WordPress Planet

Matt: On with Theo / T3.gg

Matt — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 20:35:11 +0000

On Thursday a prominent developer YouTuber, Twitch streamer, and journalist posted a video titled This might be the end of WordPress. It was very harsh. In that video you’ll hear him say about me, “he’s a chronic hater” (7:55), “seems like he’s been a pretty petty bastard for a long time now” (10:22), “I hate this shit, I hate when people are assholes and they get away with it because I’m doing it for the greater good, the fake nice guy shit. I’ll take an asshole over a fake nice guy any day, people whose whole aesthetic is being nice, I hated it.” (11:25), “Honestly I’d rather the license just be explicit about it than this weird reality of ‘If you get popular enough you can still use it but the guy who made WordPress is going to be an asshole to you.’ That seems much worse than most open source models.” (14:39)… it goes on.

Ouch!

However, one of my colleagues Batuhan is a follower of Theo’s and suggested I engage with him. It turns out we were both in San Francisco, and he was game for a livestreamed, no-conditions interview at his studio. I believe discussion is the best way to resolve conflict, that’s why my door is open to Lee Wittlinger, Heather Brunner, Brian Gardner, or any WP Engine or Silver Lake representative who wants to talk to resolve things.

Saturday afternoon I went to Theo’s studio, we had a vigorous two hour debate and discussion with some real-time chat polling that also changed my mind on a few things, and his, too. I left feeling like I had a new friend. ️And met some awesome cats. Check out the video.

Do The Woo Community: We Are Looking for Guest Posts from our Listeners

BobWP — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 15:30:47 +0000

Episode Transcript

BobWP:
Hey everyone, BobWP here on Community. Well, this episode is more or less about the return of our blog here at Do The Woo, but it really is about community. Now, before I even get into that, a little news about this show, BobWP on Community. I know everyone loves conversation, and often when I go solo on this show, it just really doesn’t fit like our other shows do, which are centered around conversation. So, very soon, I’ll be announcing a new member of our hosting team and co-host of this show. It will be BobWP and whoever I choose on Community. We will have conversations between ourselves and an occasional guest.

What I really want to share with you is that we have everything in place to accept guest posts on our new blog. As with our podcast, the blog is by the community, for the community. During WordCamp US, I recorded more details on that. I talked about some of the past decisions regarding whether to have a blog or not. I also outlined the blog’s future, including contributions from hosts, guests, and even listeners. It was pretty brief, but I talked about moving forward with this new blog.

Now, as I said, we are ready for you, the listener. We have an invitation for you. Our guest posts are unique in that we’re looking for you to add to the conversation. For example, do you have a story that relates to an episode you’ve listened to? Do you want to expand your thoughts and insights on a particular episode through a short post or maybe a longer post instead of a comment? Or were you a guest, and would you like to update something from your episode or maybe even elaborate on something you mentioned?

So, as a listener, if you have an idea for a post, you can go to dothewoo.io/guest-posts, or you can reach out in another way, and I’ll send you the link. The link will also be in the show notes. But I’m pretty excited about this blog because it’s a little different in that we want to tie all the posts into episodes from our podcasts. So, if you’re interested, reach out to us. I’m looking forward to you being a bigger part of the Do The Woo community.

Here’s a suggested intro for your show notes:

In this episode of BobWP on Community, Bob shares news about the return of the Do The Woo blog and how it will further engage the WooCommerce community.

He chats about the future of the blog, opportunities for listeners to contribute guest posts, and the plans to bring on a new co-host for this show.

Whether you’re a longtime listener, guest, or simply a member of the community, Bob invites you to join in and become an even bigger part of the conversation.

Matt: Where is Lee Wittlinger?

Matt — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 20:12:58 +0000

Lee controls the board of WP Engine. The board is why WP Engine hasn’t done a trademark deal for their use of the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks.

You hide behind lawyers and corporate PR when you’re wrong, not when you’re right.

I’m replying on Twitter, I’m commenting on Reddit and Hacker News, I’m dropping into livestreams with ThePrimeagen and WPMinute. I’m talking to journalists whenever they reach out, and I’m happy to go on any large credible podcast or show to discuss these issues.

Lee could do the same. Why isn’t he?

Lee is a managing director of a $102B private equity firm, he is probably richer than me. (Though I doubt he gives back as much.)

“Because their lawyers are telling him not to.” Why do you think their lawyers are telling them not to?

Open invite: Lee, let’s debate this publicly. Propose a neutral venue and moderator.

Matt: Multidots Support

Matt — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 05:50:25 +0000

Anil Gupta has made an amazing commitment to the WordPress ecosystem. I applaud the way he runs his business.

WPTavern: Matt Mullenweg Announces Temporary Lifting of WP Engine Ban

Jyolsna — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 04:37:11 +0000

Matt Mullenweg has announced that the restrictions on WP Engine will be temporarily lifted until October 1, 00:00 UTC, allowing them to access WordPress servers. WP Engine was banned on September 25 from utilizing any WordPress.org resources following legal actions related to trademark disputes, which left WP Engine customers unable to access the Plugin/Theme directory or update their websites

The temporary reprieve gives WP Engine time to “spin up their mirrors of all WordPress.org’s resources that they were using for free while not paying and making legal threats against us.”, according to the official statement.

The announcement post blamed WP Engine for the situation: “WP Engine was well aware that we could remove access when they chose to ignore our efforts to resolve our differences and enter into a commercial licensing agreement. Heather Brunner, Lee Wittlinger, and their Board chose to take this risk. WPE was also aware that they were placing this risk directly on WPE customers. You could assume that WPE has a workaround ready, or they were simply reckless in supporting their customers. Silver Lake and WP Engine put their customers at risk, not me.”

I see https://t.co/FwFPhIHs7i is still showing issues.

We've removed all network blocks so anything they've having trouble with is a result of their own work.
— Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) September 27, 2024

Matt tweeted, “We’ve removed all network blocks so anything they’ve having trouble with is a result of their own work.” In another tweet, he clarified, “Silver Lake is the only entity we have beef with.” During the WP Minute live stream, Matt reiterated that the WP Engine situation was uniquely bad and that he doesn’t foresee this happening again with any other hosting provider.

That's not true, every other WP host in the world has been just fine through this. Silver Lake is the only entity we have beef with.
— Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) September 27, 2024

On the same livestream, Matt was asked by Brian Coords about allowing WP Engine users more time to transition to new hosts. Matt acknowledged the suggestion, admitting it was a valid point.

WP Engine tweeted: “We’re pleased to see access restored to the repository of WordPress plugins for our customers who operate their sites with us at WP Engine.”

We’re pleased to see access restored to the repository of WordPress plugins for our customers who operate their sites with us at WP Engine.
— WP Engine (@wpengine) September 27, 2024

The community remains divided—some support the decision, while others are less impressed.

While the reprieve is a temporary solution, it remains to be seen how the situation will unfold in the long run.

Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg 19.3, Simplified Query Loop and blocks in theme.json — Weekend Edition #306

Birgit Pauli-Haack — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 03:09:00 +0000

Hi there,

This was anything but a slow WordPress news week, though, however none of it related to the software and the block editor. There are a few WordPress news places where you get updates and opinions. Official WordPress news is one, Michelle Frechette over at Post Status has a great summary with links: Give Back … Deeply, Matt Medeiros and the WP Minute team share what they know, and Anil Gupta, Multidots is taking a stand for the WordPress Ecosystem: why we must all give back

Next week, WordPress 6.7 Beta 1 is on the schedule for October 1, 2024. To refresh what is on the docket for this next version you can consult Roadmap to 6.7. If you want to contribute and learn at the same time, keep an eye out for the “Help to test WordPress 6.7” post from the Make Test team as well.

I’ve been battling a nasty cold all week, and it seems I just need to let it run its course. I apologize in advance if my thoughts aren’t entirely coherent. To minimize any potential embarrassment, I’m keeping this weekend’s edition brief.

I will be taking a social media break for a few days, too, it’s good for my mental health people tell me.

Yours, 💕
Birgit

Table of Contents

Developing Gutenberg and WordPress

Release lead, Kai Hao, shared in his post What’s new in Gutenberg 19.3? (25 September) the highlights from the new version:

Joen Asmussen published his 64th Design Share and shows off the work of the WordPress Design team of the last two weeks:

Global styles iA
WP Briefing Landing Page
Adding “Drag” to Image Placeholder Text
WP.org: Moving “Log in” to the secondary navigation
Figma Organization for the new design system
Secondary button appearance concept
Unify DropZones
Updated shadows / elevation in WP Components
Updating ToggleGroupControl
Storybook Improvements

An early in-the-clouds exploration of how the global styles iA

🎙️ Latest episode: Gutenberg Changelog #107 – WordPress 6.6.2, Gutenberg 19.2, Data Views and Design Systems with special guest Maggie Cabrera

Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners

Anne McCarthy continued in their Core Improvements series about the Simplified Query Loop block with smarter defaults & intuitive settings. The enhancements streamline how you create dynamic post lists, making it more user-friendly and customizable. McCarthy explains how stronger defaults help with the first time usage, a toggle switch lets you change from default query to using a custom query, and the block’s filtering options include post formats now.

Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks

Fabian Kägy, director of editorial engineering at 10Up, documentation release lead for WordPress 6.7 was a guest on the ShopTalk Show 634th podcast episode, with hosts Chris Coyier and Dave Ruppert. “Fabian Kägy helps us understand the modern WordPress development process, Gutenberg vs Block editor vs full site editing, building with blocks or pages, what’s coming in the Twenty Twenty-Five Theme, and whether the theme authoring process has been made too difficult in 2024?” they wrote in the description.

634: Fabian Kägy on WordPress, Blocks, and Enterprise Dev on ShopTalk Show.

In the article, What WordPress developers need to know about the blocks property in theme.json, Jeremy Holcombe breaks down the “blocks” property in the theme.json file for WordPress. This lets developers set up block settings globally. It makes customizing Gutenberg blocks a breeze by centralizing design options like colors and typography. Plus, it keeps everything consistent and boosts site performance by cutting down on custom CSS. Holcombe also includes easy-to-follow implementation tips, practical examples, and code snippets to help theme developers get the most out of this feature. It really streamlines the development process and amps up overall site optimization.

“Keeping up with Gutenberg – Index 2024”
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. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly. The previous years are also available: 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023

Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.

JuanMa Garrido published Actions from Data Views: Adding images to the Media Library. It’s a continuation of the tutorial, he published earlier this month: Using Data Views to display and interact with data in plugins in which he walked you through on how to create a plugin that displays a React app in the WordPress admin to list a dataset of pictures using Data Views. In this second part, you learn how to provide users with tools to directly add any listed images to the Media Library.

In this week’s Live Developer Hours, JuanMa Garrido, André Maneiro and Nick Diego gave An Introduction to Data Views and answered a ton of questions. They covered, the fundamentals of the DataViews component, how to add a React app to a custom WordPress admin page and how to display a custom dataset using Data Views.

Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg’s master branch?
Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review.

Now also available via WordPress Playground. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? Email me with your experience

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: “Mitchell Library, Sydney (#24)” by Christopher Chan is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Don’t want to miss the next Weekend Edition?

WordPress.org blog: WP Engine Reprieve

Matt Mullenweg — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 21:03:26 +0000

I’ve heard from WP Engine customers that they are frustrated that WP Engine hasn’t been able to make updates, plugin directory, theme directory, and Openverse work on their sites. It saddens me that they’ve been negatively impacted by Silver Lake‘s commercial decisions.

On WP Engine’s homepage, they promise “Unmatched performance, automated updates, and bulletproof security ensure your sites thrive.”

WP Engine was well aware that we could remove access when they chose to ignore our efforts to resolve our differences and enter into a commercial licensing agreement. Heather Brunner, Lee Wittlinger, and their Board chose to take this risk. WPE was also aware that they were placing this risk directly on WPE customers. You could assume that WPE has a workaround ready, or they were simply reckless in supporting their customers. Silver Lake and WP Engine put their customers at risk, not me.

We have lifted the blocks of their servers from accessing ours, until October 1, UTC 00:00. Hopefully this helps them spin up their mirrors of all of WordPress.org’s resources that they were using for free while not paying, and making legal threats against us.

Do The Woo Community: Our Weekly Recap is Coming Back to the Blog

BobWP — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 09:58:36 +0000

Over the years, we have done a weekly recap on Friday’s. It evolved over time and I always strategize exactly what we will be dropping in here.

It’s not going to be the latest news, products, etc. in the space, as there are more than enough sites doing that.

Instead, this will serve as a good weekly collection of:

Posts and episodes here on Do the Woo
Content from our hosts, partners and sponsors.

Plus, if any listener comments on a specific episode or post, we will also be including a snippet from their comment in the recap.

Just a solid list of content that you may have missed. That’s it.

Matt: On ThePrimeagen

Matt — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 06:31:18 +0000

I dropped on the livestream for ThePrimeagen earlier today after a colleague pinged me that he was talking about the Silver Lake / WP Engine situation.

Afterward, I also privately shared with him the cell phone for Heather Brunner, the WP Engine CEO, so she can hop on or debate these points. As far as I’ve heard she hasn’t responded. Why is WP Engine scared of talking to journalists live?

WordCamp Central: Quarterly WordPress Event Sponsorship Report, 2016-2024 Q3

Isotta Peira — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 12:56:13 +0000

Below is the total amount of sponsor invoices generated to date for WordCamp and WordPress events, including the Community Summit fund and the Global Sponsorship fee.

Global Sponsorship

$1,500,000 or above

Automattic
Bluehost

$1,000,000 or above

Bubblestorm Management
GoDaddy

$200,000 or above

DreamHost
BoldGrid
Liquid Web
Weglot

$100,000 or above

OnTheGoSystems
GreenGeeks
Awesome Motive

$50,000 or above

HubSpot
Pantheon
InMotion Hosting
Nexcess
SiteGround
SiteLock

$10,000 or above

Parallels International
Yoast
WiredTree

Per Event Sponsorship

$2,000,000 or above

Automattic

$500,000 or above

WP Engine

$100,000 or above

Pantheon
SiteGround
Google
GoDaddy
SiteLock
Elementor
Hostinger
Wordfence
Cloudways
A2 Hosting
Yoast
Flywheel
Plesk
Gravity Forms
DreamHost
WPMU DEV
Nexcess

$50,000 or above

GreenGeeks
WordPress VIP
InMotion Hosting
dotblog
Media Temple
Pressable
Weglot
BoldGrid
Liquid Web
StellarWP
WEDOS
BigCommerce
PayPal
Omnisend
DigitalCube
Kinsta

$25,000 or above

NitroPack
Qualpay
Avalara
Setka
Rocket.net
Hover
Sucuri
Patchstack
FastSpring
KnownHost
Jilt
Themeum
GiveWP
WebPros
PeachPay
WP Buffs
WP Rocket
YITH
Litespeed

$10,000 or above

Amazon Lightsail
ilkli
Pagely
10up
VendorFuel
Verisign
HubSpot
RunCloud
GoWP
Square
Oliver POS
WPDeveloper
LearnDash
InstaWP
Stackabl
BuddyBoss
Beaver Builder
ServerPress
doMEn Ltd
WS Form
rtCamp
Crocoblock
FIU College of Business
Deer Designer
AddThis
Blockonomics
WP Beginner
Monarx
CookiePro
miniorange
Airwallex
AdRoll
Prime Strategy
CloudAccess.net
UpdraftPlus
Rochen
TextExpander
Titan
GoGoCreate
TraitWare
Tutor LMS
Cloudinary
EasyWP

Matt: WPE & Trademarks

Matt — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 08:25:45 +0000

I’ve been writing and talking about WP Engine a lot in the last week, but I want to be crystal clear about the core issue at play.

In short, WP Engine is violating WordPress’ trademarks. Moreover, they have been doing so for years. We at Automattic have been attempting to make a licensing deal with them for a very long time, and all they have done is string us along. Finally, I drew a line in the sand, which they have now leapt over.

We offered WP Engine the option of how to pay their fair share: either pay a direct licensing fee, or make in-kind contributions to the open source project. This isn’t a money grab: it’s an expectation that any business making hundreds of millions of dollars off of an open source project ought to give back, and if they don’t, then they can’t use its trademarks. WP Engine has refused to do either, and has instead taken to casting aspersions on my attempt to make a fair deal with them.

WordPress is licensed under the GPL; respect for copyright and IP like trademarks is core to the GPL and our conception of what open source means. If WP Engine wants to find another open source project with a more permissive license and no trademarks, they are free to do so; if they want to benefit from the WordPress community, then they need to respect WordPress trademark and IP.

WPTavern: WP Engine Banned from Using WordPress.org Resources

Jyolsna — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 06:55:38 +0000

The dispute between Automattic and WP Engine has intensified. Both companies have issued Cease and Desist orders to each other, leading WP Engine to remove the news feed from the WordPress admin dashboard. In response, WordPress.org has now banned WP Engine from utilizing any of its resources.

The WordPress.org statement read: “Pending their legal claims and litigation against WordPress.org, WP Engine no longer has free access to WordPress.org’s resources. WP Engine wants to control your WordPress experience, they need to run their own user login system, update servers, plugin directory, theme directory, pattern directory, block directory, translations, photo directory, job board, meetups, conferences, bug tracker, forums, Slack, Ping-o-matic, and showcase. Their servers can no longer access our servers for free.”

The statement continued: “The reason WordPress sites don’t get hacked as much anymore is we work with hosts to block vulnerabilities at the network layer, WP Engine will need to replicate that security research on their own. Why should WordPress.org provide these services to WP Engine for free, given their attacks on us?”

The announcement also reiterated what was shared in the WP Engine is not WordPress article. “WP Engine is free to offer their hacked up, bastardized simulacra of WordPress’s GPL code to their customers, and they can experience WordPress as WP Engine envisions it, with them getting all of the profits and providing all of the services.”

For those wondering about Flywheel, Matt has clarified that Flywheel also would be affected as WP Engine had acquired Flywheel in 2019.

The new status page on WP Engine explains: “There is currently no impact on the performance, reliability or security of your site nor does it impact your ability to make updates to your code or content. We know how important this is for you and we are actively developing a remediation for this issue.”

Meanwhile, Automattic-owned Pressable has a new page. The WordPress community is not happy with these events. Several people have come forward to offer help to those caught in the crossfire.

WordPress.org blog: WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org

Matt Mullenweg — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 22:50:29 +0000

Any WP Engine customers having trouble with their sites should contact WP Engine support and ask them to fix it.

WP Engine needs a trademark license, they don’t have one. I won’t bore you with the story of how WP Engine broke thousands of customer sites yesterday in their haphazard attempt to block our attempts to inform the wider WordPress community regarding their disabling and locking down a WordPress core feature in order to extract profit.

What I will tell you is that, pending their legal claims and litigation against WordPress.org, WP Engine no longer has free access to WordPress.org’s resources.

WP Engine wants to control your WordPress experience, they need to run their own user login system, update servers, plugin directory, theme directory, pattern directory, block directory, translations, photo directory, job board, meetups, conferences, bug tracker, forums, Slack, Ping-o-matic, and showcase. Their servers can no longer access our servers for free.

The reason WordPress sites don’t get hacked as much anymore is we work with hosts to block vulnerabilities at the network layer, WP Engine will need to replicate that security research on their own.

Why should WordPress.org provide these services to WP Engine for free, given their attacks on us?

WP Engine is free to offer their hacked up, bastardized simulacra of WordPress’s GPL code to their customers, and they can experience WordPress as WP Engine envisions it, with them getting all of the profits and providing all of the services.

If you want to experience WordPress, use any other host in the world besides WP Engine. WP Engine is not WordPress.

Matt: Charitable Contributions

Matt — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 20:06:55 +0000

I knew going to war with Silver Lake, a $102B private equity firm, they would pull out every dirty trick to try to smear my name, do oppo research, imply I’m a mafia boss trying to extort them, etc.

I have kept my personal philanthropy private until now. I would like to offer up one piece of evidence for the public to consider, which is the IRS accounting of my 501c3 charitable donations.

This is something I’ve tried to keep quiet, because true philanthropy isn’t about recognition. As you can see, my personal liquidity goes up and down but I give back as much as I can when I can.

2011: $295,044.60
2012: $401,121.00
2013: $2,088,890.88
2014: $98,648.00
2015: $101,947.00
2016: $42,300.00
2017: $51,562.50
2018: $606,957.68
2019: $620,802.65
2020: $607,452.48
2021: $2,151,602.26
2022: $2,780,054.20
2023: $2,276,425.06

If Lee Wittlinger, who controls Silver Lake’s investments in the WordPress ecosystem, or Heather Brunner, the CEO of WP Engine, would like to publish their charitable contributions over the past 12 years, they are welcome to do so.

WPTavern: Ajmer in India to Host its First WordPress Event ‘WP Campus Connect’

Jyolsna — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 17:04:29 +0000

Ajmer, a city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, is all set to organize its first-ever WordPress event – WP Campus Connect. This month-long initiative in October aims to empower students across multiple campuses by introducing them to the powerful tools and opportunities that WordPress offers.

Organizers have partnered with four different colleges to host a series of interactive workshops over four weekends – October 5-26, 2024. Each workshop will take place on a different college campus, providing students with the chance to learn in a hands-on environment.

Participants can expect comprehensive training sessions led by experienced professionals from the WordPress community. In addition to technical skills, the workshops will also cover various career paths within the WordPress ecosystem.

Pooja Derashri, event organizer and co-founder of WPVibes, said: “By introducing students to WordPress, we’re providing them with more than just technical knowledge; we’re giving them access to a world of career possibilities. This initiative will help students not only build valuable skills but also connect with professionals and peers who can guide them in their career journey.”

The Ajmer WordPress Meetup group has been active since 2017, and the organizers had planned to engage with students even before the pandemic caused the group to go quiet. They later shifted their approach, opting to conduct workshops at colleges rather than gathering students in one location.

With an anticipated turnout of 350 to 400 students, WP Campus Connect promises to be a vibrant hub for learning and collaboration. The event is designed not only to educate but also to inspire students to consider future careers in web development, digital marketing, and more.

The organizers have ambitious plans to expand the program in the future. They aim to bring in global speakers to offer valuable industry insights and establish a mentorship program that connects students with experienced WordPress professionals. They also plan to host hackathons and competitions focused on WordPress while collaborating with industry partners to create internship and job opportunities for students.

Recently, much emphasis has been placed on attracting new users, especially students, to WordPress. Josepha Haden Chomphosy, Executive Director of the WordPress project, discussed this month the importance of WordPress and how it equips students with essential skills for thriving in their future careers. WordPress.com is also giving away 1,000 free premium websites exclusively to university students.

WPTavern: #138 – Isla Waite, Bet Hannon and Ryan Bracey on What to Expect From WP Accessibility Day 2024

Nathan Wrigley — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Transcription

[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, what to expect from WP Accessibility Day 2024.

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/feed/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 podcast, I’m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea, featured on the show. Head to wptavern.com/contact/jukebox, and use the form there.

So on the podcast today, we have Isla Waite, Bet Hannon and Ryan Bracey.

Isla Waite, originally from the UK has lived in Sacramento, California for 17 years. With a background in graphic design and over a decade in website project management, she recently started her own accessible web design business. Three years ago, Isla joined the WordPress accessibility meetup led by Amber Hinds, which also led to her involvement with the WordPress Accessibility Day. She is now a team lead, managing the tech and vendor teams to promote web accessibility.

Bet Hannon has worked with businesses and nonprofits for over 16 years, helping them build WordPress websites, integrate other communication channels, and learn how to use digital marketing tools more effectively. She is the founder and CEO of AccessiCart, a services agency that focuses on accessibility and e-commerce, along with other high user interaction websites. Bet lives in Bend, Oregon and is a co-organizer of the WordPress meetup there.

Ryan Bracey is the director of web development and user experience at Second Melody, a mid-sized branding agency located in New Jersey, which builds custom WordPress websites for clients of all sizes and industries. In this role, Ryan has taken a holistic approach to accessibility within the agency by promoting collaboration between clients and departments alike, to ensure all phases of a project are completed with intention.

During the podcast, we discussed the significance of WordPress Accessibility Day, which is a 24 hour virtual conference running on the ninth to the 10th of October, 2024.

It’s free to attend, and we’ll offer a wealth of resources around the topic of WordPress accessibility. The event will include live captions, ASL interpreters, and professionally created event transcriptions.

It’s being driven by a team of passionate volunteers, and is geared towards making the digital space accessible for all.

We’ll cover the logistical details, including how to register, and the optional donations and sponsorships that can enrich your participation. Our guests share their personal motivations and experiences that fuel their dedication to the accessibility cause.

We also get into the global reach of the event with translation efforts and volunteer opportunities that make WordPress accessibility day 2024 for a truly inclusive initiative.

Isla, Bet and Ryan talk about the challenges and triumphs of advancing web accessibility. The importance of both conformance and compliance, and practical steps you can learn about during the event to make your website more accessible.

Whether you’re a developer, a designer or a content creator, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration to help you contribute to a more accessible web using WordPress.

If you’re interested in making the web a more accessible and inclusive place, this episode is for you.

If you’d like to find out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you’ll find all the other episodes as well.

And so without further delay, I bring you Isla Waite, Bet Hannon and Ryan Bracey.

I am joined on the podcast by Isla Waite, Bet Hannon and Ryan Bracey. Welcome to you all.

[00:04:51] Bet Hannon: Great to be here.

[00:04:52] Ryan Bracey: Thank you, yeah.

[00:04:52] Nathan Wrigley: Very, very nice to have you. I can’t actually remember if we’ve had three guests on the podcast before.

A quick hat tip before we begin to Michelle Frechette, who has been instrumental in lining up this podcast episode and wrangling today’s three guests.

In no particular order, I’m just going to go in the list that I’ve got them written down on my screen. Would you mind just doing a very quick one minute introduction, quick bio about who you are? Something relevant to what we’re going to be talking about today, which is the WordPress Accessibility Day 2024. So let’s start with Isla. Could we just have your little bio please?

[00:05:24] Isla Waite: Okay, my name is Isla Waite, I hail from the UK, but I live in Sacramento, California for the last 17 years. I have been in website project management for, gosh, more than a decade. Graphic design was my original life, and before that I was in Britain doing things.

I recently started my own business in accessible websites. I stumbled upon WordPress Accessibility Meetup, run by Amber Hinds, about three years ago. And through that discovered WordPress Accessibility Day and said, yes, I’ll get involved in that. And now I am one of the team leads, I’m the tech and vendors team lead.

[00:05:58] Nathan Wrigley: Very, very nice. Thank you so much for that. Okay, next one on the list is Bet. Bet, would you do the same? Just introduce yourself.

[00:06:05] Bet Hannon: Absolutely. So I’m Bet Hannon, I’m the CEO of AccessiCart. We are an accessibility services agency that focuses on e-commerce and other high user interaction sites. And this is my third go around with WordPress Accessibility Day. I serve on the board of directors, I’m the treasurer, and I am the team lead for finance and sponsors. So I primarily do money things for WordPress Accessibility Day.

[00:06:32] Nathan Wrigley: Okay, thank you so much. And finally, last but by no means least, Ryan.

[00:06:36] Ryan Bracey: Thanks. So yeah, Ryan Bracey, I’m the director of Web Development at Second Melody. We’re a branding studio located here in New Jersey, where I’m also located. Yeah, much like Isla, I stumbled across Accessibility Day through Amber Hind’s Accessibility Meetup. Joined as a volunteer three years ago, been an organiser for the past two years, and this year I am helping out as the team lead for speakers. So, dealing with everything related to talking to speakers, reviewing speakers, making the schedule, with the help from a lot of other people.

[00:07:06] Nathan Wrigley: Thank you very much. I obsess about WordPress, and so it’s not news to me that the WordPress Accessibility Day is a thing, but it occurs to me that maybe a bunch of people listening to this podcast will not have heard of this event before. So, whoever wants to take the question, could you just briefly outline what it is, what the intent is, and maybe, given that it’s coming up very soon, let’s get the date and the URL out there as well, so that people can pause this podcast, go and have a look, and then come back and press play again. So whoever wants to take that, just give us the lowdown, the introduction to when it is, and what it’s all about.

[00:07:39] Ryan Bracey: Yeah. So WordPress Accessibility Day will be held this year, October 9th through 10th. We are a 24 hour conference, that’s why it spans the 9th through the 10th. So there are 24 hour long sessions. You can tune in starting on the 9th, watch all the way throughout the day, the night, into the next day. We are an international conference, a hundred percent virtual, so this is why we’re able to do a 24 hour day.

So no matter where you are in the world, you can find a session that you’re interested in, that works for your schedule, participate how you want to participate. And our main focus here is just WordPress accessibility. So looking at educating and informing people on accessibility within the space, how they can help out, how they can get involved, and hopefully educating some people on things they didn’t know.

[00:08:27] Nathan Wrigley: Nice. Thank you so much. I don’t know about the schedule too much. We can come to that in a moment. I don’t really want to particularly cherry pick out individual speakers, although you may wish to later.

But given the fact that it’s running around the clock, so this 24 hour cycle, has that given you an opportunity to highlight different parts of the world, and raise the profile of different communities?

So, you know, we’ve got three flagship events which span the globe, Asia, Europe, and America. But, you know, there’s communities in Australia, the Philippines, Taiwan, South America, all of these things. Has that been an endeavor? Is that part of the whole 24 hour nature, to raise the profile of different community members throughout the world?

[00:09:04] Isla Waite: Absolutely, yeah. This year in particular, we have grown our marketing department of this nonprofit Accessibility Day, and thank you to Michelle. We are sending out social media, and blogs, and podcasts in all different areas of the world. She’s connected with all kinds of people to make sure stuff is pushed out at appropriate times for different time zones.

We’ve had good responses to those things. So we now have team members coming in from different regions in Australia and Hungary. Speakers from all different places, all around the world. I think this year, as it should be, is better than the last, and next year will be better than this year, and that will keep happening.

[00:09:42] Nathan Wrigley: Bet I think it was, that mentioned that she was a director. And when I hear that word, it immediately summons up some sort of structure in the background, you know, a hierarchy of people and what have you.

A lot of the events that I’ve seen online, I get the impression that it’s a bunch of friends that get together sometimes, and organise an event around a particular theme. But given that there’s directors and things like that, I’m presuming that there’s more going on in the background, a little bit more of a professional nature to it. Perhaps like a, well, we call it in the UK a charity, I think it’s called a nonprofit in North America. But is there some sort of structure in the background like that?

[00:10:16] Bet Hannon: Yes. Intentionally done in 2021, as we were going into 2022, was really thinking about, and one of the things that we, as a community, felt was really important was making sure that our speakers were compensated. All over the world, often people with disabilities are not compensated, and we expect them to do the educational work, but we expect that we want our speakers to be compensated.

So there’s a small stipend that they get, and that was not allowed by the WordPress Foundation. So we explored other options, and we incorporated ourselves as a 501 C3. So we are a nonprofit organisation within the United States. And we exist under the fiscal umbrella, or the kind of oversight, fiscal oversight, of a larger nonprofit called Knowbility, that does a lot of work around education and accessibility awareness.

That gives us the, we have the nonprofit piece, and so we just have three board members, so it’s not huge. And then we have the organising team for the event that has grown quite dramatically. You know, Isla talked about things kind of improving year to year, but this is by far the most organisers and volunteers that we’ve had, in terms of getting things put forward.

And we’ve been able to do some amazing new things. You know, Isla mentioned the marketing efforts that have really stepped up this year. But we’ve also had some folks step forward, not so much related to the day of the event, but to start doing some translation so that we’re able to, you know, all the talks happen in English, but we are wanting to be sure that we’re finding some ways to translate those into Spanish, and French, and other languages that folks are interested in having them appear in, so we can spread the word.

[00:11:56] Isla Waite: Shout out to Joni for all the work she’s done for that.

[00:11:59] Bet Hannon: New translation lead, so that’s been amazing.

[00:12:01] Nathan Wrigley: So a lot of the events that are online in the WordPress space, a lot of them are free to attend, certainly. Some of them are, you know, there’s a gatekeeping aspect to it, it might be financial, it might be the surrender of an email address or something like that. Is there any barrier to participating in this event during the day, or can literally anybody rock up and consume the content that you are creating?

[00:12:23] Isla Waite: I was just commenting that, wouldn’t that be terrible if we put a barrier in the way of people accessing WordPress Accessibility Day?

[00:12:30] Bet Hannon: We’ve worked really hard to make sure that there are no financial barriers for attending this. And so you can come to WordPress Accessibility Day. The only thing you need to do is surrender your email because you need an account to log into the Zoom, to attend the events. You can opt in or out of our mailing list though. So it’s free to attend.

We offer you the option to give a $10 donation. If you want an event t-shirt, you can make a $50 donation. If you want to micro sponsor your company for $150, you can do that. But we have some amazing sponsors that have come in to help us put on the event.

It’s more than just needing a streaming service to be able to do the event, because we’re offering live captions, because we’re talking about technical matters, sometimes that’s an issue, right? We have to have folks that are really skilled at doing those sorts of live captions. We’re offering live ASL interpreters during the event. And then, really quickly after the event, within the next few weeks, there’ll be professional transcriptions done.

As you probably know, when you are doing a transcription of an audio, not a lot of them that are technical get everything right, the AI versions of those. And so having folks that are skilled to do that is a piece of that.

So those things together, having the streaming service, and all those other things to get it all out, our amazing sponsors are helping us to do that in a way that makes it free for people to attend.

[00:13:52] Nathan Wrigley: So if I was to show up and I surrender my email address, it’s going to be taking place through Zoom, and you’ve given some nice options there for some things that you can do to help the cause, if you’d like to buy a T-shirt or what have you.

But if I turn up and I wish to read the captions, I think you mentioned there that you’re going to be having live captions. That implies, although I could be wrong, that you’ve got a human, a person actually transcribing them in real time.

And I think you’re right, the option to do that with technology falls over so quickly with technical terms. And no doubt, a WordPress event, there’s going to be hundreds of words bandied around, which wouldn’t be accurately transcribed, so that’s really nice. So you’ll be able to read those, and I’m guessing that that will be in English.

[00:14:33] Bet Hannon: Yes. Initially, all the presentations and all the captions will be in English.

[00:14:36] Nathan Wrigley: And is that the case for all of the presentations as well? I was to, yeah. So everything throughout the 24 hours is in the English language, and the captions will be in the English language as well, okay.

[00:14:46] Bet Hannon: Right. And our hope is that, you know, our volunteer translators are going to be getting to work fairly quickly, and starting to put those out as they can, right? Again, the translation pieces are all done by volunteers.

[00:14:58] Nathan Wrigley: Oh, okay. So, as soon as the session has ended, you’ve got, in your team of volunteers, there’s a bunch of people who are going to be transcribing those into, well, I’ll just name some languages and you can tell me, things like Spanish, and Italian, and what have you, and Japanese and things like that.

[00:15:11] Bet Hannon: The big focus is Spanish, and then after that French, just in terms of the number of places that those languages are spoken. But we do have volunteers that pop up, for example, you know, there’s some languages in the different regions of India that people have an interest in making sure that the talks are available to their communities, and so folks can step up. And so if you have folks that, you know, I was in an interview earlier today, and someone expressed an interest in translating for Arabic because they want their community to be able to access this information. So if you have a community that you want to volunteer to help translate for, reach out.

[00:15:46] Nathan Wrigley: Bet, where would we reach out to?

[00:15:48] Bet Hannon: So the wpaccessibility.day is the website, and we’ll get you the link for that. And then there’s a volunteer section, and people can volunteer.

[00:15:56] Isla Waite: I think it very much depends on where we can get volunteers from. We have ideal languages that we know are very popular in our part of the world, but we want as many languages as possible. So there’s really no restriction on who might volunteer and from where. And if you can speak another language, then we want you.

[00:16:13] Nathan Wrigley: I’m just going to ask a question one at a time. And, again, we’ll just go in the order of the people that we did before, so I’ll start with Isla. It’s a personal question so you can answer this in any way that you like.

Why have you gone in the direction of accessibility? Given all the interesting things that you can do online, why has accessibility become such a crucial part of your life, such that you are being involved, and giving up probably quite a lot of your time to organise an event like this? So it’ll be the same question, but we’ll begin with Isla.

[00:16:38] Isla Waite: For me, I don’t think it’s any one thing. I think a number of things sort collided at the same time for me in my professional career and private life. Like I said, I’ve been a project manager for more than a decade, with a background in graphic design. Before that I was in the military.

I am a very mission-focused person, and I was finding after a decade that, as much as I love my clients, I have some wonderful clients, I felt like, I need something to dig my heels into, and my fingers, and my brain, that has a bigger impact. And I think a lot of people find that at some point in their career. I just needed to see that I was somehow making a difference. Just little me, you know, little part of it, little butterfly wing situation.

So that was part of it. And then, like I said, I stumbled across the Accessibility Day, Accessibility meetup. I was just intrigued. At that point I was really just learning what accessibility was. I stumbled upon the quote by Tim Berners-Lee, you know, the internet, access for everyone regardless of disability, which is now in my signature block.

And then my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, which is one of those hidden diseases for a long time. But early on, I watched him struggle on the internet. So he’s, at the time, in his sixties. I was watching over his shoulder, just sort of trying to do something really simple. I was like, huh, this could happen to anybody, it’s not just Alzheimer’s. I’m very interested in the cognitive side of things, as much as the seen disabilities.

Anyway, that all sort of happened at the same time, and I decided, this is a path for me I think. And then just recently, I got involved with IAAP, the International Association of Accessible Professionals, and I just passed my CPAC. So yeah, for me it’s about getting on a path for the rest of my working life, and maybe beyond, where I feel like I’m doing something that my heart is driving.

[00:18:18] Nathan Wrigley: What a lovely answer. That’s great, thank you. Same question to Bet.

[00:18:23] Bet Hannon: Yeah, so I had been around flagship WordCamps and hearing about accessibility a little bit. But in 2016 we had a, one of our clients mentioned they needed help making their site accessible. And so that was when we really, about eight years ago, we really dug into learning about accessibility.

And when our team did that, we realised all of us on the team had people that we knew that were impacted. And we saw the difference it makes in people’s lives, to be able to be independent, and have sense of human dignity in being able to do stuff on the web.

And so much so that we shifted the focus of the agency. So it is what we do, but it’s, my take on it is, I hope we work ourselves out of work. I mean, if we could get to the point where nobody needs help learning how to do accessibility, because it’s just something we all do and know how to do. And so that’s a piece of what drives me to work.

With Accessibility Day, is really just sort of extending that education and finding ways to help people learn and grow, and know how to do accessibility better. Because I think when we know better, we can do better. But to think about building in empathy for different ways of accessing the web. It’s just a huge part of what I want to be about, so this organisation gives me a chance to do that.

[00:19:40] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, another great answer. No pressure at all, Ryan.

[00:19:43] Ryan Bracey: I know, I can’t believe I have to follow those two.

[00:19:46] Nathan Wrigley: Two really powerful messages, so over to you.

[00:19:49] Ryan Bracey: Similar to Bet’s timeline, right around 2016 for me. I’ve been a developer for, gosh, probably over a decade as well. But around that time period, 2016, we had a lot of clients coming to us mentioning accessibility. And up to that point in my career, it hadn’t really been something I knew much about, or given a lot of focus to.

Started really focusing on it because it was a client ask, obviously something I needed to do for work. And as I went down that path of researching, what is this? What do I need to do to be compliant? I stumbled across Amber Hind’s accessibility meetups, started attending those, found this really warm and welcoming community.

And just the whole push behind it, or the movement behind it even of, when you do this work it’s, I mean, yes, at the end of the day, we’re just creating websites, but it’s something so small that, why should we ever create a website that not everyone on earth can access? Meaning, yes, it doesn’t seem like a huge impact overall, in the big scheme of the world, but everyone has the right to be able to do anything anyone else can do. So why not just something as simple as browse the web.

And then as you really dive more into it, you realise a lot of the things you do to help cater to the accessibility crowd, you’re also catering to everybody in the world. So when you make something easy for one person, you make it a lot easier for everybody. So there’s added benefit across the board. It makes your work a lot better, it makes your work more accessible, everyone can participate.

I was also lucky around that time to find WordPress Accessibility Day. So I volunteered as a moderator, I believe I was three years ago. At the same time in my professional life, at my company, we went through massive growth. We had some restructuring, I was promoted to director of the website department. So as part of that role, I was tasked with also becoming more active in the community. So already had spoken at Amber’s Meetup, I was already a little bit of a part of Accessibility Day, so I took a larger role as an organiser. Lucky enough to work at a company that gives me the ability to do those things, and encourages me to do those things.

I think to echo what both Isla and Bet have said, it just really kind of gives meaning to your day, to know that what you’re doing is making someone’s life a little bit easier.

[00:22:08] Nathan Wrigley: That was also a fabulous answer. I think, in the last sentence, you encapsulated it in the one word, meaning. I think maybe that sort of sums it up. It gives some significance to work, which could otherwise be fairly technical and a bit dry. You know, if you’re just building websites all day, every day, I think it would be easy to, I don’t know, maybe you are fascinated by that for its own sake, but it would be easy to lose sight of that.

And everything that you’ve, the three of you have just mentioned, points to a kind of more moral dimension to the work of building a website. I get this intuition, having spoken to many people in the community that you are in, that it seems to be replete with genuinely nice people, which is just lovely. I mean, the WordPress community itself is fairly nice, but then there’s a subset of that community, the WordPress community, the accessibility in WordPress community, which seems to have its own high level of loveliness, for want of a better word.

[00:23:07] Bet Hannon: Well, Ryan kind of touched on that, you know, like finding this warm community. And I think that’s, you know, a lot of us work from home, and serving on this planning, organising team, for me, and I think for others too, is a way that we really connect every week. You know, we’re meeting most of the year, every two weeks. We’re now in the kind of pitched lead up to the event, so we’re meeting every week, and we get a chance to know one another. A lot of us have never met face to face yet, but we’re just a part of each other’s lives in a way that is genuinely warm and supporting, and that’s awesome too.

[00:23:38] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, that’s really nice. If somebody was to be listening to this and decides, you know what, I’m going to show up for the Accessibility Day 2024. Are there parts of the event which enable socialising, for want of a better word, or is it all about the presentations, or do you have, I don’t know, breakout rooms, or some way in which people can facilitate what you’ve just mentioned? You know, this kinda moral aspect, this nice camaraderie that you’ve all got.

[00:24:02] Bet Hannon: If you only log into the Zoom, then you’re just consuming the presentations. But there is a Slack channel that you can get access to, and there will be a lot of chatting going on there. And that’s where you’ll get notified if you win any of the sponsors prizes, and the drawings and those kinds of things. So the Slack channel is the place where you could start to make some connections.

[00:24:24] Nathan Wrigley: So there are opportunities for that. So, dear listener, if you are going to attend then, you never know, you might come out of it with a bunch of new friends as well, which is really nice.

I’m just looking at the website itself, you have the most fabulous URL, by the way. It’s wpaccessibility.day. I mean, it couldn’t be better, that’s just great. Well done for bagging that one. That website itself, I’m presuming had to go onto the microscope quite a lot. Given the nature of the event, it would be somewhat remiss if the website had glaring accessibility errors in it.

I don’t know if any of you three have been involved directly with the website, but I’d be interested in hearing some of the challenges. I think we all know that the idea of a hundred percent accessibility is something a bit off there into the distance, and it may never be achievable in anybody’s timeframe. But, what are some of the things that you’ve really gone out of your way to make as accessible as possible over there?

[00:25:14] Bet Hannon: I want to like give a shout out to Ryan because he designed that website for us.

[00:25:19] Ryan Bracey: Thank you Bet.

[00:25:20] Bet Hannon: It’s awesome. Do you want to talk a little bit about that, Ryan?

[00:25:23] Ryan Bracey: Yeah, absolutely. So as I mentioned, I do work for a branding agency, and as part of my involvement last year with Accessibility Day, we donated our agency resources to the group. There was interest to go through a rebrand, get a new logo, get a new entire branding.

So my wonderful branding designers that I work with, and I’ll give him a shout out, Jay Zawislak, he is our creative director, took this on. He designed the logo, chose the color palette, chose the fonts. And when he went through that exercise, he worked pretty closely with myself, just because I’m a little more versed in accessibility.

But we were really looking at, from step one of coming up with the brand, are these fonts accessible? And accessibility, as you mentioned, there is no a hundred percent, it is a spectrum. What works for one person might not work for another person, and vice versa. But you can look at small things like, if I do a lowercase l, a capital i, the number one, are those glyphs all different? Is the spacing between letters enough that it’s easy to read? Are the characters distinct enough that they’re easy to read?

So even looking at fonts in that way, when we were picking colors, we were comparing all the colors against each other to make sure contrast worked. So wherever text is laid over a color, those have been checked.

We also then took an opportunity to kind of showcase what can be done in an accessible website design. So when I designed it, I worked closely with our other board member, Joe Dolson, who actually started Accessibility Day, and now leads our website team as well, developed the website. And we decided to try to showcase things that can be done to make a site beautiful and accessible, because there is a little bit of a misconception within the design community that accessible design means ugly design, which is not true.

So we even, you’ll notice at the top of the site if you are on it, there is a toggle to go into kind of a dark mode. We really wanted to showcase that this can be done in an accessible way. It honors users’ browser preferences. If you prefer dark, it’s in dark by default. If you prefer light, it’s in light by default. We made sure when you switch it over everything is accessible in that mode as well. So that was done very intentionally too, because dark mode was kind of a big trend last year. So when we did the site, we wanted to show that can be done accessibly as well.

We used a lot of pastel colors. Again, those are often seen as inaccessible. So showing that actually you can have a very colorful site, you can have a soft colorful site in a very accessible way. So a lot of thought went into it. And it was, like I said, kind of used as a showcase piece to say, actually, you can be accessible and beautiful at the same time. You just have to put a little bit more thought into it, but you can have a good product at the end of the day.

[00:28:08] Nathan Wrigley: It’s really nice. I should say, I probably misspoke a little bit, given when this podcast is going to air, the URL that maybe would be more relevant is 2024. So the URL is the numerals 2024.wpaccessibility.day. That will actually get you to the current version of the site. It looks broadly similar, doesn’t it? You know, the design aesthetics, and what have you. But it’s absolutely marvelous. And so thank you for all of the hard work you’ve put in there.

Just out of interest, Ryan, because you’ve been in the weeds with that, how much extra work, if you like, and I know this is a sort slightly contentious question, but if you had built this website, I don’t know, with some kind of page builder technology built inside a WordPress, and you’d had no thought to accessibility at all, against the version that we’re looking at now, how much more time do you actually have to spend on it? Was it a significant overhead, or is it just now muscle memory for you that you can just do it all at the same speed as you would with any website?

[00:29:05] Ryan Bracey: I find there’s actually not a lot of extra work that goes into making something accessible, like I kind of alluded to, it’s just having that thought in your head beforehand. So to kind of draw a design analogy, if you know you’re working with a brand that has a red and black color palette, you know you have to design in red and black. It’s no harder, or easier, or more work, or less work than designing a blue and green website, it’s just a different approach. You have to think about it a little differently.

So accessibility works in the same way, you just go into it knowing, I have to make sure that my fonts are big enough, I have to make sure I’m not pairing fonts, colors, and background colors that no one can see. I have to make sure, if I’m introducing functionality, I’m introducing something that’s well known, it’s being introduced in the right way, I am doing it in a way that’s easy for everyone to use.

[00:29:57] Bet Hannon: It’s really just kind of an additional, thinking about user experience.

[00:30:01] Ryan Bracey: Right. I was going to say, at the risk of sounding controversial, it kind of just is, if you’re good at user experience, you’re good at accessibility.

