In this episode we take a deeper look at Sendcloud with Wilson and what shipping automation means to a developer or freelancer.
>> The post A Product Deep Dive with Wilson Favre-Delerue appeared first on Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community .
Gutenberg 15.8 was released with some exciting features that were included in the tentative WordPress 6.3 roadmap. Users are getting closer to a more unified content editing experience with the addition of the Pages menu to the Site Editor. Clicking on Pages will load the ten most recently updated pages with a link to “Manage All Pages” at the bottom of the list. Users can quickly jump into editing content by selecting a page.
The interface also includes a little reminder about the nature of pages in WordPress: “Pages are static and are not listed by date. Pages do not use tags or categories.” It will be interesting to see how page editing in the Site Editor is received, whether it is too confusing for users to understand what they are editing, or whether the baseline expectation is that content can be edited anywhere.
Revisions for design changes have landed in 15.8 with a basic UI inside the Global Styles panel. It shows a timeline of saved changes along with who made the change, so users can easily revert back to previous design changes. This creates an extra cushion or safety net for those who are designing their own sites and should provide a greater level of user confidence when making design changes.
Version 15.8 also introduces theme previews for block themes, a feature that has been sorely missing for early adopters of block themes. This is made possible by a new theme_preview parameter, which allows the user to see what the site would like if a different theme was active.
A few other noticeable changes in this release include the following:
Check out the full changelog for all the details on enhancements and bug fixes in 15.8.
Shufflehound made a big splash in March when it released Lemmony, a free WordPress block theme with more than 30 patterns. This was the company’s first block theme on WordPress.org and it is already active on more than 1,000 websites. Building on the success of this theme, Shufflehound has created a child theme for agencies.
Lemmony Agency bears a strong resemblance to its parent theme but with more agency-specific patterns. This theme ships with 25 new custom block patterns, on top of the ones already included in Lemmony, for a total of more than 50 patterns.
The patterns unique to this theme suit agencies but would also work well for non-profits, advocacy, portfolios, or businesses of any kind. These include a hero with services, accordions for things like FAQ, counters, more pricing tables, services with icons or images, a blockified sidebar, testimonials, and more.
The theme’s creators have done an excellent job in organizing all the patterns available to users. Inside the pattern explorer/inserter, they have been separated into different panels for the patterns specific to the Lemmony Agency theme, the Lemmony patterns, and the Lemmony full-page patterns. This makes it easier to build pages, since users won’t have to hunt through all the patterns lumped together.
The Lemmony Companion plugin, recommended when users install the theme, adds a handful of custom blocks that some of the patterns rely on to work. It includes blocks for a counter, icon, post featured image caption, typing text, hero auto-slider, and accordion.
This might be the best way to ensure these features are styled exactly to match the theme and give users more creative control inside these particular blocks. Sometimes using third-party plugins to add sliders or icons can look like it’s bolted onto the design in an unsightly way. A companion plugin designated specifically for this theme makes sense in this instance.
Shufflehound made an interesting choice creating Lemmony Agency as a child theme of what is already a very flexible multi-purpose theme. This certainly could have been shipped as full-page pattern but it would have also greatly expanded the patterns packaged with the parent theme. In these early days of block theming, it’s not yet clear what users might consider “pattern bloat” or too many patterns, especially since they can easily be categorized under various panels inside the explorer.
Lemmony Agency is a solid option for building websites that need to showcase their services, display pricing, or simply maintain an informational web presence. It’s available for free from WordPress.org and will auto-install the parent theme at the same time.
by Sarah Gooding at May 22, 2023 08:35 PM under free wordpress themes
Please join us in welcoming SiteGround to the 2023 WordPress global community sponsorship program! SiteGround’s pledge to sponsor all official WordPress community events (WordCamps, Meetups, and more) all around the world provides support and stability to our hardworking crew of volunteer event organizers. Thanks for everything, SiteGround!
SiteGround‘s hosting services are crafted to make managing websites easy, whether you’re building a site for yourself, your small business, or your clients.
We host over 2.8 Million domain names on a powerful Google Cloud Platform infrastructure, optimized with an array of in-house tools for seamless, faster and more secure WordPress performance:
Our long-term expertise in helping WordPress users succeed online extends into our award-winning SiteGround Optimizer and SiteGround Security; plugins, free to download and install on any hosting platform.
Join guest host Rich Tabor and WordPress Playground innovator Adam Zielinski as they discuss the capabilities and promise of WP Playground in episode 56 of the WordPress Briefing. Stay tuned for your small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks.
Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording.
Host: Josepha Haden Chomphosy
Guests: Rich Tabor and Adam Zielinski
Editor: Dustin Hartzler
Logo: Javier Arce
Production: Brett McSherry and Nicholas Garofalo
Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod
[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00]
(Intro music)
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’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go.
(Intro continues)
[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:40]
Today we’re gonna spend a little time talking about WP Playground. This is a project that debuted at State of the Word in December 2022, but it was demoed for me about a month prior in November.
I was, and remain, absolutely floored by the potential future applications, as well as the innovative thinking behind it. So I’ve invited a couple of excellent WordPress futurists to the show today so that we can listen in on their conversation.
Welcome guys.
[Rich Tabor 00:01:07]
Hey everyone, I’m Rich Tabor, and I’m here today with Adam Zielinski to talk about WordPress Playground. So for those of you who don’t know what WordPress Playground is, can you tell us a little bit more about it, Adam?
[Adam Zielinski 00:01:18]
Absolutely. WordPress Playground is WordPress that works in your browser like there’s no server with PHP or database like there’s just your browser and JavaScript, and you can run it in so many more places that we’ll all get to. For example, I just came back from WordCamp Gliwice, where on a Contributor Day, a couple of developers got set up with WordPress in just a couple of minutes, whereas normally, it can take hours to do that.
[Rich Tabor 00:01:44]
Yeah, that’s, that’s pretty impressive. Do you think that, particularly for WordCamps and other demo-type areas, this would be something that’s very useful? Or what do you think would be the other problems that could be solved with WordPress Playground?
[Adam Zielinski 00:01:55]
Playground solves one primary problem, and that is WordPress is pretty difficult to get started with. I’m not even talking about creating your website, but let’s say, someone told you there’s this WordPress thing that you should try. Well, you Google for it, and you find installation instructions, and there’s like three hours of work for you there.
So then maybe you’ll find a hosting company, and you have to pay some money. So with WordPress Playground, you can actually try it for free because there’s no cost to run it. It just runs on your device. If you’re a developer, and you want to start learning WordPress, normally you have to go through quite an extensive setup process, and there are some tools to make it easier, but maybe there’s still friction like you have to even own a computer, like a PC device or a Mac. Playground can run on your phone, and it can power interactive tutorials that you can use and just start learning there and there with zero setup.
Like if you work on a product team and someone asks you to test a code change, with Playground you can just click a link and test it with no infrastructure behind it. And if you’re a company creating a plugin, you can just show your plugin in a live demo to people. And this isn’t something many plugins are doing because it’s quite hard to get a live demo set up.
[Rich Tabor 00:03:12]
Ah, that’s pretty impressive. So, you know, amongst like tutorials, code changes for developer environments, the mobile application running, do you think that, since there’s such a wide brevity of ideas that WordPress Playground can kind of plug into, would this be more of a developer tool?
Is that right? Or is Playground more of a like a click and play-type application that can run anywhere and demo anything?
[Adam Zielinski 00:03:36]
I’d say it’s both, but it’s more transparent for the users. So there are a whole lot of things you can do with Playground as a developer, as I just mentioned. But who are you doing these things for? Well, some of them are for the users, as in live demos, or there’s a WordCamp Europe coming, and I know some people are doing workshops there. They are going to use Playground to get everyone set up. So now that’s, well, maybe a workshop that teaches you how to build a theme, for example, right? Now you can just get started without any setup process. So there’s both, it’s very useful for development teams, and it’s very useful for them to build stuff for the final users.
[Rich Tabor 00:04:21]
That’s great. I know you, and I have probably both been in the same scenario at WordCamps when you’re trying to get dev environments set up, and it takes, you know, the better half of the workshop to get to step one. So this is really gonna be interesting to see it, especially at WordCamp Europe, and to see it getting into action.
Are you planning on going to WordCamp Europe this year?
[Adam Zielinski 00:04:39]
Absolutely, I will have a table at Contributor Day, a WordPress Playground table. So yeah, everyone’s invited to come over. I’ll show you a lot of cool stuff. And then at WP Connect on Saturday at 10:00 AM, there will be a WordPress Playground session where you’ll be able to learn more and see some cool demos.
And this will be a conversational format, so we’ll just have a nice chat.
[Rich Tabor 00:05:01]
Super cool. So how else can people find out a little bit more info about Playground and perhaps even get involved and contribute to the project?
[Adam Zielinski 00:05:08]
There’s a developer.WordPress.org/playground website. There’s a link in a show notes where you’ll be able, like this is the perfect entry point to the entire rabbit hole of WordPress Playground.
There’s a quite a few projects under the WordPress Playground umbrella, and they all live in a single GitHub repository where you can just find any issue that interests if you want to contribute and just start contributing. Also, there’s a Slack channel in WordPress org space called #meta-playground, and I highly encourage everyone interested in coming over to say hi.
And probably one of the best places to ask questions and get acquainted with the community.
[Rich Tabor 00:05:54]
Oh, that’s great; I’m very intrigued about the project overall. I think that there’s an immense amount of potential, for WordPress Playground. Just last question here, like, where do you see the future of this project going? What is the most interesting application that hasn’t been done yet, or the things that are really gonna be the next level in unlocking Playground for everyone?
[Adam Zielinski 00:06:12]
There’s quite a few. Imagine being able to go to WordPress.org and have a WordPress demo right then and there without having to download anything. Then you customize it, and you have a button to host your website anywhere or just to download it.
Imagine having a live preview for all the themes and plugins in the directory and even in WordPress core, but these are sooner than later. Maybe like, let’s talk more grandiose, shall we? So there’s this term, 1 billion new users coming online in the next, like in the nearest future, and plenty of them doesn’t even own a desktop device. Maybe they have a mobile phone, maybe they have a tablet, maybe we’re talking about a young, prospective developer somewhere. And currently, if you don’t own a desktop device, you cannot contribute to the WordPress plugin ecosystem at all.
Like, we’re seeing more and more of creating themes with no code, which is really exciting. But you cannot build the plugin, really. Well, with WordPress Playground. Suddenly you can do development on a mobile device. So development tools and code editors and just the entire suite of things we use as the developers on our desktop of devices like this may come online and be available in your browser.
And if you’re on a train and you just have a phone with you, but you still want to learn, how to build a plugin, well, you’ll be able to do that. Furthermore, there’s a lot of exciting opportunities with ChatGPT, as in, well, here’s a WordPress running entirely on your device. So maybe if that’s connected to ChatGPT, you’ll be able to say, well, I like fish, or like, I want two columns and a photo of a racing car on top of it.
And because ChatGPT can output HTML, we connect the two, and suddenly, you can build a website entirely in your browser using natural language.
[Rich Tabor 00:08:20]
Man, that’s, that’s really interesting. It really does unlock the next, potentially the next like, wave of innovation in the WordPress experience, especially removing all the complications of getting set up and actually seeing what’s there. I think that it really could, be huge for users every day.
[Adam Zielinski 00:08:38]
Oh, here’s one more. So, edge computing is big lately, and it’s going to be bigger in the future. WordPress Playground runs on this new technology called Web Assembly, and it just happened so that a bunch of edge computing providers allows you to run web assembly on their gear. So imagine having WordPress running entirely in edge infrastructure with no centralized server.
Truly decentralized WordPress. It could be big for a well cost of operating, but also for speed, but also even further down in the future. Imagine downloading the actual, you know, even WordPress around time to your device and having the entire website on your phone. So then you know, you’re on a train, you enter a tunnel, but you can still browse that WooCommerce store and add things to your cart even though there is no range at all.
[Rich Tabor 00:09:32]
Wow, that’s, that’s pretty crazy. How far out there do you think something like that is?
[Adam Zielinski 00:09:37]
It’s hard to tell. I mean, technically, it is possible. There are a lot of challenges with regard to privacy, right? And data security for the edge computing case specifically. As for the development tools, there was a Cloud Fest hackathon earlier this year where I was with Daniel Bachhuber, also from Automattic, and we led this exciting project that brought the WordPress development environment into the browser using a couple of editors that are out there, and this is too much of an MVP for actual production use yet, but we got it working, and we build an actual plugin on a phone without internet access.
[Rich Tabor 00:10:19]
Wow. And that was just a hackathon, just hacking at it to see what you can get.
[Adam Zielinski 00:10:23]
Yeah, it was two and a half days.
[Rich Tabor 00:10:25]
Oh, that’s awesome. That’s really cool, man. Well, this has been quite a pleasure. Thanks, Adam, for chatting all about WordPress Playground. Folks, just be sure to check out developer.WordPress.org/playground to explore, experiment, and play with WordPress Playground.
This has been awesome, Adam.
[Adam Zielinski 00:10:43]
Thank you so much for having me, Rich.
[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:10:45]
What a remarkable new way of working with and experiencing WordPress. I would love to be able to find ways across the project and ecosystem to help folks see what they’re getting into before they get into it, but also, who knows what the future holds for that project. Keep an eye on it.
(Musical interlude)
[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:10]
That brings us to our small list of big things happening right now in the WordPress project. The first one is that the Kim Parel Memorial Scholarship for WordCamp US 2023 is open, and applications for it are the WordPress Foundation will once again be offering that scholarship for Travel to WordCamp US.
It is for specifically for women in technology, women in the WordPress space. I’ll include a link to that in the show notes.
The second thing is WordPress’ 20th anniversary is still coming, as we heard in the last podcast.
So we have reached over 100 events that are scheduled on or around May 27th, which is WordPress’ launch date. There is still time to find your closest location and attend one of those events. And probably, there’s also time to pull together an event of your own. Head on over to wp20.WordPress.net if you would like to see events in your area.
And the third thing is WordCamp US 2023. I realize WordCamp Europe comes before that, but the programming team actually has a really interesting thing that they’re doing this year. They have some changes to the way that they are organizing the event and finding speakers for the event. But as always, they are working very hard to make sure it is an attendee-focused event.
I’m gonna include a link or two to some announcements that are really worthwhile there. Head on over to the podcast page to see those. And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Thanks again to my guests, and I’ll see y’all in a couple of weeks.
by Nicholas Garofalo at May 22, 2023 12:00 PM under wp-briefing
Fabian Kägy and Birgit Pauli-Haack discuss the new enhancements in Gutenberg plugin releases 15.7 and 15.8 as well as the Experiments available in the plugin.
What’s new in Gutenberg 15.8? (May 17)
| Zoomed out view | Test a new zoomed out view on the site editor (Warning: The new feature is not ready. You may experience UX issues that are being addressed) (#41156) |
|---|---|
| Color randomizer | Test the Global Styles color randomizer; a utility that lets you mix the current color palette pseudo-randomly. (#40988) |
| Command center | Test the command center; Open it using cmd + k in the site or post editors. (#50128) |
| Grid variation for Group block | Test the Grid layout type as a new variation of Group block. (#49018) |
| Details block | Test the Details block (#49808) |
| Block Theme Previews | Enable Block Theme Previews (#50030) |
| Navigation block | Test the Navigation block using the Interactivity API (#50041) |
Stay in Touch
Transcript
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Hello and welcome to our 83rd episode of the Gutenberg Changelog Podcast. In today’s episode, we will talk about WordPress Point Release, 6.2.1, Gutenberg 15.8, and of course the previous one, Gutenberg 15.7 as well, and some of the experiments featured hiding in the Gutenberg plugin. I’m your host, Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator of the Gutenberg Times and WordPress developer advocate, and a full-time core contributor for the WordPress Open Source project.
I’m so happy to have, again, Fabian Kägy back on the show. It’s been a while since we talked and so much happened. We just found out, it was the episode 59 and it was in February 2022, well, it’s a whole world happened in between. So for our new listeners, Fabian Kägy is the Associate Director of Editorial Engineering at 10up and a core contributor to the Gutenberg project since 2017, I think. So welcome back on the show, Fabian. How are you today?
Fabian Kägy: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be back on this.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: I’m glad you’re here. So I have to ask, editorial engineering, what does that entail at the agency 10up?
Fabian Kägy: So that is a special, in quotation marks, “made up role”, where I started down the path of a front end engineer and over time became more and more passionate about all things editorial experience. So that is now a special role where I get to focus part of my time on actually coming up with best practices and solutions for working with a block editor and helping the entire team level up and carved out my niche.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: That’s awesome, especially because in view of the next phase of Gutenberg where it is actually all about collaboration on an editorial team, so making that a smooth experience is definitely something we all will be working on for when 6.3 come out, I think. Your input will be invaluable for your clients, as well as for the team, I think.
Fabian Kägy: Yes. I’m very, very excited about all the things that are lined up for all of us to work on and to explore, and it’ll be fun.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: So with the developer blog, I’m part of the editorial team that does reviews and works with writers. Once in a while, we start out with Google Docs and have everybody comment on it. Some writers say, “Well, I’m waiting for that moment where I don’t have to use Google Docs anymore to collaborate with people on a post and not have to copy/paste it over.” So we are very much looking forward to that collaboration and we will be eating the Gutenberg dog food, so to speak, on the developer blog.
Speaking of the developer blog, Justin Tadlock just published the What’s New for Developers in May 2023 on the developer blog, and that’s a series of roundup posts that were started in February, where we look at all the publications that come out throughout the month, what’s new in core, the Gutenberg plugin, the keeping up with Gutenberg index page, and so much more, and just pick those things that are relevant for developers not to teach them how to use them, but more like, “Watch out, this is coming,” and prepare them for an X release pretty much.
The main one has quite a few items in there that are highlighted there. One is the Block Selectors API, which has definitely the markup of a larger tutorial, but it got quite a few developers excited about CSS and their blocks and being more in control of it. Another one as we will also talk about it is the first community theme and all things. So it’s pretty much a roundup of a lot of things that are interesting for extenders like plugins, developers, theme developers, and also agency developers.
So we share the latest blog post link in the show notes, but if you haven’t looked at those yet, and if you’re a developer, subscribe to the feed of the developer blog or just for the roundup post so you get a heads up on many things.
Fabian Kägy: I would highly encourage everybody to take a look at those because they’re super valuable, just quick shares of what’s going on, what are the things to look out for, and even if you’re not developing for the actual experimental Gutenberg plugin, it is something. It makes it so much easier when the next big WordPress update comes around to know what’s in the pipeline, what are the things that are being talked about and already have some grasp of just what’s coming.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Well, thank you so much. Justin does a great job in putting it all together and also shares some resources that are available on Learn WordPress. Then there were two new posts since we had the last show. There was one on how Webpack and WordPress packages interact by Ryan Welcher. That really gets you a little bit more theory around how WordPress and Webpack work together. For those that are not like me, I trust the things … I trust in God. I trust in things that if I put an NPM, run something, that it’s all going to work out, but some people want to really dive into Webpack some more and this gives them a great introduction to that. How are you doing with Webpack? Are you manipulating Webpack for your own development?
Fabian Kägy: So I used to do it a lot, especially in the early days of the WordPress Scripts package. There were so many things that were not yet a part of it, and I was very actively adding hacky solutions to add post CSS and all of those SaaS things to WordPress Scripts. That was my introduction to actually working with Webpack. Now, WordPress Scripts takes care of most of our needs or for some of the things, we have a similar tool at 10up that is a helper so we don’t have to deal with custom Webpack configurations.
I read through that post from Ryan about how that interacts, and it’s a really solid deep dive. If you want to understand the areas, the inner workings of how some of these Webpack plugins interact, which you don’t need to, but if you want to, that is very, very useful.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Then the other blog post was the per-block CSS with theme.json. The per-block CSS came out out of feedback from the community that custom CSS were not available anymore to put in custom CMS for the block themes and for sites, and it was introduced with 6.2, but it also needs some additional handle. Justin wrote a blog post about it, how best to think about per-block CSS with theme.json without getting too deep into the weeds and how that’s offered to the user. So definitely read up about it.
For the FSE program, Anne published two summary posts and you make your part of coffee first because they’re both very long but also very detailed from the latest testing calls. One was Build Your Block Theme with the great block theme plugin and the other one was the testing call 21 for the FSE program for the front page fund summary. There will be a new testing call coming out of the FSE program.
So if you are into block themes and users use them and all that, it’s definitely a good overview on what are the pain points, what are the team working on because Anne is very, very thorough in adding to all pain points or discussion points, also the PRs or the issue that is on GitHub about that particular topic. So you can chime in with your opinions, with your experiences, and with your testing, and it would really help if you chime in and be encouraged to actually be part of the testing project. That’s it.
Of course, we share all the links in the show notes for this episode.
Another great announcement and community contribution is the first theme coming out of the community theme project where community members and team members are working together on creating block themes and the first one is called Stacks. It’s a theme with which you can build slide decks. It’s a very interesting approach to a website that is more a slide deck rather than have navigation from page to page to page. It’s more like a guided tool that you can use it or you can use it for your next presentation, but you don’t have to use a third-party tool for that if you want to spin up a website and just use it for your presentation.
It’s quite interesting to see how that comes together. The code is certainly available on GitHub and we share both the announcement post, as well as the write up by Sarah Gooding on the WP Tavern for you.
Fabian Kägy: These explorations and these themes and plugins that allow you to build your slide deck in the block editor, I’m always amazed when I see that. I think a couple of years ago, Ella was maybe one of the first ones who did talk at a React conference and blew my mind in the end when they revealed, “Hey, and all of this was created in the block editor and these slides are powered by it.” I think Nick Diego also did it at WordCamp US or at WordCamp and it’s always pretty cool to see.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: You’re right. Nick Diego did it at WordCamp US for his talk, Build A Block in 15 minutes, and he built actually that slide back there as well. It’s very interesting how this can be used on your own website. Yes, Ella had a slide. It was actually a block that she added. I think it was the same for Nick Diego and now we have a theme for it. So it’s really cool.
All right. That brings us into what’s released and, of course, let’s start with the minor release for WordPress, the 6.2.1 Point Release that just came out this week and there were a few hiccups there. Do you want to talk about this and what’s happening there?
Fabian Kägy: Sure. So 6.2.1 was released, I believe it was at some point early this week. One thing, there was a security issue that the security team took care of and made sure that that gets resolved as quickly as possible, but that security issue essentially resulted in short codes no longer working in block templates. So in a block-based theme, if you have a short code inside a block template, that will no longer actually get converted to the dynamic data. That has caused some issues for folks, especially around auto updates because it’s just a minor patch release, but it is breaking some existing sites, which as always, it is a very difficult choice to make and a very unfortunate thing when that has to happen because of security thing.
There is an open issue in track where a lot of this is getting discussed right now, and it was discussed in the core chat yesterday, where essentially, it is very unfortunate when something like that has to happen. From my perspective, I think the team, if there is a security issue, that is the only thing that can be done. The only thing that I think we as a community can try to be a little better at is communicating those types of things ahead so folks are more aware of that, “Hey, we needed to make a difficult decision here. Beware, you should make this update, but here are some things that you can do instead to help your site still be up there,” because the communication around the issue could have been a little better.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: I don’t think there’s no maybe about it, but it was a little obscure in the change log and it wasn’t saying, “Okay. It’s going to break sites,” but I think it’s really hard to also suggest a solution right now. So Jean Baptist Audras was one of the release leads together with George Mamadoshvilli, and he wrote in the core dev chat on Wednesday night, “The release itself went pretty well. Thanks everyone for your patience. However, as you may know, one security fix led to the important issues with the short codes used in templates, but it was not templates per se, but block templates in block themes. So the issue is currently actively discussed in the security editor team and some hypotheses have been made to sort this out in a quick followup release. No schedule is available right now because the discussions haven’t been finished yet, but it will depend on the followup patch currently discussed by the editor team.”
So to just point out, and Paul Byron had actually … All the solutions on how to deal with it right now in the emergency situation when you see dozens or even hundreds of page breaks, one is to roll back to 6.2 with a core rollback plugin, use the short code, and put them in template parts. That seems to be working in the block themes that you put the short code in a template part and add that template part to the template or have … In the ticket that you mentioned, Fabian, there were also a code example on how to introduce making the shortcuts work again, but all three of them introduced the security issue again.
So I’m not sure quite how to advise people to work, but there are no good choices right now because you are caught between you want your client’s side to work, but you also don’t want their security issue to be out there too long. So the core editor team is definitely working on a solution to fix the security fix, but all, what I just said, is actually just introducing back the security issue into your sites.
So there are also opinions that short codes might be a legacy way of dealing with things. Maybe it’s a good call for converting the most important short codes to blocks and use them for the block editor instead of … but not everybody has the capacity for it, not everybody has the time for it or they’re just not there yet, but the plugins that they use are also not converting the shortcuts to blocks. So it’s the nature of the beast. I don’t think the shortcuts will ever go away, but there’s a better way to handle that.
Fabian Kägy: Yeah, definitely. In regards to the various options that we have right now, rolling back and that plugin that exists and that code that you can add to your theme, those all add back the vulnerability, like you said. I wasn’t sure from my understanding whether putting the short code in the template part actually caused any issues. I thought that that was the best proposed solution even though it’s clunky to have to deal with template parts for those areas individually, but from my understanding, that was the best outcome where you’re not really introducing the security vulnerability, but also can retain your feature or the look of your site. So I think that is the best option right now, but yeah, it is a little opaque.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Good point. Thank you for pointing that out again. Okay. The rest of 6.2.1, quite a few bug fixes for core, as well as for the editor that were found during the release of 6.2 and didn’t make it into 6.2, but that’s why the followup release was really on the schedule relatively to the 6.2 release. We will also share the changelog for the release in the show notes, as well as the tickets for the discussion. Paul Byron also added that solution with the template parts to the ticket so you have it all in one place to look up for if you want to follow up on that.
All right. Next one up was Gutenberg 15.7 and it had quite a few enhancements. One is that as group and media texts have now allowed blocks attributes that can be passed to the inner block props, so to speak, that means that you can control which blocks can be added to a certain group or a media text block if you wanted to.
Fabian Kägy: That is a really useful thing for extenders or theme builders or if you create a pattern that is meant to be a certain thing, you’re now able to restrict which other blocks can be used within that area, which can be super useful when you build a call to action and have some styling around that and don’t want to support a table to be in that call to action, for example. This is so useful to be able to do that. So we don’t have to build the custom block for it, but instead we can create a pattern and have all those options and can curate that editorial experience to really, the level that we want to curate it to. With the template and template block, we were able to do some things, but now with the allowed blocks, we have most of the controls of an actual inner block area also exposed for these blocks that support inner blocks, which is very useful, I think.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Excellent.
Fabian Kägy: Next up, we have the site logo added a replacement flow that allows you to change out the actual logo using the inspector control. That is just an addition, an alternative way that you can deal with the site logo essentially. You can still use the inline controls, but while you are in the sidebar tweaking your spacing or any other visual controls, you can also quickly swap out the media there, which I think is an interesting approach to this.
For this one in particular, I’m interested to see the feedback around it because for the most part, we’ve been very strict about there should be direct manipulation of content right in the editor canvas and not many controls should live in the inspector controls. It’s not removing it from the inline, but it’s also adding that secondary way of manipulating it to the inspector controls. I’m very curious to see how that will play out and how that may affect just how we use this.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: So inspector controls is just another way to say sidebar, just make sure where those tools are when you first encounter them. I think it comes more like we want to be a parity with a customizer. That’s one more step. Then in the inspector in the sidebar, when you replace the media, you are going right directly to the media library and select that. So you don’t have to … It seems to be a slightly different workflow than it is from the toolbar.
So the next feature is actually a really cool addition or enhancement of the fluid typography. So when the fluid typography was introduced first in 6.1, it still had the problem that if you have very large fonts, they wouldn’t go small enough for the mobile version because the calculations would stop and it would still be too big. This feature introduces a logarithmic scale factor to calculate the minimum font size and now the font adopts to all screen sizes. Even if you have a 68 or 102 pixel font, it will scale down to a mobile version and not stop at 50 or something like that.
Fabian Kägy: The next thing on the list here is the behavior of the top toolbar has been changed, and that is for a long time now you’ve been able to using that user settings menu in the upright corner change the behavior of the block toolbar to no longer be attached to the actual block, but instead always be fixed at the top of the editor. The behavior of that has been changed so that you can collapse that toolbar and still have it available there, but because the space in that top toolbar is quite sparse, that allows for just some more flexibility with how things are getting laid out there.
There are a couple more things that we’ll talk about later that were changed about the overall layout of that tool toolbar. Actually, I like it very much the way that it’s coming together and with some of the explorations happening there. I really like the direction where a lot of this is going right now.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: It also fixed … One particular thing that was still missing is that you now have access to the parent block, which on the block toolbar you were always able to select the parent toolbar and then the sidebar changed and everything. When you had the toolbar fixed on the top, you wouldn’t have that particular icon available to click on to manipulate the parent block. That has changed too, and it came in with that particular feature there.
I was always 50/50. Some weeks I like having the block toolbar right on the block, especially when I’m further down on the block page, and sometimes I just want it on the top and I’m changing it all the time. I don’t know how you do it. So I have not tested this new toolbar fixed setting yet, but I definitely will. I read through the comments and there are some discussions. So please add your feedback and your experiences to it and what you think about it to make it the best it can be.
The next is that the image block now also displays … No, it’s not the image block, it’s when an image is in a block or in a template, it now also displays the borders on the placeholder. So if you have a template that gives you all the series of blocks and each block you want the feature image there, you will also see now in the placeholder the color of the borders, including the color of it. So it makes your choices of images maybe even smoother. It’s very subtle, but it’s definitely a live quality enhancement that I definitely like because sometimes you just need to have a picture that does not clash with your borders if you had a design option that image has borders.
Fabian Kägy: It just makes your life a lot easier when you’re creating a template and you don’t … Before this when there was a placeholder where no actual image was selected for the post, it was just difficult to gauge, “Hey, how do these border controls actually affect this?” Having the placeholder resemble the actual image much closer and retain all of those border controls is just a very good thing.
