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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:67:"WPTavern: GiveWP Launches Standalone Donation Form Block for Stripe";s:7:"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=131502";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"https://wptavern.com/givewp-launches-standalone-donation-form-block-for-stripe";s: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:5580:"<p class="has-drop-cap">GiveWP quietly released its new plugin, <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/donation-block-for-stripe-by-givewp/">Donation Form Block for Stripe</a>, in the WordPress directory last week. It is a standalone block that allows users to accept donations almost instantly. No complicated setup. Just install, activate, connect to Stripe, and play.</p>



<p>I named the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/give/">GiveWP plugin</a> my <a href="https://wptavern.com/reflecting-on-2019-the-year-in-review">favorite of 2019</a>. The team behind the donation plugin has consistently produced top-tier plugins and extensions, and I have long been of fan of the company&#8217;s work. It did not take me long to install and activate its latest plugin.</p>



<p>Donation Form Block for Stripe is essentially a lite version of GiveWP. The primary product is far more powerful and has an entire ecosystem of extensions built around it. In general, it is geared more toward charities, non-profits, and other fundraising efforts where users might need more flexibility, reporting, and integration with third-party systems. It can be overkill for someone who merely needs a simple donation form.</p>



<p>The one-off donation form block is better-suited for those &#8220;buy me a coffee&#8221; scenarios than well-organized fundraisers. I am glad to see GiveWP tackling this side of the donation arena.</p>



<p>Inserting the block is as easy as adding any other. However, before using it, users should connect their Stripe account, and the plugin provides a handy button for doing so in the block sidebar:</p>



<img />Connecting to Stripe.



<p>The Stripe connection persists, so it only needs to be configured once. From that point, everything is relatively straightforward. Plug in a few details and publish.</p>



<p>In a couple of minutes, I had created and published a fictional fundraiser for cleaning a local basketball court.</p>



<img />Full donation form on the front end.



<p>As much as I love the idea of this block, I was not entirely happy with the user experience. However, keeping in mind that this is version 1.0.x, it has a ton of potential.</p>



<p>GiveWP&#8217;s donation form managed to break nearly every one of my block-related cardinal sins while still managing to be an exceptional product.</p>



<p>Users must add an image, custom text, and donation field text via the block options sidebar. This means there is no Rich Text input, so users cannot even add simple bold and italic styles. It also feels unintuitive working from the sidebar instead of modifying the fields directly from the content canvas.</p>



<img />Text editing in the sidebar instead of the block in the content canvas.



<p>A more ideal approach would have used the &#8220;inner blocks&#8221; feature to put Heading, Paragraph, and Image/Cover blocks &#8212; locked in place &#8212; into the main donation form. It could have done the same with the buttons and other form elements via custom blocks.</p>



<p>Ultimately, most of the problems are related to control over the design. One of the worst things block plugins can do is overrule everything the theme styles on the front end.</p>



<p>Do not get me wrong; blocks should ensure quality control over their own output. Their functionality should be unencumbered, and their layout should work well regardless of the theme.</p>



<p>However, this donation block takes its duties a step too far, using JavaScript to inject CSS into the page and doubling up on the specificity with <code>!important</code>. Even if a theme <em>wanted</em> to integrate with the block, it is next to impossible to style the donation form elements. <em>Is there really any reason that the inputs are required to have 2px, solid, rounded borders?</em></p>



<p><em>And, why are my theme and user-registered colors not even available for the single color option provided?</em></p>



<img />Theme colors not selectable.



<p>That is what frustrates me the most &#8212; not just with this block. WordPress has built this standardized system that allows communication between the platform, plugins, themes, and end-users. It lets developers build output that should always be customizable. By no means does it cover every aspect of design. However, the foundational components are in place. Colors and font sizes have been around for over three years. Extended typography and border controls are available now.</p>



<p>There is no way to make a wide or full-width form. The block does not support alignments, and even when wrapping a Group block, the plugin limits it to a maximum width of 650 pixels.</p>



<p>Some of these problems are similar to the issues I was writing about nearly two years ago with the <a href="https://wptavern.com/givewp-2-7-adds-donation-form-templates-and-per-form-stripe-connections">release of GiveWP 2.7</a>. I would have liked to have seen them addressed on an entirely new plugin release from the outset.</p>



<p>Despite my complaints, the plugin does the one thing it must do correctly, at least as good as anyone and better than most. It makes accepting donations as simple as inserting a block into a page, customizing a handful of fields, and hitting the publish button. If the dev team never added another enhancement, that would be all most of its users need.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/donation-block-for-stripe-by-givewp/">Donation Form Block for Stripe</a></blockquote>
</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, 16 Mar 2022 03:15:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:114:"HeroPress: Connection Makes Credibility, Credibility Makes Opportunity – 連結產生信賴，信賴創造機會";s:7:"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=4407";s:7:"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:190:"https://heropress.com/essays/connection-makes-credibility-credibility-makes-opportunity/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=connection-makes-credibility-credibility-makes-opportunity";s: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:9682:"<img width="1024" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/031522-2-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: Being connected in meetups is the most valuable part of the WordPress community. 在小聚中與人建立連結，是參加小聚最有價值的地方。" /><p><a href="https://heropress.com/feed/#chinese">這篇文章同時有繁體中文版本。」</a></p>
<p>I’m Huanyi Chuang (Eric) from Taiwan. I’ve been participating in the WordPress community for several years. Of course, this experience isn’t long compared with other people’s experiences in the open-source communities. Still, I have learned a lot by joining this fantastic group and am eager to share my experience.</p>
<h2>Why I Started</h2>
<p>I started joining Taipei meetup because I tried to seek solutions to my client’s website issues. For people who haven’t been to any meetups, a WordPress meetup is somewhere you can meet experienced WordPress users or developers to help you with your questions.</p>
<p>When I encountered an issue with the custom archive pages, a local meetup announcement showed on my WordPress dashboard. And that was my original connection with the local community, not impressive, but true.</p>
<h2>Why I Keep Participating</h2>
<p>In the end, the WordPress community gives me the chance to connect with people.</p>
<p>At first, I started by asking questions, and I found that I might find some leads in the meetups and wanted to take advantage by knowing more potential clients. So I brought my business cards to every event from then on.</p>
<p>That didn’t work well, as I didn’t acquire any clients from attendees.</p>
<p>There are plenty of reasons why that didn’t work, but the main reason is credibility and sincerity. I wanted to “get” rather than “give.” It sounds cliché, but people do feel.</p>
<p>So I questioned myself, “why do I even bother staying here?”</p>
<p>“Make some friends, you silly,” said the voice in my mind.</p>
<p>I started to focus more on making new friends and listening more to people. I also started to share my own experience of website management as a meetup speaker.</p>
<p>And then, the first WordCamp Taipei was born in 2018.</p>
<p>I joined as an organizer, working on session planning and speakers contact. In the organizing phase, I met new friends from different fields and foreign countries, which gave me a great sense of achievement and strengthened my passion for participating in the community.</p>
<h2>“Start Your Meetup”</h2>
<p>Akihiro Nishino, a famous Japanese comedy actor, states that “information only goes for those who take actions.” And that’s what I benefit from the meetups.</p>
<p>After the first WordCamp, the local communities seemed more visible, and more volunteers wanted to start their meetups. The organizer of the Taipei meetup asked me, “you told me that you want to start the meetup in Taoyuan. Would you like to start it with a partner?” and referred me to another organizer.</p>
<p>“Of course,” said I.</p>
<p>We started our local community in Taoyuan. The number of people was far less than Taipei’s, but we found our own pace. We create a pattern of “multiple organizers,” which diversified the pressure of a single organizer, as there are always “minimum attendees,” who are ourselves. The organizers in Taoyuan then became a group of close friends, who often have an “after meetup” after a regular one, grabbing drinks or gourmet together.</p>
<p>Being connected tofrom meetups is the most valuable part of the community. Having these friends makes me gather more information. We share information and benefit from others’ information, and thus we gain more trust in each other. With such credibility, we share more deeply and build deeper relations.</p>
<h2>Summary: Why You Should Join</h2>
<p>To be honest, the main reason you should join the WordPress community is that you can benefit from it no matter what positions you take.</p>
<p>As an attendee, you come and ask for answers. As a speaker, you come to validate your discovery and share your ideas to build your credibility. Finally, as an organizer, you make everyone feel safe to share and ask questions to attract more people to join and follow the community.</p>
<p>If you participate in the community long enough, you may also discover the humanity behind the community: people may have reasons to start joining WordPress communities. However, what keeps them participating continuously remains the same: they found the value to do so. Most people leave because their initial needs disappear; either they have found their solutions or found someone else for their issues, which is still great, as we create an environment to help them out. However, not until you keep participating, will you find more you can achieve than you expect.</p>
<p>Here is my own story about my experience in the WordPress community, and I hope that this may encourage more people to join this organic community.</p>
<h1 id="chinese">連結產生信賴，信賴創造機會</h1>
<p>大家好，我是 Eric。我已經持續參與了 WordPress 社群幾年的時間。當然，相較於其他人，這樣的經歷並不特別，但我希望仍然可以透過這篇分享，和大家聊聊這些年我所見所學的點點滴滴。</p>
<h2>為什麼我開始參與小聚</h2>
<p>起初，我因為抱著想要解決客戶網站問題的心情，參與了第一場台北小聚。在這裡跟沒有參加過小聚的人說明一下，WordPress 小聚是個你可以與有經驗的 WordPress 使用者或開發者共享交流、取得協助的場合。</p>
<p>當時的我遇到了一些客製化的難關，在 WordPress 的控制台首頁出現了小聚的通知，那便是我第一次參與小聚的經歷。並不戲劇化，但是我相信這也是開啟許多人參與小聚的契機。</p>
<h2>為什麼持續參與</h2>
<p>原因很簡單，因為小聚讓我可以與不同的人產生連結。</p>
<p>起初，我只是為了詢問問題，接著我開始想「說不定可以在這裡遇到潛在的客戶」，並且開始琢磨著如何接洽新的生意，因此後來幾次小聚，我都是帶著名片在身上的。</p>
<p>但是這樣做其實並沒有什麼效果，我並沒有因為帶了名片就取得任何新客。</p>
<p>這個結果可能有許多原因，不過我總結來看，認為原因不外乎兩個：信賴度與真誠。在這樣的過程中，我只想要「獲得」而非「給予」，雖然這樣講有點老掉牙，但這種幽微的氣息差異，其他人都能感受得到。</p>
<p>於是我回頭思考，「為什麼我還要來？」</p>
<p>「當然是交朋友啊，傻子。」我心中的聲音跟我說。</p>
<p>我開始更專注在交朋友這件事上，並花更多時間在聽別人說話，畢竟開始工作後，並沒有太多機會認識新朋友。同時，我也開始分享自己管理網站的經驗。</p>
<p>接著，台灣的第一場 WordCamp－WordCamp Taipei 2018 誕生了。</p>
<p>在這之中，我參與了議程組的籌備。在過程中，我與不同國籍的講者、不同領域的志工接觸，得到了莫大的成就感，並且透過這樣的「連結」，加深了自己持續參與社群事務的熱情。</p>
<h2>「開始你的小聚」</h2>
<p>日本著名的喜劇演員，西野亮廣曾提到「資訊會集中在那些採取行動的人身上」，而這句話正凸顯了我在小聚中獲益的地方。</p>
<p>在 WordCamp 結束後，在地社群的能見度更高了，而更多的志工也希望開始他們自己的小聚。台北小聚的阿竣問了：「你之前說想在桃園辦小聚，要不要試著跟其他人一起舉辦呢？」並引薦了當初的另一位主辦給我。</p>
<p>「好啊！」我說。</p>
<p>我們開始了在桃園的地區小聚。參加的人數上，遠遠不及台北小聚，但我們也找到了我們自己的步調。我們採取了「多主辦」的模式，分散了一個主辦可能會需要面對的壓力——至少，我們就是「參加者」。桃園小聚的主辦們後來慢慢成為關係不錯的一群朋友，我們也常常邀著每次小聚的會眾參加「續攤」的行程，一起吃吃喝喝。</p>
<p>從小聚中建立連結，對我來說一直都是社群最重要的部分，從這些朋友身上我也了解更多不同領域的資訊，而隨著這些資訊的交流，我們也建立了更多的信任與更緊密的連結。</p>
<h2>結語：為什麼值得你參加</h2>
<p>坦白說，不論你在這個社群中站在什麼樣的位置，你都能從社群得益。</p>
<p>身為參與者，你可以來到小聚，並尋求解答；身為講者，你可以到小聚驗證你的發現，以及透過分享你的想法，建立你的可信度；身為主辦，你可以透過營造一個安全、舒適的交流環境，吸引更多的人參與社群、分享資訊。</p>
<p>如果你參加了夠長的一段時間，你也可以發現在社群後面的人性：參與社團的人原因百百種，但是持續參與的原因只有一種：發現了社群的價值。這些人十分稀少，大多數的人離開，是因為一開始的問題得到解決了，或是找到了可以幫他們解決問題的人，這也都是好事，因為我們創造了幫助他們的機會。然而，只有持續參與，才能再更進一步發現，你能夠取得的成就，將會比預期的更多。</p>
<p>這是我自己參與 WordPress 社群的故事，希望這個故事，也能夠激起你對於參與這個社群有不一樣的想法。</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, 16 Mar 2022 00:00:43 +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:20:"Huanyi (Eric) Chuang";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:42:"WPTavern: DigitalOcean Acquires CSS-Tricks";s:7:"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=131462";s:7:"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://wptavern.com/digitalocean-acquires-css-tricks";s: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:4611:"<p><a href="https://css-tricks.com/">CSS-Tricks</a> has been <a href="https://css-tricks.com/css-tricks-is-joining-digitalocean/">acquired by DigitalOcean</a>, a cloud hosting provider popular among developers. Chris Coyier started the site in 2007 and will be working with DigitalOcean as an advisor during the transition before stepping back to focus on his other projects. </p>



<p>&#8220;CSS-Tricks deserves more human muscle behind it than I’ve been able to provide for it,&#8221; Coyier said. &#8220;That’s where DigitalOcean comes in. That’s the &#8216;why now.&#8217; They have the resources to put behind CSS-Tricks, and the motivation to do so. I fully trust them to do it, as they’ve been successfully doing it themselves for a long time.&#8221;</p>



<p>DigitalOcean <a href="https://twitter.com/digitalocean/status/1503707275235573762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1503707275235573762%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwptavern.com%2F%3Fp%3D131462preview%3Dtrue">announced the news on Twitter</a> with a charming CSS animation, and many developers chimed in with their gratitude for what CSS-Tricks has done for their professional skills while they were learning web development.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="es" dir="ltr"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f973.png" alt="🥳" class="wp-smiley" /> DigitalOcean <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f91d.png" alt="🤝" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/css?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CSS</a> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f499.png" alt="💙" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://t.co/yAWp7nhZ0S">https://t.co/yAWp7nhZ0S</a> <a href="https://t.co/3smm33MEGu">pic.twitter.com/3smm33MEGu</a></p>&mdash; DigitalOcean (@digitalocean) <a href="https://twitter.com/digitalocean/status/1503707275235573762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Over the past 15 years, CSS-Tricks has became an authoritative, inexhaustible resource for frontend developers. Navigate through the archives to the earliest days of CSS-Tricks for a blast from the past, with tutorials and code samples for things like <a href="https://css-tricks.com/css-menu-with-rollover-images/">how to create a CSS menu with rollover images</a> and the <a href="https://css-tricks.com/the-how-and-why-of-clearing-floats/">hows and whys of clearing floats</a>. If there was a time capsule for the web, CSS-Tricks is an important historical record that should be inside it. </p>



<p>&#8220;I can’t think of another website that I’ve grown up with that’s continued to be such an important part of my life,&#8221; long-time contributor Robin Rendle <a href="https://www.robinrendle.com/notes/an-ode-to-css-tricks/">said</a>, echoing the experiences of a whole generation of developers.</p>



<p>&#8220;Whenever I’ve been stuck on a front-end problem or whenever I hit a snag with something, there is an almost 100% chance that Chris would’ve already written about the problem and the 18 different solutions to it.&#8221;</p>



<p>The archives include 1,475 articles that relate to WordPress in one way or another, with many helpful tutorials like <a href="https://css-tricks.com/a-deep-introduction-to-wordpress-block-themes/">A Deep Introduction to WordPress Block Themes</a>. Jetpack and WordPress.com have many <a href="https://css-tricks.com/wordpress-com-has-a-new-home-on-youtube/">sponsored</a> many <a href="https://css-tricks.com/jetpack-features-we-love-and-use-at-css-tricks/">articles</a> on CSS-Tricks, as the resource is so widely used in the tech industry.</p>



<p>What will become of CSS-Tricks in the hands of its new owner? DigitalOcean has built a well-respected technical writing team over the years and has prioritized producing developer education resources. The company and its network of contributors have authored 6,000 developer tutorials and approximately 30,000 community-generated questions and answers. They are well-equipped to continue what Coyier started.</p>



<p>The beloved publication will continue on as a standalone site managed by DigitalOcean and will continue publishing new frontend content.</p>



<p>&#8220;CSS-Tricks will broaden and complement our existing library of content, furthering DigitalOcean’s reach with both frontend and full-stack developers, and supports our community strategy, a key differentiator for DigitalOcean in the cloud computing space,&#8221; DigitalOcean CEO Yancey Spruill 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, 15 Mar 2022 23:42:12 +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: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:79:"Post Status: Post Status Excerpt (No. 50) — The Future of Hiring is Marketing";s:7:"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:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94430";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"https://poststatus.com/post-status-excerpt-no-50-the-future-of-hiring-is-marketing/";s: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:28511:"<h2 id="more-important-than-being-responsive-is-setting-expectations-dave-rodenbaugh">&#8220;Culture is King. Content is the town crier.&#8221; —Lance Robbins</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">In this episode of Post Status Excerpt, <strong>Lance Robbins</strong> (Global Recruitment Lead at <strong>XWP</strong>) talks to David Bisset about WordPress companies struggling to find talent in the current job market. Lance believes employers need to think about how they market themselves to prospective employees. Traditional approaches to hiring won't work with the next generation of job seekers. What if open source values and ways of thinking point to solutions WordPress businesses can uniquely embrace? </p>



<p>Lance will be speaking at the upcoming <a href="https://wpcareersummit.com/">WP Career Summit</a> on April 8th, 2022. You can <a href="https://wpcareersummit.com/register-to-attend/">register to attend for free</a> as a job seeker.</p>



<p><strong>Why This Is Important:</strong> Finding the right talent (and being found by the right employer) is challenging in the tech space. If you are looking for the right employee (or boss) then this is worth a listen.</p>







<p class="has-background">Every week <strong><a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">Post Status Excerpt</a></strong> will brief you on important WordPress news — in about 15 minutes or less! Learn what's new in WordPress in a flash. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/26a1.png" alt="⚡" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><br />You can listen to <a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">past episodes</a> of <strong>The Excerpt</strong>, <a href="https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/">browse all our podcasts</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1m3xwXbe0MG5BzFVPtB0A7">Spotify</a>, Amazon Music, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://castro.fm/podcast/c53552c6-1ee0-4fc4-9de4-08ed6bf1ee4d">Castro</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus">YouTube</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast">Stitcher</a>, <a href="https://player.fm/series/wordpress-post-status-podcasts">Player.fm</a>, <a href="https://pca.st/05rR">Pocket Casts</a>, <a href="https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/">Simplecast</a>, or by <a href="https://feeds.simplecast.com/2JE9sc8P">RSS</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h3 id="h-mentioned-in-the-show"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f517.png" alt="🔗" class="wp-smiley" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>



<ul><li><a href="https://wpcareersummit.com/">WP Career Summit</a></li><li><a href="http://twitter.com/lancehrobbins">Lance Robbins</a> (Twitter)</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/dimensionmedia" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">David Bisset</a> (Twitter)</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/post_status" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Post Status</a> (Twitter)</li></ul>


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<h3 id="sponsor"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> Sponsor: <a href="http://poststatus.com/cloudways">CloudWays</a></h3>



<p>Just like you, we live and breathe WordPress! Cloudways is proud to sponsor Post Status. Our managed hosting for WordPress and WooCommerce takes away the cloud server-related learning curve with a seamless and scalable web hosting experience. Trusted by over 250,000 WordPress users, Cloudways gives you the freedom to choose from any of the top IaaS (infrastructure as a service) providers for ultimate performance.</p>


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<h2 id="h-transcript"><strong>Transcript</strong></h2>



<p>Lance</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> Hi there. Welcome to post that a sec cert, before we get into this episode, let me tell you about one great sponsor that this week is cloud ways. They're proud to sponsor Post Status and you don't work glad to have them because they live and breathe. WordPress just like me, and probably just like you.</p>



<p>They have managed hosting for WordPress and WooCommerce and it takes away the cloud server related learning curve with a seamless and scalable web hosting experience. They're trusted by over 200. Thousand WordPress users. That's a lot of WordPress users CloudWave gives you freedom to choose from any of the top I a S, which stands for infrastructure as a service providers for one great ultimate performance experience.</p>



<p>So make sure to check them out, go to poststatus.com/cloud ways.</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> I was at WordCamp us and 2018. Um,</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> I was there, but I was a ghost</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> just, it's huge. Um, so yeah, a little bit of, a little bit of WordCamp attendance looking forward to Europe this year. Yeah. And I'm. Connected to the WordPress community through XWP. And I get to meet lots of really cool people from all over WordPress, you know, um, you know, leading the recruiting and hiring over there.</p>



<p>So a lot of chances to learn, learn a lot about, you know, what WordPress is doing and in community-wise like in different spots all around the globe.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> How long have you been with, um, your ex</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> WP? Uh, since 2017.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> And what's your, what's your job title?</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Yeah, a recruitment lead.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> So XWP has a recruitment department.</p>



<p>How many people is it? Is it just you?</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Um, it's it's me and one other.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> Yeah, that's incredible. How many people currently work at, uh, the company?</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Uh, we're just right at 122. That's</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> I keep forgetting. You folks with that big,</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> uh, it's, it's pretty a recent development, right? We went in the last, um, what, 14 months or so from 40 to 120.</p>



<p>So we had a very, very busy year. Um, last, last calendar year, growing the team.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> What do you think we're going to get into you are a speaker at the upcoming WP career summit. That's happening on April 8th. We're going to get to that in a second, but first I wanted to get, since you are into recruitment, I wanted to get your overall thoughts on what the status or what the state of hiring and WordPress is today.</p>



<p>Where do you think the WordPress ecosystem lies currently in terms of looking for technical?</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Yeah, that's a good question. And I mean, I can speak to my observations.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> Yes, please. That's you are, you are made for this.</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Yeah. Well, I don't know how authoritative it really is. Right. But from what I, from what I see, it seems that.</p>



<p>Uh, particularly folks with a good bit of experience and exposure to, you know, relatively compact complex projects are in incredibly high demand, um, and are pretty well taking their pick. And at least folks that I'm talking to are typically having more than one offer coming across their desk. Um, at the same time we might be making an offer.</p>



<p>So it's, it's quite competitive and, um, You know, especially in terms of technology focused roles, you know, engineering, um, design, even though design is often less WordPress specific, um, uh, design UI design and UX design, uh, is incredibly high demand right now. Um, strategic product work, product owners, product managers are also in very high demand.</p>



<p>Um, and as far as it relates to work, press. I mean, so long as word press continues to grow and continues to be seen as a viable solution for more and more complex projects and problems to solve. Um, I don't, I don't think it's slowing down at all. At least we don't see it slowing down on our side. Yeah.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> So you are actually, you're giving me giving a talk on the, um, at the career summit.</p>



<p>Your title is the future of hiring is marketing. Can you summarize the gist of. Because you're the one giving the talk.</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Yeah. I'll give you some of my thoughts around why I'm going with a title like this. And what I'm thinking about here is that, um, well, a couple of things for one, um, I think about an opportunity, you know, at a company that I represent as a product.</p>



<p>And so I want to represent that product in the best way possible and in an accurate way. Right. So we need to have a good product and we need to, uh, really. Represented well, and talk about it and give people insight into, into what's here, because I think people will like the product, but maybe they just don't know about it yet.</p>



<p>And thinking</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> you're going to like working for us. You just don't know it yet.</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> That's right. And, you know, so much of the, of the recruitment industry is incredibly reaction driven. Right? All of a sudden we have a need, we've got to fill it right now, get out there, uh, knock on doors, you know, send those messages, do the outbound work, you know, track someone down and get them in the door.</p>



<p>And so long as hiring is this reactive experience. Um, it's going to be. A poor experience for candidates, it's going to be stressful and it's going to result in probably not the best fit and long-term tenure for team members. But if you can think in terms of a long-term strategic arc for a company that has a great product, um, you want to be building interest, you know, building content, building this magnet that attracts.</p>



<p>Um, buyers for that product. And so I think about it the same way. If, if a candidate, if a software engineer or project manager or designer, you know, is the buyer that we're trying to reach, what kind of content matters to them? You know, how are we talking about the product, the opportunity here in a way that, Hey, somebody might actually be interested, um, without us having to harass them.</p>



<p>On their LinkedIn.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> So how do you, we'll get to LinkedIn in a second. I want to ask you about that, but how do you put that into a, a digital physical form? Is that in terms of blog posts or, I mean, how do you, how do you make something more welcome to the people that you're trying to attract now? You think you will track down.</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Um, I think there's, uh, several different channels that we should be looking at. And this is something we'll get into more specifically when we get to the, when we get to the talk. But as you know,</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> and just, you can just give me one, this is a preview. I don't need your whole talk here.</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Yeah. Right. I don't want to fill up the fill up the whole time.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> What's your, what, what, what you think is the one that maybe gets most overlooked or the most underappreciated?</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Hmm. That's a good question. Uh, the most under appreciated might be social proof.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> What do you mean by social?</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> I mean, um, the times when somebody who already works at your company says, Hey, you know, this is such a great place to work.</p>



<p>I really love it. Um, you, whether that's on their social media or on a reviews site, something like a class door, um, or, you know, Testimonials basically. Yeah. Testimonials, right. It's super organic. And it reaches not just the network that your company reaches, but it reaches the network that these individuals reach as well.</p>



<p>Um, so I think that's under appreciated and I think if organizations will nurture that kind of thing, um, you know, not, uh, not a forced thing, obviously you want that to be organic and natural, but if you can nurture, um, that. Norm for how people engage.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> Um, I don't know. I don't know normal about how people engage.</p>



<p>I'm still trying to figure that out myself, but I think, I think I get what you mean. Let me ask you the obvious question. How did you get recruited for XWP? How did you get in there?</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Yeah, that's uh, that's um, that's what I'm still trying to figure out. What am I doing here?</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> I took a glass of wine. I woke up here and I just started working for 'em.</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Yeah. So I actually have a, I started my career in forestry of all things. I worked, um, running a reforestation business, um, and it was, you know, based in the Southeastern us. Um, we had tree planting crews that were covering all over the Southeastern us. And, uh, it was, it was like intense project management.</p>



<p>Um, and I got connected with Arland birds, our chief people officer over there, uh, And it was probably a two year conversation. Wow. To the point where, where we first started kicking the idea around, um, to me actually joining XWP, um, in a shared, uh, people ops and project management capacity in 2017. Um, I didn't know anything about software then.</p>



<p>I didn't know anything about WordPress and I didn't know anything about. Uh, a remote company. I just knew that I wanted more flexibility and I was willing to work hard and learn. And I was excited about, you know, the culture that I was seeing there. And yeah, it's been, it's been a fantastic journey, you know, from there to here</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> Is two years, a typical time to have a conversation like that when the end result is coming to work.</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> I don't think that's typical, but I think it's good to keep in mind that the people that are saying no, not right now. Are potentially two years down the road, the people that are going to be saying, yeah, the time is right. So you need to be creating this experience. That's warm and welcoming. Um, and if you take the attitude of, if they're say no, not right now, I don't have time for that conversation.</p>



<p>You might be losing out on an incredible team member like me. Right.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> You really do know how to sell.</p>



<p>Let me, uh, w what specific, what's specific about WordPress, in your opinion, um, versus any other technology or any other attract. Um, is there something unique about WordPress that, um, that from a community standpoint or anything that makes the people that XWP is looking for a specialty attractive versus some, maybe another language or another industry in general?</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Yeah, so, like I said, coming in, in 2017, not knowing that much about WordPress or software communities, the thing that is just really stood out to me is the openness and. You're just boiling it down to the open source nature of both the technology and the community, I think is just, is really astounding coming from a world where everything is proprietary and, you know, you guard your secrets and you, you know, you do everything you can to get a one-up this, this idea of, of opening things and sharing and rooting for someone else, you know, because if they succeed, you succeed, um, it's just an incredible set of values.</p>



<p>That resonates with me really strongly. And, you know, seeing folks at XVP who also resonate with our values of teamwork and giving and mastery of craft, um, you know, they're, those things are just woven so much into the fabric of the WordPress community, especially in terms of people who are. Leading releases and contributing to the core technology of it.</p>



<p>Um, yeah, it's just a really strong match there.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> You can literally sit down. Well, this was before COVID anyway, but hopefully coming it's coming soon. You could literally sit down at a table with somebody from a competitor and work on the same, um, for on contributor day, work on the same project together in the open source context.</p>



<p>Right. You know, there there's not rivals there there's just contributors. And even if it wasn't away from the table, I mean, we see people mix WordCamps all the time. Like you said, there was that openness, but with WordPress open source, but I think a lot with the WordPress openness in terms of you don't even have to be necessarily a developer, you can be, um, you know, a marketer or someone who's brand new and they have a lot of times be able to mix.</p>



<p>Like you may have a market or talk to a developer and it's that cross-pollination of, you know, you don't have to be communicating with developers to attract or make your company seem open and welcome. You know, it's all about networking that marketer may have a developer friend that's looking for a new home.</p>



<p>Eventually. You never know, you know, you plant the seed, you know, you never know where it's going to grow. Let's get back to LinkedIn for a second. I don't use LinkedIn very much. How, how important is LinkedIn? Um, for the, for the average developer may be someone who's maybe not using it or maybe someone who's currently right now.</p>



<p>Uh, maybe a freelancer. What's your view on that? Is it creepy? Is it, is it effective? Is it somewhere.</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> I know there's a lot of different opinions here on LinkedIn, but for me, I think it's a really useful tool, right? So, um, especially if somebody is a freelancer or they're, you know, trying to get their development career up and going, and there's in the early years of it, the networking opportunity there is really large.</p>



<p>Um, and if you want to be found by a recruiter, Then that's a great place because they'll find you yeah. That's stopped. Number one. Right. So if you don't want to be found by a recruiter, then, you know, well, don't spend your time there. Right. So it just depends on the goals of your career.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> So, and your position though, your position you're looking for work.</p>



<p>What is the number? What is the, what's a good way for people who are looking for hires, how do they most effectively use LinkedIn?</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Um, yeah, so LinkedIn has a lot of search functionality. So, you know, going through. You know, first at the first stop, right. Who is a WordPress developer. Right. So I can filter that down and filter things down to reasonable batch of people to, to, to look through.</p>



<p>Right. And then you're looking through more specific things, you know, who seems like a good fit for our organization who has particular. You have technical skillsets. Um, then you can create a batch there of people that you'd like to reach out to. And, you know, that's the, that's the outbound strategy for most recruiters when it comes to LinkedIn.</p>



<p>And the other side of that, which ties into, you know, the topic of my, uh, my, my talk for the career summit is that as a recruiter, um, LinkedIn is, should not only be an outbound tool. You should be whether you are the recruiter in our organization, or you're the founder of an organization. If it's a smaller organization, but you need to hire, this is where you start conversations.</p>



<p>You're by posting thought leadership type content, or even just engaging in comment threads the same way that you might in Twitter. Right? You didn't have to be the one to post it, but you can add valuable input to a conversation, you know, by commenting on that. Um, and I mean, it's just like any other social network where you're the more active you are, the more it will reward you, uh, in terms of growing your network.</p>



<p>And as you are visible, You know, somebody who has a freelance career in mind finishes their, their contract and just thinking, Hmm. You know, what's next for me? You know, if they've been seen, you know, you, David talking about the cool things you're doing at an Vajra gallery, you know, every week they're thinking, Hmm.</p>



<p>I wonder if there's an opportunity there and that's a place where that they might reach to you. So, um, it's a two way thing and a lot of, a lot of recruiting only sees. As this is my way to find people and send them messages. Um, but treat it as a marketing tool. Just the same.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> So what, how does this, as we begin to wrap things up here, a little.</p>



<p>How does company culture fit into marketing? I've seen company culture in good context and bad contexts unintentionally a lot of times, how does that factor in, into the recruiting process? Um, part of the marketing and if so, what can recruiters, what should recruiters be careful of or which are they keeping.</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Yeah, I love that. I love this question. Um, there's a phrase that I've coined and I don't know that I like the exact wording on this year, but the concept is that, you know, people often say that culture or not culture content is king. Right. So it's all about putting content out there. And I've suggested recently that culture is king content is the town crier.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> Okay. Well, I got my quote for the episode anyway. Now it's worth it. Say that again, though, just to make sure.</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> So rather than content being king culture is king content is the town crier. And so if you, if you don't have a culture worth talking about this whole strategy, um, isn't going to do a lot of good because people want to come to an organization to be part of the.</p>



<p>Where they can be excited about fitting in. They aligned with the values. They align with the type of work that you're doing, the impact that you're trying to make as an organization. So if you don't have anything good in that department to talk about a marketing strategy around hiring, it's going to be really difficult.</p>



<p>If the only thing you can talk about is dollars or benefits or office perks or things like this. Right. Um, so your, your question about how does culture fit in, um, at one. Culture is the source of all the marketing content that you should be thinking about as someone who's trying to drive hiring. So recently we created at XVP a, um, a blog post that outlines in detailed transparently, what our hiring process is like, what steps you can expect.</p>



<p>So basically we're pulling back the curtain of like, we, we designed the process. For hiring it, it wraps around our core values and our culture and X WP. And this is what it looks like. If you get involved, this is what you can expect. Um, so rather than trying to keep that as a proprietary secret thing, uh, to create surprises for candidates, for, you know, keep our competitors from borrowing our ideas.</p>



<p>Um, we just sold, you know, we bought into the open source nature of the community that we serve. And said, here's everything that we do. Um, so that she, that's, that's a way for us to share, you know, what it looks like inside and then a candidate or job seeker, or maybe not even a job seeker, right. Somebody who's got a skillset and an experience that would do really well here.</p>



<p>They might see that and say, oh, that's interesting. And it begins to build interest towards X WP. Or whatever, you know, organization that you're creating this content for.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> Hm. And speaking of XWP, I thought it would be appropriate since you are sharing your valuable time with me. Um, what would be, if I want, if someone came up to you and said, tell me, um, tell me in a few sentences, what?</p>



<p>Well, cause I'll reedit this. I thought it would be appropriate. As we close this out to give you the opportunity glance to S to share, uh, what is your brief sales pitch in terms of X WP, the company, what would you think sets it apart? And this is educational because someone outside of XWP will listen to this and go, Hmm.</p>



<p>I may use that. Right. Or change that, but what, what's your elevator pitch in terms of XWP?</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Yeah. Okay. Well, here's my, here's my pass at that. Um, it's a few things. First of all, we have a very inclusive and flexible remote work environment. Ooh, sorry. So that resonated with somebody. I hope so in flexible, remote work environment, um, we've been doing much like many of the organizations in the WordPress community, but we've been remote since day one.</p>



<p>Significantly before COVID began. Um, so this is built in to the fabric, the DNA of, of how we operate as an organization. Um, uh, so that's, that's, that's, that's one element. Um, second, very interesting and challenging projects to work on. So the, the, the work that's coming your way is not likely to be the same repetitive task or something.</p>



<p>That's just reusing what you've learned to. Um, the, the types of projects that we're working with are usually pushing something for each of our team members. And that's something that people often give feedback on being something that's really important to them. Um, and we're a very people first culture as well.</p>



<p>Um, you know, we are, we invest heavily into the experience of being an employer or being a member of X to VP community. Um, Several things that we do, that a lot of organizations, you know, would like to do, but maybe they don't, but you know, what we're doing here is really saying that, um, we, we value each individual and, uh, we're willing to put the money where the mouth is in that regard.</p>



<p><strong>David Bisset:</strong> Wow.</p>



<p>You guys have a big, I was just gonna say big mouth, but that didn't come out. Right. Well, Lance speaking of big mouse, I'm going to shut mine. I really appreciate the time you spent here today. And I'm looking forward to listening to your talk. The, again, it is the, um, the talk you're giving us the future of hiring is marketing.</p>



<p>You're giving it at the WP career summit, April 8th, the events happening between nine and five central time. So that's think that's 10 to six. And then everyone else will be able to pull out their calculators and figure it out for themselves. Um, and I, and it's a really, it's a really good conference too, because it's both for job seekers and hiring managers, and I've spoken to a lot of people about tips for those seeking jobs.</p>



<p>But I really appreciated your tips today on kind of like the other side of the coin behind the curtain, the, how do the, how do companies attract. And like you said, it's not just throwing out, you know, they should hopefully throw out salary ranges. Um, but you know, it's not just the perks in the salary ranges, but there's, there's a lot of other things that go into it as well.</p>



<p>And it's not just posting things on job boards. So thanks for giving me some insight on that and seeing how the other side works.</p>



<p><strong>Lance Robbins:</strong> Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks so much for the invite to be here. I'm really excited about the WP career summit. Really happy that Post Status is doing something like this. Um, great, great to be a part of it.</p>



<p>We're looking forward to 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:"Tue, 15 Mar 2022 21:19:49 +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 Bisset";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:96:"WPTavern: The Dream of Exporting WordPress Block Themes from the Site Editor Is Close to Reality";s:7:"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=131433";s:7:"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:107:"https://wptavern.com/the-dream-of-exporting-wordpress-block-themes-from-the-site-editor-is-close-to-reality";s: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:5387:"<p>I have said it before, but it bears repeating: <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-next-generation-of-wordpress-theme-authors-will-design-from-the-site-editor">the next generation of WordPress theme authors will design from the site editor</a>. It seems that Gutenberg project contributors are making good on my promise.</p>



<p>Earlier today, I exported a WordPress theme from the site editor. </p>



<img />Exporting the Twenty Twenty-Two theme.



