ility/\">The Art and Science of Accessibility</a>” episode of the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/podcast/\">WP Briefing Podcast</a>, talking about accessibility and exploring how it applies to the WordPress open source software. You will find that many of our updates from August 2021 tie in closely with the core principles of access, accessibility, and usability. Read on to find out more!</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" />\n\n\n\n<h2>Join the 2021 WordPress Translation Day Celebrations in September</h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"632\" height=\"395\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/09/image.jpeg?resize=632%2C395&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"WordPress Translation Day 2021 September 1 - 30, 2021\" class=\"wp-image-11177\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/09/image.jpeg?resize=1024%2C640&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/09/image.jpeg?resize=300%2C188&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/09/image.jpeg?resize=768%2C480&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/09/image.jpeg?w=1440&amp;ssl=1 1440w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/09/image.jpeg?w=1264&amp;ssl=1 1264w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 632px) 100vw, 632px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" /></a></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Join WordPress contributors around the world on <a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/\">WordPress Translation Day celebrations</a> for the entire month of September! The sixth edition of #WPTranslationDay &#8211; which is a cross-team effort led by the Polyglots and Marketing Teams, has a host of fun programs aimed at helping WordPress speak all languages of the world. Want to join the fun? Here’s how.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/wptd-2021/local-events/\">Join your local translation event</a> and collaborate on efforts to translate WordPress! Can’t find a <a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/wptd-2021/local-events/\">local event in your area</a>? Why don’t you <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/08/11/call-for-local-event-organizers-wordpress-translation-day-2021/\">organize one on your own</a>?</li><li>Join <a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/wptd-2021/global-events/\">one of our global events</a> from September 17-30!<em> </em>We have exciting sessions on <a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/wptd-2021/global-events/\">polyglots tools and open source translation communities</a>, to name a few.</li><li>You can help<a href=\"https://translate.wordpress.org/\"> translate WordPress to your own language</a>, in your own time, this month! <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/translating/first-steps/\">Here’s how!</a></li><li>Share what you are translating using the #WPTranslationDay hashtag on social media, to build excitement around the event! Don’t forget to amplify posts about the event on <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/WPTranslationDay/\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TranslateWP\">Twitter</a>, <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/wptranslationday/\">Instagram</a>, and <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/wptranslationday/\">LinkedIn</a>!</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;For more information, check out <a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/\">the translation day website</a> and the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polylgots/tag/wptranslationday/\">Polyglots blog</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>WordPress Release Updates</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Core Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/13/preliminary-road-to-5-9/\">commenced work</a> on the next major release &#8211; WordPress 5.9. The team aims to ship some cool features such as intrinsic web design to blocks, improved block patterns, navigation menus, better design tools, edit flows for block themes, and a new interface for theme.json. Check out the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/\">WordPress 5.9 development cycle</a> to know more. This release is set to go out in December 2021. The team is also <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/24/wordpress-5-8-x-release-team-and-5-8-1-schedule/\">working on shipping a minor release WordPress 5.8.1</a> –– its <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/01/wordpress-5-8-1-rc-1/\">release candidate</a> is already out and the final release will launch on September 8.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to contribute to WordPress core? Join the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW\">#core</a> channel, follow the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/\">Core Team blog</a>, and check out the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/\">team handbook</a>. Don’t miss the Core Team chats on Wednesdays at <a href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=5&amp;min=00&amp;sec=0\">5 AM</a> and <a href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=20&amp;min=00&amp;sec=0\">8 PM</a> UTC. You can also help <a href=\"https://translate.wordpress.org/\">translate WordPress</a> to your local language &#8211; and what better time to do it, than in September, <a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/\">during the translation month celebrations</a>? Another fun way to contribute would be to <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2021/08/11/share-about-wordpress-5-8-on-social-media/\">share about WordPress 5.8 on social media</a>!</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Say Hello to Gutenberg Versions 11.2 and 11.3</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We launched Gutenberg <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/05/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-2-0-4-august/\">version 11.2</a> and <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/18/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-3-18-august/\">version 11.3</a> this month. