{"id":2200,"date":"2013-01-25T10:05:38","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T16:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/?p=2200"},"modified":"2024-06-06T08:48:53","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T13:48:53","slug":"steve-bruner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/resources\/steve-bruner\/","title":{"rendered":"Finely Tuned Consultant – Steve Bruner"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Steve<\/a>This week, we’re going to hang out with Steve Bruner for a bit. Steve is one of the WordPress Meetup NYC organizers, and he and I connected last year when I was doing some research to learn more about the “related posts” plugin he works on, nrelate<\/a>. Those of you who build WordPress to scale regularly will know the trouble that sites can have with an unscalable related posts plugin<\/a>. Steve is part of the team that built nrelate to product quality related posts results, but without requiring on-server processing, and a database overstuffed like foie gras.<\/p>\n

Steve’s company, SlipFire<\/a>, does development for WordPress, BuddyPress, Shopify, and on.  He’s a guy who knows scalability, and can build a complicated plugin for you. His latest plugin project, Piklist, allows for rapid development of a WordPress site.<\/p>\n

In Steves’ own words:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I run SlipFire LLC<\/a>., a WordPress development shop, organize the WordPress NYC meetup<\/a> and have co-organized WordCamp NYC since 2009. The Piklist plugin<\/a>  is my new pet project and it\u2019s seriously awesome.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And now onto Steve’s answers!<\/strong><\/p>\n

When was the first time that you really got excited about WordPress and at what point did you decide to make it your career? <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Back in early 2006 I really wanted to blog\u2026 just to document my thoughts and share my [many] opinions with the world. A friend of mine introduced me to WordPress and I fell in love.  Instead of using WP.com, I decided to self host and had a ton of fun.  Pretty sure I used Brian Gardner\u2019s Blue Zinfandel theme as a base.  A few friends and business associates saw my site and asked me to build them sites as well.  The next thing I knew I had a business. That was exciting – a business being built on WordPress.<\/p>\n

\n

Where do you go first to get your WP news, insights, and updates?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

FlipBoard baby!  I love FlipBoard.  It curates my Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and RSS Feeds for me, and magically shows me the important stuff.  I really count on my social network to let me know what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

\n

What WP consultants deserve more love than they get? Who should we be paying attention to?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Kevin Miller<\/a>. If you\u2019ve never heard of him, you will. The dude\u2019s a poet\u2026 sometimes I tear up when I read his code (I\u2019m a pretty sensitive guy). Kevin is my partner on Piklist, and if you check out the code base you will see what I mean\u2026 it\u2019s beautiful.<\/p>\n

\n

What performance tips would you give to other pros (as related to speed, scalability, security, plugins, backup, etc.)?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Rule no 1:<\/strong> Back up often and remember where you keep your backups.<\/p>\n

Rule no 2:<\/strong> Don\u2019t forget rule no 1.<\/p>\n

Backing up is mandatory\u2026 but remembering where your backups are is imperative. Seriously, we once set up backups for a client and they changed the location of the files.  When the site went down it took them over a day to find out where they were.  But we were able to restore the site beautifully.<\/p>\n

\n

Confess to us your biggest moment of WP fail?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I spelled WordPress with a lowercase \u201cp\u201d in an email. (Ed: Zing!)<\/em><\/p>\n

Actually, this one might be bigger.  When I first started SlipFire, the good hosting options for WordPress were limited, so I started to host my clients on my own server. Before I knew it I had a small hosting company.  Cool.  Someone else paying my server costs and a few extra bucks on the side, nice!  This got a little crazy since I was running multiple versions of WP Single Site\u2026 not multisite.  I don\u2019t even think I knew multisite existed back then.<\/p>\n

Then one Sunday during Memorial Day weekend my phone rang\u2026 and rang\u2026 and rang. And the buzz of a txt message\u2026 and then another buzz\u2026 and another. My server was hacked and my clients\u2019 sites, well\u2026 didn\u2019t look like my clients\u2019 sites.  Not a good day.<\/p>\n

I believe I missed an update with one of the single sites\u2026 never again.  I never miss an update.<\/p>\n

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If you were going to spend this weekend creating a plugin that doesn’t exist, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A Contact Manager. A super awesome, fully extendable, 100% customizable, powerful contact manager. [NOTE: We\u2019re actually building this with Piklist and will release it shortly]<\/p>\n

