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In 2007, I was working as a project manager at an architectural firm. I found myself frequently bored at work, so I decided to blog.

After a brief stint on Blogger, I moved to WordPress.

At the time, WordPress was strictly known as a blogging platformÔÇöwhich was what I needed. Of course, times have changed, but more on that later.

I spent hours looking for a free WordPress themeÔÇöbecause thatÔÇÖs all there was in the early days. I landed on one that I felt would be a good foundation for my blog, so I installed it.

It didnÔÇÖt take more than a few minutes of perusing the code for me to realize that I was about to get my hands dirty. With the help of Google and a few other resources, I taught myself how to hack CSS and make my blog look the way I wanted.

A few months of writing about personal stuff quickly pivoted to a content strategy that centered itself around what I was learning with WordPress. It came as a bit of a surprise just how much I enjoyed tinkering with code and experimenting with CSS.

Fast forward a few more months and I had completely rebuilt the theme I had started with and made it available on my blog to download.

With the rise of traffic came activity such as comments, theme customization requests, and an increase in exposure to my personal brand.

Then it happened. A rejected freelance project turned into this:

The Original Revolution

I wonÔÇÖt get into all of the details; you can read more about the story here. The short version is that I created ÔÇ£RevolutionÔÇØÔÇöthe first theme ever to be sold, and arguably the genesis of the premium WordPress theme market.

Since then, a lot has changed.

WordPress is now the most popular online publishing platform, currently powering more than 33% of the web.

StudioPress, the artist formerly known as Revolution, merged into Copyblogger Media, and WP Engine acquired it this past year. The team moved over, as did Mike McAlister and John Parris with the acquisition of Array Themes and Atomic Blocks.

The StudioPress team is currently hitting on all cylinders, and the addition of product managers and further investment into the engineering of the product suite consisting of Genesis, themes, and plugins are at an all-time high.

I couldnÔÇÖt be any prouder, and the brand I created more than a decade ago is, without a doubt, in capable hands. (Huge props to Matt Lawrence for leading us through the transition and managing our engineering team.)

My current role with WP Engine allows me to do other thingsÔÇöthatÔÇÖs the beauty of being a contractor. I still enjoy the time I spend with the StudioPress team, mainly serving as a product and community evangelist.

I am fortunate to have the ability to do two things I love: writing and designing. My passion for creating themes still exists, and last month we proudly released Revolution Pro.

Revolution Pro, paired with our Atomic Blocks plugin and our One-Click Demo Install, delivers a more modular, easy to use, and much more straightforward setup experienceÔÇöway better than it ever has been.

The Entrepreneurial Itch

From the early days of Revolution to the current days here at StudioPress, a few things have never changed: my desire to create and my heart for building community are stronger than they have ever been

At the beginning of this year, we launched Authentik StudioÔÇöa design and development agency. We build beautiful websites for creators and small businesses, using WordPress and the Genesis Framework.

Last month we proudly launched a brand new design for Nathan Barry, founder of ConvertKit. You can see more of what we are working on by following us on Dribbble.

ItÔÇÖs fun looking back at the early days when I created the original Revolution. WordPressÔÇöand the Internet as a wholeÔÇöhas changed so much over the years, and I have loved playing a role in that.

My vision for Authentik started more than three years ago. I am excited about the plans we have for Authentik Studio and look forward to sharing more about that soon. IÔÇÖll be sharing things such as the rediscovery of my freelance roots and the experience of using tools that IÔÇÖve helped build for years.

I often ponder something that my colleague, Jason Cohen, the founder of WP Engine said, ÔÇ£There are many founding moments in the history of a company.ÔÇØ

I am 100% confident that WP Engine was the right choice to take over and lead the next season of StudioPress. I am thrilled to be a part of that, and also am thankful for the opportunity to build something new within the community that I love.