<p>The resulting ZIP file seemed to include all the necessary bits to upload and activate like any other theme.</p>



<p>This was a feature that I had been waiting on for months. It is a significant step toward the idea of not only democratizing publishing but bringing that same philosophy to website design.</p>



<p>I hesitated for only a moment to check the ZIP for anything that might need adjusting. I renamed the inner folder and the <code>Theme Name</code> header in <code>style.css</code>. Then, I dropped it into <code>/wp-content/themes</code>. The moment of truth was upon me as I tapped the Activate button from the WordPress admin.</p>



<p>No fatal errors. <em>Whew.</em> Activation was a success.</p>



<p>It was by no means perfect. It felt much like climbing that first hill in programming where you move from concept to a broken-but-somewhat-working implementation. It is often the roughest hill in the journey, but you just keep moving once you get to the top. The hard work will be worth it in the end.</p>



<p>I tested exporting Twenty Twenty-Two via <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/#nightly">Gutenberg Nightly</a>. After checking the front end and the site editor, I noticed that some pieces were not there:</p>



<img />Exported Twenty Twenty-Two in the site editor.



<p>The bundle was missing a boatload of files, but this was expected behavior. As of WordPress 5.9, users can download their templates and template parts. Two recent enhancements to the development version of the Gutenberg plugin adds more theme files to the mix:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/39048">Add <code>theme.json</code> to export file</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/27528">Add <code>index.php</code> and <code>style.css</code></a></li></ul>



<p>It is almost surprising that the &#8220;TT2 Export&#8221; theme I uploaded resembled Twenty Twenty-Two at all. It had none of the PHP files for adding features like custom patterns. Even the <code>style.css</code> file, while included, was not loaded.</p>



<p>However, this shows how powerful <code>theme.json</code> has become. It was still a functioning theme without all the other pieces.</p>



<p>This is merely the first step. One of the next tickets in line, if approved, will [maybe] <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/39202">export the entire theme contents</a>. Like its predecessors, it has its own kinks. Such an export presents challenges when the theme has anything beyond the standard features. This can be anything from class/function naming to autoloading to missing scripts.</p>



<p>The latest code from the pull request will ignore <code>.git</code>, <code>vendor</code>, and <code>node_modules</code> directories in exports. This could change how some creators build themes altogether, particularly as the system continues evolving.</p>



<p>Last week, we discussed <a href="https://wptavern.com/does-wordpress-need-1000s-of-block-themes-in-the-era-of-full-site-editing">whether 1,000s of block themes were necessary</a>. The idea stemmed from a goal set by project co-founder Matt Mullenweg in the <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2021-wordpress-passes-43-market-share-looks-to-expand-the-commons-through-openverse">2021 State of the Word</a>, where he said that the directory would have 300 or, ideally, 3,000. This was after mentioning 5,000 earlier in the address when referencing the then-28.</p>



<p>Since then, WordPress has adopted a more official <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-ramps-up-social-learning-events-on-full-site-editing-project-aims-for-500-block-themes-in-2022">goal of 500 themes</a> in the directory for 2022. That feels ambitious enough to be challenging but not impossible.</p>



<p>One of the easiest ways to achieve it and those loftier numbers is to hand the keys to the design kingdom over to literally everyone. Well, anyone with access to the Appearance &gt; Editor admin screen in WordPress.</p>



<p>If a fully-featured theme exporter lands in WordPress this year, it could birth that next generation of creators the project needs.</p>



<p>Another ticket proposes that the site editor <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/39194">overwrite template files</a> directly in the theme when a &#8220;developer mode&#8221; is enabled. This could help current theme developers transition to building more block themes. Exporting templates in a ZIP file is not part of the typical theme designer&#8217;s workflow. Nor is copying block code from the editor to paste into files. Having WordPress write template files to the system would cut out some of the dirty work.</p>



<p>I would rather have the latter feature before theme exports. However, that is the developer in me talking. The end goal should be to empower as many people as possible to design.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 15 Mar 2022 03:02:55 +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: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: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:118:"WPTavern: Gutenberg Contributors Explore Expanding Background Image Block Support and Refining UI for Background Tools";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=131404";s:7:"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/gutenberg-contributors-explore-expanding-background-image-block-support-and-refining-ui-for-background-tools";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2742:"<p>Background tools in Gutenberg are currently limited to the Cover block, but contributors are working on expanding support so that any block can opt into it. Discussions about the best way to do this have been happening for the past two years and now are gaining some momentum.</p>



<p>&#8220;Right now it&#8217;s possible to add video backgrounds, colored overlays, etc, to the Cover block alone,&#8221; Matias Ventura said in 2019 <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/16479">ticket</a> on the UI for background tools. &#8220;It would make sense to extract this and extend to other container blocks (group and columns, for example) as well as expanding the features.&#8221;</p>



<p>Gutenberg contributor Andrew Serong has created a draft <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/39243">exploratory PR</a> for adding opt-in, server-rendered background support for blocks, which would save background image values to the block&#8217;s <code>style</code> attribute in a <code>backgroundImage</code> key. Serong created the PR as a rough, experimental approach and published a few screenshots of how the inspector controls might fit in. However, Gutenberg designers are working on a more refined design for background support in the editor.</p>



<p>Today, Gutenberg designers Joen Asmussen and Javier Arce published a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/39427">GitHub issue</a> with their vision for a complete reorganization of background controls that includes layer management, layer reordering, and support for filters/blend modes.</p>



<p>&#8220;The core idea is to group all the layers (both overlays and media layer) inside a single sidebar section called Background, abstracting the organization of the Cover Block layers on the canvas and simplifying the block sidebar,&#8221; Arce said.</p>



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



<p>These new designs intersect with the goal of expanding background support for use in other blocks beyond the Cover block. There are many other considerations that splinter out of adding background image support to blocks, which contributors have noted in the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/discussions/38119">discussions</a>. These include features like the ability to add a body background image to block themes, specify a color palette to be used for background colors, and the ability to add multiple background images.  </p>



<p>Expanding background image support and refining the UI for background controls is still a little ways off, but the project is starting to make significant steps  forward. This will be an exciting addition that will markedly expand users&#8217; ability to customize blocks.  </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 14 Mar 2022 20:12:42 +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:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:99:"Gutenberg Times: WordPress 6.0, Four Types of Themes,  Museum of Block Art – Weekend Edition #206";s:7:"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=20672";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:102:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/wordpress-6-0-four-types-of-themes-museum-of-block-art-weekend-edition-206/";s: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:11509:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>So, we are back in Sarasota, Florida and back to our &#8216;two-litude&#8217; routine in our home. After two weeks of no TV, there are countless series to catch up, too. I also took at day off to meet close friends in Naples. That&#8217;s the reason this newsletter gets out a little later than usual. Thanks for your patience.  </p>



<p>How is your week going? Hit reply and let me know. </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit </p>



<p>PS:  Together with <a href="https://twitter.com/TacoVerdo">Taco Verdonschot</a> (Yoast) and <a href="https://twitter.com/iamkarmenk">Karmen Kendrick</a>,  I&#8217;ll be a guest on <a href="https://wpbuilds.com/live">WP Builds Live 200th epsiode</a>, hosted by Nathan Wrigley on Monday, March 14th, at 2pm UK, 10 am EDT. We&#8217;ll chat about the WordPress News from this week! </p>




<div class="wp-container-1 wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p>Table of Contents</p>



<div class="wp-block-sortabrilliant-guidepost"><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-word-press-6-0">WordPress 6.0 </a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#1-building-themes-for-full-site-editing">Building Themes for Full Site Editing. </a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#3-word-press-social-learning-events">WordPress Social Learning Events</a></li></ul></div>
</div></div>




<h2 id="0-word-press-6-0">WordPress 6.0 </h2>



<p>Release coordinator,<strong> Hector Prieto,</strong> published an update for the WordPress 6.0 release planning. The Release squad is almost complete. It still needs a volunteer for the Accessibility lead slot. </p>



<p>Pietro also mentioned that there will be a Walkthrough for all team members and the public on April 5th, 2022: &#8220;In this event, placed closer to Beta than past demos, WordPress leads will review the features ready for the next&nbsp;major release&nbsp;together with the community in a live, moderated stream.&#8221; He wrote. </p>



<p>If you want to volunteer creating End User Documentation, we will have plenty of work to do. Email me or ping me in WPSlack and I get you connected with the #docs team.</p>



<p><strong>Important dates: </strong></p>



<ul><li>April 12th, 2022 &#8211; Beta 1 </li><li>May 3rd, 2022   &#8211; Release Candidate 1  </li><li>May 24th, 2022 &#8211; Final release </li></ul>



<p><em>Keep updated via the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-0/"><strong>WordPress 6.0 Development Cycle</strong></a> page</em></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" /></p>




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



<p>The new show with <strong>Jamie Marsland</strong> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxA3ad728Tg"><strong>WordPress Gutenberg Block News</strong></a> just started on YouTube. Marsland walks you through new features of the editor, the theme of the Week (this week <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/avant-garde/"><em>Avant-Garde</em></a>), controls to lock blocks in place, and other topics related to the Block editor. I am already a subscriber! How about you? </p>



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



<p>You probably already saw it flying by: The <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/introducing-the-museum-of-block-art-moba/"><strong>Museum of Block Art</strong></a> initiative spearheaded by Anne McCarthy and made reality by Beatriz Fialho went live this Monday. My favorite piece is  <em>Mel Choyce-Dawn&#8217;s <a href="https://block-museum.com/2022/01/11/block-composition/">Block Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Gray, and Blue</a></em>. It reminds me of my early site designs inspired by Piet Mondrian, a renowned Dutch painter of the 20th century. Once you browse through the 23 art works in the <a href="https://block-museum.com/">Block Museum</a>, let me know what is your favorite, even if you don&#8217;t see a real-world application for it on a site. </p>



<a href="https://block-museum.com/"><img /></a>



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



<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> gave Avant-Garde the 53rd block theme by Brian Gardner a whirl and published his review: <a href="https://wptavern.com/avant-garde-is-an-experimental-block-theme-with-well-designed-patterns"><strong>Avant-Garde Is an Experimental Block Theme With Well-Designed Patterns</strong></a></p>



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



<p><strong>Jacob Martella</strong> posted <a href="https://jacobmartella.com/2022/02/15/personal-wishes-full-site-editing-block-themes/">his Personal wishes for full site editing and block themes</a> and goes quite into salient details for each item </p>



<ul><li><a href="https://jacobmartella.com/2022/02/15/personal-wishes-full-site-editing-block-themes/#ability-to-grab-a-specific-post-in-the-query-block">Ability to grab a specific post in the query block</a></li><li><a href="https://jacobmartella.com/2022/02/15/personal-wishes-full-site-editing-block-themes/#more-areas-for-featured-images-to-be-shown">More areas for featured images to be shown</a></li><li><a href="https://jacobmartella.com/2022/02/15/personal-wishes-full-site-editing-block-themes/#better-support-for-custom-post-types">Better support for custom post types</a></li><li><a href="https://jacobmartella.com/2022/02/15/personal-wishes-full-site-editing-block-themes/#better-support-for-taxonomy-templates">Better support for taxonomy templates</a></li><li><a href="https://jacobmartella.com/2022/02/15/personal-wishes-full-site-editing-block-themes/#better-accessibility">Better accessibility</a></li><li><a href="https://jacobmartella.com/2022/02/15/personal-wishes-full-site-editing-block-themes/#more-stability">More stability</a></li><li><a href="https://jacobmartella.com/2022/02/15/personal-wishes-full-site-editing-block-themes/#h-creating-a-block-theme-starter-theme">Creating a block theme starter theme</a></li></ul>



<h2 id="1-building-themes-for-full-site-editing">Building Themes for Full Site Editing. </h2>



<p>In her latest video, <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMbrGDD-27Q"><strong>Exploring types of WordPress Themes in a full site editing world</strong></a>. Some features of the full-site editing experience are also useful even if you don&#8217;t use or build a block theme. McCarthy takes a deep dive into the different types of themes that are now possible with WordPress</p>



<ul><li><strong>Classic theme:</strong> a theme built the way we’ve been used to with PHP templates, functions.php, and more.</li><li><strong>Block theme:</strong> a theme made for FSE using HTML templates and theme.json, allowing one to manage all parts of their site with blocks.</li><li><strong>Hybrid theme</strong>: a classic theme that adopts a feature(s) of FSE, like theme.json or the template editor.</li><li><strong>Universal theme:</strong> a theme that works with both the Customizer and the Site Editor.</li></ul>



<p>McCarthy goes through some examples to elaborate on these categorizations and then also provides a glimpse of the future. </p>



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



<p><strong>Justin Tadlock </strong>picked up on two conversations in the community and put them into context for you. </p>



<ul><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/should-wordpress-6-0-remove-the-beta-label-from-the-site-editor">Should WordPress 6.0 Remove the “Beta” Label From the Site Editor?</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/does-wordpress-need-1000s-of-block-themes-in-the-era-of-full-site-editing">Does WordPress Need 1,000s of Block Themes in the Era of Full Site Editing?</a></li></ul>



<h2 id="3-word-press-social-learning-events">WordPress Social Learning Events</h2>



<p><strong>Nick Diego</strong> published the recording from the WordPress Social Learning event on WordPress.TV  <a href="https://wordpress.tv/2022/03/10/nick-diego-builder-basics-designing-with-columns-group-and-row-blocks/"><strong>Builder Basics – Designing with Columns, Group, and Row&nbsp;Blocks</strong></a>. Diego explored how to design layouts using the Columns, Group, and Row blocks. These blocks represent the fundamental building blocks of every WordPress website. You’ll learn the nuances of each block type and how to configure them correctly. </p>



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



<p>If you are a developer working with code, the Gutenberg Developer Hours are for you. The next event will take place <a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284434154/">March 22nd, 2022 16:00 UTC / noon ET. </a></p>



<a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284434154/"><img /></a><em>With Joni Halabi, Tammie Lister and Fabian Kägy</em>



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



<p><strong>March 15, 2022 at 9:30 am ET / 14:30 UTC </strong><br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284252434/"><strong>Beginner&#8217;s Guide to Full Site Editing </strong></a>with Sarah Snow</p>



<p><strong>March 22, 2022 at 3 am ET / 8:00  UTC </strong><br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284320854/"><strong>Intro to Theme Blocks</strong></a> with Wes Theron</p>



<p><strong>March 23, 2022 at 1pm ET / 18:00 UTC </strong><br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284383346/"><strong>Builder Basics: Exploring Block Layout, Alignment, Dimensions, and Spacing</strong> </a>with Nick Diego </p>



<p><strong>March 28, 2022 at 11 am ET / 16:00 UTC </strong><br /><strong><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284387767/">Hello Blocks! Coding a custom block</a></strong> with Wes Theron and Ryan Welcher</p>



<p><strong>March 29, 2022 at 3 pm ET / 20:00 UTC </strong><br /><strong><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284252760/">Beginner&#8217;s Guide to Full Site Editing </a></strong>with Sarah Snow</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>



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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, 12 Mar 2022 23:45:37 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:85:"WPTavern: Does WordPress Need 1,000s of Block Themes in the Era of Full Site Editing?";s:7:"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=131308";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"https://wptavern.com/does-wordpress-need-1000s-of-block-themes-in-the-era-of-full-site-editing";s: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:7246:"<p>&#8220;I have so many design ideas in my head that I am about to make it my mission to singlehandedly fulfill [Matt Mullenweg&#8217;s] vision of 5,000 Full Site Editing #WordPress themes in the directory,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/bgardner/status/1502333017167126533">tweeted Brian Gardner</a> earlier today.</p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/schutzsmith/status/1502356892324179972">Daniel Schutzsmith responded</a>:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>I&#8217;m just not seeing the need for more than one theme for FSE as long as I can override the look of it.</p><p>Would appreciate someone explaining why one theme like @frostwp COULDN&#8217;T just be the standard.</p><p>Making more themes feels like it defeats the concept of FSE altogether.</p></blockquote>



<p>It is not the first time someone asked whether more than one block theme is necessary. In 2019, Rich Tabor <a href="https://richtabor.com/the-future-of-wordpress-themes/">proposed adding a base theme</a> to WordPress itself, one upon which others would be built, if at all.</p>



<p>Even that was not the first time someone had pondered similar one-theme utopias throughout the platform&#8217;s history. Many framework-style parent themes have all made a run for it.</p>



<p>Let us assume for a moment that WordPress has reached a state where all themes no longer need custom PHP and CSS code. We are nowhere near that point yet, but we can imagine such a day might be possible in the relatively distant future. In this ideal world, templating, styling, theme-supported features, and plugin integration are neatly packaged into something configurable from the admin. In practice, users could control any aspect of their site&#8217;s front-end through the interface.</p>



<p>The problem is that someone still needs to make those customizations, and not everyone has a knack for design. One person&#8217;s ability does not automatically translate to all other users.</p>



<p>Perhaps a more crucial point is that not everyone wants to customize their site&#8217;s design. Some people simply want to find something that suits their style and move along.</p>



<p>There are alternative routes for arriving at the same destination, but themes are currently the only reliable vehicle.</p>



<p>Schutzsmith <a href="https://twitter.com/schutzsmith/status/1502417086106292226">tweeted the following</a> in response to Jamie Marsland, who <a href="https://twitter.com/pootlepress/status/1502401847138697221">likened the notion</a> to asking Picasso for the canvas instead of the finished painting:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Themes and swapping out the whole thing is an old way of thinking. Sure a theme could = painting but I&#8217;m saying why can&#8217;t we just swap out the theme.json and get the same result? Why the need for themes at all when all we need to change is theme.json.</p></blockquote>



<p>That is a future that I would not mind striving for. It is not insurmountable, but there is an uphill climb that WordPress will undoubtedly struggle with. Without a <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-case-for-a-shared-css-toolkit-in-wordpress">standardized CSS toolkit</a> in place, switching <code>theme.json</code> files simply does not work. If WordPress tackles that problem, it takes us one step closer.</p>



<p>But <code>theme.json</code> only represents settings and styles. It says nothing about the structure of a website. Pre-configured templates are still necessary. Right now, that job sits squarely on top of the theme author&#8217;s shoulders.</p>



<p>If and when a well-designed user experience for <a href="https://wptavern.com/full-page-patterns-are-still-the-missing-piece-of-block-wordpress-theme-development">full-page patterns</a> lands in WordPress (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/38787">related ticket</a>), the template argument becomes less relevant. With such a system in place and enough variety from the pattern directory, some users might not require themes to handle this.</p>



<img /><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/18055">Starter page templates proposal.</a>



<p>The only worthwhile argument I have for multiple &#8212; even 1,000s of &#8212; themes is the promise they make to the user: <em>install this thing, and you get this result</em>.</p>



<p>For example, a pizzeria owner installs WordPress on their site and begins looking for a design for their online presence. This is likely someone working all day in a hot kitchen and comes home exhausted at night. However, they hop on the computer to update tomorrow&#8217;s specials or tinker with a new homepage layout for a few minutes. Everything about that experience should be catered to their use case.  As an owner, chef, spouse, and parent, they need to quickly get things done and spend the rest of the night with their family.</p>



<p>This and 1,000s of similar scenarios are why themes are as important today as they ever were. Not everyone has the privilege of time, the skillset, or the inclination to piece their sites together.</p>



<p>When done well, block themes offer a controlled experience that cuts out all the cruft. They feel like they were built for <em>an audience of one</em> while being flexible enough for public release.</p>



<p>Schutzsmith <a href="https://twitter.com/schutzsmith/status/1502419277625888770">later tweeted</a> in the thread that he liked <a href="https://elementor.com/library/">Elementor&#8217;s Kits</a>. These are predesigned website designs that span multiple industries.</p>



<p>Pattern category types, which are not currently in WordPress, could evolve into that role. The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-pattern-explorer/">Block Pattern Explorer</a> plugin enables the feature, but themes must add support for the types to appear.</p>



<p>In the following screenshot, I have created a &#8220;Profile Cards&#8221; type in a theme of mine, but it could be industry-specific:</p>



<img />Block pattern category types.



<p>It should be as easy as locating an industry-specific type and finding patterns for the pizzeria owner. A theme can offer that by either packaging patterns or pointing to those hosted in the directory.</p>



<p>I could see this evolving into more of a kit-like solution.</p>



<p>I disagree with Schutzsmith&#8217;s conclusion of needing only a single theme but not the questions he is asking. Our design community cannot simply say that themes should be &#8220;this one thing&#8221; because that is what they have always been. Its members need to continually ask: <em>What is a WordPress theme?</em></p>



<p>The answer may be different to various groups of creators and users. If someone can get everything they need from the pattern directory without switching from Twenty Twenty-Two, maybe themes are irrelevant. If a creator simply likes building global style variations (<code>theme.json</code> files), WordPress should make it easy to use them on a wide range of sites.</p>



<p>However, many users will still need turnkey design solutions, and themes can be the best way to facilitate that.  I do not know if that is 100, 1,000 or 5,000, but we will see how it goes.</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, 12 Mar 2022 03:57:37 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:54:"WPTavern: Koji Launches New Block Plugin for WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=131306";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"https://wptavern.com/koji-launches-new-block-plugin-for-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4090:"<p><a href="https://withkoji.com/">Koji</a>, a popular &#8220;link in bio&#8221; platform that provides apps to the creator economy, has launched a <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/koji-block-embed-block-for-koji-apps/">WordPress plugin</a> for the block editor. The San Diego-based startup has raised <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/search/funding_rounds/field/organizations/funding_total/gometa">$36.1M</a>, most recently securing $20M in a funding round led by Jump Capital. Koji has attracted 150,000 users since its official launch in March 2021. It offers a way for creators on TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, and other social media platforms to monetize their followings.</p>



<p>&#8220;WordPress, along with the bloggers and creators it supports, is a cornerstone of the modern creator economy,&#8221; Koji CEO Dmitry Shapiro said. &#8220;This integration is a massive addition to the power and extensibility of WordPress, giving bloggers a frictionless and intuitive way to incorporate Koji mini apps in their content strategies.&#8221;</p>



<p>The new plugin introduces a Koji App block that gives users access to Koji&#8217;s app store and 200+ web-based mini apps. The apps offer a wide array of interactive functionality, such as e-commerce, games, video guestbook, calendar scheduling, NFT storefronts, billboards, and more.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img />Koji App Store in the Block Editor</div>



<p>Although the plugin&#8217;s description page says that it allows users to &#8220;embed any Koji app,&#8221; it&#8217;s not explicit about how that looks on the frontend. The app store launches in an overlay where you select and customize the app. In testing the plugin, I found that when when you insert the app into your WordPress site, it just shows up as a black button that says &#8220;My Koji App.&#8221; You can customize the button&#8217;s color and text, but that&#8217;s about it. The button launches the app in a lightbox-style overlay on top of the page content.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img />Koji App display on the frontend</div>



<p>The image above is a screenshot of two buttons that Koji inserted representing a Tip Jar app and an Ask Me Anything app. There is no way to differentiate the two besides editing the text. </p>



<p>The screenshots on the plugin&#8217;s details page show how the app is launched over the content, but it doesn&#8217;t show what users see on the page before they click the link. </p>



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



<p>I was not particularly impressed with this first version of the plugin, as it seems to misrepresent what it actually does. The plugin places links in plain black buttons that will launch an iframe of the Koji app on the page. It doesn&#8217;t make much use of the block editor&#8217;s customization features, nor does it provide any kind of visual preview of the app on the page. Even a small thumbnail preview would be far superior to a plain black button. </p>



<p>The plugin says that embedding these apps allows users to &#8220;sell downloadable files, sell custom video requests like shoutouts and birthday greetings, embed games that can be played by visitors, and more.&#8221; It does make it possible for users to do these things in the iframe popup, but the plugin doesn&#8217;t provide any kind of preview for these apps that would compel a visitor to click on them. </p>



<p>The Koji Block plugin offers a nominal integration between the Koji platform and WordPress, but misses an opportunity to display visually appealing previews within content. For an app platform with hundreds of colorful, interactive apps, the plain black button method of displaying them is uninspiring. </p>



<p>Koji collects fees on apps with e-commerce capabilities. If you are looking to collect donations or sell products on your WordPress site, there are many more homegrown (and visually appealing) ways to do so. This plugin is best-suited to creators who are already heavily using the Koji platform and want a simple way to link to an app from 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:"Sat, 12 Mar 2022 03:02:04 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:35:"Post Status: Post Status Notes #489";s:7:"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:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94280";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:45:"https://poststatus.com/post-status-notes-489/";s: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:16778:"<p class="has-medium-font-size">An App Store for WordPress.com? Performance Team Gathers Steam. WP Notify. FSE Beta. Block is Beautiful. Security, Plugin, Dev, Acquisitions.</p>



<h2 id="h-an-app-store-for-wordpress-com">An App Store for WordPress — .com?</h2>



<p><strong>Donna Cavalier</strong> <a href="https://wordpress.com/blog/2022/03/08/the-future-of-plugin-themes-and-services-purchases-on-wordpress-com/">recently announced</a> on the <strong>WordPress.com</strong> blog that &#8220;instant purchases of plugins, themes, and even services&#8221; are &#8220;coming soon&#8221; to WordPress.com. In fact, they are coming &#8220;right within&#8221; the WordPress.com dashboard. </p>



<p>The new App Store-like experience is described as providing an integrated and &#8220;curated selection&#8221; of the &#8220;best&#8221; plugins, &#8220;premium&#8221; themes, and services. &#8220;Professional help&#8221; is mentioned too, along with &#8220;managed&#8221; plugins and themes.</p>



<p>WordPress plugin and theme developers can fill out a form within the announcement to get on an &#8220;early access list.&#8221; We signed up and will share what we learn in the future.</p>



<p>Some of our members in <strong>Post Status Slack</strong> feel like this is indeed an &#8220;App Store for WordPress.&#8221; Notably, <strong>Matt Mullenweg</strong> is quoted in the announcement:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>And of course, we will prioritize working with developers and companies who participate in Five for the Future and contribute back to the WP community.</p></blockquote>



<p>We will see what &#8220;prioritize&#8221; means in this context in the days ahead. We'll keep an eye on the terms of use as they emerge and look at how they contrast with <a href="https://woocommerce.com/partner-agreement/">the fine print regarding partnerships on the WooCommerce store</a>.</p>


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<p class="has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><strong>Scott Murcott</strong> asks on the <strong>Freemius</strong> blog: <a href="https://freemius.com/blog/woocommerce-marketplace-wordpress-sell-extensions-ecommerce/">Is the <strong>WooCommerce Marketplace</strong> a good platform for selling your WooCommerce extensions?</a> — especially if you want greater control and share of revenues? It's a take from a competing marketplace but a question in every Woo or WordPress product owner's mind.</p>


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<h2 id="perfopt">Getting Up to Speed with the Performance Team</h2>



<p>The <strong>Performance Lab </strong>plugin <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/07/the-performance-lab-plugin-has-been-released/">has been released</a>! </p>



<p>As <strong>Felix Arntz</strong> from the core <strong>Performance Team</strong> explains, this plugin is a collection of performance-related “feature projects” for WordPress core. This &#8220;beta&#8221; plugin includes several modules including <strong>WebP Uploads</strong> (which creates a <strong>WebP</strong> version for new <strong>JPEG</strong> image uploads), <strong>WebP Support</strong> (which adds a check to <strong>Site Health</strong>), <strong>Persistent Object Cache Health Check</strong>, and <strong>Audit Enqueued Assets</strong>, which adds a <strong>CSS</strong> and <strong>JS</strong> resource check to the Site Health status.</p>



<p class="has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background">It's exciting to see progress from this new team that came together about six months ago in October 2021. If you want to learn more about the team's active progress, check out <a href="https://poststatus.com/post-status-excerpt-no-49-performance-team-checkin/">this recent episode</a> of <strong>Post Status Excerpt</strong> with <strong>Felix Arntz</strong> and <strong>Thierry Muller.</strong></p>


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<h2 id="wp-notify">Take Note of WP Notify</h2>



<p><strong>Jonathan Bossenger</strong>, fresh from appearances on <a href="https://poststatus.com/post-status-comments-no-7-the-state-of-wordpress-admin-notifications/">a recent Post Status Comments episode</a> and the <a href="https://wptavern.com/podcast/16-jonathan-bossenger-on-cleaning-up-wordpress-notifications">WP Tavern Jukebox</a> dives even <a href="https://jonathanbossenger.com/2022/02/28/what-does-a-better-notification-system-for-wordpress-actually-look-like/">deeper into <strong>WP Notify</strong></a> on his own site. WP Notify aims to create a new and better way to manage and deliver notifications in the WordPress admin interface: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The site user can choose which notifications they wish to receive, from which source (WordPress core, plugins, theme), and via which channel (if multiple channels are available).&#8221;</p></blockquote>



<p class="has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background">Fixing — or actually having a proper system for — Admin Notifications is really important. WP Notify is surely going to be the fix, thanks to community contributors. Check it out and pitch in if you can lend a hand. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f6e0.png" alt="🛠" class="wp-smiley" /></p>


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<h2 id="fse-beta">When Will FSE Come out of Beta?</h2>



<p>There is <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/39293">a discussion</a> unfolding around the question, &#8220;When is it time to remove the beta label from Appearance &gt; Edit for <strong>Full Site Editing</strong> in the <strong>WordPress 5.9</strong> admin area?&#8221; </p>



<p class="has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background">So far the popular opinion is that FSE is not ready yet, and some things should be established before it matures out of beta. We agree with that position. </p>


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<p class="has-theme-palette-9-color has-theme-palette-5-background-color has-text-color has-background">For a digest of everything happening to make and maintain WordPress this week, see <a href="https://poststatus.com/this-week-at-wordpress-org-february-28-2022/">This Week at WordPess.org</a> for <strong>March 7</strong>.</p>


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<h2 id="beautiful-blocks">Block is Beautiful</h2>



<p>The <a href="https://block-museum.com/"><strong>Museum of Block Art</strong></a> is a recently launched project that hopes to inspire creativity and push the limits of art with WordPress. Each piece featured on the site was constructed using the block editor. </p>



<p>According to <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/introducing-the-museum-of-block-art-moba/">its origin story</a>, the Museum site was designed and built by <strong>Beatriz Fialho</strong>, Product Designer at <strong>Automattic</strong>. Here's why:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Anything that would enable both artful and practical inspiration for using the block editor and related tools I believe is very much needed especially for those exposed to the block editor (and now Full Site Editing) for the first time.</p></blockquote>



<p class="has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background">This is wild, beautiful work! Check out <a href="https://block-museum.com/2022/01/11/015/">this image</a> by <strong>Tammie Lister</strong>.</p>


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<h2 id="sec">WordPress Security Issues Up 150% in 2021</h2>



<p><strong>Patchstack</strong> has released a <a href="https://patchstack.com/whitepaper/the-state-of-wordpress-security-in-2021/">State of WordPress Security report</a> for 2021, and it's a doozy. Some highlights:</p>



<ul><li>29% of plugins with critical vulnerabilities,&nbsp;<strong>received no public patch.</strong></li><li>2021 saw <strong>a 150% rise in security bugs reported</strong> in the WordPress ecosystem.</li><li>42% of WordPress sites ran at least one vulnerable component.</li><li>99.31% of all security bugs were in components.</li><li><strong>WordPress core</strong>&nbsp;had 4 security releases. One was critical but involved a dependency, not WordPress core itself.</li></ul>


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<h2 id="plugin-notes">Plugin Notes and Changelogs</h2>



<p>If you use <strong>BuddyBoss</strong>, you might be interested in <a href="https://deliciousbrains.com/wp-offload-media-2-6-released/">a newly released integration</a> with <strong>WP Offload Media</strong> — which also has an update for <strong>WordPress 5.9</strong> compatibility.</p>


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<p><strong>Brad Williams</strong> shares <a href="https://webdevstudios.com/2022/03/03/the-history-of-custom-post-type-ui/">the history</a> of the popular <strong>Custom Post Type UI plugin</strong>. It has over <a href="https://webdevstudios.com/2021/05/20/custom-post-type-ui-million-active-installations/">1 million active installs</a> today and over 10 million all-time downloads.</p>


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<p><strong>Joost de Valk</strong> <a href="https://developer.yoast.com/blog/the-feature-that-almost-made-it/">explains how the Yoast development team</a> built a &#8220;pretty cool&#8221; feature for <strong>Yoast</strong> <strong>SEO</strong> but had to remove it. Why? There were unintended side effects discovered just before its release. </p>



<p>Joost notes how this story demonstrates <a href="https://twitter.com/jdevalk/status/1501164961023901697">the importance of testing</a>, but knowing what to test for is even more important. </p>



<p class="has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background"><strong>The big takeaway:</strong> &#8220;You need to think about crawlers when building web functionality.&#8221;</p>


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<p><strong>David Bisset</strong> asks on <strong>Twitter</strong> <a href="https://twitter.com/dimensionmedia/status/1501601167419539457">what was the FIRST WordPress plugin</a> you (not a client or employer) paid for? Over 100 replies came in, and it looks like <strong>Gravity Forms</strong> and <strong>Advanced Custom Fields</strong> are the most common answers. This thread is worth a read for the unexpected history and insights, like <strong>Marc Benzakein</strong>&#8216;s <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcBenzak/status/1501606383602450433">tweet</a>:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>&#8220;It's the plugin that got me into WordPress in the first place. It was called <strong>phpBayPro</strong> and it allowed you to bring in a feed from eBay. To this day, best $49 I ever spent.&#8221;</p></blockquote>


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<h2 id="acquisitions">Acquisition News: WPExperts</h2>



<p>After their <a href="https://wptavern.com/wpexperts-acquires-post-smtp-plugin">recent acquisition</a> of the<strong> Post SMTP plugin</strong>, <a href="https://wpexperts.io/">WPExperts</a> has also acquired <strong>Ben Huson</strong>&#8216;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/password-protected/"><strong>Password Protected</strong></a> plugin. It currently has over 300,000 installs. Some <a href="https://wpexperts.io/blog/wpexperts-has-acquired-password-protected-plugin/">goals for the plugin's future development</a> include making it &#8220;more developer-friendly.&#8221;</p>



<p><strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> over at <strong>WP Tavern</strong> <a href="https://wptavern.com/wpexperts-acquires-password-protected-plugin">notes</a> that &#8220;WPExperts founder Saad Iqbal said he plans to introduce some updates with an aim to produce a commercial version in a few months.&#8221;</p>



<p>The WordPress marketplace is up to <a href="https://poststatus.com/acquisitions/">a total of eight acquisitions</a> on the year.</p>



<p class="has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background">Congrats to WPExperts <a href="https://wpexperts.io/blog/wpexperts-honored-with-wordpress-vip-silver-agency-partner-status/">for becoming</a> a <strong>WordPress VIP Silver Agency Partner</strong> this week too. </p>


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<h2 id="dev-notes">Dev Notes and Tips</h2>



<p>Developers concerned with accessibility will want to read <a href="https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2022/02/28/not-so-short-note-on-being-owned/">this note</a> from <strong>Steve Faulkner</strong> on <code>aria-owns</code> which allows developers to restructure parent-child relationships in the accessibility tree.</p>


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<p><strong>Sam Julien</strong> offers <a href="https://www.samjulien.com/shy-dev-networking">advice for developers who are introverts</a>. Introverts need to network to build their careers just like everyone else. </p>



<p class="has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background">Anyone can benefit from these tips on making others feel welcome, giving first (then giving some more), showing genuine gratitude, finding common ground with people, and following up the right way.</p>


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<p><strong>Cloudways</strong> has <a href="https://www.cloudways.com/blog/wordpress-full-site-editing-themes/">recommended fifteen Full Site Editing themes</a>. Most of them are getting 50-100 downloads a day with a few notable exceptions. <strong>Twenty Twenty-Two</strong> gets <strong>7,500 downloads per day</strong> and is the most popular.</p>



<p class="has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background">If you're starting down the FSE road this is a nice &#8220;best of&#8221; list to inspire you and set a standard.</p>


.kt-block-spacer-_bff7db-6e .kt-divider{width:80%;}
<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_bff7db-6e"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></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:"Fri, 11 Mar 2022 16:59:08 +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 Bisset";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:104:"Post Status: WooCommerce Releases and a Chat with Mitch Callahan of Saucal — The Woo Snippet (March 7)";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94395";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:109:"https://poststatus.com/woocommerce-releases-and-a-chat-with-mitch-callahan-of-saucal-the-woo-snippet-march-7/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4816:"<p>Welcome back to <a href="https://poststatus.com/author/bob-dunn/">The WooSnippet</a> — fresh with the latest WooCoomerce intelligence for the week of March 7, 2022.</p>



<h2>WooCommerce 6.3 and 6.3.1</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">If you've been staying on top of the monthly release schedule, you know <strong>WooCommerce 6.3</strong> <a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2022/03/08/woocommerce-6-3-released/">dropped this week</a>. As with a lot of the monthly releases, both <strong>WooCommerce Blocks</strong> and <strong>WooCommerce Admin</strong> had updates. In addition, two database indices were added to the product attributes lookup table. </p>



<p>A <strong>WooCommerce 3.5.10-6.3.1 <a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2022/03/10/woocommerce-3-5-10-6-3-1-security-releases/">Security Release</a></strong> also came out with important improvements for the <strong>PayPal</strong> gateway that was deprecated in July 2021.</p>



<p class="has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background">Want to keep a close eye on Woo (and other major plugin) updates? <a href="https://app.wplookout.com/trackers/41">Check out Chris Hardie's WP Lookout</a> — there is even a Woo support thread history tracker there. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f6a8.png" alt="🚨" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h2 id="h-advice-for-newcomers-to-seo-and-woocommerce">Advice for Newcomers to SEO and WooCommerce</h2>



<p>On <strong>Twitter</strong>, <strong>Yoast</strong> asked for <a href="https://twitter.com/yoast/status/1500471533524946947">SEO tips for people starting out in the e-commerce space</a>. There are some interesting points in the thread that emerged. Add your own insights to the mix!</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you could give some advice to someone starting out in the e-commerce SEO industry what would it be?</p>&mdash; Yoast (@yoast) <a href="https://twitter.com/yoast/status/1500471533524946947?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>



<h2>Mitch Callahan's Agency Journey with Saucal</h2>



<p>This week we had a chance to chat with Post Status member <strong>Mitch Callahan</strong> while diving into <a href="https://dothewoo.io/10-year-plus-woocommerce-agency/">a bit of the secret sauce behind his agency</a>, <strong>Saucal</strong>, which specializes in WooCommerce. When asked about his lofty goal of driving more <strong>Fortune 500</strong>s onto Woo, Mitch replied:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“Things tend to fall into place. WooCommerce started off really small and now we've definitely entered the mid-market, and I think it's one of the most lucrative spots for WooCommerce, and I think it's only a matter of time before we move into the really high-end enterprise market. And it's already happening.”</p></blockquote>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://dothewoo.io/10-year-plus-woocommerce-agency/">Over a Decade of WooCommerce as an Agency</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Lastly, over on <strong>Do the Woo</strong> we are opening things up a bit more around both podcast and post contributors. So if you do the Woo and are interested in getting on the show, <a href="https://dothewoo.io/new-episodes-woo-builderbytes-in-beta/">check out this post</a> about <strong>Woo BuilderBytes</strong>.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://dothewoo.io/new-episodes-woo-builderbytes-in-beta/">New Episodes, Woo BuilderBytes in Beta</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>That's all for this week! </p>