\n

 Do you use Themes & Child Themes, Roll your own, or both?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I\u2019ve actually been starting fewer theme projects lately \u2013 mostly taking over development work on existing sites or doing more plugin work. Last year I used child themes exclusively, mostly Genesis. However, starter themes look very interesting, especially \u201cunderscores\u201d. A few months ago we had Allan Cole present at the meetup<\/a> and he convinced me starter themes are the way to go. Either way I will usually look for a base theme to start a project; I almost never start from scratch.<\/p>\n

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What’s your favorite theme or theme framework? Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I don\u2019t really have a favorite theme framework. However, I have a favorite WordPress framework: Piklist. It\u2019s the first plugin I install on every project since it makes EVERYTHING so much easier and I can develop faster.  It also adds enhanced features to CPT\u2019s, Taxonomies, Meta, Settings and more. [Full Disclosure: In case you skipped over the beginning of this post, I developed Piklist with my partner Kevin Miller]<\/p>\n

Favorite plugin?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hmmm\u2026 that\u2019s a tough one. Piklist.<\/p>\n

Least favorite plugin?<\/strong><\/p>\n

YARPP. I like Mitcho, I really do. But I\u2019ve had so many problems with YARPP not scaling well.  Now, just to be fair, I haven\u2019t used YARPP in a few years, so maybe it\u2019s faster. But it used to kill me.  Instead, I always used nRelate<\/a>, a hosted related posts plugin. [More Disclosure: My company, SlipFire, built the nRelate plugins and was a partner\u2026 but it was because I needed a solution to YARPP! )<\/p>\n

\n

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done with Custom Post Types?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Develop a framework that enhances the standard WordPress CPT\u2019s, and is so easy to use my mother can develop with it. Alright, maybe not my mother, but Piklist really is simple.<\/p>\n

\n

What do you think is the biggest challenge that WP consultants will face in 2013?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This is probably more about \u201cWordPress\u201d challenges, instead of \u201cConsultant\u201d challenges, but I still hear talk about sites \u201clooking WordPressy\u201d, or \u201cCan WordPress do this?\u201d and \u201cIsn\u2019t WordPress just for blogs\u201d? WordPress is headed in the right direction, but I still hear this.<\/p>\n

\n

If you could change one thing today about WP, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The admin. Alex King mentioned this<\/a> in his Finely Tuned interview. The WordPress admin needs to be as flexible as a theme, and right now it\u2019s not. Too much code is hard-coded, and there are not enough hooks or filters. Take Post Statuses for instance. Much of WordPress relies on the \u201cdraft\u201d status.  If you\u2019re going to use WordPress as a true CMS, then \u201cdraft\u201d isn\u2019t always relevant.<\/p>\n

\n

Where do you see WordPress going in the next 2-3 years?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

We will see more Web APPS not just Web SITES.<\/p>\n

\n

 Tell us a story where you saved the WP day for yourself or on a client project.  What made the difference for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A business associate asked me to speak to a friend of his who was running what should have been a very popular pop-culture site in WordPress. One major problem was the site took forever to load\u2026 at least a full minute. And there were so many other problems, I don\u2019t remember them all. The client really hated WordPress after this experience, seriously thought it was the biggest piece of (EXPLETIVE DELETED). (NB: That’s Steve’s response, not editing.)<\/em> After talking to him and showing him both my work and the community\u2019s work, I convinced him I could create a site he would love. He gave me a shot and not only did he end up with a killer site, but he totally loves WordPress. And his site loads fast!<\/p>\n

\n

What’s the biggest misconception you encounter about WordPress, and how do you clear it up for your clients?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You can\u2019t do that with WordPress… so I do it.<\/p>\n

\n

If you were interviewing another WordPress developer for a job, what is the first question you would ask and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What did you think about my interview on WP Engine? \u2026and show me some code.<\/p>\n

\n

What did I miss?  Here’s your chance to fill in the blanks and add something you want people to know about you!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If you\u2019re ever in New York City on the third Tuesday of the month, please stop by the WordPress NYC Meetup<\/a>.  Every month\u2026 third Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Thanks Steve!<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you all need a baller plugin built, I highly recommend trekking over to SlipFire.com<\/a> to see the Plugins, and all the other awesome stuff, that Steve has built!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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