Since taking over development and support of the Semiologic Reloaded theme and all the plugins I've been wrestling with what the right business model is going forward.   I'm still wrestling.  My main focus over the past 6 months has been getting everything compliant with WordPress 3.5 and getting support back in place. To that end I decided in early March to extend the subscriptions of those that renewed over the past few years to May 31st, 2013.   To me people hadn't received all the value back that they already had paid for plus allowing everyone to get current with WordPress and Semiologic is good for the community as a whole.

I believe I have accomplished what I set out to do.  Over the past several months:

• Semiologic Reloaded 1.0 was released for WordPress 3.5 compatibility along with a bunch of new features
• All the plugins, except Mediacaster, have been released to work along side of WordPress 3.5
• The Semiologic software upgrade mechanism was functional allowing for updates and new installs through Version Checker
• The forum software was upgraded and much quicker]
• Support requests and forum posts are being responded to in a reasonable timeframe

Obviously there are still improvements to be made but things have taken a huge turn for the better from where it stood at the end of 2012.

With today being June 1st everyone's subscriptions just expired.  I know many have asked what the renewal plan is going forward and I still don't have the right answer for you.  I have a good understanding of Semiologic's target audience and where it fits in within the WordPress ecosystem.  The question to me is what exactly is the right licensing model and pricing moving forward.   I've received some input from a few people and have a gut feeling as to what it is.   One of the biggest obstacles though is that the homegrown membership backend Denis built has limitations on what can be done.   It could use a good rewrite to allow for different subscription models, billing/payment options and product offerings.   I'm not sure if I'm up to the task of taking this on with so much else to be done and especially when there are multiple off the shelf solutions I can use to provide this capability.

So the long and the short is I need some time to focus on the business side of the business.  The current membership backend does still work and can be used.   Previously Denis had renewals priced at $175 for 12 months.   Starting today I'm dropping the renewal price to $147 until July 31st.   I'll use the next few months to work on the backend and you get to benefit with a discounted renewal price.

To renew your subscription, simply go to the Semiologic API Key menu item under Settings in your WordPress Dashboard.  Click on the Renew Now link and you'll be taken to your account page in the Member's Area.  You should see an option to extend your subscription for the renewal price of $147.   Process the renewal and complete the order via Paypal to receive 12 more months of benefits and a huge thank you from me!   Alternatively, you can click on the My Memberships link in the right column of the Semiologic Member's Area to renew your membership.

As a current Semiologic customer (or a previous one) I hope you believe in the value of Semiologic and wish to fund its future development and ongoing support.  As always thanks for your continued support for Semiologic!

On May 27th, WordPress officially turned 10 years old.   Numerous celebrations were held around the globe and creators Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little both blogged about its milestone anniversary (Dear WordPress and  WordPress 10th Anniversary, respectively).   I know that Semiologic has been around for quite a while, but I wasn't sure just how long ago Denis started working on it.

I emailed Denis to see if he remembered and he actually pointed me right back to this blog.  Denis has been blogging here since January 2005 and one of those older posts may yield the answer.   I found a post from March 30, 2005 announcing the release of the dofollow plugin (The dofollow plugin for WordPress), which was Denis' first plugin he created.    This still doesn't answer the Semiologic theme question though.

After more digging I found Semiologic theme and CMS, v2 released posted on April 22, 2005.   I couldn't find an actual post announcing a version 1 release, but we do know Semiologic has been around since April of 2005 and was probably at version 1 in March.   Still this makes Semiologic over 8 years old!   Definitely one of the early "premier", commercial WordPress themes in the market.

In 21 months Semiologic will be celebrating its 10 year anniversary.  I don't think there will be worldwide events to commemorate the day, but perhaps we will all raise a glass in unison to acknowledge Denis' creation.

update: While as I crafting this Matt just posted  Ten Good Years on the WordPress.org news site.