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


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




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:104:"WPTavern: GoDaddy Data Breach Exposes 1.2 Million Active and Inactive Managed WordPress Hosting Accounts";s:7:"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=125998";s:7:"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:253:"https://wptavern.com/godaddy-data-breach-exposes-1-2-million-active-and-inactive-managed-wordpress-hosting-accounts?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=godaddy-data-breach-exposes-1-2-million-active-and-inactive-managed-wordpress-hosting-accounts";s: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:3389:"<p>In a disclosure to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that was <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1609711/000160971121000122/gddyblogpostnov222021.htm">published today</a>, GoDaddy announced a data security breach impacting its WordPress managed hosting customers. The company discovered unauthorized third-party access to its hosting environment on November 17, 2021, through an exploited vulnerability.</p>



<p>GoDaddy&rsquo;s initial investigations show the attacker gained access using a compromised password beginning on September 6, 2021. Nearly every sensitive data point associated with hosting a WordPress website was compromised, including customer email addresses, admin passwords, sFTP and database credentials, and SSL private keys. GoDaddy published the following summary of data the attacker had access to for more than two months:</p>



<ul><li>Up to 1.2 million active and inactive Managed WordPress customers had their email address and customer number exposed. The exposure of email addresses presents risk of phishing attacks.</li><li>The original WordPress Admin password that was set at the time of provisioning was exposed. If those credentials were still in use, we reset those passwords.</li><li>For active customers, sFTP and database usernames and passwords were exposed. We reset both passwords.</li><li>For a subset of active customers, the SSL private key was exposed. We are in the process of issuing and installing new certificates for those customers.</li></ul>



<p>GoDaddy has more than 20 million customers but only the managed WordPress hosting accounts were affected by this breach. Looking further into the incident, <a href="https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2021/11/godaddy-breach-plaintext-passwords/">Wordfence claims that GoDaddy was storing sFTP credentials as plaintext</a>, although GoDaddy has not officially confirmed it:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>GoDaddy stored sFTP passwords in such a way that the plaintext versions of the passwords could be retrieved, rather than storing salted hashes of these passwords, or providing public key authentication, which are both industry best practices.</p><p>We confirmed this by accessing the user interface for GoDaddy Managed Hosting and were able to view our own password&hellip;When using public-key authentication or salted hashes, it is not possible to view your own password like this because the hosting provider simply does not have it.</p></blockquote>



<p>GoDaddy&rsquo;s stock tumbled after the SEC disclosure got picked up by major news organizations, finishing down&nbsp;5.25%. The company <a href="http://previous%20incidents:%20https://twitter.com/lenraleigh/status/1462974068588789769">emailed its customers</a> to notify them that their accounts may have been compromised during the two months when the attacker had unauthorized access.</p>



<img />



<p>The incident has damaged customers&rsquo; trust and puts developers and agencies in an uncomfortable position if they are required to notify their customers about the breach. Impacted site owners will need to watch for malware, suspicious activity, and potential phishing attacks.</p>



<p>Godaddy says it has already taken steps to further secure its provisioning system and is continuing its investigation with the help of an IT forensics firm and law enforcement.</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, 23 Nov 2021 04:55:45 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:59:"WPTavern: How Do Post Formats Fit Into a Block Theme World?";s:7:"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=125982";s:7:"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:161:"https://wptavern.com/how-do-post-formats-fit-into-a-block-theme-world?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-do-post-formats-fit-into-a-block-theme-world";s: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:5899:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Over the weekend, Nick Bohle asked Ellen Bauer of Elma Studio <a href="https://twitter.com/nickbohle/status/1462231308697018373">how post formats fit into the block-theming world</a>. The question was a proposal for her a WordPress theme and FSE <a href="https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1ZkJzbaDPVgJv/peek">chat she held yesterday</a> via Twitter Spaces. I could not attend and see if Bauer touched on the subject, but the question is something I have given a lot of thought to not that long ago.</p>



<p>Over the summer, I <a href="https://twitter.com/justintadlock/status/1407208677795373056">tweeted out a screenshot</a> of an experiment around post formats. A part of me was trying to figure out if we could revive a dying feature, one I continue to use today.</p>



<img />Aside post format archive.



<p>I have been using post formats since before they were a thing. &ldquo;Asides&rdquo; were one of the precursors to the feature landing in WordPress. I wrote my first on my personal blog back in 2006. I had borrowed some code that WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg had <a href="https://ma.tt/2004/05/asides/">posted two years earlier</a>. It was a concept he had borrowed from others.</p>



<p>For me, it was a way to give a unique layout to quick posts and links without all the beefiness of a long-form article.</p>



<p>In 2011, WordPress 3.1 launched with a new taxonomy. Users could choose between nine different formats for their posts, assuming their theme supported one or more of them. The goal was to allow theme authors to design custom layouts around each one.</p>



<p>For much of the community, it felt like WordPress was chasing Tumblr&rsquo;s post content feature. The allure quickly wore off after it seemed to have hit a standstill beyond its initial release. Besides a few fixes and trivial enhancements under the hood, post formats never amounted to much.</p>



<p>They have remained a niche feature over the years. A few theme authors still add in support. Some of us old-school bloggers who have been using them in some form or fashion are still hanging on. But, post formats have been dead for a long time.</p>



<p>Therefore, I decided to try to make them work for block themes.</p>



<p>One of the most frustrating things I encountered with post formats in this block-based theme project was how powerless I felt over making them work &ldquo;the old way.&rdquo; The dynamic nature of classic theming meant that I could switch post content templates out on pages that listed multiple posts. Query Loop and its inner Post Template block do not allow me to show a different template for a quote or gallery-formatted post, for example.</p>



<p>This was frustrating because that part of the design process was out of my hands. If I wanted to do something as simple as show an entirely different design for an aside post within a mix of normal posts, I could not do so as the theme designer, at least not without doing some hacky workarounds.</p>



<p>My &ldquo;light bulb&rdquo; moment was when I realized that it was OK to not have that control. I needed to get outside of the mindset that the design was mine and mine alone. That is viewing creation through a classic theming lens. My approach was wrong. Instead, I had to start thinking about how to hand over these design tools to the user.</p>



<p>The question became: Can I create something that utilizes that original post format concept while giving users the freedom to do what they want?</p>



<p>Then, it dawned on me. The following is the response I tweeted to Jeff Chandler, who had <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffr0/status/1407211205685661700">asked if I thought post formats</a> would work as patterns:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>I think of blocks themselves as an evolution of post formats. Video, audio, embeds (basically cool links), quotes, etc. Most of the elements are already there. Patterns just give users an easy way to insert various designs, which could build off those blocks.</p></blockquote>



<p>Maybe post formats as they currently exist are dead. However, the idea of designing a layout around specific types of posts is very much alive.</p>



<p>If users want to embed a single video into a post, it is just a matter of copying and pasting a link. To share a quote they found from their favorite author, they merely need to drop it into a Quote block. Other than chat posts (let&rsquo;s just gloss over those entirely), the concept of post formats has simply been replaced with blocks.</p>



<p>However, theme authors still have a role to play. If all the elements for post formats have been essentially replaced by blocks themselves, that means designers can have a field day building patterns around them.</p>



<img />Patterns built for post formats.



<p>That led me to build off my original idea for asides, my favorite post format. Instead of offering a single design, I built three different patterns for users to choose from. End-users could mix and match how they appeared on the front end.</p>



<p>I also built a custom <code>taxonomy-post_format-aside.html</code> template to showcase them on their archive page. It merely displayed the published date and the post content, which the user controls.</p>



<p>I went back to the drawing board and built a quote pattern that I liked. Again, it would be up to the user whether they wanted that particular design. They could always go in a different direction.</p>



<img />Quote block pattern and custom style.



<p>In some ways, post formats were always limiting. The feature was never fleshed out, and there were only nine allowed formats. At the end of the day, each was merely a term within a taxonomy. There were never any rules about how it all was supposed to work. Maybe that is not such a bad thing. Now, posts can be anything users want them to be.</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, 22 Nov 2021 23:57:29 +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: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:76:"WordPress.org blog: Join us for State of the Word 2021, in person or online!";s:7:"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=11611";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:90:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/join-us-for-state-of-the-word-2021-in-person-or-online/";s: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:1704:"<p>As <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/state-of-the-word-2021/">previously announced</a>, State of the Word will be livestreamed from New York City. That means that you can join the fun either online or in person, on <a href="https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/?qm=1&lid=5128581,100&h=5128581&date=2021-12-14&sln=17-19&hf=0">December 14, 2021, between 5 and 7 pm EST</a>!</p>



<p>To join State of the Word 2021 online, check your Meetup chapter for a local watch party, or simply visit <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/">wordpress.org/news</a>, where the livestream will be embedded.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If you would like to participate in person in New York City, please request a seat by filling out the registration form by Sunday, November 28. Not all requests will receive a seat due to venue capacity, but everyone who requests one will receive further notification on Tuesday, November 30.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In person attendees will be asked to show their COVID vaccination card at the venue entrance, and are expected to follow the safety measures in place. Because of these safety measures, there is a maximum of 50 attendees.&nbsp;</p>



<div class="wp-container-619c098b1fb64 wp-block-buttons">
<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link" href="https://wordcampcentral.survey.fm/request-a-seat-sotw-2021">Request a seat</a></div>
</div>



<p>Whether you participate in person or online, we are so excited to see you on December 14! Don’t forget, State of the Word will be followed by a Question &amp; Answer session. If you have a question for Matt, you can send your question ahead of time to ask-matt@wordcamp.org, or ask during the event in the YouTube chat.</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, 22 Nov 2021 21:08:15 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Josepha";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:124:"Gutenberg Times: Creating a Poll Block for Gutenberg, Skins Are Back in Style, WordPress 5.9 in 2022 – Weekend Edition 193";s:7:"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=19604";s:7:"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://gutenbergtimes.com/creating-a-poll-block-for-gutenberg-skins-are-back-in-style-wordpress-5-9-in-2022-weekend-edition-193/";s: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:20455:"<p>Howdy!</p>



<p>I am back from our trip to Chicago. It is a fun city even when it&#8217;s cold. I took it as a  training run for our Christmas travels to Canada in about four weeks. One afternoon, we walked Michigan Avenue, The Bean and the sculpture and botanical garden in Millennium Park. Another afternoon, we visited the Shedd Aquarium. It is definitely worth a visit should you ever get to Chicago. Their exhibition space is vast and wonderful.  My favorite section was the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CWJxgUnAS7j/">Caribbean Reef </a>with the most colorful corals, algae and fish. The greatest joy was however to spend some quality time with my coworkers at Automattic, Tara King and Ryan Welcher. Turns out we all like beer and scuba diving. </p>



<p>Now back to Gutenberg News, WordPress release and State of the Word. I had fun catching up on all the good vibe from the community. </p>



<p>Stay warm, stay calm, be brave and wait for the signs.<sup>1</sup></p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit</p>



<p class="has-small-font-size"><sup>1</sup> <em>Canadian Cree</em></p>



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



<p><strong>Monday, November 22nd, 2021 at 7pm ET / 00:00 UTC </strong> join us for WordPress Meetup organized by the group in Montclair, NJ. I will talk about <a href="https://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Montclair-Meetup/events/281915481/"><strong>What is Full-Site Editing?</strong></a> and answer questions from participants. I am looking forward to seeing friends there and make new ones. </p>



<a href="https://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Montclair-Meetup/events/281915481/"><img /></a><a href="https://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Montclair-Meetup/events/281915481/"><em>RSVP and get the Zoom Link</em></a>




<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>



<div class="wp-block-sortabrilliant-guidepost"><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#the-gutenberg-minute">The Gutenberg Minute</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#gutenberg-team-and-core-wordpress-updates">Gutenberg Team and Core WordPress updates</a><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#gutenberg-11-9-and-11-9-1-has-been-released">Gutenberg 11.9 and 11.9.1 has been released. </a></li></ul></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#theme-builders-and-block-themes">Theme Builders and Block Themes</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#developing-for-gutenberg-and-building-custom-blocks">Developing for Gutenberg and Building Custom Blocks </a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#gutenberg-for-site-builders-and-content-creators">Gutenberg for Site Builders and Content Creators</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#wordpress-events">WordPress Events</a></li></ul></div>




<h2 id="the-gutenberg-minute">The Gutenberg Minute</h2>



<p>As part of the WP Minute podcast, we record a minute of Gutenberg updates to be added to the show. Here is this week&#8217;s content. </p>



Gutenberg Minute November 2021  for this week&#8217;s <a href="https://thewpminute.com/pagedaddy/">WPMinute </a>episode



<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/full-site-editing/">WordPress Theme Repository &#8211; List of Block Themes </a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/36332">Update theme.json schema to refer to wp.org URL </a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34843">Add API to access global settings, styles and stylesheet </a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/11/08/fse-program-testing-call-11-site-editing-safari/">Call for Testing: Site Editing Safari</a></li></ul>



<p>Big Thank You to Matt Medeiros for including the segment every month. </p>



<p><em>Updates: The Full-Site Editing will come to WordPress 5.9, however not on December 14th. There are now 28 block themes in the WordPress repository. </em></p>



<h2 id="gutenberg-team-and-core-wordpress-updates">Gutenberg Team and Core WordPress updates</h2>



<p>The Beta 1 for WordPress 5.9 release has been moved to November 30th, 2021, due to not enough time to fix FSE interface issues for users. This also moves the date for the final release to January 2021. The new proposed schedule has January 25th, 2021 as release date. </p>



<ul><li><strong>Tonya Mork</strong>, Core Tech Release lead posted <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/11/17/wordpress-5-9-beta-1-delayed/">more details on the Make Core blog.</a></li><li><strong>Robert Anderson</strong>, Editor Tech Release lead, posted <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/36556">the list of pending issues and blockers</a>. </li><li><strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> posted <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-9-delayed-until-january-2022"><strong>WordPress 5.9 Delayed Until January 2022</strong></a></li></ul>



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



<p>If you want to assist in testing Beta and release candidate versions, <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/courtneyr_dev">Courtney Robertson</a></strong>, held a panel discussion  with Core Contributors George Mamadashvili, Andy Fragen and yours truly on the various options to test upcoming versions. The recording is available now <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/garage/gutenberg-how-to-test-the-latest-updates/"><strong>Testing the latest features in WordPress</strong></a> with resources and links. </p>



<p>After the Beta 1 release, you only need to install the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester plugin</a> and set it to c<em>hannel</em> <strong>Bleeding Edge</strong> and <em>stream </em><strong>Beta/RC Only</strong>. </p>



<img />Setting <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester Plugin</a> for testing Beta and Release Candidates during the release cycle of an new WordPress version. 




<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>




<h3 id="gutenberg-11-9-and-11-9-1-has-been-released">Gutenberg 11.9 and 11.9.1 has been released. </h3>



<p>Just before the <em>Feature Freeze</em> of the WordPress 5.9 release cycle, Gutenberg 11.9 was released. <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewserong"><strong>Andrew Serong</strong></a> published the release notes in <strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/11/12/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-9-0-10-november/">What’s new in Gutenberg 11.9.0 (10 November)</a></strong>.</p>



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/justintadlock">Justin Tadlock</a></strong> posted the details as well: <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-9-focuses-on-navigation-menus-and-block-theming"><strong>Gutenberg 11.9 Focuses on Navigation Menus and Block Theming</strong></a></p>



<p>In&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-55-gutenberg-11-9-wordpress-5-9-navigation-block/">Gutenberg Changelog newest episode (#55)</a></strong>,&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://twitter.com/gziolo">Grzegorz (Greg) Ziolkowski</a> </strong>and I discuss Gutenberg 11.9, WordPress 5.9 and Navigation Block. Surprise guest: <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/riadbenguella">Riad Benguella.</a></strong> Listen in and <a href="https://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog"><em><strong>write us a review.</strong></em></a></p>




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



<img />





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




<h2 id="theme-builders-and-block-themes">Theme Builders and Block Themes</h2>



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/ellenbauer">Ellen Bauer</a> </strong>wrote an <strong><a href="https://www.elmastudio.de/en/theme-json-for-wordpress-block-themes-explained/">Introduction to Theme.json</a></strong> and explained how the  configuration choices work together to manage a build a block theme, like Aino and can be used in Classic themes as well. Bauer also invites you to a Twitter Spaces conversation on November 21, 2021 at 2pm to the <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1ZkJzbaDPVgJv?s=20">WordPress FSE &amp; block theme chat</a></strong></p>



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



<p>In his article <a href="https://wptavern.com/skins-are-back-in-style-proposal-for-themes-to-bundle-user-selectable-design-variations"><strong>“Skins” Are Back in Style, Proposal for Themes To Bundle User-Selectable Design Variations</strong></a>, Justin Tadlock commented on a Proof of Concept by Riad Benguella, who explored &#8220;a way for extenders to offer multiple global styles variations and the user would be able to pick up one of the variation for its site.&#8221; (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35619"><em>on Github</em></a>). </p>



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



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/critterverse">Channing Ritter</a></strong> also experimented and explored the possibility of <a href="https://critterverse.blog/2021/11/10/a-global-styles-switcher/">switching out different style settings within the Global Styles panel</a>. In the comments, Ritter mentioned that a feature like that could make it fairly quickly into the Gutenberg plugin for users to test. </p>



<h2 id="developing-for-gutenberg-and-building-custom-blocks">Developing for Gutenberg and Building Custom Blocks </h2>



<p>The latest Decode Podcast episode is titled <strong><a href="https://developers.wpengine.com/podcast/9511712">Gutenberg with Jason Bahl</a>.</strong>  <strong>Kellen Mace</strong> and <strong>Will Johnston</strong>, talked to <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/jasonbahl">Jason Bahl</a></strong>, creator and maintainer of <a href="https://www.wpgraphql.com/">WPGraphQL</a> plugin and ecosystem,  about the benefits of Gutenberg, what&#8217;s lacking in Gutenberg&#8217;s current implementation, and what implementations exist for rendering Gutenberg in headless WordPress.</p>



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



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/mattwatsoncodes">Matt Watson</a></strong> shared his experience in <a href="https://wpowls.co/articles/creating-a-custom-block-for-wp-owls/"><strong>Creating a Custom Block for WPOwl</strong></a>. The task was a Link block displaying and image a text blurb and a URL. Watson then described his implementation journey and covers these steps: </p>



<ul><li>Building a Reusable Block, </li><li>Convert it to a Block Pattern</li><li>Why use a Block instead of a Pattern</li><li>Create a Block WordPress Script</li><li>Write the edit.js and save.js functions </li><li>Create Block Styles and Variations. </li></ul>



<p>The final block is now used on the <a href="https://wpowls.co/wpowls-60/"><em>WPOwls newsletter.</em></a> You can study the <a href="https://github.com/wholesomecode/wp-owls-owl-link">code via the public GitHub repository</a></p>



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



<p>Editor <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/palmiak_fp">Maciek Palmowski</a></strong> announced the <a href="https://wpowls.co/the-owl-link-challenge/"><strong>WPOwls Challenge </strong></a>for the WordPress community to build a similar block with different tools. Besides the version built as Block Patterns and Native Custom Blocks (ReactJS) they already have versions built with ACF Blocks, and via Block Builder plugin. There are other tools available, for instance you could us <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/genesis-custom-blocks/">Genesis Custom Blocks</a> or <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/lazy-blocks/">Lazy Blocks</a> or a <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/block-tutorial/creating-dynamic-blocks/">Dynamic Block</a>. </p>



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



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/ryanwelcher">Ryan Welcher</a></strong> live-coded again this week. He walked us through the first part of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6sxo9tpRvA">Creating a Poll Block for Gutenberg</a> using <a href="https://react-google-charts.com/"><em>React Google Charts</em></a> and the native <em><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/getting-started/create-block/">WordPress Create Block</a></em> script. </p>



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



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/joe_hoyle">Joe Hoyle</a></strong>, co-founder and CTO of HumanMade, published an experimental library to render custom Gutenberg blocks built in React (front-end) on the server (using PHP V8JS).  Hoyle wrote in the Readme file of the <a href="https://github.com/humanmade/block-editor-ssr"><strong>repository Block Editor SSR</strong></a> &#8220;Building blocks that will render as a React-app on the front end has many possible architectures and solutions. Block Editor SSR expects blocks to be built in a&nbsp;<em>certain</em>&nbsp;way (the way that made most sense to me). Before detailing how Block Editor SSR will server-render and hydrate your custom React block, first let&#8217;s go over how building custom blocks in React (front end) is expected to go.&#8221;</p>



<h2 id="gutenberg-for-site-builders-and-content-creators">Gutenberg for Site Builders and Content Creators</h2>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/kathyzant"><strong>Kathy Zant,</strong></a> new product marketing manager for KadenceWP, <a href="https://www.kadencewp.com/blog/introducing-kadence-conversions/"><strong>introduced the new premium plugin, Kadence Conversation</strong></a>, as a no-code interface to create lightweight and performant popups, modals, slide-ins, and banners for your site. At the time of this post, the plugin is available via Black Friday sale at 40% off. </p>



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



<p>In his tutorial, <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/scruffian">Ben Dwyer</a></strong> explains how to use the plugin <strong><a href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/11/17/create-a-blockbase-child-theme/">Create A Blockbase Child&nbsp;Theme</a></strong>  and employ the existing tools to modify a Blockbase theme, and then export a bundle of templates and theme.json as a new child theme. <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-theme-team-releases-a-plugin-to-build-blockbase-child-themes"><em>Justin Tadlock wrote about it, too.</em></a> </p>



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



<p><em>Block Theme No 28 </em>was added to the WordPress Theme repository. <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/justintadlock">Justin Tadlock</a></strong> took it out for a spin and shared his findings: <a href="https://wptavern.com/wowmall-a-free-experimental-woocommerce-block-theme"><strong>Wowmall: A Free Experimental WooCommerce Block Theme</strong></a>. Tadlock wrote: &#8220;For an eCommerce theme, it is much cleaner than others I have seen, and it leverages almost every piece of the block system. It ships over 30 block patterns.&#8221;</p>



<h2 id="wordpress-events">WordPress Events</h2>



<p><strong>November 22, 2021 &#8211; 7pm ET / 22:00 UTC</strong><br /><strong><a href="https://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Montclair-Meetup/events/" rel="nofollow">Meetup Montclair, New Jersey</a></strong><br /><strong>What is Full-Site Editing?</strong> w/ Birgit Pauli-Haack</p>



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



<p><strong>November 23, 2021 &#8211; 10:00 am EST / 15:00 UTC</strong><br /><strong><a href="https://www.meetup.com/wordpress-social-learning/events/282149151/">WordPress Social Learning</a></strong><br /><strong>Discussion: Discovering theme.json for WordPress themes</strong> with Daisy Olson</p>



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



<p><strong>November 27th, 2021</strong><br /><strong><a href="https://saopaulo.wordcamp.org/2021/">WordCamp São Paulo</a></strong></p>



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



<p><strong>December 11 + 12, 2021</strong><br /><a href="https://taiwan.wordcamp.org/2021/"><strong>WordCamp Taiwan</strong></a></p>



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



<p><strong>December 14th, 2021 &#8211; 5:00 pm ET / 22:00 UTC</strong><br /><strong><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/state-of-the-word-2021/">WordPress News</a></strong><br /><strong>State of The Word w/ Matt Mullenweg</strong> + Q &amp; A</p>



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<p><strong>February 4+5, 2022<br /><a href="https://birmingham.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp Birmingham, AL</a></strong><br />Call for Sponsors and Speakers are open now. </p>



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<p><strong>March 4th, 2022 all day<br /><a href="https://www.wordfest.live/2022/march/">WordFest 2022</a></strong><br />a 24-hour festival of WordPress. <a href="https://www.wordfest.live/2022/march/call-for-speakers/">Call for Speakers is open</a>. Deadline Dec 6th, 2021. </p>



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<p class="has-drop-cap">On the<a href="https://wpcalendar.io/online/">&nbsp;<strong>Calendar for WordPress Online Events</strong>&nbsp;</a>site, you can browse a list of the upcoming WordPress Events, around the world, including WordCamps,  WooCommerce, Elementor, Divi Builder and Beaver Builder meetups.</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>



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<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/13998657@N02/18526571462" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"></a><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01/38744499" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"></a>Featured image: <a href="https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/baby-blocks-112064">&#8220;Baby Blocks&#8221;&nbsp;by&nbsp;Bessie Ely&nbsp;is licensed under&nbsp;CC0 1.0</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:"Sat, 20 Nov 2021 06:42:00 +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:"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: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:81:"WPTavern: Automattic Theme Team Releases a Plugin To Build Blockbase Child Themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=125905";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:207:"https://wptavern.com/automattic-theme-team-releases-a-plugin-to-build-blockbase-child-themes?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=automattic-theme-team-releases-a-plugin-to-build-blockbase-child-themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4388:"<p class="has-drop-cap">On Wednesday, Ben Dwyer <a href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/11/17/create-a-blockbase-child-theme/">announced a new block-based plugin</a> on the Theme Shaper blog. The Automattic Theme Team had built a <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/create-blockbase-theme">child theme creator</a> for its Blockbase WordPress parent theme.</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/blockbase/">Blockbase</a> has quickly started filling the role of Underscores, a starter that many developers used to create custom themes in the classic era. For block templating and global styles, something fresh was needed. It is both a launchpad and educational tool for theme authors who want to test the block theme waters.</p>



<p>The approach is different now than in the past. Instead of using Blockbase as a customizable starting point, which is still a valid use case, the Automattic Theme Team is leaning far more heavily into child theming. It is a single parent to raise a legion of children, and the family has grown at a rapid pace. Since releasing Blockbase on WordPress.org, the team has already launched five child themes for it. Their <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/themes">themes repo on GitHub</a> shows several others in progress.</p>



<p>With the talent in the team&rsquo;s arsenal and the Create Blockbase Theme plugin at hand, they could spit out design after design after design. Of course, the child themes might begin to lose some of their flavor if the team moved too fast.</p>



<p>Dwyer created a custom theme called Typewriter, which is downloadable via the announcement post. For my test, I did not go quite as far with customization and relied on one of the pre-existing color schemes from Blockbase.</p>



<img />



<p>I primarily wanted to get a feel for how the tool worked. After a bit of tinkering, I had something that still felt much like its parent with some simple changes.</p>



<p>To use the plugin, users must install and activate the Blockbase theme. Until WordPress 5.9 is released, the Gutenberg plugin is necessary too. Currently, there are two places to make stylistic changes. The first is in the site editor. I made some adjustments to the header template part and index template. I also changed a few global styles.</p>



<img />Customizing the index template and global styles.



<p>The second place to modify the theme&rsquo;s design is via the customizer, which Blockbase enables (it is not accessible by default with block themes). The long-term goal should move all of these extra customizations to the site editor when it handles all the necessary use cases, such as a <a href="https://wptavern.com/proposed-web-fonts-api-not-coming-to-wordpress-5-9-possibly-landing-in-gutenberg-first">web fonts API</a>.</p>



<p>After switching the color scheme and selecting a couple of custom fonts, I had everything in place.</p>



<img />Selecting a custom font.



<p>After I had all the customizations I wanted, I headed over to Appearance &gt; Create Blockbase Theme in the admin. The page has a handful of fields to fill in &mdash; just basic theme info. Once I was finished, clicking the &ldquo;Create Blockbase Theme&rdquo; created a downloadable ZIP file.</p>



<img />Generating a Blockbase child theme.



<p>Everything worked. The only issue I ran into was with the theme folder slug when using a multi-word theme name. <code>Tavern Test</code> became <code>tavern_test.zip</code>. It is standard practice to hyphenate theme folders instead of using an underscore to separate multiple words.</p>



<p>The plugin does add a blank <code>screenshot.png</code> file. Creators will want to change that if they intend to publicly release their custom child theme.</p>



<p>This is the sort of future I have long imagined for the WordPress theme space, one that can empower anyone to create designs of their own. It is a future where an end-user, even a non-coder, can tinker around for a while, export whatever they have built, and share it with others.</p>



<p>We are not at that point with WordPress itself. The site editor currently allows users to export their templates. However, I hope that this same functionality is extended to exporting a fully-installable parent or child theme in the future. The basis of democratizing design means that everyone can give it a go without learning to code.</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, 19 Nov 2021 23:42:57 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:50:"WPTavern: WordPress 5.9 Delayed Until January 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:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=125857";s:7:"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:145:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-9-delayed-until-january-2022?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-5-9-delayed-until-january-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:6511:"<img />photo credit: <a href="https://flickr.com/photos/bionicteaching/5948497535/in/photolist-a4DB5k-ddR7m6-2hY62pS-2j1SNKo-2gVgBDF-2iQKbJz-2mpRzg5-o5uNv-2kZXTrc-2kaA4cG-2ipXyyx-2i1FMBL-2hczLX3-2gVikgB-2kHAzjL-2gNm6zQ-4FqcGi-7GRAo8-2gNkmv2-2gNkms1-2m7Fjzj-2hy98BL-2iABt8S-2jcVFsu-R46BYR-atjfJF-cJjJXb-2jNysNx-2kRrhRt-RaqGFB-2hzjuNi-2hxXktV-2hzoRjj-2hy7SMX-2hYCngf-2g5DqMg-2eq7vbd-Fi1aN3-Q9DhTa-2hzp4eS-2hxJzsN-j1RYuM-RNKgg5-2kNMrwW-TAdgqb-rPgJLf-2cw8mMR-2gNm6Dc-2j4c5D2-2hdmx5p">Tom Woodward</a>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/11/17/wordpress-5-9-beta-1-delayed/">WordPress 5.9 has been delayed</a> due to significant blockers that could not be resolved in time for Beta 1, which was previously <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/03/wordpress-5-9-planning-roundup/">scheduled</a> to be released November 16. The 5.9 release team came to the decision after a lengthy deliberation on the impact a delay will have on users and contributors. </p>



<p>Robert Anderson, Editor Tech Lead for 5.9, published <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/36556">a summary of the blockers</a> that were found while testing full-site editing in&nbsp;core&nbsp;this week. They are identified as either blockers for beta 1 or blockers for 5.9.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Historically (and even in the linked post), &lsquo;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2010/04/20/deadlines-are-not-arbritrary-theyre-a/">deadlines are not arbitrary</a>&lsquo; has referred to the ability to cut features that aren&rsquo;t quite ready yet, and include them in a future release,&rdquo; Gary Pendergast commented on the post announcing 5.9 beta 1 as delayed. &ldquo;Are there particular reasons for why this philosophy has been re-interpreted?&rdquo;</p>



<p>Tonya Mork, Core Tech Lead for the 5.9 release, responded with an explanation that FSE is going to have to be a package deal. </p>



<p>&ldquo;Removing those areas that need fixing were ruled out as they are too intertwined into FSE and would make it unstable,&rdquo; Mork said. &ldquo;Punting fixes was ruled out as these meant delivering a &lsquo;half-baked&rsquo; experience.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The choice is between shipping these major features in 5.9 with a delay or moving these major features to 6.0 to ship in the spring.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Impacts were assessed. Shipping these major features sooner than later were determined to be more beneficial with less impact.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Others commenting on the post shared concerns about the features possibly being rushed after seeing the list of blockers.</p>



<p>&ldquo;My initial reaction when reading the&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/36556">Overview of WP 5.9 pending issues and blockers</a>&nbsp;-issue on&nbsp;Gutenberg&nbsp;repository was &lsquo;holy smokes, there are so many open issues and blockers,'&rdquo; Timi Wahalahti said.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Nevertheless, from the viewpoint of a developer working in an agency and having 150+ client sites to look after, I do have similar concerns that Gary and Addison (in the Gutenberg repo issue) have already shared about rushing features out. After seeing the&nbsp;blocker&nbsp;list and reading how new major features are still under works, I&rsquo;d be very uncomfortable on updating to 5.9 after releasing it, knowing that some features were probably finished in a hurry.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Contributors on GitHub cautioned that the new flows for FSE features have not been adequately tested and should not be shipped just days after landing major changes. </p>



<p>&ldquo;I think there are some large red flags here that some things are not ready for 5.9,&rdquo; Gutenberg contributor Addison Stavlo said. &ldquo;Overall, it seems like right now we are rushing things in a dangerous way. We targeted 5.9 as the release for these items in core but too many things are just not ready, hence the rushing to change so many things at the last minute. Wouldn&rsquo;t it be better to miss the expected target date than to rush potentially regrettable decisions and brand new flows into core WP at the last minute?&rdquo;</p>



<p>The new proposed schedule, which has not yet been officially confirmed, is as follows:</p>



<ul><li>Nov 30 &ndash; Beta 1 (2 weeks from now)</li><li>Dec 7 &ndash; Beta 2</li><li>Dec 14 &ndash; Beta 3</li><li>Dec 21 &ndash; Beta 4 (optional)</li><li>Jan 4 &ndash; RC 1 (5 weeks from Beta)</li><li>Jan 11 &ndash; RC2</li><li>Jan 18 &ndash; RC 3</li><li>Jan 25 &ndash; Release date</li></ul>



<p>At the time of publishing, all 18 contributors who weighed in on <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02JUSF02TT/p1637262875087500">a poll in the 5.9 release leads slack channel</a> are in favor of the proposed new schedule. More blockers are being resolved and should continue throughout the weekend, but the delay to Beta 1 makes it inevitable that the stable release will be pushed back to January.</p>



<p>The remaining consideration is whether or not FSE will be on track for inclusion in 5.9 or if it will need to be shipped in 6.0.</p>



<p>&ldquo;If for some reason progress does not advance on track or something unknown / unexpected happens to cause further delays, then FSE features and TT2 theme are at risk to be punted to 6.0,&rdquo; Mork told the Tavern. The team is working to put safeguards in place to protect the release from further delays.</p>



<p>&ldquo;FSE is a collection of features with some that are interconnected,&rdquo; WordPress 5.9 Testing Co-Lead Anne McCarthy said. &ldquo;This release includes a selection that are interconnected including Styles, Block theme flows, Navigation Block, etc. In order for them to really shine, it makes the most sense for them to be released together, making it hard to just delay shipping one. They need more time to be refined in order to be shipped&nbsp;<em>together</em>.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The release team plans to publish an update on Monday with confirmation of the schedule moving forward. McCarthy noted that contributions have been lower this year, which has contributed to the delay.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We need to recognize the very Human situation we&rsquo;re in right now both in terms of larger cultural moments coming up with various holidays/celebrations and the reality of still being in the midst of a pandemic,&rdquo; McCarthy said. &ldquo;Delaying provides sustainability to get this release right without potentially burning out the remaining contributor base.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 19 Nov 2021 23:07:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:86:"WPTavern: BuddyPress 10.0.0 Beta 1 Delayed, Stable Release Rescheduled for December 24";s:7:"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=125869";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:215:"https://wptavern.com/buddypress-10-0-0-beta-1-delayed-stable-release-rescheduled-for-december-24?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=buddypress-10-0-0-beta-1-delayed-stable-release-rescheduled-for-december-24";s: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:2662:"<p>The upcoming BuddyPress 10.0.0 beta 1 release was scheduled for November 20, but contributors have decided to <a href="https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2021/11/18/bp-dev-chat-summary-november-17-2021/">postpone the beta</a> by two weeks, due to lack of time for adequately testing recent improvements to the planned features. The stable release has been rescheduled for December 24. This version will <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/8318">require WordPress &gt;=&nbsp;5.4</a>. </p>



<p>The delayed beta gives BuddyPress plugin developers more time to update the way they add custom tabs in admin screens, as version 10 will make changes to&nbsp;the layout of the Settings and Tools Administration screens. A short tutorial for <a href="https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2021/11/17/buddypress-admin-tabs-will-look-different-in-10-0-0/">how to update custom tabs</a> was published in a recent BP dev note.</p>



<p>Version 10 will add a new <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/8582">site membership requests</a> feature, which changes the registration process so that a site admin must manually approve requests. Approval sends an email to the user with a link to activate their account. Administrators can turn the feature on by disabling &ldquo;Anyone can register&rdquo; and enabling membership requests. Improvements to site membership requests are still under review and need more testing, which was one factor in the decision to postpone beta 1.</p>



<p>Contributors are also still working on <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/8581">extending no content activities with images and call of actions</a>, a feature that needs some refinement to the initial approach.</p>



<p>Unrelated to the postponed beta schedule, BuddyPress contributors are now discussing a proposal regarding the core BP blocks.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I was thinking we should probably stop adding blocks to BP Core and instead create standalone blocks into the WordPress plugins directory,&rdquo; BuddyPress core developer Mathieu Viet said during the most recent dev chat. </p>



<p>One advantage of not packaging them with BuddyPress is that they can be updated independently of core updates, which happen less frequently. One contributor, Varun Dubey, noted that this will increase the number of active plugins on sites and suggested the team consider bundling them in a block collection plugin instead. Anyone with a strong opinion on the matter is encouraged to share it as a comment on the most recent <a href="https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2021/11/18/bp-dev-chat-summary-november-17-2021/">BP Dev Chat summary post</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, 19 Nov 2021 05:03:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:35:"Post Status: The Open Web Manifesto";s:7:"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:55:"https://poststatus.com/?post_type=mn_rocks_news&p=89816";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"https://cdn.poststatus.com/news/the-open-web-manifesto/";s: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:693:"<p>Accessibility, Creatibility, and Connectibility — these are the three things that define the Open Web in its ideal state. It can be accessed by everyone, anyone can freely create on it, and the communities that form there can sustain themselves and grow. WordPress is critical to the Open Web as an indicator of its health, an ecosystem for business growth, and a path for people to contribute to the health, growth, and future of the Open Web. We want to guide, connect, and elevate our members — WordPress businesses and professionals — as they grow. And we want to make sure we share, nurture, and replenish the common resource we have in the Open Web. <strong><br />
</strong></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 19 Nov 2021 00:44:53 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jonathan Wold";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:108:"WPTavern: Donate to Big Orange Heart, Become a Self-Proclaimed Winner in the WP Builds WordPress Awards 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=125645";s:7:"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:259:"https://wptavern.com/donate-to-big-orange-heart-become-a-self-proclaimed-winner-in-the-wp-builds-wordpress-awards-2021?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=donate-to-big-orange-heart-become-a-self-proclaimed-winner-in-the-wp-builds-wordpress-awards-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:5730:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Flipping the usual <del>popularity contests</del> <em>WordPress-related award systems</em> on their heads, Nathan Wrigley has created something where we can all be a winner. What started as a joke to crown his WP Builds podcast as the best quickly took a positive turn that has seen several charitable donations in the past week or so.</p>



<p>The awards &ldquo;contest&rdquo; is simple. Anyone can donate the minimum amount of $10 to <a href="https://www.bigorangeheart.org/">Big Orange Heart</a> and show their receipt via the submission form.  They can then create a new award category for the <a href="https://wpbuilds.com/wp-builds-wordpress-awards-2021/">WP Builds awards page</a> and claim themselves as the sole winner. There are 27 days remaining to enter.</p>



<img />Awards page and submission form.