<div class="wp-container-62312c15c915a wp-block-group"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile has-background"><a href="https://dothewoo.io/post-status-members/"><img width="400" height="400" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/hg1C04vb_400x400.jpg" alt="Do the Woo" class="wp-image-93517 size-full" /></a><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p class="has-text-align-left" id="h-get-ready-for-remote-work"><strong><strong>Do the Wo</strong>o!</strong> <a href="https://dothewoo.io/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get the Podcast</a>. <a href="https://dothewoo.io/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Subscribe to the Newsletter</a>.</p>



<p>Learn from others. Grow your business. Connect with a community of like-minded developers and builders who freelance, run agencies, and build really cool products and sites in the <strong>WooCommerce</strong> ecosystem.</p>
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></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:"Fri, 11 Mar 2022 14:57:27 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8:"Bob Dunn";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:73:"Post Status: WooCommerce Function of the Week: wc_get_held_stock_quantity";s:7:"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:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94320";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"https://poststatus.com/woocommerce-function-of-the-week-wc_get_held_stock_quantity/";s: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:11369:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Welcome back to <a href="https://poststatus.com/author/businessbloomer/">WooCommerce Function of the Week</a>! This week we cover a little hidden gem within the WooCommerce plugin code: <code>wc_get_held_stock_quantity()</code>. As the name suggests, this function helps you get the amount of stock present in pending orders for a given product.</p>



<p>If your store relies on careful stock management — maybe because you handle products with a small inventory — <code>wc_get_held_stock_quantity</code> is very useful. As orders come in for a limited number of products, you can take special action. Maybe you need to cancel those orders, or maybe you want to entice the customers placing them to complete their purchases before the item goes out of stock.</p>



<p>So, as usual, let's first take a look at the function syntax and then consider a practical example of how you might use or display the returned value. Enjoy!</p>



<span id="more-94320"></span>



<h2 id="h-function-syntax">Function syntax</h2>



<p>You can find the <code>wc_get_held_stock_quantity()</code> function under <code>woocommerce\includes\wc-stock-functions.php</code>:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>/**
 * See how much stock is being held in pending orders.
 *
 * @since 3.5.0
 * @param WC_Product $product Product to check.
 * @param integer    $exclude_order_id Order ID to exclude.
 * @return int
 */
function wc_get_held_stock_quantity( WC_Product $product, $exclude_order_id = 0 ) {
	/**
	 * Filter: woocommerce_hold_stock_for_checkout
	 * Allows enable/disable hold stock functionality on checkout.
	 *
	 * @since 4.3.0
	 * @param bool $enabled Default to true if managing stock globally.
	 */
	if ( ! apply_filters( 'woocommerce_hold_stock_for_checkout', wc_string_to_bool( get_option( 'woocommerce_manage_stock', 'yes' ) ) ) ) {
		return 0;
	}

	return ( new \Automattic\WooCommerce\Checkout\Helpers\ReserveStock() )-&gt;get_reserved_stock( $product, $exclude_order_id );
}</code></pre>



<p>As you can see, there is a filter hook (<em>apply_filters</em>) at the very beginning of the function that allows you to disable the hold stock functionality. But we want this to be active to understand what the function does, so let's go ahead.</p>



<p>As the <em>return</em> statement says, we need to study another function: <code>get_reserved_stock()</code>. Let's do a quick file search within the WooCommerce plugin files with your favorite code editor. The only search result is in <code>woocommerce\src\Checkout\Helpers\ReserveStock.php</code>:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>/**
 * Query for any existing holds on stock for this item.
 *
 * @param \WC_Product $product Product to get reserved stock for.
 * @param integer     $exclude_order_id Optional order to exclude from the results.
 *
 * @return integer Amount of stock already reserved.
 */
public function get_reserved_stock( $product, $exclude_order_id = 0 ) {
	global $wpdb;
	if ( ! $this-&gt;is_enabled() ) {
		return 0;
	}
	// phpcs:ignore WordPress.DB.PreparedSQL.InterpolatedNotPrepared, WordPress.DB.PreparedSQL.NotPrepared
	return (int) $wpdb-&gt;get_var( $this-&gt;get_query_for_reserved_stock( $product-&gt;get_stock_managed_by_id(), $exclude_order_id ) );
}</code></pre>



<p>I have a feeling this will take a while&#8230;</p>



<p>For sure, it seems we're querying the WordPress database now. But in order to find out what we're looking for, we've got to do another file search for the <code>get_query_for_reserved_stock</code> function. Here we go; it's in <code>woocommerce\src\Checkout\Helpers\ReserveStock.php</code>:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>/**
 * Returns query statement for getting reserved stock of a product.
 *
 * @param int     $product_id Product ID.
 * @param integer $exclude_order_id Optional order to exclude from the results.
 * @return string|void Query statement.
 */
private function get_query_for_reserved_stock( $product_id, $exclude_order_id = 0 ) {
	global $wpdb;
	$query = $wpdb-&gt;prepare(
		"
		SELECT COALESCE( SUM( stock_table.`stock_quantity` ), 0 ) FROM $wpdb-&gt;wc_reserved_stock stock_table
		LEFT JOIN $wpdb-&gt;posts posts ON stock_table.`order_id` = posts.ID
		WHERE posts.post_status IN ( 'wc-checkout-draft', 'wc-pending' )
		AND stock_table.`expires` &gt; NOW()
		AND stock_table.`product_id` = %d
		AND stock_table.`order_id` != %d
		",
		$product_id,
		$exclude_order_id
	);

	/**
	 * Filter: woocommerce_query_for_reserved_stock
	 * Allows to filter the query for getting reserved stock of a product.
	 *
	 * @since 4.5.0
	 * @param string $query            The query for getting reserved stock of a product.
	 * @param int    $product_id       Product ID.
	 * @param int    $exclude_order_id Order to exclude from the results.
	 */
	return apply_filters( 'woocommerce_query_for_reserved_stock', $query, $product_id, $exclude_order_id );
}</code></pre>



<p>Fantastic! We now have our database query. Here's what it does:</p>



<ul><li>First, the database query looks for the <code>wc_reserved_stock</code> table. I didn't know that myself!</li><li>Next, it sums all stock quantities for order IDs that are in pending / draft status.</li><li>Then it adds the held stock that hasn't expired yet.</li><li>And then it counts where the order contains a given product ID.</li><li>Finally, it counts where the order is not the excluded ID.</li></ul>



<p>Excellent stuff, another cool little function to know! </p>



<p><strong>But don't forget!</strong> The &#8220;Hold stock&#8221; WooCommerce setting must be enabled, otherwise, there won't be any held stock to count up:</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img width="752" height="408" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/image-752x408.png" alt="" class="wp-image-94323" />The &#8220;Hold stock&#8221; field should not be blank so that some stock can be held and give you some results for <code>wc_get_held_stock_quantity()</code>.</div>



<h2 id="case-study">Case Study</h2>



<p>Let's say you have product <em>ID = 123</em> with stock <em>quantity = 10</em>, and you usually give a lot of time to your users to complete their orders. Say, &#8220;Hold stock&#8221; is, for example, 1440 [1 day in minutes]).</p>



<p>Wouldn't it be cool if you could automatically trigger a reminder to customers with pending orders when their product is about to go out of stock?</p>



<p>To achieve this, you can simply get the product stock and subtract the held stock from it to calculate the &#8220;actual&#8221; stock currently available for all pending orders completed within a given day. If you reach a low threshold of, for example, two items left in stock, then an email could be triggered for customers with a custom message.</p>



<p>For the email trigger, I'll reuse some of the code I already wrote for my &#8220;<a href="https://www.businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-custom-cron-job/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WooCommerce: Send Email to Admin Every 3 Hours</a>&#8221; tutorial on Business Bloomer:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>/**
 * @snippet       Send Pending Order Reminder If Actual Stock Low
 * @how-to        Get CustomizeWoo.com FREE
 * @author        Rodolfo Melogli
 * @testedwith    WooCommerce 6
 * @donate $9     https://businessbloomer.com/bloomer-armada/
 */

// ---- ---- ----
// A. Define a cron job interval if it doesn't exist
 
add_filter( 'cron_schedules', 'bbloomer_check_every_3_hours' );
 
function bbloomer_check_every_3_hours( $schedules ) {
    $schedules&#91;'every_three_hours'] = array(
        'interval' =&gt; 10800,
        'display'  =&gt; __( 'Every 3 hours' ),
    );
    return $schedules;
}
 
// ---- ---- ----
// B. Schedule an event unless already scheduled
 
add_action( 'wp', 'bbloomer_custom_cron_job' );
 
function bbloomer_custom_cron_job() {
   if ( ! wp_next_scheduled( 'bbloomer_send_pending_order_reminder' ) ) {
      wp_schedule_event( time(), 'every_three_hours', 'bbloomer_send_pending_order_reminder' );
   }
}
 
// ---- ---- ----
// C. Trigger email when hook runs
 
add_action( 'bbloomer_send_pending_order_reminder', 'bbloomer_generate_pending_order_reminder' );
 
// ---- ---- ----
// D. Generate email content
 
function bbloomer_generate_pending_order_reminder() {   
   $range = 180; // 3 hours in minutes
   $pending_orders = bbloomer_get_pending_orders_before_after( strtotime( '-' . absint( $end ) . ' MINUTES', current_time( 'timestamp' ) ), current_time( 'timestamp' ) );
   if ( $pending_orders ) {
      $email_subject = "Complete your order before products go out of stock!";
      foreach ( $pending_orders as $pending_order_id ) {
         $pending_order = wc_get_order( $pending_order_id );
         foreach ( $pending_order-&gt;get_items() as $item_id =&gt; $item ) {
            $product = $item-&gt;get_product();
            if ( $product && $product-&gt;managing_stock() && ( $product-&gt;get_stock_quantity() - wc_get_held_stock_quantity( $product ) ) &lt; 3 ) { 
               $email_content = "Hello " . $pending_order-&gt;get_billing_first_name() . ", your pending order #" . $pending_order_id . " contains a product that may soon run out of stock. This is a gentle reminder so that you do not miss on the opportunity to buy now while stock lasts.";
               wp_mail( $pending_order-&gt;get_billing_email(), $email_subject, $email_content );
            }
         }
      }
   }
}
 
// ---- ---- ----
// E. Query database for pending orders between two timestamps
 
function bbloomer_get_pending_orders_before_after( $date_one, $date_two ) {
   global $wpdb;
   $pending_orders = $wpdb-&gt;get_col(
      $wpdb-&gt;prepare(
         "SELECT posts.ID
         FROM {$wpdb-&gt;prefix}posts AS posts
         WHERE posts.post_type = 'shop_order'
         AND posts.post_status = 'wc-pending'
         AND posts.post_modified &gt;= '%s'
         AND posts.post_modified &lt;= '%s'",
         date( 'Y/m/d H:i:s', absint( $date_one ) ),
         date( 'Y/m/d H:i:s', absint( $date_two ) )
      )
   );
   return $pending_orders;
}</code></pre>



<p>This week I've been super busy so I'll leave the testing to you. It will be nice to get your feedback in the comments!</p>



<p>Happy Woo!</p>



<div class="wp-container-62312c15d6ff2 wp-block-group"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile has-background"><a href="https://dothewoo.io/post-status-members/"><img width="400" height="400" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/hg1C04vb_400x400.jpg" alt="Do the Woo" class="wp-image-93517 size-full" /></a><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p class="has-text-align-left" id="h-get-ready-for-remote-work"><strong><strong>Do the Wo</strong>o!</strong> <a href="https://dothewoo.io/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get the Podcast</a>. <a href="https://dothewoo.io/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Subscribe to the Newsletter</a>.</p>



<p>Learn from others. Grow your business. Connect with a community of like-minded developers and builders who freelance, run agencies, and build really cool products and sites in the <strong>WooCommerce</strong> ecosystem.</p>
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></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:"Fri, 11 Mar 2022 14:30:07 +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:15:"Rodolfo Melogli";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:110:"WPTavern: Patchstack Whitepaper: WordPress Ecosystem Records 150% Increase in Security Vulnerabilities in 2021";s:7:"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=131172";s:7:"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:119:"https://wptavern.com/patchstack-whitepaper-wordpress-ecosystem-records-150-increase-in-security-vulnerabilities-in-2021";s: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:4357:"<p>Patchstack has published its <a href="https://patchstack.com/whitepaper/the-state-of-wordpress-security-in-2021/">State of WordPress Security</a> whitepaper with a summary of threats to the WordPress ecosystem recorded in 2021. The whitepaper aggregates data from multiple sources, including the <a href="https://patchstack.com/database/">Patchstack Vulnerability Database</a>, the Patchstack Alliance (the company&#8217;s bug bounty platform), and publicy reported CVEs from other sources. </p>



<p>In 2021, Patchstack recorded nearly 1,500 vulnerabilities, a 150% increase as compared to 2020, which recorded ~600. Patchstack found that the majority of these come from the WordPress.org directory:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The WordPress.org repository leads the way as the primary source for WordPress plugins and themes. Vulnerabilities in these components represented 91.79% of vulnerabilities added to the Patchstack database.</p><p>The remaining 8.21% of the reported vulnerabilities in 2021 were reported in premium or paid versions of the WordPress plugins or themes that are sold through other marketplaces like Envato, ThemeForest, Code Canyon, or made available for direct download only.</p></blockquote>



<p>WordPress core shipped four security releases, and only one included a patch for a critical vulnerability. This particular vulnerability was not in WordPress itself but rather in one of its bundled open source libraries, the PHPMailer library.</p>



<p>Patchstack estimates that 99.31% of all security bugs from 2021 were in components &#8211; WordPress plugins and themes. Themes had the most critical vulnerabilities, logging 55 this year. Patchstack found that 12.4% of vulnerabilities reported in themes had a critical CVSS score of 9.0-10.0. Arbitrary file upload vulnerabilities were the most common.</p>



<p>Plugins had a total of 35 critical security issues. This is fewer vulnerabilities compared to themes, but 29% of these received no public patch. </p>



<p>&#8220;The most surprising finding was really also the most unfortunate truth,&#8221; Patchstack Security Advocate Robert Rowley said. &#8220;I was not expecting to see so many plugins with critical vulnerabilities in them not receive patches. </p>



<p>&#8220;Some of those vulnerabilities required no authentication to perform, and  have publicly available proof of concepts (exploit code) made widely available online. It is probably already too late for the site owners who did not get a notice that their websites were vulnerable.&#8221;</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /><a href="https://patchstack.com/whitepaper/the-state-of-wordpress-security-in-2021/">Patchstack: State of WordPress Security in 2021</a></div>



<p>Patchstack surveyed 109 WordPress site owners and found that 28% of respondents had zero budget for security, 27% budgeted $1-3/month, and just 7% budget ~$50/month. Agencies were more likely to allocate monthly costs to security than individual site owners.</p>



<p>Conversely, results from these same respondents showed$613 as the average cost of malware removal. Post-compromise cleanup prices reported ranged from $50 &#8211; $4,800.</p>



<p>Rowley sees the significant increase in security vulnerabilities found in 2021 as evidence of more engaged security professionals, not a sign of the WordPress ecosystem becoming less secure.</p>



<p>&#8220;Most likely this is due to more security bugs being reported (more vulnerable code being found, because more people are looking),&#8221; Rowley said. &#8220;Patchstack runs a bug bounty program which pays security researchers for the bugs they report in the WordPress ecosystem, which incentives security researchers (and even developers familiar with WordPress) to look for more security bugs.&#8221;</p>



<p>Overall, Patchstack&#8217;s findings this year show that WordPress core is very secure and the vast majority of vulnerabilities are found in themes and plugins. Users should monitor their extensions and periodically check to see if they have been abandoned, as not all vulnerable software is guaranteed to get patched. Check out the full <a href="https://patchstack.com/whitepaper/the-state-of-wordpress-security-in-2021/">security whitepaper</a> for more details on the types of vulnerabilities most commonly found in 2021.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 11 Mar 2022 04:08:55 +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: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:80:"WPTavern: Should WordPress 6.0 Remove the “Beta” Label From the Site Editor?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=131250";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"https://wptavern.com/should-wordpress-6-0-remove-the-beta-label-from-the-site-editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5819:"<p>The short answer: probably not.</p>



<p><em>The longer answer…</em></p>



<p>It will depend on many things going right over the next couple of months. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-0/">WordPress 6.0 is scheduled</a> for launch on May 24, 2022. The 6.0 Beta 1 is on April 12. Even with a slightly extended cycle, major updates come fast.</p>



<p>Anne McCarthy <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/39293">opened a discussion</a> in the Gutenberg repository on Tuesday. She posted:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Across the community, I&#8217;m getting questions around when the beta label for the site editor will be removed. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/01/26/preliminary-roadmap-for-6-0/">While not explicitly stated in the 6.0 post</a>, I know it&#8217;s been discussed around having it removed for 6.0 as this was meant to be a temporary label to communicate that the site editor is still in early stages.</p><p>In order to track this concern and have a place to point people, I&#8217;m opening this issue so, when the time comes, a decision can be made and folks can be notified.</p></blockquote>



<p><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/39293#issuecomment-1062196015">In response</a>, Courtney Robertson said she would like to see a unified effort on creating support material across LearnWP, HelpHub, and DevHub. &#8220;What would the community&#8217;s expectation be for supporting resources related to beta, and what capacity do teams have to reach that goal?&#8221; she asked.</p>



<p><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/39293#issuecomment-1064194620">In a separate reply</a>, she posed additional questions:</p>



<ul><li>What does the 3rd party ecosystem struggle with today for adopting FSE?</li><li>What impact with this have for end site builders using products (plugins) that want to but can&#8217;t yet work with Site Editor because features are missing (custom post types, templates, shortcodes) and the following impact to their clients?</li><li>What areas feel incomplete yet in Site Editor?</li></ul>



<p>&#8220;Before removing the label, we need feedback about the expectations when there is no beta label,&#8221; she wrote.</p>



<p>Alex Stine <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/39293#issuecomment-1064468572">noted accessibility issues</a> as a blocker for removing the beta label. Dave Ryan <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/39293#issuecomment-1064381967">added items</a> that theme authors were still hard-coding because they are unsupported in the editor.</p>



<p>Avoiding the WordPress 5.0 Gutenberg debacle should be a priority. The block editor was arguably the worst feature rollout in the platform&#8217;s history, one that has left a fractured community that is, over three years later, still picking up some of the pieces of itself.</p>



<p>The problem was more about communication than anything. It was not that the block editor was in and of itself a poor product. It just felt very much like beta software that was switched on overnight &#8212; the platform&#8217;s users its guinea pigs. Plus, the lack of a built-in method of staying on the classic editor without installing a plugin made for a rough transition.</p>



<p>Aurooba Ahmed <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/39293#issuecomment-1064275953">noted a similar risk</a> with removing the beta label early:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>[Josepha Haden Chomphosy] talked about <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2022/02/11/a-theory-of-technology-adoption-in-the-wordpress-project/">the impact and experience of social proof not being on Gutenberg&#8217;s side early on in the project</a>. I think a lot of that had to do with how things were presented and a bunch of PR issues. Removing the beta label from the Site Editor could be just as problematic.</p></blockquote>



<p>Some FSE features like block-based widgets and nav menus have also had problematic rollouts. Developers and end-users have often needed to scramble for solutions without an appropriate transition period before switching the features on when ready.</p>



<p>However, the site editor and global styles have been entirely opt-in FSE features thus far. That is not changing anytime soon. Users must explicitly activate a block theme to access them.</p>



<p>This has made for a far gentler transition, allowing early adopters to test the waters before the rest of the world. And, make no mistake, the site editor and block-based themes fundamentally change how WordPress&#8217;s theme and customization system has worked for years.</p>



<p>We will be lucky if even 100 <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/full-site-editing/">block themes</a> are in the official directory when WordPress 6.0 launches. Today, there are 53, a fraction of the 1,000s of themes in total.</p>



<p>There is little harm that could be done by keeping the site editor in beta for a while longer. When something breaks, it feels better knowing it is an experimental feature.</p>



<p>Of course, it must come to an end one day as we peel back the label and let the site editor shine in its own light. It cannot stay in beta endlessly, and &#8220;6.0&#8221; is a nice, round, feel-good number. Despite WordPress marching to the beat of its own versioning drum, it does not erase how much those &#8220;x.0&#8221; releases feel like they should be revolutionary in some way. Putting a stamp of approval on the site editor would be a highlight, but it would likely be premature.</p>



<p>WordPress 6.1 may be a more opportune moment. There is no pressing need to rush support material, bypass accessibility issues, or not let features mature for a cycle or two.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 11 Mar 2022 04:00:44 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"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: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:70:"Post Status: WordPress Podcast and Video Picks for the Week of March 7";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94279";s:7:"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://poststatus.com/wordpress-podcast-and-video-picks-for-the-week-of-march-7/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1876:"<h2 id="h-my-podcast-picks">My Podcast Picks</h2>



<ul><li><strong>WP Briefing:</strong> <strong>Matt Mullenweg</strong> shares <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/03/episode-26-matt-mullenweg-on-ukraine-community-and-wordpress/">some brief thoughts on Ukraine</a>, community, and WordPress.</li><li><strong>WP Review:</strong> This is the first episode in a three-part series about building a business: <a href="https://wpreview.io/building-a-better-business-part-1-understanding-your-customers/">how to understand your customers and their problems</a>.</li><li><strong>How I Built It:</strong> Joe talks with <strong>Alastair McDermott</strong> about <a href="https://howibuilt.it/working-through-different-youtube-strategies-with-alastair-mcdermott/">different YouTube strategies</a> and how to build trust quickly.</li><li><strong>Women In WP:</strong> Meet <strong>Anne-Mieke Bovelett</strong> who teaches <a href="https://womeninwp.com/podcast/078-anne-mieke-bovelettand-wordpress-opportunity/">WordPress and <strong>Elementor</strong> to agencies</a>.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Do the Woo:</strong> <strong>Bob Dunn</strong> <a href="https://dothewoo.io/new-episodes-woo-builderbytes-in-beta/">announces a new series</a> — <strong>Woo BuilderBytes</strong> — that will &#8220;open the opportunity for builders to take the mic and do their own show.&#8221;</li><li><strong>Hallway Chats:</strong> <strong>Aurooba Ahmed</strong> talks about her background and <a href="https://hallwaychats.com/episodes/episode-157-a-chat-with-aurooba-ahmed/">how she started engaging with the WordPress community</a>.</li></ul>



<h2 id="h-videos-of-the-week">Videos of the Week</h2>



<ul><li><strong>Allie Nimmons</strong> shares <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhZGzm1ZXWk&feature=youtu.be">some calculations that can help freelancers set their prices</a>.</li></ul>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 11 Mar 2022 03:15:06 +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:12:"David Bisset";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:29:"Post Status: Help the Helpers";s:7:"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:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94347";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:40:"https://poststatus.com/help-the-helpers/";s: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:10361:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Do you want to help, but you aren’t sure how — or who to trust? Here are some non-profit organizations and charitable foundations with a history of success and transparent reporting, according to Ukrainian sources.</p>



<p>For more information, including volunteer opportunities, events, email templates, refugee information, and news, visit <a href="http://helpsaveukraine.com/">HelpSaveUkraine.com</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 id="h-medical-support"><strong>Medical Support</strong></h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://helpukraine.center/en"><strong>Help Ukraine Center</strong></a><strong> (</strong><a href="https://www.ernst-prost-stiftung.org/en-gb/spenden"><strong>Donate</strong></a><strong>,</strong><a href="https://helpukraine.center/en"><strong> Physical Donations</strong></a><strong>) </strong>is a Polish-German initiative powered by the Ernst Prost Fundation. Medicines and other essential humanitarian products will be delivered to regions that need it the most, in cooperation with our partners: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, ROZETKA, Fozzy Group, TIS, Dragon Capital, Spunbond fund, Ukrposhta.</li><li><a href="https://razomforukraine.org/razom-emergency-response/"><strong>RAZOM: Emergency Response</strong></a> is for tactical medical training. Help qualified war medics teach civilians first aid and provide them with medical supplies. <strong>Now sourcing funding for a cargo plane shipment of medical aid.</strong> (March 9, 2022)</li><li><a href="https://www.uuarc.org/"><strong>United Ukrainian American Relief Committee</strong></a><strong> (</strong><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/humanitarian-aid-to-victims-of-war-in-ukraine?utm_campaign=contacts-v2-invite-to-donate&utm_medium=sms&utm_source=twilio"><strong>Donate</strong></a><strong>)</strong> provides vital medical supplies to victims, care for the injured and refugees, as well as shelter and food to those affected.</li><li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/donate/507886070680475/?__cft__[0]=AZWOo6XpANoI0QnuQb5sQ3Vrsj4r-Aq-p76uxleoR3Ale6FIsUrxmL1V6ljorbxrI59L9GzG02GHC3bcZvEtc6rPvfNi4lWPPSdGIXffPJX0WjlXkazI9eeDn5cpmuVLi4GmPGMRKrC5OBOeSYiPW6hy&__tn__=-UK-R"><strong>Sunflower of Peace</strong></a> provides medical assistance and other necessities. Each IFAK (medical backpack) can save up to 10 lives.</li><li><a href="https://lifelineukraine.com/en/donation"><strong>Lifeline Ukraine</strong></a> offers psychosocial support. They created Ukraine’s first suicide prevention hotline mobilized in response to alarming rates of veteran suicide.</li></ul>



<h2 id="veterans-and-internally-displaced-persons"><strong>Veterans and Internally Displaced Persons</strong></h2>



<ul><li><strong>Future Kyiv Charitable Foundation (</strong><a href="https://potreby.kyivcity.gov.ua/"><strong>Donate</strong></a><strong>) </strong>is a collection of charitable contributions for the purchase of humanitarian aid to Kyiv residents, organized by the Kyiv Municipal Government.</li><li><a href="https://www.rsukraine.org/"><strong>Revived Soldiers Ukraine</strong></a><strong> </strong>brings medical aid and sustainable living standards to wounded soldiers and members of their families.  </li><li><a href="https://eng.ffr.org.ua/support-in-crisis/eng"><strong>Ukrainian People With Disabilities in Crisis</strong> </a>helps Ukrainians with disabilities – especially those who want but cannot evacuate – protect themselves in case of emergency. </li><li><a href="https://www.liqpay.ua/uk/checkout/card/checkout_1645696212178819_20241666_pAXmIuNMC7sGE8yEdLzr"><strong>Caritas Ukraine</strong></a> provides humanitarian assistance to various social groups and those impacted by the conflict. More information <a href="https://caritas.ua/">here</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.unhcr.org/ua/en/32243-denys-savchenko-crimeasos.html"><strong>CrimeaSOS</strong></a> provides assistance to internally displaced persons from Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. With the support and partnership of UNHCR, it promotes community initiatives for these groups.</li><li><a href="https://british-ukrainianaid.org/make-a-donation/"><strong>British-Ukraine Aid</strong></a> gives assistance to vulnerable individuals who have been physically, mentally or socially disadvantaged, including the injured and wounded, orphaned children, the elderly, internally displaced persons and families who have lost their main earners. More information <a href="https://british-ukrainianaid.org/">here</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.peopleinneed.net/what-we-do/humanitarian-aid-and-development/ukraine"><strong>People in Need: SOS Ukraine</strong></a><strong> </strong>provides food and sanitation packages, emergency shelter, psychosocial support, and more in Donetsk and Luhansk, both in territory under the control of the Ukrainian government and in territory not currently under government control.</li><li><a href="https://crisisrelief.un.org/t/ukraine"><strong>UN Crisis Relief: Ukrainian Humanitarian Fund</strong></a> contributions are collected into a single, unearmarked fund and managed locally under UN leadership. As crises evolve, funds are made directly and immediately available to a wide range of partner organizations at the front lines of response. This way, funding reaches the people most in need when they need it.</li></ul>



<h2 id="religious-and-ethnic-minority-aid"><strong>Religious and Ethnic Minority Aid</strong> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/2721.png" alt="✡" class="wp-smiley" /></h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://www.jdc.org/disasters/ukraine-response/"><strong>JDC: Emergency in Ukraine</strong></a> provides a lifeline for an estimated 40,000 Jewish elderly and 2,500 poor Jewish children and their families through its network of care services, Jewish community programs, and Jewish leaders in more than 1,000 locations across Ukraine.</li><li><a href="https://www.charidy.com/HelpKyiv/Rabbibleich"><strong>Rabbi Bleich's Help Kyiv</strong></a><strong> </strong>is funding a Refugee Camp for the Kyiv Jewish Community, organized by Ukraine’s Chief Rabbi.</li><li><a href="https://www.ujafedny.org/crisis-donate"><strong>United Jewish Appeal</strong></a><strong> (</strong><a href="https://www.ujafedny.org/crisis-donate"><strong>Donate</strong></a><strong>)</strong> supports urgent and mounting humanitarian needs including food, shelter, transport, and emergency medical units.</li><li><a href="http://chirikli.com.ua/index.php/en/"><strong>Roma Women Fund</strong></a> advocates for Roma women's rights in Ukraine and collaborate with Roma communities on the regional level.</li></ul>



<h2 id="lgbtqia-aid"><strong>LGBTQIA+ Aid</strong> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f3f3-fe0f-200d-1f308.png" alt="🏳️‍🌈" class="wp-smiley" /></h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://www.insight-ukraine.org/en/"><strong>Insight NGO</strong></a> (<a href="https://bit.ly/donate_insight"><strong>Donate</strong></a>) – A Ukrainian human rights public organization which brings together lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.</li><li><a href="https://lgbtmilitary.org.ua/eng"><strong>Ukrainian LGBT Military for Equal Rights Association</strong></a> – support LGBT military in their fight on the frontline and for equality of all citizens at home. </li></ul>



<h2 id="children"><strong>Children</strong> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f6b8.png" alt="🚸" class="wp-smiley" /></h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://helpushelp.charity/"><strong>Help Us Help</strong></a><strong> </strong>–&nbsp;donations will be used to fund the following: evacuation and relocation of staff and beneficiaries (children, scholars and veteran families), humanitarian aid delivery, and medical assistance for victims.</li><li><a href="https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/where-we-work/europe/ukraine"><strong>Save the Children &#8211; Ukraine</strong></a><strong> </strong>– distribute essential humanitarian aid to children and their families; deliver winter and hygiene kits; provide cash grants to families so they can meet basic needs like food, rent and medicines; provide access to safe, inclusive, quality education; work to help children overcome the mental and psychological impacts of conflict.</li><li><a href="https://voices.org.ua/en/donat/"><strong>Voices of Children</strong></a> – psychological/psychosocial support for children affected by the war.</li><li><a href="https://www.saintjavelin.com/products/saint-javelin-sticker"><strong>Saint Javelin</strong></a> –&nbsp;all proceeds of shirt and sticker sales go to a fund for the children of fallen and wounded Ukrainian soldiers.</li><li><a href="https://razomforukraine.org/projects/toydrive/"><strong>Toy Drive for the Children of Fallen Heroes</strong></a> – provides assistance for displaced people, orphans, and families of Ukrainian military who died or were hurt in action. Volunteers in Ukraine learn about needs on the ground and pass information on to us.</li></ul>



<h2 id="education"><strong>Education</strong> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4da.png" alt="📚" class="wp-smiley" /></h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://donate.ual.ua/"><strong>Ukrainian Leadership Academy</strong></a> is an educational program that aims to develop a generation of young leaders for Ukraine and the world. Over the course of a gap year, young adults learn to work in a team, set goals, develop projects, take responsibility for their lives and the country's fate, and choose their future profession more consciously.</li><li><a href="https://ucufoundation.org/donate/"><strong>Ukrainian Catholic University Foundation</strong></a> invests in the lives of young and talented future leaders of Ukraine and the diaspora.</li><li><a href="https://razomforukraine.org/projects/veteranius/"><strong>Veteranius</strong></a> helps teach and employ veterans, volunteers and internally displaced persons in the IT sector and involve them in socially important projects.&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://razomforukraine.org/projects/veteranstipends/"><strong>Bohdan Radchenko Stipend for Veterans</strong></a> is offering&nbsp;tuition for a Master’s degree at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (KMA), Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU).</li></ul>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 11 Mar 2022 03:15:06 +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:10:"Dan Knauss";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.9.2 Security and Maintenance Release";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=12421";s:7:"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:80:"https://wordpress.org/news/2022/03/wordpress-5-9-2-security-maintenance-release/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3610:"<p><strong>WordPress 5.9.2&nbsp;</strong>is now available!</p>



<p>This security and maintenance release features <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/54578">1 bug fix</a> in addition to 3 security fixes. Because this is a <strong>security release</strong>, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 3.7 have also been updated.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.9.2 is a security and maintenance release. The next major release will be version&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-0/">6.0</a>.</p>



<p>You can&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.9.2.zip">download WordPress 5.9.2 from WordPress.org</a>, or visit your Dashboard&nbsp;→ Updates and click “Update Now”.</p>



<p>If you have sites that support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.</p>



<p>The security team would like to thank the following people for responsively reporting vulnerabilities, allowing them to be fixed in this release:</p>



<ul><li>Melar Dev, for finding a Prototype Pollution Vulnerability in a jQuery dependency</li><li>Ben Bidner of the WordPress security team, for finding a Stored Cross Site Scripting Vulnerability</li><li>Researchers from <em>Johns Hopkins University, </em>for finding a Prototype Pollution Vulnerability in the block editor</li></ul>



<p>For more information, browse the&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?milestone=5.9.2&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&col=milestone&order=priority">full list of changes</a>&nbsp;on Trac, or check out the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-9-2/">version 5.9.2 HelpHub documentation page</a>.</p>



<h2 id="thanks-and-props">Thanks and props!</h2>



<p>The 5.9.2 release was led by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/">Jb Audras</a>, with the help of <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorgefilipecosta/">Jorge Costa</a> on package updates, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/">Sergey Biryukov</a> on mission control, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/">David Baumwald</a> on backport commits.</p>



<p>In addition to the release squad members and security researchers mentioned above, thank you to everyone who helped make WordPress 5.9.2 happen:</p>



<p><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/alanjacobmathew/">Alan Jacob Mathew</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/xknown/">Alex Concha</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/oandregal/">André</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/antonvlasenko/">Anton Vlasenko</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/">David Baumwald</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ehtis/">ehtis</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/">Jb Audras</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/">Jorge Costa</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/peterwilsoncc/">Peter Wilson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/">Sergey Biryukov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromTonya/">Tonya Mork</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ironprogrammer/">ironprogrammer</a>.</p>



<p class="has-text-align-right has-small-font-size"><em>Props <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>davidbaumwald</a> and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>sergeybiryukov</a> for peer review.</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, 11 Mar 2022 02:24:13 +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:9:"Jb Audras";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:80:"WPTavern: Avant-Garde Is an Experimental Block Theme With Well-Designed Patterns";s:7:"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=131213";s:7:"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:91:"https://wptavern.com/avant-garde-is-an-experimental-block-theme-with-well-designed-patterns";s: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:5099:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Block themes continue to trickle into the WordPress theme directory. Classic design submissions still outpace them by margins that make it look like blocks are not even in the race yet. However, some designers seek to pioneer this still-foreign space.</p>



<p>Brian Gardner is not new to this. His latest theme, <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/avant-garde/">Avant-Garde</a>, plays on the block system&#8217;s strengths without forcing it into something it is not capable of yet. It also does not hurt that Gardner leans into minimalism with his designs. The simplicity of the block system plays back into his strengths, too.</p>



<img />



<p>Reading through the code and browsing Avant-Garde&#8217;s design elements almost feels like taking a master-class in block theme development. Other than a typo where &#8220;Primary&#8221; is misspelled in the color palette (fixed in version 1.0.2), it seems to be doing everything right. It is vying for my coveted favorite theme of 2022 award, but we still have nearly a full 10 months left before the year is out. A lot can happen in that time. However, Avant-Garde raises the bar for those that follow.</p>



<p>There is one thing I am not fond of, so let us get this out of the way. The content area of single posts and pages is split into two columns. The title and meta are aligned left with the content to the right.</p>



<img />Single post view.



<p>I like the willingness to break from the mold &#8212; it is titled <em>Avant-Garde</em>, after all. However, I never felt comfortable with the right-aligned content, even after tinkering with the theme for a week. Center or left-aligned is more natural.</p>



<p>I know I will sound like a broken record, but this is why I enjoy using the site editor. If I find a theme that covers 80% of what I want, I can customize it. Even as a designer and developer, this was often more trouble than it was worth with classic themes. Every theme developer had their in-house design system to figure out. Blocks always follow the same standard. Moving a column here or putting the post title over there simply induces fewer headaches.</p>



<p>So, I made a couple of minor changes to single posts. <em>No big deal.</em> I erased my single dislike about the theme in mere moments via the site editor, and all was right with the world.</p>



<img />Customizing the layout of the single post template.



<p>Where Avant-Garde gets things right is its patterns. It bundles 14 in total, and one is of the <a href="https://bg.design/avant-garde/">homepage design from the demo</a>. Users do not have to piece it together; just insert and customize. This is the primary reason I have called for a separate <a href="https://wptavern.com/full-page-patterns-are-still-the-missing-piece-of-block-wordpress-theme-development">full-page pattern feature</a> in the past.</p>



<p>My favorite block pattern in the theme is for creating a portfolio:</p>



<img />Portfolio pattern.



<p>It is merely a Heading, Paragraph, and a three-by-three grid of Image blocks. It feels like something anyone should be capable of building, but the simple elegance combined with on-point spacing is sometimes more complex than it looks.</p>



<p>I am also warming up to the list-style Query pattern as someone who enjoys writing from time to time and does not want to worry about finding the perfect featured image:</p>



<img />List-style Query pattern.



<p>Avant-Garde includes a couple of alternative Query patterns for a grid and a one-column post list for those who prefer something different.</p>



<p>I rarely get to point to footer design as a positive attribute of themes. Far too often, this section is tacked on as if it had no right being there in the first place.  However, Avant-Garde has not one but two footers that say, &#8220;Hey, do I have your attention?&#8221;</p>



<p>The first is the default, which includes the text &#8220;Design with courage.&#8221; in large lettering:</p>



<img />Default footer design.



