INSERT INTO `wp_options` (`option_id`, `option_name`, `option_value`, `autoload`) VALUES
(4452, '_site_transient_timeout_community-events-5886bbe3964e8f9be7c35469f145bc49', '1662507165', 'no'),
(4453, '_site_transient_community-events-5886bbe3964e8f9be7c35469f145bc49', 'a:4:{s:9:"sandboxed";b:0;s:5:"error";N;s:8:"location";a:1:{s:2:"ip";s:20:"2804:7f4:c1a8:8fbf::";}s:6:"events";a:0:{}}', 'no'),
(4460, '_transient_timeout_feed_mod_d117b5738fbd35bd8c0391cda1f2b5d9', '1662507167', 'no'),
(4461, '_transient_feed_mod_d117b5738fbd35bd8c0391cda1f2b5d9', '1662463967', 'no'),
(4462, '_transient_timeout_dash_v2_01e18dead815ce736e3b9cccfbd773a5', '1662507167', 'no'),
(4463, '_transient_dash_v2_01e18dead815ce736e3b9cccfbd773a5', '<div class="rss-widget"><ul><li><a class=''rsswidget'' href=''https://br.wordpress.org/2022/08/31/wordpress-6-0-2-atualizacao-de-seguranca-e-manutencao/''>WordPress 6.0.2 – Atualização de segurança e manutenção</a></li><li><a class=''rsswidget'' href=''https://br.wordpress.org/2022/07/12/wordpress-6-0-1-atualizacao-de-manutencao/''>WordPress 6.0.1 – Atualização de manutenção</a></li></ul></div><div class="rss-widget"><ul><li><a class=''rsswidget'' href=''https://poststatus.com/what-is-a-wordpress-developer/''>Post Status: What is a WordPress developer?</a></li><li><a class=''rsswidget'' href=''https://wordpress.org/news/2022/09/the-month-in-wordpress-august-2022/''>WordPress.org blog: The Month in WordPress – August 2022</a></li><li><a class=''rsswidget'' href=''https://wordpress.org/news/2022/09/episode-38-all-about-learnwp-with-special-guest-hauwa-abashiya/''>WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 38: All About LearnWP with Special Guest Hauwa Abashiya</a></li></ul></div>', 'no'),
(4458, '_transient_timeout_feed_d117b5738fbd35bd8c0391cda1f2b5d9', '1662507167', 'no');
INSERT INTO `wp_options` (`option_id`, `option_name`, `option_value`, `autoload`) VALUES
(4459, '_transient_feed_d117b5738fbd35bd8c0391cda1f2b5d9', '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:"\n\n\n";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:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n";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:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:43:"Post Status: What is a WordPress developer?";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=121418";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/what-is-a-wordpress-developer/";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:1186:"<p>That was <a href="https://poststatus.com/whats-a-wordpress-developer/">the question</a> on <a href="https://dothewoo.io/defining-a-worpress-developer/">an episode</a> of <strong>Woo DevChat</strong> with <strong>Ebonie Butler</strong>, <strong>Lisa Canini</strong>, <strong>Robbie Adair</strong>, and <strong>Kathy Zant</strong>. It''s an interesting to compare their views and experiences with the ones shared by <strong>Zach Stepek</strong>, <strong>Till Krüss</strong>, and <strong>Carl Alexander</strong> while discussing the same question on <a href="https://poststatus.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ff3456b27ebe0be0155087894&id=a8f0a4c9fb&e=f7eab97ac0">an earlier episode</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://dothewoo.io/defining-a-worpress-developer/">What is a WordPress Developer with Ebonie, Lisa, Kathy and Robbie</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\nhttps://poststatus.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ff3456b27ebe0be0155087894&#038;id=a8f0a4c9fb&#038;e=f7eab97ac0\n</div>\n<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, 06 Sep 2022 01:50:29 +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: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:1;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:58:"WordPress.org blog: The Month in WordPress – August 2022";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=13445";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:70:"https://wordpress.org/news/2022/09/the-month-in-wordpress-august-2022/";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:14582:"<p>August has been a busy month, with the redesign of WordPress.org, new localized content on Learn WordPress, and the WordPress 6.0.2 security and maintenance release. But that&#8217;s not all! Read on to catch up on the latest WordPress news.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity" />\n\n\n\n<h2>WordPress 6.1 walk-through scheduled for September 13, 2022</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Save the date! A <strong>live interactive walk-through of WordPress 6.1 is coming up on September 13, 2022, at 16:00 UTC</strong>. The event will take place <a href="http://dotorgzoom.wordpress.com/">via Zoom</a> and include a discussion of new major features, resolved tickets, and potential blockers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Attendance is open to anyone who wants to know more about what’s coming in the next major release. If you are unable to attend, the event will be recorded for on-demand viewing.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size">\n<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/09/05/6-1-product-walk-through/">Learn more about the WordPress 6.1 product walk-through</a>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>The WordPress.org Homepage and Download page got a new jazz-inspired look</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/08/a-new-wordpress-org-homepage-and-download-page/">redesign of the WordPress.org homepage and download page</a> went live on August 15, 2022. The new pages highlight the benefits of using WordPress while making it easy to access resources for getting started. The look and feel build on the jazzy aesthetic that WordPress is known for.</p>\n\n\n\n<img width="1024" height="599" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2022/08/launch-featured.png?resize=1024%2C599&ssl=1" alt="WordPress.org homepage" class="wp-image-13323" />\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2022/09/01/simplifying-the-admin-bar-global-navigation-menu/">the admin bar and global navigation menu have been updated</a> to simplify and better organize the content across the WordPress.org network. Expect more design updates and iterations as efforts to refresh the website continue.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size">\n<p>Check out the new <a href="https://wordpress.org/">WordPress.org homepage</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/download/">download page</a>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>Gutenberg versions 13.9 and 14.0 are here</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Two new versions of Gutenberg were released last month:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/17/whats-new-in-gutenberg-13-9-17-august/"><strong>Gutenberg 13.9</strong></a> became available for download on August 17, 2022. This release continues to iterate and polish the user interface (UI), interaction, and engine work for site editing.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/09/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-0-31-august/"><strong>Gutenberg 14.0</strong></a> brings a lot of enhancements, including extra block supports in the UI, a revamped List block, and more. It shipped on August 31, 2022.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size">\n<p>This <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/25/core-editor-improvement-refining-the-template-creation-experience/">new post in the &#8220;Core Editor Improvement&#8221; series</a> focuses on the template creation enhancements coming in WordPress 6.1. You can explore them now with the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/">Gutengerg plugin</a>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>New localized content on Learn WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a> is currently expanding the non-English resources available on the platform! Last month, some members of the Training Team hosted <a href="https://wordpress.tv/2022/08/17/%e3%83%96%e3%83%ad%e3%83%83%e3%82%af%e3%82%a8%e3%83%87%e3%82%a3%e3%82%bf%e3%83%bc%e3%81%a7%e3%83%9b%e3%83%bc%e3%83%a0%e3%83%9a%e3%83%bc%e3%82%b8%e3%82%92%e4%bd%9c%e3%82%8d%e3%81%86%ef%bc%81/">the first free online workshops in Japanese</a>. Following its success, two more sessions will be held on September 7 and 17, 2022. Get the details in the <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/online-workshops/">online workshop calendar</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, learners have access to:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorials/?series=&topic=&language=pt_BR&captions=&wp_version=">Portuguese tutorials</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plans/greek/">Greek lesson plans</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Curious about what else is new on Learn WordPress? <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/09/01/whats-new-on-learnwp-august-2022/">Check out the learning materials released in August 2022</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">\n<p class="has-extra-large-font-size">Enter the educational world of the Training Team and its Learn initiative in <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/09/episode-38-all-about-learnwp-with-special-guest-hauwa-abashiya/">the latest episode of WP Briefing</a>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>Team updates: WordPress 6.0.2 maintenance release, Twenty Twenty-Three kickoff, and more</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/08/wordpress-6-0-2-security-and-maintenance-release/">WordPress 6.0.2 is now available</a>. This security and maintenance release features 12 bug fixes on Core, 5 bug fixes for the Block Editor, and 3 security fixes.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The new <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/08/10/twenty-twenty-three-default-theme-project-kickoff/">Twenty Twenty-Three (TT3) theme</a>, which will ship with the WordPress 6.1 release, is now in development. The theme will bundle a collection of style variations designed by community members. The final curated set is expected to be chosen by September 7, 2022.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/08/19/meetup-organizer-newsletter-august-2022/">August edition of the Meetup Organizer Newsletter</a> shares tips on how to join and support the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/07/08/call-for-supporters-reactivating-wordpress-meetups-around-the-world/">Meetup Reactivation project</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The feedback tool for <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/">translate.wordpress.org</a> is now available for all WordPress.org users that have opted into notifications. Learn more in the latest edition of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2022/08/22/polyglots-monthly-newsletter-august-2022/">Polyglots Monthly Newsletter</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2022/09/05/improving-devhub-code-references/">Code references in DevHub (WordPress Developer Docs)</a> are now easier to use, understand and navigate.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Members of the Documentation Team kicked off discussions around the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2022/08/10/kick-off-wordpress-6-1-release-docs/">WordPress 6.1 release docs</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/09/bug-scrub-schedule-for-6-1/">bug scrub schedule for WordPress 6.1</a> was published last month. Anyone can join these sessions to learn, help, or even <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/tutorials/leading-bug-scrubs/">lead one</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>To celebrate World Photography Day (August 19), the Photos Team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/photos/2022/08/18/wordpress-world-photography-day-challenge-2022/">set up a fun photo challenge</a> to contribute to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/t/worldphotographyday22/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>. The initiative may be over, but photo contributions are always open!</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/performance/2022/08/09/core-performance-team-rep-nominations/">Nominations</a> for the Performance Team Reps are open until September 9, 2022.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Why is Gutenberg being developed on GitHub? Is Gutenberg part of core? <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/18/wordpress-development-setup/">Get answers</a> to these and other common questions about WordPress core and Gutenberg.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Members of the Full Site Editing Outreach program <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/08/25/hallway-hangout-discussion-on-block-themes-25-aug/">joined a Hallway Hangout session to talk about block themes</a>, from workflow changes to tools they are using and more.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The latest edition of People of WordPress features <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/08/people-of-wordpress-bud-kraus/">Bud Kraus</a> and his inspiring WordPress journey.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size">\n<p>The Testing Team is looking for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/08/10/testing-testing-calls-for-testing-facilitators/">facilitators to expand testing efforts</a> across the project.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>Feedback &amp; testing requests</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Are you a meetup organizer or member? Complete the 2021-2022 <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/08/02/announcing-the-2021-2022-annual-meetup-survey/">Annual Meetup Survey</a> (available in 14 languages) to help strengthen this global WordPress program.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Members of the Core Team are looking for feedback on a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/19/a-new-system-for-simply-and-reliably-updating-html-attributes/">new system for updating HTML attributes</a>. The call is open until September 9, 2022.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>There’s a new proposal to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/10/proposal-stop-merging-experimental-apis-from-gutenberg-to-wordpress-core/">harmonize the process of merging new APIs from the Gutenberg plugin</a> to the WordPress core. Share your thoughts by September 7, 2022.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Version 20.6 of WordPress for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2022/08/23/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-android-20-6/">Android</a> and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2022/08/22/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-ios-20-6/">iOS</a> is available for testing.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size">\n<p>Gutenberg 13.8 introduced the first version of fluid typography, a new feature that allows theme authors to define text size that can scale and adapt to changes in screen size. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2022/08/15/testing-and-feedback-for-the-fluid-typography-feature/">Help shape its future by joining this testing call</a>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>Event updates &amp; WordCamps</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/wcus-what-you-need-to-know/">Get ready for WordCamp US</a>! The event is happening on September 9 through 11, 2022, in San Diego, California. <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/schedule/">Check out the schedule</a> and tune into the <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/livestream/">WCUS livestream</a> if you are attending virtually.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Openverse announced that they will be participating in the WordCamp US <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/contributor-day/">Contributor Day</a> remotely. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2022/08/30/openverse-remote-contributor-day-at-wordcamp-us-2022/">Learn how you can get involved</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2023/">WordCamp Asia</a> organizers <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2023/tickets-now-on-sale/">sold out</a> the first batch of standard and micro sponsor tickets in one day. The second batch will be released soon.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Planning for WordCamp Europe 2023 is in full swing! You can still <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2023/call-for-organisers/">apply to be an organizer</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Join #WPDiversity with a <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/speaker-workshop-for-indian-women-in-the-wordpress-community-sept-24-25-tickets-348466712317">free, online speaker workshop for Indian women</a> in the WordPress community. The event will take place on September 24-25, 2022.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Don’t miss these other upcoming WordCamps:\n<ul>\n<li><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f1f3-1f1f1.png" alt="🇳🇱" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://netherlands.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp Netherlands</a>, The Netherlands on September 15-16, 2022</li>\n\n\n\n<li><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f1ea-1f1f8.png" alt="🇪🇸" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://pontevedra.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp Pontevedra</a>, Spain on September 24-25, 2022</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size">\n<p>The Call for Speakers for WordCamp Asia is closing soon! <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2023/call-for-speakers/">Submit your application by September 30, 2022</a>, and help reach <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2023/speaker-diversity-goals/">WCAsia&#8217;s speaker diversity goals</a>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em><strong><em><strong><em>Have a story that we should include in the next issue of The Month in WordPress? <strong><em>Fill out </em></strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/month-in-wordpress-submissions/"><strong><em>this quick form</em></strong></a><strong><em> to let us know.</em></strong></em></strong></em></strong></em></strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><em>The following folks contributed to this edition of The Month in WordPress: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/laurlittle/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>laurlittle</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mysweetcate/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>mysweetcate</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chaion07/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>chaion07</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bsanevans/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>bsanevans</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/priethor/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>priethor</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rmartinezduque/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>rmartinezduque</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>webcommsat</a>.</em></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:"Mon, 05 Sep 2022 13:23:44 +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:14:"rmartinezduque";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:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 38: All About LearnWP with Special Guest Hauwa Abashiya";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=13425";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:98:"https://wordpress.org/news/2022/09/episode-38-all-about-learnwp-with-special-guest-hauwa-abashiya/";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:20613:"<p>In the thirty-eighth episode of the WordPress Briefing, join Josepha Haden Chomphosy and special guest Hauwa Abashiya for a discussion on the WordPress Training team and LearnWP initiative. </p>\n\n\n\n<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>\n\n\n\n<h2>Credits</h2>\n\n\n\n<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>\n\n\n\n<h2>Guests</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/azhiyadev/">Hauwa Abashiya</a>&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>References</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/finding-my-global-family/">Hauwa Abashiya HeroPress Essay</a><br /><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training">make.wordpress.org/training</a><br /><a href="http://make.wordpress.org">make.wordpress.org</a><br /><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/08/wordpress-6-0-2-security-and-maintenance-release/">WordPress 6.0.2 Security and Maintenance Release</a><br /><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2023/call-for-speakers/">WordCamp Asia call for speakers </a>(deadline extended to September 30, 2022)<br /><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/livestream/">WordCamp US Livestream information</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Transcript</h2>\n\n\n\n<span id="more-13425"></span>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00]&nbsp;</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hello, everyone! And welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of some of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project and the community around it, as well as get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go!</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:42]&nbsp;</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Helping people who are new to WordPress learn how to make the most out of their CMS used to be one of the most clearly impactful things I ever did as a contributor. Whether it was making sure a brand new installation simply worked, or if the original setup needed to grow along with a solopreneur&#8217;s growing business needs, I found great joy in seeing how my local community was learning new tools together.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;ve probably heard me talk about the Learn WP initiative or the training team on this podcast before, but you might still be a little shy to get started with the team. So I have invited one of their team reps today to talk through what the team does.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>All right. I have with us today Hauwa Abashiya. She is one of the team reps for the training team and also works on the learn.wordpress.org site. Thank you for joining me today, Hauwa.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:01:33]&nbsp;</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>And thank you for having me, Josepha, quite exciting to be on your podcast.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:37]&nbsp;</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, I, you know, when we were talking about doing this topic, I was like, you know, who would be an excellent person is Hauwa. Like you were such an interesting person to work with when we were working on the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2020/12/simone/">5.6 release</a>. And then also, you just have such a lovely way of explaining the complicated things that we have going on in WordPress and especially on the training side of things. And so you were the first person that came to mind for me.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:02:02]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:03]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of all the learn.wordpress.org things, you&#8217;ve been contributing to the WordPress project as a team rep for the training team for a bit. But that&#8217;s not really where you started. Can you tell me a bit about how you found your way to this team?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:02:15]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, I started by attending a WordCamp, and that was WordCamp Brighton. And if anyone&#8217;s read my <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/finding-my-global-family/">article on HeroPress</a>, then they will know that I learned WordPress in one week. Went through beginner sessions of it. And then, I was like, yeah, let me just go turn up and see what it&#8217;s like.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So turned up, and I met some wonderful people there. One of them being <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/miss_jwo/">Jenny Wong</a>, who introduced me to the London meetup team. So, I then went there. They were looking for volunteers because they were planning WordCamp London for 2019. And me being me, I was like, yeah, sure. Why not? And got thrown into the deep end, but no, an amazing team.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I got to meet some really amazing people. And yeah, just went from there then, you know, because I was doing stuff with WordCamp London, ended up going to WordCamp Europe. And I think there&#8217;s probably quite a lot of people who say they fully got into contributing in WordCamp Europe. So I was doing little bits and pieces then on like, marketing team and then met <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jessecowens/">Jesse [Owens]</a>  at the training team cause <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/">Abha Thakor</a> introduced me to him and just went from there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then in terms of team rep, I mean, <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/users/courane01/">Courtney Robertson</a> sent out SOS, because Learn had just launched, and there were a couple of things that we needed. So that was during the soft launch. And I was like, yeah, sure. I&#8217;ll help you. I&#8217;m not doing much. And that&#8217;s how I ended up doing team rep.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:46]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>I love that so many initial stories in the WordPress community start with like, well, I went to a WordCamp cause I was like, what in the world is this? And then people were like, we need some help. And I thought to myself, what else am I doing? Like, so many stories start that way. And I just love it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:04:03]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:03]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>So you mentioned learn.wordpress.org. That is a part of the training team in the WordPress project. Correct?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. So can you give us an idea of the difference between the two? Cause like normally, with a project as big as Learn, you would expect to see like a whole separate team. But these are two intertwined teams using two intertwined concepts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so can you give us an idea of the difference between them?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:04:29]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I like to see learners, that&#8217;s the content. So it&#8217;s the content that we have on the platform, and the training team wrangles all the content on Learn. So that would be like your videos, your lesson plans, and online workshops. Yeah, so we wrangle the content that&#8217;s on there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We try to bring a lot of different teams together, and that&#8217;s one of the things the beauty, I think, of Learn is that there is a lot of cross-team collaboration, which started from the beginning and I think just will continue and get better and better.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:59]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. And the workshops, those are once a week, right?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:05:04]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. So you have online workshops, which used to be called social learning spaces, which used to be called discussion groups. So those run once a week. There&#8217;s a number running, and there are some that are launching in Japan. And I think <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bsanevans/">Ben Evans</a> has been quite key in getting quite a lot of those going, and I think <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/piyopiyofox/">Destiny Kanno</a> as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, that&#8217;s the beauty is you get to see a lot more languages coming up. Those run once a week. And then we obviously have lesson plans, which traditionally that&#8217;s what the training team used to always make for Meetup organizers. So if you didn&#8217;t have a speaker, you could go and get a lesson plan and run through something, or anybody could pick one up.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So they are used mainly by like our Meetup users and then people who are running any boot camps or sessions, or you wanna just take somebody through WordPress and teach them, you can pick one up and run through it. And now we&#8217;ve got courses on Learn, which is quite exciting. Got a couple of courses.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I know there&#8217;s about three or four courses in development. There is a bit more WordPress development based rather than user based. There&#8217;s a fourth piece of content, and that is just the general workshop. So tutorials, I think no tutorials is what we&#8217;re calling them now. So there&#8217;s like all our online videos.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:17]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>I tell you terminology in any project, the age and size of WordPress is hard to keep everything straight, but especially when you&#8217;ve just changed it you&#8217;re like, what do we call it though?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:06:27]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:30]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if I understand correctly, because as you mentioned, like you have this post up on HeroPress, you don&#8217;t actually come from a training background. Like you aren&#8217;t a teacher or corporate trainer or anything, but you have really committed to contributing to the training team and to learn.wordpress.org.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, from your perspective, from like the, I&#8217;m not a trainer perspective, what&#8217;s the most exciting thing for learn.wordpress.org in the near future?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:06:58]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think it&#8217;s the collaboration. It&#8217;s the potential that Learn has. So I don&#8217;t have a training background, but interestingly enough, I come from Kaduna, Nigeria. And Kaduna cause all the states in Nigeria have a tagline, and, Kaduna is actually the center of learning. So there must be some link there, so yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, I think the beauty of that is you don&#8217;t have to have a training background. You can come in and impart your knowledge, and there are people available in the team that can help you impart that knowledge. So if it&#8217;s like a lesson plan that you wanna draw up, we&#8217;ve got people that can help and assist in that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or you wanna run an online workshop. There are people that can assist you. And I think that&#8217;s also the beauty of WordPress is that we&#8217;re all there to help each other. So just seeing that and seeing how, as time has gone on how the team has actually just been growing cause more and more people are coming.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then with that, you&#8217;ve got more of like the different languages coming in, and I know we might touch on that later, but it&#8217;s, I think to me, that is the beauty that anyone can actually now come in and learn. And Learn as this platform that is accessible to everybody. So it&#8217;s not necessarily behind a, like a paywall or anything, which is, there&#8217;s nothing wrong with that, but there are people that it&#8217;s like, well, okay, you can access something by the community for the community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:08:32]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think like your last thought there, something that&#8217;s by the community for the community. That&#8217;s one of the things that I noticed early on about the WordPress community. So I&#8217;ve been in the WordPress community for a long time, but when I started doing the administrative back office, things that are invisible and no one wants to know about, because it&#8217;s boring.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I started doing that work, one of the things I noticed and that I really treasure the most about the WordPress community is that they want to do things together. They want to look at the problem together. They want to find a solution together. And a lot of times they just want to learn together as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We see that there is a real, I don&#8217;t know, not, it&#8217;s not a safety and numbers question. I think it is a long-standing feeling that we can all kind of get further together and that we are better together. And so I like your thought there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You mentioned, though, translations, and I know that this came up at WordCamp Europe.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We don&#8217;t actually have a lot of translated content on learn.wordpress.org. There&#8217;s some technical issues that exist there, but are there a few languages that we already are sort of seeing translated courses for? Translated lessons for?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:09:47]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. So we have a couple in Hindi, I believe. And I know we&#8217;ve got some Greek translations that have been coming up, so I know, I think it was last year WordCamp India, during contributor day, we had quite a lot of people translating stuff then, and I suppose the online WordCamps that we&#8217;ve been able to rank. Cause I think our first like face to face is this year, so they didn&#8217;t do that much translation there, but we&#8217;ve seen an increase in people wanting to translate.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I think those are the ones that come to mind. And I know Japanese, I think that was just recently, in the last two weeks, somebody&#8217;s translated one or two of the tutorials have been translated.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But we’re getting more and more requests coming through. And I know we kind of touched on this in our earlier discussion, but it&#8217;s like, how do you manage that? Cause you&#8217;re right, we don&#8217;t have a way to easily manage polyglots on Learn at the moment or WordPress in general. But I think seeing that, and I keep saying to people, I don&#8217;t wanna lose that engagement cause if you&#8217;ve got the people engaged, let them just do it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I don&#8217;t normally say this, but let them do it, and we&#8217;ll figure out how to sort out the whole pile when it comes in later. Because you kind of don&#8217;t want to lose them because I feel like if we say, no, we&#8217;ll wait until that comes in, we&#8217;ll lose a lot of the engagement. And come that time, people will be like, oh no, I&#8217;m not that interested. Or it might be an even more effort to try and bring more people on board.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:18]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s always a struggle, like wanting to be able to get something good out without insisting that it be perfect. Like that whole perfect is the enemy of the good sort of concept.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:11:30]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. Mm-hmm&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:30]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we were talking about this way back in June, I was like, I obviously would love to get a perfect solution out immediately, but like, you&#8217;re right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the meantime, do we just be if you don&#8217;t speak English, you cannot learn here?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like that&#8217;s not fair.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:11:45]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>No.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:46]&nbsp;</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>We want everyone to be able to learn here in their own languages, and yeah. That&#8217;s just a living, breathing issue with a global project, I think.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:11:56]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:57]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that we left us on like a really juicy topic, just the lightest thing we could find. Is there anything else that you wanna be sure to share with the WordPress Briefing listeners before we head out?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:12:10]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Come and join the training team. Like I said, you don&#8217;t have to be a trainer. You can come in, and help us take notes. You can come in and edit, and review. If you are a subject matter expert, we also have the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/faculty-program/">faculty program</a>, which was launched. Was it a month ago now?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sorry. Days, months, weeks merge for me these days. But yeah, so that&#8217;s like a dedicated volunteer team. And in there, we&#8217;ve got content creators, editors, subject matter experts, and just admin stuff. If you wanna help us with the admin stuff. If you&#8217;re a GitHub guru, get in touch cause we are trying to automate some of our processes, and we could use the help, but yeah, just come join us.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Join one of our meetings, which run on Tuesdays at 7 AM UTC and 4:00 PM UTC.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, that&#8217;s right. I get my time right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:13:03]&nbsp;</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>If it&#8217;s not right, we&#8217;ll put it. We&#8217;ll correct it in the show notes.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, if you are not necessarily familiar with the WordPress project and how to get started with contributions, you can find the training team and a lot of information about them and all the other teams on make.wordpress.org.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will share that in the show notes as well. make.wordpress.org/training is where you can find Hauwa&#8217;s team. Hauwa, thank you again for joining me today.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Hauwa Abashiya 00:13:30]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>No, thank you for having me. It&#8217;s just a wonderful treat. I get to listen to you, and now I get to be on it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, yeah, it&#8217;s good.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:13:37]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope that some of you feel inspired to stop by and see what the team is up to learn something new about WordPress or contribute a little something yourself. And with that, I&#8217;ll bring us home with the small list of big things. First thing, there was a freshly pressed minor release last week. You probably didn&#8217;t notice it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It probably went quite smoothly in the background and never interrupted you at all. However, if you want to read what was in it, you can head to wordpress.org/news now, or click on the link in the show notes.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second thing, is that coming up at the end of this week, September 9th, 2022, WordCamp US is back and ready to help broaden your WordPress knowledge. If you will be there, I hope it is a wonderful time, but if you won&#8217;t be there in person, I&#8217;ll include a link to register for the live stream, or you can watch all of those sessions afterward on wp.tv or the WordPress YouTube channel.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Third thing on our list of small list of big things is that WordPress Translation Day is coming up. That&#8217;s normally at the end of September, it coincides with a global day of appreciation for translators just generally across the world. And so that is coming, it&#8217;s normally around the 28th or so.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:14:55]</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>So put that in your calendars. As soon as I have any information, as soon as I have a link to share with you all, I will have that for you as well.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the final thing on my list today is that if you are hoping to speak at WordCamp Asia, 2023, you have 10 more days, September 15th, 2022**, to apply for that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need topics of all sorts, from security hardening and backend development to entrepreneurial best practices, WordPress out of the box all the way back around to the importance of securing open source freedom. Even when people don&#8217;t know they need them. If you&#8217;ve got something you&#8217;re a bit passionate about, something that you are a passionate expert about especially, we want to see your application. And that, my friends, is your small list of big things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>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>\n\n\n\n<p><br />** <em><strong>Special note: the deadline to apply as a speaker to WordCamp Asia was extended to September 30th, 2022, after the recording of this episode.</strong></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:"Mon, 05 Sep 2022 12:01:09 +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:3;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:103:"Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog #72 Gutenberg 13.9, 14.01, WordPress 6.02, Themes and Design Tools";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://gutenbergtimes.com/?post_type=podcast&p=22015";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:73:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-72-gutenberg-14-0/";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:49122:"<p>Birgit Pauli-Haack and Nick Diego discuss highlights from Gutenberg 13.9, 14.01, WordPress 6.02, Themes and Design Tools.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-69-gutenberg-releases-wordpress-6-0-1-the-create-block-theme/#shownotes">Show Notes</a> / <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-69-gutenberg-releases-wordpress-6-0-1-the-create-block-theme/#transcript">Transcript</a></p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Music:&nbsp;<a href="https://soundcloud.com/xirclebox">Homer Gaines</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Editor:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-reed/">Sandy Reed</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Logo:&nbsp;<a href="https://markuraine.com/">Mark Uraine</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Production:&nbsp;<a href="https://icodeforapurpose.com">Birgit Pauli-Haack</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-larger-font-size" id="shownotes"><strong>Show Notes</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Nick Diego</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>developer advocate at WP Engine, plugin developer and themes builder. He is also a core contributor. Running Triage sessions in the core editor channel and is on the WordPress 6.1 release squad</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Follow him on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/nickmdiego">@nickmdiego</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>WordPress Profile: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ndiego/">@ndiego</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/designing-style-variations-for-twenty-twenty-three-the-good-the-bad-and-everything-else/">Designing Style Variations for Twenty Twenty-Three: The Good, the Bad, and Everything Else</a> by Justin Tadlock</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>WordCamp US</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/schedule/">WordCamp US Schedule</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2019/make-room-practice-the-pac-man-concept/">Make Room: Practice the Pac Man Concept</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>@WordPress/Create-Block package</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ryan Welcher <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDMkbVOdQu0">new release of the @wordpress/create-block package</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Documentation </p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-create-block/">@wordpress/create-block package</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-create-block/packages-create-block-external-template/">@wordpress/create-block External Template</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Themes</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/08/25/hallway-hangout-discussion-on-block-themes-25-aug/">Hallway Hangout: Discussion on Block Themes (25 Aug)</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress 6.0.2</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/08/wordpress-6-0-2-security-and-maintenance-release/">Release announcement</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/23/wordpress-6-0-2-rc1-is-now-available/">Changelog</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/56112">#56112</a><strong> – Allow remote pattern registration in theme.json when core patterns are disabled</strong></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Gutenberg 13.9</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/17/whats-new-in-gutenberg-13-9-17-august/">What’s new in Gutenberg 13.9? (17 August)</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-13-9-adds-new-shortcut-to-wrap-selected-text-in-quotes">Gutenberg 13.9 Adds New Shortcut to Wrap Selected Text in Quotes</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Gutenberg 14.0</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/09/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-0-31-august/">What’s new in Gutenberg 14.0? (31 August)</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the end</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://wpengine.com/builders/">WP Engine: Builders Resource &#8211; Explore the basics of creating powerful WordPress websites.</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-large-font-size">Stay in Touch</p>\n\n\n\n<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-group"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">\n<ul>\n<li>Did you like this episode? <a href="https://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog"><strong>Please write us a review </strong></a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ping us on Twitter or send DMs with questions. <a href="https://twitter.com/gutenbergtimes">@gutenbergtimes </a>and <a href="https://twitter.com/bph">@bph</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>If you have questions or suggestions, or news you want us to include, send them to <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. </em></li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Please write us a review on iTunes! <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/itunes/">(Click here to learn how)</a></em></li>\n</ul>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-larger-font-size" id="transcript"><strong>Transcript</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p> </p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Hello, and welcome to our 72nd episode of the Gutenberg Changelog. In today&#8217;s episode, we will talk about Gutenberg 13.9, Gutenberg 14.01, WordPress 6.02, and a lot of things about themes and design tools in the editor. And I am Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at the Gutenberg Times and WordPress Developer Advocate. And today, I have a special guest on the show, it&#8217;s Nick Diego, Developer Advocate at WP Engine, Plugin Developer, and Themes Builder.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I just learned he is also from the hospitality industry. So, we have a whole new show. He&#8217;s also a Core Contributor on WordPress and running triage sessions every Tuesday in the core editor channel. And he&#8217;s also a teammate of mine on the 6.1 release squad. Good afternoon, Nick. Thank you so much for coming to the show today. How are you?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: I&#8217;m doing great. Thank you for having me.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, sure. I should probably also mention that you were part of the group of experts on the developer hours meet up, where a group of contributors answer questions from the audience. We should schedule some more, what do you think?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego:</em> We should.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, in the meantime, until that happens, you held or will hold also build up basics events on the learn WordPress online meetup, thank you for those. Most events were recorded and are uploaded to WordPress TV. So, you get a lot of Nick Diego on WordPress TV.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah, exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: So, what have you learned that&#8230; what are the most common concepts that are harder to understand for people?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego:</em> Well, first of all, those online workshops are so important for engaging directly with the community and WordPress builders. A lot of people aren&#8217;t keeping up with what&#8217;s happening in Gutenberg, they have businesses to run, websites to build, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And WordPress is developing so quickly as we&#8217;ll see in today&#8217;s episode with all the things that have happened in the latest releases. And so, it&#8217;s a great time to connect with them and just to cover the basics. One of my main series is builder basics, where we talk about really the fundamentals, like how to work with row blocks and group blocks and that thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I think people really get a lot out of that. And so, I&#8217;m also really excited for the new 2023 theme because it&#8217;s going to incorporate a lot of the new functionality that we&#8217;re seeing in WordPress and provide users a place to look and see a working functional example of all the new stuff that&#8217;s coming in WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, a couple ways. There are online workshops and all the other developer relations stuff that we&#8217;re doing, hopefully, we can help get people up to speed more quickly than they would on their own.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. So, if you don&#8217;t have them signed up for the meetup yet, where you get all the announcements of all the new workshops that are coming there. Sometimes, there are months with 2025 workshops. Well, month of August wasn&#8217;t so good because we were&#8230; many of the faculty were on vacation, but definitely sign up and join the group.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes, there are 20. Sometimes, there are 60 in there, I have noticed. And most of them are recorded. So, even if you&#8217;ve missed them&#8230; but it&#8217;s hard to watch the recording when there is some life interaction with people in there. So, Nick, you mentioned the 2023 theme and the update here is that the theme is a base theme.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And there was a call for the community to send in style variations, that&#8217;s style variations, or something like a skin of a theme that follows the theme, but you can change color, fonts, and other things, spacings, and all the good things. And the community submitted actually 33 style variations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And next week, the team will learn&#8230; the team will decide which ones are bundled with the default theme. And I look through them, I like quite a few. So, did you get a look at them?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: I did. I did. And some of my fellow colleagues submitted a couple. It&#8217;s a really exciting project, reach out into the community and get designs from other community members, it really makes you feel like this is a community project and WordPress is open-source and we have a big community. I really like the direction they took with this and the designs that have come out of it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, there are all voices in the community that you don&#8217;t need, every year new theme, just add new styling there or so not every WordPress is going to change a theme every year, so. But you&#8217;re right, it&#8217;s actually the reference theme for all the new features.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if the listeners want to learn more about style variations and how to create them and what it was working on one of them for the 2023 theme, Justin Tadlock, takes you along in his new post on his experience designing the style variations on the Gutenberg Times.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I love this sentiment, although there are 1,400 words in there, but I&#8217;m just picking those from Justin&#8217;s post. So, there was a&#8230; and I quote them. “So, there was a small part of me that remembered exactly why I fell in love with WordPress in the first place.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I felt like that same 21-year old kid who had just learned to edit a theme style CSS file to make some minor color changes. This was the WordPress that I remembered from so long. The one where themes were not hundreds of files and thousands of lines of code.” So, back to the basics and back to just do change the styling.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. It&#8217;s such a great quote from Justin and I completely agree. I think that because with block themes and this movement that we&#8217;re on, it&#8217;s really making themes a lot more accessible, it&#8217;s brand new, so it&#8217;s something new that you need to learn.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it is creating simpler themes that can be visually unique with just a few lines of code. And I think that provides a lot of power to users, especially in the low code, no code movement, I think there&#8217;s a lot of exciting things happening there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, it&#8217;s back to the thinkers that can just change some things and have immediate gratification that they see it right away. There is no build spot on. There is no PHP thing or, yeah. So, it&#8217;s good. Well, WordCamp US is coming up next week. I am so excited to go to San Diego on Wednesday night. I can hardly wait. How about you?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah, I&#8217;ll be there Thursday, but yeah. No, this is actually my first WordCamp.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh, really?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. I was planning to go the 2022 one, but then the world fell apart. So, yeah, I&#8217;m very excited to be going.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Okay. Well, awesome. Yeah. So, I&#8217;m glad I&#8217;m going to see you there. So, I knew that you would be there, but I didn&#8217;t know that was your first WordCamp, so yeah. Go through that post on, I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s what WordCamp US or WordCamp Europe what to do when it&#8217;s your first time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: I saw that, yeah. I saw that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: It&#8217;s so spot on. Yeah. So, don&#8217;t worry dear listeners, if you didn&#8217;t get a ticket, there will be live streams of the talks and workshops, and they will all be recorded and available on records to be sometime later this year. So, there are quite a few block editor-related talks on the schedule.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, Alex Ball will talk about customizing core blocks for clients. Very interesting topic. I have lots of discussions about that topic. Evan Mullins has a talk titled FSE for the win, it&#8217;s a lightning talk. And Daisy Olsen&#8217;s workshop on Saturday morning is about creating your first block theme.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rich Tabor, always a great presenter, will talk about the new era of WordPress themes is here, block themes. And I saw you on the roster of a lightning talk. What will it be about?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Well, the title of my talk is a little, I guess, attention grabbing it&#8217;s build a custom block in 15 minutes. So, the goal of this presentation is to demystify the complexities of block development in WordPress. It&#8217;s something I&#8217;ve heard a lot. Oh, building block is really challenging. It requires new skills, whether it&#8217;s JavaScript or React.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the idea behind this is to show that you can actually build something quite functional in a short amount of time. And hopefully, inspire the&#8230; either that you&#8217;re watching it through the live stream or you&#8217;re attending, inspire people to build their own.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because I&#8217;d be the first person to say that building blocks can be challenging depending on the complexity of your project, but it&#8217;s never been easier to get started with block development. We&#8217;ll actually talk about it later today. But there have been so many tools built by the WordPress community that makes getting started with block development easier.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And you combine that with some of the internal block supports, some block controls that are available directly from WordPress. And you can really get started pretty quickly in less than 15 minutes as I will demonstrate. So, very excited to be giving the presentation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: That&#8217;s awesome. I&#8217;m probably going to sneak in there. I&#8217;m going to be in the accessibility testing workshop, but I will sneak out and come see your talk. I hope that everyone&#8217;s punctual there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Hopefully, I can do it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: We know afterwards.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah, exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. But what are the other talks that you are interested in?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: So, I&#8217;m really interested in&#8230; well, I’m very excited to see Rich&#8217;s talk. And as you mentioned, Rich is a great presenter. But I&#8217;m excited to learn more about things I don&#8217;t know much about. So, there&#8217;s getting started with WP-CLI, CLI. And then, there&#8217;s another one by WordPress Through the Terminal by Milana Cap.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I don&#8217;t know much about them. And I think it&#8217;d be a great opportunity to learn more. It’s one of the areas of WordPress that I should be better at, so I&#8217;m excited to learn from those folks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh, yeah. Both are great presenters. So, if you&#8217;re in San Diego, the listeners, and we cross path, please don&#8217;t be shy. Introduce yourself. And I want to meet you. And even if I&#8217;m in a conversation with others at WordCamps, we try to follow the PacMan rule, I don&#8217;t know. Do you know about that, Nick?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: I learned of it, but I did not know prior to seeing the description here.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: So, when we stand in a group of people and you always do, you have two people, then another one came said, &#8220;Hey, glad to see you.&#8221; And then, you talk about things, you chat together. We don&#8217;t make close circles. We always leave one opening so other people can walk in and join us.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, it&#8217;s an explicit permission to join a new group of people. And that&#8217;s how you meet people. That&#8217;s how the community works. So, definitely welcome to do this, and I will always make sure there is a spot for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah, that&#8217;s really great.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Community Contributions</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: So, we are on the section of community contributions. And Ryan Welcher did a Twitch stream this week about the new features of the create-block package. And I have actually the YouTube link for you and the show notes because he just finished uploading it to YouTube. Twitch only saves the video for 14 days and that&#8217;s&#8230; so, Ryan always downloads them and uploads them to YouTube, he edits them sometimes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And he was exploring the new release of the WordPress create-block package. And he thinks it&#8217;s a game changer. I think so, too. So, he goes over the new features, the flags for the, speaking of CLI, the flags of the terminal program for no plugin and variant flags that have been added to the tool.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>These flags increase the usability because they allow the users to add a new block to an existing plugin and or theme, and also provide the ability for a template to provide different variants for a block, like either a dynamic block or a static version, for instance. So, it&#8217;s going to be a really cool if you, yeah, do you want to say something about that?