a:4:{s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:3:"rss";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:3:"


";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"version";s:3:"2.0";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"channel";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:61:"
	
	
	
	




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"Post Status: Keeping Higher Education Website Managers’ Dream Alive While Sunsetting Edupack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=128296";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:102:"https://poststatus.com/keeping-higher-education-website-managers-dream-alive-while-sunsetting-edupack/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4974:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Every University IT department dreams of a self-service system in which they do not have to deal with outside vendors. The dream includes a simple form that its users can fill out to generate websites from a library of templates. With Nathan Monk and Matt Lees, I cofounded a project called Edupack to realize the dream of simplified website management with a single WordPress plugin.</p>



<img width="752" height="471" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image-3-752x471.jpg" alt="A screenshot of the Edupack plugin." class="not-transparent wp-image-128297" />A screenshot of the Edupack plugin.



<p>After eighteen months, <a href="https://poststatus.com/evolving-edupack-a-one-size-fits-all-plugin-leads-to-an-accessibility-platform-and-enhanced-agency-services">Edupack is stopping work and moving in a new direction</a>.</p>



<p>After user studies with folks from over 40 universities, including Harvard and Georgetown, I realize that Edupack cannot simplify website management with one plugin.</p>



<p>University users have particular website needs. We would have to build thousands of templates to satisfy the many detail-focused university users before. That design work is not affordable for many Higher Ed technology teams.</p>



<p>That said, Higher Ed pros should keep their dream of simplified website management alive.</p>



<p>I encourage most Universities to give up templated solutions and restrict “self-service” controls. Templates do not meet specific user requirements. Technology teams should focus on websites that can’t be built on WordPress.com or Squarespace. Many self-service use cases, like faculty profiles, can be satisfied with simple forms instead of access to an entire Content Management System.</p>



<p>Another key to simplified website management is increased resources. Website managers should argue the importance of their role. Websites are a key touchpoint for students. They not only include vital services like Student Information Systems, but websites also establish branding. Branding is an undervalued resource. Security teams rely on branding to establish official communication and brand awareness increases the marketing potential of any institution.</p>



<p>Of course, Harvard has one of the most recognizable brands. They also have one of the more successful web teams I’ve seen. The <a href="https://hwp.harvard.edu">Harvard Web Publishing</a> team fields tickets for new websites. Some of their websites are delivered as templated solutions. Other websites are built to the bespoke interests of their colleagues. Every new user goes through a content accessibility training course and their support staff is trained to answer most website publishing issues. That model allows Harvard to set their own requirements instead of relying on a third-party service while giving faculty and students a vital resource for promoting university-related work.</p>



<p>Most institutions do not have a budget to create their in-house web agency or hire third-party vendors. That fact troubles me. My only solution to that problem is for prominent universities to open-source their work and knowledge. Groups like <a href="https://www.wpcampus.org">WP Campus</a> help share open-source web publishing knowledge. Without paying any membership fee, administrators at small schools can participate in the active WP Campus Slack channels and attend their annual conference. The onus is on university staff to contribute their knowledge to the group.</p>



<p>Edupack was born because of WP Campus. Matt, Nathan, and I saw reoccurring complaints about the complexity of website management on the WP Campus Slack. After many months of work, I hope lessons from Edupack inspire ever-better solutions.</p>



<div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile is-image-fill has-background" id="author"><a href="https://poststatus.com/"><img width="250" height="250" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Fh0orwK7_400x400.jpg" alt="Blake Bertucelli" class="wp-image-102307 size-full" /></a><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p><strong>Blake Bertucelli</strong> is simplifying website management with <a href="https://edupack.dev)">Edupack</a>, while building the world’s first accessibility platform, <a href="https://t.co/qU9MY0KpIl">equalify.app</a>, and supporting independent journalism with <a href="http://t.co/wwRl8NtG4X">Decubing Web Services</a>.</p>



<ul class="is-content-justification-left is-layout-flex wp-container-1 wp-block-social-links has-small-icon-size is-style-logos-only"><li class="wp-social-link wp-social-link-twitter wp-block-social-link"><a href="https://twitter.com/bbertucc" class="wp-block-social-link-anchor"><span class="wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text">Twitter</span></a></li></ul>
</div></div>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 15 Nov 2022 14:15:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17:"Blake Bertuccelli";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:1;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"Do The Woo Community: Krissie VandeNoord, Building Custom Solutions with WooCommerce";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=73496";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"https://dothewoo.io/krissie-vandenoord-building-custom-solutions-with-woocommerce/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:438:"<p>Krissie VandeNoord shares insights and experiences with WooCommerce and WordPress through her agency North UX Design.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/krissie-vandenoord-building-custom-solutions-with-woocommerce/">Krissie VandeNoord, Building Custom Solutions with WooCommerce</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 15 Nov 2022 10:14:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:2;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"WPTavern: WordPress to Explore Using GitHub Codespaces for Improving Contributor Experience";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=139477";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:102:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-to-explore-using-github-codespaces-for-improving-contributor-experience";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4102:"<p>WordPress lead developer Helen Hou-Sandí has <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/09/improving-the-contributor-experience-github-codespaces-for-wordpress-core/">proposed using GitHub Codespaces</a> to improve the contributor experience. GitHub recently <a href="https://github.blog/2022-11-10-whats-new-with-codespaces-from-github-universe-2022/">announced</a> the availability of GitHub Codespaces, its quick launch cloud-based developer environment, for all users, with 60 hours free per month for Free users and 90 hours for Pro users. Codespaces makes it possible to launch any GitHub repository in a single click.  </p>



<img />image source: <a href="https://github.co.jp/features/codespaces">GitHub.com</a>



<p>&#8220;I’m looking to make <code>wordpress/wordpress-develop</code> usable in GitHub Codespaces with an initial target audience of folks getting started with contributing to core on a Contributor Day,&#8221; Hou-Sandí. &#8220;This seems to mostly be a matter of making decisions about our container setup(s).&#8221;</p>



<p>Getting a development environment up and running can be one of the most time-consuming aspects of attending a contributor day, especially with slow wi-fi. Hou-Sandí recently experienced this at the 2022 WordCamp US Contributor Day.</p>



<p>&#8220;This experience reminded me that as a project we should take a look at making it ever-easier to contribute to WordPress, and a remote development option is a good thing to have in our toolkit,&#8221; she said. &#8220;This allows contributors to get started with minimal setup and without the requirement of a desktop/laptop – you could patch and test WordPress from a tablet or your phone.&#8221;</p>



<p>Hou-Sandí has been working with Codespaces for nearly two years. In her 2021 WCUS presentation titled &#8220;<a href="https://wordpress.tv/2021/12/23/helen-hou-sandi-a-voice-for-the-new-white-house-administration-with-the-block-editor/">A voice for the new White House administration with the block editor</a>,&#8221; she surprised the audience with a live demo of the architecture of <a href="https://github.com/helen/wcus-2021">a custom block</a> using Codespaces. The <a href="https://videopress.com/v/JUu36f8a?at=1810">recording</a>, which tours some of the work she and her team did on the 2020/2021 Biden/Harris whitehouse.gov website, is a good example of how Codespaces can be a helpful tool for WordPress development.</p>



<p>WordPress developers responded positively in support of using Codespaces to improve contributor experience and many are eager to help on the project and test when it&#8217;s ready.</p>



<p>Gutenberg engineer Riad Benguella said having a built-in online development and testing environment would be &#8220;a great addition to the WordPress and Gutenberg repositories.&#8221;</p>



<p>If using Codespaces can reduce the friction and help people get set up with a development environment in a matter of minutes versus hours, it would significantly improve the productivity at events dedicated to contributing.</p>



<p>&#8220;I believe this will help not only new but all contributors,&#8221; WordPress developer Tung Du said. &#8220;To me, using Codespaces to review PRs is such a great experience.&#8221;</p>



<p>&#8220;Besides, adding Codespaces support also means adding devcontainer support, which makes it way easier to set up the local development environment for contributors who use VS Code.&#8221;</p>



<p>GitHub&#8217;s limit of 60 free hours may also be used up by developers in their own projects so there may still be the need for tutorials on using other local development methods. For the occasional Codespaces user, it&#8217;s tough to beat the convenience of spinning up a development environment in seconds.</p>



<p>&#8220;I love this even for contributors who aren’t new,&#8221; Scott Kingsley Clark said. &#8220;I personally would find this very handy as it removes another roadblock towards contributing. I’m all for it, I can’t wait to give it a try once it’s ready for testing.&#8221;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 15 Nov 2022 03:15:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:3;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:121:"Post Status: Evolving Edupack: A One-Size Fits All Plugin Leads to an Accessibility Platform and Enhanced Agency Services";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=128289";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:131:"https://poststatus.com/evolving-edupack-a-one-size-fits-all-plugin-leads-to-an-accessibility-platform-and-enhanced-agency-services/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3852:"<p class="has-drop-cap">A little over a year ago, I cofounded Edupack with Nathan Monk and Matt Lees. Edupack endeavored to simplify Higher Ed website publishing with a single WordPress plugin.</p>



<blockquote><p>In our interviews, Higher Ed admins said they were overwhelmed by accessibility issues. Good accessibility tools are too expensive for most web teams. Cheaper tools do more harm than good.</p></blockquote>



<p>For many months, Edupack met with folks from over 40 universities, including Harvard, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, and Georgetown. We identified key problems around accessibility, governance, and sunsetting sites with stale content. Lessons from countless user interviews led to months of user testing before we released a coded version in early 2022.</p>



<p>Now, Edupack is evolving.</p>



<p><strong>I now believe that a one size fits all website publishing product is not possible.</strong> Each university has its own set of requirements. The requirements vary from the placement of buttons to the type of accessibility a university mandates. In the end, universities shouldn’t sacrifice individual requirements for ease of use.</p>



<p><strong>The features that can be productized are largely around content accessibility.</strong> In our Edupack interviews, Higher Ed admins said they were overwhelmed by accessibility issues. Good accessibility tools, like <a href="https://www.siteimprove.com/">SiteImprove</a>, are too expensive for most web teams. Cheaper tools, like <a href="https://accessibe.com/">accessiBe</a>, do more harm than help.</p>



<p>Edupack lessons around Accessibility inspired a new project called <a href="https://equalify.app/">Equalify</a>. Equalify releases tools users expect from accessibility scanners under an Open Source, <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/AGPL-3.0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Affero General Public License</a>. On top of Open Source code, we will build additional tools that simplify content accessibility, hopefully satisfying the needs of Higher Ed pros we spoke with when building Edupack.</p>



<p>Edupack lessons outside of Accessibility will also not go to waste. My web design agency, Decubing, is launching “<a href="http://decubing.com/campus">Managed Campus</a>.” Managed Campus brings no productized requirements to a project. That allows us to adapt to the individual Higher Ed specifications, which prevented us from continuing Edupack.</p>



<p>My career is built around website management. While I will miss the ring of the “Edupack” name, I am confident that my new chapter with Decubing and Equalify is a step toward better website management.</p>



<div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile is-image-fill has-background" id="author"><a href="https://poststatus.com/"><img width="250" height="250" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Fh0orwK7_400x400.jpg" alt="Blake Bertucelli" class="wp-image-102307 size-full" /></a><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p><strong>Blake Bertucelli</strong> is simplifying website management with <a href="https://edupack.dev)">Edupack</a>, while building the world’s first accessibility platform, <a href="https://t.co/qU9MY0KpIl">equalify.app</a>, and supporting independent journalism with <a href="http://t.co/wwRl8NtG4X">Decubing Web Services</a>.</p>



<ul class="is-content-justification-left is-layout-flex wp-container-3 wp-block-social-links has-small-icon-size is-style-logos-only"><li class="wp-social-link wp-social-link-twitter wp-block-social-link"><a href="https://twitter.com/bbertucc" class="wp-block-social-link-anchor"><span class="wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text">Twitter</span></a></li></ul>
</div></div>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17:"Blake Bertuccelli";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:122:"WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 43: Openverse &amp; Photo Directory– What Are They, and How Are They Different?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"https://wordpress.org/news/?post_type=podcast&p=13890";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:113:"https://wordpress.org/news/2022/11/episode-43-openverse-photo-directory-what-are-they-and-how-are-they-different/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8476:"<p>In the forty-third episode of the WordPress Briefing, Josepha Haden Chomphosy explores two resources for openly licensed media in the WordPress project&#8211; Openverse and Photo Directory&#8211; and how they differ from one another!</p>



<p><em><strong>Have a question you&#8217;d like answered? You can submit them to <a href="mailto:wpbriefing@wordpress.org">wpbriefing@wordpress.org</a>, either written or as a voice recording.</strong></em></p>



<h2>Credits</h2>



<p>Editor:&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dustinhartzler/">Dustin Hartzler</a><br />Logo:&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/javiarce/">Javier Arce</a><br />Production:&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/santanainniss/">Santana Inniss</a><br />Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod </p>



<h2>References</h2>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/photos/">Photo Directory Make Page</a><br /><a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/submit/">Submit a Photo to the Photo Directory</a><br /><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/">Openverse Make Page</a><br /><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/44496">Openverse Call for Contributions: Block Editor Integration</a><br /><a href="https://wordpress.org/download/">Download WordPress 6.1</a><br /><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/?p=13761">Docs Team Contributor Day Recap Post</a><br /><a href="https://wp.me/p4FYxH-1XH">Hallway Hangout Block Themes (Video)</a></p>



<h2>Transcript</h2>



<span id="more-13890"></span>



<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00]&nbsp;</strong></p>



<p>Hello everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks.&nbsp;</p>



<p>I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go!</p>



<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00]&nbsp;</strong></p>



<p>About 18 months ago, the Openverse project became part of the WordPress open source project, and at roughly the same time, we also welcomed the Photo Directory.</p>



<p>Since that time, we&#8217;ve seen growth in teams supporting both of these initiatives. But if you&#8217;re not involved in the day-to-day, it can be hard to know how those two things fit together or if they fit together at all.</p>



<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:00]&nbsp;</strong></p>



<p>Today, let&#8217;s take a brief tour of those two projects and why they came to be.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In my timeline, work on the Photo Directory started before the work on Openverse, so that&#8217;s where we&#8217;ll start.</p>



<p>For as long as I can remember, the WordPress community has raised the need for WordPress-first ways to have and host GPL-compatible photos for use in themes, site builds, and marketing efforts as a whole. As recently as 2016, that was still coming up as a question at various flagship events and among the career photographers that contribute their time to WordPress.</p>



<p>So in 2017 and 2018, as attention started to turn toward rebuilding the CMS using blocks, it dropped down the list of priority items. But it never really went away as a thing that people were hoping we could do for the project as a whole. So in 2019, it was becoming clear that having open source-first tools of all varieties for people whose businesses were built on our software would help broaden the availability of the open source freedoms we believe in.</p>



<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:00]&nbsp;</strong></p>



<p>This began the work on the Photo Directory with the intention of providing a GPL-friendly, community-driven repository of images. It has since launched, and we have photos in it now. We have a whole team around it. It&#8217;s wonderful. But that is how that all kind of came to be.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Openverse, on the other hand, was launched as CC Search in 2019 with the laudable mandate to increase the discoverability and accessibility of open access media.</p>



<p>Late in 2020, while work on the Photo Directory was underway, Matt shared with me that the team was looking for a new project home. When I first met with them, they shared an overview of the product, which they shorthanded as an open source search engine that searches openly licensed images. We were working on a repo of openly licensed images, so clearly, this was all written in the stars. And so you might be asking yourself at this point, great, how does it work together?</p>



<p>I think for most of us, the timeline there kind of covers the question of what is the difference between these two things.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:00]&nbsp;</strong></p>



<p>But because I never know which of you will want to strike up a conversation about open source on an elevator, I&#8217;ve also got the elevator pitch version.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Openverse is an open source search engine that searches, indexes, and aggregates copy left media from across the web using sources such as WordPress&#8217;s Photo Directory, Flickr&#8217;s CC Tagged Media, and Wikimedia, to name just a few.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Another key difference between the Photo Directory and Openverse is that in order to contribute to the Photo Directory, now that it&#8217;s all built, that&#8217;s mostly done by submitting photos or reviewing photos. So you don&#8217;t really need to be a developer to join in.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Openverse is not only a developer-centric contribution opportunity, but it also uses a different tech stack than WordPress as a whole. So it&#8217;s a good place for folks to go if they&#8217;re looking to broaden their horizons.</p>



<p>So that&#8217;s your elevator pitch of what Openverse is and how it uses the Photo Directory.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:00]&nbsp;</strong></p>



<p>You have a couple of ways that you can get involved with these two projects. For the Photo Directory, as I mentioned at the start, you can always contribute photos, and they could always use more photo contributions.</p>



<p>I&#8217;ll include a link to the submission guidelines in the show notes below, and as I mentioned, it is a no-code way to give back to the WordPress project. So no code, development environments, and testing skills are required. The Photo Directory team also could always use more contributors to help with the moderating of photo submissions.</p>



<p>And so I&#8217;ll link to their making WordPress page in the show notes as well so that you can get started there.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And as I mentioned before, Openverse is an aggregator, so it doesn&#8217;t host any media itself, but it is always accepting suggestions for new GPL-compatible media providers. I&#8217;ll link the area where you can leave suggestions in the show notes as well.</p>



<p>And if you are more code inclined, there&#8217;s an open issue for adding Openverse browsing to the block editor right now.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:00]&nbsp;</strong></p>



<p>So I&#8217;ll link that issue in the show notes in case you thought to yourself, gosh, that sounds like my most favorite thing to do. That is where you can go.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:12]</strong></p>



<p>This leads us now to our small list of big things.</p>



<p>In case you missed it, WordPress 6.1 is now available. It launched on November 1st. Late, late, late in the day, and so it was easy to miss if you&#8217;re used to seeing it at a particular time. We were about six hours later than usual. But if you go to wordpress.org/download, you can get your own copy there.</p>



<p>The second thing on our small list of big things is that the Docs team had a contributor day. It was excellent. There&#8217;s a recap post up. I will include that in the show notes.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And then the final thing is that there was a recent hallway hangout that talked about the site editor and block themes.</p>



<p>[<strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy </strong>00:06:00]&nbsp;</p>



<p>The video for that is also published. I will also share that in our show notes.</p>



<p>And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I&#8217;ll see you again in a couple of weeks.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 14 Nov 2022 12:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Santana Inniss";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"Post Status: Learning and Pulling Together";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=143306";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"https://poststatus.com/learning-and-pulling-together/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12202:"<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-group eplus-wrapper has-theme-palette-2-color has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-text-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">This week was all about revisiting and continuing conversations that have special value and maybe for that reason tend to continue on with a life of their own. <strong>Tom Willmot</strong> dropped a fine <strong>Twitter</strong> thread about t<a href="https://twitter.com/tomwillmot/status/1589919739643834370">he challenge all enterprise WordPress agencies face</a>. This came in response to <strong>Magne Ilsas</strong>&#8216; featured post here last week, <a href="https://poststatus.com/the-wordpress-enterprise-paradox/">The WordPress Enterprise Paradox</a>. In a similar theme of industry peer cooperation, <strong>Eric Karkovack</strong> asks if WordPress product owners and developers can see a common interest in &#8220;<a href="https://thewpminute.com/the-wordpress-ecosystem-needs-closer-scrutiny/">voluntary standards</a>.&#8221; Could this clean up the plugin market? <strong>James Farmer</strong> thinks the WordPress business community can do more for itself too — by sharing data. In <strong>Post Status Slack</strong> we're learning the tricks and trials of ranking in the WordPress.org plugin repository. How about plugin telemetry? Learn from the voices of experience. </p></div>


<div class="wp-block-spacer eplus-wrapper"></div>



<p class="yoast-reading-time__wrapper"><span class="yoast-reading-time__icon"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__spacer"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__descriptive-text">Estimated reading time:  </span><span class="yoast-reading-time__reading-time">4</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>
</div></div>



<p><strong>Tom Willmot</strong> (<strong>Human Made</strong>) dropped <a href="https://twitter.com/tomwillmot/status/1589919739643834370">a fine Twitter thread</a> in response to <strong>Magne Ilsaas</strong>&#8216; (<strong>Dekode</strong>) featured post here last week, <a href="https://poststatus.com/the-wordpress-enterprise-paradox/">The WordPress Enterprise Paradox</a>. Tom emphasized Magne's main points but thinks the biggest challenge is how the lack of a clear &#8220;definition of &#8216;Enterprise WordPress' as a space and a brand&#8221; leads agencies &#8220;to a lot of duplication of effort and .. [a] struggle to communicate what we are as an enterprise platform.&#8221; This also poses &#8220;the biggest opportunity.&#8221; </p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Good post on <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@post_status</a> from our friends at <a href="https://twitter.com/dekodeno?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dekodeno</a> on what we need to do differently as Enterprise WordPress agencies if we want to continue to grow and flourish. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f9f5.png" alt="🧵" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f447.png" alt="👇" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://t.co/SB6lu11O4X">https://t.co/SB6lu11O4X</a></p>&mdash; Tom Willmot (@tomwillmot) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomwillmot/status/1589919739643834370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_d91112-c1"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>



<h2>&#8220;If WordPress.org won't do it, why don't we?&#8221;</h2>



<p>That's what <strong>James Farmer</strong> had to say about the <strong>WordPress.org</strong> plugin repository debacle over <strong>Matt Mullenweg</strong>&#8216;s <a href="https://poststatus.com/active-install-data-story-update-not-a-breach-but-abuse-of-an-endpoint/">sudden removal</a> of the active install growth charts. Kicking off a series of Product and Agency Founder episodes of <strong>Post Status Draft</strong>, <a href="https://poststatus.com/wordpress-in-the-long-view-with-james-farmer-post-status-draft-129/">Cory chatted with James</a> about everything from his launch of the first hosted WordPress multisite blogging platform — just a few days ahead of WordPress.com — to his views on Gutenberg, how he stays competitive with <strong>Squarespace</strong>, and how he thinks the WordPress business community should pull together to do more for themselves, collectively. <a href="https://poststatus.com/wordpress-in-the-long-view-with-james-farmer-post-status-draft-129/">WATCH/LISTEN→</a></p>



<p>In a similar vein <strong>Eric Karkovack</strong> put out <a href="https://thewpminute.com/the-wordpress-ecosystem-needs-closer-scrutiny/">a call for greater scrutiny of the WordPress ecosystem</a> by those with the power to influence it for the better. We got in <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1668029348422229">an extended discussion of the possibilities</a> in Post Status Slack. Eric would like to see &#8220;voluntary standards&#8221; developed and promoted by WordPress product owners and developers who see the stake they have in a healthy WordPress ecosystem. Spreading &#8220;best practices in code and business&#8221; would make it a lot healthier. <strong>Zach Stepek</strong>, <strong>Lesley Sim</strong>, <strong>Carl Alexander</strong>, and Patrick Leblanc rounded out the conversation with the possibilities, including the barriers and frustrations, for such a project. If you share an interest, <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1668029348422229">please join in</a>.</p>



<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_358dd9-49"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>



<h2>How do you rank in the plugin repository?</h2>



<p><strong>Jack McConnell </strong>(<strong>Made With Fuel</strong>) noticed his plugin's tag position slipping &#8220;quite a bit&#8221; in search results on&nbsp;<a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordPress.org/plugins</a>&nbsp;recently and wanted to compare notes with other plugin owners in Post Status <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/C0413T6GD/p1665403729879399">#business</a>. Despite handling support tickets quickly, <strong>PluginRank</strong> and personal testing showed a steep drop on key search tags. The resulting discussion was instructive and surfaced frustrations we've heard a lot with the <strong>Plugin Team</strong>&#8216;s typical response. <strong>Marius Jensen</strong> and <strong>Greg Brown</strong> chimed in to show the search algorithm is &#8220;fully transparent&#8221; and hasn't changed. The general conclusion was that competition from other plugins is likely driving the changes, which can be dramatic but don't necessarily correspond to any dips in revenue for the plugin owner.</p>



<h2>Could voluntary standards clean up the plugin market?</h2>



<p>It's unfortunate but typical that basic guidelines for success on the plugin repository are scattered and part of the vast realm of WordPress &#8220;lore&#8221; that never spreads very far from WordPress insiders. (<strong>Freemius</strong> has <a href="https://freemius.com/blog/seo-on-new-plugin-repository/">a handy, free guide</a>, however.) Surfacing more of this knowledge would likely remove some barriers to entry for newcomers and maybe help reduce the pressure to turn to novel, aggressive, and perhaps &#8220;mercenary&#8221; tactics. At the same time, it also seems clear that competing only or even primarily on the repo is an unnecessary and limiting misstep. The competition between 60k+ plugins all in one place is high, and as <strong><a href="https://poststatus.com/member-spotlight-igor-ligay/">Igor Ligay</a></strong> (<strong>StyleMix</strong>) noted, there are no categories or tags to filter them, so your plugin's fate is in the hands of the site's <strong>ElasticSearch</strong> engine — and <strong>Google</strong>. </p>



<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_fd77f1-31"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>



<h2 id="h-how-do-you-get-plugin-telemetry">How do you get plugin telemetry?</h2>



<p>This week <strong>Rohit Singhal</strong> (<strong>Xtendify</strong>) asked how others are <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1667314812791079">tracking how customers use new features</a> in plugins or themes. <strong><a href="https://amplitude.com/">Amplitude</a></strong>, <strong><strong><a href="https://mixpanel.com/">Mixpanel</a></strong></strong>, <strong><a href="https://jitsu.com/">Jitsu</a></strong>, and <strong>Google Analytics</strong> are his tools of choice. That led <strong>Nathalie Lussier</strong> to surface <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/C0413TGQZ/p1636392452168500">a rich thread</a> from last November when <strong>Adrian Tobey</strong> (<strong>Groundhogg</strong>) wanted to know how plugin owners and developers get telemetry. </p>



<p><strong>Jason Adams</strong> said <strong>GiveWP</strong> has a custom solution built on <strong>Laravel</strong> using <strong>Microsoft</strong>&#8216;s <strong><a href="https://powerbi.microsoft.com/">Power BI</a></strong> for analytics and charts. <strong>Jack Kitterhing</strong> (<strong>LearnDash</strong>) recommended <strong>Mixpanel</strong> and says it has been integrated successfully with some plugins, but users have to opt in. Nathalie said she has been using <strong><a href="https://www.chameleon.io/">Chameleon</a></strong> for <strong>AccessAlly</strong>. <strong>Collins Agbonghama</strong> recommended <strong><a href="https://wisdomplugin.com/">Wisdom</a></strong>. <strong>Victor Ramirez</strong> uses <strong><a href="http://segment.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Segment</a></strong> to send data to Mixpanel, Google Analytics, and then <strong><a href="https://www.snowflake.com/">Snowflake</a></strong>&nbsp;as <a href="https://www.rudderstack.com/blog/why-take-a-warehouse-first-approach-to-analytics/">a data warehouse</a>.&nbsp;Victor also recommended <strong><a href="https://docs.snowplowanalytics.com/docs/open-source-quick-start/what-is-the-quick-start-for-open-source/">Snowplow</a></strong> as an open-source option and <a href="https://www.rudderstack.com/"><strong>RudderStack</strong></a> which has <a href="https://github.com/rudderlabs/rudder-php-sdk">a PHP-based SDK</a> as well as <a href="https://rudderstack.com/blog/customer-data-pipelines-play-a-key-role-in-data-privacy">resources for data privacy</a>.</p>



<h2>Quick Links</h2>



<ul>
<li>Every time a <strong>Tumblr</strong> Creator takes subscribers, a <strong>WooCommerce</strong> site is born. <a href="https://dothewoo.io/tumblr-showing-some-woo-enterprise-and-returning-woocommerce-office-hours/">We did not know that</a>. <strong>Bob Dunn</strong> and <strong>Tom Willmot</strong> were as amazed as I am.</li>



<li><strong>Matthew Butterick</strong> is <a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-sued-for-open-source-piracy-through-github-copilot/">suing <strong>Microsoft</strong> for open source piracy</a> — and the pirate is <strong>GitHub Copilot</strong>. Naturally <a href="https://githubcopilotlitigation.com/">Matthew has set up a site about the case</a>, and it has beautiful typography.</li>



<li>&#8220;If documentation is a product (<a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Product-Docs-technical-documentation-development-ebook/dp/B085KHTV95">and it is</a>), minimum viable documentation is <strong>the bare minimum documentation that is useful and helpful to customers</strong>.&#8221; <a href="https://thisisimportant.net/posts/from-nothing-to-something-with-minimum-viable-documentation/">Learn how to define your project's MVD</a> from <strong>Sarah Moir</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 11 Nov 2022 21:00:32 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Dan Knauss";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"Post Status: Design and Development News for the Week of November 7";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=143397";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"https://poststatus.com/design-and-development-news-for-the-week-of-november-7/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6619:"<h2 id="h-wordpress-design-development-around-the-web">WordPress Design & Development Around the Web</h2>



<p>Here’s a glimpse of what’s going on in the world of design and development in the WordPress space this past week.</p>



<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-group eplus-wrapper has-theme-palette-2-color has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-text-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">A new way to keep up with that fast-moving project we all rely on, <strong>PHP</strong>. • Making <code>wordpress/wordpress-develop</code> usable in GitHub Codespaces. • Help count WordPress contributors and sponsors • Directory Serve is our cool tool of the week — a way to serve files to and from your phone. </p></div>


<div class="wp-block-spacer eplus-wrapper"></div>



<p class="yoast-reading-time__wrapper"><span class="yoast-reading-time__icon"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__spacer"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__descriptive-text">Estimated reading time:  </span><span class="yoast-reading-time__reading-time">4</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>
</div></div>



<h2>Keeping up with PHP</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.jetbrains.com/"><strong>JetBrains</strong></a>, the company behind a suite of developers tools, including the popular <strong>PhpStorm</strong> and <strong>WebStorm</strong>, recently launched <a href="https://blog.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/2022/11/php-annotated-the-youtube-channel/"><strong>PHP Annotated</strong></a> — a channel on <strong>YouTube</strong>.</p>



<p>The channel’s creator <strong>Brent Roose</strong> is a well-known PHP blogger and PHP core contributor. Brent previously worked at <a href="https://spatie.be/"><strong>Spat</strong>ie</a> and is now a PHP developer advocate at JetBrains, so it makes sense that his employer would want to use his existing YouTube channel and followers.</p>



<p>As before, the channel is focused on engaging with the PHP community. The only difference is that now Brent will be able to offer far more (and better) content.&nbsp;His first episode under the new brand is <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBcZIY_v9VQ">What’s New in PHP 8.2</a></em>. </p>



<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_b3aab2-66"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>



<h2 id="h-developing-wordpress-in-github-codespaces">Developing WordPress in GitHub Codespaces</h2>



<p><strong>GitHub</strong> announced on <strong>Twitter</strong> that <a href="https://twitter.com/github/status/1590403103014420481">GitHub <strong>Codespaces</strong> is now widely available</a> for everyone, with access to 60 hours free every month. Codespaces is a full-featured development environment that’s hosted in the cloud, with both the filesystem and code editor working inside your browser.&nbsp;</p>



<p>WordPress lead developer <strong>Helen Hou-Sandí</strong>, who now works at GitHub (albeit in a different department than Codespaces) sees the value in this for first-time contributors to WordPress. In a post on the <strong>Make WordPress</strong> blog, she <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/09/improving-the-contributor-experience-github-codespaces-for-wordpress-core/">announced</a> her plans to make the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop">wordpress-develop GitHub repository</a> usable in GitHub Codespaces. This could pave the way for a much smoother experience for first-time contributors and set an example that other open-source projects could follow.</p>



<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_ce4ead-be"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>



<h2>Counting sponsored contributors</h2>



<p>A while back, I was really pleased to share how <strong>Chuck Grimmett</strong> (<strong>Automattic</strong>) has been building <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TxEsu-qLmhVQFb-8WmLdIOoaTlY5uh8UlKZZgUc5cTI/edit#gid=926700955">a spreadsheet</a> with <a href="https://cagrimmett.com/data-viz/2022/09/24/some-wp-core-contributor-stats/">more granular data</a> on WordPress core contributors. Who their sponsors are (which changes) and whether they're sponsored or not (which also changes) is hard to keep up with. You can help backfill the data on past releases — just <a href="https://twitter.com/cagrimmett">get in touch</a> with Chuck. </p>



<p>For the <strong>6.1</strong> release, Chuck just <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1668189097332569">dropped the following numbers</a> in <strong>Post Status Slack</strong>: 149 contributors were sponsored (18.7%) with <strong>Automattic</strong> ranking as the top sponsor for 63 contributors (42.28%) followed by <strong>WPDeveloper</strong> (11/7.38%), <strong>Yoast</strong> (8/5.37%), <strong>GoDaddy</strong> (6/4.03%), <strong>Awsm Innovations</strong> (6/4.03%), <strong>XWP</strong> (5/3.36%), <strong>Multidots</strong> (5/3.36%), and <strong>Extendify</strong> (5/3.36%). [DK]</p>



<div class="is-layout-constrained wp-block-group has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<h1 id="h-cool-tool">Cool Tool</h1>



<p>Each week we feature one cool tool that can help make your life easier as a WordPress builder.</p>



<h3>Directory Serve</h3>



<p><a href="https://www.producthunt.com/posts/directory-serve">Directory Serve</a> is a <strong>Node.js</strong> CLI tool that allows you to serve a directory on your local computer with file upload/download support. It’s perfect if you need a way to quickly share some files to your mobile devices or move them from the mobile devices to your computer. While most folks in the Apple ecosystem probably don’t need this, it’s great for those using <strong>Android</strong> mobile devices, or <strong>Windows/Linux</strong> desktops. It could also pave the way for a smoother experience in local mobile testing for web developers. (And who knows, you could also use it to <a href="https://www.theverge.com/22684730/students-file-folder-directory-structure-education-gen-z">prove to young people</a> that files and folders actually still do exist.) <a href="https://github.com/cube-root/directory-serve"><strong>Get it on GitHub→</strong></a></p>
</div></div>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 11 Nov 2022 20:15:35 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Jonathan Bossenger";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:62:"Post Status: The Sky is Falling! Nope, Just a Little Blue Bird";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=143502";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://poststatus.com/the-sky-is-falling-nope-just-a-little-blue-bird/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2813:"<h2 id="h-where-and-how-do-we-connect">Where (and how) do we connect?</h2>



<p>Twitter is fast becoming a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9osdITt5ts">dumpster fire</a>. Every time I look at my account, the settings, access, and options change. Sometimes overnight. Sometimes seemingly every fifteen minutes. There is a lot that happens on Twitter in the WordPress community. So it begs the question, where will you go if it all ends in a fiery crash like a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn_oKmaqS34">SpaceX Rocket</a>, or runs out of energy like a <a href="https://www.autoevolution.com/news/tesla-model-3-owner-gets-stranded-in-the-middle-of-the-freeway-in-her-third-drive-201326.html">Tesla on the side of the road</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Finding each other isn’t necessarily the difficult part. There’s <a href="http://poststatus.slack.com">Slack</a>, of course, and Facebook groups. It’s building the rapport in a new “main place” that is challenging, as well as finding new ways and locations to seek out and connect with customers and clients.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Mastodon is gaining in popularity, but there is a slight learning curve. And it’s a bit like shouting “Marco” into the void and not hearing anyone shout back “Polo” back when trying to find connections. Tumblr is an option, but it doesn’t work in the same way Twitter or Mastodon do as far as posting, following, and connecting.</p>



<p>Tell me where you will be building your next following if it’s not on Twitter. DM me on Slack (or <a href="https://twitter.com/michelleames">Twitter</a> while it’s still standing.)</p>



<h2>More News & Links</h2>



<p>Black Friday/Cyber Monday is coming quickly! <a href="https://poststatus.com/submit-black-friday-cyber-monday-deals/">Submit your deals here</a>. <br /><a href="https://poststatus.com/2022-black-friday-cyber-monday-wordpress-deals/">Find this year’s deals here</a>. (More being added weekly!)</p>



<p>In the Business Spotlight this week: Dominyka Mikšėnaitė with <a href="https://poststatus.com/business-spotlight-hostinger/">Hostinger<br /></a>In the Member Spotlight this week: <a href="https://poststatus.com/member-spotlight-parvez-akther/">Parvez Akther</a></p>



<h2>Upcoming Events</h2>



<ul>
<li>Post Status <a href="https://poststatus.com/huddles/">Member Huddles </a>every week</li>



<li><a href="https://www.wordfest.live/2022/november/">WordFest</a> December 16 (New Date)</li>



<li>Calls for Speakers and Sponsors are open at <a href="https://www.wpwealthbuilder.com/">WP Wealthbuilder Summit</a></li>
</ul>



<p>WordCamps are back. <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/">Check the schedule online</a>!</p>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 11 Nov 2022 19:11:44 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Michelle Frechette";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"Post Status: WordPress In The Long View With James Farmer— Post Status Draft 129";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=143195";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:90:"https://poststatus.com/wordpress-in-the-long-view-with-james-farmer-post-status-draft-129/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60450:"<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-group eplus-wrapper has-theme-palette-2-color has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-text-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">James Farmer’s WordPress story goes all the way back to his launch of the first hosted WordPress multisite blogging platform — just a few days ahead of WordPress.com. Edublogs currently hosts millions of students’ and educators’ blogs. James talks about successes and failures, his views on Gutenberg, how he stays competitive with Squarespace, and how he thinks the WordPress business community should respond to the loss of active install growth data at WordPress.org. </p></div>


<div class="wp-block-spacer eplus-wrapper"></div>



<p class="yoast-reading-time__wrapper"><span class="yoast-reading-time__icon"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__spacer"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__descriptive-text">Estimated reading time:  </span><span class="yoast-reading-time__reading-time">4</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>
</div></div>







<p><a href="https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#h-transcript">Transcript</a> ↓</p>



<p class="has-drop-cap">In this episode of <strong>Post Status Draft</strong>, Cory is joined by <strong>James Farmer</strong>, CEO of <strong>Incsub</strong>, <strong>WPMU DEV</strong>, <strong>CampusPress</strong>, and <strong>Edublogs</strong>. James’ WordPress story goes all the way back to his launch of the first hosted WordPress multisite blogging platform — just a few days ahead of <strong>WordPress.com</strong>. Edublogs currently hosts millions of students’ and educators’ blogs. James talks about successes and failures, his views on <strong>Gutenberg</strong>, and how he stays competitive with <strong>Squarespace</strong>. Cory brings up the WordPress.org <a href="https://poststatus.com/active-install-data-story-update-not-a-breach-but-abuse-of-an-endpoint/">active install growth data question</a> and gets James’ take on how he’d like to see that data re-emerge with greater value for plugin businesses.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>



<div class="is-layout-flex wp-container-8 wp-block-columns Pressable has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background" id="Pressable">
<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-column">
<h3><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> Sponsor: <a href="https://poststat.us/pressable">Pressable</a></h3>



<p>Founded in 2010, <strong>Pressable</strong> is a world-class managed WordPress hosting provider built on the same data network as <strong>WordPress.com</strong> and <strong>WordPress VIP</strong>. With industry-leading performance, 24/7 expert support, a 100% uptime guarantee, and seamless integrations with <strong>WooCommerce</strong> and <strong>Jetpack</strong>, Pressable provides the tools you need to manage your WordPress websites and grow your business all in one place. <a href="https://poststat.us/pressable">TRY PRESSABLE→</a></p>
</div>



<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center">
<a href="https://poststat.us/pressable"><img src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/pressable-icon-primary.svg" alt="Pressable" class="wp-image-121339" width="150" title="Pressable" /></a>Pressable
</div>
</div>



<p> </p>



<h3 class="eplus-wrapper" id="h-mentioned-in-the-show"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f517.png" alt="🔗" class="wp-smiley" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>



<ul class="eplus-wrapper">
<li><a href="https://incsub.com/">Incsub &#8211; WPMU DEV, CampusPress, & Edublogs</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wpmudev.com/">WPMU DEV</a></li>



<li><a href="https://campuspress.com/">CampusPress: WordPress for Education | Websites & ePortfolios</a></li>



<li><a href="https://edublogs.org/">EduBlogs: <strong>Blogs & Websites</strong> For Education</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="eplus-wrapper" id="h-you-can-follow-post-status-and-our-guests-on-twitter"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f426.png" alt="🐦" class="wp-smiley" /> You can follow Post Status and our guests on Twitter:</h3>



