I already talked a little about how I did with my 2013 resolutions but after reading Pippin's 2013 review I really wanted to add a little bit about how my freelancing & extension development has worked out.
Category Archives: Discussion
Respond to GitHub Issues in a Timely Manner
Recently my coworker, Coen Jacobs, wrote a great post about the Art of Commit Messages. And there's a lot for a developer to learn there. The part that we don't hear much about the art of maintaining a repo on GitHub. Do they have any duties? Is there any etiquette when it comes to maintaining a GitHub repo?
I have one tip – be timely with your repos.
Why Be Timely?
I can't think of a single developer that has oodles of time. If you do happen to have some extra free time you're probably going to pick up another project. That's just the nature of most of the developers I've met. But regardless of how busy you are you still need to make time for people who are interacting with you on your GitHub repos.
People Lose Motivation
If you take too long to respond to an issue or a pull request there's a good chance you'll never hear from the developer again. The other developer might have needed it for a client project and now that you're asking them for more information after they've finished the job there isn't much incentive to help.
I once had someone ask for an updated pull request on (you're going to love the irony here) GitHub's gitignore repo. An entire year after I submitted the request to update something they ask me to update the pull request – I knew that it would still help me and the community down the road so I did it anyway. Were this a smaller project I don't know if I would have taken the time to update the pull request. I already have enough on my plate.
People Lose Context
The other problem waiting too long to respond to someone is that they'll lose information on the project. They might have had a test site they could use to replicate the problem. Or they might have switched systems and aren't even using your project anymore.
Respect
The biggest reason though is a simple one. Respect. If I'm submitting a patch to make your project better take a few minutes out of your day to tinker with it and pull it in. I'm not talking about troubleshooting here – that's a different issue. I'm just talking about managing real issues & pull requests. You never know when you'll need that developer's help down the road.
Say No
Disable GitHub issues
If you can't help them because you're no longer maintaining the project then say so. Close the issue saying that you can't help them. Better yet – you can turn off GitHub issues and update the readme with a notice. This way you'll save someone else's valuable time and in this busy day and age that's one of the nicest things you can do.
Accept Setbacks
One of the hardest things to do in any profession is to accept setbacks. We do our best to avoid them & mitigate them but no matter how hard you try you'll always run into them. The trick here is not to try to avoid every single setback since that's impossible but to build your business & life with setbacks in mind.
Invest in Yourself
A few days ago Daniel announced the winners for the Blogging for Benjamin competition and a few hours after that I received a notice from PayPal saying that I had $100 bucks waiting for me. Well I don't know about you but when I have money sitting in my PayPal account I have to spend it on something fast because it's so darn easy to spend it on frivolous things! There are plenty of new board games I want to buy but I instead I decided to do something fool smart and invest in myself.
How to Monetize a WordPress Plugin
Over the last couple of years the WordPress platform has really matured. Now, premium (commercial) plugins aren't just for developers they're used by developers and users a like. It isn't uncommon at all to see lite versions of plugins in the WordPress repository with a pro version available on the developer's site. So if you have an idea for a plugin how do you capitalize on this? How can you build a valuable product and market it to users?
Why Not?
A friend told me about this new store that combines two of our favorite things. It's a coffee shop and it has 400+ board games that you can play. They even have employees that can recommend new games or demo games for you! What a great idea! But of course shortly after telling me this he says, “too bad I won't be able to do that”.
I've never understood this mentality and it seems so prevalent. Right after coming up with an idea the first thing people tend to do is shoot holes in it. What's the point in that? If you do that you'll never change anything or do anything new… ever.
One Up Me Please!
A few days ago I created the Blogging for Benjamin plugin so I could easily mark the Blogging for Benjamin articles as part of a series. The plugin only lasted a few days before Mike Jolley wrote WP Post Series plugin. To put it gently Mike Jolley's plugin destroys my plugin, it blows it out of the water, it disintegrates it, it banishes it to another realm – you get the idea. And you know what? I'm really happy about it.
Developers if you see something that I made that can be made better then do it! One up me! Just look at the WP Post Series plugin to see how much more flexible and usable it is. I've already replaced my own plugin.
Resolutions for 2014
Last year I created some programming resolutions and shortly after writing that post everything started falling into place. I certainly don't believe it was magic or divine intervention but I do believe in positive thought and setting an intention. Since I did pretty well with my resolutions from last year I wanted to come up with some new ones.
Blogging for Benjamin Wrap Up
It's December 31st, the last day of December, and also the last day of the Blogging for Benjamin contest. This is the final post I'll be making for this contest. I'm really pleased that I participated in this contest because I learned quite a few things, I've communicated a few things that I'd been meaning to share, and I've created a bunch of snippets and tutorials for WordPressers.
Reward Yourself
One of the most important parts of creating a new habit – whether it be running more, eating healthy, or forming better writing skills – is to reward yourself when you accomplish the task. That's why we often set milestones for our selves like running a race. There's actually a lot of value in creating these meaningful milestones / goals for your self. They help motivate you push yourself just a little harder and once it's accomplished you'll feel proud of your achievement and you can share the experience with others to relive some of that joy which is very rewarding.