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Well, a little bit of sneak peek. So, the create-block package is absolutely fantastic. I will actually be using the create-block package during my presentation, that&#8217;s what makes it possible to build a block in 15 minutes. So, there&#8217;s really no way to get started with block development. And Ryan&#8217;s did a fantastic job both working on the package itself, and then also educating folks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He actually runs an online workshop through the meetup, through the training team as well talking about building custom block. So, can&#8217;t say enough good things about Ryan and the work he&#8217;s done there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Excellent. Yeah. No, I feel the same way. If you are more the reading type learner, Ryan also updated documentation pages for the create-block package. And we have the link in the show note, and there&#8217;s also an added section to it for how to create templates for the tool, your custom templates.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, you can use them for agency specific scaffolding and standardize some of the work there as well. Okay, got that done. Speaking of themes and I have the feeling there will be more talk about themes or, yeah. Anne McCarthy gathered about 15 theme developers from the community from the FSE program, FSE, Full Site Editing Outreach Program.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And they discussed various aspects of theme development with Full Site Editing and starts also Figma and design systems was a topic, and how they can work together with the theme JSON. Figma also has a theme, a JSON file operation, then custom block development, or how to organize pattern libraries in her post and concludes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I quote, &#8220;While there is both excitement and interest in what block themes unlock.&#8221; It&#8217;s also clear that there is a buildup of pain points to address whether through clearer resources or changes to good look itself. Now, besides that conclusion is, if you are a theme developer hearing from people who already worked with block themes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And some of them are no strangers to our listeners, it&#8217;s Ellen Bauer, Carolina Nymark, Rich Tabor, Ana Zagora, Herb Miller. It&#8217;ll jump your discovery or speed up your knowledge. So, I really urge you to just listen into people talking about the things.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>WordPress 6.0.2</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay. So, now, let&#8217;s move on to the releases. First up is the WordPress 6.0 release. It&#8217;s a security maintenance release with a few bug fixers for the block editor. And it was released, I forgot, it was, I think, August 30th.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Something like that, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. But there was one thing in there that you worked mainly on it, that&#8217;s allow remote pattern registration in theme JSON when code patterns are disabled. So, what was that about?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Well, I&#8217;ll give you props for originally flagging this issue.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Thank you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: And it&#8217;s where a lot of times, theme developers want to disable the core patterns that come with WordPress. You&#8217;re building your theme and you want to provide your own patterns, which makes perfect sense. And there&#8217;s an easy flag to do that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But unfortunately, when you would do that, you would basically turn off your ability to pull down patterns from the pattern directory. So, it stymied the growth of the pattern directory, because theme developers couldn&#8217;t both use their own patterns, shut down the core patterns and then pull down from the pattern directory.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so, this little, fairly simple change allows that to happen. So, now, you could include your pattern with your own theme, and you could also pick and choose from the pattern directory and include those with your theme. Little simple change but I think an important one for people to actually use the pattern directory.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because now, if you wanted to, you could put all your patterns on the pattern directory and then just create a custom theme and then pull them down from the pattern directory into your theme. So, it really opens the doors to a lot of different ways you might want to work with patterns and themes, which I think is exciting. So, glad to see this push through.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, I&#8217;m really glad that made it. But when I thought about, not when I thought about it, I got it from other theme developers who said, okay. So, I was thinking how could we curate the block directory without having a lot of additional changes in Gutenberg?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I think that change was really good. And now, you can curate, even if you are not a theme developer, but you are working for an agency and your developers have a theme for you and you want to add some of the patterns from the directory you want because of fun or whatever.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can just add the theme, edit the theme, JSON file and add disabled core patterns, but also edit the same JSON file to pull up. I don&#8217;t know, four or five patterns that you like or from your favorite designer. So, it&#8217;s really cool. But of course having 200 or whatever, how many patterns are in there now? I think it&#8217;s 18?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. And I think that&#8217;s one of the things that turns people off in the pattern directory is you open up the&#8230; you&#8217;re just getting everything. And this way, it allows you to really pick and choose what you want to include, which I think is what most people are looking for.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. So, that is already available. If you have updated your WordPress instance to 6.0.2, and there were others, the link in show notes will have the changelog from the make blog, so you can look what are the fixes, where in there, it was a security and maintenance release fix release. So, there are no new features. And this is actually not a new feature it&#8217;s just a-</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: A bug. I considered it a bug, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Gutenberg 13.9 and 14.0</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. All right. So, the last time we had a changelog recording, it was for Gutenberg 13.8. Now, today, we discussed 13.9 and 14. And there were a few enhancements in 13.9. For instance, the media and text blog got a new help for the image settings control.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, it&#8217;s a little bit clearer what it actually does. The post author block now renders HTML in the editor for the author description that is&#8230; there is this user profile section in the WP admin. And when you write the description for a user that&#8217;s pulled in into a theme, you can actually add HTML to it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah, it&#8217;s really helpful.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: &#8230; I didn&#8217;t read it yet. So, that&#8217;s definitely an enhancement or going back to original feature set. The post feature image now has a link target and attributes. Not quite sure. I&#8217;m fail to see the, oh, you can&#8230; link target is you can open up a new window.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah, exactly, a new tab. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: All right. And I also like that query title in the search template or the search result template. Now, you get some variations there. That is really cool. And then, is the transforms. Transforms is such a powerful tool. But I don&#8217;t think a whole lot of people, developers or plug-in developers or theme viewers are actually using it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, you can unwrap the group. It&#8217;s actually only a change in or an add-on to the transform menu that you actually can do this&#8230; the box that are assembled into a group can now be separated again. It&#8217;s the same as the more options menu, but it&#8217;s much faster to get there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And transforms, it&#8217;s actually a huge topic. And later this year, we&#8217;re probably going to talk a lot more about it because there&#8217;s some work in progress. Do you want to take the layout style?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. So, we are breezing by many, many enhancements because we would be here all day if we were talking about each one. But under global styles, you can now add a disabled layout style, theme support flag to opt out of all layout styles, which it just provides developers with more flexibility about how they want styles to be applied. And then, the next one which I&#8217;m really excited about, and I think it&#8217;s so minor. And I&#8217;m excited because this is my ticket.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I saw that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: But it enabled opacity on global styles for color pickers. So, if you&#8217;re in the normal block editor, when you add a color you can actually change the opacity on that color. They&#8217;re nobody&#8217;s no fault of anybody just got left off in global styles, so that got added. So, adding consistency. So, now, you can basically change opacity on colors throughout the all of WordPress, which is fantastic.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Good job. Thank you, Nick.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Well, I think that Ellen Bauer pinged me about that and I&#8217;m like, I can fix that one. That one&#8217;s easy. I can do that. And then, for elements, update the load order of CSS in the site editor. We have a lot going on in the editor with different style sheets and different way things are loaded.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And with time, we&#8217;re starting to see these&#8230; figuring out the optimal way to load styles and making sure that nothing&#8230; things don&#8217;t interact negatively with one another. So, a nice enhancement there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. It&#8217;s also about the hierarchy, now who comes first. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Exactly. It can get very tricky because we have, what we have the theme, we have core, we have user styles that they edit in global styles. So, there&#8217;s a lot going on in the site editor for sure.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And then, we have edited stuff from the theme and it&#8217;s really&#8230; I&#8217;m glad that someone is actually organizing that. So, it&#8217;s not too complicated anymore. The site editor also got up some changes or some enhancements. Well, so, the author nicename template creation is now available for now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think that concludes with the fallback template for content, all template possibilities that you could create with a site editor, author nicename, it&#8217;s not the username, it&#8217;s a different field in the profile, but you can now do it with that instead of the author name, so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, that all the templates are there, we also finally got the view side link in the editor. And I think a lot of millions of people probably are so glad that is actually now available. You don&#8217;t have…</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: I would hear it so much. I would hear it so much. Where&#8217;s the view site button? And now we have it, which is amazing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, we have it. And I think it needs to be more intelligent. So, because when I edit the single page or single post or template, I want to click view site and then see it, but it goes to the homepage. But it&#8217;s one step at a time and I&#8217;m glad I don&#8217;t have to open browsers and do all that, which reminds me so much of previous of WordPress scenarios.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. No, it&#8217;s definitely a huge improvement, but more work to be done, for sure.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Like Everything in WordPress, you have a first version and then you see what do the people want? What do we do? Let&#8217;s try it first and see what we need. So, I think that&#8230; is that all for 13.9 that we want to point out?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. I mean, there&#8217;s a lot of bug fixes, just a lot of improvements. But I think the meat of new features comes in 14.0.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I think there was a lot as of the 13.9 was really a cleanup things and that continued. There were also in the background, some changes continued from lodash and from the testing that were continued from, and I think the last three or four plugin releases actually. And I&#8217;m right? Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are at the end of 13.9. In comes Gutenberg 14. And it was just released this week on August 31st. And it came with an enhancement. I would like to change that a little bit up. Let&#8217;s start with the design tools first, because that&#8217;s what everybody&#8217;s waiting for.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. This is I&#8217;m so excited about. So, to focus on the example of a paragraph block, one of the things that was missing from the paragraph block was the ability to change the font family and the typography controls. We had all the other stuff but not font family.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, you couldn&#8217;t change margin and padding. Now, there&#8217;s good reasons why those, that functionality wasn&#8217;t in Gutenberg yet. There were still some things that needed to be fixed and whether it&#8217;s visualization for margin and padding or interactions with web bonds to do those font family.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But we finally cut the green light on all this stuff. And there&#8217;s a huge project underway to provide consistency across as many blocks as possible. So, in 14.0, you&#8217;ll now see, for example, font family across not all we&#8217;re not quite done yet, but most blocks. So, it&#8217;s because there&#8217;s that muscle memory.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you learn how to change font family on one block, and then you go to the next one, you expect that to be there, right? And so, this huge process of standardizing design tools across blocks to me is super exciting. I hear from it all the time from users, why can&#8217;t I do this here? But I can&#8217;t do it here.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And huge effort was made in 14.0. And it&#8217;s continuing. And we&#8217;ll be continuing to 14.1. We got tons of typography support, tons of spacing, padding and margin support. And we also got a lot of color supports as well that were missing. So, there&#8217;s a lot there and I encourage you to check out 14.0, because there may have been something you were desperately wanting and it most likely will be in 14.0, if not, 14.1.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And well, think about how many blocks are there. They&#8217;ll need to be updated. So, that&#8217;s a huge effort for contributors. I&#8217;m not sure, I haven&#8217;t looked at the copays yet, but some blocks do it differently than other blocks in the background. So, it&#8217;s always a&#8230; you can&#8217;t just copy paste like you would do it in a Google doc. You definitely have to think about things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: There&#8217;s no magic switch you can just turn on then, so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Now, you with theme JSON when every block has it. But up until now, that wasn&#8217;t possible yet. And now, that the controls are there, you also have them in the theme JSON file, so for your theme.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: And that&#8217;s a really good point, because I&#8217;m sure there are some people listening when I&#8217;m saying, look at all this new functionality, they might be like, I don&#8217;t want my users to have that. You can always turn this stuff off in theme JSON. So, before you&#8230; even if you wanted it, you couldn&#8217;t have it, now you can have it. But if you don&#8217;t want it can be turned off, so that&#8217;s an important component for those that want to turn off stuff.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, it&#8217;s WordPress. If you have new features, we need the code to switch it off. It&#8217;s definitely MO4. It&#8217;s a standard for WordPress, right? All right. So, we mentioned it also before in 13.9, no, with Ryan Welcher&#8217;s Twitch stream, the create-block has a new variant flag as well as a no plugin flag that is in the enhancement section of the release.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also wanted to point out a few other things from the block library. One is a setting to hide the prefix for the archive title. I don&#8217;t know how many people come to me for the classic theme to remove the category string from the archive page or the archive title. And now, with block theme, it wasn&#8217;t possible. So, now, it is. It has come in and it was actually a blocker for people.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: It&#8217;s really funny. This is actually a really interesting issue because the archive title is just it&#8230; the block is just a wrapper around the PHP function that&#8217;s been in WordPress forever. And so, there are people who&#8217;ve been building WordPress forever like, oh, I know how to do that, there&#8217;s just the filter to do that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But then, you have the people that are coming at WordPress in a no code situation and they need the control for that in the block editor. So, it&#8217;s a really interesting like little microcosm of the two worlds coming together and it&#8217;s like you can change it in the filter with PHP, if you know how to do that. Or now, we have the ability to turn off the prefix, which I think is awesome.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And it enhances WordPress because you&#8230; a user, whenever, you would do this before. Now, they are. So, I&#8217;m really excited about that. Even if you know how to develop, yeah, just making a check mark in an interface is so much easier than, yeah. And open up your development environment, make that change, upload to the server and then, yeah, all…</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Google how to do it because you forgot.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And then, now, the post-date block on the query block or the post template. Now, you can also select that the date is the last modified date instead of the published date, which is actually also an enhancement that wasn&#8217;t before in WordPress. And so, you always have the latest date of the modification for the post, if all, or page in your Cloud.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, we come to the next big feature, which is the list block has a version two, and it&#8217;s now out of experiments and available in the plugin out of the box. And give it for the next three weeks, a big testing because it will come to retro 6.1, we hope.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s not yet clear, but because it&#8217;s coming rather late in there. But it&#8217;s out of experiments. The list items can now be easily better sorted with a much more improved user experience. Did you get a chance to use it yet?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Oh, yeah. And one of the things that always frustrated me, the original list block, because I kept like, I&#8217;d want to change the order of my list items, and you could. And not that I should have expected that, but you&#8217;re so used to moving blocks around. I&#8217;m like, why can&#8217;t I move this list item? Well, now you can. And it works great.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Excellent. Yeah. So, it&#8217;s the little things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: It is, it is.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: It adds up. And also, in 14.0, we have a few global style changes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. I can talk about these. So, I&#8217;ve always been a big fan of block gap. And block gap is something that, not everything is making use of, but it&#8217;s the gap between blocks. And those that use it, it&#8217;s an incredibly powerful tool. And one of the things that&#8217;s neat now is the introduction of axial gap support.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, one of the things that you have is if you imagine columns or buttons that are in a row. Before when you set block gap, it was the gap between the blocks, what happens on mobile when those blocks are displayed vertically. And well, now, you can control both the horizontal gap as well as the vertical gap, which is really powerful.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the things I hear a lot about or had heard a lot about was the lack of responsive controls within WordPress. And we&#8217;re starting to see how we&#8217;re not getting some interface where you define what you want on mobile and define what you want on tablet. But we&#8217;re getting these more holistic approaches to dealing with different devices and axial gap is one of them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, really great to see. And then, another one, which is, I think honestly, a game changer when it comes to where we&#8217;re going in WordPress is what are called spacing presets. So, if you were changing margin or even block gap or padding, you&#8217;d get a little slider or you could type in a pixel number or you&#8230; it&#8217;s free form.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For users, that&#8217;s hard. It&#8217;s also hard for anybody. Because if you want to have consistent padding or spacing throughout your site and you keep having to enter in a specific number or use a slider, you get, did I add five pixels over here? Did I add 10 over here? I get lost.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, spacing stuff simplifies that UI where you can define how many steps of padding or margin, how many steps of space so you could have small, medium, large, extra, large, whatever you want. And by enabling this, WordPress provides a set scale.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But in theme at JSON, you can define your own scale. So, I&#8217;ve been playing around with the defining my own scale and it&#8217;s great, and not to go too deep into this, but I&#8217;m very happy. When you define your own scale, you can also define a scale that uses fluid spacing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, not only can you define small, medium, large, you can make that spacing value using clamp fluid. So, you can have small on desktop as different from small on mobile. And all of a sudden, you have a very fluid website that&#8217;s adapting based on old devices and it&#8217;s quite amazing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it&#8217;s going to take some retooling in how people build themes a little bit that really take advantage of this stuff, but it makes block themes super powerful. And we&#8217;re actually going to start seeing that in the 2023 theme. So, that&#8217;s why back to our original discussion why 2023 is such an important thing, important theme, is this going to provide a real world example of how to use some of this stuff, so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And that combined with the fluid typography, it has been in the plugin for quite a bit now, but it&#8217;s coming to 6.1. Definitely, it&#8217;s really getting better together for the mobile responsiveness and all that. I had a conversation with plugin developers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And they had, I think, six view port changes that you can make to the block. And I was thinking, okay, who would actually want that? Who has the patience and the perseverance to change layout for six different view ports? And-</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: For every block, too.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: For every block, yeah. So, as you said, the scaling of this is a little bit different. So, on the last item for the global styles we&#8217;re going to talk about is the pseudo element supports for button elements. That is the hub and other pseudo elements for the buttons that you want to.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. Focus and active. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Focus and active, yeah. Thank you for helping me out. And we had this already for the link element. And now, we also have it for the button element, and it&#8217;s both in the interface as well as available for theme JSON.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego:</em> Yeah. Having these additional supports for elements is really great. And it allows you to pull a lot of that CSS that you had in your own style sheet and put it back into the theme JSON. Granted theme JSON, they&#8217;re getting quite big. But the beauty is you can edit it directly in the global style. So, it&#8217;s very powerful.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Awesome. So, good things are coming to WordPress with the next version. I&#8217;m just going through that. And we have some more features, one more feature with&#8230; for the patterns, this new bundle of collections of header and footer block patterns in the plugin, because the directory is not working right with all the dynamic stuff. So, they bundled a few more collections there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. It&#8217;s nice to see those updated. The ones that have been there have been in there for a while.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh, yeah. I think the pattern when, the first introduced like the 5.5 or something like that. So, they&#8217;re coming&#8230; new things are coming in the pattern. There&#8217;s one feature that I really like, it&#8217;s the merging of blocks that you allow, that you can merge wrap blocks or into wrap blocks from both and list group and all that. It&#8217;s a nice quality of life change.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it needs a little bit, it takes more to explain that than show that. So, we probably need to do a demo on that and will be demoed on any of the talks that are on workers, learning on workers, not learning WordPress online, meetup groups. I&#8217;m sure some of them will demo that. And that, I think unless we overlooked something, we are at the end of it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. Well, I mean, for the listeners, we breeze through a lot here. These two releases 5.9 and 14.0 super impactful, but they&#8217;re also give you a really good look about what&#8217;s coming in 6.1. We&#8217;ve had full site editing and block themes in WordPress for a while now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve been hesitant to jump in 6.1 is going to have a lot of things that you might have been looking for in order to get started and jump in. So, very excited for 6.1, and having all of this stuff included in core.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And the next version is 14.1. Of course, the next&#8230; and it will be released on September 14. That&#8217;s interesting because on September 13, it&#8217;s going to be the walkthrough. That&#8217;s a preliminary date. It hasn&#8217;t been officially announced, but it&#8217;s for you listeners here.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You heard it here first. But it&#8217;s when the release leads from a core, technically leads from core and block editor go through what&#8217;s going to be released and demo some of the things. So, we have all the priorities, right? The last version that will make it into WordPress 6.1 of the good note plugin is probably&#8230; so the feature releases on September 20th, there will be a release candidate of WordPress 14.2.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, whatever gets into that release in that milestone will be wrapped up and pushed into WordPress 6.0. And I think the editor release leads will do some last. And of course, the triage will go through that and see what&#8217;s happening there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. And I have a lot to do with the next few months.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. All of us, because we are going through all the PRs and mark all for dev notes. So, there is a team. And Milana is doing the same for core, for the track tickets to find the dev notes that need to be published, and then we publish them. So, that&#8217;s going to be a really interesting thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I learn so much when I do that. It&#8217;s just mine. I don&#8217;t know where my brain do, it does that. But yeah, I just keep adding to it. So, we are almost at the end of the show. Is there anything, Nick, that you wanted to share with our listeners that you didn&#8217;t get to yet?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Yeah. I mean, I&#8217;ll do a short plug here. So, our developer relations team at WP Engine, we do a lot of contributing to both the docs team and training and to core. But we also do, produce our own content, take supplement, some of the things that are already out in the world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so, if you just go to wpengine.com/builders, it&#8217;s all just tutorials and articles on building with modern WordPress, very topical to what we&#8217;ve talked about today, talking about fluid typography. One of my favorite articles that I just released is about contextual patterns, which I don&#8217;t think that many people know about or use.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it&#8217;s a great way of functionality that&#8217;s in Gutenberg and in WordPress to take your theme to the next level. So, yeah, lots of great content. But of course, we&#8217;re always contributing to training docs as well, so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And I really like what you&#8217;re doing there. All of the articles are really well go deep, sometimes, deep developer wise, sometimes, content creator wise. So, it&#8217;s a great mixture for any target audience pretty much. That&#8217;s terrific. So, thank you for joining me today, sharing your knowledge and opinions with our listeners. And I&#8217;m looking forward to meeting you in-person.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: I know. Yeah. I can&#8217;t wait. Well, thank you very much for having me. I remember listening to this podcast a year ago, once I started working on WordPress full time. So, I think I&#8217;ve peaked now that I&#8217;m on the show now, so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. You made it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: That&#8217;s right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: That&#8217;s what I thought. When Doc Pop invited me to the Pope Magazine. He said, &#8220;I made it.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: That&#8217;s right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Dear listeners, our next show will be recorded on September 15th. So, there&#8217;s 13, walkthrough, 14 release, 15th Gutenberg changelog recording. It will be released shortly after. And we will have the brilliant Channing Ritter from the WordPress design team on the show. As always the show notes will be published on gutenburgtimes.com/podcast.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is episode 72. And if you have questions or suggestions or news, you want us to include send them to <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>, that&#8217;s <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. Or, just shoot me a DM or PM on Slack or Twitter. It&#8217;s all opened for us, for you. Thank you again, Nick, for joining us. What&#8217;s your Twitter handle?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Just Nick Diego, @nickdiego on Twitter. Wow, I should notice it, it&#8217;s actually @nickmdiego on Twitter. It was hard to get Nick Diego.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, you need to kick the Nick Diego out who has your handle.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Well this is it. Thanks all. And be well. And if I see you on WordCamp US, please, I&#8217;m looking forward to it. Take care.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nick Diego</em>: Thanks so much.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: All right, bye-bye.</p>\n\n\n\n<p></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, 04 Sep 2022 20:11:39 +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:19:"Gutenberg Changelog";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:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"Gutenberg Times: Typography for all blocks, Refined Template editing, context patterns – Weekend Edition 227";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=21934";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:115:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/typography-for-all-blocks-refined-template-editing-context-patterns-weekend-edition-227/";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:29822:"<p>Howdy, </p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am finally home in Sarasota, Florida with just enough time to do laundry, get over the jetlag and clear the backlog of messages after being away from the computer for three  weeks. Next week, I&#8217;ll be gone again to <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/schedule/">San Diego and WordCamp US</a> (WCUS). I am so excited to see lots of friends and make new ones! If you can&#8217;t make it, there will be a <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/livestream/">livestream of all sessions</a>, except the workshops.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you plan to attend WCUS, please let me know. I want to meet you and see you again! Don&#8217;t be shy.  Introduce yourself. Even if I am in conversation with someone else. At WordCamps, people practice the the Pac-Man rule &#8211; when standing in a group chatting, we leave a space so a new person can join the conversation. </p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Now let&#8217;s catch up on two weeks of Gutenberg updates and posts. It&#8217;s again a long list, stoke full of creativity, features and discussion. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be well, </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yours, 💕<br /><em>Birgit</em></p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">\n<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<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/#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/#2-tools-plugins-and-themes-for-site-owners-and-nocode-site-builders-using-the-block-editor">Tools, plugins and themes for site owners and nocode site builders </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/#5-s">Upcoming WordPress events</a><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#6-word-camps-around-the-world">WordCamps around the World</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#1-l">Learn WordPress Online Meetups</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n\n<h2 id="0-word-press-release-information">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> published another post in the <em>Core Editor improvement</em> serie about <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/25/core-editor-improvement-refining-the-template-creation-experience/"><strong>Refining the template creation experience</strong></a>. She wrote: <em>&#8220;Alongside&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/07/21/core-editor-improvement-deeper-customization-with-more-template-options/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more template options</a>&nbsp;comes some exciting refinements to the overall experience that should allow you to move faster with more accuracy to do what you want to do. In isolation, these enhancements might not catch your attention but, when viewed collectively, it’s clear that the template experience has been greatly improved.&nbsp;&#8221; </em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>McCarthy goes into great detail of the template editing workflow and the videos are quite ilustrative. Many of you, who have been experimenting with block themes, might get great joy out of the fact that there is now a <strong>View Site</strong> link available in the editor.  All will be available in WordPress 6.1, scheduled for release on November 1, 2022. If you don&#8217;t want to wait that long, install the latest version of the Gutenberg plugin. </p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Courtney Robertson</strong> posted the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/09/01/whats-new-on-learnwp-august-2022/">latest from the training team.</a> The post includes a list of new tutorials available about the block editor.  These short ,8 to 10 minutes long, free videos are ideal for on-demand direct learners.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/creating-a-new-header-with-blocks/">Creating a new header with blocks</a> </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/customizing-your-post-content-layout/">Customizing your post content layout</a> </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/using-the-create-block-tool/">Using the create-block tool</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/creating-a-landing-page-with-a-block-theme/">Creating a landing page with a block theme</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/building-a-home-page-with-a-block-theme/">Building a home page with a block theme</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Below you also find the upcoming events from the Learning WordPress Online Meetup group. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Wes Theron</strong> posted a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/09/01/summary-update-courses-currently-in-development-1-september-2022/">Summary Update: Courses Currently in Development (1 September 2022)</a>. They are all course for the block editor: </p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Block&nbsp;Development Course</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Two Block Theme Development Courses</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create your First App with&nbsp;Gutenberg&nbsp;Data Course</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We will keep you posted on when those course will be opened up for enrollment. They all will be part of the Learn.WordPress site. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://twitter.com/one_maggie"><strong>Maggie Cabrera</strong>,</a> member of the WordPress Themes team and first-time release lead, published<strong> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/09/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-0-31-august/">What’s new in Gutenberg 14.0? (31 August)</a></strong>. The new release come with lots refinement updates, especially regarding consistence of the interface, for instance, 30 core block received UI support for typography settings. The highlights: </p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/09/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-0-31-august/#highlight-1">Enhanced List block using inner blocks</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/09/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-0-31-august/#add-axial-gap-control-to-styles">Add axial gap control to Styles</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/09/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-0-31-august/#pseudo-elements-supports-on-button-elements">Pseudo-elements supports on button elements</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/09/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-0-31-august/#appearance-tools-available-for-opt-in-via-theme-supports">Appearance tools available for opt-in via theme supports</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This week, we produced again a Gutenberg Changelog episode (#72) and my special guest was Nick Diego. We talked about Gutenberg 13.9 and 14.0 releases and WordPress 6.0.2 Security and Maintenance release. We also touched on WCUS and theme releated topics. </p>\n\n\n\n<img /><em>Nick Diego, WPEngine and Birgit Pauli-Haack making Gutenberg Changelog episode #72</em>\n\n\n\n<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">\n<p><strong>🎙️ </strong> New episode: <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-71-fluid-typography-block-api/">Gutenberg Changelog #71 – Gutenberg 13.8, Fluid Typography, updates to the  Block API and more</a> &#8211; with co-hosts Grzegorz Ziolkowski and Birgit Pauli-Haack </p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p>Officially, Friday was the last day to respond to the <strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/08/13/fse-program-testing-call-16-back-to-basics/">16th FSE call for Testing Back to the Basics</a></strong>, but <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> wrote in the Slack channel &#8220;I was out hiking in the mountains for most of this week so will be catching up on the feedback that came in today and early next week as I begin the write up too. Thanks to everyone who has responded and for the patience! This also means that if you really want to sneak in a response over the weekend, you can&#8221;. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>James Koster</strong>, design team, published on his private blog <a href="https://jameskoster.design/2022/08/24/revising-the-presentation-of-key-site-editor-features/">Revising the presentation of key Site Editor&nbsp;features</a>. He wrote: &#8220;I’ve been ideating on how we might present site editor features with more appropriate weighting, so that the overall experience feels more like a design tool.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<h2 id="2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to know more about Style variations, how to create them and what it was like working on one for the Twenty-Twenty Three theme,&nbsp; <strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> takes you along for his <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/designing-style-variations-for-twenty-twenty-three-the-good-the-bad-and-everything-else/"><strong>experience designing a style variation</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I appreciated this sentiment from Tadlock&#8217;s post: “<em>There was a small part of me that remembered exactly why I fell in love with WordPress in the first place. I felt like that same 21-year-old kid who had just learned to edit a theme’s style.css file to make some minor color changes. This was the WordPress that I remembered from so long ago. The one where themes were not 100s of files and 1,000s of lines of code.</em>”&nbsp; </p>\n\n\n\n\n<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>\n\n\n\n\n<h2 id="2-tools-plugins-and-themes-for-site-owners-and-nocode-site-builders-using-the-block-editor">Tools, plugins and themes for site owners and nocode site builders </h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jeff Chandler</strong> is now writing for the Torque magazine and discovered: <a href="https://torquemag.io/2022/08/the-quote-block-we-deserve-is-finally-here/"><strong>The Quote Block We Deserve Is Finally Here</strong></a>. He wrote: &#8220;It’s wonderful. I can copy and paste multiple paragraphs of text into a quote. I can paste or create lists inside of a Quote. I can select multiple paragraphs that exist within the content and turn that into a Quote.&nbsp;&#8220;</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/lesley_pizza">Lesley Sim</a></strong>, co-founder of <strong>Newsletter Glue </strong>describes in here latest newsleter post <a href="https://newsletterglue.com/blog/newsletter/archive/big-changes-coming-to-newsletter-glue/"><strong>Big Changes are Coming</strong></a> how style variations will arrive at the plugin&#8217;s template designer, as well as Global styles and automated newsletters. With the latter, there will be dragons in form of breaking changes coming your way in 4 to 6 weeks . So stay tuned! </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jamie Marsland</strong> published his <strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmZ0_-6kKeI">Gutenberg Block News</a> </strong>video and quick five minute show with the latest in the space: He covers the plugin release 14.0 &#8211; AI Image plugin and FSE Studio by WPEngine, both still in private beta and alpha testing. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p>In his post, <strong>Fränk Klein</strong> asks <a href="https://humanmade.com/2022/08/24/can-we-please-stop-saying-gutenberg/"><strong>Can we please stop saying ‘Gutenberg’?</strong></a> and bemoans the confusion  around various terms, he encounters in the WordPress universe. If you feel confused, too, let Klein explain what he thinks is the root cause, and what are more precise terms could be used when talking or writing about features of the block editor.  </p>\n\n\n\n<p>BTW: There hasn&#8217;t been any decision yet for on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/07/27/giving-fse-a-more-user-friendly-name/"><strong>renaming of Full-site-editing</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/vikasprogrammer">Vikas Singhal</a> </strong>announced on <a href="https://twitter.com/vikasprogrammer/status/1564935567879864321">Twitter</a>, the release of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutena-forms/"><strong>Gutena Forms plugin</strong></a> in the repository. He continues: &#8220;We try to make it as native as the core blocks, which means: super flexible , easy to fonfigure,  light weight (&amp; no jQuery)  and available as a single block plugin&#8221;. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite it being a single block plugin, it doesn&#8217;t come up in the Inserter search. You would need to install it via the Plugins page. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The design options are fairly intuitive and you are presented with four prebuild forms to start out. You are also able to edit the submission message and error message below the form in the editor. Also, options for the form actions are to send a message (via email) or to enter a URL to externally handle the processing of the submitted form values.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s certainly a great start. Some documentation wouldn&#8217;t hurt especially the difference between a Form Group and a Form Field block,  how to use the URL action option and an explanation of the design options. </p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://twitter.com/CometMarie"><strong>Marie Comet</strong> </a>built a new plugin: <a href="https://github.com/MarieComet/convert-classic-to-gutenberg"><strong>Convert classic to Gutenberg</strong></a> (GitHub). In the Readme she wrote: &#8220;This WordPress plugin provides an interface to convert posts built with the Classic (old) Editor to Gutenberg. Classic content is parsed and converted to blocks.&#8221; </p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/jeffr0">Jeff Chandler</a></strong> has tested it and wants you to <a href="https://torquemag.io/2022/08/check-out-this-new-plugin-that-converts-posts-published-in-the-classic-editor-into-blocks/"><strong>Check Out This New Plugin That Converts Posts Published in the Classic Editor Into Blocks</strong></a> (via Torque Magazine)</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor. </h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ryan Welcher</strong> published the recording of this week&#8217;s Twitch stream <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDMkbVOdQu0"><strong>Overview of the new flags in the 4.0 release of create-block</strong></a> on YouTube. He goes over the new &#8211;<code>-no-plugin</code> and <code>--variant</code> flags that have been added to the <em>create-block</em> tool. These flags greatly increase the usability of the tool by allowing users to add a new blocks to an existing plugin ( or theme ) and by providing the ability for a template to provide  variants of a block, such as a dynamic and static version.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are more the reading type learner, Welcher also updated the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-create-block/">documentation pages for the create-block package</a>, and added a section on <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-create-block/packages-create-block-external-template/">how to create custom templates for the tool</a>, so you can use them for agency specific scaffolding.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p>A couple weeks ago, <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/tommcfarlin">Tom McFarlin</a></strong>, long time independent WordPress back end developer started on a quest to write  &#8216;<a href="https://tommcfarlin.com/writing-tutorials-in-these-gutenberg-times/">better&#8217; block development tutorials</a>. In his <a href="https://tommcfarlin.com/learning-to-build-block-editor-blocks-1/"><strong>A Backend Engineer Learns to Build Block Editor Blocks, Part 1</strong></a>, he walk you through the pre-requisites and creating a block plugin from scratch, explains dependencies and the Block API using block.json file. He also suggests a certain folder structure for the plugin and you can now activate the plugin in your development site. It doesn&#8217;t do anything yet, but you have the skeleton working. Further in the tutorial you learn about the <code>edit()</code> and `save()` functions to display a string in the editor and on the front end of your site. In the reference section you&#8217;ll find short explanations of terms and links to the WordPress <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/">block editor handbook</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p>In a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/08/25/hallway-hangout-discussion-on-block-themes-25-aug/"><strong>Hangout Hallway</strong></a>, <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> gathered about 15 theme developers to discussed various aspects of theme development with full-site editing, styles, Figma and Design Systems and how they can work together with theme.json &#8211; Custom block development, how to organize Pattern Libraries.&nbsp; In her post McCarthy concludes: “&nbsp;.. <em>while there is both excitement and interest in what block themes unlock, it’s also clear that there are a build up of pain points to address, whether through clearer resources or changes to Gutenberg itself</em>. “&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are a theme developer hearing from people, like Ellen Bauer, Carolina Nymark, Rich Tabor, Ana Segota, Herb Miller, who have been working and building block themes for quite some time already, it will jumpstart your discovery and speed up your knowledge aquisition. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p>In his latest post, <a href="https://wpengine.com/builders/page-creation-patterns/"><strong>What are Page Creation Patterns in WordPress?</strong></a>, Nick Diego explains the nature of context aware block patterns, used for a specific use case; for instance, when create a new Page your user can select full page patterns, or if they use a particular custome post type, you can offer different set of patterns. He writes &#8220;Combine this functionality with&nbsp;<a href="https://wpengine.com/builders/block-locking-api/">block locking</a>, and you could present users with an extremely curated editing experience.&#8221; </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n\n<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>\n\n\n\n<p><img alt="GitHub all releases" src="https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/bph/gutenberg/total?style=for-the-badge" /></p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class="ngl-articles pure ngl-articles-50_50 ngl-articles-frontend">\n\n	\n	<div class="ngl-articles-wrap ngl-articles-webview">\n	\n						\n			<div class="ngl-article-mobile">\n				<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">\n					<tr>\n						<td valign="top">\n							<div class="ngl-article-mob-wrap">\n							<div class="ngl-article-featured"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/live-q-a-block-first-approach-at-pew-research-center/" target="_self" rel=""><img src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screen-shot-Pew-Research-Center-july-0222-.png?w=652&ssl=1" /></a></div><div class="ngl-article-title"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/live-q-a-block-first-approach-at-pew-research-center/" target="_self" rel=""><span>Live Q &#038; A: Block-First Approach at Pew Research Center</span></a></div><div class="ngl-article-excerpt">On July 22, 2022, Michael Piccorossi, Head of Digital Strategy and Seth Rubenstein, Lead Developer at Pew Research Center talked to co-hosts Anne McCarthy, WordPress Product Liason and Birgit Pauli-Haack,&hellip; <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/live-q-a-block-first-approach-at-pew-research-center/" class="ngl-article-read-more" target="_self">Read more.</a></div>							</div>\n						</td>\n					</tr>\n				</table>\n			</div>\n			\n			\n			\n\n		\n						\n			<div class="ngl-article-mobile">\n				<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">\n					<tr>\n						<td valign="top">\n							<div class="ngl-article-mob-wrap">\n							<div class="ngl-article-featured"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/conditionally-registering-patterns-in-themes-with-third-party-blocks/" target="_self" rel=""><img src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/unsupported-block-in-pattern.jpg?w=652&ssl=1" /></a></div><div class="ngl-article-title"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/conditionally-registering-patterns-in-themes-with-third-party-blocks/" target="_self" rel=""><span>Conditionally Registering Patterns in Themes with Third-Party Blocks</span></a></div><div class="ngl-article-excerpt">What happens when a theme registers a pattern with a third-party block? If the user has the block plugin installed, it appears as it should. WordPress also does a good&hellip; <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/conditionally-registering-patterns-in-themes-with-third-party-blocks/" class="ngl-article-read-more" target="_self">Read more.</a></div>							</div>\n						</td>\n					</tr>\n				</table>\n			</div>\n			\n			\n			\n\n		\n						\n			<div class="ngl-article-mobile">\n				<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">\n					<tr>\n						<td valign="top">\n							<div class="ngl-article-mob-wrap">\n							<div class="ngl-article-featured"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/layouts-and-wide-alignments-in-wordpress-then-now-and-upcoming-changes/" target="_self" rel=""><img src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/rubiks-cube-code-bg.jpg?w=652&ssl=1" /></a></div><div class="ngl-article-title"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/layouts-and-wide-alignments-in-wordpress-then-now-and-upcoming-changes/" target="_self" rel=""><span>Layouts and Wide Alignments in WordPress: Then, Now, and Upcoming Changes</span></a></div><div class="ngl-article-excerpt">For most of WordPress&#8217; history, the platform accepted a single layout width, defined by the active theme&#8217;s global $content_width variable. Theme authors were required to handle the CSS for it&hellip; <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/layouts-and-wide-alignments-in-wordpress-then-now-and-upcoming-changes/" class="ngl-article-read-more" target="_self">Read more.</a></div>							</div>\n						</td>\n					</tr>\n				</table>\n			</div>\n			\n			\n			\n\n		\n						\n			<div class="ngl-article-mobile">\n				<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">\n					<tr>\n						<td valign="top">\n							<div class="ngl-article-mob-wrap">\n							<div class="ngl-article-featured"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/designing-style-variations-for-twenty-twenty-three-the-good-the-bad-and-everything-else/" target="_self" rel=""><img src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/rough-draft-site-editor.jpg?w=652&ssl=1" /></a></div><div class="ngl-article-title"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/designing-style-variations-for-twenty-twenty-three-the-good-the-bad-and-everything-else/" target="_self" rel=""><span>Designing Style Variations for Twenty Twenty-Three: The Good, the Bad, and Everything Else</span></a></div><div class="ngl-article-excerpt">Since the release of Twenty Ten, the WordPress community has gotten a new default theme almost every year. This has allowed the platform to amass a well-designed and solid body&hellip; <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/designing-style-variations-for-twenty-twenty-three-the-good-the-bad-and-everything-else/" class="ngl-article-read-more" target="_self">Read more.</a></div>							</div>\n						</td>\n					</tr>\n				</table>\n			</div>\n			\n			\n			\n\n		\n		\n		</div>\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<h2 id="5-s">Upcoming WordPress events</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>November 18, 2022</strong><br /><a href="https://www.wordfest.live/2022/november/"><strong>WordFest Live 2022</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>October 11-13, 2022</strong><br /><a href="https://woosesh.com/"><strong>WooSesh 2022</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id="6-word-camps-around-the-world">WordCamps around the World</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>September 3 + 4, 2022<br /><a href="https://kathmandu.wordcamp.org/2022/"><strong>WordCamp Kathmandu</strong></a>, Nepal</p>\n\n\n\n<p>September 9 – 11, 2022<br /><strong><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp US</a></strong>&nbsp;in San Diego</p>\n\n\n\n<p>September 15 + 16, 2022<br /><a href="https://netherlands.wordcamp.org/2022/"><strong>WordCamp Netherlands</strong></a>&nbsp;at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.burgerszoo.com/">Royal Burger’s Zoo</a>&nbsp;in Arnhem</p>\n\n\n\n<p>September 24 + 25, 2022<br /><a href="https://pontevedra.wordcamp.org/2022"><strong>WordCamp Pontevedra</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>February 17 – 19, 2023<br /><strong><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2023/">WordCamp Asia</a></strong>, Bangkok, Thailand<br /><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2023/call-for-speakers/">Call for speaker was just published</a>. Deadline: September 15th, 2022 (UTC +7)<br />Contributor Day is planned for February 17, 2023 (Day 1)</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id="1-l">Learn WordPress Online Meetups</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>September 6, 2022, 5 pm EDT / 21:00 UTC <br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/288046219/"><strong>Customizing a footer with patterns</strong></a> with Wes Theron</p>\n\n\n\n<p>September 6, 2022 4 pm EDT / 20:00 UTC<br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/287786811/"><strong>The Creative Side of Blocks, Vol. 2</strong></a>&nbsp;with Brian Gardner</p>\n\n\n\n<p>September 8, 2022, 10 am EDT / 14:00 UTC<br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/288235087/"><strong>A Beginners Guide to Block Locking in Block Themes</strong></a> with Jonathan Bossenger</p>\n\n\n\n<p>September 14, 2022 1 AM EDT / 5 am UTC <br /><strong><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/288127107/">Showcasing Content with Query Loops</a> </strong>with Wes Theron</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p><em>If you are curious about the featured image, I spent about an hour on <strong>Midjourney&#8217;s <a href="https://midjourney.gitbook.io/docs/">Discord server</a></strong><a href="https://midjourney.gitbook.io/docs/"> interacting with their Imaging AI bot</a> to create illustrations. . It&#8217;s a fascinating journey. </em>It&#8217;s also addictive. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Don McKenzie</strong>, designer at Deephaven, shared is experience in <a href="https://deephaven.io/blog/2022/08/08/AI-generated-blog-thumbnails/"><strong>I replaced all our blog thumbnails using DALL·E 2 for $45: here’s what I learned</strong></a></em>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Aaron Edwards</strong>, CTO at WPMUDEV, <a href="https://twitter.com/UglyRobotDev/status/1565030948428828675">posted on Twitter</a> a preview of a new plugin he has been working on to</em><strong><em> bring <a href="https://imagen.research.google/">Google&#8217;s Imagen</a> generated into your WordPress</em> editor. </strong></p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Featured Image: Young female in car repair shop created by <a href="https://www.midjourney.com/home/">Midjourney AI</a></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide" />\n\n\n\n<p class="has-text-align-left"><strong>Don&#8217;t want to miss the next Weekend Edition? </strong></p>\n\n\n\n<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>\n\n\n\n<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, 03 Sep 2022 20:39:00 +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: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:5;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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: Gutenberg 13.9 Adds New Shortcut to Wrap Selected Text in Quotes";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=137551";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/gutenberg-13-9-adds-new-shortcut-to-wrap-selected-text-in-quotes";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:3825:"<p>Wouldn&#8217;t it be convenient to select a sentence or paragraph and instantly wrap it with quotes by tapping on the quote key? This is a fun little feature that was tucked into the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/17/whats-new-in-gutenberg-13-9-17-august/">Gutenberg 13.9</a> changelog last month with very little fanfare:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">\n<p>Rich text: Add character shortcuts for wrapping selection. