Building WPVote has been a really interesting process for me. I have learnt stacks of new things, and through developing WPVote have added a stack of improvements to my WordPress Elemental.
From start to finish I have:
- Building WPVote Part 1: The Beginning
- Building WPVote Part 2 : Planning
- Building WPVote Part 3 : Research
- Building WPVote Part 4 : Design
- Building WPVote Part 4b: The Logo Revisited
- Building WPVote Part 5 : Programming
- Building WPVote Part 6 : Planning for Lift Off
Why?
Lorelle recently asked why I am making the site, and what it’s purpose is. There are a stack of reasons, but the simplest is ‘because I want to’.
As I mentioned in when I was planning the site I have plans for monetization, but I don’t intend for it to become a full-time job. Earning enough to cover the hosting would be wonderful, anything more is a bonus – I am treating WPVote as a hobby and nothing more.
She also asked why I would do this when so many before me have tried and failed. Well first I don’t know of any other WordPress specific voting sites, and secondly this is definitely the only one built on WordPress. But more importantly, just because someone else failed, it doesn’t mean that I will.
Success or Failure?
The terms Success and Failure mean different things to different people. In my mind WPVote is already a success because I was able to build something I had never imagined I would try building – in particular with software that was not designed for this job. I realise there is software that can create a voting sites for you – but that wouldn’t have allowed me to get my hands dirty the way that building WPVote has.
More?
I have a variety of things I would still like to do with WPVote. Two of the bigger items on my to-do are to create blog widgets, and a developer API. As far as I know these are both a first in WordPress. Naturally I will write them up as I build them.
I am planning to release WPVote on Monday the 1st of February, so this will be the last “Building WPVote” post, however there will be more posts in the future detailing some of the code and techniques I used to make the site function.
Was it good/ useful/ a load of old rubbish? Let me know on Mastodon, or BlueSky (or Twitter X if you must).
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