News Post

2021 in review

Jake the Admin

December 15, 2021

Now that 2021 is nearly on its way out and winter vacation is just about upon us, I thought I'd look back at the year on the site to see how far we've come. I asked the database for some stats from December 15 of last year to this morning, and here's what it had to say:

Looking at the numbers, it's been awesome to see that a lot of people are finding the site, liking it enough to stick around, and often contributing activities, comments, and suggestions.

This was also the year that the revised site interface debuted. It's certainly not perfect and will require more tinkering as time goes on, but I still haven't heard from anyone who liked the clunky old interface better.

There's been some other new features as well. Colin enhanced the site a lot with the new Tag Search system, the much easier-to-use Activity Link selector, the tag addition/deletion selector on activity pages, and a bunch of other fixes. There's also the new system linking individual textbook pages to activities, but it hasn't really caught on yet so I need to make it more apparent and easier to use. Also, thanks to a lot of kind users, I was able to add the new JHS textbook listings for this year in addition to a few ES textbooks.

The other side of the increase in activity is that the hosting costs have gone up as well. Last year the monthly costs were about $80-100 US but they've steadily risen over this year and November 2021 came to $150. The Patreon is ongoing and I'm grateful to everyone who's contributing, but I haven't been doing enough to make it seem like a worthwhile proposition.

To be honest, development on the site has slowed down a lot in the summer and fall. I started a new web development job in July and most of my time and attention has gone to the new job. I think I could've been more disciplined about carving out an hour here or there instead of playing Apex Legends or goofing off in other ways, but I think I'm a little more comfortable in the new gig now and can spend a bit more time on ALTopedia. My day job is working on a site that's vastly larger and more complex than ALTopedia, so I'm learning a lot that can help me in my personal development time.

I've got a number of new features on the horizon, some of which I hope to be rolling out early next year. I'm in the process of finishing up an Article system, where users can write longer blog-style posts about things like teaching methodology. I'll talk more about that soon. I'd also like to smooth out some of the rough edges with things like managing attached files on an activity. Based on the survey results from last summer, I'm hoping I can improve searching and categorizing everything on the site.

Thanks for helping to make this the best year for the site yet! Good luck with the last push to winter vacation, and see you in 2022!

  1. Keith Miyazaki December 22, 2021

    Great yearly review and excellent statistics! I hope the ALTopedia community keeps getting bigger and more creative.

    Thank you for administering the site and making it so easy to use and contribute i.e. no paywalls or ads.

    Through ALTopedia: hundreds of ALTs have a venue to share ideas; hundreds more ALTs' teaching resources have been enriched; and hundreds of thousands of students get a better learning experience.

    Cheers. Enjoy the winter holidays!

  2. AvaWhiteRaven December 22, 2021

    Thank you! Honestly, I would not have survived life as an ALT without this site and all the resources everyone posts here. I really appreciate all the hard work everyone does in keeping the site going and fresh with new ideas (especially with the changing textbooks).

    Have a great rest of the year!

  3. rebvandev January 12, 2022

    Happy New Year, Jake!

  4. fukutanisan January 13, 2022

    Happy New Year! I'm a new ALT and new to this site but in the two months I've been using it I already got plenty of help and ideas and I'm really grateful for its existance.
    I will check my budget and see if I can afford a few ko-fi donations. Also, the more the site and its userbase grows, wouldn't it be benefitial to have ads? At least relevant ones like stationary stores or bookstores or the like.
    Thank you again for everything and have a great rest of the year!

  5. ALTPeanutButter January 17, 2022

    Cheers, mate. Who is your main in Apex?

  6. Lucasmh January 17, 2022

    This is my last year as an ALT. You're site will give my creations a home long after I am gone. Thank you for your service

  7. sahbthegreat January 28, 2022

    ALTopedia has been very helpful since day one of my ALT job

  8. joyceisachoice February 14, 2022

    Thanks for your hard work on this site. It's so easy to use, navigate, contribute, and search. It's been an invaluale resource!!!

  9. kusobaba March 4, 2022

    Thanks for all your work. I really appreciate having an easy to use resource like this with such good content.

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