<ul class="eplus-wrapper">
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/jamesfarmer">James Farmer</a> (Founder, <a href="https://incsub.com/">Incsub</a>)</li>



<li><a href="https://twitter.com/corymiller303">Cory Miller</a> (Editor, <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status">Post Status</a>)</li>



<li><a href="https://twitter.com/lemonadecode">Olivia Bisset</a> (Intern, Post Status)</li>
</ul>



<p class="eplus-wrapper has-background">The <strong>Post Status Draft</strong> podcast is geared toward WordPress professionals, with interviews, news, and deep analysis. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4dd.png" alt="📝" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><br /><a href="https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Browse our archives</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe via <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">YouTube</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stitcher</a>, <a href="https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Simplecast</a>, or <a href="https://feeds.simplecast.com/2JE9sc8P">RSS</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h2 class="eplus-wrapper" id="h-transcript">Transcript</h2>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> [00:00:00] Hey, everybody at Post Status. I'm excited to have this conversation today. Um, my special guest is James Farmer, founder of Wpm U Dev, and, um, I've known of James. I think I've got to meet him maybe once. I know we've talked before, but you know, as far back as James goes with WordPress, And the cool stuff he was doing at the beginning when I knew about him.</p>



<p>And now, fast forward to today, I thought this would be a very relevant conversation. And if you know anything about James, he, uh, knows his stuff and has opinions and, and I like his opinions, and I want to hear those. So, uh, James, thanks for coming on the, uh, uh, post status draft, uh, pleasure. In doing this conversation with me.</p>



<p>It's fun to, to, uh, hear your voice and hear what you're doing and get your thoughts on some things.</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> Uh, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for the invitation. It's, um, it's, yeah, it's really.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Uh, you were just telling me, uh, it's like [00:01:00] beautiful sunny skies in Melbourne where I think you're based, uh, this morning.</p>



<p>So thanks for joining us early for your time. .</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> Yeah. No, it's, um, it's just, uh, spring has finally arrived. We we're currently having a, a big wet, as it's called in Australia, which means that it's just rain, rain, rain everywhere. But finally it's sunny and nice and, uh, we're, uh, rolling into our, into our, towards our.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Awesome. Well, I'm jealous. I, I want to get to Australia at some point, and I haven't been there and, and hope to see in person and, and see the country. Well, absolutely. Okay. I'm gonna dive right in, James, because I'm, I'm interested in these questions and I want to hear your thoughts and, and opinions on things.</p>



<p>But the first is just like, I know you as an early pioneer in WordPress in the, in the product space in particular. Um, but there's some people that may not know some of the backstory. So could you tell us like how you get got started with WordPress and then what the point where W P M U [00:02:00] started, you know, that kind of origin story?</p>



<p>Cause I'm,</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> I'm curious to hear for myself. Yeah, for sure. Um, no trouble at all. So, so way back in the midst of time, I was interested in blogging as an educational tool. I was a, I was a teacher, um, and uh, English as a foreign language. And then, um, kind of, uh, working in that area and then education design.</p>



<p>And I started to, I wanted to use blogs for like, education purposes and, um, I had a look around and I found this piece of software called Radio User Land by Dave Wener. And it's this fantastic. Piece of software, um, you kind of wrote it and on your every, managed everything on your desktop and it kind of pushed it to a static HTML site.</p>



<p>I mean, you know, radical</p>



<p>I mean, you could even call it headless maybe. I dunno. But, but, but, um, but yeah, that would've been, oh man, 2003. And, um, I started my. Blog, James Farmer's Radio web blog. And um, I got a link [00:03:00] from, um, from Dave Wener himself cuz um, probably cuz I was using his software and I think I got described as an enthusiastic new edgy blogger and, uh, and so I kind of got into it that way.</p>



<p>Um, and then a year later my subscription was coming up and, uh, I'd heard about this, you know, kind of, um, this other interest. Software that was out there, there's this thing called movable type, um, which is doing all right. It's quite pretty. There's this single WordPress everyone was raving about. And so I thought, well, you know, might as well learn how to install something on a server, also learn what, what a server is and</p>



<p>That was the level of my technical ability and um, and so I kind of did all the steps and talked myself through and set up a WordPress blog. Um, yeah, in 2004, I think called Incorporated sub versions. Which was all about educational philosophy of incorporating subversion into the design of your software, which then eventually became Ink Sub [00:04:00] cuz Incorporated and Subversion kind of went together.</p>



<p>Um, and um, that was, um, that was kind of, um, how I originally got started.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> So, uh, 2004. So you got me. Um, similarity, you know, 2006, one, I used this software. You may remember back in the day, because I had no coding, I still don't have any coding experience, but Claris homepage on the Mac and building my website, I was like, this is ridiculous, trying to update my copyright footer or something when something changed.</p>



<p>But before WordPress, mine was Google, uh, was blog. Ah yes. Cause you could publish things to the thing, but when you said weblog, it took me back to that web period.</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> Like I know Go golden period dm. The, what I really wanted to do like this, the core thing was I really wanted to do is I wanted to start like a blogger kind of service for students so that rather than people like typing in like [00:05:00] discussion boards and doing all that flat boardy kinda stuff, which is still doing amazingly, just, it makes me.</p>



<p>Shutter . I could think about the state of educational technology, but the, um, so rather than doing, um, that, um, they would each have their own site and people would have their own profile and a bit like a kind of proto face Facebook kind of experience. And, um, Radio use had this other bit of software called Manila, which allowed you to do that.</p>



<p>But this was hideously complex and incredibly hard to put together. And I worked with like some of the IT guys in, um, the school where I was at the time, R M I T, English Worldwide. And we just tried to do it and we kind of got it together and it kind of didn't work so. So when, um, I discovered WordPress, I was really enjoying it because, you know, it's as, as we all know, it's a fantastic blogging platform and it was so much kind of more fun and interesting.</p>



<p>I could play with things and these plugins, which was so much better than this kind of static publishing thing where you'd have to tweet gates also, not a coder. Terrible tweaking. I mean, like, yeah, the way back machine will demonstrate [00:06:00] very clearly my, my, my, my, my design and uh, coding talents. But, um, then the, the real thing for me, the thing that when it really kicked off was when I'm gonna mispronounce his name cuz I always have done that.</p>



<p>I've never been on to Donica, put together this WordPress m u thing as a side project and I was like, holy shit. That's how I can do blogger for the students. They could put this together. Oh my word. And so I just, I just went to town on that and working on that. And I tried loads of examples and set ups and things here.</p>



<p>And, um, it wasn't working. It wasn't working. And then, um, I, at the same time, Matt went over to Ireland to, um, to do some work with Donica. I'm sorry, Donica, please. I really am sort of the misappropriation, , the um, They went over to Ireland and they kind of re re uh, rejigged. What would you, what would you call it?</p>



<p>Um, oh man, they're always doing it in our plugins. Refactored, refactored, WordPress, mu refactored, WordPress mu. [00:07:00] And, um, and turned into this really nice thing and I was like, Oh my God, it's even better. And I was having a glass of wine at home one night. And just dood noodling around with this. And, um, I, I owned at that point, I think about like four domain names, or three domain names.</p>



<p>So I'd add Insub, which was my blog and a couple of others, like for friends and family. But because I was an edgy blogger, um, I'd also, you know, I'd been like, Oh, I wonder if there's anything about edgy page blogs. And, and edgy blog.org was available for like, you know, 8 95. And so I was like, Oh, cool. I buy that and.</p>



<p>Had this, I was sitting on this flat leather couch in the suburb of Melbourne at 7:00 PM couple of glass of red, and I just thought, what about if I put this new WordPress, SMU stuff onto edgy blogs.org and then just posted about it and saw what happened. And so I did that and um, it took a while. It was a bit hard, and I woke up the next day and like 80 people had created.</p>



<p>I was like, [00:08:00] Yeah, like my, my jaw hit the floor. It was astonishing because all of these people in the blogging community, most people using probably movable type, some people using radio use land as DRO or users, people like kind of, you know, all sorts of different platforms and everyone was. Everyone was interested in WordPress and what WordPress was, but you know, like nobody really necessarily had the capacity or the extra area or even the coding ability to try it out.</p>



<p>And so you could just set up a WordPress site and play with WordPress. People are like, Oh yeah, hell yeah, I'll do that. And, um, I think, um, my, my claim to fame is that, um, that, uh, edgy.org predated wordpress.com by four weeks. So they, they, There you go. See, that's where, and, and that's why I'm a billionaire.</p>



<p>I nothing</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> I love that. I, I thought I knew the origins of WMU as well, like your company name now, [00:09:00] um, heavy with the, Oh, what's, what does image stand for? Multiuse. I think you, So</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> actually, uh, mu actually, here's an interesting fact. Not a lot of people No, it's actually the Greek letter of the alphabet Mu Okay. Um, which actually was actually done by a little symbol that looks like this, and essentially it means infas or multiple, multiple and things there.</p>



<p>And so it never was WordPress Mu, it was actually WordPress. But of course, you know, nobody understood that, understood that or figured that out. So it became WordPress mu And then of course later on, um, after, uh, Ida utterly dominated the WPP size, a bottle of domains, WordPress multi-site, which I got a little bit, I got a little bit salty about that change</p>



<p>But, but, but we survived and we're still here.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Uh, so I remember the symbol now that you're saying. Um, connected to that way back, so I'm getting some nostalgia here too, thinking about, because it was always [00:10:00] this cool thing that you could do. And, um, and you did it well with edgy blogs and that's how I remember, you know, um, hearing about what you were doing.</p>



<p>I think it was Word Camp San Francisco, one of the first ones. Mm-hmm. that I think you presented. If I, if I'm not mistaken. Oh,</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> I don't think I presented at it. I don't, I did, I did. Um, I did the first. Word Words Camp, um, in the Southern Hemisphere. Um, word camp down un down under, um, in, uh, in Melbourne, in Docklands.</p>



<p>And so that might have, it might have been from there. That would be, uh, our original kind of thing.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> So then Edge bro, edgy blogs took off, I think from what I, what I understand. And then how did, how did you get to Wpm U Dev, what you're doing now in some form?</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> So, um, I, I, as, as I mentioned probably mentions route, I'm, I'm not much of a developer or a coder.</p>



<p>I'm actually not a developer or a coder. And, um, uh, but I, I wanted things [00:11:00] jilo, you know, I wanted this feature or this sort of thing or, and this extra functionality to be added to, you know, like, uh, simple things like, you know, kind of take the remember me box by. Or, um, slightly more complex ones, like where I wanted to put like a donate bus in so people could support it.</p>



<p>And, um, so I was, um, kneeling around on the forums. Um, with, um, you know, back in the day there was a, I think the, there was a separate, like WordPress move. Forum area. I don't think it was part of the original WordPress org one. And I'm chatting to people and they're asking 'em questions and eventually I ended up chatting to this guy called Andrew Billz, who, um, was also on there and asked him like, maybe, you know, if I kind of like gave him, I didn't have very much money, a few bucks or something, or if we could do some exchange, I could do something and could he do a few things.</p>



<p>And so we started pottering. Um, kind of help him, helping me with a few things like that. And also at the same time, he had set up [00:12:00] a site called wpm u dev.org, which, um, he was basically using, uh, essentially wordpress.org was set up for WordPress stuff. It had nothing related to this new mu stuff. It was separate thing.</p>



<p>And so he set that up in order to basically be plum, who would just be about WordPress. Cause that's what we were interested and that's what we were playing with. And. So we kind of continued to kind of work together and done those little things. And then around about 2006 when this kind of like progressed on and edgy blocks had taken on, LED started like a sideline of it called Edgy Blocks Campus, which is now Campus press, the education provider, um, the, um, but uh, we, um, interesting campus.</p>



<p>Best fact, I think I'm allowed to say it here. We're not allowed to put it on our marketing material, but, um, Harvard, um, business school employed Dave Winer for a year as a visiting fellow to set up their blogging platform on Manila. You know, the platform I was [00:13:00] talking about, set off radio use land as an early business thing there, and now Harvard runs on WordPress powered by campus press.</p>



<p>Which is . That's awesome. I know. It's so awesome. I'm so happy about that. It only took like 15 years of like constantly pestering them going, Please, please, please use us. Please let us help you. But yeah, we can't be confident in marketing material. But I think you can mention it, someone like that I suppose.</p>



<p>I suppose I will find out if, um, if we can't with some angry emails, in which case, Sorry. Sorry, Harvard, I'm just boasting cause I'm pleased about it. Yeah, it's a nice story. . Um, the um, but. Uh, so, so basically it, it had progressed and then I got this like contact from a, um, football management game that I'd actually played, um, saying we'd like to make a football related kind of thing here, just like edge blogs.</p>



<p>They found me through edge blogs and, um, to my utter shock, I put forward a proposal for, I think it was like 50 grand. [00:14:00] And they were like, Yeah, that sounds reasonable, . And I was like, What, how could anybody spend this amount of money? Are you insane? And they flew me to, um, San Francisco, um, to do it. I spoke to Andrew.</p>



<p>Andrew, um, was gonna be the developer and put all this stuff together. I was gonna do the business and the content and the structure and the project management and those things. And we did, we put it together. It was called football united.com. That's really cool. But then I said to Andrew, Well, you know, how about, you know, like, rather than, Employing you these things here.</p>



<p>How about we actually join up together and we, we form a company and we do this stuff together and split it 50 50. And um, he was like, Yeah, cool. And I was like, you know, and um, you could have 10% of ed blogs. What is worth is making no money. And, you know, kind of, we can bring in W P U Dev, you know, this, um, free repository place.</p>



<p>I didn't really have any ideas for it. We can just pull our ideas and work together. And we did. And hence ink. Which is the company name, because it was a free domain name I had lying [00:15:00] around. I was like, Well, I've got this.com, why don't we use this? And hence, Y W P Dev then became part of iub.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Okay, I got it.</p>



<p>Okay.</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> The story, story . Yeah.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Yeah. I, I always love these, hearing these origin stories because they, um, you know, it starts with this wonder, like you said, I wonder if. We could do this and I wonder if or, or how things evolve over time because like, This started with a, what if that became edgy blogs and then eventually Ink Sub Wpm U Dev kind of came out of that.</p>



<p>And now we're here today in 2020. So it's crazy thinking back too. But I love hearing the stories of how they evolved because, uh, I'm the same way, you know, I'm not a developer either, and, uh, . So I I love that. Um, okay, so that's some of the backstory. I wanted, I wanted to share that or you to share that because I want people to know there's some things we could have a whole conversation on.</p>



<p>Movable [00:16:00] type, right? Some of those Oh yeah. , because I remember that too. And uh, some of the mis moves they made, missteps they made that really helped propel word, presidents level. Yeah. Yeah know. But I wanna set this , right? . I wanna set that stage though, to say you've been doing this a long time, James, and you've seen a lot of the evolution of WordPress and the industry, the market, the growth, some of the things that have changed over time.</p>



<p>And so it was good to share that story, but we could just camp out an entrepreneurial, But I really want to also, okay, in this. Second step is like, go, Okay, now setting the stage, tell me how, where Wpm U is today. And, uh, then I wanna talk about technology. I wanna talk about the web, and I wanna talk about WordPress.</p>



<p>And I wanna get your, your thoughts on all these things. So where is Sounds good today?</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> Cool. Right. So, Wp Me Dev today has evolved from its various plugin forms into [00:17:00] something. It's somewhere halfway between plugins and a service and a hosting platform. Can you be halfway between three things? Absolutely.</p>



<p>Um, so. Um, I, yeah, so, so essentially we've, we've offer a, you know, kind of a core suite of plugins, you know, for security performance. Um, we've actually got a really good SEO plugin, but we just marketed terribly by name, name terribly by me. Um, and, um, you know, kind of a form builder and, uh, security, I said security deni already.</p>



<p>And then we've got like a site management area that, uh, you know, very. To manage WP in some respects, but it allows you to look after all of those different things. But you, first and foremost, really over the last few years has been a hosting product, um, which is, um, built on top of, um, ation and lions infrastructure.</p>



<p>Well, you node, depending upon your preference there. Yeah. Which, which, which offers a really, a [00:18:00] really different, um, managed, um, WordPress experience that's really catered directly for, uh, for resellers. Web developers, freelancers, agencies who are, um, you know, catering to, um, clients who are often small businesses or medium businesses and those things.</p>



<p>And so we're essentially trying to provide all the tools, the platform, the background to save them time, save them money, and help them produce really cool sites. That's what we are.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> And yeah. And how, how big is your team today?</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> The whole ink sub team is, uh, it fluctuates a bit cuz we, we, we hire quite a lot.</p>



<p>We try and hire everybody at a junior, um, level or mid level. I mean like our entire exec team is like, you know, people who started basically as junior staff things. In fact, um, I think tmr coo, I turned him down twice, got rejected. It's always, always fun to think about you. Not good enough, . Yeah,</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> he's a who by the way.</p>



<p>I've got to meet him a [00:19:00] couple</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> times. , He's, he's a, he's a, he's good value, isn't he? He's a great manager as well. Um, so, um, yeah. But, um, so we, so the numbers vary, but I think we're about 175. 176. Fantastic. Is those Yeah, it's cool. It's amazing. It shocks me, to be honest with you. I'm still a. But, um, we are, um, But yeah, we've, we've, we've done some nice things and people, um, meeting up and stuff and we are doing, um, next April, we're having our first, not our first, cause we did one in New York back today, but our first proper company retreat and we're all gonna go to Bali.</p>



<p>I dunno if you've been to Bali. It's a, it's a lovely place in Indonesia, um, just north of, um, Australia. And, uh, we're staying over. Yeah, yeah. Bar. Yeah. And so, and so we we're going for a week with 60. Is so exciting. It's gonna be so cool. It's like, I was like, ah, I like do a couple of days work and then mostly just hang out and chat and see.</p>



<p>You can see the sites, you can go to bars, you [00:20:00] can do all sorts of different things. But um, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm super excited about that.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Yeah, I get that elbow time. Well, I love that and congratulations to hear kind of the before, how it gets started now today, and one thing, you know, I paid attention to Wpm U Death for a long time, but a couple things I've always admired is, one is you have a tool set of things that if you wanna build.</p>



<p>Or press sites and things like that. You've got it like it seemed like grown over time. I'd go back when I was still running Ithe and go, How the heck are they doing all of this stuff with</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> like this? Yeah. Yeah. With a great deal of effort.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> And I've been on the emails for a long time too, and I've always admired too the content production that you all have done historically through Wpm U Oh, thank you so.</p>



<p>So cool. Well have fun in Bali for sure. And tell Tim, um, uh, hi</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> for me. I will, I'll pass it on. He said he was looking forward to the live version of this. [00:21:00] He got some. I bet he, I was gonna sit back, but, uh, But it's all good. He can, uh, this way he can watch it as many times as he liked.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Exactly. Then he can't throw tomatoes and different things at us</p>



<p>Well, okay. So thank you for that. And then I wanna come back as we wrap up and talk about what you're doing, what you're excited about, uh, with Wpm U as well, and, um, one of the, you know, pioneers in the space and WordPress and the product space. Um, but I wanna take some time and I wanna get your thoughts on some things.</p>



<p>Okay? Sure. So, and with all this experience and what you've seen, the evolution and all, you know, the ups and downs of entrepreneurship as well, but you. What's your, what's your outlook today? And this is the, I'm gonna just start with the big one, the word press. You've seen, you've been there</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> for the, Sorry, sorry about the camera.</p>



<p>Doing all sorts of things.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> No, no, I like it cuz I, I want one because I've just got a static one. You've got one that moves, but, um, so, [00:22:00] As you look at, you see you've been there. Uh, I think we were talking like early on with WordPress, even before mu uh, mu, excuse me, was like rolled out and stuff. And I think I came in, I was telling you before we were, we started recording that.</p>



<p>I think I came in somewhere in the two range, you know, when it was still blue and why, and it was like just one little horizontal menu and I was like, this is the best thing on earth. But you've seen a lot. And so the first thing I wanted to ask out of the gate, Um, what do you think right now where WordPress is?</p>



<p>What's your outlook on where we are today, how it's grown, and any thoughts around just WordPress today?</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> Ah, yeah, so. I mean, you know, it's, it's, every article about WordPress starts with WordPress powers. X percentage is a web. And you know, it does this and it does that. And I, I think if I was a, if I was a betting man, not besting man, but if I was, I would say that, um, where we're at now in [00:23:00] terms of saturation is probably about where we'll be.</p>



<p>I think it's, um, I don't think there's gonna be, um, um, a, uh, any necessary kind of, um, growth, um, apart from, you know, general growth as a web and people trading sites and so on, um, in a percentage market share. And I think that that's basically down to, um, the, uh, Squarespace, uh, Shopify reification of, um, of, uh, of, of the world.</p>



<p>I mean, um, there's more and more people who. Able to use both because it's easier and because it's more accessible and know about tools like Squarespace, you know, everybody pretty much does. And, you know, and even, you know, MailChimp and so they're trying to come out with their versions of it, and they do a pretty decent job.</p>



<p>Um, so if you are, um, a small business, which, or then, which is, like I said, Members, their clients, um, their clients are looking at like a kinda square space setup for , say, [00:24:00] might cost them two or 300 bucks a year. Or they're looking at hiring a web developer and getting this done and this done, this done.</p>



<p>And that's like, I dunno, say let's say three to 10 grand a year. Then it's, it's like, well, I'll just put in the yards and figure it out myself. And I think that's a lot of that's gonna be happening and continuing to happen. I'm optimistic in terms of WordPress pertain its market share because of course, you know, these third party platforms just don't have the flexibility or the options.</p>



<p>And, um, also because, you know, they're heavily debt funded and, uh, they need to make money. And in doing so, they need to offer the kind of support and different levels and so on and so forth, which means that your square space, your square space, basic decent site with maybe a shopping card on it, is going to go towards five, $6,000 a year.</p>



<p>Um, possibly more, you know, maybe even kind of like two grand and then all of a sudden it starts to be, Oh, actually, well this is a more comfortable kind of [00:25:00] area. And we're, um, we are trying to make, um, one of the things we've got rolling out next year is we're trying to essentially allow our. Members to create a kind of square space type automated provision environment with funky templates and all the cool things and WordPress built into it all their own templates so that, um, they can, you know, essentially have a, kind of build your own site option, which they can offer for their particular niche or area or those sorts of things.</p>



<p>So I'm hoping that we're doing our bit to, uh, to help us keep, keep up with the, um, with the Super Bowl ad buyers , but it's still, you know, it's a rough and tumble.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> So this, this is something I've seen change in piggybacking on what you did. You know, when I started Ithe in 2008, um, it was the Wild West with themes because they wanted that kind of, you know, experience to be able to find a good theme and kind of do it themselves.</p>



<p>Or a builder, a freelancer, kind of take it, mold [00:26:00] it. , and it's interesting over time, particularly with I Teams, we go, Okay, themes are getting saturated, and then you see this dynamic you talked about with Squarespace starting to come in going, and it felt like to me, James, that it, those players out there that didn't exist when WordPress was for sure getting, its like upward momentum didn't really exist and WordPress became an option.</p>



<p>Then over time, I was like, Golly, if you look into even web. Come into win flow and thinking that the tools around in the competitive landscape have gotten way better. You know, there's great experiences and it seems like it's shifted the market where it's the focus is a little bit more like, You're serving small businesses, for instance, and this web designer freelancer comes in and goes, Okay, you want this experience that's a little bit more complicated than you would, you could probably get on your own right now.</p>



<p>Yep, yep, yep. It seems like, like the agencies and the freelancers I talked to, they're, it's, it's like, I wondered the other day, I was like, Okay, what, What happened to the, [00:27:00] you know, $2,000, $5,000 website? Mm-hmm. and back in the day, You know, you could get, like, that was, that was, that was the heyday of that.</p>



<p>But I'm, I'm interested in your thoughts there too, like from those trends in WordPress, have you seen that too? Where it's like, there's really good options out there now? You said freedom and I, I'm, I ring that bell as well and I, that's why I love WordPress. Cause I can do whatever I want with, and I'm not locked in, but Yep.</p>



<p>You know, some of those trends that you're seeing too out there with WordPress and its position in the market. I'm, I'm curious to hear your thoughts. That.</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> Yeah. Yeah. It's, um, it's, uh, it's, it's fascinating. Um, and we, we talk to our members a lot. We do a lot of, um, surveys and where, where they're heading out, and I, I, there's a lot of very healthy businesses and there's a lot of people going in, in, in for it.</p>



<p>But there's also, um, a lot of people who are receiving pushback from people in that are looking at that part. Kind of like, um, dollar bracket, if you will. I mean, when you're, when you're talking about, you know, [00:28:00] kind a kinda a medium size business, you know, of someone who's actually looking for, you know, a whole range of different things, and of course they're gonna need WordPress means patiently obvious.</p>



<p>You know, you can't, um, have the, um, you know, the capacity to, um, offer anything near or even. Or even match the, um, how would I put it? The kinda regulatory, uh, requirements, um, that, um, you would be looking for and the level of support and the level of those things. And that, that's, that's, that's tied up.</p>



<p>That's not going anywhere. But, um, it's the, um, it's the people. Say for example, um, I mate who runs a gym, You know, he's very much, his position is, ah, yeah, I've got a square space website. I don't particularly like it. It's a bit annoying and I have to learn all this shit, but you know, it's a couple hundred bucks, 300 bucks, and I'm not gonna spend five grand on something.</p>



<p>That's the person, that's the segment that's gonna be a problem. And the that segment is, is huge. There's a lot more of them. Out there and while it might not be, uh, the big bucks, you know, [00:29:00] uh, well the medium bucks, the, um, the, uh, it's, it's, it's super important and we are really trying to find ways to help people actually, you know, have an impact on that segment.</p>



<p>So, for example, like, um, with, um, you know, say our hosting, I'm gonna say like, we've got this new hosting product called, Which is a $4 or $3 60 a month managed WordPress hosting, which is pretty damn good. If you ask me. It gives you your own IP address. It gives, but anyway, I'm not selling it there, but it's just something I'm really excited about.</p>



<p>So if someone runs up a quantum site with a, say photography portfolio thing for like a wedding photographer or something, and then they run it on our system, then the all that they would have to spend essentially is $3 60 a. Um, they could put the template, everything in place. Um, we've got a domains thing that's running out next week where, uh, we're actually doing wholesale domain pricing for all of our members who are like on the, our agency package.</p>



<p>So $11 50 for like, um, a.com. [00:30:00] Every month. No. No stupid discounts, No nothing. They can sell that to their customer for 20 bucks. They can sell them the hosting package for another 20 bucks or 25 bucks, and they can have a support add on or an extra theme for another 30, 40 bucks so they can actually, and they can have that automatically deployed on their site.</p>



<p>For their customer who's then going to be paying them 80 bucks a month for their cost of under $15. And that's before you talk about support and all of those other different maintenance and things you can add to it. Um, and that makes it competitive to Squarespace.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Yeah. Well in, and you look at across the industry too, and it's like, I saw that email by the way, and I was like, I remember the days where you could.</p>



<p>Hosting for that and try out your idea. Even if you're like, for me, it's like you said you had a couple domains sitting around, Well, I got way too many, but you know, you have an idea. Deploy it. See you can get it, get it going, but you're not, your [00:31:00] investment isn't big. Too big on that. And so I love that, uh, too.</p>



<p>Yeah. So I'm curious, um, Getting down a little into WordPress too, cuz you've seen a lot seen where it's gone and evolved is, you know, some of these big ones like Gutenberg, the code editor. Yep. Um, and I'm curious, you know, the direction too of WordPress, uh, I, I don't like to say this, but in web terms, WordPress is ancient.</p>



<p>Like it's, it's code. That's what, 20 plus years here now we're talking about, you know, and you're like, but in web term it feels young still to me. But in web terms you're like all these new startups, some of this technology didn't exist when WordPress rolled out. Yep. But I'm curious about your, your thoughts on the direct.</p>



<p>Of the platform too, and things like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put in the buzzword, but it's a good buzzword, which is Gutenberg and the code editor and get your thoughts around that. And where, where direct, you know, how does it best WordPress best [00:32:00] position itself to continue to democratize the web.</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> Yep. Um, yeah, it's a great question and, um, I think it, it bears a lot of challenge for the future growth.</p>



<p>Um, in, in, in my, in my opinion. I, it's a kind of, Not necessarily a very popular one, but, um, I think I, I would say that the, um, WordPress has succeeded cause, well it succeeded cuz it was open source in the first instance and yeah. As it has in beer, um, compared to, you know, your movable type competitors. But also it had this, it succeeded because of plug-ins and themes.</p>



<p>Because of its ease of integration, because of the simplicity, because of the way that things held together. And it, uh, because it allowed people to create these sorts of websites that, um, you know, you could play around with and do it, it achieved critical mass really quickly from that, and it just grew, which is why it's gonna dominate that more complex website space forever, because it allows more complex websites and more playing.[00:33:00]</p>



<p>Now Gutenberg, I don't know a great deal about Gutenberg, apart from the fact that I tried to make Guten. In 2014, I gave it a red hot Go. I was like, Okay, Squarespace, these drag and drop editors, these wicks web.com are actually really, really dangerous. Good platforms that have got a problem here.</p>



<p>WordPress has these wonderful themes that are out there like ims. Absolutely, and you know, and all of these other stuff, but none of the, All of these are developer friendly. All of these are short code functioning. All of these are requiring to do CSS and these things. We need a simple drag and drop suite, um, theme that, that anybody can use in a straightforward way, and we try.</p>



<p>I had a go, It was called upfront. Remember, we spent absolute fortune on it. I spent an absolute time on it and I discovered that. I'm not talented enough. , and I think we were, we were, we, we didn't those us two [00:34:00] problems. The first was in terms of design and concept, we were fairly close. Like we were okay-ish.</p>



<p>We had some things and I look at Gutenberg now and I'm like, Oh yeah, I remember that. That's, that's a really cool challenge. And this, I really like how they've done that and it reminds me of very much of up front. And we had some really talented people working on it. Got Victor, who I used to work with, was like leading end.</p>



<p>It was really cool stuff. But we definitely didn't have the technical skills. We were nowhere near, like, we, we just couldn't, we just couldn't iron out the bugs. We couldn't put it together. We couldn't make it work seamlessly. There was too much, um, load on it. It was started in such way, didn't know how to project management, you know, It was just too hard.</p>



<p>So we failed with it. Just a shame. And because it was, we had to go, we gave it a crack. And I see the same thing happening with Gutenberg because it, it looks like exactly the same things. My problem with Gutenberg, Isn't, um, isn't how it works or what it does. Cause I, I think it's really pretty cool. It's really interesting and I've spent a lot of time, I have a lot of [00:35:00] amazing people working on it.</p>



<p>I think it's got a really good future. My problem with Gutenberg is it is baked into WordPress and the WordPress has succeeded because it's been an open place where you have a marketplace and a selection of people innovating and trying and creating new things. Themes, for example, across those different things.</p>



<p>I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that element or divvy or whatever is coming after them. Those guys. Would, or perhaps, perhaps still will, who knows? But would be much better. Z berg vastly better, purely because of competition, because of range of, uh, people going at each other, because of financial incentives, because of capitalism.</p>



<p>Call it that, you know? Right. Um, it, it's, it's, and, and cause that's what's happened in WordPress since, um, and that's what's very WordPress. And so the baked in nature of Gutenberg, um, you [00:36:00] know, versus, you know, these other options is, um, and I think, you know, that's the, that's the problem. It's a bit sad, really.</p>



<p>I kind of, you know, it, it, it's, I, I, I wish it had just stayed as a theme that, you know, um, Maybe automatic could have made it a competitor to these things, you know? And they tried to grow it in the same way as they're doing jet pack and those things. And that's great. And I think, um, it would've had a better chance as well because it would've been pushed by other people in that competitive space and direction and just make it a purity commercial model rather than, this is the thing as well.</p>



<p>I mean, as a commercial model, like the stuff I'm doing, obviously WordPress is, is, is great and it's wonderful. And the open source community and the way that they work through it and the way that it's learned and matured is brilliant. And I. Everybody's on it with all my heart because I wouldn't have a business otherwise I wouldn't be able to do this stuff without them.</p>



<p>It's absolutely brilliant. But cause I'm a, I'm a private company. I am, we are a private company. We don't have investors at share those sort of things here. We [00:37:00] can make decisions that are unpopular. Or that, um, that people don't like. We kill 90% of our plugins. You know, we, we, we can do things that you can't do in an open source community because like, well, you can do them, but everyone will leave or hate you or just have a huge palava and things there.</p>



<p>I, I, I think innovation doesn't happen. That well in that environment. I think lots of great things do, but I think innovation happens when we are competing against each other and trying to do cool new things and get stuff out there. Yeah, I totally see that end ran .</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> No, I totally see that. I think that's such a good perspective to share in, in the space in our ecosystem or community.</p>



<p>Um, if you don't mind, uh, we were talking before and you're like, I, I think it should have stopped at this version. And I was like, What do you, what happened to that version? And would you share that too? Because I think</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> I, I think I said, I think I said that. Well, yeah. [00:38:00] Just before, I think I said that WordPress peaked at 0.72.</p>



<p>Yeah. , and I, I heard obviously WordPress now is vastly better than North 0.72, but, and, and I'm not entirely sure. It's no 0.72, Please fact, check the hell outta me. Whoever's out there. But essentially as soon. As soon as, um, the, uh, integration, the seamless, beautiful, amazing integration of plugins and themes and the hooks and everything that allowed that to, it rolled into WordPress.</p>



<p>That was the peak of WordPress innovation, and it was brilliant. And it has been led to all of these different things here. Um, and. Since then, WordPresses has not been revolutionizing things, It has not been transforming things interesting in the way that you talk about interesting Emberg name. Cause of course Emberg, you know, was a revolutionary technology.</p>



<p>I don't think it's a revolutionary theme or revolutionary, you know, way of processing or making things. Um, because I think that's when, that's when WordPress kind of peaked and with, [00:39:00] has just been kind of evolving since otherwise, um, whereas the innovation's been happening on the side.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Well, so that that kind of times was a lot of the discussion.</p>



<p>In the product space, particularly with plugins around wordpress.org and things with our product members at post status. And I think that's so compelling to say too because I, I really appreciate there's a, in that, is that there, the ecosystem, the product ecosystem. We might have called them premium one day, but another commercial, whatever name we're gonna put on 'em.</p>



<p>But, um, and, and when this conversation came around that, around the active installs, um, data, you know, my first question was, and this is one I want to kinda ask you too, is our plugins, our plugins, themes, third party stuff, whether they're free, paid, whatever in between, essential to WordPress, Past and essential to WordPress future.</p>



<p>And so I'm gonna submit that to you because I wanna hear your thoughts on that. I have [00:40:00] my own opinions, but I wanna hear</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> your . There's a lot of opinions aren't there, about the, um, the in-store thing? I, I, I have to admit, I've been, uh, I've been lurking quite actively in those discussions and yeah, we've been having a few internal chats about it as well, because of course, it's important to us, you know, we want to know how well our or, or not, how well our plugins are doing.</p>



<p>I mean, we, for example, we've seen. Uh, SMASH recently, um, over the last year or so was one of our, our leading plugin. It's the big thing that, you know, people really like. Um, and actually started to lose, um, some market share to, um, some of our competitors like, uh, u and um, short Pixel and those things. And these are, these are fine plugins and they do great job and, you know, but I was.</p>



<p>Hang on. You know, I thought we were really good at this and we're doing this really well. Why are we losing this? And the reason we were, And so we looked into it, we did a huge amount of discovery and um, we, we found some things which we thought, Oh, okay, our bulk must limits too low. Okay. [00:41:00] Alright. Our background image optimization isn't working.</p>



<p>We're having to have people keep it over. Our new user experience for the first, like kind of five clicks, um, things. There isn't that. Compared to these guys. And so we dived into it and we worked our butts off to improve it. And we're rolling out improvements at the moment. And just, just as the, uh, the plugin active install growth stuff disappeared, we were back to level, like up from North Point one to North Percent and we were all cheering.</p>



<p>We were like, every week we'd see it update on Sunday and we're like, Yes. You know, And it started to get towards positive territory. We're back baby, and. Yeah, it was, um, it was pretty gutting to kind of suddenly have it go and to not get that kind of feedback loop that we were doing good things and creating good things.</p>



<p>Now, having said that,</p>



<p>I think the reason the most, the most the reason for the active installs being removed, which was [00:42:00] given in the track ticket or whatever things, there not enough obs. Not sufficiently obs. If I pronou, I can't remember. It's one of those words. I can never, I can never get out. No, not sufficiently hidden.</p>



<p>Let's say that, let's translate it to there. I think that's, um, a good reason to get rid of it. I think that, not to get rid of them to improve, I think that, um, I think that a good way to think about this is think about what the internet would be like if Google published their algorithm, like literally published it.</p>



<p>I mean, they, they will say, We do publish it. We've got a page guidelines and 60 pages, 90 pages. I'm. Yeah, that's good. And that's a guide and we go by that, and that's really helpful. But I wanna see the actual algorithm, the actual code that shows how you display these things here. I will tell you what will happen if that happened.</p>



<p>If that happened, the entire internet would be destroyed because it would be immediately dominated by a bunch of machine [00:43:00] learning bots going through Google's algorithm and spitting out things that matched it. The people who were able. When it updated the people who were able to more quickly respond. So this would be why.</p>



<p>It'd be machine learning AI stuff and change their sites to fit into this new algorithm would be the winners. And so you would have an internet that was basically written by computers for computers and it would be absolutely rubbish. And that's why. Google don't publish one of the reasons, but that's a very, very good reason for Google not publishing its algorithm.</p>



<p>And the same is true for plugins and plugin pages and all of those different things. If we know exactly as a, as a business owner, if I know exactly how it is, I can get my plugin to rank above yo and get smarts. That position. Yes. Well, I'm damn well gonna. And I'm gonna do it hard, and I'm gonna actually devote probably most of the resources of the company to figuring out how that happens and how we can quickly respond things there.</p>



<p>And then all that we're gonna get is a sea of plugins [00:44:00] with solitary purpose is to rank hires and yos and not immediately use a users once they install them, or at least get them to create an API key or give me a lead or do whatever it is, these sort of things. And that would not be good for WordPress or plugins.</p>



<p>And essentially what they're saying is that the plug. Code for ranking the code for, you know, kind of making plugins, appearance things. There wasn't actually, it was a bit too obvious. And there are people out there who are a hell of a lot smarter than I am. Lots of, not very hard. There's lots of people out there, lots smart than I am who have essentially cracked the code.</p>



<p>They've figured out how to do it, and they're constantly cracking the code and they're constantly going through it. I think I remember, um, one, there was something about how many support tickets you had and how many support tickets you closed, and so people were creating support tickets for themselves, and then I swing them with somewhat general things and stuff and attaching it to the plugin, all sorts of sketchy.</p>



<p>Happening left, right, and center. And [00:45:00] essentially, yeah, the, It was too obvious. It was too, there. People were gaming it and this was gonna produce a world of ship plugins that are basically existing in order to just climb the charts and do the machine learning thing. Now, what would've been better would've been if they'd just improved the algorithm.</p>



<p>Or made it to the point at which ally Google, you know, back in the day in 2002, you could game Google. You could SEO hack. Yep. You could do, You could do these things. You can't anymore. Right? You can. You can. I mean, there are bits and bobs, but you wouldn't want to because it's too dangerous. You might get caught.</p>



<p>And also it's just a bit too challenging and it's too clever in these thingss here. What would be great would be just, they just, they just improved that they just had a big ass project to improve the plug, the plugin algorithm, I don't care if it's open source community, I don't care if it automatic, writes every single part of that code and contains its proprie information and never lets anybody see it.</p>



<p>But then that would enable those stats to stay in place. And that's my complaint. That's my complaint about it, is like, [00:46:00] Guys, you just pulled something. It was so bloody important and I know why you pulled it. It makes perfect sense why you pulled it. Like, couldn't you have just, you know, been done something better?</p>



<p>Yeah. Could you have been smart enough to actually solve it in another way? And they, they say that they will, um, you know, this is, the intention is to come back with the bigger and better and things here, but like, man, was it, was it that bad? Was it that much of a problem that, Cause it wasn't, we weren't like machine, like I said, learning.</p>