[00:30:09] Isla Waite: And it gives you boundaries. I know so that many designers flail without some kind of boundaries. And yes, the brand gives you some boundaries but, you know, I was talking to another designer recently, and it’s designed with purpose. That’s how I look at accessibility. Yes, you have a brand, but now you’re designing with a purpose. And going after it like that, everyone just totally is on the same page immediately. As long as the team has an accessible culture, it’s not any different to designing the old way.

[00:30:35] Ryan Bracey: Yeah, it’s essentially just laying out a larger set of design requirements at the beginning of a project.

[00:30:40] Nathan Wrigley: We’re at an interesting time with accessibility because I feel, I’ve said this a few times on this podcast, that if we rewound the clock a decade, then accessibility wasn’t really, it didn’t really have a spotlight on it particularly. But now it really does, almost that it’s the thing of our time. You know, in the year 2024, it really does feel like one of the most talked about subjects.

I think there’s a couple of reasons for that, and the one is the moral dimension that you mentioned, all three of you alluded to that. And actually it felt like that was the dimension for the three of you, you know, the moral aspect to it. And probably behind that a little bit, the community that is behind that moral dimension.

But increasingly, I think there’s going to be a legal dimension as well, where the carrot, if you like, the moral thing, you know, dangle the carrot and hopefully people will come along. That will work for some people, you three being prime examples. But the stick, the legal aspect I think is coming fairly soon. I know that in the European Union, we’re going to have legislation coming around next year, which will make this all the more important.

So attending events like this feels like, really, if you’re not skilled on this, this is the perfect moment to get involved, because at some point somebody might be knocking on the door with some paperwork that you don’t necessarily want to read. That’s not a particularly great reason to do it, but it is a fairly compelling reason. And I don’t know if anybody’s got anything to say about that, about the legal aspect, and the ambulance chasing lawyers and all of that coming up.

[00:32:10] Bet Hannon: The reality is, for a lot of medium and small businesses, they tend to put off a lot of compliance things until they have to. That’s just sort of the way that they are, because of the revenue is just not there to do it often, so that happens. But people do come on board, and try to work at what they are required to do.

And you’re right, we already have that in the US with the serial plaintiff lawsuits. We’re gearing up for the enforcement of the European Accessibility Act. But even in the UK and other places, there are other laws already there that are starting to be more enforced.

And so, yeah, legal compliance is a thing. That is the main topic of our keynote speaker at the event this year in fact. Lainey Feingold is a US attorney who has been instrumental in accessibility law throughout the United States. She got involved with some of the early lawsuits around bank customers who were suing their banks over non-accessible ATMs, primarily blind consumers suing them. And out of that developed a kind of, structured negotiation, bringing together the people who build the ATMs, and the people who are blind who need to use them, and the users.

And so it kind of builds on that user experience that we were talking about before, bringing folks together rather than being antagonistic. I mean, I think people do want to do the right thing. So I don’t know how much of those stories she’ll tell us in her keynote, but she was very, you know, if you’re in the US and you have an ATM with braille on it, Laney was a part of that. She’s going to be talking about the legal landscape for the WordPress community, and I’m really excited about that.

[00:33:52] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, that’s a nice segue Bet actually because, again, the URL 2024.wpaccessibility.day, and then if you add forward slash schedule, to the end of that, you’re going to be able to see what’s going on. And as you said, right at the top of the list is Lainey’s keynote address.

But then underneath that we have all of the different bits and pieces that are rolling out over the following 24 hours, and they’re all clearly labeled, the times that you can see them live, and what have you.

I’m going to put you all on the spot and ask for you to pick one, or maybe two, that you are particularly excited about. Now, caveat emptor, I am not suggesting, even for a moment, that if you pick two, that means the others are in any way, shape, or form, less worthwhile, let’s put it that way. We understand how this works. We can’t mention all of them because we just don’t have the time. But if you find that to be a fair thing to do, I’ll start with, well, let’s go with Isla. Couple that you are particularly excited about, or one, whichever you like.

[00:34:48] Isla Waite: Well, I’m going from my brain, and I’ve only really studied the schedule twice. Once when I was, this is how the process goes, I was eliminating all indication of who these speeches, presentations come from, so that the speaker’s team could go through that, and it was anonymised so there’s no favoritism or anything, so yeah, that’s how it’s done.

So that was my first exposure to, all of the applications of the speakers, which were somewhere in the region of 80 to 100. So the team did an amazing job of getting through all of that, and coming up with the 24, 25 presentations.

I’ve since looked at it once because we’ve been pretty busy. So from the top of my head, I know there is one that focuses on a culture among developers, and that stuff is obviously very, very interesting to me because I work, I guide the team or whoever’s involved in a particular project.

And that involves people who work predominantly with me, and people who work with the organization that we’re helping. It becomes a very molded team of people who need to understand how this all works, and how you’re going to keep doing it going forward.

So I’m always interested on other people’s approaches to that. And I believe that speakers from Hungary, so I’m super excited to hear about that perspective from another country.

[00:35:57] Nathan Wrigley: There’s one right in front of me at the moment which is entitled, Creating a Developer Culture of Accessibility and it’s Jessie Frio, Mark Steadman. So maybe that was the one that you were thinking of. So there we go, we’ve managed to find that one. That’s great. Okay, let’s go to Bet. Same question.

[00:36:12] Bet Hannon: I am, not so much the presentations, I am super excited about hearing Lainey’s keynote. I do a lot of work with folks that are trying to wrestle through all those legal compliance things, and that’s just the nature of what I end up doing with a lot of folks. So I just eat that stuff up, and I really eager to hear from her, she’s a great presenter too.

[00:36:31] Nathan Wrigley: Perfect. So we’ve had a culture one, we’ve had a compliance one. So, yeah, over to you, Ryan, for the last one or two.

[00:36:37] Ryan Bracey: Oh wow. As the speaker lead organiser, I feel like I love all my children. We do have some really interesting topics this year, maybe I’ll answer it that way.

To go off Lainey’s keynote, we do have a few other talks that kind of focus around the legal landscape this year. This was a big push for us to get speakers in that area because it is becoming more prevalent.

We also have some interesting talks that focus around accessibility from a designer aspect, which I think is an oft overlooked topic. I think a lot of times it just falls to the developer, when it’s really something that starts in the beginning.

We do have some interesting culture ones, that talk about how to structure accessibility within your company.

But there is one talk I am actually pretty excited about. It is called, How to Remediate Accessibility Issues in WordPress by Cam Coulter. And I think that one’s going to be very interesting to our audience because he’s talking specifically about how to address issues that pop up in WordPress, which, as WordPress developers, we know is not often a fully hardcoded, self-built system. You’re working with a lot of page builders, plugins, third party developers, software systems. So he’s talking about how to identify those things, and make changes when maybe you don’t have access to that source code.

[00:37:53] Nathan Wrigley: Oh, well, thank you. That was nice, all three of you giving us a very different answer.

If you go to that page though, although it might sound on the face of it that accessibility is a niche, it turns out that niche is really broad. I’ll just go through a few, I’m just looking at the page now. So the one that you just mentioned, Ryan, How to Remediate Accessibility Issues in WordPress.

Then there’s one about agile accessibility, Building Inclusivity into the Product Roadmap. Practical Accessibility Tips for Content Creators. Accessibility Challenges with Single Page Applications. Why can’t I use my brand color there, and if not there, then where? That’s an interesting one. Is your page builder, accessible? Captchas and other gotchas. CSS tiny tips. Insights from a community driven survey. Developing accessible Gutenberg blocks. That one would capture I think.

I’m about halfway down the page and I’ll stop there. But you’ve immediately got the idea that this not one thing, there really is a whole broad church of things to be consuming and getting involved in.

So I know it’s not the three of you entirely, but I think this event is going to be absolutely fabulous. So just quickly, one more time, 2024.wpaccessibility.day. Just before we knock it on the head, as we say in the UK, just before we finish, is there anything that you want to just mention as a way of rounding it off? Something that I failed to ask, something that you think was important say. Let’s go round the houses. Let’s start with Isla.

[00:39:19] Isla Waite: Yeah, I want to tack on a little bit to Bet’s comments about the legal stuff. It’s been a big thing in California recently, and I’m definitely not going to go into the details of that. But, you know, eventually California will sort itself out and there’ll be some kind of law that makes sense.

But something that came up in the draft of that bill was compliance, and somewhere else, I believe the word conformance was used. I’ve studied those words a lot having just done my CPAC. Compliance being a legal thing, conformance being in the spirit of. And with all this talk of laws, and people definitely being worried and, scared and, you know, Bet’s clients and mine as well, oh my gosh, how do I get compliant?

Yes, that is super important and, yes, it’s probably going to be the law. But for everyone else who’s just trying to get on board and figure this out, start with conformance. Start with doing something in the spirit of accessibility. All you have to do is squint at your colors and figure out, can I see them if my eyesight’s not very good? There’s so many places you can start to conform, and work in the spirit of accessibility. And I hope lots of those people come to WordPress Accessibility Day 2024.

[00:40:25] Nathan Wrigley: Nice. Thank you for that final comment, that’s lovely. And, Bet, anything you wanted to add?

[00:40:30] Bet Hannon: Yeah, I think a lot of times, we’ve kind of alluded to it a couple different times, some of the stuff Ryan talked about. A lot times people think accessibility is something very complex, that only specialists can do. And I try to help people understand, you know, start where you’re at, and if you can put alt text on images, and make sure your heading structures are right, and make sure your link texts are there, and work on your color contrast. That’s a lot of accessibility issues, and they don’t necessarily require very much technical knowledge at all, right? Content creators do a lot of that work. And so get started and start learning, but also, the more you educate yourself, the more you can stop creating inaccessible content.

[00:41:11] Nathan Wrigley: Nice. And it feels like this event is perfectly poised for that. Whether you are really deeply into this journey, there’s content here you. But you are the 101 stage, and you just want some tips right at the outset, there’s things here well. Okay, thank you. And, Ryan, rounding us off.

[00:41:25] Ryan Bracey: Yeah. And I just wanted to say, and Nathan, you alluded to this but, as you read our schedule, we do have a little bit for everybody, and we took a really concerted effort to make sure that this wasn’t a fully technical conference. If you’re not a developer, there are going to be talks for you here. If you’ve worked in accessibility for years, there will be talks for you here. If you’ve just heard about accessibility today on this podcast, there are talks for you there.

So as we’ve mentioned, it is free to attend. So if you go to our website, you can register right now. It’s October 9th, block off your calendar. Each session only lasts for 45 minutes. One happens every hour, so you can kind of watch them at your leisure throughout the day. And like I said, we have something for everybody. So no matter what position or role you work in, no matter where you are in your accessibility day journey, you can probably find a talk that is relevant to what you are looking to get out of it.

[00:42:15] Nathan Wrigley: Thank you so much. And playing it forwards a little bit, I would also draw attention to the menu on the URL, which we’ve been mentioning, 2024.wpaccessibility.day. Couple of things, there’s a volunteer menu item, maybe go and check that out if you’re interested in supporting the event going forwards. And also a donate menu item as well if you want to support the endeavors in that way.

That has been a really interesting podcast. If you are new at accessibility, this event is for you. If you’re experienced, this event is for you. And if you would like to possibly make some new friends in a different community, this event is also for you. So it’s got a bit of everything for everybody.

Thank you so much for chatting to me about it today. Thank you, Isla, thank you Bet, and thank you, Ryan. I really appreciate it.

[00:43:03] Bet Hannon: Thanks for having us.

[00:43:04] Ryan Bracey: Yeah, thank you.

On the podcast today we have Isla Waite, Bet Hannon and Ryan Bracey.

Isla Waite, originally from the UK, has lived in Sacramento, California for 17 years. With a background in graphic design and over a decade in website project management, she recently started her own accessible web design business. Three years ago, Isla joined the WordPress Accessibility Meetup, led by Amber Hinds, which has led to her involvement with the WordPress Accessibility Day. She is now a team lead, managing the tech and vendors teams to promote web accessibility.

Bet Hannon has worked with businesses and nonprofits for over 16 years, helping them build WordPress websites, integrate other communication channels, and learn how to use digital marketing tools more effectively. She is the founder & CEO of AccessiCart, a services agency that focuses on accessibility and eCommerce, along with other high user interaction websites. Bet lives in Bend, Oregon, and is a co-organizer of the WordPress Meetup there.

Ryan Bracey is the Director of Web Development & User Experience at Second Melody. A mid sized branding agency located in NJ, which builds custom WordPress websites for clients of all sizes and industries. In this role Ryan has taken a holistic approach to accessibility within the agency by promoting collaboration between clients and departments alike, to ensure all phases of a project are completed with intention.

During the podcast we discuss the significance of WordPress Accessibility Day, which is a 24-hour virtual conference running on 9th to the 10th October, 2024. It’s free to attend and will offer a wealth of resources around the topic of WordPress accessibility. The event will include live captions, ASL interpreters, and professionally created event transcriptions. It’s being driven by a team of passionate volunteers and is geared towards making the digital space accessible for all.

We cover the logistical details, including how to register and the optional donations and sponsorships that can enrich your participation. Our guests share their personal motivations and experiences that fuel their dedication to the accessibility cause. We also get into the global reach of the event, with translation efforts and volunteer opportunities that make WordPress Accessibility Day 2024 a truly inclusive initiative.

Isla, Bet, and Ryan talk about the challenges and triumphs of advancing web accessibility, the importance of both conformance and compliance, and practical steps you can learn about during the event to make your website more accessible. Whether you’re a developer, a designer, or a content creator, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration to help you contribute to a more accessible web using WordPress.

If you’re interested in making the web a more accessible and inclusive place, this episode is for you.

Useful links

WP Accessibility 2024 website

WordPress Accessibility Meetup

AccessiCart website

Second Melody website

Knowbility website

International Association of Accessible Professionals website

WPTavern: Automattic Responds to WP Engine’s Cease and Desist with Legal Action

Jyolsna — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 23:58:41 +0000

After the incidents at WordCamp US 2024, WP Engine sent a “cease and desist” letter to Automattic demanding that Automattic and its CEO, Matt Mullenweg, retract and stop making false, harmful, and disparaging statements about WP Engine.

Automattic Confirms Legal Action

Matt Mullenweg has confirmed that they have officially initiated legal action against WP Engine for the “Unauthorized Use of WordPress Foundation and WooCommerce, Inc. Intellectual Property” and requested them to stop the unauthorized use of trademarks belonging to Automattic & Woo.

acnd_09_23_2024 Download

The document reads, “Our Client owns all intellectual property rights globally in and to the world-famous WOOCOMMERCE and WOO trademarks; and the exclusive commercial rights from the WordPress Foundation to use, enforce, and sublicense the world-famous WORDPRESS trademark, among others, and all other associated intellectual property rights. We are writing about WP Engine’s web hosting and related services that improperly use our Client’s WORDPRESS and WOOCOMMERCE trademarks in their marketing.“

The letter further asserts: “We understand that our Client has contacted you about securing a proper license to use its trademarks, yet no such agreement has been reached. As such, your blatant and widespread unlicensed use of our Client’s trademarks has infringed our Client’s rights and confused consumers into believing, falsely, that WP Engine is authorized, endorsed, or sponsored by, or otherwise affiliated or associated with, our Client. WP Engine’s unauthorized use of our Client’s trademarks also dilutes their rights, tarnishes their reputation, and otherwise harms the goodwill they have established in their famous and well-known trademarks, and has enabled WP Engine to unfairly compete with our Client, leading to WP Engine’s unjust enrichment.”

The legal team also accuses that, “WP Engine has developed a business generating annual revenues of over $400 million, which has been based entirely on extensive and unauthorized uses of our Client’s trademarks.”

Automattic’s lawyers warned, “Our Client is entitled to file civil litigation to obtain an injunction and an award of actual damages, a disgorgement of your profits, and our Client’s costs and fees. Our Client also is entitled to seek an award of attorney’s fees due to the bad faith and extraordinary nature of WP Engine’s knowing and willful infringements.”

But Automattic is willing to amicably resolve this matter, including through a licensing relationship for use of its trademarks. WP Engine has time till October 03 to confirm its understanding of and compliance with Automattic’s requests including the below ones.

The document also contains screenshots (shared below) from social media and WP Engine’s website, highlighting alleged misuse of trademarks and community confusion.

The legal battle between the two giants will have long-term effects on the community at large. Even more interesting is that Automattic had invested in WP Engine in 2011.

More About Cease and Desist Letter From WP Engine

WP Engine’s cease and desist letter stated that “WP Engine is fully prepared to take all necessary steps to protect its business, employees and customers, as well as the entire WordPress ecosystem, from the harm Automattic is attempting to inflict upon them.”

The document stressed that “Automattic and its CEO Matthew Mullenweg must immediately cease and desist from disparaging WP Engine and/or its investor by making false factual statements.”

“Mr. Mullenweg’s statements also reflect a clear abuse of his conflicting roles as both (1) the Director of the non-profit WordPress Foundation, and (2) the CEO of at least two for-profit businesses that compete with WP Engine. From his sham assertion of trademark rights, to his market-wide disparagement, to disruption of known business relationships by either convincing or coercing WP Engine’s customers from doing any further business with it, these acts reflect just a few examples of Mr. Mullenweg’s unethical abuse of power. That Mr. Mullenweg quietly demanded tens of millions from WP Engine for his for-profit company while publicly claiming to be selflessly safeguarding the interests of the community is shameful.” WP Engine’s legal team stated.

From WordPress #Announcements Slack channel

Matt also attended a Twitter Spaces discussion and Courtney Robertson has shared an AI-generated version of its transcript.

Other Developments

WP Engine’s News Feed Removed?

Matt tweeted about rumors that WP Engine removed the news feed from wp-admin dashboards. Some users confirmed that the whole WordPress News Metabox has been removed from the WP Engine dashboard but is still available in Local.

Users were divided on the widget’s importance, but several people expressed dissatisfaction with WP Engine’s move.

WP Tavern Articles Missing?

A Reddit post alleged that several WPTavern posts had disappeared after the WC US Q&A session. However, WPTavern founder Jeff Chandler debunked the claims, stating, “With some help, I conducted a thorough investigation and I can confidently say that not only were those posts not deleted, they never existed.” The Reddit post was later deleted.

(This concludes Part 2. Stay tuned for Part 3.)

WPTavern: Highlights from Matt Mullenweg’s Spiciest Word Camp Presentation at WordCamp US 2024

Jyolsna — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 18:55:18 +0000

The highly anticipated Q&A session with Matt Mullenweg at WordCamp US kicked off with him stating, “This might be one of my spiciest WordCamp presentations ever.” He opened the session by reading his recent article, WordCamp US & Ecosystem Thinking, set against the backdrop of jazz music. Matt then used the analogy of the “Tragedy of the Commons” to discuss the importance of Five for the Future. He also addressed his cryptic tweets and warned about the potential threat of private equity hollowing out and undermining open-source communities.

Key Points from the Q&A Session

This might be the last Word Camp you see WP engine have a booth at.

– Matt Mullenweg

Matt said that most of the information he’s about to share in the presentation has come from WP Engine employees who reached out to him. WPEngine is controlled by Silver Lake a Private Equity Firm that in Matt’s words “doesn’t give a dang about your open source ideals it just wants return on Capital.”

He went on to discuss the fate of other companies Silver Lake has acquired. In 2010, they bought 25% of Talend and proceeded to monetize its open-source user base, eventually generating 20x returns over seven years. Silver Lake also bought 5% of Unity for $400 million and raised prices drastically, leading to multiple CEO changes and the rise of the open-source alternative, Godot Game Engine.

Silver Lake, valued at $102 billion, also owns WP Engine, but Mullenweg criticized the company for contributing little to the WordPress community’s “Five for the Future” initiative. He referred to Lee Wittlinger, the Managing Director of Silver Lake, as “a schoolyard bully” and announced that WP Engine would no longer be allowed at future WordCamps.

Mullenweg offered to return the $75,000 WP Engine had paid to be a Super Admin Sponsor and also accused them of misusing the WordPress trademark. “WP Engine sounds like WordPress, and their colors are even similar to WP’s blue. There’s brand confusion.”

He also touched on broader issues, noting that WordPress growth had slowed in the last 18 months, partly due to changes in W3 Techs’ methodology and non-contributing companies outcompeting contributing ones. However, he pointed out that WordPress had recently regained momentum and “grown an entire Drupal of market share.”

What we create together is bigger than any one person.

– Matt Mullenweg

Matt admitted he didn’t want to make the presentation but felt compelled to speak out against bad actors. “The only way to fight a bully is to fight them back. If you just allow them to run rampant on the playground they’re just going to keep terrorizing everyone.”

Mullenweg explained that he had attempted to discuss increasing WP Engine’s contributions, but after receiving no positive response, he felt it necessary to call them out publicly. He encouraged users to consider switching to hosts that actively contribute to WordPress when their WP Engine contracts are up for renewal. He also emphasized that WP Engine employees are not at fault and that he supports those who speak out about their company’s lack of participation in the WordPress community.

Mullenweg also shared some exciting developments for WordPress, including upcoming Google Docs-like collaboration features. He stressed the importance of software licenses, likening them to the Constitution, as they guarantee freedom. Additionally, he expressed his pride in seeing WordPress adopted by the U.S. Army and the federal government.

A fan of AI, Mullenweg advised developers to explore AI-assisted tools like Cursor and also promised to honor Jessica Lyschik’s Speed Build Challenge.

The video of Matt Mullenweg’s Q&A session at WordCamp US is now available on YouTube.

Phase 2 – Matt’s Next Steps

Matt’s statements at the WordCamp session were just the beginning. He then followed up the attack on WP Engine by publishing WP Engine is not WordPress in WordPress.org. One of his major criticisms was that WP Engine is the only WordPress hosting provider that disables revisions by default.

He didn’t mince words, stating, “What WP Engine gives you is not WordPress, it’s something that they’ve chopped up, hacked, butchered to look like WordPress, but actually they’re giving you a cheap knock-off and charging you more for it. This is one of the many reasons they are a cancer to WordPress, and it’s important to remember that unchecked, cancer will spread.”

“WP Engine is setting a poor standard that others may look at and think is ok to replicate. We must set a higher standard to ensure WordPress is here for the next 100 years.”, he continued.

He then launched a Twitter poll asking the community if WP Engine should be allowed to have a booth at the next WordCamp, and the majority voted in favor of WP Engine’s continued presence.

Response From WP Engine

In response, WP Engine published a blog post titled Highlighting Over a Decade of Innovation and Contribution to the WordPress Community. In it, they detailed their contributions to WordPress, including sponsoring WordCamps, organizing educational events like DE{CODE}, and empowering the WordPress community through content like the WordPress Roundup and Building WordPress series. They also highlighted their products like Faust.js, WPGraphQL, Headless WordPress platform, Local, Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), and Genesis Blocks.

However, WP Engine did not address any of Mullenweg’s specific accusations. They concluded their post by reaffirming their dedication to WordPress, saying, “WP Engine’s commitment to WordPress and its passionate community is unwavering…WP Engine will remain at the forefront, finding new and exciting ways to drive the WordPress ecosystem’s success for years to come in partnership with this vibrant, innovative community.”

Community Reactions

Matt Mullenweg’s comments sparked intense debate within the WordPress community, leaving it shocked and divided. While some rallied behind Matt, even going so far as to cancel their WP Engine subscriptions, others were uncomfortable with his approach.

Rodolfo Melogli, founder of Business Bloomer tweeted, “I don’t think a CEO should attack people/corps based on personal opinions, no matter if right or wrong. Not good for the WordPress ecosystem tbh.”

Nate Finch, author at Level Up Tutorials suggested, “As far as I know, there is no requirement that any company that sponsors a WordCamp be involved with 5FTF, let only hit a certain threshold. If this is the case, and maybe it should be a requirement, it should be added to the sponsor agreement for WordCamps.”

“It’s not enough to provide services and products and marketing at WordCamps; if you’re making millions of dollars off WordPress I think we all can agree you really need to contribute some real hard value back into it.”, said Seth Rubenstein of Pew Research Center.

Hendrik Luehrsen, CEO of Luehrsen // Heinrich was worried, “With his recent remarks, @photomatt may have just killed the #FFTF program. It’s a tough sell to maintain public profiles on a platform that can be weaponized against someone – deserved or not.” However, Matt assured that his goal is to raise awareness of the 5FTF initiative.

“You can’t really promote the benefits of open source and then moan when companies build on that free platform and monetize it.” tweeted WPTuts.

WPHercules published WordPress.com is not WordPress as a parody countering WP Engine is not WordPress. They point out that “plugin extensibility is sacred,” but WordPress.com restricts plugin installation in lower-priced plans.

Andrew Palmer, in The Complex Dynamics of WordPress: A Passionate Critique, pointed out Matt’s difficulty letting go of certain issues, which at times contradicted his own WordPress philosophy. He recommended elevating other leaders within the WordPress community to help balance decision-making and ensure clearer guidance and recognition of contributions.

Kevin Geary’s WordPress’ Big “Tragedy of the Commons” Problem shares, “The problem is that Matt is putting a massively important project, and our future, in the hands of a historically failed model. Some of the smartest minds in economics have arrived at another obvious conclusion when tackling the Tragedy of the Commons problem: owned land is better cared for than public land because it benefits the private owner to protect and care for it.”

He suggests, “WordPress should be driven by a proper funding model, a proper visionary, a consistent core development team, and consistent marketing.”

James Giroux analyzed Matt’s actions as a Project Lead in WCUS: Freedom Isn’t Free. “Matt is the Project Lead, and he has a track record of calling things out in a direct, and sometimes uncomfortable way…I think it’s pretty hypocritical to say that Matt is mean or a bully while also saying things like “it’s because Matt wants Automattic to win” or “it’s because Matt doesn’t like competitors to Automattic”.

Another hot topic was the brand confusion Matt highlighted between WP Engine and WordPress. Robert DeVore pointed out that more people are confused by WordPress.org vs WordPress.com than by WordPress vs WP Engine. Daniel Schutzsmith also shared his experience with a client who faced the same confusion.

Discussions are taking place on Reddit too.

Pantheon & GoDaddy – Then & Now

Matt’s criticism of companies is not new. One of the most memorable incidents took place the night before WordCamp US 2016 when Pantheon’s $100K sponsorship was abruptly revoked. Their promotional materials, including their booth, were stashed away in a storage room, and the sponsorship fee was later refunded in full.

Fast forward to this year’s WordCamp, and Pantheon returned as an Editor Sponsor alongside Automattic. Courtney Robertson of GoDaddy tweeted: “Wild how we are all talking about @wpengine and not the elevator doors from Pantheon sponsored. I would like to know more about standards changing.”

In 2022, Matt identified GoDaddy as a “Parasitic Company” and an “Existential Threat to WordPress’ Future”. And this year, the very same GoDaddy was a Super Admin sponsor. They sponsored Courtney Robertson for Contributor’s Day and allotted $2,000 for eight self-funded Table Lead contributors. Matt even mentioned their contributions in his Ecosystem Thinking article.

(This concludes Part 1. Stay tuned for Part 2.)

Do The Woo Community: The Ultimate Guide to WooCommerce Hosting: Performance, Support, and Growth with Marcel and Mike

BobWP — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 08:55:00 +0000

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Episode Transcript

Marcel:
Well, hello there. Welcome to the show. Hi, Mike, how are you?

Mike:
Hey, Marcel. I’m good. And yourself?

Marcel:
I am wonderful. It’s September, summertime is ending. Vacation was just a couple of weeks ago, so I guess I’m in the most perfect mode you can get in the year.

Mike:
Yeah, the gray weather has really shown us that summer might be over. I think we’ll get a second wave, right? Usually.

Marcel:
Yeah, it seems there’s going to be some cold weather coming. There’s something in Portugal that’s a special time of year in October, where there’s just this little extra sun coming in and warm weather that gives you a last goodbye kiss of the summer. And it seems like this year we’re going to have it a little bit earlier than October.

Well, today we’re going to go ahead and talk about WooCommerce and hosting—the critical aspects for anyone running an online store in WordPress. And unlike a regular WordPress site, WooCommerce introduces, I guess, unique challenges due to the dynamic nature of e-commerce. Things like product catalogs, customer data, and orders, all of which place more demands on your hosting environment. And the right hosting can mean the difference between a smooth shopping experience or a sluggish website.

I guess sales are directly affected by good hosting. So, I guess we could break down a little bit what our listeners need to know to ensure that WooCommerce sites perform at their best. And okay, let’s kick things off by discussing—we keep talking about performance here, Mike. I feel like this is the third or fourth episode where the word “performance” is going to come out multiple times per minute, or per episode. And I don’t want this to be maybe yet another episode about performance and how important this and this and this and that is. But having said that, the only—or not the only—but the main task of a good hosting service is effectively to provide performance to your website. So, performance is actually crucial for both the user experience, SEO, sales results, and all of that. If the store loads slowly, visitors will leave before making a purchase, search engines may rank you lower. So, it’s definitely a key factor in performance—the hosting, the server response time, and all of that. As a general rule, or if you had 30 seconds to give somebody good advice about hosting, what would you say?

Mike:
Pick something with enough resources, tools, and quality support to help you through any challenges that may arise as part of being an e-commerce store owner. And what you said is a very good list. I would add employee productivity. I have some clients who have 10 people in the backend processing orders all the time. That’s all un-cached, it requires a lot of resources and checking in the database for stuff. And then also business-to-business components—if your business needs to talk to another business, that’s fetching information, that’s going to require resources as well. I think, yeah, those three things I think are the most important. The support, quality tools, and resources. Without those, you’re going to be sacrificing some kind of quality overall, whether it’s for your users, your employees, or for your own, if you’re a stakeholder, profits and stuff like that.

Marcel:
Right, right. And when you say support tools, do you also mean the actual support service that a hosting company provides? Not only whatever you can get through a dashboard of some sort, but also talking to somebody—is that important to you?

Mike:
Yeah, definitely. I think talking to support staff, if you’ve worked with WooCommerce long enough, is generally one of those like, “Oh, how is this going to go?” moments. It could either go really well—you get someone who is enthusiastic and interested in troubleshooting together, finding solutions. And then you have other support staff who are like, “There’s nothing we can do,” or they try and point the finger somewhere else and are not trying to help you directly with the issue. And then as well as that too, it’s having the tools available to do troubleshooting, like having the command-line access with SSH, phpMyAdmin or similar tools to be able to investigate things in the database, New Relic or other things for gathering rich amounts of data. I know some service hosting companies have their own APM tool, and they have their own in-house scripts that they’ve built over time to help you scan logs and look for patterns and that kind of stuff. So I think both are really important.

Marcel:
Yeah, that’s why I asked you, because in our freelance work that we do, sometimes we need to do the job of a good host support agent and sort of translate—let the client know what the issue is or might be—and just do a little bit of the bridge that one has to do between support and our client. Because sometimes support will say, “Yeah, this is this plugin that is running slow, this is this other thing and you should contact your developer” and stuff like that. And sometimes they’re right, but sometimes it seems like they’re definitely lazy about investigating the issue. But I think there are a couple of, well, this is getting better from time to time. I guess competition is responsible for improving all these services, and there are some really good ones, like you said, that have their own tools, and they’re very quick and immediately identify what the issue is, or being proactive as well—maybe mentioning that your website is running slow, there’s a long-running task occupying a lot of CPU power, and they go ahead and inform the client about it. All of this, I think, is super important. Right?

Mike:
Yeah, you just reminded me, there are a few hosts that’ll send out emails if there’s been a 502 Bad Gateway or a 504 Timeout, or “Hey, we found malware,” or “You’re running this plugin version that has a known security vulnerability.” So, I think proactivity is one of the most attractive components of a hosting company, for sure.

Marcel:
So I guess if we would begin establishing a list of all the things that people should look out for in a hosting company—well, besides price and CPU power and memory and all of that, I guess one of the most important factors is really how support works and what support provides in terms of service when things go wrong, or when you need help and when you need advice. So yeah, before committing to any host service, just try to figure out a little bit more about how support provides, because I personally think it’s probably the most important thing you can get. I mean, if the memory is low, that support guy will tell you, “Raise the memory,” and it’ll work, right? Or if CPU is not enough, “Add more CPU power to your hosting,” or this or that. So, it’s always going to end up being that support provides the information you’re looking for when you have difficulties, and managing hosting and leveraging what is the best plan and what I need, etc., is a decision that you will make today. But probably in a month’s time, or in a year’s time when your store grows, you’re going to have to revisit all of those choices again, and you’re going to have to fine-tune the hosting service that you’ve just hired to be more efficient for your successful store that’s running. And so that’s not that much important at the beginning, I would say.

Mike:
Yeah, I agree. I think, like I said, if you have enough resources and things are performing well, things are smooth, then there’s not too much to worry about. But hopefully, as the store is growing and being successful, you then have to adapt over time, and it’s really useful to have support staff at the hosting company who can help you assess what your needs actually are resource-wise and be able to accommodate. Every store is different. I think we’ve both seen plenty of them. They’re never exactly the same. There are always a few differences.

Marcel:
And when you see those pricing tables, they usually talk about the bandwidth, the CPUs, and this and that. And some of them do mention a couple of support services or support nuances, but talking to someone before committing to hosting services is a good idea. Or maybe asking other people or the community or any social media for advice on that. But having said that, okay, so now let’s see. We’ve talked about the support. It’s important. The different places where the data centers are and the different areas of the world the hosting service covers is also important, especially for stores. If you want to have a very fast-running store and if you’re operating worldwide, it’s important for you to know where that hosting service has its data centers so that you can expand your assets or different resources to those data centers. But let’s dive into more specifically really what’s important about memory, disk speed, PHP workers, caching systems, database optimization, security, backups, and scalability at the end. So, let’s start with the memory. I will just introduce very quickly how important memory is. And Mike, maybe I’ll propose to you this format: I give you a statement about what memory is and how important it is for WooCommerce, and you either agree or disagree with me and add your points to it. Sounds good?

Mike:
Sounds good.

Marcel:
Alright. So, if we talk about memory, why is memory important? We know that WooCommerce requires more memory, more RAM than a typical WordPress

site because it’s all dynamic content. We have products, we have reviews, shopping carts, we have customer data. So, if you’re running a small store, maybe 1 or 2 gigabytes of RAM may be sufficient. But for larger stores and high-traffic websites, you would need 4, 8, 10, 12, 16, I don’t know, to run just to make sure everything runs smoothly. And without enough RAM, your server could become very overwhelmed. You could have slowing down pages and crashes, which is obviously the last thing that you want to have. What do you think about RAM? How important is RAM?

Mike:
Yeah, it’s really important for sure, especially for the database. If you don’t have enough RAM, the database queries will time out or get terminated. And that can cause all kinds of weird issues where things didn’t get synchronized or it didn’t add to a queue that needed to be processed later. And then you also have some plugins that use a lot of RAM, right? So one of the things we often have to adjust is the memory limit in PHP so that certain tasks can execute. So, it’s one of those things you can’t oversell. On hosting, if you start to allocate more RAM than what’s physically available, it won’t work. And if you try and use virtual memory—if you remember back in the day, we would have a RAM disk and stuff like that—RAM is always going to be faster than hard drives. Even if—I don’t think SSDs will ever get—eventually, maybe SSDs will just be RAM chips. That would be cool. But I have a feeling that’s quite expensive.

Marcel:
And RAM specifically has to have the ability to quickly read, write, read, write in a way and at a speed that SSDs are not designed to do. If we would have a world where SSDs and RAM would be the same chip, I guess the only company that could be able to do that would be Apple. But jokes aside, it’s sort of like every one of these two components has its own job to do in the environment. You talked about the database and RAM’s importance for the database, but there’s also the PHP side of it. So, when you’re working with RAM, RAM is basically shared between two main things: the database and the PHP. So, PHP, when it runs, it needs memory to do its calculations, and when it’s done, it just serves the results to the web server, which then displays it to the client. So, having PHP tasks that also take a lot of memory is also important in this case. But that is fairly easy to measure and to know. And if you have a PHP task that takes a lot of memory, then that’s usually a bad sign. So, increasing memory to cover up PHP memory leaks is not a good thing to do, but it’s also an important part of the process.

Mike:
I agree.

Marcel:
Then we have disk speed. The disk is another critical factor, particularly when you’re handling large amounts of data. And we know that with WooCommerce we can get that. But basically, for WooCommerce, I guess SSDs—the solid-state drives—are almost always a better choice than the traditional HDDs, and SSDs are mainly faster to read and write data, which is especially important for large WooCommerce stores with, I would say, thousands of products or images or orders or customers. So having SSDs can significantly improve site load times, which obviously are crucial for keeping customers engaged. We are old enough to have been around to witness the transition from HDDs to SSDs in the hosting world. Was that the same for you? Thank God we already have SSDs for hosting. And did that, in your experience, provide a huge performance impact?

Mike:
Yeah, I mean nowadays you wouldn’t ever choose a host that didn’t use solid-state drives. It’s directly related to performance and the database. You want the database stored on SSD, not a hard drive like the old school ones. I’m pretty sure there are instances where I’ve witnessed this happen, usually from very low-cost hosting on a machine that was older than it should have been for being allowed to be in the web hosting space. And then you move them somewhere that uses modern technology, and the client is like, “Whoa, my time to first byte used to be 15 seconds, and now it’s a second.” And they’re like, “I cannot believe that that makes that big of a difference.” So if you are lucky enough to find a client’s site that’s still using an old-school hard drive, and you move them to SSD, I’m sure you’ll see a significant boost.

Marcel:
I guess nowadays, HDDs in a hosting environment are used for more static data or for large data sets that you don’t provide specifically in a dynamic way to a web server. They would be more considered for saving data files that are just accessed sporadically. And so you do see some hosting companies offering this large amount of hosting space for this specific use, and they are usually using… there is still this discussion around which one of these two different types of drives lasts longer, because SSDs are more prone to fail, I guess, than HDDs. But then again, we have bad experiences with HDDs as well. If you mess with them too much or if… well, when they’re in the hosting environment, nobody will touch them, but they’re also very sensitive to movement and heat and other factors. I do remember the time when we had this transition from HDDs to SSDs on our personal computers, especially for the people who had Apple computers in early around 2012, 2011, 2012, when there was a transition between HDDs and SSDs. And people were buying these external SSDs and putting them into the USB connection and just booting off of external SSDs.

And some people also tweaked their computers and opened them up and installed the SSDs inside and replaced the HDD. And we got huge improvements in speed and suddenly the operating system was loading, we would say, it seemed like it was running off the memory only, there would be no hard drive. And I guess we can say the same for hosting. So files being read very quickly is a lot more efficient for hosting.

Mike:
Yeah, definitely. I do remember there’s one hosting company that they had… I brought a client that had so many images, it was like an Android news website, so they had so many images and they needed terabytes and terabytes. It was insane how much this was. And we ended up, because the SSDs were going to be so expensive, we ended up using hard drives in a RAID or something like that. And because it was just for the images—obviously you want to read the images as quickly as possible as well, similar to the database—but it was the only way that they could have sustainable long-term growth because of how much the image library grew every day. They needed something that made sense for the next 10 years at least. So yeah, I would just add to that. It’s an important little piece too. They still have their place, right? My Synology NAS, you have one as well, right? I chose Western Digital Red hard drives for the enterprise drives.

Marcel:
Exactly.

Mike:
They’re designed to run 24/7 and also last the longest. I think SSDs have a limited number of writes, right? Isn’t that…?

Marcel:
Yeah. There are some calculations around how many times they can read and write, which defines their lifetime cycle, yeah.

Mike:
Whereas hard drives are not unlimited, but it’s like, you have other problems at that point. You probably won’t be alive anymore.

Marcel:
Exactly. Alright, that’s the disk topic. Let’s talk on another topic, and let’s talk about PHP workers, which not every hosting company discloses how many PHP workers one can get when we do a hosting plan with them, but basically—and I think they’re often overlooked—but they are a very essential aspect of hosting for WooCommerce specifically. So for everyone listening who doesn’t know what PHP workers are, in simple terms, they handle the simultaneous processes that occur on your website. So let’s say, for example, multiple users adding products to their carts or checking out at the same time. If you don’t have enough PHP workers, your site will slow down during busy times because there aren’t enough resources to process all the requests, and people are going to wait for their requests to process. So from the time that you ask for a specific URL and by the time you get the result delivered, that’s the time that the hosting will spend doing some sort of work, calculating some result for you to show on the website.

And PHP workers are essentially the processes that take that request, process it, run the PHP script, and deliver the page that they’re requesting. So those 200 milliseconds, 400 milliseconds, they’re going to be busy doing something. So if you have 10 people coming in, there’s going to be eventually a queue, and people are going to be waiting for their turn to get the process running, to get the PHP worker running. So if you think of it like a restaurant, if there aren’t enough waiters, service gets slow. It’s kind of the same thing. PHP workers are expensive for hosting companies, and they’re also expensive for the resources that you have on your hosting side, but they’re an important part of it. What’s your take on PHP workers?

Mike:
Yeah, I wanted to add to the waiter example that service will slow down, but you also get people leaving,

which would be like a 502 Bad Gateway, where it’s like there’s not enough service, I’m leaving with a bad review.

Marcel:
Yeah, exactly.

Mike:
Which is what happens if a visitor comes to your site to try and buy something, and they just see an error message, right? 502 Bad Gateway. It’s like, oh, then they just leave. Some people will be patient and try to reload, but…

Marcel:
Right.

Mike:
Attention is harder and harder to maintain these days.

Marcel:
Yeah. Why do you think most hosting companies don’t disclose how many PHP workers they have?

Mike:
I think it’s a tricky thing to make equal because it’s very related to CPU and also the way that your site functions. So, I think it can be misleading to, for example, say you have 32 virtual CPUs and 500 PHP workers, though CPU cores and PHP workers, in my experience, are not created equally across hosting spaces. CPU is something that you can oversell and split. So, if I have 32 physical CPU cores, I can easily split that into 20 or 30 virtual machines that have four or eight CPUs, and it will just split and make them weaker between them. Whereas the kind of hosting I really like is when it’s a physical dedicated machine, and you’re not using virtual CPUs at all. And the PHP workers from that kind of machine tend to be way more powerful in executing scripts compared to ones on oversold VPS-style hosting.

Marcel:
And PHP workers, because they work simultaneously on a specific task, they are consuming CPU resources, and it’s sort of like, you would think, “Okay, I have four cores, so I can have at least four PHP workers, but I could also have eight PHP workers. We could split each core between two PHP workers.” But the more PHP workers you add, the slower they themselves will run because they’re concurrently running and doing their task. And so that will eventually also slow down, and you will serve more people at the same time, but everybody will get a slower response at the end of the day. So it’s not a linear thing. It doesn’t seem like the more PHP workers you have, the faster it will go. There are certain limits. So that’s why I think also hosting companies don’t disclose their PHP workers, because it’s a game of being the best performer but also not just wasting a lot of resources on PHP workers that aren’t clearly needed. And also there’s some sort of energy consumption concern behind this as well. You don’t just want to have a bunch of processes running all the time, so it’s kind of like a balancing game. But some hosting companies do provide those numbers, and they market offering according to PHP workers. And more isn’t always better.

Mike:
Yeah, very true. And it also depends a lot on the nature of the site and what it’s doing. I remember a client who did a lot of un-cached activity, so the idea was you would land on a website, and then they had a single sign-on system that you could connect your login to, and it would make an API request to a third party to authenticate, and then it would let you go shopping for some exclusive deals or whatever. We were doing load testing to get ready for the holiday season. It was for a very large company, and we found that they were running out of PHP worker threads. And even though we had a dedicated server with a huge amount of resources, and the CPU was basically flat, and the RAM wasn’t going that high, PHP workers were running out, and we were getting errors.

I had a long discussion with the hosting company to say, “Look, yes, we’re using that lane, right? Yeah, we’re sort of keeping a waiter at the table, but it’s because we’re waiting for information from—we’re taking an order from a friend who’s running late, and we’re just waiting for the feedback from them to give to the waiter.” So, it’s not like the waiter is stressed or carrying a lot of plates necessarily. Sometimes the PHP worker is not actively processing a lot of information; sometimes they’re idle and waiting for information to come back. And I think that’s an important part: if the PHP worker is not actively processing and you picture the waiter running around constantly, sometimes they’re not doing much. And it’s okay to allocate more PHP worker threads in situations like that, if you’re monitoring the system and you can see that it’s not stressed. If CPU and RAM are showing very low levels of usage, then you can ramp up the PHP workers.

But in the opposite way, if you have… I remember one of the first VPSs I ever provisioned and set up. It had one CPU core and 512 megabytes of RAM, and I was determined to run things on as few resources as possible and just rely on caching. It was a very cache-heavy website, it wasn’t a WooCommerce store, and I just kept increasing the PHP worker threads available, the MPM max children, and you can put it as high as you want. But then when I did load testing for un-cached responses, the server froze completely. And when I SSH’d in, the load number was like 200 and something, which it should be as close to 1 or 1 times the number of CPU cores that you have. You could just imagine these poor waiters, there was a lot of very, very tiny waiters carrying a lot of stuff, and none of them knew where they were going anymore. They were all confused, and the queue just got so backed up.

Marcel:
I would imagine if this podcast included video, we would put up a graphic of tiny waiters in multiple restaurants just running around and being unorganized, and it would be very interesting to visualize that. I completely forgot. So, we’ve been talking about the importance of RAM and disk space and PHP workers, but not naming numbers. So I will try to give people a little bit of some ideas of what the numbers are for each of these individual components. Let’s call them, and I’ll name some numbers, and you correct me if I’m good with my numbers or not. But this is basically the same thing with engines in a car. If you have BMW, for example, they’re famous for having these big engines, they have 3 liters, 4-liter engines, and you just throw a bunch of gasoline in it. The explosion is huge. They have thick engine walls that can handle all the explosion. Then you have superpower, you have a lot of power because you really just have thick walls and a lot of gasoline exploding inside those cylinders. So that’s one way to do it. Let’s call it the easy way. It’s not an easy way to have a very big controlled explosion inside a cylinder, but let’s call it easy. The more tricky way is to have a 1-liter engine or a 1.5-liter engine and have an explosion that has almost the same kind of force or power that has this bigger explosion, but because you’ve adapted the shape of the cylinder, but because you made a special mixture between air and combustion and all of that, because you took a little bit more time into figuring out how to almost get the same kind of force with a lot less energy.

I guess that’s a little bit the comparison that we’re making here. You can obviously have 16 GB of RAM and 16 CPUs and a lot of disk space and everything will run smoothly, yes. But is that efficient? Do you need all of that? Are you using your BMW to drive 5 kilometers to take your kid to school, or do you drive 300 kilometers every day and really need that strong engine to work in your favor? So, having that in mind, and taking into consideration that everything is running smoothly—you don’t have custom code that is just occupying a lot of resources—I would say less than 50 concurrent users, 2 gigabytes of RAM is enough. If you have 100 to 200 concurrent users, I think 4 gigabytes. And more than 200 concurrent users, it’d be 8+ to 16 gigabytes. I think these are good numbers. Would you agree with these numbers?

Mike:
I think those are probably safe starting points, assuming the database is not huge. That would be my one caveat. If you have a 20-gigabyte database, then you’re going to want to start with at least 32 GB of RAM, I’d say, or more. But yeah, and then load tests—now people are getting prepared for the holiday season, Black Friday is coming up, and I would load test the most resource-hungry scenarios you can think of in terms of the marketing stuff you’re doing, whether it’s newsletters or paid traffic on Meta or Google or whatever it is. And we’re doing something right now with a client, and once they get to 200 users, things are not going well. So, we’re identifying the bottlenecks with New Relic and coming up with strategies of how to mitigate them.