For more on Authentik, I invite you to follow our blog as I write about my journey and share lessons I have learned as a creative entrepreneur, the founder of StudioPress, and partner of a web design and development agency. If youÔÇÖd like to keep up with my journey which IÔÇÖll be chronicling on the StudioPress blog, subscribe below!

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

In 2007, I was working as a project manager at an architectural firm. I found myself frequently bored at work, so I decided to blog.

After a brief stint on Blogger, I moved to WordPress.

At the time, WordPress was strictly known as a blogging platformÔÇöwhich was what I needed. Of course, times have changed, but more on that later.

I spent hours looking for a free WordPress themeÔÇöbecause thatÔÇÖs all there was in the early days. I landed on one that I felt would be a good foundation for my blog, so I installed it.

It didnÔÇÖt take more than a few minutes of perusing the code for me to realize that I was about to get my hands dirty. With the help of Google and a few other resources, I taught myself how to hack CSS and make my blog look the way I wanted.

A few months of writing about personal stuff quickly pivoted to a content strategy that centered itself around what I was learning with WordPress. It came as a bit of a surprise just how much I enjoyed tinkering with code and experimenting with CSS.

Fast forward a few more months and I had completely rebuilt the theme I had started with and made it available on my blog to download.

With the rise of traffic came activity such as comments, theme customization requests, and an increase in exposure to my personal brand.

Then it happened. A rejected freelance project turned into this:

The Original Revolution

I wonÔÇÖt get into all of the details; you can read more about the story here. The short version is that I created ÔÇ£RevolutionÔÇØÔÇöthe first theme ever to be sold, and arguably the genesis of the premium WordPress theme market.

Since then, a lot has changed.

WordPress is now the most popular online publishing platform, currently powering more than 33% of the web.

StudioPress, the artist formerly known as Revolution, merged into Copyblogger Media, and WP Engine acquired it this past year. The team moved over, as did Mike McAlister and John Parris with the acquisition of Array Themes and Atomic Blocks.

The StudioPress team is currently hitting on all cylinders, and the addition of product managers and further investment into the engineering of the product suite consisting of Genesis, themes, and plugins are at an all-time high.

I couldnÔÇÖt be any prouder, and the brand I created more than a decade ago is, without a doubt, in capable hands. (Huge props to Matt Lawrence for leading us through the transition and managing our engineering team.)

My current role with WP Engine allows me to do other thingsÔÇöthatÔÇÖs the beauty of being a contractor. I still enjoy the time I spend with the StudioPress team, mainly serving as a product and community evangelist.

I am fortunate to have the ability to do two things I love: writing and designing. My passion for creating themes still exists, and last month we proudly released Revolution Pro.

Revolution Pro, paired with our Atomic Blocks plugin and our One-Click Demo Install, delivers a more modular, easy to use, and much more straightforward setup experienceÔÇöway better than it ever has been.

The Entrepreneurial Itch

From the early days of Revolution to the current days here at StudioPress, a few things have never changed: my desire to create and my heart for building community are stronger than they have ever been

At the beginning of this year, we launched Authentik StudioÔÇöa design and development agency. We build beautiful websites for creators and small businesses, using WordPress and the Genesis Framework.

Last month we proudly launched a brand new design for Nathan Barry, founder of ConvertKit. You can see more of what we are working on by following us on Dribbble.

ItÔÇÖs fun looking back at the early days when I created the original Revolution. WordPressÔÇöand the Internet as a wholeÔÇöhas changed so much over the years, and I have loved playing a role in that.

My vision for Authentik started more than three years ago. I am excited about the plans we have for Authentik Studio and look forward to sharing more about that soon. IÔÇÖll be sharing things such as the rediscovery of my freelance roots and the experience of using tools that IÔÇÖve helped build for years.

I often ponder something that my colleague, Jason Cohen, the founder of WP Engine said, ÔÇ£There are many founding moments in the history of a company.ÔÇØ

I am 100% confident that WP Engine was the right choice to take over and lead the next season of StudioPress. I am thrilled to be a part of that, and also am thankful for the opportunity to build something new within the community that I love.