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/05/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-2-0-4-august/\">Version 11.2</a> adds customizing/color options to the search block, a flex layout for the group block, and a new button for creating posts as part of the publishing flow. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/18/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-3-18-august/\">Version 11.3</a> offers a new dimensions panel (replacing the spacing panel) with more styling options, dimensions control for the feature image block, and significant performance improvements for block inserters.<br></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to get involved in building Gutenberg? Follow <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/\">the Core Team blog</a>, contribute to <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/\">Gutenberg on GitHub</a>, and join the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02QB2JS7\">#core-editor</a> channel in the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/chat/\">Make WordPress Slack</a>. The “<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/21/whats-next-in-gutenberg-site-editing-status-check-late-july-august-2021/\">What’s next in Gutenberg</a>” post offers more details on the latest updates.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Get Excited about WordCamp US 2021</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The biggest WordCamp in North America &#8211; <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/\">WordCamp US 2021-</a> is barely a month away. <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/tickets/\">Get your (free) tickets</a>, if you haven’t already! The organizing team has opened up calls for <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/calling-all-musicians/\">musicians</a>, <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/call-for-contributor-stories/\">contributor stories</a>, and <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/call-for-media-partners/\">media partners</a>. Check out <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/\">the event website</a> and follow the event on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/wordcampus\">Twitter</a>, <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/wordcampus/\">Instagram</a>, and <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/WordCampUSA\">Facebook</a> to stay updated on all that #WCUS news.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Important Announcements/Updates</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Support for the Classic Editor plugin <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/08/an-update-on-the-classic-editor-plugin/\">will be extended for a full year until 2022</a>!</li><li>The Themes Team published a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/08/06/summary-of-the-request-for-feedback-on-requirement-changes/\">feedback summary</a> on the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/20/discussion-request-for-feedback-on-requirement-changes/\">proposed requirement changes for WordPress theme review</a>, and will soon be updating the handbook and review tools. You will find more context in their <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/08/10/meeting-notes-themes-team-and-theme-authors-regarding-requirements-change/\">meeting notes</a>.</li><li>The Plugins Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2021/08/27/inaccurate-stats-have-been-corrected/\">corrected inaccurate plugin statistics</a> in the plugin directory.</li><li>Check out the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/08/17/fse-program-theme-design-survey-results/\">results of the FSE Theme Design (theme.json) survey</a>!</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Feedback/Testing Requests from Contributor Teams</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>The Testing Team is requesting testing help for a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/08/30/week-in-test-30-aug-2021/\">few tickets and patches in WordPress</a>. The team is also looking for volunteers to <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/08/20/call-for-volunteeers-audit-and-update-testing-instructions-across-the-make-sites/\">audit and update Core testing instructions </a>across different Make sites.</li><li>The Community Team shared a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/09/01/proposal-centralized-global-do_action-charity-hackathons/\">proposal on planning online-only recurring global do_action charity hackathons</a>. Share your feedback by September 24.</li><li>The Training Team is also exploring the possibility of adding <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/08/10/proposal-learner-achievements-on-profiles/\">learner achievements (on learn.wordpress.org) on WP Profiles</a> and is requesting feedback from the community.</li><li>Help the Marketing Team’s outreach research by filling out <a href=\"https://forms.gle/4QFhX8fcNxKAfK8y5\">this 2 question survey</a> on how you search for WordPress release information. If you have any favorite features from the latest release (WordPress 5.8) let the team know by completing this <a href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd_2llymf79-h5sgTiprz7Kw4Gr4cbDHh-AAdAQfiArXlHksg/viewform\">short form</a>.</li><li>Version 18.1 of WordPress for <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2021/08/23/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-ios-18-1/\">iOS</a> and <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2021/08/23/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-android-18-1/\">Android</a> are now available for testing!