2020 is finally, and mercifully, coming to an end. Though this year has fallen far short of what many of us would have liked, let us nevertheless take a moment to review what has transpired in LOTRO housing and on D&Co du Milieu.
My dear decorator friends,
I hope you all had a wonderful, and safely distanced, Christmas!
It is finally time to bring to a close this strange year we have all had. I will now take the opportunity, as I have in years past, to look back and take stock of what has occurred at the site over the last 12 months, and to look forward and set some goals for the coming year.
It is also at this time of year where I present lots of number (stats, data, etc), give thanks, and make new year’s resolutions!
So let’s get on with this, the very last post of 2020, on D&Co du Milieu!
I wish an excellent end of year to all.
D&Co du Milieu in 2020
Some figures
(as of 12/12)
You might as well skip this if this sort of thing doesn't interest you;). I'm not going to detail everything here, but we'll at least document the new records set by the site this year.
♦ Visits
It was a record year all around for D&Co.
- Yearly Visits
More than 350,000 visits were made to the site in 2020 (compared to 171k in 2019 and 87k in 2018) - more than double last year's total. No doubt, worldwide lockdowns contributed greatly to this number but I am hugely impressed regardless! - Monthly Visits
With the release of Rohan Housing, D&Co du Milieu saw a record 77,000 visits in the month of August, 2020. This blew out the previous record of 18,000 visits held by July, also this very same year! - Daily Visits
More than 9,200 visits to the site were made on August 5 of this year!
Many heartfelt thanks to all those who share my links or refer people to D&Co du Milieu. This has been a wonderful year for the site and I’m so glad to see how many people now use this website as a resource for LOTRO housing. THANK YOU EVERYONE!
The Decorators Community
Our discord server now has more than 175 members and I enjoy every moment we have there, talking about housing and sharing ideas and information.
Thank you also to everyone who has helped me with the site!
The D&Co team: Thank you Rhuangar and Haflith, for aiding me with editing and translating my articles into the language of Shakespeare.
Thanks also to my favourite jurors who helped me again with contests this year: Prunaprismia, Kaels, and Edward.
Many thanks to all those who helped me to fill the database on the site by using the "Submit a Decoration" page.
Finally, I want to thank all those who made donations to me via the Buy me a Coffee button. This year, your donations covered about 75% of website costs (50% last year). Thank you!
As always, your donations should thus be considered to be fully reinvested in the site, for example, in order to pay for rental of the servers and to fund rewards for contests (expansions, VIP packs, LOTRO points).
Thanks again to everyone!
The Database in 2020
319 decorations were added this year to the site (242 last year)! A huge number, considering that most of these additional decorations were released this year.
We therefore today have 1568 decorations posted on the site (we are only currently missing two Hobnanigans items!).
With regard to the database, I made huge progress this year with the work I started a year ago on the redesign of the information pages. They now contain much more information on each item than they did a year ago, including how to obtain the item, prices, and binding.
LotRO Housing in 2020
2020 saw many new housing items released in-game, along with two new premium housing neighborhoods within the kingdom of Rohan.
No doubt about it, it was a great year for decorating geeks! Rohan housing was very long awaited by the community and a great relief when it was finally released!
In addition to the new neighborhoods, we also got new features, like lighting hooks, pet and mount hooks, etc.
We also got lots of food related decoration items this year, something for which many of us are very thankful!
And of course, let’s not forget the new Housing Carry-all Bags introduced to the LOTRO Store this year, something that will make the decorating enthusiast’s life much, much easier in Middle Earth going forward!
⇒ Every changes made in 2020 can be found here ⇐
D&Co du Milieu in 2021
The Database
I have a list of things I would like to finish (or start) in mind for this year:
- Start work on redesigning the pages for wall and floor surfaces with additions of different colours. It was planned for this past year but... time... work... avoiding a global pandemic… you know...
- As always, improve sorting, labelling, and categorizing of decorations to make your searches more productive (an on-going and never-ending task).
- Add the two missing items from Hobnanigans so that the database is 100% complete!
If there are any other suggestions you have for the website, I would love to hear them as always!
The Website
We had our new update a few weeks ago so I’m not planning any major revamp for 2021.
I’m currently testing different features that I would like to add to the website so you may see some new things here and there in the coming weeks!
Contests
The new calendar is already filled with contests for the first part of 2021.
I’m also planning a brand new contest this year that I didn’t have time to do last year, so stay tuned!
As for all the current contests that have been running on the site (Housing Week, X-Creator, and the Demeure de l’Étrange), worry not, for they shall continue to be part of the schedule!
Again, thank you all so very much for your loyalty and your commitment to this site. I wish you all an excellent end of the old year and a happy beginning to the new!
See you in 2021 for new adventures and housing history in the making!
~Yao
D&Co du Milieu
Which Hobnanigans items are you missing?
https://dcodumilieu.com/submit-an-item/