Tikaram Bhandari is a WordPress lover from Nepal. He is a Happiness Engineer and Theme developer currently working at Catch Themes. He has been working keenly in Catch Themes for a year now. He is passionate about solving tough problems and proposing elegant solutions. At WordCamp Kathmandu 2018, he talked about ‘Building Secure WordPress Themes & Plugins.’ We got to talk with him right the same day.
How and when did you get started with WordPress?
I was familiar with WordPress back in 2013. However, I couldn’t actively continue due to my health problems. Now, I am very happy to say that I am actively working in WordPress and its activities for a year now.
What do you like most about WordCamps?
The best thing about WordCamps is that I get to meet a lot of WordPress enthusiasts. People can get in contact with a lot of WordPress representatives from overseas and also from Nepal. We get to learn more about WordPress and can also share our knowledge with others. I think it is a great opportunity for everyone to learn and gain knowledge about WordPress.
What do you hope attendees will take away from your talk/workshop?
My topic is about building secure WordPress themes and Plugins. I think it will be helpful for people who are into developing themes and plugins. Not securing WordPress themes and plugins are minor mistakes that people make. Through my talk today, I hope that people will make sure not to make such mistakes and be careful. It will be beneficial for all; from beginners to all who are working in WordPress field.
Are there any challenges you faced that you’d like to share with us?
I don’t think I have faced any challenges because the WordPress community is a very good platform to learn. But still many people are unaware of it. I haven’t actually faced any challenges yet; no one knows what the future holds!
What are your thoughts on the WordPress community of Nepal?
WordPress Community of Nepal seems to be growing rapidly. As we can already see, a lot of new attendees are joining in today’s WordCamp Kathmandu 2018. Every year the number of people attending WordCamps are increasing.
How have you been contributing or giving back to the community?
I have been on the support team for quite some time now. I try to solve the frequently asked in the forum of WordPress.org. I work as a Happiness engineer so, it is my responsibility to light up the workspace.
What do you think about female participation in WordPress?
Well, the number of female participant in today’s WordCamp Kathmandu 2018 is low. The number of male participants is higher than the number of female participants. Apart from that, it is really good to even low number female participants attending today’s WordCamp and progressing in the WordPress field.
How do you stay updated on WordPress?
WordPress itself keeps on updating as we update our Themes and Plugins. Everything is about updating. As a developer and a coder, we need to keep on track with the latest WordPress news. I personally have subscribed to many WordPress related websites.
What can we find you doing when you’re not WordPressing?
When I’m not WordPressing, I prefer to do outdoor activities. Me and my team usually organize outdoor activities as football matches, cycling, and many more. I also like to keep myself fit and healthy so I often do Yoga.
What advice would you give to a new WordPress user?
For the beginners in the WordPress field, WordPress is a great platform to work with. You get to learn many good things. You can both learn and share your ideas and experiences.
Gutenberg Editor will be the next big thing in WordPress this year. How excited are you about it?
We have been hearing a lot of positive reviews about the Gutenberg Editor. It sounds really exciting. I think it will be very challenging for the developers. We, developers, will have a good time dealing with it because we need to make our themes and plugins more compatible. Hope we can cope up with it accordingly.
You can get in touch with Tikaram Bhandari and learn new things through his Facebook.