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/42469">42469</a>)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The new shortcut is a rich text feature contributed by Automattic-sponsored WordPress core committer Ella van Durpe. It works in a similar way that <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/31571">pasting a link over selection</a> will auto-link the text instead of replace it, a feature that landed seven years ago which she also worked on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new quotes shortcut escaped my notice until I saw George Mamadashvili&#8217;s quick video demo on Twitter: </p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">My new favorite Block Editor shortcut is the ability to wrap selected text in quotes. Select text and press `, '' or ". <br /><br />This nifty little feature shipped with Gutenberg 13.9. However, the editor always supported air quotes. <a href="https://t.co/VnPqv6E44U">pic.twitter.com/VnPqv6E44U</a></p>&mdash; George Mamadashvili (@Mamaduka) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mamaduka/status/1565761697989726209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2022</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a clever feature that is commonly supported by IDE&#8217;s like IntelliJ and PyCharm. Although wrapping with quotes is likely the most common use case for this type of shortcut, it also supports wrapping the selection with a back tick (<code>`</code>), which will automatically wrap it in a code tag instead of replacing the selection with a back tick. van Durpe demonstrated this in the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/42469">PR</a> with a gif:</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>If you frequently copy and paste text that is meant to be in quotes, or code that needs backticks, this new shortcut is a major timesaver and one of the most exciting features to land in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/17/whats-new-in-gutenberg-13-9-17-august/">13.9</a>. van Durpe said it was generalized to work with any characters, such as pressing <code>(</code> to wrap the selection in parenthesis, instead of deleting the selection. However, this was scaled back a bit during the review before the PR was merged.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m a bit worried with expanding these to characters that are natural openers because I suspect it&#8217;s a typical action to select a word and type the first letter of what should replace it — parentheses and quotation marks, in particular, would have a much higher incidence of cases where the intention is indeed to replace the selected text with the mark, not to wrap it in them,&#8221; Gutenberg lead architect Matias Ventura said. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ventura concluded that it&#8217;s worth testing but suggested more characters be added incrementally to focus feature announcements on the ones they are more certain about &#8220;without the ones that could be problematic tainting the feature.&#8221; This is possibly the reason it wasn&#8217;t highlighted in the release post.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The backtick and quote characters are the only two included in this iteration of the feature. It&#8217;s not easy for users to discover in the natural course of using the editor, so it might need a little promotion for people to start using it enough to know if it&#8217;s going to become one of those indispensable features or something that is inadvertently causing frustration.</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, 03 Sep 2022 03:29:57 +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:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:72:"WPTavern: Jetpack Performance Team Takes Over WP Super Cache Development";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=137516";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:83:"https://wptavern.com/jetpack-performance-team-takes-over-wp-super-cache-development";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:4657:"<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-super-cache/">WP Super Cache</a>, one of the oldest and most widely used static caching plugins for WordPress, is changing hands. After 15 years, the plugin&#8217;s author, <a href="https://odd.blog/">Donncha Ó Caoimh</a>, is handing over maintenance and development to Jetpack&#8217;s performance team.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have been building WordPress sites since the early days, you are almost guaranteed to have used WP Super Cache on at least one project (or hundreds). It is based on an earlier plugin called WP Cache 2 that Ó Caoimh <a href="https://odd.blog/2007/11/05/wordpress-super-cache-01/">forked in 2007</a> when its author had lost interest and was no longer developing it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jetpack&#8217;s performance team manages the <a href="https://jetpack.com/boost/">Jetpack Boost</a>&nbsp;plugin, used by more than 100,000 sites, and the&nbsp;<a href="https://jetpack.com/features/design/content-delivery-network/">CDN</a>. In today&#8217;s <a href="https://jetpack.com/blog/wp-super-cache-joins-the-jetpack-family/">announcement</a>, Jetpack assured current users that they will still be able to &#8220;enjoy its core features without a new plugin or a connection to Jetpack.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>“We’re excited to start working on WP Super Cache,” Jetpack Performance Lead Mark George said. “Our goal is to create an experience where anyone can make their site extremely fast without being an expert. We want to help make sure that WP Super Cache remains a reliable and easy option for that.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This change in hands is not an acquisition. Ó Caoimh, who was the very first Automattic employee, confirmed the company did not buy the plugin from him. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve worked in Automattic since the company was founded, so they&#8217;ve supported the development of the plugin all along,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Really, the plugin is moving sideways in the company, from one developer to a team.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I just don&#8217;t have time to work on it properly. I&#8217;m working on other projects, mainly <a href="https://crowdsignal.com/">Crowdsignal</a> now, and it was hard to find time to work on it. Jetpack will be able to do a lot more with it than I ever could.&#8221; </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ó Caoimh said the support burden for the plugin isn&#8217;t that bad, despite it being active on more than two million WordPress sites. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The plugin has a &#8216;debug log&#8217; that will log (almost) everything it does to a file, which makes it easier to figure out why a problem is happening a lot of the time,&#8221; Ó Caoimh said. &#8220;Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I wasn&#8217;t able to give the support forums the time it deserved either. Now, a team in Automattic will be helping answer questions and solve problems. It can only be a good thing for users of the plugin.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ó Caoimh said handing over maintenance and development to the Jetpack team frees up time for his family and eliminates a source of stress, as he was worried that WP Super Cache wasn&#8217;t getting the attention it needed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In the past I worked on this late into the night but I have a family, and they come first,&#8221; he said. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Jetpack team already has plans to modernize the plugin and will be investing more resources in support and new features. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;While we research new features to help make WordPress sites cache faster, we will begin updating the WP Super Cache UI to bring it in line with modern standards, so it is easier to use,&#8221; Jetpack VP of Marketing Rob Pugh said. &#8220;In addition, we’ll be working behind the scenes to ensure it’s compatible with our other performance features like Jetpack Boost.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>After 15 years, it&#8217;s impressive that WP Super Cache has maintained a 4.3 out of&nbsp;5&nbsp;stars rating on WordPress.org with 1,296&nbsp;reviews. With the Jetpack team&#8217;s resources, support in the forums is likely to improve, and users can expect to see more improvements as the plugin now has a team of people moving it forward.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I have no regrets handing over the plugin to Jetpack,&#8221; Ó Caoimh said. &#8220;It&#8217;s one thing to create and maintain a plugin that might be used by a handful of sites, but this plugin is used by two million sites. If I introduced a subtle error that impacted people using WordPress in a manner I hadn&#8217;t thought of that might cause problems for thousands of websites. The itch that I scratched by creating WP Super Cache has well and truly been scratched and has long healed.&#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, 02 Sep 2022 20:46:58 +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:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:90:"Post Status: Post Status Excerpt (No. 67) — What Does Professionalism Mean in WordPress?";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=114431";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://poststatus.com/what-does-professionalism-mean-in-wordpress/";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:56782:"<div class="wp-container-1 wp-block-group has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">Dan and Eric discuss their top picks for WordPress news stories of the week and the topic of professionalism. What is it — what does it mean for us in the WordPress community, and how does it relate to a healthy open source project and business ecosystem? </p></div>\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<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">39</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<blockquote><p><em>We''re not afraid to let our human side show</em>.</p><cite><strong>Erik Karkovack</strong></cite></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-drop-cap">In this episode of Post Status Draft, <strong>Eric Karkovack</strong> joins <strong>Dan Knauss</strong> to discuss their top picks for important topics and news stories in the WordPress world this week. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, Dan and Eric take up the topic of &#8220;professionalism.&#8221; What is it — what does it mean for us in the WordPress community, and how does it relate to a healthy open source project and business ecosystem?</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Eric''s Top News Picks</h2>\n\n\n\n<ol><li><strong>WP-Optimize</strong>&#8216;s <a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-optimize-denies-allegations-of-cheating-performance-tools">&#8220;Cheating&#8221; Scandal</a> (WP Tavern)</li><li><strong>WebP</strong> in <strong>WordPress 6.1</strong> in <a href="https://poststatus.com/webp-by-default-is-on-hold/">on hold again / &#8220;being reconsidered&#8221;</a> (Post Status)</li><li><strong>WordPres</strong>s.com&nbsp;<a href="https://poststatus.com/the-500-website/">Now Offering $499 Websites</a> (Post Status)</li></ol>\n\n\n\n<h2>Dan''s Top News Picks</h2>\n\n\n\n<ol><li><strong>Unethical &#8220;GPL clubs&#8221; and &#8220;piracy&#8221;</strong> — and what we can do about it. (An <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1661633866043009">emerging discussion</a> <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/C0413T6GD/p1662030800848389?thread_ts=1661635391.530579&cid=C0413T6GD">in Post Status Slack</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/michelleames/status/1565330137134108673">on Twitter</a>.)</li><li><strong>Gravity Forms</strong> acquires <strong>Gravity Flow</strong> and <strong>Gravity Experts</strong>, a pair of product and service businesses in the Gravity Forms ecosystem developed by <strong>Steven Henty</strong>, Director of Product Development for <a href="http://www.rocketgenius.com">Rocketgenius</a> – the creators of <a href="https://www.stevenhenty.com/gravityforms">Gravity Forms</a>.</li><li><strong>Post Status''s <a href="https://poststatus.com/member-spotlight-jonathan-bossenger/">Member Spotlight</a> </strong>for this week is on <strong>Jonathan Bossenger</strong>. What he says (and personally represents) touches some ideas about professionalism in the WordPress ecosystem and here at Post Status.</li></ol>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-container-4 wp-block-columns has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background" id="WP-Engine">\n<div class="wp-container-2 wp-block-column">\n<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/a2-hosting">A2 Hosting</a></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A2Hosting offers solutions for WordPress and WooCommerce that are both blazing fast and ultra-reliable.</strong> WordPress can be easily deployed on <em>ANY</em> web hosting plan from A2: Shared, VPS, or Dedicated. A2 also offers Managed WordPress and WooCommerce Hosting. Take a look at <a href="http://a2hosting.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a2hosting.com</a> today!</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-container-3 wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center"><div class="wp-block-image">\n<a href="https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/a2hosting.com"><img width="304" height="304" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/88b63da0-f90b-11e6-bc40-730c4553c727.png" alt="A2 Hosting" class="wp-image-101225" title="WP Engine" /></a></div></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h3 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>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://poststatus.com/how-green-is-webp-really/">How Green is WebP Really?</a> (Post Status)</li><li><a href="https://raidboxes.io/en/blog/wordpress/wordpress-internet-nachhaltig/">Is There Such Thing as a Sustainable Internet? How Green is WordPress?</a> (raidboxes)</li><li><a href="https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2021/">Web Almanac</a> (HTTP Archive)</li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom">Elinor Ostrom</a>, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.1172133">A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems</a> (<em>Science</em>, 2009) Ostrom identified &#8220;ten subsystem variables that affect the likelihood of successful self-organization of efforts to achieve a sustainable socio-ecological systems by the communities involved.&#8221; These variables seem incredibly relevant as things we can do in the WordPress ecosystem to engage in self-regulation and self-governance to deal with bad actors and quality issues. (<a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2012/06/17/elinor-ostroms-work-on-governing-the-commons-an-appreciation/">Summary at The London School of Economics</a>)</li><li><a href="https://poststatus.com/nulled-themes-and-plugins/">Nulled Themes and Plugins</a> (Post Status)</li><li><a href="https://locusmag.com/2017/09/cory-doctorow-demon-haunted-world/">Demon-Haunted World</a> (Cory Doctorow) &#8220;Cheating is a given&#8230;&#8221;</li><li><a href="https://poststatus.com/we-dont-need-no-stinkin-standards/">We don’t need no stinkin’ standards!</a> (Post Status) </li><li>Eric Karkovac, <a href="https://poststatus.com/writing-is-a-challenging-but-needed-profession-in-wordpress/">Writing is a Challenging But Needed Profession in WordPress</a> (Post Status)</li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahschulman/?originalSubdomain=ca">Sarah Schulman</a>, <a href="https://www.trampoline-effect.ca/"><em>The Trampoline Effect: Redesigning Our Social Safety Net</em></a> (On Professionalism as a mask of invulnerability.)</li><li><a href="https://poststatus.com/member-spotlight-jonathan-bossenger/">Jonathan Bossenger</a>, our Member Spotlight this week (Post Status)</li><li><a href="https://poststatus.com/building-and-sustaining-the-wordpress-community-through-mentorship/">Building and sustaining community through mentorship</a> (Post Status)</li><li><a href="https://poststatus.com/what-does-five-for-the-future-mean-to-you-2/">Mentorship as Contribution</a> (Post Status)</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h3><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f44b.png" alt="👋" class="wp-smiley" /> Credits</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul id="block-a3e9962f-97ca-4009-be8e-db47b5d1fddf"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/karks88">Eric Karkovack</a>, Freelance WordPress Web Developer (Twitter)</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/dan_knauss">Dan Knauss</a>, Editor for <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status">Post Status</a> (Twitter)</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/lemonadecode">Olivia Bisset</a>, Web Producer intern for Post Status (Twitter)</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-background">Every week <strong><a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">Post Status Excerpt</a></strong> will bring you a conversation about important news and issues in the WordPress community and business ecosystem. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f399.png" alt="🎙" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><br />You can listen to <a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">past episodes</a> of <strong>The Excerpt</strong>, <a href="https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/">browse all our podcasts</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1m3xwXbe0MG5BzFVPtB0A7">Spotify</a>, Amazon Music, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://castro.fm/podcast/c53552c6-1ee0-4fc4-9de4-08ed6bf1ee4d">Castro</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus">YouTube</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast">Stitcher</a>, <a href="https://player.fm/series/wordpress-post-status-podcasts">Player.fm</a>, <a href="https://pca.st/05rR">Pocket Casts</a>, <a href="https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/">Simplecast</a>, or by <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>\n\n\n\n<h1 id="h-transcript">Transcript</h1>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Hey, Eric, how are you doing?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> I''m good. How are you?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Not bad. Um, yeah, another, another week coming, coming down to, uh, to a close and assembling the, the stories that matter. We want to, um, get into our often jampacked newsletter and thinking about, um, weird camp coming up. And, um, I think everyone''s getting geared up for that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, So what''s, what''s on the top of your mind this week, I wanted to kinda run through the top three, um, news stories of, um, the commentary issues, questions in the WordPress space that, uh, matter to you. And I''ve gotta got a few, two.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> I think the biggest thing that came out to me is that, uh, the whole WebP support in, uh, WordPress six point ones kind of being reconsidered at the moment.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. Thought that was, uh, a lot of community pushback on, uh, how they were going to implement it and kind of nice to see the, uh, leadership, uh, in, you know, the developers take a step back and kind of think things through again,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> right. Yeah, that''s gone back and forth quite a bit. I, I got a little lost, um, keeping up and like, like you and your earlier writing about it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I, I think a lot of us feel, boy that would turning that on by default, um, is, is not something we like is there should be. An option or at least, uh, I don''t know. I could see, I could see putting in a default for new installs or something like that, but for, to suddenly switch, um, potentially, um, everyone over from JPEGs or, or whatever, that''s, isn''t that the main sticking point.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> Yeah, basically it would take, um, what was being proposed was that if you uploaded a, a JPEG or a PNG file or whatever, uh, WordPress would automatically convert it to a WebP and use. And so there''s, you know, talk about, well, that takes up a lot of server resources. Um, WebP isn''t supported in every browser.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There''s like specific versions of safari that are a few years old that don''t, you know, uh, support it yet. And just all the files that it''s gonna create, cuz you know, WordPress creates three or four versions of every image you upload. And if it''s doing that again for WebP versions, You know, some folks on cheaper hosting accounts could run outta space.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Right. And then there''s the whole idea of, you know, WordPress is all about controlling your content and controlling your process. And to me, that''s kind of a, the oddity of it. It''s like, well, they''re gonna force you to use this format that by the way Google created and you know, yeah. Not everybody wants to use it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I, I think, you know, having a check box makes a lot of sense, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah, there''s, uh, I was looking at, um, working on, um, towards editing on the, uh, web Almanac, um, which a number of WordPress people contribute to each year for, um, CMS section of that. And, um, their data set where they compile, um, run a bunch of queries on a test population and, you know, see how many are using WordPress and Elementor stands out to, and, you know, WordPress is just.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Weighing the numbers are, are way out there. And you start to think about, um, the dramatic impact it, it would have with, um, Switching a format to, you know, suddenly becoming very heavily used, like, um, like WebP, which, which I''ve kind of been in favor of, uh, from a sustainability perspective, because end performance it''s, it''s generally faster and is gonna use less bandwidth and let''s storage.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if you duplicate, you still have all those old JPEGs and you duplicate that. And yeah, you''re really adding a lot in that, in that respect, it''s not saving, uh, saving the planets and. Particularly well, um, but I haven''t seen that side of the discussion come up, um, on it, but I, I, uh, I know there are people who care about, um, just how much we''ve got in the cloud.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That''s just junk and it''s taken cost in electrons, power every day. Um, so it, it will be interesting to see how that gets, that gets sorted out. Um, I''m sure more efficient formats are where we''re headed. um, so my, my, um, my number one pick is, is not really something that''s been tackled yet. I''m sure people are starting to write.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I haven''t, uh, I have to let things settle and think about a bit, but there''s a, there''s a big running discussion that started in two channels, two threads and, and, uh, post data is slack. Piracy G or unethical behavior with cloning, um, you know, G GPL clubs that get hold of a commercial license and crack, uh, WordPress plugins and, and so on, and then re resell this, uh, cheaply.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, that''s always been a thing. Uh, I think I remember that going on in ju. Um, there''s we all know the reasons why that''s a bad idea, hurts people''s businesses. There''s often malware that comes along as a payload with your free, cheap cracked software. Um, but this, at the same time, one of the big culprits here, um, was adding in some, adding in some new product that is sort of specialized at a niche.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it''s not, you know, it''s not, uh, Cheap plugins are some quite high end things targeted at hosts. Um, so it''s a, it can be really devastating to some people''s business model. If, if it were, um, if it was costing them, their target audience, some people feel actually, you shouldn''t worry about this because the only people using it or kids or people who aren''t your customers anyway, um, but this one particular.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hosting, uh, pirated, uh, GPL club. Where''s archives, spammed, a ton of people, including people who are in the middle of this discussion. Uh, just at that moment, um, got a lot of Twitter, DMS and, and other things, uh, straight at people who totally don''t want is going on. So, um, Allie Niman suggested, well, you know, one way we could come combat, this is go at the host and say, there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spamming. Um, there''s been some discussion of what could we do collectively to fight back and protect the ecosystem. Um, have you taken a look at those discussions or seen this come up in the past and have thoughts on it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> Yeah. There have been a number of cases over the years where people''s plugins have been forked and stolen and, you know, resold that''s.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I mean, I, I wonder how many of those plugins are actually in product. Especially on high level sites. I mean, if you are a web designer who is, you know, partaking in something like that, uh, you know, clients may have these things on their sites and not know it. I wouldn''t think there''s a huge number, but yeah, I think Allie''s, uh, you know, Suggestion of going after hosting is, is, is a good one.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think maybe it could go after payment gateways too. I know, like, especially PayPal has been rough on anyone. Who''s doing anything sketchy over the years. You know, if, if that''s gets reported, they may get their, uh, their payment gateway shut down, which, you know, could kind of cripple their ability to redistribute this stuff.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But yeah, I mean, I do think WordPress leadership should speak out on it. You know, I, I know that''s, I mean, it''s not just a WordPress issue. It''s, it''s a software issue. It''s an open source issue, but you know, just some sort of statement, you know, maybe even at word camp us about, you know, let''s protect this ecosystem.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let''s make sure. You know, everybody''s playing by the rules and that we, you know, if we find someone who''s not, we should, you know, make, uh, everyone aware of.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah, exactly. I''ve I''ve often thought, man, I wish there was some advocacy. I wish we had like a nonprofit or, or some collective where we supported, uh, advocacy for open source to both educate people who know nothing about it, the consumers and everyone else and just show, Hey, look, this is a professional space where people are making, living from small.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Freelancers solo people. Who''ve been at it a long time, basically family businesses, all the way up to, um, in the bigger, the bigger companies that are heavily by everyone else. It''s a, it''s a big family and, uh, they''re real people here. And if you, you support these products, it''s, uh, it''s hurting us. So there''s kind of that, um, The, uh, tending the collective governments, governance of an industry as a commons like this, an open source one there''s, there should be things that, um, outside of the project, even that, that people in, in the WordPress business.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Can do that would kind of be on the list of Eleanor Ostrom''s, um, things that healthy ecosystems, healthy commons do to, uh, to protect themselves where you, you find the bad actors and find ways to suppress and discourage that. And sometimes if they''re internal to the community, you wanna, you know, not completely.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Demonize them, but give some kind of carrots and stick so that there''s incentives to come back and be a good contributor. And you know, some host, straight anger, rage on the internet is just adding to useless stressful stuff. Maybe there''s a win in this and on the advocacy and education side. But, uh, I also threw out the idea that since the WordPress foundation does legal.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Defense of the WordPress trademark. Uh, this is like one step away. Suppose you had good citizens who are doing five for the future. Um, and they''re, they don''t have quite the means to individually defend themselves in the same way or they''re are there ways we could, um, pull together and help each other through, um, through that, through the foundation or something like that?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> Um, yeah, you would think there, there could at least be some sort. Guide to, uh, steps you can take, you know, I know they, they have lawyers working on their side, as you said, to protect trademarks and, and things like that. You know, even if it''s just general advice to come out and say, Hey, your, your, your, your plugin has been selling on the black market.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here''s what you can do. Here''s some resources that would, you know, seem like at least the basic way to, to help.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. And I think it''s kind of a black eye for. Uh, for any, any business ecosystem, uh, people looking to get into it. Um, it may not understand quite what''s going on, but it looks if it looks like you''re laying down to predators, um, who have gotten entrenched it''s it''s not a good.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sign for the healthiness of the ecosystem. And it, it would, um, definitely be good for morale to have some, some clear boundaries defined and say like, this is not okay in our, in our world. And we''re not gonna support this anyway and find what we can do to limit it. Um, over, I wrote about this a few weeks ago, because FIUs had on their blog.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A pretty long post about dealing with this. Um, and we''ve, we''ve done this before people getting courseware stolen. It can be content that can be all kinds of things getting ripped off. Um, When you, you may or may not have any intellectual property rights over it. If it''s, if it''s GP stuff, um, some is some isn''t.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, but they, they actually had some interesting, uh, case studies or, or people who, who didn''t fly off the handle, they would get, ultimately you''re getting support requests from people who have. This pirate did stuff. And sometimes they don''t know, um, what they''ve done or what situation they''re in. And someone had found that it was kind of a teachable moment where they could educate and, and convert some of these people into customers and say like, oh, okay, we''re not gonna give you support until you''re actually our customer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And some people just needed that. They just needed the education, I guess. So, um, there''s maybe there is some win possible there. Um, All right. Well, what''s your, uh, what''s your next pick?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> Okay. Well, I have to go with the, uh, little scandal about, uh, WP optimize and the alleged cheating on, uh, performance tests by, uh, turning off all JavaScript.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, and when it''s, uh, under a, a testing user agent, I guess it''s, it''s able to detect that. Say okay. It''s GT metrics or it''s, uh, page feed insights. And in that case, we''re gonna turn off all of our, all of your site''s JavaScript to boost your score and make you feel good about yourself, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. So that got quickly compared to the Volkswagen scandal a few years back, and there may have been another manufacturer car manufacturer doing that when you hook the cars up to a, uh, Uh, emissions test, um, they, uh, turn the catalytic converter and filters on and rest of the time, uh, it, it''s not on and you get, um, better performance on the road.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, um, I don''t, if it yeah, probably affects fuel economy. Right. Um,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> yeah, I think it was, I want to, I think it does. And then it also, I mean, the pollutants that came out of those cars on the road,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Way more than the legal limit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really bad. And so they had, it was a huge blow for the, um, for the brand, uh, a huge amount of distrust, uh, and, and a blow for what everyone, you know, probably was a really solid brand Volkswagen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, the. The interesting. I, I remember I, this was a, when I was teaching writing last, um, there was a Corey doctoral piece about this. Well, it brought it in as an example, and he was talking about we''re dangerously going into a. A future where software can be so sophisticated, we don''t really know what it''s doing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And we don''t even really know if the experience we''re having is software mediated with an there''s an algorithm that is manipulating the semi virtual experience we''re having. So is your, is your WordPress really? You know, what''s it doing? Uh, who''s it talking to, um, Are you, are you, when you think you''re doing tests, are you getting valid, um, results?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So to me, the trust issue is, is interesting. Um, how, how has the response been from, um, from the company that has allegedly this, this code in it that is sort of a cheater code on, um, op optimization tests.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> Yeah. So Sarah Gooding at the WP Tavern put. Article together that, uh, spoke with, uh, one of the lead developers of WP optimize.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, uh, according to him, it was a code that was forked over from another plugin. And I have to plea ignorance on the name of that plugin right now. But, uh, apparently they were in talks to maybe, um, acquire this plugin. And at the time they decided to, um, kind of merge some code in there to make it, um, You know, to get ready for this big merger they were gonna have, which ended up falling through.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then, um, it ended up that they forgot the code was in there. The deal fell through. And, um, they weren''t quite sure why the code was still in there or, you know, kind of pleaded ignorance on it. Um, but then Sarah also came up with a, an article the day after that, uh, kind of dug into it more where I guess, you know, this, the, um, the, the settings in this plugin are also a little bit up too, so they''re not, uh, completely clear on what they''re doing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so, you know, there''s, it, it, it may be not an intentional thing, but at the same time, it still doesn''t look very good. Right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah, it will be interesting to see how quickly and how well that that clears up. Um, yeah, I really care about the trust, the trust issues, and you know, again, kind of like the, the piracy, if, if you, if there''s a widespread perception of, we can''t trust.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Certain brands or theoretically any hypothetically anyone in the, in our ecosystem. It it''s a, that''s a really bad consequence where so much trust is at, at the core of making open source work. But in a sense, it''s open source working. Someone looked at the code</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> yeah. It''s interesting that somebody was able to test that and found that what it was doing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I mean, I don''t know. I I''m, I''m not a huge believer in these metrics. Um, you know, they, I don''t wanna say they''re made up, but they''re, they are kind of made up and they don''t always reflect, I don''t think, you know, the actual user experience. Right. But, you know, I think any of these systems we bring out, somebody''s gonna find a way to cheat on them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if you wanna cheat on your performance test and get yourself, you know, a little bit of an ego boost by saying, oh, I scored a 99. You. And so be it, um, you, you are the one that kind of has to live with it, but I think the plugin should, at the very least be very clear about what they''re doing and you know, what it''s used for.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What''s good about it. And, you know, here''s how you shouldn''t use it. Um, which, you know, they apparently did not do in this case. Sure.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah, it, it does pose again to me, like interesting questions about what could we do better as a community collectively to incentivize good behavior around performance. Can there be kind of a general working standard or guidance on for plugin authors and for users?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What, what we''re looking for? What makes afor, what, what''s the margin of, of a good performance plugin or just. I wish if you had details, when you''re down, you you''re in the.org repo, how many queries does has add to your page? What kind of, what are the main dependencies here? Um, is there a quick way to get a heads up on that sometimes, um, before you in install something and then find out , um, all, all of, um, all of the work being done in performance core is, is really outstanding and.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I it''s probably wrong to think about it as this is just a core, that''s their problem. And this is a, a core thing. There''s, there''s a huge plug in ecosystem where, uh, testing and standards could be, um, a bit more rigorous and that it sort of came up a bit with a proposal from, um, uh, Felix aren''t to, um, um, look at to when, when plugins are submitted.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, To, uh, test specifically around performance and security, a little bit more rigorously.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> And yeah, I mean, we have, I mean, you know, where I live, we have, uh, energy star appliances, right. That means that they''re certified as being efficient. You know, maybe there''s a third party out there that can do that for plugins, or I don''t know if the word price folks would wanna do that necessarily, but, you know, we have, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You could have like some sort of, uh, certification system that says, Hey, this plug. You know, performs well and is lean and is secure. Yeah, of course that, you know, it''s hard with software because there''s no guarantees. Um, of course your refrigerator could break the day after you bring it home. But you know, things interesting to thank see if somebody would ever, uh, come up with something like that, that you know, and how legitimate it could.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Sure. Yeah, that could be really useful. Um, maybe if it was a consensus or amongst hosts who, you know, doing anything at scale, the, the, the performance, um, matters in dollars in significant dollars. Um, and yeah, we should think more about that. Um, my, my next pick was, um, Gravity acquires gravity. Um, the, uh, uh, gravity forms, um, uh, acquire G gravity flow and, uh, and the services, um, oriented.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, what was it name,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> name, uh, gravity experts. I think.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah, gravity experts. Okay. Um, not too familiar with those, but these are, uh, product and, and services in the gravity forms ecosystem that, um, we''re are owned and were owned and developed by, um, one of, uh, gravity''s team members. Um, so that''s, that''s kind of an interesting story is I don''t, I''m not aware of anyone, anyone else building an E plug in ecosystem.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Around their product and working that closely where your employees are, are developed. Uh, I would assume, uh, encouraged to develop a product or service related to it on their own, and then maybe it really takes off and bring it back in into the, um, parent company. Um, Is that, is that something unusual they''ve innovated with it''s you''re not being taken over by a big, uh, a conglomerate it''s it''s the family you''re already</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. I kind of think that''s interesting. Isn''t it? I mean, you do a side project based on your everyday job and then your boss essentially buys your product. It''s like getting a really good bonus at work. You don''t don''t really get that. So I, I, I kind of think it''s cool though. Um, you know, gravity forms, if you use it a lot, I mean, you notice there are tons of, you know, official extensions and they have a whole third party directory now and they go through and certify certain add-ons, uh, third party add-ons on their site that you can look through.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, you know, kind of a neat thing. I mean like gravity flow. Um, allows you to really do some complex things with, um, what happens when a form gets submitted. You can tie it in with a bunch of third party services or have it do different things on your site. So I think that just is such a natural fit for gravity forms that, you know, why wouldn''t they wanna sell something that does that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Right. Um, and then gravity experts is a service. That''ll do a lot of customization and. As I mentioned to you off the air, I think that, you know, they probably get a lot of customization requests through their support. Sure. Um, and I''ve actually just from my own experience, found their support to be awesome.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>They tend to, I mean, they don''t mind sending you code snippets to use for, to achieve certain things. Um, this steps it up a whole other level. Um, you know, if you need customization services, well, we have that too. Um, you know, why not keep that all in house and you. And maybe some of the customizations they create could end up being products on their own too.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think it would be a great way to kind of continue to grow their</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> business. Yeah. It''s a really, it''s a really cool thing. And I, I wonder if anyone else is, is doing that. It, it, it occurs to me. The advantage of it is, is that, um, your own in internal people know that product best, but there''s not really, if they''re already working for you there, there''s not.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you budget and, and allocate like, Hey, go and develop, you know, blue sky, even, you know, go and build, uh, add-ons for this. Um, and, and see what we come back with. It''s a totally different thing. Um, the incentives are, are not there as if you''re, you''re building this as your own product and in if it''s good enough, um, it''s you, you gotta get it to the point of maturity and, and quality where a competitor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Might actually want it or someone else might. And, um, then I guess you''re, you''re really establishing value in a, um, a clear and somewhat more neutral way while still totally being within this, um, sub economy, this E gravity ecosystem. It''s a smart, smart way to own and share it collectively and not smother.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Creativity and things like that. And yeah, I just don''t, there''s no other way to, um, to do something like that in the usual, usual way where some outside company would absorb something else. And then maybe the quality, you know, there''s just stereotype or fear the quality''s gonna drop off cuz it''s a different,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Usually we worry, even plugins get acquired, but not in this case because it''s, you know, the OG has it now, so we don''t have to worry about, you know, them. You know, making it less quality or, or not supporting it? Well,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> yeah, it''s a fantastic model. I think others should seriously take note. There''s plenty of, um, plenty of other ecosystem plugins that, uh, have this potential for that kind of collaboration.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, good one. Okay. So yeah. What''s your, what''s your third?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> Pick. So my third one is that, uh, wordpress.com this week announce that they''re gonna start offering $499 websites to anyone who wants one it''s, uh, supposed, supposed to be done within four business days. Uh, they''ll give you a choice of themes or they''ll pick one for you, which is kind of interesting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, you pick my theme. Um, I, I, I kind of wonder. Who the target is and what the strategy is here. Are they just trying to get you in the door? So that you''re kind of part of their wordpress.com ecosystem you kind of, uh, a different, uh, different strategy? I would think.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah, it''s, uh, it''s interesting. I did write about this, um, because it was, I, I love it when, you know, we have, we have about a 10 year, um, backlog, uh, Back issues and, you know, things that have, uh, we can look back and see the history on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, um, I thought it was a further back, but it was just probably about a year ago that, um, wordpress.com did that for the first time where they introduced a premium, um, built with wordpress.com service, which this seems to be an add-on to that the, uh, part of. Same brand, but the, the initial one a year ago was, um, not supposed to compete with freelancers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was priced at around $5,000, um, as a baseline that seems to have come down in their FAQ. Now it''s, it''s around three. So there''s still this, this premium layer. And I think that was supposed to use, um, Agencies and people within the ecosystem to do some of this work. I''m not, we really haven''t got, I don''t think anyone has dug into that or gotten numbers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We were very curious to, to see what, um, what might come out of that in, in terms of its success for wordpress.com and who''s how many sites are being brought into it. What that it''s, we''re, we''re very data poor. About the economics and details of the market. And that also made me think too, in this, in this story, that, um, is it, is that really competing or over the same piece of the pie or is there, is there so much there it''s not, um, not a, not a threat to.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, so freelancers, small agencies, the way they, they might think, um, you can do very different things and I can see why.com wants to, you know, continually expand at, um, where it''s easier to do that, where it''s always had more market share at the lower end of, of the market. Uh, but when you''re freelance, those, those are not necessarily the jobs you want.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> So I, I actually made a joke online that I would rather like farm up stuff I don''t want to do to them because at that price point I''m, you know, probably gonna lose money. So yeah, if they wanna take on that, that small stuff, that''s, that''s cool with me, but right. Um, it is kind of interesting to, to think that they''re going after that, that market too.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I. Right, but I think you''re right about, about them not wanting about a lot of people on the lower end, going to wordpress.com to start out because it is kind of managed</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> for them. Right. And as they pivot more and more to presenting themselves as, as a managed WordPress host, um, with. With that market in mind.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, you know, there, there are others already doing, doing this. Why, why let competitors have a, a free run at this? Um, they''re doing the same thing, but.com now I''ll Hey, you can, uh, you can install pretty much anything in the repo. I, I think, and there''s a commercial ecosystem within there. You can buy Yost and everything else right from within there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So as it grows, it''s not, you know, it''s not. The way to look at that is still ecosystem growth with opportunities for, um, plugins and services and other things like that. But, um, I also feel like we looked so much at the market share number and where it''s biggest is the, um, top 10 million plus active sites with WordPress installed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it''s, it''s the bigger universe. And you assume that these are. People''s personal blogs and so on. But, um, because they''re not, it''s just by traffic, you know, they''re not in the top 10,000, but, um, when I did a lot more freelancing, a lot of the clients I had that were good would be established. Nonprofits, local governmental things, um, people with, with significant budgets, but they''re their traffic is they don''t care about it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Number one, that much necessarily. Um, they''re not doing even doing much content marketing. Maybe they have a newsletter. They''re speaking to a very. Specific audience that may be numbered in the hundreds or the thousands. They''re doing a lot on social. So they would be considered in this low end of the market, but that''s, um, but by assessing their site by traffic, but it''s not a that''s completely a misnomer, then they would have no, no use for a, um, A hired site builder, even they need, they need an agency or, or someone with a capacity to do support in the hosting and a rather much more elaborate feature set.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, so that market, that market is always there. I, I, I think people forget that and you''re not gonna be killed off by the $500, four day service.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> No. And, and I mean, if they they''ve talked about, you know, wanting to compete with some of these proprietary systems like Wix, And I think that''s kind of the same market.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I mean, people that want to not spend a ton of money and maybe in this case, they don''t even really wanna build it themselves. They just want something up there and maybe as they grow, they go to something bigger. But to start out, you know, it''s not a huge investment and. You know, those are the folks that I think aren''t necessarily attracted to freelancers, not just cuz of budget, but because you know, somebody wants to try a blog.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Somebody wants to start their small business and with no guarantee of how long that''s going to last, you know, is that client going to still be there for you in two years? And if they are, you know, what''s the value. Are you getting so many support requests that you can''t necessarily deal with? So in that way, I, I, I don''t think this is a bad thing to kind of tie them all into that, that one service, uh, it might, it might be, you know, something more beneficial for them that where they can even leave at any time they want to.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I mean, the business goes belly up, you know, it''s, it''s not as tangled and messy as it might be getting away from an agency or a freelancer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. And I''m, I much rather have them on, um, on.com or anything in the WordPress ecosystem than WX. Um, which I still, man, I have a, I was in, I''ve had to use it again recently for a, a local nonprofit I''m, uh, helping out.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, and I, I don''t like, I don''t like Wix . Um, and I''m just thinking like, if, as this organization grows and what''s needs, are it, it needs open source. It needs WordPress. It needs data security. Um, there. There are things that maybe they''re not in a position to pay for, but they''re at this point, but their success will get them into that at some point.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, and there as a, um, running your own business, that''s a kind of, you can only do that. You know, you, you can ask those questions and do the discovery and form the relationship and say, look, these are, these are the needs you really have. And, um, what''s. What''s really the best product or, or thing here. And sometimes that leads to long good relationships with, uh, a decent paying client who may get a lot bigger, um, in that budget at least.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> Absolutely.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. All right. Well that, that all kind of ties in kind of nicely, um, to the last thing, um, kind of our topic we wanna open up for kind of long term discussion and get. People engaged with, um, kind of a big central one for, for post status. And, and I think everyone working in this space is, is professionalism.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And what does it mean to be a WordPress professional? We say we''re the post status is the community for WordPress professionals. And that''s an interesting phrase that''s really kind of come into, I would say, in the last five to 10 years, um, widespread use in our community. And what does that, what does that mean to you?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, As an individual as a, and within the community and the, the business ecosystem, uh, to be a WordPress professional and professionalism in general.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, WordPress professionals kind of interesting, cuz it started out as a small blogging platform, right. And people were using it as more of a hobbyist thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then all of a sudden, you know, the theme and plugin markets kind of exploded and we. Using it as a full blown CMS and, you know, for all sorts of projects from, you know, the, the little tiny startups to enterprise. So I think the professionalism part of it is, you know, that there''s a lot of traditional parts to professionalism.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like I, I think being polite and honest and, you know, hardworking and all those things come to come to mind, but then, um, it also meets kind of. The WordPress way. That''s a little bit more relaxed. I think that kind of reflects, I think that reflects on Matt Mullenweg a little bit. He''s not always, you know, the, uh, old fashioned stuff, shirt, CEO that mm-hmm , you know, gets up there and makes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know, grand pronouncements necessarily. Um, but it also, I think, reflects on, you know, the word camp culture of just kind of going come as you are. Um, but generally, you know, being kind to one another being open, uh, to discussion doesn''t always work out that way. But, um, yeah, I think it''s, it''s an interesting way to think about.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress these days. I mean, cuz a lot of us make a living with it. Um, either full time or at least part of the time and you know, the ground rules that applied for other sorts of businesses over the years don''t necessarily, you know, apply here. Uh, it''s a little bit different kind of ecosystem I think.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. It, it definitely is. I, I think people hear that. That word and there''s sort of the, you know, the larger corporate stereotype of, um, well, there''s, there''s good thing. There''s good. Basic definitions of, you know, you show up every day, you do the, you do the work every day, no matter what, um, the basics of it, but there''s also the, um, the kind of the negative, um, connotations of professionals.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, In, in a more corporate scaled up space, that''s kind of lost the human and individual element, the personal element, and doesn''t have this kind of big family community of relations necessarily. And I, I mentioned to you a, a friend, um, Sarah Shelman. Who''s got a book. I think that touches this. She runs a, they do a lot with WordPress, but it''s a, it''s a social design agency.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>They''re they''re anthropologists and ethnographers who try to solve, um, Largely institutional social problems and municipal governments and lend advice on, um, dealing with things like homelessness and, and, uh, why do helping institutions often they''re too bloodless and faceless and impersonal to help very real individual human problems.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, uh, I got to know, I got to know her. And there are people last year. I''ll probably do it again. We''re working with, um, kind of post COVID recovery projects or city is, um, funding. Uh, we just listened to people''s stories and got them to talk about wellbeing and what that means for them. And, uh, it''s, it''s a very unusual kind of, wooy even kind of, hippie-ish, uh, weird thing that you don''t usually associate with government, um, bureaucracies doing something like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Individuals listening to each other and caring something about the experience and totality of each other''s lives. Um, you know, that might be good for good for people.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> We use more of</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> that. Absolutely. Yeah. And she, we were talking about professionalism specifically after this and she said, Yes. The, the dysfunctional form of that, that we try to overcome is, is the sense that you''ve got to create a mask of invulnerability.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I think that there''s coinciding and even integral to word breast professionalism, WordPress professionals, and professionalism is that you can be known as a person who has. A full life and all these other things going on. And, uh, we talk about that and there''s, there''s not as much of this kind of informal or private segregation from the business side, especially, maybe on, you know, on those who''ve been in it a long time or contributors and, uh, small businesses and, and so on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that''s a, really, a really healthy thing for people. And it translates to a healthy community and I think a healthy. Business ecosystem, um, because it takes the edge off of straight hard competition, the tendency for towards paranoia and reaction and meanness, uh, especially on remote and internet stuff.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, I feel like that''s a, a big part of it. And when we, uh, Michelle Frette featured, um, ran, uh, or featured, uh, member spotlight for. The week and, um, well known to many, many people, Jonathan Boer. Um, who''s now at automatic as, um, working on training, which is a kind of newer and big thing there, um, impacting the, the community and doing code instruction.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, and he said some really good things that, um, I think define. Him and others as a, a good model of, of what professionalism is. And he, you know, there''s power to change lives and people finding, um, their footing in the community and in work here. And, um, what else was, was, was in here. It was just a very, there were very personal flavor to it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, we''re not doing kind of faceless, um, Roles and cubicles here. A lot of people really value that freedom.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> Yeah. I mean, you can see it as you know, we''re not afraid to let our human side show, which I think is like really refreshing. I mean, if you look at a lot of the more traditional corporations out there, I mean, when do you see their leadership out there?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like just being humans. Um, and of course it''s at a much greater scale, but, um, Just just even, even with, uh, Corey Miller, um, you know, talking about the struggles that he''s had and, you know, I mean, he''s a very successful person and you know, he, he and, uh, his family have done a lot in WordPress, but you know, he''s still ha not afraid to show some vulnerability.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think that''s so important. I mean, did you don''t feel like you have to put up a facade? Um, you know, that''s one thing I''ve. Kind of felt comfortable with in the, in this, uh, community, is that if I''m having a bad day, I can say that on Twitter and, you know, still being thankful for what I have. I could still say, it''s not been a good day.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I haven''t done well. You know? Um, not every industry really accepts that and would, you know, applaud that. But I think ours generally does. And I think that''s something we should not take for grant.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. I, I, I really, uh, value that too. And, and agree with that. I think that, um, Jonathan and you, and I have probably been around this around the same period of time going back 20 years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we''re in the generation X category, um, where, um, yeah, we might have slack or tendencies, but I, I think it was still, it was still younger people and, and down to my kids'' ages, who. Really more comfortable with, um, not separating who they are in their private lives and you get messy, even, you know, politics and, and feelings about a variety of things that we don''t.