From John

Why we built My Site Buddy

A 2 minute, 46 second story about the work that was getting buried and what changed when Web Moves built My Site Buddy.

Read the full story and transcript

Documented product-site build

30 commits.
23 successful releases.
The website work, shown honestly.

This is the record of the My Site Buddy website itself. It includes the owner's measured time in this thread, alongside the repository and release evidence.

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PROJECT 08
Client
My Site Buddy, our own website
Business
Agency website-work product
Platform
WordPress · TailPress
Window
21 Aug – 15 Sep 2026
Source
Git history · migration ledger · GitHub Actions
Owner thread time
78 min span · 22 min focused-gap time

What the records measure

30
Committed changes
7
Active commit dates
23
Successful production runs
25
Historical content migrations
1
Merged pull request
6
Owner messages

How the time compares

78 minutes in the thread. 22 minutes by the focused-gap rule.

The owner-message record now measures this thread directly. The by-hand figure remains a separate senior-reproduction estimate for the documented scope; it is not a claim about hours actually worked.

Estimated senior time to reproduce the documented scope excluding inherited framework work and third-party source material

W1 W2 W3 W4 W5

Measured owner time in this thread six actual user messages

78 min At a 15-minute gap rule, 22.3 minutes count as focused active owner time. At 20 minutes, the full 78.3-minute span counts.
22.3 active minutes at a 15-minute gap rule

The owner time is measured from this thread. The 120–195 hour figure remains a reproduction estimate, not a record of labour.

Owner time in this thread

78 minutes in the thread. 22.3 focused active minutes.

The thread record contains six actual owner messages between 12:46 and 14:04 UTC on September 16, 2026. That is a measured 78.3-minute first-to-last message span.

Using the same gap method as Project 05, gaps of 15 minutes or less total 22.3 minutes. The two earlier gaps were 19.9 and 17.5 minutes; with a 20-minute rule, the full 78.3-minute thread span counts.

Choose the time-gap rule

Gaps under 10 minutes count as active
0.0 min
Gaps under 15 minutes count as active
22.3 min
Gaps under 20 minutes count as active
78.3 min
Gaps under 30 minutes count as active
78.3 min

Thread activity

Day Instructions First → last Hands on it
September 16 6 12:46 – 14:04 UTC 22.3 min

The 78.3-minute span includes waiting while work was inspected and performed. The 22.3-minute figure is the focused-gap measure used by the existing Project 05 case study. Neither number is a total labour-time figure for the website build.

6 owner messages · 22.3 active minutes

What was completed

The website work, with the receipts that exist.

Six parts of the product-site project are visible in the repository and production-release record. Each estimate is for a competent senior specialist recreating the work, not a retrospective time sheet.

WORK ITEM 01 / 06

Product-site foundation and brand system

A WordPress and TailPress product site established with My Site Buddy branding, an About page, reusable theme structure, local assets, and a public marketing foundation.

  • Initial project repository, theme, branded presentation, and About-page experience committed in the opening build
  • WordPress content model, custom templates, image and video assets, navigation, and footer infrastructure retained in version control
  • The estimate excludes generic framework code and third-party source assets where this record cannot independently establish authorship
Estimated time by hand
~18–30 hrs
With My Site Buddy
documented in Git

WORK ITEM 02 / 06

Business and agency journeys, with conversion revisions

The site was shaped around two visitor contexts rather than one generic product pitch: business owners requesting website work and agencies managing client work.

  • Agency-first and business-owner routes, audience selection, tailored landing pages, and conversion calls to action
  • Homepage messaging refinements and workspace illustration updates after the initial launch
  • Contact, comparison, documentation, API-reference, community, and status paths connected into the public journey
Estimated time by hand
~22–34 hrs
With My Site Buddy
28 committed site changes after the foundation

WORK ITEM 03 / 06

Documented proof: project cases and the workroom replay

The product story was supported by a case-study hub and a controllable replay rather than only a sales explanation.

