s just not the done thing—also you need to stop stalking me, I’ll have to put a restraining order on you, you’re just not my kind of girl! ;-)

No.55

Ian Lloyd said 1450 days ago:

I dunno, first Fergus Webber gets killed off by a guy wearing a chef’s hat and now this?!

No.56

Eugenio said 1449 days ago:

call me

No.57

Matt Robin said 1449 days ago:

I hope wherever John is….he’s ‘cookin’ with gas!’

...(It’s just a saying – doesn’t mean he HAS to cook with gas of course!) Damnit, I was going to ask John all sorts of crappy cooking questions because I’m shit at it (bloke that I am) and trying to learn….(why? I dunno – makes me enjoy it more perhaps?)...and now…sniff...I’ll never get the chance.

I think he knows a thing or two about about web design as well…but why the hell would I ask him about something like that – when it would only bore him to tears! ;-)

No.58

Sarah said 1449 days ago:

And here I thought the RSS feeds were down. Frustrated, I finally went to his site today and then I needed a place to cry, so here I am. Dude, you rock!

No.59

Jina Bolton said 1447 days ago:

Tenacious D reference? Nice.

If John comes back, I wonder what he will be reincarnated as…

No.60

Bio said 1447 days ago:

Oh no! What happened?

Could anyone explain this to me? Why did Jon stop this? I went on his site just right now and there waas only a link to Flickr.

Ah man, this is not good. :-(

No.61

Dave said 1446 days ago:

This was one of the first sites I went to everyday (or almost every day). It was one of the mst amazing designs I have ever seen. Definitely one of the sites that got me excited about switching to CSS based design.

p.s. Love the headline for this post. Long live the D.