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




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:80:"WPTavern: Open Survey for WordPress Theme Authors on JSON Files and Block Themes";s: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=120949";s: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:205:"https://wptavern.com/open-survey-for-wordpress-theme-authors-on-json-files-and-block-themes?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=open-survey-for-wordpress-theme-authors-on-json-files-and-block-themes";s: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:11356:"<p class="has-drop-cap">WordPress 5.8 <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/configuring-theme-design-with-theme-json/">introduced an opt-in system for themes</a> to configure block settings, styles, templates, and more. It is done through a new <code>theme.json</code> file that authors can put at the root of their theme folders. Anne McCarthy, the lead of the FSE Outreach Program, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/07/30/help-shape-the-future-of-theme-design/">announced a survey</a> earlier today to get feedback from developers on this feature.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Since this new mechanism is an early step towards a comprehensive style system for the future of WordPress, it&rsquo;s important to hear from everyone who is currently using <code>theme.json</code> to learn more about how folks are using this tool and what might make sense to include in Core going forward,&rdquo; she wrote in the announcement.</p>



<p>The survey is open to all theme authors who have used <code>theme.json</code>, giving them a chance to put in some early feedback and help steer the ship going forward.</p>



<p>Because I have worked extensively with this system over the past few months, I had a few things to say. Plus, I just like participating in WordPress-related surveys. I also decided it would be an opportunity to share some of my unfiltered thoughts from a development perspective on the current state of <code>theme.json</code>.</p>



<p>What follows are my responses to the survey&rsquo;s questions &mdash; well, the tidied-up version.</p>



<p><strong>Note:</strong> <em>This is a developer-centric post that might not universally appeal to all of our readers. I have attempted to explain some things in user-friendly terminology, but some prerequisite knowledge of theme development may be necessary.</em></p>



<h2>Experience</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The first question of the survey is pretty cut-and-dry. It asks what your experience is with building block themes or using <code>theme.json</code>. It provides four choices (and an &ldquo;other&rdquo; option):</p>



<ul><li>I have built and launched block themes.</li><li>I have experimented with building block themes.</li><li>I have explored using <code>theme.json</code> with a classic theme.</li><li>I have used a block theme, but I have not built one yet.</li></ul>



<p>I chose the first option because I have already built two block themes for family and friends. These were simple personal sites that I already maintain for free &mdash; <em>honestly, I need to start charging</em>. I am also working on a theme that I hope to release publicly.</p>



<h2>How It Started and How It&rsquo;s Going</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The second question asks how one got started with block themes and <code>theme.json</code>. The choices are between forking an existing theme, using the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/tree/master/emptytheme">Empty Theme</a>, or starting from scratch.</p>



<p>Again, this is one of those things where I have experimented with each direction, but I cannot remember the exact starting point. The bulk of my work has come from forking a theme that I last worked on in 2019.</p>



<p>I plan to release this as a new theme for free at some point. I am mostly waiting on the following:</p>



<ul><li>Navigation block development to settle down</li><li>The Post Author block to be split into smaller blocks</li><li>A robust set of comment-related blocks</li><li>Post Featured Image block to have a size option</li></ul>



<p>I think I could realistically release a use-at-your-own-risk beta version of my theme today if those items were addressed.</p>



<h2>Templates and Template Parts</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The survey asked which templates and template parts themers always include in their block-based themes. There was a freeform comment field &mdash; <em>steps upon soapbox&hellip;</em></p>



<p>I have a love/hate relationship with block templates at the moment. The static nature of HTML templates reminds me of simpler times when theme development was less complicated. However, this also presents a problem in a dynamic system.</p>



<p>I cannot remember the last time I have built a traditional, PHP-based theme with more than one top-level template: <code>index.php</code>. The dynamic pieces have always been the guts of the thing, which are template parts. With PHP, it is easy to set some variable or use a function call to contextually load the templates parts necessary for whichever page a visitor is currently viewing on a site.</p>



<p>The block template system does not work like that. It essentially forces developers into breaking the Don&rsquo;t Repeat Yourself (DRY) principle.</p>



<p>For example, if a designer wanted to display a different header template part for pages and posts, they would only need to create a <code>header-page.php</code> or <code>header-post.php</code> template in traditional themes. However, because the block template system is different, they must now create two top-level templates, <code>single.html</code> (post) and <code>page.html</code>, to accomplish the same thing.</p>



<p>This is a &ldquo;bad thing&rdquo; because theme authors must duplicate all the other code in each of the top-level templates. There is no way to contextually load different template parts.</p>



<p>To answer the question: I am using almost all of the possible top-level templates out of necessity.</p>



<p>I also answered the second part of the question and listed my most commonly used template parts (broken down by hierarchy):</p>



<ul><li>Header</li><li>Content<br />&ndash; Loop<br />&ndash; Sidebar</li><li>Footer</li></ul>



<p>The <code>content-*.html</code> and <code>loop-*.html</code> template parts are those with the most variations.</p>



<h2>Defining Colors</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The next section of the survey asks how theme authors define their color palette slugs in <code>theme.json</code>. Believe it or not, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/29568">naming colors</a> may be the most controversial topic in the theming world in years. The only two things generally agreed upon are &ldquo;background&rdquo; and &ldquo;foreground&rdquo; colors.</p>



<p>Morten Rand-Hendriksen <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/7553">opened a ticket in 2018</a> for standardizing a theme color naming scheme. It was not the first discussion and has not been the last. The problem it was meant to address was the slugs for colors in the system, which is how themes define their palettes. Once a user makes use of a preset color, the slug is hardcoded into their content. Switch to another theme with different slugs, and the old colors disappear and do not automatically change to the new theme&rsquo;s colors.</p>



<p>I use semantic names that follow something that closely resembles the Tailwind CSS framework&rsquo;s <a href="https://tailwindcss.com/docs/customizing-colors#naming-your-colors">shading system</a>. Instead of <code>red-medium</code> (descriptive), I would use <code>primary-500</code> (semantic), for example. A semantic approach would allow theme authors to define a set of colors that are updated each time a user switches themes.</p>



<p>Of course, there are other schools of thought, and even everyone who prefers semantic naming does not agree on the same system. I have <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/29568#issuecomment-851579180">described my approach</a> in more detail in a more recent GitHub ticket and have a <a href="https://gist.github.com/justintadlock/0003b82a1fc753b8bae54fad5b8cfd55"><code>theme.json</code> Gist</a> for others who might want to try it.</p>



<h2>Other Theme JSON Settings</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Outside of colors and typography, the survey asks what other settings theme authors have used. This is another scenario where I typically use everything &mdash; if there is an option for it, I am defining it.</p>



<p>One use case that WordPress does not currently have a preset for is global spacing. Most theme authors use a single value for most vertical margins (whitespace between blocks and elements). It is also often used for default vertical and horizontal padding.</p>



<p>I am unsure if I want a preset because I do not know how WordPress will use it. It is something that <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/27315">others have asked for</a>, and it is nearly ubiquitous in use. Defining an entire system around it could cause headaches down the road, but I would still like to see some discussion around implementing at least a standard global spacing preset.</p>



<h2>Per-Block Settings and Styles</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">This survey section was a yes/no question, simply asking if theme authors included per-block settings or styles in their <code>theme.json</code> files. Of course, I left some additional comments later in the optional comment section.</p>



<p>I am happy with the system when it comes to settings, which allows themers to define which features are enabled globally or on a per-block basis. However, I am not sold on adding styles via <code>theme.json</code>.</p>



<p>Writing CSS in JSON, essentially what we are talking about, feels wrong on so many levels. Currently, it is limited to merely a few configurable styles, so anything beyond that requires diving into an actual CSS file anyway. That is problematic because half of the theme&rsquo;s CSS code is divided between <code>theme.json</code> and a separate CSS file. From a development standpoint, it makes the codebase harder to maintain.</p>



<p>Initially, I started down the path of configuring per-block and element styles from <code>theme.json</code>. However, I have since moved my styling back to CSS files. It feels more natural, and I have the added benefit of all the tooling I am accustomed to. Right now, I cannot imagine a scenario where I would move back.</p>



<p>Besides saving a few bytes of code, I have not seen many benefits to adding styles for most things via JSON. Maybe that will change in the future, and I will be a convert. For now, I am sticking primarily with CSS.</p>



<h2>Other Feedback: A PHP Layer</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">I have <a href="https://wptavern.com/fse-outreach-round-8-a-developer-centric-call-for-testing-theme-json-configuration#comments">said it before</a>, but it bears repeating. We need a PHP layer for this <code>theme.json</code> configuration system. There is currently an <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/33367">open ticket</a> for addressing this.</p>



<p>There are two main benefits to such a system. Having a PHP API for piecing together configuration will feel far more natural to traditional theme developers. I look at it as a bit of an olive branch, a show of good faith that the core/Gutenberg developers recognize that many theme authors will have an easier time easing into FSE features via a familiar programming language.</p>



<p>The second advantage is that there is an untold number of plugin ideas to extend global styles, site editing, and more if there is an easy way to hook into the theme JSON system and overwrite things. A simple filter hook would make this painless.</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, 31 Jul 2021 03:03:03 +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: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:1;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:52:"WPTavern: PublishPress Adopts Organize Series Plugin";s: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=120910";s: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:149:"https://wptavern.com/publishpress-adopts-organize-series-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=publishpress-adopts-organize-series-plugin";s: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:3043:"<p>PublishPress, makers of the PublishPress and PublishPress Blocks plugins, have <a href="https://publishpress.com/blog/publishpress-news/organize-series/">adopted the Organize Series plugin</a> from <a href="http://www.unfoldingneurons.com/">Darren Ethier</a>. Organize Series is a 15-year-old plugin for organizing and displaying posts in a series, useful for novel writers, educators, magazine sites, and anyone breaking their longer content up into a series. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img />image credit: PublishPress</div>



<p>PublishPress is also adopting <a href="https://organizeseries.com/extensions/">seven extensions</a> for the plugin that add features like custom post type support, shortcodes, the ability to add a post to multiple series, bulk publishing, and more.</p>



<p>Ethier, who works as an engineer at Automattic, <a href="https://organizeseries.com/2021/a-new-season-for-organize-series/">said</a> he began losing interest in maintaining the plugin and knew it was time to search for a new owner.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Most of you have noticed that I haven&rsquo;t been actively contributing to Organize Series or it&rsquo;s extensions for some time now and it&rsquo;s been bugging me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been gradually losing interest in maintaining the plugin as I&rsquo;ve expanded my developer horizons and as a result, I&rsquo;ve struggled with making the time to work on it.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Ethier connected with PublishPress by describing his situation in a post on the Post Status community and agreed to transfer his plugin and extensions in exchange for a donation to a charity.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Darren asked us to make a charitable donation as part of the handover,&rdquo; PublishPress founder Steve Burge said. &ldquo;We chose the <a href="https://www.theajp.org/">American Journalism Project</a>. Over 2,100 communities in the U.S. have lost their local newspaper since 2004. The AJP is trying to reverse that trend. It is a non-profit that is investing in local news. Their goal is to help grow newsrooms that hold the powerful accountable, combat disinformation, and deepen civic participation.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Burge assured current users that the free version of Organize Series will remain <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/organize-series/">free on WordPress.org</a> with all of its current features and some improvements. The company will also keep the extensions <a href="https://github.com/publishpress/?q=organize&type=&language=&sort=">freely available on GitHub</a> but Burge said they plan to release a commercial version with updated versions of the extensions.</p>



<p>With the adoption of Organize Series, PublishPress now has nine plugins available in its niche collection of publishing extensions as part of its mission to &ldquo;help WordPress publishers succeed.&rdquo; In the near future, Organize Series&rsquo; website content will be transferred over and the company will be changing the plugin&rsquo;s name to &ldquo;PublishPress Series.&rdquo;</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, 30 Jul 2021 21:54:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:2;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"WPTavern: Refined.blog: A Curated List of RSS Feeds for Software Engineering Blogs";s: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=120771";s: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:207:"https://wptavern.com/refined-blog-a-curated-list-of-rss-feeds-for-software-engineering-blogs?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=refined-blog-a-curated-list-of-rss-feeds-for-software-engineering-blogs";s: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:7197:"<p>In one of the most apropos uses of a .blog domain, <a href="https://refined.blog/">Refined.blog</a> is a new website that promotes personal blogging with a curated list of software engineering blogs. It&rsquo;s a simple site with an index of blogs, their Hacker News scores, tags, and a link to each blog&rsquo;s RSS feed. The search function is very fast and applies to all columns in the index (with the exception of the feed URL). Columns can be ordered alphabetically, by tag, or by HN points.</p>



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



<p>&ldquo;Experience is gold,&rdquo; Refined.blog creator Musa &Uuml;nal&nbsp;wrote in the site&rsquo;s introduction. &ldquo;There are many different social media platforms on the internet but we need&nbsp;personal blogs&nbsp;again. It&rsquo;s hard to find blogs so let&rsquo;s create this blog list together!&rdquo;</p>



<p>It&rsquo;s true &ndash; discovering new blogs isn&rsquo;t easy. If you&rsquo;re not following the right people on Twitter or don&rsquo;t happen to be around when a person links to their posts on social media, then you are usually out of luck. Personal blogs are often not very well optimized for search and can get lost in the haystack. </p>



<p>Google Search doesn&rsquo;t provide a way to narrow results to personal blogs. The <a href="https://wiby.org/">Wiby</a> search engine is about the closest you can get for searching these types of websites, although it seems to be limited to older style pages that are based on one subject of interest. Wiby uses Microsoft Bing&rsquo;s search results combined with Wiby.me results without sending your IP and user agent to Microsoft. Wiby&rsquo;s about page explains the problem that sites like Refined.blog are aiming solve:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>In the early days of the web, pages were made primarily by hobbyists, academics, and computer savvy people about subjects they were personally interested in. Later on, the web became saturated with commercial pages that overcrowded everything else. All the personalized websites are hidden among a pile of commercial pages. Google isn&rsquo;t great at finding them, its focus is on finding answers to technical questions, and it works well; but finding things you didn&rsquo;t know you wanted to know, which was the real joy of web surfing, no longer happens. In addition, many pages today are created using bloated scripts that add slick cosmetic features in order to mask the lack of content available on them. Those pages contribute to the blandness of today&rsquo;s web.</p><p>The Wiby search engine is building a web of pages as it was in the earlier days of the internet.</p></blockquote>



<p>Refined.blog brings more exposure to some of these single-person curated websites. Its creator, Musa &Uuml;nal, is considering branching out from an index of software engineering blogs to separate indexes for different topics.</p>



<p>&ldquo;For example, I am big fan of history bloggers, but it&rsquo;s very hard to find these kinds of blogs,&rdquo; he said in response to a question on Hacker News. &ldquo;If you know such of blogs, please contribute to the project. If we have enough bloggers listed, we can create subdomains like history.refined.blog or art.refined.blog.&rdquo; </p>



<p>Hacker News <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27973836">comments</a> on the project range from people discovering RSS for the first time and looking for reader recommendations, to people returning to RSS to get their news after becoming jaded by news algorithms and social media platforms. Other commenters shared that they, too, maintain their own lists of <a href="https://collection.mataroa.blog/">curated blogs</a>. Refined.blog used some existing <a href="https://github.com/kilimchoi/engineering-blogs">Engineering</a> and <a href="https://github.com/kaizensoze/security-blogs">Security</a> blog lists as sources for the index. </p>



<p>&ldquo;I love this,&rdquo; one person <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27975389">commented</a> on Hacker News. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in the ultrarunning community and I love reading everyone&rsquo;s blog posts/trip reports/race reports/adventures. But everyone stopped updating them over the past 5 years or so. Now that sort of thing is just an Instagram photo with a paragraph or two. The depth and character of those old blog posts have been lost. I wish in depth blog posts would come back, but in reality, I don&rsquo;t think they are.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Another commenter echoes the sentiments of others who have given up on promoting their blogs in the age of social media: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>I&rsquo;ve completely given up on promoting my stuff. It used to be very easy and straightforward. Like minded folks could find new stuff without a problem. Nowadays, there&rsquo;s just way too much content, the vast majority of very low effort, and you get lost in the noise immediately.</p><p>For example, I have an old blog post that got featured in podcasts, on dailyjs, HN, is linked to from MDN, etc. When I wrote it in 2014 I pretty much just submitted it to Reddit, that&rsquo;s it. Nowadays I couldn&rsquo;t recreate that exposure &mdash; or even a tiny fraction of it &mdash; if my life depended on it.</p></blockquote>



<p>Regardless of whether the site takes off or not, I think it&rsquo;s important to catalog these attempts to restore the magic of that earlier era where websites offered a real window into people&rsquo;s knowledge and interests. It may not look the same as many of us remember the old school &ldquo;vintage&rdquo; internet, but the blogosphere will continue to evolve as long as bloggers at heart keep experimenting with projects like this. So much of this style of writing has gone to email newsletters, but content that lives publicly on the web has a longer life cycle that can be rejuvenated through linked conversations. Writers can and should be able to embrace both methods of distribution.</p>



<p>Refined.blog is hosted on GitHub and is open to feature suggestions and contributions. One person submitted an issue, suggesting the site <a href="https://github.com/m8/refined.blog/issues/18">add one or more OPML feed links</a> so people can subscribe to all or some of the blogs at once. &Uuml;nal said he is working on making an OMPL export for selected blogs. </p>



<p>If you&rsquo;re looking to beef up your RSS reader with active software engineering blogs, Refined.blog might be a good place to search. There are no blogs referencing WordPress development yet, but the site does have several that focus on tooling, JavaScript, React, PHP, and other technologies that WordPress developers use. The index is specifically designated for personal blogs and company blogs are not permitted. Anyone can submit a blog for inclusion by following the instructions on the main&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/m8/refined.blog">Github project repo</a> or by filling out the Google <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFjdjOK33Nj4IMnN3pqm___tEL_LX2dmMdK3s6n3Z6jtMU0g/viewform">form</a> with the same information.</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, 30 Jul 2021 02:58:57 +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:3;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"WPTavern: TeslaThemes Rebrands, Shifts Focus to Real Estate Market";s: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=120849";s: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:175:"https://wptavern.com/teslathemes-rebrands-shifts-focus-to-real-estate-market?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=teslathemes-rebrands-shifts-focus-to-real-estate-market";s: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:4961:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Earlier this month, TeslaThemes <a href="https://wprealestate.com/blog/teslathemes-is-now-wprealestate/">announced that it was rebranding</a> to WPRealEstate. The company wanted to focus its efforts on a single niche in the theming market and cut back on the library of projects it was maintaining.</p>



<p>In 2017, <a href="https://wptavern.com/imagely-acquires-teslathemes-is-seeking-other-acquisition-opportunities">Imagely acquired TeslaThemes</a>. The shop was created in 2013 and had grown its library to 68 themes. Last year, <a href="https://www.imagely.com/new-chapter/">Imagely was acquired</a>, and Nathan Singh was named CEO of the company.</p>



<p>Eric Danzer, the founder and former CEO of Imagely, continued running TeslaThemes and its sister site ShowThemes since the acquisition. He is now ready to turn the page and jump into the next chapter of running a successful WordPress business.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve decided that, as a business, we&rsquo;ll do better focusing our energy on a specific niche rather than trying to be all things to all people,&rdquo; he said.</p>



<p>After several years of running a generic theme shop, the company ran into a brick wall that so many others in the industry I have talked to had hit. It is the realization that maintaining so many disparate projects puts an almost insurmountable burden on the development and support teams.</p>



<p>&ldquo;TeslaThemes has historically tried hard to serve a lot of small niches,&rdquo; wrote Danzer in the announcement post. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had themes for real estate, recipes, musicians, eCommerce stores, photographers, event management, local business listings, and many other use cases. For each of those, we were embedding plugin-level functionality in each separate theme. That created a highly complicated product line that&rsquo;s difficult to maintain and keep up to date.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The team had run into the Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none problem. Tightening the focus would allow the company to focus on and become one of the best in a specific niche. Thus, the shift to real estate.</p>



<p>&ldquo;As I move on from Imagely, I wanted another big project to focus on,&rdquo; Danzer added in a personal note. &ldquo;I wanted it to be something I&rsquo;m passionate about. I&rsquo;m passionate about nearly every aspect of real estate. I own multiple rental properties, and I&rsquo;m working toward a real estate license.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The company had already been doing well in the real estate market with its previous Realtor theme. It was one of its most popular options.</p>



<p>&ldquo;On the market side, the real estate market is large enough to sustain a great theme shop,&rdquo; wrote Danzer. &ldquo;Yet, it&rsquo;s also a unique niche &mdash; real estate professionals have specific, challenging, hard-to-solve needs.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Existing TeslaThemes customers will continue receiving support and have access to any products purchased in the past. They will also be able to get the new real estate plugin and theme.</p>



<p>The legacy themes, those created before the 2017 acquisition, are no longer under active development. The company replaced those in November 2020 with the Tesla Pro framework, which Danzer said his team plans to maintain and support for at least another year.</p>



<h2>WPRealEstate Plugin and Theme</h2>



<img />Map, search, and listings blocks in a theme demo.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The team built the plugin on top of the block editor. They also created it alongside the <a href="https://www.reso.org/reso-web-api/">RESO Web API</a>, a modern standard for transporting data in the real estate world.</p>



<p>While there is no public demo of the backend or even any editor screenshots, a peek under the hood reveals several custom blocks. The theme previews <a href="https://demos.wprealestate.com/broker/listings/">showcase map, search, and listings solutions</a>. They also seem to blend the output with the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/kadence-blocks/">Kadence Blocks plugin</a>.</p>



<p>Instead of launching multiple themes, the company will focus on building a single project with several design options out of the box. Users can import prebuilt content and data as part of the onboarding process.</p>



<p>Danzer said that the new WPRealEstate theme is still a traditional, customizer-based theme. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll start working on a new FSE theme almost immediately though.  Between the work needed and waiting for FSE core functionality to mature, I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;d release that until sometime in 2022.&rdquo;</p>



<p>As far as I am aware, there are few, if any, robust block-based real estate solutions for WordPress at the moment. Custom post types and metadata serve as the foundation. However, a well-designed layer of blocks on top of that system could make it far easier for agents to build their sites.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 30 Jul 2021 01:44:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:4;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"WordPress.org blog: Configuring Theme Design with theme.json";s: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=11060";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/configuring-theme-design-with-theme-json/";s: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:9733:"<img width="632" height="356" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/themejson-1.png?resize=632%2C356&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-11082" />



<p>Starting in <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/tatum/">WordPress 5.8</a>, a new tool — “theme.json” — is available to use in your theme. Maybe you’re hearing about it for the first time, or maybe you’re testing and developing themes with it already. Either way, I&#8217;m glad you&#8217;re here because it&#8217;s an exciting time for WordPress themes.</p>



<p>This post provides a quick introduction to this new framework, and describes what’s possible by sharing a few practical tips and examples.</p>



<h2>What’s theme.json?</h2>



<p>Technically, theme.json is just a file that lives at the top-level of a theme’s directory.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Conceptually, it’s a major shift in how themes can be developed. Theme authors now have a centralized mechanism to tailor the WordPress experience for site authors and visitors. Theme.json provides theme authors fine-grained control over global styles, block styles, and the block editor settings.</p>



<p>By providing these settings and controls in a single file, theme.json provides a powerful framework that brings together many aspects of theme design and development. And as the block editor matures and adds more features, theme.json will shine as the backbone for themes and the editor to work <em>together</em> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4aa.png" alt="💪" class="wp-smiley" />. </p>



<h2>Why Use it?</h2>



<p>It’s the future! But if you’re like me, you might need something more tangible to be convinced. Here are a few reasons why you might use theme.json today:</p>



<ul><li>Control editor settings like color, typography, spacing, and layout, and consolidate where these settings are managed.</li><li>Guarantee that styles apply correctly to blocks and elements across your site.</li><li>Reduce the amount of boilerplate CSS a theme used to provide. Theme.json won&#8217;t replace your stylesheet completely — there will be instances where CSS is needed to give your theme that extra flare (transitions, animations, etc.). But it can greatly reduce the base CSS needed from the theme.</li></ul>



<h2>How do I use it?</h2>



<p>The rest of this post demonstrates a few theme.json configurations you can try out. The examples use the tt1-blocks<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/blob/master/tt1-blocks/theme.json"> theme.json</a> — <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tt1-blocks/">the block-based version of this year’s default theme</a>. </p>



<p>If you&#8217;re starting with an existing theme, you might try copying a theme.json from the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/">WordPress/theme-experiments repository</a> (for example, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/blob/master/fse-tutorial/theme.json">the fse-tutorial theme</a> by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/poena/">@poena</a>) and adding it to the root of your theme’s directory.</p>



<h3><strong>Change the typography settings of your site globally</strong></h3>


<div class="wp-block-syntaxhighlighter-code "><pre class="brush: jscript; title: ; notranslate">
"settings": {
	"typography": {
		"fontSize": "30px",
		...
</pre></div>


<p>Making the change above in theme.json would result in the following updates to your theme&#8217;s body typography styles (before and after): </p>



<ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-23-at-11.06.07-AM.png?ssl=1"><img width="632" height="398" src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-23-at-11.06.07-AM.png?resize=632%2C398&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-11062" /></a></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-23-at-11.05.40-AM.png?ssl=1"><img width="632" height="398" src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-23-at-11.05.40-AM.png?resize=632%2C398&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-11061" /></a></li></ul>



<h3><strong>Changing the base color settings of your site globally</strong></h3>


<div class="wp-block-syntaxhighlighter-code "><pre class="brush: jscript; title: ; notranslate">
"styles": {
	"color": {
		"background": "#ffc0cb",
		"text": "#6A1515"
	},
	...
}
</pre></div>


<ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-23-at-11.10.03-AM.png?ssl=1"><img width="632" height="398" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-23-at-11.10.03-AM.png?resize=632%2C398&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-11063" /></a></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-23-at-11.08.54-AM.png?ssl=1"><img width="632" height="398" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-23-at-11.08.54-AM.png?resize=632%2C398&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-11064" /></a></li></ul>



<h3><strong><strong>Changing spacing / padding settings on specific blocks</strong></strong></h3>


<div class="wp-block-syntaxhighlighter-code "><pre class="brush: jscript; title: ; notranslate">
"styles": {
	"blocks": {
		"core/code": {
			"spacing": {
				"padding": {
					"top": "3em",
					"bottom": "3em",
					"left": "3em",
					"right": "3em"
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

</pre></div>


<ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/code-padding-original.png?ssl=1"><img width="632" height="356" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/code-padding-original.png?resize=632%2C356&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-11065" /></a></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/code-padding-edited.png?ssl=1"><img width="632" height="356" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/code-padding-edited-1024x576.png?resize=632%2C356&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-11066" /></a></li></ul>



<h3><strong><strong>Set a custom color palette in the editor for specific blocks like a button </strong></strong></h3>


<div class="wp-block-syntaxhighlighter-code "><pre class="brush: jscript; title: ; notranslate">
"settings": {
    "blocks": {
		"core/button": {
			"color": {
				"palette": &#91; 
					{
						"name": "Maroon",
						"color": "#6A1515",
						"slug": "maroon"
					},
					{
						"name": "Strawberry Ice Cream",
						"color": "#FFC0CB",
						"slug": "strawberry-ice-cream"
					}
				]
			}
		}
	}
}
</pre></div>


<ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/button-all-colors.png?ssl=1"><img width="632" height="444" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/button-all-colors.png?resize=632%2C444&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-11069" /></a></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/buttons-custom-palette.png?ssl=1"><img width="632" height="444" src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/buttons-custom-palette.png?resize=632%2C444&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-11070" /></a></li></ul>



<h3><strong><strong>Enable and disable typography controls</strong></strong></h3>



<p>In the following example, the ability to supply a custom font size and line height for all heading blocks is disabled:</p>


<div class="wp-block-syntaxhighlighter-code "><pre class="brush: jscript; title: ; notranslate">
	"settings": {
		"blocks": {
			"core/heading": {
				"typography": {
					"customFontSize": false,
					"customLineHeight": false
				}
			}
		}
	}
</pre></div>


<ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/heading-all-options.png?ssl=1"><img width="632" height="444" src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/heading-all-options.png?resize=632%2C444&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-11071" /></a></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/heading-no-line-height-custom-size.png?ssl=1"><img width="632" height="444" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/heading-no-line-height-custom-size.png?resize=632%2C444&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-11072" /></a></li></ul>



<h2>What&#8217;s Next?</h2>



<p>I hope this gives you a sense of what&#8217;s possible and where themes are going. The above examples just scratch the surface of what kinds of theme design configurations are possible, and I’m very excited to see what theme authors create.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re interested in learning more, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/25/introducing-theme-json-in-wordpress-5-8/">here&#8217;s the developer note on theme.json</a>, and <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/theme-json/">here&#8217;s the documentation for theme.json</a> in the handbook.</p>



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



<p><em><strong>Thanks to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kjellr/">@kjellr</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/">@</a></strong></em><strong><em><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/">chanthaboune</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/priethor/">@priethor</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/">@annezazu</a> for helping with and peer-reviewing this post.</em></strong></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, 29 Jul 2021 22:26:13 +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:8:"Jeff Ong";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"Gutenberg Times: Join the WordPress Full-Site Editing Outreach program";s: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=18636";s: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://gutenbergtimes.com/join-the-wordpress-full-site-editing-outreach-program/";s: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:8136:"<p>Anne McCarthy, developer relations wrangler for the open-source WordPress project, spearheads the <strong>Full-Site Editing experimental Outreach program</strong>. </p>



<p>The goal of the program is to get all the new tools for full-site editing that are coming to WordPress in the near future into the hands of site builders and implementers for testing and feedback. </p>



<blockquote class="has-text-color has-body-background-color"><p>Given enough eyeballs, all <em>bugs</em> are <em>shallow</em>!</p><cite>Linus&#8217; Law by Eric S. Raymond</cite></blockquote>



<p>In this short video, McCarthy explains the program and answer a few questions. </p>



<p>The hope is that you, dear reader and listener, will seize the opportunity to contribute and get a look behind the scenes and share your experiences with the Gutenberg developer team. </p>



<p>I joined a few calls for testing. It was great fun to learn more how the new <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/site-editor-demo-sotw/">Site Editor</a> works and push the limits of the user interface.  Sometimes it felt  a little rough around the edges and I got lost a few times. I found my struggles and confusions, in the feedback summaries and quite a few bugs were found and squashed because of the people testing. </p>



<p><em>Use the comment section below, to let us know what you think or if you have questions we can answer. </em></p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<div class="toolbelt-video-wrapper"></div>
</div>



<p><strong>Transcript: </strong></p>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-rounded"><img />Anne McCarthy</div>



<p>Howdy. My name is Anne McCarthy. I’m a Developer Relations Wrangler working for Automattic. I want to share a bit today about the Full Site Editing outreach program. </p>



<p>This is a program that I’m currently working on building out, so I hope by the end you feel compelled to join in on the fun. But let’s jump into some big picture questions, and know, I welcome questions as well in the comments below. I’ll also link to some resources. </p>



<h2>What is the Full-Site Editing Outreach program?</h2>



<p>So to start what is it? As the name suggests, it’s a program focused on Full Site Editing. Full Site Editing is a major part of phase two of Gutenberg right now. </p>



<p>Currently, it’s in the form of a Slack channel in the <a target="_blank" href="http://wordpress.org/" rel="noreferrer noopener">wordpress.org</a> slack community with </p>



<ul><li>Curated calls for testing, </li><li>feedback summary posts, and </li><li>various educational opportunities, like </li><li>live streams of people building block themes or </li><li>hallway hangouts, where we talk about Full Site Editing related issues. </li></ul>



<h2>What is the Goal of the FSE Outreach Program?</h2>



<p>The goal is to ultimately help improve the Full Site Editing experience by gathering feedback from people who use WordPress, specifically WordPress site builders. But while the group was originally started solely to focus on this feedback loop, there’s actually a really neat education component in place where people can join in to start building your own awareness and understanding of what’s to come as well as share what they’re working on and what problems they’re running into. </p>



<h2>Why was it started? </h2>



<p>It was started originally in May 2020, with about 100 people who signed up to participate. It was intended to help create better engagement with users to get better feedback to developers more seamlessly, especially for change as big as those being brought on with Full Site Editing, it felt important to create a new pathway. And this was also a big lesson that was learned with WordPress 5.0 that we wanted to make better. </p>



<h2>What happens in the Program? </h2>



<p>As mentioned, there are calls for testing that happen every couple of weeks, followed by a summary post, which I’ll share links to later. And interspersed between that there are things like calls for questions where we’ll do a call for questions, people can submit their questions, and then I’ll go through and find answers for all of them to share the answers openly. </p>



<p>And there’s also some hallway hangouts. There’s also some different educational opportunities and opportunities to give ad-hoc feedback. So for example, launching soon is going to be a survey asking folks who have built things with theme.json to share what they’d like to see in the future. </p>



<h2>Do I need to be technical to join?</h2>



<p>So this is something I hear a lot is what level of technical ability do I need to have in order to participate in this? So to kind of give you a lay of the land, this is what we typically need for each testing flow. </p>



<ul><li>You need to be able to set up a test site, </li><li>you need to be able to be using the latest version of WordPress, so you know how to update things and keep things up to date, </li><li>you need to use the Gutenberg plugin, which is just a matter of installing and activating the plug in, and </li><li>you need to use the TT1 blocks theme. </li></ul>



<p>Otherwise, you don’t need to be hyper technical to join this, we will not be going into code most of the time. </p>



<p>Most calls for testing are very much end user-friendly and site builder friendly. So if this resonates, this feels like something you can do, I highly encourage you to join in. </p>



<h2>How to join? </h2>



<p>So it’s very simple, you dive into <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">Make Slack</a> and head to the FSE outreach experiment channel <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C015GUFFC00" target="_blank">#fse-outreach-experiment</a>, which you can see here. And from there, you’re all set. </p>



<p>You just pay attention to pings from yours truly. </p>



<p>And if you’d like you can subscribe to the Make Test blog is that’s where I post both the calls for testing and any other sorts of check ins. </p>



<p>So let’s say you want to learn more and kind of actually see some of the stuff that we’ve done. </p>



<h2>Resources to learn more</h2>



<p>Here are the different links that you can follow. And I’ll drop these in the description of this video. But there’s the testing calls and summaries, the hallway hangouts, and the Q and A’s. </p>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/tag/fse-testing-call/">Testing Calls (#1 &#8211; #8)</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/tag/fse-testing-summary/">Feedback Summaries</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/tag/fse-hallway-hangout/">Hallway Hangouts</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/tag/fse-answers/">Q &amp; As </a></li><li>WordPress Handbook: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/handbook/full-site-editing-outreach-experiment/">Full-Site Editing Outreach Program</a></li></ul>



<h2>Stay connected!</h2>



<p>Finally, if you want to stay connected with me, I’m <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/team/U02S2V0TP">@annezazu</a> You can also find me at <a href="https://nomad.blog/">nomad.blog.</a> </p>



<p><em>I really hope you join</em> the program if this resonated at all and if you are someone who uses WordPress on a regular basis to build sites for yourself or others. </p>



<p><em>I really hope you join</em> because we do need your feedback to make this a success. </p>



<p>And WordPress is all about the community, and I’d love to continue to grow that community. Hope to hear from you soon and hope to see you join.</p>



<p><em>Note: Feel free to leave your questions in the comment section below. I will get them to Anne McCarthy for answers. &#8212; Birgit</em></p>



<p>Featured Image: <a href="https://wptavern.com/fse-outreach-round-4-building-a-restaurant-themed-header-with-gutenbergs-site-editor">Justin Tadlock&#8217;s exploration</a> for the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/03/25/fse-program-testing-call-4-building-a-restaurant-themed-header/">FSE Call for Testing #4</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, 29 Jul 2021 20:46:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"WPTavern: Theme Creation Will Be Easier, But We Are Not There Yet";s: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=120793";s: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:173:"https://wptavern.com/theme-creation-will-be-easier-but-we-are-not-there-yet?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=theme-creation-will-be-easier-but-we-are-not-there-yet";s: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:6523:"<p>&ldquo;The way that themes have evolved within WordPress has made creating them easier,&rdquo; wrote Tammie Lister in the opening line of her article titled <a href="https://ephemeralthemes.com/2021/07/28/theme-creation-is-now-easier/">Theme creation is now easier</a>. &ldquo;That feels like a bold statement, but it&rsquo;s true.&rdquo;</p>



<p>It is not a stretch to say that many would be asking for this secret-sauce recipe of easy theme creation. If anything, WordPress theming is at its most complex stage in history. It is a weird mix of APIs and years upon years of legacy baggage. Jumping into traditional theme development today carries with it a high barrier to entry, especially if you want to build anything grander in scope than any of the default Twenty* themes.</p>



<p>But Lister is talking about the WordPress of the future, a platform that will render its front-end output via blocks.</p>



<p>The thing about blocks is that they put this veil over a lot of the messy legacy stuff, creating a new standard where anyone who wants to build a theme does not have to worry about a lot of the history that got us from Point A to Point B. That is a <em>Good Thing</em>. Standardization of the system was long overdue, but we are still in the process of making that final leap forward. It is a tough time to be a developer. It can also be an exciting new adventure if we stop thinking about themes from a traditional mindset.</p>



<p>Lister made sure to point out the difference between theme &ldquo;creation&rdquo; and &ldquo;development.&rdquo; In almost two decades of WordPress, we have only ever had WordPress theme developers. Only those with the minimum knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, and [sometimes] JavaScript could build a theme. And, that is absolutely still true today.</p>



<p>However, it will not be true tomorrow.</p>



<p>The act of front-end design does not have to be an all-or-nothing affair. Creators can build custom patterns and soon be able to submit them to the official <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-wordpress-org-block-pattern-directory-now-live">pattern directory</a>. WordPress 5.8 launched the template editor, so anyone can dip their toes into the shallow end of the template-creation pool. Global styles, a feature yet to be released, carries with it the promise of customizing fonts, colors, backgrounds, borders, and much more.</p>



<p>From a developer&rsquo;s perspective, some of these features can seem limiting. We dive into code and see the world around us changing. Nothing is like the WordPress of old. There are moments when things are more complicated &mdash; sometimes by magnitudes.</p>



<p>However, for people who have never written a line of code in their lives, there is something magical brewing. WordPress is lowering the barrier to entry to almost nothing for the &ldquo;regular&rdquo; folks.</p>



<p>I remember how empowering it was to create my first personal blog design on top of WordPress. It was a fork of a theme by Tung Do, the former owner of the now-defunct WP Designer blog. I knew enough HTML and CSS to hack my way through most of it and just enough PHP to break my site several dozen times. It was a life-changing experience for me that played no small part in launching my career.</p>



<p>However, I also think about all the people who never got to build their own site designs because they did not have the prerequisite knowledge, the available time, or ran into some other blocker that disallowed their entry into the experience. WordPress is positioned to change that with new tools, building a runway that allows more people to become a part of our collective design community.</p>



<p>It is not <em>only</em> about building personal blog designs. It is about allowing anyone who wants to contribute to this open-source experiment, founded on the idea that we can share with our neighbors.</p>



<p>The pattern directory, which is only a few days old, is an early example of that. As we continue removing barriers for non-developers, it opens an entire world of possibilities and, perhaps, allows some who did not previously have the privilege of contributing an opportunity to do so.  Or, it could even be the launchpad of a new business for some.</p>



<p>There is also a two-year-old ticket on <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/18055">starter page templates</a> that is picking up steam. It is a sort of companion to block patterns, tackling entire pages instead of sections. The initial goal would be for themers to bundle these in their themes, but I envision a future where users can create and share these freely with their peers via WordPress.org.</p>



<p>But, it is rough going for theme authors today &mdash; plugin developers too, but we&rsquo;ll save that for another post.</p>



<p>Traditional themes carry all the legacy baggage mentioned earlier, and some of the new block-related tools have added to the load. The current phase often breaks classic projects or forces developers into mixing compounds and waiting to see if the amalgamation explodes.</p>



<p>And, the promised future of easy theming with blocks is still in its infancy. The moment developers get into anything slightly more &ldquo;advanced&rdquo; than a simple blog, there are hurdles and pitfalls aplenty. For example, if you want to use different image sizes and orientations in various sections of a front-page template, that is impossible with the Post Featured Image block.</p>



<p>Or, maybe you have a theme user who wants to put a dynamic profile/account link for registered users on their own site. It is not happening without building a plugin or finding one to handle the job. It can also be a tough sell when four lines of PHP code worked just fine in the past.</p>



<p>These are merely simple examples of an array of issues that theme authors deal with on a day-to-day basis. They are problem-solvers for the masses, but they do not yet have a robust enough set of tools. Foundationally, the block system can handle most problems and even provide better solutions in some cases, but not all of the necessary blocks or options are in place yet.</p>



<p>As we continue solving these problems and adding the missing pieces, theme creation will be easier for everyone from the weekend tinkerer to the million-dollar theme shop. It will be a bit before we get there, but I find it hard not to look at what is upcoming and not be excited about the prospect of theming in the next few years.</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, 29 Jul 2021 02:18:45 +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:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:36:"HeroPress: From WordPress to Freedom";s: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:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=3984";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:124:"https://heropress.com/essays/from-wordpress-to-freedom/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=from-wordpress-to-freedom";s: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:3775:"<img width="1024" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/072721-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: Learn, build, and show the world what you have." /><p>Hello there! Do you know that having a WordPress knowledge can change your life for good? Yes! It can.</p>
<p>In the last half of 2020 which of course can be said as the pandemic year, I made more than $750 (<em>₦</em>300,000) creating websites with WordPress. Perhaps I could have made more even as a beginner, but I also had a full time job which didn’t make it easy for me as a beginner at that time. I didn’t quit my job at that time and I still haven’t cos WordPress is now easier and I started managing both ends well enough after few months.</p>
<h3><b>How I Started</b></h3>
<p>I was already a graduate of Computer Science and finished my service year by October 2019 but as regards employability I only had a beginner knowledge in HTML and CSS, of course I had pages created with that but I couldn’t make them really interactive cos I didn’t know enough JavaScript and I also had little knowledge of PHP. Here in my country, no one really hires Junior developers with no JS knowledge, then I needed money to keep myself learning.</p>
<p>The bail out, I understood I needed to be skilled, so I began to see what I can do. One morning in May/June 2020 I decided to rearrange my workspace, then I found an old jotter of mine. Going through it, I found my jottings from watching a video on 4 professions you can learn on your own and get skilled with it (Note -not exactly the video title). On the list was WordPress, I went online and started searching on becoming a WordPress developer as a beginner. At this time, I already had a job, the pay was low which is also why I was thinking of learning new skills, meanwhile, pandemic also joined.</p>
<blockquote><p>The most helpful resource for me during my search then and till now is the <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/">WP Beginner</a> website.</p></blockquote>
<p>With the little internet/data I had, I started reading, learning and practicing. I learnt how to register a domain, get a host and build with WordPress. I saved some money, registered 2 imaginary domain names, hosted them and built them with WordPress and Elementor, this was already early 2020.</p>
<p>What next, I had to show people what I knew and what I have done with what I knew, cos no one would know if I didn’t show it. I posted the 2 websites on twitter, got some likes and comments, then got some messages to create 3 websites for some clients, I kept building and showing it, and the rest as they say is history.</p>
<p>By the end of 2020, I already created about 10 websites and since then I have been making some side income as a Website creator aside my full-time job as a stock/store manager.</p>
<h3><b>My challenges </b></h3>
<p>No active WordPress community here to support, and sometimes I have a block as to what to learn next and how to get clients.</p>
<p>I solve what to learn with trying new things or interests, I recently enrolled in a UI/UX design class and I can say I really explored, cos I will be finishing an online internship this week of writing in July, 2021.</p>
<p>In summary, learning about WordPress is something you can turn to a skill, a full time job, a side hustle and other cool things. Learn, build and show the world what you have.</p>
<blockquote><p>With WordPress, you can create amazing things and earn more.</p></blockquote>
<p>Thank you for reading.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/from-wordpress-to-freedom/">From WordPress to Freedom</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 28 Jul 2021 07:00:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Yusuf Omotoso";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:124:"WPTavern: WordCamp US Online Set for October 1, 2021, as Community Team Weighs Proposal for Returning to In-Person WordCamps";s: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=120610";s: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:289:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-online-set-for-october-1-2021-as-community-team-weighs-proposal-for-returning-to-in-person-wordcamps?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordcamp-us-online-set-for-october-1-2021-as-community-team-weighs-proposal-for-returning-to-in-person-wordcamps";s: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:4996:"<p><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/wordcamp-us-is-back/">WordCamp US</a> will be held online this year on October 1, 2021. Organizers are planning a free, one-day event that will feature networking opportunities, speaker sessions, and workshops. Michelle Frechette, one of the organizers, said the team is planning on hosting a contributor day and will add more information to the event&rsquo;s website over the next few weeks. In August, WCUS will send out the calls for speakers, sponsors, and volunteers. </p>



<p>Planning for the 2020 virtual WCUS ended up as somewhat of a debacle after organizers decided to <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-2020-canceled-due-to-pandemic-stress-and-online-event-fatigue">cancel due to pandemic stress and online event fatigue</a>. The cancellation came after volunteers had already invested hundreds of hours of free time in planning the unfortunately timed event. Outbreaks in the US were worsening and political tensions were at an all-time high ahead of what went down as one of the most contentious presidential elections in US history. </p>



<p>Bringing back WordPress&rsquo; flagship WordCamp as an online event was a necessity in 2021, as COVID-19 cases rise and ICU&rsquo;s are filling up in US hot spot regions where vaccination rates are lower. The delta variant has thrown the world another curve ball in what has become one of the most stressful and traumatic 18 months in recent memory. </p>



<p>Despite the continued public health crisis, the WordPress community is eager to restart in-person events. Rocio Valdivia published a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/07/27/proposal-how-to-return-to-safe-in-person-wordcamps/">proposal </a>today, summarizing the Community Team&rsquo;s discussions on how to establish a path for returning to in-person WordCamps. The proposal is based on using the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/2021-returning-to-in-person-meetups/#can-i-organize-in-person-events-for-my-wordpress-meetup">current guidelines for&nbsp;meetups</a> with a few additional guidelines pertinent to WordCamps. It uses the same decision-making flow chart that applies to green lighting in-person meetups: </p>



<img />



<p>After these guidelines for meetups were announced in early July, in-person meetups have been held in six countries, including Russia, US, New Zealand, Uganda, Australia and the Netherlands.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Resetting expectations for WordCamps may be necessary, as the world has changed significantly,&rdquo; Valdivia said in the proposal. &ldquo;This is a great opportunity to rebuild the program by restarting locally, and then building back up to the levels we had in 2019.&rdquo;</p>



<p>WordCamps had mostly fallen into a fairly predictable format before the pandemic, but the Community Team is now keen on organizers experimenting with new formats and content. One example suggested in the proposal is delivering WordCamp content entirely online, followed by an in-person social gathering, for a more inclusive experience that makes it possible for those who cannot attend to participate in the educational aspects of the event.</p>



<p>The Community Team is embracing the current hardships as an opportunity to improve WordCamps and rekindle the community spirit after such a lengthy absence from in-person events:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Additionally, the normal WordCamp application process requires that there be an active local community in place.&nbsp;As the community has faced many changes this year, Deputies are thinking about how to handle this requirement. One possibility could&nbsp; be more flexibility with WordCamp applications, allowing communities that had a meetup pre-COVID to host a WordCamp, even if they weren&rsquo;t as active in the last year, to help build excitement and restart community activity again.</p></blockquote>



<p>The proposal includes a list of more practical considerations, such as securing fully-refundable venues, providing individually-packaged food instead of buffets, and limiting capacity to provide for social distancing. It also notes that WordCamps taking place during this transitional period would need to be prepared to cover 100% of their expenses, as WordCamps are currently <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021-wordpress-global-community-sponsorship-program/">exempt from the 2021 Global Sponsorship Program</a>. Inclusion in the Global Sponsorship Program will be reconsidered once WordPress returns to in-person camps in all regions.</p>



<p>The Community Team is inviting feedback on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/07/27/proposal-how-to-return-to-safe-in-person-wordcamps/">proposal</a>, which is still under active discussion. If you have ideas that you think should be included in the guidelines or suggestions for this transition period for in-person WordCamps, leave a comment on the proposal.</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, 28 Jul 2021 02:39:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:9;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"WPTavern: Create a Publishing Task List With the Todo List Block";s: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=120470";s: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:173:"https://wptavern.com/create-a-publishing-task-list-with-the-todo-list-block?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=create-a-publishing-task-list-with-the-todo-list-block";s: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:4615:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Rich Tabor, the Senior Product Manager of WordPress Experience at GoDaddy, has been on a bit of a publishing productivity and workflow kick as of late. The co-creator of the Iceberg Editor plugin released a <a href="https://wptavern.com/add-editor-only-notes-via-the-markdown-comment-block-wordpress-plugin">Markdown Comments</a> block last month, allowing users to write editor-only notes. Last week, he launched the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/todo-list-block/">Todo List Block plugin</a>.</p>



<p>The latest plugin is yet another simple, editor-only tool. The goal is to allow publishers to create and keep track of tasks on a per-post basis. It is essentially a way to create a publishing checklist directly in the editor&rsquo;s content canvas.</p>



<img />Adding a Todo List to a post.



