OKC WordPress User’s Group Meeting Notes: August 2011

By Wesley Fryer On August 29, 2011 · · 1 Comment

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These are my notes from the August 29, 2011, OKC WordPress meetup. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

The div (thediv.org) is a nonprofit foundation created by iThemes to help train a local workforce in Edmond, OKlahoma for web development
- this space is available for meet ups in tech
- want to promote web-tech creativity and innovation
- grand opening was just last week
- Ruby on Rails group is meeting here next week
- this is a free, community-based space

Thursday is a co-working day: come in and co-work
- formula is simple: put good geeks in a room together and cool stuff is bound to bubble up

MY COMMENT: THIS IS VERY INTERESTING AND EXCITING. REMINDS ME OF THE “The Oklahoma City Coworking Collaborative” BUT THE DIV IS COMMERCIALLY SPONSORED AND NOT AS FOCUSED ON CO-WORKING. GOAL OF FOSTERING A SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITY OF GEEKS / CODERS IS SIMILAR. GREAT TO SEE THIS IN OKC METRO AREA!

Some websites of attendees at tonight’s meet up (about 40 people here in all!)
- m1k3.net (website of Michael Dick, who among other projects designed the mobile website for Mashable.com – WOW!
- www.thefringepodcast.com
- www.jnzradio.com

1st topic tonight: iThemes Builder

presentation by Chris Jean, who has worked for iThemes for 3 years

Video overview

iThemes Builder from WebDesign.com on Vimeo.

Builder was developed because of customer requests to make tweaks/changes and especially specific requests for customizations in WordPress
- our initial effort was Flex to let people control more options/customizations
- Builder uses layouts

It’s hard to make a Buddypress compatible theme, so at this point Builder is not Buddypress-compatible

MY COMMENT: IT’S GREAT TO HAVE THE EXPERTISE OF THE iTHEMES GUYS LIKE CHRIS HERE. IT HAS FELT AT LEAST A FEW TIMES IN THE PAST (AND TONIGHT) LIKE THIS WORDPRESS MEETUP IS MORE OF A MARKETING OPPORTUNITY FOR iTHEMES THAN AN OPPORTUNITY FOR WORDPRESS USERS TO SHOW STUFF TO EACH OTHER…

Anyone who has attended a WordPress OKC meet up in the past should fill out our member survey, created by Lynn with Gravity Forms

Topic 2: Now hearing an overview of Backup Buddy
- lets you backup your WordPress installation to various spots in the cloud, including AmazonS3, DropBox, etc.

Video overview of BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy from WebDesign.com on Vimeo.

BackupBuddy includes a malware scan – SWEET!

Avoid free themes & plugins 4 #wordpress from hedgy / suspicious looking sites, malware is also distributed via downloads #wordpressOKC #fb

Many #wordpress malware instances come from PCs that have malware, when people use FTP, it injects malware into a theme

MY COMMENT: I’VE HEARD ABOUT BACKUPBUDDY MULTIPLE TIMES, SEEN IT DEMOED… I REALLY NEED TO BUY IT AND USE IT.

Topic #3 is Loop Buddy

but first: quick demo of WP Ajax Edit Comments (Users can edit their own comments for a limited time, while admins can edit all comments)

Loop Buddy: “With LoopBuddy, you can modify the behavior and appearance of this Loop without touching a single line of code.”

MY COMMENT: UNFORTUNATELY I HAVE TO BAIL OUT A BIT EARLY TO PICK UP AT SCOUTS. GREAT MEETUP TONIGHT, I DEFINITELY NEED TO PAY AND USE BACKUPBUDDY! I’M EYEING THE DEVELOPER SUITE…

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, meetup, notes, okc, wordpress, wordpressokc

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