  • Four published documented-project records available through a dedicated case-study directory
  • A recorded workroom viewer that shows request-to-review progress
  • Clear exits from the proof content to the product and contact paths
Estimated time by hand
~18–28 hrs
With My Site Buddy
shipped through WordPress and Git

WORK ITEM 04 / 06

Founder story, video, Journal, and contributor profiles

The site added first-person product context and an editorial layer so visitors can inspect who built the work and why.

  • Founder-story article, supporting video, transcript route, and header entry point
  • Date-free Journal URLs, contributor-profile improvements, author media, and a published product note
  • Founders and contributors kept visible alongside the product explanation
Estimated time by hand
~18–28 hrs
With My Site Buddy
published through tracked migrations

WORK ITEM 05 / 06

Search and answer-engine foundations

Technical and editorial foundations were added so the site has a clearer public record for search engines and visitors.

  • Search and answer-engine foundation work committed with the public content launch
  • Metadata, structured content paths, Journal URLs, and content migrations treated as release work rather than manual database changes
  • Public pages checked as rendered website output, not only as WordPress editor fields
Estimated time by hand
~12–20 hrs
With My Site Buddy
versioned with the website

WORK ITEM 06 / 06

Git-backed delivery controls and release recovery

The release path was built and then hardened with recorded evidence of the initial failure and the successful runs that followed.

  • GitHub Actions deployment workflow added, then corrected after its first production attempt failed before a valid SSH destination was available
  • Production promotion rules require the exact current main commit and a fast-forward history
  • WordPress content and settings ship through forward-only Utopia migrations; the development ledger records 25 historical site migrations before this case-study publication
  • GitHub records 23 successful production workflow runs after the initial failure
Estimated time by hand
~32–55 hrs
With My Site Buddy
one failure investigated; 23 successful releases recorded

Tools used

The product-site delivery stack.

These are tools evidenced in the committed project and release configuration. The list is not a claim that each tool completed the work without human direction.

  • WordPress content · pages · settings
  • PHP + MySQL theme · content migrations
  • GitHub 30 commits · promotion record
  • GitHub Actions + SSH 23 successful production workflows
  • Headless browser rendered-page checks
  • Utopia migrations recorded WordPress changes

6 delivery tools · one versioned website

Summary

A real release record. No invented time sheet.

The My Site Buddy website was built and refined through 30 committed changes, seven active commit dates, one merged pull request, 25 historical content migrations, and 23 successful production workflows. This thread adds a measured owner record: six messages across 78.3 minutes, or 22.3 focused active minutes under the same 15-minute gap rule used in Project 05.

Project window
26 days
Active commit dates
7
Successful releases
23
Historical migrations
25
Reproduction estimate
120–195 hrs
Owner thread time
22.3 min active

How this record was calculated

The measured figures come from the repository and its release records as they stood before this case study was added: 30 commits from 21 August through 15 September 2026, seven active commit dates, 23 successful GitHub Actions production runs following one initial failed run, one merged pull request, and 25 historical migration-led WordPress changes in the development ledger. The 28,148 changed-line count includes code, data, and asset changes; it is scope evidence, never an hours measure.

The 120–195 hour range is a human-reproduction estimate. It is the sum of the six documented work areas, using a competent senior web and delivery specialist who already understands the tools. It excludes generic inherited framework work, onboarding, meetings, and third-party source material that was not created as part of this documented site build. Another estimator may reasonably choose a different range.

Owner input in this thread is recoverable from the timestamped message record. Six actual user messages ran from 12:46:03 to 14:04:19 UTC on September 16. Their first-to-last span is 78.3 minutes. With the Project 05 gap method, gaps of 15 minutes or less total 22.3 minutes; using 20 minutes or 30 minutes totals 78.3 minutes. The thread-span figure includes waiting and review time, while the focused-gap figure is a consistent active-session estimate.

The review record is also bounded honestly. The repository contains one merged pull request but no recorded GitHub review events. Successful production workflows evidence release completion and the promotion checks in the workflow; they do not by themselves prove a count of human design, factual, or editorial reviews. This case credits only what the records support.

Website work, documented before it becomes a claim.

My Site Buddy keeps the request, work, checks, and release decision together. This project record applies that standard to its own website.

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