<p>For solo writers, it should work well as a standalone plugin. Larger teams might consider coupling it with a plugin like <a href="https://wptavern.com/upgrade-your-publishing-flow-with-the-post-descriptions-wordpress-plugin">Post Descriptions</a> for a more robust solution.</p>



<p>One annoyance when using the block is that clicking the <code>Enter</code> button twice on the keyboard does not break you out of the Todo List. This is how lists work in core WordPress, allowing users to create a new paragraph or add a different block. I am not sure how to move out of the Todo List via the keyboard.</p>



<p>The issue could be related to how the plugin builds the list. Technically, it creates two separate blocks. The Todo List block is a wrapper for individual Todo Items. However, I am generally a fan of this approach because it allows developers to create block options for each item (e.g., different colors for each), a feature I have needed on occasion with the core List block.</p>



<h2>Plugin + Theme Integration</h2>



<img />Theme JSON integration.



<p class="has-drop-cap">One of the hardest things about developing plugins in past years was having no standardized method for themes to style plugin output. Every plugin author had their own system, which would often change from version to version, and theme authors had to keep up.</p>



<p>Tabor may have just struck the perfect balance with the Todo List block. It defines its own styles but leans on the new <code>theme.json</code> standard <a href="https://wptavern.com/fse-outreach-round-8-a-developer-centric-call-for-testing-theme-json-configuration">available since WordPress 5.8</a>.</p>



<p>Almost anything a theme designer might want to style is easily configurable via JSON, and the plugin has an <a href="https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/todo-list-block/tags/0.1.1/src/theme.json">example bundled within it</a>. Theme authors can simply copy the code wholesale, paste it, and modify it to suit their design. Or, they can just use the bits they want. I only wanted to change the text color, so it was as simple as plugging in a single custom value.</p>



<p>This is the sort of forward-thinking that we need in this new era of blocks. And, this solution might just be the standard that other plugin authors should follow. It provides themers with an uncomplicated method for customizing plugin output and does not require nested styles to overwrite rules with high specificity.</p>



<h2>A Checklist Block Type in WordPress</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">My initial interest in the Todo List Block plugin was its similarity to checklists (also called task lists). Essentially, these are unordered lists with a checkbox input for each item.</p>



<p>For transparency, I mostly just want to build a recipe block pattern with a checklist. This would let readers check each step in the instructions as complete.</p>



<img />Creating a task list of recipe instructions.



<p>It is a relatively standard feature in Markdown editors to be able to create checklists by typing something like the following:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>- [ ] Incomplete task.
- [x] Completed task</code></pre>



<p>There is a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/15005">ticket to bring a similar feature</a> to the Gutenberg plugin. It was opened in 2019. However, other than a few people chiming in, it has not seen much traction in the two years since.</p>



<p>Gutenberg project lead Mat&iacute;as Ventura shared a concept he had tried out early in the ticket:</p>



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

</div>



<p>Given the similarity with the Todo List block, maybe we can give Tabor a little nudge and have him bring a checklist solution to the masses.</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, 27 Jul 2021 23:08:40 +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:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:117:"WPTavern: Colorado Becomes First State to Require State and Local Government Websites to Meet Accessibility Standards";s: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=120625";s: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:279:"https://wptavern.com/colorado-becomes-first-state-to-require-state-and-local-government-websites-to-meet-accessibility-standards?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=colorado-becomes-first-state-to-require-state-and-local-government-websites-to-meet-accessibility-standards";s: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:4046:"<p>Today marks the 31st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a civil rights law passed in 1990 that prohibits discrimination against people with physical or mental impairments that substantially limit a major life activity. The legislation continues to help disabled people gain equal access to employment, schools, transportation, government services, and public accommodations. </p>



<p>In a speech at the Rose Garden today, President Joe Biden announced guidance that would extend the ADA protections to COVID-19 long haulers who experience lingering symptoms that qualify as a disability. </p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re bringing agencies together to make sure Americans with long COVID who have a disability have access to the rights and resources that are due under the disability law,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Which includes accommodations and services in the workplace and school, and our health care system, so they can live their lives in dignity and get the support they need as they continue to navigate these challenges.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The Biden administration is continuing its commitment to accessibility which was first declared publicly on WhiteHouse.gov. When Biden took office, the site relaunched on WordPress with an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/accessibility/">accessibility statement</a>, highlighting its ongoing accessibility efforts towards conforming to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, level AA criteria.</p>



<p>Last week, Colorado became the first US state to <a href="https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2021a_1110_signed.pdf">require state and local government websites to meet accessibility standards</a> as established by the state&rsquo;s Chief Information Officer. The bill states that the accessibility standards are to be identified using &ldquo;<em>the most recent web content accessibility guidelines promulgated and published by the world wide web consortium web accessibility initiative or the international accessibility guidelines working group.</em>&rdquo; </p>



<p>Each state agency in Colorado is required to submit an accessibility plan to the office before July 1, 2022. The office will review the plan and work collaboratively to set an implementation methodology. State agencies are required to fully implement the plan before July 1, 2024. Any agency not in full compliance will be considered in violation of laws that prevent discrimination against individuals with a disability. The bill also makes it easier for an individual with a disability to bring a civil suit against noncompliant agencies and the agency&rsquo;s $3,500 statutory fine would be payable to the plaintiff.</p>



<p>&ldquo;This bill will give our local governments the resources to make sure they&rsquo;re complying with the ADA,&rdquo; Julie Reiskin, Executive Director of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, told <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2021/06/03/colorado-government-websites-disability-accessible/">Colorado Public Radio</a>. &ldquo;Particularly after the year we just had. People who were blind couldn&rsquo;t sign up for vaccines, get information online, sign language interpreters weren&rsquo;t widely available. Failing to fund this says people with disabilities don&rsquo;t matter.&rdquo;</p>



<p>WordPress web developers responsible for Colorado state or local websites should be ready to deliver accessible websites on the timeline laid out in the bill. It applies to any department, agency, special district, or other instrumentality. All of the <a href="https://www.colorado.gov/state-agencies-panel">state agency websites</a> are currently running on Drupal 7, but the state has more than <a href="https://dola.colorado.gov/lgis/lgActiveAlpha.jsf;jsessionid=QkARFgGTesFZquJAxABrnKoqXpzUmhMfdDHBk_xf.dolaapp12">4,268 active local governments</a>. Many of them use WordPress and those responsible for these local sites will need to begin the process of creating a plan to ensure they are accessible before July 1, 2024.</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, 27 Jul 2021 03:59:00 +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:"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:11;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:105:"WPTavern: Block Widgets, Template Editing, Media, and More: Enabling and Disabling WordPress 5.8 Features";s: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=120605";s: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:247:"https://wptavern.com/block-widgets-template-editing-media-and-more-enabling-and-disabling-wordpress-5-8-features?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=block-widgets-template-editing-media-and-more-enabling-and-disabling-wordpress-5-8-features";s: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:6051:"<p class="has-drop-cap">WordPress 5.8 was one of the most <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-tatum-introduces-block-widgets-duotone-media-filters-new-emoji-support-and-more">feature-packed updates</a> that the community has seen in ages. There was just about a little something for everyone. And, there were plenty of things that some users would rather live without.</p>



<p>Big releases on the CMS that powers 40% of the web mean that some users will want or need to disable new features. Whether it is turning on classic widgets, bringing back infinite scrolling in the media library, or enabling the template editor, there is bound to be a solution. Some say there is a plugin for everything, so we are about to test that theory against the WordPress 5.8 features list.</p>



<h2>Enable the Template Editor</h2>



<img />Creating a landing page in the template editor.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The <a href="https://wptavern.com/getting-to-know-the-upcoming-wordpress-5-8-template-editor">template editor</a> is one of the highlights of WordPress 5.8, but the majority of users cannot use it right now. Weeks before the latest update, the release team decided to make this an opt-in feature. This put the responsibility on theme authors to test their themes and enable it. However, users could be waiting for weeks, months, or even longer to see if their theme author switches the feature on.</p>



<p>Not every theme will work well with the template editor. Much of this comes down to how each was designed. However, many will work just fine with the new feature even if the theme author has not yet sent out an update that enables it. The only way most users can know is to turn it on and test it themselves.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/template-editor/">Template Editor plugin</a> by Webd Ltd does just this. There are no settings; just activate and give it a test run.</p>



<p>Keep in mind that results may vary. If template editing does not work out, just disable the plugin.</p>



<h2>WebP and Controlling Image Formats</h2>



<img />Modern Images WP settings.



<p class="has-drop-cap">WordPress 5.8 introduced <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-introduces-support-for-webp-images">support for WebP images</a>. This image type could reduce file sizes by 25-34%, depending on the original format. While WordPress supports WebP, it does not automatically change it upon upload. However, it now has the <code>image_editor_output_format</code> hook that plugin authors can filter.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/modern-images-wp/">Modern Images WP</a> plugin by Adam Silverstein builds on top of that hook. It allows users to decide how their uploaded images are formatted on a case-by-case basis via the Media Settings screen. For example, users can transform their JPEG images to WebP or leave it as the default format.</p>



<h2>Classic Widgets</h2>



<img />Block widgets screen in WordPress 5.8.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Square peg, meet round hole. That is how I have often described the <a href="https://wptavern.com/diving-into-wordpress-5-8s-new-widgets-screen">block-based widgets system</a> introduced in WordPress 5.8. It is meant as a temporary transitional phase between classic and block themes. For many, myself included, it is one best avoided.</p>



<p>Block widgets simply do not work with all themes, and some people just want the traditional widgets experience. Whatever the case, there is no shortage of options:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-widgets/">Classic Widgets</a> (core plugin)</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor-and-classic-widgets/">Classic Editor and Classic Widgets</a> by WPGrim</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/restore-classic-widgets/">Restore and Enable Classic Widgets</a> by Bill Minozzi</li></ul>



<p>For users who would still rather simply avoid all things related to blocks, the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-gutenberg/">Disable Gutenberg</a> plugin by Jeff Starr is your best bet. It is the most robust solution available, allowing site owners to fine-tune the experience.</p>



<h2>Enable Infinite Scrolling for the Media Library</h2>



<img />Media library with load more button.



<p class="has-drop-cap">WordPress 5.8 <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-media-library-changes-you-should-know-about">replaced infinite scrolling</a> in the media library in favor of an Ajax-powered load more button. This change limited each &ldquo;page&rdquo; of images and other media to 40 items. This was a necessary change for keyboard users attempting to reach content appended to the screen and those who rely on audible feedback for navigation. Infinite loading was also a performance issue for those on slower connections.</p>



<p>Accessibility and performance should always trump bells and whistles, but the WordPress development team provided a <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/media_library_infinite_scrolling/">filter hook</a> for plugin authors to tap into and reenable the feature.</p>



<p>The change was slated for the WordPress 5.7 release but did not quite make the cut.  David Baumwald released the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-library-enable-infinite-scrolling/">Media Library Enable Infinite Scrolling</a> plugin months ago in anticipation of it. The plugin still works great with WordPress 5.8 and is the solution for those who want to load images in the media library without clicking a button.</p>



<p>The one missing plugin would let users control the number of media items displayed. For some, they are OK dropping infinite scrolling but want to bump up that 40-item limit. There is currently no way for plugin developers to hook in and change this, at least until <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53787">an open ticket</a> works its way through the system.</p>



<p>Maybe there is not a plugin for everything yet, but it is close enough.</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, 26 Jul 2021 21:11:14 +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:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"WordPress Foundation: Announcement: Online do_action hackathons in India and Nigeria";s: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:41:"https://wordpressfoundation.org/?p=191803";s: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:99:"https://wordpressfoundation.org/2021/announcement-online-do_action-hackathons-in-india-and-nigeria/";s: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:5036:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Following the success of <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/2020/open-source-workshops-november-2020-report/">online do_action events worldwide in 2020</a>, the WordPress Foundation is doubling down on <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/">its mission</a> by supporting more charity hackathons in 2021. Even as COVID-19 continues to wreck havoc around the world, our community organizers in India and Nigeria are working hard to empower local non profits by helping them build a stellar online presence. We are excited to announce <a href="https://doaction.org/event/karnataka-2021/">do_action Karnataka 2021</a> and <a href="https://doaction.org/event/nigeria-2021/">do_action Nigeria 2021</a>!</p>



<h3>do_action Karnataka (India) 2021</h3>



<p>do_action Karnataka will be a week-long online hackathon which is being planned on: 07 – 15 Aug 2021. WordPress enthusiasts in the state of Karnataka, India are coming together to organize this event, and the efforts are led by the <a href="https://www.meetup.com/BengaluruWordPress/">WordPress Bengaluru meetup group</a>. Bengaluru, the capital city of Karnataka, has already seen a <a href="https://doaction.org/event/bengaluru-2019/">successful do_action event in 2019</a>.</p>



<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wordpressfoundation.org/content/uploads/2019/09/bengaluru-2560.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>A snapshot from do_action Bengaluru 2019



<p>The hackathon has shortlisted three Non-profits: Luv Kush Foster Home (a foster home that aims to care for animals in need), Peacespark Foundation (which aims to support the education of underprivileged children), and Vridhi Foundation (Women and children welfare). The event has also put forth its call for participants/volunteers &#8211; if you would like to support non-profits by helping them build websites, simply <a href="https://doaction.org/event/karnataka-2021/">fill up the form on the event website</a>. Read the <a href="https://doaction.org/participants-guide/">participant&#8217;s guide</a> for more details on what is expected of you when you sign up. You can also support the event by signing up as a sponsor. Please email the organizers at: <a href="mailto:bengaluru@doaction.org">karnataka@doaction.org</a> if you are interested in sponsoring the event.</p>



<p>You can find more details about the event in their website: </p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://doaction.org/event/karnataka-2021/">Karnataka 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>



<h3>do_action Nigeria 2021</h3>



<p>Following the spectacular success of <a href="https://doaction.org/event/nigeria-2020/">do_action Nigeria 2020</a>, the vibrant WordPress community of Nigeria is back once again to organize an online do_action charity hackathon from October 25 through October 31, 2021! For the last three years, local communities in Nigeria have organized in-person do_action WordPress Charity Hackathons in several cities, where they had spent an entire day building brand new websites for a selection of local charities and NGOs. This year, for the second annual regional do_action Nigeria event, the team aims to repeat the same in an online format, for a handful of charitable organizations! </p>



<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wordpressfoundation.org/content/uploads/2019/09/lagos-2560.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>Participants are building websites for non-profits at do_action Lagos 2019.



<p>do_action Nigeria has currently opened up its call for non-profits. If you represent a non-profit based out of Nigeria which does not have an online presence, please submit the application <a href="https://doaction.org/event/nigeria-2021/">on the event website</a>. Applications close on the 15th September 2021. You can also support the event by sponsoring the event, please visit the <a href="https://doaction.org/event/nigeria-2021/">do_action Nigeria website</a> for more details. You can also email the organizers at: <a href="mailto:nigeria@doaction.org">nigeria@doaction.org</a> if you would like to support the event.<br /></p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://doaction.org/event/nigeria-2021/">Nigeria 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>



<h3>Organize a do_action charity hackathon in your region</h3>



<p>Are you excited about these upcoming do_action events? Would you like to support your local community by organizing a do_action event for your region? <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/event-formats/do_action-charity-hackathon/do_action-event-application/">Send in your application</a> right away! You can read more about do_action in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/event-formats/do_action-charity-hackathon/">event handbook</a>. Don’t&nbsp; hesitate to ask any questions you may have in the comments.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Thank you for all that you do to empower the global community through WordPress!</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, 26 Jul 2021 15:32:45 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Hari Shanker";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:128:"Gutenberg Times: Releases Galore in WordPress open-source projects, Business Case of Gutenberg and more — Weekend Edition #179";s: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=18564";s: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:133:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/releases-galore-in-wordpress-open-source-projects-business-case-of-gutenberg-and-more-weekend-edition-179/";s: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:15404:"<p>Howdy, friend! </p>



<p>Today&#8217;s weekend edition is a double-feature, so to speak. I&#8217;ll skip next week because of traveling overseas. First trip in 20 months. I am so excited and also busy to get ready. I will be back into your inbox on August 7th, 2021. </p>



<p>This week was an exciting week for the WordPress open-source project and its many hundreds of contributors. One release after another! Just wow! Let&#8217;s dive right in. </p>



<p>Stay well and keep safe! </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit</p>





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



<h2>WordPress open-source project Releases in July 2021</h2>



<h3>WordPress 5.8</h3>



<p>Five hundred thirty awesome contributors worked on <strong><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/tatum/">WordPress 5.8</a> </strong>and the release team let it loose on Tuesday as Tatum, after Art Tatum, a renown American jazz pianist. </p>



<p>Need to catch up on all the features in this new version? </p>



<ul><li><strong>Milana Cap</strong> assembled all the Developer Notes into the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/03/wordpress-5-8-field-guide/">WordPress 5.8 Field Guide</a></li><li><a href="https://kinsta.com/blog/wordpress-5-8/">Carlo Daniele published a comprehensive run down on Kinsta</a>, </li><li><a href="https://www.godaddy.com/garage/what-wordpress-5-8-means-for-your-clients-websites/">Courtney Robertson on GoDaddy</a> wrote about what the release means for your clients&#8217; sites. </li></ul>



<h3>BuddyPress 9.0</h3>



<p>In time for the block-based widget editor, the <strong><a href="https://buddypress.org/2021/07/buddypress-9-0-0-mico/">BuddyPress</a></strong> team released their block widgets in their 9.0 version this week.  The new BP Widget Blocks are Legacy Widgets, rebuilt as BP Blocks.  You can also access them in the Block Editor for use in your posts or pages!</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/buddypress-9-0-scheduled-for-short-development-cycle-to-ship-block-based-widgets-ahead-of-wordpress-5-8">Sarah Gooding has the background on the planning of this update</a>. </li><li>Gooding also wrote <a href="https://wptavern.com/buddypress-9-0-0-transforms-legacy-widgets-into-blocks">BuddyPress 9.0.0 Transforms Legacy Widgets Into Blocks</a></li></ul>



<h3>WordPress Pattern Directory</h3>



<p>The Meta Team has been collaborating with the Design team and designers in the community on the first version of the <strong><a href="https://wordpress.org/patterns/">WordPress Pattern Directory</a></strong>.  They <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2021/07/20/the-wordpress-pattern-directory-is-live/">released it officially</a> on Tuesday night. <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-wordpress-org-block-pattern-directory-now-live">Justin Tadlock has the skinny</a>.</p>



<p>I found a few to add to my favorites.  What are your favorite block patterns?  These initial 80+ patterns are also a great inspiration for theme builders who look to include themes styled patterns in their themes. </p>



<p>If you are interested in creating block patterns from scratch, browse through <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/the-wordpress-block-patterns-resource-list/">this list of resources around block patterns.</a></p>



<h3>Gutenberg Plugin Version 11.1</h3>



<p>The Gutenberg Team released another version of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/21/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-1-0-21-july/"><strong>Gutenberg plugin, version 11.1.</strong></a> </p>



<p>Grzegorz Ziolkowski and I discussed its many of the changes on <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-48-wordpress-pattern-directory-gutenberg-11-1/">48th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog</a> </p>



<p>Justin Tadlock wrote: <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-1-adds-drag-and-drop-support-for-list-view-and-upgrades-block-borders">Gutenberg 11.1 Adds Drag-and-Drop Support for List View and Upgrades Block Borders</a></p>




<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2021&#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>




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<h2>Theme building for Full-Site Editing</h2>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/karmatosed"><strong>Tammie Lister</strong></a> shares here theme design journey on the site Ephemeral Themes. This week, she posted <a href="https://ephemeralthemes.com/2021/07/19/tips-for-creating-in-the-site-editor/">&#8220;Tips for creating a theme in the site editor&#8221;</a> and explained <a href="https://ephemeralthemes.com/2021/07/23/the-importance-of-testing-early-and-often/">the importance of testing early and often</a>. Well worth your time! </p>




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



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



<p></p>




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



<p><strong>Kjell Reigstad</strong> has the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/23/gutenberg-themes-week-of-july-19-2021/">weekly round-up of issues, updates and discussions around <strong>Gutenberg and Themes</strong></a> for you. In this post Reigstad covered the most recent PR on FSE Blocks, General theme building and Global Styles. The list of overview issues is a great start if you need to catch up on the overall concepts and ideas. </p>



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



<p><strong>Carolina Nymark</strong>, team rep on the Theme Review Team, ask for your comments on the newly proposed <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/20/discussion-request-for-feedback-on-requirement-changes/"><strong>Theme requirements for inclusion into the Theme directory on WordPress.org</strong></a>. You can also read them in more details on <a href="https://github.com/WPTT/Theme-Requirements/issues/12">GitHub issue #12 </a>on the Theme Requirements repository of the Theme Review team. </p>



<p>Deadline for the first round of comments is July 26th, 2021. </p>



<p>On July 28th, 2pm CET. The team will conduct a Zoom interview with theme authors about the requirements. Spots are already full. Hopefully, the interviews will be recorded to educate more than a few theme developers about the requirements. </p>



<p><strong>Justin Tadlock </strong>provides background and more context as to the initiative via his post <strong><a href="https://wptavern.com/next-phase-of-the-wordpress-theme-review-overhaul-open-meeting-and-call-for-feedback">Next Phase of the WordPress Theme Review Overhaul</a>. </strong></p>



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<p><strong>Rich Tabor</strong> published <a href="https://richtabor.com/gutenberg-block-templates/"><strong>The Ultimate Guide to WordPress Block Templates in Gutenberg</strong></a> and provides a comprehensive tutorial on how block-based theme template fit into WordPress template hierarchy and how they help WordPress users controls their site. Tabor also provided details instructions on how to build block-based templates and leverage them in your theme. </p>



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



<p>In his post <a href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/07/12/universal-themes-customization/"><strong>Universal Themes: Customization</strong></a> on ThemeShaper, <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/scruffian">Ben Dwyer</a></strong> explored about how to make Global Styles and the Customizer work together. Dwyer looks at how to use classic WordPress tools (in this case the Customizer) to customize a block theme, while saving these changes in Global Styles – making a universal theme!</p>



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



<h2>Developing Blocks and Plugins for the block editor</h2>



<p>Last month, <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/dmtrmrv">Dmitry Mayorov</a></strong>, Senior Front-End Engineer at 10up, published <a href="https://css-tricks.com/a-crash-course-in-wordpress-block-filters/"><strong>a crash-course in WordPress Block Filters</strong></a>. Mayorov shows you how to extend core blocks with filters. He also helps you with the decision between extending a core or build a custom block instead. </p>



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



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/laroymike"><strong>Michael LaRoy</strong></a> wrote a <a href="https://mikelaroy.ca/blog/wordpress-blocks-advanced-custom-fields"><strong>tutorial on creating blocks with Advanced Custom Fields.</strong></a> He wrote: &#8220;By providing a PHP solution to block creation, a developer already familiar with ACF can efficiently create new custom blocks without writing any JavaScript.&#8221;</p>



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<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/BillErickson">Bill Erickson</a></strong> has a tutorial on <a href="https://www.billerickson.net/innerblocks-with-acf-blocks/"><strong>how to use Inner Blocks with ACF Blocks</strong></a>, to expand on the usefulness of the plugin for more complex layouts. </p>



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<p><a href="https://twitter.com/AlexStandiford"><strong>Alex Standiford</strong></a> explained in his post <a href="https://www.wpdev.academy/concepts/how-gutenberg-blocks-work/"><strong>&#8220;How Gutenberg Blocks Work</strong></a> the basic concepts of how the block-editor stores content, why HTML comments and how is it rendered. </p>



<h2>Business Case for Gutenberg</h2>



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/ArturGrabo">Artur Grabowski</a></strong>, co-founder of <strong>Extendify</strong>, a Gutenberg first product start-up, was <strong>Joe Howard</strong>&#8216;s guest on episode 153 of WPMRR Podcast: <a href="https://wpmrr.com/podcast/artur-grabowski-extendify/"><strong>Going Big by Solving WordPress’ Biggest Roadblock</strong></a>.  Grabowski, like many other business development people in the WordPress space, regards the missing new user onboarding experience as the biggest roadblock for even bigger growth of the WordPress ecosystem. Howard and Grabowski had an honest and nuanced conversation about the business case for Gutenberg First approach to WordPress products. </p>



<p>Grabowski took a historic view to the ongoing debate about Gutenberg being the right path for WordPress. Back in 2016, while working with Adobe and its product Spark, Grabowski became aware of many innovative web building tools. They were all block-based. It is only a fairly new concept for WordPress. “There is a lot less unknown here about the end state than some people realize.” If you are interested in the WordPress product space, I recommend you follow the link and dive into the details of things. </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.</p><cite>Artur Grabowski</cite></blockquote>



<p>Incidentally, <strong>Cory Miller</strong>, Post Status partner and <strong>Jeff Meziere</strong> talked to <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/chrislubkert">Chris Lubkert</a></strong>, also co-founder of Extendify, on their Webinar for the Business Value Academy. <a href="https://businessvalueacademy.com/webinar-mergers-acquisitions-with-chris-lubkert/"><strong>Webinar: Mergers &amp; Acquisitions with Chris Lubkert</strong></a></p>



<p><em>Before co-founding Extendify, Chris Lubkert and Artur Grabowski worked in the Merger &amp; Aquisitions department of Automattic. <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/karmatosed">Tammie Lister</a></strong> also joined Extendify as their head of design.</em> <em><a href="https://twitter.com/extendifyinc"><strong>Extendify</strong></a> is the new home for a series of block-editor plugins and tools:  <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/editorplus/">Editor Plus</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/redux-framework/">Redux Framework</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-options/">Editors Kit</a>, <a href="https://gutenberghub.com/">Gutenberg Hub</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/forms-gutenberg/">Gutenberg Forms</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/acf-blocks/">ACF Blocks</a>, and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-slider/">Block Slider</a> to name a few. </em></p>




<p><strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-48-wordpress-pattern-directory-gutenberg-11-1/">Episode #48 is now available</a> with transcript. <br />Next recording August 6th, 2021 </strong></p>



<p> <strong>Subscribe to the&nbsp;<a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/">Gutenberg Changelog</a>&nbsp;podcast </strong><br />🎙️&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/620NwVKQJGdTupy36zYxvg?mc_cid=4b6c9f88fe">Spotify</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9ndXRlbmJlcmd0aW1lcy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0">Google</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gutenberg-changelog/id1469294475">iTunes</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://pca.st/podcast/f8445ec0-7508-0137-f267-1d245fc5f9cf">PocketCasts</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/show/gutenberg-changelog">Stitcher</a>&nbsp;|<br />🎙️&nbsp;<a href="https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/chi7j-9904a/Gutenberg-Changelog-Podcast">Pod Bean</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://castbox.fm/channel/Gutenberg-Changelog-id2173375">CastBox</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/gutenberg-changelog-878239/">Podchaser</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/podcast">RSS Feed</a>&nbsp;</p>



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



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



<hr class="wp-block-separator 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, 24 Jul 2021 18:42:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:14;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"WPTavern: Next Phase of the WordPress Theme Review Overhaul: Open Meeting and Call for Feedback";s: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=120311";s: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:233:"https://wptavern.com/next-phase-of-the-wordpress-theme-review-overhaul-open-meeting-and-call-for-feedback?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=next-phase-of-the-wordpress-theme-review-overhaul-open-meeting-and-call-for-feedback";s: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:7104:"<p class="has-drop-cap">The WordPress.org Themes Team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/20/discussion-request-for-feedback-on-requirement-changes/">announced an open discussion and date</a> for a Zoom meeting with theme authors. The team is proposing a new set of guidelines that reduces and simplifies what is currently in place. Comments on the proposal are open through July 26, and the meeting is set for July 28, 2 pm CET.</p>



<p>This is the next step in an ongoing plan to revamp the review system and make it easier for the WordPress community to submit themes. It comes after months of waiting to see the results of earlier discussions unfold.</p>



<p>In January, the state of the theme review system seemed to have reached a crossroads. The Themes Team, a group of gatekeepers that oversees submissions to the official WordPress.org theme directory, had been making strides in the previous couple of years. Its members had cleaned up most of the submissions backlog, but they still had a lot of work ahead to smooth out the review process. On the whole, a series of incremental improvements seemed to be working at the time, albeit slowly.</p>



<p>Then, WordPress project lead Matt Mullenweg <a href="https://wptavern.com/upsells-barriers-and-the-end-beginning-of-the-quality-free-themes-era">dropped a bombshell</a> via the Post Status Slack:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The .org theme directory is particularly bad when you compare it to any half-decent commercial theme marketing page, or the designs available on other site building services or Themeforest directories. The .org theme directory rules and update mechanism have driven out creative contributions, it&rsquo;s largely crowded out by upsell motived contributions.</p></blockquote>



<p>It was an age-old discussion of whether the theme review guidelines were too high of a barrier for entry into the directory.</p>



<p><em>Were WordPress users missing out on the best themes because the most innovative theme authors were not playing in the .ORG sandbox? If so, were the rules driving them away?</em></p>



<p>No one can know if a more lenient, free-for-all atmosphere would have unleashed a mountain of creativity paralleling or besting commercial theme producers. But, perhaps if the team opened things up, it would test the theory.</p>



<p>That initial post led to a series of discussions and a <a href="https://wptavern.com/upcoming-changes-and-steps-for-an-overhauled-wordpress-theme-review-system">decision to overhaul the system</a>. However, the Themes Team would need some help from the Meta Team to implement more automation of its grunt work, such as security and other code checks. Behind the scenes, pieces of that system have been put into place in the months since.</p>



<h2>Guidelines Proposal and Questions</h2>



<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">Themes Team representative Carolina Nymark listed a set of 13 overarching guidelines, each with sub-guidelines of their own. The proposal significantly simplifies the current rules for submission into the directory.</p>



<p>She asks that theme authors review the proposal and answer the following questions in the comments ahead of the meeting:</p>



<ul><li>Will the updated requirements make it easier for you to submit themes?<br />&ndash; If no, what is making it difficult for you to submit themes?</li><li>Will the updated requirements make it easier for you to review submitted themes?<br />&ndash; If no, what is making it difficult for you to review themes?</li><li>Are there requirements that need to be removed, and why?</li><li>Is there anything in the list of requirements that is unclear? Describe the issue.</li><li>Can the formatting of the page be improved to make it easier to read?</li></ul>



<p>The current proposal is more expansive than the shortlist of guardrails WordPress executive director Josepha Haden Chomphosy mentioned in a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/03/17/next-steps-on-themes-and-reviews/">post that laid out the next steps.</a> Most of these were not meant as blockers for submission.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Rather we should use the list to flag themes that have/don&rsquo;t have each thing and show them in results accordingly,&rdquo; she wrote. &ldquo;Likely exceptions to this would be proper licensing, adherence to fair use of the trademark, and a ban on child pornography or other images of anyone unable to provide consent.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The goal was to put more responsibility into the hands of users, granting them privileges to say whether a theme was working or not. This would take a lot of the work off the shoulders of the review team.</p>



<p>Another part of the original proposal was to mark themes with &ldquo;quality tags&rdquo; that went above and beyond the baseline for approval. For example, internationalization (i18n) and accessibility (A11Y) are items that do not stop a theme from <em>technically</em> working. Instead of making these requirements, themes would merely be tagged if they met those standards.</p>



<p>Presumably, there would be incentives for taking those extra steps for theme authors, such as higher search rankings, the ability to be featured, and more. It is not that i18n and A11Y standards are unimportant, but they are sometimes hindrances to first-time authors. And, they definitely fall within the range of things that end-users can dock themes for in the ratings.</p>



<p>Many will take a hard stance on i18n and A11Y, but they are merely examples. A less controversial guideline might be the one that proposes that themes can only recommend plugins directly hosted on WordPress.org. <em>Why should that be a blocker for inclusion in the directory?</em> Some will say there is no good reason for it since themes are disallowed from installing plugins anyway. There are no technical issues with allowing such recommendations.</p>



<p>It is these sorts of rules that have plagued the theme review process over the years. Often, it moves discussions into ideological territory that most users do not care about. They just want themes that work.</p>



<p>Under the new proposal, moving to 100% blocks would further reduce requirements for developers. Currently, classic themes have a more extensive list of rules they must adhere to. Many of these are unnecessary for block themes, essentially cutting everything back to including a few required files. Most of this can and should be automated in the long term since they are necessary for a functioning theme.</p>



<p>Right now, the 13 guidelines (and their sub-guidelines) are only a proposal. Theme authors have a voice, but they must use it. As is so often the case, decisions are made by those who show up. Far too often, the team is shouting into the void, awaiting a response that rarely comes.</p>



<p>For theme authors who are invested in the future of the WordPress theme directory, that July 28 meeting is a <em>can&rsquo;t miss</em> opportunity. Early responses via the comments on that post will also help shape the conversation.</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, 24 Jul 2021 02:20:53 +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: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:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:87:"WPTavern: WooCommerce 5.5.2 Fixes Performance Issues Found After Forced Security Update";s: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=120467";s: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:219:"https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-5-5-2-fixes-performance-issues-found-after-forced-security-update?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=woocommerce-5-5-2-fixes-performance-issues-found-after-forced-security-update";s: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:3187:"<p>WooCommerce has shipped <a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2021/07/23/woocommerce-5-5-2-fix-release/">version 5.5.2</a> as a follow-up to the forced security update that <a href="https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-patches-critical-vulnerability-sending-forced-security-update-from-wordpress-org">patched a SQL Injection vulnerability</a> last week. The vulnerability impacted versions 3.3 to 5.5 of the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://woocommerce.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c1434dc56f9506bf3c3ecd21&id=8ff0a5345f&e=0110b26bc5" target="_blank">WooCommerce</a>&nbsp;plugin, as well as versions 2.5 to 5.5 of the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-gutenberg-products-block/">WooCommerce Blocks</a>&nbsp;feature plugin. The team created a patch for more than 90 releases, which was sent as a forced security update from WordPress.org, due to the potential severity of impact for millions of WooCommerce installations.</p>



<p>Shortly after the automatic update rolled out, many store owners started reporting serious performance issues on both WordPress.org and GitHub. Some users <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/5-5-1-security-patch-causing-database-issues/">reported database crashes</a> after receiving the automatic security patch in 5.5.1. One user <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/endless-query-after-upgrading-from-4-x-to-5-4-1/">reported a painfully slow, endless query</a> that was &ldquo;crippling to our operations,&rdquo; with similar reports on GitHub of this same query &ldquo;<a href="https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-admin/issues/7358#issuecomment-880949834">causing the entire server to go down</a>.&rdquo; </p>



<p>Those with a large number of products in their databases were impacted more frequently. &ldquo;We run a fairly big DB &ndash; 17k products,&rdquo; one user <a href="https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-admin/issues/7358#issuecomment-881869091">said</a>. &ldquo;This has been a nightmare.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Store owners affected by this issue had resorted to downgrading to the previous releases at WooCommerce&rsquo;s recommendation. They shared temporary workarounds to disable the query while WooCommerce investigated the issue. The problem was reported so frequently that it became a high priority for the team to fix. </p>



<p>A week ago, WooCommerce developer Adrian Duffell <a href="https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-admin/issues/7358#issuecomment-881808031">reported</a> back that they had determined the cause was twofold: </p>



<ol><li>A slow SQL query used to retrieve the products that are low in stock. This SQL has been in WooCommerce for a number of releases.</li><li>A REST API request, which executes this SQL query, is called more frequently in WooCommerce 5.5 than in previous versions.</li></ol>



<p>A combination of these factors was causing the degraded server performance when users updated to WooCommerce 5.5. A fix was released in WooCommerce Admin 2.4.4 three days ago, and the fix was also added to core today in 5.5.2. Users who had put workarounds in place are advised to remove them after updating to the latest release.</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, 24 Jul 2021 01:13:07 +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:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"WPTavern: Revisions Extended Plugin Lets Users Schedule Updates to Published Posts";s: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=119935";s: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:209:"https://wptavern.com/revisions-extended-plugin-lets-users-schedule-updates-to-published-posts?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=revisions-extended-plugin-lets-users-schedule-updates-to-published-posts";s: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:3972:"<p>WordPress has long had the ability to schedule content to be published in the future, but it can only make immediate changes to posts that are already published. If you want to schedule changes to published content, a plugin is necessary. Corey McKrill, a full-time sponsored contributor to the WordPress.org Meta team, has developed a plugin, with the help of contributor Steven Dufresnethat, which is now in use on WordPress.org.</p>



<p><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/revisions-extended">Revisions Extended</a> allows users to schedule revisions, or updates, for posts that have already been published. It extends WordPress&rsquo; revision system to include a &ldquo;future&rdquo; post status as a revision post type. McKrill recorded a gif to demonstrate the UI:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://cloudup.com/cOHLm_77ECk
</div>



<p>Although there are existing plugins which already perform this functionality, McKrill said they were either inadequate for WordPress.org&rsquo;s needs or add extra functionality that they don&rsquo;t need. Revisions Extended supports the following for any post type that supports revisions:</p>



<ul><li>From the&nbsp;block&nbsp;editor, make changes to an already-published post and schedule those changes to go live at a later date.</li><li>In the block editor&nbsp;UI&nbsp;as well as other admin screens, indicate when a post has a scheduled update.</li><li>View a list of all scheduled updates</li><li>Delete a scheduled update or trash/unpublish a post with a scheduled update</li><li>Edit scheduled updates, including the content and the future publish date.</li><li>Compare scheduled update content to the current published content.</li></ul>



<p>The ability to schedule updates is especially useful for ensuring that software documentation is updated when a new release is available or when API changes go into effect. </p>



<p>The plugin entered the testing phase in March and is now used on multiple sites across the WordPress.org network. It makes it easier to schedule updates to lesson plans on the&nbsp;<a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a>&nbsp;site after a new version of WordPress is released. It also makes updates to <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/">HelpHub</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/">DevHub</a>&nbsp;more efficient.</p>



<p>&ldquo;If you need to schedule updates for published WordPress post/page/CPT without changing what&rsquo;s already published (nor switching to draft), this is something we recently started using at the WordPress Docs Team and it&rsquo;s a game changer,&rdquo; contributor Milana Cap <a href="https://twitter.com/DjevaLoperka/status/1415003637278027776">said</a>.</p>



<p>Revisions Extended is currently being developed on GitHub. McKrill said it may be be submitted to the official plugin directory someday when it is more ready for that level of exposure.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a possibility,&rdquo; McKrill said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a bit more functionality I think should be added first, namely the ability to create updates in a &lsquo;draft or &lsquo;pending&rsquo; status to go alongside the current &lsquo;future&rsquo; status. Adding it to the plugin directory would allow a lot more people to try it out and give feedback, but it might also greatly increase the support and maintenance burden. So that has to be part of the calculation when deciding if/when to add it.&rdquo;</p>



<p>McKrill believes Revisions Extended could be a useful addition to core but there is not currently an active plan to bring it into WordPress. </p>



<p>&ldquo;Something like this might get traction during Gutenberg Phase 3, which will focus on collaboration tools,&rdquo; McKrill said.</p>



<p>For now, those who are interested to use <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/revisions-extended">Revisions Extended</a> can download it and/or contribute to its development on GitHub.</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, 23 Jul 2021 03:02:19 +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:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 11.1 Adds Drag-and-Drop Support for List View and Upgrades Block Borders";s: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=120386";s: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:229:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-1-adds-drag-and-drop-support-for-list-view-and-upgrades-block-borders?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-11-1-adds-drag-and-drop-support-for-list-view-and-upgrades-block-borders";s: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:6299:"<p class="has-drop-cap">The Gutenberg plugin continues to march forward. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/21/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-1-0-21-july/">Yesterday&rsquo;s release</a>, coming merely a day after the launch of <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-tatum-introduces-block-widgets-duotone-media-filters-new-emoji-support-and-more">WordPress 5.8</a>, brings several new features and nearly three dozen bug fixes. The big-ticket items are drag-and-drop blocks in the list view and a much-needed upgrade for border support.</p>



<p>Theme authors should enjoy the ability to control the Columns block&rsquo;s stacking on mobile and some updated design controls for nav menus. While labeled an &ldquo;enhancement,&rdquo; themers should also check their designs against a breaking change to the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/33294">RSS block&rsquo;s updated styles</a>.</p>



<h2>Drag and Drop Blocks in List View</h2>



<img />Dragging a block around in list view.



