Internet projects come and go - especially open source projects. They have their worth and influence and then people move to something else newer and better. Lately, I am wondering if Indexhibit is finished - it had its time.
I have been updating it for years, but there is zero community. I see new people using it every day - I see the traffic - I get email (but it's rare that it's paid work for me) - and nobody donates or sends me a thank you note. In the past eight months since I asked for people to donate, I've had eight donations (and half of those were under fifteen euros). How do people think these projects exist without support of any kind?
I announced that I was working on version 3. I mentioned that I had rewritten the entire frontend (it's so much better) and even added some new things, but I have not had a single email or communication from anybody about these things. Unfortunately, I still get too many weird late night Friday and Saturday emails...wtf.
I'm not sure what to do anymore - it's just me, I guess. Years ago I honestly thought that if I did this project and people used it the future would be ok. People ask me for free help, for free themes, all the time - and honestly it drives me bonkers because I feel there is some value to this work. It's really hard to admit that perhaps all of this work is now worthless. I certainly feel useless and worthless taking care of Indexhibit. I'm embarrassed to talk about it publicly. I make zero money from Indexhibit - it's not a business and there is nobody else working on it.
When you do a project like this every thing you do is wrong. Nobody is ever happy. Too many people can find that one thing that keeps them from supporting you. Yet, they have been using it for years. I can't tell you how hard that is - how hard it has been doing this project.
I have asked for help repeatedly over the years and nothing ever happens. One person isn't a community. Sometimes I think I should try very hard one more time, but I always overwhelmingly feel that it's too late. At one time, Indexhibit was good, but that's about all it will ever be. It's flattering that people want to compare this tiny project to billion dollar companies and projects, but without some real support, it's simply not good for me.
14.06.2020
I'm rebuilding my site although I am technically on vacation during the lockdown. This will take some time - I have no idea what it will be in the end.
While I have tried over the years, I'm not really keen on writing much. Or, saying much about myself personally. I'm not that interesting, to be honest. My opinions, especially about design and programming, are probably best kept to myself, anyways. The web is awfully boring these days though, right? Perhaps those exciting days of friends and colleagues coming up with a new idea or technique are forever gone - replaced by 'social' walled gardens and influencers, at the moment.
In some ways, I felt that this lockdown was natures way of telling us that we need to be better to the planet and to each other. What we are witnessing now, the true quality of our governments, is the doom and gloom come to life we've all dreaded for long now. Well, I hope it's not like that for you, but I'm trying to be optimistic.
28.04.2020
Edit: ah, that sweet smell of lorem ipsum. I'm not even going to delete it - always seems to make me happy that feeling of doing anything new.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi nec metus eu risus vestibulum tempor. Donec vel dui lobortis, ultrices magna non, pellentesque velit. Donec facilisis, quam aliquam suscipit finibus, erat odio blandit ligula, sed ullamcorper metus sapien sed augue. Morbi nec mi sed mauris cursus interdum at non metus. Nam arcu augue, vehicula vitae orci ac, tempus malesuada neque. Praesent diam massa, hendrerit quis tincidunt ac, egestas et neque.
Aliquam commodo iaculis elit at elementum. Suspendisse volutpat viverra quam ac fermentum. Maecenas id urna id augue pharetra imperdiet euismod non urna. Vivamus varius ornare lorem, et ultrices orci. Phasellus euismod faucibus velit, quis cursus lorem faucibus ut.
Maecenas nisi magna, facilisis rutrum risus et, vestibulum congue nibh. Proin condimentum enim ultrices, dictum sapien id, iaculis odio. Duis aliquet sem velit, eget porta purus ultricies ut. Sed imperdiet mollis felis, in cursus nulla tincidunt et. Curabitur vitae ipsum erat. Etiam varius lectus diam, imperdiet consectetur neque posuere id. Aliquam erat volutpat. Pellentesque ac hendrerit lectus, sit amet condimentum risus. Phasellus fermentum consectetur sagittis. Nulla rhoncus elementum erat quis pulvinar. Integer cursus libero massa. Duis condimentum eu justo a condimentum.
27.04.2020