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, you don''t have to pretend that doesn''t exist. It''s it''s a really, it can be a really fine line. You don''t there''s there''s oversharing. There''s there''s stuff it has to balance out, but yeah, somehow. When we''re healthy, uh, as a community advantages to work out. And Jonathan mentioned, um, post status is being a place that serves that by, um, not just you can go there for answers and social kind of hanging out and, um, Fun things and, and, and, uh, there''s always plenty of good humor, but there''s, he also mentioned having bigger philosophical discussions around business, open source and everything, WordPress related in a respectful and inclusive way.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, um, yeah, there''s not, there''s no way to define, there''s no recipe for that, but we know it when, when we see it and that have being able to. Maintain a level of trust that comes from being real people to each other who care to know something and share things about each other. Um, and you know, the role that word camps play in that meetups for sure.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, mentoring becoming more of a thing, um, that we talk about and, and support. Um, it, it allows the hard stuff, the bad feelings, conflicts competition. In theory, and I think we''ve seen this happen. people can work, work it out. It takes the edge off of that and becomes, um, a way where I don''t know, pressure valve a yeah, it, it definitely performs, um, a, a healthy service to, um, a way to check in and, and maybe help each other maintain a, a healthy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Community and, and business culture, um, that is, that is professional in our own, our own way. Um, and all the, all the normal ways you''d think about showing up, getting stuff done, being reliable and, um, the best you can every day, but also showing up as a, as a real person who values, trust and kindness and respect, um, between each other.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, the more of that, more of that, the better, but . Do you have any other, uh, thoughts on, um, on that topic or where we, where that could go, uh, hoping to pull more people into to discuss it? Um, since it seems, seems like one of those kind of pressures, commodities that, you know, it''s actually not an economic thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can''t, you can''t buy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> No, and it''s, I think it it''s good for your, for your own health, for the health of the community. And you know, when you can see others, whether you agree with them or not as, as a person, as opposed to, you know, sub distant object that you''re, um, at odds with, or you want to, um, or you''re competing against.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It, it does take that edge off a little bit. It lets you just kind of take a deep breath and you know, I mean, we see arguments just like in any other community, but what I don''t see is them becoming to the point where, um, at least in public where, you know, it it''s just incredibly toxic. Um, and usually if things do go bad, there''s always somebody else to come in and say, Hey, wait a minute.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let''s, you know, take a deep breath, which. It''s just, I think refreshing, I, I, I wish, and I won''t go into it too far, but I wish we had, uh, you know, political leadership that could do the same thing we had, like, like, you know, a referee that could come in and voluntarily say, Hey, you guys don''t agree, but that''s okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It''s</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> tough. Yeah. And it''s there, it''s an ideal, we''ll never be perfect at. Um, and. Yeah, to take one example, I''m thinking about writing about, you know, one of the, um, a, a friend in, uh, uh, a country where democracy has been threatened and on the way and along a while. Um, and that''s very widespread. We''re all, we''re seeing a lot of, uh, difficult times for some of the, the, the key values in the project, in the community and the, in our own lives.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, and actually was. I think jailed and suppressed for things. He was blogging of a political nature on his WordPress blog in his, in his country. And, um, which you can imagine doesn''t a number on you, um, psychologically and, and socially. And then of course, like anyone else, especially your plugin or theme author, or something like that, you run into what feels like unfairness at some point in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the, um, in your work life, in the ecosystem of, um, how decisions get made, how, how things are handled. And, um, I, I feel for people sometimes when we''re not at our best, or even when things are, are perfectly fine, it''s not, everything is not gonna go your way all the time and it can feel oppressive or like people are not living up to, uh, levels.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Transparency or kindness as, as they should. And I try to think, yeah, you know, there''s people coming from a lot of different contexts where, um, you wanna be sensitive to all that, but there''s also, there''s also a need to kind of bear up with, we''re not always at our best. We''re not, everything is not consistent the way we think it should be.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, but. That means try harder. Don''t give up on it. Um, keep it''s it''s it''s hard for a reason. It''s not, uh, not something you can just take for granted. Um, yeah, and I wish there was more of it well said. Well, I look forward to, uh, clicking, publish on, on the piece you''ve written for us that touches some of.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of some of these things too, in the writing space that we both occupy and, um, the value that being able to write and talk well and respectfully and in an informed way, um, about things going on and in WordPress is really important. And I thankful for your steady part in it. I''ve, you know, read you for a long time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is, I think the first time we''ve connected face to face and, um, yeah, I''m glad. You''re here and that you''re there. doing what you do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eric Karkovack:</strong> Thank you. Thank you. It''s been, uh, it''s been awesome being here with you and, and, you know, I''ve been a post status member for several years now and, you know, I''ve just gotten so much out of it, just the connections.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And just as you said, the philosophical discussions that go on and it it''s, you know, it, it''s a little bit of everything and I, I think it, it''s a great representation of the community and as a.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah, well, it''s the, it''s the members membership who makes it it''s the community that shows up and, and, uh, that we keep carrying each other along and, and bringing in new people.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It''s it''s great. But everyone, no one owns it. No one, no one can take full credit for it. We''re glad to have you here. So thank you. Thank you.</p>\n<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, 02 Sep 2022 17:58:00 +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: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:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:56:"Post Status: Post Status Picks for the Week of August 29";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=114397";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://poststatus.com/post-status-picks-for-the-week-of-august-29/";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:3310:"<div class="has-background has-theme-palette-7-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">Building an empire on free code: Matt talks WordPress outside the bubble. James Kemp, Anh Tran, and Phil Webster on WooCommerce options for licensing. Adam Silver on testimonials that help you grow. Anne Bovelett on accessibility and page builders. Jamie Marsland wonders if people building third-party plugins for the block editor have been too preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to ask if they should. Are they heading in the wrong direction? </p></div>\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-post-status-podcast-picks">Post Status Podcast Picks <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f399.png" alt="🎙" class="wp-smiley" /></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>What''s Your Problem</strong>: A fairly good &#8220;outside the WordPress bubble&#8221; <a href="https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/whats-your-problem/building-an-empire-on-free-code">interview</a> with <strong>Matt Mullenweg</strong> by <strong>Jacob Goldstein</strong>. Among other things, they discuss how you can make money and &#8220;build an empire&#8221; on &#8220;free code.&#8221;</li><li><strong>Do The Woo</strong>: <strong>James Kemp</strong>, <strong>Anh Tran</strong>, and <strong>Phil Webster</strong> have <a href="https://dothewoo.io/software-licensing-solutions-for-woocommerce-builders-with-anh-phil-and-james/">a discussion about the options for software licensing</a> with <strong>WooCommerce</strong>, both out-of-the-box or when you roll your own custom-built solution.</li><li><strong>Kitchen Sink WordPress</strong>: <strong>Adam Silver</strong> on <a href="https://kitchensinkwp.com/podcast-e444-using-testimonials-to-grow-your-business/">how to use testimonials</a> to grow your business.</li><li><strong>Matt Report:</strong> <strong>Anne Bovelett</strong> explains <a href="https://mattreport.com/wordpress-accessibility-in-a-page-builder-world/">why accessibility is important to her</a>, and how to make accessible sites with page builders.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Video Pick:</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>PootlePress:</strong> <strong>Jamie Marsland</strong> asks if Gutenberg Third Party plugins are <a href="https://vimeo.com/734751088">heading in the wrong direction</a> — with a few fun <strong>Jurassic Park</strong> clips.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-container-9 wp-block-group has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">\n<p><strong>Get our weekly WordPress community news digest</strong> — Post Status'' <a href="https://poststatus.com/wordpress/week-in-review/">Week in Review</a> — 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>\n\n\n\n<p>And don''t miss <strong>the latest updates from the people making WordPress</strong>. We''ve got you covered with <a href="https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/">This Week at WordPress.org</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/2699.png" alt="⚙" class="wp-smiley" /></p>\n</div></div>\n<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, 02 Sep 2022 16:12:39 +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:9;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:107:"Gutenberg Times: Designing Style Variations for Twenty Twenty-Three: The Good, the Bad, and Everything Else";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=21922";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:115:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/designing-style-variations-for-twenty-twenty-three-the-good-the-bad-and-everything-else/";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:11004:"<p>Since the release of Twenty Ten, the WordPress community has gotten a new default theme almost every year. This has allowed the platform to amass a well-designed and solid body of work. However, we needed to mix things up a bit, to make theme development exciting again. The next default theme, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/twentytwentythree">Twenty Twenty-Three</a>, will be a stripped-down base theme with a pool of style variations built by our design community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the community has not disappointed. By the deadline of August 31, theme authors had submitted over 33 <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/twentytwentythree/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22%5BType%5D+Style+Variation%22">variations for consideration</a>. This was a reasonably significant turnout, considering that the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/08/10/twenty-twenty-three-default-theme-project-kickoff/">project&#8217;s kick-off</a> was less than a month before. That is not much time to create and execute a design, and some people shared multiple.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The final group of variations that will ship with Twenty Twenty-Three is set to be chosen by September 7. Not all will become an &#8220;official&#8221; variation. However, there is a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/twentytwentythree/issues/73">discussion that proposes</a> a separate child theme that would offer even more options.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As one of the oldest theme authors in the WordPress community, I was excited about this effort. There was no way that I could pass on the challenge of designing a custom variation. Plus, it fit in line with some of the current work I was doing in finding pain points around FSE for theme authors.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this post, I will share my experience with <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/advanced-topics/theme-json/#global-styles-variations">building a custom style variation</a> for Twenty Twenty-Three. </p>\n\n\n\n<h2>What Are Style Variations?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Style variations are one of my favorite features of modern WordPress, second only to block patterns. They allow theme authors to ship multiple design presets that users can choose between via the Styles panel in the site editor, as shown in the following screenshot:</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Example style variations for Twenty Twenty-Three.\n\n\n\n<p>Style variations can be as simple as a couple of color or font changes to entirely unique designs in their own right.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Before Beginning: The Right Mindset</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The thing to keep in mind when designing a custom style variation is that you are not building a theme. You are skinning an existing theme.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is easy to get carried away with grand ideas about what is possible but only become disappointed with the limitations of the global settings and styles framework. You can change things like typography, colors, and spacing, but there are times when you&#8217;re stuck with chosen presets when they are used within templates. You also cannot arrange layout elements to your liking. That would require, at least, a child theme.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Style variations are skins with a specific set of rules that you must follow. You do not quite have the full power of CSS at your disposal, but you can do some pretty nifty things under the current standard.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Building a custom style variation is an easy introduction to modern theme development. It is a way to get your feet wet, to gain an understanding of how <code>theme.json</code> works.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Designing a variation for Twenty Twenty-Three was also like trying to hit a moving target at times. Because the theme was under active development during this process, it meant that anything could change on any given day. And, the more complex a style variation was, the more likely a change to the base theme would affect it. This should not be the case for established themes, but it did create additional hurdles to clear.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Stepping into the Fray: Building a Custom *.json File</h2>\n\n\n\n<img />JSON file for a custom style variation.\n\n\n\n<p>Style variations are one of the easiest onramps to WordPress theme development because creators only need to work from within one file. The usual complexities around theme development are of no concern for such a project. And, because the global settings and styles feature has a standard ruleset, it&#8217;s easy to make a few changes and see quick results.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Style variations are <code>*.json</code> files that live in a theme&#8217;s <code>/styles</code> folder. In the case of Twenty Twenty-Three, the organizational structure might look something like the following:</p>\n\n\n<pre class="wp-block-code"><div><code class="hljs">/twentytwentythree\n    /styles\n        /example-a.json\n        /example-b.json \n        /...\n    /theme.json\n    ...</code></div></pre>\n\n\n<p>Because my variation was named &#8220;<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/twentytwentythree/issues/86">Rough Draft</a>,&#8221; it was located at <code>/styles/rough-draft.json</code>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Custom variations follow all the same rules as the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/theme-json-reference/theme-json-living/"><code>theme.json</code> standard</a>. The one exception is that variations have a <code>title</code> field to differentiate them from the theme&#8217;s default.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following is an example of what my variation&#8217;s JSON file looked like:</p>\n\n\n<pre class="wp-block-code"><div><code class="hljs language-json">{\n    <span class="hljs-attr">"version"</span>: <span class="hljs-number">2</span>,\n    <span class="hljs-attr">"title"</span>: <span class="hljs-string">"Rough Draft"</span>,\n    <span class="hljs-attr">"settings"</span>: {},\n    <span class="hljs-attr">"styles"</span>: {}\n}</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>\n\n\n<p>With the basics out of the way, the variation can overwrite anything that is defined in the theme&#8217;s primary <code>theme.json</code> file. A creator can do something as simple as overwrite the <code>settings.color.palette</code> to create a new color scheme. Or, they can configure every possible setting and style under the standard ruleset, building a massively different work of art from the base theme design.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>The Good: Wow, This Is Really Cool!</h2>\n\n\n\n<img />Single post view of custom style variation.\n\n\n\n<p>I have dabbled a bit here and there with custom style variations. I have long understood their potential, but I had yet to dive into a full-blown project, particularly one that could land in front of millions of users. I don&#8217;t know that my variation submission will be a part of the curated set, but it was just plain ol&#8217; fun tinkering with a design idea again. It was also far less stressful to not have to worry about every aspect of the theme.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given the time constraint, I pulled my initial idea from an old theme I had created. Then, I went to work, breaking as much as anyone could break (<em>don&#8217;t forget that I was also on a mission to find pain points</em>).</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was a small part of me that remembered exactly why I fell in love with WordPress in the first place. I felt like that same 21-year-old kid who had just learned to edit a theme&#8217;s <code>style.css</code> file to make some minor color changes. This was the WordPress that I remembered from so long ago. The one where themes were not 100s of files and 1,000s of lines of code. It was about figuring out how to design for the first time and enjoying every minute of it, <em>warts and all</em>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I&#8217;m being entirely honest, I probably took things a bit to the extreme. After looking at a few other variations, I realized I had customized quite a bit more than most folks. This is not necessarily a &#8220;good&#8221; or &#8220;bad&#8221; thing. Rather, it was more of a <em>Justin-does-not-know-when-to-stop</em> thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time, with a looming deadline for submission, I was unable to customize every feature that I had in mind. There are simply so many possibilities that I could have continued working on this for weeks.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>The Bad: Lingering Pain Points</h2>\n\n\n\n<img />Homepage view of custom style variation.\n\n\n\n<p>Between those moments of clarity and jaunts of glee were some rough moments. These were a necessary part of the process&#8212;someone needed to experience them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, why can I not control the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/39380">gap between posts in a Query Loop</a> so that it matches the spacing elsewhere in the theme? There are still missing features or design tools support. Fortunately, some of the issues I either ran into or reported upstream were fixed during this process, such as <code>theme.json</code>-support for the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/43543"><code>&lt;cite&gt;</code> element</a> and a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/43587">duplicate background</a> on the Code block. Plus, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v14.0.0">Gutenberg 14.0</a> added spacing and typography support for a boatload of blocks, both blockers for many theme authors who have tried to adopt FSE features.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The upcoming WordPress 6.1 will continue to improve the lives of theme authors who are taking advantage of the <code>theme.json</code> toolset. Compared to a year ago, there are far fewer of those tiny irritations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of my initial issues were from building a design based on someone else&#8217;s system. It took me a bit to come to grips with Twenty Twenty-Three&#8217;s slug names, spacing presets, and similar bits. While I have a few opinions on a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/38998#issuecomment-1053727408">standard naming system</a>, there are no right or wrong answers here. Plus, such <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/38998">discussions are a can of worms</a> that would only get in the way of the theme&#8217;s progress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had to remember that I was skinning an existing theme. It was my job to apply my vision onto the canvas sitting in front of me. Once I was able to get in the right mindset for this project, that&#8217;s when all the fun began.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />\n\n\n\n<p>As I look over the past few weeks, I am genuinely having a hard time remembering any <em>truly</em> frustrating moments. What I recall the most is just having a blast building my Twenty Twenty-Three variation and testing those that others built. I cannot wait for the theme and its curated set of styles to be unveiled to the community.</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, 02 Sep 2022 15:00:30 +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:10;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:72:"Post Status: Writing is a Challenging But Needed Profession in WordPress";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=114274";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:83:"https://poststatus.com/writing-is-a-challenging-but-needed-profession-in-wordpress/";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:14334:"<div class="wp-container-11 wp-block-group has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">The WordPress project, software, and community are equally important. They all play a role in ensuring growth, progress, and success. A sizeable economy of users, builders, and business owners depends on it. That’s why staying informed is vital. And so much of the reporting and learning opportunities come from unofficial sources. We need more people within the WordPress community who are interested in writing and more places to amplify their voices. </p></div>\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<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">39</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-drop-cap">Over the past decade, I’ve written about a lot of web-related subjects. I started with a focus on freelancing — mainly because that’s what I knew best. It was an area where I had experience and felt like I could be of help to others.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, WordPress soon became my topic of choice. The more projects I built with the content management system (CMS), the more I wanted to share. There was so much to learn and discover.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote><p>It’s easy to criticize someone or something from afar. For example, there’s a difference between critiquing a random stranger’s parenting style and that of your best friend. Proximity makes a difference.</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And the software wasn’t my only inspiration. Having attended my first WordCamp in 2011, I was taken aback at how welcoming the WordPress community was. Not only could I level up my design and development skills, but I also had access to this incredible human resource.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The experience took me from merely building websites to wanting to be a part of something bigger. The community is what made me truly care about WordPress. And I couldn’t help but want to give back.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>The Challenges of Writing About WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Writing about WordPress made perfect sense. I wasn’t the greatest developer — but I could share what I’ve learned. I also felt an obligation to ask questions about the direction of the software and how it impacts the community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those deeper topics are often difficult to write about. Not only do they require some critical thinking (not my greatest skill), but they also need to strike a delicate balance. Because, while a post may nominally be about software, it’s people that are the real subject.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As such, there are significant challenges in writing about WordPress and its community. What follows are some lessons and observations from my journey so far.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-sometimes-you-re-close-to-your-subjects">Sometimes You’re Close to Your Subjects</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It’s easy to criticize someone or something from afar. For example, there’s a difference between critiquing a random stranger’s parenting style and that of your best friend. Proximity makes a difference.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That applies to the WordPress community as well. While it’s global and we don’t all know each other personally, there are often connections. You may follow a particular person (or their employer) on social media. There’s a chance you use their product or service.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This complicates things — especially when there’s a reason to be critical of a situation. For instance, I’ve written about product decisions that I found questionable. One was a plugin that set itself to <a href="https://speckyboy.com/ethical-dilemma-for-wordpress-plugin-developers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">automatically update</a> without user consent. Another involved a plugin that <a href="https://speckyboy.com/wordpress-theme-plugin-license-expires/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blocked access</a> to its settings screen after a user’s license expired.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I use both plugins and have generally enjoyed the experience. Thus, it felt a bit awkward to discuss them publicly. Yet I also felt it was necessary to try and explore various points of view.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In these scenarios, I hope to lay out both sides of an argument and spark a productive discussion. Not everyone’s going to agree — but that’s OK. No rule says the debate has to be comfortable.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-you-have-to-fill-in-the-blanks-when-covering-wordpress-core">You Have To Fill in the Blanks When Covering WordPress Core</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Software is difficult to produce and maintain. And when an app is as widely-used as WordPress, the job is even tougher. There’s simply no way to please everyone.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As users, we all have our WordPress pet peeves. In my case, the clutter of the dashboard tends to drive me crazy — especially on content-heavy websites. And the block editor still has several bumps to smooth out.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then there’s the overall direction of the WordPress project. It’s no secret that a lot of resources have been allocated towards the block editor and Full Site Editing. Meanwhile, this changing landscape can create unease among those who make a living with the software.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, it’s vital to take a closer look at what’s happening. This empowers the community to prepare for change and allows their voices to be heard as things evolve.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are several challenges for writers who take on these topics. The biggest is that official information can be <a target="_blank" href="https://speckyboy.com/new-wordpress-features-hard-to-find/" rel="noreferrer noopener">very difficult</a> to find. It may require searching through Slack channels or digging up a post from one of several <a target="_blank" href="https://make.wordpress.org/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Make WordPress</a> blogs. And, even if you locate something relevant, there may still be some key information missing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plus, the decision-making process isn’t always clear to those of us on the outside. A lack of context in this area can lead to speculation. That, in turn, has the potential to create distrust within the community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Writing about these subjects is a balancing act. You can only work with the facts you have. At the same time, it’s difficult to avoid speculating on how or why a decision was made.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-discussing-project-leadership-is-tricky">Discussing Project Leadership is Tricky</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The structure of the WordPress project can be confusing when it comes to leadership. Matt Mullenweg is the co-founder of WordPress. He’s also heavily involved in its direction.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, he’s the founder of Automattic — a commercial entity that runs WordPress.com, among other products. The company also sponsors a significant number of WordPress contributors.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of which, WordPress is also free and open-source. It depends on volunteers for virtually everything. Except that some contributors are paid by their employers to do so via the <a target="_blank" href="https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Five for the Future</a> initiative. Got all of that?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It’s a unique and seemingly complex arrangement. The result is a lot of gray area and uncertainty for even avid observers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>While we typically know the project leads for various tasks, there are still questions about who’s doing what, and where decisions come from. Does Mullenweg have the final say over everything? Do sponsored contributors have more clout than volunteers? Where do the interests of WordPress.org and WordPress.com start to diverge?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are fair questions to ask. And in my experience, they’re very difficult to answer. Once again, the lack of clarity can lead to guessing games.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-there-are-people-behind-the-code">There Are People Behind the Code</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Writers also need to take a measured approach when asking questions or leveling criticism. That’s because we’re not just talking about a product. Human beings make WordPress, and we must consider the impact of what we say.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is where the fuzzy details on leadership and decision-making make our job more difficult. We may hypothetically posit a question. But taken out of context, it could read as being hurtful or unfair.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The basic rules of journalism apply — even if you’re not technically a journalist (Full disclosure: I’ve had no formal training in this area). But suffice to say that it’s best to stick to the facts. Making accusations without proof or passing along hearsay does you no favors.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And when criticizing a feature or decision, we should include a detailed explanation. Instead of simply stating that a theme “is hard to use”, provide examples of <em>why</em> it was difficult. It’s still important to provide context — even if we don’t always get it from our subjects.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Granted, we all make mistakes. And even the most careful writers will still face negative feedback.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes it comes in the form of an old-fashioned internet troll. But it may also come from a place of misunderstanding. In that case, I’d encourage engaging on a personal level. An honest dialogue can produce positive results.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-financial-resources-for-writers-are-scant">Financial Resources for Writers Are Scant</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to cover the important issues and happenings in the WordPress community, it takes time and resources. For most writers in our space, these aren’t easy to come by.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are several online publications dedicated to the CMS and many more that provide at least some level of coverage. But news, analysis, and opinion aren’t necessarily what they’re looking for. Quick tips, tutorials, and plugin roundups get plenty of clicks and are somewhat evergreen. More importantly, they don’t run the risk of rubbing stakeholders the wrong way.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the few outlets that do encourage in-depth coverage tend to have very limited budgets. They aren’t full-time gigs. Writers often have to piece together roles at multiple publications. This doesn’t leave much time to dig into a topic.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To be clear, I love having gigs at places like <a target="_blank" href="https://speckyboy.com/react-javascript-snippets-ui-elements/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Speckyboy</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://thewpminute.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener">The WP Minute</a>. They’ve helped me to find my voice and feel closer to the WordPress community. But I also consider my situation to be an outlier. There don’t appear to be many opportunities for a writer who wants to take a similar path.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet writing is only part of what I do. I’m still a freelance web designer and that makes up the bulk of my income. Writing is a passion and (thankfully) a way to boost my bottom line.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much like contributing to WordPress core, writing about the software takes some measure of passion. You do it because you love it — not for wealth and accolades.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-wordpress-journalism-is-a-unique-and-important-niche">WordPress Journalism Is a Unique and Important Niche</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The WordPress project, software, and community are equally important. They all play a role in ensuring growth, progress, and success. A sizeable economy of users, builders, and business owners depends on it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That’s why staying informed is vital. And so much of the reporting and learning opportunities come from unofficial sources. These writers help us keep up with the news and teach us how to use new features. They’re a key part of the mission to democratize publishing. I’m honored to play a tiny part in it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Writing about WordPress isn’t always easy. There can be several obstacles — not least of which is having access to accurate information. But that hasn’t stopped the many talented bloggers and journalists out there from trying their best.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If anything, we need more people within the community who are interested in writing and more places to amplify their voices. WordPress is in a constant state of change, and it takes a dedicated group to spread the word and ask difficult questions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><strong>Want to write for Post Status?</strong> Please <a href="https://poststatus.com/contact/">get in touch</a>.<br /><br />We are happy to compensate members of the WordPress community (and Post Status) who have experiences and insights to share or good questions worth exploring — about tech, business, and careers as well as the project and culture of WordPress. </p>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-container-12 wp-block-group"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">\n<img src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/vertical-post-status-logo-250.png" alt="Post Status" class="wp-image-86322" width="188" height="188" /></div>\n\n\n<p class="has-medium-font-size">You — and your whole team — can <a href="https://poststatus.com/#choose-membership">Join Post Status</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<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" /></p>\n</div></div>\n<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, 02 Sep 2022 13:52:25 +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:14:"Eric Karkovack";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:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:52:"Do The Woo Community: WooBits: Cultural Intelligence";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=72853";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:50:"https://dothewoo.io/woobits-cultural-intelligence/";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:370:"<p>As part of the WordCampUS speaker series, I singled out this one because Cultural Intelligence resonated with me.</p>\n<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/woobits-cultural-intelligence/">WooBits: Cultural Intelligence</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, 02 Sep 2022 12:55:00 +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:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:29:"Post Status: The $500 Website";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=114223";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:39:"https://poststatus.com/the-500-website/";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:4610:"<div class="wp-container-15 wp-block-group has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">A decade ago, Chris Butler''s survey and report for Newfangled provided other agencies with the numbers that meaningfully define their market. WordPress agencies and freelancers could use something similar today. </p></div>\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<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">39</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-drop-cap">In 2021 WordPress.com <a href="https://poststatus.com/will-automattics-built-by-wordpress-compete-with-wordpress-freelancers/">announced</a> a premium $4,900 website building service — builtbywp.com. It''s still active but the <a href="https://builtbywp.com/#faq">FAQ</a> says, &#8220;Our website design & development services start at $3,500 USD.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now there''s Built by WordPress.com <a href="https://wordpress.com/blog/2022/08/30/need-a-website-fast-let-us-do-it-for-you/">Express</a> — where &#8220;in-house experts will build the site for you, all in four business days or less. The cost is $499, plus an additional purchase of the WordPress.com Premium plan.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There''s no way not to see this <a href="https://wordpress.com/do-it-for-me/">Do it for Me</a> service as competing with freelancers on the low end of the market, which <strong><a href="https://poststatus.com/will-automattics-built-by-wordpress-compete-with-wordpress-freelancers/">Matt Mullenweg</a></strong> previously <a href="https://poststatus.com/will-automattics-built-by-wordpress-compete-with-wordpress-freelancers/">claimed</a> was not the intention of the premium site building service last year. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also estimated that <strong>Automattic</strong> captures less than 5% of the revenue in the total WordPress ecosystem — much less than other large hosts. At the time, <strong>David Bisset</strong> writing for Post Status, asked for more transparency about &#8220;how many customers have been acquired and new sites built on WordPress.com.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The WordPress market share has always been highest and expanded the most in the broadest market — the top million active websites as measured by traffic. WordPress currently has around a 36% market share by that measure, but it falls to 14% in the top 10,000 most active sites. While sites with no (identifiable) CMS are still the largest and probably easiest area for growth, it''s logical for WordPress.com to focus on the lower end of the market rather than leave it to other hosting companies. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inevitably, freelancers are going to feel the squeeze as commodified websites and website building services compete downward on price. The wisdom usually offered about this is sound: learn the price points where you can be most competitive and trade on unique value you can bring to clients. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>A geographically localized focus, an affinity-based or purpose-built niche of features, and personal referral networks are unique strengths. There are also plenty of important, high-budget clients whose websites never need or intend to serve millions of visitors. Built your own local or niche market analysis — current market share data for WordPress doesn''t tell you much. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>A decade ago, <strong>Chris Butler</strong>&#8216;s <a href="https://www.newfangled.com/report-the-state-of-digital-marketing-for-small-a/">survey and report</a> at <strong>Newfangled</strong> for other small agencies was really helpful in <a href="https://www.newfangled.com/the-results-of-newfangleds-state-of-digital-marketing-for-small-agencies-survey/">getting the numbers that matter</a>. (I believe this survey was done more than once but not sustained over the years since then.) We could use something similar for WordPress agencies and freelancers. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://poststatus.com/will-automattics-built-by-wordpress-compete-with-wordpress-freelancers/">Will Automattic compete with WordPress freelancers?</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n<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, 01 Sep 2022 15:13:31 +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: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:13;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"Do The Woo Community: Builder Tips from WordCampUS Speakers Part_2";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=72844";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:65:"https://dothewoo.io/builder-tips-from-wordcampus-speakers-part_2/";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:433:"<p>Listen in to these WooCommerce / WordPress builder tips from Ben Meredith, Christina Deemer, George Woodard, Nick Diego, Milana Cap and Micah Wood.</p>\n<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/builder-tips-from-wordcampus-speakers-part_2/">Builder Tips from WordCampUS Speakers Part_2</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, 01 Sep 2022 09:38:00 +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:14;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:33:"Post Status: WOOF for 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:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=114160";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:"https://poststatus.com/woof/";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:766:"<p><a href="https://hiwooff.com/"><strong>WOOF</strong></a> is a new directory for <strong>WooCommerce</strong> extensions. Their goal is to become the “yellow pages” for your WooCommerce add-on needs. Check out <a href="https://hiwooff.com/guidelines/">the guidelines</a> for joining. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Announced today by <strong>Dave Loodts</strong>, Dave <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/C02707KA3B8/p1661963824016359?thread_ts=1661957117.062089&cid=C02707KA3B8">clarified in <strong>Post Status Slack</strong></a> that the WOOF directory is open to WordPress plugins too if they have Woo modules. Look for more clarification about that down the line. </p>\n<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, 31 Aug 2022 22:19:21 +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:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:107:"Post Status: WordPress 6.0.2 Security and Maintenance Release: WordPress.org’s Bug Bounty Program at Work";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=114149";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:89:"https://poststatus.com/wordfence-on-the-wordpress-6-0-2-security-and-maintenance-release/";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:1758:"<p><strong>Ram Dall</strong> over at <strong>Wordfence</strong> has <a href="https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2022/08/wordpress-core-6-0-2-security-maintenance-release-what-you-need-to-know/">a good breakdown</a> of three vulnerabilities patched in <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/08/wordpress-6-0-2-security-and-maintenance-release/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the WordPress 6.0.2 Security and Maintenance Release</a>. One is a high severity SQLi vulnerability in the links functionality, and the other two are medium severity Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ram notes:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Most actively used WordPress sites should be patched via automatic updates within the next 24 hours, and any sites that remain vulnerable would only be exploitable under very specific circumstances.</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Robert Rowley</strong> dug deeper for <strong>Patchstack</strong>:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>There are also no proof of concepts (or exploitation steps) nor any reports of these bugs actively targeted in the wild. This is because the security bugs were reported and handled through <a href="https://hackerone.com/wordpress" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordPress.org''s official Bug Bounty program</a> … as well as one WordPress security team member, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">John Blackbourn</a> who at this time is sponsored by <a href="https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/pledge/human-made/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Human Made</a>.</p></blockquote>\n<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, 31 Aug 2022 22:04:23 +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: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:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:50:"WordPress.org blog: People of WordPress: Bud Kraus";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=13385";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:65:"https://wordpress.org/news/2022/08/people-of-wordpress-bud-kraus/";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:12123:"<p><strong>This month, as we approach <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp US</a>, we feature Bud Kraus, a WordPress trainer who has made a career in helping others learn about software. He also shares how he has developed an approach to using technology in order to overcome longstanding difficulties with his eyesight.</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In this People of WordPress series, we share some of the inspiring stories of how WordPress and its global network of contributors can change people’s lives for the better.</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<img width="1014" height="627" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2022/08/bud-kraus-aug-powp.jpg?resize=1014%2C627&ssl=1" alt="Bud Kraus playing the guitar" class="wp-image-13341" /><em>Bud Kraus</em> with his guitar\n\n\n\n<h2>Teaching WordPress strengthens your understanding</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud has taught web design since 1998, with students from more than 80 countries online or in person. He was determined not to let his sight difficulties stop him from his wish to  help others learn website building and maintenance skills.   </p>\n\n\n\n<p>As WordPress evolves and new features release, Bud decided to extend his training services around helping new and existing users improve and practice their skills. He supports others in open source through volunteering to speak at WordPress events, and encourages others to do so too. He also gives time to help produce material for the free-to-access resource <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress,</a> which is part of the WordPress.org project.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a contributor to the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/">Test</a> and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/">Training</a> teams, Bud is keen for others to try contributing to these areas and help support the project&#8217;s future development. One of his current training priorities is to help people with using the block editor and Full Site Editing. He is an advocate for the usability of WordPress today, saying: “I can design all aspects of a website now with a block.”</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Using WordPress as a traditional developer</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud’s WordPress journey began with a lunch at Grand Central Station in New York in 2009. A friend and former client was promoting the idea of using WordPress, which Bud initially resisted.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>“I’m a code guy…,” he told his friend at the time. “I will never use anything like that.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the friend persisted. Eventually, Bud gave it a try and found a new approach with things called themes and plugins. His first encounter was with <a href="https://wordpress.org/download/releases/">WordPress 2.6</a>. Bud signed up with a hosting company and found a theme where he could learn to edit and understand child themes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said: &#8220;Once I saw that you could edit anything and make it yours, I was hooked. The endorphins were freely coursing through my veins.&#8221; Bud was hooked.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Teaching WordPress strengthens your own understanding of the software</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There’s an old saying that the best way to learn something new is to turn around and teach someone else.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud was already an instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology when he thought, “I could teach WordPress!”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so he did, packing classrooms all through those first years of WordPress as it swept through the design world and further.<br /><br />But Bud had more to discover. He said: &#8220;Two big things were about to happen that were really going to change my life. They would show me the way to the WordPress community – not that I even knew what that was.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Sharing lessons learnt with the WordPress community</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2014, one of his students suggested he start going to the New York WordPress Meetup.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As he started going to WordCamps in New York City, he realized that WordPress was getting very large. What’s more, it had a community of people with whom he felt at home and could learn alongside.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud gave a talk for the first time in 2016 at the only WordCamp to this day that has been held at the United Nations. He shared his knowledge of “Lessons Learned: Considerations For Teaching Your Clients WordPress.”&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<img width="952" height="1024" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2022/08/bud-kraus-1.jpg?resize=952%2C1024&ssl=1" alt="Bud Kraus talking at a WordCamp" class="wp-image-13340" /><em>Bud Kraus speaks at WordCamps to help people use the software even more effectively</em>\n\n\n\n<p>From there, Bud went on to speak at other WordCamps in the US. He also volunteered as a speaker wrangler for his home camp in New York City in 2018 and 2019.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>From speaking to writing about WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At some point before the Covid-19 lockdown, Bud found another outlet, this time in writing.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud heard a magazine was advertising for submissions related to WordPress.&nbsp;His first attempted article did not make the cut.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So in his second submission, Bud took the risk of writing about something deeply personal – a topic he really didn’t want to write about at all.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He gathered his courage and revealed to the entire web design world that he was legally blind.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The article appeared as&nbsp; <strong>“</strong><a href="https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/05/using-low-vision-teach-wordpress/"><strong>Using Low Vision As My Tool To Help Me Teach WordPress</strong></a><strong>”.</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<img width="510" height="600" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2022/09/bud-kraus-2.jpg?resize=510%2C600&ssl=1" alt="Bud Kraus" class="wp-image-13426" />Bud Kraus\n\n\n\n<p>Since the age of 37, Bud has had macular degeneration in both eyes, which affects his central vision. It is a leading cause of legal blindness in the United States and many other countries.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He relies on his peripheral vision and finding ways to compensate. He also tends to see things in a flat dimension and has a difficulty discerning contrast&nbsp; &#8211; he&nbsp; is glad there are starting to be improvements in color contrasts in web design!<br /><br />He uses tools like Speech to Text, larger sized cursors and bigger font sizes, and heavily uses zooming back in and out when working with WordPress. He is able to recognize patterns but has to rely on detailed preparation and memorizing materials.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his first magazine article acknowledging this situation, he shared the added difficulties that technology creates for people with visual conditions, and tips that he had found to try and find alternative routes around them. He uses the technique of finding alternatives in his training work to help people learn and understand, realizing that all people have different ways of reading and understanding. His words and subsequent stories have inspired others and enabled more people to highlight accessibility. He describes himself as a ‘stakeholder in ensuring that the WordPress admin is accessible.’</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A year after its first publication, the piece became a WordCamp talk, ‘My Way with WordPress.’ The talk was a hit and started many conversations about accessibility and the importance of raising awareness.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few months later, he gave a Gutenberg talk at the first WordCamp Montclair. There was no way he could have done it from a laptop, so instead, he did it from his 27” desktop computer. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud said: &#8220;It was a presentation on Gutenberg plugins. Since I couldn’t do this from a notebook screen (the screen is too small and the keyboard is hard for me to manipulate), it was decided that I would bring in my 27″ desktop machine to a WordCamp. I’m probably the first person to ever have done this. It was good thing I only lived a few miles away.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added: “I sat behind my computer, did my thing, and every once in a while peered out to make sure people were still there.”</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Different ways of contributing to WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the main ways Bud supported the community around the software was through talks at WordCamps and helping others to speak. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the Covid-19 pandemic, he was keen to continue contributing when WordCamps were no longer meeting in person. He turned greater attention to supporting the <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a> resource, a free to use learning platform made by and for the community itself.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>More training materials on the block editor can be found on Learn WordPress and his WordCamp talks are available on <a href="https://wordpress.tv/?s=kraus&speakers=bud-kraus">WordPress.tv</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Global reach and meaning through WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<img width="600" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2022/08/bud-kraus-with-josepha.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1" alt="Bud Kraus with Josepha" class="wp-image-13342" /><em>Bud Kraus with Josepha Haden Chomphosy at WordCamp Montclair, NJ 2022</em>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud’s training materials and willingness to talk about accessibility have helped so many people find their way with WordPress. He in turn is an advocate for the community around open source.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said: “The software is really good, and the people are even better.” &nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added: “I get a sense of accomplishment whenever I launch a new or redesigned site. It’s also given me a great feeling to know that many people have learned WordPress around the world from my <a href="https://wordpress.tv/?s=kraus&speakers=bud-kraus">talks and presentations</a>. This might just be the most gratifying thing of all.”</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Share the stories</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Help share these stories of open source contributors and continue to grow the community. Meet more WordPressers in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/category/newsletter/interviews/">People of WordPress series</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Contributors</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to Abha Thakor (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>webcommsat</a>), Mary Baum (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/marybaum/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>marybaum</a>), Surendra Thakor (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sthakor/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>sthakor</a>), Meher Bala (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/meher/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>meher</a>), Larissa Murillo (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lmurillom/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>lmurillom</a>), and Chloe Bringmann (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>cbringmann</a>), for work on this feature. Thank you too to Bud Kraus (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/trynet/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>trynet</a>) for sharing his experiences.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you to Josepha Haden (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>chanthaboune</a>) and Topher DeRosia (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/topher1kenobe/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>topher1kenobe</a>) for their support of the <em>People of WordPress</em> series.