<p class="has-drop-cap"><em>Drumroll, please.</em> The moment we &mdash; or at least many of us &mdash; have been waiting for has finally arrived. The editor&rsquo;s list view has become a powerhouse for managing long documents with many blocks. Over the past dozen or so releases, the development team has continued to tack on necessary feature after necessary feature.</p>



<p>In version 11.1, users can <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/33320">drag and drop blocks</a> from within the list view to order and organize content. However, users are not merely limited to moving things around within the list view itself. They can drag blocks from the list over into the content canvas and vice versa.</p>



<p>I do not often use emoji, but sometimes I like to dole out a slow clap for a job well done. &#128079; &#128079;</p>



<h2>Border Support</h2>



<img />Adding a dashed border to a Group block.



<p class="has-drop-cap">I have already been having a bit of fun with the new border options. Lately, I have been in the holiday spirit because I was getting ahead and buying my Christmas tree in July (when you find the good deals). This inspired me to create a coupon code block pattern, and the Group block&rsquo;s border support was perfect for this.</p>



<p>Gutenberg 11.1 refines the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/31585">user experience for border options</a>. The development team tightened the UI and placed the settings into logical groupings.</p>



<p>Only the following core blocks have partial or complete border support:</p>



<ul><li>Button</li><li>Group</li><li>Image</li><li>Search</li><li>Table</li></ul>



<p>Users can also define individual corners with the border-radius option in this update. I would love to see the same treatment for the top, right, bottom, and left borders in the future. I also would not mind seeing a double-border style.</p>



<h2>Columns Block: Stack on Mobile</h2>



<img />Adding post metadata to an unstacked set of columns.



<p class="has-drop-cap">By default, individual Column blocks will stack on top of each other in mobile views. However, users <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/31816">can now disable this</a> via the parent Columns block on a case-by-case basis. This has also been one of the missing pieces for more layout control in block themes.</p>



<p>One of the primary use cases for a Columns block that does not break on mobile devices is post metadata sections that should be inline. For example, theme authors often want to align the post author, date, and comments link in a single row below the post title.</p>



<p>This toggle switch <em>sort of</em> moves us in that direction. However, it is a stopgap solution that does not afford theme designers the flexibility they are accustomed to with CSS (this is not generally a complicated affair).</p>



<p>Before block themes and the site editor are rolled into core WordPress, theme developers will need fine-tuned responsive control over the Columns block and, perhaps, some type of row/inline/flex block to go along with it.</p>



<p>Theme authors who need to target the Columns block based on whether mobile stacking is disabled can use the <code>.is-not-stacked-on-mobile</code> class.</p>



<h2>Post Terms and Tag Clouds</h2>



<img />Controlling the number of tags output.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The development team has crossed one of my months-long pet peeves off the list. In past releases of the plugin, the Post Terms block (variations of Post Tags and Post Categories) has displayed a pipe (<code>|</code>) separator between individual items by default. It now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32812">shows a comma</a>, followed by a space.</p>



<p>Theme authors can change this in their block templates, and users can customize it from the editor. The setting is located under the &ldquo;Advanced&rdquo; tab in the block options sidebar.</p>



<p>The Tag Cloud block got a small but much-needed upgrade. Users can now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32201">set a limit</a> on the number of tags to display. By default, it is set to show 45 tags.</p>



<h2>Navigation Submenu Colors</h2>



<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">The Gutenberg development team added two new <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/31149">color options for the Navigation block</a>. Aside from its existing text and background colors, users can now change the text and background colors for submenu items.</p>



<p>The Navigation block, while improved, still seems to be one of the trickiest pieces of the site-editing puzzle. It is trying to be the Jack of all trades, mastering few &mdash; if any &mdash; solutions. And, there is already a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/33278">ticket gaining traction</a> that would allow users to stuff a wider range of inner blocks into it.</p>



<p>But, we have submenu text and background colors, which is a win. Only, they are named &ldquo;Overlay Text&rdquo; and &ldquo;Overlay Background.&rdquo; I am unsure whether it works as part of the mobile responsive menu. Gutenberg seems to have once again failed to bundle its front-end navigation JavaScript.</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, 23 Jul 2021 02:03:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"WPTavern: Stockfish Contributors Sue ChessBase for GPL Violations";s: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=120248";s: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:175:"https://wptavern.com/stockfish-contributors-sue-chessbase-for-gpl-violations?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=stockfish-contributors-sue-chessbase-for-gpl-violations";s: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:7065:"<img />image credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/author/34749">Sebastian Voortman</a>



<p>A legal reckoning is brewing in the world of open source chess engines. Stockfish, a GPL-licensed chess engine widely recognized as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Chess_Engine_Championship#Tournament_results_%28TCEC%29">one of the strongest</a> in the world, has <a href="https://stockfishchess.org/blog/2021/our-lawsuit-against-chessbase/">filed a lawsuit against ChessBase</a>.  The German-based company makes and sells chess software that relies heavily on the Stockfish engine, maintains a prominent chess news site, and runs a chess server for online games. </p>



<p>Stockfish&rsquo;s announcement, published this week on International Chess Day, claims that ChessBase has violated the GPL by not releasing the corresponding modifications of its products that are derivative works:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>We have come to realize that ChessBase concealed from their customers Stockfish as the true origin of key parts of their products. Indeed, few customers know they obtained a modified version of Stockfish when they paid for Fat Fritz 2 or Houdini 6 &ndash; both Stockfish derivatives &ndash; and they thus have good reason to be upset. ChessBase repeatedly violated central obligations of the GPL, which ensures that the user of the software is informed of their rights. These rights are explicit in the license and include access to the corresponding sources, and the right to reproduce, modify, and distribute GPLed programs royalty-free.</p></blockquote>



<p>In 2020, Stockfish added support for NNUE (Efficiently Updatable Neural Networks). ChessBase&rsquo;s Fat Fritz 2 product includes a neural network that the company has not released. Stockfish&rsquo;s previous <a href="https://stockfishchess.org/blog/2021/statement-on-fat-fritz-2/">statement on Fat Fritz 2</a> identifies these net weights as a derivative:</p>



<p>&ldquo;This chess engine is a Stockfish derivative, with a few lines of code modification (engine name, authors list and a few parameters), and a new set of NNUE net weights considered proprietary,&rdquo; current Stockfish maintainer Joost VandeVondele said. &ldquo;ChessBase&rsquo;s communication on Fat Fritz 2, claiming originality where there is none, has&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/tordr/status/1359428424255823875">shocked our community</a>. Furthermore, the engine Fat Fritz 2 fails to convince on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sp-cc.de/">independent rating lists</a>, casting doubt on the usefulness of those modifications. Indeed, we feel that customers buying Fat Fritz 2 get very little added value for money. Claims to the contrary appear misleading.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The GPLv3 permits ChessBase to sell its chess engine but requires the company to make its modifications available, along with all information needed to build the program. Stockfish informed Albert Silver, author of the neural net in Fat Fritz 2, of the license violation, resulting in ChessBase releasing its C++ sources but not the net weights. &ldquo;Obviously, we condemn the approach taken,&rdquo; VandeVondele said.</p>



<p>Stockfish contributors have been working with a certified&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jbb.de/">copyright and media law attorney</a>&nbsp;in Germany to enforce their license and were able to force a recall of the Fat Fritz 2 DVD and the termination of the sales of Houdini 6. They are now pursuing the Termination clause of the GPL that would shut down ChessBase&rsquo;s ability to distribute Stockfish in its products.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Due to Chessbase&rsquo;s repeated license violations, leading developers of Stockfish have terminated their GPL license with ChessBase permanently,&rdquo; the Stockfish team said in the most recent statement. &ldquo;However, ChessBase is ignoring the fact that they no longer have the right to distribute Stockfish, modified or unmodified, as part of their products.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In a post titled, &ldquo;<a href="https://lichess.org/blog/YCvy7xMAACIA8007/fat-fritz-2-is-a-rip-off">Fat Fritz 2 is a rip-off,</a>&rdquo; published earlier this year, the Stockfish, Leela Chess Zero, and Lichess teams called out the product as a Stockfish clone, repackaged with a different neural network and &ldquo;<a href="https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/compare/550fed3343089357dc89ecf78ce8eb4b35bcab88...DanielUranga:faef72afbf10273ca8688a4ba1c7863426c93c6e">minimal changes</a>&nbsp;that are neither innovative nor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sp-cc.de/">appear</a>&nbsp;to make the engine stronger.&rdquo;</p>



<p>&ldquo;It is sad to see claims of innovation where there has been none, and claims of improvement in an engine that is weaker than its open-source origins,&rdquo; the teams wrote. &ldquo;It is also sad to see people appropriating the open-source work and effort of others and claiming it as their own.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Lichess, a free and open-source Internet chess server run by a non-profit organization that also <a href="https://lichess.org/blog/YOCx7hIAACUAgsUo/stockfish-14-has-arrived">uses Stockfish as a critical part of its infrastructure</a>, has published multiple posts in support of Stockfish revoking ChessBase&rsquo;s license to sell derivatives of the popular engine. Lichess also <a href="https://lichess.org/source">publishes the source code</a> of everything they create using Stockfish so its users can see, modify, and redistribute it.</p>



<p>Even if you&rsquo;re not a connoisseur of chess drama, Lichess&rsquo; most recent <a href="https://lichess.org/blog/YPc7GREAACgAevs5/fat-fritz-is-not-the-only-ripoff-and-now-chessbase-is-getting-sued">statement</a> of support for Stockfish identifies why this case is important to the greater open source community:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Free open-source software offers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html#four-freedoms">essential freedoms</a>&nbsp;that benefit developers and users alike, and those freedoms should have been extended to users of Fat Fritz 1, 2, and Houdini. Failing that, free-software licenses are only meaningful if they are enforced, making this an important case not only for Stockfish, but also for the open source community as a whole. We are happy that the Stockfish developers have the will and means to take action.</p></blockquote>



<p>Stockfish&rsquo;s lawsuit may become an important landmark case for proving that the GPL can be enforced. It will also be interesting to see whether the courts regard the neural network weights that ChessBase trained as a derivative work that must be released as source code in order to be in compliance with the GPL. </p>



<p>Stockfish has gained broad support from the project&rsquo;s maintainers and developers who have stated they &ldquo;have the evidence, the financial means, and the determination to bring this lawsuit to a successful end.&rdquo; The team has promised to update their statement once the case makes progress.</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, 22 Jul 2021 04:30:45 +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:19;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:63:"WPTavern: The WordPress.org Block Pattern Directory Is Now Live";s: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=120264";s: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:165:"https://wptavern.com/the-wordpress-org-block-pattern-directory-now-live?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-wordpress-org-block-pattern-directory-now-live";s: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:4519:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Yesterday, the <a href="https://wordpress.org/patterns/">WordPress pattern directory</a> went live to the world as the development team behind it put the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/pattern-directory/milestone/1?closed=1">finishing touches</a> on the project. It will work similarly to the theme and plugin directories in time. Along with WordPress 5.8, users can browse and use block patterns directly from the post editor.</p>



<p>Officially, the pattern directory shipped as part of the <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-tatum-introduces-block-widgets-duotone-media-filters-new-emoji-support-and-more">WordPress 5.8 release</a>. The Tavern did not include this in its coverage yesterday because it was still listed as an &ldquo;in-progress&rdquo; project until several hours later. The team was still wrapping up several issues yesterday for the initial launch.</p>



<img />Pattern directory homepage.



<p>The current patterns in the directory are a curated list of designs from over 20 volunteers. The team <a href="https://wptavern.com/open-invitation-to-contribute-to-the-wordpress-block-pattern-directory">called upon the community</a> in early June, and it answered. To date, there are over 70 patterns across six categories to choose from:</p>



<ul><li>Buttons</li><li>Columns</li><li>Gallery</li><li>Header</li><li>Images</li><li>Text</li></ul>



<p>Thus far, translations are <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/patterns/core/">complete for 12 languages</a>. Others are at varying completion percentages, but there are dozens more that are incomplete. This would be an easy entry point for anyone who wants to give something back to the WordPress project.</p>



<p>I had a hand in building the <a href="https://wordpress.org/patterns/pattern/about-me-cards/">About Me Cards</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/patterns/pattern/team-social-cards/">Team Social Cards</a> patterns, but I cannot take all the credit. Kjell Reigstad and Mel Choyce-Dwan took my initial ideas and ran with them. It was a rewarding experience just peaking a bit into how other designers work. I only wish I could have put in more time during the initial submission window.</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li></ul>About Me Columns (left) and Team Social Cards (right) patterns



<p>I look forward to submitting more patterns when submissions are open to everyone, the project&rsquo;s next phase.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Work is now beginning on the next milestone, which will enable patterns to be submitted by anyone, similar to the Theme and Plugin Directories,&rdquo; wrote Kelly Choyce-Dwan <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2021/07/20/the-wordpress-pattern-directory-is-live/">in the announcement</a>.</p>



<p>I am excited to see where the overall community can take the directory. Submissions have been limited and held to a specific aesthetic that will not be universally appealing. It may be hard for some users to look beyond centuries-old artwork, flowers, and the current fling with offset columns to see how a specific layout would work for their site. For others, it is perfect.</p>



<p>Even I struggle with this. I can see the structure beneath the default images and text, but I am not inspired to use most of the patterns because they simply do not fit my personal style. When selecting one, I want to feel like the designer was building something just for me. I suspect that will play a part in winning over more users and bringing some holdouts over to the block system.</p>



<img />Gallery-categorized patterns.



<p>One limitation of the pattern directory is the  imagery. Now that services like Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay have put limitations on their licensing, it can be tough to find photos and artwork that meet the guidelines for submissions to WordPress.org. However, that could open up a bit with the potential integration of <a href="https://wptavern.com/openverse-why-this-project-is-good-for-wordpress-and-the-web">Openverse</a>, formerly the Creative Commons search engine. Making it easier for pattern designers to find the perfect images to build out their visions would improve the overall quality.</p>



<p>What will eventually make the pattern directory a worthwhile venture is when the best designers from the WordPress ecosystem step up and begin competing. I eagerly await a breadth of authors putting their own stylistic spin on submissions.</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, 21 Jul 2021 22:37:53 +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: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:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:40:"HeroPress: More Than Just Joost’s Wife";s: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:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=3965";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:126:"https://heropress.com/essays/more-than-just-joosts-wife/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=more-than-just-joosts-wife";s: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:18682:"<img width="1024" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/071921-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: WordPress is the most inviting, equal community I know." /><p><a href="https://heropress.com/feed/#dutch">Dit essay is ook beschikbaar in het Nederlands.</a></p>
<p>My WordPress story is closely entangled with my Love story. Joost de Valk &#8211; my husband- led me to WordPress and the WordPress Community. And, while I love being Joost’s wife, I am much more than <b>just</b> Joost’s wife. My story on how I found my way in WordPress is also a story on how I stepped out of the shadows of Joost, without stepping away from (or on top of the toes of) my husband. It’s a story about my journey and my struggles in growing towards a leadership role. And, it’s a story about the wonderful inviting and inclusive world that WordPress is. But, there’s always room for some improvement!</p>
<h3>The early days &#8211; Marieke before Yoast</h3>
<p>I am extremely competitive and ambitious. Always have been. I was a highly competitive teenager, wanting to be the best at everything. I was president of the student council, editor of the school newspaper, and participated in debate clubs (that’s where I met Joost). After graduating high school (cum laude), I began studying Sociology and Communication Science. I obtained two bachelors and did a Masters in Sociology (all of it cum laude). And then, I decided to do my PhD in Criminology. I wrote my own research proposal and got funding to do my PhD. I was pretty keen on a scientific career. One year after I started my PhD I got pregnant…</p>
<p>Joost and I were shocked by my pregnancy, but almost immediately decided that we wanted to have this baby. Joost quit his job and found a job closer to our home. This was his first job as an SEO consultant, a rather significant career move :-). He was working 4 days a week, as was I, which allowed us both to spend time and take care of our son Tycho. Joost and I got married.</p>
<blockquote><p>The pregnancy changed me. And it changed how people looked at me.</p></blockquote>
<p>All of a sudden, I wasn’t the high potential anymore. I was the girl that got pregnant during her PhD. I tried my best to prove that I could still do the same amount of work. But with a baby that was hardly sleeping and work piling up, I collapsed. I was diagnosed with burnout and depression. But I got better. I finished my PhD at a slightly slower pace. We decided that I wanted another baby and gave birth to our daughter Wende. I started to work as a teacher and a researcher. We had another son, Ravi. Yes, we really like children ;-). And Joost started his own business- Yoast.</p>
<p>Joost was heavily involved in WordPress. His plugins had over one million users. He was speaking at all these conferences in the WordPress world and the SEO world. He was also doing consultancy. I helped him with his planning. I brainstormed with him about new business ideas. As of 2012, Joost started hiring people to work for him. He started working from an office. I helped with hiring. I did some research at Yoast. I liked being at the office. Thinking of ways to get a fun company culture.</p>
<h3>Finding my place at Yoast</h3>
<p>In 2013, I decided to join Yoast. I was having more fun at the Yoast offices than in my job as a teacher. It was a good decision, although it meant leaving my scientific career behind. That was hard. I started writing at Yoast. Writing about writing, about content SEO. I wrote an eBook, I launched Yoast Academy and I came up with the idea for a readability analysis within Yoast SEO. We had our fourth child, another son -Borre-, in 2015. At the same time I was doing a lot of work in setting up an inclusive and fun company culture for Yoast, inspired heavily by the WordPress community.</p>
<p>At Yoast, I really was Joost’s wife for the first time. I felt that not everyone would take me seriously. People outside of Yoast often assumed that I was Joost’s assistant or his secretary. That never happened to me before. I struggled with those prejudices. My resume clearly showed that I had some brains, but some people did not seem to look beyond my marital status. People working within Yoast sometimes questioned my expertise too. Within Yoast, over time, that really changed. As I worked at Yoast for a longer period of time, people started to judge me on my track record within the company.</p>
<h3>Taking a leadership role</h3>
<p>In 2015, I started talking at conferences. At Yoast, I got my own team. I became a manager. A leader. That was new for me, uncomfortable even. Giving feedback, explaining to people what needed improvement or what I wanted different, that is challenging for me. Even today. I have a strong desire for people to like me. And, I was really insecure about my own skills. Who was I to tell people how to do their work? In my first years as a manager, I was super nervous whenever I needed to correct people. And, I often did not do that well. I was afraid of the confrontation, would postpone it and eventually addressed the issue when it had become this whole big thing. For everyone who worked with me and recognizes this: I am so sorry.</p>
<blockquote><p>Over time, I got more comfortable and less insecure. I was more confident that I knew what I was doing.</p></blockquote>
<p>Working hard and studying a lot pays off. I became an SEO expert. I felt comfortable talking about it on stage. As I became an expert in SEO and in marketing, it became more natural to give feedback or to ask coworkers to do something for me.</p>
<p>I did a lot of the architecture of our company culture, our benefits and our HR plans.The WordPress community is well known for its diversity, for the openness and the acceptance. These are things that are really important within Yoast as well. Yoast breathes WordPress. Our core values are inspired by the WordPress community.</p>
<h3>Becoming CEO in a big WordPress organisation</h3>
<p><a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/image3-min.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-3968" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/image3-min.jpg" alt="Marieke bhind a podium at WCEU" width="500" height="667" /></a>In 2019, I became CEO of Yoast. Once again, I was faced with the prejudice of only getting the job because I am Joost’s wife. That threw me off my game a little bit. I felt like I had proved myself having enough capabilities to fill the role of CEO. I had founded Yoast Academy, written so many blog posts, talked at so many big conferences. I had designed the entire company culture and came up with a few really important product ideas. I didn’t feel like an imposter myself. I was shocked to find out that other people did see me as a puppet on a string.</p>
<p>When I began as CEO, I was the only woman in our board and in our management team. I wanted to change that. I promised myself that I would change that. I began an inhouse coaching program for women that wanted to grow. And, we did our best to recruit more senior women. I succeeded.</p>
<blockquote><p>Nowadays, half of our management team consists of women. The board of directors (5 people) now consists of 3 men and 2 women. We are getting there.</p></blockquote>
<p>Also, we were trying our best to hire more people from traditionally underrepresented groups. We have a lot to learn and improve there. We launched a diversity fund to sponsor diversity at WordCamps.</p>
<p>For me, having half of our management-team consisting of women seemed like something all companies are heading towards. However, being a CEO of a rather large WordPress company taught me otherwise. The number of women I encounter on my many partnership calls is really, really low. It often makes me uncomfortable being the only woman on a call yet again.</p>
<p>WordPress is the most inviting, equal community I know. It’s the best! I know a lot of companies care about diversity. But that level of diversity is not yet reached at the level of management teams in WordPress companies. And that matters! Female leadership within WordPress means more than having women talk at WordCamps. We need to have more female leaders in WordPress companies as well. So, that’s my new mission ;-)!</p>
<h3>What a place to work!</h3>
<p>I love working in the WordPress world. I love working at Yoast. Most of the time, I enjoy being a leader, although I also struggle with the role. There’s a lot to gain in terms of diversity (and that’s more than gender of course) in the boardrooms of WordPress companies. And, although I struggle with being judged by my marital status, I wouldn’t dream of ever changing that. Joost has been a terrific ally in helping me with my struggles. We run Yoast together and we run our family together. I wouldn’t want it any other way.</p>
<h1 id="dutch">Meer dan de vrouw van Joost.</h1>
<p>Mijn WordPress verhaal en mijn liefdesleven lopen flink in elkaar over. Joost de Valk- mijn man- is degene die mij kennis heeft laten maken met WordPress en de WordPress community. Ik hou ontzettend veel van mijn man en ik vind het fantastisch om met hem getrouwd te zijn. Tegelijkertijd ben ik meer dan alleen maar de vrouw van Joost. Mijn WordPress verhaal is een verhaal van hoe ik uit de schaduw van Joost ben gestapt, zonder op zijn tenen te gaan staan of hem te moeten verlaten. Het is ook een verhaal over de moeite die het me heeft gekost om een leiderschapsrol te pakken. En het is een verhaal over hoe mooi open en inclusief de WordPress community is. Maar dat er tegelijkertijd nog werk aan de winkel is.</p>
<h3>Het begin: Marieke voor Yoast</h3>
<p>Ik wil altijd de beste zijn. Ik ben super ambitieus. Dat is altijd al zo geweest. Als middelbare scholier was ik voorzitter van de leerlingenraad, eindredacteur van de schoolkrant en deed ik mee aan het Europees Jongeren Parlement (daar heb ik Joost ook ontmoet). Na het behalen van mijn VWO diploma (cum laude) heb ik Sociologie en Communicatiewetenschappen gestudeerd. Ik heb beide bachelors gedaan en de master in Sociologie (alles cum laude). Daarna wilde ik gaan promoveren in de Criminologie. Mijn onderzoeksvoorstel kreeg NWO-subsidie, mijn wetenschappelijke carrière stond in de startblokken. En toen raakte ik zwanger…</p>
<p>Dat was flink schrikken voor Joost en voor mij. Toch besloten we eigenlijk direct dat we heel graag een kindje wilden. Joost zocht een nieuwe baan dichterbij huis. Een baan als SEO consultant, wat achteraf een belangrijke carrière-switch is gebleken. Joost en ik gingen beiden 4 dagen in de week werken en zorgden gezamenlijk voor onze zoon Tycho. Een paar jaar later trouwden we.</p>
<blockquote><p>De zwangerschap en het moederschap was heftig voor mij. Ik veranderde erdoor.</p></blockquote>
<p>Maar het veranderde ook heel erg hoe andere mensen mij zagen, hoe andere mensen mij benaderden. Ik was ineens dat meisje dat ongepland zwanger was geworden. Ik was niet meer dat meisje met die hoge cijfers die altijd alles ‘volgens het boekje’ deed. Ik werkte keihard om niet onder te doen voor mijn collega’s en probeerde hetzelfde werktempo aan te houden als voordat ik moeder werd. Dat lukte niet. Tycho sliep heel slecht en alle veranderingen braken me op. Ik kreeg een depressie en een flinke burnout. Maar ik herstelde daarvan. Ik besloot het wat rustiger aan te doen. Maar ik maakte mijn proefschrift wel af en Joost en ik kregen nog een kindje, een dochter, Wende. Ik ben op het HBO gaan werken als onderzoeker en docent. Daarna kregen we nog een kindje, onze zoon Ravi (ja, wij houden dus erg van kinderen). Joost begon voor zichzelf en startte Yoast.</p>
<p>Joost was enorm betrokken bij WordPress. Al vanaf 2006. Zijn plugins hadden ondertussen miljoenen gebruikers. Hij sprak op allerlei conferenties, zowel in de WordPress wereld, maar ook in de SEO wereld, waar hij inmiddels een grote naam was geworden. Hij deed een heleboel consultancy werk. Ik hielp hem. Ik hielp hem met zijn planning, ik brainstormde met hem over nieuwe business ideeën. Vanaf 2012 begon Joost ook mensen aan te nemen en vanuit een kantoor te werken. Ik hielp met de sollicitaties, ik deed ook wat onderzoek bij Yoast en schreef wat posts. Ik vond het heel erg leuk om op kantoor te zijn en om de bedrijfscultuur vorm te geven.</p>
<h3>Mijn plek bij Yoast vinden</h3>
<p>Het werken bij Yoast was eigenlijk leuker dan mijn werk op het HBO. In 2013 besloot ik om echt fulltime bij Yoast te gaan werken. Dat betekende dus dat ik mijn wetenschappelijke carrière afbrak. Dat was best heftig. Maar bij Yoast ging ik iets doen wat ik altijd heel erg leuk heb gevonden. Ik begon met schrijven. Ik ging schrijven over ‘hoe moet je nou eigenlijk schrijven’ en deed veel onderzoek naar content SEO. Ik schreef een eBook, ik lanceerde Yoast Academy en ik bedacht de readability analyse voor Yoast SEO. Joost en ik kregen nog een zoon, Borre, in 2015. Bij Yoast was ik ook druk met het opzetten van een leuke en inclusieve bedrijfscultuur. Daarvoor is de WordPress community een enorme inspiratiebron geweest.</p>
<p>Toen ik bij Yoast kwam werken, werd ik voor het eerst ook echt ‘Joost zijn vrouw’. Voor mijn gevoel werd ik niet door iedereen serieus genomen. Mensen buiten Yoast gingen er ontzettend vaak vanuit dat ik Joost zijn assistent was, of zijn secretaresse. Dat was me nooit eerder overkomen. Ik vond dat mega ingewikkeld. Uit mijn CV blijkt toch dat ik capaciteiten heb? Sommige mensen lijken niet verder te kijken dan mijn burgerlijke staat. Ook binnen Yoast overkwam het me dat mensen twijfelden aan mijn expertise. Dat is echt wel veranderd in de afgelopen tijd. Nu ik langer bij Yoast werk, beoordelen mensen me gewoon op het werk dat ik bij Yoast heb gedaan.</p>
<h3>Een leiderschapsrol</h3>
<p>Gaandeweg kreeg ik een grotere rol. Ik ging spreken op conferenties en ik werd manager van een eigen marketing team. Ik werd een leider. Dat vond ik spannend. Feedback geven of vertellen tegen mensen wat anders moet is iets wat ik ingewikkeld vind. Nog steeds. Ik wil gewoon graag dat mensen me aardig vinden. En, ik was lange tijd heel erg onzeker over mijn eigen capaciteiten. Wie was ik om mensen te vertellen hoe ze hun werk moesten doen? In die eerste jaren als een manager was ik echt heel onzeker als ik mensen feedback moet geven. Ik vond confrontaties vaak te moeilijk en ging die dan uit de weg. Dan liet ik dingen uit de hand lopen en was het heel groot geworden voordat ik de feedback besprak. Voor iedereen die met me heeft gewerkt en zich daarin herkent: super sorry!</p>
<blockquote><p>Ik wende aan mijn leiderschapsrol en werd gaandeweg veel minder onzeker. Ik kreeg vertrouwen in mezelf, in mijn eigen capaciteiten.</p></blockquote>
<p>Door mijn deep dive in content SEO ben ik ook echt een SEO expert geworden. Ik werd gevraagd voor allerlei talks. Daarmee werd het ook veel natuurlijker voor mij om feedback aan collega’s te geven.</p>
<p>Een groot deel van de bedrijfscultuur, onze arbeidsvoorwaarden en onze HR plannen komen uit mijn koker. De dingen die belangrijk zijn voor WordPress: diversiteit, openheid en inclusiviteit zijn ook de dingen die belangrijk zijn voor ons bedrijf. Yoast ademt WordPress. Onze core values zijn heel erg geinspireerd op de waarden in de WordPress community.</p>
<h3>CEO worden in een groot WordPress bedrijf</h3>
<p><a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/image3-min.jpg"><img /></a>En toen in 2019 werd ik CEO van Yoast. Wederom waren er mensen die zich afvroegen of ik die baan alleen had gekregen omdat ik Joost zijn vrouw ben. Dat kwetste me destijds. Ik had het idee dat ik me nu echt wel bewezen had. Ik had Yoast Academy gelanceerd, zoveel blog posts geschreven en op ontelbare conferenties gesproken. Ik ben verantwoordelijk voor de gehele bedrijfscultuur en ik heb ook een heel aantal belangrijke productideeën geïnitieerd. Ik had zelf geeneens meer last van een imposter syndroom en toch hadden mensen het idee dat ik een soort marionet van Joost zou zijn. Dat was even een tegenvaller.</p>
<p>Maargoed, ik begon aan de taak als CEO en had al snel een extra missie te pakken. Toen ik CEO werd in 2019 was ik de enige vrouw in de directie van Yoast en ook de enige vrouw is ons MT. Ik wilde dat veranderen. Ik begon een inhouse coachingsprogramma voor vrouwen bij Yoast &#8211; het empowerwoment-project. Maar we gingen ook beter ons best doen in ons sollicitatieproces. En dat heeft echt gewerkt! We hebben nu 2 vrouwen in onze directie en de helft van ons MT bestaat uit vrouwen. Er is meer werk aan de winkel wat betreft het aannemen van mensen uit traditioneel onder gepresenteerde groepen. Daar moeten we bij Yoast nog meer mee aan de slag! In de WordPress wereld hebben we het diversity fund geïnitieerd wat voor nog meer diversiteit op WordCamps en in de WordPress community moet zorgen.</p>
<p>Ik was altijd onder de indruk dat het belang dat wij bij Yoast aan diversiteit hangen iets is dat alle WordPress bedrijven onderschrijven. En misschien is dat wel zo, maar dat zie ik niet terug in de meeste boardrooms. Nu ik CEO van een groot WordPress bedrijf ben, merk ik dat ik heel vaak de enige vrouw in de vergadering ben. Dat vind ik nog steeds lastig. Ik voel me erg ‘anders’.</p>
<p>WordPress is zo’n ontzettende open, uitnodigende cultuur om in te werken voor vrouwen. En ik weet dat heel veel bedrijven het belang van diversiteit zien en belangrijk vinden. Leiderschap door vrouwen betekent echter wel meer dan alleen veel vrouwelijke sprekers op WordCamps. We hebben die directeuren ook nodig! Dus dat wordt nu mijn nieuwe missie :-).</p>
<h3>Zo’n gave plek om te werken!</h3>
<p>Het is zo gaaf om met WordPress te werken! Het is geweldig om met de WordPress mensen te werken! En het is echt fantastisch om bij Yoast te werken! En ik vind het meestal ook heel leuk om een leider in de WordPress wereld te zijn, hoewel ik het ook vaak moeilijk vindt. Er is nog veel te verbeteren in die boardrooms van al die grote WordPress bedrijven en daar wordt ik enthousiast van!</p>
<p>En, hoewel het getrouwd zijn met Joost soms iets is waar ik soms wat mee worstel, zou ik het echt niet anders willen. Joost is mijn bondgenoot en heeft mij zo geholpen met alle stappen in mijn carrière. Samen met hem run ik Yoast, samen met hem run ik ons fantastische gezin. I wouldn’t want it any other way!</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/more-than-just-joosts-wife/">More Than Just Joost’s Wife</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 21 Jul 2021 06:00:06 +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:"Marieke van de Rakt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"WPTavern: BuddyPress 9.0.0 Transforms Legacy Widgets Into Blocks";s: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=120209";s: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:173:"https://wptavern.com/buddypress-9-0-0-transforms-legacy-widgets-into-blocks?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=buddypress-9-0-0-transforms-legacy-widgets-into-blocks";s: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:2305:"<p><a href="https://buddypress.org/2021/07/buddypress-9-0-0-mico/">BuddyPress 9.0</a> was released one day before <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-tatum-introduces-block-widgets-duotone-media-filters-new-emoji-support-and-more">WordPress 5.8</a>. As all major BuddyPress releases are named for pizza joints, this one has been dubbed &ldquo;Mico&rdquo; in honor of Pizz&eacute;ria Chez Mico, a small restaurant on the French riviera, where you just may find capers and anchovies on your pie.</p>



<p>This short release cycle was laser focused on getting all of the BP component widgets ready to be used as blocks to ensure that they work with WordPress 5.8&rsquo;s new block widgets experience. BuddyPress 9.0 introduces 10 new BuddyPress blocks to be used in place of the legacy widgets.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img />New BuddyPress Blocks in 9.0.0</div>



<p>This release also enables users to transform legacy widgets into a block with two clicks, while preserving all of their settings and automatically importing them. The availability of these new blocks is an important milestone that BP contributing developer David Cavins said is &ldquo;the first step toward the progressive retirement&rdquo; of BuddyPress widgets.</p>



<p>All this functionality that used to only be available in widgetized areas can now easily be used as blocks inside content areas. The blocks vastly expand BuddyPress&rsquo; flexibility, enabling site owners to do many things that used to require custom development. Designing unique landing pages for communities is now easier than it has ever been.</p>



<p>&ldquo;My coworkers are pretty excited to have these new BP blocks,&rdquo; Cavins said during a chat in the BuddyPress development channel on Slack. &ldquo;For instance, with the login form block, you can pretty well replace login form customization plugins and put the form in your landing page with ease.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The release also includes a new Sitewide Notices endpoint for the BP REST API that will enable site admins to create, edit, or delete notices and let users fetch the active notice. For a full list of the improvements and bug fixes included in 9.0.0, check out the <a href="https://codex.buddypress.org/releases/version-9-0-0/">release notes</a> in the codex.</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, 21 Jul 2021 02:56:01 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:112:"WPTavern: WordPress 5.8 “Tatum” Introduces Block Widgets, Duotone Media Filters, New Emoji Support, and More";s: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=120192";s: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:251:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-tatum-introduces-block-widgets-duotone-media-filters-new-emoji-support-and-more?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-5-8-tatum-introduces-block-widgets-duotone-media-filters-new-emoji-support-and-more";s: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:7541:"<p class="has-drop-cap">WordPress 5.8 &ldquo;Tatum,&rdquo; named in honor of jazz pianist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Tatum">Art Tatum</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/tatum/">landed earlier today</a>. It is the second major release in 2021. It includes duotone media filters, block-based widgets, theme-related blocks, template editing, and theme JSON file support.</p>



<p>The release also ships tons of other notable features, such as <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-adds-support-for-new-emoji-introduced-in-twemoji-13-1-0">support for new Emoji</a> and an <a href="https://wptavern.com/no-more-accidental-custom-plugin-overrides-wordpress-5-8-to-allow-developers-to-set-plugin-hostname">Update URI field</a> for plugin authors to offer custom updates. The latest update also <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-to-drop-support-for-ie11-in-upcoming-5-8-or-5-9-release">drops support for IE11</a>, saying goodbye to the era of Internet Explorer.</p>



<p>Matt Mullenweg led the WordPress 5.8 release, which saw contributions from 530 volunteers. The entire release team closed 320 Trac tickets and over 1,500 GitHub pull requests.</p>



<p>The official release squad members were:</p>



<ul><li>Release Co-Coordinator: Jeffrey Paul</li><li>Release Co-Coordinator: Jonathan Desrosiers</li><li>Editor Tech Lead: Riad Benguella</li><li>Marketing and Communications Lead: Josepha Haden Chomphosy</li><li>Documentation Lead: Milana Cap</li><li>Test Lead: Piotrek Boniu</li><li>Support Lead: Mary Job</li></ul>



<h2>Duotone and Media Improvements</h2>



<img />Duotone filter + gradient overlay on a Cover block.<br />



<p class="has-drop-cap">The Image and Cover blocks received a <a href="https://wptavern.com/duotone-filters-wordpress-5-8-puts-a-powerful-image-editing-tool-into-users-hands">new duotone feature</a>. It is a filter that allows users to lay two colors over their media, creating unique effects. The colors overwrite the shadows and highlights of the image or video. Users can use WordPress&rsquo;s defaults, theme-defined colors, or create their own mixes.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.8 also introduces several <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-media-library-changes-you-should-know-about">upgrades to the media library</a>. The development team replaced infinite scrolling with a &ldquo;load more&rdquo; button, improving the experience for screen-reader and keyboard users. End-users can now copy media file URLs from the Add New media screen.</p>



<p>The latest release offers <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-introduces-support-for-webp-images">WebP image format</a> support for the first time, and developers have a new <code>image_editor_output_format</code> filter hook to fine-tune the experience.</p>



<h2>Block Widgets</h2>



<img />Widgets screen with a Gallery block in the Footer sidebar.<br />



<p class="has-drop-cap">For the first time since the block system launched with WordPress 5.0 nearly three years ago, blocks are no longer confined to the post content editor. Users can now use them <a href="https://wptavern.com/diving-into-wordpress-5-8s-new-widgets-screen">in any available sidebar</a>. This is a stepping stone in the Full Site Editing experience that will eventually lead to block themes and the site editor. In the meantime, it is a way for users to begin trying out blocks in new ways.</p>



<p>However, those experiences may vary, depending on the active theme. Some older projects may not hold up well with this system. Authors may need to opt-out of the feature. Users who do not want to use block widgets or run into trouble can install the <a href="https://wptavern.com/classic-widgets-plugin-disables-wordpress-5-8s-upcoming-block-based-widgets-system">Classic Widgets plugin</a>.</p>



<h2>Query Loop and Theme Blocks</h2>



<img />Query Loop pattern inserter: carousel view.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The power to create lists, grids, and other designs around a group of posts has long been solely in the wheelhouse of developers. Users had to rely on their themes or specialized plugins to make such changes. This is no longer the case. Users will have the power to create almost any type of post list they want from now and far into the future with the <a href="https://wptavern.com/query-loop-the-ins-and-outs-of-one-of-wordpress-5-8s-most-powerful-features">Query Loop block</a>.</p>



<p>And, this is just the beginning. WordPress 5.8&rsquo;s new block is merely an introduction to what will eventually be one of the foundational elements to Full Site Editing in the coming years. As more and more blocks continue to mature, users and theme authors will continue building all sorts of layouts from this simple starting point.</p>



<p>The Query Loop block will also be the first introduction of the pattern inserter to many users. This is a new tool that allows users to scroll through block patterns, choose one, and customize. In the future, it will become a more prominent feature.</p>



<p>Inserting lists of posts is just scratching the surface. WordPress 5.8 ships a new &ldquo;Theme&rdquo; category of blocks for users to play around with. Many of these are primarily for use within the Query Loop, such as the <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-beta-1-released-new-blocks-new-widgets-screen-and-pattern-directory-on-deck">Post* blocks</a>. However, others like Site Title and Site Tagline will be handy in the template editor.</p>



<h2>Template Editor</h2>



<img />Creating a custom landing page template.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The new <a href="https://wptavern.com/getting-to-know-the-upcoming-wordpress-5-8-template-editor">template editor</a> provides users with a method of creating reusable templates. And, they do not need a 100% block theme to do it. The feature opens an overlay from the content-editing screen for users to customize their page header, footer, and everything in between.</p>



<p>This is essentially a scaled-back version of the upcoming site editor. With 5.8, its primary use case will be for creating custom landing pages. It is a lot of power in the hands of the average user. And, it helps WordPress inch closer to its goal of not only democratizing publishing but also design.</p>



<p><em>The downside to this feature?</em> It is currently opt-in. The active theme must declare support for users to access it. Many will not see it until developers submit updates.</p>



<h2>Developers: theme.json Support</h2>



<img />Real-world theme.json file.