Marcel:
And the strategy is definitely not just, “Okay, let’s just double the RAM and everything will be good,” right? Because that’s also a cost that people have to take into consideration. You don’t have infinite money to pay for these resources and just be happy with it, right?

Mike:
Yeah, I think during the holiday season is when people tend to be more open to the idea of just throwing resources at the problem. It’s certainly the easiest solution. Even if it costs more, usually it’s going to be worth it. If your site is crashing, you’re not making as much money, for sure. But yeah

, in general, I don’t like the idea of, “Oh, just keep throwing resources at it until it works properly.” I think you and I would go and identify what is taking so long. Is the code optimized correctly? Is there a way to rewrite it so it’s more efficient in processing data and using less RAM and stuff like that?

Marcel:
And it’s a lot more intelligent and rewarding if you figure out what’s consuming that much resource, and then suddenly, with the same kind of resources, the website’s speed doubles. There’s something special about tuning that, right? Obviously, if you’re time-constrained, and the holiday season is coming, then okay, let’s add some more RAM for the next three months, and then we’ll figure it out later, fine. But the figuring out later part needs to happen sometime.

Mike:
Yeah, websites are just like a house or an F1 car. You can’t just keep adding stuff to it or turning something on and forgetting you left it on. If you have a basement and you turn the water on to do some sort of task, and then you got distracted and left it on, you’re adding more and more resources to accommodate a flood that you don’t need for any business purposes. I think that’s really important because a lot of the times when I do investigations, the thing that’s gobbling up CPU or RAM or disk space is a feature that they tested once upon a time and no longer use. The person at the company who suggested it is no longer with the company or whatever. So, I think this sort of website hygiene maintenance stuff is just so, so important. Also, hosting companies can help you with that, right? Good hosting companies will tell you if you’re about to run out of hosting, sorry, disk space, because without disk space, nothing will work. You won’t be able to do database operations, you won’t be able to log into your WordPress site.

Marcel:
You might not even be able to SSH into your hosting and do anything in there, yeah.

Mike:
Yeah, you can usually SSH in, but running commands will just give you weird output.

Marcel:
And the same thing with RAM, right? If you run out of RAM and you need just a little extra to run some command to just basically kill something or fix something, it’s the same thing.

Mike:
Yeah. You can SSH in, but running commands will just give you weird output. It’s a funny experience.

Marcel:
And as far as CPUs are concerned, for 50 concurrent users, I’d say 2 CPUs, for 100 to 200 concurrent users, 4 CPUs, and for more than 200 concurrent users, you’ll need 8 CPUs. I would say that’s a round number or more depending on the situation. Would you agree with those numbers as well?

Mike:
In general, I’d say they’re probably good starting points. It’s going to depend again on how many of those people are window shopping versus adding items to their cart. I think if you have caching set up properly and you don’t have a huge product catalog where every user is visiting different products, you can have tons—you could have hundreds or even thousands of window shoppers. But as soon as people start adding items to their cart, then the majority of caches are bypassed. Depending on how your site is tuned, we’ve seen this plenty of times where code is running unnecessarily for uncached visitors. WordPress runs a lot of functions, plugins execute a lot of code that doesn’t need to be, and that can slow things down.

Marcel:
And as far as PHP workers are concerned, I would say on the same scale—50 concurrent users, 2 PHP workers; 100 to 200 concurrent users, 4 PHP workers; and more than 200, 10 PHP workers.

Mike:
Yeah, you could start with those and see what happens.

Marcel:
Let’s talk about the big elephant in the room—caching systems. Caching is definitely one of the most effective ways to improve the performance of an eCommerce store. There are different types of caching. There’s page caching, which saves a static version of your website. But we all know that WooCommerce stores can only have so many static versions of pages. Not all pages can be static like on a regular site, and those will be delivered without making your server do all the work from scratch. Right? Then you have object caching, you have Redis cache, you have… those would help you with database queries. You have browser caching, so the client side can also do some caching to save the resources locally on the user’s devices. You have OPCache or code caching, and you have a bunch of different caching systems to reduce the load on the server.

I was thinking about asking you this question—how important is caching to you? But it seems like a silly question. I would rather ask you about the experience that you’ve been having with your most recent clients. Taking into consideration that hosting can provide some caching solutions, and based on the hosting services you’ve worked with, do you think there’s a hosting service that really nails the caching system for WooCommerce?

Mike:
I would say it’s really difficult to do it perfectly because all stores are different. So, the best you can really expect from a hosting company is that they provide the tools and configuration possibilities necessary to set up caching correctly for your site. Most hosts do a decent job of setting up things where the cart and checkout are excluded, and they make sure the right cookies are excluded, like the ones for items in the cart. Edge caching is becoming more popular now, thanks to Cloudflare Enterprise integration, which is becoming easier. You get to take advantage of that, which reduces time-to-first-byte across different locations.

So, no hosting company gets it perfectly right, but a lot of them offer a good starting point, a springboard, so you can configure caching yourself. I saw one hosting company recently that helped their client cache logged-in users for a Woo store, which I thought was really clever. Caching logged-in users sounds like dark magic, but their business model required users to register an account and log in to see the product catalog. Everything else was uncached, but once they logged in, they had a custom system where a cookie allowed for logged-in pages to be cached. It was really clever.

That’s a special use case, and I wouldn’t expect every hosting company to offer that, but it was a great example of a very customized solution that worked well. Usually, though, it’s a balance of having good tools and knowing how to use them.

Marcel:
The thing that’s special about WooCommerce is that some of the pages cannot be cached in the same way that other pages can. So, the least a hosting company needs to be aware of when offering WooCommerce-specialized hosting services is that there are certain pages within the WooCommerce store environment that need to be treated differently. You might also have custom pages where you want to insert exclusions for certain types of caching. Caching needs to be adapted to the nature of the store, not only for WooCommerce generally, but also for your own unique needs. I think that’s an important part of choosing a hosting provider. If you know they have the capability to adapt to your needs, that’s crucial.

And yeah, hosting services are getting better at accommodating those requests. If you have the knowledge, you can still go to AWS or Google Cloud and configure everything yourself, but most store owners don’t have the time or expertise for that. Thankfully, many of these caching techniques are now available through hosting companies, and they take care of a lot under the hood. So, it’s definitely something to look for when choosing a host.

Let’s talk very quickly about database optimization. This is one that site owners often overlook. Since WooCommerce stores store a lot of data, and we talked about this in our previous episode, everything from customer and order history… your database can get bloated, and that can slow things down. Regularly optimizing the database by removing transients or optimizing tables can make a big difference in performance. There are plugins that can help with that, and some hosting providers might also offer database optimization services. In 30 seconds, because I want to get to the end of the topics I have, Mike, how important is database optimization?

Mike:
I think it’s similar to disk space and other stuff. If you don’t have an optimized database, everything is slower. Especially with WooCommerce, where the post table holds so much data, things can get really bloated. If your database is cluttered with unnecessary data, queries take longer, and that can impact performance. So yeah, it’s critical. Optimizing the database is not an optional thing. It’s like a house—if things are disorganized, or if there are too many of the same item in one drawer, it’s hard to find what you need. The same applies to your database.

Marcel:
And also, I would say if people want to know more about database and performance optimization, they should check out our previous episode here on Do the Woo.

Now let’s talk security and backups. Security is vital, obviously, since you’re handling customer data and payments. So, there are a couple of measures that hosting providers take to provide more security. SSL is mandatory—there’s not even a need to discuss that. But backups are also very important, and backups can be tricky. If you have a store that’s running 24/7 and you have a lot of orders coming in, if something happens and you need to restore a database, you’re going to lose some data unless you have a smart backup system. Some automated backup systems are more clever than others, but that’s definitely something to keep in mind. Your hosting provider will help a lot if they take care of that. Would you agree, Mike?

Mike:
Yes, absolutely. Backups are crucial. Hosting companies need to have quick, reliable backups, and the ability to restore them quickly. And backups should not take hours and hours to complete unless your database is absolutely massive. But without a proper backup and restore plan in place, you’re in trouble if something goes wrong. Hourly backups, for example, can be a lifesaver, especially for stores that have a lot of transactions.

Also, good hosting companies will take a snapshot before you restore a backup. In case you made a mistake or restored the wrong version, you can roll it back. It’s important to have that safety net.

Marcel:
Right. And snapshots are very useful. Having backups done quickly is important, but knowing how to restore them is just as important. You need to be able to get your site back up quickly if something goes wrong, and that’s where good hosting support comes in.

Mike:
I would also say verifying that your backups are actually valid and work should be part of every store’s maintenance. Test your backups periodically to make sure they restore properly. You don’t want to find out when something goes wrong that your backups were incomplete or corrupted.

Marcel:
Exactly. It’s like a fire drill. You need to run it once or twice a year to make sure everything works as expected.

Lastly, let’s talk about scalability. When your WooCommerce store grows, you’ll need to scale it. You might start with shared hosting, which we haven’t really mentioned in this episode, but as your traffic increases, you might need to upgrade to a VPS or even a dedicated server for larger businesses. Usually, companies use AWS or Google Cloud because they allow you to scale resources up and down easily. It’s important to choose a hosting provider that can grow with your store, so you’re not stuck with limits that could hurt your business.

How important do you think it is when people start out to choose a hosting company that can scale? Or do you think there are hosts that are

better suited for different stages of a business’s growth?

Mike:
That’s a good question. I think it’s always a good idea to bet on your own success. You should anticipate growth unless you’re sure that your business model is limited and won’t require much scaling. It’s important to choose a hosting company that can grow with you. I’m sure you’ve experienced this too—migrating a WooCommerce store from one hosting platform to another is a nerve-wracking experience for clients. Many people have had bad experiences with migrations, and it can be traumatic if something goes wrong. So, it’s better to start with a hosting company that offers both shared hosting and scalable options like VPS and dedicated servers. You want to be able to grow without needing to change hosts.

Marcel:
Exactly. And we fall back to what we talked about earlier—support is key. When you hit a threshold and need to upgrade, you want the hosting company to handle that transition smoothly. If you have a hosting provider that says, “Unfortunately, now you need to do this and that,” and they just put the whole thing back on the client, that’s not a good service. When scaling, the hosting company should be a partner in that process.

Ideally, they should say, “Hey, you’re growing. Shared hosting is not an option anymore. Don’t worry. Let’s schedule a migration during your least busy hours, and by tomorrow morning when you wake up, you’ll have a new hosting service that can accommodate your growth.” That’s the kind of hosting service you want, right?

Mike:
Yeah, definitely. When we’re offering advice to clients, we usually want them to be prepared for the next 10 to 20 years with whatever challenges or growth opportunities they may face. We have a handful of hosting providers we know can accommodate different types of stores and business models, so they will scale as needed.

It’s hard to find hosts that can do horizontal scaling—multiple servers. Usually, once you’ve added a domain name that maps to a specific server, you can’t add another. Vertical scaling is more common; they’re happy to let you resize your server and make it bigger. But some clients want parallel processing or geo-redundancy. I have one client that has servers in Chicago and New Jersey, with a primary and secondary database setup. If Chicago goes down, New Jersey takes over. Not every host supports that kind of infrastructure, though.

Marcel:
There are two other things I want to add before we wrap up: bandwidth and monitoring tools.

Bandwidth is something people need to keep an eye on, even though most hosting providers offer scalable or unlimited bandwidth. But you should calculate your bandwidth needs by taking the average page size and multiplying it by the number of visitors and pages viewed. For example, if your average page size is 2MB, and you get 5,000 visitors per month, each viewing five pages on average, you’re looking at 50GB of bandwidth a month.

I haven’t had a client run into bandwidth limits recently, but it’s still something to watch out for. Have you seen any issues with bandwidth?

Mike:
No, not in recent years. Most hosting providers have moved toward offering unlimited bandwidth, especially since many use Cloudflare to handle some of the load. I see more issues with outgoing emails being rate-limited, though. Some hosts will restrict the number of outgoing emails, especially if they think there’s suspicious activity, like a flood of order confirmation emails during a sale. It’s not great if you’re running a big sale and your emails are getting blocked, because customers start to wonder where their order confirmation is. That leads to support tickets and frustration.

Marcel:
Right, good point. And finally, monitoring. As a developer, I really appreciate hosting companies that provide good monitoring tools. I’m talking about dashboards where you can see CPU usage, memory usage, disk space, PHP workers, and even bandwidth. Some hosts offer integration with tools like New Relic, or they have their own monitoring tools. It’s important to be able to check on your website’s health regularly.

The first thing a developer or freelancer will ask a client is, “Do you have a staging website?” If your hosting provider allows you to spin up low-end environments like staging or performance environments, it’s incredibly helpful. You don’t need production-level power for staging, but you do need an environment to test things. And most hosting providers do offer them, but not all of them are free. So, having that capability without extra charges is key.

What do you think about that?

Mike:
I completely agree. As developers, we’re always asking for a staging environment. It’s the first thing we ask before making any significant changes. Having a staging site on the same host is crucial for testing updates, new features, or troubleshooting problems without affecting the live site. And yes, it shouldn’t be expensive.

Monitoring is also essential. The good hosting companies will provide a robust dashboard with real-time stats. And if you’re using New Relic or similar tools, you can get deep insights into performance, slow queries, and which plugins are hogging resources. That can save you a lot of headaches in the long run.

Marcel:
Exactly. And I would say the most successful clients I’ve worked with are the ones who focus less on dashboards and numbers and more on working with the right people. Having a good relationship with a hosting company that offers solid support is often more important than staring at charts all day. When something goes wrong, it’s the support that matters most.

Mike:
Yeah, and that’s something we’ve noticed too. If the client has a skilled development team, then having good monitoring tools is great, because they can dig into the details themselves. But if you’re a store owner who doesn’t have that technical expertise, then having access to a knowledgeable and responsive support team is far more valuable.

It’s like giving someone a spaceship—if they don’t know how to fly it, it’s useless. So having both—good tools and good support—covers all your bases. But if you had to choose between them, I’d recommend going with quality support.

Marcel:
Exactly. The store owners I’ve worked with who have been the most successful aren’t necessarily worried about the fancy dashboards—they care about the people they work with. And having a reliable hosting partner with good support is more important than anything.

Alright, everyone, that’s it for today. Thank you so much for listening and tuning in. This was, once again, Mike and I talking about WooCommerce and performance. We keep talking about performance—it’s important, I know! We’re probably getting a bit repetitive on that subject, but we have some future episodes ahead with different guests. We’re going to talk a lot more about development, too. So yeah, tune in for those.

Mike, I’ll talk to you in the next one!

Mike:
Sounds good, man. Thanks!

In this episode of Woo DevChat, Marcel and Mike dive deep into the critical aspects of hosting for WooCommerce stores.

They explore how hosting directly impacts your store’s performance, sales, and user experience, and discuss essential factors like RAM, CPU power, PHP workers, caching systems, and database optimization.

The conversation highlights the importance of choosing the right hosting provider that can scale with your store’s growth, while providing top-notch support. Whether you’re just starting out or building a high-traffic WooCommerce site, this episode will equip you with valuable insights to ensure your WooCommerce store runs smoothly and efficiently.

Takeaways

Hosting Directly Impacts Performance and Sales: A slow-loading WooCommerce store can lead to lost sales and lower search engine rankings. Choosing a hosting provider with sufficient resources, speed, and reliability is crucial for success.

The Importance of Support: Quality support is just as essential as having the right hosting resources. A knowledgeable support team that can proactively troubleshoot and resolve issues can be a game-changer, especially for non-technical store owners.

RAM, CPU, and PHP Workers: WooCommerce sites require more RAM and CPU power than regular WordPress sites due to the dynamic nature of e-commerce. PHP workers are crucial for processing simultaneous tasks, and understanding the right balance of resources can prevent slowdowns during peak times.

Caching Systems: Implementing effective caching strategies, such as page caching, object caching, and browser caching, is one of the most impactful ways to improve performance. However, WooCommerce stores require customized caching due to the dynamic content of e-commerce sites.

Database Optimization: Regularly optimizing your database by clearing transients and optimizing tables can significantly boost site performance, especially as your store grows and accumulates more data.

Scalability is Key: As your WooCommerce store grows, having a hosting provider that can easily scale from shared hosting to VPS or dedicated servers is important. Scaling smoothly without disruption requires the right provider and strong support.

Backups and Security: Frequent backups and a robust security setup are non-negotiable for WooCommerce stores. Automated, smart backup systems and proactive monitoring can save you from major losses in the event of a failure or security breach.

Monitoring and Staging Environments: Good hosting providers offer monitoring dashboards and the ability to create staging environments. These tools help developers test changes without affecting live sites and provide insights into performance, memory usage, and potential bottlenecks.

Matt: On WP Engine

Matt — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 00:12:54 +0000

I wrote a bit more on Lee Wittlinger / Silver Lake and WP Engine over on WordPress.org: WP Engine is not WordPress.

WordPress.org blog: WP Engine is not WordPress

Matt Mullenweg — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 23:57:40 +0000

It has to be said and repeated: WP Engine is not WordPress. My own mother was confused and thought WP Engine was an official thing. Their branding, marketing, advertising, and entire promise to customers is that they’re giving you WordPress, but they’re not. And they’re profiting off of the confusion. WP Engine needs a trademark license to continue their business.

I spoke yesterday at WordCamp about how Lee Wittlinger at Silver Lake, a private equity firm with $102B assets under management, can hollow out an open source community. (To summarize, they do about half a billion in revenue on top of WordPress and contribute back 40 hours a week, Automattic is a similar size and contributes back 3,915 hours a week.) Today, I would like to offer a specific, technical example of how they break the trust and sanctity of our software’s promise to users to save themselves money so they can extract more profits from you.

WordPress is a content management system, and the content is sacred. Every change you make to every page, every post, is tracked in a revision system, just like the Wikipedia. This means if you make a mistake, you can always undo it. It also means if you’re trying to figure out why something is on a page, you can see precisely the history and edits that led to it. These revisions are stored in our database.

This is very important, it’s at the core of the user promise of protecting your data, and it’s why WordPress is architected and designed to never lose anything.

WP Engine turns this off. They disable revisions because it costs them more money to store the history of the changes in the database, and they don’t want to spend that to protect your content. It strikes to the very heart of what WordPress does, and they shatter it, the integrity of your content. If you make a mistake, you have no way to get your content back, breaking the core promise of what WordPress does, which is manage and protect your content.

Here is a screenshot of their support page saying they disable this across their 1.5 million WordPress installs.

They say it’s slowing down your site, but what they mean is they want to avoid paying to store that data. We tested revisions on all of the recommended hosts on WordPress.org, and none disabled revisions by default. Why is WP Engine the only one that does? They are strip-mining the WordPress ecosystem, giving our users a crappier experience so they can make more money.

What WP Engine gives you is not WordPress, it’s something that they’ve chopped up, hacked, butchered to look like WordPress, but actually they’re giving you a cheap knock-off and charging you more for it.

This is one of the many reasons they are a cancer to WordPress, and it’s important to remember that unchecked, cancer will spread. WP Engine is setting a poor standard that others may look at and think is ok to replicate. We must set a higher standard to ensure WordPress is here for the next 100 years.

If you are a customer of “WordPress Engine,” you should contact their support immediately to at least get the 3 revisions they allow turned on so you don’t accidentally lose something important. Ideally, they should go to unlimited. Remember that you, the customer, hold the power; they are nothing without the money you give them. And as you vote with your dollars, consider literally any other WordPress host as WP Engine is the only one we’ve found that completely disables revisions by default.

WordPress.org blog: PDX + WCUS 2024: A Recap

Dan Soschin — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 07:10:48 +0000

WordCamp US (WCUS), North America’s largest WordPress event, hosted over 1,500 attendees from around the world at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, from September 17 to 20.

Over four days, WordPress professionals and enthusiasts came together to explore the latest advancements and use cases, collaborate on open source projects, and strengthen community connections.

A dedicated team of more than 40 volunteers, led by Aaron D. Campbell, Julia Golomb, Katie Richards, and Sandy Edwards, made the event possible.

Building WordPress

Contributor Day brought together over 400 contributors across 25 teams to support the WordPress project. As with any Contributor Day, participants learned and collaborated while tackling key projects, including triaging issues, exploring performance improvements, advancing the Twenty Twenty-Five theme, and preparing for the upcoming WordPress 6.7 release.

WordPress contributors discussing all things design at WCUS 2024’s Contributor Day.

Celebrating WordPress

At WCUS 2024, the inaugural Showcase Day highlighted how enterprises like Disney Experiences, The New York Post, CNN, Vox Media, and Amnesty International are leveraging WordPress across a variety of industries. With 19 sessions, attendees gained diverse insights into WordPress’s wide-ranging capabilities and features.

Showcase day presentation by Alexandra Guffey and Katrina Yates of Disney on Gutenberg’s use in a complex ecosystem of sites.

Sustaining WordPress

Keynote presenter Joseph Jacks shares thoughts on the future of OSS.

Joseph “JJ” Jacks, founder of OSS Capital, kicked off the first day of programming with a keynote about how open source will dominate the next wave of software. In looking at emerging trends in tech, he expressed how closed core, or closed source, software is hitting a plateau. Commercial open source companies are able to disrupt and forge the path for a shift in the space.

Sharing his optimism for the future, JJ highlighted emerging projects OSS Capital is excited about and emphasized that the most successful open source companies thrive by generating more value than they capture.

Learn WordPress

The second half of the conference featured more than 20 sessions and workshops across three tracks. Topics ranged from leveraging AI in WordPress to getting the most out of wp-admin.

Thursday’s dedicated networking session brought attendees to the sponsor hall to explore and connect with the vast ecosystem of hosts, plugins, agencies, and service providers. The WordCamp US Lounge, located within the exhibit hall, held focused discussions on hosting, neurodiversity, inclusivity, and content marketing.

Friday began with a fireside chat between TIME’s CTO Burhan Hamid and WordPress VIP’s CMO Tim Hossain. The duo discussed how TIME’s implementation of reusable components allowed them to scale and support major traffic-generating topics such as Taylor Swift’s Person of the Year, House of the Dragon, and political events.

WordCamp attendees stopped by the Code is Poetry lounge to try their hands at the vintage Smith Corona and have a poem written by the Typewriter Troubadour.

Attendees take a break in the center of the exhibit hall at the “campfire” where various discussions were held throughout the event.

Q&A with Cofounder Mullenweg

In a dynamic keynote, WordPress Cofounder Matt Mullenweg delivered one of his “spiciest” WordCamp presentations, combining insights on WordPress’s open source future with a creative twist. He opened by reading his recent post that explores open source philosophy, touching on themes of freedom, collaboration, and the ongoing influence of open source projects like WordPress. Mullenweg also critiqued companies for misleadingly labeling proprietary models as open source, stressing the importance of true open source licenses for the future of software freedom.

Matt further emphasized WordPress’s ecosystem-driven development and highlighted the Five for the Future initiative, an effort to avoid the tragedy of the commons and ensure that WordPress thrives for everyone. His speech addressed community concerns about companies profiting off WordPress without giving back and urged attendees to support companies that contribute to the platform’s growth.

Before diving into the Q&A segment of the presentation, Matt expressed the importance of recognizing:

“What we create together is bigger than any one person.”

WordPress Cofounder Matt Mullenweg on the main stage at WCUS 2024.

Matt Mullenweg and Brian Richards on stage at WCUS 2024.

Save the Dates

In his closing remarks, emcee Brian Richards expressed gratitude for the fantastic work the event organizers and volunteers contributed to produce WCUS 2024.

Brian reminded attendees to save the date for WordCamp US 2025, which will once again take place in Portland, Oregon, from August 26 to 29, 2025.

Attendees gather at WCUS in Portland, Oregon.

No WordCamp is complete without an after-party, with this year’s taking place at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). Attendees concluded a week of WordPress with refreshments while visiting the exhibits—including a submarine and planetarium—and posing in the photo booth.

Stay connected

WordPress events enable technologists, open source enthusiasts, and community members around the globe to meet, share ideas, and collaborate to drive WordPress and the open web forward.

Mark your calendars for State of the Word (Tokyo) on December 16, 2024, 2025’s WordCamp Asia in Manila, WordCamp Europe in Basel, Switzerland, and WordCamp US in Portland, Oregon!

This post is a collaboration between the contributors who produce content for wordpress.org/news and the WordCamp US Communications Team.

Props to the following contributors for the work reviewing/contributing to this post: @rmartinezduque, @juliarosia, @brettface, @eidolonnight, and @cbringmann. Thank you to the Photos Team for supplying images for this post and the official WordPress social media accounts throughout the event: @gwallace87, @m_butcher, @correliebre, and @zstepek.

Gutenberg Times: Four #WCUS Talks, Multi-block plugin, Tabor’s new theme, and more — Weekend Edition #305

Birgit Pauli-Haack — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 02:32:00 +0000

Hi there,

This turned out to be a slow news week in WordPress, apart from four days of WordCamp US. You can read the recap here.

I miss my US WordPress friends, I haven’t seen since 2022. To give you a head start on watching the fantastic programming, I added four video links in this edition. I held back the newsletter for the fourth video: Matt Mullenweg’s In-Person Q & A, which was uploaded in the wee hours of this Saturday.

WCUS 2025 will take place in Portland again, August 26 – 29, 2025, and I added it in my calendar to take the long journey to the West coast in Summer once more. Will I see you there?

Have a splendid weekend ahead!

Yours, 💕
Birgit

Table of Contents

Join JuanMa Garrido, André Maniero, and Nick Diego on September 24th, 2023 at 15:00 UTC for the Developer Hours: An Introduction to Data Views. Data Views offer a flexible way to display data as tables, grids, or lists, with options for filtering, sorting, and more. Even though it’s still being improved, you can already use the DataViews component in your projects and plugins. In this Developer Hours session, you will explore:

How to display a custom dataset using Data Views
The fundamentals of the DataViews component
How to add a React app to a custom WordPress admin page

Q&A will follow the presentation. As a reminder, JuanMa Garrido recently published Using Data Views to display and interact with data in plugins on the WordPress Developer Blog.

Developing Gutenberg and WordPress

Riad Benguella‘s post on the WordPress Core blog shares critical insights into Gutenberg development practices and pitfalls like inefficient code patterns and the importance of adhering to coding standards. Emphasis is placed on thorough testing and clear documentation to ensure smoother development and collaboration. The post is a handy guide for current and aspiring Gutenberg developers, helping them to avoid mistakes and streamline their workflow for better results. Worth a read if you’re diving into Gutenberg or looking to polish your skills!

The second update on DataViews made it on the Make Design Blog. Here are the highlights:

🎙️ Latest episode: Gutenberg Changelog #107 – WordPress 6.6.2, Gutenberg 19.2, Data Views and Design Systems with special guest Maggie Cabrera

Matt Walker, designer at Automattic, shared his thoughts on Design Systems: Storybook Improvements. First, he references other design systems based on the Storybook. Then he reviewed the current space and suggests a broader architecture review. Walker is at the start of the exploration and request feedback along the way to find out if he is on the right track with his ideas. At the end of the post, you can also locate previous discussions regarding a future design system on color scales, corner radius, elevation, and typography.

Plugins, Themes, and tools for #nocode site builders and owners

In case you are keen to learn how the Speed building battle with Jamie Marsland went at WordCamp US, here is the direct link to the recording from the Live stream.: Brian Coords and Amber Hinds rebuilt the home page of a site from the WordPress Showcase: Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco. Tracy Levesque commented on X: “This is one of the best things I’ve ever seen at a WordCamp. It was as riveting as watching a sporting event. Good job, everyone!!”

Rich Tabor, product manager at Automattic, wants you to Meet Kanso, my best blogging theme yet. He wrote: “In Japanese, ‘kanso’ means simplicity or plainness, embodying a minimalist aesthetic that emphasizes clarity and the elimination of the unnecessary. I wanted to create a WordPress theme that reflects this philosophy in the design, writing, publishing, and reading.” The theme comes with 16 color palettes, and offers various patterns to lay out your post list. The source code is available on GitHub and the theme is also available in the WordPress repository.

Big Bite shared a case study about their work with The Times & Sunday Times. “When it comes to breaking news, every second counts. Discover how we transformed digital publishing for one of the UK’s largest publishers, resulting in record-time content creation.” You’ll find a video and impressive numbers. To read the full story, you need to give an email address, though.

Automattic’s special projects team published a list of their open-source tools and plugins. You’ll find five plugins and two blocks, the Accordion and the Stretchy Type Blocks. The plugins are

Theme development for full site editing and blocks

Anne Katzeff continues on her quest to create her first block theme. She shares in her 4th post of a series: Building My First WordPress Block Theme – part 4: Child Themes, how she saves changes to a child theme and syncs it to a GitHub repo for version control.

In his video, Fränk Klein answered Theme.json V3: Common questions, among them: “What did version 3 change? and How to migrate from v2 to v3?”

Building Blocks and tools for the Block Editor

Mike Davey, Senior editor at Delicious Brain, highlighted a few Golden Guides and Hidden Gems From the WordPress Developer Blog. “The WordPress Developer Blog is a treasure trove of valuable resources that can help you stay ahead of the curve” he wrote. And he wrote about the What’s new for developers roundup posts: “If you can only manage one post a month, make sure it’s this one. We have to warn you, though: there’s a very good chance it’ll lead you down at least one rabbit hole, and you’ll end up spending more time (and learning much more) than you intended.”

📣 Never miss a Developer Blog post again: Subscribe!

Speaking of which, if you haven’t read the What’s new for developers? (September 2024) edition, it was my turn to put it all together.

Troy Chaplin, long-time WordPress developer and designer from Ottawa, Canada, published his first article on the WordPress Developer Blog. In his tutorial How to build a multi-block plugin, you’ll learn how to build a multi-block plugin by registering several static and dynamic blocks all in one plugin while optimizing its structure along the way.

In his talk at WCUS, Damon Cook unleashed the power of the Interactivity API. He explored with the audience what this API is all about, why it matters, and how to get started with it. By the end, you’ll have a solid understanding of the Interactivity API and be ready to implement it in your projects. You’ll see some great examples, too.

During his WCUS talk, The Power of Extending the WordPress Editor: A Block Visibility Showcase on Showcase day, Nick Diego gave people a peek behind the curtains of his Block Visibility plugin and showed how to make the most out of WordPress Core components. He shared some really useful tips and tricks that help you level up your own projects by extending the WordPress Editor and boosting block functionality. You can follow along his slidedeck here.

Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg’s master branch?
Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review.

Now also available via WordPress Playground. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? Email me with your experience

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: Photo by Ravi Palwe on Unsplash

Don’t want to miss the next Weekend Edition?

Matt: Are Investors Bad?

Matt — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 07:00:10 +0000

Some people have been interpreting my comments around private equity and investors as saying they’re all bad and you should never accept investment or trust a company that does… I don’t agree with that at all. Investors are amazing, they’re the fuel of entrepreneurship and capitalism and responsible for most of what we enjoy today. I can look in the eye of another founder and wholeheartedly recommend Automattic’s investors—True Ventures, Addition, Tiger Global, Salesforce, GIC, ICONIQ, LVMH/Aglaé, Akkadian, Wellington, Sweetwater, BlackRock, Alta Park, Schonfield, Chris Sacca…—and say they’ve upheld open source values and allowed us to nourish the open source ecosystem and flourish as a business. (They’re not an investor, but there are new folks like OSS Capital which are totally open source aligned.)

So investors, even “private equity” ones can be okay, but just like with anything, there are good ones and bad ones, so it is worthwhile to look into their track record. After an investor joins a company, what happens next? Do they change away from an Open Source license? Does the community flourish or wither on the vine as a result of their actions? It can be complex because you can have, as we do in WordPress, some companies contributing and some companies just taking. Some investors, like ours, are minority investors, which means they don’t control the company. Some buy a majority share in companies and control them, and that’s where who ultimately owns things matters the most.

Can they change? Of course. Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. I think everyone should be afforded that grace. But it can’t just be in words, it has to be in action.

I may make my keynote tomorrow a deep dive presentation into some specific examples of this going poorly, because I think it’s highly relevant to WordPress’ survival. Tune in! There will be a livestream here.

WPTavern: Patchstack Secures $5M in Series A Funding

Jyolsna — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 04:33:45 +0000

Patchstack, a leading WordPress security company, recently raised $5 million in its Series A funding round. The funding round was led by Karma Ventures, G+D Ventures, and Emilia Capital, an investment firm backed by Yoast founders Marieke van de Rakt and Joost de Valk.

“With the Series A, we plan to accelerate Patchstack product development and build a top-level sales and marketing team,” said Patchstack’s co-founder and CEO, Oliver Sild. He believes Patchstack could “potentially hyper-automate the entire open-source software security process.”

In 2022, the company received a €2.7M R&D grant from the European Innovation Council. Earlier this year, Patchstack was also selected by Google for its AI for Cybersecurity accelerator program, leveraging its vast dataset—the largest in the world of open-source security vulnerabilities.

The company’s managed VDP platform, developed in collaboration with the European Union, is free for all plugin and theme developers and helps projects comply with the upcoming European Cyber Resilience Act.

Last year they published 76% of all known WordPress-related security vulnerabilities and became the largest CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) Naming Authority by volume in 2023. Their Zero-Day Bug Bounty Program awarded the highest bounty in WordPress history – $14,400- to John Blackbourn, who exposed a critical vulnerability in the LiteSpeed Cache plugin last month.

“I have been following Patchstack’s progress for some time, have had many great discussions with Oliver, and think that the team is on a noble and exciting mission to protect users of open-source technologies from cyber threats,” said Kristjan Laanemaa from Karma Ventures.

WPTavern: Matt Mullenweg’s Ecosystem Thinking for Open Source Success

Jyolsna — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 18:46:32 +0000

WordCamp US 2024 is in full swing, and Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, shared his thoughts on a powerful philosophy driving Open Source.

Ecosystem Thinking

Mullenweg introduced the concept of “Ecosystem Thinking,” a philosophy that drives successful collaborative projects.

“Actual Open Source licenses are the law that guarantees freedom, the bulwark against authoritarianism. But what makes Open Source work isn’t the law, it’s the ethos. It’s the social mores. It’s what I’m now calling Ecosystem Thinking: the mindset that separates any old software with an open source license from the software that’s alive, that’s humming with activity and contributions from a thousand places.” he noted.

This philosophy comprises four essential elements:

Learn: Embrace the beginner’s mindset and constantly engage with new ideas.
Evolve: Apply what you learn to the next iteration, allowing real-world feedback to guide you.
Teach: Teaching others reinforces your own understanding, spreading knowledge throughout the ecosystem.
Nourish: Share the fruits of your success with the broader community to help everyone thrive.

‘Nourish’ is the philosophy behind WordPress’s Five For the Future initiative, where companies and individuals commit a portion of their resources to supporting the WordPress project and ecosystem. This ethos is what keeps Open Source alive and vibrant.

Mislabeling Open Source

He also shared the challenges Open source is facing. Even though Open Source has taken over as an “intellectual and moral movement,… false prophets like Meta are trying to co-opt it.” He referenced Meta’s “open-source” AI model, Llama, as a prime example of this trend.

While LLaMA is free, its license restricts use for companies with over 700 million active users. Mullenweg argued that although Meta has the right to impose such terms, labeling it as “Open Source” misleads the public.

Vote with your Wallet

Mullenweg encouraged the community to “vote with your wallet” by supporting companies that actively contribute to the Open Source ecosystem. He praised organizations like Newfold, Awesome Motive, 10up, Godaddy, Hostinger, and Google but warned of “parasitic entities that just want to feed off the host without giving anything back.”

To make his point, Mullenweg compared the Five For the Future contributions from Automattic and WP Engine, a competitor of similar size. Automattic contributes 3,786 hours per week, while WP Engine contributes just 47.

“Those of us who are makers, who create the source, need to be wary of those who would take our creations and squeeze out the juice. They’re grifters who will hop onto the next fad, but we’re trying to build something big here, something long term—something that lasts for generations,” he said.

Mullenweg urged the community to be mindful of their choices: “Think about that next time it comes up to renew your hosting or domain, weigh your dollars towards companies that give back more, because you’ll get back more, too. Freedom isn’t free.”

This is not the first time Mullenweg has discussed this point. “Those who care about the future of WordPress should spend their dollars with less parasitic companies,” he said in 2022.

Do The Woo Community: A Blog for the Community, by the Community

BobWP — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 17:29:54 +0000

Episode Transcript

BobWP:

Well, hello, BobWP here. I am sitting in my motel room recording this while at WordCamp US. So much stuff going on, this being the Thursday the 19th, have already done 2 days of the hectic schedule and now into the official two days of the camp

There’s a lot I could share with you so far, but that is not why I am here. And I mean by talking to you and not where I am physically.

On September the 2nd I pushed out a post on Do the Woo called The Soft Relaunch of the Do the Woo Blog, It was short, and hinted a bit of what we have in store. Then while I’m here at WordCamp, I realized that in that post I said I would be telling you more about the blog. Which was not optimal nor did I plan that as it should have been.

So I felt obligated to do this episode while knowing I still have a few things left to do.

But let me share where we are at.

As I mentioned in that post, Ronald Gijsel and myself did a podcast while we brainstormed the ideas around what the Do the Wo blog would look like. Why was there no blog. At some point last year I decided to move posts off of the site and focus on the audio we were putting out. Several reasons for that but in hindsight it was probably a mistake or at least something I should have just let ride.

Then I realized, maybe I woke up, that the site had a big missing part to it. And also, I was missing blogging here at Do the Woo. For someone who has blogged since 2018, well, a void in my life. Of course, as Ronald and myself talked about the blog, it was obvious that we have the perfect site for a blog

Yes, a blog by the community and for the community. Want a rundown on my plans

I will blog of course. But hosts, guests and friends of do the woo will also guest post.

We are not going down the tutorial path, doing reviews, building a news blog or pitching products.

What we want is conversations continuing based on podcast episodes. For example, a guest wants to dive into a topic that they only were able to mention on the episode. Or perhaps they have additional thoughts that didn’t get covered. And yes, at anytime a past guest can come in and update us on something that was mentioned in their show. In other words, a lot of flexibility.

But what about your the listener? Maybe leaving a comment isn’t enough for you. You may have thoughts on an episode and would like to write a guest post to share them with our audience. These could be as short as a paragraph or two, or if you have a lot to say, as long as you need to make it.

Of course, guest posts will be scrutinized to make sure they cover what we are looking for.

We have a three things that will make your content that you post here so valuable. One we will be sharing soon, and the other two likely will be worked on for the next several month.

And, we will soon have things in place if you want to do a guest post, or maybe even become a regular. Things like guidelines, forms to submit your interest to us, etc, etc. In fact I will write a blog post something after I return home here from WordCamp US when all of these things are in place.

So that’s it. If you did carve out sometime to actually listen to this and you are still at WordCampUS, please let’s connect and at least say hi if we haven’t already. And to everyone out there, we are excited to share and amplify even more voice from this community.

Until the next time.

In this episode, BobWP records from his hotel room at WordCampUS, sharing exciting updates about the soft relaunch of the Do the Woo blog.

Bob reflects on past decisions, including the removal of blog posts from the site, and how he now realizes the blog’s absence created a void in the community.

He outlines plans for the blog’s future, including contributions from hosts, guests, and even listeners, creating an open space for continued conversations around podcast episodes.

Keep your eyes and ears open to hear more about how Do the Woo is amplifying voices and building stronger community connections.

Links

WPTavern: WordPress.com Offers 1,000 Free Premium Websites to University Students

Jyolsna — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 19:19:19 +0000

WordPress.com announced that it is giving away 1,000 free premium websites exclusively to university students. This offer is a fantastic opportunity for students to build their online presence.

The first thousand students who sign up will receive a premium WordPress.com website for one year, complete with a free custom domain name, SSL certificate, 13 GB of storage, access to premium themes, and an ad-free experience. With these features, students can create professional websites to showcase their portfolios, projects, or blogs.

“This offer is perfect for students looking to stand out in their personal and professional journeys, ” WordPress.com said in the official announcement.

Interested students can fill out a simple form with their educational details and email address. After submitting, they will receive an email asking them to verify their student status. Once verified, a unique code will be provided within 24-48 hours to unlock their free premium website.

Recently, the WordPress community has been trying to find ways to attract new users in the backdrop of discussions about the WordPress market stagnating. Executive Director of the WordPress Project, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, has also recently spoken about how WordPress equips students with essential skills for thriving in their future careers.

WPTavern: #137 – Jamie Marsland on Heading the WordPress YouTube Channel

Nathan Wrigley — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Transcription

[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 YouTube can promote the WordPress project.

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/feed/podcast. And you can copy that URL into most podcast players.

So on the podcast today, we have Jamie Marsland, and it says third appearance on the podcast, which is a first.

Jamie has recently embarked on an exciting new journey as the head of the WordPress YouTube channel at Automattic. This role is set to amplify the WordPress story through engaging and informative video content, capitalizing on YouTube’s reach to over 2.7 billion monthly users.

As you’ll hear, Jamie only started his role a few days prior to recording, but he’s already full of plan lists to transform the WordPress YouTube presence. Automattic created this role to ensure a more focused effort on growing the channel, which currently has around 36,000 subscribers, significantly lower than some of the other WordPress YouTube channels.

Jamie envisions targeting distinct groups. Beginners, DIYers, developers and designers, agencies and freelancers, product suppliers, and the community. Each piece of content will aim to add value whilst trying to maintain some fun.

Throughout our conversation, Jamie shares his insights into why this role is necessary, especially in light of commercial rivals like Wix and Squarespace, who possess enormous marketing budgets. He discusses the importance of bringing new users into the WordPress ecosystem, whether they’re complete beginners or migrating from other platforms.

We also explore Jamie’s broader vision for the channel, including making high quality content that genuinely adds value to the viewer, regardless of its production quality. He stresses that every video needs to answer the question of what value it brings to the audience. Fun and engagement are key themes, but quality content is paramount.

We also touch on his plans to bring in other voices, aiming to build a diverse team that reflects WordPress’ global reach.

Jamie also talks about the balance between engaging the YouTube algorithm and producing valuable content. He shares his experiences and strategies for creating content that draws listeners in, emphasizing the importance of creativity in ensuring all target groups find something of interest.

Jamie assures us that his new role won’t mean an end to his own popular YouTube channel, which has been advocating for WordPress for many years. He plans to continue creating content on this channel, whilst focusing on growing the official WordPress channel.

Towards the end, Jamie hints at the changes that might start materializing by October, post WordCamp US. He’s eager to hear from the community, so if you have innovative, fun or valuable content ideas, Jamie wants to know.

If you’re interested in the evolving landscape of WordPress on YouTube, Jamie strategic approach, or how you might contribute to this exciting venture, this episode is for you.

If you want to find out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you’ll find all the other episodes as well.

And so without further delay, I bring you Jamie Marsland.

I am joined on the podcast, again by Jamie Marsland. How you doing, Jamie?

[00:04:35] Jamie Marsland: I am really sorry about all these appearances. I’m great, thank you, Nathan.

[00:04:38] Nathan Wrigley: Honestly, the reason that you’re appearing many times is because you have many things to say. But I believe you’re the first person to appear for a third time. And it wasn’t all that long ago that we were talking about your speed builds happening at WordCamp Europe. Well, maybe that is going to come up today. Let’s find out.

[00:04:53] Jamie Marsland: Well, it’s coming to WordCamp US in a few weeks time, so there you go, there’s a plug for that.

[00:04:57] Nathan Wrigley: Well, it’s exciting. Well, maybe we can get into that specifically a little bit later, but that’s not the main reason. The main reason is because you’ve taken on a brand new role. And rather than me butcher what that role is and what you’re doing, you just want to give us your brief potted bio?

[00:05:11] Jamie Marsland: I’m now working for Automattic as head of the wordpress.org YouTube channel, which is an incredibly exciting role to fulfill. So I started literally two days ago, and I’m now in day three, it’s Wednesday, isn’t it? Day three of my onboarding, of which I’m going to go onto the wordpress.org forums this afternoon as part of, when you join Automattic you do a support rotation, so I’ve got two weeks support rotation, and then I start in earnest on the YouTube channel.

[00:05:36] Nathan Wrigley: Is this a brand new role? My intuition says, I think it is because I’ve not heard of it before.

[00:05:41] Jamie Marsland: It is a brand new role. There is a team working diligently on the YouTube channel doing cool stuff, and they’ve grown it actually really well, but there’s no one sort of leading on the channel. Everyone in that team is doing lots of other cool stuff as well. So this is having somebody completely focused 100% on growing the channel.

[00:05:57] Nathan Wrigley: Okay, so I’m imagining that more or less everybody knows what YouTube is, and probably has gone down that alley of stepping into YouTube, and then several hours later figuring out that they’ve lost their entire day on YouTube. Why do we need this role then? So you mentioned that there’s a team. Is it just that it was felt that that effort wasn’t sort of guided correctly, that there needs to be more content? Why the role?

[00:06:19] Jamie Marsland: Can I give you some stats on YouTube, because this blows my mind? So as of 2024, YouTube has more than 2.7 billion users every month. That’s 51% of all people who use the internet. One third of everyone in the world uses YouTube monthly, a third of everyone in the world uses YouTube monthly. And over half the people who use the internet on their phones visit YouTube each month.

So YouTube is, I mean it’s just absolutely massive, and WordPress, the official channel, has as we speak, about 36,000 subscribers. And if you compare it to its, let’s say competitors, it’s lower than it needs to be. So that’s why there’s now a unrelenting focus from me on helping WordPress through that channel.

[00:07:02] Nathan Wrigley: So is there a particular kind gap that you are trying to fill here? Because obviously, you know, YouTube is just full up of content for literally everything. Is it going to be directed mainly at a particular type of YouTube content? Do you have any sort of intuitions as how that’s going to go? You know, is it going to be related to Gutenberg, or Core? Well, I’ll leave it open to you.

[00:07:22] Jamie Marsland: At the moment, and I’m obviously on day three, this is kind of how I view the world in terms of the content groups we’re going to aim content at. What I’m also asking everyone is to let me know what you think, so I’d be interested to know what you think about this, Nathan.

So these are the kind of groups we’re going to target content at. So I’ve got beginners, group one. DIYers, developers. We’ve got designers, agencies and freelancers, product suppliers. So that’s plugins, and themes, and service providers, and then we’ve got the community. So broadly, six groups of target viewers that, at the moment, that’s what I’m thinking the type of content we’re going to produce content for.

But at the top of that, we have the kind of overlying everything is, you know, every piece of content that we want to produce on that channel needs to kind of tell the WordPress story, or help tell the WordPress story, what the story is. That’s all the things that make me love WordPress. So it’s empowering, it’s free, it’s open, it’s radical, it’s fun, it’s being used by loads and loads of people. So everything needs to kind of fit under that story.

And then we’ve got those groups of people that we want to target content at. And then within that we’re going to have a number of different formats. And then flowing from those formats will be the actual content itself. That’s the way I’m viewing the world at the moment. Early days, I’m asking people to give me their feedback.

[00:08:34] Nathan Wrigley: I’m going to give you a little bit of feedback on that. So you had six categories there, and they all speak to people already using WordPress. I wonder if part of the role, given all of the talk that we’ve had recently about, you know, commercial rivals in the website building space having giant marketing budgets, is that piece of advertising to the, as yet undecided, website builder. Drawing in people who are just curious about starting a career in web development, or want their own website? And obviously WordPress has that sort of free and open credentialing to it. Trying to draw them in as well and just say, okay, here’s WordPress, you’ve never used it, this is what it could do for you.