Next up, we have a change in experiment for the actual pattern insertion modal, which I am really excited about. When you use the pattern instruction modal, you know that all of the various patterns are displayed in a grid, and that grid can look a little weird sometimes because it’s very staggered how these … Some patterns are very tall, and then the next one is very narrow, very short. There’s a lot of white space in that modal. This option here tries a masonry layout where they actually … If you’ve ever used Pinterest, it’s essentially that type of layout where it just fills all that white space and it’s showing all of those, I think, in a more elegant fashion and it just makes that look a little more refined. I’m very happy to see that.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: It’s definitely a more natural look for the pattern modal. The next feature is that duotone block controls are now added to the sidebar. They were hidden before in the block toolbar and you had to know that they are there and the icon was a little bit obscure. Then the options when you do it in the block toolbar is it feels like you are in the wrong place to make those decisions, and now you can make them from the sidebar. I really like that. It’s a clear adoption to the interfaces that we saw from other design tools.
Fabian Kägy: Next up, in the accessibility section, there are some refactors of how the ARIA attributes for the list view have been modified, which makes it much easier and much more accessible to navigate through the list view. It’s always good to see those enhancements over time.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Those ARIA levels, there were quite a few in the list view, so there was a major overhaul of the display of the list view. I think Alex Stein did some great work there to make it happen and put it over the finish line.
So I’m scrolling a little bit further down to the changelog and I have the feeling we are done with 15.7. It was a smaller release, but it had definitely some great features in there.
We are now coming up with 15.8. Fabian, you were the release lead on that. Do you want to kind of kick it off and let us know what’s in there?
Fabian Kägy: Sure. So there were a couple of major features which get their introduction here, which is always fun. One of them is the addition of a command center. There actually is … There was a post on the make blog from Riad that I’m sure will get added to the release note or to the podcast notes here that explains a little bit more in depth what this command center actually is. Right now, it is an experiment, but it essentially like spotlights on a Mac, for example, or some of these launchers. You have a quick keyboard command. In this case, it’s command K, to launch essentially, an open prompt field where you can put in your prompts and jump to different places of the editor or create new pages or just perform quick actions.
It’s also meant to be extendable and meant to be something that plugin developers can hook into and allow users to actually quickly navigate their site and perform actions. I’m really excited to see if this comes to life and explore how this ships out in the future. With this feature, I’m so here for it, I’m so excited about it. I cannot wait for the day where this gets expanded outside of the editor view and is just available in all of the screens of WordPress because right now, it is limited to the editor screens, but I think in the future, this will be available in all of the pages of the admin of WordPress. I’m so looking forward to that.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Riad’s post on the Make Core Blog … Blog and block, sometimes I get it mixed up, but I did it right this time. It’s the Make Core Blog. It’s called Command Center and Request for Feedback. So he explains what the prototype is. There’s also a small little video that quickly shows you how it works and then explains the API and the static commands and also what dynamic commands are, definitely, and the contextual commands. So there are three commands that you can have it use, but it’s also the extendability in mind for plugin developers.
I think it also triggered a few things. If you want to employ an AI to use within the block editor, having a standard interface that can call AI commands is certainly beneficial to the editor. So as Fabian said, I will share the post in the show notes so you can chime in and see what you think about it and how it works. It’s really hard to describe on a podcast, audio podcast, for that reason.
Fabian Kägy: As somebody who has championed extensibility and plugability in the editor for such a long time, I’m so happy to see how this feature is getting rolled out and how it is built with that extendability and plugability from the very beginning. So I’m really excited about this.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: If you want to try it, it’s still behind the experiment flag. You need to go to install the plugin 15.8 and then go to the Gutenberg menu on your WP admin and then there’s an experiments page and you need to check the mark for the command center to actually be able to test it.
The next item on the list is a new feature as well, and the first version of the revisions UI for the global styles, so all the talk about global styles and new features and new options to change things. Some people want to try just something out and then revert to the previous version and there was no revision available for the global styles. Now, there is, and it has actually some nice features. When you have the site editor style, the style site open and click on the revisions, it will show you a history of the revisions, and when you click on the items, it will show you a version of it on the canvas and you can also compare versions.
So I think it’s getting there. It definitely needs some more refinement in terms of what information will be there, how many revisions are we showing, and all that. So that’s a really interesting progression on this global styles editing.
Fabian Kägy: If you’ve ever used revisions of a standard post or a page since the block editor was introduced, this is a great feature for global styles and I think it’s the right thing to roll it out for this first, but the live preview of a revision in a rich preview makes me so excited for a future where we can eventually get rid of the existing code view of revisions for standard post content stuff and actually show rich previews of that because, especially since the introduction of blocks, the revisions UI is just really, really difficult for non-technical people and even technical people to really manage because you just get a code view and are trying to figure out what changed.
This year is a visual preview of what revisions look like for global styles and it’s making me so excited about what’s to come for more other visuals or revisions in the future.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: I totally agree that revisions for the posts and pages are on the board for the collaboration project, the phase three of Gutenberg and making revisions be aware is definitely something we are all looking forward to.
Fabian Kägy: Next up, we have the inspector panel. So again we’re talking about that right-hand sidebar of the global styles panel is now getting or got a refactor to make it work and look more similar to how it works on the standard post. I think that for a long time had been an area of confusion for me where if you wanted to change the typography options or color options in the global styles, the interface was just structured completely differently to how it is structured when you just select a paragraph block, for example, in the standard editor. This is unifying those two experiences to be alike and that just lifts a whole bunch of cognitive load that you have to think about and just makes it work the same way in both of those areas.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Excellent. In the same way, there is now a details block. We talked about it on the show before. That is in experiments and it now has been enhanced to be able to use InnerBlocks in the details of the spoiler alert block. I call it spoiler alert because the detailed summary that’s as broad idea that some people don’t know what we’re talking about, but you have a sentence or just a headline, and then you get an arrow and then it reveals additional content. You can use it to talk about spoilers in your book review or in your film review or you can hide details that only a certain amount of readers will need about a technical thing or so. In the earlier versions, you only could add a paragraph to those details or only paragraph blocks and now you can add images, you can add quotes and all that. So this is definitely an enrichment of the details block. Also an experiment though.
Fabian Kägy: That is really something … I know I have been involved with those conversations of the details block for way too long already, but I’m really looking forward to getting the community feedback of just what’s available there. It’s a very difficult thing because the detailed summary is essentially an accordion, but there are some accessibility issues that make it not the best use case for an accordion. So with these changes, just I’m interested in the feedback of the community of how they’re able to use all of the design tools to make it function the way they want to or whether there are struggles because this changes a little bit of what was there before and there were some more design options that you had with that earlier approach, but it also was a little less intuitive because it had more levels of nesting and the summary element was its own block and was just more complicated, and this is a much simpler implementation of that block. Also, it therefore removes some of the options that you have available. I’m really interested to see how that plays out and what people will think about it.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Many, many, almost all block collections that came out when the block editor first was released had an accordion block in there. A lot of people liked it for FAQs and for how-tos and all that, but it was interesting, I really didn’t really know why there wasn’t an accordion block in core until I read through the discussions about the details and summary. Some people will make it work as an accordion, but what the accordion does, it knows about the other block. So you have an accordion. The first is the tab on top and then you have details and then you have another tab and then the details and each accordion knows about the other one being open or not open. That’s very hard to replicate in a model way how the block editor works.
I tested the details in summary block that’s in the experiment right now with 15.8 and I didn’t find it particularly easy to navigate because it had some hiccups. I don’t know how to get out of it. Normally, if you have a list block, when you hit enter twice, you’re out of it and then you can add additional blocks to it. There are no visual cues when you are in the block writing or adding additional blocks. There are no visual cues, are you still in the details section or are you not? The summary, there is no way to get from the summary to the details block per keyboard. You need to change controls on it.
So there are a few things, but that’s why it’s behind the experimental flag and not yet completely released. So do as a favor and enable that test, that experiment so you can also test it. As Fabian said, community input is wanted and necessary.
Fabian Kägy: Next up, there is another addition to the site editor and that is in the main sidebar of the site editor. There now is a new menu item called Pages that allows you to view the 10 most latest edited pages of your site and directly jump in and edit them. That is one step of actually making content editing in the site editor more possible. Again, that was one of the features that was there in earlier revisions of the site editor but then got taken out before it got released in I believe it was 6.1. These are explorations of slowly adding that content editability back into the site editor. It’s really interesting to see how that works. It is so difficult how to best communicate with the user when you’re editing parts of a template versus when you’re editing parts of the actual content of a page.
I think that that will still be the most difficult issue to solve for here, but this is slowly introducing that back into the site editor and it is really cool to see just having all of those things in there.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Look at the menu item on the left-hand side, as other people say the dark side of the site editor, but it’s there. So the next item or feature that got introduced makes Fabian really, really happy and it’s the introduction of the plugin template settings panel slot, which means on the sidebar, there is now a way for plugin developers to extend the feature set that’s displayed to the user. Have you tried it out yet? Have you looked at that feature?
Fabian Kägy: I’ve not yet had a chance to play with it, but yeah, more slots and more places for extenders to add to the experience and showcase custom settings and those types of things always make me happy, especially when they’re done right, and this seems pretty cool.
Next up, we have an update that is very useful for extenders again. It consolidates and adds some more documentations to the storybook. If you’re not familiar with the storybook, that is actually something when you go to the GitHub repository of the Gutenberg plugin, in the right-hand sidebar there is, I think it’s called pages or deployments. You can actually jump to that storybook right from GitHub and view it. The storybook essentially is showcasing all of the various React components that were built as part of the Gutenberg plugin and are available in WordPress core and is showing live previews of them with some controls. You can tweak some of the settings right there visually and also have some of the documentation there. This consolidates and changes a little bit of just how that is structured and how that appears. Just in general, the storybook that has been there for a long time is a super valuable and great tool and it’s always nice to see additional enhancements for that.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: I definitely want to point that out that at WordCamp Asia, I heard from a few people that were at the contributor day and working with the core editor table there, they were really surprised that many developers that came and wanted to work on things did not know about the storybook. I think we have not done a good job in explaining what it is and pointing people to it. I think it’s part of the documentation that is in the components, but it’s not referred to … Most of the time, it’s not referred to in the documentation on the developer site in the block editor handbook. We are going to change that a little bit and add more links to the storybook for the various components because it’s such a rich developer experience where you can change things and then you click on a button and it gives you the code for it for the changes that you made and you can immediately reuse it in your own code base. Definitely, I take any chance when I can talk about the storybook now.
The next part is a feature for the block editor that is talking about the dimension controls and it’s not always visible. So now, it’s an attempt to show all the dimensions control at the beginning and not hide them so much where you had to open them and then decide do you want to see the padding, do you want to see the margin. It’s now easily available so you don’t have to look for it, what padding and margins is, because we all talk about padding and margins, but we never talk about dimension controls. So when the words appear on the screen, you don’t as easily recognize that that’s what you’re talking about.
Fabian Kägy: This, again, is also something where it is just difficult and interesting. The vertical space that we have available in the sidebar is very limited and it’s always an interesting balance to strike of how much do we show by default versus how much do we hide behind the setting so it’s not overwhelming for somebody that is new to the editor, but also makes it discoverable for somebody. So it is not changing any of the features that are available, but it is trying to show some more by default. I’m very interested to see how folks will react to that, whether it feels overwhelming or whether it makes it more approachable. The only real way to find that out is by actually testing that. So I’m glad to see those explorations happening in the plugin.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: It might go away again or will be tweaked later on. So your comments are certainly wanted and necessary. We share in the show notes the release post for 15.7, the release post for 15.8. By the time you listen to this, Fabian will have published it, and I’m sure also, Sarah Gooding will talk about both releases or already has on 15.7 and 15.8.
or I just wanted to at the end of it … So those were all the releases and we are now talking about what’s in active development or discussed. We have right now the largest number of experiments in the block editor since the beginning. I think there are now seven experiments hiding on the experiments page for the plugin. So let’s talk about them. Some of them we already talked about. So it starts out with a zoomed out view and it’s test a new zoomed out view on the site editor. So I’m reading from the page now and it also has a warning attached to it, “The new feature is not ready. You may experience UX issues that are being addressed.” UX means user experience, just to clarify that. Did you test that before?
Fabian Kägy: Yeah. So the zoomed out view essentially means that you can more quickly navigate through or get a more holistic view of your page and not appearing in the same size as you would always see it, but instead, it zooms out and shows you more of your entire page smaller in the canvas. That is very useful when you want to make changes to your global styles and just want to see how it affects your site more holistically or when you tweak those things. Especially when you switch between block theme variations, that is just useful to see how it will not just affect that very small area of the site that you see in your viewport, but instead see it more broadly for an entire page.
So I think this is a great thing to work on. Right now, as the warning says, there are some issues that are being worked on. Especially for working with global styles, having that more zoomed out view is very useful.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: So if you tested it and you have an idea how to make it better, definitely air those on GitHub and filing an issue of that. So the second one, it says color randomizer, test the global styles color randomizer, a utility that lets you mix the current color palette pseudo- randomly. I think it’s one of those features where it said, “Okay. It’s cool to have and cool to test things out, but it’s not something that a lot of people would think they needed.” Do you have any thoughts on it?
Fabian Kägy: It is one of those features where from my perspective as somebody who works a lot in the large agency space, that is not a feature I would’ve ever come up with, but I can see how, especially if you’re somebody who’s just playing around in the editor trying to build a new design, it can be a useful partner to give you some inspiration of maybe you’re not the best with color theory and coming up with an accessible color palette yourself, and that can be a great way to get some inspiration for just showing you different variations of what your site could look like with different colors and spark some of that imagination, but it is one of those features that I know for a client site that has a design guide with strict color I would want to disable that feature and would not want to expose certain clients to that feature. So it’s definitely one of those where I can see it being useful for some, but also rather distracting for others. So I’m interested to see how that will actually get rolled out.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: It might also be part of the explorations, but the design team does in figuring out is there a way to include different palettes that are on third-party sites that can come in and you can choose from, but I think it’s not a high priority right now for the team. That’s why it’s all still in the experimental phase and it hasn’t gone that route yet. I heard Matt Mullenweg and one of his state of the word talking about making color palettes that are out in the universe interesting, available to site builders or site owners in some way or shape.
The third test item on the page is the command center, a test of command center, open it up using command K in the site of post editor. We talked about it. I don’t think we need to elaborate some more, but that’s where you find it.
The fourth one is the grid variation for a group block, test the grid layout type as a new variation for the group block. Right now, that only works on the site editor because it’s actually a template or site design approach to the grid. Grid, it’s actually a CSS feature. So this tries to explore how you can make templates that adhere to a certain grid layout, but I’m not as knowledgeable about design to be able to use that. I think I need a little pre-beginner’s tutorial for that.
Fabian Kägy: It is. I am really happy to see this exploration being done right now. In the last couple of years, we got that row and stack variation of the group block, which essentially as a developer, that is my flex box. Flex box allows you to layout content in one direction, so either horizontally, the row, or vertically with the stack. The grid, you can achieve some of those grid layouts with the columns block, but the columns block, it is very difficult for it to wrap around. So if you wanted to, let’s say, have a three column grid that is not just one free column layout, but instead has two rows of those two columns, that is not really or is technically possible, but it is not ideal. That is where grid layouts come into play and are, I think, so much more powerful.
I think there also is an exploration that is not listed here of adding an actual grid layout or using CSS grid layout for the grid in the query block. We weren’t able to use grid when the editor first came out because it was too new of a CSS feature and we needed to support more older browsers, but that browser support has changed so much in the last couple of years that we’re now able to use grid in the editor. It just opens up so many new design possibilities and makes it so much easier.
I’ll say on the custom development side, grid block is one of the first things that we build on one or a grid block is one of the first things we build on many custom sites because it is just much more powerful than the columns block and also easier to use in a way. So I’m excited for these explorations.
I will say though, a couple of releases ago, the group block changed to show that variation picker when you first insert it where you have to pick between the variations. I’m not yet sure I’m in love with that approach of … I like the various variations of the group block, but when I add a new group, it always pauses me a little too much because I need to step back and, “Hey, I just want to start with a default grid or a default group and then continue with it.” So I’m happy for more of these variations of the group block and for more of those layout controls. I’m not quite sure we have found the best way to expose them.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: I hear you. Making the decision to use a group block now becomes also a decision of what kind of flow you want and you are not there yet. When you get the group block, I understand that, but I’m also excited for the grid layout in terms of it is a feature that was requested quite a bit in the early days of the block editor layout site editing things, and it’s still missing. So now, certain plug-ins and block collections and theme collections have stepped in and allowed that already. So core is a little bit behind on that, but of course, core has a different outlook for the site editor than plugin developers have.
The fifth experiment in the experiments page is the details block with the detailed summary block. We talked about it. It’s there for you to test out.
The sixth one is the block theme previews, and it enables block theme previews. That’s not much of an explanation, but what it allows you is on your site … So the customizer had the live preview of themes that were already installed on your site so you can see how your site would need to change to when a theme would be activated. It’s more a decision making tool rather than a good design tool.
So with many, many block themes coming online, we are now beyond 300 in the directory. I think the largest number is 306. I think it helps with the decision if you want to change your theme out to have a better preview, and the customers that preview doesn’t work with it. This is the first iteration. I ran that through themes through the preview and it was a great experience, so much better than the original one to review certain parts of an existing site.
It also revealed that not all block themes are alike. There are significant differences, and having a tool to actually explore those differences or even notice them is invaluable, definitely. Not every theme behaves with this live preview feature in it, so if you are working on themes and either you have a starting theme in an agency or you use a collection of themes to build your sites to choose from, you might want to test them with this theme preview so you can turn on and off features and showcase a few things that are available in the preview.
Also, please, please comment on the issues or file issues on GitHub after your tests. I already found one that when I look for style variation and I want to see how a page changed the style variation, I don’t have a way to do this because the page that is linked, the link doesn’t go to the preview, it goes to the page in the template editor, and all of a sudden, I’m out of my mindset on a preview, but all of a sudden it gets me into the editor. So that’s common for things that are in testing, but it also needs to be pointed out that that’s a major stumbling point for someone who uses the feature for the first time.
The last one of the tests has just come in. It’s a navigation block that uses the still in Experiment interactivity API, and I have not used it. Did you look at that, Fabian?
Fabian Kägy: I looked at it briefly, but the summary of it is if you’re using it and you notice a difference that worked before, there’s a bug because this essentially swaps out the engine, but you should notice it as an end user. It changes how the front end JavaScript of the site works to use that interactivity API, but instead of some custom JavaScript that was purposefully written for this, using that interactivity API to make it more declarative, but as an end user, toggling that setting should not change anything about it works. Yeah, it may produce the actual bundle size, therefore make your site a little bit faster, but usability wise, there should be no difference and there should be full-on feature parity with how the navigation works today before or after you switch that setting.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Good to know. So if you don’t notice anything, it’s okay. Excellent. So this brings us to the end of the show today. Well, I think we talked a lot about all the new things that come to block editor and to WordPress. Thank you so much for joining me today. Fabian, is there anything that you want our listeners to know about the block editor, about WordPress, about 10up? Now is the chance to talk about it and we’ll add links to the show notes. I just wanted to say about 10up, you have a wonderful educational site about the block editor with quite a few white papers and tutorials. How did that come about? Is it your work or…?
Fabian Kägy: Yeah. The gutenberg.10up.com website, our block editor best practice site has been my baby for the last year and a half or so, where I got to spend a lot of time actually writing down how we as an agency approach working with the block editor and setting up the best practices for how to do that in the agency setting for that special type of client. Whereas the main documentation of core is more geared to end users, which is the right thing, but because of that, we decided that there is space for an additional resource to focus on the things that are important for those very curated experience for big clients and so forth.
So that is one thing that I would mention, just taking a look at that gutenberg.10up.com website, and if you have any feedback on that, feel free to reach out anywhere on the Make Slack or on Twitter or Masévon or Blue Sky or wherever you can find me pretty much always talking about block editor stuff.
Then the other thing that I will just mention is the 10up block components NPM package, which is my passion project and has been for the last three years or so, which essentially is a collection of React components that work like all of the WordPress packages, the WordPress components, WordPress block editor components. It is a collection of additional components that are adding sometimes very complex, sometimes easy functionality for you to build. If you build custom blocks, making that a whole lot easier so you have to write less code and know that it’s tested and is working with the way that it should, and doing that in a way that feels 100% like it is just core WordPress. I’m very happy and proud of that project. If you find it useful or if you have questions or feedback about that, always happy to chat.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Well, thank you so much. There’s some great resources. You mentioned custom blocks. There has been discussion around static block with this dynamic blocks. Where do you land?
Fabian Kägy: The way I think about it, if I’m building a plugin that is meant for the official directory where I as a developer do not have access to the site where the code is running on, I would go with a static block unless I need to show dynamic data. If I as the developer can access and have maintenance over the site I built dynamic blocks, and that means in the agency context where we’re often changing designs, making quick iterations, we are, for the most part, only building dynamic blocks because of that because we cannot spend the time to deal with deprecations and all of those things.
It really comes down to that where if you have … The thing that you should ask yourself is, “What should happen when I need to change something about this block on a code level? Should all of the old instances that maybe were published three years ago, should they also get those updates automatically or should I not … Should that historical content stay untouched and just stay the way that it was?” If it should stay in touch, static blocks is your right answer. That is the way to go. If it should update in all instances or if you need to modify the block structure very often and have access to the maintenance there, dynamic blocks are much easier to deal with and are … So I’m coming down most of the time on the dynamic side.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: Dynamic blocks side. All right. So well, thank you for answering these quick questions and having some insight in how you work as a longtime block editor adopter and in the agencies. It was a great pleasure talking to you, Fabian. We will share all the links that you mentioned, of course, in the show notes. Before we end the show, oh, what’s your Twitter handle, Fabian?
Fabian Kägy: My full name spelled out, so F-A-B-I-A-N-K-A-E-G-Y, just all spelled together. You should be able to search for it and it should come up.
Birgit Pauli-Haack: That’s just for the people who don’t go through the show notes. We, of course, have all the links in the show notes. As always, the show notes will be published on gutenbergtimes.com/podcast. This is episode 83. If you have questions, suggestions, and news that you want us to include in the next show, please send them to changelog@gutenbergtimes.com. That’s changelog@gutenbergtimes.com. Thank you all for listening. Thank you for being here, Fabian. This is goodbye and I wish you a wonderful weekend.
Fabian Kägy: Thank you so much for having me.
by Gutenberg Changelog at May 21, 2023 08:18 AM under Gutenberg
WordPress 6.2.2 was released early this morning as a rapid follow-up to 6.2.1, which introduced a bug that broke shortcode support in block templates. Version 6.2.1 was also an important security release, but due to the catastrophic breakage for those using shortcodes in block templates, some users were implementing insecure workarounds or simply downgrading to 6.2 to keep critical functionality working on their websites.
WordPress contributors worked quickly over the weekend to ensure that users can now update to 6.2.2 with their shortcodes intact. The release post identified the removal of shorcode support in the previous release as “a regression” and a bug. This is an important recognition, as shortcodes are still a tool that users frequently rely on to insert functionality from plugins that haven’t made it available as a block, as well as a necessity for things that won’t work without inline shortcodes.
Version 6.2.2 is also a security release, as core contributor Jonathan Desrosiers said that the issue patched in 6.2.1 “needed further hardening” in this update.
Users are advised to update immediately and automatic updates are rolling out. Many reported having turned automatic background updates off for core after 6.2.1 broke their websites. Users who did so will need to manually update as soon as possible.
Howdy,
Hubby and I are almost settled in our new apartment, except we are still missing our furniture. They are scheduled to arrive on June 1, which would make it exactly 74 days, since they all got packed up in Sarasota. Yesterday we measured all the rooms, so we can decide where we can place the big items, and how to organize our offices. So, when I write “settled”, I mean getting accustomed to living in our neighborhood, organizing our infrastructure of daily life and using all the transportation choices, rather than being settled in the apartment.
WordCamp Europe is coming up fast. There are a ton of Gutenberg talks on the roster this year. I collected them all in a separate post. And if you are going in person, make sure we connect and have a chat. You can DM me on Twitter, send an email or just pick a slot from the public calendar.
I am excited about exploring the city a couple of days prior to Contributor Day.
This Weekend edition is again full of updates on the open-source projects, tutorials, and videos. Hope y’all enjoy it.
Have a lovely weekend!
Yours, 💕
Birgit
 WordCamp Europe is less than four weeks away, the speakers and sessions have been announced, and the schedule is now available. Time to make plans. Read more. |
The Roadmap for the WordPress 6.3 release has been published. Anne McCarthy identified three focus areas for this release:
For each focus area, she described the scope and listed GitHub issues and PRs of the work in progress.
On the heals for the Roadmap, Hector Prieto published an update on the WordPress 6.3 Planning Roundup, confirming the release scheduled as it was proposed earlier and announcing Matias Ventura as the release lead and all other members of the release squad.
During the latest Hallway Hangout, contributors discussed what is in the works for the Site Editor and what can be expected for WordPress 6.3. Anne McCarty posted a summary and shared the video recording in Hallway Hangout: Let’s chat about the Site Editor & 6.3.
The next Hallway Hangout is scheduled for May 25, 2023 – 17:00 UTC. Nick Diego and Justin Tadlock will be discussing Curating the editor and building block themes for clients. Don’t miss it. RSVP via Meetup.com
In his Design Share: Apr 24–May 5, Joen Asmussen shared what the WordPress design team has been working on the last two weeks. He lists quite a few avenues with their respective GitHub PR/Issue links, so you can follow along and chime in.
Justin Tadlock published the monthly roundup What’s new for developers? (May 2023) on the developer blog. It’s again full of focused notes about changes in the WordPress worlds relevant for extenders, plugin and theme builders and agency or freelance developers building sites for others.
Anne McCarthy published the next FSE Program Testing Call #23: Rapid Revamp. “With the roadmap to 6.3 published and another version of Gutenberg out in the wild, it’s time to test some of the upcoming features that are in the works to upgrade and polish the experience of using the Site Editor:” she wrote and listed all eight of them.
Led by Fabian Kägy, Gutenberg 15.8 was released on May 18th, 2023. The number of PRs merged for this release was considerably higher than for 15.7 and it’s expected to rise with the urgency of the upcoming WordPress 6.3 release. There are only three Gutenberg plugins releases left until Beta 1 on June 27.
In his release post What’s new in Gutenberg 15.8? (May 17), Kägy highlight three new features that need testing from Gutenberg plugin users:
It’s always a great pleasure to connect with Fabian Kägy. We had a great time geeking out over the blog editor while recording episode 83 of the Gutenberg Changelog. We discussed Gutenberg 15.7, 15.8 the feature available on the Experiments page and 6.2.1, Gutenberg Storybook and 10up tools. The episode is at the editor now, and it will arrive in your favorite podcast app over the weekend.
🎙️ New episode: Gutenberg Changelog #82 – Gutenberg 15.6 and proposed schedule for WordPress 6.3 with Birgit Pauli-Haack and special guest Nick Diego
Riad Benguella published the post Command Center: Request for feedback asking for testing and review of a new feature that will come out of the experimental phase for Gutenberg 15.9, for now called the Command Center, and the Marketing team is probably recommending a new name: The Wayfinder.
Caroline Nymark published an Introduction to the Site Editor for creators. This tutorial is meant for Beginners and no-code creators and covers everything available since WordPress 6.2 and Gutenberg 15.7. Although it’s title Introduction, it is quite comprehensive and covers the Site Editor, Navigation, Styles, Templates and Template parts. Then she dives deeper into the Design Tools via the Styles menu item. You will be creating or modifying themes in no time!
Maxi Blocks – a template library for site builders using WordPress Block editor. It came recently out of beta and offers developers a whole range of design tools in an interface that has been built on top of Gutenberg, yet using custom components to offer additional design features. The plugin comes with hundreds of icons, patterns, templates and sixteen custom blocks. The Pro version is available at MaxiBlocks.com. It’s meant for designers looking for all the tools, not so much for beginners or site owners. There will be a learning curve due to the additional UI components.
MahdiAli Khanusiya built the plugin PatternWP – a pattern block library for WordPress. The first version offers patterns on many categories. for the busy site owner. The plan is to be adding new patterns and templates on a consistent basis.
Lots of feedback has been provided during the Call for Exploration. Anne McCarthy published FSE Program Build a Block Theme Summary. The TL;DR: “Using the Site Editor alongside the Create Block Theme plugin supercharges the experience, mainly by filling in gaps around font management and offering more nuanced creating/exporting options. With these added features, the Site Editor is both left to shine as a theme building tool and the current known pain points impacting regular site building come to the surface, like needing more clarity around where layers of styles are coming from. In general, feedback fell into three categories: Create Block Theme plugin pain points, missing options in the Site Editor (font management, synced patterns, desire for more styling options with certain blocks), and UX considerations for the Site Editor that match the site building experience. ” she wrote. The videos shared from the contributors are certainly eye-opening.
Mike McAlister explains in his article how a native and iterative approach to responsive control in WordPress could bridge the gap between the goals to rely on intrinsic design and still be able to handle edge cases for viewpoint-driven responsiveness of a site.
In his video, WordPress Gutenberg Product Manager explains what’s next for Responsive Websites and Block Themes, Jamie Marsland interviewed Rich Tabor on intrinsic design, what a theme product might look like for theme creators and what the next wave of block building inspiration might arrive at the WordPress shores.
James Koussertari explained Using Layout Sizes in theme.json. “The layout setting in theme.json is great for developers, as they can set default container sizes for their design system, easily in one place. It also means that content editors do not have to think about which container sizes to set manually each time they add a block.” he wrote on the blog of the Gutenberg Market
The latest call for testing ended last week, too and Anne McCarthy recounts the feedback: FSE Program Front Page Fun Summary. The high-level feedback revealed: “In general, the call for testing was relatively tame bug wise, with only a few obvious ones found, mainly in the Navigation block. The usability feedback related to many ongoing projects in the Site Editor underscoring the impact of solving these consistent problems, in particular the clarification of the content <> template relationship and confusion around the overall experience of managing pieces of navigation. ” and “While the new Grid layout type was the primary focus of the testing call, feedback on it was limited to suggestions for consolidating the various options between the grid layout, Columns block, Gallery block, and Table block.” McCarthy wrote.
