--- /dev/null
+---
+title: "The BookStack Project"
+url: "/about"
+layout: "single"
+type: "about"
+---
+
+TODO - Add to footer
+TODO - List /about/* pages?
+TODO - Link to other relevant pages? (GitHub/Donate/Support)?
+
+{{<toc>}}
+
+---
+
+### How did BookStack start?
+
+[Dan Brown](https://danb.me/) started building BookStack in 2015 while looking for a documentation
+platform to use for his mixed-technical-skilled workplace.
+Most service offerings incurred per-user costs, and most established open source offerings didn't
+quite hit the mark in terms of design & usability, at least out-of-the-box.
+Therefore, with a few years' development experience, Dan thought he could whip up a solution that worked for his use-case.
+
+During the first few months there was significant design iteration as can be seen [in this blogpost](/blog/1-year-of-bookstack/).
+Eventually the design, name & hierarchy came together to form pretty much the same BookStack we know today.
+
+The project was first officially outwardly announced [via the /r/selfhosted subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/3z06rb/bookstack_a_free_wikilike_information_store/) which received fairly positive feedback.
+BookStack remained published under the "Beta" status for a few years, until it was eventually [dropped in 2021](/blog/bookstack-release-v21-04/)
+although little actually changed in regard to development and target stability, since stability had long been a core value.
+
+### What are the core goals of BookStack?
+
+BookStack aims to be an opinionated wiki system that provides a pleasant and simple out-of-the-box experience.
+New users to an instance should find the experience intuitive and only basic word-processing skills should be
+required to get involved in creating content on BookStack.
+The platform should provide advanced power features to those that desire it but they should not interfere
+with the core simple user experience.
+
+BookStack aims to be free (both monetarily & in liberty) and open source, focusing on the core use-case
+and audience that's it's built for instead of expanding to a wider, or more financially fruitful, audience.
+
+In regard to development, BookStack aims for a relaxed, open, positive & stable approach.
+The platform should evolve & improve steadily & stable over time, with a focus on
+stability, maintainability and forward-compatibility instead of chasing new
+features, technologies or audiences.
+
+### Who works on BookStack?
+
+The project is led by, and primarily maintained by, the creator [Dan Brown](https://danb.me/).
+There are also a [significant amount](https://github.com/BookStackApp/BookStack/blob/development/.github/translators.txt)
+of community members who work to translate the BookStack interface into many other languages.
+Upon that, there are many other folks in our community that help with contributing code, reporting & managing issues,
+provide input, or just get involved within our communities.
+
+### How is the project organised?
+
+TODO
+
+### How are features & additions decided upon?
+
+TODO
+
+### What versions of BookStack do you support?
+
+TODO
+
+### What license is the project provided under?
+
+TODO
+
+### What is the approach to updates & long-term development?
+
+TODO
+
+### Is feature X planned to be added?
+
+TODO
+
+### How is the project funded?
+
+TODO
+
+### Will the project accept investment?
+
+TODO
+
+### Do you provide an official managed hosted service?
+
+TODO
+
+### What services do you officially provide?
+
+TODO
+
+### Are there other versions/editions of BookStack?
+
+TODO
+
+### Can others provide services/offerings for BookStack?
+
+TODO
+
+### Can we pay for the implementation of specific features?
+
+TODO
+
+### Would BookStack integrate with X platform?
+
+TODO
+
+### Do you offer pre-sales support/calls?
+
+TODO
+
+### Would you consider partnership/sponsorship with other businesses?
+
+TODO
+
+### How can we receive project updates?
+
+TODO
+
+### How can we contact you?
+
+TODO
+
+### How can I get involved with the project?
+
+TODO
+
+### Do you accept mentoring?
+
+TODO
+
+
To celebrate how BookStack has grown over the last year I thought we'd take a quick look back at how the design of the project morphed, especially in the first few months, from the initial commit into its current state.
-###### Initial Commit (Oxbow) - 12 Jul 2015
+##### Initial Commit (Oxbow) - 12 Jul 2015
The first commit was super simple. It was all and only about books. No users, chapters or pages. The project was also named 'Oxbow' at that time.

-###### First Proper Design - 15 Jul 2015
+##### First Proper Design - 15 Jul 2015
A few days after the initial commit the design was cleaned up into something non-prototypey. The design was based on an abstract idea of a piece of paper on a desk, Inspired by DokuWiki's simple and clean stock design. Personally I still really like this kind of design but the project needed to find its own identity.

-###### BookStack with a Sidebar - 23 Jul 2015
+##### BookStack with a Sidebar - 23 Jul 2015
Later in the month the project officially changed from Oxbow to BookStack. The main menu and navigation were put into a sidebar to make good use of vertical space (Later removed as it ended up empty most of the time). I like the contrast of the dark sidebar in this design as it gives a good separation of content and UI trim. Something to note is that there were still not chapters at this stage but pages could be infinitely nested within each other.

-###### Feature Dump and Polish - Aug 2015
+##### Feature Dump and Polish - Aug 2015
Up to the end of August a lot of features were added and some removed. Now there were users, notifications, A WYSIWYG editor, page revisions & chapters. Nested pages were removed due to difficulty in discoverability. It was found that pages would become hidden, nested in a complex web of nesting so they were removed to keep things simple and to force a level of thought regarding structure. The design also got a bump up which included a fancy background image (courtesy of [unsplash.com](https://unsplash.com/)) on the login screen which stayed behind the sidebar throughout. This is where BookStack really aligned to what it is today.

-###### BookStack as we Know it - October 2015
+##### BookStack as we Know it - October 2015
By October, After another redesign, BookStack had become almost the same as it looks like now. It now had a logo, after a lot of playing about in inkscape, and the sidebar had been changed back into a header bar to maximise the utility of screen space. Since this change BookStack has had loads of major under-the-hood changes and a whole bucket load of features added but this core design has remained.