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




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:112:"WPTavern: WordPress Accessibility Day 2023 Announces Diverse Speaker Lineup, Doubles Sponsors from Previous Year";s:7:"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=149315";s:7:"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://wptavern.com/wordpress-accessibility-day-2023-announces-diverse-speaker-lineup-doubles-sponsors-from-previous-year";s: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:6744:"<p><a href="https://2023.wpaccessibility.day/">WP Accessibility Day</a> (WPAD), an independent 24-hour virtual conference, has published its <a href="https://2023.wpaccessibility.day/schedule/">schedule</a> for the upcoming event on September 27, 2023. Co-lead organizer Amber Hinds reports that more than 1,248 people have registered for the event so far with attendees across 30 different countries. Approximately 50% of attendees are from the U.S. </p>



<p>WPAD has attracted an influx of new voices this year. All speakers, excluding sponsored sessions, are first-time speakers at the event.</p>



<p>&#8220;We were nervous initially about speaker applicants, but we actually received a lot more speaker applications than last year and also more applications that were higher quality than in previous years,&#8221; Hinds said. &#8220;It was hard to decide!&#8221;</p>



<p>The keynote address will feature a conversation between Jennison Asuncion, co-founder of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), and Joe Dolson, an accessibility consultant and co-founder of WordPress Accessibility Day. Attendees will learn how to perform usability and accessibility tests on their websites, how to build an accessible WordPress pages and posts using the block editor, simple ways to make email more accessible, how to understand color and contrast requirements in WCAG 2, and more. </p>



<p>Based on the stats for speakers (of people who opted to give the info), WPAD&#8217;s organizers have succeeded at recruiting a diverse lineup for the event:</p>



<ul>
<li>10 countries</li>



<li>67% female, 30% male, 3% Nonbinary</li>



<li>14% LGBTQ</li>



<li>41% non-white identifying</li>



<li>2 first time speakers who have never spoken at any event.</li>



<li>11 of the 27 speakers identify as having a disability. (41%) &#8211; There are speakers who identify as blind/low vision, deaf or hard of hearing, have limited mobility, and learning disabilities.</li>
</ul>



<p>&#8220;These were the hardest decisions we&#8217;ve had to make yet in selecting the WordPress Accessibility Day speakers,&#8221; Speaker Team lead Joe Dolson said. &#8220;There were so many truly excellent ideas proposed. As a result, our speakers include people who work across many different aspects of the web &#8211; inside and outside the WordPress community. I feel like we&#8217;ve ended up with an excellent cross section of topics, so we have something to offer for developers, policy makers, content creators, or community organizers.&#8221;</p>



<p>WPAD <a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-accessibility-day-secures-nonprofit-status-for-annual-event-calls-for-speakers-and-sponsors">secured non-profit status</a> earlier this year through a fiscal sponsorship partnership with <a href="https://knowbility.org/">Knowbility</a>, an Austin-based digital accessibility advocate and services provider. One of the reasons the organizers wanted to manage it independently of the WordPress Foundation was to reserve the option to do things like pay speakers for their time and expertise. Speaker pay is one expenditure for the event, which is supported by corporate and community sponsors.</p>



<p>Hinds said it was easier to attract sponsors this year and that the sponsors team received positive responses fairly quickly. They also added a microsponsorship option earlier this year (previously it was only on the registration form) and were able to recruit more businesses as microsponsors.</p>



<p>The team&#8217;s goal this year was to get enough sponsorships to cover the cost of the event itself, make a donation to Knowbility (part of the event&#8217;s fiscal sponsorship agreement with them), and have enough leftover to cover year-round expenses, such as Google workspace, Buffer, domain registration, and hosting.</p>



<p>Hinds said the organization met its sponsorship goals at most tiers, due to the hard work of the Sponsors team leads Bet Hannon and Joe Hall, along with the generosity of the community in supporting the event.</p>



<p>&#8220;We are thrilled to have doubled the number of sponsors this year over last year,&#8221; Hannon said. &#8220;I think this reflects the increasing awareness about accessibility as an issue to be addressed, as well as the wider WordPress community coming together to sponsor an event providing high quality accessibility education.&#8221;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">New in 2023: WPAD to Broadcast via Zoom</h3>



<p>In addition to a whole new crop of speakers this year, WPAD is offering t-shirts for the first time as a thank you gift to attendees who want to make a donation when they register. </p>



<p>&#8220;We had a lot of people ask us last year how they could get a t-shirt, but they were only available to organizers, speakers, and volunteers,&#8221; Hinds said. &#8220;This year they’re available during registration so anyone can get one.&#8221;</p>



<p>Last year the event was broadcast via an embedded YouTube video on the WPAD website with third-party embeds for chat/Q&amp;A and the live transcript. </p>



<p>&#8220;We got feedback from attendees that this did not work well because they didn’t have control of the layout of the video,&#8221; Hinds said. &#8220;It was particularly limiting for attendees who rely on the sign language interpreters; they needed the interpreter video to be larger. Other people said that they found the interpretation to be distracting or they needed the slides to be bigger so they would be easier to read.&#8221;</p>



<p>The 2023 event will be live streamed using Zoom, which recently introduced a sign language interpretation view that allows hosts to assign interpreters. </p>



<p>&#8220;Attendees can choose to view the sign language interpretation in a separate window,&#8221; Hinds said.  &#8220;With this new feature available, we decided to change to Zoom webinars. We have one long 24-hour webinar that people can jump in and out of as they see fit, and each attendee can set a view for speakers, slides, signers, and captions that works best for them.&#8221;</p>



<p><a href="https://2023.wpaccessibility.day/attendee-registration/">Registration</a> for the event is free and it&#8217;s still open. Attendees have the opportunity to receive virtual swag and win prizes from the sponsors. Organizers have also gotten the conference pre-approved for continuing education credits for the International Association of Accessibility Professionals <a href="https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/s/wascertification">Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS)</a> and <a href="https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/s/certified-professional">Certified Professional in Core Competencies (CPACC)</a> certifications.</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, 22 Sep 2023 03:49:28 +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: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:97:"WPTavern: Community Team Invites Organizers to Apply for Hosting Next Generation WordPress 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:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=149225";s:7:"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:108:"https://wptavern.com/community-team-invites-organizers-to-apply-for-hosting-next-generation-wordpress-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:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3017:"<img width="1600" height="792" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/wordcamp-bengalaru.png" alt="" class="wp-image-149298" />Attendees of NextGen WordCamp Bengaluru &#8211; image credit: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/09/19/from-japan-to-rome-recent-and-upcoming-next-generation-wordpress-events/">WordPress.org</a>



<p>WordPress&#8217; Community team is evolving the WordCamp format to  promote adoption, training, and networking for professionals, leaving the flagship events to focus more on connection and inspiration. This change opens the door for more creative concepts around  the events&#8217; new mission:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p><em>WordPress events spark innovation and adoption by way of accessible training and networking for users, builders, designers, and extenders. We celebrate community by accelerating 21st-century skills, professional opportunities, and partnerships for WordPressers of today and tomorrow.</em></p>
</blockquote>



<p>A group of <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-confirms-8-pilot-events-to-launch-the-next-generation-of-wordcamps-in-2023">eight pilot events were confirmed in June</a>, and two recent &#8220;NextGen&#8221; WordPress events have already happened, including a community-building workshop in Japan, and WordCamp Bengaluru, a one-day event featuring the local culture and a walking tour of the city.</p>



<p>The Community team has compiled a list of more than three dozen <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/08/30/the-nextgen-event-project-your-ideas-your-wordpress-community/">concepts to inspire NextGen event organizers</a>. The list spans a wide range of ideas, such as college campus based groups, sponsor networking days, show and tell night, job fairs, events for agencies, WordPress retreats, and many more. </p>



<p>Anyone who is interested to host one of these new event types is invited to <a href="https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/next-generation-of-wordpress-events">fill out a form</a> that the Community team has created to capture ideas for future events &#8211; either before the end of 2023, or during the first half of 2024. Organizers will be asked to identify a category for their proposed event from among the following:</p>



<ul>
<li>WP expertise level (beginners, intermediate, advanced)</li>



<li>Focused activity (training, recruiting, networking, contributing, conferencing, etc)</li>



<li>Job status (students, fresh graduates, job seekers, freelancers, business owners, etc)</li>



<li>Identity-based (women, castes, BIPOC, Latinx, LGBTQI+, tribes, age, etc)</li>



<li>Content topic focused (designers, block development, SEO, etc)</li>
</ul>



<p>Although the form is presented as a survey, it&#8217;s more of an interest form, which is why it collects the respondent&#8217;s contact information. Respondents who indicate they are willing to have a discussion about their ideas may be contacted by the Community team.</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, 22 Sep 2023 01:26:05 +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: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:117:"Post Status: Plugin Team Sees a Shift Starting • Browser Interoperability Issues • WCUS Q&amp;A • Enterprise WP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=155074";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:57:"https://poststatus.com/plugin-team-sees-a-shift-starting/";s: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:15207:"<h2 class="wp-block-heading alignfull" id="h-this-week-at-wordpress-org-september-18-2023">This Week at WordPress.org (September 18, 2023)</h2>


<div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f50c.png" alt="🔌" class="wp-smiley" /> Plugin Check plugin is now available🛜 Browser Compatibility Issues<img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/2753.png" alt="❓" class="wp-smiley" />#WCUS Q&amp;A Continued<img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" /> Enterprise Clients and the Business of WordPress </p></div>


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


<div class="gb-container gb-container-5e804289">

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news"><a href="https://wordpress.org/news">News</a></h2>

</div>


<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/09/episode-62-enterprise-clients-and-the-business-of-wordpress/">WP Briefing: Episode 62: Enterprise Clients and the Business of WordPress</a></li>
</ul>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-community-summit-notes"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit">Community Summit Notes</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/09/21/community-summit-discussion-notes-creating-wordpress-curriculum-and-educational-experiences/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Creating WordPress Curriculum and Educational Experiences</a></strong></li>
</ul>



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



<div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-2 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WordPress 6.4</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/07/18/wordpress-6-4-whats-on-your-wishlist/">WordPress 6.4: What’s on your wishlist?</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/06/05/wordpress-6-4-development-cycle/">WordPress 6.4 Development Cycle</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/14/hallway-hangout-whats-new-for-developers-in-wordpress-6-4/">Hallway Hangout: What’s new for developers in WordPress 6.4</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>



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



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



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/plugin-check/">Plugin Check</a></blockquote>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-5 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community">Community</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/09/20/attention-wordpress-women-in-india-and-your-event-organizers-this-important-workshop-this-weekend-is-for-you/">Attention WordPress women in India and those who support you: This important workshop this weekend is for you!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/09/19/from-japan-to-rome-recent-and-upcoming-next-generation-wordpress-events/">From Japan to Rome: Recent and Upcoming Next Generation WordPress Events</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/09/19/contributor-working-group-mentorship-chat-agenda-september-21st-0700-utc-apac-emea-and-1600-utc-amer/">Contributor Working Group: Mentorship Chat Agenda | September 21st 07:00 UTC (APAC/EMEA) and 16:00 UTC (AMER)</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/20/seeking-proposals-for-interop-2024/">Seeking proposals for Interop 2024</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/19/analyzing-the-core-web-vitals-performance-impact-of-wordpress-6-3-in-the-field/">Analyzing the Core Web Vitals performance impact of WordPress 6.3 in the field</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-developer-blog"><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/">Developer Blog</a></h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/09/understanding-block-attributes/">Understanding block attributes</a></li>



<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/09/whats-new-for-developers-september-2023/">What’s new for developers? (September 2023)</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meetings">Meetings</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/20/default-theme-chat-agenda-september-20th-2023/">Default Theme Chat Agenda: September 20th, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/20/dev-chat-agenda-september-13-2023-2/">Dev Chat agenda, September 20, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/19/performance-chat-summary-19-september-2023/">Performance Chat Summary: 19 September 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design">Design</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2023/09/11/design-share-aug-28-sep8/">Design Share: Aug 28-Sep8</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs">Docs</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2023/09/18/agenda-for-docs-team-biweekly-meeting-september-19-2023/">Agenda for Docs Team Biweekly Meeting (September 19, 2023)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2023/09/06/summary-of-docs-team-biweekly-meeting-september-05-2023/">Summary of Docs Team Biweekly Meeting (September 05, 2023)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/18/documentation-team-update-september-18-2023/">Documentation Team Update – September 18, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta">Meta</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2023/09/21/meeting-recap-for-september-20-2023/">Meeting Recap for September 20, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-openverse"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse">Openverse</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/09/18/last-week-openverse-2023-09-11-2023-09-18/">A week in Openverse: 2023-09-11 – 2023-09-18</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/19/performance-chat-agenda-19-september-2023/">Performance Chat Agenda: 19 September 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/five-for-the-future/issues/230">Core Performance Team badge missing from org pages</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2023/09/19/update-turning-the-tide/">Update: Turning the Tide</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2023/08/21/xpost-wordpresscs-3-0-0-is-now-available/">WordPressCS 3.0.0 is now available</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/18/plugin-review-team-18-september-2023/">Plugin Review Team: 18 September 2023</a></li>
</ul>
</div>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2023/09/20/previewing-patterns-during-translation/">Previewing patterns during translation</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2023/09/20/agenda-weekly-polyglots-chat-september-20-2023-0700-utc/">Agenda: Weekly Polyglots Chat- September 20, 2023 (07:00 UTC)</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2023/09/15/wordcamp-us-2023-qa/">WordCamp US 2023 Q&amp;A</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-support"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support">Support</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/09/agenda-for-september-21st-support-meeting-2/">Agenda for September 21st Support Meeting</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/sustainability">Sustainability</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/sustainability/2023/09/20/sustainability-chat-agenda-september-22-2023/">Sustainability Chat Agenda, September 22, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/sustainability/2023/09/15/call-for-wordpress-sustainability-team-representatives/">Call for WordPress Sustainability Team Representatives</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/09/18/fse-program-testing-call-26-final-touches/">FSE Program Testing Call #26: Final touches</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/18/test-team-update-18-september-2023/">Test Team Update: 18 September 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-theme"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/theme">Theme</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/09/15/theme-handbook-overhaul-phase-3-publishing-content/">Theme Handbook Overhaul: Phase 3 (Publishing Content)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/19/themes-team-update-september-19-2023/">Themes team update September 19, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/13/themes-team-update-september-13-2023/">Themes team update September 13, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/09/21/proposal-updating-the-contributor-ladder-to-a-five-path-model/">Proposal: Updating the Contributor Ladder to a five-path model</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/09/19/training-team-meeting-recap-12th-september-2023/">Training Team Meeting Recap – 12th September 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tutorials"><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorials">Tutorials</a></h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/using-block-patterns/">Using Block Patterns</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-online-workshops">Online Workshops</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=gpl-in-the-wordpress-training-teams-vetting-processes">GPL in the WordPress Training Team’s Vetting Processes</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-wptv">WPTV</h2>



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



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-related-news">Related News:</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://blog.jquery.com/2023/08/28/jquery-3-7-1-released-reliable-table-row-dimensions/">jQuery 3.7.1 Released: Reliable Table Row Dimensions</a></li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/main/doc/changelogs/CHANGELOG_V20.md#20.6.1">Node v20.6.1released</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.php.net/archive/2023.php#2023-09-14-1">PHP 8.3.0 RC 2 available for testing</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.php.net/archive/2023.php#2023-08-31-2">PHP 8.2.10 Released!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.php.net/archive/2023.php#2023-08-31-3">PHP 8.1.23 Released!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/releases/tag/v6.8.1">PHPMailer 6.8.1</a></li>



<li><a href="https://dev.mysql.com/doc/relnotes/mysql/8.0/en/news-8-0-35.html">Changes in MySQL 8.0.35 (Not yet released, General Availability)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://262.ecma-international.org/">TC39</a></li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/composer/composer/releases">Composer </a><a href="https://github.com/composer/composer/releases/tag/2.6.3">2.6.3</a></li>
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<p class="has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background">Thanks for reading our WP dot .org roundup! Each week we are highlighting the news and discussions coming from the good folks making WordPress possible. If you or your company create products or services that use WordPress, you need to be engaged with them and their work. Be sure to share this resource with your product and project managers. <br /><br /><strong>Are you interested in giving back and contributing your time and skills to WordPress.org?</strong>   <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/contributing-to-wordpress/">Start Here ›</a><br /><br /><strong>Get our weekly WordPress community news digest</strong> — Post Status&#8217; <a href="https://poststatus.com/news/week-in-review/">Week in Review</a> — covering the WP/Woo news plus significant writing and podcasts. It&#8217;s also available in <a href="https://poststatus.com/newsletter">our newsletter</a>.  </p>



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



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



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 21 Sep 2023 18:30:34 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Courtney Robertson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:80:"Do The Woo Community: Woo Agency Growth and Enterprise with Josh and Zach Webber";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76568";s:7:"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:79:"https://dothewoo.io/woo-agency-growth-and-enterprise-with-josh-and-zach-webber/";s: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:440:"<p>Zach and Josh from Big Red Jelly share insights on agency growth and enterprise as a WooCommerce and WordPress digital agency.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/woo-agency-growth-and-enterprise-with-josh-and-zach-webber/">Woo Agency Growth and Enterprise with Josh and Zach Webber</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 21 Sep 2023 13:00:03 +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:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:93:"WPTavern: WordPress.com Plugin Pages Add Download Link for Using Plugins on Self-Hosted Sites";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=149118";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:104:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-plugin-pages-add-download-link-for-using-plugins-on-self-hosted-sites";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4552:"<p>WordPress.com plugin pages have been updated to include a download link for WordPress.org  plugins listed in the .com directory. These are the listings that are scraped from WordPress.org. The plugins are available for free on WordPress.org for self-hosted sites but can only be used on WordPress.com with a paid subscription.</p>



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



<img width="1792" height="1244" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screen-Shot-2023-09-20-at-2.41.03-PM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-149200" />Logged out view of WordPress.com plugin pages



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



<p>The text in the sidebar includes a link to an article explaining the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. It appears on both the logged-out and logged-in views:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>This plugin is available for download to be used on your <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.com/go/website-building/wordpress-com-vs-wordpress-org/" target="_blank">WordPress self-hosted</a> installation.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Themes hosted on WordPress.com have a similar notice with a link to download the theme and use it on a self-hosted site.</p>



<p>This change comes as the result of developers <a href="https://wptavern.com/developers-raise-concerns-about-wordpress-com-plugin-listings-outranking-wordpress-org-on-google">raising concerns</a> about WordPress.com plugin listings outranking WordPress.org on Google Search in some instances. During that discussion, many developers were surprised to learn that their plugins created for WordPress.org were also listed on WordPress.com as only available with a paid subscription. Patchstack responded by <a href="https://wptavern.com/developers-claim-damaged-trust-following-public-confrontations-with-wordpress-leadership">updating its readme file</a> to ensure that WordPress.com users and visitors are made aware that the plugin is available for free in the official WordPress plugin repository. This response may not be necessary now, unless developers want to include a direct link to their plugins.</p>



<p>In a <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1695076392811079">discussion on Post Status Slack</a>, some plugin developers said they would prefer a link to the actual plugin page where they can see and participate in reviews. The omission of a link back to WordPress.org may be intentional, as it would take users off of the .com site, which does not facilitate customers upgrading to paid plans in order to use plugins.</p>



<p>Some developers had also asked Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg to noindex those pages, but he said that WordPress.com users should also be able to search Google for the listings.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I think it should show up for .com users who are Googling, and Google appears smart enough prioritize correctly. That’s a SEO benefit, and not at the expense of any plugin authors.</p>&mdash; Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1704028824500146324?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 19, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Some developers have asked to know what percentage of their active installs come from WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org, or other hosting platforms. Mullenweg said there are currently no reports for this but that the data could be interesting. </p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">There are no reports currently for plugin installs by web host. I could see that being interesting, though, especially with how some hosts bundle.</p>&mdash; Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1703878877263917316?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 18, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>&#8220;If people are providing more distribution to unaltered plugins, I think that&#8217;s great,&#8221; Mullenweg said during the discussion last week. &#8220;Happy for all our plugins to be duplicated and distributed by every host and site on the planet.&#8221;</p>



<p>When asked if WordPress.org could extract the data for known plugin distributors, like WordPress.com, Mullenweg <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1704109689922027565">said</a>, &#8220;.com or any other host could share plugin info if it’s allowed by their privacy policy. Also it’s fairly trivial to get plugin info from crawling sites.&#8221;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 20 Sep 2023 20:27:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:91:"WPTavern: #91 – Vagelis Papaioannou on How to Learn to Use WordPress and Help With 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:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=148915";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:105:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/91-vagelis-papaioannou-on-how-to-learn-to-use-wordpress-and-help-with-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:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:49609:"Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast. From WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p>Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, how to learn to use WordPress and help with events.</p>



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



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



<p>So on the podcast today, we have a Vagelis Papaioannou. Vagelis is a software engineer from Greece. His journey with coding began during his elementary school years. In an experimental coding class. This sparked a lifelong passion within him.</p>



<p>His love for WordPress dates back to the early versions. For the last eight to nine years, he has actively participated in the Greek WordPress community, engaging in various roles, such as organizing WordCamps and meetups. Vagelis also contributes to multiple teams, cherishing the small contributions that allow everyone to make a difference. He also serves as the project translation lead for the Greek language.</p>



<p>Vagelis, although a self-confessed introvert, shares his initial struggles with being a part of the community and attending local meetups. He encourages people to step outside their comfort zones, and attend events like WordCamps and meetups, where they&#8217;re likely to discover a welcoming and friendly atmosphere. Vagelis recounts his own experience of attending such events, initially feeling scared, but eventually having an enjoyable time, making many lasting friendships along the way.</p>



<p>He talks about how local meetups are more casual gatherings than WordCamps. People come together to talk about WordPress, learn, and spend time with like-minded individuals. From meetups by the sea to forest walks, these events offer opportunities for both education and social engagement.</p>



<p>On the subject of WordCamps, Vagelis unravels the magic behind these larger multi-day events, with presentations and a contributor day. He emphasizes that contribution to the community doesn&#8217;t necessarily require coding skills, and encourages more people to get involved. WordCamps are not only platforms for learning and exchanging ideas, but they also provide a space for attendees to have fun, network, and explore all manner of other opportunities.</p>



<p>We talk about the importance of the code of conduct at WordCamps. This code ensures that participants know that they&#8217;re going to have a safe and inclusive experience. With attendees joining from all corners of the globe, these events attract a diverse range of individuals who are passionate about the software and the community.</p>



<p>We then talk about the effort required to organize these events. Vagelis explains why he&#8217;s willing to dedicate his time and energy to be a part of such complex projects. He talks about the benefits participants gain from taking an active role, whether as an organizer, speaker or volunteer.</p>



<p>As Vagelis shares his personal experiences in organizing and participating in events like WordCamp, Athens, he strongly advocates for more community involvement, and highlights the need for new organizers to get involved, to allow the community to meet up once again.</p>



<p>We then get into a discussion of other ways that you can be involved. This time in the Learn project, which is making freely available materials so that people can learn about WordPress at a time that suits them. Vagelis talks about what the Learn team does, and how you can join them. He discusses how the team works using GitHub for collaboration and accommodating individuals with various skills and abilities.</p>



<p>From the educational content available on the learn.wordpress.org website., To the valuable connections made through hallway chats, Vagelis emphasizes the power and importance of the WordPress community.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re a seasoned WordPress enthusiast, or just starting your journey in contributions, this episode is for you.</p>



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



<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Vagelis Papaioannou.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Vagelis Papaioannou. Hello Vagelis!</p>



<p>[00:05:27] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> Hello Nathan. Hello.</p>



<p>[00:05:28] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Very nice to have you on the podcast today. Just to give you a little bit of orientation, right at the outset we&#8217;re going to be talking about WordPress events. We might well dip our toes into WordCamp Europe. We might talk about local meetups and WordCamps in general. And then we might also pivot to talk about something which Vagelis is interested in, the training team.</p>



<p>But before that, just to paint a picture of who you are and what your experience is with WordPress. I wonder Vagelis if you wouldn&#8217;t mind just giving us your bio. You can start as early as you like. Anything you want to say about you and WordPress.</p>



<p>[00:06:04] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> Yeah of course. My name is Vagelis, I&#8217;m from Greece. I was raised and born in Athens and I live in Thessaloniki for the last 21 years. I&#8217;m a software engineer and my journey with coding started at elementary school where we had this experimental class of coding and I got really into it. And then that just made my passion.</p>



<p>So regarding WordPress, I&#8217;ve been using WordPress since the version one point something, I can&#8217;t really remember. I was using b2 and then I jumped over to WordPress. The last eight, nine years I&#8217;ve been part of the Greek community of WordPress. I&#8217;m trying to go to build as much as possible I can.</p>



<p>And I&#8217;m a WordCamp organiser. I&#8217;m a meetup organiser. I do contribute across multiple teams like training, testing or photos and all that small bits that everyone can do. I&#8217;m also the P.T. for the Greek language translation. Yeah that&#8217;s pretty much it I guess.</p>



<p>[00:07:14] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah that&#8217;s a lot. That really is a lot. It&#8217;s an absolute pleasure to have you on. We didn&#8217;t discuss this in our pre recording chat, but I&#8217;m just wondering if you could paint the picture for us of what the state of the WordPress community in Greece is like. Just judging by my accent you can probably tell that I&#8217;m from the UK, and we might have a very different complexion here.</p>



<p>We&#8217;ve obviously just this year had a huge WordPress event in Greece. WordCamp Europe was held in Athens earlier this year. If I&#8217;m looking at it from the outside I get the impression that the Greek community is thriving because they put on events like WordCamp Europe, but I don&#8217;t know if that&#8217;s the case.</p>



<p>How is it being a Greek WordPress user? Are there plenty of events? Is the community thriving or is it in a different state?</p>



<p>[00:07:59] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> Well the community is pretty big. We have a huge Facebook group with almost 20,000 people. We do two major events, two WordCamps, one in Athens and one in Thessaloniki. Sadly COVID 19 hit us really hard, so we had to stop for a while. We also stopped the meetups but we&#8217;re getting back to it. We&#8217;ve done like 10, 11 meetups the last year in Thessaloniki, and I know there are plans to do more meetups in other areas of Greece.</p>



<p>We also in planning of a special WordCamp. We try to figure out where to do that and how to plan it so we can apply for it on WordCamp Central. And yeah we have a lot of users, lots of people trying to translate, we have a lot of coders.</p>



<p>We also have a lot of people actually working in key companies regarding to WordPress, like Automattic and stuff like that. So yeah, we&#8217;re doing good I guess. But because I&#8217;m that kind of person, I know we could do better in some fields, but that&#8217;s a whole different story.</p>



<p>[00:09:10] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah I guess there&#8217;s always room for improvement. I can completely sympathise though with the whole COVID thing. I think it&#8217;s fair to say that it put the brakes on in the UK and I don&#8217;t think the community has quite got back to where it was. Things are beginning again. There are various different WordCamps and meetups and things like that which are coming back from being online.</p>



<p>Broadly speaking I think a lot of them carried on in an online way, but I&#8217;m not sure that the interest was maintained. And so a lot of them are now coming back and hoping to be in the real world once more. But the flagship event, one of the bigger events that we had in the UK was WordCamp London and, as yet, it has not re emerged. So fingers crossed.</p>



<p>[00:09:52] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> Yeah. I&#8217;ve been on the last WordCamp London and I had a blast. It was a great event. We had great fun and I really hope that it&#8217;s coming back.</p>



<p>[00:10:01] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah fingers crossed for that as well. We&#8217;re going to talk a little bit about local meetups and what have you, and WordCamp Europe in particular. Let&#8217;s begin there. Let&#8217;s begin with WordCamp Europe and paint a picture.</p>



<p>Prior to that though I wouldn&#8217;t mind having a conversation around the fact that it&#8217;s very obvious to somebody like you and somebody like me, who probably obsess more than is healthy for us about WordPress, but we know that there&#8217;s a community. We&#8217;re well aware that these events take place. There was a time though when I was a user of WordPress, I was using nothing else, it was probably about two years into my journey with WordPress that I actually noticed that there was a community at all.</p>



<p>Prior to that I was simply going to the .org websites, downloading the software, using that software, and then you know rinse and repeat, building websites and so on. And then I can&#8217;t remember where, it was possibly on social media or something, I remember seeing a picture. The collection of people with WordPress T-shirts on standing in a hallway or something. And I was thinking well that&#8217;s curious, what are they doing?</p>



<p>And then obviously as time went on, it occurred to me oh there are these events. So given that the listenership to this podcast could be anybody, do you want to just talk a little bit about what WordPress events are? What they endeavor to do? How they are organised? Whether that be big events, little events, meetups and so on.</p>



<p>[00:11:21] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> Definitely. Well first of all I need to reassure everyone that&#8217;s listening to this that I&#8217;m an introvert. So it wasn&#8217;t easy for me to be a part of a community, any community. Or just go in a random place in a local meetup, open the door and just stay there with a bunch of random folks.</p>



<p>So if you feel like that, just come to any event even if it&#8217;s a WordCamp, a meetup, gathering, whatever. Just come, say hi and we&#8217;re all really welcoming and friendly. And you&#8217;re going to find someone who can really make you feel comfortable.</p>



<p>I was aware of the community for a long time before I even managed to go on a local meetup here in Thessaloniki. And I remember me being there, just sitting on a chair, and I didn&#8217;t feel like talking to anyone. I was kind of scared. Scared grown up man, just in a strange place with other folks talking about software, which I love.</p>



<p>So the next time was better and I actually had fun. I made a few contacts which I can now call friends. And that&#8217;s pretty much what a local meetup is. It&#8217;s just a gathering. We just get a soda, we talk about WordPress. We may have a presentation, we may have snacks. It&#8217;s a cool two hours spending with friends around WordPress. That&#8217;s pretty much it.</p>



<p>I remember our last meetup, it was a month ago and we did it on Thessaloniki seaside. So we had like this beautiful sea view and we were just 20 people talking about random stuff. And then the idea struck, and someone said, shall we do another one? But like in Naousa, which is a different place, a different town. There&#8217;s a forest there. We can walk through the forest and go eat and do some stuff. And we agreed to do that. So that&#8217;s our next meetup. It&#8217;s on September the 2nd. So it&#8217;s pretty informal.</p>



<p>And the same goes for WorldCamps, but WorldCamp is a bigger event. It&#8217;s usually like a couple of days event. There&#8217;s the presentation day and then there&#8217;s a contributor day where we gather and contribute.</p>



<p>Just a side note, you don&#8217;t have to code to be a contributor. You can contribute in so many ways and we do need more contributors to help in so many teams.</p>



<p>So yeah WordCamps, like I said, WordCamps are informal. You can come to learn something but if you feel that you can&#8217;t learn anything you can just come and have fun with us. Have a nice lunch, meet new people, exchange ideas. And maybe at the end of the day you learn something new. I don&#8217;t want to digress so that&#8217;s pretty much it.</p>



<p>[00:14:11] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> No I think that&#8217;s great. That was a really nice summary. And I think a really important point that you made there, especially for people who&#8217;ve never been to these events before, is the no code piece. That is to say, you really genuinely don&#8217;t need to know a line of code, you don&#8217;t need to know any of that whatsoever to enjoy the event.</p>



<p>Because usually, especially at the larger events, there&#8217;s a whole broad range of things that are being presented, workshops that are being given. Yeah, some of it will be about the code but a lot of it will be about other aspects of life on the internet. So it may be SEO, or marketing, or design, or something like that. So there&#8217;s definitely something for everybody.</p>



<p>And also, I&#8217;ll throw into the mix, the somewhat undermentioned but very important hallway track. And this is simply when you&#8217;re not at a presentation. This is just hanging out, being in the corridor, chatting to people. And my understanding from chatting to people over the years is that quite a lot of serendipitous things happen during those hallway chats. You know friendships are created, businesses are formed, partnerships are made during those kinds of hallway random meetups. And it&#8217;s those things in particular are really nice.</p>



<p>[00:15:24] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> And you also get the vibe of the market. So if you&#8217;re into that market, you get the vibe of where are we heading to? And that&#8217;s a good thing to always stay up to date.</p>



<p>[00:15:36] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think also it might be worth mentioning that there is an enforced code of conduct. So there really are kind of rules and guidelines around what is acceptable. So if you have any fears or worries around that, what your participation would look like? How you would feel? How comfortable you would be or what have you, there are definite guidelines to make sure that your experience is as friendly as possible. Let&#8217;s put it that way.</p>



<p>So WordCamps are the big ones. Then we&#8217;ve got these more ad hoc local meetups where really you&#8217;re probably just capturing people from the local area. Maybe a few miles around, as opposed to people getting on aeroplanes. They typically happen more like once a month or something like that.</p>



<p>Why have you been so keen to contribute to these things though? Because my understanding is, especially an event like WordCamp Europe, you only have to attend to realise how breathtakingly large that undertaking is. The enterprise of putting on an event for several thousand people, coming from all over the globe.</p>



<p>The fact that it&#8217;s, the catering is done, the internet is provided, there&#8217;s AV, there&#8217;s translations, there&#8217;s people standing around with the correct T-shirt on, helpfully guiding people all over. What I&#8217;m trying to paint a picture of is just how breathtakingly large these things are, and complex are. So I&#8217;m just wondering, why do you give up your time in this way? What do you gain from it?</p>



<p>[00:16:57] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> It is indeed a massive event especially the Europe, US and Asia. I mean it&#8217;s about giving back I guess, to the community because we all get something out of it. I&#8217;m that kind of person that I believe we should always try to give back, even if we don&#8217;t get enough. We should give more than we get. This is how I work.</p>



<p>However, about WordCamp Europe, yes it was a massive thing. It required so many hours of work. Oh and I forgot to say that most of the times it is fun to get involved in these kind of stuff. And WordCamp Europe was fun for most of the time.</p>



<p>At the end of the day it is a massive event. It&#8217;s our country and we&#8217;re a bunch of people that we had to help to organise a good event, if you know what I mean. It&#8217;s always about giving back. I don&#8217;t have something specific in my mind. I never go out to try to find contacts. I never try to go out and do business or whatever. I just want to give back.</p>



<p>[00:18:01] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Certain sense of pleasure from being there, helping, making sure that it all runs smoothly. I can totally empathise with that.</p>



<p>Okay so again, thinking about the listeners who have never been to such an event as that. I described the kind of things that might be on offer. You talked about the fact that volunteers, community members, helping out at these events are a crucial part of that puzzle.</p>



<p>Are you able to just tell us some of the different roles? Now you might just cherry pick some that you know top of your mind. But just to give a flavor of the kind of things that you could be doing should you dip your toes into the water and offer your time at one of these events. What are the kind of things that you might find yourself involved with?</p>



<p>[00:18:45] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> Well it&#8217;s easy to find something to do on these kinds of events. I mean if you can use Gutenberg you can join the website team. If you can design you can go with the design team. That&#8217;s pretty straightforward.</p>



<p>But if you just want to volunteer and that means that you will be there at the three days of the event, and you will all be spending time for the event while being there. Which is a different thing than being an organiser, because we had to work like months, several months before the event. So if you just want to be a volunteer you can do so many things from registration, or from helping the sponsors, from making sure everything is okay. From sitting on a corner and waiting for someone to ask you something.</p>



<p>There are so many roles, and I believe that volunteers are a huge part of any event, even if it&#8217;s WordCamp Europe or a local WordCamp. Without the volunteers we can do nothing. And also we need to make clear that the organisers are also volunteers. I had a chat with multiple people, and it looks like some folks believe that we&#8217;re getting paid or we get something like a benefit or I don&#8217;t know, whatever. But we don&#8217;t, we&#8217;re just volunteers just like the rest of the volunteers and we are all equal during this event.</p>



<p>[00:20:08] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> As one of the lead organisers, given that you probably have months and months of work involved in it, well probably years is more the correct way of describing it. But given that you&#8217;ve probably got to make trips to the event, now you mentioned that you don&#8217;t get paid, but is there a system whereby, if you&#8217;re at that level and you&#8217;re organising things and you have to, I don&#8217;t know, let&#8217;s say for example you don&#8217;t live in Greece so you needed to make a journey to Athens. Are there any scenarios in which those things are paid for? Or are you always dipping into your own reserves for the WordCamp organising endeavor?</p>



<p>[00:20:42] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> I guess you can just look for a sponsor for a company that would like to sponsor you to do that. But in my case I covered everything. I&#8217;m in Greece, I&#8217;m just 500 kilometers away from Athens, so that wasn&#8217;t a big thing. But for other people coming from other countries, and if you consider that this is during summertime, and summertime in Greece the prices are going high, because of the tourism and all that stuff. They have to book hotels just like did, so it&#8217;s a big expense to be fair. I mean, it&#8217;s a few thousand euros to be able to go to venue visits and then go to the event, and stay for a week.</p>



<p>[00:21:24] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah that&#8217;s interesting. I certainly have met people who have been sponsored to attend these events. Yeah thank you for that.</p>



<p>We should probably also talk about the affordable nature of these events, because typically if you were to go to a three day conference, well in WordCamp&#8217;s case it&#8217;s often two days, and then there&#8217;s something called a contributor day which we&#8217;ll get onto in a minute.</p>



<p>The cost of these tickets is really low. If you were to attend an event of similar size and scope elsewhere, I feel that you might have a very high ticket price. But WordCamps don&#8217;t have this ticket price. Now I understand that some of the money is offset from the sponsors, but typically they&#8217;re very affordable to attend in the region of, I don&#8217;t know 40, 50, 60 euros, something along those lines.</p>



<p>So I just wanted to raise that as a point. You don&#8217;t need to have deep pockets if you want to attend. And if you&#8217;ve got local WordCamps it&#8217;s very likely that the cost will be low as well. In fact, in many cases, I think it would be true to say that the cost of your ticket probably wouldn&#8217;t even cover the food.</p>



<p>[00:22:27] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> You always get your money back. And I mean our local WordCamps cost 25 euros. And you get lunch, you get swag, which swag is really, really important. And when someone goes to WordCamp Europe for the first time and you travel abroad, just bring an extra bag with you. You&#8217;re going to need it. I&#8217;m always bringing an extra bag when I go to WordCamp abroad.</p>



<p>So yeah you always get your money back. You get coffees, you get refreshments, lunch. WordCamp Europe was 50 euros. It&#8217;s really cheap because if you consider other events of that scale, the ticket could be like 600 euros easily. So yeah these are really cheap events.</p>



<p>[00:23:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;ll also point out the fact that there are, there&#8217;s quite a few initiatives. Many of them actually I believe begun by a previous WordCamp Europe over many years. So for example, if you have children that you need to be taking with you, that is also something which at WordCamp Europe at least, I can&#8217;t speak about the other ones, there are facilities provided for that.</p>



<p>And also great lengths have been gone to, to make sure that the events are accessible as possible. So by that I might mean that for example, if you need the use of a wheelchair or something like that, great lengths have gone to to make sure that you can access all of the different parts of the event.</p>



<p>But also that things like live translations are done, and not by an AI robot sitting in the corner but by a bank of real human beings, and all of those things really, they&#8217;re amazing. I&#8217;m quite proud in a sense that the WordPress community sees those things as important enough to spend the money on, to spend the time on, to get right.</p>



<p>[00:24:13] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> Yeah that&#8217;s really great. And this is again done by volunteers, so we should just sit back and realise how much work we need to do in order to get these done. This year in Europe we had childcare and we also had workshops for children, which was really great. Every event should be inclusive, and accessibility should be our first concern.</p>



<p>However this is something that brings a lot of drama into the community for numerous reasons. But yeah we should all help everybody, everyone, every single one to come to WordCamp and have fun.</p>



<p>[00:24:56] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah nice. So I think we&#8217;ve painted a picture there hopefully of an event which is not only affordable, if you can make it there. The cost of the ticket is affordable, but also inclusive. There&#8217;s a whole variety of different things, you don&#8217;t need to be into one particular thing aka code.</p>



<p>If you want to attend, it&#8217;s very likely that you&#8217;ll meet some people, make some friendships. And in my case I think it&#8217;s fair to say that quite a lot of real, proper, genuine friendships have been built up from chatting to people who were stood next to me that I never knew just five minutes before.</p>



<p>So they&#8217;re the big events. Now I can&#8217;t remember whether you mentioned whether you&#8217;re a part of a more local meetup, but I think if we could just get into that quickly.</p>



<p>[00:25:42] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> I&#8217;m organising me and a few friends, I&#8217;m going to call them friends because after all these years I consider them to be my friends. We&#8217;re organising the Thessaloniki meetups, which is a monthly meetup. We try to do presentations. We also have a workshop going on about creating what we called the first community block theme, but we didn&#8217;t do it fast enough. Someone else did that, but that&#8217;s fine. And we also tried to do a few outdoors meetups. The next one is in a month or so in the city near Thessaloniki.</p>



<p>Local meetups are great. We just have a beautiful small place, sponsored by a local business here in Thessaloniki. We gather once a month, we have some snacks, we have some refreshments, we exchange ideas, we have a laugh, we do the presentation and then everyone goes home. And then we just wait for the next one.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s really hard to organise these kind of events. It really needs some time to get them done correctly, and it&#8217;s always done by our personal time, so it&#8217;s not that easy. But it&#8217;s fun, and people really like these kind of events.</p>



<p>Oh, I forgot to mention, these events are free, so anyone can just come and join us. There&#8217;s no ticket or whatever. We do have a sponsor which helps a lot for snacks and refreshments, and we do have another sponsor for the venue, so we&#8217;re pretty much covered and yeah, it&#8217;s fun.</p>



