When writing Elevenfour: What’s up in 2016 and beyond? at the beginning of 2016 i already had in mind that that I would write an article looking back at what happend on Elevenfour in 2016. And maybe this could be the beginning of a series for the years to come.
Traditionally this is the time when I, like many other people, take a look back at the things that happened in the passing year. One thing that I became aware of this year a little more than usually: There are quite some people out there who use the Dark Mode ACP-Plugin or other styles that I created. I’ve seen a lot of screenshots popping up in WoltLab’s Community Forum. And somehow that makes me happy.
So I want to say thank you to everyone who’s using a plugin or style that I created, to everyone who read one or more of the articles I wrote or who spread the word about Elevenfour. Because I’m still not doing any marketing; that’s just not who I am. Thank You from the bottom of my heart. 🙏
Reviewing My Goals for 2021
New Articles on Elevenfour
It’s always good to begin with a success. I wrote 7 new articles for Elevenfour’s main page (that’s the one where you’re reading this article). Maybe one of them will move to another part of the Elevenfour Network but that’s not yet decided.
I also wrote 5 Status Updates and 2 short form articles for the Elevenfour Labs website. So I succeeded with the optional goal, too. ✅
Redesign Elevenfour
That’s another accomplishment. I’ve done that, too. Although I said not too much and it’s been more that originally intended but I think it went pretty well. ✅
I still need to work on the plugin side of things but that was an optional goal.
Create A Design For WoltHub
It’s funny how brains work: I thought that this new design happened in 2020 but no, it did in 2021. Seems that I did design so many things that my brain thinks that this was two years work. So obviously that’s on the plus side, too. ✅
Bring a little bit more own writing to WoltHub
I didn’t find the time to really think this through and then see what I would do and how. I still have a basic idea that I might be able to build upon. But I’m not even sure if that would still make sense for the project. Since this was optional I’ll move this to neutral side for 2021. ➡️
Release 2 New Styles For WoltLab Suite
2021 has seen 3 new style releases: Meero, Radiance and Atelier - the latter is the first in a while to be released on WoltLab’s Plugin-Store, too. Another entry on the positive list for 2021. ✅
Release 1 New Plugin For WoltLab Suite
I didn’t release the plugin which I had in my mind when writing the goals for 2021 because sometimes code and ideas escalate quickly. Since I knew that this might happen I made this goal optional. But I came up with another idea and released the Drop Cap BBCode. ✅
Learn more about WordPress Full Site Editing (FSE)
Yes, I did and I’m not too bad at this - but far from completely understanding everything. But the main goal was learning about this and this is an accomplishment. ✅
The downside is, I still don’t have a working FSE Theme build just yet - but that’s largely due to fact that FSE is still not where I need it to be. But I said last year: that’s out of my control, so it’s not a goal to have a FSE Theme built by myself (for now).
Review the new forum structure
… on Elevenfour from 2020 - was it the right thing to do?
Not really a goal, rather a reminder to have a look at it. But, yes, it was the right thing. ✅
Take back control
I said last year, that this only makes sense for me. What I can tell you: I made clear how I see things. Now I have to see if that works out in an acceptable way. Which means: I don’t know yet if it’s a success in the way I intended, so I guess it’s fair to say it’s rather neutral on this one. ➡️
2021 in Review
Overall 2021 has been a busy year for me. And although it’s positive on the surface and looking at all the things I’ve accomplished - there have most definitely been dark times when I wanted to just give up on everything. Glad that I didn’t, though. And if you should feel that way right now: It’s okay to feel that way. This isn’t who you are it’s just the world around you. And, like 2020, 2021 has been a hard year for most of us, too.
Foreshadowing 2022
Maybe you’ve already noticed it: This year’s Thank You post didn’t show up where these articles usually do - the Elevenfour Labs. From Christmas 2021 on all of these articles live on the main page of Elevenfour. That’s a part of what will happen in 2022 - but more on that a little later.
Since I showed you a chart visualising the downloads of styles and plugins on Elevenfour last year I think it might be a good idea to do this again this year. But again, I’m not showing the exact download numbers.
If you combine the downloads for WoltLab Suite 5.x products they still don’t reach the number of downloads for WoltLab Suite 3.1 products - i.e. styles and plugins. And if I wanted to top the downloads for WoltLab Suite 1.1 (or WCF 1.1 as it was called back than) I would have to combine the downloads from 3.1 and 5.x versions.
Flavius is still the most downloaded product I’ve ever created - but it’s only 33 downloads ahead of Dark Mode for WoltLab Suite ACP. So I guess that record might be gone next year. If you only take versions into account that were still available this year (5.2 - 5.4) then Dark Mode is the most downloaded product, followed by Dark Core.
If you’re interested in a ranking of styles by download for WoltLab Suite 5.4 it goes like this (first is most downloaded): Horizon, Dark Core, Atelier, Radiance, Clay, Makani, Flavius, Meero, Nano.
Intentions for 2022
- Move Elevenfour’s WordPress installation to a new domain - things have gotten too complex. But keep it under the umbrella of the Elevenfour Network, similar to WoltHub. For transparency: This has already begun on Christmas Eve 2021 - that’s why you can read this year’s Thank You article on Elevenfour’s main page.
- Optional: Rethink the way Elevenfour’s styles are build, especially those with style options. Does it make sense to keep them the way they are or does the new idea make more sense? (I won’t go into detail, just yet.)
- New articles for Elevenfour
- If possible: Rebuild parts of Elevenfour’s tech stack before upgrading to WoltLab Suite 5.5
- Complete the Photostories Website
- Build an integration of the link manager for Elevenfour (better alternative for „Link in Bio“ than the current solution)
That’s it for this year’s article. Again a huge thank you to everyone who in some way interacted with Elevenfour or influenced the growth of Elevenfour. If you’d like to share your thoughts you can do so in the comments section somewhere below the like button or you can tweet at me on Twitter @eleven4rl.
As always, if you made this far and if you have been: Thank you for reading. Have a fantastic new year 🎆
Related Articles
It’s been a year now since I wrote my first Thank You Post here on the Labs, so it’s time to say again: Thank You – for visiting Elevenfour, using the styles and plugins and for giving valuable feedback.
So, I guess it’s official: Another year has gone. And weirdly it feels like I posted last year’s post just a month ago. Thank you to all you who have been visiting Elevenfour, downloaded styles and plugins, viewing and liking photos on Instagram, Videos on YouTube and more. And thank you to all of you who expressed their trust by signing up for/ subscribing to Elevenfour.