I was struck by his insight into how blogging has transformed from its early days when blogging was about being part of a conversation, and bloggers would write on their blogs to be part of that conversation. Now, there is less conversation and more chit-chat, less substance, more small talk. I feel that there must still be interesting conversations around, but there is so much chit-chat that they are hard to find. After all, when you’re in a huge room and everyone is talking, it’s hard to know which conversation is the one to get involved with.

Chit-chat is hyper-accentuated by social media. Many of the conversations that used to happen on blogs now happen in the quick back-and-forth of Twitter and Facebook. I hate getting into debates, arguments, or discussions about anything serious on Twitter. It always feels pointless – 140 characters is too short to have a real conversation. Everything has got to be short and pithy; in the crafting of 140 characters  meaning is inevitably lost. Comment sections on blogs can get heated, for sure, but there feels less pressure to respond immediately. A comments box provides space for reflection and review that feels absent on social media.

Our conversation made me think this evening about my own (first) blog. I started a blog in 2003 and was active on it until 2007. I was studying philosophy at the time and there was a core group of UK philosophy bloggers. When I think about it, the posts that I wrote were often in response to other people. It felt easier then to enter into a conversation. I don’t know if it’s because I’m older, or because the rules of the game have changes, but every time I’ve tried to get back into blogging I’ve found it difficult to maintain. Maybe I’ve not found a conversation that I want to get involved in. Maybe I’m less interested in talking.

It can’t all be bad, though. I asked Om how we can resist the chit-chat, how we can be part of a conversation. His advice: listen more. I’d say that’s pretty good advice whether you’re blogging or just a person who has to live in a world with other people.

Like most faddish diets, the paleo seems to work. And it seems to make sense – eat no processed food and cook everything yourself.  For me, it has the added bonus of being a meat-based diet. As a voracious meat eater, this makes it a great option.

It’s been going well but there have been a few stumbling blocks:

1) The paleo diet could be renamed “shop like a well-off-middle-class-person-at-an-overpriced-farmer’s-market”. Everything is supposed to be grain fed and organic and blah blah blah. Basically, spend more of your money. When I’m shopping I feel like I’m being scammed. So I tend to not stick to the grain-fed, organic food.

2) I’m having problems with breakfast. If anyone has any suggestions for breakfast I would love to hear them. One proviso: I don’t eat fruit. I never have – I hate it. This reduces breakfast to bacon and eggs, boiled eggs with asparagus, and omelettes. I also made some paleo breakfast bars, but they’re a bit dry. I missing eating a quick bowl of Weetabix in ten seconds and getting on with my day.

Apart from that, I’ve been enjoying eating paleo. I love to cook and having certain restrictions means that I am forced to think about what I eat and to plan my meals.

Here are some of the things I’ve been making:

• Steak Tartare (3 times!)
• Courgette and leek soup
• Smoked duck, roast beetroot, walnut, and ricotta salad
• Trout with Mediterranean roast veg
• Aubergine Caviar
• Roast chicken with vegetables
• Globe artichoke with paleo mayo
• Home-made trail mix

If you eat paleo and you have any staples I’d love to hear about them. I’m looking for things that I can add to my growing cave woman repertoire.

Note: I’m keeping the comments closed because I don’t want to get into a debate. I just wanted to share.

When did you first start working with WordPress?

I first started tinkering with WordPress back in 2008 – just building websites; I guess the same way that most people get into it.

How did you become involved in the WordPress community?

My first foray into the WordPress Community was right here, on wpmu.org. I was doing freelance writing and James was looking for someone to blog about WordPress. I figured that I know about WordPress and I’m a good writer, so I applied and he took me on. Last year while running Words for WP I became much more actively involved with the documentation project, which escalated even more quickly after attending the WordPress community summit in October.

You’ve been involved in WordCamps and written about your experiences. What prompted you to present at one of these events for the first time?

I like speaking publicly, so I guess that’s the primary reason. It’s fun to get up in front of people and share your experiences with them. Also, WordCamps are a very friendly platform for public speaking. I’ve spoken in the past at academic conferences and find them to be much more combative. A WordCamp is filled with people who want to listen and learn. It’s a great place to speak.

In a recent post Matt Mullenweg wrote about how difficult it is to get women to present at WordCamps [Note from S: this was a collection of notes taken by Matt at the WordPress Community summit. He didn't necessarily say it - someone at the table did though]. I went to an International Women’s Day event recently where one of the speakers talked about problems the Wheeler Centre — a Melbourne writing centre — has trying to get women to speak on panels. Whenever the organisers ask women if they’re interested the response is usually along the lines of, “I don’t have a PhD on that topic so I don’t feel comfortable speaking”, whereas men will say, “Yeah, I know a bit about it, sign me up”. Do you think this happens at WordCamps?

This is a difficult one, and I guess without a study done it’d be difficult to get a definitive answer relating specifically to WordCamps. I believe that there is a general feeling that it is more difficult to get women to speak for precisely that reason. It’s certainly something that I think about when I’m putting together a presentation – do I really know enough to be able to present on this as an authority? But for me that’s usually solved with research – if I don’t know enough I find out what I need.