<p>We were. We were checking out our onboarding process. We were reviewing our complaints by users. We were doing deep surveys. We were doing third party like kind of um, user testing.com, things where people actually log in and you watch them talking through the process and the problems we have to improve our stuff.</p>



<p>And now we are like, Oh know if this is working . And I'm like, I mean like we could a shooting in the dark and that's the majority of people. And there might have been some people who were getting an advance and screwing around with it, but couldn't you have just spent the time to [00:47:00] improve the algo and then just switched it rather than dumping us on us, which feels horrible and draconian and alienates people, and stops me from improving smush like I'd.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Yeah, and I go back to what you said, which is, you know, the, the what, the third part, you know, the plugins and themes out there have done is helped WordPress innovate and continue to say simple enough as a core, and then you extend as you need it for those complex things that you might have. And you know the question I ask.</p>



<p>It. I think, I hope when I say our plugins essential to WordPress is continued growth and health. I think that, I hope the answer is, uh, resounding heck yes. The second question that I think this particular issue illuminates is how do we continue to better support, and this is part of the role post status, is how do we continue to support plugin, the plugin ecosystem.[00:48:00]</p>



<p>Uh, even better, you know? Mm-hmm. is take this as an opportunity to say this is essential. This is why WordPress has grown. It will continue to grow. Mm-hmm. , and it will continue to innovate. And then the question becomes, how do we continue to foster and grow the health and support of those vital plugin developers out there creating the next whatever thing it is.</p>



<p>Yeah.</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> Well, yeah, go ahead. I mean, I, I dunno, it, it's your business and I, I, I, you know, there are loads of different ways to do it. I didn't wanna straight off just answer it, but I, I think what you could do in this first instance is you could look at a community project, um, where people actually collect, um, plugin, um, install.</p>



<p>And pool it so that you are able to have a bunch of people sharing data to say, This is how things are going, and this is how things are not going. I mean, if wordpress.org won't do it, then why don't we? Yeah, that's, that'd be, that'd be my thought.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Well, I [00:49:00] know we're, we've run it over time actually, but I really appreciate this.</p>



<p>Maybe this'll be part two is where we dig into some of these things too. Cause I really wanted to, I think you got to, um, to share some of the things you're doing, but I wanted to talk about. Wmu and your future there and what you're planning. Um, but maybe that'll be part two. I know we've kind of gone along, but James Farmer, thanks so much for this.</p>



<p>I think this was our teaser for part two, by the way, . Oh no, I'd love to. Thank you. Uh, we gotta talk more often cuz uh, uh, we've got a lot to talk about still, but, uh, James, thanks so much for being on the, uh, post status draft podcast and, uh, I appreciate your time and it's good catching up with you and hearing your story, sharing some of your thoughts too, I think are, are really critical for our ecosystem as a whole.</p>



<p>So</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> thank you. Ah, it's, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for having me, Corey. You bet.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Thanks James Farmer. And by the way, tell, um, Wpm U Dev, uh, check out what they're doing. Um, cool stuff they've got going on there. You got so many things going on that they, I can just say go [00:50:00] check it out. See what they're doing.</p>



<p><strong>James Farmer:</strong> Yeah. Yeah. A we've got a, yeah, we've got a free level. People can play around with stuff as well, so give it a go. We didn't used to have a free level. It's a have fun, have a, have a, have a tweak.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Will do. All right. Thanks everybody for being, uh, listening in and, uh, we'll be talking to James I'm sure very soon.</p>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 11 Nov 2022 18:24:47 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Olivia Bisset";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:9;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"Do The Woo Community: Tumblr Showing Some Woo, Enterprise and Returning WooCommerce Office Hours";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=73462";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"https://dothewoo.io/tumblr-showing-some-woo-enterprise-and-returning-woocommerce-office-hours/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:474:"<p>Conversations about Woo running Tumblr payments, the WordPress enterprise space and return of WooCommerce Developer Office Hours.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/tumblr-showing-some-woo-enterprise-and-returning-woocommerce-office-hours/">Tumblr Showing Some Woo, Enterprise and Returning WooCommerce Office Hours</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 11 Nov 2022 10:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:10;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"Post Status: WordPress 6.1.1 • FSE → Site Editor • Twenty Twenty Three";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=143044";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"https://poststatus.com/wordpress-6-1-1-fse-%e2%86%92-site-editor-twenty-twenty-three/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15528:"<h2 id="h-this-week-at-wordpress-org-november-7-2022">This Week at WordPress.org (November 7, 2022)</h2>


<div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">Get a look at the latest default theme, Twenty Twenty-Three! <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f3a8.png" alt="🎨" class="wp-smiley" /> Full Site Editing has a new name: &#8220;Site Editor.&#8221; <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4dd.png" alt="📝" class="wp-smiley" /> And WordPress 6.1.1 will be released on November 15. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4c5.png" alt="📅" class="wp-smiley" /> </p></div>


<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<div id="kt-info-box_68609b-a8" class="wp-block-kadence-infobox"><div class="kt-blocks-info-box-link-wrap kt-blocks-info-box-media-align-left kt-info-halign-left"><div class="kt-blocks-info-box-media-container"><div class="kt-blocks-info-box-media kt-info-media-animate-none"><div class="kadence-info-box-icon-container kt-info-icon-animate-none"><div class="kadence-info-box-icon-inner-container"><span class="kt-info-svg-icon kt-info-svg-icon-fe_arrowUpCircle"></span></div></div></div></div><div class="kt-infobox-textcontent"><h2 class="kt-blocks-info-box-title">Introducing Twenty Twenty-Three!</h2><p class="kt-blocks-info-box-text"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f446.png" alt="👆" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/11/wordpress-6-1-1-rc1-is-now-available/">WordPress 6.1.1 RC1 is now available</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f3d7.png" alt="🏗" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/11/04/site-editor-a-more-user-friendly-name/">Site Editor: A More User-Friendly Name</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f3a8.png" alt="🎨" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/11/introducing-twenty-twenty-three/">Introducing Twenty Twenty-Three</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4d0.png" alt="📐" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/04/wordpress-6-1-1-planning/">WordPress 6.1.1 Planning</a> <br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4bb.png" alt="💻" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/09/improving-the-contributor-experience-github-codespaces-for-wordpress-core/">Improving the contributor experience: GitHub Codespaces for WordPress Core</a></p></div></div></div>



<h2 id="h-news">News<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/10/wordpress-6-1-release-candidate-3/"></a></h2>



<ul>
<li> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/11/04/site-editor-a-more-user-friendly-name/">Site Editor: a More User-Friendly Name</a></li>



<li> <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/11/introducing-twenty-twenty-three/">Introducing Twenty Twenty-Three</a></li>
</ul>



<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_121b9e-cb"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>



<div class="is-layout-flex wp-container-21 wp-block-columns">
<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-column">
<h2 id="h-community">Community</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/11/04/wordcamp-mentors-november-check-in/">WordCamp Mentors’ November check-in!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/11/03/community-team-meeting-agenda-for-nov-3-2022/">Community Team Meeting Agenda for Nov 3, 2022</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/11/03/update-global-meetup-reactivation-project/">Update: Global Meetup Reactivation Project</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-core"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core">Core</a> </h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/11/wordpress-6-1-1-rc1-is-now-available/">WordPress 6.1.1 RC1 is now available</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/04/wordpress-6-1-1-planning/">WordPress 6.1.1 Planning</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/09/wordpress-6-1-misha-retrospective/">WordPress 6.1 ‘Misha’ Retrospective</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/09/improving-the-contributor-experience-github-codespaces-for-wordpress-core/">Improving the contributor experience: GitHub Codespaces for WordPress Core</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/09/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-5-9-november/">What’s new in Gutenberg 14.5? (9 November)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/07/a-week-in-core-november-7-2022/">A Week in Core – November 7, 2022</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-meetings">Meetings</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/09/dev-chat-summary-november-9-2022/">Dev Chat summary, November 9, 2022</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/07/editor-chat-agenda-9-november-2022/">Editor Chat Agenda: 9 November 2022</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/03/core-editor-chat-summary-2nd-november-2022/">Core Editor chat summary: 2nd November 2022</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-design"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design">Design</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/11/07/design-share-oct-24-nov-4/">Design Share: Oct 24-Nov 4</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-hosting"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting">Hosting</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2022/11/09/nominations-for-hosting-team-reps-2023/">Nominations for Hosting Team Reps 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-marketing"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing">Marketing</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2022/11/09/agenda-wordpress-global-marketing-team-meeting-november-9-2022/">Agenda: WordPress global Marketing Team meeting, November 9, 2022</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2022/11/07/notes-global-marketing-team-meeting-november-2-2022/">Notes: Global Marketing Team meeting, November 2, 2022</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-performance"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/performance/">Performance</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/08/performance-team-meeting-summary-8-november-2022/">Performance Chat Summary: 8 November 2022</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-plugins"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/plugins">Plugins</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/10/31/plugin-review-team-31-oct-2022-%F0%9F%91%BB/"></a><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/11/08/plugin-review-team-status-7-nov-2022/">Plugin Review Team Status: 7 Nov 2022</a>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-polyglots">Polyglots</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2022/11/08/agenda-weekly-polyglots-chat-nov-09-2022-1300-utc/">Agenda: Weekly Polyglots Chat – Nov. 09, 2022 (13:00 UTC)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2022/11/08/call-for-polyglots-team-representatives-2/">Call for Polyglots Team Representatives</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-project"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project">Project</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2022/11/01/sustainability-channel-what-should-we-do/">Now we have a sustainability channel in Making WordPress Slack, what should we do?</a></li>
</ul>



<h2><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support">Support</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2022/11/agenda-support-team-meeting-thursday-november-11-2022/">Agenda: Support Team Meeting Thursday, November 11, 2022</a></li>
</ul>
</div>



<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-column">
<h2 id="h-test"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test">Test</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/11/08/test-team-update-7-november-2022/">Test Team Update: 7 November 2022</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-themes"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes">Themes</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2022/11/09/themes-team-meeting-notes-november-08-2022/">Themes Team Meeting Notes –&nbsp;November 08, 2022</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/11/08/themes-team-update-november-08-2022/">Themes team update November 08, 2022</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-training"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training">Training</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/individual-learner-survey/">How did you learn WordPress?</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/11/09/choosing-accessible-contrasting-dark-theme-colors-for-online-workshops-and-tutorial-videos/">Choosing accessible/contrasting dark theme colors for online workshops and tutorial videos</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/11/09/training-team-meeting-recap-for-november-1-2022/">Training Team Meeting Recap for November 1, 2022</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/11/07/project-thread-content-localization-foundations/">Project Thread: Content Localization Foundations</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/11/07/meeting-agenda-for-november-8-2022/">Meeting Agenda for November 8, 2022</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/11/01/summary-update-courses-currently-in-development-1-november-2022/">Summary Update: Courses Currently in Development or Published (1 November 2022)</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-lesson-plans"><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plans">Lesson Plans</a></h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plan/panduan-membuat-rencana-pembelajaran/">Panduan membuat Rencana Pembelajaran</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-tutorials">Tutorials</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/intro-to-the-site-editor-and-template-editor/">Intro to the Site Editor and Template Editor</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-online-workshops">Online Workshops</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=lets-code-developing-blocks-without-react-part-1">Let’s code: Developing Blocks without React! – Part 1</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=wordpress-development-live-stream-developing-blocks-without-react-part-1">WordPress development live stream: Developing Blocks without React! – Part 1</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=using-chromes-developer-tools">Using Chrome’s Developer Tools</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=intro-to-the-site-editor-and-template-editor">Intro to the Site Editor and Template Editor</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=using-the-navigation-block-2">Using the Navigation Block</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=what-is-seo-search-engine-optimization-2">What is SEO? (Search Engine Optimization)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=the-right-way-to-customize-a-wordpress-plugin-theme">The Right Way to Customize a WordPress Plugin/Theme</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=builder-basics-demystifying-theme-json-and-global-styles">Builder Basics: Demystifying theme.json and Global Styles</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=builder-basics-building-with-columns-groups-rows-and-stacks">Builder Basics: Building with Columns, Groups, Rows, and Stacks</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=builder-basics-exploring-block-layout-alignment-and-dimensions">Builder Basics: Exploring Block Layout, Alignment, and Dimensions</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=builder-basics-how-to-curate-the-editing-experience">Builder Basics: How to Curate the Editing Experience</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=wordpress-6-1-exploration-2">WordPress 6.1 Exploration</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=wordpress-6-1-exploration">WordPress 6.1 Exploration</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-wptv">WPTV</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/1430">WordPress TV videos are now auto-published to YouTube</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/category/year/2022/">Latest WordPress TV videos</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />



<h2 id="h-related-news">Related News:</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://tc39.es/#proposals">ECMAScript Proposals</a></li>
</ul>



<p class="has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background">Thanks for reading our WP dot .org roundup! Each week we are highlighting the news and discussions coming from the good folks making WordPress possible. If you or your company create products or services that use WordPress, you need to be engaged with them and their work. Be sure to share this resource with your product and project managers. <br /><br /><strong>Are you interested in giving back and contributing your time and skills to WordPress.org?</strong> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/contributing-to-wordpress/">Start Here ›</a><br /><br /><strong>Get our weekly WordPress community news digest</strong> — Post Status' <a href="https://poststatus.com/news/week-in-review/">Week in Review</a> — covering the WP/Woo news plus significant writing and podcasts. It's also available in <a href="https://poststatus.com/newsletter">our newsletter</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f48c.png" alt="💌" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile has-background"><a href="https://poststatus.com/"><img src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/vertical-post-status-logo-250.png" alt="Post Status" class="wp-image-85823 size-full" /></a><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p class="has-text-align-left has-normal-font-size" id="h-get-ready-for-remote-work">You — and <a href="https://poststatus.com/#Agency">your whole team</a> can <a href="https://poststatus.com/#choose-membership">Join Post Status</a> too!</p>



<p class="has-text-align-left has-small-font-size"><strong>Build your network. Learn with others. Find your next job — or your next hire.</strong> Read the <strong>Post Status</strong> <a href="https://poststatus.com/newsletter/">newsletter</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/2709.png" alt="✉" class="wp-smiley" /> Listen to <a href="https://poststatus.com/podcasts/">podcasts</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f399.png" alt="🎙" class="wp-smiley" /> Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status/">@Post_Status</a> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f426.png" alt="🐦" class="wp-smiley" /> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/post-status-llc/">LinkedIn</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4bc.png" alt="💼" class="wp-smiley" /></p>
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 11 Nov 2022 00:46:03 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Courtney Robertson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:124:"WPTavern: Gutenberg’s Roadmap for a “Font Library” Will Give Users an Interface for Registering and Managing Web Fonts";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=139421";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:126:"https://wptavern.com/gutenbergs-roadmap-for-a-font-library-will-give-users-an-interface-for-registering-and-managing-web-fonts";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4144:"<p>WordPress&#8217; <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/create-block-theme/">Create Block Theme</a> plugin, which is used for creating a new theme, blank theme, child theme, or style variation, has a dedicated screen for managing fonts. It lists and previews all the font families and font faces embedded in the theme and allows users to embed Google fonts, embed local font assets, and remove unused font weights.</p>



<img />




<img />



<img />




<p>WordPress theme developer Carolina Nymark <a href="https://twitter.com/carolinapoena/status/1590207811681935362">commented</a> on Twitter yesterday about how useful it would be to have this as part of the Site Editor. Gutenberg lead architect Matías Ventura <a href="https://twitter.com/matias_ventura/status/1590278101053104128">responded</a> with links to the roadmap for font management in core.</p>



<p>In June, Automattic-sponsored core committer Tonya Mork organized a ticket for tracking the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/41479">ongoing roadmap for the Web fonts API</a>. It includes the vision for how the API supports typography features and the necessary tasks for creating a &#8220;font library.&#8221; </p>



<p>&#8220;This API&#8217;s job is to provide the backend capabilities to support the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/41479#font-library">&#8220;font library&#8221;</a> to include font management and dynamic building of the <code>@font-face</code> styles,&#8221; Mork said in the ticket. The purpose of the font library is to manage and catalogue fonts and provide users an interface for selecting fonts to use on their sites.</p>



<p>All fonts coming into WordPress would be &#8220;registered fonts&#8221; and would be available through the following methods:</p>



<ul>
<li>a theme bundling them</li>



<li>a user uploading fonts they purchased</li>



<li>a plugin registering them</li>
</ul>



<p>Mork highlighted a few risks the Font Library feature might introduce, which will need to be addressed during the development process.</p>



<p>&#8220;There are potential performance risks such as enqueuing too many fonts,&#8221; she said. &#8220;A separate issue will consider impacts and propose adding a filterable throttle to limit the number that can be enqueued.&#8221;</p>



<p>Another risk outlined in the ticket includes the potential for plugins programmatically removing a theme&#8217;s fonts. </p>



<p>&#8220;With <code>remove</code> being publicly exposed for consumption, a plugin could remove any or all of the theme&#8217;s font declarations and replace them with their own, i.e. without user interaction or awareness,&#8221; Mork said. &#8220;This could potentially create inconsistencies with typography UIs and previews.&#8221;</p>



<p>The API is being developed to handle locally hosted web fonts out-of-the-box but would also provide the means for plugin authors to build methods for handling remotely hosted web fonts. </p>



<p>Automattic-sponsored designer Joen Asmussen has also opened a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/45271">ticket</a> exploring the possibilities for managing font sets in Global Styles → Typography. He created mockups for an interface for picking font sets (a primary font for headings and a secondary font for body text), as well as for managing the set properties. Users would also be able to manage font weights via a modal panel for the selected font.</p>



<img />



<p>His designs suggest a basic interface for uploading fonts, accessed through the ellipsis menu:</p>



<img />



<p>The <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/41479">roadmap for the webfonts API</a> and the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/45271">font management interface</a> tickets will be an exciting project to watch, as Gutenberg contributors work to offer another level of creative control to users. It&#8217;s still in the exploration phase, but the Font Library feature is intended to be built, refined, and stabilized over multiple WordPress releases as it materializes in the Site Editor.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 10 Nov 2022 15:38:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"Do The Woo Community: WooCommerce Performance and Cloud-Based SaaS with Ivailo Hristov";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=73451";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"https://dothewoo.io/woocommerce-performance-and-cloud-based-saas-with-ivailo-hristov/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:462:"<p>We chat about NitroPacks history, WooCommerce and performance, choosing a cloud-based SaaS vs hosted and a last-minute Black Friday tip.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/woocommerce-performance-and-cloud-based-saas-with-ivailo-hristov/">WooCommerce Performance and Cloud-Based SaaS with Ivailo Hristov</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 10 Nov 2022 10:58:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:117:"WPTavern: WooCommerce 7.1 Adds Cart Block Cross-Sells, Includes High Performance Order Storage Behind a Feature Flag";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=139395";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:126:"https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-7-1-adds-cart-block-cross-sells-includes-high-performance-order-storage-behind-a-feature-flag";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2794:"<p><a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2022/11/08/woocommerce-7-1-0-released/">WooCommerce 7.1</a> was released yesterday, delivering on time with the highly anticipated <a href="https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-6-9-released-high-performance-order-storage-targeted-for-7-1">custom order tables</a> feature, which was renamed to &#8220;High-Performance Order Storage&#8221; (HPOS). This is a major undertaking that implements custom tables for orders, products, and coupons, and promises significant performance gains for stores. </p>



<p>Contributors have been working on HPOS throughout 2022 but have been discussing its implementation for years. It is now available behind a feature flag, which can be enabled at WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > Features using the checkbox under Experimental Features titled “Custom order tables.” The feature is not yet turned on by default, as there may still be compatibility issues with plugins sites may be using.</p>



<p>This is another major milestone on WooCommerce&#8217;s journey towards improved scalability and reliability as an e-commerce platform. As HPOS adoption grows throughout the ecosystem, WooCommerce core team lead Peter Fabian said it could become the default experience for stores by August 2023.</p>



<p>Version 7.1 also introduces cross-sells on the cart block, a feature that went into testing in September in the <a href="https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-blocks-8-6-0-introduces-cross-sells-products-block">WooCommerce Blocks plugin version 8.6</a>. It allows store owners to identify certain products as cross-sells and have them displayed to customers in the cart.</p>



<img />



<p>This release adds a new product spotlight tour to help new store owners through the process of creating products, highlighting each step within the product form.</p>



<p>As a complement to this release, WooCommerce Blocks includes <a href="https://href.li/?https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-blocks/discussions?discussions_q=label%3A%22%E2%96%AB%EF%B8%8F+pattern%3A+headers%22">six new header</a> and <a href="https://href.li/?https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-blocks/discussions?discussions_q=label%3A%22%E2%96%AB%EF%B8%8F+pattern%3A+footers%22">six new footer pattens</a>. The headers come in minimal, essential, and large variations with light and dark color schemes. All of them are visible on GitHub in the WooCommerce Blocks discussions, with desktop, tablet, and mobile views.</p>



<img />Woo Large Header Light &#8211; mobile view



<p>WooCommerce 7.1 also includes several new actions and filters, including a filter for the place order button label. No database updates are required (unless users enable HPOS), and the release should be backwards compatible with the previous version.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 10 Nov 2022 05:05:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:14;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:102:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 14.5 Introduces New “Document Overview” Panel, Improves Block Spacing Controls";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=139374";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:106:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-14-5-introduces-new-document-overview-panel-improves-block-spacing-controls";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2610:"<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/09/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-5-9-november/">Gutenberg 14.5</a> was released today with a modest set of enhancements and dozens of bug fixes and code quality improvements. The highlight of this release is the new &#8220;Document Overview&#8221; panel, which combines what was previously found under separate icons in the Editor toolbar under “List View” and “Details.” This popup was where information like words, characters, headings, time to read, paragraphs, and blocks used to be found:</p>



<img />Details view prior to Gutenberg 14.5



<p>The new Document Outline panel can be opened using the List View icon in the toolbar.  Characters, words, and &#8220;time to read&#8221; have been moved to the bottom of the panel. This makes the entire panel cleaner, as the document stats were overly prominent before and the details popup had become even more crowded after the addition of the &#8220;time to read&#8221; stats.</p>



<img />image credit: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/09/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-5-9-november/">Gutenberg 14.5 release post</a>



<p>This release also improves block spacing controls to make them more visual so that users can immediately see how changing the controls will impact the surrounding blocks. Gutenberg contributor Nick Diego demonstrated this update in a video:</p>







<p>A few other notable additions to this release include the following:</p>



<ul>
<li>Comment Template, Post Comment Count, Post Comments Form, Post Comments Link <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/45101">now</a> <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/45150">have</a> <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/45091">spacing</a> <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/45184">support</a></li>



<li>Social Icons: <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/45469">Add rel attribute</a></li>



<li>Audio, Video blocks now have a button in the toolbar to add/remove caption</li>



<li>Links updated to include spacing support</li>



<li>Distraction-free mode notices <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/45348">improved</a> to fix bugs</li>



<li>Style Engine: Add <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/45334">support for dimensions.minHeight property</a></li>
</ul>



<p>Check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/09/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-5-9-november/">release post</a> for a more detailed list of all the bugs fixed, documentation updated, and code quality improvements in 14.5.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 10 Nov 2022 01:10:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:125:"WPTavern: #50 – Fränk Klein on How Gutenberg and Full Site Editing Are Bringing New Opportunities for WordPress Developers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=139281";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:138:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/50-frank-klein-on-how-gutenberg-and-full-site-editing-are-bringing-new-opportunities-for-wordpress-developers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55860:"Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley. Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, what the future looks like for WordPress developers.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice, or by going to WPTavern.com forward slash feed forward slash podcast. And you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>



<p>If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, well I&#8217;m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea featured on the show. Head over to WPTavern.com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox, and use the form.</p>



<p>So on the podcast today we have Fränk Klein. Fränk is a self-taught developer. He started out learning PHP in 2011, and from there found his way to WordPress. Over the years he&#8217;s worked for Automattic at wordpress.com, and WordPress VIP, and is now a principal developer at Human Made, an enterprise WordPress agency.</p>



<p>Today on the podcast we talk about how Fränk decided early on that he was going to start developing with blocks and, more recently, with the full site editing capabilities now built into WordPress Core.</p>



<p>We talk about the four phases of the Gutenberg project, content editing, site customization, collaborative editing and multi-lingual, and where full site editing fits into this.</p>



<p>Fränk explains how he sees the adoption of Gutenberg as inevitable. WordPress is moving away from the classic approach of content creation, to a more visual, block based experience. He thinks that it&#8217;s important to become an expert at building websites and custom solutions for clients, and for taking the time to learn the new tools that this future will require.</p>



<p>He&#8217;s not suggesting that the journey towards expertise in React and JavaScript will be easy, but he does see it as essential for those wishing to continue to use WordPress as their CMS of choice. He also makes the point that now is a great time to invest in yourself as there are more resources than ever, which can assist you in this learning path.</p>



<p>As you&#8217;ll hear, Fränk is all in on WordPress, and is very optimistic about the future for experienced WordPress developers.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading over to WPTavern.com forward slash podcast, and you&#8217;ll find the other episodes there as well.</p>



<p>And so, without further delay, I bring you, Fränk Klein.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Fränk Klein. Hello Fränk.</p>



<p>[00:03:34] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> Hey there. How you doing?</p>



<p>[00:03:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;m very well, thank you. It&#8217;s very nice to have you on the podcast. We typically at the beginning of the podcast orientate the listeners by asking a very basic and simple question just to tell us who you are, what your relationship is with WordPress, how long you&#8217;ve been working in the space, possibly the company that you now work for, and all of that goodness. So, Fränk, it&#8217;s over to you.</p>



<p>[00:03:54] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> So my name is Fränk Klein. I live in Luxembourg in the heart of Europe, and I got started with WordPress in 2011. So that&#8217;s when I started programming. So the background is that I&#8217;m actually a print designer, which at that time, wasn&#8217;t really that much of a bright career path. So I switched to programming, bought myself a PHP book, and then discover WordPress, and that&#8217;s been my passion ever since.</p>



<p>And, I kind of have a varied background because I was in a small agency, still in Luxembourg. Worked for Automattic as part of the wordpress.com theme team. I worked at WordPress VIP, and then now I&#8217;m at Human Made, which is an enterprise WordPress agency where I&#8217;m a principal engineer. And so as part of that is my passion has been WordPress, but I also have a big interest in the wider web ecosystem, and so that&#8217;s why there is my interest in everything block related.</p>



<p>[00:04:51] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, and that&#8217;s going to be the basis of our conversation today. So Fränk&#8217;s here to talk about Gutenberg in general, but more specifically about full site editing. And I think probably a good way to begin the conversation to, again, provide a bit of orientation, is just to run through the history of the Gutenberg project and now full site editing. So I don&#8217;t know if you are willing to do that. Run through the history of when it all began and what the phases are and so on.</p>



<p>[00:05:17] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> Yeah, so, I think when we talk about full site editing, we cannot forget the wider picture, and that is that full site editing is part of the Gutenberg project, which Matt Mullenweg, the WordPress lead started back in 2017. And the idea behind Gutenberg was really that WordPress ran its course in the way that it was at that time, in that there needed to be a ground up reimagining of a lot of the core components that make up WordPress.</p>



<p>So therefore, there are four phases. The first one is content editing. So that was in 2018 when WordPress 5.0 introduced the block editor, or the content editor how I prefer to call it. Then the next step is site customization. Part of it was in 5.8, but most people will know it from 5.9 when full site editing was introduced.</p>



<p>Then the next phase, which they are starting right now is collaborative editing. So Google Doc style editing of different people on the same content. And then there will be multilingual. So that&#8217;s the big picture of the Gutenberg project. And so, full site editing is just part of this. And so the thing about these phases is that the content editing phase that was, by now four years ago, but it&#8217;s not really finished because the content editing experience still gets upgrades. It gets stuff added to it. And so that&#8217;s how this project is laid out. And even if we now roll into the collaboration full site editing isn&#8217;t done, and they will continue to work on it for the future.</p>



<p>[00:06:43] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> If we were to roll back the clock prior to Gutenberg, so let&#8217;s say, 2015 or something like that, and there were people at that point who were using just the classic editor, they were maybe putting just content in or short codes and page builders and so on, came along. What do you think was the point of having all of this in core?</p>



<p>In other words, it could be left to third parties, it could be plugins or it could be themes that took on the job of the way that your site was presented. What is the promise? Deep down, what&#8217;s the sort of kernel of Gutenberg? What is it offering? Where are we headed with it?</p>



<p>[00:07:18] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> This is kind of where the, the bigger picture comes in because, when we just talk about full site editing, it&#8217;s called the site customization phase. It&#8217;s not called page building phase. It&#8217;s not called theme building phase. Those are all things that you can do with full site editing. But really the idea behind full site editing is, there was the customizer, right? So that was the way that you interact with your theme, and that didn&#8217;t work out. I think the promise that the customizer had in the beginning didn&#8217;t pan out to be what people wanted to be. And so then the idea was that we have something better, which is built up on this concept of blocks.</p>



<p>And so the thing that makes full site editing and then, the customizer very different is that, the customizer, the idea was there was this tool and there are only minimal controls available, and if you want to have your own, there are just APIs and a builder. And so the problem was that everybody built their own controls, and then there was other confusion for users, and themes weren&#8217;t compatible with each other.</p>



<p>And then the site editor, or just say the Gutenberg project in general takes a very different approach, in that it says, we&#8217;re going to give you a lot of customization options, controlling fonts, controlling colors. And beyond those options, this is like the full menu of everything you can do, we give you the APIs to preset these things, to remove them, to customize them. And so the bigger context here is that this is a customers replacement for the moment, but it also allows you to build new templates.</p>



<p>And the idea is that many of the menus that we have in the WordPress admin are going to be rolled into the site editor. So for example, reading, settings, things like that. There are definitely concepts already exploring how that could be part of the site editor. So really, when we talk about even collaborative editing, that&#8217;s going to require changes.</p>



<p>Multilingual is going to require changes. That all is just wrote into this Gutenberg project, of which full site editing is one part. The promise is kind of that based on this concept of blocks, we are going to be able to reimagine how people interact with WordPress, both as users and also as developers. And it&#8217;s going to be done much more through visual interfaces that are a lot easier to understand and to work with.</p>



<p>And that way really we&#8217;re going from the old word of WordPress to the new WordPress, which is then going to be able to be around for a decade or more. So that&#8217;s the big picture vision behind the whole project.</p>



<p>[00:09:48] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, sort of future proofing if you like. Given all of that, let&#8217;s just put the conversation about blocks to one side and about what they offer, we can come back to that in a few moments. I want to talk just for a moment about how it is that such a large proportion of the community, and when I say large proportion I don&#8217;t really have any figures. Not claiming it&#8217;s 10, 20, 50, 70, whatever. Percent, but there&#8217;s been a certain amount of people within the WordPress community who have not got such an optimistic approach to full site editing and the Gutenberg project more broadly. In many cases, they don&#8217;t really want to have much to do with it.</p>



<p>They&#8217;re happy with the tools that they&#8217;ve got, and they&#8217;re happy with the systems that they&#8217;ve got in place, whether that be a page builder or whatever it is. I&#8217;m just wondering if you have any thoughts on how the communication went, introducing Gutenberg and full site editing. Do you think that the promise was explained from the beginning? Maybe the promise wasn&#8217;t fully realized. Or do you think that there were some PR missteps along the way.</p>



<p>[00:10:49] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> Well, yeah. There&#8217;s several parts of it. I think that when Matt introduced it, he wrote this post called we called it Gutenberg for a reason, and that very much painted a broad picture. In my opinion it went a little bit overboard comparing it to the invention of the printing press. It&#8217;s just my personal sentiment about it, that&#8217;s maybe overdoing it by a lot. But he definitely had this vision where he explained what problems this project was trying to solve.</p>



<p>And that was around for a bit. And then we went right into the details. So the block editor was introduced, all these APIs, and so at that point we just focus very much on the what, and not the why. Why is this there? And instead of just saying, hey, here&#8217;s this paragraph block, and it works this way. There never was really a step taken back in where there was an exploration of, here are these tools and these are all the possibilities that you now have with these tools.</p>



<p>And to adapt that to the different profiles that we have in the WordPress space, because we have end users, we have power users, we have theme developers, plugin developers. And kind of this translation from the nitty gritty to the bigger picture and also let&#8217;s say the potential that is there, because there definitely is a lot of potential. That was missed, unfortunately, and I think that&#8217;s why, if all you just see is a bunch of stuff getting thrown in your face and nobody really explains to you what you&#8217;re supposed to do with it, and why they&#8217;re adding all it. Then unfortunately that&#8217;s, I think the situation where we were in where just a large part of the community didn&#8217;t see the point. And so the project is doing a lot more of trying to fix these mistakes. So they are a lot better about showcasing the things that you can do. So I&#8217;m very hopeful in that, that we&#8217;ll get to those bigger picture conversations.</p>



<p>[00:12:37] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I guess, for me at least, when Gutenberg rolled into Core, it came with some default blocks, which you could use. But they very much were the kind of things that you could have done and could have achieved in all the previous versions of WordPress. So you could put in a paragraph and whilst you could move that paragraph independently, it was still a paragraph. And so not tremendously exciting. And the same with images. You&#8217;ve always been able to do something similar to that. I&#8217;m just wondering if there was a wow moment that got missed there.</p>



<p>In other words, when that came into Core, right at the beginning, if some bizarre, let&#8217;s use that word, some bizarre, extraordinarily clever block could have been shipped, just to give everybody that aha moment. But it didn&#8217;t happen that way. We just got a fairly ordinary pallet of blocks to choose from. And so people perhaps got disinterested and never came back. And now we&#8217;re in the process of trying to show people what those aha moments are.</p>



<p>And certainly from my point of view, I&#8217;ve. Implementation&#8217;s left, right and center of really incredibly difficult and complicated things built inside a really small, tiny UI in the block editor, and it is amazing. But I, I do wonder if that moment was missed and it&#8217;ll be difficult to ever get that excitement back?</p>



<p>[00:13:52] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> Well, I think there are two parts with it. I think that one might discuss the point at which the block editor was introduced. So for sure, in the beginning it was a bit rough. And so if already having trouble to have the time to find polish, to polish this product, they probably didn&#8217;t have the time to build a lot of showcasing tools because they were just trying to get this done to include it into Core.</p>



<p>Okay, this was the situation and it is how it is. They could at least showcase the potential of in, blog posts after the release. But I think the big opportunity that was lost is just to look at the ecosystem and just to go out to agencies, product companies, whatever, that were using blocks and to take the things that these people were building and then to show it.</p>



<p>I think that&#8217;s a big missed opportunity. Just a case study. This was the problem and this is the solution that was developed, and this is the reason why it was developed. And these are the outcomes. Right, so talking much more in business language, not really in they used this API and that API, which might change and which is really not interesting.</p>



<p>There was a lot missed on that. I know we have the state of the world and then there is a maybe three second slide for some project which was super impressive. But all it gets is this three seconds in the presentation. Frankly speaking all people don&#8217;t even watch. So I think that was a big opportunity which got missed.</p>



<p>[00:15:12] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> In your learning about the construction of blocks and all of the different technological pieces that you had to acquire along that road. How difficult has that journey been for you? So, Let&#8217;s say, for example, there&#8217;s somebody listening to this, and by the end of this they are indeed convinced that this is the way to go. What&#8217;s the learning path like? Did you find that to be a fairly difficult experience? Was there a lot to learn that meant that you couldn&#8217;t progress until you&#8217;d got over several hums? Was it easy, was it hard? What was it like?</p>



<p>[00:15:39] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> Well, I was lucky enough to already know, let&#8217;s say modern JavaScript in quotes and React, before I start with blocks. So that&#8217;s definitely a big hump to get over if you are coming from a traditional PHP background and you, you know, maybe write jQuery, some of it, but, uh, you don&#8217;t really have a lot of JavaScript affinity. That&#8217;s actually one big issue.</p>



<p>Just building the blocks was rough when I did it, because it was so early. I think the first project that I did, it was still with the Gutenberg plugin, like it was before 5.0. But I think that at this point it&#8217;s a lot easier. It&#8217;s just that the documentation has got a lot better. There are tons of material for people to learn this. But over time my thinking has shifted on that, because if you would know how to build a block, like technically speaking, that&#8217;s good, but this is really just the base level. The challenge really is to, how do I design all the experiences for my users, my end users, so that they fit into this paradigm.</p>



<p>So you can have a custom blocks that works, that&#8217;s entirely PHP rendered. You might have JavaScript run in the editor. You might add a plugin to the editor. You might have a custom control. You might have customizations of core blocks. And that&#8217;s really knowing all of these tools that are available and when to use them, how to use them. That&#8217;s really the difficult part.</p>



<p>That being said, I think that, for me it&#8217;s always, even when it&#8217;s difficult, I kind of have the opinion of this is why I get paid. I get paid to solve the hard issues. And so if there is a hump to get over, I am, I&#8217;m ready to do it. But I think just in the wider picture, you need to just start doing it, and just keep doing it, even if it&#8217;s frustrating, because that&#8217;s just how it is with anything. If you try and learn the guitar, I&#8217;m going to tell you it&#8217;s not going to be easy. But you just need to keep with it. And then over time this will just become second nature.</p>



<p>Because that&#8217;s also the question, you know, it&#8217;s the chicken and egg problem somewhat, is well, how do I become a JavaScript developer? Well you write a lot of JavaScript. You know, honestly, that&#8217;s how easy it is. It&#8217;s just like doing pushups. You wanna be good at doing pushups, you need to do a lot of pushups. That&#8217;s pretty much the solution. And once you accept that there is no magic solution that will just come down and allow you to continue to write PHP, and take advantage of all of these new opportunities. That doesn&#8217;t exist.</p>



<p>I know a few projects out there say that you can write PHP and you will have will all of the capabilities to build blocks, but that&#8217;s definitely not the case. So it&#8217;s just a matter of taking the decision to learn it and then sticking with it. But I have a actually a tutoring program for building blocks. All it takes is six weeks, but it&#8217;s going to be intense, six weeks. But after that you know the basics. Then we can move on to the more important things, which are the experiences that you should build for your end users.</p>



<p>[00:18:27] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I will definitely link in the show notes to your WPdevelopment.courses website, where you can go and check out what Fränk&#8217;s got on offer there and, the six week program. I think there&#8217;s a couple different things on the website, but we&#8217;ll definitely link to that. But do you feel sanguine now that there&#8217;s more information out there that, it is now possible? And in the day when you were doing it, it was probably more of a slog than it is now. Where do you turn to when you&#8217;ve got problems? Is it colleagues? Do you turn to friends, relations? Who are you looking towards when you are trying to solve the problems in your own work?</p>



<p>[00:19:00] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> Colleagues, so I&#8217;m very lucky to have a lot of colleagues that are a lot better than I am in different things. And that&#8217;s really the magic of being in a larger company. I know that if I struggle with this piece, I go to this person. If I struggle with that thing, I go to this other person.</p>



<p>So I&#8217;m very lucky with that. That being said a lot of the problems that I encounter very much also React or JavaScript problems, so there&#8217;s always the wider ecosystem for that. I do think though that even if you are alone and all you have is just the official documentation, it is entirely possible to learn this. And I&#8217;m very upfront with, when I have a program or a course, I&#8217;m just selling you a time saver. I&#8217;m saving you time and frustration, but you definitely could do it with just the default stuff that is out there.</p>



<p>And I think that the WordPress learn website, they&#8217;re adding more and more stuff to it. Of course, it&#8217;s not as polished as something which is really starting to end a learning path. That&#8217;s just the downside of this being free documentation. But it is definitely possible to learn. And especially when we talk about just the people that want to get maybe deeper into JavaScript and React. There&#8217;s a ton of courses out there where people teach you that stuff, which are great and not very expensive.</p>



<p>So I think the difference between, when we got started, 5.0 and now, it&#8217;s night and day. It&#8217;s not even comparable how much easier it is to learn blocks right now. And, we mustn&#8217;t forget that. I see it every day, inside of Human Made and also in community. There are people learning it from all kinds of backgrounds.</p>



<p>Even people that would say that they aren&#8217;t really developers. So it&#8217;s not like there is some secret source or something that you need to be born with to learn. This is very achievable. But again, you need to put in the work and the time to achieve it.</p>