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile is-vertically-aligned-center"><img width="180" height="135" src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2020/03/heropress_logo_180.png?resize=180%2C135&ssl=1" alt="HeroPress logo" class="wp-image-8409 size-full" /><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">\n<p class="has-small-font-size"><em>This People of WordPress feature is inspired by an essay originally published on </em><a href="https://heropress.com/"><em>HeroPress.com</em></a><em>, a community initiative created by Topher DeRosia. It highlights people in the WordPress community who have overcome barriers and whose stories might otherwise go unheard. </em>#HeroPress </p>\n</div></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, 31 Aug 2022 21:30:00 +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:28:"webcommsat AbhaNonStopNewsUK";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:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:138:"Post Status: WordPress 6.0.2, Advanced Admin Handbook, Accessibility Tags for Block Themes, and Improving the Template Creation 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:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=114004";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:146:"https://poststatus.com/wordpress-6-0-2-advanced-admin-handbook-accessibility-tags-for-block-themes-and-improving-the-template-creation-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:14589:"<h2 id="h-this-week-at-wordpress-org-august-29-2022">This Week at WordPress.org (August 29, 2022)</h2>\n\n\n<div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">WordPress 6.0.2, Advanced Admin Handbook, Accessibility Tags for Block Themes, and Improving the Template Creation Experience </p></div>\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<div id="kt-info-box_b3b811-01" 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/">Updates</a></h2><p class="kt-blocks-info-box-text">Time to update! WordPress has an update available, but additionally these areas of the project are ready to be updated as well.  <br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f6e0.png" alt="🛠" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/08/wordpress-6-0-2-security-and-maintenance-release/">WordPress 6.0.2 Security and Maintenance Release</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4da.png" alt="📚" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2022/08/30/summary-of-docs-team-biweekly-meeting-august-30-2022/#:~:text=Tracker/issues/225-,Advanced,-Admin">WordPress Advanced Administration Handbook</a><br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f9be.png" alt="🦾" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2022/08/29/use-of-accessibility-ready-tag-for-block-based-themes/">Use of accessibility-ready tag for block-based themes</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/core/2022/08/25/core-editor-improvement-refining-the-template-creation-experience/">Core Editor Improvement: Refining the template creation experience</a><br />><br /></a><br /><br />><br /></a><br /><br /></p></div></div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-news">News</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/08/wordpress-6-0-2-security-and-maintenance-release/">WordPress 6.0.2 Security and Maintenance Release</a></li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/08/people-of-wordpress-bud-kraus/">People of WordPress: Bud Kraus</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2022/09/01/simplifying-the-admin-bar-global-navigation-menu/">Simplifying the Admin Bar & Global Navigation Menu</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_598f7a-1a"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-container-19 wp-block-columns">\n<div class="wp-container-17 wp-block-column">\n<h2 id="h-accessibility"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility">Accessibility</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2022/08/29/use-of-accessibility-ready-tag-for-block-based-themes/">Use of accessibility-ready tag for block-based themes</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-community">Community</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/08/31/wordpress-events-organiser-training/">WordPress Events Organiser Training</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/08/15/call-for-ideas-wordcamp-us-2022-contributor-day/">Call for Ideas: WordCamp US 2022 Contributor Day</a></li><li><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/what-is-contributor-day/">What is Contributor Day?</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-core"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core">Core</a> </h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/09/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-0-31-august/">What’s new in Gutenberg 14.0? (31 August)</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/09/01/a-week-in-core-august-29-2022/">A Week in Core – August 29, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/25/core-editor-improvement-refining-the-template-creation-experience/">Core Editor Improvement: Refining the template creation experience</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id="h-meetings">Meetings</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/31/editor-chat-summary-10-august-2022-2-2-2/">Editor chat summary: 31 August, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/31/agenda-dev-chat-august-31-2022/">Agenda, Dev Chat, August 31, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/31/summary-dev-chat-august-24-2022/">Summary, Dev Chat, August 24, 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-design"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design">Design</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/08/29/design-share-aug-15-26/">Design Share: Aug 15-26</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-docs"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs">Docs</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2022/08/30/summary-of-docs-team-biweekly-meeting-august-30-2022/">Summary of Docs Team Biweekly Meeting August 30, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2022/08/30/summary-of-docs-team-biweekly-meeting-august-30-2022/#:~:text=Tracker/issues/225-,Advanced,-Admin">WordPress Advanced Administration Handbook</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href="https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/">Five for the Future</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/five-for-the-future/issues/214">Deactivate inactive pledges</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/five-for-the-future/issues/212">Remove contributor hours when account banned</a>&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/five-for-the-future/issues/210">Use last 5ftF contribution as inactivity criteria</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/five-for-the-future/issues/208">Hyperlink not readable on Program Expectations page</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-hosting">Hosting</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>PROPOSAL:</strong> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2022/08/18/proposal-updating-wp_memory_limit/">Updating WP_MEMORY_LIMIT</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2022/08/31/hosting-team-meeting-agenda-2022-08-31/">Hosting Team meeting agenda 2022-08-31</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-marketing"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing">Marketing</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2022/08/31/notes-global-marketing-team-meeting-august-24-2022/">Notes: Global Marketing Team Meeting, August 24, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2022/08/30/agenda-marketing-meeting-august-31-2022/">Agenda, Marketing meeting, August 31, 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-meta"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta">Meta</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2022/08/18/navigation/">Navigation</a></li></ul>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-container-18 wp-block-column">\n<h2 id="h-openverse"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse">Openverse</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2022/08/30/openverse-remote-contributor-day-at-wordcamp-us-2022/">Openverse Remote Contributor Day at WordCamp US 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-performance"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/performance/">Performance</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Proposal: <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/455">Database performance Health Checks</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-plugins"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/plugins">Plugins</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/08/29/plugin-review-team-29-aug-2022/">Plugin Review Team: 29 Aug 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-polyglots"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots">Polyglots</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2022/08/22/polyglots-monthly-newsletter-august-2022/">Polyglots Monthly Newsletter: August 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-test"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test">Test</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/08/13/fse-program-testing-call-16-back-to-basics/">FSE Program Testing Call #16: Back to Basics</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/08/16/week-in-test-16-august-2022/">Week in Test: 16 August 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-themes"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes">Themes</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>FEEDBACK REQUESTED:</strong> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2022/08/15/testing-and-feedback-for-the-fluid-typography-feature/">Testing and Feedback for the Fluid Typography Feature</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/08/16/themes-team-update-august-16-2022/"></a><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2022/08/23/themes-team-meeting-notes-august-23-2022/">Themes Team Meeting Notes –&nbsp;August 23, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/08/30/test-team-update-30-august-2022/">Test Team Update: 30 August 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-training"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training">Training</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/09/01/whats-new-on-learnwp-august-2022/">What’s new on LearnWP – August 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/07/27/information-sources-for-wp-6-1/">Information Sources for WP 6.1</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/08/31/august-24th-30th-supplemental-sme-meeting-recap/">August 24th / 30th Supplemental SME Meeting Recap</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/08/29/august-2022-monthly-faculty-meeting/">August 2022 Monthly Faculty Meeting</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/08/29/meeting-agenda-for-august-30-2022/">Meeting Agenda for August 30, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/08/29/training-team-meeting-recap-august-23/">Training Team Meeting Recap –&nbsp;August 23</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/08/27/documenting-the-successful-launch-of-japanese-online-workshops/">Documenting the Successful Launch of Japanese Online Workshops</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id="h-video-tutorials">Video Tutorials</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/creating-a-new-header-with-blocks/">Creating a new header with blocks</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id="h-online-workshops">Online Workshops:</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=what-is-the-domain-name-system-2">What is the Domain Name System?</a></li><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=introducing-domains-2">Introducing… Domains!</a></li><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=showcasing-content-with-query-loops-4">Showcasing Content with Query Loops</a></li><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=the-beginners-guide-to-full-site-editing">The Beginner’s Guide to Full Site Editing</a></li><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=a-personal-site-in-1-2-3-with-patterns">A Personal Site in 1, 2, 3 with Patterns</a><a href="https://github.com/courtneyr-dev/make-wp/#test"></a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-wptv">WPTV</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/category/year/2022/">Latest WordPress TV videos</a></li></ul>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-related-news">Related News:</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://thephp.foundation/blog/2022/08/30/php-core-roundup-5/">PHP Core Roundup #5</a></li><li><a href="https://tc39.es/#proposals">ECMAScript Proposals</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<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>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<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">\n<p class="has-text-align-left has-normal-font-size" id="h-get-ready-for-remote-work">You — and <a href="https://poststatus.com/business-membership/">your whole team</a> can <a href="https://poststatus.com/post-status-membership-club/">Join Post Status</a> too!</p>\n\n\n\n<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" /></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n<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, 31 Aug 2022 16:16:35 +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:"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:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:34:"Post Status: Why I (still) love…";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=113913";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:40:"https://poststatus.com/why-i-still-love/";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:557:"<p>What do you (still) love in tech that''s old?</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://rosswintle.uk/2022/08/why-i-love-and-how-i-make-simple-static-minimal-tech-websites/">Simple static HTML websites</a> (<a href="https://rosswintle.uk/author/rosswintle/">Ross Wintle</a>)</li><li><a href="https://the.scapegoat.dev/why-i-love-php-and-javascript/">PHP and JavaScript after 20+ years</a> (The Scapegoat Dev)</li><li>??? </li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Tell us in the comments —</p>\n<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, 31 Aug 2022 16:00:30 +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:19;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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: New pricing model at Business Bloomer aims at Purchasing Power Parity";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=113971";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:93:"https://poststatus.com/new-pricing-model-at-business-bloomer-aims-at-purchasing-power-parity/";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:1268:"<p><strong>Rodolfo Melogli</strong> has changed the pricing structure at bto be more affordable to people around the globe. He''s done this by calculating &#8220;Purchasing Power Parity.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity">Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)</a> is a metric that can be used to determine the actual “purchasing power” of a given country. A basket of goods purchased in the USA with USD is compared to the price of that same basket in a given country, in that country’s local currency. This ratio is never identical to the actual local currency exchange rate against USD. In fact, in some countries it’s much lower, which means that those goods can only be purchased using less USD than would be required in the USA.</p><p>Based on this metric, the PPP value helps with redefining prices. To better illustrate this, based on PPP data from the last 5 years, those in India may receive discounts of up to 75% on Business Bloomer WooCommerce online courses, those in South Africa may receive a 59% discount, Norway students may receive no discount, and so on. </p></blockquote>\n<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, 31 Aug 2022 14:51:00 +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: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:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:71:"WPTavern: #41 – Laura Nelson on How To Create a Profitable Newsletter";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=137279";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/podcast/41-laura-nelson-on-how-to-create-a-profitable-newsletter";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:42472:"<p>On the podcast today, we have <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/laurora/">Laura Nelson</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Laura is a Content Marketer at WooCommerce where she’s responsible for creating and planning engaging content for their users.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prior to WooCommerce she worked at <a href="https://www.mailpoet.com/">MailPoet</a>, an email marketing plugin for WordPress, and before that, she worked at Pragmatic, a UK based WordPress agency.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>She’s on the show to share her experience about how you can, and why you might want to, set up a paid email newsletter.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I hear the word newsletter, I’m typically thinking of the information which drops into your inbox on a regular basis. We’ve all surrendered our email addresses in return for some product or service. We agree to receive emails on the understanding that we can unsubscribe at some point. Perhaps a few of these emails really resonate with you, but it’s likely that you&#8217;ve unsubscribed from many as the content is no longer wanted.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This kind of email marketing is not always viewed favourably, and is not the kind of technique that Laura is on podcast to talk about.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her pitch is that email newsletters can themselves be a product. That people will pay to receive your emails, and she’s got data and examples to back it up.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I suppose that the closest analogy would be people who create an online course. You have an area of expertise; you do the hard work of creating the course and people will pay for a membership to have the benefit of learning from your expertise.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Laura is describing something similar to that. The only difference being that instead of a course, people will pay to receive your emails, knowing that you’re going to bring value to them regularly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know that this can be done, because, as you will hear, I’m a subscriber of some of the emails which Laura mentions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not a get rich quick scheme. It’s hard work and you’ve got to cultivate your audience and give them something of value, repeatedly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Typically, when we record the podcast, there’s not a lot of background noise, but that’s not always the case with these WordCamp Europe interviews. We were competing against crowds and the air-conditioning. Whilst the podcasts are more than listenable, I hope ‌you understand that the vagaries of the real world were at play.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Useful links.</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://jacksflightclub.com/">Jack&#8217;s Flight Club</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://www.densediscovery.com/">Dense Discovery</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://www.dailycodingproblem.com/">Daily Coding Problem</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://www.litmus.com/email-testing/">Litmus Email Testing</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://www.emailonacid.com/">Email on Acid</a></p>\n\n\n\nTranscript<div>\n<p>[00:00:00] Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>\n\n\n\n<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 how WordPress can be the backbone of a profitable newsletter.</p>\n\n\n\n<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>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to share on the podcast, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you all your idea featured on the show. Head over to WPTavern.com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox, and use the contact form there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So on the podcast today, we have Laura Nelson.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Laura is a content marketer at WooCommerce, where she&#8217;s responsible for creating and planning engaging content for their users. Prior to WooCommerce she worked at MailPoet, an email marketing plugin for WordPress, and before that she worked at Pragmatic, a UK based WordPress agency.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>She&#8217;s on the show to explore her experience of how you can, and while you might want to set up a paid email newsletter.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I hear the word newsletter, I&#8217;m typically thinking about the information which drops into your inbox on a daily basis. We&#8217;ve all surrendered our email addresses in return for some product or service. We agree to receive emails on the understanding that we can unsubscribe at some point.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps a few of these emails really resonate with you, but it&#8217;s likely that you unsubscribed from many as the content was no longer wanted. This kind of email marketing is not always viewed favorably, and it&#8217;s not the kind of technique that Laura is talking about on the podcast today. Her pitch is that email newsletters can themselves be a product? That people will pay to receive your emails, and she&#8217;s got data and examples to back it up.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I suppose that the closest analogy would be people who create an online course. You have an area of expertise. You do the hard work of creating the course and people will pay for a membership to have the benefit of learning from your expertise.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Laura is describing something similar to that. The only difference being that instead of a course, people will pay to receive your emails, knowing that you&#8217;re going to bring value to them regularly. I know that this can be done because as you will hear, I&#8217;m a ,subscriber to some of the emails which Laura mentioned.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not a get rich quick scheme. It&#8217;s hard work and you&#8217;ve got to cultivate your audience and give them something of value, repeatedly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Typically when we record the podcast, there&#8217;s not a lot of background noise, but that&#8217;s not always the case with these WordCamp Europe interviews. We were competing against crowds and the air conditioning. And whilst the podcasts are more than listenable, I hope that you understand that the vagaries of the real world were a play.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One last thing to mention is that I&#8217;ll be attending WordCamp US next week. And as a result there won&#8217;t be a podcast episode. If you&#8217;re going to be there. I do hope that our paths cross.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more about the podcast, you can find all the links in the show notes by heading to WPTavern.com forward slash podcast. And you&#8217;ll find all the other episodes of there as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Laura Nelson.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am joined on the podcast by Laura Nelson. Hello.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:19] Laura Nelson: Hello.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:20] Nathan Wrigley: Laura did a talk yesterday?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:23] Laura Nelson: Yesterday afternoon. Yep. So I&#8217;m feeling pretty good today.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:27] Nathan Wrigley: You&#8217;re feeling happy. Yeah, she did a talk at WordCamp Europe, 2022. What was it entitled? What was it about?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:32] Laura Nelson: It was how to create a paid newsletter subscription in WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:35] Nathan Wrigley: Okay, and did it go well?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:38] Laura Nelson: I think so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:39] Nathan Wrigley: So we&#8217;re gonna be talking today about newsletters. Obviously newsletters, they do seem to be all the rage.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:45] Laura Nelson: Yeah, every so often you hear like, email is dead, it&#8217;s all about TikTok and in fairness it is all about TikTok at the moment. But email marketing is amazing way to speak to your customers or your audience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:57] Nathan Wrigley: Does the data back that up then? Reliably over the last 20 years, we can say email still works?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:02] Laura Nelson: Yeah, yeah. And conversion rates are far higher from email marketing than they are from like, if you tweet about your product or your services. Email marketing is golden in terms of conversion rates.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:13] Nathan Wrigley: That&#8217;s interesting. Just the interface is a little bit more, how to describe it? TikTok&#8217;s a bit more ephemeral. There&#8217;s a lot going on, and there&#8217;s a lot making you wish to scroll past all of the things. I think it&#8217;s the only thing that&#8217;s been with me for 20 years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:26] Laura Nelson: Exactly. People are familiar with it. They know how it works, they know what to expect from an email. I think you&#8217;re capturing people at a good time, because generally they&#8217;re not gonna open their emails unless they have time to read your email. Whereas if you are like on Twitter and you&#8217;re like idly scrolling or you&#8217;ve got like two minutes, it forces them to stop, but they might not have time to take that information in. So email, it&#8217;s nice. It sits there. If you don&#8217;t have time to read it properly when you first open it, you can come back to it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:53] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, that&#8217;s a good point. I was just thinking about that. And if I don&#8217;t log into Twitter for a few days, there&#8217;s almost no chance that I&#8217;m gonna see the things from three days ago, because I&#8217;m gonna start at the top. Yeah, that&#8217;s a really good point.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, when you&#8217;re talking about newsletters, presumably we&#8217;re talking about a piece where people have subscribed to a newsletter, and you are then offering content to them. Is that basically the model?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:06:16] Laura Nelson: That&#8217;s right, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:06:17] Nathan Wrigley: Okay, and you are talking about getting paid and generating revenue, and it almost sounds like it&#8217;s too good to be true. You throw together a newsletter and suddenly, you become incredibly wealthy. Of course that&#8217;s not the case. There&#8217;s probably a lot of hard work. There&#8217;s probably a lot of expertise required. Is that true?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:06:33] Laura Nelson: Yes. I&#8217;d say the hardest part of this is building your list. So if you don&#8217;t already have people in your community or your audience available, you probably have to put a bit more effort into marketing. But in terms of expertise, you can write a newsletter about anything you want.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The example I gave in my talk yesterday was a newsletter about cats, and that&#8217;s an interest. I&#8217;m not an expert on cats, I just think cats are cute. And so, you can use them in whatever ways you want. I definitely don&#8217;t think you have to be an expert in a specific subject. If you are good at writing, or if you have interesting or unusual opinions about things, you can easily make an email newsletter.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:07:11] Nathan Wrigley: Before we pressed record, we talked about the fact that there is a rival platform, which I think by now probably most people have heard of. It&#8217;s called Substack. And you likened what you were describing in the talk and probably what we&#8217;re gonna be talking about as a, kind of an alternative to that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:07:26] Laura Nelson: Yes. That&#8217;s right. Substack is huge now, and I can&#8217;t remember the figures off the top of my head, but there are millions of subscribers across all the Substack newsletters, I guess you&#8217;d call them. And the solution that I&#8217;m gonna be talking to you about is an alternative to keep that in WordPress, rather than outsourcing that to a different platform.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:07:46] Nathan Wrigley: Is there a strong reason in your head why you would not wish to go with the, it&#8217;s the SaaS versus WordPress argument. You could have this about a thousand different SaaS platforms. But is there a strong reason in your head why you wish to do it in WordPress and not just pay Substack the fee and get on with it over there?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:00] Laura Nelson: I think WordPress, I mean, WordPress lends itself to content. Like WordPress is where you publish content. And we&#8217;re talking about sharing content in a newsletter. And I think like this method, what most appeals about it to me is the fact that everything is in one place, and it&#8217;s familiar.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if you already have a WordPress website or a business that&#8217;s using WordPress to power it then you don&#8217;t have to learn something new, it&#8217;s already, it&#8217;s just there. It can be extended onto what you are already doing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:27] Nathan Wrigley: The payment bit, we&#8217;ll probably unpick the payment puzzle, but is this basically a paywall thing? In other words, are you restricting content? Are you only sending out to people who&#8217;ve paid? Or is it that you embed other things inside the newsletters, you know, upsells and subscriptions that people might join and so on?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:44] Laura Nelson: No, no, you are only sending the content to those who&#8217;ve paid. So it&#8217;s like a subscription, like you would, sign up to like a, I think you can get them for like dog and cat food, where they get delivered regularly. Then you, yeah, just like that. But instead you&#8217;re receiving content in your inbox.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:58] Nathan Wrigley: So you are going to describe to us a system built where you go to the website, you&#8217;re engaged, you sign up, you begin receiving emails and if your subscription payment is cancelled, the emails fail, and it stops.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:09] Laura Nelson: Yeah, that&#8217;s exactly it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:11] Nathan Wrigley: Okay, so what plugins are you using?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:13] Laura Nelson: Yeah, so in addition to like being on a WordPress website, so disclaimer, I mean, if you&#8217;re not on WordPress, I don&#8217;t know why you&#8217;re listening to this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:19] Nathan Wrigley: No, that&#8217;s probably fair.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:21] Laura Nelson: You&#8217;ll need like WooCommerce, MailPoet, which is an email marketing plugin for WordPress, and WooCommerce subscriptions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:28] Nathan Wrigley: So the basic WooCommerce to sort of bind the whole subscription thing together. You add the subscription thing on top. And then there&#8217;s MailPoet. Is there any cost to any of that?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:36] Laura Nelson: Yeah, so WooCommerce subscriptions is $199 per year. MailPoet is free to use up to a thousand subscribers. So when you get beyond that, there&#8217;s tiered plans. But I think the lowest plan starts at around $12 or $15 per month. It&#8217;s quite reasonable.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:53] Nathan Wrigley: I&#8217;ve heard, and I don&#8217;t know where this number comes from, but I&#8217;ve heard that if your email list is a thousand people, roughly you can become profitable. And what I mean by that is that you can become profitable enough for it to become an important part of what you do. And it always felt that that was like a really, quite a low number.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But then having tried to create email lists in the past, I quickly realized actually a thousand is pretty hard to get to. It&#8217;s difficult to get people to surrender their email address. So is there any advice that you give to people essentially to give you their email address?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:10:25] Laura Nelson: Yeah. I think what works best is honesty. Be upfront and honest about what you&#8217;re gonna be sending to them. That you&#8217;re not gonna pass on your, their email to somebody else. And when you&#8217;re going to, like the frequency that they can expect to receive emails from you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then it&#8217;s just a case of making sure that the content that you&#8217;re including in it is really valuable, offers something a bit different or unique that they might not be able to read elsewhere. I mean, that&#8217;s like solid advice for if it&#8217;s a paid newsletter or not paid. And then it&#8217;s just another form of marketing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I recommend including, including a link to sign up in all of your normal email signatures, like from your Gmail or whatever you use. Use your social networks. If you have a good community on Twitter, let them know about your newsletter. Basically, plug it everywhere that you possibly can.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:13] Nathan Wrigley: Does the MailPoet solution, does it allow you to create, so forgive me, first of all, I&#8217;ve not used MailPoet, so I don&#8217;t know how the UI works, but does it allow you to basically create a post in WordPress, which is then fired out as an email?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:25] Laura Nelson: Yes and no. So if you mean like a post in WordPress that you&#8217;d be able to go onto a WordPress website and see it in like the blog section. It wouldn&#8217;t work that way around. If you had published a blog post on WordPress and then use MailPoet to send an email, it&#8217;s a tick, like a widget, that you drag in and a tick that and you can include that entire blog post in your email.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:45] Nathan Wrigley: Okay. So you create a normal blog post. Tick a box. When you click publish, it is converted to an email and sent out?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:52] Laura Nelson: Yeah. Or you drag it into like your email template, and you can add other stuff around it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:56] Nathan Wrigley: Oh, okay. So you could put a different header and a different footer in? Okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:59] Laura Nelson: And in the case of the paid news letter though, you&#8217;d probably, in order to get people to sign up and pay for this, you don&#8217;t want that content being available on your website for free. So you&#8217;d probably want to write the post within the email itself. So it only lives there and not elsewhere.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:16] Nathan Wrigley: Yes, that wouldn&#8217;t make sense, would it? If it was a paid newsletter, and the content was available on your website.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:21] Laura Nelson: But you could use WooCommerce memberships. You could guard that and make it a private post and then link to it it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:27] Nathan Wrigley: Okay. So as with all things WordPress, there&#8217;s a way.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:30] Laura Nelson: Yeah. You can add another layer to this if you want to do that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:32] Nathan Wrigley: If somebody was to begin a completely new website. You know, they wanna talk about, I dunno, volcanoes or something. Then would you be able to do this on pretty modest hosting? Because it doesn&#8217;t feel like there&#8217;s a lot going on. Basic WordPress, basic WooCommerce, a couple of extra plugins, maybe really cheap hosting?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:50] Laura Nelson: Uh, yeah. Really, unless you are planning on adding loads of other products to your store or adding loads and loads of other content to your website. You can keep this really lean and get away with really cheap posting. It wouldn&#8217;t take much, you just need a product page really.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:05] Nathan Wrigley: The difficulty I think maybe is trying to get people to find your newsletter in the first place. And then of course there&#8217;s the problem of getting them to separate their email and give it to you. Have you got any advice for how you market your newsletter? Anything around there?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:21] Laura Nelson: Yeah. It&#8217;s funny. Someone asked me this yesterday after the talk and I, I said I could probably do an entire other presentation on this exact topic.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:30] Nathan Wrigley: Go deep, it&#8217;s good.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:31] Laura Nelson: So, what I was saying earlier about being really upfront about what you&#8217;re gonna be sending, when you&#8217;re gonna be sending it. Know what you&#8217;re doing with their email address. And you just really need to show some value. So you need to make sure that the content that you are creating is unique or if you do have an expertise in a certain area, really let people know, like why that&#8217;s important to them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Content is all about problem solving for people. So you need to find out what problems people have. And if you can solve that in content, then let them know.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:14:03] Nathan Wrigley: I&#8217;m guessing that some things are going to be more of a labour of love than other things. Again if you&#8217;re producing the volcano newsletter, I&#8217;m expecting in the low single digits.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:14:12] Laura Nelson: Well you know, it&#8217;s a niche market I imagine. Maybe that would be more successful because you know, you get people who are really into something like that. You know, there&#8217;s probably not a lot. I dunno, I&#8217;m not, I&#8217;m not familiar with the volcano market. I&#8217;m not gonna lie, but, um, I kind of imagine there will be those niche areas like that, where if there&#8217;s not content being published about that or at least readily available to you, then you probably would pay. It&#8217;s like, oh yeah, I love that, and I&#8217;m really interested in that. So I would pay to receive.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:14:40] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah. It&#8217;s interesting because of course you&#8217;ve gotta think about the person reading the content and whether volcanoes are gonna be of any interest to them, but also your ability to sustain this, is directly related to how interested you think it is.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, you know, if you genuinely have no interest in volcanoes and you embark on that mission, probably it&#8217;s gonna dry up fairly quickly, and so I wonder if often people in this chase the big thing, the big shiny, exciting thing only to discover, you know, what, actually on a deep, personal level, I&#8217;m not interested in this, and the newsletter dries up and falters and fails.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:15:16] Laura Nelson: If you&#8217;re thinking about starting this up, you need to remember, it&#8217;s not just one email. It&#8217;s not just two. It has to have like longevity to it. So whatever it is, whatever topic you&#8217;re choosing, obviously you can&#8217;t possibly know what you might like to talk about or write about in six months time, but you need to make sure that the topic is either big enough or is like new things are happening in that area enough in order to sustain a long term newsletter.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:15:42] Nathan Wrigley: I wonder if this is like a perfect extension to people who are already doing things. They might have got a YouTube channel. They might have a WordPress website and they&#8217;re producing things. Or in this case here we are on a podcast. It may be that you&#8217;ve got that kind of thing. It feels like a bit of a no brainer to just add this on as a kind of value add. So you could have, well, I don&#8217;t know, content that only subscribers get, or things like that. Is that where the market seems to be leading.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:16:08] Laura Nelson: Absolutely. You obviously can start from scratch and it, technically it&#8217;s pretty easy to do so, in that respect. But, you&#8217;re gonna have more success if you already have, you need to make sure you already have an audience. And if you already have a business, you already have a customer base or an audience that are, are listening to you, and you&#8217;re communicating with. So yeah, I think it&#8217;s an obvious, like an easy fit for established businesses.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:16:34] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah. So if you&#8217;ve got something going already. It&#8217;s almost like a missing piece of the jigsaw if you&#8217;re not doing it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:16:39] Laura Nelson: It&#8217;s not to be used to like plug your products or services. It&#8217;s not like, I guess if you were to run a, an eCommerce store and you sell products, it&#8217;s not to be used like that. It&#8217;s like a highlight of, oh, we got these new trainers in stock etc. You have to be adding something of value, like an opinion or some content that they can&#8217;t get elsewhere. I think one of the, um, examples I gave yesterday was digital downloads. Like if you&#8217;re really good photographer, you could share your photos in an email newsletter and let have access to use your photos, you know? Like on a weekly basis like, 10 new photos every week or fortnight or something.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:17:18] Nathan Wrigley: So this is subscription, which means we must decide on a subscription term. Do you typically, would you say like go monthly? Is that, is that the easiest, least friction way to do it? Sort of asking people to separate money from their wallet, monthly, annually.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:17:34] Laura Nelson: I&#8217;d offer both a monthly option and then a yearly, maybe it would just slightly discounted. Because it&#8217;s great. If you have people signed up for a year or they&#8217;ve committed to that year, that&#8217;s excellent. But I&#8217;d always give people the option of monthly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:17:45] Nathan Wrigley: My fear of offering an annual plan would be that I just dry up. You know, I&#8217;d be eight months in and I&#8217;d be, ah, I&#8217;ve got nothing else to say, and then I&#8217;ve got to think about the, the sort of refund process.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:17:58] Laura Nelson: Yeah. If you do that, you would probably have to refund people, but offering a yearly option is something you could consider after you&#8217;ve got into the groove of creating a newsletter and you think you can see it has a longer life to it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:18:10] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah I know this, what we&#8217;ve been talking about is a WordPress thing. The piece that you described, the MailPoet and the WooCommerce bit is the way to get paid for that. Just briefly talking about alternative ways of doing that. The sponsorship bit, or the payment bit outside of WordPress. There&#8217;s things like Patreon and Ko-fi is that, an angle you&#8217;ve ever looked at or explored?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:18:30] Laura Nelson: Yeah, and like Substack. They&#8217;re all like really great platforms to use. But they&#8217;re outside of WordPress. So, I think the kind of unique angle here or for this approach is, if you want everything to be all in one place, if you&#8217;re already creating content in WordPress, don&#8217;t spend your time copying and pacing it over to a different piece of software. You can have it all like in one dashboard, basically. Ownership is a big part of that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:18:59] Nathan Wrigley: Thorny question.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:01] Laura Nelson: Mm-hmm.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:01] Nathan Wrigley: Where are the email addresses stored?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:03] Laura Nelson: Right? So in MailPoet, no one else can see your subscriber&#8217;s email addresses. MailPoet takes, email best practices and security very seriously. We don&#8217;t even see the emails that get sent out via MailPoet. So they&#8217;re stored on, I think it&#8217;s like your server, they belong with you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:22] Nathan Wrigley: Mm-hmm.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:23] Laura Nelson: They don&#8217;t come to MailPoet at any point. They are yours.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:26] Nathan Wrigley: That&#8217;s an interesting thing. And I guess you would need to be mindful of GDPR if you are storing people&#8217;s email addresses. Do you have any insight into whether those are in the database? Do you know whether they&#8217;re in an encrypted, in an encrypted form or not?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:40] Laura Nelson: This is a technical question that I am not able to answer, I&#8217;m afraid. At least not confidently. I think I know the answer, but I absolutely wouldn&#8217;t want to go on a podcast and tell everybody the wrong thing if that&#8217;s okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:51] Nathan Wrigley: That&#8217;s okay we could could look at that another time. And so have you got any good examples of newsletters where you could say, go and have a look at that one. Two or three that you think are really worthwhile where somebody&#8217;s done it just right. They&#8217;re doing really well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:20:03] Laura Nelson: So the first one&#8217;s called Dense Discovery. None of these examples are actually of paid, well, actually I can give some paid newsletter examples. Let me start with Dense Discovery, which you can pay for, but they handle the payment a slightly different way. It&#8217;s more like a tip based system. Like if you enjoy this, you know, become a friend of the newsletter. But from a content perspective, I would pay to receive Dense Discovery.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If they offered it up as a subscription, I would do that. Cause I tip on a regular basis. It has a really good balance of the guy who&#8217;s created the newsletter called Kai, like his opinion, and his take on what&#8217;s happening in the world. There are some lovely resources for like design. He often shares like an illustrator and their work, as well as some like handy tools for like productivity at work.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it&#8217;s kind like a nice, a nice blend of content. And it&#8217;s really regular. I know when I&#8217;m gonna receive it. It&#8217;s the same time each week, and I know the quality of the content&#8217;s gonna be really, really good.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:01] Nathan Wrigley: Can I just pause you there, and just go on a bit of a segue and we&#8217;ll come back to some other ones in a minute, because that just suddenly occurred to me. There&#8217;s something a bit meta going on there, because he&#8217;s not asking for a subscription, but what if you had an email newsletter, which was a, the sort of upsell for the paid newsletter?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:17] Laura Nelson: Oh yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:18] Nathan Wrigley: If you know what I mean? So the newsletter itself contains a proportion of the content. Is that a thing?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:24] Laura Nelson: Yeah, absolutely. And actually the next example I was going to give. I&#8217;d like to like add to disclaimer it, this isn&#8217;t of my interest but&#8217;s I can see it&#8217;s done really, really well, which is why I&#8217;m gonna mention it. It&#8217;s called Daily Coding Problem. So it uses this paid newsletter technique really interestingly. It&#8217;s basically they send like a coding problem. It&#8217;s designed to help programmers prepare for technical interviews. And if you are only a free subscriber, you don&#8217;t get to see the answer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:53] Nathan Wrigley: Oh.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:53] Laura Nelson: Uhhuh.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:54] Nathan Wrigley: That is intriguing. Yeah, that&#8217;s kind of like using the annoyance style isn&#8217;t it? Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:58] Laura Nelson: So I mean, if you&#8217;re really confident with these, maybe you don&#8217;t, maybe you don&#8217;t need to see them, like the mystery. Yeah, you have to become a paid subscriber to see the solution.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:07] Nathan Wrigley: That&#8217;s fascinating. So throw something out there. It&#8217;s a bit like if Wordle didn&#8217;t give you the answer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:12] Laura Nelson: I know. How annoying would that be?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:14] Nathan Wrigley: Well, you&#8217;d pay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:16] Laura Nelson: Exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:17] Nathan Wrigley: And you&#8217;d get the answer every, every day. Yeah, that&#8217;s fascinating. So I mean that&#8217;s really unique isn&#8217;t it? But presumably most of it is about just the kind of stuff that you would ordinarily put on your website. You just make sure that the content&#8217;s really good, but you indicate they&#8217;ve got to the end of this newsletter, but there&#8217;s more.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:32] Laura Nelson: Yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:32] Nathan Wrigley: You could find out more.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:33] Laura Nelson: Absolutely. And another example, um, which I mentioned yesterday actually was Jack&#8217;s Flight Club.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:38] Nathan Wrigley: Oh. I pay for Jack&#8217;s Flight Club.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:40] Laura Nelson: You&#8217;re newsletter subscriber.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:42] Nathan Wrigley: That&#8217;s fascinating. I hadn&#8217;t connected. I use the app.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:46] Laura Nelson: Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:47] Nathan Wrigley: But it is a newsletter, is and he got me through the newsletter. You&#8217;re right. Go on, tell them about Jack&#8217;s Flight Club.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:52] Laura Nelson: Yeah, so Jack&#8217;s Flight Club, as we just heard, is, it&#8217;s a really popular one, uh, in the UK and Europe. And it sends you like error fairs and cheap flight deals. But if you&#8217;re not a paid subscriber, you don&#8217;t get all of the deals. And when you get the free version of email, they tell you which deals that you missed. So it really plays on that, like FOMO, like, you know, you&#8217;ve missed these incredibly cheap flights to Canada. You didn&#8217;t get that because you&#8217;re not a paid subscriber.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:18] Nathan Wrigley: That&#8217;s right. And the interesting thing about that one is. That&#8217;s kind of opened my eyes up actually about where the price points may be. And maybe, maybe Jack is different, but it&#8217;s about if I recall, I think I paid about $40, something like that per year. So it was not really a lot. If you spread that over the, you know, it&#8217;s like $3 80 or a month</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:40] Laura Nelson: Yep.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:40] Nathan Wrigley: That&#8217;s really not a significant amount, but presumably if Jack, I&#8217;m guessing there is a Jack, I don&#8217;t know, but presumably if Jack&#8217;s into the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands. This</p>\n\n\n\n<p>is incredible… a million.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:52] Laura Nelson: He&#8217;s got a million subscribers, million plus, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:55] Nathan Wrigley: We can work the maths out there. Okay Jack&#8217;s doing well from newsletters.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:58] Laura Nelson: Jack&#8217;s doing alright. Well, it&#8217;s the success of a newsletter that enabled him to take it to an app and, you know, grow this beyond just email content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:06] Nathan Wrigley: I want to be Jack.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:08] Laura Nelson: Yeah, me too. I bet he&#8217;s on a yacht somewhere lovely, right. He&#8217;s not looking up cheap flights.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:12] Nathan Wrigley: He&#8217;s no longer looking, but that really illustrates it perfectly. So it was something most people probably don&#8217;t care about flights at all. They&#8217;ll just look the flight when they&#8217;re going on holiday but here&#8217;s me, I&#8217;m intrigued. I want if there is a cheap deal out there. So it&#8217;s got me on that niche thing. Like the coding chap.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, I don&#8217;t know how long it took me. I think he was probably giving me the free one for six months.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:35] Laura Nelson: Yep.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:36] Nathan Wrigley: Do you know what he also did, which was curious, which was actually the hook. He offered a 20% discount in one of his emails. So that&#8217;s another interesting pricing strategy. He had his annual price and then he, for a week only, I think it was 20% off. That was the, the fishing rod that I happily bit on. And, and I think he&#8217;s got me for years to come.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:56] Laura Nelson: Yeah. You can do that with this, and I&#8217;d recommend exploring things like that. Just jumping back to your question earlier about how to get paid subscribers. If you already run a successful newsletter, you can drop in the bit about you having a paid newsletter too, give &#8217;em a little taster of what they&#8217;ve missed or what they will miss if they don&#8217;t pay to subscribe and yeah, it got you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:17] Nathan Wrigley: It works. And interestingly enough, I am pretty difficult to get, and yet he got me. So it is, it is about the niche I think.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:25] Laura Nelson: Yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:25] Nathan Wrigley: Well, let&#8217;s talk about the actual email itself. So we open up the email. Are there any sort of top tips about the way you should present things? I mean, are we looking for bright and colorful? Are we looking for more words than images? Are there trip wires that prevent the email clients from opening things? Because there&#8217;s just way too much text and it truncates it. Just give us what the email actually should be looking like.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:47] Laura Nelson: Well, I mean, it does completely depend, like what you&#8217;re including in it. I wouldn&#8217;t be, if you are selling a like long form content style email, don&#8217;t be afraid of including lots of words. Because that&#8217;s what people are paying for. But in terms of spam filters, if you&#8217;re offering a paid newsletter subscription, I don&#8217;t think you&#8217;d have any issues because it&#8217;s usually things like the word free and like capital letters, lots of exclamation marks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:09] Nathan Wrigley: Emojis in the subject line, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:12] Laura Nelson: Emojis in the subject line are okay, as long as they&#8217;re not overused. Yeah. Basically emails like don&#8217;t overdo anything.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:20] Nathan Wrigley: Okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:21] Laura Nelson: A good, combination of yeah, different things that works well. In terms of layout, I mean, just take a step back and think about what you&#8217;d like to read. If it&#8217;s a big wall of text, would that entice you to read it? I mean, some people maybe, but not no. So, and you can format the newsletter to look how you want. So you could add spaces, you can add some images, you can use columns if that&#8217;s better for your content, so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:45] Nathan Wrigley: The last time I was fiddling with email, I think we&#8217;re still stuck in tables. Are there big constraints still about the way that you can present things? So obviously on the web, our own WordPress websites, we can literally put anything anywhere, pixel by pixel, more or less. Are we confined with emails still? I mean are we still thinking about email clients from the year 2004 as a thing?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:06] Laura Nelson: Yeah. Well, I mean email&#8217;s tricky because it will look different according to different email clients, and Outlook is forever a bug bear for those who create emails. But if you&#8217;re using email marketing software, I mean, I can only speak to MailPoet, and I&#8217;m not just trying to plug here. It&#8217;s just the one I&#8217;m most familiar with. Their templates are already fully responsive. Their templates are tested on all the different email clients. So you can kind of be pretty confident that unless you&#8217;ve gone in and really messed with that, they&#8217;re gonna work in most email clients.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Litmus is a great tool if you&#8217;re not sure. Email on Acid to test your emails, to see what they&#8217;re going to look like on Outlook, on Gmail, all the big email.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:47] Nathan Wrigley: And how do they work? You send Email on Acid an actual email and it then tells you, it gives you a rating or things to improve and so on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:54] Laura Nelson: It will show you how they look across the different email clients.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:58] Nathan Wrigley: Tell us about the actual UI, about how you build email. I&#8217;ve logged into all sorts of services. Typically there&#8217;s a bunch of modules for want of a better word, a bit like in Gutenberg with blocks now. So you drag in a, an image and you could drag in a couple of columns and put the image to the left, and text to the right. Is it what you see is what you get kind of builder?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:18] Laura Nelson: Yeah. Yeah. It is a WYSIWYG builder. It doesn&#8217;t use Gutenberg but I know the MailPoet team are looking to explore that option. But the email itself is a WYSIWYG editor where you drag and drop.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:30] Nathan Wrigley: So it&#8217;s familiar? You&#8217;ll be right at home. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:32] Laura Nelson: I don&#8217;t like describing things as easy because I think different people have different perceptions of what&#8217;s easy, but this is the easiest email editor I&#8217;ve ever used, because it is simply you drag it and you drop it where you want it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:46] Nathan Wrigley: Do you get an opportunity to inspect it before you commit?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:51] Laura Nelson: Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:51] Nathan Wrigley: So it will send you a version you can inspect make sure the links are all working and so on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:56] Laura Nelson: Yeah, absolutely.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:18] Nathan Wrigley: And does it check that stuff as well? So in other words, it will see that for example, you&#8217;ve overused images, Nathan. Stop with the images volcanoes. Or that there&#8217;s too much text typically. Does it give you any metrics about, what is that called even? Because I&#8217;ve seen that before, they do some sort of test in the background and give you a rating.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:14] Laura Nelson: Like a readability.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:15] Nathan Wrigley: Something along those lines, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:17] Laura Nelson: It doesn&#8217;t, no. I think because the way MailPoet&#8217;s built and we don&#8217;t see your email content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:23] Nathan Wrigley: That&#8217;s interesting because it&#8217;s your WordPress site. So it&#8217;s your email. So it&#8217;s not phoning home any to any third parties.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:29] Laura Nelson: It&#8217;s not but that&#8217;s a pretty interesting idea. Maybe I&#8217;ll pass it onto the team.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:32] Nathan Wrigley: Oh okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:33] Laura Nelson: That would be useful.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:34] Nathan Wrigley: Can I take credit for that?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:35] Laura Nelson: The feature will be called email read, readability by Nathan.