13 minute readIf you’ve tried self-hosting WordPress, but found it a struggle, and are ready to try WordPress.com instead, this is for you. Notice I said “try”– you can start off by just trying WordPress.com, and if it meets your needs, you can finish the move. This is the overview of what you’ll need to do: Setup […]
Read More How to Migrate from a Self-Hosted WordPress Site to WordPress.com4 minute readWhen writing out filepaths and URLs, should you use forward slashes / or backslashes \? Windows expects one, whereas Unix-style operating systems (Linux and Mac OSs, primarily) expect another. PHP has two built-in solutions, but both have problems, especially if you’re working with WordPress. Backstory At work, I’ve recently had some trouble getting my linux […]
Read More Which Way Do Your Slashes Face in PHP?2 minute readToday I watched “Gutenberg for Plugin Owners“, an online discussion between Brian Hogg, Kyle Maurer, and Daniel Bachhuber, where they discussed and answered questions about how WordPress plugin owners can better prepare for the new editor, Gutenberg. You can watch the replay, but here’s my notes. I was admittedly doing some somewhat noisy house-chores while […]
Read More My Takeaways from "Gutenberg for Plugin Owners" Crowdcast5 minute readToday I spent a few hours wrapping my head around an issue where some websites weren’t able to connect properly to PayPal.com. I found it pretty tricky to understand because it involved quite a few technologies and programs: PHP: a programming language, and a program to interpret lines of code written in that programming language […]
Read More Penpals Explanation of PHP/cURL/openSSL/TLS/SSL/PayPal Handshake Issues3 minute readThere are more WordPress users who are non-English speakers, yet nearly all code contributors to WordPress are fluent in English. That sounds problematic to me. Why is that, and can anything be done to fix this situation? Huge Potential in Non-English-Speaking Contributors There is an interesting inconstancy in the WordPress community: from my observations, most […]
Read More How Can We Get More Non-English Speakers Contributing to WordPress?10 minute readAfter its initial release 15 years ago, the website software WordPress is used by over 30% of the websites on the Internet, whereas the nearest competitor sits around 3%. It’s prospects couldn’t be better. Did I say that? I meant to say it’s really old software, built primarily by hobbyists and amateurs from home in […]
Read More WordPress Turns 15: a Story of Survival, Ideals and Global Domination4 minute readThings I’m grateful for. Amanda (again) I find being a father very fulfilling and satisfying, and so I need to repeat that I’m grateful for my wife Amanda. Before going through the roller coaster of parenthood (which I realize is still starting), I thought the sacrifice of mothers mostly focused on labour and giving birth. […]
Read More Gratitude Journal, May 201812 minute readWordPress plugins can customize your WordPress site in nearly any way. But there are some mistakes non-developers make when using WordPress plugins and hiring developers to make them. This article explains five such mistakes to avoid, and how to benefit the most from WordPress plugins. Avoid Expensive Custom Development The most expensive part of making […]
Read More Mistakes Non-Developers Make When Using WordPress Plugins9 minute readThis post originally posted in the Cowichan Valley WordPress Meetup blog. Attending a WordPress meetup takes time from doing what you love or what makes you money, so why bother? (The same goes for attending a WordCamp, which are really big, once-a-year meetups, but I’ll focus on meetups here.) And why do people bother organizing […]
Read More The 5 Things You Get From a WordPress Meetup5 minute read(They Just Want Their Website to Work) Or at least that’s what I understand from the 2015/2017 WordPress users survey results. I was under the impression that WordPress’ key to success was its embracing free, unrestricted software and its huge community, but it seems those features aren’t a priority for 80% of it’s users. Why […]
Read More Most WordPress Users Don’t Care about Free Software or Community