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Lumilux

Lumilux: A Photoblog

19 May 2005

Mint

It seems as though Shaun Inman is hiding something from us, though not entirely. I recently got a referrer from http://bearskinrug.co.uk/mint/, which turned out to be (the login page for) a site stats application. Shaun also had it. Is this new Mint the newest version of Shortstat Shaun’s been working on? Is MediaTemple sponsoring him, and will we have to pay for Mint? We can tell that Shaun has been working on Mint, but he used the words “private beta test.”

I love a good mystery.

Update: Oh, Matt, you are truly evil.
Update: Alright, this is getting ridiculous. I got a referrer from the Mint of haveamint.com itself.
June 9th Update: Shaun has just uploaded a screengrab of Mint. I’d pay money for this!
June 9th Update: haveamint.com is being monitored by Mint. You can have a look at the PHP file that’s tracking the hits. Also, if you look at the meta tags, you’ll see that Mint is indeed the new version of Shortstat. (Plus, you can see Shaun’s middle name: Corbett. That’s the coolest name I’ve ever heard.) As of now, Mint is up to v028.
June 10th Update: As Ryan pointed out, there are actually two screengrabs of Mint. Also, there’s a screenshot of an advanced version of Shortstat/early version of Mint. This is what Jon Hicks used at one point (and I saw the entire page!).
June 13th Update: Dan has found that Jeff Croft still has that “in limbo” version of Shortstat installed here, plus a Mint.
June 13th Update: Holy mackerel! Dave has found the jackpot!
June 14th Update: Now that Shaun’s having such a hard time trying to keep people from drooling all over his new design, he’s slipped and given us yet another screenshot. Either he manually edited that yellow highlight in, or Mint has some Javascript-type highlighting of table rows and columns. Delicious!
June 14th Update: The ShortStat Widget has been released. Shaun tells bets our asses that a Minty Widget is coming soon. So this widget has been released for Shortstat, and Mint isn’t out yet, so it looks like it’s going to be at the least 2-4 weeks before we get Mint. If Mint were to be released next week, what use would there be for a Shortstat Widget, anyway?
June 14th Update: So someone’s trying to play a little joke, eh? Well, I’ll play along and link to the fake Mint front page he made.
June 23rd Update: Patrick Weber is as impatient as I and has created a Minty stylesheet for Shortstat.
June 26th Update: It looks like Shaun is already working on a Mint Widget, according to this screenshot.
July 8th Update: Patrick Weber has found evidence proving that Mint will be “not free, but cheap.”
September 2nd Update: Jeff Croft has an article about Mint’s User Agent 007.
September 2nd Update: It’s true, Mint is commercial software. The compatability check page has a purchase link.
Also, I am fully aware that comments have been broken for some time now and am trying my best to fix the problem. In the meantime, please donate to the Red Cross.
September 3rd, 2005 Update: Shaun’s Curiously Strong Minty marketing campaign is going strong.
September 5th, 2005 Update: Yes, I can feel it in my bones now… MINT IS COMING!

September 5th, 2005 Update: See it. Buy it.

  1. I got this same url on my stats too. Looking forward to seeing what he’s been upto, I’m addicted to stats at the moment.

    Rob Winters    19 May 05

  2. Yes, a good mystery. :)

    Shaun Inman    19 May 05

  3. Tease. :)

    Rob Winters    21 May 05

  4. Evil? Me? :)

    iammattthomas    22 May 05

  5. Looks like hicks has it now

    Dave    26 May 05

  6. Even Jason is minty…

    I want it.

    Casey    9 June 05

  7. http://shauninman.com/tmp/cm/preview4.gif

    Ryan Matsikas    10 June 05

  8. Man.. looks like everyone is getting it.

    Amazing what a little screenshot can do to a person. I cannot wait for this to be released, it looks absolutely awesome.

    Callum Mcleod    10 June 05

  9. Mint? Never heard of such a thing! This is preposterous! There is no way I know anything about this! I have no clue what you people are talking about!

    Jeff Croft    13 June 05

  10. my two cents:
    – Just looks GREAT.
    – Wanna have it NOW.

    Christian Irmler    13 June 05

  11. jeffcroft.com/shortstat/
    how about that?

    Dan    13 June 05

  12. It’s spreading…

    I found the minty disease with Rob Weychert and Mike Davidson.

    Thame    13 June 05

  13. http://jeffcroft.com/mint
    Or that?

    Joe    13 June 05

  14. THAT:
    http://jeffcroft.com/mint
    Where or how can I get it? PLEASE!

    Christian Irmler    13 June 05

  15. or that?

    Dave    13 June 05

  16. Could somebody send me the install.zip for mint?

    Christian Irmler    14 June 05

  17. That would be cheating… we’re supposed to be all anxious and stuff…

    James    14 June 05

  18. Yeah…

    I guess the cat is out of the bag enough now for me to say that those of us who are helping Shaun test out Mint are under strict rules not to release it to anyone else. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait. But I can tell you this: it will be worth the wait. :)

    Jeff Croft    14 June 05

  19. BTW—my “in limbo” version of ShortStat, while still installed, is not still being updated…

    Jeff Croft    14 June 05

  20. Isn't that why it's called “in limbo?"

    Tyler Durden    14 June 05

  21. Actually, I called it “in limbo” because it’s in between regular Shortstat and Mint.

    Thank you, everyone (especially Jeff, for being the first beta tester to talk about this in public!), for all the links, etc.