<p>While I certainly want to be charitable, I saw this as an opportunity to crown myself as the Best WordPress Halo Player in 2021. I have already won, so no one can dispute it.</p>



<p>In all seriousness, Big Orange Heart is a worthy cause in which to donate, regardless of whether you claim your award. The charity organization focuses on mental and physical health for remote workers. It offers coaching, mentoring, workshops, and other resources to over 14,500 members.</p>



<p>&ldquo;So I really did not come up with this,&rdquo; said Wrigley. &ldquo;It was an accident. I saw a few posts about a variety of awards polls (both inside WordPress and outside too), and I thought that it would be funny to create an Awards poll of my own. It had only one question, which was &lsquo;Best Podcast called WP Builds&rsquo; and there was only one option to choose from, which was, <em>erm</em>&hellip;WP Builds. I thought that this was enormously funny because somewhat humorless dad jokes are the level that I&rsquo;m on.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He then <a href="https://twitter.com/wpbuilds/status/1458387183283458056">posted on Twitter</a> and got 30 votes for the joke award poll in which his podcast could be the only winner.</p>



<p>&ldquo;A day later, I got a <a href="https://twitter.com/pootlepress/status/1458431706243997702">tweet from Jamie Marsland</a> of PootlePress who said (jokingly, I expect) that he&rsquo;d give me &pound;10 if I would add a new question of &lsquo;Best WordPress Tennis Player&rsquo; and him as the only possible winner. Now, I know nothing about tennis (or WordPress, if the truth be known), and so I thought about this for a moment. I imagined all of the things that I would do with Jamie&rsquo;s &pound;10. The new Bond film at the cinema, some new tennis balls, a billionth of a Bitcoin&hellip;Then I remembered Big Orange Heart.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Thus, a new fundraiser and faux awards contest had been born. Wrigley described Big Orange Heart as a charity that&rsquo;s really close to his heart. He told Marsland <a href="https://twitter.com/wpbuilds/status/1458432722955902977">to donate to the organization</a> to earn his spot. A $25 contribution and a <a href="https://twitter.com/pootlepress/status/1458433464559091713">screenshot of a receipt</a> later, and he had become the unofficial best WordPress tennis player.</p>



<p>Not to be outdone, Nigel M Rodgers later won the &ldquo;Bestest Best WordPress Tennis Player&rdquo; award. It is all in good fun.</p>



<p>&ldquo;So this silliness had taken a new turn,&rdquo; said Wrigley. &rdquo; A silly idea had generated $25 for Big Orange Heart. My heart was racing; this could be huge. I went to bed. In the morning, I woke up and sent out a new tweet.&rdquo;</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you donate $10 to <a href="https://twitter.com/aBigOrangeHeart?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@aBigOrangeHeart</a> I will make you a 100% certain winner of a category of your choosing in "The WP Builds WordPress Awards 2021". It's money well spent. You'll feel like a winner! <a href="https://t.co/L8i8O4Ayog">https://t.co/L8i8O4Ayog</a></p>&mdash; Nathan Wrigley (@wpbuilds) <a href="https://twitter.com/wpbuilds/status/1458433750027718658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>&ldquo;I had set a new low for Awards,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I will allow you to donate/buy your way into winning whatever category you choose for yourself in exchange for a guarantee that you&rsquo;ll win!&rdquo;</p>



<p>The WP Builds WordPress Awards 2021 is, without a doubt, unique. Now that we are just ahead of the holidays, it is always a welcome time to donate.</p>



<p>Michelle Frechette &ldquo;is actually triplets masquerading as one person&rdquo; reads one award. Leanne Mitton is the &ldquo;Best Gnome Collector in the WordPress community.&rdquo; Isaac Coleman is &ldquo;The Most Awesome 13 Year Old in the World&rdquo; &mdash; <em>there could be a proud parent involved in that one</em>. And, there are many others to read through just for laughs.</p>



<p>Wrigley does not yet know if he will run it in 2022. He is waiting to see how this one turns out. With enough support from the WordPress community, it could be fun to keep up with every year.</p>



<p>For now, Big Orange Heart is the only accepted charitable organization. However, I asked if Wrigley would be open to others in our space in the future, assuming he keeps it up next year.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure that there would be ways to allow the person making the donation to choose alternative charities,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This seems like a great idea! I&rsquo;m open to suggestions about which charities we could include.&rdquo;</p>



<p><strong>Note: </strong><em>Nathan Wrigley runs the WP Jukebox podcast for WP Tavern.</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:"Thu, 18 Nov 2021 19:12:14 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:86:"Post Status: Post Status Excerpt (No. 33) — The Next Chapter For In-Person WordCamps";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=89029";s:7:"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:34:"https://poststatus.com/excerpt/33/";s: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:3940:"<h2>&#8220;I expect the hallway track to be pretty busy during this event.&#8221; —Nathan Ingram</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">In this episode of Post Status Excerpt, David talks with special guests <strong>Nathan Ingram</strong> and <strong>Ryan Marks</strong> about <strong>WordCamp Birmingham 2022</strong> — one of the first in-person WordCamps after almost two years of no live events anywhere in the world. With 200+ people expected to attend, Nathan and Ryan talk about the safeguards that will be in place, how they are managing expectations, how their sponsorships are being handled, the role of hybrid events, and how WordCamp Birmingham's reboot is being received in the WordPress community.</p>



<p><strong>Also don't forget: </strong>We're encouraging listeners to check out the &#8220;<a href="https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/">Week at WordPress.org</a>&#8221; — get the feed <a href="https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/feed/">here</a> — and <a href="https://poststatus.com/submit-2021-black-friday-cyber-monday-deals/">submit your Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals</a> to us at Post Status for us to share.</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/13.0.1/72x72/26a1.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/13.0.1/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h3 id="h-mentioned-in-the-show"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f517.png" alt="🔗" class="wp-smiley" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>



<ul><li><a href="https://birmingham.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp Birmingham / WP'Yall</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/dimensionmedia" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">David Bisset (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href="http://twitter.com/nathaningram">Nathan Ingram (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href="http://twitter.com/cdrmarks">Ryan Marks (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/post_status" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Post Status (Twitter)</a></li></ul>



<h3><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> Sponsor: <a href="https://poststat.us/sandhills" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow">SpinupWP</a></h3>



<p>Spin up your own extremely fast WordPress server in minutes with <strong>SpinupWP</strong>. Use any cloud hosting provider you want, and manage your servers remotely with a simple but powerful control panel. Get the security and performance of managed hosting without losing the independence of hosting your projects and your clients yourself.</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, 18 Nov 2021 12:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:121:"WPTavern: New Core Web Vitals Technology Report Shows Overall Pass Rate for WordPress Sites Decreases with Newer Versions";s:7:"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=125594";s:7:"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:287:"https://wptavern.com/new-core-web-vitals-technology-report-shows-overall-pass-rate-for-wordpress-sites-decreases-with-newer-versions?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-core-web-vitals-technology-report-shows-overall-pass-rate-for-wordpress-sites-decreases-with-newer-versions";s: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:5696:"<p>Some new data from a recent <a href="https://discuss.httparchive.org/t/new-dashboard-the-core-web-vitals-technology-report/2178">Core Web Vitals (CWV) technology report</a> produced by the HTTP Archive shows WordPress sites running newer versions have lower CWV pass rates. </p>



<p>The original report was published in July by Rick Viscomi, one of the maintainers of the HTTP Archive. The site provides a permanent repository of web performance information, giving researchers a common set of data for researching and understanding trends. Contributors&rsquo; efforts are sponsored by Google, Mozilla, New Relic, Etsy, and other companies.</p>



<p>One of the most notable findings in Viscomi&rsquo;s report showed that just 22% of WordPress-powered origins pass the Core Web Vitals &ldquo;Good&rdquo; threshold.</p>



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



<p>WordPress core committer Adam Silverstein wanted to dig a little deeper into this data set to see if he could extract more information about WordPress sites&rsquo; CWV performance that wasn&rsquo;t represented in the initial published graphs. He proposed an analysis that would <a href="https://discuss.httparchive.org/t/comparing-core-web-vital-performance-across-wordpress-versions/2256">compare Core Web Vital performance across WordPress versions</a>:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>How have CWV scores changed over WordPress versions? Are there measurable improvements in the wild after recent changes like adding native&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/07/14/lazy-loading-images-in-5-5/">image</a>&nbsp;(version 5.5) and&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/02/19/lazy-loading-iframes-in-5-7/">iframe</a>&nbsp;(version 5.7) lazy loading and&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/07/wordpress-5-8-adds-webp-support/">WebP image support</a>&nbsp;(version 5.8)?</p></blockquote>



<p>Silverstein worked with Viscomi to create a query that would extract performance data grouped by WordPress version. He found that core additions like native image and iframe lazy loading, and WebP image support have had no measurable improvement on CWV scores in the wild. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /><a href="https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/ab251873-b787-4a8e-b4c8-efccf4b9a911/page/HUaeC?s=vvFHFeV3n_Q">WordPress Versions Core Web Vitals report</a></div>



<p>&ldquo;Lazy loading may be too aggressive as it is applied to all images,&rdquo; Silverstein said, noting that <a href="https://web.dev/lcp-lazy-loading/">lazy loading can be detrimental</a> if over used. This should be remedied soon. Google-sponsored WordPress core committer Felix Arntz opened <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53675">a ticket to improve lazy loading</a>, which will be included in WordPress 5.9. </p>



<p>&ldquo;WebP adoption in WordPress has been growing since the 5.8 release, however users need to manually convert their images to WebP before uploading to take advantage of the format,&rdquo; Silverstein said. &ldquo;Landing WebP as the default format for sub-sized images which was started in&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/52867">this ticket</a>&nbsp;will have a much bigger impact by automatically converting uploaded images to WebP.&#8203;&#8203;&rdquo;</p>



<p>A few highlights of Silverstein&rsquo;s observations from the analysis include: </p>



<ul><li>70% of origins are on the latest version of WordPress and 88% are on one of the last two versions, meaning changes we make to core reach the majority of sites relatively quickly.</li><li>The number of origins is quite low for older versions of WordPress, with fewer than 5k origins for most versions before 4.7</li><li>Overall CWV pass rates have generally decreased over WordPress versions. Although it might also be the case that &ldquo;leading-edge&rdquo; websites that update to the latest version are generally slower than those that linger on older versions.</li></ul>



<p>Silverstein anticipates this analysis will provide the basis for tracking major improvements in the future. The Google-sponsored WordPress contributors on his team are active in certain core projects and are leading <a href="https://wptavern.com/yoast-and-google-sponsored-core-contributors-propose-new-wordpress-performance-team">WordPress&rsquo; new performance team</a> with the goal of improving core performance as measured by&nbsp;<a href="https://web.dev/vitals/">Google&rsquo;s Core Web Vitals</a>&nbsp;metrics.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Basically I wanted to create a way to measure the impact of core WordPress improvements on WordPress sites (at scale),&rdquo; Silverstein told the Tavern. &ldquo;My team at Google is focused on helping improve the performance of the web at scale, and WordPress is a huge part of that! You may have noticed us working on features like lazy loaded images and iframes, WebP image support and now helping start the performance group. I wanted to find a way to see if our work is having a measurable impact &ndash; and not just on a vanilla WordPress site you might set up for testing, but in the wild, or real world websites that upgrade to the latest version of WordPress. That is the goal of the dashboard.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The new <a href="https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/ab251873-b787-4a8e-b4c8-efccf4b9a911/page/HUaeC?s=vvFHFeV3n_Q">dashboard</a>, which tracks WordPress CWV performance by version, is available to the performance team for monitoring their progress with each new WordPress release. Google-sponsored contributors are using it to measure the impact of their efforts across various performance initiatives.</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, 18 Nov 2021 03:15:35 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WPTavern: Rank Math SEO Launches a Content AI Feature";s:7:"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=125464";s:7:"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:151:"https://wptavern.com/rank-math-seo-launches-a-content-ai-feature?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rank-math-seo-launches-a-content-ai-feature";s: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:8496:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Last week, the popular <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-by-rank-math/">Rank Math SEO</a> plugin received a major update that includes a new artificial intelligence system. The Content AI feature is a SaaS product that behaves like a personal writing assistant to boost search rankings.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We built Rank Math&rsquo;s Content AI feature to revolutionize the content production and optimization process with proprietary AI that gives SEOs and content marketers a competitive edge,&rdquo; said Bhanu Ahluwalia, Rank Math&rsquo;s CMO.</p>



<p>The system allows users to research what their content should look like based on a keyword. Each keyword analysis costs one credit. This data is stored on the user&rsquo;s server, so the same keyword used on multiple posts does not cost extra. Users get five free credits after signing up for a user account with Rank Math. However, they must upgrade to one of the three commercial plans, ranging from $59 to $499 per year, for more.</p>



<p>Each of the <a href="https://rankmath.com/offer/">commercial plans</a> comes with a specific number of credits. They are marketed as free extras, but they are not &ldquo;free&rdquo; for users who want to upgrade for credits alone. The team says they are working on a pricing solution to address this.</p>



<p>Users should see a new Content AI module that they can enable from the plugin&rsquo;s Dashboard screen. Turning this on creates a new tab under the plugin&rsquo;s General Settings page for further configuration.</p>



<img />Content AI general settings.



<p>The Content AI feature works with the WordPress editor, the classic editor, Elementor, and Divi. However, the team plans to extend this support to other page builders in the future</p>



<p>Users can then enter a focus keyword from the post-editing screen and click the Content AI button. From there, they can research their chosen keyword, and Rank Math pulls up suggestions from their system.</p>



<img />Example post with Content AI score.



<p>The scoring system is easy to understand. Above 80 (in the green) is considered &ldquo;good.&rdquo; Anything below might need some work based on the plugin&rsquo;s recommendations.</p>



<p>The primary suggestions from the Content AI center on total words, links, headings, and media. When asked how the numbers were figured, Ahluwalia said, &ldquo;This is a computation performed based on the top-ranking content in search engine results pages (i.e., characteristics of content that ranks).&rdquo; It is a proprietary system, so maybe the team is not ready to give away the exact details.</p>



<p>The feature also lets users copy related keywords to use in their posts, offers questions that the content should answer, and lists potential links to use.</p>



<p>The following video explains how Content AI works:</p>



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

</div>



<h2 id="are-content-scores-a-good-thing">Are Content Scores a Good Thing?</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">I am admittedly skeptical of any claims from SEO tools. There is value in most of the plugins in the space, and Rank Math is no different. However, I also want end-users to take SEO or content scores with a grain of salt. Hitting a specific word, link, heading, or media count is not going to make or break you. These should be guidelines, not goalposts.</p>



<p>When asked how the score was calculated, I was pointed to a <a href="https://rankmath.com/kb/seo-score-vs-content-ai-score/">knowledgebase article</a> on the Rank Math website. Nothing in the Content AI section explicitly explains the &ldquo;math&rdquo; behind the score. Essentially, the documentation references how the AI analyzes search results for various factors and describes how the tool works. There is some generally solid advice throughout, but it does not answer how those scores are calculated.</p>



<p>One particular area of concern was the recommended media count for each post. I had access to a full demo of the feature with a few dozen posts to check. Nearly all that I ran through the Content AI had a recommendation of using 18 media. The number felt off. While I cannot claim to be an SEO guru, I do not see why a typical 1,000 or 2,000-word post should need that many images or videos. Even with web-optimized media, that could bring page-loading speed to a crawl for many site visitors.</p>



<p>&ldquo;That entirely depends on the focus keyword that you had set for your post,&rdquo; said Ahluwalia on how the recommended count is determined. &ldquo;Page speed is a ranking factor, but the media count and its associated guideline there is a super simple way to quickly see and consider whether that&rsquo;s something that you need to do to rank as well. If we&rsquo;re, for example, looking at the keyword &lsquo;SEO tools,&rsquo; the recommendation is as high as 26, which is unsurprising because the majority of ranking content hasn&rsquo;t just covered essential SEO tools, they&rsquo;ve covered the 15, 20, or even 109 &lsquo;best SEO tools.&rsquo;</p>



<p>&ldquo;This concern with using media in content as it relates to page speed is surprisingly common, but the reality is that content without design doesn&rsquo;t typically perform particularly well (even if it ends up ranking, then not from a conversion/social sharing perspective because people leave with the impression of encountering a wall of text). A lot of the content on our site wouldn&rsquo;t be the same without the images in the posts to paint the full picture and distill what are complex SEO processes/ideas into something that&rsquo;s super simple for people to understand.&rdquo;</p>



<p>I generally agree that sites should use media alongside text. Looking over one of the demo posts I had access to, the content did not seem to warrant the recommended count.</p>



<p>This particular post had 1,199 words and 32 paragraphs. It also had six images, which presumably played a significant role in the 20/100 score. Content AI recommended 18 instances of media.</p>



<img />



<p>Had the post met the recommended media count, there would have been one image for at least every two paragraphs. Even with half that number, visitors would unlikely think they are just &ldquo;encountering a wall of text.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Maybe the analysis is correct. Perhaps it will help sites rank. But, that much media mixed in with text strikes me as a sub-optimal reading experience.</p>



<p>My primary concern with tools like Content AI &mdash; this applies to SEO plugins in general &mdash; is that site owners are trying to make sure they are <em>in the green</em>. Instead of writing for readers, they are writing to rank. The two things are not mutually exclusive, but when end-users take recommendations as gospel, it can lead to stunted prose.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We completely agree, and while AI content has come a long way, we&rsquo;re very much also still fans of well-researched content that&rsquo;s put together by humans like you and I (as is all of the content on our own blog),&rdquo; said Ahluwalia. &ldquo;The goal with Rank Math&rsquo;s Content AI is assisted content production and optimization (streamlined by software).</p>



<p>&ldquo;Broadly speaking, as you say, traffic-light style scores or numerical scores don&rsquo;t paint a full picture for most content. This was a very big motivation for the new content optimization suggestions that go beyond typical scoring (that is the same no matter what you&rsquo;re writing about). When writing something that isn&rsquo;t search-driven at all (i.e. targeting a keyword and search intent that has little demand and no competition with a thought leadership piece, for example) you&rsquo;re not writing for searchers, you&rsquo;re writing for a specific set of people you have in mind. This content is still incredibly valuable though.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He went on to say that for what the Rank Math team calls &ldquo;search-driven&rdquo; content, there are specific elements that well-ranking competing content has in common.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It goes without saying that when using content optimization tools the consideration for still writing good content that&rsquo;s helpful has to be there for the end result to be truly exceptional,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;With the aim here being to aid the creation of content, ensuring it addresses search intent, and meets what search engines deem valuable and useful content.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 18 Nov 2021 01:11:13 +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:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog #55 – Gutenberg 11.9, WordPress 5.9, Navigation Block";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?post_type=podcast&p=19591";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:104:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-55-gutenberg-11-9-wordpress-5-9-navigation-block/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56225:"<p>Birgit Pauli-Haack, Grzegorz Ziolkowski discuss Gutenberg 11.9, WordPress 5.9 and Navigation Block. Surprise Guest: Riad Benguella</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://paulisystems.net/wordpress-consulting">Pauli Systems</a></li></ul>



<p><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-54-gutenberg-11-8#shownotes">Show Notes </a>/ <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-54-gutenberg-11-8#transcript">Transcript</a></p>



<span id="more-19591"></span>



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



<h2 id="announcements">Announcements</h2>



<p id="jerseypress-what-is-full-site-editing">Nov 22, 2021 7pm EST / 0:00 UTC <br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Montclair-Meetup/events/281915481/"><strong>JerseyPress: What is Full-Site Editing?</strong></a><br />WordPress Meetup in Montclair, New Jersey </p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/full-site-editing/">𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 (𝗙𝗦𝗘 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲) Theme in the WordPress Directory</a></p>



<h2 id="what-s-released">What&#8217;s released: </h2>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/wordpress-5-8-2-security-and-maintenance-release/">WordPress 5.8.2</a></p>



<h3 id="gutenberg-11-9">Gutenberg 11.9</h3>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/11/12/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-9-0-10-november/">What’s new in Gutenberg 11.9.0 (10 November)</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-9-focuses-on-navigation-menus-and-block-theming">Gutenberg 11.9 Focuses on Navigation Menus and Block Theming</a></p>



<p></p>



<h2 id="what-s-in-active-development-or-discussed">What&#8217;s in active development or discussed</h2>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/11/08/fse-program-testing-call-11-site-editing-safari/">FSE Program Testing Call #11: Site Editing Safari</a></p>



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



<div class="wp-container-619bc042c2229 wp-block-group"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<ul><li>Did you like this episode? <a href="https://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog"><strong>Please write us a review </strong></a></li><li>Ping us on Twitter or send DMs with questions. <a href="https://twitter.com/gziolo">@gziolo </a>and <a href="https://twitter.com/bph">@bph</a>.</li><li><em>If you have questions or suggestions, or news you want us to include, send them to <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. </em></li><li><em>Please write us a review on iTunes! <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/itunes/">(Click here to learn how)</a></em></li></ul>
</div></div>



<p></p>



<p class="has-large-font-size" id="transcript">Transcription</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, hello and welcome to our 55th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast, recording on November 15th, 2021. In today&#8217;s episode, we will talk about Gutenberg 11.9, WordPress 5.9 coming up to a WordPress instance near you and then about navigation area block on Full-Site Editing and all the good things that come to WordPress.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator of the Gutenberg Times and WordPress developer advocate. And today, I have two co-hosts. You all know Grzegorz Ziolkowski, JavaScript developer at Automattic and WordPress core contributor. And our surprise guest today is Riad Benguella, one of the lead developers on Gutenberg and also code wrangler at Automattic. I am delighted you are here with us Riad, thanks for joining us.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Hi, Birgit. Thanks for having me. It&#8217;s an honor for me to join you and Grzegorz on the show, and help spread the Gutenberg love to the community.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, yeah. It&#8217;s good. Yeah. Well, your passion for it is really contagious when I saw you before at WordCamp US and so when we met, it&#8217;s always nice and yeah patiently explaining things to me. So are you both on a team retreat? Where are you right now in the world and how are you doing?</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Hola, qué tal? That means greetings from Spain. So I&#8217;m so happy that Riad joins us today to discuss the latest 11.9 Gutenberg plugin release and the upcoming COR press 5.9 release.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: Yeah. It&#8217;s so great to be able to meet colleagues again, we are kind of learning to travel again. Right?</p>



<p>And yeah, I&#8217;m also, so looking forward to be able to join the community in upcoming word camps in-person events. We miss these a lot.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh, yeah.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: The one is happening in Seville in December. That&#8217;s going to be fun.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: You&#8217;re going to be there in December in Seville.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: I&#8217;m not it&#8217;s the connection to Seville is bad for me, but I know that some of my colleagues from Spain, which will be there from Automattic.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah.</p>



<p>Riad Benguella: Personally I&#8217;m so looking forward to word camp Europe in Porto in June, hopefully.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, me too. Me too. And I&#8217;m so excited. I was excited two years ago when it was supposed to happen and now I&#8217;m even more excited to come to Portugal and to see everybody from Europe again, it&#8217;s going to be such a great event. And I hope that all the people that are still hesitant about vaccinations, that they get their shots, also the booster shots so we can all be together. Because I found that in-person meetings are so much richer than even though an online meeting like this, it&#8217;s good to help out and kind of bridge the gap. But the in-person meeting, even with family, we visited the family for five weeks in August and September. And there was such a relief to finally be together in one room again, and just hang out and go out and eat and just sit and chat. Yeah. But back to here.</p>



<h3 id="announcements-1"><strong>Announcements</strong></h3>



<p>So I just wanted to let you know that November 22 is a WordPress meetup in Montclair, New Jersey, which is a virtual meetup and anybody can join. And I will demo the concept of full-site editing. And I will also take questions, AMA style, ask me anything style and it will take place on 7:00 PM eastern 12:00 AM. I was just going to think, is this am or PM because, it&#8217;s 12:00 AM UTC. And if you go to meetup.com, look for WordPress Montclair in New Jersey to sign up for it. Well, of course we will have the link in the show notes but it would be great if you want to learn more about what&#8217;s coming to WordPress 5.9 and Full Site editing to join us there.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: And speaking of that, I would like to thank props to Munir Kamal for reminding us on Twitter about the new tag that is in the WordPress teams directory, which called Full-Site editing. And it allows you to see all the block teams that are already there and it looks that we have 27 teams that are marked with this tag.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>:&nbsp; Yeah. That&#8217;s great that, tweeting that out Munir. I&#8217;m also seeing that&#8217;s also a link that I will share in the show notes, of course, and also in the meeting at Montclair and some of the themes that are in there are actually universal themes. They work for a classic theme or a block theme. So it&#8217;s quite interesting to see how you can switch it over. But don&#8217;t use them on production caveat it&#8217;s still a beta kind of feature.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah, it&#8217;s like in one month, everything could change.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Right. Everything, the whole Internet&#8217;s going to change. But only if you want it. Yeah, we don&#8217;t want to scare anybody to upgrade to 5.9 because it&#8217;s all opt in. And it&#8217;s only when you have a block theme available, the Full-Site Editing is actually available to you.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 id="what-s-released-wordpress-5-8-2-and-gutenberg-11-9"><strong>What’s Released &#8211; WordPress 5.8.2 and Gutenberg 11.9&nbsp;</strong></h3>



<p>So what&#8217;s released in last week, we had the WordPress 5.8.2 release, that&#8217;s a maintenance and security fix. And if you haven&#8217;t updated yet, you definitely should do so now. Most WordPress managed hostings automatically update to a point release, but not everybody is comfortable doing that, but update it. And the other release was of course the Gutenberg 11.9 plugin release with 223 PRs, yes I counted them and they made it into the release.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: The largest ever.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: I also counted the PRs for WordPress 5.9, and it&#8217;s actually 600 feature PRs and like 400 bug fixes.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Wow.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: So it&#8217;s like 1000 PRs that are coming to WordPress 5.9.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Whoa.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: In a couple of weeks.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, that&#8217;s huge. Yeah. So the&#8230;</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: I don&#8217;t know how the community managed to do that, but yeah. It&#8217;s very impressive.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Well, thank you for the data. So 600 features and 400 bug fixes. That&#8217;s a thousand, wow. Yeah and how many contributors, you don&#8217;t know, but we will know in December.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. That&#8217;s important. Someone will run the script that will calculate everything for us.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: So stay tuned.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Stay tuned. Right. Okay. So what&#8217;s in Gutenberg 11.9.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 id="enhancements"><strong>Enhancements</strong></h3>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> So first we start with new blocks, but they are not part of WordPress 5.9&#8217;s release. They are still experimental and they are related to comments block, we already have one that is going to be in 5.9, this which is called post comments and is basically everything you see when you go to the comments section under the post. And this one is something brand new. So we are doing it in a way that is more granular and similar to the way how the query loop block works. So the new blocks are comment replying, comment edit link, comment outer avatar, and the comments query loop. There is also comment templates. So the idea is you can combine everything, decide what you want to display and so on.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: I was going to mention the navigation block and the work that has been performed during this release, which is an important work that was actually answering some feedback from the user testing that happened on FSE. So users were finding it a bit hard to actually reuse navigation across teams and across templates for FSE teams. So an important work went into the navigation block during this release. So now the blocks are actually saved into their own custom post type. They work like template parts so you should be able to reuse navigation menus more easily across templates, and when you switch teams.</p>



<p>Also the same features will allow classic themes to migrate more seamlessly into a block theme. So when you switch from a classic theme to a block theme, all your navigation should probably be retained. And yeah, these are some important change that are coming and actually was important before the beta of WordPress 5.9, which is I think coming tomorrow.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Right. Yeah. It needed to be within the feature freeze. So it makes it in 5.9 and bug fixes will come probably with the next plugin release that will be back porting some of the issues.</p>



<p>Yeah. Thank you for mentioning the navigation block I have, in the last few days before I went to Chicago, tested some of the navigation items, and I&#8217;m glad that some made it in there. One is the single placeholder for the block. Where you can actually select the menu when you already have one or add all the pages or start an empty navigation block. And that is really helpful for users to get it all set up. But I also like, and I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s in the release note now, but what also helps is that you can add the site title to the navigation or a site logo to the navigation block.</p>



<p>So it&#8217;s all kind of one unit that is on the header. That definitely spruces up the FSE, as Riad mentioned, FSE means Full-Site Editing and listeners will know, that referred to the Full Site Editing outreach program, that is run by Anne McCarthy. Do we have anything else? Oh, what I also like is the responsive navigation, there is a way to get the hamburger menu out of the box with a little feature there. And you can decide if you want the hamburger menu by default, also for your desktop site or just for the mobile site. And another tool is there that you can have the menu, have a navigation, an orientation horizontal or vertical. So you could if you wanted to put it in a column block on the left hand side, and it kind of goes down the left hand side, like one of the default themes, I think it was 15 that had a navigation block on the left hand side, yeah. All right and then we had these post comments, but it was interesting to hear that will not come into 5.9. Thanks for pointing that out.&nbsp;</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: There, are two things it&#8217;s quite confusing because we had a post comments like plural, a post comment, but also post comment, singular block. So the, the one that has that got deprecated was the more or less what we are trying to replicate now with comment template block. But the old one, it was just very limited. And it worked more like a format you had to provide a comment ID, which was very hard to use for you. You don&#8217;t know the comment ID of your comments. So yeah.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I don&#8217;t even know the post ID. Yeah. Okay.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Otherwise there was enhancement to the post comments blocks that will be included also in Twenty Twenty-Two default theme. And there was some features missing, there was some issues with the marking inside the block, and also in some cases is when the outer of the site decides to close the comments. So we should show proper messaging or you can also on your website decide that after a certain amount of time, you can no longer comment on posts anymore. So these cases are sorted it out and it should work pretty good in those situations.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And I also see that the post comment form that&#8217;s now available for block based theme on the post template, I would think. Yeah. Excellent. Excellent.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Then there were some enhancements for accessibility with announcing the formatting change to screen readers also communicate to the screen reader the post title is a text area and some other smaller fixes or enhancements there, which is in all the little things that kind of make a user experience so much richer.</p>



<p>On the block editor we have the enable rich previews in the link UI for the site editor. That is something that had been in the block editor for, I think two versions of the plugin and now it also comes to the site editor. That&#8217;s a feature that when you put a link text in a paragraph or in a navigation or wherever you need it and you save it and then come back to it, you come back to update the post or you just kind of continue editing it, and you hover over the link, you get a rich preview with a title, a description as well as if it&#8217;s available, a feature image. So, you know exactly if the link is still working or if you need to update it in your content.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: Yeah. As we get closer to 5.9 the contributors worked more on parity between site editor and post editor. So they brought these features, the link preview, the save keyboard. Now you can press command S and it triggers the saving. And there were some discussions also about the menu item of site editor and where we place it exactly and where it makes most sense. So for the moment, this decision has been to use editor and move it in their appearance. And it&#8217;s now worked that way across WordPress trunk. And also the Gutenberg plugin.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Now the controversy is that under appearance, we have editor and a theme editor, so that&#8217;s a confusing thing that probably needs to be further discussed among the contributors.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. I hear you there. There is a lot of editing going on. Yeah. And the theme editor it&#8217;s really hazard because it gets you to the files of your PHP theme. And if you change a code and leave a quote out or something like that, you can actually create fatal error messages on your site. And it&#8217;s very hard to get to them to fix it. So I would always suggest to take away the theme editor instead of the site editor, because the site editor is a much safer place to be for someone who is not particularly technical.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: Makes me wonder if it&#8217;s basically the ancestor of the site editor. In classic themes, you cannot edit the theme directly, you have to edit the code. So you go to the theme editor, or you edit the files manually. So now that you have the site editor, maybe we could consider removing the theme editor&#8217;s UI entirely. I don&#8217;t know if it makes sense anymore to have it there. Maybe some people still would still need it from time to time, but is it something that the user should be exposed then by default? That&#8217;s I think a question that could be discussed.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah I think so. You&#8217;re right.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Could be left somewhere, but probably you need to know what to do and finding in one place or when you know the link. And the other things that maybe the only reason why we should keep that exposed is for the CSS code. Maybe at this time, when not everything is covert with global styles. There are some reasons for people to use that.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. It&#8217;s a similar case with the customizer. Yeah. When you have a Full Site Editing theme, a block by theme, the customizer itself, link in the appearance menu disappears, but the customizer is still available through the theme card on the theme screen. So you could still use the customizer if there&#8217;s something in there that a plugin put in there that the theme doesn&#8217;t have a control yet for it. And that could be a similar way to do, okay a Full-Site Editing theme is a block theme, is active. Yeah. Let&#8217;s remove the theme editor for that part and see what happens and just let the functionality be in there, but not have it in the menu. I think that will be valid to have that discussion. Yes. All right.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Yeah, and then the next one of Full-Site Editing Enhancement is the Search. Control Component that you can have inside the navigation menu. I really like that. It could use a few more controls to adjust the size of it a bit in relation to the other items in the navigation menu. But that is certainly fixable in a later version, but just having it there, it really helpful.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. This navigation block becomes so powerful, there are so many options. And I really like how it evolves over time also, how it becomes easier to use with every release. It came a really long way from the beginning.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: And the challenge always with these powerful features is to find the balance between the good user experience, and also continue adding features without deteriorating the simplicity of the block. So, yeah I think we will continue to iterate on these things until we find the right balance there.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. I think the other balance is also to strike, what do we want as feature parity to the previous version or the previous way of doing menus? Because there were quite a few extenders who extended the menu controls through plugins and themes and all that. I&#8217;m not sure that they all have been tested and kind of migrated over. I think there&#8217;s still some experience and some learning to be done, but is there a way to do it differently?</p>



<p>Yeah. Well, and then we have duo tone component there was only one change in the description that the underlying image that is to which the duo tone is applied is not changed. I think that&#8217;s a very important distinction because people always fear that something changes that they don&#8217;t have any control over and there was something else in duo tone.</p>



<p>Oh yeah. The duo tone now is using transparency as well. So you could have a background and a duo tone and transparency and have the background shine through. So it&#8217;s multiple layers of features that you can put on top of it, and I will share in the show notes, a video that Anne McCarthy did to kind of show you how this all works together. And she has some very neat representation of some of her photos now with the different duo tones there. Yeah, you have to see it to actually appreciate it really and not get confused about things, but I really love it. Duo tone. It&#8217;s almost like gradients and I love gradients. You could do now gradients in duo tone with transparency, background on cover. So yeah, what else can you need?</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: There&#8217;s so many customization control now available on the plugin and the contributors keep adding more and more. And I think it&#8217;s an infinite work. You can open your imagination and just make it happen.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Riad in 10 years we will still talk about gradients and where we can apply it. Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: And there is now also a change to the tools panel, which is related mostly to the setting sidebar. So the thing that change is the type of section. So in the past, you would have a list of controls displayed at once. Now, you have better control over what&#8217;s displayed by default and you can enable more controls or hide some of them when you stop using them. It&#8217;s very similar to the dimension panel. That&#8217;s already in the plugin for quite a while. And the direction is just to give the same capabilities to all sections. So they work the same way. Yeah.&nbsp;</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: This change also use a, a little bit that you can actually have multiple columns in the theme, in the typography controls, when they&#8217;re just small controls, you get two next to each other, and that certainly saves you some real estate or some spool on up and down on that. And, and I like it. It has a more harmonious layout there. So like that. Yeah.&nbsp;</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: The idea with these tools panels is that we should unify how blocks show their different customization option on the sidebar. So typography uses the tools panel color U could use the tools panel. I think there is another one dimensions could use the tools panel. So that way, no matter the block you are using, you could SU similar things on the, on this side. And if you find it too overwhelming, you could show and hide the controls you want.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: It&#8217;s awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It kind of goes a little bit towards what, what we have been discussing on the developer advocacy relations team that can we have some best practices on yeah. If somebody builds a custom block yeah. Best practices on how to distinguish between the side settings and the toolbar settings and all that. I think it&#8217;s, it&#8217;s time to kind of put some of those best practices in writing. So of people can look it up and I will going to work that&#8217;s part of our 2022 kind of plan to figure that out and work with the developers on that. So consistency goes a long way in not having to figure out this for every single block or for every single type of block. How is a car applied cred and applied and all that. Yeah.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: In this case, we are following what Riad did for the block toolbar. So he created groups like for block, for formatting controls and so on. And here we will have also those extension points for dimension colors, typographic easy. You know, it&#8217;s not still setting stone, how it&#8217;ll end up. So we don&#8217;t want to spoil the game and like introduce any hustle to the community. But once everything is ready, then we&#8217;ll definitely come up with some recommendations that we share with the community. Awesome.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: So the template editor has as a template part focus mode. Now that means that you can separately change the header or the footer in your site editor. There&#8217;s also a post available on the make blog/core about those editor improvements and the template part focus mode that you now can use to, when you look in the site editor, you have always the full page, but if you just want to isolate the header and just look at that, you can switch over to the template part focus mode.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: The next thing is, if you are building a theme, whether it&#8217;s classic or block theme and using theme JSON, there is a small change that you could apply to your theme JSON. So for consistency, we removed some custom prefixes from some settings like custom line height, custom margin and custom filing, I think. So you could move to theme JSON version two and remove these prefixes that way you&#8217;re on the last version.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: So to do that, you need in your team, JSON, at a new field called, version. Oh, it&#8217;s not in new field, but you need to set version to number two. And that basically enables this new updated APIs.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And I know that there were quite a few efforts around the development team to put actually a schema up on schema store and have also the link via.webpress.org. And are those schema already updated to the version two? Do we know?</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Oh, thank you for reminding about that yet. It&#8217;s done. It&#8217;s ready for both block JSON and theme JSON it&#8217;s now in WordPress domain and the new member, the URL, we will show that later in the show notes. And yes, it&#8217;s already the old one that you could use will still work because the schema in the schema store it has a very interesting configuration. So it&#8217;s now referencing the new URL, so whatever use it will work anyway. And as we found out, someone pointed that out, I don&#8217;t remember but anyway, even if you don&#8217;t provide the dollar schema field, most of the editors will be able to recognize that based on the name of the file and they will show you hints anyway. So you only need probably to do that for visual studio code explicitly.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Mm. Yeah. That&#8217;s interesting to know there&#8217;s some learning to be on the editor. So, oh you use it once I know where that was. See here. Yeah, I excellent. Speaking of gradients, now you can show all the colors on the gradient origin in the different panels. So there&#8217;s a new panel when you do site editing and color configuration, and it has the core color palette, the themed color palette. And if a user creates their own color palette, it will show there too.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s a little bit crowded and I know there&#8217;s also an issue posted to find a way to actually remove the core color palette because it has so many colors and when people use it some team developers or agencies definitely would want to remove that. But it&#8217;s a nicer interface, but it has the text color 1, 2, 3 core theme and user. And then it has the background color in core theme and user colors. And then it has the link colors as well. If it, theme JSON says, please use the link color scheme as well, and then it will go in there as well. And it&#8217;s interesting to see. So I&#8217;m looking forward to the user feedback that we are going to get there to adjust an next iteration now.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: So one of the original reasons for this feature, why do we introduce these different pallets core theme and user is, if you think about patterns, we have now a directory for patterns and theme could provide patterns and we wanted to have some color in these patterns, right? And so how can we make sure that these patterns work across themes, if teams change their own palette, it becomes harder. So the idea is to allow themes to still rely on core palettes, and pattern to still rely on core palettes. So for example, when you build a palette, you should probably only use core colors that way it works across themes, if you want to publish it to the pattern directory. And yeah, in terms of UI, it&#8217;s kind of crowded right now, especially in the post editor.</p>