<p>The alternative is a business-friendly, full-width lead-in for visitors to contact the site owner:</p>



<img />Contact-style footer.



<p>Avant-Garde has a short pattern for displaying copyright text and links for those who prefer a footer that seeks less attention.</p>



<p>The theme does not include many custom block styles. A few fill-type and outline Button options can be replaced when core supports borders on the block. A &#8220;no margin&#8221; style for Paragraphs handles a missing WordPress feature.</p>



<p>Its more unique options include shadow and full-height styles for the Group block. It also offers framed images, which are showcased in the portfolio pattern.</p>



<p>Overall, I want to see more themes like Avant-Garde land in the directory. The design does not push against every boundary &#8212; though it does experiment plenty. What makes it a solid choice is the attention to detail. The little things matter, such as selecting the right photos for the demo and not leaving the footer design as an afterthought.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 10 Mar 2022 04:11:06 +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: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:51:"Post Status: Addressing Burnout with Sherry Walling";s:7:"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:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94258";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:62:"https://poststatus.com/addressing-burnout-with-sherry-walling/";s: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:4639:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Burnout is a real disorder you can think of as a repetitive strain injury of the mind, says Sherry Walling, a clinical psychologist and entrepreneur adept at “helping smart people do hard things.” Dr. Walling was gracious with her time in this episode of <strong>Post Status Live</strong>, where she explains what occupational burnout is, what the symptoms are, and how to address it.</p>



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<h3 id="h-topics-discussed"><strong>Topics Discussed </strong></h3>



<ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Maslach">Christina Maslach</a> (UC-Berkeley) </li><li>Maslick's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslach_Burnout_Inventory">theory of occupational burnout</a></li><li>Compassion fatigue</li><li>Causes and symptoms of burnout</li></ul>



<h3 id="h-key-takeaways">Key Takeaways</h3>



<p><strong>Burnout &#8230;</strong></p>



<ul><li>&#8230;is a real disorder, not a made up term in pop psychology.</li><li>&#8230;leads to physical and emotional exhaution, cynicism and withdrawal, and a diminished sense of personal efficacy — &#8220;I suck!&#8221;</li><li>&#8230;is caused (and predicted) by lack of meaning in your work effort and lack of social supports.</li><li>&#8230;is like a repetitive strain injury.</li></ul>



<h2 id="h-about-sherry-walling">About Sherry Walling</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-rounded"><img width="298" height="311" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Screen-Shot-2022-03-08-at-10.32.25-AM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-94261" /></div>



<p>Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, best-selling author, yoga teacher, and mental health advocate. Her company, <a href="https://www.zenfounder.com">ZenFounder</a>, provides mental wellness resources to leaders and entrepreneurs as they navigate transition, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience.</p>



<p>Dr. Walling's best-selling book, <em>The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together</em>, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has <em>been there</em>. Her soon-to-be-released new book, <a href="https://www.touchingtwoworlds.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Touching Two Worlds</em></a>, explores new strategies for finding wholeness in the aftermath of loss.</p>



<p>Dr. Walling is an expert in trauma, stress, and burnout and her research has been published in academic journals such as the <em>Journal of Traumatic Stress</em>.</p>



<p class="has-background">You can listen to <a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">past episodes</a> of <strong>Post Status Live</strong>, <a href="https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/">browse all our podcasts</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1m3xwXbe0MG5BzFVPtB0A7">Spotify</a>, Amazon Music, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://castro.fm/podcast/c53552c6-1ee0-4fc4-9de4-08ed6bf1ee4d">Castro</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus">YouTube</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast">Stitcher</a>, <a href="https://player.fm/series/wordpress-post-status-podcasts">Player.fm</a>, <a href="https://pca.st/05rR">Pocket Casts</a>, <a href="https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/">Simplecast</a>, or by <a href="https://feeds.simplecast.com/2JE9sc8P">RSS</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h3 id="h-links">Links</h3>



<ul><li><a href="https://mastermindjam.com/">Zen Founder</a></li><li><a href="https://sherrywalling.com">SherryWalling.com</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/zenfounder">@zenfounder</a></li></ul>



<h3 id="h-episode-partner-gravity-forms">Episode Partner: <a href="https://poststat.us/gravity">Gravity Forms</a></h3>



<div class="wp-block-columns">
<div class="wp-block-column">
<p><strong><a href="https://poststat.us/gravity">Gravity Forms</a></strong> is a powerful form builder for WordPress and the #1 choice for businesses and web professionals across the globe. Its vast array of features, intuitive drag-and-drop form editor, and extensive ecosystem of add-ons, ensure customers can design beautiful, intelligent, and accessible forms for any project requirement.</p>
</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, 09 Mar 2022 23:15:07 +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:12:"David Bisset";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:54:"WPTavern: WPExperts Acquires Password Protected 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=131176";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"https://wptavern.com/wpexperts-acquires-password-protected-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:4275:"<p><a href="https://wpexperts.io/">WPExperts</a> has acquired the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/password-protected/">Password Protected</a> plugin from WordPress developer Ben Huson, author of nearly <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/husobj/#content-plugins">20 plugins</a> on WordPress.org. Password Protected was by far his most popular one with more than 300,000 active installs. The acquisition is hot on the heels of the company&#8217;s <a href="https://wptavern.com/wpexperts-acquires-post-smtp-plugin">purchase of the Post SMTP plugin</a> two weeks ago, another product with more than 300k active installs.</p>



<p>Password Protected gained a large user base by providing a simple plugin that doesn&#8217;t try to do everything. It allows an administrator to set a password to protect their WordPress site. It includes just a handful of options, such as toggling access to feeds, allowing REST API access, and disabling password requirement for administrators.</p>



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



<p>The plugin&#8217;s users often request the ability to add a login logo, and the plugin keeps it simple by recommending compatible plugins like <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/login-logo/">Login Logo</a> or the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/uber-login-logo/">Uber Login Logo</a> plugin.</p>



<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve not had much time to dedicate to the Password Protected plugin over the last couple of years,&#8221; Huson said regarding the sale. &#8220;I do use it myself and check for compatibility issues, but have not necessarily been pro-active in updating its compatibility flag in the WP repository.&#8221; </p>



<p>Huson said he has always tried to keep the plugin simple but with lots of hooks so that it would be extensible and ready for paid add-ons or a pro version in the future.</p>



<p>&#8220;I regularly got emails from people interested in acquiring the plugin as it has a good user base on the WP repository,&#8221; he said. &#8220;One of my main concerns in the past was that I wanted to have confidence in whoever takes it on.&#8221; Huson checked out WPExperts portfolio and said he had no worries the team would be able to take the plugin forward and develop it further. </p>



<p>Despite the success of Password Protected&#8217;s tightly controlled feature set, WPExperts founder Saad Iqbal said he plans to introduce some updates with an aim to produce a commercial version in a few months. He shared a few of the features they have in mind:</p>



<ol><li>Make this plugin more developer-friendly by adding more actions and filter hooks so the dev community can easily play around. </li><li>Display option to redirect to the login window. If someone with an admin role visits the protected page, we can display something like: If you are an admin of this site, please click here to login, or if you are an existing user, click here to login. </li><li>We can add support for more user roles apart from the Administrator, as it is currently, to make it more flexible. </li></ol>



<p>Despite gaining a much larger team to support the plugin, users are not always happy when a tool they have embraced changes hands. A plugin that was once the pet project of one developer, has now joined a larger agency that will soon be looking to monetize the software. After WPExperts&#8217; last acquisition, one reader <a href="https://wptavern.com/wpexperts-acquires-post-smtp-plugin#comment-417445">commented</a> that &#8220;takeover by an agency is usually the death knell for plugins,&#8221; as the new owners seek to add &#8220;unnecessary features&#8221; to a plugin that was previously focused in terms of development. Users do not relish the prospect of getting new banners and calls in the dashboard to pay for a Pro version.</p>



<p>In response to these concerns, Iqbal said WPExperts maintains a system for ensuring each plugin has adequate coverage.</p>



<p>&#8220;We have developed small team clusters for managing this kind of traffic,&#8221; Iqbal said. &#8220;So each team manages a couple of plugins, backed by strong support and business analyst teams, which keep track of all the issues and feature requests to be addressed. This makes sure nothing gets overlooked.&#8221;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 09 Mar 2022 20:16:21 +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: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:37:"Post Status: The Things That Unite Us";s:7:"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:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=93166";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://poststatus.com/the-things-that-unite-us/";s: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:17392:"<p class="has-medium-font-size">The things that unite us aren't always what we expect. And sometimes they're the same things that divide us — or at least a fraction of us.</p>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Early this year we saw the rise of a simple daily word puzzle: Wordle. Suddenly, overnight, everyone (and I mean <em>almost</em> <em>everyone</em>) was posting their Wordle daily scores on Twitter and in our most active Post Status Slack channel. It was so prevalent that we created a new channel called #Diversions, for folks to post Wordle scores and other pastimes — and to keep the #Club channel about the things it's always been about — namely, <em>not</em> Wordle scores. </p>



<p>Of course, not <em>everyone</em> was excited about Wordle. Some people spent more time lamenting other people's scores filling their Twitter feed than it would take to just scroll past them. But that was part of the fun of it too.</p>



<p>The culture — and counterculture — that Wordle inspired was <em>fun</em>. Organizations from NFL teams to restaurants to Post Status posted their normal stuff in light of it being simply &#8220;Not Wordle.&#8221; (Yes, we had to get in on the fun, too!)</p>



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Not Wordle, just our weekly newsletter…<br /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f9d1-1f3fb-200d-1f4bc.png" alt="🧑🏻‍💼" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f469-1f3fb-200d-1f4bc.png" alt="👩🏻‍💼" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f468-1f3fb-200d-1f4bc.png" alt="👨🏻‍💼" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f469-1f3fc-200d-1f4bc.png" alt="👩🏼‍💼" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f9d1-1f3fd-200d-1f4bc.png" alt="🧑🏽‍💼" class="wp-smiley" /></p>&mdash; Post Status (@post_status) <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status/status/1486847007021010944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>Diversions can unite us.</p>



<h2 id="h-community-is-built-on-unity">Community Is Built on Unity </h2>



<p>&#8220;Unity&#8221; is the latter part of the word &#8220;community.&#8221; So it stands to reason that communities like Post Status, and the greater WordPress community have things in common — the things that unite us. Of course, at the center of it is WordPress. The Open Source Project is central to our community.</p>



<p>But we are people. People with different politics, different viewpoints, different hobbies, beliefs, religions&#8230;well you see what I mean. We each arrive in a community around a central <em>thing</em>, but we bring our own experiences with us.</p>



<p>This past week we've seen a lot of community rally around our friends and colleagues in Ukraine. Watching a war break out in that part of the world is heartbreaking. Many of us have offered support in different ways — from monetary donations to <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23DriveForUkraine&src=hashtag_click">caravaning to Poland to bring physical supplies</a> to sharing information and holding space for friends (and their families) in affected areas.</p>



<p>Some choose to use their skills to create solidarity and share it through open source so that others can display their solidarity also. And we have no way of knowing the countless others who, in their own less-public way, provide the support they choose and are able to give.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I made a thing. <br />Install on your WordPress site to show your support, while at the same time sharing the relevant donation URL with the world <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StandWithUkraine%EF%B8%8F?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StandWithUkraine</a> <a href="https://t.co/ETCW7rfylx">https://t.co/ETCW7rfylx</a> <a href="https://t.co/AlJqMYwuJ1">pic.twitter.com/AlJqMYwuJ1</a></p>&mdash; Jonathan Bossenger (@jon_bossenger) <a href="https://twitter.com/jon_bossenger/status/1500167746868416522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>War can unite us.</p>



<h2 id="the-pandemic-has-changed-us">The Pandemic Has Changed Us</h2>



<p>There have always been things that unite us. Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? Or how TikTok has crept into every age group and demographic? And in every time zone on December 31 the stroke of midnight brings people together with the hope of a better next year.</p>



<p>The global pandemic has changed how we view the things that unite us. In spite of <em>not</em> being able to get together physically, separation somehow made the world a smaller place. Zoom and other videoconferencing tools are used for purposes beyond education and business. Grandparents met their new grandchildren through their screens. Birthdays were celebrated by people many miles apart. Weddings were broadcast to family and friends. WordCamps and Big Orange Heart's WordFests were delivered virtually. And meetups have been online — allowing people from around the world to learn from and interact with others they never could have met when things only took place in person.</p>



<p>Pandemics unite us.</p>



<h2 id="there-is-no-panacea">There is No Panacea</h2>



<p>Of course, there is no one thing that will unite every person on one topic, one thought, or one idea. There will always be differences of opinion, dissent, and drama. (Remember how I said we're people?) But differences, dissent, and, yes, even drama, are what make us a rich community. (Remember Gutenberg in 2018?)</p>



<p>The things that unite us — both positive and negative — have the power to move us closer to one another, inspire greater support of each other, and make the world — or at least our community in it — a smaller (and better) place.</p>



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



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



<p class="has-text-align-left has-small-font-size"><strong>Build your network. Learn with others. Find your next job — or your next hire.</strong> Read the <strong>Post Status</strong> <a href="https://poststatus.com/newsletter/">newsletter</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/2709.png" alt="✉" class="wp-smiley" /> Listen to <a href="https://poststatus.com/podcasts/">podcasts</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f399.png" alt="🎙" class="wp-smiley" /> Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status/">@Post_Status</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f426.png" alt="🐦" class="wp-smiley" /></p>
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></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, 09 Mar 2022 18:30:05 +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:"Michelle Frechette";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:55:"Post Status: This Week at WordPress.org (March 7, 2022)";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94284";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:63:"https://poststatus.com/this-week-at-wordpress-org-march-7-2022/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6438:"<p>Each week we are highlighting the news from WordPress.org that you don't want to miss.  If you or your company create products or services that use WordPress, we've got the news you need to know. Be sure to share this resource with your product and project managers.</p>



<h2 id="h-news"><a href="http://wordpress.org/news">News</a></h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/03/the-month-in-wordpress-february-2022/">The Month in WordPress – February 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/03/episode-26-matt-mullenweg-on-ukraine-community-and-wordpress/">Episode 26: Matt Mullenweg on Ukraine, Community, and WordPress</a></li></ul>


.kt-block-spacer-_a09d8b-b0 .kt-divider{width:80%;}
<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_a09d8b-b0"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-columns">
<div class="wp-block-column">
<h2 id="h-core"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core">Core</a> </h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/07/the-performance-lab-plugin-has-been-released/">The Performance Lab plugin has been released</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/07/a-week-in-core-march-7-2022/">A Week in Core – March 7, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/03/core-editor-improvement-choose-your-style/">Core Editor Improvement: Choose your Style</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-7-2-march/">What’s new in Gutenberg 12.7? (2 March)</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/02/25/proposal-to-start-a-news-blog-on-developer-wordpress-org/">Proposal to Start a News blog on developer.WordPress.org</a></li></ul>



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



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/03/03/2022-community-team-goals-summary/">2022 Community Team Goals Summary</a></li></ul>



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



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/02/15/show-and-tell-february-2022/"></a><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/02/28/design-share-feb-14-25/">Design Share: Feb 14–25</a></li></ul>



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



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2022/03/07/first-review-on-the-new-sitemap-for-helphub-or-documentation/">First review on the new Sitemap for HelpHub or Documentation</a></li></ul>



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



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2022/03/07/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-ios-19-4/">Call for Testing: WordPress for iOS 19.4</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2022/03/07/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-android-19-4/">Call for Testing: WordPress for Android 19.4</a></li></ul>
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<div class="wp-block-column">
<h2 id="h-photos">Photos</h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/photos/2022/02/23/photo-directory-team-rep-nominations-for-2022/">Photo Directory Team Rep Nominations for 2022</a></li></ul>



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



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/02/22/plugin-review-team-21-february-2022/"></a><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/02/28/plugin-review-team-update-28-feb-2022/">Plugin Review Team Update: 28 Feb 2022</a></li></ul>



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



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/02/23/fse-program-testing-call-12-hyping-headers/">FSE Program Testing Call #12: Hyping Headers</a></li></ul>



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



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/02/22/themes-team-update-february-22-2022/"></a><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/03/02/themes-team-update-march-02-2022/">Themes team update March 02, 2022</a></li></ul>



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



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/02/28/whats-new-on-learnwp-in-february-2022/">What’s new on LearnWP in February 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/01/31/faculty-program-structure-proposal/">Faculty Program: Structure Proposal</a></li></ul>



<h4 id="h-workshops">Workshops</h4>



<ul><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/building-sidebars-with-the-site-editor/">Building Sidebars With the Site Editor</a></li><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/intro-to-the-site-editor-and-template-editor/">Intro to the Site Editor and Template Editor</a></li></ul>



<h4 id="h-social-learning-spaces">Social Learning Spaces:</h4>



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



<p class="has-text-align-left has-small-font-size"><strong>Build your network. Learn with others. Find your next job — or your next hire.</strong> Read the <strong>Post Status</strong> <a href="https://poststatus.com/newsletter/">newsletter</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/2709.png" alt="✉" class="wp-smiley" /> Listen to <a href="https://poststatus.com/podcasts/">podcasts</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f399.png" alt="🎙" class="wp-smiley" /> Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status/">@Post_Status</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f426.png" alt="🐦" class="wp-smiley" /></p>
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></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, 09 Mar 2022 16:42:00 +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:"Courtney Robertson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:78:"WPTavern: #17 – Destiny Kanno and Joe Simpson on Why They Started BlackPress";s:7:"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=130496";s:7:"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:92:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/17-destiny-kanno-and-joe-simpson-on-why-they-started-blackpress";s: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:40025:"<p>On the podcast today we have Destiny Kanno and Joe Simpson.</p>



<p>Destiny and Joe are the key figures behind a new initiative called BlackPress.</p>



<p>The goal of BlackPress is to bring more creators of Black African descent into the WordPress community, and also provide a community space for those already there to connect, learn from, and support each other.</p>



<p>It’s still in the early stages and they are trying to grow with a dedicated Slack channel and regular Meetups. It’s intended to be a safe space for people who share their vision to work together and try to figure out what such a community might look like.</p>



<p>We talk on the podcast about the journeys they have both had in the WordPress space and why they decided to collaborate on this project. What does the WordPress community need to be mindful of when WordCamps, Meetups and other events are organised? Is it true that WordPress events are open to all people equally? What are the aspirations that they have for their own events in the future, and how can you join the BlackPress community?</p>



<p>It’s a really thought provoking discussion, and shines a light on a very important issue.</p>



<h2 id="useful-links">Useful links.</h2>



<p><a href="https://join.slack.com/t/blackpress-group/shared_invite/zt-12dh1hu3l-dq5WcAZoHWzzqe26Uh6p3g">BlackPress Slack channel</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/blackpress-meetup-to-host-meet-and-greet-mixer-on-january-27">BlackPress Meetup To Host Meet and Greet Mixer on January 27</a></p>



Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley. Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, diversity within the community. If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast, player of choice.</p>



<p>All by going to WP tavern.com forward slash feed forward slash podcast. And you can copy that URL into most podcast players. If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you, and hopefully get you or your idea featured on the show. Head over to WP Tavern.com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox and use the contact form there.</p>



<p>So on the podcast today, we have Destiny Kanno and Joe Simpson. Destiny and Joe are key figures behind a new initiative called BlackPress. The goal of BlackPress is to bring more creators of black African descent into the WordPress community, and also provide a community space for those already there to connect, learn from and support each other.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s still in the early stages, and they&#8217;re trying to grow with a dedicated Slack channel and regular meetups. It&#8217;s intended to be a safe space for people who share their vision to work together and to try to figure out what such a community might look like. We talk on the podcast about the journeys they&#8217;ve both had in the WordPress space and why they decided to collaborate on this project.</p>



<p>What does the WordPress community need to be mindful of when WordCamps, meetups, and other events organized? Is it true that WordPress events are open to all people equally? What are the aspirations that they have for their own events in the future? And how can you join the BlackPress community? It&#8217;s a really thought provoking discussion and shines a light on a very important issue.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all the links in the show notes by heading over to WP Tavern.com forward slash podcast, where you&#8217;ll find all the episodes. And so without further delay, I bring you Destiny Kanno and Joe Simpson. I am joined on the podcast by two people Destiny Kanno, and Joe Simpson. Hello.</p>



<p>[00:03:00] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> Hey Nathan.</p>



<p>[00:03:01] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> Hey there.</p>



<p>[00:03:02] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Can I take it one at a time, if that&#8217;s all right, I&#8217;ll start with you. Destiny. We&#8217;re going to have a conversation today about a subject, which is probably, let&#8217;s say it will be broad and deep and probably some different opinions will arise.</p>



<p>But, first of all, I think it might be nice to have a little bit of a background story of both of you. Briefly or in long form, whichever you prefer. Destiny, could you give us a little bit of background? How come you&#8217;re on a WordPress podcast? What&#8217;s your relationship to the WordPress community?</p>



<p>[00:03:31] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> Yes. Thank you for the intro, Nathan. So I started my journey with WordPress in 2017. I was working at a small Japanese digital agency, and at the time we were working on a few WordPress sites, but, to be fully honest, I didn&#8217;t really get that involved with them until I switched over to Automattic as a dot com happiness engineer.</p>



<p>And that&#8217;s where my real push to learn WordPress better started off. And I did that for about two years, moved over to the WordPress VIP sector, working with large enterprise clients using WordPress at scale. And now I currently sit in our dot org division with a lovely community member people, who are working in that area, as a developer relations as advocate.</p>



<p>[00:04:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you very much. Indeed. Could I ask the same question of you, Joe? Briefly what&#8217;s your relationship with WordPress?</p>



<p>[00:04:25] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> Oh sure. Nathan, my journey is two-pronged, it&#8217;s a before and an after. Way back around 2011, I worked for a public transit agency here in Los Angeles, and our CSS goddess and lead developer both left our company within a month of each other. And I inherited a WordPress site. I was a graphic designer turned HTML novice, and I had to quickly learn WordPress.</p>



<p>And that was my first experience with the WordPress community. We were able to move our site over to WordPress VIP. And from that point I learned about WordPress in a disciplined way. How to commit code properly and things like that. So speed ahead to 2017, I had a heart event. 200% blocked artery, and I had to take a leave of absence from work.</p>



<p>During that 90 day period, I decided to do the things that I really loved. And one of the things that had such a positive impact on me was WordPress. And I attended my first meetup. I decided later instead of driving into Los Angeles, and getting home at 11 o&#8217;clock at night after work, I wanted to start a community locally here in Santa Clarita, where there wasn&#8217;t one.</p>



<p>And then also that became a WordCamp. And we hosted three WordCamps here in Santa Clarita. So I&#8217;ve been in the community as a builder, as a community rep, and now I&#8217;m on the team. I&#8217;m a team rep for the WordPress, make WordPress accessibility team. And now that leads me to this initiative as well. I&#8217;m trying to give back in different ways and in effect, WordPress from a different angle now.</p>



<p>[00:05:50] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, I&#8217;m going to be referring during the course of this, to an article which was written by Justin Tadlock over on WP Tavern. It was called BlackPress meetup to host meet and greet mixer on the 27th of January. That has now been and gone. This episode will probably be going out in March 2022. And so I want to know from both of you and it doesn&#8217;t matter who begins first or whether you cross talk, that&#8217;s absolutely fine, we can work that out later. I want to know what this event was all about. Why did you two decide to create the BlackPress meet up, and also slack channel? What was the primary thinking? What were you trying to accomplish?</p>



<p>[00:06:30] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> That&#8217;s a great question, Nathan. So from my side of things, at Automattic, I co-founded our black employee resource group which we call Cocomatic, in April, 2020. And so for me, working with that group, we wanted to figure out a way to also bring this community to folks of black African descent, into the WordPress community space as well.</p>



<p>So I worked alongside another colleague of mine, Neisha Sweet, to come together, the community side and work on what we now call BlackPress, and bring that to life. In our initial initiatives or ideas that we had in our first talks were about students really, you know, bringing more students of color, specifically black students across the globe. So that&#8217;s why we say black African descent, into WordPress and giving them that kind of mentorship, sponsorship, earlier in the process so that they can really get involved, whether it&#8217;s in high school or ideally in college. And we also had talks about targeting HBCU, historically black universities and colleges as well.</p>



<p>And so that really was in my mind, and Joe, please add on, you know, like the birth of why we wanted to have this initiative at the beginning,</p>



<p>[00:07:48] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> And I&#8217;m on the other side of the fence where I&#8217;m fully in the community and I&#8217;m an open source advocate, and I use it as part of my day to day. And my community activities brought me to this initiative as well. Someone on the foundation side, reached out to me and mentioned that there were some folks interested in this.</p>



<p>And for me, the reason that I got involved with WordPress and I decided to take the stage as a speaker, was that I didn&#8217;t see anybody that looked like me on stage and I decided to propose a speech and then it went from there. So, this was a natural fit for me because I have a nephew that attended an HBCU and just the initiative of reaching a larger global audience and getting more people involved in how we can impact WordPress and its direction was very exciting for me.</p>



<p>[00:08:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Can I just ask you to tell me what an HBCU is? Because that acronym is not one that&#8217;s in my vocabulary?</p>



<p>[00:08:43] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> Yeah. So that&#8217;s a historically black university and college. It&#8217;s mainly a, I believe, an American thing, stemming off of, segregation in our past here. We have a few members of BlackPress that went to those schools, and so that was a target area for us of bringing more folks into WordPress.</p>



<p>[00:09:01] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, thank you. That just cleared that up for me, that&#8217;s great. So you had your first event back in January. I&#8217;d just like to figure out what your thoughts were on how that went. So if we could just open up your little history book, how did the meeting go? Was It well attended? Did you manage to make some decisions about what it is that you&#8217;re going to be doing in the future? You can take this in whichever direction you like.</p>



<p>[00:09:23] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> It had a great meetup attendee, yes. We had about 24 folks say, yes, we want to do this. But I think with all community events, about half is going to come if you&#8217;re lucky more than that. And so we were just grateful when the day came, when we had about nine folks, including Joe and myself attend.</p>



<p>And the discussions we had were definitely about, where we&#8217;re coming from in terms of our WordPress journey. Where we&#8217;d like to improve ourselves. And also what we&#8217;d like to get out of the BlackPress group. And that included, you know, how to make your site better, to how to be a better developer. Talking about design. There&#8217;s a lot of things that folks want to share and learn about together within this group is what we discovered during the mixer.</p>



<p>[00:10:07] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> Yeah, what was really awesome too, is that not just in the meetup space did people express an interest in BlackPress? There was Slack channel that was set up. That channel has grown incredibly fast, as the word is getting out, and as meetups are basically word of mouth, then you have to get the word out and then eventually more people would join.</p>



<p>We had an online Slack discussion that was well attended as well. So it&#8217;s really exciting that people are coming to our space to talk and discuss these issues.</p>



<p>[00:10:34] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you have a fixed agenda about what it is that you would like to achieve? Or are you still very much in the stages of trying to work out with those people who show up what it is that you want the project to become, who it is that you want to take the responsibility for certain things? Do you have any things solidified yet, or is it still very much figuring it all out?</p>



<p>[00:10:56] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> We are still very much hoping to get to this large HBCU college style, WordCamp style event. And so we&#8217;re looking for folks to step up to organize, but we also understand that that takes a bit of onboarding, and resource sharing in order to make that happen.</p>



<p>[00:11:15] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> And to add onto that, I know in general, as a meetup organizer myself, these things take time. But it&#8217;s always based on the energy, enthusiasm of people that come to the project. So, as we get more and more people on board, and, for example, the Slack channel is a great place where everyday someone&#8217;s sharing information, starting the discussion, so those type of people hopefully will take a larger role in the group and the group will just grow organically.</p>



<p>[00:11:44] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Could you drop the URL? I will put it in the show notes, but perhaps one of you could say it out loud so that anybody listening, perhaps sitting in a cafe or something could put their phone down and go and actually visit that site. What&#8217;s the URL for the Slack channel?</p>



<p>[00:11:59] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> Oh the Slack channel. It&#8217;s a super long gobbledygook URL. We could probably create a short link for it.</p>



<p>[00:12:05] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, I&#8217;ll add it into the show notes. So I would add that anybody listening to this, just head over to the show notes on WP Tavern, and look for the podcast section there, and from there you can find those things.</p>



<p>I was interested to hear you Joe say, we&#8217;re going to be straying into an area which maybe is uncomfortable. I don&#8217;t know. See how we go. You said that you were concerned in the past that you&#8217;d attended events and there was nobody that looked like you. Two things that I want to ask from that. First thing, what does that feel like? That&#8217;s my first question. And secondly, has any of that changed in the recent past?</p>



<p>[00:12:43] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> I would say to clarify the statement, it was that I didn&#8217;t see people that look like me on stage. Now in the WordPress community, there were people that look like me in the audience, at all the WordCamps that I had attended, but again, seeing someone on stage and talking about WordPress, I hadn&#8217;t seen that.</p>



<p>And ironically, the first event that I was accepted to, directly before me, Joe Howard presented. So that very day was the first day I saw someone. So from that point forward, it&#8217;s become more and more diverse in the WordPress space, diversity has been a big point of emphasis over the past three or four years.</p>



<p>So I would say it&#8217;s changed dramatically. And I know for me, in the communities that I&#8217;m involved with, that&#8217;s always an emphasis on what we do. The WordCamps that we&#8217;ve started, our organizing team has been incredibly diverse. Our WordCamps have all been at least 50 50 or a larger percentage in the other direction in terms of being a well-represented and diverse in terms of gender, as well as race.</p>



<p>So it&#8217;s just something that happens naturally in the spaces that I try to associate with, or that I flow within. So it&#8217;s just natural. And to me, I think you mentioned that some uncomfortability or things of that nature. For me, my experiences in the WordPress space haven&#8217;t been that way.</p>



<p>And I want to make sure that whenever someone&#8217;s involved with initiatives I&#8217;m involved in, it should always be open to anyone and everyone, and make sure that you feel that you can express yourself and get your ideas across.</p>



<p>[00:14:11] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Destiny. Could I ask you the same question? Now, obviously it doesn&#8217;t reflect back on something that you said earlier, but I&#8217;m guessing that there are moments in the past where you&#8217;ve looked around you at events and just pondered those questions. What is the mix of people in this arena? And am I going to feel comfortable? Should I be one of the speakers? Do I feel comfortable here? Are people represented equally?</p>



<p>[00:14:31] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> Yeah. So I have to out myself. I have not been to a WordCamp yet, say that with a single tear in my eye. I&#8217;ll be there at WordCamp EU. So in terms of like a WordCamp style event I don&#8217;t have any experience that I can speak to, but in terms of other events, and just growing into myself as well. Definitely, it&#8217;s true what Joe is saying. Just seeing someone that looks like you in speaker or organizing position, is a bit of a position of power, right? In those positions where you&#8217;re showing leadership or you&#8217;re showing what you could become. A person in this space that&#8217;s respected and well listened to is important to folks of all kinds.</p>



<p>But when I&#8217;m going to events, I&#8217;m looking for that, but I&#8217;m also in the community space, seeing how people treat me. Am I able to speak my mind respectfully, of course, in a way that&#8217;s true to myself? Am I able to come in and be vulnerable too and not be laughed at because my experience in the space, or perhaps the fact that I am the only black woman in the room.</p>



<p>So not just being on stage, but also just how we can navigate the spaces are two things that I look for in an inclusive kind of event.</p>



<p>[00:15:40] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;d really like for this podcast to possibly make people think about something that they haven&#8217;t really been confronted with before, and so I&#8217;m going to return to the question if it&#8217;s okay with you the actuality. Now, in Destiny&#8217;s case, it&#8217;s not going to be a WordPress event, and Joe, you may like to cast your mind to a WordPress event, or it may be something completely different because I just want to put myself in your shoes for a moment where you attend an event and you look around the room and it&#8217;s pretty clear that the representation is not what it could be. Make of that what you will. I want to know what that actually feels like. I apologize if that&#8217;s a question, which is something that you don&#8217;t wish to answer, but I&#8217;m going to ask it anyway.</p>



<p>[00:16:27] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> Joe, do you want to go first on that one?</p>



<p>[00:16:29] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> Oh, sure. For me, and I shared this story over time. When I first got into the community. That enthusiasm or that level of excitement that you often feel when you&#8217;re around someone that&#8217;s new to WordPress or open source or something that they&#8217;re really interested in. I needed to harness it.</p>



<p>And initially, my local WordCamp here, I want it to be involved and I had all these ideas and I was sketching out things. And if you know me, I go overboard. And I&#8217;d proposed all these ideas and how I wanted to get involved, and unfortunately I wasn&#8217;t in that events clique, so to speak, and no fault of theirs, every event is based on relationships between the organizers and the volunteers and things of that nature. I was just some new guy. What that rejection or what that inability to have my ideas heard, what that spawned was, what I&#8217;ve done here locally in Santa Clarita or what I&#8217;ve tried to do in everything that I&#8217;ve been involved in is just to bring my voice and have my voice heard and be in the room.</p>



<p>So I think it&#8217;s motivation for me. I think anytime we get a rejection or a no, for me, it just drives me to get involved and become part of that discussion. That&#8217;s just me personally, and I can&#8217;t speak for others. But I feel like in terms of being a diverse person in a non-diverse environment and having people consider other ideas. I&#8217;ll give you a different example. In WordCamps, for example, sometimes they ask for very specific things in terms of the speakers that they&#8217;re looking for. For example, there was an event in Canada and they only wanted, I think Gutenberg topics. And so that limits the type of presentations they&#8217;ll get. It may be exciting in terms of pushing something that&#8217;s hot in the WordPress community through, but just naturally it excludes people that don&#8217;t have expertise in Gutenberg.</p>



<p>So just having people consider all different options or all different voices is something that isn&#8217;t done. And I think these type of initiatives bring that to light and that can only help in the long term.</p>



<p>[00:18:31] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you. Destiny, same question.</p>



<p>[00:18:33] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> Yeah, so I&#8217;ll draw on a bit of life experience for this one. So I lived in Japan for about five years and that is a country where, you really need to speak Japanese to get around for the most part. So, this is a feeling I think anyone can have, right. This feeling of either alienation because you haven&#8217;t been able to learn the language and bond with the people in a way that is respectful to their culture, but also you understand their culture. And so you can either, blend in, walk the walk and talk the talk, or you can feel alienation. And that&#8217;s one like from the ex-pat kind of spectrum. I think there&#8217;s a more simpler example that I can give, like taking us all, that we&#8217;ve all been. I shouldn&#8217;t say all, a lot of people have been schoolchildren, and I think most of us know what it&#8217;s like to be maybe the new kid at school or start your first day.</p>



<p>I like to think that most kids, they don&#8217;t come in thinking about white supremacist culture and all of these things. We&#8217;re just going to school, we, we&#8217;re listening to our emo music or whatever that is. You know, othering people based on appearances, and in that scenario, I think is, an indoctrination process, based on systemic societal issues, because as a child, you&#8217;re just thinking, oh my gosh anyone like me, I might like some grunge music that no one&#8217;s ever heard of. And in that case you&#8217;re trying to fit in any way you can. And maybe you&#8217;ll find the people that accept you no matter what, or maybe you won&#8217;t. But in that scenario, I personally think a lot of the time, it&#8217;s not about, skin tone, it&#8217;s about, cliques and whether or not you&#8217;re going to be accepted. So, definitely not WordPress examples, but I feel like these are two things that I think anyone can wrap their mind around, this feeling of being othered in some way.</p>



<p>[00:20:16] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> We talk often in the WordPress space that it&#8217;s basically open to anybody. The idea being that it&#8217;s open source software. If you have a desire to be part of the community, you can because everybody is available. Maybe there&#8217;s some discussion to be had here because I have a feeling having spoken to a variety of people over the last few years about this, that may not be entirely true.</p>



<p>In other words, being able to show up and contribute, may be contingent upon a whole bunch of other factors. So for example, your ability to have the time available, your ability to have your employer second you into work. Your ability to be in a situation where you are, I don&#8217;t know, stable enough and have enough support to allow you to have the free time and so on and so forth. I wonder if there&#8217;s anything to say about that, about the wider goals of open source software in this case, WordPress, and whether or not you feel that WordPress as a whole needs to think more about this notion of well, anybody can contribute because it&#8217;s totally open to everybody. Is that true?</p>



<p>[00:21:25] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> I think it&#8217;s true in that anyone can contribute, like full-stop right. Anyone with a computer and internet access. So those are two requirements actually, can contribute. Other than that, there&#8217;s other factors like how well will you be recognized for your contributions. Who is getting recognized?</p>



<p>So contribution only goes so far, but participation, sponsorship, being seen in leadership roles, there&#8217;s a whole other area where, maybe some folks cannot break through as easily.</p>



<p>[00:21:59] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Joe, any thoughts on that?</p>



<p>[00:22:01] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> Well, I mean, I do think it&#8217;s possible and I think it happens everyday. It&#8217;s just a matter of making those opportunities available, to as wide an audience as possible. I know I participated in some diverse speaking workshops, and I know in terms of the events that I&#8217;ve done, we&#8217;ve made a conscious effort to include new speakers, to include people who haven&#8217;t presented before, and we offer them training, or give them a stage. They can come and speak at our meetup to practice and to get that sense of ownership or that sense of buy-in. And I think that&#8217;s for me, finding out where those avenues for inclusion are and making sure that they&#8217;re available and known to people that are coming into the community. Those voices that are diverse, making sure that they know that there are opportunities to do that. And the example that I gave earlier in terms of that frustration that I had when I first wanted to get involved with a WorkCamp event, I didn&#8217;t know that there was a call for speakers or call for organizing. I mean, I didn&#8217;t know of any of the paths or processes that were already in place because I was new and sometimes things in the open source community, you have to figure out on your own.</p>



<p>So for me, with an initiative like this, what I&#8217;m hoping is that this collaboration with the folks on the Automattic side and our community, is this new collaboration can open up so many more doors for people to get involved in making sure that if you want to speak, hey, you should do this. Hey, this event&#8217;s coming up. They need organizers. This is how you help organize. And being that conduit will only make things more diverse and more inclusive. I think a lot of times those avenues are, they expect that you know those, but most people don&#8217;t. So what I always try to do in our community events and hopefully as we move forward with this one is to make sure that people know the path or the opportunities that are there and how they can take full advantage of them.</p>



