Steve’s Blog

November 13, 2021

Logtivity Charts Got Much Better with Chart.js and Date Range Picker

Logtivity is a WordPress activity log that we launched this summer. Not only can you track all the activity on your site, but with Logtivity you can also turn that information into beautiful and useful charts.

We use the charts all the time in our other business. You can use these charts to show logins, purchases, subscriptions, cancellations, downloads, or any other key events.

Logtivity charts just got a lot better because you can customise the date range for charts. Your charts are updated with advanced date ranges, so you can zoom in to view any time period.

November 12, 2021

TaxoPress: What it’s Like to Overhaul a Legacy Plugin

Earlier this year, we took over running Simple Tags, an old WordPress plugin that had 80,000 users, but hadn’t been updated in a long time.

We saw a need in WordPress for one plugin that can manage all the taxonomies on your site. A plugin like that would be incredibly useful in organizing large sites.

On the surface, these deals always look attractive for developers. We get a large existing userbase at an affordable price. And hopefully those users can become customers and we can build a business.

The reality is more rocky.

October 5, 2021

Logtivity is Featured on WPTavern

On Friday, our new Logtivity project was featured on WPTavern. For a start-up, being featured on the Tavern often marks a debut into the WordPress community.

Every now and again, some complaints pop up about WPTavern. Mostly they center around the fact that the site is owned by Matt Mullenweg, and there are potential conflicts of interest, but people are rarely able to point to specific examples. WPTavern is well run. Yes, it probably focuses more on boosting and encouraging the WordPress community, than it does on hard-hitting criticism, but that’s not a bad thing at all. For entirely independent alternatives, there are Post Status and also WP Mainline, although I’m afraid you’ll find them to be warm and welcoming also. There are harsher takes on the WordPress world, and you can find them with a little digging on Twitter.

August 20, 2021

Logtivity and Easy Digital Downloads User Tracking

We launched Logtivity in August: it’s a new activity log service that helps you understand exactly what’s happening on your WordPress site.

The first version of Logtivity had support for the WordPress core, so it recorded eventss like these:

WordPress Core Updated
Post Updated
Post Published
Attachment Uploaded
Theme Deleted
User Created
Profile Updated
Plugin Activated

The next big step is integration with Easy Digital Downloads. If you sell WordPress plugins or themes, there is a very good chance that you use the Software Licensing extension. It is a cornerstone of the WordPress economy.

August 12, 2021

We Launched Logtivity: A New WordPress Activity Log

A few months ago, I saw a tweet from Iain Poulson, who has been very active on the business side of WordPress. Iain regularly links to WordPress products for sale, and this time it was a listing on Flippa:

July 14, 2021

TaxoPress Pro is Here to Help Organize Your WordPress Sites

Earlier this year, I posted that we had adopted a WordPress plugin called Simple Tags, and renamed it “TaxoPress”.

Since then, we’ve been working hard with frequent releases. Here is the download chart for the plugin on WordPress.org. Each big spike represents a new release. Can you spot when we took over?

March 9, 2021

TaxoPress is Our New WordPress Plugin

Simple Tags has been a popular WordPress plugin for 10 years, and now has over 80,000 users.

I’m delighted to say that our team has taken over running the plugin. This is the same team that runs the plugins at PublishPress.

We’ve given it a new name (“TaxoPress”) and a new website at TaxoPress.com.

Over the last few years, we’ve repeatedly answered custom questions about Tags and Categories. We often found that we didn’t have good answers because the plugins in this space weren’t great.

So our goal with TaxoPress is to build the perfect tool to create, edit and manage all your WordPress taxonomy terms.

November 11, 2020

Short on Words and Long on Love

My grandfather Leslie passed away this week at the age of 93.

He was a rock for our family, and remained mentally and physically strong until the very end.

Even a few days before he passed, he was healthy enough to make a final trip to his favourite holiday town in Devon. We were together in that town just last summer:

March 18, 2020

Eulogy for My Dad

In many ways, my family and I were very fortunate.

My Dad first had cancer in 2000. He went on to survive multiple fights with several forms of cancer. He had 20 years of absolutely world-class medical treatment from England’s National Health Service.

We had 20 extra years with him, thanks to that treatment, and his own resilience and determination.

September 6, 2019

Some Big Life Changes

Last July, I turned 40. For some people that’s not a huge milestone, but for me it was. I felt stale and in need of fresh challenges.

So from last summer to this summer, I worked on making changes. Some things happened: I bought out my main business partner and made a significant move into WordPress. But, by-and-large, it was a year of slow negotiations, many discussions and lots of tire-kicking. I even sat for my first job interview in 15 years, before realizing that was the wrong direction.