[00:09:12] Jamie Marsland: Yeah, and that’s a massive part of my thinking. I would probably group that group of people into beginners or pre beginners. Yeah, that was one of the biggest pieces of feedback. I put out this tweet, and put a post on Facebook and LinkedIn, and got tons of feedback and fantastic ideas from people of the type of content.

That was one of the strong themes coming through is, how do we bring people on board to WordPress from either, they’re looking for the first time, or they’re using something like Wix and they don’t realise where the roadblocks they’re going to hit at some point in the future? So, one hundred percent.

[00:09:40] Nathan Wrigley: Just a little bit of personal story then. How did this role come your way then? So just curious as to, two sides to that really. How did the negotiations happen and, you know, how did you get into this role existing in the first place, and why the role now? I guess I’m alluding to the whole Wix thing that I mentioned a moment ago. Is it that the time is right to concern ourselves with the commercial rivals out there and the march that they’ve got into the marketplace?

[00:10:05] Jamie Marsland: So I’m going to skip some steps here, just to give you a broad brush stroke. So I did some research about, I guess it was a year and a half ago was it, maybe two years ago, looking at the YouTube channels of wordpress.com, wordpress.org, and also the competitors, so Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and a few others. Did a blog post, and then I sent the blog post around to some people within Automattic that I’d sort of been chatting to, and saying, I can help with some of this stuff.

Now, I’m skipping a lot of steps here, Nathan. And following from that, I had lots of discussions. And then I did a series of videos with wordpress.com and the team at wordpress.com, and started chatting to some people within Automattic. So I did 24 videos for them. Obviously more conversations around the video strategy for .com and .org. And, again, I’m skipping lots of steps.

Then I met up with Matt Mullenweg in Turin for an hour, and had a fantastic chat around video, and content, and competitors, and then more conversations. And then it kind of crystallised while I was on a mountain, climbing up a mountain, when I say climbing a mountain, I was walking along a mountain in France. You know, started to formulate what the role could be, what the need was, you know, my desire to do it, which was massive. So for me it’s like the perfect, because I’ve been kind of doing this stuff on my own channel for three years. So this was like the perfect opportunity to kind of work on a bigger stage really.

[00:11:22] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, that’s great. I’m curious as to the nature of the conversation that you had with Matt. Obviously, Matt, the co-founder of WordPress, largely guides the project, if you like. We have a lot of intuitions that come from Matt, which then turn into the reality of the project. Whilst I don’t want you to reveal anything of a confidential nature, I am curious as to hear what thoughts came up in that meeting as to the importance of this job, you know, the kinds of things that he would like to have seen you doing.

[00:11:47] Jamie Marsland: I mean the first thing to say, it was a great conversation because I’d never met Matt before. So, we struck it off really well, which was fantastic, and massively intellectually curious, that was a very interesting conversation. But it was kind of centered around content, and the importance of video content, and what WordPress is doing in terms of video content at the moment, and just the massive opportunity there is for video content in the WordPress, official WordPress space.

Obviously, there’s some amazing content being produced by other creators, but on the official channel, as I say, we’ve got 36,000 subscribers. So there’s a massive opportunity to get more engagement, and sort of spread the WordPress word.

[00:12:22] Nathan Wrigley: The fact that you are doing content on YouTube, does it allow you this role to also do video content elsewhere? So one of the things that comes into mind is the Learn project, so learn.wordpress.org is making lots of educational content, much of it in the form of videos. I wondered if there was any overlap with those teams, or any opportunity to overlap. Because it sounds like a lot of the pieces that you’re going to be making are educational in nature.

[00:12:48] Jamie Marsland: Obviously it’s very early days, and they’ve got a team producing lots of Learn content, which is currently going on the YouTube channel, which is great. There’s an interesting space which says, what is the connection? Because some of the content they’re doing is very, very good if you are going step by step through videos. But I think there’s an interesting discussion that says, how can we start to tailor some of that content? So it’s kind of more suited to specific YouTube audiences.

Because when you go onto YouTube, you’re kind of in a different frame of mind than if you are going onto a learning management system. And I think they’re two quite separate pieces of content, like some of the content I produce on my channel is more edutainment than just educating people around it. It’s got to kind of grab them quite quickly, and you’ll get more engagement and more learning. So there’s some interesting, definitely some interesting overlaps there. Early thinking on that though.

[00:13:34] Nathan Wrigley: One of the things that Matt said during his address in WordCamp Europe, where obviously you had your meeting with him, one of the things that I took away from that was that he wants WordPress to feel a bit more fun. I don’t really have my finger on the pulse of what entirely he made of that, but it did strike me that your speed builds was a really, you know, it was a really credible way of doing that. It’s entertainment with learning bolted in, which is really nice. You get the fun of doing it at the same time, and if you’re paying attention, you will actually learn things, which is kind of like the perfect goal.

I did wonder that was how you were hoping to drive it, if it was supposed to be fun. If you’d got any guidelines about that, if you’ve got any thoughts on that. Because I always enjoy watching fun content more than sort of the dry stuff. But nevertheless, sometimes the dry stuff is what you need to do, so whether it’s a bit of everything, or direction is fun, over to you.

[00:14:26] Jamie Marsland: We’ll bring the fun. There will be more fun, but it’s not all going to be fun. But it all needs to be great. I think the key thing is it’s going to have massive value. If it’s going on the channel, it needs to have massive value to whoever’s watching it, and that’s probably somebody within those six groups. So there will definitely be some, I’ve got some ideas, there’ll definitely be some fun stuff, and definitely more live stuff.

We want to try and have a connection with the end users that are using WordPress. So definitely more fun. But there’s some really cool stuff going on on the wordpress.org channel, which, with a little bit of love and attention, we can elevate to the next level quite easily. Like there’s some amazing developer stuff going on with Justin Tadlock and his team, and Nick Diego, and Ryan Welcher. Just gold dust in there.

And there’s some really simple things we can do really quickly to get them more views. So there’s some easy low hanging fruit. So some of that developer stuff is absolutely fantastic, but there is a lot of stuff on there that’s, at the moment there’s this automatic feed, so there’s a lot of stuff that just, it’s like a bucket, just gets dumped on there.

So there’s a conversation to be had around how we tailor that stuff. Do we keep that process going where it’s just automated? So we have lots and lots of videos on there, which don’t necessarily all reflect what we’re trying to reflect in terms of the WordPress story. I’m not sure that’s answered your question, but there’s going to be more fun.

[00:15:36] Nathan Wrigley: Running through that, the message that you gave me at the beginning of that little section was that you want it to be of high quality. The importance is on the high quality. So if it’s fun and high quality, that’s great, if it’s serious and high quality, it’s great. But if it’s fun and low quality, no.

[00:15:50] Jamie Marsland: And I think, when I say high quality, I’m not talking about production value, I’m talking about value to the person watching it. If it’s filmed on a phone in a field and it’s absolute gold dust, then that’s okay. But it has to be, every bit of content has to ask itself the question, what value am I giving to the person watching this? Why are they going to watch this piece of content? And if we can’t answer that, then it shouldn’t be on the channel anyway.

[00:16:08] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, it’s interesting, sort of editorial guidelines, you know, if the BBC, for example, the British Broadcasting Corporation, I imagine they have a quality guideline about how it looks and feels, not just about the quality of the content. But that’s an interesting position that you take there. If the content is good but the production quality is not that great, that gets a pass.

[00:16:26] Jamie Marsland: I think there’s probably a couple of phases of this. The first phase is, it’s got to be all about the content. And then the second phase, then we look at the production. And you can do these together, but the most important thing is the content has got to have, it’s got to have value.

One of the best lessons I ever learned in running a YouTube channel is that there’s only three reasons why somebody will ever click on a YouTube thumbnail, because you are competing against lots of other people on YouTube. And those are curiosity, number one, hope, number two, or fear. Those are the three psychological triggers that make anyone click onto a YouTube video. There’s some broad guidelines we can start to introduce.

[00:17:00] Nathan Wrigley: I think also it’s important for the creator of the video to have a white border around them, and to be pointing at something with their mouth open.

[00:17:08] Jamie Marsland: Actually, no, that’s not true anymore. There’s been some stats that show that mouth open isn’t working anymore.

[00:17:12] Nathan Wrigley: Okay. Oh gosh.

[00:17:13] Jamie Marsland: I’m serious about that.

[00:17:14] Nathan Wrigley: People go into it at that level. So the content that you’ve created on your own YouTube channel has been you creating content, and you’ve obviously been very successful at that, and I imagine that that is the primary reason that you’ve got into this discussion, got this job. So bravo for that firstly.

But secondly, does this new job point to an era in which you, the head of YouTube, are making all of the content, or are you hoping to bring other voices in? And into that question I’m going to throw the sort of international thing as well, you know, different languages, different parts of the world, different perspectives.

[00:17:47] Jamie Marsland: So, no, definitely won’t just be me producing videos. I mean, my plan is to make myself redundant over the next three or four years, and build a team of younger, diverse people that reflect where WordPress is heading. So that’s part of my plan. And then part of my plan is, and I’ve been reaching out to other content creators in the WordPress space, is to help them to amplify themselves, and get them on the channel as well. Because there’s some people doing some amazing stuff. And also people in the community.

Plus we’ve already got some existing amazing content that’s going on through people like Justin and his team, and the Learn team. So absolutely not, it won’t just be me. I will definitely be on the channel, but hopefully I’ll be a fraction of the overall content going forward. There was another part of your question, which I didn’t answer.

[00:18:25] Nathan Wrigley: Well, there was the international part, so the different languages all around the world. So it’s not just in English basically.

[00:18:30] Jamie Marsland: Yeah, that’s a really interesting one. So one of the challenges you face when you run a YouTube channel is that, if you produce a piece of content that doesn’t get many views, it’s a bit of a channel killer. So what will happen is their algorithm will say, they’ve just produced, you might have one piece of content that gets like 10,000 views, if you produce a piece of content that only gets like 12 views, that will affect the overall channel views.

You need to be aware of that when you’re running and trying to grow YouTube channel. I’m going to go onto the international bit. So that’s one of the things we need to confront pretty quickly. We need to make sure that the content we’re producing is always creating a high number of views, otherwise it affects the overall health of the channel.

So one of the decisions on the international stuff is, does that fit into that? How does that fit into that? Does that affect the channel because our audience is expecting one thing and they get another thing, and it might get lower views? Or do we say, we create multiple channels for multiple languages, or do we create multiple channels for multiple, like there’s thousands of word, well, not thousands, but there’s lots and lots of WordCamps that happen around the world which are currently being presented on the YouTube channel, which might not get massive amount of views, but are very important content. So the question is, do we have a separate channel for those, so it doesn’t affect the main channel in terms of the algorithm and kind of story we’re trying to tell on those? So those are some of the kind of quite difficult decisions we need to make fairly early on.

[00:19:43] Nathan Wrigley: That’s curious because you are having to worry about the algorithm of YouTube, not just the quality of the content, but whether the content is going to receive the click. So some part of your brain has to be engaged with how viral, for want of a better word, maybe that’s not quite right word. But, you know, something like, how viral will this piece of content be?

And I guess that raises concerns about, if we’re always chasing the algorithm, do we then drop the stuff which may not get the clicks or the views, but could be really important? So for example, the last piece you mentioned, I think it was number six, community, that may not get quite the number of views as, oh I don’t know, the latest, greatest new feature that’s come out in WordPress, or your speed builds, or whatever that may be. But it’s still equally important, and that’s going to be a difficult tightrope to tread, isn’t it? It’s sprinkling that stuff in that you have an intuition won’t be quite so popular, but is probably needed.

[00:20:31] Jamie Marsland: But I think there’s creative ways of making that stuff interesting to people that it will get clicks. That’s the challenge of the channel, right? So all those six groups, I’m confident we could create content that is really interesting, that would get a large amount of clicks. But it needs to speak, it needs to focus on the value it’s bringing to the people that are watching it. That’s got to be the a hundred percent focus.

I spend a huge amount of time on my thumbnails and title, and I want to instill that in the content that’s going on the channel. I do that because, and this isn’t just me making this stuff up, this is coming from like, the best YouTubers all do this as well. And if you do that, then it focuses your video on the value you are creating. You are trying to create to the person watching it. And if you can’t get a YouTube thumbnail and title sorted out, it means you haven’t got your story straight in your head, and you’re not sure on the value of this piece of content is going to bring to the people watching it. If you can’t do that, then you shouldn’t make the video. It’s a really useful discipline to go through, and it’s one I want to instill on any piece of content going forward, because it focuses the whole point of the video.

[00:21:28] Nathan Wrigley: But the bottom line is you are open to other voices, it’s not just going to be Jamie making video content. And a question which is related to that, but not entirely the same, the content that I’ve seen of you so far has been heavily related to a core version of WordPress. You know, you download WordPress from .org and you run with that. You’re not chucking a load of other things in, third party plugins, and themes, and what have you.

And I do wonder if that has a place in this new future. Whether or not third party plugins, themes, blocks, whatever it may be, whether there’s going to be scope for those. Maybe there’ll be an embargo on, well, it has to be in the repository. I don’t know. Again, just over to you, what are your thoughts?

[00:22:04] Jamie Marsland: Yeah, my view is a hundred percent, I want those in there. Because it’s one of the best things about WordPress, that we have 60,000 plugins and thousands of amazing themes. The challenge is how you do that without annoying the heck out of everybody that isn’t featured on that week. I want to find formats that we can showcase stuff without annoying people that aren’t on there.

But if you think about it, wordpress.org is already advertising all those 60,000 plugins, so we absolutely should be. And there’s some amazing stuff happening, some amazing innovation happening, so we definitely want to showcase that stuff on the official channel, is my view at the moment.

[00:22:34] Nathan Wrigley: I’m just curious about the cadence at which you are hoping to do this. Because at the moment, Jamie’s YouTube channel, I presume that there is importance in you getting content out on a regular basis to satisfy the algorithm. But it’s up you how often you want to do that. You know, you can take a week off here, a week off there, and go out for a walk or whatever, whenever you feel. And I’m just wondering how this is going to play. Do you have intuitions there? You know, it’s got to be several things a week, several things a day. It’s a big community after all, we could probably create that content. But, any thoughts?

[00:23:03] Jamie Marsland: Well, yeah, if you look, at the moment there’s tons of content going on it, but I think there’s too much content. I think the cadence will be, the first step is to get a content plan, which I’m going to share I think at this point, get a content plan together drawing on all those things that I’ve talked you through already.

And then I think the cadence drops out from that. Once you’ve got the content structure in terms of those groups, and then you’ve got the formats flowing from those. So like we’ve already got developer hours who have a certain cadence. And then you’ve got the content plan from that, the cadence will be dropping out from that. But my view is at least two a week.

But probably, as we start to power the engine many more. And, you know, the other thing that we want to do far more of is repurposing this content for like social media, because at the moment that’s not really happening. Once we get the source content the way we want it, that’ll be much, much easier. Because that’s been a lot of the growth of my channel, is resharing relentlessly on Twitter, and Facebook, and LinkedIn. LinkedIn especially at moment, actually.

[00:23:55] Nathan Wrigley: You’ve obviously been making content recently, and I presume you’re doing that because you enjoy it. Is there any part of you which is a little bit nervous about the fact that you are going to have this more managerial role and, you know, taking care of other people’s content, and less time in the video editor, making the content, thinking about the topics, and creating the titles and the thumbnails and all that? They’ll presumably be handled by you, but also by other people. Is there a bit of you, which is, I don’t know, a little bit sad at waving goodbye to your own endeavors?

[00:24:20] Jamie Marsland: I’m not waving goodbye to them. So my own channel is going to carry on. And actually this will probably give me, well, it will give me more freedom to be a bit more, I’m going to be quite experimental, but probably more experimental on my own channel. So that’s definitely going to continue. I’ve paused sponsorships at the moment on that channel, just to avoid some conflicts of interest.

But I have to say, I did have pre-match nerves about two weeks ago when I first got the job. Because normally I wake up and I’ve got like a hundred ideas banging around my head for videos, and for about a week I literally had nothing going on in there. It was like a vacuum of ideas, which was a bit worrying. Thankfully they’re back.

So yeah, I’m so excited about being able to run a channel, and there’s all these amazing people that I can now, that I’m already chatting to about the stuff they’re already doing and how we can take it to the next level. So the community aspects are like incredibly exciting.

[00:25:05] Nathan Wrigley: So just to be clear, there’s no embargo on Jamie ceasing doing what Jamie’s doing already. You’ve got free reign to keep making your own content. You know, you’re a good custodian of that. You don’t create incendiary content and drop a bomb walk away, or at least that’s not what I’ve seen anyway.

[00:25:20] Jamie Marsland: I’ve been advocating for this, for WordPress, for three years on my own channel. So it’d be a bit weird if I stopped. I’ve got over 100,000 subscribers on that channel now, so it’d be a bit weird if I didn’t keep producing video content that kind of advertise WordPress on that channel because it’s got a big audience. The same with my Twitter and LinkedIn. I’ll use all those channels to help the wordpress.org channel as well.

[00:25:41] Nathan Wrigley: Do you know if that puts you in a unique position at Automattic? Because I don’t know, I genuinely don’t know the answer to this, but I have some thoughts that when people join Automattic, there may be contractual things that they can and cannot do. And obviously in this case, you know, that probably doesn’t matter quite so much because it’s not like you’re doing two jobs. Your YouTube channel is presumably going to be in your evenings and weekends. It returns to being more of a hobby. There’s just a thought around that, whether people have, you know, mentioned that to you.

[00:26:06] Jamie Marsland: They have mentioned that to me. And it is a unique position, I’m not sure there’s any perfect scenario for it because if I hadn’t grown the channel, then I probably wouldn’t be good for the YouTube job, because I’ve got experience of running a YouTube channel. So it would be quite hard to run this. And then people would say, well, why are you running the YouTube channel if you’ve never run a YouTube channel before? That’s kind of a difficult one.

And also it is unique because, if you think about it, Automatticians obviously tweet and make videos on their own channels, you wouldn’t expect them not to do that because they’re tweeting. To answer you, it is a unique thing. I’m not sure there’s any easy answer to it, apart from I’m hopefully helping WordPress in everything I’m doing. That’s been the sole point of my own channels, is to advocate strongly for WordPress over the last three years. So I’ve kind of been doing this job for free until recently, when I started taking sponsorships for a while. It feels like a continuation that, but just on the official channel actually.

[00:27:00] Nathan Wrigley: When do you anticipate we’re going to see the beginnings of your endeavors here? So we’re recording this very early in September, 2024. You’re obviously doing the support role at Automattic, answering support tickets, just like every other Automattician did. And once that fortnight, two weeks is expired, presumably you’ll have your head turned onto this role. How long do you think we need to wait before we start seeing the ball rolling?

[00:27:23] Jamie Marsland: I’ve got two weeks rotation, and then we’ve got WordCamp US, which is very exciting. Come and check out the speed build on the 19th with Brian Coords and Amber Hinds, which is going to be an exciting one. I think we’re in the main room as well, so that could be huge if we are, that could be a big one.

So I suspect we’ll start seeing some changes around October. It’s important to do some groundwork first before just breaking everything. Although we could just break everything, and see how it goes. See how many people I can annoy within a shortest space of time. But I’m very impatient to get on and start improving things. But also incredibly excited because there’s so much cool stuff happening.

So if anyone’s got, you know, I’ve been asking people, if you’ve got anything exciting going on that you want to share with the world around WordPress, whether it’s innovative, fun, crazy, enterprise, beginner. I really want to hear your stories, so just send them to me.

[00:28:09] Nathan Wrigley: When you say send them to you, what’s the best way to do that?

[00:28:12] Jamie Marsland: Good question. So I’ve got an Automattic email, now this is very strange. Still don’t know what it is, I think it’s jamie.marsland@automattic.com, or just tweet me on Twitter at pootlepress. But yeah, just get in touch. Send me your ideas, I want as many ideas as possible.

[00:28:26] Nathan Wrigley: And if you’re listening to this in the year 2025, I presume you’re going to be heading to youtube.com/wordpress.

[00:28:32] Jamie Marsland: Yes, exactly. Yeah.

[00:28:35] Nathan Wrigley: I’m not entirely sure whether that’s the right URL, but I’ll make sure to find out, and link it into the show notes. So hopefully this episode will reach the airwaves prior to WordCamp US. And you are doing a speed build, and as you said, it’s Brian Coords. If you’re not familiar with Brian, I think it’s fair to classify him as developer. And you’ve also got Amber Hinds, and I think it’s fair to classify Amber as accessibility advocate.

I thought that was a really curious combination. And I wondered if that was very intentional in terms of two different outputs. If you’re following Brian, I’m presuming we’re going to see a focused on the front end, focused on the design, making it look accurate to whatever it is that you serve up. Whereas I was curious, you know, are we going to see Amber focusing on just getting the menu exactly right? Which may take the full half an hour with all the aria labels and things. Are you hoping for that?

[00:29:22] Jamie Marsland: I am hoping for that. I think it could be really interesting. But in the heat of panic, who knows what might happen. I think Brian’s been practicing as well. He’s done a live practice on YouTube, which I think shocked Amber a little bit. But yeah, I think it’ll be a really interesting combination to see the two different approaches. And I still haven’t chosen the website, so if anyone’s got any ideas for that.

[00:29:41] Nathan Wrigley: It’s Ling’s Cars, let’s be honest. It’s not going to be Ling’s Cars. Okay, well, that genuinely is everything that I’ve got to ask you today. So, Jamie Marsland, all the best. First of all, massive congratulations. Your endeavors have not gone unrecognised by just about everybody in the community. The quality of what you’ve been doing has been second to none, and utterly deserved position. And I hope it proves to be everything that you wish it to be. Well done.

[00:30:03] Jamie Marsland: Thank you so much, Nathan. Good to talk.

On the podcast today we have Jamie Marsland, and it’s his third appearance on the podcast, which is a first.

Jamie has recently embarked on an exciting new journey as the Head of the WordPress YouTube channel at Automattic. This role is set to amplify the WordPress story through engaging and informative video content, capitalising on YouTube’s reach to over 2.7 billion monthly users.

As you’ll hear, Jamie only started his role a few days prior to recording, but he’s already full of plans to transform the WordPress YouTube presence. Automattic created this role to ensure a more focused effort on growing the channel, which currently has around 36,000 subscribers, significantly lower than some of the other WordPress YouTube channels.

Jamie envisions targeting distinct groups: beginners, DIYers, developers and designers, agencies and freelancers, product suppliers, and the community. Each piece of content will aim to add value, whilst trying to maintain some fun.

We also explore Jamie’s broader vision for the channel, including making high-quality content that genuinely adds value to the viewer, regardless of its production quality. He stresses that every video needs to answer the question of what value it brings to the audience. Fun and engagement are key themes, but quality content is paramount.

We also touch on his plans to bring in other voices, aiming to build a diverse team that reflects WordPress’ global reach.

Jamie also talks about the balance between engaging the YouTube algorithm and producing valuable content. He shares his experiences and strategies for creating content that draw viewers in, emphasising the importance of creativity in ensuring all target groups find something of interest.

Towards the end, Jamie hints at the changes that might start materialising by October, post WordCamp US. He’s eager to hear from the community, so if you have innovative, fun, or valuable content ideas, Jamie wants to know.

If you’re interested in the evolving landscape of WordPress on YouTube, Jamie’s strategic approach, or how you might contribute to this exciting venture, this episode is for you.

Useful links

Jamie’s Speed Build session at WordCamp US 2024

WordPress YouTube channel

Learn WordPress

Developer Blog

Jamie on X

Matt: WordCamp US & Ecosystem Thinking

Matt — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 03:49:28 +0000

(This post should be read while listening to Wish by Joshua Redman. The writing is synchronized to the music reading speed.)

Contributor day just wrapped up for Portland for WordCamp US. If you ever have a chance to visit a WordCamp, I recommend it. It’s an amazing group of people brought together by this crazy idea that by working together regardless of our differences or where we came from or what school we went to we can be united by a simple yet groundbreaking idea: that software can give you more Freedom. Freedom to hack, freedom to charge, freedom to break it, freedom to do things I disagree with, freedom to experiment, freedom to be yourself, freedom expressed across the entire range of the human condition.

Open Source, once ridiculed and attacked by the professional classes, has taken over as an intellectual and moral movement. Its followers are legion within every major tech company. Yet, even now, false prophets like Meta are trying to co-opt it. Llama, its “open source” AI model, is free to use—at least until “monthly active users of the products or services made available by or for Licensee, or Licensee’s affiliates, is greater than 700 million monthly active users in the preceding calendar month.” Seriously.

Excuse me? Is that registered users? Visitors to WordPress-powered sites? (Which number in the billions.) That’s like if the US Government said you had freedom of speech until you made over 50 grand in the preceding calendar year, at which point your First Amendment rights were revoked. No! That’s not Open Source. That’s not freedom.

I believe Meta should have the right to set their terms—they’re smart business, and an amazing deal for users of Llama—but don’t pretend Llama is Open Source when it doesn’t actually increase humanity’s freedom. It’s a proprietary license, issued at Meta’s discretion and whim. If you use it, you’re effectively a vassal state of Meta.

When corporations disingenuously claim to be “open source” for marketing purposes, it’s a clear sign that Open Source is winning.

Actual Open Source licenses are the law that guarantees freedom, the bulwark against authoritarianism. But what makes Open Source work isn’t the law, it’s the ethos. It’s the social mores. It’s what I’m now calling Ecosystem Thinking: the mindset that separates any old software with an open source license from the software that’s alive, that’s humming with activity and contributions from a thousand places.

Ecosystem Thinking has four parts:

Learn
Evolve
Teach
Nourish

Learn is about keeping ourselves in a beginner’s mind, the curiosity to always engage with new ideas and approaches.

Evolve is where we apply those learnings to our next iteration, our next version. We see how things work in the real world: it’s the natural selection of actual usage.

Teach is actually where we learn even more, because you don’t really know something until you teach it. We open source our knowledge by sharing what we’ve learned, so others can follow on the same path.

Nourish is the trickiest, and most important part: it’s where we water the garden. If you’ve done the previous three steps, you’ve been very successful; now your responsibility is to spread the fruits of your labors around the ecosystem so that everyone can succeed together. This is the philosophy behind Five For the Future, which you’re going to see us emphasize a lot more now.

That’s the ecosystem. But if it’s the yin, what’s the yang? This openness and generosity will attract parasitic entities that just want to feed off the host without giving anything back. There are companies that participate in the Learn/Evolve/Teach/Nourish loop like a FernGully rainforest, and there are those who treat Open Source simply as a resource to extract from its natural surroundings, like oil from the ground.

Compare the Five For the Future pages from Automattic and WP Engine, two companies that are roughly the same size with revenue in the ballpark of half a billion. These pledges are just a proxy and aren’t perfectly accurate, but as I write this, Automattic has 3,786 hours per week (not even counting me!), and WP Engine has 47 hours. WP Engine has good people, some of whom are listed on that page, but the company is controlled by Silver Lake, a private equity firm with $102 billion in assets under management. Silver Lake doesn’t give a dang about your Open Source ideals. It just wants a return on capital.

So it’s at this point that I ask everyone in the WordPress community to vote with your wallet. Who are you giving your money to? Someone who’s going to nourish the ecosystem, or someone who’s going to frack every bit of value out of it until it withers? Newfold, especially since its acquisition of Yoast and Yith, gives back. (I’ve asked them to consolidate their Five for the Future pages to better represent the breadth of their contributions.) So does Awesome Motive, 10up, Godaddy, Hostinger, even Google. Think about that next time it comes up to renew your hosting or domain, weigh your dollars towards companies that give back more, because you’ll get back more, too. Freedom isn’t free.

Those of us who are makers, who create the source, need to be wary of those who would take our creations and squeeze out the juice. They’re grifters who will hop onto the next fad, but we’re trying to build something big here, something long term—something that lasts for generations.

I may screw up along the way, or my health may falter, but these principles and beliefs will stand strong, because they represent the core tenet of our community: the idea that what we create together is bigger than any one person.

(Hat tip to Automattician Jordan Hillier for the great ecosystem image.)

WPTavern: Experimental Health Dashboards to Track WordPress Team Progress and Stats

Jyolsna — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 19:23:45 +0000

Hari Shanker and Courtney Robertson have introduced experimental WordPress contribution health dashboards designed to monitor the performance of various WordPress teams. They also presented the pilot dashboards developed for the Make/WordPress Core, Community, and Training teams, along with key statistics from the WordPress 6.6 release.

History and Challenges

The concept of performance dashboards dates back to 2021 when Community Gardener Ian Dunn started a discussion about “the idea of having a stats dashboard for each Make team. If that’d make a big impact, Meta could build an automated system to facilitate it.” This sparked interest, particularly from the Community and Support teams.

The topic resurfaced at WordCamp Europe 2023, where Matt Mullenweg highlighted the importance of “project health dashboards” that provide better visibility into the performance of various teams. This led to the formation of a working group composed of Naoko Takano, Isotta Peira, Hari Shanker, and Courtney Robertson, tasked with turning this idea into reality.

The team sought community input through project health hangouts this year and analyzed the data using the open-source tool Bitergia Analytics. However, Bitergia lacked integration with several essential tools frequently used by WordPress teams, such as HelpScout, Figma, Trac, SVN, and GlotPress. To fill this gap, the working group manually analyzed additional data sources, including the WordPress 6.6 props list and internal contributor data from the Community and Training teams.

Hari Shanker acknowledged the challenges in manual data compilation, stating, “Manually compiling the data is time-consuming and may not be sustainable. @courane01 and I invested significant effort into preparing them. If they prove valuable, we hope to encourage other Make/Teams to create their own and explore a project-wide dashboard, though this could be resource-intensive.”

Key Insights From the Dashboards

The Core Team dashboard reveals that 37% of WordPress 6.6 contributors were new, highlighting the project’s ability to attract fresh talent. However, there’s a growing concern as the number of inactive contributors in 2024 is rising, and close/merge rates in Core GitHub repositories are declining. Contributions tend to spike around major releases, and much of the work is driven by sponsored contributors from companies like Automattic, Yoast, GoDaddy, and 10up.

The Training Team has exceeded its goals, achieving a 50% retention rate for video content and an enrollment rate of almost 60% for its courses. The Learning Pathways project also performed well, with high enrollment and course completion rates, along with an impressive 90% learner satisfaction rate.

The Community Team is just shy of its 45% target for new attendee participation, with a current rate of 44.76%. While the number of WordPress events dipped after the pandemic, the team has seen steady improvement in event participation as in-person gatherings continue to recover.

Key Insights From WordPress 6.6 Stats

Major points include:

Approximately 640 people from 53 countries and 129 companies contributed to WordPress 6.6.
241 people contributed to WordPress Core for the first time, making up about 38% of the total contributors.
The USA led with 1033 contributions, followed by Australia with 762 contributions.
In terms of contributors by country, the USA had 84, followed by India with 69, and Bangladesh with 23.
Automattic had the largest number of contributors (105 people), followed by rtCamp (14), and 10up (12).
26.5% of all WordPress 6.6 contributors were officially pledged through Five for the Future, accounting for 75.5% of all props.

Next Steps

“Our long-term goal is to build automated, live dashboards for WordPress,” Hari Shanker revealed. The dashboards are in the experimental phase and future developments will depend on community feedback. Feedback can be submitted in the comments section of the post till October 7, 2024.

Do The Woo Community: Learn About WordCamp Sydney with Wil Brown

BobWP — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Episode Transcript

Devin:
How is it going in the land down under?

Wil:
Okay. So the temperatures—last time we spoke, the temperatures were really chilly in Sydney, but now they’ve come all the way back up. So high twenties, almost 30 degrees, which is nice.

Devin:
Wow. Yeah. Well, that sounds like Indonesia, but I feel like it’s been really, really hot in the last few days. So what’s chilly by your standard for Sydney?

Wil:
Probably 10 to 12 degrees during the day. That’d be cold, and close to zero at night, but that’s nothing compared to where I’m from in Scotland. So that’s a lovely summer’s day—2 degrees.

Devin:
It’s nothing, right. Alright. And then how is it going with WordCamp Sydney? So, I heard that this is going to be the camp that everyone in Australia and probably New Zealand too—they’ve been looking forward to this for years. When was the last time of WordCamp Sydney or WordCamps in Australia? If you can share with us?

Wil:
The last WordCamp in Australia was 2019. I believe it was WordCamp Sydney in 2019, and Perth was due to go ahead in 2020, but that obviously got canceled when COVID struck.

Devin:
Right, right. So, five years, I would say?

Wil:
Five years, yeah.

Devin:
The last WordCamp Sydney. So I bet everyone is so looking forward to it. And I am guessing also that everyone across Australia is joining forces to help you make it happen. Can you say something about it? How many organizers and where are they from?

Wil:
We’ve got 12 organizers, which is a huge team, but I wanted to get a lot of people involved from all over Australia. So I’ve got people from Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney. I think there’s somebody in Canberra. So, it’s basically all over the major cities, and that’s really nice. There are a lot of new people on the team. The idea is to train them up and just show them how a conference works, how it’s organized, so that they can then maybe go back to their own cities and think about putting on a WordCamp in their local city.

Devin:
That’s the way to go. So, is this your second, third, fourth, or fifth WordCamp Sydney as an organizer?

Wil:
2014, 2016, 2018, 2019… Yes, fifth one.

Devin:
Oh wow. You’re the master of WordCamp Sydney then, and it is about time for you to prepare the next generation, right?

Wil:
Right. Someone’s got to train them up.

Devin:
Exactly. Of course, you’re still around, and they would probably be happy to see you around and helping them out, but I think the younger generation is probably also excited to take up the leadership baton. Wow. And when is it going to happen?

Wil:
November the second and third, which is a Saturday and Sunday, and we are at the University of Technology, Sydney—or we call it UTS—at one of the buildings there. We’ve hosted previous WordCamps in that building, so we kind of know our way around. It was a safe bet rather than trying something new. It is more of a kind of rinse-and-repeat just so we can focus on the event and not on different things.

Devin:
Exactly. So you focus on the content, the organizing of the event, and it allows you also to ensure that all the organizing team understands what it takes to hold an event WordPress style. And so two days—let us know what’s going to happen in those two days. Are you going to have Contributor Day on the first day or the second day, or no Contributor Day at all?

Wil:
I don’t think we’re going to have a Contributor Day at all. I don’t think any of the WordCamps in Australia have done a Contributor Day, but one of the reasons we chose not to do it was because of the budget. Since it’s been five years since the last WordCamp, we weren’t too sure how many sponsors we’d get on board. So we just wanted to do the minimal that we could—the two days. If we do get extra sponsorship, then there’s nothing stopping us from hiring another day or another office somewhere and doing a Contributor Day. We can talk about that. Sponsorship’s looking pretty good just now, so yeah, it’s something we can consider and spin up if need be.

Devin:
Alright, so let’s talk about the schedule first. In those two days, what can people expect? Are there going to be full sessions, are there going to be discussions or workshops? And then later on, we’ll touch upon the sponsorship. So what can we expect from the two days of WordCamp?

Wil:
It’s going to be two tracks of talks. There may be a panel discussion on one day, but it’s generally going to be two tracks with people talking—slides and sessions. We did think about workshops, but that’s a level up. To do a workshop is quite demanding. You’ve got to have the people there, the resources, the technical equipment. So it’s a different technical challenge from just putting on a talk session. So it’s something the organizing team is thinking about—how could we implement that for the next WordCamp. We’ve had huge discussions about that, but probably not this time.

Devin:
Okay. And you mentioned two tracks. What are they? Is this the common tech and non-tech split?

Wil:
No, no, we’re going to mix it up. We started mixing up the tracks, I think, in 2018. We’ve tried in the past to do beginner and dev, or technical and non-technical, but it really depends on the speaker submissions that we get. So we don’t get hundreds—I think we got about 76 speaker submissions.

Devin:
That’s quite a lot! Wow, congratulations.

Wil:
Yeah, but a lot of them are very developer-focused.

Devin:
Okay, okay.

Wil:
So we’re just going to mix it up. We’ll have some dev talks in one room, some dev talks in another, some beginner stuff. So we’ve got people working on the schedule now, going through the speakers. That’s the point we’re at the moment—speaker applications are finished, and we’re reviewing, vetting, and creating the schedule, which should be out in a couple of weeks.

Devin:
Alright, so for now we can only expect talks, but who knows? There could be panels or workshops—it depends on the resources, sponsorship as well. And you’re vetting the applications at the moment—out of 70, are you going to reduce it by half or?

Wil:
There are about 30 slots available over the two days.

Devin:
Alright, that’s quite a lot! So many people are looking forward to it, yeah?

Wil:
Yeah, that’s good. You mentioned that most of the submissions are developer-focused. This was also one of the inputs that the community team received when we were experimenting with Next Gen events—where some folks were expecting to learn more about developer topics. So, globally, what do you think the expectation or the hope from the community in Australia or the neighboring countries is? What’s the interest at the moment? Do you consider those feedback where people want to hear about certain topics or get involved in certain discussions?

Wil:
Yeah, I did a survey for all the meetup groups—maybe two years ago or a year and a half ago. We did get a good development response from that, but we also got quite a large beginner and business response as well. That’s been reflected at the meetups, certainly at the Sydney one. We’re getting quite a few beginners, and we’re getting more business owners coming along.

Devin:
Oh, that’s good, yeah.

Wil:
We’ve got people saying, “We run a website; we want to know more, expand on that.” So it’s a mix of topics. We’ll definitely cater for beginners, we’ll definitely have some business talks in there, and we’ll try to pad out the development side—we’re okay for development.

Devin:
Good, good, good. And were these submissions coming from other tech community folks? Something related to WordPress? Did you find any in your submission?

Wil:
Yes, absolutely. So we’ve got Girls Who Code—I think we got a submission from them—the Linux Australia open-source community. We had some submissions from them as well. One of the people on the organizing team is a Drupal person, so his community was involved as well. We’re touching on a lot of different communities, a lot of different meetup groups across Australia to advertise. As we said, this is the first one back in five years.

Devin:
So everyone’s excited and wants to be part of it. If not, they just want to see people again, network with people. That sounds exciting—I’m also looking forward to being there. I just have to book my hotel and my flight. It’s two months to go, but I’m still thinking, “Oh, do I have to spend more just to hang out with folks?” It sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. Although I’ve been to Australia—I lived in Melbourne for two years, but I haven’t quite been to Sydney. I visited my

relatives in Sydney a bit. So yeah, looking forward to it.

So, let’s go back to sponsors. You mentioned that things are looking good. Are you still in need of more? Do you have a deadline, or are you open to receiving last-minute sponsorship? What’s the situation?

Wil:
We’ve got the big sponsor package levels, and they always take a lot longer because the bigger companies move a little bit slower. There are a lot more red tape and hoops to go through. So I think we’re okay on the big sponsorships—we’re really looking for more local sponsorships at the moment. So, around the silver, gold, and bronze levels, so we can get that local sponsorship as well, rather than just from all the big companies. We have 93.41% of our expected income from sponsorship at the moment. We can always use more—if we get more, we can open up more rooms, get more speakers, and do workshops or other types of sessions.

Devin:
Wow!

Wil:
Yeah, so we’re looking very good at the moment. Ticket sales are actually pretty good. We’ve got—just having a look—we’ve got 60, 65, 66 tickets sold so far, and that’s with no real push or advertising or speakers. The maximum attendee limit is 333—that’s the venue maximum, so we’re looking okay at the moment.

Devin:
Okay, well, you still have two months to go, and then you’re going to publish all the schedules, speakers probably. So all these sponsors—sponsors also drive people’s decisions. They want to check out the latest products or they just want to connect with their brands, or in fact, they want to give feedback on the product they’ve been using. This is a chance at WordCamp, the networking happens between companies and the customers as well.

Wil:
The networking side has always been huge at the WordCamps in Australia. There are people who will come just to sit out in the corridor and chat to people, and not listen to any sessions, which is fine by us.

Devin:
Yeah, how do you call that? Oh, I can’t remember. How do you call that?

Wil:
The water cooler?

Devin:
It’s the session that happens in the corridor. There’s a term for it, but I can’t think of it.

Wil:
Hallway track.

Devin:
Hallway track, there you go! Yes, the hallway track. That’s usually the most favorite one, especially for an event like yours. People have been waiting, and they are excited just to be there, I would say. If not, they are also interested in hearing the latest updates in the industry. Right. Alright. So, I also want to hear more about the community in Australia. Is there anything that we can learn from? How is everything in both Australia and the neighboring New Zealand and the Pacific? There are WordPress communities in these regions, but I think WordCamp Sydney has been the only WordCamp, at least after COVID, that has happened in that part of the world. What do you think about it? How can we support more communities around the region to be more excited to come up with—probably doesn’t have to be as big as WordCamp Sydney with 200-something people, but even 50 to 100 people—we’re so supportive of that as well.

Wil:
Yeah, no, that’s a great point. Obviously, with COVID, the whole community was fragmented and decimated. We lost meetup groups, so I worked with Automattic and WordPress Community Support to spin up those meetup groups again. So we’ve got meetups happening in some of the big cities, which is great. We’ve got Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth going again with new organizers—fresh talent, which is always great. More meetups are spinning up. We’re always encouraging people that if you want a meetup in your local area, we’re here to help. It’s not as scary as it first seems, and it doesn’t have to be an event with speakers or presenters. It can be in a library or a coffee shop, just chatting. So we’re really encouraging people to spin up local meetups and tailor the community for where it’s at. During COVID, we went online for a couple of years with the WordPress Sydney Meetup, and it worked very well. But maybe it worked a little too well, because it’s a long way to commute. If you’re outside the Sydney suburbs, it’s like an hour and a half to come into the city center for maybe an hour’s chat. The other cities are the same. So there are a lot of people who really liked the online sessions or being able to watch them at home and catch up. We’ve lost a lot of community members that way, but I’m trying to encourage people that the networking and social side are just as important as the topic or the talk. So I’m encouraging people to meet up and create more local meetups. We had three or four around Greater Sydney before COVID, and some were just a handful of people meeting up in a coffee shop. But that’s great! That’s what we want to encourage—more local meetups rather than always having big WordCamps. If we can build up the community at a local level, the WordCamps and everything else will just take care of themselves.

Devin:
Yeah, I agree. Right. And do you have anything planned for WordCamp Sydney where you gather all these meetup organizers, or you open up either a discussion or booths for those people who are interested in joining the local community? How do you use WordCamp Sydney as leverage to boost these local initiatives? Is there anything in the plan for that?

Wil:
In 2019, I had little sessions in—it was basically a hallway track. So we had little sessions, and one was Gravity Forms, one was maybe WooCommerce, and just a handful of people would sit down, and we’d chat about something. So I’d like to do something similar, but along the lines of community and specifically WordPress meetups. So if people are interested, they can come and sit down just for a chat, and I’ll have a skeleton overview of how you can boot up a local WordPress meetup, what types you can do, how to get funding—all that sort of stuff. So I plan to do a little bit of that, a little bit of an unconference, just sitting down with a group of people. But we’re also going to mention the meetup groups at the event as well, because there’ll be a lot of probably ex-meetup organizers there. So there’s a huge talent pool in that room, and a lot of veteran meetup and conference organizers there too. It’d be a bit silly not to engage them. We’ll definitely promote that side as well.

Devin:
That sounds terrific. And I know that the meetup group in Perth has been one of the most active. I was recently in touch with one of the members—I think they’re also speaking at the meetup. With their connection to some community in China, they helped a couple of groups join the official chapter program. So we have Shenzhen Meetup Group now, and there’s an application from Shanghai and others. So, that’s the power of connection. We’re talking about networking, and thanks to folks in Australia, we now have WordPress meetup groups in China. So even small events like a meetup can lead to big achievements as a global community. I’m looking forward to seeing what WordCamp Sydney will result in. Recently—actually yesterday—I saw this social post from the WordPress account, where Josepha Haden was talking about WordPress and education. In some parts of the world, mainly Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia, there are WordCamps or WordPress events that involve students—university students, kids, and the younger generation in general. Is there any direction that you’re introducing at WordCamp Sydney, whether through the session topics, the speakers, or any activities that would involve or allow kids to join and participate? If not, that’s totally fine, but if yes, or if there’s still an opportunity—given that there’s still sponsorship available to support your event—this could be something interesting for everyone.

Wil:
It’s definitely something we discussed, but we’re not going to do a kids track this year. Again, we’re just trying to keep it as simple as we can to test the model again, to see if it still works. So there’ll be no kids track, but certainly students. I’ve contacted some people that I know in TAFE to try and get that student side as well. Also, one of our sponsors is offering travel grants on an application basis. I think they’re offering 10 travel grants, particularly for people who can’t afford to get into the city, like students. That’s on the website homepage—you can have a look at that. But that’s to encourage people who would maybe like to come to WordCamp but can’t quite afford it or don’t have the finances. So, students would definitely fit into that category. We’re encouraging that. We’ve always had a strong student membership, because local colleges use WordPress a lot in their courses to spin up a website and do projects within WordPress. So we’ve always had that strong student connection, and we want to grow that again.

Devin:
That sounds good. There’s a lot of opportunities. It’s great that you have sponsors willing to offer travel grants for WordCamp Sydney. Okay. This is fantastic, and I hope that all the seats are taken by those who are really in need of the support and who will benefit from your event. This is fantastic. Alright, so where can we learn more about Word

Camp Sydney, other than the website? Are you on social media?

Wil:
Yes, we’re on social media. Let me just pull it up. The hashtag is #WCSyd. We’re on X (formerly Twitter) as WordCampSYD, and we’re on Facebook as well—same handle. We’re also on LinkedIn. If you just search for WordCamp Sydney, it’ll come up.

Devin:
Right. I’m actually scrolling down—usually where you see the social buttons, and I see Meetup is the first button, then Facebook, then X, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram. This is a set of social accounts for WordCamp Sydney—wow! Who’s the person, who’s the organizer behind this communication or marketing? Kudos to that person. This is awesome. And I see that you are collaborating with Linux Australia. This is, I think, a very unique setup. I don’t think this is evident in many parts of the world. There are some communities collaborating with local tech communities, but WordCamp Sydney, or WordPress in Australia, has been one of the experiences in this kind of collaboration. Is there anything you can share about this—when you started, how you started this collaboration, and how you maintain it? Of course, there would be probably some admin involved or hiccups in the collaboration—that’s the dynamic, right, of teamwork. I see this as teamwork and collaboration to keep the WordPress community alive in Australia.

Wil:
So we’ve got a memorandum of understanding between WordPress Community Support or WordCamp Central and Linux Australia. Linux Australia supports all the open-source communities in Australia. They’re huge and very helpful as well. They run our event insurance, and we run the bank accounts through Linux Australia too. This means we don’t have to deal with currency exchange rates, and the insurance here in Australia—to get a venue—you usually need $20 million in insurance coverage. WordCamp Central, I believe, can only do $10 million. So, Linux Australia covers us for event insurance. They’ve been fantastic supporters. As well as having our WordPress community in Australia, we’re also linked into the whole open-source community via Linux Australia. So we’re broadcasting out to all of Australia, not just to the WordPress niche. They’ve been absolutely fantastic. It does mean a little bit more admin—we have to form a subcommittee within Linux Australia, which needs a treasurer and a secretary at a minimum, and we then have to report monthly back to Linux Australia, just to show how progress is going. So we’re kind of serving two masters at once—we’ve got WordCamp Central, and we’ve got Linux Australia. But that’s not a bad thing, because it’s double accountability. We’ve got the WordCamp Central team looking at budgets, and we’ve got Linux Australia looking at budgets as well. So, it’s a little more admin, but it’s double accountability, which is great.

Devin:
I think you mentioned the community. Does it also support the meetup groups as well?