“Keeping up with Gutenberg – Index 2022”
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. The index 2020 is here
Alfredo Navas, WebDevStudios was Having Fun with Query Loop Block and published a post to tell you all about it. He takes you along to explore the usefulness of the Query Loop block and learn how to extend its capabilities.
In his latest post for the Developer Blog, Michael Burridge created a tutorial on useEntityRecords: an easier way to fetch WordPress data. If you have simple data fetching requirements and don’t need additional customization or resolution checks, the useEntityRecords function can be a straightforward choice. Burridge shows how it simplifies data handling in contrast to useSelect + getEntityRecords.
Don’t miss next week’s Developer Hours about the new WordPress tool called Playground. Adam Zieliński will introduce the app and demo some great use cases for it. There are two events, so all timezones get a chance to participate live.
WPCampus will take place from July 12 to the 14th, 2023 in New Orleans. The organizing team released their schedule. WPCampus 2023 is a hybrid event. Join in-person or online.
I spotted Nick Diego on the roster with his 3-hour Workshop: Modern WordPress Building Techniques: Full Site Editing in Higher Ed.
But there is more:
Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg’s master branch?
Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review.
Have you been using it? Hit reply and let me know.
Questions? Suggestions? Ideas? Don’t hesitate to send them via email or send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph.
For questions to be answered on the Gutenberg Changelog, send them to changelog@gutenbergtimes.com
Featured Image: Colorful Duplo blocks by Maruska, found on WordPress Photos site.
Don’t want to miss the next Weekend Edition?
by Birgit Pauli-Haack at May 20, 2023 01:00 PM under Weekend Edition
The 6.2.2 minor release addresses 1 bug and 1 security issue. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 5.9 have also been updated.
WordPress 6.2.2 is a rapid response release to address a regression in 6.2.1 and further patch a vulnerability addressed in 6.2.1. The next major release will be version 6.3 planned for August 2023.
The update process will begin automatically if you have sites that support automatic background updates.
You can download WordPress 6.2.2 from WordPress.org or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates,” and click “Update Now.”
For more information on this release, please visit the HelpHub site.
The security team would like to thank the following people for responsibly reporting vulnerabilities and allowing them to be fixed in this release.
The issue above was originally patched in the 6.2.1 release, but needed further hardening here in 6.2.2. The Core team is thankful for the community in their response to 6.2.1 and collaboration on finding the best path forward for proper resolution in 6.2.2. The folks who worked on 6.2.2 are especially appreciative for everyone’s understanding while they worked asynchronously to get this out the door as quickly as possible.
This release was led by Jonathan Desrosiers.
WordPress 6.2.2 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver security fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.
Aaron Jorbin, Alex Concha, Anthony Burchell, Chloé Bringmann, chriscct7, Daniel Richards, David Baumwald, Ehtisham S., Greg Ziółkowski, Héctor Prieto, Isabel Brison, Jb Audras, Jeffrey Paul, John Blackbourn, Jonathan Desrosiers, Josepha, Marius L. J., Matias Ventura, Mike Schroder, Peter Wilson, Riad Benguella, Robert Anderson, Ryan McCue, Samuel Wood (Otto), Scott Reilly, and Timothy Jacobs
To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, pick a ticket, and join the conversation in the #core and #6-3-release-leads channels. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook.
Thanks to @cbringmann, @davidbaumwald, @chanthaboune, @jeffpaul for proofreading.
by Jonathan Desrosiers at May 20, 2023 04:09 AM under Security
The WordPress 6.3 development cycle has begun and work is already underway on an ambitious list of features that will debut in the upcoming major release. It will cap off Phase 2 of the Gutenberg project, with an emphasis on polishing customization features and making them easier to use.
WordPress 6.3 Editor Triage co-lead Anne McCarthy published a roadmap to 6.3 this week, which summarizes what users can expect:
This release aims to make it easier for users to edit pages, manage navigation, and adjust styles all directly in the Site Editor. It also seeks to provide detailed, relevant information when exploring different parts of the site, such as showing the number of posts per page when viewing relevant blog templates.
In addition to polishing and wrapping up phase 2, McCarthy’s post outlines the new features that are coming. Here are a few of the highlights:
This is a tentative glimpse at some of the user-facing features that may be coming in WordPress 6.3, but the roadmap includes many more items, screenshots, and quick demos.
“As always, what’s shared here is being actively pursued, but doesn’t necessarily mean each will make it into the final release of WordPress 6.3,” McCarthy said.
Gutenberg Lead Architect Matías Ventura will be leading WordPress 6.3. Beta 1 is expected in a little more than a month on June 27, 2023, with RC 1 on July 18, and the general release scheduled for August 8.
WordCamp Europe 2023 is just under three weeks away from happening in Athens on June 8-10. More than 2,700 tickets have been purchased and 527 remain, along with 49 micro-sponsor tickets.
Speaker announcements have concluded and the official schedule was published today. WCEU will be running three tracks of presentations and two tracks for workshops. Organizers have also announced a Wellness Track that will feature different activities throughout the day, including a Yoga class, a Tai Chi class, and a group hike.
“The Wellness Track is an important addition to WordCamp Europe because we need to find a balance and be more focused on taking care of our minds and bodies, taking care of the whole community and in turn the one world we have to live in,” organizer Ohia Thompson said.
“This means seeing our interconnectedness and moving forward with a focus on wellbeing, diversity, and sustainability. The Wellness Track this year is just the beginning of a more intentional future for everyone connected to WordPress.”
Last year the team hosting the event in Porto was called out for a lack of diversity on the organizing team, which performs critical tasks like selecting speakers and managing a speaker support program. In what appears to be an echo back to that controversy, a public interaction on Twitter earlier this month caused community members to question the organizing team.
WCEU was once again forced to reaffirm its commitment to diversity after Sjoerd Blom, one of the Global organizers, accused StellarWP’s Director of Community Engagement, Michelle Frechette, of “being prejudiced” when she questioned the lack of diversity in the first few rounds of speaker announcements.
Blom has since publicly apologized for his response to the criticism this week, reiterating that diversity matters to the team, but only after WCEU received overwhelmingly negative feedback regarding the incident.
WordCamp Europe has not yet published anything to mitigate the effects of this public altercation but damage control measures are likely in the works, as Blom indicated a more official response will be coming from the team.
We have a great conversation of tips and experiences when it comes to speaking at WordPress events.
>> The post Do the Woo Friday Show with Michelle Frechette appeared first on Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community .
It’s time to update your WordPress websites now. This week’s release breaks shortcodes used in Block Themes on Templates, but is related to a security issue.
Is WordPress, and the plugin and theme ecosystem around it, ready for PHP 8? Earlier versions of PHP, such as 7.4, are now considered End of Life, and hosts are eager to deploy supported versions. But first, Core compatibility needs additional testing to come out of beta compatibility.
Translating WordPress just got a little bit easier for contributors with the WP Translation Playground.
A Community team working group announces a pilot proposal for a Contributor Mentorship Program, helping all contributors onboard.
WordPress 6.2.1 Maintenance & Security Release
Is WordPress compatible with PHP 8?
WP Translation Playground
WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program: Pilot Program Proposal
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WordPress may soon be getting a Command Center, which would function as a quick search component for navigating to other areas of the admin, and would also be capable of running commands. The feature was introduced in Gutenberg 15.6 under the Experimental flag and currently has limited use in the Site Editor context while navigating and editing templates.
The Command Center project is intended to be expanded to the whole of wp-admin in an extensible way so plugin developers can register their own commands. This would also allow for AI-powered extensions to expedite design, content, and layout creation.
“One aspect worth highlighting is the proposed API to interact with the command center,” Gutenberg engineer Riad Benguella said in a post requesting feedback on the project. “The command center has been developed as an independent @wordpress/commands package. It offers APIs to render and register commands dynamically. These extension points allow plugins to inject any commands of their liking and opens the door for interactions with LLMs.”
Benguella shared a video of the prototype navigating between templates and template parts in the Site Editor:
Feedback so far had been generally positive, but contributors on the project will have the challenge of providing real examples of the Command Center’s benefits in order for some to fully realize the vision for this feature as more than just a fancy shortcut for power users.
“Neat, but I’m unclear what practical problem this actually solves?” WordPress developer Jon Brown said.
“Currently there is a clear easy to find and use drop down at the top center of the editor. Are people really having problems using that? This seems to complicate things where users have to know the names of the items to type them in. Does the average user know to type in ‘post meta’ to edit that?
“There are couple plugins that have done this admin wide, which again while neat, seems better aimed at power users that already know what they’re looking for.”
Benguella responded that the Command Center is being developed as “a complementary UI tailored specifically for average and power users,” and that users would not be required to remember technical terms in order to use it.
Other participants in the conversation asked that contributors consider not releasing the Command Center in WordPress until it can serve contexts beyond just the Site Editor.
“Initially we’ve added the command center to both post and site editors but I expect that we’ll be adding to all WP-Admin once we’ve proved its behavior and APIs,” Benguella responded. The API is currently still in the experimental stage in Gutenberg and it’s not yet known if expansion to wp-admin would be added before or after the Command Center lands in the next version of WordPress.
“Love the concept, hate that it’s limited to the Editor,” WordPress developer Dovid Levine said.
“This would ideally be implemented holistically – either as part of a push to modernize the long-neglected dashboard or API efforts to interact with GB data outside of the Editor. We’ve seen how slow developer adoption is when done the other way (GB first/only) – and worse, how painful it is for the early adopters/advocates if/when considerations beyond the Editor are finally taken into account.”
The first milestone, powering quick search for content and templates in the editor, is outlined on GitHub where contributors can track the progress. The Command Center will also be tested in the future as part of the FSE Outreach Program. Benguella is requesting feedback on the feature and its API on the post published to the core dev blog, specifically regarding the user experience and whether the APIs detailed in the post are capable enough to address third-party use cases.
Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.
Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case the 20th anniversary of WordPress.
Today is a little bit of a departure for the podcast. It’s an episode all about the last 20 years of WordPress.
You’re going to hear a round table discussion with four WordPressers talking about their thoughts on the last 20 years. It features Sarah Gooding, Aurooba Ahmed, Masestro Stevens and Jess Frick, with David Bisset as the discussion moderator.
They cover many topics, and it’s great to hear so many varied opinions about what’s been of importance in the evolution of WordPress.
If you’re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to WPTavern.com forward slash podcast, where you’ll find all the other episodes as well.
And so without further delay, I bring you, David Bisset, Sarah Gooding, Aurooba Ahmed, Masestro Stevens, and Jess Frick.
David Bisset: Well, welcome everyone. Uh, thanks for coming. This is the one of a few podcasts to celebrate the 20th anniversary birthday, christening, whatever it is you want to call it, of WordPress. Uh, yes. 20 years old. That’s it’s, it’s just barely attending college at this point. Isn’t that great? We have four sweet people with me here that I wanna introduce tonight.
We are going to do a, kind of like a news draft. So we are going to pick the favorite WordPress moments of a couple of categories, and we are going to pick them so that if, um, So if somebody picks something that, that, that the another person had on their list, that person that comes after them is gonna pick something different.
So you’re gonna hear unique things coming out of every one of our guests this evening. So let’s, let’s start our introductions. By the way, random.org picked our, picked the order. This is going in so that I am not playing favorites. Aruba, you are first on our panel. Tell us about yourself. Hi everyone.
Aurooba Ahmed: I’m excited to be here with all these lovely people.
I’m Aruba, I’m a WordPress developer. I build plug-ins, websites, all that kind of good stuff. And I’m up here in, uh, by the Rockies in Calgary, Canada,
David Bisset: the Rockies. All right. Next on our list is Sarah Gooding. Hello, Sarah. How you doing?
Sarah Gooding: Hi, David. Thanks for inviting me. Um, I’m Sarah Gooding. I’m the editor at WP Tavern.
I’ve been there, it will be 10 years in September. Um, I live in Florida. I moved there two years ago, um, during the pandemic when my husband’s job changed and we moved down here and yeah, still love WordPress. After 20 years
David Bisset: you’re well working. Yeah. You know what, um, Aruba, how long, when did you first, uh, get into WordPress?
Aurooba Ahmed: Um, I would, I think it was 20, it was 2008 or 2009.
David Bisset: Okay. So about, about the same time as me. So I don’t know, somebody will do the math in the second. Sarah, how about you?
Sarah Gooding: I think it was around 2006 for me, but that was maybe just like trying it out. Okay. So like, um, when I started working in WordPress, it was 2008, 2009, so that’s when I started in years.
Yeah. Making websites for clients and. Things like that.
David Bisset: So, uh, yeah. So like, so Jess, you are up next. Can you tell us in your introduction to how long, at the end, how long you’ve been with WordPress? Absolutely.
Jess Frick: Uh, I’m Jess Frick. Thank you for having me, David. Um, I am director of operations for Pressable, and I have been playing with WordPress since 2008, working professionally in it since 2010.
David Bisset: Wow. It’s 2010, so we are, so it’s the oldest I, I’m per, well, I’ll introduce myself a second. Maestro. Yeah, you’re up, you’re, you’re, you’re fourth, uh, in the order. It’s chosen by random.org. So why don’t you introduce yourself, sir.
Maestro Stevens: This is random.org that you keep pointing to.
David Bisset: Yes, I am not. Thank you, David.
Maestro Stevens: Yeah. Uh, my name is Maro Stevens. Um, I guess I am the preemie, the youngest person on this panel when it comes to WordPress. I started my, um, Uh, WordPress Journal in 2018.
David Bisset: Maestro, can you put yourself a little bit closer to the mic?
Can you hear me? Can you hear me better now?
A little bit better, right? Guys?
Girls? Mm-hmm. People. Humans. Yes. Okay, go ahead, Maestro. I’m sorry. So, yes,
Maestro Stevens: I started in 2018. Um, so I guess I’m the youngest person on the panel when it comes to WordPress and uh, I’m an agency owner of the Iconic Expressions.
David Bisset: Great. Well, yes, young, young Whippers now, but, but that, that does give us a perspective though, cuz us old timers like to, like, to remember the, the good old days.
So we need, we need some young blood. Um, so let, oh, that makes me fifth in the, in the rotation. In case you don’t know me, um, consider yourself very fortunate, but for those who may want to learn more about me, I’m David Bisset um, I’ve been worth, I think I’ve been with WordPress since about 2006 or 2007 ish.
Um, 2008 is when I founded with some help. Where? Camp Miami. So I was with about WordPress for about a year and a half prior to that. So that’s kind of like how I do the math. Uh, I currently work at Awesome Automotive. I currently had a project, uh, WP Charitable, um, which was required by Awesome Automotive last year, but it’s a, but for the longest time I have been a freelancer.
I’ve been a employee, uh, employee and owner of a number of companies. Um, also a member of, uh, uh, post status. So I’ve been doing, I do, I’ve done a whole bunch of things. So that is our panel for this evening. Um, so why don’t we get started? And again, we are looking at the last 20 years of WordPress. So when, so that is certainly a lot of history to cover.
And of course some of you are gonna be aiming for certain years and others will be aiming for others. So I’m gonna be very surprised tonight if any of us snags someone else’s picks in terms of news. And what we have this evening is that we actually have three categories that we are going to try to cover this evening.
And, um, I kind of, I usually don’t like to give categories or, or, or themes per round. If we have time after these three, we’re gonna do arou, uh, I’ll bring out your dead or, or, or whatever is left in our pockets type of a thing. But I thought with 20 years of WordPress, That is so, um, that is so broad to cover that I, it was almost impossible probably to, I wanted to make it a little bit competitive, so I kind of narrowed little things down to at least three categories.
So the first category that we’re gonna cover is a, a memorable WordPress release or something within a WordPress release, any WordPress release. Then that was our first thing that we wanted to cover. So, Aruba, let’s start with you, um, category WordPress releases. So what, what was your pick for your memorable WordPress release in the last 20 years?
Aurooba Ahmed: That would be Thelonious WordPress 3.0, which was really the first WordPress release that I paid attention to when I first started using WordPress. And it made a big splash in the world of blogging. I remember there was this really big blog called A Beautiful Mess. They came out with this course called Blog Love Design, and it was all about like using the new 2010 theme, which is when those, you know, 2010, those style of theming for default themes started.
Oh. And using that to customize it and uh, create something really cool and you could now create custom menus for the very first time. And multi-site was merged. I mean, it was a really, really intense release that paved the way for a lot of what we think of WordPress, like core default. Of course WordPress has this sort of features, you know, but before that it didn’t have them.
David Bisset: I totally forgot about multi, uh, multi-site. Um, and I, and I didn’t know that three cuz remember prior to that, um, it was two separate products, which was kind of weird. Yeah. Right. If you wanted WordPress, it’s weird, you wanted to download WordPress, fine. But if you wanted to download WordPress M U.
That was a separate download
Aurooba Ahmed: and it was like a whole thing to try to set it up. And with WordPress 3.0 it became a lot easier to make the switch if you ever wanted to turn a single site installation. It’s, it was still a process, but way easier with WordPress 3.0.
David Bisset: Who remembers, who remembers WordPress when that came out?
Jess?
Jess Frick: Oh yeah. Aruba skunked me on the first one.
David Bisset: Oh really? Yes. You got sniped. Really? You were gonna pick three? Pick 3.0 Wow.
Jess Frick: It’s literally the first one on my list.
Aurooba Ahmed: Oh. Milestone release. Yes.
Jess Frick: Incredible taste
David Bisset: and, and a nice round number too, which for WordPress you can’t always guarantee. Right now there’s another round number that I’m not gonna talk about that, that’s probably pretty significant too, but, okay.
So Aruba Robot, WordPress 3.0 is your, is your first pick what in a snipe right out of the gate. So congratulations on that. Alright, so Sarah, you’re up next, me and, um, your memorable WordPress release.
Sarah Gooding: I think probably one of the most memorable ones for me was 5.0
David Bisset: and that’s the other one.
Sarah Gooding: Yeah. Um, 5.0 is such a, a big release.
Um, Especially leading up to it, all the agencies and freelancers are trying to get their themes and plugins ready so that they’d be ready to go with the, you know, with the latest and greatest that WordPress had to offer. And it was such a, it was a big leap. Um, and then the, the timing of the release was like right at WordCamp us, and I think it missed some of its, its dates and so they had previously identified, um, like, if we missed this date, we’re gonna push it to January so that we’re not doing the release while everyone’s traveling.
But then, um, Matt switched it, I guess at the last minute. He’s like, no, we’re going for it. And yeah, there was this up, there was just, you know, a, a huge outcry with, you know, people who were frustrated and they’re like, why do we have to push it so hard? And it was just, it was like, It was like giving birth.
I think, you know, it was, you’re, you’re just going through this process and it was, of course, it’s gonna be difficult at times. And, you know, eventually everybody’s on board and everyone’s working together, um, releasing their tutorials, their open source stuff to help people, you know, get on board with the block editor because it was, it’s probably the, the largest technical leap that our communities had to navigate of, of all time, I think I would say.
And, um, it was an exci, it was really exciting time. I mean, I was, every day there was, there were articles to write about what people were thinking and feeling at the time, and there was a lot of frustration, but also it was, uh, it was just something that needed to happen because our editor had been, had been looking dated for so long and we needed to make that big jump.
So I think that’s probably one of the most reme memorable ones for me in, in recent memory.
David Bisset: Yeah. I’m gonna go on, on a limb. For me personally, say that was probably the most controversial WordPress release. Period. Yes. I, I worked for a plug-in company at the time and I was literally making changes to our plug-ins release to get into the repo in the ho in my hotel room.
So I’ll just kinda leave it at that in terms of how much stress that, uh, and I think a lot of people were doing pretty much the same thing. So I have to say that I think, uh, the number one most stressful word press release was for me, 5.0. Uh, I can’t imagine it was probably stressful for Matt and everyone else too.
Most controversial though, I think, at the very least for, for that. And I think it’s still 5.0 down to this day. You just remember the, the nu the version numbers just branded into the My brain, so 5.0. All right. Great. So now it’s gonna get interesting. Sarah. Swipe my number two. So Jess, um, can you think of a enough it literal second one.
Poor Jess.
Jess Frick: I just wanna say though, for, you know, WordPress three, what was cool was the, the editor changed. Mm-hmm. And that was what made me go full-time and WordPress. That’s when it started to be pretty enough for me to play with it. Purdy. And then it was pretty though, and it got prettier. Um, I have a note here that it was 3.7 when WordPress became the most popular CMS in the world,
David Bisset: huh? Accord, according to Matt,
Jess Frick: uh, according to WordPress history.
David Bisset: Okay, that’s fine.
Jess Frick: Um, I think it was built with, it was through, built with. I’ll take
David Bisset: their word for it.
Jess Frick: I’ll find the link for you for the show notes. But yeah, that, I thought that was significant because that was just when I feel like the entire editing experience changed.
Um, But then also agreed for WordPress five. Um, I remember, uh, WP 1 0 1 was one of the big sponsors, and they pulled out of the show because they had to redo all their videos.
Sarah Gooding: It was, it was chaos.
David Bisset: So, to be clear though, yes. Are you picking which WordPress version are you picking? Or have you
Jess Frick: Well, they, those were my two.
David Bisset: Oh, those were you too. Okay. I’m sorry.
Jess Frick: Talking points, but since I can’t pick either of those, I’m gonna say the first all women and non-binary release of 5.6. Ah,
David Bisset: okay.
Jess Frick: That I feel like we’ve got another one coming up too.
David Bisset: Mm-hmm. Yes. We can’t talk about the future.
Jess Frick: That’s, I know we’re, we’re looking
back right now.
We’re just looking back.
David Bisset: Yeah. So WordPress 5.5 0.6 was a major milestone too. In terms of, in terms of that. And I think it’s set, set pretty much a, an example of how those are going to roll in the future. Like we have a second one coming up. Um, did anybody here participate in that? No. Okay. Kind of, well, we kind, we were rooting for the side, but there was, there was so much diversity in that release.
I was, I was very glad to see that, not, not purely from a diversity angle, but as much as just there was excitement and contribution in general because of that. Yeah. And the more that you can expose contribution in general, I think the better off the WordPress project is even when we quote unquote went back to, after that, we went back to, I, for lack of a better word, a normal release or a, a standard release theme, which is no theme at all.
It’s, it’s basically, I went say hand. So Jess 5.6, excellent choice. Maestro, we come down to you. I, I I, I w I’m very interested to hear what your pick’s gonna be cuz this, these were the top three I could think of off the top of my head. But, uh, go ahead. I haven’t been sniped officially, but, uh, because I knew there were gonna be people that picked it anyway.
But Maestro, what is your favorite, or what is the most memorable WordPress release for you?
Maestro Stevens: I feel like I just got sniped right now. Um, two times. Uh, Jessica hit one on the head, um, and you kind of was alluding to one, but I’m gonna go with 5.5. If we gonna go with points. Let’s go with the point system.
I’m going with 5.5.
David Bisset: Okay. Um, that, that’s a, that’s a release. Points of releases.
Maestro Stevens: Points of releases, right? The point of release. Yeah. So, oh, I’m gonna take a different direction and go with 5.5 because it was, it was a release that I felt affected a lot of people’s reason for, you know, being, uh, hired or paid for maintenance because it involved auto updates and once that came out it screwed up a whole bunch of people’s, you know, um, source of income or reasoning or opportunities because I know there was a lot of resistance and pushback when people were saying, well, I don’t need you anymore cuz I can auto update my own site.
So, um, that’s what I would say was one of the biggest ones for me.
David Bisset: I, I actually had someone who went along that same path, but fortunately they used, they used bad plugins, so they’re, so they turned those auto updates off pretty quick. It actually reminded me, and I don’t know what version to this is off the top of my head, but I remember when auto updating WordPress itself was a big controversy.
Um, and I don’t, I’ll figure it out what the version that was, but I remember na for you, for those of you who may remember Nathan, he’s still with us. He’s just not with the WordPress project anymore. Directly for over like a year and a half explaining the concept of WordPress auto updating on major versions.
There was a lot of. Controversy, um, pushback a little bit in terms of do we want to auto update this much of the web? So I, so I can understand that for plugins, right? You know, I, you know, it’s, I think it’s taken time because people paid for WordPress updates too. Like, they’ll just say, Hey, can you just update?
And, you know, they would probably update the plugins at the same time. So, yeah. But you know what, I think in this day and age, there comes a time to evolve. I don’t think, I think auto updates aren’t on many sites for very good reasons, especially probably governmental and educational sites. But 5.6 auto updates did cause a blip in the timeline, right?
So that’s a good choice. I think that’s pretty good. And I totally actually forgot about that.
Aurooba Ahmed: So I, it was WordPress 3.7 when WordPress could auto update.
David Bisset: See that? That to me would’ve been my second choice because it’s now, now, now it’s, I guess it comes down to me, my turn. Um, that would’ve been my second choice because I remember going to so many conferences going to the conference in Arizona, that name, now I’ve Page Lee conference and I’m forgetting in the loop.
No, no, it’s, although they think they talked about it there as well, but, um, yeah, I’ll think of it in a second. I’m just drawing a blank. Uh, it’s, it was PressNomics. PressNomics. There you go. Um, I think it was PressNomics, but I do remember attending a couple of conferences and Nas was there on stage or something, trying to explain how they have been talking to a whole bunch of people about WordPress updates and auto updates and people were scared, so, uh, not scared, concerned, whatever word you wanna throw at it.
And everything’s fine now. So the plugin thing is gonna stray now, but, Because remember, I’ve been with WordPress a long time. I noticed no one went back to the one point WordPress releases. So I’m going to pick WordPress 1.5, which which came out in February, 2005. That release came with pages, comment, moderation, tools, and Kubrick.
Does anybody remember Kubrick? Maestro? You probably don’t. That’s okay. But Kubrick.
Maestro Stevens: Stanley Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick, or
David Bisset: the theme was named after him, but Google Kubrick and turn on Google images and you’ll see a blue. What the internet basically looked like in terms of blogs for like, for like seven years, cuz everybody was using Kubrick.
Um, when WordPress came out, this was before like the two thou, the, the, the year themes came out. You’ll see it, you’ll see it. Um, it, not only that, but it also came with a new theme system. That’s when WordPress themes came out in WordPress, 4.1 0.5. And Matt announced themes with these words. And I quote in WordPress 1.5, we’ve created an incredibly flexible theme system that adapts to you rather than you expecting to adapt from it.
You can have your entire web log. Remember those words, run through a single file just like before, or you can literally have a different template for every single different category. How far we have come from a site editor today, from to February, 2005 when WordPress 1.5 came out. I mean, for me, Paige’s was.
The biggest deal, um, because I, and this is the version by the way, that I actually jumped on board WordPress full-time with, was WordPress 1.5. Um, coincidentally because I think prior to that I was trying, I was just at the point when trying out other brow browsers, it was movable type. There was PHP, nuke, I forget what else was out there, but like, I needed something, but I didn’t need a blog.
I needed something to build a client’s website with. And you really couldn’t do that without pages. So when 1.5 came out, pages was the chef’s kiss back then, really young chef’s kiss back then. So anyway, my pick is WordPress 1.5, so that was round one. A little bit of more, uh, sniping than I thought was was gonna happen.
But let’s go ahead and just not waste time and moved around. Two, our round two category that, uh, we picked out was, um, I think most memorable WordCamp. So just to clarify this for the audience, um, this could have been a work camp experience or it could have been the, the work camp itself. Maybe, maybe the atmosphere around it, the community around it, whatever.
Um, as long as it was a memorable, your, your most favorite WordCamp. Memorable experience. So, Aruba, we’re gonna start with you on this. Sure. And if anybody gets sniped on this, I’ll be blown away. But go ahead, Ruba. You go ahead. Start.
Aurooba Ahmed: Okay. I’m not sniping anyone with this one. I’m pretty sure. No, I’m like a hundred percent sure it would be word pit.
WordCamp Calgary. So my hometown’s WordCamp in 2016, which was the very first time I spoke at a WordCamp. And it was also the first time I realized that WordPress was more than just software. There was this whole community around it. And the vibe was, I. Like it was more about more than just code. There was a lot more going on underneath the surface that you might not know unless you are participating in these kind of community events.
Um, and I feel like, and it could just be because that’s when I entered the time, but that’s when community efforts really started to become more of a thing in WordPress world. You know? Uh, I think work, the first WordCamp US was just like a year before that and, you know, things were starting to gain steam.
So for me that was a very, very memorable time, very personally. And if it wasn’t for that WordCamp, I don’t even know if I would be here in on this podcast. So yeah.
David Bisset: I’m looking at the 2016. It’s, the theme was make period WordPress, period. It’s sing period. That was the theme of the camp. Mm-hmm.
Aurooba Ahmed: Because our Calgary theme for that year was music.
Okay. We had a city theme going on that year for a lot of stuff. And so the WordCamp, um, sort of theme sort of fed into that as well.
David Bisset: Make sure to include all, make sure when you provide me the links for all your items to include the mm-hmm. URL to the work camps. I’m assuming that, assuming that there’s still exist, this one does, uh, work camp, work camp, uh, websites were so, so straightforward and simple back in 2016, which Oh yes, is really, to me, that’s not that far.
That’s not that far ago. I’m getting old. It was a two day event on May 28th and May 29th, 2016. And this was your first, I didn’t even have a avatar.
Aurooba Ahmed: I didn’t even have a avatar at the time.
David Bisset: Do you remember your talk? They don’t have your gra Yeah. Your avatars missing. Yeah. Do you remember your talk?
Aurooba Ahmed: Yeah.
At the time, uh, it was, I think it was on theme development using Git. So like how to push your theme from your local environment to your hosting environment. But with just git, you know, deployment was not like a very sophisticated thing in the WordPress land at that time. Um, and I was using get hooks to create this sort of custom workflow so you could like push everything up.
