Watch out, Francisco has hooks and could use them!
My name is Francisco Torres and I do things with WordPress.
I have been using and working on WordPress for more than 15 years.
I am happy to be able to continue using this tool and proud to be able to contribute to the community.
I currently work as a consultant-developer specialized in WordPress and I am an active part of the WordPress community.
Beginnings with WordPress
My first experience with WordPress was when I started as an editor in the small digital media ecomovilidad.net in 2009.
Since I was studying IT engineering, I was obviously the first person pointed out when we wanted to tackle challenges such as website growth and optimization. I learned a lot.
In 2012 I went to my first WordCamp with Rafael Poveda, I gave a presentation on semantic web (microformats) and two weeks later I started offering my consulting and development services oriented to WordPress under the brand GIGA4.
The community
Personally, I can’t think of WordPress without its community. The community is the one that welcomes you, helps you, elevates you and places you in a position from which you can welcome, help and elevate others.
This support, this approachability, these good personal experiences and the improvement that this causes at a professional level is what encourages me to continue contributing to the community.
The expertise
I couldn’t tell you that I know everything about WP_Query, actions and filters (hooks), plugins, themes, REST API, AJAX, HTTP API, etc.
Because it would be a lie, among other things because I have a terrible memory and even if I use it 500 times I will never learn all the arguments that WP_Query accepts. The good thing is that I know what WP_Query is, what I can do with it, how and I know where to look at what arguments it has.
I can say that after 15 years working in different projects I have been in many situations and I have a well-developed sense of WordPress. I am usually able to quickly diagnose issues and find appropriate solutions for them.
The plugins team
Since May 2023 I am part of the new WordPress.org foundation plugins team.
This comes after the leaving of Mika Epstein, after about 10 years maintaining the WordPress plugin repository. I am absolutely grateful to his work because I believe she must have been one of the greatest individual contributions to the WordPress project.
I joined the team thanks to the trust that several people from the community have placed in me and I am supported by Siteground’s sponsorship through the “Five for the future” program.
The events
The community becomes visible through the various events that are organized by different parts of the community.
They are an essential part of which I have personally participated in almost every possible way: organizing, volunteering, speaking and attending.
WordCamps
It’s a big event, it’s a special time where we come together and learn, it takes between 1 and 3 days, hosting between 100 and 3000 people and where we celebrate the WordPress community and diversity.
Meetups
Meetups are a periodic event organized by local communities that last a couple of hours and usually host between 20 and 50 attendees.
I have participated in several WordPress meetups, in different parts of Spain and also in Berlin during the time I lived there.
I have also been co-organizer of the WordPress meetup in my city, Granada.
I mention some of the ones I have attended:
- Las Palmas de Gran Canaria July 2023: Speaker. Learn how to customize the content and look of your website with the new editor.
- Granada June 2021: Speaker. Community Meetings: A plugin developed with the community, for the community.
- Granada November 2020: Speaker. Ask your question: Knowledge market.
- Granada September 2018: Speaker. Knowledge market.
- Granada September 2017: Speaker. Themes system in WordPress.
- Granada April 2019: Speaker. There's a plugin that does that!
- Granada February 2019: Speaker. WordPress Community. Show up!
- Chiclana Octubre 2017: Speaker, Video. WordPress themes system.
Other events
- Hackathon: Animal Protectors of the WordPress community of Granada. February 2023.
- WPES Camp attendee: Seville 2016, Plentzia 2017, Chiclana de la Frontera 2017, Gran Canaria 2018.
Media
From time to time I have appeared on a few other sites.
- (ES) 2018: clubwpress A good reason to visit Granada, a WordCamp.
- (ES) 2019: wpradio.es 130: Working remotely with GIGA4.
- (ES) 2021: Sevilla WordPress Chapter 07: Sunday's activities with @frantorres
- (ES) 2023: Freelandev #227 - The new WordPress plugin team with Fran Torres
- (ES) 2024: Potencia Pro 283: Interview with Fran Torres @frantorres