Jino Conklin attended Clark College, just like we are right now. But he attended classes here between 2011 and 2014 for his web development degree. He now works over at The Columbian as a world class Web Developer, where they just transferred completely to WordPress from another major CMS. But before I go spilling all the details of the interview, here are the words from Jino himself.
Q & A
When did you first start using WordPress and was it your first time using a CMS (Content Management System)?
The first time I used WordPress was actually in Lorelle’s class, back in May 2013 as part of my Web Development Degree Program. And, yes, it was the first time using a CMS. I’ve had a couple projects going at that time trying to create my own CMS, but once I found out that Matt Mullenweg had beat me to the punch, I started using WordPress.
How do you use WordPress at your job? (Do you alter Themes, create content or code custom Plugins for your company?)
We do quite a bit with WordPress here at The Columbian. Up until August 2015, we were on a completely different CMS (a very popular one used around the country) that was hosted off site. Our vision was to bring columbian.com on-site and forego a hosting company. It took us from January 2015 – August 2015 to get switched over (with only myself and my Senior Developer, and a crew of 4 IT gurus). Now we are full fledged WordPress. We’ve had to convert all of our Theme templates from Django (written in Python) to WordPress.
What do I do personally with WordPress at The Columbian? I’ve written a couple custom Plugins for our Events site, I’ve modified Themes to fit our needs. As we speak, I’m in process of writing a new Plugin for our Best of Clark County contest coming up in February. And I do maintenance for columbian.com when issues arise.
Do you have a personal preference towards WordPress, as compared to other CMS’s like Drupal or Joomla?
I personally really enjoy WordPress. I like how the action and filter hooks give you pretty much endless customization and abilities to do everything you want. I’ve touched Drupal and Joomla, and while they are great CMS’s, I was pulled toward WordPress because of the minor learning curve, and because all the support that comes with it (Codex, WPDevelopers site, Support Forums, etc). I felt that trying to learn Drupal or Joomla was off the course of where I wanted to be with The Columbian, so I didn’t go that route. I’m not saying I never will, but right now, I’m content with WordPress.
Is there anything that you wish that WordPress would change that may make your job easier?
I’m still new in my career with WordPress, but so far, I haven’t had any major requests for WordPress to change. Everything that I’ve wanted to change, WordPress provided a way, either with a custom Plugin, or a little bit of custom code inside of a Theme.
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