Bernhard Kau is a PHP developer, living in Berlin, working in the beautiful Babelsberg and he is a passionate WordPress user. Bernhard codes plugins as a hobby and organize WordPress events, like the Meetup in Berlin.
It’s my pleasure to extend you a cheerful welcome to WordCamp Zagreb. You come from the city that has more museums than rainy days per year, a city in which, whatever the reason, every hour 18 people move from one district of the city to another and unofficially, Europe’s No. 1 tech hub – Berlin. Can you tell us more about yourself? Was it hard for you to build your name in WordPress community Berlin?
Berlin is really a very interesting city. My first visit was in 1993, but it took me until 2007, to live in the city while doing a practical semester in my bachelor in computer science. At this occasion, I fell in love with the city and after I had to leave it for one last theoretical semester, I finally moved to Berlin in 2008. Only a year later, I discovered WordPress, when I had to write a plugin, as one of my colleagues wanted to use it and needed a specific functionality.
In 2010 I visited my first WordCamp in Berlin and in 2011, after the WordCamp in Cologne, the first German meetups were founded. One of the very first ones was organized in Potsdam, the city next to Berlin, where I also work since two years. In 2012 the former organizers of the German WordCamps stepped back, so we as the Potsdam meetup group took over and organized two camps in a row. The name had to be different at that time, but that’s another long story 😉 So this is how I entered the community and dozens of WordCamps later I am no longer an anonymous user of the community. My blog and the newly started podcast are probably also things helping to be visible.
You’ve been writing your blog for successful 8 years and you’ve also coded more than 10 plugins. Sometimes, plugin authors can be slow about releasing a patched version of the plugins. As a plugin author, what’s your opinion about fixing other authors plugin issues on your own? Can it be a little bit dangerous for the community (other users who experience that issue)?
I have to admit, that I am also quite bad at keeping my plugins up to date. Many of them don’t really need changes, as they are quite small and don’t need regular updates. But at least you should test it with the newest versions of WordPress. Although, whenever I receive a bug report I can easily patch, I try to release a new version right away. Changing the code of a plugin yourself is a no go for me. With the hook system of WordPress, it is almost always possible, to fix a plugin without touching its code.
I’ve had a talk on that topic at WordCamp Torino last year called “Child Plugins”. Many developers are too quick in just fixing the code themselves. My advice would be to always try to ask the develop to fix the code. Opening a pull request on GitHub, if the plugin is there, or sending a patch file by mail, greatly decreases the time to a new release.
What have you learned as an active member of the WP Meetup Berlin, WP Meetup Potsdam and the organization team member of the WP Camp Berlin? Do you have any advice for our own community in Croatia?
Just start it! Especially with meetups, it’s easier than it might seem. The hardest part is finding a venue for a first meetup. But once set up, try to get the word spread by members of the community. And apply for the WordPress Foundation Meetup.com account with your local meetup.
They will not only cover the costs of the meetup account, but your meetup will also appear in the new dashboard widget introduced with WordPress 4.8! And for WordCamps, you could start easy and begin as a volunteer. This could be on a WordCamp in another country as well 😉 I first volunteered at WordCamp Europe 2016 in Vienna, after being an organizer for 4 camps.
How the need for developing a new default WordCamp theme appeared? Which shortcomings and omissions the last theme had?
Good question. The last theme was about 4 years old and had a very old code base. Especially in terms of accessibility, it had some serious issues. With WordCamp Europe becoming bigger and bigger, we so had some additional requirements to a new theme. One of the biggest improvements we made was the “day of” template, were organizers can now set up a page for the days of the WordCamps, with all the useful information for that day. This could be the schedule, a map of the venue, the social media steam and other news.
Did you get your ticket?
If you haven’t already, get your ticket for WordCamp Zagreb today. Tickets are priced at 20€ (around 150 HRK) which will give you entrance to the conference, (first) access to workshops on Friday and to Contributor day on Sunday. You will also get the drinks, lunch, incredible t-shirt and other cool swag from our sponsors.