4 ms·

How is WordPress.com made?

27 points by kingsidharth 16y ago

skeltoac 16y ago
I help make WordPress.com. Any questions?
- spudlyo 16y ago
  Can you talk a bit about how you scale it? I'm especially interested in if you use a shared filesystem like NFS to keep the blogs.dir consistent across multiple web front ends, or do you use something like fuse on top of mogilefs or HDFS? Do you use varnish? Could you share your config? Thanks a lot!
  - mgarfias 16y ago
    A good place to start would be Barry's blog: http://barry.wordpress.com/ http://barry.wordpress.com/ Hes not updated it in quite awhile though.
    - skeltoac 16y ago
      Barry has the strength of ten sysadmins.
  - skeltoac 16y ago
    We use a different domain for uploaded files. Example: http://andy.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/walkingdesk-e1294433910272.jpg http://andy.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/walkingdesk-e1294433... This way we can direct those requests to services better designed for serving and caching static files. We use NFS for blogs.dir (iirc) but sparingly.
- tjmaxal 16y ago
  How did buddypress come about?
  - skeltoac 16y ago
    http://buddypress.org/about/story/ http://buddypress.org/about/story/ Andy Peatling invented it before joining Automattic.
- psaintla 16y ago
  I'm curious if wordpress devs ever contemplate doing a complete re-write of the codebase. It has one of the worst "architected" codebases of any major open source product out there and even people in #wordpress-dev on freenode make jokes about it occasionally.
  - skeltoac 16y ago
    Contemplate, sure. Seriously think about, no. It's too hard to make the case that it's an economically viable activity.
- michaelbuckbee 16y ago
  I was working on a blog addon service that required adding a small javascript snippet to the page to add a button on the side (like GetSatisfaction or UserVoice) and found that this was possible on almost any service except WordPress.com. I'm well aware that letting users add js to their sites is a major security issue, but it seems like something that would also have a lot of upsides.
fourspace 16y ago
One interesting thing about how Automattic works is that they don't hire engineers without first going through a trial contract. Instead of the normal interview process where they ask you arbitrary questions, you work on the actual codebase solving real bugs. This ultimately answers the questions of a) whether or not you can work with PHP and the WordPress code, and b) whether or not you can work and collaborate with the team remotely. If hired, you can then immediately start contributing without much more ramp up time.
- skeltoac 16y ago
  This is true. After a person has received and accepted an offer for employment, they work as a member of the Happiness (support) team for three weeks before starting on their own job. When WordPress.com opened, everyone in Automattic (Matt, Ryan, Donncha, myself) got a copy of every support request in email. So the support tour is a part of a long tradition. It's also a good way to learn the ropes according to those who have done it.
ck2 16y ago
So out of curiosity, how many actual people work on WordPress.com - Matt has gone on a hiring-spree in the past year or two apparently: http://automattic.com/about/ http://automattic.com/about/ It used to be only a handful of people and I know the usage stats haven't grown that much. 20 people for all of Automattic in June 2008: http://web.archive.org/web/20080624032336/http://automattic.com/about/ http://web.archive.org/web/20080624032336/http://automattic.... Today there are like 50 people on that page, some of them are for Gravatar and InstantDebate and PollDaddy, so what's the current headcount for wp.com ?
- skeltoac 16y ago
  Automattic has around 70 people working full time. I can't keep track. Not everyone works on WordPress.com. Without referring to any records, I'd guess we have a couple dozen on technical, a dozen on support, a handful on design, and a handful on business.

27 points by kingsidharth 16y ago

skeltoac 16y ago

I help make WordPress.com. Any questions?

spudlyo 16y ago
Can you talk a bit about how you scale it? I'm especially interested in if you use a shared filesystem like NFS to keep the blogs.dir consistent across multiple web front ends, or do you use something like fuse on top of mogilefs or HDFS? Do you use varnish? Could you share your config? Thanks a lot!
- mgarfias 16y ago
  A good place to start would be Barry's blog: http://barry.wordpress.com/ http://barry.wordpress.com/ Hes not updated it in quite awhile though.
  - skeltoac 16y ago
    Barry has the strength of ten sysadmins.
- skeltoac 16y ago
  We use a different domain for uploaded files. Example: http://andy.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/walkingdesk-e1294433910272.jpg http://andy.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/walkingdesk-e1294433... This way we can direct those requests to services better designed for serving and caching static files. We use NFS for blogs.dir (iirc) but sparingly.
tjmaxal 16y ago
How did buddypress come about?
- skeltoac 16y ago
  http://buddypress.org/about/story/ http://buddypress.org/about/story/ Andy Peatling invented it before joining Automattic.
psaintla 16y ago
I'm curious if wordpress devs ever contemplate doing a complete re-write of the codebase. It has one of the worst "architected" codebases of any major open source product out there and even people in #wordpress-dev on freenode make jokes about it occasionally.
- skeltoac 16y ago
  Contemplate, sure. Seriously think about, no. It's too hard to make the case that it's an economically viable activity.
michaelbuckbee 16y ago
I was working on a blog addon service that required adding a small javascript snippet to the page to add a button on the side (like GetSatisfaction or UserVoice) and found that this was possible on almost any service except WordPress.com. I'm well aware that letting users add js to their sites is a major security issue, but it seems like something that would also have a lot of upsides.

fourspace 16y ago

One interesting thing about how Automattic works is that they don't hire engineers without first going through a trial contract. Instead of the normal interview process where they ask you arbitrary questions, you work on the actual codebase solving real bugs. This ultimately answers the questions of a) whether or not you can work with PHP and the WordPress code, and b) whether or not you can work and collaborate with the team remotely. If hired, you can then immediately start contributing without much more ramp up time.

skeltoac 16y ago
This is true. After a person has received and accepted an offer for employment, they work as a member of the Happiness (support) team for three weeks before starting on their own job. When WordPress.com opened, everyone in Automattic (Matt, Ryan, Donncha, myself) got a copy of every support request in email. So the support tour is a part of a long tradition. It's also a good way to learn the ropes according to those who have done it.

ck2 16y ago

So out of curiosity, how many actual people work on WordPress.com - Matt has gone on a hiring-spree in the past year or two apparently: http://automattic.com/about/ http://automattic.com/about/ It used to be only a handful of people and I know the usage stats haven't grown that much. 20 people for all of Automattic in June 2008: http://web.archive.org/web/20080624032336/http://automattic.com/about/ http://web.archive.org/web/20080624032336/http://automattic.... Today there are like 50 people on that page, some of them are for Gravatar and InstantDebate and PollDaddy, so what's the current headcount for wp.com ?

skeltoac 16y ago
Automattic has around 70 people working full time. I can't keep track. Not everyone works on WordPress.com. Without referring to any records, I'd guess we have a couple dozen on technical, a dozen on support, a handful on design, and a handful on business.