Displaying 91 To 117 Of 117 Comments Some Orgnizations And WordPress Just Don’t Mix @Emil -Comments Posted By Ted Clayton
If someone possesses skills like that why not use them towards the improvements?
We are often reminded, that there are different ways to contribute. “As many ways as there are people willing to pitch in!” Each according to her ability & resources.
Personally, I am more like you. I’d rather do things myself … or more specifically, candidly, I lack some of the key traits & skills that make for a good team-leader. To be the Boss, the Manager, is difficult for me.
That’s what this KevinJohn guy does. His company has a stable of hired developers. KJG accepts ‘jobs’ from clients, and hands them to his people to implement.
He himself notes the challenge of being the person who makes decisions about others, in the original post, saying:
I rarely claim to be a good boss, and I rarely actually manage to do whats right…
Yeah … it’s easier to pimp our own ride, than direct a shop of people to pimp rides.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 11, 2012 @ 2:50 PM
@Emil – There are different ‘business models’, and this ‘hired gun’ role that KevinJohn Gallagher fills won’t suit everyone.
However, in order to be able to play this role, KJG (and the people he employs) must possess a high level of training, experience & ability. I believe the expertise he has demonstrated with this inventory of professional tasks, qualifies him to lodge commentary on WordPress.
We don’t need to become KJG groupies; we can winnow & filter his remarks. But he does appear to have the web-dev acumen to offer valuable insight.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 11, 2012 @ 2:05 PM
@Emil -
Jobs that lasted 1-2 months!I know. When I build my web-consultancy, they will be 1-2 weeks! ;)
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 11, 2012 @ 1:18 PM
@Hyder –
I guess Jeff summed it up in the post title quite eloquently, some organizations and WordPress just don’t mix.For sure. Tool-users know the old saying, “The right tool for the job”.
I like exploring WordPress’ potential in CMS roles, but it entails looking at ‘the data’ in a way that works within WP’ limits. For others, or for other techniques, WP would be simply the wrong tool.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 11, 2012 @ 11:35 AM
@Andreas Nurbo – Thanks! Tonight I will try to have a listen to the 40 minute recording. It can be downloaded as an MP3, which is a help on my low-band.
But Gallagher does seem quite interesting. He joins in on the ‘sarcasm game’ more than I like to have to immerse myself in (and I normally do not listen to prolonged recordings) … but for example he posts a rebuttal to previous ‘questioning’, and to ‘Kool-Aide enthusiasm’ more generally. [His site is now back online.]
Again, KJG gets a bit more wound up with his message (reflecting/matching those he critiques for the same over-indulgence) than I really like to wade through … but the guy is a stark contrast to the sycophant problem, and he tables some weighty points.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 11, 2012 @ 11:16 AM
@David Bisset – Unfortunately, the link to the original Gallagher dissertation – and the rest of his site too – is not responding this morning.
But I & others did prowl around on his stuff yesterday … and the strong impression is that he is an actual “businessman”, running a shop that takes jobs. That may account for the long list of gigs.
Gallagher’s basic lament, in fact, is that his employees have been giving him negative feedback about the tasks they are assigned, to make WordPress products for clients.
Kevinjohn, it appears, rides herd on a crew of developers.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 11, 2012 @ 9:19 AM
Who/what is Kevinjohn Gallagher? Profile, Open Source Scotland:
Programme Manager at R/GA
Senior Project Manager at Fortune Cookie
Head of Delivery at Pure Web Brilliant
Solution Architect / Consultant at Heriot-Watt University
Solution Architect at Whitespace
Integration Consultant at Emap
Senior Project Manager at Endemol
Head of Delivery at 2m2r
Project Director at Fullsix
Programme Manager at WPP
Project Director at Them London
Head of Development at T101
Project Manager at AOL
Director at See The future of .com
Specialist .Net UI Developer at Microsoft
Developer at AKQA
Information Architect at Sequence
Devleoper at Technophobia Ltd
Creative Technologist at LBi
Information Architect at Scottish Natural Heritage
UX Consultant at Edinburgh Napier University
Senior Project Manager at Cisco Systems
UX / developer at Bigmouthmedia
Technical Project Manager at Scottish Executive
Multimedia Strategist at Equator
Senior Project Manager at Its-Interactive
Digital Strategy Manager at 2001online.net
Data Transformation Consultant at NCR Corporation
New Media Manager at Beechwood
New Process Manager / PSO at Standard Life
Junior Interactive Manager at Arcas
Flash / ASP Consultant at BlackiD Solutions
Web Developer at Web ConceptsEach of the affiliations listed links to a separate profile for the entity.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 11, 2012 @ 9:04 AM
To say that, because some people release poorly written plugins, WordPress has bad plugin architecture…I don’t think the limitations we see with the number of plugins that can be comfortably used in typical WP websites, is a reflection of a “bad plugin architecture”.
