David Baumwald

  • “White Label” is Lying

    Was reading about the botched Kadence/Liquid Web rebrand/relaunch today, and some of the aftermath. I’ve made my feelings on the Liquid Web decline known for almost 8 years now, so I won’;’t retread that.

    But, one user complaint got me thinking about “white label”. This user complicated that overnight(and unannounced), a new top-level admin menu item for “Liquid Web” appeared on client sites.

    Now, I can understand the basic frustration here, but this quote got me to think:

    For designers managing client sites, having a third-party hosting company’s branding appear prominently inside a client’s WordPress dashboard is a big deal.

    Immediately hearing that, I have zero sympathy for these folks. If you have no transparency with your clients about the underlying tech you’re using, you are failing.

    If you feel too threatened to be honest with your clients that you are a hosting reseller or using tools you didn’t build and don’t maintain, you are setting yourself up for failure. Inevitably, when something fails, you now have to either lie about what happened with your “white label” tech or finally fess up about the fact you didn’t build everything from scratch.

    Many times, I’ve been brought in to projects to solve something bigger than the normal page-building “developer” can handle, and there was suspicion from the client that the “developer’ wasn’t honest about their offerings.

    One was a few years ago with a larger client that had been working with a “developer” whose garbage code I’d actually seen on another freelance project(small world). But, my relationship with this client vastly predated the other relationship. So, I spoke up with a word of warning. I warned that the hosting they claimed to be providing bespoke was just resold from Pressable, and deep server config changes would not be possible.

    Client thanked me. Then, a few months later I predictably receive an email from the client.

    Just writing to thank you again. You were right about [garbage “developer”].

    Moral of the story, if you are white labelling to boost you or your companies ego, you suck. Get better at your job so you can lose the insecurity that causes you to hide behind other developers’ code.

  • Kyle Busch

    I’m experiencing something I never thought I would, grief over a popular figure’s passing. KB left us far too soon. We won’t get the opportunity to see him and Brexton race in the Truck series together.

    I am writing this Monday morning, after the Coke 600. I didn’t watch any of the races this weekend. It was too painful. I am not ready.

    Racing just won’t be the same anymore.

  • On Real-Time Collaboration (UPDATED)

    UPDATE: RTC was pulled from 7.0, although not for the right reason. Following, it just seemed like the A8c folks were fighting the big boss about using a custom DB table, which I do not understand their reluctance here. It’s clearly the better option.

    Now, in 7.1, we’ll go through the same exact process. Wait until a week or two before Beta 1, scramble to finish where they left off in 7.0, and it’ll be only marginally more complete than it is now.

    Plainly, it’s not ready for 7.0, but even worse, it shouldn’t be in Core at all.

    It’s not going to be used by 80% of all users. It’s a feature for workflow-driven publishing, but 90% of all WordPress sites don’t have a need for a workflow! It’s one author. Or, it’s WooCommerce(growing in overall share of WP sites).

    It’s a super cool feature, but it should 100% be a Canonical Plugin. I don’t see a more perfect candidate for that.

    However, since it’s been promised as a headlining feature of 7.0, there’s induced momentum in A8c that just cannot be overcome at this point. The feature is dictating the schedule and architecture, versus it being built from a first principles perspective. So many questions are just not being asked because “we have to get it in”.

    WP Core Philosophies are mostly now meaningless.

  • Feral Cat Day at Clay Humane

    Today, I had the opportunity to be a fly on the wall at Clay Humane. When I joined the board, I mentioned to the ED that I’d love to observe a day at the clinic to get an idea of how things work.

    Well, she suggested that the “Feral Cat Day” would be a good one. These Tuesdays focus on spaying and neutering dozens of kitties, most feral. The cats have been trapped by wonderful humans that are helping to control the pet population.

    I arrived at 10:00 AM, chatted with the Executive Director for a while about a recent abuse case they’ve been working on(I hope to share more about this), then I was offered the opportunity to watch the actual sterilization surgeries.

    I wasn’t sure if I could handle it, but it actually wasn’t; that bad. I could watch the spays in full, but turned my head when a neuter started(if you’re a guy, you’ll get it).

    It was super cool to see how fast and efficient the operation was. They sterilized 40 cats in about 2.5 hours! The doctors walked me through everything and gave me a lot of info on how things work.

    They put me to work, too! I opened new surgery “packs” and removed used ones for each surgery.

    After my stint in surgery, I met more of the staff and chatted a bit more with the ED. I was able to get a GiveButter account setup so I could access the API docs.

    Finally, I was asked about AI meeting notes for board meetings. That’s something I have the perfect person in mind to ask 🙂

  • Chicken Alfredo

    For Valentine’s Day, I made this.

    Everything was from scratch. Homemade butter, homemade bread, scratch pasta. Add some candles, and this cleared!

  • Hogs for Dogs Meeting

    Today, I attended the kick-off meeting for the first event of the year for Clay Humane, Hogs for Dogs.

    Although this was technically a committee meeting, only board members and the Executive Director were in attendance. I’m hoping more folks show up next time. I listened and gained a lot of insight into the event and its challenges.

    First thing I think I can help with is event check-in the day-of. The morning of the ride, every rider has to sign a waiver, so there’s a long line at check-in. I think this is something I can solve with an e-signature app.

    Next, there’s a good mix of pre-registered riders and walk-ups. The main info Clay wants is name and email to stay in contact with them throughout the year. I think I can just roll this into a “event registration” web app that tracks registrations from GiveButter, but also handles check-in by showing who’s signed the waiver and paid the registration fee and who hasn’t. Gears are turning here already, and these are easy weekend projects.

  • I’m A Board Member?????

    Well, it’s official… I’m a newly elected board member of our local humane society Clay Humane. Josepha told of one of her favorite words years ago: scare-cited, and it fits my state of mind.

    I have less than zero experience in official boards, but I am hoping my experience in WordPress leadership translates.

    This year we have a major “capital campaign” to raise money for the new hospital. This is a project I’ve heard about over the years, but it’s exciting to see this actually moving forward in 2026. I’m actually kinda giddy thinking about being one of those dignitaries that does the ceremonial “breaking ground”. Never in my life did I think I would be a part of something like that.

    My goals? I want to help out with things where I know I can have instant impact, like technical things. In the longer term, I just want to absorb as much info as possible before I am involved in any real decision making.

    The next major event is the Hogs for Dogs motorcycle ride in March, so we’ll see where I can be plugged in there.

    So, if you love animals, please pray that I don’t screw up!

  • New Site, Who Dis?

    Howdy! I’ve created this personal site as a more personal piece of acreage on the internet.

    Don’t expect much, or you’ll be sorely disappointed.