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:40] Nathan Wrigley: That&#8217;s great. Okay I&#8217;m happy with that. So Laura, just before we wrap up, where&#8217;s the best place to find out about, well, in this case, MailPoet, where do we go?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:48] Laura Nelson: MailPoet.com. If you head to the blog, there&#8217;s some really great articles there about email marketing in general. How to build your list. There&#8217;s even a blog post about creating a paid newsletter. Like what my talk was on yesterday. Fantastic resource for all things email marketing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:30:04] Nathan Wrigley: Well Laura, well done for getting through your talk at WordCamp Europe.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:30:07] Laura Nelson: Thank you. Thank you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:30:08] Nathan Wrigley: A nice relief and, very happy to have you on the podcast today.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:30:12] Laura Nelson: Thank you so much for having me. It&#8217;s been a pleasure.</p>\n</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, 31 Aug 2022 14:00:00 +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:"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:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"Post Status: Naming is Hard: Content Types on Learn WordPress";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=113897";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/naming-is-hard-content-types-on-learn-wordpress/";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:1257:"<p>Based on a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/07/03/discussion-naming-content-types-on-learn-wordpress/">public discussion</a> led by <strong>Hugh Lashbrooke</strong>, <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshops/">Workshops</a> (5-15 minute instructional videos) are going to be called <strong>Tutorials</strong>, moving forward while <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/social-learning/">Social Learning Spaces</a> (live and collaborative learning sessions) have become <strong>Online Workshops</strong>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>No change to <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/courses/">Courses</a> (long-form content with multiple lessons in multiple media formats) and <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plans/">Lesson Plans</a> (structured plans that trainers can use to teach others).</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Definitely seems to move things toward greater simplicity and clarity. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/07/03/discussion-naming-content-types-on-learn-wordpress/">Discussion: Naming content types on Learn WordPress</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n<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, 31 Aug 2022 04:28:00 +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: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:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:39:"Post Status: LearnDash: Plugin or SaaS?";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=113919";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:48:"https://poststatus.com/learndash-plugin-or-saas/";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:883:"<p>Or both — if you want both. It''s <a href="https://www.learndash.com/pricing-and-purchase/">LearnDash — and LearnDash Cloud</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don''t think I''ve ever seen a WordPress plugin priced and marketed this well as both a <em>product</em> and a <em>service</em>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>At least that''s how most people think of it&#8230; A plugin is really a product with updates and support as a service. A SaaSified plugin is still the underlying WordPress product. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>What the customer cares about is what they can (or don''t have to) do — as a site builder or developer, or as someone who wants all the technical details and heavy lifting to be taken off their plate. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both are open source. Both introduce different kinds of people to a community and ecosystem. </p>\n<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, 30 Aug 2022 23:09:44 +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: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:23;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:70:"WPTavern: WP-Optimize Denies Allegations of Cheating Performance Tools";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=137433";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:81:"https://wptavern.com/wp-optimize-denies-allegations-of-cheating-performance-tools";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:11452:"<p>Yesterday, we <a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-optimize-plugin-accused-of-cheating-pagespeed-and-other-performance-testing-tools">published</a> allegations from Gijo Varghese against UpdraftPlus, the makers of WP-Optimize. Varghese is founder of FlyingProxy, a competing company, and identifies himself as a &#8220;performance enthusiast.&#8221; He accused the plugin of &#8220;cheating Pagespeed and other tools&#8221; by hiding JavaScript files from loading when users test their sites through popular performance testing tools. The code uses an odd set of obfuscated names for the testing tools, which drew his suspicion. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Varghese neglected to mention in his <a href="https://twitter.com/GijoVarghese_/status/1563097754322501632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1563097754322501632%7Ctwgr%5Ebf97b211fb13920391541b64137000b5ea1edc0c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwptavern.com%2Fwp-optimize-plugin-accused-of-cheating-pagespeed-and-other-performance-testing-tools">tweet</a> that this is what happens when one of the plugin&#8217;s settings under Minify > JS is set to defer JavaScript. There are two radio button settings but they are confusing.  </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first radio button allows users to defer selected JavaScript files. It says the files will be loaded asynchronously (not the same as defer), and then it also says that users should select the first radio button if they want to exclude scripts from page speed tests. It is not clear how the scripts will be loaded for the user or for testing sites. Excluding is not the same as deferring, so in this case the settings UI is somewhat misleading and should be more clear.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>The second radio option is for users who are simply looking to defer all JavaScript. If one selects <em>&#8220;Defer using JavaScript (Use this method if you require support for <a href="https://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_script_defer.asp">older browsers</a>),&#8221;</em> it should do exactly what it describes in the link:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">\n<p>If the <code>defer</code> attribute is set, it specifies that the script is downloaded in parallel to parsing the page, and executed after the page has finished parsing.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p> Even though the UI says it is deferring all files, WP-Optimize never loads the JavaScript for performance testing sites. In this second option, the exclusion of testing sites happens without the users&#8217; permission. If users had wanted that, they would have selected the previous radio button and explicitly identified which scripts to exclude.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>Varghese left out some significant details in his original report, but it was accurate in that certain settings are misleading about what they actually do. He demonstrated this in a follow-up video where there is no manual entry of any scripts to exclude and the second radio option is checked.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re providing an option for users to cheat testing tools,&#8221; Varghese said. &#8220;Also, using names like &#8216;ighth&#8217; for Lighthouse and &#8216;tmetr&#8217; for GTmetrix clearly shows what they&#8217;re trying to do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Most of the users try disabling and enabling different features to see which one is increasing the speed/scores in testing tools.&#8221; </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Varghese contends there is no need to do things differently for testing tools and humans, as this can be confusing for site owners. His allegation left out significant details and implied that all of this is hidden in the code. It is for one of the settings but not the other one. The interface implies that you must enter scripts manually to exclude from testing, but this is also misleading. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>WP-Optimize <a href="https://getwpo.com/wp-optimize-completely-rejects-false-allegations-of-gaming-page-speed-results/">published a public response to the allegations</a> today, but has not revealed any of the results from the code investigation they completed. Instead, the company cited a video created by Peter Wilkinson from <a href="https://diviengine.com/">Divi Engine</a>, who claims that users must manually enter scripts to make testing sites exclude them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wilkinson is quoted as concluding that &#8220;Gijo Varghese has used deception to promote Flying Pages and Flying Press&#8221; in bringing this issue to public attention on Twitter.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>“In reality (from my research) WP-Optimize do not &#8216;cheat&#8217; Pagespeed tools when you install or Minify your JavaScript,&#8221; Wilkinson said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>“To &#8216;cheat&#8217; the tools, you need to manually add the JS files you want to asynchronous load to a setting that clearly has the label &#8216;Use this if you have a completely independent script or would like to exclude scripts from page speed tests (PageSpeed Insights, GTMetrix…)''&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not the case. The easiest way to test is to install the plugin, turn on &#8220;defer all JavaScript,&#8221; and then view the source to see that performance tools are excluded.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since WP-Optimize&#8217;s public response to the issue did not include anything from their code investigation, I contacted them again. Their deputy lead Venkat Raj was not available to answer why other settings in the plugin silently remove JS for performance testing tools with the click of a radio button. Joe Miles, head of strategy for the company, shared the last information he received on the issue from Venkat Raj: </p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">\n<p>&#8220;The advanced setting used in the allegation is actually useful to find out whether the essential js/css files are actually slowing down the web page or not.  This feature is by default, turned ‘off’ and only enabled by advanced users who know what they’re doing.<br /><br />&#8220;You may use this feature if you have a completely independent script or would like to exclude scripts from page speed tests (PageSpeed Insights, GTMetrix&#8230;)<br /><br />&#8220;Independent scripts are for example &#8216;analytics&#8217; or &#8216;pixel&#8217; scripts. They are not required for the website to work. &#8216;<em>Use this if you have a completely independent stylesheet or would like to exclude stylesheets from page speed tests (PageSpeed Insights, GTMetrix&#8230;)</em>&#8216;</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This applies to the first radio button. The second button does not have any indication that it will turn off all scripts when using testing tools &#8211; nor does WP-Optimize&#8217;s team seem to be aware that it is available with the click of a radio button. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miles could not confirm whether this is how it is intended to work or if it is a bug. He also could not account for why the names of the popular testing sites were obfuscated in the code, but said the original developer &#8220;doesn&#8217;t work for us as it&#8217;s open source code repurposed from elsewhere.&#8221; </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;However, we believe this is a distraction from the false allegations, and what matters is that the UI is very clear for the settings are for, so users aren&#8217;t deceived,&#8221; Miles said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Raul Peixoto, author of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/fast-velocity-minify/">Fast Velocity Minify</a> (FVM), the plugin from which WP-Optimize copied the code, said he can confirm that this code was part of FVM but said it was not used in the same way:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">\n<p>The purpose of such code on FVM was completely different than the one on WP Optimize and furthermore it required for the users to manually enable this option via wp-admin (it was disabled by default).</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The purpose of that code was to selectively test the impact of new scripts or plugins in performance, and help developers decide if they should refactor, remove or replace heavy plugins or scripts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This existed on FVM to answer questions like these:<br />“I have a production site and my performance is low. What would be the performance if this plugin was simply not here, but without actually removing it from the site for regular users yet?”<br />“What would the performance be if I could defer all scripts, or specific scripts that are not currently compatible with defer, before actually doing that change for everyone?”</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>An official explanation regarding its use on FVM is <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-are-some-scripts-not-loaded-for-speed-testing-sites/">available in the plugin&#8217;s support forum</a> as of this morning.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I suppose that the developers hired by WP Optimize did not understand what this was doing on FVM or under what settings, or perhaps, they may have felt tempted to use it as a hack,&#8221; Peixoto said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We should also carefully remember that at that time, there were still no web vitals metrics publicly available, so using something like this would have yield better &#8216;measurable&#8217; results, thus offering a product advantage.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Piexoto said he &#8220;felt compelled&#8221; to remove this code two years ago because of how often it was abused by developers who were cheating on tests for their clients:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">\n<p>Fast forward some time, and I realized that some developers were actually using this to cheat on the tests for their clients, so I felt compelled to make the decision on FVM 3 (already late 2020) to remove this feature, which was met by a lot of protests of angry developers when their clients started complaining that their scores went down.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I tried at that time, to explain that having a good score was not the same as having good web vitals metrics, but eventually I gave up on that, as some people cared more about the test results than the actual performance.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>After FVM 3 release, I am basically just maintaining it and doing small bug fixes when reported, as I have to focus on other things. I have removed that function and fixed a couple of bugs that were pending on version 3.2.9 and pushed an update, so thank you for referring this to me.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>For whatever reason, UpdraftPlus chose to merge this code into WP-Optimize in 2020 and, as reported yesterday, hasn&#8217;t touched the code since. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>What appeared to be a black and white issue yesterday is a more nuanced situation. WP-Optimize&#8217;s implementation of FVM&#8217;s code is poorly documented in the UI and misleading about how the scripts are loaded. It can lead site owners to activating it without being advanced users, and historically has a high potential for abuse. When Varghese discovered it, he exposed it in an inflammatory way, feeling certain he had found wrongdoing because of how inexplicably obfuscated the code is. This compounded the issue but started a broader, important conversation. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Should users have this kind of easy access (two clicks) to turning off scripts for performance testing tools? How can developers in the same industry better communicate about potential harms to users that they see in others&#8217; products? What kind of code documentation requirements should agencies implement to prevent a situation like this where code needs to be investigated over the span of days in order to find out what it is intended to do?</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, 30 Aug 2022 22:41:34 +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:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"Post Status: Naming is Hard: Social and Schema Images";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=113879";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:63:"https://poststatus.com/naming-is-hard-social-and-schema-images/";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:799:"<p>This was <a href="https://joost.blog/social-schema-images-naming-considerations/">a neat post</a> from <strong>Joost de Valk</strong> back in July where he did some thinking out loud about the challenges of naming in <strong>Schema.org</strong> image standards to distinguish between featured and poster images on social networks:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>I’ve been playing a lot with Schema and Social images recently and one thing has become clear: we need better naming of these images and we should probably improve the Schema.org image standards a bit. In this post I want to briefly discuss the different needs and my proposed (very simple) naming scheme.</p></blockquote>\n<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, 30 Aug 2022 22:17:15 +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:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"Post Status: Talk about edge cases!";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=113837";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:45:"https://poststatus.com/talk-about-edge-cases/";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:935:"<p>On August 8, <strong>wordpress.org</strong> was <a href="https://status.wordpress.org/2022/08/05/all-wordpress-org-services-are-currently/">down for a few hours</a> after a Chicago data center outage. During the outage, a user of <strong>Salt Shaker</strong> reported the plugin <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/white-screen-after-outage-of-wordpress-org/">replaced salt keys with an outage notice</a>, leading to a WSOD on a customer''s site:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Probably the plugin just scraped and copied what was displayed at <a href="https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/">https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/</a>.</p><cite><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/white-screen-after-outage-of-wordpress-org/">wordpress.org support forum</a></cite></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n<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, 30 Aug 2022 21:35:38 +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:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:68:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 6.0.2 Security and Maintenance Release";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=13346";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:84:"https://wordpress.org/news/2022/08/wordpress-6-0-2-security-and-maintenance-release/";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:5700:"<p><strong>WordPress 6.0.2</strong> is now available!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This security and maintenance release features <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?milestone=6.0.2">12 bug fixes on Core</a>, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/commits/wp/6.0">5 bug fixes</a> for the Block Editor, and 3 security fixes. Because this is a <strong>security release</strong>, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 3.7 have also been updated.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress 6.0.2 is a short-cycle release. You can review a summary of the main updates in this release by reading the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/23/wordpress-6-0-2-rc1-is-now-available/">RC1 announcement</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next major release will be <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-1/">version 6.1</a> planned for November 1, 2022.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.0.2.zip">download WordPress 6.0.2 from WordPress.org</a>, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information on this release, please <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-6-0-2">visit the HelpHub site</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Security updates included in this release</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The security team would like to thank the following people for responsibly reporting vulnerabilities, and allowing them to be fixed in this release:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Fariskhi Vidyan for finding a possible SQL injection within the Link API.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://hackerone.com/entropy1337">Khalilov Moe</a> for finding an XSS vulnerability on the Plugins screen.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion/">John Blackbourn</a> of the WordPress security team, for finding an output escaping issue within <code>the_meta()</code>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Thank you to these WordPress contributors</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The WordPress 6.0.2 release was led by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/">@sergeybiryukov</a> and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gziolo/">@gziolo</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress 6.0.2 would not have been possible without the contributions of more than 50 people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver several enhancements and fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/xknown/">Alex Concha</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/andraganescu/">Andrei Draganescu</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/">annezazu</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/antonvlasenko/">Anton Vlasenko</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aristath/">Ari Stathopoulos</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/scruffian/">Ben Dwyer</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/poena/">Carolina Nymark</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/costdev/">Colin Stewart</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/uofaberdeendarren/">Darren Coutts</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dilipbheda/">Dilip Bheda</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dd32/">Dion Hulse</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/martinkrcho/">eMKey</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fabiankaegy/">Fabian Kägy</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mamaduka/">George Mamadashvili</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gziolo/">Greg Ziółkowski</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/huubl/">huubl</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ironprogrammer/">ironprogrammer</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/">Jb Audras</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion/">John Blackbourn</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jonmackintosh/">jonmackintosh</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/spacedmonkey/">Jonny Harris</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ryelle/">Kelly Choyce-Dwan</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/0mirka00/">Lena Morita</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rudlinkon/">Linkon Miyan</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lovor/">Lovro Hrust</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/marybaum/">marybaum</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ndiego/">Nick Diego</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ntsekouras/">Nik Tsekouras</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/oglekler/">Olga Gleckler</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/swissspidy/">Pascal Birchler</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/paulkevan/">paulkevan</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/peterwilsoncc/">Peter Wilson</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/">Sergey Biryukov</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sabernhardt/">Stephen Bernhardt</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tykoted/">Teddy Patriarca</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/timothyblynjacobs/">Timothy Jacobs</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tommusrhodus/">tommusrhodus</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/shimotomoki/">Tomoki Shimomura</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/">Tonya Mork</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/">webcommsat AbhaNonStopNewsUK</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zieladam/">zieladam</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, 30 Aug 2022 19:39:47 +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:11:"Dan Soschin";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:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"Do The Woo Community: Builder Tips from WordCampUS Speakers Part_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:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=72834";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:65:"https://dothewoo.io/builder-tips-from-wordcampus-speakers-part_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:418:"<p>Listen in to these WooCommerce / WordPress builder tips from Chris Lubkert, Michelle Schulp, Joey Daoud, Maddy Osman and Phil Crumm.</p>\n<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/builder-tips-from-wordcampus-speakers-part_1/">Builder Tips from WordCampUS Speakers Part_1</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, 30 Aug 2022 09:17:00 +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:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"WPTavern: WP-Optimize Plugin Accused of Cheating PageSpeed and Other Performance Testing Tools";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=137404";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:105:"https://wptavern.com/wp-optimize-plugin-accused-of-cheating-pagespeed-and-other-performance-testing-tools";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:9158:"<p><a href="https://wpspeedmatters.com/">Gijo Varghese</a>, a developer who calls himself a &#8220;web performance enthusiast,&#8221; shocked WordPress users around the world over the weekend when he tweeted a screenshot of how <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-optimize/">WP-Optimize</a> is allegedly preventing select JavaScript files from loading when users test their sites through popular performance testing tools.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When a site is loaded, the JavaScript files are loaded only when the user-agent/browser is not Lighthouse/GTmetrix/Headless Chrome/Pingdom,&#8221; Varghese said. &#8220;No JS = high scores. But for real users, these JS files are loaded!&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p> </p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f6a8.png" alt="🚨" class="wp-smiley" /> How "WP Optimize" is cheating PageSpeed and other testing tools <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f447.png" alt="👇" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><br />When a site is loaded, the JavaScript files are loaded only when the user-agent/browser is not Lighthouse/GTmetrix/Headless Chrome/Pingdom.<br /><br />No JS = high scores. But for real users, these JS files are loaded! <a href="https://t.co/uuOiAOgvoo">pic.twitter.com/uuOiAOgvoo</a></p>&mdash; Gijo Varghese (@GijoVarghese_) <a href="https://twitter.com/GijoVarghese_/status/1563097754322501632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2022</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>Varghese confirmed that he was testing the free version of WP-Optimize, which is used on more than a million WordPress sites. UpdraftPlus acquired WP-Optimize in 2016 and claims that the tool &#8220;has everything you need to keep your website fast and thoroughly optimized.&#8221; A <a href="https://getwpo.com/">commercial version</a> is also promoted through the free plugin that is hosted on WordPress.org.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Tell me, UpdraftPlus, how I&#8217;m supposed to continue trusting your company with my clients&#8217; backups when you use these deceptive and fraudulent practices?&#8221; one customer Adam Lowe <a href="https://twitter.com/adamslowe/status/1564325514319466503">said</a> in response to Varghese&#8217;s discovery of the plugin not loading JS for performance tools. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Wow, all I can say is what an utter disappointment,&#8221; WordPress agency owner and developer Brian Jackson said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This type of alleged deception is eerily similar to a <a href="https://metacoffeedata.com/manipulating-google-lighthouse-results-scam-by-upwork-freelancer/">scam</a> reported by someone who contracted a performance freelancer on Upwork who artificially manipulated Google Pagespeed results. Others participating in the discussion on Twitter compared it to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal">Volkswagon emissions scandal</a> where the carmaker was found to activate its emissions controls only during laboratory testing in order to meet the EPA&#8217;s requirements after a violation. The vehicles on the road emitted up to 40 times more nitrogen oxides while driving, as compared to how they performed in the rigged laboratory tests.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Varghese and several other participants in the conversation concluded that this is why site owners should focus on what real world users are experiencing, instead of performance tool test scores.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hopefully they wonder why their CrUX report data (or better, RUM data) didn''t budge. The whole reasons we release CrUX publicly is to give developers some ground truth. There''s endless ways to trick yourself into believing your lab data is representative of real users <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f61b.png" alt="😛" class="wp-smiley" />.</p>&mdash; Rick Byers (@RickByers) <a href="https://twitter.com/RickByers/status/1564300948130123787?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 29, 2022</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>Even when focusing on real user experiences, site owners often rely on the tests to diagnose issues and see how a site&#8217;s performance can be improved. They don&#8217;t expect that a plugin will be hiding JS files from performance tools. Tricking the tests has eroded WP-Optimize&#8217;s credibility.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Wow. If true, this is as short sighted as it is inexcusable,&#8221; UpdraftPlus customer Johnathon William <a href="https://twitter.com/johnofhousejohn/status/1563216460737966080">said</a>. &#8220;And it makes me wonder if I can trust their other product, UpdraftPlus, which I use to backup several client sites.&#8221; </p>\n\n\n\n<p>I contacted UpdraftPlus and lead developer David Anderson said the company was not aware of the issue with the code but related some of the backstory. UpdraftPlus was briefly in talks with the author of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/fast-velocity-minify/">Fast Velocity Minify</a> plugin about the possibility of combining forces, in which he would maintain the minification module within WP-Optimize and gain more users. Ultimately they could not come to an agreement, but during that time WP-Optimize&#8217;s developers forked and adapted Fast Velocity Minify under the GPL. The developers who worked on that adaption are no longer with the company.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In the commit to our own source repository, 2.5 years ago (Jan 2020), the commit was labelled &#8216;Resolve &#8216;Add CSS and JS Minification GPL code from &#8216;Fast Velocity Minify&#8217; &#8211; Part 6&#8242;,&#8221; Anderson said. &#8220;Part of a series of initial merges of code that was re-factored to be cleaner and use our coding style preferences (but not change any functionality). So the apparent intention of the merge of those lines was to bring over refactored code without at that stage making any changes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;According to the commit history (i.e. the &#8216;git blame&#8217; function) no changes have been made to that code since, i.e. it is as-imported. (The history for WP Optimize is public in WordPress SVN too).&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>After a cursory examination of the code, Anderson concluded that his team may need to reexamine it, as they were not aware of what was added two years ago.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;As I try to trace that function through the code within the plugins, the intention&nbsp;<strong>on the face of it</strong>&nbsp;appears to be that if the website visitor is a &#8216;bot,&#8217; then code that is pointless for bots won&#8217;t be carried out,&#8221; he said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;However having said that, 1) the bot names look to be heavily obfuscated/redacted, which is strange (why?), and&nbsp; 2) there are plenty of more obvious bots that aren&#8217;t listed there, such as the Googlebot itself. If that function was being put before me for review today, I&#8217;d certainly question why that is so. I can&#8217;t mind-read myself back 32 months ago, but, I remember it as being a long series of large patches, so it wasn&#8217;t being closely analysed on a line-by-line basis. We knew that we had identified FVM as a good plugin and our main focus was on adapting it to our structure and style, and those were the things I personally was looking at as the final reviewer.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In summary, UpdraftPlus&#8217; development team was not aware of this code until the Twitter thread was published over the weekend.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m certainly glad to have it brought to our intention,&#8221; Anderson said. &#8220;The associated code comment on a related fragment in its original source that it&#8217;s intended to prevent unnecessary requests for bots, but on a closer examination than that line got at the time, that&#8217;s something we&#8217;ll want to look at, as it does look questionable/strange, and we&#8217;ll be doing that by assigning it to a team member who&#8217;s our expert in JavaScript optimizations.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anderson also said that if the JavaScript optimization experts cannot find any legitimate purpose for the code, &#8220;it will certainly be removed,&#8221; with a clear and unambiguous disclosure for the reasoning behind it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the meantime, UpdraftPlus has <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/code-under-investigate-in-wp-optimize/#utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=social">published a notice</a> in the plugin&#8217;s support forum to inform users that the code is currently under investigation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;To be clear and set users’ minds at rest: the code in question is not dangerous, a virus, an infection, useful to hackers, or anything of that kind,&#8221; Anderson said. &#8220;The allegation is that its only purpose in existing is effectively to cheat on speed tests. Such code, if so, does not belong in WP Optimize and we will remove it with a new release. Our products’ integrity, and our customers’ trust, are essential for us (and deliberately putting things in open source code that compromises that is, frankly, a stupid thing to do).&#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:"Mon, 29 Aug 2022 23:15:17 +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:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:36:"Matt: Sonic Sphere and Empyrean Gate";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:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=60315";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://ma.tt/2022/08/sonic-sphere-and-empyrean-gate/";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:1266:"<p>If I had to pick one reason why I&#8217;d suggest every person should attend Burning Man at least once, it would be the art. (Second reason would be seeing <a href="https://burningman.org/about/10-principles/">the principles in action</a>.) This year I am particularly excited to support two pieces, the first being the <a href="https://sonicsphere.art/">Sonic Sphere</a> which has this great video introducing it:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>I got a chance to try out a smaller prototype of this and it was a great experience. You can read a bit about the history of the Kugel Auditorium that this is based on on <a href="https://ed.blog/2021/02/28/which-is-better-a-bitcoin-or-a-spherical-concert-hall/">Ed Cooke&#8217;s blog post Which is more memorable, a Bitcoin or a Spherical Concert Hall?</a> The Sphere will be in <a href="https://what3words.com/circulation.later.chart">Deep Playa (what3words)</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another exciting new project is the <a href="https://www.entheosrising.org/empyrean-gate-art-installation">Empyrean Gate at the Entheos camp</a>, which will be at 3 and Esplanade. Here are some renderings but I can&#8217;t wait to see how it turns out in person.</p>\n\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n\n<p></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, 27 Aug 2022 16:31:04 +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:4:"Matt";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:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:85:"WPTavern: Catch Themes Releases Pentatonic: A New Block Theme for Bands and Musicians";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=137282";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:95:"https://wptavern.com/catch-themes-releases-pentatonic-a-new-block-theme-for-bands-and-musicians";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:2525:"<p>Block themes are expanding to include more niches beyond the simple one-column blogging themes, and <a href="https://catchthemes.com/">Catch Themes</a> is one of the companies at the forefront of this new frontier. <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/pentatonic/">Pentatonic</a>, the company&#8217;s latest release on WordPress.org, is a free theme created for band and musicians.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The theme uses core blocks to create sections that showcase the work of creative artists of all kinds. For example, the header uses the Cover block featuring a gradient image with the focal point picker set at a certain point. Site identity and navigation are organized within a group, followed by a Media and Text block header section. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Upon install and activation, Pentatonic delivers a good experience for users. Clicking &#8220;Customize&#8221; takes users to the Site Editor with the front page loaded, looking nearly identical to the demo for the <a href="https://fse.catchthemes.com/pentatonic-free/">free version</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>Pentatonic comes with 17 block patterns that users can easily mix and match to create their own unique pages. These include patterns for About Us, Call to Action, Featured Content, Sidebar, Music Podcasts, 404 Header, Archive header, Default footer, Footer with three columns, Default header, Recent with blog sidebar, Post header, Header with buttons, and more. Each section on the homepage can be recreated using a pattern on other pages or repeated/rearranged on the front page.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>The theme also includes 11 templates and eight template parts, allowing users to make customizations to the 404 page, blog single posts, search results, post content, and others. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pro version of the theme includes access to custom blocks, such as a playlist, case study, skills bar, masonry, popup video, and more. The <a href="https://fse.catchthemes.com/pentatonic-pro/">demo for the pro version</a> has a sticky music player at the bottom of the page, promotional popup video, podcast playlist, and other custom media additions that bands and artists may require.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pentatonic has been optimized to respond well to all screen sizes and looks just as good on mobile as it does on desktop. The theme is <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/pentatonic/">available for free on WordPress.org</a> where you can preview all the patterns and check out a preview of the whole theme in action that strongly resembles the demo hosted on Catch Themes.</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, 26 Aug 2022 21:38:39 +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:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"Post Status: Tech Roundup for the Week of August 22";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=106848";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:62:"https://poststatus.com/tech-roundup-for-the-week-of-august-22/";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:5489:"<div class="wp-container-7 wp-block-group has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">DigitalOcean''s acquisition of Cloudways • Stop saying &#8220;Gutenberg!&#8221; • Build Mode Live with Brian Gardner and Sam Munoz • One week left to submit a style variation for TT3 • Cool Tool of the Week: Munir Kamal''s Editor Plus </p></div>\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<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">3</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-wordpress-development-around-the-web">WordPress Development Around the Web</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A glimpse of what’s going on in the world of development and design in the WordPress space.</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-23/digitalocean-to-buy-web-hosting-firm-cloudways-for-350-million">Huge news in the hosting space</a>! <strong>DigitalOcean</strong> is set to acquire <strong>Cloudways</strong> for $350 million (USD). From a development perspective I hope this enables Cloudways to innovate even more in the coming years, but it does immediately pose the question: will DigitalOcean keep their competitors'' hosting services available on Cloudways. All signs point to the same business-as-usual, but only time will truly tell. Regardless, big congrats to Post Status members over there, <strong>Robert Jacobi</strong> and <strong>Zach Stepek</strong>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Fränk Klein</strong> over at WordPress agency <strong>Human Made</strong> is asking us to <a href="https://humanmade.com/2022/08/24/can-we-please-stop-saying-gutenberg/">stop saying ‘Gutenberg’.</a> This makes sense. We need to have a consistent vocabulary on how we talk about these things to each other and to stakeholders so we all understand what we’re discussing. I’ve gotten into the habit of saying “the Block Editor” when talking about the new interface for page building in core, but I never thought that we could also break down explaining the various parts to full site editing as well. Human Made does a good job of clarifying all of this, and it might even be a great addition to the WordPress documentation to have all these defined right up front somewhere.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of hosting companies, Post Status members <strong>Sam Munoz</strong> and <strong>Brian Gardner</strong> from <strong>WPEngine</strong> have started <a href="https://wpengine.com/builders/build-mode-live-july-2022-sessions/">a regular Zoom meeting</a> called <strong>Build Mode Live</strong> to help anyone with their questions and struggles around full site editing, the block editor, WordPress, and how it all impacts business owners. They’re bringing a design, development, builder, and business owner perspective to an area where we haven’t seen much open discussion. <a href="https://calendly.com/bgardner-wpe/build-mode?month=2022-09">You can sign up to participate right now</a>!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the <strong>Make WordPress Design</strong> blog <strong>Channing Ritter</strong>, Design Director at <strong>Automattic</strong>, shared a reminder that there is <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/08/24/tt3-default-theme-one-week-left-to-submit-style-variations/">one week left to submit a variation to be included in the new Twenty Twenty Three theme</a> (TT3). There’s a <strong>Figma</strong> file <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/08/10/twenty-twenty-three-default-theme-project-kickoff/">attached to Channing''s kickoff post</a> you can use for the variations. This builds on <a href="https://poststatus.com/tech-roundup-for-the-week-of-august-15-2022/">the tools I shared last week</a> that reinforce the importance of a build flow from Figma to WordPress. All of it is very encouraging! It''s great to see this process improving.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-container-8 wp-block-group has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">\n<h2 id="h-cool-tool">Cool Tool</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Each week we’ll feature one cool tool that can help make your life easier as a WordPress builder.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class="has-theme-palette-1-color has-text-color"><a href="https://wpeditorplus.com"><span>Editor Plus</span></a></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Have you been struggling with the lack of features in the block editor that you’ve grown accustomed to having in a page builder? <a href="https://wpeditorplus.com">That is where <strong>Editor Plus</strong> comes in</a>! It helps you set background, margin, padding, icons, tabs, accordions, ratings, and even animation. I like most that these settings also stay in place even when you switch themes, keeping it from locking you into a specific theme forever. The plugin is led by serial developer <strong>Munir Kamal</strong>, who also runs <strong>Editors Kit</strong> and <strong>Gutenberg Hub</strong>. A bonus for users of this plugin is that there are also a ton of great video tutorials on how to extend Editor Plus to do almost anything.</p>\n</div></div>\n<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, 26 Aug 2022 16:46:02 +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:"Daniel Schutzsmith";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:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:128:"WPTavern: James Koster Shares Design Explorations that Transform WordPress’ Site Editor Into a More Visual, User-Friendly Tool";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=137360";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:135:"https://wptavern.com/james-koster-shares-design-explorations-that-transform-wordpress-site-editor-into-a-more-visual-user-friendly-tool";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:4026:"<p>Automattic-sponsored designer James Koster has a vision for taking WordPress&#8217; Site Editor from its beta awkwardness and transforming it to become a more visual and user-friendly design tool. In a recent post titled <a href="https://jameskoster.design/2022/08/24/revising-the-presentation-of-key-site-editor-features/">Revising the presentation of key Site Editor features</a>, Koster identifies unbalanced feature weighting as a critical design flaw that is negatively impacting users&#8217; experience with the editor:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">\n<p>The Site Editor is a powerful tool, but the user experience lacks some coherence and a sense of hierarchy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Template management and editing has central focus, despite the fact that it’s a product area that has proven difficult for some users to interpret.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Impactful features like style and menu management are hierarchically relegated, and consequently deliver a sub-optimal UX.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week I’ve been ideating on how we might present site editor features with more appropriate weighting, so that the overall experience feels more like a design tool.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of dropping users directly into editing the homepage, Koster contends that the Site Editor&#8217;s design should be updated to become a &#8220;navigable frame&#8221; where users can select from a menu of features and styles on the left. This is a radical improvement over the current experience, which feels like walking into a room with all the lights on and multiple features competing for attention.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The combination of the site frame (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/23328">Browse mode</a>) and one-click editing helps to obfuscate some of the aforementioned confusion around template editing,&#8221; Koster said. &#8220;Now you simply browse to the page you want to update, and click ‘Edit’.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another idea Koster explored is a view that makes it easier to understand the interaction of styles and templates. The UI is much cleaner and drastically reduces the cognitive load for users who are struggling to grasp the concept of templates in the first place.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>Identity and homepage configuration options haven&#8217;t found a place in the site editor yet. Koster proposed bringing them into the editor in a similar fashion to how it was previously presented in the Customizer, with live previews.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>Koster also proposes organizing features like templates, template parts, reusable blocks, and patterns in a &#8220;Design Library&#8221; section, presented via a grid of thumbnails that would open the edit view. This would bring a new level of organization to a set of tools that are currently scattered throughout the site editor interface.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are just a few highlights from his explorations. Although Koster articulates many of the Site Editor&#8217;s current pain points, his designs present an elegant solution for each. Check out the <a href="https://jameskoster.design/2022/08/24/revising-the-presentation-of-key-site-editor-features/">full post</a> to see all the videos and other ideas for organizing features in the site editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The disparity between the current experience and Koster&#8217;s mockups is like a night and day Cinderella style transformation. It&#8217;s a powerful example of how thoughtful design can really solve problems. His explorations received positive feedback from those eager to see these designs implemented in Gutenberg. Koster said his next step is to prepare some simpler prototypes for collaboration on GitHub.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The ideas are still formative, but with some pruning we can get things into a shippable state,&#8221; Koster said. &#8220;My next step is to refine and prototype a more stripped-back version, and take that to GitHub for wider thoughts and feedback.&#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, 26 Aug 2022 15:13:34 +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:33;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"Post Status: A Taxonomy of Access Control";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=106756";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:52:"https://poststatus.com/a-taxonomy-of-access-control/";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:2978:"<p><strong>Bruce Schneier </strong><a href="https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2022/08/a-taxonomy-of-access-control.html#comments">thinks this idea</a> from <strong>Ittay Eyal</strong> is brilliant and broadly applicable. Since I like pretty much everything Bruce says (that I can understand) I tried to get my head around this and <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/C02M81N9YEM/p1660856386106519">the discussion it spawned</a> in <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/C02M81N9YEM/p1660856386106519">Post Status Slack</a> with <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/C02M81N9YEM/p1660856386106519">Rowley</a> and <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/C02M81N9YEM/p1660856386106519">JJJ</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bruce''s summary:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The paper is about cryptocurrency wallet design, but the ideas are more general. Ittay points out that a key—or an account, or anything similar—can be in one of four states:<br /><br /><strong>safe</strong> Only the user has access,<br /><strong>loss</strong> No one has access,<br /><strong>leak</strong> Both the user and the adversary have access, or<br /><strong>theft</strong> Only the adversary has access.</p><p>Once you know these states, you can assign probabilities of transitioning from one state to another (someone hacks your account and locks you out, you forgot your own password, etc.) and then build optimal security and reliability to deal with it. It’s a truly elegant way of conceptualizing the problem.</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I think of it more like this, since it''s how most people actually operate:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Secure:</strong> Only I have access (as far as I know)<ul><li><strong>Strong Secure:</strong> Proper strong, unique passwords, 2FA</li><li><strong>Weak Secure:</strong> Weak, reused passwords, no 2FA (OK for trivial sites that require a login, bad for your bank account.)</li></ul></li><li><strong>Loss:/Lockout</strong> No one has access</li><li><strong>Shared:</strong> I and designated others have access, which could easily become:<ul><li><strong>Leak:</strong> Undesignated, unknown others have access, which could easily become:<ul><li><strong>Theft/Breach</strong>: An adversary has access <ul><li><strong>Theft and Lockout:</strong> An adversary has access and may have broadly leaked or shared access with others, but I am locked out.</li><li><strong>Theft and No Lockout:</strong> My account has been hacked but I can still get in. </li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Avoid Sharing/Leaking with strong secure accounts, and the probability of theft/breach is much, much lower. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2022/08/a-taxonomy-of-access-control.html">A Taxonomy of Access Control</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n<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, 26 Aug 2022 14:42:04 +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:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"Do The Woo Community: Woo Stories, They are Everywhere";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=72682";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:52:"https://dothewoo.io/woo-stories-they-are-everywhere/";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:383:"<p>Every product or site WooCommerce builder has a story to tell whether they are a developer, designer or anything between. </p>\n<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/woo-stories-they-are-everywhere/">Woo Stories, They are Everywhere</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, 26 Aug 2022 10:55:00 +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:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"Post Status: Post Status Excerpt (No. 66) — What Does It Mean To Contribute To WordPress?";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=106853";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:68:"https://poststatus.com/what-does-it-mean-to-contribute-to-wordpress/";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:58319:"<div class="wp-container-7 wp-block-group has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">How do we give back? We all want a community of creativity, cooperation, and contribution — how do we get there?  </p></div>\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<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">3</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-drop-cap">In this episode, Dan and Ny talk about WordPress and giving back. Giving, making, creating&#8230; Looking at the search results for  &#8220;Make WordPress&#8221; and &#8220;the firehose&#8221; of Make WordPress Slack where the #docs channel was having their weekly meeting, Dan and Ny look at the wide range of options there are for new contributors.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote><p><em>I would say you''re contributing by learning. Like if you''re, if you''re learning in community, that''s a step deeper in.</em></p><cite>Dan Knauss</cite></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Mentoring and organizing Meetups is a topic that comes up again. That''s where Ny feels she has been given the most and most enjoys giving back. However, there are barriers to getting people engaged with the WordPress project — and to work for free.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dan asks what needs to be done to reach younger people. Ny talks about the barriers from a BIPOC perspective, where sensitivity to history and personal stories matters. Dan relates that to an inner city gardening project he volunteered with that had an all-white leadership team. If contributing is a privilege, how can we help elevate more people to that level of privilege?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Also covered:</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>How does the older open source culture of contribution (not) translate to the contemporary culture of the &#8220;creator economy?&#8221;</li><li>Dan''s initial experience with trying to onboard himself in #docs.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-container-10 wp-block-columns sponsor has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background" id="Cloudways">\n<div class="wp-container-8 wp-block-column">\n<h3 id="sponsor-wpengine"><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/cloudways">Cloudways</a><a href="https://poststat.us/wpengine"></a></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><strong>Cloudways</strong> </strong>is proud to sponsor Post Status. Our <a href="https://poststat.us/cloudways">managed hosting for WordPress and WooCommerce</a> takes away the cloud server-related learning curve with a seamless and scalable web hosting experience. Trusted by over 250,000 WordPress users, Cloudways gives you the freedom to choose from any of the top IaaS (infrastructure as a service) providers for ultimate performance.</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-container-9 wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center"><div class="wp-block-image cloudways-logo">\n<a href="https://poststat.us/cloudways"><img src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Stacked-Logo-300x176.png" alt="Cloudways: Created for Exceptional Experiences" class="wp-image-93196" width="200" height="117" title="Cloudways Logo" /></a>Managed Cloud Hosting Simplified</div></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h3 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>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/">Make WordPress</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">WordPress Slack</a></li><li><a href="https://poststatus.com/tech-roundup-for-the-week-of-august-15-2022/">Daniel Schutzsmith''s Tech Roundup</a> (last week''s)</li><li><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy</strong> says <a href="https://twitter.com/JosephaHaden/status/1560077515250548737?s=20&t=bOSKa1Ur-wViVOzevp5Vgw">a new WordPress mentoring program is in the works</a></li><li>Dan''s post on <a href="https://poststatus.com/lets-not-lose-the-creator-economy/">languages of contribution and creation</a> in WordPress and the Creator Economy</li><li><strong>The WordPress Briefing:</strong> <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/07/episode-36-beginners-guide-to-contributions-2-0/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Episode 36: Beginner’s Guide to Contributions 2.0</a></li><li><strong>The WordPress Briefing:</strong> <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/03/episode-27-is-wordpress-made-for-me/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Episode 27: Is WordPress Made for Me?</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h3><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f44b.png" alt="👋" class="wp-smiley" /> Credits</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul id="block-a3e9962f-97ca-4009-be8e-db47b5d1fddf"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/Ny_The_Creator">Nyasha Green</a>, Editorial Director at <a href="https://twitter.com/_MasterWP">MasterWP</a> (Twitter)</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/dan_knauss">Dan Knauss</a>, Editor for <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status">Post Status</a> (Twitter)</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/lemonadecode">Olivia Bisset</a>, Web Producer intern for Post Status (Twitter)</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-background">Every week <strong><a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">Post Status Excerpt</a></strong> will bring you a conversation about important news and issues in the WordPress community and business ecosystem. