Mistakes made in the past with WordPress development including not leaving comments, using the default theme instead of a child theme, not renaming themes, focusing on enhancements instead of bugs, unclear navigation, reinventing existing functionality, insecure code, and bad habits. The post reflects on past errors and encourages learning from them to improve WordPress skills over time.

1. Mistakes
THE ONES I HAVEN’T ERASED
FROM MEMORY, AT LEAST
by @nacin

2. “Working on old
code is like
stepping back in
time... to a time
when I sucked.”
— @kevinmontrose

3. Not leaving myself
breadcrumbs.
Useful notes and comments
are a good start.

4. Not using
child themes.
Theme
Name:
WordPress
Default
Theme
URI:
http://wordpress.org/
Worse, not renaming
my imposter theme.

5. Boost my
ugly code’s
self-esteem.
Whitespace. It’s why you can
read this sentence.

6. November
16, 2009
Next time, find ways to
get involved earlier.

7. [ Type changed from
enhancement to bug ]
“I’m reclassifying
this as a defect in
the UI flow.”

8. Older posts are
next. Newer posts
are previous.
Got it?

9. I know, I’ll
just write
_______________
(thing that WP already does)

10. Using the
Theme Editor
It’s nice and all, but…

11. Trying
WordPress MU
before knowing anything
about WordPress

12. Tying installs
together with gum
blogs.example.com/here
blogs.example.com/there
blogs.example.com/everywhere

13. Not escaping,
sanitizing, or
validating
Security is tough,
but it’s not optional.

14. “One word,
capitalize the P.”
I swear, every wrong
instance was a typo.

15. Habits
I haz them.

16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
M
T 21
W
T
a
ZERO
F
S
S

17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
M 25
T
W
T
ZERO
F
S
S

18. #blamenacin
(Thanks, Pete!)

19. @nacin
Core Developer Tech Ninja
WordPress.org Audrey Capital
nacin@wordpress.org

20. Learn more at the
core development
workshop tomorrow