December 31, 2007

In keeping with the blogging tradition I am taking a quick round up of 2007. I’ve left it to the last minute because this blog was pretty much an end of year thing anyway.

It has been a bit of whirlwind so far.

I started the blog in October on the back of an idea (not mine), a plugin wizzard. It was a big success. In fact it was the most successful thing I have ever done.

I wasn’t sure I would have the legs to carry the blog beyond that point. I love WordPress but I knew that I didn’t want to go down the route of being a review-monkey, a showcaser, or someone who went back to the very first principles. I have fallen into these traps at points, and finding content hasn’t always been as easy as I had hoped it would be, but knew it wouldn’t be. I think I’ve done OK so far though.

I knew from the start I wanted to release some plugins. I have developed and linked to one or two in the past but these were things I was doing anyway. This time I decided to do it properly.

It has been rewarding seeing the download stats, particularly for Fun with Sidebar Tabs. It has also been educational. I have seen other comment lists filled with comments about plugins not working, but never realised how much work it can be. A few times I have updated the plugin and found to my dismay that I had made a mistake, that my SVN client had skipped a file (I’m still not entirely sure about it but I’m getting there) or that I just hadn’t done a very good job of testing.

I have also suffered the fate of someone too keen on their ideas. I have developed at least one plugin, a form builder plugin that I am using on my site, only to discover that what I thought was a basic comment form plugin is actually the most comprehensive plugin ever devised by man. That would be CForms II. I am still using my own plugin and may release it in future, we’ll just see what happens in 2008.

To date I have had more comments, more visits and more subscribers than I have had at any point on other blogs (except for my photoblog and that is only subscribers). I know I need to try harder still in 2008 to build on the success so far, but I reckon 2007 was a good year.

I’m going to end with one of my favourite photos of 2007. See you in 2008.

Andy.

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