Zafriko.pl is an advanced project in my WordPress developer portfolio that I had the opportunity to develop as part of creating a modern social and entertainment platform. Between 2000 and 2015, this portal was one of the popular Polish sites offering users a blend of humour, multimedia, and interactive features. My task was to design and implement a responsive WordPress-based site, optimised for performance, scalability, and usability using the technologies available at that time. This project allowed me to demonstrate my technical expertise and skills in managing complex online systems.

The Purpose of the Site and Its Audience

The main goal of Zafriko.pl was to provide users with a platform to share humorous content, photos, and videos, along with social features such as comments and user profiles. The site was aimed at a broad group of adult users in Poland looking for light entertainment and online interaction in a dynamic yet user-friendly environment.

Site Functionalities

User Profiles: A registration and personalisation system with privacy settings, implemented using the UserPro plugin and custom WordPress forms.
Multimedia Publishing: Support for user uploads of photos and videos, realised using custom post types and the NextGEN Gallery plugin to manage galleries.
Social Interactions: A comment functionality enhanced with Disqus, a content rating system based on WP-PostRatings, and basic private messaging using BuddyPress.
Content Categorisation: A structure of categories and tags that supports navigation, optimised for SEO using All in One SEO Pack.
Responsiveness: Full mobile compatibility thanks to a theme built on Bootstrap 3.
Administrative Panel: Advanced content and user management using the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin and custom WordPress roles.

Challenges and Solutions

The realisation of the Zafriko.pl project required solving several technical challenges using technologies available in 2015:

Optimising the Presentation of a Rich Artistic Offer: Creating an intuitive and responsive portfolio system required implementing custom templates and dynamic content loading mechanisms using AJAX.
Performance Optimisation: To ensure fast loading times despite heavy multimedia usage, I implemented Cloudflare CDN for faster resource delivery, image compression using WP Smush, and caching via W3 Total Cache, which reduced server response times.
Stability and Security: I ensured the site’s stability by updating WordPress to version 4.3 (the latest in 2015), configuring basic caching on the Apache server, and performing daily backups with BackupBuddy.
SEO and Indexing: I optimised the site structure for search engines by using All in One SEO Pack to generate meta descriptions, titles, and an XML sitemap, which improved its ranking on Google.
Scalability of the System: Handling thousands of products required optimising the MySQL database through table indexing and custom PHP scripts to automate processes such as bulk content management.

Tools Used

WordPress 4.3, All in One SEO Pack, W3 Total Cache, WP Smush, NextGEN Gallery, Disqus, WP-PostRatings, UserPro, BuddyPress, Advanced Custom Fields, BackupBuddy, Cloudflare, Sublime Text, Git, FileZilla, Google Analytics.

Support and Maintenance

After the launch of the project, I provided comprehensive technical support, including updates of WordPress and WooCommerce to versions compatible with 2013, performance optimisation using W3 Total Cache and Cloudflare, daily backups using BackupBuddy, as well as ongoing adjustments to integrations with AB and external portals based on the client’s needs.

Summary

Zafriko.pl is a Polish social and entertainment portal from 2000-2015 that offered a mix of humour, multimedia, and interactive features. Thanks to custom WordPress solutions and advanced content presentation technologies, it provided users with a dynamic online community. This project showcased my technical expertise in managing complex online systems.

zafriko.pl

Zafriko.pl – A Polish Social and Entertainment Portal from 2000-2015