Wil:
Linux Australia offers grants. I was vice president of Linux Australia for a couple of years, and every year they offer grants. As of last year, they split it into software grants and community grants. So, if we do have local open-source meetups, WordPress meetups, they can help financially with venues, AV advice, and support. So, there’s huge support available to us through Linux Australia.

Devin:
That sounds good. And is this an initiative from Linux Australia to nurture the open-source community in Australia, supporting them? So it’s not that everyone needs to compete to get support or get recognized—they’re like a welcoming umbrella for other open-source communities and supporting whatever programs those communities have. Do you know if a similar initiative takes place in other countries, for example with the Linux Foundation, or if there are similar activities elsewhere? Because this could actually be a good entry point for other WordPress communities where the Linux Foundation or association in the city or country is strong, but they’ve never connected. But perhaps either the WordPress community or someone else could reach out and start that collaboration. Do you know anything?

Wil:
I don’t know of any other countries where the Linux group supports WordPress directly, but if anyone’s listening and they’re interested, I’m happy to have a chat with them and maybe funnel things through Linux Australia, and see if we can get in contact with other countries or groups. But yeah, the system works really well for us—it’s not a burden having two teams for accountability. They’re really helpful, and the resources are fantastic. It just works really, really well for us.

Devin:
Alright, well that sounds like a very good model to follow. If you have any resources you can share regarding this collaboration, I think that would be great to share in the Community Events channel or the Community Team’s channel, so that everyone else can look it up and see whether they can reach out to their own Linux Foundation or association in their country. Alright, anything that I missed about WordCamp Sydney that we have to talk about? I see this “Plan Your Pitch Online Workshop.” What is it? Is this a pre-event or a day-of-the-event workshop?

Wil:
That was held a couple of weeks ago. We extended the speaker applications for a couple of weeks—not because we didn’t have enough, but just to give people the chance to submit more sessions. We also contacted more diverse communities. That workshop was given by a couple of the organizers, and it was basically an info session to show people how to create a pitch for a speaker application—not just for WordCamp, but for any conference—to give them confidence on what to put in a speaker pitch and how to put together a proposal to send off to a conference. For a first-time speaker, that can be quite daunting—you might not know what to put in a speaker application to push yourself forward and get noticed. So, the event showed people what a speaker proposal is, what things you need to include, what’s going to get you noticed, and how to apply. It was well attended, and we’ll probably wrap it up as a general webinar and put it out as a resource for people to reference. For example, if there’s another WordCamp next year, they can point to that resource or run it themselves if they want to.

Devin:
So we’ll be able to see the recording later on the WordCamp Sydney website?

Wil:
Yep, we’ll get it up there.

Devin:
This is super helpful. Thank you so much. I see that Daniel and Jo Minney hosted the event. Okay, wow. Alright, so is there anything else we missed? Anything else you want to share about WordCamp Sydney, things we should look forward to?

Wil:
Oh look, at the end of the day, it’s a big networking event. Yes, there’s the bonus that you get to hear some tracks and people talk, but the main point is just to get people back together, back to networking, back to being social. It’s one of the cheapest tech conferences in Australia—WordCamp itself. Sometimes people see the ticket price and think, “Oh, it’s just 70 bucks,” but the amount of value you get out of that is outstanding. As well as the two tracks over the two days, we’ve got morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea included, and there’s a social event on the Saturday evening as well for people to attend. So, extra networking brownie points for people who want to do that. It’s a huge conference with a lot of networking opportunities. I’d really encourage people to think about that. Even if some of the speaker sessions don’t quite align with what you do, come down just for the networking. The networking is the big thing—it’s the social aspect. I’m a freelancer, I work on my own. This is my office—my bedroom—so I spend 90% of my time in here. But it’s good to get out to local meetups and chat with other people. It’s good to get out to conferences and network with other people. It’s all about that social and network connection. Some of my best friends I met through meetup groups.

Devin:
Alright, well I’m excited to meet you in person. We’ve been in touch since last year, since I think the BW reactivation in 2022, so that’s actually two years ago. And I look forward to Wapuus as well—you mentioned you still have a lot of Wapuus in Australia! So that’s something else I’m looking forward to, and meeting folks in Australia. Alright, I think it’s been a really great evening here, catching up with Wil and listening to what we can look forward to from WordCamp Sydney. There are still two months to go, but it’s the right time to start getting tickets, booking your hotel, booking your flight, and following all these social media accounts for WordCamp Sydney so that you don’t miss anything. It’s networking, right? The big thing for WordPress events.

Wil:
Networking is the big thing. So come and network your heart out. Looking forward to meeting everyone there. It’ll be good fun.

Devin:
Alright, well, thank you so much, Wil. Good to see you online, and I’ll see you in two months in person.

Wil:
See you in person in two months.

Devin:
Yeah, alright.

Wil:
Thank you, Devin.

In this episode, Devin chats with Wil Brown, a seasoned WordCamp organizer, about the return of WordCamp Sydney after a five-year hiatus.

Wil shares updates on the event’s organization, including the diverse team of organizers from across Australia, the challenges of planning in a post-COVID world, and the focus on rebuilding local WordPress communities.

They also discuss what attendees can expect from the two-day event, covering everything from speaker sessions and networking opportunities to the importance of community-driven initiatives and sponsorships that make the event possible.

Takeaways

WordCamp Sydney’s Return After 5 Years: The last WordCamp in Australia took place in 2019, and WordCamp Sydney is making a long-awaited comeback, with excitement building across Australia and New Zealand.

Organizing a Large Event: Wil leads a diverse team of 12 organizers from all over Australia, and the event is expected to draw a large crowd. The team’s goal is not only to deliver a successful event but to train future organizers who can take WordCamps to their own cities.

Focus on Networking: Beyond the speaker tracks, the primary focus of WordCamp Sydney is on networking. Many attendees come specifically for the opportunity to connect with others in the WordPress and broader tech community.

Two Days of Talks and Discussions: The event will have two tracks of talks, including a mix of technical and non-technical sessions. While workshops were considered, the team decided to focus on talks to streamline planning.

Sponsorships and Financial Support: Wil highlighted the role of sponsors in making the event accessible, with 93.41% of the expected sponsorship already secured. They are also offering travel grants to support students and others who may need financial help to attend.

Local Community Growth: Rebuilding local meetups post-COVID has been a priority, with efforts to encourage more local WordPress communities to form and grow. Wil emphasizes that smaller, informal meetups are just as valuable as larger events like WordCamp.

Collaboration with Linux Australia: WordCamp Sydney benefits from a strong collaboration with Linux Australia, which provides financial and logistical support, including event insurance and grants for local open-source meetups.

Encouraging First-Time Speakers: Wil and his team have hosted workshops to help first-time speakers craft and submit their talk proposals, fostering a more diverse speaker lineup and encouraging new voices in the community.

WPTavern: WooSesh 2024 Scheduled for October 29 and 30

Jyolsna — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 20:13:54 +0000

WooSesh, the virtual conference specifically designed for WooCommerce store builders, is scheduled for October 29-30, 2024, and promises an exciting experience. WooSesh 2024 will feature 33 speakers and 22 sessions packed with valuable insights, case studies, and tutorials on building customer-centric eCommerce experiences.

One of the best parts about WooSesh is that every presentation is recorded and published on WPSessions after the event. Whether you’re juggling multiple projects or living in a different time zone, you’ll have the flexibility to watch the sessions at your convenience.

Call for Speakers is Out

The Call for Speakers is open, and the last date to apply is September 21, 2024. Each speaker can submit up to two different presentation topics. This year’s theme is Customers First, and the organizing team is looking for case studies, tutorials, and demos that showcase innovative, customer-focused eCommerce experiences.

Speakers can pre-record their 20-25 minute sessions and share them with the organizers by October 23rd. Live Q&A will take place on Slack during and after each presentation, allowing speakers to interact with the audience in real-time.

For their contributions, each selected speaker will receive a $250 USD honorarium, a free ticket to WordSesh, and up to two coaching and review sessions to fine-tune their talk.

The organizers emphasized their commitment to diversity, “We are actively looking for a mix of voices – folks from different backgrounds, with different journeys and experiences, and who don’t look or sound alike. Everyone is encouraged to submit a talk proposal, especially people groups who don’t feel well-represented at tech conferences.”

The Seshies Awards

One of the highlights of WooSesh is the Seshies Awards, which celebrate the talent and innovation within the WooCommerce community. Nominations are now open for the six prestigious award categories:

Innovation Award
Store of the Year
Agency of the Year
Developer of the Year
Extension of the Year
Community Advocate of the Year

Anyone can nominate themselves or their favorite WooCommerce store or expert for the awards. For more information about the event, visit the official WooSesh website.

WPTavern: WordCamp US 2024 is Almost Here

Jyolsna — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 19:53:29 +0000

WordCamp US 2024, the flagship WordPress event in North America, will start in a few hours. WordPress enthusiasts from around the globe are making their way to Portland, Oregon, for this highly anticipated event, scheduled for September 17-20 at the Oregon Convention Center.

Headed to #WCUS along with half of the people in my timeline
— Josepha Haden Chomphosy (@JosephaHaden) September 16, 2024

This four-day event with around 45 engaging sessions kicks off with Contributor Day on the 17th, where attendees can collaborate on improving WordPress and giving back to the community. This year, WordCamp US introduces an exciting new addition—the Showcase Day.

Slated for September 18, Showcase Day highlights some of the most impressive websites powered by WordPress, including The New York Post, CNN Brazil, Disney Experiences, Harvard Gazette and Vox Media. Attendees will get a deeper understanding of how WordPress can scale for some of the world’s most notable brands.

The organizers have also added four Campfire sessions on Content Marketing, LGBTQ+ Community, ADHD and web hosting.

The full schedule is already live, and attendees can experience engaging talks on key topics like Gutenberg, AI, accessibility, open-source technology, web designing, WooCommerce, and WordPress Playground.

In addition to the talks, WordCamp US attendees can look forward to the highly anticipated WordPress Speed Build Battle, networking opportunities at Networking Blocks, and plenty of side events for further engagement and connection. Attendees can also visit the famously closed-to-the-public Nike Company Store in nearby Beaverton.

To wrap up the event, the WordCamp US Social will take place at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) on the 20th from 7:00 to 10:00 PM, giving attendees a chance to relax, network, and celebrate the week’s successes.

And, of course, WordCamp US wouldn’t be complete without the live Q&A session with Matt Mullenweg, which will take place on Friday, the 20th. Interestingly, this year’s event concludes on a Friday instead of the weekend.

For those unable to attend in person, all the presentations will be live-streamed on the WordPress YouTube channel. Later, it will also be available on WordPress.tv.

WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 86: My First WordPress Experience

Brett McSherry — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Join us this week as Josepha takes a personal journey down memory lane to her first encounters with WordPress. In this episode, she shares the story of her very first WordPress website, the excitement of getting involved with WordCamps, and how those early discoveries shaped her rewarding path in the WordPress community. Whether you’re a seasoned user or new to the platform, Josepha’s reflections will inspire you with insights from her earliest days in WordPress.

Credits

Host: Josepha Haden Chomphosy
Editor: Dustin Hartzler
Logo: Javier Arce
Production: Brett McSherry
Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod

Show Notes

Josepha’s Blog
WordPress Playground
Small List of Big Things
Have a question you’d like answered? Submit them to WPBriefing@WordPress.org.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Josepha: 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.

[00:00:28] (Music intro)

[00:00:39] Josepha: Folks, this week is WordCamp US, and over the past week or so, I spent a fair amount of time talking to people about that first-time experience. And as with any person who’s talking about their version of a shared experience, I started thinking back to mine.

I think my first experience of WordPress was not typical, though. I had never even heard of WordPress when I first went to a WordCamp. I think, I think most of the time people have heard of it before, but I was just there for the plot. So, like many people in my generation, all of us old people of the internet, I was first online with things like Angelfire and GeoCities.

[00:01:16] Josepha: When I went to college, I was keeping friends and family up to date on what I was up to with a little, like, newsletter? And then Xanga made it to our college campus, and eventually, so did Facebook. And I was one of those kids kind of like half-breaking sites with HTML and CSS I found online. I was changing layouts like every week to suit my mood.

Then, when I graduated and found myself in a city with more talent and more competition than I’d actually accounted for, and started to realize that this online stuff I’d been doing for fun might actually be something that I needed to use as a tool professionally. So, I first went out and reserved my screen name everywhere I could think of.

[00:02:01] Josepha: And we’re talking, like, LiveJournal, WordPress.com, Blogger, all the things, and eventually wound up building my first site on Weebly. And it was super ugly. I’m not able to design things. I have an okay sense for a design that is good, but like, left to my own devices, it’s gonna be what that was, which is like a tie dye background for some reason, and had everything organized into little, like, blocks, I guess? You know, like, old magazine layouts? And it technically had everything that I wanted, but it wasn’t necessarily the best version of any of those things either. I could write a little bit about myself and my services, I could add a few photos, there was a way to contact me, and I could do it all by myself.

And so it was a good place to start. Not long after that, though, I graduated into the need for a more professional-looking website, and it was beautiful. I received a website; someone built it for me. It was beautiful; it had this elegant design. Had a lot of custom functionality, but it was built using ColdFusion. I couldn’t do anything to it. I couldn’t change anything. All minor changes just had to kind of wait until there was enough to make sense to use that maintenance time, that maintenance retainer that I had. It really was just kind of formal. It was an isolated snapshot of all of the sorts of information that was required to be on the web at that time.

[00:03:28] Josepha: And then, later that year, I went to my first WordCamp, and I moved my site over to WordPress. And for the first time, I had that kind of mixture of professional expression that was on top of something that enabled my own expression. And honestly, I didn’t learn much more about the software for a few years. It was doing what I needed it to do, how I needed it to be done, and that’s really what mattered to me.

And when I skip a few years ahead after that, a few years later, when I was learning by organizing Meetups and WordCamps that had speakers that I wanted to hear from, that had topics that I felt like I needed to learn more about, what I remember most about that learning period for me is that I knew that I wasn’t the first person to run into any of my problems, which meant that a solution was probably already out there, and I could find someone to come and teach us about their solution.

[00:04:23] Josepha: And also, I knew that if we were running into a new problem and started breaking things left and right, there was always a way back. I was never really too far away from success. Like I felt like I might be lost, but I still was pretty much findable. And I guess I always want that for new users of the open web now, like new members of our WordPress community.

I want them to feel like the breaking of things is fine and safe and that no mistake is irretrievable. I want us to have some place where perfection isn’t the point. Now listen, I know the software is complex right now. The admin is a little mismatched, your first choices are huge choices, and there are a million places to start.

[00:05:03] Josepha: So, all I can say is, start with what you need, and once you’ve got that, like the back of your hand, move on to what you need next. And keep doing that, bravely and messily, until what you’ve got is all you ever wanted. I’m gonna leave for you, in the show notes, a link to something called WordPress Playground.

It’s gonna launch a little WordPress site in your browser. There will be no host. It’s just all in the browser itself. And it will have the latest bundled theme on it, Twenty Twenty-Four, and the latest version of WordPress. And that’s it. Go in there and click around on the left-hand menu. Start a post, change a page, modify the theme.

Just play around a while. See if it’s something that seems fun to you or valuable, or if it’s something that you can use as a time capsule for your kid because that sounds like a nice little mix of fun and work. And remember, sometimes perfection’s not the point.

[00:05:57] (Music interlude)

[00:06:04] Josepha: That brings us now to our small list of big things.

Folks, as I mentioned at the top, WordCamp US is happening this week. It is September 17th through 20th this year, quite a few more days. But that also means that we’ll have quite a bit more stuff to do. If you have your tickets and haven’t looked at all of the presentations occurring over the four-day event, remember to take a look at the schedule and pick out topics that are interesting. And remember, just because you picked it out before you went doesn’t mean that if you get in there and it doesn’t work for you. You can’t choose a different topic while you’re there. And as a bonus, if this is your first WordCamp that you’ve ever attended, I have you covered. You can check out my previous episode on all the things to remember for your first time attending a WordCamp. And we have a pretty active community as well. If you just have questions or want to get in there and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to a vegan restaurant for lunch; who wants to join me?’ You can do that, and you can definitely find somebody.

Also, there are some upcoming WordPress meetings. So, if you’re not attending WordCamp US but still want to connect with the community, there are a ton of team meetings that are happening. You can find those on make.WordPress.org/meetings, I think. So really, really easy URL to remember. You can join your fellow community members and contribute to the WordPress project there.

[00:07:18] Josepha: And I also wanted to just call your attention to a few really big projects that still need a little bit of help around the project. So, on the one hand, we have Data Liberation. That is still a really big project, but specifically, we are nearly ready to start working on some user-facing elements of that. It is being powered by Playground, and because the data liberation, the migration of one site to another, is so complex, once we get those elements built into Playground, I think it also stands to fix a bunch of the problems that we have across our user flow, our user experience for the project. Things like having better theme previews and being able to get a sense for what a plugin functionally will do for you versus what it says it’s going to do for you. And getting a sense for what the admin looks like, all of those things. And so, anyone who wants to learn more about contributing to Playground or to Data Liberation, I absolutely encourage you to go check out those meetings, see what’s happening, and get your hands a bit dirty with that.

[00:08:26] Josepha: We also have a bunch of stuff happening in our community space. If you had received this podcast from somebody because they were like, hey, I know someone who might like WordPress or who has just learned WordPress and has never been to an event or any other reason that you are listening to this but don’t yet know the community, there is an easier option than just jumping straight into a WordCamp like I did. You can go to a meetup. You can see there’s a widget in your dashboard that’ll tell you what your nearest event is, but if you put your location into that widget, and nothing comes up. Technically, that means that you have an opportunity to bring a bunch of people together to teach you stuff you wish you knew about your site right now. So you can wander over into your dashboard and see those, or you can also head over to the community area on make.WordPress.org and anybody over there is happy to help you get started. And let me tell you, it is a very low-effort sort of thing to do. Here again, perfection’s not the point. And so that, my friends, is your small list of big things.

[00:09:28] Josepha: Don’t forget to follow us on your favorite podcast app or subscribe directly on WordPress.org/news. You’ll get a friendly reminder whenever there is a new episode. If you liked what you heard today, share it with a fellow WordPresser. Or, if you had questions about what you heard, you can share those with me at WPBriefing@WordPress.org. I am your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks. Or tomorrow if we’re all going to WordCamp US.

[00:09:58] (Music outro)

HeroPress: WordCamp Nairobi, Call For Speakers

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0000

I noticed recently that WordCamp Nairobi is on the calendar for 1-2 November. Then I noticed their Camp slogan is “Beyond the Savannah: Connecting the Kenyan WordPress Community to the World”, and I thought “Yes! That’s so perfect for HeroPress!” So much so that it’s going to help drive the mission of HeroPress in the future.

At the moment we’re simply a Media Partner, so I’m here to tell you that the call for speakers is open! If you can attend you should apply to speak, we need as many voices as possible.

I recently met with Moses Cursor Ssebunya, Patrick Lumumba, and Emmanuel Lwanga, all organizers of the WordCamp. If you see them, say hi and shake their hand for me. It sounds like it’s going to be a great event.

Moses Cursor Ssebunya

Patrick Lumumba

Emmanuel Lwanga

The post WordCamp Nairobi, Call For Speakers appeared first on HeroPress.

Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog #107 – WordPress 6.6.2, Gutenberg 19.2, Data Views and Design Systems

Birgit Pauli-Haack — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 09:26:08 +0000

In this episode, Maggie Cabrera and Birgit Pauli-Haack discuss Developer Hours, Playground, WordPress 6.6.2, Gutenberg 19.2, Data Views and Design Systems

Show Notes / Transcript

Editor: Sandy Reed
Logo: Mark Uraine
Production: Birgit Pauli-Haack

Show Notes

Special Guest: Maggie Cabrera

Community themes on GitHub
Twenty-Twenty-Five Default Theme on GitHub
Block Themes by Automattic in WordPress Directory
Recap Hallway Hangout: Theme Building with Playground, Create-block-theme plugin, and GitHub

Announcements

Developer Hours

Developer Hours: A First Look at the Template Registration API in WordPress 6.7
Next Developer Hours: Sept 24 at 15:00 UTC Developer Hours: An Introduction to Data Views

Developer Blog

WordPress 6.7 & 6.6.2

Community Contributions

Gutenberg 19.2

What’s discussed or in the works

Stay in Touch

Did you like this episode? Please write us a review
Ping us on X (formerly known as Twitter) or send DMs with questions. @gutenbergtimes and @bph.
If you have questions or suggestions, or news you want us to include, send them to changelog@gutenbergtimes.com.
Please write us a review on iTunes! (Click here to learn how)

Transcript

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Hello, and welcome to our 107th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast. In today’s episode, we will talk about Developer Hours, we will talk about Playground, and we will talk about Gutenberg 19.2, as well as some DataViews and design systems. I’m your host, Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at the Gutenberg Times and a full-time core contributor for the WordPress Open Source project, sponsored by Automattic.

It’s again a special pleasure to have Maggie Cabrera with me. She’s a theme and core contributor and also sponsored by Automatic. And you work in the community also with the themes, or have been. You’re always a good supporter for theme developers, so welcome.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Thank you so much for taking the time today. How are you?

Maggie Cabrera: I’m good, thank you. Thanks for inviting me again. And yeah, I mainly work in core, but themes are very special for me, and very dear to my heart. So, whenever there’s an opportunity to help out with the community or anything, I’m there. Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. And I also see that there are quite a few themes coming from Automatic for the theme repository in all kinds of different shapes. So, I’m really happy that it inspires a lot of people to do very specific themes. Not this overall, everything looks the same block themes, but have some for WooCommerce, have some for a print, and have some for somebody who wants to do just public scripts, movie scripts, or something like that. It’s quite interesting what’s coming out like that.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah. We’ve been working on submitting a lot of themes that the designers have been working throughout the year, and I’ve been impressed when reviewing them technically, the amount of talent that the designers have and how much they can actually express while working in the editor. And I see how both the designers and the editor have matured over the years, and it’s so lovely to see what you could do three years ago and what you can do now. It’s just so amazing, I just love it.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: Can’t wait for the next 3, 4, 5 years.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, yeah, and it’s also the speed with going from idea and the overall design, and then, all of a sudden, it’s a theme that you can publish on the WordPress repository.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah. The designers don’t use Figma anymore, they just go jump on the site editor and they start the site editor, the edit in site editor, and then, with Playground, they generate a PR that we review for the technical stuff.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Uh-huh.

Maggie Cabrera: So, the themes make it through the theme directory guidelines, because there’s like, you need to add the license for the images and the assets and all that stuff. But, in general, most of the work is done in the editor and there’s barely any code that needs to be touched.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yes, it’s it.

Maggie Cabrera: It’s amazing to see that.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, yeah, it’s interesting. And Beatriz Fialho, she demonstrated that in a recent Hallway Hangout, how that connection works between the Create Block Theme plugin and then the Playground and then the GitHub PRs. Yeah, so, how these three tools actually work together, and that’s quite interesting, too, how streamlined the process is. Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: And it’s only getting better.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, yeah, getting better and better.

Announcements

Yeah, so, we have a few announcements, dear listeners, and well, I have a section here that says listener questions and we haven’t gotten any listener questions lately. So, if you have a question, just send them to Changelog@GutenbergTimes.com or ping me on the WordPress Slack or on Twitter if you have a question that you want the answer to, and we can answer them here at the podcast here.

Developer Hours

So, today I have a few announcements. The Developer Hours, a first look at a new API that will come with WordPress 6.7, and that is the Template Registration API for plugins.

Up until now, plugins had a really hard time getting templates into the block theme, the site editor, so they can be offered to the site owner or designers to use whatever comes in the plugin, also for the front end. And there was a developer ask last week about that and also a Developer Blog article about how to do this in various detail. Mind you, WordPress 6.7 hasn’t been out yet, but it was in Gutenberg 19.1, so that was the Developer Hours last week, or this week? This week, sorry, September 10th. Today is September 12th. I haven’t followed that example in the Developer Blog post yet completely, but I can see how that really makes it a difference when you, for instance, have a plugin with a custom post type as well as custom fields. You can also provide all that already in a template, both for the single post of your custom post type, as well as for the archive template. So, your plugin is pretty much ready to be used with any block theme, or also for classic themes, of course, if you want to do that.

And so, the next Developer Hour is on September 24th and, as always, on 1500 UTC, that’s 11:00 AM Eastern. It’s about the introduction to DataViews. And it’s not so much the introduction in what’s in the site editor now, but it’s more like how you can use the DataViews component as part of your own plugin for the settings page, or when you handle other data that’s coming in from a different source like from an API, say, on the internet. So, the Developer Hours will cover the fundamentals of DataViews component, how to add a React app to the WordPress admin page, and how to display a custom datasets using the DataView component. And, there will be a Q&A session, and there’s also already a post on the Developer Blog for the first part of it, like using DataViews to display and interact with data and plugins.

So, that’s September 24th, 1500 UTC. And I’ll share, of course, all the links in the show notes, not only the RSVP for the Developer Hour, but also the article for the Developer Blog. And I will also share the subscribe to the Developer Blog links, so we’ll never miss a post again. And also, I will share the link to the Developer Hours YouTube playlist, so you can go back and say, “Oh, which Developer Hours have I missed?” or, “Oh, there was a Developer Hour, I need to learn this.” So, it’s actually pretty cool to have those resources all available.

Speaking of Developer Blog, there’s the newest “What’s New For Developers” roundup post available since September 10th, and it has about 25 different changes for plugin developers as well as themes. Some of them about 6.6.2, other ones are coming from Gutenberg 19.0 or Gutenberg release 19.1 and they’re divided up between plugin and tools or theme developers. Some things are also good for both, but you’ll figure that out. But it’s just a rundown of developer relevant things that coming into WordPress before WordPress 6.7 comes out.

Well, that was a whole thing.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Thank you Maggie for being so patient. Any comments about things you want to do?

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, I was just looking at the What’s New For Developers and I think those are so useful to keep up with all the changes in Gutenberg and core because so much happens in so little time and it’s kind of hard to follow everything and be able to know what you can benefit from in your themes or in your plugins or whatever implementations that you’re making. So, yeah, it’s so good to have that all condensed and easy to follow.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Well, thank you. Yeah. Yeah, there’s a whole group of writers on the Developer Blog that are working on it and we are scouting all the things that come out of the teams being the releases or comments to core, but even then, we miss things. So, if you find something that we missed, don’t hesitate to let us know. We’ll just add it to it or bring it into the next one.

The Roundup post comes out always on the 10th of the month, so October 10th is the next one that will come out, and I think the designated writer, we are working on a team on this, but the designated writer will be Nick Diego, and he’s leaving right now for WordCamp US. But, yeah, he will be back and then start writing, but we are all contributing to that. We have a whole list of things where we just copy paste things from release or from track tickets and then we need to do some research and then have the little blurb there.

Roadmap 6.7

All right, well, speaking of 6.7, the roadmap 6.7 has been out and Anne has published it on September 3rd. That was pretty much a few days after Jessica Lyshek and I were wondering if there will be a roadmap post at all before Beta One, but there is, so we are going through it fast because it’s a long post anyway, so we might as go fast, but we also will cover it in the next episode after the next one. So, this is 107. We will cover it in 109 when we’re going to record it around October 10th, that’s when Beta Two was out for 6.7. Beta One is October 1st and then, October 8th will be Beta Two.

So, the roadmap, the first thing that comes up is of course the new default theme. Have you looked at it?

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: What they’re working on?

Maggie Cabrera: I’ve not been following it as much as I would’ve liked because I’ve been busy, but been looking at the design and a little bit at the repo and I am, as always, very impressed with the design work and how ambitious this thing looks like, even though I think Twenty Twenty Four was really ambitious, I think this one’s outdoing it because look at the amount of patterns there.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: There’s so many.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: I know for a fact how hard they are to build in such a short period of time to the standards that we expect the default team to have.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: It’s a great work being done there. So, for sure, if anyone’s listening is interested in theming, go and have a look at the repo and check the work being done there.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. So, how many patterns are there? I can’t even count them. Wow.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, that’s really a lot. Yeah, so we probably need to do a review of all the patterns at some point.

Maggie Cabrera: Oh yeah. I’m looking at the repo and I’m scrolling through all the ones that are mentioned. It’s long.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, and I like the…

Maggie Cabrera: I think it’s at least double what Twenty Twenty Four has, or close to that.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. Oh yeah, at least. Yeah. What I see is also the name of the patterns are quite revealing, so you know pretty much what’s going to be in there, but I like the vertical header. We haven’t talked about vertical headers yet.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: And so, really, really excited about about trying that out, and then, it has a poster section and I can read a few patterns for a photo blog and then portfolio and newsletter, sign up. That’s kind of standard, so I’m tempted to install it and make it… Put it up on one of my technical blogs and try it out and see what’s coming out of it.

Maggie Cabrera: If you give it a couple weeks, you will have an odd version that’s decent enough to start doing your thing because it doesn’t have any functionality in it. What you will be missing, it’s probably going to be minor stuff like translation on patterns and, yeah, maybe you will be missing some accessibility fixes and stuff like that, but you will have most of the design on that version.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Excellent, excellent. Yeah, so, well it’s going to be two weeks until I actually get to do some of that. Yeah. And then, what’s also going to be in 6.7 is definitely a refinement of the DataViews.

Maggie Cabrera: Mm-hmm.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: And some of them is the extensibility that you can extend or register and unregister some of the actions that are in there via plugins. I know that that’s already in there, because it was in Gutenberg and that’s going to be in 6.7 as well. Yeah, the grid layout in the DataViews to follow the aspect ratios and there are quite a few interesting developments there.

The next one is something that is definitely exciting, that’s the polishing of the query loop where there are additional features in there, like the offsets and all that. Putting it from the toolbar into the sidebar and all that. So, that is always good because some of the features actually confuse me and other people.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: So…

Maggie Cabrera: And if they confuse us who are quite used to interacting with it often enough, I can’t imagine for someone that encountered it for the first time. Yeah, I think that’s great.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, I like that too, yeah. We have been talking about this podcast about some of the Zoom Out experience and that the team has been working on it. We will see if it makes it at whole or just in parts, and it’s an experience where, when you select a pattern, for instance, that your canvas zooms out and shows you more of your page than the normal editor would show you so you can add the pattern easily and see it in relation to other things. I think that’s a great feature. I just don’t know how it’s defined, that there are sections and what if I want to edit, then I have a different mode. And so, it’s all a little bit, yeah, we need to figure that out, and as long as I’m confused…

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, I understand. We’re working on that and Zoom Out is already in core, it’s just that the way to access it is not as straightforward as anyone would think. Every time you go on global styles, you will trigger Zoom Out when you’re browsing the style book, I think it is. But the mode is there. The code is, it’s just, the thing is, how are we going to surface this to the users? That’s most of the main thing that we’re discussing is, how do we want the users to experience Zoom Out? So, depending on where we are when we’re closer to the release, we’ll figure out if it stays somewhat hidden.

So, right now, I think there’s a button that you can click in the preview. We’re iterating on that. I think, right now, it’s on the preview, but I think that’s going to move. It’s no longer in the patterns. I think we’ve moved out of that because we thought that you might want to not have it trigger if you have a theme that has patterns that are not full sections and you want to insert patterns inside patterns, which wasn’t really working with the Zoom Out view, but still, we also want to… We’re working on, there’s an open issue that we’re still iterating on and I think it’s going to move into an experiment, to add Zoom Out when you are creating a new page so that, instead of having this pop-up that shows you… Like, Twenty Twenty Four has four or five versions of a page. Instead of having that pop-up every time, you would actual go into pattern insertion mode and you would just build your page using the pattern. So, you have, or you can toggle that out and just write a new page with just text.

But yeah, we’re still… The mode is there and still needs polishing and all that, but mainly what we’re iterating is what we want the user experience to be. So, we cannot really predict what exactly is going to land, but some of it will.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, there’s some great testing going around and if you want to test that out, I’m sure we can just install the Gutenberg plugin 19.2 and then play around with it and see what works for you and what doesn’t. And, if you pay attention, sometimes it’s hard to narrow down why you all feel trapped or confused or something like that, but it’s hard to describe that. But if you can, that would be really helpful for the designers and the developers to figure out where…

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, feedback is more than welcome.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: Absolutely, yeah, and if someone has an idea in mind as to how they would think they could benefit from this. They are a plugin author and they think they could use this for something, idea that they have, then that’s more than welcome, too, because we think we know the blows people will want to go through, but we are probably not thinking what everyone else has in mind. So, yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: No, I understand. So, the 6.7 also will come with some media improvements. We talked about the HEIC images that are automatically converted to JPEGs. Then, auto size of lazy loading and some background attachments or fixed backgrounds that are on the block level as well, and, of course, need to be uploaded in the media library and all that kind of thing. Yeah, and then, the meta boxes in the iFrame post editor. There is a PR and Anne has shared the links to that, how meta box is going to be, because we talked about it here a bit that the post editor and the side editor become one.

Maggie Cabrera: Mm-hmm.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: But it’s a little bit tricky when the post editor has meta boxes on the bottom, then, it loads it not in the iFrame. The iFrame is the unified canvas or editor, but if it’s not in the iFrame, then some of the things are not working like they are in the editor. So, the interfaces are, all of a sudden, don’t match. So, they’re kind of trying to figure out that, and I think they found a good solution with two sections in the editor and the post editor where the block editor is on top, and underneath, they have an additional window there. It’s going to be interesting to see, but I think with the block bindings UI that’s coming in 19.2, some of it is offset because those are a better interface to connect with post meta data or other custom fields.

Yeah, what else is the design tools? Everybody… No, not everybody. Every block gets border controls now.

Maggie Cabrera: Yes.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: So, you can… Yeah, we ran through the list here quite often and those are all coming to the WordPress 6.7 and it also stabilizes some of the block supports because some of them, they were still in experimental status, especially topography supports features, and they will come out of experimental status, so more people can use them now in their own custom blocks or for block variations.

We talked about template registration API, that’s coming, and then, we will talk about the preview options and then updates to the interactivity API and the block bindings API. And another one is the HTML API. So, it’s a lot of… It’s definitely, again, with the last three of them, developer heavy, but there are great improvements for the interfaces and for the contact creators and the designers in the site editor. So, that is going to be WordPress 6.7 and we are going to dive into it in episode 109. That’s two episodes from now.

All right, back to our program here.

Maggie Cabrera: Mm-hmm.

What’s Released – WordPress 6.6.2

Birgit Pauli-Haack: First, what’s released? It was WordPress 6.6.2, and it had 26 fixes, 15 in core or in track, identified in track and 11 identified in the Gutenberg repo for the block editor, and some maintenance security release. But some of the fixes are bug fixes for things that were in 6.6 and dealt with the lower CSS specificity. That changed a few sites that looked a little bit different, and now, the bug fixes are in. There were quite a few in 6.6.1, and now 6.6.2, has caught up with the other ones. And then, there’s a bug fix for the derivative state in the interactivity API and, yeah, some are for the post editor rendering in the iFrame.

The release post has the whole list of things that’s in there and what’s new for developers. I’ve written a few sentences about the bug fixes that are relevant for our theme developers.

Gutenberg 19.2

That gets us to Gutenberg 19.2.

Maggie Cabrera: Mm-hmm.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: 193 PRs, 58 bug fixes, and 59 enhancements. 54 contributors contributed to them. Six of them are first-time contributors, so it’s always good to have first time contributors. I am so happy…

Maggie Cabrera: Oh, it’s… Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … they are identified and in the release post so you can scroll down and learn more about them.

Maggie Cabrera: Yep.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yep. So, do you want to lead us for the first one?

Enhancements

Maggie Cabrera: Move bulk actions menu to the filter and consolidate with floating tool and total items display?

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, that’s part of the database, and it is…

Birgit Pauli-Haack: I think the biggest problem with the data views is that they want that on that real estate on the screen… Do everything.

Maggie Cabrera: Mm-hmm.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: And now, it’s all very top-lastic and now I need to give it a little bit more space, so they moved the bulk actions to the footer, and it’s really interesting to see how that comes about when you do it in incremental, and somebody should do a video, how it’s going to work from.

Maggie Cabrera: It’s hard, right?

Birgit Pauli-Haack: The first few to the next one, that’s probably going to be fun.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Cool. Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: I think, in general, there’s also this constant concern in the editor in general. You want to give the users as many options as they can while keeping things simple. And then, do you want to hide things that are not something that you use all the time, but still users need to know they are there when they need them. So, it’s a constant… It’s a balancing act, to not overcrowd the UI while still giving the users a really powerful tool.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. Definitely. And, with the admin pages, it comes that there’s a 20-year history, what these listings on the admin pages can do, so that needs…

Maggie Cabrera: You need to be able to do everything.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. Yeah, and extend it.

Maggie Cabrera: Yep.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … I think that’s something that’s going to be in mind for 6.8 or 6.9, that, once the DataView component is… But it’s also one single component that’s really hard to do. Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah. That’s why it’s so important for people to start trying and adopting it early so they can influence the development early on, because, yeah, it needs to be very extendable. So, the best way to do it properly is giving feedback so that the core contributors actually have in mind the needs of plugin developers. So, yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: That’s very important.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, so, there is composite component that comes in, too, that had a few PRs in 19.2, but the bigger PR is going to be merged in 19.3 and it will come out in two weeks. So, you will find some of the references interesting because they say, “Don’t use the composite AI.” So, what is it?

So, there’s a new version. Sometimes, a component has run its course and needs to be refactored and one of those is the drop-down menu version 2.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah. Yeah, I’ve been looking at that. It looks so good.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. Sometimes you really need to learn from things, right?

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. I also have the feeling, especially in software development, when you do go new routes, that the first time you never get it really right, because it teaches you how it wants to be done, whatever you’re going to do. And then, the second time, you get it right and you learn from that and then you iterate.

Maggie Cabrera: You’re always iterating, right?

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, you cannot settle with the first version of the thing.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Correct. Yeah. I will share a link to the drop-down menu version 2 tracking issue on Gutenberg, so you see what’s all in the works and where the vision goes. And I will also share the Storybook. It’s not Storyboard, it’s Storybook, right?

Maggie Cabrera: Storybook, yeah. Yeah, it’s Storybook.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Storybook, yeah, yeah. I’m always getting Stylebook, Storyboard, Storybook…

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … totally confused.

Maggie Cabrera: Actually, it’s Storyboard, you are right, it is Storyboard. I’m thinking of Storybook because it’s…

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, so it’s…

Maggie Cabrera: Okay.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Is it confusing now?

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: Well, you provide a link so people will know.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. No matter what, just click on the link and then you get there, and I really have been discovering the storyboard. It’s been a while since I discovered it, but it was a component work. It’s so good to go there instead of reading the documentation.

Maggie Cabrera: Oh, yeah, I do it all…

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … in the block editor handbook.

Maggie Cabrera: I use it all the time. All the time. Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. So, why do you do that?

Maggie Cabrera: Well, when we’re developing and we need to touch a component or there’s a component that I’ve never worked with, sometimes, I just don’t even know what attributes are available to me and it’s so much easier to just checking the Storybook because it’s just more visual than actually going into the remi and all that stuff. I will eventually do that too, but it feels easier for me to… I’m more of a visual person, I guess.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. And me, too. Yeah, and seeing things in action and you can put in values in certain things and then see how the component behaves as a standalone component. You don’t see it acting in context and that’s sometimes really good because you can isolate how your interface is going to be. So, yeah, I really like that. Yeah, so, I’m going to share that in the show notes so you can look at that as well.

Maggie Cabrera: Okay.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. The next one is the block bindings UI. So, there is a pull request to only allow admin for now, admin users to create and modify bindings by default. There is a discussion going on the track ticket to get it into core about, is it really necessary to go for the admin role or shouldn’t we go for capabilities? And when capabilities, which one is it? Is it just edit post or is it edit meta or…

Maggie Cabrera: Oh, yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: It’s quite an interesting discussion because, all of a sudden, you get a bigger picture of what all needs to be happening to make this a good feature.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah. And it feels like, if you’re trying to match what Carl was doing, the classic editor, sometimes it doesn’t really work. So, you have to rethink it in the context of the site editor these days. What do the users today need now, not what was implemented 10 years ago?

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Right, totally. And the other good news is, about the block bindings UI, it’s coming out of experiments. So, if you install the Gutenberg plugin, you will be able to see it right away. You don’t have to enable an experiment for that now and can interact and try it out and test it before it comes into 6.7.

It gives you a way to see all the block bindings for a block or for a section, and which fields are attributed. What it does not do yet is register the custom fields. You still need a developer to do that. That is not yet in the editor, and that’s the missing piece where I say, okay, block binding is all nice, but I still need to have a different plugin to register my custom post types… Yeah, custom post types, and with that, also the custom fields, but it’s one step at a time. Yeah. That’s the…

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Rome wasn’t built in one day either.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: So there was something in the site editor that has been removed now. That’s the shuffle button from the block toolbar that we want…

Maggie Cabrera: That button was added… Well, I might be wrong here. I think we want the shuffle button to be available mainly when we are on Zoom Out mode.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: Because you don’t want the users to be shuffling by mistake a block, a pattern that they have already changed because they’re just editing their site. But when they’re still composing the template, they still have not decided if the pattern that they have inserted is the one that they want. We still want them to have the ability to shuffle through other patterns in the same category.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. It’s a quick browse through the patterns that we have per category. So, now it’s also to be limited to a category.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: So, you want to see which one of the call to action patterns are fitting nicely to that, so you don’t have to click and edit. You can just shuffle it and see how it flows. But yeah, it’s interesting how a confusion can happen when you’re actually editing, editing things. So, yeah, and that’s something to learn only from usage here.

The next one is… It’s a tiny change, however, you probably are going to look for it when you want to…

Maggie Cabrera: Oh, yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … extend your media from the cover block. It moved from the inspector controls or from the sidebar to the block toolbar into the block setting and in the… Yeah, so, you can do it from the block toolbar. You can clear the media and you don’t have to open up the sidebar and go there.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: But if you are accustomed to having it in a sidebar and clicking there, you can now say, “Where is it?” It’s in the toolbar. Yeah, sometimes, those changes kind of can frustrate-

Maggie Cabrera: It’s aligning it with other blocks, like the site logo, the feature image. They have it on the same place where it now is for the code blocks. So, now, it’s more consistent with all the blocks that behave the same way.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Oh, yeah, good point. Yeah. And we love consistency, right?

Maggie Cabrera: Yes. Yeah, because with having so many contributors, it’s very easy to not think about those tiny things. So, it’s really nice when someone picks one up and it’s like, “Oh, this doesn’t feel right,” and then you notice that it’s inconsistent with other blocks and then you just bring them all in line. It’s very satisfying, I think.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, yeah. And it actually removes confusion, and I think it’s a good time to do that now in that place where the editor is, to go through the design. And I know that we’re going to talk about it in our, later on after we get through the change here, about the design system and what’s going to happen there.

So, the next one, maybe you can help me out with that. The content only is… So, it says, “Content only, add support for block styles on top level content only lock blocks.”

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah. I think… I’m not so sure about the top level part. I think it means, when you have a pattern that is content-only and it has a group lock that is surrounding it, sometimes you will have block style variations that affect a group on whatever is inside. So, we’re enabling those style variations in content only. So, you can still change the styles in Cascade because the block styles in your JSON file will affect the group log and whatever’s inside. I want my group block to this background, but I want all the paragraphs inside this group block to have this other color. And you will not be able on content only to change the color of the paragraph, but because you will be able to change the block style, that Cascade still works.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Oh, okay. Yeah. Now I get it. Yeah. Excellent. Yeah, that’s a very good feature.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Wonderful. And then, we have two things that are already also on the Zoom Out mode. There’s an edit button on the Zoom Out mode toolbar, meaning that you can switch to an edit. Zoom Out means you’re just looking, yeah, but then, you also want… If you see something and then you want to edit it, then you need the edit button. Yeah?

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: And that’s how…

Maggie Cabrera: I think both of those PRs are adding two different ways to exit Zoom Out mode.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Mm-hmm.

Maggie Cabrera: Because we’re still thinking about how you enter it and how you leave it. So, that’s it. If you feel like you want more granular control over the blocks inside the sections, like we were talking about, content only is very similar, then you would want to be able to exit. So, these are two ways, yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: And the second one is, you double click on a block and then you exit Zoom Out mode and hopefully that block is then selected.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: And so, that’s a good thing. And then, so, the Zoom Out mode is definitely something to explore quite a bit because it changes how you might think about site building and the order of things.

So, the next two items are part of the design tool block border, block support everywhere. Now, comment edit link and the comment reply link also get border support. So we have it everywhere now.

Maggie Cabrera: Yes.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: There might still be a few missing. I’m going to take a look for 6.7 on all the design tools because I have… For 6.6, I did the roster of the design tools and there were some empty spaces in there. Now, I’m going to fill up those empty spaces on the border controls.

Maggie Cabrera: Yes.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: The next one is the post publish upload media dialogue is now also handling the upload errors. So, the post publish upload media dialogue, that’s the dialogue that comes when you hit publish once, and then you get a suggestion that you have images that are referencing a third outside your site. So, might be Google or might be a different website.

Maggie Cabrera: It could also be the theme. It could also be the theme, because the theme adds… On the templates, it adds the URL and it points to your asset folder on the themes, but the images are not on your uploads folder.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Oh, yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: And that’s the difference. So, those are lost if you change themes, but if you click that button, those get moved into your uploads folder. So, it’s in your media and your site.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Oh, I didn’t know about that, but that’s cool.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah. I think that’s the reason why this is there.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Well, actually, I had early on with Ella, a dialogue that images coming from Google should automatically be uploaded. Yeah, yeah, and there were no block themes around when we had that discussion, so that was, what, five years ago?

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, yeah. For sure.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. And it started out with a button on the toolbar of the image block where you can say upload image to media library. But then, it was also…

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … “Okay, if I had 15 in my post, yeah, I don’t want to do it one at a time. Give me a feature where I can do 10 at a time.” And that was in the publishing section where it says, “Hold, you have images that are pointing someplace else,” but you were able to click on them, but the errors wouldn’t bubble up. Yeah, so, and that has now been solved with this one. So, now you get the error messages when it doesn’t work. Before it just didn’t do anything. Yeah? You were clicking and clicking and you didn’t know why it wouldn’t work. So, the typography changes comment is that, now, you can individually override the presets through the interface, I would think.

Maggie Cabrera: No, I think it’s theme JSON.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Oh, it was theme JSON.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, I think it is. There’s an example on the PR. You click, “Here is some test.” Theme JSON.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: There is a little arrow and you see how you can set fluid to through on a specific-

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Oh, right.

Maggie Cabrera: … for the whole site.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Per the preset for fluid. Yes. Yeah. So, you can have a preset one that is fluid and the other one is not.

Maggie Cabrera: The global setting can be set to false, and that can be overridden by one specific concept.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Oh, okay. Well, thank you for making that clear. And the next one is, there is now an experiment for client-side media processing in Gutenberg. That is by Pascal Birchler. He actually has his own plugin where he experiments with all kinds of different media processing, and this one is coming as an experiment to Gutenberg. So, I’m really looking forward to that. It’s for client side media processing, so you don’t need the server involved in it.

Maggie Cabrera: Oh, yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: It’s all in a browser. It’s all in the browser.

Maggie Cabrera: Nice.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: It’s all in the browser. And then, the last one from the enhancements is the details block gets now a transform from any block type. From a paragraph, you can make a details block. You can… From a list block, you can make a details block. And so, it’s really cool. It’s a small quality of life change that changes a lot.