<p>But I think the idea is that it should get closer and closer to how it looks in the global style bar, which is kind of nested navigation. So the idea is that it should look like the global styles view of colors. So you will see at the high level button to go to the link color, another one to go to the button background and another one to go to the text color. And they are not shown every time, all the colors at the same time. So that way it&#8217;s less crowded and it allows you to navigate more efficiently. Yeah.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And I can and see, that&#8217;s a very good reason to have the block parents be consistent, not so much depending on the theme color scheme, but so it shows up as you see it in the preview. And I can also see to just switch off the core colors in the user interface, so the pattern comes over, but the user can only use the theme and their own color to modify it and not have the core colors as well. Because the core colors always show up on other places when it&#8217;s not a pattern from the repository and using those core colors on other things that might not be wanted by the site owner or the theme author. Yeah.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: Yeah. Theme authors and agencies also want to control these things more strictly. So yeah there is, they is some work in progress to allow actually to remove the core powers entirely. And yeah it&#8217;s going to be sitting in team JSON and you just enable it and it&#8217;s gone.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>:&nbsp; Awesome. It&#8217;s all so well thought through. Excellent.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: And there is now also change for the typographic block support. So because we had this change, we discussed about the block tools feature. So now most of the typography controls were added to the existing text blocks, like heading, paragraph and so on. And there are also some default controls enabled for them. So you just go and check those blocks and see how many new options are there now.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. It&#8217;s a great variety there. Yes, indeed.&nbsp;</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: The next change is another change that is meant to be for WordPress 5.9. So now that global styles are actually the landing in WordPress 5.9, and even the UI, some plugin developers and then some team developers need some API to access these settings and access these styles. If they want to adapt their code. For example, to check whether there&#8217;s a global layout or to retrieve whether I don&#8217;t know, there&#8217;s a color palette or anything, basically any settings in or style in the global style. So a new idea has been introduced, it allows you to retrieve these settings pretty easily in just a function call. You don&#8217;t have to go check directly in the theme JSON file or the user settings or anything, you just get the current value. That&#8217;s pretty handy, another also global style related API that landed pretty recently is actually arrest API to retrieve modified global styles and also the base global styles for the active team. So this could be pretty handy for plug-in and team authors.</p>



<h3 id="apis"><strong>APIs</strong></h3>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: And regarding the API functions that were introduced, they are called get_global_settings, get global_styles and get global_style sheet. So pretty easy to remember and expect a dev note published in a few weeks.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Excellent. Yeah, I think that was the missing piece that we got quite a few questions about in the community. So having that public API available is now so much better. So believe it or not, we&#8217;re still talking about enhancements and new features.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 id="bug-fixes"><strong>Bug Fixes</strong></h3>



<p>Now we, I think there were about 80 or so in them, 73 and we didn&#8217;t talk about all of them, but the bug fixes also are 73 bug fixes in this release. And some of them are very granular and in the back end of it. But the one that stood out for me was that for the blocks, it fixes the relative URLs for the inline styles. So if you had a style sheet with a background color or a background image and the URL if it wasn&#8217;t an absolute URL but only relative like ../ it wouldn&#8217;t find that anymore, and that has been fixed. So quite a few developers will say finally!</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: They should still exist in WordPress 5.8. And yeah, this is something we missed because it only happens for the custom blocks and only when you opt in for the option to use those in line styles.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Good. So wasn&#8217;t all that big. Okay. So are there any other bug fixes that you wanted to mention here, Grzegorz or Riad?</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> No, it&#8217;s like bugs you wanted to forget about them. You don&#8217;t want to speak.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, sometimes I find it interesting to, oh yeah that&#8217;s a bug from 2018, we finally fixed it. But I haven&#8217;t seen any of those here. So yeah, do you want to go to the next section and talk about performance Riad?</p>



<h3 id="performance"><strong>Performance</strong></h3>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: Let&#8217;s speak about performance actually. Pretty interesting subject and I enjoy working on performance a lot. So on the editor theme, we have this metrics we keep track of over time, the loading time, the typing time and we keep adding new metrics every time. And the interesting one that was worked on during this release was the list view. We added a new metric to measure how the editor performs while the list view is open. And the list view is pretty powerful to navigate the editor, but since it shows a long list of blocks, it can create some performance issues sometimes. So a new technique has been used during this release. It&#8217;s called windowing techniques for the technical folks listening to us. Basically it means the list that is currently visible is rendered, but all the remaining items on the list are actually hidden and not rendered at all. Unless you scroll the list and show them. Historically we&#8217;ve been avoiding this kind of solutions because they could have some accessibility issues and also it is very hard to get right. But thanks to the work of contributors, I think Carrie worked this a lot, we now have a solution that we think works pretty well and doesn&#8217;t introduce any accessibility problems. So now they invite you to test this and if there are any issues, please let us know.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: So well, thank you. And yes, indeed. The list view is one of the most powerful tools that would come revamped WordPress 5.9, but going back to performance, I know that you all also had this check and we talked about it on the show before, where you had, 30,000 blocks in a post to kind of see the performance of it and measure it from between the different versions. How many blocks do you have in the list view to test this?</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: Oh, we use the exact same post, which I think it&#8217;s a thousand blocks or something like that. It&#8217;s a very long post. You can find it on the Gutenberg repository. You can search for large post @HTML. And it&#8217;s actually executed automatically in the CI. And every time we check the numbers. And on each release post, you can go to the bottom of the post and you see there&#8217;s a table that is there that compares the current release with the previous release and also the current release with the previous WordPress release, so that&#8217;s how we keep track of these things. We also have a separate website, which I think at the moment is not working, but I promise I&#8217;ll fix it very soon where you see the evolution of the different metrics over time for each actual comment. So that way we can pretty easily find the exact comments, the introduced performance regressions.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah, I saw yesterday that was going back in time and checking the performance for WordPress 5.6 and other major releases, and maybe do you have those results? Because I was pretty excited hearing how it changes.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: Yeah I do have results. I think loading time improved quite a bit from WordPress 5.7 And to WordPress 5.8, and in WordPress 5.9, it improved a little bit as well, 200 milliseconds or 300 milliseconds out of 3.5 seconds. The typing time also improved, by 20% or something from WordPress 5.8 and WordPress 5.9.</p>



<p>The other metric that improved a lot between these two versions is inserter opening. We did a lot of work there. And now when you opened the inserter, it is actually quite snappy compared to how it was in the previous version. There is also another one, so the only metric that I think we need to work on a little bit more for this release is block selection. We lost 10% time on it, but I think we can improve this one and do better there. And for the inserter it&#8217;s actually quite impressive because at some point in the inserter, we had collapsible panels. So we didn&#8217;t show a lot of things at the same time when you open the inserter and there&#8217;s collapsible panels, it should open quick, right? And now we show everything at once. So there&#8217;s a lot of things, but we still manage to make it fast. So I&#8217;m pretty proud of about it.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: That&#8217;s impressive. Yes. Yeah, because now we have the inserter we don&#8217;t only have the core blocks, but we also have the theme blocks in there. And then also block patterns, a tab and then another reusable block tab. Yeah. Your website, Riad, I think you shared the link at one point maybe two or three months ago. And you also did performance testing with plugins. Is that a different project or is that pretty much the same kind of performance?</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: Yeah. So what I did is I was curious to check actually if I enable plugin or not, how it impacts the editor&#8217;s performance. So I actually use the exact same metrics. We have these coded up in the plugin, so I can just run the test, enable the plugin, change the plugin and run the test again, right? And then compare the numbers.</p>



<p>Actually, I also spend some time with some plugin authors, because in the initial run I had some issues there and I saw some plugins impacted a lot, and I was very happy to see that they were all pretty receptive and we did some work together. And in the end, I will say the major plugins right now are doing good enough. I think that we can always do better, but we are doing good enough. And I actually encourage plugin authors to check the post if they didn&#8217;t see it, because there are their instructions to check their own plugins, to see how their own plugin impacts the editor performance. Because sometimes we get reports that the editor is very slow and I cannot choose the editor or whatever when I type it&#8217;s very slow. And sometimes we cannot do anything about it. So we have to check all the possible reasons that could cause this and plug ins can be a reason. So it&#8217;s important for both plug in authors and users to be aware of it.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Wow. That&#8217;s good to know. I think I will come back to you and kind of talk about this, or at least get all the information for the show notes, but also maybe have a block post about it. That&#8217;s a little bit more prominent, because now more and more people are going to use or come on board with adopting Gutenberg and having that resource available is really, really helpful. All right. Well, thank you, Riad, for that little excursion into performance.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: Thanks I&#8217;m always happy to dive there. It&#8217;s my personal favorite feature or favorite topic.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Aspect, yeah.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: &#8230;Topic, I would say favorite topic.</p>



<h3 id="documentation"><strong>Documentation</strong></h3>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. So now we are at the documentation section of the changelog and there were two things that stood out amongst typo changes and improving landing pages and all that one was the block schema and documentation has changed or not has changed particularly, but it&#8217;s better documented in terms of the block JSON. And that&#8217;s the follows the same process as the theme JSON does. Right. Is that what I&#8217;m saying, Grzegorz?</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. So the view is a new API option in block, JSON, that will allow authors to provide Java script code. That&#8217;s going to be executed only in the front and only when the block is rendered there, so it&#8217;s pretty handy thing. And the other change is, because we are preparing to WordPress 5.9. So both features are for the upcoming major WordPress release is that there will be possibility to define more than one style sheet. And the reason for that is twofold. First, sometimes there are some styles that block author would like to apply to more than one block. So this is a way to share them through using style handle. And the other reason is that plugging out, they also want to add their own styles in a batch mode. So instead of doing their own magic, they can just use the existing APIs and inject that to all the blocks they want.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I like that instead your own magic, use core magic. Yeah, excellent. Well, thanks for letting us know. So there are some features, of course, the theme JSON documentation has been updated with missing settings and styles that is also in preparation of 5.9 and the version change there.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: I think that there was link added for ways to keep up with Gutenberg and Full-Site Editing. I suspect that the link is to your resources that you keep up to date.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Keeping up with Gutenberg, yeah.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yes. So that&#8217;s great to see it finally happening because it&#8217;s the best page to look at.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: And if you are listening to the show and don&#8217;t know what Grzegorz is talking about, in the handbook on core on the make block on the references, there is a page called Keeping up with Gutenberg and it&#8217;s an index page with all the block posts from the teams that work on Gutenberg in chronological order. So it starts from the newest to the oldest, but it&#8217;s per year. So we started that 2020 in June.</p>



<p>So the last half of 2020 is in the 2020 page. And this year, November, we are coming up to the end of the year, so we have all the editor meetings, what the theme team does, the design team also, publishers, the tests and the summary of the tests from the FSE program and all the other related posts. I started that because the core make block, within a day or two, you have to scroll to the third or fourth page to find something that was published yesterday. And it was really interesting to do that. So keeping up with Gutenberg index, you can actually Google that now, keeping up with Gutenberg and it comes up first. All right, so is there anything else in the changelog? Oh yeah, we have on the tool sections, we have some FSE backboard and core.</p>



<h3 id="tools"><strong>Tools</strong></h3>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: Yeah. That another kind of magic. Basically on each WordPress release, we need to backboard all the changes that are on the Gutenberg plugin and include them into core. Maybe a lot of people don&#8217;t know that&#8217;s a lot of work and that&#8217;s a lot of invisible work. We do that in two separate ways. Basically the JavaScript changes are more automatic. So we do a package NP and package release, and then we include them in core, but we also need to check all the PHP changes that happened in the work Gutenberg plugin and move them into core. And sometimes when we do that, some problems happen. For example, a function that exists in the Gutenberg plugin can exist at the same time on core. So at, on this small period of time, we need to make some adaptation, both code based, to ensure they work together. So a lot of changes on this Gutenberg release are related to that. Yeah I want to send kudos to Robert, the editor tech lead for this release. He did an awesome job to make sure everyone is on the same page and works to make sure all the changes are on WordPress trunk at the right moment.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Excellent. Yeah. All right. So I think unless…</p>



<h3 id="code-quality"><strong>Code Quality</strong></h3>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Something, yeah. I have something in the code quality section, it has 25 items. So that&#8217;s great that we still remember about that aspect of work in the lights of the upcoming release and all the work caused by that. So there is new API endpoint it looks like is going to be included in the WordPress core, is it right? So this one is called the WP block V1 URL/details. This one is for the link previews. So this one is getting stable, also plugin authors will be able use to do whatever they need with that.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: Indeed, that could be useful to show previews or get more information about URLs and exploit that in very different ways for plugin authors.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. That feature is such a small feature when you think about it, but it has so much power that it could definitely be explored quite a bit for plugin authors and even do a list of all this week&#8217;s links and then collect them all, might be a good use case.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 id="what-s-in-active-development-or-discussed-1"><strong>What’s in Active Development or Discussed</strong></h3>



<p>All right yeah, so that&#8217;s pretty much it with our Gutenberg changelog this week. Thank you Riad and Grzegorz who get us through it. I think I have only one thing&#8230; So where is WordPress 5.9 now headed? What are the next steps?</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: I think as we mentioned to tomorrow is November 16. So it&#8217;s the release of WordPress 5.9 beta 1. I think that&#8217;s the best time for people to test. So I&#8217;m asking everyone just code, download WordPress 5.9. It is the start of a new with Full Site Editing and block teams and all global styles and all navigation on all these features. So go grab your coffee and start a block team and just try things and try to break it and just tell us what goes wrong. And we have a number of weeks to fix all the bug fixes, and we&#8217;re looking forward to your feedback on that.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Excellent. Yeah. I just also want to point out there is a WordPress beta test plugin in the repository, so you don&#8217;t have to install all that. So you just make it a normal WordPress install and then install the plugin for WordPress beta tester plugin, and the stream would be the point release instead of the daily trunk. But if you are brave, you could also do the daily trunk. There are core committers who actually have run trunk on their personal blogs. They&#8217;re quite brave in doing that. So yeah, beta 1 is tomorrow, November 16th, and then a week later, supposedly beta 2, the first release candidate is scheduled. And of course, that all depends on what the test was bringing all back to us or to the team.</p>



<p>Release candidate, we know sometimes there&#8217;s beta 3 and beta 4, depending on how that all works, but then there&#8217;s a release candidate. One is scheduled for November 30th, and that&#8217;s also the date where the field guide with the dev notes come out and where the about page is done, and also the release post is draft and there&#8217;s a hard string freeze, means there is no bug fixing anymore. And there&#8217;s not a whole lot that can go in there in a release candidate after release candidate is available. And then there will be a dry run for the releasing workers, 5.9 in the 24 hour code freeze December 13th. But if you want to be part of the release party, that&#8217;s going to happen December 14th in the slack channel of core.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: And it&#8217;s something else I wanted to mention about WordPress 5.9 Is the dev notes. So after beta one, you can expect a list of dev notes on the make core and if you are a plugin author or an agency or WordPress developer app, update your code accordingly, if there are changes and also use the new APIs.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Wonderful, thank you for a reminder of that.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: You can also subscribe to the Gutenberg changelog newsletter and get the list with all the links directly from Birgit.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Thank you for making a pitch on the Gutenberg Times again. That&#8217;s awesome. And if you need instructions on how to test Full-Site Editing, so Anne McCarthy published a test call for the Full-Site Editing outreach program. That&#8217;s for the non-techy people who are using site builder or page builders to build sites for others. And it&#8217;s called the site editing safari, and you get different scenarios that you can follow along with instructions on how to test this because&#8230;</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Also with zebras, giraffes and elephants.</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: What about Chrome and Firefox? Is this just a safari?</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Good point? No, safari is like the African safari with the giraffes and the rhinos and everything. So one scenario is personalize your homepage and setting your styles. Add some button patterns and use some of the layout controls for that, one set of instructions also is how to add a dual filter and the single post template. Those test instructions are actually also quite nicely to use for exploring the new interface on a more scripted schedule. So you don&#8217;t have to come up with ideas on how to test it. So you just use those and it really helps if you would comment on that post on the test block by November 30th. And then what normally happens is after a week or so, the feedback comes in and then Anne writes a summary for the developers working on it so they can see what else then to be changed, or she also puts issues together for the GitHub repository of a box coming out.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: I also want to mention one more thing. So the release date, December 14, it reminded me that it&#8217;s also the day when the state of the word 2021 will be by the WordPress projects co-founder Matt Mullenweg.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Excellent. Yes, yes. And that is scheduled for, I think it&#8217;s noon Eastern, which is dinner time in central Europe.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. So it&#8217;s 10:00 AM between 10:00 AM and 2:12 PM Eastern time and 5:00 PM UTC, which means at my place, it would be 6:00 PM Central European Time.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Excellent. I&#8217;m glad we got it all in. Yes. And so on the webpress.org/news, there is actually a call for of questions because the state of the word is normally about 45 minutes when Matt Mullenweg walks us through the last year and what&#8217;s coming up in the next year and then the next 30 minutes or so will be answering questions from the community. And there is some instructions on the webpress.org/newspost instructions, you can send them via a video and how to get them to the people who help prepare for the state of the word.</p>



<p>All right, with that, that&#8217;s a very good time to end it. If you like our shows, help us spreading the word by adding a review to your favorite podcast directory. If you have news or suggestions or questions sent them to <a href="mailto:changelog@Gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@Gutenbergtimes.com</a> via email <a href="mailto:changelog@Gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@Gutenbergtimes.com</a> and you can always also reach us via Twitter. So my Twitter handle is at B-P-H. Grzegorz is G-Z-I-O-L-O. And then Riad&#8217;s Twitter handle is Riad Benguella. And we will of course share that all in the show notes. So it was wonderful to have you both here. Thank you, Riad for joining us. How do you feel about it?</p>



<p><em>Riad Benguella</em>: Thank you. I really enjoyed the show and thank you for having me and please do continue to spread the Gutenberg word.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: All right. Will do. Will Do.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: That was fun. Yeah, to have fun to have Riad on the shows like.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah.</p>



<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Probably that was the best I show ever. We had so much fun together.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, we did. All right. Okay. Well, let&#8217;s just get out of here for more fun. Thank you all for listening. Thank you for joining us. And I say goodbye until the next time.</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, 17 Nov 2021 13:47:43 +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: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: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:61:"HeroPress: Finding My Global Family – Samun iyali na duniya";s:7:"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=4265";s:7:"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://heropress.com/essays/finding-my-global-family/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=finding-my-global-family";s: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:17563:"<img width="1024" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/111621-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: I get to make an impact for good." /><p><a href="https://heropress.com/feed/#hausa">Wannan makala akwai shi a cikin harshen Hausa.</a></p>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>As I sit down typing this, I’m wondering what the heck do I write about (am I allowed to say that?)!</p>
<p>Topher says I can.</p>
<p>So back in May this year, I got a DM from this guy called Topher.</p>
<blockquote><p>Hello there! Could I convince you to do a HeroPress essay?</p></blockquote>
<p>It is now October and I&#8217;m finally writing this essay. Thank you for being so patient with me and giving me a topic to write about.</p>
<h2>How I got into the WordPress</h2>
<p>It&#8217;s 2017 and I&#8217;m bored with work. I&#8217;d been working in project management for over 15 years and I was no longer excited about the projects I was working on. My repeat clients could tell this, I did not challenge them on certain processes. Some might say I&#8217;d become wiser in picking my battles, but I just no longer wanted to invest my energy. When that happens, you know you need to do something. You don&#8217;t want your action, or in my case inaction, to be to the detriment of the client. I knew I still loved working with and in tech but I needed to do something different.</p>
<p>On 29 December 2017, I enrolled on a course covering web development. After covering HTML, CSS, and a bit of JavaScript, I decided to try one of the course options: WordPress. My course instructor encouraged me to go to a WordCamp. She found one was scheduled for the following weekend in Brighton. So I booked my ticket and found an Airbnb. Worst case scenario I get to spend some time on the beach (even if it was a bit chilly). But I couldn&#8217;t go to a WordCamp with no knowledge of WordPress &#8211; I thought I&#8217;d look like an idiot. So I spent that week going through the introductory course, now I was ready. Don&#8217;t ask me how much I managed to take in, just know that at least I now knew what WordPress was.</p>
<p>I attended my first WordCamp, a 2-hour drive, in October 2018. WordCamp Brighton (WCBTN) will always hold a special place in my heart. All the people I met (sponsors, attendees, organising team, and volunteers) were amazing. I walked in there all by my lonesome and they were friendly, took time to talk to me, explain things, and Jenny Wong encouraged me to join my local Meetup. I&#8217;m not sure if it&#8217;s being in a room with like-minded people or being able to geek out (or not for some) on tech but I was excited and had a lot of fun. When I got back to London, I joined my local (well what I like to call London local) Meetup.</p>
<p>At the time that I joined, the team was starting to look for organisers for WordCamp London (WCLDN) 2019. I&#8217;m very much a believer in learning by doing and project management involves a lot of organisation. I spoke to Gary Jones told him I was a newbie and offered to help. I was in charge of Sponsors, eek! How the hell do I do that? Don&#8217;t be afraid to ask a lot of questions. We were a fairly new team so big thanks to Dan Maby and Barbara Saul for being patient with us and our endless questions. Big thanks to the outgoing team who were available to offer advice when asked. I learnt a lot about the community whilst working on the WCLDN and I had a great time doing it.</p>
<p>Abha Thakor encouraged me to volunteer for WordCamp Europe (WCEU) 2019 and once again it was an amazing experience. I got to visit Berlin, contribute to the Marketing team desk and met even more people. I also got to rock my big yellow exclamation mark fluorescent earrings that scream the 80s at an 80s after party. It was during WCEU Contributor day that I was introduced to Jesse Owens and the Training team. When you contribute, you get to learn more about all the different teams that make up WordPress the project and WordPress itself. It&#8217;s a great way to learn and I would encourage you to join one of the<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/"> Make teams</a> (you don&#8217;t need to be a developer) there are teams like Training, Accessibility, Documentation, Marketing, and Polyglots. If you want to test the waters before joining, find a virtual Contributor day (some companies are running them) or join one at a WordCamp when we are able to meet in person. I joined the Marketing and Training team at WCEU and I&#8217;m still there today.</p>
<p>In November 2019 Josepha Haden Chomphosy sent out a call for an all-women release squad. I wanted to know more about accessibility so I was assigned to be the 5.8 Accessibility team cohort. The support our release squad got was amazing. The beauty of the WordPress community is that though we are all at different levels on our journey, someone is always quick to help you navigate that journey. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to make us feel welcome, explain things, are patient with us, and offer cake and chocolate when we need it. I’m still part of the Accessibility team and I’m still learning, it’s a big topic. We are a small team so if you’re an expert in that area and have time to spare, you want to teach others or want to learn, I encourage you to come and join us.</p>
<p>Summer of 2020 was the soft launch of <a href="http://learn.wordpress.org">Learn.WordPress.org</a>. Shortly afterwards, Courtney Robertson asked for help in preparing for the official launch of Learn. Learn WordPress is a learning resource for anyone who wants to learn how to use, build for and contribute to WordPress. It is an open-source platform that offers a range of materials and opportunities for you to use at your own pace and at a time that works for you. Once again, I put my hand up. Do you see a pattern here? When people have ideas that are of great value to those around them, I can’t help but say yes. Someone always has a great idea and I would love to say yes to everyone but I don’t know how to clone myself yet. Mind you, Michelle Frechette tells me cloning isn’t what I think it is, I need to do more research.</p>
<h2>The life it now gives me and why I stay</h2>
<p>Since discovering WordPress, I’ve been a part of a lot of different projects within Make and in the community.</p>
<p>I am one of the Training Team Reps. I get to work with folks that I like and be involved in shaping Learn. As Courtney Robertson, my good friend and fellow Training Team Rep, puts it:</p>
<blockquote><p>We want to democratise Learning and make Learn WordPress the primary open-source resource for anyone who wants to get started or level up their skills in WordPress.</p></blockquote>
<p>I am proud to be involved in a project that is a cross-team initiative, props to marketing, community, meta, polyglots, accessibility, design, training, and<a href="http://wordpress.tv"> WordPress.tv</a> who help shape Learn. Individuals can learn alongside other community members, connecting with the global network of WordPress users, developers and contributors. Check out<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/08/08/who-can-learn-help/"> this post on who learn can help</a>, by Courtney Robertson. If you&#8217;re a training provider, business owner, or hiring manager, have a look at<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/05/03/high-level-roadmap-to-learning-wordpress-development/"> our high-level roadmap to learning WordPress development</a>. Join us in:</p>
<ul>
<li>Educating about WordPress</li>
<li>Appreciating the power of WordPress and how it is made</li>
<li>Celebrating everything that people are doing with WordPress</li>
</ul>
<p>Come take a seat at the table.</p>
<p>I am a volunteer and Board member at the charity <a href="https://www.bigorangeheart.org/">Big Orange Heart (BOH)</a>. I get to be a part of<a href="https://www.wordfest.live/"> WordFest</a>, a unique 24-hour global online event that is a celebration of WordPress. BOH’s mission:</p>
<blockquote><p>To support and promote positive well-being and mental health within remote working communities.</p></blockquote>
<p>I get to talk to people from all walks of life, support and help build a community that cares for each other. I get to make an impact for good. If we don&#8217;t look out for each other, who will?</p>
<p>I get to enjoy having a global family, learning, meeting new people, developing lifelong friendships and connections, and the extra bonus is that it doesn&#8217;t feel like work. I get to stay in the background churning the wheels and come out when needed. I get to have fun doing it!</p>
<p>Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/globallandscapesforum/43847733385" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hamza Shaibu</a></p>
<h1 id="hausa">Samun iyali na duniya</h1>
<h2>Gabatarwa</h2>
<p>A yayin da nake zaune ina wannan rubutun, ina nazari akan wai shin akan wani batu zan ma yi rubutun (amma yarda in fadi hakan ma tukuna?)</p>
<p>Topher yace zan iya fadin hakan.</p>
<p>Toh akwanakin baya a watan Mayu na wannan shekarar, na samu wata sako daga wurin wani dan taliki da ake kira Topher.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Barka kadai! Zan iya jan ra&#8217;ayin ka ka yi rubutu akan HeroPress, wato rubuce-rubuce akan mutane da suka yi rawar gani a fannin wallafa labarai ta hanyar yanar gizo-gizo?”</p></blockquote>
<p>Yanzu dai muna watar Oktoba kuma har na kai ga yin wannan rubutu. Ina gode maka saboda hakuri da kayi da ni da kuma bani batu da zanyi rubutu akai.</p>
<h2>Yadda na samu kaina a cikin WordPress</h2>
<p>Ana shekarar alib dubu biyu da goma sha bakwai, 2017 kuma ba na marmarin aiki. A wannan lokacin na riga na samu shekaru goma-sha-biyar ina aiki a fannin project management. Ko masu kasuwanchi da ne sun ga chanji a hali na. Wasu za su ce na zama mai hikima kuma na kara wayo a hali. Idan abubuwa haka suka fara faruwa a rayuwar ka, toh dole ka tashi sa’ye kayi wani abu a kai kafin ya kashe ma kasuwa. Ba ni da damuwa wajen yin aiki am’ma ina so in yi wani abu daban.</p>
<p>A ranan ashirin da tara a watan Disamba ta shekaran alib dubu biyu da goma sha bakwai na fara wata sabuwar ilimi na web development. Bayan na kalmala Shashi na HTML, CSS da JavaScript, da na za’bi in gwada daya daga chikin shashin ilimin wato WordPress. Malami na ya bani shawara in shiga WordCamp. Ta sami labari akwai daya da za’a yi a sati mai zuwa a Brighton. Sai na siya tikati nawa kuma na biya wajen kwana. Saboda kada in ba kaina kunya, sai na shiga binciken da karatu a kan ma’anar Kalmar WordPress. A wannan lokachi ina iya bogun kirji na cewa a shirye na ke.</p>
<p>Na shiga shashin WordPress na farko a watan Oktoba na alin dubu biyu da goma sha takwas, na yi tukin mota zuwa kusan awa biyu. WordPress a Brighton (WCBTN) za ta dade a chikin zuchiya ta da abobin ban sha’awa. Duk mutanen da na sadu da su (abokan fatan alheri, dalubai da masu bada umarni) sun bani farin chiki. Na shiga gurin ni kadai amma na hadu da jamma’a da suka yi mun maraba da zuwa, suka yi mun magana, suka bayyana mun abubuwa daban daban sannan wata mata Jenny Wong ta bani shawara in shiga wata kungiyar unguwa na haduwa. Da na koma London sai na shiga kungiyar da tafi kusa da ni.</p>
<p>A lokachin da na shiga kungiyar, suna neman wakilai da zasu taimaka wajen tsara WordCamp London (WCLDN) 2019. Ni na yadda da kara samin ilimi ta wajen hanyar yin project management, domin tana bukatan tsari sosai wajen ambata komai. Na yi magana da wani mutum da ake kira Gary Jones na bayyana mishi cewa ni sabowar zuwa ce kuma ina so in taimaka. Sai na tambayi kaina da yaya zan iya kalmala wannan aikin? Ta wajen tambayoyi. Mun kasance sabuwar ƙungiya mai girma don haka godiya ga Dan Maby da Barbara Saul don haƙuri tare da mu da tambayoyin mu marasa iyaka. Babban godiya ga tawagar masu fita da suka samu ba da shawara idan aka tambaye shi. Na koyi abubuwa da yawa game da al&#8217;umma yayin aiki akan WCLDN kuma na yi farin ciki da yin shi.</p>
<p>Abha Thakor ya ƙarfafa ni in yi aikin sa kai don WordCamp Europe (WCEU) 2019 kuma sau ɗaya sake abu ne mai ban mamaki. Na ziyarci Berlin, na ba da gudummawa ga ƙungiyar Talla tebur kuma sun sadu da ƙarin mutane. Na kuma yi jijjiga babban alamar motsin raina &#8216;yan kunne masu kyalli waɗanda ke kururuwa na 80s a cikin 80s bayan biki. Ya kasance a lokacin WCEU ranar mai ba da gudummawa da aka gabatar da ni ga Jesse Owens da ƙungiyar horo. Lokacin da kuke ba da gudummawa, kuna samun ƙarin koyo game da duk ƙungiyoyi daban-daban waɗanda suka haɗa WordPress ɗin aikin da WordPress kanta. Hanya ce mai kyau don koyo kuma zan ƙarfafa ku ku shiga ɗaya na <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/">Ƙungiyoyin Yi</a> (ba kwa buƙatar zama mai haɓakawa) akwai ƙungiyoyi kamar Horarwa, Samun dama, Takaddun bayanai, Talla, da Polyglots. Idan kuna son gwada ruwa a baya shiga, nemo ranar mai ba da gudummawa ta kama-da-wane (wasu kamfanoni suna gudanar da su) ko shiga ɗaya a a WordCamp lokacin da muka sami damar saduwa da mutum. Na shiga kungiyar Tallace-tallace da Horarwa a WCEU kuma ina nan har yau.</p>
<p>A watan Nuwamba 2019 Josepha Haden Chomphosy ya aika kiran a saki mata duka tawagar. Ina son ƙarin sani game da samun dama don haka aka sanya ni zama 5.8 Ƙungiyar haɗin kai. Taimakon da tawagarmu ta saki ya kasance mai ban mamaki. Kyawun al&#8217;ummar WordPress shine duk da cewa duk muna a matakai daban-daban akan tafiyarmu, wani yana gaggawar taimaka muku wajen tafiyar da wannan tafiya. Godiya ga duk wanda yana ɗaukar lokaci don sa mu ji maraba, bayyana abubuwa, haƙuri da mu, da ba da kek da cakulan lokacin da muke bukata. Har yanzu ina cikin tawagar Accessibility kuma har yanzu ina koyo, babban batu ne. Mu ƙananan ƙungiya ne don haka idan kun kasance gwani a wannan yanki kuma kuna da lokaci don spare, kana so ka koya wa wasu ko kuma kana son koyo, ina ƙarfafa ka ka zo mu shiga.</p>
<p>Lokacin bazara na 2020 shine ƙaddamar da laushi na <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn.WordPress.org</a>. Jim kadan bayan haka, Courtney Robertson ya nemi taimako a shirya don ƙaddamar da Koyi a hukumance. Koyi WordPress hanya ce ta koyo ga duk wanda ke son koyon yadda ake amfani da shi, ginawa da kuma ba da gudummawa ga WordPress. Yana da dandamali mai buɗewa wanda ke ba da kewayon kayan aiki da damar da za ku yi amfani da su a cikin saurin ku kuma a lokacin da ke aiki a gare ku. Har yanzu, sanya hannuna sama. Kuna ganin tsari a nan? Lokacin da mutane suna da ra&#8217;ayoyin da suke da daraja sosai ga wadanda ke kusa da su, ba zan iya ba sai dai in ce eh. Wani ko da yaushe yana da babban ra&#8217;ayi kuma ni zan so in ce eh ga kowa amma ban san yadda zan clone kaina ba tukuna. Ka kula, Michelle Frechette ta gaya mani cloning ba shine abin da nake tsammani ba, ina buƙatar yin ƙarin bincike.</p>
<h2>Rayuwar da take bani yanzu da dalilin da yasa na zauna</h2>
<p>Tun da gano WordPress, na kasance wani ɓangare na mai yawa daban-daban ayyuka a cikin Make da cikin al&#8217;umma.</p>
<p>Ni ɗaya ne daga cikin Wakilan Ƙungiyar horo. Ina samun aiki tare da mutanen da nake so da kuma shiga ciki tsara Koyi. A matsayina na Courtney Robertson, abokina na kwarai kuma ƙwanƙwaran horo Rep, yana cewa:</p>
<blockquote><p>Muna so mu inganta Ilimi kuma mu sanya Koyi WordPress ya zama na farko tushen tushen albarkatu ga duk wanda ke son farawa ko haɓaka ƙwarewarsa a cikin WordPress.</p></blockquote>
<p>Ina alfaharin shiga cikin wani aiki wanda ke da yunƙurin ƙugiya, mai tallata tallace-tallace, al&#8217;umma, meta, polyglots, samun dama, ƙira, horo, da <a href="https://wordpress.tv/">WordPress.tv</a> waɗanda ke taimakawa siffa Koyi. Mutane na iya koyo tare da sauran membobin al&#8217;umma, dangane da duniya hanyar sadarwa na masu amfani da WordPress, masu haɓakawa da masu ba da gudummawa. Duba wannan <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/08/08/who-can-learn-help/">post akan wanda ya koya zai iya taimakawa</a>, ta Courtney Robertson. Idan kai mai bada horo ne, mai kasuwanci, ko ɗaukar aiki manaja, dubi <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/05/03/high-level-roadmap-to-learning-wordpress-development/">babban taswirar hanyarmu don koyon ci gaban WordPress</a>. Shiga mu cikin:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ilimi game da WordPress</li>
<li>Godiya ga ikon WordPress da yadda ake yin shi</li>
<li>Bikin duk abin da mutane ke yi tare da WordPress</li>
</ul>
<p>Zo ku zauna a teburin.</p>
<p>Ni mai sa kai ne kuma memba na hukumar a kungiyar agaji ta <a href="https://www.bigorangeheart.org/">Big Orange Heart</a> (BOH). Zan iya zama bangare na <a href="https://www.wordfest.live">WordFest</a>, wani taron kan layi na sa&#8217;o&#8217;i 24 na musamman na duniya wanda shine bikin WordPress. BOH ta manufa:</p>
<blockquote><p>Don tallafawa da haɓaka ingantaccen jin daɗin rayuwa da lafiyar hankali a cikin nesa al&#8217;ummomin aiki.</p></blockquote>
<p>Ina yin magana da mutane daga kowane fanni na rayuwa, tallafi da kuma taimaka wa al&#8217;ummar da ta damu juna. San iya yin tasiri sosai. Idan ba mu lura da juna ba, wa zai yi?</p>
<p>Ina jin daɗin samun iyali na duniya, koyo, saduwa da sababbin mutane, haɓaka abokantaka dahadi na rayuwa kuma karin kari shine cewa baya jin kaman aiki. Ina samun zama a bango ina karkata da kafafun kuma in fito lokacin da ake bukata na. Ina jin daɗin wanan aiki.</p>
<p>Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/globallandscapesforum/43847733385" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hamza Shaibu</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 17 Nov 2021 08:00:49 +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:14:"Hauwa Abashiya";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}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:62:"WPTavern: Wowmall: A Free Experimental WooCommerce Block Theme";s:7:"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=125449";s:7:"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:167:"https://wptavern.com/wowmall-a-free-experimental-woocommerce-block-theme?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wowmall-a-free-experimental-woocommerce-block-theme";s: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:4922:"<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">The Wowmall theme was <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/wowmall/">released to the public today</a>. It is the second 100% block theme that integrates with WooCommerce to land in the WordPress directory. <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/responsive-fse/">Responsive FSE</a> was the first.</p>



<p>Two weeks ago, a reader sent in a question for the Ask the Bartender column. He wanted to know <a href="https://wptavern.com/ask-the-bartender-where-are-the-woocommerce-block-themes">where the WooCommerce block themes were</a>. Literally one day after publishing that post, Wowmall was submitted to the WordPress theme review system. Maybe it was fate or just luck, but I had no choice but to give it a test run.</p>



<p>The theme adds an admin-side welcome and notice page. The author makes it clear that the project is not currently intended for use on production sites. It is in an experimental state at the moment.  It is unclear who is actually behind the Wowmall project. The associated Twitter account has been suspended, and its other social profiles are devoid of information. And, the <a href="https://wowmall.store/">Wowmall website</a> currently offers scant details.</p>



<p>I will not pretend that Wowmall is one of my favorite themes. The design is far too busy for my tastes. I prefer something scaled back that focuses on content, but I do not fit into this theme&rsquo;s primary audience.</p>



<p>For an eCommerce theme, it is much cleaner than others I have seen, and it leverages almost every piece of the block system. It ships over 30 block patterns. Six of those are headers, and another three are footers. However, the rest are for general use in the content, including call-to-action layouts and hero sections.</p>



<img />A call-to-action pattern.



