Like every year, I want to take the time to recap how Noise Vortex fared over the last year. 2019 was a big year for Noise Vortex. After a year of inactivity, Noise Vortex resumed operations in April of 2019. There were many reasons for the break but there were two that had the largest impact.
Structural Changes
On the 25th of May 2018, the GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation came into affect. This means that every website that processes or collects data from users in the European Union has to disclose how it collects and processes said data. Technically, the changes required to Noise Vortex to abide by this regulation weren’t massive. But this brings me to the second point.
Maintenance
The previous iteration of Noise Vortex was a Ruby on Rails web application made and maintained by a friend. Over time, it became apparent that maintenance and flexibility of the site were severely limited due to its implementation and my lack of technical skills. The solution was to transfer Noise Vortex to an environment where I could maintain the site on my own.
As it turns out this was easier said than done since I had to figure out how to rent webspace, set up a WordPress installation and publish a website from scratch, followed by manually copying over every article and formatting it. There was no way to automate the process easily since the previous iteration of Noise Vortex was custom made.
Contemplating meaning
I spent a long time thinking about whether or not it was worth it. As it stands this site exclusively costs me money and generates little traffic. But that’s not why I’m doing this anyway. I’m doing this to put myself out there, to share my love for music and to gain experience. As such giving up was not an option. And I missed doing this during the year-long break.
Fast forward to today and Noise Vortex can look back on one of its best years in 2019. I couldn’t break my activity record of 28 posts from 2016 but with 14 posts, Noise Vortex was as active as it had last been 2015. The switch to shorter formats allowed me to post more frequently but reviews and other articles have become a rare sight. So my goal for 2020 is to be even more active, write more reviews and articles again.
Thank you for reading and your support.