Yoast Care fund: An interview with Bego Mario Garde

Today we’re interviewing Yoast Care fund recipient Bego Mario Garde, who received a nomination from Stefan Kremer. Stefan nominated Bego for his huge efforts as part of the support and polyglots team. He is focused and helpful to everyone, and much more. Let’s hear what nominator Stefan has to say about Bego and his role in the community:

Nominator Stefan Kremer: “Bego claiming he’s “not an expert” is clearly a contradiction to his achievements. Whenever you open his profile, you’ll rarely find an activity that he didn’t do that day. He is one of the people who keep the german support forum running with his answers. He will soon hit 20.000 answers in almost 11 years – which makes approx—5 per day on average! But there’s more: the list of translations he contributed is sheer endless”.

Let’s get to know Bego Mario Garde

Thank you for those warming words, Stefan. Now, let’s get to know this tireless contributor by asking him some questions:

Hi, Bego! What do you do?

As a part-time freelancer, I help small businesses build their websites and provide training, especially for WordPress.

How did you know about WordPress?

I read about a new content management system in 2005 and found it interesting as an alternative to website builders like FrontPage. But my first project with WordPress was the website for our daughter’s kindergarten in 2009.

So tell us, why do you think that you got nominated?

Users whose website has just crashed are often quite upset, and they are more likely to share anger and frustration. That can drag you down quite a bit. Maybe someone just wanted to cheer me up and acknowledge the support we provide in the WordPress support forums? I pass the thanks on to the whole support team!

What contribution or moment are you most proud of?

Does ‘sharing WordPress’ count as a contribution? In many beginner courses at our community college, I’ve taught how to use WordPress, and I’m always thrilled when participants show me their impressive website only a few weeks later.

But if we are talking about one of the Make-WordPress teams: I’m proud that (as a member of the support team) I could help fix a website that was created with love and effort over the years but seemed to be hopelessly lost. Sometimes this is a matter of just a few steps — Just ask!

Why did you start contributing?

When I started with WordPress, a lot of questions came up very quickly. I got an incredible amount of help on IRC chat back then—and started to give back by sharing my new knowledge with others. This way, I also learned something myself literally every day over the past twelve years—a typical win-win situation.

I also contributed to the translation because I felt that many terms were not translated optimally. For example, the terms Website and Website are phonetically very similar in German. Still, it makes a big difference whether we are talking about an entire “website” or a single “web page.” The bottom line is that I want WordPress to meet the high standards for corporate use.

What would you love to do in the future?

There’s currently a donation campaign handing school children a Raspberry Pi and a monitor for free. In the photos, the children all look so proud that they get to work with it. Wouldn’t it be great to see such happy faces on school children using WordPress for the first time?

Where can people find you?

In the German support forum, you can find me under the profile name @pixolin, which is also my username on Twitter. I occasionally participate in local meetups and am looking forward to attending local WordCamps again someday to meet in person.

Thank you for this amazing interview, Bego. And for all of your contributions to the community, both internationally and in Germany! If you’re reading this and know a contributor like Bego who deserves some recognition, don’t wait any longer. Nominate them for our Care fund by going to our Yoast Care page right now.