Tag Archives: HeroPress

You Did This – HeroPress

[ad_1] Just the other day Lana Miro wrote her HeroPress essay from from Mykolaiv, Ukraine. In it she gives some credit to the WordPress community for helping her literally not lose her mind while bombs fell in her neighborhood. Additionally she credits her company, which builds tools for WordPress. In the past I’ve said “WordPress won’t help you. It’s software, it just sits there.” But if that software hadn’t been just sitting there, a group of people in Ukraine wouldn’t have been able to make this company, to become friends and co-workers, and support each other. WordCamp Crazy is a group of men from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh that travel together to WordCamps around the world. If that doesn’t seem odd to you then you don’t know the history of those three countries. On the whole they don’t get along. Yet because WordPress exists these men met on common ground and became friends. Sure it’s just a small group of people, but it’s one step in healing the wounds between their countries. How many other groups or even just two people around the world are like them, that we never hear about? There are almost 300 stories on HeroPress now, we’ve been building it for 10 years. But there are so many more stories that I’ve heard that never made it to the site. So many lives changed. I think “How did this happen?” and I look at WordPress as a tool. Who built it? So many people. Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? Not just core, not just plugins, themes, hacks, tweaks and code. All the support questions answered, all the talks given, all the translations, tutorials, blogs, videos, events, and simply time sitting quietly explaining something to one person who needed it. Here’s my point, right here. If you’ve ever contributed to WordPress in any way, YOU did this. I did this. WE did this. Think about that, and about your impact on the world. Because of your actions, the world is a better place. Thank you. Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash Related [ad_2] Source link

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Privileged – HeroPress

[ad_1] Privileged! That’s one weird way to begin a story but that is where I will kick off. Do not be deceived! I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth nor did I miss a meal in a day, however, there are many others in the community who have a different story to tell. Cut! From the top… When you read most of the articles on this ginormous account of lives (HeroPress), one theme stands out, “WordPress allowed me to create the life I wanted” and my story does not differ from the others apart from the finer details. For most of my life, I have wanted to create a leveled playing field for others and myself. That is one lesson my parents labored to teach me; to consider others as well as myself. So for most of my dreamy childhood, I spent my tv-less afternoons contemplating building an orphanage or something that would help those who did not have the gifts/experience I had obtained in the universe. But how would I do this? I was privileged to go through school from Kindergarten to University (We shall skip the nitty gritty) and obtained a Bachelors in Commerce. That continues to debunk the myth that most IT enthusiasts (read “nerds/geeks”) have a computer science degree. I do not have one and having it might supercharge my ego so I have sunset-ted that idea. Rather, I have focused to push in a direction that one of my former employers highlighted. He said, “You will make a good product manager one day!”. And I am building some WordPress plugins projects to come soon. But let’s rewind to the earlier story. Yah! No CS degree. “But how did you get into the IT field?” you might ask. During my high school long vacation, I broke my sister’s work computer one fateful mid-morning. I had to fix it immediately. At that point in time, it was her life’s work. Luckily, it was just the operating system that was broken. I reinstalled it and that is how I learnt about how software worked. Coincidentally, that is how my passion for IT started. 2 years later, I secretly kept learning new things, HTML but Javascript completely threw me off. So I focused on HTML and CSS which allowed me to make some pocket change while I went through university. I had many corporate clients who sought me out in my university hall for a website. So I studied 8am-1pm and worked in the afternoons and evening. This allowed me to save up for my first rental fees for when I left school. (Plays evil music with a surreptitious wink) Around 2009, one of my mentors in the web development game, challenged me to convert a PSD to WordPress because the client wanted to DIY the changes on their site overtime without need for a technician. As a reward, he would reward me for the hard work more than I had ever earned. He specifically asked for WordPress. I was lost in a new world. My thoughts only run around the idea that one could D.I.Y. I was a business major, not a database guy. I had no PHP knowledge besides googling up how to make a contact form and linking the form fields. That is how I knew how to make websites. This new task had so many challenges. It led me to learn all the theme and plugin basics from the WP repo but all the themes in the repo did not match what the graphics designer had made. I was toast! We lost the contract because of learning and doing time constraints, but I was now on a new path. Sigh! That is how I met Chris Coyier, Jeffery Way, Tom McFarlin and Morten Rand-Hendriksen in that order. Like I said, “I was privileged”. I had the industry leaders show me the way via their video tutorials. Chris taught me how to convert PSD to HTML with WordPress PHP via custom themes. Jeffrey taught me how to make plugins. Cementing my PHP and Code architecture. Tom taught me about making admin pages with options. Morten showed me how to make things mobile and styling complex menus. Google introduced me to stack overflow and the numerous WordPress blogs I am thankful for. (Sniffs with tears) Yes, I am not particularly talented but a good copycat. I followed what they did and deviated a little bit making solutions for my clients and myself. I learnt pretty fast and that is how I honed my current skill. I kept challenging myself and now I blog about the solutions and have since started a Youtube channel to freely share the knowledge I have attained over time. Privilege! Such an elite word with a capital P Dangit! For some it comes in different shades, others societal class, others in the life growth patterns. Why do I highlight this? It is because one never sees it unless they take time to meditate and be thankful for what they have. Some Context For context, I live in Uganda (East Africa) just on the outskirts of Kampala, its city. With over 70% of the 45 million people as youth and above 87% are unemployed. 25% of the entire population is impoverished (US$0.88–US$1.04 per person per day as the national poverty line. This measure is much lower than the World Bank’s international figure of US$1.90 ). So some of the underrepresentation challenges in the west are multiplied tenfold. Yes, Privilege! My education really set me up. I went to “good” schools which gave me more opportunities. Through hard work, I got a government scholarship at university which allowed me to study in the morning and work in the evenings. In contrast, the privately sponsored students had a mixed schedule with no wiggle room. So when I was finally leaving school, WordPress had already set me up with a job. I was a freelance web developer with WordPress experience. From then,