<p>[00:20:41] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, achievable, but there will be some element of struggle along the way. But it&#8217;s nice to know that there are options out there. And you mentioned Learn, and like I said, we&#8217;ll link to the bits and pieces that you provide as well. You are clearly very into all of this. This is something that you&#8217;ve staked your future on, I guess to some extent. You&#8217;ve learned all of these skills and how do you feel about the broader picture for people in the future?</p>



<p>So agencies, freelancers, and what have you, who have yet to embark on this journey and are still doing things in the way that they have been doing. Do you see that the future for them is going to be more difficult in the work that you do? Do you see that the potential is paying off? Are clients coming to you and you are able to build things more quickly, potentially have a user interface which they like more, and so on? I just wondered what your thoughts were about the future for freelancers, agencies, and and so on.</p>



<p>[00:21:33] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> I think that when we talk about the work that I do, we have the chance to work with bigger budgets, so that gives us a lot more, let&#8217;s say free space to build out certain things. But, the thing inside Human Made is that Human Made hasn&#8217;t built a website without blocks ever since the block editor got introduced.</p>



<p>That was just the default, because we saw the problems that this was solving. Because the classic editor, for our clients, even the clients in the publishing industry, like it didn&#8217;t work. We were having solutions to deal with certain issues, the workarounds that we all knew, but these were just not up to the task. And so when we saw the block editor, not only what was there in terms of the starting blocks, which is paragraph and image, which wasn&#8217;t very exciting, but the whole framework surrounding it to build a custom blocks we said, okay, these and these, and these are going to be the problems that we can solve with this.</p>



<p>And it&#8217;s going to take us a lot less time. It&#8217;s going to be more efficient because we can reuse certain things a lot easier. And also it&#8217;s going to be a lot better experience for the end users. And the thing that we need to understand is that, as I alluded to in the beginning, full site editing is just one part of the bigger picture.</p>



<p>So you can say, maybe I don&#8217;t want to use this part of full site editing, or I don&#8217;t want to use that part. And that is fine because we are in a transitionary phase, where we are transitioning really from a very classic theme development approach to this new paradigm of building themes. But if it just flat out say, I don&#8217;t want to use blocks at all, never ever, then probably, at least as I see it, then you&#8217;re going to need to stop using WebPress at one point or another. Which is fine because I think a lot of the careers in WordPress are incidental in that people just found WordPress and then they started using it, but there was, for most, not a point where they said, this is really WordPress and this is why I use it.</p>



<p>And so WordPress is just a tool, if at a certain point a tool doesn&#8217;t work for you, then choose something else. I think that&#8217;s just something where you need to be honest with yourself. The other part is that when we think about what an agency is, if you choose WordPress because you say this is the best solution for us, then you need to be all in with it.</p>



<p>You can&#8217;t really say, I&#8217;m going to choose WordPress, but not these and these parts of WordPress, which I don&#8217;t like, which are just key to experience. And how content is edited and how themes are built, that&#8217;s a very key part of the CMS. So you can&#8217;t just ignore those. But the difficulty is, what I alluded to before, is that you need to really understand how a block theme works, how the site editor works, how I guess the end goal works.</p>



<p>And then once you have understood what that experience is, then you can come back and say, well at this point, for this project, I don&#8217;t want to have full on block templates. I&#8217;m going to use more hybrid approach where maybe the users can change this part or that part to the editor. And that&#8217;s all fine because you are making a very conscious decision of choosing features that fit best with that specific project.</p>



<p>But you know what the possibilities are, and you know what to pick next, once you get over that initial phase where we just build partial websites. For example, landing pages are something which you can already build now with blocks and you could for a while. Now it&#8217;s just a lot easier to do. So it really depends a lot on your specific use case.</p>



<p>And for that, if your work is building websites with WordPress, you need to have the experience of making the right choices. So if you&#8217;re just pushing the point at which you do the switch in the future and into the future, into the future, there&#8217;s going to be a time at which somebody comes in an agency that says, well we have been building with this since 2018, and you only started in 2024 for some reason.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s a lot of time and a lot of experience that you&#8217;re missing out on. So it&#8217;s just like with building blocks. You have to jump into the pool, and wobble around with your legs and arms and try to swim. And you will see, it gets easier and easier. But, I think what we need to just understand that, WordPress has been the same for so long, and we think that&#8217;s normal, but it&#8217;s definitely not. Because the wider web development space has changed so dramatically just in the last five years.</p>



<p>And so we cannot expect to keep the same solutions that we&#8217;ve built always with meta boxes and what have you, and then expect this to be a solution which is competitive in two years, in five years. It&#8217;s not going to be the case. The world is moving on whether we want it or not, and we just need to get onto the train if we want to be a part of that.</p>



<p>[00:26:03] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Couple of questions from that. The first one is you mentioned that there&#8217;s a competitive edge to be had here. I&#8217;m just wondering if you can give us some sort of insight into that. I realize you can&#8217;t talk about particular clients or anything like that, but what do you feel the advantage is that you can offer to clients? Are there conversations that you can have where the full site editing picture, the Gutenberg picture, the blocks picture, you can explain that promise to the clients, and you believe that they are persuaded by that?</p>



<p>[00:26:31] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> Well, I think that there are a couple of things. You need to start somewhere. I started early when it was still in the plugin and my colleagues at Human Made weren&#8217;t far behind. And so the thing is always that when the first project, we kind of had to convince the client, but not really, because we showed them the editor and it was like miles better what they had.</p>



<p>They say, Oh yeah, you know, we definitely like this with visual previews, because I mean it wasn&#8217;t even up to the classic editor, what they had before. So that was an easy win to be honest. And maybe that was luck, but. Then when the next client comes around and they ask what&#8217;s with this new editor thing? And we&#8217;re like, oh yeah, we did this project for this client and these are the custom blocks that we built, these are the problems which we solved. That&#8217;s an easier conversation because it doesn&#8217;t feel super outlandish to them anymore because, well this client did it, then, it seems a good solution, then why shouldn&#8217;t we do it?</p>



<p>And so you need to build up that repertoire of just social proof to be honest. And so when a new client comes around and we having these sales talk, and they are explaining a problem to you. I can always say, we had this client, they had this problem, we built this solution. And so, when you just not only explain it to them, also show it to them, which we like, you know, we like to demo stuff. Then they definitely see it.</p>



<p>And we are not even talking about this is a block and this is an extension of this default control because the client doesn&#8217;t care. They don&#8217;t know what is in Core and what isn&#8217;t. If it&#8217;s custom not. If it takes you an hour to do all week, you know, in a sense, they don&#8217;t care. They just want to have a solution that fits their needs. That&#8217;s just the competitive advantage of really knowing this thing very well. Which is why I said, if you don&#8217;t understand what full site editing is trying to do, you cannot really apply pieces of it.</p>



<p>The other part is of course, that maybe you are reluctant to learn JavaScript and React, but honestly it&#8217;s a very good thing to know, because if you ever were to get out of WordPress, a JavaScript developer, React developer, tons of jobs available. That&#8217;s also for me, when I look at my personal career, I always need to prepare for the case when WordPress might disappear overnight, for whatever freakish reasons. Then I&#8217;ll be fine. I just go and do a JavaScript, which I also enjoy. But I think that&#8217;s something which maybe a lot of people are missing it or they don&#8217;t want to think about it that much.</p>



<p>But the run of the mill WordPress developer with just a non WordPress development skills, is quite far behind the larger web development ecosystem. And that is fine if you say well, I&#8217;m not really a developer, just, maybe I&#8217;m a marketer, salesperson and I just build websites because I need one. But that&#8217;s not really what my core skill is.</p>



<p>If you say well, I&#8217;m a developer and I build custom solutions for my clients, that&#8217;s really, my core skill is what I sell to my clients, and you are not able to work with what has been in WordPress for by now four years, custom blocks and this whole system that has been introduced. That&#8217;s not a great situation to be in.</p>



<p>So unless you want to be tied to a specific page builder, theme, and you want your stake, your fortune to the fortune of that company, then this is something which you just have to get with because, it&#8217;s very important for your own career and it&#8217;s very important for your own business. If you want to stay around for the next couple of years, this is not something that you should be sleeping on.</p>



<p>[00:29:39] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s interesting. I feel that there&#8217;s probably quite a lot of people who are fearful of some of the things that you mentioned. Learning React and learning JavaScript deeply, and they&#8217;re struggling just to use the time that they&#8217;ve got to output the work that they need to output to make ends meet. And so all of this extra, that they&#8217;ve suddenly got to learn becomes a little bit daunting. But it&#8217;s nice to hear that you feel at least that there&#8217;s opportunities there and perhaps in your imagination at least anyway, the window of opportunity is bigger, looking forwards with full site editing. And it&#8217;s closing with the old way that things have been done with PHP and themes and all of that kind of stuff. So that&#8217;s interesting.</p>



<p>You kept saying the word custom solutions which I found curious. I&#8217;m guessing that on the enterprise level, the kind of clients that you are dealing with, that is the kind of work that you are involved with. You know, they come to you with websites which have a heavy burden of, it needs to be very custom. It&#8217;s got to be exactly what we want. The budget can accommodate that, and so you can really spend time drilling down. And so your knowledge of what&#8217;s possible with blocks and so on and so forth can really assist them.</p>



<p>You know, you might have a block for some very specific task within the broader website, that you can build and there&#8217;s time and what have you for all of that. Whereas, I would imagine quite a lot of people listening to this, they really aren&#8217;t going to be doing that. It&#8217;s just a simple website. It&#8217;s a brochure website, four or five pages and that&#8217;s kind of it. And maybe they feel that they still don&#8217;t need it. But, anyway the custom solution piece I think is interesting. Can you talk to us about that?</p>



<p>[00:31:09] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> Ah, yeah, sure. I just wanna take the opportunity to circle back a bit to finding the time. And this comes from Brian Gardner, so thank you, Brian. He said there&#8217;s is five for the future, which WordPress says you should invest this time into the project so that it can sustain itself. And he proposes these five for your future, which just means well take 5% of your time and invest it into learning because that&#8217;s going to make it possible for you to have a sustainable future.</p>



<p>So I think that&#8217;s a very important concept. Cause I definitely do understand the need to make money and stay up to date on all of these things, and it&#8217;s not different when you are in an enterprise agency as when you are in a small agency. I mean, the struggle is always the same. I mean, everybody needs to make money, and the way to make money is to produce work for your clients.</p>



<p>But I think just if you are aware of the fact that you need to stay up to date, and you make it a priority. It&#8217;s the same as with any other thing in your business. It&#8217;s like accounting, everybody needs accounting and you can just not do it. And at some, you&#8217;re going to be screwed or you say, yes, I need to do my accounting and I need to take the time it takes to do it right.</p>



<p>I mean, everybody needs time to write their invoices. And so people make time for that. And if you make this the same level of urgency and importance as writing invoice so you get paid, then learning is just going to be a natural part of that.</p>



<p>There&#8217;s a piece of learning where you just need to get the basics, but then there&#8217;s a lot of learning on the job where you run into an issue and you figure it out and then you work some more, you run into another issue. So a lot of learning that you&#8217;re going to do is pretty much on the job. So that&#8217;s how it was for me. And to come back to the question of custom solutions. In general, when we talk about a website project where they cost $5,000 or $500,000, the challenge is always the same. There are certain pieces in the website that you need to have, so there needs to be navigation, there needs to be a list of content, posts. All these things are there, and it&#8217;s the same whether it&#8217;s small budget or big budget.</p>



<p>The challenge is what do you focus your energy on in that budget? And so that&#8217;s a conversation which we have with our clients where, for example, it&#8217;s a stupid thing, but we get the mock up, right? And there is this pagination on the bottom. And this pagination kind of looks tricky. I would say, look, that pagination, if we build it that way, it&#8217;s going to take us like a day to build it.</p>



<p>And honestly, nobody cares what your pagination look like. We can switch it out with just the full pagination. We got all the functionality. It doesn&#8217;t look the same, but who cares about the pagination? And most clients, if we don&#8217;t say it that way, if they say little bit more nicely, most clients will be like, yeah, okay, understand, the pagination. because for them, they didn&#8217;t even see the pagination, right? It just slipped their mind. And so there&#8217;s this negotiation where you need to take all of the pieces which you can simplify and use something which is pre-done, that you do this way. And then you really have the time to focus on the pieces that are important to your client.</p>



<p>Because I always talk the language of money. What makes you money? How do you make money? How can we help you make money? And that is the point where you&#8217;re going to invest a lot of your energy, and that is where the custom solutions come in. So we had a client that problem was that. They had a CMS, and it took their editors 25 minutes to just enter the content into the CMS because it was so complicated. They need to manually resize images, all of that. So we just took WordPress. We did some custom work, not a lot to be honest, just for that specific piece. And we brought it down to five minutes. At top, takes them five minutes to get an article entered into the system, published on the website, has all of the metadata for social media and everything like that.</p>



<p>And that&#8217;s a case where you can present to a client how you make them a lot of money by saving them time, because they still have the same editors, but the output is a lot bigger. The important thing is to not be tied to things that you think should be custom, because let&#8217;s say a menu, a main navigation. Do you need a custom menu with all this and that, or can it just be dropdowns? Normal dropdowns. It&#8217;s a question. Maybe the answer is no, because you have, I don&#8217;t know, an e-commerce website and you need to have a more complicated menu. Or the answer is just yes. Just a menu, as we all know, is going to be fine.</p>



<p>And so that&#8217;s really the struggle that you find the things that you can standardize and WordPress is going to help you with that. Because a lot of the things that we needed custom solutions before now are standardized, or at least the way that you build it is standardized. So custom blocks are really difficult to build.</p>



<p>You know, a bunch of stuff is already there. A lot of components are there. And the challenge is that when we talk about the smaller budgets, the $5,000 project&#8217;s not going to go away, what you need to deliver for that amount, that&#8217;s going to go up. And so here, when we talk about full site editing, since a lot of the pieces already predone for you, you can assemble these pieces, you can customize them, and that will allow you to build a solution which corresponds to the needs of your clients. And it doesn&#8217;t take you a lot of time to do it.</p>



<p>So that&#8217;s the big idea behind is that, previously WordPress was very much, I give you these APIs, but there wasn&#8217;t really much in there. So now it&#8217;s completely different way. There&#8217;s a ton of stuff in there, but you need to really curate the experience that fits for your client and then you add the stuff that is not by default in there onto that. If it&#8217;s a plugin that you can use, great. We use tons of plugins at Human Made that just do things that we always do. And if it&#8217;s really a custom piece, then that&#8217;s where you write the custom code. And so through combinations of these factors, you&#8217;re going to be able to achieve the results for your clients.</p>



<p>[00:36:42] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I do like the piece that you mentioned there about having the client suddenly realized, that must have been a real aha moment. Something previously took 25 minutes. So if you did that twice, you&#8217;re approaching an hour to do, whatever that task was twice. And with the custom solution that you built, perhaps that was a block with the fields arranged differently, I don&#8217;t know. But the principle that could enter the same amount of data, you could do that twice in 10 minutes, you really have sold it I think at that point.</p>



<p>Nobody&#8217;s going to deny that&#8217;s a better experience. And if it can, in the background, be doing things like creating the images and creating all of the metadata that goes with those images for the different social networks and so on and so forth. All of that stuff can be built inside of this custom solution. Yeah that&#8217;s fabulous. Like you said, the budget may not allow for it, in which case there&#8217;s still going to be a, the $5,000 website.</p>



<p>I do think you are right as well that the expectation for what that $5,000 will buy you is only going to go up. It&#8217;s going to continue to be, $5,000 this year will get you this amount of functionality. And now that people are building with custom blocks and what have you, I imagine customers are going to be able to determine for themselves that, well, actually, no, for my $5,000 I&#8217;m expecting there to be a lot more on the back end that I can play with and for it to be customized just for my use case exactly.</p>



<p>[00:37:56] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> Right, and I think that, when we think about a traditional website project, there&#8217;s this waterfall model where development is at the very end. And if you approach it this way, you&#8217;re kind of ready, all of these decisions have been pre-made for you because, there is this custom pagination, I don&#8217;t know, but pagination is one of my pet peeves, so there&#8217;s this super expensive pagination, this weird menu, like stuff is all over the place. But those are the mockups that the client said, we&#8217;re going to build this, and now you are having to deal with the task of, okay, how I&#8217;m going to build this, in this amount of time? And then we just are at the same starting point where everybody else is, like, we have a website that pretty much looks like all other websites, because usually, unless the design is very expensive, it&#8217;s pretty much going to look like a lot of other stuff, obviously.</p>



<p>And so If you think of yourself as an engineer, you know, maybe that&#8217;s your title, but that&#8217;s not really what you are. You need to come in very early in the process and then already talk to the client in the very beginning, in the discovery phase, and find out what the pain points are and then try and make a note of these and also come out with a few possible solutions that you might deploy to do this.</p>



<p>And then you go in and you need to collaborate with the graphic designers. I need to collaborate with the client on how you put this website together. So since we now have a framework, which is WordPress, where we have all of those pieces to build a website. We need to be involved a lot earlier and also explain to designers what these pieces are. How far it can be customized and all of this. Because the approach as we did, by now maybe 15 years ago, where really we sold websites by the . Page and it was this mockup and that mockup, and that was how websites were sold, right, by the page. You paid this much per page. That is just gone. Now we need to build up these small pieces and we assemble them into bigger pieces and bigger pieces, and that&#8217;s how we build out the whole website from the small components.</p>



<p>That is both the case in terms of the design. So we start with the button, which is done part of a larger pattern, which is then part of the whole page design, or a call out box, whatever. You build up the design out this way, but it&#8217;s also the functionality. And a lot of the functionality that you build out, you&#8217;re going to have to deal with the data.</p>



<p>How do I model the data? How is it stored in the database? How does it get accessed? How do I store it in way that is all performant? And so, you as an engineer, you kind of need to talk the language, both of the client and the designers. And still know all of the background of what you need to do when it comes time to write code.</p>



<p>Cause let&#8217;s not kid ourselves, at a certain moment, you&#8217;re going to need to open that editor and start writing out code. Even when you&#8217;re dealing with, you know, full site editing. Then at that point you have everything lined up in the way that you can deliver the results that the client wants, within the time, and then also the budget that they have.</p>



<p>So that&#8217;s really the big challenge, and it&#8217;s going to require us to step away from a lot of that old waterfall thinking because, really when you have projects that I tend to do tend to be quite long. You know, sometimes three months, six months, a year. So if you have a project that runs a year, you&#8217;re not going to come in with a list of all the stuff that you&#8217;re going to do in a year.</p>



<p>So it&#8217;s a constant, discovery, negotiation, building stuff. But at each point you are building something which already has value. And so if at the end of the project the budget runs out, and maybe we missed a few nice to haves, the client&#8217;s not going to, they&#8217;re not going to care, because they&#8217;ve got everything which they wanted and which is producing the results for them.</p>



<p>So that&#8217;s really the idea that we need to take forward. And to be honest, I don&#8217;t have all the answers on that. It&#8217;s just, I think that a more iterative approach where you build out pieces one by one in order of priority, and we have something which is working, which is going to produce results at any point. That&#8217;s the way that we&#8217;re going to do it, and it&#8217;s a lot easier to do that, just assemble pieces and then you add your little custom stuff to it. If you just start everything from scratch and it already takes you three days to come up with, you know, the basic site layout, I think that&#8217;s just outdated.</p>



<p>[00:41:58] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Interesting. So it almost feels like you are using bricks to build a wall. You might substitute the word bricks for blocks, which is a nice metaphor. Just before we end, it sounds like you&#8217;ve decided that this is the way that you&#8217;re going to do things in the future. You&#8217;re fully into this. The promise with new technology is always, we&#8217;re going to make your life easier. I do wonder, and maybe you can speak to this, have you simply swapped a bunch of problems that you used to have, for a new set of problems that you now have? So whilst in the past you were wrangling with different things, templates and themes and so on and so forth, you&#8217;re now just wrangling with a different set of problems.</p>



<p>What I&#8217;m trying to say is, is your job easier now, harder, or just the same?</p>



<p>[00:42:42] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> It&#8217;s the same, but it&#8217;s not. I think that we shouldn&#8217;t be, how can I say that, we shouldn&#8217;t look back on the past and, oh, imagine when we didn&#8217;t have to do this and didn&#8217;t do that and paint the pretty picture of how it was. Because the past, it wasn&#8217;t great. I&#8217;ve been in web development for a while now, and there never was this super bliss that somehow got destroyed with everything that is here.</p>



<p>But the thing is that it&#8217;s been the same. But for me, the way I look at it, it&#8217;s that you are always going to have problems, but I want to have bigger problems and better problems. So there&#8217;s a myth that, oh, a thousand dollar client is going to bicker and then a $10,000 client just going to wire the money.</p>



<p>And I don&#8217;t know where these people come from, but that&#8217;s definitely not the case. All clients are difficult at all price ranges. That&#8217;s just how it is. You&#8217;re trying to build this thing together. And there&#8217;s going to be a few confrontations, and that&#8217;s just normal. But the thing is more is that, how can I say that? If I have to write one more stupid post list, I&#8217;m just going to be out of this. Who wants to go into an editor and be like, oh, this is going to be a list, and then I will get the title. I have zero interest in that, doesn&#8217;t interest me at all. It&#8217;s just I don&#8217;t want to do the same thing over and over.</p>



<p>If I can abstract that away, great. And that&#8217;s really the idea behind is that I want to go to the things, just in terms of my career, I want to get closer to where I can produce outcomes for the client and rewriting a list of posts, how much of an outcome are you producing? I&#8217;m not really sure.</p>



<p>And so everything that I take, all of these tools is just, I want to deal with bigger problems, better problems, and that way I&#8217;m going to be able to make more money, frankly speaking. And so if you just get bogged down into this small, kind of, small thinking where we need to say, oh, I need to write everything from scratch. No you don&#8217;t. there are huge parts of projects that I didn&#8217;t write myself, but I know which solutions are out there. And so, I don&#8217;t come up with an SEO framework. I use a plugin for that. I don&#8217;t come up with a bunch of things. But because I have solved all these problems, I can then have better problems.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s the idea that I want to take. I want to get to the really hard stuff and yeah, definitely full site editing helps with all of that. It abstracts away a lot of the theming stuff that&#8217;s very repetitive. Blocks are a lot more portable. Even if we do write custom code, there&#8217;s a way to make it more abstract so that we can pull in libraries and things like that.</p>



<p>So that way you are kind of building up, project by project and not only building up experience, but you&#8217;re also building up your toolbox so that when you come to a problem, you&#8217;ll reach in to the toolbox, you pull it out, you can solve the issue, and then you&#8217;re onto the next one. Which hopefully is going to be more interesting than how does the pagination look.</p>



<p>[00:45:20] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Nice answer. Fränk, I&#8217;m afraid we&#8217;re probably just going to have to knock it on the head because of the time. But just before we do, just before we call a close to the podcast episode. I&#8217;m wondering if people have listened to this and have been inspired and would like to get in touch with you, what other best ways or way to do that?</p>



<p>[00:45:36] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> First, it is my website, so WP Development Courses. So check that out. Feel free to email me like there&#8217;s a contact tab. I like to hear from people. I don&#8217;t have all the answers for sure, and I like to hear from people and understand all the different backgrounds.</p>



<p>And then I&#8217;m on the WordPress.org Slack. If you wanna DM me. And of course you can find me on Twitter. So if you have a question, if you have a problem, if you have a viewpoint, if you disagree, let me hear it. I&#8217;m very interested in hearing all of your perspectives and your struggles.</p>



<p>[00:46:04] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Fränk Klein, thank you very much for chatting to us on the podcast today. I really appreciate it.</p>



<p>[00:46:09] <strong>Fränk Klein:</strong> Thank you. It was a pleasure.</p>
</div>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/frank-klein/">Fränk Klein</a>.</p>



<p>Fränk is a self-taught developer. He started out learning PHP in 2011 and from there found his way to WordPress. Over the years he’s worked for Automattic at WordPress.com and WordPress VIP, and is now a principal developer at <a href="https://humanmade.com/">Human Made</a>, an enterprise WordPress agency.</p>



<p>Today on the podcast we talk about how Fränk decided early on that he was going to start developing with blocks and, more recently, with the full site editing capabilities now built into WordPress Core.</p>



<p>We talk about the four phases of the Gutenberg project: content editing, site customisation, collaborative editing and multilingual, and where full site editing fits into this.</p>



<p>Fränk explains how he sees the adoption of Gutenberg as inevitable. WordPress is moving away from the classic approach of content creation to a more visual, block-based experience. He thinks that it’s important to become an expert at building websites and custom solutions for clients, and for taking the time to learn the new tools that this future will require.</p>



<p>He’s not suggesting that the journey towards expertise in React and JavaScript will be easy, but he sees it as essential for those wishing to continue to use WordPress as their CMS of choice.</p>



<p>He also makes the point that now is a great time to invest in yourself as there are more resources than ever which can assist you in this learning path.</p>



<p>As you’ll hear, Fränk is all-in on WordPress and is very optimistic about the future for experienced WordPress developers.</p>



<h2>Useful links.</h2>



<p>Fränk&#8217;s <a href="https://wpdevelopment.courses/">WP Development Courses</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 09 Nov 2022 16:05:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"WPTavern: WooCommerce Store Owners Combat Fraudulent Stripe Charges";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=139318";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-store-owners-combat-fraudulent-stripe-charges";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6352:"<p>For the past few weeks, members of the Advanced WordPress Facebook (AWP) group have been <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/advancedwp/permalink/5843275932401239/">discussing</a> methods of combatting Stripe Card Testing fraud. WordPress developer Jon Brown opened the topic after seeing fraudulent charges on five different websites, including four using WooCommerce and one using the Leaky Paywall platform.</p>



<p>&#8220;All five were on Cloudflare with bot fight mode on when it first happened,&#8221; Brown said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve added CAPTCHA to all 5, I&#8217;ve enabled CloudFlare&#8217;s &#8216;Under Attack&#8217; mode on the cart/checkout page.&#8221;</p>



<p>The WooCommerce sites didn&#8217;t have a reoccurrence but the Leaky Paywall site did. Brown said the client didn&#8217;t notice it, as he had Stripe emails going to his spam folder.</p>



<p>&#8220;It went on for two weeks until the load spike took the site offline and I noticed it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;About 1,200 successful transactions for $2.99, with 100,000 blocked.&#8221;</p>



<p>Brown said he doesn&#8217;t understand why Stripe doesn&#8217;t recognize and block the fraudulent charges since they all follow a similar pattern using a randomized Gmail address. His client had to dispute approximately 100 of these transactions.</p>



<p>&#8220;Each dispute costs $15 to resolve,&#8221; Brown said. &#8220;Each non-disputed refund costs $0.40 since Stripe (like PayPal now) keeps the fee.</p>



<p>&#8220;So 100 * $15 + 1100 * $0.40 = $1940 in lost revenue to fees and that&#8217;s obviously AFTER also refunding the $2.99 per fraudulent transaction. That means $3,600 in fraud ($2.99 * 1200) just resulted in a net loss of $1940 &#8211; that&#8217;s insane.&#8221;</p>



<p>Many other developers in the conversation have been hit with similar attacks, some with honeypots in place that didn&#8217;t prevent anything. One recommended using the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-blocker-lite-prevent-fake-orders-and-blacklist-fraud-customers/">WooCommerce Fraud Prevention</a> plugin. It allows store owners to block orders from specific IP addresses, emails, address, state, and zip codes. This might help once attacks have started but doesn&#8217;t fully prevent them. Some developers had success stopping attacks using <a href="https://woocommerce.com/products/recaptcha-for-woocommerce/">reCaptcha for WooCommerce</a>, a commercial plugin that implement&#8217;s Google&#8217;s reCaptcha V2 (checkbox) and reCaptcha V3 to stop things like unauthorized login attempts, fake registrations, fake guest orders, and other automated attacks.</p>



<p>&#8220;We ran into this about a year ago,&#8221; WordPress developer John Montgomery said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a way for hackers/thieves to check a list of card numbers for ones that are valid. Once they confirm the card works on a site, they can use to purchase products for real. In the end, a big annoyance but honestly not a huge deal for us in the end because we have digital products and they weren&#8217;t really interested in those.&#8221;</p>



<p>Montgomery installed a plugin called <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/limit-orders/">Limit Orders for WooCommerce</a>, developed by Nexcess, that disallows orders after a certain threshold is met. </p>



<p>&#8220;I set it up to x orders per hour ( above any historical numbers)&#8230;so if we get say 100 orders in an hour it will shut off orders,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a bit of a sledgehammer, but it did help us once already.&#8221; </p>



<p>Although many store owners are hesitant to add any friction to the checkout process, technology consultant Jordan Trask recommends requiring customers create accounts before continuing and verify emails. He wrote a guide on <a href="https://managingwp.io/2021/07/08/dealing-with-card-testing-or-carding-attacks-on-your-woocommerce-store-fraudulent-charges/">dealing with card testing attacks</a>.</p>



<p>&#8220;The gist of the rules is blocking all countries except those you serve,&#8221; Trask said. &#8220;However, for WooCommerce, I would put in a JS Managed Challenge for the cart and checkout.</p>



<p>&#8220;There is rate limiting built into Cloudflare that might help, but it&#8217;s more request based versus per order which is what you need based on IP potentially. If the requests come from the same IP address, you can look at limiting orders per IP since the email differs each time.&#8221;</p>



<p>The <a href="https://github.com/BrianHenryIE/bh-wc-checkout-rate-limiter/">Checkout Rate Limiter</a> plugin, available on GitHub, offers checkout rate limiting on WooCommerce checkout based on IP address.</p>



<img />



<p>Trask&#8217;s guide also recommends checking payment processor logs when investigating fraudulent charges:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>Always check your payment processor logs to verify where the charges are being created. A staging site may exist with production API keys, or your site was hacked, and the API keys were stolen. Most payment processors will have further details in their logs with additional information.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>WordPress developer Rahul Nagare recommends checking out <a href="https://stripe.com/radar/fraud-teams">Stripe&#8217;s Radar fraud protection</a>, which uses machine learning to provide advanced protection and identification of fraudsters.</p>



<p>&#8220;This will let you setup custom rules on Stripe to reject suspicious transactions,&#8221; Nagare said. &#8220;This used to be a free service with Stripe, but they changed it last year. I&#8217;d look into blocking all transactions with risk score higher than the average, and maybe the region of the card testers.&#8221;</p>



<p>WooCommerce&#8217;s documentation has a section on <a href="https://woocommerce.com/document/payments/faq/card-testing">responding to card testing attacks</a>, which has many of the same recommendations discussed in the recent AWP thread. A CAPTCHA plugin is the first line of defense. It also recommends avoiding pay-what-you-want or donation products with no minimum, as these products are often targeted for card tests with small transactions that cardholders might miss. Swiftly refunding any successful fraudulent orders will decrease the possibility of disputes.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 09 Nov 2022 04:37:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"BuddyPress: BuddyPress 11.0.0-beta1";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://buddypress.org/?p=327062";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"https://buddypress.org/2022/11/buddypress-11-0-0-beta1/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2985:"<p><strong>BuddyPress 11.0.0-beta1</strong> is available for testing!</p>



<p>Please note the plugin is <strong>still in development</strong>, so we recommend running this beta release on a <strong>testing site</strong>.</p>



<p>You can test <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.11.0.0-beta1.zip">BuddyPress 11.0.0-beta1</a> in 4 ways :</p>



<ul>
<li>Try the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/bp-beta-tester/">BP Beta Tester</a> plugin.</li>



<li><a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.11.0.0-beta1.zip">Download the beta here (zip file)</a>.</li>



<li>Check out our SVN repository: <code>svn co https://buddypress.svn.wordpress.org/trunk/</code></li>



<li>Clone our read-only Git repository: <code>git clone git://buddypress.git.wordpress.org/</code></li>
</ul>



<p>The current target for final release is December 14, 2022. We would greatly appreciate your help making sure this next major version of your community engine is as good as it can be.</p>



<p>Please note BuddyPress 11.0.0 <strong><a href="https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2022/07/12/wordpress-required-version-update-4/">will require at least WordPress 5.7</a></strong>.</p>



<p>As usual, <strong>testing for bugs is the key to a safe upgrade</strong> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f449.png" alt="👉" class="wp-smiley" />  so please give us a few minutes of your time to make sure this pre-release behaves the right way with your specific WordPress configuration, your theme, and the other WordPress plugins you are using. Try to use a testing site which is very close to the one you are using in production. If you find something weird, please report it on <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">BuddyPress Trac</a> or post a reply to <a href="https://buddypress.org/support/topic/buddypress-11-0-0-beta1/">this support topic</a>.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re a BuddyPress plugin developer or a BuddyPress theme developer, please make sure to test this 11.0.0-beta1 release as <strong>we&#8217;re now only loading BuddyPress assets (JavaScripts and styles) inside BuddyPress pages</strong>.</p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<h2 id="around-70-changes-to-expect-in-10-0-0">Around 40 changes to expect in 11.0.0</h2>



<p>You can check out <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&group=resolution&milestone=11.0.0">this report</a> on Trac for the full list of them. We only planned to ship one long awaited feature as a BuddyPress Add-on. At this stage, we&#8217;re staying silent about it to keep the surprise effect intact (truth is we are still not sure it&#8217;ll be ready for December 14 <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f92b.png" alt="🤫" class="wp-smiley" />).</p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<p><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f3ae.png" alt="🎮" class="wp-smiley" /> <em>Happy testing!</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 08 Nov 2022 20:30:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Mathieu Viet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:51:"WordPress.org blog: Introducing Twenty Twenty-Three";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=13892";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"https://wordpress.org/news/2022/11/introducing-twenty-twenty-three/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2174:"<p><em>This post was written in collaboration with Lauren Stein (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/laurlittle/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>laurlittle</a>) and Anne McCarthy <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>annezazu</a>)</em>.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />



<p>Twenty Twenty-Three is here, alongside WordPress 6.1! The new default theme offers a clean, blank canvas bundled with a collection of style variations.</p>



<p>Style variations are predefined design options that give you the opportunity to alter the appearance of your site without having to change your theme. This means that you can keep your template structure but change the visual details of your site with ease.</p>



<p>For a truly diverse collection, Twenty Twenty-Three’s featured style variations were submitted by members of the WordPress community, resulting in 38 submissions from 19 people in 8 different countries. From those submissions, a curated collection of ten was chosen and bundled with the new theme.</p>



<p>This approach to style variations ushers in the next generation of block themes, able to harness the potential of the platform’s latest design capabilities and tools directly in the Site Editor. Since style variations don’t require any code experience, you’re encouraged to tweak and/or create your own.</p>



<p><strong>Thank you to everyone who contributed. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f389.png" alt="🎉" class="wp-smiley" /></strong></p>



<p>Useful links:<br /><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwentythree/">Download Twenty Twenty-Three</a><br /><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/twenty-twenty-three/">Twenty Twenty-Three Documentation</a><br /><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/08/10/twenty-twenty-three-default-theme-project-kickoff/">Twenty Twenty-Three Project Kick Off</a><br /><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/09/07/tt3-default-theme-announcing-style-variation-selections/">Twenty Twenty-Three Selected Style Variations</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 08 Nov 2022 15:42:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Beatriz Fialho";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:19;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"Do The Woo Community: Contributor Support, GPL Nulled Clubs and the BobWP Site";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=73440";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"https://dothewoo.io/contributor-support-gpl-nulled-clubs-and-the-bobwp-site/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:446:"<p>In this show an extended comment from Alain about supporting contributors, a tweet asking about nulled plugin updates and a BobWP revamp.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/contributor-support-gpl-nulled-clubs-and-the-bobwp-site/">Contributor Support, GPL Nulled Clubs and the BobWP Site</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 08 Nov 2022 10:23:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"WPTavern: Last Call for the 2023 State of Open Source Survey";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=139306";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://wptavern.com/last-call-for-the-2023-state-of-open-source-survey";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1889:"<p><a href="https://www.openlogic.com/">OpenLogic</a>, a company that provides technical support for enterprise open source infrastructure, and the <a href="https://opensource.org/">Open Source Initiative</a> (OSI), the nonprofit stewards of the <a href="https://opensource.org/docs/osd">Open Source Definition (OSD</a>, have collaborated to put together the <a href="https://www.research.net/r/state-of-oss">2023 State of Open Source Survey</a>. </p>



<p>The annual survey collects data from professionals to identify trends in the adoption and challenges of using open source technologies. It takes less than 10 minutes to answer the 31-question survey. Respondents are asked if their organizations have increased the use of OSS over the last year and in which categories of software they have invested the most in terms of projects, budget, and resources. </p>



<p><a href="https://opensource.org/ten-takeaways-from-the-2022-state-of-open-source-survey">The 2022 survey</a> had 2,660 respondents. It found the #1 reason respondents are using OSS is access to innovation, followed by cost reduction and security/availability of patches. More than 36% of respondents indicated that they significantly increased their use of OSS over the past year. The 2022 survey found the biggest barrier to adopting open source software was the lack of internal skills to test, use, integrate, and support it.</p>



<p>The last call has gone out to contribute to this year&#8217;s survey. It would be good to have WordPress software organizations represented in the results as part of the broader OSS community. Respondents who take the time to fill out the survey are entered for a chance to win a $200 Amazon gift card. OpenLogic is also donating $1 for every response to the <a href="https://www.wfpusa.org/">World Food Program</a>, a humanitarian organization working to end world hunger.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 08 Nov 2022 04:00:41 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WPTavern: WordPress Rebrands FSE as “Site Editor”";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=139286";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-rebrands-fse-as-site-editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2483:"<p>While WordPress&#8217; site editing capabilities have been in development, the term full-site editing (FSE) has been widely used but sometimes poorly understood outside of contributor groups. Three months ago, WordPress&#8217; Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-contributors-consider-renaming-full-site-editing">proposed</a> renaming FSE to something more user friendly. </p>



<p>After a lengthy <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/07/27/giving-fse-a-more-user-friendly-name/">discussion</a>, Haden Chomphosy has <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/11/04/site-editor-a-more-user-friendly-name/">announced</a> the decision to use &#8220;Site Editor&#8221; going forward:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>Landing on Site Editor was the result of two key considerations. Firstly, Site Editor offers a clear and simple description to users with a range of technical skills. Secondly, there was substantial support for Site Editor, particularly from the Polyglot community, as the term that translates most effectively into hundreds of different languages.<em>&nbsp;</em><a href="https://videopress.com/v/BJyPZJNx?at=1420">As we heard at WordCamp US 2022</a>, better multilingual support is an important future direction for WordPress, so choosing easily translated terms is an important step.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Site Editor also keeps the spirit of its original FSE codename as the powerful, full collection of features it encompasses. As a bonus, it also doesn’t cost us anything from an SEO or marketing standpoint, since it’s a simplification of the existing term.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Haden Chomphosy said the change is not necessarily a rebranding, but WordPress&#8217; official documentation, including Learn.WordPress videos, and many third-party resources are replete with references to FSE. The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/handbook/full-site-editing-outreach-experiment/">Full Site Editing Outreach Program</a> may also need to be renamed. Haden Chomphosy said WordPress users can still expect to see or hear the term FSE around &#8211; it&#8217;s not a situation where every instance needs to be erased. </p>



<p>The recent decision to use the term &#8220;Site Editor&#8221; should be considered an official update to WordPress&#8217; shared lexicon, and Haden Chomphosy encouraged contributors to begin updating the documentation immediately to reflect the change.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 07 Nov 2022 22:32:18 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"Donncha: How to add your blog to Mastodon";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://odd.blog/?p=89504202";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:61:"https://odd.blog/2022/11/06/how-to-add-your-blog-to-mastodon/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8004:"<p><strong>Introduction</strong></p>



<p>Before we start, do you know what Mastodon is? It&#8217;s sort of like email, where you can send an email from gmail.com to a yahoo.com account, except it looks very like Twitter. This <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-get-started-on-mastodon-and-leave-twitter-behind">pcmag article</a> is a good introduction to it. Jeff Jarvis wrote a <a href="https://medium.com/whither-news/hope-for-a-post-musk-net-f156d0cdf431">good post</a> too, and Time Magazine <a href="https://time.com/6229230/mastodon-eugen-rochko-interview/">interviewed Eugen Rochko</a>, the founder of Mastodon that you should read.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>



