Category: Articles (Page 242 of 258)

Personal opinions and how-to’s that I’ve written both here and as contributions to other blogs.

You Can’t Ask Users To Upgrade WordPress To Fix Their Problems

February 6, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

I think one of the major characteristics of anyone who’s a digital native – that is, anyone who spends a vast amount of time on the Internet and that has a certain level of proficiency – has no problem upgrading their apps to the latest version and tinkering around with the new features and/or looking for new bugs.

I mean, we can always roll back, right?

And when it comes to WordPress – especially for those who build things for the platform – it’s not at all uncommon to see us urging our users and others to upgrade, as well.

I love updates as the next geek, but we can’t blame others for wanting to wait to upgrade WordPress immediately, nor can we expect everyone to upgrade WordPress as quickly as we do.

Startbox WordPress and View Page Templates

February 4, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

One of the things that I love about the open source community is not only how others can contribute to your work to create a better product, but how your work can be folded into someone else’s work.

Last week, Brian Richards (who works on Startbox WordPress) tweeted me:

@tommcfarlin I really want to appropriate this page template column idea (http://t.co/3ox9IcCv) directly into @wpstartbox. May I?

— Brian Richards (@rzen) January 31, 2013

And I was more than happy to oblige.

This whole short exchange brought up several aspects of open source software that I really appreciate.

Apps or Programs?

February 4, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

As with practically anyone who considers themselves a digital native, I dig using Twitter. One of the things I love the most is seeing various people’s opinions on many things (not everything, but I digress), especially when it’s related to an interest of my own.

Last week, Baratunde tweeted the following:

https://twitter.com/baratunde/status/296319290263629825

Though I respect the opinion, and definitely get where he’s coming from – probably more than I’m going to convey in this post – I disagree with the sentiment.

Open Source Profit Sharing: How Do You Do It?

January 31, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

Lately, one of the questions that I find myself wrestling with is what’s considered respectful and acceptable for charging for support or accepting donations for open source plugins?

Or, more simply, what’s an ideal model for open source profit sharing when you’ve received contributions to open source plugins?

Why (And How!) To Use A WordPress Boilerplate

January 30, 2013 / Tom

For those of who you have been reading this blog for a while (thanks, by the way), you know that I work to maintain the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate and the WordPress Widget Boilerplate along with a growing community of developers.

Despite the fact that I’ve promoted them here on the blog, called for others to get involved, and so on, I’ve never actually given a proper tutorial on how to use them to get started in your projects.

So in my lastest series on Envato, I’m making a case for why the matter and how to use them.

You Can’t Ask Users To Upgrade WordPress To Fix Their Problems

Startbox WordPress and View Page Templates

Apps or Programs?

Open Source Profit Sharing: How Do You Do It?

Why (And How!) To Use A WordPress Boilerplate

Current Projects