<p>[00:27:22] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah so much more frequent. The cadence is typically I think once a month, something like that. Much more local, so there&#8217;s no accommodation requirements. You just make your way there. Often in the evening when the work day is over. A couple of hours of presentation, like you said a few snacks and that&#8217;s the way it goes.</p>



<p>So a real nice way to keep up to date with your local WordPressers. And I think these things, once they kickstart themselves after the pandemic, I think really just events like that really do underpin the whole community. Without them I don&#8217;t know where we&#8217;d be in all honesty.</p>



<p>[00:27:55] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> It&#8217;s an important part of the community, the meetups, I believe.</p>



<p>[00:27:59] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah I think so too. Let&#8217;s move on. Let&#8217;s pivot because we&#8217;ve got something else to talk about. So this is something called the training team. Obviously it&#8217;s connected with WordPress but I wouldn&#8217;t really say that I know too much about this. During the process of this interview hopefully I will be learning a lot about it as well.</p>



<p>Let&#8217;s just lay the bedrock. What is the training team? What&#8217;s its purpose? How long has it been around? Any place you want to begin there really.</p>



<p>[00:28:23] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> Well the training team is brilliant. There&#8217;s so much content for anyone and everyone in there. And how I met the training team. A year ago I wanted some resources about our local meetup, and I was talking with someone from the marketing team, and they told me just go to the training team and get some content.</p>



<p>What&#8217;s a training team? I&#8217;ve never heard of it. And then I joined the training team and I&#8217;ve seen that there are so much good content in there. There are courses, there are lesson plans, there is so much content for all different levels of WordPress users or developers. For the last year it grew so much.</p>



<p>There are two main things in training team, tutorials and lesson plans. You can follow a tutorial and then something new, or you can get a lesson plan and use it on a local meetup, or on your class and teach the others something new. And in order to do that there are a bunch of volunteers working day and night creating content.</p>



<p>But most importantly keeping the content up to date, because that&#8217;s the most important thing. Whenever a new version of WordPress comes out and there are changes, we have to go back, review the content and do the appropriate edits. And also because we&#8217;re trying to be inclusive, we want to translate that content, and this is where I fit in. I try to translate as much content as possible in Greek. And I also have on the website in order to do some patterns, to do that translation easier for the translators.</p>



<p>And now we&#8217;re in the state where we&#8217;re trying to find more people to contribute in translations because if we manage to translate all that content then there is no excuse for someone to say, I don&#8217;t know how to do that because everything is in there. So you can really learn something new every day from the training team. Which, by the way, can be found, this is confusing, at learn.wordpress.org. So training team is a team, but the website is learn, and this is where you go to learn WordPress. That&#8217;s the idea.</p>



<p>[00:30:41] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you know if there was a reason if you like, why the team was given a lot more focus and attention more recently? What I&#8217;m wondering is, we spoke a little while ago about the effect of things like the pandemic, and effect that that had on the community. I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s coincidental or if it&#8217;s intentional that more effort seems to be being put recently into things like providing training materials.</p>



<p>There seems to be a lot more of that being created, but I see a lot more of it being mentioned in different parts of the WordPress ecosystem. So I didn&#8217;t know if it was an endeavor just to bolster what we&#8217;ve already got, or if it was trying to react to, I don&#8217;t know, community dwindling, something like that.</p>



<p>[00:31:21] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> It&#8217;s probably both. I also think that training team has more resources now. By saying resources I mean more people, and more people join every day, and the more people we get the more content we have. And it looks like it&#8217;s getting a lot of support from the community and also the team leads.</p>



<p>The previous ones,, and the ones we currently have did a really great job. I&#8217;m not going to get into names because I&#8217;m going to forget someone and it&#8217;s not fair. But they&#8217;re all great, and they all did so much about the training team. And I think this is part of the success of the team. It&#8217;s going to get better, I&#8217;m pretty sure about it.</p>



<p>[00:32:02] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah so obviously it&#8217;s putting out content, it&#8217;s keeping that content up to date. WordPress is going through, well certainly in the last several years has gone through some real transformational changes. And it does feel like we&#8217;re with the advent of WordPress 6.2 and 6.3 and probably 6.4, there&#8217;s going to be a lot of changes, made and so communicating those changes is going to be really important.</p>



<p>You mentioned that the team leads have been great. You also mentioned that there seems to be a steady trickle of people heading in your direction, wanting to help out with the team. How does that team organise itself? How do you come to decisions about, okay, we&#8217;ll make this piece of content, but we won&#8217;t make that piece of content just yet? Where do you meet? How often do you meet? What platforms are you using? And so on.</p>



<p>[00:32:47] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> Well there&#8217;s a weekly meeting happening in the Make Slack of the training team. If anyone listening to this and doesn&#8217;t use Slack, just download Slack and join. How do we even call that? It&#8217;s always confusing. Well the Make Slack which is where all the WordPress folks are gathering around, and all the teams and all the info. And you can get really mad really quickly because of the massive amount of the information. But don&#8217;t worry about it just join training team. There&#8217;s a weekly meeting there.</p>



<p>And then we do use GitHub, but don&#8217;t be scared if you hear of GitHub. We don&#8217;t really use it only for coding, we also use it to raise issues. And by raising an issue it can be a lesson plan idea, or a content idea. And this is where all the review is going on, and all of the conversation. And then all of a sudden the content is getting published into the website. It&#8217;s really easy. Everyone can contribute.</p>



<p>I forgot to mention that I&#8217;m dyslexic. So it&#8217;s really hard for me to do many things related to languages and stuff, but I do manage to contribute successfully on those teams without any problem. And whenever I need a hand, a helping hand, there&#8217;s always someone to help you.</p>



<p>You can also facilitate an online meetup in training team. That&#8217;s another great thing training team does. We do online meetups, and you can learn how to code custom Gutenberg block using React or JSX. Or you can just learn how to use a block, like the very first steps and one to do using Gutenberg.</p>



<p>[00:34:29] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah I think it&#8217;s really remarkable the rate at which I&#8217;m seeing content being produced. And also a shame in a sense that it doesn&#8217;t get mentioned quite as much as I wish it did. I have to sometimes go looking for these things or subscribe to an RSS feed. But if everybody in the WordPress community was just familiar with that URL, learn.wordpress.org, I think you&#8217;d be hard pressed to find nothing there which should be of interest to you.</p>



<p>Whether you&#8217;re kind of an expert in building blocks, or whether you just want some primer, some kind of 101 of how to begin using WordPress. It is increasingly an amazing resource. And so bravo for all of the things that are being done there.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m just curious about the kind of jobs that might be needed, because I&#8217;ve seen video content. So obviously at some point somebody needed to sit down with a screen and record that stuff. But presumably there was some kind of script that was created for that. I&#8217;ve seen lots of written tutorials. I&#8217;ve seen things which you could describe as courses, where you know one thing leads onto another thing, there is isolated bits of content. What kind of tasks are in need of being done to keep that initiative going?</p>



<p>[00:35:43] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> That&#8217;s a really hard one. I mean everyone can find something to do. You can do the meeting notes, which I can&#8217;t because I&#8217;m dyslexic, but you can. You can do a translation. You can get a lesson plan and translate it. You can create a lesson plan if you have an expertise, or you can create a tutorial. Or if you can create a video tutorial you can get the video and do the transcript.</p>



<p>You can review the content and test what the lesson plan guides you to do and see if it&#8217;s correct or not. And then provide feedback for the author to correct it, or say, yeah it&#8217;s great just publish it. There&#8217;s so many things from the smallest to the biggest one. And it&#8217;s really easy, even with an hour per week you can really make the difference.</p>



<p>[00:36:33] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I guess the whole imposter syndrome thing may be something that people are concerned about. You know they&#8217;re listening to this and think, do you know what I think I&#8217;ve got something that I want to share, but there&#8217;s probably somebody out there who&#8217;s better at it than me. You know they&#8217;re a better writer or they&#8217;ve got skills for putting videos out there.</p>



<p>I guess we should address that. Are there any barriers to entry here in terms of the quality of what you&#8217;ve got to produce, or the level of expertise? You know if you are going to be writing or producing materials around, let&#8217;s say, something in WordPress Core, you probably do need to have some decent understanding of how that all works so that the content is actually useful.</p>



<p>[00:37:09] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> Yeah definitely. Well if you get into coding, I mean if you do a coding tutorial I guess you should just follow the coding standards and all that stuff. But again, if you do a mistake it&#8217;s not the end of the world. Someone will point you out to the right direction and you&#8217;re going to figure it out.</p>



<p>And as you may already know, and I&#8217;m sure you do, the best way to learn something really deeply is by writing or teaching it. This is the best way if you want to master a craft. If you try to teach it to somewhere else, you get really deep into it. And at the end of the day you will realise your weaknesses and you get better. Or you will realise that you shouldn&#8217;t have that imposter syndrome, which I have really bad.</p>



<p>[00:37:55] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Amazing. You&#8217;ve come on this podcast. Thank you for that. Takes a lot of effort.</p>



<p>[00:37:59] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> I have to say it&#8217;s not an easy thing, but I mean I&#8217;m dyslexic it&#8217;s not something terrible. It&#8217;s just, okay I may read half your email and I may respond to half of it, or I may mess a few characters. But other people may get these as a weakness and step back because they have something like that. We have people in WordPress community that they can&#8217;t even see and they code daily, which is a massive thing.</p>



<p>If you consider that there&#8217;s a person without sight who can create some kind of code which is what they do for a living. Why should I stay back because I have that minor thing? And people shouldn&#8217;t just stay back. Just join the community. If you know one thing to do just say, yeah I&#8217;m good at it, and you&#8217;ll find someone to pair with and create something really good and helpful for others.</p>



<p>[00:38:56] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> What a cheery episode this has been. I really enjoyed this. And we talked about these fabulous events which you can get yourself involved in. Potentially make some real meaningful friendships and learn lots of things. But also pivoted to talk about the learn.wordpress.org, the training team if you like, and all of the free resources that are over there. A sort of sub community, if you like, of people there that you can also make friends with, and become part of the training team setup.</p>



<p>If somebody has been listening to this today and has thought to themselves, do you know what, maybe that&#8217;s for me, I&#8217;m going to give it a go. Whether that&#8217;s organising an event or becoming interested in training and all of that kind of thing. Let&#8217;s tackle the training team bit first. Where would you advise people to go? You mentioned obviously Slack but I wondered if there was somewhere else that you wanted to mention as well.</p>



<p>[00:39:44] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> If you don&#8217;t want to join Slack yet, just go to learn.wordpress.org, and this is the main website. And at the very bottom of your screen you&#8217;ll find the CTA. Have an idea for your content? Let us know. Apply to present a tutorial. Submit the topic idea. Just click any of those buttons. And on top of that there&#8217;s another block which says get involved, learn how to contribute. And you get all the info from there. It&#8217;s really easy. And there&#8217;s nothing scary into the process of being part of the team. There are all really welcoming and we&#8217;re really all good people. Well most of us.</p>



<p>[00:40:24] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah thank you. And then pivot that to events, meetups and WordCamps. Where would you point people if they want to begin that journey?</p>



<p>[00:40:32] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> Well I guess from their local community. Also be aware that you may see that there are a few faces that are again and again on the same event. An example, I&#8217;ve done a presentation at WordCamp Athens 2022. I&#8217;ve done one in 2021 I guess. I can&#8217;t remember. And then I did one in 19.</p>



<p>This is not because I&#8217;m special or something. This is because you didn&#8217;t apply. If you apply. You may get up there. We need help. We need more people. We need more organisers. We need more people to do presentations, more speakers if you want to. Don&#8217;t block yourself, just find your local community, get in touch with them, apply to facilitate an event, apply as a speaker.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s really easy. And even if you don&#8217;t get approved at the first time you apply as a speaker just do it again. Try again. It&#8217;s not the end of the world and it&#8217;s not personal. It&#8217;s probably because that specific event had too many applications, or maybe your presentation was too specific to something.</p>



<p>I mean I&#8217;m a coder but I&#8217;m not going to do a really deep, deep coding presentation because I know most folks are not coming for that on a local WordCamp, and they kind of get bored and we need to sell these tickets. So we had to do some funny presentations coding wise, but not just open your terminal people, type npm install and do that stuff. Yeah you know what I mean?</p>



<p>[00:42:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> If somebody has been listening to this podcast, this is more particular to you, where, if you wish to share that is, where would people be able to contact you? Perhaps you&#8217;ve got a website that you want to mention or a, I don&#8217;t know, a social media handle that you feel is a good way for people to get in touch.</p>



<p>[00:42:25] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> I do have a website which I made at WordCamp Athens some year. I can&#8217;t remember. It was a presentation about headless WordPress, which was really good back then when people started to freak out about Gutenberg. And I don&#8217;t use it at all, so there&#8217;s no content in there, so don&#8217;t use that.</p>



<p>Find me on GitHub. My username is vagelisp. Or on Twitter, and my handle on Twitter, it&#8217;s VagPapDev. Yeah that&#8217;s hard. V A G P A P D E V. That&#8217;s my Twitter handle. You can find me there. And of course on any of the Make Slack channels as Vagelis. And on Greek community Facebook and Slack channels as Vagelis as well.</p>



<p>Some may spot it that my name is spelled wrong and you may seen this with an n, Vangelis. I just don&#8217;t like it with a name. It&#8217;s my name. I&#8217;ll write it however I want.</p>



<p>[00:43:20] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. I do hope that you get some people reaching out. That would be really great. I appreciate it. Thank you so much.</p>



<p>[00:43:27] <strong>Vagelis Papaioannou:</strong> Thanks for having me. It was really fun. And I really hope someone got something out of it, and someone got the boost, they may wanted to join their local community.</p>
</div>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://twitter.com/VagPapDev">Vagelis Papaioannou</a>.</p>



<p>Vagelis is a software engineer from Greece. His journey with coding began during his elementary school years, in an experimental coding class. This sparked a lifelong passion within him. His love for WordPress dates back to the early versions. For the last eight to nine years, he has actively participated in the Greek WordPress community, engaging in various roles such as organising WordCamps and meetups. Vagelis also contributes to multiple teams, cherishing the small contributions that allow everyone to make a difference. He also serves as the Project Translation lead for the Greek language.</p>



<p>Vagelis, although a self confessed introvert, shares his initial struggles with being a part of the community and attending local meetups. He encourages people to step outside their comfort zones and attend events like WordCamps and meetups, where they’re likely to discover a welcoming and friendly atmosphere.</p>



<p>Vagelis recounts his own experience of attending such events, initially feeling scared, but eventually having an enjoyable time, making many lasting friendships along the way. He talks about how local meetups are more casual gatherings than WordCamps. People come together to talk about WordPress, learn, and spend time with like-minded individuals. From meetups by the sea to forest walks, these events offer opportunities for both education and social engagement.</p>



<p>On the subject of WordCamps, Vagelis unravels the magic behind these larger, multi-day events with presentations and a contributor day. He emphasises that contribution to the community doesn&#8217;t necessarily require coding skills, and encourages more people to get involved. WordCamps are not only platforms for learning and exchanging ideas, but they also provide a space for attendees to have fun, network, and explore all manner of other opportunities.</p>



<p>We talk about the importance of the code of conduct at WordCamps. This code ensures that participants know that they are going to have a safe and inclusive experience. With attendees joining from all corners of the globe, these events attract a diverse range of individuals who are passionate about the software and the community.</p>



<p>We then talk about the effort required to organise these events, Vagelis explains why he’s willing to dedicate his time and energy to be part of such complex projects. He talks about the benefits participants gain from taking an active role, whether as organisers, speakers, or volunteer. As Vagelis shares his personal experiences in organising and participating in events like WordCamp Athens, he strongly advocates for more community involvement and highlights the need for new organisers to get involved to allow the community to meet up once again.</p>



<p>We then get into a discussion of other ways that you can be involved, this time in the Learn project, which is making freely available materials so that people can learn about WordPress at a time that suits them.</p>



<p>Vagelis talks about what the Learn team does and how you can join them. He discusses how the team works, using GitHub for collaboration and accommodating individuals with various skills and abilities. From the educational content available on the learn.wordpress.org website, to the valuable connections made through hallway chats, Vagelis emphasises the power and importance of the WordPress community.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re a seasoned WordPress enthusiast or just starting your journey in contributions, this episode is for you.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Useful links.</h2>



<p><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a></p>



<p><a href="https://github.com/vagelisp">Vagelis&#8217; GitHub</a></p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/VagPapDev">Vagelis&#8217; Twitter</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/WordPressGreekCommunity/">Greek Community Facebook Group</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, 20 Sep 2023 14:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:35:"WPTavern: WP Tavern Launches Forums";s:7:"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=148993";s:7:"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:46:"https://wptavern.com/wp-tavern-launches-forums";s: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:2617:"<p>WP Tavern is <a href="https://wptavern.com/forums">launching forums</a> today. If you have ever sat up all night with a feverish infant, searching for answers on a mommy messaging board, hunted down solutions for obscure bugs, or wasted an entire afternoon on a subreddit, then you know that forums are not dead. </p>



<p>Since the early days of BBSes (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system">Wikipedia link</a> for you young whippersnappers), which housed prototypical forums before the advent of the World Wide Web, modern forums have evolved and established themselves as a stalwart, timeless medium for asynchronous communication, fostering communities, and sharing knowledge among individuals with diverse interests and needs.<br /><br />Today we will begin exploring how forums can help expand conversations that originate on the Tavern, especially within the comments of a post. Our new forums are powered by bbPress, which enables readers to create discussions by visiting the comment section of an article and clicking on “Create forum topic from comment” based on comments that you find particularly insightful.</p>



<p>Under the forum called “<a href="https://wptavern.com/forums/forum/discussions">Discussion</a>” you will find topics that have been created based on article comments. This offers readers a way to engage further with comments that spark larger discussions, long after the article has been published and comments have closed. This feature is available alongside traditional bbPress forums where logged-in users can create topics.</p>



<p>If a forum topic already exists for a comment, a link labeled “Continue Discussion in Forum” will appear on that topic, leading to the ongoing forum discussion. This prevents people from creating multiple forum topics from a single comment. These topics will include a link back to the original comment at the top of the thread. It is also still possible to add regular (non-forum) replies to comments as usual.</p>



<p>Readers must be <a href="https://wptavern.com/register">registered and logged in</a> order to post on the forums. At this time, topics and replies will continue to be moderated before they are published. We have tried wild west commenting style in the past and it doesn&#8217;t work well for raising the level of discourse and engagement that we hope to have in our forums. Come <a href="https://wptavern.com/register">join us</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/forums/forum/introductions">introduce yourself</a>, and <a href="https://wptavern.com/forums">start some new topics</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 19 Sep 2023 17:48:22 +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: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:77:"Do The Woo Community: Elevating the Entrepreneurial Spirit with Colin Daniels";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76563";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"https://dothewoo.io/elevating-the-entrepreneurial-spirit-with-colin-daniels/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:433:"<p>Colin, co-founder of FooSales and FooEvents, walks us through the product journey with his WordPress and WooCommerce plugins.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/elevating-the-entrepreneurial-spirit-with-colin-daniels/">Elevating the Entrepreneurial Spirit with Colin Daniels</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 19 Sep 2023 09:48:01 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:94:"WPTavern: Openverse Wins 2023 Open Education Award, Seeks Community Feedback for 2024 Roadmap";s:7:"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=148845";s:7:"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:103:"https://wptavern.com/openverse-wins-2023-open-education-award-seeks-community-feedback-for-2024-roadmap";s: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:3060:"<p>Openverse has landed an <a href="https://awards.oeglobal.org/awards/2023/open-infrastructure/openverse/">Open Education Award for Excellence</a> in the Open Infrastructure category. <a href="https://www.oeglobal.org/">Open Education Global (OEG)</a> is a non-profit organization that supports the use of open education to expand education access and affordability. Its annual awards recognize outstanding contributions to the Open Education community and its network of resources.</p>



<p>Openverse is one of 16 winners selected from more than 170 applicants. The award reviewers suggested Openverse &#8220;should be the primary recommended search for OER development,&#8221; due to its clear licensing and easy, one-click attribution, among other features:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>That easy attribution feature (one-click copy for a full formed Creative Commons attribution) might be reason enough for an award, but the features to filter searches by source collections and other parameters (image orientation, specific license) provides seekers of open content important affordances to find clearly licensed media they can reuse.</p>



<p>Openverse should be the primary recommended search for OER development, as the licensing is explicitly clear, not subject to third party owners writing their own license), being of great value for projects that mix content from multiple sources. </p>
</blockquote>



<p>Openverse has made significant progress since coming under the WordPress project&#8217;s umbrella. In the past year, the team has <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/openverse/issues/394">added usage analytics</a>, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/openverse/issues/415">made major improvements to its user interface</a>, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/openverse/issues/386">moved Openverse out of an iFrame</a>, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/openverse/issues/377">added filtering and blurring of sensitive results</a> (nearing completion), among many other technical improvements. The team is requesting feedback as they begin planning the 2024 roadmap.</p>



<p>&#8220;This project thrives on collaboration, and as we begin plotting our course for 2024, we want to hear from <em>you</em>,&#8221; Automattic-sponsored Openverse data engineer Madison Swain-Bowden said. &#8220;Have an idea that could improve Openverse? Noticed a feature gap we haven’t addressed? Have suggestions to improve existing features? We are eager to hear all about it!&#8221;</p>



<p>Anyone who wants to contribute a proposal regarding Openverse&#8217;s future can publish a comment to the team&#8217;s blog <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/09/15/openverse-2024-planning-we-want-your-ideas/">post requesting feedback</a>. For more information about Openverse&#8217;s current projects and those that are on hold, check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/08/28/openverse-monthly-priorities-meeting-2023-09-06/">notes</a> from the team&#8217;s most recent monthly meeting.</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, 18 Sep 2023 22:00:45 +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: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:78:"WPTavern: New Plugin Adds Citations and Bibliography Block to WordPress Editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=148756";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"https://wptavern.com/new-plugin-adds-citations-and-bibliography-block-to-wordpress-editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2984:"<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/citations/">Citations</a> is a new plugin created by <a href="http://www.wp-munich.com/">WP Munich</a> and the team at <a href="http://www.luehrsen-heinrich.de/">Luehrsen // Heinrich</a>, a German WordPress agency. It makes it easy to create in-text citations and assign them a specific source. Most of the existing plugins that do this are for older versions of WordPress. This one is created specifically for those using the block editor.</p>



<p>Citations introduces a new menu item to the rich text formatting toolbar. Users can highlight the text they want to cite, click &#8216;Cite&#8217; in the toolbar, and then define the source in the pop-up by inputting the source information into the fields provided.</p>



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



<img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/citations-plugin.png" alt="" class="wp-image-148946" />



<p>The Citations plugin includes one Bibliography block, which will be automatically populated with all the sources of the in-text citations added in the content. Citations are linked to the corresponding source inside the Bibliography block. The block can be positioned anywhere in the document, although readers likely expect it at the bottom.</p>



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



<img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/bibliography-block.png" alt="" class="wp-image-148949" />



<p>Users can edit the citations and the sources in the Bibliography block by clicking on them.</p>



<p>What&#8217;s the difference between citations and WordPress&#8217; core Footnotes block?  Although both are used in academic and scholarly writing to provide references and additional information about sources used in a document, there are a few key differences. </p>



<p>Citations credit the original source of the information with all the source details in the bibliography at the end of the document. Footnotes are  more flexible in that they can include additional context or comments at the bottom of the document, to keep the text from becoming too cluttered with explanatory notes. They may also be used to source citations with the author, title, and publication details, but do not always follow the bibliography format.</p>



<p>The Citations plugin also includes a pattern that will insert some Lorem Ipsum paragraphs with citations and a sample bibliography with sources at the bottom. This gives users an idea of how the plugin can be used to structure a document for citing sources, if they are just getting started. Users can search for &#8220;Citations Demo&#8221; in the pattern search bar to find it.</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/citations/">Download the plugin</a> for free from WordPress.org, or give it a <a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/?plugin=citations">test drive using WordPress Playground</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:"Mon, 18 Sep 2023 17:43:08 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:93:"WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 62: Enterprise Clients and the Business of WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"https://wordpress.org/news/?post_type=podcast&p=15971";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/09/episode-62-enterprise-clients-and-the-business-of-wordpress/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16346:"<p>Join WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy as she discusses the role WordPress Enterprise plays along with the WordPress community.</p>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Credits</h2>



<p>Host:&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/">Josepha Haden Chomphosy</a><br />Editor:&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dustinhartzler/">Dustin Hartzler</a><br />Logo:&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/javiarce/">Javier Arce</a><br />Production:&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bjmcsherry/">Brett McSherry</a><br />Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Show Notes</h2>



<ul>
<li>The 2023&nbsp;<a href="https://communitysummit.wordcamp.org/2023/">Community Summit</a>&nbsp;in Washington, DC</li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/enterprise/">WordPress Enterprise</a></li>



<li><a href="https://beta.nasa.gov/">NASA Website (beta)</a></li>



<li><strong>A small list of big things</strong> (SLBT)
<ul>
<li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/07/evolving-the-fse-outreach-program/" target="_blank">Evolving the FSE Outreach Program</a>&nbsp;&#8211; With WordPress 6.3 bringing Phase 2 to completion, it’s time for the FSE Outreach Program to evolve alongside the broader WordPress project and needs.</li>



<li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/08/31/proposal-an-update-to-the-field-guide/" target="_blank">Proposal: An update to the Field Guide</a>&nbsp;&#8211; This proposal is one step, but not necessarily the only step, at improving communication around WordPress releases and making it easier for WordPress updates to instill confidence.</li>



<li>We are still looking to receive more&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/next-generation-of-wordpress-events" target="_blank">ideas on the future of WordPress events</a>&nbsp;&#8211; We have brought this up in the past, but there is still time to submit ideas.</li>



<li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/08/proposal-for-updated-support-guidelines/" target="_blank">Proposal for updated support guidelines</a>&nbsp;&#8211; As these result from work during WordCamp Us 2023, if you are at the venue and wish to discuss something, please feel free to reach out.</li>



<li>&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/05/call-for-testing-performant-translations/" target="_blank">Call for Testing: Performant Translations</a>&nbsp;&#8211; Provide your feedback; if you encounter any issues or have questions about the plugin, please comment or open a new support topic. In addition to that,&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://github.com/swissspidy/performant-translations" target="_blank">contributions can be made on GitHub</a>.</li>



<li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/speaker-workshop-for-indian-women-in-the-wordpress-community-sept-23-24-tickets-633636773647" target="_blank">WordPress Diversity Training</a>&nbsp;&#8211; This is a 2-day workshop for women in India (other countries are welcome to join us, too) who are considering speaking at a WordPress Meetup or WordCamp.</li>



<li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.meetup.com/antelope-valley-wordpress-meetup/events/295817501" target="_blank">Let&#8217;s talk about WordPress</a>! &#8211; The WordPress Community team is looking for some folks to take the lead in hands-on organizing your Meetups</li>



<li><a href="https://wpincludes.me/">WP Includes</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.meetup.com/philadelphia-wordpress-meetup-group/events/296006705">WordPress Insights</a>: WCUS Recap and WCEU Vision with Ruth Kalinka</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Transcript</h2>



<span id="more-15971"></span>



<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Josepha:</strong> 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>(Intro Music)&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:00:29] <strong>Josepha:</strong> In our last episode, we talked about the Community Summit and some trends that I was seeing. I&#8217;ve spent a lot of time since then summarizing the notes from each session, and I was processing notes from the session about aligning WordPress Enterprise and WordPress Community, which is a session that explored the various strengths and weaknesses of WordPress from an enterprise perspective, but especially when it comes to contributing to or communicating about WordPress.</p>



<p>Now, my vantage point on analyses like these is generally pretty different. Since I work mainly in an operations space for the project, I&#8217;m almost always looking at the health and safety of our ecosystem, product excellence, funding, things like that. So, I especially like to attend sessions that are from the vantage point of people who are much closer to the work than I am.</p>



<p>[00:01:15] <strong>Josepha:</strong> When I looked at the brainstormed list of things from the session, my first inclination was to catalog the relationships between what we saw as a positive or a negative and the things that we saw as intrinsic to us versus part of the environment. But the more I look at it, the more I see that there&#8217;s confirmation of what I have always known to be true. That WordPress is a valuable starting point for web-based solutions of all sizes and any purpose. Let&#8217;s take a look at some of the biggest themes that shine through from that session. I was able to distill them down to about nine primary themes, but I especially want to focus on some that come up year after year in talking with our community.</p>



<p>[00:01:57] <strong>Josepha:</strong> The first, of course, is the community and ecosystem. If you&#8217;ve listened to this podcast 62 times, then you&#8217;ve heard me say at least like 60 times that the community is what sets us apart from other open source projects. But, I would encourage you to expand that understanding to include the ecosystem that the community provides.</p>



<p>The community not only helps to plan and create WordPress, our primary software, but it also makes it distributable through the Polyglots team and Accessibility and Docs and Training. It also makes it extendable through plugins and themes and all of the work that goes into reviewing plugins and themes and the support that&#8217;s provided to people who come to the WordPress.org site, trying to figure out how to make this thing work for them.</p>



<p>And we also, this community, make it knowable, not only through the community part with our event series but also in marketing and the videos that we provide on WordPress TV and all of the training and learning cohorts that we provide on learn.WordPress.org, all of those teams make WordPress learnable and knowable and easy to use and usable to more people and available across the world, regardless of whether you speak English or not. And so yeah, the community and the ecosystem are some of the things that makes WordPress valuable for enterprise, but also WordPress valuable in general.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:03:24] <strong>Josepha:</strong> The second is the software&#8217;s usability and flexibility. I said at WordCamp US that we exist for as long as people want to use our software, and that&#8217;s a funny little two-sided coin for us. WordPress remains very usable for folks who come to it in the same way that I came to it, which is as a user who is trying to accomplish a goal unrelated to WordPress. I didn&#8217;t start using WordPress because I wanted to figure out how WordPress worked or because I wanted to figure out how to contribute to WordPress. I came to WordPress because I was trying to market something, and WordPress was the best choice for that. But it&#8217;s also flexible for our brilliant developers out there who are doing things like building a suite of sites for NASA or creating bespoke social networks. So, our usability and flexibility, both of those things working together, are certainly one of the things that make me know that WordPress is incredibly valuable for anyone who needs to use it.</p>



<p>[00:04:22] <strong>Josepha:</strong> But the final thing is WordPress&#8217;s longevity or our resilience. So, I used to work at a marketing agency that served enterprise-level clients. And any time we pitched a new site build to a client, one of the main elements of discussion during decision-making was how long the decision would last. Do you want a page that you can launch in a day, run a six-week campaign through, and then abandon it forever? Or do you want a site that can take up to six weeks to build but can be yours to refine and hone for years after that? I know this seems like a silly example, but when you&#8217;re looking at the potential for a long-term bet, what you&#8217;re worried about, what you&#8217;re asking is, is this a software trusted in my industry? Is it time-tested by those companies I aspire to be? Is the available workforce composed of seasoned professionals or flash-in-the-pan peddlers of the latest craze? And of that workforce, how many will still be doing this in five years? </p>



<p>The question of how long we&#8217;ve been doing this and why it matters that WordPress has been here for 20 years and has no intention of going anywhere should be so much higher on everyone&#8217;s list of reasons to use this software. Yes, the WordPress software is powerful enough to be everything you might want it to be someday, but the WordPress ecosystem brought to us by this community has shown resilience through major breaking changes in 2008, 2016, 2018, 2020, and probably a lot of things between there that we have forgotten. So, if I were hoping to hedge my bets on a long-term solution, I would absolutely place those bets on this community, this ecosystem, and this software.&nbsp;</p>



<p>(Music interlude)&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:06:17] <strong>Josepha:</strong> And now, it&#8217;s time for our small list of big things. I actually have a very big list today, so I&#8217;m just gonna break it out into two chunks. The first chunk is that we actually have a lot of calls for feedback and testing right now. We have six calls for feedback and testing that I really could use your input on.</p>



<p>The first one is that we still are having that discussion about how to evolve the FSE outreach program. That program started as a way to get faster, more fluid user feedback, specifically about full site editing inside Gutenberg. But there is a question now about where it needs to exist, how it&#8217;s serving current project needs, and what the future project needs will be. And so stop by that one. That should be a good, lively discussion.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:07:06] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Speaking of discussions that are lively, we also have an update to the field guide. We have a proposed update to the field guide. This is not something that we&#8217;re looking to put in place for WordPress 6.4, just because that is coming so quickly. But it is something that we want to look at for future iterations of the field guide that come out with every major release. We want to make sure that we&#8217;re getting valuable information to the right people at the right time without having so much that it&#8217;s overwhelming but also without having so little that we miss really important things.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:07:47] <strong>Josepha:</strong> There is another request for feedback, which is about additional ideas on the future of WordPress events. I brought this up in the past. I think I mentioned it on one other small list of big things, but there&#8217;s still time. So, if you&#8217;ve been shy about sharing your ideas, let this be your sign to get brave. Go share your thoughts on what events of the future should be for us.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:08:03] <strong>Josepha:</strong> There&#8217;s also a proposal for updated support guidelines. This proposal comes out of a discussion that was had at WordCamp US, and so there is a summary of the discussion and then also the proposal that&#8217;s out there. I think that for all guidelines like this, support guidelines, and probably all things that require some review from ourselves, we always could stand to take a look at where those are, what brought us to where we are today, and what we can use to be better and more current in our client&#8217;s needs and our customers needs users needs as we are looking through those guidelines I think that the deadline for feedback on that is around the middle of September as well.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:08:47] <strong>Josepha:</strong> And then the final bit of feedback/call for testing is on performant translations. That is a testing call for feedback. Contributions to that can be made on GitHub as well if that&#8217;s something where you test it and you immediately know how to offer some patches to make things better. That&#8217;s great, but you can always just leave your feedback in a comment or a new support topic.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:09:19] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Okay, so that was the first chunk of the small list of big things. We have the second chunk of the small list of big things, which is to say that if all of that was new to you and sounds a little bit daunting and, you need some support to get started. There are also a couple of kind of group things that you can do in the coming weeks to get you started on that.&nbsp;</p>



<p>There is a new WordPress diversity training session that&#8217;s happening. It&#8217;s a two-day workshop for women, specifically in India, but other countries are welcome to join us, too. We&#8217;ll be thinking about how to pull together your first presentation proposal, I believe.</p>



<p>The next one is that the WordPress community team is looking for folks to learn more about organizing meetups. And so, I&#8217;ll include a link to that in the show notes as well, but if you&#8217;ve never done this before and that did not sound like a getting started thing, trust me, organizing meetups not only is something that is easy to do because it&#8217;s kind of casual, you can get people together like in a coffee shop to talk about WordPress, but also the team over there has excellent onboarding. And so give it a try; at the very least, give it a read.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The third thing on that set of things is that there&#8217;s a new group called WP Includes working to pair women in the WordPress community with one another for support and advice along their career paths. I will include a link to that in the show notes as well.</p>



<p>And then the final thing is that there is a meetup event that&#8217;s focused on flagship events coming up on September 21st. It will recap WordCamp US and host an open discussion for ideas for WordCamp Europe as well. Like I said, that&#8217;s going to take place on September 21st. I will include a link to that in the show notes as well.</p>



<p>[00:11:04] <strong>Josepha:</strong> If you don&#8217;t know where the show notes are, if you, sorry, if you&#8217;re listening to this on, like, Pocketcasts or Spotify or any other thingy, and you don&#8217;t know what I mean when I say the show notes, and you&#8217;ve literally never seen them in your life. You can go to WordPress.org/news/podcast, and there are transcripts and show notes with every podcast I put up, and that&#8217;s what I mean when I say that. WordPress.org/news/podcast, and then you get a bunch of links. It&#8217;ll be great.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I&#8217;ll see you again in a couple of weeks.<br /></p>



<p>(Outro music)</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, 18 Sep 2023 12:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Brett McSherry";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:94:"Do The Woo Community: AI, WordPress and Woo with Alain Schlesser, Bud Kraus and Mark Westguard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76557";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"https://dothewoo.io/ai-wordpress-and-woo-with-alain-schlesser-bud-kraus-and-mark-westguard/";s: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:469:"<p>Bud Kraus and Mark Westguard chat with Alain Schlesser about his story, and a look at AI, from coding to ecommerce to the ethics.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/ai-wordpress-and-woo-with-alain-schlesser-bud-kraus-and-mark-westguard/">AI, WordPress and Woo with Alain Schlesser, Bud Kraus and Mark Westguard</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:07:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:99:"Gutenberg Times: Block Art and Attributes, Gato GraphQL and Command Palette – Weekend Edition 268";s:7:"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=25616";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:105:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/block-art-and-attributes-gato-graphql-and-command-palette-weekend-edition-268/";s: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:15713:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>Are you also enjoying that last few weeks of summer-like weather in Europe? How is the weather in your part of the world? After I finish this newsletter, I&#8217;ll take a walk through the forest. I haven&#8217;t done this for a long time: <em>shinrin-yoku</em> (<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/forest-bathing-nature-walk-health">Forest bathing</a>) is good for the soul.  The forest behind my mother&#8217;s house has been familiar and hardly changed since I was a kid and lived with my grandmother in the same house. What is your favorite ritual to recover from many hours of screen time during the week? <a href="mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com">Hit reply</a> or share in the comments.</p>



<p>Today&#8217;s newsletter has a little bit about WordPress 6.4 and, block building, much more about theme building and also looking a little bit beyond WordPress with GraphQL and Transformer. </p>



<p>I hope you enjoy it all this week again! </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br /><em>Birgit</em></p>






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



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




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



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> held a Hallway Hangout: To <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/09/13/hallway-hangout-lets-chat-about-the-wordpress-6-4-evolving-the-fse-outreach-program/">chat about the WordPress 6.4 &amp; Evolving the FSE Outreach Program</a> and published a summary with the recording. She goes over the roadmap 6.4 post and identifies the state of the features. </p>



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



<p>In his fortnightly updates, <strong>Joen Asmussen</strong> lists the work by the WordPress Design team. In <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2023/09/11/design-share-aug-28-sep8/"><strong>Design Share: Aug 28-Sep8</strong></a> he highlighted: </p>



<ul>
<li>Interface for unlinking a style from inherited source&nbsp;</li>



<li>Refresh of the Hosting page</li>



<li>Sketch of a dismissible notification that lets you install missing fonts from the library.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Templates table</li>
</ul>



<img width="652" height="367" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screenshot-2023-09-16-at-12.58.25.png?resize=652%2C367&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-25631" />



<div class="wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p class="is-style-no-vertical-margin"><strong>🎙️ </strong> Latest episode:  <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-89-gutenberg-16-6-font-library-default-theme/">Gutenberg Changelog #89 – Gutenberg 16.6, default theme and Font Library</a> with Nadia Maya Ardiani  as special guest, hosted by Birgit Pauli-Haack</p>
</div></div>



<p>In her post on <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/12/core-editor-improvement-commanding-the-command-palette/"><strong>Core Editor Improvement: Commanding the Command Palette</strong></a> <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong>&nbsp;dives deep into the latest updates to the Command Palette, a new tool available with WordPress 6.3 designed to speed up your workflow.&nbsp;With work underway for WordPress 6.4, she gave a peek preview of what&#8217;s in store for the next iteration of this new option in your WordPress creation experience and a reminder of what it’s capable of already.</p>



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



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> takes a behind the scence stroll on how the Museum for Block Art collaborated with the organizers of WordCamps to highlight some of the art. <a href="https://block-museum.com/2023/09/11/from-pixels-to-reality-celebrating-wordcamp-eu-wordcamp-us-exhibits/">From Pixels to Reality: Celebrating WordCamp EU &amp; WordCamp US Exhibits</a></p>



<img width="652" height="326" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/you-are-getting-sleepy_screenshot.png?resize=652%2C326&ssl=1" alt="You are getting sleepy by Ramon James" class="wp-image-25624" /><a href="https://block-museum.com/2022/03/10/you-are-getting-sleepy/">You are getting sleepy by Ramon James</a>



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



<p>My long-time friend <a href="https://twitter.com/JenSwish">Jen Swisher </a>takes you along the journey of <a href="https://jetpack.com/blog/wordpress-switch-from-classic-to-block-theme/"><strong>How to Switch from a Classic Theme to a Block Theme in&nbsp;WordPress</strong></a>. She explains first the option you have, and more importantly why you might consider switching. Then she goes into more practical steps on how to accomplish a migration from your current classic theme to a block theme. Eventually, I will have to follow on a similar path when converting Gutenberg Times to a block theme. At the moment I am unable to focus on such a task, but maybe I can sequester myself for a weekend and get it done. Have you made the jump yet? What did you encounter, are there any pitfalls, that surprised you? </p>



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



<p><strong>Munir Kamal </strong>of Gutenberg Hub released the new <a href="https://shop.gutenberghub.com/query-taxonomy-filter-block/"><strong>Query Taxonomy Filter Block</strong></a> to provide users and theme builders a way to extend the functionality of the core query loop. It&#8217;s a premium plugin that expands the capabilities of the core query block for more complex layouts and multiple filter options. It also offers a variety of display controls or facets and customization features.&nbsp;</p>



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



<p>On his podcast, <em><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/within-wordpress/id1684480798">Within WordPress</a></em>, <strong>Remkus De Vries</strong> had a chat with <strong>Ian Svoboda</strong> about creating courses for the WordPress ecosystem and a lot more: <strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17KJ5TLfuVY">On Block Themes, Custom Block development and a whole lotta WP CLI</a>. </strong>The conversation about Block Themes starts at the <a href="https://youtu.be/17KJ5TLfuVY?feature=shared&t=788">13:04 timestamp</a> (On the YouTube version.) Happy to hear the shout-outs to Fabian Kägy and Aurooba Ahmed, as well as the HTML Processor. The discussion of static vs. dynamic blocks, nothing new, but always interesting to hear other developer perspectives. </p>