<p>This weekend, a probably sizeable chunk of <a rel="tag" class="u-tag u-category" href="https://odd.blog/tag/irishtwitter/">#IrishTwitter</a> migrated to Mastodon. We&#8217;re not the only ones. Twitter has been getting more hateful and acting as an echo chamber for lots of horrible people over the years. The sale of Twitter to Elon Musk, the firing of half the staff, his pronouncements of &#8220;free speech&#8221; all point towards the site being less regulated, less maintained and less moderated. You can&#8217;t deal with complaints if there&#8217;s nobody there listening to complaints of harassment or hate.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<img />(No we didn&#8217;t)</div>


<p></p>



<p>I don&#8217;t doubt that many of us will continue to visit and contribute to whatever Twitter becomes. Over the last few years, most of my interactions there have been publicising my blog posts. All I could see on there was angry tweets from different people, or people who were broadcasting their top ten ways of doing X, Y or Z. Hardly any actual conversation.</p>



<p>So, Mastodon. I woke up early on Saturday morning and discovered there was a <a rel="tag" class="u-tag u-category" href="https://odd.blog/tag/twittermigraton/">#TwitterMigraton</a> to Mastodon. I already had an account on mastodon.social but Irish Twitter was moving to mastodon.ie, and that&#8217;s where I went too, creating <a href="https://mastodon.ie/@donncha">@donncha@mastodon.ie</a>. </p>


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<a href="https://mastodon.ie/@Drharoldnews/109297557723889180"><img /></a></div>


<p></p>



<p>Judging from what I&#8217;ve read elsewhere, all mastodon instances are <a href="https://bitcoinhackers.org/@mastodonusercount">experiencing a HUGE surge in user registrations</a> as people look for an alternative to the <s>stinking</s> sinking ship that is Twitter.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<a href="https://bitcoinhackers.org/@mastodonusercount/109298398614165507"><img /></a></div>


<p></p>



<p>On Saturday, the admins of mastodon.ie ran into performance difficulties as they dealt <a href="https://mastodon.ie/@dregin/109296394011395383">with the influx of new users</a>. The site slowed down and people couldn&#8217;t upload images. Over 6,000 people are on that instance now.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<img />Remember the early days of Twitter?</div>


<p></p>



<p>The admins increased their hosting plan, eventually maxing out at the top tier. To pay for hosting they <a href="https://opencollective.com/mastodonie">asked for donations</a>. Right now they have raised over €4100!</p>



<p><strong>How do I add my WordPress blog to Mastodon?</strong></p>



<p>It&#8217;s mostly straight forward. Install these two plugins:</p>



<ol>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/">ActivityPub</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/webfinger/">WebFinger</a></li>
</ol>



<p>The installation instructions are unfortunately not great. After you install both plugins, go to your Profile page (Users-&gt;Profile) and scroll right to the end. Down there you will find your profile identifier. It will look like @author@hostname.tld. For this blog that is <strong>@donncha@odd.blog</strong>, and I have my photoblog at <strong>@donncha@inphotos.org</strong>. Search for those on Mastodon and you will find my two blogs. Please feel free to follow!</p>


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<img /></div>


<p></p>



<p>When a post is made and shared on Mastodon, it allows others to reply. Those replies to the <a href="https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/108352419081380277">toot</a> on Mastodon will be sent to your WordPress blog as a <a href="https://inphotos.org/2022/11/06/on-stage-in-coughlans-bar/#comment-385708">comment</a>! That <a href="https://mastodon.ie/@donncha/109296714735893201">blew my mind</a> when I discovered that!</p>



<p><strong>Troubleshooting</strong></p>



<p>I discovered that running the plugins on a multi-site WordPress install will cause problems. Instead of activating it on the root install, you need to activate it on each one. I presume that&#8217;s maybe because the rewrite rules are added on plugin activation, but that&#8217;s just a guess.</p>



<p>If you have caching you might want to turn it off, or at the very least disable caching in /.well-known/ as that&#8217;s where Mastodon and other services will query your server for updated information.</p>



<p>It can take 10 to 15 minutes before a new post is seen. Be patient!</p>



<p><strong>Why not?</strong></p>



<p>There&#8217;s one reason you might not want to do this. Your blog will be on a Fediverse instance by itself. Your blog posts will only show if someone is following it, or <a href="https://inphotos.org/2022/11/06/on-stage-in-coughlans-bar/">you boost the toots on Mastodon</a>, or in the Federated feed. They won&#8217;t show in the Local Feed of your Mastodon instance. The best way around this is by careful use of relevant hashtags, but please don&#8217;t spam them, or you&#8217;ll be blocked.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<img /></div>


<p></p>



<p><strong>Alternatives</strong></p>



<p>You can hook your WordPress blog to your account too. I haven&#8217;t used them, but I saw two people use these plugins. Those posts will appear in the Local Feed of your Mastodon instance, which is a plus for discoverability.</p>



<ol>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/autopost-to-mastodon/">Mastodon Autopost</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/syndication-links/">Syndication Links</a></li>
</ol>



<p>You can also use IFTTT if your site can&#8217;t run plugins, and you have an RSS feed. Some details in <a href="https://hyperborea.org/journal/2017/12/mastodon-ifttt/">this blog post</a>. Thanks Sandy for that link!</p>



<p>I&#8217;m very excited about this. Is it too early to say that there&#8217;s enough momentum to sustain a <a rel="tag" class="u-tag u-category" href="https://odd.blog/tag/irishmastodon/">#IrishMastodon</a> community? I hope it succeeds.</p>



<p>Edit: George has a <a href="https://g13g.blog/2021/03/16/get-your-blog-posts-on-mastodon/">guide on his blog</a> explaining how to do the same thing but points out that you need the WebMention plugin to receive replies as comments. I saw replies to my toots appear here as comments, but only if they were direct replies. If I replied to someone who replied to my blog that reply wouldn&#8217;t show as a comment, and I just tested that again and WebMention doesn&#8217;t change that, unfortunately.</p>



<p><a href="https://matthewthom.as/">Matthew Thomas</a> has created a remote follow tool called apfollow, with <a href="https://github.com/mwt/apfollow/">source available</a>. This creates a page where you can follow a Mastodon account by entering your own details in a box and it redirects you to your home server to do the follow. Here&#8217;s a <a href="https://apfollow.mwt.me/?user=donncha&instance=mastodon.ie">link to follow</a> my Mastodon.ie account. It fails for me, but maybe that&#8217;s something to do with mastodon.ie settings. I&#8217;ll fill out a bug report but it looks promising.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 06 Nov 2022 19:57:18 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Donncha";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:23;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"Gutenberg Times: Layout Styles, Query Loop, Site Editor and WordPress 6.1- Weekend Edition #235";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=22560";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:100:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/block-styles-query-loop-on-site-editor-wordpress-6-1-weekend-edition-235/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:20800:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>Today, you find additional information about contributors, known issues and new features of WordPress 6.1 below. Furthermore,  plenty of educational posts, videos and first-person explorations into Block Themes. The team around Learn.WordPress scheduled a heap of awesome events on Meetup and a new free course. </p>



<p>Find also new plugins, themes and so much more. </p>



<p>If you feel the uncertainty of time, space, and being, <a href="https://www.themarginalian.org/2020/04/03/virginia-woolf-to-the-lighthouse/">Maria Popova wrote about Virginia Woolf</a>&#8216;s To the Lighthouse and how Woolf finds beauty in the those dread moments. <a href="https://www.themarginalian.org/">The Marginalian</a> is always worth visiting. </p>



<p>Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend! </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br /><em>Birgit</em></p>






<div class="wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background is-layout-flow"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>



<div class="wp-block-sortabrilliant-guidepost"><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-word-press-release-information">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-p">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor. </a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#4-up">Upcoming WordPress Events</a><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#1-l">Learn WordPress Online Meetups</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
</div></div>




<h2 id="0-word-press-release-information">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</h2>



<p>Finally, <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/11/misha/"><strong>WordPress &#8220;Misha&#8221; 6.1 is here</strong></a>! 800 contributors from 60 countries created one of the largest WordPress releases. </p>



<p>If you want to dive deeper into information about contributors, <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/AudrasJb">Jean-Baptist Audras</a></strong>, core team rep and data wizard at the Whodunit agency, published  <a href="https://jeanbaptisteaudras.com/en/2022/11/contribution-stats-for-wordpress-6-1-misha/"><strong>Contribution Stats for WordPress 6.1 « Misha »</strong></a>. </p>



<img />



<ul>
<li>Watch a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w9oywSa6Hw">brief overview video</a>&nbsp;highlighting some major features debuting in WordPress 6.1. </li>



<li>The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/12/wordpress-6-1-field-guide/">Fieldguide</a> has been available for a couple of weeks. </li>



<li><strong>Steven Stern</strong>, team rep of the support team published a <strong><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/read-this-first-wordpress-6-1/#post-15661769">list of known issues on the forum</a>. </strong></li>



<li>The core team is working on a quick turn-around on a minor release. <strong>Jeff Paul</strong> shared his notes for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/04/wordpress-6-1-1-planning/"><strong>WordPress 6.1.1 Planning</strong></a></li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> reported on the release for the WP Tavern: <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-1-introduces-new-default-theme-and-fluid-typography-expands-design-tools-and-template-options"><strong>WordPress 6.1 Introduces New Default Theme and Fluid Typography, Expands Design Tools and Template Options</strong></a></p>



<div class="wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background is-layout-flow"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p><strong>🎙️ </strong> New episode:  <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-75-gutenberg-14-4-upcoming-wordpress-6-1-release-whats-next-for-6-2/">Gutenberg Changelog #75 – Gutenberg 14.4, Upcoming WordPress 6.1 Release, What’s Next for 6.2</a> with special guest, Anne McCarthy, and host Birgit Pauli-Haack</p>
</div></div>



<p>And, <strong>Site Editor</strong> it is. <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy</strong> summarized the discussion from a few weeks ago in her clarifying post: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/11/04/site-editor-a-more-user-friendly-name/"><strong>Site Editor: a More User-Friendly Name</strong></a></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />



<p>Last week, I got excited about the <a href="https://github.com/artemiomorales/gutenberg-interactive-fiction-engine/releases/tag/v0.1.0">Interactive Fiction Engine</a> and I also shared the call for <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/what-art-can-you-create-with-wordpress-6-1/">submission for the Museum for Block Art</a>. Guess what happened?</p>



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> created a beautiful and <strong><a href="https://block-museum.com/interact/">interactive tour of the Museum of Block Art</a></strong>. Enter the museum and discover the works exhibited on the website, McCarthy highlighted for you. </p>



<h2 id="0-p">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</h2>



<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> published another single-block plugin in the plugin repository called: <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/x3p0-progress/"><strong>X3P0 Progress</strong></a>. It is a block that allows users to create progress bars using a straightforward interface. You can select different units to set your progress on the bar, percentage or in currency (for instance for a donation goal). For the layout, it sports plenty of choices for colors to border settings and spacing options. </p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/andersnoren">Anders Noren</a></strong> published his sixth block theme, called <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/oaknut/">Oaknut</a>, built to help you  to create Linktree-esque profile pages. It includes 23 Style Variations, 14 fonts, 8 button styles and 5 different social link styles. On his website, Noren wrote that it &#8220;include less than 150 lines of CSS and no JavaScript at all.&#8221;. On the WordPress Theme directory you can test each of the Style variations, before you make a decision. The screenshot area changes when you select one of the style variations in the little slider below. </p>



<img /><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/oaknut/">Screenshot of Oaknut Theme</a> with the Style variation &#8220;night shift&#8221; 



<p><strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> posted on WP Tavern: <a href="https://wptavern.com/anders-noren-releases-oaknut-a-new-profile-block-theme-with-23-style-variations"><strong>Anders Norén Releases Oaknut, a New Profile Block Theme with 23 Style Variations</strong></a></p>



<p>Over at Castos&#8217; YouTube Channel, <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/mattmedeiros">Matt Mederios</a></strong> gives a demo of the new theme, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imzyyGLI8wE"><strong>Linktree alternative for WordPress &#8211; Oaknut theme</strong></a>. Further, into the video, Mederios also shows site owners how to create a new template. </p>



<p>Anders Noren&#8217;s other block themes are: </p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/beaumont/">Beaumont</a>,</li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/bjork/">Björk</a>,</li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/poe/">Poe</a>,</li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/davis-blocks/">Davis Blocks</a>, and</li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tove/">Tove</a></li>
</ul>



<p>Noren also shares his code on <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/andersnoren">GitHub and you can sponsor him</a> for his consistently brilliant open-source work.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/joyofwp"><strong>Bud Kraus</strong></a>, Joy of WP conducted a webinar with the team of GoDaddyPro. The recording is now available on YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RryB7PT0c34"><strong>Don’t Let The WordPress Query Loop Block Throw You For A Loop!</strong></a> &#8220;Query Loop block unlocks the potential of what an Archive page can be without knowing any PHP!&#8221; </p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />



<p>You can watch an <a href="https://wordpress.tv/2022/11/03/intro-to-the-site-editor-and-template-editor-2/"><strong>Intro to the Site Editor and Template&nbsp;Editor</strong></a>, created by Wes Theron, educator on Learn.WordPress, on WordPressTV. Learn more about using a block theme and how the Site Editor and Template Editor work.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />



<h2 id="2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</h2>



<p>In his post, <strong><a href="https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2022/10/wordpress-full-site-editing/">WordPress Full-Site Editing: A Deep Dive Into The New Feature</a></strong>,  <a href="https://twitter.com/nschaeferhoff"><strong>Nick Schäferhoff</strong></a> examines the tools of full-site editing provides for theme development, and provides a tutorial on how to use it to modify your site.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />



<p><strong>Mike McAlister</strong> explains in his post how you can <a href="https://olliewp.com/spice-up-your-wordpress-content-with-block-styles/"><strong>spice up your WordPress content with Block Styles.</strong></a> &#8220;Block styles is one of those features that seems to have been lost in the rush to full-site editing. In this post, we’ll learn how to add style variations to your blocks.&#8221; he started his post. </p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />



<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> takes you on <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/a-walk-through-of-layout-classes-in-wordpress-6-1/"><strong>A Walk-Through of Layout Classes in WordPress 6.1</strong></a> The primary goals  for this post are to provide developers with an overall view of the system and to know which classes can be targeted via CSS.  The &#8220;TL;DR: just let WordPress handle the layout while you tinker with fun stuff like colors and fonts.&#8221; Tadlock <a href="https://twitter.com/justintadlock/status/1588620591762112513">tweeted.</a>  </p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />



<p>In the video, <a href="https://wordpress.tv/2022/11/03/intro-to-the-site-editor-and-template-editor-2/"><strong>Using block template parts in classic themes</strong></a>, <strong>Jonathan Bossenger</strong> shows off a new feature in WordPress 6.1, the ability to register block template parts in classic themes and allows users to modify specific parts of the theme with blocks, without affecting the rest of the site layout or design.</p>




<div class="ngl-articles colored ngl-articles-30_70 ngl-articles-frontend">

	
	<div class="ngl-articles-wrap ngl-articles-webview">
	
						
			<div class="ngl-article-mobile">
				<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
					<tr>
						<td valign="top">
							<div class="ngl-article-mob-wrap">
							<div class="ngl-article-featured"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/block-based-template-parts-for-classic-themes/" target="_self" rel=""><img src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/block-based-template-parts.png?w=652&ssl=1" /></a></div><div class="ngl-article-title"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/block-based-template-parts-for-classic-themes/" target="_self" rel=""><span>Block-Based Template Parts: A Happy Medium Between Classic and Block Themes</span></a></div><div class="ngl-article-excerpt">I was one of the early adopters of the block editor as a developer. Despite the flak that the Gutenberg plugin was catching before it was merged into core WordPress, …a post by Justin Tadlock) <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/block-based-template-parts-for-classic-themes/" class="ngl-article-read-more" target="_self">Read more.</a></div>							</div>
						</td>
					</tr>
				</table>
			</div>
			
			
			

		
						
			<div class="ngl-article-mobile">
				<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
					<tr>
						<td valign="top">
							<div class="ngl-article-mob-wrap">
							<div class="ngl-article-featured"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/building-a-block-based-header-template-in-a-classic-theme/" target="_self" rel=""><img src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/tt1-block-header-video.jpg?w=652&ssl=1" /></a></div><div class="ngl-article-title"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/building-a-block-based-header-template-in-a-classic-theme/" target="_self" rel=""><span>Building a Block-Based  Header Template in a Classic Theme</span></a></div><div class="ngl-article-excerpt">WordPress 6.1 will allow classic theme authors to begin using block-based template parts. It is one of the most exciting features of the release and one that has long been&hellip; <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/building-a-block-based-header-template-in-a-classic-theme/" class="ngl-article-read-more" target="_self">Read more.</a></div>							</div>
						</td>
					</tr>
				</table>
			</div>
			
			
			

		
		
		</div>

</div>




<p>The first part of the  <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/course/a-developers-guide-to-block-themes-part-1/"><strong>Developers Guide to Block Themes</strong></a> course is now available on Learn.WordPress. &#8220;If you’re used to developing WordPress themes using PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but you don’t know where to start with block themes, this course is for you.&#8221; </p>




<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2022&#8221;</a>&nbsp;</strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test and Meta team from Jan. 2021 on. Updated by yours truly.  <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/"><em>The index 2020 is here</em></a></p>




<p><strong>Brian Coords</strong> explored the intricacies of content width and layout options in his post <a href="https://www.briancoords.com/normal-width-websites-in-the-block-editor/"><strong>Normal width websites in the block editor</strong></a>. &#8220;The best advice I can give for FSE is to&nbsp;<em>start with the global styles</em>&nbsp;before you start messing with the template files. Get your defaults in a good place.&#8221; Coords wrote. Start reading to learn how he arrived at the conclusion. </p>



<h2 id="3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor. </h2>



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/tomfinley">Tom Finley</a></strong> curated a list of <a href="https://tomfinley.co/modern-wordpress-dev-coursework/"><strong>Modern WordPress Dev Coursework</strong></a>; websites with   educational material for WordPress developers who want to learn more about building blocks or block themes. Many people on Twitter who were inquiring about more information especially full site editing inspired Finely to collect the best resources. </p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />




<p><strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s master branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. <br />Have you been using it? Hit reply and let me know.</p>



<p><img alt="GitHub all releases" src="https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/bph/gutenberg/total?style=for-the-badge" /></p>




<h2 id="4-up">Upcoming WordPress Events</h2>



<p><strong>WPCampus</strong> published a <a href="https://www.wpcampus.org/blog/2022/10/opening-nominations-for-wpcampus-board-of-directors/"><strong>call for nominations to their Board of Directors</strong></a>. </p>



<p>November 18, 2022<br /><strong><a href="https://www.wordfest.live/2022/november/">WordFest Live Returns</a></strong>&nbsp;– the 24-hour Festival of WordPress</p>



<p>February 17 – 19, 2023<br /><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2023/"><strong>WordCamp Asia 2023</strong></a> </p>



<p class="has-light-background-background-color has-background has-normal-font-size"><a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/"><strong>Have a look at the schedule of upcoming WordCamps</strong></a> to find one near you. </p>



<a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/"><img /></a>Screenshot of the list of <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/">WordCamp schedule</a> for the rest of 2022



<h3 id="1-l">Learn WordPress Online Meetups</h3>



<p>November 7, 2022 &#8211; 3 pm ET / 20:00 UTC <br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/289466943/"><strong>Padding, Margin and Block Spacing</strong></a> with Wes Theron</p>



<p>November 10, 2022 &#8211; 3 pm ET / 20:00 UTC <br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/289518084/"><strong>Builder Basics: How to Curate the Editing Experience</strong></a> with Nick Diego</p>



<p>November 14, 2022 &#8211; 3 pm ET / 20:00 UTC<br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/289535966/"><strong>Using the Navigation Block</strong></a> with Wes Theron</p>



<p>November 16, 2022 &#8211; 7 pm ET / 24:00 UTC <br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/289512806/"><strong>WordPress 6.1 Exploration</strong></a> with Destiny Kanno</p>



<p>November 17, 2022 &#8211; 3 pm ET / 20:00 UTC <br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/289520419/"><strong>Builder Basics: Exploring Block Layout, Alignment, and Dimensions</strong></a> with Nick Diego</p>



<p>November 18, 2022 &#8211; 2 pm ET / 19:00 UTC <br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/289507999/"><strong>The Creative Side of Blocks, Vol. 3</strong></a> with Rich Tabor</p>



<p>November 21, 2022 &#8211; 3 pm ET / 20:00 UTC<br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/289536031/"><strong>Intro to the Site Editor &amp; Template Editor</strong></a> with Wes Theron</p>



<p>December 1, 2022 &#8211; 3 pm ET / 20:00 UTC <br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/289520991/"><strong>Builder Basics: Building with Columns, Groups, Rows and Stacks</strong></a> with Nick Diego </p>



<p>December 8, 2022 &#8211; 3 pm ET / 20:00 UTC <br /><strong><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/289521234/">Builder Basics: Demystifying theme.json and Global Styles</a></strong> with Nick Diego</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />




<p><strong>Featured Image: </strong><a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/325632c838/">Rooftops panorama of central Madrid (Spain)</a> by JM Puertas on WordPress.org/photos</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide" />



<p class="has-text-align-left"><strong>Don&#8217;t want to miss the next Weekend Edition? </strong></p>



<form class="wp-block-newsletterglue-form ngl-form ngl-portrait" action="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/" method="post"><div class="ngl-form-container"><div class="ngl-form-field"><label class="ngl-form-label" for="ngl_email"><br />Type in your Email address to subscribe.</label><div class="ngl-form-input"><input type="email" class="ngl-form-input-text" name="ngl_email" id="ngl_email" /></div></div><button type="submit" class="ngl-form-button">Subscribe</button><p class="ngl-form-text">We hate spam, too and won&#8217;t give your email address to anyone except Mailchimp to send out our Weekend Edition</p></div><div class="ngl-message-overlay"><div class="ngl-message-svg-wrap"></div><div class="ngl-message-overlay-text">Thanks for subscribing.</div></div><input type="hidden" name="ngl_list_id" id="ngl_list_id" value="26f81bd8ae" /><input type="hidden" name="ngl_double_optin" id="ngl_double_optin" value="yes" /></form>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 05 Nov 2022 14:30:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Birgit Pauli-Haack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"WPTavern: WordPress 6.1 Retires Default Site Tagline in Favor of Empty String";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=139247";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-1-retires-default-site-tagline-in-favor-of-empty-string";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3280:"<p>WordPress&#8217; default site tagline, &#8220;Just another WordPress site,&#8221; is now a thing of the past, though not yet fully retired to the realm of nostalgia. The recent 6.1 release resolved a <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6479">ticket</a> that lead developer Mark Jaquith opened 15 years ago to encourage people to change their taglines. The tagline has now been changed to an empty string for new installations. This was added as a note of interest in the 6.1 release post, which was the first place many learned about it:</p>



<p><em>&#8220;The site tagline is empty by default in new sites but can be modified in General Settings.&#8221;</em></p>



<p>For those who are sentimental about the tagline, rest assured that it has been preserved as placeholder text in the admin. </p>



<p>&#8220;I do think the easier solution is to replace the &#8216;Just another WordPress site&#8217; value with a placeholder,&#8221; WordPress Core Committer Jb Audras said in the discussion on the ticket. &#8220;By doing this, we keep this sentence which is in my opinion part of the WordPress history —by doing so, it would at least appear on the Settings screen, so we keep this signature sentence somewhere on the admin— but the value is empty by default for new installs.&#8221;</p>



<p>This is the solution he committed, which landed in 6.1.  The commit message identifies the reasoning behind the change: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>Administration: Change default site tagline to an empty string.</p>



<p>This changeset replaces the default &#8220;Just another WordPress site&#8221; tagline with an empty string for new installations. The reasoning is:</p>



<ol>
<li>Not all themes display the tagline;</li>



<li>Not everyone changes the default tagline;</li>



<li>When people don&#8217;t see the tagline in their theme, they may not realize it is still visible in some places, like feeds.</li>
</ol>



<p>The string &#8220;Just another WordPress site&#8221; and the related multisite string: &#8220;Just another {NETWORK} site&#8221; are now only used as a placeholder for the tagline admin option.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>The advent of block themes was also another factor, since the Customizer was where users often managed their taglines in the past. Contributors concluded that the increasing use of block themes might result in more people who have the default tagline on their sites without even knowing about it. The conclusion was it is better to make it an empty string than to add a bunch of admin prompts to update it.</p>



<p>This is a welcome change to how taglines are presented, and it was past time to update it. Although most WordPress professionals had become accustomed to it, more casual users often searched for how to get rid of it, sometimes without knowing it could be customized. The message also wasn&#8217;t doing WordPress any favors, unless it was originally written to imply WordPress&#8217; ubiquity on the web &#8211; a claim that was aspirational at the time it was first committed to core. In that case, it has long since served its purpose. An empty string ensures that the only taglines showing up for new installations are ones that admins intentionally wrote for their sites.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 05 Nov 2022 01:13:08 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"WPTavern: Anders Norén Releases Oaknut, a New Profile Block Theme with 23 Style Variations";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=139197";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:100:"https://wptavern.com/anders-noren-releases-oaknut-a-new-profile-block-theme-with-23-style-variations";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3134:"<p><a href="https://andersnoren.se/">Anders Norén</a>, a Swedish designer and prolific WordPress theme developer, has released <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/oaknut/">Oaknut</a>, a new profile block theme reminiscent of services like <a href="https://linktr.ee/">Linktree</a> and <a href="https://carrd.co/">Carrd</a>. The theme is for users who want a simple profile landing page with relevant social and work links, but it could also be easily expanded to capture email addresses for a newsletter, add a blog, or serve as a placeholder for a coming soon website.</p>



<img />



<p>Oaknut includes just three templates: Home (displays posts on the homepage, or on the Posts page if a static homepage is set), Index (displays posts), and 404 (displays when no content is found). Users who want to expand the theme beyond the basic use case can add more templates through the Site Editor or even create their own custom templates.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://wp-themes.com/oaknut/">demo</a> looks just like the screenshot, and there are no other pages to view. After installing and activating the theme, clicking on Customize will go to the Site Editor where everything you see in the demo is already in place, ready to be replaced with your own profile data and links.</p>



<p>If the bright mustard color is too much for your taste, you&#8217;re in luck with Oaknut, because it packages a whopping 23 different style variations. Norén has also included 14 font families, eight button styles, and five styles for social links.</p>



<img />



<p>As one of the pioneers in the block themes category Norén ensured Oaknut was ready to showcase new features released in <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-1-introduces-new-default-theme-and-fluid-typography-expands-design-tools-and-template-options">WordPress 6.1</a>. The theme supports fluid typography, spacing sizes, root padding aware elements, pseudo selector styles in theme.json, and theme.json styling for elements like buttons, captions, and headings.</p>



<p>&#8220;This enables Oaknut to have a really small CSS file,&#8221; Norén said. &#8220;It comes in at less than 150 lines, and 120 of those lines are for the custom block styles included in the theme. Combine that with locally hosted variable fonts and the complete lack of JavaScript in the theme, and you end up with some pretty speedy profile pages.&#8221;</p>



<p>Norén shared a screenshot of a website using the theme with a Lighthouse performance score of 100.</p>



<img />



<p>Oaknut is a good choice for WordPress users who want a simple, attractive theme that shows how people can connect with them. It is also great for those who are just starting out with a web presence or domains that need a nicely- designed placeholder. </p>



<p>The theme is <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/oaknut/">available on WordPress.org</a> to download for free. Norén has also created a <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/andersnoren">GitHub Sponsors account</a> for anyone who wants to support the continued development of his 26 free WordPress themes and future theme releases.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Nov 2022 20:42:27 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"Post Status: What is the WordPress community capable of? A lot of good. And a few bad apples.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=142906";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:101:"https://poststatus.com/what-is-the-wordpress-community-capable-of-a-lot-of-good-and-a-few-bad-apples/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2834:"<p><strong>The Good:</strong> This week a team of people from around the world released <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/11/misha/">WordPress 6.1, Misha</a>. The number of people who contributed to this release is HUGE. Folks, WordPress takes <em>more</em> than a village, it takes a small city to keep the momentum moving forward, keep the technology on the cutting edge, and keep the community itself vibrant. There are literally thousands of people who bring positivity to and work hard for the WordPress community. <em>Kudos to each and every one of them!</em></p>



<p><strong>The Bad Apples: </strong>Usually we try to not talk about the negative things. (Well, most of us do, you all know I don’t mind shining a light where it can help, for sure.) And <strong>Mika Epstein</strong> is no different than most of us. If someone is a personal problem to one of us, it’s usually kept out of the public eye. We soldier on and do our best to ignore minor pests. But sometimes those pests aren’t just pests. Sometimes they are intent on destruction, and they will use any means necessary to hurt others. My hat is off to Mika for being strong through the entirety of what she has endured over years of stalking, attack, malignment, and worse — all as part of her commitment to the <strong>Plugins Team</strong>. <em>No one should ever have to go through what she has.</em> It’s beyond brave of her to <a href="https://halfelf.org/harassment-rst/">share with the community</a>, and I, for one, am grateful that she has. </p>



<h2 id="h-bf-cm">BF/CM</h2>



<ul>
<li>Black Friday/Cyber Monday is coming quickly! <a href="https://poststatus.com/submit-black-friday-cyber-monday-deals/">Submit your deals here</a>. </li>



<li><a href="https://poststatus.com/2022-black-friday-cyber-monday-wordpress-deals/">Find this year’s deals here</a>. (More being added weekly!)</li>
</ul>



<h2>In the Spotlight</h2>



<ul>
<li>This week's <strong>Business Spotlight</strong> this week: <a href="https://poststatus.com/business-spotlight-xwp/">XWP</a> →</li>



<li>Our Member Spotlight features <a href="https://poststatus.com/member-spotlight-igor-ligay/">Igor Ligay</a> →</li>
</ul>



<h2>Upcoming Events</h2>



<ul>
<li>Post Status <a href="https://poststatus.com/huddles/">Member Huddles </a>every week for Europe and the Americas.</li>



<li><a href="https://www.wordfest.live/2022/november/">WordFest</a> is happening on <strong>December 16</strong>. (New Date!)</li>



<li>Calls for Speakers and Sponsors are open at the <a href="https://www.wpwealthbuilder.com/">WP Wealthbuilder Summit</a>.</li>



<li>WordCamps are back! <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/">Check the schedule</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Nov 2022 19:50:18 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Michelle Frechette";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:27;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"Gutenberg Times: A Walk-Through of Layout Classes in WordPress 6.1";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=22646";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/a-walk-through-of-layout-classes-in-wordpress-6-1/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15080:"<p>WordPress 6.1 introduced several necessary changes to its layout framework. Namely, core has now centralized its layout definitions, created semantic class names, and reduced code duplication on container blocks.</p>



<p>Originally, this post was intended to be a quick look at the changes to the system for theme authors. However, given the heftiness of the topic, it has evolved into a full overview of the layout framework.</p>



<p>The primary goals for this walk-through are to provide developers with an overall view of the system and to know which classes are able to be targeted via CSS. </p>



<div class="wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p class="has-large-font-size"><strong>Table of contents</strong></p>



<div class="wp-block-sortabrilliant-guidepost"><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-an-overview-of-layout-related-classes">An Overview of Layout-Related Classes</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#1-block-gaps-and-vertical-rhythm">Block Gaps and Vertical Rhythm</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#2-constrained-and-flow-layouts">Constrained and Flow Layouts</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#3-flex-layouts">Flex Layouts</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#4-content-justification">Content Justification</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#5-avoid-code-wp-container-code-classes">Avoid .wp-container-* Classes</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#6-future-layout-types">Future Layout Types</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#7-resources-to-learn-more">Resources to learn more</a></li></ul></div>
</div></div>



<h2 id="0-an-overview-of-layout-related-classes">An Overview of Layout-Related Classes</h2>



<p>Layout-related classes are given to container-type blocks in WordPress. They define how nested blocks are aligned within their parent.</p>



<p>Most extenders will immediately associate layout classes with the Group block and its Row and Stack variations. However, WordPress uses the classes for other blocks, such as Social Icons, Navigation, and Buttons. Layouts may also be used with third-party blocks, even though support is currently marked as an experimental feature.</p>



<p>The following list is a bird&#8217;s-eye view of the currently-available classes in WordPress 6.1. Most of the class names should describe their roles, but don&#8217;t worry if you don&#8217;t understand all of them yet. In this walk-through, you will learn what each does.</p>



<ul>
<li><strong>Layout Classes:</strong>
<ul>
<li><code>is-layout-constrained</code></li>



<li><code>is-layout-flow</code></li>



<li><code>is-layout-flex</code></li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Flex Orientation (Direction) Classes:</strong>
<ul>
<li><code>.is-vertical</code></li>



<li><code>.is-horizontal</code></li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Content Justification Classes:</strong>
<ul>
<li><code>.is-content-justification-left</code></li>



<li><code>.is-content-justification-center</code></li>



<li><code>.is-content-justification-right</code></li>



<li><code>.is-content-justification-space-between</code></li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Flex Wrap Classes:</strong>
<ul>
<li><code>.is-nowrap</code></li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Container Classes:</strong>
<ul>
<li><code>.wp-container-{id}</code></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



<h2 id="1-block-gaps-and-vertical-rhythm">Block Gaps and Vertical Rhythm</h2>



<p>Before diving into each layout type, it&#8217;s important to understand how vertical spacing between blocks works. Much of the system relies on this feature.</p>



<p>As any good designer will tell you, vertical rhythm is a crucial aspect of any design. And vertical spacing between elements, while only one aspect of the rhythm, plays a vital part in getting the design right.</p>



<p>In WordPress, this is the <code>blockGap</code> property. Do not let the name confuse you. While it maps to the CSS <code>gap</code> property in some layouts, it is also used to set <code>margin-block-start</code> in others.</p>



<p>Any theme can set the default via <code>styles.spacing.blockGap</code> in their <code>theme.json</code>, as shown in the following code snippet:</p>


<pre class="wp-block-code"><div><code class="hljs language-json">{
    <span class="hljs-attr">"$schema"</span>: <span class="hljs-string">"https://schemas.wp.org/trunk/theme.json"</span>,
    <span class="hljs-attr">"version"</span>: <span class="hljs-number">2</span>,
    <span class="hljs-attr">"styles"</span>: {
        <span class="hljs-attr">"spacing"</span>: {
            <span class="hljs-attr">"blockGap"</span>: <span class="hljs-string">"2rem"</span>
        }
    }
}</code></div><small class="shcb-language" id="shcb-language-4"><span class="shcb-language__label">Code language:</span> <span class="shcb-language__name">JSON / JSON with Comments</span> <span class="shcb-language__paren">(</span><span class="shcb-language__slug">json</span><span class="shcb-language__paren">)</span></small></pre>


<p>Themes can also target the <code>blockGap</code> property for blocks that support it. The following code example shows how to set the default spacing while customizing it for the Group block:</p>


<pre class="wp-block-code"><div><code class="hljs language-json">{
    <span class="hljs-attr">"$schema"</span>: <span class="hljs-string">"https://schemas.wp.org/trunk/theme.json"</span>,
    <span class="hljs-attr">"version"</span>: <span class="hljs-number">2</span>,
    <span class="hljs-attr">"styles"</span>: {
        <span class="hljs-attr">"spacing"</span>: {
            <span class="hljs-attr">"blockGap"</span>: <span class="hljs-string">"2rem"</span>
        },
        <span class="hljs-attr">"blocks"</span>: {
            <span class="hljs-attr">"core/group"</span>: {
                <span class="hljs-attr">"spacing"</span>: {
                    <span class="hljs-attr">"blockGap"</span>: <span class="hljs-string">"1rem"</span>
                }
            }
        }
    }
}</code></div><small class="shcb-language" id="shcb-language-5"><span class="shcb-language__label">Code language:</span> <span class="shcb-language__name">JSON / JSON with Comments</span> <span class="shcb-language__paren">(</span><span class="shcb-language__slug">json</span><span class="shcb-language__paren">)</span></small></pre>


<p>There may be edge cases where you need to overrule the default via CSS. For those scenarios, it&#8217;s typically best to change the value of the <code>--wp--style--block-gap</code> CSS property rather than targeting a block&#8217;s <code>gap</code> or <code>margin</code>. You would do this as shown in the following CSS code:</p>


<pre class="wp-block-code"><div><code class="hljs language-css"><span class="hljs-selector-class">.some-target-class</span> {
    <span class="hljs-attribute">--wp--style--block-gap</span>: <span class="hljs-number">3rem</span>;
}</code></div><small class="shcb-language" id="shcb-language-6"><span class="shcb-language__label">Code language:</span> <span class="shcb-language__name">CSS</span> <span class="shcb-language__paren">(</span><span class="shcb-language__slug">css</span><span class="shcb-language__paren">)</span></small></pre>


<p>That may not always work. If a block (via <code>theme.json</code>) or user (via the interface) has defined a specific value for <code>blockGap</code>, that value will be used instead of the CSS property. In those cases, you should not attempt to overwrite the choice via CSS.</p>



<p>With an understanding of how the space between blocks is defined, you now have the foundation for seeing how that operates within different layout types.</p>



<h2 id="2-constrained-and-flow-layouts">Constrained and Flow Layouts</h2>



<p>Both of these layout types are technically flow layouts. This is how browsers handle the normal flow of a webpage without any intervention from CSS. WordPress defines the spacing between blocks by applying the <code>blockGap</code> value to the <code>margin-block-start</code> property of nested blocks (<code>margin-block-end</code> is zeroed out).</p>



<p>There is one key difference between the two layouts in WordPress:</p>



<ul>
<li>Nested blocks within a <strong>constrained</strong> layout are limited by the theme&#8217;s content width by default (this can be overwritten with wide/full alignments).</li>



<li>Nested blocks within a <strong>flow</strong> layout fill up the width of their parent block.</li>
</ul>



<p>As of WordPress 6.1, the constrained layout type is the default for the Group block. Other blocks may define different defaults.</p>



<p>In the following screenshot, you can see a wide-aligned Group block with a Paragraph and Image nested inside. However, these child blocks are &#8220;constrained&#8221; to the content width by the <strong>Inner blocks use content width</strong> setting in the sidebar:</p>



<img />



<p>If you toggle the switch for <strong>Inner blocks use content width</strong> to the off position, the layout would become a &#8220;flow&#8221; layout.</p>



<p>WordPress handles all of this out of the box. Theme authors should primarily be aware of the classes associated with each layout, which are <code>.is-layout-constrained</code> and <code>.is-layout-flow</code>. For the majority of use cases, there will never be a need to use those. However, when you need to style blocks or elements specifically within those layouts, target the specific layout class.</p>



<h2 id="3-flex-layouts">Flex Layouts</h2>



<p>Flex layouts in WordPress work on the Flexbox system in CSS. In reality, it is a limited subset of what is possible with Flexbox that fits within WordPress&#8217; design framework.</p>



<p>One major difference between flex and constrained/flow layout types is how they handle block spacing. Instead of applying the <code>blockGap</code> value to a block&#8217;s <code>margin-block-start</code> property, the value is applied to the containing block&#8217;s <code>gap</code> property.  Flex layouts also have options between vertical and horizontal layouts. </p>



<p>Several container-type blocks have flex layouts by default, including:</p>



<ul>
<li>Buttons</li>



<li>Social Icons</li>



<li>Navigation</li>
</ul>



<p>Looking at the Group block example from earlier, you should see <strong>Layout</strong> variations for creating a <strong>Stack</strong> and <strong>Row</strong> in the block inspector. Take a look at the Row variation, which has a horizontal layout:</p>



<img />



<p>If the Stack variation had been chosen, the blocks would have been aligned vertically.</p>



<p>With the addition of vertical and horizontal options, there are a few layout-specific classes that theme authors can target when necessary:</p>



<ul>
<li><code>.is-layout-flex</code>: Whether the layout has the flex type.</li>



<li><code>.is-vertical</code>: Whether the layout has a vertical orientation.</li>



<li><code>.is-horizontal</code>: Whether the layout has a horizontal orientation.</li>
</ul>



