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Learning is important. I trust that is a non-controversial statement.

Much has been said about learning styles, and I will not repeat it here. However, something I see less talked about is learning phases. Specifically, I want to talk about two distinct phases of learning: Up and Out.

While learning usually is applied to a skill, the concept I'm talking about applies to anything: Learning a new skill, getting accustomed to a new community, or culture, or country, or tradition, or religion, or practice, or... pretty much anything.

Recent events in the PHP community in the past few days have reminded me of an important point that bears repeating. Quite simply: There are always community standards, and if you are not upholding them then you are actively undermining them.

One reason to follow development mailing lists is you sometimes pick up on some very neat tricks. Here's one that I spotted on the PHP Internals list recently to simplify array iteration in PHP 7.

Earlier this week a fellow PHP public figure tweeted saying that I write great session proposals for conferences. After I finished blushing I reached out to him and we talked a bit about what it was he likes about them. (Whatever I'm doing right, I want to know to keep doing it!)

Based on that, I figured it would be educational to dissect how I go about writing session proposals for conferences and hope that conference organizers don't catch on to my tricks. :-)

Articles, blog posts, and Twitter debates around "best practices" abound. You can't swing a dead cat without bumping into some article espousing the benefits of designing and building software a certain way. (Side note: What kind of sick person are you that you're swinging a dead cat around? Stop that! You're desecrating the dead!)

What nearly all of these articles fail to convey is that "best practices" are contextually-dependent. Always. For one, they evolve over time; really, there is no such thing as a "best practice"; There are "leading practices", which is an inherently changing and growing definition as the technology and market changes and as we as an industry learn more and discover new and exciting ways to royally screw up.

More importantly, though, "leading practices" can be vastly different depending on the type of software being built, who it's for, and how it will be used. That's often left out of such discussions, which is a problem because without that context advice can often not just be inapplicable but actively counter-productive.

While every project is unique, I would define three broad categories in which a given leading practice could be valid (or not).

Well, here we are again.

Most have by now seen the latest post from Dries Buytaert and Megan Sanicki about the reasons they saw fit to remove me from Drupal. Unfortunately, as has been the pattern it seems to raise even more questions than it answers, including from me.

This is a very uncomfortable time for Drupal. It seems there has been a great deal of concern and discomfort lurking just below the surface for a while, and recent events surrounding me have brought them all to the forefront at once. It's going to take some time to unravel it all. Hopefully it can be a learning process for many.

For the moment, though, there's one particular point I want to address, and particular people I want to address it to: Don't be an asshole, not even in my defense.

Since my last post Dries and Megan have issued a new joint statement on the ongoing mystery regarding my removal from DrupalCon and the gossip campaign against me. To date, I have focused my public posts mainly on my experiences, my beliefs, and the prejudice with which I have been treated by select members of the Drupal community and by select (if powerful) members of Drupal's leadership. However, I feel the latest joint post from Dries and Megan last Friday deserves a more direct response.

Some commenters noted that it doesn't add anything or reveal any additional information. I disagree. It makes implications and innuendo that are sufficiently untrue that I fear, if they have not crossed the line into libel, they certainly teeter on the precipice.