<p>[00:23:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Let&#8217;s do a little bit of blue sky thinking. Let&#8217;s imagine that the BlackPress project is a runaway success. And a couple of years from now, you know, there&#8217;s a real up swelling of support and the community has grown really strongly, and all of the issues that you&#8217;ve dealt with today have been looked at and addressed, and you&#8217;ve come up with some novel solutions for different problems. Do you just want to give us some ideas about the kind of things that you would, Joe, you just touched on a few of them, but the concrete things that you want to have happen. In other words, how many people would you like to be a part of that community? What kind of job titles, for want of a better word, would you like to have? What kind of documents would you like to have produced or videos or whatever it may be? What concrete things would you wish could happen, let&#8217;s say two years from now?</p>



<p>[00:24:37] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> I would say in an ideal world two years from now, we would have folks from every region of the world, involved in the project, maybe even some, EU, EMEA APAC channels as well. Just connecting us all, in WordPress, in the BlackPress community. That would be an amazing goal. All of that network essentially, folks that anywhere in the world you go, there&#8217;s going to be a WordPresser that you can connect with or see at a WordCamp and enjoy time with.</p>



<p>So that&#8217;s definitely in my mind, a amazing goal for us to have. BlackPress Isn&#8217;t trying to replace the larger WordPress community, it&#8217;s not trying to become like a make Slack in that way, and at least in my mind, Joe definitely correct me if I&#8217;m wrong here.</p>



<p>[00:25:19] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> I totally agree.</p>



<p>[00:25:20] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> Yeah, like we, but we still want to have a space where, as you got to Nathan, you know, we can help better circulate opportunities amongst each other. We can help better sponsor, mentor, prepare each other for organizer roles, for speaking engagements. So that is definitely a goal that we have, and are iterating on, even right now.</p>



<p>[00:25:40] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> Destiny summed it up pretty well. I mean, just having that place where we can help the next generation of contributors and creators in the WordPress space would be awesome. Wouldn&#8217;t it be cool if BlackPress had panel at WordCamp US or WordCamp Europe? Or if we do an HBCU, a WordCamp style event. What if we did a world event? In the past three years? What I&#8217;ve really been excited about is, the pandemic has forced us all inward, unfortunately, but the offshoot of that is that all of our meetups are now global. We have people that come in from Europe that come in from Africa that come in from Australia, growing it into Asia.</p>



<p>Those kinds of things are really exciting because, not all of us can travel to a WordCamp event, even when everything was in person. I may not be able to fly to WordCamp US in Nashville, for example, because of work commitments or personal commitment, the virtual spaces allowed us to grow in a different direction.</p>



<p>So I&#8217;m excited that once things go back to a more in-person or even a hybrid situation, those people that we&#8217;ve reached out to all over the world will really have an impact on WordPress.</p>



<p>[00:26:45] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you very much, indeed. So that was our blue sky thinking moment. We were casting the net two years into the future and imagining what great things are possible. Let&#8217;s go back to today, rein it in a little bit. You&#8217;ve obviously beginning something. The enthusiasm is often great at the beginning and then reality of what needs to be done sets in and you realize that, okay, this is where we&#8217;re at we haven&#8217;t reached these grand goals. Right now. If I could wave a magic wand and give you the things that you need to happen in the next couple of months, what would those look like? Are you looking for new membership? Is it all about the people? Is it trying to find people from different locales?</p>



<p>What do you really want to do in the next couple of months to kickstart this whole enterprise?</p>



<p>[00:27:29] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> Well, we had our first meetup as we noted at the beginning of this call, last month. So to keep momentum we&#8217;re continuing with our meetups. So we actually have another one tomorrow from 5:00 PM Pacific time. And that is with Allie Nimmons from Underrepresented in Tech, discussing that. Next month we have one coming up to discuss 5.9 and full site editing.</p>



<p>So that is keeping up with our meetups is one way that we&#8217;re hoping to definitely increase membership and grow our community. I don&#8217;t think I said before, but when we started in January this year kicking off these events in our Slack, we only had about 17 ish people. Now we&#8217;re at 50 in our BlackPress meetup as well. We are hitting 50 plus as well. We are seeing people being excited about this initiative and we&#8217;re growing and that&#8217;s definitely something that&#8217;s going to help us toward our goals of creating these events as well.</p>



<p>[00:28:23] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, so more boots on the ground, more people, fresh ideas. And I guess that&#8217;s the nice thing about growing a community at the beginning is that you have a vague idea of where the direction of travel would like to go, but then the people arrive and maybe hijack the enterprise and say, actually, what about this idea? Oh, that&#8217;s curious, I didn&#8217;t think about trying that out. Let&#8217;s give that a go. So yeah, boots on the ground would be good. Joe, anything to add to that?</p>



<p>[00:28:48] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> I was just going to say, it&#8217;s all of the things that Destiny mentioned. Just the more events you have, the more people will come. The more you get the word out, the more the group will grow. So to me, just being consistent and the events that Destiny&#8217;s mentioned will gain exposure being on podcasts, such as this one, more people will hear the message. Will hear what we&#8217;re trying to do, and hopefully it&#8217;ll come and it&#8217;ll just grow that way.</p>



<p>[00:29:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, one other question. It occurs to me that you obviously want the membership to grow. BlackPress we described that you&#8217;d like it to be swelling into the future. Is there any kind of walled garden around this? Is there any part of the community that you are going to welcome more? Or are you going for full inclusivity? Everybody is welcome. Please all come and give us your ideas.</p>



<p>[00:29:37] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> Yes, this is a great question. And we get it all the time. Who is allowed, quote, unquote, allowed to join BlackPress meetup or Slack, and this meetup, and community, we treat it like any other community in WordPress. It&#8217;s welcome to all. However folks of non-black African descent, who we&#8217;re calling allies, just be aware that this is a space where, they should be uplifting black voices or looking for ways to advocate for, or sponsor or share ideas in a way that isn&#8217;t taking away from the experiences of the community here that we built. So it&#8217;s a safe space for everyone, but just keep it in mind.</p>



<p>Taking up space as a real thing, right? And this is a space where you&#8217;re able to be, but also with an understanding that it is for folks of black African descent. We want to be able to collaborate and share ideas, but we also want to ensure that this is a safe space for the target community as well.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s really all of us that need to be doing this work to get to a better place where we don&#8217;t even, meet these kinds of offshoot communities. I think ideally everyone wants to be in that space where, everywhere in WordPress, it&#8217;s yeah, we acknowledge that you are different, and we love that you&#8217;re different. And we&#8217;re going to talk about your perspective and respect that, and we&#8217;re all going to be great, but we&#8217;re still in a space where differences are seen as something to other or not be included.</p>



<p>And so that&#8217;s, I think where this idea of that&#8217;s your space, so I don&#8217;t want to be in there bothering you, maybe comes from in my head.</p>



<p>[00:31:11] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> We mentioned it at the top when we kicked off the conversation, a lot of times we&#8217;ll have people that will call out the fact that they&#8217;re not black or is it okay to ask this question a certain way? But I think that level of consciousness is what moves the discussion forward.</p>



<p>So in my circles, there&#8217;s an understanding. If I generate the level respect that I should, that shouldn&#8217;t be an issue. And you&#8217;re always welcome to participate and to ask certain questions. So the story that I love to share is when I went away to college and, you know, oftentimes during spring breaks or things of that nature, you may go to your roommates, family&#8217;s home or vice versa. And I grew up in in an inner city environment. And one of my roommates, when he came with me and we were headed back to college campus, he said, wow, I didn&#8217;t know it was like that. No one really noticed I was white. And to me, that&#8217;s sort of the spirit of what I try to do in the WordPress space, it&#8217;s like, respect me, but there aren&#8217;t any walls or any barriers to what you and I, as friends or as colleagues, or as co-organizers should have. We should both be able to speak freely.</p>



<p>And within the WordPress space where there are codes of conduct for meetups and, there&#8217;s guidelines and rules for all this stuff that is the WordPress way or the WordPress community. As long as we&#8217;re in that environment, our conversations will flow and be organic. So, it should never be an issue.</p>



<p>[00:32:30] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> I was just going to add just thinking about reflecting on that question a bit more, I feel like it&#8217;s as a black person navigating the world, we have to ask that question like all the time. Can I join? Will I be accepted? Will people listen to me? So yeah, like when I think about that question now, I&#8217;m just thinking like, that&#8217;s part of, trying to become a community. I don&#8217;t know, you know, into a community. Yeah. I think it all just boils down to respect. Are you entering that space respectfully or are you trying to, make it all about you?</p>



<p>[00:33:01] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you so much. Just before we wind it up, what would be the best place to interact with the pair of you? Maybe we&#8217;ll take it one at a time, but maybe one of you wants to deal with the usual thing, maybe there&#8217;s an email address or a Twitter handle, or let&#8217;s see if we can dig out that Slack group address or whatever.</p>



<p>But where&#8217;s the best place to contact you about BlackPress more generally. And then if you wish to tell us specifically, where could we find you personally best online, that might be helpful too. So let&#8217;s start with Destiny.</p>



<p>[00:33:34] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> Yeah, I think the make WordPress Slack is a good space to start if you&#8217;re there. And if you&#8217;re not, you should join. And if not, you can also find me on Twitter, the destiny wp.</p>



<p>[00:33:46] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> Yeah, for the meetup group, you can find us on meetup.com slash BlackPress dash meetup. And you can find me anywhere in the WordPress space. Joe Simpson Junior on WordPress.org. Twitter, LinkedIn, it&#8217;s always Joe Simpson, Jr. So, I welcome anyone that wants to reach out and find out more about BlackPress.</p>



<p>[00:34:05] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That was really interesting. Thank you Destiny and Joe, thank you for coming onto the podcast today. I really appreciate it.</p>



<p>[00:34:12] <strong>Destiny Kanno:</strong> Thank you, Nathan.</p>



<p>[00:34:13] <strong>Joe Simpson:</strong> Yeah. Thanks for having us.</p>
</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, 09 Mar 2022 15:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:61:"Akismet: What is SEO Spam? How to Protect Your WordPress Site";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"http://blog.akismet.com/?p=2306";s:7:"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://blog.akismet.com/2022/03/09/what-is-seo-spam-how-to-protect-your-wordpress-site/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15122:"<p>Depending on your overall <a href="https://jetpack.com/2018/02/20/master-the-basics-of-seo-to-reach-more-customers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">search engine optimization (SEO) strategy</a>, getting your website to the top of search results can take months or even years. Unfortunately, some people don’t want to go through that effort, so they turn to SEO spam — which is never a good idea.</p>



<p>What’s more, if you fall victim to questionable <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/black-hat-seo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">black hat SEO</a> tactics from third parties, your own site’s rankings can suffer. Protecting yourself from these attacks can help ensure that you aren’t unfairly penalized by search engines.</p>



<p>In this article, we’ll talk about how SEO spam works. Then we’ll show you how to find out if your WordPress website is under assault. Finally, we’ll show you how to take measures to safeguard your site against these threats.&nbsp;</p>



<span id="more-2306"></span>



<h2>An introduction to SEO spam</h2>



<p>You’re likely familiar with the concept of spam. It can come in the form of unwanted emails, comments left by bots, and even text messages.&nbsp;</p>



<p>SEO spam occurs when someone uses your site to try and manipulate their own search engine rankings. They can fill your website with keywords, add unwanted links, publish spammy pages, and even use your server to send emails.</p>



<p>This type of spam is dangerous because it can negatively affect your hard-earned search engine rankings. That’s because search engines don’t know <em>who&#8217;s </em>behind the spam — just that it’s on <em>your </em>site.</p>



<p>Years of hard work to reach the top of search results can be undone almost overnight.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>The various types of SEO spam attacks</h2>



<p>Understanding how search engine spam works is the first step towards protecting yourself against it. Here are some of the black hat tactics that fall into the category of SEO spam:&nbsp;</p>



<ul><li><strong>Keyword injection. </strong>This is when attackers modify your content to include new keywords. Usually, those keywords will appear in high volumes, since the culprits won’t care about how that might affect your content’s readability.</li><li><strong>Link injection. </strong>Often, spammers will add new links to your website. It’s a quick way to get backlinks to their site.</li><li><strong>Spam emails. </strong>If they get access to your server, bad actors can use it to send spam emails. Depending on how aggressive they are, your own legitimate emails might start going to spam folders, even after you’ve locked out the offenders.</li><li><strong>Spam pages. </strong>Sometimes, attackers will add new pages to your website. These pages will be full of spam content, fraudulent offers, and links to sites that you don’t endorse.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Spam ads. </strong>This is when your website is used to display ads for products or services that are owned by the spammers. These ads may have little to do with your site’s content and will damage your credibility.</li></ul>



<p>Overall, SEO spam usually isn’t subtle. Instead of adding a few links or keywords, attackers will try to get the most benefit from your website before you notice what’s happening.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<h2>Why SEO spammers target websites</h2>



<p>In a lot of cases, attackers use bots to identify security vulnerabilities. If you have an open comments section, you’ll likely run into spam on an almost daily basis.</p>



<img />



<p>Every website is a potential target for SEO spam, but if you fail to put the proper measures in place, you run a higher risk of becoming a victim.</p>



<p>There are a lot of ways attackers might gain access to your website. For instance, if you use the same credentials for other accounts, they might be revealed during a data breach. Using outdated plugins, themes, or old versions of WordPress can also lead to vulnerabilities on your site.</p>



<p>As your website grows in popularity, it can become a bigger target for competitors who are willing to use black hat SEO tactics. That’s why we recommend <a href="https://jetpack.com/features/security/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">prioritizing WordPress security</a> from the start.</p>



<h2>How to know if your WordPress website has been affected</h2>



<p>Although spam attacks are typically obvious, you might miss them if you’re not paying close attention or are busy with other tasks. In this section, we’ll discuss several ways you can figure out if your site has been the target of an SEO spam attack.</p>



<h3>1. You find keywords and links you didn’t place</h3>



<p>When you run a website, you become intimately familiar with its content. You probably remember every keyword and link you placed while working on a page or post.</p>



<p>So if you’re checking out your website and you encounter content or links that you didn’t put there, you might be the victim of an SEO attack. This may be more difficult to determine if you have multiple team members with editing permissions, but when these keywords and links are unrelated to your usual content, it’s easy to spot them.</p>



<h3>2. You see pages, posts, and ads that you didn’t set up</h3>



<p>If you come across a page or post on your website that you or your teammates didn’t<em> </em>set up, that can be a clear sign of an SEO attack. To verify this, look to see if the page contains spammy keywords or links to suspicious websites. On the same note, if you suddenly start seeing ads on your site that you didn’t authorize, your website was likely breached.</p>



<h3>3. You notice sudden changes in traffic</h3>



<p>There are many factors that can cause sudden changes in your website’s traffic —&nbsp;seasonality, new competitors, or even search engine algorithm updates. And since SEO spam negatively affects your rankings, this can often translate to a sharp drop in visitors.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If you notice an abrupt change, you might want to take a closer look at your website’s data. You can use tools like <a href="https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google Analytics</a> paired with <a href="https://search.google.com/search-console/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google Search Console</a> to see if these drops have anything to do with security issues.</p>



<h3>4. You get warnings from Google</h3>



<p>You might have run across the occasional website that <a href="https://jetpack.com/2022/01/06/how-to-remove-your-site-from-googles-blacklist/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">displays a security warning</a> when you try to access it. That’s because Google is very proactive about signaling to users when a site may be dangerous.</p>



<img />



<p>SEO spam is one of the reasons you might end up on Google’s blocklist and receive this warning. Visitors can still access your site, but that warning will likely scare off the vast majority of them.</p>



<h3>5. You receive messages from Google Search Console</h3>



<p>Google Search Console can notify you of a breach and identify instances of URL and content injection, as well as deceptive pages on your website.</p>



<p>This is possibly the best tool for identifying SEO spam. If you check the security report for your site often, you’ll be able to spot any issues before they become serious. Ideally, the Search Console security report should look like this:</p>



<img />



<p>Without the right tools, by the time you identify SEO spam, chances are that your website is already being penalized.</p>



<h2>How to remove SEO spam from your WordPress website</h2>



<p>Once you know you’re the victim of an SEO spam attack, you’d be wise to fix the problem before it seriously harms your site’s rankings. Let’s explore some different approaches you can take, depending on the type of damage you&#8217;re dealing with.</p>



<h3>1. Remove spam links, keywords, and pages manually</h3>



<p>WordPress makes it easy to both publish and edit posts and pages. That means you can also delete entire pages and posts in a matter of seconds.</p>



<p>If you run across spam posts or pages, your best bet is to delete them immediately. If someone injected links into existing legitimate content, you can also remove them manually.</p>



<p>Another option is to use <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/components/posts/revisions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordPress revisions</a> to return hacked posts or pages to previous versions. That is a bit less time-intensive if you have previous copies available.&nbsp;</p>



<p>These are simple processes, but they’re very prone to human error.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Search engines <em>should</em> remove deleted pages automatically, but you can also do so manually to speed up the process. If you use Search Console, you can <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9689846?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">use the <em>Removals </em>tool</a> to tell Google not to show specific pages in its results.</p>



<h3>2. Use Jetpack to identify suspicious behavior and restore backups</h3>



<p><a href="https://jetpack.com/features/security/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jetpack’s WordPress security tool</a> includes an activity log so you can track everything that happens on your website, including updates to its content.</p>



<p>You should be able to spot updates that you didn’t make to the site — a dead giveaway of unauthorized access.</p>



<p>The easiest solution to an SEO spam attack is to <a href="https://jetpack.com/2021/11/30/how-to-restore-a-wordpress-website-from-a-backup/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">restore a backup</a> to a previous version. In your activity log, find the time that your page or post was edited, then simply restore a backup to the moment right before that happened. Since all of Jetpack’s backups are real-time, you’ll be able to get super granular.</p>



<p>Once you’ve restored the backup, make sure to update your account credentials in case they were compromised.</p>



<h3>3. Use Akismet to identify and remove spam comments</h3>



<p>If you want to be more proactive, the Akismet plugin is the best way to <a href="https://blog.akismet.com/2022/01/12/how-to-stop-comment-spam-in-wordpress/">protect against spam comments</a>. You can set it to delete spam comments automatically or hold them for manual approval.</p>



<img />



<p>If attackers have access to the backend of your site, they might manually approve comments themselves. In that case, you’ll need to check the <em>Approved </em>queue for comments that look like spam. Our recommendation is to keep an eye out for ones that include links, are poorly written, or are irrelevant to the post.&nbsp;</p>



<h3>4. Run security scans for link injections</h3>



<p>Some SEO spam attacks are more sophisticated than others. There are <a href="https://blog.sucuri.net/2020/11/hidden-seo-spam-link-injections-on-wordpress-sites.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">forms of link injection</a> that alter links specifically for search engine crawlers, rather than ones that humans can visibly see. This type of SEO spam can go undetected even if you pay close attention to your website.</p>



<p>The best way to spot code injections on your website is to use a WordPress security plugin like <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/sucuri-scanner/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sucuri</a>.</p>



<p>Once you install and activate Sucuri, go to <strong>Sucuri Security → Dashboard</strong><em> </em>in the WordPress admin dashboard. There, you can check to see if there are any security issues with your site. Sucuri will provide a report showing any instances of SEO spam, as well as any additional safety concerns.</p>



<img />



<p>Keep in mind that Sucuri serves two purposes. It helps you identify security issues and aids you<em> </em>in protecting against them, but it cannot reverse any damage that has already been done. If the plugin finds instances of SEO spam, you’ll need to deal with them yourself.</p>



<h2>How to protect your website against future SEO spam attacks</h2>



<p>Fixing your website after an SEO spam attack can be very time-consuming. If the attack goes on for a while, you’ll also have to deal with the hit to your search engine rankings.</p>



<p>It’s better, of course, to not let it happen at all. Here’s how to prevent SEO spam attacks:</p>



<ul><li><strong>Update WordPress regularly. </strong>If you frequently update your WordPress version, as well as your plugins and themes, you drastically reduce the risk of security vulnerabilities on your site.</li><li><strong>Scan your website for SEO spam. </strong>You can use WordPress security plugins, like Sucuri, to scan your website for instances of SEO spam.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Use a security plugin that prevents brute force attacks. </strong>Some security plugins, like Jetpack, include <a href="https://jetpack.com/features/security/brute-force-attack-protection/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">brute force prevention tools</a>. This helps protect your site against hackers repeatedly trying to log into your site.</li><li><strong>Use Akismet to protect against comment spam. </strong><a href="https://akismet.com/">Akismet</a> automatically prevents spam comments from going public on your site. It can even get rid of the worst spam without you ever having to see it.</li><li><strong>Use a web application firewall. </strong>Some security plugins also include web application firewalls that can block suspicious connections to your website. If you use <a href="https://jetpack.com/hosting/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">managed WordPress hosting</a>, you probably also have access to this functionality.</li></ul>



<p>Protecting your website against SEO spam attacks is easier than you might imagine. If you’re working on a new website, we recommend that you take the time to prioritize security from the start. That way, you reduce the chances of having to deal with SEO spam attacks later on. But it’s never too late to put these practices in place and protect your site and reputation.</p>



<h2>Safeguard your WordPress website against SEO spam</h2>



<p>There are many types of SEO spam attacks, including keyword stuffing, link injections, and server infiltration. Fortunately, there are also a lot of ways to safeguard your website against these threats, including using plugins like <a href="https://jetpack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jetpack</a> and <a href="https://akismet.com/">Akismet</a>.</p>



<p>There’s no reason spam should take over your WordPress website. With Akismet, you can protect your website from comment spam and ensure that attackers don’t share links you don’t approve of!</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 09 Mar 2022 14:06:47 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Simon Keating";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:113:"WPTavern: WordPress.com Announces Marketplace Vision, Plans To Partner With Developers in the WordPress Ecosystem";s:7:"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=131106";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:126:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-announces-marketplace-vision-and-plan-to-partner-with-developers-in-the-wordpress-ecosystem";s: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:5093:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Donna Cavalier announced the <a href="https://wordpress.com/blog/2022/03/08/the-future-of-plugin-themes-and-services-purchases-on-wordpress-com/">vision of WordPress.com&#8217;s marketplace</a> earlier today via the site&#8217;s news blog. This future will include bringing more premium themes, plugins, and services to users. Automattic, the company behind the site, will be partnering with third-party developers to bring these commercial offerings to its customers.</p>



<p>Plugin developers, theme designers, and WordPress service providers can get on the early-access list by filling out the form on the announcement post.</p>



<p>In late January, WordPress.com announced a <a href="https://wordpress.com/blog/2022/01/27/paid-plugins-available-directly-on-wordpress-com/">limited, in-house plugin marketplace</a>. This was the testing ground before opening the gate to others. The launch included six WooCommerce extensions and has since grown to eight. The pricing plans range from $4 to $21 monthly and $44 to $224 annually, depending on which plugin is purchased.</p>



<img />Premium plugins on WordPress.com.



<p>Users must currently be on a Business or eCommerce plan to install plugins. If paid annually, these plans run $300 and $540, respectively. For some users, the addition of commercial plugins will be out of reach unless WordPress.com opens this to the lower-priced Premium or Personal tiers.</p>



<p>Automattic CEO and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg <a href="https://wordpress.com/blog/2022/01/27/paid-plugins-available-directly-on-wordpress-com/#comment-421423">commented on the January announcement</a>:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>We’ll definitely open up this program more in the future, first with a few top premium plugins to beta test things including payments and tracking, and then will open it up more to whoever wants to be a part of it.</p><p>We’ve got about 2 million people with saved payment details that we can make it one-click easy to folks to upgrade, so hopefully this represents a big new potential audience and customer base for people selling things in the WP ecosystem. And of course, we will prioritize working with developers and companies who participate in Five for the Future and contribute back to the WP community.</p></blockquote>



<p>A built-in audience of 2 million users will likely entice many developers within the ecosystem. This could be a boon for those looking to grow their audience.</p>



<p>However, the devil is always in the details. The announcement did not include the finer points, such as the profit split and what might be a rigorous process, judging by the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.com/wordpress-com-marketplace/">Marketplace Guidelines</a>.</p>



<p>By prioritizing those who contribute to <a href="https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/">Five for the Future</a> (5ftF), WordPress.com may limit the pool to companies who can afford to put time back into the open-source WordPress project. This could put smaller companies or new developers in the space at a disadvantage. Some just need help getting a foot in the door.</p>



<p>5ftF is an initiative that encourages organizations to contribute five percent of their resources to WordPress.</p>



<p>The program also only recognizes hours contributed via a Make Team. There are no other selectable options via the Contribution tab on WordPress.org profiles. Hours spent developing free plugins, themes, and alternative ways to give back to the community go uncounted. These types of contributions can easily extend beyond 5% of a developer or company&#8217;s time or resources.</p>



<img />5ftF pledge form on WordPress.org.



<p>There is also an issue of fake and dormant 5ftF pledges. Andrea Middleton <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2021/09/10/suggested-iterations-for-the-five-for-the-future-program-and-tool/">noted in a post last August</a> that this has been a problem since the system was put in place in 2019:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The program runs on the honor system, and it wasn’t clear how much of a risk that would be, at launch. Two years later, there have certainly been more “spam” pledges than anyone would want, and surprisingly (to me) few reports of fake or spam pledges. What that tells me = either people don’t go surfing around in the pledge lists, checking for accuracy, the Report feature is too hard to find (unlikely), or people don’t really care whether pledges are accurate or not.</p><p>I do think that a substantial number of false/fake/spam pledges are a problem, because they depreciate the value of the sincere/active/real pledges. If we never intend to clean up the rolls, then we should probably consider shutting down the program or putting more disclaimers on the site.</p></blockquote>



<p>Ian Dunn, a WordPress contributor via Automattic, opened a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/five-for-the-future/issues/169">tracking ticket on GitHub</a> to clean up inaccurate pledges four days ago.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 09 Mar 2022 02:06:17 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:101:"WPTavern: WordPress Performance Team Releases New Feature Plugin For Testing Improvements In Progress";s:7:"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=131032";s:7:"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:112:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-performance-team-releases-new-feature-plugin-for-testing-improvements-in-progress";s: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:3907:"<p>WordPress&#8217; performance team has <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/07/the-performance-lab-plugin-has-been-released/">released</a> a new feature plugin called <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/performance-lab/">Performance Lab</a> that includes a set of performance-related improvements for core. The team, which formed just five months ago, is led by Yoast and Google-sponsored core contributors, and has had more than 250 people join its Slack channel, with many participating regularly in weekly chats.</p>



<p>This first release includes the following modules, which are in varying states of development:</p>



<ul><li><strong><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3A%22%5BModule%5D+WebP+Uploads%22">WebP Uploads</a>:</strong> Creates WebP versions for new JPEG image uploads if supported by the server</li><li><strong><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3A%22%5BModule%5D+WebP+Support%22">WebP Support</a>:</strong> Adds a WebP support check in Site Health status</li><li><strong><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3A%22%5BModule%5D+Persistent+Object+Cache+Health+Check%22">Persistent Object Cache Health Check</a>:</strong> Adds a persistent object cache check for sites with non-trivial amounts of data in Site Health status</li><li><strong><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3A%22%5BModule%5D+Audit+Enqueued+Assets%22">Audit Enqueued Assets (experimental)</a>:</strong> Adds a CSS and JS resource check in Site Health status</li></ul>



<p>The purpose of the plugin is to make it easy for users to test improvements in progress. Each of these modules can be enabled or disabled under a new Settings > Performance menu in the admin.</p>



<p>The WebP upload module can be tested by uploading JPEG images and then checking to see that the WebP versions are generated in the Media Library and displayed on the frontend. The other performance modules are checks that will show up on the Site Health status screen:</p>



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



<p>WordPress Core Committer Felix Arntz emphasized that the plugin should be considered a beta testing plugin, not a quick fix for making your WordPress site faster.</p>



<p>&#8220;The plugin is not going to be a suite of all crucial performance features you need to make your site fast &#8211; that&#8217;s where the existing performance plugins have their market, and the Performance Lab plugin should indeed not falsely raise an impression of wanting to compete with them,&#8221; Arntz commented in a GitHub <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/144">ticket</a> regarding the plugin&#8217;s branding.</p>



<p>Users should be aware they may have unexpected results when testing the plugin, especially when enabling the more experimental features that are not turned on by default. It should not be considered a replacement for other more established performance plugins. Performance Lab may also change over time, as new features are proposed for core. </p>



<p>&#8220;Because the Performance Lab plugin is a collection of potential WordPress core feature modules, the list of modules included may drastically change over time,&#8221; Arntz said. &#8220;New modules may be added regularly, while other modules may be removed in a future plugin version once they have landed in a WordPress core release.&#8221; </p>



<p>The goal for the feature plugin is to get performance improvements in progress tested more widely, weeding out edge cases before shipping the modules in a core release. Testers can log issues as <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues">GitHub issues</a> or as <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/performance-lab/">wordpress.org support forum requests</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 08 Mar 2022 05:47:07 +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: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:70:"WPTavern: WordPress Community Designers Create the Museum of Block Art";s:7:"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=131021";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-community-designers-create-the-museum-of-block-art";s: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:5321:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Anne McCarthy <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/introducing-the-museum-of-block-art-moba/">announced the launch</a> of the <a href="https://block-museum.com/">Museum of Block Art</a> earlier today via the Gutenberg Times blog. The site&#8217;s goal is to showcase creative uses of blocks and inspire the WordPress community to push the limits of what is possible with the block editor.</p>



<p>The site showcases 22 pieces of block art from 11 people in the WordPress space. Ann McCarthy, Tammie Lister, Beatriz Fialho, Allan Cole, Rich Tabor, Nick Hamze, Brian Gardner, Javier Arce, Mel Choyce-Dwan, Channing Ritter, and Francisco Vera all contributed to this first outing.</p>



<img />Multiple block art styles.



<p>The concept builds upon an earlier project by Lister. <a href="https://ephemeralthemes.com/2021/10/01/a-block-pattern-a-day/">In October 2021</a>, she announced <a href="http://patternspiration.com/">Patternspiration</a>, a site where she created and released a new block pattern every day for the entire month.</p>



<p>&#8220;She was showing me those, sharing problems she was running into, the intent around &#8216;how quickly can I create a pattern/what can I create in 30 minutes per day,&#8217; etc.,&#8221; said McCarthy. &#8220;I brought it up on a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/20/hallway-hangout-5-9-go-no-go-site-editor-ia-and-more/">hallway hangout</a>, and the idea just hit me as we were chatting (that&#8217;s the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep7mcBaeCsI&t=497s&ab_channel=WordPressHallwayHangouts">moment in the video</a>). I found her approach to be so beyond creative and beautiful compared to some of the necessarily practical items in the block pattern directory.&#8221;</p>



<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/patterns/">pattern directory</a> on WordPress.org must take a lot of factors into consideration to ensure patterns work across themes for millions of users. This limits what designers can do. However, such limitations are unnecessary on third-party sites.</p>



<p>&#8220;I wanted to take it a step further because it felt so compelling to look at something and not have an &#8216;I bet that was made with WordPress&#8217; feeling that many of us have had,&#8221; said McCarthy.</p>



<p>Because the Museum of Block Art allows for more artistry in its showcase, it can also create inconsistent results if end-users blindly copy/paste the code. For example, one of my favorite patterns is the <a href="https://block-museum.com/2022/02/02/its-me/">It&#8217;s Me</a> (Super Mario) design by Hamze, which brings back at least a decade of childhood memories:</p>



<img />Super Mario block art.



<p>However, it relies on color names that are not likely to exist in every theme. Copying the pattern code and pasting it into the editor should create the correct layout, but the colors might be off.</p>



<p>Other patterns require users to download the correct images and add them to their posts. <a href="https://block-museum.com/2022/02/17/abstractions-study-no-8/">Abstractions Study No.8</a> by Cole relies on custom CSS, which is provided via a downloadable Blockbase child theme.</p>



<img />Abstract block art.



<p>This sort of hodge-podge of methods is OK for a project like this. The goal is to inspire, not necessarily to make downloadable patterns. When designers experiment and push the boundaries, it can also help evolve the block system&#8217;s tools as they report limitations upstream.</p>



<p>Aside from Lister&#8217;s Patternspiration work, I had caught Ritter&#8217;s blog post in January <a href="https://critterverse.blog/2022/01/24/creating-block-art-with-wordpress-5-9/">sharing how she had created block art</a>. At the time, I was unaware that it would be a part of the then-unknown Museum of Block Art project.</p>



<img /><a href="https://block-museum.com/2022/01/26/city-textures/">City Textures</a> block art.



<p>McCarthy added that she encouraged Ritter to publish the post, noting that it helps to &#8220;demystify&#8221; how it was done.</p>



<p>&#8220;I started pinging people who I thought would be interested in doing it,&#8221; said McCarthy of the block art included on the site. &#8220;It was all very grassroots and sometimes would just randomly come up in conversation. I tried to keep the ask very small since so much is going in with WordPress and the world. Probably less than half of the people I contacted actually submitted art pieces.&#8221;</p>



<p>The initial plan was to launch the site alongside the WordPress 5.9 release. However, it was pushed back as contributors needed more time.</p>



<p>There is no submission form for third-party contributions to the museum. However, McCarthy encourages designers to use the <code>#WPBlockArt</code> hashtag across social media to share their work. It could get picked up for inclusion on the site.</p>



<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m mainly looking for pieces via the hashtag, but if I see a big demand for folks wanting to submit, I&#8217;d be game to open up something more official,&#8221; said McCarthy. &#8220;This has been a side project on top of 5.9, the FSE Outreach program, etc., so I wanted to be mindful about the opportunity cost of sinking more time into an off-the-wall idea.&#8221;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 08 Mar 2022 02:07:08 +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: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:59:"Gutenberg Times: Introducing the Museum of Block Art (MOBA)";s:7:"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=20583";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/introducing-the-museum-of-block-art-moba/";s: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:3575:"<p><strong>Introducing the Museum of Block Art</strong></p>



<p>Introducing the <a href="https://block-museum.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Museum of Block Art</a> (MOBA), a new project from WordPress community members that seeks to inspire creativity and push the limits around what can be done with WordPress.&nbsp;</p>



<div></div>



<div><a href="https://block-museum.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="gb-button gb-button-shape-rounded gb-button-size-medium">Explore the Museum</a></div>



<div></div>



<p>All of the art curated here is built using the block editor thanks to design tools that have come over the last few releases from border support to gradients and more. Here’s just a peek of some of the pieces of art below:&nbsp;</p>




<a href="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/city-textures-scaled-1.jpeg?ssl=1"><img /></a>



<a href="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/image-13.png?ssl=1"><img /></a>



<a href="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Screen-Shot-2022-01-26-at-4.31.15-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a>




<p>The Museum of Block Art’s mission is to show just how far you can go with WordPress these days. Each featured creation is made using just the block editor, mostly without any custom CSS.&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://block-museum.com/how/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wondering how it’s all done?</a>&nbsp;Just click on the art piece that has captured your attention and you’ll see the markup used along with the “raw materials” in the form of blocks. The site itself is designed and built by Beatriz Fialho, Product Designer at Automattic, using the latest and greatest with a block theme and full site editing features.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Community Innovated and Inspired</strong></p>



<p>After a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/20/hallway-hangout-5-9-go-no-go-site-editor-ia-and-more/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hallway hangout a few months ago</a> with folks from the community, I <a href="https://youtu.be/Ep7mcBaeCsI?t=497" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">found myself exclaiming out of excitement</a> “we have to do an art museum” after seeing some neat patterns from <a href="https://twitter.com/karmatosed" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tammie Lister</a>, Senior Product Designer at XWP. Unable to get this idea out of my head, I jotted it down into the notes and started to consider how to bring the idea to life, especially as WordPress continued to add even more options for design.</p>



<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Ae1p7_gptlUglopq_VveJGOJw3yiEqaZwBPeyZUGgSEc6iZUtpwiJeBXxDsSY_aIyv14U7ASgg1BRZUWkog0Yb6vrbZy96ljAF7XESjXPXZgI0bjbkIt-SFnAaI9yQwKSUsA9kAK" alt="" />



<p>It was the same feeling I have when visiting museums where, after being so inspired by what I see, I find myself picking up my camera with new vigor to capture the world creatively. Fast forward to today and a community of folks have come together to make this a reality from all over the world. If you’re like me and find yourself inspired to create your own art, share what you’ve made using the hashtag #WPBlockArt.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This was a true “teamwork makes the dream work” project with folks so thank you to Tammie Lister, Beatriz Fialho, Allan Cole, Rich Tabor, Nick Hamze, Brian Gardner, Javier Arce, Mel Choyce-Dwan, Channing Ritter, and Francisco Vera for each of your contributions.&nbsp;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 07 Mar 2022 15:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Anne McCarthy";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:110:"Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog #62 – Gutenberg 12.7, a New Call for Testing, the Web Fonts API Arrival";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?post_type=podcast&p=20636";s:7:"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:122:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-62-gutenberg-12-7-a-new-call-for-testing-the-web-fonts-api-arrival/";s: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:27498:"<p>In this episode, Birgit Pauli-Haack and Mary Job discuss Gutenberg 12.7, a new call for testing and the web fonts API arrival.</p>



<ul><li>Music:&nbsp;<a href="https://soundcloud.com/xirclebox">Homer Gaines</a></li><li>Editor:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-reed/">Sandy Reed</a></li><li>Logo:&nbsp;<a href="https://markuraine.com/">Mark Uraine</a></li><li>Production:&nbsp;<a href="https://icodeforapurpose.com">Birgit Pauli-Haack</a></li></ul>



<span id="more-20636"></span>



<p><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-61-universal-blocks#shownotes">Show Notes </a>/ <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-61-universal-blocks#transcript">Transcript</a></p>



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<p class="has-large-font-size" id="shownotes"><strong>Show Notes </strong></p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2022/02/23/fse-program-testing-call-12-hyping-headers/">FSE Program Testing Call #12: Hyping Headers</a></p>



<h2><strong>Gutenberg Developer Hours in March</strong></h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284178232/">March 8th, 2022 at 16:00 UTC</a> with Tammie Lister, Fabian Kägy and Grzegors Ziolkowski</li><li><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284434154/">March 22, 2022 at 16:00 UTC</a></li></ul>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/03/core-editor-improvement-choose-your-style/">Core Editor Improvement: Choose your Style</a></p>



<h2>Gutenberg 12.7</h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-7-2-march/">What’s new in Gutenberg 12.7? (2 March)</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-12-7-adds-multi-block-selection-in-list-view-and-brings-margin-support-to-group-blocks">Gutenberg 12.7 Adds Multi-Block Selection in List View and Brings Margin Support to Group Blocks</a></li></ul>



