Table of Contents
Denis Yanchevskiy
Introduction
About the past 5 years I have been helping to evolve the Russian-speaking WordPress community by answering user questions in support forums, helping with translations of WordPress, plugins and themes, and participating in the organization of meetups and WordCamps in Moscow.
I live in a small town near Moscow. I like the local nature, it allows you to make excellent family walks and one or two day trips.
I don’t participate very much in social networks, but you can always find me on Instagram ( @yanchevskiy ). There I publish photos from WordPress events and everyday life.
Q. How did you come into your current field? Share a bit of the background?
A. I was fascinated by computers from childhood and I was completely sure that I wanted to be a programmer.
At university, I graduated from computer science. By the way, it was in those days that I started my first personal blog and got acquainted with WordPress :).
My first work was related to Joomla and Drupal, but after a couple of years I got into a company working on development on WordPress, and that is where my work as a WordPress developer began.
After that there were periods of remote work and full-time freelance, but they were somehow related with WordPress.
If we talk about the community, then my acquaintance began with support forums, it turned out that I know the answers to many user questions :).
Then I wanted my favorite plugins to be translated into my native language. And then I got ideas for my own plugins. And now you are in the cycle of events, you are recording a training video for WordPress.TV or you are writing a patch for the kernel or organizing a WordCamp or doing something else.
All this is very addictive and at some point you understand that this is not just a hobby, but a way of life.
Q. Whatís the most interesting project you have done to date in WordPress?
A. The website of a network publisher comes to mind. This is a large news site with many types of content: news, long-reads, tests, surveys, contests, special projects, photo galleries and advertising places and integrations.
This publisher was quite active (about 1,500 news items were published per month) and one of the leading ones in the region (approximately 500,000 people visited it per month).
This project allowed me to better understand the internal structure of WordPress and its optimization for relatively large loads.
Q. Have you ever been to any WordPress meetups or WordCamps? If yes did you learn anything useful?
A. I try to attend the maximum number of WordPress events held in Russia, but I usually do not consider usefulness the main criterion. Most of them I attend because of the people and the atmosphere. When you often attend such events, they are more like meeting old friends than some formal event :).
But of course, WordCamps and meetups are useful. They allow you to get to know new people and get new customers.
For example, in Russia we have only two WordCamps per year and people come from all over the country. It is hard to imagine in what other situation everyone could get together.
Q. What does your workstation look like?
A. I have a usual workplace, like an office, except that it is located in an apartment 🙂
I don’t have a big monitor or some cool armchair or super powerful computer. I consider a computer as an ordinary working tool, which should fulfill its function and nothing more.
Of the interesting, probably only a yellow duck. If you’ve ever heard of “rubber duck debugging”, I think you know her 🙂
Sometimes it seems to me that this is the wisest duck that knows the answers to all (well, or almost all) questions 😀
Q. What kind of tools/software do you currently use for your creations?
A. Windows, NetBeans IDE for writing code, Figma for working with site layouts and FastStone Capture (this is a small program that can do just a little like a Swiss knife: measure size, determine color, take screenshots with captions, record videos, etc.
For communication and teamwork, I use Telegram, Slack and Google Docs.
Q. What interesting feature do you think you would like to see in WordPress and is currently missing?
A. I think WordPress should pay more attention to the SEO features, expand the functions of Gutenberg’s idea as the editor of the whole site and improve the features of custom fields and customizer.
Q. Out of the current plugins and themes which one do you like the most and why?
A. On almost every site I use the Advanced Custom Fields plugin. It perfectly extends the features of custom fields and has many additions.
For contact forms, I use Contact Form 7. It is flexible and convenient for customization.
And I also use the small DCO Insert Analytics Code plugin. This is my own plugin, which I use to easily insert a variety of analytics codes on the site.
I do not use ready-made themes, since my work is related to the development of an individual theme for each project.
Q. Which WordPress hosting do you use and would you recommend for your clients and others?
A. I use and recommend Beget hosting to my clients, but hosting is a rather intimate thing, which is worth choosing for yourself.
Q. Do you like/love what you currently do in WordPress?
A. Definitely. WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world and this allows you to always find application for your creative desires.
Q. What would you like to do in the future in the current field or somewhere else?
A. Perhaps I will someday start professionally leading a YouTube channel, a podcast, or educating people. This is all very interesting too.
Q. Can you give us some reference for whom we should conduct an interview next and why?
A. – Artem Abramovich ( https://profiles.wordpress.org/artabr/ ) — He leads the most popular YouTube channel about WordPress in Russia.
– Alexsander Parfilov ( https://profiles.wordpress.org/donatory/ ) — He leads the largest YouTube channel about Elementor in Russia.
You can also try contacting with https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/ and https://profiles.wordpress.org/fierevere/ but as far as I know, they don’t like giving interviews.
Sonl Sinha is a passionate writer as well as WordPress and WooCommerce rockstar who loves to share insights on various topics through his engaging blog posts. He runs a successful website design and digital marketing company. With 15+ years of experience in WordPress theme development, he strives to inform and inspire readers with his thought-provoking content. He helps thousands of small and medium businesses and startups create a unique online presence. Follow Sonl Sinha for your regular dose of knowledge and inspiration.
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