While it is of course true that poorly-made plugins can cause a variety of problems, these days plugins that are hosted on the WP Extend Repository get at least a perfunctory vetting, and we see individuals ‘out there’ complaining about the amount of time and back & forth they have to invest in order for WordPress Dot Org to agree to host their code.
The typical WordPress user who gets a bit ‘plugin-happy’, typically selects plugins that are popular, widespread, and among the better-proven titles. These collections tend to be better-behaved than what we find when we get ‘off the beaten path’ and select plugins that have small audiences and sparse update histories.
Yet, common plugins that mostly observe good protocol, still begin to cause loading that soon ‘warns’ the would-be plugin-enthusiast to desist.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 10, 2012 @ 2:53 PM
@Pete Mall – Thanks for the success-example … tho by carefully selecting/testing I can get quite a few plugins workng decently together … attracting your kind of traffic to ‘prove’ the installation is another thing entirely!
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 10, 2012 @ 2:17 PM
@Andrea_R –
Now we can reasonable expect people in Enterprise do not do this. And that’s what we’re talking about here.True – the article is about pro sites … and I’ve been allowing ‘mission-creep’ to drag in wider considerations. The pro folks can reasonably be expected to avoid ‘amateur’ pitfalls.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 10, 2012 @ 1:37 PM
@John Blackbourn – Yeah, I kinda expected him to clue us in to the CMS that resolves WP-frustration. No great surprise he didn’t … the instant he names names, the counter-arguments start pouring in. ;-)
The beauty of WordPress is that it has so few tables in the backend. When you are in phpMyAdmin looking at around 100 tables for one of those other ‘real’ CMS … the genius of doing it with a handful or two comes into really clear focus.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 10, 2012 @ 12:58 PM
@Ipstenu – I don’t mean to be running WordPress down, or disparaging the millions of WP installations that do what is wanted.
On typical hardware, one can run 3 or 4 dozen plugins, without getting too-awful bogged down. Experimenters often run 100-150, to study the operation. It can’t be recommended to do that in a production environment.
To restrict oneself to 30-40 plugins, means to forego a large number of plugin-functionalites that would be valuable, worthwhile enhancements.
But in the Extend Repository, there are 17,000 plugins … for good reason. There are many 100s of entirely different classes of functionality that … are meeting real demands.
It is easy to install a new WP, go to Extend and in an hour or two have the new site overloaded with plugins, each of which is selected to do something good & useful. There may well be further enhancements or desired features which cannot practically be selected, because the platform is already excessive burdened.
That is what ‘toy’ means: the deployment of plugins can only proceed within quite-limited bounds.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 10, 2012 @ 12:36 PM
@Andrea_R – For sure, the inability of the WP core to run ‘many’ plugins efficiently is only one part of the picture. Any given plugin can generate too much overhead; as you say, they are often ‘learning exercises’ (with all that implies), etc.
Then, yes, there are people (and businesses & corporations) who’s needs can be met with a ‘modest’ collection of plugins. They just need a couple tweaks, and they’re good to go.
But that we accept the ‘modest’ qualifier transparently, and arch our eyebrows at someone with 100 plugins … that is a basic ‘clue’.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 10, 2012 @ 12:13 PM
Fundamentally, WordPress has failed to make good on the ‘plugin-promise’.
You cannot fix or enhance WP to resolve KevinJohn’s 15 points, as Jeffro exhorts, because WP in fact cannot run the arbitrary selection of plugins that you will need, to turn it into what you want.
In theory, WordPress’ strategy to maintain a simplified, small “service” core, and to then add functionalities with plugins, would allow it to be all things to all users. In Theory.
In reality, you can’t add more than a couple dozen plugins, without begining to notice issues. A (very) few dozen more, and you are engaged in heroics.
I assumed long ago that at some point a facility to ‘compile’ one’s plugin selections would become part of WordPress, and that … Matt Mulllenweg would then go Super Nova.
Plugins can only work, in ‘toy’ cases.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 10, 2012 @ 11:51 AM
Experimental Method For Contributing To WordPress 3.4
I think that this will go fine, for WP_v3.4. Longer-term, having the ‘experimental’ caveat highly-placed will be valuable.
We’ve been to this movie, repeatedly. See e.g. The Mythical Man-Month
In our favor, early WordPress was pretty close to a classic one-man project … which despite its ultimately fatal limitations, remains the primary creative venue in software … in large part because if obviates TMMM, et al.