<p>It also ships several custom block styles. Some of them offer design variations that make up for things like missing border controls for some blocks. Others, such as the Social Icon&rsquo;s &ldquo;Dark&rdquo; style, would be better left to the existing color options.</p>



<p>The question most people likely want to be answered is how well it works with WooCommerce. From what I have seen, it works like any other run-of-the-mill WooCommerce theme. You know the look, the default design as seen by 90% of the themes built for the eCommerce plugin. Maybe there is a custom color palette or simple stylistic changes. However, at the end of the day, you know it is a WooCommerce shop.</p>



<img />Wowmall <a href="https://wowmall.store/demo/shop/">shop page</a>.



<p>If it works, do not mess with the formula. The most egregious issue I saw with the WooCommerce part of the theme was the output of a comments section on the main Shop page and product category archives. I did not see specific block templates for these pages, so I am taking a wild stab and assuming everything is falling back to a single product or page template that would normally output comments.</p>



<p>Wowmall does not work well as a pure blogging theme. It handles the basics well enough, but it has far too many characters per line for comfortably reading long-form content. A strict 18px font size, a variable-width content area (989px at full-width on my laptop), and a medium-gray text color make it hard to read anything other than short blurbs.</p>



<p>However, this theme is not touted as a blogging theme. It is hyper-focused on presenting an online shop.</p>



<p>Where the theme flexes the most is its selection of block patterns. They are designed primarily for building out a unique storefront. Users can get a lot of mileage out of them.</p>



<p>The breadcrumb trail in the theme is not really a breadcrumb trail at all. It just masquerades as one. Under the hood, it is a Navigation block with a homepage link followed by the current post/page title. At no point does it show the crumbs (e.g., parent pages) that lead back to the site root. Themes have notoriously offered sub-par breadcrumb navigation in the classic era. Perhaps, developers will leave this to plugin authors in their block themes.</p>



<p>As far as I know, there are no breadcrumb navigation plugins on WordPress.org to integrate with. However, there is a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/21943">proposal to add a block</a> for it in core. And, for transparency, I have such a plugin under development and intend to release it on .ORG.</p>



<p>Wowmall is not claiming this is a finished, production-ready WordPress theme. It is an ongoing project that is expected to improve over time. Plus, we are still waiting for WooCommerce to expand its support of the block system.</p>



<p>What I like more than anything is seeing theme shops push the envelope with blocks. What I see from Wowmall and recent block themes is that many of the limitations of the past year or so are simply no longer there.</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, 16 Nov 2021 23:35:13 +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:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"WPTavern: State of the Word 2021 Will Be Broadcast Live from New York City on December 14";s:7:"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=125723";s:7:"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:223:"https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2021-will-be-broadcast-live-from-new-york-city-on-december-14?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=state-of-the-word-2021-will-be-broadcast-live-from-new-york-city-on-december-14";s: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:4517:"<p>WordPress executive director Josepha Haden Chomphosy <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/state-of-the-word-2021/">announced</a> today that the 2021 State of the Word will be held on December 14, <a href="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r/eventedit/copy/XzY0czNjZGhuNjhyNDJiYTE4NTMzMmI5azZ0MmsyYmEyNjBwNGFiYTE2c3IzZ2NhMjhvbzQ0Z3BrNm8gdHVhOWpudTg4ZHRiZnIzNGpzZGI5a3U1bGNAZw">between 10 am and 12 pm ET/3 pm and 5 pm UTC</a>. For those who are new to the WordPress community, this event is where Matt Mullenweg reviews the milestones and progress of the past year and shares his vision for the open source WordPress project.</p>



<p>Ordinarily, the State of the Word is delivered as the capstone to WordCamp US in the latter part of the year, with a live Q&amp;A session following the address. This year, <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-2021-kicks-off-online-in-48-hours">WordCamp US was held online</a> in early October and concluded with Haden Chomphosy discussing trends she observed in 2020 and growth opportunities she sees for the WordPress community. In her most recent <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/episode-20-wordpressblogging/">podcast</a>, Haden Chomphosy confirmed that the State of the Word 2021 will be an in-person event.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to join the growing list of in-person events that are on the calendar,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It will be in New York City but will also be live-streamed across the world as usual.&rdquo;</p>



<p>When asked about live event, Haden Chomphosy further clarified that it will be more like a mid-sized meetup. Mullenweg will be delivering the State of the Word at Automattic&rsquo;s New York office with approximately 30 people in-person, which is the capacity for the space.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll start with NYC community folks, but will try to keep the invitation process as open as possible,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Vaccinations will be required and more information will be available about that later this week.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Today&rsquo;s announcement said that attendees and viewers can expect to hear about WordPress 5.9, Openverse (WordPress&rsquo; search engine project for openly-licensed media), and Web3 and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The last topic drew some early responses on Twitter from those who are keenly interested in Web3 and NFTs, as well as those who don&rsquo;t see any value in the WordPress project promoting or participating in these technologies. As WordPress is <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress">closing in on 43% of the web</a>, it will be interesting to see what Mullenweg has to say about what the project&rsquo;s role is in this potentially polarizing issue.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">'Expect to hear about a range of topics, from WordPress 5.9 and Openverse to Web3 and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).'<br /><br />All I want to hear about Web3 and NFTs is 'The WP project itself will do nothing to encourage these questionable technologies.' <a href="https://t.co/T3LnU21HuZ">https://t.co/T3LnU21HuZ</a></p>&mdash; Simon Dickson (@simond) <a href="https://twitter.com/simond/status/1459430909325807617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Annual State of the Word 2021 &ndash; an event to reflect on the WordPress project&rsquo;s progress and the future of open source. Expect to hear about a range of topics including <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Web3?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Web3</a> and non-fungible tokens (<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NFTs?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NFTs</a>). <br /><br />Software powering 42%+ of the entire internet + NFTs. Probably nothing. <a href="https://t.co/KfB9UtIBao">https://t.co/KfB9UtIBao</a></p>&mdash; Brad Williams (@williamsba) <a href="https://twitter.com/williamsba/status/1460277517093425152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Viewers will be able participate in the Question &amp; Answer session following the State of the Word by emailing&nbsp;<a href="mailto:ask-matt@wordcamp.org">ask-matt@wordcamp.org</a>, or asking during the event in the livestream chat on YouTube. Add the event to your calendar and watch for the livestream to be embedded on <a href="http://wordpress.org/news">wordpress.org/news</a> on December 14.</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, 16 Nov 2021 00:49:12 +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: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:104:"WPTavern: “Skins” Are Back in Style, Proposal for Themes To Bundle User-Selectable Design Variations";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=125725";s:7:"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:239:"https://wptavern.com/skins-are-back-in-style-proposal-for-themes-to-bundle-user-selectable-design-variations?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=skins-are-back-in-style-proposal-for-themes-to-bundle-user-selectable-design-variations";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4774:"<img />Twenty Twenty-Two color and font variations.



<p class="has-drop-cap">A current proposal could spell the death of at least one form of child theming. The feature would allow themes to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35619">ship multiple <code>theme.json</code> files</a>, housing variations on a site&rsquo;s default styles. Essentially, it is the old-school concept of &ldquo;skins.&rdquo;</p>



<p>How the feature would work is not yet defined. However, theme authors would presumably be allowed to bundle separate JSON files that create user-selectable &ldquo;global style variations&rdquo; or &ldquo;active styles&rdquo; via the site editor.</p>



<p>It is almost as if we have come full circle. The original implementation of child themes allowed developers to create custom <code>style.css</code> files. The goal was to design skins that changed a site&rsquo;s look and feel without changing its markup. Child themes have become much more flexible since then and can overwrite anything from their parents.</p>



<p>Many themers still build on top of that original concept. Their child themes are nothing more than a custom stylesheet with design modifications. The ability to bundle multiple style variations from a single theme could change how they approach design, perhaps even offering a better user experience.</p>



<p>Kjell Reigstad first teased this feature last month when <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/06/introducing-twenty-twenty-two/">announcing the upcoming new default theme</a>. &ldquo;Twenty Twenty-Two will ship with a range of alternate color schemes so that folks can drastically change the appearance of their site,&rdquo; he wrote in the post.  The following is a video of what this concept might look like:</p>



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

</div>



<p>The UI in the video appears to be a mockup for the site editor. In the right sidebar panel, users can switch between alternate styles and find something that works well for them.</p>



<p>The proposal would allow for more than color palette variations. Theme authors would be able to adjust typography, layout, and anything else controllable via <code>theme.json</code> &mdash; essentially, the entire theme design.</p>



<p>Because the feature is not yet in the Gutenberg plugin or in the development version of WordPress, the only way to explore multiple <code>theme.json</code> files is through child theming. Yes, child themes are being used to test the very concept that could make them, at least partially, obsolete. Reigstad has an <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/pull/292">open pull request</a> in the Theme Experiments repository to flesh out the idea.</p>



<p>Channing Ritter, an Automattic-sponsored WordPress contributor, <a href="https://critterverse.blog/2021/11/10/a-global-styles-switcher/">shared three variations</a> of what the user experience may look like on her blog. My preferred option is the first. It is a drill-down panel that shows &ldquo;active styles&rdquo; that users can switch between.</p>



<img />Selecting active theme style from sidebar panel.



<p>Building an active-style switcher into the global styles interface could offer that ideal user experience that child themes have never achieved. Users had to first understand how they worked, know if any existed for their active theme, install one, and activate it. Under this proposal, they could see all the styles available upfront and simply select one.</p>



<p>It also gives end-users who are not as design-savvy some variety without forcing them to hand-pick an entire color palette.</p>



<p>For a while now, I have been imagining a future where theme shops narrow their focus to one, two, or just a handful of core themes. They would then upsell access to support and a library of block patterns. Now, I envision a future where global style variations could play a part in the commercial market, offering value-adds on top of that core product.</p>



<p>There is also a second ticket that calls for themes to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/36304">provide alternate color palettes</a>. This would likely be much easier to implement as a separate feature because it is much more scaled back. With only a month to get WordPress 5.9 and Twenty Twenty-Two out of the door with user-selectable color schemes, this may be the more reasonable of the two routes.</p>



<p>Whatever the case may be, I keep finding new pet features I want to see land in WordPress. Yesterday, it was block patterns. Today, it is &ldquo;active styles,&rdquo; or whatever it gets called. Tomorrow, who knows? New ideas around the block system continue to keep me impatiently awaiting what comes next.</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, 16 Nov 2021 00:04:36 +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: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:64:"WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 20: WordPress=Blogging+";s:7:"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=11556";s:7:"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:64:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/episode-20-wordpressblogging/";s: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:10273:"<p>In this episode, WordPress&#8217;s Executive Director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, answers two recently asked questions. Tune in to hear what those questions were and her response, in addition to this week&#8217;s small list of big things.</p>



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



<h2 id="credits">Credits</h2>



<ul><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></li><li>Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod</li></ul>



<h2 id="references">References </h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress">W3Techs WordPress Usage Statistics </a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/">WordPress 5.9 Development Cycle </a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2021/10/22/team-rep-nominations/">Call for Team Rep Nomination</a></li></ul>



<h2 id="transcript">Transcript</h2>



<span id="more-11556"></span>



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



<p>Hello, everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go!</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>00:40</p>



<p>So I was in a meeting recently, which I realize isn&#8217;t saying much for me since I spend a quarter of my time in meetings. But in this particular meeting, I was asked a couple of questions that I absolutely loved. The first question was, “if there were one thing you could change in people&#8217;s minds about WordPress, what would it be?” And my answer, predictable though it may be, was that I want to change the idea that WordPress is just a blogging platform.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:06</p>



<p>WordPress has grown into a lot more than that. But the idea of a content management system, even now, sometimes gets a mental shorthand where content is a stand-in for the word writing or words. If you&#8217;re using WordPress today in an enterprise context, or as part of a governmental agency, or if you use it in a classroom setting, you know that your content cannot be confined that way. And if you&#8217;re supporting or building anything to hand off to clients, you know that timely, easy-to-ship changes on a site are considered a vital part of any overarching brand and marketing strategy. And when was the last time that any marketing strategy was literally only about the words?&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:51</p>



<p>So that was the first question. And also my first answer. There is also this kind of annual, not fear, necessarily, but this annual question that is sort of related that is raised to me and has been asked of me recently, that I&#8217;m just going to give you a small answer to. One annual worry that I get every year around November and December is, &#8220;What are we going to do about the fact that the term blog and blogging are declining in search popularity?&#8221; And I was gonna say it&#8217;s been a while since I answered that in any sort of public format. But I think maybe I&#8217;ve never answered it in a public format at all. And so I&#8217;m just going to answer it here. Because I think maybe a lot of people have that same question.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:36</p>



<p>So number one, I think that the way that people search now is different. There&#8217;s a lot more semantic cognition. This is not the way to answer this &#8212;  search engines are smarter now. So like, it used to be the case with early search engines that yeah, there was a lot of just like, individual search terms that were looked for. But now, people are asking full questions; they have, essentially, an entire sentence that they are searching for. And then, search engines are able to parse that information better and get more high-quality answers and information for them. So like, that&#8217;s one thing that I&#8217;m already not worried about. If people are searching for individual words anymore, it&#8217;s so that they can get a definition of that word. So I&#8217;m not specifically worried about a decline in search volume for the word blog or blogging for that reason. But the answer to my first question, if there is probably the real reason that I&#8217;m not actually super worried about any decline in search volume for the word blog, or blogging, is that WordPress has really moved beyond that. And since we have moved beyond that, then it doesn&#8217;t necessarily make sense for WordPress as an entity for WordPress as a project to get overly hung up on the idea that the term blog has gone out of fashion.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>03:52</p>



<p>Okay, now that I did my first question, and the answer, and then an additional question that only ever gets asked in private and is being answered by me for the first time in public, I will tell you now, the second question that I loved, someone asking of me, and that question is this: &#8220;What is one thing you&#8217;d like people to see or experience, right when they first land on wordpress.org?&#8221; Now, I often don&#8217;t get asked questions about the wordpress.org website, like administrative tasks, things that we need to update, move around where they should go. Sure. But like, “Josepha, what&#8217;s the point and purpose of this site?” Never. I&#8217;ve never been asked that, and so I was really excited that someone asked me, and I&#8217;m going to give you a heads up. I think some of you might disagree with my answer.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:40</p>



<p>So the primary thing that I want people to see or experience when they first get to wordpress.org, the website is the depth of WordPress. Not which audience segment they should belong to or that we believe they should belong to or raw data about the CMS or even how much we care about the freedoms of open source. Now the first thing I want people to see on that site is that WordPress has not only 18 years of learned knowledge that every single new user benefits from, but that it also has 1,000s of really smart people making sure it works and gets better every day, now.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:19</p>



<p>WordPress is a Goliath in its field. I know that we cite this bit of context. Frequently, we say that we are 42% of the web. And that is true that is the percentage by usage. But in its field, which is websites that are using a content management system, we actually have a 65% market share. This is very easy to find. It&#8217;s on the W3Techs website: I can put a link in the show notes, but you could find it just by searching for it.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:46</p>



<p>So WordPress is a Goliath in its field of websites that are run using a CMS. Because we have always brought our learnings forward with us with the understanding that knowledge, when shared grows rather than diminishes. But open source, the heart of what defines this project, open source is not a Goliath; it&#8217;s barely even David somedays. Even though the web is built on scads of open source software, there&#8217;s a pervasive public perception that it is built by and for hobbyists or that it is inherently risky, and that if there were if it were worth something, then people would pay something. And I just know that if the first impression of WordPress, we&#8217;re, &#8220;we&#8217;ve got 18 years of experience and learning that brought us to today,&#8221; the rest of the sale to adopt software that protects other people&#8217;s freedoms would take care of itself. And I guess, to quote John Oliver, at this point, &#8220;And now this.&#8221;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>06:59</p>



<p>Alright, that brings us now to our small list of big things. There are actually quite a few big things on this small list today. So number one, we have reached the beta phase for the year&#8217;s final release, which means that WordPress 5.9 beta one is happening tomorrow, Tuesday, November 16. And then seven days later, I believe on the 23rd, if I recall correctly, comes beta two.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>07:24</p>



<p>The second thing on my list is that team rep nominations are happening all over the project right now. I&#8217;ve got a post that I will share in the notes below that I believe all the team reps have put their team&#8217;s nomination posts on. So if you have had an interest in learning more about that and what it means to help keep teams kind of running in the WordPress project, then this is a great opportunity to check those out.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>07:49</p>



<p>And the third thing, this last thing actually isn&#8217;t in the next two weeks, but it is very important, nonetheless. Matt&#8217;s annual State of the Word is coming up on December 14. So basically a month from today. It&#8217;s going to join the growing list of in-person events that are on the calendar. It will be in New York City but will also be live-streamed across the world as usual. Keep an eye out for additional updates about that for anyone who, like me, really looks forward to this particular presentation from our project co-founder every year.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>08:25</p>



<p>And that is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress briefing. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I&#8217;ll see you again in a couple of weeks.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 15 Nov 2021 17:15:03 +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: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: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:70:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 11.9 Focuses on Navigation Menus and Block Theming";s:7:"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=125689";s:7:"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:185:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-9-focuses-on-navigation-menus-and-block-theming?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-11-9-focuses-on-navigation-menus-and-block-theming";s: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:9521:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Gutenberg 11.9 <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/11/12/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-9-0-10-november/">landed on Wednesday</a>, and it is packed with dozens of enhancements. Contributors are speeding forward, getting in some of the final features before the release of WordPress 5.9, expected on December 14.</p>



<p>Version 11.9 is the last plugin release to include new features for the upcoming WordPress update. Bug fixes will continue to be ported over in the coming weeks.</p>



<p>Site editing and theme-related blocks take up most of the spotlight. WordPress 5.9 will ship with its first default block theme, <a href="https://wptavern.com/first-look-at-wordpress-upcoming-twenty-twenty-two-default-theme-the-most-flexible-default-theme-ever-created-for-wordpress">Twenty Twenty-Two</a>. For many users, this will be their first experience with template editing and global styles.</p>



<p>The Navigation block received a lot of attention, and rightly so. Developers solved some vital data portability issues and created a more well-rounded user experience.</p>



<p>There is still a lot of room for improvement on the whole, but Gutenberg has come a long way in the past few months. I am excited about what the new features will look like once they land in the general WordPress release.</p>



<h2 id="site-editor-scaled-back-its-menu-moved-and-renamed">Site Editor Scaled Back, Its Menu Moved and Renamed</h2>



<img />Site editor with Twenty Twenty-Two active.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The site editor has been scaled back to the point where it is no longer the feature that Gutenberg plugin users have grown accustomed to in these last few months. It is essentially a pathway to the global styles feature.</p>



<p>When it comes to templates, only the site&rsquo;s homepage is accessible through the interface. Clicking the &ldquo;W&rdquo; icon in the top left of the editor <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/36194">no longer opens the familiar templates panel</a>, which formerly allowed users to navigate, select, and customize individual templates.</p>



<p>Clicking the &ldquo;Browse All Templates&rdquo; button carts users away from the site editor to a templates screen. It looks like a posts list and includes no instructions on how to, for example, overwrite an author archive or other theme templates. I know the system well enough to understand what is happening, but I can only imagine this would be shocking for the average user.</p>



<p>Users can jump to the Header and Footer areas in the site editor by clicking those in the dropdown. The editor simply focuses on those template parts without switching screens.</p>



<p>However, I see no way of editing specific templates from within the site editor.  The result is a watered-down index template editor with global styles, the one redeeming feature.</p>



<p>The site editor menu item has also now been <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/29630">moved beneath the Appearance menu</a> in the WordPress admin. It is now simply named &ldquo;Editor.&rdquo; Of course, the &ldquo;Theme Editor&rdquo; submenu is still there.</p>



<img />Two types of Appearance editors.



<p><em>I do not expect this to be confusing to users at all&hellip;</em></p>



<p>Sarcasm aside, this is the appropriate place for the new site editor, which will only appear if a user has a block theme active. However, the two submenu names clearly conflict. Could there be a better place to move the Theme Editor? One proposal would see it <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/36354">dropped under Tools</a> in the admin menu.</p>



<p>One must wonder how much use there will be for directly editing theme files in a block world. Templates can be overwritten via the UI. <code>theme.json</code> settings are handled through the global styles interface. That mostly just leaves <code>functions.php</code> as the lone holdout. It might just be time to disable file editing by default in WordPress, at least for block themes.</p>



<h2 id="pattern-explorer">Pattern Explorer</h2>



<img />Block pattern explorer.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Users on desktops and tablets can now enjoy a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35773">full-screen pattern overlay</a>. Instead of endlessly scrolling through dozens or even hundreds of patterns in the narrow inserter, they can click a new &ldquo;Explore&rdquo; button to <em>explore</em> patterns in an interface with a bit more breathing room.</p>



<p>I covered this new feature in a full <a href="https://wptavern.com/block-pattern-modal-explorer-coming-to-wordpress-5-9">review earlier this week</a>. There are still a few kinks to work out with the design, but it works well thus far. It also lays the groundwork for a more extensive set of features down the line.</p>



<h2 id="navigation-data-saving-and-navigation-area-block">Navigation Data Saving and Navigation Area Block</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Navigation block <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35746">data is now stored</a> in a dedicated <code>wp_navigation</code> post type. By saving it separately, contributors have now corrected one of the longstanding issues with block-based nav menus: portability.</p>



<p>In previous iterations of the block, users lost their carefully-crafted menus whenever they switched to a new block theme. They would have to recreate content that typically does not change often.</p>



<p>Alongside this improvement is a new <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/36178">Navigation Area block</a>, which serves as a wrapper for Navigation. Theme authors will be able to define custom areas in their block theme templates with the following code:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>&lt;!-- wp:navigation-area {"area":"primary"} --&gt;
&lt;!-- wp:navigation /--&gt;
&lt;!-- /wp:navigation-area --&gt;</code></pre>



<p>The nested Navigation block is associated with a <code>wp_navigation</code> <em>post</em>. This will be the preferred format for theme authors going forward.</p>



<p>When a user switches themes and the &ldquo;area&rdquo; name matches their previous theme, the menu simply carries over and automatically appears. If they do not match, the user can assign a saved menu. The menu/area relationship is stored in the database.</p>



<p>One of the issues with the Navigation Area block is that it has no alignment controls. Technically, it does not output any HTML itself. However, its existence in the editor prohibits a user from selecting wide or full alignment for its inner Navigation block.</p>



<h2 id="duotone-filter-transparency">Duotone Filter Transparency</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Duotone filters on blocks such as Image and Cover <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34130">now support transparency</a>. Users will now see a slider control beneath the color picker when adjusting either shadows or highlights.</p>



<p>The feature opens the door for a double exposure effect or image mask by layering an Image block over a Cover. Alex Lende showed a few examples of how this could work in the ticket.</p>



<img />Image with transparent duotone layered over Cover block.



<p>Developers also noted possibilities for a tritone option and <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35359">other filter types</a>.</p>



<h2 id="api-for-accessing-global-styles">API For Accessing Global Styles</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Theme and plugin authors should have fun with this new <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34843">API for interacting</a> with the global styles system. Previously, developers had to use the <code>WP_Theme_JSON_Resolver</code> class to pull data that they needed on the server side. Now, they have three new functions:</p>



<ul><li><code>gutenberg_get_global_settings()</code> &ndash; Returns settings.</li><li><code>gutenberg_get_global_styles()</code> &ndash; Returns style settings.</li><li><code>gutenberg_get_global_stylesheet()</code> &ndash; Returns the global stylesheet.</li></ul>



<p>Presumably, these functions will be renamed before landing in WordPress 5.9 and not have the <code>gutenberg_</code> prefix. Theme authors should wrap any usage of these in <code>function_exist()</code> checks to be on the safe side.</p>



<h2 id="new-comment-blocks">New Comment Blocks</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Several new comment blocks have landed in the latest plugin update. The <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35231">Comments Query Loop and Comment Template</a> blocks work similarly to their post counterparts. However, the current result is a bare-bones feature that is not ready for production use. Nested comments are not shown, and there are not many options for customizing the output.</p>



<p>It is a step toward block theme authors and users (via the site editor) controlling post comments output. Gutenberg 11.9 also includes new comment helper blocks that will be necessary for templating:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35774">Comment Reply Link</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35965">Comment Link</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35396">Comment Avatar</a></li></ul>



<p>For a while, comments have felt like an afterthought. Any movement toward rounding out these missing theme-related blocks is welcome.</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, 13 Nov 2021 01:34:11 +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: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:42:"WordPress.org blog: State of the Word 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:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=11567";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/state-of-the-word-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:4640:"<div class="wp-block-image"><img width="632" height="430" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/11/SOTW-Post-e1636763589410-1024x696.png?resize=632%2C430&ssl=1" alt="State of the Word 2021" class="wp-image-11568" />State of the Word 2021 is happening on Dec 14!</div>



<p>Howdy, World!&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/render?action=TEMPLATE&text=State%20of%20the%20Word%202021%20livestream&dates=20211214T150000Z%2F20211214T170000Z&details=State%20of%20the%20Word%20is%20the%20annual%20keynote%20address%20delivered%20by%20the%20WordPress%20project%27s%20co-founder%2C%20Matt%20Mullenweg.%0AJoin%20Matt%20as%20he%20provides%20a%20retrospective%20of%202021%2C%20celebrates%20the%20community%27s%20amazing%20wins%2C%20discusses%20the%20latest%20trends%20he%27s%20seeing%2C%20and%20explores%20the%20future%20of%20open%20source.%0AState%20of%20the%20Word%20will%20be%20live%20streamed%20from%20New%20York%20City%2C%20and%20is%20free%20for%20all%20to%20watch.%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fnews%2F2021%2F11%2Fstate-of-the-word-2021%2F">Mark your calendars</a>; it’s almost time for State of the Word 2021!</p>



<p>State of the Word is the annual keynote address delivered by the WordPress project’s co-founder, Matt Mullenweg. Every year, the event allows us to reflect on the project’s progress and the future of open source. This year will include that and more.</p>



<p>Due to the pandemic, we moved the State of the World online for the first time ever in 2020. This year, the event will be livestreamed from New York City. That will enable us to take as many folks as possible along for the ride!</p>



<p>Join Matt as he provides a retrospective of 2021, discusses the latest trends he’s seeing, celebrates the community’s amazing wins, and explores the future. Expect to hear about a range of topics, from WordPress 5.9 and Openverse to Web3 and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).</p>



<p><strong>What:</strong> State of the Word 2021</p>



<p><strong>When:</strong> <a href="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/render?action=TEMPLATE&text=State%20of%20the%20Word%202021%20livestream&dates=20211214T150000Z%2F20211214T170000Z&details=State%20of%20the%20Word%20is%20the%20annual%20keynote%20address%20delivered%20by%20the%20WordPress%20project%27s%20co-founder%2C%20Matt%20Mullenweg.%0AJoin%20Matt%20as%20he%20provides%20a%20retrospective%20of%202021%2C%20celebrates%20the%20community%27s%20amazing%20wins%2C%20discusses%20the%20latest%20trends%20he%27s%20seeing%2C%20and%20explores%20the%20future%20of%20open%20source.%0AState%20of%20the%20Word%20will%20be%20live%20streamed%20from%20New%20York%20City%2C%20and%20is%20free%20for%20all%20to%20watch.%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fnews%2F2021%2F11%2Fstate-of-the-word-2021%2F">December 14, 2021, between 5 and 7 pm ET/10 &#8211; 12 am (December 15) UTC</a></p>



<p><strong>How:</strong> If you’re watching from the comfort of your home or local watch party, the livestream will be embedded on wordpress.org/news.</p>



<p><strong>Have a question for Matt?</strong></p>



<p>State of the Word will be followed by a Question &amp; Answer session. If you want to participate, you can either send your question ahead of time to <a href="mailto:ask-matt@wordcamp.org">ask-matt@wordcamp.org</a>, or ask during the event in the livestream chat on YouTube.</p>



<p>If you’re new to State of the Word, the previous years’ recordings (below) will help you get a sense of what the event is about. Check them out:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2020/12/state-of-the-word-2020/">State of the Word 2020 (online)</a></li><li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2019/11/03/2019-state-of-the-word/">State of the Word 2019 – WordCamp US, St. Louis</a></li><li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/12/27/state-of-the-word-2018/">State of the Word 2018 – WordCamp US, Nashville</a></li><li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/">All recordings</a></li></ul>



<p>We hope to see you online on December 14th!</p>



<p><em>Thanks to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/anjanavasan/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>anjanavasan</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/eidolonnight/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>eidolonnight</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rmartinezduque/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>rmartinezduque</a> for their work on this post. The featured image was created by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/beafialho/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>beafialho</a></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:"Sat, 13 Nov 2021 00:38:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Josepha";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:72:"WPTavern: GoDaddy Acquires Pagely to Deploy New WooCommerce SaaS Product";s:7:"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=125660";s:7:"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:189:"https://wptavern.com/godaddy-acquires-pagely-to-deploy-new-woocommerce-saas-product?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=godaddy-acquires-pagely-to-deploy-new-woocommerce-saas-product";s: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:3259:"<p>GoDaddy has <a href="https://aboutus.godaddy.net/newsroom/press-releases/press-release-details/2021/Pagely-joins-GoDaddy/default.aspx">acquired</a> managed WordPress hosting company Pagely to expand the company&rsquo;s expertise in hosting WooCommerce stores. Pagely, co-founded by Joshua and Sally Strebel, has been in business for 18 years, offering hosting for businesses and enterprises at the higher end of the managed hosting market.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We will be working closely with the amazing team of WooCommerce experts from SkyVerge (previous GoDaddy acquisition) on the GoDaddy commerce team to deploy a world-class WooCommerce SaaS aimed at powersellers,&rdquo; Pagely co-founder and CEO Joshua Strebel said in a post titled &ldquo;<a href="https://pagely.com/blog/we-did-it/">We Did It</a>.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Strebel said Pagely received more than a dozen offers to buy the company over the years and was given the &ldquo;choice of every suitor in the space.&rdquo; This particular offer was the third from GoDaddy.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We poured our heart and soul into Pagely, and PressNomics, and the market responded,&rdquo; Strebel said. &ldquo;First, shown by our own success and then that of all the followers that came along after.&nbsp;We built a company with industry-leading&nbsp;<em>everything &ndash;&nbsp;</em>that our employees and customers love and respect, and despite our diminutive size in comparison to the VC fueled giants, those same entities could not ignore us. And that pushed the entire channel to improve and do better, benefiting every WordPress user on the planet.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal. I spoke with both Pagely and GoDaddy representatives who would not elaborate on how the new WooCommerce Saas will be different from GoDaddy&rsquo;s current WordPress e-commerce hosting offering. WooCommerce stores at GoDaddy start at $15.99/month and include 75 extensions and daily back-ups, among other features. </p>



<p>During an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uE2s3Of_AU">interview</a> with Post Status last night, GoDaddy product manager Beka Rice said Pagely will be involved in deploying the new WooCommerce product, which she described as a &ldquo;curated experience&rdquo; for merchants. GoDaddy will be relying on Pagely&rsquo;s infrastructure expertise to improve the company&rsquo;s ability to keep WooCommerce stores running smoothly. </p>



<p>When asked about a potential launch date for the new WooCommerce SaaS product, Rice said the project is still in the the planning stages. They have identified the teams and are interested in learning more about scaling WooCommerce from Pagely&rsquo;s enterprise customers.</p>



<p>Pagely co-founder and COO Sally Strebel confirmed that the company will continue sponsoring and hosting its annual Pressnomics conference, which has held six events since it began.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Our beloved conference,&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pressnomics.com/" target="_blank">Pressnomics</a>, may look a little different going forward, and will remain a Pagely hosted event with the same mission as always: to elevate and connect business owners in the WordPress ecosystem,&rdquo; Strebel 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:"Fri, 12 Nov 2021 19:29:12 +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: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:97:"WPTavern: Proposed Web Fonts API Not Coming to WordPress 5.9, Possibly Landing in Gutenberg First";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=125634";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:237:"https://wptavern.com/proposed-web-fonts-api-not-coming-to-wordpress-5-9-possibly-landing-in-gutenberg-first?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=proposed-web-fonts-api-not-coming-to-wordpress-5-9-possibly-landing-in-gutenberg-first";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6763:"<p class="has-drop-cap">After what seemed like a shoo-in for WordPress 5.9, a <a href="https://wptavern.com/a-web-font-api-possibly-coming-to-wordpress">proposed web font API</a> was put on hold. The feature would standardize how theme and plugin developers load fonts and lay the groundwork for future user-facing features.</p>



<p>Jono Alderson <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/46370">opened a ticket</a> for the feature in February 2019. In recent months, the proposal picked up speed. The <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/1736">pull request</a> had over 200 in-ticket messages, 93 commits, and code approval from two core committers. The API seemed ready. However, it hit a standstill in the past few days.</p>



<p>Andrew Ozz, a lead WordPress developer, essentially <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/1736#issuecomment-963589490">halted the possibility of the new API</a> landing in 5.9. He stated that he did not think the proposal was ready for WordPress.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Purely as code it looks good,&rdquo; he wrote in the ticket. &ldquo;It is really well documented (thanks [Tonya Mark]!). However I still cannot see how this would make WordPress better in the short and long run. We were chatting with [Andrei Draganescu] and he suggested that ideally this should have been a feature plugin, and I agree. Then it would have been possible to really test it in production, verify (or reject) the assumptions that were made while creating it, and make it into a really worthy addition to WordPress. Unfortunately it&rsquo;s too late for this now for 5.9.&rdquo;</p>



<p>One of the issues with testing feature plugins for APIs is that they are not often adopted, as others noted in the ticket. Developers would not rely on them in production in most cases. And, the average end-user would not install something specific to developers.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Suggesting this be done as a feature plugin is an elegant way to delay something for a few years,&rdquo; <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/1736#issuecomment-963893355">said Ari Stathopoulos</a>, one of the developers behind the API. However, he pointed out the REST API being one exception that performed well enough to get ported into WordPress.</p>



<p>The core WordPress proposal will likely be <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/46370#comment:111">pushed into the Gutenberg plugin</a> for further exploration. This would be a sort of compromise between launching as a separate feature plugin and going into WordPress 5.9.</p>



<p>The web fonts API is not directly related to the block system. Both traditional and block themes, as well as plugins, could make use of the feature today. However, several Gutenberg proposals rely on the existence of the API, such as allowing theme authors to define web fonts via their <code>theme.json</code> files.</p>



<p>Ozz listed several questions around the proposal, and several developers replied to each. However, his primary argument hinged on the practicality of why everything in the API was necessary, stating that prior replies had been &ldquo;in principle&rdquo; and seemed to be based on assumptions.</p>



<p>On the most basic level, the web fonts API would allow developers to register and load locally-hosted fonts or those from Google Fonts. Developers could also add custom providers outside of the two defaults. The first iteration of the proposed API was more about setting down a foundation to build upon in future WordPress releases.</p>



<p>The appeal of the feature is not simply loading fonts. Technically, theme authors could do that with a single line of code if they wanted to. Four lines of code if they wanted to follow current core WordPress standards, at least on the front end.</p>



<p>Stathopoulos rattled off a list of improvements such an API would bring to WordPress and its extensions.</p>



<ul><li>Themes could define fonts via their <code>theme.json</code> files.</li><li>Font previews in the font-family selector in the editor.</li><li>Showing valid font-weights and styles for a font-family.</li><li>Improved front-end performance.</li><li>Server-side localization for better performance and privacy.</li></ul>



<p>This was a small sampling of the arguments in favor of including the API in core WordPress.</p>



<p>&ldquo;There are many improvements in Gutenberg that are in limbo, waiting for a web fonts API,&rdquo; wrote Stathopolous in the ticket. &ldquo;Not having a web fonts API is a blocker at this point. It&rsquo;s not a good-to-have item in our wishlist, it is a requirement in order to move forward.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Currently, no standard specifically relates to web fonts in WordPress. Theme authors piggyback off existing functions for enqueueing a third-party stylesheet or a custom one with <code>@font-face</code> rules. That has generally been an accepted practice in the theme author community over the years.</p>



<p>However, many have accepted it grudgingly. Several have created custom scripts to ease pain points. Many others just copy whatever method the latest default WordPress theme happens to be using.</p>



<p>One of the goals is to make it so that developers do not have to worry about doing all of the extra work involved with loading web fonts. There really should be no need for a theme to figure out how to load them in both the editor and the front end, handle preloading, or account for localization. As themes age and third-party APIs like Google Fonts change, there would be no need for themes to update if WordPress takes care of it under the hood.</p>



<p>The problem of how best to load web fonts multiplies when you throw plugins into the mix. Generally, themes do all the heavy lifting when it comes to design. However, some plugins leap into that side of the WordPress world to add extra style options. There is no way to solve conflicts when loading multiple copies of the same font. Nor are there any surefire ways to disable a theme&rsquo;s fonts and replace them via the plugin.</p>



<p>One such plugin author emailed me to let me know the news I had already known. The web fonts API appeared to no longer be landing in WordPress 5.9. The developer was gearing up to launch a new website and service on top of the new feature. They even had a mascot. As of now, it might just have to wait.</p>



<p>The feature freeze deadline was two days ago. Therefore, it is unlikely the web fonts API gets added back to the WordPress 5.9 milestone. Maybe developers will see it when 6.0 lands. Maybe pushing it to the Gutenberg plugin breathes some more life into it, allowing contributors to move forward with new features that rely on 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:"Fri, 12 Nov 2021 01:58:51 +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: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:86:"WordPress.org blog: Take the 2021 WordPress Annual Survey (and view the 2020 results)!";s:7:"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=11551";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:99:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/take-the-2021-wordpress-annual-survey-and-view-the-2020-results/";s: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:4805:"<p>Each year, members of the WordPress community (users, site builders, extenders, and contributors) provide their valuable feedback through an annual survey. Key takeaways and trends that emerge from this survey often find their way into the annual <a href="https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/"><em>State of the Word</em></a> address, are shared in the public project blogs, and can influence the direction and strategy for the WordPress Project.</p>



<p>Simply put: this survey helps those who build WordPress understand more about how the software is used, and by whom. The survey also helps leaders in the WordPress open source project learn more about our contributors’ experiences.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>To ensure that <strong><em>your</em></strong> WordPress experience is represented in the 2021 survey results, <a href="https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-english" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">take the 2021 annual survey now.</a></p>



<div class="wp-container-619c098b26dbf wp-block-buttons">
<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link" href="https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-english" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Take the Annual Survey! (English)</a></div>
</div>



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



<p>You may also take the survey in <a href="https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-french" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">French</a>, <a href="https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-german" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">German</a>, <a href="https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-japanese" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Japanese</a>, <a href="https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-russian" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Russian</a>, or <a href="https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-spanish" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spanish</a>. These are the top five languages (other than English) based on the number of WordPress locale downloads. For 2022, additional languages may be considered for translation.</p>



<p>The survey will be open through the end of 2021, and the results will be published in a future post on this blog for anyone to view. Next year, there will be a new format for this survey, including which segments and questions are included, so that your valuable time spent responding results in equally valuable information.</p>



