Over the past year, I’ve received serveral emails and offers from people offering to help me move HorsePigCow from Blogger to Wordpress. I’ve even cried out myself that I wanted to make the move. However, it was a complicated move and I’ve found myself consistently frightened by it, so it hadn’t happened…until Adam Bouskila emailed me.
The email exchange went like this:
“Hi, I’ve been reading your blog and really enjoy it, but that commenting on Blogger really annoys me. I’d be happy to help you move over to Wordpress. Adam”
“Hi Adam, thanks for the offer. I’ve had many offers but very few follow ups. Tara”
“Well, then we should get on it quickly as I’m traveling to Isreal in 2 weeks time. Adam”
And Adam followed through in a big way. He got me on Skype and spent his entire weekend working on it. He did an amazing job of installing some really great plugins to help me make my blog tick. I have a really awesome new ‘Share This‘ link at the bottom of every post that does beautiful things for my readers like makes it easier to DIGG, bookmark and email posts you like. I can totally control my sidebar content without going through oodles of html. I have a neat-o spam filter. etc.
You know, this is really what is so great about the web. Adam prefers Wordpress over Blogger so much that he is willing to help the people he encounters move - and give up his entire weekend (cutting his snowboarding expedition short!) to do it. Previous to a week and a half ago, I hadn’t ever met Adam. Now, I would recommend his work to anyone.
Is this the new job interview? The new resume? The new referral system? Even the new reputation system? Lots of people say they do this and that, but it is demonstrating it that really makes the difference. I was also impressed with Adam’s passion and tenacity.
A little while back Chris and I met Alex Hillman in a similar fashion…although this time it was Chris hanging out in IRC. We had taken on a Pro Bono client and needed to find a developer to do some work. Chris mentioned it in a discussion and Alex stepped forward. Since then, he’s built all sorts of stuff with and for us (and does an amazing job) and we’ve recommended him several times. We’d love to hire him ourselves when we have the $$.
And these aren’t the only stories. Many startups have been launched this way. People meeting, randomly, online, on irc, then working together on an unpaid project. It happens all of the time. In open source and otherwise. Many have discussed a way to actually accelerate this process through some sort of automated system or online reputation app, but there is still nothing quite like relationships that happen this way.
Before I go off on too much of a tangent, thank you so much Adam for your work this weekend and thanks everyone for sticking around (or coming over) for the transformation!
View Tara Hunt's profile
12 Comments
Hell yes!
Congrats on the switch. That’s actually what I spent last New Year’s doing — helping Tommy switch over from Blogger to Wordpress, hah! Hopefully you’ll find the Wordpress experience more enjoyable than Blogger.
Congrats on the switch (wordpress rules), and thanks for the name-drop.
Wordpress is also cool because now when you realize wordpress doesnt do something you want it to, I can build you a plugin to do it :-).
Your ideas are the only limitation, and we all know you’re shelves are full of those.
And its good to know that you know another wordpress guru…I may have some stuff to bounce off Adam myself
Also, to kinda take over the tangent you started to go on:
Since deciding to go indie a few weeks ago, a LOT of people (especially family members who don’t really ‘get’ what I do) have asked me why I’m not scared about going out on my own. My reply has become:
“I’ve worked really hard not only to hone my skills but my relationships. There are people that I talk to on a regular basis all over the world who know my work, and I have faith in them having faith in me.”
It’s an idealistic outlook, but like you said, it works. The only thing that speaks stronger than good, quality work is a positive (or, when they are coming from you, your case, blush inducing) recommendation.
Major kudos to Adam! And, I’ve posted a BIG thank you on his blog for helping you!!
And… Major kudos to those who follow-through!!!
Glad you’ve chosen WP, so I’d also like to recommend a tool I use to help post quickly and easily.
The Performancing extension for Firefox (http://performancing.com/firefox) is an app that integrates well with the browser as a WYSIWYG blog editor. It has statistics tracking built in too, if you don’t already do that yourself.
Fantastic!
A much better job than I could have done. Currently I understand the WP internals better than theming, and only a little better.
I have also sent Adam a comment.
It looks like he is in Vancouver. Are you planning on attending Northern Voice / Moose Camp February 23-24, 2007?
I moved my blog from Corante to my own domain running WP as well over the weekend. Actually, I started on Monday and finished the transition yesterday. I have spent countless hours looking into best of breed plugins to improve WP. You can see a list of them at http://onlinedatingpost.com/colophon.
Congrats on the switch. I’m a huge WordPress advocate myself and have spent many hours helping bloggers, big and small, move their sites over to WordPress. I’ve yet to hear any complaints!
It just takes the focus off the container and back onto writing quality content. As Alex said above, if you want it to do something it doesn’t do, there will always be plugins that can do it.
Adam is simply the BEST!
Sounds like you have a very healthy gift economy going on. I’m pleasantly surprised how generous people are, when given the chance.
Most people make giving or receiving difficult because they are afraid of obligation.
Open source has taught us (among other things) that recognition, pride of contribution, and the benefits of community reciprocity allow for health gift economies to supply operating systems and complex software.
Why not a little Wordpress help
Great job Adam.
After the fiasco at Blogger when they did the Beta i’m not surprized peeps were jumping ship in droves* It was ridiculous not being able to Blog from Flickr for over 6 weeks & also any previous cool Widgets or stuff U had learned how to add to yer Blog were gone* Just a nightmare really*
I looked at WordPress - but i don’t like the lack of design to it - it’s a lil too plain jane geek tech fer me* ;))
Something U mentioned at the bottom re: Automated Process or System for getting Blogs out there - a Basic 10 Step (i should prolly use 12 step but eh!! ;)) - system - 1) Add Links, 2) Submit yer Blog URL to Search Engines 3) Submit to Directories etc. - would be a Tremendous HELP to us little Bloggers!!
;))
U know the ones that aren’t at the 30 level let alone 3,500!!
Is there anything like that??
or a spot with such a List???
i searched a few spots like Blogger & ProBlogger & Google but din’t find much*
Cheers Tara! Billy ;))
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[...] It’s beautiful, it’s familiar, and it’s WordPress. Tara Hunt has made the jump from Blogger to WordPress, with some help from Adam Bouskila. Looking good, miss rogue! [...]
[...] Tara over at HorsePigCow just converted to Wordpress. First of all, congrats and great call, but that’s not the point of this post. The point is Tara couldn’t have done it without the help of a HorsePigCow fan and Wordpress evangelist techie named Adam who reached out to Tara through her blog. Tara was so satisfied with Adam’s work that she goes on to ask: Previous to a week and a half ago, I hadn’t ever met Adam. Now, I would recommend his work to anyone. Is this the new job interview? The new resume? The new referral system? Even the new reputation system? [...]