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



<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> announced the next phase for the Theme builders documentation overhaul: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/09/15/theme-handbook-overhaul-phase-3-publishing-content/"><strong>Theme Handbook Overhaul: Phase 3 (Publishing Content)</strong></a> and asked for public review of the last drafts of chapters. The <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/Documentation-Issue-Tracker/issues/816">tracking ticket </a>leads you to the single chapters for your perusal. Helping improve documentation is an excellent way to take a deep dive into building block themes. </p>



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



<p>On this week&#8217;s Loop podcast, host <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/cr0ybot">Cory Hughart</a></strong> talked to Justin Tadlock on <strong><a href="https://blackbird.digital/podcast/28-writing-block-themes-with-justin-tadlock/">Writing Block Themes</a></strong> about his series of articles on the WordPress developer blog about adding custom controls to core blocks, theme scaffolding, and workflow scripts. They also discuss above mentioned Theme Documentation overhaul. The show notes provide a ton of resources for theme developers</p>




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




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



<p>Save the date: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/14/hallway-hangout-whats-new-for-developers-in-wordpress-6-4/"><strong>Hallway Hangout: What’s new for developers in WordPress 6.4</strong></a>. On <strong>Thursday, October 12, 2023, at18:00 UTC, </strong>Nick Diego, Ryan Welcher and Justin Tadlock will host a casual conversation about the most important and exciting developer-related changes coming soon in WordPress 6.4. From Block&nbsp;Hooks&nbsp;and the Font Library to improved Editor flows and the new Twenty Twenty-Four theme, there is just so much to talk about.</p>



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



<p>This month&#8217;s <em>Developer Hours</em> will cover: <a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/295482707/"><strong>Building better blocks with the &#8216;create-block&#8217; package</strong></a>. Nick Diego and Ryan Welcher will host the event and it will take place on <strong>September 27 at 14:00 UTC.</strong> The two developers will take a deep dive into the functionalities of the&nbsp;<a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-create-block/#available-commands" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">create-block</a>&nbsp;package. Developed to simplify and accelerate the process of building custom WordPress blocks, this package has become an indispensable tool for developers of all levels.</p>



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<p><a href="https://twitter.com/losoviz"><strong>Leonardo Losoviz</strong></a>, released version 1.0 of the<a href="http://gatographql.com"> Gato GraphQL</a> plugin. It&#8217;s a rebranded version of GraphQL for WordPress plugin. It brings plenty of improvements, including </p>



<ul>
<li>the&nbsp;integration with the (Gutenberg) block editor, </li>



<li>support for&nbsp;private and password-protected endpoints, and </li>



<li>the&nbsp;availability of (commercial) extensions&nbsp;to extend the GraphQL schema and provide further functionality.</li>
</ul>



<p>This version Gato GraphQL is also on its way to the WordPress plugin repository. On the <a href="https://github.com/GatoGraphQL/GatoGraphQL/releases/tag/1.0.6">GitHub space</a>, Losoviz shared that he based part of the block feature on the <em>WordPress VIP team&#8217;s <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/vip-block-data-api/">Block Data API</a>. </em></p>



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



<p><strong>Michael Burridge</strong> created a step-by-step tutorial on <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/09/understanding-block-attributes/"><strong>Understanding block attributes</strong></a>. There’s more to block attributes than meets the eye. Attributes contain data needed by your block, and that data can be retrieved from numerous locations, not just the block delimiter. This post shows you the ways.</p>



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



<p>If you work in React and JSX you might enjoy this very nifty tool: <a href="https://transform.tools/html-to-jsx"><strong>Transform HTML to JSX</strong></a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/ritz078">Ritesh Kumar</a>. Just paste the HTML of your designs into one box and get well formatted JSX in the second box. </p>



<p>Kumar and 30+ other contributors created transform tools for all kinds of purposes, ie: JSON to JSDocs, JSON to GraphQL, CSS to JS Objects. </p>




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



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




<p class="has-text-align-right has-small-font-size"><em>Questions? Suggestions? Ideas? Don&#8217;t hesitate to send <a href="mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com">them via email</a> or send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph</em>. </p>



<p class="has-text-align-right has-small-font-size">For questions to be answered on the <a href="http://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast">Gutenberg Changelog</a>, send them to <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a></p>



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




<p>Featured Image: Lego building block  <a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/366646a25b/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/ekodesign/">ekodesign</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.</p>



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



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<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 16 Sep 2023 11:17:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:98:"WPTavern: Developers Claim Damaged Trust Following Public Confrontations with WordPress Leadership";s:7:"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=148825";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:109:"https://wptavern.com/developers-claim-damaged-trust-following-public-confrontations-with-wordpress-leadership";s: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:13901:"<p>The WordPress community is ending two days of heated discussions that rapidly descended into a mire of unbridled emotional confrontations across multiple social channels, following a tweet from John Blackbourn that <a href="https://wptavern.com/developers-raise-concerns-about-wordpress-com-plugin-listings-outranking-wordpress-org-on-google">raised concerns about WordPress.com plugin listings outranking WordPress.org on Google Search</a>.</p>



<p>Developers expressed concerns about the SEO impact of the practice of cloning WordPress.org&#8217;s plugin directory for use on WordPress.com, with no backlinks to the original plugin. Another concern is that it perpetuates the longstanding confusion between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.</p>



<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think the SEO concern is real, and by that I mean that besides John&#8217;s screenshot, which I think is related to the .org en-gb subdomain decision/bug,&#8221; Matt Mullenweg told the Tavern when asked whether WordPress.com is considering not indexing these pages that duplicate content from WordPress.org. </p>



<p>&#8220;For general searches I&#8217;m seeing .com 5 pages down,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Just looking at traffic to those pages, they don&#8217;t seem to be getting much if any from search engines! So I&#8217;m not really concerned about SEO of those pages.</p>



<p>&#8220;The vast majority of the traffic to those is to logged in users. When they click &#8216;manage&#8217; they can easily install it across multiple sites or see where it&#8217;s already installed, which actually works across .com and Jetpack sites.&#8221;</p>



<p>He offered a similar explanation to Freemius founder Vova Feldman on X, who claimed that WordPress.com has an SEO advantage over independent plugins.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I think you're built on an assumption which is easily testable and false in my tests so far: "DOT com has an SEO advantage&#8230;"<br /><br />As an easy one to look at, I did a logged-out search for [seo plugin for wordpress]. First page of results is now ads, from WP Engine, SEMRush, AIOSEO,…</p>&mdash; Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1702346538339459518?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Plugin developers also expressed concerns about new users arriving to a plugin&#8217;s duplicated page on WordPress.com and seeing that the plugin is Free only on the (paid) Business plan. This gives the visitor the impression that the plugin isn&#8217;t available for free elsewhere, because there is no link back to WordPress.org with an explanation.</p>



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



<img width="2402" height="1118" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screen-Shot-2023-09-15-at-10.26.00-AM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-148876" />



<p>Many WordPress.org plugin authors were not aware until recently that their plugin pages are being scraped for use on WordPress.com. Yesterday, <a href="https://patchstack.com/articles/patchstack-is-free-on-the-official-wordpress-repository/">Patchstack updated its readme file</a> to ensure that WordPress.com users and visitors are made aware that the plugin is available for free in the official WordPress plugin repository, using the following text: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>This plugin can be downloaded for free without any paid subscription from&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.org/" target="_blank">the official WordPress repository.</a></p>
</blockquote>



<p>&#8220;I was at a Python conference last week and a guy came to our booth and said he has a WordPress site but he hasen’t been able to purchase any plugins yet,&#8221; Patchstack CEO Oliver Sild said. &#8220;I told him that they are all free, and then it turned out he had a WordPress.com site where he has to pay to install any plugins. These people think that THIS IS the WordPress.&#8221;</p>



<p>When asked if WordPress.com could at least link back to the .org plugin for logged-out views to eliminate some of the confusion, Mullenweg confirmed that he told Sild that WordPress.com would work on adding links to the .org equivalent page this week.</p>



<p>&#8220;But that confusion that people claim is causing huge issues for WordPress isn&#8217;t supported by the numbers or growth of non-.com solutions over 17 years now,&#8221; Mullenweg said. </p>



<p>&#8220;So at some point we should stop accepting it as within our top 100 issues for WordPress.</p>



<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s much more likely like a road bump for some newbies, than an actual blocker, not unlike learning the difference between categories and tags, or how to identify a normal-looking comment that&#8217;s actually spam.&#8221;</p>



<p>In <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1702391616764289222">response</a> to WordPress developer Daniel Schutzsmith saying that WordPress.com is causing confusion for OSS, Mullenweg contended that it &#8220;creates a false dichotomy between WP on .com and &#8216;open source software.&#8217; Every site on .com is part of the OSS community as much as on any other host. </p>



<p>&#8220;When there is confusion, it assumes that it&#8217;s a top issue for WordPress. Nothing about WP&#8217;s growth, including vis a vis other projects, indicates that the existence of a .com and .org with the same name has held us back.&#8221;</p>



<p>In support of his claims about the growth of non-WordPress.com solutions, he cited a W3Techs report on hosting company usage stats with extrapolated revenue on <a href="https://poststatus.com/">Post Status</a> Slack.</p>



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



<img width="1226" height="1634" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/image.png" alt="" class="wp-image-148881" />



<p>&#8220;On revenue: If you extrapolate out public domain numbers with plan pricing, and look at public filings like the amount GoDaddy makes from hosting and what % of that hosting is WP-powered, you pretty quickly see that GoDaddy, Newfold/Bluehost, Siteground, Hostinger, and WP Engine make more than .com from WordPress hosting.,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;You can check out those companies on the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/pledges/?order=hours" target="_blank">five for the future page</a>.&#8221;</p>



<p>Mullenweg has <a href="https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-identifies-godaddy-as-a-parasitic-company-and-an-existential-threat-to-wordpress-future">previously criticized large hosting companies</a> for what he perceives to be a lack of support for the open source WordPress and WooCommerce projects in proportion to how much they benefit from the use of these platforms. His comments in Post Status yesterday indicate that while he is still unsatisfied with their core contributions, he acknowledges these companies as important to WordPress&#8217; overall growth.</p>



<p>&#8220;By the way, despite not looking great for core contributions, I think each of those companies has been&nbsp;<em>essential</em>&nbsp;for the growth of WordPress, and particularly the work they invest into upgrade PHP, MySQL, core auto-updates, plugin auto-updates, and security are crucial for the health of our ecosystem,&#8221; Mullenweg said.  </p>



<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s &#8216;cynically cool&#8217; to hate on some of the bigger ones, but it&#8217;s a free and open market, none of their WP users are locked in and could easily switch to other hosts if they weren&#8217;t happy with the price and value they were getting. In fact by that measure, you could argue they&#8217;ve all done a much better job than .com at connecting with customers. Maybe I spend too much of .com&#8217;s engineering and investment on things like 2fa/passkeys, reader/notifications, stats, the mobile apps, Gutenberg, and Calypso and not enough on marketing or paying off affiliate host review sites.&#8221;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">The Damaging Community Impact of Public Confrontations</h3>



<p>Mullenweg continued to be active on Post Status Slack and X (Twitter) throughout the day, attempting to <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1702341579850055809">debunk claims</a> that Automattic is exploiting open source contributors for profit. These interactions included <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1702403896562352285">personal attacks</a> which followed after Mullenweg blocked WordPress Marketing Team co-rep Sé Reed who <a href="https://twitter.com/sereedmedia/status/1702032589287211305">claimed</a> that he is standing in the way of contributors improving the open source project and that he was &#8220;vilifying, dismissing, and insulting&#8221; the WordPress community. </p>



<p>Some perceived him blocking Reed as him shutting down criticism, despite the fact that he said this is the first person he has ever blocked on Twitter. Although her comments were tangential to the original issue (the impact of the WordPress.com plugin listings), they became a focal point after Mullenweg lashed out at developer and product owner Dan Cameron who accused him of &#8220;actively doing more harm than good.&#8221;</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dan, you've built the Search Everything plugin which was popular early on, at some point got sold to Zemanta and abandoned. Hasn't been updated in 6 years.<br /><br />You did "Smart eCart" for five years which lost to WP-eCommerce and Woo.<br /><br />You did Sprout Apps / Invoices which has 2k…</p>&mdash; Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1702403896562352285?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>I reached out to Automattic-sponsored WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden-Chomphosy who said she did not have additional comments about what has happened with the recent confrontational exchanges, nor the impact on the community. </p>



<p>&#8220;I find it kinda refreshing to see Matt throw an elbow or two and stick up for himself,&#8221; WP All Import Product Manager Joe Guilmette said in Post Status Slack.</p>



<p>&#8220;It’s not the greatest look, but that’s for his PR people to sort out. I don’t have any idea how I’d handle being criticized so heavily for years by the people who built businesses and careers on a project that I helped bring in to the world, but it probably would be a lot worse than calling a few people out on Twitter.&#8221;</p>



<p>Others who gathered in various Slack instances, watching things play out on Twitter, felt collectively traumatized by witnessing the interactions between Mullenweg and different community members.</p>



<p>&#8220;I think Matt did way more damage this time than ever before,&#8221; one prominent WordPress consultant said, requesting to remain anonymous.  &#8220;It generated good but quite wearied and sad expressions of grief and anguish in my company Slack and no doubt many others.</p>



<p>&#8220;The instantly and deeply (however crudely researched) personal nature of Matt’s attacks leads people to paranoid fears that he has a shitlist of enemies who are just regular people, not giant companies etc. It’s a fearsome kind of punching down where the community gets stuck in the psychological position of the children of an abusive parent. Different personalities and different perspectives based on our own experiences lead us to different coping responses. But it’s very ugly now to have the paranoia confirmed as Matt basically taunted the fact that he feeds on what he’s told second or third hand about things others say about him in private.&#8221;</p>



<p>Matt Cromwell, Senior Director of Customer Experience at StellarWP, said that discussions that start and stay on X/Twitter generally have very little fruit, especially when resolving something as complicated as the WordPress.com plugins SEO issue. </p>



<p>&#8220;The community keeps leaning on this platform for these discussions but things like the impact of duplicate content on two sites both called &#8216;WordPress&#8217; requires more nuanced and trusting conversations which Twitter can&#8217;t provide,&#8221; Cromwell said. </p>



<p>&#8220;Mullenweg used the whole thing as an excuse to make so many of the plugin owners that drive WP adoption feel small. It was extremely hurtful to the trust product owners put into the leadership of the WP project. I expect to see more product owners prefer to build SaaS integrations with WP rather than dedicated products because they don&#8217;t trust that Mullenweg has their mutual interest in mind at all anymore – and I don&#8217;t see a way for him to ever put that genie back in the bottle after this behavior both on Twitter and in Post Status Slack.&#8221;</p>



<p>WordPress developer and contributor Alex Standiford said Mullenweg&#8217;s public confrontations yesterday are &#8220;a bad look for WordPress, and deflate the passionate contributors who genuinely believe in WordPress.&#8221; Despite recent events, he continues to believe in the larger impact of people building open source software together.</p>



<p>&#8220;I believe that WordPress isn&#8217;t software,&#8221; Standiford <a href="https://alexstandiford.com/micro/2294">wrote on his blog</a>. &#8220;It&#8217;s not community. It&#8217;s not a single person, no matter how significant that person thinks they are. I believe that WordPress is the manifestation of a belief that the web is at its best when it&#8217;s open. If I genuinely believed that forking WordPress would be good for WordPress, and the web, I&#8217;d contribute to it over the existing platform in a heartbeat.&#8221;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 15 Sep 2023 21:34:22 +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: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:119:"Post Status: Accessibility in Site Editor, Openverse Wins an Award, What’s New for Devs in WP 6.4, Fields API Summary";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=154835";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"https://poststatus.com/openverse-wins-an-award-whats-new-for-devs-in-wp-6-4-fields-api-summary/";s: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:18822:"<h2 class="wp-block-heading alignfull" id="h-this-week-at-wordpress-org-september-11-2023">This Week at WordPress.org (September 11, 2023)</h2>


<div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">Openverse Wins the 2023 OEG Open Infrastructure Award. Get a sneak peek into the exciting developments for developers in the upcoming WordPress 6.4 release. </p></div>


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<div class="gb-container gb-container-5e804289">

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news"><a href="https://wordpress.org/news">News</a></h2>

</div>


<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/09/openverse-wins-the-2023-oeg-open-infrastructure-award/">Openverse Wins the 2023 OEG Open Infrastructure Award</a></li>
</ul>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-community-summit-notes"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit">Community Summit Notes</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/09/15/community-summit-discussion-notes-increasing-contributor-recognition-and-celebration/">Community Summit Discussion Notes: Increasing contributor recognition and celebration</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/09/06/community-summit-discussion-notes-iterating-on-the-team-rep-role/">Community Summit Discussion Notes: Iterating on the Team Rep role</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/09/04/community-summit-discussion-notes-open-source-participation-in-global-legislation/">Community Summit Discussion Notes: Open Source participation in global legislation</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/09/03/community-summit-discussion-notes-communication-and-collaboration-finding-your-way-around-wordpress/">Community Summit Discussion Notes: Communication and Collaboration – Finding Your Way Around WordPress</a></li>
</ul>



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<div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-9 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WordPress 6.4</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/07/18/wordpress-6-4-whats-on-your-wishlist/">WordPress 6.4: What’s on your wishlist?</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/06/05/wordpress-6-4-development-cycle/">WordPress 6.4 Development Cycle</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/14/hallway-hangout-whats-new-for-developers-in-wordpress-6-4/">Hallway Hangout: What’s new for developers in WordPress 6.4</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>



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

</div>



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<div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-14 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
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<div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-12 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility">Accessibility</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2023/09/14/xpost-hallway-hangout-lets-chat-about-improving-accessibility-in-the-site-editor/">X-post: Hallway Hangout: Let’s chat about improving accessibility in the Site Editor</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2023/09/13/accessibility-team-meeting-agenda-september-15-2023/">Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: September 15, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2023/09/13/accessibility-office-hours/">Accessibility office hours</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/09/13/report-wpdiversity-inclusion-and-diverse-speaker-workshops-july-to-august-2023/">Report: #WPDiversity Inclusion and Diverse Speaker Workshops July to August 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/09/11/report-wpdiversity-inclusion-workshops-april-to-june-2023/">Report: #WPDiversity Inclusion Workshops April to June 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/09/07/resource-and-handbook-updates-in-q3/">Resource and Handbook Updates in Q3</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/09/06/community-team-meeting-agenda-for-7-september-2023/">Community Team Meeting Agenda for 7 September, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/14/hallway-hangout-whats-new-for-developers-in-wordpress-6-4/">Hallway Hangout: What’s new for developers in WordPress 6.4</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-developer-blog"><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/">Developer Blog</a></h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/09/understanding-block-attributes/">Understanding block attributes</a></li>



<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/09/whats-new-for-developers-september-2023/">What’s new for developers? (September 2023)</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meetings">Meetings</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/14/fields-api-progress-summary-wcus-contributor-day-2023-2/">Fields API Chat Summary: September 13, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/12/default-theme-chat-agenda-september-13th-2023/">Default Theme Chat Agenda: September 13th, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/12/dev-chat-agenda-september-13-2023/">Dev Chat agenda, September 13, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/12/dev-chat-summary-september-06-2023/">Dev Chat Summary, September 06, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/12/editor-chat-agenda-september-13th-2023/">Editor Chat Agenda: September 13th 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design">Design</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2023/08/28/design-share-aug-14-aug-25/">Design Share: Aug 14-Aug 25</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2023/08/18/design-specific-triage/">Bringing Back the Weekly Design Triage</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2023/08/10/admin-design-kickoff/">Admin Design Kickoff</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs">Docs</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/11/documentation-team-update-september-11-2023/">Documentation Team Update – September 11, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta">Meta</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2023/08/23/introducing-the-wordpress-org-github-invite-tool/">Introducing the WordPress.org GitHub Invite tool</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-openverse"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse">Openverse</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/09/15/openverse-2024-planning-we-want-your-ideas/">Openverse 2024 Planning: We Want Your Ideas!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/09/13/openverse-wins-open-infrastructure-award-from-oe-global/">Openverse wins Open Infrastructure award from OE Global</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/09/12/community-meeting-recap-2023-09-12/">Community Meeting Recap (2023-09-12)</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/12/performance-chat-summary-12-september-2023/">Performance Chat Summary: 12 September 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-photos"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/photos">Photos</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/photos/2023/08/28/august-photo-directory-update/">August Photo Directory Update</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2023/08/21/xpost-wordpresscs-3-0-0-is-now-available/">WordPressCS 3.0.0 is now available</a></li>
</ul>
</div>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2023/09/13/agenda-weekly-polyglots-chat-september-13-2023-1300-utc/">Agenda: Weekly Polyglots Chat – September 13, 2023 (13:00 UTC)</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-project">Project</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2023/09/06/documentation-translation-localization/">Proposal: Documentation translation/localization</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-support"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support">Support</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/09/agenda-for-september-14th-support-meeting-2/">Agenda for September 14th Support Meeting</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/08/proposal-for-updated-support-guidelines/">Proposal for updated support guidelines</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/sustainability">Sustainability</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/sustainability/2023/09/15/sustainability-chat-summary-september-15-2023/">Sustainability Chat Summary, September 15, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/sustainability/2023/09/13/sustainability-team-in-the-wordpress-community-summit-2023/">Sustainability Team in the WordPress Community Summit 2023</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/09/14/hallway-hangout-lets-chat-about-improving-accessibility-in-the-site-editor/">Hallway Hangout: Let’s chat about improving accessibility in the Site Editor</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/09/13/hallway-hangout-lets-chat-about-the-wordpress-6-4-evolving-the-fse-outreach-program/">Hallway Hangout: Let’s chat about the WordPress 6.4 &amp; Evolving the FSE Outreach Program</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/11/test-team-update-11-september-2023/">Test Team Update: 11 September 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-theme"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/theme">Theme</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/09/13/themes-team-meeting-notes-september-12-2023/">Themes Team Meeting Notes –&nbsp;September 12, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/13/themes-team-update-september-13-2023/">Themes team update September 13, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/09/11/training-team-meeting-recap-5th-september-2023/">Training Team Meeting Recap – 5th September 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/09/05/wordcamp-us-2023-contributor-day-recap/">WordCamp US 2023 Contributor Day Recap</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/09/05/lets-share-our-notes-from-the-community-summit/">Let’s share our notes from the Community Summit</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/08/24/information-sources-for-wordpress-6-4/">Information Sources for WordPress 6.4</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/08/24/looking-for-feedback-learning-pathway-outlines/">Looking for feedback: Learning pathway outlines</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tutorials"><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorials">Tutorials</a></h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/the-wordpress-database/">The WordPress Database</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/creating-your-own-custom-synced-or-non-synced-patterns/">Creating your own custom synced or non-synced patterns</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/scheduling-posts-and-pages/">Scheduling posts and pages</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-online-workshops">Online Workshops</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=common-apis-options">Common APIs – Options</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=hallway-hangout-whats-new-for-developers-in-wordpress-6-4">Hallway Hangout: What’s new for developers in WordPress 6.4</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=common-wordpress-apis-http-request-api">Common WordPress APIs – HTTP Request API</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=apac-creating-custom-patterns-synced-or-non-synced">APAC: Creating custom patterns: synced or non-synced</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=creating-custom-patterns-synced-or-non-synced">Creating custom patterns: synced or non-synced</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=getting-started-with-a-wordpress-org-account-4">Getting Started with a WordPress.org Account</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=getting-started-with-a-wordpress-org-account-3">Getting Started with a WordPress.org Account</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=how-to-contribute-to-wordpress-by-just-being-helpful">How to contribute to WordPress by just being helpful</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-courses"><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/courses">Courses</a></h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/course/wordpress-community-team-supporter-basics/">WordPress Community Team Supporter Basics</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/tv">WordPress TV</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/tv/2023/06/15/enhancing-slide-management-for-video-publications/">Enhancing Slide Management for Video Publications</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-wptv">WPTV</h2>



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



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-related-news">Related News:</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://blog.jquery.com/2023/08/28/jquery-3-7-1-released-reliable-table-row-dimensions/">jQuery 3.7.1 Released: Reliable Table Row Dimensions</a></li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/main/doc/changelogs/CHANGELOG_V20.md#20.6.1">Node v20.6.1released</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.php.net/archive/2023.php#2023-09-14-1">PHP 8.3.0 RC 2 available for testing</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.php.net/archive/2023.php#2023-08-31-2">PHP 8.2.10 Released!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.php.net/archive/2023.php#2023-08-31-3">PHP 8.1.23 Released!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/releases/tag/v6.8.1">PHPMailer 6.8.1</a></li>



<li><a href="https://dev.mysql.com/doc/relnotes/mysql/8.0/en/news-8-0-35.html">Changes in MySQL 8.0.35 (Not yet released, General Availability)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://262.ecma-international.org/">TC39</a></li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/composer/composer/releases">Composer <a href="https://github.com/composer/composer/releases/tag/2.6.3">2.6.3</a></a></li>
</ul>



<p class="has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background">Thanks for reading our WP dot .org roundup! Each week we are highlighting the news and discussions coming from the good folks making WordPress possible. If you or your company create products or services that use WordPress, you need to be engaged with them and their work. Be sure to share this resource with your product and project managers. <br /><br /><strong>Are you interested in giving back and contributing your time and skills to WordPress.org?</strong>   <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/contributing-to-wordpress/">Start Here ›</a><br /><br /><strong>Get our weekly WordPress community news digest</strong> — Post Status&#8217; <a href="https://poststatus.com/news/week-in-review/">Week in Review</a> — covering the WP/Woo news plus significant writing and podcasts. It&#8217;s also available in <a href="https://poststatus.com/newsletter">our newsletter</a>.  </p>



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<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 15 Sep 2023 18:54:18 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Courtney Robertson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:93:"Do The Woo Community: WooBits, the First Look into the Do the Woo Network and WooSesh is Live";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76541";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"https://dothewoo.io/first-look-at-do-the-woo-network-and-woosesh/";s: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:428:"<p>This week I focus on giving you a bit more news around our new Do the Woo network and our partnership with WooSesh.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/first-look-at-do-the-woo-network-and-woosesh/">WooBits, the First Look into the Do the Woo Network and WooSesh is Live</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 15 Sep 2023 14:00:08 +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:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:72:"WPTavern: WooSesh 2023 Publishes Speaker Lineup, Launches Seshies Awards";s:7:"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=148773";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"https://wptavern.com/woosesh-2023-publishes-speaker-lineup-launches-seshies-awards";s: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:2446:"<p><a href="https://woosesh.com/">WooSesh 2023</a>, the virtual conference for WooCommerce store builders, will be broadcast live on October 10-12. This year&#8217;s theme is &#8220;Next Generation Commerce.&#8221; Registration is not yet open, but the speaker lineup and broadcast schedule have just been published. Over the course of three days, WooSesh will feature 31 speakers across 23 sessions.</p>



<p>The event will kick off with the State of the Woo address, delivered by WooCommerce CEO Paul Maiorana and other product leaders from the company. Speakers will cover a wide range of topics like complexities of sales tax and product taxability, accessibility, block themes, security, AI tools, and automation, with case studies and workshops mixed in.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">New in 2023: The Seshies</h2>



<p>WooSesh organizer Brian Richards is launching &#8220;<a href="https://woosesh.com/seshies">The Seshies</a>&#8221; this year, a community awards ceremony that will recognize the best examples of the WooCommerce ecosystem across six categories: Innovation, Store, Extension, Agency, Developer, and Community Advocate.</p>



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



<img width="1414" height="596" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screen-Shot-2023-09-14-at-11.00.46-PM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-148855" />



<p><br />The Seshies will include a community awards ceremony that will celebrate the winners. Anyone can <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfobtJGqOszioOSTM4IMkdDbiIi44OhTZgFg1PXidnwWksEsQ/viewform">nominate</a> candidates for the awards, and participants can even nominate themselves and their own WooCommerce projects. </p>



<p>&#8220;These awards are something that have been on my heart for quite some time,&#8221; Richards said. &#8220;And now, after 6 years of hosting WooSesh and 10 years of running WPSessions, I think I&#8217;ve amassed enough authority and (critically) a wide enough reach to deliver awards, on your behalf, that have real meaning.&#8221;</p>



<p>The week before the event, Richards plans to publish the top three nominees in each category. The community will vote throughout the first two days of WooSesh and the winners will be announced on the final day. Winners will receive a digital badge of recognition and Richards said he is also working on producing physical awards to ship to winners anywhere in the world.</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, 15 Sep 2023 03:34:32 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"WPTavern: ActivityPub 1.0.0 Released, Introducing Blog-Wide Accounts and New Blocks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=148817";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"https://wptavern.com/activitypub-1-0-0-released-introducing-blog-wide-accounts-and-new-blocks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3149:"<p>Version 1.0.0 of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/">ActivityPub plugin</a> was released this week with major updates that make it possible to have a blog-wide account, instead of just individual author accounts, where followers receive updates from all authors. This new feature allows people to follow blogs on decentralized platforms like Mastodon (and many others) with replies automatically published back to the blog as comments. </p>



<p>In the ActivityPub plugin settings, users can check &#8220;Enable blog&#8221; to have the blog become an ActivityPub profile. Authors can be enabled at the same time as a blog-wide profile.</p>



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



<img width="1662" height="914" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screen-Shot-2023-09-14-at-3.15.41-PM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-148831" />



<p>Activities originating from a Blog profile can be further customized through the existing post content and image settings. Users can also set the activity object type to default, article, or WordPress post format which maps the post format to the ActivityPub object type. Supported post types include posts, pages, and media. Note that the blog-wide profile only works with sites that have rewrite rules enabled. </p>



<img width="1590" height="920" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screen-Shot-2023-09-14-at-3.33.58-PM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-148832" />



<p>An experimental hashtags setting is also available, which adds hashtags in the content as native tags and replaces the #tag with the tag link. Users should be aware that it may still produce HTML or CSS errors.</p>



<p>ActivityPub 1.0.0 introduces two new blocks &#8211; one for displaying Fediverse Followers and the other for displaying a &#8220;Follow&#8221; button to allow people to follow the blog or author on the Fediverse. The Follower system has also gotten a complete rewrite based on Custom Post Types.</p>



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



<img width="1096" height="782" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screen-Shot-2023-09-14-at-3.57.41-PM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-148835" />



<p>Other notable updates in this release include the following: </p>



<ul>
<li>Signature Verification: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/spec/security/</li>



<li>Simple caching</li>



<li>Collection endpoints for Featured Tags and Featured Posts</li>



<li>Better handling of Hashtags in mobile apps</li>



<li>Update: Improved linter (PHPCS)</li>



<li>Fixed: Load the plugin later in the WordPress code lifecycle to avoid errors in some requests</li>



<li>Fixed: Updating posts</li>



<li>Fixed: Hashtag now support CamelCase and UTF-8</li>
</ul>



<p>Automattic acquired the plugin in March 2023 from German developer <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pfefferle/">Matthias Pfefferle</a>, who joined the company to continue improving support for federated platforms. Next on the roadmap for the ActivityPub plugin is threaded comments support and replacing shortcodes with blocks for layout.</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, 14 Sep 2023 22:43:20 +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: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: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:73:"WordPress.org blog: Openverse Wins the 2023 OEG Open Infrastructure Award";s:7:"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=15967";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/09/openverse-wins-the-2023-oeg-open-infrastructure-award/";s: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:2336:"<img width="1800" height="1013" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2023/09/openverse-image.png?resize=1800%2C1013&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-15959" />



<p>WordPress is excited to announce that <a href="https://openverse.org/">Openverse</a> has been awarded the <a href="https://awards.oeglobal.org/awards/2023/open-infrastructure/openverse/"><strong>2023 Open Education Award for Excellence</strong></a> in the <strong>Open Infrastructure</strong> category!</p>



<p>The Open Education Awards for Excellence, organized by the non-profit organization <a href="https://www.oeglobal.org/">Open Education Global (OEG)</a>, celebrate people, resources, and initiatives that have significantly contributed to the open education field and community. This year, they received 172 nominations across 16 award categories, representing individuals and projects from 38 countries.</p>



<p>This award honors Openverse&#8217;s work to make it easy for everyone to discover and use open educational resources. The award reviewers were particularly impressed by <strong>Openverse&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/WordPress/status/1514349743144685577">one-click attribution feature</a></strong>. Moreover, they highlighted the tool’s ability to filter searches by source collections and other parameters, such as image orientation and specific license, which they noted “provides seekers of open content important affordances to find clearly licensed media they can reuse.”&nbsp;</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p><em>“This is an exceptional search engine for the open education community. The one click attribution copy for images makes attribution very straight-forward and easy, even for novice users. The design is excellent; the results are returned fast.”</em> </p>
<cite>Award reviewer for the 2023 OEG Award for Open Infrastructure </cite></blockquote>



<p>This recognition not only underscores Openverse and WordPress&#8217;s commitment to open content but also celebrates the work of their dedicated contributors, community, and partners in advancing open education and creative works.</p>



<p><a href="https://awards.oeglobal.org/awards/2023/open-infrastructure/openverse/">Learn more about this Openverse award on the OEG page</a>.</p>



<p><strong>Congratulations, Openverse!</strong></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 Sep 2023 18:04:57 +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:20:"Madison Swain-Bowden";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:72:"Do The Woo Community: Always Practicing and Learning with Artemy Kaydash";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76517";s:7:"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://dothewoo.io/always-practicing-and-learning-with-artemy-kaydash/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:418:"<p>Backend WordPress and WooCommerce developer, Artemy Kaydash, shares his dev story and the importance of always learning.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/always-practicing-and-learning-with-artemy-kaydash/">Always Practicing and Learning with Artemy Kaydash</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 Sep 2023 13:05:46 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"Do The Woo Community: A WCUS Recap with Topher DeRosia, Raquel Manriquez and Cory Miller";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76507";s:7:"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:36:"https://dothewoo.io/wcus-2023-recap/";s: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:363:"<p>Our final recap of WordCamp US with Topher DeRosia, Raquel Manriquez and Cory Miller</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/wcus-2023-recap/">A WCUS Recap with Topher DeRosia, Raquel Manriquez and Cory Miller</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 Sep 2023 07:15:30 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:113:"WPTavern: Developers Raise Concerns About WordPress.com Plugin Listings Outranking WordPress.org on Google Search";s:7:"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=148759";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:117:"https://wptavern.com/developers-raise-concerns-about-wordpress-com-plugin-listings-outranking-wordpress-org-on-google";s: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:12039:"<p>WordPress core developer John Blackbourn sparked a heated discussion yesterday when he posted an image of his WordPress User Switching plugin ranking higher for the WordPress.com listing than the page on WordPress.org.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Why has <a href="https://twitter.com/wordpressdotcom?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@wordpressdotcom</a> replicated the entire <a href="https://t.co/oTA9NDVkFk">https://t.co/oTA9NDVkFk</a> plugin directory on its .com domain name? Searching for some plugin names now results in the .com page ranking higher than .org. Fuck the long term health of the FOSS project, let's make some money, right? <a href="https://t.co/UD40BN3Z6g">pic.twitter.com/UD40BN3Z6g</a></p>&mdash; John Blackbourn (@johnbillion) <a href="https://twitter.com/johnbillion/status/1701765939534893475?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Blackbourn later apologized for the inflammatory wording of the original post, but maintains that .com plugin listings being displayed higher in search results is not healthy for the open source project.</p>



<p>&#8220;This was a frustrated 2AM tweet so I could have worded it better, but the point still stands,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The plugin pages on dotcom are little more than marketing landing pages for the dotcom service and they&#8217;re strongly competing with the canonical dotorg pages. That&#8217;s not healthy.&#8221;</p>



<p>Several others <a href="https://twitter.com/konstruktors/status/1701851307454185628">commented</a> about having <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1693475484734239">similar experiences</a> when searching for plugins, finding that the WordPress.com often ranks higher, although many others still see WordPress.org pages ranked highest. </p>



<p>Blackbourn <a href="https://twitter.com/johnbillion/status/1702035969237504140">said</a> his chief concern &#8220;is the process that introduced the directory clone on .com either disregarded its potential impact on .org in favor of inbounds or never considered it in the first place &#8211; both very concerning given the ranking power of .com.&#8221;</p>



<p>The tweet highlighted the frustration some members of the open source community feel due to the perennial branding confusion between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Nothing short of renaming WordPress.com will eliminate the longstanding confusion, but this is unlikely as Automattic benefits from tightly coupling its products to WordPress’ name recognition.</p>



<p>&#8220;Duplicate content confuses the human + search engines,&#8221; SEO consultant Rebecca Gill <a href="https://twitter.com/rebeccagill/status/1702022257533493726">said</a>. &#8220;Search engines won&#8217;t like it, nor will humans trying to find solutions to their problems. There is already enough confusion w/ .org + .com for non-tech folks. This amplifies it. Noindex .com content or canonical it to .org.&#8221;</p>



<p>Participants in the discussion maintain that the duplication of the open source project&#8217;s plugin directory &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/pedro_gaspar/status/1701907080997707966">creates ambiguity and confusion</a>&#8221; but WordPress co-creator and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg contends it also gives plugin authors greater distribution.</p>



<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s providing distribution to the plugin authors, literally millions and millions of installs,&#8221; Mullenweg <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1701973661110915205">said</a>. He elaborated on how the cloned plugin directory is integrated with Calypso, WordPress.com&#8217;s admin interface:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>.com has its own plugin directory which includes the .org one, it provides more installs and distribution to the plugin authors, which helps their usage and for commercial ones gets them more sales. The plugins are not altered. .com takes no cut for the distribution.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>When participants in the discussion suggested that other hosts doing the same thing would create a wild west situation for plugin rankings, Mullenweg said he would not mind if the plugins were &#8220;duplicated and distributed by every host and site on the planet,&#8221; as they are all licensed under the GPL.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If people are providing more distribution to unaltered plugins, I think that's great. Happy for all our plugins to be duplicated and distributed by every host and site on the planet.</p>&mdash; Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1701983671832441290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Outrage against distributing WordPress.org plugins in this fashion was not universal in the discussion. A few commenters support this strategy and see it as beneficial for the long-term health of the open source project.</p>



<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m all for it to be honest,&#8221; WordPress developer Cristian Raiber <a href="https://twitter.com/CristianRaiber/status/1701993257717096738">said</a>. &#8220;Anyone could scrape those pages but not everyone gives back to WordPress and makes sure it&#8217;s here to stay for the next decades. Controversial, I know. But I prefer we build together instead of alone.</p>



<p>&#8220;I fail to see how this is not an advantage to anyone who hosts their plugins (for FREE) on w[dot]org ?&#8221; Raiber continued in a separate <a href="https://twitter.com/CristianRaiber/status/1701991457412767913">response</a>. &#8220;Is it about being outranked in Google&#8217;s SERPs for brand kws? Why has this generated so much outcry when the intent is clearly beneficial?</p>



<p>&#8220;This FINALLY solves a friction point for potential buyers. Streamlined plugin installation and usage vs &#8216;here&#8217;s a list of 55 steps you have to take to install my plugin.&#8217; Users want options, different uses cases and all. I want <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://t.co/lvD51DFwBI" target="_blank">wp.com</a> to make money so they keep growing this product.&#8221;</p>



<p>XWP Director of Engineering Francesca Marano suggested that WordPress.com has benefitted from the branding and reputation of .org, which is built by volunteers. She also <a href="https://twitter.com/FrancescaMarano/status/1701928039599219066">proposed</a> that Automattic &#8220;has the resources to do a whole rebranding which would ultimately benefit both projects.&#8221;</p>



<p>Mullenweg <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1701978533239640196">responded</a> to these comments, defending WordPress.com&#8217;s efforts in fending off early WordPress competitors and cited Automattic&#8217;s preeminence in contributing back to core, despite taking in less revenue than some larger companies making money from the software:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>Since its foundation, .org has benefitted from the branding and reputation of having a robust SaaS version available from .com, including a free version, something basically no other host does. Over 200M people have used it, and countless started on .com and then migrated to another host. The shared branding made it very difficult for services like Typepad to compete. You want to see what WP would look like without it? Go to Joomla. </p>



<p>.com has also been the source of countless performance improvements, we deploy pre-release versions of core to millions of sites to find bugs and do testing, making WP releases way more stable for regular users and hosts. <strong><em>No company contributes more, even though many make more from WP than .com&#8217;s revenue.</em></strong> It would have been way easier to fork the software, not merge MU. Most hosts (and many community members) bad-mouth .com while not contributing a fraction back to core. Hosts spend tens of millions a year on ads against .com. I get attacked constantly.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>In 2010, when the WordPress Foundation was created, <a href="https://wordpress.org/book/2015/11/the-wordpress-foundation/#:~:text=Automattic%20had%20always%20intended%20to,company's%20investors%20at%20the%20outset.">Automattic transferred the WordPress trademarks to the Foundation</a>, after having been the temporary custodian of the trademarks until that time. As part of the transfer, the Foundation granted Mullenweg use of the WordPress trademark for WordPress.com.</p>



<p>This trademark was deliberately secured, and the company does not appear to be open to renaming the platform. This doesn&#8217;t mean WordPress.com can&#8217;t do anything to mitigate the confusion that scraping the WordPress.org plugin directory creates. Participants in the discussion suggested that WordPress.com forego indexing the pages they created for plugins that developers submitted to the open source project.</p>



<p>&#8220;You can control SEO by telling search engines to not index those pages of open source software developed for .org on the .com domain,&#8221; WordPress plugin developer Marco Almeida <a href="https://twitter.com/Wonderm00n/status/1701905853165551802">said</a>.</p>



