In case you’ve missed it there has been some talk around a WordPress manual as proposed by Larry Ayers. This would be a manual of sorts to help out the newcomer etc. Seems that Larry has contacted Matt about this and there wasn’t any else doing something similar, soo Larry thought it best to get going.

Problem is Larry is tackling a subject that Podz, Craig and Carthik (to name only a small few) have been slogging away at for the past year to the best of my knowledge. In that time they’ve amassed an emmense amount of posts on the support forums, have kept the wiki alive and hammered away at the Codex as well. In all that time the guys haven’t been paid anything, and in Podz’s case actually taken a serious hit to make his manuals available online.

I’ve said this before several times, that the only reason I chose WordPress over Textpattern was the community that was built around it. Without this community and the fact that everyone is helping out in ways they think is best, I might as well go to B2evolution or any one of the other open-source alternatives. The number of templates and plugins available for WordPress probably dwarf those of other blogging softwares. All of that work was done by the community, for the community.

When I released Manji, I was wondering how Chris was counting the number of downloads, so I sent him and e-mail and asked him. He sent me the plugin, the php script and a walk through of how to bloody implement the thing. That is what the community is about. I wanted to get my links to have alternate colours, Joshua spent 30 minutes hacking some code for me just so that I can do something like that.

I’ve learnt an emmense amount about CSS, HTML and PHP in the past year through the use of WordPress. Hell I don’t need Dreamweaver to do my code anymore, I just use notepad++. The main strength of WordPress over everyone else for me at least is the community. Oh sure the software is good but there are derivatives out there.

So with that out of the way, what does any of this have anything to do with Larry and his book? How does Podz fit into all of this? There are several points I think that need to be raised here.

The first problem was how you approached the situation. Not very diplomatic and it did show a lack of knowledge of the community. Podz is one of the developers of WordPress. He’s got over 2500 posts on the forums. This is what you wrote to podz:

Be more explicit, identify yourself and your site (I've visited scores of WordPress sites)...

The point is if you’re going to write a book, the only book about WordPress surely you should know the history of the software, and who the key people involved are.

Larry, you’re an unknown entity. We’ve seen none of your previous work. You’ve been involved with other online sources? I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt here, show me. Give me links to the forums you’ve posted on, the places you’ve left your mark on. The fear here is that you’re not what you say you are. Podz has shown time and time again what he’s capable of in terms of documentation and helping people out. At least for the WP community.

Personally I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch for Podz to think ‘well this guy hasn’t done anything similar that I can see, he’s interested in writing a book on a subject that’s taken me and another x people 1 year to compile information on. Hang on a minute why should I believe he’s saying the truth and that he’s going to be approaching the subject from a fresh plate. He’s got a wealth of information at his fingertips, my information, and he’s proposing on making money off it.’

And you see that in a way goes against the grain of the WordPress community. If you’d taken the time to research the subject you’d have known who Podz is. You could have easily dropped him a line telling him that you’re thinking it would be a good idea to do this. You’ve got the time to devote to this and the contacts. You understand that Podz has devoted soo long on the help forums and the codex and the wiki and his manuals, ask him if he’d like to join you. Having one of the dev team on your side really works wonders for the people who would buy your book. You’d be surprised how many hours people devote to bettering WordPress every day.

It’s a community, where the final product is a lot more important than the individual ego. Perfect example is Shuttle. 3 designers, 3 coders (Matt is over seeing what we’re doing). One goal. Better the software and enhance blogging in general.

It would take a lot longer than 1 week to find out what most users aren’t capable of doing or understanding. It would take a lot longer than 1 week to find out what the most common problems are. It would take a lot longer than 1 week to go through the 450 plugins that are available and constantly being updated for the WordPress software. Podz has spent the past 8 months learning these things, which is why he made the manuals in the first place. To stop answering the same question again and again.

By the time you’ve finished your book, we’ll have just released Shuttle. You going to put the logo in the book as well? What if we decide to call the final thing something else?

Larry it’s a matter of perspective. You say you’ve done this before. I think having someone who’s done this before is great, and I would be the first to appologise to you for ever doubting your PHP Fu skills. Unfortunately I’ve seen NOTHING that proves the contrary to this. I’ve currently only got your word to go on, and since I don’t know you, it’s not a very strong word.

Welcome to the WordPress community ^_^.