2009 David Walsh Blog Year in Review

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Another year has passed and I wanted to share my thoughts on all the posts and events that shaped my blog (and life) during 2009.

Joining the MooTools Team

My biggest achievement during 2009 was becoming a member of the MooTools Core development team. I had been writing MooTools tutorials since my blog had started and apparently that paid off as Aaron Newton asked me to think about contributing to the project in January. Shortly thereafter I was asked by Valerio Proietti to join the team. It was a huge honor and still is. I love my MooTools teammates and contributors as brothers and look forward to continued success with the team. MooTools FTW.

MooTools T-Shirts For The Masses

I was also able to connect with Roddy Richards of the excellent Startup Schwag service to get MooTools shirts to all of their subscribers. It was a huge success and I look forward to working more with Startup Schwag in the future.

Pick Your Poison: I Learned jQuery

I took some time to learn jQuery this year and I'm glad I did. I see it's place in the JavaScript world and feel like I'm a better programmer for it. I look forward to seeing what John and his team put forth in January. No doubt more good stuff -- congrats to the jQuery team on their continued success.

Coding Confidence

I really impressed with some of the plugins I created this year. Not that I thought I wasn't good enough but like every good programmer, I always had that voice telling me "you're missing something." This year I told that voice TO STFU and created a few plugins I always wanted to make: LazyLoad, ContextMenu, Quickboxes, and Dotter. Those are only a few of them -- I really feel as though I stepped my game up in 2009.

Tweet What?

I joined the Twitter craze in 2009 and it opened up a new world to me. Twitter's been a great source of feedback, website traffic, and professional networking. I have over 3,000 followers at this point. I must be, in a word....riveting.

Networking and Relationships

I was able to connect with some fellow developers closely this year. I've had good personal and professional conversations with jQuery's Rey Bango, MooTools Contributor Darren Waddell, Pete Higgins, and many others. Great developers and great people.

Blog Traffic Booming

Blog traffic really exploded this year. Traffic quadrupled and with that came more pressure to write good blog posts. Hopefully I did OK.

Most Popular Posts of 2009

Goals For 2010

  • I hope to double traffic over the next year. That seems like a lofty goal but I think I can do it. If nothing else, I can just post nudie pics of Christina Ricci, right?
  • Have 30 quality MooTools plugins posted to the MooTools Forge. I hope you do too.
  • Write 2-3 more posts for NetTuts.
  • Make you and everyone else know how f'ing awesome the MooTools JavaScript framework is.
  • Increase the quality of posts. That sounds generic but it's something I always aim to do.

Thank you all for reading! I hope to live up to expectation in 2010!

Recent Features

Incredible Demos

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    Do / Undo Functionality with MooTools

    We all know that do/undo functionality is a God send for word processing apps. I've used those terms so often that I think of JavaScript actions in terms of "do" an "undo." I've put together a proof of concept Do/Undo class with MooTools. The MooTools...

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    HTML5 Input Types Alternative

    As you may know, HTML5 has introduced several new input types: number, date, color, range, etc. The question is: should you start using these controls or not? As much as I want to say "Yes", I think they are not yet ready for any real life...

Discussion

  1. Boris

    You did ok David! :D

  2. You did a great job…..

    By the way the heading should be “Most Popular Posts of 2009”

  3. Thank You for Your work.
    You are many times help me.

  4. Q_the_novice

    I enjoyed reading your posts, keep up the good work.

  5. kolin

    Congratulations for all your hard work and blog posts that make execellent and informative reading!

    Merry Christmas, and Happy new year!

  6. David, you are doing great!
    Your posts are really great and informative. They really help me be better web developer.
    Thanks for that!

    Merry Christmas and happy new year! +1 ;)

  7. senshikaze

    i’m gonna act like an ass just because everyone else is being nice.

    :)

    just kidding, awesome blog.
    your tutorials have been more than a godsend.

    Here’s to another great year.

  8. CBloss

    Your blog as opened a new world to me. After reading about your excitement on MooTools, I have started to read up on it myself. I’m a newbie, but looking forward to learning.

    Thanks for sharing your words of wisdom!

  9. There are two types of posts: the extensive tutorial, and the short tutorial (like yours). The latest one generally is aimed to more experienced developers, and it’s great to see things like that!
    love your posts

    congratulations for this very cool blog! ;)

  10. Mr.X.

    Congratulations! Have a happy New Year!

  11. Salih Gedik

    2010 FTW bud! Keep it up

  12. I got to know this website this year, so I guess it’s been a good year! Keep up the good job, fellow programmers!

  13. David

    Your blog has helped me grow so much as a web developer this past year.

    The easy to follow guides you write to accompany your plugins have helped me go beyond just copy and pasting scripts, and these past few months I’ve rolled up my sleeves and started writing my own plugins where needed.

    They’re uber basic of course, but I really do feel as if I’m on the road to understanding how mootools works, going beyond the “oooooh, look at the pretty fade” attitude I had last year. :)

    Hope you have a great one, and I can’t wait to see what you’ve got in store for 2010!

  14. Michau0142

    congrats! keep up the good work ~:)

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