<p>&#8220;I have 20 free plugins on the repository and I don&#8217;t see how my plugins will benefit if we open this pandora box and normalize cloning these pages and diluting the WordPress.org importance on search engines.&#8221;</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dotcom can help by using schema markup that points to dotorg as the authority (using the "about" and/or "sameAs" properties). The dotorg pages already have the schema markup in place, you'll just need to point to it from dotcom.<br /><br />This is helpful for dotcom too. Although Google…</p>&mdash; Jeff Matson <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f47e.png" alt="👾" class="wp-smiley" /> (@TheJeffMatson) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheJeffMatson/status/1701935427672764641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Developers who are just now discovering their WordPress.org plugins cloned to WordPress.com listings are also wanting to know how many of their installs come from WordPress.com so they can better understand their user bases. Mullenweg <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1702001800520343848">suggested</a> developers who want a different listing for WordPress.com users can <a href="https://developer.wordpress.com/wordpress-com-marketplace/">sign up for the .com marketplace</a>.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">well, this could be true, but as plugin author I don’t know how many installations are on .com or .org, or how to show the plugin description/features in a different way to a .com user. I think that the main issue here is the directory cloning</p>&mdash; Simone Maranzana (@simo_m) <a href="https://twitter.com/simo_m/status/1701996397338190088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Tensions remained high as the heated discussion continued throughout the day and into the evening with criticism flowing across X (Twitter), Post Status Slack, and other social channels, as many developers learned for the first time that their plugin listings have been cloned on WordPress.com.  As long as a commercial entity shares the open source project&#8217;s branding, these types of clashes and friction will continue popping up.</p>



<p>&#8220;Personally, I can’t help but empathize with plugin authors that chose to support OSS and find the directory cloned in a commercial service, albeit free, with no access to stats,&#8221; Francesca Marano <a href="https://twitter.com/FrancescaMarano/status/1702001376442700283">said</a>. &#8220;As I mentioned before, the main issue is the confusion around the two projects.&#8221; </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 Sep 2023 04:05:39 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:69:"Akismet: Version 5.3 of the Akismet WordPress plugin is now available";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://akismet.com/?p=281046";s:7:"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:86:"https://akismet.com/blog/version-5-3-of-the-akismet-wordpress-plugin-is-now-available/";s: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:1120:"<p>Version 5.3 of <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/">the Akismet plugin for WordPress</a> is now available.</p>



<p>The updated plugin has new easy-to-read notices. These are the messages shown when Akismet is successfully set up or there is an issue with your install.</p>



<img src="https://akismet455732288.files.wordpress.com/2023/09/image.png?w=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-281050" />



<p>We have improved support for RTL (right-to-left) languages like Hebrew and Arabic, and have made some accessibility improvements to help users enter their API key more easily. </p>



<p>Users of the <a href="https://fluentforms.com/">Fluent Forms</a> plugin will be pleased to know that the latest version of Akismet is now compatible with <a href="https://fluentforms.com/fluent-forms-5-0/">Fluent Forms v5</a> and above.</p>



<p>To upgrade, visit the Updates page of your WordPress dashboard and follow the instructions. If you need to download the plugin zip file directly, links to all versions are available in <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/">the WordPress plugins directory</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, 13 Sep 2023 20:31:54 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17:"Chris Rosser 🏔";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:85:"WPTavern: #90 – Olga Gleckler on How Anyone Can Contribute to the WordPress Project";s:7:"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=148683";s:7:"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://wptavern.com/podcast/90-olga-gleckler-on-how-anyone-can-contribute-to-the-wordpress-project";s: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:40576:"Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p>Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, how you can assist the WordPress project by contributing.</p>



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



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



<p>So on the podcast today we have Olga Gleckler. Olga is a self-taught developer with many years of experience. After initially pursuing a career in marketing, she turned back to her passion for programming and became a full-time developer. She has been contributing to WordPress for four years, and is currently serving as the Core triaged lead for version 6.4.</p>



<p>In addition, Olga is a maintainer for two components in Core, and actively participates in various teams within the WordPress community.</p>



<p>Outside of work, she&#8217;s also writing a fantasy book, which has a significant personal project for her.</p>



<p>Olga has tried her hand in various teams within the WordPress community, ranging from Polyglots to Training, Support and more. She challenges the commonly held misconception that only coders can contribute to the WordPress project, highlighting the many different ways individuals can contribute without coding skills.</p>



<p>During our conversation, Olga shares some examples of non-coding contributions that can be made to the WordPress project. We talk about the process of submitting patches and contributions to WordPress, discussing the schedule for releases, and the importance of understanding the processes and deadlines.</p>



<p>Olga also emphasizes the essential steps of testing, reviewing for coding standards and ensuring correct documentation in order to make impactful contributions.</p>



<p>Olga&#8217;s journey and the WordPress community has been very varied. She discusses how being part of this ecosystem has improved her career prospects, and gained her trust from others. However she acknowledges that not everyone finds their place immediately and may struggle to get started.</p>



<p>She explores how to contribute without becoming discouraged, and shares her experiences in the mentorship program that paired mentors with mentees in navigating the WordPress community.</p>



<p>Throughout the conversation Olga shows a deep passion for the WordPress project and the collaborative nature of the community. She reminds us that contributing to open source projects requires patience and persistence and shares her insights on learning methods, seeking guidance and asking questions in order to make progress.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;ve thought about contributing to WordPress, but are not sure where to begin, this episode is for you. If you&#8217;re interested</p>



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



<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Olga Gleckler.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Olga Gleckler. Hello, Olga!</p>



<p>[00:04:08] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> Hi.</p>



<p>[00:04:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Very nice to have you with us. Olga is going to be chatting to us today about contributing to WordPress, probably specifically around WordPress Core, but we will no doubt in the introduction discover that Olga&#8217;s done a lot more in the WordPress space.</p>



<p>Olga, just before we begin, let&#8217;s orientate our listeners a little bit about you. This is a chance to give us your biography. Tell us who you are, how long you&#8217;ve been working with code and computers and in the WordPress space more specifically. You can go as far back as you like.</p>



<p>[00:04:43] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> Sounds great. I wanted to be a programmer at school, but I messed up with my education and turned out to be a marketer. Then I was a bit disappointed in marketing because you cannot promise to deliver something and actually deliver it. And I switched back to my previous passion to development, and become a developer like a self taught.</p>



<p>And already nine years I&#8217;m working full time as a developer. And four years I&#8217;m contributing to WordPress. To find the WordPress community, it was a big discovery for me, and actually turning point for the whole experience, because WordPress is good, is great, and I liked it.</p>



<p>When I discovered the community, I started to love it. And since Berlin in 2019, I joined marketing team and several other teams. I contributed to polyglots team, to training team, to support, I love support. And some other teams. And right now I am Core triage lead for 6.4. I was Core triage co-lead for 6.3 as well.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m a maintainer for two components in Core, so I think I know a bit about how you can actually contribute to Core, and I still enjoying all the process.</p>



<p>Apart from full time job and contribution, I also want to mention that I&#8217;m writing a fantasy book. It&#8217;s like a big deal for me. It&#8217;s a draft, but it&#8217;s another passion I carry on with myself all around the world.</p>



<p>[00:06:25] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That&#8217;s really interesting. So you&#8217;ve been involved in all sorts of different sides of WordPress. You mentioned there specifically that you joined the marketing team, obviously based upon your past history with studying marketing and things like that. But you found that that maybe wasn&#8217;t the best fit for you. And I guess that&#8217;s going to be part of the conversation today, is that there&#8217;s a lot of different places that you can contribute. And if you join a team and it doesn&#8217;t seem to be the right fit first time, that&#8217;s not a reason to give up, because there are just multiple different ways that you can contribute to WordPress, right?</p>



<p>[00:07:02] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> I love marketing. I cannot kick it out of me, and I still deeply involved in marketing team activities and most of my efforts I am making are between teams. For example, between marketing and mobile team, between marketing and Core team. It&#8217;s something inside me and I cannot kick it out, and I&#8217;m looking at Core tickets from the marketing point of view, and trying to find something significant, something to change, something to improve user experience, to deliver improvement and make a difference and impact.</p>



<p>So, yes. I joined marketing team first and I&#8217;m still there, part of the marketing team, but I tried different things like in support, in polyglots. They are all very different and very important as well. So I poke around a lot, and finally I pluck up the courage, with help, and starting to contribute to Core team.</p>



<p>[00:08:06] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It sounds like on your journey you have dabbled in, you said, poking around, you&#8217;ve had a go at various different teams and you&#8217;ve obviously enjoyed that. In some of the show notes that you shared with me, you list out some of the different things. So you&#8217;ve been involved in several different teams, for example, polyglots, training, and you mentioned support and TV actually, which is kind of an interesting one.</p>



<p>That gives us an idea of the different things that you can be involved in. There&#8217;s a whole range there, but I want to drive this message home. The idea that if you&#8217;re in the WordPress community, I think there is a perception that if you don&#8217;t code, you&#8217;re probably not going to be able to contribute. And I think it&#8217;s fair to say that you really don&#8217;t believe that. That&#8217;s just not true. You don&#8217;t have to have any coding skills at all.</p>



<p>Now, clearly, if you&#8217;re tackling contributions where code is required, that&#8217;s probably different, but there&#8217;s loads of different ways that you can contribute. And I wonder if you wouldn&#8217;t mind just telling us about some of those different things. Some of the things that teach us that you don&#8217;t need to be a coder to contribute to the project.</p>



<p>[00:09:17] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> For example, Community team. Community team is handling all the organization processes for meetups, WordCamps, other events and supporting people. It&#8217;s a great and a big job for managers. People who are taking care about things. You don&#8217;t need to be a developer at all. You just need to manage things.</p>



<p>And this is only one team, and we have more than 22 teams. We have security team. It&#8217;s a bit obscure because obvious reasons, but you can contribute to all other teams. For example, if you are teacher, you can contribute to training team. If you are purely WordPress user, you can contribute to a lot of teams.</p>



<p>For example documentation and checking if things are clear, and documentation is actually following the actual result or not, or something needs to be changed.</p>



<p>And users, just users without any experience in development can bring a huge value because developers are, we have such flaw because everything is working for us. We know how it should go, and it&#8217;s going in the right direction. And if you don&#8217;t know how it&#8217;s supposed to work, you can poke around a bit and discover some flaws, some doubts, some things which are unclear, and bring a huge value for the code itself.</p>



<p>And apart from it translation. Polyglot team is your goal if you like to translate. And this is the way to improve your own understanding of English and your own language. Because if you are starting to translate, it&#8217;s become apparent, obvious that it isn&#8217;t easy to do. And you need to put your brain, your heart to this task at hand.</p>



<p>And support also a good point for people who want to learn. Because if you, for example, can answer like one question from ten, you can make someone else&#8217;s day better.</p>



<p>And in the process, you can learn more and more, and answer more questions, and improve your own skills this way. Just helping other people. And. This is only few teams you can contribute.</p>



<p>And also TV. You can edit videos for other people. You can translate and make subtitles for these videos. You can of course review them.</p>



<p>And the team everyone is just love right now is photo team. You can contribute your photos to photo directory and contribute this way. If you are a photographer you can contribute to WordPress your ideas in pictures. And of course, if you like looking at pictures, you can go and review these contributions. Because there are some rules, for example, people not, should not be present on these images, et cetera. So there are some rules about quality, et cetera.</p>



<p>So we have a lot more abilities. It&#8217;s just top of things and we have a lot more.</p>



<p>[00:12:37] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> There are, from everything you&#8217;ve just said, so many different avenues that you could go down. And I know, even though you gave us quite a list there, you&#8217;ve still probably only scratched the surface, and if you were to get into the weeds of those teams, I&#8217;m sure there&#8217;d be something for everybody.</p>



<p>I have a question. It&#8217;s a bit of a personal question. And I&#8217;m really wondering why you do this. And the reason I&#8217;m asking that is because a couple of times in what you just said, you mentioned how it was good for your, your heart. If you like, it made you feel better. But also you said that it was helping other people.</p>



<p>And so let&#8217;s, for example, say that you answer a support ticket, you&#8217;ve helped somebody out. You&#8217;ve taken them from a place of not knowing, to a place of knowing. So, why do you give up your time? What is it that you get out of it? That may be simply that it makes you feel good, you want the project to be better, so that you can be employed from working with WordPress.</p>



<p>It may be that you just enjoy it, that you get to meet new people, attend events, go in any direction you like. I&#8217;m really curious.</p>



<p>[00:13:37] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> I think I love everything. I put my trust in WordPress. This is best choice there is. I believe in it, and of course I&#8217;m going to improve, to put back this Five For The Future of myself. To be able to work and use WordPress continuously, and improve it like it&#8217;s obvious choice for people who are working on it. And this is only one way.</p>



<p>The second, I love all this gathering, all these people with passion. Open minded people and everyone is curious and want to learn and want to do something. And everyone is open and this is a safe environment. We&#8217;re all following code of conduct. So, it&#8217;s completely different space. Open source project. It&#8217;s blow minded. I think how it can change your mind and your perspective.</p>



<p>And of course I got job proposal, previous one, because people know me in the community. And this one is also partly because what I&#8217;m doing, because I&#8217;m well known, a developer. So I was wondering, where is the technical interview? And I was told that there is no need for you, because we know that you are up to scratch already. So it was a good point.</p>



<p>So people are amazing. You are improving your skills. You are getting understanding of your level in comparison to other people&#8217;s level. You can learn on their efforts and, for example, patches, examples, documentation, etc. So you are continuously improving yourself. A lot of reasons.</p>



<p>[00:15:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, there are a lot of reasons. Really interesting though. There&#8217;s obviously a lot of desire from you. You obviously enjoy the whole ecosystem and all of the different tendrils and spokes on the wheel. But also interesting to note that you&#8217;ve also done your career prospects no harm by contributing, because you get to the point where you&#8217;ve contributed enough that people are going to start looking for you as somebody that they can trust and rely on. So you kind of jumped over the hurdle of job interviews a little bit there as well. So that&#8217;s really interesting.</p>



<p>Okay. Let&#8217;s move on to the, another part of the conversation, which is beginning contributing, how you might do that. Because I&#8217;m guessing that for some people, it may be that you hit the ground running and you decide, okay, I&#8217;d like to be part of the contribution community and you find the right project and you find the right thing to do immediately. But I&#8217;m also fairly sure that other people will get discouraged. They&#8217;ll perhaps jump in to the wrong part of the project, or maybe tackle something which is a little bit difficult. They can&#8217;t find the people to help them and so on. So I wonder if you&#8217;ve got any advice about that? Trying to contribute without getting discouraged.</p>



<p>[00:16:40] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> Firstly, you need to know what is your learning curve, what is best for you. Sometimes it takes some time to figure it out. For example, some people are purely reading documentation and they are fine with it. But some people need video recording, or they need like a leg up from mentor or just little help for like facilitators.</p>



<p>And we are trying to provide all this to make it really easy. Right now, there is a barrier, yeah. But if you want to start to contribute to Core, for example, you need to go to new contributor chat. This is like bi-weekly meeting before the main dev chat. And it&#8217;s better to ask questions. For example, we are like going through the usual script, we are highlighting several documents and links you&#8217;re supposed to browse, but you can be stuck at any moment and actually these meetings are for providing help and we are there.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m mostly present there to help if people are stuck. And you need to understand that asking questions, it&#8217;s normal state for everyone. We all are continuously asking questions, and there is no stupid questions, because everyone knows that sometimes it&#8217;s hard to begin. Or even you can miss something obvious, even if you are the smartest person in the world, you can miss something obvious, because it&#8217;s obvious for someone else.</p>



<p>So, this is how you can start. But in addition to this, we started a contribute mentorship channel in the Slack. This is dedicated channel for contributor mentorship program. We just finished first pilot program when we took 13 people and they got their own mentors. But everyone else was hanging around, and facilitators like me was providing help for people and answering questions. Specific questions, like how to start, how to pick up ticket, what I should do etc. And if I am like with such background, what is better fit for me, etc.</p>



<p>But as well, apart from this, you can just poke around and be present in usual developers chats, but it can take time. So to make things quickly, you need some help from people. And we are actually ready for help. And in the documentation, there is a list of people whom you can ask if you have questions and difficulties. I&#8217;m listed there as well. So people are actually writing for me in DM if they don&#8217;t like comfortable enough to write openly, and asking such questions.</p>



<p>But if you want your question answered sooner, you can just go to Core channel in the Slack and ask this question openly for everyone to see. And this way you can contribute to other people&#8217;s success as well, because some people not ready to answer this, the same question, and they can see your question and pick up what was written to you. But you don&#8217;t need to jump in the middle of usual, regular chats. You need to wait until open floor if there is like a dev chat going on. So your question can be like, just be flooded with everything else which is happening. Or this is a release going on, no one will be able to answer your questions properly.</p>



<p>[00:20:27] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s a good point. Timing is crucial. I&#8217;m just going to circle back to the mentorship program because I think that&#8217;s really interesting. So this is a new initiative, and it may be of interest to people who perhaps have thought about contributing, but have been a little bit unwilling or discouraged, or they had some bumps in the road and decided not to continue.</p>



<p>Can you just tell us what that is, how that process works? And I know it&#8217;s new and I know you&#8217;re trying to figure it all out, but what is it? How does it work? My understanding is that you will be partnered, in certain teams, at least anyway, with people who have done the role that you&#8217;re hoping to do and can therefore sort of shepherd you for a period of weeks. Set the expectations for you, give you some advice about where to go for help and all of that kind of stuff. Have I more or less got that right?</p>



<p>[00:21:17] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> Yeah, it was a pilot, so we were just trying things. The plan for people was decided, how they can proceed. And we received 50 applications, but was able to take 13 people to partner them with mentors. Mentors were people with wide knowledge inside the community and contribution, but not exactly the match on person&#8217;s interests. This person was providing like general support. And actually it&#8217;s works great.</p>



<p>They make contribution plans and providing feedback, what&#8217;s working, what is not working. And first two weeks mentees was doing learn courses. And I think 11 of them finished all courses. And then we started sessions, introductory sessions, for many WordPress teams. I had one introduction session for Core. It was also training team, polyglot team, support team, community team, and several other teams.</p>



<p>So we put a lot of efforts and most of these sessions are recorded, so you can rewatch them. And this was only the first pilot try. So I think the next time we will do better. And we actually scheduled this to be finished next day after release. So our mentees was able to see the whole process of the release alongside with us, and take part in this.</p>



<p>And several people actually contribute to Core. They made patches, they tested things. From our point of view, it&#8217;s a real success and we provided people ability to start quickly, and when there are dedicated people, it&#8217;s much easier to ask questions and get answers, and be oriented in this huge area. And because this mentees got an overview of the whole project, like general.</p>



<p>They was easy to understand what will fit them better. If they like Core, or if they want to translate things, or if they are going to support. Actually, I think one guy answered 200 questions on the support, on the spot, yeah. I have much difference in answering questions. It&#8217;s actually takes time, but he went passionate about this, and it&#8217;s great.</p>



<p>[00:23:43] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You mentioned in the shared show notes that we&#8217;ve got together for this podcast episode well, I just think this is a lovely phrase, so I&#8217;m going to read it out. You wanted to talk about setting the right expectations and understanding of processes, and the fact that these are the key points to, this is the bit that I really like, joyful contribution. So I wonder if you could outline some of those things, some of the wrinkles, some of the expectations that you need to, not only have set for you, but need to set yourself. Because it may be that there are going to be bumps in the road, things that don&#8217;t quite work out.</p>



<p>You may tackle something which ultimately never gets used, or you may think that you&#8217;ve created a solution, I&#8217;m thinking about coding in Core in this particular case, which then has an impact on something else. And so it needs to be iterated on over and over again. So I guess what we&#8217;re trying to say is, it&#8217;s not always going to be plain sailing. Not every contribution that you make might be used or suitable. But there are things that you think you can do to make sure that the process is more likely to work in your favour.</p>



<p>[00:24:46] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> Yeah, because it&#8217;s open source. We have a huge community and we are working together. And if you did something like your part, it&#8217;s a bit naive to expect that someone else will pick immediately, like next day. And everything will be done until Friday. It&#8217;s not happening. So if you know that things are taking time and can be more complicated than they look like in the first place, you can adjust your expectations and don&#8217;t expect your shiny new Core Contributor badge next morning on your profile.</p>



<p>You will get this badge, but only when you&#8217;re patch, or testing involvement, or other contribution will be going to release. So you will get this batch after the release, right after. But still it takes time. So if you are like in a hurry, you need to adjust.</p>



<p>And of course, sometimes people are creating a patch, like I&#8217;ve done everything and it&#8217;s not going anywhere. And they are becoming disappointing and interest is going away for contribution. So, what you should do if you did something and no one is paying attention, at least it looks like it. You need to understand that we have more than 8,000 open tickets. So, it&#8217;s a huge thing and we are continuously triaging these tickets. This is why we need continuously triage and component maintainers in the first place.</p>



<p>So if you did something and no one is bothering about it, you should look if this ticket has an owner. Owner is not a person who is doing the patch. This is person who should care, who supposed to care, about this ticket and push it forward. If this ticket has an owner, ping this owner right in the ticket. I did this, please take a look and how we can proceed.</p>



<p>And this ticket has no owner, you can&#8217;t ping component maintainer. Some components don&#8217;t have maintainers because we have a lot of components and a bit short in maintainers. What should you do? You can turn up on regular dev chat, wait until open floor, and ask about your ticket and what you want to do about this. There will be a lot of seasoned Core contributors around at this point, and your ticket will be noticed. If it will be like good to go further or you need to rework, it will be seen. But at least you will be starting in the right direction forward. So, you need to be a bit pushy about things to make them happen.</p>



<p>[00:27:31] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I guess that&#8217;s a really interesting lesson, isn&#8217;t it? If you contribute something and it doesn&#8217;t either immediately get noticed, or you feel that it&#8217;s not being noticed, I think that&#8217;s interesting advice. There are different ways that you can make your voice heard, shall we say, and you&#8217;ve mentioned some of those there.</p>



<p>You also wanted to point out that there are roadblocks in the timeline of WordPress, where if you submit, let&#8217;s say a patch to something, there are periods in the calendar where things are frozen. And so there are periods, for example, just prior to a release, when we get to release candidate one or beta one, where really, you&#8217;re probably best doing something else because there are freezes. You say that the polyglots team needs to be able to translate strings and things like that. So don&#8217;t know if you want to talk about that.</p>



<p>[00:28:19] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> Yes, sometimes people made something and turn it up, right before the release. And they are disappointed because their patch will not go to this release. Because we have schedule and schedule for the next release, you can easily look on the make wordpress dot org slash core slash 6 hyphen four, for example, right now for this release, and understand the process.</p>



<p>So if, for example, you are working on enhancement or a feature, they need to be in the trunk before better one. Because it&#8217;s like a significant changes, and they need good testing coverage, et cetera. Big things needs to be, go first. If ticket has a keyword early, it should be even before beta one, like right after the previous release. It should be done quickly, because these things can impact a lot.</p>



<p>And then there&#8217;s a release candidate one. If you are working on a bug or if you are anything have content change, it should be in the trunk for release candidate one. Because with release candidate one, we have strings freeze. This is time before release candidate one and actual release for Polyglot&#8217;s team to be able to translate this new, or changed strings, to their own languages and make WordPress great in their own language.</p>



<p>People need time for this, and we have a huge amount of strings. If you will be starting to contribute to Polyglot&#8217;s team, you will start to understand that it&#8217;s also a big deal and a big job. So if you&#8217;re working on something, you need to fit your patch in this right moment and not after.</p>



<p>And of course, your patch needs to be tested, your patch needs to be reviewed from coding standards, for possible regressions. Possibly you will need to rework some things, or make changes in supporting documentation. For example, each function has this description, yeah, documentation for this function.</p>



<p>This is why WordPress is so great. It&#8217;s clear, good written documentation inside code. So everything should be fine before it will go to trunk, even if the thing is working itself. Sometimes you need to cover this code with unit tests and you need to take into account these things as well. Sometimes, most of the time, people are surprised about unit tests.</p>



<p>And we have a huge coverage of the code and it&#8217;s actually great. It makes things robust. So if you fix some bug, you are covering this part of the code with unit test to be sure that this will not be happening again. And it&#8217;s actually great.</p>



<p>[00:31:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> There are some places, probably it&#8217;s fair to say, which are better places to start. And again, in the show notes that you&#8217;ve shared, you&#8217;ve alerted me to the fact that it may be that you think something is going to be relatively straightforward. So again, we&#8217;re talking about bug fixes here. So we are talking about the code.</p>



<p>But it may be that you submit something and it turns out to be more difficult. So what you suggest then is that there are some recommendations for where a new contributor might start. So perhaps not the best idea to find the most difficult and challenging thing first time around. And there is some guidance that you can give in terms of where to look and tickets that are marked in a certain way. So yeah, I wonder if you could get into that.</p>



<p>[00:31:53] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> Yes, sometimes ticket can be, look very simple, but can turn into a rabbit hole. For example, my best example so far is changing double equal to triple equal. It can bring a lot of regressions, and you will be browsing, trying to fix other things. And most likely this change will not be worth it. And it will be very difficult to convince everyone else that it&#8217;s actually worth doing. And, we will not have ten more bugs because of this one.</p>



<p>So sometimes good new patch, like a feature or enhancement, works better. And robust piece of code, when you have like head or tail, it&#8217;s great. And we have tickets which are marked as good first bugs. So if you are browsing tickets in Core track, you can see these tickets by this keyword, by search, custom search. And you can even subscribe to this good first bug hashtag on Twitter and following these tickets.</p>



<p>For example, if some ticket is not good for you. If you don&#8217;t like it or you don&#8217;t want to work on UI, for example, or you prefer some other stuff, you can be subscribed to this hashtag, and following along and see what is actually working for you. And start when there will be like right ticket for you.</p>



<p>But this can be like a bit shock, because a lot of people are subscribed to this good first bugs, they can be taken and already someone else can make a patch. But another thing is that if there is a patch, it does not mean that you cannot contribute because you can review this patch, you can make improvement to this patch.</p>



<p>You can collaborate with other people on this ticket and make it work, and be great and quick. So, don&#8217;t abandon some ticket if there is a patch. Work is not done with the patch, it&#8217;s just the beginning.</p>



<p>[00:34:01] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You also make a recommendation to look out for, I guess, if you&#8217;re beginning at least anyway, to look out for tickets where the scope is really clear. And you&#8217;ve also got channels for feedback.</p>



<p>[00:34:13] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> Yes, definitely. Because sometimes scope isn&#8217;t clear and it also can turn rabbit hole. So if you have any doubts about tickets, just any, like a tickling feeling inside your head that something is not actually right, you can turn up into the Core channel on Slack, and ask about this ticket.</p>



<p>Seasoned contributors will look through and clarify things for you. It&#8217;s actually better than put up a lot of work and then turn out that something was wrong in the beginning with the ticket and approach is not working. So don&#8217;t waste your time, and be ready to collaborate on the ticket from the beginning with other people. And it&#8217;s what actually is working.</p>



<p>If you are like staying alone and doing something, you can feel lonely and a bit abandoned, and then disappointed. But if you are open to conversation to other people and can receive help, you can provide this help as well. And we are all working on the final result, on WordPress, and it&#8217;s great.</p>



<p>[00:35:23] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I like the way that you&#8217;ve rounded off the show notes, because you make the point that whole process of improving WordPress is a continuous learning process. And you may feel that you&#8217;ve just provided lots of your time. Maybe your patch wasn&#8217;t used, or you ran up against something which you couldn&#8217;t work out for yourself, and you needed additional help.</p>



<p>But you make the point that it&#8217;s okay, you know. It wouldn&#8217;t be wise to view that as a waste of time because even negative experiences, when you view them from a distance can often be helpful. You may learn something along the way. So negative results, negative experiences may also turn out with time to be positive experiences. And so I guess that&#8217;s kind of a nice way to frame it.</p>



<p>[00:36:05] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> Yeah, you can like cut out things that are not working and to make clear paths to things which are working. And then the result, everyone&#8217;s contributions count. No matter if you make patch and it wasn&#8217;t working, and someone else went and improved your patch and make some additional things. And another iteration, another approach discovered some other possibilities. Upon your negative result, they will be going forward.</p>



<p>[00:36:37] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Just before we round it off, I do wonder what your thoughts are. It&#8217;s very clear from everything that you&#8217;ve said that you&#8217;re very committed, you&#8217;re very keen. You love all this stuff. I wonder what the state of contributions is? I&#8217;m particularly thinking about things like the pandemic, for example. And whether or not that had an impact in the amount of time that people were able to give.</p>



<p>My understanding is that contributions may have taken a little bit of a dip. I don&#8217;t know where we&#8217;re at right now. Obviously the program that you mentioned for mentoring earlier is a great way to encourage people, to get people back in. But I don&#8217;t know what the situation is. Are people contributing this year in the same way that they were, let&#8217;s say, five years ago? I don&#8217;t know if you have any data on that at all.</p>



<p>[00:37:24] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> I don&#8217;t think any data, but yeah, we had a drop in contribution when pandemic started, because everyone was distressed and we need to take care about our family, our health. So we went through this and not once, but several times having this thing.</p>



<p>But right now I think we are on the right track. It comes down and we used to new things, and it&#8217;s actually turned to be better for everyone. Because, for example, employers understand that people are able to work remotely. And many people right now are working remotely. They got more time. They are saving time on this road to work and back at home.</p>



<p>So they are keeping this time and they can contribute more easily. I&#8217;m an example for this because I&#8217;m working remotely all these nine years. This is why I was able to contribute at the beginning, because otherwise I wouldn&#8217;t have time. So I think pandemic, it was horrible, yeah, but it&#8217;s turned for the better. And right now we can do more. We can contribute more and we can be more flexible in what we are doing.</p>



<p>[00:38:45] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Olga, I think we&#8217;ll wrap it up there. But before we do, obviously, you&#8217;re very keen, and if your passion for contributing has rubbed off on somebody else, and perhaps they would like to talk to you before they jump in with both feet. I wonder if you wouldn&#8217;t mind telling us a little bit about where we can find you. That might be a website or a Twitter handle, whatever you like.</p>



<p>[00:39:07] <strong>Olga Gleckler:</strong> I think best place to find me is on Slack. Why my name? Because there are several channels, I can put people in the right direction straight away. And because I&#8217;m almost always there. I just want everyone to join. But, yes, if you have problems with Slack, and it can happen, then you can reach me on Twitter, and I will be able to help you join WordPress org, create an account, etc. But, probably you can try it yourself.</p>



<p>[00:39:42] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Olga Gleckler, thank you very much for joining us on the podcast today. I really appreciate it.</p>
</div>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://twitter.com/Glekler/">Olga Gleckler</a>.</p>



<p>Olga is a self-taught developer with many years experience. After initially pursuing a career in marketing, she turned back to her passion for programming and became a full-time developer. She has been contributing to WordPress for four years and is currently serving as the Core triage lead for version 6.4. In addition, Olga is a maintainer for two components in Core, and actively participates in various teams within the WordPress community. Outside of work, she is also writing a fantasy book, which is a significant personal project for her.</p>



<p>Olga has tried her hand in various teams within the community, ranging from Polyglots to Training, Support, and more. She challenges the commonly held misconception that only coders can contribute to the WordPress project, highlighting the many different ways individuals can contribute without coding skills.</p>



<p>During our conversation, Olga shares some examples of non-coding contributions that can be made to the WordPress project. We talk about the process of submitting patches and contributions to WordPress, discussing the schedule for releases, and the importance of understanding the processes and deadlines.</p>



<p>Olga also emphasises the essential steps of testing, reviewing for coding standards, and ensuring correct documentation in order to make impactful contributions.</p>



<p>Olga&#8217;s journey in the WordPress community has been very varied. She discusses how being a part of this ecosystem has improved her career prospects and gained her trust from others. However, she acknowledges that not everyone finds their place immediately, and may struggle to get started. She explores how to contribute without becoming discouraged, and shares her experiences in the mentorship program that paired mentors with mentees in navigating the WordPress community.</p>



<p>Throughout the conversation, Olga shows a deep passion for the WordPress project and the collaborative nature of the community. She reminds us that contributing to open-source projects requires patience and persistence, and shares her insights on learning methods, seeking guidance, and asking questions in order to make progress.</p>



<p>If you’ve thought about contributing to WordPress, but are not sure where to begin, this episode is for you.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Useful links.</h2>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2023/06/23/launch-your-wordpress-contributor-journey-through-the-mentorship-program-pilot/">Contribute Mentorship Program</a></p>



<p><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a></p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-4/">WordPress 6.4 Development Cycle</a></p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/about/">Polyglots Team</a></p>



<p><a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/">WordPress Core Trac</a></p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/Glekler/">Olga&#8217;s Twitter</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, 13 Sep 2023 14:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:92:"Do The Woo Community: La Comunidad de WordPress en Español / WordPress Community in Spanish";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76497";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:62:"https://dothewoo.io/spanish-latin-america-wordpress-community/";s: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:454:"<p>Únete a Juan Hernando, Ericka Barboza y Javier Casares en una animada conversación sobre la comunidad de WordPress en España y Latinoamérica.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/spanish-latin-america-wordpress-community/">La Comunidad de WordPress en Español / WordPress Community in Spanish</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 Sep 2023 09:23:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:48:"HeroPress: My Journey and Travels with WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=5811";s:7:"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:148:"https://heropress.com/essays/my-journey-and-travels-with-wordpress/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=my-journey-and-travels-with-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12098:"<img width="1024" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/091223-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: WordPress has given me a wealth opportunity, freedom, and some fabulous friendships." /><p>I love WordPress!&#8230;</p>



<p>For many years I opened and operated Irish pubs for investors across Europe &#8211; it was lots of fun, it was also exhausting! I was itching to do something that wasn&#8217;t so physically demanding and very restricting on my time. </p>



<h2 class="kt-adv-heading5811_803067-d3 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading">The Journey Begins</h2>



<p>I began to learn WordPress. WordPress gave me the freedom I was craving. After a couple of years playing with it I began to build sites for other people, eventually leaving the hospitality industry to build websites.</p>



<p>Back then I had recently moved from Bruges in Belgium to Brittany region of France where I&#8217;d bought an old granite 4 story house built in 1860 to renovate. I was asked by a local French / English association if I would run some in person workshops for some of their members. These people who wanted to build and maintain a simple website themselves.</p>



<p>Most attendees were English speaking Ex Pats from start-up businesses with tiny budgets. Some were French speakers, from local French sports teams and associations, who were wanting to create an information point for their clubs. The clubs and associations had even less budget</p>



<p>I agreed to run a pilot workshop, which I called &#8216;Build a Simple Website by Teatime Today&#8217; to see how things went. The uptake was for the first workshop was phenomenal. We were limited by room capacity and safe power points to 25 participants.</p>



<p>All slots were taken in under 24 hours. A few days later the association got in touch again saying, &#8220;We know you said lets run a pilot and take things from there&#8221; however we have had another 43 people enquiring so we have opened a waiting list.&#8221;</p>



<p>&#8220;Ooooh la la&#8221; I said &#8220;I&#8217;d better work on my presentation skills!&#8221;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-being-a-teacher">Being A Teacher</h2>



<p>It was the first of many WordPress workshops over the three years that I lived in Brittany, I regularly presented to several organisations and associations and I really enjoyed it.</p>



<p>As a happy accident, it was also the start of me offering website hosting and maintenance too. Initially this was offering very low cost shared hosting space on my server for the workshop participants giving each their own Cpanel. Domains were obtained for each participant prior to the workshops in their own names and I created their hosting accounts prior to the workshops too again with their prior consent. I had also asked each participant to prepare initial pages texts, images and logos if they had one saved in a file on their laptops ready for the workshop.</p>



<p>Each workshop began with a quick peak at Cpanel for the purpose of creating an email account and to load WordPress on to the domain using Fantastico &#8211; remember Fantastico? Fantastico was superseded by Softaculous and for people people with very little tech experience, wanting to build a website DIY [as a do it yourself project] it offered an easier route than loading WordPress via FTP.</p>



<p>From there we covered logging into their WordPress dashboards loading a theme, adding pages adding content to the pages including logo and images from the participants pre prepared folders.<br />For the ease of the workshop we all used the same theme. It was the beginning of the participants WordPress journey. I was delighted;- all of them had a thirst for more in depth learning as a result more workshops followed. Within a couple of years I was super busy again feeling my time was not my own again!</p>



<h2 class="kt-adv-heading5811_c67890-71 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading">Moving On</h2>



<p>Working with WordPress meant I could work from anywhere as long as I had an internet connection.<br />It was time for another adventure! This time relocating from France to England where my partner Simon, an international touring musician, and I lived on a narrowboat. I spent several years traveling with the band when they toured, mostly taking photos and keeping the tour bus spic and span! With a regular job that wouldn&#8217;t have been possible.</p>



<p>In January 2017, after a very busy 2016, we took a quick spur of the moment holiday to Ullapool in the Scottish Highlands, seeking snow! We extended our trip by a week, then another week and then decided we wanted to stay, and stay we did! We took a 6 month Winter let on a holiday cottage, popping off on tour from our new location. Towards the end of the 6 months, we found a cottage on the edge of Strathgarve Forest between Ullapool and Inverness and moved in between tour dates.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s a stunning, extremely rural location and we love it. Here I have an office in our cottage which benefits from superfast broadband despite our very rural location. After over 30 years of touring Simon trying his best to retire from life on the road.</p>



<p>I have a bunch of clients that keep me as busy as I want to be, some of whom I have worked with for many years, some are new to me since coming to Scotland.</p>



<p>I have been lucky in that lovely clients seem to find me, through word of mouth really. I don&#8217;t advertise and I haven&#8217;t had the capacity to take on new clients for some time. I really don&#8217;t want to expand which may seem strange to many. I have no interest in taking on employees, I have been there and done that in my pub life days. These days I like an easy life enabling me to enjoy where I live and indulging my passion for open spaces and photography.</p>



<p>WordPress has an amazing community around the World, it has brought so many opportunities and so many friendships into my life from all around the world. I love the collaboration.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-giving-back">Giving Back</h2>



<p>Just last week I was on a Zoom call with a group hosted from the USA. Nathan, the guy hosting the call said to me, &#8221; Hey Sadie, I saw a photograph on display at WordCamp USA last week that you&#8217;d taken. Did you know about that?&#8221;</p>



<p>Truth was I didn&#8217;t. Nathan said &#8220;I&#8217;ll email it to you I took a photo of your photo!&#8221;</p>



<p>The next morning I received an email from Nathan and attached was his photo of my photo in a frame with my name and a QR code attached. It was a&nbsp; Fly Agaric photo which I had taken and submitted as a creative commons contribution to the WordPress Photo Directory which is part of the Make WordPress project. I read an article a few weeks ago which was all about getting involved in the WordPress community for the growth and benefit of the community and the future of WordPress.</p>



<p>&#8220;Five for the Future&#8217; which is an initiative promoting the WordPress community’s contribution to the platform’s growth. It&#8217;s an open source project, WordPress is created by a diverse collection of people from around the world. The purpose of the project is to encourages organisations to contribute five percent of their resources to WordPress development.</p>



<p>Next I read about the Make WordPress initiative and loved everything about it. There are lots of ways for WordPress advocates to get involved and give something back to the fantastic community that WordPress is.</p>



<p>The Photo Directory grabbed my attention because I am a prolific snapper!! I immediately began to submitting photographs.&nbsp; All photos are submitted to the WordPress Photo Directory are submitted on the basis that they are gifted in to the public domain for anyone to use, anywhere, for any purpose, without the need for attribution. I recently join the Photos team as a moderator too.</p>



<p>Whilst WordPress hasn&#8217;t made me a millionaire yet! It has given me a wealth opportunity, freedom, and some fabulous friendships. WordPress is a huge part of my life. I love WordPress!</p>