New API

And now, we come to the extensibility section and there is a new API for the preview options. So, there is, on the right-hand side, on the top, you have the preview and to do either mobile or desktop or preview in a new tab. That’s what’s there, and I think now, with this release or with this Gutenberg release or the one prior, there’s also the 50% one that is your zoomed out one, right, for the desktop.

Maggie Cabrera: That might go away.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, yeah, it might go away. It’s a zoomed out, might go away thing. Yeah. But, right now, it’s they have with the menu.

Maggie Cabrera: No, I mean, it might go away because it will be moved somewhere else.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yes.

Maggie Cabrera: Not because it will go away fully.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: It won’t totally go away, but…

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … it might be its own button. Yeah. But what this PR enables is that plugin developers can have separate preview options and register them with the Gutenberg so people can look at things in a different way.

Maggie Cabrera: Mm-hmm.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: So, one of the examples is that if you build your new newsletter with the block editor, you don’t want the preview to look how it’s on the website, but you want to how to look in an email.

Maggie Cabrera: That’s great.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … that’s where this example is for. But there are other examples that I right now can’t come up with, but because that’s my lack of imagination right now. But if I think about it some more, I’ll find some that were… If you have an idea, what else could be in the preview?

Maggie Cabrera: I don’t know, maybe you could do a preview of dark mode, for example.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Excellent.

Maggie Cabrera: I don’t know.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Excellent. Yeah. Or a preview of the screen for your TV because it’s a special site…

Maggie Cabrera: Oh, yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … that it’s only for the TV, but you want to see it because it’s a whole different…

Maggie Cabrera: Or a tablet.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … aspect ratio.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah. Maybe you want the landscape tablet from your preview…

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Right.

Maggie Cabrera: … because your website is going to be used by… Yeah, it could be anything.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. So, I think we have a little conversation here. We come up with a lot of examples, and plugin developers, these are your opportunities. I’m going through the other 100 ones, red line items, and I stopped by CSS and styling. And these are the two PRs that made it into 6.6.2 as bug fixes. One was the featured image block, getting the CSS specificity reduced.

Maggie Cabrera: Mm.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: And now is behaving nicely again with the sites. And then, the other one was the retain same specificity for non iFrame selectors. That was the piece that, if the editor wasn’t loaded into the iFrame…

Maggie Cabrera: Oh, I see.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … some of the theme JSON things, spacing rules were overwritten by the editor. So, you wouldn’t have the same look from the editor like you have on the front page.

The front page wasn’t affected by that, but it was just the editor thing. Yeah. We are also accustomed that the front page looks like the editor or the editor looks like the front page, that we notice those changes and are, “Do we have to fix something?”

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah. I must say that the work that’s been done with the CSS specificity has been amazing. I think it’s a really, really hard change that landed on 6.6 that, of course, add some consequences that are now being patched, but it’s still, I see the work being done to not break people’s sites and fix them when, inevitably, sometimes we do. And it’s a very big change that it’s very useful and the people really need it, but it’s still complicated and complex and they’ve been painstakingly making sure we’re not really breaking people’s site, even if it’s just by patching 6.6.2.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, the unification of CSS specificity was very important to make the style variations work, the extended block style variations, and to have a standard way of doing things. Yeah, well…

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … what you said before, yeah, there were so many contributors and now, eight years of development, some people have different CSS or early blocks had a different CSS behavior than later blocks and, yeah, everybody learned from things and now we’re back and fixing it.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, and that’s more consistent for themers. They know what to expect from core blocks. Other CSS is going to behave. They know that it’s going to be consistent. So, yeah, in the long run, it’s going to be great, even though now it’s a little bit of a bumpy road. But yeah, keep reporting the bugs so we can fix them.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, definitely. So, on that, we are pretty much almost through the changelog for the 19.2. One thing is that, if you are a plugin developer or developer who wants to explore the DataViews component, the documentation has been updated quite a bit and edit stories for combined fields and layout properties, and that also, you can explore all that for the data use component that is in this release.

All right, anything else that you…

Maggie Cabrera: No, I think we covered a lot.

What’s in Active Development or Discussed

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, we covered a lot. Yeah, yeah. But we are now arrived at the section, what’s in active development or what’s discussed? And I wanted to point out to a design blog post, not that because it was mine, but because it was very important to have it and a DataViews series on the design blog about what are the features that coming that the design team is working on? And there’s just an update number one, and there will be many, many to come on the Design Team Blog. That’s make.wordpress.org/design. More and more posts will come out and it also is an iteration of the design shares, and Joen Asmussen does every two weeks putting the whole work of the design team on display and what are they working on with the GitHub or track tickets where the discussion is happening.

Design Systems

And, speaking of Joen, he just published a very visionary post about advancing the WordPress design system, and that covers that with all the new development, and in the editor, there’s also coming… What they also built is actually a design system with the components that can be used by plugin developers as well as the site editor or Gutenberg, as well as outside of the WordPress system. So, it’s the design system out of the atomic blocks building coming from components and then sub-components and building larger components. And then, you can build the interfaces from that. And everything is also done in the Figma repository that is open and public for WordPress. And then, the Storybook that we mentioned before. So, these are the three pillars of the WordPress design system. And, if you haven’t noticed that, reading that particular article will help and bring it all together and contributors will work on it, but this is where the framework of the design system to bring it all together.

The next step is actually what we talked about as well is to focus on the specific updates on the Figma libraries and the Storybook site to set clear and actionable goals for the design system and also go through the current system and look for inconsistencies so they can be fixed. And then, also to elevate and connect the three pieces to a unified system.

There will be bi-weekly updates on the progress in Figma. You can have your comments on the draft. And, of course, in GitHub that’s a known place where you can leave your comments and your work if you wanted to. So, a good example of a Storybook design system references the design system from the auto manufacturer, Audi, how they deal with that for the website development. What’s your thoughts about that?

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, I just love these kinds of posts. I love all the design work on it. I love the attention to detail. I love the consistency of that. I think it’s fantastic. If you go into the Figma file that Joen links, you see that attention to detail. You see all of those components. That’s how we keep everything consistent, when you’re implementing something new and you’re using a component and something like, this is not looking good.

I think we were seeing on the PR that we talked about where we’re adding the extensibility on the preview dropdown. If you’re looking at that PR, there’s comments saying, “Oh, it looks like, when you’re adding a new item, there’s a left padding or left margin that it’s in misalign with the rest of the things.” And you start picking those up and seeing, “Oh, there’s this back here.” And again, you go back and keep things consistent. So, it becomes easier and easier for new developers to come use a component and just basically use them out of the box and everything looks exactly right.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Mm-hmm.

Maggie Cabrera: So, yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: I think that’s pretty important.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: It also speeds up development because there are…

Maggie Cabrera: Mm-hmm.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: … certain discussions or decisions that were already made and you just need to pick them up and move with your idea forward, but you don’t have to build any… I mean, you still have to use them and know how to use them, but you don’t have to think about interfaces anymore, you’re just going to need to know-

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, or accessibility.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Or accessibility.

Maggie Cabrera: That’s already thought of.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Exactly, yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: There’s so much work in these.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: That’s actually a…

Maggie Cabrera: There is so much discussion.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: It’s a big point of this as well. It’s kind of that. So, we have the three pillars, that’s the components, the Figma library, and the Storybook, but it’s also design, development, and accessibility that brings it all together. There are a few words in that article that I think I don’t understand. I need to talk with Joen about it, but when he uses the word “Pattern,” I don’t think he thinks WordPress patterns. It’s more design patterns. That’s a different pattern.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, I think so.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, and he talks about design tokens. I don’t know exactly what that means. Yeah, so, it’s a little bit heavy on the technical terms.

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, the design lingo. Yeah, I cannot help you there.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: You’re a developer, right?

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah. No, it’s not just that. I really enjoy working closely with design on designers. I think it’s one of my favorite things. I think there’s also a bit of the foreign language.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: I don’t know if it’s for you, too.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: I think there’s a little bit of that because when language gets a little bit more, I don’t know, more technical or more specific…

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: … if you’re not fully into that, we’re used to it as in the developer lingo, right?

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah, yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: Because we do know what the difference is between, I don’t know, yeah. But, for designers, it’s even harder, and if you are not speaking the language, then it’s an extra…

Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah.

Maggie Cabrera: An extra hard skill.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: It has some things in there, like, what is a sticker sheet?

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: I think we can clear that all up by asking, commenting on the post and figure that out. Yeah. So… But it’s a very interesting post. I learned a lot from it, and it also seems to have quite a few comments there that are worth reading. So, I will share a link to it in the show notes and also the link to the DataViews update that just has a visual representation of a new feature that comes to the DataViews. So, it’s all in one place.

All right, that was it. So, Maggie, if somebody wanted to get a hold of you, where would that be?

Maggie Cabrera: Yeah, I’m on Slack. My Slack, I’m… Let me check, because I’m not sure what my username is. I think I’m OneMaggie. Yeah, OneMaggie, and on Twitter, it’s One_Maggie.

Birgit Pauli-Haack: All right. Okay, and I’ll share those links also in the show notes.

So, this is it. As always, the show notes will be published on the Gutenbergtimes.com/podcast. This is number 107, and if you have any questions, suggestions, or news you want us to include, send them to Changelog@Gutenbergtimes.com. That’s Changelog@Gutenbergtimes.com.

Thank you so much for listening, and I welcome all the new listeners that I’ve seen that joined us in the last month. And, if you are on Shopify listening to this, please leave a comment or review or, on iTunes, review or on Pocket Cast or on your favorite podcast app because it helps with other people discovering this. Especially if it’s useful for you, it might be useful for others.

Thank you so much for listening and I’ll talk to you in two weeks. Thank you, Maggie.

Maggie Cabrera: Thank you for having me. Bye.

WPTavern: Five for the Future Site Relaunched with a Block-Based Design

Jyolsna — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 18:23:08 +0000

After revamping the WordPress.org homepage, Theme Directory, Plugin Directory, Pattern Directory, and HelpHub, the Meta team has now updated the Five for the Future site. Members of the Meta, Design, and Community teams collaborated to redesign and launch the site in time for WordCamp US 2024.

A Fresh New Look

Developer Relations Advocate Nick Diego shared, “ This visual update is part of an ongoing effort to create a consistent design language across WordPress.org… This change marks the beginning of modernizing Five for the Future.”

New Home page

The update features a block-based child theme built on top of the shared WordPress.org parent theme, streamlining aesthetics and simplifying future updates. Key changes include:

All content has been converted to blocks, making it easier to manage and update.
The layout, typography, and color scheme have been standardized to align with the broader WordPress.org ecosystem.
A new contributor testimonials section featured both on the homepage and as a dedicated page, showcases the experiences and contributions of community members
An updated pledges directory lists organizations committed to contributing to the Five for the Future initiative.

What’s Next?

Future plans include adding new features and content, such as case studies and more testimonials from participating organizations. A Five for the Future blog and newsletter are also in the pipeline.

Nick Diego added, “Forthcoming updates will aim to improve organization profiles by listing activity, automating emails, enhancing onboarding, and adding options for sponsored contributors. The goal is to showcase the strength and impact of Five for the Future with a refreshed, feature-rich website.”

You can suggest improvements or report issues with the new theme by opening a ticket on GitHub. For updates on upcoming WordPress.org changes, join the #website-redesign Slack channel.

Gutenberg Times: #WCUS, Gutenberg 19.2, Plugin + Data, Playground Guides — Weekend Edition #304

Birgit Pauli-Haack — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 09:39:39 +0000

Hi there,

WordCamp US is upon us, even for those of us not going: We can watch talks on the livestream, depending on the timezones. We can shut down our social networks to avoid FOMO (Fear of missing out). We can enjoy the calm on other platforms, and start testing a few things coming to WordPress 6.7, or we can catch up on Learn.WordPress interactive learning paths.

On a different note, I have been diving more into AI Essentials, prompt design and the testing of various tools. It’s such a brave new world. I had excellent results in making some of my work easier by using an AI tool: a draft outline of a presentation in a second language (Claude) , getting a tailored list of sightseeing activities in a new city (Perplexity) , or correcting code examples to WordPress Coding Standards (ChatGPT), are only three examples of well executed AI assistance. I also took a glimpse at Google’s AI Studio, that allows you to build apps or integrations that tap into Google Gemini AI. All very fascinating, I found.

My latest go-to AI tool replaces Google search for me. Google gives me short snippets and the links, I still have to weed through and spend some time finding the right information. Perplexity provides the answer with details and sources. No further trip around the Internet necessary.

What is your day-to-day experience with AI? What did you test lately? Please let me know in the comments or hit reply on the email.

And now back to regular programming….

Have a lovely weekend, and if you are traveling to Portland, Oregon, have a safe trip.

Yours, 💕
Birgit

Table of Contents

Developing Gutenberg and WordPress

This year, the State of the Word will take place on December 16, 2024, at 09:00 UTC and will be live-streamed from Tokyo, Japan. Matt Mullenweg will provide a retrospective of 2024, demos the latest in WordPress tech, and comments on the future of the WordPress open-source project.

This week, the design team published the landing page for the event, where you can request an in-person ticket for the Tokyo Node Hall. Soon you can find a list of local watch parties. I saved the date in my calendar to watch the live stream from my living room, a week before Christmas.

Lauren Stein invites you to Tour the New Learn WordPress site. In her post she offers a 2- min YouTube video and student testimonials about the new site and the ever-growing learning path courses and tutorials.

Joen Asmussen posted his Design Share #63 (Aug 26-Sep 6) to update us all on the wonderful work the WordPress design team produces. He highlighted:

Image Block: Surface autocomplete width options
WP.org 2fa improvements
Twenty Twenty-Five Patterns
Style Book in Classic/Hybrid Themes
Five for the Future refresh
Lesson learning flows

In this month’s edition of the What’s new for developers? (September 2024) on the WordPress Developer Blog, I highlighted for several key updates in WordPress Core, Gutenberg, and Playground. You’ll also find details on upcoming developer-focused events and resources.

Subscribe to the Developer Blog, and you’ll never miss a post again.

Upcoming Events

September 19, 13:00 UTC: WordPress Playground Block code editor theme support with Jonathan Bossenger.

September 24, 15:00 UTC Developer Hours: An Introduction to Data Views with JuanMa Garrido, André Maneiro and Nick Diego

As a reminder, JuanMa Garrido published recently Using Data Views to display and interact with data in plugins on the WordPress Developer Blog.

WordPress 6.6.2

The maintenance and security release of WordPress 6.6.2 came out on Tuesday of this week.

Jyolsna JE has the skinny for you in WordPress 6.6.2 Released with 26 Bug Fixes on the WPTavern.

Gutenberg 19.2

The latest version of the Gutenberg plugin was released on September 11, 2024. 193 PRs, 58 bug fixes, 59 Enhancements by 54 contributors, 6 of them first time contributors. Release lead, Vicente Canales, highlighted in his release post What is new in Gutenberg 19.2 (11 September)

Jyolsna JE also covered the release for the WPTavern in Gutenberg 19.2 Released with Enhancements and Bug Fixes.”One of the most significant updates in Gutenberg 19.2 is removing the experimental flag from the Block Bindings UI. This feature, now fully integrated into the editor, allows users to link block attributes with external data sources seamlessly. ” she wrote.

This week we also recorded an episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast (107), My special guest, Maggie Cabrera and I enjoyed chatting about WordPress 6.6.2, Roadmap 6.7, the next default theme, Design systems and Gutenberg 19.2. The episode will drop into your favorite podcast app on Sunday. If you enjoy listening to the podcast, please write us a review on any of the podcast directories (Spotify, PocketCasts, Apple etc.)

🎙️ Latest episode: Gutenberg Changelog #107 – WordPress 6.6.2, Gutenberg 19.2, Data Views and Design Systems with special guest Maggie Cabrera

WordCamp US Showcase talks

It’s more and more difficult to glen from session description how relevant certain talks will be for Gutenberg enthusiasts. It’s become so mainstream that most talks about WordPress will include block related content. The full WordCamp US schedule (in PDT) is available on their site. There are way over 50 talks scheduled for this year’s WordCamp US and the time difference is nine hours for me.

If you wish to put your own list together, you’ll find the respective livestream links for the three days and four rooms on the official WordPress YouTube Channel > Live.

The many hours of livestream out of each room will be online for a couple of weeks, until the AV team manages to separate each talk into individual videos. The video of Matt’s Q & A will probably online within the hour and available the next day. Many talks will be past my bedtime. I will wait for the individual videos to show up and catch up in the following weeks.

Birgit Personal Watch List (as per 9/14)

With below list, I leaned into my self-centered personality and publish my personal watch list. haha. The times are in UTC. This is not a list of all the talks I want to watch. These are the talks I might be able to watch on the live stream. The links under “Room” point directly to the YouTube Live stream for this room on the particular day.

Date	Time UTC	Talk title	Room
9/18	16:15 UTC	Disney Experiences’ Magical Transformation with Gutenberg	Rose City
9/18	17:30 UTC	Unlocking Disney’s Digital Evolution: Navigating the Gutenberg Era	Stumptown
9/18	18:30 UTC	How WordPress Powers The New York Post	Stumptown
9/20	16:00 UTC	How TIME Uses Patterns to Drive Recirculation and Engagement	Mt. Hood

Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners

Bud Kraus has good news for you! In his post for GoDaddy Pro, A primer on WordPress block markup for the non-programmer, he wrote: “Understanding the fundamentals of any WordPress block is not as difficult as mastering PHP as you would have back in the pre-Gutenberg era.” Following along you’ll learn about the various concepts of the modern WordPress theme, template and patterns, and of course, blocks. Then he continues to give you a glimpse under the hood and shows you some block markup code and teaches you what attributes are.

It feels similar to when my dad showed me how to exchange spark plugs on my car or start my car with a jumper cables or replace a tire. I never aimed to be a car mechanic, but having a bit of knowledge can save you when you get stranded in a foreign place with no cell phone reception. Although you are not a programmer, knowing a bit about the underlying code base, can go a long way.

Kathryn Presner and Helena Artmann recorded their online workshop on Exploring the Query Loop block. “The Query Loop block might sound bland, but it’s actually the driving force behind the layout of modern WordPress blogs. Dive into this critical block together with Presner and explore ways to show off your content and learn how to configure it to get the result you want. They also cover the different types of blocks you might want to nest inside it. Finally, you uncover some lesser-known ways to use the Query Loop block, to display pages and other types of content besides posts.”

Mike McAlister from Ollie WP just dropped a cool tutorial on how to build smarter and faster with synced patterns. He shows how you can use synced patterns in WordPress to make site building a breeze. With these patterns, you can tweak multiple parts of your site at once, making your workflow smoother and keeping your design consistent.

The number of Block themes in the Themes directory was 942 this morning. You find now a great collection of themes for businesses, writers, photographers, agencies, and products. The newly released pattern browser you can use when clicking through a single theme page gives you a great insight in how various parts of your website will look, when using a theme. Many themes showcase, services, FAQ, content form, or about us patterns, that, make building a site a streamlines process.

The latest five Themes approved were:

Hello Blocks by Md Ataur Rahman of Wpmet, builder of the GutenKit and other WordPress plugins. This is their first theme in the WordPress Repository.

Margarethe by the theme builders at Automattic and built for site owners in the interior design space. It’s the latest of 209 block themes built by Automattic’s designers.

Happening, also out of the workshop at Automattic, designed for events and ceremonies.

TributeToGovPress by Tommaso G. Scibilia from Italy it’s his second block theme published in the repository within the last few weeks. This theme seems to be the block theme version of one of his favorite themes: Gov Press by Govfresh, that hasn’t been updated since August 2019.

Eternal by Uxl themes, a theme, opinionated about its design and suitable for all screen sizes and the patterns offer design for business websites, like services, price lists, process steps or for the about page. It’s the 23rd theme from Uxl in the repository and their eighth block theme.

On WordPressTV, Wes Theron posted a new video Use the Create Block Theme plugin for exports, and theme variations. You’ll learn how to use the Create Block Theme plugin to customize, save, and export a WordPress theme. You’ll explore how to apply changes to colors, fonts, and layouts and export your modified theme as a zip file for use on other websites.

Adam Jones, HumanMade, identified Five key features for enterprise users in the upcoming version of WordPress 6.7. Those are:

Streamlined site management with the Template Registration API
HEIC image support for optimized media management
Zoom-out editor for patterns for a high-level view of content creation
More flexibility in content display with the enhanced Query Loop block
Performance improvements & developer enhancements

Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks

Simone Maranzana, co-creator of Advanced Columns, built the Figma plugin Block Flow that “allows you to easily convert your designs into WordPress blocks. This plugin is designed to simplify the process of transforming your visual projects into functional WordPress code. The exported blocks do not contain inline styles and rely solely on the logical attributes of the supported blocks. You can read more details in her X-Thread.

Building Blocks and tools for the Block Editor

In this week’s Developer Hours, Justin Tadlock and Nick Diego took a first look at the Template Registration API in WordPress 6.7 and explored how to register custom block templates in your plugins. This long-needed feature lets you create default front-end output that plays nicely with themes while also being customizable from the Site Editor by users.

Alex Standiford shared publicly how he made his WordPress Archive style different post formats, using the Block Visibility plugin and a short code snippet. More in his post. There is also a discussion on the topic
Bring post formats to block themes on GitHub, you can follow along and chime in.

Siddharth Thevaril, working for 10up, shared his experience in Building an extendible WordPress admin Settings page with Gutenberg Components. Thevaril covered setting up a custom settings page, using React for the interface, and integrating Gutenberg UI components for a clean, responsive design. The tutorial includes code snippets and practical tips for developers.

Ajit Bohra, an early Gutenberg contributor, announced the latest project he has been working on with the team of Lubus, a web development company out of Mumbai. WPUI is “a design pattern library built upon WordPress components which gives you the building blocks you need to build your react-powered WordPress plugin or app” (quoted from their site). The project is built in public and available on GitHub. “It was born to avoid the mundane task of assembling UI for WordPress.” Bohra tweeted.

Daniel Bachhuber, CEO of WordPress.Com (the commercial WordPress hosting company) announced on X (former Twitter) a new prototype of plugin that offers building Custom Content Models from within the Block Editor. The plugin is available on GitHub from Automattic’s repository. It’s open-source and can be extended or forked. It’s more a proof of concept rather than production-ready code, and for the developers it seems to be just an exercise, of “would it be possible” than actually geared towards getting into WordPress Core?

Brain Coords tells the story around his contribution to the Custom Content Model in his video Custom fields and post types inside the block editor – with WordPress.com. WordPress.com invited Coords to explore and build the prototype. In his video, Coords takes you through the genesis of the project and the approach the development took. He also gives you a demo and answers audience questions.

Matt Medeiros sat down with Mark Szymanski in their episode 65 of the WPMinute podcast to discuss Was The Create Content Model Prototype Good Enough?

WordPress Playground

JuanMa Garrido announced, that three new guides published in the WP Playground Docs

The hope is that these resources can help inspire and guide theme and plugin developers to fully take advantage of WP Playground’s potential.

Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg’s master branch?
Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review.

Now also available via WordPress Playground. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? Email me with your experience

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

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Don’t want to miss the next Weekend Edition?

WordPress.org blog: Tour the New Learn WordPress

Lauren Stein — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 19:26:16 +0000

The reimagined Learn WordPress experience launched just over a month ago. It introduces Learning Pathways, a new approach to educational content from the Training team.

In case you haven’t explored the updated Learn WordPress site yet, take a peek at what you’ve been missing in this short and sweet virtual tour:

The reception of the new experience and Learning Pathways courses has been positive, with the average learner rating at 4.5/5 since the site’s relaunch. Here’s what learners have been saying:

“The beginner course did a fantastic job of introducing all the key terms I needed to know. It really set me up with a strong foundation to build on in the future…”

Carlos S.

about the Beginner WordPress User course

“This series of lessons is exactly what I am looking for: it improves my knowledge at an intermediate level, especially for the newer features in the Site Editor.”

jpgoem

about the Intermediate Theme Developer course

“The Beginner WordPress Developer course provided exactly what I needed to return to web design and WordPress after years of web application development.”

Hugo V.

about the Beginner WordPress Developer course

“This course was a great overview that also gave links for more reading. It’s making learning much more fun, thorough, and structured…”

Heather A.

about the Intermediate WordPress User course

The Training team is working hard to add more Learning Pathways to the existing roster, with the Designer and Intermediate Plugin Developer Learning Pathways already in progress. In the meantime, explore the four Learning Pathways at Learn WordPress.

There’s always more to learn.

HeroPress: You Did This

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 21:04:30 +0000

Just the other day Lana Miro wrote her HeroPress essay from from Mykolaiv, Ukraine. In it she gives some credit to the WordPress community for helping her literally not lose her mind while bombs fell in her neighborhood. Additionally she credits her company, which builds tools for WordPress.

In the past I’ve said “WordPress won’t help you. It’s software, it just sits there.” But if that software hadn’t been just sitting there, a group of people in Ukraine wouldn’t have been able to make this company, to become friends and co-workers, and support each other.

WordCamp Crazy is a group of men from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh that travel together to WordCamps around the world. If that doesn’t seem odd to you then you don’t know the history of those three countries. On the whole they don’t get along. Yet because WordPress exists these men met on common ground and became friends. Sure it’s just a small group of people, but it’s one step in healing the wounds between their countries. How many other groups or even just two people around the world are like them, that we never hear about?

There are almost 300 stories on HeroPress now, we’ve been building it for 10 years. But there are so many more stories that I’ve heard that never made it to the site. So many lives changed.

I think “How did this happen?” and I look at WordPress as a tool. Who built it? So many people. Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? Not just core, not just plugins, themes, hacks, tweaks and code. All the support questions answered, all the talks given, all the translations, tutorials, blogs, videos, events, and simply time sitting quietly explaining something to one person who needed it.

Here’s my point, right here.

If you’ve ever contributed to WordPress in any way, YOU did this. I did this. WE did this.

Think about that, and about your impact on the world. Because of your actions, the world is a better place.

Thank you.

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

The post You Did This appeared first on HeroPress.

WPTavern: Gutenberg 19.2 Released with Enhancements and Bug Fixes

Jyolsna — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 20:47:52 +0000

Gutenberg 19.2 was released on September 11, 2024. This latest release includes notable changes such as Block Bindings UI, enhancements to the Zoom Out mode, an experimental client-side media processing feature, and some bug fixes.

Here’s a rundown of the key features and changes:

Block Bindings UI Moving Out of the Experimental Phase

One of the most significant updates in Gutenberg 19.2 is removing the experimental flag from the Block Bindings UI. This feature, now fully integrated into the editor, allows users to link block attributes with external data sources seamlessly. By default, only admin users can create and modify bindings, ensuring greater control and security.

Vicente Canales from the Core team has shared this video in the announcement post.

Preview Options Extensibility

The new release also adds extensibility to Preview Options via the Plugin API.Plugin and theme developers can now introduce custom preview options in the block editor’s preview dropdown. This allows users to preview content in different formats or environments, offering more flexibility in how they view their creations.

Enhanced Zoom Out Mode

The toolbar now has an “Edit” button, making it easier to switch between modes. Users can also exit Zoom Out mode by double-clicking on blocks and the “Shuffle” block toolbar button has been removed.

Content-Only Mode Enhancements

In Content-Only mode, top-level locked blocks now support block styles, providing more consistent designs. Block icons are also now displayed in the toolbar for easier identification.

Experimental Client-side Media Processing

Gutenberg 19.2 introduces an experimental client-side media processing feature. This reduces the server load and potentially improves performance and efficiency.

Other notable highlights include:

A new reorder control is available at the field level on the new view configuration UI.
The minimum supported WordPress version for Create Block is now set to 6.6.
Only admin users are allowed to create and modify block bindings by default.
Block editor improvements include a ‘Reset’ option for the MediaReplaceFlow component and Block Library enhancements include better handling of social icons and pagination blocks.
10 bug fixes, including a fix for pagination arrows pointing the wrong way in RTL languages and resolving an editor error in Safari caused by the checkVisibility method.

There has been one reported issue with this release, where it causes problems with the Web Stories editor. WordPress Core Committer Pascal Birchler has confirmed that the issue is related to Gutenberg and not Web Stories. Interested users can also check out Riad Benguella’s post on Gutenberg development practices and common pitfalls.

Do The Woo Community: Enterprise in the WordPress Ecosystem with James Giroux

BobWP — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 09:18:00 +0000

This show is sponsored by…

Avalara: providing cloud-based and scalable global tax compliance that is hassle-free, safe and secure plus topped off with enterprise-class security.

Episode Transcript

Brad:
Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Scaling Enterprise WordPress: The Inside Track. I am one half of your co-hosting duo, back for another really fun episode. We have a really awesome guest, which we’ll get to in just a second, but as always, I want to welcome Tom, the other half of this show, to the episode.

Tom:
Hey, Brad. Hey, great to be here. Excited to be doing another episode. For those that listened to Karim’s last episode, unfortunately, I couldn’t be on that one as I was on vacation up a mountain with very poor internet, so glad to be back home on the fiber.

Brad:
Yeah. Well, we’re happy to have you back, and this is going to be a really fun episode, so I’m glad you’re here because we have a really special guest whom we’d like to introduce now. James Giroux is joining us on the show. Hey, James.

James:
Hello. Hello, everyone.

Brad:
Very excited. If anyone who’s been in the WordPress industry for a while has probably crossed paths with James at some event or some online endeavor. James, you have a really cool kind of history of your path through WordPress, and one of the reasons I want to set the context of why you’re on the show about enterprise, I think that’s important, but then we’ll dive quickly into how you got there because I think it’s a really fun journey, and I want to hear a little bit more about it. What really caught my eye, James, was back in July you posted a tweet and a blog post announcing that you started a new role at WordPress VIP under Automattic, and you’re learning enterprise deeply. So right away that caught my eye because I had never quite heard that phrase, “learning enterprise deeply,” but I was like, we got to get James on the show because he is literally doing what we’re talking about within WordPress and the inside track around enterprise. You have a really great blog post about it, which we’ll talk about and we’ll share in the show notes, but I’d love to hear a little bit about your journey through WordPress, kind of quickly how you got to where you are now. You’ve touched so many different parts of the WordPress ecosystem that brought you to VIP and the enterprise level side of it. So, let’s talk about how you got there real quick.

James:
Sure, yeah. I have been in the WordPress ecosystem for, oh, 15-plus years at this point, so it’s been a long time. Not maybe as long as the two of you, but I’m chasing your heels a little bit. Like most folks, I got started just looking for something that I could use to build a website. So, that’s kind of how I got started tinkering, and from there I like to call it the “four bases of WordPress.” You’ve got Marketplace, Agency, Product, and Automattic. Those are the four bases as far as I’m concerned in WordPress. My journey is like that. That’s why I called it a home run, but I started out really just on the freelance side, on the agency side, doing work for customers, clients, all that kind of thing. Then from there, I ended up working with a product called PageLines, which was one of the early pioneers of this whole page builder concept.

Brad:
I remember PageLines. Yeah, that was a long time ago.

James:
A very long time ago. So I worked there developing themes and plugins for that ecosystem, and that’s really what kind of launched me into WordPress at a community level, was my involvement there. I was hired by PageLines eventually as their Director of Operations, working with developers and things like that. From there, I met some folks from Envato at PressNomics. I was at PressNomics 3, hanging out, driving around, and ended up hearing about a role at Envato. So, I joined Envato in 2016 as their WordPress evangelist, which was great. I could continue to go to all the events that I really wanted to go to and get paid for it, which was a really neat and novel thing at the time. After about five years there, I moved to Gravity Forms and worked at one of these pillar product companies in the WordPress ecosystem. Then I was at StellarWP, working with all the folks over there. I was a Director of Brand and Product Marketing there, then transitioned out of that, and now I am at Automattic in WordPress VIP as a Technical Account Manager. Bit of a career swap, but I’m loving it.

Brad:
Very cool. Yeah, no, I think one thing that stands out about your story is just, and I like to talk about the community and the impact of engaging, meeting people, and going to events. I know things are a little different than they were maybe 10 or 15 years ago, but there’s still a lot of value in those events. Like you said, your career path was just by attending and being present, meeting people, and talking to people. It shaped your career and kind of opened some doors that maybe otherwise would’ve been harder to open, going in without any kind of a warm lead or knowing people within that company or within that industry. So, just want to touch on that, get out there because it can absolutely help in the growth of your career and what your goals are and your aspirations, which is another reason why I love this community.

So, going into really focusing on where you’re at now and some of the goals that you’re looking to accomplish, going back to that “learning enterprise deeply.” You posted this a few months ago, so I have to imagine you have not learned everything about enterprise in a couple of months. I think you probably have a little bit further to go, but I’d love to hear a little bit about early on—it’s been about a month and a half since your post and you’ve kind of dug into this a bit—but what are some of the things that really stand out? Maybe some of the challenges, or things that were unexpected or maybe even expected, but what really stood out just in the last month and a half, two months since you’ve been in this new role?

Certainly! Here’s the continuation of the transcript with corrected spelling and punctuation:

James:
I think one of the things about enterprise that folks on the outside maybe don’t understand is you really don’t know what you don’t know. I think that for me has been the first little bit of learning here—it’s learning what I don’t know. I didn’t really know what a DXP was before joining WordPress VIP—that’s a Digital Experience Platform, for those who don’t know. I didn’t really understand the role that WordPress played in larger enterprise infrastructure and how it integrates, and the kinds of complexities at a technical level that a lot of enterprises deal with. Nor would I, because so much of my past experience has been very direct WordPress, where you have one application, you have one WordPress installation that you’re responsible for, and you have to be concerned about that at a very small scale. In terms of traffic, all the concerns are very different, and looking at how do I scale that thinking out and look at the kinds of challenges that exist. So, that’s been really interesting. The sales cycle has been interesting. The role of technology service providers, or technology platforms like VIP, and the relationship they have with agencies, and how those work together. The role they play, and the relationships they need to develop with product companies as well, and how that factors into how we deliver solutions to customers and clients. It’s a very interesting nut to crack, and I’m enjoying it. Yeah, it’s so much to learn.

Brad:
We could probably do an entire show on sales cycles, couldn’t we, Tom? I mean that’s, oh boy. That might be a little bit of a trigger for both of us as agency owners in this.

Tom:
Yeah, we’re both jealous of you not knowing about them.

Brad:
Yeah. It’s interesting you mentioned not knowing what you don’t know, and I think when the larger community hears “enterprise” and “WordPress” specifically, I think the assumption is it’s a big website with a lot of content, a lot of writers, most likely a lot of users in the backend, and a lot of traffic, which is by and large pretty true, but there’s a lot more than that. That’s kind of the surface level of what enterprise entails. All the behind-the-scenes stuff of integrating with SSO and different providers and APIs, and all the security requirements that go into it that are well outside of Core WordPress. It can absolutely work with WordPress, but it takes more advanced teams to make those things happen. So when you really get under the hood of what the enterprise work is with WordPress, it’s so much more than just big websites with a lot of traffic—a way I like to describe it. But there’s a lot more than that when you start peeling back that onion.

James:
Absolutely. It’s been really interesting looking at the number of people that need to be involved, and you can’t really get away from it. You think, “Oh, it’s just a big website with more traffic.” But no, I mean it’s bigger projects, there are more stakeholders, there are more moving parts that you may or may not understand or know about. There’s a lot of extra discovery that goes into it. It’s been really interesting watching different projects that we’ve gotten different customers on. So, we’ve got customers that are just starting and getting ready to launch and going through that process of migrating from maybe an existing build they have on a different platform or on a different WordPress installation over onto the VIP architecture. And then you’ve got those that have been on VIP architecture for a while and sort of what maintenance looks like in that cycle and how that goes forward. It’s really, really interesting. And just the number of people involved at all different levels and the ongoing work and the constant communication that needs to happen at an enterprise level is way different from running a local restaurant or running a local e-commerce retail shop’s website. It’s very, very different.

Brad:
Yeah, no doubt. Tom, what do you got over there? I don’t want to monopolize this conversation.

Tom:
Well, I’m keen to dive a little bit into some of the stuff that you raised in the blog post that you wrote calling on the WordPress ecosystem to embrace enterprise. So, why’d you write it? I guess this phrase “learn enterprise deeply”—we’ve typically reserved that phrase for pretty important things. I think Matt’s only used it twice, for JavaScript and then for AI. So, why do you think enterprise is that important to the WordPress ecosystem?

James:
Well, as a community, as a content management system platform and open source, we’ve done a really good job of hitting the ones and twos, right? We are really good at being a first choice for a lot of folks that are looking for a website that delivers minimal traffic concerns, no compliance, no security—none of that kind of stuff. But if we want to grow the ecosystem beyond the ones and twos to the hundreds and the thousands, we really need to look at where a lot of folks work. They work in government, they work in large enterprise, they’re on marketing teams of thousands rather than marketing teams of five. There are intranets and extranets and all of that kind of stuff where WordPress has an opportunity to flex its muscles. And we have maybe not fully understood that or cared so much about it. Like all folks, we take the path of least resistance. We go for what’s easiest first. We’ve done easy. We’ve accomplished easy. And now it’s time to accomplish what’s maybe a little bit harder. My whole pitch, my whole thinking behind that is, if we want to see WordPress grow to 80% market share—which I know is probably a pipe dream—but if we want to double what we’re currently at, 43%, and get to 86%, then we need to get into these enterprises because that’s where young people are going to work as well. They’re not all going into startups, they’re not all building apps for themselves and doing things for themselves. They need to find a job, and they’re getting jobs in banks and pharmaceutical companies and all these other places. If the tooling that they’re being provided is Sitecore or Adobe, whatever Adobe is running with, they’re not getting the best of what the web can be. And so, that for me is one of the reasons, because once they’re experienced with WordPress in work—when they’re paid to use WordPress in their day-to-day—that’s going to leak out into their side projects because that’s the platform they’re most familiar with. That’s how we grow adoption. That’s how we grow WordPress in my opinion, and actually get it to a place where it’s solving the really hard problems of the web that folks have.

Tom:
That’s a super interesting take, because it’s like actually probably a lot of the early growth of WordPress was almost the opposite of that, right? People were not using it at work, but they were discovering it and using it for their own stuff. They were blogging, they were using it for their kids’ football team or whatever, and a lot of the early penetration into business was people using it for their side projects and then bringing it with them, fighting the good fight internally: “Why don’t we use this WordPress thing for our site? I’ve been using it, it’s great.” Maybe we’re transitioning out of that, and actually it needs to become the default at work so that all these young people who get jobs are introduced to it there. I love that take. I’ve never really quite thought of it in those terms.

Brad:
I think even early on, as WordPress really started transforming from a blogging platform to a true CMS, back when custom post types were introduced and it really became an option for the enterprise, getting some of those early enterprise clients also really helped validate it for everybody. I know it made my job easier as an agency owner when I said, “Hey, we just launched something on microsoft.com with WordPress.” So, everybody we talked to at that point, the idea of “Is it secure? Can we use it?”—those questions really went out the window once we said, “Well, Microsoft’s using it, and they did a full-blown security audit on it.” So that in some way also helped, I think probably more in that mid-market, to say, “Hey, we can actually use this when we just thought it was a blogging platform.” So, I think even that early on, just getting a couple of those key large enterprise brands on WordPress, and we could all point to them as a community and say, “Look what these brands are doing,” that really helped accelerate WordPress into the CMS market and has continued to, because I still use those examples. But we don’t have to answer those questions anymore, or certainly not as often. “Is it secure? Is it a blogging platform?”—those are long gone, right? The enterprise has helped squash that, in my opinion.

James:
Yeah, I completely agree.

Tom:
I’m interested in enterprise WordPress’s place within the wider ecosystem, the awareness of it, the role it plays—maybe what your perspective was on that or your awareness of it before, and how that’s shifted since. And maybe, therefore, what you think we need to do more as an enterprise WordPress community, as the subset of the WordPress community that’s focused on enterprise, to better showcase actually how successful WordPress is in enterprise. You were saying you joined VIP, and you get exposed to quite a lot of stuff, and you’re like, “Oh, I perhaps didn’t actually know WordPress was being used

in these ways or the level of complexity.” It’s a bit of an iceberg problem I think we have, where there’s quite a lot more happening than perhaps people realize.

James:
I think there are a couple things to that. Before I really dove deep into enterprise, I couldn’t find anything on WordPress enterprise. There was nothing out there I could read, there’s nothing out there I could go to. I mean, I could go to events—and I did—and I’m very grateful to folks who would invite me to show up at their enterprise events. But I didn’t know how to even jump into those conversations or start them, and that’s a big part of it. I couldn’t go to a WordCamp and get a 101 talk on enterprise. We joke about the sales cycle, but it’s so intimidating. But where’s the opportunity for agencies that are looking to build out their freelancer bench to talk about what does it actually take to become an enterprise freelancer or to work in this space? Or how can we equip you to be able to jump into what we need? There’s none of that. And so, I think that’s one of the reasons why I wrote that blog post—to sort of wave a bit of that flag and say, “Hey, I can’t even find anything to help me get started on the path toward enterprise.” And the reality is that what’s going to end up happening is folks that are really good at Drupal—not that that’s bad—but that’s sort of where enterprise is, or they’re really good at Sitecore, and they’re going to go, “Okay, well, we’ll expand our toolset, maybe we’ll look at WordPress,” but they’re not really going to be from the community. They’re not going to be part of the story of what we’ve been, and it’s going to make it harder for those of us who truly understand what WordPress is all about to get in front of these enterprises that are looking, possibly, at WordPress as a tool, and helping them understand what this ecosystem and this community is all about.

So, that’s one thing. I think, what can enterprise folks be doing? You need to get out there more. This is hard because I’ve been here a couple months now, and I haven’t written a blog post since my announcement post because my brain is so packed with all of the things that I’m trying to learn and understand, the complexities, and just all the things that I’m finding it hard to sit down and write. What do I write about? What do I talk about now? So, I need to get out there and do that. And that’s what we need more of. We need more enterprise champions showing up at WordPress events, at WordCamps, doing things like this podcast—which I think is fantastic—and just really talking through what does it mean to be enterprise WordPress? What are the challenges we’re facing? How do we invite folks in? How do we get product folks in who maybe have no idea how their product is being used in an enterprise setting? I’ve got a call coming up with one product company that has no enterprise pricing, no enterprise service level, but their product is being used in a really intense way on a customer’s website. What’s really cool is being able to facilitate that as somebody who’s got both the community side and the enterprise side now, but we need more of those relationships to develop between WordPress product companies and enterprise agencies and enterprise infrastructure companies—I would call VIP. Let’s get them all around the same table and talking. The product companies don’t have any clue how their products are being used at scale.

Tom:
Yeah, I mean that’s definitely a common problem I see.

Brad:
Yeah, and thank you for calling out the podcast because honestly, one of the reasons we’re doing this is because there aren’t enough people in the WordPress ecosystem, WordPress space, talking about enterprise and sharing our knowledge and information. Getting people like you, James, on to share your experiences, your learning, and where you’re at, because there just hasn’t really been a lot of this, even going back across the 15 years or so that we’ve all been doing this. There hasn’t really been a lot of dedication around enterprise, talking about it, challenges, what can we do to help push it? It’s another reason why we’re all really excited, and Tom and I are both a part of the Scale Consortium, which for years I think many of us kind of looked at Automattic, and maybe even VIP in a sense, and said, “Help us, sell us in the enterprise. Help push us into the enterprise.” But the reality is it was on all of us to do that. So, it took a little bit of time, but finally all the agencies were able to get together that work in that space, in the WordPress enterprise space, and say, “Look, if we work together on helping spread positive information and what people are doing in WordPress enterprise, it’s going to help all of us.” And so now the Scale Consortium exists exactly for that reason. We’re really pushing into the space to help spread awareness, spread information, help people learn around enterprise, have events at WordCamps or other webinars, share that information. Because you’re right, I think many of us agency owners especially, it’s trial by fire. Did I start WebDev thinking I want to get into enterprise? No. But when Microsoft walks through your door or a big brand walks through your door, you learn it real quick, right? Not going to tell them no. So, I love that you call that out. Exactly why we’re doing this. We’re hoping to get more of this in, between the show we’re doing here, and then with Karim and Tom. Even though we’re early, I feel like the information we’re getting out there—these are conversations that have not been happening in the public, and they need to be happening. So, I love it, and I’m hoping that the audience is also understanding what we’re trying to do here and getting some value out of it.

Tom:
Yeah, I mean I hope that you do keep blogging as well, James, actually, because I’ve read your blog for a long time, long before you were writing about enterprise, so I’m kind of even more excited to read it now that you’re in enterprise, which is a space that’s even closer to my interests. The listeners to this show should all go and start reading it—that’ll add to the pressure for you to then give them some content that’s relevant.

James:
I don’t know if it’s writer’s block or if it’s just my brain is full of all the things, but I’ve been challenged. I’m going to WordCamp US and I’m looking forward to the conversations. WordCamp US is really exciting for me this year because of Showcase Day, and because it’s a really good opportunity for enterprise to have its moment in the sun, so to speak, and the spotlight. We get to see innovation, we get to see scale, and it’s so exciting that somebody’s starting to pick that up a bit. I’m looking forward to the kinds of conversations it spurs. I’m curious what I’m going to be thinking about after.

Tom:
Yeah, I think it’s going to be super interesting. I mean, I agree, it’s a really exciting evolution. I know even last year there was the NASA keynote, which was almost a precursor to this Showcase Day, and that’s a really great evolution. It’s going to be interesting—probably the first time there’s going to be a day with all of those people who are doing this kind of work, all there, showcasing together. The conversations afterward—I’m pretty interested to see what the floor traffic is like, and the kind of conversations that come off the back of that, the collaboration. Hopefully that opens up.

Brad:
There’ll probably be some surprises in those showcases, too. There are going to be some things that kind of blow us all away—like, “Oh wow, look what they built, look what they did.” I mean, just WordCamp last year with NASA.gov and the big push there and the presentations was honestly digging into understanding the amount of data and what they worked through was pretty mind-blowing. And obviously, it was all behind the scenes until they presented that. So, it was just fun to hear more of the challenges, more in how they worked through those with NASA, especially with the amount of content, which was absolutely insane, that they had to migrate into a block-based system. So, it’s fun sharing that stuff, it’s fun hearing it. I’m glad it is more focused. I know Matt used to—Matt Mullenweg—used to mention some highlights in his State of the Word, but he’s kind of gotten away from that, and probably for good reason, because he doesn’t want to play favorites when you’re showing off what other companies did. That could come off as playing favorites. So, I’m excited about that, too, because I’m sure there are going to be some interesting surprises—projects none of us knew were even out there, things that happened, and we’ll be like, “Oh, wow, I’m going to be telling some of my clients about that because that’s cool.” Sharing the information around enterprise, sharing out there. I know it’s not all enterprise—it’s just showcasing WordPress—but I have a feeling there’ll be a few big showcases in there.

James:
I’m excited to see our enterprise customers and clients in the WordPress ecosystem having their time to present what WordPress means to them and how they’re using WordPress from their mouths, from their perspective, and what will it mean. The WordPress ecosystem is very different from the

way the rest of the world operates. We’re kind of nice. And because we’re kind of nice and because we’re kind of kind to folks, the way we operate and interoperate together is a little bit different, and that can throw folks for a loop that are coming from other industries. And so, it’ll be really neat to see what happens when you get these big publishers that are competitors in the publishing landscape together, showcasing how they’re using the same technology platform to achieve their goals and do things, and what’s going to happen when they start talking to each other off the stage and see some of that WordPress culture, that WordPress community vibe sort of leak into how they interact with each other. There’s just something really cool about that that I’m looking forward to seeing happen, too.

