Syde and WordPress Through the Years

We’re Part of Germany’s WordPress History

The early days of WordPress were a crazy time. 

WordPress was new. Plugins and themes were new. There was no translate.WordPress.org. 

WordPress was born in 2003, and by 2004, it already had a growing international community excitedly following each release. But there were still no official translations. Back then, translations only happened because of the international community’s enthusiasm and hard work (often alongside their full-time jobs). 

Syde’s CIO Robert Windisch said they would excitedly watch as the new releases neared to help translate them into German as soon after release as possible. It wasn’t necessarily a fond memory, he says with a grin, “…when US people decided to start a release in the morning, and we in Germany were like, but I wanted to go to bed.” 

But they stayed up and translated anyway, a testament to WordPress’s early open-source community’s dedication. Early Syders led the way as leaders in the German international community as they supported the fast-growing WordPress. 

Today, Syde boasts a reputation as one of Europe’s largest WordPress agencies. But back then, Syde was made up of friends who came together because of WordPress. As they joined with others in the German and international community, they became part of a vibrant community of open-source contributors. Community ambassadors, core committers, and WordCamp veterans (and newbies!) are among Syde’s agency ranks today.

WordPress Wouldn’t be WordPress Without Its Open-Source Community

That open-source community is the heart of what makes WordPress, WordPress. Those late-night translations back in the early days of WordPress are just one example of the extreme dedication of thousands of early international community members. 

“It’s the community,” Windisch says emphatically, “…the community, and with that the ecosystem – people creating content and so on – that really powers the trajectory of WordPress and its mission of democratizing publishing.”

The WordPress community is a broad ecosystem and boasts:

• people who diligently attend as many WordCamps as possible alongside people who have never made it to a single one; 
• people who have created and support dozens of plugins freely available in the WordPress.org plugin directory, and others who have never coded a single line; 
• folks who have built entire businesses by catering to the millions of WordPress users worldwide and those who support all those businesses by buying themes, plugins, and web development solutions. 

The community encompasses them all. And every person is important to the community. 

How the Community Continues to Grow

In Germany, Syders enthusiastically supported and helped organize German WordCamps. And WordCamp attendees can’t miss seeing Windisch at WordCamps worldwide – he’s known as the “man with the hat” because of the Wapuu pin-decorated hat he wears to every WordCamp. (Wapuu is WordPress’s official mascot!) 

WordCamps aren’t alone in driving community support and growth – local meetups also play a huge part. With 782 connected meetup groups across 114 countries, WordPress’ Meetup group boasts over 518,000 members across the globe. While WordCamps also continue to happen worldwide, the smaller Meetup groups allow more frequent connections between WordPress enthusiasts. 

Syde Full Stack Developer Bernhard Kau has helped organize WordCamp Europe several times and will attend his 50th WordCamp when he arrives at WordCamp US later this year. He says local meetups drive the growth of the larger WordPress community. 

A common theme in WordPress history is the strength of local meetups forming and nourishing WordPress’ continued community growth. Kau’s experiences reinforce this theme. Some of his best friends are ones he met through the WordPress community after he initially moved to Berlin. 

“Before I moved here, many of the friends I found were through WordPress and the local meetup group,” Kau said. “…yeah, that’s one of the really nice things.”

WordPress Meetups are available in small and large towns, online and in-person, and they’re an excellent way to connect with local folks who love WordPress. 

“The best starting point, that’s mainly the meetups … it’s amazing what you can get out of meetups,” said Daniel Hüsken, Syde Team Lead and original developer of Syde’s  BackWPUp plugin. (Read https://syde.com/blog/backwpup-story/ for more of his story!)

Make.WordPress.Org – Another Way to be Involved in the WordPress Community 

Syde Developer Thomas Weichselbaumer entered the WordPress community when he started his first developer blog in 2008. By 2010, he had opened his Theme Shop, ThemeZee. But he didn’t get more involved in the larger community until 2011 when he started contributing to WordPress’s Theme Review Team. 

Make.WordPress.org is an often-overlooked way to become involved in the larger WordPress community. 

“Make.WordPress.org and all the WordPress teams are always a great start to get involved or just to visit a WordCamp, I think it’s probably one of the best ways to get involved more in the community,” Weichselbaumer says of getting started in the community. 

Syders Embrace the Community, In All Ways

Syde co-founder Heinz Rohé has been a member of the WordPress community since the beginning of 2005 and co-founded the forum WordPress-Deutschland. The forum helped establish WordPress in Germany. He helped organize the German WordCamps 2, 3, and 4 with others.

“My best WordCamp experiences are seeing people from all over the world coming together in peace, supporting and helping each other, sharing knowledge, and developing a counter-model to all the nationalism, greed, and resentment,” Says Rohé. “It has always been a pleasure to experience the constructiveness of our WP open-source community.

Whether part of one of the Make.WordPress.org teams, an attendee of a local Meetup or WordCamp, or just a fan of WordPress, Syders throughout our company have found and continue to find ways to embrace the larger WordPress community.