April 26, 2010 7:00 PM - 117 attended
BWPM April 2010: WordPress 3.0 & How to Set up a Website and not a Blog
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center (map)
We have 2 topics this month:
The first is WordPress 3.0. The beta has been released and we've been using it for just over a week so we'll give a quick update, reactions and answer some questions before you decide to install it.
The second comes from James Mitchell: "Many people are now realizing that WP is great for designing traditional Web sites in addition to a blog. A session that simply started from scratch and showed everything that pertained to making your site look like a web site rather than a blog would be useful." We will have a roundtable discussion on what makes a WordPress site look like a website instead of a blog.
We have 2 questions for those attending when you RSVP: Are you a designer/theme developer? And would you be willing to participate in answering questions?
Thank you very much and we hope to see you all there!
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Kurt Eng
Hi Jared,
No these are 2 separate topics since 3.0 is still in beta. Eventually, you can piece to the 2 topics together to make your wicked awesome site!
Posted April 9, 2010 at 2:54 PM -
Janet Kyle
Great discussion! I also like the mix of professionals at all levels - it keeps the conversation fresh. Clearly there is a need for this meaty topic, given the number of attendees and how we never actually got to the "how-to" of setting up a traditional site with WP. People are hungry for info on WP. Would love a follow up to this with a demo on how to set up a traditional site using WordPress. Thanks for organizing this!
Posted April 28, 2010 at 12:41 PM -
Dale
I would love to think of a way we could host separate discussions for beginning and advanced Wordpress users. I come from a PHP development background and I've been using Wordpress for almost 4 years now. I love this meetup because it allows me to meet other wordpress users but many of the topics are old hat to me. Interesting advanced topics would be theme development, plugin development, advanced SEO techniques, etc.
Posted April 28, 2010 at 1:55 PM -
K. Adam White
I agree with Dale... I would love to see an advanced WordPress meetup, whether it was an informal meet & greet/knowledge share at a bar or a full-on tech talk in a lecture hall. The monthly meeting is great, but I would enjoy having a forum for more advanced discussions as well.
Posted April 28, 2010 at 2:04 PM -
Jared Williams
I also agree. I'm very interested in developing themes and plugins. I would love to see a developers meetup.
Posted April 28, 2010 at 2:25 PM -
Tyler Kemp-Benedict
There is a Boston WordPress Developers meetup listed, but it doesn't seem active. Inject dev energy there, or split it out here? I'd be interested, either way, since I'm trying to learn the WP dev end. This seems like a nice bunch of people but the topics have been diffuse.
Posted April 29, 2010 at 1:02 AM -
Paul Lyzun
After the April 26 meeting it appears there's two distinct groups within the Boston Wordpress meetup; developers and people who want to use Wordpress to create a web presence out of the box. While there's some overlap, I think both would be best served at separate events. Can this meetup group serve two constituencies, or is it likely that it will become a developer SIG.
Posted April 29, 2010 at 8:42 AM -
Christine Green
I think the split is "beginners" and "advanced" more than developers and website designers. I fall into the advanced, web designer, developer category. So I think a gathering for those who are advanced would be most helpful. :-)
Posted April 29, 2010 at 9:02 AM -
Kurt Eng
Guys, my response to Dev group is here: http://bostonwp.org/2010/04/wordpress-dev-and-toolbox-gro...
I'd like to try and keep everything centralized and please feel free to discuss.
Posted April 29, 2010 at 9:09 AM -
Paul Demers
As Tyler mentioned, there is a Wordpress Developers Meetup here: http://www.meetup.com/WordPressDevBoston/
It is a relatively new group, but it seems like there is enough interest that the organizer would be willing to set up a few more talks...
Posted April 29, 2010 at 9:10 AM -
Joel
I wonder if this needs to be a "split" or whether just making sure to have some of each end of things in a meeting would do the trick. I am interested in some non-development topics, but did join the group primarily in the hopes of finding more development/advanced information.
What if the agenda was regularly scheduled to have one beginner segment and one advanced segment at each meetup?
Posted April 29, 2010 at 11:36 AM -
Dale
@Joel The problem with hosting one event with both advanced and beginner topics is that you end up boring everyone for about half of the meeting. Attendance would suffer if you force beginners to sit through coding topics and developers to sit through how to upgrade your installation. In effect, the time spent at the meetup would be half as productive for everyone.
Posted April 29, 2010 at 11:44 AM -
Jim Spencer
@Dale, would holding the two simultaneous "breakout" meetings in two different rooms remedy that issue?
Posted April 29, 2010 at 11:52 AM -
Marta
I'd like to see a meetup as a "workshop" comprised of beginners with developers or advanced users leading groups. This could get beginners up to speed. The groups could break current themes and present new designs or themes, even with some plug-ins.
During the presentation, I thought it would have been useful to spend some time reviewing successful examples of non-blog looking sites created in WP.
Just an idea! Looking forward to another great bwp meetup.
