HeroPress: HeroPress at 100

HeroPress: HeroPress at 100

March 8th we’ll have 100 HeroPress essays published. This seems like an auspicious time to look back at what we’ve built.

Since the first one I’ve only missed maybe 2 weeks. One essay has been taken down for security reasons. Only once has anyone really stood me up, and only four times or so has anyone asked for more time at the last second. In those times someone always stepped up.

A goal of mine has always been diversity, across a number of vectors. I did pretty poorly in the first few months and ended up with diversity debt. Here are some stats as of the 100th post:

That said, if you look at the last 50, the numbers look much more diverse:

I have the next 8 contributors planned out, and they continue to enhance the diversity of HeroPress.

Sponsorship

Last June XWP started sponsoring HeroPress. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I’m wary of mixing money with HeroPress, because I never want to make money from the stories of these people I admire and respect so much. That said, the sponsorship makes it easier for me to spend the time away from my family working on HeroPress. Some wise people have told me that using money appropriately won’t lose me any real friends, so there we are.

If you’re interested in talking to me about sponsorship, just send me an email, topher at this domain.

The Future

I don’t have any plans for changing the way essays work. I have people lined up through the end of April. I’ve recently found some new ways to find WordPressers in places I couldn’t access before, and I’m excited about the new places we’re going to hear about.

I’ve been talking for months about doing a podcast. It would simply be me and someone far away from me talking about how they work and live. I hesitate to talk to Americans, because I already know how they live and work, but on the other hand, people outside America might be interested. We’ll see what happens after some research.

I have some ideas about scholarships and software accessibility programs, but I’m still putting those together. I’ve recently been contacted by another organization that wants to work together on a scholarship, and that sounds exciting.  Again, we’ll see what happens.

Thanks

I’d like to thanks everyone that’s been involved in making HeroPress great.  At this point there are too many to name. Those of you that have tweeted, blogged, podcasted, and generally spread the word are amazing. Thanks to those that have written essays especially.  Without contributors HeroPress wouldn’t exist at all.

Thanks to those that have facilitated getting me to WordCamps like Pune, Europe, and US.

Lastly, thanks to those that have committed to the future of HeroPress. I’m looking forward to all the things to come.

The post HeroPress at 100 appeared first on HeroPress.

Source: WordPress