Dan Knauss (@dpknauss) – WordPress user profile

Bio

I am a Solution Architect for Multidots, an enterprise WordPress agency. I have been a WordPress enthusiast since its very beginning.

Interests

Anything, everything? If there is something uninteresting in the world, that would interest me too.

WordPress Origin Story

As a 70s/80s kid, teaching myself to code was just something we did back then. CompSci classes bored me in high school and university, but then the web came into view while I was learning to navigate *nix networks in grad school. After years of hand-coding in the ’90s, (and not counting the original blogger.com), Movable Type was the first extensible, self-hosted content management/publishing web application I used heavily, starting in 2001. A great community grew up around MT, which had some fantastic Perl plugins contributed by the late Alex King (before he founded Crowd Favorite) and John Gruber of Daring Fireball and Markdown fame. A lot of that talent and vision came over to Dean Allen’s influential Textpattern CMS and then WordPress as people who cared about quality writing and open web standards realized the value of working together under an open-source license.

My first client was a state medical research and teaching institution that needed me to scope out a Magento eCommerce project, write an RFP for it, and shop it out to preferred vendors, one of which has since become a major WordPress enterprise agency, and today I have colleagues there whom I’ve met at WordCamps. In retrospect, this was a great early experience that forced me to learn about relevant legal and compliance (contracts, liability, data, and personal information privacy, HIPAA, PCI) from the start.

Doing web projects on the side grew into a full-time service-oriented consultancy for me in 2004-06, thanks to open-source content management systems. I remember trying b2 and hearing about WordPress emerging from it as a fork, but I didn’t get deeply into it right away. I started building blog sites with WordPress, but I preferred Textpattern for a while, and I dipped into Drupal. Most of my work projects used the Joomla CMS (and its forked precursor, Mambo) until WordPress 2.9 came out at the end of 2009. Joomla’s plugin architecture and third-party product ecosystem made them incredibly versatile and simple to deploy for all kinds of projects. (Mambo even had an auto-installer.) After the WordPress 2.9 release with auto-updates from WP.org, WordPress also had these key qualities and features. Coupled with a robust theme and plugin market, the 2.9 release made WordPress viable as a CMS for client work. Within a few years, I was WordPress-exclusive.

Consulting and building sites for clients was my main focus from roughly 2004 to 2016, which allowed me to work at home and be a full-time parent active in my local community. By the end of that period, I was doing WordPress projects almost exclusively after working with many others — Movable Type, Drupal, Mambo, Joomla, Textpattern, and a number of eCommerce systems.

Shortly after its founding, I became the editor of Post Status, a wonderful part of the WordPress community for people making a living with WordPress and learning together. For a time, that work expanded to writing and podcasting on the business and culture of WordPress. That got me a lot deeper into the WordPress world.

Next, I worked as a technical generalist for Liquid Web’s StellarWP family of brands, weaving between marketing, product development, and design teams, writing, editing, and QA in each area. I mostly focused on SolidWP, Solid Security, and Infosec topics. From 2023 to the present, I’ve been a Solution Architect with Multidots, a WordPress VIP partner agency.

I’m also an organizer for the Edmonton WordPress Meetup and helped bring about WordCamp Canada 2025.

I blog about living with (and medical research related to) Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT) and other neuromuscular diseases at https://cmt.blog.

Member Since: September 14th, 2007
Location: Edmonton, Alberta • Canada
Website: dan.knauss.ca
GitHub: dknauss
Job Title: Senior Solution Architect
Employer: Multidots
Find me on:

Contribution History

Core Contributor
Documentation Contributor
Meetup Organizer
Photo Contributor
Translation Contributor
WordCamp Organizer
WordCamp Speaker
WordCamp Volunteer

