In the last posts, we chatted with Chandra Maharzan and Jerry Bates, two moderators at WordPress.tv. We’d like to introduce a third volunteer on this team. Everyone, meet Phil Erb.

Phil Erb
Scranton, Pennsylvania

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m a systems administrator/programmer at the University of Scranton. While I do some work with WordPress at the university, most of my WordPress projects are after hours as a consultant or just for fun.

How did you get involved with WordPress?

I’ve been creating websites since 2002 — the philerb.com domain name turned 10 years old in September! — originally purely by hand, then by creating very basic CMS-type systems with Perl, PHP, and MySQL. I’d installed WordPress in 2007 and 2008 to play with it, but never had time to sit down and learn it. It wasn’t until just before 3.0 came out that I convinced myself custom-coded solutions aren’t the way to go. Now, I’m consulting on the side and working on WordPress sites for nonprofits and small businesses.

I didn’t really become involved with the WordPress community until last fall. Last year, I began following more WordPress folks on Twitter and started answering questions in the forums. I attended my first WordCamp — WordCamp Philly — in October. I’ve helped set up a Northeast Pennsylvania WordPress meetup — we had our first meetup recently in Scranton and are planning our next one for March 26. (We can be found on Meetup.com or on Twitter @nepawp.)

For WordPress 3.5, I published my first plugin (Disable XML-RPC). It’s a simple one-line plugin, but it’s left me wanting to create more. I’ve set a goal to contribute at least one thing to core in 2013.

Why do you want to be a WordPress.tv moderator?

I’ve only been to one WordCamp so far, but I love watching the videos from other conferences. They’ve helped me understand how much you can do with WordPress and inspire me in my own projects. I wanted to get more involved in the community so was very excited when I read about the need for moderators for WordPress.tv. I now have a (good) excuse to sit down and watch videos about WordPress, by some of the best in the business, every day.

What other things do you like to do?

When I’m not immersed in code or following the WordPress universe via Twitter on my phone, I’m playing with (and wrangling) my two kids: three-year-old Adam and one-year-old Rachel.

If you’re interested in getting involved in WordPress events, such as WordCamps and WordPress meetups, check out the Making WordPress Events discussion forum. You can also see what Phil and the WordPress.tv moderators are up to at wptvmods.