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f399.png" alt="🎙" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><br />You can listen to <a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">past episodes</a> of <strong>The Excerpt</strong>, <a href="https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/">browse all our podcasts</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1m3xwXbe0MG5BzFVPtB0A7">Spotify</a>, Amazon Music, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://castro.fm/podcast/c53552c6-1ee0-4fc4-9de4-08ed6bf1ee4d">Castro</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus">YouTube</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast">Stitcher</a>, <a href="https://player.fm/series/wordpress-post-status-podcasts">Player.fm</a>, <a href="https://pca.st/05rR">Pocket Casts</a>, <a href="https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/">Simplecast</a>, or by <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>\n\n\n\n<h1 id="h-transcript">Transcript</h1>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> [00:00:00] Good morning Ny.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> Good morning, Dan. How are you?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> All right. It''s an earlier one than, than we usually do, but that''s good. Start the day. Um, yeah, so I thought we could, we could talk about, um, contribution and contributors and, and what that means in the, in the word. community where, um, I don''t know, you, we probably both have about the same level of outside in kind of experience with it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, um, I''m not the expert or anything, but, um, mm-hmm, , I could tell you what my, my experience is and how I''m, I''m looking at that. And some of the discussions that are going on about what it, what contribution means or could mean. And, um, Yeah, how''s that sound? What''s what''s yours? What is it? What comes to mind when, when you hear that word in the [00:01:00] WordPress context?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> Um, I guess, uh, the same it''s, it''s the same when I hear it in like, you know, outside in life contribution means giving back. It means helping, it means providing, um, and, uh, you know, it''s the same in WordPress. So definitely down to talk about this today, and I''m very interested to hear your thoughts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah, it''s I, I think it''s, um, it''s the core part of the, the project that is the oldest, um, feature of it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The oldest foundations of it, that''s very, very open source, very old, um, old part of open. As Matt has said in, in some talks, like give a penny, take a penny kind of, kind of ethic. Um, really kind of going back, I guess, to like Linux and the seventies [00:02:00] and early and earlier generation. And I wonder sometimes if like after millennials or so if, if that''s things have changed a lot and that''s not.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Understood. There''s kind of a, a reciprocity there. You use the software, it''s free. It''s open. Um, how are, how can you, the more you get engaged with it as a user, as a developer, um, someone maybe profiting from it. How, how do you give back and does that, does that just happen naturally through the relationships that arise?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or not. And how do we move really? How do we move the, the project forward? And, um, I was just looking this morning. Like if you, if you, um, I was, I was just Googling make WordPress. So there''s the whole make.wordpress.org, um, page where you get the list of all the core core teams and, um, [00:03:00] If you search for make WordPress, you get three ads.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, first for WP engines, WordPress page builder, wordpress.com WordPress page builder element, or for WordPress, create it with Elementor, um, the create and build language. So, uh, most people these days, um, and, and they''re targeting what people wanna do. Uh, how do you just make something with WordPress?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Create and build. But I''m looking for the old school. How do I contribute back? Where, where the you''re budding developer designer, just helping, like helping out. We''re always looking for people to help make WordPress even better. Um, and there, what you can give back goes into all these teams that, uh, we now have a performance team.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It hasn''t changed a ton. It''s, it''s rare for them to add. So we got the core and that''s really like the fundamental. Thing here, if we don''t move word breast core [00:04:00] forward, how much does anything else matter? But there''s so much else people can give and do that really is essential too. You don''t don''t want to deemphasize that design mobile mobile team is now been more explicitly defined as that''s open source that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That''s not, um, that''s not something that is tied to jet pack or.com. And you, you wanna work on iOS and Android apps, Java objective C swift. Um, that''s a, that''s a whole nother section accessibility. Polyglots multilingual, uh, translation, WordPress support, uh, support forums. What,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> uh, what stands out to you the most out of all of those?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What, what do you think? Like, not what''s most important, but, um, cuz that''s subjective. Um, which one would you be like most interested in contributing to? Yeah. Which one do you think speaks to you the most? When you read through the list? [00:05:00]</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. And I was, I was, I''ve been thinking about that. So then there''s documentation and that''s where I''ve been trying to kind of learn, figure out how to get in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that''s, that''s kind of where it, it isn''t that easy. It isn''t that easy. maybe, you know, some people or if you have a deeper connection, but from that straight outside in it''s it''s tricky documentation, themes, plugins, community. Training test TV marketing, CLI WordPress CLI the VP CLI uh, hosting tide, open verse photos for performance.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, there''s really a lot of different skill sets that could be attractive. And a lot of things you could do, but to be honest, the, um, my, my experience is, um, I haven''t really done like. Contribution in the form of little patches and bug reports and stuff since way back, like, you know, they''re still using tra have you, do you have much SVN experience?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>that''s what we were all using like 20 years [00:06:00] ago on source project. WordPress is still using. Um, so, so yeah, there''s all these, all these different teams that are maybe attractive to different skill sets you may have or different people, um, May have, and, um, core is really at the center of it. And there''s all, all these other things orbiting around that, um, or orbiting around the community and, and serving it or around mobile app.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, and yeah, finding your way into it, I think is, is. Is the trick. Um, once someone gets interested in, in doing that and bringing, bringing new folks in and smoothing the onboarding, um, is probably, um, something we need to pay more attention to. It''s tough. I, Brian mm-hmm Brian cords was, was writing about [00:07:00] that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Did he, um, So he, he talks about his experience. I''m, I''m kind of doing the same thing. Try, can I put in a few hours a week, I''ve been trying to follow, just look at the docs program, you know, cause writing, editing that''s mm-hmm, , that''s probably the easiest thing for me. I''ve I''ve done little bug reports and patches and, and things before.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I go back a long way. So SVN or, you know, was something I was using way before GitHub existed get was a thing. Um, but it''s, it''s. It''s quite amazed of, of things and a lot of customs and etiquettes and rituals, parts of the culture to, to understand, um, to get started. So I feel like there''s like a long watching, reading, learning, asking questions, maybe getting mentored, um, phase you have to go through, um, have you taken a look at like the.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Would make [00:08:00] WordPress slack at all.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> I have not. And I''m going to be completely honest. Um, I will eventually, I am just in so many slack channels right now. I don''t think I can. I don''t think I can possibly take on that one. Um, I''ve heard it''s it''s a lot. I, I just cannot do it. I''m in like work slacks. I have like my mentoring slacks that I do official mentoring with.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have like slacks I was in before I, um, got. Um, tech and I still help people there. I just, uh, if I join one more, I think my head will explode. Yeah. But please enlighten me to what usually goes on</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> here. Well, I''m not an expert, I''m trying to figure out the same as you and, and, and Brian and, um, yeah, I think the reality is, is yet they call it the fire hose for reason.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It''s, it''s probably, one of the busiest slacks and consistently for so long, this major, um, Of [00:09:00] information and cooperation. Um, so it''s daunting, it''s intimidating to, um, to look at how to get into, um, but it there''s there''s method to the madness and what I''ve learned, just kind of following along and looking at, at things in a, in a pretty traditional way.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I, I assume the. Other teams work like this, but like docs. Um, we have a, um, a meeting every Tuesday morning at this time. So 8, 8, 8 am. I''m kind of following, um, on my phone here and people kind of check in. I can make it, I can''t make it. Um, melanic cap is, um, one, the leader there and one of the leaders and you''d probably like her.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>She''s a ump developer. Um, who''s kind an advocate. For PHP as well. Who''s been doing docs for a long time. So you developer literacy is really important if you''re gonna write [00:10:00] docs and guides for, for things that directly deal with that. But there''s so much else you don''t have to be. You don''t have to have any particular code depth.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There''s so much other documentation going on. Um, and that''s probably starting to overlap some with the training materials that are another team. That''s a. Newer thing that will help onboard people, I think, to have training and then also mentoring happening all these meetups that are relatively new, um, community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. Is that I''m not sure what group that''s what if that''s happening under the community team? I think that''s all that''s under the training team. Mm-hmm uh,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> what the meetups,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> oh, that you''re talking about. Yeah. They''re make they''re they''re coming out of the core. So they''re, there are, um, Hannah tab. For this somewhere.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> Organizing the meetups, which is what I''m doing in [00:11:00] Columbia, South Carolina. And I always say the city and not the state and Charlotte, North Carolina, mm-hmm um, falls more under community. We''ve been all over there. Yeah. Trying to get things, uh, settled for it. Um, that''s that''s my area of export.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Expertise, but it''s still really, really hard. Um, , I I''ve, I''ve organized a lot of things and this might be the hardest honestly. And I don''t know if, if it''s, you know, because it''s so specialized or what, but, um, still really excited. And I just I''m, I just can''t wait to, you know, have that set up as my contribution and like spread it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That''s like my goal for it. Yeah. That</p>\n\n\n\n<p>would</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Def that would be under, under community. Um, Yeah, it''s actually is I guess, something you could get into and start doing in your own, um, in your own city and a lot happens outside of slack, outside of, um, Outside of this, but that there''s the community team. And mm-hmm</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was, I was speaking of, um, the, the newer meetups that [00:12:00] are sponsored by learn, um, WordPress. So there''s, there''s probably some increasing overlap between community and training, which is a good thing. There, there are all these meetups that are happening as virtual. Um, there''s a schedule, there''s a calendar on here where people like, um, um, People who are directly involved in working on Gutenberg.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like, uh, Nick Diego, I saw I had had one coming up, um, uh, will be doing live workshops so you can go and get, get some knowledge from, from people who are directly working on, um, on newer parts of, of WordPress and. so some of that is higher, higher level stuff for, um, developers, designers, and some of it is oriented towards people who might be really new to using WordPress in different ways.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So training''s [00:13:00] close to mentoring and close to community building. So that''s kind of a neat area where, um, where people can. Brought in and, um, connected. And I would say you''re contributing by learning. Like if you''re, if you''re learning in community, , that''s like step in mm-hmm um, for a lot of people, um, I noticed that, so we have this weekly thing that Daniel Chut Smith is doing, um, for us where he''s rounding up.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, What''s going on and what''s catching his eye, uh, design and development. And this, his last Roundup was mostly stuff coming from.org from make, create your first app with Gutenberg data. So using react. Um, so Adams Linsky put together a nice tutorial. That''s showing you how to do that. That''s a link to, um, developer, the developer section of word, wordpress.org.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Block theme builders, Figma [00:14:00] of building a workflow from Figma Figma to your block theme. You''re trying to create, that''s a learn WordPress online workshop. So that''s, that''s one of these things I''m talking about. That''s a meet up. So, um, you can sign up and, and do that. There that''s an intermediate level for an audience of builders.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So people who may not be high, um, Deep into code, um, high level development stuff. That''s okay. This is, um, working from Figma to your block template. Are you, are you doing anything, any front end stuff like that, or mostly have these database backend projects you''re working on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> I''m doing everything. But, um, mostly right now I am working with the database.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, mostly when I talk to my mentors and they want me to show them, like, I always get the question. Uh, can you show me what you do at work or a day in the life of you? Mm-hmm and, um, I don''t show them my [00:15:00] calendar. I don''t wanna scare them away, but, um, uh, usually it''s front end work with them, um, because that''s what, you know, they learn first and most are interested in, so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Surprisingly, I have not gotten away from front end work because that''s the first thing that newbies wanna see. Oh yeah. How it works in WordPress. And I think, uh, WordPress is great for front end development. So that''s my way of trying to get them into the community as well. So I throw in my community stuff like, Hey, you know, we''re gonna have meet up soon.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to come and learn more about the community and that''s my sales pitch. And that''s how I, that''s how I get. That''s how I''m getting people into the community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. It''s great to see that there''s so many levels like, yeah, we''re gonna reach out to builders, to people who are totally new to it, to people are maybe doing freelance or agency work.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, I was hinting earlier, like when you, if you search for this, like the way that, the way that a lot of companies, including, um, wordpress.com and automatic or. [00:16:00] Presenting WordPress to the world is to the creator economy and to, to people, I just wanna build something. I wanna start my business online. I, and, and their first thought is I don''t not to understand anything about open source or that there''s a community behind that or what, that, that, there''s this, uh, culture of contribution and open source.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That''s a long, that''s a long way up later. Mm-hmm and , I wrote something where I, I, I feel like, you know, we really have. Embrace that. And I see that happening on the marketing level, on the commercial side to a lot of WordPress companies. Um, and I, I even noticed like, as, as the.com, um, I, when they did their first price change, I got the bargain and I up upgraded my longstanding account.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have a.blog blog and a bunch of other sites there. And. Um, you can, there''s the marketplace there. You can install and do a lot in.com. Now you can install Elementor I''ve not seen that [00:17:00] before. So you could, you could pop that in on wordpress.com and start building with that if you want. And they''re very oriented towards a, a builder, um, creator economy approach, but getting people inside is like the key thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like, however you come, however you come, come, as you are. I think like that needs to be more of. Our approach. And as cuz people aren''t gonna, the average person, isn''t gonna go to.org, the make thing there, and look at these core teams and, and, and go like, okay. Yeah. I, I see where I fit. Like I, you and I would, would struggle with that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like it''s gonna, it''s gonna take weeks and, and months to probably get, um, to get comfortable. And that''s, that''s cool. That''s fine. That''s how you build relationships, but it''s not. It''s not like on the instant gratification level of, let me build my site today, which you wanna do as quickly as as you can. Um, [00:18:00]</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> I think it''s even, um, even for people like me who will sit down and take their time, um, when things are presented to them, It''s so much to go through sometimes depending on what you want to do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And like you said, like it''s not an easy thing to jump into. It''s it''s making that time too. I know, like for me right now, I get asked every week, like, how are you doing everything you do? And sometimes, I don''t know, but, um, like. I think it''s easier for me to still contribute because like, I, I didn''t go into this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like, Hey, I have to make myself fit to one of these. I went into this as, this is what I already do. This is something I''m good at, how can I connect this with WordPress? So I think that''s an easier way. And then like that allowed me to like, okay, I can make time to, you know, set this. I have a partner helping me.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, Ken, yeah. Elliot is helping, um, well, he''s the mastermind. I''m helping him. Um, and, um, I think that''s a easier way, but I agree with you a hundred percent. [00:19:00] Um, that''s, you know, just when you were reading them off, I''m like, this is a lot. And then when you get into them, it''s like, you have to break it down and that''s a lot.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I think if we have like more. I guess people like me or you cuz you did it too. When you talked about how, you know, you''re a writer and documentation probably would be your strongest point and you''ve done some of it before. I think people getting people like us to talk to people and say, well, this is how we did it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That would definitely help people a lot because it''s a little overwhelming.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. It, it is. And yeah. Well, if what I, what I found is that it''s probably your own sense of, um, my own sense of in, in, uh, you don''t want to be ask of the dumb question, but, or, you know, You have to put yourself out there. So they''re very encouraging.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like who''s got questions who needs help. You know, you, you, people will take the time and, and show you. And I''ve, I''ve got like an accumulated list of tabs and, and links where I need to, I need to take some time and watch this UN WordPress TV. Right. I need to read through this and figure it out. [00:20:00] I, um, a couple weeks ago, I, you know, figured out how they''re using good Gutenberg on, um, GitHub, a little deeper and, and how to, um, How to submit, um, changes on, uh, there''s there''s documentation, that''s written into code, uh, in WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, and sometimes it''s wrong or, or changes. So you have to, you have to actually commit, um, changes to comments that are embedded in PHP code somewhere. Um, Things like that there''s a wide range of, of stuff, but how all these workflows and things work and it just takes some time to, to learn. And it''s, it''s pretty satisfying once you figure it out and you are like, okay, I fixed, I fixed that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>do this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> Yeah, it definitely</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> is. Yeah. And in the process you might find some more bugs or things and stuff like that to, to put in. Um, but just a little here and there is, is, um, is really a good thing. [00:21:00] Um, I, I. People on the whole are, are really welcoming. It is, it is just getting past that fire hose and here, here''s what I need to forget all that other stuff.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here''s what I need to focus on. And it''s probably cool doing the meetups or mentoring, which, um, is gonna become more and more a part of the training and community. I, um, I don''t have, I''d like to get more details on this, but I, I see SFA has been, been saying things about mentoring as. Becoming a more explicit form of contribution, mentoring, how to do word camps and, and so on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And mm-hmm , and that they, there is probably some mentoring program coming down the line, along with training. So if you''re doing, you want to go and do, um, a meetup, um, tutorial of some kind or do that in the context of your own meetups, totally contributing. And then I that''s, that''s probably accessible to a lot of people cuz most of the work is.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gonna be, I would assume relationships and [00:22:00] stuff like in your community. So you don''t like, you don''t start from slack, you don''t start from, from all that. That''s kind of where you go to maybe get support. And, um, the main, the main thing is really the people stuff. So if that''s, that''s what turns you on and, and motivates you?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, yeah, that''s totally essential contributing out there in. Real life relationships, um, locally where you''re, you''re starting. How''s that going with? Um, Greenville and, um, or green wait, Greensboro.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> no, not Greenville. Um, not Greensboro. Um, I think you''re, you''re getting me nice or green mixed up with those I''m I''m joking. Um, so char Charlotte and Columbia. Okay. I don''t know where Columbia .</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Go ahead. Sorry. I used Greenville in my head like Greenville, South Carolina, you know, I used to live [00:23:00] in Raleigh mm-hmm Durham, chapel hill area.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Actually. I don''t know if you know that area that well, Carrie and Carrie and table mm-hmm . Yeah. Um,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> yeah, I, I really love that area actually. Um, uh, you, uh, now there was a, uh, Greenville, uh, WordPress meetup for a long time. Um, and I think like a lot of people in Columbia, even though there was one in Columbia at one point, I think a lot of people in Columbia had to go to Greenville for that one.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So you may be thinking about that. Cuz Greenville, I think had a longer, a one that lasted longer than ours. In Columbia. Um, but we''re right now, if we were to start one in Columbia, to my knowledge, cuz I always check out Greenville, Columbia, Charleston, the big major cities, to my knowledge, we would be the only one in the state right now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I''m gonna double check on that. But the last I checked a few months ago. Yeah, we would be the only one. So I. It definitely would help. And like, we really want to spread the knowledge because Columbia''s in the, in the middle of the state. Right. That''s why I chose Columbia, not just because I [00:24:00] was from there, but it''s in the middle of the state.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mm-hmm, , we''re an hour and a half to almost anywhere in the state, maybe two max. And so if people have to make that drive, which, you know, if they can, that''s fine. If they can, we still wanna do it, uh, in a way that will. You know, semi virtual and recording recorded. So we''re setting that up as well. Um, cuz we know South Carolina is very rural and we don''t have great public transportation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, um, it''s really going to help a lot because it''s going to reach all throughout our state, which is not known for tech at all, Charleston and Greenville, more Southern Columbia. So. It''s going to help a lot and it''s going really, really well. Um, we have a place, um, we have food, uh, so many different companies reached out to me because they saw what I was doing and wanted to help goad wants to feed us.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know, my company master WP wants to feed us and master WP is actually sponsoring our, um, sponsoring us and taking care of our venue. Um, we [00:25:00] have people offering to send us. Things to give out to newbies. Um, I have Courtney Robertson, which is, she''s been such a great help who has just offered to give out so many learning materials.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. Um, I ju just the outpouring of support and then we can take that and spread it. It''s just been, it''s been a community effort, so it definitely meetups are definitely community. I see why it''s under that label and I''m just so excited. Like I''m going to like spam everyone''s Twitter when. You know, get up and running and we have pictures and video and things like that because, um, I think, you know, I agree with Josepha Josepha is really, really great to talk to, and I love how she answers questions and it''s always very transparent.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, um, it''s, it''s awesome that she''s going to expand that because we can definitely take these materials and, you know, help with that and make sure people can do it in their states. Maybe their states don''t have any work camp meetups or WordPress meetups.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Yeah. Yeah. There''s probably, uh, It''d be interesting to look at a, a Pinboard, you know, [00:26:00] map of, you know, where we, where there''s activity and yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some are very established and been around a long time. Some come and go. The, I know the local Edmonton one. Um, yeah, pretty much ended just around the time I, I moved here. There''s one in there''s, one in Calgary. Um, and I''ve talked with some people there about, about all that. Um, you know, it, it''s a, it''s a takes a lot to.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get things, uh, rolling again, but there''s wherever you go, there''s kind of an existing WordPress builder community. I, I, I sense there''s a lot of people freelancing or, and there''s a bunch of agencies and my, this was true even when, before WordPress was that adopted probably at that level. And I was doing more with, um, with June law and some other DRAL and other, other CMS, um, related things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That a lot of people just get in to scratch their rich and build something. And, and then they [00:27:00] start doing that as a job and maybe they develop an agency or something. And so there''s, there''s a bunch of people who are like an unorganized, the lump and proletariat of word press, who are like, uh, they''re not organized into, um, into a, a regular meetup.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Exactly. Um, but the potential is there mm-hmm , maybe it comes in and goes at at times, cuz there there''re people who would fit the kind of WordPress professional or the line between the hazy line amateur and, and professional and doing this for myself and or which often turns into this is my job. Um, but it''s, it''s often secondary and I think that''s an, that''s been tough for the.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project. And I wonder if there''s, if there''s a, that''s kind of where contributor language gets gets complicated. And I wonder if we should like focus more on creativity and creation and there''s all these people who are sort of [00:28:00] on the outer edges, who, who are very versed, inward press or using it in some significant way, but they haven''t really connected deeper.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Into the community. And they''re definitely contributing in the sense of, um, teaching and informing and expanding the market and expanding the brand, but, um, how they find their way into. These other, um, layers of the onion towards core contribution. Um, it''s, it''s tough cause you don''t wanna make it sound like, well, what you''re doing isn''t worth as much mm-hmm um, cause it it''s as they''re all different, but to drive things forward, you do need people to come in who get more of that kinda leadership level to organize, meet up.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mentor people, um, submit patches, um, get involved in, [00:29:00] in actual software development, which yeah. Is hard not to, not to privilege. Cause that''s really a key, that''s what we''re all using. That''s what either falls behind or, or innovates and yeah. What do, what do you think about that? Do you, are you think there''s ways in our language that can be kind of offputting?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes it''s like this inner circle of, of people who give back and are. Are you adequate is it can maybe be an easy feeling of, uh, of inadequacy or imposter syndrome that''s RI and, and things, and, and that language can kinda land heavily on, on you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> Oh, yeah, definitely. Um, especially, you know, that''s something that goes beyond tech, but, um, when we''re talking specifically about us right here. Yeah. That can be off putting you. You have to think. Um, I do a lot of community service. because that''s just how I am. That''s just how I was raised. That''s just me as a person, but I''m smart enough also to acknowledge [00:30:00] it''s tough to get people to work for free.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, it''s tough. Um, that''s something that''s drilled that was drilled into my head from, um, From a young age. And we talked a little bit about that on one of our other podcasts, like how American slavery, like is affecting people to this day. And it''s like, there''s no way anybody in my family from the oldest members, my great aunts to the youngest, my little baby niece, none of them would just sit and smile.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I told them I was working, doing anything for free outside of C. Help. So , and it''s like, it doesn''t even have to be that deep for a lot of people. People are just not working for free mm-hmm, , we''re in a very capitalist society. Um, we, things cost money. You know, things are high right now. Um, but again, not even getting that deep, it''s just hard for some people to just work for free.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And also for people who want to do it time. Time is such a big constraint. So you may have people that are out there. They''re like, I wanna do this. Yeah. But I [00:31:00] don''t know how I wanna do this. And I don''t have the time. And now these people are telling me that I''m not enough. If I''m not doing this, man, I''m not doing it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, you know, I, I see how it can lead there. Um, I, I, I definitely see that. Um, sometimes, you know, I, I it''s, it, it is, it does seem like that at times, but it''s just going to depend on you as a person, like stuff like that. Won''t bother me personally, because if I can''t do something, I can''t do it. Yeah. I don''t have the time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don''t have the time, but I, I get it. I definitely get it. Um, I, I''m not sure though how. I''m not sure how to pull people in, who may be feeling that like it, they may have that imposter syndrome now. Um, is there just like extra reassurance? What do you think? What, what do you think could be clarified in the language to get those, to, to kind of pull those people back?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I, I think that</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> the more channels, the more way, ways in the, the better off you are, if it, I feel like in the past, it''s [00:32:00] like, that''s the only thing, like.org make page. You either figure out how to get into a team here, you hit the support forum. You, you, you find you come in through some local group. Um, there are only a couple, couple ways to do it and it, uh, it is all in this open source contribution code, committing focus, and that''s become less and less.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think that was alwa that''s always, always been a subculture and it''s become probably more and more of one. um, I think younger generations too, are in a totally different space in because it''s social, um, realities, like, I don''t know how much we''ve really addressed that. I mean, there are long term prolonged economic contraction.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, not everyone''s doing that. Mm-hmm well, emotionally. With stable income and employment. Mm-hmm [00:33:00] you can''t assume stuff like that there, it we''ve been through the most stressful. Yeah. I, I don''t know if we''re really through it, you know, like you turn on the news and it people all around the world. And even in, in places that are, are fairly affluent it''s, there''s a lot, there''s a lot more stress and tension in, in life.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And people have lost, uh, friends and loved ones either, you know? They''re no longer living. Um, that happens normally, but we just pandemic. Um, there''s but there''s so many, especially as you have a community to ages and, and goes along. I, I think a lot of us who''ve been in there a long time. Um, there''s time of life things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It''s, I, it would be more sensitive to that all. And, and what you''re saying too about. there''s cultural and, and definitely racial differences that I think are hard to see from the outside. You''re making me think of, um, mm-hmm, how the, a [00:34:00] good metaphor for this is when I, one of the things I did, I did a ton of, I lived in a part of Milwaukee that was, um, and otherwise it''s very second.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe people would say an apartheid city that has some. Entrenched in difficult problems and living in one of really the only area that''s, that''s fairly mixed and, and diverse is volunteerism is a key thing there. And it''s tough. People don''t have necessarily have a bunch, but there''s this huge. They don''t necessarily have the means or whatever, but they.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There''s just such a drive to do community projects together and fix stuff. And gardening became more and more community gardens and stuff like that. Victory gardens. Yeah. Well, when I first started doing that, I was, um, I was doing it with, uh, uh, a church that had an interesting history. And so we had mostly African American kids coming to the summer program and, and trying to make a.[00:35:00]</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lots of vacant lots where stuff has been torn down or burned down over the years and in my neighborhood there. And, um, trying to build a, make a garden and, um, this same, it, it it''s, it wasn''t so much the work for free, cuz we, it was all hitched up to, um, You you come and you work on this, you get paid a certain kind of gift allowance.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then we like try to explain banking and like walk down the street to the, the local bank on Martin Luther king drive. And like, this is how money works and like save a little. And , uh, give a little back and, and think about what your long term plans are for what you want to get. It was, it was honestly very white, middle class kind of skiing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>very good in very good intentions, but the first barrier is, um, these are kids who have like zero, um, [00:36:00] there in that area. Um, Their, their experience is all urban for, um, probably one or two generations. But before that down the Mississippi deep south, not a good agricultural experience share, you know, share cropping, you know, extended forms of Neo slavery.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Uh, you know, until grandparents, parents came up in the fifties, forties, fifties, and got the last of the good industrial jobs before that all went, went in part. Um, so, mm. I realized and read some things. Um, I never read something. I can''t remember who it was, but there was a, there was a local guy and then someone else rare, uh, voices of African Americans who got on the land and were farming got, you know, as free farmers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some people came all the way up here in Alberta and did that Canada. And it''s not the typical voice. And they talked about how hard it is to do. [00:37:00] Things like with the land, from an African American perspective, cuz there''s such an alienation from it some of the time. And so these kids, oh yeah, they would not wear, like they didn''t have grungy clothes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>They would wear like their best white brand new shoes. Like, you know, they didn''t want to get messed up. It was really hard to get people like, get your hands down in, in this. And then like, remember kids would say like, you all look like a bunch of slaves. Like this is a huge barrier. Here cuz there''s not an ability to imagine us working and doing this free labor in any other way.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And like who''s in charge, the white guys like, like, yeah, it totally looks, it totally looks that way. So,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> um, yeah. Yeah. It that''s a good, that is a good way to put that. Sorry, that that</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> really story. Cause you can express that in a way that is accusatory. and make, you know, make us feel really bad, but, um, but it''s totally valid and, and [00:38:00] there was a disconnect.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the only way I found around that was like individual relationships and getting like over a couple years and getting to know some of these kids is they were growing up and like they in doing other things with them, like I found a, a bunch of the young men, um, like they never went over to east side.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That''s dangerous. You can''t go over there and there''s nothing there that we would be interested in and, you know, broadening people''s sense of their own freedom and capacity. Yeah, you actually, we can go over here. There''s some cool stuff and food you like and, um, people who, uh, are friendly. So it, I think that kind of everyone does that everyone has their little comfort zone that probably needs to be expand.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But at the same time, those walls exist, cuz people have been hurt or they''ve, um, or there''s something in their history where they see this as a wall that is defended and is dangerous to push [00:39:00] or they, they sense on some level like this is gonna, um, this isn''t what I should, this isn''t for me, this isn''t my people.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That''s just huge that''s people stuff. We have to find, find ways to make many ways through and in. Um, cuz if you keep trying something that doesn''t work, that turns people off, it doesn''t matter how right. You think you are.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> Oh yeah, you''re right on the money with that. And. just relating that back to WordPress. Imagine those kids that you were, uh, you know, trying to get to do that with. And they''re like, God, like not saying, this is their attitude, but say they walked away with that saying mm-hmm they were trying to get us to do free labor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>They were trying to get us do free work. That''s crazy. And then they. um, they, you know, they get older and they learn code and they learn tech. And they''ve heard that tech is just this, this freedom and it''s this place to make money. And it''s just like, you can elevate, I can elevate my life and they get to tech.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the first thing they see is people saying, Hey, if you wanna be a [00:40:00] great person in this community, you need to do some free work. They all like what? Like they might freak out like what in the world? Why is everybody want me to do free, free labor and, um, that''s, you know, that''s just relating that back.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It''s it''s sometimes that''s. A red flag to people. It''s definitely a red flag to me. Um, because also people are still exploiting people of color women. Um, people who are disabled, they are still getting exploited for low wages or free labor to this day. So that''s still something we have to look out for.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I''ve been asked to do free labor many times, and I''ve had to politely tell people like, no, I''m not doing that. Or, you know, and depending on. What the situation is, maybe talk to others, like what''s going on. Like I have to teach my mentors not to accept like, well, this job, they really gonna gimme the experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>They said, okay, me an exposure and experience. And then one day I''ll be a big developer. No. Do not let people do that to you. That''s like, I, I always tell people like, no, [00:41:00] you, you deserve to be paid. Now you deserve to be paid fair and adequately. So we don''t have to go back too far. It''s happening today. Um, so of course people are calling it out more and people are looking at it as a red flag.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hate that people see it as a red flag in WordPress. Uh, some people. Inmate WordPress and giving back. And then I hate that some people just, you know, don''t have the time and they''re turned off by, you know, phrasing about it because it''s, it''s a privilege to have free time. Honestly, these days, isn''t it, it''s a privilege to be able to give back.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that''s something I never forget. And that''s, that''s something I always tell people as well, like, you know, you don''t have to. You don''t have to thank me. Like people are always like, oh, thank you for this like that. I don''t, you know, you don''t have to thank me. I, I acknowledge that, you know, it''s just a privilege for me to be able to do this for you and that throws some people off, but Hey, it knows what it is, but we, I don''t know how to bridge that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Especially as a, as a woman of color, who''s been asked to do free things as a woman, as a woman of color, as a [00:42:00] person of color. I get it. I get it. I definitely</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> get. I, I, I was really glad when I, I think it was Josepha my first contact with hearing someone say that it''s a privilege to contribute. Um, and I hadn''t really thought about that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, that does that''s good language, I think, because it, it gives honor to that role and that capacity, but it also understands that that might not be. An individual is at, at that time, then I think you have to extend yourself and go further and, and look at who is underprivileged or who lacks these privileges and how can we raise them up?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>How can we open doors? Um, and that that''s, what''s cool about the mentoring and, and the community stuff. Cause I think that''s, that''s what it does, you know, get it will help. It will help. There are other ways to, to give back and. [00:43:00] And it''s, it can take years it''s years of relationships and, and growth where, um, that that''s what''s needed to happen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And you can''t, you can''t what we''re saying here. You can''t just treat people like cogs. Like they''re not all in the same category. They''re not the same time of life and they''re not the same people. And when you really know, get to know them, um, they''ve unique gifts and capacities and what they''re okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay. With doing. um, at the moment and it''s okay for everyone to say, and they, they, they need to, like, I need to, I need to step back. I need, um, I think we''ve been, there''s been so much more, um, recognition of that. Um, mm-hmm , uh, someone was tweeting the other day of like, they''re just too much coming at. ''em too much stress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>They''re gonna, they''re gonna give their, um, word camp ticket to someone else. And. Step back from going there. And, um, and a lot of people are [00:44:00] really supportive of that. Like, yeah, it''s tough. Uh, tough call maybe, but, um, it''s okay to it''s okay to say, you know, I I''ve hit my limit here. Um, mm-hmm .</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> That. Yeah, I think so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I''m gonna backtrack. I think that that''s a great way. That would be a, a big help to helping people letting them know it''s okay. That needs to be more clear if you can''t do this right now. It''s okay. Like you said, like, you know, Joseph said it''s a privilege and you know, letting these people know, like, um, that doesn''t mean you''re not privileged if you can''t do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know, that''s just not your time and that''s, and that''s completely okay. Right. And I, I like that. I like that a lot. And I, I really like that. I think also another big thing. We need to get people to see the value mm-hmm and giving back. Because again, like what''s the value. If I can''t make money, if I have to like take time out of my life where I''m missing with my family or my friends, what''s the, what value do I have to, some people like, just knowing it''s going to [00:45:00] improve the life of someone else is not enough.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>it''s okay though. It''s okay. Um, but how do we get people to see the value in this? I think community seeing people like me, who, you know, I could not, I could stop giving back tomorrow and be okay and go do other things with my life. But I don''t wanna do that. I like giving back. It''s valuable to. . I have a lot of things I value about giving back, especially in this community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if I stand up there and I talk about it and I tell people and I give to them, honestly, I think that''s the number one thing I''ve seen in my life that makes other people wanna give. If they can see the value that other people are getting, that isn''t tangible, nobody''s handing me money to do any of this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>so I think being a, a beacon of that helps, and I think I wish we had more people, but it''s, it''s hard if you''re, if you''re doing all of this and you''re giving your time away, it''s hard to be like, you know, the poster job for that as well. Um, right. We a lot of people have families. I don''t know what I would do if I had children.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think I would probably just [00:46:00] scrap ''em to my chest. One of those little baby vests. I like those. Yeah. I used to do that in front of you. Yeah. Oh, I love those. I would just scrap ''em to my chest and like, I guess we</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> around and talk. I''m glad to be through that kind of, um, yeah, my, my younger two daughters are, um, on finishing high school now, so it''s pretty.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It''s on their own, but, uh, yeah, that was, that was tough. That was interesting. I was the home parent. Um, and at one point, yeah, they were like, mm-hmm um, four girls they were mostly there with me and yeah, the two close together. Um, yeah. It''s uh, well freelancing and doing neighborhood projects. It, it was, um, it was a lot and yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And mm-hmm it makes you, it makes you sensitive. the fact that you need to, you need to understand people in their context and so that, like you don''t mm-hmm so you can kind of help on your end too. You don''t ask too much or that, you know, you know, how to, [00:47:00] how to phrase, um, you know what they''re, they''re just some conditions like you understand like, oh, this is, isn''t a good, this isn''t a good time or a good person to, to ask to, to help with this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or. Or maybe they need, you know, just knowing what the needs are and where you can be supportive to. Um, yeah, just the, the more you get deeper into individual relationships, I think the stronger and more, um, sensitive like community is the, like those go together, the strong and sensitive . Cause you''re, you''re aware of each other as individuals and, um, that holds things nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, that made me, I was one. The last thing I, I was thinking while you were saying that there, there are so many, I think there are so many things people do or don''t do that. Some things need to not be done. that, that contribute so [00:48:00] much. And we know it and, and sometimes it there''s other forms of recognition that are important.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like yeah. If the, if WordPress cord doesn''t move forward, everything else fails. And there''s like, there''s a level. um, mm-hmm of focus and need on that, that that is is unique, but then there''s stuff that''s farfield from maybe any, any teams that is so important in the ecosystem. And, um, uh, a guy, everyone I think has nothing but prays for it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kevin O Hashi who, um, who like Kevin O Hashi, who does the, um, uh, WordPress benchmarks? WooCommerce too. Have you ever looked at those? Uh, there''s kind of neutral third party deep, um, uh, analysis each year of, um, performance on load testing and, and a bunch of other stuff of, of hosts. Who, who, um, partner with them who say like, yeah, here here''s our, here''s a free account [00:49:00] and all of our tiers test them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, never go through those and, and see.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> I have, um, I have, did I do last year? I have, I have, I I''m like, I''m just going back in my mind, but I have, and I think that is really, really, really awesome. That does that. I''m so sorry. I hear</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> from people a lot about, about that. Like that''s a, that''s a major service because there there''s a lot of data poverty in the WordPress ecosystem.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If your plugin isn''t in the re.org repo, like what do we know? What, what, what do you, what do we know about that whole, um, part of the market? And if you are in it, it''s very limited. What, what data you get out, um, hosting, you know, going way back has always been. A pretty murky place for are these real reviews?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>No, Jen . Oh man. So this is like the [00:50:00] one he''s got the one, um, the one shining beacon of reliable, trustworthy stuff. And as, uh, And he, the contribution is largely in what he doesn''t do, which is take money or sponsors in. Um, I, I forget what is, what the, what the revenue model there is, but this is, this is one guy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, this isn''t some growth oper organization. Um, it, those are really difficult things. The things we need to subsidize or help that, um, are. Kind of have a regulatory effect that help protect the space and the commons, um, because they don''t aim at massive growth and they aim at a giving you a really honest signal on, um, you know, how are, how are these hosts doing one, one compared to another, what do you get for this, [00:51:00] this price point?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And. They, um, it''s good for them. They, they know where they stand and how they''re, how they''re doing. I''m sure they have their own data, but it''s a huge incentive to, um, to compete where we want them to . Um, there''s a lot, there''s a lot of different things like that. There''s just certain personalities who give back a ton on, um, social media or in, um, their willingness to, to teach others.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um, but. Yeah, I don''t know. Do we recognize that openly enough? Um, and I think people doing stuff for the love of it is a huge privilege and it really, it is really is gratifying when people say thank you. So, um, we should do that more and thank you for starting meetups. Interesting. coming on this, on this podcast and, and being a, um, a unique voice in the, in the C.[00:52:00]</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> Uh, you''re so welcome. Thank you, Dan, for having me on here and agreeing to do a</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> no, I didn''t agree to that. depends on what it is, but yeah, I''m looking, looking forward to meeting all there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I, you picked the song. We''ll see. I don''t know. It''s pens. Who''s watching.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> I''ll give you a list. I''ll give you a.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> God love. Uh, yeah. I don''t know nothing by Madonna. I remember bad memories of a friend at a, um, student union at Marquette university who, uh, crazy guy. I don''t think he had even been drinking, but he did, um, Papa don''t preach and acted it out.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, he ended up playing down on a table or something and yeah. Yeah. He was having a, having his baby. Um,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> oh, now I gotta do [00:53:00] Madonna. I gotta show him up. okay. No Madonna just make me a list of no, the nose. No Madonna. Okay. I have that. I''ll</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> write that down. probably, and Tom waits. I love Madonna. Tom waits. Some.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nyasha Green:</strong> It''s not really singing. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. yeah. We''re yeah, you''re gonna let me, uh, do, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dan Knauss:</strong> Right. So, all right. You take care. all right. Thanks.</p>\n<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, 26 Aug 2022 05:51:19 +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: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:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:48:"Post Status: Two Big Tweets on Ways to Give Back";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=106861";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://poststatus.com/big-tweets-on-ways-to-give-back/";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:2600:"<p>1) We''re really looking forward to seeing this <a href="https://twitter.com/DocPop/status/1562589813563203584">WordPress mentorship program</a> launch — and maybe some of the planning? In <a href="https://poststatus.com/building-and-sustaining-the-wordpress-community-through-mentorship/">a recent episode of The Excerpt</a>, <strong>Nyasha Green</strong> talks about the importance of mentorship to her growth as a developer and entry into WordPress. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">There are some plans for a mentorship program coming before the end of the year.</p>&mdash; Josepha Haden Chomphosy (@JosephaHaden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JosephaHaden/status/1560077515250548737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 18, 2022</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Drupal</strong> <em>does</em> have a lot of good models to learn from — <strong>Amy June Hineline</strong> <a href="https://poststatus.com/comparing-the-drupal-and-wordpress-communities-with-amy-june-hineline/">recently talked with</a> <strong>David Bisset</strong> about their local development tools for their equivalent of Contributor Days.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>2) This is <a href="https://twitter.com/DocPop/status/1562589813563203584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1562589813563203584%7Ctwgr%5E72d527d8531fe958e6fea0b36269bbc3444dff2f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpoststatus.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost-new.php">a neat way to support</a> someone doing volunteer work you value — <strong>Thank With Google</strong>. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">\n<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">During today''s <a href="https://twitter.com/TheTorqueMag?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheTorqueMag</a> livestream, <a href="https://twitter.com/felixarntz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@felixarntz</a> dropped an exciting bit of news about a new Google product called "Thank With Google". Similar to Ko-fi, Thank enables easy payment/donation options for content creators via a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WordPress?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WordPress</a> plugin. <a href="https://t.co/LgT9PAY2yC">https://t.co/LgT9PAY2yC</a></p>&mdash; DoctorPopular.RSS (@DocPop) <a href="https://twitter.com/DocPop/status/1562589813563203584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 24, 2022</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Steve Burge</strong> <a href="https://kinshipress.com/thank-with-google/">digs deeper</a> at <strong>KinshiPress</strong>.</p>\n<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, 26 Aug 2022 00:35:03 +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: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:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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: Is this a WordPress Acquisition?";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=106830";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://poststatus.com/is-this-a-wordpress-acquisition/";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:7123:"<h2 id="h-digitalocean-buys-cloudways-for-350-million-in-cash">DigitalOcean buys Cloudways for $350 million in cash</h2>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-container-16 wp-block-group"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">\n<div class="wp-container-15 wp-block-group has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">DigitalOcean''s acquisition of Cloudways is an investment in the WordPress ecosystem with an emphasis on &#8220;digital agencies, eCommerce sites, bloggers, freelance developers and builders hosting on WordPress.&#8221; </p></div>\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<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">3</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2><em>&#8220;Is this a WordPress acquisition?