WordPress story of Rarst.net

I cannot claim that without WordPress this blog would be any different for you – it would still be blog of mine after all. On the other side of screen it would be nothing like this for me.

WordPress defines a lot of how my time blogging is spent – what I must do and what is done for me, which parts of process I like and which are necessary evil. From general concepts to how much tea (which sadly WordPress refuses to brew) I consume on chilly evenings.

Photo by law_keven

From nothing to acquaintance

I thought I knew what I needed in pleasant usual routine of finding fitting solution to:

• writing post;
• hitting publish;
• making occasional choice of color or font size.

I was wrong on many levels but there was nothing bad about that or about picking WordPress to satisfy those requirements.

WordPress did what I needed and gave impression of being capable to do more. Hundreds of free themes to choose from, among which I picked blocky and simple Statement. Many people who were not really uniform in their opinions about WordPress but quite adamant in being content with the same choice I made.

Photo by Swami Stream

From acquaintance to appreciation

In three months illusion of few things to decide evaporated. Time spent looking on other blogs and piling up things I could improve turned blog from somewhere I sent posts into large project with many facets.

I started exploring. Things I could change and add. Ways I could take to travel from being generic to making this corner of the web my own and unique.

WordPress was open and flexible. Some things felt like they would take effort but none felt like they couldn’t be done. It showed sea of possibilities far beyond what I wanted at start. Which I quite liked.

Photo by foxypar4

From appreciation to confusion

In six months enthusiasm turned into stress. I was tired of many things:

• code mess inside of theme and WordPress itself;
• plugins as numerous as risky to use and likely to code rot;
• incomplete documentation, good for nothing except stumping;
• developers and community engaging in discussion that felt unpleasantly political.

For every amazing and innovative thing I encountered there were several inefficient and dumb ones. Feeling of being able to do anything had not survived encounter with issues that could only be solved by pleading to WordPress code gurus.

As any thing that gets big enough WordPress showed how too many people in one place guarantee to screw things up.

Photo by Olof S

From confusion to making plans

In nine months resolve to stop moving and start thinking paid off. Most of those things I was (too)excited about in the start were gone and some things that I grew to hate were covered with patches of custom code.

I took a break from making changes and took a look at how can I use that open and flexible side of WordPress to improve as opposed to drowning in routine. And came to conclusion that before I mess with small decisions I must make some big ones.

So lately I am taking my time to plan complete custom theme that would draw on good things I figured out and leave bad ones behind. It would have less of community charm and more of my personal (or lack of one). And it would probably make introvert me much more comfortable.

WordPress offers so many things. So I think it is time to be picky about what I take from it.

Overall

Not much of a story that ends with blank page, eh? So consider these first chapters with more to come – tales of code, design and blogging engine that stubbornly refuses to brew tea.

This post was written for WordPress Story contest/group writing. I also need five comments on it to enter so make some now. :)

…and finished at third place in judge favorite category! :)