Cider gets an upgrade

OK, it was Dec 28, 2019 when Dawn emailed and asked if cider could be broken out into its own category instead of getting lumped in with beer.

"Sure, I thought, how long could that take?"

As it turns out, exactly a year. And yes, it probably would have gone longer if that email wasn't in my inbox laughing at me every day, but to be fair, there were extenuating circumstances.

I mean, sure, there was a pandemic, a shift to remote learning for kids, and any number of distractions, but also Barnivore was a little... fragile? Almost as if it's a web app that was originally built on a weekend in 2008 up at a cottage without any internet to look up how to do anything, and then was "maintained" at a pace such that the entire ecosystem it was built on had changed every time I went in there, so going in to make a relatively quick change usually meant fighting to get the environment up and running, then running out of time before I could actually make the change. Almost exactly like that.

(Oh, and I added just shy of 4,000 entries this year, plus who knows how many double checks. So that took up some time. Looking forward to hitting our goal soon and bringing on some help there!)

Anyway, someone named Sam reached out earlier this year and provided the right kind of kick in the pants combined with helpful advice, and the Barnivore server is now 78% less embarrassing and I can actually make changes now. As proven today, on the anniversary of Dawn's mail!

So ciders are a thing all on their own now. I'm sure there are still a few to recategorize, but it's a start, and there are more changes to come (yes, this same path that leads to "can we add ciders in a few hours of actual work on the problem" will lead to other enhancements, and yes, that includes work on the API that'll power the Barnivore app.)

Thanks so much to our Patreons for their support this year, and for all the Barnivorians who sent in the many, many submissions. And a double thanks to those who did both!

2020 was pretty terrible all in all, and it looks like it'll take a bit longer for things to get better in most places, but somehow being vegan is still easier than ever, and I'm proud to be helping with that in some small way with Barnivore. Thanks for your parts in that, hold on tight, and we'll see you next year!