For more on Authentik, I invite you to follow our blog as I write about my journey and share lessons I have learned as a creative entrepreneur, the founder of StudioPress, and partner of a web design and development agency. If youÔÇÖd like to keep up with my journey which IÔÇÖll be chronicling on the StudioPress blog, subscribe below!

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Work on Genesis continues! Here are some of the highlights of the 2.10 Beta. As always, you can try the beta out by installing the plugin.

Automate with New WP-CLI Commands

If you’re a developer who loves Genesis and also enjoys using WP-CLI to manage your site, things are about to get a whole lot easier.

Genesis 2.10 introduces a few key WP-CLI commands that should help you with common tasks like checking the current version of Genesis, upgrading, and managing theme settings.

For a list of new commands, see the updated documentation.

Easily Install Genesis Plugins

Chances are, you’ve probably used one of the many Genesis plugins available on WordPress.org. But the process for finding official plugins from the StudioPress team and installing them on your site has been a little difficult in the past.

In Genesis 2.10, if you look under the Genesis admin menu, you’ll see a new link, “Genesis Plugins”.

This new link will allow you to view and install, right from your dashboard, the most popular plugins StudioPress has created.

Moving to the Customizer

As we reported previously, Genesis 2.10 will begin the process of moving our settings management to the WordPress Customizer. The Genesis Settings and SEO Settings admin menu links now take you to the appropriate customizer panel, where you can manage your settings just as before.

We think this move will help make your Genesis experience more consistent with the way you’re already managing your WordPress site, as well as making the process for registering and exposing settings far more simple.

Get all the details

We keep a detailed changelog for each release. The changelog for Genesis 2.10 can be found here.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

We are proud to announce our latest theme, brought up to date for Gutenberg, Monochrome Pro.

In addition to it looking superbly minimal, it has a few features that you are going to love.

Fully Gutenberg-Optimized

Monochrome Pro is our latest theme to get the full Gutenberg treatment.

As you would expect in a post-Gutenberg release, Monochrome shows you the true theme styling within the editor, allowing you to see what you will see on the published page for real, and modifying the colour selector, and so on.

But there is more!

As with Revolution 3, your homepage is built with Gutenberg blocks. This means you can use all your favorite, feature-rich, and beautifully styled Atomic Blocks to engage and convert your visitors, such as the new pricing table or (my favorite), the Call to Action block!

5 Minute Setup

The Genesis developments have enabled a fantastic time-saving feature that is now fully implemented in Monochrome. See it in action:

Yes, now with a click you can opt to have the theme setup exactly as presented in the demo, so you can have your new theme up and running in minutes, without having to install plugins, or follow tutorials.

Installed with Monochrome are:

• Atomic Blocks
• Simple Social Icons
• Genesis eNews Extended
• WPForms Lite

Go Ahead, Check it Out!

There is a lot more to the theme than I have listed here, so go ahead and check out all the information using the buttons below:

The Monochrome Pro theme, as with all StudioPress themes, is included in all WP Engine Start-Up, Growth, Scale, Premium and Enterprise plans, and WP Engine Agency Partners also have it available for download.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

We are proud to announce our latest theme, brought up to date for Gutenberg, Monochrome Pro.

In addition to it looking superbly minimal, it has a few features that you are going to love.

Fully Gutenberg-Optimized

Monochrome Pro is our latest theme to get the full Gutenberg treatment.

As you would expect in a post-Gutenberg release, Monochrome shows you the true theme styling within the editor, allowing you to see what you will see on the published page for real, and modifying the colour selector, and so on.

But there is more!

As with Revolution 3, your homepage is built with Gutenberg blocks. This means you can use all your favorite, feature-rich, and beautifully styled Atomic Blocks to engage and convert your visitors, such as the new pricing table or (my favorite), the Call to Action block!