<div class="kb-gallery-wrap-id-5811_02d44e-72 alignnone wp-block-kadence-advancedgallery"><ul class="kb-gallery-ul kb-gallery-non-static kb-gallery-type-grid kb-gallery-id-5811_02d44e-72 kb-gallery-caption-style-bottom-hover kb-gallery-filter-none kb-gallery-magnific-init"><li class="kadence-blocks-gallery-item"><div class="kadence-blocks-gallery-item-inner"><a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1264b7706fd91b16.42330373-1024x683.jpeg" class="kb-gallery-item-link"><div class="kb-gal-image-radius"><div class="kb-gallery-image-contain kadence-blocks-gallery-intrinsic kb-gallery-image-ratio-land32 kb-has-image-ratio-land32"><img src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1264b7706fd91b16.42330373-scaled.jpeg" width="2560" height="1707" alt="" class="wp-image-5829" /></div></div></a></div></li><li class="kadence-blocks-gallery-item"><div class="kadence-blocks-gallery-item-inner"><a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/12564c782f823ef03.11650285-1024x768.jpg" class="kb-gallery-item-link"><div class="kb-gal-image-radius"><div class="kb-gallery-image-contain kadence-blocks-gallery-intrinsic kb-gallery-image-ratio-land32 kb-has-image-ratio-land32"><img src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/12564c782f823ef03.11650285-scaled.jpg" width="2560" height="1920" alt="" class="wp-image-5834" /></div></div></a></div></li><li class="kadence-blocks-gallery-item"><div class="kadence-blocks-gallery-item-inner"><a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/20564b2aed3c07247.22900210-1024x768.jpg" class="kb-gallery-item-link"><div class="kb-gal-image-radius"><div class="kb-gallery-image-contain kadence-blocks-gallery-intrinsic kb-gallery-image-ratio-land32 kb-has-image-ratio-land32"><img src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/20564b2aed3c07247.22900210-scaled.jpg" width="2560" height="1920" alt="" class="wp-image-5830" /></div></div></a></div></li><li class="kadence-blocks-gallery-item"><div class="kadence-blocks-gallery-item-inner"><a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/32764bfc861947853.44027496-1024x683.jpg" class="kb-gallery-item-link"><div class="kb-gal-image-radius"><div class="kb-gallery-image-contain kadence-blocks-gallery-intrinsic kb-gallery-image-ratio-land32 kb-has-image-ratio-land32"><img src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/32764bfc861947853.44027496-scaled.jpg" width="2560" height="1707" alt="" class="wp-image-5832" /></div></div></a></div></li><li class="kadence-blocks-gallery-item"><div class="kadence-blocks-gallery-item-inner"><a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/49264fb52266dd038.07548553-1024x683.jpg" class="kb-gallery-item-link"><div class="kb-gal-image-radius"><div class="kb-gallery-image-contain kadence-blocks-gallery-intrinsic kb-gallery-image-ratio-land32 kb-has-image-ratio-land32"><img src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/49264fb52266dd038.07548553-scaled.jpg" width="2560" height="1707" alt="" class="wp-image-5833" /></div></div></a></div></li><li class="kadence-blocks-gallery-item"><div class="kadence-blocks-gallery-item-inner"><a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/83264b2ae3eb55005.15218256-1024x768.jpg" class="kb-gallery-item-link"><div class="kb-gal-image-radius"><div class="kb-gallery-image-contain kadence-blocks-gallery-intrinsic kb-gallery-image-ratio-land32 kb-has-image-ratio-land32"><img src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/83264b2ae3eb55005.15218256-scaled.jpg" width="2560" height="1920" alt="" class="wp-image-5831" /></div></div></a></div></li></ul></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/my-journey-and-travels-with-wordpress/">My Journey and Travels with WordPress</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 Sep 2023 08:00:00 +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:21:"Sadie-Michaela Harris";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:77:"WPTavern: WordPress Plugin Developers Renew Demands for Better Plugin Metrics";s:7:"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=148726";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-plugin-developers-renew-demands-for-better-plugin-metrics";s: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:9497:"<p>It has be nearly one year since <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-removes-active-install-growth-data-for-plugins">WordPress silently turned off active install growth data for plugins</a> hosted in the official plugin repository, a key metric that many developers rely on for accurate tracking and product decision-making. “Insufficient data obfuscation” was cited as the reason for the charts’ removal, but this opaque decision landed without any communication from those who had made the call in a private discussion.</p>



<p>In a ticket originally titled “<a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6511">Bring back the active install growth chart,</a>” RebelCode CEO Mark Zahra made the opening plea for thousands of plugin developers who were asking for the return of this data. From those who simply host hobby plugins and enjoy the thrill of watching people use software they made to business owners who need this data to make critical decisions, the overwhelming consensus was that this data is valuable and should be available to those who are contributing to WordPress through plugins.</p>



<p>In an appearance on the&nbsp;<a href="https://wpwatercooler.com/wpwatercooler/ep432-solutions-to-the-active-growth-problem/">WPwatercooler podcast</a> last year, Audrey Capital-sponsored meta contributor Samuel &#8220;Otto&#8221; Wood confirmed the decision was made through private channels via Slack DMs in a discussion initiated by Matt Mullenweg. He also revealed that the active install growth chart was removed because it was giving inaccurate data and that the data one could derive from it was inaccurate:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>I read through all that discussion and we worked, they worked on it for a long, Scott and several people tried various things before removing it. They adjusted the values, they adjusted numbers. They, they went through a ridiculous amount of iteration and in the end, none of it worked. People were still using it even though it was giving them basically garbage. So finally removing it was the only thing to do. We did have a plan for replacing it. We just didn’t have a plan for replacing it immediately. Nevertheless, giving them active install count numbers that are wrong is more harmful, we felt, to both users and developers interests than simply not giving them at all.&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Wood offered an explanation on the podcast that should have been delivered weeks earlier by those involved in the discussion on official channels. Despite the earlier data being flawed and &#8220;insufficiently obfuscated,&#8221; developers still want access to the raw data, not interpretations of that data. </p>



<p>These are the posts that track the history and development of developers&#8217; pleas to reinstate access to the data:</p>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-removes-active-install-growth-data-for-plugins">WordPress.org Removes Active Install Growth Data for Plugins</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-plugin-developers-demand-transparency-regarding-the-removal-of-active-install-growth-data">WordPress.org Plugin Developers Demand Transparency Regarding the Removal of Active Install Growth Data</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/discussion-on-replacing-plugin-active-install-growth-data-continues-behind-closed-doors">Discussion on Replacing Plugin Active Install Growth Data Continues Behind Closed Doors</a></li>
</ul>



<p>During the height of this discussion, developers made many suggestions for different data points that would be meaningful for tracking their efforts, and Matt Mullenweg responded that he was amenable to showing more stats to plugin authors about their plugins. No progress on this effort has been reported since then.</p>



<p>&nbsp;StellarWP&nbsp;Product Marketing Director&nbsp;Taylor Waldon has <a href="https://twitter.com/tElizaRose/status/1699134532199538877">reopened this discussion</a> nearly a year later, calling on Mullenweg to stop restricting access to plugin data from people who are hosting themes and plugins on WordPress.org.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dear <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@photomatt</a> <br /><br />Without (real) Active Install data, we are not able to measure the success of our free product. Downloads is not the right KPI. Please bring it back. <br /><br />Sincerely,<br />All WP Marketers with free products on .org. <br /><br />If you agree, please RT, reply, etc. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WordPress?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WordPress</a></p>&mdash; Taylor Elizabeth Rose | Find me on Bluesky (@tElizaRose) <a href="https://twitter.com/tElizaRose/status/1699134532199538877?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>&#8220;I talked to a bunch of folks at [WCUS] contributor day,&#8221; Paid Memberships Pro co-founder and CEO Jason Coleman said in response to Waldon&#8217;s tweet. &#8220;As far as I know, there isn&#8217;t any other current effort to update or replace the install count numbers or old &#8216;growth&#8217; chart.'&#8221;</p>



<p>Coleman put together a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RSNUTdFk3XA-u8Y0-NUe7iaM5zBz0KVM--JdXjBp6iE/edit">draft proposal</a> with some ideas from his conversations. The document describes a common scenario where plugin developers are left in the dark about the growth or decline of their plugins&#8217; active installations:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>Imagine a developer with a plugin with 150k active installations. That developer has effectively 0 quantitative feedback on whether users of his plugin are growing or falling. The download count has a trend, but there is no separation between new downloads and updates. The download count tracks developmental pace as much as user growth. A bump in downloads could be due to a security vulnerability being patched or an influx of new users. The current active installations count is severely rounded and offers no feedback until such a plugin either gains or loses 33% of its users, which are drastically different outcomes.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Coleman contends that plugins hosted outside of WordPress.org are able to gather more meaningful metrics. Popular plugins have resorted to including features in non-WordPress.org add-ons or simply removing their extensions altogether from the repository for lack of data. </p>



<p>His proposal includes a few metrics that would help developers better track their plugins, even if that data is only shown to the authors themselves:</p>



<ul>
<li>Share a more accurate active installations count with the owners of a plugin.</li>



<li>Share more accurate version number counts with the owners of a plugin.</li>



<li>Differentiate the download count by type: website downloads, dashboard installs, dashboard downloads, updates, other (hits to the zip file).</li>



<li>Allow plugin developers to define custom event triggers to be tallied and displayed to the plugin owners on the plugins .org profile page.</li>
</ul>



<p>Coleman&#8217;s draft is still in progress and so far he is the only one who has authored the document. If the recommended actions gain any traction, he said he hopes to be part of the contributor team that implements the changes. </p>



<p>&#8220;The intention was to write something that could be proposed to meta team,&#8221; Coleman said. &#8220;But honestly, I thought I would write it up, it would get shot down, and then I could move on with my life. Even if nothing got updated, it would be more clear to me and others which parts of the .org code were in public repositories and which were in the private repositories. It would be more clear what the real issues are with the active installs count.</p>



<p>&#8220;The communication around the removal of the active install growth chart caused many to lose trust in parts of the WordPress .org project. I thought some clarity around how things work and the real reasons around the changes would help to rebuild some of that trust that was lost.&#8221;</p>



<p>WordPress.org has always been the most popular distribution channel for the most widely used plugins, but the data available has not kept pace with developer and business needs. Releasing the raw data, while respecting any privacy limitations, would allow developers to extract their own interpretations of that data and allow services to present it in creative ways.</p>



<p>At the very least, this data should be available to developers (even if it&#8217;s not public) to help them better track the trajectory of their plugins and the efficacy of their marketing efforts. More data can only serve to improve the WordPress ecosystem&#8217;s ability to continue powering a multi-billion dollar economy. There are undoubtedly many technical requirements for supporting the release of this data, and they need to be prioritized if WordPress.org is to continue attracting the best products for distribution.</p>



<p>&#8220;This is not about vanity metrics or inflating numbers for marketing purposes,&#8221; Coleman said. &#8220;This is about getting valuable feedback on the relative use of a plugin hosted in the .org repository so developers can make informed decisions and investments in those plugins.&#8221;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 12 Sep 2023 20:24:26 +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: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: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:102:"Do The Woo Community: More WCUS Insights from Matt, Seth, Shambi, Jeremy, Mike, Patrick, Bud and Katie";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76485";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"https://dothewoo.io/more-wcus-insights-from-matt-seth-shambi-jeremy-mike-patrick-bud-and-katie/";s: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:520:"<p>Reflections and highlights of WordCamp US 2023 from Matt Medeiros, Seth Goldstein, Shambi Broome, Bud Kraus, Jeremy Freemont, Mike Demo, Patrick Rauland and Katie Keith</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/more-wcus-insights-from-matt-seth-shambi-jeremy-mike-patrick-bud-and-katie/">More WCUS Insights from Matt, Seth, Shambi, Jeremy, Mike, Patrick, Bud and Katie</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 12 Sep 2023 09:03:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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: WordPress Training Team Seeks Community Feedback on Learning Pathways";s:7:"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=148690";s:7:"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://wptavern.com/wordpress-training-team-seeks-community-feedback-on-learning-pathways";s: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:2845:"<p>Earlier this year, the WordPress Training Team published the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/05/30/analysis-of-the-individual-learner-survey-results/">results from the Individual Learner Survey</a> completed in 2022. The goal of the survey was to identify the most useful and high-impact resources and content for <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn.WordPress.org</a> and guide the future development of this community learning tool.</p>



<p>One of the main takeaways of this survey was the need for a clear, structured, and user-friendly approach to presenting Learn WordPress content. This need was also confirmed by feedback from WordCamp Europe Contributor Day attendees.</p>



<p>As a result, the training team launched the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/07/07/project-thread-learning-pathways-on-learn-wordpress/">Learning Pathways on Learn WordPress project</a> in July of this year. The objective of this project is to create and launch progressive user-friendly learning pathways tailored to different types of Learners on Learn WordPress. The training team anticipates that this project will be a year-long effort, working collaboratively with multiple different teams, including the Meta and Marketing teams. </p>



<p>Since WordCamp Europe, the Training Team has started the process of drafting rough outlines for learning pathways intended for Users, Designers, and Developers.</p>



<p>In August, Automattic-sponsored training team contributor Wes Theron published a post on the training team blog, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/08/24/looking-for-feedback-learning-pathway-outlines/">asking for community feedback</a> on the proposed learning pathways. </p>



<p>I asked Theron why he feels this project is so important, and what feedback he would like from the community:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>The Learning Pathways project focuses on improving the educational experience on Learn WordPress by creating personalized learning journeys for various learner profiles. These tailored pathways aim to enhance the Learn WordPress platform&#8217;s effectiveness and user-friendliness.</p>



<p>We have drafted the rough outlines for learning pathways intended for Users, Designers, and Developers. We&#8217;re excited to get the community&#8217;s thoughts and ideas to help shape them further before moving forward.</p>
</blockquote>



<p></p>



<p>The Training Team has set the deadline for feedback for the 15th of September 2023. If you would like to review the proposed learning pathways and provide your feedback, you can do so from the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/08/24/looking-for-feedback-learning-pathway-outlines/">Looking for feedback: Learning pathway outlines post</a> on the Training Team blog.</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, 12 Sep 2023 03:24:54 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Jonathan Bossenger";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:61:"WPTavern: 10up Merges With Fueled, Backed by Insignia Capital";s:7:"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=148679";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://wptavern.com/10up-merges-with-fueled-backed-by-insignia-capital";s: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:9330:"<p><a href="https://10up.com/">10up</a>, a leading development agency and contributor to the WordPress project, has <a href="https://10up.com/blog/2023/10up-joins-forces-with-fueled-digital-media/">merged</a> with <a href="https://fueled.com/">Fueled</a>, a technology consultancy that specializes in mobile and web application development. Together, the companies now employ more than 400 full time team members, forming a digital powerhouse with expanded market reach across mobile and publishing sectors.</p>



<p>&#8220;Fueled has built stand out iOS and Android apps – several of which I’ve personally used – for clients like <a href="https://fueled.com/projects/warby-parker">Warby Parker</a>, <a href="https://fueled.com/projects/verizon/">Verizon</a>, the United Nations, and even Apple themselves,&#8221; 10up President Jake Goldman said. &#8220;Just as 10up has <a href="https://wildsymphony.com/">built some great mobile applications</a>, Fueled has executed notable works in the web application space for clients like <a href="https://fueled.com/projects/wsj">Wall Street Journal</a> and <a href="https://fueled.com/projects/wirecutter">The New York Times</a> – but content management systems and editorial experience has never been a core focus and strength. Until now.&#8221;</p>



<p>The merger transaction was made possible by investment  from <a href="https://www.insigniacap.com/">Insignia Capital</a>, a firm that previously invested in Fueled. Insignia has made Fueled&#8217;s merger with 10up its first major growth investment, paying to restructure the companies&#8217; ownership model. All parties invested in the merger hold meaningful shares, with none of them holding a majority share.</p>



<p>Goldman said 10up owners rolled over meaningful equity into the joint business, &#8220;but there was also a very healthy purchase of 10up equity to make this possible.&#8221;</p>



<p>10up&#8217;s announcement hinted at more acquisitions in the newly combined companies&#8217; future.</p>



<p>&#8220;Insignia brings a whole new class of financial and investment capabilities to 10up and Fueled, with an appetite for responsibly paced growth through acquisition,&#8221; Goldman said. &#8220;They don’t just bring capital – they also bring expertise and impressive connections.&#8221;</p>



<p>He further elaborated on their acquisition strategy as seeking to expand their combined capabilities &#8220;to compete with the biggest digital transformation agencies:&#8221;</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>In the broadest of terms, I think that we’re pretty open minded to what we find in the market, but opportunities that meaningfully expand what we can offer &#8211; shoring up weaker spots in our capabilities &#8211; are going to be the most attractive. As examples, while we’ve each done CRM and CDP integration work and strategy, I’d imagine a first rate CRM and/or CDP consultancy with some great case studies and clients would be the kind of opportunity that would be particularly interesting.</p>
</blockquote>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Open Source Contribution Will Continue To Be a Priority at 10up</h2>



<p>Nearly 12 years after Goldman started 10up with what he said was &#8220;a small personal savings account and the sweat equity of more than a decade making websites and other media,&#8221; he is no longer the sole leader of the organization and will take on the role of Partner in the merged companies. Integral to the success of 10up, which Goldman has scaled to $40M+ in annual revenue, is its consistent commitment to supporting the open source ecosystem from which it has derived millions of dollars in value. Fueled acknowledged this in its <a href="https://fueled.com/blog/fueled-merges-with-10up/">announcement</a> about the merger:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>10up has long held a commitment to the open web, and open source contributions as a core value. This will remain a priority, especially towards the WordPress community, and will be further strengthened by the additional market reach gained from the merger.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Fueled shares this same ethos, which they intend to continue cultivating following the merger.</p>



<p>&#8220;Fueled has always been supportive of open source, even if their part of the market (mobile apps) hasn&#8217;t embraced that model in the way web CMS has,&#8221; Goldman said. &#8220;They have open sourced projects (in fact, we incidentally found that we were using one!), and, like 10up, have fully embraced and focused on open technology solutions like NodeJS and React for web applications.&#8221;</p>



<p>For the most recent WordPress 6.3 release, <a href="https://jeanbaptisteaudras.com/2023/08/contribution-stats-for-wordpress-6-3-lionel/#:~:text=WordPress%206.3%20overall%20stats,which%20is%20a%20great%20ratio!">10up had the second most contributions by company</a>, with 290 contributions from 16 people, superseded only by Automattic, which boasts 83 contributors. </p>



<p> </p>



<img src="https://jeanbaptisteaudras.com/2019/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/wp63-contributor-company.svg" alt="" />image credit: <a href="https://jeanbaptisteaudras.com/2023/08/contribution-stats-for-wordpress-6-3-lionel/#:~:text=WordPress%206.3%20overall%20stats,which%20is%20a%20great%20ratio!">WordPress 6.3 contribution stats</a>



<p>10up has consistently been among the top contributors to the software, which has been essential to the world-class publishing experiences the company has built for its clients.</p>



<p>&#8220;That commitment to giving back to the web, making sure there&#8217;s a ladder for the next generation of developers to climb, and helping open technologies thrive remains with us,&#8221; Goldman said. &#8220;Our new business partners understand that this is deeply intertwined with 10up&#8217;s identity, and perhaps more importantly, our <em>success</em>. It&#8217;s not <em>just</em> a generosity thing – it&#8217;s also good business.</p>



<p>&#8220;Merging with and investing in 10up would be pretty foolish if you aren&#8217;t comfortable with the tools and platforms we use and prefer, most especially the web&#8217;s most popular open source CMS, and you can bet that being comfortable with that, and researching that question, was essential to their comfort with merging. In many ways, that&#8217;s a validation for WordPress.&#8221;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">10up and Fueled Will Gradually Merge Services and Administration, Pursuing Large Scale Digital Transformation Clients</h3>



<p>10up and Fueled will largely operate as two companies and close partners for the time being, sharing leads and pursuing customer growth together. Goldman said the vision is not to simply have web publishing/WordPress customers and separate mobile app customers but rather to go after large scale digital transformation projects.</p>



<p>&#8220;That means having a fully integrated way to deliver everything from the mobile apps, to the website and CMS, to advanced e-commerce and CRM integrations (even if we may only provide one of those services to some clients),&#8221; he said. &#8220;That means we&#8217;re not just operating as separate companies in the <em>future</em>, but truly merging and unifying our companies from leadership and sales on down through project and product management, user research and design, and engineering delivery.&#8221;</p>



<p>Given that both brands hold considerable weight and influence in their respective markets, Goldman said they agreed &#8220;it would be incredibly foolish to discount that and rush to a single brand.&#8221; Instead, they plan to explore how the companies can work together.</p>



<p>&#8220;We honestly don&#8217;t know where we&#8217;ll land on the external brand question, and didn&#8217;t think it was fundamental to the question of merging,&#8221; Goldman said. &#8220;We&#8217;ll be exploring and researching that question together, and any change would, again, be gradual and planned.</p>



<p>&#8220;We all similarly agree that when we think out into the future, whether that&#8217;s 12 or 24 months from now (probably something in between), that we probably don&#8217;t want two separate, external, top line company brands competing for attention and oxygen in the space, to say nothing of competing for internal focus and resources.&#8221;</p>



<p>He said that could play out in a number of ways, and may be a data driven decision. For example, 10up could evolve to be the brand name for the WordPress engineering services team or the company&#8217;s open source and productized solutions. Nothing has been predetermined about the branding.</p>



<p>In the meantime, it appears to that the combination of companies will be a more gradual merging of services and administration.</p>



<p>&#8220;In the mid term, maybe the next year, we want to focus on building a highly collaborative world class sales and growth operation, unifying back office (benefits management, financial operations, recruiting ops, etc), and looking at where some of our smaller capabilities and disciplines that aren&#8217;t very specific to 10up or Fueled delivery might benefit from joining forces and achieving some economy of scale,&#8221; Goldman 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:"Mon, 11 Sep 2023 21:12:15 +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: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:58:"WordPress.org blog: The Month in WordPress – August 2023";s:7:"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=15933";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/09/the-month-in-wordpress-august-2023/";s: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:12997:"<p>August 2023 marked another exciting chapter in WordPress, with the Community Summit and WordCamp US bringing the community together for meaningful discussions, knowledge sharing, and learning. This month also welcomed the long-awaited WordPress 6.3 release and offered a glimpse of what&#8217;s to come. Let&#8217;s dive into it.</p>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Meet WordPress 6.3 “Lionel”</h2>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/08/lionel/"><strong>WordPress 6.3 &#8220;Lionel&#8221;</strong></a> was released on August 8, 2023, and named after the acclaimed vibraphonist, pianist, and jazz percussionist Lionel Hampton.</p>



<p><strong>This major update makes bringing your vision to life with blocks more intuitive and efficient.</strong> Your content, templates, and patterns are now seamlessly integrated into the Site Editor, enabling you to craft every aspect of your online presence within a single location. You can sharpen your designs with new tools, enjoy fine-tuned control over navigation menus, and work faster with the Command Palette. <a href="https://wordpress.org/download/releases/6-3/">Explore what&#8217;s new</a>.</p>



<p>WordPress 6.3 features over 500 features and enhancements with a continued emphasis on <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/08/07/wordpress-6-3-performance-improvements/">performance</a> and accessibility. This release was made possible by more than 650 contributors from 52 countries.</p>



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

</div>



<p>While the Site Editor will continue to be enhanced, this release means a significant milestone as <strong>it marks the conclusion of Gutenberg Phase 2</strong>. Take a moment to watch “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcTLMTyD2DU">Designed with WordPress</a>”—an ode to this remarkable journey worth celebrating.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size">
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/download/">Download WordPress 6.3.1</a>.</p>
</blockquote>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Roadmap to 6.4</h2>



<p>Contributors are already working on WordPress 6.4, expected to be released on<strong> November 7, 2023</strong>. This release, led by an <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/06/05/wordpress-6-4-development-cycle/">underrepresented gender release squad</a>, will focus on enhancing different aspects of the WordPress experience while continuing the foundational work for Gutenberg Phase 3. Users can anticipate features like font management and a new default theme, Twenty Twenty-Four.</p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/08/24/introducing-twenty-twenty-four/"><strong>Twenty Twenty-Four</strong></a> aims to be a versatile theme, featuring a range of templates and patterns specifically designed for three use cases: entrepreneurs and small businesses, photographers and artists, and writers and bloggers.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size">
<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/08/22/roadmap-to-6-4/">Check out the 6.4 roadmap post</a> for a tentative preview of expected features.</p>
</blockquote>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">New in the Gutenberg plugin</h2>



<p>Two new versions of Gutenberg shipped in the last month:</p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/08/10/whats-new-in-gutenberg-16-4-9-august/"><strong>Gutenberg 16.4</strong></a> was released on August 9, 2023. It introduced a new “auto-inserting blocks” experimental feature, a progress bar component that can be used throughout the interface, and block supports for the Footnotes block.</li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/08/23/whats-new-in-gutenberg-16-5-23-august/"><strong>Gutenberg 16.5</strong></a><strong> </strong>shipped on August 23, 2023, and focused on enhancements to the Command Palette and enabling further customization of blocks.</li>
</ul>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size">
<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/01/core-editor-improvement-strengthening-style-options/"></a>Follow the “<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/gutenberg-new/">What’s new in Gutenberg</a>” posts to stay on top of the latest enhancements.</p>
</blockquote>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Team updates: Next generation of WordPress events, WP Admin redesign, and more</h2>



<ul>
<li>The Community team has been busy ushering in the next generation of WordPress events. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/08/02/recap-inaugural-nextgen-pilot-events/">Four pilot events were successfully held</a> in July and August, with another five planned before the end of the year.</li>



<li>The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2023/08/10/admin-design-kickoff/">Admin Design Kickoff post</a> elaborates on the concepts explored so far to revitalize the WordPress admin experience.</li>



<li>In response to <a href="https://www.european-cyber-resilience-act.com/">Europe&#8217;s Cyber Resilience Act</a> (CRA), leaders from Drupal, Joomla!, TYPO3, and WordPress <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/08/concerns-over-the-european-unions-cyber-resilience-act-cra/">co-authored an open letter</a> addressing concerns about the current CRA definitions and terms and the implications for open source projects.</li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/blocks/">Check out WordPress.org/blocks</a>—A <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2023/08/11/introducing-wordpress-org-blocks/">new page</a> that explores the power of blocks within WordPress and as a broader framework.</li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/08/21/wordpresscs-3-0-0-is-now-available/">WordPressCS 3.0.0 is now available</a>. This update to the WordPress Coding Standards introduces improvements in accuracy, performance, stability, and compatibility with modern PHP versions.</li>



<li>The first cohort of the WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program, which aims to help new contributors onboard to Make teams, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2023/08/11/the-inaugural-cohort-of-the-wordpress-contributor-mentorship-program-has-concluded/">successfully concluded</a> last month.</li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/remembers/">WordPress Remembers</a> went live in August to honor contributors who left a lasting impact on the project and have since passed away.</li>



<li>Core team members proposed to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/08/01/proposal-improve-the-editor-tech-workflow-for-major-releases/">sync Gutenberg code with core earlier in the release cycle</a> to streamline the integration of new features and reduce risks and delays in major release milestones.</li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/08/11/blue-note-the-second-community-theme-is-released/">Blue Note</a>, the second block theme born from the Community Themes initiative, is live on the Theme Directory.</li>



<li>Every month, the Training team works to expand the <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a> catalog with new courses, tutorials, online workshops, and more. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/02/whats-new-on-learn-wordpress-in-august-2023/">See what’s new</a>.</li>



<li>Openverse maintainers met in Copenhagen for an exciting exchange with Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK), Denmark’s largest art museum. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/08/17/cultivating-collaborative-pathways-with-statens-museum-for-kunst-smk/">Learn about their discussions and collaboration efforts</a> to advance openly licensed works.</li>
</ul>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size">
<p>Keen to see new WordPress event formats happening in your local community? <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/08/30/the-nextgen-event-project-your-ideas-your-wordpress-community/">Get inspired by these creative concepts</a> and <a href="https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/next-generation-of-wordpress-events">share your ideas</a>!</p>
</blockquote>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Feedback &amp; testing requests</h2>



<ul>
<li>Core team members <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/08/31/proposal-an-update-to-the-field-guide/">suggested updating the WordPress Field Guide</a> by publishing it earlier in the development cycle and introducing a simplified Field Guide on the WordPress Developer Blog. Feedback is open until September 15, 2023.</li>



<li>Help test the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/05/call-for-testing-performant-translations/">new Performant Translations plugin</a>, which aims to make localized WordPress sites faster.</li>



<li>A new proposal aims to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/08/proposal-for-updated-support-guidelines/">refine and update WordPress’ support guidelines</a>. You can provide your input by October 1, 2023.</li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/06/mobile-team-update-september-6th-2/">Version 23.2</a> of the WordPress mobile app for iOS and Android is ready for testing.</li>
</ul>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size">
<p>The Training team seeks feedback on the first learning pathways outlined to improve the Learn WordPress educational experience. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/08/24/looking-for-feedback-learning-pathway-outlines/">Share your thoughts by September 15, 2023</a>.</p>
</blockquote>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WordPress events updates</h2>



<ul>
<li>On August 22-23, a group of WordPress contributors gathered at the <a href="https://communitysummit.wordcamp.org/2023/"><strong>Community Summit</strong></a> to discuss key topics concerning the project. Read the notes from each session and join the conversations at <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/">make.wordpress.org/summit</a>.</li>



<li>Following the Summit, Washington, D.C. hosted <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2023/"><strong>WordCamp US 2023</strong></a> from August 24-26. This event brought together nearly 2,000 attendees for a Contributor Day and two conference days filled with engaging <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1pJFUVKQ7EQWcZBkBtb9YQlziKJ7nvpv">sessions</a>, conversations, and <a href="https://twitter.com/WordPress/status/1695145857232904260">open source art</a>. Saturday’s agenda concluded with keynotes by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy and a subsequent Q&amp;A session. <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/08/the-future-of-wordpress-whats-next-for-gutenberg/">Check out the event recap for highlights</a>.</li>



<li>Join #WPDiversity with a free online <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/speaker-workshop-for-indian-women-in-the-wordpress-community-sept-23-24-tickets-633636773647">speaker workshop for Indian women in the WordPress Community</a>. The event will take place on September 23-24, 2023.</li>



<li>The WordCamp Asia 2024 organizing team opened calls for <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/call-for-speakers-is-now-open/">speakers</a>, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/volunteer-registrations-are-open/">volunteers</a>, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/call-for-sponsors/">sponsors</a>, and <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/call-for-media-partners-is-now-open/">media partners</a>.</li>



<li>Be sure to visit <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/">WordCamp Central</a> to find out about upcoming WordCamps.</li>
</ul>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size">
<p>Join Josepha Haden Chomphosy in <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/09/episode-61-community-summit-all-at-washington-d-c/">Episode 61 of WP Briefing</a> as she discusses her takeaways from the Community Summit.</p>
</blockquote>



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



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<p><strong><em><strong><em><strong><em>Have a story we should include in the next issue of The Month in WordPress? <strong><em>Fill out </em></strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/month-in-wordpress-submissions/"><strong><em>this quick form</em></strong></a><strong><em> to let us know.</em></strong></em></strong></em></strong></em></strong></p>



<p><em>The following folks contributed to this Month in WordPress: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rmartinezduque/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>rmartinezduque</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/laurlittle/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>laurlittle</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:"Mon, 11 Sep 2023 10:30:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Reyes Martínez";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:80:"Do The Woo Community: Wearing Attendee and Sponsor Hats at WCUS with Adam Warner";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76476";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"https://dothewoo.io/wearing-the-attendee-and-sponsor-hat-wordcamp-us-adam-warner/";s: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:430:"<p>Adam joins me for a candid conversation about WCUS and some reflections from being both an attendee and a sponsor.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/wearing-the-attendee-and-sponsor-hat-wordcamp-us-adam-warner/">Wearing Attendee and Sponsor Hats at WCUS with Adam Warner</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 11 Sep 2023 09:09:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog #89 – Gutenberg 16.6, default theme and Font Library";s:7:"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=25552";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:100:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-89-gutenberg-16-6-font-library-default-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:42696:"<p>Nadia Maya Ardiani and Birgit Pauli-Haack discuss Gutenberg 16.6, the new default theme Twenty-Twenty-Four, the Font Library and other upcoming features.</p>



<p><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-89-gutenberg-16-6-font-library-default-theme#shownotes">Show Notes</a> / <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-89-gutenberg-16-6-font-library-default-theme/#transcript">Transcript</a></p>



<ul>
<li>Music:&nbsp;<a href="https://soundcloud.com/xirclebox">Homer Gaines</a></li>



<li>Editor:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-reed/">Sandy Reed</a></li>



<li>Logo:&nbsp;<a href="https://markuraine.com/">Mark Uraine</a></li>



<li>Production:&nbsp;<a href="https://icodeforapurpose.com">Birgit Pauli-Haack</a></li>
</ul>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Nadia Maya Ardiani</strong>&nbsp;</h2>



<p><em>contributor on the training team and WordCamp Asia, and content writer in Hostinger.</em></p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/inyongski">Follow on Twitter</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/sebutsajamaya/">Follow on Instagram</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadiamayaardiani/">On LInkedIn</a></li>



<li>WordPress.org: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ardianimaya/">@ardianimaya</a>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Hostinger Experts series: </strong></p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.hostinger.com/blog/michelle-frechette">Michelle Frechette: From an Active Volunteer to a Diversity Advocate</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.hostinger.com/blog/birgit-pauli-haack">Birgit Pauli-Haack: Fostering Community Spirit Through Knowledge Sharing</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Community Contributions</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/08/24/introducing-twenty-twenty-four/">Introducing Twenty Twenty-Four</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/top-agencies-join-forces-to-publish-free-guide-on-wordpress-for-enterprise">Free Guide on WordPress for Enterprise</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Gutenberg 16.6</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/06/whats-new-in-gutenberg-16-6-06-september/">What’s new in Gutenberg 16.6? (06 September)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-16-6-introduces-block-hooks-improvements-to-toolbars-on-nested-blocks">Gutenberg 16.6 Introduces Block Hooks, Improvements to Toolbars on Nested Blocks</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Documentation updates: </h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/block-api/block-variations/"><strong>Documentation for Block Variations</strong></a>&nbsp;</li>



<li>&nbsp;<a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/enqueueing-assets-in-the-editor/"><strong>Enqueuing assets in the Editor</strong></a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In the works</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/call-for-testing-of-the-new-font-library/">Call for testing of the new Font Library</a></li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/53934">Block Supports: Add background image support to Group block</a></li>
</ul>



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



<div class="wp-block-group is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"><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/gutenbergtimes">@gutenbergtimes </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 class="has-large-font-size" id="transcript"><strong>Transcript</strong></p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, hello and welcome to our 89th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog Podcast. In today&#8217;s episode, we will talk about Gutenberg&#8217;s 16.6 and some community contributions as well as features that are still in the works, that we wanted to highlight today. I&#8217;m your host Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at the Gutenberg Times and WordPress developer advocate, and a full-time core contributor for the WordPress open source project. A special guest today is Nadia Maya Ardiani, contributor on the training team and WordCamp Asia, and that&#8217;s where we met for a chat at dinner, a lunch, and we did&#8230; Yeah, it was just fabulous to meet Maya and we always found a topic to talk about and to laugh as well. I&#8217;m so happy you join me today to review the Gutenberg plugin release and connect about WordPress. So greetings to Indonesia. How are you today?</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: Thank you, Birgit, for having me. It&#8217;s so good to be here, and thank you as well for being the first WordPresser ever to be featured in Hostinger&#8217;s WordPress Expert Article Series.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh, thank you for having me. Yeah, it was a fun interview.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani:</em> Because it&#8217;s only fitting to start the series with one of the people who have been doing such significant contribution to the platform, and that&#8217;s you.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Thank you. So what else do you contribute to on WordPress?</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: Okay. So yeah, I&#8217;m a contributor on the training team and in the team I&#8217;m also a translator coordinator for Indonesian locale. And yeah, I love contributing for the training team because I enjoy sharing complex information in a more accessible way, making the knowledge more accessible for a wider audience, which is also related to my day job as a content writer in Hostinger. And yeah, in my day job, I write WordPress tutorials in the form of WordPress website articles and script for YouTube videos. And I also write about WordPress community activities like Word camps and about WordPress journeys of awesome WordPress community members, that&#8217;s like you.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, thank you. Thank you. I know that another interview was with Michelle Frechette on the Experts Series. Yeah, great job there as well. It&#8217;s really fabulous to kind of follow up on that. Yeah, I&#8217;m so glad we stayed in touch after WordCamp Asia and you just returned from WordCamp US. So how was it and what are your takeaways for that?</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani:</em> So yeah, it&#8217;s my first word WordCamp US, so it&#8217;s very new to me. And I also volunteered this time, and I didn&#8217;t get to attend a lot of sessions, but it always awesome to meet and have a chat with fellow WordPress enthusiasts because you don&#8217;t get to meet them every day. And I think it&#8217;s one of the WordCamp’s struggle to decide between attending the session or talking and catching up with everyone.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, I know I have this every time that I have my sessions checked off to say, &#8220;This I want to do,&#8221; and I put them in my calendar and then I stay in the moment with talking with somebody and then whoosh, the time is gone and I have to catch the livestream. Totally get it. And for WordCamp US, there is a lot of FOMO that I had to endure.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: Yeah, yeah. There are actually lots of interesting sessions, but as we know, we can just catch up with the sessions in WordPress YouTube channel or WordPress.tv. But yeah, I actually really want to see the one with NASA and the White House because we get to see WordPress implementation in those two websites. Because for me, it&#8217;s the most interesting thing about the session is we can see how WordPress is really for everyone because many of us in the end users, we think WordPress is only for hobbyists, but it&#8217;s actually can be for big organizations like this that require fairly customized website and high level security.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: So true, so true. Yeah, the bandwidth is really broad. I&#8217;m glad you got to see that.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: And I also really love about the contributors day because as always, it&#8217;s the time for us to work together with other contributors who we usually only meet on screen. And so far the WordCamp US is kind of unique because usually we all gather in one big room, all of the teams are gathering in the same place. But this time teams which works closely related, were spread in multiple rooms. I actually love the comradery of being in the same room as all contributors, but this time I also love it because there was no confusion about which table belongs to which team, and also more space or creating breakout room. For example, in training team, after onboarding the new team members, we can split into this is the people who are interested to be content insider. This is for people who are interested to be content creator. And also since the training team is in the same room with the Docs team, there we can discuss more about cross collaboration effort regarding how to better work together with the backlink material and each other.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh, that&#8217;s interesting. Yeah, I can see that there&#8217;s some overlap between the Docs team and the training team, and the more we can streamline the processes between the two, I think the better it is for WordPress users to find the right material at the right time. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for this report back from WordCamp US and how you found it from a contributor point of view. Yeah.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Announcements</h3>



<p>Dear listeners, we have one announcement that we wanted to share with you is about WordPress 6.4. So WordPress 6.4 is in less than three weeks away. WordPress 6.4 beta is only three weeks away. Don&#8217;t get scared. The last Gutenberg version for features will be 16.7. Today we are talking about 16.6, so there&#8217;s only one more Gutenberg plugin release to go and release candidate for 16.7 is scheduled for September 20th.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s one week longer than the usual two-week schedule. And so all the new features will need to be merged by that time. And after that, only bug fixes and fixes for blast features can be added to the WordPress release. So it&#8217;s the time to test all the Gutenberg plugins versions that go into, it will be 16.2 all the way to 16.7 and whatever bug fixes come in 16.8 and nine.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The final release or the release for 6.4 is scheduled for November 7th, and so that&#8217;s still about a month and a half away, two months away. So just so you&#8217;ll get the timeline a little bit, we will repeat this on the next shows as well when we&#8230; Next time is with Tammy Lister. She&#8217;s on the editor tech lead, so we will have some more information about 16.4.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: It&#8217;s my first time to see how many improvements that come with one version of Gutenberg. So it&#8217;s like, &#8220;Oh my God.&#8221; So every time we release one version of WordPress, that must be a huge improvement. So by seeing the rundown, that&#8217;s the first time I realized that how much is the improvements.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Community Contributions</h3>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, that&#8217;s a change log and that can be overwhelming indeed. And the last five versions kind of go into WordPress. So yes, so 16.2 and three had major jumps in improvements to the site editor and to the block editor. Especially because 6.3 and 6.4 wrap up the phase two of site editing. But 6.4 also will ship with the new default theme and amply named 2024, and it&#8217;s also expected to be in early November together with the 6.4 release, the designs are already available and you can follow up on the introduction post on the Make WordPress core website. We mentioned it on one of the previous episodes as well, but I really like to talk to you about, Maya, you looked at it and what do you think about the new theme?</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: As an end-user, I&#8217;m really excited to use this theme because this one is aimed to be a multi-purpose team, right? I sold three use cases in the Make WordPress website, one specifically tailored for entrepreneurs and small business, one for photographers and artists, and one for writers and bloggers. So it provide a better look into how the theme would look like when it is used to display lots of images, when it&#8217;s used to show multiple chunks of text and how it may look like as a landing page, which is so cool because I can instantly imagine, &#8220;Oh, this is the stuff that I can do with this theme.&#8221; Since it&#8217;s a collection of templates and patterns which combine into a theme, it&#8217;s even cooler because the patterns include in it, it has various home templates or different use cases such as out page and then project overview are SVPs. So yeah, it&#8217;s basically very handy for no-code people because we can just&#8230; Yeah, I want to make this, I want to make this.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, I think that&#8217;s exactly what you&#8217;re saying is that it gives you a vision or an inspiration of what your website could look like when you use that theme and then gives you all the tools. I like that it also thinks about&#8230; Or the creators think about the full page templates so you don&#8217;t have to assemble all the things.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: Yeah, it&#8217;s very nice to not have to create everything from scratch because sometimes it can be intimidating to start from a pure blank slate like that. At least that&#8217;s for no code people like me. But this one is the default color and typography style are already versatile and very timeless. It gives professional and elegant flare in general with the understated color and the sunset of point variation. So it can be used for any, many needs.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: And with the site editor providing all the design tools, you can really make it your own in terms of the look and feel. And I really like that. I think it&#8217;s the first default theme that&#8217;s not very opinionated about the design that is only for a niche or for a certain topic or so. It&#8217;s more really that is actually the purpose that you just said is that many people can see themselves building with that theme, and I am really happy that comes out of it also for you. Yeah, there is the Figma I can share in the show notes. I&#8217;ll share also the link to the Figma file where you can kind of browse the designs. It&#8217;s right now in development, the report from the leads of Jessica Lishick and Maggie Cabrera and they both were at WordPress US Contributor Day and they had about 31 contributors at the theme table who wanted to work on the theme.</p>



<p>So there is some rapid development going on, and I will also share the GitHub report link where it&#8217;s all happening with the issues and the PRs and everything, and where you can see all the discussions. The GitHub report will closer to release candidate, it will disappear and then it will be on track because that&#8217;s just for development. Default themes are then housed with the core files on a track. Yes, in the repo, yes. Another community contribution gets you all the way from that no-code site builder, single site builder, private person to all the way to the enterprise level of using WordPress. And there is a new guide for WordPress for Enterprise Together.</p>