<h2 id="2020-survey-results">2020 Survey Results</h2>



<p>For the 2020 survey, more than 17,000 responses were collected, representing the highest submission volume in four years, up three times from the prior year. In the inaugural year of the survey (2015), over 50,000 responses were collected. Given the reach and adoption of WordPress, there is a significant number we have not reached. As you take the 2021 survey, consider sharing the link on social media and with other colleagues who use WordPress. Gathering feedback from more folks who benefit from WordPress will strengthen our project.</p>



<div class="wp-container-619c098b27286 wp-block-buttons">
<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link" href="https://wordpress.org/news/files/2021/11/WordPress.org-2020-Annual-Survey.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">View the 2020 Survey Results (PDF)</a></div>
</div>



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



<p>The 2020 survey results show that the pandemic has had a major impact on how we operate as a community. With few in-person events, many community members continue to find it challenging to balance community contributions with their own personal and professional obligations.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 id="footnotes">Footnotes:</h2>



<p>Data security and privacy are paramount to the WordPress project and community. With this in mind, all data will be anonymized: no email addresses nor IP addresses will be associated with published results. To learn more about WordPress.org’s privacy practices, view the <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/">privacy policy</a>.</p>



<p>Like last year, the 2021 survey will be promoted via a banner on WordPress.org, and throughout the make blogs. However, taking a moment to amplify these posts through your own social media and Slack accounts will ensure broader participation. Each of the translated surveys will be promoted through banners on their associated localized-language WordPress.org sites.</p>



<p><em>Thanks to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dansoschin/">@dansoschin</a> for the initial draft of this post, and to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/">@annezazu</a> &amp; <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zackkrida/">@zackkrida</a> for 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:"Thu, 11 Nov 2021 23:52:12 +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:7:"Josepha";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:49:"WPTavern: Lemon Squeezy Launches WordPress Plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=125589";s:7:"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:143:"https://wptavern.com/lemon-squeezy-launches-wordpress-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lemon-squeezy-launches-wordpress-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4350:"<p><a href="https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/">Lemon Squeezy</a>, a hosted e-commerce platform for selling digital products, subscriptions, and software licenses, <a href="https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/lemon-drop-05/">launched a WordPress plugin</a>. The plugin allows the platform&rsquo;s customers to sell their products directly on WordPress sites. </p>



<p>Merchants sign up, create products, and manage customers and subscribers using the Lemon Squeezy platform. Then they use the plugin to connect via OAuth and display products within WordPress content areas. The first version of the plugin lets users add &ldquo;buy buttons&rdquo; for products using a block.</p>



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



<p>For checkout, merchants can link directly to a secure hosted checkout page or show a checkout pop-up modal on their WordPress sites.</p>



<p>Lemon Squeezy is also aimed at WordPress product creators as the platform includes the ability to ship auto-updates for commercial themes and plugins.</p>



<p>Merchants pay a monthly fee to use the service based on features, plus 3.5% + 30c per transaction. These fees cover access to the hosted platform, which handles merchant accounts, payment gateways, taxes, VAT, and other administrative details as the merchant of record. </p>



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



<p>Lemon Squeezy was created by veterans of the WordPress community who are looking to position the platform as a competitor to WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. In promoting the new plugin, Lemon Squeezy team member Mike McAlister, founder of Array Themes and creator of Atomic Blocks, explained why he doesn&rsquo;t see WordPress as the right tool for selling products anymore.</p>



<p>&ldquo;These days, I can&rsquo;t imagine running a business inside wp-admin,&rdquo; McAlister said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just not built for it, in my opinion. Having sensitive customer records in the same database as site content and data stored by plugins with varying security practices just screams trouble.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Lemon Squeezy was met with a cautious reception from the WordPress developer community. There was some discussion on it in the Post Status Club Slack instance where members noted that the plugin launched with no migration options. This means it&rsquo;s currently only available to new store owners or those with a few products they can easily recreate. Without a straightforward migration tool, the service will have a difficult time siphoning users off of existing WordPress-based solutions. </p>



<p>Since the plugin is still in its early days, it seems best-suited to simple stores that don&rsquo;t require more than just being embedded on a WordPress site. In that case, there are many &ldquo;buy button&rdquo; style of e-commerce plugins with lower fees that Lemon Squeezy will be competing against as it enters the market.</p>



<p>Maintaining products on one platform and a store on a different platform may not be advantageous for some users, especially those who don&rsquo;t want to have to learn both to start selling. Lemon Squeezy&rsquo;s creators are marketing it as &ldquo;the easy-peasy way to sell digital products online,&rdquo; as the hosted service provides an attractive storefront and  takes care of all the extraneous financial details of running a store.</p>



<p>Although the plugin&rsquo;s name is Lemon Squeezy, its title on WordPress.org is &ldquo;<em>Easy Peasy Digital Downloads &mdash; Sell Digital Products, Subscriptions, and Licenses with Lemon Squeezy</em>.&rdquo; This seems tailored to ride on the coattails of Easy Digital Downloads&rsquo; well-established search placement as WordPress&rsquo; market leader for selling digital products. WordPress users looking to create a digital store likely would not be searching for this plugin by name unless they already knew about it from elsewhere. </p>



<p>Next on the current roadmap for the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/lemon-squeezy/">Lemon Squeezy WordPress plugin</a> is the ability to restrict content by using more features built into the Lemon Squeezy platform. The plugin is still under development and users are welcome to send feedback to the team <a href="https://twitter.com/lmsqueezy">via Twitter</a> or <a href="https://wptavern.com/hello@lemonqueezy.com">email</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 11 Nov 2021 18:43:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"Post Status: Post Status Excerpt (No. 32) — Diversity in Speaking, Organizing, and Events";s:7:"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=89240";s:7:"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:34:"https://poststatus.com/excerpt/32/";s: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:5046:"<h2>&#8220;Focus on the skills people bring, what projects they've done that have been really great.&#8221; — Jill Binder</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">In this episode of Post Status Excerpt, David talks with special guest Jill Binder about diversity and inclusion — how can people in underrepresented groups leverage resources in the WordPress community to increase their confidence, exposure, and potential hiring value? Learn how organizers can make their events feel more open and how they can encourage those in under-represented groups to participate. If we see a speaker who doesn't look like us at a conference and simply appreciate their contribution as a speaker as a normal feature of our conferences, that is an achievable win.</p>



<p><strong>Don't forget! </strong>We're encouraging listeners to check out the &#8220;<a href="https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/">Week at WordPress.org</a>&#8221; — get the feed <a href="https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/feed/">here</a> — and <a href="https://poststatus.com/submit-2021-black-friday-cyber-monday-deals/">submit your Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals</a> to us at Post Status for us to share.</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/13.0.1/72x72/26a1.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/13.0.1/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h3 id="h-mentioned-in-the-show"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f517.png" alt="🔗" class="wp-smiley" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>



<ul><li><a href="https://bit.ly/WPDiversity17Nov2021">Allyship for WordPress event organizers </a>(AMER/EMEA (November 17, 2021 @ 6pm-8pm UTC)</li><li><a href="https://bit.ly/WPDiversity27Nov2021">How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events Southeast to Southern Asia </a>(November 27, 2021 @ 7am-8:30am UTC)</li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wpdiversityworkshops/">How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events AMER/EMEA</a> &#8211; Held during first two weeks of December.</li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wpdiversityworkshops/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WPDiversity on Make.WordPress.Org</a></li><li><a href="https://diversein.tech/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">diversein.tech</a></li><li>Creating a Welcoming and Diverse Space (Part <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/creating-a-welcoming-and-diverse-space-part-1/">1</a> and <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/creating-a-welcoming-and-diverse-space-part-2/">2</a>)</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/jillbinder" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jill Binder (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href="https://linkedin.com/in/jillbinder/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jill Binder (LinkedIn)</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/dimensionmedia" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">David Bisset (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/post_status" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Post Status (Twitter)</a></li></ul>



<h3><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> Sponsor: <a href="https://poststat.us/sandhills" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow">GoDaddyPro</a></h3>



<p>Manage your clients, websites, and tasks from a single dashboard with <strong>GoDaddy Pro</strong>. Perform security scans, backups, and remote updates to many sites on any host. Check up on site performance, monitor uptime and analytics, and then send reports to your clients. <strong>GoDaddy Pro</strong> is free — and designed to make your life better.</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, 11 Nov 2021 05:45:07 +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: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:99:"WPTavern: Ask the Bartender: Is There Still a Space for Building With HTML, CSS, and Template Tags?";s:7:"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=125591";s:7:"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:235:"https://wptavern.com/ask-the-bartender-is-there-still-a-space-for-building-with-html-css-and-template-tags?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ask-the-bartender-is-there-still-a-space-for-building-with-html-css-and-template-tags";s: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:5500:"<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>I&rsquo;m still wondering about the best method to approach a new project.</p><p>As a background, besides the traditional way, I&rsquo;ve worked with Divi, love Bricks, and am loving Blocks. But I still feel that there is nothing like building a website from the root, with raw material: HTML, dynamic PHP, and CSS &mdash; even more now with the importance of performance and the new server-side of things.</p><p>Plus, the ability to play with dynamic data (and the database) with template tags is so smooth and efficient that it really feels like superpowers.</p><p>So, it feels a bit strange, but I&rsquo;m wondering if template tags are going to end too?</p><cite>Ricardo</cite></blockquote>



<p class="has-drop-cap">You are asking a guy who was so nostalgic for the &ldquo;simpler&rdquo; days that he built his own custom blogging system over a weekend. And, I actually still use that same code, albeit updated and refined, for my personal blog today. When I began that project, I laid the foundation with modern PHP and build tools. However, at the heart of it, I just wanted to get back to those foundational elements of the web: HTML and CSS. I feel where you are coming from.</p>



<p>That project was fun to build for my own edification and enjoyment, but it essentially has a user base of one. Designing the front end for it feels very much like WordPress of 10 &ndash; 15 years ago.</p>



<p>When you said using template tags was like accessing &ldquo;superpowers,&rdquo; it brought on a wave of nostalgia of those days and weeks when I first started using them. It was such an elegant system. Anyone could grab some dynamic data by copying a code snippet and pasting it between some HTML elements.</p>



<p>For those with the skills or enough DIY grit, they can do anything with a little bit of code, trial-and-error, and time. However, if we are going to empower more people, developers need newer and more powerful technologies to make that possible. For WordPress development, that means embracing the block system, which seems like something you are doing.</p>



<p>Template tags are not going away. They are just PHP functions for getting some type of data. They will be around for a long time, likely as long as WordPress itself is still kicking.</p>



<p>Many blocks actually rely on these template tags for outputting dynamic data on the front end. For example, the Archives block is literally a wrapper around <code>wp_get_archives()</code>.</p>



<p>If you prefer working from a code editor, you could look at blocks as modern-day template tags for WordPress. They are merely snippets of HTML code with a bit of JSON mixed in as an HTML comment. Many also display dynamic data.</p>



<p>There is really no difference between the following template tag:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>&lt;?php wp_get_archives() ?&gt;</code></pre>



<p>And its block equivalent:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>&lt;!-- wp:archives /--&gt;</code></pre>



<p>Both spit out dynamic data. The difference is the syntax.</p>



<p>Granted, that is one of the simplest examples. Sometimes the block code is more complex. Other times, not so much.</p>



<p>What makes blocks more flexible is that they are built on a standardized system that empowers users to interact with them on the admin side.</p>



<p>Web development is an industry where you must continually adapt, learning new syntaxes, programming languages, libraries, technologies, and more. Just when you think you have mastered one thing, something else comes along to toss your world upside down. It can be both frustrating and fun.  Over time, you just learn to roll with it.</p>



<p>While template tags are not going away, how front-end developers build will change in the coming years. For most projects, they will work with blocks. However, block theming is in its infancy, so it is not something anyone must rush into.</p>



<p>With that said, the beauty of WordPress is that there is no one way of using it. If you want to build with just the <em>raw materials</em>, you can always do that. It may even make some projects easier, particularly if you have a simplified scope.</p>



<p>As far as performance goes, WordPress is pretty fast out of the box. Plugins and the active theme can improve its speed or make it a lot worse. Thanks to some <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/01/block-styles-loading-enhancements-in-wordpress-5-8/">improvements in 5.8</a>, block styles are far more efficient.</p>



<p>It sounds to me that we are kindred spirits. We appreciate the simplicity &mdash; at least what we personally view as simple &mdash; of just diving into the building blocks of the web. And, there is nothing wrong with that.</p>



<p>However, as a professional, you are building themes for customers or performing a service for a client. The technology or the tools you use do not really matter as long as they allow you to cater to your users.</p>



<p>Maybe that tool is a third-party page builder on a client site. Perhaps you are building a block theme for public release on top of WordPress. Or, it could be a personal project, an itch you have been wanting to scratch. You load your code editor and begin tapping the keys. After a weekend of caffeine and junk food, you realize you have built something new and exciting from the ground up.</p>



<p>Whatever your new project is, approach it based on what the project itself needs.</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, 11 Nov 2021 01:52:08 +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: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:68:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.8.2 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=11546";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/wordpress-5-8-2-security-and-maintenance-release/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2948:"<p><strong>WordPress 5.8.2&nbsp;</strong>is now available!</p>



<p>This security and maintenance release features <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?id=54129%2C54323%2C54207&milestone=5.8.2&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&col=milestone&order=priority">2 bug</a> fixes in addition to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/54207">1 security</a> fix. Because this is a <strong>security release</strong>, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 5.2 have also been updated.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.8.2 is a small focus security and maintenance release. The next major release will be version&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/">5.9</a>.</p>



<p>You can download WordPress 5.8.2 by downloading from WordPress.org, or visit your Dashboard → Updates and click Update Now. If you have sites that support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.</p>



<p>For more information, browse the <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?id=54129%2C54323%2C54207&milestone=5.8.2&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&col=milestone&order=priority">full list of changes</a> on Trac, or check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-8-2/">version 5.8.2 HelpHub documentation page</a>.</p>



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



<p>The 5.8.2 release was led by&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/circlecube/">Evan Mullins</a>.</p>



<p>In addition to the release squad members mentioned above, thank you to everyone who helped make WordPress 5.8.2 happen:</p>



<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aristath/">Ari Stathopoulos</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bradleyt/">Bradley Taylor</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidwebca/">davidwebca</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/circlecube/">Evan Mullins</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gziolo/">Greg Ziółkowski</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jrf/">Juliette Reinders Folmer</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mukesh27/">Mukesh Panchal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/">Sergey Biryukov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/shimon246/">shimon246</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fierevere/">Yui</a>.



<p class="has-text-align-right has-small-font-size"><em>Props </em><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/circlecube/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>circlecube</a><em> and </em><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pbiron/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>pbiron</a> <em>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:"Wed, 10 Nov 2021 18:20:45 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:19:"Jonathan Desrosiers";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:120:"HeroPress: Contributing To WordPress Without Being A Developer – Contribuire a WordPress senza essere uno sviluppatore";s:7:"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=4242";s:7:"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:176:"https://heropress.com/essays/contributing-to-wordpress-without-being-a-developer/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=contributing-to-wordpress-without-being-a-developer";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:20094:"<img width="1024" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/110921-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: The WordPress community is inclusive so you'll always feel welcome." /><p><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/how-wordpress-made-space-for-me-as-a-kid-who-grew-up-with-ms/#italian">Questo saggio è disponibile anche in italiano.</a></p>
<h3>The beginnings trying various CMS</h3>
<p>I&#8217;ve always been fascinated by the internet, I remember in the 90s going with friends to pubs where we could use a computer and understand how websites like the FBI&#8217;s were structured, or learning how to use the ancestors of today&#8217;s chats like, for example, mIRC.</p>
<p>I started creating websites in 1998 for fun, and my first paid job was for the shop where I bought comics.</p>
<p>Little by little I approached CMS to speed up the creation of sites: I tried Joomla and Drupal and they never fully satisfied me because of the scarcity of guides. Later, in a magazine, I read about a CMS for creating blogs that was beginning to be used to create incredible sites and which, moreover, had an international community that had created a very large documentation. Little by little, thanks to that documentation and the first sites in Italian, I started to use WordPress.</p>
<h3>The turning point that changed my life, personally and professionally</h3>
<p>Being an introvert by nature, I didn&#8217;t mind working from home, but I did have difficulty finding new clients and, at the same time, improving the quality of the work I was doing using WordPress, which had become the only CMS I was using to create sites.</p>
<p>The discovery was to look at the dashboard and notice a label where it was written Events and news on WordPress, inside which were reported events among which one immediately caught my attention: the WordPress meetup in Rome.</p>
<blockquote><p>The turning point was in November 2017 when I went, with great curiosity, to the first meeting of the WordPress Meetup in Rome.</p></blockquote>
<p>I must admit that the impact was not at all easy since the first talk I listened to then, was about WP-CLI, a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/guides/installing/">command line interface for WordPress</a>, and, for someone like me, who had done simple jobs and certainly not as a developer, it was a real trauma: I wondered if I was really suitable for this environment. Then, at the end of the meeting, someone mentioned WordCamp Rome 2017.</p>
<h3>My first WordCamp</h3>
<p>I tried to find out about this event and I found it difficult to understand how it worked: it was two days but, while I had read for the second day that it was going to be a day of talks, I had no idea what was going on during the first day. So I decided to write an email for information. The person who wrote back explained that it was a contributor day, a day called Contributor Day, and</p>
<blockquote><p>in the end I chose not to participate because I thought to myself, &#8220;What can I do? I don&#8217;t know anything about WordPress&#8221;&#8230; a big mistake, which I later reflected on and understood.</p></blockquote>
<p>The WordCamp was a great discovery: talks at all levels, from basic (suitable for me) to those for developers, even advanced or very advanced. I was immediately struck by the enthusiasm of the volunteers and the environment where I felt very comfortable, so much so that I asked myself how I could participate in some WordCamps. Asking around I was immediately informed about the possibility of applying as a volunteer.</p>
<p>During the WordCamp I heard about Slack; I didn&#8217;t understand much about it, even if everyone encouraged me to sign up to join the WordPress community, but the doubt I had was always the same: what could my contribution be?</p>
<h3>Slack and the choice to join the Polyglots</h3>
<p>Once on Slack, the choice of where to go was simple: not being a developer, I opted for the Polyglots (the volunteers who <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/">translate the whole WordPress ecosystem into the various languages</a>) starting with the translation of a theme I was using for my work at the time. Little by little I got interested in the plugin activities, attending all the meetings and offering myself as a translator for themes and plugins: now I&#8217;m a GTE (General Translation Editor) and I also take care of the WordPress Core translations.</p>
<p>Participating in Slack has helped me enormously: I&#8217;ve met a lot of people who I now call friends. Moreover, by translating, I learned a lot about how themes and plugins work.</p>
<p>As my work with Polyglots has grown, it has led me to join other teams, the latest of which is the group of translators for Helphub, the new official WordPress documentation system.</p>
<h3>WordCamps</h3>
<p>After WordCamp Rome 2017, I started volunteering starting with WordCamp Rome 2018; there I participated in the first Contributor Day where I could actively contribute as a translator. Since that WordCamp, given my passion for photography, I volunteered as a photographer for many other events in Italy organized by the WordPress community, and I must say that this commitment to the community also allows me to have fun: being a photographer means having the opportunity to walk around the halls and capture moments of the life of a WordCamp.</p>
<blockquote><p>Participating in WordCamps has made me so passionate about it that I must admit I have been in crisis due to the lack of events during the pandemic.</p></blockquote>
<p>A friend of mine, a WordCamp fanatic like me, once said to me: &#8220;Stefano, there&#8217;s nothing to do, we have to admit that we are WordCamp addicts: the more you attend, the more you want to go to other WordCamps&#8221;.</p>
<h3>The WordPress Meetup in Rome and the pandemic</h3>
<p>In October 2019 I was asked to become the organizer of the WordPress meetup in Rome; at the beginning there was the difficulty of finding the place to organize the meetings since the agreement with the coworking that was previously available was broken, but COVID made sure that the event didn&#8217;t take place at all. The new challenge was therefore the organisation of online events, and, to be honest, I had fun as I had the pleasure of contacting many friends of the community who willingly offered to be speakers for the meetup in Rome with always interesting talks.</p>
<h3>The WordCamp Italy</h3>
<p>COVID led to the deleting of Meetups and WordCamps. Fortunately, the Italian WordPress community didn&#8217;t give up and organised the WordCamp Italia online, which brought together the organisers of previous meetups and WordCamps, as well as new people like me with no experience of organising events. I took part in both editions as a member of the social &amp; communication team, where I took care of the social channels and website content together with the other two organisers who were part of the team, and the experience made me grow professionally because I worked with the best that could be among the members of the community.</p>
<h3>Working together with community members</h3>
<p>The best thing I got out of joining the WordPress community was the chance to collaborate with some people on a working basis and, I have to say, that was incredible. Being with many of them you have an incredible opportunity to grow in knowledge, you just have to be ready to learn&#8230; and with WordPress you never stop learning, there is always something new that is suggested to you by those who have more experience than you.</p>
<h3>What did WordPress bring me?</h3>
<ol>
<li>Discovering the community: WordPress introduced me to the world of its community, both Italian and international; the WordPress community connects WordPress enthusiasts through monthly Meetups, annual WordCamps, virtual collaborations such as contributions to the WordPress project, and much more.</li>
<li>Professional growth: the chance to work, but also the chance to learn more and more about its ecosystem</li>
<li>Personal growth: WordPress and the community have helped my confidence and self-esteem; I still have the &#8220;impostor syndrome&#8221; and I fear it will never go away, as I always question all my choices (and often prefer to avoid exposing myself), but being in the community has helped me overcome many fears and fears, such as feeling eligible to apply for some position in WordPress companies, which I would NEVER have thought of doing before.</li>
<li>Friends: Being in the community has made me discover that there are people like me who share the same thoughts about work and who are always nice to talk to, and I must admit that we could talk for hours because we always find topics to talk about. In the community I have discovered friends with whom I have formed an incredible bond, people who are always ready to stimulate and support, and give help when you are in difficulty &#8230; and this is a common feature of many communities that gravitate around the world of WordPress!!!</li>
</ol>
<h3>What can I recommend?</h3>
<p>Join your local meetup or think about organising one, it will introduce you to an amazing world. Don&#8217;t be afraid to meet people at WordCamps and Contributor Days, because you will learn more there than in dozens of courses. Talk to people at those events and don&#8217;t worry, they&#8217;re people like you doing the same job as you and remember, the WordPress community is inclusive so you&#8217;ll always feel welcome, and you&#8217;ll see enthusiasm like you&#8217;ve never seen at other IT events.</p>
<p>One last recommendation: sign up for Slack and join the local WordPress community.</p>
<h1 id="italian">Contribuire a WordPress senza essere uno sviluppatore</h1>
<h3>Gli inizi provando vari CMS</h3>
<p>Sono sempre stato affascinato da internet, mi ricordo quando negli anni ‘90 andavo con gli amici in pub dove potevamo utilizzare un computer e capire come erano strutturati i siti web come quello dell’FBI, oppure apprendendo l’utilizzo degli antenati delle attuali chat come, ad esempio, mIRC.</p>
<p>Ho iniziato a creare siti internet nel 1998 per gioco, e il mio primo lavoro pagato è stato per il negozio presso il quale acquistavo i fumetti..</p>
<p>Poco alla volta mi sono avvicinato ai CMS per velocizzare la creazione dei siti: ho provato Joomla e Drupal e non mi hanno mai soddisfatto appieno a causa della scarsità di guide. Successivamente, su una rivista, lessi di un CMS per la creazione di blog che iniziava a essere utilizzato per realizzare siti incredibili e che, inoltre, aveva una community internazionale che aveva creato una documentazione molto vasta. Poco alla volta, grazie a quella documentazione e ai primi siti in italiano, ho iniziato a utilizzare WordPress.</p>
<h3>La svolta che ha cambiato la mia vita, personale e professionale</h3>
<p>Essendo un introverso di natura, non mi dispiaceva lavorare da casa, andando incontro, però, alla difficoltà di trovare nuovi clienti e, al contempo, migliorare la qualità del lavoro che veniva da me svolta utilizzando WordPress, che era diventato, nel frattempo, l’unico CMS che utilizzavo per realizzare siti.</p>
<p>La scoperta fu quella di osservare la bacheca e notare una etichetta dove era scritto <strong>Eventi e notizie su WordPress</strong>, al cui interno erano segnalati degli eventi tra i quali uno colpì immediatamente la mia attenzione: il meetup WordPress di Roma.</p>
<blockquote><p>La svolta fu a novembre del 2017 quando mi sono recato, con molta curiosità, al primo incontro del Meetup WordPress di Roma.</p></blockquote>
<p>Devo ammettere che l’impatto non fu affatto facile visto che il primo talk che ascoltai allora, parlava di WP-CLI, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/guides/installing/">una interfaccia da linea di comando per WordPress</a>, e, per uno come me, che aveva svolto lavori semplici e non certamente come sviluppatore, fu un vero e proprio trauma: mi domandavo se fossi davvero adatto a questo ambiente. Poi, a chiusura dell’incontro, qualcuno accennò al WordCamp Roma 2017.</p>
<h3>Il mio primo WordCamp</h3>
<p>Cercai di informarmi su questo evento e mi risultava difficile capire come funzionasse: erano due giorni ma, mentre per il secondo giorno avevo letto che sarebbe stata una giornata dedicata ai talk, non avevo la minima idea di cosa si facesse durante il primo giorno. Così decisi e scrissi una email per avere informazioni. Chi mi rispose mi spiegò che si trattava di una giornata dedicata alla contribuzione, una giornata chiamata “Contributor Day” e,</p>
<blockquote><p>alla fine, scelsi di non partecipare perché, tra me e me, pensavo: dicevo “Ma io che posso fare? Non so niente di WordPress”&#8230; un grave errore, sul quale ho poi riflettuto e compreso.</p></blockquote>
<p>Il WordCamp è stata una grandissima una scoperta: talk di tutti i livelli, da quelli base (adatti a me) a quelli per sviluppatori, anche avanzati o avanzatissimi. Mi ha colpito da subito l’entusiasmo dei volontari e l’ambiente dove mi trovavo benissimo, tanto da chiedermi come fare per partecipare a qualche WordCamp. Chiedendo informazioni in giro fui subito informato della possibilità di candidarsi come volontario.</p>
<p>Durante il WordCamp sentivo parlare di Slack; capivo poco di cosa si trattasse anche se tutti mi incoraggiavano ad iscriversi per unirsi alla community di WordPress, ma il dubbio che mi attanagliava era sempre lo stesso: quale poteva essere il mio contributo?</p>
<h3>Slack e la scelta di unirmi ai Polyglots</h3>
<p>Arrivato su Slack, la scelta su dove andare è stata semplice: non essendo uno sviluppatore, ho optato per i Polyglots (i volontari che si occupano di <a href="https://it.wordpress.org/traduzioni/">tradurre tutto l’ecosistema WordPress</a> nelle varie lingue) partendo dalla traduzione di un tema che utilizzavo per il mio lavoro in quel periodo. Poco alla volta mi sono appassionato alle attività dei plugin partecipando a tutte le riunioni ed offrendomi come traduttore per temi e plugin: adesso sono un GTE (General Translation Editor) e mi occupo anche delle traduzioni in italiano del Core di WordPress.</p>
<p>La partecipazione a Slack mi ha aiutato enormemente: ho conosciuto tantissime persone che ormai definisco amici. Inoltre, traducendo, ho imparato tantissimo su come funzionano temi e plugin.</p>
<p>La mia attività con i Polyglots, man mano che è cresciuto il mio impegno, mi ha portato ad unirmi ad altri team, ultimo dei quali è il gruppo dei traduttori di Helphub, il nuovo sistema ufficiale per la documentazione di WordPress.</p>
<h3>I WordCamp</h3>
<p>Dopo il WordCamp Roma 2017, ho iniziato a fare il volontario partendo dal WordCamp Roma 2018; lì ho partecipato al primo Contributor Day dove ho potuto contribuire attivamente come traduttore. A partire da quel WordCamp, vista la mia passione per la fotografia, mi sono offerto come volontario fotografo per molti altri eventi in Italia organizzati dalla community di WordPress e devo dire che questo impegno per la community, mi permette anche di divertirmi: essere fotografo vuol dire avere la possibilità di girare per le sale ed immortalare attimi della vita di un WordCamp.</p>
<blockquote><p>Partecipare ai WordCamp mi ha appassionato tantissimo, tanto che devo ammettere di essere andato in crisi per mancanza di eventi durante la pandemia.</p></blockquote>
<p>Un amico, fanatico di WordCamp come me, mi ha detto una volta: “Stefano, non c’è niente da fare, dobbiamo ammettere di essere dei drogati di WordCamp: più partecipi, più ti viene voglia di frequentarne altri”.</p>
<h3>Il Meetup WordPress di Roma e la pandemia</h3>
<p>Nell’ottobre del 2019 mi è stato chiesto di diventare organizzatore del meetup WordPress di Roma; all’inizio c’era la difficoltà di trovare il posto dove organizzare gli incontri visto che era saltato l’accordo con il coworking che dava in precedenza la disponibilità, ma il COVID ha fatto in modo che l’evento non si svolgesse del tutto. La nuova sfida è stata perciò l’organizzazione di eventi online, e, a dirla tutta, mi sono divertito avendo avuto il piacere di contattare tanti amici della community che si sono offerti volentieri di essere speaker per il meetup di Roma con talk sempre interessanti.</p>
<h3>Il WordCamp Italia</h3>
<p>Il COVID ha portato all’annullamento degli incontri dei Meetup e dei WordCamp. Fortunatamente la community italiana di WordPress non si è arresa ed ha organizzato il WordCamp Italia online, che ha messo assieme gli organizzatori di meetup e WordCamp precedenti, oltre a gente nuova come me a digiuno completo di esperienza di organizzazione di eventi. Ho partecipato a entrambe le edizioni come componente del team social &amp; comunicazione, dove mi sono occupato dei canali social e dei contenuti del sito insieme con gli altri due organizzatori che facevano parte del team, e l’esperienza mi ha fatto crescere dal punto di vista professionale perché ho lavorato con il meglio che ci poteva essere tra i membri della community.</p>
<h3>Il lavoro insieme ai membri della community</h3>
<p>Il risultato migliore che ho ottenuto entrando nella community di WordPress è stata la possibilità di collaborare con alcune persone anche lavorativamente e, devo dire, che è stato incredibile. Stando con molti di loro si ha una incredibile possibilità di crescita nelle conoscenze, basta essere sempre pronti a imparare… e con WordPress non si finisce mai di imparare, c’è sempre qualcosa di nuovo che ti viene suggerito da chi ha più esperienza di te</p>
<h3>Che cosa mi ha portato WordPress?</h3>
<ol>
<li>Scoprire la community: WordPress mi ha introdotto al mondo della sua comunità, sia italiana che internazionale; la community di WordPress collega gli appassionati di WordPress tramite Meetup mensili, WordCamp annuali, collaborazioni virtuali come i contributi al progetto WordPress, e molto altro ancora.</li>
<li>Crescita professionale: la possibilità di lavorare, ma anche la possibilità di conoscere sempre più aspetti del suo ecosistema</li>
<li>Crescita personale: WordPress e la community mi hanno aiutato nella sicurezza e nell’autostima; ancora adesso c’è in me la “sindrome dell’impostore” e temo che non se ne andrà mai via, dato che metto sempre in dubbio tutte le mie scelte (e spesso preferisco evitare di espormi), ma frequentare la community mi ha fatto vincere molte paure e timori, come sentirmi idoneo a candidarmi per una qualche posizione in aziende nell’ambito WordPress, cosa che, precedentemente, MAI avrei pensato di fare.</li>
<li>Gli amici e le amiche: frequentare la community mi ha fatto scoprire che ci sono persone come me che condividono i miei stessi pensieri sul lavoro e con i quali è sempre piacevole poter parlare, e devo ammettere che potremmo discutere per ore perché troviamo sempre argomenti di cui parlare. Nella community ho scoperto amici e amiche con i quali si è creato un legame incredibile, persone che sono sempre pronte a stimolare e supportare, e dare un aiuto quando si è in difficoltà… e questa è una caratteristica comune a molte community che gravitano attorno al mondo di WordPress!!!</li>
</ol>
<h3>Cosa consigliare?</h3>
<p>Partecipate al meetup della vostra città o pensate organizzarne uno, vi farà entrare in un mondo incredibile. Non abbiate paura di incontrare le persone ai WordCamp e partecipare ai Contributor Day, perché imparerete più lì che in decine di corsi. Parlate con chi partecipa a quegli eventi e non preoccupatevi, sono persone come voi che fanno il vostro stesso lavoro e ricordatevi, la community di WordPress è inclusiva per cui vi sentirete sempre ben accetti, e vedrete un entusiasmo come non avete mai visto in altri eventi di informatica.</p>
<p>Una ultima raccomandazione: iscrivetevi a <a href="https://it.wordpress.org/slack/">Slack</a> ed unitevi alla community locale di 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:"Wed, 10 Nov 2021 07:00:36 +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:"Stefano Cassone";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:76:"WPTavern: Radio Station PRO Launches, Offers New Tools for Live Broadcasters";s:7:"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=125089";s:7:"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:195:"https://wptavern.com/radio-station-pro-launches-offers-new-tools-for-live-broadcasters?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=radio-station-pro-launches-offers-new-tools-for-live-broadcasters";s: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:8174:"<p class="has-drop-cap">In June, netmix&reg; CEO Tony Zeoli <a href="https://radiostation.pro/radio-station-pro-is-just-around-the-corner/">began touting</a> the release of the company&rsquo;s Radio Station PRO plugin. It would offer an upgraded experience over the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/radio-station">free version</a> his team had maintained since 2019. At the end of last month, the company officially <a href="https://radiostation.pro/radio-station-pro-press-release-oct-21-2021/">launched its commercial offering</a>, a plan that had been in the works since the beginning.</p>



<p>The commercial plugin was built for live audio broadcasters with a rolling show schedule. Its audience ranges from radio stations to live streamers to Clubhouse moderators. It allows listeners to browse generated show and team pages, playlists, and related information uninterrupted during a live stream. The goal is to create a more efficient scheduling and streaming system, saving broadcasters time and resources.</p>



<p>Nikki Blight created the original Radio Station plugin but had stopped working on it in 2015. Zeoli adopted it in 2019 and picked up <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/majick/">Tony Hayes</a> to handle its development.</p>



<p>&ldquo;When I first stumbled onto Radio Station at WPVM, I saw the potential for broadcasters wrapped up in one free plugin that had been orphaned,&rdquo; said Zeoli. &ldquo;It just needed someone who could re-commit to it and bring it back to life. And it would surely help if they had an interest in streaming radio and broadcasting, which the other Tony and I both do. I don&rsquo;t think just anyone could have taken it over. It had to be someone with a passion and interest in the space.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The two did not launch with a free product. However, Zeoli said he realized the potential for a commercial version quickly after taking over the plugin.</p>



<h2 id="pro-plugin-upgrades">PRO Plugin Upgrades</h2>



<img />Table view of schedule and player from <a href="https://demo.radiostation.pro/">Radio Station PRO demo</a>.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The team had several features they had wanted to improve over the free version. The first order of business was improving the scheduling experience. For the free plugin, the team created a conflict catcher. However, they built a front-end visual schedule editor for the commercial version.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Another issue we needed to resolve was the audio player experience,&rdquo; said Zeoli. &ldquo;Radio Station free has a simple audio player widget that we created earlier this year. What really sets the PRO version apart here is the addition of a persistent (or &lsquo;sticky&rsquo;) header or footer player, so when the listener navigates the website while the stream is activated, playback is not interrupted.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Hayes created a second plugin called <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/teleporter/">Teleporter</a> to handle the persistent player. The free, WordPress.org-hosted extension is baked into Radio Station PRO, but it is open for other developers in their applications.</p>



<p>The team also tried to tackle time zone issues in the global broadcasting world. PRO adds a switcher to help visitors set the schedule to their preferred time zone instead of performing &ldquo;brain gymnastics,&rdquo; as Zeoli joked.</p>



<p>The plugin&rsquo;s widgets automatically refresh and dynamically display data, such as the next song in a playlist or a show title change. The hope is to bring this technology to the block world, but it must wait until next year. Zeoli said there is not a rush because most of their users are not there yet.</p>



<p>The team has added a new episodes post type alongside the plugin&rsquo;s original shows and playlists. Eventually, they plan to allow broadcasters to further break that down into segments. Radio Station PRO tacks on host and producer profile pages. It also has a built-in role manager, extended scheduling period, and additional layout views.</p>



<p>Some of the toughest competition in the space is against the commercial theme market. There are several live-broadcasting themes, but Zeoli says these can be both cost-prohibitive in the long term and lock users into a design that users may not want in the future.</p>



<p>&ldquo;With so much data going into the Post Types, you really don&rsquo;t want to leave that in a theme if you want to switch for some reason,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Unlike SEO plugins, there are no conversion plugins for radio station themes or plugins, so it could pose a problem by being locked into a theme as opposed to having the flexibility of a theme-agnostic plugin.&rdquo;</p>



<div class="wp-block-cover alignfull has-parallax"><span class="has-gray-900-background-color has-background-dim-70 wp-block-cover__gradient-background has-background-dim bg-gray-900"></span><div class="wp-block-cover__inner-container">
<h2 class="has-text-align-center has-titanic-font-size text-5xl text-center" id="from-boston-to-asheville-a-lifetime-of-radio">From Boston to Asheville: A Lifetime of Radio</h2>
</div></div>



<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m originally from Boston, where my interest in radio evolved at an early age into a career as a nightclub and mix show DJ,&rdquo; said Zeoli. &ldquo;I listened to the radio all the time; news, talk, sports, and music, I was into it all. As I got older, I tuned in to college radio, and, as a senior in high school, I got the chance to intern at a local AM station and did guest mix sets on the largest commercial station, KISS 108.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He completed a two-year degree in Radio and Television broadcasting at a small school outside New York City. Then, returned home to Boston with a focus on DJing while working at record stores. He later moved on to work at a record label and DJ remix service.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It was the early days of the World Wide Web,&rdquo; said Zeoli. &ldquo;And I saw the opportunity to marry my passion for DJing with streaming media and launched my first startup, netmix.com, which was the earliest effort to stream DJ sets from popular electronic music and hip-hop DJs.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He moved netmix&reg; to New York City, and the company was acquired by Polyverse, Inc in 2000. The company ceased operations during the dot-com crash, but Zeoli retained the domain name for 19 years.</p>



<p>After bouncing between various corporations and startups, he dove deeper into WordPress. He had stumbled upon it while working on a project for the Associated Press in 2003.</p>



<p>&ldquo;That led to launching Digital Strategy Works, a WordPress and digital strategy agency (which I still run today), founding the WordPress Westchester Meetup, and presenting at early WordCamps in NYC and Raleigh, NC.&rdquo;</p>