Matt Mullenweg, and some of the other key/core personell, clearly know what they’re up against. That’s the main thing. It’s an experimental process, feeling your way into it step by flexible step. The early steps have already been taken, and the stumbles were recoverable.
Some peripheral, less-aware participants will get tender parts of their anatomy pinched in the wringer … but the effort overall to bring more skilled coders, and a ‘degree’ of rational organization to the WP-Dev schema, looks healthy & on-track.
Good-on everyone involved.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 5, 2012 @ 10:34 AM
WordPress 3.3.1 Fixes Security Exploit
The “Welcome”, “What’s New” page was certainly a nice touch in v3.3, tho it did occur to me that it might not ‘wear’ as well as hoped.
In the case of v3.3.1, I took it that the Dev crew had – ‘natch – been running butts to a frazzle, stomping out all the (usual, predictable) spot-fires, and now they just needed to tie up the loose ends and get the new package out the door – ASAP.
So … the loving editing that went into making “Welcome v1.0″ so nice & smooth … became just a partial edit to quickly-insert what had to happen, for WP_v3.3.1.
It might be, “Welcome” et al should be on the Dot Org site, and our Admin should just have a link, instead of another installed panel. Then, editing of it can be on-going.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 4, 2012 @ 1:52 PM
Plugin Created By A 10 Year Old
@Tom Gonzalez – … Or, there is the (Xbox) XBMC Media Center:
“… a free and open source cross-platform … it has a skinnable as well as user-configurable interface and plugin support.
Tho, it uses Python, instead of PHP.
But for real, it is notoriously difficult to ‘direct’ programming training. Nor is early experience, aptitude or expressed interest a particularly strong indicator of future ability/success in the field of programming & software development.
Take for example the lead developer of a product called WordPress: Matt Mullenweg was primarily into music; he attend a special High School for Music & Art. He began messing with code, in hopes to salvage a roundly-mocked script called “B2″ for use in managing his out-of-control indulgence of photography.
And the rest is history. Matt the ardent saxophonist & shutter-bug went on to create … Jazz-Quotes.com
But that is pretty striking – having another kid write a plugin. Good luck. :)
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 2, 2012 @ 3:57 PM
Congratulations to Jesse Friedman!
Agreed with Matt – that programming is an important form of literacy. Plugins are a great way to build skills.
Matt Mullenweg is not the first to call for recognition of programming as a literacy issue that should get wider attention. Not by a long shot …
Over the years & decades, the extent of programming-literacy promotion directed toward ‘average’ people has declined, dramatically.
Stories like Jesse’s are good to hear.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 2, 2012 @ 2:01 PM
I liked the passage by Matt that came just before the one quoted in this Post:
The Internet needs a strong, independent platform for those of us who don’t want to be at the mercy of someone else’s domain. I like to think that if we didn’t create WordPress something else that looks a lot like it would exist. I think Open Source is kind of like our Bill of Rights. It’s our Constitution. If we’re not true to that, nothing else matters.
To be more “independent” unavoidably means to be more “able”. If one does not want to be “dependent” upon others to “do/provide” for them … it should be starkly up-front that one will become “enabled” to do & provide for themselves.
“Independence” with computers & the Internet is not an abstraction: it’s the concrete product of learning & training, study & practice.
It’s true that intrinsic aptitude, inclination and previous experience have a lot to do with how easily one gains understanding & competence … we also see complaints from Nature Lovers who discover mud, blisters, and inclement weather on the hiking trails
» Posted By Ted Clayton On January 4, 2012 @ 6:24 PM
WordPress Ink Does Not Equal WordPress Cult
@Kevinjohn Gallagher – Yes, there certainly could be an issue.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet’s “top 1 million” websites and as of August 2011 powers 22% of all new websites.[4] WordPress is currently the most popular CMS in use on the Internet.[5][6]
MATT MULLENWEG
is one of PC World’s Top 50 People on the Web, Inc.com’s 30 under 30, Business Week’s 25 Most Influential People on the Web, and Vanity Fair’s Next Establishment. …Is Mark Zuckerberg a moral defective? Is Facebook Big Brother II?
Is Sergey Brin an ethical reprobate? Is Google Beijing’s Goskomizdat?
Probably not … but see Rule #1.
Certainly, there’s been a detectable tendency for awhile now, that anything said about WordPress should be a Kumbaya, or it’s a dirge. That is a clue, and warning-sign.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On December 31, 2011 @ 9:58 PM
Am I alone in thinking that there may be a WordPress Cult developing? Everywhere you go in the Internet Marketing community now, it seems that people are pushing WordPress as if it is the holy grail of Internet Marketing solutions.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On December 30, 2011 @ 8:51 PM
The tattoo comes & goes generally, shifts from one crowd to another, and the subject-matter morphs steadily.