Brad:
And honestly, just in WordPress in general, I feel like that is the vibe. People want to share. And maybe honestly, it’s the open-source vibe. It’s not just WordPress. It’s like if you’re into open-source and you’re into it enough that you’re going to attend an event about a piece of software, I’ve got to believe there’s some passion behind it. You’re proud and excited about what you’re doing, and you want to share it—even if you’re sharing it with competitors, you want to say, “Hey, look at the cool things we’re doing over here.” And they’re probably, like you said, sharing some things they’re doing that you weren’t aware of or you might be interested in. It’s similar to what agencies are doing and freelancers—we’re all showing off our work, like, “Look at this cool thing we built.” So, you’re right. Seeing actual owners of websites, publishers, really showing off and sharing information is going to be pretty neat. It’s just open-source. We’re all out there trying to build and help each other and just build an awesome platform that we can all use. So, I’d like to talk just a little bit about some of the goals. What are some of your longer-term goals within this new role? What kind of impact are you looking to make around organizations, clients, or just WordPress in general? We’ve talked about it being just a month and a half—it’s still a fairly new role for you—but long-term, your vision, what kind of impact are you looking to make?

James:
Well, I’ve packed up 15 years of marketing experience and taken that hat off and put on the account management hat. It’s a bit of a career reset for me, which is kind of neat to do. Long-term…

Brad:
Maybe a little scary too, huh?

James:
Yeah, it is. It’s very scary. You’re sort of starting from ground zero again, but with 15 years of experience, it’s kind of cool actually to do that. My first goal is to become the best technical account manager in the world. So, that’s maybe the entrepreneur in me going, “Take over the world!” or whatever. But I want to be the best.

Tom:
I like that. That’s only the first goal.

James:
Yeah, that’s the first goal: be the best I can be, be the best that I can do, support my team, be somebody they can count on, bring all of the knowledge and depth of experience I have across the WordPress ecosystem into this role and add value to these relationships, and add value. That’s the number one thing. Maybe selfishly—we don’t really have a lot of—this sounds so funny to say—but enterprise WordPress influencers. Why not be an ambassador for enterprise WordPress? We need more folks that are championing the transition from one side of WordPress to the other and opening those doors, and it’s something I did all throughout my career in the rest of WordPress, so I don’t see why I couldn’t do that at the enterprise level and just connect folks to each other, connect partners. So many of our product companies just need a door to be opened for them or exposure to what’s going on in enterprise.

Tom:
Yeah, I mean I’d love to do an episode actually on enterprise for WordPress product companies. Of all the parts of WordPress, I think they’re the ones that seem to have cracked enterprise the least. But like you say, there are lots of enterprise companies that are discovering their stuff and using it, and there’s a lot of opportunity there.

Brad:
Please start charging more for products because enterprise, they don’t want to pay $99 a year. They just won’t trust it if it’s that cheap.

James:
But the issue isn’t the $99, it’s the fact that they’re not going to get the level of service and access to a team that they need. Every build is unique. We think that folks in enterprise are just using WordPress as vanilla WordPress—they’re not. They’re taking WordPress, and they’re molding it and shaping it into something that works for them. They’re rebranding it internally. They have different names for it as a tool, and they can do that because they’re paying millions of dollars a year to do that. So, yeah.

Tom:
Well, yeah, there we go. Add that on the list, Brad, for a future episode because…

Brad:
Yeah, I love that idea, Tom. I love that. And talk about enterprise influencers. I mean, I’ve got to be honest, Tom’s got the look, he’s got the style, he’s got the voice—just lacking the influence! The stars are aligning, Tom, I’m telling you. But I do think I love it because, like we talked about, getting more content out there—and honestly, even YouTube and videos are so popular now, more popular than ever, and it’s really gaining traction. And within the WordPress space, there’s just a lot of great video content out there, and I expect that’s only going to continue to grow, especially in the enterprise space too, as that usually catches up once the masses are out there doing it. But yeah, more content, more information, sharing resources, getting people talking about more of the challenges, talking about the FUD that’s out there from other platforms, talking about WordPress and how we kind of speak back to that and alleviate those concerns. So, enterprise is a big topic, and there is a lot to dig into, which is one of the reasons we’re doing this. We bring on awesome people like you, James, and really understand where you’re at, your experiences. And what I would love to do is have you come back on the show maybe in six months, maybe next year at some point, and really circle back through your progression. What has transpired? Did you expect it? What have you learned? Things like that. Since you are a little bit new into the role, I think it’ll be fun to have you back on a little bit later next year and kind of dig back into where we’re at.

Tom:
When you’re a grizzled and tired enterprise WordPress expert.

James:
After the honeymoon period is over and I’m into the day-to-day grind. Yeah, exactly.

Brad:
Yeah, after the old honeymoon period. But it’s pretty exciting. Just to wind down a little bit, any kind of final thoughts around the enterprise space and really what’s just top of mind for you, James? We talked about short-term goals, some longer-term goals, but really what’s top of mind for you in the space and where you’re looking to go?

James:
I think, like that blog post says, we’ve got a lot of opportunity to help people get a better grasp of what enterprise actually looks like. I think WordPress is ready. I think a lot of our product companies and even our hosting companies that are maybe more downstream are ready to make the leap. They just need some help figuring out what that looks like. I would like to see more of that happening. Maybe I’ll write about that. Actually, that’s a good topic for me to sort of follow up on. What am I thinking about? What are my final thoughts? I’m curious to see how we as CMS folks—not just as WordPress—start to navigate thought leadership more broadly. WordPress, we’re competing against Adobe, we’re competing against some other proprietary platforms. We’re going up against these monolith DXPs, and we’re advocating for composability—all words that make sense to folks that are in enterprise, but maybe don’t make sense to anybody outside of it. But we have an opportunity to lead the pack when it comes to innovation. AI, we’re so much more agile than a lot of these other platforms are, and I would love to see us moving more in that direction as well, more broadly, and bringing more folks who maybe have sold themselves to these other platforms to come over and see what it’s like. The grass is very much greener over here. So, yeah, those are the things I’m thinking about.

Brad:
Come on over. We’re very friendly.

Tom:
I mean, that ties back perfectly into the need for more influencers, right? Because I think actually the biggest need for influencers is to project that vision that we have—that WordPress has for enterprise—out into the world. At the moment, most of the buzzwords and categories and descriptions of what enterprise CMS is are set by our competitors, set by the analysts. And we tend to play catch-up, and we tend to say, “Oh, WordPress could do that,” but they’re the ones that came up with what that is. And then we’re scrambling to try and prove WordPress could do it.

James:

That’s exactly right.

Tom:
Actually, perhaps with folks like you getting out and saying, “Well, actually, this is what WordPress’s vision for enterprise CMS is,” that’s super exciting. I think if we can start doing that—that’s a great point, Tom. That’s the next era of growth.

Brad:
Awesome. Well, this has been a really fun show. Appreciate you coming on, James. You mentioned you’re going to be at WordCamp US coming up, which is September 17th through the 20th out in Portland, Oregon. I will be there as well. Tom, are you going to make the trek over?

Tom:
I will be there, absolutely.

Brad:
Yeah, you’ll be there. It’s a long flight for you.

Tom:
It’s a long flight for me, so I’m stopping in New York on the way, so I’m not coming as far.

Brad:
Okay, well, that’ll help break up the flight a little bit. But anywhere else people can find you online, James? You want to plug your blog or any social networks where people can interact with you if someone wants to chase you down and say hi?

James:
Yeah, absolutely. My blog, JamesGiroux.ca is a great place. My handle pretty much everywhere is JamesGiroux, so you can find me on X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn, or give you my Gravatar—yeah, so it’s all there.

Brad:
Very cool. Well, I look forward to seeing you in person there. I’m definitely going to track you down at WordCamp US and get a little FaceTime. Really appreciate you coming on the show, James, and we’re looking forward to following your progress and really rooting for you and rooting for the enterprise. And we’re here to support, however, as obviously, this is important to all of us, as well as a lot of people out there. So, I’m excited we’re doing the show. I’m excited we’re talking about it, we’re getting people like you that are talking about it, blogging about it, and right in the middle of it. So, this is exactly what we’re looking to showcase with this platform. It’s been a lot of fun. So, Tom, anything you want to plug before we head out?

Tom:
No, just to say thank you for the work that you’ve been doing so far, especially the blogging and the influencing. That’s, I think, a big gap. So, keep doing that. And yeah, looking forward to talking more about WordCamp US.

Brad:
Awesome. Well, for Tom, I’m Brad Williams. This is Scaling Enterprise: The Inside Track. We will see you on the next episode. See you, everyone.

In this episode of Scaling Enterprise WordPress: The Inside Track, co-hosts Brad Williams and Tom Willmot discuss the evolving role of WordPress in the enterprise space with special guest James Giroux, Technical Account Manager at WordPress VIP.

James shares insights from his 15-year journey through the WordPress ecosystem, touching on his experiences across freelancing, product development, and enterprise-level projects.

The conversation covers key topics such as the challenges and opportunities of scaling WordPress for large organizations, the importance of community and networking in career development, and the future of WordPress in the enterprise market.

They also highlights the need for more enterprise WordPress champions, the role of thought leadership in driving adoption, and the exciting developments to come at WordCampUS.

Takeaways

The Importance of Enterprise in WordPress Growth: James emphasizes that for WordPress to continue its growth and dominance in the CMS market, it must break into enterprise-level organizations, which house large teams and complex systems. The WordPress community has historically catered to smaller users, but scaling up is necessary for future growth.

Learning Enterprise Deeply: James shares his experience transitioning into the enterprise space, learning about complex systems, technical challenges, and the unique needs of large-scale organizations. He introduces terms like DXP (Digital Experience Platform) and highlights how enterprise WordPress involves more than just a large website—it’s about integrating with systems, APIs, security, and compliance.

The Role of Community and Networking in Career Development: All three hosts stress the importance of attending events, engaging with the community, and making connections to advance in the WordPress ecosystem. James credits much of his career growth to attending events like WordCamp and building relationships within the community.

Challenges in the Enterprise Space: There are many moving parts when it comes to WordPress in the enterprise—more stakeholders, longer sales cycles, complex integrations, and technical requirements. James points out that many people in the WordPress community might not realize the depth of these challenges until they dive in.

The Opportunity for Product Companies: WordPress product companies often don’t realize how their tools are being used at an enterprise level. There’s a need for more collaboration between product companies and enterprise organizations to align pricing models, service levels, and support structures that suit large-scale projects.

Influencers in the Enterprise WordPress Space: There is a growing need for WordPress “enterprise influencers”—people who can champion WordPress as a solution for large organizations and communicate its advantages to a broader audience. By doing so, WordPress can challenge competitors like Adobe and Sitecore more effectively.

The Value of Events Like WordCamp US: Events like WordCamp US provide a platform for showcasing what WordPress can achieve at scale. Presentations like NASA’s website migration highlight WordPress’s capabilities for handling massive projects, and these showcases help promote WordPress as a serious contender in the enterprise CMS space.

Long-term Goals in Enterprise WordPress: James is focused on becoming a top-tier Technical Account Manager while also serving as an ambassador for enterprise WordPress, bridging the gap between the community and large organizations. His long-term goal is to help more companies adopt WordPress by educating and advocating for its enterprise capabilities.

Matt: Inside Out 2

Matt — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 02:31:35 +0000

It’s a tough pick, but I think Inside Out 2 might be my favorite Pixar movie. Just everything about it was just so well done. How they incorporated the different aesthetics, neuralinguistic concepts, everything. Chef’s kiss.

WPTavern: WordPress 6.6.2 Released with 26 Bug Fixes

Jyolsna — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 20:56:35 +0000

WordPress 6.6.2, released on September 10, 2024, brings 15 bug fixes to Core and 11 to the Block Editor. Led by Tonya Mork and Vicente Canales, with Aaron Jorbin mentoring the team, this is a short-cycle maintenance release ahead of WordPress 6.7, scheduled for November 12, 2024.

Core Fixes

This update addresses 15 Core issues, including CSS specificity changes in certain themes and the resolution of Button Block CSS conflicts. Other notable improvements include:

Global Styles now blocks empty CSS rules and malformed selectors for custom CSS for blocks.
Text-wrapping issues on the About page, which caused line breaks in Japanese, have been fixed.
A bug that wiped out template contents when renaming templates has been addressed.
The Site Health Tool now correctly loads directory sizes.
Autofocus query string parameter in the Customizer URL has been fixed.
Issues with the search functionality in the installed themes section have been resolved.

Block Editor Fixes

This release addresses 11 issues in the Block Editor, including improved layout style specificity in the non-iframed editor and fixes for pseudo-element selectors in custom block CSS. The release also reduces the specificity of the default featured-image block style rules and prevents the duplication of template parts in non-block-based themes. Post Editor has received multiple improvements.

Tonya Mork’s post gives the complete list of bug fixes in WordPress 6.6.2.

Websites with automatic background updates will automatically get updated to WordPress 6.6.2 while others can download it from WordPress.org or update the website via the WordPress Dashboard.

Gravatar: Meet the ‘Gravatar Enhanced’ Plugin for WordPress

Ronnie Burt — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 15:30:42 +0000

Meet the all new and improved Gravatar Enhanced – a plugin that brings more Gravatar goodness to WordPress while keeping privacy at the forefront.

What’s in the box? Let’s take a look inside:

Gravatar Privacy Shield

Your users’ privacy matters. That’s why we’ve built robust privacy features into Gravatar. We’re not in the business of tracking or selling data. Instead, we’re focused on helping you share only what’s necessary and curating your profile for the open web.

Our Privacy Shield features of the Gravatar Enhanced plugin give you control:

No referrer information: By default, your site won’t send referrer data on Gravatar requests. Even if sent, we don’t use or store it.
Opt-in proxy service: This extra layer keeps requests to Gravatar at a minimum and masks them. It’s peace of mind for you and your users.

These features are a direct response to feedback from the WordPress community. We’re committed to transparency and putting you in control.

Learn more about the proxy service here.

Gravatar Profile Block

Gravatar is evolving beyond avatars. Our new Profile Block lets you showcase user information anywhere on your site. It’s dynamic, it’s sleek, and it’s effortless.

Here’s what you get:

Avatars, names, bios, and links – all pulled directly from Gravatar profiles
Automatic updates whenever a Gravatar profile changes
No need for manual edits or giving WordPress dashboard access

Think of the possibilities:

Professional author bios without granting full site access
Team pages that stay current without your intervention
Enhanced user profiles for courses, memberships, and forums

Right now, the block displays a default card. But we’re cooking up something special. Soon, you’ll be able to customize both design and content.

Want a sneak peek? Check out these upcoming patterns we’re working on…

Once you’ve enabled the plugin, just look for the Gravatar Profile block in the editor to get started.

Additional Enhancements

There is more to the plugin that you will want to explore:

Hovercards are enabled by default to increase engagement and letting visitors see who an avatar belongs to
Enable email notifications to prompt commenters without a Gravatar to create one
Visit Users > Your Profile to change your avatar with the Gravatar Quick Editor
We ensure an alt tag of the display name is added to avatars whenever shown
We ensure the stronger SHA256 encryption is used

Watch this space, as there is a lot more to come soon!

Questions or feedback? Drop them in the comments below.

Get Gravatar Enhanced today.

Gravatar Enhanced

WPTavern: #136 – Matthias Pupillo on Enhancing WordPress With AI Translations

Nathan Wrigley — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Transcript

[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, enhanced WordPress with AI translations.

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/feed/podcast. And you can copy that URL into most podcast players.

So on the podcast today, we have Matthias Pupillo.

Matthias has extensive experience in the technology and creative sectors, and is currently working as the co-founder of FluentC AI, an AI powered language technology company.

With a background in technology, he’s focusing on developing solutions to enhance communication across different languages and platforms. He’s been involved with WordPress since its early days, around version 1.2, and has a rich history of web design and consulting, having worked on hundreds of WordPress websites. But it’s only recently that he’s become more engaged in the WordPress community through events like WordCamp Buffalo.

In the podcast today, we talk about AI driven language translations, particularly focusing on Matthias’s work with FluentC, which is his translation plugin for WordPress. It supports multithreaded simultaneous translations of up to 140 languages, enabling your pages and posts to be offered in other languages in just a few moments.

We covered the differences between AI models designed for translation, such as ChatGPT, and Llama, which aren’t specialized for this task, and how his platform builds a contextual layer above those.

He emphasizes the importance of context and diverse multi-lingual data in producing high quality translations. FluentC’s functionality involves local storage of translated content in an effort to maintain website speed. This is done using native WordPress hooks, and URL modifications.

Matthias also offers his thoughts on the ongoing multi-lingual support phase of the Gutenberg project. And his hopes for FluentC to evolve from a standalone plugin to an API, which could be used by WordPress Core.

We get into the broader implications of AI in translation, the need for open source models to compete in this rapidly evolving space, and the parallels between AI evolution and past trends like blockchain, and web 2.0.

If you’re interested in the intersection of AI and WordPress, or looking to enhance your website’s multi-lingual capabilities, this episode is for you.

If you’d like to find out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you’ll find all the other episodes as well.

And so without further delay, I bring you Matthias Pupillo.

I am joined on the podcast today by Matthias Pupillo. How you doing Matthias?

[00:03:54] Matthias Pupillo: I’m doing fantastic, Nathan.

[00:03:55] Nathan Wrigley: Very, very nice to have you with us. We had a little bit of a chat before we pressed record, and in that chat, Matthias revealed to me that he’s got a long history with WordPress, but not necessarily the WordPress community.

Matthias, we’re going to be talking about AI, transcribing, transliteration, multilingual, all that kind of stuff today. Before we do, would you just give us a quick potted bio of your history with tech, WordPress, however far you want to go back.

[00:04:19] Matthias Pupillo: Oh yeah, absolutely. So I’ve been a software, I have to say commercially, building software for 25 years. I’ve been recreationally building software for 35 years. So I started pretty much when I was eight building code.

And I started in WordPress with 1.2. I was writing hand coded HTML in Microsoft notes, and so it was a dramatic shift back then in 2002, 2003.

And I was running my own consulting firm, doing web design professionally, and found WordPress by, it was a divine intervention one day. Someone wanted to pay me for editing, and I didn’t know how to write software, besides HTML, CSS and Java. And Java back then was not building a website. It was a complicated journey and it was fun.

The day WordPress 2.5.5, when we had tabs, that was great. And then we got 2.6 and it went horizontal menu, that was a fun day. It’s been a long road with WordPress. I think I’ve built two or three hundred websites with it, maybe more. Not to mention coaching, staffing, and like guidance from an architecture standpoint.

[00:05:22] Nathan Wrigley: That’s a really long and storied, well, a really long story basically, so that’s lovely. But however, one of the things that you said a moment ago was that, although you’ve been using WordPress for a long time, the community side of it is more recent I think. Only in the fairly recent past that you’ve got yourself out to events, and started to interact with the community more. Is that right?

[00:05:41] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, so I built the translation company FluentC, we built for apps, and GraphQL, and other integrations. And I forgot WordPress, I really did. Our website was built in WordPress, our marketing flow, our CRM, everything was in WordPress, and I forgot to build the engine.

So, out of my shame of forgetting that, I rapidly built the plugin. Then spent four months trying to get it approved, and then joined the community in person. And my first WordCamp was in Buffalo this last May.

[00:06:09] Nathan Wrigley: You alluded to it earlier, but I might as well get the URL out there. So FluentC is the URL, but it’s not what you are thinking, I suspect. I imagine you are thinking it ends in a Y, but my records here show that it’s fluent, and then the letter C, so F-L-U-E-N-T-C, dot io. So, fluent, the letter C, dot io. What is this service? And we’ll come to the WordPress component in a moment. But obviously you built the SaaS version, if you like, first. What is its MVP, if you like?

[00:06:39] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, so it came out of a problem that, I’ve built a lot of apps for healthcare, and it always offended me that they were only in one language. And the cost, time and effort to build a multi-language app was just always put to the back end of the priority list. And in healthcare it’s incredibly important that the patient knows what the directions are, knows what the medications are, knows what their appointments are.

And so I built FluentC to handle that, and to build that multi-language, make it app developer friendly, our SaaS component is a no code solution, no code translation. If you want it native, are built into the app itself, use our GraphQL, and our i18next integrations. And then it was just, it just had to exist because of, patients need that native touch, and it needs to be super easy.

Developer tools are always built by people who aren’t developers, it has always been a sore point my side, that people just cannot, developers are not the first thought. Like you have to write code for a living, we have to make this easy for you. So we built that first.

[00:07:41] Nathan Wrigley: Can I just ask, in the US, given that you’ve mentioned the healthcare industry, in the US is there an obligation for that particular industry to have things translated into multiple languages? Here in the UK where I’m based, if you are going to produce something and it’s going to go into a hospital, for example, I think there is legislation around that. I don’t know what the cornucopia of languages are, but I know that there is some responsibility there. Is the same true in the US? Does it cover a particular bunch of languages? Is there a minimum requirement that you can have before you can say that’s done?

[00:08:13] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, there is a minimum number of, relative minimum number of, languages. It varies state by state, and it’s for the in-person experience. If you show up to the hospital and you only speak Spanish, they have to have someone in the building that speaks Spanish, or a translator available by phone. Or if you speak Russian, or Czech, or Slovakian. And they have to take care of you, and they have to treat you, and they have to give you care, and then they hand you the directions to leave in English.

They send you your email notifications in English. After just saving your life in Croatian, they then hand you an English sheet of paper with the directions on how to get your next step care.

The obligation, you know, Canada has that hard list obligation of two languages, French Canadian and English. But the US is sort of the in-person experience, but not the digital experience. Not your emails, not your text messages, your notifications. None of that is compelled to be in multilanguage.

[00:09:05] Nathan Wrigley: Let’s turn our attention away from healthcare and just think about, I don’t know, like an e-commerce store or something like that. I guess this whole idea of getting things translated just makes perfect sense over there as well. Because for the last 10 years we’ve been all getting more and more into buying things online from our mobile phones, in the comfort of our own homes, sitting in an armchair and what have you.

And increasingly, a lot of the properties are crossing international borders, so it’s not difficult for me to buy from a US company, or a European company that isn’t based where I am, knowing that the shipping and everything will be taken care of. But I guess the language component, for me, I am only an English speaker. So if I, for example, was to come across a great deal on a French website, I wouldn’t know what it was because it would simply be in French. So I guess there is a real good economic argument if you are hoping to participate in international trade, there’s a really good compelling argument to get behind this.

[00:10:01] Matthias Pupillo: There really is because e-commerce is one of the ones that is, once you fulfill the product, you’re done. You’ve shipped it. Some amount of people will call support, some will email, some will use chat. For the majority, overwhelming majority, of e-commerce sales, it’s ship it, and you’re done. You really don’t care if the person that spoke only German. You ship them the great product, maybe you have multi-language directions if they need directions, we should be designing products that don’t need directions, like a T-shirt.

But yes, the ability for a website and e-commerce to have those additional keywords in those native languages adds billions of potential customers. We did the analysis, and if you just cover Hindi, Chinese, English, French, and German, it’s about five languages, you add about 4.2 billion potential customers. You’re adding millions of new keywords. You’ve spent so much time, most of our WordPress, and the Woo people, spend so much time optimising their titles, their descriptions, their framework for communication on their products, and then that’s it, it’s in one language. And it’s perfect, it’s beautiful, but it really doesn’t serve them for 4 billion customers.

We support about 140 languages. There’s about 40 languages that cover 8 billion people. Those searches are the key. You can expand at no cost, your SEO presence, just by having the translations built in in a search engine optimised way. And e-commerce fulfillment, all your tools, that’s an email and chat. The phone one, you’re going to struggle with, you may have to build some extra capabilities. That’s where the 4 billion customers need to make enough revenue for you to have some support for them. But if you have 4 billion new customers available to you and you don’t have the revenue, I’d like to question your product.

But from an e-commerce standpoint, selling globally is super easy now. Woo handles the transactions, handles the currency, you can get some plugins for that. You can do the fulfillment. It’s super easy to cover all the taxes, but you forgot the descriptions. You forgot the titles, the tags, the meta tags, all of that stuff. And the AI translation these days, because you need a special language model, you’re using special descriptions, and they’re really good at this. It really is a known thing to translate, and it’s super easy to adjust and bring in that new traffic. And I think that’s the important thing about e-commerce, yeah.

[00:12:22] Nathan Wrigley: If we rewind the clock, I don’t know, 25 years or something, before the internet had taken off, apart from a bunch of really nerdy academics at CERN or something like that, the idea of owning a shop which would be communicating globally was really more or less pie in the sky. You know, there are a few giant companies that we all know of that were crossing international boundaries, car manufacturers and things like that, these giant entities.

But people who had a regular shop, which you might describe as a bricks and mortar shop, they’re not going to be doing that because they’re locally based, there’s no prospect of doing that, all of it is completely out of bounds.

And then along comes the internet. Suddenly the boundaries are collapsing. And although it’s still probably out of bounds for many people, it’s becoming increasingly obvious to any store owner that you can ship things. All of that shipping capability has been taken care of, the logistics can be taken care of by somebody else.

But there’s this missing piece. And I guess, again, if we rewind the clock about 25 years. The idea of translating things must have been fabulously expensive, because for every piece of text that you wished to translate, presumably you had to get a human being to read it, spend time wrangling it, and then giving you the translation, which you would then need to print in some way.

But now, the advent of AI, and I know that AI is all the rage at the moment, but it does seem like a lot of the AI stuff is kind of hype. And some of it might have utility, but much of it doesn’t seem to have utility. But it really feels like the translation piece is really credible. I don’t know how perfectly accurate it is, whether it’s 95% from English to French, say, or 99.9, I don’t really know, but because that’s such a logical thing to do, it does seem like an area in which a computer could excel at. Is that the case? Is translation from one language to another, do computers do this increasingly well, accurately?

[00:14:18] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, computers are doing it very well. And it is a different AI than the ChatGPT. ChatGPT, Llama, some of those things are terrible at translations, you need a special one for it. And the special ones are getting of standard, by the book translations very good. They’re still very bad at a couple of things, colloquialisms. We have a great phrase, six of one, half a dozen of the other, that doesn’t make any sense in Spanish.

We lose such great things, like there’s a wonderful Spanish word, an event called the quinceañera, which is your 15th birthday party. There’s cultural significance in language that we lose. And we are trying to fix that. Everyone’s trying to fix that. It’s as bad as it’s going to be. But as far as formal communication goes, if you were setting a date and a time for an event, or you were describing what is best be described as a pair of shoes, or fixed product file folders, or something like that, it does very good at those things.

It doesn’t do good at tone and colloquial mannerisms. But other than that, it’s pretty good. The AI translations are getting so good. And the cost to review them. So I was once on a project years ago, and this is before this. They built an app, then they sent it to a translation company with no context, so it didn’t say what was on the page. So there’s this wonderful place in the world called Turkey. There’s also a wonderful piece of food from a bird called turkey. And so here you are with the word Turkey, the country, or turkey, the meat, being all across your website. So even humans without context get it wrong. And so you really need that context engine.

We also have this wonderful thing in most websites called the back button, we do that. We also as humans have a part of our body called the back. So in other languages, those aren’t the same word. And those type of things, humans get wrong so often because they just see the word back, and they just see the, most translation tools that send them over to the company to even manually do it, they do it one word at a time. One line at a time. And there’s no context, so they’re just like, I guess it means the country, it’s capital, I guess we’re not talking about food, but it was a recipe guide and it’s your turkey dinner. And so those are the type of things that even humans get wrong still.

And then the management of it, back to developer friendly. Could you imagine getting emailed a spreadsheet every week as you’re trying to go to prod? You’re building a website, here you are, new post, new blog, new product. Okay, I got to email, and I got to check my email, and then I got to save it on that one, and I gotta create a new one, and then I got to save it again because, oh no, I changed the description, now I have to go back to the translator.

Because in your native language, every keystroke, comma, everything matters. So the human translate, I got to go back, and now I have an entire workflow added to my post and pages. And I love my post and pages, I just want to go in and type and hit save. I barely want somebody else to review it. This is WordPress, we’re cowboys, we go right to prod. We hit save, we hit publish, we hit draft for a little bit, but we’re going to prod. And that’s the difference with these older systems and how to do this is that. With humans involved, you either have to have a huge team or you have to do it yourself, and it still impacts your workflow.

The real problem with translations is it’s so time consuming. It’s so much effort. We thankfully have a connected enough world that we can find a chain between every language on Earth. We can find a person who speaks English to French, we can find a French person who speaks German, we can find a German person who speaks Polish, and we can connect the whole world, great.

That’s got to get much faster, and we have to connect the world. If we could talk to each other like this, this is where we want to go. This is what I want to do. I want this multi-language, Star Trek had it right. The universal translator built into our ears is the correct technology. Every interface you look at is in your technology, localised to your context. That’s the vision. That’s what I’m working on.

[00:18:06] Nathan Wrigley: You were talking about a workflow there. The AI presumably is significantly quicker, because if you were to be employing humans to do this, presumably you’d send an email with the text, wait a little while, maybe a day, or a week, or whatever it may be, and then it comes back, and then you’ve got to then copy and paste that into the blog post. And I realise that there are WordPress plugins out there that will handle that more or less seamlessly on the back end of your website as well.

But I’m guessing that AI can handle, let’s say you’ve got a, I don’t know, 1500 word article or something, I’m going to guess, I actually don’t know, but I’m guessing that it could translate that in moments. Be it with all the caveats of how accurate it is and what have you. It’s a fairly straightforward amount of time, so that you could see the results in seconds. Is that accurate?

[00:18:49] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, as a software architect, I can no longer abide by anything longer than three seconds. So our average response time is 1.2 seconds, over at FluentC, and then we are trying to see if we can get that down. That seems too slow to me. And so 1.2 seconds for a whole article.

[00:19:05] Nathan Wrigley: Can you translate multiple languages simultaneously? Maybe on the FluentC backend, it’s actually queuing them and doing them one at a time. But would I be able to, for example, say, okay, my target audience is the Chinese market, the Japanese market, the Philippines market, throw in, I don’t know, Vietnamese and a bunch of other things, you know, languages that I’m really not that familiar with. Can I get the same result? 1.2 seconds later or thereabouts, they will all be taken care of and ready to go.

[00:19:30] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah.

[00:19:31] Nathan Wrigley: It’s phenomenal.

[00:19:32] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, we built a multithreaded. We have different channels for each language, and basically you can hit 140 languages, don’t do it, you don’t need some of these languages. Some of these are like, we’re thinking about adding Klingon and Kardashian, we’re talking about mythical languages. If you’d like to speak Elfish from Lord of the Rings, we’re working on that too. We do parallel processing. So we handle all of them in about 1.2 seconds. So in about one second, two seconds, you’ll be able to have all 40 languages, five languages, downloaded to your copy of WordPress.

[00:19:59] Nathan Wrigley: You mentioned that ChatGPT, which is the one I think most people are familiar with, you mentioned that that is not quite as robust for the language translation. What is the difference then between the one that you are using? What is that one called, and how is that different? Is it just purely built to do the job of translating one language to another?

[00:20:17] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, so the regular ChatGPT, the Llama, they’re only fed documents in certain languages. And they can read, they’re fed French documents, it’s all about access to data. This is why we have an accidental bias in AI. We’re only feeding it English content and, you know, we’ll say Western languages because that’s all we have access to.

We have very limited documentation written in Swahili. There are very few books. There are very few books in Hebrew. The Arabic books do not have the wealth of digital knowledge. There are so many books in Arabic that are not digital. They’re handwritten books, they’re handwritten things from historical precedents. But every book written by Charles Dickens is online. Almost everything written in the King’s English, every bit of Shakespeare.

But some of these other cultures do not have the digital free access for these AI companies to ingest. And their models, their tokenisation, their transformers, all of that stuff on their side is not designed to go from token to language, it’s designed to go from token to token. So you need a specific large language model, and a neural net just tied to multilanguage. So Google Translate, DeepL, AWS Translate, those are the big players in the game. And then what we’ve done is we’ve built a layer on top of them. And we’ve built the FluentC LLM to be context driven.

So instead of translating one word, we’re sending in FluentC context. So because we’re connected to your WordPress site, we know all of your pages. We know all of your about. We know your tagline. We know your title. We know all of that stuff about your site, and we can include that, and we process the context to make sure we have the context right.

And then we do a scoring algorithm across the big cloud translation engines to really drive a good output. So we’ll know if it’s a bad translation. And then, you know, we’ve just recently launched an edit capability, so if you do notice, you can just go in and hit edit, and change. But yeah, the ChatGPTs do terrible translations, and it’s just not designed for it.

[00:22:12] Nathan Wrigley: So when this podcast episode airs, I will use an AI, and we’re both speaking in English, and it’s pretty good with the UK accent that I have, and I have no doubt that it will be excellent on the accent that you have. So I will feed the audio into that, and within a minute, less than a minute, it will have transcribed that audio. And it will have done, to my eye, about 95, somewhere between 95 and 97% accurate. There’s always little bits, for example, it’ll just mishear the slur between one word and another, and so it’ll misunderstand that word, but it’ll do a pretty good job.

The thing about that is, it’s just trying to do one word at a time, you know, discreetly. What’s that word? What’s that word? What’s that word? But then if I was to get that translated, let’s say, into another language, French, German, whatever we pick. When I’ve had the opportunity live to use Google Translate, it’s kind of interesting watching that happen because on the screen as I’m saying English, I’ll see the Italian words being printed out, and then there’ll be like a little pause, and things sometimes get deleted in real time. And so somehow it’s thinking, okay, that word wasn’t what I thought it was.

So what I’m trying to say is, when it’s translating, it’s not taking one word strictly at a time, because that would just be junk. We know that the order of French sentences, for example, is entirely different. They put words before other words and so on. The order in English is completely different to the order in French. Presumably you have to take that into account. So it’s not just, if we were to watch this happening, it’s not linear. It must take the whole sentence as a whole, and then have a guess, and then rewrite its guess. How does that all work?

[00:23:49] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, and it works by, the more you give it, the better it is. So a one word translation, turkey, meat, country, in English. But if you give it a paragraph, and you start talking about a city in Turkey, and you start talking about a neighborhood, and you give it context. You have to have context of everything else you’re talking about.

A word, a phrase, you’re at a bar versus you’re at church. You’re at your doctor’s office versus just walking down the street. Those are contextual elements you have to give to those models so they know who you’re talking to. If you put relationships between two people, a producer and a customer, a transaction. Or a mother and a daughter. Those are different contexts, and they’re going to speak differently to each other. And you have to feed all of that in.

That’s where pre-processing translations is a really important thing. The Google Translate on Chrome does a great job, it just doesn’t have all the context. But the context of translations is key. Where we’re talking, why we’re talking, when we’re talking, those are all different things in every language.

[00:24:51] Nathan Wrigley: So, do you have a plugin which is linking up to your SaaS backend to do this? And how does that interface with, I don’t know, let’s say the block editor. How do I, for example, if I created just a post, or a page, or something like that, how does it all look? Do you have a version on the repo, or is this just a premium thing? How does it work?

[00:25:10] Matthias Pupillo: Oh yeah, the FluentC plugin is on wordpress.org, and that was a big challenge for me. Coming back to the community, I was unaware that there were standards, and that took a few months. I didn’t know comments had to end in a period. That was a long-term feedback in my first publication, I’d go a week and then I’d have comments wrong. It’s like, okay then, I don’t think that’s critical to the app.

But the FluentC plugin works in the background. Every time you post or publish anything, we pick it up, and then on that traffic we then store the translation locally to your copy of WordPress without object duplication.

The other thing that, being in WordPress so long, WPML and Polylang have been running the game for, I don’t know, since the beginning. And the object duplication was always a problem to me. I can’t grow WordPress to enterprise scale if I have a German version of the page and an English version of the page, I can’t integrate that content. If I have an e-commerce flow, we talked to some people, and I have a backend not in WordPress, and I’m feeding WordPress and Woo in my front end, I can’t have five copies of the same product. I can’t have object duplication. I need product number seven, I need all my backend systems to go to number seven, I can’t have a different order ID and things like that.

And so we really built the plugin to solve that problem. And the FluentC plugin, it’s on wordpress.org, and you just download it, install it, sign up, pick your languages. We’re giving away a free language still, so there’s one free language out of the gate, and then you can add and subscribe to more of those, though one language is free.

[00:26:39] Nathan Wrigley: So let’s say, for example, I’ve got a product with an ID of seven, and I want that product to have five languages. We don’t need to get into which ones, but five languages. Is the product ID for all of those seven? You are saying, does that differ from other solutions that may be out there? And we’re not going to get into the competitive differences and what have you but, is there, a difference there?

Some of the options that are available, they might create different IDs because they’ll have the German one, and the Spanish one, and what have you. Whereas you are saying, it’s all handled in ID of seven. And if that is the case, how does it do the translation? How does it pull out the English text and swap it for the German on the fly?

[00:27:16] Matthias Pupillo: Yes, thankfully the fantastic developers in the community at WordPress has given us hooks. And so as the hooks render the front end, and as they’re done, we intercept the hooks, we run some processing on it, and then we store up right before it’s viewed. So we have tricked WordPress into thinking there’s a German page. We have modified the URL, so it’ll be dash de, and then it’ll be the product name. And so we have tricked WordPress using hooks and standards.

The block editor is super fun. That was super fun to get that all integrated. Because for most of the cases, we found that most people actually don’t speak Japanese. Most English producers of content do not speak Japanese, so they don’t want to be bothered by it. And then as you go through that workflow, what always bothers me is anything that gets in the way of publishing. We’re independent free thinkers, we’re self publishers, right? The whole goal of WordPress is independent publishing, right? It was originally a blogging platform, and it was meant for us to get our word out there and communicate in an internet that didn’t support it. But FluentC plugin is designed to be seamless, and if you want to control it, you can. But other than that, you just ignore it. And I hope you just go to my app and hit subscribe, and then you never touch it again.

[00:28:25] Nathan Wrigley: How do you, on the backend, how do you see, are you able to see the German translation? Does it sort of store the German in a meta field somewhere, or?

[00:28:33] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, actually we just published it yesterday, that you’re actually able to, as of yesterday, go in and see all of the translations. We use transients, and so we’re using transients in the WordPress database, and it’s super fast because you never hit my cloud. Once it comes a way back to you during that initial load, that 1.3 seconds per page thing like that, then it’s right from your page, and right from your server. You don’t call back. You’re not dependent on me after you get the translation, so it’s super fast.

As a software architect, I’ve been doing that for 20 years, performance is key. If we slow down all of WordPress because we want to support more people, that’s counterproductive. We can’t add billions of new people to our sites and then, oh yeah, everyone’s now one and a half, two seconds slower.

[00:29:15] Nathan Wrigley: I don’t know how closely you keep your eye on the roadmap for WordPress, but we’re in phase three of the Gutenberg project. And at the moment that, broadly speaking, could be categorised as collaboration. There’s a whole bunch of other things thrown in there as well, but the idea of having some interface which we can communicate with in real time with other people, and that’s yet to happen.

But the fourth phase is all about this topic, is all about multilingual and what have you. And I imagine that there is an opportunity there, but also maybe there’s a little bit of trepidation. Because, although the scope for this phase four hasn’t been exactly ironed out really, and there’s a little bit up in the air because we haven’t got there yet. I don’t know what your thoughts are, whether or not you are building a business which may end up being completely upended by WordPress Core. Or whether you think actually there’s a opportunity for me here because I’ll be able to bolt into whatever is built. So that question is, it’s not very targeted, but hopefully you’ve got an intuition. Phase four is coming, it’s going to be exactly in the ballpark of what you are doing. So does it offer you an opportunity, or is it something to be worried about?

[00:30:24] Matthias Pupillo: We are looking forward to participating in phase four. Now that I’m actively in the community, I’d love to help with phase four. We are dreaming of a world where you just use FluentC’s backend, you don’t need to install our plugin, be fantastic. If we could get standardisation among the hooks, the translations, the power to do it and edit it, that would be fantastic. We view all of the phase four talk as a super impactful, important upgrade to WordPress, to make it really global publishing software,

[00:30:55] Nathan Wrigley: So in that scenario, perhaps the intention for you is to pivot away from being a plugin, more to being an API basically. You know, you go to your service in the same way that you do for ChatGPT, for example, and you get a key. And you paste that into some core component of WordPress, which ships with vanilla WordPress, and then your translation has just happened on the fly. That’s interesting. So that’s a potential direction you are hoping it might go in, right.

[00:31:22] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, that would be great. If we end up that WordPress does it so well that all of the translation plugins are irrelevant, and now we’re competing on API qualities, I’m perfectly fine with that. I’m perfectly fine with building a better mousetrap and helping WordPress. Honestly, I just want the world to get smaller and make this easier.

So I think we’re going to do fine in that world. I think we’re going to be proactive, I think the developer tools we’re coming out with in the next few months, to actually automatically get all of your language files ready to go, and at least one version of translation ready to submit with your plugin, will make the world smaller.

I think having multi-language themes with 1.2 second response time is pretty good, so that theme developers can start to plug in. We think there’s still an area around WordPress that’ll make it better, and then if WordPress can standardise the way it thinks about multi-language, standardise the control mechanisms. We’ve had to invent a lot of stuff that, once it’s standardises we think it’ll be better for everyone. And yes, it will allow more up market entrants, and yes, it will be more open, but that’s WordPress.

[00:32:29] Nathan Wrigley: What’s the nature of the LLMs? I know that you drew a distinction between the LLMs that you’ve decided to use and the layer that you’ve added on top, and the ones that we’re all familiar with, ChatGPT and what have you. What I’m meaning by this is that it feels like a lot of money, in many cases, tens of billions of dollars is pointing towards things like ChatGPT. And we know that Google has deep products.

Are we worried about a future where only a few of these AI companies are able to offer services? Simply because they’ve been the ones that have invested so much, and they’ve become the defaults. Does anything like that concern you at all? That we’re sort of building something where there’s going to be a few incumbents, and their AI is going to be so superior to anything else, that we won’t have an opportunity to use rivals, because they just won’t be worth it.

[00:33:14] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, that’s all around tech though. We have our big six tech firms, they have more money than anyone thought they should have. They have so much power, they have so much control. They could buy all of the competitors in the entire space for less than they lost buying coffee. And that consolidation, that’s going to be a real problem.

There almost has to be a WordPress for AI. We have to get an open source AI model that actually is contributed by other people. We have to do, maybe Matt wants to start another thing. And we have to go at this because WordPress and this open source, it serves a real valid purpose. It does keep everyone in check, it does keep everyone in line. The reason it’s not $25,000 to run out a basic website is because WordPress exists. Self-publishing, open source tools exist.

If the AI goes private, we’ll call it 1980s versions of software. The eighties existed, we’ve already seen this. We’ve seen languages, coding languages that were proprietary. Software that’s proprietary. We have Java. We know how this goes. We have Objective-C. We have whole languages locked down by a company. If they lock down the AI, we’re all not going to be able to use it unless we pay them.

There is not a competitive landscape. We need that openness, we need the WordPress people to really get involved in this because it’s going to be out of our control, and it’s going to get self consolidated. It’s how capitalism works. The market drive to a single winner. It drives unless there are other values than money, and people who see other value, community value, network value, people that actually just want to win and communicate.

Like all of this stuff that we get out of WordPress, all of the joy and happiness. We were so happy, I was just at WordCamp Ottawa. It was such a happy place. We’re all just there to learn, and talk, and teach, and do, and be together, and it’s so fantastic. And I really love that about WordPress, and we do need that for AI because it is going to get controlled by these mega companies. I mean, Microsoft spent $10 billion, yeah, billion.

[00:35:15] Nathan Wrigley: My understanding is that they’re potentially also building a $100 billion data center in the very near future as well. You know, just eye watering amounts of money that the likes of you and I, really it’s difficult to understand the levels that these companies are on. And you imagine that, the more that they can pour into it, the more that they pull ahead in the race, and make themselves so indispensable.

And actually that leads me to another, and probably final question. If you are in the technology space, for the last 50 years, it’s been a tough thing to keep up because technology changes so fast, but some things don’t change too quickly. Like the CSS spec doesn’t change all that quickly. So you’re building, I don’t know, a page builder, you’ve at least got a bedrock there and you can work on it.

How is this for you, in the AI space, trying to keep up? Because it feels like, you know, you blink and things have changed. From one day to the next, something that was working is no longer working. Something which was cool is no longer cool. Some company that you’d never heard of is now worth a hundred billion dollars, you know. How do you keep up with all of this?

[00:36:18] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, so we focus on things that I personally, and our company, focus on value. We do not respect this slideware, vaporware version of AI. We have lived through blockchain. We have lived through Web 2.0. I have been doing this for 25 years. I had an AOL disc, I used to use dial up internet.

So we are driving to things that actually create value. And those things we’re chasing, duplicating, replicating, incorporating. And we’ve gotten good at identifying the stuff that’s just fluff. And that’s going to be hard for new people to come in in tech, that they can’t identify it.

But we were here through all of this. Like we have been here since containers, when containerisation was going to change the world. And it sort of did, but it sort of didn’t. And it’s now just on the tool belt, and it’s another button in the servers. But it’s not really, it didn’t change the world, it didn’t solve everything.

[00:37:07] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, it kind of feels to me that, I really don’t know, I think you could almost flip a coin and see whether AI will be used everywhere, or the opposite. You know, people will just get fed up with it and think, actually, do you know what, the human touch is much better. But it does feel like you are on fairly steady ground because the capacity for AI to do the translation job is so profoundly obvious. It’s really straightforward. There’s a direct line between, I don’t know, the amount of time that it takes and the cost, and what have you. It really seems like a really sensible place to be.

We’re kind of going to have to knock it on the head because of the amount of time that we’ve got available for this podcast. But just before we go, would you mind just dropping a few details about where people can find you? That could be, I don’t know, a social handle, it could be a website, or an email. What’s the best place to find you if people want to talk about translating in WordPress with AI?

[00:37:56] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, I’m on the Make WordPress Slack. Our website FluentC.ai is our WordPress focus website, F-L-U-E-N-T-C dot A-I, is our WordPress focus website. That’s a great place. I’m on LinkedIn. But Slack and wordpress.org are great places to go.

[00:38:13] Nathan Wrigley: Okay. Thank you so much for chatting to me today. I really appreciate it.

[00:38:16] Matthias Pupillo: Thank you.

On the podcast today we have Matthias Pupillo.

Matthias has extensive experience in the technology and creative sectors, and is currently working as the co-founder of FluentC.ai, an AI-powered language technology company. With a background in technology, he’s focusing on developing solutions to enhance communication across different languages and platforms. He’s been involved with WordPress since its early days around version 1.2, and has a rich history of web design and consulting, having worked on hundreds of WordPress websites. But it’s only recently that he’s become more engaged in the WordPress community through events like WordCamp Buffalo.

In the podcast today we talk about AI-driven language translations, particularly focusing on Matthias’s work with FluentC, which is his translation plugin for WordPress. It supports multithreaded, simultaneous translations of up to 140 languages, enabling your pages and posts to be offered in other languages in just a few moments.

We cover the differences between AI models designed for translation, such as ChatGPT and Llama, which aren’t specialised for this task, and how his platform builds a contextual layer above those. He emphasises the importance of context and diverse multilingual data in producing high-quality translations. FluentC’s functionality involves local storage of translated content, in an effort to maintain website speed. This is done using native WordPress hooks and URL modifications.

Matthias also offers his thoughts on the ongoing multilingual support phase of the Gutenberg project, and his hopes for FluentC to evolve from a standalone plugin to an API which could be used by WordPress Core.

We get into the broader implications of AI in translation, the need for open-source models to compete in this rapidly evolving space, and the parallels between AI evolution and past trends like blockchain and Web 2.0.