5 Minute Setup

The Genesis developments have enabled a fantastic time-saving feature that is now fully implemented in Monochrome. See it in action:

Yes, now with a click you can opt to have the theme setup exactly as presented in the demo, so you can have your new theme up and running in minutes, without having to install plugins, or follow tutorials.

Installed with Monochrome are:

• Atomic Blocks
• Simple Social Icons
• Genesis eNews Extended
• WPForms Lite

Go Ahead, Check it Out!

There is a lot more to the theme than I have listed here, so go ahead and check out all the information using the buttons below:

The Monochrome Pro theme, as with all StudioPress themes, is included in all WP Engine Start-Up, Growth, Scale, Premium and Enterprise plans, and WP Engine Agency Partners also have it available for download.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Are you looking for ways to attract more newsletter subscribers and email leads?

If you use Mailchimp as your email service provider, then we have just the thing for you!

In the latest release of Atomic Blocks, available today, there is a new block that allows you to embed a Mailchimp signup form, anywhere Gutenberg blocks are allowed.

This means you can embed the form, not just in your sidebar, dedicated widget areas, or footer, but right inside your content, embedded in Gutenberg optimized homepages, and on your landing pages – places where your opt-in offer is more likely to be seen.

After updating the Atomic Blocks plugin, you can find it in the Atomic Blocks elements. It is named Email Newsletter.

Of course we will be extending support to other service providers in future, Mailchimp was just the first of many to get this treatment.

Currently it allows you to connect to your Mailchimp account, select the form you wish to connect with, and then style up the form as it appears on your site.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Are you looking for ways to attract more newsletter subscribers and email leads?

If you use Mailchimp as your email service provider, then we have just the thing for you!

In the latest release of Atomic Blocks, available today, there is a new block that allows you to embed a Mailchimp signup form, anywhere Gutenberg blocks are allowed.

This means you can embed the form, not just in your sidebar, dedicated widget areas, or footer, but right inside your content, embedded in Gutenberg optimized homepages, and on your landing pages – places where your opt-in offer is more likely to be seen.

After updating the Atomic Blocks plugin, you can find it in the Atomic Blocks elements. It is named Email Newsletter.

Of course we will be extending support to other service providers in future, Mailchimp was just the first of many to get this treatment.

Currently it allows you to connect to your Mailchimp account, select the form you wish to connect with, and then style up the form as it appears on your site.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Those of you who have used or built tools for Genesis over the past 9 years know that the Genesis “theme settings” and “SEO settings” pages have been home to all the little toggles and switches that make Genesis so easy to configure for users.

But the settings page has always had one major problem ÔǪ the changes you made on these pages couldn’t be seen immediately. You’d have to save the settings, then navigate to your site to see what changed.

In Genesis 2.1 we started adding some of these settings to the WordPress Customizer, and as of Genesis 2.9, we now have pretty much all of the necessary settings for configuring your theme right in the Customizer panel, including SEO Settings.

Although the “Theme Settings” and “SEO Settings” pages have served us well for the better part of a decade, we are now beginning the process of bidding them farewell in favor of the Customizer screen and, more and more, WordPress “Blocks” for the Gutenberg editor.

Beginning in Genesis 2.10 (due out in the beginning of May), the “Theme Settings” and “SEO Settings” pages will now redirect to their replacements ÔǪ dedicated panels of settings in the Customizer.

We’re not removing the Admin API (a series of extendable classes that can be used to build settings pages), nor are we removing the Genesis admin menu item or its submenus. We’re simply changing the default behavior of some of those pages to redirect users to the customizer.

This means that if you’ve built a tool that uses hooks to add new settings to the “Theme Settings” page, you’ll need to update your tool to add those settings to the customizer as well. We’re trying to give you all plenty of notice so you have time to update your themes and plugins to be ready for Genesis 2.10. If you need assistance with this, please let me know (@nathanrice on Twitter) and I’ll point you in the right direction.