Posted April 29, 2010 at 11:55 AM -
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Jim Spencer
@Marta Here are samples for your consideration;
http://wordpress.org/showcase/,
http://daylite.com,
http://careerencore.com,
http://divorcecollaborative.com/ and
http://thesecurepc.com/Posted April 29, 2010 at 12:05 PM -
Christine Green
@Jim I really like the idea of two simultaneous breakout sessions! Wordcamp had 4 levels and it was great to move in and out of them. Here are some WordPress websites I've designed using the Thesis framework:
http://www.christinegreen.com/
http://www.zenmasterziggy.com/
http://www.tobineckian.com/
http://www.belovedself.net/Posted April 29, 2010 at 12:43 PM -
A former member
I think "breakout sessions" would be nice as well - perhaps even stagger them so if a person wanted to go to both, they could.
I'd also mention if there was any way we could have something like this on a Saturday, it would make me mucho happy - I don't live in the Boston area, and it's quite a hike for a weeknight meeting for me (and I'd *so* love to come to one!)
Posted April 29, 2010 at 12:58 PM -
Jared Williams
For those that don't know, there is a website for this meetup, and Kurt posted an announcement about the future meetups, and what they want to try and do. You can go join and share your ideas and stuff too, it's a great site.
http://bostonwp.org/2010/04/wordpress-dev-and-toolbox-gro...
And it uses WP 3.0 with Buddypress :)
Posted April 29, 2010 at 1:12 PM
RSVPs closed
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Michael WaddellPart A -- Information on WP 3.0 was useful and participants had good suggestions. Part B - the panel discussion was poor. The moderator did not moderate well; much content was off topic; answers seemed unrelated to "How to Setup a website...". I think it missed the mark. Too bad because the topic was good -- it obviously drew a lot of people. Also, the presentations started really late. Bothersome. I suggest better overall planning and organization. Encourage speakers and audience to stick to the topic. Running a good meeting takes practice and discipline. Keep at it!
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Stephen DillGreat mix of seasoned pros with many others a little (to a LOT) farther behind in skills. Good sharing, open to any and all questions, and a very warm welcome from Microsoft.
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Kiril Stefan Alexandrovgreat leadership, great panel, great moderator, great discussions, wish it was longer than 9pm as there was so much more to discuss!
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Diane VautierHearing about the new features of 3.0 were helpful. Thank you. The 2nd topic "How to set up a website and not a blog" never really hit the topic. It was a good general discussion but I didn't feel like I learned 'how'. But as always, there were tidbits that I picked up and great people to meet and network with. I'll definitely keep coming back!
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Christine GreenGreat panel and presentation. The panelists were very knowledgeable. A lot of people seemed interested in Pagely. Pagely provides instant setup, covers all WP upgrades, daily backup, great hosting and security. However, you can have FTP access to your files, but cannot access to the CPanel. So it's limited for developers. Here's where to find them:
http://page... (this is an affiliate link - if that's not cool than you can go to http://page...)
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Cici SpauldingThere was no discussion of how to set up a web site, per se. But a lot of very good info about plug-ins, best practices, etc. Knowledgeable panel and very friendly group. Beautiful venue (Microsoft) and great networking. It would be very helpful sometime to walk through an example of how to translate an HTML site into a Wordpress template.
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SzuI think it's better to have different groups of setup. i.e. developer's meetup, small business meetup, beginner's meetup and professional's meetup...etc. So people can take whatever they need and exchange the experience with people who have the same questions/background. This will help the moderator push the agenda too.
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Margy RydzynskiVery disorganized. The presenters did not really talk about how to set up a website and not a blog. They wandered off and and talked about everything but that subject.
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Doug ArnoldGreat job, James and Kurt! The moderator idea was good; probably everyone should have had a mic or at least have had the panel do a sound check because of all the bodies in the room, the oral presentation really needed amplification all around. I understand you were limited to that small room. Where do we send a thank you for the pizza? I take nothing for granted. Also, did you advertise beforehand who was going to be sitting on the panel with a brief bio for each? Just a thought. Great job. Doug Arnold
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VanessaThe overview on WP 3.0 was great, however, the How To section was a little misleading. While the Q&A was interesting and informative, I still don't know how to set-up a WP website. A few of the comments gave some actions to take, but a list of simple steps for newbies, such as important option selections when setting up the theme would have been helpful. One extremely helpful piece of information was James Mitchell's handout.
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PeterInformative, friendly meeting. Organizers really know WP and had a great panel, PLUS free pizza!! One suggestion: Keep the meeting in Cambridge, don't move it to Waltham. You'll get more people.
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RyanGreat meetup, a little too much dept on the SEO and strayed a little from the topic, although very good event. Should plan for a live demonstration using different theme frame works, or a follow up topic.
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Anita HarrisI much appreciated the opportunity to attend and the efforts put forth by volunteers, Howsever, the first hour seemed totally disorganized; evidently we were waiting for pizza but no one told us what was happening, or what the schedule would be. Difficult to meeting people sitting down...Presentation seemed disorganized... Having used wordpress for some time, now, I understood it but with 100 people, might have helped to gauge participants sophistication level--and perhaps start the second part with rudimentary explanation of pages versus posts, what a "theme" is--and give some of the nitty gritty of the differences in using WP to build a web site vs a blog.
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