Ronald Huereca Interview
04. May, 2010 
20 Comments - Leave your comment
Today we are going to go through an exclusive interview with the creator of the famous Ajax Edit Comments. We are going to interview one of the only guys in online history who went from stardom to completely offline, and back again, to even more attention than before. He achieved this through releasing and upgrading the Ajax Edit Comments to the new paid model and by releasing the hot new book WordPress & Ajax.
Ronald Huereca & Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress & owner of Automattic
That’s right, we are going to be interviewing Ronald Huereca, one of the previous co-founders of RA Project. Ronald also runs Ronalfy. Buckle up: Ronald allowed me to interview him in his only and most thorough interview in history. Right here at RA Project. We are going to be covering his adventures leading him to programming, to the now public suicide attempts, to his new plugin and book that is causing a storm in the online world.
You can browse through any part of the interview by using the navigation links on the top or bottom of any parts of this interview. You can also leave a comment at any time on any part right away.
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Man, that Ronald Huereca guy is an ugly bastard.
You should interview more beautiful people.
lol Ronald. What do you think of the interview?
Wow, that was a roller-coaster ride of an interview. I was using Ajax Edit Comments when it was free and was probably one of the first folks to sign up for a subscription. I’ve always had comments from readers that they liked it, so I use it on all my main blogs. In addition, I love Ron(ald)’s book and it has taught me everything I know pretty much about ajax and WP.
As for the hospitalizations, I can relate. I have bipolar disorder and like Ron said, life does get in the way. It has made me rethink my goals and not stress myself out with wanting be a blogging “superhero” or something. I’ve attempted suicide, too, and was lucky when my mom found me in the car garage, about ten minutes before it would have been over for me.
I have nothing but great things to say about Ajax Edit Comments and the support I’ve received from Ron. And to hear he’s a “normal” guy like me gives me hope. He’s a great guy, and his plugin and book are worth every penny. Thanks so much for sharing this interview. It was inspiring.
Hey Damian, thanks for the reply! I also used Ajax Edit Comments since it was free and it has been an awesome hit with me and my readers too. Very interesting to know that Ronald’s book has helped you!
Regarding bipolar disorder, thanks for sharing! Did you get admitted too or check yourself in? How did you used to blog/write online before that? Wow, have you shared that ordeal before with anyone?
Thank you for liking this interview: I’m glad you found it inspiring!
Hey Bes,
Unfortunately I’ve been hospitalized both voluntarily and involuntarily. Early on in my illness, I wasn’t always compliant with my meds and didn’t take the illness seriously. I do now.
It’s been more than 5 years since I’ve been hospitalized or had any suicidal thoughts. Have a great psychiatrist, therapist, and a supportive family. They’ve been through hell with me but I wouldn’t be here without them, especially my daughters.
I started my blog balancemybrain.com in 2002 and kept it up for several years until eventually I lost everything to a hacker (never backed up anything–I do now!).
I always wanted everything to happen immediately, but I know now it always takes time. BTW, I eventually lost the .com of that domain and had to settle for the .net version.
After my suicide attempt (2005), it was really blogging every day that kept my head above water. I felt productive and knew I was on to something I really liked. It kept me going in my darkest days, because my earliest blog was kind-of confessional when it came to bipolar.
I’m working on a new blog (sadblogger.com) which will be focused on bloggers with mental illness. Hopefully that will be a vehicle where I can help other people in similar situations.
Hey Damian,
Took Ryan’s comment to realize I forgot to reply to your comment!
Thanks for sharing! Eeeps: the domain name does seem to point to a landing search engine ads page now. The .net version is this: http://balancemybrain.net/ ?
I was wondering: has the online world in any manner helped or hurt your work on your sites or yourself personally? Meaning support or non-support from the online world and related things?
Where do you blog now regularly? Sadblogger is already on my netvibes, so I am guessing I added it last time to my feed reader. I saw that you are planning on using Vanilla on it: how is that compared to bbpress and others in your view?
Thanks again for sharing!
My comment on WP Tavern has been taken out of context here. I never suggested the plugin be offered for free to existing users, just that if Andrew Rickmann’s suggested approach to the free version was used, then it would need to be made free for existing users or those existing users would suddenly lose a bunch of functionality from their site (which I consider a bad thing).
Hey Ryan, thanks for commenting & bringing this up!
I reread the comments and you’re right: I misunderstood the “@Andrew” part! Sorry for that.
Will update the interview with either the updated text or an updated info area, thanks again for pointing that out for me!
Ryan, all fixed in the update: I pointed out my mistake and what the original comment meant. Please let me know what you think!
Thank you again. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for updating it
I wonder if Ronald has read the update? … off to let him know …
You’re welcome!
Good question: I think he has, though it would be great to make sure again. Thanks! Looking forward to seeing his response too.