We think you’ll enjoy the instant feedback you get from using the customizer when configuring your theme, which is why we’re taking these steps to embrace the Customizer in Genesis.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

Those of you who have used or built tools for Genesis over the past 9 years know that the Genesis “theme settings” and “SEO settings” pages have been home to all the little toggles and switches that make Genesis so easy to configure for users.

But the settings page has always had one major problem ÔǪ the changes you made on these pages couldn’t be seen immediately. You’d have to save the settings, then navigate to your site to see what changed.

In Genesis 2.1 we started adding some of these settings to the WordPress Customizer, and as of Genesis 2.9, we now have pretty much all of the necessary settings for configuring your theme right in the Customizer panel, including SEO Settings.

Although the “Theme Settings” and “SEO Settings” pages have served us well for the better part of a decade, we are now beginning the process of bidding them farewell in favor of the Customizer screen and, more and more, WordPress “Blocks” for the Gutenberg editor.

Beginning in Genesis 2.10 (due out in the beginning of May), the “Theme Settings” and “SEO Settings” pages will now redirect to their replacements ÔǪ dedicated panels of settings in the Customizer.

We’re not removing the Admin API (a series of extendable classes that can be used to build settings pages), nor are we removing the Genesis admin menu item or its submenus. We’re simply changing the default behavior of some of those pages to redirect users to the customizer.

This means that if you’ve built a tool that uses hooks to add new settings to the “Theme Settings” page, you’ll need to update your tool to add those settings to the customizer as well. We’re trying to give you all plenty of notice so you have time to update your themes and plugins to be ready for Genesis 2.10. If you need assistance with this, please let me know (@nathanrice on Twitter) and I’ll point you in the right direction.

We think you’ll enjoy the instant feedback you get from using the customizer when configuring your theme, which is why we’re taking these steps to embrace the Customizer in Genesis.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.

On March 9th, we held our 3rd Genesis Shapers Slack meeting. As a reminder, These meetings are a great opportunity for folks to share their thoughts and ideas about Genesis. You can read the recaps of the January and February meetings.

The Genesis Shapers are a hand-selected and diverse group of people representing companies from across the community who have come together to be a representative voice in the strategic direction of Genesis in addition to the feedback we receive directly from customers, across social channels, and through Genesis WP on Slack.

Included in this group are:

Bill Erickson, Carrie Dils, Gary Jones, Greg Boser, Jennifer Bourn, Jon Brown, Jonathan Jeter, Lauren Gaige, Lee Anthony, Mike Hemberger, Robin Cornett, Sara Dunn, Sridhar Katakam, and Tonya Mork.

In the Shapers meeting earlier this month, we discussed some technical elements of Genesis, from local dev environments to regression testing to code snippets.

David Vogelpohl, the Vice President of Web Strategy at WP Engine and StudioPress brand lead, facilitated the conversation, and here was the meeting agenda:

• What local development environments do you think most Genesis developers use (if at all) and why?
• What role do you see regression testing playing in the Genesis context? What tests or testing approaches should people be using?
• Do you think learning advanced dev techniques like WP EngineÔÇÖs LocalDev & regression testing will actually help Genesis developers in ways that help them grow?
• What Genesis Code Snippet libraries are the most useful? StudioPressÔÇÖ snippets? Genesis.community snippets? Other?
• Do you think it would be valuable to let people contribute snippets to a public repo which is curated and available for all to use?

Local Development Environments

David Vogelpohl kicked off the meeting by asking the Shapers what development environments they use. Mike Hemberger jumped right in:

ÔÇ£In just this Slack group we have Valet, Valet+, Lando, Local by Flywheel, DesktopServer, MAMP, and probably more.ÔÇØ

Jon Brown echoed what Mike said, with a few additions:

ÔÇ£Local by Flywheel and Desktop Server.  IÔÇÖd be willing to bet more than 95% of genesis devs use one of those two.  A few percent use MAMP and the rest a various collection of things from VVV to Valet to Lando to Chasis to whatever.ÔÇØ

Personally, I use MAMP, but as Jon pointed out, I am probably in the minority. I donÔÇÖt do local development often since IÔÇÖm typically not working without WIFI connection or on sites that canÔÇÖt be live.

