Why We don’t Donate to WordPress Plugins, Even When We Know We Should

10 minute read Have you ever been on a WordPress.org plugin page, and seen a link saying “Donate to this plugin”? You probably didn’t click it. Nearly none of us do. But why not? You probably think you should, but something is preventing you. In this article, I explore the reasons we rarely donate to software we depend on, and what can be done about it.

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Why I Blog

2 minute read Why do I bother writing down my experiences, opinions, and things I’ve learned? Here’s some thoughts: Share Knowledge It always bugs me when there is “common knowledge” that isn’t available online. When you know something and its not available online, you’re forcing everyone else to relearn it the hard way. Sharing it with others just […]

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Ways to Help People Without Actually Doing Anything (and Why They’re Actually Better)

3 minute read When we think of ways to help or serve others, we tend to narrowly think of only physical service: giving someone money, helping mow a lawn, or volunteering at a soup kitchen. But physical service is only one of many ways to help others. There are so many other important ways to serve, and if […]

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How to Make Horrible Software Comparisons

3 minute read Software comparison articles can be helpful, but most are horrible. They should educate, compare, and recommend. But usually, they’re just filler words that convey no actual meaning. Here are some common mistakes of horrible software comparisons… Universally Picking a Winner It’s ridiculous to pick a universal winner. Eg, if you’re comparing Event Espresso to EventBrite, […]

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Why We Write

2 minute read   Stumbled upon a subtly opinionated video about “Why so Many People Want to Be Writers” which really got me thinking. The gist is this: we write because we don’t talk. We feel like we have ideas that aren’t being heard by loved ones, so we write them down, hoping someone, somewhere, will respond. …Not […]

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Anger For Manipulation

4 minute read I’ve had some experiences lately that I think have taught me something about using anger to get kids to do what you want. Bed Time Struggles Ever since our daughter Celeste was moved out of her crib and into a bunk bed with her sister Danielle, I’ve been having trouble getting her to sleep on […]

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The Digital Dark Age & Your Blog

5 minute read We are living in the digital dark age. Wikipedia says: the digital dark age is a lack of historical information in the digital age as a direct result of outdated file formats, software, or hardware that becomes corrupt, scarce, or inaccessible as technologies evolve and data decays. Another way to say that: did you think […]

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Let's Decentralize Git Again

2 minute read Doesn’t anybody else find it strange nearly all open source code is distributed on a closed-source website, GitHub, owned by Microsoft? That’s a bit like all the world’s charitable organizations being ran by a for-profit mega corporation. As I understand it, Git’s big differentiating feature from Subversion, the big version-control system that preceded it, was […]

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