<p>Those last two map to the <code>flex-direction</code> CSS property. Horizontal layouts are given the <code>row</code> value and vertical layouts the <code>column</code> value.</p>



<p class="has-body-background-color has-accent-background-color has-text-color has-background"><strong>Note:</strong> The the default orientation for a block may not exist as a class in the block&#8217;s HTML, so you would need to target the layout class directly in that case.</p>



<p>Flex layouts also have another option to disallow nested blocks from wrapping to a new line as they grow. This is tied to the <code>flex-wrap</code> CSS property. The default value is for blocks to wrap, which is noticeable as you add multiple blocks to a horizontal layout. However, this can be disabled via the editor. In those cases, WordPress applies the <code>.is-nowrap</code> class to the element.</p>



<h2 id="4-content-justification">Content Justification</h2>



<p>In WordPress 6.1, the constrained and flex layout types both have content justification classes. These handle how the nested elements are aligned within their parent block.</p>



<p>Looking at the same example Group block from earlier, the following screenshot has a constrained layout with the content justified right:</p>



<img />



<p>There are four different content justification options for container blocks, each with their own CSS class:</p>



<ul>
<li><code>.is-content-justification-left</code>: Nested blocks are aligned left.</li>



<li><code>.is-content-justification-center</code>: Nested blocks are aligned center-aligned.</li>



<li><code>.is-content-justification-right</code>: Nested blocks are aligned right.</li>



<li><code>.is-content-justification-space-between</code>: Nested blocks are allowed to spread evenly with equal space between each. <em>For flex layouts only.</em></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="5-avoid-code-wp-container-code-classes">Avoid .wp-container-* Classes</h2>



<p>Some blocks may have a <code>.wp-container-*</code> class attached to them. In the past, there have been instances when it was necessary to target those classes to address some shortcoming of the layout system. However, this should be avoided altogether. There is no way to know whether the classes will exist in the future or whether their behavior will change.</p>



<p>Always opt for one of the specific classes outlined earlier. They are the standard going forward.</p>



<h2 id="6-future-layout-types">Future Layout Types</h2>



<p>CSS allows for all types of layouts, so it should be interesting to see what the future of the block editor brings&#8212;<em>perhaps even a grid layout type</em>. The goal is not necessarily to cover every potential use case. Rather, it is to offer a solid foundation that can be iterated upon as the web continues to change.</p>



<p>The layout system in WordPress is still marked as an &#8220;experimental&#8221; block feature, which means it is under active development. However, WordPress 6.1 has brought us one step closer to a well-rounded and standard framework for how current and future layouts will work.</p>



<h2 id="7-resources-to-learn-more">Resources to learn more</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/10/updated-editor-layout-support-in-6-1-after-refactor/">Updated editor layout support in 6.1 after refactor</a> (Dev Note WordPress 6.1 release)</li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/45055#issuecomment-1303815045">Layout Styles</a> explanations in the handbook</li>



<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/theme-json-reference/theme-json-living/#spacing">BlockGap in theme.json</a></li>



<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/block-api/block-supports/#spacing">Spacing  (incl BlockGap in block.json) </a></li>
</ul>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Nov 2022 19:03:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"Post Status: Who’s Going to Pay for All This?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=142747";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:54:"https://poststatus.com/whos-going-to-pay-for-all-this/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11740:"<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-group eplus-wrapper has-theme-palette-2-color has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-text-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt"><strong>Magne Ilsaas</strong> wants WordPress to be more than the pragmatic choice for enterprise clients. He wants WordPress agencies to be known for a distinct WordPress culture and mindset. <strong>Alain Schlesser</strong>, <strong>Carole Olinger</strong>, <strong>Carl Alexander</strong>, and <strong>Zach Stepek</strong> have a frank talk with <strong>Bob Dunn</strong> about the costs of not supporting WordPress contributors. Post Status members including <strong>Dave Loodts</strong>, <strong>Marius Jensen</strong>, <strong>Jeremy Ward</strong>, and <strong>Chris Reynold</strong>s discuss the looming <strong>PHP 7.4 EOL</strong>. Plus <strong>Jb Audras</strong>&#8216; breakdown of contributions to the <strong>WordPress 6.1</strong> release. For your weekend reading, some news and insights from business, workplace, webtech, and govtech writers beyond the WordPress bubble. </p></div>


<div class="wp-block-spacer eplus-wrapper"></div>



<p class="yoast-reading-time__wrapper"><span class="yoast-reading-time__icon"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__spacer"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__descriptive-text">Estimated reading time:  </span><span class="yoast-reading-time__reading-time">4</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>
</div></div>



<h2 id="h-the-wordpress-enterprise-paradox"><a href="https://poststatus.com/the-wordpress-enterprise-paradox/">The WordPress Enterprise Paradox</a></h2>



<p><strong>Magne Ilsaas</strong> goes back a long way as a WordPress agency founder serving large enterprise clients. Why WordPress has been such a success in that space is now a barrier to its growth, Magne argues. It is not enough to be the pragmatic choice — the &#8220;tool that gets the job done, cheaply and effectively.&#8221; This leads to short-term engineering-focused solutions while &#8220;other [non-WordPress] agencies are helping clients with strategic decision-making, design and communication, user testing,&nbsp; conversion optimization, and digital marketing.&#8221; Magne wants WordPress agencies to be known for a distinct WordPress culture and mindset:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>What if we did business the same way we've built WordPress? What if we leverage our biggest asset, which is not WordPress the tool. It’s WordPress, the community, the culture, the openness, and the inclusiveness. What if we create our own way of integrating our open-source mindset into how we conduct our businesses?</p>
</blockquote>



<p>While talking with Magne and working on this article, which was originally drafted a few years ago, he confirmed a couple of things that have kept coming up in my reading and conversations. They each represent both threats and opportunities: </p>



<ol>
<li> All the complaints, hazards, frustrations, and wishes of big agencies and their customers are very much aligned with small agencies, freelancers, and their customers. In particular, everyone wants clear quality signals for selecting plugins that meet their needs and don't distort, complicate, or disrupt the user experience, especially in the admin interface.</li>



<li>The agency space has been a boomtown, and there are established companies, some with hundreds of employees, who do work heavily or even exclusively with WordPress but have little or no involvement with the project and community. They hire specifically for WordPress knowledge and expertise with varying degrees of technical fluency. WordPress needs them, and they need WordPress agency peer networks and gatherings whether they know it or not. </li>



<li>Unfortunately, those connecting networks, events, and trade publications don't exist or are very underdeveloped in WordPress compared to the larger digital agency scene and web tech industry at large. It's important for WordPress agencies to be there too, in organizations like <a href="https://www.sodaspeaks.com"><strong>SoDA</strong></a> (founded in 2007) for <a href="https://www.viget.com/articles/viget-joins-soda/">the reasons described</a> by <strong>Brian Williams</strong>, co-founder and CEO of <strong>Viget</strong>, when they joined back in 2013.</li>



<li>Large WordCamps aren't meeting that need, and with the challenges of the volunteer model why should they be expected to? (<a href="https://poststatus.com/market-size-and-market-shares/">We've said this before</a>.)</li>
</ol>



<h2>Supporting WordPress Contributors </h2>



<p>Some of the best conversations that expert listener <strong>Bob Dunn</strong> has recorded for <strong>Do the Woo</strong> are open conversations with people the WordPress community is lucky to have. This time it's <strong>Alain Schlesser</strong>, <strong>Carole Olinger</strong>, <strong>Carl Alexander</strong>, and <strong>Zach Stepek</strong>. An alternative title for this talk could be &#8220;Why Can't Contributors Have Nice Things? (Like a Living Wage).&#8221; Carl's impactful <strong>Twitter</strong> thread <a href="https://twitter.com/twigpress/status/1577668456354238464">a few weeks ago</a> inspired the conversation.</p>



<p>Alain, Carole, Carl, and Zach all speak about the technical debt they see being piled onto WordPress — the project and the community — because of the high cost of contributing without solid or sustainable backing. Carole and Carl discuss the <strong>WordCamp</strong> volunteer model, which Carl thinks may be broken beyond repair, and with it, many years of institutional knowledge will be lost. Deep disconnection from the <strong>PHP</strong> community presents all kinds of risks and missed opportunities Alain addresses.</p>



<p>Behind Alain's voice, it's impossible not to hear <strong>Milana Cap</strong>‘s as they are both pointing out “<a href="https://developerka.org/2022/05/21/wheres-that-elephant-in-wordpress-community/">The Elephant in the WordPress Community</a>.” As <strong>Gutenberg</strong> truly starts to round the corner with the adoption and knowledge-sharing of standard-setters like <strong>10up</strong>, maybe there will be a collective realization: it's time to feed the elePHPant, or at least support some of our best elePHPant handlers.</p>



<p>In that vein, Bob mentioned in the show (and in a conversation we had this week) that next year he will be putting significant funding back into the community from Do the Woo's generous sponsors. But you can support <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/carlalexander">Carl</a> and <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/schlessera?success=true">Alain</a> right now with any amount you choose via <strong>GitHub Sponsors</strong>.</p>



<h2>End of the Line for PHP 7.4 in 23 Days</h2>



<p>On the themes of maintenance, technical debt, and &#8220;pay now, or pay later,&#8221; unless it gets changed as WordPress project leadership has requested, <strong>PHP 7.4</strong> will <a href="https://www.php.net/supported-versions.php">no longer be supported</a> with security patches as of <strong>November 28</strong>. Some hosts are forcing customers to upgrade or leave. <strong>Dave Loodts</strong>, who has found himself in the forced-to-leave category, <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1667476104013399">started a discussion about it</a> in <strong>Post Status Slack</strong>. The views offered were broad-ranging, thoughtful, and relevant to the topics mentioned above. </p>



<p><strong>Marius Jensen</strong> pointed out that WordPress developers &#8220;are spending so much time keeping up with changes&#8221; to PHP in a never-ending maintenance loop &#8220;that it's hard to pick up new things [that can be done as PHP evolves] and innovate and use all the goodness PHP offers.&#8221; He feels &#8220;that's hurting our ability to move forward as well.&#8221;</p>



<p><strong>Jeremy Ward</strong> countered that &#8220;three years of support per release feels aggressive, particularly within our community due to the nature of our platform,&#8221; but &#8220;we can do a better job as a community at choosing an entry point with each major release to get things compatible. We knew PHP announced a change to their cadence, and to a degree, I don’t think we took them seriously that they’d stick to it. Until the <strong>PHP Federation</strong>, WordPress has more or less opted out of any language community initiatives, most notably <strong>PHP-FIG</strong>. I think all those smaller decisions kind of contribute to the challenges we face today&#8230;&#8221;</p>



<p><strong>Chris Reynolds</strong> noted that even though WordPress core rarely has problems with a <strong>PHP 8</strong> environment, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/php-compatibility-and-wordpress-versions/">PHP 8 only has beta support</a>, and enterprise customers aren't interested in anything &#8220;beta.&#8221; They need &#8220;official communications&#8221; and documents affirming full support, but WordPress's &#8220;official communication says it's not ready yet.</p>



<h3>Quick Links</h3>



<ul>
<li><strong>Jb Audras</strong> has <a href="https://jeanbaptisteaudras.com/en/2022/11/contribution-stats-for-wordpress-6-1-misha/">another fine report on contribution statistics</a>, now for <strong>WordPress&nbsp;6.1</strong>. Here's the tl;dr in <a href="https://twitter.com/AudrasJb/status/1587795340023005186">a Twitter thread</a> with a bonus graph of company rankings by number of commits. <strong>Automattic</strong> is #4.</li>



<li><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-the-crypto-story/?leadSource=uverify%20wall">The Only Crypto Story You Need</a> by <strong>Matt Levine</strong> at <strong>Bloomberg</strong>: &#8220;Crypto, in its origins, was about abandoning the system of social trust that’s been built up over centuries and replacing it with cryptographic proof. And then it got going and rebuilt systems of trust all over again. What a nice vote of confidence in <em>the idea of trust</em>.&#8221;</li>



<li>From <strong>Workplace</strong>, did you know <a href="https://workweek.com/2022/09/26/performance-reviews-dont-actually-assess-your-performance/">Performance Reviews Don't Actually Assess Performance</a>? And <a href="https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2022/what-work-looks-like/">What Work Actually Looks Like</a>, from <strong>Jim Nielsen</strong>.</li>



<li><strong>Emily Peck</strong> at <strong>Axios Marketplace</strong> reports that <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/10/19/remote-work-baby-boom-america">remote work may have fueled a baby boom among U.S. women</a>. This has never happened in a recession before among knowledge workers. Lots of interesting takeaways from this data. </li>



<li><strong>Google</strong> has <a href="https://therecord.media/google-backs-senate-bill-on-securing-open-source-software/">backed the US Senate security bill</a> aimed at &#8220;securing open source software.&#8221; Here's <a href="https://www.scmagazine.com/feature/devops/even-with-all-eyes-on-software-supply-chain-security-open-source-remains-a-neglected-target">a good backgrounder</a> from <strong>Menghan Xiao</strong> at <strong>SC Media</strong>. And here's <a href="https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/policy-briefing/4/208">what compliance is going to require</a>. Get familiar with <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/sbom">CISA and SBOMs</a>.</li>
</ul>



<p></p>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Nov 2022 16:49:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Dan Knauss";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"Post Status: InstaWP: A Conversation and Tour with Founder Vikas Singhal — Post Status Draft 128";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=142568";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"https://poststatus.com/instawp-a-conversation-and-tour-with-founder-vikas-singhal/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:40529:"<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-group eplus-wrapper has-theme-palette-2-color has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-text-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">InstaWP is about a year old now — let's take a tour of it and catch up with Vikas Singhal to see how he hopes it will evolve. Currently, it's a testing, demonstration, training, and marketing tool for WordPress product owners and agencies. Next, Vikas aims for InstaWP to support a marketplace for developers and agencies launching WordPress sites. Finally, he envisions it becoming a platform of platforms — WordPress-as-a-Service for people building their own WPaaS  </p></div>


<div class="wp-block-spacer eplus-wrapper"></div>



<p class="yoast-reading-time__wrapper"><span class="yoast-reading-time__icon"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__spacer"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__descriptive-text">Estimated reading time:  </span><span class="yoast-reading-time__reading-time">4</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>
</div></div>







<p><a href="https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#h-transcript">Transcript</a> ↓</p>



<p class="has-drop-cap">About a year ago, <strong>Vikas Singhal</strong> launched <strong>InstaWP</strong>, a serverless platform for spinning up WordPress sites instantly for demos and sandboxes, development and testing, or training and education. Along with WordPress, any combination of plugins and themes can be included. There’s <strong>GitHub</strong> integration, and InstaWP has the ability to push sites to a large number of hosts or pull them to a local development environment. (InstaWP generates Blueprints — .zip packages for <strong>WP Engine</strong>’s <strong>Local</strong> app.)</p>



<p>InstaWP is being embraced by WordPress product developers and agencies. It has significant product testing and marketing applications since customers can spin up any number of demo sites based on a custom template, and this activity is logged. Vikas has picked up <a href="https://poststatus.com/post-status-notes-501/">seed funding</a> from <strong>Automattic</strong> and looks forward to announcing many new partnerships with WordPress businesses that have found InstaWP and valuable and complementary tool.</p>



<p>Vikas sees InstaWP’s future as a marketplace for agencies, developers, and freelancers. Because of its powerful site templating and cloning capabilities, it could ultimately become a way to generate bespoke WordPress-based SaaS platforms at scale.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>



<div class="is-layout-flex wp-container-30 wp-block-columns sponsor has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background" id="StellarWP">
<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-column">
<h3 class="StellarWP" id="Sponsor"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> Sponsor: <a href="https://poststat.us/stellarwp">StellarWP</a><a href="https://poststat.us/wpengine"></a></h3>



<p><strong>StellarWP</strong> provides WordPress solutions for all humankind. We’re a collective of leaders interested in growing WordPress companies. We build great plugins, but we don’t stop there; we continually challenge ourselves to keep innovating and improving. <a href="https://stellarwp.com/about/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Reach out to us if you’re interested in learning more!</strong></a></p>
</div>



<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top"><div class="wp-block-image stellarwp-logo">
<a href="https://poststat.us/stellarwp"><img width="400" height="400" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/stellarwp-logo-avatar-1.jpg" alt="StellarWP" class="wp-image-101425" title="StellarWP Logo" /></a><a href="https://poststat.us/stellarwp">StellarWP</a></div></div>
</div>



<p> </p>



<h3 class="eplus-wrapper" id="h-mentioned-in-the-show"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f517.png" alt="🔗" class="wp-smiley" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>



<ul class="eplus-wrapper">
<li><a href="https://instawp.com/">InstaWP – Instant WordPress Sites for Everyone</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="eplus-wrapper" id="h-you-can-follow-post-status-and-our-guests-on-twitter"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f426.png" alt="🐦" class="wp-smiley" /> You can follow Post Status and our guests on Twitter:</h3>



<ul class="eplus-wrapper">
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/vikasprogrammer">Vikas Singhal</a> (Founder, <a href="https://instawp.com/">InstaWP</a>)</li>



<li><a href="https://twitter.com/dan_knauss">Dan Knauss</a> (Editor, <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status">Post Status</a>)</li>



<li><a href="https://twitter.com/lemonadecode/photo">Olivia Bisset</a> (Intern, Post Status)</li>
</ul>



<p class="eplus-wrapper has-background">The <strong>Post Status Draft</strong> podcast is geared toward WordPress professionals, with interviews, news, and deep analysis. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4dd.png" alt="📝" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><br /><a href="https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Browse our archives</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe via <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">YouTube</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stitcher</a>, <a href="https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Simplecast</a>, or <a href="https://feeds.simplecast.com/2JE9sc8P">RSS</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h2 class="eplus-wrapper" id="h-transcript">Transcript</h2>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> [00:00:00] With Singal here, with Insta, wp get a little tour of where we're at today with with this new and interesting product. I think, I think you've been Pretty familiar in at post status anyway. I know a number of members have been been using this platform.</p>



<p>So how did, how did you put it together? What would you like to people to know who are completely new to it, who haven't seen Insta WP before?</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> Yeah. There's an interesting question. First of all means I would like to thank post status because that's where I posted about instead of the. For the first time, and that's where it took off.</p>



<p>I remember you or you were with Dimension Media handle, right? Right. Well that's</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> David Bi and I Yeah, that was, he was he was [00:01:00] with us then. Right.</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> Right. So yeah, you guys shooted about instead of Lupe and then it took off really well. I got initial interest initial kind of early adopters from post status.</p>



<p>So that was great. Mince, how did I put it together, is I started with WordPress about four or five years ago, but, and then I built a plugin theme company over the years, and I also have that in parallel which is still in we are still alive. But the, the biggest thing, which I always wondered that, why don't we have like a good.</p>



<p>To create a workplace website like you do, like a Shopify website or any other SAS-based platform where you just click like a great site and it, it gives you site. Instead, you either have to set up like a clunky local setup which takes away your cpu, and it's, it's, it's not that easy, right? And at the same time when you use your hosting account, it has its own disadvantages.</p>



<p>Then you have to go multiple steps. [00:02:00] You have to do, you have to eat up your hosting credits and other things, right? So you don't, It's not like a really like a playground where you just create a site and then test it and then dispose it. So the initial idea was to give kind of a platform where you can create a disposable site.</p>



<p>At least that's how it started. And then it obviously became something completely like not different, but more wash than the initial idea. And so that's how it started. And it was started about a year ago, I think, September, October 2 21. When I I created MVP and posted and post as, as I said earlier and then obviously about six months, eight months down the line we got funding from Automatic and then it, it bo it became all real and.</p>



<p>All kind of so much pressure, , but yeah, I means we are at this point that we have like a good version, one plus plus kind of project product with, with us. A lot of folks are using it. We have about thousand websites being [00:03:00] created on Insta every day. So I like to think that we, we contribute some part of this to the workplace ecosystem wherein because we have a very generous, free plan.</p>



<p>You get five websites where you can create, in your account you have like 500 MB of disc usage. You can create a template and all that. So I know a lot of folks are using the free account and we are happy with it because that increases the engagement with the platform and that gives us a lot of feedback.</p>



<p>So with that, I think it's time. I give you a small demo of how it looks like. Good. And then you can go from there.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Right. Are you hoping that those who are using the, the free accounts will convert and up upgrade later? Or are they they two different audience segments where people are doing very quick testing, but then maybe maybe another group is ends up using it as, as a more permanent platform or for something that they launch sites to, to other hosting providers?</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> Yeah, so I think [00:04:00] we, as I said, we started as a disposable site platform, but then we are now allowing people with a paid account to reserve a site for extended period of time, so you don't need to actually let it expire. So, so these are two different personas of our users. One is someone who are just testing disposing so they don't need to upgrade.</p>



<p>And we don't expect them to upgrade. But then there is obviously another serious users like agency owners product owners, developers. Who, who, who want to ex explore the platform to another dimensions or another levels of what, what it can do. So that's, that's where we want.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. You have some who are using it as a permanent sandbox for demoing their own products that well they might periodically completely overhaul it, change it, put on, update their their system, but their customers are, are using it.</p>



<p>Is it, I guess they could map it to any domain that they like.</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> Right. A lot of our agency customers, what they do is they create a. [00:05:00] The market as a permanent site. So when we say permanent on Insta is not like a hosted site, so we don't provide hosting. But they can still map like a custom domain to, to that Insta site.</p>



<p>And it becomes like a white label site at that point. And you can actually show that to your client once they're okay with it. Who can do one click migrate to they're host. Account or your hosting account, however it is set up. So it doesn't really matter. So, so it's, as I said earlier before our call, that it is kind of a breeding ground, right?</p>



<p>Where you like you nurture your baby and everything is okay, and then you push it off to the world, right? So, and then all your tools, all. So our vision is that we connect. All the plugin provider, all the team providers have a template store, have a product store have the, have our cloud underneath.</p>



<p>So when, when we become the clue, right? So we, we tie them together. And I think you shared one interesting post recently about onboarding on on WordPress. So we are trying to solve that for agencies and freelancers at least, at least for them, right? [00:06:00] And then maybe later on we can bring in DIYs as.</p>



<p>Who want to build their site, and they will have like a ready made starter templates. So, so it, it'll be really, really easy for them to get a new site.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Great. Well, yeah, let's, let's spin one up. You can go from scratch or, or from a, a template it looks like.</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> Right? So you can start from a template if you have one.</p>



<p>So we have created some templates, so we can get back to that later. And then you can start from scratch. So you can choose WordPress version. So we, we support all the way to older version and newer, newer versions. Even better versions. I think 6.1 is what , it'll be added. And you can also test on multiple PHP versions all the way to 8.1.</p>



<p>You can choose some presets of configuration wherein it is not actually like a snapshot, but it is like a set of configuration parameters. So you can say that auto in install, Astra auto install, Elementor auto install whatever dv, even if it is premium theme plugin, it doesn't really matter. So [00:07:00] I'll show that in a.</p>



<p>You can provide a site name or you can just keep it blank for a random site. So I am just keeping everything as default and clicking on Create site. Also just to for, for, for the purpose of completion that we have a temporary site option and a reserve site. So this is disabled on a free account.</p>



<p>The free account, you can only do temporary sites. So let's create, let's do. And within a few seconds you should have a new site, new site, ready to go for you. Right. And the one, the detail which we show is obviously the url, username and password. So when you click on it, you should get a site. Up and running.</p>



<p>And you might notice that this particular, in this particular instance we have some faker data already populated. The reason being my default configuration has that. So if I go to configuration tab and choose default and go to Faker, so my core figurer is on, and I have created some posts, some pages, some tags, some categories.</p>



<p>So we, so we are using Yost faker [00:08:00] internally to do all. Right. And then you can also do like a what kind of keyword you want to do for, Oh,</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> what's a, what's a faker? I was looking at that yesterday and, and wondering, I'm not familiar with that term.</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> So a lot of time you want a website filled with some content, right?</p>



<p>It doesn't really matter what kind of content you need, so, This is like that, so, Oh, right.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Okay. So prepopulated content.</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> Yeah, Repopulated content. Yes. So, exactly. So some posts, some pages, some authors, so that it gives you somewhere to start, right? Not necessarily. You want to start from scratch. Sure. So you can switch it off, switch it off.</p>



<p>By default it is switched off and there is a lot of other configuration, as I said earlier, so you can make a default configuration of your site language multi-site. Reinstall plugins, pre-install teams and all that. So obviously a lot of options, we can go over them one by one, but let me just explain what is, what are the main features which we have.</p>



<p>So so second [00:09:00] thing is you can do like a quick auto login to your site and you don't need to remember you're using 'em in password and then it straight away goes to the WebPress admin. And then you can imagine you can just work from there. So you, you can imagine that this, these kind of features are not, Kind of not available in all the platforms.</p>



<p>Right? Some features, some platform will have some feature, but our focus is completely on making WordPress cool or WordPress easier to use, right? Right. You don't need to worry about installing a bunch of things to, to make these things happen. So another option is reserving a site. So if you have, let's.</p>



<p>You want this site for a longer period of time. By default, it gives you, like, based on your plan. So if you have a free plan, you, it gives you 48 hours. If you are on a paid plan, it, it goes from seven days to to up to a month, right? And we have add-ons, so you can always increase those options. So you can reserve a site and this will never expire.</p>



<p>And these are, this becomes like a permanent site. And then when you are comfortable, you can [00:10:00] delete it yourself if you want. The second cool option is saving this as a template. So there are multiple kind of para, multiple paradigm how you can use a template. So let me just, let me just first, first create a template.</p>



<p>So template is nothing but like a snapshot of your site. So it saves, it saves the content, it saves the database, it shifts everything. And like a backup of your site. Let's say demo PS, and you can put a description, post status demo template. Somebody has taking this name ops, so let's say obviously add one</p>



<p>So yeah, that was probably me say, yeah. Oh, maybe you , right? So now if you go to your private template staff, this demo, this template creation is in. So it takes few moments depending upon the size of your site, and now within few seconds, you will have it ready. So basically at this [00:11:00] point there are multiple things which, which you can do with the template.</p>



<p>So first, the most easiest option is go back to sites, click on Agnew, and you will have this from template. Now this thing is appearing here, create site. So the new site will have. Whatever you had on the parent's side, right? So, Right. It's that easy now. So it takes a few moment because now it is being created from attempted rather than scratch from, from a blank worker's side.</p>



<p>So it takes few moment based on the size of, of your parent's size. However, we, we do have an like a really interesting option where you can mark your template as an instant template. So that's like an advance option only available in the agency. So a lot of that is actually very useful when you like, do like a sandbox and all, and it'll do, it'll create a site instantly, right?</p>



<p>It, it won't, it won't take even a, even a second. So now this site is completely like a, like a clone of your parent's site [00:12:00] and only the name changes. The URL changes. So you, so whatever changes you make on the parent's side, obviously is not. Those changes are not affected here, right? So, so these are two different sites and you, you can see in your list also that this comes from the template.</p>



<p>There's a small section that shows that. Now this was just the basic operation of a template. However, there are two things which can do here. One is connecting this to a get deployment. So I will not get into much detail with the interest of time, but what happens is if you have, let's say, a plug. Or a team on a, on a gi it can be on GitHub, it can be on Bitbucket.</p>



<p>It doesn't really matter. But we support GitHub more natively for now. But other supports are also coming. What happens is if you, let's say, if you have a Bud Press plugin, and the, the biggest thing, which we have noticed because we also develop plugins, is that. There are multiple developers who are working on, on a plugin.</p>



<p>Let's say one developers [00:13:00] developing one feature. One is fixing another bug. They'll be doing that on their own kind of prs, right? They will have their own branches. They'll raise a pr. What will happen is as soon as they raise a PR and you have set up your get report with, with the template, every time there is a pr per.</p>



<p>They will get a special workplace deployed for them, which is created from the parent side, so it is loaded with all the bells and visuals, all the other companion plugins, all the other content. Right, right. And then it'll pull the latest plug-in code from that pr. So I'll just show that I'll show an example of what we have done in the past rather than connecting the whole thing.</p>



<p>So if you see one of these prs, you will see. Sure. So for example, I changed this file, so I changed the version of my WordPress plugin. So what happens is as soon I raise this pr my new WordPress instance was deployed. Instead of loopy and it had then that new code. So you can [00:14:00] imagine the, the impact of it.</p>



<p>Right. So it, so within moments you get a site and you can test your new feature, and then when you close the pr, that site will be destroyed. Right? Right. So that site is gone. And this is kind of one of the most asked, most used featured by, especially the product developers, the the who are developing for breakfast.</p>



<p>Sure. So the next cool option is the share template. So once you mark a template as share it becomes, it is basically a sandbox at that point, right? So it, now if you go to the share tab and this demo, PS one is actually having a shared link, right? So if I open that, copy that and open in a new. What happens is I get a landing page and the interesting thing thing about is this landing page is that it is available for all users, not just logged in users.</p>



<p>Right? So this is ready to go anybody. [00:15:00] So let me open this in, in Incog mode, and you will see that this is this exact landing page pages available for an anonymous user. Now what, what are you doing exactly? You have offered your template. As like a sandbox for anybody to test. And this is what a lot of folks are doing as you said, as we discussed earlier.</p>



<p>So let me enter an email id and then within seconds it'll start creating a site based on a template, and then it'll give you to the user. Now, if you go back to your panel, we have simple statistics built in. So if you click on statistics you'll see that one site was created today, first November. And then if you go to table, you will see that the site was created, who created it, right?</p>



<p>And there are like tons of options you want to create. If you want to collect email, you want to link it to your MailChimp account, ah, that you want to call a web. So,</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> so that, that, that initial login box I saw it had a checkbox for a newsletter that could Right. That's not yours. [00:16:00] That's a instant wp. That could be the the right, the user for someone's doing a sandbox for their plugin.</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> Right. So you, you can actually change everything. So, so we show a quick preview of why you're changing it. So let's say you don't want to collect email, right? So this thing will be gone. But if you want to collect email and you want to hide the previously check box, you can hide that. You can mark email as required if you want to like change the previous policy text.</p>



<p>Wow. So let's say, yeah, So this is a new policy. Let's see. And you can see it real time changing. We also send out an email when somebody. A website which, so this email can be completely customized based on like your brand, you can upload a brand logo, so this instead of logo will be replaced by that logo.</p>



<p>All this obviously is in paid plan, so not available for paid users. Free users. However, free users can come up to this point with all the options as default, and they can still create a shared template, one shared template in a free.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> So this is, this [00:17:00] would be great for marketing purposes than if, or, or if you wanted to have a select group of people test a new feature and, and give feedback.</p>



<p>But this would give you some, some good data back on if you did a campaign of test some new features or, or Try before you buy,</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> right? Yeah. A lot of companies, like even Gravity forms, they're using for beta releases. So they're select group of people who are doing beta testing. So they create a template because a template has all the, all the things, as I said earlier, right?</p>



<p>Content plugin, and they can create new instances based on the template and they're ready. Nice. You can also set lifetime of these sites, which I created from the template. So it can go from 30 minutes all up to 15 days. In fact WordPress, full site editing outreach experiment. I don't know if you know that.</p>



<p>Connected by Annie. Oh. Yes. Great. So they are using this as a part of their. Outreach. Does</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> the does the use data then get logged separately? So if, if a site expires that [00:18:00] someone has, has used, you're still getting An aggregate of, of all the data that, that's been produced by users.</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> Right, Right.</p>



<p>So yeah. So basic status effects will include even the expired sites. So here, this, this data will show even if the site expires, because you need to, you need to see the trend. But we are coming up with some advanced statistics on how much time did the user use, how many pages did they visit? Things like that, Right?</p>



<p>What was the actual usage pattern of the user so that you can take informed decisions based on that,</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> right? Oh, that's terrific.</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> Right. And I can export this list as csv and yeah, you can do a lot of stuff. So, yeah, So that was about templates. So sites and templates are. The core of, instead of, But then obviously we have configurations.</p>



<p>We have deployments. Deployments is where you can connect your GitHub account and all. And then we [00:19:00] have mail shift integration and more integrations coming in. We, you can create multiple teams, so these are like workspaces. You can invite team members to different workspaces. We use it for our own team, obviously.</p>



<p>So we eat our own dog food and. So I guess in the sites thing one more thing, a couple of more things maybe shown. So you can use tools like code editor you can use tools like D Editor. So these things are like really quick, right? So, and everything about Insta is instant, right? So it has to be very, very quick.</p>



<p>You don't need to do any configuration. So you can see all the WordPress tables are now open up, right? So it's that easy, right? And same thing. So if you hover a site, you can still get the same thing. So code, I guess you have already used that. So this is something as we want to improve that. But still this is very powerful.</p>



<p>So it is like a multi tab editing experience similar to what Sublime or Visual Code provides. But we are building our own code editor [00:20:00] which will be like similar to Sublime Experience, and then it'll also have like a multi. Party collaboration. So let's say you and I can share a URL and then can, can work on the same work site online.</p>



<p>Right. So you'll see mouse moving, you'll see them editing like similar to in Google Doc. Sure.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. When I, when I tried this out, I, I found, So you have to go under file and, and click save and then it instantly becomes active on the site. Yeah. So these</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> are all active. Yep.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Right. There's, there's not really a, It doesn't give you any feedback on whether you've white screened the site or not, but you, you don't get locked out if there's a, a failure.</p>



<p>Is there any kind of error logging built in here or, or a way to roll back? Changes.</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> The first option is built in, so if you can hover over the site, you'll see view locks. Oh, okay. So here you can see error locks and access locks, and you can actually search through the locks. And we are coming up [00:21:00] with debug locks as well.</p>



<p>So we'll switch on W P D bug, and then you can see those logs as well. And then the other one, which you talked about is rolling back is an interesting feature. So what we are trying to do is create versions of your site. So let's say you are working on the site and then you are good with that. You will have an option here itself on, on the top, let's say save snapshot or a save a version.</p>



<p>It'll create like a quick version of the whole website and then you can roll back to any of the version at any point. Wow. And I guess some other cool stuff here is obviously we have this ssh. So you can enable SSH and with SSH you get access to WP cli. That is like very, very easy, very, very quick.</p>



<p>So you can, if, if you have time, I can just show this to you real quickly. So you enable SSH takes a second and you open your ssh. So as a part of our making this even easier we will have [00:22:00] like a SSH console right here, okay? Right next to close, which will say like, open console, web console of ssh, and it'll open the whole thing inside the website, right?</p>



<p>So you don't need to open your ssh client. If you want, you can do that, but you don't need. , right? Same with the same with ftp. So you enter your username password, enter your SSH key, boom. So you are inside your website. So let me clear this up. So you can go to the public folder and yeah, so you have all the sites and then you can do like a lot of stuff obviously.</p>



<p>So you have like W P C I command, you can run them right. Not a problem at all.</p>



<p>All right. I think I've covered at least 70, 80% of what we can do with Insta. Obviously there is some more things to explore and a lot of things coming up right.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> And it has an [00:23:00] export feature. A lot of, a lot of us use WP Engines local product for, for local development. And that exports a blueprint right here that you can, you can import to,</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> to local, right?</p>



<p>So it'll email you a zip, a link to afi, Uhhuh , which you can download, and then just drag and drop to local w p and you don't need to do any configuration. Nice. Okay. And then, yeah, so map of map domain is where I think we spoke about it, is where you just create a c record to this particular site, and then you can map it to any domain of your choice.</p>



<p>Okay.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> So that's, that's great. You're up to a thousand. Regular customers now and are you, are you seeking further investment? What are, what's next for it as, as a growing business and, and what, what do you see happening in your, in your roadmap for the future?</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> So we have more, more than that.</p>



<p>We have, we are [00:24:00] actually getting thousand websites created on INTA Per day. Every day. Yeah. Per day. Right, Right, right, right. And we, we have, we are getting, we are getting great reaction from users. We are free to pay. Conversion is about five to 10%, so that is also good. And regarding further investments, we have got interest from the market to be honest.</p>



<p>But then we want to even test the waters even further so that because when you take money from market, it creates tremendous pressure and responsibility because you can't just throw that money around, right? You, you have to be, you have to own it. And so what we are doing right now is figuring out our marketing strategy wherein where, where, who is our ideal customer and who can pay us X amount so that it, it justifies the business.</p>



<p>And that's where we are exploring more and more things. And you will see a lot of things happening. Like we are, we are sponsoring, we sponsored a small sponsorship on work camp. And, and then work Camp Asia is a [00:25:00] bigger sponsorship. I'll be there personally and a lot of stuff, we, we are, our, our stuff is going to be featured in a lot of YouTube channels, lot of guest posts, lot of partnerships.</p>



<p>You'll see a lot of stuff in coming weeks and months. Good.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Good. Do you have, have a sense of who that ideal customer is? Who, where do you think that's leading you</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> right now? There are two personas which we are kind of targeting. One is the agency freelancer market who are developing site for clients.</p>



<p>So that's, I, we have got several of those and those guys are like, Really, really happy with the product because it, it gives them like, kind of it empowers them, in fact to, to create WordPress sites without thinking about the underlying infrastructure. And they can, they invite their team, they can invite contractors, they can do a lot of stuff, which they, they would have been doing it, but with.</p>



<p>Connecting several pieces and then creating some something of their own right. And second person persona is the [00:26:00] product. Develop developers, the, the, the plugin and theme authors out there who are developing products. So those guys are like, those folks are using for sandboxes for their data integration their staging testing of their plugins before releasing them, right?</p>



<p>Things like that. So these are the two personas which we are targeting right now. Yeah,</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> that, that makes a lot of sense. It's, it's very familiar from, for anyone who's, who's worked with, with something like local before but you're actually working live in the browser very. With a very quick response.</p>



<p>You know, that's, I can see the educational purposes too for for opening, opening up WordPress development in general for for people who are new to it or, or trying to to learn or say Bringing in software engineers who, who maybe have less familiarity with WordPress and just, you know, quickly, quickly picking Yep.</p>



<p>Picking things up. Are you seeing that at all too? Any interest from the, [00:27:00] from project itself or, or others who are, who are doing training?</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> Yeah. So we have few folks who are doing trainings and education piece both free and paid. So we have got a lot of like non-profits and schools who are using this like a simple WordPress because they don't care about the underlying frustrated all the need is a WordPress site.</p>



<p>Sure. Right. So, and that, that is where we excel and obviously there are a couple of educators who are using this as a. Engagement. So they share like a hidden shared link of their sandbox. So they use that sandbox feature wherein they, they can say that you get a ready made starter template wherein you can, And this here is your study material and here is your ready to go WordPress template, and then you can start from there.</p>



<p>Right? So we have got like Jamie from Poodle Press and other folks who are using this as a, as, as an educated tool. So that is something That's great.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. Yeah. And being able to collaboratively edit work on code that seems like that would open up [00:28:00] all, all kinds of possibilities for.</p>



<p>Onboarding new developers teaching teaching people who have haven't seen this before at all. Well that's, that's really great. Is there anything else we should look at or that you'd like to. To cover it might be of interest to post status members and, and others in the community.</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> Yeah, Miss our vision is actually really, really big.</p>



<p>I don't know whether we will be able to achieve it, but we'll obviously do our best. Though this is step number one, right, to create a cloud or create some kind of infrastructure wherein you get a WordPress site. Step number two will be once we have all the agency, all the freelances the agency owners and the developers on board.</p>



<p>And when we have like a hundred thousand plus users. We will have, we can have actually a marketplace because these, these guys are actually service providers, right? All these folks are service providers. And then when we bring in DIYers who are actually biased, even these, these folks can be biased among themselves, right?</p>



<p>So let's say [00:29:00] a, a person is offering their services like they do on Upwork. We can create such kind of platform on top of instead wp, right? So they, now Dan Orka can offer their services. They can offer their ready met templates, which they have worked on. Let's say they, I'm a designer, I can create a really nice gym training template and then I can offer that for 30 bucks a pop or maybe like a, Something like a theme forest on the steroids, right?</p>



<p>So Uhhuh something, right? So like a template store and then you can sell basically is a marketplace for buying and selling. So that will be step number two. Step number three will be means creating completely like a. Vs. Or a web flow kind of environment where you get a starter template, which is connected to somebody else's hosting account.</p>