</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>WordPress Event Updates</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://floripa.wordcamp.org/2021/\">WordCamp Florianopolis 2021</a> was held on August 11-12, 2021. The event, which sold 390 tickets, had 11 speakers and 4 sponsors. Catch the <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh1CeGfuDRH-o13xh7kpgUQ\">event recap on YouTube</a>!</li><li><a href=\"https://galicia.wordcamp.org/2021/\">WordCamp Galicia 2021</a> is being held from September 30 &#8211; October 2, 2021! </li><li><a href=\"https://doaction.org/event/karnataka-2021/\">do_action Karnataka 2021</a> was held from August 7-15, 2021. Check out <a href=\"https://wordpressfoundation.org/2021/do_action-karnataka-2021-a-report/\">the recap</a>!</li><li>The Core Team organized a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/25/hallway-hangout-summary-compare-and-contrast-the-navigation-screens/\">hallway hangout</a> to compare the ‘experimental’ Gutenberg navigation feature with the built-in core feature. The team decided to wait until feature parity with core nav menus, to move the feature from experiments to the main plugin.</li><li>The Diverse Speakers Training group (<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wpdiversity/\">#WPDiversity</a>) of the Community Team held their first “<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/09/02/report-diverse-speaker-workshops-august-2021/\">Allyship for WordPress Event Organizers</a>” workshop on August 19, 2021. The event had 13 attendees from six countries who reported a 52% increase in preparedness to help create inclusive WordPress events. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wpdiversityworkshops/\">Stay tuned</a> for their next workshop in November!</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" />\n\n\n\n<h2>Further Reading</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Don’t miss this blog post on <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/08/widgets-in-wordpress-5-8-and-beyond/\">Widgets in WordPress 5.8 and beyond</a>!</li><li>The Full Site Editing (FSE) Outreach program wrapped up its ninth challenge –– <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/08/11/fse-program-testing-call-9-handling-highered-headers/\">Handling HigherEd Headers</a>, on September 1. Keep an eye out for <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/tag/fse-outreach-program/\">test results and future testing call announcements</a>!</li><li>The Test Team is <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/08/19/test-team-chat-summary-17-august-2021/\">attempting to modernize PHPUnit tests</a> for WordPress.</li><li>The Accessibility Team is testing the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2021/08/20/accessibility-team-meeting-notes-august-20-2021/\">navigation block</a> for accessibility feedback.</li><li>The Docs Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2021/08/31/summary-of-docs-team-meeting-aug-24-2021/\">launched a new repository</a> for tracking issues with WordPress documentation: <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/Documentation-Issue-Tracker\">https://github.com/WordPress/Documentation-Issue-Tracker</a></li><li>The Training Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/08/17/proposal-brand-guidelines-for-learn-wordpress-content/#comment-3130\">finalized</a> brand <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/08/17/proposal-brand-guidelines-for-learn-wordpress-content/\">guidelines</a> for <a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org\">learn.wordpress.org</a>. The team is also working on setting up <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/08/12/wordpress-101-microcourses-proposal/\">Micro courses for Learn</a>.</li><li>The Openverse Team is <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2021/08/16/multi-stage-docker-builds-in-the-openverse-api/\">exploring Multistage docker builds</a> as a solution to better set up waveforms for audio search results in the Openverse tool.&nbsp;</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Have a story that we should include in the next “Month in WordPress” post? Please </em><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/month-in-wordpress-submissions/\"><em>submit it using this form</em></a><em>.&nbsp;</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The following folks contributed to August’s Month in WordPress:&nbsp; <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/evarlese/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>evarlese</a> <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/meher/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>meher</a> <em><a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/nao/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>nao</a></em> <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/jillbinder/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>jillbinder</a></em> <em><a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>webcommsat</a></em></p>\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"11176\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:60:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n			\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:38:\"An Update on the Classic Editor Plugin\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:74:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/08/an-update-on-the-classic-editor-plugin/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 25 Aug 2021 16:51:41 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:2:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:7:\"General\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:7:\"Updates\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=11149\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:333:\"Before the release of WordPress 5.0 in 2018, the Classic Editor plugin was published to help ease the transition to the new block editor. At the time, we promised to support the plugin through 2021 and adjust if needed as the deadline got closer. After discussing this with Matt, it&#8217;s clear that continuing to