Author: Richard Best

Legal checks when building a content-driven WordPress website

Published by Richard Best

Introduction Recently I’ve built two blogs (both running on WordPress of course). The first is this one and the second is a blog for a group of lawyers in the United Kingdom. The purpose of the second blog is to enable the lawyers to share their knowledge and thoughts on a particular area of practice with clients, potential clients and the wider legal community. As well as building the site, I also attended to the usual legal and related issues that arise with a content-driven website like a blog, just as I did for this site which is similar in many ways. I’ve done this sort of thing many times in the past, for myself, for colleagues and for clients. Each time I do it, I run through a range of legal and related checks in my mind that ought to be covered off. I thought it might be useful to document the checks for others building similar sites. The purpose of this post, then, is to do exactly that. The checklist covers the kinds …

How to build a contract generator with WordPress and Gravity Forms

Published by Richard Best

Background and introduction I purchased a Gravity Forms developers licence back in October 2009. It was one of the best WordPress-related purchases I’ve ever made, as the forms plugin has gone from strength to strength over the years and is now so polished, with so many useful add-ons, that it can truly convert WordPress into an app machine of sorts. In the intervening five years, I’ve put Gravity Forms to all manner of uses, including making a number of contract and licence generation tools with it. Among other things, I’ve used it to build: a website terms of use, mutual confidentiality agreement and privacy policy generator (see ubuildcontracts.com); a Creative Commons licence chooser that built upon the code output of the Creative Commons licence chooser by adding government-specific elements to the code to reflect guidance in the New Zealand Government Open and Accessing Licensing framework (known as NZGOAL) (I’ve since taken this licence generator down); and a generator that enables one to build a fully populated instance of a Government Model Contract for Services, with …

Would you like a privacy policy like mine?

Published by Richard Best

When I was getting WP and Legal Stuff ready for release, I drafted the privacy policy that is linked to in the site footer. I did this because I would probably be collecting personal information (e.g., names of commenters and email addresses) and it was appropriate, therefore, that I let people know what I’m collecting, who can see it, what I’ll do with it, and so on. When drafting the policy, it struck me that this is something that other bloggers and site operators – whose structural set up is similar to mine – may also need or wish to do. If you’re in this position, please feel free to create your own policy based on mine. To help you out, I’ve whipped up a form that takes a small number of inputs and then spits out a version of my privacy policy but with my details removed and your details inserted. The form and output are based on a few assumptions: that an individual is operating the blog / site; the site is externally …

A brief history of WordPress

Published by Richard Best

Many have written accounts of the birth and growth of WordPress. For example, there’s a punchy timeline in the WordPress codex, an interesting 10 year visual history on WPMU DEV and interesting posts on WPExplorer, WPBeginner and Kinsta WordPress Hosting. An even richer account is likely to be released soon, as certain WordPress aficionados are currently writing “a new book about the history of WordPress drawing on dozens of interviews with the original folks involved and extensive research”. For the purposes of this blog, I don’t need to explore the history of WordPress in the same level of detail (and it’s best that I leave that to the historians and others). It does help, though, to set out a few key points about WordPress’s development as well as the nature and roles of Automattic Inc and the WordPress Foundation. They help one understand the origins of the WordPress software, the legal structure around WordPress and its licensing, the relationship between WordPress and WordPress.com and the relevance of the WordPress Foundation. In addition, the origin of …

Why legal stuff matters

Published by Richard Best

For some people, thinking about legal stuff may not be at the forefront of their minds when they’re developing, designing, launching or adding content to a WordPress website or developing and releasing a theme or plugin. I suspect it’s also not at the forefront of the minds of some people who launch commercial theme and plugin shops, release WordPress ebooks, produce WordPress podcasts, and so on. It’s easy to get caught in the moment and the excitement of developing, writing or releasing something new. I know what that’s like. Just as a lawyer building a website may pay little attention to something that a developer would consider crucial, so too can developers, designers, bloggers and entrepreneurs pay little attention to things that lawyers consider important if not crucial.  And, of course, in some cases people want to do what’s right or in their commercial interests but just don’t know what the relevant laws are or how they apply. The legal stuff does matter There are various reasons for sticking to the right side of the …

My WordPress story

Published by Richard Best

How is it that a lawyer becomes wrapped up in WordPress? What makes a lawyer explore legal issues that can arise through application of the open source licence that governs its use? What makes a lawyer want to analyse a range of legal issues that can arise through personal and commercial publishing using the world’s most favoured CMS? The answer is simple: a maturing passion for WordPress. Yes I’m a lawyer (sounds like a confession doesn’t it) but I’m also a keen WordPress user and have been for a long time. I thought I’d tell my story to enable readers of WP and Legal Stuff to understand how this all came to pass. Blogging and RSS fever I have vivid memories of coming across blogging and RSS in 2004. I was working in Frankfurt, Germany, having transferred there from London, England (and I’d transferred there some time earlier from Wellington, New Zealand). For some reason, the freedom and immediacy of personal publishing and the distributive power of RSS captured my imagination, so much so that …

Tuning in with a dedication

Published by Richard Best

So I thought I’d start this blog with a dedication, a bit of gratitude if you will. Since version 1.2 of WordPress, each readme.html file included with the WordPress download has included the following “first things first” statement from Matt Mullenweg: “Welcome. WordPress is a very special project to me. Every developer and contributor adds something unique to the mix, and together we create something beautiful that I’m proud to be a part of. Thousands of hours have gone into WordPress, and we’re dedicated to making it better every day. Thank you for making it part of your world.” Matt thanks us, the WordPress users, for making WordPress a part of our world. It is, however, we that should thank Matt and all his co-developers around the world for making WordPress a part of our world. That’s what I reckon anyway. WordPress has affected literally millions of lives for the better. Thank you to all those who contribute to it.