And that’s what I did my little talk on.
David Bisset: Yes. It took a while to find it because shame on them. They’re schedules are graphics on the WordCamp website, so I couldn’t search through text. They’re JPEGs, so yes. Shame on you. Yes, they’re shame on you. All right, so hey, we were learning, we were learning. Moving, moving, moving on here before anything Sarah.
So what is your, Sarah, what is your. Best or most memorable Word, camp moment or work workout? No.
Sarah Gooding: Does this, this include, does this include WordCamp announcements or just like major announcements that were done at WordCamps? Or does, or is it just meant to be your favorite?
David Bisset: Most memorable. Most memorable to you.
And some people can take that is, I was there when this historic thing happened, or, you know, something personal to you. Now keep in mind our, what our next round will be, which I won’t spoil. So if it’s more closely related to that, then that’s the only thing maybe. But you know, I’m putting you on the spot here, I realize.
So just go ahead and share. As long as it’s, um, legit, legit work camp event. I, uh, event of some sort.
Sarah Gooding: My first WordCamp was WordCamp Vancouver in I think 2012. And I was a speaker there. It was a, it was also a buddy camp. And so I was speaking about Buddy Press and I think I talked about like how you could add little jQuery animations to make it cooler.
And I hardly, I can hardly remember because I was so hungover. Um, oh,
David Bisset: I just, oh, what year was this? What was the year was this year? This was 2012. Oh, so this was before the ch before the child.
Sarah Gooding: Oh yeah, before I had kids. And then I think the next year was Buddy Camp Miami or was that 2014?
David Bisset: Oh, don’t, don’t even get me started.
Sarah Gooding: And I brought my dog to that WordCamp and it was my first time in Miami and somebody offered me like a hundred thousand dollars from my dog, or they offered my husband and he wanted to say yes and, but he knew that I’d be so angry.
David Bisset: Um, I can see why that one came in second place though.
Sarah Gooding: Yes, buddy Camps were my first entrance into Ward Camps and those were the ones that I tried to make it do and, um, really enjoyed the most.
Meeting all the people I’d met through, uh, buddy Press and in the forums and contributing and I miss. And, uh, those were very memorable for me.
David Bisset: I miss Buddy Camps, so if anybody who doesn’t know what a Buddy Camp is, is basically like a conference within a conference for Buddy Press. If you don’t know what Buddy Press is, go to buddy press.org.
But it’s software that’s still maintained by, officially by Automatic. It is a social platform. It is the sister project. I, I’ve always considered it’s sister project of BB Press, which is a form plugin, but we don’t go into that. But yes, we did. I forget we had for one or two years Buddy Camps in Miami too, but Vancouver 2012 where Sarah gave her first talk, can’t remember it cuz the brain cells are destroyed, so she’ll, we’ll have to take her word for it.
That’s great. That’s, I always like it. What was, what was your favorite WordCamp? The one I can’t remember. Dude, well, I
Sarah Gooding: remember, I
David Bisset: remember it, but alcohol poisoning here.
Sarah Gooding: I met so many people there for the first time I met Matt Mullenweg, j Tripp, and you know, like there were a bunch of lead developers there just back then, like not, you know, the work camps weren’t huge.
They were really small and it was exciting to, you know, meet the people who were working on WordPress. For real.
David Bisset: Yeah. Back then, the WordCamps were so few and far between when you went to one, chances are most of the core contributors we’d be there. You know, it was because we had to travel. Um, and the website is just as does still exist, October 13th, 2012, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM at a, at Barnaby campus, Bernabee campus.
However, and by the way, when, when, if you’re listening to this, go look at these, um, old work camp websites, links that we’re sharing because you want, I’ll, you’ll get a kick of the people that we’re sponsoring them too. And their logos, if they still exist today, you get to see their old logos and if they don’t exist, you get to see who was uh, sponsoring work camps back in 2012.
So, Sarah. Yeah. Work Camp Vancouver gets my thumbs up because it’s got a buddy camp attached with it. Eventually we will get to a work camp in the us. So Jess Jessica, is that gonna be you? It’s gonna be me. Okay. We’re, what were camp is most memorable to you.
Jess Frick: So I actually went outside the box on this cuz I didn’t know how it was gonna play out.
And so I’m coming at it from a different side. Favorite themes and the swag that got away. Favorite themes? Hmm. Favorite themes. I absolutely loved WordCamp Orlando. I’m a fellow Florida in here, Uhhuh. Um, I absolutely loved WordCamp Orlando 2015, which was Harry Potter.
And then 2018 was space with nasa.
Cool. So, yeah, definitely my favorite word, camp themes. But then the swag that got away, I wanna honor you, David. It was those WordCamp Miami lunch boxes.
David Bisset: Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute.
Jess Frick: Oh no, you’re gonna tease me with it.
David Bisset: I’m telling, find it in a second now. You see, I’ll find it in a
Jess Frick: second. All the cool swag everybody has.
And those were the ones that I was like,
Aurooba Ahmed: oh, I don’t know where,
David Bisset: where they’re within or where somewhere. Yeah, I, I will put a link, I’ll put a link in the show notes, but I’ll send it to you. I, we actually have a, um, I have a picture of them on my old blog. Um, so if anybody’s wasn’t aware, so I’m, I’m confused.
So the Harry Potter one is the, is the one you want, right? Is is your pick. Right. But you’re
Jess Frick: Well for theme,
David Bisset: for themed. Oh.
Jess Frick: For theme the way that you, you know, cuz most of the WordCamps will have like a cool theme. And so obviously I’ve gotta stick with my hometown glory and go, you know, Harry Potter versus NASA Thai.
Um, but for the swag that got away, definitely WordCamp Miami.
David Bisset: We had an eighties theme that year. That’s why the lunch boxes Yes. It back you. I’ll see it, I’ll see it in a second.
Jess Frick: Um, it was like a Miami Vice thing, right?
David Bisset: Yes. There were multiple lunch boxes, so it depended on what you saw. We, we kind of put a lot of, um, not to turn this into Work Camp Miami discussion, but we put a lot of Easter eggs into our work camps.
So if we have a theme, it’s like, if you didn’t see the one sponsored poster of the Breakfast Club, then you. Didn’t you, you wouldn’t have known about it, and it was just special for that. But yes, so I, you know, we can only pick one. So I’m putting you down for Orlando 2015, but I’m very honored that your, that your backup, that your second place was WordCamp Miami. I’m, ooh, where? Camp Miami. What year was that? I like to say it was 2018. It was 2018 was it? I think for our 10th year. Um, yeah, but I was supposed to be there and I wasn’t. All right. Well, Maestro, uh, so far nobody’s hopefully taken your picks. So, um, what would, what WordCamp would you put up as your, as the one that you, uh, remember fondly of?
Oh, wait, we can’t hear you.
Maestro Stevens: Since I never technically attended a WordCamp. Um,
David Bisset: not even virtually.
Maestro Stevens: So I spoke at Work camps virtually in 2021, but I didn’t attend work camp as a attendee.
David Bisset: Were you a ghost?
Maestro Stevens: But I’m gonna take it to the left a little bit. Um, I would say no, I was not a ghost.
David Bisset: Okay. But you attend if you spoke, you attended?
Yeah. You just didn’t physically attend?
Maestro Stevens: I didn’t physically attend cuz that was the year that we had to virtually attend. So, um, yeah, uh, it
David Bisset: was north. Oh, so it’s a seance you attended, I mean, you, you were there?
Maestro Stevens: Yes. Yeah. Yes. Uh, attended, um, Northeast Ohio work camp in 2021. So, and what I mean by attendance, I’m talking about like, I didn’t just go there to go or attend, I was speaking, so that was the big part of my attendance versus just going to a world camp as an attendee, if that makes sense.
David Bisset: So that’s the one who stood out. What was your talk on?
Maestro Stevens: Uh, my talk for 2021 was, um, five. Look at my notes here. It was, uh, about modern marketing for, uh, minority and underrepresented businesses using WordPress.
David Bisset: And was that the first one you physically attended? The one you spoke on? Virtually? Virtually.
I’m sorry. Virtually, yes. I’m sorry. I’m getting my, see, that’s why my blood sugar’s low. I’m, I’m, I’m fasting right now and my doctor said as it wasn’t a good idea to come on a podcast while that was going on, so forgive me, but how did you speak at any virtually, have you spoken virtually before at anything before that?
Maestro Stevens: Never. Never a WordPress specific, uh, topic based scenario, but other things I had, yes.
David Bisset: Okay, so you did, so it wasn’t your first real, it wasn’t your first rodeo. Just a just a little bit different speaking in front of a different audience though.
Maestro Stevens: So prior to then, so I’m 36 years old. I feel like I gotta put this out here.
I feel like I don’t judge, I’m real young here. Like you, you try to call me out with the Stanley Cooper thing. So I’m saying I’m 36. My, uh, I, you’re
David Bisset: younger than me, sir. So you take, well, I’m, you take the ball and
Maestro Stevens: run with it. I’m saying this to say, um, I, I started the WordPress late, so I didn’t even know WordCamps existed prior to 2018, which all of you were well endowed into the WordCamp WordPress system.
So thank you. It was totally new for me at that time.
David Bisset: Well, are you looking, are you planning on tending another one?
Maestro Stevens: Do you want me to drop a secret?
David Bisset: Oh, yes, yes. I need the ratings.
Maestro Stevens: So, um, hope, I don’t know when this is gonna air, but, um, I actually am hosting a workshop at Work Camp Europe. Athens. Greece.
David Bisset: Well, there you go. Wow. That is a Well, that escalated quickly. That’s what, that’s amazing. Well, congratulations. Don’t, don’t say anymore cuz we don’t want to get you in trouble. So you are going to be, have you ever spoken out of the country before? No. Oh, so it’s gonna be, wow. I’m gonna watch the, uh, cam, I’ll, I’ll have to find someone to point a camera at you cuz get, get, get you in your most nervous moment.
Tune into an animated gift because my therapist says that’s what works best for me and my condition. So, very good. Very well done, sir. Okay. Well, northwest Ohio, they need some representation. So, Northeast, excuse me. Northeast. No, we don’t wanna, no,
Maestro Stevens: they’re, we’re serious about that now. N eo
David Bisset: now we serious about that.
We don’t wanna represent the northwest. Those sons of motherless goats, those people. This, that’s a, I can’t swear on this. All right. Northeast Ohio 2021. It is. And welcome to the, welcome to the 2020s. So, Uh, work camps on our list. So last ends with me. I’m gonna go with, uh, I I I didn’t wanna pick, uh, any work camp Miamis.
Um, I think that would’ve been way too easy if, if, uh, cuz I, I, I’ve been involved in the organization of that for a decade. I will say though, that work Camp Miami, I think Pat we already mentioned 2018. I, if I had to pick one of that, if I had to pick a second place, that would’ve been it. We had a thousand people at the FIU campus.
That was also the same year. The bridge collapsed. There was a bridge collapse at, at the, um, at the campus. Uh, there was some in like a day before the conference, a bridge spanning over a highway collapse that connected the school with the parking lot. And it was major pana. It was, they had to close the school.
Um, fortunately we were able to keep open. It was just pure madness. Uh, we had to coordinate with the. With the WordCamp committee to, to, to make sure things were okay. And communication got out and people were, it was, it was just a, for the first day it was really a big mess. And it was very sa It was a sad occasion too on top of it, cuz some people did, did lose their lives.
But on the, on the, uh, what helped, what helped deal with that is that we had over a, still over 1,011 hundred people attend that conference, which was the largest work camp Miami in one of the largest non regional work camps up to that time. We think that’s the one with the, where we did have our 80 eighties theme.
We had people dressed like, uh, various eighties stars giving, giving talks. So we asked, we kind of had a costume contest at the same time, um, and the swag. But since I can’t pick a work camp Miami, I’m gonna go ahead and pick work Camp West 2016. Just, I just, this is, um, I’m kind of cheating a little bit by going with the, um, Go.
Well, let’s see. Going with the, sorry, I’m just doing, I’m gonna have to edit this out.
It was the very first one, right? Actually, I got my picks mixed up. I got my, oh, I got my picks mixed up. So anyway, um, don’t worry, I’ll edit that part out. But we’re the, actually the work Camp Miami 20th 10th anniversary was my pick. I will find a way to edit this to make it sound coherent, but yes. Work Camp Miami 10th anniversary.
I got to pick my own work Camp Miami as my most memorable moment. And just to repeat myself, because I’m gonna edit out the part, I’m gonna delete the last part. Um, I got my work camps mixed in. So like I said, there was an 80 theme. We had over a thousand people come. There was that. That was that unfortunate incident.
The bridge collapsed. Um, so we got off to our rough start, but everybody, we, we couldn’t, we didn’t have our pre-party because of that incident, um, at the work Camp Miami. But Friday our workshops went off with a good start. Um, we had three workshops, I think like a couple hundred people came to those. Um, we had Matt show up for Work Camp Miami for the 10th anniversary.
Uh, he was in the neighborhood. He decided to drop by and we had at the very end, one of the most attended closing remarks, um, ever. We have a really great picture of it. I’ll, I’ll try to remember to put it in show notes. It’s a really good PR picture for any work camp, but especially for us. We also had like a two day kids club and anytime someone says, um, like, like what’s a good example for a kids club?
And for me personally, it was that two day kids club that we had at Work Camp Miami. And it, it really, like a lot of good things happened at that work camp from an organizer that I’m very proud of. But I will always look fondly at that 10th anniversary. The kids, the kids’ club or the kids’, um, workshops were the highlight because they, we had, we actually split it up between young, young kids between, I don’t know, between five and 10 or five and 12 or six and 12.
But we had one for the teenagers, the high schoolers, and the first day on a Saturday, they actually learned how to use WordPress. But on the second day we taught ‘EM marketing. So not only do they learning how to build WordPress websites, e-commerce websites, specifically on day one, but on day two they were taught how to market those websites.
Um, And that to me is a model for the getting the younger people more interested in the word in WordPress going forward. It’s not just, this is how you blog or this is how you move a block. Yes. But you really, these days especially need to teach the young people how it really applies to them when they, when young people, I’m gonna throw out some young kids’, kids’ terms here when they’re on the tos, when they’re on the tu toots, whatever, over in the Instagrams, like for, they’re not very hard concepts or networks.
Right? But, but even more so is like, how can I use this platform either to entertain myself or how to make money or how to get myself popular? Which hopefully when you get old enough, eventually it turns into how can I make a living off of this? Or how can I use this to my advantage? And the technology comes second to those priorities, right?
So, Our kids camp. That was the whole point of teaching kids, okay, this is how you build something. But tomorrow we’re gonna show you how you can market this and sell. If you wanna make any e-commerce story, this is how you market it. This is how you get into the search engines, or this is how you use these plugins.
This is how you create a business plan, which was actually part of the course. So anyway, work Camp Miami 10th anniversary, the eighties theme just ruled. Um, I wish I had a poster, um, but I’ll share the link in the show notes to a lot of the posters we took, like we had a back to the future theme for our sponsor posters.
It was just a really great time. So anyway, I digress. Hopefully I’ve covered over some of my mistakes and now you know what my next gonna be, but we Camp Miami 10th anniversary 2018 was my, was my pick on that. Alright, so now we’re in round three. Thank and this is why we didn’t do it live people. Round three last category, Aruba.
We are going to cover now the state of the word announcements. So you didn’t have to be there in person. Just to clarify, you didn’t have to be there in person. You didn’t even have to be into WordPress at the time, technically speaking. But if there’s anything historic, anything that stands out to you. Um, the favorite, Matt Moway, so this is Matt.
Matt was giving these in person up until Covid. So I believe his last in-person WordCamp, uh, state of the word was 2019. And I don’t think he’s done in-person state of the word since. Sarah could probably back me up on this probably, but I think he’s done virtual ones ever since, starting in 2020. And uh,
Sarah Gooding: I think he did, didn’t he do one in New York City or one or two?
He did in New York City with a small audience. It wasn’t like at a WordCamp, but it was like, yeah, yeah, you’re right. You’re technically, but, um, yeah, it wasn’t attached to a WordCamp.
David Bisset: You’re right. I, I misspoke. So not attached to WordCamp. Not a WordCamp. Yes. Used to be a U WordCamp Us. Um, Tradition.
Exclusive. Yeah, yeah. Tradition at the end, everybody would line up, get into the room, get into this big room, and people would approach the mics. Um, some infamous people would’ve questions every year. Um, and if you, sometimes you, sometimes you couldn’t answer, sometimes you couldn’t get to all the questions.
So, and then in 2020, I know he did a couple of virtual ones every year, and then I’m gonna guess 2021, he probably started, um, having them in the Tumblr office. I could be wrong on that. Mm-hmm. But it was a small audience. But ever since then, they, they were disconnected from WordCamps in 2019. Now your favorite, um, this is the announcement.
So you can pick, you can you all pick and pick the same state of the word, but you can’t pick the same announcement during the state of the word. So that’s, so that’s that, those are the rules. So Aruba, in case any of that made sense, What would you like to tell us would be your best, your, your, your favorite, most memorable state of the word announcement or a state of the anything mentioned at State of the Word, I should say.
Mm-hmm.
Aurooba Ahmed: So the very first WordCamp I went to, that wasn’t WordCamp Calgary was WordCamp US 2019. And that was very memorable for me. So it was the very first time I also saw a state of the word in person and the thing that really I still remember to this day. And it really drove home for me. What we are now doing with WordPress was when Matt told us that the slides were all made inside Gutenberg.
Wow. That every single one was using and they had just sort of finished live coding it. You know, Ella, one of the core contributors, she had built this plugin and it lets you basically use reveal js and have this block. And so each slide was just a block in this single document where Gutenberg page and it was full screen and it had like really lovely design, even had a little bit of animation and it was like, wow, you know, this, this is, it was such a clear demonstration of what we were capable of, what we were trying to aim for.
With the block editor and I just, it was, it was, it was a core or a press memory for me for sure.
David Bisset: I’ll try if, if you, when you send your links, if you, um, you people have done so much work enough, I really appreciate it. If you can, if you can find the video and find that timestamp to that mm-hmm. When you made that announcement, that would be great.
I almost wanted it that point to have WordPress be a slide maker. I’m surprised no one has really come out with the plugin for that since, or maybe they have, but that must be There is a plugin. Oh. To make slides out of
Aurooba Ahmed: the original plugin is in the repo and since then there have been multiple other plug-in plugins that, you know, let you create slides with WordPress that are out there.
Yeah. Well that’s, I’ve done it for a presentation myself. It’s really cool. Lots of fun.
David Bisset: Okay, so that was work Camp US 2019, right? Yeah, that’s right. The last in person one I, I remember. Mm-hmm. I remember. Mm-hmm. Being in the audience. I can’t remember that specifically cuz I was probably tweeting too fast.
Okay. Well great. That’s fantastic. So we still, we have the Gutenberg. Hey, turns out these are slides announcement from Work Camp US 2019. So Sarah, so you I’m sure covered a lot of state of the words at the tavern over the years. What was the one that stood out to you? Or what announcement or something brought in the state, in a state of a word, stood out to you the most?
Sarah Gooding: Yeah, I usually do a writeup every, every year for the state of the word. And, uh, 2014, um, in, at Ward Camp San Francisco. It was the last ward camp San Francisco. And Matt announced this is the last time we’re gonna be here and, uh, we’re next year we’re gonna continue with Ward Camp us. So that was like a, a major change.
Um, And it was kind of like WordPress was stepping into its global destiny, I felt like, because, um, he also at that time announced that it was a big turning point for the project because, um, the number of non-English downloads surpassed the number of English downloads of WordPress. Yeah. So the software was just getting more of a global user base.
And, um, he announced that basically they’d outgrown their flagship WordCamp and we’re moving it to a whole, a bigger one. And, um, we out, we outgrew I R C and we moved to Slack that year. So that was kind of a big thing. It was a major change for the project’s, communication tools. Um, and at that time, I think Fiber, the future had just started.
So he, he said during that address, this is what’s gonna take us from 23% to 30% or 40%, 23%. And it was so ambitious at the time. It was, I mean, who, who could imagine at that time that, that WordPress would be 40% of the web? And um, it was just an exciting time to be a part. I was, I was there at the WordCamp, um, but there was so much energy because WordPress was growing so fast and it was every year you’re gonna expect it’s gonna grow and grow and outpace all its competitors.
And uh, it was a great, it was just a great time to start getting involved because um, the energy was, was so good at that time.
David Bisset: Yeah, I remember the excitement about award camp us cuz it definitely, there wasn’t anything beyond a city level at that time. Maybe, maybe, maybe a few regionals, maybe, you know, along those lines.
But it was nothing on a continent. Well it’s not a continent, David, you gotta go back to school on a country.
Sarah Gooding: I think they might have, they might have done WordCamp Europe by then, I’m
David Bisset: not sure. Was Work Camp Europe first. I think it, yes, I think it was so,
Sarah Gooding: and there was kind of a rivalry for a while.
Seemed like, you know, WordCamp Europe is bigger, or WordCamp US is bigger. And then remember just back and forth every year.
David Bisset: Remember I remember WordCamp, I remember Matt saying that he wanted WordCamp us to be bigger than that. I, I didn’t think that, I didn’t think that was gonna be possible cuz just on geography alone, um, just because Europe is just so much bigger in terms of, in terms of that than a, than a US would, would, would be able to.
But yeah, so we did have Work Camp Europe, but, but really regardless of size work, camp US is a, is the flagship event of all the work camps, at least in my mind. And it’s not just because of size, it’s just because it was, I, I think because of that. Day in 2014 where it’s like, and I guess maybe, maybe it is a, maybe it is a United States centric thing for me, cuz I live in the US but it was kind of along the lines.
I’ve seemed like that was Matt’s home WordCamp. And as WordCamp US kind of progressed, taken two cities every year. Was it? It was, yeah, it was the same city two years in a row. Move on to a different city. Matt just seemed to embrace the, remember the boot on stage in Memphis. Um, he just seemed to embrace the, I mean, where Campy West was Matt, and it’s not, it was, it was not it, you know, the two seemed pretty closely linked together and although he did attend work Camp Europe, um, I don’t remember him giving a state of the word at work Camp Europe either moving forward.
He always did it in San Francisco and then kind of did it at us, um, for a while. So that to me was always like the home work camp because Matt was always. They’re doing his state of the word. That was, that was the, that was the central thing. And of cor of course, Europe was, was bigger, but it was, it was the WordCampy west that always seemed to be a special home for that.
So I, I guess that, does anybody ever, did anybody ever attend the last one in San Francisco in 2014? I, I was there. Yeah, I was, I was there too. I think that was the one where they had the fire alarm or the medical emergency or something too. Mm-hmm. And, uh, yeah, it was very tightly packed in there. Um, the state, when Matt did his state of the word, people were sitting, like, I, I was, I had, I had to get like there an hour before just to be in the front row and super glue myself to the seat.
Which was embarrassing because I didn’t bring a change of pants. So anyway, that’s a different story. I so work camps San Francisco 2014 when we announced work camp us among all the other things that Sarah mentioned too. So that is a very memorable war camp and what I can appreciate cuz I was there. All right, Jess, keep this train going along here.
What work camp, or excuse me, what state of the word announcement sticks out in your mind?
Jess Frick: Also exciting, but in a different way. 2018
David Bisset: WordCamp US 2018. Yes. It
Jess Frick: was as if the entire stage was surrounded by gasoline and half the audience had pitchforks, like the tension was palpable in the room. And everybody’s like, oh my God, what is he gonna say when he gets on the stage?
And he starts with this video of people just talking about how crappy the interface was on the old WordPress. And we’re like, yeah, actually he’s, he’s not wrong. And then they show. Guttenberg. That was when Morton got up and brought up some really reasonable questions about transparency, and I think that was the first time a lot of people really started thinking about, you know, how much transparency is there for contributors?
And, you know, what do you have a say in? And honestly, like, I don’t wanna turn this into like a Matt Fangirl moment, but honestly that was one of the times where I most admired Matt’s leadership of the project because I felt like he really stood in front of the team and took the bullets and then said, Hey, I hear you.
I feel you. Feel free to get involved and make, you know, informed opinions in our dev meetings and we’d love to have you, but otherwise maybe just hang out. Um, I, I feel, and that’s of course me cribbing it, but I thought that he handled it with. Grace and elegance. And I thought that at the end of it, people were a lot more, I feel like the vibe was a lot more relaxed and excited about the go forward.
You know, most of the WordCamp had, you know, built up this tension and it definitely felt a release after that. Um, yeah, I, I had been to other state of the words, but none really shined quite like that for me. Um, now Matt’s, Matt’s a great leader and I’m not just saying that because he’s, you know, essentially my boss, um, but also because he is my boss.
Um, but it really was a really great moment, I think, for the WordPress project. And that was when I really wanted to get involved into contributing. Um, cause you know, if you’re gonna cry for transparency, you should probably do something with it.
David Bisset: It took a lot of guts to probably get up there because like you said, this was the same event.
Where a couple of days before people were in their hotel rooms coordinating with teams to get their stuff ready for Gutenberg. Right. Um, controversy going forward and like, wait, I, the amount of discussion, because remember, you know, this was before where camp started, so once I think, I think when I think we got out of that mode of rush, rush, rush, rush, like updates happening every, you know, probably on Twitter we were just monitoring the, the entire.org forms was, was just nuts.
And, um, slack was nuts. Um, I think it was, it was Slack then I think, right? Yeah. It was whatever form we were communicating with, it was, it was, it was nuts. And then work camp started and then you had that. Like he’s taught, like that wasn’t the fir, that was the last thing at work camp us. Right? So you had hallway was, I remember having hallway conversations about the, and I won’t, I won’t go into it.
I mean, it was, it was more just nervousness than negativity, but it was just like, you know, people were on edge. And for Matt to have that state of the word and like in that kind of, um, I, it, it took a lot, it took a lot of guts to, for anybody to do that and, um, for anybody to ask questions. And that did lead to conversations with Morton and then from thereafter about transparency.
Does any, does anybody remember, um, that particular feeling in the community at that time?
See, seeing some nods there? Yeah, that’s, that’s okay. I wouldn’t have answered that question either vocally and been on the record. That’s fine. Uh, there’s too much, uh, uh, I, I think people forget. Like how hectic it was then. And I think because of the way Matt handled that, even with probably looking back on it, I think some things maybe could have been handled better in hindsight.
But, but you know what, what, when you look back on something, what’s, how does that differ from anything, anything else in terms of how you can handle anything better? I did make a notable, he did make a notable comment about more transparency. Yeah. Um, because honestly, up to that point in time, the reason why things weren’t so hectic is because it’s not as transparent as things are today.
And that’s, that’s how I looked at it. If everybody feel free to, you know, jump into here, I’m, but now that with especially Josepha, um, over the years being more transparent, the things on.org, I think a lot of that transparency would’ve taken us over time, a lot slower to evolve if it wasn’t for. How Matt handled that and the people asking him questions deserve as much credit as that.
But that was a very difficult time too, because the media, there was a lot of media attention on that state of the word outside of WordPress too. And I’m not sure if people remember that, but, um, I remember like news organizations and I, I don’t remember the, the ones that existed then probably don’t exist now.
So I don’t know what, but a lot of news organizations, this was in the news, is that the one where the mayor came on stage? I can’t remember. But this was on, this was in the news. This was, um, this was big news to the, to the entire internet that WordPress, whatever market share hold the time has launched This Gutenberg editor and Matt Longway was in the news was, was on lot of tech websites that were not WordPress related.
It was a big deal. So that probably was the most media attention, media focused. Hectic nervous ball of nerves type of state of the word that probably I can ever, ever think of. So that was definitely one for the history book. So where camp u s 2018 in Gutenberg.
Sarah Gooding: I think all that, that controversy was so healthy though, because you had all these really high profile contributors and business people who were like, no, this isn’t ready to ship yet and you’re giving us three days notice.
And it was, it was, it was a discussion. And, and Matt was very present there. He was in the dev meetings and he, he was back and forth and, and you gotta remember like all these people really grew up together in their careers. I mean, this is, some of these people have a 20 year history together. Yeah. You know, at least 10 or 15 years for a lot of the people who own the, these big businesses or have been contributing a long time.
And you know, some of ’em are real brave to speak up and be like, Hey, this isn’t cool. We don’t want releases like this in the future. And, um, You know, the, it’s amazing to see how the project, the project has changed over the years, and especially Josepha has been just amazing. But, but they, all these people have grown up together and they’ve, they’ve matured together and the project has matured and it’s, it’s really a cool thing to watch.
And, uh, I think controversies like that are, are good because it means that people feel free to talk to each other still. It’s not just some, some cold corporation style thing that the, you know, it’s a family and people are gonna speak their minds and, and it’s healthy and it, and I like that. It was an exciting time.
David Bisset: I’d be honest. I mean, to me, I think some people stuck I, the further away we get from that moment, which is, it was 2018, so that’s like what, five years from, it’s, it’s a distant memory now, but I know some people look back and instill with a bit of anxiety. Uh, so
Jess Frick: I don’t think 2020 and 2021 were real. So it really was just like two years ago.
David Bisset: Whenever some, i I, this will always be a word can, well, it’ll always be a time where somebody’s gonna say, well, you know what, back then this happened and it wasn’t great and blah, blah, blah. But it, it kind of like, it was definitely a, like a growing up point in terms for the whole community. It’s time to put our big person pants on.
And yeah, some Matt admitted some things were not, were his decision, but they weren’t, they weren’t right. But they were his decision. They took responsibility from ’em. And we have some of the things today. We have the trans, we have the transparency today and things today because of the conversations that came from that.
So, Um,
Aurooba Ahmed: we also have more contributors now because of it. I mean, I’m one of those people who was affected before that. I had never contributed to WordPress before 2018. You know, uh, the, the merging of Gutenberg decor was not just a moment of like a chapter change for the software or even for the folks who were growing up.
