I'll no longer be developing WP-Cumulus

I’ll no longer be developing WP-Cumulus

It’s been well over a year since I last blogged about WP-Cumulus. In the mean time, there have been all sorts of developments. I’ve been in serious talks with a potential buyer. That didn’t work out. I’ve tried, a number of times, to do a rewrite. That didn’t work out either. But most importantly, I gradually lost interest. Which is why I’ve decided I’ll no longer dedicate any time to Cumulus.

Flash

There are a number of reasons why I feel it no longer makes sense to work on WP-Cumulus. One of the most important things is that Flash is now essentially a dying technology. It’s not on iOS, no longer developed for Android, and dead in the water on many other platforms. Also, tag clouds in general seem be less popular now. Other reasons are more personal, but they all boil down to time. Supporting and developing a popular plugin takes lots of time. Time I’m no longer able to spend on this project.

Great run

It’s been a great run though. 770,000 downloads from wordpress.org, big companies like MEXX, Coop and Sennheiser using Cumulus on their websites, numerous ports to other platforms. Cumulus was my first real open source project, and it’s been an eye-opener. It’s made me fall in love with the concept of free software, and has been an excellent learning experience. But most of the web has since moved on, and so should I.

Up for grabs

As of right now, I no longer recommend you use WP-Cumulus. It still works on the latest version of WordPress, but it’s likely to fail in the near future. It uses old, deprecated APIs and hasn’t been thoroughly tested in a long time. Should anyone be interested in picking up where I left off, please feel free to contact me. I’ll help any way I can. There’s code I can share and thoughts I can offer.

Roy | November 7, 2012 | English,Programming,WordPress plugins | Comments (25)

25 Comments

Thanks for developing this fun tag cloud, Roy! I’ve seen it all over the internet. 3/4 of a million downloads is a heck of an achievement.
Reply Comment by Brian — November 7, 2012 @ 2:35 pm
I stumbled across your work today at Biotracker/occimum site. Just out of curiosity checking who made it. appreciated your work, well done.
Reply Comment by Linda — November 9, 2012 @ 11:37 am
Many many thanks for developing this favolous plug-in.
Reply Comment by Ziaur — November 9, 2012 @ 10:19 pm
Thanks for developing such a fun plugin. I’ve been using it for quite sometime and while I’m sad to see you end development, I’m also glad to know that you’ve opened up your schedule to greater and better activities. So go spend more time with your family. They can always use more Roy.
Reply Comment by Paul Hastings — November 19, 2012 @ 8:46 am
Many thanks for developing the funny tool.it is very useful for us to build our tags cloud.
Reply Comment by Doudoo — November 22, 2012 @ 3:44 am
Sorry to hear that, it is great plugin… Good luck in other developments..
Reply Comment by CCN — November 28, 2012 @ 1:53 am
What a great cube. If you don’t want to sell it did you think about releasing as Open Source Software? There might be some guys who are interested in diving and improving your code?
Reply Comment by joblack — December 4, 2012 @ 12:56 am
Ik gebruik helemaal geen wordpress om eerlijk te zijn, maar kwam deze tegen op http://net-art.org/ en zag dat je een nederlandse developer bent. Wou even zeggen dat het me inspireerde om een er een creatieve- niet handige- 3d site te maken voor ons bedrijfje. Dit was precies wat ik zocht qua 3d interactie. Heb hem hier en daar naar wens aangepast in code voor desbetreffende vormgeving (waarschijnlijk niet geweldig, maar het werkt en loopt nog redelijk soepel), dus dank je wel dat je hem open source hebt gemaakt.. Succes met je volgende projecten.
Groetjes, Wouter
Reply Comment by Wouter — January 16, 2013 @ 2:43 am
Hey there! This is kind of off topic but I need some help from an established blog. Is it difficult to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty quick. I’m thinking about making my own but I’m not sure where to begin. Do you have any tips or suggestions? Appreciate it|
Reply Comment by Soila Johndrow — January 17, 2013 @ 11:59 pm

If you’re not very technical, I’d recommend going with wordpress.com. You can get a free, hosted blog there, without having to do any kind of installation.
Reply Comment by Roy — January 18, 2013 @ 2:56 pm

Thanks for this funny ideas…well done bro
Reply Comment by aradea — February 23, 2013 @ 2:42 am
Wow, you’ were the developer of that awesome Plugin..
Thanks, i used that plugin for long time.
Reply Comment by Mark — February 23, 2013 @ 9:43 pm
H
Reply Comment by Joseph — February 25, 2013 @ 10:43 pm
Hi Roy,
I can still remember when you first released this plugin,
I have to very kindly disagree with you and say that there is still many uses for this plugin,
I actually have been a professional webmaster since 2001, working on wordpress since 2004,. I actually am writing this post on Windows XP
So with that said, How can I acquire the “take over” to develop this plugin?
I would love to keep on developing where you left off, I simply love this plugin,
Please contact me at my email so we can discuss me adopting your creation, Thanks so much
I look forward to developing this plugin,
Joseph
Reply Comment by Joseph — February 25, 2013 @ 10:46 pm
salute!
Reply Comment by Sahil — February 26, 2013 @ 6:40 am
Wow. The download number is crazy, great achievement but sorry to hear about the plugin.
Best, Earl
Reply Comment by Earl — March 1, 2013 @ 9:18 pm
Roy,
Please do not abandon such a great technology and plugin you worked so hard developing, like others have said, there still are many great uses for WP-Cumulus. Do NOT let someone else put their name on this great work of art.
As far as the back-link by default, the very few, if any, folks who don’t like it, tell them to shut up
Finally, if I were to choose someone to assist you in your en devour to further its development, I would select Yoast!
Reply Comment by John — March 1, 2013 @ 11:24 pm
hello…
thanks for the nice job on the WP-Cumulus too bad is no longer in development
can i ask a laymen question…
can the application be use as a desktop ?
will be very cool if can see the icon flooding and rotating in a sphere…
thanks again …and again a wonderful job
from malaysia
kent
Reply Comment by kentsos — March 7, 2013 @ 8:19 am

I don’t think this flash-based implementation of the effect will play well with more native Windows technologies, but I’ve never tried.
Reply Comment by Roy — March 7, 2013 @ 3:46 pm

Are you planning on releasing any other plugins? I thought cumulus was great and if you’re planning on releasing another product, i’m willing to give it a go.
I’m all for free ware, but if the product is good, i wouldn’t mind paying.
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