<p>So where the major WordPress agencies that deal with enterprise clients and there are Big Bite and 10Up and Alley, Human made Inpsyde and XWP and they got together and in WordCamp Europe as well to think about can WordPress be advertised or shape the conversation with enterprise IT people and CEOs about using WordPress for content management system on their large scale organizations. And they came together and created a free guide for WordPress for enterprise. It highlights all the high profile companies like CNN, Vogue, Google, Spotify, the White House, and many more, now NASA and also responds to some of the misconceptions that are still out there. Mainly the one that it&#8217;s not secure that it&#8217;s only for blogging and all that kind of thing. So it&#8217;s a really good guide that you as a small agency can certainly also use in parts for talking to your clients and to your customers about things.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: I like it that this guide is easy to read because sometimes people from big enterprises are not really tech-savvy. So having it with layman&#8217;s term, it can deliver the knowledge better to a wider audience about the possibilities for creating a customized platform to fit any organization. And yeah, I checked the chapters in good discussion about platform security, scalability, internationalization, solution, cost and value. Those are the stuff that enterprise really cares about. I think it shows one of the beauty of the WordPress community, everyone&#8217;s coming together for it, but to constantly improve the platform and to share to others that this is a solution you can use. And it&#8217;s really nice to see how these agencies provide insights related to aspects that are important for enterprises.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: And I also like that they kind of highlight the open source part, which scares enterprise, but the open source part that there are hundreds of contributors that are actually maintaining the code and doing all the performance testing. We have this awesome performance team that has brought down the load times of WordPress out of the box just for 6.3, around 20%, which is huge when you think of the millions and millions of websites that use WordPress. And I saw a statistic that already 50% of WordPress is now 6.3 installations. So the community has really reacted fast to the new versions and that will also be for 6.4. So we will share of course the article from WP Tavern that talks about it. We also share the blog post about it and with a link to download it. You don&#8217;t need an email address to download it, so it&#8217;s all free out there for you to use and to contemplate. Yes.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What’s Released &#8211; Gutenberg 16.6</h3>



<p>Which brings us to the section what&#8217;s released and right now, we&#8217;re talking about Gutenberg 16.6 that was released earlier this week and Vincente Canales was the release manager for this. And in his release post he shared the change log and as well as some highlighted things. And we follow suit of course, and the first thing that we wanted&#8230; Most of it, there&#8217;s not really some big stuff coming in 16.6, but it was some great quality of life changes that make working in it much smoother and less confusing and more consistent together. But there are few highlights that we wanted you to know about.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Enhancements</h3>



<p>So the first one is it says I needed to read through the PRs and look at the videos to try it out myself to actually actually know what it means. So it says, &#8220;Capture toolbars,&#8221; in the quote block or navigation block. What it means is that the toolbars for child blocks or inner blocks are now seamless attached to their parent block and offering a more intuitive and organized editing experience. They don&#8217;t jump around that much, which is sometimes a little disconcerting and distracts you from the work that you actually wanted to do. Right now they are in place for the navigation block, the list block, and the quote block.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: Yeah, I think this one makes the publishing experience way more enjoyable. Because sometimes you just move a little and the block will follow through like, &#8220;Oh my god, can you just stay right there?&#8221; And I publish articles in daily basis, but it&#8217;s only recently that I discovered the top toolbar feature that we can activate by clicking, what&#8217;s the name?</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: The options.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: In the right panel. Yeah, the block tool work can be annoying sometimes. So having this improvement capture toolbars, this will be&#8230; And making the toolbar staying at the same nearby spot like this, I will definitely prefer this one than the following.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, me too. I found that some users are actually struggling with the concept that depending on which block is focused, that they have a different toolbar from the parent block. And to get to the parent block, you have to know that you need to click on the leftmost kind of button to get to the parent block again. And I think I haven&#8217;t found a better way to get to it to kind of imagine a better UI for that. But I think with tying both toolbars together and just switch in place and not also move it, it&#8217;s a much better experience. Yes, definitely. Another one is that for the query pagination block, it was that you only had one or two&#8230; The pagination block is the block that you have underneath your loop block or the query loop where it says, &#8220;Okay, get me next pages,&#8221; from that query from that loop of next pages of articles.</p>



<p>And when you look at it, there were only two&#8230; You only saw the first two ones, and then the last two ones. But you couldn&#8217;t click to, if you say, the third one or the fourth page because you knew it was things on there you had to click on next, next, next to&#8230; You didn&#8217;t find a&#8230; And now a user can determine how those numbers in the pagination block are actually organized. You can say, &#8220;Okay, give me four numbers in between.&#8221; That&#8217;s a really good improvement considering that that was possible before in the classic theme very much so. But this is kind of getting it all feature priority and it really is a good improvement. It&#8217;s such a small thing, you would think, but navigating a list of posts deeper into it, they&#8217;re not just the first page, sometimes is really needs some support, some better support there.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: Sometimes more like things that at the front end it seems like a very simple change, but I believe that under the hood that there must be many things going on, right?</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And then now you have in the sidebar, you have additional fields where you can put in numbers and some more explanation, if my explanation wasn&#8217;t helpful at all. And the next part is that the list view now has a keyboard shortcut for duplicating blocks. So if you are working through a list view by keyboard and you now don&#8217;t need to change controls to duplicate a block, you can just use command shift and D, and then that block that was just focused is duplicated. This definitely helps with rapid content creation and laying out some articles.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: As a content writer, I definitely agree with this one. This will be very time-saving.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Super, yeah. 16.6 Gutenberg also adds a custom taxonomy for user created patterns. So WordPress 6.3 came with the feature that you now could create synced and unsynced patterns, but if you have three or four or 15 of those, it was hard to sort through them. So now you can use some taxonomy labels for your creative patterns. So you can give other editors on your site a little bit more help with what are those patterns that Birgit created and now you can help them to be a little bit more organized here.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: So this can be for the synced and unsynced patterns?</p>



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



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: Yeah, this will be&#8230; Having a feature to organize it, it definitely will be beneficial for the content creators also because we can easily choose which one we want to use.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, and you can drill down because I can see that an organization has created at least 10, 20 patterns depending on how the different content they provide. And the beauty of it is, it&#8217;s actually based on the default taxonomy patterns, not patterns, API that comes with WordPress because the patterns are custom post type. So the built-in taxonomy is now just surfacing on the editor. There was not a whole lot of&#8230; There was development being done just to make it into the site editor, but the underlying backend was already there. So it&#8217;s good to have a fallback like that.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Bug Fixes</h3>



<p>So now we are coming to the bug fixes and there&#8217;s just a few that we wanted to point out. Maybe just one, no, maybe two or so. Do you want to take that?</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: Okay. So for the bug fixes, I like this one about the post notification link, which is the remove unnecessary space between rows and label. I think for some end users this might look like a very simple improvement that almost unseen, but I believe for those who work around design a lot will be happy with this. &#8220;Finally, I already feel it sometime ago.&#8221; Because it&#8217;s only a very tiny character, isn&#8217;t it like the space between the arrows and labels? But once it removes it, it&#8217;s like, &#8220;Yeah, this is how it should look.&#8221;</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, it gives you a consistent look and don&#8217;t really get that. That&#8217;s fixed now. And then also for the block styles, there&#8217;s the preview of the popover is now working also with right to left sites.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: Yeah, I think this is also one of the great examples of a form of striving for inclusivity and equality in WordPress because it makes a site building experience equal for everyone, whatever language you use, including the right to left languages like this. So when your site using the right to left languages, you will have the exact same experience as everyone in the world.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: And sometimes that kind of falls a little bit through the cracks. So some head bubble for those who record those issues on the GitHub report so they can be fixed if they are not working right. In the site editor, there&#8217;s one bug fix.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: About the unified delete button style in the dropdown menu and making it red. So I think it&#8217;s also a nice improvement, especially for end users who still learn to use WordPress for the first time because it&#8217;s easier to tell the effect of clicking this button. When you see it previously it&#8217;s blue. So people might just, &#8220;Okay, I will just try to delete this,&#8221; and turns out it delete all the stuff that they actually don&#8217;t want to delete. But by making it red, it&#8217;s making&#8230; I think it&#8217;s related to psychology of color, people can be more considerate when they offer this button. This one will do a significant effect to my content.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: It&#8217;s kind of, &#8220;Stop. Think what you&#8217;re doing.&#8221;</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: Oh, what is it? What is it? It&#8217;s red. I will avoid doing something with this because it can avoid accidental deletion.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Experiments</h3>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: And that&#8217;s part of really the small changes that have big outcomes. So the Gutenberg 16.6 also brings a new feature, new API and that&#8217;s called lock hooks. It was introduced one or two Gutenberg versions earlier and labeled as order inserting blocks. And the PRs that are accompanying it are still referring to that, but it&#8217;s on activation plugins now can have the capability to order insert blocks, enhancing the integration and automation between the plugins and the Gutenberg editor. So the examples that you see in the PRs&#8230; And I would recommend to look through the PRs to kind of see how it all works. And the change log has the list of the PRs in there. So what is it useful&#8230; And I think we talked with Ellen about it, Ellen Bauer on the previous episode about it. So you can add a like button to a comment section or a card icon to the header with this API and any other thing that you want to add to a block that&#8217;s automatically added for the user.</p>



<p>The user now also has with the&#8230; They created now the block inspector panel and have a plugin section there. So it identifies the plugin that added a block and you can toggle the appearance or disappearance of it on your templates and on your posts. So depending on what the use case is for this plugin that you installed on your site. So this very much expands the capabilities of the block editor for plugin developers outside of adding custom blocks or adding additional features in the sidebar. Now you can add a few content as well. So this is a really good new feature and it will come to 6.4. It definitely needs some major testing. So if you are having a test site and you want to check it out and yeah, please report back on what your findings are and if you tripped up by things.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: So here in the PR, the example is log in logout, card and checkout, but it&#8217;ll be different for each plugin? For different plugins?</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, so there&#8217;s an API where a plugin developer can say, &#8220;Okay, I want this content or this particular feature added to a columns block.&#8221; Or to a paragraph block. For instance, just an anchor link to every paragraph. You can write a plugin and say, &#8220;Okay, for each paragraph add this anchor link on the right-hand side.&#8221; And then a user can install that plugin and then automatically has that on their blog and can now reference certain paragraphs. So some people do blogging more like a diary where they have all the sorts of a day in little paragraphs or in a cluster of paragraphs and say, &#8220;Okay, today I wrote also about my adventure of riding the bike down the hill on a certain hill,&#8221; and then want to link to that through Twitter or through Instagram because there&#8217;s also a picture to it.</p>



<p>So you can go back to the blog and read a little bit about it. So that&#8217;s one tiny use case. Another one is, as I said, the like button for comments. Normally comments don&#8217;t come with like buttons. But you can build a plugin that says, &#8220;Okay, every comment gets a like button for me and I want it at the top of it or on the bottom of it.&#8221; And that&#8217;s all in the API controls. And then when it&#8217;s installed and the user wants to use it can also say, &#8220;For this paragraph, I want to toggle in and off. I want to disable that particular added block for this particular paragraph. And then for the next block I want it again.&#8221; So it&#8217;s kind of a beginning of a new interface or a new way to customize the block editor.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Documentation</h3>



<p>Speaking of development, 6.3 brought a few pickups to the surface that with the&#8230; Enqueuing of assets in the editor and the CSS and Nick Diego updated the documentation and how to guide to and queue assets in the editor and best practice or how it&#8217;s actually supposed to work, especially now with the iFrame editor in the post editor as well. There were some early adopters of the block editor created a few workarounds, the early restrictions that were there. And now with 6.3 or the iFraming of the post editor, some of those don&#8217;t work anymore as one would hope. So here&#8217;s a how to guide on how to enqueue assets in the editor after 6.3.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: So this how to guide is targeted for developers? Or for everyone who wants to learn about Gutenberg in general can also try to learn this?</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh yeah, sure, sure. It&#8217;s a website, so the website doesn&#8217;t know who&#8217;s coming in. So it&#8217;s on the developer&#8230; The link goes right now to the Gutenberg repo where the pages, but I will share the link in the show notes where the actual documentation page was created. So it&#8217;s in the realm of the other documentation of the block editor. Yeah, it&#8217;s definitely helpful when you start out thinking about your theme development or your plugin development and you have additional assets like JavaScript files, CSS files to go with those entities and how to do it to control your iFrame editor. There has also been an update on the block variations API, and that has been&#8230; Block variations have been around since the beginning of the block editor where you can modify in a core block that then add additional feature sets or styles or just kind of different behavior to it.</p>



<p>And the block variations FPI had been updated, but this goes well with a new article on the developer blog called An Introduction to Block Variations where Nick Diego walks you through certain use cases on how to use it. So how to create a block variation, how to unregister. So you could use the block variation. So if a simple example is you have a button, you want the button to have a certain style, you can certainly do this through the theme.</p>



<p>But you can also say, &#8220;Okay, I want to unregister the core button and I want my block variations for the core button to be the default.&#8221; So it shows up in the inserter as a core button, but it will always have the right color on the border or the background or the right font size that you have decided on the design of it. And the user doesn&#8217;t have to select between the two they just have one. Same could be with a code block or a verse block. You can really have quite a few methods and attributes that you can use to create those lock variations. Yeah, I learned quite a bit from the article.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: No, I just wanted to say that this resource is pretty comprehensive. We can learn many stuff about the block variations from the basic to the putting it all together and everything. We can check it here. So yeah, it&#8217;s great.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, it also helps you how to control the icons for it or how the sidebar is behaving. So yes, it&#8217;s a really good article. All the articles on the developer blog, that&#8217;s actually a very rather new entity on the wordpress.org site. It only has been around for eight months, give or take. Official launch was actually March, so it&#8217;s only been around for five months officially, but we started in November with it. And there are quite a few blog posts now that are tutorials and go a little bit deeper on then documentation help you picks up the developer from a different place, from a beginner place and go all the way to advanced. Or say, &#8220;Okay, this is your use case.&#8221; There are a series of blog posts as well as standalone posts. And you can also learn about the slot fields. What&#8217;s slot fields? Well, it&#8217;s the spaces in the sidebar of a block where you can add additional features, fields and all that.</p>



<p>So the developer block is definitely something to check out if you are a developer and extending the block editor. And yeah, this concludes the change log for 16.6. We are through that.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What’s in Active Development or Discussed</h3>



<p>And as I said at the beginning, we also wanted to discuss a few things, or two things. No, actually three that are in active development. And the first one is a big feature that is announced slated for 6.4. The contributors have been working on it for quite a while, almost a whole year to get font management into WordPress. Meaning upload funds, make them available for blocks, make them available for templates, and then also delete funds, and have them across themes. So you are not depending on a theme developer to provide you with the right fonts. You can as a site owner also make different choices there. And I will share with you a link to a PR that kind of puts it all together, how it all works.</p>



<p>And Jeffrey Pearce also just made a call for testing on Twitter where he provided a link to a WordPress playground site with the configuration to test this successfully already in place. Because you need to make changes to the WP-config file and then you need to enable the plugin for it, the experiment for it and all that. So there&#8217;s kind of a set-up manually to be done, but this link to the WordPress playground gives you the PR, or the version of Gutenberg that has the PR in it as well as the right setup. And then you can test it, you can upload fonts, you make them available through the interface. You can use them on pages, on posts and on templates and see if the font on front end and editor actually would display correctly. And anything that you find that&#8217;s not working right, report that back to the PR so they can go and fix it.</p>



<p>Once it&#8217;s merged, so right now the PRs are still in the works and a lot of people are testing it, but it could use some more testing. If you listen to this and the PR has already been merged, it will be available through the Gutenberg nightly plugin version that you get on the Gutenberg Times, and then you can start testing it on your normal, like any Gutenberg plugin version on your test site. And my favorite tool for testing is actually local WP from the WP Engine and Flywheel folks. That has been a tremendous help to go through all those testing. So font library is a big, big step forward for WordPress and any help you can give to testing it would be really appreciated.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani:</em> So we can also use font library in playground?</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: With the link that&#8230; The link is a Bitly link. It&#8217;s shortened because it&#8217;s actually 15 lines long. It&#8217;s bit.ly/text-font-library, and then it gives you a new WordPress site and then you can use it and test it. You cannot install other plugins there. You cannot install themes. So you would have to test it with the default theme Twenty Twenty Three. And the second part&#8230; It&#8217;s only two things, is a lot of people, especially content creators were really waiting for this, it&#8217;s the adding a background image to a group block. It&#8217;s coming, it&#8217;s already available in the Gutenberg nightly because the feature has already been merged with trunk. It&#8217;ll be released with 16.7 Gutenberg plugin. And if you can provide user feedback, that will be really great. And if the provided user feedback doesn&#8217;t reveal any big issues with that new feature, it will also arrive in WordPress 6.4 with the next upgrade on November 7th, 2023. How do you like that, Maya?</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: I will definitely use this. I can see myself using this, I don&#8217;t know, for my company, for my day job, I don&#8217;t know about that. But so I have a website that is just to play around, my test site. I really like it. So I think I will definitely use this because it&#8217;s like, yeah, adding more creativity fuel to my toolkit.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I can see that there are some very, very subtle backgrounds that could happen on different paragraphs, like wallpaper in a house or something like that where you can change that for a different group of posts or for&#8230; If you wrap a quote post into a group block, then you can add a background image to it, and that background image could have a photo of the person who gives the quote. So you don&#8217;t have to use backgrounds and fiddle around with all the blocks, you can just put it on the background image and then upload that to the quote block. And yeah, I really like it.&nbsp;</p>



<p>So we are at the end of the show. I just wanted to make sure people, when they want to connect with you, what would be a good place to meet you online, Maya?</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: So I&#8217;m on Twitter and also I&#8217;m on Instagram. So yeah, I think I will&#8230; And on LinkedIn also, so in three places. So yeah, I will share the link to you so we can put it in the show notes.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much. As always, the show notes will be published on Gutenbergtimes.com/podcast and this is the episode 89. And if you have questions, suggestions, or news that you want us to include, send them to <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. That&#8217;s <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. And there was a time when we had quite a few people add reviews about the podcast on different podcast websites like Stitcher or Apple or Google. It would be time to do another round of reviews. If you like what you hear and get value out of this podcast, please submit a review to Apple, that&#8217;s probably the most prominent one, to iTunes or podcast, and that would be really lovely. And as a bonus, we will read them in our next show. So yeah, come on then.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: Give a little shout-out.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Give a little shout-out. Yeah. So Maya, thank you so much for joining me today. It was lovely to have you on the show and give your input and have opinions will travel that&#8217;s always beneficial at WordPress. Yeah, and I thank you all for listening and I&#8217;ll hear you in two weeks. We won&#8217;t have a 16.7 then, but we will have Tammy Lister on the show and we will talk about WordPress 6.4 and the whole process. And I wish you all well, take care and goodbye.</p>



<p><em>Nadia Maya Ardiani</em>: Thank you, Birgit. Forget the pleasure is all mine.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Thank you.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 10 Sep 2023 08:35:38 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:19:"Gutenberg Changelog";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:122:"Gutenberg Times: Font Library call for testing, Gutenberg 16.6, OmniForm and WooCommerce Blocks 11.0—Weekend Edition 267";s:7:"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=25460";s:7:"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/font-library-call-for-testing-gutenberg-16-6-omniform-and-woocommerce-blocks-11-0-weekend-edition-267/";s: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:15030:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-4/">WordPress 6.4 release</a> is fast approaching. This week I tested two new features. I am excited about that content creators and designers will be able to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/53934">add a background image to group blocks</a>.  I see a few more decorative, wall paper like backgrounds for quotes, or call out paragraphs in our future. Furthermore, site owners and theme builders can look forward to a new Font library with font management capabilities via the Global Styles sidebar. </p>



<p>You can upload fonts and server them to visitors locally and keep within privacy guidelines. <strong>Jeffrey Pearce</strong> posted <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffikus/status/1699864919628202063">A call for testing</a> on X (formerly Twitter). For more information, I added some details in this<a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/call-for-testing-of-the-new-font-library/"> post on this site.</a></p>



<p>For novices to the intricacies of Typography, <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/07/make-your-sites-typography-make-a-statement/"><strong>Mary Baum</strong> started an exciting series </a>on the Developer Blog. </p>



<p>Hope all is well. Cu you on the Interwebs. </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br /><em>Birgit</em></p>




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



<div class="wp-block-sortabrilliant-guidepost"><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-developing-gutenberg-and-word-press">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</a><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#1-gutenberg-16-6">Gutenberg 16.6 </a></li></ul></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-p">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor. </a></li></ul></div>
</div></div>




<p>Last Monday, I was part of <a href="https://wpbuilds.com/2023/09/05/this-week-in-wordpress-266/"><strong>This Week in WordPress #266 &#8211; &#8220;Weirdy bespoke CMS&#8221;</strong> </a>with <strong>Katie Keith</strong> and <strong>Bob Dunn</strong>, hosted by the fabulous <strong>Nathan Wrigley</strong>.  We talked about last week&#8217;s news around the WordPress space. Gutenberg updates, about LMS Working group, and Automattic&#8217;s <a href="https://ma.tt/2023/08/one-hundy">One Hundy </a>(100-year plan) Bob&#8217;s booth take-over and Joost de Valk and Marieke van de Rakt joining Post Status, <a href="https://bigbite.net/wordpress-for-enterprise/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Enterprise Guide to WordPress</a> and a lot more. It was great fun and quite enlightening. </p>



<a href="https://wpbuilds.com/2023/09/05/this-week-in-wordpress-266/"><img width="652" height="367" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/266-This-Week-in-WordPress-Bob-Dunn-Katie-Keith-Nathan-Wrigley-Birgit-Pauli-Haack.jpeg?resize=652%2C367&ssl=1" alt="Screenshot of This week in WordPress 266 with Bob Dunn, Katie Keith, Birgit Pauli-Haack and Nathan Wrigley" class="wp-image-25466" /></a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="0-developing-gutenberg-and-word-press">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</h2>



<p><strong>Joen Asmussen</strong> again shared the work of the WordPress design team in his post <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2023/08/28/design-share-aug-14-aug-25/"><strong>Design Share: Aug 14-Aug 25</strong></a>.  You&#8217;ll find illustrations and links on </p>



<ul>
<li>the iterations on the new design for the themes directory, </li>



<li>the way how to list user patterns by category</li>



<li>the workflow to control styling nested elements through inheritance</li>



<li>Better display for the audio component  and search results for the Openverse site. </li>



<li>User interface to control the Lightbox feature for Image block</li>



<li>Font Management for Google Fonts</li>



<li>First round of designs for List views for the Admin space. </li>
</ul>



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



<p>After nearly  3.5 years of feedback loops, knowledge sharing, and community building and WordPress 6.3 concluding the Phase 2, <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> outlines in her blog post <strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/07/evolving-the-fse-outreach-program/">Evolving the FSE Outreach Program</a>,</strong> what will happen next. Details on the timeline, the shift from new feature to adoption and the hand-off of future calls for testing to the WordPress test team, are all explained in the post. Anne McCarthy has been a fantastic community builder and communicator running this first of a kind outreach program.  Their work was groundbreaking and provided a blueprint future outreach programs can build on. </p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="1-gutenberg-16-6">Gutenberg 16.6 </h3>



<p>In his release post, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/06/whats-new-in-gutenberg-16-6-06-september/">What’s new in Gutenberg 16.6? (06 September)</a>, <strong>Vicente Canales</strong> highlighted the new Block hooks, formerly known as Auto-inserted blocks, and improvements to the block toolbars by tieing the toolbars of child blocks to the parent block&#8217;s toolbar. </p>



<p><strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> also reported on the Gutenberg 16.7 release in her article <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-16-6-introduces-block-hooks-improvements-to-toolbars-on-nested-blocks">Gutenberg 16.6 Introduces Block Hooks, Improvements to Toolbars on Nested Blocks</a></p>



<p>For this week&#8217;s <strong>Gutenberg Changelog episode 89</strong>, I had the great pleasure of welcoming <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/inyongski">Nadia Maya Ardiani</a></strong> and my special guest. Ardiani is a content creator at Hostinger and contributor on training and documentation teams working on translations. We have been in touch since we met in person at WordCamp Asia. In this new episode, we tackled the Gutenberg 16.6 release and talked about more features in the works. The episode will drop into your favorite podcast app over the weekend. </p>



<img width="652" height="184" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screenshot-2023-09-08-at-13.46.21.png?resize=652%2C184&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-25503" />



<p>TIL: The diner in Maya&#8217;s background is called <em>warkop/warmindo</em>, which is the short for <em>warung kopi </em>(coffee tavern) or <em>warung indomie</em> (instant noodle diner)</p>



<div class="wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p class="is-style-no-vertical-margin"><strong>🎙️ </strong> Latest episode:  <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-89-gutenberg-16-6-font-library-default-theme/">Gutenberg Changelog #89 – Gutenberg 16.6, default theme and Font Library</a> with Nadia Maya Ardiani  as special guest, hosted by Birgit Pauli-Haack</p>
</div></div>



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



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



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/jrtashjian"><strong>JR Tashjian</strong></a>, senior developer at GoDaddy, has been working on <strong>OmniForm </strong>for a while, and he just released it in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/omniform/">WordPress plugins directory</a>. OmniForm specializes in essential form types, such as contact and feedback forms. The feature list includes: </p>



<ul>
<li>20+ form fields blocks, including text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, and more</li>



<li>Pre-built form templates or create your own from scratch</li>



<li>Manage form submissions within the admin dashboard</li>



<li>Email notifications for new form submissions</li>



<li>Customize form styling</li>



<li>Spam protection with Cloudflare Turnstile, hCaptcha, and Google reCAPTCHA.</li>
</ul>



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



<p><strong>Patricia Hillebrandt</strong>, code wrangler at WooCommerce, published the release notes for <a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2023/08/31/woocommerce-blocks-11-0-0-release-notes/"><strong>WooCommerce Blocks version 11.0.0</strong> </a>With the latest release of WooCommerce Blocks, users can leverage the Product Collection Block and the improved interactivity of the Product Button to create appealing product displays and enhance the shopping experience on their websites. </p>



<p><strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> reported on the new release for the WPTavern: <a href="https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-blocks-11-0-0-adds-product-collection-block-in-beta-10-9-0-integrates-product-button-with-the-interactivity-api"><strong>WooCommerce Blocks 11.0.0 Adds Product Collection Block in Beta, 10.9.0 Integrates Product Button with the Interactivity API</strong></a></p>



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



<p>The <em>Torque Magazine</em> published <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/nschaeferhoff">Nick Schäferhoff</a>&#8216;</strong>s post about <strong><a href="https://torquemag.io/2023/09/mastodon-and-wordpress/">Mastodon and WordPress: 8 Ways to Make Them Work Together</a>.</strong> From site verification and social icons over displaying your feed on your site or your client&#8217;s sites, to automatically posting from WordPress to Mastodon, Schäferhoff gives comprehensive instructions and illustrations for a complete integration of WordPress and Mastodon. </p>



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



<p>On Learn.WordPress you can now watch the new tutorial:  <strong><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/intro-to-the-site-editor-and-template-editor/">Intro to the Site Editor</a>. </strong>You can create and launch your entire site within the Site Editor. In this video tutorial, <strong>Wes Theron</strong>, provides you with an overview of accessing and using the Site Editor and you learn about all the tools you need. </p>



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



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/SteveJBurge">Steve Burge</a></strong> published for KinshiPress the tutorial on how to <a href="https://kinshipress.com/time-to-read-block-wordpress/"><strong>use a Time to Read Block in WordPress</strong></a>, via the Gutenberg plugin. </p>




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




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



<p><strong>Anton Plauche</strong> has published a detailed tutorial for responsive design implementation by extending the core columns block. In <a href="https://fullstackdigital.io/blog/how-to-build-responsive-designs-in-the-wordpress-editor-by-extending-the-core-columns-block/"><strong>How to Build Responsive Designs in the WordPress Editor by Extending the Core Columns Block</strong></a>, Plauche shares example code to add our additional breakpoint functionality.</p>



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



<p>With Gutenberg 16.6, <strong>Nick Diego</strong> updated the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/block-api/block-variations/"><strong>documentation for Block Variations</strong></a> to clarify different properties and to add notes regarding implementation.  He also merged the new page on <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/enqueueing-assets-in-the-editor/"><strong>enqueuing assets in the Editor</strong></a></p>



<p></p>



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




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



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




<p class="has-text-align-right has-small-font-size"><em>Questions? Suggestions? Ideas? Don&#8217;t hesitate to send <a href="mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com">them via email</a> or send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph</em>. </p>



<p class="has-text-align-right has-small-font-size">For questions to be answered on the <a href="http://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast">Gutenberg Changelog</a>, send them to <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a></p>



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




<p>Featured Image: Ekodesign: Creatif Building block found in WordPress photo directory</p>



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



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



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



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 10 Sep 2023 08:00:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Birgit Pauli-Haack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:57:"Gutenberg Times: Call for testing of the new Font Library";s:7:"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=25529";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/call-for-testing-of-the-new-font-library/";s: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:2795:"<p>Update: September 18, 2023</p>



<p>The Font Library is a new WordPress feature that will come to WordPress 6.4. Your help is needed to test the feature that allows you to manage fonts and their variants for your website. You can find the PR on GitHub <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/53884">Font Library: Frontend [Stage 1] #53884</a> and has been merged on September 15, 2023</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Use WordPress playground</h2>



<p>The WordPress Playground link was updated to https://bit.ly/font-lib-latest-test You can use the WordPress playground tool that is already prepped for your test. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Test with your test site using Gutenberg Nightly</h2>



<p>If you need  to use your own test site setup with LocalWP or any other tools because you are curious how the font library works with your set of plugins,  use the <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Gutenberg Nightly version</a> and start testing on your test site. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How do you find the Font Manager? </h2>



<p>No matter the tool you use, testing an undocumented feature is like jumping into the deep end of the pool and try to learn how to swim. </p>



<p>Here are the steps. </p>



<ul>
<li>From your Dashboard </li>



<li>select Appearance &gt; Editor &gt; </li>



<li>Click into the canvas side of the screen to enable Edit Mode</li>



<li>Use the Style icon to open it in the right sidebar</li>



<li>You might already see some fonts listed in the Fonts section </li>



<li>Click on the Ab icon on the left to the section header. </li>



<li>It opens the Font Manger modal. </li>
</ul>



<p>Below is a short video how you can find the Font Manager. </p>



Video: <em>How to find the Font Manager</em>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="3-what-should-you-test">What should you test? </h2>



<ul>
<li>You can download font from Google or other free font sites</li>



<li>Upload the fonts via Drag and Drop or selecting the files from your computer</li>



<li>They should land in the wp-contents/fonts folder.<br /> <img width="568" height="326" class="wp-image-25532" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screenshot-2023-09-10-at-09.11.37.png?resize=568%2C326&ssl=1" alt="New /fonts folder in wp-content directory" /></li>



<li>See that they show up in the Typography section of the Global Styles when enabling Font Family. </li>



<li>Delete fonts you don&#8217;t need. </li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Where to report issues?</h2>



<p>Report all finding in a comment on the PR on GitHub <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/53884">Font Library: Frontend [Stage 1]&nbsp;#53884</a>, or comment below. </p>



<p></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 10 Sep 2023 07:24:02 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"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: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:68:"WPTavern: WP Includes Launches Women in WordPress Mentorship Program";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=148596";s:7:"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:79:"https://wptavern.com/wp-includes-launches-women-in-wordpress-mentorship-program";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3008:"<img width="500" height="333" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/women-working-500x333.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-148656" />photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/people-girls-N444PJYUP9">Brodie Vissers</a>



<p><a href="https://wpincludes.me/">WP Includes</a> is a new initiative that launched this week with the goal of improving equal representation of women at global WordPress companies. It was founded by Human Made COO Siobhan McKeown and XWP Director of Engineering Francesco Marano.</p>



<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been in WordPress a long time and I&#8217;ve met a lot of talented women but not enough in leadership roles. It&#8217;s time to change that,&#8221; McKeown said.</p>



<p>The website states the founders&#8217; mission in launching the initiative:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>Disappointed by the lack of representation of women in leadership roles at companies in the WordPress ecosystem we’ve decided to do something about it.</p>



<p>We want to drastically increase representation of women in leadership roles at WordPress companies. We will do this by mentoring and supporting women to take the next step in their careers.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>WP Includes is recruiting women leaders who are C-Level or Directors <br />at a WordPress company to volunteer as mentors and build a supportive network of mentees.</p>



<p>The mentorship program lasts five months and calls for mentees/mentors goes out twice a year in September and March. Mentors commit to meet with mentees for a 1:1 on a regular basis and support them in achieving their goals. Mentee applicants are required to be working at a business in the WordPress ecosystem and actively developing their careers.</p>



<p>WP Includes is accepting sponsorships from companies with some rigorous requirements:</p>



<ul>
<li>Acknowledge gender disparity and a lack of representation in your organization, wherever it exists.</li>



<li>Proactively address gender disparity in your leadership and executive roles.</li>



<li>When senior roles become available, actively seek to place women within those roles.</li>



<li>Support women within their career in your organization, working to ensure that any gender-related barriers are removed.</li>



<li>Create opportunities to showcase women leaders in your organisation so that they can act as role models for future leaders.</li>
</ul>



<p>Supporting organizations can also contribute by sharing open roles within the network and by providing mentorship to future leaders who may potentially be considered for leadership roles in the sponsoring organizations. This is effectively changing representation from the inside out with cooperating organizations contributing to the cultivation of the leaders they need in order to purse more diverse leadership teams.</p>



<p>Prospective mentees, mentors, and sponsors can apply on the <a href="https://wpincludes.me/">WP Includes website</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, 09 Sep 2023 02:31:25 +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: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:114:"WPTavern: ACF’s 2023 Annual Survey Results Reinforce Plugin’s Focus on Improving the Block Building 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=148573";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:119:"https://wptavern.com/acfs-2023-annual-survey-results-reinforce-plugins-focus-on-improving-the-block-building-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:3017:"<p>Advanced Custom Fields (<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/">ACF</a>), one of the plugins WP Engine <a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-engine-acquires-5-plugins-from-delicious-brains">acquired from Delicious Brains</a> in 2022, has published the <a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/annual-survey/2023-results/">results if its first annual survey</a>. Although ACF reports more than 4.5 million active users, including PRO site installs, the survey only gathered feedback from 2,031 respondents. </p>



<p>These results are more representative of the plugin&#8217;s developer community, as 81% of respondents are developers who maintain between 11-50 websites. 63% use version control for their codebase, and 27% manage dependencies with Composer.</p>



<p>The survey showed that ACF is still an important tool for its early adopters, as 50% said they have been using it since its early days and 70% of all respondents use the plugin on all the websites they build.</p>



<p>When asked what type of sites they are building, respondents had the option to choose multiple answers. Sites using Classic WordPress themes are the most popular followed by Hybrid themes, Block themes, and page builders. Surveying those who use the block editor, 56% report that they build blocks using ACF blocks.</p>



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



<img width="1358" height="1030" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screen-Shot-2023-09-08-at-10.35.34-AM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-148627" />



<p>&#8220;It was cool to see the strong representation of hybrid and block themes,&#8221; WP Engine Product Marketing Manager Rob Stinson said. &#8220;It shows us that there is growing adoption of the modern WP editor experience amongst the PHP friendly crowd that is the ACF user base. </p>



<p>&#8220;We had this scoped for upcoming releases anyway, but it reinforces our focus on improving the block building experience in ACF.&#8221;</p>



<p>Among those ACF users building sites with page builders, the most popular selections include Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, and WPBakery Page Builder.  Naturally, ACF Extended is the most popular extension used with ACF, followed by Gravity Forms, Yoast SEO, and ACF Better Search.</p>



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



<img width="2110" height="1168" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screen-Shot-2023-09-08-at-12.46.15-PM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-148636" />



<p>Respondents demonstrated high confidence in those maintaining the plugin, as 98% of them are comfortable updating ACF to the latest version. They are also confident in continuing to build on top of WordPress, as 91% of survey participants said they are likely to continue with the platform. For a more detailed look at the questions and responses, check out the <a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/annual-survey/2023-results/">2023 annual survey results</a> on the ACF website.</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, 08 Sep 2023 17:27:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:101:"Do The Woo Community: WooBits About WordCampUS, WP Includes, WP for Enterprise, Swag and Avalara Next";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76427";s:7:"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:51:"https://dothewoo.io/woobits-newsletter-episode-one/";s: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:440:"<p>In WooBits this week, recapping WCUS, launch of WP Includes, WordPress for Enterprise, future of swag and Avalara Next virtual event.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/woobits-newsletter-episode-one/">WooBits About WordCampUS, WP Includes, WP for Enterprise, Swag and Avalara Next</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 08 Sep 2023 11:55:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:90:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 16.6 Introduces Block Hooks, Improvements to Toolbars on Nested Blocks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=148577";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:100:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-16-6-introduces-block-hooks-improvements-to-toolbars-on-nested-blocks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3551:"<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/06/whats-new-in-gutenberg-16-6-06-september/">Gutenberg 16.6</a> is available with progress on a feature that was formerly called auto-inserting blocks but has now been renamed to block hooks.  </p>



<p>In a previous release (<a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-16-4-introduces-experimental-auto-inserting-blocks">16.4</a>), Gutenberg introduced auto-inserting blocks as an experimental feature that allows plugin developers to specify a location in which the block will be automatically inserted, such as before or after a template. Users can then reposition the blocks after insertion using the editor tools.</p>



<p>Gutenberg lead architect Matias Ventura <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/53987#issuecomment-1695915874">proposed</a> <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/54147">renaming</a> the feature to block hooks to help developers understand how they work. </p>



<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve seen anecdotal feedback that <code>autoInsert</code> is not the clearest of descriptions,&#8221; Ventura said. &#8220;I&#8217;d like to propose renaming to the more familiar <code>hooks</code> terminology—and &#8216;block hooks&#8217; in more general terms—to help folks understand the mechanics and purpose more rapidly.&#8221;</p>



<p>This release also <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/52969">adds an inspector panel for block hooks</a>, tentatively named &#8220;Plugins,&#8221; that displays blocks available for auto-insertion. It includes toggles to insert or remove them. The updated version of the feature also includes block icons (not shown below) to help differentiate the toggles. </p>



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



<img width="1443" height="438" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/block-hooks.gif" alt="" class="wp-image-148604" />image source: <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/52969#issuecomment-1669889491">Gutenberg repository PR #52969</a>



<p>Gutenberg 16.6 brings improvements to toolbars on nested blocks, where the toolbar now stays attached to the parent block. This change is part of a broader effort to improve nested block experiences. Previously, the toolbar would move around when clicking inside the nested blocks, but this change makes it stay in place for a less chaotic editing experience. The updated toolbar behavior has been rolled out to Navigation, List, and Quote blocks so far.</p>



video credit: Gutenberg GitHub repository <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/53699">PR #53699</a>



<p>This release includes a new keyboard shortcut for duplicating blocks within the List View: (<code>CMD+Shift+d</code>). It enables users to do more from the keyboard while navigating around the List View, instead of having to jump back into the block settings menu or editor canvas. Users can now click twice on the selected (or focused) block or multiple blocks to quickly duplicate them all in one go.</p>



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



video credit: Gutenberg GitHub repository <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/53559">PR #53559</a>



<p>These highlighted features and more will be landing in the upcoming WordPress 6.4 release. Check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/06/whats-new-in-gutenberg-16-6-06-september/">Gutenberg 16.6 release post</a> for the full list of new features, enhancements, bug fixes, and improvements to performance and code quality.</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, 08 Sep 2023 02:59:03 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:35:"BuddyPress: BuddyPress 12.0.0-beta2";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://buddypress.org/?p=331167";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"https://buddypress.org/2023/09/buddypress-12-0-0-beta2/";s: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:3276:"<p>Hello BuddyPress contributors!</p>



<p>If you haven&#8217;t tested our first <a href="https://buddypress.org/2023/08/buddypress-12-0-0-beta1/">12.0.0 beta release</a> (<img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f448.png" alt="👈" class="wp-smiley" /> <strong>please read this post</strong>), here&#8217;s another opportunity to help us make sure it will fit perfectly into your WordPress / BuddyPress specific configuration. Beta testing is very important and more then any other BuddyPress major release, we need you all, whether you&#8217;re a regular or advanced user, a theme designer or a plugin author: <strong>please contribute!</strong></p>



<div class="wp-block-buttons is-horizontal is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-1 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-button is-style-outline"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background wp-element-button" href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.12.0.0-beta2.zip">Test BuddyPress 12.0.0-beta2</a></div>
</div>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What&#8217;s new since beta1?</h2>



<p>We&#8217;ve been working on improving documentation about 12.0.0 changes and giving advanced users some more customization options about the coming visibility feature.</p>



<p>We&#8217;ve fixed 8 bugs, the most important one was about the BuddyPress menu items we are making available in the WP Nav Menu management interfaces (Administration screen and customizer). We took this opportunity to <a href="https://github.com/buddypress/buddypress/tree/master/docs/user/administration/navigations">document how BuddyPress is dealing with these interfaces</a>.</p>



<p>The final release is slated to October 30 and&nbsp;<strong>we need you to get there</strong>: do test this beta release of BuddyPress <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" />.</p>



<p>You can test <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.12.0.0-beta2.zip">BuddyPress 12.0.0-beta2</a> in 4 ways :</p>



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



<li><a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.12.0.0-beta2.zip">Download the beta here (zip file)</a>.</li>



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



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



<p>If you find something weird, please report it on&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/newticket" target="_blank">BuddyPress Trac</a>, post a reply to&nbsp;<a href="https://buddypress.org/support/topic/lets-prepare-the-buddypress-12-0-0-next-major-release/">this support topic</a>&nbsp;or get in touch with us on our&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.slack.com/messages/buddypress" target="_blank">WordPress.org Slack channel</a>.</p>



