In this episode, Scott talks with Eric Van Johnson of PHP[architect] LLC, about writing for the php[architect] magazine, the talk submissions process for php[tek], and why you should have a subscription to php[architect].

Interview With Eric Van Johnson

 

Note: this transcript was transcribed and then edited for clarity and to make it easier to read.

Scott Keck-Warren: Hello Developers, and welcome to episode one of the PHP Architect Community Corner, where we have conversations with members of the PHP community and the technology community at large. I’m your host, Scott Keck-Warren.

Today we’re talking with Eric Van Johnson about submitting articles to the php[architect] magazine, the selection process for talks at php[tek] 2024, and the benefits of having a subscription to the php[architect] magazine.

Eric Van Johnson is one of the minds behind php[architect] LLC. Described as loud and passionate about the PHP programming language, he has been known to record a podcast or two, or maybe even three. Powered by scotch and hope, you can follow Eric on Twitter @shocm / Mastdon @[email protected].

Thank you, Eric, for finding time to talk with us today.

 

Eric Van Johnson: Scott, thanks for taking the time to talk to me, I appreciate it.

Scott Keck-Warren: Absolutely!

 

Writing for php[architect]

 

Scott Keck-Warren: I know that the php[architect] magazine is a magazine made by the community for the community, and you’re constantly looking for contributors to help write articles. If I had an idea for an article, what would the process be?

Eric Van Johnson: Right? Great question. I appreciate you asking.

It’s really meant to be as least stressful as we can be. Essentially, there’s just so much good information out there that we as developers, hold onto, and we want to make sure everybody has an outlet to share that because it’s just nonstop. You know, our industry is always changing. There’s always new things emerging, how we do things. There’s no one right way to do things. So everybody has, you know, a thought or an understanding or knowledge of something.

 

If you’re interested in contributing to php[architect] the magazine. You just simply reach out to us and it can be as casual as, “Hey, I have an idea for an article. Is this something you would be interested in?” We’re pretty straightforward with you. We’ll give you a yes or no. Ideally, we like things focused on PHP. That’s kind of our always our free pass. But even if it’s PHP adjacent where it’s like web technology or web development or something like that, even then we’ll give it a listen and kind of talk through it.

 

Eric Van Johnson: After that, all we ask is for the article to be ideally between 2500 and 3500 words. That seems like a lot but really, once you start writing, it flies by. Commonly, people contribute well over 3500. And that’s okay as well. That 3500 is not the high bar if you hit it then everything gets cut off. It’s more like that’s the sweet spot for us to get it in one release of a magazine. We’ve had articles, 5000 words, 6000 words, and all we end up doing is breaking those out across a couple of releases.

 

Once we agree on a topic and you understand what we ask as far as a deliverable, you then tell us when you think you can have it done. Now, this is not a hard deadline you’re setting for yourself. It’s just for us on our end. We add those articles to our pipeline and we can see, oh, Scott says in December he’s going to have a feature article for us. Haven’t heard from Scott, so we’ll assume he’s still targeting that December release. If you do end up having to postpone it and you need more time,