support [&#8230;]\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:7:\"Josepha\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1583:\"\n<p>Before the release of WordPress 5.0 in 2018, the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/\">Classic Editor plugin</a> was published to help ease the transition to the new block editor. At the time, we promised to support the plugin through 2021 and adjust if needed as the deadline got closer. After discussing this with Matt, it&#8217;s clear that continuing to support the plugin through 2022 is the right call for the project as well as the community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, if you’ve been putting off using the block editor, this is an excellent time to give it another shot. Since it first appeared in 2018, hundreds of WordPress contributors have made a lot of updates based on user feedback. You will be pleasantly surprised at how far it’s come!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Big thanks to everyone who has been working on WordPress, Gutenberg, and the Classic Editor plugin. And thank you to every WordPress user and tester who has provided the feedback we need to make the software even better.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>~ Josepha</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Returning to the block editor for the first time in a long time? You can give feedback early in the process by <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/handbook/full-site-editing-outreach-experiment/\">joining the outreach program</a>! Looking at it for the first time ever? <a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/workshops/?series=24&amp;topic=&amp;language=&amp;captions=\">Get your bearings with some workshops</a> or <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/support/article/wordpress-editor/#how-does-the-block-editor-work\">check out this demo</a>!</em></p>\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"11149\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:58:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n\n			\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:4:{s:0:\"\";a:7:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:49:\"WP Briefing: Episode 15: A Very WordPress Blooper\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:71:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/08/episode-15-a-very-wordpress-blooper/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 23 Aug 2021 22:14:41 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11:\"wp-briefing\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:53:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?post_type=podcast&p=11146\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:130:\"Ever wonder what it\'s like behind the scenes of WP Briefing? Listen in on this episode for a little levity and Josepha\'s bloopers.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:9:\"enclosure\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:0:\"\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:3:{s:3:\"url\";s:65:\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/WP-Briefing-Bloopers.mp3\";s:6:\"length\";s:1:\"0\";s:4:\"type\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Chloe Bringmann\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8885:\"\n<p>Ever wonder what it&#8217;s like behind the scenes of WP Briefing? Listen in on this episode for a little levity and Josepha&#8217;s bloopers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:wpbriefing@wordpress.org\">wpbriefing@wordpress.org</a>, either written or as a voice recording.</strong></em></p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Credits</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Editor:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/dustinhartzler/\">Dustin Hartzler</a></li><li>Logo:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/beafialho/\">Beatriz Fialho</a></li><li>Production:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/\">Chloé Bringmann</a></li><li>Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Transcript</h2>\n\n\n\n<span id=\"more-11146\"></span>\n\n\n\n<p>[contemporary intro music]</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>00:10</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hello, everyone, and welcome to a bonus briefing. Normally I talk to you about WordPress and stuff, but I figured that we all need a little levity in our lives right now. So today&#8217;s episode is actually just a series of bloopers and mistakes that I&#8217;ve made while recording. When I was preparing for this podcast, no one mentioned the deep weirdness of standing alone in your closet talking to yourself, nor did they realize just how lost I can get in the surpassingly, lovely lyricism of a lilting line, and then just have no idea what I&#8217;m supposed to be reading in the script that I wrote for myself. So, my dear friends, I hope these bring you a little laugh. And if we&#8217;ve got any luck at all, you may also hear me singing to myself, my computer, or about how terrible my talking just was. Here we go!</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:12</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hello, everyone, and welcome to a bonus briefing. I know I wasn&#8217;t going to sit boop, boop.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:21</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I messed up the thing where I&#8217;m talking about how I mess up, of course. I&#8217;m going to do it one more time, and you can choose whatever is a reasonable thing there.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:33</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because we had such a lengthy WP Briefing, WordPress, I’m going to just start that over again. Sorry, everyone.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:42</p>\n\n\n\n<p>My friends. Oh, no. I don&#8217;t know how I end my own show. How do I end my own show? There we go. Sorry.