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My Contributions to Sitecore Community in 2023

Hello!!

This year started with a bang for me as I got my first Sitecore MVP title. This year, I have mostly worked on Sitecore 10.1.1 as part of IT team of an accounting services organization. Due to my nature of work, I dont have exposure to different projects exploring variety of new Sitecore tools and technologies (like my other fellow MVPs have), but I have used this year to upgrade my learning and dig deeper into Sitecore XP on which I primarily work.

Below are my contributions this year - 

Sitecore Blogs

Below are the links to all my blogs which I have published in year 2022 on Sitecore. 

  1. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/02/experience-of-first-time-sitecore-mvp.html
  2. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/02/make-sitecore-instance-faster-using.html
  3. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/03/solr-search-facet-values-limited-to-100.html
  4. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/06/testing-sitecore-with-selenium-nunit.html
  5. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/08/animated-gif-files-become-not-animated.html
  6. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/08/PublishJobCleanUp-PublishOperationAgeBasedCleanUp-Sitecore-Publishing-Service.html
  7. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/08/sitecore-indexing-manager-stops-showing.html
  8. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/03/sitecore-media-cache-how-to-find-media.html
  9. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/07/sitecore-bug-520726-ee-strip-html-tags.html
  10. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/04/default-website-is-resolved-instead-of.html
  11. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/07/update-cicd-scripts-to-new-sitecore.html
  12. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/02/error-while-writing-serialized-item.html
  13. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/09/sitecore-cd-servers-triggering-index.html
  14. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/03/script-to-renew-self-singed.html
  15. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/07/sitecore-powershell-script-to-remove.html
  16. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/09/script-to-read-contents-of-media-files.html
  17. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/04/sitecore-search-for-marketing.html
  18. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/05/sitecore-items-selected-in-custom.html
  19. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/05/sitecore-bug-563584-lock-and-edit-stops.html
  20. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/05/restart-unresponsive-sitecore.html
  21. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/07/failed-to-start-service-sitecore.html
  22. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/09/string-interning-in-sitecore.html
  23. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/02/what-sitecore-mvp-kickoff-webinar-feels.html
  24. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/07/is-sxasite-cookie-necessary-for.html
  25. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/10/publishing-service-failed-could-not.html
  26. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/10/sitecore-content-serialization-error.html
  27. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/10/sitecore-powershell-script-to-update.html
  28. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/11/solr-service-in-paused-state-during.html
  29. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/11/no-root-node-was-present-with-id.html
  30. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/03/solr-search-for-sitecore-notes-draft.html
  31. https://ghanendras.blogspot.com/2023/11/my-contributions-to-sitecore-community.html
On LinkedIn, I actively shared Sitecore specific posts tagged as #SitecoreTipOfTheDay to share useful Sitecore tips

SITECORE.STACKEXCHANGE

I have remained active throughout the year on sitecore.stackexchange.com. I have - 
  • answered questions
  • added comments to give my opinion 
  • edited questions to make them meaningful to the readers
  • voted questions to be closed or marked as duplicate
  • participated in last moderator elections on sitecore.stackexchange.com to have the ability to contribute more. 

SITECORE ISSUES AND DOCUMENTATION

I worked actively with Sitecore support to report potential bugs, feature requests and documentation updates to improve the quality of Sitecore products. 
I have logged below feature requests this year with Sitecore - 
  • reference number 595539.
  • reference number 563584 
  • reference number 578989 
  • reference number 224082
  • reference number 520726


SITECORE MENTORSHIP & GUIDANCE

This year - 
  • I have officially mentored 2 developers for Sitecore MVP program and numerous others via LinkedIn and Slack. 
  • I also worked with Sitecore developers online and offline to guide them in best practices irrespective of employer organization and help them grow their career in Sitecore technology.
  • I helped Sitecore clients (who reached out to me on LinkedIn etc.) to clarify their doubts, understand the Sitecore products and make decisions.

Sitecore Slack & Sitecore Telegram

I am an active contributor on Sitecore Slack through out the year. I like to help other developers in their issues, ask questions and make suggestions on Slack. I have also started exploring Sitecore telegram group this year and hopefully will start contributing to it soon.

YOUTUBE

I have shared some Sitecore knowledge on my YouTube channel this year and plan to grow it more next year. Here are links for few videos -
  • https://youtu.be/4hxVrv7UdBU?si=ogkEAeNZ6AZL1UTS
  • https://youtu.be/UOexJ-0vrwQ?si=znkzfujl0g9PH013
  • https://youtu.be/vRb8uAlr19I?si=lPPf24XLCch-6Gsr

SItecore User Groups

I participate in different Sitecore user group meets and virtual lunches hosted in India and abroad. I plan to be presenter in the coming year.

Plans for year 2024

For year 2024, I plan to -
  • -continue posting my Sitecore blogs about new features and experiences in Sitecore
  • -publish weekly  (or at least monthly) videos on Sitecore on YouTube. I have plans to start a Sitecore specific dedicated channel for it this year.
  • -start a Sitecore specific podcast channel to invite developers and clients to share their Sitecore journey, knowledge and experience.
  • -contribute more to my Sitecore GitHub repository and open source projects on Sitecore
  • -be more involved with Sitecore community.
  • -increase participation in Sitecore User Groups by becoming a presenter
  • -enable offline programs to inform new graduates to choose Sitecore technology as the platform to grow career in.
  • -publish as much as content possible to enlighten new users/developers about Sitecore.

These are my small starting steps towards achieving a larger goal. I feel I have a long way to go. Thanks for your time to read it! Feel free to share suggestions/improvements.

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