170 What's The Value of Participating in the WordPress Community?

In this episode, we look at the value of participating in the WordPress community, both offline and online. Is there anything substantial to be gained from befriending people who do the same thing that you do? Join us every Saturday at 9 am PST for our live show where you can ask WordPress tech questions and be part of the discussion. To see a list upcoming Saturday shows go to the WP-Tonic website. https://www.wp-tonic.com/blab/   ==================   WordPress panel for Episode 170:   Sallie Goetsch https://www.wpfangirl.com/ Jonathan Denwood https://www.wp-tonic.com/ John Locke Lockedown SEO   ==================   Our episode this week is sponsored by LiquidWeb. Liquid Web is offering a 33% discount for your first 6 months of hosting.   Head over to https://LiquidWeb.com/wordpress and use the code WPTONIC33 at checkout for your discount.   ================   Table of Contents for Episode 170:   0:00 Podcast intros. 2:25 WordPress News Story #1: Cloudflare Memory Leak Exposes Private Data https://wptavern.com/cloudflare-memory-leak-exposes-private-data   Incident report on memory leak caused by Cloudflare parser bug https://blog.cloudflare.com/incident-report-on-memory-leak-caused-by-cloudflare-parser-bug/   Cloudflare Data Leak: How to Secure Your Site https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2017/02/cloudflare-data-leak/   7:31 WordPress Story #2: WordPress Core Editor Team Publishes UI Prototype for “Gutenberg,” an Experimental Block Based Editor https://wptavern.com/wordpress-core-editor-team-publishes-ui-prototype-for-gutenberg-an-experimental-block-based-editor   13:31 WordPress News Story #3: Should I use the WordPress Jetpack plugin on my site? http://chrislema.com/wordpress-jetpack-plugin/ 19:47 Main Topic: What's the Value of participating in the WordPress Community? 20:16 What is the big value of being a part of the WordPress Meetups and WordCamps? 26:15 Do people refer work to you when they get to know you at the local WordPress Meetup? Does participating in the Meetup lead to more work? 29:47 Why is there resistance from general web agencies in each city to participating in the WordPress community? 34:56 A strong Meetup group is the prerequisite to hosting an annual WordCamp. 38:11 How do you prevent burnout when you are a Meetup organizer? 42:25 How do get involved in the WordPress community online? (For the introverts in the crowd). 46:55 Is there a competitive advantage to participating in the WordPress community if you use WordPress as a tool to build websites? 52:05 Podcast outros.   ===================   Links mentioned during the show:   Slimpack - Lightweight Jetpack