What an awesome year! Even though we are almost a month into 2013 I still can’t help but look back at 2012 and at all the great content that came out. If you are the nostalgic type (or the busy type and just missed them the first time around), let’s go through our Top 5 blog posts of 2012:
1. A Simple Device Diagram for Responsive Design Planning
This is the blog post that didn’t die. Every day I check our Twitter feed, and someone has found this post and tweeted about it. This... almost every day:
The content was key on this one - Adam created a simple and effective diagram that makes planning for responsive and mobile sites easy. Not only do we use this here at Metal Toad, but some retweets from some designers and a few reblogs made this our top traffic earner and all around #1 post. Great job, Adam! You win a tub of hummus and pita bread for a year*!
2. Drupal 7 Tutorial: Creating Custom Formatters with the Field API
Our tutorials are pretty popular - and Dan’s Drupal 7 Tutorial is no exception. With a lot of step-by-step instructions and tons of code examples - it was great out of the gate. However, it was in the comments section where a lot of further explorations happened. This is what makes the craft of programming so exciting; it always invites discussion. Great job, Dan! You win Trailblazer season tickets*!
3. How To Become A Web Developer
This concise title has seemingly been the jumping off point for many people who are asking the same question; where do I even start in web development? This post has been so popular we even filmed a quick video interview based on it. Joaquin laid out a solid path to get in the web development game, which is probably why this blog post is so popular. We even have our own Metal Toad University that follows the same path! Great job, Joaquin! You win a year’s supply of Starbucks Green Tea*!
4. Drupal 7 Tutorial: Creating Custom Filters in Views
Told you these tutorials were popular. We love Drupal, and it is pretty apparent that others do, too. Jonathan loves Views and wants you to as well - so his simple tutorial on custom filters burned up the charts to land at #4. Jonathan’s other tutorials always do well - perhaps he should volunteer to be a professor at Metal Toad U once we get to Drupal. In the meantime, congratulations Jonathan! You win the complete Nickelback discography on vinyl!
5. Developer or Software Engineer?
Asking a thoughtful question is a great lead into a blog post, and the comment section is a great place to continue the discussion. That’s exactly what happened in Chris Trahey’s question about the semantic meaning of titles in the web development world. Even though this post got a lot of feedback on our blog, it really blew up on Ask Slashdot. It seems the question is still open though... discuss! Congratulations, Chris! You win a year’s supply of sustainably gathered South American coffee to grind and brew yourself, at the proper temperature*!
Did I miss your favorite? This short list doesn’t even touch the pool of awesomeness that is our blog posts. Feel free to share your favorites - and we’ll see you in 2013!
* These must be claimed within 5 minutes of the blog post being published.