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WordPress Support and the WordPress Economy

Published in the wee hours of June 28, 2006

WordPress users have surely heard the news regarding the recently launched Automattic Support Network. Many were quick to analyze the move, some insinuating lesser quality support for the rest of the WordPress community. But I refuse to agree.

Just as Donncha sees it, this can only be a win–win solution for everyone. It legitimizes the business of other WordPress hackers who have been providing paid support and related services for some time now. The growth of online publishing and personal blogging platforms has fueled the increasing demand for skilled developers ready to provide various services, from theme design to plugin programming and of more importantly, product support.

The WordPress community has always been very accomodating to other users and developers. However, for those who need undivided attention producing prompt solutions, hiring a paid hacker is the way to go. Almost every week, I get an email from fellow WordPress users asking for help on almost all sorts of problems, many not necessarily related to my plugins. Some are simply looking for quick answers from those who know the WP codebase, while others readily inquire about paid solutions to their problems. For more than a year now, WordPress Support has been a viable source of additional income for me. Definitely, there is room for paid support for WordPress and other open source software.

As Automattic provides their service for enterprise users, it opens opportunities for third–party developers within the WordPress community. More people fixing problems and adding functionality can only be a good thing. WordPress economy, anyone?

12 Replies· 2006.06.28

Blogger meetup photos

Published in the late evening of June 25, 2006

Last night, I was with fellow pinoy bloggers for dinner and a round of San Mig Light, followed by sundae at Iceberg. Too bad the attendance was just a handful, you would’ve enjoyed the free treats. Hehehe.

I was actually very late that one of the first four present already left and Ka Edong had to leave (duty calls? ;)) not long after I arrived. Jayvee and Abe were too hungry by then and we had some “health food” at Aysee, enjoying their popular sisig and trying Jayvee’s recommendation, “mushroom and cheese.” After a round of beer, we were back in Metrowalk to meet Bimbo and called it a night after some sundae.

Contrary to what others might expect, these meetups aren’t your typical geek talk. We talk about everything from online gossip to digital photography and even personal tsismis. Hmm, tsismis. Hehehe. You should be there next time. Some snapshots are in an iPAP album at the photos section.

10 Replies· 2006.06.25

The depression sessions

Published in the late afternoon of June 20, 2006

I just realized I’ve been posting mp3 music to this weblog for some time now, probably entirely from my band’s various jam sessions. Though I prefer to share a set of songs all from the same session, this time I have a few from a span of a few days. In these four songs, it’s just me playing and Jonas singing. Two are recent radio favorites, one recently “famous again” because of the band’s concert here in Manila a few months ago, and the last one from our favorite OPM band, a song we used to play a lot in the studio. Nothing spectacular, we’re just having fun despite the session’s codename.

1. Bad Day (Original by Daniel Powter, made popular by American Idol 5)
2. Collide (Original by Howie Day. As a side note, I shot a wedding that used this song for their reception. Funny?)
3. Light And Shade (A remastered version of the Fra Lippo Lippi original we covered recently.)
4. Back 2 Me (From the Eraserheads’s Cutterpillow, my second best e–heads album, next only to Circus.)

Enjoy the music.

· 2006.06.20

First Wedding Photos

Published in the wee hours of June 15, 2006

Sharing some photos from the wedding I covered last Friday, the first one I shot on my own after months of training from the excellent “Mimi and Karl School of Wedding Photography.”

I owe it to the wonderful couple Ramil and Kristine for allowing me to capture a significant milestone in their lives. And yes, the groom was my high school batchmate and he’s around three years younger than most of our batch. And now he has his family.

13 Replies· 2006.06.15

Number one?

Published just before lunchtime of June 7, 2006

The first results for the google query “isulong seoph” (without the quotes) is now steadily made available. Currently, the SERPs returns varied results for different IPs, browsers, google accounts, and other parameters we may never know. As it stands, my entry domain isulongseoph.net is at number one for most of the result sets, though strangely ranked lower for other browsers, like the one we should’ve stopped using a few years ago. This contest is now really heating up with participants from all over, we now have 35,000 results for the contest keyword! If you’d like to help out, a link to isulongseoph.net would be greatly appreciated.

Seeing that I’m quite back to blogging, yes my Smart WiFi/Bro connection is back. Mysteriously, it just works after three days of constantly giving me an IP of 0.0.0.0. Three days without service is hell, I don’t think it qualifies for a “we deeply apologize for the trouble” excuse. Maybe a “don’t pay for the month” message would’ve been better, but seriously I’d take a zero downtime service that I’d gladly pay in full. My previous entry on the problem now has several comments ranging from serious to downright funny. The famous Yuga was quick to reply that he’s still helping those having problems with Smart’s service, despite what many of us might think. His Smart WiFi Chronicles weblog is actively documenting the intricacies of the broadband service and doing well in advocating cosumer rights awareness, perhaps one of the very first in our country to do it through online medium.

By the way, I shot a prenup last weekend for a Pisay batchmate who’s getting married on Friday. It was my first prenup and I don’t think I did well, surely not as much as these guys always do. I have two weddings to shoot this weekend, I hope my months of “training” with Karl and Mimi helps. Photos in the next few days, or maybe in a month, as Anne would often kid me regarding my photo posting schedule. Hehe.

Okay, I just can’t resist sharing one now.

16 Replies· 2006.06.07

Smart WiFi/Bro problems

Published in the late afternoon of June 5, 2006

I’m supposed to write a lengthy entry on WordPress plugins and how they can greatly affect the blogging experience both for the authors and readers. Unfortunately, my Smart WiFi/Bro broadband connection just went kaput last Saturday afternoon and hasn’t been restored since then. No amount of calls to their support number combined repetitive troubleshooting helped; they were insistent on me fixing it on my own before they admit to a problem on their side.

It has been almost 48 hours and I’ve heard nothing positive from them, and I still don’t have a working connection.

Unfortunately, I’m no yugatech in influence that they’d install free Smart WiFi at my house so I could provide constructive feedback. No offense meant Abe, but it’s quite obvious that these people will only pay attention if you’re in a position to hurt them, or at least make them look bad. Think about it, they’re trying to kiss your ass just because you can make them look good. And you weren’t even a Smart WiFi/Smart Bro customer before their publicity stunt. Who knows, your installation could be on a special watch designed to elicit your positive praises.

With the way they handle their customers and provide a disservice, they possibly deserve a class action lawsuit. They’re irresponsible and too arrogant to even care.

To the bosses and the publicity people of Smart WiFi/Smart Bro, here’s some real feedback for you. Now do something about it.

118 Replies· 2006.06.05

Isulong SEOPH!

Published mid-afternoon of June 1, 2006

With 130,000 pesos worth of prizes, can you afford not joining? I’m going for this one, despite my meager knowledge of search engine optimization. Isulong SEOPH!

Join the fun, we all have a lot to learn.

19 Replies· 2006.06.01