Apologizes to all for wishing a belated birthday wish, so let’s make this a loud one.
HAPPY ONE YEAR BIRTHDAY, WORDPRESS.COM!
One year ago WordPress.com was released out to walk among the bloggers. Matt Mullenweg, Ryan Boren, and Donncha O’Caoimh (among many others) did what many thought couldn’t be done and wouldn’t work. They broke the barrier in free blogging services. And they broke the blogging mold.
The first three months were definitely shaky. A toddler in diapers, moving from place to place by hanging onto the furniture of the full version of WordPress, WordPress.com lurched its way into the path of bloggers. The server crashed repeatedly, the interface melted, things jumped around, posts were lost, and code flew in every direction. Even loyal WordPress users and abusers were not impressed, turning up their noses – even with “free” signs hanging from every virtual wall. Yet, those who believed lined up behind WordPress.com and pushed and pulled it into the powerful blogging service it is today.
The WordPress and WordPress.com developers dive deeply into code that often defies imagination as it whirls and spins to take our words and generates web pages. They may get lost in the language of code, but in their hearts, they know that their work’s goal is to provide an easy-to-use, free, stable, translatable, and powerful blogging tool so everyone can tell their story.
WordPress.com is more than just a free blogging service. It’s foundation lies even deeper than the WordPress collection of php code driven blog management software. It’s foundation is built upon the honest belief that everyone has a right to have a free voice – and that their voice has a right to be freely heard.
No matter how much we want “pretty” in a WordPress Theme, no matter how much we wish the sidebar were on the left instead of the right, or want to add Flickr galleries to our sidebars or posts, insert video or music files into our posts, tag posts, change header art, or wrap text around pictures, it’s all about the stories we share, the memories we recall, pictures we show off, opinions we rattle off, our screams and shouts, our whines and moans, tears openly shed, questions asked, answers challenged, and words we write.
It’s called blogging. And few do it better than the WordPress.com blogging service.
WordPress.com is free and open to anyone, giving all a chance to blog. Black, white, brown, red, blue, or colorful. Christian, Jew, Muslim, Coptic, Wicca, Hindu, Buddhist, or atheist. Young, old, or in between. Physically or mentally impaired, or just a little “off beat”. Got something to say? All are welcome to blog.
Thank you to everyone for the exciting roller coaster of a first year. From the paid staff to the volunteers who give so willingly and freely of their time, energy, compassion, and expertise – to everyone involved with WordPress and WordPress.com, our thanks and appreciation.
The world is a better place with more than 300,000 bloggers blogging free on WordPress.com, in dozens of languages from dozens of countries, all raising their voices to be heard.
Thank you, WordPress.com, and happy birthday!
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network
Lorelle on WordPress 
16 Comments
Thank you very much Lorelle. We’d be nothing without folks like you creating amazing blogs using the canvas we provide. You obviously remember the rockier times — thanks for sticking with us.
Thanks for writing this fitting tribute Lorelle. I love WordPress and without a doubt entering and becoming part of this awesome blogging community has changed my life. Hat’s off to all the beloved geeks and bloggers who are the foundation of this the very best blogging platform on planet earth.
That’s great.
BTW, I love the theme here.
It’s already been a year already? Has it been that long?
Thanks Lorelle..
A very eloquent tribute.
I had tested the waters in blogging with various hosts before settling on WordPress, and I haven’t regretted it for a minute.
The extensive features, simple but powerful user interface, and thriving community make it the ONLY place to be.
Happy Birthday WordPress
May your standing continue to grow and grow.
That’s just great! 🙂 Congrats WP!
A happy birthday, I didnt realise it was that new, I have now set up 5 wordpress blogs and really enjoying all the themes etc.
I was thinking of organising a WP get together here in the UK. Please add your opinions on the wiki at http://www.oursocialworld.com/doku.php?id=wordpress
Thank you, Lorelle for the tribute to the first birthday of WordPress.com. It was here that in February, 2006, I was introduced to the exciting world of blogging. I have never looked back.
Blessings,
Shirley Buxton
Thank you WordPress. Thank you for letting me express myself! 😀
Happy Birthday WP. I don’t know where to start thanking you for the endless options I find in WordPress every day. I’ve been using WP for a little over a year and it feels almost like marriage, in the positive sense. Keep up the good work!
You should be kidding, Mrs. Lorelle…
Whatever, happy (and late) birthday WordPress.com!
Of course I cannot agree more… Blogger and Google had a head-start when they had started off.. but then they haven’t really done much and now are trying to play the catch-up game with the new Blogger Beta..
They are trying to be (still in beta) what our wonderful WordPress already is. I use wordpress on both the wordpress.com as well as the hosted server. However they are personal websites.. I will be starting off with a podcast.. i shall send u the url of that blog.. really soon
Lots of love to the entire WordPress Community. Freedom always wins over proprietary companies… I love Google for some reasons, however i hate the commercial exploitation of AdSense and blogger… Again i am digressing…(an indication that the person blogs:) )
A humble suggestion: You have so many RSS Reader options on your side panel… you forgot netvibes.com and Pageflakes, which i feel are really cool and really deserve to be there..
Thank you guys. I have never been as excited about anything as I am about WordPress.
if i went into a coma for 3 months, god knows how WordPress wll be like when i wake up 🙂
keep on the good work!
