About a week or so ago, I was working on a WordPress project that called for an above average contact form. It needed to give visitors the ability to upload photos, receive auto responses and notifications, have built in spam blocking, and track submissions in the WordPress database.

After a bit of looking, I found cForms II, a WordPress contact form plugin developed by Oliver.

I began working with the plugin and was very quickly satisfied that I’d found a winner.

Now, in setting up this plugin, I made a mistake and was reminded of an important lesson, which became the inspiration behind this entry.

The contact form for this particular project was being used as an extensive questionnaire. As such, we decided to split it up over multiple pages to encourage people to make it all the way through. I came up with a way to do it, but it wasn’t working quite as nicely as I wanted it too.

So, I went over to the cForms II support forum and posted my challenge to see if anyone had any ideas or suggestions.

Oliver replied, letting me know that my request, though possible, was outside the scope of what cForms was meant to do. He also (and this is where the lesson comes in) pointed out the trend that people, developers especially, who’d been using and benefiting from the cForms plugin, had taken to the habit of removing credit for the work.

..And that’s what I had done.

Without even thinking it through, I had chosen to remove the credit link back to cForms from the client’s site. This seemed natural to me. The option was there; Oliver had been nice enough to provide an easy way to add or remove his credit link, and without stopping to think, I’d taken it off.

Now, sure, it’s all open source, we’re more than entitled to add or remove credits as we see fit, right?

Well, we certainly have that choice.. but is it fair?

In my case, there is no excuse. I’m a full-time web developer. I get paid for the work I do and I benefit directly from the work of guys like Oliver who’ve put their time and energy into developing a solid product. If it weren’t for him and guys like him, I’d have had to go and build the same thing from scratch.

Which brings me to the lesson that this served to remind me of, “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” Luke 6:31 As a Christian, no matter what I’m doing, whether it be work or play, I’m to treat others as I would be treated.

Now, being thus convicted, I began to give the situation some thought and was blessed with an idea. In my redesign of JonathanWold.com, I had finished up the work by adding a colophon. Traditionally, colophons were used in print media to provide details about the publication of the book. In the web, we’ve begun using it to provide details about what goes on “behind the scenes” of a website.

I’ve decided to start making the addition of a colophon a habit, in which I’ll provide a list of the resources and technologies used in the architecture and design of a website.

So, a big thanks to Oliver for his work on the cForms II plugin and for being very professional about the entire situation. It was a timely lesson for me to be reminded of and I thank you for it my friend :).

And finally, last but most important, I give full credit for my work, the good work I’ve done, to God. Were it not for Him, my conscience would have never been pricked and my sense of integrity would be non-existant. The things I’ve been blessed to learn and the people I’ve been blessed to meet, have all come as a direct result of His hand in my life. The mistakes I’ve made I take full credit for, but the lessons I’ve learned from them and the victories I’ve gained by applying each lesson learned, all are due to a God who’s been forever patient with me and never given up.

Have a wonderful day my friends. Remember, give the credit where and to whom it’s due.

Until next time,

-Jonathan Wold

P.S. Credit for the awesome illustration up top goes to my brother Joshua, who, in addition to his work with me and the rest of the team, does freelance illustration on the side.

To set the platform for the next move in life it is necessary to rewind the clock a few short weeks back and share some of the ways that God has been leading in my life.

Just a little over a month ago, on July 10, 2007, an overwhelming growth in business led to our move from a bedroom office in our tiny home to a full sized studio in the nearby town of Woodburn, Indiana. My good friend Christopher Jones was staying with my family at the time and he was here to help with the transition.

We moved into the new office in record time and, after a few short days delay, were setup and running happily on a 16MBs Cable Internet line, courtesy of our friends at Comcast. This may not seem like a big deal, unless you knew that we’d been running the entire web development business on a dial-up line from home : ).

Here’s a few quick pictures of the office:

It’s hard to believe that was barely a month ago..

Our good friend Chris headed back home a few days after the move and we were back to work. Over the next few weeks, Joshua and I continued working like crazy, taking on and finishing WordPress projects as fast as we were able.

Despite our best efforts, though, we just weren’t able to catch up on things. Project demands continued to pile up and I knew that something had to give.

While attending HostingCon with my good friend Travis Walker, I became excited about the possibility of launching a WordPress hosting solution. The market was ready for it and my experience with hosting, along with a lot of experience on the WordPress platform, seemed to be a perfect match. I began sketching out ideas and putting together a product lineup.. then I stopped to think.

God began to speak to my heart and asked if this was really what I wanted to do. I stopped and thought about it. The money would be good. I already had several amazing opportunities just waiting for me to open the doors. The work, though hard, would be straightforward and I knew that with the right team, it would be a solid success.

But I kept thinking about it.. and then realized that, no, this isn’t really what I want to be doing. Taking on WordPress hosting, or hosting of any kind, requires a serious commitment of time and effort. I’m afraid of neither, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that setting aside the next few years of my life to pull off the kind of success that I saw possible, well.. my heart just couldn’t be in it.

So, I decided to scale back my operations and return to private web development. That meant closing the doors on a few larger opportunities and continuing to work on smaller scale projects with new and, especially, existing clients.

Not long after that, God began awakening in my heart a desire to get back to my roots in niche marketing. Being in private web development, though the pay not being nearly as good as it could have been, allowed me the time to start building up some of my old niche marketing projects as well as focus on new ones.

And then, 2 weeks ago, life began taking a turn.

I’d been praying for some time that God would open and close the doors for me on the opportunities He’d have me let go or pursue. During the first weekend of August, my brother and a good friend of ours made our way down to Louisville, Kentucky, to attend ASI (Adventist-laymen’s Services and Industries). That Sabbath night, I met Jared Thurmon, the founder of PresenTruth.com. We began talking and I became excited as he shared his vision for the project that the Lord had given him. Another visitor stopped by his booth and began to talk. I stepped away and promised to return later that evening. As I began to walk away, I was suddenly impressed, distinctly, that I needed to go back. I asked God why, but He offered no explanation, just a further impression that I needed to return.

After a quick stop at another booth, I returned. Jared and I started talking again, and then another young man (whom I’ll introduce later) came by.

Over the course of the next few days, this young man and I began talking over the phone and ideas began to spark. Just under 2 weeks after our meeting, Joshua and I drove down to Southern Indiana to visit with this young man and his family. A few days after that, we made the decision to pack up and move south to relocate and work in a new office.

In just around 2 weeks, we’ll be finalizing the move and business over the next few weeks, months, and years, will take a very dramatic turn for the better.

How can I be so sure?

Well, while many of the details are yet to be worked out, I have absolute confidence in a single fact, and that is this: God has brought us together.

God heard my cry for help and, as I’ve been willing to put my best into the work before me, He has greatly blessed. Everything about this move and transition in business made a perfect and beautiful sense in a way that only God could arrange. I’m eagerly looking forward to this next step in my life and I’m looking forward to continually sharing how God has lead.

May your days be richly blessed my friends. Until next time,

-Jonathan Wold