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:52</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was a weird way to say that. I&#8217;m going to start over again from the transition. And then we&#8217;re just going to go straight through to the end. Maybe.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:03</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The names that&#8230; I sound weird. I sound like I don&#8217;t know what my words are. And I said I wrote the words. I said I was all going to go in one go, and I&#8217;m a liar today. Okay, here we go. For realsies!</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:16</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Final first last take. Here we go. Sorry, I made myself laugh.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:22</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Matt Mullenweg. And, and I, I&#8217;m also in that group. I don&#8217;t know why I said that like it was a surprise. I have me too. I&#8217;m also in there.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:33</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ugh, I ran out of air. For reasons, it was a short sentence. I don&#8217;t know why I ran out of air.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:43</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coming out on April 14. That&#8217;s not true. It&#8217;s April 13. Right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:50</p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the form below to share the. Pfft &#8211; what are the things!&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:58</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is WP Briefing episode seven, no title because I don&#8217;t know what to call it because I gave it a title already. I gave it two titles, and then couldn&#8217;t remember why I gave it those titles. So I&#8217;ll come up with a title before we publish it. But I also have no idea what it is. I&#8217;m going to ask for help. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>03:17</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Testing project since I have too many commas, and I really believed in my comma when I said it. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>03:24</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prior to Gutenberg&#8230; pfft. Open source software like WordPress. I was going to smash that sentence into half a sentence. I was going to say when you know what you&#8217;re workussing on you have a solution which is not my friends of thing. So, I am just going to say the sentence again. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>03:47</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was sitting over here wringing my hands for some reason during that entire list. And so if you can hear me wringing my hands, which would be a whole new height of anxiety for anyone, you let me know, and I will rerecord that also.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:00</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Get a concept of. Nope, this is a lie. Get a concept of where to get your tickets is the silliest thing. I&#8217;m starting over from the small list of big things. Also, because I got too excited about how big my list is. I am going to get that excited again. But I will try not to shout about it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:17</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Humming intro song&#8221; Dun dun dun dun dun.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:23</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sorry, I had to scroll up, and I try not to scroll up when I&#8217;m talking in case maybe my whole computer turns into a microphone. Sorry, I&#8217;m just going to keep going because this has been a fine take so far.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:34</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mercy! I have words that I can say with my mouth. They aren&#8217;t these words today. It seems.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:45</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Build up to&#8230; Oh my goodness. My stomach grumbled, and this microphone, I know,&nbsp; picked it up. And so I&#8217;m going to redo bullet two so that we don&#8217;t just have a small monster under the bed in the middle of the podcast.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:03</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, like DEI, I feel s—Eh &#8211; maybe I should say, DEI, somewhere in there, so it&#8217;s clear for people cause I&#8217;m talking to people and not actually a screen. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:17</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before I joined the WordPress project, the majority of my work with accessibility was in the context of the digital divide. Now, when talking about the digital divide, there are three concepts around quote-unquote, getting things to people. And those concepts are&#8230; I guess I could say the thing, hold on one second, I can do it. I feel like I&#8217;m chopping up my words like I&#8217;m not really breathing very well. So I apologize. But here we go again.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:58</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don&#8217;t include that one. Sorry, I&#8217;m so nervous about this episode that, like, my mouth is getting dry, and I worry that you can hear it, and it drives me nuts every time I hear podcasters with a dry mouth, and you can just like hear it clicking and always stresses me out. I&#8217;m like, someone should give that poor thing a drink of water. And I just know I&#8217;m going to feel that way about myself later. And so I&#8217;m trying to stay hydrated, but it also means that I have to stop every two paragraphs and take a drink of water. I apologize for that interlude. I am about to start again, at my next section, which is like, halfway through.