Completed the course WordPress Credits Mentor’s Course on learn.wordpress.org
4 days ago
Wrote a new post, 🚀 Accelerate at WordCamp Canada 2025, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
The Human Made team behind Accelerate was absolutely thrilled to be a Great Lakes sponsor…
4 weeks ago
Wrote a new post, Weglot: Great Lakes Sponsor, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
Weglot is proud to be part of WordCamp Canada 2025, represented by our long-time partner and…
1 month ago
Wrote a new post, Vortex Solution: Makers of Findstr and Byscuit, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
Vortex Solution, the makers of Findstr and Byscuit, is one of our Northern Lights Sponsors this year.…
1 month ago
Wrote a new post, Vortex Solution: Makers of Findstr and Byscuit, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
Vortex Solution, the makers of Findstr and Byscuit, is one of our Northern Lights Sponsors this year.…
1 month ago
Wrote a new post, Thursday Evening Party at Dooly’s with Gridpane, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
Our Northern Lights sponsor Gridpane is hosting a gathering tonight at Dooly's in Ottawa from…
1 month ago
Is the 4th person to arrive at WordCamp Canada 2025
1 month ago
Wrote a new post, Our Global Sponsors, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
Our 2025 WordCamp Global Sponsors deserve a huge "thank you" for supporting all WordCamps and…
1 month ago
Wrote a new post, Our Coast-to-Coast Sponsors, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
We'd like to acknowledge and thank our Coast-to-Coast Sponsors today: GreenGeeks, Hosting.com, Kanopi Studios, and WP…
1 month ago
Wrote a new post, Join us at the Afterparty!, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
This party is possible thanks to Web Hosting Canada, WeGlot, and ONIK, three of our…
2 months ago
Wrote a new post, Plank, 🍁Maple Leaf Sponsors at WordCamp Canada 2025, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
We want to welcome Montréal-based Plank as one of our 🍁Maple Leaf Sponsors at WordCamp…
2 months ago
Wrote a new post, Our Laurentian Sponsors, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
Thank you, Laurentian Sponsors, for making WordCamp Canada 2025 possible and bringing your people and energy…
2 months ago
Wrote a new post, Web Hosting Canada, Northern Lights Sponsor at WordCamp Canada 2025, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
Web Hosting Canada (WHC) is one of our Northern Lights Sponsors this year. We're incredibly…
2 months ago
Wrote a new post, What is WordLand?, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
Dave Winer has shared a few things here about his WordLand (wordland.social) project, which he'll…
2 months ago
Wrote a new post, WCEH Keynote: Jill Binder, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
We are thrilled to announce that Jill Binder will be joining us from Vancouver as…
2 months ago
Wrote a new post, The final countdown to WordCamp Canada 2025, on the site English (Canada):
We are less than a month away from the opening of WordCamp Canada 2025 at…
2 months ago
Wrote a new post, Accessibility as a Value, Not an Add-on, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
As Canadians, we have a real opportunity to model accessibility-first thinking on the global stage.…
2 months ago
Wrote a new post, Exploring WordPress: From Ideas to Action in a Local and Global Community, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
Where there was once a vibrant meetup and startup scene that supported several WordCamps, there…
2 months ago
Translated 15 strings on translate.wordpress.org.
3 months ago
Wrote a new post, Conférenciers confirmés pour WordCamp Canada, on the site Français du Canada:
Le WCEH25 proposera des dizaines de conférences qui alimenteront certaines des discussions les plus importantes…
4 months ago
Wrote a new post, Speakers Confirmed for WordCamp Canada, on the site English (Canada):
WordPress enthusiasts, developers, business owners, and content creators from across Canada and around the world…
4 months ago
Created issue #1510 in the WordPress/wordcamp.org repository:
Canadian visa request letters should follow Canadian federal guidelines
4 months ago
Posted a reply to Mastodon “Likes” in WP New Comment Notifications, on the site WordPress.org Forums:
I finally got another example to share Matthias. When I get a "like" from someone…
4 months ago
Wrote a new post, What is your favourite public space?, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
Like a lot of us, New_ Public wants to reimagine social media. If you subscribe…
4 months ago
Posted a reply to Mastodon “Likes” in WP New Comment Notifications, on the site WordPress.org Forums:
Sorry, I've been busy and will have to repeat the steps to generate this result…
5 months ago
Wrote a new post, WCEH Keynote: Evan Prodromou, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
Welcoming Evan Prodromou to WordCamp Canada 2025 We’re thrilled to announce that Evan Prodromou will be…
5 months ago
Wrote a new post, Conference Rates at Ottawa Hotels, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
🎟️ Get your WCEH tickets early and lock into a discount rate at Ottawa hotels…
5 months ago
Wrote a comment on the post Lipstick, Lanyards and Laptops: Introverts Belong at WordCamp too!, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
I think @jillbinder@mastodon.social has some! Maybe we'll see her at WCEH...
5 months ago
Wrote a new post, WordCamp Canada Flier for Meetups, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
Spread the word about WordCamp Canada! Here's a flier you can download and share.
5 months ago
Wrote a new post, The Connections We Must Build, Right Here at WordCamp Canada, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
I'm writing and publishing this post to multiple WordPress community sites via WordLand (wordland.social) — the Edmonton…
5 months ago
Wrote a new post, WCEH Keynote: Dave Winer, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
It’s our great pleasure to introduce Dave Winer as a keynote speaker for WordCamp Canada.
5 months ago
Wrote a new post, Ticket sales are OPEN for WordCamp Canada, on the site WordCamp Canada 2025:
It's the moment you’ve been waiting for… 🎟️ Tickets for WordCamp Canada 2025 are on…
6 months ago
Translated 10 strings on translate.wordpress.org.
6 months ago
Suggested 33 strings on translate.wordpress.org.
6 months ago
Wrote a new post, WordCamp Montréal 2025 est de retour, on the site Français du Canada:
Montréal aura son WordCamp en présentiel cet été du jeudi 26 juin 2025 au vendredi…
7 months ago
Created a topic, Mastodon “Likes” in WP New Comment Notifications, on the site WordPress.org Forums:
When I get a "like" on Mastodon, WordPress sends a com…
7 months ago
Wrote a new post, WordCamp Canada 2025 Call for Speakers #WCEH, on the site English (Canada):
WCEH's Call for Speakers is open until June 15. Ready to inspire and be inspired?…
7 months ago
Wrote a new post, WordCamp Canada 2025 Call for Volunteers #WCEH, on the site English (Canada):
Like the WordPress software project WordCamp Canada (WCEH) is an open source event. It’s planned,…
8 months ago
Joined the organizing team for WordCamp Canada 2025 (FR)
8 months ago
Wrote a new post, WordCamp Canada 2025 Call for Sponsors #WCEH, on the site English (Canada):
The WordCamp Canada 2025 (WCEH) organizing team has issued a Call for Sponsors. A prospectus…
8 months ago
Completed the course Open source basics and WordPress on learn.wordpress.org
8 months ago
Completed the course Community team Program Supporter tasks on learn.wordpress.org
8 months ago
Completed the course Writing in the WordPress voice on learn.wordpress.org
8 months ago
Completed the course Community team event mentor training on learn.wordpress.org
8 months ago
Completed the course Community meeting etiquette on learn.wordpress.org
8 months ago
Completed the course How decisions are made in the WordPress project on learn.wordpress.org
8 months ago
Pull request #67711 merged into WordPress/gutenberg:
Update README.md
12 months ago
Submitted pull request #67711 to WordPress/gutenberg:
Update README.md
12 months ago
Pull request #366 merged into WordPress/Advanced-administration-handbook:
Update users-and-roles.md
1 year ago
Submitted pull request #366 to WordPress/Advanced-administration-handbook:
Update users-and-roles.md
1 year ago