<p class="has-drop-cap">WordPress 5.8 lets theme authors begin tapping into global styles and settings configuration via the new <a href="https://wptavern.com/fse-outreach-round-8-a-developer-centric-call-for-testing-theme-json-configuration"><code>theme.json</code> system</a>. In the coming years, this will be the foundation of how themers build their projects.</p>



<p>Essentially, the new file is a bridge between themes, WordPress, and users, a standardized method of communication that puts them all on the same page. Theme authors define which settings it supports and its default styles. WordPress reflects these via the editing interfaces and on the front end. And, users can overwrite them on a per-block basis or, eventually, through the Global Styles feature.</p>



<p>Right now, it is an opt-in feature that both traditional and block themes can utilize. Themers will want to start moving their projects over to using it now that WordPress 5.8 is on the doorstep.</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, 20 Jul 2021 19:56:02 +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: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:23;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:39:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.8 Tatum";s: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=10976";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/tatum/";s: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:48444:"<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<img width="632" height="422" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/5x8-Album-1.jpg?resize=632%2C422&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-11042" />



<p>Introducing 5.8 “Tatum”, our latest and greatest release now available for&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/download/">download</a>&nbsp;or update in your dashboard. Named in honor of Art Tatum, the legendary Jazz pianist. His formidable technique and willingness to push boundaries inspired musicians and changed what people thought could be done.&nbsp;</p>



<p>So fire up your music service of choice and enjoy Tatum’s famous recordings of ‘Tea for Two’, ‘Tiger Rag’, ‘Begin the Beguine’, and ‘Night and Day’ as you read about what the latest WordPress version brings to you.</p>



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



<h2 class="has-text-align-center">Three Essential Powerhouses</h2>



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



<ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img width="632" height="474" src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/about-widgets-blocks.png?resize=632%2C474&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-10985" /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img width="632" height="501" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/about-query-loop.png?resize=632%2C501&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-10986" /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img width="632" height="411" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/about-template.png?resize=632%2C411&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-10987" /></li></ul>



<h3>Manage Widgets with Blocks</h3>



<p>After months of hard work, the power of blocks has come to both the Block Widgets Editor and the Customizer. Now you can add blocks both in widget areas across your site and with live preview through the Customizer. This opens up new possibilities to create content: from no-code mini layouts to the vast library of core and third-party blocks. For our developers, you can find more details in the&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/29/block-based-widgets-editor-in-wordpress-5-8/">Widgets dev note</a>.</p>



<h3>Display Posts with New Blocks and Patterns</h3>



<p>The Query Loop Block makes it possible to display posts based on specified parameters; like a PHP loop without the code. Easily display posts from a specific category, to do things like create a portfolio or a page full of your favorite recipes. Think of it as a more complex and powerful Latest Posts Block! Plus, pattern suggestions make it easier than ever to create a list of posts with the design you want.</p>



<h3>Edit the Templates Around Posts</h3>



<p>You can use the familiar block editor to edit templates that hold your content—simply activate a block theme or a theme that has opted in for this feature. Switch from editing your posts to editing your pages and back again, all while using a familiar block editor. There are more than 20 new blocks available within compatible themes. Read more about this feature and how to experiment with it in the release notes.</p>



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



<h2 class="has-text-align-center">Three Workflow Helpers</h2>



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



<ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img width="632" height="496" src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/about-list-view.png?resize=632%2C496&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-10988" /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img width="632" height="343" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/about-pattern-suggestions.png?resize=632%2C343&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-10989" /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img width="632" height="517" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/about-duotone.png?resize=632%2C517&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-10990" /></li></ul>



<h3>Overview of the Page Structure</h3>



<p>Sometimes you need a simple landing page, but sometimes you need something a little more robust. As blocks increase, patterns emerge, and content creation gets easier, new solutions are needed to make complex content easy to navigate. List View is the best way to jump between layers of content and nested blocks. Since the List View gives you an overview of all the blocks in your content, you can now navigate quickly to the precise block you need. Ready to focus completely on your content? Toggle it on or off to suit your workflow.</p>



<h3>Suggested Patterns for Blocks</h3>



<p>Starting in this release the Pattern Transformations tool will suggest block patterns based on the block you are using. Right now, you can give it a try in the Query Block and Social Icon Block. As more patterns are added, you will be able to get inspiration for how to style your site without ever leaving the editor!</p>



<h3>Style and Colorize Images</h3>



<p>Colorize your image and cover blocks with duotone filters! Duotone can add a pop of color to your designs and style your images (or videos in the cover block) to integrate well with your themes. You can think of the duotone effect as a black and white filter, but instead of the shadows being black and the highlights being white, you pick your own colors for the shadows and highlights. There’s more to learn about how it works in the documentation.</p>



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



<h2 class="has-text-align-center">For Developers to Explore</h2>



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



<img width="632" height="378" src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/07/about-theme-json-2x.png?resize=632%2C378&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-10992" />



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



<h3>Theme.json</h3>



<p>Introducing the Global Styles and Global Settings APIs: control the editor settings, available customization tools, and style blocks using a theme.json file in the active theme. This configuration file enables or disables features and sets default styles for both a website and blocks. If you build themes, you can experiment with this early iteration of a useful new feature. For more about what is currently available and how it works,&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/25/introducing-theme-json-in-wordpress-5-8/">check out this dev note</a>.</p>



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



<div class="wp-block-columns">
<div class="wp-block-column">
<h3>Dropping support for IE11</h3>



<p>Support for Internet Explorer 11 has been dropped as of this release. This means you may have issues managing your site that will not be fixed in the future. If you are currently using IE11, it is strongly recommended that you&nbsp;<a href="https://browsehappy.com/">switch to a more modern browser</a>.</p>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-column">
<h3>Adding support for WebP</h3>



<p>WebP is a modern image format that provides improved lossless and lossy compression for images on the web. WebP images are around 30% smaller on average than their JPEG or PNG equivalents, resulting in sites that are faster and use less bandwidth.</p>
</div>
</div>



<h3>Adding Additional Block Supports</h3>



<p>Expanding on previously implemented block supports in WordPress&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/11/18/block-supports-in-wordpress-5-6/">5.6</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/02/24/changes-to-block-editor-components-and-blocks/">5.7</a>, WordPress 5.8 introduces several new block support flags and new options to customize your registered blocks. More information is available in the&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/25/block-supports-api-updates-for-wordpress-5-8/">block supports dev note</a>.</p>



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



<h3>Check the Field Guide for more!</h3>



<p>Check out the latest version of the WordPress Field Guide. It highlights developer notes for each change you may want to be aware of:&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/03/wordpress-5-8-field-guide/">WordPress 5.8 Field Guide.</a></p>



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



<h2>The Squad</h2>



<p>The WordPress 5.8 release was led by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/">Matt Mullenweg</a>, and supported by this highly enthusiastic release squad:</p>



<ul><li><strong>Release Co-Coordinator:</strong>&nbsp;Jeffrey Paul (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffpaul/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>jeffpaul</a>)</li><li><strong>Release Co-Coordinator:</strong>&nbsp;Jonathan Desrosiers (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>desrosj</a>)</li><li><strong>Editor Tech Lead:</strong>&nbsp;Riad Benguella (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/youknowriad/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>youknowriad</a>)</li><li><strong>Marketing and Communications Lead:</strong> Josepha Haden Chomphosy (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>chanthaboune</a>)</li><li><strong>Documentation Lead:</strong> Milana Cap (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/milana_cap/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>milana_cap</a>)</li><li><strong>Test Lead:</strong>&nbsp;Piotrek Boniu (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/boniu91/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>boniu91</a>)</li><li><strong>Support Lead:&nbsp;</strong>Mary Job (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mariaojob/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>mariaojob</a>)</li></ul>



<p>This release is the reflection of the hard work of 530 generous volunteer contributors. Collaboration occurred on over <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?milestone=5.8&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&order=priority">320 tickets on Trac</a> and over <a href="https://github.com/wordpress/gutenberg/compare/v10.0.0...v10.7.0">1,500 pull requests on GitHub</a>.</p>



<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/5ubliminal/">5ubliminal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ninetyninew/">99w</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/9primus/">9primus</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorbin/">Aaron Jorbin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aaronrobertshaw/">aaronrobertshaw</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/abderrahman/">abderrahman</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/">Abha Thakor</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/abhijitrakas/">Abhijit Rakas</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/achbed/">achbed</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/adamsilverstein/">Adam Silverstein</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zieladam/">Adam Zielinski</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/addiestavlo/">Addie</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aduth/">aduth</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chaion07/">Ahmed Chaion</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/engahmeds3ed/">Ahmed Saeed</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ajitbohra/">Ajit Bohra</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/schlessera/">Alain Schlesser</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/alanjacobmathew/">Alan Jacob Mathew</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aljullu/">Albert Juh&#233; Lluveras</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aleperez92/">Alejandro Perez</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/xknown/">Alex Concha</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/akirk/">Alex Kirk</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ajlende/">Alex Lende</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/alexstine/">alexstine</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/firewatch/">allilevine</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/amandariu/">Amanda Riu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/amarinediary/">amarinediary</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gadgetroid/">Amogh Harish</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/afercia/">Andrea Fercia</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/andraganescu/">Andrei Draganescu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/azaozz/">Andrew Ozz</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/andrewserong/">Andrew Serong</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rarst/">Andrey "Rarst" Savchenko</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nosolosw/">André Maneiro</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/afragen/">Andy Fragen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/apeatling/">Andy Peatling</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/andy/">Andy Skelton</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/wpgurudev/">Ankit Gade</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/annalamprou/">annalamprou</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/">Anne McCarthy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/anotherdave/">anotherdave</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/anotia/">anotia</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/antpb/">Anthony Burchell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/antonlukin/">Anton Lukin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vanyukov/">Anton Vanyukov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/antonisme/">Antonis Lilis</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/apedog/">apedog</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/apokalyptik/">apokalyptik</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/arena/">arena</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lephleg/">Argyris Margaritis</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aristath/">Ari Stathopoulos</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ariskataoka/">ariskataoka</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/arkrs/">arkrs</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aruphi/">Armand</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/arnaudban/">ArnaudBan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/arthur791004/">Arthur Chu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/arunsathiya/">Arun a11n</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aspexi/">Aspexi</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/atjn/">atjn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aurooba/">Aurooba Ahmed</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/filosofo/">Austin Matzko</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ayeshrajans/">Ayesh Karunaratne</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/barry/">Barry</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bartkalisz/">bartkalisz</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/beafialho/">Beatriz Fialho</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pixolin/">Bego Mario Garde</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/utz119/">Benachi</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/benoitchantre/">Benoit Chantre</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bernhard-reiter/">Bernhard Reiter</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bernhard reiter/">Bernhard Reiter</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/birgire/">Birgir Erlendsson (birgire)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bph/">Birgit Pauli-Haack</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/blobfolio/">Blobfolio</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bmcculley/">bmcculley</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/boblinthorst/">Bob Linthorst</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bobbingwide/">bobbingwide</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bogdanpreda/">Bogdan Preda</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gitlost/">bonger</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/boonebgorges/">Boone Gorges</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bradt/">Brad Touesnard</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kraftbj/">Brandon Kraft</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/brechtvds/">Brecht</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/brentswisher/">Brent Swisher</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/brettshumaker/">Brett Shumaker</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ribaricplusplus/">Bruno Ribaric</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/burhandodhy/">Burhan Nasir</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cameronjonesweb/">Cameron Jones</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cvoell/">Cameron Voell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/carike/">Carike</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/carlalexander/">Carl Alexander</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/carlomanf/">carlomanf</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/carlosgprim/">carlosgprim</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/poena/">Carolina Nymark</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/caseymilne/">Casey Milne</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cenay/">Cenay Nailor</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ceyhun0/">Ceyhun Ozugur</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nhuja/">Chandra M</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chetan200891/">Chetan Prajapati</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chintan1896/">Chintan hingrajiya</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chipsnyder/">Chip Snyder</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/">Chloé Bringmann</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chouby/">Chouby</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chrisvanpatten/">Chris Van Patten</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chriscct7/">chriscct7</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vimes1984/">Christopher Churchill</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ryno267/">Chuck Reynolds</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/claytoncollie/">Clayton Collie</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/codeamp/">Code Amp</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/design_dolphin/">CodePoet</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/costdev/">Colin Stewart</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/collizo4sky/">Collins Agbonghama</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/copons/">Copons</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/coreymckrill/">Corey McKrill</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cr0ybot/">Cory Hughart</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/courane01/">Courtney Engle Robertson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/crazycoders/">crazycoders</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/critterverse/">critterverse</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/czapla/">czapla</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidszabo/">D&#225;vid Szab&#243;</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/daisyo/">Daisy Olsen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/damonganto/">damonganto</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/danfarrow/">Dan Farrow</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/diddledan/">Dani Llewellyn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/talldanwp/">Daniel Richards</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/danieldudzic/">danieldudzic</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mte90/">Daniele Scasciafratte</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vetyst/">Danny</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davilera/">David Aguilera</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidanderson/">David Anderson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dartiss/">David Artiss</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/">David Baumwald</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbinda/">David Biňovec</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dpcalhoun/">David Calhoun</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dlh/">David Herrera</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidkryzaniak/">David Kryzaniak</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/get_dave/">David Smith</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dekervit/">dekervit</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/devle/">devfle</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/devrekli/">devrekli</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dhruvkb/">dhruvkb</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dianeco/">Diane Co</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dingdang/">dingdang</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dd32/">Dion Hulse</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/djbu/">djbu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ocean90/">Dominik Schilling</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/donmhico/">donmhico</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/donnapep/">Donna Peplinskie</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dougwollison/">Doug Wollison</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dpik/">dpik</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dragongate/">dragongate</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/drebbitsweb/">Dreb Bits</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/drewapicture/">Drew Jaynes</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/eatsleepcode/">eatsleepcode</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/metalandcoffee/">Ebonie Butler</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ediamin/">Edi Amin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/itsjusteileen/">Eileen Violini</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ellatrix/">Ella van Durpe</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aliveic/">Emil E</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/emarticor/">Emilio Martinez</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/manooweb/">Emmanuel Hesry</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/empatogen/">empatogen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/enej/">Enej Bajgorić</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nrqsnchz/">Enrique S&#225;nchez</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/epiqueras/">epiqueras</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kebbet/">Erik</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/etoledom/">etoledom</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fabiankaegy/">Fabian K&#228;gy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fabianpimminger/">Fabian Pimminger</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gaambo/">Fabian Todt</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/felipeelia/">Felipe Elia</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/flixos90/">Felix Arntz</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/felixbaumgaertner/">felixbaumgaertner</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/femkreations/">Femy Praseeth</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fijisunshine/">fijisunshine</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/florianbrinkmann/">Florian Brinkmann</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mista-flo/">Florian TIAR</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/francina/">Francesca Marano</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bueltge/">Frank Bueltge</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/frosso1/">frosso1 (a11n)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fullofcaffeine/">fullofcaffeine</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gab81/">gab81</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/galbaras/">Gal Baras</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kafleg/">Ganga Kafle</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/garrett-eclipse/">Garrett Hyder</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/garyj/">Gary Jones</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pento/">Gary Pendergast</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/geekpress/">GeekPress</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/soulseekah/">Gennady Kovshenin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/geoffrey1963/">Geoffrey</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/revgeorge/">George Hotelling</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mamaduka/">George Mamadashvili</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/georgestephanis/">George Stephanis</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/geriux/">geriux</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/glendaviesnz/">glendaviesnz</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/grantmkin/">Grant M. Kinney</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gziolo/">Greg Ziółkowski</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gregorlove/">gRegor Morrill</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/priethor/">H&#233;ctor Prieto</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hannahmalcolm/">Hannah Malcolm</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/happiryu/">happiryu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hareesh-pillai/">Hareesh</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hazdiego/">Haz</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hedgefield/">hedgefield</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/helen/">Helen Hou-Sandí</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hermpheus/">Herm Martini</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/herregroen/">Herre Groen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/herrvigg/">herrvigg</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/htmgarcia/">htmgarcia</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/iandunn/">Ian Dunn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ianmjones/">ianmjones</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/icopydoc/">icopydoc</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ipstenu/">Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/isabel_brison/">Isabel Brison</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dragunoff/">Ivaylo Draganov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/wphound/">Ivete Tecedor</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jdgrimes/">J.D. Grimes</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jacklenox/">Jack Lenox</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/whyisjake/">Jake Spurlock</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jamesbonham/">James Bonham</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jameskoster/">James Koster</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jnylen0/">James Nylen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pondermatic/">James Richards</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jamesros161/">James Rosado</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jamil95/">jamil95</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/janak007/">janak Kaneriya</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/janwoostendorp/">janw.oostendorp</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jsnjohnston/">Jason Johnston</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/javiarce/">Javier Arce</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jaymanpandya/">Jayman Pandya</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/">Jean-Baptiste Audras</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jffng/">Jeff Ong</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffpaul/">Jeff Paul</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffikus/">Jeffrey Pearce</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jdy68/">Jenny Dupuy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeremyfelt/">Jeremy Felt</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeherve/">Jeremy Herve</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeremyyip/">Jeremy Yip</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeremy80/">jeremy80</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeroenreumkens/">JeroenReumkens</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeryj/">jeryj</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jillebehm/">jillebehm</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jipmoors/">Jip Moors</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sephsekla/">Joe Bailey-Roberts</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joedolson/">Joe Dolson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joemcgill/">Joe McGill</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joen/">Joen Asmussen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jonkastonka/">Johan Jonk Stenstr&#246;m</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/goaroundagain/">Johannes Kinast</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion/">John Blackbourn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnny5/">John Godley</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnjamesjacoby/">John James Jacoby</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bhwebworks/">John Sundberg</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jb510/">Jon Brown</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jonsurrell/">Jon Surrell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/spacedmonkey/">Jonny Harris</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jonoaldersonwp/">Jono Alderson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joostdevalk/">Joost de Valk</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/koke/">Jorge Bernal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorgefilipecosta/">Jorge Costa</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joseeyoast/">Josee Wouters</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/">Josepha Haden</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dkampdesign/">JoshuaDoshua</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joyously/">Joy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jsnajdr/">jsnajdr</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/juanfra/">Juan Aldasoro</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jrf/">Juliette Reinders Folmer</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/juliobox/">Julio Potier</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/justinahinon/">Justin Ahinon</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/k3nsai/">k3nsai</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kaavyaiyer/">kaavyaiyer</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kevin940726/">Kai Hao</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/akabarikalpesh/">Kalpesh Akabari</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kapilpaul/">Kapil Paul</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vyskoczilova/">Karolina Vyskocilova</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ryelle/">Kelly Choyce-Dwan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kellychoffman/">Kelly Hoffman</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gwwar/">Kerry Liu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kishanjasani/">Kishan Jasani</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ixkaito/">Kite</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kittmedia/">KittMedia</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kjellr/">Kjell Reigstad</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/klevyke/">klevyke</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/knutsp/">Knut Sparhell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vdwijngaert/">Koen Van den Wijngaert</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/obenland/">Konstantin Obenland</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/xkon/">Konstantinos Xenos</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/devnel/">Kyle Nel</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lakrisgubben/">lakrisgubben</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/notlaura/">Lara Schenck</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lmurillom/">Larissa Murillo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/laxman-prajapati/">Laxman Prajapati</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lewiscowles/">LewisCowles</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lifeforceinst/">lifeforceinst</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/linux4me2/">linux4me2</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lovor/">Lovro Hrust</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/displaynone/">Luis Sacrist&#225;n</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/infolu/">Luiz Ara&#250;jo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lukecarbis/">Luke Carbis</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/m0ze/">m0ze</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/maedahbatool/">Maedah Batool</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/onemaggie/">Maggie Cabrera</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/travel_girl/">Maja Benke</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mciampini/">Marco Ciampini</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mkaz/">Marcus Kazmierczak</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/marekhrabe/">Marek Hrabe</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tyxla/">Marin Atanasov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/clorith/">Marius L. J.</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/markjaquith/">Mark Jaquith</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/markparnell/">Mark Parnell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/markoheijnen/">Marko Heijnen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/m-e-h/">Marty Helmick</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/marybaum/">Mary Baum</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mariaojob/">Mary Job</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/marylauc/">marylauc</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/imath/">Mathieu Viet</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/matveb/">Matias Ventura</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mattchowning/">Matt Chowning</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/">Matt Mullenweg</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/maxpertici/">Maxime Pertici</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mblach/">mblach</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/immeet94/">Meet Makadia</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/meher/">Meher Bala</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/melchoyce/">Mel Choyce-Dwan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/meloniq/">meloniq</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mensmaximus/">mensmaximus</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mbabker/">Michael Babker</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tw2113/">Michael Beckwith</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mcsf/">Miguel Fonseca</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/simison/">Mikael Korpela</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mikehansenme/">Mike Hansen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mikejolley/">Mike Jolley</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mike_cowobo/">Mike Martel</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mikeschroder/">Mike Schroder</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mihdan/">Mikhail Kobzarev</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dimadin/">Milan Dinić</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/milana_cap/">Milana Cap</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mkdgs/">mkdgs</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mmuyskens/">mmuyskens</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mmxxi/">mmxxi</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/daddou/">Mohamed El Amine DADDOU</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mohamedfaragallah/">Mohammed Faragallah</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/monikarao/">Monika Rao</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mor10/">Morten Rand-Hendriksen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mrjoeldean/">mrjoeldean</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mukesh27/">Mukesh Panchal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/munyagu/">munyagu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/m_uysl/">Mustafa Uysal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mweichert/">mweichert</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/assassinateur/">Nadir Seghir</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nalininonstopnewsuk/">Nalini Thakor</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/naoki0h/">Naoki Ohashi</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nao/">Naoko Takano</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nayanchamp7/">Nazrul Islam Nayan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dway/">nderambure</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/krstarica/">net</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nicegamer7/">nicegamer7</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/eidolonnight/">Nicholas Garofalo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/celloexpressions/">Nick Halsey</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ntsekouras/">Nik Tsekouras</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ninanmnm/">ninanmnm</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pianist787/">Noah Allen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nvartolomei/">nvartolomei</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/oguzkocer/">oguzkocer</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/olafklejnstrupjensen/">olafklejnstrupjensen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/olgabulat/">Olga Bulat</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/oglekler/">Olga Gleckler</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/otshelnik-fm/">Otshelnik-Fm</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/oxyrealm/">oxyrealm</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ozh/">Ozh</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/paaljoachim/">Paal Joachim Romdahl</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/palmiak/">palmiak</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/paaggeli/">Panagiotis Angelidis</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/paragoninitiativeenterprises/">Paragon Initiative Enterprises</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/swissspidy/">Pascal Birchler</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fantasy1125/">Pascal Knecht</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/patkemper/">Pat</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/patricklindsay/">patricklindsay</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pbiron/">Paul Biron</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pabline/">Paul Bunkham</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/paulschreiber/">Paul Schreiber</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/paulstonier/">Paul Stonier</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pschrottky/">Paul Von Schrottky</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/psrpinto/">Paulo Pinto</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pavelvisualcomposer/">Pavel I</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mrpauloen/">Paweł</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/peterwilsoncc/">Peter Wilson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/walbo/">Petter Walbø Johnsgård</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/phena109/">phena109</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/philipmjackson/">Philip Jackson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/strategio/">Pierre SYLVESTRE</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/wppinar/">Pinar</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/boniu91/">Piotrek Boniu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mordauk/">Pippin Williamson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ptahdunbar/">Pirate Dunbar</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/promz/">Pramod Jodhani</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/presskopp/">Presskopp</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/presstoke/">presstoke</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pwallner/">pwallner</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pyronaur/">pyronaur</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/itsjonq/">Q</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rachelbaker/">Rachel Baker</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rafhun/">rafhun</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rkradadiya/">Rajesh Radadiya</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ramiy/">Rami Yushuvaev</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rahmohn/">Ramon Ahnert</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ramonopoly/">ramonopoly</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jontyravi/">Ravi Vaghela</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ravipatel/">ravipatel</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rellect/">Refael Iliaguyev</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/renehermi/">Rene Hermenau</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/retrofox/">retrofox</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/reynhartono/">reynhartono</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/youknowriad/">Riad Benguella</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rianrietveld/">Rian Rietveld</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rima1889/">Rima Prajapati</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rinatkhaziev/">Rinat</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rnaby/">Rnaby</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/robdxw/">robdxw</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/noisysocks/">Robert Anderson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/miqrogroove/">Robert Chapin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rogertheriault/">Roger Theriault</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rogerlos/">rogerlos</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/roo2/">roo2</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lev0/">Roy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/geekstreetwp/">Russell Aaron</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rmccue/">Ryan McCue</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/welcher/">Ryan Welcher</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergiomdgomes/">S&#233;rgio Gomes</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/soean/">S&#246;ren Wrede</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/stodorovic/">Sa&#353;a</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sabrinazeidan/">Sabrina Zeidan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sahilmepani/">Sahil Mepani</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/solarissmoke/">Samir Shah</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/otto42/">Samuel Wood (Otto)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sandipmondal/">Sandip Mondal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sannevndrmeulen/">Sanne van der Meulen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sarahricker/">sarahricker</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sarayourfriend/">sarayourfriend</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sasagar/">SASAPIYO</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/satrancali/">satrancali</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/savicmarko1985/">savicmarko1985</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gmagicscott/">Scott Lesovic</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code/">Scott Reilly</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/scottconnerly/">scottconnerly</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/scruffian/">scruffian</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sean212/">Sean Fisher</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/seanchayes/">Sean Hayes</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sebbb/">sebbb</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/">Sergey Biryukov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/yakimun/">Sergey Yakimov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergioestevao/">SergioEstevao</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/shaunandrews/">shaunandrews</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/shital-patel/">Shital Marakana</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/silb3r/">silb3r</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/siobhyb/">Siobhan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sirstuey/">SirStuey</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/snapfractalpop/">snapfractalpop</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/spikeuk1/">spikeuk1</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/spytzo/">spytzo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/stacimc/">stacimc</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/khromov/">Stanislav Khromov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/deustron/">Stefan H&#252;sges</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/stefanjoebstl/">stefanjoebstl</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ryokuhi/">Stefano Minoia</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hypest/">Stefanos Togoulidis</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sabernhardt/">Stephen Bernhardt</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/netweb/">Stephen Edgar</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dufresnesteven/">Steve Dufresne</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/stevegrunwell/">Steve Grunwell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/stevehenty/">Steve Henty</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/stevenkword/">Steven Word</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/subrataemfluence/">Subrata Sarkar</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sumaiyasiddika/">Sumaiya Siddika</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sumanm/">Suman</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sumitsingh/">Sumit Singh</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/5um17/">Sumit Singh</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/quadthemes/">Sunny</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sushmak/">sushmak</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cybr/">Sybre Waaijer</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/synchro/">Synchro</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/szaqal21/">szaqal21</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tamlyn/">tamlyn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/karmatosed/">Tammie Lister</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tellyworth/">Tellyworth</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/terriann/">Terri Ann</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/wildworks/">Tetsuaki Hamano</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/themes-1/">them.es</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kraftner/">Thomas Kr&#228;ftner</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/thomasplevy/">Thomas Patrick Levy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/thomas-vitale/">Thomas Vitale</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tigertech/">tigertech</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/timothyblynjacobs/">Timothy Jacobs</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/timotijhof/">TimoTijhof</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tkama/">Tkama</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tmatsuur/">tmatsuur</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tmdk/">tmdk</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tz-media/">Tobias Zimpel</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tobiasbg/">TobiasBg</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tobifjellner/">tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn Fjellner)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tjnowell/">Tom J Nowell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/skithund/">Toni Viemer&#246;</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/">Tonya Mork</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/toro_unit/">Toro_Unit (Hiroshi Urabe)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/torres126/">torres126</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zodiac1978/">Torsten Landsiedel</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/toru/">Toru Miki</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/travisnorthcutt/">Travis Northcutt</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/trejder/">trejder</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desaiuditd/">Udit Desai</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/grapplerulrich/">Ulrich</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/utsav72640/">Utsav tilava</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vcanales/">Vicente Canales</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vipulc2/">Vipul Chandel</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vladytimy/">Vlad T</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/wangql/">wangql</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webdragon/">WebDragon</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/wendyjchen/">Wendy Chen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/westonruter/">Weston Ruter</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/earnjam/">William Earnhardt</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/williampatton/">williampatton</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/xavivars/">Xavi Ivars</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tikifez/">Xristopher Anderton</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/y_kolev/">Y_Kolev</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/yansern/">Yan Sern</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fierevere/">Yui</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/yuliyan/">Yuliyan Slavchev</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/yvettesonneveld/">Yvette Sonneveld</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zackkrida/">Zack Krida</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zebulan/">Zebulan Stanphill</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zkancs/">zkancs</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sunxiyuan/">孙锡源</a>.



<p></p>



<p>In addition to these contributors, many thanks to all of the community volunteers who contribute in the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://wordpress.org/support/">support forums</a>. They answer questions from people across the world, whether they are using WordPress for the first time, or they’ve been around since the first release all the way back in 2003. These releases are as successful as they are because of their efforts!</p>



<p>Finally, thanks to all the community translators who help make WordPress available in over 200 languages for every release. 80 languages have translated 80% or more WordPress 5.8 and our community translators are hard at work ensuring more languages are on their way. If contributing to WordPress appeals to you, it’s easy to learn more. Check out&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://make.wordpress.org/">Make WordPress</a>&nbsp;or the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">core development blog</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, 20 Jul 2021 17:43:25 +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:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"WPTavern: Makers of TinyMCE Acquire Setka";s: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=120116";s: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:127:"https://wptavern.com/makers-of-tinymce-acquire-setka?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=makers-of-tinymce-acquire-setka";s: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:3035:"<p>Tiny, the makers of TinyMCE, have <a href="https://www.tiny.cloud/blog/tiny-acquires-the-setka/">acquired Setka</a>, a content design and editing platform, for an undisclosed amount. Founders Katya Bazilevskaya, Alexey Ametov, Vasily Esmanov, Roman Khudonogov, and the rest of the Setka team will join Tiny as part of the agreement. </p>



<p>Tiny has been tracking an increasing developer demand for rich text editing components, citing 8.1 million TinyMCE downloads (up 77%) and 106 million  downloads of rich text editing components in general from NPM in the last 12 months (up 53% YoY).</p>



<p>&ldquo;TinyMCE has typically focused on the average business user or knowledge worker; someone familiar with Microsoft Word or Google Docs,&rdquo; Tiny founder and CEO Andrew Roberts said.&nbsp;</p>



<p>&ldquo;With Setka, we can now serve professional content creators and designers who want more advanced options.&rdquo;</p>



<p>TinyMCE is used by millions of WordPress users, most visibly in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/">Classic Editor</a> plugin as well as the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/tinymce-advanced/">Advanced Editor Tools</a> plugin, previously known as TinyMCE Advanced. Advanced Editor Tools adds a &ldquo;Classic Paragraph&rdquo; block to the block editor that gives access to the TinyMCE editor with configurable rows and buttons. It provides a stepping stone for those who are not quite ready to switch to the block editor.</p>



<p>While Tiny is a widely recognized leader in rich text editing, <a href="https://setka.io/">Setka</a> allows for more interactive content creation with design capabilities for arranging text, images, and other visual elements. It allows users to create and save post templates and easily reuse design elements throughout the WYSIWYG design process. Tiny plans to merge TinyMCE and Setka for a combined platform that will offer more than either product alone.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Modern day content creators are much more ambitious, and Setka allows us to meet more demanding use cases,&rdquo; Roberts said.&nbsp;</p>



<p>&ldquo;Over time, we envisage a combined editor platform that is both easy to use and powerful.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Setka currently offers integrations for several CMS&rsquo;s, document management tools, and CRMs, including WordPress, Drupal, Magento, Ghost, Microsoft Sharepoint, and Hubspot. The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/setka-editor/">Setka WordPress plugin</a> integrates with the block editor and provides its own content block that can work together with other blocks on the page.</p>



<p>Former CEO Kate Bazilevskaya, who will be assuming the role of director of business development and partnerships at Tiny, said the team intends to focus on the CMS space.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Through an array of integrations, we hope to make this visual building technology more accessible to businesses who already have a CMS in place, yet want more power in their editing tools,&rdquo; Bazilevskaya said.</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, 20 Jul 2021 04:39:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:39:"BuddyPress: BuddyPress 9.0.0 “Mico”";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://buddypress.org/?p=320072";s: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://buddypress.org/2021/07/buddypress-9-0-0-mico/";s: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:7905:"<p>9.0.0 is named after Mico&#8217;s Pizza in <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/1i8B9yEQE277bKPo7">Sanary</a>, a little town on the french riviera. The story of Mico starts in 1968 when Liliane and Jean-Louis bought a restaurant looking like a swiss chalet. &#8220;Mico&#8221; is the nickname customers gave to Liliane (Jean-Louis&#8217;s wife) because of the remarkable outfits and big colorful hats she used to wear. Their son Romuald, twelve years after following in his parents&#8217; footsteps, continues the tradition and offers us a moment of happiness around a table that is always excellent, friendly and so uncommon, just like BuddyPress 9.0.0 <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f355.png" alt="🍕" class="wp-smiley" /> </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/07/mico.jpg"><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/07/mico.jpg" alt="Mico's Pizza Front" class="wp-image-320084" /></a><a class="bp-suggestions-mention" href="https://buddypress.org/members/imath/" rel="nofollow">@imath</a> took this picture 3 years ago <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f8.png" alt="📸" class="wp-smiley" /></div>



<div class="wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center">
<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-text-color has-background" href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.9.0.0.zip"><strong>Get BuddyPress 9.0.0</strong></a></div>
</div>



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



<p>You can get it clicking on the above button, downloading it from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress/">WordPress.org plugin directory</a>, installing or updating it directly from your WordPress dashboard or checking it out from our <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/browser/branches/9.0">Subversion repository.</a></p>



<p><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f449.png" alt="👉" class="wp-smiley" />&nbsp;<em>If you’re upgrading from a previous version of BuddyPress, it’s always a good idea to back-up your WordPress database and files ahead of time.</em></p>



<p>You can review all of the changes in this 9.0.0 release in the&nbsp;<a href="https://codex.buddypress.org/releases/version-9-0-0/">release notes</a>. Below are the key features we believe you are going to enjoy most!</p>



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



<h2>It’s all about Widget Blocks!</h2>



<a href="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/07/latest-activities.jpg"><img width="1024" height="638" src="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/07/latest-activities-1024x638.jpg" alt="Illustration showing the Latest Activities Widget Block." class="wp-image-320073" /></a>



<p>WordPress 5.8 is right around the corner and debuts a brand new way to manage widgets: the Widget Block Editor. With BuddyPress 9.0.0, we have introduced 10 new BuddyPress Blocks, so you can continue to use your favorite BP Widgets with the new WP Block approach.</p>



<p>The new BP Widget Blocks are simply Legacy Widgets we’ve rebuilt as BP Blocks, which means you can also access them in the Block Editor for use in your posts or pages!</p>



<a href="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/07/bp-widget-blocks-1.jpg"><img width="1024" height="689" src="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/07/bp-widget-blocks-1-1024x689.jpg" alt="Illustration showing BP Blocks collection." class="wp-image-320074" /></a>



<p class="has-text-align-center"><em>PS: Have you noticed that the icons for BuddyPress Blocks are now bright red?</em></p>



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



<h3>Convert a Legacy Widget into a Block Widget in two clicks <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f60e.png" alt="😎" class="wp-smiley" /></h3>



<a href="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/07/legacy-widget-to-block.jpg"><img width="1024" height="530" src="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/07/legacy-widget-to-block-1024x530.jpg" alt="Illustration showing the Legacy Widget to Widget Block transformation." class="wp-image-320075" /></a>



<p>As shown in the image above, it’s very easy to transform a Widget into a Block. Your existing Widget settings will automagically be imported into your shiny, new BP Block.</p>



<p>NB: Creating a BP Block for each existing BP Legacy Widget marks the first step toward the progressive retirement of these tiny pieces of BuddyPress content.</p>



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



<h2>The BP REST API: Improved endpoints and a new one!</h2>



<p>This BuddyPress release was built in a short time frame to be ready for the release of WordPress 5.8.</p>



<p>While doing the work on BP Widget Blocks, we’ve also manipulated many of our REST API endpoints and took this opportunity to improve several of them. We’re also introducing a new Sitewide Notices endpoint to allow site admins to create, edit, or delete notices and let all of your users fetch the active notice.</p>



<div><span class="dashicons dashicons-admin-generic"></span></div>



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



<h2>Under the hood</h2>



<p>9.0.0 comes with fewer changes than most of our releases but includes fixes for issues which appeared in 8.0.0 and BP Nouveau Template Pack improvements.</p>



<div><span class="dashicons dashicons-buddicons-buddypress-logo"></span></div>



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



<h2>Many thanks to the 24 contributors who helped us build &amp; translate BuddyPress 9.0.0</h2>



<p><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/boonebgorges/">Boone B Gorges (boonebgorges)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sbrajesh/">Brajesh Singh (sbrajesh)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dcavins/">David Cavins (dcavins)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dancaragea/">Dan Caragea (dancaragea)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ianbarnes/">Ian Barnes (ianbarnes)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nobnob/">Javier Esteban (nobnob)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnjamesjacoby/">John James Jacoby (johnjamesjacoby)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/leahkoerper/">leahkoerper</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/marbaque/">marbaque</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/markscottrobson/">Mark Robson (markscottrobson)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/imath/">Mathieu Viet (imath)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/modemlooper/">modemlooper</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/niftythree/">Nifty (niftythree)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/DJPaul/">Paul Gibbs (DJPaul)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nekojonez/">Pieterjan Deneys (nekojonez)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/r-a-y/">r-a-y</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/espellcaste/">Renato Alves (espellcaste)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/shanebp">shanebp</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/shawfactor/">shawfactor</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/slaffik/">Slava Abakumov (slaffik)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/netweb/">Stephen Edgar (netweb)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tamarazambrana/">tamarazambrana</a>, <a href="https://github.com/tkserver">TKServer</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vapvarun/">Varun Dubey (vapvarun)</a>.</p>



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



<h2>Your feedback</h2>



<p>How are you using BuddyPress? Receiving your feedback and suggestions for future versions of BuddyPress genuinely motivates and encourages our contributors. Please <a href="https://buddypress.org/support/buddypress-9-0-0">share your feedback</a> about this version of BuddyPress on our website.</p>



<p>Thank you for using BuddyPress!</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, 19 Jul 2021 22:45:08 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"David Cavins";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:87:"WPTavern: WPBeginner Releases a Comment Moderator Solution Often Needed for Large Teams";s: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=120195";s: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:219:"https://wptavern.com/wpbeginner-releases-a-comment-moderator-solution-often-needed-for-large-teams?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wpbeginner-releases-a-comment-moderator-solution-often-needed-for-large-teams";s: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:3607:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Last week, WPBeginner released <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/comment-moderation-role/">Comment Moderation Role</a> to the WordPress plugin directory. The plugin does a simple job of creating a single user role that can only moderate comments.</p>



<p>The most common use case for such a role &mdash; named &ldquo;WPB Comment Moderator&rdquo; in the admin &mdash; is for larger teams that need a separate user account to tackle moderation. WordPress has no built-in way of handling this. For one of the most extendable CMSs on the planet, this is one area where it has always fallen short.</p>



<p>It almost feels like yesterday. In reality, it was <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/12104#comment:17">10 years ago</a> when I stumbled upon a (then) year-old <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/12104">ticket for a bug</a> that was a breaking point in a project I was working on. I needed to grant specific users on a WordPress site permission to moderate comments but not allow them to edit other things in the admin.</p>



<p>Some of you may be thinking that the <code><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/roles-and-capabilities/#moderate_comments">moderate_comments</a></code> capability should allow that. And, you would be correct in thinking that it <em><strong>should</strong></em>. However, that is not how it works at all. For users to edit comments, they must also be able to edit posts. It is a bit of a convoluted mess if you do a deep dive into the core code only to find hard-coded permissions checks that are impossible to override without rewriting large chunks of code.</p>



<p>I would run into the same issue multiple times in the years since. I have built a few hacky, one-off workarounds for specific projects, but they were never ideal. And, I was never interested in maintaining a plugin that solved this problem because I knew it had the potential to be a bit of a pain.</p>



<p>While I have seen a few other solutions, each fundamentally flawed, I am happy to see someone tackling this without exposing permissions issues.</p>



<p>WPBeginner&rsquo;s Comment Moderation Role plugin works in the same way that I think such a plugin should work, at least with the roadblocks that WordPress currently puts in the way.</p>



<p>Site administrators can add WPB Comment Moderator to any account via the user management admin screen. The process is the same as adding or removing any other role in WordPress.</p>



<img />Granting the WPB Comment Moderator role to a user.