<h2>Web Fonts API</h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/the-wordpress-web-fonts-api-has-arrived">The WordPress Web Fonts API Has Arrived</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/37140">Web fonts API PR by Ari Statopholus</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/28/implementing-a-webfonts-api-in-wordpress-core/">Implementing a Web fonts API in WordPress Core</a></li></ul>



<p class="has-large-font-size">Stay in Touch</p>



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<p class="transcript has-large-font-size"><strong>Transcript</strong></p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Hello, and welcome to our 62nd episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast. In today&#8217;s episode, we will discuss Gutenberg 12.7 release, the new call for testing and the web fonts API arrived. I&#8217;m Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at the Gutenberg Times and WordPress developer advocate, and I&#8217;m here with my co-host Mary Job, WordPress advocate and support engineer at Paid Memberships Pro. Good afternoon, Mary. How are you doing today? Well, it&#8217;s actually good evening.</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: Yes, it&#8217;s actually good evening. It&#8217;s 7:30 PM right now over here in Nigeria. I am doing great, thank you very much, Birgit. This is officially my first show with you alone without Greg so I&#8217;m looking forward to this today.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: And I hope we have all the technical issues that we seemed to have for the last episode of it, figured out. And I apologize that we didn&#8217;t get it sooner. So, Mary Job now that you are here and be on this journey with me, you have such a big influence on WordPress, and I hope that you can tell listeners more about you so they get to know you a little bit more. So first of all, where do you live and what do you do for a living?</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: Okay, awesome. So I live in the Southwestern part of Nigeria. It&#8217;s called Ijebu. It&#8217;s about an hour drive from Lagos if there&#8217;s no traffic. Of course if there&#8217;s traffic it might be three hours or four hours. I currently work with Paid Memberships Pro. It&#8217;s a membership plugin software, for WordPress, of course. And what else do I do? In my spare time I contribute to the community and I run a village where we teach young girls and women how to use computers and the internet and empower themselves. But lately we&#8217;re focusing on WordPress. That&#8217;s a little bit about me.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, that&#8217;s awesome. It kind of reminds me of when I started out working on digital literacy and internet and teaching people things, what they do and then also got into WordPress. So it seems to be, you&#8217;re the community organizer that I am per heart as well. So I&#8217;m so glad that we can do this together. So do you have family? I know you have a daughter.</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: Ah, yes. I have one daughter and I have family. I&#8217;m a single mom, so I would say that we&#8217;re a family of two. That&#8217;s what I always say. She&#8217;s going to be 12. She can&#8217;t wait to be a teenager according to her, so good luck to me on that.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: All right. Well, thank you so much. How deep are you in working with Gutenberg on your websites and on your writing on blog posts, or are you Paid Membership Pro?</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: So I have been using Gutenberg since it came out but I&#8217;m just diving deep into full site editing. The first time I did encounter full site editing, I was a little bit confused to be honest. I was like, okay, so what am I. Because the customizer was also going like, okay, what am I doing? This is going to take more time to get used to learn how to use. So we&#8217;re going to see how that goes. I&#8217;m going to be sharing my findings in future episodes.</p>



<p>Birgit Pauli-Haack: Excellent. Excellent.&nbsp;</p>



<h3><strong>Announcements</strong></h3>



<p>Well, thank you for mentioning the full site editing program. Brings us right into our next topic is that Anne McCarthy has published a new call for testing out of the FSE, the full site editing program, and it&#8217;s called hyping headers. And it leads you through the revisiting of common workflows and you&#8217;re testing all the new tools to customize a header, including the navigation block and template parts, focus mode, and personalized header for different templates.</p>



<p>So there are some great instructions not only to test things, but this participating in that is definitely a good way to learn about FSE and the little details about it. So you get the testing environment set up and then testing instructions, and then Anne walks you through different tasks to accomplish. And then ask you a few questions. Like, did the experience crash at some point, did you find features missing? Did you especially enjoy or appreciate some of the experience and did it work using a keyboard only? Did it work using her screen reader? And the feedback deadline for that is March 16th. That&#8217;s about 12 days out. And then she will relay all your feedback to the developers.</p>



<p>So if you want to participate in it, we&#8217;ll have definitely the link in the show notes, or you go to make.wordpress.org/test. That is the second post on that, or just search for hyping headers with Anne McCarthy. The call for testing is also available in Italian, if it&#8217;s easier for you to participate in that within your own language, that link will also be shared in the show notes. So I think that will be a good way to start your own experience, Mary, to kind of follow through there. It&#8217;s also some guided so you don&#8217;t have to think, okay, what do I want to do now?</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: Right, I totally agree with you. It&#8217;s a good way to start, because there are steps to follow. Literally just have to follow the steps and of course note the results.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Note the results and then, you were breaking up.</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: Yes, I said it&#8217;s important to participate, because there are steps to follow. So it&#8217;s pretty straightforward for somebody who wants to participate, just have to follow the instructions and then note the results of your test and then share that with everyone to see.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: And there were actually some, I don&#8217;t know if they do it for this call, but sometimes the GoDaddy Pro people around Courtney Robinson. They are also doing sometimes Google and Hangouts where they walk through the call for testing with a group of people. So people can follow along. Once we know about that, we will certainly have it in the weekend edition of the Gutenburg times. So another point I wanted to make is we are in March and we have two more Gutenburg, developer hours. Coming up one is on March 8th at 11:00 AM, Eastern 1600 UTC and on March 22nd at the same time. And that will then conclude the four-event trial for the Gutenburg developer hours. And then we will recap retrospect the events and see what we can do for.</p>



<p>We will go to extend the offering through the WordPress social learning spaces to also have Asia Pacific good times for the developer hours, and also maybe have different dates and days throughout the month where those, when those good work developer hours happen.&nbsp;</p>



<h3><strong>What’s Released &#8211; Gutenberg 12.7</strong></h3>



<p>Yeah, that is that. Now Gutenberg 12.7 was released this week, and there we will have in the show notes, the release notes from the make blog, as well as a link to the WP Tavern post. But before I go in there, there&#8217;s also a core editor improvement post on the make core blog about choosing your style, choosing a style that is a new feature in a good plugin, where you can have a selection of styles from your theme that changes the whole theme. The default theme, Twenty Twenty, allows that already. So you could, as a theme developer have two theme JS on files offering to your users and then styles, it has a new menu items as other styles.</p>



<p>And then you can switch between a, for instance, a black or white background with everything else changing as well, or as some of the demos for the 5.9 release showed was that you are all of the sudden have a more blue leaning Twenty Twenty Two theme or a more Red leaning. So there are some, a big improvements there, but also big new challenges and options for theme developers and on the core make blog, there&#8217;s a now called Tuesday styles. That gets you a little bit more information about that. All right. So now we get into what&#8217;s new in good book, 12.7, it was released on Wednesday, March 2nd, and it starts with enhancements.&nbsp;</p>



<h3><strong>Enhancements</strong></h3>



<p>So the enhancements people will have long waited for it that the columns block has now border support. And it shows up when you select the column block in the sidebar, you will be able to set borders, border radios, border colors or border strength. That is certainly something a lot of people have been waiting for is also something that quite a few block tools, additional plugins have provided for a long time. And now it&#8217;s actually in core. Yay.</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: Yeah. The group blocks also have margin support added to the top and bottom. So that&#8217;s also a good one.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: You have now more control when you, on the margins there were always quite presets or defaults from the core block, but that you didn&#8217;t have as a user control over how big that was, you needed to get the, to CSS code to actually change it. So this is now in your hands.</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: Yes.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: OK. The list for you has gotten a new enhancement and now you can have multi-select behavior for blocks. And when the shift key is selected, so you can select one block and the other block and then move them together for instance, or show them together. So there are quite a few additional we are handling. We are, there are just quality of life, so to speak enhancements. So this is definitely one for a power user. So the quick inserter has changed now a little bit, and it&#8217;s prioritizing patterns instead of blocks that when they&#8217;re available in the context of your semantic handling, I think it is, that was the one if you are looking for, and that is in the template editor or the site editor, not so much in the post editor.</p>



<p>And it&#8217;s part of the pattern and enhancements that we also get in other places you also show existing template parts, and the list of block patterns in the creation flow. That&#8217;s in the four template parts. So if you are editing a header, you also get in the inserter header patterns that come either with core or with the theme that you are using. So that&#8217;s definitely improvement and an enhancement for all those site building editors.</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: Yeah. That saves you from having to search, because I know previously have to search most times I have to open the entire blocks and pattern and just be able to pick the one that I want for the team or for the pluggin that I&#8217;m working with.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Exactly. Yeah you pass by all the other blocks and patterns until you find the one that is it&#8217;s much easier now to find things that you need.&nbsp;</p>



<p>So the next part is the initial version of the style engine. There has been quite a few discussions around and I will mention one specifically, but the team is working on a unified kind of style engine to solve a few inconsistencies and to help theme developers to work with the CSS variables that come with the styles and also how to add their own styles without having to revamp it every time a new plugin comes out. And that is now possible because the post editor is fixed and the style editor and the site editor or template editor either way are now much more finalized. So now all the things that have changed in the last three years are now kind of settled.</p>



<p>And the solutions that were provided can now be kind of consolidated and standardized. And Mark Ru Wiley also has a proposal in the Gutenberg issues where he tackles that topic quite a bit and has a few suggestions on how to solve some of the issues. He also has a very good list of what the issues pain points actually are. So he defines the problem quite nicely and comprehensively. So it&#8217;s definitely worth a read for the same developers that are trying to get the head around full site editing with the block editor. And so that&#8217;s just as a side note, you will find the links all in the show note, I think we mentioned it also briefly in our last episode, in the 61 episode. So there is now a with this versioin, now also an initial work in progress of the styling part.</p>



<p>Part of it is also the lowering, the specificity of alignment rules for supporting layouts to wide alignment. There was this catch 22, that if you wanted to have wider aligned blocks, like a cover block or a gallery block or full aligned, you needed to get to the edges of the browser. But if you don&#8217;t want the text answer, go to the end of the browser, you needed to have a margin on that. So it was kind of a catch 22 that you couldn&#8217;t use the wide alignment or the full alignment when you wanted to also have borders there. So there is a solution there, if it&#8217;s working for your theme, you&#8217;ll find out. And then speaking of themes, this release removes data alignment for the themes, its a port layout. So you might need to update your theme to adhere to that. And it&#8217;s also remove div wrappers for the aligned image blocks. So that will certainly also interrupt some of the themes when you are using it. But it&#8217;s a very simple adjustment, but I need to go through that. Mary, do you want to take the next one?</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: Yes. The patterns registration from directory with theme.json is not allowed. So want to write up on that, but those who are building patterns and teams, and then there&#8217;s also the list view. You can now expand block list three on selection.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah the expanding and collapsing of list three is really helpful when you have a long post or template that you need to organize there. Yeah. So let me go back to the allow pattern registration from directory, with the theme.json. So you can now I&#8217;ll put black pattern registration in a sub directory of your theme. And then in theme, Jason, you can link to those patterns through a setting to that directory. The team is also working on a method to actually include patterns from the WordPress directory and have them, that is that? Okay, sorry. So you use the slug from the pattern in the WordPress directory and add it to your theme.json. So it will be shown in your theme for the inserter as well. So that&#8217;s good. All right. That concludes all the enhancements.</p>



<p>There were quite a few others that we kind of skipped over it, but because there were a little minor or hard to explain there, but the bug fixes are coming and coming, coming bug fixes.&nbsp;</p>



<h3><strong>Bug Fixes</strong></h3>



<p>So every release has 20 to 40 bug fixes. And that is really cool how the community kind of reports bug fixes and the get up issues, and then the team to take them on and fix all the things that are, are not working just right, like the latest post block had a missing class for the Post title. So it was very hard for a theme to actually target the Post title for the block that has now been solved. Also the query block got a bug fix noting that when you only want to see sticky post, that nothing will be displayed. If there are no sticky posts. So there was some quirkiness there, but now it&#8217;s solved. The global style duo tone rendering was missing in the post editor.</p>



<p>And that seems to be a backport that will go into the next minor release of the WordPress core. So that is fixed and onset core. Earlier so you don&#8217;t have to wait to 6.0 to come out. All right.&nbsp;</p>



<h3><strong>Accessibility</strong></h3>



<p>That brings us to accessibility updates that are together with a search button. Also the duplication labels for safe draft or saved as pending buttons have been avoided now. And then there is the rich text. There was a change in the rich text component, and that was reversed because it had an area multiline states, which of course doesn&#8217;t work that well. And then the tree grid for at home and end keys and up and to jump to the start and the end of the grid. So that&#8217;s really helpful for keyboard navigation. All right, this Gutenberg plugin also brings us new APIs to handle core data like post data or other records from custom post types, one meta tag, and it proposes two new experiments.</p>



<h3><strong>PRs</strong></h3>



<p>One is the use entity records proposal, and then an experimental usage of that, which is a hook that you can use to handle data. And PRS actually have some example quote that you can use. And also what&#8217;s in and out of the scope of this PR. And so that is definitely neat. Your testing, now when you open up the Gutenberg plugin, there&#8217;s in the menu, in the WP admin, there is a sections called experiment. That&#8217;s previously where the navigation block and the patterns and other things that were in experiments and have now been released. Now, the newer experiments is all about the data. So you can have an easier way to use the core data store.</p>



<p>And structure it&#8217;s definitely very developer centric, of course, and there are other considerations. So the experiments and the PRs have all the discussions in there, and it might be really helpful for community developers like agency developers or plugin developers to take a look at that and see what would be a way to solve these, or is there a need of any changes Adam Selinsky has done the experimental work there, the pioneer work to have the entity record hooks in there. So check it out. It&#8217;s a new API.&nbsp;</p>



<h3><strong>Documentation</strong></h3>



<p>And of course the documentation has changed. Some of the handbook includes now all the additional information about the pattern fields for the theme.json also the contextual patterns and pattern transformations and the semantic pattern documentation. So there is definitely some reading materials for you over the weekend. So there&#8217;s one, if you are a developer who also wants to contribute in creating releases, there&#8217;s a new NPM package available now to automate the cherry picking to WordPress trunk commits during publishing. So there are some hiccups that were before that were manually solved are now automated. So that&#8217;s, this part also gets easier and easier.</p>



<p>Okay. And I like that the release notes always also show now the first time contributors thank you for making the jump to contribute to WordPress Gutenberg, to the Gutenberg repo and Dave Smith. Also now solved has written the script to add all contributors to the end of the GitHub release notes for each Gutenberg plugin. So that&#8217;s also great. So people get recognition beyond the GitHub repo. So it&#8217;s in the WordPress make blog as well. All right. Anything else that stands out for you, Mary from this release?</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: No, not at all.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Not at all. Good. So we covered everything that is good. I&#8217;m really excited about the multi block selection, the list view, and then margins reports for the group, of course, and the block transformation now retains classes. That&#8217;s certainly something and you can register patterns from the directory. So there are quite a few new features in there that make working with it much easier.&nbsp;</p>



<h3><strong>What’s in Active Development or Discussed</strong></h3>



<p>So Justin, so now can we come to the section of what&#8217;s discussed and Justin Tadlock from the WebPress from the WP Tavern has found that the word web funds API has finally arrived and historically it was punted from the WebPress 5.9 release just because it didn&#8217;t seem ready and needed a little bit more testing through a good more plugin releases instead of going right into 5.9. That&#8217;s the way to add web fonts to your web install and have a standardized API to do that.</p>



<p>So not every plugin and every theme and every yeah, loads, additional web fonts, it all goes through this API and there is no duplication of that. And now you can also, it does not have a theme.json support yet, but that is right now, it&#8217;s only available through PHP. So you definitely need to look at that beforehand, for your theme, Aris Stratus, one of the developers, the initial road about the privacy issues that are there because Germany and some other countries are it&#8217;s about the Google font providers or providing Google fonts in, through a CDN that has some privacy issues there. And now it looks like that local fonts are officially supported, but theme and plugin authors must register the custom providers. So it&#8217;s getting, getting complicated. That&#8217;s a standardized API is really, really helpful for. So there are some privacy issues with the web funds from certain providers.</p>



<p>The pull request has PHP examples somehow to do that, the theme.json keys and values are corresponding with the font phase rules and Justin Tadlock looked did a great job in putting all the details together in one post. So you don&#8217;t have to read through the make blog posts to find all the different details about it. And I&#8217;m sure the documentation team is working on that right now. You cannot do this now with 12.7, it&#8217;s slated for 12.8, or you can use the good work nightly from the good work times. Gutenburg nightly plugin that is always created from trunk. So it has the newest merged PRs in it. Yeah.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That brings us to the end of this good book change log. It&#8217;s a little shorter today and that&#8217;s sometimes a relief anyway for our listeners. And before the end of the show, I just wanted to remind everyone, March 8th and March 22nd, or the Gutenburg developer hours. And there is a call for testing called hyping headers. The number 12 call for testing for the full site editing program. Do you have anything that you want the people to know Mary?</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: No, not yet.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Okay. So you survived the first episode.</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: Yes. I feel like I have a lot to learn.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, you also know a lot. And so as always, the show notes will be published on gutenburgtimes.com/podcast. gutenburgtimes.com/podcast. And this is number 62. And if you have questions or suggestions or news you want us to include, then send them to <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a> that&#8217;s <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. Email address, or just ping me or Mary on Twitter, private chat, or even on the public chat. So thank you, Mary, for being with me today and making the show with me and thank you all for listening. And I&#8217;ll talk to you in two weeks.</p>



<p><em>Mary Job</em>: Yes. Thank you. Be thank you everyone for this. And I&#8217;ll see again in two weeks.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: All right. Take care. Bye bye.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 06 Mar 2022 01:18:17 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:111:"Gutenberg Times: Block Editor: Kid tested, – Custom posts and FSE and Gutenberg 12.7 – Weekend edition #205";s:7:"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=20608";s:7:"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:111:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/block-editor-kid-tested-custom-posts-and-fse-and-gutenberg-12-7-weekend-edition-205/";s: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:14232:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>It&#8217;s astonishing how the WordPress community comes together to support people in need and despair. You do what you can with the means you have. The article by Sarah Gooding <a href="https://wptavern.com/how-the-wordpress-community-is-supporting-ukraines-resistance-against-russian-invasion">lists many initiatives you can support to help people in Ukraine and its refugees.</a> Don&#8217;t overlook the comments either. </p>



<p>I hope you can pull yourself away from the doom scrolling on Twitter and other sites, and distract yourself from the horrifying updates by reading through this newsletter. There is also wonderful work being done on Gutenberg and the block editor. And don&#8217;t forget to check out the upcoming events in WordPress Social Learning Space below.  </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit</p>



<p>PS: If you are a developer, I hope to see you at the <a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284178232/">next Gutenberg Developer Hours on March 8th 11:00 ET / 16:00 UTC</a> withe fabulous Tammie Lister, Fabian Kägy, and Grzegorz Ziolkowski as expert panelists. </p>



<a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284178232/"><img /></a>



<div class="wp-container-4 wp-block-group"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">

<div class="wp-container-3 wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>



<div class="wp-block-sortabrilliant-guidepost"><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-g">Gutenberg 12.7 release</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-block-editor-for-content-creators-and-nocode-site-builders">Block Editor for content creators and #nocode site builders</a><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#1-ht">53 Block Themes in WordPress Directory</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#1-b">Block and Theme Building</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#3-word-press-social-learning-events">WordPress Social Learning Events</a></li></ul></div>
</div></div>

</div></div>



<h2 id="0-g">Gutenberg 12.7 release</h2>



<p><strong>Carlos Bravo</strong> spearheaded the plugin release and in his notes <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-7-2-march/"><strong>What’s new in Gutenberg 12.7? (2 March)</strong></a> he highlighted: </p>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-7-2-march/#improving-the-patterns-experience">Improving the Patterns experience</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-7-2-march/#list-view-improvements">List View Improvements</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-7-2-march/#changes-to-frontend-html-when-using-layouts-and-image-blocks">Changes to frontend HTML when using layouts and image blocks</a></li></ul>



<p>There are also some change to data-align and div tags from blocks that might need adjustments from Theme developers (again)</p>



<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> put it out for a spin <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-12-7-adds-multi-block-selection-in-list-view-and-brings-margin-support-to-group-blocks">Gutenberg 12.7 Adds Multi-Block Selection in List View and Brings Margin Support to Group Blocks</a></p>



<div class="wp-container-5 wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p><strong>🎙️ </strong> New episode: <strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-62-gutenberg-12-7-a-new-call-for-testing-the-web-fonts-api-arrival/">Gutenberg Changelog #62 – Gutenberg 12.7, a New Call for Testing, the Web Fonts API Arrival</a></strong> with co-hosts Birgit Pauli-Haack and Mary Job </p>
</div></div>



<h2 id="0-block-editor-for-content-creators-and-nocode-site-builders">Block Editor for content creators and #nocode site builders</h2>



<p><strong>Eric Karkovack</strong> shared in his interview with <strong>Bob Dunn</strong> on <a href="https://dothewoo.io/writer-developer-woocommerce-builder/"><strong>the Do-the-Woo Podcast</strong></a>, the story of his 12-year-old daughter getting acquainted with WordPress. After a couple of minutes of instructions, the dad was sent away: &#8220;Dad, you can go now. I&#8217;m fine.” When Eric came back an hour later, and she&#8217;s already got it figured out.<em> The Block Editor: Kid Tested</em></p>





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



<p>Earlier this year, Google updated the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/material-design/">Material Design plugin</a>, to enabled <a href="https://material.io/blog/material-design-wordpress-plugin-030"><strong>Using Block Patterns with Material Design for WordPress</strong></a>. It&#8217;s the accompanying plugin with blocks for the <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/material-design-google/">Material Design Theme</a>, a classic theme. </p>



<p>In this post, <strong>Eric Karkovack</strong> takes you with him <a href="https://speckyboy.com/wordpress-block-pattern-directory/"><strong>Exploring the WordPress Block Pattern Directory</strong></a>. Learn how do you navigate the directory, how do you preview patterns and how to add them to you website. </p>



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




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




<h3 id="1-ht">53 Block Themes in WordPress Directory</h3>



<p>Today&#8217;s count of Block Themes for Full-site Editing is <strong>53. </strong></p>



<p>A new theme by Brian Gardner, called <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/avant-garde/">Avant-Garde</a> is now available in the WordPress repository. &#8220;An experimental block theme for those who love simplicity&#8221;</p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/vikasprogrammer"><strong>Vikas Singhal</strong></a>, builder of themes at  announced the update for their <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/gutena/"><strong>Gutena Block Theme</strong></a>, with additional block patterns. </p>



<h2 id="1-b">Block and Theme Building</h2>



<p>In this week&#8217;s Twitch Stream, Ryan Welcher covered <strong><a href="https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1414059025">Integrating a custom post type into Gutenberg and Full Site Editing</a></strong>.</p>



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



<p>In her post <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/03/core-editor-improvement-choose-your-style/"><strong>Core Editor Improvement: Choose your Style</strong></a>, <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> introduces us to the new feature of having multiple set of Global Styles with your theme. Now site owners can switch out color schemes and overall font styles without having to change themes or worry about losing content. McCarthy also shared links to documentation and examples. </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" /></p>




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



<p>Learn how to add a <a href="https://www.billerickson.net/color-palette-with-acf-custom-blocks/"><strong>Color Palette with ACF custom blocks</strong></a> with <strong>Bill Erickson</strong> with code examples and variation for different use cases. &#8220;When registering a new block with&nbsp;<code>acf_register_block_type()</code>, you can use the ‘supports’ array to specify which block editor features this block supports.&#8221; Erickson wrote.</p>



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



<p>Ben Dwyer, theme wrangler on the Themes team,  shared a few <strong><a href="https://themeshaper.com/2022/02/28/block-theme-building-tips/">Block Theme Building Tips</a> </strong>on <em>ThemeShaper.</em> They range from avoiding using CSS, to reusing patterns, and theme.json over block settings. </p>



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



<p>In her post, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/02/28/design-share-feb-14-25/">WordPress Design Share</a>, <strong>Channing Ritter</strong> shared what the design team has been working on<br />🎛️ Site Editor navigation &#8211;<br />🖼️ Cover block and how to place layers options<br />🔓 User-level Block Locking<br />📒 Documentation and more</p>



<p>Most is still work in progress and could use your review and input. Check &#8217;em out! </p>



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



<p>Jason Bahl, founder and maintainer of WPGraphQL plugin succeeded in <strong><a href="https://www.wpgraphql.com/2022/02/17/adding-end-2-end-tests-to-wordpress-plugins-using-wp-env-and-wp-scripts/">Adding End 2 End Tests to WordPress plugins using wp-env and wp-scripts</a></strong> and shared how he did it. It&#8217;s an in depth look at configuration and execution of e2e testing with WordPress native tools. Bahl also posted an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBBwWSk3kxg"><em>accompanying video on YouTube </em></a> </p>



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



<p>Andrew Serong, published on BuildBetterBlock.com the article <a href="https://buildbetterblocks.com/2022/03/03/block-supports-global-styles-and-work-to-consolidate-style-generation-in-gutenberg/"><strong>Block supports, global styles, and work to consolidate style generation in Gutenberg</strong></a>. It&#8217;s an in-depth look into the Gutenberg codebase and the discussions happening around Styles, themes and user options. Serong has been working actively on the new Style Engine project, and this is a great report on the current stage of the work. </p>



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



<p>Last year, Helen Hou-Sandí wrote a tutorial on <a href="https://helen.blog/2021/02/updating-a-wordpress-plugin-with-a-publish-metabox-field-for-the-block-editor/"><strong>&#8220;Updating a WordPress plugin with a publish metabox field for the block editor&#8221;</strong></a>. It a great real life use case on adopting development for the block editor one metabox at a time. </p>



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



<h2 id="3-word-press-social-learning-events">WordPress Social Learning Events</h2>



<p><br /><strong>March 8, 2022, at 11:00 AM&nbsp;ET / 16:00 UTC</strong><br /><strong><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284178232/">Gutenberg Developer Hours</a></strong> with Fabian Kägy, Tammie Lister and Grzegorz Ziolkowski </p>



<p><strong>March 10, 2022 at 10:30 am ET / 15:30 UTC</strong> <br /><strong><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284226712/">Honey, I Broke My Website! What To Do When Site Editing Goes Wrong</a></strong> with Sarah Snow</p>



<p><strong>March 10, 2022 at 12 pm ET / 17:00 UTC</strong> <br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284383383/"><strong>Builder Basics: Designing with Columns, Group, and Row Blocks</strong></a> with Nick Diego</p>



<p><strong>March 15, 2022 at 9:30 am ET / 14:30 UTC </strong><br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284252434/"><strong>Beginner&#8217;s Guide to Full Site Editing </strong></a>with Sarah Snow</p>



<p><strong>March 22, 2022 at 3 am ET / 8:00  UTC </strong><br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284320854/"><strong>Intro to Theme Blocks</strong></a> with Wes Theron</p>



<p><strong>March 23, 2022 at 1pm ET / 18:00 UTC </strong><br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284383346/"><strong>Builder Basics: Exploring Block Layout, Alignment, Dimensions, and Spacing</strong> </a>with Nick Diego </p>



<p><strong>March 28, 2022 at 11 am ET / 16:00 UTC </strong><br /><strong><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284387767/">Hello Blocks! Coding a custom block</a></strong> with Wes Theron and Ryan Welcher</p>



<p><strong>March 29, 2022 at 3 pm ET / 20:00 UTC </strong><br /><strong><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/284252760/">Beginner&#8217;s Guide to Full Site Editing </a></strong>with Sarah Snow</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, 05 Mar 2022 06:26:00 +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: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:77:"WPTavern: Play the Piano and Other Instruments via the WordPress Block Editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=130691";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"https://wptavern.com/play-the-piano-and-other-instruments-via-the-wordpress-block-editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4135:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Tetsuaki Hamano released the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/piano-block/">Piano Block</a> plugin for WordPress on Monday. It allows users to insert a piano-based interface into the editor for playing music. Mostly, it is just a lot of fun.</p>



<p>Hamano <a href="https://wptavern.com/highlight-underline-and-control-font-size-with-richtext-extension">launched  RichText Extension</a>, his first submission to the WordPress plugin directory, in the spring of 2020. At the time, block-related plugins were still scarce, but he has continued contributing extensions since that initial release. <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/flexible-spacer-block/">Flexible Spacer Block</a> is invaluable for responsive vertical spacing. <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/flexible-table-block/">Flexible Table</a> does the same for table elements, and his <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-html-block-extension/">Custom HTML Block Extension</a> is handy for anyone writing code regularly from the editor.</p>



<p>While his previous outings covered several vital features for different user groups, his latest is a bit more on the lighter side of things. More than anything, it serves as a brief distraction, a way to break up the day for people who spend a lot of time in the WordPress content editor.</p>



<p>One thing that I love about blocks is that they do not have to serve a vital function in producing content for a site. Sometimes, their purpose is to simply bring a little joy into our lives. That is what Piano Block does.</p>



<p>Hamano noted in the plugin description:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>This plugin does not add any useful features to WordPress, nor does it add any useful blocks to help you write posts. Let&#8217;s insert this block and enjoy the music if you are stuck in writing an article or just want a little distraction.</p></blockquote>



<p>The plugin merely adds a web-based musical instrument to the block editor, offering a change of pace from building content. It does not appear on the front end of the site.</p>



<img />Piano Block in the editor.



<p>The block offers a range of 14 instruments. The default is an acoustic piano, but users can switch between various keyboard, string, brass, and woodwind options. Plus, there is a xylophone.</p>



<p>Users can move up or down two octaves, change the volume, or toggle the sustain pedal on and off. Other than that, there are no other block-specific options.</p>



<p>The block&#8217;s keyboard mapping threw me off at first. I peeked under the hood and found the JavaScript code for assigning each key. I was tempted to clone the plugin&#8217;s GitHub repository, set up the build tools, and customize it. However, that seemed like a lot of work for a block meant to be a momentary distraction. It was not time for me to put on my developer hat.</p>



<p>So, I tickled the plastic keys of my laptop, trying to rewire my brain to a layout that did not match an actual piano.  I just had fun with it, and that is kind of the point.</p>



<p>I rarely record videos, being much more comfortable tapping my laptop&#8217;s keys than doing anything on camera. Therefore, Tavern visitors are in for something of a treat today. I put together a short clip of me playing a song via the Piano Block:</p>



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

</div>



<p>That was tougher than it looked with the keys in odd places. Apologies if I missed any notes or lines. It has been a while since I have heard <em>Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star</em>. I believe it goes a little something like that.</p>



<p>I am continually amazed at what some developers create on top of the block system.  More than anything, I want to see some of the talented musicians in the WordPress community &#8212; I know some of you are out there &#8212; record themselves playing something with Piano Block.  <em>A little jazz, perhaps?</em></p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/piano-block/">Piano Block</a></blockquote>
</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:"Sat, 05 Mar 2022 01:03:12 +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: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:78:"WPTavern: WordPress 6.0 to Introduce Performance Improvements for Custom Pages";s:7:"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=130920";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-0-to-introduce-performance-improvements-for-custom-pages";s: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:2910:"<p>WordPress core committer Jonny  Harris <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/10886?utm_source=Post+Status+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c4852581a1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_01_27_08_35_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_afc03177a6-c4852581a1-104953921&mc_cid=c4852581a1&mc_eid=ad602f9b49#comment:39">merged a patch</a> into WordPress core for a 12-year-old <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/10886">ticket</a> that he says has the potential to bring &#8220;a massive effect on performance for custom pages.&#8221; The change, which will be included in the upcoming 6.0 release, stops unnecessary queries when developers are using the&nbsp;<code>do_parse_request</code>&nbsp;filter, thanks to a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/2032">refreshed patch</a> from contributor Paul Bearne.</p>



<p>Harris summarized the problem and how the change improves performance in the commit message:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Developers of plugins and themes can use the&nbsp;<code>do_parse_request</code>&nbsp;filter to hot-wire requests and hook in early to render custom pages. However, even through these request may not need post queries and 404 lookups to be run, they run anyway. This can results in unnecessary SQL queries running on these requests. By adding a return value to the&nbsp;<code>parse_request</code>&nbsp;method of the&nbsp;<code>WP</code>&nbsp;class, these queries can now be skipped.</p></blockquote>



<p>WordPress core contributor Konstantin Kovshenin detailed the need for this change in a Twitter thread he published in 2021, when soliciting help for the ticket:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I don't usually tweet about <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SEO?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SEO</a>, but this is important. Is a static robots.txt file good for WordPress performance? Let's find out!<br /><br />To display the default robots.txt, a fresh WordPress install will: <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f9f5.png" alt="🧵" class="wp-smiley" /></p>&mdash; Konstantin Kovshenin (@kovshenin) <a href="https://twitter.com/kovshenin/status/1466732748517822464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 3, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Harris performed a quick review of <a href="https://wpdirectory.net/search/01FSC39908QH1NKEMG4B9PT6JR">plugins that use the filter</a> and said he does not anticipate breakages. The search found 133 plugins using the filter. Some of the most popular ones include Google&#8217;s Site Kit plugin (1M+ installs), The Events Calendar (800K installs), and AMP (500K installs). Harris suggested the change requires a dev note, as it may have unanticipated side effects. The dev note is likely to be published closer to the time of release. WordPress 6.0 is currently scheduled for release on May 24, 2022.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Mar 2022 23:52:03 +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: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: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:96:"WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 26: Matt Mullenweg on Ukraine, Community, and WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"https://wordpress.org/news/?post_type=podcast&p=12415";s:7:"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:96:"https://wordpress.org/news/2022/03/episode-26-matt-mullenweg-on-ukraine-community-and-wordpress/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6331:"<p>Matt Mullenweg speaks to WordPress contributors worldwide on this special edition of the WP Briefing podcast with Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Join us to hear Matt’s thoughts on Ukraine.</p>



<p><strong><em>H</em></strong><em><strong>ave 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 id="credits">Credits</h2>



<ul><li>Hosts: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/">Josepha Haden Chomphosy</a> and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/">Matt Mullenweg</a></li><li>Editor:&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dustinhartzler/">Dustin Hartzler</a></li><li>Logo:&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/beafialho/">Beatriz Fialho</a></li><li>Production:&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/">Chloé Bringmann</a> &amp; <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/santanainniss/">Santana Inniss</a></li></ul>



<h2>How You Can Help</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/unicef-children-crossfire-ukraine-crisis/39542?utm_campaign=20220225_Emergencies&utm_medium=Organic&utm_source=UkraineWebStoryChildrenFeb2022&utm_content=LearnMoreUkraineWebStoryChildrenFeb2022&ms=Organic_PRL_2022_Emergencies_20220225_UkraineWebStoryChildrenFeb2022_LearnMoreUkraineWebStoryChildrenFeb2022_none_none&initialms=Organic_PRL_2022_Emergencies_20220225_UkraineWebStoryChildrenFeb2022_LearnMoreUkraineWebStoryChildrenFeb2022_none_none">UNICEF</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/countries/ukraine">Médecins Sans Frontieres</a>&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/where-we-work/europe-central-asia/ukraine">International Committee of the Red Cross</a>&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://help.rescue.org/donate/ukraine-acq?ms=gs_ppc_fy22_ukraine_mmus_feb&initialms=gs_ppc_fy22_ukraine_mmus_feb&gclid=CjwKCAiAjoeRBhAJEiwAYY3nDHNlEUUNRM4wKl1bY0ploy1RNl0M7G1OlLTqawZdg_XhrJ0TircZ_RoCfh8QAvD_BwE">International Rescue Committee</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.unrefugees.org/what-we-do/">UN Refugee Agency</a>&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://donate.wck.org/give/236738/#!/donation/checkout">World Central Kitchen</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.techtotherescue.org/tech/tech-for-ukraine">Tech For Ukraine</a></p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wp4ukraine">#WP4Ukraine</a></p>



<h2>Transcript</h2>



<span id="more-12415"></span>



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



<p>Hello, everyone, and welcome to a special edition of the WordPress Briefing. I have Matt here with me today because we want to acknowledge that we are once again at the start of a very difficult time. Neither of us would presume to know what it&#8217;s like to be at the heart of such massive disruption in our lives. But who would we be if we didn&#8217;t stop and check in with you all, the project that we hold so dear? And with that, I&#8217;ll hand it right over to you, Matt.</p>



<p><strong>Matt Mullenweg&nbsp; </strong>00:27</p>



<p>Hello everyone. First, I want to thank Josepha for inviting me to join the WordPress Briefing to share what’s been on my mind in light of recent global events.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Matt Mullenweg&nbsp; </strong>00:37</p>



<p>I&#8217;ve been listening and watching events escalate in Ukraine, often in a state of shock. The scale alone is hard to take in. I mean, in the last 7 days, more than 500,000 people have fled their homes, more refugees are expected every day. The downstream humanitarian crises of the invasion are unimaginable.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Matt Mullenweg&nbsp; </strong>00:56</p>



<p>And seeing destruction in the world we live in is confusing, disconcerting, and difficult. In my experience, open source and WordPress bring people together; people from other countries and cultures, people that we know as friends and colleagues. Technology connects us, regardless of where we are. Nothing can negate the bad things happening in the world, but when I see how this community of contributors collaborates, regardless of borders, you all remind me of the good in the world every day.</p>



<p><strong>Matt Mullenweg&nbsp; </strong>01:30</p>



<p>I firmly believe that the web can be an equalizer and a force for good in the world. To me, the WordPress project is the epitome of goodness—everyone has a voice, a platform, and a community. You have the power to make your corner of the world, and the web, a sanctuary for those who need it—especially now.</p>



<p><strong>Matt Mullenweg&nbsp; </strong>01:45</p>



<p>If you or someone you know is affected by this war, I encourage you to be present as the ramifications unfold. While we may all feel fatigued and have a sense of languishing from the past two years of the Covid pandemic, the gift of time and support for one another cannot be overstated. I&#8217;m confident that every single person in the WordPress community will approach the situation in Ukraine with sensitivity and understanding.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Matt Mullenweg&nbsp; </strong>02:07</p>



<p>I invite you to join me in standing with those in the world working to end conflict and working toward a world of peace, promise, and opportunity. If you&#8217;re looking for a way to help support the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, I will offer some suggested NGOs, or Non-Governmental Organizations, that provide assistance to local peacebuilders in the region.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Matt Mullenweg&nbsp; </strong>02:26</p>