<p>So it becomes like a WordPress as a service at that point. So let's say you have some [00:30:00] clients you can have, you can connect your WP Engine account within inta and anytime somebody requests a website from you, you can actually give them a link of your store Sure. Of, of your INTA store link, right? And they then they can go and they can buy a website.</p>



<p>Which is actually internally hosted on your WP Engine account. Right. And everything is automated, right? So, So that will be like the biggest thing. So these things are like, it'll take months and years, but we'll get there. Right.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Oh. Tell me a little bit about the cooperation with Blog Vault. You, that's, that they're providing the the ability to export quickly to, Wow.</p>



<p>It looked like, it looked like there were over a dozen hosting providers that Right. That they can connect you with. How did how did that relationship come about and, and how are you working together there? That's. I imagine that's done. Brought them a, a lot of a lot of activity, a lot of users.</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> Yeah, so Blog World is already pretty famous, so, but, and their product is [00:31:00] really robust and that's why we have, we integrated with them, right? So we do like a native integration where you click on migrate and then it shows up like 12, 15 options where you can migrate to however, in coming weeks, as I, as I told you earlier, that.</p>



<p>We are coming up with our own Connect Connect plugin wherein you can connect your hosting account, you can your ok, any WebPress site on, on the internet and they can, you can push even, even easier, right? So the biggest problem which we are trying to solve is pushing. It changes. So let's say you created a staging site.</p>



<p>You like, let's say you. Edit it. Couple of posts. Couple of pages. You installed a plugin, you did some s right? But when you push from staging to production, there is no good product right now on the market. Who can, who can re, who can recognize these changes? Right. The, the, the I creative changes and then push it like a GitHub, like a get come at.</p>



<p>To the production site. Right. So that is something, is something we are researching on internally and we are very, I think we are positive on [00:32:00] that. So once we solve that, it'll become a game changer. Right. So you don't need to touch your production site. All changes will be done on Insta. Right.</p>



<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Well, very nice.</p>



<p>All right, well, well thank you for the, for the tour. appreciate that. Best of luck to you and thank you. It's exciting to see, see it grow so, so quickly and</p>



<p><strong>Vikas Singhal:</strong> so well. No, thank you for listening to it patiently, and thank you for having me. Thanks.</p>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Nov 2022 04:21:19 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Dan Knauss";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:30;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"WPTavern: WP Rankings Helps Plugin Developers Track Growth and Competitors";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=139125";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"https://wptavern.com/wp-rankings-helps-plugin-developers-track-growth-and-competitors";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5056:"<p>Last month, WordPress.org <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-removes-active-install-growth-data-for-plugins">removed the active install growth chart from plugins</a>, upsetting plugin authors and leaving them with very little meaningful data. The Meta team is working on making more accurate and useful data available to plugin developers, but this will take some work. In the meantime, the team behind <a href="https://ayecode.io/">AyeCode</a>, makers of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/geodirectory/">GeoDirectory plugin</a>, has created a tool to help plugin developers get an idea of how their plugins are ranking.</p>



<p>&#8220;The popular plugin list is still there (and hopefully, it won&#8217;t be removed or altered),&#8221; AyeCode co-founder Paolo Tajani <a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6511#comment:77">commented</a> on the <a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6511">ticket</a> that requests the active install growth charts be restored. &#8220;As far as I know, active install count is the only ranking factor of the popular plugin list. I know it is not ideal, but it is what it is, and that is all we have.</p>



<p>&#8220;Because wp.org only shows 99 pages (the first 1980 plugins), we quickly built a site to provide those basic stats to all plugin authors.&#8221;</p>



<p>AyeCode&#8217;s <a href="https://wp-rankings.com/">WP Rankings</a> website launched one week after the active install growth chart data was pulled. It shows if a plugin is ranking higher or lower than the day before and how many positions it needs to climb to reach the next milestone. The homepage shows the &#8220;top 50 ranking climbers&#8221; of the day, and these can be filtered by the number of active installs. All the data is refreshed daily.</p>



<img />



<p>AyeCode built the site using the GeoDirectory plugin, the Blockstrap theme, and custom code to fetch the data from the WordPress.org API. </p>



<p>&#8220;We also wanted to show how easily GeoDirectory can handle +50k listings with a lot of custom fields on a pretty basic hosting plan,&#8221; Tajani said. &#8220;Most Directory plugins wouldn&#8217;t be able to do that.&#8221;</p>



<p>Plugins can be searched by tag so visitors can see how their plugins are growing compared to others using the same tag.</p>



<p>For example, Tajani said he keeps his eye on the <a href="https://wp-rankings.com/plugins/tags/business-directory/">&#8220;business directory&#8221; tag</a> every day to see how the GeoDirectory plugin is doing. Tajani said the API offers enough info to know if a plugin is growing, shrinking, or plateaued. </p>



<img />



<p>Some of the data in the rankings is taken from the API and some of it is calculated, including the trends, the number of days until the next milestone, the number of five-stars to the next rating, and the number of positions to the next milestone. </p>



<p>Clicking through to the individual plugin pages offers more graphs/charts about their movement on the popular plugin list. The data  from the API is remixed in various ways to extrapolate insights. For example, the number of days to the next milestone is based on the plugin&#8217;s current growth trend.</p>



<img />



<p>The individual plugin pages display a 15-day rank change chart, along with 24-hour and 7-day trends.</p>



<img />



<p>A review stats graph estimates how many 5-star ratings are required to reach the next level. Another graph tracks 15 days worth of resolved support threads against the total number of threads logged.  </p>




<img />



<img />




<p>The last section shows a list of the plugin&#8217;s  competitors and a summary of their rankings and growth trends.</p>



<img />



<p>The <a href="https://wp-rankings.com/statistics/">stats page</a> shows how many plugins there are for each active install range up to 5 million. It&#8217;s interesting to see that there are 8,071 plugins with zero active installs and 13,643 with just 10. Another large concentration of plugins falls within the range of 100-400 active installs and another between 1,000 &#8211; 2,000 active installs.</p>



<img />



<p>Clicking through on the stats page will show the specific plugins in that range. </p>



<img />



<p>Tajani said the next thing on their roadmap is allowing plugin owners to customize the list of competitors and adding the specific plugins they want to see compared against their own. AyeCode plans to keep what they have built with WP Rankings free indefinitely.</p>



<p>&#8220;What we really wanted to do is show another statistical point of view,&#8221; Tajani said. &#8220;We know it&#8217;s not the same and we will receive criticisms, too, but right now it&#8217;s the only way to know if a plugin is growing or not.</p>



<p>&#8220;What we will do with it in the future depends on how much plugin developers will like the idea and what kind of feedback we receive. If enough people start asking for features that could be considered premium, we will consider it.&#8221;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Nov 2022 02:34:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:31;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"Do The Woo Community: Supporting WordPress Contributors with Alain Schlesser and Carole Olinger";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=73341";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"https://dothewoo.io/supporting-wordpress-open-source-contributors/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:448:"<p>We discuss how the ecosystem can support those who contribute to WordPress and ideas on how to grow this into something sustainable.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/supporting-wordpress-open-source-contributors/">Supporting WordPress Contributors with Alain Schlesser and Carole Olinger</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 03 Nov 2022 09:02:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:110:"WPTavern: #49 – Matt Cromwell on the Effectiveness of the WordPress.org Repository for Promoting New Plugins";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=138983";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:124:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/49-matt-cromwell-on-the-effectiveness-of-the-wordpress-org-repository-for-promoting-new-plugins";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:44500:"Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My Is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p>Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress, the people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes and in this case, the effectiveness of the wordpress.org repository for promoting new plugins.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice, or by going to WPTavern.com forward slash feed forward slash podcast. And you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>



<p>If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea featured on the show. Do that by heading over to WPTavern.com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox, and use the form there.</p>



<p>So on the podcast today, we have Matt Cromwell. Matt is Senior Director of Operations and Marketing at StellarWP, where he provides marketing and business insights and coaching to burgeoning WordPress product owners. He&#8217;s also one of the founders of GiveWP, a donation plugin, which uses the freemium model. Having a free version on wordpress.org&#8217;s repository as well as a paid premium offering.</p>



<p>The wordpress.org repository is where you find yourself when you click the add new button in the WP admin. It&#8217;s a place where plugin developers can, if they follow the guidelines, hosts to their plugins. It provides a direct line of access to all WordPress websites, and is therefore a convenient, free place to host your plugin.</p>



<p>In return, the plugins in the repository must be freely available by the plugin authors. In the past few weeks, the repository has been in the news. Some statistics were unexpectedly removed, and this has led to a conversation about the governance of the repository, as well as questions about whether or not the repository is still a worthwhile place to offer your free plugins, if you have a premium tier.</p>



<p>Alex Denning wrote a post entitled, &#8220;WordPress.org is ineffective for plugin distribution in 2022&#8221;, in which he lays out his thoughts as to why he no longer recommends the WordPress repository. The battle against already successful plugins, low conversion rates, and the difficulty in gaining visibility are amongst the arguments that he puts forward.</p>



<p>Shortly after Alex&#8217;s post was published, Matt Cromwell posted a rebuttal entitled, &#8220;The case for the WordPress freemium model&#8221;. And this is the basis of the podcast today.</p>



<p>We talk about Matt&#8217;s history in WordPress as a premium plugin owner and how his experience leads him to conclude differently. That the WordPress repository can be successful, given the right expectations and approach. He&#8217;s found using the repository to be an effective channel to drive the plugins premium tier, as well as a way of offering a useful free donation tool to the community.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s a fascinating chat and is sure to be of interest to anyone thinking about starting a freemium plugin.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading over to WPTavern.com forward slash podcast. Where you&#8217;ll find all of the other episodes as well. And so, without further delay, I bring you Matt Cromwell.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Matt Cromwell. Hello, Matt.</p>



<p>[00:04:19] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Hi, thanks for having me.</p>



<p>[00:04:20] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You&#8217;re very welcome. We&#8217;ve got a, an interesting subject today, all about the wordpress.org ecosystem and whether or not it would be sensible or otherwise to put your free plugin over there. Before we get stuck into that debate, though properly, anybody that is unfamiliar with Matt, let&#8217;s give him an opportunity to introduce himself. So, Matt, just give us a few moments of your time to tell us who you are, what your relationship is with WordPress, what you&#8217;ve done in the past in the WordPress space.</p>



<p>[00:04:47] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Sure. I&#8217;ve been in WordPress for a while. I would say about 2012 or so. Jumped in and started building websites with WordPress, mostly helping non-profit organizations, churches, educational institutions. Then ended up partnering up with my longtime business partner, Devin Walker, and he and I decided to tackle a big problem in WordPress, which at that time was how to take online donations.</p>



<p>And so we created a plugin called GiveWP, and that was launched in 2015. That has catapulted us into our career, and has done really well and we&#8217;re really proud of it. So much so that we sold it last year to uh, Liquid Web, which is where we are now in the StellarWP brands. There, we have also just recently been asked to uh, take on a bit more. And so now Devin and I are both managing GiveWP as well as iThemes, Iconic and Kadence WP. So things keep getting more and more exciting.</p>



<p>[00:05:44] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you very much. Yeah, really broad and rich history there. We could have spent the podcast talking about those products, but we&#8217;re not going to. Well, I think we might do tangentially as a way of demonstrating different things. But we&#8217;re on the podcast today to talk about a couple of pieces which came out.</p>



<p>I will link correctly to both of the pieces that we&#8217;re in discussions about today. But I&#8217;ll mention them both in turn so that those listening to the podcast could possibly have a quick read of them before they pursue any further. So the first one was produced on the 18th of October by Alex Denning over at getellipsis.com, and that piece was called wordpress.org is ineffective for plugin distribution in 2022.</p>



<p>And then a few days after that, you, Matt Cromwell, wrote a piece and that was at mattcromwell.com and it was called the case for the WordPress plugin freemium model. And in effect, your piece coming a little bit later was a rebuttal about what Alex was saying. Now, if you&#8217;d like to outline what Alex is saying, you are welcome to do that. Alternatively, I could try and outline what Alex was saying, which would you prefer?</p>



<p>[00:06:54] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> I think you are much more fair than I.</p>



<p>[00:06:56] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, that&#8217;s very kind of you. The long and the short of Alex&#8217;s piece is that he believes that by the year 2022, we&#8217;ve got to a point where, if you are going to be releasing a plugin, a free plugin, into the WordPress space, he believes that it&#8217;s now no longer effective to do that on wordpress.org. The article is probably about a 10 or 15 minute read, and as always with Alex&#8217;s pieces, there&#8217;s lots and lots of data and so on to back it up. But essentially he believes it&#8217;s ineffective for a variety of reasons.</p>



<p>One of them is that the marketplace seems to be dominated, in his view, by some giant incumbents. We&#8217;ve all seen those plugins before. If you&#8217;ve tried to add a new plugin through the WordPress repository, you&#8217;ll probably know the plugins that we&#8217;re talking about. They always rise to the top. And that&#8217;s largely because, Alex thinks, because of the install base that they&#8217;ve already got. Once they&#8217;ve got over a certain amount, the hump of a 100,000, 500,000 or 1,000,000 installs, then it becomes more likely that they&#8217;re going to be surfaced.</p>



<p>There&#8217;s also the idea that, in the recent past, especially since 2016, he makes the point, it&#8217;s much more difficult for new plugins to breach that number. So getting past a hundred thousand and so on is more difficult, which is compounding the problem.</p>



<p>And then if you add on to that, the fact that the search functionality within the WordPress repository also doesn&#8217;t give the opportunity for new plugins to be discovered. If you go there and you search for particular keywords, his contention would be that it&#8217;s much more likely that the ones with the greater install base are going to be surfaced first. In other words, it&#8217;s a bit of a, an echo chamber, I suppose, in a sense is what he&#8217;s saying.</p>



<p>Given all of that, he contends that you would be better off spending your time, and I guess for time you could read money as well, elsewhere. It might be better to have social campaigns or Google ads or some other channel of distribution, outside of wordpress.org, and so your endeavors would be better served elsewhere.</p>



<p>Alex I hope that I&#8217;ve summed that up correctly. If I&#8217;ve not, pleased do get in touch and let me know where I&#8217;ve mistaken things and I will gladly amend the show notes as such. But that, broadly speaking, is Alex&#8217;s contention. And, a day or so later compelled you to write a rebuttal. Just tell us what your thoughts are.</p>



<p>[00:09:26] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah. Generally speaking I gave some good caveats in my piece that Alex does know what he&#8217;s talking about, and he has a lot of data to back up his conclusions, and I still believe that strongly um, he has reasons for saying what he says. What compelled me to write a rebuttal were essentially a couple claims that I felt were potentially not as helpful for the WordPress ecosystem.</p>



<p>In particular, one thing I think that&#8217;s important of what he&#8217;s saying is that, he says essentially that if you&#8217;re serious about your business and you want to build plugins then you should do premium only, and not a freemium model. Like basically do not build a free plugin, build a premium only plugin. And I really do believe that is damaging to the WordPress ecosystem overall.</p>



<p>If we start to see an influx of premium only offerings it can be really harder for the common user because, we all know it doesn&#8217;t take one plugin to build your website. It often takes a dozen, or several dozen plugins to build your website. And if you have to go, and be purchasing them across the web all over the place, it suddenly makes WordPress not as optimal to deal with.</p>



<p>So that&#8217;s one of the big downsides of his argument that makes me say, ah, I think this needs a lot more context and I think it needs somebody to say, no, the freemium model still works. And then I spend the rest of the article really talking about how I do see that the freemium model does still work and specifically that .org, while the active install count is significant, it&#8217;s not the only factor, and it is still possible for newer plugins to get adoption on wordpress.org. It just takes some savvy for sure. It&#8217;s not as easy as it used to be. I&#8217;ll give him that for sure. It&#8217;s not a situation anymore where if you build it, they will come. So yeah, the long and the short of it.</p>



<p>[00:11:18] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So, one of your contentions is that it&#8217;s damaging to the WordPress ecosystem, if in effect there was only paid for plugins and everything that you wished to have on your website was a paid for plugin. I&#8217;m guessing that over the years you&#8217;ve built websites in which you have utilized free plugins? And some of them may be broad in scope, but some of them may just achieve a couple of smaller things.</p>



<p>And, there&#8217;s something to be said about that, isn&#8217;t there? I guess there is something about the community and about the ecosystem, about the expectations of what you are getting into when you install WordPress, which has this free model to it. I guess that&#8217;s an important component of the community and it would in a sense be a shame if the only things that you could have were paid for.</p>



<p>I remember the day, probably going back about 15 or so years ago, when I was looking around for different models for CMSs that I was going to begin using, and there were a variety of them. And there was Drupal and there was Joomla. But if memory serves, there was one called Expression Engine. I could have got the name wrong there. And it seemed to have a very low install base.</p>



<p>And my perception of that was that was because it took that model, it had the model of, you had to pay for not only the CMS but I think all of the different component parts that you could bolt onto the top of it, AKA plugins, and perhaps that was something that stifled its growth. And if we look back at WordPress, perhaps the free plugin model is one of the big factors of its success?</p>



<p>[00:12:47] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> For sure. Absolutely. I mean, for us with GiveWP and I think many people could think, whenever I say GiveWP, you can also think similarly of WooCommerce, quite honestly. It&#8217;s really important to us that GiveWP is free, because a lot of non, all non-profits basically start from zero in many ways. And they are always very conscious about their expenses. And they&#8217;re in the fundraising space. There are so many dozens and dozens of paid fundraising platforms and they are oftentimes very expensive. So having a free option for folks to be able to start fundraising with, and do it successfully and effectively is really important.</p>



<p>And I say similar to WooCommerce because it is similar, like a lot of small businesses start from zero, and they can&#8217;t afford to be paying for a whole bunch of different plugins, just in order to sell their stuff online. I do worry a little bit on the WooCommerce side that their plugin ecosystem has gotten so large that sometimes it feels like it&#8217;s harder to start a shop with just WooCommerce free. And I wish they might put a little bit more features into the free plugin. But that&#8217;s a whole nother podcast.</p>



<p>[00:13:59] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay. Let&#8217;s take a couple of different pieces of the wordpress.org repo. One of the first things that Alex talks about is the opportunity is quite low according to his data for converting people over. So let&#8217;s say in the case of GiveWP, he doesn&#8217;t cite GiveWP, let&#8217;s be clear. He talks about other different plugins and you can verify that by looking at the article. His contention is that really the conversion rate from the free plugin, if people install your free plugin, it&#8217;s somewhere between one and 3% of those people will be interested enough to go and explore and look for your, your website or whatever channel it is that you&#8217;ve got for getting the paid version.</p>



<p>So, between one and 3% of your users, and therefore that&#8217;s seems like a fairly small figure. And so the cost in terms of the support that you&#8217;d have to give on .org, and also the fact that you&#8217;re having to update it and maintain two different versions with different features. If it&#8217;s only one or two or 3% that are converting, that does seem to be relatively small, but your experience is clearly different.</p>



<p>[00:15:04] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah, for sure. Now Alex definitely when he was trying to say which plugins have the benefit of being preferred on the plugin directory search. I do think that he would put Give in the category of kind of an elite plugin. Because he did say plugins with a hundred thousand installs or more that have been there for a long time have this elite status, and it&#8217;s hard to compete with them. And we do have over a hundred thousand installs. We&#8217;ve been there for seven years now. So I think he doesn&#8217;t put us in the same category. But nevertheless, I can say authoritatively that we are converting closer to 28% of our install count to paid customers.</p>



<p>I also gave some data on a newer plugin called Orderable that I&#8217;m also involved with on the Stellar side that just launched last summer. And honestly, it&#8217;s a low estimation honestly. If I really look at everyone who&#8217;s paid for anything with Orderable, it is closer to the 30%. But right now, in terms of active customers, it&#8217;s around 18%. So it&#8217;s converting much higher than one to 2%, or one to 3%. But even if you take that one to 3%, and you think about these large plugins like Elementor or whatnot that have 5 million active installs that&#8217;s 50,000 customers. And that&#8217;s significant regardless.</p>



<p>[00:16:21] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I wonder what could account for the difference there, because Alex is one, two or 3% which may very well be the case in certain given niches, or given the data that he was talking about. I wonder how we account for the big ocean really between your 28, 30%, whatever it may be, and that much smaller percentage? Perhaps it&#8217;s something to do with the nature of the plugin itself, what it&#8217;s doing, what problem it&#8217;s trying to solve, and whether it&#8217;s more desirable. I don&#8217;t really know. It&#8217;s interesting.</p>



<p>[00:16:52] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah, it is interesting and I, I do want to get some data from Alex on the specific freemium plugins that he&#8217;s worked on, on that, in that way. I do believe that Vova at Freemius probably has additional data that he might share about this subject as well. I believe that on average plugins that use Freemius convert higher than that 3% as well.</p>



<p>And that one I think is another significant data point to keep in mind. But I know from, I, I know Alex and I adore him, he&#8217;s great. And if I&#8217;m thinking the most optimistically about his perspective, I think it&#8217;s more that he would really expect conversion rates to be at least 5% or higher because that&#8217;s what he can get with organic results. That&#8217;s what he can get with CPC ads most likely. He just knows marketing from a larger perspective and really is expecting a lot more. So, if I&#8217;m trying to be generous that&#8217;s what I would think.</p>



<p>[00:17:44] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I wonder if there is something in that, maybe your company Give, in this case that we&#8217;re talking about is unusually effective. So your 27%, 28%, whatever it may be is not the normal. Which is obviously very good for the way that you&#8217;ve done marketing and way that you&#8217;ve pitched yourself into the repo.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m curious, and it may be something that you don&#8217;t know the answer to, what would have been the rate? Given the install base that you&#8217;ve got. So you mentioned that there&#8217;s over a hundred thousand and you may not wish to share the numbers, which is fine. What percentage would have been effective to you? In other words, if it had have been at one or 2%, could you have made the plugin viable or did it need to creep into the 10 and 15% kind of area?</p>



<p>[00:18:30] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Mm-hmm. Well, we did have other plugins at the time, freemium plugins. And truth be told, I was not analyzing their conversion rates very specifically at that time. We had a bunch of business reviews plugins. We had a really fun plugin called Maps Builder that had a free and a pro version. And my guess would be that the conversion rates at that time for those plugins were probably also a lot lower than the 27%.</p>



<p>But they were viable. So I would just be guessing, I don&#8217;t want to just guess, but I do feel like they would probably be in the single digits in terms of conversion numbers. And at the end of the day, yeah, we did retire those for the most part. The business reviews ones are still out there, but we&#8217;ve made a premium product to kind of replace those. And it&#8217;s because of the success of GiveWP. So even if I look at our own plugins that we&#8217;ve built, we did make choices to sunset products because they weren&#8217;t converting as well. So it&#8217;s not as if I don&#8217;t hear Alex, on his side of things because I have some of that same experience. I just don&#8217;t think the conclusion is that means that .org is not viable. I do think it&#8217;s more of a product fit type of conversation, a marketing conversation, and things like that.</p>



<p>[00:19:38] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Just taking a bit of an aside here for a moment. Everything that goes into the .org repository is by nature, it&#8217;s free. You can download it and anybody can access it at any time. I&#8217;m curious, you may have opinions on this, you may not. If you have a commercial variant of the plugin, so you&#8217;ve got two sides of the coin. You&#8217;ve got the free .org side, and the paid for, wherever you may put that, but you&#8217;ve got a paid for version somewhere else. What is the true intent of the free version? Because I could look at it cynically and say, okay, the free version is basically a channel for trying to sweep people towards the paid version.</p>



<p>And then with a less cynical hat, I could be, it&#8217;s offering the kind of functionality that we can support for free. In other words, we&#8217;re doing an altruistic thing, for the community for free, completely for free, with no expectation. Maybe it&#8217;s one side or the other, or maybe it&#8217;s a little bit of both. You&#8217;re being altruistic. You&#8217;re giving away certain set of features and range of options with the hope that some of them will come across. But no expectation, you know, it&#8217;s fine if you want to use the free version forever. As a plugin developer who&#8217;s been in the game for a long time, I wonder which side of the fence you sit on, or perhaps you literally do sit on the fence there.</p>



<p>[00:20:54] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah, I mean the way that things like this work is essentially that at a certain stage, once you start to get enough users, it&#8217;s going to incur costs, just to have users. So specifically when you&#8217;re doing a plugin, like GiveWP or like WooCommerce that is so foundational to the functionality of a website and so important to that website, it&#8217;s going to start to incur costs. And that is human costs. That&#8217;s in the form of technical support for the most part. And account services. Because the users are going to need support. They&#8217;re gonna want support. And in order to fund that support, we do have to have some sort of funding in one way or another.</p>



<p>So doing the free plugin specifically is in order to serve that niche, in order to serve that functionality with the intention then that we&#8217;re gonna need to fund this in one way or another, and we&#8217;re gonna do that with premium features essentially. But it, it&#8217;s always been our strong conviction that the free plugin needs to be very full featured. That you need to be able to do effective fundraising with it out of the box. Or else folks don&#8217;t know what they&#8217;re getting into when they go to pay for something. So essentially it&#8217;s not just a funnel, which in some ways I think that&#8217;s a little bit of the take that Alex is leaning on, is that is looking at .org as one of your marketing funnels.</p>



<p>Which it is, of course. But it also represents your best foot forward of what your product is supposed to be, and what it&#8217;s supposed to offer. And in business there&#8217;s very often this idea of try before you buy, or there&#8217;s a free trial type of thing. With plugins we can&#8217;t do try before you buy really, and you can&#8217;t do free trials really, so your best option is to provide a free product that then leads to paid products. Am I answering your question?</p>



<p>[00:22:41] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. That&#8217;s good. I know it&#8217;s a difficult tight rope to walk that one because, there isn&#8217;t really a correct answer, is there? It clearly has to be a little bit of a marketing channel. You are offering something in the hope of sweeping up a few of them. But equally, you are offering something in the hope that they&#8217;ll enjoy it and experience it and in many cases the functionality that&#8217;s there is sufficient. But should you wish more functionality, here&#8217;s the option.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s an interesting thing as well that in the community, the whole promotional piece on the .org side is, I think, widely viewed with disdain. That is to say it doesn&#8217;t take much for a plugin author to completely derail their plugin if they abuse the UI that they&#8217;ve got for their plugin. I&#8217;m thinking here of examples in the past where companies have taken the opportunity to fill up portions of the screen with advertising for the paid version and so on.</p>



<p>So, we can see that the community really do feel quite strongly about this. From the plugin side, obviously, the author&#8217;s side, you wish to promote your own products because you want to stay in business. From the user&#8217;s side, there seems to be a groundswell of people who think that the repository version needs to be completely without any upsell features. It&#8217;s just, if it&#8217;s good enough, we&#8217;ll figure that out for ourselves and we&#8217;ll go and discover it for ourselves.</p>



<p>In terms of discovery, let&#8217;s just move back to the piece that you wrote. One of the contentions that Alex has was that being discovered inside of the repository is increasingly difficult. The big incumbents of which you&#8217;ve described GiveWP perhaps is one of them, but we know the names of all the other ones. They dominate the search because of their active install counts, and Alex maintains that that&#8217;s a very important metric. In other words, if you go into the repository and begin a search, it&#8217;s quite likely that the results will skew towards the larger active install count plugins. Therefore, it&#8217;s going to be difficult to break through the ceiling of that, no matter how unique and brilliant your plugin is, just because it&#8217;s difficult to launch something and it takes a lot of time. You have, specifically on that point, your rebuttal is interesting. What did you say there?</p>



<p>[00:24:52] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah, the active install count is a factor, and the plugin directory has gotten larger. But the active install count is one factor of many of the way in which the plugin search works. And luckily when you&#8217;re working with a open source platform like WordPress, all of the code that creates that search is open source as well.</p>



<p>So folks can take a look at it and see exactly the way that the algorithm works, in complete contrast to Google, for example, where it&#8217;s a big black box and nobody really knows how it works exactly. But .org is actually pretty straightforward and relatively simple. But there are a lot of metrics that they take into account when they create that search. And honestly the title of the plugin is actually one of the more significant ones.</p>



<p>Now that being said, if you are, if in your title of your plugin you wanna say something like Wrigley page builder. Page builder is a very flooded field. Things like Elementor and Beaver Builder and others do have a lot more installs already and they&#8217;re going to show up higher if they also have page builder in their title than Wrigley will.</p>



<p>But that doesn&#8217;t mean that you aren&#8217;t found or aren&#8217;t discovered. You might not be first. You might not be second, but you still have a really good chance of being on page one. Because there&#8217;s really not that many page builders on .org currently. So there&#8217;s still a lot of room overall. That&#8217;s kind of my biggest contention, is simply that the way the search works is more complicated than just simply the active install count. It&#8217;s also these specific tags that you use. It&#8217;s also the way in which you describe the type of functionality you have. Whether or not you have good support is even a factor. Like answering all of your .org tickets and things like that. Those all factor in. How recently you&#8217;ve updated the plugin factors in. There&#8217;s a lot of factors involved.</p>



<p>[00:26:38] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So you specifically mentioned the following things, which are thrown into the mix when you do a search. So it would be the title of the plugin, the excerpt, the description, the tags, the slug author name, contributor names, last time it was updated, compatibility with core versions, number of active installs, percentage of support tickets resolved, which is really an interesting one, and the average star rating as well.</p>



<p>So there are quite a few things in there. I guess in a sense, having that knowledge could lead you to be quite sophisticated in gaming that system, and it&#8217;s no different really than something like Google where people spend, I would imagine very large amounts of money in some cases, really manicuring their SEO, but without that insight.</p>



<p>And they may succeed one day, they may succeed another day. The point being, they still need to jump through hoops. It&#8217;s not You go over to Google and suddenly you are a winner. You would still have to spend large amounts of time and money organically to break through the surface against, say, for example, other page builders. I presume the problem would be equal over there than it would be on .org.</p>



<p>[00:27:49] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah, absolutely. And in this way I think what Alex is speaking to a bit is that, in the past with the plugin directory, it really was easier. It really was a lot easier to simply launch your plugin on .org and you would get found in the WP admin relatively easily. And those days are definitely not there anymore. It&#8217;s not quite as easy as it used to be at all. But I don&#8217;t believe that it means that .org is now no longer viable as a distribution option, or even as a marketing or business option.</p>



<p>[00:28:21] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you believe that the search algorithm in .org, despite the fact that it&#8217;s going through these whole slew of different things, and I&#8217;m guessing that if you read the code, you can see how the waiting would be and so on and so forth. But, do you believe that the search functionality does need a tweak?</p>



<p>Are there other metrics which you would like to see thrown in? Or, indeed just different areas of the UI which may give a small but potentially important boost to newcomers, in a way that perhaps the current search wouldn&#8217;t? And, I think Alex mentions something like rising stars as an option. The idea that plugins, which are new, potentially, they&#8217;ve gone from zero to 50 in a matter of days. That&#8217;s, on WordPress, that&#8217;s a big leap if you go from nothing to 50 or a hundred in a short period of time, that&#8217;s really quite something. And so maybe there&#8217;s parts of the UI where compliments of that nature could improve visibility.</p>



<p>[00:29:14] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Absolutely, there&#8217;s always room for improvement when it comes to search algorithms, because they are highly complex systems, and they are so significant. In some ways though, I think, just even if the search algorithm itself didn&#8217;t change, but we were able to add things like categorization, being able to navigate down the directory through categories first and then search. That might be a big advantage right away.</p>



<p>Especially if one of those categories was, new. Something that was recently launched. There&#8217;s actually a really fun free plugin, I think it&#8217;s just called New Plugins, I&#8217;ll have to look it up. I&#8217;ll send you the link. But you can install this plugin in your website, and what it does is it adds, when you go to plugins, add new, there&#8217;s tabs in there that says featured and things like that. It&#8217;ll add a new tab, and it&#8217;ll just show you the newest plugins on the directory. And I think that&#8217;s really cool and I&#8217;d love to see that on .org directly.</p>



<p>[00:30:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s really interesting. You also point out that the, gaming is the wrong word, but you make the point that it is still possible given the way that the search is carried out and the results that are shown, that, as an example, some of your competitors, they seem to have optimized with use of their plugin name or the other things that we mentioned, you know, excerpts and description, tags and so on. They&#8217;ve managed to vault over you in the .org search results, because they&#8217;ve optimized for words, which are well, really important to you, but you haven&#8217;t specifically optimized for those.</p>



<p>So for example, nobody could deny that your plugin GiveWP is to do with fundraising, and yet fundraise as a particular word, you are outcompeted on the marketplace there. And also crowdfunding, which again would be an important part of what it is that you do. Both of those words, you quickly discovered you were not winning, and in some cases you didn&#8217;t even appear in the search results on the first page, despite the fact that GiveWP is really, that is inside your wheelhouse without a doubt.</p>



<p>And so there is opportunity, I guess it&#8217;s more of a sort of long tail search. You&#8217;ve just got to find what those opportunities are. Unfortunately, I guess we don&#8217;t have the sort of metrics that we have with things like Google Ads and so on and so forth, where you can see what people have been searching for over, over a period of time, in a particular geography, given different demographics and so on. You just have to do the grunt work of figuring all this stuff out.</p>



<p>[00:31:35] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah. One other point related to that, that I pointed out is that your presence on .org isn&#8217;t only about the .org plugin search. It&#8217;s also about Google search because those pages all get found on Google as well. And so because we do have insights from search console and Google Ads and things like that, that does influence the terms that we want to be found with as well.</p>



<p>So it&#8217;s not only about figuring out how .org prioritizes plugins, but also what is going to get found on Google as well, because it&#8217;s really hard for any WordPress plugin to beat the domain authority of wordpress.org. If you build a plugin they most likely are going to be on the first page of Google before you are.</p>



<p>[00:32:17] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So the contention there is that the .org repo is kind of doing double duty. It&#8217;s obviously offering your plugin up, should it be found, to people trying to add a new plugin. But also Google itself is scraping the.org repo and surfacing in its own search results. So if people are looking for the same kind of thing over on Google, they may very well be pointed towards your .org page. Have I summarised that correctly?</p>



<p>[00:32:43] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yep, absolutely. In this way .org is just a marketplace in many ways. It&#8217;s a public marketplace for folks to find free plugins.</p>



<p>[00:32:50] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I do wonder if the algorithm which is running behind Google, obviously complex and probably, took billions of dollars over time to be put together and is very sophisticated. But it&#8217;s not quite such a blunt instrument, is it? It&#8217;s not just taking data from a series of tags and descriptions and metatags and so on. There&#8217;s a lot going on. So for example, if I search for fundraise, Google is probably clever enough to figure out hang on a minute, fundraise is a sort of synonym for crowdfunding. It&#8217;s a synonym for donations and so on. So, we&#8217;ll highlight those results as well. So in, in many ways, it&#8217;s a little bit more sophisticated, and maybe the .org search could have some of that goodness thrown into it in the future. Albeit not with the same budget that Google clearly has.</p>



<p>[00:33:36] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah, absolutely. That&#8217;s also a real reason why if you do have a free plugin on .org, it&#8217;s really good to make sure that you have folks who actually link to that plugin on .org. Not only linking to your website itself but to your free plugin on .org. Because then Google will pick up, oh, when folks are looking for fundraise plugin, they actually are looking for this Give thing, that might not rank as well on .org, but it is gonna rank great on Google, because Google does figure that out.</p>



<p>[00:34:04] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> We haven&#8217;t really strayed into this subject, but I&#8217;m wondering if you&#8217;ve had any experience with alternative marketplaces. The only one that really comes into my mind is Envato. Where for many years they&#8217;ve had a kind of rival plugin marketplace. I really haven&#8217;t been looking at how successful that&#8217;s been going, many years since I last visited it. But the option for plugin developers to sort of, corral together and have a completely different space. But it feels to me that in the end, potentially you just end up with the same problem, but in a third party marketplace.</p>



<p>[00:34:36] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah, and that third party marketplace has very strong priorities around the way it wants to be paid, and the types of products it wants to be highlighting. They are far more opinionated about the way all of the products there are found and discovered. And it is really for the, the bottom line of Envato.</p>



<p>And I think, honestly, that&#8217;s one thing that&#8217;s a bit of an untapped conversation is the significance of having what is essentially a marketplace being owned by a non-profit organization, like the WP Foundation. I do think that&#8217;s a significant conversation and the more folks need to be having and recognize that we&#8217;re not just really all fighting for attention from a LLC or some giant corporation. We&#8217;re really trying to contribute together on a public project that should be primarily influenced by a non-profit organization instead.</p>



<p>[00:35:29] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I guess the long and the short of this episode would be, from your perspective, is the Word Press repository perfect? No. Is it useful? Yes. And that perhaps is enough for now. Could it be improved? Another yes, but for now that seems to be, at least for you and your experience, good enough</p>



<p>[00:35:47] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Absolutely. I think it&#8217;s viable. I think it can be very helpful and beneficial. It doesn&#8217;t have to be your, it shouldn&#8217;t be your only tactic. But it also shouldn&#8217;t be easily ignored either.</p>



<p>[00:35:58] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So just to round off the conversation, one final question. How do you view your efforts on the WordPress repository as against all of the other things that you do outside of WordPress. So for example, Google and so on? You may have data to hand, you may not, I don&#8217;t know. But I&#8217;m just wondering if, one is equal to another or if the .org side definitely comes in second place, or perhaps it is the primary channel of your sales funnel.</p>



<p>[00:36:23] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Because there are different types of freemium models, that answer will be different based on the product owner and the route that they chose. If it&#8217;s a free plugin with a pro version, meaning you have to uninstall the free one in order to install the pro one, their priorities are probably gonna be very different.</p>



<p>But in our case, similar to Woo Commerce, it&#8217;s a core free plugin, and any of the paid add-ons require the free version to be installed. And because of that setup that we have, and WooCommerce has as well, the free plugin is foundational to everything we do. We&#8217;re always improving the free plugin in order for it to be more powerful, more streamlined, and for it to be able to enable us to do more things in the pro add-ons as well.</p>



<p>So being able to really parse it between priorities, it&#8217;s almost impossible. Because for us, the free plugin really encompasses the whole ecosystem of what Give actually does and means for us as a business, and as a product for the users.</p>



<p>[00:37:21] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;m sure that this will be something which resonates with a lot of people. I don&#8217;t really know which side of the fence the audience will be sitting on, but no doubt there will be some commentary. There&#8217;ll be people wishing to explain their reasoning behind this, one way or another. Please feel free to go to the post on WP Tavern, and leave us some comments there. But for now, thank you so much Matt Cromwell for explaining your position about the WordPress.org repo. I appreciate it.</p>



<p>[00:37:47] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Absolutely. Thank you so much.</p>
</div>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://twitter.com/learnwithmattc">Matt Cromwell</a>.</p>



<p>Matt is Senior Director of Operations and Marketing at <a href="https://twitter.com/learnwithmattc">StellarWP</a>, where he provides marketing and business insights and coaching to burgeoning WordPress product owners. He’s also one of the founders of <a href="https://givewp.com/">GiveWP</a>, a donations plugin which uses the freemium model, having a free version on the WordPress.org repository as well as a paid premium offering.</p>



<p>The WordPress.org repository is where you find yourself when you click the ‘add new’ button in the WP admin. It’s a place where plugin developers can, if they follow the guidelines, host their plugins. It provides a direct line of access to all WordPress websites, and is therefore a convenient, free place to host your plugin. In return, the plugins in the repository must be freely available by the plugin authors.</p>



<p>In the past few weeks, the repository has been in the news. Some statistics were unexpectedly removed, and this has led to conversation about the governance of the repository, as well as questions about whether the repository is still a worthwhile place to offer your free plugins, if you have a premium tier.</p>



<p>Alex Denning wrote a post entitled “<a href="https://getellipsis.com/blog/org-is-ineffective-plugin-distribution">WordPress.org is ineffective for plugin distribution in 2022</a>”, in which he lays out his thoughts as to why he no longer recommends the WordPress repository. The battle against already successful plugins, low conversation rates and the difficulty in gaining visibility are amongst the arguments that he puts forward.</p>



<p>Shortly after Alex’s post was published, Matt Cromwell posted a rebuttal entitled “<a href="https://www.mattcromwell.com/the-case-for-the-wordpress-plugin-freemium-model/">The Case for the WordPress Freemium Model</a>”, and this is the basis of the podcast today.</p>