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From WordPress to Freedom – HeroPress

[ad_1] Hello there! Do you know that having a WordPress knowledge can change your life for good? Yes! It can. In the last half of 2020 which of course can be said as the pandemic year, I made more than $750 (₦300,000) creating websites with WordPress. Perhaps I could have made more even as a beginner, but I also had a full time job which didn’t make it easy for me as a beginner at that time. I didn’t quit my job at that time and I still haven’t cos WordPress is now easier and I started managing both ends well enough after few months. How I Started I was already a graduate of Computer Science and finished my service year by October 2019 but as regards employability I only had a beginner knowledge in HTML and CSS, of course I had pages created with that but I couldn’t make them really interactive cos I didn’t know enough JavaScript and I also had little knowledge of PHP. Here in my country, no one really hires Junior developers with no JS knowledge, then I needed money to keep myself learning. The bail out, I understood I needed to be skilled, so I began to see what I can do. One morning in May/June 2020 I decided to rearrange my workspace, then I found an old jotter of mine. Going through it, I found my jottings from watching a video on 4 professions you can learn on your own and get skilled with it (Note -not exactly the video title). On the list was WordPress, I went online and started searching on becoming a WordPress developer as a beginner. At this time, I already had a job, the pay was low which is also why I was thinking of learning new skills, meanwhile, pandemic also joined. The most helpful resource for me during my search then and till now is the WP Beginner website. With the little internet/data I had, I started reading, learning and practicing. I learnt how to register a domain, get a host and build with WordPress. I saved some money, registered 2 imaginary domain names, hosted them and built them with WordPress and Elementor, this was already early 2020. What next, I had to show people what I knew and what I have done with what I knew, cos no one would know if I didn’t show it. I posted the 2 websites on twitter, got some likes and comments, then got some messages to create 3 websites for some clients, I kept building and showing it, and the rest as they say is history. By the end of 2020, I already created about 10 websites and since then I have been making some side income as a Website creator aside my full-time job as a stock/store manager. My challenges  No active WordPress community here to support, and sometimes I have a block as to what to learn next and how to get clients. I solve what to learn with trying new things or interests, I recently enrolled in a UI/UX design class and I can say I really explored, cos I will be finishing an online internship this week of writing in July, 2021. In summary, learning about WordPress is something you can turn to a skill, a full time job, a side hustle and other cool things. Learn, build and show the world what you have. With WordPress, you can create amazing things and earn more. Thank you for reading. Related [ad_2] Source link

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Out Of The Darkness – HeroPress

