the Blog of the Lion

This is a second chapter in a series – the first chapter is “Starting the Co-op.”

Following that first successful cycle, we decided to wait through New Year’s, 2007 to open a new cycle.  This gave me a nice, solid month to work away at the site, polishing away the last few bugs, and generally getting things locked down for production.

I settled in, the second week in December of ’06, to start patching up these past few bugs.  What I quickly found, however, was that this software was nigh-unpatchable.  Every time I’d try to add or remove a feature, everything would break.  I don’t mean a couple error messages would show up – I mean the page would simply not appear.  Locked up.  No errors in the log.  Dead.

The Oklahoma software, you see, was built over several years, by people who were not professional programmers.  They were students and foodies – and they did admirable work.  Yet, there was not a consistent design standard or vision, and the result of that was a big ball of “spaghetti code” – code that’s great when the sauce is on it, but is awful if you need to change out specific noodles.  (So that metaphor doesn’t work right.  Oh well.)  Plus, even they still considered the whole package “beta” – and not the “works really well Google-style” beta, either.

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Many of you know that I’m involved in this thing called the West Michigan Co-op.  It’s an online-based farmer’s market (or buyer’s club, depending on who you talk to) that serves the greater Grand Rapids (Michigan) area.

I don’t think that the real story of how this adventure began has ever really been documented, so I’m going to attempt to do so here, at least from my point of view.  I’m don’t intend to put this on the Co-op Wiki, simply because I will undoubtedly present a biased view, based on my perspective and knowledge, but I will try to stay away from bias when it seems obvious.  As our mothers used to say, if you can’t say something nice… etc.

This also happens to chronicle my life, to some extent, for the past few years.  My involvement in the Co-op has led to about half the jobs I currently do, which have definitely helped me grow as an individual.  I sometimes get asked if I go to a church; though I am a person of faith, I don’t attend a church at present.  I perceive my involvement in the Co-op as an equivalent; I have been tried and tested,  I have made sacrifices, and I have given my time (and money) for a cause I deeply believe in – and it has rewarded me in kind, though almost never directly.  If that’s not bordering on church or religion, I don’t think you know what church or religion really are.  (And if you don’t feel personally and spiritually rewarded by your involvement with your church, you’re doing it wrong.)

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