WordPress & Me – 10 Year Anniversary Project Entry

One of my biggest passions is WordPress, and the development thereof. I love it, and every week I turn to my colleagues and say “wow, didn’t know WordPress could do THAT!”. I’ve been fortunate enough to turn this passion partly into a career, and partly into profitable side projects that I run. I’m also fortunate to be based in Manchester, home of MWUG, which is run by Mike Little, help write the damn thing.

MWUG will be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of WordPress with a party (with cake!) in Odder Bar, Manchester (you can RSVP here). I will aim to get there (I’m winging it back from a BWP show the night before in Prestatyn), so it’d be good to see fellow Manchester WordPressy folk.

But that isn’t the point of this post. I read with interest Dougal Campbell’s 10th Anniversary WordPress Blogging Project, where you are supposed to share what happened to you at core stages in WordPress’ development. This is my post contributing to the Blogging Project.

When WordPress was released in May 2003:-

  • I was 19 years old.
  • I was just finishing my first year of a Computer & Multimedia Systems course at The University of Liverpool.
  • I was a bit of a loner at the time, for the first 6 months of University I hated the halls, and I was plonked on a corridor full of some right pillocks. I did eventually move into a floor with nice people, many of which I still keep in touch with, but by the time I moved in they had already organised a house share, so I went into Second Year Halls.
  • I was also beginning my first full time summer job, working in the restaurant at The Welsh Mountain Zoo.

When I First Started Using WordPress in May 2006:-

  • I was 22 years old.
  • WordPress 2.0.2 was the current version (actually quite gutted by this, sure I’ve scribbled somewhere that I remember WordPress 1.5, but alas no).
  • I had just started working for Livetech in Colwyn Bay.
  • WordPress didn’t have pages for the home page, which frustrated me no end!
  • I was still living with Mum & Dad.
  • I had recently come out of hospital following a bout of Atrial Fibrillation, which screwed me up mentally more than anything else.
  • As it was brought on by a combination of stress, no sleep and a huge amount of alcohol consumption, I was off the booze.
  • And as such, I could still comfortably fit into a Medium. HA! No chance of that now!

Since I started using WordPress…

  • I have found a love for traveling, going abroad for the first time, and since then going to 17 countries.
  • I have changed jobs twice, and now rather happily working for 3 Door Digital.
  • As such I’ve left Colwyn Bay and moved to Manchester.
  • Colwyn Bay FC have been promoted twice.
  • I’ve started, stopped, started again, stopped again and now due to restart a wrestling managerial career.
  • I have released five plugins, and contributed to two more (though my contribution to WP Fart is minimal).
  • I have released two commercial plugins: WP Email Capture & Author+.
  • I have two super-secret (well not quite super-secret now!) projects that I cannot wait to get finished and out there later this year.
  • And – most surprisingly of all – I’ve become a dog lover!

So yes, a bit of an introspective, but felt it was necessarily, most of all though I’m proud to be a part of an amazing community. Between the WordPress & the SEO community, both have been great helps to me as a person and career wise.

Here’s to the next 10 years!

3 thoughts on “WordPress & Me – 10 Year Anniversary Project Entry”

  1. I have not used WordPress for as long (sometime in 2007) but over the years I have mainly hammered or bent it to my will, mainly because PHP was not my forte and knew just enough to be dangerous.

    Since then and thanks to your help on a few occasions I have progressed to a better understanding of PHP which led me to MySQL tinkering, which also gives me a better understanding of what went wrong when I inevitably break a child theme or template through putting things in the loop that naturally don’t live there.

    WordPress over the years has mainly taught me to think in a more structural way whenever I approach a new build or when assessing existing ones, definitely a must have tool in any online arsenal.

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