I hope that by telling people that WordCamps really are friendly spaces to present, that word will get out and more people, whether they be women or men who simply lack confidence, are encouraged to speak.

* Has your gender ever been an issue with your work? Have there been any instances where you’ve experienced discrimination?

In WordPress, I have never felt discriminated against on the basis of my gender. It’s just never been an issue. I don’t feel that it’s held me back or caused me any problems. I wouldn’t say that I’m “one of the guys” but I’d definitely say that I’m one of a diverse group of people. If anything, any discrimination I’ve felt is because I’m not a developer, not because I’m not a man. One developer thought it was ridiculous that I attend a hack day after a WordCamp. Another developer assumed that I didn’t know what HTML was. The assumption is that as a writer I don’t know what code is and have no business being around it. This is the exception though, not the norm.

While I’ve never been discriminated against in the tech industry, I can think of one occasion in which I’ve felt excluded because of my gender. This will probably chime with many women – I was at a tech conference (not a WordCamp) and we were having a great time in the bar. We all get chucked out, and a few of the guys suggest going to a strip club. As one of the few women there I was shocked. Okay, we were all hanging out as friends, but this was a professional event. I called them out on it and they were totally blank-faced, like they didn’t get it.

That left me with two choices – go to a club with a bunch of guys that I didn’t know to watch women take their clothes off, or leave. Being around guys staring at bodies that look like my own doesn’t really do it for me, so I took the second option. I think what bothered me the most was that these guys didn’t see what the problem was. Their actions totally excluded me. Just because someone doesn’t say “you can’t be part of this” doesn’t mean that you’re not excluded. Of course, there are a multitude of men who would feel similarly excluded, because not every guy likes a strip club. They’d probably feel that they couldn’t get out of it though.

So long as this sort of implicit exclusion of women continues, explicit exclusion of men in the form of workshops for women in the tech industry are necessary. I’d love to be in a world where we can get rid of both.

* Have you ever felt like you’ve had to prove yourself more than men who also work with WordPress? For example, some women working in tech have commented that they feel like they have to work twice as hard to gain the same level of respect.

I work really hard anyway: that’s not because I feel like I need to prove myself, but more because when I commit to something I feel a sense of urgency about seeing it through. I hate to start something and not finish it – and since I commit to a lot I end up working all of the time.

I’ve never felt in competition with anyone – that’s probably because what I do is very specific. There aren’t many people who write content solely about WordPress. The great thing about having your own niche is that you get to compete with yourself on your own terms.

For other people, I’m sure it’s different. Maybe if I was a developer I would feel that I need to compete more, I really couldn’t say. We live in a complex world with lots of different personalities and opinions. There are many more prominent men than women in WordPress, and the wider tech community is even worse. This could be discouraging to young women who don’t see a place for themselves within that structure. However, the growing number of women who are prominent within the WordPress community, (due to their skills and expertise, not due to their gender), provide excellent role models. Their very presence shows what is possible, and makes it easier for women who are starting out to see themselves inhabiting that role.

* What kind of support have you received from other women in the WordPress community? Have you been to any women in WordPress meetups?

I haven’t been to any women in WordPress meetups, but I would if I was invited to one. I think they’re a great initiative. If you feel that gender isn’t (or shouldn’t be) an issue in your locale or community, take a look beyond your own borders. It’s easy for people to forget that the WordPress community is global, and what happens ripples out across the world. WordPress.org is at the heart of that global community, and holding workshops for women sends signals that WordPress is a welcoming community to women in countries where they are actively discriminated against, and even persecuted. That can only be a good thing.

I’ve found the women that I’ve encountered are very supportive. There are many women that I admire in the WordPress community. Many of us have quite differing perspectives on this and other issues, but this doesn’t prevent us from getting along, working together, and having fun.

Do you think women really are downplaying themselves and aren’t promoting the great work that they do achieve?

Possibly. I don’t personally do that. I’m good at what I do and I’m not afraid of saying it. I also know my limits, know when to ask questions, and know who to ask – I think that’s a big part of being good at what you do. Sticking within the bubble of your own knowledge gets you nowhere.

However, I do know talented women who are fantastic at what they do and don’t put themselves forward. Perhaps they don’t know how to slot themselves into a male-dominated framework, or perhaps they don’t believe in themselves. That said, I know men who are exactly the same, who lack confidence and who don’t realise how amazing they are. So this really goes both ways.

* You’ve had fantastic success running Words for WP, writing for Smashing Magazine and now your role at Audrey Capital, along with all the other work that you do. Has gender ever been a barrier along the way or is it just not an issue at all?

Honestly, I can say that it hasn’t been an issue. Or, if it has, I was never made aware of it.

* What advice would you give to women who are only now joining the WordPress community? How should be get involved?

I’d give them the same advice that I’d give anyone. Read about the community, follow the make.wordpress.org blogs, and see where you can find a home in the community. Take the time to learn about the community before just rushing in. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming, but coming in with the grand idea getting rid of the Codex and rebuilding docs in your own proprietary system (true story) is not going to do you any favours. Figure out the best way in and follow that path.

