Happy 10th Anniversary WordPress!

WordPress will be 10 years old on May 27th, 2013. Hard to believe it has been so long! Dougal Campbell had a great idea to start the WordPress 10th Anniversary Blogging Project. I have been using WordPress since v 0.71 and it is still my favorite way to build a website. What better way to celebrate than to write a WordPress post?!

When I first started using WordPress in May 2003…

  • I was 36 years old
  • I lived in Oakland, CA with my partner Karen
  • I had been building websites for 8 years
  • I was an open source PHP/MySQL software junkie
  • My business site was built using a Template Monster template with a Flash header (shhhh… don’t tell anybody) , which was soon to be replaced by Mambo
  • This website (formally called LBnuke) was built with PostNuke, a PHP/MySQL content management system that was forked from PHPNuke
  • I had played around with b2 (project that WordPress was forked from), but liked PostNuke a lot better
  • I was in love with CSS
  • I was a beginner PHP programmer
  • 90% of my client sites were static HTML/CSS/JavaScript

Since I started using WordPress…

  • I moved to Baltimore and legally married Karen
  • I have been building websites for 18 years
  • I am still in love with CSS
  • I am a much better PHP programmer
  • I do a lot of custom WordPress development
  • I went to the WordPress 1.5 Upgrade Party at Matt‘s apartment in San Francisco and he helped me fix my “theme” (aka index.php and stylesheet in root directory)
  • I have been to many WordCamps
  • I am still an open source PHP/MySQL software junkie
  • I converted my business site to WordPress in 2007
  • This website was converted to WordPress in 2006 after being inspired at the first WordCamp in San Francisco (and being jealous of how easy my clients’ sites were to manage compared to my own)
  • I have occasional flings with Drupal and have a huge crush on Laravel, but still like WordPress best for most sites
  • 90% of my client sites are built with WordPress

I am hugely thankful to Matt Mullenweg and all of the other people who have helped develop WordPress over the years, and to all of the awesome people that I have met in the WordPress community!

There will be plenty of celebrating going on all around the world. Find a celebration near you!

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