<p>In closing, please know that my thoughts are with everyone in our community. I know that my words here can’t change anything there, but I hope that we all remember that words of support are never unwelcome. And we can never know when a little human kindness can help someone share the invisible heaviness in their heart.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:44</p>



<p>Thanks for that, Matt. My friends, there are links in the show notes to some of the groups that Matt referenced. And that is it for this special edition of the WordPress Briefing. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Be safe, be kind to yourself and others, 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:"Fri, 04 Mar 2022 21:39:46 +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: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:60:"WordPress.org blog: The Month in WordPress – February 2022";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=12411";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:72:"https://wordpress.org/news/2022/03/the-month-in-wordpress-february-2022/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11736:"<p>There’s a lot going on in the world right now, and safety is top of mind for everyone in the WordPress community. If you don&#8217;t know where to begin, or how to support your peers, Executive Director <a href="https://josepha.blog/2022/02/25/to-my-global-community-start-small/">Josepha Chomphosy’s advice</a> to the global community is to start small.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Overall, February has been a busy month for WordPress. To begin with, it was thrilling to see the enthusiasm for the release of WordPress 5.9 Joséphine from January continue last month, and that’s not all.&nbsp;</p>



<p>We have many exciting updates to share, so keep reading to learn about the latest achievements from the WordPress community.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<h2>WordPress 6.0: May 24, 2022 is the proposed release date</h2>



<ul><li>The proposed <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/02/16/wordpress-6-0-planning-roundup/">release schedule for WordPress 6.0</a>, the second major release of 2022, has been published.</li><li>While we’re waiting for 6.0, check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/02/wordpress-5-9-1-maintenance-release/">WordPress 5.9.1 maintenance release</a> which was released on February 22, 2022.</li></ul>



<div class="wp-container-1 wp-block-buttons">
<div class="wp-block-button aligncenter"><a class="wp-block-button__link" href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Are you interested in contributing to WordPress core?</strong> Join the #core channel in Slack. Also, don&#8217;t miss the Core Team’s weekly developer chat on Wednesdays at 8 PM UTC.</a></div>
</div>



<h2>Gutenberg releases: Versions 12.5, 12.6, and 12.7 were released</h2>



<p>The Core Team launched three new versions of Gutenberg last month. All come with new features, code quality improvements, and bug fixes.</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-7-2-march/">Gutenberg 12.7 </a>is available to download. This version improves the Patterns experience, allows you to add border styles to column blocks, and includes other new features.</li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/02/16/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-6-16-february/">Gutenberg 12.6</a> was launched on February 16, 2022. This release includes a new color panel, updated color controls, a new Post Author Biography block, Read More block, and plenty of other exciting updates!</li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/02/03/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-5-february-2nd/">Gutenberg 12.5 </a>was released on February 2, 2022. This version allows switching theme styles variations, custom taxonomies filtering, and more.</li></ul>



<div class="wp-container-2 wp-block-buttons">
<div class="wp-block-button aligncenter"><a class="wp-block-button__link" href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Want to get involved in developing Gutenberg? </strong>Contribute to Gutenberg on GitHub, and join the #core-editor channel in the Make WordPress Slack. Follow the #gutenberg-new tag for details on the latest updates.</a></div>
</div>



<h2>WordPress News gets a new look</h2>



<p>The redesign of <a href="https://wordpress.org/news">WordPress News</a>, which was first announced by Matt Mullenweg, Co-Founder of WordPress, in State of the Word 2021, went live on February 16, 2022.</p>



<div class="wp-container-3 wp-block-buttons">
<div class="wp-block-button aligncenter"><a class="wp-block-button__link" href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/02/a-new-wordpress-news/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Read the redesign announcement </strong>to learn more about the inspiration behind the new look.</a></div>
</div>



<h2>Team updates: #WP Diversity, a new blog for developers, and more</h2>



<ul><li>The #WPDiversity working group, which is part of the Community Team, hosted an open Zoom meeting with volunteers on February 23, 2022. If you’re interested in contributing, read the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/02/24/recap-of-the-diverse-speaker-training-group-wpdiversity-on-february-23-2022/">recap of the meeting</a> to view available roles.&nbsp;</li><li>The Core Team shared a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/02/25/proposal-to-start-a-news-blog-on-developer-wordpress-org/">proposal to start a blog</a> on developer.wordpress.org to share news and updates relevant to developers.&nbsp;</li><li>The first Gutenberg Developer Hours session hosted on February 8th by the Core Team was successful. Head over to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/02/24/february-8th-gutenberg-developer-hours-session-evaluation/">this page</a> to learn more about the participants’ feedback.</li><li>The Core Team published “<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/02/24/feature-project-plugin-dependencies/">Feature Project: Plugin Dependencies</a>,” where they identified the problems with plugin dependencies and suggested potential solutions to improve the plugin experience.</li><li>The WordPress Photo Directory has a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/photos/">new Make team</a>. There is currently an open <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/photos/2022/02/23/photo-directory-team-rep-nominations-for-2022/">call for team reps</a> and collaboration is happening at the new <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/messages/photos/">#photos</a> channel of the Make WordPress Slack.</li><li>The Polyglots Team shared a proposal for a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2022/02/01/proposal-milestone-template-for-polyglots-locale-teams/">milestone template </a>for the Polyglots Locale Teams.</li><li>The Community Team published a proposal for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/02/16/proposal-refurbishing-camera-kits/">refurbishing camera kits</a>.</li><li>The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/02/21/2022-global-sponsors-announcement/">Global Community Sponsors for 2022</a> have been announced.</li><li>The February 2022 edition of the monthly <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/02/15/meetup-organizer-newsletter-february-2022/">Meetup Organizer Newsletter</a> has been published.</li><li>The latest edition of People of WordPress highlighting <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/02/people-of-wordpress-tonya-mork/">Tonya Mork</a> was published on February 28, 2022. Read Tonya’s story to learn more about how WordPress helped her find herself again after a health crisis.&nbsp;</li><li>The February 2022 edition of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2022/02/22/polyglots-monthly-newsletter-february-2022/">Polyglots Monthly Newsletter</a> has been published.</li></ul>



<div class="wp-container-4 wp-block-buttons">
<div class="wp-block-button aligncenter"><a class="wp-block-button__link" href="https://wordpress.org/news/feed/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>The Community Team published a discussion on diversity in WordPress events.</strong> If you’re comfortable sharing your experience, you can still comment on the post.</a></div>
</div>



<h2>Feedback/Testing requests: WordPress iOS 19.3 and Android 19.3 </h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2022/02/22/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-ios-19-3/">WordPress for iOS 19.3</a> beta is available for testing, along with <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2022/02/22/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-android-19-3/">WordPress for Android 19.3</a></li></ul>



<div class="wp-container-5 wp-block-buttons">
<div class="wp-block-button aligncenter"><a class="wp-block-button__link" href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2022/02/08/call-for-early-testers-glotpress-feedback-feature/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Test and share your feedback</strong> on the GlotPress feedback feature.</a></div>
</div>



<h2>WordCamp Europe 2022 announces steps to ensure a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming event</h2>



<ul><li>WordCamp Europe 2022 <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2022/diversity-at-wceu/">announced a plan</a> to ensure more diversity and inclusion in events moving forward.</li><li>The WordPress Foundation published a post on how <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/news/2022/open-source-software-good-for-business/">open source software is good for business</a>.</li><li>In a recent episode of WP Briefing titled “<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/02/episode-25-five-cents-on-five-for-the-future/">Five Cents on Five for the Future</a>,” Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy talks about future-proofing the WordPress project with the Five for the Future pledge.</li><li>The Training Team is hosting several WordPress Social Learning Meetups <a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/">in March 2022</a>.</li><li>Don’t miss the following upcoming WordCamps:<ul><li><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f1e8-1f1ed.png" alt="🇨🇭" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://geneve.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp Genève</a>, Switzerland on April 9, 2022 (in person)</li><li><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f1ec-1f1f7.png" alt="🇬🇷" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/wordcamps/wordcamp-athens-attica-greece-2022/">WordCamp Athens</a>, Greece between April 9 and 10, 2022 (in person)</li><li><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f1e6-1f1f9.png" alt="🇦🇹" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://vienna.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp Vienna</a>, Austria from April 23 to 24, 2022 (in person)</li><li><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f1ea-1f1fa.png" alt="🇪🇺" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp Europe</a> in Porto, Portugal from June 2 to 4, 2022 (in person)</li><li><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f1fa-1f1f8.png" alt="🇺🇸" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://montclair.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp Montclair</a> in New Jersey, USA June 25 (in person)</li><li><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f1fa-1f1f8.png" alt="🇺🇸" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp US</a> in San Diego, California from September 9 to 11, 2022 (in person)</li></ul></li></ul>



<div class="wp-container-6 wp-block-buttons">
<div class="wp-block-button aligncenter"><a class="wp-block-button__link" href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2022/call-for-volunteers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>It’s not too late to be a volunteer at WordCamp Europe 2022. </strong>If you’re interested, head over to this page to apply.</a></div>
</div>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<p><strong><em>Have a story that we could include in the next ‘Month in WordPress’ post? Let us know by filling out </em></strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/month-in-wordpress-submissions/"><strong><em>this form</em></strong></a><strong><em>.</em></strong></p>



<p><em>The following folks contributed to this Month in WordPress: </em><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/anjanavasan/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>anjanavasan</a><em> </em><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/harishanker/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>harishanker</a><em> </em><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rmartinezduque/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>rmartinezduque</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mysweetcate/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>mysweetcate</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Mar 2022 17:40:49 +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:"Anjana Vasan";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:68:"WordPress Foundation: How is open source software good for business?";s:7:"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=229098";s:7:"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://wordpressfoundation.org/news/2022/open-source-software-good-for-business/";s: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:3866:"<p>In the late 1970s, staff programmers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology <a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/2/pivotal-moments-history-open-source">sparked a movement</a>. Little did they know that a jammed printer would lead to the beginning of an era: the free software movement. </p>



<p>If you&#8217;ve ever heard the phrase, &#8220;free as in freedom, not beer,&#8221; this is what it means:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>&#8220;Free software&#8221; means software that respects users&#8217; freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Thus, &#8220;free software&#8221; is a matter of liberty, not price.&nbsp;</p><cite>The <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html">GNU Project</a> and Free Software Foundation</cite></blockquote>



<p>The WordPress Foundation&#8217;s philosophy requires that all projects and software we support be licensed under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU Public License</a>, a free, copyleft license—this is intentional. If you mistakenly think open source has no place in business purely because there’s no monetary value attached to the software, we urge you to think again.</p>



<h2>The path to innovation and progress</h2>



<p>Open source software offers a low-cost entry to the market and paves an efficient way for innovation. These projects harness the power of diverse knowledge, skills, and community to create the best software. <strong>But what does this mean for businesses?&nbsp;</strong></p>



<p>&#8220;Companies who wish to create wealth are always interested in productivity. Productivity includes being able to innovate effectively [&#8230;] Effective innovation is not merely being able to invent and improve, but also being able to determine what to invent and how to improve,&#8221; said <a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Innovation_Happens_Elsewhere/2VElII9QeakC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">Richard P. Gabriel and Ron Goldman</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Most individuals recognize Apple as an innovative and successful technology company. However, few people outside the developer community may know MacOS X was based on <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/01/explore-some-of-the-most-memorable-moments-in-wwdc-history-as-we-approach-apples-32nd-conference/">Darwin</a>, an open source project. Many of <a href="https://developer.apple.com/opensource/">Apple’s platforms</a> draw inspiration from open source, and plenty of other companies have done the same.</p>



<p>With open source software, organizations have access to the latest updates and bug fixes, thanks to frequent and reliable releases. Put simply, building on that existing work rather than reinventing the wheel puts them on the fastest path to creating a better product for their customers.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Moreover, business strategies based on open source can level the playing field. Small organizations that rely on open source projects for their products can leverage ubiquity to build brand equity, as Gabriel and Goldman explain. This makes the companies more trustworthy to the customer, allowing them to compete fairly with organizations with extensive resources. There’s also a low risk of the software being discontinued and affecting the business. Even if the original programmers leave the project, the maintenance and development of open source software will go on.</p>



<p>We’re only scratching the surface of how open source software is good for business. The reality is that the work done in open source projects benefits the society at large—they help create a better world through technology. The best way businesses can support that future is by adopting open source technologies and contributing to such projects.&nbsp;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Mar 2022 16:51:39 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Anjana Vasan";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:35:"Post Status: Post Status Notes #488";s:7:"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:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94063";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:45:"https://poststatus.com/post-status-notes-488/";s: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:12431:"<p class="has-medium-font-size">Core releases. Static robots.txt for faster load time. Self-care. Health check. Which metric is lying to you? Dev notes and bottom lines.</p>



<h2 id="h-core-concerns">Core Concerns</h2>



<p>A <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/02/wordpress-5-9-1-maintenance-release/">WordPress 5.9.1 Maintenance Release</a> is out, so make sure your sites are updated. There are quite <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/02/16/wordpress-5-9-1-rc-1/">a lot of bug fixes</a> in this release — over 80!</p>


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<p><strong>Gutenberg 12.7</strong> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-7-2-march/">has been released</a>. Patternmaking is easier to discover now. There are some list view improvements and smaller enhancements, bug fixes, and new APIs.</p>


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<p><strong>Jonny Harris</strong> <a href="https://twitter.com/thespacedmonkey/status/1499044349371371520">announced</a> that he has <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/10886">merged a patch</a> into WordPress core for a 12-year-old ticket that &#8220;could have a massive effect on performance for custom pages.&#8221;</p>



<p><strong>Konstantin Kovshenin</strong> <a href="https://twitter.com/kovshenin/status/1466732748517822464">explained how this works</a> with an example on Twitter back in December 2021: &#8220;To display the default <code>robots.txt</code>, [which is <em>not</em> static] a fresh WordPress install will run 15 SQL queries&#8221; and trigger over &#8220;42,000 function calls at 5.46 megs peak memory, about 100 ms wall time.&#8221; (Wall time is the actual duration elapsed, possibly beyond CPU time due to disk access.)</p>


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<h2 id="self-and-health-checks">Self and Health Checks</h2>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden&nbsp;Chomphosy</strong> says when it comes to <a href="https://josepha.blog/2022/02/25/to-my-global-community-start-small/">supporting your community</a>, &#8220;start small&#8221; and realize that &#8220;you do not personally hold all the responsibility for &#8216;making things work' today.&#8221;</p>



<p>Josepha is <a href="https://developer.wordpress.com/2022/03/01/automattic-women-josepha-haden-chomphosy/">also featured</a> in a recent <strong>Automattic Women</strong> post sharing what a typical day for her is like and what drew her to <strong>Automattic</strong>. Notably, Josepha is identified as &#8220;community steward&#8221; instead of &#8220;Executive Director&#8221; of WordPress (.org). We haven't seen that before, but it appears on <a href="https://www.guidestar.org/profile/20-5498932#summary">the WordPress Foundation's profile</a> at <strong>GuideStar</strong>.</p>


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<p><strong>Tonya Mork</strong> talks about <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/02/people-of-wordpress-tonya-mork/">some personal and health challenges in her life</a> and how WordPress helped her &#8220;find [herself] again.” Tonya was both the Core Tech Lead and the Release Coordinator for <strong>WordPress 5.9</strong>, and now she is moving on to new adventures — in teaching. </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“I’m on a mission to give back and make a difference. Teaching is how I will do it.&#8221;</p></blockquote>


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<h2 id="plugin-updates">Plugin Updates</h2>



<p><strong>Marius Jensen</strong> says the <strong>Health Check</strong> plugin — which he has maintained since 2017 — needs updating. He shares <a href="https://clorith.net/the-need-for-feature-removals-in-the-health-check-plugin/">some possible solutions</a> for the need to maintain backward compatibility and feature parity between WordPress core and Health Check.</p>


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<p><a href="https://wpexperts.io/">WPExperts</a> has acquired the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/post-smtp/">Post SMTP plugin</a> from its former developer, <strong>Yehuda Hassine</strong>. <strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> <a href="https://wptavern.com/wpexperts-acquires-post-smtp-plugin">covers the story</a> and notes that current users &#8220;can expect development and support from a much larger team of professionals, as well as new commercial add-ons in the near future.&#8221;</p>


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<p><a href="https://wpconcern.com/">WP Concern</a> has <a href="https://twitter.com/maneshtimilsina/status/1499707237493002247">acquired</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/WebFactoryLtd/status/1499699197469204481">WebFactory</a>&#8216;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/nifty-coming-soon-and-under-construction-page/">Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode Page plugin</a>. This is <a href="https://poststatus.com/acquisitions/">the seventh acquisition</a> we've heard of this year. </p>


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<h2 id="dev-notes">Dev Notes</h2>



<p><strong>Julia Evans</strong> compiled <a href="https://jvns.ca/blog/2022/02/20/things-that-used-to-be-hard-and-are-now-easy/">a list of responses</a> she got on <strong>Twitter</strong> to <a href="https://twitter.com/b0rk/status/1494301227533967369?s=20&t=M_RYvWzEOymZ--YjE9jvpQ">the question</a> of what in programming used to be hard but now is &#8220;easy.&#8221; If you've been in programming and tech long enough, this is a fun trip down memory lane — if you don't mind feeling old.</p>


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<p><strong>Rebecca Monteleone</strong> and <strong>Jamie Brew</strong> explore <a href="https://pudding.cool/2022/02/plain/">what makes writing more readable and how algorithms try to assess readability</a>. They feel it's a &#8220;real possibility that plain language will be outsourced to blackbox technologies that are grounded in antiquated data,&#8221; which will hurt accessibility:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>&#8220;Ultimately, the effectiveness of plain language translations comes down to engagement with your audience. Engagement that doesn’t make assumptions about what the audience understands, but will instead ask them to find out. Engagement that’s willing to work directly with people with disabilities or limited access to education, and not through intermediaries. As disabled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTXg9Yki9Eg&ab_channel=aucdnetwork">advocates</a> and <a href="https://autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/One-Idea-Per-Line.pdf">organizations led by disabled people</a> have been saying all along: “Nothing about us without us.”</p></blockquote>


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<h2 id="bottom-lines">Bottom Lines</h2>



<p><strong>Jason Cohen</strong>, CTO of <strong>WPEngine</strong>, offers <a href="https://blog.asmartbear.com/whos-lying.html">a reliable way to check for bad data and misleading metrics</a> that impact your bottom line: look at more than one indicator and ask &#8220;Who's lying?&#8221; </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>&#8220;If a metric is important enough to watch it every day, and to act if its behavior deviates from expectation, then it’s important enough to be double-checked. Both for accuracy, and for completeness of comprehension.&#8221;</p></blockquote>


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<p>Does the existence of &#8220;developer pricing&#8221; mean developers are cheap? Developers <em>are</em> cheap says <strong>Keith Casey</strong>, <a href="https://caseysoftware.com/blog/the-secret-of-developer-pricing">but that's not why developer pricing is needed</a>. &#8220;<em>The real purpose of developer pricing is to let developers build without doing paperwork.</em>&#8220;</p>


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<p>Is it <a href="https://masterwp.com/should-you-raise-your-rates-because-of-inflation/">time to raise your rates due to inflation</a>? <strong>Rob Howard</strong> thinks so, but he also says there's a right way to do it. You can offer updated rates to new clients who are probably seeing inflation-related price increases everywhere and raising their own rates.</p>


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<p><a href="https://twitter.com/theryanking">Ryan Breslow</a> started a worthwhile <a href="https://twitter.com/theryanking/status/1497732269632598018?s=21">Twitter thread</a> with the assertion that &#8220;<strong>Shopify</strong> is eating their ecosystem.&#8221;  Shopify has become the second biggest CMS and the biggest competitor to <strong>WooCommerce</strong>. Ryan takes a look at Shopify's tactics for growth and how it's treating its developers.</p>


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<p><strong>Tom Willmot</strong>, co-founder and CEO of <strong>Human Made</strong>, <a href="https://humanmade.com/2022/03/03/human-made-in-2021/">shares how the company did in 2021</a>: 25% employee growth with almost 100 employees, 3 clients with $50B+ in revenue, and growth for the <strong>AltisDXP</strong> digital experience platform. Not too shabby!</p>


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<p class="has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background">For a digest of everything happening in core this week, see <a href="https://poststatus.com/this-week-at-wordpress-org-february-28-2022/">This Week at WordPess.org</a> for <strong>February 28</strong>.</p>


.kt-block-spacer-_b8111b-be .kt-divider{width:80%;}
<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_b8111b-be"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></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:"Fri, 04 Mar 2022 06:59:23 +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:12:"David Bisset";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"Post Status: Who Uses WordPress Multisite?";s:7:"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:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94120";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:52:"https://poststatus.com/who-uses-wordpress-multisite/";s: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">WordPress Multisite isn't for everyone. Two of our oldest and still popular posts are about <em>not</em> using Multisite. One is about <a href="https://poststatus.com/completely-disable-multisite/">how to disable Multisite</a> when you decide to quit using it after it's been active. Another explains when to use it and when not to. Sometimes <a href="https://poststatus.com/wordpress-multisite-versus-minisite/">&#8220;Minisite&#8221; is what you really want</a> instead, a still under-supported concept in WordPress. But when the suggestion to &#8220;kill&#8221; Multisite was floated recently, <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-multisite-is-still-a-valuable-and-often-necessary-tool">its users came out in force to defend it</a>.  </p>



<p>While this conversation was happening in the WordPress community, <strong>David Bisset</strong> asked <a href="https://twitter.com/dimensionmedia/status/1499128507124887552">on Twitter</a> and <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1646255345840639">Post Status Slack</a> how people use or have seen WordPress Multisite being used. Of course, there's WordPress.com and WordCamp.org. We've written about the <strong>Modern Language Association</strong>&#8216;s <a href="https://poststatus.com/an-interview-with-the-mlas-humanities-commons-team/">Humanities Commons</a> in the past.</p>



<p><a href="https://poststatus.com/who-uses-wordpress-multisite/">The responses that rolled in illustrate how diverse Multisite's use-cases can be</a>…</p>



<ul><li><strong>John Jacoby</strong> <a href="https://twitter.com/JJJ/status/1499139676795543554">mentions</a> <strong>Jetpack</strong> &#8220;cloning user-sites to shadow-sites on WordPress.com network… for backups and indexing.&#8221;</li><li><strong>Topher DeRosia</strong> sold <a href="https://twitter.com/topher1kenobe/status/1499130405852745730">subsites offering <strong>BuddyPress</strong></a> with them.</li><li><strong>Angie Meeker</strong> built <a href="https://twitter.com/angiemeeker/status/1499165485295935492">a school’s network</a> where each teacher and club had their own site, grade book, etc.</li><li><strong>Dave Ryan</strong> built <a href="https://twitter.com/0aveRyan/status/1499133526058274817">a paid freelancer network</a>.</li><li><strong>Mike Little</strong> notes that <a href="https://t.co/6dfC8FaOMA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">imascientist.org.uk</a> is multisite and after 10 years is still adding new features.</li><li><strong>Marko Heijnen</strong> uses Multisite for <a href="https://twitter.com/markoheijnen/status/1499162972102569989">content delivery to mobile apps</a>. Every site is a new clone of the app for a different person.</li><li><strong>Kathy Zant</strong> said &#8220;<a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1646255345840639">We use it</a> at <strong>KadenceWP</strong> primarily to give customers the same login and maintaining state across numerous service.&#8221;</li><li><strong>Ross Wintle</strong> noted &#8220;a talk on WordPress.tv covers <a href="https://wordpress.tv/2016/06/07/kat-reeve-successfully-managing-a-multisite-system-or-how-we-helped-over-400-food-banks-online/">an emergency food bank in the UK</a> using Multisite.&#8221;</li><li><strong>Mark Root-Wiley</strong> said <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1646255345840639">he built the site</a> of Communities in Schools of Washington (<a href="http://ciswa.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ciswa.org</a>) and included all their affiliates on Multisite.</li></ul>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Mar 2022 06:31:43 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Dan Knauss";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:106:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 12.7 Adds Multi-Block Selection in List View and Brings Margin Support to Group 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=130793";s:7:"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:117:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-12-7-adds-multi-block-selection-in-list-view-and-brings-margin-support-to-group-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:7753:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Another two weeks have flown by, and another Gutenberg plugin update is in the books. This release is not as feature-heavy as the last, but it feels solid overall. Other than one breaking issue, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-7-2-march/">version 12.7</a> includes several nice-to-have enhancements.</p>



<p>The latest update includes some early work for a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/37978">new style engine</a>. This is a longer-term project that should improve saving and rendering block styles.</p>



<p>The template and site editors should <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/38709">surface patterns</a> over blocks in the quick inserter under certain conditions, such as at the root level of a template. However, I was unable to see this in action. I may need to refresh my install.</p>



<p>The Columns block also <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/31737">supports border</a> width, style, color, and radius options. I look forward to this eventually being the case for all blocks.</p>



<h2 id="multi-select-in-list-view">Multi-Select in List View</h2>



<img />Selecting multiple blocks in the list view.



<p>Users can now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/38314">select multiple blocks</a> in the list view when the <code>Shift</code> key is selected.  Once holding the key, users can use the mouse to click on others, adding or removing them.  The up/down arrow keys are an alternative to using the mouse.</p>



<p>The enhancement also allows users to drag and drop the selected group of blocks.</p>



<h2 id="broken-images">Broken Images</h2>



<img />Image from pattern not responsive.



<p>I let my guard down. I became comfortable with WordPress and Gutenberg handling some of that foundational CSS work I had always included in past themes. Things seemed to be going so well.</p>



<p><em>Gutenberg, you and I had a sweet streak going where you did not break anything.</em> Now, it is time to reset the ol&#8217; &#8220;releases without incident&#8221; counter.</p>



<p>Previously, the default block library stylesheet provided baseline responsive styles for images. That <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/39045">CSS now only targets</a> <code>&lt;img></code> tags if they include <code>wp-image-</code> in a class. This is particularly problematic for images in some block patterns. The case may be the same for other image instances.</p>



<p>The previous selector was overly broad and <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/39021">broke images in third-party plugins</a>.</p>



<p>The best course of action is for theme authors to include the following CSS for images:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>img {
    max-width: 100%;
    height: auto;
}</code></pre>



<h2 id="group-block-margins">Group Block Margins</h2>



<img />Adding extra top margin to a Group block.



<p>Customizing margins is almost synonymous with the term &#8220;web design.&#8221; The Group block &#8212; the flagship container &#8212; has lacked support for margin control until now. Some have gotten around this limitation by using a Spacer, but it only increases the space between blocks.</p>



<p>Most issues have been around reducing margins. Theme designers have often needed to employ workarounds, a problem Nick Diego <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/37344">mentioned in the ticket</a>:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Theme developers (myself included) are resorting to &#8220;magic classes&#8221; to zero out, or modify, margins on blocks. Allowing themes to opt-in to Group margin support will provide greater flexibility and decrease the reliance on custom CSS/classes in the theme&#8217;s stylesheet.</p></blockquote>



<p>Margin support is still missing for many other blocks, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/37300">including paragraphs</a>. Users can always wrap them within a Group and modify it for now.</p>



<h2 id="block-transformations-maintain-classes">Block Transformations Maintain Classes</h2>



<img />Custom block style class maintained when transforming a block.



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-12-6-enhances-transforming-blocks-adds-read-more-and-post-author-bio-blocks-and-enables-social-icon-labels">Gutenberg 12.6</a>, released two weeks ago, saw much work on improving the block transforms, a feature that allows users to switch one block to another. One of the primary improvements in the previous update included maintaining font size and color options.</p>



<p>Version 12.7 adds custom <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/38964">CSS classes to the mix</a>. This includes those users added manually and those added by the custom block styles mechanism.</p>



<p>The upside of maintaining custom block style classes is that the new block keeps the selected style if supported. The downside is that it becomes a junk class if not.</p>



<p>There are still some missing options that I would like to see maintained through transforming text-based blocks. In particular, keeping the text alignment the same would help with my workflow.</p>



<h2 id="themes-can-register-patterns-from-the-directory">Themes Can Register Patterns from the Directory</h2>



<img />Inserting a registered pattern into the editor.



<p>Gutenberg 12.7 allows theme authors to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/38323">load patterns</a> from the WordPress.org pattern directory for their users. Those added will appear in their respective categories in the inserter.</p>



<p>Currently, there is no method for highlighting the selected patterns, and they will only appear based on the order they were registered. Unfortunately, featured patterns from WordPress.org appear higher on the list, even if they were not selected by the theme.</p>



<p>This is a solid first iteration. Getting it in now will allow theme authors to provide feedback and contributors to build upon the foundation.</p>



<p>The <code>theme.json</code> how-to guide includes new <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/theme-json/#patterns">documentation for registering these patterns</a>.</p>



<h2 id="alignment-wrappers-removed">Alignment Wrappers Removed</h2>



<p>It is no secret that I am a block fanboy. However, there has been one longstanding issue that has almost made me want to ditch the system. Actually, I quit developing a free block theme altogether last year in large part because of this problem.</p>



<p>Gutenberg 12.7 removes the extra <code>&lt;div></code> <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/38613">wrapper for wide and full-width blocks</a> in the editor, at least for themes that support the layout feature. This wrapper element created a conflict between the back and front-end designs previously. In some cases, theme authors couldn&#8217;t style them consistently.</p>



<p>For example, if a theme author wanted to give extra spacing to a sibling block (one that follows another), it was impossible to target it in the editor with CSS. The additional wrapper meant they were no longer siblings in the document structure.</p>



<p>The more recent <code>blockGap</code> feature, introduced in WordPress 5.9, alleviated spacing-related issues to some degree. It was enough relief to tolerate the broken system, knowing that some designs were still impossible.</p>



<p>Today marks the start of a new world of possibilities for designers. This is one roadblock I am happy to see left behind. For the most part, I just want to revisit and implement several old ideas.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Mar 2022 02:28:29 +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: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: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:64:"Post Status: Podcast and Video Picks for the Week of February 28";s:7:"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:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94064";s:7:"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:75:"https://poststatus.com/podcast-and-video-picks-for-the-week-of-february-28/";s: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:2454:"<h2 id="h-my-podcast-picks">My Podcast Picks</h2>



<ul><li><strong>WP Builds:</strong> <strong>Nathan Wrigley</strong> and <strong>David Waumsley</strong> talk about <a href="https://wpbuilds.com/2022/02/24/267-wheres-the-next-client-coming-from-series-1-episode-6/">finding and landing new clients</a>.</li><li><strong>The ShopTalk Show:</strong> <strong>Jim Nielsen</strong> <a href="https://shoptalkshow.com/504/">on blogging, writing a book, future vs backwards proofing, color, and images</a> on the web.</li><li><strong>WP Review:</strong> Joe asks and answers a hard question: &#8220;<a href="https://wpreview.io/how-can-you-be-a-wordpress-freelancer-in-2022/">How can you can be a WordPress freelancer in 2022</a>?&#8221;</li><li><strong>How I Built It:</strong> <strong>Wes Kao</strong> shares <a href="https://howibuilt.it/creating-better-online-courses-that-you-can-charge-more-for-with-wes-kao/">how to create better online courses and charge more for them</a>.</li><li><strong>Matt Report:</strong> Matt takes a <a href="https://mattreport.com/artificial-intelligence-for-wordpress/">a look</a> into <a href="https://Bertha.ai">Bertha.ai</a> and artificial intelligence for WordPress in general.</li><li><strong>Syntax.fm</strong>: <a href="https://syntax.fm/show/430/creator-of-wordle-josh-wardle">Talk with the creator</a> of <strong>Wordle</strong> about it's tech stack and how it was sold.</li><li><strong>WP Tavern Jukebox</strong>: It's <strong>Jon Bossenger</strong> <a href="https://wptavern.com/podcast/16-jonathan-bossenger-on-cleaning-up-wordpress-notifications">on admin notifications</a> and <strong>WP Notify</strong>.</li><li><strong>Growing Software Podcast:</strong> <strong>Brian Casel</strong> from <strong>ZipMessage</strong> talks through <a href="https://growing.software/episodes/25-brian-casel-of-zipmessage">his journey in productized services</a>.</li></ul>



<h2 id="h-videos-of-the-week">Videos of the Week</h2>



<ul><li><strong>Torque Social Hour</strong>: Yours truly (<strong>David Bisset</strong>) joined <strong>Chris Wiegman</strong> and <strong>Doc Popular</strong> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvjjMyBdFS8">talk WordPress multisite</a> and some upcoming events you ought to know about.</li><li><strong>Jamie Marsland</strong> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK9lD8l_D4k">shows off</a> a new block theme from <strong>Rich Tabor</strong> called <strong>Wabi</strong>.</li></ul>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 03 Mar 2022 22:01:40 +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:12:"David Bisset";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:99:"WPTavern: How the WordPress Community Is Supporting Ukraine’s Resistance Against Russian Invasion";s:7:"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=130764";s:7:"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:107:"https://wptavern.com/how-the-wordpress-community-is-supporting-ukraines-resistance-against-russian-invasion";s: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:11970:"<p>While Russia is decimating Ukrainian cities in an unlawful attempt to occupy the country, WordPress companies and individuals are seeking ways to help refugees fleeing the violence, as well as those who have stayed behind to fight. </p>



<p>We are living in one of those rare times in history where events have captured the attention and hearts of people around the world, with a powerful unifying force. In the face of such unmitigated hostility and injustice, many feel helpless to make a difference, but the WordPress community is finding creative ways to support the brave efforts of the Ukrainian people.</p>



<p>After identifying an attack on Ukrainian universities&#8217; websites that coincided with Russia&#8217;s invasion, Wordfence <a href="https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2022/03/ukraine-universities-hacked-by-brazilian-via-finland-as-russian-invasion-started/">announced</a> it has enabled its real-time threat intelligence for more than 8,000 of its users on the Ukrainian .UA top-level domain (TLD) until further notice. Ordinarily, this is a paid feature. It includes a commercial-grade IP blocklist, real-time firewall rules, and real-time malware detection. </p>



<p>&#8220;This is the first time in the history of our company that we are taking this action,&#8221; Defiant (makers of Wordfence) CEO Mark Maunder said. &#8220;We are doing it as a response to the crisis that has unfolded in Ukraine.&#8221;</p>



<p><a href="https://servebolt.com/">Servebolt</a>, a company that hosts WordPress sites, among other platforms, has offered free hosting to anyone working to help the Ukrainian people.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">These are troubled times for the people of  the Ukraine. The Ukrainian people need all the help they can get and we like to do our part.<br /><br />We’re offering for free hosting to anyone working to help out the Ukrainian people. <br /><br />Reach out to us via DM and we’ll help you set things up.</p>&mdash; Servebolt.com (@servebolt) <a href="https://twitter.com/servebolt/status/1498303033578602497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p> In one extraordinary individual effort that raised €3500, mainly from the WordPress community, Ines van Dijk, a mother of three, living in the Netherlands, drove 2500 km to Poland to donate items and chauffeur refugees. </p>



<p>&#8220;Many, many people have been displaced&#8221;, she said. &#8220;I am unable to sit with that quietly and do nothing, so I decided to rent a van, load it up with things refugees might need, and drive to Poland.&#8221;</p>



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



<p>She collected bags of clothing and blankets, personal items, bought food and water, and transported it to refugees in Poland.</p>



<img />



<p>One week after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, more than <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-volodymyr-zelenskyy-joe-biden-kyiv-1b396834ff3e753f8953d86c8db85383">a million people have fled the country</a> in what the United Nations is calling the swiftest refugee exodus this century. Meanwhile, many have chosen to stay behind and some Ukraine-based companies are struggling to stay in business while sheltering for their lives.</p>



<p><a href="https://crocoblock.com/">Crocoblock</a>, a company with <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/crocoblock/">plugins on WordPress.org</a> as well as commercial products, is made up of a 40+ person team of Ukrainians.  </p>



<p>&#8220;Our team is located in three cities (Mykolaiv, Lviv, Kyiv),&#8221; Crocoblock Partner Manager Lana Miro said in an update on Post Status Slack. &#8220;We are safe, working somehow. Some stay in basements, some stay in apartments (and use the bathroom during air alarms). Our mood is optimistic and we believe/help our army. Thanks everyone for your support and everything will be fine.&#8221;</p>



<p>Crocoblock has updated the banner on its site, which links to a <a href="https://savelife.in.ua/en/donate/">donation page for the Ukrainian Army</a>. The banner references the last words of Ukrainian soldiers who were believed to have died defending Snake Island in the Black Sea. They may have been illegally captured by Putin&#8217;s forces but this has not yet been confirmed. Their brave last words have become a rallying cry, echoing the sentiments of pro-Ukrainian supporters around the world.</p>



<img />



<p>Paid Memberships Pro CEO Jason Coleman has written a tutorial on <a href="https://therealjasoncoleman.com/2022/03/02/heres-one-way-internet-businesses-of-any-kind-can-help-ukrainians-now/">how internet businesses can find their Ukrainian customers</a> and email them to see how they can be of help. There are specific instructions in the article for those using the PMPro plugin can on how they can find users with a Ukrainian billing address, Ukrainian email addresses, or Ukrainian websites. It is also more broadly applicable to those using other CRM or e-commerce software solutions. </p>



<p>The team at Codeable, a WordPress freelancer platform, is also working with its developers in Ukraine and Russia to support them in ensuring their clients still receive services.</p>



<p>&#8220;We are a two sided marketplace between our developers and clients,&#8221; <a href="https://www.codeable.io/">Codeable</a> Expert Community Development Lead Mike Demo said. &#8220;We are doing daily wellness checks, expedited payouts to our developers in Ukraine and Russia, and helping clients with Ukraine and Russian experts find alternative development help if needed at no cost to the client or money lost for the expert.&#8221;</p>



<p>Earlier this week, Namecheap took a highly controversial approach to making a difference, <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30504812">terminating service for Russian customers</a> with just six days&#8217; notice. (Namecheap has since revised the deadline to March 22). This includes Namecheap Hosting, EasyWP (Namecheap&#8217;s managed WordPress hosting), and Private Email with a domain provided by another registrar in zones .ru, .xn--p1ai (рф), .by, .xn--90ais (бел), and .su. </p>



<p>The email to customers puts the onus on subjects of authoritarian rule, a tactic that sparked a fiery debate on Hacker News:  </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“Unfortunately, due to the Russian regime’s war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine, we will no longer be providing services to users registered in Russia. While we sympathize that this war may not affect your own views or opinion on the matter, the fact is, your authoritarian government is committing human rights abuses and engaging in war crimes so this is a policy decision we have made and will stand by.”</p></blockquote>