    ★ Hans    14 June 05

  22. Hehe. Thanks for playing along. I didn’t think you would check it that fast. I can’t wait for Mint!!

    Gilberto Creque    14 June 05

  23. So are we thinking like 2 weeks or a month or what?

    James    15 June 05

  24. Hmm so were all just waiting.. Hmm i’m sick of waiting!

    Dave    15 June 05

  25. I’m sick of waiting too!

    Christian Irmler    16 June 05

  26. haveamint.com/mint/mint.js.php
    Dude, that’s deep.

    qrayg    16 June 05

  27. haveamint.com seems to be running v29 whereas the other sites all seem to be pushing v28. Just thought I’d mention that.

    Ryan Latham    19 June 05

  28. May I present…

    The Minty Flavor for ShortStat.

    Patrick Weber    23 June 05

  29. I went through the stylesheet for mint and extracted all of the images that are contained within it. Here are links to all of them:

    [Not so fast, Patrick.]

    It appears that I have to do some more coding on my Minty ShortStat Theme

    Patrick Weber    23 June 05

  30. Hey Patrick, while I appreciate the interest you’ve shown in Mint with your Mint-flavored ShortStat stylesheet I’m afraid I have to object to you using or distributing the images directly from Mint. As Mint is a commercial product and under my copyright, use of those images could be considered theft. I’m asking that you (and anyone else considering doing the same) not to pursue the idea further. Thanks for understanding. Cheers.

    Shaun Inman    23 June 05

  31. No problem Shaun. Check your email. :)

    Patrick Weber    23 June 05

  32. Geez people, how about we WAIT for Mint to be released rather than stealing work and undermining the progress of the author. I’m as anxious as the next guy but I’m not going to go digging around and possibly tick off the author in the process.

    James    23 June 05

  33. lol, I agree. I apologized. I guess I let my ambitions get ahead of me.

    Patrick Weber    23 June 05

  34. BTW: why don’t we donate for a good work? If Shaun would speed up and tell us a release date – I would donate in advance! How about you guys?

    Christian Irmler    24 June 05

  35. Absolutely. I don’t know how much I would be able to donate but I would if I could.

    Patrick Weber    24 June 05

  36. Same here. A release date or somewhat of a time frame would be so great to everyone who’s anxiously waiting for this.

    tylerdurden    24 June 05

  37. http://www.shauninman.com/tmp/cm/preview5.gif

    Sen    26 June 05

  38. Darnit, its for Dashboard…why wont anyone code for K anymore!?

    ...

    Patrick Weber    26 June 05

  39. Damn, you guys are fast. :)

    Regarding a release date, I have a personal wedding site to build and some other obligations to take care of before I can block out some solid development time to finish up Mint and haveamint.com. So no firm date yet. Sorry.

    Shaun Inman    26 June 05

  40. Oh man ! I can’t wait for the release !

    Denis Kabistan    26 June 05

  41. Darn.. I can’t wait!

    Well, take your time Shaun. Just know that I am eagerly waiting :).

    Patrick Weber    27 June 05

  42. I can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait… a nice looking statistic would light up my life!

    Shaun, come on, please, give it to us!!! (but take your time, do it right) ;o)

    You know there are a lot of guys outside all over the world – waiting… myself I’m from germany and a lot of guys I know are waiting too…

    Have a good week, Chris.

    Christian Irmler    27 June 05

  43. Perhaps it’s a fundraiser that will speed up the mintings?

    Tom    1 July 05

  44. ahhhhh when is it going public!!!?!!?

    tyler durden    4 July 05

  45. I don’t know but I sure am Anxious!!

    I also appears that Mint is now in v30 instead of 29 :).

    Patrick Weber    6 July 05

  46. it appears that the guys that worked on the ShortStat Widget got mint too..

    http://www.keeganjones.com/mint/
    http://www.thebignoob.com/mint/

    ohh… i want it :(.

    Patrick Weber    8 July 05

  47. As for an answer to the Free or Charge question. I was reading the comments over at Shaun’s website and I saw this:

    Gabriel: ‘Will it be free? Commercial? GPL? BSD?’

    Shaun: ’@Gabriel: Not free but cheap.’

    Check it out here

    Patrick Weber    8 July 05

  48. Sorry for the multiple posts, but I found this too:

    Shaun Said:

    ‘Oh, here we go.

    You read that correctly Matthew (nice site), the next major revision of ShortStat (which may not even be called ShortStat) will not be free.

    I’ll talk about my motivation for this decision and the benefits it will have for ShortStat supporters as the project nears completion but I’d rather keep this thread on topic for now.’

    Read the comments on that page I posted above.

    Patrick Weber    8 July 05

  49. ah darnsdfmk it. thats bad news. unfortunately im not in the position to be paying for things online. looks like no mint for me :(

    tyler    8 July 05

  50. Well, start saving up now! He said it would be cheap, so my guess is +/- $30 USD. That would seem like a fair price, well for falling into the ‘cheap’ category.