<p>After adding the role to a user, that user can access the Comments admin screen. They can also see both the Dashboard and their own Profile in the admin. Except in the cases where they have another role added via a different plugin, they will not have permission to access other screens.</p>



<img />Comments admin screen for user with the WPB Comment Moderator role



<p>Because of core WordPress&rsquo;s hard-coded permissions check, the plugin must create its own comments management screen. Most users will not notice this because it is all under the hood. The plugin only adds it when necessary, and it does not look or function any differently than the default screen. It is just a lot of code work and duplication to fix an 11-year-old reported bug in WordPress.</p>



<p>Until the foundational issue is addressed in core WordPress, Comment Moderation Role is the best plugin for this job. After extensive testing, I can now say that it is now nestled firmly in my toolbox, ready to pull out when needed for a 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:"Mon, 19 Jul 2021 22:13:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"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:27;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"Gutenberg Times: List of WordPress Themes for Full-Site Editing and Resources";s: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=18502";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/list-of-wordpress-themes-for-full-site-editing-and-resources/";s: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:8014:"<p>A few people ask about WordPress Themes that are already working with the Full-Site Editing system and the new Site Editor. Here is a List as of July 2021.  </p>



<p>The Themes are all built while Full-Site Editing is under active development and many features are experimental. Do not use in production or live site. Expect the themes to be wonky at times, until developers have a chance to update the themes for new Gutenberg plugin version. In short: There will be Dragons! 🐉</p>



<p>Oh, yes. You also need to <a href="https://wordPress.org/plugins/gutenberg">install the Gutenberg plugin</a>. </p>



<p>For the lastest updates pre-release, use the <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Gutenberg Nightly</a></p>



<h2>Themes for Full-Site Editing in the WordPress repository</h2>



<p>I only used TT1 Blocks Theme for FSE-Testing. I rely mostly on Justin Tadlock  or others to provide more insights on the various themes. The articles are linked with the theme header. </p>



<h3><strong><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/armando/">Armando</a>&nbsp;by Carolyn Newmark</strong></h3>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/armando-wordpress-theme-provides-insight-into-the-current-state-of-full-site-editing">Armando WordPress Theme Provides Insight Into the Current State of Full Site Editing</a></p>



<h3><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/blockbase/">Block Base</a>&nbsp;by Automattic</h3>



<p><a href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/06/07/using-blockbase-for-a-theme-experiment/">Using Blockbase for a theme&nbsp;experiment</a> (ThemeShaper) by Kjell Reigstad</p>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/the-automattic-theme-team-announces-blockbase-its-new-block-parent-theme">The Automattic Theme Team Announces Blockbase, Its New Block Parent Theme</a> (WordPress Tavern) by Justin Tadlock</p>



<p><a href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/05/27/blockbase-a-parent-theme-for-block-themes/">Blockbase: A parent theme for block&nbsp;themes</a> (ThemeShaper) by Ben Dwyer</p>



<h4>Child themes of Block Base </h4>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/mayland-blocks/">Mayland Blocks</a> by Automattic </p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/seedlet-blocks/">Seedlet Blocks</a> by Automattic</p>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-launches-mayland-blocks-its-second-fse-theme-on-wordpress-org">Automattic Launches Mayland Blocks, Its Second FSE Theme on WordPress.org</a></p>



<h3><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/block-based-bosco/">Block-Based Bosco</a>&nbsp;by Fränk Klein</h3>



<p><a href="https://wpdevelopment.courses/articles/full-site-editing-theme-learnings/">What I Learned Building a Full-Site Editing Theme</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wpdevelopment.courses/articles/global-styles-in-block-based-bosco/">Implementing Global Styles in Block-Based Bosco</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/block-based-bosco-second-full-site-editing-theme-lands-in-the-wordpress-directory">Block-Based Bosco, Second Full-Site Editing Theme Lands in the WordPress Directory</a></p>



<h3><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/clove/">Clove </a>by Anariel Design</h3>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/clove-a-showcase-of-block-patterns-by-anariel-design">Clove: A Showcase of Block Patterns by Anariel Design</a> (WPTavern)</p>



<h3><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/hansen/">Hansen</a>&nbsp;by Uxl Themes</h3>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/build-a-full-wordpress-site-via-block-patterns-with-the-hansen-theme">Build a Full WordPress Site via Block Patterns With the Hansen Theme</a></p>



<h3><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/naledi/">Naledi&nbsp;</a>by Anariel Design</h3>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/anariel-design-launches-naledi-a-block-based-wordpress-theme">Anariel Design Launches Naledi, a Block-Based WordPress Theme</a> (WordPress Tavern)</p>



<h3><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/q/">Q&nbsp;</a>by Ari Stathopoulos</h3>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/exploring-full-site-editing-with-the-q-wordpress-theme">Exploring Full-Site Editing With the Q WordPress Theme</a></p>



<h3><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/rick/">Rick</a> by WPEntire </h3>



<h3><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tt1-blocks/">TT1 Blocks</a>&nbsp;by WordPress contributors</h3>



<p>This is the FSE sibling of the Twenty-Twenty-One Theme</p>



<p><em>If you find any theme missing in this list, <a href="mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com">let me know.</a></em></p>



<h2>WordPress Themes team resources</h2>



<p>The themes team <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments">share their experiments on GitHub</a>. Some listed themes made it as stand-alone theme into the repository listed above. </p>



<p>Contributors also included a script to <strong>generate a theme</strong> with the minimum necessary to build your own block theme: <code>php new-empty-theme.php</code>.</p>



<p>Every other week, the <strong>themes team meets discussion Block-based themes</strong>: 2nd and 4th Tuesday at 15:00 UTC (11am EDT) wp-slack channel #themereview</p>



<p>Every week, the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/tags/gutenberg-themes-roundup/">Themes team published a <strong>roundup post </strong></a>about newly merged changes, and what is discussed on the GitHub repo for Gutenberg. The post also has a few overview issues so you can always catch up on what is in the works. <em>Follow the #gutenberg-themes-roundup tag on the make-blog/themes</em></p>



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong>, developer relations and program manage for the FSE outreach published a post on ThemeShaper with more <a href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/07/13/resources-for-block-theme-development/">Resources for block theme&nbsp;development</a></p>



<h2>DevNotes for WordPress 5.8 </h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/25/introducing-theme-json-in-wordpress-5-8/">Introducing theme.json in WordPress 5.8</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/29/on-layout-and-content-width-in-wordpress-5-8/">On layout and content width in WordPress 5.8</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/16/introducing-the-template-editor-in-wordpress-5-8/">Introducing the template editor in WordPress 5.8</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/01/block-styles-loading-enhancements-in-wordpress-5-8/">Block-styles loading enhancements in WordPress 5.8</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/29/blocks-in-an-iframed-template-editor/">Blocks in an iframed (template) editor</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/21/bundled-themes-changes-in-wordpress-5-8/">Bundled themes changes in WordPress 5.8</a></li></ul>



<h2>Developer Documentation </h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/block-theme-overview/">Block Theme Overview</a></li><li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/create-block-theme/">Create a Block Theme</a></li><li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/theme-json/">Global Settings (theme.json)</a></li><li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/theme-support/">Theme Support</a></li></ul>



<h2>Courses and Tutorials</h2>



<ul><li>Caroline Nymark: <a href="https://fullsiteediting.com/courses/full-site-editing-for-theme-developers/">Full-site editing For Developers</a></li><li>Fränk Klein: <a href="https://wpdevelopment.courses/courses/building-block-based-themes/">Building Block-Based Themes</a></li><li>Tammie Lister: <a href="https://ephemeralthemes.com/2021/07/17/creating-a-theme/">Creating a Theme</a></li><li>Rich Tabor: <a href="https://richtabor.com/gutenberg-block-templates/">The Ultimate Guide to WordPress Block Templates in Gutenberg</a></li></ul>



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



<p>U<em>pdated 7/21 to add Rich Tabor&#8217;s article on Block Templates </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, 19 Jul 2021 12:31:00 +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:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:75:"WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 13: Cherishing WordPress Diversity";s: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=10949";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/episode-13-cherishing-wordpress-diversity/";s: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:14888:"<p>In this episode, Josepha Haden Chomphosy discusses the importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to the fabric of the WordPress project and how we can move from a place of welcoming it to cherishing it.</p>



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



<h2>Credits</h2>



<p>Editor: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dustinhartzler/">Dustin Hartzler</a></p>



<p>Logo: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/beafialho/">Beatriz Fialho</a></p>



<p>Production: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/">Chloé Bringmann</a></p>



<p>Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod</p>



<h2>References</h2>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/event-formats/diversity-speaker-training-workshop/">Diverse Speaker Training Workshop</a></p>



<p><a href="https://josepha.blog/2020/12/23/a-wordpress-dinner-party/">A WordPress Dinner Party</a></p>



<p><a href="https://josepha.blog/2018/11/06/the-burden-of-proof/">The Burden of Proof</a></p>



<p><a href="https://josepha.blog/2021/03/05/leading-at-any-level/">Leadership At Any Level</a></p>



<p><a href="https://josepha.blog/2019/03/02/building-a-culture-of-safety/">Building a Culture of Safety</a></p>



<p><a href="https://josepha.blog/2020/03/27/leadership-basics-ethics-in-communication/">Leadership Basics: Ethics in Communication</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-6/">WordPress 5.6</a></p>



<p>Bonus resource: <a href="https://allienimmons.com/how-to-be-a-wordpress-ally/">How to Be a WordPress Ally</a></p>



<h2>Transcript</h2>



<span id="more-10949"></span>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>00:10</p>



<p>Hello, everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. And before we get started, I have to be honest with you all, this episode and the next one have made me feel really anxious. This one is about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in open source, and especially in WordPress. And the next one is about accessibility in WordPress. And I feel like there&#8217;s just so much to do, and we don&#8217;t do enough, but we do what we can. And still, we will never be done with that work. And if you don&#8217;t know what I mean by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, you can kind of think of it this way. Diversity is bringing in people with different viewpoints and lived experiences. Equity is making sure everyone has what they need to get a fair chance of success, which is different from equality. And Inclusion is making sure that the environment is built to not only tolerate diverse groups but to celebrate them as well. So remember this as you listen to what I have to say here. We are never where we want to be in either of those spaces. But that shouldn&#8217;t stop us from looking at the things we have done to get us in the right direction. All right. Here we go.</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:54</p>



<p>I say a lot that we are a project that serves a majority collection of minority voices. WordPress is global in reach and open source in nature. And you would assume that what allows the software to be used by anyone would also enable it to be built by anyone. After all, your location doesn&#8217;t matter, and who employs you also doesn&#8217;t matter. And your relative social standing certainly shouldn&#8217;t matter. As long as you can communicate with the others contributing to the project, there should be no obstacle to your participation. The mission of the WordPress project is to democratize publishing, right? It&#8217;s to get the ability to have a website tap into passive income on your web presence. I mean, the job is to level the playing field for everyone. However, it&#8217;s my experience that bringing in new voices takes a lot of proactive work on behalf of leaders and contributors. It&#8217;s not enough to say, &#8220;Hey, I&#8217;m having a party,&#8221; you also have to say, &#8220;I&#8217;m having a party, and I&#8217;d like you to be there.&#8221; It&#8217;s not enough to think people will make their own space at this table. You have to make sure that you have table settings for everyone. And even beyond the basics of directing people to you.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>03:12</p>



<p>And on toward the next steps, you have to be honest about the fact that open source contribution requires a fair amount of privilege. By privilege, I mean the luxury of extra time or extra funding or just an understanding employer. WordPress supports 41% of the web. I think it&#8217;s 42% of the web right now. But less than 1% of people who use WordPress show up to help maintain it. And that 1% that does show up skews toward people who already have a pretty high level of representation and technology. And so, when you look at who is building it versus who is using it, it doesn&#8217;t always match. And since what we build so frequently reflects who we are, sometimes what we build doesn&#8217;t match the needs of the people who are using what we have.</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:10</p>



<p>So what has WordPress done to be proactive on the question of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion? There are quite a few unseen things that have gone into this over the years and a few pretty visible things. This is a very long list. And it has a whole lot of just reference material. And so the show notes today will come in handy for people, and there will be just a laundry list of linked resources for everyone.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:39</p>



<p>But the first thing that WordPress has done is that we have accepted the burden of proof. I&#8217;m going to share a post about this in the show notes. That means we accept that it&#8217;s not the job of underrepresented folks to figure out if they are welcome. It&#8217;s up to us to make it clear that they are. So, there are three big little things that the community has done over the years. One is that many teams open their text-based meetings with an explanation of what is done in the meeting, who comes to the meetings, where to find help if you&#8217;re lost in the meeting, and for teams that have a specific type of requests that comes into those channels that aren&#8217;t handled in those channels. They also will share where people can go to get those requests taken care of. Many teams have also updated their team handbooks to have good beginner docs, limited use of inside jokes or jargon, and good first bugs. And also, there is a code of conduct in the community declaring that everyone is welcome and clarifies what to do if you see folks being unwelcoming.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:51</p>



<p>A second big thing that folks in the WordPress community have done is written down what was unwritten. Having things clearly documented unlocks institutional knowledge that you&#8217;d otherwise have to know someone to get. Clarity and process and the structure help anyone engage with your organization, not just the people who have extra time to figure things out. What that looks like in the WordPress project is that many teams have documented their workflows and their working spaces and just their general team norms. Many teams have also started defining what it means to be a team rep and holding open processes to choose those team reps. Many other community leaders and I have written down countless unspoken rules, guidelines, and philosophical underpinnings so that people don&#8217;t have to guess what we&#8217;re doing or why we&#8217;re doing things, or where we want to do them.</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>06:46</p>



<p>And the more visible thing that the WordPress project has been doing is that we found ways to invite people in, and they&#8217;re not failsafe; they’re not foolproof, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. The first one is an ongoing, diverse speaker training initiative. And I&#8217;ll include a link to that in the show notes as well. It is run by Jill Binder and a fantastic group of contributors that collaborate with her. And I really have loved watching that particular program grow and flourish and help WordPress make a difference where we absolutely can.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>07:27</p>



<p>The second thing that was pretty visible about how we invited people in was at the end of 2020, and we had an all-women and nonbinary release squad for our biggest release of the year; WordPress 5.6. I had a group of probably 70 women and nonbinary identifying folx who joined in the process and joined in learning more about the process. Some of them have continued in the project. Others have stepped away for various reasons. But all of them are welcome to return. And I encourage everyone to return to contribution when time and resources make that possible for you.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>08:09</p>



<p>And then the third thing that we&#8217;ve done, which I have talked about a lot, is the revival of the testing and triage practices. That has been work that&#8217;s been ongoing for a number of years. And it happens across multiple teams. It is not always immediately clear to people why the testing work. And the triage work is identifiable for me as a way to invite people into this process. And so I&#8217;ll be briefly clear about it right now. So testing as a practice brings in the users that otherwise don&#8217;t have a lot of spare time and that extra privilege to like, figure out what&#8217;s going on with WordPress, and contribute their own fixes to problems. They can give back to this project by being co-developers with us, co-creators with our entire process of making WordPress real and usable for the largest number of people that we can because we now support 42% of the web. And then, the triage practice invites in a diverse voice of people. Because you don&#8217;t necessarily always need to know everything about a project to help with triage. And when you&#8217;re helping with triage, you get active learning through participating in the process. But you also get passive learning from the people who already know huge amounts about the project and the process and everything that goes into it. And so it&#8217;s a low key low stress way to get your feet wet and start building that knowledge that sometimes is hard to come by unless you are actively working in it. So the testing practices, the triage practices, I really to the core of my being believe that those are active and ongoing ways for us to invite people who otherwise wouldn&#8217;t have a chance to get their voices heard in an open source project. And y&#8217;all, as I said at the start, y’all, there&#8217;s nothing about this list that I just shared, which makes me feel like our work on this is done. Just like any muscle, you don&#8217;t fight to peak fitness, and then hit the big stop button on time and say, &#8220;Now, I never have to work out again.&#8221; If we did, the world would be a very different place probably. But it does then lead us to the next steps for fostering a community culture that&#8217;s as broad as the people who use this software. If you believe in leadership at any level, as I do, there are a ton of things that you can do right now. But I&#8217;ll boil them down into three big chunks of things.</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>10:54</p>



<p>First, check your community area, or whatever community you want to apply this to, for things that need a little more proactive work. I will share a post called<em> Building A Culture of Safety</em> that will take you through a list of good first steps. And it is not as hard as it looks. When you say build a culture of safety, there are many really clear-cut minor changes that you can ask people to make and, in like, four or five different areas that can help your community be more welcoming and more open.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>11:30</p>



<p>The second thing that you can do is know that small changes add up over time and commit to making those changes where you can. If you are elite at any level, you know that supporting people and processes is the responsibility of everyone in the group. And if you can make your own autonomous decisions and commit to making small changes that make a big difference over time, you will be part of that solution. And that is not specific to any one group that we have in our communities. You can be an ally for anyone, whether they look like you, whether they have your same experiences, or not. And sometimes, it&#8217;s as easy as just holding space for the people who haven&#8217;t had a chance to talk yet. And on the subject of holding space and the way that we communicate.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>12:22</p>



<p>The third thing that I think is incredibly important is that you can take on as a foundational personal practice the concept of ethical communication. I&#8217;ll share a post about that as well in the show notes, but the core of it is that you have to know that what you say and don&#8217;t say what you do and don&#8217;t do has an impact on others and embrace that responsibility. All right, so you made it all the way through, and I am so proud of you. I&#8217;m sure you have questions about this. And I encourage you to share those. You can email them to me at wp briefing@wordpress.org.</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>13:10</p>



<p>This brings us to our small list of big things. I&#8217;ve got two things for you today. First and foremost, WordPress 5.8 gets released tomorrow. It&#8217;s a big release, and lots of people have been working on it. So get your update processes ready and keep an eye on wordpress.org/news for the announcement post. Second, and still pretty important, team reps have been working on their quarterly check-ins so that all other teams can get an idea of what&#8217;s happening around the WordPress office. Keep an eye out for that post on make.wordpress.org/updates. And that is your smallest of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I&#8217;m your host Joseph Hayden Chomphosy, and I&#8217;ll see you again in a couple of weeks.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 19 Jul 2021 12:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Chloe Bringmann";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:110:"Gutenberg Times: Theme creation, Block plugin development and the Future of WordPress – Weekend Edition #178";s: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=18531";s: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:114:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/theme-creation-block-plugin-development-and-the-future-of-wordpress-weekend-edition-17/";s: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:12172:"<p>Howdy, my friends! </p>





<p>WordPress 5.8 will be release next week. Are you ready? Well, if you didn&#8217;t get any chance to test things, you should still be alright. If you know your customers will be fiddling with their site&#8217;s widget section, do yourself a favor and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-widgets/">install the Classic Widget plugin</a>, so there are no surprises. </p>



<p>For last-minute testing, use the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/15/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-4/">Release Candidate number 4</a>. The final release is scheduled for Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/03/wordpress-5-8-field-guide/">Field Guide </a>covers all changes. </p>



<p>Wishing you all the best for the upgrade! Holler if you need any help! </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit</p>



<h2>Gutenberg and the Future of WordPress</h2>



<p>In this week&#8217;s Jukebox episode, host <strong>Nathan Wrigley</strong> discussed with <strong>Robert Jacobi</strong> the Future of WordPress in the era of Gutenberg. <strong><a href="https://wptavern.com/podcast/5-robert-jacobi-on-why-hes-putting-gutenberg-first">Jacobi explained why he is persuing a Gutenberg first approach.</a> </strong>You can listen on WordPress Tavern or your favorite podcast app. </p>



<p><em>From the section “Neither Gutenberg nor WordPress News&#8221;: I am excited about the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/16/22580023/automattic-pocket-casts-podcast-app-tumble-wordpress">acquisition of Pocket Casts by Automattic</a>. I tested many other podcast apps, but Pocket Casts has been my favorite for many, many years.</em>  </p>



<p><strong>Nathan da Silva</strong>, founder of Silva Web Designs, wrote about <a href="https://silvawebdesigns.com/the-future-of-wordpress-page-builders/">the Future of Page Builders</a> and concludes, there are still pieces missing before Gutenberg makes 3rd Party page builders obsolete. Da Silva mentions, Full-Site Editing is not there yet and there are not as many add-on available as Elementor or Beaver Builder provide for their site builders workflow. </p>




<p><strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-47-developing-block-plugins-wordpress-5-8/">Episode #47 is now available</a> with transcript. <br />Next recording July 23, 2021 </strong></p>



<p> <strong>Subscribe to the&nbsp;<a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/">Gutenberg Changelog</a>&nbsp;podcast </strong><br />🎙️&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/620NwVKQJGdTupy36zYxvg?mc_cid=4b6c9f88fe">Spotify</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9ndXRlbmJlcmd0aW1lcy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0">Google</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gutenberg-changelog/id1469294475">iTunes</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://pca.st/podcast/f8445ec0-7508-0137-f267-1d245fc5f9cf">PocketCasts</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stitcher.com/show/gutenberg-changelog">Stitcher</a>&nbsp;|<br />🎙️&nbsp;<a href="https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/chi7j-9904a/Gutenberg-Changelog-Podcast">Pod Bean</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://castbox.fm/channel/Gutenberg-Changelog-id2173375">CastBox</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/gutenberg-changelog-878239/">Podchaser</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/podcast">RSS Feed</a>&nbsp;</p>



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<h2>Block-editor for Content Creators</h2>



<p>On July 29th, 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. UTC. <strong>WordPress VIP</strong> will hold  a webinar with the title <a href="https://wpvip.com/resource/gutenberg-full-site-editing-webinar/"><strong>Gutenberg Full-Site Editing: Unlocking Agility for Enterprise WordPress</strong></a>. James Proctor will share lessons from the cutting edge of implementation. “By taking Gutenberg blocks beyond the post editor, these new features allow content creators unprecedented agility and control over the entire site experience.&nbsp;“ Any site owner and agency will be able to take advantage of the knowledge shared at scale.</p>



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<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/redcrew">Deborah Edwards-Onoro</a></strong> posted a great tutorial on how to <a href="https://www.lireo.com/quick-tip-manage-your-wordpress-block-editor-preferences/">Manage your Block Editor preferences</a> and increase productivity and comfort. </p>



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<p>WordPress 5.8 brings Duotone Filters to images of the block editor. <strong>Justin Tadlock </strong>takes you on a tour of this fabulous new feature: <a href="https://wptavern.com/duotone-filters-wordpress-5-8-puts-a-powerful-image-editing-tool-into-users-hands">Duotone Filters: WordPress 5.8 Puts a Powerful Image-Editing Tool Into Users’ Hands</a>&#8216;.</p>



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<h2>Developing Plugins for the Block Editor</h2>



<p>After the <a href="https://richtabor.com/gutenberg-block-plugins/">Primer</a> last week, <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/richard_tabor">Rich Tabor</a></strong> posted <strong><a href="https://richtabor.com/build-publish-gutenberg-block-plugins/">How to Build &amp; Publish Gutenberg Block Plugins to the WordPress Block Directory.</a></strong> Tabor guides you through the process from <code>create block</code> scaffolding and running the block plugin checker to uploading your block to WordPress repository and get it approved for the Block Directory. </p>



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



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/mkaz">Marcus Kazmierczak</a></strong> wrote a series of posts on how to <a href="https://mkaz.blog/wordpress/conditionally-load-block-assets/"><strong>Conditionally Load Block Assets</strong></a> when building block plugins. There are quite a few different ways to skin that proverbial cat. <a href="https://mkaz.blog/wordpress/conditionally-load-block-assets-part-3/">Start at the latest post</a>, explaining the new WordPress 5.8 way to handle this. Kazmierczak also provides a video walk through. </p>



<p>This helped me to understand the feature <strong>Ari Stathopoulos</strong> worked on and described in his Dev Note: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/01/block-styles-loading-enhancements-in-wordpress-5-8/">Block-styles loading enhancements in WordPress 5.8</a></p>



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



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/riadbenguella">Riad Benguella</a></strong> has a few more<strong> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/12/miscellaneous-block-editor-api-additions-in-wordpress-5-8/">Miscellaneous block editor API additions in WordPress 5.8</a> &#8211; it covers: </strong></p>



<ul><li>Contextual patterns for easier creation and block transformations</li><li>Pattern Registration API</li><li>BlockControls group prop</li></ul>




<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 2021&#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>




<h2>Gutenberg and Themes</h2>



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/jcristpbking">Jason Crist</a> </strong>published this week&#8217;s <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/16/gutenberg-themes-week-of-july-16-2021/"><strong>Gutenberg + Themes</strong></a> roundup. Two issues caught my eye:  </p>



<ul><li>Should it be possible to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/33367">overwrite properties via PHP </a>or should the properties in the theme.json come after PHP properties are set. What do you think?</li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/32939">Is there a case for dynamic template parts?</a> Discuss! </li></ul>



<p>There is of course, much more going on. Another great round-up post from the Theme Team! </p>



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



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> shared <a href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/07/13/resources-for-block-theme-development/"><strong>Resources for block theme&nbsp;development</strong></a> on ThemeShaper. She wrote: &#8220;Whether you’re just starting out or already deep in the block theme world, the following resources should help you be aware of what’s to come and how to get involved in shaping the future.&#8221;</p>



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



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/karmatosed">Tammie Lister</a></strong> published here process on <a href="https://ephemeralthemes.com/2021/07/17/creating-a-theme/"><strong>how to create a theme</strong></a> and what she encountered. She wrote: &#8220;I am still like many discovering how I create themes using site editing, but I wanted to share my current process and some observations I’ve made along the way.&nbsp;&#8220;</p>



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



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/nickmdiego"><strong>Nick Diego</strong> </a>collected three small fixes to his theme to  change the breakpoint for the column block to become responsive, how to change the order of the mobile columns and how to disable responsive columns completely. For the latter, Diego uses a solution by Andy Serong, that is already merged to Gutenberg and will be released with the plugin version 11.2 on July 21st, 2021. Details in <a href="https://nickdiego.com/disable-responsive-columns-in-gutenberg-and-other-tips/"><strong>Disable Responsive Columns in Gutenberg and Other Tips</strong></a></p>



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



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/rob_stino">Rob Stinson</a></strong> posted about <strong><a href="https://studiopress.blog/wordpress-5-8-widgets-changes-and-how-they-impact-the-genesis-framework/">WordPress 5.8 Widgets Changes and How they Impact the Genesis Framework</a>.</strong> He wrote: &#8220;To help navigate this for the 100,000’s of sites that run on the Genesis Framework we have implemented an&nbsp;<em>opt-in</em>&nbsp;experience in version 3.3.4 for whenever anyone updates to WordPress 5.8.&#8221;</p>




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



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



<p></p>





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



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<hr class="wp-block-separator 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, 17 Jul 2021 23:19:47 +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: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:30;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"WPTavern: Identify and Select Blocks via the Wayfinder WordPress Plugin";s: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=120070";s: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:187:"https://wptavern.com/identify-and-select-blocks-via-the-wayfinder-wordpress-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=identify-and-select-blocks-via-the-wayfinder-wordpress-plugin";s: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:6962:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Christopher John, a Seattle-based designer and UX engineer, released his first project to the plugin directory yesterday. <a href="https://twitter.com/theMOLITOR/status/1415744294414000128">Announced via Twitter</a> to high praise, <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wayfinder/">Wayfinder</a> is a block outline solution for the WordPress editor.</p>



<p>Like similar plugins, the goal is to make it easier for end-users to select nested blocks, which can sometimes be tough to pin down. Wayfinder outlines each block in the editor on hover. It then displays the block name at the upper left of the box.</p>



<p>My favorite feature that you will not find elsewhere is the addition of each block&rsquo;s classes at the bottom right of the box. This makes it easy for designers or users who want to quickly find a class for styling.</p>



<img />Outline of a Heading block.



<p>Users can also enable or disable the pieces of the UI they want to appear via the plugin&rsquo;s setting screen. However, any changes affect all of the site&rsquo;s user experiences. Currently, there are no per-user settings.</p>



<p>At first glance, the plugin seemed to work great. The hover outline experience felt smooth, and I did not need to change the default options. Wayfinder almost seemed to be everything one might look for in a block-outline solution. It was besting existing plugins in nearly every way.</p>



<p>However, things soon began rolling downhill when writing a typical blog post with nothing other than Heading, Paragraph, and Image blocks. I first noticed that I could not type the same number of words as usual on one line. My perfectly-tuned typography was breaking sooner than it should have. Spacing between paragraphs seemed a bit too large. My wide-aligned images were just a little smaller than usual.</p>



<p>The user experience still felt good until this point, but the little oddities were stacking up. Something was not right. The plugin had been showered with praise on Twitter and already received three five-star reviews in its first 24 hours. Maybe my custom theme was the issue. However, similar problems arose when testing several others, such as Twenty Twenty-One, Nutmeg, and Eksell &mdash; each a well-rounded theme catered to the block editor.</p>



<p>As clean as the plugin&rsquo;s UI is, it more often than not wrecks the theme&rsquo;s default block spacing. This becomes more noticeable as users begin adding nested layers of blocks.</p>



<p>The problem is the plugin adds 18 pixels of padding around every block via its stylesheet.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>.wp-block:not(.block-list-appender) {
    position: relative;
    outline: 1px dashed transparent;
    <strong>padding: 18px;</strong>
    overflow: visible !important;
}</code></pre>



<p>To the untrained eye, this may not be a visible issue in many cases. It will affect each site differently, but 18 pixels of extra padding on every block will undoubtedly mess things up to some degree unless the theme itself uses that exact same spacing in its design.</p>



<p>The more noticeable issues are seen with blocks like Social Icons:</p>



<img />Holy moly! Those are some gigantic social icons!



<p>But, even something as basic as a List block can be misaligned:</p>



<img />List block shifted out of alignment.



<p>Theme authors can write custom CSS to overrule the plugin&rsquo;s padding. However, the last thing the WordPress community needs is a specificity war between themes and plugins. Themers already have to do this enough to wrangle blocks now.</p>



<p>Removing that one <code>padding</code> rule from the plugin&rsquo;s <code>editor-style.css</code> killed 99% of its issues. Afterward, things were running like a well-oiled machine.</p>



<p>As a developer, I would explore <code><a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/outline-offset">outline-offset</a></code> for spacing between the block and its outline, maybe cutting that <code>18px</code> down a bit. Because outlines are not a part of the CSS box model, it would not affect spacing. Adjustments may be necessary on a per-block basis, especially when those blocks are nested or small (e.g., Social Icons, Navigation). It would carry its own challenges but should be a less destructive course.</p>



<p>To a lesser extent, the plugin&rsquo;s <code>overflow</code> rule breaks the theme design from time to time. Its <code>position</code> and <code>outline</code> rules could overrule some edge-case block styles too, but they are necessary for the plugin to actually do its job. In particular, I could see positioning being problematic with sticky headers as we get into site editing.</p>



<p>The only other issue might be themes that use <code>::before</code> and <code>::after</code> pseudo-elements on blocks, but the plugin also needs to overwrite those to display the block name and classes list. This is likely another edge case.</p>



<p>Despite the issues, the plugin is ahead of the pack at this point.</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/editor-blocks-border/">Gutenberg Editor Full Width Blocks Border</a> (<em>a bit of a mouthful</em>), another recent plugin to offer similar functionality, breaks custom theme design across the board. It does accomplish the job of making blocks easier to select, but the sacrifice of a WYSIWYG is not worth it.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/editor-block-outline/">Editor Block Outline</a> plugin has been my <a href="https://wptavern.com/navigate-the-content-canvas-with-the-block-editor-outline-wordpress-plugin">go-to recommendation</a> for a while. It has a few design issues of its own, but some of those are adjustable on a per-user basis. However, as of late, it has made the editor feel sluggish. Plus, its misuse of the WordPress admin notice system for Twitter followers makes it something I&rsquo;d prefer to steer clear of.</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-options/">EditorsKit</a> has a similar &ldquo;block guidelines&rdquo; feature that uses a box-shadow instead of padding and an outline. It does not muck up most theme layouts with that technique. However, I have hit other style conflicts with the plugin. Plus, EditorsKit is overkill for users who simply want just one feature.</p>



<p>That leaves us with Wayfinder. Warts and all, it is the best standalone option right now. Maybe that&rsquo;s not saying much, but it is saying something. This is a feature that is hard to nail down.  I do not envy the developers who are trying to make miracles happen.</p>



<p>It is sure to please many who have been on the lookout for a block outline solution. It is in a position to pull farther ahead of the competition with its relatively solid first outing. With more thorough theme testing and a bit of adjustment to its approach, it could be even better. I am eager to test future iterations.</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, 17 Jul 2021 01:56:53 +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: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:31;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"WordPress.org blog: People of WordPress: Tijana Andrejic";s: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=10427";s: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://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/people-of-wordpress-tijana-andrejic/";s: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:13617:"<p><strong>WordPress is open source software, maintained by a global network of contributors. There are many examples of how WordPress has changed people’s lives for the better. In this monthly series, we share some of the amazing stories.</strong></p>



<p>This month to coincide with WordCamp Europe, we feature Tijana Andrejic from Belgrade, Serbia, about her journey from fitness trainer to the WordPress world, with the freelance and corporate opportunities it introduced. </p>



<img width="632" height="387" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/06/2021-07-Tijana-Andrejic_Featured-Img_1.jpg?resize=632%2C387&ssl=1" alt="Tijana - portrait picture" class="wp-image-10713" />



<p>As a professional manager with a college degree in Organizational Science and a certified fitness instructor, Tijana is nothing if not driven and goal-oriented.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Following her time as a fitness trainer, Tijana moved to work in IT around 2016. She first explored content creation and design before focusing on SEO and becoming an independent specialist.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Tijana was hired as a Customer Happiness Engineer for a hosting company, where she discovered the benefits of having a team. She realized that having close working relationships with colleagues is helpful for business success and accelerates personal growth.</p>



<p>Tijana hopes that by sharing her story, she can help others who are either starting their career or are moving roles. She describes the opportunities she discovered in the WordPress community as ‘a huge epiphany’, especially in the world of freelancing.</p>



<p>She highlights <strong>5 things that helped her to start a new freelancing career</strong>. Let’s dive into them.</p>



<h2>What motivates me?</h2>



<p>“Why am I doing this?” is the first question that Tijana asks herself before starting anything new. This self-review and honesty, she feels, allows her to determine her priorities. She also benchmarks options around her motivations of wanting a flexible schedule and to grow professionally.&nbsp;</p>



<p>She lists the reasons to make a particular choice, like being a freelancer, to help her choose the right job, pathway, or identify alternatives.&nbsp;</p>



<p>She recommends that others can take a similar approach. If freelancing is still the best solution after examining all their goals and motivations, Tijana believes a good next step would be to learn WordPress-related skills.</p>



<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/cdHeIL-H_mE6QFCUxUT-gfKS2GzizRHtn4iCENoaWOimC82BfModRJh44QbhvHPW0GNVP5eUPhgxQteDRbA_9EUzpssTXMGWje1hUuKyrfXUgGhCnvXQdraaUQiaGBjFr73dNYxr" alt="WordCamp Europe 2019 group picture" />



<h2>Develop WordPress related skills</h2>



<p>The next question you may ask: “Why WordPress?”</p>



<p>WordPress is used by more than 40% of websites in some form and offers various roles, many of which are not developer-specific. Tijana highlights a few:&nbsp;</p>



<ul><li>web developer (coding websites, themes, and plugins)</li><li>web implementor (creating websites from existing themes without coding)</li><li>web designer (designing website mock-ups, editing images, or creating online infographics)</li><li>client support professional (helping people with their websites)</li><li>website maintenance (WordPress, themes, and plugins are maintained and backed up regularly)</li><li>WordPress trainer (helping clients with how to use the platform or teaching other web professionals)</li><li>content writer</li><li>accessibility specialist (making sure standards are met and suggesting solutions for accessibility barriers)</li><li>SEO consultant (improving search outcomes and understanding)</li><li>statistics consultant, especially for web shops</li><li>WordPress assistant (adding new content and editing existing posts)</li><li>website migration specialist (moving websites from one server to another)</li><li>web security specialist</li></ul>



<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/16XExYT_P4R4PX3orOaWbueDfkBIA6PFQ-CuYEXdeN9AvUIuIF33aIjT1DpdnFCqhrijWv1f68OR2Qh14xGT9REHGJ-MqK-OxJ9XcrhZ3IkcW8DBI7nVAtvFcCnCHL0woka_FV6t" alt="WCBGD group picture" />



<p>Tijana emphasized: “Another reason why WordPress is great for freelancers is the strong community that exists around this content management system (CMS).&#8221; WordCamps and Meetups are a way to get useful information and meet people from a large and very diverse community and get answers to many questions straight away.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In the past year, these events have been primarily online. However, the contributors who run them continue to make an effort to provide an experience as close to in-person events as possible. The biggest advantage to online events is that we can attend events from across the world, even if sometimes during these difficult times, it is difficult to get enough time to deeply into this new experience. Since Tijana’s first Meetup, she has attended many WordPress community events and volunteered as a speaker.</p>



<h2>Plan in advance</h2>



<p>Becoming a freelancer takes time. For Tijana, success came with proper planning and following her plan to ‘acquire or improve relevant skills that will make you stand out in the freelance market.’ She strongly believes that learning and growing as a professional opens more business opportunities.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If you are considering a freelance career, she advises improving relevant skills or developing new skills related to your hobbies as ‘there is nothing better than doing what you love.’ In cases where no previous experience and knowledge can be used, she suggests choosing ‘a job that has a shorter learning curve and builds your knowledge around that.’</p>



<p>Tijana started as a content creator and learned to become an SEO expert. However, she highlights many alternative paths, including starting as a web implementer and moving to train as a developer.&nbsp;</p>



<p>She suggests to others: “It would be a good idea to analyze the market before you jump into the learning process.” She also recommends people check the latest trends and consider the future of the skills they are developing.</p>



<p>Visit the new <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress.org</a> to see what topics are of interest to you. In this newly established resource, the WordPress community aggregates workshops to support those who want to start and improve their skills, provides lesson plans for professional WordPress trainers and helps you create personal learning to develop key skills. There is also material on helping you be part of and organize events for your local community.</p>



<p>Tijana highlights that there are many places for freelancers to find clients. For example, the WordPress Community has a place where companies and individual site owners publish their job advertisements&nbsp; &#8211; <a href="https://jobs.wordpress.net/">Jobs.WordPress.net</a>.</p>



<h2>Hurray, it’s time to get a first freelancing job</h2>



<p>As a pragmatic person, Tijana recommends: “Save money before quitting your job to become a full-time freelancer. Alternatively, try freelancing for a few hours per week to see if you like it. Although some people do benefit when taking a risk, think twice before you take any irreversible actions.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>She shared some possible next steps:&nbsp;</p>



<ul><li>use a freelancing platform</li><li>triple-check your resume</li><li>professionally present yourself</li><li>fill up your portfolio with examples</li><li>use video material</li></ul>



<p>“By using video material, your clients will not see you like a list of skills and previous experiences, but as a real person that has these skills and experiences and that provides a certain service for them.”</p>



<p>She adds: “Have a detailed strategy when choosing your first employer. Choose your first employer wisely, very wisely. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is”.</p>



<p>When Tijana took her first freelancing job, she considered the following:</p>



<ul><li>how was the employer rated by other freelancers who worked for him previously</li><li>how does the employer rate other freelancers</li><li>how much money had they already spent on the platform</li><li>the number of open positions for a specific job and the number of freelancers that have already applied&nbsp;</li></ul>



<p>“The first job is not all about the money. Don’t get greedy on your first job. If you get good recommendations, your second job can pay two to three times more. And your third job can go up to five times more. That was my experience.”</p>



<h2>Take responsibility as a freelancer</h2>



<p>Tijana reminds us: “Freedom often comes with responsibility; individual responsibility is key when it comes to freelancing.”</p>



<p>She advises others not to take a job if you can not make a deadline and have someone reliable who can help you.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Missing deadlines will cost your client money and affect the review the client will be willing to leave about your job, and this can have a big impact on your future opportunities or freelance jobs.</p>



<p>She adds: “This can start a downward spiral for your career. However, we are all humans, and unpredictable things can happen. If for some reason you are not able to complete your work in a timely manner, let your client know immediately so they can have enough time to hire someone else”.</p>



<p>Tijana emphasizes the importance of making expectations clear before accepting a job, both what the client is expecting and what you can expect from the client.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Lastly, she points out that if you are working from home, your friends and family should treat you the way they would if you were in an office. She advises: “Let them know about your working schedule.”</p>



<p>She hopes that these basic guidelines will be useful in launching freelance careers, as they did her, even though there is no universal recipe for all.</p>



<p>Tijana highlights: “It’s just important to stay focused on your goals and to be open to new opportunities.” Freelancing wasn’t the only way she could have fulfilled her goals, but it was an important part of her path, and it helped her be confident in her abilities to make the next big step in her life.</p>



<p>As a freelancer, she was missing close relationships with colleagues and teamwork, which she has now found in her current firm. Her colleagues describe her as a: “walking-talking bundle of superpowers: sports medicine and fitness professional, SEO expert, blogger, designer and a kitty foster mum”.</p>



<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/PIGT9R6FmtEHsNBvWzyViW5htRAm156asTOsohOGOUwfsWjW1TuDhUI9yuZnjIe-1eFHfFUWPULPtw82P3YYXHa0bsY_jA5keelmDHfSkTdd3xUsVZTmG9KvdE8XTojvU3LxYCsi" alt="Conference reception" />



<p>If you are considering starting your career as a freelancer, take the courses offered at <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">learn.wordpress.org,</a> reach out to companies that you would be interested in working with, and remember that there are a whole host of opportunities in the WordPress project.</p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/">The WordPress.org Teams</a> &#8211; what they do, when and where they meet</p>



<p><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress resource</a> &#8211; free to use to expand your knowledge and skills of using the platform and learning about the community around it.</p>



<p>The 3-day <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2021/">WordCamp Europe 2021</a> online event begins on 7 June 2021. You can discover more about being a contributor in its live sessions and <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2021/contribute-to-wordpress/">section on ways to contribute to WordPress</a>.</p>



<h2>Contributors</h2>



<p>Thanks to Olga Gleckler (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/oglekler/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>oglekler</a>), Abha Thakor (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/">@webcommsat</a>), Chloé Bringmann (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>cbringmann</a>), Surendra Thakor (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sthakor/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>sthakor</a>), and Meher Bala (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/meher/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>meher</a>) for working on this story. Josepha Haden (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/">@chanthaboune</a>) and also to Topher DeRosia (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/topher1kenobe/">@topher1kenobe</a>) who created HeroPress. Thank you to Tijana Andrejic (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/andtijana/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>andtijana</a>) for sharing her #ContributorStory</p>



<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/FEZ2FQJ0vQ311YoPfh6ny15NXh8saTLH_RjyDO4pUOuEGBTa-Czk63PGoWL04FawKviRfNx0QXePx-goK04X12ry1BR_WXh-kVPIfsEeItPAX6reN5fHS96q6-8dUI506ZO38Z0G" alt="HeroPress logo" />



<p><em>This post is based on an article originally published on HeroPress.com. It highlights people in the WordPress community who have overcome barriers and whose stories would otherwise go unheard.</em></p>



<p><em>Meet more WordPress community members in our <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/category/heropress/">People of WordPress series</a>.</em></p>



<p><em>#ContributorStory #HeroPress</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:"Fri, 16 Jul 2021 22:45:03 +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: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:32;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"WPTavern: Automattic Acquires Pocket Casts";s: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=120114";s: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:129:"https://wptavern.com/automattic-acquires-pocket-casts?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=automattic-acquires-pocket-casts";s: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:3288:"<p>Automattic has <a href="https://wordpress.com/blog/2021/07/16/popular-podcast-app-pocket-casts-joins-automattic/">acquired Pocket Casts</a>, a popular podcast listening, search, and discovery app for Android and iOS. Australian co-founders Russell Ivanovic and Philip Simpson are staying on to continue leading Pocket Casts as a part of the acquisition. </p>



<p>The app allows users to keep all of their podcast subscriptions together in one place and sync between platforms. Previously a commercial-only app, Pocket Casts has been free since it switched to the freemium model in September 2019. Its creators have been monetizing the app through its Pocket Cast Plus tier, which gives users access to desktop apps, cloud storage, watch playback, and themes and icons for $9.99/year.</p>



<p>In May 2018, Pocket Casts was acquired by public media organizations NPR, WNYC Studios, WBEZ Chicago, and This American Life. BBC Studios also held a small ownership stake in the platform prior to Automattic&rsquo;s acquisition. </p>



<p>Despite being widely regarded as one of the best podcasting apps available, NPR&rsquo;s <a href="https://media.npr.org/documents/about/statements/fy2020/National%20Public%20Radio%20-%20Consolidated%20Financial%20Statements%202020.pdf">financial statements and auditor&rsquo;s report from 2020</a> shows a net loss of more than $800K. The board governing the company met in December 2020 and agreed to sell Pocket Casts.</p>



<p>No financial details of the acquisition were disclosed but Automattic may have gotten a bargain on Pocket Casts if its other owners were also losing money. After acquiring <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-acquires-tumblr-plans-to-rebuild-the-backend-powered-by-wordpress">Tumblr</a> and <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-acquires-day-one-journaling-app">Day One</a>, Automattic is starting to gain a reputation for buying up apps that people love to use and giving them a fighting chance at financial stability and longevity. The company has also demonstrated a growing interest in podcasting-related technologies with its  recent <a href="https://wptavern.com/castos-picks-up-756k-in-funding-from-automattic-and-joost-de-valk-to-expand-services-in-the-private-podcasting-market">investment in Castos</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.com/blog/2021/02/22/turn-your-wordpress-com-blog-into-a-podcast-with-anchor/">partnership with Spotify&rsquo;s Anchor</a> podcast creation platform.</p>



<p>Acquisition announcements often include assurances of no changes for current customers but Automattic&rsquo;s post made no promises and did not share many details regarding its plans for Pocket Casts. Integration with WordPress.com may be on the horizon but it&rsquo;s currently in the exploration stage. </p>



<p>&ldquo;As part of Automattic, Pocket Casts will continue to provide you with the features needed to enjoy your favorite podcasts (or find something new),&rdquo; Automattic&rsquo;s Head of Apps Eli Budelli said.&nbsp;&ldquo;We will explore building deep integrations with WordPress.com and Pocket Casts, making it easier to distribute and listen to podcasts. We&rsquo;re thrilled that we can continue to give our users a multitude of ways to tell and engage with stories that matter.&rdquo;</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, 16 Jul 2021 22:39:02 +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: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:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:97:"WPTavern: Google Concludes FLoC Origin Trial, Does Not Intend to Share Feedback from Participants";s: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=119872";s: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:237:"https://wptavern.com/google-concludes-floc-origin-trial-does-not-intend-to-share-feedback-from-participants?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-concludes-floc-origin-trial-does-not-intend-to-share-feedback-from-participants";s: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:6127:"<p>Google quietly concluded its <a href="https://github.com/WICG/floc">FLoC</a> (Federated Learning of Cohorts) origin trial this week. The trial was part of Google&rsquo;s <a href="https://privacysandbox.com/">Privacy Sandbox</a> initiative, a suite of new technologies designed to replace third-party cookies, fingerprinting, and other commonly-used tracking mechanisms. This particular experiment groups people together based on browsing habits and labels them using machine learning. </p>