[ad_1] When I first chatted with Topher about doing an article for HeroPress, I couldn’t quite think of how I would put the words together to describe my life, and what has gotten me to where I am now. Am I that interesting? This is exactly where imposter syndrome grabs you by the balls thinking you aren’t good enough. After chatting with him for a bit, and asking about how I should go about it, he just told me to be real and tell my story. Well, here I am. This isn’t the the typical biographical, motivational, PG bullshit. This is my life. Hold onto your ass, and enjoy the ride. Independence From Birth From birth, the odds were both stacked against me and in my favor. When you’re the child of a 15 year old mother who grew up in poverty, you don’t have many options in front of you. I’ve told people several times that it’s not about the hand you’re dealt; it’s about how you play it. You bet slowly and carefully with the little you have, and when you see that ace, you take the house. For me, that ace was a computer. Around the age of 5 or so, I remember getting a new-to-us computer and being introduced to Wolfenstein 3D. Yeah, that badass Nazi-slaying game by iD Software where you go in and out of too many doors that look the same, until you eventually get to slay Mecha-Hitler. As you probably know, floppies and DOS were a thing at that time. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, get off my lawn. Being brought up in a family that takes very much of a “if you want it, get it yourself. Nobody is going to hand you what you want” approach, I only was shown how to start it up a few times. After that, I’m on my own. At that time, I learned the two most important values in my life: to learn things on my own, and that if I want something, I have to bust my ass for it. This, of course, led to a life of tinkering. To a passion for finding out how things work. If I was curious about something, I took it apart. A perfect example of this is the time my parents discovered that I was listening to my neighbor’s cordless phone conversations using a busted toy walkie-talkie. I didn’t realize it then, but this was my first experience with truly making something work for a purpose other than what it was intended for. My mother still loves telling that story for a good laugh, but to me, it’s a defining moment. The moment when I never became happy with how things are. The moment my wife sometimes wishes never happened so that we wouldn’t have closets full of miscellaneous defunct tech and hacked solutions to problems that don’t actually exist throughout the house. “Yes, honey. We DO need to be able to access everything in the house with every device imaginable.” “No, we can’t just use the regular cable box to watch TV.” We all know there’s always some issues that come with habits like those previously mentioned. I didn’t have a whole lot of friends, and nothing was ever good enough. I didn’t realize it until much later, but this eventually led to getting into plenty of trouble. Descent Into Darkness School was hell. From elementary school to middle school, we moved quite a bit. Friends came and went, while my computer and constant craving for knowledge was always there. Around this time, I really stopped giving two shits about reality. Teachers were told to go fuck themselves, and I hated my parents. I didn’t get along with the other kids very well, and had terrible grades. Thankfully, my time spent alone led me to a single book that I still own to this day: Creating Web Pages with HTML. While looking at the examples makes me cringe every time, it reminds me of exactly where I came from. I wish I could tell you that I just spent all of my time progressing my skills to be where I am now, but unfortunately, things went grinding to a halt. My hatred for everyone got much worse, and I simply didn’t have the coping skills to deal with it. I just didn’t care about being alive anymore and seriously considered suicide several times. That was about the same time that I discovered that cutting myself made the pain go away. Both physically and mentally, I would hurt myself daily. Now that I look back on it, I suppose that I felt I should be punished for not being good enough, and the pain took away from reality. This got to the point where I had deep gashes and would keep razor blades from box cutters in my wallet to get me through the day. I absolutely craved that feeling. I needed it. I later just shut down completely. I was an absolute fucking mess. I didn’t eat. I didn’t sleep. I only cared about my addiction to watching myself bleed. Even my best friend, Pete, stopped talking to me. This got to a point that I was kicked out to be on my own. As a teenager, with just the clothes on my back and the car that I saved up to buy, I headed out at around 6am to the Wal-Mart parking lot where I had to figure out my next move. Without a cell phone, and most pay phones being phased out in favor of fancy flip phones, I didn’t have any communication with anyone. Not even my girlfriend at the time, Robin was in contact. As I happened to know that she was working at Circuit City that day (where I also worked part time), I headed her way that morning. Her incredible generosity kept me fed, clothed, and a hotel room for a few days, and eventually

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Discover Where You Belong – HeroPress