Mostly, the subject-matter is a minor part of it. “Mother”, last-year’s (decade’s) girlfriend, Asian dragon-motifs … and of course whatever life-theme one is into – Harley’s, Confederate Flags, Hot Rods, etc.
The tattoo suffers a bit right now, from competition with other body-art options. If a WordPress tattoo is good, how about a Logo-embossed body-stud? In your ear, nose … nipple? Or??
What’s most important about a tattoo (etc) is mainly just “Did you?” or “Didn’t you?”.
Not one guy in the Navy showers ever commented to me that, “You didn’t”.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On December 29, 2011 @ 4:19 PM
WordPress Support Forum For Localhost Installs
After encountering a brick wall with localhosting for a decade, I was easily able to get WAMPserver working, a couple-few years back. I am preparing to move to XAMPP now. I have not been using a remote host since I got the local going (and I have fantasies of doing ‘lite’ hosting, from my desktop (see Vladimir Prevolac above)).
‘Course, I also have Ubuntu (under Windows) since v9.6, and have installed LAMP on it both piecemeal and using their ‘meta-package’ install. (there is also the separate “Ubuntu Server” distro which one can download, instead of standard Ubuntu; I am going to try this on a USB stick).
I believe there are also localhost packages like we use on Windows, for Ubuntu/Linux. I skipped over these and went straight for the full server environment, since it seemed easy enough. I am reconsidering and will be taking a good look at Ubuntu localhost options.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On December 28, 2011 @ 10:00 AM
Intriguing Interview With Matt Mullenweg By Japanese Magazine
In the military, one is “stationed” at a particular Base, or with a Command, for some nominal period of time, and is then arbitrarily uprooted and reassigned elsewhere. And so it goes for one’s entire career, always being shuffled from one place to another … always about the time one is getting nicely settled.
The longer folks remain in a given role/situation, the more comfortable, the more empowered, and ultimately the more “entitled” they feel. Or, “are”. The French Revolution was considerably more driven by exactly this dynamic, than we like to acknowledge. (Because it means that some of our fondly-held ideals, are both unlikely, and counterproductive.)
Matt Mullenweg will have to become Mr. Mullenweg, if he is going to “take” or “drive” WordPress … pretty much *anywhere*. The more the project comes to “belong” to the “community”, the less traction & authority Matt will be able to exert. Or, “have”.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On December 27, 2011 @ 11:55 AM
Plugin Developers Receive A Christmas Gift
The graphical header is a good idea … and I did see & notice at least a couple, before I knew about the change.
I like that old, orphan, and even basket-case plugins are still there on Extend. It keeps ‘ideas’ where they can be seen, and folks do revive some of these clunkers. (Long as they’re not ‘exploits’, and in years of looking at a few thousand plugins, I have encountered only a couple such *possible/maybe* examples.)
With 17,000 Plugins now on Extend, it will be a challenge at times to find what is wanted, even if all of them were completely up to snuff. And even if they were all perfect (not holding breath), one still will have to investigate, and ultimately download and test & compare, to make the best decision.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On December 25, 2011 @ 3:50 PM
5 Question Survey To Help Make WordPress.org Better
I made some pointed commentary on the Survey, myself. The opportunity to write actual comments in the survey is so valuable, and so dominant a feature of the form, that I suspect that the ‘survey’ is just an excuse to let folks really ‘sound off’.
It’s hard to get experts to freely share what they often struggled hard and otherwise “paid” to gain for themselves. Why should they give it away? ‘Documentation’ is such an atrocious problem in Open Source, for partly this reason. Experts ‘pretend’ to offer the goods (in some cases, without realizing it).
Having watched WordPress since before the wider CMS community thought is was anything to worry about, I do think the ‘issues’ with WP-support are a bit on the ‘nit-pick’ side … tho Jeffro’s lament (and others) is valid. After all, the stuff is there, which is more than can be generally expected! … albeit a jungle.
More fundamental, the topical range is large, complex, and changing. We want lots of choices, but then we are burdened by choices. We want an improved product, but then everything is new (or outdated).
Not that Dot Org can’t be improved. It has, through several major iterations, and will (have to) going forward.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On December 27, 2011 @ 5:24 PM
Removing The Browser Nag Bar In WordPress
«« Back To Stats PageI am using Firefox 7.0.1. Version 7.0 was first released on September 27, 2011. Three months old, and it’s out of date?
Mozilla kinda strained my credulity, with the rapid release routine. I let them auto-update a few times, then decided I’d do manual updates at more reasonable intervals.
Three month old Firefox is a security issue? Something legitmately worth theatrics in my Admin?
I’m not convinced.
» Posted By Ted Clayton On December 31, 2011 @ 11:32 PM