If you’re interested in the intersection of AI and WordPress, or are looking to enhance your website’s multilingual capabilities, this episode is for you.

Useful links

Matthias on WordPress.org

Akismet: How to Stop Contact Form Spam on Any Website (99.99% Accuracy)

Jen Swisher — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 13:00:00 +0000

If you have an unsecured contact form on your website — one that doesn’t use any kind of spam-prevention technology — you’ll likely get a lot of time-wasting, irrelevant submissions. That’s because, without some sort of protection in place, contact forms are simply wide open for malicious actors and bots to submit spam.

There are several ways you can protect a contact form, whether you’re using WordPress or not. You can add CAPTCHAs, make contact forms only available for logged‑in users, or add a smart, automated anti‑spam protection tool like Akismet.

Sites that care about the user experience and maximizing conversion rates should almost always choose a solution from that last category — one that stops contact form spam without annoying site visitors.

In this article, we’ll go over the most effective ways to stop contact form spam. We’ll also discuss why CAPTCHA is no longer the preferred tool for spam protection and show you what you should be using instead. Let’s get to it!

The best solutions to stop form spam in 2024

In this section, we’ll walk you through the best solutions to stop contact form spam. We’ll explain how each solution works, as well as its pros and cons, to help you decide which option to implement for your website.

1. Akismet

Over 100 million websites use Akismet to protect against form spam. Once you set up Akismet on your site, it will analyze submissions and determine what is real content and what is spam.

Akismet leverages machine learning to do this. The software has removed over 500 billion pieces of spam from the web. Every time it does this, it gets better at identifying spam. It’s gotten so good, in fact, that it boasts an accuracy rating of 99.99%.

The best thing about Akismet is that it doesn’t force users to solve puzzles or interact with elements on your site before enabling them to submit a form. Akismet does its work in the background and prevents contact form spam from reaching your inbox.

If you use WordPress, you can easily integrate Akismet with a plugin. Akismet also offers integration options for other content management systems (CMS), including Joomla and Drupal.

You can also integrate Akismet with other types of sites using its API. This makes it a near‑universal solution for spam protection.

2. CAPTCHAs

Completely automated public Turing tests (or CAPTCHAs) are tools designed to help block bots from being able to submit forms. CAPTCHAs are everywhere on the web, from login pages to comment sections and contact forms.

There are several types of CAPTCHAs you can use to protect a contact form. Google reCAPTCHA, for example, provides CAPTCHAs with visual puzzles that users need to solve or elements they need to click on to prove they’re human. The latest versions of reCAPTCHA don’t require interaction, but you’re free to choose which option to use.

While CAPTCHAs are popular, they do have a few downsides. We’ll explore the cons of using CAPTCHAs later in the post.

3. Honeypot

Using honeypots is a creative way to mitigate contact form spam for a website. This method involves setting up an input field within the form and hiding it from human users in some way (typically using CSS).

Although real visitors won’t be able to see the field, they’ll still be able to submit forms as usual. Spambots, on the other hand, are typically configured to fill out every field in a form, including honeypots.

This method can help you identify which form submissions come from bots. You can use that information to filter these messages and keep your focus on real submissions.

Although the honeypot approach can be effective, you’ll still receive contact form spam, which can clutter your inbox. Plus, you’ll need to understand basic CSS to hide a contact form field. If you use a CMS with a contact form plugin, it might not allow you to easily hide elements.

Some spambots are also capable of bypassing honeypot fields. And, you run the risk of real users stumbling into the hidden fields, which can lead you to think their submissions are also spam.

4. Session cookies

As you may know, some websites use session cookies to track your information and activity on their pages. This means you can also use cookies to identify bots due to the way they behave on your site.

Bot activity can be relatively simple to identify. Spambots often go straight for contact forms, fill them out immediately, and attempt to make multiple submissions. In contrast to how real users behave, they’re also unlikely to interact with other elements on a site.

You can use this information to block form submissions for sessions that engage in suspicious behavior. But this only works if you’re comfortable configuring cookies to detect suspicious behavior.

That process requires you to configure the cookies to flag behavior that you would typically see with spambots. There can be a lot of trial and error involved in this process, and it’s arguably a lot more difficult than using an available tool or service to block contact form spam.

Typically, this solution is more common among enterprise websites and businesses that have the technical know‑how to implement advanced security measures. Even then, the results you get might not be worth the trouble when there are out‑of‑the‑box solutions you can use to achieve similar (or even better) results.

5. Email filtering

Most modern email clients offer some type of message filtering functionality. You can use these filters to flag emails from specific addresses or those that contain keywords you associate with spam.

In general, you shouldn’t use email filtering tools to deal with contact form spam unless you get a very low number of messages. For this method to be effective, you need to decide what terms to filter and continue to add new keywords over time.

Flagging the wrong keywords can lead to situations where your email will falsely flag messages from real users. Identifying these false positives will often require you to spend time in your email’s spam folder, which is precisely what you want to avoid.

Why CAPTCHA is not the best option

CAPTCHAs are one of the most common forms of spam protection on the web. You can see CAPTCHAs everywhere, but that doesn’t mean they’re the most effective spam protection method.

There are several reasons why using them may not be the best option:

CAPTCHAs negatively impact the user experience. Some types of CAPTCHAs require users to interact with an element to prove they’re human or to solve one or more puzzles. If you’ve ever had to solve multiple CAPTCHA puzzles to access a form, you know how frustrating this can be.
CAPTCHAs are prone to false positives. Even humans can make mistakes when it comes to CAPTCHAs. The detection algorithms aren’t perfect, which can lead to situations where a website flags a real user as a bot and prevents them from submitting a contact form.
CAPTCHAs require work to set up and constant updates. Spambots and CAPTCHAs are constantly trying to beat each other. Some types of spambots can bypass CAPTCHAs with a decent success rate. This means you may need to update your CAPTCHA implementation regularly. Plus, you have to set up CAPTCHAs individually for each form you want to protect.

It’s important to note that your experience using CAPTCHAs can vary a lot depending on which service you use. Some CAPTCHAs, like the latest versions of reCAPTCHA, don’t require users to solve puzzles or interact with elements on the web. Even so, it’s safe to say that CAPTCHAs are becoming outdated.

Instead of using a CAPTCHA, consider a more powerful alternative to the contact form spam problem, like Akismet.

Akismet: the best anti‑spam solution

Most anti-spam tools focus on identifying spam content and bots before they can submit a contact form. Akismet does things differently.

The service uses machine learning to constantly improve its spam detection capabilities. That constant improvement has led to the point where Akismet can boast a 99.99% accuracy rate in detecting spam.

You can choose whether to save spam comments for review or let Akismet discard them immediately.

Akismet will automatically detect contact form spam and filter it for you. The service also offers a host of other benefits, which include the following:

Easy setup. If you use WordPress, you can set up Akismet in minutes. All you have to do is install and activate the plugin, and it will automatically start protecting your site against spam submissions. This ease of use also applies to installing Akismet on other types of sites.
A more seamless user experience. The service works in the background and doesn’t involve elements that require user interaction. This reduces the friction of submitting a contact form, which can improve your conversion rates.
Integration with any kind of website. Akismet offers simple integration protocols for several popular platforms, including WordPress. You can also use the Akismet API to make the service work with nearly any other kind of website or application.

Keep in mind that if you want to use the Akismet API, you’ll probably need to work with a developer to set up a custom integration for your site.

How to integrate Akismet on any website

Akismet offers different integration methods depending on what kind of website you run. If you’re using WordPress, you can get Akismet up and running in a matter of minutes.

To start, install and activate the Akismet plugin. Then, Akismet will ask you to select a plan.

Hobbyists can select a Personal plan and pay a fair rate of their choice. Incredibly affordable commercial plans are available for other situations.

Once you sign up for a plan, you’ll get access to an Akismet API key. Enter that key in WordPress by going to Settings → Akismet Anti‑Spam.

Click on Connect with API key and that’s it. Akismet will activate and start protecting your site from spam immediately.

Note that if you’re using Akismet with WordPress, the plugin integrates with some of the most popular contact form tools. That includes options like Jetpack’s form blocks, Contact Form 7, and Gravity Forms.

As we mentioned before, Akismet also offers integrations with other CMSs, including Joomla and Drupal. Those integrations work differently than with WordPress, so you’ll need to check the Akismet documentation to set them up.

You also have the option of using the Akismet API to integrate the service with any kind of website or application. This requires some level of development work, but enables you to leverage Akismet’s spam detection and protection functionality on any website.

Frequently asked questions

If you still have questions about how to stop spam from website contact forms, this section will answer them.

What is contact form spam?

Contact forms are common targets for spammers and bots. If the form doesn’t use some type of security feature, spammers are able to make all kinds of useless and potentially‑harmful submissions through the form. These can include links to other websites, promotions for fraudulent services and products, and automatically‑generated content.

How does contact form spam affect a website?

Contact form spam shouldn’t affect your website on the front end, unless the form is open to some kind of attack that can compromise your site’s security (like SQL injection).

In most cases, the biggest downside of contact form spam is having to deal with it. This spam can quickly fill up your inbox and make it harder for you to separate the real messages from the fake ones.

Why is Akismet considered the best solution for contact form spam?

Most solutions that focus on stopping contact form spam do so at the expense of the user experience. CAPTCHAs, for instance, force users to solve problems or click on elements before they can submit a form. This can reduce the number of people willing to use the form and can even make them inaccessible to those with disabilities.

Akismet is highly effective in stopping contact form spam, with a detection accuracy rate of 99.99% for spam content. Plus, Akismet doesn’t impact the user experience whatsoever, as it works in the background during form submission.

What are honeypot fields, and how do they work?

A honeypot field is an element in a contact form that only bots should be able to engage with. You can create one by using CSS to hide a field in plain sight or through a plugin that will handle this for you. Regular users will skip the hidden field, but spambots won’t.

Once the honeypot is set, you can filter all contact form submissions that fill out the field. You may also be able to blocklist the IP addresses that make the submissions, depending on which contact form tool you’re using.

How effective is CAPTCHA in preventing spam?

CAPTCHAs are among the most popular solutions for protecting your website from contact form spam. Their popularity makes them a significant target for attackers, who are constantly devising ways to bypass them using automated tools.

It’s also not uncommon for CAPTCHAs to flag real users as bots. Overall, CAPTCHAs can be highly effective, but they’re not without several downsides.

Can spambots bypass honeypot fields and CAPTCHAs?

Yes, some spambots can bypass honeypot fields and CAPTCHAs. Attackers are constantly trying to bypass form security measures, and that means creating new bots and constantly updating them so they remain effective.

Akismet bypasses this problem by focusing its spam detection tools on the content of the form submissions. The service also learns from each submission, which makes it the most accurate spam detection and prevention tool on the market.

Can Akismet protect against all types of spam?

Spammers and bots tend to target any public form on websites. Akismet can protect all the forms on your site by monitoring submissions. It does this without you having to set up individual protection for each form, as is the case with CAPTCHAs.

Where can I learn more about Akismet?

You can visit the Akismet features page to learn more about how its spam protection functionality works. If you’re ready to start using Akismet on your website, check out the available plans.

Stop contact form spam using Akismet

If you’re spending time dealing with contact form spam, you may be missing out on submissions from real users. Using tools that enable you to stop form spam will free up your time for other tasks. Moreover, with the right tools, it’s relatively easy to stop contact form spam.

There are several ways to stop contact form spam on WordPress and other platforms.. Akismet is the leading option since it doesn’t impede navigation for real users. It’s also easy to implement (particularly if you’re using WordPress), and it has a 99.99% rate of accuracy for spam detection.

You can use Akismet for free on your personal website or choose from affordable plans for commercial sites, where spam protection becomes even more essential. Start using Akismet today!

Do The Woo Community: A Look at Asynchronous Communication with Adam and Emma

BobWP — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 09:38:00 +0000

Episode Transcript

Adam:
This is Woo Biz Chat. Hi, my name is Adam Weeks, and this is…

Emma:
Hi, I’m Emma.

Adam:
Hey, Emma! Oh my goodness, it’s been a little while. We’re getting to catch up, and have we got a show for you?

Emma:
Oh, do we?

Adam:
Yes, yes, yes! This is Woo Biz Chat. This conversation came about because I was thinking of this topic, and I don’t know that we’ve really talked about it much. However, I have a new contract, and I’ve been working with 10up. 10up is one of the biggest agencies in WordPress, and they’ve grown so much because they do certain things really well. I’ve been so impressed with the team.

One of the things I hear repeatedly is about that “last 10%.” That’s really what gets them over the finish line with some of these big enterprise projects. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know this talented team. One of the people on this team, her name is Haley, and she is hilarious. She’s a project manager and very good at communicating.

In fact, this morning I hopped on Slack, as you do, and she had a very succinct but thorough rundown of an event we needed to be updated on. She did it in a way that was clear, funny, interesting, and timely. So, let’s talk about a few of those things we’re going to discuss in this episode. If you’re curious about asynchronous communication, this might be something unique—not to commerce so much—but in Woo, I imagine we have to work asynchronously. We’re in our Slack, we’re in our email, and we need to have a good foundation and a good way to communicate asynchronously. We’re going to dive into all those topics.

Before we start, is it okay to swear? When can you be funny? When can you not? All these things—so that’s what we’re going to get into. Also, Emma, one of the reasons we picked this topic is that you are very good at it, and I’m going to learn from you today.

Emma:
Except for all of…

Adam:
Let’s start us off. Tell me your general thoughts on asynchronous communication. Do you have a philosophy? What are your thoughts from a high level?

Emma:
That’s such a loaded question! It’s like, how do you pack everything into one nicely typed-out message as a response?

Adam:
It’s hard, right?

Emma:
It really is. Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it gets close. And everybody’s different. One thing we can start off with is that there are so many different audiences, and people know you at different levels, so everyone will interpret communication differently. But just to quickly start off, for people who don’t know—what even is async communication? Basically, it’s communication where the participants don’t need to interact in real-time. It doesn’t have to be face-to-face. It can be messages or information exchanged on Slack, Messenger, Teams, project management tools, emails, etc.

This is different from synchronous communication, which is what we’re doing now—calls, meetings, phone calls, live chat, stuff like that. Asynchronous communication is when a message is sent, and you deal with it when you can. So, what are the best ways to deal with it from there?

Adam:
Alright, asynchronous communication. We use it a lot in this industry because of the nature of the work. Time zones are another reason for async communication. Your day might not overlap with your coworkers or clients completely. It can be helpful to get something moving, and then when you go to sleep, someone else is waking up and takes it from there.

Alright, I’m going to ask you a few different questions. You’re good at this! What is one thing you try to do when using async communication? What’s a guiding principle for you?

Emma:
It’s actually kind of funny because we communicate like this a lot due to our time zones. Yesterday, I sent you a message before bed like, “Here, check out these show notes,” and then I checked it after your full day. But it wasn’t always that easy. Well, with you, yes, but with other people, maybe not as easy.

I stand by this: over-communicating is never a bad thing when it comes to async communication, especially if the person has never met you before. Whether it’s a quick “huddle” on Slack or Zoom, if someone’s never put a tone or voice behind your words, they might interpret it in many different ways. So, clarity and context are essential. Sometimes, I reread a message I sent and think, “I know what that means, but maybe the person reading it doesn’t.” Over-communicating is never really over-communicating.

Adam:
You are never penalized for over-communicating. The person may be annoyed, but that’s okay. They can skim it.

Emma:
Exactly. One person might say, “I already know all this; why did you write so much?” But maybe 99 other people reading it will go, “Oh, it all makes sense now. I don’t have to ask any follow-up questions.” Amazing!

Adam:
It’s like taking notes in a meeting. You think, “Oh, I’ll remember that.” Nope, I won’t remember that.

Emma:
No way.

Adam:
My brain doesn’t work that well.

Emma:
My brain ain’t braining.

Adam:
My brain ain’t braining! And sometimes, you’re taking notes for someone who wasn’t at the meeting. If someone gets hit by a bus—this sounds terrible—and they weren’t there…

Emma:
They’ll have the notes communicated async. Just kidding! Because they’re…dead. No, wait, sorry. Too far.

Adam:
Asynchronous communication. What was I saying?

Emma:
You were talking about taking notes for someone else.

Adam:
Right, your notes need to stand on their own for someone who doesn’t have any context. You won’t be penalized for over-communicating, and the person you’re communicating with might also be forgetful. You won’t be penalized for clarity.

Emma:
A hundred percent. But in addition, I’d recommend—depending on the type of communication—if you can, jump on a short call. Putting a voice behind the words they’ll read on a screen helps, especially if it’s the first time you’re giving feedback. You don’t have to do this every time, but I recently did this at work. I was in a call with some team leads, hosting a meeting. I can’t remember all the details, but at the end, they asked for feedback.

I’d never given this person feedback in written form before, and I made sure there was enough context, examples, and action points in the message. But then I thought, “You could read this the wrong way.” So I said, “Hey, can you hop on a quick call? I’ll send this feedback afterward.” It was just a quick Slack huddle. After that, the next time I sent feedback, it was clear, and I didn’t need to overuse emojis.

Sure! Here’s the continuation of the corrected transcript:

Adam:
Wait, wait…

Emma:
You couldn’t see me, but I also did cat claws, like “rawr.”

Adam:
Everyone’s imagining that now.

Emma:
I thought, “She asked for feedback, so let me jump on a quick call to give it to her.” After that, when I sent the written feedback, it was very clear. She could now imagine my personality behind the words, without me having to overuse emojis.

Adam:
Oh, all the emojis.

Emma:
Yeah.

Adam:
So you bring up a good point. We’re talking about asynchronous communication and how to use it, but there’s also the point of when not to use it. I’ve come up with this framework: information is shared quite well asynchronously—whether through emails or Slack—but if you’re trying to connect with someone, solve a problem, or if there’s some emotional element involved, it’s better to hop on a quick Zoom call, or use Slack’s huddle feature. Sometimes something that might take back-and-forth exchanges in Slack—or even be misunderstood—can be solved in two minutes over a call. Don’t try to solve problems over a text message.

Emma:
I agree. If there’s no quick decision being made or communication is being lost due to a lack of context, then move to another method. Whether it’s a call, a huddle, or a voice note—even a quick voice recording can help bridge the gap.

Adam:
Oh yeah, voice notes are great. You can record a quick message. Another thing I don’t use enough is video recording—where you record your screen and say, “Hey, this is what I’m seeing.” They can hear your voice and see exactly what you’re seeing, which can be super helpful. So, there are lots of ways to handle async communication.

Alright, so we briefly talked about emojis—emoticons? I don’t know the difference. How do you use them? When do you find them helpful, or when are they annoying?

Emma:
One of the things I love about working with Hosting or switching to different Slack groups is the custom emojis they have. They’ve got all these little dancing characters. When I move to WordPress Slack, or back to our group, I’m like, “Where’s the dancing cookie?” or “Where’s the cat spinning on a Roomba?”

I also have a “Hall of Fame” of my own custom emojis, like Emma smirking, Emma flabbergasted, Emma disappointed. And I’m sad when I go to Messenger or another platform that doesn’t let me use them. Sometimes, all you need is an emoji to express yourself.

Adam:
Okay, wait—Bob, if you’re listening, we need to get all of Emma’s custom emojis on Slack. I want them all!

Emma:
Yeah, I think I can make them myself. We’ll have to see. But we kind of have this weird thing where the original smiley face—the one with no teeth—has turned into this passive-aggressive emoji for some reason.

Adam:
The thumbs-up emoji—is that okay?

Emma:
Oh yeah, thumbs-up is okay. We kind of use it as the end of a conversation, like, “This is done. No need to continue.” It’s like when you’re dating and don’t know how to hang up the phone—you hang up first, no, you hang up first. Someone sends a thumbs-up, and that’s it. It’s all good.

Adam:
It’s all Gucci! What about the hands-raised emoji? You know, the two hands in the air?

Emma:
Yeah, we use that one a lot, along with the “grinning” emoji, which is like, “Oops, we’ve got to work on that now.” And of course, the sweating smile when something doesn’t go as planned. The shrug emoji is also a big one.

Adam:
I love the shrug emoji.

Emma:
Oh, totally. It adds a little bit of emotion to your communication. Sometimes, just a simple emoji makes the message more relatable—especially if you’re trying to send kudos or hype someone up. But don’t go overboard with emojis either, because then it can distract from the actual message.

Adam:
Too much emotion, not enough content.

Emma:
Exactly. And on that note, there are some emojis that don’t age well or might accidentally offend someone. Sometimes an emoji or symbol might become controversial or inappropriate, and then someone calls you out on it. If it wasn’t malicious, just delete it and learn from it. There are boundaries to emoji usage, but they can be a fun and helpful tool.

Adam:
So, the takeaway here is: use emojis, but don’t overdo it. They’re helpful in adding some humanity to otherwise black-and-white text. You can only use so many exclamation marks. Do you use exclamation marks a lot to add emphasis?

Emma:
I have this weird thing against exclamation marks. Stop shouting at me! Nobody’s that excited. I tend to avoid using too many. However, I’ve caught myself doing it when I’m really excited. Someone once gave me feedback about that—because I tend to end messages with double periods or double stops, like “..” instead of a single period or an ellipsis. They said that it could come across as unhappy or cold if I didn’t add more information or an emoji. So, I switched that up!

Adam:
Communication evolves, right?

Emma:
Yep, if you’re trying to ensure people know you’re happy or positive, throw in a smiley face or something.

Adam:
That’s a great point—feedback can be really helpful for improving how you communicate. So, what we take away from this is: give feedback on how someone’s async communication is going, and assume the best in them, especially when you don’t hear back.

When someone doesn’t respond after you’ve put effort into your message—there are crickets—how do you handle that situation?

Emma:
Yeah, that happens. Especially because my team spans 10 time zones, there’s no way everyone is online at the same time. So, one thing we do is react to messages with an emoji once we’ve read it or acted on it. Sometimes that gets old, but it becomes second nature—react with a fun emoji so that people know you’ve seen the message.

Also, I’m all for tagging people. Not aggressively, but if 24 hours have passed and you know they’ve been online, tag them again. Ping them until they see it! It’s easy to miss a message in Slack or Teams, especially if it pops up briefly and you lose it.

Adam:
Exactly. Sometimes you see a message, but then it disappears, and you can’t find it again.

Emma:
Right, or if you accidentally open it on your phone, you’re kind of out of luck. So don’t feel bad about tagging people—ping them a few times. From my perspective, I’ve never gotten mad at someone for tagging me multiple times. If I missed it, I appreciate the reminder. You could also use a loading emoji, like “I’m working on it, but give me a minute.”

Adam:
So, aggressively tagging—got it. Another thing I’ve found helpful is to avoid asking seven questions in one message. If someone knows the answer to six of them but not the seventh, they might delay responding altogether. Break it down to one or two key questions.

Here’s the continuation of the transcript with corrections:

Adam:
So, break it down into one or two key questions, and when you get that response, they can address those first. When you overload someone with too many questions, they’re more likely to ghost you—not because they mean to, but because it feels overwhelming.

Also, when you do get a response, you might see a little checkmark or a “done,” or they might write “received” or “great question, let me follow up.” That’s something I try to do more of—if someone asks me something complex and I don’t have all the answers right away, I at least let them know I’m thinking about it or working on it. It helps keep the conversation moving forward.

Emma:
Yeah, that’s important. And if your company already has established procedures, emojis can be helpful for tracking communication, too. You can use a “loading” emoji, the eyes emoji, or a “working on it” emoji to show progress, and then update it when you’re done.

I also want to touch on the formatting of async communication. If you need to ask more than three questions, it can get confusing. If you have a multi-part conversation, I recommend sending a separate post for each topic so they can each have their own dedicated thread. That way, less information gets lost compared to a giant message where everything is lumped together. Otherwise, you might end up having to schedule a call because there’s too much going on in one message.

Adam:
That’s a great tip. Another thing I picked up from my friend Haley at 10up is the importance of consistency and rhythm in communication. If you’re managing a project and have a weekly meeting or update, try to send your agenda or summary at the same time every week. People appreciate predictability in communication—it helps build trust and reduces surprises.

Another good tip Haley mentioned was drafting your message in Google Docs and getting peer review before you send it out. What’s your take on that?

Emma:
I think it depends on the message, but yeah, I definitely agree with using Google Docs for longer or more formal messages. I’m more comfortable writing in Google Docs because I have Grammarly and other tools to help catch mistakes. Also, if it’s something important or if I need input from others, I’ll ask someone to review it before sending it.

Sometimes, I’ll ask for feedback like, “Does this have enough context? Does this sound like me? Do I sound upset or annoyed?” Having another set of eyes on a message can help make sure it’s clear and professional before you hit send.

Adam:
Yeah, I love Grammarly Pro for the win! It’s not just about catching grammar mistakes—it’s also about ensuring that the message aligns with what you want to convey. Especially with important messages or anything client-facing, it’s good to slow down and have someone else review it. Don’t rush to publish it—take a beat, have someone look it over, and make sure everything’s in order.

And one trick I’ve learned is to set expectations upfront. Instead of saying, “When you have a minute, can you look at this?” say, “I need to send this out by 7 PM; would you mind reviewing it before then?” That way, they know how urgent it is, and if they can’t get to it in time, you’re still able to send it by the deadline.

Emma:
Exactly! And it helps to be clear about expectations, especially in different time zones. Also, if something is optional for some people but mandatory for others, it’s important to tag those people directly so they know they need to review it.

We had an example today on my team where someone sent a message with a summary and action points, and then said, “You have until the end of the day to challenge this, or I’m proceeding.” That’s a great way to set a clear timeline and let people know what the plan is.

Adam:
That’s a great way to handle it—give a clear deadline for feedback and move forward if no one challenges it. There’s a phrase I like: “It’s unkind to be unclear.” Sometimes we try to be too nice, saying, “If you have time,” or “whatever works for you,” but in the end, it just makes things more confusing. Being direct is better.

Emma:
I agree! It’s like when I speak, I tend to say, “Maybe, possibly, kind of…” but in messages, I’m much more direct—“Do this” or “This needs to happen.” It’s about clarity and getting things done.

Adam:
Yeah, it’s unkind to be unclear. You want to be kind and polite, but also clear. It’s a balance—don’t leave people guessing, but also don’t be overly harsh. And if you’re giving people a timeline, tell them when you need something done, and if it’s okay if they don’t respond, let them know that too.

Emma:
Exactly. And when you’re writing these messages, also be aware of the language you use, especially when it comes to different cultures and inclusivity. You don’t want to unintentionally offend someone, so choose your words carefully. And if you do make a mistake, apologize and learn from it.

Adam:
Yes, that’s a great point—be mindful of your audience and the words you choose. And if you mess up, own it and apologize. We’re all learning.

Alright, we’ve covered a lot, but we still have one more sensitive topic to discuss: swearing. Is it okay to swear? When is it okay, and when is it not okay? What’s your take on dropping swear words in async communication?

Emma:
Personally, I have a bit of a potty mouth, so I’m used to swearing in my day-to-day life. But in async communication, it depends on the company culture. At Hostinger, for example, it’s common for people to drop the occasional F-bomb internally, but I wouldn’t swear in a message to someone I just met or on their first day.

I think swearing is something that comes with familiarity—it’s more about knowing your audience. If it’s internal and you have a good relationship with the person, swearing might be fine. But for external clients or more formal situations, it’s definitely a no-go.

Adam:
Yeah, I agree. Don’t be the first to swear. If you’re building a relationship or working with a client, keep it professional. There’s a time and place for it, and you want to be sure it’s appropriate before you start using swear words.

At the same time, you want to be authentic. So if you’re comfortable swearing in certain contexts and it feels natural, it’s okay to do that—but be mindful of the situation.

Emma:
Exactly. Be yourself, but be cautious. And remember, in async communication, everything can be screenshot and shared. So, if you’re swearing in Slack or anywhere else, be aware that it could end up somewhere you didn’t intend.

Adam:
That’s a great point. Always assume your message could be shared, even in private channels or DMs. If you wouldn’t want your message to be forwarded, don’t send it.

Another thing I try to do in async messages is start by being human. It’s easy to get straight to the point in async communication, but it’s nice to start with a “Hey, how are you?” or “Hope your week is going well” before diving into the business stuff.

Emma:
I agree! My greetings change depending on my energy levels. Sometimes it’s “Hey,” sometimes it’s “Hello!” with lots of o’s, or even a dancing cactus emoji. But I always try to start with a personal touch because we’re not just talking to robots.

You should ask how someone’s doing before diving into work, especially if you haven’t spoken to them in a while. Just like in person, you don’t walk up to someone and immediately ask them for a status update. Start with a greeting, then get into the conversation.

Adam:
Exactly. It helps build rapport and makes the conversation feel more human. It also shows that you care about the other person beyond just the task at hand. Any final thoughts as we wrap up?

Emma:
I had one, but it’s gone now. My brain isn’t braining anymore!

Adam:
The best part is you can tell me later—async communication!

Emma:
Yes, exactly! I’ll ping you later. But seriously, if anyone listening has questions or specific scenarios where they want help improving their async communication, feel free to send me a message. I love helping with that kind of stuff!

Adam:
Absolutely! And if you, the listeners, have any tips or strategies you use for async communication that we haven’t covered, please let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

Emma:
Yes, and if you have any other topics you want to discuss with us, we’d be more than happy to have you on the show. We can talk, and, you know, shoot the poo—uh, I mean, shoot the shit.

Adam:
And that is a sign that we’re wrapping up this episode of Woo Biz Chat!

Emma:
This is why Emma doesn’t close the show. Goodbye, and thanks to all our listeners!

This show is sponsored by…

Airwallex: With Airwallex merchants are no longer forced to convert their foreign incoming payments into their home market currencies and they can use the funds to pay suppliers internationally.

Omnisend: Whether it’s for integration into your Woo product, or building sites for clients, Omnisend is the solution for email and SMS marketing with their CRM solution for WooCommerce shops and your own website.

In this episode of Woo BizChat, hosts Adam Weeks and Emma Young dive into the world of asynchronous communication, sharing insights on how to effectively communicate across different time zones and platforms.

They explore the do’s and don’ts of async communication, the importance of over-communicating, using emojis and tone to convey clarity, and when to switch to a real-time conversation.

Adam and Emma also tackle the tricky topic of swearing in professional contexts, the value of getting feedback, and how to build rapport while keeping communication clear and human.

Takeaways

Over-communicating is better than under-communicating: In asynchronous communication, providing thorough context is essential, especially if the person hasn’t met you in person or doesn’t know your communication style. Clear, detailed messages help avoid misunderstandings.

Use emojis strategically: Emojis can add warmth and tone to otherwise cold, text-based communication. However, don’t overdo it—use them to enhance clarity and express emotions without distracting from the message.

Break up complex messages: When you need to ask multiple questions or cover several topics, break your message into separate posts or threads to keep discussions organized and avoid overwhelming the recipient.

Timing and consistency matter: Whether it’s a recurring meeting agenda or an important message, being consistent with when and how you communicate helps establish predictability and reliability in your workflow.

When to switch to real-time communication: If a conversation becomes too complex or emotional, it’s often best to switch from async to synchronous communication. A quick Zoom call or Slack huddle can save time and prevent misunderstandings.

Be mindful of your audience: Different cultures and communication styles may require adjusting your approach. Always be respectful and considerate, especially when using acronyms, jargon, or informal language.

Feedback is key: Regularly ask for feedback on your communication style to improve. It helps you ensure that your messages are clear and interpreted as intended.

Set expectations clearly: Don’t be afraid to set clear deadlines and expectations in your messages. It’s unkind to be unclear—people appreciate knowing when something is due or when to take action.

Use peer reviews for important messages: When sending out important or client-facing communication, consider drafting in a tool like Google Docs and getting feedback from peers before hitting send.

Know when it’s okay to swear: Swearing in async communication depends on the company culture and your relationship with the person you’re communicating with. Keep it professional, especially in client-facing conversations, and avoid being the first to swear.

HeroPress: How WordPress and My Work Help Me Stay on Board During the War – Як WordPress та робота допомагають мені залишатись на плаву під час війни?

Lana Miro — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Here is Lana reading her own story aloud.

Це есе також доступно українською.

My name is Lana Miro, shortened for Svitlana. I’m a Partnerships Manager at Crocoblock. This article is my personal story about how WordPress and my work have been helping me stay on board during the war in Ukraine.

Brief Introduction

I’m 28 years old, born and raised in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. It’s a peaceful, small city (before the war, about 400,000 people lived here). I never thought about moving because travelling and exploring other cities for short periods was enough for me. Mykolaiv was always my comfort zone, where I felt safe.

This city provides me with a sense of peace – the river, the parks… the river – yes, I’m a fan of water.

My Introduction to WordPress

I began my journey with WordPress in 2017 when I started an internship at TemplateMonster. That’s when I discovered this incredible platform that captivated me with its scope and possibilities.

At TemplateMonster, I worked as a Partnerships Manager. At that time, the company’s niche was templates for various CMS platforms. So, I’m well-acquainted with all of WordPress’s competitors.

During my three years with the company, I realized that WordPress was the largest and most interesting CMS for me.

Why?

The community and the number of people creating content about WordPress is enormous!
A variety of plugins and templates.
An interesting and intuitive dashboard.

In 2020, during the Covid pandemic, I started experiencing issues with my back and mental health, so I decided to take a one-year break. I left the project and rejoined another Holding project a year later – Crocoblock.

Crocoblock was a breath of fresh air for me because of its amazing community and cool plugins that I wanted to work with.

My main tasks involved finding partners for collaboration, organizing events, and more. I’ve described partnerships in more detail in my free guide – WordPress Partnerships Basics.

Invasion: How to Work?

The war with Russia has been ongoing since 2014, so the Russian invasion in 2022 wasn’t a surprise to us. However, what was surprising – that bombs, missiles, and artillery could be used with such intensity in the 21st century.

For the first two weeks, we were paralyzed.

The beginning

The first two weeks of the war were a real shock. We were all paralyzed, but the Crocoblock team quickly came together, creating an operational chat to support each other. This was a time when words, actions, and even just being present in the chat meant so much.

For example, one of our employees immediately went to the army, so we collected money, and our developers bought everything he needed to start.

I checked my work email on the second day of the escalation. Lying in the basement, with the internet barely reaching, I decided, “I’m relatively safe, so I can respond to partners.” I reviewed critical messages, and let them know that we were okay and would respond as soon as we adapted.

A few days later, we decided to write a blog post to let the Community know we were okay and to explain what was happening.

After two weeks of lying in the basement (yes, my family of nine spent two weeks in the basement, occasionally sleeping in the corridor or bathroom for safety), a bomb was dropped near our street, and that became a critical moment for our family.

By a majority vote, we decided to move to the western part of our country.

Adaptation period

Once we were safe, I was able to start working at 100% (okay, maybe 80%, as 20% of me was still in shock ). Of course, the news, conditions, and stress affected me, but work helped me get back into a routine and begin to adapt.

Work became my lifeline.

It brought me back to life, giving me a sense of stability when everything around me was falling apart. We recorded a video message for our clients, which was an important step not only for synchronization but also for my personal recovery.

Not to mention the numerous words of support we received afterward.

We once again realized that Crocoblock clients are the best.

Part of the team immediately moved to safer cities or went abroad. But some stayed in Mykolaiv, and Anna, our CEO, was in an occupied city – Kherson. But that’s her story. I was incredibly happy when she finally left the occupation, and we exhaled in relief.

After three months (which felt like a year), my husband and I decided to move closer to Mykolaiv to be near his parents. It was safe there, but due to the constant changes, my depression reached its peak.

Fortunately, part of Kherson was liberated, and Mykolaiv was being shelled less frequently, so we decided to return home. That’s when I started treatment with a psychiatrist. She helped stabilize my condition and bring me back.

2022 was the hardest year for me and my family, but the ability to work and be part of the WordPress community helped me Just Continue. At the end of the year, I decided to thank everyone who supported me, asked how I was doing, joked, and was kind to me in a post on Medium.

Team changes

Of course, the war impacted our team, and I immediately noticed how management changed its approach to focus on caring for each team member.

We started having training sessions based on the team’s requests (e.g., anxiety management), management helped with healing supplies (since there are blackouts or Internet issues in Ukraine), and relocation if needed.

During the war, our HR team introduced the IDP (Individual Development Plan), which allows you to outline your development for the year, focus, and receive better feedback. This helped me during my depression. The war brought changes, and I became more anxious, chaotic and found it hard to focus.

The constant support from my manager was also crucial. My manager is Anna, our CEO. I regularly receive feedback from her, which is often needed to work better. She also supports my initiatives and ideas, which is incredibly motivating.

I try to implement her skills in managing my team of three wonderful women – Victoria, Community Manager; Nikki, Content Marketer; and Dashel, our blog Editor.

Today

I’m writing this article on August 26, during one of the biggest attacks by Russia (just one day after our Independence Day celebration). More than 100 missiles and drones were launched this morning.

We woke up at 7:30 a.m. and saw the attack begin. Thanks to monitoring channels, we can continue to live and hide in shelters when they announce. I had breakfast, did some exercise, and started working with sirens in the background.

Next came the emergency electricity offs, as one of Russia’s goals is to break our energy system and plunge our country and people into chaos. But besides anger and hatred, I no longer feel anything for them. We are prepared; we have power banks, EcoFlows, water reserves, and are ready to work full force so our country can survive.

We are currently actively preparing for our 2nd WordPress Agency Summit in September, and this helps me feel like I can be useful to the community. Join us; it’s free.

We’re also trying to participate in more WordPress events. For example, this year we sponsored WordCamp Europe 2024, and we’re planning to sponsor a local event in Spain for the first time.

In general, I’m finding my place in the WordPress community, which inspires me with its kindness and support. The first step was my guide on partnerships. Next, I plan to:

Launch my blog – a home for my thoughts – on partnerships, event organization, mental health, etc.;
Contribute photos to the WordPress directory (since this is an old hobby I forgot about);
Plus, I have many ideas that I want to gradually implement.

What Helped Me

My strength comes from the support of my team, family, and the WordPress community. Along with that, therapy, household chores, and even simple joys like cafes or books helped me find inner harmony to continue living.

My top glimmers:

Donating to the military (I try to donate at least 10% of my income every month);
Car trips (this is my therapy and childhood dream);
Household chores to distract myself and declutter;
Cafes (many atmospheric places have opened in the city);
Supporting Ukrainian businesses (we try to buy local products);
WordPress events and activities;
Books and good music;
Comfortable and beautiful things;
The support of my family and sister;
Flowers and small gifts (I didn’t see the point before, but now they bring a smile and improve my mood).

Because only in harmony with myself can I help my country.

Lana’s Work Environment

We asked Lana for a view into her development life and this is what she sent!

HeroPress would like to thank Draw Attention for their donation of the plugin to make this interactive image!

Як WordPress та робота допомагають мені залишатись на плаву під час війни?

Слухайте власну історію Лани вголос.

Мене звати Лана Міро, скорочено від Світлани. Я – партнерський менеджер у Crocoblock. Ця стаття – моя особиста історія про те, як WordPress і робота допомагають мені залишатися на плаву під час війни в Україні.

Короткий вступ

Мені 28 років, я народилась і проживаю у місті Миколаїв, Україна. Це спокійне, не велике місто (до війни, тут проживало близько 400 тис. людей). Я ніколи не задумувалась про переїзд, бо мені було достатньо подорожей і дослідження інших міст на короткий період. А от Миколаїв завжди залишався моєю комфортною зоною, де я почувала себе в безпеці.

Тут є те, що дає мені відчуття спокою – річка, парки… річка – так, я фанат води.

Знайомство з WordPress

Я почала свій шлях з WordPress у 2017 році, коли прийшла на стажування до TemplateMonster. Тоді я відкрила для себе цю неймовірну платформу, яка захопила мене своєю масштабністю і можливостями.

У TemplateMonster, я працювала менеджером з партнерств. На той період ніша компанії – це шаблони для різних CMS. Тому я обізнана з усіма конкурентами WordPress.

Протягом 3х років роботи в компанії, я зрозуміла, що WordPress найбільша і найцікавіша для мене CMS.

Чому?

Ком’юніті та кількість людей, які створюють контент про WordPress – величезна!
Різноманітність плагінів, шаблонів
Цікавий і інтуїтивний дашборд

У 2020, під час Covid, я почала більше відчувати проблеми зі спиною і ментальним здоров’ям, тому вирішила зробити паузу на 1 рік. Звільнилась з проекту і поновилась через рік у інший проект холдингу – Crocoblock.

Crocoblock став для мене новим ковтком повітря, бо тут крутезне ком’юніті і класні плагіни, з якими хочеться працювати.

Моїми основними завданнями було пошук партнерів для співпраці, організація заходів, і т.д. Більше про партнерства, я описала у своєму, безкоштовному посібнику – WordPress Partnerships Basics.

Повномасштабна Війна: як працювати?

Війна з росією триває з 2014 року, тому для нас не був сюрпризом наступ росіян 2022. Але сюрпризом було, що у 21 столітті можуть використовуватись бомби, ракети, та артилерія в такій інтенсивності.

Перші 2 тижні ми були паралізовані.

Початок

Перші два тижні війни були справжнім шоком. Ми всі були паралізовані, але команда Crocoblock швидко згуртувалася, створивши оперативний чат для підтримки один одного. Це був час, коли слова, дії і навіть просто присутність у чаті значили дуже багато.

(наприклад, наш співробітник одразу пішов воювати, тому ми зібрали гроші і наші розробники купили все що йому потрібно для початку).

На робочу пошту я зайшла десь на другий день ескалації. Лежачи в підвалі, інтернет трошки дотягував, тому я вирішила – “Я відносно в безпеці, отже можу відповісти партнерам :D”. Я оглянула критичні повідомлення, дала знати що у нас все окей і відповімо якомога скоріше як адаптуємось.

Через пару днів, ми вирішили написати блог статтю, щоб дати знати нашим клієнтам та партнерам – ми в порядку і що взагалі відбувається.

Через 2 тижні, лежачи в підвалі (так, 2 тижні моя сім’я з 9 людей провела в підвалі, періодично сплячи в коридорі або ванній кімнаті дому для безпеки) недалеко від нашої вулиці скинули бомбу і це стало критичним моментом для нашої сім’і. І методом голосування – ми виїхали на захід нашої країни.

Період адаптації

Будучи в безпеці, я змогла почати працювати на всі 100 (ну окей, на 80%, 20% мене ще досі було шокована). Звичайно, новини, умови і стан стресу вплинули, але робота допомогла повернутись в режим і почати адаптуватись.

Робота стала моїм рятівним колом. Вона повернула мене до життя, дала мені відчуття стабільності, коли все навколо руйнувалося. Ми записали відеозвернення для наших клієнтів, що стало важливим кроком не лише для синхронізації, але й для мого особистого відновлення.

Не кажучи вже про численну кількість слів підтримки, яку ми отримали потім.

Ми ще раз зрозуміли – Crocoblock клієнти – найкращі.

Частина команди одразу переїхала в безпечніші міста або виїхала закордон. Але дехто залишався в Миколаєві, а Анна – наша CEO взагалі була в окупованому місті – Херсон. Але це вже її історія. Я була неймовірно рада коли вона нарешті виїхала з окупації і ми видихнули з полегшенням.

Після 3х місяців (для мене вони тягнулись як рік), я і мій чоловік вирішили переїхати ближче до Миколаєва до його батьків. Там було безпечно, але через зміни, моя депресія досягла апогею.

На щастя, звільнили частину Херсону і Миколаїв став менше обстрілюватись, тому ми вирішили повернутися додому. Де я почала лікування з психіатром. Вона допомогла стабілізувати мій стан і повернути себе.

2022 рік був найскладнішим для мене та моєї сім’ї, але можливість працювати та бути частинкою WordPress ком’юніті допомогло мені вистояти та допомагати моїй країні. В кінці року, я вирішила подякувати всім, хто мене підтримував, запитував як справи, жартував, був добрим до мене, у своєму пості на Medium.

Командні зміни

Звичайно війна вплинула на нашу команду і я одразу помітила як менеджмент змінив підхід до управління з акцентом на піклування про кожного члена команди.

У нас почались тренінги згідно запитів команди (наприклад, боротьба з тривожністю), менеджмент допомагає з засобами заживлення (так як в Україні бувають блекаути/проблеми зі світлом або зв’язком) та релокацією за потреби.

Під час війни, наша HR команда ввела IDP (Individual development plan), який дозволяє окреслити розвиток людини протягом року, сфокусуватись і отримувати кращий фідбек. Мені це допомогло під час депресії. Бо війна внесла свої корективи і я стала більш тривожною, хаотичною і важко було сфокусуватись.

Важливою є постійна підтримка менеджера. Мій менеджер – це Анна, наша СЕО. Від неї я постійно отримую фідбек, який так часто потрібен, щоб краще працювати. Також вона підтримує мої починання та ідеї, що неймовірно мотивує.

Я стараюсь наслідувати її навички у своєму управлінні моєю командою з трьох прекрасних жінок – Вікторія, Community Manager; Ніккі, Content Marketer, та Дашель, Editor.

Сьогодення

Пишу цю статтю 26 серпня, в день однієї з наймасштабнішої атаки росії (буквально 1 день від святкування нашого дня Незалежності). Більше 100 ракет і дронів було випущено зранку.

Зранку ми прокинулись о 7:30 і побачили початок атаки. Завдяки моніторинговим каналам, ми можемо продовжувати жити і підглядати коли треба сховатись в укриття. Я поснідала, зробила зарядку і почала працювати з серенами на фоні (це значно краще ніж вибухи).

Далі почались аварійні відключення, бо одна з цілей росії – зламати нашу енергосистему і ввести нашу країну і людей в хаос. Але, окрім злості і ненависті я більше не відчуваю нічого до них. Ми підготовлені, маємо пауербанки, екофлоу, резерви води і готові працювати наповну, щоб країна вижила.

Зараз ми активно працюємо над підготовкою до нашої 2гої WordPress Agency Summit у вересні і це допомагає мені відчувати, що я можу бути корисною ком’юніті. Доєднуйтесь, це безкоштовно.

Також стараємось більше брати участь у заходах WordPress. Наприклад, спонсорували WordCamp Europe 2024, та плануємо спонсорувати вперше локальний захід у Іспанії.

В загальному, я шукаю своє місце у WordPress ком’юніті, яке надихає мене своєю добротою та підтримкою. Першим кроком був мій посібник про партнерства. Далі, я планую:

запустити свій блог – дім для моїх думок – про партнерства, організацію заходів, ментальне здоров’я і т.д.;
контриб’юторство фотографій у директорію WordPress (так як це моє стареньке хоббі про яке я забула);
Плюс маю безліч ідей, які поступово хочу втілювати.

Що мені Допомогло

Моя сила – це підтримка моєї команди, родини, і ком’юніті WordPress. Разом з тим, терапія, побутові справи, і навіть прості радощі, такі як кав’ярні або книжки, допомогли мені знайти внутрішню гармонію, щоб продовжувати боротьбу.

Мої топ глімери:

Донати на військо (щомісяця стараюсь не менше 10% доходу донатити);
Поїздки на машині (це моя терапія і дитяча мрія);
Побутові справи, щоб відволіктись і не думати;
Кав’ярні (у місті відкрилось багато атмосферних закладів);
Підтримка українських бізнесів (намагаємось купувати локальні товари);
WordPress заходи та події;
Книжки та хороша музика;
Зручні та гарні речі;
Підтримка моєї сім’ї, родини та сестри;
Квіти та дрібні подарунки (раніше не бачила в тому сенсу, а зараз дарують посмішку і настрій).

Бо тільки у гармонійному стані я можу допомагати своїй країні вистояти.

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