Congrats WP!
happy late b-day sorry for forgetting… = { i can’t belaeve i forgot bout urs but you remembered mine, well srry again,but…………. HAPPY LATE B-DAY!!!!!! = }
37 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[…] Lorelle has a pretty lengthy post about the 1 year birthday of wordpress.com. It’s really quite a touching tribute. No matter how much we want “pretty” in a WordPress Theme, no matter how much we wish the sidebar were on the left instead of the right, or want to add Flickr galleries to our sidebars or posts, insert video or music files into our posts, tag posts, change header art, or wrap text around pictures, it’s all about the stories we share, the memories we recall, pictures we show off, opinions we rattle off, our screams and shouts, our whines and moans, tears openly shed, questions asked, answers challenged, and words we write. […]
[…] However Lorelle remembered and wrote a great post. It seems fitting that our birthday post should come from one of our bloggers! […]
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[…] However Lorelle remembered and wrote a great post. It seems fitting that our birthday post should come from one of our bloggers! […]
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[…] However Lorelle remembered and wrote a great post. It seems fitting that our birthday post should come from one of our bloggers! […]
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[…] WordPress.com Turns One Matt forgot about WordPress.com’s birthday. Thankfully Lorelle remembered and wrote up a great post comemorating the event. […]
[…] Ayer, 16 de Agosto, WordPress.com cumplió un año de estar en linea. Lorelle VanFossen nos cuenta un poco como fue el inicio de esta empresa y de como era el ambiente en los primeros meses de vida, no sabía que arranco como un servicio solo por invitación, al estilo gmail. WordPress.com es el hogar de más de 300,000 bloggers, continua siendo gratuito y libre para cualquiera que así lo desee… para mí un de los mejores lugares gratuitos para iniciarse como blogger. […]
[…] Yesterday WordPress.com became one year old. Even the WordPress staff had forgotten their birthday, but got reminded by Lorelles long post about them. So here it comes: […]
[…] WordPress.com is jarig, bestaat één jaar. Tiens, ik dacht dat dat al veel langer was. En ik heb zo de indruk dat er hier bij mij de laatste dagen veel vernederlandst is. Mooi. Ben nu wel aan het twijfelen of ik mijn tags ook in het Nederlands zou zetten. Ik ben er nog niet uit. […]
[…] One year on and still going strong! Lorelle was the first to notice but shortly afterwards Matt posted a nice message saying that yes we had forgotten to celebrate the birthday but it was great that one of our own bloggers had remembered. Nice list of trivia too! […]
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[…] Happy Birthday WP – kudos to the whole team.. Looking forward to what the second year brings. Cyworld v. MySpace – very cool technology. Though you don’t need to look too good to kick MySpace’s ass. […]
[…] One year. Wow! […]
[…] It’s probably a little late, but happy belated birthday to WordPress.com. The first thing I probably said the moment I knew about it from Lorelle was “Has it been that long already?”, but it has been one year and what an interesting one year it has been. I remember the days when I heard Matt mentioning around somewhere about WordPress going “dot com”, all I could do was shrug my shoulder and keep to whatever stuff I was doing to my WordPress. […]
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[…] And hosted blog service WordPress.com just celebrated its first year in operation. Lots of new things that will interest users of this free service came out of WordCamp, the developers’ conference earlier this month. […]
[…] Ce fut rendu possible grâce à un service gratuit, simple et surpuissant wordpress.com, qui vient de souffler sa première bougie. Perso, on adore. […]
[…] WordPress.com is an amazing effort by Matt Mullenweg, Ryan Boren, and Donncha O’Caoimh etc. who have brought this wonderful free blogging tool for bloggers. Just as the WordPress guys forgot its birthday, Lorelle remembered to wish them first. […]
[…] Catching up on unread posts from Lorelle, my favorite WP.com weblogger, I’ve learned that WP.com celebrated its first anniversary back on August 16th. So a very belated happy first birthday to Donncha, Matt and Ryan. It has been a real pleasure to be along for the ride and watch you grow WP.com into what it has become. Today WP.com leads the way for other personal publishing platforms to follow. Heres wishing all the WP.com team continued good health, wealth and happiness in the year ahead. […]
[…] Here’s a quote from Lorelle’s blog: The first three months were definitely shaky. A toddler in diapers, moving from place to place by hanging onto the furniture of the full version of WordPress, WordPress.com lurched its way into the path of bloggers. The server crashed repeatedly, the interface melted, things jumped around, posts were lost, and code flew in every direction. Even loyal WordPress users and abusers were not impressed, turning up their noses – even with “free” signs hanging from every virtual wall. Yet, those who believed lined up behind WordPress.com and pushed and pulled it into the powerful blogging service it is today. […]
[…] Just over a year ago, I started a blog (on blogger.com). Little did I know it but WordPress.com was launched the day before. […]
[…] One year on and still going strong! Lorelle was the first to notice but shortly afterwards Matt posted a nice message saying that yes we had forgotten to celebrate the birthday but it was great that one of our own bloggers had remembered. Nice list of trivia too! […]
[…] However Lorelle remembered and wrote a great post. It seems fitting that our birthday post should come from one of our bloggers! […]
[…] Just over a year ago, I started a blog (on blogger.com). Little did I know it but WordPress.com was launched the day before. […]
[…] 16 de Agosto, WordPress.com cumplió un a?o de estar en linea. Lorelle VanFossen nos cuenta un poco como fue el inicio de esta empresa y de como era el ambiente en los primeros meses de vida, no […]
[…] dynamic features. WordPress.com too has seen massive growth, it hosts 310 thousand blogs on its first birthday. WordPress.com has time and again shown that it is one of the highest quality blogging sites, with […]
[…] over a year ago, I started a blog (on blogger.com). Little did I know it but WordPress.com was launched the day […]
[…] over a year ago, I started a blog (on blogger.com). Little did I know it but WordPress.com was launched the day before.The creation of the blog was simply a quick experiment to play around with the […]
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