<p>Thanks in advance for your contributions <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f91d.png" alt="🤝" class="wp-smiley" /></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, 07 Sep 2023 20:27:17 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Mathieu Viet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:74:"Do The Woo Community: Woo AgencyChat Live with Mitch Callahan and Ash Shaw";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76387";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"https://dothewoo.io/woo-agencychat-live-with-mitch-callahan-and-ash-shaw/";s: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:406:"<p>From tools they use, a bit of AI, remote work and lots of insights into their teams and their companies.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/woo-agencychat-live-with-mitch-callahan-and-ash-shaw/">Woo AgencyChat Live with Mitch Callahan and Ash Shaw</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 07 Sep 2023 08:34:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:44:"WPTavern: GoDaddy Retires Media Temple Brand";s:7:"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=148575";s:7:"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://wptavern.com/godaddy-retires-media-temple-brand";s: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:4655:"<p>Media Temple (MT) is closing its doors after 24 years in the hosting industry, with the brand now retired and customers fully migrated to GoDaddy. In 2013, GoDaddy acquired MT &#8220;to win the hearts and minds of developers,&#8221; as then-CEO Blake Irving told <a href="https://venturebeat.com/business/godaddy-ceo-we-bought-media-temple-to-win-the-hearts-and-minds-of-developers/">VentureBeat</a> at the time. When it was purchased, the highly regarded brand was focusing on advanced technical services that GoDaddy had not yet adapted, and the plan was to have MT operate independently with no changes for employees or customers.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thanks for allowing us to serve you for 24 years. The time has come to say goodbye. We will miss you. Keep building amazing things!</p>&mdash; Media Temple (@mediatemple) <a href="https://twitter.com/mediatemple/status/1699116917900894315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>The year following the acquisition, <a href="https://wptavern.com/mediatemple-launches-wordpress-managed-hosting-package">Media Temple launched its managed WordPress hosting product</a>, joining the ranks of Flywheel, Page.ly, WordPress.com, WP Engine, and a handful of other companies that were working to elevate the hosting experience for WordPress users.</p>



<p>In December 2022, MT <a href="https://origin-blog.mediatemple.net/news/a-new-chapter-for-media-temple/">announced</a> it would be retiring the Media Temple brand and transitioning accounts to GoDaddy, while subtly acknowledging the sentimental place MT holds in many of its customers&#8217; hearts:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>Since joining GoDaddy, we worked hand-in-hand with them to incorporate the best of Media Temple into offerings, including improving GoDaddy’s customer experience and leveraging Media Temple’s unique expertise on what it truly means to run a world-class hosting organization. If you closely examine GoDaddy’s hosting offerings, you will find Media Temple’s fingerprints all around. From specialized teams who deal with complex hosting issues to programs like GoDaddy Pro specifically targeting creatives, Media Temple made its mark on GoDaddy.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Fans bid the brand farewell on Twitter, as its retirement marks the end of a chapter in web hosting history.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Basically the entire design community was sponsored by Media Temple back in the day.<br /><br />I can’t imagine a more omnipresent brand at the time. <a href="https://t.co/mmhdxEIHVy">https://t.co/mmhdxEIHVy</a></p>&mdash; Josh Pigford (@Shpigford) <a href="https://twitter.com/Shpigford/status/1699464913595290066?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">When I got started circa 2003, it felt like every respected web designer was hosted by Media Temple.<br /><br />They made being hosted by them feel cooler (really) than anywhere else. Geniuses.<br /><br />I was a (mt) customer from 2007–2020 until <a href="https://twitter.com/laravelforge?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@laravelforge</a> made deploying magnitudes easier. <a href="https://t.co/HyhBxz5PZs">https://t.co/HyhBxz5PZs</a></p>&mdash; Brendan Falkowski (@Falkowski) <a href="https://twitter.com/Falkowski/status/1699543478169112971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Woah. Somehow Media Temple always seemed so cool, the first “aspirational” software in a way, where you’d move when your blog was successful.<br /><br />End of an era. <a href="https://t.co/tJobBqEPQf">https://t.co/tJobBqEPQf</a></p>&mdash; Matthew Guay (@maguay) <a href="https://twitter.com/maguay/status/1699446005568270700?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>In February 2023, Media Temple began migrating accounts to GoDaddy, with no action required from customers. Many of the products and services were already fulfilled through GoDaddy, decreasing the number needing to be migrated. </p>



<p>Now that the process is complete, the brand will discontinue operations and move current resources into supporting customers inside GoDaddy. The company assured former MT customers that they will retain their current products and pricing for equivalent products with access to more tools.</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, 07 Sep 2023 03:36:11 +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:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:"Post Status: Community Summit Recaps, Multilingual Documentation, Performant Translations";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://poststatus.com/?p=154280";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"https://poststatus.com/community-summit-recaps-multilingual-documentation-performant-translations/";s: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:21085:"<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-this-week-at-wordpress-org-september-4-2023">This Week at WordPress.org (September 4, 2023)</h2>


<div class="has-background has-theme-palette-8-background-color wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">Discover the latest from the WordPress community. From the future of WordPress &amp; Gutenberg&#8217;s next steps to intriguing discussions at the Community Summit. Plus, get a sneak peek into WordPress 6.4&#8217;s development cycle. Stay updated, stay involved! </p></div>


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


<div class="gb-container gb-container-5e804289">

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news"><h2><a href="https://wordpress.org/news">News</a></h2></h2>

</div>


<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/09/episode-61-community-summit-all-at-washington-d-c/">WP Briefing: Episode 61: Community, Summit, all at Washington D.C.</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/08/wordpress-6-3-1-maintenance-release/">WordPress 6.3.1 Maintenance Release</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/08/the-future-of-wordpress-whats-next-for-gutenberg/">The Future of WordPress &amp; What’s Next for Gutenberg</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/08/wp20-a-heartfelt-thanks/">WP20 – A Heartfelt Thanks</a></li>
</ul>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-community-summit-notes"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit">Community Summit Notes</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/09/06/community-summit-discussion-notes-iterating-on-the-team-rep-role/">Community Summit Discussion Notes: Iterating on the Team Rep role</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/09/04/community-summit-discussion-notes-open-source-participation-in-global-legislation/">Community Summit Discussion Notes: Open Source participation in global legislation</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/09/03/community-summit-discussion-notes-communication-and-collaboration-finding-your-way-around-wordpress/">Community Summit Discussion Notes: Communication and Collaboration – Finding Your Way Around WordPress</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/09/01/understanding-contributor-leadership-roles-in-the-wordpress-open-source-project/">Understanding contributor leadership roles in the WordPress open source project</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/08/31/part-i-ii-communicating/">Part I &amp; II: Communicating…</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/08/31/invisible-and-under-appreciated-bolstering-behind-the-scenes-contributions/">Invisible and under-appreciated: bolstering “behind the scenes” contributions</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/08/30/community-summit-discussion-notes-revitalizing-contributor-teams-leadership-pipeline/">Community summit discussion notes: Revitalizing contributor teams’ leadership pipeline</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/08/30/community-summit-discussion-notes-php-version-support/">Community Summit Discussion Notes: PHP version support</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/08/28/community-summit-discussion-notes-can-wordpress-become-the-household-name-it-deserves-to-be/">Community Summit Discussion Notes: Can WordPress become the household name it deserves to be?</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/summit/2023/08/27/community-summit-discussion-notes-refreshing-the-contributor-pipeline/">Community Summit Discussion Notes: Refreshing the contributor pipeline</a></li>
</ul>



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



<div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-16 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WordPress 6.4</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/07/18/wordpress-6-4-whats-on-your-wishlist/">WordPress 6.4: What’s on your wishlist?</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/06/05/wordpress-6-4-development-cycle/">WordPress 6.4 Development Cycle</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>



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



<div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-21 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-19 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility">Accessibility</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2023/08/30/accessibility-team-meeting-agenda-september-1-2023/">Accessibility Team Meeting Agenda: September 1, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2023/08/28/wcus-2023-contributor-day-summary/">WCUS 2023 Contributor Day Summary</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/09/01/wordcamp-mentors-september-check-in/">WordCamp Mentors’ September check-in!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/08/30/the-nextgen-event-project-your-ideas-your-wordpress-community/">The NextGen Event Project: Your Ideas, Your WordPress Community!</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/08/23/recap-of-the-diverse-speaker-training-group-wpdiversity-amer-emea-on-august-23-2023/">Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) AMER/EMEA on August 23, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/08/23/call-for-ideas-new-features-for-our-nexgen-wp-events-central-page/">Call for ideas: new features for our NexGen WP events central page</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2023/08/21/meetup-organizer-newsletter-august-2023/">Meetup Organizer Newsletter: August 2023</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/06/a-week-in-core-september-4-2023/">Two Weeks in Core – September 4, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/05/call-for-testing-performant-translations/">Call for Testing: Performant Translations</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/08/31/proposal-an-update-to-the-field-guide/">Proposal: An update to the Field Guide</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-developer-blog"><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/">Developer Blog</a></h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/08/adding-and-using-custom-settings-in-theme-json/">Adding and using custom settings in theme.json</a></li>



<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/08/exploring-the-future-of-web-development-with-webassembly-and-php/">Exploring the future of web development with WebAssembly and PHP</a></li>



<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/08/an-introduction-to-block-variations/">An introduction to block variations</a></li>



<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/08/the-anatomy-of-a-letterform/">The anatomy of a letterform</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meetings">Meetings</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/06/default-theme-chat-summary-august-30th-2023-2/">Default Theme chat summary: September 6, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/05/dev-chat-agenda-september-6-2023/">Dev Chat agenda, September 6, 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/04/editor-chat-agenda-06-september-2023/">Editor Chat Agenda: 06 September 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design">Design</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2023/08/28/design-share-aug-14-aug-25/">Design Share: Aug 14-Aug 25</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2023/08/18/design-specific-triage/">Bringing Back the Weekly Design Triage</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2023/08/10/admin-design-kickoff/">Admin Design Kickoff</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs">Docs</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2023/09/01/agenda-for-docs-team-bi-weekly-meeting-05-sep-2023/">Agenda for Docs Team Biweekly Meeting (05-Sep-2023)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/04/documentation-team-update-september-4-2023/">Documentation Team Update – September 4, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2023/09/06/hosting-team-meeting-agenda-2023-09-06/">Hosting Team meeting agenda 2023-09-06</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2023/09/03/xpost-community-summit-discussion-notes-php-version-support/">X-post: Community Summit Discussion Notes: PHP version support</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing">Marketing</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/08/24/wordcamp-us-2023-contributor-day/">WordCamp US 2023 Contributor Day</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta">Meta</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2023/08/23/introducing-the-wordpress-org-github-invite-tool/">Introducing the WordPress.org GitHub Invite tool</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-openverse"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse">Openverse</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2023/09/04/last-week-openverse-2023-08-28-2023-09-04/">A week in Openverse: 2023-08-28 – 2023-09-04</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/05/performance-chat-summary-05-september-2023/">Performance Chat Summary: 5 September 2023</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/04/plugin-review-team-4-september-2023/">Plugin Review Team: 4 September 2023</a></li>
</ul>
</div>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2023/09/06/agenda-weekly-polyglots-chat-september-06-2023-0700-utc/">Agenda: Weekly Polyglots Chat- September 06, 2023 (07:00 UTC)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2023/09/04/improving-translation-suggestions-from-other-languages/">Improving Translation Suggestions from Other Languages</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-project">Project</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2023/09/06/documentation-translation-localization/">Proposal: Documentation translation/localization</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-support"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support">Support</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/08/proposal-for-updated-support-guidelines/">Proposal for updated support guidelines</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/sustainability">Sustainability</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/sustainability/2023/09/06/how-the-wordpress-sustainability-team-was-born-during-wordcamp-europe-2023/">How the WordPress Sustainability Team was born during WordCamp Europe 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/sustainability/2023/09/05/sustainability-chat-agenda-september-8-2023/">Sustainability Chat Agenda, September 8, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/08/31/test-chat-summary-29-august-2023/">Test Chat Summary: 29 August 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/08/29/fse-program-lets-start-from-the-beginning-summary/">FSE Program Let’s Start From The Beginning Summary</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2023/08/15/test-team-reps-call-for-nominations-3/">Test Team Reps: Call for Nominations</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/04/test-team-update-4-september-2023/">Test Team Update: 4 September 2023</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-theme"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/theme">Theme</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/05/themes-team-update-september-5-2023/">Themes team update September 5, 2023</a></li>
</ul>



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2023/09/02/whats-new-on-learn-wordpress-in-august-2023/">What’s new on Learn WordPress in August 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/learn-wordpress-newsletter-september-2023/">Learn WordPress Newsletter – September 2023</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/09/05/wordcamp-us-2023-contributor-day-recap/">WordCamp US 2023 Contributor Day Recap</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/09/05/lets-share-our-notes-from-the-community-summit/">Let’s share our notes from the Community Summit</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/08/24/information-sources-for-wordpress-6-4/">Information Sources for WordPress 6.4</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/08/24/looking-for-feedback-learning-pathway-outlines/">Looking for feedback: Learning pathway outlines</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tutorials"><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorials">Tutorials</a></h3>



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



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/gu-how-to-start-using-wordpress-playground/">વર્ડપ્રેસ પ્લેગ્રાઉન્ડનો ઉપયોગ કેવી રીતે શરૂ કરવો</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/common-apis-dashboard-widgets/">Common APIs – Dashboard Widgets</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/how-to-create-a-video-tutorial-for-learn-wordpress-org/">How to create a video tutorial for learn.wordpress.org</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-online-workshops">Online Workshops</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=what-is-the-domain-name-system-3">What is the Domain Name System?</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=speaker-workshop-for-indian-women-in-the-wordpress-community-part-2">Speaker Workshop for Indian Women in the WordPress Community Part 2</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=speaker-workshop-for-indian-women-in-the-wordpress-community-part-1">Speaker Workshop for Indian Women in the WordPress Community Part 1</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=common-wordpress-apis-metadata-2">Common WordPress APIs: Metadata</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=wp-dev-livestream-sendig-block-theme-13">WP dev livestream: Sendig block theme</a></li>



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



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=using-the-navigation-block-3">Using the navigation block</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=common-wordpress-apis-metadata">Common WordPress APIs: Metadata</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/?meeting=41489">WP dev livestream: Sendig block theme</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-courses"><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/courses">Courses</a></h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/course/wordpress-community-team-supporter-basics/">WordPress Community Team Supporter Basics</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/tv">WordPress TV</a></h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/tv/2023/06/15/enhancing-slide-management-for-video-publications/">Enhancing Slide Management for Video Publications</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-wptv">WPTV</h2>



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



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<li><a href="https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/releases/tag/v6.8.1">PHPMailer 6.8.1</a></li>



<li><a href="https://dev.mysql.com/doc/relnotes/mysql/8.0/en/news-8-0-35.html">Changes in MySQL 8.0.35 (Not yet released, General Availability)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://262.ecma-international.org/">TC39</a></li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/composer/composer/releases">Composer 2.6.2</a></li>
</ul>



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<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Sep 2023 19:31:54 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Courtney Robertson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:43;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"WPTavern: #89 – Scott Kingsley Clark on Why the Time Is Right for the Fields API";s:7:"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=148568";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/89-scott-kingsley-clark-on-why-the-time-is-right-for-the-fields-api";s: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:47790:"Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p>Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, why the time might be right for the Fields API.</p>



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



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



<p>So on the podcast today, we have Scott Kingsley, Clark.</p>



<p>Scott is a WordPress developer who has been working with WordPress since 2007. He&#8217;s well-known for his work on the Pods Framework, a popular content and custom fields plugin.</p>



<p>Scott&#8217;s goal is to find ways to enhance the WordPress experience, particularly in terms of working with different types of data. He&#8217;s currently involved in the WordPress Fields API project, which aims to provide a better solution for developers looking to wrangle their data. And that is the focus of the podcast today. As you&#8217;ll hear, Scott is determined to contribute to the continual growth and improvement of WordPress, and to make the Fields API a reality.</p>



<p>Scott came from a background using Drupal, which is an alternative CMS. When he first ventured into WordPress, he found certain features were lacking. Things which were baked into Drupal Core were not available in WordPress, a notable example being custom fields.</p>



<p>We know that WordPress has a myriad of plugins, which can take on the burden of creating custom fields, but Scott has concerns about the interoperability of these plugins, and he wants to create a more solid structure within WordPress itself. Wouldn&#8217;t it be nice if there were ways for developers to create custom field plugins so that you weren&#8217;t locked into one or the other. Scott imagines a future in which you could move from ACF, Metabox Toolset and more. A future built on top of the Fields API.</p>



<p>Throughout the conversation, scott talks about his passion for incorporating the block editor, React and other technologies into WordPress. He shares insights on controlling block settings, making them extensible through PHP.</p>



<p>You might know Scott from his work on the popular Pods Framework plugin. This plugin allows users to create custom content types and fields in WordPress, and certainly speaks to his credentials in trying to push the Fields API project forward.</p>



<p>We talk about what the Fields API might become. The aim is to simplify the process of working with custom fields and content types in WordPress. With the Fields API, Scott hopes to unify the different methods and APIs for managing custom fields, making it easier for developers and non-developers alike to add their fields to different screens within WordPress.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s a complicated undertaking and we get into some of the areas of WordPress, which might benefit from his work. Scott sheds light on the challenges faced during the development of the Fields API, the need for shared storage standards among plugins, and the potential for better integration with the WordPress Admin UI.</p>



<p>Towards the end of the podcast we talk about the future of the Fields API project, and how gaining support from people in the WordPress community will be crucial to its success.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re interested in how WordPress can be used as a fully featured CMS, this podcast is for you.</p>



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



<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Scott Kingsley Clark.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Scott Kingsley Clark. Hello Scott.</p>



<p>[00:04:53] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> Hey Nathan, how&#8217;s it going?</p>



<p>[00:04:55] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah really good. Thank you for joining us on the podcast today. We&#8217;re going to get into the weeds a little bit with WordPress code and all sorts of things. We haven&#8217;t had one of these episodes for a little while so this will be nice and refreshing.</p>



<p>Scott, given that we&#8217;re going to be talking about something technical I suppose it would be a good thing right at the beginning to learn about your technical expertise. The various different projects that you&#8217;ve touched in the WordPress space during the time that you&#8217;ve been in that. So just yeah a little moment for you to offer up your bio really. So over to you.</p>



<p>[00:05:24] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> Well sure. I started working with WordPress in about 2007 or 8. I used it briefly once before with a one click install from cPanel before that, but I didn&#8217;t really like it at the time. And I was doing many other things.</p>



<p>But ever since that point I have been really involved with trying to make WordPress the best that it can be. And that has evolved through plugin development. One of the plugins I&#8217;m more known for is the Pods Framework. And that is a content type, a custom field plugin for WordPress. But I&#8217;ve also tried to find ways to make it easier for other developers to build things without needing a plugin. Because a plugin like Pods existed before custom post types had a real API.</p>



<p>But now that it has a real API you don&#8217;t really need a plugin like Pods to just make a custom post type. And the goal for me is, I&#8217;d love to see a better way to work with those types of objects inside of WordPress that have very different APIs, or in some cases no API at all. You just have to output your own markup and hook into some hooks. And it&#8217;s not really great.</p>



<p>Especially in this day where we have everything exposed to the Rest APIs. And you want to build really cool blocks, but you can&#8217;t leverage some data from different structures that don&#8217;t exist. So that&#8217;s where I&#8217;d love to find ways for WordPress to level up.</p>



<p>In this particular project of mine, is the WordPress Fields API. There is a group of us who have kind of rebooted it, but it existed in 2000 and, I want to say 14, 15, 16, 2017, all through those years. And we had made some progress, made a few different proposals and it just got stuck up in the process of getting the block editor and Rest API.</p>



<p>And there was just so many more bigger features that were getting the priority, and it kind of burned me out. And I didn&#8217;t find anyone else to carry the torch so it just went away. And just the start of this year we started up again.</p>



<p>[00:07:30] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> What was the reason that it went away? You mentioned there that there were a whole variety of different things going on at the same time. So was it that the community&#8217;s focus just seemed to be more interested on other things? And so despite the fact that you were putting in the time, and you obviously just described that it burnt you out a little bit. There just wasn&#8217;t enough interest because attention was being put elsewhere.</p>



<p>[00:07:53] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> Right. Well Fields API owes so much to WebDevStudios and 10up who offered a lot of my time on the clock. They donated my time towards developing the Fields API and pushing it forward. And at 10up we were really, really close. We got the closest we had been at that point because at 10up we had a really awesome contributor for WordPress. A core committer, Helen Hou-Sandi.</p>



<p>And that got us really close, but I think it just was that I was practically speaking for Fields API and saying, we should do this, we should do that, and it just wasn&#8217;t hitting. It wasn&#8217;t hitting right for them. Or the people who were involved in making decisions on what was going to make it, or what was going to get the attention or whatever, just didn&#8217;t feel it yet.</p>



<p>And I can understand that. I mean there&#8217;s so much that everyone is trying to do for each release. And I kind of assumed that if I built as much as possible and showed it as a really thoroughly working prototype with tests and everything else. And I just handed it to them and said hey here it is. Can you help me make this part of WordPress Core? Do you have any feedback? And when I did that I guess the biggest problem was I hadn&#8217;t really involved all those same voices at that point prior to actually doing the development of it.</p>



<p>So I had some input from a few different core contributors and committers and such. But as soon as I pushed out that final proposal in 2017 we got so many detractors and people saying, oh we should have done this differently or, why is it like this? And I would have done it this way. And it kind of did not get the consensus that I was needing for it to gain further traction. So we&#8217;ve kind of approached it differently in this reboot.</p>



<p>[00:09:42] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, right. So you did a lot of the work, you put it out there but the feedback that came back didn&#8217;t exactly encourage you, let&#8217;s put it that way. There were people who just would rather it had been done in their way. I&#8217;m guessing that that&#8217;s because there are loads of different ways that this type of problem has been tackled I guess on a more or less on a per plugin basis. There&#8217;s probably hundreds of plugins out there that do something similar. They do it their way. And so they presumably think that their way is the way that it should be done.</p>



<p>[00:10:15] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> Right. I mean there&#8217;s so many plugins like ACF and Pods and Toolset, so many more at comparewp.org slash cck. Which is like a really cool comparison list of all these different types of plugins. But there&#8217;s so many that each one has their own baked in API for managing fields in WordPress.</p>



<p>And it&#8217;s just bonkers that everyone has to build all these APIs, and in the end they&#8217;re almost it&#8217;s forcing the need of having to build their own APIs because they won&#8217;t accept anything else other than the one that they built. And I think that it&#8217;s tricky with developers and egos and everything else. We all have to kind of find a way to, you know, what is the minimum bare essentials API that we could build for this and find a consensus on that.</p>



<p>[00:11:01] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So I guess this time around the community involvement is going to be there. You&#8217;re going to do this much more in the open. So that as you are going along presumably ideas are chipped in, rather than it just being one great big release at the end where everybody gets to either agree or disagree.</p>



<p>[00:11:18] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> Right yeah. We tried to do that before but I think the challenge was we moved so quickly. I built so much code and I had made a specification ahead of time. But really the time wasn&#8217;t spent in the research specification side to get a consensus at that point, with not just the people who were involved but everyone else. Making sure everyone else had a moment to do that.</p>



<p>I guess when people just look at a specification like oh, I&#8217;ll just look at it later on when he has something for me to look at. And so it just gets delayed. And I&#8217;m hoping that this time I can find ways to intuitively make it so people will actively and proactively be part of that process and give feedback</p>



<p>[00:12:01] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So given that you&#8217;ve restarted it, what reinvigorated it for you? Where did your curiosity for something that has been dormant for quite a number of years now. What on earth was it that brought you back to seeing this as a worthwhile use of your time?</p>



<p>[00:12:16] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> Since 2017 I&#8217;ve had kind of dark years in my contributing to WordPress Core, and just feeling like, well I can&#8217;t get anything big done so maybe I shouldn&#8217;t spend my time on it. And just the amount of time I&#8217;d spent on it had taken away from my full time work and my side projects.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m just like, well if I&#8217;m going to do this I really need it to be something I believe in. And up until the start of the year I just didn&#8217;t really feel like it was going to be possible. And then Joe Dolson, from the accessibility team was talking about how their team was looking at trying to revitalize the settings screens.</p>



<p>And one of the biggest challenges were their setting screens are hard coded in a lot of ways. And there&#8217;s not really an easy way to just like, here let&#8217;s try out this different interface. Let&#8217;s try this interface, this markup. We&#8217;ll change this markup here. And it&#8217;s very difficult to produce different markup inside of WordPress Core right now for a lot of screens really.</p>



<p>And more importantly for them, it&#8217;s not even using the Settings API the same way as most people are building things with the Settings API. And they hooked up with me because Courtney Robertson, a really awesome Dev Rel person, has just connected me with Joe at the end of last year I believe. And we just started talking about it, like hey this would be really cool if we had this Fields API stuff that you were thinking about before.</p>



<p>And I was like well I don&#8217;t know. And then as they discussed it with really the focus on accessibility I was like, you know what accessibility is such a big priority to me that I think it kind of overrides my initial thoughts about well I don&#8217;t know if I can get this into Core. Because I thoroughly believe in spending more time on accessibility for lots of different plugins. Especially for WordPress Core and the block editor. And if I can help push that forward I feel like I&#8217;ve done something better with my time.</p>



<p>And at that point I was like yeah I&#8217;m in. We&#8217;ll focus on the Settings API, just on that. And we&#8217;re not going to like build all the different screens and API prototype that we had done before. Until we get the Settings API, let&#8217;s focus all of our energy on doing that for the Settings API itself.</p>



<p>[00:14:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So that all kicked off again at the beginning of this year, 2023. And I&#8217;m staring at a page on the Make WordPress Core blog, which you wrote right at the beginning of the year, january the 9th. You&#8217;ve posted a video there of you, and I think the four other people on the call. So right at the very start of this year, five people involved at the very least.</p>



<p>How has the project been growing? Has it caught the attention in the way that you&#8217;d hoped? Have there been people coming along to assist? One of the enterprises of this podcast episode is obviously to swell the number of people, but it would be quite nice to know how it&#8217;s going just prior to that.</p>



<p>[00:15:04] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> So as with a lot of these kinds of initiatives it all depends on the time you put in, as someone who has the vision and leads it. And my time on the Fields API had been kind of reduced, just right after this. The economy started having some challenges in the tech space, and job security was a concern in a lot of areas for a lot of people, especially me.</p>



<p>And so I didn&#8217;t have as much free time to focus on that. I was focused on my work, keeping my head down and making sure I was doing all my things. And I just didn&#8217;t have enough headspace for it. But I knew that if I could really spend a great deal of time this summer on the Fields API, getting it prepared, getting it to the next phase, so that we have something solid. By the time it is time for Community Summit contributor day for WordCamp US we have a solid chance.</p>



<p>And then something came out of nowhere. On the Make WordPress dot org core, blog I saw a post come through. And I&#8217;ve been watching posts there all the time and sometimes I&#8217;ll provide feedback. But this one was unique. This one was talking about revamping the Admin UI. And now I&#8217;m getting all sorts of excited and I&#8217;m thinking to myself, oh this is my time.</p>



<p>Like, if I can get the Admin UI perspective on the Fields API, I think this could even help us further, pushing this forward. Because if you want to approach redoing the Admin UI you have to expose these kinds of fields and forms and screens in a way that is more dynamic than it is right now. And that is a sweet spot for the Fields API.</p>



<p>So I posted on that blog post. I asked Matias, hey can we have Fields API? Please, please, please be part of this conversation. I would love to talk to you more about it. And so we&#8217;re probably going to talk about it at WordCamp US, some time during that week. And my hope is we&#8217;ll get this really pushed further. Because it takes buy in from the vocal people in WordPress. And I think I&#8217;m beginning to see more buy in. And that is really a positive thing for me.</p>



<p>[00:17:12] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Sounds like a really nice bit of serendipity there. Couple of things happened, and the chance of the Admin UI being overhauled kind of sits perfectly doesn&#8217;t it. That really would be the moment.</p>



<p>It is a dramatic change that&#8217;s being proposed. And so I guess if you&#8217;re going to go all in on changing the Admin UI, well now would be the time to get all of the fields work done as well.</p>



<p>It just occurs to me that given the audience that listen to this podcast, there&#8217;s a fair smattering of developers no doubt. But also there&#8217;s people who are just into WordPress. You know, it&#8217;s a hobby. They perhaps do it as a side gig or something.</p>



<p>So maybe we should rewind and do some explanations about what on earth an API for fields would even do. Why is it even needed? I&#8217;m suspecting that many people log in to their WordPress website, certainly since the advent of Gutenberg. And more or less everything that they want to do, publish posts, schedule posts, that&#8217;s possibly the extent of it all. It functions.</p>



<p>So I&#8217;m imagining there&#8217;s a proportion of people listening to this going, well, what even would this be needed for? Describe a scenario where this would be useful. So, let&#8217;s cover that out. What is the Fields API? How would it change what WordPress does?</p>



<p>[00:18:25] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> Sure. So let me preface my answer with, there&#8217;s a reason why there&#8217;s so many plugins out there doing content types and custom fields. There&#8217;s a reason why Advanced Custom Fields has millions of active installs. And tons of people have paid for the pro premium versions of these kinds of plugins.</p>



<p>Now I&#8217;ll get into the real answer. This is an incredibly complicated dance. Whenever you want to go add a custom field to a post, or let&#8217;s say you&#8217;re building a site, a hobby site. I use the book analogy a lot, but let&#8217;s talk about music, because I love music too.</p>



<p>So you&#8217;re setting up a site for your music and maybe you&#8217;re an artist, a solo artist or a band. And you&#8217;re trying to set up a list of albums. And so you&#8217;re like well, how do I add albums? You could add that in the block editor. No problem, no issues there. But then what if you wanted to make it more data oriented.</p>



<p>So if you wanted to do that you&#8217;d have to go register a custom post type for album, for instance. Maybe a custom post type for tracks, if you want to relate them to albums in some way. And maybe a custom post type for other things. Maybe custom taxonomies for other items that you want. But the challenge there is not really in the content type. It&#8217;s in the custom fields you want to add to that.</p>



<p>Inside of WordPress, I counted it up recently, there&#8217;s somewhere between 16 to 17 different APIs and hooks that are totally different from each other, to add custom fields or settings to different areas on all the different screens, and different objects inside of WordPress. That is a lot. So adding a custom field means you have to go add an action inside of PHP.</p>



<p>First of all you have to know PHP and kind of know where to put it. Second of all you have to then go add action to add a meta box. Then you have to add your code to render all of your fields markup. So you have to add your HTML in there and have it do that. Then you have to add an action to handle the saving.</p>



<p>And then at that point you&#8217;re probably going to be looking at doing more things for taxonomies possibly. So you have to work with another action there. You have to add things there and it doesn&#8217;t look great. So then you have to add more markup. And it&#8217;s a lot for someone who just wants to build.</p>



<p>So you just mentioned that there&#8217;s a number of developers listening to this right now. But there&#8217;s a lot of people who aren&#8217;t really considering themselves developers. They&#8217;re just people building sites and they don&#8217;t really have time to dig into the code. Or they don&#8217;t want to tell their client they can do this if they can&#8217;t build it custom, they would have to pay someone else to do that. And they want to avoid that cost. So they&#8217;re going to use one of these off the shelf plugins, like Advanced Custom Fields.</p>



<p>Why would you spend five hours building your albums and tracks and things like that in PHP? The trial and error and figuring out the markup and, why is this not working? And then coming back to it later on and spending another few hours trying to debug something that happens. And then displaying it all on the front end. Why spend all that time when you can just install a plugin and just click a few buttons? And boom, you have another post type and then you have your fields already displayed. And by the way they look really nice. Why would you spend that time?</p>



<p>So this is more of a feature, or more of a project geared towards developers so that it makes them spend less time on their side of things. And it unifies all 16, 17 of these methods and APIs to work with all these different screens.</p>



<p>But what the end result would be is anyone using WordPress could then be using a plugin, or potentially use code snippets very easily without having to have a whole lot of knowledge. And be able to add a field to different screens without a whole lot of code, or whole lot of PHP experience. And these types of plugins like ACF, and Pods, and Toolset and various others, they could then leverage the Fields API if they&#8217;re supporting that WordPress version that includes it. They could leverage this Fields API in a way that reduces the code that they actually have to have inside their own plugins.</p>



<p>And at the same time that makes it so WordPress itself, the REST APIs, everything that talks with the Fields API, then knows about the structures you&#8217;re registering.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s a hand in hand, win-win scenario for end users who benefit from the stability, and the flexibility, and extensibility of those APIs in place. And developers who want to be able to utilize those things.</p>



<p>[00:22:54] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Have you any experience with other CMSs? We could probably list off half a dozen or more other CMSs. But certainly some that I have used in the past, a lot of these kind of features are baked into the core product. So the ability to add custom fields to, well it may not be called a custom post type over on that particular platform but you get the idea. It is already built in, if you like.</p>



<p>You mentioned that you want to have this pushed to Core. Do you see that other CMSs are potentially stealing a march on WordPress? WordPress has traditionally been very good at giving 80% of the people what they want. So there is some argument as to whether or not some things should be added or some shouldn&#8217;t. But do you feel its been lacking this? And really a lot of other rival CMSs have been doing this for years.</p>



<p>[00:23:42] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> That&#8217;s a very good point. The plugin Pods was one of the first ones that did custom content types and custom fields for WordPress in a way that mimicked, and this is in 2008, the end of 2008. It mimicked Drupal at the time.</p>



<p>Drupal has a major feature called, what they called CCK, which was Content Construction Kit. I think that was what it was.</p>



<p>And so what value that API had for Drupal was that it would let you do the kinds of things you&#8217;re seeing be possible with plugins like Metabox or whatever else, you can use code, and ACF to register your groups and fields, and you can use code to register custom post types.</p>



<p>So you don&#8217;t have to use the UIs. You don&#8217;t have to provide a bunch of JSON. You can just register those things through PHP. And Drupal has had this for many, many years. It&#8217;s coming up on almost 20 years now that it&#8217;s had a feature like CCK. And that is not really that Drupal is ahead of WordPress, it&#8217;s that WordPress is severely behind. Because it hasn&#8217;t really prioritized these kinds of unifying APIs for its screens. I mean obviously WordPress hasn&#8217;t.</p>



<p>If you look at it, it really hasn&#8217;t changed a whole lot until block editor. The interfaces and screens really kind of have been what they are. The structure of where things are has been mostly the same outside the block editor.</p>



<p>Multisite was a big thing, but the screens themselves they really haven&#8217;t changed a whole lot. And I think that is just because we&#8217;ve been focused as a project on building features and not looking back at what we&#8217;ve done, and finding a better way to represent that. A project like the Admin UI revamp, or even accessibility revamp, could give us that time to kind of be introspective. What are we doing with these screens, and how do we make these things better?</p>



<p>And backward compatibility doesn&#8217;t have to be a hindrance in the Fields API because it can be backward compatible too. It&#8217;s just if you want to register the new way you can do that and that is the officially the way that we recommend you do it. It&#8217;s just, it works. I really hope that more people see things like Drupal, and there&#8217;s so many other plugins, or so many other CMSs out there that have their own kind of CCK situations.</p>



<p>Because it&#8217;s just, you&#8217;re building a CMS? Well you&#8217;re not going to want to do that the way the WordPress did it way back when. No one&#8217;s going to want to do that on purpose. And I think that they all already have their own forms and Fields API processing abilities, because that&#8217;s the bare minimum. As a developer, when you&#8217;re building something like this you build that. You don&#8217;t build all the markup and everything hard coded anymore.</p>



<p>[00:26:24] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah I was a big fan of Drupal, and I used Drupal exclusively more or less for many years. My first interaction with WordPress was an endeavor to move away from Drupal for a variety of different reasons. And I do remember opening up WordPress and almost being incredulous that I couldn&#8217;t achieve some of the things that I was simply able to achieve with a vanilla install of Drupal.</p>



<p>So custom fields was just trivially easy. It was there, it was baked in. And so I had this expectation, well everybody&#8217;s using WordPress it must have, you know, a similar feature set. And so, just flabbergasted that it didn&#8217;t exist.</p>



<p>Of course very quickly found out exactly what you just said. That commercial and also free, there&#8217;s plenty of free options as well, Pods being one. That you had to go and find a solution for that. So rather than it being baked into core you&#8217;d go out and you&#8217;d purchase ACF or you would download Pods or whatever it may be.</p>



<p>But this sort of feeling that well that&#8217;s interesting because I wonder how they&#8217;re doing that and if they&#8217;re doing it differently than the other one, so if ACF is doing it differently to how Pods is doing it, you could make that spaghetti go in any direction. How am I going to be stuck in the future? You know things that I create with Pods, is that interoperable? Could I start using ACF at a future date on the same website?</p>



<p>So there&#8217;s all of that thrown into it as well. And I guess the endeavor here is to create that basic structure so that everybody can approach it and everybody can start creating these things without the reliance necessarily on a third party plugin.</p>



<p>[00:28:03] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> Right. Like if you&#8217;re using a plugin like that and the Fields API comes out, there could be a migration thing, or exporting plugin created that exports from Pods or ACF or whatever into the Fields API structure. Much like ACF and some of these other plugins have the ability to kind of export. Maybe the biggest one is Custom Post Type UI. Where it&#8217;s just simple. Add custom post types, you add custom taxonomies and you can export that to code.</p>



<p>And that code works without the plugin. So it just tells it, here is what you tell WordPress to do what you want to do here. That kind of ability to export into just a Fields API code would take your code, your plugin usage of ACF or Pods or whatever, and you could easily switch out into just pure WordPress.</p>



<p>But also because if it has that ability to use the Fields API at that point you have more interoperability. So you can go between these different plugins more easily because there&#8217;s a similar structure we&#8217;re all using. And when you&#8217;re registering through Fields API you can potentially set like a source, like this is coming from ACF, or whatever you want.</p>



<p>And then a Pods plugin could say oh hey I recognize you had these ACF fields, do you want to bring them over? The Fields API opens up the door because everyone&#8217;s talking the same talk. And we can all talk about things in the same conversation instead of like I need to know the ACF APIs to work with getting the fields out, and I need to know this and then that. And there&#8217;s that side.</p>



<p>But there&#8217;s also the storage side. So we&#8217;re talking about the way that ACF stores their content. For repeatable fields that can be quite tricky. Flexible content, anything that has to do with data that&#8217;s not just a simple single value gets a little bit tricky depending on how you choose to store it in ACF.</p>



<p>So those sorts of things are more based off of the plugin developers preference. So ACF was developed in a specific kind of point of view, for how they should store the storage. Pods is the same way, we have a specific point of view where it should be stored a certain way. Every plugin will have their own points of view. But if we can settle on the structure of the content fields, the custom fields for each of these objects, and how they&#8217;re going to be specified to WordPress, that&#8217;s really half the battle.</p>



<p>Then we can start talking about, okay now that we have this common language let&#8217;s work on bringing everyone to the same storage, so anyone can switch between these different plugins and they won&#8217;t have to deal with any extra work. We could all agree on a shared set of storage, kind of specification standards really.</p>



<p>[00:30:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> The breadth of this project feels like it could be truly enormous because there are fields in all sorts of unexpected places in WordPress. I mean you may not be thinking about them all the time but you know we&#8217;ve got post types, and terms, and comments, and settings, and users, and navigation, and the media library and all sorts of different places.</p>



<p>How are you breaking it down? Is there an order in which you&#8217;re going to knock those dominoes over? Are you going for, I don&#8217;t know, probably the low hanging fruit of custom post types first, or is the intention to try and get everything done all at once? You did mention accessibility. Perhaps that&#8217;s come first because of Joe Dolson&#8217;s interactions with you.</p>



<p>[00:31:17] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> Yeah. So accessibility is going to be the main driving point for us right now. So we&#8217;re focused on the Settings API. If we can get this right and potentially the goal is to get it to the point where we can actually merge it just for the Settings API. Just for the Settings API.</p>



<p>We have an inside person now, inside of WordPress itself. So now we can start expanding it, and say okay now here&#8217;s the proposal to add this to the post types, and to the terms and everywhere else to be powered by the Fields API. And once you have those things powered by the Fields API, the full Admin UI revamp is becoming much more approachable for people who want to switch out the markup there.</p>



<p>They don&#8217;t have to modify core as much to make it happen. They don&#8217;t have to duplicate all the code and deal with merge conflicts. It&#8217;s just so much more easier when you&#8217;re working with data structures that are defined as data structures, and not purely as markup and save handlers like they are in many areas of WordPress.</p>



<p>[00:32:13] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You&#8217;ve been doing this kind of work for years with Pods. So you know you&#8217;re incredibly familiar with this. Is there anything during your time working with Pods where you thought, I wish WordPress had this?</p>



<p>So I&#8217;m just wondering if you might try to smuggle into this some unique new feature, not something which we&#8217;re already familiar with. You know post types and comments and users. Really that question might go nowhere but I just wondered if there was something innovative that you&#8217;ve got. Really I&#8217;d love to try this.</p>



<p>[00:32:40] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> So I do have something but it&#8217;s going to be interesting to see if we can make it happen. So the way that this has been focused on has been replacing existing screens that are kind of hard coded and all that. But we haven&#8217;t really talked about, what about the block editor? What about React and all those things?</p>



<p>And the cool part about that is that if you look at the screen, if you go to the block editor right now, you&#8217;re looking at editing a post and you insert a block, like let&#8217;s talk about the paragraph block or even a group block. On the right hand side, if you have it open, the inspector control sidebar there. That allows you to control what the block settings are, on margins and adding extra classes if you want to add them to the block.</p>



