Untame at WordCamp US 2015

Posted by | WordCamp, WordPress | No Comments

philadelphia-light-crop
I’m in Philadelphia, looking forward to attending the very first WordCamp US. We checked in last night and I have already had the chance to engage in some friendly conversations with some old friends and new faces as well.

WordCamps can be a bit overwhelming for first-timers. I remember my first experience at WordCamp Vancouver back in 2012. I hardly knew anyone but more than that I was a bit intimidated by the dev superstardom that was present. I didn’t spend much time talking shop or trying to meet everyone. Most of my conversations were small talk. But I can say that everyone I spoke to was friendly. Despite all of the talent, there was no artificiality or ostentatiousness. My experiences there formed a cornerstone to many of the relationships that I have made online and at other WordCamps since.

The beauty of WordPress is not merely that it provides a wonderful platform that empowers individuals to self-publish online. It isn’t just a powerful content management system that enables individuals and teams to create, powering over a quarter of all sites across the globe. The true power of WordPress is in its community, without which it would not have become what it is today.

Ironically, many who work daily with this technology tend towards introversion. The nature of publishing and development is largely a solitary endeavor, and though you might get to know people based on their contributions online, this type of connection is often thin and vicarious. One doesn’t get the opportunity to capture the warmth or personality of a person purely through their online persona, or experience a human face through an avatar.

That is why, despite the educational tracks, the WordPress Summit, the Contributor Days and all of the technical work and cheerleading that WordCamps are comprised of, I feel that the human community element of each WordCamp is the most valuable experience of all.

Maybe it is because of the strong friendships and business relationships I have developed with intelligent, inspiring, and hilarious people I have had the pleasure to meet at WordCamps. Maybe it is a stronger sentiment this year following the recent discussions on depression in tech by Corey Miller, Yana Petrova, and others. Maybe I feel it more because of some of the talented and wonderful people that the WordPress Community has lost this year.

Or maybe it is because the greatest driving force behind 25% of the internet is not software or a content management system or a hosted platform. Indeed, what truly powers the WordPress movement is people. So I encourage WordCamp veterans and newbies alike: this week, let’s all reach out beyond what we can learn or contribute in a technological capacity. Let’s show each other what is exceptional about WordPress in the way we greet each other, reach out to each other, and in how we share ourselves and our time with familiar faces and total strangers alike.

If you see me at WordCamp US, feel free to stop me for a chat, or just to say hello. I look forward to talking with you. After all, you make the WordPress world go round.

How to Create a Recent/Popular Posts Section with Pagination Using Twitter Bootstrap + JavaScript

Posted by | Tutorial, Twitter Bootstrap | 2 Comments

Twitter Bootstrap Pagination

Twitter Bootstrap provides a nice design base for displaying a wide range of content, and we can use its styling in a more dynamic sense with the following tutorial. We’re going to focus on using a row with spans + JavaScript to create a functional recent/popular posts snippet. The real beauty of this is that it can also easily be combined with a CMS function like WordPress’s post query.

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How to Create a WordPress Theme with Twitter Bootstrap

Posted by | Tutorial, Twitter Bootstrap, WordPress | 2 Comments

Bootstrap can be adapted towards a wide range of applications, for example, content management. WordPress’s complex but easy-to-use theme structure is a great platform for taking advantage of this. Since our primary focus will be on the versatility of Bootstrap as a framework, this tutorial may assume you’ve already some basic knowledge of theming for WordPress. Read More

How to Build a Single-Page Site with Twitter Bootstrap’s Navigation Tabs and a Fixed Sidebar

Posted by | Twitter Bootstrap | 3 Comments

Bootstrap’s tab component can be a bit tricky to set up at first, but it can ultimately prove pretty useful when building things like a multi-section form or photo group. Using this functionality, we’re going to look at how to build a single-page document with tabbed navigation and a fixed sidebar. This can be a good approach to smaller sites with minimal info, compact portfolios, or sectioned resumes. You’ll need to include bootstrap.js for this to work, so make sure jQuery is in place as well. Read More

How to Build a Modal Contact Form in Twitter Bootstrap with PHP + AJAX

Posted by | Tutorial, Twitter Bootstrap | 3 Comments

With the built-in styles provided to us by Twitter Bootstrap, designing a simple contact form becomes streamlined. When you’re looking to streamline your site even further, you might not even need a dedicated contact page if no other info would be found there. A modal box is a nice, unobtrusive alternative, and Bootstrap allows us to also create that with ease. Let’s take a look at how to put that together then add PHP & AJAX to make a no-refresh contact form come to life. Read More

How to Integrate Simple Parallax with Twitter Bootstrap

Posted by | Tutorial, Twitter Bootstrap | 15 Comments

Thanks to the flexibility of Twitter Bootstrap, you’re not in any way limited only to the framework’s default container and grid styles. It can actually be quite easy to introduce new layout options to your site without needing to worry about disrupting Bootstrap’s functionality. With this tutorial, we’ll learn how to do that by integrating a simple scrolling parallax effect to the page. Read More

How To Create Full Screen Background Images In WordPress

Posted by | Tutorial, Video, WordPress | One Comment

WordPress Background Manager

As the internet changes into a more fluid experience, with websites being accessed from tablets, smartphones, laptops, kiosks and even cars, a trend has started to emerge. In an era wherein “Intentional Layout” is dying off, designers must find new ways to provide visual interest. Commonly, this search has led to the use of images. Because, hey, images are interesting by their very nature. In this post, I will show you how to replace your current WordPress background tool with the incredible WordPress Background Manager plugin. Read More

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