About us

A brief history of the Simple:Press forum plugin

The Simple:Press forum plugin has an interesting history, dating back to 2006, just three years after WordPress was introduced. The plugin was originally developed by Andy Staines to provide support for his small plugins. Dissatisfied with existing forum plugins, he created his own support mechanism and began using it on his website that December.

As more users of Andy’s other plugins started to use the forum for their questions and requests, it began to gain popularity. Users would ask if they could use the plugin on their own websites, and slowly but surely, the project gained momentum.

The second user to register on Andy’s support forum was Steve Klasen. He requested a copy of the plugin and began suggesting new features and changes, often writing half the code himself. As time went on, he became a valued collaborator and the project became increasingly dependent on both of them. Thus, a partnership was formed.

Simple:Press today

With nearly two decades of continuous development, it remains one of the longest-standing community plugins in the WordPress ecosystem.

As of February 2023, the Simple:Press forum and ecosystem is managed by Causality Agency, a small digital agency based in Stockholm, Sweden. Our team consists of approximately 15 developers, project managers, and designers who specialize in working with PHP, JavaScript and WordPress for both large and small client projects.

We share a passion for classic web forums and are dedicated to advancing the Simple:Press forum and its ecosystem. As such, we are committed to its ongoing development and growth.

Check out our other projects Domain Backup and Current Version.

Disclaimer

Simple:Press is an independent software project that is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the WordPress Foundation or WordPress.org.

The name “Simple:Press” has been used since 2006 to describe our feature-rich forum plugin designed specifically for the WordPress® platform. All references to “WordPress” are made strictly in a descriptive sense to indicate compatibility, in accordance with the WordPress Foundation’s trademark policy.

WordPress® is a registered trademark of the WordPress Foundation.