Representing DesktopServer was Lauren Gaige and Laragon was Robin Cornett.

Carrie Dils mentioned this, which also brought about its own thread of back and forths:

ÔÇ£IÔÇÖd suspect most are using a GUI dev environment like DesktopServer or Local.ÔÇØ

David followed up by asking:

ÔÇ£Why do you all think devs are making those choices? Anything specifically beneficial to Genesis developers as a group (e.g. Carrie’s points on GUI)?ÔÇØ

Tonya Mork explained why she uses local dev:

ÔÇ£Why?  Because it lets you quickly spin up and gets out of your way.  You can then focus all of your energies on developing instead of messing around with tooling.ÔÇØ

Tonya went on to say:

ÔÇ£What I prefer about Local vs. DS is I can quickly switch the environment through the GUI for each site.  A couple of clicks and I can change it from PHP 5.3 to 5.6 to 7.2. That helps me to run the tests and ensure compatibility locally with different environments.ÔÇØ

Before we moved on to the next topic, John Parris from our team said:

ÔÇ£I use Local too. Quick PHP/MySQL version changes is very handy. Site cloning. Blueprints. ngrok integration. Auto-populating creds for Sequel Pro. Mailhog. Easy SSL cert trusting. It basically does everything I need in my day to day work.ÔÇØ

From the conversation we had around local development environments, itÔÇÖs clear to me that developers do in fact rely on them. Of course, like any software, a variety of sources is well represented, and more than like different folks use different tools for different reasons.

Regression Testing with Genesis

David moved us to the next topic by asking:

ÔÇ£What role do you see regression testing playing in the Genesis context? What tests or testing approaches should people be using?ÔÇØ

I stood as a bystander in this conversation because I donÔÇÖt fully understand what (and how) regression testing works, but the conversation was definitely interesting.

For those like me who needed an explanation, Carrie provided us a link. (Grins.)

Jon offered his opinion on the matter:

ÔÇ£Sounds fancy but weÔÇÖve never found automated/unit/regression testing of themes to be practical.ÔÇØ

To which Nathan Rice brought up the concept of ÔÇ£lintingÔÇØ and ÔÇ£code standardsÔÇØ:

ÔÇ£Linting … making sure that your code isn’t broken syntactically. Code standards … making sure the code adheres to the WP standards. it absolutely can. if a test that was previously passing suddenly fails, it’s (at the very least) a red flag.ÔÇØ

And I love what Bill Erickson added here:

ÔÇ£WPEngines checks when you `git push` have saved me a few times.ÔÇØ

There wasnÔÇÖt a whole lot more to the discussion around regression testing, which paved the way to the bigger topic at hand.

Genesis Code Snippet Libraries

Ok, time for the can of worms. David led this part of the meeting with this:

ÔÇ£What Genesis Code Snippet libraries are the most useful? StudioPressÔÇÖ snippets? Genesis.community snippets? Other?ÔÇØ

This was easily the bulk of our meeting, as I suspected it would be. As the provider of many Genesis Code Snippets, I was very interested to hear what the Shapers thought about the topic.

Lauren shared her process, which I think many folks in the Genesis community would concur:

ÔÇ£I generally start at SridharÔÇÖs site and if I canÔÇÖt find it there I Google.ÔÇØ

Jason Cohen, CTO of WP Engine said it best:

ÔÇ£SridharÔÇöthe new home page on the Internet.ÔÇØ

Sara Dunn quickly chimed in:

ÔÇ£I literally will not go to someoneÔÇÖs snippets and look through them to find what I want.  I think many people just Google. I want tutorials, not snippets.ÔÇØ

Most of the snippets I publish for others to use are short, very basic ones. What Sara is suggesting is that contextÔÇöor specific use caseÔÇöof code snippets is far more valuable.

