It’s no surprise that I do not necessarily agree with everything going on in the WordPress ecosystem. I’ve been vocal about a lot of the crap going on around the whole debate with WP Engine. But at the end of the day, I still work with WordPress for a large amount of my working hours every single day. This lead me to reflect on my relationship with WordPress. Not just the software, but also the larger ecosystem, community and leadership.
I’ve been personally involved with WordPress in some way for almost 20 years now. That is about the extent of my professional career as a software developer. I’ve had some years where I was actively contributing to core WordPress, writing mostly small patches where I could. Most of these years, I’ve created and maintained several plugins. I’ve visited and spoke at numerous WordPress related events, all over the world. All this time, I have been working with WordPress, while being employed by several WordPress focussed companies, but also as a freelancer.
So yes, WordPress has been a big part of my life for the last two decades. I’ve seen a lot of its growth, and both ups and downs. I’ve struggled with coming to terms with some of the decisions being made, I’ve celebrated large new features and releases. After being a – albeit small – part of the WordPress ecosystem for almost 20 years, I felt it was time to reflect on and revisit my relationship with WordPress.
Financial incentive and business opportunity
This might be a hot take, given the nature of the whole situation around WP Engine, but I would be remiss to skip over this part of the equation. Yes, there is a financial incentive to keep working with WordPress. There is so much work available, there are so many people building on top of WordPress. All that makes it hard to pass up on WordPress, simply because I don’t like certain parts of it.
Of course, there are many more systems, platforms and tools to continue working with. WordPress is not the end all, be all solution to everything. Does it do everything perfectly? Definitely not. But it would be ignorant to simply write off WordPress as a whole, because it has been going through a rough patch in the political part of the ecosystem.
I do not run a multi-million dollar revenue company. I do not make spectacular amounts of money off the back of a free to use software project like WordPress. Most of the time, I’m just a single freelance software developer, creating value for my clients. And yes, a lot of times, I’m using WordPress as the engine to power these projects.
WordPress changed over time
Obviously, WordPress changed over time. It was a fun experiment to take a trip down memory lane and see how much things have changed. I was most interested in finding out the different ways I’ve interpreted what could be done by WordPress, what it was capable of and how my opinions changed over time. The biggest shift in my personal perception is still a monumental one for me.
In April 2012 – yes, that’s mind blowing to me as well, for being 13 years ago already! – I joined the WooCommerce development team as one of their first development team hires. We started building a plugin, that one could simply install and turn their WordPress website into a webshop selling digital and physical goods. Little did we know back then, that WooCommerce would grow to the size that it currently is. Of course we had dreams and we worked our butts off every single day to make it better, faster, safer. But I don’t think any one of us involved back then, could have accurately predicted just how much of a success WooCommerce would become.
This phase of my career is also where it clicked. I used to be one the people saying “well, you probably shouldn’t do eCommerce with WordPress…”. My time at the WooCommerce team changed my perspective on that. Gone were the days where WordPress was “just a blogging tool”, or a small scale website CMS at best.
Mind you, it was only in 2010 that WordPress 3.0 was released and that was the first time that custom post types were becoming actually usable. This release marked for what – slowly, over time – changed my perception on what could be done with WordPress. This doesn’t mean that you should use WordPress for everything you can think of, but it also no longer necessarily meant that you couldn’t.
My journey continued
After I had left the WooCommerce team, I went on in my personal journey as a software developer. Different platforms, frameworks, systems. Even different programming languages, in addition to the things that I already knew. I found it very refreshing to work outside the WordPress ecosystem for a while. To expand my horizon and learn new things.
This did have the unexpected side effect, that it changed how I worked with WordPress as well – even though I wasn’t actively looking to change any of that. It introduced me to technologies, tools, ideas and people that helped shape me as a developer. One change in particular, is what ultimately resulted in me building Mozart, one of my side projects. But on a more fundamental level, it changed how I view technology and how it can be used.
Over the following years, I had the pleasure to work alongside some brilliant minds in the industry, to work on increasingly more complex and challenging projects. A lot of these projects were based on WordPress, pushing it to the limits of what the creative brain could think of. Looking back at it, I find it incredible to see what is now possible with WordPress. To see what I am capable of achieving, with WordPress.
The future of WordPress and me
I found it difficult to eloquently draw a conclusion to this post, but I think that at this moment in time WordPress still has a place for me. Or maybe it’s the other way around and that I still have a place for WordPress. There are still some things that I like to do within the WordPress ecosystem.
Most of all, I would like to continue challenging myself to reflect. To check in with myself and see what my position is, within the WordPress ecosystem. Where I want to spend my energy on, where I do not want to spend my energy on. It’s been a fun ride, these past two decades.