Today marks the 10 year anniversary of receiving my very first “props” for contributing to the WordPress project. In WordPress, giving “props” is the way credit and attribution is given to anyone who contributes to a given change in the software.
Props should be given to all those who contributed to the final commit, whether through patches, refreshed patches, code suggested otherwise, design, writing, user testing, or other significant investments of time and effort. Usernames are parsed for the credits list and WordPress.org profiles.
WordPress Core Handbook
I’m not exactly sure of when I became aware of the community surrounding WordPress and that contributing was even a thing, but I’m pretty sure it was somewhere around 2012. I had been using WordPress since 2007, and in 2012 I finally attended my first WordCamps: WordCamp New York City and WordCamp Boston. Later that year, I also spoke at the inaugural WordCamp Providence (now WordCamp Rhode Island) where I taught a workshop about plugin development.
In February of 2013, I created the ticket and submitted a patch that eventually became my first credited contribution to the code base.
It wasn’t much, but I was hooked. I don’t think I could have ever predicted where that would lead me. From a hobbyist contributor to being employed and sponsored full time to contribute and teach. Since that day (as of the date this was published), I’ve interacted with 3,942 tickets on Trac, received props over 1,500 more times, made 2,544 commits to WordPress, served in many capacities, and made countless friends.
Speaker, Core Developer, Table Lead, Release Lead, Release Coordinator, Core Committer, Core Tech Lead, Component Maintainer, Mentor, Security Team member, Triage Team Lead. To me, these are just words. What I value so much more are the friendships, experiences, and learning opportunities that the journey has offered me.
As I thought about what to write in this post, I kept circling back to what I had said about the project’s 20th anniversary this past May. I think the sentiments in the video below are very relevant to this occasion as well.
I hope that I’ve had a positive impact on some of you and your experiences, because I know that so many of you have had that impact on me. ❤️
Here’s to many more years of contributing! 🍻
It was really fun taking a trip down memory lane and looking through photos that I had handy. There were many more occasions that came to mind where I realized I didn’t have a photo. If you have any photos from times we’ve crossed paths or any fond memories from working together, please share them in the comments!
Featured image credit: Jason Dent on Unsplash