<p>And many different blocks have many different settings. And then also you can click over and if you&#8217;re looking at the post type, or page post type you&#8217;ll see the word post or page up there and there&#8217;s a little kind of a tab, and you click that and then you are looking at the object controls.</p>



<p>So this controls what is going on with the page or post like attributes for the parent, or maybe the date, or the many different things like slug and all that. So both of these areas are areas I would love, not really to sneak in, but I want to get buy in from people. I want to find a way to build these screens, these sets of fields and have them extensible through PHP.</p>



<p>If we can do this in a way with the Fields API where you could register new sections and controls inside of React, it&#8217;s possible. We&#8217;re doing this right now. Pods is doing this, ACF, many other block builders are doing this with their blocks, their own blocks APIs. The way that we&#8217;re doing it right now is too much. It&#8217;s going down the same road of we&#8217;re locking ourselves in.</p>



<p>I want these sections and these controls to be extensible. I want someone to be able to override stuff. I want someone to be able to add new things to them. I want to add something ahead of it or after it. I don&#8217;t want to have to know any JavaScript to be able to do the bare minimum for basic controls.</p>



<p>You can still, with the Fields API even, you could still at that point do all the JavaScript or React stuff you want to build up your own custom controls, and the ways that you want them to display, and special handling for how to work with the blocks and all that. But really the bare minimum ought to be the way that we lower the bar towards developers, new people, new developers.</p>



<p>But especially at this point, PHP is not getting the love it needs as an API source for WordPress, especially with a block editor. We need to expand that. I think there&#8217;s so much potential.</p>



<p>[00:35:27] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Given everything that you&#8217;ve just said, and we&#8217;ve now got a real nice full round picture of what it is that you&#8217;re trying to achieve, are there any significant roadblocks? I mean obviously hours and coding, the amount of time that it&#8217;s going to take you to do all these things, and the amount of people who jump on board the project, that&#8217;s a given. Are there any technical obstacles that are in the way that you foresee being problematic?</p>



<p>[00:35:52] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> So before, when we built all this stuff in the earlier versions, and I just read, we actually started working on the kind of Fields API idea in 2013. That&#8217;s even earlier than I remember. That was back in Freenode, Freenode IRC stuff.</p>



<p>I think one of the challenges was when we built all the different screens we had to modify WordPress Core files and override them. And as new versions of WordPress would be released we&#8217;d have to merge those changes into ours. It&#8217;s a headache to keep it up, and keep it updated for every release. And for even maintenance releases to make sure that you&#8217;re not breaking something that was changed or fixed inside of WordPress release, and having it so that my prototype should always work with latest WordPress.</p>



<p>Well that&#8217;s difficult because latest WordPress is always changing. I think that&#8217;s the challenge is trying to focus not on, like we did before, we had posts, we had terms, we had settings, we had users, we had comments, we had media, we had the customizer. All those different areas were covered.</p>



<p>We already had those things covered inside of the Fields API code we had before. You could use the Fields API actively to add things to those screens. But that was a lot. That was a lot to deal with. So if we focus on settings, that&#8217;s why I&#8217;m hoping this reduced focus on setting screens will reduce the amount of pain we have to deal with. Because when we&#8217;re merging things we only have to worry about just those settings screens that we&#8217;re overriding for WordPress Core. That&#8217;s it. And we don&#8217;t have to worry about all the different screens and all the different files that we&#8217;ve been overriding.</p>



<p>[00:37:16] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah thank you for that. I mean obviously you would be very warmly welcoming anybody who has listened to this and is intrigued by what you&#8217;ve said and thinks, okay I&#8217;ve got some technical expertise that I could apply to this project. If that&#8217;s the case, where are you hanging out most with this? I&#8217;m guessing the Slack channel is probably a good place to start. But maybe there&#8217;s some other places too.</p>



<p>[00:37:39] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> I really deeply would love to have more contributors. Anyone who can think about things in different points of view for how a Fields API should be built. Things like someone who&#8217;s involved with other plugins that do this type of thing. It&#8217;s a big plus if you&#8217;ve built a Fields API yourself for one of these plugins.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s also a big thing to think about you know just someone who&#8217;s not been building those things but maybe someone coming from outside of WordPress, or someone with heavier PHP structure experience. How do we structure the Fields API? And how is that going to look?</p>



<p>There&#8217;s also plenty of room for people who can help write tutorials, or help us write. I think one of my big deficiencies is having time to write up all the great text that we&#8217;re going to need for make.wordpress.org core posts about how do we describe what we&#8217;re building here, and get people involved and excited?</p>



<p>What is the proposal going to look like? And how do we lay this out nicely? And those types of things would be also very helpful to have. And you can find all of our efforts inside of Slack right now. So if you go into the WordPress Slack you&#8217;ll find us in the core dash fields channel.</p>



<p>We also have a GitHub that has been totally revamped from the old ones. We now have two different archive repos from the past versions that we had. And now we have this third repo that we&#8217;re using that is refreshed and ready to go. It already has some more research already in it and we&#8217;re going to start working from that repo now.</p>



<p>[00:39:03] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That&#8217;s perfect. I will make sure to link to those in the show notes. Everything that you&#8217;ve mentioned I&#8217;ll make sure that it gets a link. But it sounds like not just technical people. There&#8217;s also room for people who have skills in, I don&#8217;t know, documentation or something that you&#8217;ve described. So the door is wide open. This feels like really important work. It would be lovely to get this over the wire. To get some more buy in, and more thoughts from different community members.</p>



<p>So yeah we&#8217;ll round it off there. Scott Kingsley Clark. Thank you so much for chatting to me today. I wish you all the best in getting this into Core in the, well, let&#8217;s say near future.</p>



<p>[00:39:35] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> I really appreciate you including me and this project in your efforts here to get the word out. I can&#8217;t say how much I&#8217;m excited. I&#8217;m just extremely excited to get this finally pushed up and hopefully emerged into Core. And I am working my behind off this entire month, just to make sure that we can try to get that traction and get it across that finish line.</p>



<p>[00:39:58] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well very much appreciated, because everything that you do and achieve will certainly make our WordPress lives a lot better. So thank you, Scott. I really appreciate it.</p>



<p>[00:40:07] <strong>Scott Kingsley Clark:</strong> No problem.</p>
</div>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://www.scottkclark.com/">Scott Kingsley Clark</a>.</p>



<p>Scott is a WordPress developer who has been working with WordPress since 2007. He is well-known for his work on the <a href="https://pods.io/">Pods Framework</a>, a popular content and custom fields plugin. Scott&#8217;s goal is to find ways to enhance the WordPress experience, particularly in terms of working with different types of data. He is currently involved in the WordPress Fields API project, which aims to provide a better solution for developers looking to wrangle their data, and that is the focus of the podcast today. As you’ll hear Scott is determined to contribute to the continual growth and improvement of WordPress and try to make the Fields API a reality.</p>



<p>Scott came from a background using Drupal, which is an alternative CMS. When he first ventured into WordPress, he found certain features were lacking. Things which were baked into Drupal Core were not available in WordPress, a notable example being custom fields.</p>



<p>We know that WordPress has a myriad of plugins which can take on the burden of creating custom fields, but Scott has concerns about the interoperability of these plugins, and he wants to create a more solid structure within WordPress itself. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were ways for developers to create custom field plugins so that you weren’t locked into one or the other? Scott imagines a future in which you could move from ACF, Metabox, Toolset and more; a future built on top of the Fields API.</p>



<p>Throughout the conversation, Scott talks about his passion for incorporating the block editor, React, and other technologies into WordPress. He shares insights on controlling block settings, making them extensible through PHP.</p>



<p>You might know Scott from his work on the popular Pods Framework plugin. This plugin allows users to create custom content types and fields in WordPress, and certainly speaks to his credentials in trying to push the Fields API project forward.</p>



<p>We talk about what the Fields API might become. The aim is to simplify the process of working with custom fields and content types in WordPress. With the Fields API, Scott hopes to unify the different methods and APIs for managing custom fields, making it easier for developers and non-developers alike to add fields to different screens within WordPress. It’s a complicated undertaking and we get into some of the areas of WordPress which might benefit from this work.</p>



<p>Scott sheds light on the challenges faced during the development of Fields API, the need for shared storage standards among plugins, and the potential for better integration with the WordPress Admin UI.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Towards the end of the podcast we talk about the future of the Fields API project and how gaining support from people in the WordPress community will be crucial to its success.</p>



<p>If you’re interested in how WordPress can be used as a fully featured CMS, this podcast is for you.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Useful links.</h2>



<p><a href="https://pods.io/">Pods Framework</a></p>



<p><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/">REST API documentation</a></p>



<p><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mSqienVYxLopTFGLPK0lGCJst2knKzXDtLQRgwjeBN8/edit#gid=3">Compare WP &#8211; Plugin Comparison &#8211; Content Types / Custom Fields</a></p>



<p><a href="https://communitysummit.wordcamp.org/2023/">WordPress Community Summit 2023</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/">ACF</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/meta-box/">Meta Box</a></p>



<p><a href="https://toolset.com/">Toolset</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-post-type-ui/">Custom Post Type UI</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, 06 Sep 2023 15:10:32 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:44;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:62:"Akismet: 25 Ways to Increase Your Online Form Conversion Rates";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://akismet.com/?p=236608";s:7:"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:46:"https://akismet.com/blog/form-conversion-rate/";s: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:23794:"<p>Running a successful website is no small feat. It requires a great deal of hard work, dedication, and knowledge from a team of experts all working symbiotically toward a common goal. There are so many different aspects to consider — from designing the perfect user experience to maintaining an effective web hosting infrastructure.</p>



<p>But one of the most critical aspects that can make or break success is the conversion rate of your forms. Your form conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who successfully complete a form on your website. The higher this rate, the more successful your site will be at generating new leads, sales, and other desired outcomes.</p>



<p>Whether it&#8217;s a contact form, a <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/how-to-enable-or-disable-user-registration-in-wordpress/">sign-up form</a>, or a checkout form, the ease and convenience of these for users directly impact business.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That&#8217;s why, today, we&#8217;ll explore 25 ways to increase your online form conversion rates and, in turn, boost the effectiveness of your website.</p>



<span id="more-236608"></span>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">1. Keep forms short and simple</h2>



<p>The first rule of thumb, when it comes to increasing your form conversion rate, is to keep your forms short and simple. The less time and effort it takes for a user to complete a form, the more likely they are to do so.</p>



<p>According to the <a href="https://contentsquare.com/insights/digital-experience-benchmark/">Contentsquare 2023 Digital Experience Benchmark report</a>, the average internet user spends less than 5.6 minutes on a website they&#8217;re actively engaged with. Think reading a blog post or trying to make a purchase.&nbsp;</p>



<p>At first glance, that seems like a decent amount of time, but when you consider session duration has <a href="https://contentsquare.com/blog/average-time-spent-on-websites-is-dropping/">decreased by 7.5%</a> since 2021, it&#8217;s clear that user behavior indicates less patience.</p>



<p>And that&#8217;s not a lot of time to capture their attention and get them to fill out a form. By keeping your forms short and straightforward, you&#8217;re making it as easy as possible for users to engage with your site and, ultimately, convert.</p>



<img src="https://akismet455732288.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/image4.png" alt="example of email list signup for WooCommerce" class="wp-image-236610" />



<p>Consider only asking for the most essential information. If you&#8217;re collecting leads from potential event sponsors, you really only need the representative&#8217;s name and email. Your sales team may also want you to ask for a phone number, company name, and budget information, but each of these questions will reduce the number of top-of-funnel submissions you receive. So, you’ll have to consider this balance and optimize your forms accordingly.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">2. Place your forms above the fold</h2>



<p>&#8220;Above the fold&#8221; is a term borrowed from the newspaper industry that refers to the upper half of the front page. The term &#8220;above the fold&#8221; in web design is the part of a webpage that’s visible without the need to scroll. Placing your lead generation forms above the fold on their landing page makes them immediately visible to visitors, increasing the likelihood that they&#8217;ll be filled out.</p>



<p>A <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/scrolling-and-attention/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study by Nielsen Norman Group</a> found that user attention drops dramatically below the fold. By placing your form above, you&#8217;re ensuring that it&#8217;s one of the first things a user sees when they land on your page.</p>



<p>The goal is to make it as easy as possible for people to convert. By strategically placing your web forms, you&#8217;re removing one more barrier between the user and a conversion.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">3. Limit the use of CAPTCHAs</h2>



<p>CAPTCHAs, those little tests that ask you to identify traffic lights or crosswalks in a series of images, are a common method of <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/how-to-stop-contact-form-spam-on-wordpress/">preventing form spam</a>. However, they can also be a significant barrier to web form completion.</p>



<img src="https://akismet455732288.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/image10.png" alt="example of a CAPTCHA with red spheres" class="wp-image-236611" />



<p><a href="https://akismet.com/blog/wordpress-captcha/">CAPTCHAs</a> can be frustrating and time-consuming for users, especially if they&#8217;re difficult to solve. And they can also pose accessibility issues for those with impairments. While CAPTCHAs can be effective at preventing bots from submitting forms, they can also deter legitimate users.</p>



<p>Instead of relying on CAPTCHAs, consider other methods of spam prevention that are less intrusive and more user-friendly…</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">4. Use non-intrusive spam protection</h2>



<p>Non-intrusive spam protection methods can be a great alternative to CAPTCHAs. These methods work behind the scenes to prevent spam without disrupting the user&#8217;s experience.</p>



<p>For example, the <a href="https://akismet.com/features/">Akismet anti-spam plugin</a> for WordPress sites offers powerful spam protection without the need for CAPTCHAs. It automatically checks and filters out <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/how-to-stop-contact-form-spam-on-wordpress/">spam submissions</a>, allowing you to focus on managing your site.</p>



<img src="https://akismet455732288.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/image1.png" alt="Akismet homepage" class="wp-image-236612" />



<p>Through prioritizing non-intrusive spam protection methods, you can improve the user experience and accessibility of your forms, leading to higher conversion rates.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">5. Group related fields together</h2>



<p>Organization is key when it comes to designing user-friendly forms. Grouping related fields together can make your forms easier to navigate and understand, leading to higher completion rates.</p>



<p>You might wish to group contact information fields (like name, email, and phone number) together, separate from billing information fields (like credit card number, expiration date, and CVV).</p>



<p>This not only makes your form more visually organized, but it also helps users understand what kind of information is expected in each section.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">6. Use clear and descriptive field labels</h2>



<p>Clear and descriptive field labels are crucial for ensuring that people know exactly what information they need to provide. Ambiguous or confusing labels can lead to errors, frustration, and ultimately, form abandonment.</p>



<p>For instance, if you&#8217;re asking for a user&#8217;s phone number, specify whether it&#8217;s a home, work, or mobile number.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re asking for a date, indicate the format you want it in (e.g., MM/DD/YYYY).</p>



<img src="https://akismet455732288.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/image3.png" alt="name, email, and date fields grouped together" class="wp-image-236613" />



<p>The goal is to make it as easy as possible for users to complete your form. Clear, descriptive labels go a long way towards achieving this and improving your form conversions.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">7. Optimize for mobile devices</h2>



<p>With more than <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/277125/share-of-website-traffic-coming-from-mobile-devices/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">half of all web traffic</a> now coming from mobile devices, it&#8217;s more important than ever to ensure your forms are mobile-friendly.</p>



<p>This means performing a series of form optimization tasks, including:</p>



<ul>
<li>Making sure your web forms are fully responsive and easy to navigate on smaller screens</li>



<li>Ensuring fields are large enough to tap</li>



<li>Making it easy for users to switch between fields</li>



<li>Avoiding the use of elements that don&#8217;t work well on mobile, like hover tooltips.</li>
</ul>



<p>Mobile users are on the go, so they are even less patient than desktop users. By optimizing your forms for mobile, you can make it easier for users to convert and boost your conversion rate.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">8. Use progress indicators</h2>



<p>If your form is long or divided into multiple sections, using progress indicators can be a great way to keep site visitors engaged. Progress indicators show people how far they&#8217;ve come and how much further they have to go to complete the form.</p>



<img src="https://akismet455732288.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/image6.png" alt="form with a progress bar" class="wp-image-236614" />



<p>This can be particularly useful for complex forms, like multistep checkout processes or lengthy surveys. When you show users their progress, you&#8217;re giving them a sense of accomplishment and encouraging them to go all the way.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">9. Use autofill and auto-suggest features</h2>



<p>Autofill and auto-suggest features can significantly speed up the form completion process and improve the user experience. These features automatically populate fields with relevant information, saving users time and effort.</p>



<p>For example, an autofill feature might populate a user&#8217;s address based on their IP location, while an auto-suggest feature might suggest relevant options as someone begins typing into a field.</p>



<p>When you reduce the amount of typing and decision-making required, these features can make your forms quicker and easier to complete, leading to higher conversion rates.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">10. Use inline validation</h2>



<p>Inline validation involves checking each field for errors as the user fills out the form, rather than waiting until they hit the &#8220;submit&#8221; button. If a user makes a mistake, they&#8217;re immediately alerted and can correct the error on the spot.</p>



<p>This can prevent frustration and confusion that can occur when a user completes a form, only to be told they&#8217;ve made multiple errors. It also helps users learn as they go, improving the overall experience.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">11. Use conditional logic</h2>



<p>Conditional logic, also known as &#8220;if-this-then-that&#8221; logic, can make your forms more interactive and user-friendly. It involves showing or hiding fields based on the user&#8217;s previous responses.</p>



<p>So, if someone indicates that they&#8217;re from the United States, you might show a field asking for their state. If they indicate they&#8217;re from another country, that field would be hidden.</p>



<p>By tailoring your form to each user&#8217;s responses, you can make the form-filling process more relevant and less overwhelming, leading to higher conversion rates.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">12. Limit the use of mandatory fields</h2>



<p>While it&#8217;s important to gather as much relevant information as possible, too many form fields can deter people from completing your form. Try to make fewer form fields mandatory and only require the most essential information.</p>



<p>If a field isn&#8217;t absolutely necessary, consider making it optional. Users who are in a hurry or who value their privacy will appreciate the option to skip non-essential fields.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">13. Use smart defaults</h2>



<p>Smart defaults involve pre-populating form fields with the most likely response. This can save users time and effort, making your form quicker and easier to complete.</p>



<p>For example, if most of your site visitors are from the United States, you might set &#8220;United States&#8221; as the default option in the &#8220;Country&#8221; field. Users from other countries can still select their country from the dropdown menu, but U.S. users won&#8217;t have to.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">14. Break long forms into multiple pages</h2>



<p>Long forms can be overwhelming and may deter users from starting. By breaking these forms into smaller, more manageable steps, you can make the form-filling process less daunting and more user-friendly.</p>



<img src="https://akismet455732288.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/image2.png" alt="Page 2 of a multi-step form" class="wp-image-236615" />



<p>Multipage forms also give users a sense of progress, which can motivate them to complete the form. Just remember to include a progress indicator, as we already mentioned, so users know how far they&#8217;ve come and how much further they have to go.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">15. Ensure accessibility for all users</h2>



<p>Accessibility should be a priority when designing your forms. This means ensuring that all users, including those with impairments or disabilities, can easily navigate and complete your web forms.</p>



<p>This might involve using larger text sizes, providing alternative text for images, and ensuring your forms are compatible with screen readers. The <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/">Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)</a> offers all the details about making web content more accessible.</p>



<img src="https://akismet455732288.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/image5.png" alt="W3C homepage" class="wp-image-236616" />



<p>By making your forms accessible, you&#8217;re not only complying with legal requirements and ethical best practices, but you&#8217;re also expanding your user base and increasing your potential conversion rates.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">16. Use contrasting colors and clear typography</h2>



<p>The design of your forms can have a significant impact on their usability and, consequently, your conversion rates. Using contrasting colors can make your forms more visually appealing and easier to read.</p>



<p>Similarly, clear typography can improve readability and reduce the likelihood of errors. Choose fonts that are easy to read and large enough to be seen on all devices.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">17. Eliminate unnecessary distractions</h2>



<p>When a user is filling out a form, you want their focus to be on the form and nothing else. This means eliminating any unnecessary distractions, like pop-ups, excessive text, or irrelevant images.</p>



<p>The simpler and more focused your form page is, the more likely people are to complete the form. Remember, the goal is to make it as easy as possible for users to convert.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">18. Display trust signals and social proof</h2>



<p>Trust signals and social proof can significantly increase your form conversion rates by building trust with your potential customers and site visitors. This might involve displaying security badges, testimonials, or the number of satisfied customers you have.</p>



<p>For example, if you&#8217;re asking for sensitive information like credit card details, displaying a security badge can reassure users that their information will be safe.</p>



<p>Similarly, testimonials can show people that others have had positive experiences with your company.</p>



<p>On the Akismet homepage, there’s a prominent display of how many pieces of spam have been blocked, how many websites have been protected, and the spam detection accuracy.</p>



<img src="https://akismet455732288.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/image9.png" alt="amount of spam blocked by Akismet" class="wp-image-236617" />



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">19. Clearly state your privacy policy</h2>



<p>In an era where data privacy is a major concern, you need to clearly state your privacy policy on your forms. Let visitors know exactly how their information will be used and stored. This transparency can build trust and increase the likelihood of people completing your form.</p>



<p>Consider adding a link to your full privacy policy for those who want more detailed information. Also, reassure users that their information will not be shared with third parties without their consent.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">20. Provide instructions and help text</h2>



<p>While your form should be intuitive and easy to understand, providing additional instructions and help text can guide users through the process and prevent errors. This can be particularly useful for complex fields that require specific formats or information.</p>



<p>Help text should be concise and clearly visible, ideally placed directly under the field it refers to. Providing this extra guidance can improve the user experience and increase form completion rates.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">21. Offer live chat assistance</h2>



<p>Offering live chat assistance can provide immediate help to users who are having trouble with your form. This real-time support can resolve issues quickly, preventing them from abandoning the form out of frustration.</p>



<p>Live chat can also provide valuable insights into common issues or obstacles, allowing you to continually improve your form based on feedback.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">22. Use action-oriented submit buttons</h2>



<p>The text on your submit button can influence whether users complete your form. Just as you work to refine your call to action copy in other areas, you should pay careful attention to the language used on form buttons. Instead of using a generic term like &#8220;Submit,&#8221; consider a more action-oriented and specific term that tells users what they&#8217;re accomplishing by clicking the button.</p>



<p>For instance, if your form is for a newsletter sign-up, your button call to action might say &#8220;Join our community.&#8221;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Or, if it&#8217;s a purchase form, it might say &#8220;Complete my purchase.&#8221; This small tweak can make your form more engaging and motivate users to take action.</p>



<p>Another example is on the Akismet checkout form, which confirms how much a customer will pay:</p>



<img src="https://akismet455732288.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/image7.png" alt="Akismet checkout form" class="wp-image-236618" />



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">23. Make your buttons stand out</h2>



<p>The design of your submit button can significantly increase conversions on your forms. Your button should stand out from the rest of the form, making it clear where someone needs to click to submit the form.</p>



<p>Consider using a contrasting color for your button and placing it in a prominent location. The size of the button also matters — it should be large enough to be easily tapped on a mobile device, but not so large that it overwhelms the rest of the form.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">24. Use friendly and descriptive error messages</h2>



<p>Error messages matter a great deal in form design as well. They guide users in correcting mistakes, but if they&#8217;re not handled well, they can frustrate users and lead to form abandonment.</p>



<p>Ensure that your error messages are friendly, descriptive, and helpful. Instead of simply saying &#8220;Invalid input,&#8221; explain what the error is and how to fix it.</p>



<p>For example, &#8220;The email address you entered is not in the correct format. Please enter a valid email address.&#8221;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">25. A/B test form elements</h2>



<p>Finally, one of the most effective ways to increase your form conversion rates is to continually test and optimize your forms. A/B testing involves creating two versions of your form, each with a different element, and seeing which one performs better.</p>



<p>You can A/B test almost any aspect of your form, from the color of your submission button to the wording of your field labels. There are several WordPress plugins that can help you A/B test your forms easily, like <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/nelio-ab-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nelio A/B Testing</a>.</p>



<img src="https://akismet455732288.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/image8.png" alt="Nelio Testing homepage" class="wp-image-236619" />



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Increase your online form conversion rate with careful planning</h2>



<p>Increasing the conversion rates of your sign up form, lead generation forms or other web forms is a multifaceted process that involves thoughtful design, user-friendly features, and continuous optimization. By implementing the strategies discussed in this article, you can create a web form that not only provides a seamless user experience but also effectively drives conversions.</p>



<p>One key aspect of this process is ensuring your forms are protected from spam in a non-intrusive way. That&#8217;s where Akismet has a role to play. With its robust, <a href="https://akismet.com/pricing/">conversion-friendly spam protection</a>, Akismet allows you to maintain the integrity of your forms and protect the user experience — without the need for CAPTCHA.</p>



<p>So, as you work on optimizing all the forms on your site, consider Akismet as your partner in creating a more secure, user-friendly, and conversion-optimized form experience.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Frequently asked questions</h2>



<p>Let&#8217;s now turn our attention to some frequently asked questions about form design and conversion rate optimization.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">1. How do I decide which form fields are essential and which can be removed?</h3>



<p>Deciding which form fields are essential depends on the purpose of your web form. While it’s best to limit required fields, If it&#8217;s a contact form conversion rate you’re working on, for example, you&#8217;ll likely still need fields for the user&#8217;s name, email address, and message .</p>



<p>Any additional fields should be carefully considered. Ask yourself if the information is necessary to achieve the purpose of the form. If not, it might be best to remove the field to keep the form short and simple.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">2. Why should I avoid using CAPTCHA on my contact forms?</h3>



<p>While CAPTCHA can be effective at preventing spam, it can also deter legitimate users. CAPTCHAs can be frustrating and time-consuming, especially if they&#8217;re difficult to solve. They can also pose accessibility issues for users with impairments. Instead, consider using non-intrusive spam protection methods, like Akismet, that provide a better user experience.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">3. What is Akismet, and how can it help with form conversion rates?</h3>



<p><a href="https://akismet.com/">Akismet</a> is an anti-spam plugin for WordPress sites. It automatically checks and filters out spam comments, allowing you to focus on managing your site. By preventing spam without the need for CAPTCHAs or other intrusive methods, Akismet can improve the user experience and increase form conversion rates.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">4. What types of companies generally use Akismet?</h3>



<p>Akismet is used by a wide range of companies, from small businesses to <a href="https://akismet.com/enterprise/">large enterprises</a>. It&#8217;s particularly popular among companies that rely heavily on their online presence, such as ecommerce businesses and content creators.&nbsp;</p>



<p>With over 100 million sites using Akismet, it&#8217;s clear that this tool is trusted by many. Notable enterprise brands such as Microsoft, <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/convertkit-customerstory/">ConvertKit</a>, and Bluehost rely on Akismet to protect their sites from spam and improve their user experience.</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, 06 Sep 2023 13:00:00 +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:"Kathryn Marr";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"Do The Woo Community: Live From WCUS, It’s the Robbie and Robert Show";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76369";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"https://dothewoo.io/live-from-wcus-its-the-robbie-and-robert-show/";s: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:416:"<p>It's filled with laughs, insights and simply good times when co-hosts Robbie and Robert take over the mics at WCUS 2023.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/live-from-wcus-its-the-robbie-and-robert-show/">Live From WCUS, It&#8217;s the Robbie and Robert Show</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Sep 2023 13:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"HeroPress: WordPress Is My Ball And Chain";s:7:"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=5792";s:7:"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:134:"https://heropress.com/essays/wordpress-is-my-ball-and-chain/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-is-my-ball-and-chain";s: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:9056:"<img width="1024" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/essay-cover-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="WordPress, and its inclusive community, led me down a path of redemption and acceptance." />
Here is Justin&#8217;s story read aloud by artificial intelligence.






<p>This month marks the 22nd anniversary of the terrorist attacked on the World Trade Center in the United States. I can still remember exactly where I was that morning, as I had an argument with my girlfriend the night before, and was sleeping on the couch of someone with whom I used drugs.</p>



<p>It had only been four months since graduating high school, but I was already an addict. As a matter of fact, I was using drugs heavily at the end of my senior year, and the first summer after high school is when my life really started to spiral out of control.</p>



<p>By the end of 2001 I was selling any drug I could get my hands on to make some money and feed my addiction (except heroin — that is always were I drew the line). Within a couple years I was the goto person for many substances, but primarily methamphetamine.</p>



<p>Then I got caught, arrested, and thrown in jail. The prosecutor wanted to throw the book at me, recommending a 15 year sentence. But with my family supporting me in the courtroom and my lawyer fighting for me, the judge recognized that with this support, I did not deserve the full 15, and gave me 7 years, with 8 years probation instead. With good behavior, I did just under 3 years in prison.</p>



<p>While in prison, I focused on my restoration. Learning new things, studying for certification in motor vehicle mechanics, and even starting work with accredited college courses funded by my tribe (Comanche Nation).</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p> I knew I had let down my family, and had something to prove.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Through it all, my addiction, prison, and restoration, my family was always there for me. They knew the real me, not the person addicted to drugs and not the dealer feeding his addiction by providing for other addicts. That’s the person I know I needed to be again, for both myself and for them.</p>



<p>Right after my release in January 2008, I immediately started working in a warehouse and attending college. At the company where I worked, the CEO gave me some excellent advice that I needed to control my narrative on the web (e.g. Google), so I built my first website using WordPress.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pivoting">Pivoting</h2>



<p>At a young age, I was always fascinated by technology. I remember dabbling with computers in grade school, and tinkering on the internet in my teens. While I never did any kind of coding back then, the marketing aspect of web technologies did pique my interest. Then, drugs pulled me away from all that and sent me down a different path.</p>



<p>When I found WordPress around April of 2008, all of that excitement started to come back. I would work my warehouse job during the day, drive to University of Central Oklahoma in the evening for a couple of college courses, then play around with WordPress themes (HTML, CSS, and some PHP) well into the night all that summer. </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>This was the beginning of my love for WordPress. I was instantly addicted, and simply could not put down my computer, often getting little sleep before the next day (that’s okay, I was in my early 20s <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f609.png" alt="😉" class="wp-smiley" /> ).</p>
</blockquote>



<p>By late 2010, I was taking on WordPress side projects, building websites, and even making online tutorials about WordPress. All this despite still working in the warehouse and taking night courses at college.</p>



<p>In 2011, my work caught the eye of <a href="https://corymiller.com/">Cory Miller</a>, who I had previously met at a marketing event in Oklahoma City. Cory owned and operated <a href="https://ithemes.com/">iThemes</a>, a WordPress theme and plugin product company based out of Edmond Oklahoma. Although I was still working in the warehouse and taking college courses, Cory offered me a job working at iThemes as a web developer for WordPress themes and plugins. My major in college was marketing, and I still has a few more courses to complete before graduating, but I took the offer anyway and little did I know it was the beginning of a career in software development that led me where I am today.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-and-then-wordcamp">And Then WordCamp&#8230;</h2>



<p>My first WordCamp to both attend and speak was Fayetteville in 2011. That’s actually when I first met <a href="https://josepha.blog/">Josepha Haden Chomphosy</a> (along with her <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/wordpress-tool-success/">mother</a> and sister too). Of course, we went different ways in life but it is a marker that I like to remember as it helps me understand the different paths each of us take in this world. While I only spoke at a few other WordCamps, I attended many more over the years. The WordPress community, and its inclusiveness, was simply impossible for me to ignore.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>I know my experiences are different, and to understand this I also have to mention that I joined a few other communities through the years, but none ever fully accepted me, and one even did not let me keep coming when they found out I was a former convict.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Although most people in the WordPress community never knew about my past, I never felt they would kick me out even if they did find out. Actually, I felt the community leaders honestly didn’t care at all about your past, culture, identity, etc., but rather just wanted you to love (or at least like) WordPress.</p>



<p>And I did love WordPress. Still do.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Redemption and Acceptance</h2>



<p>WordPress unexpectedly led me down a path of redemption and acceptance. For a long time I was angry at the world (especially corporate America) for not accepting me, and in those times of anger I would seek out WordPress people. No one even knew, but they were helping me nonetheless, always there when I needed, always a shiny light in the darkness.</p>



<p>I’ve traveled the world with WordPress. Making WordPress friends in Asia, Australia, Europe, North &amp; South America and beyond. I love the WordPress community, and want to continue watching it flourish and grow. Every time I visit a WordCamp, I get to make new friends, see new faces, and meet awesome people of WordPress. I was able to build meaningful business and personal relationships, joining WordPress communities, attending and hosting WordPress events, and even speaking at several WordCamps across the World.</p>



<p>Most of the WordPress companies for which I have worked had such amazing leaders, knowing about my past yet still giving me the opportunity to continue to demonstrate my new self. Two of which deserve an honorable mention: Cory Miller of Post Status (formerly iThemes) and <a href="https://10up.com/blog/author/10up/">Jake Goldman</a> of <a href="https://10up.com/">10up</a>. Both of these leaders embraced me wholly, and the things Jake said to when I mentioned my criminal past before my background check continue to give me confidence in knowing there are amazing leaders working in WordPress.</p>



<p>The WordPress Community has proven itself to be more than just a platform for a tool. In my personal journey, I discovered that it represents a beacon of hope, a testament to what can be achieved when diverse minds come together under the banner of openness and collaboration. </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>Albeit unknowingly, this community handed me a new lease on life, providing me with opportunities to learn, grow, and reinvent myself.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Its core values of openness and inclusiveness aren&#8217;t just buzzwords but are deeply rooted in the ethos of every member who contributes, either by writing code, designing themes, or even just by sharing experiences. It&#8217;s a reminder that every individual, irrespective of their background or skillset, has the potential to add value to this thriving ecosystem. As beneficiaries of this incredible community, it falls upon us to ensure that we not only appreciate these values but also embody them. We must commit to fostering an environment where every decision we make, every action we undertake, further deepens the culture of inclusivity and collaboration.</p>



<p>Thank you WordPress, and the WordPress Community. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/2764.png" alt="❤" class="wp-smiley" /></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/wordpress-is-my-ball-and-chain/">WordPress Is My Ball And Chain</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Sep 2023 12:26:44 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"Justin Kopepasah";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:136:"WPTavern: WooCommerce Blocks 11.0.0 Adds Product Collection Block in Beta, 10.9.0 Integrates Product Button with the Interactivity API";s:7:"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=148515";s:7:"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:144:"https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-blocks-11-0-0-adds-product-collection-block-in-beta-10-9-0-integrates-product-button-with-the-interactivity-api";s: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:4015:"<p>WooCommerce is experimenting with improving the store experience through the <a href="https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-blocks/issues/8219">addition of the Interactivity API</a> to the WooCommerce Blocks plugin. The new API, which was announced earlier this year, will allow developers to build interactive blocks that support frontend experiences where visitors can interact with content without having to refresh the page. The WordPress contributors working on the API are <a href="https://wptavern.com/start-testing-wordpress-new-interactivity-api">encouraging developers to test it</a> with their own blocks.</p>



<p><a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2023/08/16/woocommerce-blocks-10-9-0-release-notes/?mc_cid=b50d0ff43c&mc_eid=68ffa9a210">WooCommerce Blocks 10.9.0</a>, released in mid-August, integrated the Product Button with the Interactivity API to support real-time counter updates for the mini-cart, smoother animations, and better transitions from ‘Add to Cart’ to ‘Loading’ status to show the quantity in the cart when a product is added. </p>



WooCommerce Blocks <a href="https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-blocks/pull/10006">PR #10006</a>



<p>The difference is subtle but creates a much smoother shopping experience with nearly instantaneous feedback for the user. Contributors are also exploring how the Interactivity API can be used to improve frontend filters, including the rating, price, stock, and attributes filters. The API will eventually land in Gutenberg and WordPress in the future, but in the meantime WooCommerce is experimenting to see how the plugin&#8217;s blocks can benefit from it.</p>



<p><a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2023/08/31/woocommerce-blocks-11-0-0-release-notes/">Version 11.0.0</a> was released last week introducing the new Product Collection block in beta:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>Like the Products block, you can choose what criteria affect the list of blocks displayed to shoppers and control the product layout in the list/grid by the various element blocks.</p>



<p>Unlike the Products block, which is a Query loop block variation, this block is a standalone block, enabling us to tailor the block further to better meet the merchant’s needs.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>The Product Collection block is very similar to the Products block from which it was forked, except it is not built as a variation of the Query Loop. It comes with improvements around Inspector controls as compared to the current Products block, as well as a basic set of patterns. The block already has the <a href="https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-blocks/issues/10328">Interactivity API integrated</a> for the same improved frontend performance.</p>



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



<img width="2047" height="1584" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/product-collection.webp" alt="" class="wp-image-148556" />Product Collection block &#8211; image source: <a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2023/08/31/woocommerce-blocks-11-0-0-release-notes/">WooCommerce Blocks 11.0.0 release post</a>



<p>Version 11.0.0 also enables manual migration of Products to Product Collection. An upgrade notice will appear in the Inspector Controls, informing users that they will get more features with the Product Collection block:</p>



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



<img width="500" height="466" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/products-update-to-product-collection-500x466.png" alt="" class="wp-image-148557" />



<p>As the Product Collection block is still in beta, WooCommerce Blocks has not yet changed existing templates that have Product blocks. The development team is looking for more feedback on this block before moving it out of beta. Check out the <a href="https://developer.woocommerce.com/2023/08/31/woocommerce-blocks-11-0-0-release-notes/">release post</a> for more enhancements and bug fixes.</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, 06 Sep 2023 03:59:22 +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:48;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"WPTavern: Human Made to Host “AI: The Next Chapter” Virtual Conference on September 14, 2023";s:7:"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=148507";s:7:"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://wptavern.com/human-made-to-host-ai-the-next-chapter-virtual-conference-on-september-14-2023";s: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:3753:"<p>Human Made, a leading enterprise WordPress agency, is organizing a followup event to the community&#8217;s first ever <a href="https://wptavern.com/human-made-to-host-ai-for-wordpress-event-may-25-2023">AI for WordPress</a> virtual conference that it hosted in May 2023. The second edition is called &#8220;<a href="https://hello.humanmade.com/ai-the-next-chapter">AI: The Next Chapter</a>&#8221; and will take place online on September 14, 2023, at 10AM EST.</p>



<p>The first event had 13 speakers and drew more than 600 attendees. It focused on WordPress and AI tools that people are building with the emerging technology. (Videos of all the sessions are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1H81eN4d97iRNVivTvkWBdEr_3YTzZLc">available on YouTube</a>.) This next edition will explore some of the wider societal, ethical, and tech issues related to the subject. </p>



<p>The keynote and intro will feature Matt Mullenweg on &#8220;AI and the future of WordPress,&#8221; along with Human Made CEO Tom Willmot. Dr. Eleanor Drage, a senior research fellow at the University of Cambridge and co-host of The Good Robot podcast, will be speaking about AI and gender. Open source LLM researchers from Georgian will also join for a panel discussion on why they believe open source AI is the best way for companies to leverage this technology.</p>



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



<img width="1956" height="1310" src="https://149611589.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screen-Shot-2023-09-05-at-5.44.14-PM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-148538" />



<p><a href="https://hello.humanmade.com/ai-the-next-chapter">Registration</a> is free and participants can sign up on the event&#8217;s website. A confirmation email is sent out to registrants and more information will follow via email.</p>



<p>Human Made has developed a keen interest in fostering exploratory dialogue through these events, as the company is working on AI products and <a href="https://humanmade.com/ai-for-wordpress/">custom implementations for clients</a>. At the first event, the agency showcased some early work in the <a href="https://www.altis-dxp.com/accelerate/">Altis Accelerate</a> plugin and have been working with clients to determine how AI can augment existing marketing and editorial workflows. </p>



<p>&#8220;The progress and innovation we’re seeing in AI is so rapid at the moment that it kind of demands you stay close to it, keep following what’s happening, and keep learning,&#8221; Human Made Marketing Director Alex Aspinall said. &#8220;AI is one of our core areas of focus, across all parts of the business, so we’ll definitely be building, sharing, and hosting more in the space in the months to come. Doing all this in the open is really important to us, so the events are a great platform.&#8221;</p>



<p>During the first event, Aspinall reports that Human Made saw registrations and participation across a wide range of business verticals and role disciplines, with conversations continuing months after the first event. <br /><br />&#8220;While there are a few businesses and individuals building things, experimenting, and commercializing their work in the area, the vast majority are still finding their way through, figuring out how best to implement AI to deliver tangible benefit to their companies, their clients, their teams, and their day-to-day lives,&#8221; Aspinall said.<br /><br />&#8220;Despite the level of advancement we’ve already seen, we’re still right at the start of this thing, which is really exciting. There’s a lot to learn, and considerable edge available for those experimenting and putting things in place. Imagine what we’ll be talking about this time next year!&#8221;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 05 Sep 2023 22:09:23 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:49;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:50:"Do The Woo Community: WordCamp US, the First Recap";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=76362";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://dothewoo.io/wordcamp-us-the-first-recap/";s: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:362:"<p>BobWP and some attendees share a few highlights of WordCamp US 2023 as well as some WordPress origin stories.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/wordcamp-us-the-first-recap/">WordCamp US, the First Recap</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 05 Sep 2023 13:23:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";O:48:"WpOrg\Requests\Utility\CaseInsensitiveDictionary":1:{s:7:"*data";a:8:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Fri, 22 Sep 2023 08:50:45 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Fri, 22 Sep 2023 08:45:29 GMT";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:16:"content-encoding";s:2:"br";s:4:"x-nc";s:9:"HIT ord 1";}}s:5:"build";s:14:"20230714051415";}