Spectacu.la » Introductions

kmb42vt (Kirk M)

(4 posts)
  • Started 3 years ago by kmb42vt
  • Latest reply from clopinettes

Tags:

  1. kmb42vt
    Member

    Hi all,

    Looks like I've just joined a rather elite group here. Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself since I've just been graciously granted entrance to the club (first "club" I've ever been a member of at that and thanks!).

    I'm a disabled veteran (ex-Cold War submariner [US Navy]) and a computer/peripherals/R&D type of guy who rode the so-called "crest of the wave" in computers during the final 2+ decades of the Cold War. Approximately 4 years ago I brought my "geek" back out of the closet when I became interested in WordPress and haven't looked back since (much to my wife's dismay...even though she has a degree in computer systems management...go figure).

    I'm not a programmer per say in that I could never sit down and write an entire theme from scratch. But I'm one heck of an experienced troubleshooter and can usually fix most basic CSS and PHP problems myself. A bit like being able to speak French or Spanish but not being able to write it.

    I also administer/upgrade/fix problems and do installs for non-tech WordPress bloggers. In fact, I'm bringing two more brand new WP sites online over the next few days once I get the owners familiar with the basics.

    Strangely enough, one of the things I've noticed over the time I've been doing this is that more and more folks my age (around 50 +/-)are getting into their own custom WP installs. In fact, all of the people I do work for are my age or older. Any more of these "clients" come my way and I'm going to have to go legit. Egad, that means paperwork(ugh)!

    Okay, that's enough. You'll also find that I'm a wordy bas**** which comes from writing tech manuals for a number of years.

    Looking forward to the next 6 months.

    Posted 3 years ago #

  2. clopinettes
    Key Master

    Hi Kirk, and good to see you here! As a technical writer feel free to help with the User Guide I hacked together ;-)

    It's still a fairly exclusive club, yes - we have members joining on a regular basis but most simply lurk. Not unusual in online communities and the ratio of lurkers to posters can be very high indeed. Couple that with the fact that we're still fairly new and unmarketed, notwithstanding the big fuss over the WordPress.org themes purge recently, and you can see why it's quiet.

    Still, it'll get busier here over time - assuming Matt and Co aren't too determined to quash the livelihoods of small independents!

    Posted 3 years ago #

  3. kmb42vt
    Member

    Hi Dave,

    Once I get a few basic WordPress tutorials written and online that I'm rather behind on (health issues get in the way much to my chagrin) I'll be glad to help.

    That purge of sponsored themes at WordPress.org has been going on for awhile now although I'm not entirely certain of what the specific definition of "sponsored" (GPL) is in this case and I don't think anyone else does either or, more to the point, they'll always argue about it.

    Pulling Evening Sun from the directory was wrong in my opinion considering that Weblog Tools Collection is still listing it. Usually, as soon as a theme is pulled from the directory it's eliminated from WTC as well.

    Knowing that the theme directory needs to kept free of themes that actually "violate the rules" it appears that Matt & Co need to be a bit more careful in their "purging" efforts rather than doing a general slam dunk without doing their homework first.

    Posted 3 years ago #

  4. clopinettes
    Key Master

    Well, we've decided to just ignore the great theme withdrawal - it's a shame for people and the project, but there's no real way we can fight Matt & his acolytes. WordPress is rather lovely in so many ways, but it's not the be all and end all. There was a very good reason why WP or WordPress doesn't appear in the name of the site.

    Back to contributing - I'd love to hear your feedback on the user guide. It was originally done to support some clients, then it developed and grew as time passed. Unfortunately I don't think it's structured as well as it could be, and could be improved. But what can't be :o)

    WTC, so far as I can tell, will continue to list our free themes regardless of whether they come from the club or not. That's cool - I just hope Matt doesn't stick his oar in there too.

    Posted 3 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.