<p>FLoC&rsquo;s trial was scheduled to end Jul 13, 2021, and Google has decided to remove the project from the testing phase while analyzing feedback.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve decided not to extend this initial Origin Trial,&rdquo; Google senior software engineer Josh Karlin said in <a href="https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/MmijXrmwrJs/m/f0Nc6h-KAQAJ">thread</a> on Chromium&rsquo;s Blink Developers group forum. &ldquo;Instead, we&rsquo;re hard at work on improving FLoC to incorporate the feedback we&rsquo;ve heard from the community before advancing to further ecosystem testing.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The controversial experiment has been met with opposition from privacy advocates like makers of the <a href="https://brave.com/why-brave-disables-floc/">Brave</a> browser and <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/googles-floc-terrible-idea">EFF</a> who do not perceive FLoC to be a compelling alternative to the surveillance business model currently used by the advertising industry. Amazon, GitHub, Firefox, Vivaldi, Drupal, Joomla, DuckDuckGo, and other major tech companies and open source projects have already opted to block FLoC by default. </p>



<p>So far, Twitter has been the first major online platform that <a href="https://9to5google.com/2021/07/05/twitter-appears-to-be-on-board-with-googles-floc-initiative/">appears to be on board with FLoC</a> after references to it were recently discovered in the app&rsquo;s source code. </p>



<p>Google&rsquo;s initial efforts in presenting FLoC failed to gain broad support, which may have contributed to the company putting the brakes on its plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome by 2022. As the advertising industry yields to pressure from the last few years of privacy legislation, third-party cookies will be on their way out in what is colloquially known as the &ldquo;Cookie Apocalypse.&rdquo; Google has <a href="https://blog.google/products/chrome/updated-timeline-privacy-sandbox-milestones/">postponed</a> this milestone for Chrome to begin in mid-2023 and end in late 2023.&nbsp;</p>



<p>&ldquo;We need to move at a responsible pace,&rdquo; Chrome Privacy Engineering Director Vinay Goel said. &ldquo;This will allow sufficient time for public discussion on the right solutions, continued engagement with regulators, and for publishers and the advertising industry to migrate their services. This is important to avoid jeopardizing the business models of many web publishers which support freely available content.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Discussion on a <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53069">proposal for WordPress to block FLoC</a> has stalled in Trac but may have been premature in the first place if FLoC doesn&rsquo;t end making it to further testing. Proponents of blocking FLoC saw WordPress&rsquo; support or opposition as critical to the success or failure of FLoC adoption on the web.</p>



<p>A recent article on the WordPress.com VIP blog titled &ldquo;<a href="https://wpvip.com/2021/06/23/goodbye-third-party-cookies-hello-googles-floc/">Goodbye, Third-Party Cookies, Hello Google&rsquo;s FloC,</a>&rdquo; indicates that Automattic may be straddling the fence on the controversial new technology:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>FLoC has its plus points. But it isn&rsquo;t as privacy-focused as we would like, and can lead to discriminatory practices, as described above. Then there&rsquo;s the concern of letting Google dominate yet another aspect of tech. Google also plans to charge any third-party tracking company for use of any of the data it has collected.</p></blockquote>



<p>For the time being, it looks like major tech platforms are off the hook for taking an active position on FLoC since it has been sent back for major modifications. In the most recently <a href="https://blog.google/products/chrome/updated-timeline-privacy-sandbox-milestones/">updated timeline</a> for Privacy Sandbox milestones, Vinay Goel said Google received &ldquo;substantial feedback from the web community during the origin trial for the&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.google/products/chrome/privacy-sustainability-and-the-importance-of-and/">first version</a>&nbsp;of FLoC.&rdquo; </p>



<p>At the conclusion of its origin trial, FLoC seems far from ready for adoption, having failed to gain a foothold in the industry. The concern is that Google may ram FLoC through anyway using the weight of Chrome&rsquo;s market share, despite the web community&rsquo;s chilly reception. Although these proposed changes to ad tech will impact the entire industry, as well as regular internet users, <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/08/google_floc_changes/">Google does not intend to disclose any of the private feedback</a> the company received during FLoC&rsquo;s origin trial.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The main summary of that feedback will be the next version, and you can surmise based on what features (and the reasoning for these changes) are available in the next version,&rdquo; Google mathematician Michael Kleber said during a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/lukOlejnik/status/1413096551359123457">Web Commerce Interest Group (WCIG) meeting</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Privacy advocates want to see more transparency incorporated into this process so that major concerns are not left unaddressed, instead of leaving it to stakeholders across the web to try to deduce what Google has solved in the next version of FLoC. Overhauling the advertising industry with new technologies should be done in the open if these changes are truly intended to protect people&rsquo;s privacy.</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, 16 Jul 2021 03:26:21 +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: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:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"WPTavern: Edupack Is Tackling Higher Ed With WordPress, Looking for Development Partners";s: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=119928";s: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:219:"https://wptavern.com/edupack-is-tackling-higher-ed-with-wordpress-looking-for-development-partners?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=edupack-is-tackling-higher-ed-with-wordpress-looking-for-development-partners";s: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:6721:"<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re basically building the Jetpack for Higher Ed,&rdquo; said Blake Bertuccelli as he pitched me on the idea of <a href="https://edupack.dev/">Edupack</a>, a project still in its early stages.</p>



<p>He and his team are looking for more advisors to <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/braintrust-008-wordpress-blocks-for-higher-ed-pros-tickets-163114043495">join the eighth round</a> of their once-monthly braintrust events. It is a project they began in November 2020, now coming to fruition. Feedback is crucial to pushing such undertakings out of the gate, and the team needs more of it.</p>



<p>Bertuccelli listed several focal points for the Edupack project:</p>



<ul><li><strong>Onboarding:</strong> New campus users can set up a beautiful campus WordPress site with a few clicks.</li><li><strong>Archiving:</strong> Stale sites are automatically archived to save campus resources.</li><li><strong>Reporting:</strong> Accessibility, plagiarism, and resource usage can be accessed from the Edupack dashboard.</li><li><strong>Brand and Content Management:</strong> Approved Higher Ed content patterns and universal brand controls keep sites beautiful and consistent.</li><li><strong>Configuration Management:</strong> Cloud-controlled configuration settings means admins can control millions of sites from one place.</li></ul>



<img />Onboarding form with Tulane-branded elements.



<p>&ldquo;Our onboarding form offers pre-built sites for users to start from,&rdquo; said Bertuccelli. &ldquo;So, if a scientist needs a new site for their lab, the scientist can select a pre-built lab site from our onboarding form then add in their unique content.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Bertuccelli is Edupack&rsquo;s CEO. He called himself a &ldquo;forever learner&rdquo; and is currently reading <em>A History of Western Philosophy</em> by Bertrand Russell.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I paid for my Tulane education by coding WordPress themes,&rdquo; said Bertuccelli. &ldquo;After college, I founded one of New Orleans&rsquo; first WordPress dev shops (<a href="https://decubing.com/">Decubing</a>). A year ago, I presented on building a self-publishing platform with Multisite at WP Campus. The feedback was phenomenal, and two blokes from Birmingham offered to work on a plugin with me. A few months later, we launched Edupack&rsquo;s MVP. Since then, folks from Harvard, Dartmouth, and about 17 other universities have been working with us to make WordPress an even better CMS for Higher Ed pros.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The &ldquo;two blokes&rdquo; he is referring to are his co-founders, Nathan Monk and Matt Lees. They run a WordPress shop called <a href="http://wearesmile.com/">SMILE</a>. Monk is serving as Edupack&rsquo;s CTO. Lees is the Chief Creative Officer &mdash; Bertuccelli called him &ldquo;Lord of the UX.&rdquo; Altogether, the three co-founders have over 30 years of experience working with Higher Ed and WordPress.</p>



<p>The Edupack team is making accessible content a priority, which is a primary issue for Higher Ed. The goal is to offer A11Y reports inside of the WordPress dashboard and tie them into publishing workflows. This would notify users of errors as they publish content.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Our accessibility reports tie into another feature we are launching this month: site archiving,&rdquo; said Bertuccelli. &ldquo;Campus users graduate and often forget about their sites. Edupack sends a notification to a user if the site hasn&rsquo;t been accessed, then adds an &ldquo;archived&rdquo; meta value to the site that super administrators can take action from.</p>



<img />Setting up automated archiving.



<p>&ldquo;Devs often recode thousands of sites to add new Campus branding,&rdquo; said Bertuccelli on the reasons behind Edupack. &ldquo;Department budgets are drained on resources for stale sites. Institutions are sued over inaccessible content or misused branding.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Edupack intends to automate website management so that Higher Ed pros can focus on supporting education.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The following video is an introduction to Edupack:</p>



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

</div>



<h2>Join the Braintrust Session</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Every third Wednesday of each month, Edupack holds a &ldquo;Braintrust&rdquo; event. Bertuccelli says it is the best way to get involved. The session lasts for an hour over a Zoom video chat. The <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/braintrust-008-wordpress-blocks-for-higher-ed-pros-tickets-163114043495">next event is scheduled</a> for July 21, 10 am &ndash; 11 am (CDT).</p>



<p>Each session focuses on a single question. Next week&rsquo;s question: &ldquo;How can we enhance WordPress blocks for Higher Ed?&rdquo;</p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll demo Edupack updates, brainstorm solutions for block enhancements, then wrap up with action steps for us to do by next month,&rdquo; said Bertuccelli. &ldquo;Folks who manage WordPress sites for global institutions and companies have attended our last seven braintrusts. Any Higher Ed pro is welcome!&rdquo;</p>



<p>Those interested can also keep track of progress via the <a href="https://joinedupack.wordpress.com/">Edupack blog</a>.</p>



<h2>Pricing and the Future</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">There is currently no publicly available pricing list. The project&rsquo;s <a href="https://edupack.dev/frequently-asked-questions/">FAQs page</a> says the team is still tuning the costs, and Bertuccelli remained quiet on any hard numbers.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Community colleges can&rsquo;t afford tech used by bigger schools,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not fair. Edupack will be priced so that every institution can afford the service. We haven&rsquo;t thought about pricing beyond that.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Universities that wish to get check out the project should schedule a demo from the site&rsquo;s homepage.</p>



<p>Edupack has around 20 institutions serving as development partners and guiding <a href="https://github.com/orgs/joinedupack/projects/2">the roadmap</a>. The team invites new schools to join every few months. Currently, Tulane and the University of Gloucestershire are using Edupack. Harvard and Dartmouth should be next.</p>



<p>The service is limited to universities and colleges at the moment. However, the team would eventually like to expand across the education sector. After that, we will have to see.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Edupack&rsquo;s features can be applied to any industry where users run lots of sites,&rdquo; said Bertuccelli. &ldquo;I could see ad agencies using Edupack, hosting companies integrating our tools, and School Districts running their site network via Edupack and WordPress.&rdquo;</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, 16 Jul 2021 02:07:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:46:"BuddyPress: BuddyPress 9.0.0 Release Candidate";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://buddypress.org/?p=319979";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"https://buddypress.org/2021/07/buddypress-9-0-0-release-candidate/";s: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:4379:"<p><strong>Important note</strong>: this BuddyPress release was built in a short time frame (<em>we even skipped the beta release</em>) to be ready for the release of WordPress 5.8. Our team&#8217;s primary goal for 9.0.0 was to migrate the BP Legacy Widgets to new BP Widget Blocks. You don&#8217;t necessarily need <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-3/">the latest WordPress 5.8 pre-release</a> to test the <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.9.0.0-RC1.zip">BuddyPress 9.0.0 Release Candidate</a>, but we&#8217;d be happy if you could use both pre-release versions to have your feedback about your experience with managing the BP Widget Blocks within the Widget Block Editor.</p>



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



<div class="wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center">
<div class="wp-block-button has-custom-font-size has-medium-font-size"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-background" href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.9.0.0-RC1.zip"><strong>Contribute to BuddyPress: test 9.0.0-RC1</strong></a></div>
</div>



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



<p>&#8220;Release Candidate&#8221; means that we believe the new version is ready for release, but with more than 200,000 active installs, hundreds of BuddyPress plugins and Thousands of WordPress themes, it’s possible something was missed. BuddyPress 9.0.0 is slated for release&nbsp;on&nbsp;<strong>July 19, 2021</strong>, but&nbsp;<em>your</em>&nbsp;help is needed to get there <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" />.</p>



<p>You can test the <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.9.0.0-RC1.zip">9.0.0-RC1</a> pre-release in 4 ways :</p>



<ul><li>Try the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/bp-beta-tester/">BP Beta Tester</a> plugin.</li><li><a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.9.0.0-RC1.zip">Download the release candidate here (zip file)</a>.</li><li>Check out our SVN repository: <code>svn co https://buddypress.svn.wordpress.org/trunk/</code></li><li>Clone our read-only Git repository: <code>git clone git://buddypress.git.wordpress.org/</code></li></ul>



<p>A detailed changelog will be part of our official release note. In the meantime,&nbsp;you can check the <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/query?group=status&milestone=9.0.0">9.0.0 milestone changes list from our Trac environment</a>.</p>



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



<h2>In one picture, here&#8217;s what to expect in 9.0.0</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/07/bp-widget-blocks.jpg"><img width="1024" height="689" src="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/07/bp-widget-blocks-1024x689.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-319980" /></a></div>



<p>The 10 BuddyPress legacy widgets will have their corresponding BP Blocks so that you can fully enjoy them within the next Widget Block editor and of course inside your Post/Page Block Editor.</p>



<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>The BP Block collection is going to be tripled from 5 to 15 Blocks <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f64c.png" alt="🙌" class="wp-smiley" /></strong></p>



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



<h2>How you can help</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap has-normal-font-size"><strong><span class="has-inline-color"><sup>T</sup>his is really important</span></strong>: this release also marks the&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#string-freeze">string freeze</a>&nbsp;point of the 9.0.0 release schedule. And we have less than <strong>4 days</strong> to update BuddyPress translation.</p>



<p class="has-normal-font-size">So if you speak a language other than English, please&nbsp;<a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/buddypress/">help us translate BuddyPress into as many languages as possible!</a></p>



<p>PS: <strong>If you think you’ve found a bug</strong>, you can share it with us replying to this&nbsp;<a href="https://buddypress.org/support/topic/buddypress-9-0-0-release-candidate/">support topic</a>&nbsp;or if you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report,&nbsp;<a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/">file one on BuddyPress Trac</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, 15 Jul 2021 20:45:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Mathieu Viet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"WPTavern: WordPress 5.8 Media Library Changes You Should Know About";s: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=120010";s: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:179:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-media-library-changes-you-should-know-about?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-5-8-media-library-changes-you-should-know-about";s: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:5914:"<p class="has-drop-cap">It is hard not to look through a list of upcoming WordPress 5.8 changes and not find at least a little something to whet your appetite. With so many enhancements headed our way, even we have not been able to keep up with them all here at WP Tavern. The next release will bring a few much-needed media-related upgrades.</p>



<p>Users should enjoy WebP image format support and a copy-to-clipboard button on the media upload screen. Developers have a new hook for filtering the image output format, and the platform is dropping infinite scrolling.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.8 is scheduled to ship on July 20, so these changes will be landing in less than a week. If you have not already done so, give <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-3/">WordPress 5.8 Release Candidate 3</a> a test run and report any issues.</p>



<h2>Infinite Scroll Replaced With Ajax Button</h2>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li></ul>Media Library screen (first) and overlay (second) with &ldquo;load more&rdquo; buttons. 



<p class="has-drop-cap">The upcoming core release will <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/50105">drop infinite scrolling</a> for media in favor of an Ajax-powered &ldquo;Load more&rdquo; button. The admin screen and editor&rsquo;s media overlay will cap the initial and subsequent &ldquo;pages&rdquo; to 40 media items each.</p>



<p>This change is a part of an effort from the WordPress accessibility team to improve the experience for end-users. Team member and core contributor Andrea Fercia noted <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/40330">two a11y problems with infinite scrolling</a>. The first is that it is impossible or nearly for keyboard users to reach content appended to the screen. Second, there is no audible feedback or instructions about how infinite scrolling works for screen readers.</p>



<p>He also noted usability and performance issues. Infinite scroll can break the browser&rsquo;s history, and there is no JavaScript fallback. And loading hundreds or more large-sized images increases the memory footprint.</p>



<p>While the media library is getting the Ajax treatment in WordPress 5.8, we should expect similar updates for other areas in the future, including:</p>



<ul><li>Add Themes Screen</li><li>Customizer &gt; Add Menu Items</li><li>Editor &gt; Link &gt; Search</li></ul>



<h2>Copy URL From Add New Media Screen</h2>



<img />Copy URL to clipboard button on the Add New Media screen.



<p class="has-drop-cap">This change is an enhancement that rids the platform of a small but noticeable nuisance that has plagued it for years. When uploading an image from the Media &gt; Add New screen in the WordPress admin, there was no way to grab its URL without clicking over to the edit screen.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.8 introduces a &ldquo;Copy URL to clipboard&rdquo; button that appears after the image has been uploaded. No need to leave the page and track down the URL. The change also makes the user experience consistent with the Media Library screen and overlay in the post editor.</p>



<p>More often than not, browsing Trac means seeing many of the same names. This time around, it seems that a regular user wanted a feature. They created an account &mdash; perhaps for this purpose alone &ndash;, <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/add-a-copy-link-button-at-the-media-upload-page/">wrote a support forum post</a>, was directed to Trac, and <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51754">created their first ticket</a>. It took eight months to work its way into WordPress, but it is one of those success stories of an average user making things happen by just providing feedback. Thanks for the contribution, <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/users/anotia/">@anotia</a>.</p>



<h2>WebP Image Format Support</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">WordPress is allowing a new image format. And, no, it is <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/24251">not SVG</a> (technically not an image). There are still security hurdles to jump for that to ever happen. However, it now supports WebP, which carries with it the promise of better performance for those who use it.</p>



<p>As Sarah Gooding <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-introduces-support-for-webp-images">reported for WP Tavern</a> last month:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>This modern image file format was created by Google in September 2010, and is now supported by 95% of the web browsers in use worldwide. It has distinct advantages over more commonly used formats, providing both lossless and lossy compression that is 26% smaller in size compared to PNGs and 25-34% smaller than comparable JPEG images.</p></blockquote>



<p>In the report, she noted that only 1.6% (<a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/im-webp">currently at 1.8%</a>) of the top 10 million websites used the WebP format. With WordPress now adding support, that percentage is likely to rise in the coming years.</p>



<h2>Developers: Image Editor Output Format Hook</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">For developers who want to transform images with one mime type to another, 5.8 introduces the <code>image_editor_output_format</code> <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/52867">filter hook</a>. Plugin authors can convert all newly uploaded images or only overwrite specific formats.</p>



<p>The following example converts JPG images to the new WebP format:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>add_filter( 'image_editor_output_format', function( $formats ) {
        $formats['image/jpeg'] = 'image/webp';

        return $formats;
} );</code></pre>



<p>The output format will be applied to all image sub-sizes as they are created. However, this will only work for WebP images if the webserver supports it.</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, 15 Jul 2021 03:09:34 +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: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:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:103:"WPTavern: WooCommerce Patches Critical Vulnerability, Sending Forced Security Update from 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:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=120008";s: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:249:"https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-patches-critical-vulnerability-sending-forced-security-update-from-wordpress-org?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=woocommerce-patches-critical-vulnerability-sending-forced-security-update-from-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:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3619:"<p>WooCommerce has <a href="https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/2564657/">patched</a> an unspecified, critical vulnerability identified on July 13, 2021, by a security researcher through Automattic&rsquo;s HackerOne security program. The vulnerability impacts versions 3.3 to 5.5 of the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://woocommerce.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c1434dc56f9506bf3c3ecd21&id=8ff0a5345f&e=0110b26bc5" target="_blank">WooCommerce</a> plugin, as well as version 2.5 to 5.5 of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-gutenberg-products-block/">WooCommerce Blocks</a> feature plugin.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Upon learning about the issue, our team immediately conducted a thorough investigation, audited all related codebases, and created a patch fix for every impacted version (90+ releases) which was deployed automatically to vulnerable stores,&rdquo; WooCommerce Head of Engineering Beau Lebens said in the <a href="https://woocommerce.com/posts/critical-vulnerability-detected-july-2021/">security announcement</a>.</p>



<p>WordPress.org is currently pushing out forced automatic updates to vulnerable stores, a practice that is rarely employed to mitigate potentially severe security issues impacting a large number of sites. Even with the automatic update, WooCommerce merchants are encouraged to check that their stores are running the latest version (5.5.1).</p>



<p>Since WooCommerce backported this security fix to every release branch back to 3.3, store owners using older versions of WooCommerce can safely update to the highest number in their current release branch even if not running the very latest 5.5.1 version.</p>



<p>At the time of publishing, only 7.2% of WooCommerce installations are using version 5.5+. More than half of stores (51.7%) are running on a version older than 5.1. WordPress.org doesn&rsquo;t offer a more specific breakdown of the older versions, but it&rsquo;s safe to say without these backported security fixes, the majority of WooCommerce installs might be left vulnerable.</p>



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



<p>The security announcement indicates that WooCommerce cannot yet confirm that this vulnerability has not been exploited:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Our investigation into this vulnerability and whether data has been compromised is ongoing. We will be sharing more information with site owners on how to investigate this security vulnerability on their site, which we will publish on our blog when it is ready. If a store was affected, the exposed information will be specific to what that site is storing but could include order, customer, and administrative information.</p></blockquote>



<p>For those who are concerned about possible exploitation, the WooCommerce team is <a href="https://woocommerce.com/posts/critical-vulnerability-detected-july-2021/#comment-19937832">recommending merchants update their passwords</a> after installing the patched version as a cautionary measure.</p>



<p>The good news for WooCommerce store owners is that this particular critical vulnerability was responsibly disclosed and patched within one day after it was identified. The plugin&rsquo;s team has committed to being transparent about the security issue. In addition to publishing an announcement on the plugin&rsquo;s blog, WooCommerce also emailed everyone who has opted into their mailing list. Concerned store owners should keep an eye on the <a href="https://woocommerce.com/blog/">WooCommerce blog</a> for a follow-up post on how to investigate if their stores have been compromised.</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, 15 Jul 2021 01:51:24 +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:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"WPTavern: #5 – Robert Jacobi on Why He’s Putting Gutenberg First";s: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=119987";s: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:173:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/5-robert-jacobi-on-why-hes-putting-gutenberg-first?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-robert-jacobi-on-why-hes-putting-gutenberg-first";s: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:56963:"<h2>About this episode.</h2>



<p>On the podcast today we have Robert Jacobi.</p>



<p>Robert is Director of WordPress at Cloudways. He&rsquo;s been working with open source software for almost twenty years, and has been the president of Joomla, a member of Make WordPress Hosting and contributor to ICANN At-Large. He is well known for his public speaking about open source and so the discussion today is broad and thought provoking.</p>



<p>We talk about Robert&rsquo;s &lsquo;Gutenberg First&rsquo; approach in which he places the WordPress Block Editor at the heart of all that he does. He sees Gutenberg as a critical component for WordPress&rsquo; future; a future in which as yet unimagined technologies will be built on top of Gutenberg and leverage the &lsquo;atomic&rsquo; way data is stored.</p>



<p>This leads to a discussion on how 3rd party developers will be able to use Gutenberg as an application platform, with unique pathways to create, store and display content.</p>



<p>The heritage of Gutenberg&rsquo;s development is also discussed. Right from the start we knew that the intention of the project was ambitious; it&rsquo;s aim to become a full site editor was explained at the outset. This has led to comparisons with other editing tools and Robert takes on why he thinks that the incremental steps that the Gutenberg project has taken are making it a vital part of WordPress.</p>



<p>We also look forward and get into the subject of how technology never stands still. The underpinnings of WordPress are shifting. New skills and tools will need to be learned, but that does not mean that existing ones are obsolete.<br />Shifting gears, we move into community events and how we&rsquo;ve managed events during the last year. Robert is a huge proponent of in-person events, and is hoping for their return. He loves the accidental situations which arise when you&rsquo;re in the same space as so many other like-minded people. Perhaps though, there&rsquo;s a place for hybrid events; events in which there&rsquo;s in-person and online happening at the same time?</p>



<p>Towards the end we chat about the plethora of mergers and acquisitions which are happening right now, as well as a discussion of Openverse, a search engine for openly licensed media, which was launched with little fanfare recently.</p>



<h2>Useful links.</h2>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/">Openverse</a></p>