<p>A chance encounter in Raleigh landed him a WordPress-specific job at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Some work at a large corporation followed, and he finally migrated to Asheville, NC.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I got back into radio to re-engage in and merge my love of broadcasting with DJing with a new mix show, the Asheville House Music Society,&rdquo; said Zeoli. &ldquo;I was certainly getting back in the groove of broadcasting and streaming.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In the spring of 2019, he had been helping with the <a href="https://wpvmfm.org/">WPVM</a> website, which was using the original Radio Station plugin. He contacted Blight, the owner, after finding a theme conflict. He soon adopted the project, found a partner in Hayes, and had a new use for his decades-old domain.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I just thought it was a very useful plugin and could see the groundbreaking potential for radio stations that really needed a comprehensive set of WordPress tools to help them publish search engine optimized content on their WordPress websites, but in a way that fit the station schedule formatting,&rdquo; said Zeoli. &ldquo;I figured, given my decades-long interest in and experience with streaming and broadcasting when combined with my agile product development experience, I could find a way to keep it going.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 09 Nov 2021 22:43:26 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:48:"WPTavern: New Block Plugin Displays Post Formats";s:7:"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=125453";s:7:"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:141:"https://wptavern.com/new-block-plugin-displays-post-formats?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-block-plugin-displays-post-formats";s: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:3024:"<p>Are you using post formats? Now there&rsquo;s a block for that! WordPress&rsquo; <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/post-formats/">post formats</a> feature was introduced in version 3.1 as a way for themes to customize presentation of a post. It allows users to choose the way a post looks by selecting a post format from a dropdown list. WordPress has a fixed list of post formats available but not all themes support them.</p>



<p>Post formats have maintained a smaller cult following. While I don&rsquo;t see them making a major comeback, many users who committed to using them long ago would like to continue. </p>



<p>WordPress Core Committer Aaron Jorbin has created a plugin called <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/post-format-block/">Post Format Block</a> that will display a post format in a block-based theme. His <a href="https://aaron.jorb.in/introducing-post-format-block/">writeup</a> dives deeper into the technical details of how he created the plugin. The block allows users to change the color, font size and weight of the displayed post format. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img />Post Format Block plugin</div>



<p>Jorbin said he built the plugin to display post formats on his personal site and wanted to help others do the same.</p>



<p>&ldquo;As someone that benefits greatly from Open Source, I view it as my responsibility to give back and it wasn&rsquo;t much effort to build it in a way that it could be open from the start,&rdquo; Jorbin said. &ldquo;Plus it gave me a chance to play with codespaces and explore some parts of Gutenberg I wasn&rsquo;t as familiar with.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Are post formats relevant in the new frontier of blocks, where users have more control over the presentation of posts than ever before? They may not have a strong future in WordPress moving forward, but thanks to the plugin system, people can keep using them while using a block-based theme.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I think Post Formats are in a weird position since looking back with hind sight, I don&rsquo;t think they should have been a part of core,&rdquo; Jorbin said. &ldquo;But for now, they remain in core and they are useful for me in this instance. I like them since for my personal site, they make sense. But I don&rsquo;t think they make sense on a lot of sites.&rdquo;</p>



<p>If you are using post formats and you want to be able to keep using them with a block-based theme, this plugin will give you that continuity. You will want to search for it using the name of it in quotes. (Otherwise you will be scrolling a long time to try to find it.) <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/post-format-block/">Post Format Block</a> is available for free in the WordPress plugin directory but it requires some code that isn&rsquo;t in WordPress 5.8 to work. You will have to use the nightly build until 5.9 is released. The plugin is also <a href="https://github.com/aaronjorbin/post-format-block">available on GitHub</a> for contribution or testing with Codespaces.</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, 09 Nov 2021 22:24:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:66:"WPTavern: WordPress Polyglots Team Launches New Monthly Newsletter";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=125458";s:7:"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:177:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-polyglots-team-launches-new-monthly-newsletter?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-polyglots-team-launches-new-monthly-newsletter";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2177:"<p>WordPress&rsquo; Polyglots team has published the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/10/15/polyglots-monthly-newsletter-october-2021/">first edition</a> of a new monthly newsletter aimed at helping contributors stay informed and engaged with the team&rsquo;s activities.</p>



<p>WordPress has been <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/about/history-of-the-team/">translated by volunteers for more than 15 years</a> since version 1.2, with the earliest contributions from the Hindi, French, Japanese, and Norwegian communities. Since that time the Polyglots team has grown to include the work of 55,427&nbsp;translation contributors. They have also  adopted more efficient tools like P2 and Slack to stay connected, but some translators find it difficult to follow the constant stream of posts and meetings. </p>



<p>The monthly newsletter was launched to provide a short-format digest of all the significant happenings and discussions in the translation community. It will include news related to upcoming releases and Polyglots tools, condensed so contributors don&rsquo;t have to keep a close eye on the team&rsquo;s P2 blog, Slack channels, or RSS feed.</p>



<p>The first edition features a brief summary of the month-long WordPress Translation Day 2021 event, which brought in 697 new translation contributors. Altogether the contributor teams submitted 518,710 approved translation strings during 22 local and six livestream events.</p>



<p>The majority of people using WordPress are using it with a translation. As of October 2021, 55.36% of WordPress sites are running a translated site. That figure is slowly inching upward as WordPress adoption grows in the non-English speaking world.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /><a href="https://wordpress.org/about/stats/">WordPress Locales</a></div>



<p>Even if you&rsquo;re not a member of the Polyglots team, this newsletter is a good way to stay up-to-date with the exciting frontier of WordPress translations. Subscribers can <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/get-polyglots-news/">sign up</a> to receive monthly Polyglots updates directly via email. </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, 09 Nov 2021 04:40:21 +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: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:62:"WPTavern: Block Pattern Modal Explorer Coming to WordPress 5.9";s:7:"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=125447";s:7:"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:169:"https://wptavern.com/block-pattern-modal-explorer-coming-to-wordpress-5-9?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=block-pattern-modal-explorer-coming-to-wordpress-5-9";s: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:4485:"<p class="has-drop-cap">It has been a long year since Paal Joachim Romdahl&rsquo;s proposed an <a href="https://wptavern.com/proposal-to-create-an-expanded-view-or-overlay-for-the-block-patterns-inserter">alternative block pattern experience</a>. In November 2020, he <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/26905">opened a ticket</a> on the Gutenberg GitHub repository to explore an overlay-based approach to viewing, searching, and inserting patterns into the content canvas. Late last week, a pull request for the long-awaited feature <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35773">landed in the Gutenberg plugin</a>.</p>



<p>A year ago, patterns were a new concept for the average WordPress user. WordPress 5.5 introduced them to the world, and we were only a month out from the next major release. I had hoped we could plug the new overlay in as soon as possible, but sometimes an idea needs time or the right people working on it to give it that necessary push.</p>



<p>The first iteration of the pattern explorer will likely be a baseline experience that can be built upon in the future. Currently, users can search via the modal or filter by category (includes featured patterns in the list).</p>



<img />Pattern explorer modal.



<p>In the long term, the explorer should offer more features. An <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35006#issuecomment-929605688">earlier mockup</a> of it showed user favorites by connecting with a WordPress.org account. This sat alongside featured and newest-pattern lists. The mockup also had a separate section for template part patterns, such as header, footer, and sidebar. With the WordPress 5.9 feature freeze coming on November 9, those extras will likely need to wait until a future release.</p>



<p>To access the explorer overlay, users will need to click the &ldquo;Explore&rdquo; button when viewing patterns in the inserter. It then pops up a full-screen overlay for navigating them.</p>



<img />&ldquo;Explore&rdquo; button next to the pattern category dropdown.



<p>This type of pattern navigation experience has already become a necessity. The narrow inserter has not held up well against themes that ship a lot of patterns, such as the <a href="https://wptavern.com/tove-a-block-based-wordpress-theme-by-anders-noren">40+ bundled with Tove</a>. The problem will only grow exponentially worse as the pattern directory is opened to more submissions and other themes inevitably add dozens upon dozens of their own.</p>



<p>The experience is much nicer now. However, it still has a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out. Several patterns have scrollbars of their own within the explorer. As Anne McCarthy <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35773#issuecomment-948737083">noted in the ticket</a>, it makes the &ldquo;experience very janky.&rdquo;</p>



<img />Patterns with scrollbars.



<p>In my tests, the patterns butted against the explorer sidebar on the left. Fixing this should not take much work.</p>



<p>More than once, I also ran into the dreaded &ldquo;Aw, Snap!&rdquo; browser error message after viewing the explorer&rsquo;s patterns. The error code: <em>out of memory.</em>  This happened when running a clean install alongside the Twenty Twenty-Two WordPress theme. I can only hope it is a non-issue when WordPress 5.9 rolls around and is live on production sites.</p>



<p>Eventually, I want to see a quicker method for accessing this pattern modal. I am leaning toward a dedicated button in the toolbar for pulling up the overlay. Right now, it takes three mouse clicks to open it. First, users must click the &ldquo;+&rdquo; inserter button. Then, they must switch to the Patterns tab before hitting the Explore button. That is a lot of work for something that should be a first-class feature.</p>



<p>A keyboard shortcut would also be a welcome access point. I could live with that compromise if the development team is not yet ready to stick another item at the top level of the UI.</p>



<p>Overall, I am happy with this upcoming feature. I may even try my hand at building some new ones. Those I had been tinkering with in my custom theme had become so unwieldy that testing them was a headache. This will open things up and should make it a lot more enjoyable to use.</p>



<p>Gutenberg plugin users should see this land in version 11.9 later this week. It is also currently available in the trunk branch of 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:"Tue, 09 Nov 2021 00:38:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:94:"Gutenberg Times: Life-improving development tools and Theme Revolution – Weekend Edition 192";s:7:"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=19522";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:101:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/life-improving-development-tools-and-theme-revolution-weekend-edition-192/";s: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:22219:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>In the US, November is the month of gratitude and a time of reflection and to  counts one&#8217;s blessings. I am grateful to be part of a diverse WordPress community, where I have made wonderful friends, even when we sometimes disagree. I learned to argue from a place of love. I am also grateful for you reading these roundup posts very week. Thank you for all the feedback you shared with me over the last year! I learned so much from you and the community. </p>



<p>Next week, I will join my fellow developer advocates for an in-person meetup and Friday is my travel day home again. I won&#8217;t be able to compile a newsletter, though. The next edition with drop in to your inbox on November 20th.  Don&#8217;t use up all the links this week, so you still have some for next week. 🤣</p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit</p>



<p>PS: Here is a shout-out to the team at Post Status with an event you might be interested in. </p>



<p class="has-light-background-background-color has-background">Join us in&nbsp;<strong>Twitter Spaces</strong>&nbsp;on&nbsp;<strong>November 19 @ 12PM EST</strong>&nbsp;for the<br />&nbsp;<a href="https://poststatus.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ff3456b27ebe0be0155087894&id=b8390ecb23&e=76a77eae7e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">First Annual State of WordPress News</a>&nbsp;event hosted by <strong>Post Status. </strong><br />We&#8217;ll be joined by&nbsp;<strong>Matt Medeiros</strong>&nbsp;(Matt Report Media),&nbsp;<strong>Jeff Chandler</strong>&nbsp;(WP Mainline),&nbsp;<strong>Joe Howard</strong>&nbsp;(WPMRR),&nbsp;<strong>Birgit Pauli-Haack</strong>&nbsp;(Gutenberg Times), and&nbsp;<strong>Sarah Gooding</strong>&nbsp;(WP Tavern). Hosted by&nbsp;<strong>David Bisset</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Dan Knauss</strong>&nbsp;(Post Status). </p>




<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>



<div class="wp-block-sortabrilliant-guidepost"><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#tips-and-tricks-for-content-creators">Tips and Tricks  for Content Creators</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#developing-gutenberg">Developing Gutenberg </a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#developing-blocks-and-themes-for-gutenberg">Developing Blocks and Themes for Gutenberg</a><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#tooltips-and-validation-for-json-files">Tooltips and Validation for JSON Files</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#full-site-editing">Full-Site Editing</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#wordpress-events">WordPress Events</a></li></ul></div>




<h2 id="tips-and-tricks-for-content-creators">Tips and Tricks  for Content Creators</h2>



<p>If you wondered what the difference is between Block Patterns, Reusable Blocks and Template part, <strong>Courtney Robinson</strong>, has the answer for you: <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/garage/wordpress-block-pattern-reusable-block-or-template-part/"><strong>WordPress Block Pattern, Reusable Block, or Template Part</strong></a></p>



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



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> posted another short video on a cool feature of WordPress block editor:  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o37jZN6KFM"><strong>Connecting The Dots: Transparency (settings) for the win</strong></a>. She wrote: &#8220;This video touches on duotone, gradients, cover blocks, dimension controls, and more showing how an improvement in one area unlocks the ability&#8221;. Enjoy! </p>



<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o37jZN6KFM"><img /></a>



<h2 id="developing-gutenberg">Developing Gutenberg </h2>



<p>The Gutenberg team worked hard to get the last features into the <strong>Gutenberg 11.9 RC,</strong> so they make it into the next WordPress release. If you want to test the release candidate you&#8217;ll can download the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/download/v11.9.0-rc.1/gutenberg.zip">plugin.zip from GitHub</a>, with the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v11.9.0-rc.1">release notes</a>  on <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v11.9.0-rc.1">this page</a>. This version will sport new blocks theme builders and template editors for the comment section, the post template blocks receive spacing controls and the new Gallery block finally comes out of experimental state and is ready to merge with core. More detailed information will reach you via the Gutenberg Changelog podcast and the usual sources of WordPress news. </p>



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



<p>In her post, <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/11/02/core-editor-improvement-introducing-template-part-focus-mode/"><strong>introduced the template part focus mode</strong></a> of the block editor. In this screen, WordPress users are empowered to modify template parts, like the site wide header or footer, and style them to their liking. The focus mode ensures distraction-free modifications.</p>



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



<p><strong>Channing Ritter</strong> and <strong>Javier Arce</strong> of the design team share on their Make blog exploration around image cropping and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/11/02/background-editor-improvements/"><strong>improving the background handling for the Cover block.</strong></a> They presented a few variations and also identified breaks in the workflow. And they have a proposal for WordPress users to chime in and share their opinion. It&#8217;s not work that will go into WordPress 5.9. It seems that&#8217;s already work for the WordPress 6.0 version. </p>



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



<p><strong>Beatriz Fialho</strong> and <strong>Kelly Hoffman</strong> shared with the WordPress community their <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/29/redesign-of-the-gutenberg-page/"><strong>prototypes for the redesign of the Gutenberg Demo Page</strong></a>. Check it out and let them know what you think! </p>



<img src="https://i2.wp.com/make.wordpress.org/design/files/2021/10/gutenberg_page_1-scaled.jpg" alt="" /><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/29/redesign-of-the-gutenberg-page/">Prototype of the new design for the Gutenberg Demo Page</a>



<p><strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> also shared more details in <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-gutenberg-demo-page-is-getting-a-redesign#comments"><strong>WordPress’ Gutenberg Demo Page Is Getting a Redesign</strong></a>. </p>



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



<p><strong>Maggie Cabrera</strong>&nbsp;publish the&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/11/05/gutenberg-themes-week-of-november-1st-2021/">71st Gutenberg + Themes Round-up</a></strong>&nbsp;post  with a list of ongoing discussions on Full-Site Editing, Global Styles, and Design Tools. She lists quite a few GitHub issues that could use more input from other theme authors and users. You can, for instance, learn about the Webfonts API implementation for  theme.json. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35591">#35591</a>), or the discussion on i18n: Localizing blocks in FSE themes&nbsp;(<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/36061">#36061</a>). </p>



<p>You can also consult the overview issue to gauge progress on major features. </p>



<ul><li>Default Theme (Twenty Twenty Two): Overview of Gutenberg issues:&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/twentytwentytwo/issues/75">#75</a></li><li>The Global Styles Interface&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/34574">#34574</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Post Comments&nbsp;Loop&nbsp;Block: Tracking issue&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/34994">#34994</a>&nbsp;</li><li>Site Editing block placeholders&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35501">#35501</a></li><li>Typography Tools: Tracking defaults for blocks&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35604">#35604</a></li></ul>



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



<p>In&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-54-gutenberg-11-8/">Gutenberg Changelog newest episode (#54)</a></strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Grzegorz (Greg) Ziolkowski </strong>and I talk about Gutenberg 11.8 release, the Navigation Block, Full-site Editing and the Plugin Machine. Listen in and <a href="https://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog"><em><strong>write us a review. </strong></em></a></p>




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



<img />




<h2 id="developing-blocks-and-themes-for-gutenberg">Developing Blocks and Themes for Gutenberg</h2>



<p><strong>Aaron Jorbin</strong> created the Post Format block for Full-Site Editing theme and the block editor using Block Variations and wrote about it in <a href="https://aaron.jorb.in/introducing-post-format-block"><strong>Introducing Post Format Block</strong></a>. In a follow-up post, he also discussed <strong><a href="https://aaron.jorb.in/three-life-improving-tools-for-wordpress-plugin-development/" rel="sponsored nofollow">Three life-improving tools for WordPress Plugin Development</a></strong>. Jorbin describes his experience with <a href="https://docs.github.com/en/codespaces">Codespaces by GitHub</a>, declared <code><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-scripts/">wp-scripts</a></code> the secret weapon of WordPress development, and explored <a href="https://github.com/features/actions">GitHub Actions</a>. All very educational for aspiring WordPress developers. </p>



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



<p id="a-master-in-both-piano-and-wordpress"><a href="https://github.com/readme/podcast/helen-hou-sandi"><strong>A master in both piano and WordPress &#8211; How Helen found herself at the inspiring intersection of music and open-source software,</strong></a> is the title of a recent ReadMe podcast episode by the GitHub team with <strong>Helen Hou-Sandí,</strong> a Lead WordPress Developer and Director of Open-Source Initiatives at 10up.</p>



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



<p><strong>Dave Smith,</strong> developer on the Gutenberg team, posted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6S5hmAmVdU"><strong>video tutorial on how to get registered images sizes in Gutenberg</strong></a>. </p>



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



<p>This week, <strong>Ryan Welche</strong>r live-streamed on how to add end-2-end test with Puppeteer to test blocks during development. He shared a recap and resources on his blog: <a href="https://ryanwelcher.com/2021/11/live-stream-recap-adding-e2e-tests-to-custom-a-gutenberg-block/"><strong>Live Stream Recap: Adding e2e tests to custom a Gutenberg block</strong></a></p>




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




<h3 id="tooltips-and-validation-for-json-files">Tooltips and Validation for JSON Files</h3>



<p>Speaking of life-improving tools&#8230; <strong>David Gwyer</strong> published an outstanding tutorial on how to get &#8220;<a href="https://innerblocks.com/automatic-tooltips-validation-for-theme-json-block-json-files/"><strong>Automatic Tooltips &amp; Validation for theme.json &amp; block.json Files!&#8221;</strong></a> via the schemas sent to SchemaStore. Gwyer shows you how to add the schema URL into the top of the file and then how your IDE shows you description and syntax for each property to be configured. </p>



<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/m85D0K_J3ETVlRfFuhr6N3uPDv0a8TMKnhvX3-vtqOxbNkDt7T0_icsQtQnULOezAASw62wUnRt1iSe5H46oSphEJ3W1YbxJa_N7qkpJI_R1UAWSxXm4sBoz33OXtAucrLcwd4xg" alt="" /><a href="https://innerblocks.com/automatic-tooltips-validation-for-theme-json-block-json-files/">Picture courtesy of David Gwyer.</a>



<p><strong>Marcus Kazmierczak</strong> integrated the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35998">schemas into the Gutenberg repository</a>, so they are version controlled, can also be used for testing and updating during development and, subsequently, also update documentation when more properties and features are added in future versions of the schemas. <br /><br />Current URLs are:</p>



<ul class="has-normal-font-size"><li><strong>Block.json:</strong> <a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WordPress/gutenberg/trunk/packages/schemas/json/block.json">https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WordPress/gutenberg/trunk/packages/schemas/json/block.json</a></li><li><strong>Theme.json: </strong><a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WordPress/gutenberg/trunk/packages/schemas/json/block.json">https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WordPress/gutenberg/trunk/packages/schemas/json/theme.json</a></li></ul>



<p>The ideal URL will be something like <a href="https://wp.org/schemas/block.json">https://wp.org/schemas/block.json</a>, but that is still in the works. </p>



<p><strong>André Maneiro</strong> has been preparing the theme.json implementation for the upgrade from v1 to v2 &#8211; You can follow along on this GitHub issue (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/36154">#36154</a> <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/36154">Update&nbsp;<code>theme.json</code>&nbsp;schema migrations</a>)</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>




<h2 id="full-site-editing">Full-Site Editing</h2>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/ona-by-deothemes-just-raised-the-bar-for-wordpress-block-theme-design"><strong>Ona by DeoThemes Just Raised the Bar for WordPress Block Theme Design</strong></a> headlined Justin Tadlock. He wrote: &#8220;We are now at a point where the block system can nearly match traditional theming in features. There are still some kinks to work out and a few missing pieces, but Ona embraces block templating and global styles like few have before. It is modern, almost minimalist, yet packed with potential for a site owner who wants to share their content in style.&#8221; <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/ona/">The theme Ona is now available in the WordPress repository </a></p>



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



<p>Earlier this week, I presented for the <strong><a href="https://training.ithemes.com/webinar/what-is-full-site-editing-in-wordpress/">iThemes webinar &#8220;What is Full-Site Editing&#8221;</a>. </strong>After a quick run down of the new terms (probably a bit fast) I did a demo of the new Appearance &gt; Editor (beta) screen, and the query loop block. During Q &amp; A, I also showed the new Gallery block. On <strong>November 22nd, 2021 at 7pm</strong>, I will give a similar presentation at the <a href="https://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Montclair-Meetup/events/">Meetup group in Montclair</a> with plenty of Q &amp; A afterwards. </p>



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



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/the-wordpress-block-theme-revolution-is-quietly-picking-up-momentum"><strong>The WordPress Block Theme Revolution Is Quietly Picking Up Momentum</strong></a> to find Justin Tadlock, and in his article he gives a great overview of the current scene of themes built for Full-Site Editing in mind. From the Blockbase parent theme and its child themes by Automattic, built as universal themes that care to site with or with our full-site editing available, to the new default theme of Twenty-Twenty-Two that is still in development. &#8220;Having one of its most well-known theme authors build on top of the new system shows that maybe this whole block-based theme system&nbsp;<em>might</em>&nbsp;actually be worth exploring.&#8221; he wrote, after he mentioned Anders Norén&#8217;s block theme called Tove. </p>



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



<p><strong>Aaron Jorbin</strong> share his <a href="https://aaron.jorb.in/full-site-editing-initial-thoughts/">Initial Thoughts on Full Site Editing</a> in this blog post. He had just returned to WordPress as the foundation of his site, after a venture into Headless WordPress. While working with the Twenty-Twenty-Two theme, Jorbin notices a few missing features, like how to set the favicon for the site without the Customizer, and he felt it to be a step backwards to &#8220;Save and Surprise&#8221; where a faithful preview is not available, also missing fallback option for a missing featured image. </p>



<h2 id="wordpress-events">WordPress Events</h2>



<p><strong>November 16th, 2021</strong> &#8211; 11am EST / 16:00 UTC<br /><strong><a href="https://events.godaddy.com/events/details/godaddy-events-godaddy-pro-online-presents-testing-the-latest-features-in-gutenberg/">Testing the latest features in Gutenberg</a></strong><br />GoDaddy Pro Online w/  Andy Fragen, Birgit Pauli-Haack, George Mamadashvili</p>



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



<p><strong>November 19th, 2021,  12pm ET / 16:00 UTC </strong><br /><strong>Twitter Spaces: <a href="https://poststatus.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ff3456b27ebe0be0155087894&id=b8390ecb23&e=76a77eae7e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">State of WordPress News</a>&nbsp; </strong><br />With&nbsp;Matt Medeiros&nbsp;(Matt Report Media),&nbsp;Jeff Chandler&nbsp;(WP Mainline),&nbsp;Joe Howard&nbsp;(WPMRR),&nbsp;Birgit Pauli-Haack&nbsp;(Gutenberg Times), and&nbsp;Sarah Gooding&nbsp;(WP Tavern). Hosted by&nbsp;David Bisset&nbsp;and&nbsp;Dan Knauss&nbsp;(Post Status).<br /><strong>Hosted by Post Status</strong></p>



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



<p>November 22, 2021 &#8211; 7pm ET / 23:00 UTC<br /><strong><a href="https://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Montclair-Meetup/events/" rel="nofollow">Meetup Montclair, New Jersey</a></strong><br />What is Full-Site Editing? w/ Birgit Pauli-Haack</p>



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<p><strong>February 4+5, 2022<br /><a href="https://birmingham.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp Birmingham, AL</a></strong><br />Call for Sponsors and Speakers are open now. </p>



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<p><strong>March 4th, 2022 all day<br /><a href="https://www.wordfest.live/2022/march/">WordFest 2022</a></strong><br />a 24-hour festival of WordPress</p>



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



<p class="has-drop-cap">On the<a href="https://wpcalendar.io/online/">&nbsp;<strong>Calendar for WordPress Online Events</strong>&nbsp;</a>site, you can browse a list of the upcoming WordPress Events, around the world, including WordCamps,  WooCommerce, Elementor, Divi Builder and Beaver Builder meetups.</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" />





<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/13998657@N02/18526571462" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"></a><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01/38744499" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"></a>Featured image: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/22098730@N05/3431570690" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Photo by&nbsp;</a><a href="https://unsplash.com/@kimsondoan?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Kimson Doan</a>&nbsp;on&nbsp;<a href="https://unsplash.com/collections/987038/block?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</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:"Sat, 06 Nov 2021 07:13:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"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: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:83:"WPTavern: AMP Has Irreparably Damaged Publishers’ Trust in Google-led Initiatives";s:7:"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=125191";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:205:"https://wptavern.com/amp-has-irreparably-damaged-publishers-trust-in-google-led-initiatives?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=amp-has-irreparably-damaged-publishers-trust-in-google-led-initiatives";s: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:14007:"<p>The Chrome Dev Summit concluded earlier this week. Announcements and discussions on hot topics impacting the greater web community at the event included Google&rsquo;s Privacy Sandbox initiative, improvements to Core Web Vitals and performance tools, and new APIs for&nbsp;<a href="https://web.dev/progressive-web-apps/">Progressive Web Apps</a>&nbsp;(PWAs). &nbsp;</p>



<p>Paul Kinlan, Lead for Chrome Developer Relations, <a href="https://blog.chromium.org/2021/11/chrome-dev-summit-2021-moving-toward.html?m=1">highlighted</a> the latest product updates on the Chromium blog, what he identified as Google&rsquo;s &ldquo;vision for the web&rsquo;s future and examples of best-in-class web experiences.&rdquo;</p>



<p>During an (AMA) live Q&amp;A session with Chrome Leadership, <a href="https://wptavern.com/jeremy-keith-resigns-from-amp-advisory-committee-it-has-become-clear-to-me-that-amp-remains-a-google-product">ex-AMP Advisory Board member</a> Jeremy Keith <a href="https://adactio.com/notes/18584">asked a question</a> that echoes the sentiments of developers and publishers all over the world who are viewing Google&rsquo;s leadership and initiatives with more skepticism:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Given the court proceedings against AMP, why should anyone trust FLOC or any other Google initiatives ostensibly focused on privacy?</p></blockquote>



<p>The question drew a tepid <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNecNY6vDek&t=4261s">response from Chrome leadership</a> who avoided giving a straight answer. Ben Galbraith fielded the question, saying he could not comment on the AMP-related legal proceedings but focused on the Privacy Sandbox: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>I think it&rsquo;s important to note that we&rsquo;re not asking for blind trust with the Sandbox effort. Instead, we&rsquo;re working in the open, which means that we&rsquo;re sharing our ideas while they are in an early phase. We&rsquo;re sharing specific API proposals, and then we&rsquo;re sharing our code out in the open and running experiments in the open. In this process we&rsquo;re also working really closely with industry regulators. You may have seen the agreement that we announced earlier this year jointly with the UK&rsquo;s CMA, and we have a bunch of industry collaborators with us. We&rsquo;ll continue to be very transparent moving forward, both in terms of how the Sandbox works and its resulting privacy properties. We expect the effort will be judged on that basis.</p></blockquote>



<p>FLoC continues to be a controversial initiative, <a href="https://wptavern.com/google-concludes-floc-origin-trial-does-not-intend-to-share-feedback-from-participants">opposed by many major tech organizations</a>. A group of like-minded WordPress contributors <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-contributors-propose-blocking-floc-in-core">proposed blocking Google&rsquo;s initiative</a> earlier this year. Privacy advocates do not believe FLoC to be a compelling alternative to the surveillance business model currently used by the advertising industry. Instead, they see it as an invitation to cede more control of ad tech to Google.</p>



<p>Galbraith&rsquo;s statement conflicts with the company&rsquo;s actions earlier this year when <a href="https://wptavern.com/google-concludes-floc-origin-trial-does-not-intend-to-share-feedback-from-participants">Google said the team does not intend to disclose any of the private feedback</a>&nbsp;received during FLoC&rsquo;s origin trial, which was criticized as a lack of transparency.</p>



<p>Despite the developer community&rsquo;s waning trust in the company, Google continues to aggressively advocate for a number of controversial initiatives, even after some of them have landed the company in legal trouble. Google employees are not permitted to talk about the antitrust lawsuit and seem eager to distance themselves from the proceedings. </p>



<p>Jeremy Keith&rsquo;s question referencing the AMP allegations in the <a href="https://wptavern.com/unredacted-antitrust-complaint-unsealed-google-internal-documents-show-amp-pages-brought-40-less-revenue-to-publishers">recently unredacted antitrust complaint against Google</a> was extremely unlikely to receive an adequate response from the Chrome Leadership team, but the mere act of asking is a public reminder of the trust Google has willfully eroded in pushing AMP on publishers.</p>



<p>When <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/06/google-receives-demand-documents-doj-acknowledging-federal-antitrust-scrutiny/">Google received a demand for a trove of documents</a> from the Department of Justice as part of the pre-trial process, the company was reluctant to hand them over. These documents reveal how Google identified header bidding as an &ldquo;existential threat&rdquo; and detail how AMP was used as a tool to impede header bidding. </p>



<p>The complaint alleges that <em>&ldquo;Google ad server employees met with AMP employees to strategize about using AMP to impede header bidding, addressing in particular how much pressure publishers and advertisers would tolerate.&rdquo;</em> </p>



<p>In summary, it claims that Google falsely told publishers that adopting AMP would enhance load times, even though the company&rsquo;s employees knew that it only improved the &ldquo;median of performance&rdquo; and actually loaded slower than some speed optimization techniques publishers had been using. It alleges that AMP pages brought 40% less revenue to publishers. The complaint states that AMP&rsquo;s speed benefits &ldquo;were also at least partly a result of Google&rsquo;s throttling.&nbsp;<strong>Google throttles the load time of non-AMP ads by giving them artificial one-second delays in order to give Google AMP a &lsquo;nice comparative boost.</strong>&lsquo;&rdquo; </p>



<p>Although the internal documents were not published alongside the <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.564903/gov.uscourts.nysd.564903.152.0_1.pdf">unredacted complaint</a>, these are heavy claims for the Department of Justice to float against Google if the documents didn&rsquo;t fully substantiate them. </p>



<p>The AMP-related allegations are egregious and demand a truly transparent answer. We all watched as Google used its weight to force publishers both small and large to adopt its framework or forego mobile traffic and placement in the Top Stories carousel. This came at an enormous cost to publishers who were unwilling to adopt AMP.</p>



<p>Barry Adams, one of the most vocal <a href="https://www.polemicdigital.com/google-amp-go-to-hell/">critics of the AMP project</a>, demonstrated this cost to publishers in a graph that shows the percentage of articles in Google&rsquo;s mobile Top Stories carousel in the US that are&nbsp;<strong>not</strong>&nbsp;AMP articles. When Google stopped requiring AMP for the mobile Top Stories in July 2021, there was a sharp spike in non-AMP URLs being included.</p>



<img />



<p>Once AMP was no longer required and publishers could use any technology to rank in Top Stories, the percentage of non-AMP pages increased significantly to double digits, <a href="https://www.newzdash.com/guide/amp-tracker">where it remains today</a>. Adams&rsquo; <a href="https://www.seoforgooglenews.com/p/lets-talk-about-amp">article</a> calls on the web community to recognize the damage Google did in giving AMP pages preferential treatment:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>&ldquo;But I&rsquo;m angry. Because it means that for more than&nbsp;<strong>five long years</strong>, when AMP was a mobile Top Stories requirement, Google <strong>penalised</strong>&nbsp;these publishers for not using AMP.</p><p>There was&nbsp;<strong>no other reason</strong>&nbsp;for Google to stop ranking these publishers in their mobile Top Stories carousel. As is evident from the surge of non-AMP articles, there are likely hundreds &ndash; if not thousands &ndash; of publishers who&nbsp;<strong>ticked every single ranking box</strong>&nbsp;that Google demanded; quality news content, easily crawlable and indexable technology stack, good editorial authority signals, and so on.</p><p>But they didn&rsquo;t use AMP. So Google didn&rsquo;t rank them. Think for a moment about the cost of that.&rdquo;</p></blockquote>



<p>Even the publishers who adopted AMP struggled to get ad views. In 2017, Digiday reported on how many publishers have experienced&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://digiday.com/media/publishers-find-google-amp-loads-fast-ad-views/" target="_blank">decreased revenues associated with ads loading much slower than the actual content</a>. I don&rsquo;t think anyone at the time imagined that Google was throttling the non-AMP ads.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The aim of AMP is to load content first and ads second,&rdquo; a Google spokesperson told Digiday. &ldquo;But we are working on making ads faster. It takes quite a bit of the ecosystem to get on board with the notion that speed is important for ads, just as it is for content.&rdquo;</p>



<p>This is why Google is rapidly losing publishers&rsquo; trust. For years the company encumbered already struggling news organizations with the requirement of AMP. The DOJ&rsquo;s detailed description of how AMP was used as a vehicle for anticompetitive practices simply rubs salt in the wound after what publishers have been through in expending resources to support AMP versions of their websites.</p>



<h2 id="automattic-denies-prior-knowledge-of-google-throttling-non-amp-ads">Automattic Denies Prior Knowledge of Google Throttling Non-Amp Ads</h2>



<p>In 2016, Automattic, one of the most influential companies in the WordPress ecosystem, partnered with Google to promote AMP as an early adopter. WordPress.com added AMP support and Automattic built the first versions of the AMP plugin for self-hosted WordPress sites. The company has played a significant role in driving AMP adoption forward, giving it an entrance into the WordPress ecosystem. </p>



<p>How much did Automattic know when it partnered with Google in the initial AMP rollout? I asked the company what the precise nature of its relationship with Google is regarding AMP at this time.</p>



<p>&ldquo;As part of our mission to make the web a better place, we are always testing new technologies including AMP,&rdquo; an official spokesperson for Automattic said.</p>



<p>This may be true but Automattic has done more than simply test the new technology. In partnering with Google, it has been instrumental in making AMP easier for WordPress users to adopt. </p>



<p>&ldquo;We received no funds from Google for the project,&rdquo; a spokesperson for Automattic said when asked if the company was compensated as a partner in this effort.</p>



<p>What did Google promise Automattic to convince the company to become an early partner in the AMP rollout? I asked if the company has an official response to the allegations that Google was throttling the load time of non-AMP ads by giving them artificial one-second delays in order to give Google AMP &ldquo;a nice comparative boost.&rdquo; The spokesperson would not respond to the specific claims but indicated the company did not have prior knowledge of any actions that might not be above board:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>We chose to partner with Google because we believed that we had a shared vision of advancing the open web. Additionally, we wanted to offer the benefit of the latest technology to WordPress users and publishers including AMP.</p><p>While we aren&rsquo;t able to comment on legal matters in progress, we can say that over the course of our partnership, we were not aware of any actions that did not align with our company&rsquo;s mission to support the open web and make it a better place.</p></blockquote>



<p><br />The antitrust complaint also details a Project NERA, which was designed to &ldquo;successfully mimic a walled garden across the open web.&rdquo; When asked about this, Automattic reiterated its commitment to supporting the open web and gave the same response: &ldquo;We were not aware of any actions that did not align with our company&rsquo;s mission.&rdquo; </p>



<p>In examining the weight of the DOJ&rsquo;s allegations, it&rsquo;s important to consider how this impacts WordPress as a CMS that is used by 42% of the web.&nbsp;<a href="https://wptavern.com/yoast-and-google-sponsored-core-contributors-propose-new-wordpress-performance-team">A new performance team for WordPress core</a> is being spearheaded by Yoast and Google-sponsored employees. The initial proposal is to improve core performance as measured by&nbsp;<a href="https://web.dev/vitals/">Google&rsquo;s Core Web Vitals</a>&nbsp;metrics. These metrics are a set of specific factors that Google deems important for user experience.</p>



<p>Without questioning the personal integrity of the contributors on that team, I think it&rsquo;s important that Google leadership acknowledge how AMP has damaged publishers&rsquo; trust in light of recent events. Many of these contributors are heavily involved in building AMP-related resources for the WordPress ecosystem. Are their contributions purely aimed at making WordPress core more performant or is there a long game that serves Google&rsquo;s interests being woven into this initiative? Would these employees even be aware of it if there were?</p>



<p>These are important considerations if Google defines the performance metrics WordPress is measuring against. The company&rsquo;s alleged misdeeds seem to be buried high up in the command chain. Those tasked with peddling AMP may have had no knowledge of the alleged anticompetitive practices identified by the DOJ in Google&rsquo;s internal documents. The WordPress community should continue to be vigilant on behalf of publishers who depend on WordPress to remain an unadulterated advocate for the open web.</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, 06 Nov 2021 03:40:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:104:"WPTavern: Patchstack Releases Free Security Plugin, Its Red Team Found 1,182 Vulnerabilities Since March";s:7:"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=125147";s:7:"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:259:"https://wptavern.com/patchstack-releases-free-security-plugin-its-red-team-found-over-1182-vulnerabilities-since-march?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=patchstack-releases-free-security-plugin-its-red-team-found-over-1182-vulnerabilities-since-march";s: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:5249:"<p class="has-drop-cap">In September, Patchstack released its <a href="https://patchstack.com/patchstack-red-team-report-1067-vulnerabilities-7700-in-rewards/">six-month report</a> on the vulnerabilities found with WordPress and its extensions. At the time, it listed over 1,000 issues &mdash; the company has shared the updated numbers with WP Tavern. It soon followed that up with a free vulnerability-reporting plugin.</p>



<p>Under the banner of WebARX, the company launched the first version of its security platform in 2018. After growing beyond its original SaaS offering with services like its PlugBounty and acquisition of ThreatPress, the company <a href="https://wptavern.com/webarx-rebrands-to-patchstack-combines-services-to-focus-on-wordpress-plugin-and-theme-security">rebranded to Patchstack</a> in March this year.</p>



