Why would we be talking about APIs, CodePen doesn't even have one, right? It's true, we don't have what is considered a traditional API. We explain why (and that we kinda do), and dig into the ins and outs of APIs on web apps. 1:39 What is an API for web software? 2:11 An API […]

This week we talk about customer support. Pretty much all web apps need to have some system for customer support. How that goes can take many forms. 1:28 We provide support for CodePen through our support form (Wufoo form that goes to a shared Google Apps GMail account). That stuff gets mostly triaged into GitHub […]

This week on CodePen Radio, we dig into search engine optimization (SEO). Why it matters, what is specific to CodePen and what isn't, how it relates to user generated content, moral obligations, best practices, different approaches to it, and more. 1:45 For us, SEO is important because people need to be able to find the […]

The word "Community" gets thrown around a lot, but what does it really mean? This week, we dig into what the CodePen community is, the value it creates for us and the people who use CodePen, how we shape the community, and more. 1:08 Community is an essential part of CodePen. 1:52 How do we […]

This week on CodePen Radio, we're discuss our brand new blogging feature. 2:00 Why did we create the blogging feature? It was primarily because we watched how people used CodePen. What people were doing was taking their entire Pen and describing it, with text, inside the Pen. 6:32 Embedded Pens make blog posts better, so […]

This week we are talking about changing your mind. As your web app evolves, sometimes new information comes to light, and you need to be able to change your mind. 0:54 For example: here at CodePen, we started out with two kinds of accounts: free and PRO. At some point, we had a discussion with […]

This week we talk Security, a crucial part of any web app. We talk about security in general, what we do to secure and protect CodePen users, and what you can do to protect your web app. 2:00 You should be hashing and salting usernames and passwords. 2:43 After salting, even if a hacker brute […]

This week we talk about backups. How we backup the application, the assets, and most importantly, all the data in all the databases and other data stores we use. Masterslave replication Redis Amazon S3 Phantom JS

We've never specifically sought out VC funding at CodePen, but there was a time when several of them approached us. We knew very little about how that world works, so we learned about it. As you might expect, the decision and process isn't easy. In this episode we talk about our experiences with all that. […]

This week we talk about how the law affects our business. For example, how we chose a business type and getting set up as an S-Corp, the types of law-breaking that are possible on CodePen, how and why we license Pens, our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and more.