Hi folks! My name is Zac Gordon and I am the new Community Builder at Strattic.
In this post I want to share some of my excitement about my new position and let everyone in on some ideas we have planned for building a community around static and headless WordPress.
WordPress in ye olden days
My background in WordPress stretches back to around WordPress version 2, back when plugins were a fairly new feature. Even way back then, folks found ways to export WordPress to static files for added security and speed.
Folks have been finding reasons and ways to make WordPress static since its earliest days.
As an educator, I remember having to export content from CMS like WordPress into static files to meet the tight security needs of school systems while also meeting the needs of teams to easily update their sites with a CMS.
Today we have hosting services like Strattic that make secure and speedy static hosting with WordPress super easy.
Strattic lets you convert a WordPress site to a static site with “a single click.” In some cases this provides speed increases of up to 200%
But static hosting in the WordPress community is still in its infancy and will be making big strides in the coming years.
Traditional WordPress hosts have spent many years developing their performance and security systems and it’s going to be really exciting to see how static WordPress hosts take these gains even farther in the coming years!
The Need for Education in the WordPress Community
The main reason I am excited about what we have planned at Strattic is this company has a genuine passion for educating the WordPress community on the benefits of static and headless WordPress.
As I mentioned, my background and primary interest is in education. I have taught in public high schools, colleges and universities, in-person Bootcamps and online learning sites like Treehouse, Udacity, Frontend Masters and Udemy. I even run my own education company, JavaScript for WordPress.
I met the CEO, Miriam Schwab, while traveling to and speaking at various WordCamps around the world. Before it was cool, or anyone knew what she was talking about, she was giving talks on the JAMstack and static WordPress. I immediately loved her enthusiasm and how ahead of her time she was (and still is).
Much of the WordPress Community still does not understand how simple and beneficial static hosting is for many WordPress projects. Part of my role here at Strattic is going to be to change that.
When I started my education company, JavaScript for WordPress, the REST API was not in core, React had barely come out, and Gutenberg was nowhere on the horizon. People told me “JavaScript in WordPress isn’t really that important.” Now, JavaScript is pretty much a required part of a WordPress Developer’s resume.
We are in the same position now with static WordPress hosting that we were years ago with JavaScript and WordPress.
You may hear people say, “Oh, static hosting isn’t really that important.” But this is based on a very limited understanding and vision of what static hosting can provide for sites now and what it will be able to provide over the coming years.
As someone who wants to stay on the leading edge of emerging technologies in the WordPress space, I am excited to join the Strattic team early and help Strattic not just build and grow their platform, but educate the WordPress community along the way.
You can expect to see various types of educational resources coming out from Strattic to help folks understand the pros and cons of static hosting for various types of projects.
These resources will be about helping elevate and educate the community as a whole. This has always been my passion in the WordPress community – use education to help individuals and the community at large grow and flourish.
Resources for Users and Developers
Our community building efforts will involve two general directions: for users and for developers.
When it comes to learning about static and headless WordPress from the user perspective, folks mostly want to know about what themes, plugins and WordPress features will work best.
For example, if you are using a static hosting service like Strattic, WooCommerce might not be the best fit since the checkout process needs to interact with a database. However, there are e-commerce tools like Ecwid and Snipcart that work great! We will be building upon and extending our Static Tools library to help folks learn about the best tools for static and headless WordPress.
From a developer perspective, folks most often want to know how to code their themes and plugins so they will best work in a static or headless environment. This is where we will focus on tutorials and will be working directly with developers to help them understand how to best engineer their themes and plugins.
Excited for What is To Come
I am really excited to be joining Strattic, which already has a team of brilliant developers and visionaries working on the future of WordPress hosting.
Now you can expect a great static and headless WordPress platform from Strattic, as well as educational resources and community building efforts that will help everyone in the WordPress community understand how to join in on the future of WordPress.
We would love to hear your questions about this future and resources you would love to see from us! Let us know below!
in Jerusalem, Israel