Setting up this site was the first concrete step of the WP Credits program, and
it was also the first time I had to think about a WordPress site as something
other than a class exercise.
I chose WordPress.com because the point of this site is documentation, not
infrastructure. I did not want to spend the first week of the program dealing
with hosting, domains, or plugin conflicts when the actual goal is to record my
contribution work. The hosted option gave me a working blog in a few minutes and
lets me focus on writing.
The onboarding courses helped more than I expected here. The lesson on the
differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org clarified something I had
been confused about for a while, which is that they are not competing versions
of the same product but two different ways of using the same software. The
course on writing in the WordPress voice also changed how I planned this site.
I originally thought of it as a personal portfolio, but the WordPress voice
guidelines pushed me toward something clearer and less self promotional.
The structure I settled on is simple. The home page lists my posts in reverse
chronological order, an About page explains who I am and what I am doing in the
program, and every lesson reflection gets its own post so it can be linked
individually.
What I want this site to be by the end of the program is a readable record of
what I actually did, including the parts that did not work on the first try.
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