It was also a moment of it created space for new blood, which I don’t think really existed before. And I still think that, you know, we’re also doing work to make contr, uh, contributor stuff easier for everyone. But that was for me, a really big, like milestone. Like looking at it from, as in just coming into that community at that time.
Like, oh, okay, I, I could actually do something here too. You know? I don’t have to just wait for all these other people who’ve been here for the last, like, many years, these, uh, the legacy folks and, uh, and wait for them to do something. I could maybe do something too. So, and you’re walking. That’s something.
That’s how I remember looking into it.
David Bisset: Yeah. And you’re walking in brand new, like, why is everybody so nervous?
Aurooba Ahmed: Well, it was still nerve-wracking, right? Like it was also one of those things that affected, it was an economic. Problem because it affected people’s livelihoods in a very deep and impactful way that other updates didn’t necessarily do, or other updates before They did create that impact, but it was almost always a little bit positive.
But this one was like, it could be positive, it could be negative. It’s like a, like we took something that was like this and we said, oh, okay. It’s like this now. Like, what, what’s going on? Took a leap. So it’s different.
David Bisset: Yeah. And there was also the four phases of Gutenberg and very, mm-hmm. And then which, which, which kind of laid out the entire plan, which we are still going, we’re entering phase three as we speak.
So anyway, Maestro, we want to get to you, um, state of the word announcement or anything you want to tackle there.
Maestro Stevens: I’ll segue the, um, the phases of Gutenberg. I think that for myself and then with Aruba, what you were saying as far as the, uh, contributing to like bridge them together. I think it, I don’t know if it was 2020 or 2021, so anybody can help me out.
But I got really excited when Matt started talking about the collaboration. Um, that was something that, it was just super cool bringing Google Docs type features, you know, um, to WordPress. And for me, um, as a new contributor, that was, uh, in essence, um, I would say a part of, um, how I feel like other people can contribute that aren’t really WordPress savvy by being able to at least collaborate with other word pressers.
Um, that was awesome. I believe it was 2020 when he was, if I’m not mistaken, the, uh, instead of the word, um, when he had mentioned it. Cause I started watching them after they were, uh, they weren’t, you know, attributed to the WordCamps themselves.
David Bisset: Yeah. Collaboration’s big. Uh, we’ll find the, we’ll we’ll see if we can find the time set.
I honestly can’t remember. Like the four phases were always laid out and collaboration was always phase three, but I can, but there was very little detail in the very beginning, like 2018, what those phases were actually gonna be. So 2020 sounds about right cuz I, um, I remember sitting virtually getting more information about the collaboration stuff and over, over the years it’s gotten a little bit more detailed, but what about, well, Maestro, since uh, I, since you’ve been, you’ve been humbly listening to all of us Jabber about our old days.
What specifically about the collaboration stuff stood out to you the most? Why, why would you be excited about that particular phase? Why did that stick out in your mind?
Maestro Stevens: Well, I felt for a while it was kind of annoying, um, having to
get permission or kick somebody out. Of being able to edit the page. Ah, and that would like that, that hurt a lot of production time. Um, it made people have to communicate a lot more. It made you have to wait, um, if you are patient or not patient. It made you have to practice patience. Like you got kids. Um,
David Bisset: I kicked them out of their blogs all the time.
Maestro Stevens: Yeah, right. You know, so it was, it was, uh, for, for, for me and for some people that I knew, it was definitely a great, uh, aspect of them being able to work alongside. And so that was different for, um, me working with a designer and a developer. The fact that they can both, like if they can both be in, when he announced that if they can both be on the same page at the same time along with myself and we’re all kind of doing our own thing, we just have to wait for each other.
That to me was just invaluable. Cause I’ve been using Google Docs forever and I think a lot of people have, um, have, have gotten used to being able to like edit things in real time. And it was the real time factor that I thought was so cool. I had no idea. Word Press. Was going to do or could do?
David Bisset: Do you think that could be the next wow factor in terms of Gutenberg?
I mean the, I mean, we, full side editing is big, but to the outside world, I don’t think it has been as revolutionary because well, side editing exists, right, exists outside of WordPress. But I, correct me if I’m, I’m this, hopefully we get this out in a video form, but I, in case you’re listening to the audio, everybody’s nodding their head yes.
I just want to let that, I just wanna make that clear. Uh, but I’m imagining the collaboration more than just editing a Google Doc type of a thing. I, I’m hoping, I’m hoping that collaboration also means I’m seeing someone drag a block here while I’m dragging a block over there on the page. Big, my like.
Yeah, that’s the level. Like we think of collaboration as Google Docs, which is fine cuz we’ve grown up with that. Google has nailed that functionality and over the years other people have caught up. Even, you know, apple and other people took a while for them to polish that out. That wasn’t their strength.
But now, but now it’s, you know, like that’s table stakes now in terms of if, if you’re collaborating, if there’s any collaboration at all. Like unless you’re a journal app that is just you or the author, there has to be some sort of sharing or collabora, you know, live, you’re seeing someone else’s cursor on your screen, right?
It was built into Apple’s os later on. But Google pretty much set the, set, the standard moving forward. But you know, so that is a standard. So if that is done in WordPress, editing a document, editing text, uh, I’m hoping there’s more and I hope WordPress gets that, that wow feature factor. Kind of back, which is difficult to do when you do open source, cuz it’s not like you’ve kept, you can’t keep something hidden.
Right. And then release it, because that’s not, you’re not gonna get open source con contributors doing that. It’s all gonna be out in the open. So it’s not gonna be a surprise to us. But I’m hoping that you can start dragging blocks and building pages, like seeing things being built in front of you and just like, um, I think it was, was it was, was it, I forgot.
I’m sorry. What? Who was who? Who was com Uh, I think Jess said, I think it was you about like when go, that video started that guttenberg about all these people complaining by the editor and then you saw the new editor. I want to see a video like that when, when the, when the collaboration tools come and you just see live on a video or even live like this is, this is this whole, how about the slides were, somebody should just like, you know that that meme with the dog and the, and the, and the railroad tracks from a walls and grot.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know how he’s putting down the railroad tracks really fast. There’s a tr as he’s building it as the train goes. I would like to see that in slide form, in WordCamp, state of the word maybe, or something along those lines. Some live demo or live presentation or really slick video of really cool collaboration tools.
So I think,
Aurooba Ahmed: I think if you put collaboration and multilingual together in one video, it’s like p
David Bisset: yeah. It’s, I can understand multilingual and I understand people’s, like, why don’t you put multilingual before that? Because we really need it. We really need it. I can understand why it’s the last one because I think that’s the most complex part.
I think that could be the most complex of all, everything. And you, you wanna map your things out probably before you start breaking things up in terms of translations. But yeah, just imagine esp uh, I don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves, but like, I, I, I’ll, I did like a what would be a, um, ooh, there, there’s a good question.
We could, we could probably end on real quick. Um, a spot on question, um, for me, Just real quick, um, my state of the word, um, was basically, uh, 2016 state of the word Matt. Matt, um, was featuring, uh, the year before 2015 was, and I can’t believe anybody picked this, but I’m not picking it, but he did say learn JavaScript deeply, I believe in 2015 and then tw in 2016.
He, and that’s probably his most quoted phrase of any state of the word, was learn JavaScript deeply in 2015. That’s why no one picked it. Yes, all of you, all of you should be proud of yourselves, but that’s not the one I’m picking in 2016, what happened was after I heard that in 2015 where Camp Miami was like four months away.
So I came back as one of the organizers and I got with the team and we made a learn JavaScript deeply track at Work Camp Miami based upon what he said because back then there was not a lot of focus on JavaScript and we needed to get up to speak to it real quick. And that’s what we did through that track.
But then the following work, uh, after that at Miami in 2016, Unknown to me. He, he put like in one of his slides, like a, um, let’s see, hold on a second here.
I’m gonna put it in our chat so you can take a look. He took a screenshot of the, yeah, thanks. You can s if you’re gonna laugh, okay. Mute yourself. Thank you. Everybody right now is, God, I hate you all. That’s a lot of hair gel. David. The sad part is it’s not hair gel. The, the point is, is that he took a schedule of where Camp Miami and he put it up there, which was fine cuz he wanted to feature p you know, us getting into JavaScript and listening to his advice every year earlier.
But that he found the worst possible picture of me and put it next to it. Now that’s bad for two reasons. One, because that’s not, I don’t think a representative of War Camp Miami cuz it wasn’t just me. Um. Other organizers were involved, but two, that was just a bad picture. And I remember you look so happy.
Well, I was young and I, I don’t know if I had kids back then, but the point is, the point is, is that I was in the audience and I saw it and I was live tweeting at the time and like, you know, I almost had to change my pants. It was, it was just the moment. And I c it was just the, probably the most embarrassing.
And I had people looking at me going like, man, you, you look just as just like that guy. And I’m going, yeah, that’s me. And uh, but so I got to be on a slide, just, you know, next time, you know, I wish my PR people would, would’ve coordinated with his PR people. So anyway, I’ll include a link to that picture in the show notes.
But that was probably like the work camp 2016 I got on a slide and I don’t think that’s gonna happen twice. So that’ll be etched in history. I’ll never get a better picture. Yeah, I look better. You know, we could use another slide. But anyway, that’s, that was my story. All right. So we went from us. We, so we, we went from 2019.
All of these were work camp uss, of course, except for San Francisco in 2014. So I think that’s not a surprise there. Um, actually 2020 was virtual, so not, not work camp us. So anyway, that was, that was fun. Now as we wrap things up here, is there, I’m gonna go in order one last time or one last time. If there’s anything real quick you wanna bring up, just like we can’t be as detailed as we were before.
There’s gonna be rapid fires. Is there anything that we didn’t bring up one or two quick memories that didn’t fit into these categories? Aruba, we’ll start with you.
Aurooba Ahmed: Hmm. I can’t think of anything. I am very happy to not have gotten sniped and got all my memories in.
David Bisset: Okay, that’s fine. If, if you’ve got, if, if you’re happy, I’m happy.
Sarah, is there anything that, that’s, that, uh, you. That didn’t fit into those categories you’ve covered over the years that,
Sarah Gooding: uh, I have more that do fit into the categories, but, um, nothing outside categories. Uh, I had a couple other links that I thought were interesting, um, that were, that actually happened at WordCamp Europe.
Um, in 2017 in, in Paris. Matt announced that the Gutenberg plugin was ready for testing. And I thought it was kind of, kind of cool because he hadn’t been doing big announcements at WordCamp Europe. I mean, he was, he would usually save all the big announcements for WordCamp us. So that was like a major thing that the European WordPress community got to be first in on, or, you know, they got to hear the news first.
And then in, um, the next year, like one year later, I think it was June, 2018 when he unveiled the roadmap for how Gutenberg was getting into core. And it was just like months away, which started like every, all the people, um, were just scrambling to get ready at that point because he was like, okay, here it comes, we’re gonna go for it in 5.0.
And um, and that was an exciting time. I remember I contacted probably like 10 or 15 different people who had freelance businesses or agencies, and I said, what, what are y’all doing to get ready? And then I, I wrote this post about morphine. You know, some of, some people were like, I’m just gonna wait and see and I’ll see if anyone likes this block editor or not, and then maybe I’ll update.
David Bisset: Some people are still doing that.
Sarah Gooding: And then, you know, and then there are others who were like, oh, we’ve already dedicated an entire team to get us ready for Gutenberg. And we’re, we’re already, you know, they’re giving a very good, uh, just very good PR as far as their readiness for it. And, uh, that was a fun time.
So I thought that was cool that he saved, he had given both of those big announcements at WordCamp Europe years later. Once that was just, it was established as just, I think it was the biggest WordCamp for a long time.
David Bisset: Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. So, Jess, Jess, anything we missed?
Jess Frick: This might, this is probably gonna sound way cheesy when I say it than it is in
David Bisset: my head.
You’re on a panel with me. You’re safe because I’ll Okay, cool. Standing next to me, you are the opposite of cheese. What?
Jess Frick: So, you know, uh, Mr. Rogers, you know, he’s quoted as saying, you know, when he was afraid his mom would tell him to look for the helpers. And when I think about the history of WordPress, I think about the people in the community and the countless, you know, GoFundMe and somebody gets sick and they can’t work, or their kid gets hurt, or, you know, during C O V I D when so many different things were upside down.
And, you know, we’ve talked a lot about the really cool, about the really technology, but what’s been amazing to me is to see people that have come together over the years and all the cool things that they’re doing, um, to support one another. Um, even as recently as like last week, everybody was pitching in to help somebody who somehow found themselves homeless.
You know, it’s, it’s been really, really cool to see so many good people join together under the umbrella and all the good that we do for open source and personal. I told you it was gonna sound kind of cheesy. Uh, but I mean it,
David Bisset: Well, I, there’s so many different aspects of the WordPress community that could fit into, um, Kim Parsons is, do I have that name right?
Yes. Okay. Sh not the first ex, not the first example of, of a member of the community passing away, but I bel But it was, it was, she was well known by a lot of people and which started the, um, the WordCamp Scholarship. Scholarship. Right. I’m sorry. Thanks. Mm-hmm. Thanks. So, but she is just one example of so many, like we have scholarships for, for, for diversities now, now for other people.
There was, um, the, I can think of a half a dozen people that have passed away over the years too, that have gotten there every year. We remember them. Um, and that’s very kind of, Very unique for a community for to do something like that even on, um, regardless of the scale. So yeah, the community really kind of pitches together.
And we also kinda have fun too. We, we, we do podcasts like this, um, you know, you know, of our own free will except for that one person and blackmailing to be on this panel today. But other than that, we’re doing this because we are a tight-knit community. So, yeah, I think that’s great. I think that’s a great thing to keep in mind over the past 20 years, you know, and there’s, there’s, there’s drama, but I mean, it’s, it’s, we’re we’re still a collective group for the most part.
Um, so finally, uh, my
Jess Frick: Sarah mentioned earlier. People are growing up together.
David Bisset: Yeah. Bringing ki bringing their own kids to work camps. Right. Somebody, some, somebody supposedly conceived one at work camp I am at don’t that, so that’s not at the event. I meant during the weekend. Okay, we’re gonna have to edit that one out.
All right, moving on.
Aurooba Ahmed: Wait, wait. I take it back. There is one like length thing that I wanted to talk about
David Bisset: Uhoh, and that was when her eyes lit up. When soon as I started talking about conceiving children at work camps, her eyes lit up. You’re gonna have to go. Go ahead. Go ahead. You’ll ahead Back over.
Yeah.
Aurooba Ahmed: Yeah. Um, that was when Woo Commerce joined WordPress. That was a moment. Oh, it was a big moment, right? Because Woo. Commerce like woo themes, they were doing so well and they had become fast, become the fast, like the most popular e-commerce system in. Like e everywhere on the web and then automatic, uh, it was like the one, like a really big notable acquisition from Automatic before that there, I don’t know, I have no idea actually if they had done any other acquisitions before then.
But that one was like, it started the train of acquisitions a little bit and it was like, oh, we were Democrat democratizing publishing and now we’re democratizing e-commerce. And now it’s like democratizing like all kinds of other things, social media, et cetera. Right. But WooCommerce really, really began that sort of, um, moment in time.
Right. For automatic and like how it affected all of us in the WordPress community,
David Bisset: uh, au Speaking of acquisitions, I, you can’t go with 20 years of WordPress without talking about the acquisitions that’ve made in the last decade. Right. We saw the first decade of all these people that were starting companies like, um, like, um, Saed, Saed Automotive, but also Pippin and mm-hmm.
Uh, like all these people who I’m drawing punks on right now, the first 10 years you would see them at the work camps and then most of them have moved on or sold their businesses or become acquired. And who’s, you know, the last, especially the last five or six years, so many WordPress companies that we saw give birth in the early part of the WordPress days now are more mature or they’ve been absorbed into larger companies and people that were working out of their basements are now like managing like dozens of people at height level companies, um, and, and the hosting companies too.
Right? Remember when hosting was so immature in the 20, uh, in the early days? Oh, yeah. And, uh, acquisitions. I, when you, when you said that I remember, um, I think it’s more recent, but in August of 2019, Tumblr Joint Automatic, which was huge. And yes, I think we still have to see the ultimate fruits of that labor because we’re starting to see Gutenberg and Tumblr now.
Mm-hmm.
Aurooba Ahmed: And in day one, which was in the news pretty recently as well, the journaling app.
David Bisset: Yeah. So, and then I think that if anything is going to outlive, like what Matt said, if anything’s gonna outlive WordPress, it’s gonna be Gutenberg. Right. That’s, that’s, that’s the ultimate. So it’s so exciting to see how automatic is automatic’s non WordPress business.
Not directly. We used to think of word of automatic as wordpress.com, but over the years with its acquisitions, it’s, it’s now, it’s now so much more, but it’s affecting WordPress in ways that we never, I didn’t think we are, would realize, uh, 10 or 15 years ago. So, Micra, are you with us?
Maestro Stevens: I am back. Sorry about that.
My computer is freezing, so I had to restart it.
David Bisset: No problem, sir.
Maestro Stevens: It’s overheating.
David Bisset: Oh yeah, you’re, you’re, you’re just too hot. All right. So, Hmm. Okay. I’m gonna have to, I wanna, wanna bet with my wife just now. Just thought I’d let you know. Um, said something like that. All right. So maestro, uh, bring it home for us.
Is there anything about, uh, that we may not have, uh, touched on tonight in terms of your, of, of terms, of things in the WordPress history, especially from your perspective?
Maestro Stevens: I can’t think of anything. I think that we’ve touched on mostly everything I would say for me specifically, uh, back in 2020 when I was introduced to, um, o one of one of the plugins, themes and, and, uh, block plugins that I use in cadence, it was a very, um, revolutionary experience for me.
To say the least. I was using Elementor, I was using a page builder before then. People were talking a lot of crap about Gutenberg, a lot of controversy. I’m just keeping it real with you. Um, people were saying it was ready, it wasn’t ready. And then, um, you know, after testing a whole bunch of different, um, plug-ins and themes and they’re all, you know, a whole bunch of are, are so great.
But if I wanted to invest into an ecosystem, kind of like Apple, unfortunately, I thought my investment with Apple kind of suck right now. Cause I’m like, I got this expensive computer that just overheated, but I digressed. Um, uh, it was keep blowing. That changed everything.
David Bisset: Well, thanks. Okay.
Maestro Stevens: Yeah. That changed everything for me.
David Bisset: Well, that’s fantastic. Well, I mean, I think you’re, I I think we have a very good representation here and, and you especially because you’re coming in on the last couple of years and seeing it from that kind of different perspective with those kinds of eyes. Um, Is kind of, kind of now in 20 years, we’ll, we’ll be able to get from your point of view in like the mid midterm, you know, like the, the golden years, not the golden years.
The, uh, kind of a golden age we’re entering into, uh, WordPress right now. So very, very excited to have you back along with everyone else in a few years and see, and see if your MacBook survives so we can talk to you a little bit more. So I wanted to, I What’s that?
Maestro Stevens: Just, um, just to touch on what you just said real quick, I think that, um, based on what everybody has talked about, cause you just made a good point.
So if I can give any context, like I’m not an old schooler here, so I’m really trying to help with different type of, um, generation and new type of people. I’m just keeping them 100% honest with you. That’s the way, reason why I’m, I’m, I coin myself and I’m called the fresh Prince of WordPress because I’m trying to give a fresh perspective.
Oh, a lot people have no idea.
David Bisset: Does that make me the, um, Carlton I.
Maestro Stevens: Uh, that was a good one. I see where you’re going with that one. I know Will Smith here. I don’t slap people. Alright. Um, but still, uh, the whole point was is that people don’t know that it has evolved a lot and there is a lot of people trying to enter into, uh, WordPress without that understanding that it’s not what it used to be.
So I love having conversations with people like you all, cause I get both perspectives. I get people who have been there for 10, 20 years. Like if you have never heard of it trying to get it in and they’re like, I can’t do all that development stuff and all that code stuff and all that, and I have to teach them.
Like, it’s not that it’s not the same, you have that opportunity, but it’s not that. So I think that this is fun.
David Bisset: Yeah. And I, I. Maister and I, this is the first time we’ve been face-to-face. I, he actually reached out to an invitation that I left on Black Press, which again is one of the many examples of how the community is trying to address, um, all the different aspects of that it, that it can in terms of diversity and outreach and finding new people, young, old, whatever.
And I really appreciate you reaching out to me through there. Um, It’s, it’s great to have all these different kinds of channels. Um, at least it it, because not everybody is on post status. Not everybody is on Twitter. Not everybody is here for various reasons. We can only, we can only be in so many channels at once.
Right. And it’s personal to us. So, you know, I’m in my channels because it mean, you know, it’s because of me. My, my livelihood, my background. I’m in these certain places. I can’t be everywhere. And everybody else is different. But we overlap in such ways that finding you in finding you in that area was, was, was a very, very, very thankful that you reached out.
Um, cuz otherwise we wouldn’t have that kind of perspective and viewpoint from from, from that. So, anyway, I’m gonna go around and we’re just gonna close out. It was great having you all. And I want you, you can mention where people can find you on social or, you know, or, or, or whatever you wanna mention to bring up.
We’ll, we’ll start with Rupa first.
Aurooba Ahmed: All right. Well, I’m at Aruba pretty much everywhere, including a website, aruba.com. I’m also the co-host of a fun dev focused, uh, podcast called View Source, if you wanna check that out. View source.fm. And that’s me,
David Bisset: Sarah. Uh, it’s nice to meet you. I appreciate you Ruba coming on.
And I, I don’t mean to rush. I’m just, you get nervous when, when things close down and, um, you know that my kids are still locked in that closet and I, cuz and I really do need to feed them. So I’m, I’m not, I’m not pushing this along, uh, um, by, on purpose, but, you know, I’m getting a little nervous. Um, Sarah, I don’t know where, where people can find you.
Can you help me out on that?
Sarah Gooding: Uh, you can always find me at the tavern wp tavern.com and I’m on Twitter at Poly Plummer. I’m on Mastodon, Facebook, Strava. I’m on almost every social network, so get ahold of me any way you want. Slack. Um, I’m on post status and then the WordPress
David Bisset: Slack. Yes, I’m on a lot too.
Anything that doesn’t have my family, I’m there. I just wanna also say too special call out to WP Tavern. As far as l i when, I don’t know when it, I forget when it was established, but it was so early on. I think it’s, I think WP 2009, it is practically part of WordPress history. It should be put on a podium in terms of, of WordPress history media.
I think the tavern is, is top of that list. So I really, Sarah, you, we all the WordPress community kind of owes you a debt of gratitude. I know it’s not an easy job, believe me, I know Jeff was the one who, who started, we’re gonna have ’em on, on, on the other, on the other podcast. But you have been so instrumental over the years.
The entire publication has been instrumental over the years, covering the highs and the lows and the detail for the articles. You did a, did a terrific job. I’ll think Jeff on the other one. But I wanted to thank you personally here. You’ve been so much a part of the WordPress history just as much as the community and WordPress has.
Sarah Gooding: So thank you David. I appreciate that.
David Bisset: Thanks for that. Um, Jess, where people can find you. Oh God, I’m starting to sound like Yoda. That was barely a sentence.
Jess Frick: It was great.
David Bisset: Where people find you bee,
Jess Frick: where people find me bee, pressable.com, uh, pressable.com for work. Um, you can find me on the socials at renew.
Be, and I dunno, like, like the other ladies, I’m pretty much everywhere, so not hard to find. Okay. Not too many Jessica Fricks running around in WordPress. Oh, well that’s, that probab not too many Fricks in general, but
David Bisset: if, if I had enough energy, I could comment on that. Maestro. I know, Maestro,
Jess Frick: I tune it up for you.
David Bisset: Thank you. And I missed as usual, Maestro, where can people find you?
Maestro Stevens: I’ll piggyback off of Jessica. There’s not many people with the name Maestro Stevens. So if you Google me, I’m the one and only, um, and if you wanna find me, just look for me on LinkedIn.
David Bisset: Okay, that’s fine. Fantastic. You’re avoiding most of the socials like I should be doing right now.
I, and, um, I, if anybody wants to find me, um, as long as you’re not delivering papers to me, my, uh, you can find me, um, at david bi.com or David bi.social. Um, that’s where I pull all my social media into one WordPress website. So in case. Certain social media websites cease to exist, at least my post will be there.
You can also find me on post status and, um, I am doing a little, uh, news website called WP front.page. So, uh, with WordPress News with my daughter as we experiment. A little bit of that, if that’s, you may be able to, that still might be around by the time you listen to this, so go ahead and check that out.
Again, I want to thank my, my panelists. You’ve been great sports. We’re gonna have links to everything they talked about in the show notes for this. Um, and thanks again everybody. Thank you. All right, you have fun.
Today is a little bit of a departure for the podcast. It’s an episode all about the last 20 years of WordPress.
You’re going to hear a round table discussion with four WordPressers talking about their thoughts on the last 20 years. It features Sarah Gooding, Aurooba Ahmed, Masestro Stevens and Jess Frick, with David Bisset as the discussion moderator.
They cover many topics, and it’s great to hear so many varied opinions about what’s been of importance in the evolution of WordPress.
Notes from David Bisset:
To honor WordPress’s 20th anniversary I sit down with four community members to talk about some highlights in its history.
Primary topics include:
Guests also share other moments that stood out to them and what the future might hold.
https://vancouver.wordcamp.org/2012/
Memorable WordPress release:
https://wordpress.org/documentation/wordpress-version/version-3-0/
Memorable WordCamp:
https://calgary.wordcamp.org/2016/
Memorable SOW:
https://wordpress.org/news/2019/12/state-of-the-word-the-story-of-the-slides/
Presentation was made in Gutenberg:
https://videopress.com/v/0uD813PN?at=2398
The WooCommerce acquisition:
https://ma.tt/2015/05/woomattic/
Sarah’s talk at BuddyCamp:
https://twitter.com/buddycampyvr/status/251181980731985920
Phase 3 deets in SOW:
https://www.youtube.com/live/QI3qCoiuG3w?feature=share&t=297
WP 5.6 all-women and non-binary identifying release squad:
https://wordpress.org/news/2020/12/simone/
Orlando WordCamp 2015:
https://orlando.wordcamp.org/2015/
Orlando WordCamp 2018:
https://orlando.wordcamp.org/2018/
State of the Word 2018:
https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2018-wordpress-embraces-the-block-editor
WordPress Marketing Problem:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=7x74kWqWMDY&t=2545
Modern marketing with WordPress for minority-owned businesses:
https://wordpress.tv/2021/05/28/maestro-stevens-modern-marketing-with-wordpress-for-minority-owned-businesses/
How Savvy Entrepreneurs Automate WordPress Maintenance Tasks with Maestro Stevens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_rft3t-HMM&pp=ygUYbWFlc3RybyBzdGV2ZW5zIHdvcmRjYW1w
For our first Woo AgencyChat, Krešimir brings some really cool insights and experiences working with enterprise clients with WooCommerce.
>> The post Woo AgencyChat with Krešimir Končić from Neuralab appeared first on Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community .
WordPress 6.2.1 was released yesterday and rolled out to sites with automatic background updates enabled. The update included five important security fixes. Ordinarily, a maintenance and security release can be trusted not to break a website, but many users are struggling after 6.2.1 removed shortcode support from block templates.
A support forum thread tracking the broken shortcodes issue shows that this change impacts how plugins display things like breadcrumbs, newsletter signup forms, WPForms, Metaslider, bbPress content, and more. The problem affects template blocks, not sites that are using non-FSE themes.
“It’s absolutely insane to me that shortcodes have been removed by design!” @camknight said in the support forum discussion. “Every single one of our agency’s FSE sites uses the shortcode block in templates for everything: filters, search, ACF & plugin integrations. This is chaos!!”
Another user, @asjl, reports having this update break hundreds of pages.
“I’ve got the same problem on over 600 pages which use five or six different templates with shortcodes in each template on one site and similar things on several others,” @asjl said.
“I’m looking forward to editing each of those pages to get the shortcode back in place. Or backtracking to 6.2 and turning off updates.”
It’s not clear why shortcode blocks that are in block theme template parts still work, but this is one workaround that has been suggested to users. In a trac ticket for the issue others have suggested adding a PHP file for a plugin called “Shortcode Fix” to the plugins folder, but this workaround reintroduces the security issue.
Other users are being forced to revert to previous insecure versions of WordPress in order to keep critical functionality on their sites working. WordPress developer Oliver Campion commented on the Trac ticket with more details about how sites are currently using shortcodes in templates:
This update has been nothing short of a disaster. I cannot understand how there was no warning of such a destructive, automatic roll out!
We have managed to rollback affected sites to v6.2 and block automatic core updates until there is a suitable solution, which we hope is imminent due to the reported security issues!
Shortcode Blocks, in our opinion, are absolutely essential to the design process when using Block Themes.
We use them to inject classic menus that can have dynamic menu items (such as sign out), dynamic header content, specialized loops and footer content that’s as simple as showing the current year in the copyright statement to showing a contact form or other such dynamic content. And that’s just what I can think of from the top of my head.
An unfortunate consequence of this update is that it has destroyed many users’ confidence in WordPress’ automatic updates. This kind of breaking change should never happen in a release that auto installs overnight.
Even if it’s absolutely necessary to avoid a zero-day vulnerability on WordPress sites, discontinued shortcode support in block templates should have been accompanied with more information to help affected users find a solution.
The only communication users received about this was a short, inadequate note on the vulnerability in the 6.2.1 release post “Block themes parsing shortcodes in user generated data.”
Fixing all of these shortcode uses on websites that heavily rely on them would already have been a challenge for many, even with advance notice. Shipping this breaking change in an automatic update, without a proper explanation of how it impacts users, only served to twist the knife.
During today’s core dev meeting, WordPress 6.2.1 co-release lead Jb Audras said this issue may prompt a quick 6.2.2 release but the details are not yet available.
“As you may know, one security fix led to an important issue with shortcodes used in templates,” Audras said. “The issue is currently actively discussed in the Security Editor team, and some hypothesis have been made to sort this out in a quick follow-up release.