<p>We talk about Matt’s history in WordPress as a premium plugin owner, and how his experience leads him to conclude differently; that the WordPress repository can be successful, given the right expectations and approach. He’s found using the repository to be an effective channel to drive the plugin’s premium tier, as well as a way of offering a useful free donation tool to the community.</p>



<p>It’s a fascinating chat and is sure to interest anyone thinking about starting a freemium plugin.</p>



<h2>Useful links.</h2>



<p><a href="https://getellipsis.com/blog/org-is-ineffective-plugin-distribution">WordPress.org is ineffective for plugin distribution in 2022</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.mattcromwell.com/the-case-for-the-wordpress-plugin-freemium-model/">The case for the WordPress freemium model</a></p>



<p><a href="https://givewp.com/">GiveWP</a></p>



<p><a href="https://orderable.com/">Orderable</a></p>



<p><a href="https://stellarwp.com/">StellarWP</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/cubecolour-new-plugins/">Cubecolour New Plugins</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 03 Nov 2022 08:49:23 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:33;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:54:"Post Status: WordPress 6.1 • Raghavendra Satish Peri";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=142548";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:61:"https://poststatus.com/wordpress-6-1-raghavendra-satish-peri/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15427:"<h2 id="h-this-week-at-wordpress-org-october-31-2022">This Week at WordPress.org (October 31, 2022)</h2>


<div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">#WordPress 6.1 was released on November 1. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/2728.png" alt="✨" class="wp-smiley" /> Check out all the updated and revised support articles. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4d6.png" alt="📖" class="wp-smiley" /> Learn about #accessibility and contributor Raghavendra Satish Peri from the WordPress India community. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f1ee-1f1f3.png" alt="🇮🇳" class="wp-smiley" /> </p></div>


<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<div id="kt-info-box_68609b-a8" class="wp-block-kadence-infobox"><div class="kt-blocks-info-box-link-wrap kt-blocks-info-box-media-align-left kt-info-halign-left"><div class="kt-blocks-info-box-media-container"><div class="kt-blocks-info-box-media kt-info-media-animate-none"><div class="kadence-info-box-icon-container kt-info-icon-animate-none"><div class="kadence-info-box-icon-inner-container"><span class="kt-info-svg-icon kt-info-svg-icon-fe_arrowUpCircle"></span></div></div></div></div><div class="kt-infobox-textcontent"><h2 class="kt-blocks-info-box-title"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/10/proposal-stop-merging-experimental-apis-from-gutenberg-to-wordpress-core/">WordPress 6.1 </a>&#8220;Misha&#8221;</h2><p class="kt-blocks-info-box-text"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/2b06.png" alt="⬆" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/11/misha/">WordPress 6.1 “Misha”</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/23ea.png" alt="⏪" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2022/10/19/call-for-action-testing-rollback-feature/">Call For Action – Testing Rollback Feature</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f1ee-1f1f3.png" alt="🇮🇳" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/10/people-of-wordpress-raghavendra-satish-peri/">Raghavendra Satish Peri</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/267b.png" alt="♻" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2022/11/01/sustainability-channel-what-should-we-do/">Call for Comments — What Does Sustainability Mean to You?</a></p></div></div></div>



<h2 id="h-news">News<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/10/wordpress-6-1-release-candidate-3/"></a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/11/misha/">WordPress 6.1 “Misha”</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/10/people-of-wordpress-raghavendra-satish-peri/">People of WordPress: Raghavendra Satish Peri</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/10/episode-42-something-spooky-this-way-comes/">WP Briefing: Episode 42: Something Spooky This Way Comes</a></li>
</ul>



<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_121b9e-cb"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>



<div class="is-layout-flex wp-container-35 wp-block-columns">
<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-column">
<h2 id="h-community">Community</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/11/02/recap-of-the-diverse-speaker-training-group-wpdiversity-amer-emea-on-october-26-2022/">Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) AMER/EMEA on October 26, 2022</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/10/27/deputy-training-4-wordcamp-process-flow-recap/">Deputy Training #4: WordCamp Process Flow Recap</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-core"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core">Core</a> </h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/01/a-week-in-core-october-31-2022/">A Week in Core – October 31, 2022</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/31/wordpress-6-1-release-candidate-6-rc6-now-available-for-testing/">WordPress 6.1 Release Candidate 6 (RC6) Now Available for Testing</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/31/postponed-to-wp-6-2-escaping-table-and-field-names-with-wpdbprepare/">Postponed to WP 6.2: Escaping Table and Field names with <code>wpdb::prepare()</code></a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/28/core-editor-improvement-advancing-the-writing-experience/">Core Editor Improvement: Advancing the writing experience</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-meetings">Meetings</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/02/dev-chat-agenda-november-2-2022/">Dev Chat agenda, November 2, 2022</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/01/editor-chat-agenda-2-november-2022/">Editor Chat Agenda: 2 November 2022</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-documentation"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs">Documentation</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2022/11/02/summary-of-docs-team-meeting-november-1-2022/">Summary of Docs Team Meeting November 1, 2022</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2022/10/28/the-documentation-team-contributor-day-summary/">The Documentation team Contributor Day summary</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-support-articles"><br />Support Articles</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/colors-settings-overview/">Colors Settings Overview</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/layout-settings-overview/">Layout Settings Overview</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/typography-settings-overview/">Typography Settings Overview</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/twenty-twenty-three/">Twenty Twenty-Three</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/twenty-twenty-three-changelog/">Twenty Twenty-Three Changelog</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/border-settings-overview/">Border Settings Overview</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/post-author-biography-block/">Post Author Biography Block</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/comment-template-block/">Comment Template Block</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/comment-edit-link-block/">Comment Edit Link Block</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/comment-reply-link-block/">Comment Reply Link Block</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-hosting"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting">Hosting</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2022/10/19/call-for-action-testing-rollback-feature/">Call For Action – Testing Rollback Feature</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-marketing"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing">Marketing</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2022/11/02/agenda-wordpress-global-marketing-team-meeting-november-2-2022/">Agenda: WordPress global Marketing Team meeting, November 2, 2022</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2022/11/01/notes-global-marketing-team-meeting-october-26-2022/">Notes: Global Marketing Team meeting, October 26, 2022</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-meta"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta">Meta</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2022/10/21/wordpress-org-redesign-update/">WordPress.org Redesign Update</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2022/10/20/displaying-style-variations-for-supporting-themes/">Displaying Style Variations for Supporting Themes</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-mobile"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile">Mobile</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2022/11/01/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-android-21-1/">Call for Testing: WordPress for Android 21.1</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2022/11/01/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-ios-21-1/">Call for Testing: WordPress for iOS 21.1</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/11/02/mobile-team-update-november-2nd-2/">Mobile Team Update – November 2nd</a></li>
</ul>
</div>



<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-column">
<h2 id="h-performance"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/performance/">Performance</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/11/01/performance-team-meeting-summary-1-november-2022/">Performance Chat Summary: 1 November 2022</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-plugins"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/plugins">Plugins</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/10/31/plugin-review-team-31-oct-2022-%F0%9F%91%BB/">Plugin Review Team: 31 Oct 2022&nbsp;</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-polyglots">Polyglots</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2022/11/02/agenda-weekly-polyglots-chat-nov-2-2022-700-utc/">Agenda: Weekly Polyglots Chat – Nov. 2, 2022 (7:00 UTC)</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-project"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project">Project</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2022/11/01/sustainability-channel-what-should-we-do/">Now we have a sustainability channel in Making WordPress Slack, what should we do?</a></li>
</ul>



<h2><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support">Support</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/10/27/support-team-meeting-updates-for-october-27/">Support Team Meeting Updates for October 27</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-test"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test">Test</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/10/26/hallway-hangout-discussion-on-wrapping-phase-2-26-oct/">Hallway Hangout: Discussion on wrapping Phase 2 (26 Oct)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/10/31/test-team-update-31-october-2022/">Test Team Update: 31 October 2022</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-themes"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes">Themes</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/11/01/themes-team-update-november-01-2022/">Themes team update November 01, 2022</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-training"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training">Training</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/individual-learner-survey/">How did you learn WordPress?</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/11/01/summary-update-courses-currently-in-development-1-november-2022/">Summary Update: Courses Currently in Development or Published (1 November 2022)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/10/31/meeting-agenda-for-november-1-2022/">Meeting Agenda for November 1, 2022</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-tutorials">Tutorials</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/using-block-template-parts-in-classic-themes/">Using Block Template Parts in Classic Themes</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/a-beginners-guide-to-the-wordpress-template-hierarchy/">A Beginners Guide to the WordPress Template Hierarchy</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/tools-import-and-export/">Tools: Import and Export</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-online-workshops">Online Workshops</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=the-creative-side-of-blocks-vol-3">The Creative Side of Blocks, Vol. 3</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=padding-margin-and-block-spacing">Padding, Margin and Block Spacing</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=lets-code-internationalisation-in-block-themes">Let’s code! Internationalisation in Block Themes</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=wordpress-development-live-stream-internationalisation">WordPress development live stream: Internationalisation</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 id="h-courses">Courses</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/course/a-developers-guide-to-block-themes-part-1/">A Developers Guide to Block Themes – Part 1</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 id="h-wptv">WPTV</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/1430">WordPress TV videos now auto-published to Youtube</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/category/year/2022/">Latest WordPress TV videos</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />



<h2 id="h-related-news">Related News:</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://tc39.es/#proposals">ECMAScript Proposals</a></li>
</ul>



<p class="has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background">Thanks for reading our WP dot .org roundup! Each week we are highlighting the news and discussions coming from the good folks making WordPress possible. If you or your company create products or services that use WordPress, you need to be engaged with them and their work. Be sure to share this resource with your product and project managers. <br /><br /><strong>Are you interested in giving back and contributing your time and skills to WordPress.org?</strong> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/contributing-to-wordpress/">Start Here ›</a><br /><br /><strong>Get our weekly WordPress community news digest</strong> — Post Status' <a href="https://poststatus.com/news/week-in-review/">Week in Review</a> — covering the WP/Woo news plus significant writing and podcasts. It's also available in <a href="https://poststatus.com/newsletter">our newsletter</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f48c.png" alt="💌" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile has-background"><a href="https://poststatus.com/"><img src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/vertical-post-status-logo-250.png" alt="Post Status" class="wp-image-85823 size-full" /></a><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p class="has-text-align-left has-normal-font-size" id="h-get-ready-for-remote-work">You — and <a href="https://poststatus.com/#Agency">your whole team</a> can <a href="https://poststatus.com/#choose-membership">Join Post Status</a> too!</p>



<p class="has-text-align-left has-small-font-size"><strong>Build your network. Learn with others. Find your next job — or your next hire.</strong> Read the <strong>Post Status</strong> <a href="https://poststatus.com/newsletter/">newsletter</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/2709.png" alt="✉" class="wp-smiley" /> Listen to <a href="https://poststatus.com/podcasts/">podcasts</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f399.png" alt="🎙" class="wp-smiley" /> Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status/">@Post_Status</a> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f426.png" alt="🐦" class="wp-smiley" /> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/post-status-llc/">LinkedIn</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4bc.png" alt="💼" class="wp-smiley" /></p>
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 03 Nov 2022 02:53:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Courtney Robertson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:45:"Post Status: The WordPress Enterprise Paradox";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=142360";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://poststatus.com/the-wordpress-enterprise-paradox/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13115:"<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-group eplus-wrapper has-theme-palette-2-color has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-text-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">&#8220;WordPress as a platform is putting us on the enterprise path. But what got us here is what makes us irrelevant,&#8221; says Magne Ilsaas, CEO and Founding Partner of Dekode. Magne wants to start an overdue conversation about three big risks — and opportunities — for WordPress agencies: 1) A lack of spaces for professional conversations and knowledge-sharing, including professional events, meetups,  and mastermind groups catering to enterprise WordPress. 2) Successful agencies that use WordPress extensively with little or no community involvement whose work would benefit from enterprise WordPress peer networks. 3) An over-emphasis in WordPress agencies on short-term engineering solutions to the exclusion of long-term business solutions. What's often left out is design, user experience, and most of all the capacity to play a strategic advisory role in partnership with clients.  </p></div>


<div class="wp-block-spacer eplus-wrapper"></div>



<p class="yoast-reading-time__wrapper"><span class="yoast-reading-time__icon"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__spacer"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__descriptive-text">Estimated reading time:  </span><span class="yoast-reading-time__reading-time">4</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>
</div></div>



<p class="has-drop-cap">As more and more enterprises move onto WordPress and digital becomes the backbone of modern business, we need to become more than developers and designers. We are now business advisors, thinking on behalf of the companies we work for.</p>



<p>Agencies focusing on open source and WordPress are in a pretty good spot these days. Demand for WordPress development has never been higher, and we continue to see bigger companies building their websites on WordPress.&nbsp;</p>



<blockquote><p>Most clients know WordPress may not be the best choice, but they are starting to understand that “best choice” isn’t relevant.&nbsp;</p></blockquote>



<p>At Dekode we are focusing on enterprise clients, and it's really fun when large, interesting projects come our way — because of WordPress. It is a real contrast to how it used to be when most of our client meetings were spent explaining why WordPress is a good choice. Now it's rarely discussed at all. Most clients that come our way have already decided that WordPress is the right choice for them. Even big public tenders call out for WordPress.</p>



<p>Most of them know it's not necessarily the best choice, but they are starting to understand that “best choice” isn’t relevant.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If a client in 2017 set out to choose a CMS and had the slightest idea of what they were doing, they would have a shortlist of three to five CMSs to choose from. The truth is that any of them would have been a good choice, and any of them could be bent into shape to suit the client’s needs.</p>



<div class="is-layout-constrained wp-block-group has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<h2 id="h-the-paradox"><strong>The Paradox</strong>:</h2>



<p><strong>WordPress as a platform is putting us on the enterprise path.&nbsp;</strong></p>



<p><strong>But what got us here is what makes us irrelevant.</strong></p>
</div></div>



<h2 id="h-can-we-overcome-success">Can We <strong>Overcome Success</strong>?</h2>



<p>With the traction WordPress has gained over the last 15 years, we see that more and more enterprise companies are opening their eyes to what we can do with WordPress, but too often it’s for the wrong reasons.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For large parts of the WordPress industry, plugins, themes, and soon-to-be <em>Gutenblocks</em> are the fuel that keeps the WordPress snowball rolling. SMBs spinning up WordPress websites on the fly.&nbsp; The platform is really great at this because it's so easy and flexible. It's a Swiss Army Knife on steroids, able to adapt to anyone's needs.&nbsp;</p>



<blockquote><p>Some of the best WordPress projects are done by agencies that don’t really care about WordPress or the WordPress community. </p></blockquote>



<p>But here is the paradox: this success is holding us back now because the thousands of plugins and DIY articles and solutions generally aren’t meant or relevant for the enterprise market. This means that a lot of enterprise companies are building patchwork WordPress installations that may or may not scale, be secure, or actually work as a modern digital tool for solving business needs.&nbsp; As we build more and more functionality and options, we are strolling farther and farther away from the enterprise playing field.</p>



<p>Some of the best WordPress projects are done by agencies that don’t really care about WordPress or the WordPress community. Why? Because they use WordPress for what it is. A tool that gets the job done, cheaply and effectively. But as the web gets more and more complex, some of these agencies don't have the people with the necessary skills, and we are seeing more high-profile enterprise clients with low-quality WordPress websites.</p>



<p>So we are putting ourselves in a pretty bad position at the moment.&nbsp;</p>



<p>With the rising demand for WordPress experts, everything should be great. But the fact is that there are too many high-profile websites out there with really poor-quality work under the hood. And the reputation WordPress has as an alternative for enterprise will deteriorate as these solutions fall apart piece by piece.</p>



<blockquote><p>Do we actually solve someone's business goal or a user's need? Mileage varies — a lot.</p></blockquote>



<p>Even though we are busy discussing our tool and what it can and cannot do, some WordPress enterprise projects actually do end up with a skillful WordPress agency. But all too often, the decision of what CMS to build on is made after a lot of the important strategic decisions are made—or even after the design is done.</p>



<p>Too often other agencies are helping clients with strategic decision-making, design and communication, user testing,&nbsp; conversion optimization, and digital marketing.</p>



<p>When competing platforms can offer a full spectrum of expertise, it really doesn't matter how good we are as developers. If the solutions we help create don't deliver on basic user needs and business goals, where is the value to the client? But too often we are not in a position to affect quality and business impact. Most of the time we are missing the show by collectively taking ourselves <em>off</em> the playing field.</p>



<h2 id="h-is-wordpress-enterprise-ready"><strong>Is WordPress enterprise ready?</strong></h2>



<p>From a technical perspective, the answer is obviously yes.&nbsp;</p>



<p>From a <em>people</em> perspective, the answer is much less clear: yes and no.</p>



<p>For the enterprise, WordPress is still a pretty risky move. But not because there aren't agencies that can deliver high-quality code, security, and scalability. It's amazing what the best developers can spin up on WordPress, but that doesn't really matter if everyone but the developers understands how they are (or aren’t) delivering a positive user experience and solving the client's business problems.&nbsp;</p>



<blockquote><p>Imagine a way of doing business that is not about redesign loops and short-term decisions but a way to create sustainable digital platforms and deliver long-term value to our clients.</p></blockquote>



<p>Today when we get a project brief, there are no technical reasons why you shouldn't choose WordPress. Subjectively speaking, it's probably the best CMS out there, for many reasons.&nbsp;</p>



<p>But that doesn't mean that it is the right choice for an enterprise business.</p>



<p>There are plenty of examples of enterprise websites that run on WordPress. Technically many of them are flawless, and some even look good, but do they actually solve someone's business goal or a user's need? Mileage varies — a lot.</p>



<h2 id="h-the-secret-sauce"><strong>The Secret Sauce</strong></h2>



<p>Digital is becoming the foundation of modern businesses, and in order to stay relevant, it is not enough to be only designers and developers anymore. We need to develop our skills further and become business designers and long-term digital partners for our clients.</p>



<p>The best solutions can be made when we take our WordPress knowledge and developer skills and use them to create sustainable platforms and design systems that align with business strategy, user needs, and digital marketing.</p>



<p>We need to hold ourselves accountable to a long-term perspective for the decisions we make and the solutions we create. To stay relevant, we need to understand success is the value we deliver — on top of the technology.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>There are plenty of WordCamps, seminars, podcasts, blogs, tutorials, and meetups out there.&nbsp;</p>



<blockquote><p>To stay relevant, we need to understand success is the value we deliver — on top of the technology.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p></blockquote>



<p>But what they all have in common is that they are aimed at the mass market side of WordPress where price tags are low and scale is everything. This is fantastic, and it will keep the WordPress snowball rolling.</p>



<p>But why is there no arena for professional conversations around WordPress Enterprise?</p>



<p>Why is there no knowledge sharing about creating value on top of the tools we create?</p>



<p>What if we did business the same way we've built WordPress? What if we leverage our biggest asset, which is not WordPress the tool. It’s WordPress, the community, the culture, the openness, and the inclusiveness. What if we create our own way of integrating our open-source mindset into how we conduct our businesses?</p>



<blockquote><p>We need a WordPress mindset, a WordPress way of doing business, that enables value creation for everyone involved.</p></blockquote>



<p>Imagine a way of doing business that is not about redesign loops and short-term decisions but a way to create sustainable digital platforms and deliver long-term value to our clients.</p>



<p>In my opinion, there are enough strong forces in play to keep WordPress as a platform enterprise-ready and relevant. But I’m not sure that matters without a better understanding and focus on how we can deliver value on top of the tools we create.&nbsp;</p>



<p>My wish is for WordPress to be known as more than the most cost-effective, enterprise-ready technology. I want it to be known for a WordPress mindset, a WordPress way of doing business, that enables value creation for everyone involved.&nbsp;</p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<div class="is-layout-constrained wp-block-group has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<h2>Help make it happen! Join <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/C02TNBDAXLL"><span>#agency-owners</span></a> in Post Status Slack.</h2>



<p>Leave a <a href="https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#comments">comment</a>, get in touch, or jump into <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/">Post Status Slack</a> if this is a conversation you'd like to contribute to.</p>
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile has-background" id="author"><a href="https://dekode.no/"><img width="752" height="752" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ab58aa31afffd4af6284f4244b9f61a8-752x752.webp" alt="Magne Ilsaas" class="not-transparent wp-image-142508 size-medium" /></a><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p><strong>Magne Ilsaas</strong> is the founder and manager of <strong><a href="https://dekode.no">Dekode</a></strong>, Norway`s biggest WordPress agency. He works on bridging the gap between design and engineering in order to create the best and most cost-efficient WordPress projects. When he`s not working, you`ll find him skiing or fishing in Lofoten.</p>



<ul class="is-horizontal is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-40 wp-block-social-links alignright has-small-icon-size is-style-default"><li class="wp-social-link wp-social-link-twitter wp-block-social-link"><a href="https://twitter.com/dekodeno/" class="wp-block-social-link-anchor"><span class="wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text">Twitter</span></a></li>

<li class="wp-social-link wp-social-link-linkedin wp-block-social-link"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/magne-ilsaas-4968b75/" class="wp-block-social-link-anchor"><span class="wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text">LinkedIn</span></a></li></ul>
</div></div>



<p></p>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 02 Nov 2022 23:24:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Magne Ilsaas";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:61:"WPTavern: WP All Import Is Moving Away from Lifetime Licenses";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=139123";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:72:"https://wptavern.com/wp-all-import-is-moving-away-from-lifetime-licenses";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4078:"<p>WP All Import <a href="https://www.wpallimport.com/your-last-chance-to-buy-unlimited-lifetime-licenses/">announced</a> it will soon change its business model to annual licenses. The product, which includes free and commercial versions, allows users to import/export XML, CSV, or Excel data and integrates with more than a dozen popular plugins. Since its founding in 2011, WP All Import has been sold with unlimited, lifetime licenses. The product has more than 12,000 customers.</p>



<p>In a statement published this week, WP All Import explained that the company went with lifetime licenses from the beginning because most commercial plugins were sold this way when they started in 2011 and customers began to expect it. </p>



<p>Some companies have had a rocky transition out of providing lifetime licenses, as the community saw with <a href="https://wptavern.com/delicious-brains-acquires-advanced-custom-fields-plugin">Delicious Brains&#8217; acquisition of ACF</a> in June 2021. Although they assured existing customers that they would honor their lifetime licenses, a few months later on Black Friday, Delicious Brains began <a href="https://wptavern.com/acf-solicits-lifetime-license-holders-for-contributions-urging-them-to-purchase-annual-subscriptions">urging them to purchase annual subscriptions</a>. For many companies transitioning away from old pricing strategies, lifetime license holders become dead weight, requiring support without putting revenue back into the company. WP All Import has found success with offering lifetime licenses for 11 years, but the company is making sure its new customers will be paying every year:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>We are not making this change because because lifetime licenses are inherently unsustainable or support costs are spiraling out of control.</p>



<p>WP All Import is a profitable business, support costs generally follow revenue up and down, and lifetime licenses for WordPress plugins are absolutely a sustainable business model.</p>



<p><strong>We are moving to annual licenses simply because we will make more money.</strong></p>



<p>&#8220;While lifetime licenses work, annual licenses are absolutely more profitable over the long term. This is why you see almost every piece of software on earth now being sold with one.&#8221;</p>
</blockquote>



<p>WP All Import is one of the few remaining companies that is still using a lifetime license pricing strategy. The company noted that over the past ten years, the budgets for WordPress projects have grown along with the quality of their software. </p>



<p>Generally, the response to the news has been positive. Some are considering purchasing lifetime licenses before they are no longer offered. One customer said he appreciated the honest communication but bristled at the notion that &#8220;people just expect to have to renew their software licenses.&#8221; </p>



<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; developer Patrick van Kouteren said. &#8220;It is being forced upon consumers because it generates more revenue for the business selling it.&#8221;</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Well, that's honest from WP All Import. But followed by a bullshit statement: "people just expect to have to renew". No. It is being forced upon consumers because it generates more revenue for the business selling it. <a href="https://t.co/U1p0qy4JJt">pic.twitter.com/U1p0qy4JJt</a></p>&mdash; Patrick van Kouteren (@pvankouteren) <a href="https://twitter.com/pvankouteren/status/1587721931696050182?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>WP All Import assured existing customers that it will continue to honor their lifetime licenses and offer the same level of support. If the company releases new products in the future, lifetime license holders will be eligible to purchase annual licenses for these products at discounted rates. WP All Import said the company will be making these changes &#8220;sometime later this year or next year.&#8221;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 02 Nov 2022 22:07:37 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:116:"WPTavern: WordPress 6.1 Introduces New Default Theme and Fluid Typography, Expands Design Tools and Template Options";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=139076";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:126:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-1-introduces-new-default-theme-and-fluid-typography-expands-design-tools-and-template-options";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5422:"<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/11/misha/">WordPress 6.1 &#8220;Misha&#8221;</a> was released today, named for Soviet-Norwegian jazz pianist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Alperin">Mikhail “Misha” Alperin</a>, who was born in Ukraine in 1956. A founding member of the first Moldavian jazz quartet, and later the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Art_Trio">Moscow Art Trio</a>, Alperin became known for his distinct and bewitching blend of jazz and folk music.</p>



<p>This release is the culmination of a months-long effort to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/43241">improve the design tooling consistency</a> of WordPress&#8217; core blocks. That means blocks that were missing things like typography, color, and border support have been updated wherever possible to match the support included in other blocks. Design tools and their controls are also now more consistently presented, so users can intuitively know what to expect when customizing their blocks.</p>



<img />image credit: WordPress 6.1 About page



<p>WordPress 6.1 <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/07/21/core-editor-improvement-deeper-customization-with-more-template-options/">expands the templates options</a> available for site editing. Theme authors and users can now create page-specific templates, custom post type and post-specific templates, user-selectable custom templates for all post types, and taxonomy-specific templates for categories or tags.</p>



<p>With all the new block design and template editing capabilities, WordPress 6.1 has added more sophisticated content-locking capabilities. Block-locking can now be applied to all inner blocks in one click. This applies to containing blocks like Group, Cover, and Column blocks.</p>



<img />image credit: WordPress 6.1 About Page



<p>Menu management has also gotten a big update in 6.1, with menu controls relocated to their own place in the block settings. The navigation block now offers new fallback options in case the block isn&#8217;t pre-populated with inner blocks. If the navigation menu is empty, the fallback behavior is to display a list of available pages using the Page List block. If there are multiple block menus, the fallback is to display the most recently created block menu. This ensures that users aren&#8217;t stuck and can more easily understand where their menus will show up.</p>



<h3>New Twenty Twenty-Three Default Theme with 10 Style Variations</h3>



<p>One of the most anticipated parts of this release is the new <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwentythree/">Twenty Twenty-Three</a> (TT3) default theme. This is a new kind of default theme that bundles a curated set of style variations, instead of creating a new theme from scratch. It uses a stripped-back version of Twenty Twenty-Two as the base for a theme that features <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-announces-10-style-variation-selections-for-twenty-twenty-three-theme">10 community-contributed style variations</a>.</p>



<img />image credit: WordPress 6.1 About page



<p>The theme is accessibility-ready and puts the spotlight on all of the design tools available in the latest release. It is basically a blank slate for further customization, with both rich and minimalist color palettes and multiple typography options. It will be exciting to see what the world of WordPress users builds with the new theme.</p>



<img />



<p>Fluid typography makes its debut in 6.1. This feature is for theme authors but benefits users and site visitors alike. It allows authors to define font sizes that will smoothly scale between smaller and larger viewports, adapting in a fluid way to varying widths. </p>



<p>The best part of the new fluid typography feature is that it can easily be turned on by setting <code>typography.fluid</code> to be <code>true</code> in theme.json and adding <code>fluid</code> to each of the <code>settings.typography.fontSizes</code> with <code>min</code> and <code>max</code> values. If you want to see an example of fluid typography in action, look no further than the new Twenty Twenty-Three theme.</p>







<p>Other notable new features and updates in 6.1 include the following: </p>



<ul>
<li>List and Quote blocks now support inner blocks</li>



<li>Improved layout and visualization of document settings</li>



<li>Support for starter patterns for any post type</li>



<li>Filter Themes Directory for block themes in the admin</li>



<li>Improved block placeholders that show customization options</li>



<li>New system for persisting user preferences across browsers and devices</li>



<li>Block-based Template Parts now available in Classic Themes</li>



<li>Query Loop block extended to support custom queries</li>



<li>Set preset values for padding, margin and block gap</li>
</ul>



<p>WordPress 6.1 includes more than 60 <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/11/wordpress-6-1-accessibility-improvements/">accessibility improvements</a> and 25 tickets dedicated to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/11/performance-field-guide-for-wordpress-6-1/">performance</a>. This release is the result of the tireless efforts of more than 800 contributors from 60+ countries. For a quick visual tour, check out the official WordPress 6.1 promo video:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 02 Nov 2022 02:30:34 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:45:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 6.1 “Misha”";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=13798";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"https://wordpress.org/news/2022/11/misha/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76079:"<img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2022/11/inline-image-inline.png?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-13872" />



<h1>Welcome to “Misha”</h1>



<p>Say hello to WordPress 6.1, “Misha,” inspired by the life and work of jazz pianist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Alperin">Mikhail “Misha” Alperin</a>. Ukrainian-born Misha introduced the work of jazz ensembles globally and is celebrated as a founding member of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Art_Trio">Moscow Art Trio</a>.<br /><br />“Misha” further refines the site-building experience. Inside WordPress 6.1 you’ll interact with enhancements that continue to make site creation more intuitive while pushing your creative boundaries further than ever. Don’t forget to enjoy some of Misha’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuh5oEm_jJ_jTcv8DmbLi2Q">jazz piano</a> as you take in all WordPress 6.1 has to offer.</p>



<p><span>The third major release of 2022 is here. </span><a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.1.zip"><span>Download it now</span></a><span>! As of the time of this release, WordPress powers </span><a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management">43%</a><span> of websites worldwide.</span></p>



<p><span>Site owners and administrators should upgrade today to take full advantage of the many stability, performance, and usability enhancements. Furthermore, WordPress content creators will enjoy a suite of new features geared toward improving the writing and designing experiences.</span></p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>This release includes features that many in the WordPress Community have been most excited about since the start of this project. Additional enhancements and improvements to the editor give site owners more control and easier customization while offering a more cohesive experience to users. A lot of writing-focused improvements are included in the release, because if you’re giving voices to the voiceless you’ve got to focus on folks writing the copy. </p>



<p>Some of my favorite enhancements are the refined ability to select partial paragraphs in a block; settings to keep list view open by default; and the keyboard shortcut to add internal links expanded to all blocks.</p>
<cite>Josepha Haden Chomphosy, Executive Director</cite></blockquote>



<div class="wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link wp-element-button" href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.1.zip">Download WordPress 6.1</a></div>
</div>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />



<h2>What’s Inside</h2>



<h3>Twenty Twenty-Three:<br />A fresh default theme with 10 distinct style variations</h3>



<p>After introducing foundational elements for block themes and style variations in releases 5.9 and 6.0, WordPress site builders welcome a new default theme, Twenty Twenty-Three, that is powered by <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/09/07/tt3-default-theme-announcing-style-variation-selections/">10 different styles</a> and tagged as&nbsp; “<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/handbook/review/accessibility/">Accessibility Ready</a>.” These intentionally unique styles ensure users can apply a different look and feel to their site with a single click—all within a single theme.</p>



<img width="1024" height="601" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2022/11/Style-Variation-News-1.png?resize=1024%2C601&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-13843" />



<h3>New templates for an improved creator experience</h3>



<p>New and more refined templates now give site builders more control over the creation of their sites. In this suite of new templates, find a custom template for posts &amp; pages in the Site Editor. Create and edit template parts like headers and footers more quickly with a new search-and-replace tool and easily view your new site.</p>



<img width="1024" height="601" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2022/11/Templates-News.png?resize=1024%2C601&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-13818" />



<h3>Design tools for more consistency and control</h3>



<p>Thoughtful upgrades to the controls for design elements and blocks make laying out and building your new site a more consistent, complete, and intuitive experience.</p>




<img width="1024" height="601" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2022/11/Design-Tools-News.png?resize=1024%2C601&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-13819" />




<h3>Manage menus with ease</h3>



<p>New fallback options in the navigation block mean you can edit the menu that’s open; no searching needed. Plus, the controls for choosing and working on menus have their own place in the block settings. The mobile menu system also gets an upgrade with new features, including different icon options, to make the menu yours.</p>



<img width="1024" height="601" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2022/11/Navigation-1.png?resize=1024%2C601&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-13844" />



<h3>Cleaner layouts and document settings visualization</h3>



<p>View and manage post and page settings with a better-organized display improving the use of features like template picker and scheduler.</p>



<img width="1024" height="601" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2022/11/Document-settings-News-1.png?resize=1024%2C601&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-13838" />



<h3>One-click lock setting for all inner blocks</h3>



<p>When locking blocks, a new toggle lets you apply your lock settings to all the blocks in a containing block like the group, cover, and column blocks.</p>




<img width="1024" height="601" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2022/11/Lock-News.png?resize=1024%2C601&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-13824" />




<h3>Improved block placeholders</h3>



<p>Various blocks have improved placeholders that reflect customization options to help you design your site and its content. For example, the Image block placeholder displays custom borders and duotone filters even before selecting an image.</p>



<h3>Compose richer lists and quotes with inner blocks</h3>



<p>The List and Quote blocks now support inner blocks, allowing for more flexible and rich compositions like adding headings inside your Quote blocks.</p>



<h3>More responsive text with fluid typography</h3>



<p>For developers working with block themes and/or <code>theme.json</code>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-13-8-3-august/#fluid-typography-support">fluid typography</a> lets you define font sizes that adapt for easy reading in any screen size.</p>



<h3>Add starter patterns to any post type</h3>



<p>In WordPress 6.0, site builders could add suggested patterns so that when creating a new page, you did not have to start blank. In 6.1, site builders can continue to opt-in to this feature for not only pages but for any post type. </p>



<h3>Find block themes faster</h3>



<p>The Themes Directory has a filter for block themes, and a pattern preview gives a better sense of what the theme might look like while exploring different themes and patterns.</p>



<h3>Keep your Site Editor settings for later</h3>



<p>Site Editor settings are now <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/10/changes-to-block-editor-preferences-in-wordpress-6-1/">persistent for each user</a>. This means your settings will now be consistent across browsers and devices.</p>



<h3>A streamlined style system</h3>



<p>The CSS rules for margin, padding, typography, colors, and borders within the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/10/block-styles-generation-style-engine/">styles engine</a> are now all in one place, reducing time spent on layout-specific tasks and helps to generate semantic class names.</p>



<h3>Updated interface options and features</h3>



<p>Updates include <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/10/styling-elements-in-block-themes/">styling elements</a> like buttons, citations, and links globally; controlling hover, active, and focus states for links using theme.json (not available to control in the interface yet); and customizing outline support for blocks and elements, among other features.</p>



<h3>Continued evolution of layout options</h3>



<p>The default content dimensions provided by themes can now be overridden in the Styles Sidebar, giving site builders better control over full-width content. Developers have <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/10/updated-editor-layout-support-in-6-1-after-refactor/">fine-grained control over these controls</a>.</p>



<h3>Block Template parts in classic themes</h3>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/04/block-based-template-parts-in-traditional-themes/">Block template parts can now be defined in classic themes</a> by adding the appropriate HTML files `parts` directory at the root of the theme.</p>



<h3>Expanded support for Query Loop blocks</h3>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/10/extending-the-query-loop-block/">New filters</a> let Query Block variations support custom queries for more powerful variations and advanced hierarchical post types filtering options.</p>



<h3>Filters for all your styles</h3>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/10/filters-for-theme-json-data/">Leverage filters</a> in the Styles sidebar to control settings at all four levels of your site—core, theme, user, or block, from less to more specific.</p>



<h3>Spacing presets for faster, consistent design</h3>



<p>Save time and avoid hard-coding values into a theme with <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/07/introduction-of-presets-across-padding-margin-and-block-gap/">preset margin and padding values for multiple blocks.</a></p>



<h3>Content-only editing support for container blocks</h3>



<p>Thanks to content-only editing settings, layouts can be locked within container blocks. In a content-only block, its children are invisible to the List View and entirely uneditable. So you control the layout while your writers can focus on the content. Combine it with block-locking options for even more advanced control over your blocks.</p>



<h3>Other notes of interest</h3>



<ul>
<li>6.1 includes a new time-to-read feature showing content authors the approximate time-to-read values for pages, posts, and custom post types.</li>



<li>The site tagline is empty by default in new sites but can be modified in General Settings.</li>



<li>A new modal design offers a background blur effect, making it easier to focus on the task at hand.</li>
</ul>



<h2>Enhancing WordPress 6.1 Accessibility</h2>



<p>Accessibility is an integral part of the WordPress mission of fostering an inclusive community and supporting users of all types around the world. With this in mind, WordPress 6.1 includes nearly 60 updates specifically focused on enhancing the accessibility of the platform. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/11/wordpress-6-1-accessibility-improvements/">Read these updates</a> to learn more about the continual initiatives aimed at improving accessibility.</p>



<h2>Improved Performance in WordPress 6.1</h2>



<p>WordPress 6.1 resolves more than 25 tickets dedicated to enhancing performance with improvements for every type of site. A full breakdown can be found in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/11/performance-field-guide-for-wordpress-6-1/">Performance Field Guide</a>.</p>



<h2>Learn More About WordPress 6.1</h2>



<p>See WordPress 6.1 in action! Watch a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w9oywSa6Hw">brief overview video</a> highlighting some of the major features debuting in WordPress 6.1.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>



<p><br /></p>



<p>Explore <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">learn.wordpress.org</a> for brief how-to videos and lots more on new features in WordPress. Or join a live <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/social-learning/">interactive online </a>workshop on a specific WordPress topic.</p>



<p>Developers can explore the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/12/wordpress-6-1-field-guide/">WordPress 6.1 Field Guide</a>, complete with detailed developer notes to help you build with and extend WordPress. Read the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-6-1">WordPress</a><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-6-1/"> 6.1 Release Notes</a> for more information on the included enhancements and issues fixed, installation information, developer notes and resources, release contributors, and the list of file changes in this release.</p>



<h2>The WordPress 6.1 Release Squad</h2>



<p><span>The group listed below tirelessly supported the release, from conception to ship date, and beyond:</span></p>



<p><span>Release Lead: </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/"><span>Matt Mullenweg</span></a><span>&nbsp;</span><br /><span>Release Coordinators: </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/priethor/"><span>Héctor Prieto</span></a><span> and </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/"><span>Jonathan Desrosiers</span></a><span>&nbsp;</span><br /><span>Core Tech Co-Leads: </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mikeschroder/"><span>Mike Schroder</span></a><span>, </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/"><span>David Baumwald</span></a><span>, and </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffpaul/"><span>Jeff Paul</span></a><br /><span>Editor Tech Co-Leads: </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/czapla/"><span>Michal Czaplinski</span></a><span>, </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bernhard-reiter/"><span>Bernie Reiter</span></a><span>, and </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbravobernal/"><span>Carlos Bravo</span></a><br /><span>Core Triage Co-Leads: </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/"><span>JB Audras</span></a><span> and </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chaion07/"><span>Ahmed Chaion</span></a><br /><span>Editor Triage Co-Leads: </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ndiego/"><span>Nick Diego</span></a> <span>and </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/"><span>Anne McCarthy</span></a><br /><span>Documentation Co-Leads: </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bph/"><span>Birgit Pauli-Haack</span></a><span>, </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/milana_cap/"><span>Milana Cap</span></a><span>, and </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/femkreations/"><span>Femy Praseeth</span></a><br /><span>Marketing &amp; Communications Co-Leads:</span> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jpantani/"><span>Jonathan Pantani</span></a> <span>and </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dansoschin/"><span>Dan Soschin</span></a><br /><span>Test Lead: </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ironprogrammer/"><span>Brian Alexander</span></a><br /><span>Design Lead: </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/richtabor/"><span>Rich Tabor</span></a><br /><span>Default Theme Co-Leads: </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/beafialho/"><span>Beatriz Fialho</span></a><span> &amp; </span><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mikachan/"><span>Sarah Norris</span></a></p>