<p>As sanctions are having a catastrophic effect on the Russian economy, and many Russians are scrambling to get out of the country, some contend that these measures are hurtful to those who are trying to help. One user on Hacker News, @_vtoj, highlighted <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30507142">a few reasons</a> why this approach is problematic:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Dude, right now all of us are in deep shock, while:</p><p>&#8211; some are trying to find their relatives in Ukraine</p><p>&#8211; some are coordinating and volunteering</p><p>&#8211; some are trying to get themselves and their families outside of Russia (which gets harder by the minute because of prices and sanctions)</p><p>&#8211; some are trying to smuggle at least some of the money outside, because their entire life savings are now blocked</p><p>&#8211; some are trying to preserve what they have despite ruble and market crashing</p><p>&#8211; some are hunkering down with what they have and their loved ones, trying to stockpile some food before prices skyrocket</p><p>And no one has any time to cope and process anything &#8211; don&#8217;t forget usual workloads, too. Planning for a week feels like it&#8217;s already a strategic, not a tactical scope.</p><p>I get what you&#8217;re trying to do, but can&#8217;t you at least give more time for everyone? Right now I need to drop everything and migrate my DNS as well because my private email that I use for docs will stop working in 6 days. And to figure out how to pay the transfer fees while doing all that. It&#8217;s very much fucking stressful already.</p></blockquote>



<p>GoDaddy, another major domain registrar and host, took a slightly different approach, <a href="https://aboutus.godaddy.net/newsroom/company-news/news-details/2022/How-GoDaddy-is-Supporting-Ukrainian-Customers/default.aspx">announcing</a> today that the company is renewing, at no cost, any products or services that are set to expire in the next 60 days for Ukrainian customers. The company is also donating $500,000 to humanitarian relief in Ukraine and matching donations from employees, and providing assistance for Ukrainian contract workers.</p>



<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s happened in Ukraine is horrible,&#8221; GoDaddy said. &#8220;We do not condone the unwarranted aggression from the Russian Government.&#8221;</p>



<p>The company is also making specific business decision that impact Russian customers but may not affect existing customers as strongly as the Namecheap&#8217;s sanctions:</p>



<ul><li>Removing the Russian version of our website&nbsp;</li><li>No longer supporting new registrations of .ru and .ru.com</li><li>Removing all .ru domain names from our domain name aftermarket</li><li>Removing the Russian Ruble</li></ul>



<p>WordPress managed host WP Engine is donating to <a href="https://www.pah.org.pl/">Polish Humanitarian Action</a> and the <a href="https://crisisrelief.un.org/t/ukraine">Ukraine Humanitarian Fund</a>, as well as matching employee donations.</p>



<p>If you are looking for ideas on where you can lend your support, longtime WordPress contributor and the co-organizer of the <a href="https://wptavern.com/kyiv-ukraine-to-host-its-first-official-wordcamp-in-september-2016">first official WordCamp in Ukraine</a>, Andrey Savchenko, recommends donating to the <a href="https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-spetsrahunok-dlya-zboru-koshtiv-na-potrebi-armiyi">Ukrainian Armed Forces</a> and <a href="https://savelife.in.ua/en/donate/">Come Back Alive fund</a>. He is currently sheltering in Kyiv.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I'm of negative military value, but I can make money, so sending them to Ukrainian army &amp; Come Back Alive fund. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4b8.png" alt="💸" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4b8.png" alt="💸" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4b8.png" alt="💸" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4b8.png" alt="💸" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4b8.png" alt="💸" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><br />I've never taken donations for my WP&amp;OSS work, if you ever offered &#8211; send it to Ukrainian army now, like my life depends on it. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /><a href="https://t.co/Yay5ux0xTT">https://t.co/Yay5ux0xTT</a></p>&mdash; Andrey Savchenko (@Rarst) <a href="https://twitter.com/Rarst/status/1497516263597387782?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>These are a few examples of the ways the WordPress community and broader hosting communities are using their influence and resources to help with relief efforts. If your company is launching an effort that was missed here, feel free to leave information about it in the comments.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 03 Mar 2022 21:52:04 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:58:"Post Status: The Block Editor: Kid Tested, Client-Approved";s:7:"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:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94096";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"https://poststatus.com/the-block-editor-kid-tested-client-approved/";s: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:4327:"<p class="has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background has-medium-font-size">It’s BobWP’s WooSnippet for the week of February 28, 2022! Get the lowdown on what’s new in the world of WooCommerce.</p>



<h2 id="woocommerce-6-3-rc2-and-woocommerce-blocks-7-1-0-released">WooCommerce 6.3 RC2 and WooCommerce Blocks 7.1.0 Released</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">This last week has been busy over at WooCommerce. The <a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2022/02/28/woocommerce-6-3-rc-2/">second release candidate for 6.3</a> dropped as we near the March 8th final release. In RC2, WooCommerce Admin has been updated from 3.2.0 to 3.2.1 — the <a href="https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-admin/blob/main/changelog.txt">changelog is available here</a>. Two <a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2022/02/22/woocommerce-6-2-1-security-fix/">security fixes</a> addressed the permission check for reviews in v1 & v2 REST API and Path Traversal in Importers. </p>



<p>In addition, <a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2022/03/01/woocommerce-blocks-7-1-0-release-notes/">WooCommerce Blocks 7.1.0</a> came out with Global Styles support for more blocks and improved editor capabilities. </p>



<h2 id="guidelines-for-adding-actions-and-filters">Guidelines for Adding Actions and Filters</h2>



<p>New <a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2022/03/01/adding-and-modifying-actions-and-filters/">guidelines for adding and modifying actions and filters</a> are available on GitHub in the WooCommerce project Wiki. The guidelines bring clarity to the kinds of changes that are acceptable &#8220;and to reduce unnecessary back-and-forth during the code review process.&#8221;</p>



<h2 id="block-editor-passes-the-twelve-year-old-test">Block Editor Passes the Twelve-Year-Old Test</h2>



<p>We had a chance to <a href="https://dothewoo.io/writer-developer-woocommerce-builder/">chat with developer and writer Eric Karkovack</a> about Woo and a lot more. Eric shared some insights around the challenges facing WooCommerce site-builders by being a bit too &#8220;piecemeal.&#8221; Eric also talks about his experience with Gutenberg and clients' reactions to it, as well as his 12-year-old daughter as he helped her set up her own site:  </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>&#8220;In fact, I set my daughter up on a blog with wordpress.com the other day, and she wants to do a blog about pets and Harry Potter. So I set her up with this, right? </p><p>And I'm going to start explaining all the good stuff with the blog editor. And here's what you do. You hit the plus button and she just looks at me and says, &#8220;Dad, you can go now. I'm fine.&#8221; I come back an hour later and she's already got it figured out.&#8221;</p></blockquote>



<h2 id="h-stress-management-developers-and-remote-work">Stress Management, Developers, and Remote Work</h2>



<p>Finally, we all know developers are no strangers to stress. Four of the speakers from WordFest share <a href="https://dothewoo.io/tips-how-to-handle-stress-as-a-woocommerce-developer/">some tips for Woo builders on how to handle the stress of remote work</a>. These are great ideas all developers will appreciate.</p>



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<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile has-background"><a href="https://dothewoo.io/post-status-members/"><img width="400" height="400" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/hg1C04vb_400x400.jpg" alt="Do the Woo" class="wp-image-93517 size-full" /></a><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p class="has-text-align-left" id="h-get-ready-for-remote-work"><strong><strong>Do the Wo</strong>o!</strong> <a href="https://dothewoo.io/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get the Podcast</a>. <a href="https://dothewoo.io/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Subscribe to the Newsletter</a>.</p>



<p>Learn from others. Grow your business. Connect with a community of like-minded developers and builders who freelance, run agencies, and build really cool products and sites in the <strong>WooCommerce</strong> ecosystem.</p>
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<div class="wp-block-spacer"></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:"Thu, 03 Mar 2022 19:15:43 +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:"Bob Dunn";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:113:"WPTavern: WordPress Ditches “Pee” and “Tinkle” Jokes in Favor of More Inclusive Language and Clearer Code";s:7:"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=130767";s:7:"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:112:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-ditches-pee-and-tinkle-jokes-in-favor-of-more-inclusive-language-and-clearer-code";s: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:5668:"<p class="has-drop-cap">It feels like the end of an era. Last week, core contributors <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/52789">merged a patch</a> that removed PHP variables named <code>$pee</code> and <code>$tinkle</code> from the WordPress codebase.</p>



<p>Yes, the software that powers 43% of the web has pee-pee jokes in its code.</p>



<p><em>I know how it sounds. I felt silly writing that sentence.</em></p>



<p>My job as a writer for WP Tavern affords me the luxury of taking creative license with words every now and again. However, it is a rare treat to write about pee-pee jokes. The chance to do so will not likely come around again. While I could pull out a few doozies from childhood, I promise to remain as professional as possible, given the subject matter.</p>



<p>The vast majority of users are likely unaware of this joke unless they enjoy trawling through the 6,000+ lines of code in <code>/wp-includes/formatting.php</code>. There is a good chance that any developer who has looked up the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wpautop/"><code>wpautop()</code> function</a> has stumbled upon it.</p>



<p>Reading through the code can garner a chuckle from a few, but it is a momentary amusement. The problem has always been confusing variable names. In programming, clarity should be favored above all else.</p>



<p><em>What is a <code>$pee</code>, exactly?</em> It is text. Therefore, <code>$text</code> makes sense as a variable name, which is one of recent code changes. Other modifications include:</p>



<ul><li><code>$pee_parts</code> to <code>$text_parts</code></li><li><code>$last_pee</code> to <code>$last_part</code></li><li><code>$pees</code> to <code>$paragraphs</code></li><li><code>$tinkle</code> to <code>$paragraph</code></li></ul>



<p>That complex <code>wpautop()</code> function and its 150+ lines of code start making a bit more sense when things are named for clarity.</p>



<p>For the historical record: <code>$pee</code> was first seen in the WordPress codebase <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/13">in 2003</a>. <code>$tinkle</code> did not make an appearance until <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/9255">five years later</a>.</p>



<p>Developer Rico Moorman asked for the problematic code to be changed in a <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/25615">ticket in 2013</a>. There was some movement to replace the variable names at first. However, after several lead developers stepped in, the idea was shot down. The arguments against the change leaned on keeping the spirit of WordPress, its humor, and its history alive.</p>



<p>However, 2022 is not 2013. The world has changed since the ticket was first opened. While it still has miles to go to be the all-inclusive community it can be, the WordPress space is seemingly more open to checking itself on language issues today.</p>



<p>In 2020, when many in the worldwide developer community <a href="https://wptavern.com/github-to-use-main-instead-of-master-as-the-default-branch-on-all-new-repositories-starting-next-month">switched their default Git repos</a> from &#8220;master&#8221; to &#8220;main,&#8221; <a href="https://wptavern.com/proposal-to-rename-the-master-branch-from-wordpress-owned-git-repositories">WordPress followed suit</a>. And, it managed to keep a bit of the charm of its SVN roots by using &#8220;trunk&#8221; instead.</p>



<p>In 2018, contributors <a href="https://wptavern.com/without-context-some-lyrics-inside-the-hello-dolly-plugin-are-degrading-to-women">changed text in the Hello Dolly plugin</a> that was degrading to women, especially out of context. The plugin ships with WordPress and randomly displays a single line from Louis Armstrong&#8217;s &#8220;Hello, Dolly!&#8221; in the admin header. </p>



<p>The two offending lines were:</p>



<ul><li>&#8220;Find her an empty lap, fellas&#8221;</li><li>&#8220;Find her a vacant knee, fellas&#8221;</li></ul>



<p>Along with some other trivial text changes, the former was removed altogether, and the latter was replaced with &#8220;Have a little faith in me, fellas.&#8221;</p>



<p>The world changes over time. Language evolves, and what may have been acceptable in years past will not always be so in the future.</p>



<p>Some lead developers may have been OK with the code in 2013. However, the community should never be afraid to reevaluate past stances once in a while. Maybe it was time to ditch the fine art of middle-school jokes in favor of clear and readable code.</p>



<p>Miriam Schwab renewed the discussion via the Post Status Slack chat in December 2021. The general sense from those in the conversation seemed to agree that it was not necessarily offensive but immature. Most of all, it did not have a place in modern WordPress. A team member of Schwab&#8217;s had found the code and also <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/25615#comment:22">renewed the Trac ticket discussion</a>.</p>



<p>During this go-round, there was no pushback. It was simply time to say farewell to a part of the platform&#8217;s history.</p>



<p>In this instance, WordPress has not lost any of its personality. Plus ,the variable changes will allow more developers to grasp what is happening in the code.</p>



<p>This does mean that WordPress has a vacancy for at least one new joke or Easter egg. I am still a little salty about losing <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-personality-shines-through-again">access to the Matrix</a>. But, it never hurts to mix it up once in a while. WordPress&#8217;s in-jokes should continue maturing along with the software.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 03 Mar 2022 01:15:09 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"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:59:"Post Status: This Week at WordPress.org (February 28, 2022)";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=94069";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"https://poststatus.com/this-week-at-wordpress-org-february-28-2022/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5332:"<p>Each week we are highlighting the news from WordPress.org that you don't want to miss.  If you or your company create products or services that use WordPress, we've got the news you need to know. Be sure to share this resource with your product and project managers.</p>



<h2 id="h-news"><a href="http://wordpress.org/news">News</a></h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/02/people-of-wordpress-tonya-mork/">People of WordPress: Tonya Mork</a></li></ul>



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<div class="wp-block-columns">
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<h2 id="h-core"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core">Core</a> </h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/03/core-editor-improvement-choose-your-style/">Core Editor Improvement: Choose your Style</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/03/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12-7-2-march/">What’s new in Gutenberg 12.7? (2 March)</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/02/28/a-week-in-core-february-28-2022/">A Week in Core – February 28, 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/02/25/proposal-to-start-a-news-blog-on-developer-wordpress-org/">Proposal to Start a News blog on developer.WordPress.org</a></li></ul>



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



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/02/15/show-and-tell-february-2022/"></a><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2022/02/28/design-share-feb-14-25/">Design Share: Feb 14–25</a></li></ul>



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



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/02/28/documentation-team-update-february-28-2022/">Documentation Team Update – February 28, 2022</a></li></ul>



<h2 id="h-photos">Photos</h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/photos/2022/02/23/photo-directory-team-rep-nominations-for-2022/">Photo Directory Team Rep Nominations for 2022</a></li></ul>



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



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<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2022/02/28/whats-new-on-learnwp-in-february-2022/">What’s new on LearnWP in February 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2022/01/31/faculty-program-structure-proposal/">Faculty Program: Structure Proposal</a></li></ul>



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<ul><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/building-sidebars-with-the-site-editor/">Building Sidebars With the Site Editor</a></li><li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/intro-to-the-site-editor-and-template-editor/">Intro to the Site Editor and Template Editor</a></li></ul>



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<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 02 Mar 2022 17:57:47 +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:"Courtney Robertson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:43;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:"WPTavern: #16 – Jonathan Bossenger on Cleaning Up WordPress Notifications";s:7:"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=130378";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/16-jonathan-bossenger-on-cleaning-up-wordpress-notifications";s: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:55116:"<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://twitter.com/jon_bossenger">Jonathan Bossenger</a>.</p>



<p>He’s here to talk about WordPress notifications and how they are managed.</p>



<p>If you’ve been using WordPress for any length of time, then you&#8217;ll have seen notifications appear in the admin area of your site. These messages can be useful, they might tell you that something needs to be updated, or that something was successfully saved.</p>



<p>There’s also a chance that you’ve seen notifications for other purposes as well. Perhaps a plugin would like you to notice their upgrade offer, or that they have a sale on.</p>



<p>All these notifications fall into the same place, and when multiple of them arise at the same time, the admin area can become cluttered and confusing, especially for novice users.</p>



<p>It’s possible that you don’t mind these notifications, but it seems that many people do, and feel that they’re being overused. They would prefer not to see so many notifications, and if notifications are to appear, that there are limitations on what they can show, and how large they can be.</p>



<p>In the podcast Jonathan talks about his concerns regarding WordPress notifications, and the fact that there’s no system in place to limit what they can display and for what purpose.</p>



<p>He’s currently working on WP Notify, which is a project aiming to put a notifications area in to your WordPress website. All notifications would appear in this area, and there would be constraints about what could, and could not, be displayed there.</p>



<p>It’s not about removing notifications completely, more about putting them in a defined place, like you might find on your mobile phone.</p>



<p>We talk about how notifications are currently created and how there are few limits on what they can do. How overuse of notifications can be a cause for concern, and how Jonathan’s solution aims to add a unified system to WordPress which would put the user in control of the notifications.</p>



<h2 id="useful-links">Useful links.</h2>



<p><a href="https://jonathanbossenger.com/about/">Jonathan&#8217;s website</a></p>



<p><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wp-notify">WP Notify on GitHub</a></p>



Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley. Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, the way that we manage announcements in the WordPress admin. If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice, or by going to WP Tavern dot com forward slash feed forward slash podcast. And you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>



<p>I&#8217;d really like to hear from anyone out there who would like to come on the podcast and talk about whatever it is that you do with WordPress. It might be that you&#8217;re a developer, a WordCamp organizer contributor, a designer. Honestly, if it&#8217;s about WordPress, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you, and hopefully get you on the show. Head over to WP Tavern dot com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox. And you use the contact form there.</p>



<p>So on the podcast today, we have Jonathan Bossenger. He&#8217;s here to talk about WordPress notifications and how they are managed. If you&#8217;ve been using WordPress for any length of time, then you&#8217;ll have seen notifications appear in the admin area of your site. These messages can be useful. They might tell you something needs to be updated. Or that something was successfully saved. There&#8217;s also a chance that you&#8217;ve seen notifications for other purposes as well. Perhaps a plugin would like you to notice their upgrade offer, or that they have a sale on. All these notifications fall into the same place, and when multiple of them arise at the same time, the admin area can become cluttered and confusing, especially for novice users.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s possible that you don&#8217;t mind these notifications, but it seems that many people do, and feel that they&#8217;re being overused. They would prefer not to see so many notifications. And if notifications are to appear, that there are limitations on what they can show, and how large they can be.</p>



<p>In the podcast, Jonathan talks about his concerns regarding WordPress notifications and the fact that there&#8217;s no system in place to limit what they can display, and for what purpose. He&#8217;s currently working on WP Notify, which is a project aiming to put a notifications area into your WordPress website. All notifications would appear in this area and there would be constraints about what you could and could not display there. It&#8217;s not about removing notifications completely, more about putting them in a defined place. Like you might find on your mobile phone. We talk about how notifications are currently created and how there are a few limits on what they can do. How over use of notifications can be a cause for concern, and how Jonathan&#8217;s solution aims to add a unified system to WordPress, which would put the user in control of the notifications.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all the links in the show notes over at WP Tavern dot com forward slash podcast, and look for episode number 16. And so without further delay, I bring you Jonathan Bossenger.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Jonathan Bassinger. Hello Jonathan?</p>



<p>[00:04:01] <strong>Jonathan Bossenger:</strong> Hello, Nathan, how are you?</p>



<p>[00:04:02] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;m very well. Jonathan is joining us today to talk about WordPress notifications. Now I could introduce this subject and say all sorts of things off the bat. My thoughts on things, but it would probably muddy the water.</p>



<p>So Jonathan, it&#8217;s over to you. Tell us about WordPress notifications and the issues that you see, and then we&#8217;ll get into the weeds and discuss the finer points.</p>



<p>[00:04:26] <strong>Jonathan Bossenger:</strong> Sure. No problem. So, before I start, I&#8217;d like to mention that my problems with WordPress notifications come from both the point of view of a contributor to WordPress, and also a person who makes money off WordPress.</p>



<p>So some of the first products that I created for WordPress were plugins and part of those plugins required me to give some kind of feedback to the user if they had saved settings, or if there was some change that they had to make or whatever the case may be. And then from there I moved on to building plugins for clients or doing custom work.</p>



<p>And the point that I noticed that there was a problem as it were with notifications was when I used to log into client&#8217;s websites, as a new administrator and I was flooded with, and I&#8217;m sure we&#8217;ve all seen the screenshots of this on social media, but flooded with notifications from this plugin that has just been updated to, this plugin has an upgrade, a paid upgrade to this plugin is just on this over here. This theme has got this, that, and the next thing. And I&#8217;m reading half a page, sometimes a full page, of notifications before I can even start working with the dashboard. The, in big inverted air-quotes, problem with notifications is the fact that there is no official centralized way to register and present notifications to the user other than using admin notices.</p>



<p>So if you&#8217;re a developer of a plugin or developer of a theme, there is the admin notices hook that you can hook into, but you can pretty much hook any HTML into that hook. So the documentation gives you some guidelines as to status classes that you can use for your div to display it in red or green as a success or an error, but you have full leeway to build anything you want there.</p>



<p>So you could build a full page notification. You could build a tiny notification. They are guidelines in the plugin and theme handbooks that gives you guidelines of what you should do and what you should stick to. But there&#8217;s nothing to force you down that path. And with notifications. These admin notices traditionally should be being used to give the user feedback.</p>



<p>So I&#8217;ve created a post, I hit save, and I need to see a message that says, yay, my post has been saved. This admin notices functionality is now being, and I don&#8217;t want to use the word abused, so I&#8217;m not going to, but overused by folks who are trying to give the user some other form of notification, some other piece of messaging, some other piece of information.</p>



<p>[00:07:01] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So the problem is a historical one in that WordPress core has the capacity to pop-up things, which presumably the intention was that anybody who wished to use these would have something legitimate to say. As you say, post has been saved, something has been deleted and so on, and there are no constraints around really what you can put in there.</p>



<p>It could be enormous. It could be very wordy. It could contain images, animated gifts, and so on. And there&#8217;s no real constraints about the way that it can be implemented. And I think for the most experienced users of WordPress, that is to say somebody that&#8217;s dabbling in there everyday, you kind of become a little bit numb to it and you just log into WordPress and immediately dismiss them all, click whatever option is available to make them go away.</p>



<p>But there they were and clients, people less experienced, I think the problem might reside in the fact that they might cause some sort of alarm, you know, it might be, oh, well, why is that appearing? There&#8217;s probably some kind of upgrade that I should have had. Why haven&#8217;t I got the upgrade and so on and so forth.</p>



<p>So it&#8217;s a historical problem. Do you know, roughly speaking, how far do we need to rewind the clock before the, in inverted commas, over use of these began. When was the first time you saw this being used for ulterior motives?</p>



<p>[00:08:23] <strong>Jonathan Bossenger:</strong> So it&#8217;s difficult for me to say that 100%, because I&#8217;ve only been very active in the WordPress space since around 2015.</p>



<p>I use WordPress as a blogging platform from about 2009, but that&#8217;s, as far as it went, I had a blog. I had maybe a security plugin installed, maybe a forms plugin, but I was just using it for blogging purposes. So it was only in 2015, 2016 that I started building for WordPress that I started seeing, personally seeing these issues.</p>



<p>I would say that since it&#8217;s definitely gotten worse. There was a stage in about 2017, 2018 that I started seeing it more and more and more. The thing that you mentioned earlier about, you know, as an experienced user of WordPress, we see these notifications. We know how to dismiss them. We know how to click. The concern that I always have is never mind somebody who&#8217;s a client, nevermind somebody who is a business owner. Let&#8217;s just look at somebody who wants to blog with WordPress or build themselves as simple website with WordPress. What is the user story gonna look like? They&#8217;re going to either through their hosting company, they&#8217;re going to install WordPress through some kind of one-click install.</p>



<p>Maybe they&#8217;re using a managed hosting environment, which does it all for you. Maybe they&#8217;re technically savvy enough to download the zip file and upload it to a server. They&#8217;re going to install it. They&#8217;re going to start using it. They&#8217;re going to need to have, maybe a contact form. They&#8217;re going to need to maybe have some kind of plug-in functionality.</p>



<p>They&#8217;re going to start looking for plugins to install things. Then as you say, suddenly, they&#8217;re going to see these messages and these messages are going to be jumping out at them. And these messages are different sizes and different shapes, and it just creates this very jagged, jarring experience for the new user.</p>



<p>Now we can&#8217;t blame WordPress because WordPress Core itself is using admin notices correctly. We can&#8217;t really blame plugin developers and theme developers because, they&#8217;re trying to get this information to the user, with a system that&#8217;s not designed for it. So the problem is not one single entity&#8217;s problem.</p>



<p>The problem is all of our problems. That&#8217;s the kind of the way I look at it. We all need to work together with WordPress Core, with plugin developers, with team developers and find a better way to register these, non, I don&#8217;t like to call them notifications because to me a notification is&#8230; your post has been saved successfully, or you have created a new post.</p>



<p>So let&#8217;s call them announcements just for the sake of this podcast. We need to find a way to register these announcements that are outside of the scope of the day-to-day use of WordPress and present them to the user in a way that is clean and nice, and doesn&#8217;t, doesn&#8217;t disturb them using WordPress on a day to day, but is accessible and they can, and they can see the information that they see in a, in a way that is formalised.</p>



<p>[00:11:23] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you think then the notifications that we have at the moment, which can consume any HTML, let&#8217;s imagine that nothing additional were to be added into WordPress, and we&#8217;ll get on to your project a little bit later, but if we were simply to have it that just text could go in there and that text could be limited, say to a certain string length, I don&#8217;t know, 30 characters or something.</p>



<p>Would that potentially solve the problem in your eyes? Or are there situations where anyone may need more than that, because obviously if we just limited it to text, we could still put all sorts of interesting and perhaps unwanted messages in there.</p>



<p>[00:11:58] <strong>Jonathan Bossenger:</strong> So I speak to you now as a developer. And let me tell you that if you put some kind of limitation down, some clever developer will come along and figure out how to work around this. As it is, you know, the admin, the admin notice the system as it is, is kind of restrictive, but the only way that you could physically restrict it, is if you, every time a new plugin submission comes in, you had somebody physically inspecting every single instance of the notification system and making sure that this person was following the guidelines. And I&#8217;m sure we all remember a number of years ago that the theme team was kind of coming under fire because they were taking a long time to review themes.</p>



<p>And that was because everything was still being done manually. The plugging team is a small number of people due to the security that&#8217;s involved in getting plugin submitted and what plugins have to deal with. So expecting a team of people to physically inspect every single admin notice that comes through. I mean, sure, you could probably automate it in some way, but we all know that developers are crafty. We all know that developers, I mean, that&#8217;s part of what being developed is, finding ways to solve difficult problems. So you put a constraint down in front of a developer on an open source project, you know, code that is publicly available.</p>



<p>And say, right, we&#8217;re now stopping you from doing X. They&#8217;re going to find a way. So to me it&#8217;s a little bit less of the stick and more of the carrot. We need to provide a way that gives developers the ability specifically, and I speak now as somebody who failed dismally to try and start a plugin business.</p>



<p>But one of the biggest things that I struggled with was marketing. How do I market my paid products off of my free ones? You know, WordPress dot org plugin repository and the theme repository is, we all know this, is one of the top places to get yourself known, put out a free product, get customers into the funnel, but then how do you turn them into paying customers?</p>



<p>We know we have a problem with sponsorship of open source products. It&#8217;s spoken about all the time. How do we, how do we balance the needs of the open source project and the people that are building plugins for it and how do we balance the need for them to market to their customers, to, to bring, you know, free customers into the paying funnel, in a way that isn&#8217;t disruptive to regular users of WordPress?</p>



<p>And in my opinion, the only way that we can do that is by creating something that is well-defined in terms of, this is how you do things, this is how you register things. But it&#8217;s not, it&#8217;s not being thrown into the user&#8217;s face when they want to see that information. To me, that&#8217;s the only way that, that we do it in</p>



<p>[00:14:34] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> In terms of describing problematic notifications or announcements or whatever term we&#8217;d like to use. There must be a point where in your own mind it strays from being, well, that&#8217;s totally acceptable. Everybody ought to be seeing that. And then there&#8217;s some kind of gray area, no man&#8217;s land where that feels a bit shady, I&#8217;m not quite sure what to make of that. And then presumably there are examples which you could mention where it&#8217;s clearly something that you would strongly urge people not to do.</p>



<p>Do you want to just describe examples of maybe things which you think are totally legitimate and then also some examples, we should probably not use any names, examples where you&#8217;ve seen things that you think actually, I think that you&#8217;re pushing a little bit too hard then.</p>



<p>[00:15:19] <strong>Jonathan Bossenger:</strong> Sure. I can definitely give some examples. I won&#8217;t give names because that&#8217;s just not something I want to start doing right now, but I can give you some personal examples of notifications that I&#8217;ve dealt with.</p>



<p>For those of you who don&#8217;t know, I used to be a developer for a company called Castos. We managed a podcasting plugin for WordPress. And at that stage, I was very focused on making sure that our notifications were not disruptive to our users or any other user of the WordPress site that happened to have the plugin installed.</p>



<p>So as an example, our one, let&#8217;s call it onboarding form to try and get customers to sign up for our podcast hosting service, was only available on the plugin settings page. So only when you went to the plugin settings on the right-hand side, there was a nice little sidebar with a little graphic to say, hey, if you&#8217;re enjoying the plugin, but you&#8217;re looking for a way to host your files, here&#8217;s a form you can fill in. We&#8217;ll give you a 10% discount to try it out. To me, that&#8217;s not disruptive, because the user can still use their settings. They can still make changes. They&#8217;re not seeing this notification at the top of the screen in their face every time, it&#8217;s off to the right. It&#8217;s there, it&#8217;s visible, but it&#8217;s not disruptive.</p>



<p>The other thing we were very focused on is when we do update messages. So when the plugin gets updated, if there&#8217;s some kind of process that needs to be run, maybe there&#8217;s a database upgrade that needs to be run. That to me makes sense as a, let&#8217;s call it a site-wide notice, or a more general admin notice, but we kept them very limited. Maybe one sentence. We didn&#8217;t use the red color or the green color, we just kept it gray and just said, hey, we noticed you&#8217;ve recently updated. Here&#8217;s a link to click through to make the changes. But specific things related to the plugin. So if we would, I can actually give you a perfect example. There were some changes in the Apple podcast categories and Apple podcasting was changing how the categories worked.</p>



<p>And so what we did was, if you loaded up the plugin and you updated the plugin, you saw no messages, you saw no notifications, you could carry on doing your things, because it would all just work. When you went to the page that allows you to control your categories, there we showed you a specific message to say, by the way, did you know Apple have recently updated their categories, your old categories are still going to work, but it would be a good idea to change your categories on this page. And then as soon as the person saved that page, that notification goes away. So to me, that&#8217;s an example of how, as a developer, you can sort of think of, you know, how do I get free users onto the paid version?</p>



<p>You know, how do I display relevant information to the user? Some of the bad things that I&#8217;ve seen, there are a couple of popular page builders that I won&#8217;t name. I think I might&#8217;ve tweeted about it. So maybe if you go back in my feed, you might find. With the Block Editor coming out. When you load up a new post, you have this option to select, and the only reason I know this is because for various reasons, I have both of these page builders on my site because I&#8217;ve done some demo content with them for tutorials in the past. When I create a new post, I get this big, these two big buttons saying, do you want to use this page builder? Do you want to use that page builder? Or do you want to use the default page builder. When I select, and this might&#8217;ve changed, cause it&#8217;s been a while since I&#8217;ve done this, but when I select default page builder, at the very top of the Block Editor, there are now these two big buttons, saying switch back to the other page builders, switch back to the second page builder that you have installed. To me, that&#8217;s kind of pushing it, because I&#8217;ve already chosen that I want to use the default editor. Now to keep bugging me. And the other thing that I hated about those buttons were, they both had their own colour schemes. So they were very jarring in the block editor. Cause I keep my WordPress on a very clean theme. So now I&#8217;ve got these big, bold colors at the top of my editing area. And they were both using separate fonts as well. They weren&#8217;t using standard WordPress dashboard fonts.</p>



<p>So to me, that was very much in my face and almost getting to a point where I wanted to stop using their products because they were being so vibrant about that. There was another example recently where somebody had, I can&#8217;t remember the details but, I think it was, I think it was The Tavern site, where somebody had added, I think it was a signup or an upgrade or something button as a HTML field in the settings sidebar, which there was quite a bit of conversation around. To me again, that&#8217;s the problem, you know, where you are using space that should be used for one purpose, you know, control or settings or whatever. And now you&#8217;re taking over that space to put in your notifications or your upgrades or upsells. Those to me are the kind of the problematic areas.</p>



<p>[00:19:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It sounds to me as if you&#8217;re demarcating in your own head at least, the pages, the places on a website which have legitimate use. So the general admin, if you just click the dashboard link and you&#8217;re into WordPress and you&#8217;re not in any particular setting for any particular plugin. You feel that those ought to be limited to possibly text and just very informational in nature and something which is more or less critical, something which you must take care of because otherwise. Right. Okay. So that&#8217;s what belongs there. But if you were to go into the settings page of any particular plugin, that&#8217;s more of a free for all.</p>



<p>Do you feel that there&#8217;s any constraints there or are you, you mentioned that for Castos, you have a sidebar. I remember seeing that have actually used that before. And there it was, and it did genuinely feel as if that was the right place for it, because I was already in the settings. I was thinking that I was going to be interacting in some way with Castos, and so the upgrade felt like an appropriate place. Any limitations on that? Are we allowed to go full page in there or should there be some constraints around that?</p>



<p>[00:21:03] <strong>Jonathan Bossenger:</strong> Well, for me, it&#8217;s always about the user experience. So, I feel like a lot of developers, they understand the the balance between creating a good user experience and interacting with your users. The company that I work for now, Delicious Brains, it was about a year ago now released version two of WP Migrate DB Pro with a new user interface, and the notifications that come up when you log into the plugin page and the plugin settings, they&#8217;re just so nice and clean and they don&#8217;t overwhelm you.</p>



<p>They are useful information, you know. Even if you install the free plugin, there&#8217;s a little bit of a thing at the top, but it doesn&#8217;t bombard you. So in my opinion, yes, if you&#8217;re building a product for WordPress today, and you are forced to use admin notices. You should think about how you&#8217;re registering these things.</p>



<p>One of the, one of the things that I spent the most time on when we were releasing updates to the plugin at Castos was triggering certain notifications only at certain points. So, when there was an upgrade from 1.2 to 1.3, then trigger a certain notification. But then when the user dismisses that notification save the fact that they&#8217;ve dismissed it and don&#8217;t show it again.</p>



<p>So we actually spent time thinking about this, because there&#8217;s nothing worse and this actually happened. So the reason we spend the time is because something happened. We launched an update, it included an upgrade step that the user had to action. But we didn&#8217;t have any kind of check in place. So every single time a new user installed the plugin, they got this upgrade.</p>



<p>Now that&#8217;s fine in the scope of one plugin. Think about let&#8217;s say 15 popular plugins do that. Your user comes along and likes those plugins and installs those plugins and suddenly has 15 notifications in their main dashboard they have to deal with. If those were separated, off and in the settings for each plugin, then it would limit that amount of overwhelm. And they would only see that notification when they&#8217;re dealing with those settings. So I do believe that putting plugins specific notifications in certain places is a better way. The problem you have with that though, is that the other reason developers use notifications is to push users into that funnel.</p>



<p>And I am not standing here today saying we shouldn&#8217;t allow developers to do that. I strongly support people who are working on open source products, being able to be given the ability to earn income, to be able to be given the ability to turn non-paying customers, into paying customers. But we need to do it in such a way that it doesn&#8217;t overwhelm the users.</p>



<p>It doesn&#8217;t frustrate them. We should be making it a, we should be making the process of signing up for our product as fun and pleasant as it is using WordPress. And if we are bombarding our customers with notifications from day one when, and that&#8217;s why I say we, we have to find a better way to do this. We can take what we currently have and try and patch it up because what we currently have has been overused for so long and is already.</p>



<p>So what&#8217;s the word I want to use? I don&#8217;t want to use broken because it means that it was working before, but it&#8217;s been again, I don&#8217;t want to say misused because that sounds so negative. Used incorrectly, used for the wrong reasons, because the reasons that exist, the reasons that exist today, for people to use these notifications are ten times more, what they were, you know, five, ten years ago.</p>



<p>[00:24:31] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Some of the examples that I&#8217;m going to give here come into my head when I&#8217;m thinking about advertising and overwhelm of advertising and misuse. And so a good example would be, if you go to a news site, I can think of an example of a local news site to me. And I go there and I find it incredibly difficult to use that website because they&#8217;ve taken the path of advertising and there are adverts, splattered everywhere so much so that it&#8217;s almost impossible to find the actual content. The content is split up into small paragraphs and they are punctuated by advertisements. And I feel that&#8217;s probably the argument that you&#8217;re making is that if we clutter the UI, if we allow the UI to be cluttered by things which people didn&#8217;t necessarily wish or need to see, then we are making the experience poorer. And I go to that website. I find it quite difficult to stay there. It may be that I need the content so badly that I&#8217;ll persevere, but I&#8217;ve got this instinctive reaction to get away. And we don&#8217;t wish people to enter WordPress, have an initial experience which is poor and continually frustrated.</p>



<p>However, on the flip side, there&#8217;s obviously some sort of commercial need, as you&#8217;ve described. People would wish to turn their free projects into paid projects and have some subscribers. And I guess plugin developers would point to the fact that in a normal situation, you would get a product and probably give up your email address in return for that. But on the WordPress side, if they come to the repo and download your free plugin, you have no access to that. You haven&#8217;t managed to get them into a funnel in any way, shape or form. They&#8217;re just consuming your product, and that&#8217;s the end of the road. They may use it forever, and I have no idea who you are or any other product that you may offer.</p>



<p>And in fact, they may well miss out on something which they genuinely, legitimately needed. And so the developers would argue, I guess, that we need some way to do this. We&#8217;re going to try to keep it under control, but I suppose the problem is human nature. Is that given the fact that the area is open to any HTML as you described, it just starts to get overused. The boundaries get pushed, things that were acceptable yesterday are going to be pushed further. And then what&#8217;s acceptable in a year&#8217;s time may get pushed further. And your position, I suppose, is we just want to reign this in a little bit.</p>



<p>Another thing which comes to mind is commercial television. On the TV side of things, probably radio as well, we&#8217;ve gotten quite used to the fact that our content will be punctuated with adverts. We&#8217;ve walked across the mental bridge that, I cannot watch this program unless it is paid for by advertising. So every 15 minutes or so I will cope. I&#8217;ll sit there and I&#8217;ll consume the adverts or I&#8217;ll go and make a cup of coffee.</p>