“No schedule available for now – it will depend on the follow-up patch currently discussed by the Editor team.”
In the meantime, those who cannot employ a workaround and are looking to rollback to 6.2 can can use the WP Downgrade plugin as a temporary fix, with the knowledge that this leaves the site vulnerable until a permanent solution can be put in place.
Hello, here‘s the third post of our series about the new direction we plan to take regarding plugin maintenance and evolutions. In our first post we shared with you our new purpose « Get together safely, in your own way, in WordPress »; in our second post we talked about how we think we can better organize the BuddyPress plugin. Let’s see how the feedback you shared with us here & there contributed to the BuddyPress features roadmap we‘re thinking about tackling in 2023 & 2024.
Have I told you, we absolutely need to build some privacy features 
?
Considering the WP Blocks API, I’ve personally been following the great work the Gutenberg team has accomplished since WordCamp Europe 2017. I was in the huge room when Matt announced the feature as a plugin was ready to be tested; it’s a game changer and I’m totally in favor of going full blocks in BuddyPress.
I believe, as a WordPress plugin, we need to be exemplary, making sure BuddyPress is playing as nicely as possible with the Gutenberg project improvements progressively included in WordPress Core.
We already have a dozen of blocks available across our components, and, although we’re not currently fully enjoying Block templates, we have made sure you can safely activate Block themes and carry on having your community content injected into this next generation of templates thanks to our dear BP Theme Compatibility API.
We’ll make 2 or 3 more significant steps in 2023 in the « Blocks » direction with our Attachment Add-on, an Activity editor based on the WP Block API, and, if we can increase the time & energy contributors can dedicate to BuddyPress, we’ll build a brand new & modern BuddyPress block theme 
before the end of next year.
This last point is a very important step as you’ll be able to customize your community pages within the Site Editor of your WordPress dashboard. I’m convinced the faster we « blockify » BuddyPress, the sooner we’ll differentiate ourselves fromour competitors. If you’re a theme designer or interested in theming community sites, join us to explore new territory: contribute to the next BuddyPress Block theme.
About the follow, likes or a better performing favorite features, the team is 
interested about being able to provide a solid API to establish relationships between a wide variety of objects (users,posts, activities, groups, etc…), we thought we could have put something together about it to implement a follow functionality but unfortunately the project leader had no available time to make it happen. Who’s volunteering to take this over?
More globally, I can ensure you all, we’re fully open to building great new features 
. We can provide tools, expertise, code reviews or simply code, experience, etc, but we do need a lot more contributor time, energy & motivation (in particular we need newcomers).
Using our new way of BuddyPressing: a more compact Core plugin and external Add-ons, we have the freedom to code without overthinking about whether it should be included into Core or not.
Our next post of this series will go deeper into the BuddyPress user interfaces (theme / administration / mobile) your feedback confirmed we should improve.
Props: many thanks to @dcavins for his review 
[00:00:00] Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.
Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case how the Fediverse can be integrated with your WordPress website.
If you’d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast, player of choice. Or by going to WPTavern.com forward slash feed forward slash podcast. And you can copy that URL into most podcast players.
If you have a topic that you’d like us to feature on the show, I’m very keen to hear from you and hopefully get you all your idea featured soon.
Head over to WPTavern.com forward slash contact forward slash jute box and use the form there.
So on the podcast today we have Alex Standiford. He’s a web developer originally from Dover, Ohio, and has been tinkering with web technologies for years, but started his career as a web developer in 2015. He’s a digital nomad, living in a camper with his family for the last three years.
Alex has built WordPress plugins, websites and web applications, and is an active contributor to the WordPress community, making updates to documentation errors and participating in the organization of WordCamps.
If you’re a user of social media, it’s likely that at some point you’ve signed up for platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and possibly one of the many other options out there. These platforms enable you to post content and have it seen by people all over the world. In effect, this is what your WordPress website does. But we all know that social media has managed to replace the traditional blog for many people. The notion of writing a blog post can seem like a lengthy enterprise. Whereas a social media post is often quicker to write and gets pushed to the platforms users automatically.
In the podcast, Alex explains how he’s noticed the shift over time in his own content creation. He’s put less effort into his WordPress site and has posted most of his ideas on social platforms.
This however is something that Alex has decided to stop doing. For a variety of reasons, he wants to take back control of his own content and make his website the centerpiece of his endeavors.
Recently, Alex stumbled upon Mastodon. It’s an open source platform which is built on top of the ActivityPub protocol. ActivityPub allows anyone to create their own social networking software, which can interact with any other software using ActivityPub. This is what Mastodon on is, but as you’ll hear, it’s not the only software. There are many flavors of ActivityPub, which can all communicate with one another. And this ecosystem is broadly called the Fediverse.
Alex talks about why he’s decided to delete many of his old social media accounts in favor of open solutions. And how he’s using plugins and his own coding skills to make it possible for crossposting of posts and comments between Mastodon on and his WordPress site.
It’s a really interesting conversation about the recent surge in popularity of these distributed social networks, and how WordPress can become a first class citizen in your digital life; so much more than just a website.
If you’re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to WPTavern.com forward slash podcast. Where you’ll find all the other episodes as well.
And so without further delay, I bring you Alex Standiford.
I am joined on the podcast today by Alex Standiford. How are you doing, Alex?
[00:04:33] Alex Standiford: I’m great, Nathan, thanks.
[00:04:35] Nathan Wrigley: This is going to be a conversation which is really up my street. It may be a new project for you if you are listening to this, but it may be something that you are familiar with but haven’t really dug into.
Over the last six months or so, I’m going to say, there’s been a real interest in Mastodon as an alternative social network to Twitter. For a variety of reasons people have brought into question in their own minds whether or not they want to migrate to a different platform. And Mastodon, as we’re going to find out, is one such platform.
Alex has been doing an awful lot of thinking about how this may work, and combining all of that work with WordPress. But before we get stuck into the weeds of that, Alex, I wonder if you wouldn’t mind giving us a few moments just to orientate people. Tell us who you are. What company you work for. What projects you’ve been on. How are you in any way related to WordPress.
[00:05:34] Alex Standiford: Sure. My name’s Alex. I’ve been a WordPress developer since 2014. A WordPress user since 2009. I travel full-time with my family and a camper. We go all over the country. We’ve been doing it for about three years now. And I work for GoDaddy full-time, and then every once in a while I’ll take on fun little freelance gigs, I call snacks. But aside from that, it’s mostly just full-time working for GoDaddy and traveling the country, the United States that is. And, you know, thinking about the Fediverse.
[00:06:03] Nathan Wrigley: Do you want to just encapsulate what the Fediverse is because, I think many people, this may be a new term. It really doesn’t encapsulate particularly well what it is. So, first question I guess is what is the Fediverse?
[00:06:17] Alex Standiford: I kind of wonder if in 10 years they’re going to look at it, that phrase, in the same way that we looked at the phrase blogosphere, right? Blogosphere, like a while back. It’s similar to that in a lot of ways. So basically it’s just where people are, connecting and able to talk to each other socially. Similar to the way that, back then, with a blog post would work. Where you write a blog post and you add an RSS feed and those feeds would integrate with each other and they would like aggregate on different aggregator sites and things like that. Like it was all a part of this way to share content, right?
Today, there’s this newer approach that has the same goal as that, but instead of it using aggregators and RSS feeds, it’s using a specific protocol that allows all of these different social media platforms to communicate with each other. So you can be on a social media platform that kind of looks like Twitter and you can publish something. And somebody who prefers to use a social media platform that works kind of like Instagram can still see it and interact with it completely.
And there’s been a lot of push, and interest in this. Actually Automattic just bought a plugin that would allow WordPress to actually integrate and become a part of this system too. So it would basically align with that protocol, and make it possible to allow a WordPress post to be seen natively on anybody’s social media account, as long as they’re a part of, as long as whatever system they’re using uses that protocol.
So again, if I publish something on WordPress, somebody who’s using a Twitter like experience for social media, could see that post. Respond to it through their app, through their social media account, and it would actually read as a reply on that blog post as a comment. And that if you responded to it, it would then turn around and go back to that person’s post and send them a response. So it allows you to kind of integrate these different ways of publishing content all together with a single cohesive approach.
[00:08:16] Nathan Wrigley: So I guess Fedi is short for Federation, and the idea is that you can combine multiple different outlets, multiple different sources, and have them all communicating with each other. Now, it’s interesting, you mentioned Twitter a couple of times there. You said Twitter like, and I guess that’s an important distinction to draw.
If we were to rewind the clock, let’s say 15 years, I think it’s fairly likely that many of us, if we were into technology and into the internet, our reach there probably would’ve been our own website, our own blog. And we would’ve written content there. And that worked. And as you said, there were ways of connecting your content with other people’s content, but it was log into website, click publish, and you’re done.
But slowly the march of convenience and what became known as social media, really, I think for many people, made that something that they didn’t want to bother in. Because all of a sudden they discovered that all of their friends, relations, colleagues, everybody, were beginning to talk about these proprietary platforms.
We may talk about Facebook or Twitter, but everybody moved over there and the convenience was, well, everybody’s there. So you can post things and it can be seen by your friends, colleagues, relations, but it can also be seen by complete strangers. So you have that capability.
But this seems to be a reaction to that. Now, it may not be, it may be that this technology, the Fediverse and what underpins it, it is just as old. I don’t know, hopefully you can answer that. But it does seem to be a reaction to that because it has certain different characteristics and features which may be of interest to people who are getting, for want of a better word, fed up with traditional social media. So, I don’t know if you’ve got anything to add to that?
[00:10:06] Alex Standiford: Yeah, so that’s pretty much right. So the ActivityPub protocol, it’s not as old, it’s newer. But it’s still several years old. But it’s relatively new compared to the other technologies you’re talking about there. A lot of the reason why it was created was exactly that.
The fact that people don’t want to be isolated and in these individual silos. They want to be able to break out of that and talk to each other. And we kind of lost that between 2007 and 2012, right? Like right at that time where Facebook and Twitter and this true sense of social media really exploded was right at the same time as WordPress blogging was exploding.
And they were all kind of feeding off of each other. And WordPress was, and always has been very open-minded and open focused. It wants to integrate. It wants to be a part of the party. But it doesn’t necessarily want to take over. And then you had all these other social media platforms that we’re doing the opposite of that. They want to take over and they did, right.
So eventually it got to the point to where, you know, you’re not even publishing content on your blog anymore, you’re just publishing it directly on Twitter or something like that. Because a tweet doesn’t make sense. If you think about it, the original, one of the original intents of a tweet was for it to be this ephemeral, quick little update.
It wasn’t really of any serious significant consequence. It was just a little update to let people know, to be in support of blog posts or something that was a longer form that you would write, like an essay or something related to things. Say you’re going on a trip somewhere and you’re publishing tweets, right? I call them micro posts now because I’ve generalized the term.
And you’re sending out four or five tweets throughout the day, as you’re doing things and having this experience. It’s almost like you’re micro blogging, right? That’s literally what it was called. But the idea was that you would then come back and take all that stuff and put it on your blog as a single cohesive complete blog post. But people just stopped doing that. They just skipped that step, right?
So they would just publish these little tweets, and then all of a sudden WordPress became more of a marketing tool than it did a personal tool to be able to provide personal updates. And that’s kind of a big thing that I’ve been thinking about lately is like, how can we make WordPress personal again?
Because a lot of the people who are using it now are companies, right, businesses. And that’s great. That’s an amazing facet of it. But if you look at just WordPress, if you just install WordPress and you just use it as a publishing platform for yourself, it is truly delightful.
Even the block editor and everything about it. If you just take everything away and, you know, you’re not trying to install WooCommerce, or Yoast SEO or all these other fancy plugins or anything, anything at all. You’re just installing WordPress and you’re just using it to publish content.
It is actually really awesome. And we’ve gotten away from that a lot, and I think that this social media stuff and being able to change how we look at our blog can allow us to, not only make more use of our own personal site, but it’ll also allow us to be able to prioritize the content on our site as well.
[00:13:01] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, we’ll come to all of those different pieces. But one of the things that occurs to me, when people talk about WordPress and building websites on top of WordPress, one of the things that is often touted is, you need to own your content. It needs to be yours. You don’t want to be behind some sort of gatekeeper who you have no control over. So in the event that that website or that service is shut down, then all of your content disappears.
And although we’ve seemed to have settled down, there’s three or four different rival proprietary social networks out there, which have seemed to have got to the point where they’re economically sustainable In that journey, I must have signed up to a dozen or more social networks, in air quotes, that just collapsed. You know, they didn’t make it, and any content that I put there disappeared.
So there’s that. But I totally get the point that you make about the fact that people have stopped using, or stopped thinking about using their WordPress website as the centerpiece of all of their content.
After all, why not just go to Facebook, Twitter, et cetera, and post it there because the audience is already ready made. All of the people are there. But the piece in the jigsaw, which I feel is the clincher for many people who enjoy the Fediverse is the desire to shun the algorithm which is now in existence on those platforms.
So if you went to the original Facebook and the original Twitter, you had a very different experience to the one that you have now. Now it’s, there’s a very complicated algorithm, which in all honesty, I doubt many people understand. But it’s able to put content in front of you, and I guess some people begin to question, well, why that piece of content? Is it because I’m really likely to be genuinely interested in that?
Or is it because that piece of content is likely to engage me further, suck me in further, and make me stay here for a bit longer? And certainly in my life, I’ve noticed that you get to the end of the day and you analyze what you’ve achieved that day. And many, many times I’ve thought to myself, well, I probably spent quite a lot of that day scrolling through things that ultimately I didn’t want to see, but the algorithm is so sublimely good, that I’ve ended up staying there.
So there’s that piece as well. There’s that piece, that wish to get away from the algorithm. And so the Fediverse, or at least the technology behind the Fediverse that I’ve seen thus far, really pushes away the algorithm. It’s not that. It’s a linear feed of content and it comprises only of the people that you follow.
There’s no clever system trying to game your attention. It’s just here’s what you’ve subscribed to follow. If you unfollow people, you see nothing. And if you follow people, you see their things.
[00:15:46] Alex Standiford: Right. I heard somebody refer to Twitter as a content refinery. Or not just Twitter, but all the major ones. So Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, all these, as a content refinery. They’re not necessarily there to give you the content you want. They’re there to just give you content. And sometimes that’s not a bad thing.
I think Chris Coyier, he posted something not long ago that was a really good, I thought it was a really good perspective on it. He said that sometimes he wants the intentional read. He wants the intentional RSS feed and the non algorithmic approach, right? Where it’s like, this is what I want to look at. I want to be intentional with my choices here. But it’s a more high energy take on consumption.
And then he said, but there’s also times where I’m like, I’ve worked all day. I’m exhausted. And I want to just sit down and chill and watch some funny epic fails on Instagram and scroll for 45 minutes or so. It’s like low energy. It’s like, I’m letting the algorithm just entertain me, right?
And that’s not any different than channel surfing or anything like that from the past. But I think it has a place, and I think it’s separate from where you read your newspaper. They’re two different things. So, I’m not necessarily opposed to the idea of an algorithm in Mastodon even. I just don’t think, I don’t like that it’s black box. I want to know how it works. I want to be able to control it and customize it to suit my needs. It should be a tool, not a thing that shoved on me.
[00:17:08] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah. It is interesting because I imagine there’s a proportion of people listening to this who will not have heard of the Fediverse and think, oh, that’s curious. Okay, I’m interested in exploring that. And equally, there’ll be a whole bunch of people who say, well, I’m very happy with the way that Twitter and Facebook and so on serve me content at the moment. It works to my needs and, there’s no sense of pushing one thing over another, but I guess the impetus of this episode is to explain a little bit about how all that works.
Which leads perfectly to that question. How does this technology work? What is underpinning it? You mentioned ActivityPub, but also I suppose we should get into the whole disparate nature of it. The fact that this is not one thing. It’s a bunch of people owning servers independently who connect together. So, if you could get into the how it works piece, that would be good.
[00:17:56] Alex Standiford: Sure. So, like I said earlier, all of these different social media, pieces of social media software, right? So a Twitter like experience, Instagram like experience, a Facebook like experience, a Medium even, just Medium actually, but different places. They all ultimately integrate with a protocol called ActivityPub.
And basically to put it really simple, it’s a standardized way to be able to communicate between these things. So it’s kind of like REST API, but also on top of that, there’s this very specific set of ways to describe content. It’s kinda like RSS. A lot like RSS in that way where, you know, an RSS feed it has a content tag and a title tag and an author tag. Everybody can use these however you see fit. Whatever fits best for you. Whatever your content is in that spot, put it there.
And it works in that same way, but it also, on top of the consumption perspective, it also works with the ability to be able to interact as well. So it’s a better version of that. So you end up with other standardized things to be able to like describe a response to this and describe what the content is, and the body and all those other details. I could get into the, more of the complexities of it beyond that, but that’s the gist.
So you have this protocol and then Mastodon, which is the Twitter like experience, uses this platform to be able to just talk to the other platforms. Pixelfed, for example, for an Instagram like experience. Or PeerTube even for YouTube.
So you have all these different ones and then, each one of these, that’s just the software, right? So if you think about it like WordPress, because even WordPress can fit into this category too, of different pieces of software that work with the ActivityPub. But you still need hosting. You still need to be able to host it, right?
So some of these software, they’re built to work like Twitter or Instagram, where it’s one server and it’s hosting thousands of people. And obviously it’s impractical. One server can’t hold the entirety of Twitter’s accounts. To be able to do this in a way that doesn’t require ads and allows people to be able to volunteer and donate and support it, is they break it down into smaller servers.
So instead of it being one single piece of Mastodon software runs Mastodon for everybody, it’s several thousand servers are all running the Mastodon software and they’re all talking to each other, exactly like they would as if using the ActivityPub protocol.
So, you’ve got Mastodon that has all these servers and they’re all talking to each other through what’s called Federation, right. Through this protocol, back and forth. And then they’re also able to talk with other servers that are running different software. Because they don’t really care what the software is. All they care about is the protocol, and they’re all able to just connect with each other and talk. And that’s really what the Fediverse is, in the technical sense.
[00:20:53] Nathan Wrigley: I feel that one of the difficulties that I’ve experienced anyway, with people trying to get on board the Fediverse, is they have this notion that because Facebook’s a platform and you are always going to facebook.com to log in. And the same for Twitter. It’s a little bit of a, there’s a bit of cognitive dissonance going on when you realize, well, I can’t go to mastodon.com and sign up for an account over there. I need to go to some other smaller entity. But that’s the point. There’s loads of them, thousands of them, as you described. They all talk to each other.
But you’ve got to, you’ve got to pick a place to begin. But one of the things that you can do is you can port your account, you can move it from a particular server to another server. But also, because of the free and open source nature of the software, certain servers can decide rules for themselves, which may be exactly what you want to hear. It may be music to your ears that this particular server, allows this kind of content, but not this kind of content.
This particular server will communicate with this one, but we’ve made a decision for various reasons that the content that’s being created over on that server is something that we don’t want to see. So it adds all that complexity, but with that complexity comes some wonderful benefits I feel as well.
[00:22:11] Alex Standiford: For sure. And also, and then if you end up with a bunch of bad actors who spin up a server and they’re trying to like, cause some kind of problem. Cause some drama or spread false information or something through the Fediverse. All the different servers, they can look at that one and say, this server is full of people who are not doing anything but causing problems for my server. I’m blocking this server. This server can no longer communicate with my server at all.
And they call it fedi locking. So, what’s happened a couple of times, this is before me, I’m still relatively new to all this, but they’ve had a few scenarios where that exact scenario has happened. Where somebody spun up a server and they were publishing a whole bunch of just garbage, and all the other servers talked to each other, not automatically, but like literally the administrators and everybody were just communicating about the content that was flowing from that place. And said, yeah, this is a problem, we’ve got to block it. So everybody just blocked it at once and it just completely shut that server down. And it’s like a fire, you know what I mean? You smother it and it just dies and it goes away.
[00:23:12] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah. I guess it’s important to emphasize there that each server is run by an administrator, several administrators, it depends. So it’s on the server level that that blocking takes place. It’s not like this cabal of people got together and said, Mastodon, ActivityPub will block this server. No, they’re blocking it on their own server, the one that they’re in charge of.
[00:23:36] Alex Standiford: Right. So if you liked that content for whatever reason, you can be on a server that doesn’t block it. But the thing I really want to talk about today is the idea of taking this a little bit further and owning your content again, right? Bringing it all back to WordPress.
Publishing on social media is fantastic. It’s been an amazing change for me at least. I’m sure it has been for you, like, it’s been transformative in how I approach being able to talk to people. I’ve met so many people as a result of it. It’s been so good for my career and everything.
But, the problem is that I, like I said, I stopped publishing on my blog and I stopped doing that because I was putting my blog on a pedestal. I would say this content isn’t good enough for my blog. This is just a little 25 word post with a picture. This is a small update about me. This isn’t good enough for my blog. I’m just going to go throw this on Twitter.
And what ended up happening was I would publish something on my site once every six months or so. Granted, it’s polished. It’s a great article and I’m proud of everything I’ve written, well, proud of most things that I’ve written. But it was so infrequent, right?
So my site no longer was the singular place where I would send people. I got to the point to where I was basically sending people to my Twitter account instead of my personal site. You know, it makes sense because I am inadvertently creating and publishing the most authentic version of myself on Twitter. On social media. Which is just crazy when I say it out loud.
If 13 year old me knew that I was capable of building a website and building my own cool little space that was just mine, and didn’t belong to anybody else, and I wasn’t publishing absolutely every dang thing that I ever published about myself anywhere but there first, I would’ve been mad at myself.
When I was 13, I had a, it was like a, I don’t know, it was one of those frost fire sites or something. I can’t remember. It was like a self-hosted. It wasn’t even self-hosted. It was like you go there, you sign up and you have like frostfire.com/service, or Alex or something. Anyway, it was crazy, right? It had GIFs of like clouds in the background and there was music playing on it. It was terrible because I was a kid and I didn’t know anything about web design, but I loved it.
I would go to that all the time and I would check it out and I was like, this is mine. I’m doing this for me, and I want you to see it, but this is mine. I feel like I’ve gotten away from that over the years where now I’m, well not now, but up to recently, I was looking at my site and saying, this is a brand, this is a product. This is for me to be able to put the best stuff on and nothing else.
And, it wasn’t an overly personal site. It wasn’t a, it was just a site that felt inauthentic. It wasn’t me. And it really bothered me whenever I made that realization.
[00:26:31] Nathan Wrigley: So in the future that you are imagining, and some of the pieces of this puzzle probably exist already, but some of the pieces of the puzzle that we are going to lay out, have still yet to be created. But the Fediverse allows you to choose to have WordPress as the fulcrum, the centerpiece of Alex’s digital life.
And you are imagining a scenario where you could publish things on WordPress. Obviously WordPress has a commenting system. But that content could then be sent to other platforms. Let’s imagine Mastodon, for example. It could be read over there. But equally, any commentary that happened over on Mastodon would come back and be reflected on your website. And so in this way, the website becomes the centerpiece of it all.
[00:27:24] Alex Standiford: Yeah, exactly. You publish on your site and it syndicates everywhere else. And that’s where I’ve come to, right? So I had a design of my site prior to this one, my current one. It was just a single React site that I built that, all it did was it grabbed content I published from all the different blogs that I publish on. And it pulled them in and it put them on a single feed.
The idea was I wanted this site to be as easy to maintain as possible. I don’t want to mess with it. I want it to just be automatic where I publish content. Wherever I publish it, I want it to show up on my site. And I’ve realized that that’s kind of backwards, and I want to flip that and get to the point to where I’m publishing content from my site, and then having it go out.
Now, the reason why I didn’t pursue that, and I instead was focused on ingesting that content, bringing it into my site, was because platforms like Twitter and Facebook and Instagram make it very difficult to integrate with them in a way that allows you to be able to obtain that public data, right.
I’m publishing a tweet. It’s public. It’s available to the public, and yet I can’t publicly access that stuff via a REST API or an RSS feed or anything like that. Because one, they’re trying to manage their integrations and trying to maintain their servers to make sure that it doesn’t get abused.
But really what it is, is they just don’t want you to do that. You know what I mean? They don’t want you to be able to have that. They want you on their platform. They want you looking at ads. They want you there. And for a couple of years now, because I actually hadn’t even heard of the Fediverse. I’d been thinking about all this stuff. I hadn’t heard about any of this, and I was like, man, I really hate this.
Like, I want to publish on my site first. It was bugging me, driving me nuts, right. And then the Elon Musk, the purchase rather, last year happened and I literally tweeted, because I still even at this moment, didn’t know about the Fediverse at all. I was like, hey, we’re developers. Why don’t we fix this? I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. I would love to be able to fix this specific problem where I’m not publishing on my site. I don’t want to be on Twitter anymore. How can we fix this?
And somebody was like, well, why don’t you just use Mastodon? I looked it up and I looked into it, and it was over. That instant, literally that day I switched over. I made an, my entire day was lost. I switched over, I made account. I deleted all my tweets. I exported everything. I deleted all my tweets. I changed my profile name to my Mastodon handle, and added a description and said, I’ve moved, I haven’t looked back.
I haven’t missed it. I don’t want it. That’s not what I want to be. I want my content to come from my website, and I knew that that requires open protocols, open source software, and staying away from these siloed, closed source places like Twitter and Facebook.
And if I’m being honest, as a open source WordPress developer, as a person who believes in WordPress and believes in the promise that publishing content should be available for everybody, and things like that. And being able to access and work with that data should be open and, all the fundamental open source values. I have to be on Mastodon.
It’s not even a choice, right? Because it’s simply either you do, you mean it, right? You mean that. You believe this and support this. Or you don’t. Because if you’re on Twitter, you don’t. I just don’t think you do, because you’re using a closed source platform to be able to publish content.
You may be telling yourself that you’re not, but ultimately you are. And it is completely contrary to WordPress. It doesn’t want WordPress to exist. It only allows it to exist because it has to and it can’t get rid of it. Whereas open source things, they want it. They invite it. They welcome this as a part of the whole.
Even from an identity perspective, that’s where it hit me. It hit me all the way down to like my very identity on social media. And I was like, I can’t be on Twitter now that I know this exists. I literally can’t be. It’s not even a matter of what’s better or not. I just can’t do it.
[00:31:22] Nathan Wrigley: If we were to try and implement some of the bits and pieces that you’ve just described, this kind of bidirectional relationship with the Fediverse, Mastodon or Pixelfed or whatever it be. And so you, can push content from WordPress out there, but also that you can consume content from the Fediverse back into, let’s say, a commenting system on a WordPress post.
How is that achieved? Now, I know that the goalposts here are moving all the time. It seems like there’s a whole tranche of developers who are really interested in this and are proposing different things, and there’s different plugins that are trying to tackle this. Given that we’re recording this towards the latter part of the beginning of 2023, and caveat emptor, who knows what the state of play will be when anybody listens this.
Given all of that, what are the plugins that are spiking your interest? It may not be plugins, it may be something else. What are the solutions that you can point people towards to make this possible in a WordPress site?
[00:32:20] Alex Standiford: You can do it today with the ActivityPub plugin, and that’s the one that Automattic just purchased recently. They hired a person full-time to be able to take it on and maintain it. Well, actually they hired the developer, the person who built it and just said, going to hire you and you’re just going to work on this, right.
It will do those things you’re talking about. The problem with that plugin, at least today, and I know that this is something that they want to improve. But at least today, the problem is you can’t actually build a social media feed from it. And what I mean by that is, your blog will have an account, right?
So anybody can follow your blog account, your website’s account. Just by going to your address which is basically your username at your account, your website.com, right? But they can access it and they can see the content and they can follow it, they can comment on it, they can boost it, they can do all the things that you can normally do with it on the Fediverse. And you can interact with the comments and how people respond to it. But you personally can’t follow other people and view their content using your website right now. That to me is kind of the killer limitation that has stopped me from doing that today.
[00:33:34] Nathan Wrigley: It’s around the content creation process, not the exploration of what other people are producing. It’s about you producing and receiving commentary, but not exploring what everybody else is producing, right?
[00:33:46] Alex Standiford: Right, as I understand it, there’s a hope that we can get to the point to where both sides of that, both the discovery and the writing side can all happen in a single, cohesive place. But it doesn’t quite exist yet. That’s kind of the big, for me personally, that’s the big limiting factor.
A lot of people get around it by having a social media account and then manually boosting everything they publish after they publish it. I think that defeats the purpose. But I am doing something that’s not terribly different, to be honest. The conclusion that I ended up coming to was, I’m publishing everything on my site, including social media posts and everything.
And I’m using a plugin, I can’t remember the name right now. Let me find it real quick. It’s called Share on Mastodon. That was pretty easy. So there’s a plugin called Share on Mastodon that allows you to automatically cross publish content that you publish on your site onto Mastodon.
And of course, these things exist or existed for Twitter and Instagram and all those other ones. But again, on a closed platform, they’re kind of difficult to work with and they can just go away at any time. But that’s neither here nor there.
The Share on Mastodon plugin will automatically cross publish content you post on your site onto Mastodon. You can filter it. You can customize how the content is published. What format it is, and all that stuff through the plugin via a filter, or several filters really. It’ll even scan the content and grab the images from the content and attach them in the posts and things like that.
That’s been my solution. As of right now, I am active on Mastodon and that’s it. I don’t plan on being active anywhere else anytime soon. If I do, it’ll be on another platform on the Fediverse. But to be honest, there’s not a huge reason to do it. Once you pick the software you like, the feed can ultimately be the same people. You know what I mean? I’m not there yet. I’m finding plenty of people coming to the Mastodon. I’m good with that.
I’ve got my site personally set up to do that. It’ll auto publish content. But then the other challenge that I ran into with this is the mobile experience, right. Because I’m not going to open up my website through my phone, open up a post, click add post, and like go through this whole process to be able to publish a micro post, a social media post, right? It’s supposed to be this small quick thing that just takes a second. I mean, Twitter, originally you were literally texting a phone number, right?
