It’s been a while since an official update has been given about Anchor, so in light of this, we’d like to explain the current status and what we’re doing to make as much progress as we can with the time we have available for Anchor.
Right now, Anchor is at version 0.9.2, the latest stable version; in parallel, we’re also working on a development version – version 1.0. It’s all on GitHub for everyone to see, use and contribute to (and we’d love to see you do that!).
We love that; we love the fact that everything is open for people to comment on and improve. It’s also the reason Anchor has got this far, what started as a simple idea has grown into a powerful tool and a brilliant community. The main team are always surprised by the amount of interest and positive feedback this little CMS gets.
Unfortunately, finding the time to work on all the smaller bugfixes, the niggling issues and the bigger picture is a real problem. The Anchor core is maintained by developers who also hold down full time jobs, so finding that chunk of time in the evening as often as possible can prove tricky to say the least. There’s also the matter of paying for domains, hosting, and all the other various expenses. On their own, it’s not a problem, but it all adds up.
So, as of yesterday (5th June 2014), we’ve added a simple donate button to the home page of the Anchor CMS website. All donations will go straight towards the development of Anchor CMS; primarily, for now it will help to fund the servers that host the main site, the forums and the blog site you’re on now.
Obviously we’re only expecting small donations (the default is $5 but you can type in any amount you want), but think of this as testing the water. We’ve had many people mention on our forums that they wish to contribute in some manner besides helping with the development on GitHub. Hopefully this gives them the opportunity to do so.
As for Anchor 1.0, the gears are beginning to turn again. Version 0.9 was always active, what with so many people discovering Anchor and then making small but really useful contributions via pull requests. Anchor 1.0 did slow down in the early parts of 2014, this was due to the team being so busy with their own jobs. Kieron, core development, working full time and Idiot, front end development & design, working as a full time freelancer. But now we’re finding the breathing space to work on the latest version of Anchor.
We’re really excited to not only openly work on 1.0, but also see what the community think of it and what ideas people bring to the table.
I hope this gives you a more detailed explanation of what happens behind the scenes and I will do my best to keep you informed in future.
Cheers, Dave