[ad_1] My path to WordPress is, like so many stories, a twisty road lined with both struggle and good fortune. And yet, when I reflect on what led me here, it simply comes down to the common threads that bind us together as a community: the desire to make meaningful connections, the ability to do amazing things together, and the very human comfort that comes with knowing that I belong here. It starts here Just before I made my way into this world, my parents immigrated from Taipei, Taiwan to San Diego, USA. Growing up, I held a level of pride in being first generation which warred against a long list of discomforts that, as a kid, I couldn’t fully comprehend. That unlike my school mates, I rarely saw my extended family. That my English didn’t sound like that of my Californian friends, nor did my Mandarin mirror my Taiwanese cousins’. That cultural norms at friends’ homes were diametric experiences from my home. I realize that this sounds like I had a challenging, confusing childhood, but I assure you that I had a good time growing up. My folks are loving and made sure I had opportunities whenever possible. I always have had wonderful friends who generously share their lives and love my quirks. And, I have a brother who, despite being far smarter than I will ever be, still puts up with my big sister act. My point is that, it was painfully clear to me where I couldn’t fit in. Like many third culture kids, my perplexing cultural foundation had a profound impact on my values, and created importance around the concept of belonging, something I still hold to this day, and which pushed me along my way to WordPress. The twisty road I was terrible at college. I had no sense of what I wanted to do with my life, and drifted from major to major until I found myself entirely broke and rudderless. It was 2010, and with minimal job experience and 45 credits short of a degree, I desperately applied for jobs, taking the first that offered me a full time position. It was a pivotal moment in my life. The job gave me purpose, and I actually felt like I was good at something for a change. I worked closely with my boss and mentor, a highly regarded commercial real estate advisor with a warm heart and penchant for dad jokes. What set him apart was his belief in community values: the importance of education, humility, empathy, good stewardship, qualities that made him a respected leader in many circles. Over the ensuing years, I would finish my degree. But the lessons that meant the most were learned by following my mentor’s example, and would later translate well to open source leadership. Meanwhile, I began volunteering with renewed passion: sorting clothes at homeless shelters, working on literacy programs, teaching English at the library, serving meals, maintaining trails, building homes. I fund raised and coordinated volunteer events. Eventually, I joined advisory boards and committees of a few nonprofits, and became enamored of the strategic, thoughtful work that came with these roles. Building homes in Estelí, Nicaragua. One of my favorite volunteer memories! Ideas around positive change and impact through community initiatives blossomed in my mind. Driven by strongly held values, I continued to help and was welcomed at every turn. I learned that it was people who could create spaces in which anyone, everyone could belong and add value by virtue of being a unique, enthusiastic human being. I wanted to create these spaces. Finding WordPress Now, it is a true story that I also found my way to WordPress through my partner, and that WordPress brought us together. We met through a mutual friend, and when I realized that he could build me a website, I asked him to do so for work. Arguably, one of my first experiences with WordPress could be described either as sharing what my site required with my developer, or innocently flirting with my future partner. The joke I like to tease him with is that I needed someone to maintain the site, so I married him. The other truth was that, after eight years of volunteering and lessons in leadership, my passion had turned to community building. I wanted a career in creating sustainable communities where people were openly welcomed, and members tangibly feel that they belong and experience joy in their participation. Simultaneously, working with my WordPress site also reinforced my sense of belonging to something bigger. Despite not having any technical background (y’all, my degree is in English), I was able to not just publish with WordPress, but have a functional site that worked incredibly well for my purposes. I saw WordPress as a way for anyone to have a voice online, and as a result, I was also drawn to the idea of creating these tools that non-developers, like myself, could use in an increasingly online world. By that point, my WordPress developer had become my fiancé, and he once again suggested a WordPress-based solution, this time for my career needs. Just before we married, he forwarded a job opportunity with Automattic as a sponsored community organizer within the WordPress open source project. It was a perfect match. And that is how, in 2018, after going through the standard Automattic interview process (another story that I’m happy to share with anyone interested) I found myself a community organizer for the WordPress Project. Where do we go now? I’ve only been in my current role for two and a half years, but during this time, my belief in the power of resilient communities has only grown, fortified by supporting meetup and WordCamp organizers, bolstered by working on diversity initiatives, and humbled by opportunities to serve teams as their lead, mentor, or member. I’ve met and worked with so many phenomenal community members, full of passion and creativity, and have loved every minute of what we do

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Hallway Chats Joins The HeroPress Family

[ad_1] As any parent or pet owner knows, quiet doesn’t always equal inactivity. And the same is true here at HeroPress. Investing in a sustainable framework While we haven’t said much over the last few months, we’ve been working with the initial feedback we received to expand HeroPress in the most manageable and sustainable way. Because really, if it’s not manageable and sustainable, what’s even the point? This quest prompted a lot of additional research and active listening, all of which lead the fine folks behind the Hallway Chats podcast to start a conversation with us. Hallway Chats found us We were considering a podcast, but had moved it down the build list. Tara Claeys and Liam Dempsey, while loving the work they’ve done with Hallway Chats, found life was moving then in different directions, as it does for us all. And as Hallway Chats approached its 150th episode, the decision was made to pass the torch, or microphone as it were. We’re thrilled to be able to build on their legacy and continue to grow Hallway Chats through out the community, and we’re grateful to Tara and Liam that they’ve entrusted it into our care. Embrace opportunities that are the right fit A few shifts and changes are inevitable, but the spirit of Hallway Chats will always stand. After all, why change something that so ideally meshes with our own goals? Listen to the 150th Episode of Hallway Chats where Tara, Liam, Topher, and I talk even more about the direction we’re all heading. Related [ad_2] Source link

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