That’s why the character counts exist. Limits existed originally and stuff. It was a technical reason. It was because you were just texting a phone number and that added a tweet. So it’s always supposed to be this quick, you whip out your pocket, something out of your pocket and you send a text message and it should be that quick.
So to have to go through all of that, I already know that’s a non-starter. If I have to do that, this is never going to work. So I actually had to design my site around the limitations of the WordPress app today. Which to me, I think is getting that better is as important as getting the connections and everything to the Fediverse setup. Because it’s very limited on what it can do.
You can use posts. It supports the block editor, and it’s fantastic. Don’t get me wrong. The editing experience is great, but it’s limited. I can’t customize that app at all. So whatever that app has in it are the tools that I can use inside a WordPress, to be able to solve my problems.
That means I can’t use custom post types. That means I can’t use custom blocks. I can’t use custom sidebar widgets inside of the block editor to be able to organize or change my content. I can use categories. I can use tags. And weirdly enough I can use post formats. And that’s it.
So, I designed my site to support those, to use those. I’m actually using post formats on my site. It is the weirdest thing. I don’t love it. I’m okay with it, it’s fine. But I would much rather have a custom post type with a block editor template, right? So that I could create like a image post type and be able to click on it. It’ll just be a fixed template with an image and a paragraph for me to be able to add text. Like, I would like to lock it down like that, but I can’t do any of that stuff because I’m limited by what the WordPress app allows me to do.
So with those two things, basically now I am whipping out my phone, opening up the WordPress app, tapping on post, clicking, add new posts, typing in my content. And then I’m setting the post format to aside and adding my tags and hitting publish. And I have a little action that runs in the background that automatically, with that plugin, Share to Mastodon plugin, I’m hooked into that.
So whenever my content publishes, if the post format’s aside, if it’s a micro post, it automatically shares the body, all of the content in that post. And then it’ll automatically parse the tags as hashtags. And then it also shares a link to the original posts, as well. So that happens. But then if it’s an actual blog post, right, it’ll just take the excerpt and it’ll do the same thing, but it’ll take the excerpt instead. Share a link to the original post and the hashtags.
[00:38:46] Nathan Wrigley: So, being a developer, you’ve been able to conjure up ingenious, by the sounds of it, ways of overcoming the problems of sharing different types of content. But it feels like that solution is something which you would desire, well, maybe to build yourself, I don’t know.
[00:39:03] Alex Standiford: Yeah. The spirit is willing, but the time, there’s only so many hours. The problem with this is that my theme that I’m using, it’s a custom theme. Now, it’s not a crazy, I mean, okay, yeah, it’s a pretty crazy setup. It’s way beyond what a typical person should be expected to use and set up.
It is mine, 13 year old me, right? This is mine. It’s for me. I’m having fun with it. I’m going to put all kinds of crazy stuff in this. I’m going to overbuild the crap out of it just because I can, and I want to. But, just a more practical look at this. The big problem with what I just said is the post formats because very few themes, if any themes at all, support post formats today. Because they were marked as, they basically killed them off, right, in favor of custom post types.
But then they never actually added support for custom post types in the app. So here we are. So you’re kind of in this weird catch 22 where if you want to do this, you have to figure out how to allow your blog, your website, to be able to actually support post formats again. Which, that isn’t hard. Actually just telling it, hey, I want to use post formats on posts. That’s not a big deal. That’s like four lines of code, no big deal. The problem is the theme support, right? The actual, whenever you’re going through the loop, actually setting it up to be able to recognize those different post formats and to display them appropriately is a challenge, right? Actually integrating it with the actual content.
[00:40:30] Nathan Wrigley: It feels at the moment as if, whilst it’s a lot of fun, you are also saying, it’s a lot of fun for somebody like me. In the sense that, you know, you’re a developer, you can overcome these problems. Given all of that, is there still right at this point in time, is there still a benefit do you think, in just throwing on the plugins that are freely available at the moment and going for it, and just working with the limitations?
Because, again I think if I cast my mind back to the beginning of Twitter. Twitter was nothing like what it is now. It took years and years and years for people to figure out what Twitter would be. For Twitter to figure out what Twitter would be. Facebook the same. It went through this iterative process.
I remember the Twitter fail whale. It was just a hot mess. 50% of the time, everything I tried to do just died. And so maybe it needs to be viewed with that approach. Yes, you may wish to be a part of the Fediverse, but we’re at the beginning of the evolution. We haven’t fully conceived of what that might be. And in the year 2023, 2024, that will become a little bit more solidified. But jump in, have a go with what’s available right now, developer or no.
[00:41:36] Alex Standiford: Yeah, I think so. If for no other reason than this. I always told myself that I didn’t care about the content I was posting on Twitter. Like I didn’t care a lot about it. I was just posting it because it was easy to post things there. I cared about being a part of a conversation. I treated it like a Slack chat, right? Where it’s, truly this thing that’s just going to go away. I don’t really care if I never see it again, that’s fine. But Twitter’s not that, it’s not. Content never goes away as we’ve seen, right?
So, I found that I was, this became especially true whenever we started traveling in the camper because, I was posting all these cool things. These cool like little moments that would happen. Like, I’ll give you an example. I had a, I was in Taos last summer, and it was like three in the morning, and these donkeys woke us up. And we’re at my door, and I was like, what are these donkeys doing here? It’s three in the morning. And I whipped out my phone. I recorded a video. I published a tweet. Didn’t think anything of it.
Well, of course that tweet became something that I was linking back to and referencing all the dang time. I didn’t think anything of that at the time. It didn’t matter. But then I decided I didn’t want to be on Twitter and I wanted to leave, and all of a sudden I’m deciding I’m deleting all my tweets. And I’m losing all that. Right, I gave up all that.
Now I have all that stuff and I hope to someday maybe be able to put it back on my site. But the point is, I wasn’t owning my content. I wasn’t doing it right. I wasn’t doing it well enough. I thought I was, because I was saving the super shiny, amazing blog posts, but I wasn’t sharing my most authentic self on my site. I wasn’t even sharing all of my content that I clearly cared about, right?
Because I thought I didn’t care about it because I thought that Twitter was just a place for me to chat with people. But it proved to be very much not the case. So now, if nothing else, even if you’re manually, I mean, for weeks I was manually publishing on WordPress and then turning around and posting it on Mastodon.
I was doing this manually, and if you literally just hide, you could add a filter onto a theme that doesn’t support it, and just hide all of the posts that aren’t, like your aside post type. So, if it’s a micro post, maybe it literally just doesn’t show up on your site today. You could still do it, and it would just look funny because it wouldn’t have a title, but some themes it might look fine. You never know, maybe a couple CSS tweaks and it looks great. But, I think it’s worth it for no other reason other than owning your content and being true to that fact, right? And truly believing and knowing that you have your stuff and it’s yours, right?
For example, my family doesn’t follow me on Twitter, right? So I had this really cool moment the other day where I shared a personal update about my son and, my site is set up to where my WordPress site happens to also be set up to where it’s a single WordPress website, but it’s actually. three different websites that are on the front end. So it’s actually managing, casualweirdness.life, alexstandiford.com and eventually it’ll also be managing, WP Dev Academy. So all three of these sites are running through this single site, and it’s just querying the data based on what site it needs to be.
So with that, I’m actually able to not only publish content across the Fediverse, but I’m also able to publish this personal update. And since it’s a personal update and it’s detected that it is, because it’s using a specific tag, it also automatically just shows up on the feed on casual awareness’ site too, which is a more personal lifestyle blog of my family and me, compared to alexstandiford.com, which is a more holistic look.
But it was really cool because I had this post, right, I published it, and I was able to send it and just share from alexstandiford.com, this is a post from me about me, that I want to share with you and it’s got a video on it. I know that seems silly, but there was just something really cool about being able to just share something on a personal level with my family, because I’ve never done that.
It’s always been the blog is the business, right? The blog is buttoned up. I’m not sharing this content with my family because nobody gives a crap about WordPress until they suddenly decide they want to start a business. So, to be able to just use my site beyond networking needs, and be able to just share it, something like that with my family was really cool. It was this like first moment where I really felt that my site was like an intimate, personal thing, not just a tool.
[00:45:48] Nathan Wrigley: You really have gone into the weeds of this, haven’t you? It’s fascinating listening to all of this, and all of the different ways you’ve got of consuming the content from three different websites and I would encourage anybody who likes UI and UX, to go and click the little clock icon on the top right of Alex’s website. You’re in for a surprise.
[00:46:05] Alex Standiford: Yeah.
[00:46:07] Nathan Wrigley: That is something else, bravo. That’s fun.
[00:46:09] Alex Standiford: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:46:11] Nathan Wrigley: One of the things that I suppose people get onto social media for, is for reach. And for that content that they’re producing to be seen by a bunch of people. How do we feel that’s going on the Fediverse? For my part, the graph just keeps going up. The user base keeps growing up. Is it logarithmic? No. It’s more of a linear growth, but it’s growth nevertheless. What’s your feeling on that? Because I feel that some people think, well, I can’t let go of Twitter because I have this business. I’ve built up a reputation there. I don’t want to lose all of that. Do you see people moving over slowly? Is that a trend?
[00:46:43] Alex Standiford: So to answer your question first off, I see more. I see a lot more. Honestly, I saw a lot more in December. It was just almost instantaneous. And maybe it’s because I found the right server and the right people when I was talking about the right subjects. I’m not sure.
It could also just be simply because I joined right at the same time as everybody, a lot of other people who were joining, who were excited about it, and we were all talking about it together. But even now, now that things have calmed down, relatively speaking. I don’t even notice a difference in terms of engagement, but I can tell you that for a while, I was cross-posting both on Mastodon and Twitter at the same time for a few weeks.
And every post on Mastodon was consistently getting more engagement than it was on Twitter. And I have half the followers on Mastodon as I do on Twitter. So it’s definitely more for me. I have like 1800 followers on Twitter, and I think last time I checked I had somewhere around 700 on Mastodon. And it was still, two to three times as much engagement.
[00:47:37] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, that’s amazing. It definitely seems to be growing. We’ll have to see how this whole Fediverse thing pans out, but it’s, for the moment at least, it’s very, very exciting. I do like the idea of creating some system where WordPress sits at the center of all of that, and the ability to create content over there and see it, see the impact of it inside of your WordPress website. Even though the impact, the commentary or whatever, was happening elsewhere.
If people are interested in this, Alex, and they want to reach out to you because it can be confusing. There’s a lot of strange pitfalls along the way. What are the best places to reach out to you? Don’t say Twitter.
[00:48:16] Alex Standiford: alexstandiford.com of course, is my personal site. So, I’ve got several blog posts I’ve written. You’re invited to ask questions as a comment on there. You can also just reach out to me on the Fediverse on Mastadon. I am @alexstandiford@fosstodon.org. That’s, you know, a perfectly fine spot to message me to. I check that pretty often. Of course, I’m on Slack on several different channels like Post Status, so I’m on Make WordPress as well. You can just message me directly on there too.
[00:48:42] Nathan Wrigley: Alex, I hope that we’ll be able to say when 2024 rolls around that this has taken off. Let’s see how it all lies in a year’s time. Thank you so much for chatting to us about the Fediverse today. I really appreciate it.
[00:48:55] Alex Standiford: Yeah, no problem. I appreciate your time. Thanks.
On the podcast today we have Alex Standiford.
He’s a web developer originally from Dover, Ohio, and has been tinkering with web technologies for years, but started his career as a web developer in 2015. He’s a digital nomad, living in a camper with his family for the last three years.
Alex has built WordPress plugins, websites, and web applications, and is an active contributor to the WordPress community, making updates to documentation errors, and participating in the organisation of WordCamps.
If you are a user of social media, it’s likely that at some point you’ve signed up for platforms like Twitter, Facebook and possibly one of the many other options out there.
These platforms enable you to post content and have it seen by people all over the world. In effect, this is what your WordPress website does, but we all know that social media has managed to replace the traditional blog for many people. The notion of writing a blog post can seem like a lengthy enterprise, whereas a social media post is often quicker to write and gets pushed to the platform’s users automatically.
In the podcast Alex explains how he’s noticed this shift over time in his own content creation. He’s put less effort into his WordPress site and has posted most of his ideas on social platforms. This however is something that Alex has decided to stop doing. For a variety of reasons he wants to take back control of his own content and make his website the centrepiece of his endeavours.
Recently Alex stumbled upon the Mastodon. It’s an open source platform which is built on top of the ActivityPub protocol. ActivityPub allows anyone to create their own social networking software which can interact with any other software using ActivityPub. This is what Mastodon is, but as you’ll hear, it’s not the only software; there’s many flavours of ActivityPub which can all communicate with one another, and this ecosystem is broadly called the Fediverse.
Alex talks about why he decided to delete many of his old social media accounts in favour of open solutions, and how he’s using plugins and his own coding skills to make it possible for cross posting of posts and comments between Mastodon and his WordPress site.
It’s a really interesting conversation about the recent surge in popularity of these distributed social networks and how WordPress can become a first class citizen in your digital life; so much more than just a website.
Share on Mastodon WordPress plugin
Alex’s Casual Weirdness website
Alex’s personal website
Este ensayo también está disponible en español.
Hi, I’m Ericka Barboza, I’m a computer engineer, I was born in Costa Rica and it’s been my home since always. I love nature, plants and bird watching. I enjoy hiking and love going to the beach.
When I look back and realize that 7 years have passed since I started this journey with WordPress and its community. I realize that time is fleeting.
I discovered WordPress in 2006, when I was working as a Web Developer for a digital production services company in Costa Rica. At that time, I created my first blog and as part of my job I had to make modifications to websites made with WordPress. I found it very easy to use.
However, life took me in a different direction and I followed another career path. I started working in other companies, I worked for a bank and a consulting company, both jobs were not related to WordPress.
In 2014, I made the decision to become a freelance worker as a web developer in the area of web development and design. I have always been passionate about this field, so I decided to leave my stable job to follow my dream. I wanted to have a better quality of life and more free time to enjoy the days, away from the four walls of an office.
In that same year, I started working on projects in Drupal, which is another CMS. I also got to know this lovely community and began participating as a volunteer in Drupal Camps.
I loved the idea of belonging to a community of people with common interests and a desire to help others.
In 2016, I heard that the first WordCamp San Jose Costa Rica was going to be held. So, I approached the group of organizers to offer my help. I felt that I had the experience to contribute to the organization of the event because I had already participated as a volunteer in Drupal Camps, and I thought it was a great idea to collaborate with this amazing community as well.
And that’s how my journey in the WordPress Community began. I have been an organizer of 4 WordCamps in my country, Costa Rica (2016-2017-2018-2019) in different roles, including Lead Organizer in 2018. And this year, 2023, I joined the organizing team again and I am very excited about it.
Being an organizer of a WordCamp was one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had. It’s a job where you not only volunteer your time to make sure everything goes well, also you put all your heart into the community.
Once I joined the WordPress Community, there was no turning back. I became more and more involved, and as I learned more, I realized that I wanted to know even more. Being a volunteer in this beautiful community has been one of the best things that has happened to me in my professional journey.
I always tell people that what I love the most about WordPress is its community. From day one, I have found friendly and helpful people who are always willing to share their knowledge and experience. Being part of this community has allowed me to learn new things and tips, and I feel a great sense of belonging to a group of like-minded people with common interests and goals.
Since 2016, I have not only been an organizer, but also an enthusiastic volunteer in the WordPress Community. As a result, I have had the privilege of volunteering at some international WordCamps.
I have to admit, one of my favorite things about WordCamps is the afterparties.
It’s that moment when we all come together to network, relax, and even sing karaoke. During the pandemic, I missed the hugs and connections with both old and new friends I made at these events. I am so happy that they are coming back!
In 2017, I attended my first WordCamp abroad, WordCamp Managua in Nicaragua. I had never been to Nicaragua before and I thought it would be a great opportunity to explore its natural beauty while attending the event. There, I met friendly members of the Nicaragua WordPress Community. I still keep in touch with them and I deeply admire.
The following year, in 2018, I had a dream of traveling to another WordCamp, but this time even further away from my home country and in a different language. I wanted to experience the global WordPress Community and see for myself how it operated. That’s why I decided to purchase a ticket and travel to WordCamp Miami 2018. It quickly became one of my favorite camps and holds a special place in my heart.
WordCamp Miami showed me the other side of the WordPress Community, one that extended far beyond my country’s borders.
I learned that there were many more people around the world who were doing wonderful work for the community, and that they possessed great talents and expertise to share. There is a whole world out there waiting to be explored.
During WordCamp Miami, I also had the opportunity to meet companies that sponsored the event, and that’s where I met GreenGeeks Web Hosting. I now work for them as part of the marketing team. Thanks to my job, I have been able to attend many WordCamps around the world, not only as a sponsor, but also as a volunteer and speaker.
I am also passionate about being a volunteer at KidsCamp, which is like a camp just for kids that takes place as part of WordCamps. In 2019, I participated as an organizer for the KidsCamp at WordCamp San Jose Costa Rica.
It was a wonderful experience seeing all those smiling faces of the kids, and I was able to bring my own nephews to participate, which is something I will never forget and will always treasure in my heart.
Before everything fell apart with the pandemic in 2020, I had the opportunity to attend WordCamp Miami 2020 as a KidsCamp volunteer and Team Leader. I loved the opportunity to volunteer in another country and learned so much from the kids. It was the last thing that the WordPress community gave me before entering the pandemic, and I would do it all over again.
I am grateful to WordPress and the community for all the professional growth I have acquired in almost 7 years and still counting.
My job at GreenGeeks has allowed me to travel to different WordCamps around the world, which has given me the opportunity to meet wonderful people and discover new opportunities.
If it weren’t for my active involvement in the community and my attendance at events outside of my country, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to know this great company, which also shares the love for WordPress and its community. I am excited to continue growing alongside this community and see what new challenges and opportunities arise in the future.
In the last few years, since 2020, I’ve been dedicated to running workshops for underrepresented groups in the WordPress community. Together with Jill Binder, Leader of the Diverse Speaker Training group and #WPDiversity, we have run workshops in Latin America specifically for women in the WordPress Community.
This initiative has been incredibly motivating for me, as my goal is to support more women becoming speakers at WordCamps and becoming visible in the world of WordPress and technology as a whole.
It drives me even more to reach women in other communities in different countries and languages, and thanks to the translation of documentation into Spanish, we’ve taken an important step forward. Working alongside Jill on this project has been one of the best things I’ve found in this wonderful community.
This journey through WordPress continues to grow, making me stronger and filling my heart with joy.
I would like to express my gratitude to Topher for giving me the opportunity to share my story. Writing this has allowed me to relive many moments and I appreciate all those who took the time to read it.
Until next time!
¡Hola! Soy Ericka Barboza y soy Ingeniera Informática. Nací en Costa Rica, y este ha sido mi hogar desde siempre. Me apasiona la naturaleza, especialmente las plantas y observar las aves. Disfruto mucho caminar por la montaña y me encanta ir a la playa.
Cuando miro atrás y caigo en cuenta que han pasado 7 años desde que comencé este viaje por WordPress y su comunidad, me hace consciente de lo fugaz que puede ser el tiempo.
Descubrí WordPress en el año 2006 cuando trabajaba como Desarrolladora Web para una empresa de servicios de producción digital en Costa Rica, en ese entonces, creé mi primer blog y como parte de mi trabajo tenía que hacer modificaciones a sitios web hechos con WordPress, me pareció muy fácil de usar.
Luego, por cosas de la vida, seguí otro camino profesional y comencé a trabajar como Analista en Sistemas en otras empresas, trabajé para un banco y en una empresa de consultoría, en las cuales ninguna tenía nada ver con WordPress.
En el año 2014, tomé la decisión de convertirme en trabajador independiente como Web Developer en el área de desarrollo y diseño web, siempre me ha apasionado este mundo, por lo que decidí dejar mi empleo estable para seguir mi sueño.
Quería tener una mejor calidad de vida y más tiempo libre para disfrutar de los días, lejos de las cuatro paredes de una oficina.
En ese mismo año, comencé a realizar proyectos en Drupal, otro CMS. Tuve la oportunidad de conocer su bonita comunidad. Comencé a participar en los Drupal Camp como voluntaria y me gustó mucho la idea de pertenecer a una comunidad con personas con intereses en común y deseos de ayudar a los demás.
Para el año 2016, escuché que se iba a realizar el WordCamp San Jose Costa Rica por primera vez, y fue donde me acerqué al grupo de organizadores para ofrecerles mi ayuda, sentía que tenía la experiencia para contribuir con la organización del evento porque ya había participado como voluntaria en los Drupal Camp, y pensé que era muy buena idea también colaborar con esta gran comunidad.
Fue así como comenzó mi viaje por la comunidad de WordPress. He sido organizadora de 4 WordCamps en mi país Costa Rica (2016-2017-2018-2019) en distintos roles, en el año 2018 como Lead Organizer. Y este año, 2023, me volví a unir al equipo de organización y estoy muy emocionada.
Ser organizadora de un WordCamp, ha sido una de las experiencias más bonitas que he vivido, es un trabajo en el cual no solo pones tu tiempo de forma voluntaria para que todo salga de maravilla, sino que también le pones todo tu corazón hacia la comunidad.
Una vez que entré a la comunidad de WordPress, ya no pude dar vuelta atrás, cada vez me involucraba más, estaba enamorada y entre más conocía me daba cuenta que quería saber más. Ser voluntaria en esta bella comunidad ha sido una de las mejores cosas que me ha pasado en mi camino profesional.
Todo el tiempo le digo a las personas que lo que más me gusta de WordPress, es su comunidad, siempre encuentras personas amigables con deseos de ayudarte, aprendes cosas nuevas y tips del mundo de WordPress, me encanta el significado de comunidad, el sentido de pertenencia a un grupo con intereses y propósitos en común.
Desde el año 2016, además de ser organizadora siempre he amado contribuir como voluntaria y es por eso que también he tenido el privilegio de ser voluntaria en varios WordCamp internacionales.
Debo confesar que también me gustan mucho los afterparty de los WordCamp, ese momento donde todos hacemos networking, nos relajamos y hasta cantamos Karaoke, esa es una de las partes que más extrañaba con la pandemia, los abrazos, la conexión con los viejos y los nuevos amigos que haces en estos eventos, ¡me alegra mucho que regresarán!
Mi primer WordCamp en el exterior fue el WordCamp Managua 2017, que se realizó en Nicaragua, nunca había estado en Nicaragua, a pesar de ser nuestro país vecino, así que me dije, porque no ir y conocer de paso ese país con su gran belleza natural.
Conocí a amigables personas de la comunidad de WordPress Nicaragua, con los cuales conservo la comunicación y a los cuales les tengo también mucha admiración.
En el año 2018, mi sueño era poder viajar a otro WordCamp pero más lejos todavía de mi país y en otro idioma, quería vivir esa experiencia, quería ver cómo era la comunidad global de WordPress, y por eso decidí comprar mi boleto e ir rumbo al WordCamp Miami 2018.
Sin duda, WordCamp Miami es por mucho de mis camps preferidos y al cual le tengo un cariño muy especial, porque fue el camp que me mostró la otra cara de la comunidad de WordPress, la de saber que esa comunidad no solo existe en mi país, sino que hay muchas más personas alrededor del mundo que hacen un trabajo maravilloso por la comunidad, esas personas con gran talento y capacidad para transmitir mucho de su conocimiento, hay todo un mundo allá fuera esperando ser explorado.
En ese camp, también tuve la oportunidad de conocer a empresas que patrocinaban el evento y fue ahí donde conocí a GreenGeeks Web Hosting, la empresa para la cual trabajo como parte del equipo de Marketing.
Gracias a mi trabajo en GreenGeeks he podido asistir a muchos WordCamp alrededor del mundo, no solo como patrocinadora en los eventos, sino también he podido coloborar como voluntaria y expositora también.
Otra de las cosas que me apasiona es ser voluntaria del KidsCamp, que es como un campamento solo para niños que se realiza dentro de los WordCamp. En el 2019 participé como organizadora del KidsCamp en el WordCamp de San José Costa Rica, fue una experiencia maravillosa, ver las caras sonrientes de todos esos niños es algo que te llena el corazón y también pude llevar a mis sobrinos a participar y es algo que nunca olvidaré, lo atesoraré en mi corazón.
En el año 2020, antes de que todo se derrumbara con la pandemia, tuve la oportunidad de asistir al WordCamp Miami 2020, como voluntaria del KidsCamp, como líder de equipo, amé la oportunidad de ser voluntaria en otro país, aprendí muchísimo de los niños y lo volvería a hacer, fue lo último que me dejó la comunidad antes de entrar en pandemia.
Agradezco a WordPress y a la Comunidad por todo el crecimiento profesional y espiritual que he adquirido en estos 7 años y sigo contando.
Gracias a WordPress y su comunidad, mi vida profesional y personal ha mejorado significativamente en estos 7 años. Mi trabajo en GreenGeeks me ha permitido viajar a diferentes WordCamps alrededor del mundo, lo que me ha dado la oportunidad de conocer personas maravillosas y descubrir nuevas oportunidades.
Si no hubiera sido por mi participación activa en la comunidad y mi asistencia a eventos fuera de mi país, no habría tenido la oportunidad de conocer esta gran compañía, que también comparte el amor por WordPress y su comunidad. Estoy emocionada por seguir creciendo junto a esta comunidad y ver qué nuevos retos y oportunidades se presentan en el futuro.
En los últimos años, desde el 2020 en adelante, me he comprometido en la realización de talleres para grupos poco representados en la comunidad de WordPress. Junto con Jill Binder, líder del Grupo de Formación de Oradores Diversos y #WPDiversity.
Hemos llevado a cabo varios talleres en Latinoamérica, específicamente para mujeres de la comunidad de WordPress. Esta iniciativa me ha motivado muchísimo, ya que mi objetivo es apoyar a que más mujeres sean expositoras en los WordCamp y Meetups de la comunidad y que se visibilicen en el mundo de WordPress y la tecnología en general.
Me impulsa aún más poder alcanzar a mujeres en otras comunidades de diferentes países e idiomas, y gracias a la traducción de la documentación a español, hemos dado un paso importante. Trabajar junto a Jill en este proyecto ha sido una de las mejores cosas que he encontrado en esta maravillosa comunidad.
En definitiva, mi viaje en WordPress sigue en constante evolución, haciéndome cada vez más fuerte y llenando mi corazón de alegría.
Quiero expresar mi agradecimiento a Topher por brindarme la oportunidad de compartir mi historia, ya que me ha permitido revivir muchos momentos al escribirla. También, agradezco a todos aquellos que han tomado el tiempo para leerla.
¡Nos vemos!
The post Exploring the Essence of Community – Explorando la esencia de la comunidad appeared first on HeroPress.
WordPress 6.2.1 was released today. Those with automatic background updates enabled should see a notice in their email, as updates rolled out earlier today.
This is a maintenance and security release that includes important fixes for five security vulnerabilities outlined by core contributor and release co-lead Jb Audras:
The patches were backported to WordPress 4.1. Now that these vulnerabilities are public, it’s recommended that users update immediately.
WordPress 6.2.1 also includes 20 core bug fixes and 10 fixes for the block editor, all detailed with ticket numbers in the release candidate post.
In this episode, Cory Miller and Corey Maass discuss the importance of OG (Open Graph) images for social media sharing and branding in WordPress. They highlight the benefits of using OG image templates to create visually appealing and professional content. They also emphasize the need for WordPress professionals to offer variety and customization options to cater to different client needs. Cory and Corey suggest considering pricing models and beta-testing strategies to determine market value and gather feedback. This episode provides valuable insights for WordPress professionals seeking to enhance their services and deliver impactful OG image solutions.
Top Takeaways:
Mentioned in the show: You can follow Post Status and our guests on Twitter:The Post Status Draft podcast is geared toward WordPress professionals, with interviews, news, and deep analysis. 
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[00:00:00] Corey Maass: It’s just so much work. I was like, it doesn’t have to be
[00:00:06] Cory Miller: initial stuff. I’ve been doing this so long, to fine tune some stuff, get your workflow,
[00:00:11] Corey Maass: but it’s just so much work. I was like, it doesn’t have, but now I’m like, I prefer this. Yeah. Yeah. There’s stuff that I want to be very polished and professional, but then there’s also turn it on and go.
We’re turning on and go. We’re on now. Like specifically. I gotta turn my lights on. I just realized
[00:00:34] Cory Miller: Corey’s doing that. Hey everybody, welcome back. This is session 13, I think. Corey and Corey launched the WordPress product live. We’ve got some cool updates. We’ve been working on some stuff and when I say working on some stuff, Corey, you’ve been like on this huge manic state of getting stuff done and yep,
[00:00:53] Corey Maass: I’m pumped about it.
I I built a hundred feet of fencing. Yeah I, last [00:01:00] week my client, main clients were outta town for a week, so I was like, all right, I’m gonna take a couple of days off and. Take advantage of the weather, finally getting nice and so built big, beautiful fences which has prompted the promise of an O M G I M G hackathon where Corey is gonna fly me out to his house and I’m gonna help him build a fence.
But it also meant that I was. Hacking at our plug-in new product for a couple of hours every morning and every night. And over the weekend. So yeah, the, I just this morning zipped up. I have a little script that I used to zip all my plug-ins for distribution and uploaded it to a testing website and it broke.
But then a couple minutes later it worked. So pretty amazing. Yeah, we’ve now got a plugin that installs. It’s[00:02:00] tied into e d D. Oh, good idea. Thank you. Yes. We should stand for this proud moment. But yeah I got as far as incorporating the licensing with e D D. So that’s now tied into the OMG img.co website.
That has a, just a placeholder logo on it. We need to put the signup form coming soon on that website. I keep forgetting. But it’s got the basics. The plugin itself has the basics of, so you can install it, it takes you to a welcome screen. You add a logo and it creates your first image, which is the logo on the left and the title of the site on the right.
Like we talked about, in, in a few clicks and in a few seconds you’ve got at least the most basic OG image and I found what I needed to. If you don’t have Yost or something else [00:03:00] Installed. Then this will show as the OG image. We need to test that a bit more, but is working on my WordPress installs.