If you do want to get involved and you lack confidence, whether you’re a women or a man, reach out to someone in the community to see how they can help. I’m happy to help people out, and there are others like Andrea Rennick and Mika Epstein who have been very supportive of me and who I’d recommend wholeheartedly as helpful and empathetic people. You can also try the #wordpress-contribute chat room on irc.freenode.net where there are sometimes people available to point you in the right direction.

What I will be looking at is the history of the GPL, what it is, what it means for WordPress, and how it became part of the project. There are some fun factoids from WordPress’s history that I plan to share. My research into this side of WordPress is by no means complete, but there’s still some cool stuff that I hope people will find interesting.

Today I did an interview with Mike about the early days of WordPress and I asked him about the Cease and Desist. He pointed out that 10 years on and LinksManager.com not only runs its website on WordPress, but has a WordPress plugin

What About Words for WP?

The hardest part about all of this is giving up working with my clients at Words for WP. I’ve really enjoyed it over the past 18 months – I’ve had the chance to work with fantastic clients across the WordPress community, all of whom I’ve learned a great deal from. When Matt asked me about working at Audrey, it really was a difficult decision – I had pretty much decided that the only person I’d ever work for again was me.

However, some offers are hard to refuse, and instead of spending time improving documentation and content for individual WordPress businesses and developers, I’ve got the opportunity to improve documentation and content for every WordPress user and developer, no matter whose product they’re buying. So whatever I’m losing in the autonomy of being my own boss, I’m making up for tenfold in impact.

This means that Words for WP, in its current form anyway, is on extended hiatus. It was, and is, a great idea, and something quite needed in the WP community (not to mention lucrative ), but my new role is, I think, more important.

I will be keeping up writing and editing for Smashing Magazine in my spare time, so don’t expect to see me disappear from there.

Working at Audrey

As Matt told me (like he told Nacin two years ago), it’ll be quite difficult to tell people what the company I work for does: My mum was certainly confused – “you’re being paid by a company to do that thing that you used to not get paid for?” However, there are two clearly defined things that I’ll be doing – one which will surprise no one, the other might do.

WordPress Documentation

It’s no surprise to anyone that one of my focuses is going to be working on WordPress documentation. This will be in terms of planning and managing documentation projects, writing documentation, and generally doing any content-related stuff as needed. Since the summit, I’ve been juggling my time between clients and working on docs – certainly work on the handbooks is not moving along as quickly as I would have liked, so I’ll now be able to dedicate the time that it needs. There are some other plans that have been floating around that I’ll be able to pursue more fully:

• Better code reference for WordPress – developer docs inspired by queryposts.com and built on a parser developed by Ryan McCue and Jon Cave
• Review of the WordPress Codex
• Developing a documentation tracking system
• Research into other FLOSS docs projects to see what we can learn about their processes and best practices
• Improvements to WordPress inline help
• Completion of the handbooks
• User-focussed handbooks
• Other cool docs things that I think of

I’m going to be doing a lot of research into documentation best practices, setups, tools, and all that good stuff. Everything will be published on a blog so that people in the WP community can make use of it. While I won’t be able to write beautiful docs for you all anymore, I hope to provide you with the tools necessary to do it yourselves.

WordPress’s History

Last year I got to thinking about the ten year anniversary of WordPress, and thought it would be fun to do a series of posts on it for Smashing. I mentioned it to Matt and he seemed pretty interested in it, and it was one of the things that we talked about at length when we discussed my joining Audrey.

This is going to be the second area that I’ll really be focussing my efforts. I’ll be compiling a history of WordPress which we’ll eventually narrativise and publish in various formats. This is going to involve a lot of research, and all of the material will be published somewhere on WordPress.org for people to make use of in their own research. This will include interview transcripts, recordings, articles, links to relevant blog posts, and anything else I find.

For the time being, I’ll be focussing on very early WordPress/b2 stuff. If you’re an early developer or contributor or supporter, or were just generally involved in the blogging scene around 2002 – 2004 please feel free to get in touch and we can have a chat. I have a list of people that I’m going to contact but I don’t want to miss anyone with something interesting to say!

Also, if anyone is interested in helping me to process old archives and blog posts, do let me know.

For the next few months, making progress with this is going to be my major focus (as well as managing the docs projects that are already in motion). This month I’ll be catching up with developers in Europe, and early April I should make it to the US to do some interviews & research out there.

Onwards

Much as I’m sad to say goodbye to Words for WP, I’m really excited by the work that I’m going to be doing. I’ve been offered a few jobs over the past 18 months and this is has been the only really tempting one – it gives me a fantastic opportunity to contribute to and strengthen the community, as well as eat BBQ at the annual company meet up.

Also, WooThemes was set up by three of the most charming and lovely founders in WordPress (and I’m not saying that just because all of the dinners and drinks they’ve spoiled me with .

Click the link above to read all the nice things they said about me or head to their documentation section to see my work in action.