&#8221;</em> </h2>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-drop-cap">That question <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1661260463302889">led to some discussion</a> in <strong>Post Status Slack</strong> this week. The consensus was “yes it is,” although we’ve certainly included many WordPress-adjacent or partnered companies on our (updated) <a href="https://poststatus.com/acquisitions/">Acquisitions</a> page. The <a href="https://investors.digitalocean.com/news/news-details/2022/DigitalOcean-to-Acquire-Cloudways/default.aspx">number-filled announcement to investors</a> and <a href="https://s27.q4cdn.com/619704647/files/doc_downloads/2022/DigitalOcean-Cloudways-Acquisition-Infographic.pdf">infographic</a> from <strong>DigitalOcean</strong> make it clear they know they are buying (or rather getting deeper) into the WordPress ecosystem by acquiring <strong>Cloudways</strong>:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“The acquisition of Cloudways expands DigitalOcean’s serviceable market within global SMBs and increases options for <strong>digital agencies, eCommerce sites, bloggers, freelance developers and builders hosting on WordPress</strong>, <strong>PHP</strong> and <strong>Magento</strong>. WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) and, according to <strong>W3Techs</strong>, it powers 43% of all websites on the internet.”</p><cite>&#8220;DigitalOcean to Acquire Cloudways&#8221; • bold text added for <strong>emphasis</strong></cite></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>DigitalOcean is embracing its role as a WordPress host and pivoting to define its market as, well, <em>us</em>. The bold text above highlights a large part of our membership and the WordPress community.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Key Takeaways:</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Big emphasis on SMBs.</strong> DigitalOcean sees itself expanding to gain small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMBs) in its customer demographic, and acquiring Cloudways with its WordPress and other open source eCommerce customers achieves that.</li><li><strong>Cloudways fills a big gap.</strong> There’s no easy button within DigitalOcean itself for setting up a WordPress site or anything else, but their 1-click apps are the latest progression toward something like that. It’s just not likely to appeal to most people in the low-end market <a href="https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/wordpress?utm_campaign=amer_brand_kw_en_cpc&utm_adgroup=digitalocean_wordpress_bmm&_keyword=digitalocean%20wordpress&_device=c&_adposition=&utm_content=conversion&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&gclid=CjwKCAjwu5yYBhAjEiwAKXk_eCTLbvWw706hdVQiD8CFN5sup_3G_RMowCw_QPCtG5icj3v7gGg7ORoC4ukQAvD_BwE">in its current state</a>. DigitalOcean marketing is still locked onto startups and developers too. I imagine all this will change if Cloudways is brought in as a SMB customer-facing easy-button.</li><li><strong>New Competition.</strong> Focusing on less-technical end users and the people who build their sites will put DigitalOcean in direct competition with other WordPress-focused Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers or hosting panel middleware like <strong>ServerPilot</strong> — which only works with DigitalOcean — and <strong>SpinupWP</strong>. Even more so than Cloudways, SpinupWP is host-agnostic — any server with a public IP and (currently) <strong>Ubuntu</strong> 20.04 or 22.04 will work with SpinupWP.</li><li><strong>Will DigitalOcean drop Cloudways’ support for competitors?</strong> In addition to DigitalOcean, Cloudways can be used with <strong>Google</strong>, <strong>AWS</strong>, <strong>Vultr</strong>, and <strong>Linode</strong>. Many of us wonder if that flexibility might go away now. If it does, that’s a wasted opportunity. Post Status Member <strong>Kevin Ohashi</strong> optimistically (and I hope rightly) <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/C1WDQ9W05/p1661371977299379?thread_ts=1661260653.084159&cid=C1WDQ9W05">opined nothing will be changed</a>: “If the customer isn''t going to choose you, might as well still make money off them.”</li><li><strong>The terms “Build” and “Builder” are a large part of DigitalOcean’s messaging</strong> about the acquisition. In fact, the company’s mission is defined this way, in the context of the acquisition news release: “DigitalOcean simplifies cloud computing so builders can spend more time creating software that changes the world.” This sounds a lot like WordPress’s mission updated for the era of (increasingly low/no-code) website builders (the software and the people). It’s also rather different from DigitalOcean’s main public-facing messaging which is still focused on startups and developers.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Some interesting numbers from DigitalOcean:</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>DigitalOcean and Cloudways have been close partners since 2014.</li><li>Cloudways has approximately 50% of its customers on DigitalOcean servers.</li><li>This acquisition increases DigitalOcean’s high spend customers by 18%. They will come away from the deal with a total of 124,000+ (new plus existing) customers paying $50+ per month, which is 84% of DigitalOcean’s total revenue. ($6.2M/mo. * 12 = $74.4M/yr.)</li><li>Cloudways is projected to contribute between $13 and $15 million of revenue to DigitalOcean’s bottom line in the remaining months of FY2022 after the deal closes in September.</li><li>The acquisition of Cloudways will expand DigitalOcean’s global employee base by 30%. A good deal of those jobs are in Pakistan, and the sale represents the &#8220;Pakistan tech sector''s largest exit to date,” according to <strong>Jawwad Farid</strong>. (Thanks to <strong>Rae Morey</strong> at <strong><a href="https://www.therepository.email/">The Repository</a></strong> for picking up on this.)</li></ul>\n<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, 25 Aug 2022 19:53:56 +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: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:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:44:"Post Status: WordPress.com has changed a lot";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=106686";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://poststatus.com/wordpress-com-has-changed-a-lot/";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:2783:"<h2 id="h-this-is-managed-wordpress-hosting-and-has-been-all-along">This is managed WordPress hosting — and has been all along</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-drop-cap">I''ve been delinquent with posting on my .blog blog on WordPress.com for about a year, so when I bought into the Pro plan after the first recent price change the new stuff really stood out. I''m also pleased I upgraded then, because after they reverted to the  original price structure I realized I''m getting every feature of the old and new Business plan at about half the current price, although the storage is much lower. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>I''ve dug in a little more since then, and this is clearly the best WP.com so far. Apart from some P2 demo sites, I''ve never had much going on there. I have a second work account for &#8220;self-hosted&#8221; sites that use Jetpack, and it''s still annoying to switch between them and manage subscriptions to comments and posts. You can only be longed into one .com identity at a time, and there''s no way to sharing access with team members or clients except as admins of individual sites.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most surprising thing to see develop over the last six months or so is access to premium plugins — including Elementor and the Classic Editor, which are among the 36 &#8220;top premium plugins&#8221; listed. If you dig into the functional categories of plugins you can install, there are thousands. (I''d love to know how these are being selected, or if all plugins in the .org repo are automatically included.)</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I haven''t explored how I''d go about adding &#8220;third party code&#8221; or installing any of the 50,000+ plugins in the .org repo, but that''s allowed on my &#8220;Pro&#8221; plan. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can see it would be relatively easy to set up a Substack-like site at WP.com because I know the plugins you''d need, but for the average user they''d really have to dig into some docs and do the work of educating themselves. What''s badly needed are something like &#8220;blueprints&#8221; for instantly installing typical configurations of plugins and themes for a common use-case. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several years ago I mapped out how I would strip down WordPress and turn it into a Substack-like membership site that used wp_mail / php_mail properly to see if I could get good deliverability with 100+ subscribers. (This is not a huge feat but a good exercise to get habituated to proper webmail/email practices that are mostly ignored, abused, or outsources as a problem for Mailgun, Mandrill, etc.) I should still do it, if I ever get the time, but it''s cool to see a fully Open Source and better-than-Substack site becoming possible (and maybe preferable) at WordPress.com.</p>\n<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, 25 Aug 2022 11:53:00 +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: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:39;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"Do The Woo Community: Building with WooCommerce in Uganda with Arthur Kasirye";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=72669";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://dothewoo.io/building-with-woocommerce-in-uganda/";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:399:"<p>Listen to Arthurs WooCommerce story through his involvement with WordPress and the community in Uganda, Africa.</p>\n<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/building-with-woocommerce-in-uganda/">Building with WooCommerce in Uganda with Arthur Kasirye</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, 25 Aug 2022 09:12:00 +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:40;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:46:"Post Status: When the Free Rider is Government";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=106634";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:57:"https://poststatus.com/when-the-free-rider-is-government/";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:4817:"<div class="wp-container-20 wp-block-group"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">\n<div class="wp-container-19 wp-block-group has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">Chinmayi Sharma argues our digital infrastructure is built on open source, and it cannot provide adequate security so governments should help out. </p></div>\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<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">3</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-drop-cap">Over at <strong>Lawfare</strong>, <strong>Chinmayi Sharma</strong> talks open source security and argues our <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/open-source-security-how-digital-infrastructure-built-house-cards">digital infrastructure is built on a house of cards</a> — i.e., open source software. <strong>Log4j</strong> comes up for mention again, since it had a rare <strong>CVSS</strong> severity score of 10 out of 10.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class="has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background">What''s a CVSS score? How is it calculated? With the <strong>Common Vulnerability Scoring System Calculator</strong> of course. <a href="https://patchstack.com/articles/what-is-cvss-score/">Learn how it works plus key security terms</a> like &#8220;attack vector&#8221; from <strong>Robert Rowley</strong> at <strong>Patchstack</strong>. And here''s another good recent piece from Robert on <a href="https://patchstack.com/articles/patchstack-weekly-36-the-fundamentals-of-a-good-security-bug-patching-practice/">the ingredients of a good security bug patching practice</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sharma''s article is not a hit piece on open source, however. She notes:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The open-source community is aware of its security problem. In fact, the community is already attempting to build out institutions and standards to secure open source. For example, the Open Source Security Foundation, or <a href="https://openssf.org/">OpenSSF</a>, has already met with the White House twice and has 10 dedicated workstreams all focused on securing the open-source ecosystem. Companies like Microsoft and Google, large open-source contributors, have pledged <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/16/white-house-open-source-security/">$30 million</a> to support OpenSSF’s efforts. The <a href="https://ostif.org/">Open Source Technology Improvement Fund</a> (OSTIF) was founded recently to provide free security auditing services to open-source projects and continues to grow.<br /><br /><em>However, on its own, the open-source community does not have the leverage to demand the resources and minimum security practices required. To preserve its core ethos as a free service and commodity, the open-source community cannot impose conditional requirements on its projects. As a collaborative of many volunteer developers, it also struggles to impose requirements on its own contributors.&nbsp;</em></p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I wonder if that is really true and open source self-regulation is truly impossible. Sharma uses developer pushback as an example, in the case of the <strong>Python Package Index</strong> (PyPI) imposing &#8220;minimum security measures on &#8216;critical'' projects.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her argument is that open source needs help and governments should pitch in because open source software is “critical infrastructure.” This is not a new idea:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Several nations have adopted regulations that recognize open-source projects as significant public assets and central to their most important systems and services. <a href="https://sciencebusiness.net/news/germany-launch-sovereign-tech-fund-secure-digital-infrastructure">Germany</a> wants to treat open-source software as a public good and launched a sovereign tech fund to support open-source projects “just as much as bridges and roads,” and not just when a bridge collapses. The European Union adopted a formal <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/en_ec_open_source_strategy_2020-2023.pdf">open-source strategy</a> that encourages it to “explore opportunities for dedicated support services for open source solutions [it] considers critical.”&nbsp;</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n<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, 24 Aug 2022 21:43:53 +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:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:"WPTavern: WebP by Default on Hold for 6.1 After New Objections From WordPress Lead 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:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=137317";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:104:"https://wptavern.com/webp-by-default-on-hold-for-6-1-after-new-objections-from-wordpress-lead-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:10110:"<p>Last week Performance team contributors were working on refining their follow-up patches for the multi-mime/WebP feature, after the main work for it was <a href="https://wptavern.com/webp-by-default-merged-into-core-for-wordpress-6-1">merged into core for 6.1</a> at the end of July. This includes smaller related items like the shim for non-supporting browsers and adding PDF  support, which are being handled in separate tickets.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposal to generate WebP images by default for new JPEG image uploads has been controversial from the beginning. While the Google-sponsored contributors driving the project have made some revisions after an initial round of significant critical feedback, other contributors have continued to voice concerns that they said were not being considered. Several contributors reported issues with the feature and suggested that it should start by being opt-in, an idea that was summarily dismissed before the main work was committed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week, WordPress lead developer Andrew Ozz weighed in on the ticket with <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/55443#comment:112">new objections</a>:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">\n<p>Like&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/MatthiasReinholz">@MatthiasReinholz</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/eatingrules">@eatingrules</a>, and others I think this approach is perhaps lacking. Why would there be twice as many image files taking up a lot of extra space when half of them will never ever be used anywhere?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>IMHO a better approach would be to just make all image sub-sizes WEBP. If JPEGs are indeed needed, these can be generated on-the-fly as needed. There is no point of clogging the web servers storage with all these useless files.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, if the WEBP file sizes are actually larger than the JPEGs, that would probably mean that better tools are needed, and this patch is premature.</p>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Six weeks ago, in response to one complaint that the &#8220;resources for conversion would be tremendous,&#8221; Google-sponsored core committer Adam Silverstein confirmed that resources for generating the images on upload would &#8220;increase dramatically.&#8221; </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;However resources to serve an image will be lowered,&#8221; Silverstein said. &#8220;Since image uploading is very rare compared to image serving, the extra effort to compress and store images should be worth it.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is another problem Ozz cited in his objection to this approach.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Actually that dramatic increase of resources usage when uploading an image is a very bad side effect here,&#8221; Ozz said. &#8220;It means a lot of uploads will fail, and leave the users stranded. It also will increase support requests for both WordPress and the hosting companies dramatically. Don&#8217;t think this is acceptable. Because of this, even if image multi-mime support is needed in WordPress, the current approach doesn&#8217;t seem like a good solution.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Approximately 24 hours later, Google-sponsored contributor Felix Arntz <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/55443#comment:114">commented</a> to advise that the WebP fallback mechanism to JPEG for older browsers was ready for commit and that he planned to commit it in a few days.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Please do not commit any more code here unless it is to address the dramatic increase of resources needed to create image sub-sizes after upload,&#8221; Ozz said. &#8220;As I said above such increase is unacceptable.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Is there any data about how much more resources (memory, processing time, etc.) are needed when uploading different image sizes? Any estimate about how many sites may be affected by that? Any suggestions on how to deal with it? Do you know what happens when post-processing of an uploaded image fails?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Frankly for now it seems that this patch will have to be reverted and refactored in order to address this.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adam Silverstein responded to his concerns with clarification on why they chose the current approach, in anticipation of certain edge cases and eventually adding support for formats like AVIF once it is more widely supported:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">\n<p>I tend to agree with your assessment that all sub-sizes should be generated as WebP only, that was the shape of the original proposal. For the vast majority of use cases/users this will work the best. I would be open to considering this for the default (with some mitigations, see below).</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reason we decided to generate both formats was for backwards compatibility considerations for the few edge cases we identified where WebP images will might not work: namely emailed images (some older outlook/windows clients), Open Graph tags (some services don&#8217;t support WebP) and older Safari browsers. One possibility we considered would be to keep only the full sized JPEG so it is always available for those edge cases.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The &#8220;multi-mime&#8221; support here is built to generating multiple formats so you sites can provide a primary and fallback format with something like the <code>picture</code> element. This is less important for WebP since it is so widely supported, but would be helpful for adopting newer formats like AVIF by plugins or core.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Silverstein also said the option of generating images on the fly was something they need to figure out but &#8220;felt out of scope for this effort.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response to the complaint regarding the dramatic increase in resources for image uploads, Silverstein said they are relying on the &#8220;retry&#8221; mechanism to mitigate this problem.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This change also doubles the number of times WordPress will retry&#8217; the image regeneration, so while processing time will increase, I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;ll see a jump in failures necessarily,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I know we had trouble adding new sizes in the past, however that was before we added the retry mechanism.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team behind the WebP by default project is more focused on serving smaller image sizes on the frontend and considers the additional resource usage on upload a necessary sacrifice for WordPress users.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The additional resources at upload time needs to be weighed against the reduced resources of serving the smaller WebP image, especially since serving typically occurs several orders of magnitude more frequently than uploading,&#8221; Silverstein said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;If uploading fails after all the retries, the user has the same experience as currently: they are left with a broken, unusable image. That can probably be fixed, although I don&#8217;t think this change will increases failure rates.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress lead developer Dion Hulse also <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/55443#comment:123">commented</a> on the ticket to report issues with WebP conversions in the WordPress Photo Directory:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">\n<p>Just noting here, that these additional webp conversions appear to have been the leading cause of upload failures on the WordPress Photo Directory in recent weeks. See&nbsp;<a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org//intertrac/ticket%3A6142">#meta6142</a>&nbsp;and tickets closed as duplicate of it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The errors were generally along the lines of&nbsp;<code>Allowed memory size of 256M bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 90M bytes</code>&nbsp;(obviously with byte values) while attempting to perform the initial full-size-original jpeg -&gt; webp conversion.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It hasn&#8217;t affected&nbsp;<em>every upload</em>, only that of certain images. Potentially related to the&nbsp;<code>$quality</code>&nbsp;value being passed for webp requests (IIRC the default of 82 was optimized for jpeg?).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Hulse <a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/12023">disabled the JPEG to WebP conversion</a> as a result of these errors, as the photo directory doesn&#8217;t currently use WebP but noted that it &#8220;might be a sign that it might be worth considering only generating webp&#8217;s for the resized images, rather than for the original file too.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Silverstein said they are investigating the issues Hulse reported, as it may have exposed a bug.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ozz circled back to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/55443#comment:126">recommend</a> that making sub-sizes on demand would be a better approach that has faster processing of uploaded images and reduced space requirements, since the additional JPEG images would not be generated unless needed. He also noted that the &#8220;retry&#8221; for image post-processing &#8220;doesn&#8217;t work as well as expected.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The bad news is that if the post processing fails, chances are the originally uploaded file will remain,&#8221; Ozz said. &#8220;Then it will be used everywhere as most of the code in WP falls back to available sizes, and the only size will be the original. That means we will be serving huge (4MB &#8211; 8MB average) images. A serious drawback.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Silverstein responded to Ozz&#8217;s suggestions, agreeing with many, and proposed two potential paths forward for the project: </p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">\n<ol><li>Keep the current multi-mime infrastructure, but change the defaults so only WebP files are generated, possibly up to a threshold size beyond which only JPEGs would be generated. Most existing work would continue; content filtering could possibly be removed.</li><li>Revert the multi-mime infrastructure and switch back to a single mime approach, using WebP for images up to a threshold size and adjusting the compatibility layer to use the JPEGs we keep.</li></ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The Performance team is doing more research and has temporarily paused committing anything else until they receive feedback on the next direction for the project.</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, 24 Aug 2022 21:25:30 +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:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:104:"Post Status: Adjust HTML Block Markup, FSE Back to Basics, WP 6.0.2 RC1, and Updating WP_MEMORY_LIMIT";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=106506";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:109:"https://poststatus.com/adjust-html-block-markup-fse-back-to-basics-wp-6-0-2-rc1-and-updating-wp_memory_limit/";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:16118:"<h2 id="h-this-week-at-wordpress-org-august-24-2022">This Week at WordPress.org (August 24, 2022)</h2>\n\n\n<div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">WordPress 6.0.2 is coming soon! Join the next Call for Testing and give your feedback on HTML block markup and increasing the <code>WP_MEMORY_LIMIT</code> variable in <code>wp-config.php</code>. </p></div>\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<div id="kt-info-box_b3b811-01" 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-ic_pencil"></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/">Feedback</a></h2><p class="kt-blocks-info-box-text">WordPress 6.1 feature freeze is September 20, 2023. There are many ways to weigh in with feedback now.  <br />1&#x20e3;  <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/19/a-new-system-for-simply-and-reliably-updating-html-attributes/">A new system for simply and reliably updating HTML attributes</a><br /><br />2&#x20e3;  <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/43023">Add a preview section to the pre-publish sidebar</a><br /><br />3&#x20e3;  <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2022/08/18/proposal-updating-wp_memory_limit/">Updating <code>WP_MEMORY_LIMIT</code></a><br /></code>WP_MEMORY_LIMIT</code></a><br />4&#x20e3;  <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/455">Database performance health checks</a><br /><br />5&#x20e3;  <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2022/08/15/testing-and-feedback-for-the-fluid-typography-feature/">Testing and feedback for the Fluid Typography feat</a><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2022/08/15/testing-and-feedback-for-the-fluid-typography-feature/">ure</a></p></div></div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-news">News</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/23/wordpress-6-0-2-rc1-is-now-available/">WordPress 6.0.2 RC1 is now available</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/08/13/fse-program-testing-call-16-back-to-basics/">FSE Program Testing Call #16: Back to Basics</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/08/24/tt3-default-theme-one-week-left-to-submit-style-variations/">TT3 default theme: One week left to submit style variations</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_598f7a-1a"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-container-25 wp-block-columns">\n<div class="wp-container-23 wp-block-column">\n<h2 id="h-accessibility"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility">Accessibility</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2022/08/19/accessibility-team-meeting-agenda-august-19-2022/">Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: August 19, 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-community">Community</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/08/19/meetup-organizer-newsletter-august-2022/">Meetup Organizer Newsletter: August 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/08/15/call-for-ideas-wordcamp-us-2022-contributor-day/">Call for Ideas: WordCamp US 2022 Contributor Day</a></li><li><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/what-is-contributor-day/">What is Contributor Day?</a></li><li><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/organizers-map/">Where Y’all From? WordCamp US 2022 Organizers Map</a></li><li><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/joining-make-wordpress-slack/">Joining Make WordPress Slack</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-core"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core">Core</a> </h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/23/wordpress-6-0-2-rc1-is-now-available/">WordPress 6.0.2 RC1 is now available</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/19/a-new-system-for-simply-and-reliably-updating-html-attributes/">A new system for simply and reliably updating HTML attributes</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/18/wordpress-development-setup/">WordPress Development Setup</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/24/a-week-in-core-august-22-2022/">A Week in Core – August 22, 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id="h-meetings">Meetings</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/16/devchat-agenda-august-17-2022/"></a><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/18/summary-dev-chat-august-17-2022/">Summary, Dev Chat, August 17, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/23/editor-chat-agenda-24th-august-2022/">Editor Chat Agenda: 24th August 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/19/editor-chat-summary-10-august-2022-2/">Editor chat summary: 17 August, 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-design"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design">Design</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/08/15/design-share-aug-1-12/"></a><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/08/24/tt3-default-theme-one-week-left-to-submit-style-variations/">TT3 default theme: One week left to submit style variations</a></li><li><strong>FEEDBACK REQUESTED:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/43023">Add a preview section to the pre-publish sidebar</a></li><li><strong>FEEDBACK REQUESTED:</strong> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/08/04/design-exploration-encourage-editor-configuration-during-on-boarding/">Design Exploration: Encourage editor configuration during on-boarding</a></li><li><strong>SUBMISSIONS DUE AUG 31:</strong> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/08/10/twenty-twenty-three-default-theme-project-kickoff/">Twenty Twenty-Three default theme —&nbsp;project kickoff</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href="https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/">Five for the Future</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/five-for-the-future/issues/214">Deactivate inactive pledges</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/five-for-the-future/issues/212">Remove contributor hours when account banned</a>&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/five-for-the-future/issues/210">Use last 5ftF contribution as inactivity criteria</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/five-for-the-future/issues/208">Hyperlink not readable on Program Expectations page</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-hosting">Hosting</h2>\n\n\n\n<ol><li><strong>PROPOSAL:</strong> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2022/08/18/proposal-updating-wp_memory_limit/">Updating WP_MEMORY_LIMIT</a></li></ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-marketing"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing">Marketing</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2022/08/16/agenda-global-marketing-team-meeting-august-17-2022/">Agenda: Global Marketing Team Meeting, August 17, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2022/08/16/notes-global-marketing-team-meeting-august-10-2022/">Notes: Global Marketing Team Meeting, August 10, 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-meta"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta">Meta</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2022/08/18/navigation/">Navigation</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-mobile"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile">Mobile</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2022/08/23/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-android-20-6/">Call for Testing: WordPress for Android 20.6</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2022/08/22/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-ios-20-6/">Call for Testing: WordPress for iOS 20.6</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/08/23/mobile-team-update-august-23rd/">Mobile Team Update – August 23rd</a></li></ul>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-container-24 wp-block-column">\n<h2 id="h-openverse"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse">Openverse</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2022/08/22/openverse-priorities-brainstorm/">Openverse Priorities Brainstorm</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2022/08/17/openverse-maintainers-welcome-ramadan-omar-as-a-new-committer/">Openverse maintainers welcome Ramadan Omar as a new committer</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-performance"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/performance/">Performance</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/22/performance-chat-agenda-23-august-2022/">Performance Chat Agenda: 23 August 2022</a></li><li>Proposal: <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/455">Database performance Health Checks</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-photos"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/photos">Photos</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/photos/2022/08/18/wordpress-world-photography-day-challenge-2022/">WordPress World Photography Day Challenge 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-polyglots"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots">Polyglots</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2022/08/22/polyglots-monthly-newsletter-august-2022/">Polyglots Monthly Newsletter: August 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-test"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test">Test</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/08/13/fse-program-testing-call-16-back-to-basics/">FSE Program Testing Call #16: Back to Basics</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/08/16/week-in-test-16-august-2022/">Week in Test: 16 August 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-themes"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes">Themes</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>FEEDBACK REQUESTED:</strong> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2022/08/15/testing-and-feedback-for-the-fluid-typography-feature/">Testing and Feedback for the Fluid Typography Feature</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/08/16/themes-team-update-august-16-2022/"></a><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2022/08/23/themes-team-meeting-notes-august-23-2022/">Themes Team Meeting Notes –&nbsp;August 23, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/08/23/themes-team-update-august-23-2022/">Themes team update August 23, 2022</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-training"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training">Training</a></h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/07/27/information-sources-for-wp-6-1/">Information Sources for WP 6.1</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/08/10/minimizing-zoom-disruptions-in-online-workshops/"></a><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/08/22/meeting-agenda-august-23-2022/">Meeting Agenda August 23, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/08/10/minimizing-zoom-disruptions-in-online-workshops/"></a><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/08/16/training-team-meeting-recap-august-9/">Training Team Meeting Recap – August 9</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id="h-video-tutorials">Video Tutorials</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/customizing-your-post-content-layout/">Customizing your post content layout</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id="h-online-workshops">Online Workshops:</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=lets-code-diving-into-theme-json">Let’s code! Diving into theme.json</a></li><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=10-%e7%a8%ae%e9%a1%9e%e3%81%ae%e3%83%86%e3%82%ad%e3%82%b9%e3%83%88%e3%83%96%e3%83%ad%e3%83%83%e3%82%af%e3%80%80%e3%80%9c%e4%bd%bf%e3%81%84%e5%88%86%e3%81%91%e3%81%ae%e3%82%b3%e3%83%84%e3%80%9c-2">10 種類のテキストブロック　〜使い分けのコツ〜</a></li><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=10-%e7%a8%ae%e9%a1%9e%e3%81%ae%e3%83%86%e3%82%ad%e3%82%b9%e3%83%88%e3%83%96%e3%83%ad%e3%83%83%e3%82%af%e3%80%80%e3%80%9c%e4%bd%bf%e3%81%84%e5%88%86%e3%81%91%e3%81%ae%e3%82%b3%e3%83%84%e3%80%9c">10 種類のテキストブロック　〜使い分けのコツ〜</a></li><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=intro-to-templates">Intro to Templates</a><a href="https://github.com/courtneyr-dev/make-wp/#test"></a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-wordcamp-central">WordCamp Central</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/news/2022/07/wordcamp-jinja-diverse-speaker-sessions-web-design-hackathon-teachers-workshop-and-fun-at-the-nile-source/">WordCamp Jinja: Diverse Speaker Sessions, Web Design Hackathon, Teachers Workshop and Fun at the Nile Source!</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-wptv">WPTV</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/category/year/2022/">Latest WordPress TV videos</a></li></ul>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />\n\n\n\n<h2 id="h-related-news">Related News:</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href="https://tc39.es/#proposals">ECMAScript Proposals</a></li><li><a href="https://www.php.net/archive/2022.php#2022-07-21-1">PHP 8.2.0 Beta 1 available for testing</a></li><li><a href="https://php.watch/articles/composer-24">What''s New in Composer 2.4</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<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>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n\n\n\n<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">\n<p class="has-text-align-left has-normal-font-size" id="h-get-ready-for-remote-work">You — and <a href="https://poststatus.com/business-membership/">your whole team</a> can <a href="https://poststatus.com/post-status-membership-club/">Join Post Status</a> too!</p>\n\n\n\n<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" /></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>\n<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, 24 Aug 2022 16:49:33 +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: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:43;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n";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:73:"WPTavern: #40 – Andrew Palmer on Using AI To Help Your Website Workflow";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=137100";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:87:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/40-andrew-palmer-on-using-ai-to-help-your-website-workflow";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:41383:"<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://twitter.com/arniepalmer">Andrew Palmer</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Andrew has been in the WordPress space for many years as a product owner and open source advocate. He founded and later sold Elegant Marketplace, and more recently is the co-founder of <a href="https://bertha.ai/">Bertha.ai</a>, which is a WordPress plugin which assists you in creating text content directly in the WordPress admin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you’ve not played with AI, then you might be surprised by  how good it’s becoming. A few years ago, anything written by a computer would be easy to distinguish from that of a human. These boundaries are becoming blurred, as systems like GPT-3 have become remarkably adept at rapidly creating content which is useful and competent.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many SaaS products have come to the market which enable you to create AI content by seeding it with a small amount of information. Andrew’s product is a little different because it allows you to create that content within the WordPress editor and a raft of page builders.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We get into how you can create AI content and when it’s suitable to do so. Can you rely on the text that’s created and hand over complete editorial control to the plugin, or does the generated content still need human intervention?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also dig into some aspects of AI which have people concerned. Are we going to become too reliant on AI tools, and will they put copywriters out of work? Will people create content simply to swamp the search engines and make it harder for truly important information to rise to the top?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There’s a lot of functionality in the plugin and Andrew tells us some of the possible scenarios where he feels it works best. Creating titles, longer form text, and even sprinkling in a little sarcasm here and there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Typically, when we record the podcast, there’s not a lot of background noise, but that’s not always the case with these WordCamp Europe interviews. We were competing against crowds and the air-conditioning. Whilst the podcasts are more than listenable, I hope that you understand that the vagaries of the real world were at play.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Useful links.</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href="https://elegantmarketplace.com/">Elegant Marketplace</a></p>\n\n\n\nTranscript<div>\n<p>[00:00:00] Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>\n\n\n\n<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 how AI can speed up your website building workflow.</p>\n\n\n\n<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. If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, I&#8217;m very keen to hear from you, and hopefully get you all your idea featured on the show. Head over to WPTavern.com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox and use the form there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So on the podcast today we have Andrew Palmer. Andrew has been in the WordPress space for many years as a product owner and open source advocate. He founded and later sold Elegant Marketplace, and more recently is the co-founder of bertha.ai, which is a WordPress plugin, which assists you in creating content directly in the WordPress admin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve not played with AI, then you might be surprised by how good it&#8217;s becoming. A few years ago, anything written by a computer would be easy to distinguish from that of a human. These boundaries are becoming blurred, as systems like GPT-3 have become remarkably adept at rapidly creating content which is useful and competent.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many SaaS products have come to the market which enabled you to create AI content by seeding it with a small amount of information. Andrew&#8217;s product is a little different because it allows you to create that content within the WordPress editor and a raft of page builders.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We get into how you can create AI content and when it&#8217;s suitable to do so. Can you rely on the text that&#8217;s created and handover complete editorial control to the plugin.? Or does the generated content still need human intervention?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also dig into some of the aspects of AI which have people concerned. Are we going to become too reliant on AI tools and will they put copywriters out of work? Will people create content simply to swamp the search engines and make it harder for truly important information to rise to the top.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s a lot of functionality in the plugin, and Andrew tells us some of the possible scenarios where he feels it works best. Creating titles, longer form text, and even sprinkling in a little sarcasm here and there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Typically when we record the podcast, there&#8217;s not a lot of background noise, but that&#8217;s not always the case with these WordCamp Europe interviews. We were competing against crowds and the air conditioning. And whilst the podcasts are more than listable, I hope that you understand that the vagaries of the real world where at play.</p>\n\n\n\n<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 all the other episodes there as well. And so without further delay, I bring you Andrew Palmer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Andrew Palmer. How are you doing Andrew?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:02] Andrew Palmer: I&#8217;m very good. Nathan. Thanks very much for inviting me on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:04] Nathan Wrigley: We are in the bowels of the Super Bock Arena and let&#8217;s be honest, it was a challenge finding this room, wasn&#8217;t it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:10] Andrew Palmer: It was, and especially as I was running late and you&#8217;ve been very kind to still accommodate me, thank you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:15] Nathan Wrigley: You are, most welcome. Andrew&#8217;s been in the WordPress community for years and years and years, but it&#8217;s not been always on the up and up has it? You&#8217;ve had your moments where you&#8217;ve stepped away for a little while and now you&#8217;ve reemerged. Is that true? Is that fair to say?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:28] Andrew Palmer: Kind of, I mean, I sold Elegant Marketplace to the wonderful people that InMotion Hosting. So that enabled me to go off and play golf for a little while, and invest in other businesses and interests.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:39] Nathan Wrigley: Do you think this is for you, you know, a moment of excitement or are you still with tentative steps?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:46] Andrew Palmer: It could be construed as a resurgence. I mean, I&#8217;ve always connected with the WordPress community, cuz we&#8217;re such a friendly bunch. I had an opportunity to develop plugins and be a product maker, and I took over a lot of products from a very good friend of mine and hopefully we&#8217;ve enhanced them and made them better.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:04] Nathan Wrigley: You&#8217;ve listed a, a few of the things that you&#8217;ve been involved in, but you&#8217;ve obviously been involved in lots of different businesses. Do you think with 50,000 plus plugins in the WordPress repository, countless commercial plugins, are we in a saturated marketplace? What I mean by that is if you are creating a new product, is it very difficult to be discovered? Is discoverability really difficult? Okay, let&#8217;s take two scenarios. The first one you&#8217;ve got a budget to advertise. And the second one is if you have to bootstrap it and do more or less all of it yourself. So two parts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:36] Andrew Palmer: You know, if you&#8217;re gonna do jerk sauce it&#8217;s still hard. You know, you&#8217;ve got supermarkets, they do their own brand as well. As soon as a brand new hot sauce comes out, the supermarkets go, oh, we&#8217;ve got our own version of this, and they charge you a few hundred thousand pounds to be put on the supermarket shelves. So, there&#8217;s always a price to pay isn&#8217;t it, it&#8217;s a pay to play arena in every single business aspect. So the benefit that we have in WordPress is that we can throw something onto WordPress dot org, which is great.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I mean, throw is maybe not the right word because it does go through a, a little bit of moderation, one would hope, but, um, you know, you can throw out a free version of what you&#8217;ve got and test the market. That&#8217;s really cool because, you throw out an MVP and people then like it and you then put some pro versions together or pro bits and pieces and say, okay, yeah, I&#8217;m, I&#8217;m willing to pay 10 30, 50, a hundred bucks for that a month or a year or whatever.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So the competitive landscape of every business in the world is competitive by nature, because there are so many products out there that are similar. There&#8217;s loads of light bulbs out there. It&#8217;s not just Phillips. Loads of CDs, you know, it&#8217;s just not Phillips. So you gotta make your own way, I think.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:06:51] Nathan Wrigley: With the whole plugin thing and the whole of saturation thing, you&#8217;ve launched several products over the course of your career. Most recently, maybe there&#8217;s something after this, but I think the most recent one is Bertha.ai. That&#8217;s actually the URL as well as the name of the product I think.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:07:07] Andrew Palmer: It is Bertha.ai. It&#8217;s uh, my very good friend and, uh, co-founder Vito Peleg phoned me far too early in the morning, because he gets up at five o&#8217;clock and said, hey, I got an idea, man, let&#8217;s do it. We did and financial situations, I&#8217;m the, you know, I&#8217;m the guy that&#8217;s got the cash and we invested in it and Vito invested, blood, sweat and tears as we all did. And I&#8217;ve got a development team, you know, and they worked really, really hard and we launched it at the end of September, 2021. It&#8217;s going well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:07:37] Nathan Wrigley: Is that the primary reason that you are here at WordCamp EU? Actually just rewind that a little bit. When the tickets were announced, I think you were the first person that I know who committed to coming. You probably weren&#8217;t the first person that bought a ticket, but in my social network, you were the first person who said, oh, I&#8217;ve done it. I&#8217;ve bought a plane ticket. I&#8217;ve got the hotel and blah, blah, blah. You must be fairly committed to these kind of events. And if that&#8217;s the case, what&#8217;s the thing? What&#8217;s the angle. Is it the community? Is it a bit of community, a bit of networking, a bit of marketing?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:06] Andrew Palmer: It&#8217;s a lot about the community because, uh, I&#8217;m looking for developers, you know, so I need to chat to people and meet with people. And we are very lucky yesterday and got treated to a gin fest, by Codeable. Marcel who actually works in, for Codeable rather, in Portugal, did an event for Codeable and invited us all along.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it&#8217;s all about networking, and we met a few, I met a few coders and had a good old chat, and that&#8217;s what it&#8217;s about. It&#8217;s me networking. Supporting the community, as much as I possibly can, being a bootstrap business. It&#8217;s quite expensive developing a plugin and there&#8217;s lots of things you have to commit to like getting a new CMO, you know, in Stephanie Hudson. She&#8217;s got her own business to run and, and we&#8217;re all kind of bootstrap minded.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we all have to do little things and Vito&#8217;s got Atarim to do so he&#8217;s gonna concentrate more on that now. So, you know, I needed a sidekick. Stephanie&#8217;s that sidekick, who&#8217;s got the strategy and the marketing nouse and she&#8217;s also based in the U.S. Which is good. And Bertha is now incorporated in the U.S. as well. So it&#8217;s all. Moving along swiftly, but I did actually release a GDPR plugin last week.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So GDPR friendly fonts, but it&#8217;s a commercial one. There&#8217;s a few free ones out there, but ours is good. So, launching things all the time and improving the plugins and making sure that we are in touch with what people in the community actually want, because we are here. Plugins, I think are more here to support the developer than the, than the end client. To give them an easier way to market if you like, or an easier or quicker, faster speedier way to get their product out, whether it&#8217;s, uh, an MVP for themselves or whether it&#8217;s a website for a direct client .</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plugins and extensions and themes. And you know, what Gutenberg Hub doing with Gutenberg? What Extendify are doing with Gutenberg is quite amazing and all the form plugins out there, you know, we&#8217;ve got, I&#8217;ve got very good friend Mark Westguard who&#8217;s does WS Form. It happens to be my favorite form. We happen to get on, which is really cool. So it&#8217;s about meeting these people. Coming together in Europe, biggest WordCamp in the world. You know, pretty good.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:10:15] Nathan Wrigley: Do you have a battle plan though? Do you have, before you set off. I was wondering, because you said earlier you wanted to meet developers and today was contributor day.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:10:22] Andrew Palmer: I couldn&#8217;t get in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:10:23] Nathan Wrigley: Was it just because you were a bit late?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:10:25] Andrew Palmer: No, I was a contributor, I was just late. I just kind of thought, well, do you know what? And Stephanie runs the Focus WP Facebook group. So we had a little meet up and we&#8217;ve gone out on the town and just met with a few people from the Focus Facebook group as well. So there&#8217;s always networking opportunities. There&#8217;s nothing else to do a WordCamp than have a great look at Porto, which is probably one of the best venues you could choose.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Food&#8217;s cheap, and good. The weather has turned out to be better than we thought it would be. There&#8217;s a little spits and spots of rain, but effectively Porto&#8217;s a great historical town as So, you know, it&#8217;s a, it&#8217;s a bit of a vacation stroke job bit.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:04] Nathan Wrigley: You said that you were in search of developers and the bit was gonna develop there was, so there was 500 odd today and it felt busy. Tomorrow, maybe more like, touching 3000. So it&#8217;s gonna be really busy. And if you haven&#8217;t got a, I don&#8217;t know, an agenda and a meeting list, do you literally just try to work out who in the room is a developer by just going up and talking?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:26] Andrew Palmer: Well, I&#8217;m gonna be standing on a booth as well for an hour or so. And I&#8217;m also going to, I&#8217;ve got a few meetings scheduled, which is pretty cool. With developers as well as, you know, funders and people like that who are interested in either investing in Bertha or doing some partnerships with Bertha and stuff like that. Because once you&#8217;ve got a plugin that kind of answers all the questions with copywriting within WordPress, people want to talk to you, which is really cool.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it&#8217;s a long day, Nathan, you know, it&#8217;s a very long day and it goes into the evening. I&#8217;m gonna have opportunities to meet and chat with people all the time. I&#8217;ve got tons of Twitter messages to answer, and stuff like that. You know what it&#8217;s like.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:02] Nathan Wrigley: I&#8217;m struggling keep up with the different platforms. This person is over here on Slack, this person is over here on Twitter. Yeah it can be difficult. So let&#8217;s talk about your, well, I&#8217;m guessing the booth tomorrow is Bertha.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:13] Andrew Palmer: No, the booth I&#8217;m gonna be helping out Atarim, because Vito&#8217;s a very good friend of mine and I know Atarim pretty well. I&#8217;ve used it from the very, very beginning, and now it&#8217;s on version three. It&#8217;s their third birthday. And Vito likes to run around. You can&#8217;t really keep him to a spot. There&#8217;s a bit of super glue we&#8217;ve snuck in there. But Alex Panagis, he&#8217;s gonna be on the booth as well, and I&#8217;ll be hanging around and just answering some questions that people don&#8217;t really get it or something.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, you know, it&#8217;s so dual role. But of course Bertha&#8217;s gonna be mentioned in the conversations. Well, because that was actually the idea, is that Vito wanted an AI to be able to write within the note making facility, you know, you put these little notes on websites. So our first job was to make Bertha work in the front end of Atarim. And it does. So you can now, so customers can now say, right, I want this headline and then ask Bertha to generate an option for headlines and they&#8217;ll put it in. I want this paragraph here and all that kind of stuff, and Bertha can do that within Atarim.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:10] Nathan Wrigley: Okay. I feel at this point, we should explain because we&#8217;ve stepped ahead. So okay, Bertha is a plugin for WordPress, which enables you to create AI content. So that could be any form of content. It&#8217;s just text, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:23] Andrew Palmer: Yeah, I think the best way to describe Bertha is that she is an AI copywriting assistant. So you are the editor, she&#8217;s the journalist that&#8217;s gone out and found the stories and the facts and the general content, and you working as the editor within WordPress, then edit that content and make it your own. And that&#8217;s the best way to describe Bertha. She&#8217;s not just a machine that says, right, write me a blog about this. We&#8217;ve got three things coming next week for the pro version. And one of them is very, very long form where you just give her a hint and she will write it for you. And then you just edit that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:58] Nathan Wrigley: All right, let&#8217;s build up the jigsaw of how it all works. So we install the plugin, all of that normal stuff. How do we seed Bertha with the idea? So for example, let&#8217;s say that we want to write a blog post about WordCamp Europe. How do we seed the idea into Bertha, and how much do we need to seed in, in order to get something decent back? Let&#8217;s go with a title first, just the title.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:14:19] Andrew Palmer: Okay. Title you just say, what do I want to write about? So you just write, what do I wanna write about, I wanna write about blog posts being written by AI. And then say generate a headline around that. And Bertha will give you four alternatives, or two alternatives or three, depending on how good your one was, and you click and that&#8217;s, that then goes into the text bit.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then you say, right, okay, I&#8217;m writing a blog post about this. So I&#8217;m gonna go to the blog post topic ideas model, and I&#8217;m going to give it the title and then, or going to give Bertha the title and then you press generate text and Bertha will come up with one to four or one to five blog post topic ideas. And then you put number one in as the title in a paragraph generator, and that will generate your paragraphs around that first topic idea. And then you just go through. It&#8217;s of a workflow that you get into.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:15:07] Nathan Wrigley: People listening to this, they&#8217;re gonna think, okay, this is voodoo. How does this work? How does it work?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:15:13] Andrew Palmer: Well we&#8217;re very open about how it&#8217;s done. It&#8217;s it is open AI dot com, and we&#8217;ve written our own models. And we now use the latest version of GPT-3, which is really fast and uses things called suffixes and prefixes. And it writes much, much better quality AI generated content. And it has the previous GPT, DaVinci was up to, I think, uh, 1999 or whatever it was. It was ages ago. It scraped 10% of the web to get the ideas for the content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This one is now 2021. June 2021. So much more recent content. If you wanna write about crypto, if you wanna write about FinTech or modern FinTech or anythi