It gives me great pleasure to declare that, as of today, Trongate now has 400 GitHub stars.

WE DID IT!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!

Getting 400 GitHub stars is a massive and monumental step forward for the Trongate framework. In short, it means that Trongate is well on the way to becoming a top ten PHP framework. I think I'll say it again... Trongate is well on the way to becoming a top ten PHP framework.

Whether we like it or not, GitHub stars is the metric by which the success of frameworks gets measured. It's not a perfect system. But it's all we have. So, it cannot be stressed how important it is for Trongate to get stars on GitHub.

To everyone who has given Trongate a star - THANK YOU.

I want the world to know that what is happening here represents nothing short of a web development revolution. That's because Trongate represents a radical new direction for web development frameworks. Together, we stood tall and we said, 'no thanks' to the self-appointed aficionados of PHPFIG. Together, we said 'no thanks' to rewrite culture. Together, we said 'no thanks' to certification. Together we said 'no thanks' to Packagist and every PSR in the book.

But do you know what else we did?

Together we said 'YES!' to keeping the doors of web development open. Together, we said 'YES' to stability. Together, we said 'YES!' to genuine innovation. We even had the audacity to say 'YES!' to building our own entirely independent ecosystem, complete with Desktop App, JavaScript libraries, CSS framework and even an app store!

Now, FINALLY, Trongate is starting to get traction and the party has just begun.

Make no mistake.... personally speaking (and this is David Connelly typing), I love ALL of the frameworks. I respect them and I think they all have their place. But do NOT for one second think that Trongate is just another framework.

When Trongate becomes a top ten framework - and soon afterwards, a top three framework - I want every self-appointed aficionado and certificate seller to know that every single GitHub star that this framework has received is an active rejection of their bullschitt!

Most importantly, I want everybody out there to know that - together - we have done this the hard way.

Together, we have reached this milestone without any advertising, without appearing in anyone's lists and - critically - without any help from several popular YouTubers who all promised to help spread the word about Trongate, but then reneged on their promises when push came to shove. Many of those YouTubers have over a million subs and their support would have REALLY made a huge difference to the success of our framework. However, they all BOTTLED IT because they haven't got the balls to do what we did. They haven't got the nerve to stand tall and insist upon a different and - frankly - BETTER kind of framework. So, instead of rocking the boat, they cosied up to their cronies and their own egos.

I hope they made fortunes. I really do. That's because change is coming. Very soon, I promise each and every one of you, it will be OUR TIME.

There's a great deal to discuss regarding the future of Trongate and the general state of the web development community. For now, I'll keep it short and just make three small points - if I may.

1). We're the future and 'they' are the past. The web development community and the business world is crying out for stability and simplicity. We are bringing something to the marketplace that none of the other web development frameworks have and time is on our side.

2). Even though we're admittedly slightly behind where I had hoped we'd be at this stage, I'm looking at the numbers every day and I can absolutely assure you that Trongate is starting to get momentum. I stand by every prediction I've made, in terms of how this is going to play out.

3). On a slightly more personal note, I really want to say a huge thank you to everybody who has stood by me. Building Trongate almost destroyed my career as a developer. Not only did it take me out of the marketplace for three years but in all sorts of dark corners of the web I suddenly found myself being at the centre of all sorts of malicious attacks. We've had it all from completely false claims about security flaws to daily accusations that I am literally crazy. And yes, even yesterday I had somebody tell me to go and 'take my meds'. The amount of abuse that I've received - all for the crime of making an alternative kind of framework - is staggering. But let me tell you... we have some INCREDIBLE people on our side. We have people who have worked for companies like IBM, NASA, Rolls Royce and even one of the Alexa team come on board. They AGREE with what we're trying to do. Do you know what? I think it's starting to become very difficult to write me off as a nutter when we have so many rock star developers in our corner.

To the critics: We're still here. We're not going away. Trongate is starting to get traction. We've got loads more launches (yes, launches!) coming up and we're just getting started.

To those who have helped to reach this milestone: please join me and some other friends for a very special 400 GitHub stars celebration on YouTube. It's right that we should celebrate this. We're going to have a live stream. It's going to be fun. I'll have Skype on. Perhaps we can set up a room so that we can talk. I don't know what's going to happen but let's celebrate!

Expect an announcement on YouTube soon.

The revolution is underway and we're getting stronger every day! Please turn your volume up and play the video below. It's our anthem and together we SHALL make PHP great again!

This is just the beginning...



DC