And then I also found the hook for Yost. So if Yost is installed regardless of the OG image you have, Plugged into Yost hours will show if you’ve selected one. And then, and so that’s Sitewide. And then we have most of the functionality for host specific images as well. And so right now you.
Associated with a post, you can create images and you can set those as a featured image, and that works. What I haven’t finished yet is setting an individual OG image per post. So if you share your homepage, it’ll show the sitewide [00:04:00] OG image, but if you share a specific post, it should show the OG image for that post.
And if there isn’t one specified then should show the sitewide one. So we need to test that, but all the functionality is there. And then the only other, I mean there’s, there’s a few little bugs and things here and there and we need to do a lot of testing on different browsers and stuff like that.
But the, so the OG image per post is the one big thing missing. And. Yeah. And then I think we’re, we’re pretty close. We need better templates, which you’ve been working on. And yeah, again there’s, I’m to the point where the, the framework works. We need to pick a couple of templates and just start messing around with them.
And so it’s the like as we’re going, oh, we really need this over here. And I’ll go, oh, it doesn’t support that yet. Let me quick go at it. We’ll get into that development loop. But that’s where we’re at. We’re pretty far along.
[00:04:59] Cory Miller: That’s [00:05:00] awesome to hear. Awesome news. Oh, keep building fences cause.
Focus two, you got your physical outlet and then you got your mental digital outlet. That’s all great news. I think my biggest question is when do you think by end of day our part like beta client site is post has by end of day our, we should be switched over to our new hosting environment.
And things should be a lot better for the website that have been lingering.
[00:05:34] Corey Maass: Congrats
[00:05:37] Cory Miller: by tomorrow. It should be ready to available, I should say to install the plugin if you wanted to. Great. Okay, that’s all good news. And on that note for, to recap for others that haven’t seen previous episodes, where we’re at now is.
You just heard Corey’s product update, great progress on what we had talked about [00:06:00] the past couple of weeks, about an easy way to show your website professionally on the web through open graph. So posts being our kind of default list lists. Not just iron out the dev kinks, but also how we want that to look cuz that’s very important.
Both of us have interest in design. So on that note, using that post as the test, I started working in Canva. I also, my update to you would be also, as I mentioned in Slack I submitted the design request for the templates posts to start to flush out how we want this to look. I do know we do have the nuts and bolts of what we need for just templates.
So I still need to do more of that work. But I wanted to show you this. Along that kind of research and work from my side, I found this og [00:07:00] image gallery, og image com. Oh, nice. Yep. Wow. This is what I needed. Yeah. I love some of these things. So I took, and I’m not a professional designer, I’m just a hobby designer.
Yeah. But I was like, this is really inspiring for the general. Default website, business card. So just looking through here there’s just such good stuff. So I was like riffed on something like this with that, and I’ll have to get this to our designer. But all of that, just thinking about how to offer a really good template option and what is in there.
So I was like, okay. I got the dimensions like we had talked about and just started like going, okay, what were the business cards? Funny going in Chem Camba. When I put in the ratio, I pulled up a business card template. I was like, that was cool to see some of those. And I just started like riffing something that I could at least.
Flesh out my thoughts a little bit to get [00:08:00] back to the designer based on some of these other gallery options. So that’s what I was working on when I didn’t realize you were here and I was still working. But just for the general website, the thoughts we had were logo, some treatment.
What I liked about these images over here is like you have a big title. Yep. A small logo. I like how Mix Panel threw in some kind of graphic that linked what Mix panel. Mix panel is.
[00:08:31] Corey Maass: So the technology we’re using is still technically a screenshot. And so seeing this version one, 1.1 or whatever so in my mind, the first.
OG image template that we want is logo on the left, title on the right, dead simple, a background, color, whatever. But there’s [00:09:00] no reason. And, and as the rabbit hole you started going down on our last call that I poked fun at you for was that you kept moving the logo from the left to the center, left, to the right, to the center.
And it’s we don’t, the beauty of this is we don’t have to choose. We can if it, we can, there are two things we can do. One is. I can offer an option that says, do you want the logo on the left or center? The other thing is we can have multi, almost infinite templates.
And I don’t think we want to have too many. Templates that are too similar, but, looking at that, that gallery you were just looking at, like a lot of these have, you look at the patterns, right? So you’ve got a logo top left for a lot of them, or you’ve, and an image on the right.
Or you’ve got a logo top and then a text underneath or the one you were just showing me, which is what made me start, made me interrupt you. The mix panel, right? Is. Again, version [00:10:00] 1.1. I wonder that our best template isn’t actually going to be we can we could actually take a screenshot of their homepage and then automatically suck it in to a template.
And with one click, like we would go take, essentially take a picture of the homepage and then put it in a template. They’ve uploaded a logo, we have the title, and we’ve essentially recreated that mix panel template in one go. I hadn’t thought of that cuz we’re talk, it’s the what’s the movie Inception we’ve got.
Screenshots of screenshots, but but we can certainly do that. We can say, I hadn’t thought of this before, like talking about creating a template for each blog post, pulling in the title, pulling in the featured image. We could actually take a screenshot of the blog post and then inject it at, in lieu of a [00:11:00] featured image into.
An OG image, so you’ve got an actual picture of the website in that, that mix panel style. That’s really cool. I hadn’t thought of that. That’s
[00:11:13] Cory Miller: so good. I’m trying to record some of these as we see ’em. Yeah. So I can direct them. But I know what you’re doing with them too is you see this and go, okay, that means centered left.
This one is in the middle. There’s another le you’re right, top left. Seems like I love that idea though of the screenshot cuz like I was having a hard time with the post status one. Just showing my workflow. I was like, okay, trying to create this, what would I want? And I like the examples where they have some image something there and I was like, oh man, here it, so I found a camera like this little browser
[00:11:53] Corey Maass: frame.
Yep. That’s what I was the, it tickled my brain when you showed me this. I’m like, go take [00:12:00] a screenshot of the post status homepage at, at these proportions and then drag that in here. And that’s, in l in lieu of that, fake browser, a placeholder. You could actually have a picture of the website cuz that’s it, that kind of.
True. And with a drop shadow. And so it’s like all of these things we can do, but it’s also, it’s that kind of thing that adds a little more legitimacy. It’s the, just as you brought up, I think last time, the, those generators of, books, book cover, so it or fake software, so it looks like.
It’s like when people were writing eBooks or, have downloadable software. There were these templates you’d upload the cover and it would spit out an image, a 3D generated image that looked like the box that you’d see on the shelf at Staples. That’s what we were talking about a couple of weeks ago.
Doing similar here, where it’s okay, either upload a screenshot or we can take a screenshot of the actual blog post. So [00:13:00] you’re, you’ve got a picture of the website, it’s gonna lend this sense of legitimacy even more than, a stylized title or whatever. That’s really slick. But
In the, I’m not hearing you. Something happened to your audio. Oh, that screenshot.
[00:13:18] Cory Miller: Oh, there we go. Okay. That screenshot thing, I was just trying to make sure I got it down. Yep. Just trying to make sure I had that
[00:13:26] Corey Maass: vision of what we’re talking about, but I wonder that we don’t, either. We basically, we need to start a Pinterest board of all of the great ones we find you’ve got, you’ve found this gallery that gives us a head start and I feel like we, at some point, you or we should spend 10 minutes just going through a bunch of them recog, noticing some of these patterns okay.
20% of them have a little logo in a screenshot. 20% of [00:14:00] them are, 50 50, 20% of them are logo top title bottom and just call those our first three templates or something like that. Incorporating, like you said, with post status being our testing, ground first, testing ground When the designer comes back with your new template, let’s make sure that’s accounted for.
And then those are like the first four that we go live with. Because that’ll, again if we’ve, if we identify these sort of, not 80 20, but 20, 20 20, 20 20, people are gonna wanna do wild, crazy things. And like I said I’ve built the plugin in a way that people can pretty easily create their own.
They’re gonna need to be developers, but, Can still, add their own treatments and stuff like that. But if we’ve covered most of the bases, at least for OG images, then, when we publish, cuz again, EDDs all set up, I’ve added Stripe and all that kind of stuff. Like, all we’ve gotta do is [00:15:00] Go live, essentially.
But, and obviously we want to do that with actual templates that work and after some testing. But, we’re pretty close. We just need to offer the, a actual, it’s like we’ve worked out the engine, we’ve worked out the wheels. We just now need the what is it, the. The Civic, the Acura, the, s u v and the truck or whatever, but the underlying stuff is all is, has all worked out.
[00:15:27] Cory Miller: Love it. Just trying to get, capture this for, got it.
Yeah, because like up here we talked about doing some of these things, but like pulling in a little screenshot, I think that’d be really awesome. Okay, so here’s my big question. I’m scared to ask. Can this be a fr framed in like a browser button? That browser thing, Nick? Oh, for sure. Wherever it was.
[00:15:56] Corey Maass: Okay. Yeah. Like things we need to work, all stuff [00:16:00] to work out. But absolutely the easy one is, yep. The easy one is just adding a drop shadow. The one that we just need to find essentially the right yeah, the right size, basically either P and g or there are. Browsers or mobile phones, all done in css, which means they will, stretch, right?
So we could actually take screenshots. There’s one on your screen. Bottom right? Like that phone yeah, the, on the right. Yep. That one. We could essentially recreate that. Go take a screenshot of your homepage, stick it in a phone. And then take a picture of the og, put, create an OG image out of that.
So it’s if you are a mobile app or something, like we could do that kind of thing. And then we this totally might be a pipe dream, but we can start looking into actually like. Doing skewing type of stuff, meaning we can like some of those OG [00:17:00] images to make it more dynamic.
They’ve, instead of just a flat screenshot, they’ve tilted it on its side. We can start looking into that kind of stuff too. I’m not, I don’t know yet if we can do it or not, but it’s not, it’s certainly not hard to test it. Let’s see.
[00:17:16] Cory Miller: Just thinking about frames for it like that I think is really cool.
I’d want that on Post stuff. Yep. But just a way to frame it in any way. Yeah. The image that you’re doing I think is interesting. Okay. So I’m looking at these templates, like that’s gonna give me another thought for the post status one. Seeing what they come back. I bet you’ll get something by tomorrow on that.
Great.
Get that in here.
Product. Yep.
Magazine would be in there. Magazine. Oh
[00:17:49] Corey Maass: yeah. That’s one of your clients? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Okay. [00:18:00]
[00:18:01] Cory Miller: Yeah. I really like that because for the screenshot for the post it just shows like this is the blog post and there’s some rendering of it that goes, when I click through, this is what I’m gonna get and expect to get.
Yeah.
[00:18:15] Corey Maass: Yeah, that’s, yeah, I think that’s, that takes it to a, to another level, like not there. And it’s there’s different times and places too. It’s some, if you share on Facebook, you get, you get the full image like this, right? But if you share on Twitter, it’s like this.
Or if you share in Slack, it’s like this. And so there’s time we can’t. I don’t think we can control which version gets delivered where, but depending on your preferred, if you’re mostly promoting to Facebook, then having an image that has a lot of detail, meaning a screenshot, totally works.
Whereas if you are sharing look, in the you that [00:19:00] wise one, if you scroll down if you’re sharing somewhere that it always shows up small, you’re like all we want is the name of our website as big as possible Then, and so essentially we’re giving you lots of options.
The one just kitty Corner down memory. That one? Yeah, there’s your screenshot right there. So it’s, a fake browser frame around a screenshot of something. And again at an angle, I know we can do rotate. I’ve already done rotate him in one of my test templates. So that’s the, that’s something we could emulate pretty readily.
But this is the
trap, the loop that I’m stuck in right, is I’m. I ha I have a tool and I don’t, I have a solution, but I don’t have the problem yet. And so I’ve just been testing like crazy, all the different neat things we can do. But I haven’t actually sat down and said, okay, let me try to recreate one of these OG [00:20:00] images with our new system, or let me call this template number one.
And here’s the elements that it needs. So this is great. I think, like you said if you get back the new ones for post status in the next couple of days and we pick a couple of these based on the list you just created, then you know, we’re good to go.
Okay. Yeah. There’s
[00:20:24] Cory Miller: a lot of, yeah. Logo, left image, which is what we got here. Logo, top head logo, smaller headline here.
Same.
[00:20:38] Corey Maass: Okay.
Yeah, I’m seeing a lot of patterns and so again, I think we just pick a few.
And of course you have our entire marketing strategy done already, right? Yeah. Me and my
[00:20:50] Cory Miller: buddy Chap, G P t.
Plus he’s at while I have ’em. So when I ask the designer to work on some of those, cuz I’d probably take a lot of these. And say [00:21:00] do this for post status is our test case. Yep. The podcast is gonna be a little tricky I think.
Cuz you want to host probably, but what if you have two hosts? Yep. What if, and you always have a guest I always have a guest. But we’ll cross that bridge later on. Okay. Logo only. I like that. Logo is screenshot of homepage. See logo and tagline only.
[00:21:30] Corey Maass: So I, I think you should using that og, that image gallery, like for each of these go take, go find one that’s close to what you want and just like you did a minute ago. Yeah. Like that slide number five, capture one of each. So that it’s okay, this is, just one big logo that’s wise, logo and tagline.
That’s, one of those other ones. And it’s if we have all of those [00:22:00] captured here forever then that’s what we start with. And we, and we have a designer actually figure out the proportions, make it look proper. But then we’ve, we’re. Like you said we’re covering the bases.
Okay.
Can do.
Yeah. We’re close. I’m excited. And I’ve set up, like I said, I’ve set up most of the basics we need just to get it out the door. At some point we need to have a conversation about pricing. And a logo, but I’m very, I’m excited that we are very close to having something that we can, you can be using on post status.
I can ha put on my client websites. And essentially we’re, we might even maybe in post status Slack let’s see if we can put together a beta. Beta list, beta testers, 10, 50, a hundred, and roll it out to some people, because with e d.[00:23:00] So for anybody who’s not familiar, that’s the shopping cart checkout mechanism that has, that’s really specifically good for selling software licenses.
And so we can essentially give a, give away a free version of the plugin. And it doesn’t and anybody we give it to won’t, can’t update. As we release updates unless they buy or unless we give them a copy. Cuz in WordPress that’s really what you’re selling is access to the next version. Cuz everything is open sourced.
But so we, I, it makes it very easy to distribute something like this. Like I have no problem giving away the first version to, generally you, trusted colleagues kind of thing. But if it gets leaked, I don’t care because, we’re gonna be cranking out new versions, daily, weekly early on as new features and bugs and stuff like that get un get added, fixed.
[00:24:00] And it’s, people will have an early beta, but will want to buy in order to get those updates. Okay. I think in,
[00:24:09] Cory Miller: so I’ve got pricing logo templates, pricing logo,
[00:24:14] Corey Maass: beta testers. Yeah, that seems like we’re. We’re ready for all that.
Okay.
[00:24:22] Cory Miller: I wanted going with templates so we could have something to like really inform what we’re doing. Yep. But after we get the first round, I’ll submit another request for the logo. Yep. And then pricing. I think we’ll get a I’ll for our part, get a better view of it when we get it in action.
Show it going. And then, but I think some of the rough pricing talks we had were right on par. Get something, a base product that does something well.
[00:24:51] Corey Maass: Yeah. That helps people look better.
[00:24:53] Cory Miller: And then yeah, when we’re ready for
[00:24:55] Corey Maass: beta test, which we’ll just ask you had a hard stop at [00:25:00] the top of the hour.
So let’s wrap up today. Sorry about being late. No worries. And yeah, we’ll reconvene soon. I feel like things are starting to speed up. This is great.
[00:25:10] Cory Miller: That’s awesome. Yeah,
[00:25:12] Corey Maass: I’ll
[00:25:12] Cory Miller: try to keep up with you.
This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.
WordPress is approaching its 20th anniversary, and for the majority of those years, contributors have cranked out a new default theme. Even though the structure and supported features of default themes have drastically changed over the years, contributors are still actively maintaining all 13 of the “Twenty” themes.
A new proposal on WordPress.org recommends winding down active maintenance on older themes and implementing a new system of requirements for retiring them.
“The level of effort to support 13 themes is not insignificant, especially in the times of the rapidly evolving block editor,” Bluehost-sponsored core contributor Jonathan Desrosiers said. “The burden of maintaining these themes has historically fallen on the Core team to ensure they continue to receive any needed updates.” These tasks include things like ensuring compatibility with newer PHP versions, fixing bugs, updates and deprecations of dependencies, security updates, and much more.
“Because there are so many, it’s not uncommon for it to take several months before older default themes properly support newer features added in WordPress Core,” Desrosiers said. “Additionally, themes created prior to the existence of certain APIs are often unable to fully take advantage of these new features (global styles, block patterns, etc.).”
Desrosiers contends that reducing the support burden on contributors will allow them to focus on ensuring the most modern block-based themes deliver the best experience.
“It also helps clear the path for work on new block theme-focused experiments and initiatives (such as the Community Themes Initiative) attempting to refine the role that themes will have in the block editor era,” he said.
Themes released through the WordPress.org account via the Community Themes Initiative, like the recent Stacks slide deck theme, will be officially supported, adding to the load. These themes, however, have the benefit of working with the Site Editor and all the latest features WordPress offers. When dealing with limited volunteer resources, supporting older default themes doesn’t have as much upside as spending these efforts the more modern themes.
WordPress bundles the three most recent default themes in the latest download. This proposal seeks to retire older themes after a minimum of five years of support and when usage falls to less than 1% of all WordPress sites as determined by WordPress.org data. Using this criteria the default themes Twenty Ten through Twenty Sixteen would be retired and only receive security updates. Desrosiers suggests a yearly assessment of usage data to determine which themes would be retired.
The three most recent WordPress default themes would be actively maintained and contributors would continue maintaining the following themes with bug fixes, compatibility updates, and security fixes:
The proposal has multiple benefits, in addition to reducing the number of actively supported themes from 13 to 6, but also has the drawback of affecting an estimated 730,000 users who will no longer receive maintenance on their themes.
General reception to the proposal has been positive, as those using very old themes are usually looking for as few changes to their website as possible. With security updates still available to retired themes, these users would not be forced to update to a newer theme.
The proposal was developed based on feedback and recommendations from a group of contributors. It is now awaiting feedback from the larger community. Unless the proposal needs to be significantly modified, contributors will soon move on to the practical tasks associated with retiring themes.
This minor release features 20 bug fixes in Core and 10 bug fixes for the block editor. You can review a summary of the maintenance updates in this release by reading the Release Candidate announcement.
This release also features several security fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 4.1 have also been updated.
WordPress 6.2.1 is a short-cycle release. The next major release will be version 6.3 planned for August 2023.
If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.
You can download WordPress 6.2.1 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”.
For more information on this release, please visit the HelpHub site.
The security team would like to thank the following people for responsibly reporting vulnerabilities, and allowing them to be fixed in this release.
This release was led by Jb Audras, George Mamadashvili, Sergey Biryukov and Peter Wilson.
WordPress 6.2.1 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver maintenance and security fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.
Adam Silverstein, Aki Hamano, amin, Andrew Ozz, Andrew Serong, André, Ari Stathopoulos, Birgit Pauli-Haack, Chirag Rathod, Colin Stewart, Daniel Richards, David Baumwald, David Biňovec, Dennis Snell, devshagor, Dhrumil Kumbhani, Dominik Schilling, Ella, George Mamadashvili, Isabel Brison, Jb Audras, Joe Dolson, Joen A., John Blackbourn, Jonathan Desrosiers, JuanMa Garrido, Juliette Reinders Folmer, Kai Hao, Kailey (trepmal), Marc, Marine EVAIN, Matt Wiebe, Mukesh Panchal, nendeb, Nick Diego, nickpap, Nik Tsekouras, Pavan Patil, Peter Wilson, pouicpouic, Riad Benguella, Ryan Welcher, Scott Reilly, Sergey Biryukov, Stephen Bernhardt, tmatsuur, TobiasBg, Tonya Mork, Ugyen Dorji, Weston Ruter, and zieladam.
To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, pick a ticket, and join the conversation in the #core and #6-3-release-leads channels. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook.
Thanks to @sergeybiryukov for proofreading.
Bryan finds A2 Hosting celebrating their 20th alongside WordPress. And that is 20 years of hosting stories and experience.
>> The post 20 Years of Hosting with Bryan Muthig appeared first on Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community .
On May 5, Patchstack published a security advisory about a high severity reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in ACF (Advanced Custom Fields), potentially affecting more than 4.5 million users. WP Engine patched the vulnerability on May 4, but the Akamai Security Intelligence Group (SIG) is reporting that attackers began attempting to exploit it within 24 hours of Patchstack’s publication.
“Once exploit vector details are publicly released, scanning and exploitation attempts rapidly increase,” Akamai Principal Security Researcher Ryan Barnett said. “It is common for security researchers, hobbyists, and companies searching for their risk profile to examine new vulnerabilities upon release. However, the volume is increasing, and the amount of time between release and said growth is drastically decreasing. The Akamai SIG analyzed XSS attack data and identified attacks starting within 24 hours of the exploit PoC being made public.
“What is particularly interesting about this is the query itself: The threat actor copied and used the Patchstack sample code from the write-up.“
Patchstack’s security advisory includes a breakdown of the vulnerability, sample payload, and details of the patch.
Although the vulnerability, assigned CVE-2023-30777, was promptly patched, and WP Engine alerted its users the same day, site owners have been slow to update to the latest, patched version of the plugin (6.1.6). Only 31.5% of the plugin’s user base are running version 6.1+, leaving a significant portion still vulnerable unless they are protected by additional security measures like virtual patches.
“Exploitation of this leads to a reflected XSS attack in which a threat actor can inject malicious scripts, redirects, ads, and other forms of URL manipulation into a victim site,” Barnett said. “This would, in turn, push those illegitimate scripts to visitors of that affected site. This manipulation is essentially blind to the site owner, making these threats even more dangerous.”
Barnett noted that attackers using the sample code from Patchstack indicates these are not sophisticated attempts, but the comprehensive security advisory makes vulnerable sites easy to target.
“This highlights that the response time for attackers is rapidly decreasing, increasing the need for vigorous and prompt patch management,” Barnett said.
Immediately available is BuddyPress 11.2.0. This maintenance release fixes 6 bugs. For details on the changes, please read the 11.2.0 release notes.
Update to BuddyPress 11.2.0 today in your WordPress Dashboard, or by downloading from the WordPress.org plugin repository.
mystichrome, dave.pullig, r-a-y, armaanfromatg, boonebgorges & imath.
WordCamp Europe is less than four weeks away, the speakers and sessions have been announced, and it’s time to make plans. Below you’ll find a list of the sessions and workshops that focus around the Block Editor, Block themes, and adoption. Not all sessions and speakers were announced, I’ll update the post if necessary.
Updated May 20th, 2023: Added the WPConnect sessions. The full list of sessions is available here, I also added a Table of contents, rearranged things a bit and added subheaders.
Updated May 19th, 2023: Michael Burridge’s workshop is now officially announced. The schedule is published. Now we’ll know when those great talks will take place in-person or on the Livestream. Ponder this for a moment, too: 60 speakers were announced. Ratio: 68.3% male, 31.7% female, 11.6% non-white. The diversity is not quite balanced. Representation matters.
Updated May 18th, 2023: I added the talks with Jonathan Bossenger, Luigi Teschio and Pedro Crespo
Updated on May 15, 2023: I added the From Shortcode to Block workshop and Niels Lange to the WooCommerce Talk
If you want to meet with me at WordCamp Europe, feel free to pick a time slot from my public calendar. I would love to meet you and discuss WordPress, products and strategies around Gutenberg. Or just meet more readers of the Gutenberg Times.
If the calendar thingy is too formal for your taste, feel free to DM me on Twitter or email me to coordinate a chance encounter 🙃
June 8th is Contributor Day. Will you be there? You’ll probably find me at the Documentation table again or at the table for the Test team. If you haven’t registered yet, do it now.
Gutenberg collaborative editing experience. Why, how and when? with Dawid Urbański
How can any website benefit from WordPress’s editing experience thanks to Gutenberg? with Ivan Popov
Fresh Off The Block: Transform WordPress With Templates with Maestro Stevens
Create a theme using the site editor – without coding! with Carolina Nymark
How the Site Editor can transform your ecommerce experience with Luigi Teschio
Code Techniques for Handling Dynamic Data in the New(ish) World of Blocks with Robert Richardson
Build a “not at home” shipping extension in the WooCommerce Checkout Block with Thomas Roberts and Niels Lange
Building Interactive Blocks: a step-by-step workshop with Luis Herranz
Developing WordPress Blocks using plain JavaScript with Jonathan Bossenger
Learn how to create Gutenberg blocks from scratch with Pedro Crespo
So far, the list of talks.
Through the grapevine, I heard there will be a workshop on From Shortcode to Block on Friday June 9th, 2023, at 14:00 in Workshop room 2. – “A workshop on converting a shortcodes based plugin to a custom block. Participants will learn how to create a dynamic block that renders the same content that the Shortcode does.”
WPConnect is the new name of the WPCafe, an informal gathering of people to discuss the assigned topic away from presentation and livestreams.
Saturday’s morning session are of great interest to me and I will most likely attend:
If you are already in town on June 7th, 2023 you might be interested in The WordPress Enterprise Gap Meetup at WordCamp Europe 2023 world. The event is organized by XWP in collaboration with HumanMade, Ipsyde, Crowd Favorite, and The CodeCo. There will be lightning talks, panel discussions, and some incredible speakers who are making waves in the enterprise WordPress world. Afterward there will be networking opportunities, too. It will take place from 18:00 to 21.30 local time, at The Cube, in Athens. You can registered via Luma
There will be other events happening around the meeting, mostly sponsor parties and get together. The content team at WordCamp Europe is always very good at publishing a list of those events, closer to the event.
So stay tuned. I am excited to meeting every one in Athens!
by Birgit Pauli-Haack at May 14, 2023 03:38 PM under WordCamp
Themeum, a WordPress theme and plugin company founded in 2013, has acquired the Kirki Customizer Framework plugin from its former developer, David Vongries. In April 2023, Vongries announced he was sunsetting the product and discontinuing development. He put the plugin up for sale for $30K and sold it for just under the asking price.
“I met the Themeum team at WordCamp Europe in 2019 and have fond memories of our encounter,” Vongries said. “They reached out to me immediately after the blog post was published on the Tavern, where I expressed my search for a new home for Kirki.
“Themeum is a major player in the WordPress world and I truly believe they’ll be a fantastic fit for Kirki. They have the resources to take the plugin to the next level and give it the attention it deserves.”
Rayhan Arif, Assistant Vice President of Business Development at Themeum, is expecting the Kirki plugin to come under the profile of Themeum on WordPress org shortly. Themeum is the company behind Tutor LMS, Qubely – Advanced Gutenberg Blocks, and nearly a dozen other smaller plugins.
“Since 2012, we have been deeply involved in creating a similar product on another platform,” Arif said. “Our past experiences have equipped us with the necessary skills and knowledge that we believe will greatly enhance the value of this plugin. With this improvement, developers will find it easier to add customization options to their WordPress themes. In a sense, this feels like a homecoming product for us.”
Vongries reported that support on the plugin was “basically zero,” despite there being more than 600,000 active installs. This makes sense as it is a framework geared towards developers. The majority of the plugin’s users have installed the free version from WordPress.org.
“There are only a hand full of Kirki PRO customers,” Vongries said, although some had grown unhappy with Kirki’s lack of development before the acquisition.
Themeum does not have any block-based theme products at this time, so this Customizer-dependent plugin fits in with the company’s catalog.
“Our initial focus will be on enhancing the plugin, after which we will undoubtedly proceed with integrating it into our themes,” Arif said.
“We are considering making certain adjustments to our pricing or business model, all with the intention of benefiting both existing and future customers. For example, we might substantially decrease the price.”
Existing users may be concerned about the product changing hands, but Arif said it’s unlikely they will experience significant changes.
“The acquisition is unlikely to bring about any negative implications for users,” he said. “The only perceptible change will be that product maintenance will now be handled by a professional team, well-versed in technology and carrying a wealth of experience.”
WP Engine has launched an annual survey for Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), one of the plugins it acquired from Delicious Brains in 2022. ACF reports more than 4.5 million active users, including PRO site installs, and WP Engine Product Manager Iain Poulson reports that the plugin is “growing in every way since the acquisition.” ACF has added more users, features, and releases, along with community building efforts like bi-weekly office hours.
This is the first time ACF has surveyed its user base about how they are building sites with WordPress and what can be improved. The survey starts with questions about the contexts in which professionals are using ACF and the volume and types of sites they are building. Respondents are asked about how they edit their sites, the type of license they are using, how often the reach for ACF in their toolbox, and which ACF features they use most often (i.e. REST API, ACF Blocks, Options pages, ACF Forms, Post Types Registration, etc.).
The survey is on the lengthier side with an estimated 15 minutes to complete. As ACF is a critical and indispensable part of many WordPress developers’ workflow, helping to shape its future development may be worth the time. WP Engine has also added a few questions that may only be tangentially related to ACF, such as where users are hosting their WordPress sites and what they use for local development.
“It’s our primary method for gathering insights and feedback from the WP community on what they would like to see in ACF,” WP Engine Product Marketing Manager Rob Stinson said. He also related the importance of previous customer feedback that helped ACF’s team plan and implement features like registering CPTs and Taxonomies (v6.1).
“In the near term, we’re working on bringing a UI to register Options Pages which is a PRO plugin feature, some long requested features like bi-directional relationship fields and improvements to conditional logic rules for taxonomy fields,” Poulson said. “We will also be focussing a release on more ACF Blocks features and improvements. The survey won’t likely change those planned features, and the initial results are validating our planned work on ACF Blocks.”
The survey ends May 19, 2023, and WP Engine plans to publish an aggregated and anonymized version of the results soon after the data is collected.
This is an aggregation of blogs talking about WordPress from around the world. If you think your blog should be part of this site, send an email to Matt.
For official WordPress development news, check out the WordPress Core Blog.
May 23, 2023 07:00 PM
All times are UTC.
