The number of WordPress-powered websites has increased exponentially in the past couple of years. Not surprisingly, so have the number of WordPress resource websites.
I was fortunate enough to be on this exponential ride when I first began working with WordPress – officially two years ago today. In the past two years, I’ve worked on more WordPress related projects than I can count and written over 100 custom plugins and themes for WordPress.
There are a number of reasons as to why WordPress is so successful, but I believe you can attribute part of its success to the vast number of resources available for configuring and customizing WordPress. Unfortunately, a very large portion of these resources are junk. Complete junk.
Hindsight is 20/20 (or so they say), and looking back on my early days of development, I didn’t have a clue between what was junk vs. what was solid. I searched for answers, and if I found one that worked, cool. I didn’t check to see if the code was optimized, secure, clean or free of errors.
Part of that is OK. You can’t expect to know everything when you first start out, and surely I would have modified and fixed the code I got from WordPress “resources” had I known that they were flawed. It’s called being a newbie, and newbie’s gotta learn too.
It goes without saying, however, that it doesn’t have to be this way for every newbie.
I don’t want to be a poster-child for how users and developers in the WordPress community craft their skills..
- Never used WordPress, but heard it was easy to customize..
- Let’s consult Google on how to make that work!
- This code snippet works – sweet! I’ll keep coming back to this resource because it worked the first time.
- Hmm, this site is pretty popular for WordPress stuff – it must be good.
..and then years later, after consulting with those far above me in the WordPress community, figure out that the overwhelming majority of the resources promote bad, incomplete and detestable code.
It really doesn’t have to be this way. The problem is – where do we point these people? And I’m not talking about pointing with caution – I’m talking about the “Go here – it may not have every answer, but what answers you do find from here are reliable” type of response.
My Call to You
I want my blog to be that place. That place where the WordPress community can say “Yes! This is an excellent and trusted resource for WordPress”. That place where new and seasoned WordPress users and developers alike can, without hesitation, use the snippets and tutorials on their sites to build incredible WordPress applications.
To err is human..
I will never pretend that I know it all. I will always be learning, refining and honing my skills. I will make mistakes. That’s why I’m asking you, the WordPress community, to keep me honest. To keep me in check. To correct me when I am wrong and show me the way that is right.
Why?
Because the rest of the WordPress community is counting on it.
I’m setting the bar high because it needs to be set high. My vision really is to make my blog the best place for WordPress resources on the internet, so I hope that you will hop on board with me and give me a hand when I need it most.
My Commitments
I want to make some commitments to you, the WordPress community, with my blog. They are my documented reminders to keep me honest and accountable.
- I’ll never publish on a schedule, but when I do publish, I guarantee you it will be solid, tested and very suitable for use.
- I’ll never recommend something that I don’t think is extremely useful and well received by the WordPress community.
- I will work hard to make sure that my blog builds and keeps a reputation for having some of the best content for WordPress on the internet.
Let’s make my blog a haven for WordPress resources. I’m in – are you in?