<p><a href="https://robertjacobi.com/">Robert&rsquo;s website</a></p>


Transcript<div><div class="chat-transcript"><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:00:00]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Welcome to the fifth edition of the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley. Jukebox is a podcast all about WordPress and the community surrounding it. Every month, we&rsquo;re bringing you someone from that community to discuss a topic of current importance. If you like the podcast, why not subscribe on your podcast player?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>You can do that by going to WP Tavern dot com forward slash feed forward slash podcast. If you have any thoughts about the podcast, perhaps a suggestion of a potential guest or subject, then head over to WP Tavern dot com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox. There&rsquo;s a contact form there, and we&rsquo;d certainly welcome your input.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>Okay, so on the podcast today, we have Robert Jacobi. Robert is director of WordPress at Cloudways. He&rsquo;s been working with open source software for almost 20 years and has been president of Joomla, a member of Make WordPress Hosting and contributor to ICANN At-Large. He&rsquo;s well known for his public speaking about open source, and so the discussion today is broad and thought provoking. We talk about Robert&rsquo;s Gutenberg first approach in which he places the WordPress block editor at the heart of all that he does. He sees Gutenberg as a critical component for WordPress&rsquo; future, a future in which as yet unimagined technologies will be built on top of Gutenberg and leverage the atomic way that data is stored.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>This leads to a discussion of how third party developers will be able to use Gutenberg as an application platform with unique pathways to create, store and display content. The heritage of Gutenberg&rsquo;s development is also discussed. Right from the start we knew that the intention of the project was ambitious. It&rsquo;s aim to become a full site editor was explained at the outset. This has led to comparisons with other editing tools and Robert takes on why he thinks that the incremental steps that the Gutenberg project has taken are making it a vital part of WordPress.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>We also look forward and get into the subject of how technology never stands still. The underpinnings of WordPress are shifting. New skills and tools will need to be learned, but that does not mean that existing ones are obsolete.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>Shifting gears, we move into the community events and how we&rsquo;ve managed events during the last year. Robert is a huge proponent of in-person events and is hoping for their return. He loves the accidental situations which arrive when you&rsquo;re in the same space as so many other like-minded people. Perhaps though there&rsquo;s a place for hybrid event. Events in which there&rsquo;s in-person and online happening at the same time. Towards the end, we chat about the plethora of mergers and acquisitions, which are happening right now, as well as a discussion of Openverse, a search engine for openly licensed media, which launched with little fanfare recently.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>If any of the points raised in this podcast resonate with you, be sure to head over and find the post at WP Tavern dot com forward slash podcast, and leave a comment there.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And so without further delay, I bring you Robert Jacobi.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>I am joined by Robert Jacobi on the podcast today. How are you Robert?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:04:06]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Doing well. Fantastic to be here. Thank you Nathan.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:04:09]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Would you mind introducing yourself? Tell us who you are and what&rsquo;s your relationship with technology and work?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:04:15]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I&rsquo;m Robert Jacobi director of WordPress at Cloudways. I&rsquo;ve been in the open source space, wow, for almost 20 years, I&rsquo;m feeling old and actually got my raising on open source with the Joomla project, which is a hundred percent volunteer, open source content management system as well, and picked up WordPress slowly got into there. And boy, that&rsquo;s a lot of ands.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>I love the community. I love the greater goal. That open source, espouses and tries to reach. And we&rsquo;re never, always successful. But having code and information more freely accessible is something I really believe in. And I think empowers people globally and provides opportunities that wouldn&rsquo;t happen if these ones and zeros were siloed away in golden towers. I&rsquo;m always just so tickled to talk about open source and all the interesting things we can do with it. It powers communities, it powers, politics, powers, freedoms, it powers companies. It&rsquo;s really amazing. And we talk about WordPress all the time as one of the defining tools in this space. You look at something like Linux, which pretty much literally everything uses these days. It&rsquo;s crazy how, to use Matt Mullenweg&rsquo;s, favorite phrase, these things democratize all of us in so many different ways.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:05:39]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>We&rsquo;ve got a really broad pallet of things that we&rsquo;re going to discuss today, ranging from Gutenberg, right through to WordCamps and all sorts. So we&rsquo;ll crack on with the smorgasbord of what we&rsquo;ve got to discuss. The first of our little laundry list is Gutenberg. You wanted to talk to us a bit today about Gutenberg, what you think of it, and so on. There was an event that I attended recently, which you were also in attendance at, and you were on a panel there, and you mentioned that in the face of proprietary page builders, you always had the approach that Gutenberg should be the first relation. It should come first. And I&rsquo;m curious to know, what did you mean by that? What is Gutenberg first? What is this approach?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:06:17]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>So Gutenberg first to me is that we recognize the benefits of Gutenberg, and don&rsquo;t try to subvert them or sneak around them. I think Gutenberg is one of the most critical backend, frontend changes that has happened to WordPress in its last umpteen years and the potential for all the interesting future forward things that Gutenberg can do should be taken into account. So page builders are wonderful. They offer all this functionality, ease of use, but I think that, they should also take and utilize Gutenberg concurrently.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>The advantages are, one, that Gutenberg&rsquo;s not going anywhere. So God bless all the classic editor folk who loved that experience. More than just being deprecated, it&rsquo;s just, that is not going to be the way of the future.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And secondly, the potential, what can happen when you start making all that content a bit more atomic. I come from a lot of database work. So you think of atomic data points and Gutenberg does that sort of automagically for you? So there are opportunities in the future with Gutenberg to start parcing that data more finely.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>That&rsquo;s why I think it&rsquo;s very exciting and why everything should be Gutenberg first. Again, that doesn&rsquo;t mean get rid of page builders or different types of themes and theming systems. It&rsquo;s just that at the base, Gutenberg should be a core building block of what you&rsquo;re working with going forward.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:07:51]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>The way that I think many people are using Gutenberg at the moment, I should probably say the block editor, but if you&rsquo;re using the Gutenberg plugin, you&rsquo;ll obviously have an enhanced experience. But if you&rsquo;re using the block editor at the moment, it feels as if it&rsquo;s prime time for editing text, inserting images and some pretty basic stuff like that. But I can see on the horizon a whole plethora of interesting, curious, let&rsquo;s call them plug-ins for now, because that&rsquo;s what they are. Different block components, different plugins, which adapt and amend the capability of Gutenberg. And it feels to me as if that&rsquo;s where its strength might lie. I know we&rsquo;ve got the full site editing and all of that coming down the road, but it feels to me that, there&rsquo;s going to be a whole plethora of third-party tools, bringing all sorts of added benefits into the ecosystem, a block for this thing, and a block for that thing. And whilst that might create some kind of bloat, that to me is an exciting area, and I just wondered if that&rsquo;s something you&rsquo;re interested in, if there&rsquo;s any plugins or blocks that you&rsquo;ve been looking at and thinking, oh, that&rsquo;s curious. That seems to be stretching things a little bit.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:08:55]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>So, you make a, first of all, great point that there&rsquo;s block editor and then Gutenberg platform as a whole, and what end users typically experience is the block editor, but the Gutenberg API, Gutenberg platform as a whole is going to allow for all sorts of crazy third party integrations. That&rsquo;s great. And it might even be a little, you said the perfect word, there might be a bit of bloat and craziness. I&rsquo;ll say that&rsquo;ll probably exist for the next 12 to 24 months. Sure, that&rsquo;s fine. As people figure out what works and doesn&rsquo;t. This is a dawn of a new age around taking WordPress to the next step. We&rsquo;ve talked about for many years, WordPress is just a blog, blah, blah, blah. Okay. We&rsquo;ve gotten past WordPress as a blog. Now WordPress as a CMS. That&rsquo;s great. I think what happens with Gutenberg is we look at it and say, WordPress is an application platform, and this is just another API that we can take advantage of in very different ways. So we can have forums that are much more catered to content creators, that get rid of all the WordPress backend and admin stuff. Okay, you&rsquo;re authenticated. You&rsquo;re logged in. Here&rsquo;s your daily news forum that you&rsquo;re going to add content to. And because we&rsquo;re using Gutenberg, that makes it a lot easier to publish that content and gets rid of the technical cruft, and allows developers and third-party plugin providers to have wholly unique and valuable experiences around that. And that&rsquo;s where the magic I think of Gutenberg really comes into play is where will all these third parties start finding those unique value propositions for specific content, whether it&rsquo;s an, a vertical, like travel or e-commerce, in a generic sense or news or publications or whatnot. It&rsquo;s really expanded the opportunities to create workflows and interfaces and make content production speedier and safer.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:10:55]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I think one of the curious things that I&rsquo;ve observed over the last couple of years about it is that perhaps if we had the magic rewind button, we could go back a couple of years and potentially not really get into a conversation where it was&hellip; okay, we&rsquo;ve got stage 1, 2, 3, and 4, and stages two, three, and four, start to add in functionality that things like page builders, can currently do, full site editing and all that. If it had just been touted as, we&rsquo;ve got a new editor for you, here it is, I think it would have taken people along for the ride much more easily, but we&rsquo;ve got this problem now, this impasse where, it got sold as it&rsquo;s going to become a page builder, but the pace of development and the fact that they&rsquo;ve got the legacy of 40 percent of the web, 40 plus percent of the web, to protect and so on it hasn&rsquo;t been able to move in that direction potentially at the speed that people thought&hellip; well, it&rsquo;s going to be a page builder. It hasn&rsquo;t been able to mature at the rate that they would have liked to have done. And so I&rsquo;m just curious in the next year, two years, whether it will do those things, but also I wish we could rewind and say look, slow down. Let&rsquo;s get the editor experience sussed out first, then we&rsquo;ll do the full site editing and don&rsquo;t expect it to be all these things. Beause at the minute I hear a lot of people saying it&rsquo;s not as good as the tool I&rsquo;ve got over here, and it&rsquo;s not as good as the tool I&rsquo;ve got over there. Speaking of which do you think there&rsquo;s a case where it isn&rsquo;t the best tool where you would say actually, do you know what, I&rsquo;m just going to relegate that and not use it first. Or is it literally, always the first thing in your toolkit for WordPress?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:12:28]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>It is literally the first thing in my toolkit, because it will provide the greatest longevity in whatever&rsquo;s built. Gutenberg&rsquo;s not going anywhere. There was a massive commitment to it from the project side of the universe. And to answer one of your earlier questions about, has it done enough? I think it&rsquo;s exceeded all expectations and this is where I&rsquo;ll get to it. They&rsquo;re always going to be a voices like, okay, it doesn&rsquo;t make bacon and eggs for me in the morning. Okay, That&rsquo;s fine, it doesn&rsquo;t. I think, and I truly believe what the magic of Gutenberg is, is the paradigm shift in forcing people to look at other things. So it&rsquo;s hard to make a giant feature change in anything, whether it&rsquo;s proprietary project, open source project. There are going to be plenty of people who are like, no, this works for me. This is great. Please don&rsquo;t change. I get that. But technology moves forward. People&rsquo;s expectations increase. Ten years ago, we barely had iPhones. All of a sudden we do, and now we expect everything to be infinitely easier and simpler and more responsive. I guess it doesn&rsquo;t do everything that page builders do. That&rsquo;s great. That&rsquo;s fine. We&rsquo;re not trying to cut out the middle man here, and I say we, I&rsquo;m not actually involved directly in Gutenberg at any point, but it moves the technological user experience goal posts forward. All things being equal, the page builders of the world, Beaver Builder, Elementor, they&rsquo;re all going to go their own way. Having Gutenberg as a critical component, soon enough, it will be just a mandatory component, that&rsquo;s the end of the conversation. Says, listen, everyone, this is what we need as part of the ecosystem. This is how you&rsquo;re going to connect with tools. You can absolutely go around those, but why would you want to, because this will be supported by a worldwide community.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>It&rsquo;s not just going to be supported by the Beaver Builder community or the Elementor community, yada yada, this is now the new core and that&rsquo;s very difficult to do, and it&rsquo;s not, jumping back to what I said earlier about it, I think just making that change in and of itself and committing to that change is more important than full site editor or anything else. There&rsquo;ll be incremental steps, but that was the big milestone step. Wow. Okay. This is the new tech, and we&rsquo;re going to have to take advantage of it.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:14:45]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>You said two words in that last little bit, well you certainly said paradigm shift and you said atomic. And I think for me, the atomic bit is really interesting because what I think many people haven&rsquo;t had a chance to get to grips with is literally the atomic nature of it. This little section of your blog post or whatever it may be. You can just have this little interactive thing. It might be that you&rsquo;ve got a block which does, I don&rsquo;t know, lead generation, or you&rsquo;ve got a block, like the cover block, which will just take care of the top of your posts. And each one of those things will have a different array of settings and it doesn&rsquo;t have to be built inside a proprietary thing. It&rsquo;s being built inside of the default editor for WordPress. So it&rsquo;s going to bring a ton of functionality and a ton of interesting things. Some of it will be bloated. I&rsquo;m sure there&rsquo;ll be many people who fall into the trap of installing fifty times more than they need to, or five times more than they need to. But for those of us who were curious and check things out and look and see what the end result is, you&rsquo;re going to be able to create really unique experiences on this one surface, and that to me is really exciting, but have the feeling that the community got left behind in the conversation about this a little bit. So the confusion that it was going to be a page builder leads me to the whole community conversation. I know you&rsquo;re all about community. This is something that you thrive on. You love the WordPress community, as you have had loved many other communities in the past. Do you have any feelings around whether there&rsquo;s been enough involvement. Asking the questions, what should it look like? How should it behave? What do we want to leave on the floor and edit out that we just, it was a blind alley, we shouldn&rsquo;t have had that because there are some things that I think a really excellent, there are some things that I think I&rsquo;m not sure anybody&rsquo;s actually going to make use of that, but there it is. And just wondering what your thoughts were around, whether the community had been involved, whether it could have been involved more.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:16:38]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I&rsquo;m getting chuckles about a lot of these things. Could there have been more all the editing and whatnot. Since community is, especially in WordPress, a huge word, it&rsquo;s always difficult to get every stakeholder, give them the space, give them the time given the vote.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>What I like about what happened with Gutenberg is that it did move, in my mind, relatively quickly, and expeditiously and said, this is what we&rsquo;re doing. And I think it&rsquo;s too easy to be bogged down in the politics of community to actually get stuff done. So if things fall to the wayside, if things were not edit out properly, that&rsquo;s where I think, the greater ecosystem can come into play and say, we&rsquo;re going to tweak this, with a plugin that makes this just a bit better. It takes this out and we have such a robust economy in WordPress. That yeah, go for it. I like to see a bit more activism from people as a whole on these projects, but it&rsquo;s hard. We all have day jobs. We all have stuff to do, and I&rsquo;m not going to blame the leaders of the project for trying to get stuff done. In fact, I&rsquo;m going to give them kudos to just doing it because it&rsquo;s very easy to get pulled back and say you didn&rsquo;t listen to so and so, at some point we have to fish or cut bait, we need to do something and we need to move the technology forward because everyone else is doing it. And open source projects have a tendency, especially at their, let&rsquo;s say late teens, early adult stages, getting sucked into managing the community more than managing the project and pushing it forward.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>You have to do both. It&rsquo;s such a tricky balance. All kudos to everyone at Make dot WordPress, that they were able to do this. And it&rsquo;s a large scale change and get it done. Fine, if you want to complain, that&rsquo;s great. Guess what? No software lives, at that moment in time, it&rsquo;s always updated and tweaked and there are still opportunities to make changes, advocate or different functionality. Expand the API, shrink the API, all those kinds of things. I do love that WordPress was able to cut bait and just go with it.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:18:43]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>One of the underpinnings of WordPress since the inception really was PHP. And obviously now we&rsquo;re moving into an era where these technologies are being inspected, and improvements have been created along the way. And so now we&rsquo;re moving into an era where other technologies, for example, React is coming along and that requires quite a bit of relearning, you&rsquo;ve really got to down tools, get the manuals out, start to read again. Do you have any concern that that kind of thing could be a bit of a roadblock? It will be a bit of have a roadblock for certain people, but the technology has to move forward. Just curious as to what your thoughts are about how that&rsquo;s being implemented and whether or not we&rsquo;re taking it at a slow enough pace or whether we should have just stuck with good old PHP?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:19:29]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I like to use the right tool for the right projects, And I&rsquo;ve been a coder, developer, engineer in multiple languages. I&rsquo;ve actually never done anything with React, that&rsquo;s one of the first ones. And that&rsquo;s okay. We evolve. If we hadn&rsquo;t evolved all these still using C from 1969 or whenever it came out. So this stuff has to move forward. And if React is the best solution to do that on the front end, that&rsquo;s great.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>Some people will be excited by that. Okay. I can expand my personal knowledge and horizons by adding to React. Honestly, a lot of the headless stuff that we see these days is also React. So it&rsquo;s not a bad thing to learn if you want to learn that. If you don&rsquo;t want to learn it. Okay, that&rsquo;s fine. There are plenty of opportunities to still expand your WordPress activities solely with PHP. Okay. Those are more personal choices. Do I want to learn another language? Do I want to improve on what I already have? Yes. Those are choices you have to make, but none of this lives in isolation. So we have to understand that a WordPress, plain old PHP site, might still need to connect up to a bunch of different things and not all those things are going to be on PHP. You still might be connecting up to something with Perl or Python. No, one&rsquo;s forcing you to learn it. Granted Gutenberg injects this react universe into your face, but you can focus on the core things that you need to do without necessarily running into React. It&rsquo;s a tool that more people are&hellip; here&rsquo;s the trick, there are plenty of new people who are entering coding, development, open source communities, and they like React. So it makes sense to take advantage of all this new found wealth, and then also draw them back into the community. Great, you love running with all this JS stuff. Fantastic. Hey, by the way, did you know you could actually implement that as part and parcel with an old-school PHP content management system? Yeah, we can do that. That&rsquo;s great. And look how you can expand your horizon. Yeah, it stinks if you don&rsquo;t want to learn any kind of Node, React stuff. Okay. But, it&rsquo;s sort of the nature of code. If we really want to take the analogy to the extreme, why aren&rsquo;t we still coding on punch cards with ones and zeros. We&rsquo;re going to abstract it and find the best tool to implement the functionality we want to see.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And I get it me personally, I&rsquo;m not going to go out and learn React today. Me twenty years ago, though, I would have added it into my tool belt in a heartbeat, just because it was just one of those things that you needed at that time, that was the case. People are going to go through their own personal and professional sort of life cycles of what they think they need to have on their knee or in their tool belt to be successful. We can&rsquo;t stop for people who don&rsquo;t want to do anything outside of PHP.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:22:04]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>We&rsquo;re going to shift gears now and talk about in-person events. Under the auspices of things like WordCamp Europe, which is depending on when you&rsquo;re listening to this podcast that may just have happened, or it may be it&rsquo;s coming around in a year&rsquo;s time or something like that.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>Clearly we&rsquo;ve been through a period that has really shaken the community. I feel that as a community, we were probably as well-prepared as any community could be because we were already working via the internet. We all had our computers out and so on. And yet still there is a concern. And I know that for example, people like Josepha Haden Chomposy has mentioned things like this, that the community in the absence of in-person events, there&rsquo;s been a modest disengagement. And what I mean by that, this is the project, the WordPress project was propelled forward in a large part by those in-person events. So you&rsquo;ve got contrib day, you&rsquo;ve just got the handshaking, you can actually meet people for the first time. You can build relationships and so on. And none of that&rsquo;s happened. We&rsquo;ve had a year out. We don&rsquo;t know quite when that is coming back, hopefully at some point in the near future, but we don&rsquo;t know. And so just curious about your thoughts on that. What do you have to say about events coming back and how a project as big as WordPress, where there&rsquo;s no central office where there&rsquo;s no boss telling everybody what to do. So if you&rsquo;re on the payroll, you&rsquo;ve got to do this today and fix this thing, but that&rsquo;s not how it works. And so the open source model, there may be a chink in its armor here where in-person events don&rsquo;t happen, that camaraderie and those solutions don&rsquo;t present themselves. And so the project, I&rsquo;m going to use the word stalls, that&rsquo;s a complete over-exaggeration, but bits of the project stalled because nobody&rsquo;s meeting up.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:23:49]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I am a huge, huge advocate of in-person anything. Whether you&rsquo;re extrovert or introvert, there&rsquo;s always going to be someone that you really want to talk to sit down in a corner, or have a cup of coffee with and build that relationship. I&rsquo;m no anthropologist or anything, but feel that those kinds of human connections help us grow stronger in light of all the mundane things we do day to day. I don&rsquo;t think the project has suffered because of a lack of in-person events over the last year. I think it&rsquo;s suffered because everyone else has had a lot on their mind and there&rsquo;ll be a, certainly a renaissance of activity as soon as we get into in person but this is one of those things where I don&rsquo;t think correlation and causation match up. If you are worried about friends and family getting ill, did the economy, my personal economies take a downturn. That&rsquo;s going to weigh a lot more on someone than, oh, did I catch up on the latest WordPress dot org, Slack notification about Full Site Editing. So I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;re completely tied together, but I will certainly tell you that as those in-person meetups start ramping up, I think that&rsquo;ll be a flurry of excitement and activity. Part of that will be just because we&rsquo;re not still trapped in our tiny little Covid bubbles.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:25:12]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>What personally do you miss from the in-person events? You mentioned about having a coffee and sitting in a corner with somebody and so on, but anything that you find you&rsquo;re missing, it could be something quite banal or it could be something a lot deeper.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:25:24]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>It&rsquo;s really the accidents that happen at in person events. With a completely regimented online experience, I know I&rsquo;m going to be talking with Nathan at such and such time. I know I&rsquo;m going to be talking to whoever everything&rsquo;s organized, calendars. Okay, there&rsquo;s digital here, digital there. We may edit ourselves more on these platforms. When you&rsquo;re in-person accidents happen. We may be walking through the sponsor hall and accidentally bump shoulders. And it&rsquo;s oh my goodness, Nathan, great to see you. I haven&rsquo;t seen you in 14 months. This is amazing. And you just start a conversation and those kinds of conversations are organic and random and not necessarily so overly planned and well thought out. And at those moments, I think unique ideas, exciting things can happen that just don&rsquo;t happen in a much more shrunken space. I love the distributed world. And to your point, I think WordPress is not only just gone through well, it&rsquo;s actually succeeded because we&rsquo;ve already been in that position. We&rsquo;re already ready to be online and take care of the day to day.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>We need those accidental bumpings of atoms to create new kinds of alloys. Oh my goodness. carbon and oxygen linked together. Oh, no, look what happened here. I don&rsquo;t know what they do, I&rsquo;m not a chemist! But my point being is when you&rsquo;re in person and I&rsquo;m going to keep calling them accidents, but not like in a pejorative kind of way, accidents happen, and it allows for very random, unique ideas, conversations, thoughts, whatever to happen, or just even a personal pick me up. Like you do remember me from being on slack for the last year. That&rsquo;s fantastic. There&rsquo;s an affirmation I think that happens for all of us when we&rsquo;re in that kind of proximity with other like-minded people.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:27:21]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I think one of the, there&rsquo;s two points about the online events that I seem to keep coming back to. And the first one is that I feel it&rsquo;s taught us that we ought to have hybrid going forward. What I mean by that is that WordCamp EU, I feel it&rsquo;s going to be difficult to put the genie back in the box of you have to go to the place where the event is. I feel that the future is going to be, sure enough, if you want to turn up and you want to benefit from the hallway and all of those things, go for it. But also if you&rsquo;re living halfway around the world, that now needs to be a door which is not closed to you, you need to have it open. There needs to be streaming of those talks that are happening each day so that everybody can take part. That&rsquo;s one of the things that I feel is going to happen.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:28:03]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I completely agree. There are events that I would have never been able to attend on a very regular basis without there being an online component. Someone will solve this puzzle, but I think it&rsquo;s going to be difficult to do a online and in-person event concurrently. I feel that you&rsquo;ll get the worst of both worlds in that case. What I&rsquo;d like to see, let&rsquo;s take WordCamp Europe 2022. There&rsquo;s going to be a three, four day in person spectacle. That&rsquo;s fantastic. What I would like to see is maybe two days before the in-person starts. There&rsquo;s a whole online portion of that. I&rsquo;d be concerned about trying to do them concurrently. Are we really going to have, we can do all the live video for example, but how interactive can we make those live portions? Oh, look from online, we have a question to the speakers. Okay. That works. But outside of those sessions, how are we going to integrate the sponsor hall, the hallway track as we talk about it? Those are those accidents that I like to refer back to just walking up and down and bumping into each other. I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s an easy problem to solve, but I&rsquo;d love to see some kind of greater online kickoff onboarding experience, where you can meet the speakers, do some quick Q and A&rsquo;s, and conversely, have the speakers say, make sure you don&rsquo;t miss my session on such and such date and time, then that will, of course be also livestreamed.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>It&rsquo;s going to be expensive. It&rsquo;s going to be complicated. And I think there&rsquo;s going to be multiple variations of attempts at making that succeed. I like to go with baby steps to see results. And I think just starting out with maybe a one or two day virtual camp tied to the in-person camp would be a good starter.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:29:46]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>That&rsquo;s what I was meaning really is just basically a camera at the back of the room where there&rsquo;s a presentation going on with the possibility of questions coming, not just from the audience, sat in the auditorium, but from people in a different part of the world. And in fact, I feel it in a way, these kind of like skeuomorphic pieces of software, which tries to replicate the real world, you&rsquo;ve got these AI representations of the hall. It&rsquo;s nice. It&rsquo;s a bit of fun. I feel it&rsquo;s a dead end. Nobody ought to be under the illusion that&rsquo;s what they&rsquo;re going to do. But I do like the idea of just, here&rsquo;s the talk, you can watch it at the same time as everybody else. And then maybe you and your pals can hang out. You can do your bit online and we can do our bit in the real world, and so it goes. It&rsquo;s really just an opening up so that you don&rsquo;t have to attend because the problem there would be that nobody actually makes the attempt to attend, but I don&rsquo;t feel that&rsquo;s the case. And my second point is that I feel that we need this stuff back just because the online stuff, there&rsquo;s a fatigue associated with that, and I don&rsquo;t for a minute think that everybody&rsquo;s fatigued and I don&rsquo;t for a minute, think the online events don&rsquo;t have merit because they have enormous merit and they&rsquo;ve been an amazing bridge, but I feel that there&rsquo;s a proportion of the people who would love to be at live events who just can&rsquo;t make the transition to the virtual events. There&rsquo;s something about it. Something stifles them, perhaps they have the best will in the world, and then it&rsquo;s on the screen. But then something in the real world occurs to them. The cat decides to chew up the sofas, so off you go, you&rsquo;ve got to deal with the cat. You get distracted, you want to go and make a cup of tea, so you get distracted. Whereas if you&rsquo;re at the WordCamp, you&rsquo;re fully there. You&rsquo;ve engaged, you&rsquo;ve committed. You&rsquo;ve potentially got on a plane. You&rsquo;ve booked a hotel, all of that. And there&rsquo;s no substitute for that. So that really was my second point is that I want to get the people who&rsquo;ve been disengaged back in and ready to take on all of the challenges that we&rsquo;ve got.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:31:42]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Yeah. I think we&rsquo;re on the same page. I can do virtual events. I certainly prefer in person. And the best example of how we know that in-person is very valuable is when you go to a lot of these virtual events, the networking spaces are generally very empty. People aren&rsquo;t having those conversations, those random accidental conversations that they would add an in-person event because at an in-person event, you are physically, quote unquote, stuck in that space. If you don&rsquo;t want to talk to someone, you&rsquo;re just going to go your own way. That&rsquo;s great. But if you do, who knows who&rsquo;s next to you and you&rsquo;re going to overhear things and interrupt the conversation and be interrupted and that&rsquo;s that magic that occurs.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:32:29]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Okay. Let&rsquo;s talk about the third point that we wanted to discuss today. I&rsquo;m straying into an area where I don&rsquo;t have a great deal of experience because I watch these things happen from afar. There&rsquo;s nothing that really concerned me. That concerned me in the sense that I might be a consumer of some of the things that are being bought up. But you wanted to talk about, as you described it, the WordPress economy acquisition madness. Now, what did you mean by that? Just kick us off. Explain what you mean by that phrase.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:32:56]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Here&rsquo;s the beauty of being a successful project, people with money will find ways to make money from it. And that&rsquo;s okay, and that&rsquo;s a good thing. We&rsquo;re seeing the likes of Automattic, WP Engine, GoDaddy, Liquid Web, Cloudways, yada, yada, yada. All these companies, wink wink, they&rsquo;re all hosting companies because they&rsquo;ve been in the space for awhile under different platforms and have recurring streams of revenue and cash on hand, they&rsquo;re going to look to grow their businesses, and one of the easiest ways is to find valuable niche projects, that not only will bring cool bit of code into what they&rsquo;re trying to do, but also allow them to reach out to all the people who have installed that plugin.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:33:45]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Do you have concern then that certain parts of the WordPress, let&rsquo;s say plugin or theme space, are going to be consumed by these bigger entities as you described? In many cases, there will be hosting companies for reasons you&rsquo;ve just explained. Do you have a feeling that silos in the future are going to occur? Where if you really want a decent, let&rsquo;s go for, I dunno, membership experience, you really are better off going in the direction of that company, with the brands that it&rsquo;s acquired over time. Or if you want to go for a WooCommerce experience, your best bet is going to be over here, and everything else is a poor relation of that. So we get silos, which we haven&rsquo;t had until now.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:34:28]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I think that&rsquo;ll happen in the short term, but when that happens, a vacuum is created in the overall ecosystem. So if hosting company X has a, quote unquote, monopoly on that membership plugin, you know what, first of all, it&rsquo;s all open source. All it takes is company Y to be like, we want to be in that space as well, and we&rsquo;re going to re-imagine the underlying open source code base in XYZ format. Yes, a lot of letters there, but it&rsquo;ll happen. These kinds of acquisitions and changes in economy I feel are okay. We&rsquo;re all working from an open source code base. If this was all proprietary stuff that you can never take advantage of, I think that would be bad for the community as a whole, but that&rsquo;s not the case. It&rsquo;s just one company saying we&rsquo;re going to be owners of this project. You can still fork that project any day of the week, don&rsquo;t forget. Cause it&rsquo;s all GPL. So I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;re losing anything in the long run. There&rsquo;ll be short term hiccups. People won&rsquo;t be happy. If that plugin doesn&rsquo;t do exactly what they want, but they probably wouldn&rsquo;t necessarily be happy even if it wasn&rsquo;t taken over by someone else. I think there&rsquo;s a percentage of people that will always want to see all this independent software, but all these companies are technically, okay maybe they&rsquo;re not all independent because some of them are actually listed on public exchanges, but the opportunity hasn&rsquo;t been taken away, and if such and such plugin gets acquired by such and such hosting company, I certainly see another hosting company looking for that competitor also happening.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:36:01]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Do you feel that, okay, again, rewinding the clock for the second time in this podcast, if we could go back maybe 6, 7, 8 years, something like that, before these companies were buying up suites of plugins and what have you, to bulk out their offering. We basically had independent plugin developers. There may have been a team that grew up over time and they were inventing a solution for a particular problem, and they were really invested in that, and that was great. We want to solve the calendar thing or we want to solve the, I don&rsquo;t know, the menu thing, whatever it may be. I&rsquo;m just wondering if we&rsquo;re maybe getting into the territory of designing things to be acquired. We designed something so that this can happen, so that we can become bought up, taken along for the ride by a big hosting company, and just really whether or not there&rsquo;s any dynamic that changes the way that instead of serving the customer and always trying to offer the best support for the product, really your whole intention for that business isn&rsquo;t to create the product for the customer, it&rsquo;s to create the product for the sell in the future.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:37:01]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I agree. I think there&rsquo;s a potential for that. On the correlator, are you getting value in what you want out of that product? So if I use, there&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;m going to jump into because it&rsquo;s happened recently, but on the face of it, it&rsquo;s a product that is so useful to me that I&rsquo;m not going to have to do custom code. It&rsquo;s above and beyond every other plugin competitor in that space. Am I going to use it? I&rsquo;m going to use it, yes. And to some degree it doesn&rsquo;t really matter what the incentives for the developer are at that point. If it&rsquo;s doing what I wanted to do, that I&rsquo;m going to use it because that&rsquo;s what I needed to do, and it&rsquo;s going to save me 10 50, 200 hours of development time to use this plugin as opposed to trying to create something on my own. And that&rsquo;s question one, or the answer one. Answer two is there certainly is an issue with, what&rsquo;s a nice word for miscreant. I guess it&rsquo;s gonna be miscreant, where we&rsquo;ve seen recently some plugin developers literally switch out what that plugin does and what its value proposition is with, quote unquote, upgrades. And they&rsquo;ve done it behind your back. Oh, well you signed up for this cute little plugin that makes banners, guess what, now it&rsquo;s going to do all these things and you have to pay for it just to get banners again, and it&rsquo;s like really, really is that really what you want to do? And I think those developers are getting called out on it.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>The agencies and content creators, certainly in the nearby community are aware of that. I think those kinds of, yeah, they&rsquo;re not necessarily illegal in any way, shape or form because you can do that, but it doesn&rsquo;t really stick by the unofficial developer third party ecosystem code of conduct. And I think we&rsquo;re always going to see exceptions to the rule, but as long as those are just exceptions, I think we&rsquo;re in a good spot.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:38:43]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Let&rsquo;s pivot again. Openverse. I&rsquo;ve got to say, this is something that kind of passed me by. The radar wasn&rsquo;t working properly over the last few weeks since Openverse came along. I&rsquo;m going to ask you to tell us what Openverse is. I have a very vague understanding of what it is, but I&rsquo;d like you to tell us why you think it&rsquo;s important.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:39:03]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>This is a new project in the WordPress ecosystem. I should say WordPress dot org ecosystem. It comes from creative commons search project that was languishing at creative commons. They didn&rsquo;t have community and developers interested in pushing the search component along and, with support from Automattic, it came into the welcoming arms of wordpress dot org. And it has it&rsquo;s own thing called Openverse. I&rsquo;m excited by it. One, because it expands the open source vision of WordPress, WordPress becoming even a greater open source proponent. It&rsquo;s not just the CMS, but now we also have additional things that we&rsquo;re caring about, which I think is fantastic. It simultaneously is going to be working on technical aspects as well as open libra software model, or content model, I should say, where the tool will be helping WordPress as well as anyone else, obviously on finding creative commons, open licensed media. So in this case, images. I think it&rsquo;s a great expansion that&rsquo;s completely in line with what the project is looking to do. And I think it&rsquo;s going to be surprisingly helpful and people won&rsquo;t even realize what&rsquo;s going on, but they&rsquo;ll all of a sudden be able to access a bunch of new content natively in whatever application, obviously WordPress will be at that top of the list, but, you&rsquo;ll be able to access it with Drupal or proprietary systems.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:40:40]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>What was the problem with the old licensing model? What was broken with it?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:40:43]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>What was broken was there was no one who was going to commit to keeping up the code base to make CC search working and functioning, tweaking it, bug fixes, whatnot. So, as part of the WordPress project, there will actually be active development and maintenance of the creative common search.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:41:02]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Okay, so was there any concern that things which you may have downloaded from third-party sites, we all know the ones that we customarily go to, that they were often perhaps changing the license after you downloaded things, and then suddenly you didn&rsquo;t realize that you were in contravention of a license, which you thought you had full access to download, redistribute, do whatever you wanted and suddenly you realize, oh, okay, that&rsquo;s no longer the case. This image that I&rsquo;ve got, I need to take down.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:41:28]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>So, licensing is so fun and entertaining. So a lot of these download an image sites, those licenses still stand. So if you have downloaded it and are using an image that was licensed under creative comments, that&rsquo;s not going away. Will they relicense new images? Possibly. The point is how easy will it be to find more creative commons based media? And I think that is the purpose of Openverse, to make that as easy and intuitive as possible. So again, it&rsquo;s taking what used to exist as part of creative, common search, almost like a fork, rebranding it under Openverse and, making it part of an ecosystem that&rsquo;s open source.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:42:15]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>And this is going to be completely available inside the WP admin. So you&rsquo;ll have search integrated there, and if you want to search for, I don&rsquo;t know, a cat on cushions, for example, you&rsquo;ll be able to do that and everything that&rsquo;s returned, you&rsquo;ll be able to use, hopefully because the search will have returned something valuable to you in this case cat&rsquo;s on cushions.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:42:35]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>So that is my expectation. Obviously it&rsquo;s not built into any of that yet, but yeah, that is that&rsquo;s where I see the project going.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:42:40]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>But it was a nice philanthropic gesture of Automattic to take this on board and just basically put it into WordPress so that the likes of me, and you can find our cats on cushions whenever we please.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:43:35]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Right.</p>
</div></div></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, 14 Jul 2021 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:39;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"HeroPress: How WordPress Has Changed My Life – Gtarafdar";s: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:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=3939";s: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:160:"https://heropress.com/essays/how-wordpress-has-changed-my-life-gtarafdar/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-wordpress-has-changed-my-life-gtarafdar";s: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:19947:"<img width="1024" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/071321-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: I’m really thankful to WordPress. Because of this community I have overseas friends." /><p>I’m Gobinda Tarafdar from Dhaka, Bangladesh. In short, Gtarafdar. This short form is available everywhere on social media. Actually, while I was a kid, a medicine specialist suggested this short form of my name. From that time, I had a plan to use it. Moving on, now I have become a WordPress Enthusiast Marketer. In this essay, I will share my journey to WordPress with you.</p>
<p><a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/gtarafdar_winter_clothing.jpg"><img /></a></p>
<h3>Early Stage Of My Career:</h3>
<p>I started my career as a teacher in an academic coaching center back in 2010. I was then a 1st-year student of my 4-year Graduation Program. But the number of my earnings was not sufficient to cover all my livelihood. My parents were giving me support to continue my study at that time. So I was looking for more ways to earn my living. But in our country, it’s tough to get a job without graduation. I tried to find more tutoring jobs but failed to get one. Then I gave stand-up comedy a try. At that time, it became popular. I participated in a TV reality show based on stand-up comedy. But failed to reach the top five. So, didn’t get much success in the comedy sector as well.</p>
<p><a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/gtafdar_standup_comedy.jpg"><img /></a></p>
<p>In this way, two years passed. After a while, I got the idea of a call center job in the telco industry of our country. I gave an interview to our number one telco company Grameenphone &#8211; a sister concern of Telenor. And luckily got the chance to join there. And it’s a game-changing part of my career. I learned a lot about team play, pressure handling, the ability to put myself in a customer’s shoes, and more. But it was a part-time job, and my graduation was about to end. Immediately after finishing my graduation, I got the opportunity to join Grameenphone’s Finance team. However, I had to pass the challenging interview as many other promising candidates were competing with me. Everything seemed so great at that time. Got the opportunity to work in the country&#8217;s best corporate office, but bad luck struck again. Didn’t get the chance to be a full-time employee from contractual employee status.</p>
<p>I took a break to join the country&#8217;s public service commission. Unfortunately, I failed to get the desired position again. In the meantime, my father retired from his job. All of a sudden, so many responsibilities came upon me. By the way, I forgot to mention, in this time frame, I had completed my Graduation, Masters, and MBA. The year where I’m now in the beginning of 2018. After my father’s retirement, I had no time for an experiment. But the main challenge came then.</p>
<blockquote><p>No one wanted to give me a chance as I worked at one of Bangladesh&#8217;s most prominent companies; they thought I couldn’t fit into their office culture.</p></blockquote>
<p>Also, I wanted to start my career as a Digital Marketer, and I had no practical experience at that time. I had some certification of Udemy and Hubspot free courses. But I was confident that I had a degree of MBA in Marketing. But all of my confidence was doomed within three months. I stopped applying everywhere, started to do some research on the job sector. Finally, I decided to join the IT industry, and in our country, WordPress Based companies are in the leading position. So, I had my target fixed towards the WordPress industry.</p>
<h3>A Huge Risk-Taking State in My Career:</h3>
<p>I took a huge risk to start my career in the WordPress industry. After not seeing much job opportunities in the Digital Marketing area in my country, I was planning to join the telco industry again as I was finding no option to cherish my dream. I badly needed a job at that time. But meanwhile, I found a job circular in weDevs. They were looking for a Digital Marketer Intern. So I made my decision to take part in this program. Surprisingly, I got another job offer from a renowned MNC of our country in the sales team. But I took a huge risk and started trying for the weDevs internship program, and refused the salesperson job. My friends <a href="https://twitter.com/MrMayeen">Mayeen</a> &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/AkhterArif">Arif</a> helped me a lot to learn more about WordPress. And they guided me on how I could set up localhost on my computer, and from then, I started to explore themes and plugins from the WordPress repository. I must say I got an interesting tool to play with. After passing three stages, I finally got the chance to join weDevs. weDevs is a popular WordPress Plugin making company. It’s famous for Dokan Multivendor Marketplace Solution for WooCommerce.</p>
<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Gtarafdar_life_at_weDevs.jpg"><img /></a>My Life at weDevs
<p>Ohh, maybe you have a question about how it can be risky to go for the weDevs internship program! Well, the payout of the other company was three times higher than the weDevs internship payout. And I refused to join the other sales team while I still didn’t have any guarantee to join the weDevs team. So now you can judge, isn’t that risky? (Sorry, I can’t share the name of the sales company publicly here due to some policy issue.)</p>
<h3>The Journey to WordPress:</h3>
<p>From the day when I had installed WordPress in my local host, my journey in this ecosystem started. I found it so easy to use and user-friendly that I felt anyone could create a website. I started to read articles and explore the World of WordPress. Also, weDevs’s internship program helped me a lot to get involved in the WordPress industry. My mentor <a href="https://twitter.com/AfshanaDiya">Afshana Diya</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/mainul0aion">Mainul Kabir Aion</a> guided me a lot to dive deep into the sea of WordPress. Learned the area of content marketing, explored paid mediums, gathered knowledge on social media marketing, and more within three months. The internship program was exact and compact, along with interactive.</p>
<p>Here came another twist. I wanted to be a part of the Digital Marketing Team. But because of my communication skills and interpersonal relationship skills, <a href="https://twitter.com/Nizam5428">Mr. Nizam Uddin</a> (Founder &amp; CEO at weDevs) offered me the Business Development executive position. It was an entirely new thing at weDevs. I was the one-man army in the Business Development Team. And it opened up a new world to me. At that time, I got my first chance to attend a WordCamp (WCAhmedabad, India 2018). From that time, I got the motive to be involved in the WordPress Community. I’ll share how WordCamps can help you to join the community closely. Later on, I got the chance to participate in WordCamp Kolkata 2019, WordCamp Nagpur 2019. It was a fantastic journey to join WordCamps in person. In 2019 I took part in WordCamp Dhaka as a volunteer.</p>
<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Gtarafdar_WordCamps.jpg"><img /></a>My Journey to WordCamps
<p>I’d love to share with you; now, I have become part of the Digital Marketing Team of weDevs. After almost two years of my journey as a business development executive, I got this new opportunity to prove myself again. So I took this opportunity and became a Digital Strategist.</p>
<p>Now I’m dedicatedly taking care of a sole product. It’s an Addon of Elementor Page Builder. It’s HappyAddons for Elementor. I’m the product coordinator of this excellent tool. From zero to now, 100k+ users are actively using this tool. It’s an incredible learning period in my career path. I learned how to grow a product from the ground level. It’s a great achievement for me as a Product Marketer.</p>
<h3>How WordCamp Helps Me to Become a Member in the WordPress Community:</h3>
<p>WordCamps are the place of like-minded people. When you are in touch with the right people under the same roof, you will get that homely feeling. Also, in WordCamps, you get to meet industry experts. Interestingly, you can collect lucrative swag items. To some extent, you will get an opportunity to make partnerships to expand the business. Moreover, some companies share job boxes where anyone can share their resume. So it could be a place of opportunities. Who knows what you will get. But in my case, I made so many friends. We are now close buddies.</p>
<p>The exciting part, some WordCamps run contributors day. On that day, you will get the chance to know closely about how you can take part in the core programs of WordPress. From WordCamp Ahmedabad, I started participating in WordPress programs, also started joining WordPress teams meetings. I’ve become active on social media as well to spread news and updates related to WordPress.</p>
<h3 id="enriching">How I’m Enriching My Knowledge of WordPress:</h3>
<p>One line changes my way of thinking. Once I was talking with our Founder &amp; CTO, Mr. <a href="https://twitter.com/tareq_cse">Tareq Hasan</a>, regarding this topic. He just said, “Gobinda, you don’t have to learn coding to solve the problems of WordPress; you have to gain the ability to solve the problem by anyhow. You can solve any kind of problem by referring to other WordPress Plugins and tools.”</p>
<p>I got a new meaning of using WordPress. From that time, I have started to check WordPress plugins and themes to learn more about their purpose. WordPress repository now becomes a place of amusement for me. Sometimes, my colleagues refer to me as a ‘plugin man’ as I try to give a quick solution to WordPress-related problems with the help of WordPress plugins.</p>
<p>Still, I’m participating in several Facebook Group discussions. Trying to solve several solutions and learning what problems are usually people facing while creating websites with WordPress. And believe me, there is definitely a solution to each particular problem.</p>
<blockquote><p>You have to keep patience and search for the solution in the right type of keywords.</p></blockquote>
<p>For example, yesterday on the Facebook group &#8211; WordPressian (Dedicated Facebook Group for those who speak Bangali), a person was looking to create a courier service platform where people can track their package. Most people suggested building a custom-made solution. But I know there is a solution; I randomly found it on the WP repository.</p>
<blockquote><p>So I just googled this term “WordPress plugin: courier service”. Google didn’t disappoint me.</p></blockquote>
<p>I got my answer, read the description, reviewed, checked screenshots, and shared the solution with that person.</p>
<p>To increase my knowledge of WordPress, I use another method. I use some Google Chrome Extensions for checking the Builtwith Materials of WordPress sites. When I jump on a WordPress site, I just click on the Chrome Ext. and check the plugins they’ve used to create their site. And it helps me a lot to learn the tools and their purposes. You can do that if you want to increase your knowledge of WordPress.</p>
<p>Lastly, you have to create a site by yourself. Otherwise, you would not be able to know the issue on your own. At least create your own portfolio site. I have learned so many things while creating my portfolio site: gtarafdar.com. You will know some untold facts, and finally, you will get a boost. <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/retiring-young-bangladesh-thanks-wordpress/">Mr. Asif Rahman</a>, the founder of WP Developers, gave me this idea. He always inspires me to create a personal website. Also, he forced me to write about WordPress daily. Guided me on how I can create a site with Elementor in 2018. I became familiar with a handy tool that helps me create a site without having coding experiences from that time. Later on, it helped me to take over the Happy Elementor Addons Project.</p>
<h3>How you can connect with WordPress Socially:</h3>
<p>Twitter is the best medium. I opened my Twitter account in 2010. But I had no motivation to use it as I didn’t have people close to me there. My friends were all on Facebook. I was also trying to involve myself on Facebook. But after joining weDevs, I found my Mentor, Afshana Diya, was so active on Twitter, and she has so many like-minded people on Twitter, and most of them belong to the WordPress community. I got new motivation to use Twitter. I started to connect with WordPress Professionals. Also interacted with them regularly. And I must say it feels really amazing.</p>
<p>I’ve prepared a Twitter<a href="https://twitter.com/i/lists/1143525711489036288"> list of WordPress Influencers</a>. You can easily follow them from here.</p>
<h3>How you can start your career at WordPress:</h3>
<p>If you have a passion for coding, you could be a WordPress developer. In our region, here is a myth. To become a developer, you have to be a CSE grad. But it’s not true. Let’s check a fact. In our weDevs, most of the Developers are directly not from Computer Science Engineering backgrounds. In the same way, you may have joined the CSE program at an early stage, but now you may not have that much passion for coding. You can be a Product Manager. In the WordPress industry, there is scope for a Product manager as well. Another exciting sector is the Quality Assurance team. So many companies are hiring in this sector. Moreover, if you like to communicate with people, you can join the Support Engineering team. You can’t imagine how many job openings there are in the support engineering field.</p>
<p>Those who don’t have any coding knowledge but are proficient in English and have a passion for writing can join as Content Marketers. There are plenty of job vacancies in the content marketing area.</p>
<p>Another interesting option is joining the Designing team. If you find interest in the designing sector and love to play with the designing tools like Figma, Adobe Tools, Sketch, you can definitely join the design team of a WordPress company.</p>
<p>Later on, other job sectors like HR management, Accounts, Business Development, and other necessary areas are also available on WordPress companies. More interestingly, you can work remotely in so many companies. WordPress founding company Automattic is running its whole operation remotely. You just have to find your perfect niche. Otherwise, you can be frustrated.</p>
<p>I’ve prepared a list of <a href="https://gtarafdar.com/wpjobs/popular-wordpress-companies-to-apply-for-jobs/">WordPress companies</a> where you can apply for jobs.</p>
<p>Finally, don’t be frustrated, my mate. I often hear from my fellow friends and juniors always blame God, parents, and the government because of their unemployment problem. But when I reach them and personally request to gain some technical skills, they just run away most of the time. Not even reply to my messages anymore. Even some of them block me. Lol. Also, some other groups are available; they knock me for jobs and share their family issues, but when I ask them to learn more about web development, they just fly like a bat. I don’t know what their problem is. If you are in the same category, then my mate, you are in huge trouble. Change your mindset. Gain some skills. It could be anything. Try one by one. Then choose the best one for you. But again, don’t be frustrated. Keep focusing on your goal. And dive into it.</p>
<h3>What’s The Challenge on Working in WordPress Industry:</h3>
<p>I’ve shared all the positive things about joining the WordPress industry. But there is a significant challenge you have to face while you will join the community. In my region, very few people know WordPress. Only tech-savvy people are familiar with that. Even most of the people don’t have any prior knowledge about remote job life. I have personally experienced so many funny incidents. Last year when my family members found me in front of my Mac and sometimes talking with some people, sometimes in English, they found me as an alien in my house. Even most of the time, I failed to give proof of how the whole work was done. You will face the same situation if you belong to the rural area of Bangladesh. But don’t worry, I prepared a comic book on <a href="https://gtarafdar.com/book/e-book-describe-wordpress-to-non-techies/">Describe WordPress To Non-Techies</a>. You can read the conversation with my Grandpa. I have tried to give an idea about WordPress. I hope this will help you to introduce WordPress to the non-tech guys.</p>
<h3>How I’m Contributing to the WordPress Community and how you can start:</h3>
<p>Usually, I try to attend the weekly meeting of WordPress teams. I have attended several coffee-talk sessions of WordPress Teams. It helps me join with the members. Also, I’m trying to contribute to the Polyglot team. I have started to give suggestions of translating WordPress in Bangla. But mostly, I contribute in different ways. I have conducted local WordPress meet-ups, volunteered on WordCamps. I spread the news and updates through my social media accounts. Help WordPress people to find jobs. Recently, I’ve started my YouTube Channel(Gtarafdarr). I have begun to create how-to tutorials on WordPress.</p>
<p>If you want to join WordPress core teams, you will need a WordPress Slack Account. From here, you can join WordPress <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">Slack</a>.</p>
<p>From here, you will find the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/">meeting</a> schedules of different teams. Don’t get puzzled. You can sort out your desired teams and add the meeting reminders to your calendar.</p>
<p>Everyone in the WordPress community is so helpful. If you find any difficulties, raise your hand and people will guide you in the right way.</p>
<p>Also, there are so many WordPress Facebook communities. Some are locals, and few are international, like WordPress, Advanced WordPress, WordPress For Non-Techies by WPCrafter, The WP Admin Bar, WPLeague, WPBeginner Engage &#8211; WordPress Help for Non-Techies, etc. Local Communities are, WordPressians, Kolkata WordPress Community (WPKolkata), etc. You can join these groups to get help from experts. Also, you can help others if you know the answers of the queries.</p>
<h3>This How WordPress Changed My Life</h3>
<p>Finally, I’m really thankful to WordPress. Because of this community I have overseas friends. We talk and meet virtually. All of them are so helpful. I get new motivations to do something extraordinary in my daily routine. I’m thankful to my parents and my younger sister as they rely upon me. They help me to take the risk to chess my dream. I’m grateful to weDevs and Tareq Hasan, Nizam Uddin, <a href="https://twitter.com/Asif2BD">Asif Rahman</a>, Afshana Diya, Mainul Kabir Aion, and my friends Arif, Mayeen, <a href="https://twitter.com/shahriar_na">Shahriar</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/reachmazharul">Mazhar</a>, and so on. They all have played a significant role in helping me become Gtarafdar, a WordPress enthusiast. Also, thanks to the HeroPress team for reaching me and encouraging me to share my story here.</p>
<p>I’m still learning about WordPress and have to go further. If you want to connect with me, you can follow me on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/Gtarafdarr">@Gtarafdarr</a>. Let’s contribute to WordPress and hold the glory of the supreme power of an open-source platform.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/how-wordpress-has-changed-my-life-gtarafdar/">How WordPress Has Changed My Life &#8211; Gtarafdar</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 14 Jul 2021 06:42:10 +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:16:"Gobinda Tarafdar";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:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"WPTavern: InstaWP Launches New Service for Disposable WordPress Testing Sites";s: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=119740";s: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:199:"https://wptavern.com/instawp-launches-new-service-for-disposable-wordpress-testing-sites?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=instawp-launches-new-service-for-disposable-wordpress-testing-sites";s: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:4526:"<p>Competition in the sandboxing products space is heating with the entrance of <a href="https://instawp.io/">InstaWP</a>, a new service for setting up disposable WordPress testing sites. Founder Vikas Singhal created the tool to provide a quick way to set up live testing sites online or to show something to a client or team.</p>



<p>InstaWP joins the ranks of services like <a href="https://tastewp.com/">TasteWP</a> and <a href="https://wpsandbox.io/">WPSandbox</a> but with a few unique options. At setup, users can select from WordPress versions back to 4.7 and may even choose to spin up a site using the latest beta or release candidate. Like other services, InstaWP allows you to choose your PHP version. The ability to disable WP cache and browser cache is coming soon. Users can create a custom name for their sites or leave it blank for a randomly generated name.</p>



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



<p>Free WordPress instances stay live for 8 hours, and users can link their accounts via email to extend it to 48 hours.</p>



<p>InstaWP, not to be confused with <a href="https://instantwp.com/">InstantWP</a>, a local WordPress installation tool, was built on an nginx + Apache server without any containers. Singhal said he found containers to be too heavy for this particular use case. He runs a <a href="https://expresstech.io/">WordPress plugin/theme shop</a> along with an&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="http://justhyre.com/">agency</a>&nbsp;on the side, both of which could benefit from InstaWP&rsquo;s quick testing sites.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I wanted to build a solution for ourselves where we can quickly launch WP instances for a variety of reasons &ndash; testing a feature of WP, testing a plugin/theme, testing in different versions of WP/PHP and last but not the least &ndash; creating an &lsquo;instant&rsquo; test environment for the clients for them to test our plugins/themes,&rdquo; he said.</p>



<p>Singhal started InstaWP a month ago and received so much positive feedback on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/o8cxwj/instawp_launch_a_disposable_wp_instantly_free/">Reddit</a> and from the <a href="https://mailchi.mp/poststatus/453?e=de2e3e61f2">Post Status community</a> that he hired two dedicated developers to work on the project. Testers have commented on how fast the service spins up sites. Version <a href="http://next.expresstech.io/instawp/updates/939abf2f-c532-4abc-b701-eec9f89b6fda">1.1.0</a> introduced Slack integration, which allows users to instantly set up a site by typing /wp in Slack. The release also added WordPress admin auto login for quick access without username and password.</p>



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



<p>InstaWP has a <a href="https://next.expresstech.io/instawp">public road map</a>. Features on deck for future releases include the following:</p>



<ol><li>Slack and cli commands</li><li>Download Files and DB Backup from the UI</li><li>Direct push to FTP or cPanel</li><li>nginx and nginx + Apache configurations</li><li>Finer controls on PHP settings</li><li>Save configurations for instant launch of pre-configured WP</li><li>Integrations with hosting providers</li><li>Map custom domains</li><li>Multiple servers around the world (USA, Singapore, London, etc.)</li></ol>



<p>Singhal said he was aware of TasteWP as a competitor but plans to differentiate InstaWP based on simplicity and feature set. </p>



<p>&ldquo;My vision with InstaWP is make it a default tool for WP learners, enthusiasts, freelancers, and agencies &ndash; basically everyone,&rdquo; he said. </p>



<p>Singhal plans to monetize the tool for both end-users and plugin and theme authors. Users will have to upgrade to gain access to increased limits, custom domains, FTP access, and the ability to reserve a site. WordPress product authors can upgrade to provide 1-click demos to their clients and prospective customers.</p>



<p>Singhal said so far more than 500 instances have been created and teams from Yoast and some agencies are already using the tool. Several prominent WordPress businesses have requested agency pricing that would allow their users to test their plugins via a 1-click preconfigured install. The service is still under active development and Singhal plans to iron out pricing in the near future. Testers who have suggestions for InstaWP can log them on the tool&rsquo;s <a href="https://next.expresstech.io/instawp#/ideas">idea board</a> for future consideration.</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, 14 Jul 2021 04:25:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"WPTavern: Duotone Filters: WordPress 5.8 Puts a Powerful Image-Editing Tool Into Users’ Hands";s: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=119885";s: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:227:"https://wptavern.com/duotone-filters-wordpress-5-8-puts-a-powerful-image-editing-tool-into-users-hands?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=duotone-filters-wordpress-5-8-puts-a-powerful-image-editing-tool-into-users-hands";s: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:4769:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Features such as the upcoming <a href="https://wptavern.com/diving-into-wordpress-5-8s-new-widgets-screen">block-based widgets system</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/getting-to-know-the-upcoming-wordpress-5-8-template-editor">the template editor</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/query-loop-the-ins-and-outs-of-one-of-wordpress-5-8s-most-powerful-features">theme-related blocks</a>, and others have taken up much of the spotlight as of late. However, one of the best user-focused tools shipping with WordPress 5.8 is a duotone filter for Image and Cover blocks.</p>



<p>The term &ldquo;duotone&rdquo; in this sense means combining two colors as a filter. Then, layering it over an image or video. More specifically, one color is used for the shadows (dark elements), and the second color is used for the highlights (light colors).</p>



<p>When the feature first <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-10-6-adds-duotone-filters-query-pattern-carousel-and-most-used-tags-selector">landed in Gutenberg 10.6</a> back in May, I spent a couple of hours just tinkering around with it on that first day. Since then, I have racked up a few more. It is a powerful media-editing tool that does not require users to dive into image-editing programs, allowing them to change the mood of a story at the click of a button.</p>



<p>Duotones can be anything from a simple grayscale to a mixture of any two colors. Shadows and highlights can even be inverted, depending on the shades chosen.</p>



<p>The following shows the difference between an original image of kittens (<em>because who doesn&rsquo;t love kittens?</em>) and one with a grayscale filter:</p>



<div class="juxtapose"><img id="119947" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/kittens-orig.jpg" alt="" width="1792" height="1008" class="image-compare__image-before" /><img id="119948" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/kittens-gray.jpg" alt="" width="1793" height="1008" class="image-compare__image-after" /></div>Original image vs. grayscale duotone version.



<p>WordPress offers a set of eight duotone color sets by default. This includes a grayscale, dark grayscale, and various combinations, making for some fun filters. Some will work better than others, often depending on the media file uploaded.</p>



<img />Applying the WordPress purple and yellow duotone filter.



<p>Like many other features awaiting users with WordPress 5.8, theme authors are those who need to dig in to offer a range of ready-baked options for users. The new <a href="https://wptavern.com/fse-outreach-round-8-a-developer-centric-call-for-testing-theme-json-configuration">theme JSON file configuration</a> allows developers to define a set of duotone colors that match their theme.</p>



<p>Defining custom duotone filters is as easy as plugging a name, a slug, and two colors into a <code>theme.json</code> file. The theme developer handbook includes <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/theme-json/#presets">examples of creating such presets</a>.</p>



<img />Custom &ldquo;emerald scale&rdquo; duotone filter from a theme.



<p>Users are not limited to the filters that WordPress or their themes offer. The duotone popover allows them to choose from any range of colors for custom shadows and highlights.</p>



<p>Duotone typically works best when an image has a high contrast, which means a wide-ranging spread between the light and dark colors. Darker shadows and lighter highlights make for more visually stunning filters.</p>



<p>When used with the Cover block, users can add filters to both image and video backgrounds. However, they also have access to the typical overlay color or gradient option. This provides a ton of flexibility for customizing media.</p>



<img />Duotone filter + gradient overlay on a Cover block.



