When I was on vacation, I took notice of a particular tweet by Ian Stewart regarding a blog post that contained an interview with six of the mainstream WordPress theme developers. Each person had to answer the same question. The entire post is filled with great information but of course, the one that stuck out in my mind is the question of what was their favorite WordPress based site?. I had to blush a bit when I read the answers.
Darren Hoyt – I like WP Tavern and the Tavern forums because Jeff genuinely seems to love what he does and the crowd there are productive and helpful.
There was also the question of what their favorite place was to get info about WordPress.
Adii Pienaar – There’s no one website / blog, so I tend to follow all the main peeps. WPTavern as however emerged as one of my favourites.
Ptah Dunbar – WP Tavern and twitter tidbits.
Ian Stewart – The WordPress Tavern. I think it should be in the official dashboard news. It has a real voice and never stoops to bland pointless posting of lists or parroting of rehashed official news. And get this: the posts aren’t built around driving affiliate sales. It’s a must read if you want a handle on the WordPress community. The WordPress Tavern Forum is great too. There’s real live WordPress nerds in there. Approachable ones even. There’s nothing like it. And when Matt Mullenweg needed to get the skinny on Commercial GPL Themes, where do you think he went first?
I’ll be honest, I was on the deck of the cabin using my notebook to read this post. When I read through the questions and the followup answers, I looked out over the mountains and had one of those self reflecting moments. In only six months, I’ve managed to create something that so far, has been kick ass. It’s not kicking as much ass as I’d like just yet but I figure in due time with some additional elbow grease, it will happen.
While I let my passion shine here in the Tavern as one person, many of the shining aspects of this community within a community are the people. For example, everyone who was interviewed are members of the Tavern forum. These people are successes in their own right. When you have these types of people congregate in one place that is free from bickering, personal assaults, and just want to see and create progress, great things happen. I take a lot of pride in running this tavern and having these folks consider this a watering hole so to speak is in a word, awesome.
What is it about WPTavern that creates this atmosphere? What’s the best part of the Tavern that keeps you coming back for more?
1) I think it is the things you bring to it Jeff: enthusiam, quality over quantity, you rarely post for the sake of it which is great and really important.
2) You have a knack for asking interesting questions. You don’t tell, you ask, and then we get to see the answers.
Besides your really good reporter skills the fact that the Tavern isn’t just another place where you see the “Top 10 Best Magazine Free Themes for WordPress” or “The Top 5 SEO Plugins” is what really makes me come back.
Also like the fact that you ask questions to your audience. It’s always good to see separate opinions on WP related topics!
Keep up the god work!
1) You, the fact that you do not only report but also give an opinion. And of course, you are interested in what the others think. Keep asking, that’s what builds a community!
2) You are trying to be as objective as possible. That’s not an easy task, and I think that’s why I come back, because I know that what I read here is well-thought. I feel you give yourself some time to think before to write and publish something. That gives this bit of in-depth info that’s missing in so many other places.
I also love comments here. There is always something interesting to read in the comments. it is almost as valuable as the post itself sometimes!
Keep on!!
I like the fact that the tavern does not ignore the elephant in the middle of the room. During the time of the GPL discussion, you were on top of it, not pushing an agenda per se, even though you had an opinion, but you helped to get people talking in a respectful way.
Enthusiasm – your “our man” reporting from planet WordPress.
You bringing in the good people, the heavy thinkers, and keeping us all in line and on topic. ;)
I still think it should be in the WordPress dashboard news. I’m pretty sure I emailed Matt about it. If you—as in, everyone who enjoys the WordPress Tavern—haven’t, I suggest you do the same.
Keep up the good work, Jeff.
@Andrew – If I told rather than ask, then it would defeat the purpose of me even asking right?
@Cristian – Interesting since I’ve never taken a course in journalism nor have I read into it. I’m just doing what feels natural. I love asking the audience questions because the audience is much smarter than me :)
@Jeremy – I have my opinions, but I think I do a good job not trying to push any one agenda. Sure, I’ve come across a thing or two I heavily favor to be included in core but if I feel it should be there, I’m going to push for it and discuss with people why I think that’s the way it should be. If it doesn’t make it, oh well. Had fun talking about it lol.
@Danny G Smith – Yeah, I was in the middle alright but it was hard for me to come down on one side or the other because of my lack of knowledge regarding the subject. Prior to getting involved with WordPress, I thought GPL was just another funny acronym. I never thought it meant as much as I do now.
@John Myrstad – How long do you think this enthusiasm will last?
@Andrea_R – Someone has to do it. Although I’ve seen a couple of messy fights but after a trip to the ER they come back ready to talk again!
@Ian Stewart – I was very very close I thought to getting WPTavern into the dashboard and onto PlanetWordPress. I had a few back and forth emails with Matt shortly after my dentist appointment. I had to make a few changes to my advertising structure and such which I complied and I thought I was finally going to be listed on planet WordPress for the WordPress category. Unfortunately, it has yet to happen. Not sure if I did something wrong, said something wrong, or he forgot about it.
I had alot of fun setting up that interview, and was impressed with the amount of people who generally quote wptavern as being their favourite source of wp info. To be honest I haven’t really hung out at wptavern much but since I’ve gotten all this great feedback how I can ignore. Hope to lurk around here more often.