Conclave Social

The countryside between Monmouth and Usk is a peculiar place to birth a social network. Yet there I sat, surrounded by ancient oaks and persistent sheep, coding what I believed would revolutionise how people connect online. It was March 2020, and the world had gone eerily quiet.

From Nomad to Nowhere

The first lockdown hit like a slow-motion car crash. One moment I was bouncing between co-working spaces in Southeast Asia, the next I was seeking refuge in my parents' carpenter's cottage in rural Wales. The sudden shift from digital nomad to digital hermit created the perfect storm of isolation-induced inspiration.

                  xychart-beta
title "Project Timeline vs COVID Restrictions"
x-axis ["Mar 2020", "Jun 2020", "Sep 2020", "Dec 2020", "Mar 2021"]
y-axis "Development Progress %" 0 --> 100
line [5, 30, 60, 85, 95]
                

The Architecture of Ambition

The platform's foundation was built on a carefully chosen stack. WordPress provided the robust backend I needed, while Theme.co Pro offered the flexibility for custom frontend development. The real magic came from integrating Whereby's video API and my own creation, MemberDeck – a plugin I'd developed years earlier for handling memberships and payments.

This wasn't my first rodeo with WordPress development. MemberDeck had taught me valuable lessons about the ecosystem, particularly the importance of robust payment processing and user management. However, this time I was pushing the boundaries further, attempting to create something that WordPress wasn't necessarily designed for.

The Technical Crucible

The development process was a six-month odyssey of coding, testing, and occasional bouts of despair. The integration challenges were numerous:

Each solved problem seemed to unveil two more. The platform needed to handle real-time video interactions while managing membership states and content access – all while maintaining WordPress's inherent flexibility.

The Echo Chamber of One

Looking back, the irony is rather striking. While building a platform designed to foster meaningful connections, I had effectively isolated myself from any meaningful feedback. My daily routine became a monk-like existence of coding, walking the hills, and talking to sheep – who, I must say, were terribly supportive of all my ideas.

                  pie
title "Time Allocation During Development"
    "Coding" : 70
    "Technical Research" : 20
    "Market Research" : 5
    "User Feedback" : 5
                

When Reality Bites

The wake-up call came in the form of a rather sobering spreadsheet. After six months of intensive development, I had created:

• A technically impressive but overengineered platform
• £0 in revenue
• No active users
• A rapidly depleting savings account
• An intimate knowledge of WordPress's limitations

The monthly operational costs were daunting enough, but it was the technical debt that really kept me up at night. WordPress, while versatile, wasn't designed for the real-time interactions I was forcing it to handle. The custom modifications to MemberDeck were becoming increasingly complex, and maintaining compatibility with Theme.co Pro updates was a constant challenge.

The Market Shifts

By early 2021, the landscape had changed dramatically. Several purpose-built platforms had emerged, each with dedicated teams and substantial funding. These weren't WordPress sites with clever plugins – they were ground-up solutions designed specifically for video-based communities.

The reality was harsh but clear: I had spent six months trying to turn WordPress into something it wasn't meant to be, all while working in isolation from the very community I aimed to serve.

Lessons from the Lockdown

1. Platform limitations matter WordPress is powerful, but not infinitely flexible. Sometimes the right tool isn't the familiar one.

2. Previous success doesn't guarantee future results MemberDeck's success as a plugin didn't translate to this new venture.

3. Isolation amplifies technical tunnel vision Without regular user feedback, it's easy to lose sight of practical needs.

4. Market timing is crucial The pandemic created opportunities, but also accelerated competition.

The code still sits in a private repository, a reminder that technical capability alone isn't enough. While MemberDeck had found its niche as a plugin, this attempt to stretch WordPress beyond its comfort zone proved that sometimes the best technology isn't the right solution.

Perhaps the sheep were trying to tell me something all along. After all, they never wander too far from their flock.