<p>In its <a href="https://wptavern.com/patchstack-whitepaper-582-wordpress-security-issues-found-in-2020-over-96-from-third-party-extensions">2020 whitepaper</a>, the security company found 582 vulnerabilities for the year. This report covers issues from both Patchstack and third-party vendors.</p>



<p>However, issues found in 2021 have multiplied from the previous year. <a href="https://patchstack.com/red-team/">Patchstack Red Team</a>, a community bug-hunting program that pays out monthly bounties, has reported 1,182 vulnerabilities from March through October. Bounty payouts have reached $9,150 thus far.</p>



<p>These are merely the problems found through Patchstack Red Team. When combined with security issues reported through other vendors that the company tracks, the vulnerability count jumps to over 2,000.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we need to be worried,&rdquo; said Oliver Sild, Patchstack founder and CEO, when asked how much of a problem these numbers are. &ldquo;I think we should be grateful and glad that we have ethical hackers and researchers who have been investing more of their time helping plugin developers to improve their code. From one angle, you could see a record year in terms of new vulnerabilities found, but what we see is a record year of security issues fixed in the WordPress ecosystem. The majority of these issues have been sitting there for years.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Several security plugin vendors and hosting companies, including Pagely and Cloudways, are supporting the Patchstack initiative. In return, they have access to the <a href="https://patchstack.com/solutions/#feed">Threat Intelligence Feed</a>, an API to warn their customers of newfound vulnerabilities.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Patchstack is ultra-focused on plugin vulnerabilities,&rdquo; said Sild. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what we focus on and thrive to do best. Our competitive advantage is the fact that we have less features, which means less bloat and no impact on the site&rsquo;s performance. Meanwhile, we solve probably the #1 security issue in the WordPress ecosystem.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He is referring to third-party plugins and themes as being the primary security issue. Over 96% of the vulnerabilities in the company&rsquo;s 2020 whitepaper were from WordPress extensions.</p>



<p>In October, Patchstack <a href="https://patchstack.com/robert-joining-patchstack-security-advocate/">brought in Robert Rowley</a>, a former head of security at DreamHost and Pagely, in a new &ldquo;security advocate&rdquo; role. Sild said that his knowledge would bring a lot of experience to the table.</p>



<p>&ldquo;He will help us make Patchstack better for both hosting companies and to plugin developers,&rdquo; the CEO said. &ldquo;At the same time, he&rsquo;ll be helping us to narrow the gap between plugin devs and ethical hackers by spreading awareness and helping both sides understand each other (and challenges) better.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In the past week, the company released its <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/patchstack/">Patchstack plugin</a> to the WordPress directory. The free version is essentially a warning system for site owners of security issues.</p>



<p>&ldquo;You can think about the Community (Free) version as an option for anyone in the WordPress ecosystem to be alerted about new vulnerabilities found in plugins, themes, and WordPress core,&rdquo; said Sild. &ldquo;It comes with a central dashboard where you can add up to 99 websites for free, so you&rsquo;ll have all the analytics and alerts about security issues on all your sites in a single place.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The free version does not include hotfixes or patches. Its goal is to detect issues and provide alerts. Patchstack has upgraded features in its <a href="https://patchstack.com/pricing/">Pro and Business plans</a>.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Pro comes with automatic virtual patching for those vulnerabilities which provide active protection against the vulnerabilities that are being discovered,&rdquo; said Sild. &ldquo;Business plan is great for agencies who have more than 100 sites and want to have full protection against plugin vulnerabilities on all of their websites.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Sild also teased &ldquo;something very cool&rdquo; for developers and ethical hackers in the pipeline to create a more secure plugin ecosystem. However, he refrained from providing any details.</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, 06 Nov 2021 01:27:05 +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:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"Post Status: Business Names, DBAs, and Trademarks with Nellie Akalp";s:7:"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=88924";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"https://poststatus.com/business-names-dbas-and-trademarks-with-nellie-akalp/";s: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:5399:"<p class="has-medium-font-size">Learn about Trademarks and Doing Business As names (DBAs) for your freelancing or small business.</p>



<p class="has-drop-cap"><strong>Nellie Akalp</strong> joined <strong>Cory Miller</strong> to discuss trademarks and DBAs for small businesses. Nellie has dedicated her career to helping other entrepreneurs and business professionals succeed at business ownership. Nellie previously discussed <strong><a href="https://poststatus.com/expand-your-business-to-another-state-nellie-akalp/">expanding your business to another state</a></strong>. Business owners and freelancers will benefit from these live presentations and discussions where audience participation is encouraged.</p>



<p>Nellie is a business expert, professional speaker, published author, and mother to four amazing kids. As CEO and Co-Founder of CorpNet.com, she has helped more than half a million small businesses and licensed professionals get their businesses and clients off the ground.</p>



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

</div>







<h2 id="h-about-nellie-akalp">About Nellie Akalp</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-rounded"><img width="200" height="200" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/author-nellie-akalp.jpg" alt="Nelie Akalp" class="wp-image-85688" /></div>



<p>Nellie has dedicated her career to helping other entrepreneurs and business professionals succeed at business ownership. She is a business expert, professional speaker, published author, and mother to four amazing kids. As CEO and Co-Founder of <a href="https://www.corpnet.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CorpNet.com</a>, she has helped more than half a million small businesses and licensed professionals get their businesses and clients off the ground. CorpNet.com is an online legal document filing service and recognized Inc. 5000 company. At CorpNet, Nellie assists entrepreneurs across all 50 states to start a business, incorporate, form an LLC, and apply for trademarks. She also offers free business compliance tools for any entrepreneur to utilize. </p>



<p>Nellie has a strong following within the small business community and has been honored as a Small Business Influencer Champion. She was named the 2016 Woman Business Owner of the Year by the National Association of Women Business Owners' Ventura County chapter.</p>



<ul><li>Connect with Nellie on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nellieakalp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/corpnetnellie" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Twitter</a>.</li><li>Nellie's <a href="https://www.corpnet.com/about/nellie-akalp/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Small Business Corner</a> at CorpNet.com.</li></ul>



<p class="has-background">Every week <strong><a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">Post Status Live</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/13.0.1/72x72/26a1.png" alt="⚡" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><br />You can listen to <a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">past episodes</a> of <strong>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/13.0.1/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h3 id="h-mentioned-in-the-show"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f517.png" alt="🔗" class="wp-smiley" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>



<ul><li><a href="https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/PostStatus.com">PostStatus.com</a></li><li><a href="https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/corpnet.com">corpnet.com</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/CorpNetNellie">Nellie Akalp</a></li><li><a href="https://corymiller.com">Cory Miller</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/corymiller303">Twitter</a>)</li></ul>



<h3 id="h-sponsor-gravity-forms"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> Sponsor: <a href="https://poststatus.com/partner/gravity-forms/">Gravity Forms</a></h3>



<p>Gravity Forms is the easiest and most trusted advanced forms solution for your WordPress website. Packed with time-saving tools and features, Gravity Forms is the only WordPress form management plugin you will ever need. Stop losing valuable leads and grow your business with Gravity.</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, 05 Nov 2021 04:19:45 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Olivia Bisset";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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. 31) — State of the WordPress Job Market";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=88930";s:7:"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:34:"https://poststatus.com/excerpt/31/";s: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:3779:"<h2>&#8220;My best advice is to get to know as many people as you can — network.&#8221;</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">In this episode of Post Status Excerpt, David talks with special guest Michelle Frechette about the current landscape of the WordPress job market. What trends should a WordPress professional pay attention to right now? What should newcomers to the WordPress ecosystem do to stand out and be trusted by companies, especially for remote work? Michelle also shares a few tips for anyone trying to navigate their way to the right role and employer.</p>



<p><strong>Also don't forget: </strong>We're encouraging listeners to check out the &#8220;<a href="https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/">Week at WordPress.org</a>&#8221; — get the feed <a href="https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/feed/">here</a> — and <a href="https://poststatus.com/submit-2021-black-friday-cyber-monday-deals/">submit your Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals</a> to us at Post Status for us to share.</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/13.0.1/72x72/26a1.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/13.0.1/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h3 id="h-mentioned-in-the-show"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f517.png" alt="🔗" class="wp-smiley" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>



<ul><li><a href="https://casabona.org/2021/10/wordpress-writing-app/">StellarWP</a></li><li><a href="https://wpcareerpages.com/">WordPress Jobs</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/dimensionmedia" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">David Bisset (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/michelleames" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Michelle Frechette (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/post_status" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Post Status (Twitter)</a></li></ul>



<h3><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> Sponsor: <a href="https://poststat.us/sandhills" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow">Gravity Forms</a></h3>



<p>Gravity Forms is the easiest and most trusted advanced forms solution for your WordPress website. Packed with time-saving tools and features, Gravity Forms is the only WordPress form management plugin you will ever need. Stop losing valuable leads and grow your business with Gravity.</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, 05 Nov 2021 04:02:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:56:"WordPress.org blog: The Month in WordPress: October 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:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=11501";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/the-month-in-wordpress-october-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:21866:"<p>October 2021 brought a lot of new things to WordPress, from release updates to new versions of Gutenberg. More notably, in the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/10/episode-18-the-economics-of-wordpress/" target="_blank">latest episode</a> of <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.org/news/podcast/" target="_blank">WP Briefing</a>, Executive Director <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/" target="_blank">Josepha Haden</a> reminded us about the importance of freedom in open source platforms like WordPress.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Free speech has with it a lot of responsibility, just like being a part of a community. Governments or communities, or in our case, <strong>this software is built by the people who show up. </strong><br /><br />For WordPress, at 42% of the web, every small choice we make can cause huge changes in the way that people experience the web today and tomorrow.</p><cite>Josepha Haden, Executive Director of the WordPress project</cite></blockquote>



<p>Last month was yet another chapter in this journey. So keep reading to learn what&#8217;s new. </p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<h2>WordPress 5.9: All proposed updates will likely be included</h2>



<ul><li>We announced the<strong> </strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/15/wordpress-5-9-feature-go-no-go-october-14-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>go/no-go for WordPress 5.9 features</strong></a><strong> </strong>in mid-October. The release will probably include all the proposed features—though not all of them are ready yet, they should be by the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/03/wordpress-5-9-planning-roundup/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proposed release date</a> (December 14, 2021).</li><li><strong>WordPress 5.9 will include a new default theme called </strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/06/introducing-twenty-twenty-two/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Twenty Twenty-Two</strong></a><strong>! </strong><span>The theme&#8217;s foundation will be strong, and the unpredictable yet reliable behavior of birds inspired the intentionally subtle design. </span></li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img width="632" height="433" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/11/WordPress-Twenty-TwentyTwo-Theme.jpg?resize=632%2C433&ssl=1" alt="WordPress Default Theme Twenty Twenty-Two released with WordPress Version 5.9" class="wp-image-11509" /></div>



<ul><li>5.9 bug scrub sessions began in September and will continue each week until the release on December 14, 2021. <strong>View the full </strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/18/bug-scrub-schedule-for-5-9/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>bug scrub schedule</strong></a><strong>. </strong></li><li>Many of you requested a few <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/25/wordpress-5-9-editor-update-26-october/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;must have&#8221; enhancements</a> for the 5.9 release—follow the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/projects/62" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">5.9 Must-Haves project board</a> to track their status.</li><li>The Test Team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/27/overview-of-the-5-9-test-leads-approach/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shared an overview</a> of the team’s approach to testing WordPress 5.9.</li></ul>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-style-default"><p><strong>Interested in contributing to WordPress core?</strong> Join the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">#core</a> channel, follow the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Core Team blog</a>, and check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">team handbook</a>. Also, don&#8217;t miss the Core Team’s weekly developer chat on Wednesdays at <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=20&min=00&sec=0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">8 PM</a> UTC.</p></blockquote>



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<h2>Gutenberg releases: 11.6, 11.7, and 11.8 are here</h2>



<p>We released three new versions of the Gutenberg block editor between the end of September and October:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-6-29-september/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Version 11.6</strong></a><strong> </strong>brings site logo cropping and rotation, block-level locking, improvements to Query Pagination block, support for child themes and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/29/thunks-in-gutenberg/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">thunks</a>, template focus mode, and enhancements to the writing flow.</li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/14/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-7-october-13th/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Gutenberg version 11.7</strong></a><strong> </strong>includes bug fixes and polishes to the navigation block and editor, global styles and full site editing (including a handy back button that lets you quickly return to the site editor), and columns block support, among other improvements.</li><li>Finally, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/28/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-8-0-27-october/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Gutenberg 11.8</strong></a> is the second to last version to make it into the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordPress 5.9</a> release, and it comes with plenty of developments to the editing experience: featured Block Patterns, new animations for a few elements (like Dropzone and Insertion Point), spacing tools for heading blocks, and a lot more.</li></ul>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><strong>Want to get involved in developing Gutenberg? </strong>Follow <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the Core Team blog</a>, contribute to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gutenberg on GitHub</a>, and join the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02QB2JS7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">#core-editor</a> channel in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Make WordPress Slack</a>. For details on the latest updates, follow the &#8220;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/17/whats-next-in-gutenberg-mid-september-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What&#8217;s next in Gutenberg</a>&#8221; post.</p></blockquote>



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<h2>WordCamp US returned virtually this year with more than 3,600 attendees</h2>



<p><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordCamp US</a> 2021 was on October 1, and it was online for the first time. The event drew more than 3,600 attendees, 27 sponsors, and 18 remarkable speakers on topics ranging from accessibility and sustainability to e-commerce, to name a few. </p>



<p>Matt Mullenweg&#8217;s “State of the Word” is expected to be held as a separate event later this year, rather than being part of WordCamp US.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-center"><p>If you missed the live event, <strong>you can still watch the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vkq4BFZbhI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Yukon Track</a> and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6-yAZRXY8k" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Columbia Track</a> of WordCamp US 2021.</strong></p></blockquote>



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<h2>Team Updates: Polyglots monthly newsletter, a new Performance team, and more</h2>



<ul><li>The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/10/15/polyglots-monthly-newsletter-october-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first edition</a> of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/09/27/sign-up-for-the-new-polyglots-monthly-newsletter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Polyglots monthly newsletter</a> went out on October 15, 2021.</li><li>The following teams opened up their call for team representatives last month, and more are coming soon: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/26/nominations-for-core-team-reps-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Core</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/10/11/community-team-rep-nominations-for-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Community</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/10/27/nominations-call-for-the-themes-team-representatives/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Themes</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2021/10/30/call-for-team-rep-nominations-3/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Accessibility</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2021/10/team-representative-nominations/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Support</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/11/02/nominations-for-training-team-reps-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Training</a>, and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2021/10/30/nominations-for-hosting-team-reps-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hosting</a>.</li><li>A draft of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/10/08/proposal-2022-global-community-sponsorship-program/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2022 Global Community Sponsorship program proposal</a> was released on October 8, 2021. </li><li>The October 2021 edition of <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/10/people-of-wordpress-ecommerce-ronald-gijsel/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">People of WordPress</a>, featuring WordPress e-commerce specialist Ronald Gijsel, went live.</li><li>Following excellent responses to the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/12/proposal-for-a-performance-team/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">initial proposal</a>, members of the Core Team announced the next steps in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/28/wordpress-performance-team-kick-off/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launching a performance team</a> that aims to increase the performance (speed) of WordPress.</li><li>The Polyglots Team kicked-off <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/10/12/new-glotpress-meetings/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bi-weekly Glotpress meetings</a> aimed at improving the functionality of the plugin that powers <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">translate.wordpress.org</a>.</li><li>A <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/10/27/documentation-sprint/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sprint</a> is planned on November 10-12 to explore a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/10/04/a-dedicated-volunteer-program-for-the-training-team/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dedicated volunteer program</a> for the Training Team, similar to the Deputy program in the Community Team.</li><li>WordPress.org profiles now display <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2021/10/11/wordpress-org-profiles-now-show-github-activity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">activity from the WordPress GitHub organization</a>.</li><li>The Test Team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/21/fse-program-pattern-party-summary/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shared results</a> of the tenth Full Site Editing (FSE) Outreach Program: Pattern Party. </li><li>Answers from the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/28/fse-program-answers-from-round-three-of-questions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">third round of questions</a> from the FSE Outreach Program are now out!</li><li>The Docs Team is<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> consulting with independent legal experts</a> to explore whether there are issues with having Gutenberg (which is dual-licensed GPL + MPL) coexist with other contents in WordPress (our documentation has a CC0 license and the code is GPL). </li><li>The Themes Team shared a recap of work happening on <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/10/14/theme-tools-and-requirements-recap/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">automation and improvement processes</a> for the WordPress Themes directory. The Team also shared a p2 post highlighting the performance impact of<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/10/04/the-performance-impact-of-using-jquery-in-wordpress-themes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> jQuery on WordPress themes</a>.</li><li>The Marketing Team participated in a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2021/10/21/make-marketing-workshop-contributor-ladder/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">contributor ladder workshop</a> to help plan their future activities.</li><li>The feature<a href="https://wptranslationday.org/blog/celebrating-wordpress-translation-day-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> recap of the WordPress Translation Day 2021</a> is out from the Polyglots and Marketing teams, with the results of the <a href="https://wptranslationday.org/wptd-2021/polyglots-appreciation-nominees/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Polyglots appreciation nominations 2021</a>.</li></ul>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-center"><p><strong><a href="https://wordpressfoundation.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=0f93eb6000a019fcbd53d10be&id=04c6fa5c90" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sign up </a>for the Polyglots monthly newsletter</strong>, if you haven’t already.</p></blockquote>



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<h2>Feedback/Testing requests: Deadline for redesigned Gutenberg landing page is November 5, 2021</h2>



<img width="632" height="396" src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/11/WordPress_Gutenberg_Page.jpg?resize=632%2C396&ssl=1" alt="WordPress.Org redesigned Gutenberg page" class="wp-image-11519" />



<ul><li><strong>The Design Team is </strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/29/redesign-of-the-gutenberg-page/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>working on redesigning</strong></a><strong> the </strong><a href="https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>wordpress.org/gutenberg</strong></a><strong> landing page, and has already shared a </strong><a href="https://www.figma.com/proto/Gl653sYvO3RBhVtWSFwMcD/Gutenberg-Page?page-id=1865%3A12926&node-id=1919%3A14707&viewport=241%2C48%2C0.15&scaling=min-zoom&starting-point-node-id=1919%3A14707" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>prototype</strong></a><strong>. </strong></li><li>The team has also shared a few other concepts where they have requested feedback from contributors:<ul><li>Site Editing iA Concepts: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/15/site-editing-ia-concepts-how-to-surface-and-access-new-features/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Part1</a> and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/22/site-editing-ia-concepts-part-2/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Part 2</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/08/adventures-in-block-theme-switching/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Block theme switching</a> concepts</li></ul></li><li>Version 18.5 of WordPress for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2021/10/18/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-ios-18-5/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">iOS</a> and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2021/10/19/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-android-18-5/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Android</a> are now available for testing!</li><li>The Accessibility Team is <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2021/10/30/accessibility-team-meeting-notes-october-22-2021-2/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">requesting feedback</a> on a new Gutenberg Pull request that <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35896" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announces formatting changes or screen readers</a>.</li></ul>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-center"><p><strong>Share your feedback on the new Gutenberg landing page design in </strong><a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5600" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Trac</strong></a><strong> or by </strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/29/redesign-of-the-gutenberg-page/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>commenting on the blog post</strong></a><strong> by November 5, 2021.</strong></p></blockquote>



<h2>Keep an eye out for WordCamp Spain, Sâo Paulo, and Taiwan 2021</h2>



<p>We had several WordPress events in October, and several more to look forward to the rest of the year:</p>



<ul><li>We’re seeking a new host city for <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/wordcamp-us-update-city-search-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordCamp US 2022</a>.</li><li>WordCamp Europe 2022 has extended its <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2022/porto-is-calling/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">call for organizers</a>.</li><li><a href="https://italia.wordcamp.org/2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordCamp Italia 2021</a> was held online on October 22-23, 2021. The event had 23 speakers, 17 sponsors, and more than 1,000 registrants. Check out its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGdoJtlsv9BhODCQ71cOFnQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">YouTube channel</a> to watch the event replay.</li><li>Another highlight of the month was <a href="https://nicaragua.wordcamp.org/2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordCamp Nicaragua 2021</a> which was held on October 8-9, 2021.</li><li>The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wpdiversity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">#WPDiversity</a> working group of the Community Team organized an <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/10/15/workshops-from-wpdiversity-october-and-november-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Allyship workshop for event organizers</a> on October 28. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/10/15/workshops-from-wpdiversity-october-and-november-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sign up now</a> for the diversity events planned by the team for November! </li><li>A <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/10/29/contribute2wp-learn-training-contributor-day/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">two-day contributor event</a> focused on <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Learn WordPress</a>, took place on October 29 and 31, 2021. There was also another <a href="https://yoast.com/about-us/events/yoast-contributor-day/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">contributor day</a> on October 8, 2021, which involved working groups across the board, from accessibility to user testing.</li><li>The Test Team organized the following Hallway Hangouts this week—check out their recaps:<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/06/hallway-hangout-pattern-party-testing-walkthrough-6-october/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pattern Party Testing Walkthrough </a></li><li><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">5.9 Go/No go, Site Editor Internal Audit, and more</a></li></ul></li></ul>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-center"><p><strong>Don’t miss the following upcoming online WordCamps: </strong><a href="https://spain.wordcamp.org/2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>WordCamp Spain 2021</strong></a><strong>, </strong><a href="https://saopaulo.wordcamp.org/2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>WordCamp Sâo Paulo 2021</strong></a><strong>, and </strong><a href="https://taiwan.wordcamp.org/2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>WordCamp Taiwan 2021</strong></a><strong>!</strong></p></blockquote>



<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/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong><em>this form</em></strong></a><strong><em>.</em></strong></p>



<p><em>The following folks contributed to October 2021’s Month in WordPress: </em><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/anjanavasan/" target="_blank"><em>@anjanavasan</em></a><em>, </em><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/harishanker/" target="_blank"><em>@harishanker</em></a><em>, </em><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rmartinezduque/" target="_blank"><em>@rmartinezduque</em></a><em>, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/callye/" target="_blank">@callye</a></em>, <em><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/" target="_blank">@webcommsat</a></em>, and <em><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chaion07/" target="_blank">chaion07</a></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:"Thu, 04 Nov 2021 23:35:37 +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: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:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"WPTavern: Ask the Bartender: Where Are the WooCommerce Block Themes?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=125083";s:7:"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:177:"https://wptavern.com/ask-the-bartender-where-are-the-woocommerce-block-themes?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ask-the-bartender-where-are-the-woocommerce-block-themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8805:"<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>At what point are FSE theme developers going to start integrating and considering WooCommerce for their themes? WooCommerce has almost always seemed to lag behind all other considerations. It&rsquo;s a bit like it&rsquo;s an afterthought to simply scramble in the elements of a solid WooCommerce store. Where is a persistent cart header? Where are the templates for <code>/single-product</code>? There&rsquo;s all kinds of elements which <em>can</em> be developed right along side of other teams working on FSE, but it seems to (again, <em>consistently</em>) not happen.</p><p>I&rsquo;ve taken Blockbase and all the other FSE themes for a spin on LocalWP, and none of them have any WooCommerce elements in them. Again, one should not expect perfection at a &ldquo;developmental&rdquo; stage. However there does seem to be a behavioral pattern of WooCommerce elements being a bit of an &ldquo;afterthought&rdquo; that simply brings up the rear about a year or year-and-six-months afterwards.</p><p>Why not get everyone on the same page immediately? That way theme authors can address putting the cart elements in the header template. (Yes, WC can be run, but w/out a cart header, shoppers don&rsquo;t know where to click after an item is in their cart). And, if theme authors and WP core developers always, Always, ALWAYS started simultaneously <strong>with</strong> one or two WooCommerce folks on board, it would absolutely shorten the time needed for store owners to receive the benefits of FSE (and remove some of their pagebuilders!) and for WordPress to get more Shopify business over to WooCommerce. But that seemingly never happens because WooCommerce always seems to be the &ldquo;afterthought.&rdquo;</p><cite>Brad</cite></blockquote>



<p class="has-drop-cap">First, I want to make sure all of our readers are on the same page. <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce/">WooCommerce</a> is a third-party plugin. It is unrelated to the core WordPress and Gutenberg projects. Granted, WooCommerce is owned by Automattic, one of the largest contributors of resources and people. So, there is likely some crossover among developers.</p>



<p>It is still crucial that we make a distinction between the two. When looking at some of the recent block themes that other developers have released, I have yet to see any integrate with the WooCommerce plugin. I cannot say whether any of their authors have plans to do so in the future. I imagine that some will and others will not. Like with any third-party plugin that outputs something on the front-end (e.g., bbPress, Easy Digital Downloads, etc.), it is the theme author&rsquo;s choice of whether they want to take on the burden of supporting integrations with projects that are not their own. It can be a maintenance nightmare at times, particularly when it comes to free themes. However, I have no doubt that we will see more block theme authors catering to WooCommerce users as we move forward.</p>



<p>All of this is a long-winded way of saying the responsibility of WooCommerce working in a block world is on WooCommerce itself. When it gets to that stage, theme authors will follow.</p>



<p>One of the things I love about the block system is that it creates a standard for all themes and plugins to build from. The long-term goal of plugins like WooCommerce should be to work without theme support.  If a user wants a cart item in their nav menu, it should be as simple as adding a block via the site editor. The same should be said for any other element of creating an online shop.</p>



<p>I reached out to Darren Ethier, an engineering team lead within Automattic who works on the intersection between WooCommerce and Gutenberg. He agreed that the block system could make it easier for things to simply work without specialized theme support.</p>



<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s definitely the target we&rsquo;re shooting for,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Whether or not we will land it in the first iteration is still unknown.&rdquo;</p>



<p>However, the answer is more complex than that. WooCommerce is a heavy plugin with a history entrenched in the pre-block era of WordPress and has an ecosystem of third-party add-ons it must be careful not to break. The team is making progress and has a few things shooting through the pipeline. It will take some time, but you will not see block themes showcasing WooCommerce shops without the plugin first laying the groundwork.</p>



<p>Block templates are a high priority. Top-level templates like <code>single-product.html</code>, <code>archive-product.html</code>, <code>taxonomy-product-cat.html</code>, and <code>taxonomy-product-tag.html</code> will be available to any block-enabled theme soon.</p>



<p>&ldquo;This <em>initial</em> iteration will be a straight port of the existing PHP templates and have a placeholder for the rendering of the template in the editor,&rdquo; said Ethier. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re essentially wrapping the rendered PHP template in a dynamic block. This is definitely <em>not</em> the end goal. It just is the initial step of moving towards our vision of &lsquo;Store Editing&rsquo; where merchants are able to completely customize the layout of their stores using all the opportunities available through the block and site editors.&rdquo;</p>



<p>This is more of a stopgap measure than full-blown support. However, it is a step in that direction.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We decided to take this approach because it more quickly helps bridge the gap between the current PHP-based templates and block themes so that folks can start to see the potential (and still add blocks around the PHP-rendered content),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We also know it&rsquo;s going to be a complex job to more fully implement the vision of Store editing with block themes while supporting (and inspiring) the rich existing ecosystem of WooCommerce extensions. So, this allows us to incrementally improve things over time.&rdquo;</p>



<p>This may not be the news all block theme authors want to hear, but the changes will be enough for them to start exploring tighter integration with the plugin.</p>



<p>The team is currently aiming to add block template support in the next release of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-gutenberg-products-block/">WooCommerce Blocks</a> plugin. If all goes well, the feature will be ported to WooCommerce 6.0, which should be in time for the WordPress 5.9 release.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important to set expectations, though (which is why I&rsquo;m mentioning this again),&rdquo; said Ethier. &ldquo;This initial iteration definitely will <em>not</em> be the final iteration of Woo Block templates.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He also highlighted several things from the roadmap:</p>



<ul><li>&ldquo;Product Element Blocks&rdquo; &ndash; which are the Woo equivalents to the WP template blocks. So, things like &ldquo;Product Title,&rdquo; &ldquo;Product Description,&rdquo; &ldquo;Add to Cart Button,&rdquo; etc.</li><li>Integrating with the WP Query Loop Block (for products).</li><li>&ldquo;Mini-Cart Block&rdquo; &ndash; which should allow for insertion into header/footer template parts.</li><li>Commerce Patterns.</li></ul>



<p>&ldquo;All these things (and more) will help us with iterating on the various components of a store that are visually represented via templates, template parts (i.e., think of things like reviews on the single product page, etc.),&rdquo; said Ethier.</p>



<p>For a deeper look at what is ahead, read <a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2021/08/31/peek-into-the-woocommerce-blocks-roadmap/">Peek into the WooCommerce Blocks Roadmap</a>. Warning: it is dense and geared toward developers, but it must be. The solutions for a project the size and scope of WooCommerce are not simple.</p>



<p>&ldquo;One key strategy we&rsquo;re trying here is to provide default WooCommerce store editing templates and functionality out of the box with Woo Core that should in theory &lsquo;just work&rsquo; with any block theme,&rdquo; said Ethier. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s so much that <code>theme.json</code> and global styles unlock to make this possible. Themes will still be able to override the default WooCommerce templates and template parts if they want, but they won&rsquo;t <em>need</em> to.&rdquo;</p>



<p>While it may feel like block-based storefronts are lightyears away, we must remember that block themes are in their infancy. There are only about a couple dozen in the directory, and most of those are experimental.</p>



<p>I am as excited as anyone about what this could mean for projects like WooCommerce. At the same time, I also know that the road might be longer than what we have in mind, but the WooCommerce team is already traveling down it.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 04 Nov 2021 23:13:20 +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: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:78:"WPTavern: Automattic Acquires WPScan, May Be Rolled Into Jetpack in the Future";s:7:"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=125252";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:199:"https://wptavern.com/automattic-acquires-wpscan-may-be-rolled-into-jetpack-in-the-future?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=automattic-acquires-wpscan-may-be-rolled-into-jetpack-in-the-future";s: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:3055:"<p>Automattic has <a href="https://jetpack.com/2021/11/04/jetpack-acquires-wordpress-vulnerability-database-wpscan/">acquired WPScan</a>, a ten-year-old service that provides a database for WordPress core, plugin, and theme vulnerabilities. The company has sponsored WPScan for a number of years and has already been white labeling its use in Jetpack Scan.</p>



<p>Pricing for <a href="https://wpscan.com/">WPScan</a> is based on API requests per day, with a free version limited to 25. Monthly pricing is tiered based on requests and additional features. The pricing matrix estimates that WordPress websites have 22 plugins installed, on average, and each one makes an API request, as well as one each for the core version and themes. </p>



<p>&ldquo;Our goal for this acquisition is to make malware data and APIs more open source,&rdquo; Jetpack marketing representative Rob Pugh said. &ldquo;We want to ensure that WPScan continues to be a high-quality security resource for the entire WordPress community. To that effect, we&rsquo;ll be exploring ways to make the API completely free for non-commercial sites.&rdquo; </p>



<p>Some users may be wondering whether the WPScan plugin offers more than what is built into Jetpack Scan. The two provide complementary features and can be used at the same time.</p>



<p>&ldquo;[WPScan] does do some different checks that Jetpack Scan doesn&rsquo;t do such as&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpscan/" target="_blank">weak passwords and https</a>,&rdquo; Pugh confirmed. &ldquo;Conversely, Jetpack Scan does some things that WPScan doesn&rsquo;t, such as a library of signatures checking for malicious code.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Automattic has not ruled out requiring WPScan users to have Jetpack installed in order to use the plugin in the future. When asked if Automattic is considering the possibility of requiring Jetpack&nbsp;in order to access WPScan, Pugh said, &ldquo;We still need to evaluate what makes the most sense for Jetpack and WPScan long-term.&rdquo; </p>



<p>Since the product was announced on the Jetpack blog as a Jetpack acquisition, it seems likely that Automattic will merge the branding under Jetpack Scan, rather than leave them separate. There is too much confusion regarding which security product offers which set of features and customers are more likely to respond to a streamlined, simple security package. It&rsquo;s also possible the product could be combined and offered as a standalone plugin, <a href="https://wptavern.com/jetpack-launches-commercial-backup-feature-as-a-standalone-plugin">like Jetpack Backup</a>, Jetpack CRM, and Jetpack Boost. This may or may not require the core Jetpack plugin.</p>



<p>For now, there are no changes planned for the service. WPScsan founders Ryan Dewhurst and Erwan Le Rousseau will continue their work on the product at Automattic.</p>



<p> &ldquo;WPScan will continue to operate independently in the near term and may be integrated into Jetpack Scan in the future,&rdquo; Pugh 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:"Thu, 04 Nov 2021 21:51:59 +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:73:"WPTavern: Birmingham to Host First In-Person WordCamp, February 4-5, 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:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=125186";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:187:"https://wptavern.com/birmingham-to-host-first-in-person-wordcamp-february-4-5-2022?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=birmingham-to-host-first-in-person-wordcamp-february-4-5-2022";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:3131:"<p><a href="https://birmingham.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp Birmingham</a> is the first in-person WordCamp on the schedule for 2022. The event will be held at the Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema in downtown Birmingham on February 4-5. It is one of the first cracks in WordPress&rsquo; iced over event landscape after the pandemic brought in-person gatherings to a halt.</p>



<p>&ldquo;WordCamp Birmingham was one of 40 or more WordCamps that needed to cancel or postpone in 2020,&rdquo; lead organizer Ryan Marks said.&nbsp;&ldquo;We had intentions of just postponing until 2021.&nbsp;During WordFest 2021 in July, Matt Mullenweg said, &lsquo;I encourage people to start planning.&nbsp;As soon as you feel safe to do so, do so.&rsquo;&nbsp;The proposal to return to in-person WordCamps was announced within a week of that interview.&nbsp;The local team met in August and targeted early February for our event. When the announcement updating the guidelines for in-person WordCamps was posted in September, it gave us a green light to keep moving forward.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>



<p>The updated guidelines for in-person WordCamps require that attendees be fully vaccinated, recently tested negative, or recently recovered in the last three months. Marks said the organizing team has not made a decision about whether to require masks but will be monitoring local health guidelines and communicate any expectations with attendees in January.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>WordCamp Birmingham secured a flexible arrangement with the venue in case they need to cancel. </p>



<p>&ldquo;The contract with Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema gives us the flexibility to cancel without any loss of deposit as long as we give notice more than 7 days before the event,&rdquo; Marks said. &ldquo;This was sufficient for our local organizing team and WordPress Community Support.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Marks reported that the process of getting the WordCamp approved was &ldquo;quite smooth&rdquo; thanks to assistance from their mentor, Kevin Cristiano, who worked with them on budget review.</p>



<p>Although the maximum capacity of the venue is 300, the organizers have capped attendee numbers at 200 as a precaution.</p>



<p><a href="https://birmingham.wordcamp.org/2022/tickets/">Tickets</a> are on sale and the calls for speakers, sponsors, and volunteers is open. Organizers expect that it will sell out quickly since it&rsquo;s the first in-person WordCamp since all the pandemic cancellations. </p>



<p>&ldquo;The best thing about WordPress isn&rsquo;t the software, it&rsquo;s the community,&rdquo; WordCamp Birmingham speaker wrangler Nathan Ingram said. &ldquo;And WordCamps are where the community meets, shares, and learns together. Virtual WordCamps have been necessary, but just aren&rsquo;t the same as being together face to face.</p>



<p>&ldquo;WordCamp Birmingham is the oldest WordCamp in the Southeast &ndash; our first WordCamp was in 2008. I hope that this year&rsquo;s WordCamp Birmingham is a family reunion &ndash; a place where friends and colleagues can gather and enjoy the community that makes WordPress so great.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 04 Nov 2021 04:15:10 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"WPTavern: WordPress Has Never Offered an Ideal Writing Experience";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=125207";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:175:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-has-never-offered-an-ideal-writing-experience?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-has-never-offered-an-ideal-writing-experience";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6757:"<p class="has-drop-cap">It needed to be said. I know some of you loved writing in the classic editor. I know some of you enjoy the current block editor. Some of you may have even been thrilled with the platform&rsquo;s earlier attempt at a distraction-free writing mode.</p>



<p>But, for actual writing, WordPress has always been kind of, <em>sort of</em>, OK &mdash; maybe even <em>good</em> &mdash; but not great.</p>



<p>Coupled with a content-focused theme with great typography and a registered editor stylesheet, both the classic and block editors could be equals. They would offer an interface and experience of editing the content as seen on the front end. However, having the back and front ends meet does not necessarily mean you have an ideal <em>writing</em> experience. It can be a top-tier platform for layout and design. However, for typing words on a screen, there are better tools.</p>



<p>When I talk about writing, I am generally referring to mid or long-form content. If you are penning 200-word posts, dropping in photos, or designing a landing page, WordPress is as good as it comes. For publishing software, it is a powerhouse that few systems can rival.</p>



<p>However, publishing and writing are two different things.</p>



<p>There was a time that I wrote pages upon pages of essays, fiction, and everything else by hand. With a pen and pad, I spent hours drafting papers for my college classes. Even in my final two years, as I took four or five English and journalism courses at a time, I clung to what I knew best. The feel of the pen in my hand was a source of comfort. It glided atop the page in legible-but-imperfect cursive.</p>



<p>It was not until an ethnography class that I had to put down the pen and move on to the technological upgrade of the computer. Don&rsquo;t get me wrong. I was a speedy typist at the time and was well on my way to becoming a WordPress developer. I did not come of age with computers, but I picked up the skills I needed quickly. I was even writing blog posts in the OG classic editor back then.</p>



<p>However, writing was such a personal act for me, and the keyboard and screen felt impersonal. A 30-page ethnographic paper on modern literacy changed my view on the matter.  Since then, I have not looked back.</p>



<p>If you are concerned that I will say that you are stuck in the past, that is not the case. The tools we use can be a great comfort to us. I would not tell a pianist not to compose their next piece on the old church piano they have played since childhood. That may be one source of their inspiration, likewise, for someone&rsquo;s favorite writing software.</p>



<p>What I have learned is to try out new things once in a while. I am very much the type of person who gets stuck using the tools that I am comfortable with, so I remind myself to mix it up from time to time.</p>



<p>The classic WordPress editor and I never clicked. Eventually, I learned to write in Markdown and port those posts to the WordPress editor. Mark Jaquith&rsquo;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/markdown-on-save/">Markdown on Save</a> plugin was a godsend for many years. Eventually, I switched to Jetpack&rsquo;s Markdown module. Today, the block editor converts my preferred writing format to blocks automatically as I paste it in.</p>



<p>As much as I love the block editor, I rarely use it during the drafting process. I am literally writing this post in Atom.</p>



<img />My writing workspace (Atom).



