When drafting blog posts, I try not to single out particular tweets or comments unless they’re helpful or resourceful.
There are times, though, thoughts are shared either via tweets, emails, and/or blog comments that may be intended to be critical, but end up being really useful and end up proving exactly what we’ve been discussing all along.
Case in point, this post received the following comment:
Just spent a day fixing a site that a Developer custom coded and it was a f’n mess!
Started from scratch with 4 plugins and now the client is giving me a box of wine as an added bones of a job well done.
I don’t mind sharing this not because the comment was made in any form of confidence, but because the contact information of the person sharing the information isn’t (and wasn’t made) public.
This way, I know that s/he won’t be bothered with any unnecessary follow-up comments. There’s nothing good that comes from that, anyway.
The WordPress Developer Fails
The thing about Pete’s comment is that I think it bookends these last few posts nicely:
It goes to show exactly what happens when you have people who represent themselves as WordPress developers doing work that they aren’t really qualified to do.
In short, you’re left with a project that’s an “f’n mess” and that ends up becoming the responsibility of someone else who is more qualified to solve the problem.
What does it mean to be more qualified? In this case, and as has been previously stated, it depends on the nature of the project at hand and the capabilities of the person who sets out to solve it.
When An Implementer Succeeds
Honestly, I’ve no idea if Pete is a developer who knows what tools to use instead of writing it from scratch or who is an implementer.
But it doesn’t matter.
In other words, the cool thing about WordPress is that it’s completely possible that a person who ends up solving the problem that a “developer” left behind isn’t even a developer himself or herself.
Perhaps they’re power users or implementers – and that’s fantastic.
But the flip side of solving a problem this way – in this case, with four plugins – or in another similar case with any number of plugins is that work has been done by actual developers who know what they are doing, who are solving problems in functional ways, and who ultimately allow others to take advantage of their work.
Ultimately, this goes to show exactly how WordPress developers can benefit other people’s projects and who can make it easy to turn around a project into something that actually works.
It also makes it possible for those who may not be developers able to put together a solution that works better than what was assembled by someone who had no business building it in the first place.
When We All Win
So props to those who end up having their problem solved, props to the developers who are involved in building themes and/or plugins, and props to those who are able to creatively solve problems by knowing what to install and when.
Enjoy that wine.
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