DeanFeb 25
Nicol Wistreich

Mike Little: the British co-founder of WordPress you’ve probably never heard of (but should)…

In the story of WordPress –the tool that powers 45% of the web, including 10s of 1000s of film sites– Mike Little is Steve Wozniak to Matt Mullenweg's Steve Jobs. Matt polished the interface, the marketing and curly quotes – while Mike added the blogroll, rebuilt the code, and added the one-click easy-upgrade that's been central to its success. But unlike Woz, Mike never had shares in Matt's $7bn business – or even a job there. He didn't know you could make a living from WordPress until he turned up at the first UK WordCamp. He hasn’t been knighted or hall-of-famed, and isn’t known outside of old WordPress developer circles. Is this because he’s a cheerful and easy-going northerner from Stockport? Because he didn’t have a degree? Because he’s black? I don’t know. All I know for sure, is this is someone who anyone in tech, or who uses WordPress, should know about.

https://25.netribution.co.uk/nic/mike-little-the-british-co-founder-of-wordpress-youve-probably-never-heard-of/

Feb 20 at 1:33amWeb
Show threadNeil BatchelorFeb 25
@nic Had the pleasure of meeting Mike at a Wordcamp back in 2016, and he is honestly one of the nicest guys in the community 👍
Show threadToni AittoniemiFeb 25
@nbwpuk @nic The little guys who actually build the things are the real engines of progress. On their shoulders fly immense inverted pyramids of sweet-talkers taking credit for their work!
Show threadMichelle HughesFeb 25

@nic

This link seems to go to the activity pub representation of the article. Is there a link to a more human-consumable version of the article?

Show threadNicol WistreichFeb 25
@MegaMichelle @MegaMichelle It was doing that for me too earlier, but seems back now if you try again…
Show threadwakest likes your bugs ⁂Feb 26
@MegaMichelle @nic I think that's the same problem I reported a while ago to @nicol, I think you must have some cache plugin that's conflicting with the WordPress ap plugin.
Show threadNicol WistreichFeb 26

@liaizon @MegaMichelle @nic yeh - and maybe it happens whenever I update the page (which happens when I approve new Fediverse reactions / comments - which I’ve started to try doing in blocks.

It’s probably also the caching plugin that is stripping the basic formatting from new posts.. will try to investigate on another WP.. maybe some caching plugins are better with the AP plugin than others (?). But without it I think the site would have fallen down by now!

Show threadwakest likes your bugs ⁂Feb 26
@nicol I won't tag @pfefferle here to not annoy him but it seems maybe when you have a chance to look its something that really needs to be better doccumented there anyway
Show threadNicol WistreichFeb 26
@liaizon I would love to join a chat space for people using his plugin to share advice / tips / etc as I often end up pinging him too. there’s the GitHub and there’s here but I don’t know of any others.. (ie something similar to Mattermost at chat.civicrm.org)
Show threadrayFeb 25
@nic
Another example is what Dorsey did to Glass.
Show threadNorthern ScrubFeb 26

@nic Probably because he's from the north. Up here we're used to doing the legwork and getting little in return.

Sounds like a political gripe, but its true. The attitude seeps intk almost every aspect of life. We seem to get on with shit, put the hours in, and just... Live with it. Plenty other parts of the world like that too. The businessy rich hotspots would be gone in a matter of weeks if we stopped.

Show threadNicol WistreichFeb 26

@northernscrub I’m sure it’s a big factor. Also not going to university (with someone who’s now a Newsnight/etc editor). And being really nice. And race. And not being American. I wouldn’t want to guess which of these had more impact – it’s likely they all compounded each other over the years.

But growing up in Yorkshire then having split my adult life in the UK between London, Bristol and Glasgow, 100% being from the north is a factor.

Show threadCodeMacLifeFeb 27
@northernscrub @nic So true. Manchester is building up to be an alternative to London but it’s going to take a few decades to do so. Parts of Salford/Trafford have never looked so good.