<p>Because the duotone feature works with an inline SVG file under the hood, it also means that using it does not permanently change image or video files. Users can still use their original media elsewhere on the site without uploading a second copy.</p>



<p>Duotone is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many other possibilities outside of just laying a couple of colors on top of an image. Bence Szab&oacute; wrote an extensive tutorial on using <a href="https://css-tricks.com/creating-patterns-with-svg-filters/">SVG filters for patterns</a> on CSS-Tricks. This could be a route for background options in the future &mdash; <em><a href="https://css-tricks.com/creating-patterns-with-svg-filters/#pine-wood">wood grain, anyone?</a></em> Maybe not every possibility is suitable for core WordPress, but I would love to see plugin authors taking a stab at some alternatives.</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, 14 Jul 2021 02:04:42 +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:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.8 Release Candidate 3";s: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=10933";s: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:69:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-3/";s: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:3239:"<p>The third release candidate for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-8/">WordPress 5.8</a> is now available! </p>



<p>WordPress 5.8 is slated for release on <strong>July 20, 2021</strong>, and we need <em>your</em> help to get there—if you have not tried 5.8 yet, now is the time!</p>



<p>You can test the WordPress 5.8 release candidate 3 in any of these three ways:</p>



<ul><li>Install and activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester plugin</a> (select the <code>Bleeding edge</code> channel and then <code>Beta/RC Only</code> stream)</li><li>Directly download the release candidate version <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-RC3.zip">(zip)</a></li><li>Use WP-CLI to test: <code>wp core update --version=5.8-RC3</code></li></ul>



<p>Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the&nbsp;Beta/RC releases and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.</p>



<h2>Plugin and Theme Developers</h2>



<p>Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.8 and update the&nbsp;<em>Tested up to</em>&nbsp;version in the <code>readme</code> file to 5.8.  If you find compatibility problems, please be sure to post to the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">support forums</a>&nbsp;so we can work to solve them in time for the final release.</p>



<p>For a more detailed breakdown of the changes included in WordPress 5.8, check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-1/">WordPress 5.8 beta 1 post</a>.  The&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/03/wordpress-5-8-field-guide/">WordPress 5.8 Field Guide</a>, which is particularly useful for developers, has all the info and further links to help you get comfortable with the major changes.</p>



<h2>How to Help</h2>



<p>Can you speak and write in a language other than English? &nbsp;<a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev">Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!</a></p>



<p><em><strong>If you think you have found a bug</strong>, you can post to the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta">Alpha/Beta area</a>&nbsp;in the support forums. We would love to hear from you!  If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report,&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">file one on WordPress Trac</a>, where you can also find&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">a list of known bugs</a>.</em></p>



<p class="has-text-align-right"><strong><em>Props to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>cbringmann</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>chanthaboune</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/marybaum/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>marybaum</a> for peer-reviewing!</em></strong></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<p><em>Code is poetry<br />Jazz is improvisation<br />Both are forms of art<br /><br /></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:"Wed, 14 Jul 2021 01:09:26 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Jeffrey Paul";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:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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: UK State of Open Report Finds 97% of UK Businesses Surveyed Use Open Source Software";s: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=119726";s: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:231:"https://wptavern.com/uk-state-of-open-report-finds-97-of-uk-businesses-surveyed-use-open-source-software?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=uk-state-of-open-report-finds-97-of-uk-businesses-surveyed-use-open-source-software";s: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:4513:"<p><a href="https://openuk.uk/">OpenUK</a>, a WordPress-powered not-for-profit company, has released its <a href="https://openuk.uk/stateofopen/">State of the Open</a> report with data from the UK in 2021. The company advocates for open source software, open source hardware, and open data, while providing a central point of collaboration for people working in the open sectors. </p>



<p>The State of the Open report offers a broad overview of the UK&rsquo;s open source ecosystem. This collection of research includes surveys of UK companies, interviews, industry reports, and analysis from different publications. It was sponsored by GitHub, SUSE, and the Open Invention Network, and conducted by <a href="http://smoothmedia.com/">Smoothmedia</a> consulting firm under the direction of ethnographer and social researcher Dr. Jennifer Barth.</p>



<p>Key findings in <a href="https://openuk.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/openuk_stateofope2021_report_FINALCHANGES_08.pdf">Phase 1</a> of the report include research demonstrating that open source software contributes an estimated &pound;43.1 billion to the UK economy, with the UK ringing in as Europe&rsquo;s largest contributor. </p>



<p><a href="https://openuk.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/State-of-Open-Phase-Two.pdf">Phase 2</a> covers open source adoption in the UK. Researchers found a staggering 97% of the 273 UK businesses surveyed use some form of open source software:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>We found that 97% of businesses of different sizes in all sectors of the UK economy use open source software technology. Although resources became a more pressing concern during the pandemic, 64% of businesses in our sample experienced business growth which translated into a high recruitment drive for roles relating to open source software in the past 12 months (see recruitment findings). Further, we find that almost half of businesses surveyed (48%) are using open source software more as digital adoption becomes embedded in organisational culture and business.</p></blockquote>



<p>Other key findings from Phase 2 include the following:</p>



<ul><li>53% of non-tech organizations contribute to open source software projects</li><li>77% of UK public sector looks to open source for skills developmen </li><li>Over half (54%) have written policies and processes for open source contributions</li><li>89% run open source software internally in their business</li><li>Approximately two thirds (65%) contribute to open source software projects</li></ul>



<p>One interesting observation from the contribution data is that smaller companies are more likely to contribute back to open source than larger companies. Smaller companies are also more likely to use open source software in their businesses.</p>



<p></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">From the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StateOfOpen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StateOfOpen</a> report from <a href="https://twitter.com/openuk_uk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@openuk_uk</a>, it's clear that businesses of all sizes make key use of open source. The report correlates company size and open source involvement, showing smaller companies more active in contributing to open source. <a href="https://t.co/A7dz3pjqFm">https://t.co/A7dz3pjqFm</a> <a href="https://t.co/L5qeRrs9Xc">pic.twitter.com/L5qeRrs9Xc</a></p>&mdash; Aiven (@aiven_io) <a href="https://twitter.com/aiven_io/status/1414556406703869956?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 12, 2021</a></blockquote>



<p>Survey respondents cited &ldquo;saving on costs&rdquo; as the main reason for adopting open source (75%), followed by more collaboration (72%), skill development (64%), the quality of code (61%), and security (52%).</p>



<p>Phase 3 is planned to be published in September 2021. This report will focus on UK data with a methodology tailored to reveal the value of open source software to the digital economy. It will also include case studies that demonstrate the non-economic, intangible benefits of open source software, such as skills development and collaboration.</p>



<p>The published <a href="https://openuk.uk/stateofopen/">reports</a> are lengthy but will be of particular interest to companies working in the UK and Europe, especially consultancies that may need to justify using open source technologies in engineering decisions. OpenUK plans to conduct a further survey in 2022 as part of this effort to estimate the impact of open source on the UK economy.</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, 13 Jul 2021 04:20:09 +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: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:44;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"WPTavern: Contributing to Open Source Is ‘Better Than Any College Degree’";s: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=118776";s: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:187:"https://wptavern.com/contributing-to-open-source-is-better-than-any-college-degree?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=contributing-to-open-source-is-better-than-any-college-degree";s: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:7666:"<p class="has-drop-cap">A week ago, I published my <a href="https://wptavern.com/taking-the-leap-building-my-first-wordpress-block-plugin">thoughts on the block system</a> from a developer&rsquo;s perspective. Taking a weekend-afternoon deep dive into creating custom block types meant learning some tough lessons and familiarizing myself with a programming language I had little experience using.</p>



<p>Programming has always been a trial-and-error affair for me: write code, refresh the browser, read the error message, and attempt to fix the problem. Then, simply rinse and repeat the process until the program is not broken. Those mistakes are woven into the art of coding, the layers underneath that poetry on the visible canvas.</p>



<p>I have absolutely made the same mistake twice. And, thrice. Probably a lot more than that if I am being honest with myself and you. Eventually, I stop making those same mistakes, and some method or procedure is permanently seared into my brain.</p>



<p>I have written a few hundred WordPress tutorials in the past decade and a half. I am a twice-published author of development books and served as a tech editor on another. However, I am not much of a reader of tech books and documentation. For one, programmers are not necessarily the most engaging writers. Plus, <em>book smarts</em> can only get you so far. You need the <em>street smarts</em> of programming to become good at it, which means learning from experience.</p>



<p>While I firmly believe that reading is a central part of that, there is no replacement for getting your hands dirty. Building things, making mistakes, and learning to fix them is what makes programming fun.</p>



<p>Working on open-source software like WordPress is one of the best ways to do that. There is no upfront cost, assuming you have access to a computer, a prerequisite to programming of any kind. There are usually people willing to lend a hand or answer questions, and there are always problems to solve for those ready to dive into them.</p>



<p>As WordPress Executive Director <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/05/the-commons-of-images/">Josepha Haden Chomphosy chatted with Matt Mullenweg</a> on the <a href="https://wptavern.com/openverse-why-this-project-is-good-for-wordpress-and-the-web">Openverse project</a> a couple of months ago, there was a moment that I found myself nodding my head in agreement.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Because, of course, you know, contributing and being involved with open source is probably the best way to learn a technology, better than any college degree.</p><cite><em>Matt Mullenweg, WordPress Project Lead</em></cite></blockquote>



<p>I have learned more about WordPress, PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript by contributing to open-source software than I ever learned in a college course.</p>



<p>I grew up in a generation that was told that we must get a college degree. It was an integral part of the American dream that would result in suburban life in a neighborhood with perfectly aligned rows of houses, ending in a cul-de-sac. It was the first step toward a two-car garage, white-picket-fence, 2.5 kids, and a dog. College was the promise that my peers and I hinged everything on. It was expected of us, and so many of us did our duty.</p>



<p>Here is the thing that our parents did not know. The internet would change everything.</p>



<p>I graduated high school in 2002. This was during that stretch where the online world was exploding. All of the world&rsquo;s knowledge would soon be at our fingertips. Today that is truer than ever. Anything you will ever need to learn about writing code is available through an internet connection.</p>



<p>My experience with college-level courses in programming was mixed, but I learned a necessary life lesson from them: I was not cut out for a degree in software engineering. I am glad I wised up early on and pursued a different degree, saving myself some time and money.</p>



<p>I rocked my half-summer C programming class, my introduction to writing code. I also had a passionate professor who once worked on U.S. missile projects as a bug-tester. It was probably not the most glamorous job, but he always made it sound exciting because he loved what he was doing. Our class was tasked with building various programs throughout the course, but we usually had a choice in what we were building. For my group&rsquo;s final project, we created vending machine software.</p>



<p>I was on the fast track to becoming a software engineer after that first class. I had built a way for merchants to get paid for delivering sugary treats and soft drinks to customers. It was capitalism meeting programming, and I had a taste for it.</p>



<p>The fall semester rolled around, and I was motivated to move beyond the realm of procedural programming in C. Java, an object-oriented programming (OOP) language, would be my next challenge.</p>



<p>The most advanced thing our class built for an entire semester was a basic calculator. I skipped nearly every lecture because I could not stay awake watching the professor chicken-peck his way through programs for three hours every week. I attended the mandatory &ldquo;labs&rdquo; &mdash; basically a fancy way of saying an extra class where the professor&rsquo;s assistants would teach the actual coursework. </p>



<p>Needless to say, my fire died down. While calculator programs are handy tools, I wanted to branch out and build things that mattered.</p>



<p><em>You know what reignited my flame for programming?</em> At first, it was general web development. But, WordPress was what I really became passionate about. And, I have not looked back since I started using it in 2005.</p>



<p>WordPress was my gateway into a world where I could create things that interested me. I could jump ahead into a project far more advanced than my skill level, trial-and-error my way ahead, and eventually build something that others found value in.</p>



<p>Unless universities have changed, most teach step-by-step foundational lessons to their pupils. Some students may luck out and land in that unique professor&rsquo;s class who gives them leeway to explore various ideas. However, there is no substitute for creating something of your own, solving a problem that you see.</p>



<p>And, that is what programming is all about &mdash; solving problems.</p>



<p>In 2007, I released my first WordPress plugin into the wild. It automatically listed all of the subpages of the currently-viewed page. Dozens of similar plugins have been written since and probably before (<em>it seems WordPress would have a simple &ldquo;list subpages&rdquo; function by now</em>).</p>



<p>Last week, after writing a new plugin, I was reminded of the free education that the WordPress community has given me over the years. Some of it has been reading documentation. Some from WordPress Stack Exchange answers. Other bits have been studying from those who came before me, building upon their open-source code. All of it was from other people giving something back to our community.</p>



<p>This is not necessarily a knock on college.  Some people perform better in that structured environment, and there is value in all forms of education. However, there are alternatives for those who cannot afford college or learn better in a different environment.  And, there is no discounting the experience you get from contributing to something bigger.</p>



<p>If you are one of our readers thinking about getting into programming, just dive in. Make some mistakes. Build. <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn.</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, 13 Jul 2021 00:40:23 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"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:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"Gutenberg Times: Block Building, Query Loop block and more – Weekend Edition #177";s: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=18471";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/block-building-query-loop-block-and-more-weekend-edition-177/";s: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:15136:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>For a few days, we enjoyed non-humid weather in Florida as Hurricane Elsa sucked all the moisture out of the air and took it with it. Sorry, Northern friends. </p>



<p>For some fun summer reading, I can highly recommend the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-8/"><strong>WordPress 5.8 </strong></a>DevNotes, all handily assembled into a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/03/wordpress-5-8-field-guide/"><strong>massive Field Guide</strong></a> by Milana Cap. </p>



<p>After the publishing rush around the WordPress 5.8 release last week, this week is certainly a lot calmer. Although I know that behind the scenes, contributors are working hard on getting Block Editor End-User documentation ready, too. 🐝</p>



<p>Hopefully, you have been busy testing plugins and themes for compatibility with the new widget block-editor. July 20th is only 10 days away. <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-2/"><strong>WordPress 5.8 RC 2</strong></a> is out and could use your eagle eyes to spot last-minute bugs and quirks. </p>



<p>What else has happened in the WordPress Gutenberg space last week? I have a few more links for you. As always, you don&#8217;t have to consume them all in one sitting, you can always come back during the week. </p>



<p>Wishing you a wonderful weekend and start into your next week!</p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit</p>



<h2>Gutenberg Development</h2>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/09/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-0-0-9-july/"><strong>Gutenberg 11.0 was released</strong></a> and <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/get_dave">Dave Smith</a></strong> compiled the release notes for the team. This time in the release cycle of the next WordPress release, it&#8217;s all about bug fixing. <strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> highlights a few enhancements <strong><a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-0-includes-over-70-bug-fixes-continues-improving-with-wordpress-5-8-just-two-weeks-away">in his post</a></strong>. <strong>Grzegorz Ziolkowski </strong>and I recorded the <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-47-developing-block-plugins-wordpress-5-8/">47th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog </a>on Friday. Listen in and get a few more ideas of what&#8217;s in this Gutenberg 11.0  release. the audio should be available over the weekend. </p>



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



<p><strong>Matias Ventura</strong> <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/33094"><strong>updated scope for site editing projects</strong></a> to help the team and the community to track upcoming tasks around the main site editing projects. There are a few separate tracking issues for covering some general improvements and then some broader projects. It covers some general UI features that need to be iterated on, mentioned a Browse mode for the site editor, and lists Infrastructure, Patterns, Styling and the Navigation Block. </p>



<h2>Gutenberg and Themes</h2>



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/carolinapoena">Carolina Nymark</a></strong> summarized <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/08/summary-theme-features-in-wordpress-5-8/"><strong>all the Theme </strong></a><strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/08/summary-theme-features-in-wordpress-5-8/">features</a> </strong>that will come to a WordPress instance near you with WordPress 5.8. It&#8217;s the Cliff Notes with actionable code snippets for opt-in and opt-out decisions. </p>



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<p><strong>Daisy Olson</strong> posted a summary and the recording of this week&#8217;s <strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/07/09/hallway-hangout-discussion-on-theme-json-7-july/">Hallway Hangout Discussion the Theme.json</a>. </strong></p>



<p>The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/06/24/call-for-testing-thrive-with-theme-json/"><strong>Theme.json Call for testing </strong></a>is still open until July 14, 2021. It has instructions for beginners, Intermediate and advanced WordPress theme developers.  It&#8217;s a fabulous way to learn and share your feedback.</p>



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



<p><strong>Maggie Cabrera</strong> created an <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/09/gutenberg-themes-week-of-july-9-2021/"><strong>outstanding weekly round-up (#56)</strong></a> post with theme related recently merged PRs, what is discussed and again a great list of overview git hub issues that are waiting for your comments and ideas! </p>



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



<p>A couple of weeks ago, we had <strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/theme-json-for-wordpress-theme-authors-demo-and-live-q-a-w-daisy-olson-tammie-lister-and-jeff-ong/">Daisy Olsen, Tammie Lister and Jeff Ong on a Live Q &amp; A.</a></strong> First we have a short introduction demo on how to work with theme.json and a discussion on how this new way to organize the settings and styles for your theme change how themes work in WordPress. We also answered interesting questions from the audience. If you haven&#8217;t seen it yet, <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/theme-json-for-wordpress-theme-authors-demo-and-live-q-a-w-daisy-olson-tammie-lister-and-jeff-ong/">you can watch it here with transcript and resources. </a></p>




<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2021&#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>




<h2>Block Editor for Content creators</h2>



<p><strong>This is a first in the almost three-year history of the Block editor!</strong> 🙌 🎉<br />Thanks to the indefatigable <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong>, content creators can review End-user documentation for the new features <strong>before </strong>they are released. </p>



<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/list-view/">How to use the List View</a> (former Block Navigator)</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/query-loop-block/">The Query Loop Block </a></li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/block-based-widgets-editor/">Block-Based Widget Editor</a></li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/template-editor/">Template Editor</a> </li></ul>



<p>Now it&#8217;s all still a work in progress and there is still time until July 20th.</p>



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



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong>&#8216;s <strong><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2021/07/07/anne-mccarthy-block-based-widget-editor-demo/">Block-based Widget Editor&nbsp;Demo</a></strong> is now available on WordPress TV. Check it out to seen what&#8217;s coming to WordPress 5.8. <br /><em>Yep, as Grzegorz Ziolkowski said yesterday, Anne McCarthy is everywhere! </em></p>



<h3>Query Loop Block</h3>



<p>Even if you are not familiar with the developer term Query Loop, once you look at the examples you&#8217;ll instantly realize that this is about the layout of a list of posts you might want to include on your pages, templates or posts. You can change the layout for post title, featured image, excerpt and link.  An early version of this was the Latest Post Block. </p>



<p>The design team also implemented a series of Block Patterns of a few nice variations to display a post list on templates, post and pages. It&#8217;s a fun feature, and it has taken quite a long time to build. The wait was definitely worth it. </p>



<p>It is mighty and could be the most powerful feature in 5.8 as <strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> headlined his post <a href="https://wptavern.com/query-loop-the-ins-and-outs-of-one-of-wordpress-5-8s-most-powerful-features" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Query Loop: The Ins and Outs</strong></a>.</p>



<p><strong>Allison Rivers</strong> over the Torque Magazine also published an article <a href="https://torquemag.io/2021/07/what-is-wordpress-5-8s-query-loop-block/"><strong>What is the Query Loop Block?</strong></a> with lots of great insights and examples. Rivers also has a list of plugins that implemented some advanced features the WordPress version is still missing with its first iteration. </p>



<h2>Block Building and Plugins</h2>



<p>Reading throught the release notes for Gutenberg 11, I found great gem posted by <strong>Riad Benguella</strong>. It&#8217;s a flow graphic that<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32921"> <strong>explains the relationship between the packages that make the post editor</strong></a>. </p>



<img /><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32921">Partial view of Riad Benguella&#8217;s schema</a>



<p>I find this very helpful to keep in mind when to use which package at which stage or the user interactions. </p>



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



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/richard_tabor">Rich Tabor</a></strong>, Senior Product Manager, WordPress Experience GoDaddy published <a href="https://richtabor.com/gutenberg-block-plugins/">A Primer on Gutenberg Block Plugins for the WordPress Block Directory</a> in which  he walks you through the process of submit your plugin to the WordPress Directory, as he went through when submitting his <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/markdown-comment-block/">Markdown Comment block</a> to the repository. </p>



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



<p>In the same space, <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/ellatrx">Ella van Durpe</a></strong> published a plugin for private note-taking in WordPress called <strong><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/hypernotes/">Hypernotes</a>.</strong> Justin Tadlock <a href="https://wptavern.com/private-note-taking-and-journaling-with-the-hypernotes-wordpress-plugin">reviewed it</a> for the WordPress Tavern. Van Durpe explain  <a href="https://wptavern.com/private-note-taking-and-journaling-with-the-hypernotes-wordpress-plugin#comment-386210">her comment </a>to the article&#8217;s, that the plugin uses some  <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/33102">experimental PWA capabilities</a> she introduced to the Gutenberg plugin for WP-Admin. </p>



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<p><a href="https://twitter.com/AlexStandiford"><strong>Alex Standiford</strong>,</a> developer&nbsp;at <a href="https://sandhillsdev.com/">Sandhills Development </a>(makers of the EDD plugin) published a tutorial about <a href="https://www.wpdev.academy/concepts/api-fetch-the-wordpress-library-you-didnt-know-you-needed/?utm_source=Online+Course+Notification&utm_campaign=fb2a5a9d83-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cc90959c2-fb2a5a9d83-477961602"><strong>API Fetch – The WordPress Library You Didn’t Know You Needed</strong></a> with code snippets and plenty of theory to with them, too. </p>



<p>Standiford also started the <strong>WPAcademy</strong> with the course <a href="https://www.wpdev.academy/course/beer-lister-plugin/"><strong>WordPress Plugin Development Course</strong></a>, with 37 videos teaching you how to make a beer custom post type, customize the Gutenberg editor, create a new block, and create WP-CLI commands to make testing fast and easy.</p>



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



<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> shared his experience in <a href="https://wptavern.com/taking-the-leap-building-my-first-wordpress-block-plugin"><strong>Taking the Leap: Building My First WordPress Block Plugin</strong></a>. He built a breadcrumbs block as a dynamic block that&#8217;s rendered server side. </p>




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



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



<p></p>




<h2>Upcoming WordPress Events</h2>



<p><strong>July 17 + 18th, 2021</strong><br /><strong><a href="https://santaclarita.wordcamp.org/2021/">WordCamp Santa Clarita</a></strong></p>



<ul><li>1pm PT / 4pm ET / 20 UTC &#8211; FSE: <strong>What’s Coming to 5.8 &amp; the Story of the Outreach Program</strong> w/ Anne McCarthy</li><li>2pm PT / 5pm ET / 21 UTC &#8211; <strong>How Theme Developers Should Approach Full Site Editing</strong> w/ Joe Casabona</li><li>3pm PT / 6pm ET / 22 UTC &#8211; <strong>Rapid Landing Page Creation With the WordPress Block Editor</strong> w/ Daisy Olsen</li></ul>



<p><strong>July 23, 2021</strong><br /><a href="https://www.wordfest.live/"><strong>WordFest Live </strong></a>&#8211; <em>The&nbsp;</em>festival of WordPress</p>



<ul><li>July 22 &#8211;  10 PM EDT / 2 UTC  &#8211; <strong>Learn to Build Blocks with Advanced Custom Fields</strong> w/ Cameron Jones</li><li>July 23 &#8211; 3:20 pm EDT / 19:20 UTC <strong>How to Create a Fast Loading Stylish Homepage with Blocks &amp; CSS</strong> w/  Davinder Singh Kainth</li></ul>



<p>A<strong>ugust 6 + 7, 2021</strong><br /><a href="https://nicaragua.wordcamp.org/2021/"><strong>WordCamp Nicaragua</strong></a></p>



<p><strong>September 21 + 22, 2021</strong><br /><a href="https://2021.wpcampus.org/"><strong>WPCampus 2021 Online</strong></a><br />&#8220;A free online conference for web accessibility and WordPress in higher education.&#8221;</p>




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



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



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



<hr class="wp-block-separator 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, 10 Jul 2021 21:48:29 +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: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:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"WPTavern: Query Loop: The Ins and Outs of One of WordPress 5.8’s Most Powerful Features";s: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=119799";s: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:215:"https://wptavern.com/query-loop-the-ins-and-outs-of-one-of-wordpress-5-8s-most-powerful-features?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=query-loop-the-ins-and-outs-of-one-of-wordpress-5-8s-most-powerful-features";s: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:8613:"<p class="has-drop-cap">WordPress 5.8 is on deck for July 20, just a mere 10 days from now. The release is geared up to be the most feature-packed update the community has seen in a while. <a href="https://wptavern.com/diving-into-wordpress-5-8s-new-widgets-screen">Block-based widgets</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-beta-1-released-new-blocks-new-widgets-screen-and-pattern-directory-on-deck">the pattern directory</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-introduces-support-for-webp-images">WebP image support</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/getting-to-know-the-upcoming-wordpress-5-8-template-editor">template-editing mode</a>, and many more tools are nearly ready to ship to the masses.</p>



<p>However, one of the most powerful features is the Query Loop block.</p>



<p>If you are unfamiliar with the terms &ldquo;Query&rdquo; and &ldquo;Loop,&rdquo; they are vital concepts within WordPress. Traditionally, they were only necessary for theme and plugin development. However, through the Query Loop block, users will gain exposure to what is, for all intents and purposes, the backbone of how WordPress displays posts on a site&rsquo;s front end.</p>



<h2>Queries? Loops?</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Not everyone will be immediately familiar with these developer terms that WordPress is plopping down in the user interface. For theme and plugin authors, these are everyday concepts. However, even some users who have been using the platform for a decade have never been exposed to them. So, we should get some basic definitions in place.</p>



<p>The term &ldquo;Query&rdquo; is simpler than you might think. It merely means to &ldquo;query&rdquo; or &ldquo;ask&rdquo; for posts from the database according to a defined set of options. For example, one might attempt to get the last 10 blog posts.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Loop&rdquo; is an even easier concept to grasp. It means to &ldquo;loop&rdquo; or &ldquo;cycle&rdquo; through each queried post and output it. Technically, a developer could do things other than displaying the posts during this process, but we are only concerned with what gets printed on the screen.</p>



<p>The two things combined become the Query Loop block. It allows users to ask for a set of posts and display each one.</p>



<p>There is also a Post Template block, which throws a wrinkle in all of this. Aside from the word &ldquo;template&rdquo; being overused in WordPress for various features, this is a new method for an old concept. Traditionally, WordPress theme authors would write out all the HTML and call specific template tags within the queried posts loop to show things like the post title, author, content, and more. This is easy to do within a PHP file. However, in the block editor, there needed to be a new way to group these things together. The Post Template block acts as this group, housing the things users want to display in the Query Loop.</p>



<p>WordPress also has a variation on the Query Loop block called Posts List. They do the same thing, but the latter has a more user-friendly title than the former. The only problem with this variation is that, when it is inserted, the user still sees the same &ldquo;Query Loop&rdquo; block title. There is a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/32268">ticket to fix this</a>, but it is unlikely to make it into WordPress 5.8.</p>



<h2>Query Loop Pattern Inserter</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">When first inserting a Query Loop into the editor, WordPress will introduce users to another version 5.8 feature: the pattern inserter. Instead of having immediate access to interact with the block, users can select from a list of predefined patterns.</p>



<p>By default, the inserter is a carousel that lets users can scroll through patterns individually:</p>



<img />Query Loop pattern inserter: carousel view.



<p>However, they can switch to a grid-based layout and view all of the patterns at once:</p>



<img />Query Loop pattern inserter: grid view.



<p>WordPress 5.8 is set to ship with six Query Loop patterns by default, unless more are added in the coming days:</p>



<ul><li>Standard</li><li>Image at left</li><li>Small image and title</li><li>Grid</li><li>Large title</li><li>Offset</li></ul>



<p>I am not particularly fond of any of the default patterns other than the &ldquo;Large title&rdquo; one (shown in the screenshots above with the black background and white text). For this block to shine, users will need to build out their own designs or wait for theme authors to begin bundling custom Query Loop patterns.</p>



<p>And, that is how it should be. Core WordPress should ship some basics while letting our community of theme designers showcase their craft.</p>



<img />A custom simple blog posts listing.



<p>This is also an opportunity for theme authors to offer alternatives to their custom page template designs. It is not time to throw them out entirely. However, it is a way to begin recreating old ideas in the block era, such as building out eCommerce plugin integrations, portfolio grids, and much more. Some of the tools are still limited (we are getting to those next), but there is enough initial groundwork for exploration, helping users experience WordPress in new ways.</p>



<h2>Block Options</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The Query Loop block has several options for users to customize which posts to <em>query</em> the database for:</p>



<img />Query Loop block and its options.



<p>In the block toolbar, there is a &ldquo;Display settings&rdquo; button. When clicked, it creates a popover with options for how many posts to show:</p>



<ul><li><strong>Items per Page:</strong> Number of posts to display per page</li><li><strong>Offset:</strong> Number of posts to skip over</li><li><strong>Max page to show:</strong> Limit pages (this requires using one of the Query Pagination blocks)</li></ul>



<p>The &ldquo;Settings&rdquo; panel in the Query Loop&rsquo;s block sidebar has several secondary options. Users can enable &ldquo;Inherit query from template&rdquo; to use WordPress&rsquo;s global query, but this is mostly useless for WordPress 5.8 users without the Gutenberg plugin enabled and a block-based theme. For now, you will almost always want to disable this option. This will grant access to a slew of new choices, such as:</p>



<ul><li>Post type</li><li>Ordering</li><li>Filters panel for categories, tags, author, and keyword</li></ul>



<p>The Settings and Filters panels are the most fine-tuned pieces of the Query Loop block. The development team struck a sensible balance between ease-of-use and the dozens of query-related parameters available through code. It provides users with a ton of power right of the gate but should be flexible enough in the future for plugin authors to extend.</p>



<h2>The Post Template</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">When inserting a Query Loop, the editor automatically adds its inner Post Template block. This is where most of the magic happens. Users can directly change how their posts appear. Primarily, they will do so by adding blocks from the Theme category, many of which are for outputting post-related data.</p>



<img />Theme-categorized blocks for outputting dynamic data.



<p>Nearly all other blocks are available for insertion here too. However, many of them will not be great candidates for use within the Query Loop.</p>



<p>One thing that may not be immediately evident is that changes you make to one post within the Post Template block will affect all others. So, if you add a Video or Buttons block here, they will be identical. Remember, this is a &ldquo;template&rdquo; for designing how all posts within the Query Loop will appear.</p>



<p>The drawback for customizing the Post Template block output is the lack of design options for some of the blocks. It is easy to build something like a simple post list:</p>



<img />Posts list with titles and dates.



<p>You can also build a layout like a portfolio project grid, as shown in the following screenshot. However, the Post Featured Image block does not currently have sizing controls, so you are stuck with your theme&rsquo;s default post-thumbnail size &mdash; assuming it is actually registered. <em>Experiences may vary. Wildly.</em></p>



<img />Building a basic portfolio grid.



<p>For more advanced things than changing typography, colors, and spacing, users will need to wait for WordPress 5.9 and beyond. However, theme authors still have the block styles API at their disposal. I, for one, look forward to seeing what they do with it.</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, 10 Jul 2021 05:17:12 +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:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:103:"WPTavern: WordPress.org Meta Team Fixes Search Snippet Issue with Download Page Promoting WordPress.com";s: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=119785";s: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:251:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-meta-team-fixes-search-snippet-issue-with-download-page-promoting-wordpress-com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-org-meta-team-fixes-search-snippet-issue-with-download-page-promoting-wordpress-com";s: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:4709:"<p>Yesterday evening Chris Klosowski, Sandhills Development Partner and Director of Technology, tweeted out a problem with the way WordPress.org&rsquo;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/download/">Download page</a> was appearing in Google&rsquo;s Search results snippets when searching for &ldquo;WordPress.&rdquo; Underneath the link, the preview text referenced WordPress.com&rsquo;s hosting: </p>



<p><em>WordPress.com is the easiest way to create a free website or blog. It&rsquo;s a powerful hosting platform that grows with you. We offer expert support for your WordPress site.</em></p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Seems like maybe the SEO is not working correctly here&hellip;.or is it? You decide&hellip; <a href="https://t.co/hhwZ6LQnW4">pic.twitter.com/hhwZ6LQnW4</a></p>&mdash; Chris Klosowski (@cklosowski) <a href="https://twitter.com/cklosowski/status/1413261396624568322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 8, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Others <a href="https://twitter.com/hlashbrooke/status/1413268151643504641/photo/1">reported</a> seeing the intended description when Googling, which is designated in the Schema.org tag in the head tag but not printed on the page: </p>



<p><em>&ldquo;Download WordPress today, and get started on creating your website with one of the most powerful, popular, and customizable platforms in the world.&rdquo;</em></p>



<p>The reference to WordPress.com came from the hosting providers listed at the top of the page, where it randomly displays two upon each page refresh. The Download button <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210106091723/https://wordpress.org/download/">used to be at the top of the Download page</a> but ever since mid-January 2021, it has been pushed further down below recommended hosts. This is presumably to help people who want to set up a self-hosted site but don&rsquo;t know where to get started.  </p>



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



<p>&ldquo;Google was skipping our defined page descriptions in favor of some in-page content,&rdquo; WordPress lead developer Dion Hulse <a href="https://twitter.com/dd32/status/1413325529223073798">said</a>, regarding the issue with the search results snippet.</p>



<p>The WordPress Meta team was alerted to the problem and quickly put a solution in place to encourage Google to look somewhere else on the page for the main content.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The Download page has info about the mobile apps and hosting for WordPress,&rdquo; core contributor Corey McKrill wrote in the <a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/11108">commit message</a>. &ldquo;These are in&nbsp;<code>section</code>&nbsp;container elements, which might be the reason that Google is using the content of the hosting container for its search result snippet, instead of the meta description tag. By changing these containers to&nbsp;<code>aside</code> elements, hopefully Google will get the message that they don&rsquo;t contain the most pertinent information for that page.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The meta team also <a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/11109">marked the hosting recommendations on the download page as exempt</a> from being included in the Google search result snippet, so that it doesn&rsquo;t pull text from these <code>aside</code> elements.</p>



<p>Here is what the updated search result snippet looks like after the changes were put in place:</p>



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



<p>Klosowski&rsquo;s tweet highlighted the perennial tension that arises from the confusion between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The <a href="https://wordpress.org/hosting/">recommended hosting</a> page has always been a contentious bit of real estate on WordPress.org but especially now that hosting companies are also prominently promoted on the Download page.</p>



<img /><a href="https://twitter.com/cklosowski/status/1413264854643736577">https://twitter.com/cklosowski/status/1413264854643736577</a>



<p>In this situation, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, WordPress&rsquo; Executive Director, quickly <a href="https://twitter.com/JosephaHaden/status/1413262537928310785">acknowledged</a> that the search snippet promoting WordPress.com was in fact a problem, heading off those who might promote the notion that it was intentional. The Meta team acted swiftly to resolve the issue and return the snippet to its former meta description. It is not known how long Google has been pulling from the text in the recommended hosts sections to populate the snippet, but the code is now more explicit about the fact that those companies are not the most important content on the Download page.</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, 10 Jul 2021 02:05:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:48;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"WPTavern: Awesome Motive Acquires SearchWP";s: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=119714";s: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:129:"https://wptavern.com/awesome-motive-acquires-searchwp?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=awesome-motive-acquires-searchwp";s: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:4345:"<p>Awesome Motive, the company behind <a href="https://www.monsterinsights.com/">MonsterInsights</a>, <a href="https://optinmonster.com/">OptinMonster</a>, <a href="https://wpforms.com/">WPForms</a>, and several other popular products, has acquired <a href="https://searchwp.com/">SearchWP</a>, a commercial plugin that enhances WordPress&rsquo; search functionality. No changes have been announced for the plugin and Awesome Motive CEO Syed Balkhi says it will be &ldquo;business as usual&rdquo; for current customers.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We have built a lot of internal tools to improve our website search that I&rsquo;m really looking forward to sharing with the WordPress community,&rdquo; Balkhi said.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We will be combining Jon&rsquo;s vision with our own experience, so you can literally have the best search plugin in the industry without the high costs.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In 2013, when Jon Christopher launched SearchWP, he quickly carved out a slice of the WordPress search market among early competitors. The freemium model was already popular in those days with plugins like <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/relevanssi/">Relevanssi</a>, but Christopher chose to launch SearchWP as a commercial-only product. </p>



<p>&ldquo;There was already freemium competition, and I felt that the pricing model (which is the same today) was stronger given the product itself,&rdquo; Christopher said. &ldquo;I saw the pricing model as something that would help SearchWP stand out, and I also wanted to avoid opening the doors to overwhelming amounts of support requests right from the start. </p>



<p>&ldquo;I had no idea if SearchWP would be successful given the landscape, I built it first to scratch my own itch while knowing that even if no one bought it, I would 100% use it in my own work, and use it&nbsp;<em>a lot</em>.&rdquo;</p>



<p>His gamble paid off and the plugin has been used on more than 30,000 WordPress sites. Christopher had one support contractor but otherwise had been running the business alone for the past eight years. WordPress&rsquo; growing market share has made one-person plugin businesses difficult to maintain once they become very popular, as seen in the recent <a href="https://wptavern.com/delicious-brains-acquires-advanced-custom-fields-plugin">sale of ACF to Delicious Brains</a>.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I was looking ahead and considering what would be best for SearchWP&rsquo;s customers,&rdquo; Christopher said. &ldquo;I want SearchWP to live as long as it possibly can. If I&rsquo;m by myself it&rsquo;s a bit of a risk to continue that way as the business continues to grow. I know that I prefer to build things from the ground up, and I also know that I&rsquo;m not the guy to build (or manage) a team, it&rsquo;s not my strong suit. Given all of those pieces it was clear to me that it was a good time to consider selling.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Christopher described the 2013 WordPress ecosystem as more &ldquo;scrappy,&rdquo; as developers launched product businesses and worked to figure it out along the way.</p>



<p>&ldquo;There are pros and cons to an environment like that, but it was fantastic from my perspective,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Over time that feeling went away as companies grew, matured, and playbooks began to take shape. That cycle has continued over time and especially in the last 18 months we&rsquo;re getting a look at where WordPress is headed &ndash; lots of big players in a really big space.&rdquo;</p>



<p>For those who are jumping into the waters with a new product business, Christopher underscored the need for strong marketing. </p>



<p>&ldquo;I think that a lack of serious marketing will in fact be a limiter in today&rsquo;s WordPress economy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Products that have been around a long time have a natural momentum that&rsquo;s really tough to beat, but that momentum doesn&rsquo;t come without friction. In order to keep up with where WordPress is going, I do feel like you need assets (and capital) aimed directly and solely at marketing for the long haul.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Balkhi did not elaborate on Awesome Motive&rsquo;s immediate plans for the search plugin but said the company will be executing on a 12-month plan to make it easier for beginners and non-technical business owners to set up in less than 10 minutes.</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, 09 Jul 2021 03:17:48 +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:49;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:111:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 11.0 Includes Over 70 Bug Fixes, Continues Improving With WordPress 5.8 Just Two Weeks Away";s: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=119703";s: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:265:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-0-includes-over-70-bug-fixes-continues-improving-with-wordpress-5-8-just-two-weeks-away?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-11-0-includes-over-70-bug-fixes-continues-improving-with-wordpress-5-8-just-two-weeks-away";s: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:6795:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Gutenberg 11.0 landed yesterday with a pile of changes. The development team has been moving fast, and it shows.</p>



<p>For a two-week cycle, version 11.0 includes an insane number of bug fixes. Contributors squashed over 70 in this release alone. This seems to be in preparation for WordPress 5.8, which is expected to land on July 20. The upcoming block-based Widgets screen had the lion&rsquo;s share of bugs. However, the block library had nearly two dozen, many of those issues with new theme-related blocks.</p>



<p>The downside of such a massive release is that there are too many features and not enough time to cover them all. I will be cherry-picking some of my favorites, but feel free to dive into the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v11.0.0">release notes</a> for a complete picture.</p>



<h2>Theme and Template-Editing Mode Changes</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">One of the primary Full Site Editing features making its way to WordPress 5.8 will be disabled by default for most users. In a rare move from the core project, the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32858">template editor will be opt-in</a>, at least for users with classic themes.  It is opt-out for block themes.</p>



<p>As I <a href="https://wptavern.com/getting-to-know-the-upcoming-wordpress-5-8-template-editor">wrote last month</a>, until users are on actual block themes, the template editor is &ldquo;a sort-of-OK-but-kind-of-amazing landing page creator.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Template-editing is really only as good as the weakest link in the system. This will almost always be the theme over the next few months. Because the template editor is a new feature that directly attempts to overwrite the front-end output, it will always be at odds with many themes that were never designed with it in mind. The opt-in approach is unlikely the best route to mass adoption, but it is in the interest of the user experience.</p>



<p>Making it opt-in also allows theme authors to make template editing a smooth experience. Gutenberg 11.0 introduces a new <code>defaultBlockTemplate</code> editor setting. Theme authors can <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32771">create the default blocks</a> that users begin with when creating a new template.</p>



<img />Starting with a custom default block template.



<p>Ideally, this default template should include some base layout components, such as a header, footer, and post/page content. However, themers are free to put their own spin on this.</p>



<p>For more information on creating default block templates, theme authors should read Themes Team rep Carolina Nymark&rsquo;s <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/08/summary-theme-features-in-wordpress-5-8/">overview of WordPress 5.8 theme features</a>.</p>



<h2>Media &amp; Text Block: Drag-and-Drop Media Replacement</h2>



<img />Dragging a new media file into the Media &amp; Text block.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Users have long been able to drag and drop an initial image or video into the Media &amp; Text block. However, they were unable to replace it using the same method. Gutenberg 11.0 creates a new <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/29710">&ldquo;drop zone&rdquo; over the media column</a>, making it easy to change the media to something new.</p>



<p>The feature already exists with the Cover and Image blocks, so this change brings Media &amp; Text up to date. We probably should have had this feature months ago, but the patch sat in limbo waiting for a code review.</p>



<h2>Accessibility: Categories Dropdown Has Label</h2>



<img />Label difference between the Archives and Categories blocks.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The development team added a new <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/33060">&ldquo;Categories&rdquo; label</a> when the Categories block is shown as a dropdown. This is a welcome improvement to help those using screen-readers better navigate the page.</p>



<p>The problem with this change is the lack of consistency. In <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-10-8-adds-new-typography-controls-and-block-previews">Gutenberg 10.8</a>, the team removed the <code>.screen-reader-text</code> class for the Archives block label, making it appear on screen for all users. These types of inconsistencies that seem trivial on the surface tend to pile up, creating code bloat for theme designers in the long run as they try to wrangle them.</p>



<p>I would prefer both labels to be marked as screen-reader text. Regardless of the default, the two should match. Then, throw in an option for the end-user to decide whether to show the label similar to how the Search form handles it.</p>



<h2>The Return of Post Classes</h2>



<img />Post classes appear for Post Template block.



<p class="has-drop-cap">For those theme designers who need them, Gutenberg 11.0 <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/30497">brings back post classes</a>. If you are wondering where posts classes had gone, you may not be alone. In the world of blocks, they are not needed as much as they once were. Traditionally, WordPress theme authors used these classes to dynamically change the output of a post based on contexts such as type, format, category, and more.</p>



<p>When the Post Template block (formerly named Query Loop) was introduced, there was a noticeable lack of the traditional classes attached to the wrapper for individual posts. This latest update brings them back.</p>



<p>In the future, block themes will likely rely on these classes less and less. With much of the design configuration moving to <code>theme.json</code> files and user-controlled options, it is probably time to say goodbye to one of the core features of theme design over the past decade. However, it is a comfort to know it is there when needed.</p>



<h2>Decimals Allowed in Spacing Controls</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">For those who are particular about getting their margin and padding <em>just</em> right, they can finally rejoice. Spacing controls now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32692">allow for decimal values</a> and not just whole numbers.</p>



<p>In past versions of the plugin, a value such as <code>1.5</code> would be rounded up to <code>2</code>. When used with <code>rem</code> and <code>em</code> units, such rounding created a 50% difference between the intended spacing and reality.</p>



<p>I am happy about this one. It is a fix for <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/31964">one of the tickets</a> I opened (<em>hooray for contributing!</em>). However, I cannot take credit for fixing the problem. That honor goes to Themes Team representative Ari Stathopoulos.</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, 09 Jul 2021 02:55:19 +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: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:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";O:42:"Requests_Utility_CaseInsensitiveDictionary":1:{s:7:"*data";a:8:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Mon, 02 Aug 2021 11:09:14 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Mon, 02 Aug 2021 10:45:08 GMT";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:4:"x-nc";s:9:"HIT ord 2";s:16:"content-encoding";s:4:"gzip";}}s:5:"build";s:14:"20210801104538";}