Profiles

Bio

I enjoy making real connections with people, and I value kindness and authenticity.

Writing clean, functional code and creating beautiful, usable design are equally important to me, and I’m competent at both while always learning to do things better. I spend most of my professional time building custom WordPress websites for businesses and non-profits.

My agency, Raven’s Eye Design, LLC, has provided handcrafted websites and graphic design to hundreds of happy clients over the past two decades. I enjoy sharing my knowledge — I teach programming part time at the University of Arizona, provide training and consulting to clients, and co-host the Tucson WordPress Meetup.

When I’m not working, I like to play trance-inducing music with saxophones, ancient folk instruments and analog synthesizers. I also enjoy surreal art, bicycling, yoga and hiking in nature — especially mountains.

Interests

Surreal experiences, music, fine art, good people, nature, hiking and yoga.

WordPress Origin Story

From 1999 till around 2005, I built websites by hand with HTML, CSS (to the extent it was supported) and sliced images. I was a web standards evangelist and stopped slicing and dicing and misusing tables as soon as I could.

I wanted to empower my clients to manage their own content from the start, but found it challenging. I tried rolling my own CMS and I built sites using Joomla, Expression Engine, Drupal, ZenCart and some others. Finally, I experimented with early versions of WordPress.

When I started using WordPress, it was still difficult to use as a CMS, but it was better in a lot of ways than the other options available at the time. And the community behind it was moving in the right direction. I’ve enjoyed being part of the evolution of WordPress. From the introduction of custom post types and a well-implemented navigation menu system to the evolution of plugins like ACF and Gravity Forms, I’ve adjusted my workflow and processes to be more efficient and effective.

Now, with the addition of the REST API and Gutenberg and the ongoing improvement of everything else — and the maturing of the business ecosystem — I’m scrambling to grow my coding chops and keep up with all the amazing possibilities.

  • Member Since: January 31st, 2014
  • Location: Tucson, Arizona
  • Website: ravenseyedesign.com
  • Job Title: graphic & website designer/developer
  • Employer: Raven's Eye Design
  • Find me on:
  • Posted a reply to Mailtpl Woocommerce Email Composer requires WooCommerce to be active to work, on the site WordPress.org Forums:
    I'm seeing this error on dozens of client sites, and they think there's an error.…

  • Closed ticket #53835 on Core Trac:
    Since WordPress 5.8, Add to gallery from Media Library initial link is ...

  • Created ticket #53835 on Core Trac:
    Since WordPress 5.8, Add to gallery from Media Library initial link is ...

  • Posted a reply to Plugin changes my settings with every update, on the site WordPress.org Forums:
    Hi @lopo, Thank you! I'll change my star rating and update my review. It's great…

  • Created a topic, Well-made plugin, fantastic support, on the site WordPress.org Forums:
    This is the only plugin I've found that does what it d…

  • Posted a reply to Plugin changes my settings with every update, on the site WordPress.org Forums:
    Hi @lopo that's great news! I'll revise my star rating when that's done. Thanks again…

  • Created a topic, Plugin changes my settings with every update, on the site WordPress.org Forums:
    This is a great plugin and I have it installed on doze…

  • Created a topic, Good basic tool, excellent support, on the site WordPress.org Forums:
    This plugin serves its niche very well, making it easy…

  • Posted a reply to New advertisement is visible for all blocks – but css helps, on the site WordPress.org Forums:
    I have the current version of Members on an all-current install, and this forced add…

  • Registered to attend WordCamp San Francisco 2014

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