2007 in Review : alexking.org

Welcome to my third annual year in review post.

January – I begin offering premium support and TechStars is announced. I start helping RedMonk in their site update efforts, PHP Tag Engine reaches 1.0, I release a variety of WordPress plugin updates and we upgrade the Use Tasks service.
February – I get to release a plugin to the public that was built for a client (yay!), share some thoughts on comments and blog posts, continue talking about the alexking.org redesign and start talking about browser tab usage. I also was interviewed and decided I like Code Igniter.
March – A quick weekend jaunt to Phoenix for some golf, then I take the plunge on an EVDO card. I start a tumblog and release a bunch more plugin updates (including a new one). Thought it hadn’t been announced yet, I also started working on AllThingsD.
April – I start using GrandCentral (and now wonder how I did without it) and open the curtain a little about how I make policy decisions. AllThingsD launches and I start getting the itch for a new work set-up. FeedLounge decides to shut down.
May – I further embrace my tumblog and restructure my SVN repositories. In perhaps the most significant move of the year, I hire Eric Miller to come on board with me.
June – Finally haven found the right name, King Design becomes Crowd Favorite. I debate domain names then buy the .com, making the entire thing moot. I start giving Adobe a hard time (I’m not done yet) and decide to move from the Hive. I met with the ShareThis team for the first time.
July – I cave to curiosity and get an iPhone and attend the first Startup Weekend. This site moved to a new server and while I mention briefly I was busy, the tell-tale sign of this is the low number of posts for the month.
August – Crowd Favorite continues to grow as Mike Hostetler joins the team. I get a new phone and a new keyboard, both of which I am still satisfied with. Another month of light posting due to busy-ness.
September – I manage to release a new WordPress plugin and talk a little about prioritizing with a small team. The news about ShareThis is finally public and I make another trip out to work with the team in Ohio.
October – The Rockies go crazy and make it to the World Series, the iPhone’s influences spreads and I decide I still can’t make the switch to it. A much-needed vacation in Hawaii.
November – Crowd Favorite takes a big step when Peter Gornell joins the team as a project manager. This frees a great deal of my time back up for more development work. I conclude a year of trying to eat healthier with good results then discover that Jack in the Box has arrived in Colorado.
December – I have some crazy buzy days while Dougal is out interviewing with us, and he agrees to join the team. Several projects we were working on go live and Mike and Julie have a daughter.

For you statheads out there, I’ve continued the blog/site stats.¹ I guess I’ll need a table for this next year for it to remain ledgible. 🙂

404 blog posts (139 link blog posts), way down from the 556 blog posts (32 link blog posts) in 2007, 457 in 2005 and 538 in 2004
3,613 comments (276 mine), up from 2,919 comments (442 mine) in 2006, 2436 (437 mine) in 2005 and 2159 (486 mine) in 2004
Avg post length 1,478 characters (1,709 excluding link blog posts), down from 1,679 characters (2,025 if you exclude link blog posts) in 2006, a 1,457 character average post length in 2005 and 1210 in 2004
Total post length 597,200 characters, way down from 935,392 in 2006, 665,849 characters in 2005 and 650,980 in 2004

Like 2007, this was a very interesting year. Once again it was filled with enjoyable successes and interesting learning experiences. I look forward to the new challenges that are sure to come in 2008.