    I just pray that their are no royalties. That would suck!

    But start saving up now, and when it is released, you can buy it!

    Patrick Weber    8 July 05

  51. When I hear cheap I think ~$5-10.

    $30 is retail software (i.e. – actual software for the Computer)

    James    11 July 05

  52. lol, well, I am trying to guess on the high side for cheap, just in case.

    Patrick Weber    12 July 05

  53. There are many more previews…
    http://www.shauninman.com/tmp/cm/preview6.gif
    http://www.shauninman.com/tmp/cm/preview7.gif

    Dave    14 July 05

  54. So we’re looking at plugins I presume?

    James    14 July 05

  55. There’s always Refer

    Just in case you want to go with something a little cost intensive and more visually lightweight.

    Tom    14 July 05

  56. hehe, I dont know if you want me posting this every time, but mint is now at v31.

    Patrick Weber    15 July 05

  57. I setup a real page for the minty flavor and did some minor upgrades.

    Minty Flavor for ShortStat

    Patrick Weber    16 July 05

  58. On Shaun Inman’s RSS feed, he links a blank URL talking about something called Vanilla and him eagerly waiting to setup the Mint support/user forums. Direct text:

    “The sweetest forum on the web” is pretty close to the mark from what I can tell. Clean XHTML, CSS for style, with a sprinkling of Ajax built on a solid PHP/MySQL foundation. I’m eagerly anticipating setting up the Mint support/user forums.”

    Edit: he just updated the url to http://www.getvanilla.com.

    Looks like mint may be shortly around the corner?

    Patrick Weber    20 July 05

  59. Thanks for that! I was looking for a lightweight forum to use on a site I run, this is PERFECT!

    James    20 July 05

  60. lol, well, don’t thank me, thank Shaun

    Patrick Weber    21 July 05

  61. Well you’re the one that posted about it :D

    James    21 July 05

  62. I’m getting bored now waiting for this. Hopefully it won’t underwhelm after such a long wait.

    Tyler D.    24 July 05

  63. Vanilla is fantastic.

    About Mint though; being penniless as I am, I wouldn’t be able to pay for it. :(
    I really hope it’s avaliable for nothing..

    Ben    26 July 05

  64. It would be quite nice since he plans on charging for it, if there was a free “lite” version that didn’t do as much as the “full” version… for the broke and the cheepies.

    James    26 July 05

  65. You mean, like Shortstat?

    MT    28 July 05

  66. Well yes, but mintified :D

    James    29 July 05

  67. haha, well, may I point you towards my Minty Flavor for ShortStat

    :P.

    Patrick Weber    30 July 05

  68. I think Mint should have an email subscription or some sort of release notification program. Even an RSS feed would do.

    TD    31 July 05

  69. I’m sure that 1. It will be announced here and 2. Im pretty sure that shaun will announce it.

    Patrick Weber    31 July 05

  70. Shaun leaked another preview, this time showing the browsers.

    http://www.shauninman.com/tmp/cm/preview8.gif

    Man, I want this one!

    Patrick Weber    2 August 05

  71. I just want a release date, no more teasers :D

    James    2 August 05

  72. lol, what I’d prefer even more than a release date.. is a release! (Or a inside beta version would even suffice) ;)

    Patrick Weber    3 August 05

  73. I have to admit, I’m very excited about Mint. I can’t afford a big stats package like Urchin, but I would pay $25-50 without thinking about it.

    Dan Wolfgang    3 August 05

  74. I would pay 20$. No Prob.

    Seb    4 August 05

  75. I would meet your $25 to $50 and multiply it by two just to have it sometime within the next 2 weeks :/

    Ryan Latham    5 August 05

  76. lol yea,

    Ive been waiting for this, for months now, when it was said, that someone thought the release date would be 3 – 4 weeks a month or two..

    Its been that, and some, release it pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!

    flump    5 August 05

  77. You can now be notified upon the release of Mint.

    Head over to www.haveamint.com

    David Appleyard    6 August 05

  78. Ah looks like Shaun heard my plea. Great.

    Tyler D.    6 August 05

  79. Yipeee!!!! This has GOT to mean SOMETHING’s coming soon, that’d be MEAN if it just meant he was stalling for another 4 months ;)

    James    8 August 05

  80. Hehe.. I can hear Shaun cackling in the background..

    No but I do think something is coming soon.. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later.

    I’ve been saving up ;).

    Patrick Weber    9 August 05

  81. What I’m curious about is… can we transfer current Shortstat stats over to Mint when it’s available?

    Tyler Durden    14 August 05

  82. Not sure, but I hope it is alot faster than ShortStat.. I have upwards of 33,000 hits logged in shortstat and it seems to load slower and slower the more hits you have..

    Patrick Weber    14 August 05

  83. It would need to be quicker, I installed it on a website for a local radio station, tracking one page, and it takes a lifetime to load up now. I’m looking forward to seeing Mint launched, but I can’t help but think we’re going a little overboard in our desperation here?

    Damien Blake    16 August 05