"WordPress with capital P." Does it matter?

If you are looking for a job in the WordPress ecosystem or if you run a business specialized in WP, can a single letter make any difference? The short answer is yes, that single letter can help (or not) to show knowledge and attention to detail.

Looking for a WordPress-related job? Review your CV and make sure you have WordPress spelled right.

Why does it make a difference?

Different communities have different degrees of concern with their characteristic. For the WordPress community, the importance of how its name is spelled sometimes may seem disproportionate.

Anyway, the truth is that WordPress is the only correct way to write it. All the others are wrong and, although it is ignored on most occasions, during a hiring process it can indicate a lack of knowledge or attention.

How much that really makes any difference varies a lot. It can be essential, it can be a tiebreaker, or not be important at all. Nonetheless, if you know the right way to write it, it is always better to use it.

Isn't that too much?

It could be. The fact is that there is a right way and WordPress core even has a function just to make that change: capital_p_dangit(). The function description can give you an idea of how important some folks consider WordPress name spell:

Forever eliminate “Wordpress” from the planet (or at least the little bit we can influence).

Quite severe, right?

A specialist would never write Wordpress or Word press

A person or a company that claims themselves as a WordPress specialist should've already stumbled upon this information. In summary, here are the most important points:

• Writing it right does not make anyone a specialist but
• Writing it wrong does make someone less of a specialist;
• There are people out there writing it wrongly who know more about WP than people writing it right;
• It is okay to write wordpress (all lowercase), wp, or WP in informal communications like slack messages. Wordpress and Word press are more noticeable mistakes.

First impressions are important and on some occasions, we need to assure that someone knows or does not know WordPress. If writing it right can't give total certainty, writing it wrong certainly does not help.

As last, imagine this convo:

– Hey, do you like video games? Which are your favorite characters?
– I love it! I like that green dude Zelda, green Mario, and Yellow Sub-Zero!
– Oh, you mean Link, Luigi, and Scorpion, right?
– Yeah, yeah!

Does that mean the person is a bad player? Absolutely not! It does mean they do not read much about the topic, though.

My first contact with this

I want to tell you how I was first told about this difference:

After meeting the WordPress community here in Curitiba in May 2016, I asked if I could give a talk the next month. When I sent my slide deck, Daniel Kossmann asked for a change: WordPress has a capital P.

I had been using WP for years at that point but didn't have any contact with the community. After that day, I never wrote it wrong again.

In fact, for any talks in WordCamps, WordPress docs demand the usage of a capital P all the time. Obviously, that rule also applies to meetups or any official community event.

Writing Wordpress can indicate "just" lack of attention

I want to write a post about soft skills and personal characteristics not necessarily related to technology but one thing is certain: no one likes people that do not pay attention.

That said, always review and be careful with your resumé and official communication.

I am a client or I have a job to offer. How much does that matter?

As you can imagine, it depends. If you had a recommendation from someone else, that should matter more than a single letter in a name. If the company or person is completely new to you, that can indicate that their knowledge of WordPress is not that good.

If that is a lead role or something critical to your company, I recommend you to give a look at some other competitors. If this detail passed unnoticed, something else could too.

Okay, what is next?

Now that you know, spread the word. Do not judge those who didn't see this detail yet but explain that this can make a difference. Be nice though, no one has the obligation to know it :)

The thumbnail was made using https://www.thewordfinder.com/simpsons-chalkboard/