The year was 2006. I was researching blogging software for my significant other and came across WordPress. I found a host, installed it, and fell in love.

I began blogging and inevitably someone left a comment. The reader then left another comment correcting their first comment. I saw a need.

I had dabbled in programming in college briefly, but it wasn’t something I was doing full-time. My “day” job was as an Electrical Engineer for the Department of Defense. But alas, I saw a project: enabling comment editing.

I released a (then) popular plugin called Ajax Edit Comments in 2007. During the heyday of blogging, the plugin proved very popular. I even tried releasing a “premium” version, but this was when selling products in the WordPress space was a faux pas.

Fast forward to 2011. I had left Government service. I was in limbo. My background was in engineering. I needed a job. So I concentrated on WordPress. I landed a job with iThemes as a plugin developer and helped lead a release of a plugin called BackupBuddy (a popular backup solution).

After iThemes, I worked for a variety of agencies, mostly doing client work. Client work was demanding, but my passion was in product work.

In between client work, I would work on plugins. It was something I was good at.

With Ajax Edit Comments, I basically included the kitchen sink. It was bloated and loaded with features. So I rewrote it into a new plugin with one goal: absolutely no options. The result was Simple Comment Editing.

Users fell in love with its simplicity. I even received a few bad reviews because users were confused about its zero-configuration.

Since then I’ve released several plugins that required no configuration to work. I released a popular user avatar plugin that could be configured in two clicks. Another plugin allowed inline highlighting with no settings needed.

I fell in love with the decisions, not options mantra. While options are a necessary part of application programming, I felt intelligent defaults were more valuable.

This brings us to this year: 2022. I’ve run MediaRon LLC (my main business) since 2011. I’ve released dozens of plugins. Many are still available for download.

I began working on a quotes block for my plugin Highlight and Share. It was being built in public. I decided to spin it off into its own plugin. This “project” deserved to stand on its own.

After researching names, I asked my life-mate for name ideas. “What about DLX?” she asked.

I asked what DLX stood for. “Deluxe,” she explained. I thought it was genius.

MediaRon has a very broad focus, so after working on the quotes plugin extensively, I felt the plugins I created needed a dedicated home. DLXPlugins was born.

The goal of DLXPlugins is simple: create beautiful and easy-to-use plugins. And live up to the “deluxe” name.

That being said, I truly hope my plugins do indeed live up to the deluxe name. A lot of thought and care has gone into every single plugin, and my hope is that each plugin is the best in its class.

To begin this journey, I’ve brought over the plugins that make sense. I will continue to build in public, and I absolutely try to take the pulse of my plugin users.

So let’s do this and give DLXPlugins a try.