<p>Atom is known more for being a code editor, but its packages come in handy for Markdown enthusiasts. I also like using something with quick folder access for traversing through various ongoing stories and projects. I use a simple &ldquo;bucket&rdquo; system for working, published, and trashed posts to organize everything. Once I finish drafting and running the first edit, I copy and paste the text directly into the WordPress editor. Then, I dive into the final editing rounds. This is where WordPress becomes far more beneficial to my flow. I can make adjustments that I did not see in plainer text format, and dropping in media is simple.</p>



<p>I am sure many people would dislike my choice of writing tools or my workflow. Some people enjoy writing in Microsoft Word &mdash; <em>really, I have heard such people exist.</em> Others publish via email, apps, or other computer programs.</p>



<p>Currently, I am giving Dabble a try during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I wrote via Atom the last time I participated in the writing challenge. However, the tool I enjoy most for writing blog posts offers a sub-par experience for something as complex as a 50,000-word manuscript.</p>



<img />Writing a novel manuscript in Dabble.



<p>Dabble is a platform specifically built for writing books. I wish it was open-source, but it is hard to come by equivalent software without restrictive licensing. Nevertheless, it does its job and sticks in its lane. It also does not hurt that it updates word counts through the NaNoWriMo API.</p>



<p>Thus far, I am loving the Dabble experience. It is also imperative that those who work on the WordPress platform step outside our bubbles and try related software. We should learn and grow from it. Then, bring those experiences back into the WordPress fold.</p>



<p>I cannot imagine writing a novel in WordPress without first creating a plugin that added the extra bits, such as scene and character cards, and cut away almost everything else. The editing canvas might be acceptable with the right style adjustments. <em>Note: if anyone wants to build this, I would be happy to offer direct feedback.</em></p>



<p>WordPress may never be the ideal writing experience for all people. However, it should always offer a pathway toward publishing, regardless of what tools its users prefer.</p>



<p>It should also continue striving to create a more well-rounded writing experience. Besides a few oddities, the block editor seems to be on this path. Every now and again, I write a post in it. It is part of my promise to step outside my comfort zone. Each time, the experience is better. It continues to be in that &ldquo;sort of good&rdquo; zone, and I am OK with that. WordPress is making progress.</p>



<p>Continue the conversation. This post builds on the following articles:</p>



<ul><li>Justin Ferriman &ndash; <a href="https://justinferriman.com/matts-page-builder">Matt&rsquo;s Page Builder</a></li><li>Jose Casabona &ndash; <a href="https://casabona.org/2021/10/wordpress-writing-app/">Should You Really Write in the WordPress Editor?</a></li><li>WP Mainline &ndash; <a href="https://wpmainline.com/2021/10/25/i-hope-this-is-all-worth-it/">I Hope This Is All Worth It</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:"Wed, 03 Nov 2021 22:37:13 +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: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:79:"WPTavern: #9 – Tara King on Encouraging Developers Towards a Gutenberg Future";s:7:"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=125126";s:7:"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:201:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/9-tara-king-on-encouraging-developers-towards-a-gutenberg-future?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=9-tara-king-on-encouraging-developers-towards-a-gutenberg-future";s: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:61675:"<h2 id="about-this-episode">About this episode.</h2>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sparklingrobots/">Tara King</a>.</p>



<p>Tara has recently begun working for Automattic in the developer relations role. Tara will lead a newly formed team who will get out and about; trying to understand the pain points which people are having with the new Block Editor and Full Site Editing. They will then report their findings back to the developer and contributor teams, and hopefully establish a feedback loop to make the editor better.</p>



<p>They are also creating blogs, podcasts, courses and many other types of content to help people get up to speed with the Block Editor.</p>



<p>It&rsquo;s no secret that whilst there are many people who love the Block Editor, there are many who remain unconvinced. Unconvinced might not be a strong enough word, but you get the idea. I wanted to hear about the purpose of this new team and how it&rsquo;s going to be working. Will it have a real impact upon the future of the Block Editor? What will they be offering? How can they be reached? Who is deciding what&rsquo;s included and what&rsquo;s left out? What motivations are behind all these decisions?</p>



<p>We also get into a chat about the fact that WordPress is changing; moving away from a legacy of easy-to-understand PHP code and moving towards a JavaScript and React based future. Is the pain of learning these new skills going to be worth it, and is there going to be any support to help people get there?</p>



<p>It&rsquo;s a wide-ranging discussion at an important moment in WordPress&rsquo; history.</p>



<p>Time will tell if Tara&rsquo;s team can win the hearts and minds of unconvinced developers.</p>



<p>Have a listen to the podcast and leave a comment below.</p>



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



<p>Tara&rsquo;s email address: tara.king [at] automattic [dot] com</p>



<p><a href="https://www.thedigitalnomad.io/job/automattic-developer-relations-wordpress/">Automattic: Developer Relations Job Description</a></p>


Transcript<div><div class="chat-transcript"><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:00:00]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Welcome to the ninth edition of the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley. Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress, the people, events, plugins, themes, blocks, and in this case developers and Gutenberg. Each month we&rsquo;re bringing you someone from that community to discuss a topic of current interest.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>If you liked the podcast, please share it with your friends. You might also like to think about subscribing so that you&rsquo;ll get all of the episodes in your podcast player automatically, and you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player, or by going to WP Tavern dot com forward slash feed forward slash podcast.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>You can also play the podcast episodes on the WP Tavern website if you prefer that. If you have any thoughts about the podcast, perhaps a suggestion of a guest or an interesting subject, then please head over to WP Tavern dot com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox, and use the contact form there. We would certainly welcome your input.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>Okay, so on the podcast today we have Tara King. Tara has recently begun working for Automattic, in developer relations, and it&rsquo;s an important role within the WordPress community. Tara will be leading a newly formed team who will be getting out and about, trying to understand the pain points which people are having with the new block editor and with full site editing. They will then report this back to the developer and contributor teams and hopefully establish a feedback loop to make the editor better. They are also creating blogs, podcasts, courses, and all sorts of other content to help people get up to speed, and perhaps begin using, or better understanding, the block editor.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>It&rsquo;s no secret that whilst there are many people who love the block editor, there are many who remain unconvinced. Unconvinced might not be a strong enough word, but you get the idea.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>I wanted to hear about the purpose of this new team and how it&rsquo;s going to be working. Will it have a real impact upon the future of the block editor? What will they be offering? How can they be reached and who is making the decisions about what&rsquo;s included and what&rsquo;s left out? And what motivations are behind all of these decisions?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>We also get into a chat about the fact that WordPress is changing. It&rsquo;s moving away from a legacy of easy to understand PHP code and moving towards a JavaScript and React based future. Is the pain of learning these new skills going to be worth it? And is there going to be any support to help people get there?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>It&rsquo;s a wide ranging discussion at an important moment in WordPress&rsquo;s history. Time will tell if Tara&rsquo;s team are able to win the hearts and minds of unconvinced developers.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>If any of the points raised in this podcast, resonate with you, be sure to head over and find the post at WP Tavern dot com forward slash podcast, and leave a comment there. And so without further delay, I bring you Tara King.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>I am joined today on the podcast by Tara King. Hello, Tara.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:03:54]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Hello. Thanks for having me.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:03:55]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>You are very welcome. It is an absolute pleasure. We&rsquo;ve spent the last couple of minutes just getting to know one another. We haven&rsquo;t ever spoken before, so this&rsquo;ll be a really interesting chat. We&rsquo;ve got a lot of ground to cover. And first of all, I&rsquo;d like to congratulate you on your brand new, shiny new job over at Automattic. I wonder if you might spend the first couple of minutes telling us what your new job is and what your title is and what you do.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:04:22]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Yeah. So I&rsquo;ll give you the short version first, which is that my job is to lead a team that is basically going out into the community to hear where people are struggling with Gutenberg, struggling with full site editing. Bring that context back into the development teams and the contributor teams that are building the product and then make it better. And in addition to that feedback cycle part of things, we&rsquo;re also creating content, courses, blogs, podcasts, all kinds of things to help people get up to speed with where Gutenberg is right now, where it&rsquo;s going to go next and how to make the leap over from the Classic Editor.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:05:04]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>That&rsquo;s really interesting. I did actually read the job description that was posted on the website. I don&rsquo;t know obviously what the final job description entails, but I was really fascinated to see that it was very much bolted on to the Gutenberg project as opposed to something a bit wider. And that is fascinating. It does feel at this moment in time, we&rsquo;re recording it towards the latter end of 2021. And it does feel at this time that there&rsquo;s quite a lot of, disagreement shall we say about how the WordPress project is being taken forward? And a lot of that disagreement is centering around Gutenberg and it seems that a few new roles, not just your role, but some others have been created particularly to handle the way that the community interact and the way that they feel and the way that they&rsquo;re receiving knowledge about it. Have I got that right? Are Automattic putting jobs out there for people to do exactly that.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:06:06]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Yeah, I think my team especially it came out of the 5.0 retrospective. So when Gutenberg came out and it was pushed out into the community, I think anybody who was around at that time of the WordPress community was aware of the pushback and the unhappiness in the community, around some of the things that happened.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And looking at that, I was not part of the project in a serious way, at that point, I was actually doing support, so I was hearing all of the people who are unhappy tell us how can I change away from Gutenberg? How can I fix this? So that was my role in it at the time was just living through person by person with the impact of it.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>What I&rsquo;ve heard is basically they looked at the 5.0 release and said we need to communicate better, first of all right, but it&rsquo;s not just pushing information out, it&rsquo;s also, we need to listen better. We need to be aware of what people are feeling earlier so that when we&rsquo;re trying to make this work, it&rsquo;s not only perceived as, but I think experienced as a one-way street kind of thing, because I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s ever been the spirit of the WordPress project, and I don&rsquo;t think Gutenberg actually was meant to change that feeling, if that makes sense. But it did so for some people it really did. And so my team especially is really about listening and trying to engage more people, bring more people into the room to be part of those discussions, to be part of those decisions, because I don&rsquo;t think anybody wants Gutenberg to succeed just for Gutenberg&rsquo;s sake.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>I think it&rsquo;s a really good tool. And so we&rsquo;re trying to make sure that everyone can be involved. So that&rsquo;s my team in particular, but I think in general, there is a sense that Gutenberg is still struggling to be understood. It&rsquo;s a really big change for the community on a technical level. And so we just need to be putting more energy and more attention to helping people bridge the gap between where they are now and where they need to be for Gutenberg.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:07:55]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Just dwelling on the team for a moment you may be allowed, you may not be allowed I don&rsquo;t know, to describe how big that team is and what the specifics are about how it&rsquo;s going to be implementing that. I&rsquo;m just wondering if you can give us some insight, because it would be interesting, certainly from my part, it would be interesting to know how many people are on the ground now, doing that kind of work specifically in your team.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:08:16]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Yeah, there are four people aside from myself, so five people in total. We have people doing specific programs. Anne McCarthy has been doing amazing work around the full site editing outreach program. So that&rsquo;s been part of this team before I started, they were doing that work. And then we have other folks doing courses and meet up presentations. Daisy Olson has been doing those also for a while. We have two new teammates, so Birgit from Gutenberg Times, which is a very amazing connection to have, is going to keep doing that. We&rsquo;re basically supporting Birgit to do more and more Gutenberg Times as much as she&rsquo;s willing to do. And then we have Ryan Welcher, a new hire from TenUp, who is helping on the sort of more technical side.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>So we have four people which means each person is responsible for, I think, 10 and a half percent of the internet. So it&rsquo;s quite a big job, I would say.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:09:09]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>That&rsquo;s a fascinating way of actually thinking about it. Forgive me, I&rsquo;m going to quote from the Automattic job description that came to you. This is the thing that you applied for. And again, please forgive me if this has now morphed in some way, but it basically says &ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking for someone to join our Automattic team dedicated to aiding the WordPress open source systems effort, specifically around developer relations. Your focus will be communicating with community developers about WordPress, Gutenberg and the surrounding ecosystem to build a positive and sustainable relationship with WordPress developers and reduce barriers to Gutenberg adoption&rdquo;. And then there&rsquo;s a bullet point list of what the ideal candidate will have, which presumably you met admirably. Congratulations. The thing that jumps out for me, there is the word developer is used multiple times. And is that where your efforts are going to lie? You&rsquo;re reaching out to developers as opposed say to end users or perhaps people that are new in the community who are unfamiliar with how Gutenberg and WordPress works.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:10:10]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Yeah. So we are one month in. So we&rsquo;re still working out the details, but very much focused on developers. I think I&rsquo;ll say for myself, I am actually from the Drupal project, I&rsquo;ve been in WordPress for a long time, but I have a much deeper kind of contributor history in Drupal actually. And in the Drupal project, it&rsquo;s always like developers first. Basically it&rsquo;s not official, but it&rsquo;s very focused on the developer experience and, coming to WordPress, I was always looking around&hellip; who&rsquo;s talking about developers and WordPress, where are they meeting? Where are they talking? So it&rsquo;s a very natural thing to focus on developers for me. But I do think it&rsquo;s a little bit new in the WordPress project. Certainly not developer first. I think the user is still always, maybe even the visitor is always going to be first, but the user of WordPress is always going to be the primary audience. But I think Gutenberg is really a product, a tool for the user, but in order to get it out there, I think developers really need to adopt it. Especially anybody who&rsquo;s extending WordPress. We need them to understand how to make Gutenberg work with that. Because that really does, I am blown away every time I use Gutenberg, and I know that&rsquo;s my job to say that, but it&rsquo;s actually also true. It&rsquo;s part of why I took the job. I think it&rsquo;s such a fantastic tool when you&rsquo;re giving somebody a site and they&rsquo;re going to be managing it. Without any code, they can do really advanced things in terms of layout and display.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>We need all the developers in the community to get on board and make it available via their various extensions. So we really are focused on developers and that goes everywhere from, so there&rsquo;s the theory of care in the WordPress community? I don&rsquo;t know if you&rsquo;re familiar. It&rsquo;s there&rsquo;s the leadership. There&rsquo;s the contributors. There&rsquo;s the extenders. Users and visitors, I&rsquo;m kind of sticking with that model. There&rsquo;s developers all the way down to the user level. People who are not writing a lot of new code necessarily, but maybe a little bit here and there. So we&rsquo;re talking to those folks. We&rsquo;re talking definitely to the extender group. So people who are writing plugins and themes, people who are running hosting companies or agencies, large universities, anybody kind of working with WordPress at a larger scale. And then of course the contributors who are literally developing the project. So it doesn&rsquo;t sound very focused when I say it like that, because that&rsquo;s a lot of people, but it&rsquo;s everybody who&rsquo;s writing code to support WordPress, whether that&rsquo;s for one site or for all of WordPress.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:12:33]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I am really interested by the fact that this role in this team now exists. As far as I&rsquo;m aware it&rsquo;s the first time that your role has existed. That&rsquo;s right, isn&rsquo;t it? You are the first person to.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:12:46]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>That is correct.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:12:47]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Okay. So that speaks to me that the team over at Automattic, as you said, they&rsquo;ve listened and they&rsquo;ve realized that this team needs to exist. WordPress is growing and fortunately Automattic have the capability to put this together. I suppose later on in the podcast, we&rsquo;ll get into the problems that people are experiencing and some of the things that presumably you&rsquo;re going to be addressing, but I am also keen to understand how people will be interacting with you.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>So in the future, how are they going to be getting their concerns in front of you and your team. Is it all about outreach from you or is it doors open, you can email me. How are people going to make contact with you and your team and express what it is that they need to express?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:13:32]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Yeah, that&rsquo;s a great question. Going back to the 10.5% of the internet per person. It&rsquo;s a really hard problem to solve. We can&rsquo;t be everywhere at once. As much as I would like to have someone who&rsquo;s on every WordPress related Stack Overflow or Stack Exchange, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, I could keep going with where we might go to listen to the community.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>We&rsquo;re still working that out in terms of the details. We&rsquo;re in Make Slack all the time, but I know Make Slack isn&rsquo;t always terribly welcoming. It&rsquo;s welcoming, nobody&rsquo;s mean, but it&rsquo;s a bit confusing, I think when you&rsquo;re new to the community or new to that space, there&rsquo;s always meetings happening. I know I personally have had the experience of, I don&rsquo;t know when I&rsquo;m supposed to talk with, if I&rsquo;m interrupting a meeting.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>You know, there are places that we definitely are. I think my email is going to, I assume it&rsquo;ll be in the podcast notes, it&rsquo;s tara dot king at automattic dot com. I am happy to hear from folks. I may regret saying that I don&rsquo;t know how many emails I&rsquo;ll get, but I think for me right now, especially because I am transitioning from having one foot in both Drupal and WordPress into being more WordPress focused, I&rsquo;m really looking to meet people and genuinely hear what folks are struggling with because it&rsquo;s wide. So my mandate is Gutenberg focused, but, that&rsquo;s not the only thing that causes problems. You might be also struggling with some particular part of Core that isn&rsquo;t Gutenberg. Like it&rsquo;s a very tangled knot in terms of when you&rsquo;re having issues with WordPress. So I like to hear about it because maybe right now the radar is focused on Gutenberg, but we&rsquo;re not going to be focused on Gutenberg forever. We can expand out from that narrow focus.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>So long story long, I wish I had a super simple answer other than to email myself personally. We are listening as much as we can or going to events, camps, and meetups and things. We are listening on Twitter. We&rsquo;re listening on Post Status. We are trying to be in all the major places, but feel free to reach out to myself or anyone else on the team that you feel comfortable with.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>There&rsquo;s a lot of people out there for a very small team, but we are trying to listen. One other thing I&rsquo;ll say before I finish on this topic, is there are very specific calls for testing that we&rsquo;re doing. So if you want to be more involved in the full site editing development before it happens, right? So a lot of people have a very reactive approach, which is, it comes out and they&rsquo;re unhappy, but actually there are pathways to be involved sooner. And this was one of the easiest ones. You can go to the Make Slack, there&rsquo;s a channel called F S E dash outreach. And if you join that channel, you will be presented with calls for testing that are, in my opinion, I hope that other people find this to be true as well, fairly clearly outlined. You know, step-by-step how to do the test in question. And then where to give your feedback. This is helping with everything from how a navigation block works from how widgets work. There&rsquo;s been some open-ended ones around what themers, theme builders needs. So that&rsquo;s one way to get a very specific kind of feedback, right? It&rsquo;s not general, but it&rsquo;s very effective to get specific feedback.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:16:29]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I sometimes feel that despite the fact that those channels are publicly available and anybody can hop in, I do sometimes wonder if things like the Make Slack and Github and so on, I do wonder if there&rsquo;s room for improvement there. And I don&rsquo;t mean throw the baby out with the bath water, but they can be quite intimidating. It is difficult to backtrack and figure out where the conversation began that&rsquo;s currently going on. The interface for Slack is excellent if you&rsquo;re a part of a team and your daily grind is to be in a particular Slack channel, and you&rsquo;re constantly checking in and you see where the conversation has flowed from and where the conversation is right now. But I feel it&rsquo;s difficult for people who are just hopping in to make almost any sense of those conversations at all. And so of course, the easy thing to do is to glance in open the door at a tiny bit, stare through the crack and then just run away in fear and continue to feel annoyed.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:17:25]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Yeah, I totally agree. I think, here I am barging in kinda new to the community. It was lots of opinions. I&rsquo;ve been feeling very much like the Make Slack and the Make blogs are more welcoming to people who are contributing because they&rsquo;re in it every day. It&rsquo;s easy for them to understand what&rsquo;s happening. Whereas I don&rsquo;t actually feel like we have a great location for developers at large. We have documentation. We have the Github for Gutenberg, but again, they&rsquo;re very contributor focused. There are people who just need to know how to build a plugin. How to build a block pattern on WordPress in general. And I don&rsquo;t feel like we have a great place for those discussions to happen right now. I don&rsquo;t know what we&rsquo;re going to land on, but that&rsquo;s one thing that this team is working on, trying to figure out what would be the right way to consolidate conversations for that community. Because right now it does feel like if you&rsquo;re a developer who has a WordPress problem, you shout into the void and you hope somebody hears. That might happen on Twitter. It might happen at a WordCamp. There are ways to be heard, but they&rsquo;re hard to find. I think we need much better pathways. To have those conversations.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:18:28]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I am not committing you to any particular platform or any particular piece of software, but it&rsquo;s just, it is nice to hear though, that you have that, on the radar, you&rsquo;re thinking about that because I think that&rsquo;s really important. Many of us are used to different platforms, probably more social in nature that seem to work in inverted commas, better, but that&rsquo;s fascinating, thank you.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>Okay. Let&rsquo;s get stuck into the side of Gutenberg where people are concerned. Feeling disgruntled. Now I do want to definitively spell out at this point that you are not responsible for the way that Gutenburg is right now. I really want to make that very clear. So anybody listening to the podcast, it is not your fault, but people have concerns.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>I think right now we seem to be seeing more concern than ever before. I&rsquo;ve been using WordPress for about, I&rsquo;m going to go for nine years, that feels more or less, right. Prior to that I was using a piece of software, which you just mentioned, Drupal. And I was extremely happy with Drupal. Drupal did everything that I wanted to do. It really was fabulous. In fact, if you could rewind the clock, I was telling my clients that Drupal was probably going to overtake WordPress in its use. How wrong could I have been? But there came a moment in time where that community became something that I no longer was part of. And it was because of the fact that Drupal deals with point releases, so from five to six to seven. There is a real line drawn in the sand. Drupal five doesn&rsquo;t sit well with Drupal six and six doesn&rsquo;t sit well with seven and so on. And I left at the point where there was one of these moments. It was from Drupal seven to Drupal eight, and I couldn&rsquo;t cope with the fact that I was going to have to do an enormous amount of work, just to keep things that had already built, up and running. Now the parallels that are there are fairly major I think, WordPress has done an unbelievably good job of being backwards compatible, but now we have what feels like, I&rsquo;m going to call it a Drupal moment. Where we are at an inflection point, something radical has changed in WordPress, and it really is bifurcating the path. Some users extremely happy, giving it a go, getting involved, loving it, other people, disliking it, not wanting to be a part of it and ultimately, just stopping being part of the community and not using WordPress at all. So I hope my analogy there with Drupal sits and you understand what I&rsquo;m saying?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:20:53]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Yeah, it does. Yep. I was in the community of the Drupal community when that happened as well. It is very interesting. I think for a long time, I&rsquo;ve talked to people in both communities, I&rsquo;ve talked to people using both software. And one of the differences, when people ask what&rsquo;s the difference is that WordPress is backwards compatible and Drupal&rsquo;s not. And the seven to eight was Drupal becoming object oriented, was the main change. And so people were used to writing procedural PHP, and now they had to write object oriented and they weren&rsquo;t used to it. And, not only were they not used to it, it was just unbelievable amount of work to update all of the extensions and make everything work. And then there&rsquo;s no migration path that&rsquo;s very clean between seven to eight in Drupal. Having lived through that, the Drupal project forked at that point, there&rsquo;s now a separate fork of the project called Backdrop. It was a very painful time. It was honestly a very painful time for me personally. I&rsquo;m sure it was painful for other people as well, but it was painful for me because I had gotten into Drupal in Drupal six and I was essentially a solo shop. I was building sites by myself, occasionally getting in a contractor and I could make sites pretty cheaply and pretty easily for lots and lots of people on Drupal. And like you said, loved, I just loved the software. I loved it so much. And the switch to Drupal eight felt very personal, like we don&rsquo;t care about people like you Tara. Obviously, no one&rsquo;s said that to me, but that&rsquo;s what it felt like. It felt like I don&rsquo;t have the resources to make this kind of a change for my clients. And I think ultimately it led me to stop freelancing and start working for agencies because they did have the resources. So it actually did change my career trajectory. So it&rsquo;s very serious for people. These kinds of changes in a software project, it seems kind technical or niche, but it&rsquo;s not, it&rsquo;s people&rsquo;s livelihoods and it&rsquo;s people&rsquo;s entire way of being in the world. Like you&rsquo;re changing how someone is working, you&rsquo;re changing, what kind of work they&rsquo;re able to do.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>So I think it&rsquo;s a really relevant parallel to draw to Gutenberg because I think a lot of people are feeling that same way now, and it&rsquo;s no surprise that they&rsquo;re going to have very strong reactions when their livelihood is threatened. I don&rsquo;t play a single person for having that struggle. The reason I took when I was talking about the job and interviewing and things like that, it definitely feels like we&rsquo;re starting a little bit behind because the community is already upset. It would have been nice if we could&rsquo;ve started before we Gutenberg came out and built those relationships earlier, but hindsight&rsquo;s 2020.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And I thought to myself, there&rsquo;s so many people doing so many cool things with WordPress right now. I think Gutenberg is a really powerful tool. And if we can help people make that bridge. Not have to build the bridge to becoming a Gutenberg developer themselves, but have one provided. If we can help people feel heard and welcomed and important again. Cause I think that&rsquo;s why we come to these communities as we feel that way, we feel like we&rsquo;re important and we have somewhere to matter. So anyway, for me, long story short, it&rsquo;s very emotional and I really want to honor and respect people and meet them where they&rsquo;re at because I&rsquo;ve been there in the Drupal project.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:23:53]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>A couple of quotes. I should say that I reached out to a few of my friends. I am going to name no names. They didn&rsquo;t ask me to not to name names, but I won&rsquo;t. Just a few little things just to give you an indication of where people are at. So this is from somebody who creates WordPress websites for a living. I don&rsquo;t think they would describe themselves as a developer, but they say, &ldquo;Push and you get push back. If Gutenberg had been developed as an add-on plugin, for example, which was optional, where folks could opt in, then it would have become something that they could choose. And that for me is what made WordPress so successful&rdquo;.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>So that was from one person, and then from another person who is involved in themes shall we say, &ldquo;To every new feature or whatnot, which is added to Gutenberg, there&rsquo;s a but to go with it. And those things are never addressed. All in all, that is why I&rsquo;m losing passion for WordPress&rdquo;.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>It&rsquo;s those kinds of feelings I think, I could probably have put in some stronger ones, and certainly there were some ones which were less strong than that, but it gives you an indication. This is really, like I said, bifurcating the community and it really isn&rsquo;t a case of people just tutting a bit and being a little bit annoyed and then just shrugging it off and getting over it. This is genuinely people who&rsquo;ve been doing things for a long time, are dedicated to WordPress, commit to WordPress, use it every day, promote it. And they&rsquo;re thinking of walking away are, like I did with Drupal.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:25:14]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Yeah. Yeah. It&rsquo;s really hard to hear quotes like that, but it&rsquo;s also just so important. Honestly, I find that the WordPress community has been very patient. Gutenberg came out now, I think three years ago. And obviously some people were not patient, some people took off. But I do feel like people have been pretty patient. And whereas in Drupal before Drupal eight even came out, people were like, I made a fork. I&rsquo;m leaving. Here&rsquo;s my talk at DrupalCon about how Drupal&rsquo;s terrible. I really hope, I&rsquo;m not here to try to save people.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>Everybody has to make their own decisions about what software project is the right for them. I think in general, this is about people&rsquo;s passions, whatever that might be, it&rsquo;s not necessarily about WordPress. They want to be able to do what they need to do. I&rsquo;m not trying to save every last person, but I do think it&rsquo;s important to hear when people are having these reactions and to really hear it right, to let it sink in.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>I hope if my team can&rsquo;t counteract some of these feelings about the software being pushed onto people about development, ignoring the feedback that&rsquo;s coming in, I think we will have failed. I am very optimistic at this time, one month in, to say that I think we have some really good people who are really passionate and very deep in the community who know what people need. They&rsquo;re on the other side too, they&rsquo;re also developers. We&rsquo;re not hiring marketing people, no offense to marketing people, but that&rsquo;s not what this team is. We sit inside the product team. We&rsquo;re talking to the developers of the product. We&rsquo;re talking to developers in the community. And like I said, there&rsquo;s four of us, 42% of the web. Can&rsquo;t really hear everyone, but I&rsquo;m hopeful that as we listen. One person who stands up and says, I&rsquo;m losing passion for WordPress because of this, represents a hundred people who didn&rsquo;t or a thousand people who didn&rsquo;t, I don&rsquo;t know what the numbers actually are, but if we can address these people, one-to-one with personal caring, with strong, clear feedback to the product teams that are working on WordPress. I am hopeful that we can make this feel more like a collaboration, more like you&rsquo;re opting in, and it&rsquo;s your choice to use this cool tool instead of, oh, I have to. So that&rsquo;s the goal for the team.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:27:23]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>The two things that keep coming up in the conversations that I have on this side of the fence are that it was pushed into Core without the sort of necessary time for it to be examined and the entire community to have their say on it.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And the other one seems to revolve around the fact that it&rsquo;s now been going on for such a long time, and it feels like almost like a public beta that&rsquo;s been going on for two, nearly three years where we are asked to use a piece of software, which is still very much in development. And so concerns around those. And I&rsquo;m interested, you may know, you may not know what the decision-making processes were in the past for how that happened. You may be able to talk about that again, you may not, but I&rsquo;m wondering if you have any thoughts on whether the decision-making process for how things are going to be implemented, are going to change. Is there going to be more openness about what&rsquo;s coming up? Are we able to communicate directly with the people who are making these changes? I think the feeling is it&rsquo;s top down. That a few people who make very big decisions and they make them, and the rest of us have to go along with that. And I think people would like to understand whether that governance model is up for debate. That&rsquo;s my question really.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:28:37]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s up for debate, to be honest, in terms of the very highest levels of the project. I don&rsquo;t think it is. I think that we have Matt, we have Josepha and they&rsquo;re the leaders. And I think almost every major open source project has one or two people, typically one person in that position.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And I&rsquo;m not in the room for those discussions. I should say there&rsquo;s anything that&rsquo;s it is going to change there. I don&rsquo;t know about it. That said, I think it&rsquo;s very clear to me, I actually have not yet spoken with Matt, but I spoken with Josepha who&rsquo;s in dot org. Like we work together very pretty closely. And I can tell that Joseph is really listening. It&rsquo;s obviously hard for someone who&rsquo;s not seeing her regularly to know that. I fully understand why people think that it&rsquo;s very top-down, but that is part of this team is to go out and to try to listen and to help people understand how their feedback can come in.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>That&rsquo;s why I feel kind terrible that I can&rsquo;t say to you, this is exactly how you can give us your feedback, but that&rsquo;s absolutely the top list of priorities. Hopefully by the end of this year, we can have something clearer. There&rsquo;s the obvious ways of you can go in and contribute. But it&rsquo;s a pretty high barrier to entry.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And I think what most people actually want is just to be able to give a little feedback. They don&rsquo;t want to write new code to fix something, they want to be able to say, oh, this didn&rsquo;t work for me because X, so that&rsquo;s what my team is going to be doing. And maybe it&rsquo;s not fair to call it a beta, I don&rsquo;t think, but it is ongoing development in public because that&rsquo;s the open-source way. But it&rsquo;s very challenging, having come from the Drupal community where people are making these big changes all the time, it feels, yeah, that&rsquo;s what we do. But I know in WordPress that hasn&rsquo;t been the case. What we are trying to do very specifically with my team is, get ahead of the release. So 5.9 is coming out in December. We are working right now on documenting exactly what is and is not going in. Is there any kind of breaking change? Those are pretty rare still, but if there is anything like that, we want to get ahead of that. We want to know, is there education that needs to happen around a certain technology to make this a success.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And we&rsquo;re trying to push that out, to, I think right now we&rsquo;re going to try to push it out to things like large agencies, universities, big groups that can then disseminate it internally just for purposes of scaling. Not because we don&rsquo;t care about individuals, it&rsquo;s just hard to reach them. So we&rsquo;re trying to work that process, get that smoothed out. While that is getting refined, also building ways for individual developers of any kind to opt into that kind of information. So it is very much an experimental piece of software at this point. It&rsquo;s production ready to, it&rsquo;s both. It&rsquo;s very interesting to be in this middle, the middle of it all. And I know it feels like it&rsquo;s been going on for a long time and I know it feels like it&rsquo;s never going to end, but it actually is going to end.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And as somebody whose mandate is to work on it, there&rsquo;s even almost a little bit of not dread, but existential sort of conundrum when Gutenberg ends. What do I do then? So as much as it feels like it&rsquo;s never going to end it. It is, it will be done, it will finish.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:31:46]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Moving the debate ever so slightly, but more or less the same wheelhouse really, there seems to be this under current, and in a sense, it feels a little bit, I&rsquo;m going to say conspiratorial. Seems to be a lot of people who are equating the Gutenberg project with, so the dot org side of things with the dot com side of things, almost as if the people on the dot org side are the Guinea pigs, for want of a better word that, is probably entirely the wrong word, but you get the idea, for the project and that the dot com side obviously has a financial model, which the dot org side doesn&rsquo;t. And I just wondered if you had any thoughts on that, whether those concerns could be assuaged as well, whether there is in fact a problem there or not.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:32:30]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>You know, I don&rsquo;t see. I have only been there a month, I don&rsquo;t have this sort of deep WordPress roots that other folks do. So I&rsquo;m like new, I guess I&rsquo;m an outsider still a little bit. And so I was concerned, I&rsquo;m not going to, when I took the job, I was a little concerned about that because when I&rsquo;m not working, before I worked at Automattic, I was constantly, oh, it&rsquo;s so annoying that there&rsquo;s a dot org and a dot com. It&rsquo;s so confusing. It&rsquo;s so annoying. So coming from the outside of the company and from like a fairly commercial place, honestly, from my interactions with WordPress, I don&rsquo;t see it. I have not met anybody from the dot com side. And I mean that literally like the entire non.org side I&rsquo;ve met one person because she lives in my hometown. We had coffee, that&rsquo;s it? So, no one has told me anything from the dot com side needs to be implemented on our side. If anything, I almost feel like it&rsquo;s inverted, which is that, I would guess if you talk to folks who work on dot com, they are just maybe not just as frustrated, but close to as frustrated as folks outside the company, as they&rsquo;re waiting to ingest information from dot org, I&rsquo;ve heard that from folks like we need training, we need to be able to, to train dot com customers. So there&rsquo;s frustrations there too. So I hear the conspiracy. I see where that comes from and why it exists. My experience has been completely not that way.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:33:51]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Okay. It&rsquo;s definitely something which gets raised from time to time. So I thought it was worth bringing up. But again, the caveats that we mentioned at the top of the podcast, that you&rsquo;ve just begun in your line of work and so.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:34:01]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Exactly, I&rsquo;m very new. And the thing about conspiracy theories is you can&rsquo;t really prove them wrong. Most of the time, they&rsquo;re unable to be proven wrong. So I can&rsquo;t prove it. I just don&rsquo;t see it.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:34:11]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>One of the things that I guess you are going to have repeatedly over the next year or so is the chatter about the move into new technologies in WordPress?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>So React, increased reliance on JavaScript and the move away from PHP. And this also speaks to the debate about people moving away and getting alarmed that their websites that they&rsquo;ve already built and their capability to build things and have a business that&rsquo;s easy for them to manage in the future, is going to be difficult. And I wonder what you thought about those horizons. I wonder if you&rsquo;ve got any words of comfort for people who have those concerns. And a related question, I wondered if there was possible responsibility, that again maybe too strong, a word, but I&rsquo;m going to use it, a responsibility on Automattic to provide guidance, training, materials, whatever would be needed to help people cross that bridge and to ease the burden of learning these new things.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard"><cite class="fn">Tara King</cite> [00:35:15]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Yeah. So I&rsquo;m a PHP developer, I taught myself PHP and I always held JavaScript at arms length, right? It was like, nope, that is too far. I will not do it. When JavaScript started becoming more and more popular, I just was like, nope, I don&rsquo;t have to, I know PHP. So I feel very much the pain of why do I have to learn JavaScript again?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>I think the concerns I&rsquo;m hearing, and again, I said my email, I&rsquo;ll say it again at the end of the podcast, but the concerns I&rsquo;m hearing and the concerns I&rsquo;ve had are, yeah, it&rsquo;s just, I don&rsquo;t want to learn JavaScript because I don&rsquo;t need to, why do I need to? There&rsquo;s a build step, right? There&rsquo;s often a more, a slightly more complicated kind of environment needed to Gutenberg development versus just straight PHP. You just write it, hit save and I&rsquo;ll see if it works. So there&rsquo;s additional complications of writing Gutenberg code. Not every host necessarily well, set up if you wanted to do that remotely or something like that. For some of us, I thought we stopped compiling things. I have to compile things. It feels a little, old. So I hear all of that and I&rsquo;m sure there&rsquo;s other objections people have. The things that I&rsquo;m excited about with it, now that I&rsquo;m having to do more of it, I&rsquo;m realizing JavaScript&rsquo;s not that hard. We&rsquo;re all going to be okay. It&rsquo;s not that hard. And it opens up so much in terms of greater web technologies.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And again, this feels very parallel to Drupal seven, to Drupal eight, which was moving to object oriented programming actually made me a better developer. I was a fine PHP procedural programmer. I was a reasonable developer and then having to learn it, which I know it&rsquo;s frustrating when you have to learn something, but I don&rsquo;t regret having done it. It made it easier actually for me to get into Gutenberg development, it&rsquo;s made my whole development life much easier. I don&rsquo;t think JavaScript is going away on the web in general. I think if anything, it&rsquo;s going to continue to eat the web. As an individual, it&rsquo;s powerful to have that tool in your toolbox as an agency, it&rsquo;s powerful to be able to sell that work. Talk to people, have a more diverse kind of set of skills on the team. I&rsquo;m pro learning in general, right? It&rsquo;s I think something that helps every open source project grow. I think the backwards compatibility with WordPress, I hesitate to say it, but it feels like it&rsquo;s gone a little bit too far. At some point, if you maintain backwards compatibility, the software can&rsquo;t move forward because the old stuff is pulling it back.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>I think it&rsquo;s a wonderful model and Drupal is moving more towards it. It&rsquo;s kind interesting to see the two communities converge there, but this might just be a case where there&rsquo;s going to be a few pain points. Every web developer, no matter what tool they&rsquo;re working with is going to have pain points where they have to learn something new.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>I think it&rsquo;s useful on an individual level. And then in terms of offering support for the transition, that is absolutely something that I think needs to happen. Whether or not it&rsquo;s Auttomatic&rsquo;s responsibility. I think it&rsquo;s best when these things are community-wide efforts. I would love to see WordCamps and meetups offer, people volunteering to run&hellip; hey, this is how I got started. That happened a lot in Drupal. I have a friend who ran a talk about how Pokemon can teach you object oriented programming. Very accessible. And so I think, it&rsquo;s not necessarily Automattic&rsquo;s responsibility, but that said it is something that my team is actively working on right now is what kind of materials are needs to help people get over there. Is it, we need to help people understand how to make, build environment, that dev environment that can do the build steps for React, or is it just general JavaScript knowledge? So we&rsquo;re actually, this week, looking at what options are currently out there. What&rsquo;s up to date. There were, when Gutenberg launched, there were a number of products and educational things that came out from the community that were great, but have not been updated. And people are still being directed to stuff that&rsquo;s two years old, and doesn&rsquo;t help them now? So my team is actively working on this.</p>
