When I last posted, it was the first mention of Lopico on this blog since March of last year. You may have thought Lopico was done, dead, and over… but it may be making a comeback. I’ve been working on Lopico a lot lately, and it’s going pretty well. In the process of bringing it back, I’ve started to make a few observations.

1. I am a much better developer than I used to be. This wouldn’t seem that odd, except I’ve barely written any code in the past year. From time to time I would do little things, and I did create a delicious clone, but for the most part I haven’t be writing anything.

2. The database structure of old Lopico was easy to use, but it was bloated. I was storing way too much information in the old database structure. Now, I’m trying to make it as lean as I can. I think this is in turn helping my development, because I’m thinking about everything in terms of “the best way” instead of the “easiest way.”

3. I love Aptana. I started using Aptana when I was looking at ROR, but ultimately decided it’s a great editor for PHP - which is what Lopico was primarily written in and will be again.

4. Some of what Lopico used to do was crap. I’m getting rid of the crap, focusing, and making things easier on myself. It all gets back to thinking about the best way to do things. I need to remove some crap to avoid having to work around things that weren’t well-thought-out. Luckily, it’s a completely re-write, so there’s plenty of room for thought. For the last major iteration of Lopico, I created the site and then kept adding to it… looking back at it now, the new things I created didn’t exactly fit perfectly.

5. Some of what Lopico used to do was pretty cool. More than anything, I’m excited to bring the site back. It was pretty cool and personally a great accomplishment. It’s going to be different, but at the same time I expect it to be just as much fun and just as rewarding.

6. The local review market is even more condensed and more difficult to compete in. I have to think differently. I’ll have more than a few surprises for old users and hopefully many new users.

7. I’ve got nothing to lose. Lopico was what it was and will be what it will be. At the end of the day, if I am the only one using it, and I like using it, I am completely happy with that.

I’ll have a lot more to say about this, but I plan to do my Lopico blogging on the Lopico blog (if I can find my password). Even a post like this belongs there. I want to be as open and involved through the Lopico blog as I used to be on this one.