October 2015 Summaries

ReadMe's October newsletter highlights several updates and activities, including a multi-part series on favorite tools, a Terms of Service update effective November 15, 2015, ensuring user content rights, and Greg's upcoming speaking engagement at the API Strategy & Practice event in Austin, TX. The newsletter also covers API-related insights such as Howard Ward's tips on API versioning, Sergio De Simone's definition of Developer Experience, and Kin Lane's discussion on the benefits and risks of open API standards. Additionally, ReadMe draws inspiration from Dotmailer and OneLogin's documentation and introduces a new feature for managing redirects to avoid dead links. The newsletter concludes with an invitation to reach out with questions and a festive Halloween greeting.

ReadMe, a company focused on building documentation sites, relies on several third-party tools to operate efficiently and avoid reinventing the wheel. Stripe is integral for handling consumer payments and has significantly influenced the seriousness of documentation, while Baremetrics provides essential analytics about customer behavior and financial metrics, including a new feature for managing failed payments. Intercom is crucial for user communication and relationship building, and Clearbit helps identify important user details, enhancing customer understanding. For search functionality, ReadMe transitioned from Mongo full text search to Elasticsearch, and is now migrating to Algolia for its speed and flexibility, despite its setup complexity. The company's blog, previously self-hosted, is now on WordPress to leverage its extensive tools and community, with Medium used for its ease of shared editing. These tools are fundamental to ReadMe's operations, underscoring the company's gratitude to the teams behind them.

Marc Cuva has joined ReadMe as their first engineer, bringing excitement and expertise that align with the company's needs. Originally from Minnesota, Marc was attracted to ReadMe and quickly began enhancing the development of new features across the full stack, significantly accelerating the company's progress. Anticipation is high for the innovative features Marc is developing, which the team had been considering for some time. His work is expected to soon be available for users to explore, and his influence is already evident in the rapid advancement of the company's projects. Marc can be followed on Twitter at @marccuva.

Ashley Chang, a new addition to the ReadMe team, has quickly become an integral part of the company, handling diverse responsibilities such as product, marketing, content, project management, support, and usability. Previously, she and the author worked together at Watsi, and she has recently graduated from UC Davis. Her contributions have been significant in the short time since she joined, underscoring her impact on the team. Though her welcome is slightly delayed, her presence has been essential to ReadMe's operations, and she can be followed on Twitter at @ashmchang.