In posting the recent visual timeline of GUI Galaxy site designs (and the subsequent circulation of the link among friends and former collaborators), a general vibe of positive nostalgia was pervasive. When GG was active, it demanded an immense time commitment from those most intimately involved in the project: general upkeep, a consistent cache of custom UI (icon/wallpaper) downloads, writing articles, interviews, managing user submissions/interaction. This pain was particularly acute in the midst of the pre-Wordpress, pre-Drupal era. As such, the site eventually fizzled after 6+ years.
Many of the more popular design portal sites of old have also been fazed out. A few have stuck to their roots and remained relatively unchanged, like K10k and Australian INfront. Others have transitioned into a blog-like presentation (and most likely Wordpress-driven) with highlighting design, tech trends, and pop culture, like Surfstation. This approach/adaptation seems to be the more widespread one. Off the top of my head in this niche, I can also think of Lintcoat, ISO50, NOTCOT, and mashKULTURE.
If GUI Galaxy were to be resuscitated in any way, that’s the broad form it would need to assume. Extremely streamlined, and easy to update/maintain. In its previous life, GG’s news angle was Mac/Apple, tech, and UI-related posts written in a very acidic manner. We never took ourselves that seriously, we had fun, and I think that was always evident. However, with the custom downloads, tee shirt sales, and interviews stripped away, would that be enough to differentiate GG from the pack? I don’t presently have an answer for that, but for some reason the potential of such a project still seems oddly appealing.