I am guessing most of our listening audience knows what a changelog is. But making assumptions, is never good, so here is the definition via Wikepedia
A changelog is a log or record of all notable changes made to a project. The project is often a website or software project, and the changelog usually includes records of changes such as bug fixes, new features, etc. Some open-source projects include a changelog as one of the top-level files in their distribution.
In the WordPress and WooCommerce space, publicly, you will find these a lot with plugins, extensions and themes. Simply go to WordPress.org and look at any free plugin, click on the tab development and you will find a changelog. And as far as websites, with the amount I have seen, they are obviously more internal than external. Which can make sense.
Maybe I was jealous of changelogs
So it’s confession time. I think they are cool. As a non-developer I find it interesting to peruse them when I choose a new plugin. I cannot say how many users pay attention to these, but I don’t think that matters.
But let’s take this further. Maybe I was jealous. I always felt I needed to do a product like a plugin to create a changelog. It seemed to make sense. But after years of running the BobWP site, when I started this site, Do the Woo, something itched at the back of my mind. I thought why not do a changelog for a website? Heck, it made sense to me. So after making that decision, I am so glad I did. Here is why.
A sense of site history
Now I figure very few people check out my changelog. Although I will admit that someone told me they loved it because they were looking for something specific to the history of Do the Woo. So with that said, visitors to our site get a better sense of how it started and how it has grown. This is something that you may find initially uninteresting, but with a bit more thought, it could suddenly change course to something that grabs your interest. In a way, it’s like a more formal addendum to the about page.
Great for the owner of the site
This is where it has been great for me. A bit selfish, but hey, what can I say? I have read it several times to help me remember when I made a change to the site, the podcast format, or even when a new co-host came on board. It’s a running history that I can revisit when I have my own questions. And as an internal resource, it’s perfect.
So I just thought I would share this bit of Do the Woo with you and when we release version 4.0 early next year, well, you will see a big chunk added to our changelog.
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