Joomla! Community Magazine™

Last week I visited a website and saw something that I hadn’t seen for what seems like over a decade - a counter telling me I was the 3619th visitor to the site.

When a link to your site is posted on social media you will typically see an image as well as the link. Depending on the social media platform you may also see additional information such as a summary of the content.

Over the last four years I'be been on a journey to learn more about accessibility and to share that knowledge and experience. I've been fortunate to have had some amazing mentors who have given their time (in exchange for the occasional beer and curry) to nudge me in the right direction and answer my queries. When we help each other and work together we can achieve so much more than when we stay marooned on our own islands.

I don't build many websites. Most of my work is in training and advising people to build their own websites. So when I do need to build a new website I get the opportunity to put my ideas into practice.

Over the last few months I have been working on producing https://www.learnjoomla4.com - a free video course to teach people how to build their first Joomla 4 website.

Web Accessibility

How many times have we heard this phrase but is it really true? Most content creators will spend a long time selecting the perfect photo to illustrate their article. The key word is illustrate. The image should be used to enhance the content. Perhaps to set the mood of the article or to illustrate an example in the text such as a product shot.

Standing in front of an audience of 167 (including an 11 day old baby) and not seeing a single empty seat when the event began was an awesome feeling. It was only then that I knew we had succeeded in rebooting JoomlaDay UK and proving that we have a large community.

How many times have you heard a person referred to as "just a volunteer" as though "Justa" were a first name?

JoomlaDay UK is back on Saturday 13th February, right in the heart of London, just 250 yards from Buckingham Palace. Will we have a special guest? Will you be there? During J and Beyond 2015, a group of Brits met up to reboot the event and make JoomlaDay 2016 a real community event.

Joomla 3.4.4 is scheduled for release on Monday 7th September and a release candidate is available for testing. Each time there is a new release, whether its a bug fix release or a new feature release, you will always find people asking "have they fixed this yet?" or complaining that "this bug that has been there for years" has still not been fixed.

On August 17th Joomla will be 10 years old. That's a truly amazing achievement for any open source project especially one that is 100% community run without any corporate overlord or backer. 10 years of a global community working together motivated not by money or personal gain but solely to create something that the world can use freely. As I look back to the events of August 2005 and the decision we made to leave the comfort of Mambo and start this journey it is hard for me to believe what we have achieved in that time.