Jon echoed that as well:

ÔÇ£I value ÔÇÿblog posts with snippetsÔÇÖ far more than ÔÇÿsnippetÔÇÖ out of contextÔǪ that said IÔÇÖve been known to troll through BillÔÇÖs gists and find gold on occasion.ÔÇØ

I think that snippets within tutorials are more prime for a less experienced user, and normal code snippets (without context) are for someone who knows they want to do something just need to remember how to do it.

Tonya added:

ÔÇ£I tend to get a lot of people asking me how to adapt a snippet for their specific needs. One-size-fits-all snippets donÔÇÖt fit all use cases. Tutorials help when thereÔÇÖs an explanation of why it does what it does and a customization strategy.ÔÇØ

And Robin expressed:

ÔÇ£For those of us who want to know why something works, context, comments, explanations are great–but in supporting plugins, I’m finding that people don’t really want to know why, and often aren’t willing to bang on things to tweak them.ÔÇØ

David recapped this part of the discussion:

ÔÇ£So to recap these thoughts…  Snippets are good, some collections better than others (@sridharkatakam is the best), and snippets are also a learning tool best paired with tutorials / documentation?ÔÇ£

I think he is spot on with his assessment, by the way.

The conversation around code snippets moved into the idea of repositoriesÔÇöwhere to host them, who should host them, and the importance of keeping them updated. The idea of a central repository is daunting for many reasons.

Mike pointed out the obvious:

ÔÇ£Managing would be crazy. 10 different versions of similar snippets, all with various coding standards/styles.ÔÇØ

And Carrie brought some valuable insight to the ramifications of a central repository:

ÔÇ£I do wonder, however, if a public repo like that would take away from the visibility of people like Sridhar who earn a living from their tutorials/snippets.ÔÇØ

I love her heart for the community, and this is something that I also think is true.

While I understand the need for sharing code snippets within the community, there are also a few things to consider. In addition to the code quality, they would have to be monitored/updated as new iterations of Genesis come out.

To which Robin dropped the mic with this:

ÔÇ£Especially if 3.0 changes all the things.ÔÇØ

Helping Genesis Developers Grow

David brought us home for the last portion of the meeting by asking this:

ÔÇ£Do you think learning advanced dev techniques like LocalDev & regression testing will actually help Genesis developers in ways that help them grow?ÔÇØ

Carried kicked off the responses:

ÔÇ£Grow? Sure. But the money  in streamlining processes for more effective and efficient development, which in turn increases margin on projects. My customers donÔÇÖt care how I get it done. What matters to me is how much time it takes me to deliver. The more effective and streamlined I am, the bigger my margin.ÔÇØ

Robin chimed in:

ÔÇØI think it depends on whether youÔÇÖre talking about developers who build one off sites or who are producing something for the masses. one off, not so much, I would think–a lot of times the goal is to just ship it.ÔÇØ

Bill finished up the trifecta with:

ÔÇ£None of my clients care about my dev tools. They just want a high quality product delivered quickly and affordably.ÔÇØ

In my opinion, these responses sum up what I have experienced over the years leading StudioPress: A customer wants a beautiful website, and if they hire someone to design/develop it, they worry less about the ÔÇ£how it gets doneÔÇØ and more about ÔÇ£what it looks like and how easy it is to use.ÔÇØ

And thatÔÇÖs a great spot to end the recap of the March Genesis Shapers meeting.

As IÔÇÖve said before, itÔÇÖs an exciting time to be in the WordPress space. By focusing on the development of Genesis and suite of tools that extend it further, I feel confident that our team will be able to keep pace and continue to provide the best digital experience possible for our customers.

This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.