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>06:39</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, I learned that you can hear me swallowing my water with this microphone because it is a spectacular microphone. And so, I apologize for that as well. All right. Here I go. I&#8217;m going to do it all in one take. Watch me.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>06:56</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I also have questions, especially about how to move everything forward. Mm-hmm. Whoops. I put especially in the wrong spot. But I also thought&#8230;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>07:10</p>\n\n\n\n<p> Ta da, we did it. Gosh, that&#8217;s a short one. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>07:16</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I did it. Where&#8217;s my where&#8217;s my turning offing button.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>07:22</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tada! And scene and done.</p>\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"11146\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:63:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n\n\n\n			\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:4:{s:0:\"\";a:7:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"Widgets in WordPress 5.8 and Beyond\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:71:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/08/widgets-in-wordpress-5-8-and-beyond/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 09 Aug 2021 12:00:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:2:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8:\"Features\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9:\"Gutenberg\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=11115\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:367:\"Copy and Design by @critterverse WordPress 5.8 brings the power of Gutenberg blocks to widget areas — which means the highly customizable layout and styling options bring you closer to a&#160;WYSIWYG editing experience. I made a test site based on the oldie-but-goodie Twenty Sixteen theme, with three separate widget areas. In this post, I’ll highlight [&#8230;]\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:9:\"enclosure\";a:3:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:0:\"\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:3:{s:3:\"url\";s:60:\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/classic-widgets.mov\";s:6:\"length\";s:7:\"6475399\";s:4:\"type\";s:15:\"video/quicktime\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:0:\"\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:3:{s:3:\"url\";s:60:\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/block-widgets-1.mov\";s:6:\"length\";s:8:\"23931847\";s:4:\"type\";s:15:\"video/quicktime\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:2;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:0:\"\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:3:{s:3:\"url\";s:58:\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/custom-html-1.mov\";s:6:\"length\";s:8:\"13767042\";s:4:\"type\";s:15:\"video/quicktime\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Chloe Bringmann\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:7682:\"\n<p><strong><em>Copy and Design by <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/critterverse/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>critterverse</a> </em></strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress 5.8 brings the power of Gutenberg blocks to widget areas — which means the highly customizable layout and styling options bring you closer to a&nbsp;WYSIWYG editing experience. I made a test site based on the oldie-but-goodie <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/twentysixteen/\">Twenty Sixteen theme</a>, with three separate widget areas. In this post, I’ll highlight a few cool things that are now possible to do with your widgets and where things may be heading next.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/site-long-1x.png?ssl=1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"632\" height=\"1130\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/site-long-1x.png?resize=632%2C1130&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"A zoomed-out view of a single post with one sidebar widget area and two footer widget areas. The site content is about Marine Park Salt Marsh. A List View of blocks floating next to each widget area shows how the design is constructed.\" class=\"wp-image-11116\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/site-long-1x.png?w=2183&amp;ssl=1 2183w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/site-long-1x.png?resize=168%2C300&amp;ssl=1 168w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/site-long-1x.png?resize=573%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 573w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/site-long-1x.png?resize=768%2C1373&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/site-long-1x.png?resize=859%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 859w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/site-long-1x.png?resize=1145%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1145w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/site-long-1x.png?w=1264&amp;ssl=1 1264w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/site-long-1x.png?w=1896&amp;ssl=1 1896w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 632px) 100vw, 632px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" /></a><figcaption><br><br><br><br></figcaption></figure></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>Create Interesting Visual Effects With Overlapping Layouts and Duotone Images</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Appearance-wise, users have a lot more control over widget areas than ever before — especially through the use of blocks with customization options like the Cover and Image block. Here’s what I can create in the classic widgets editor (above) versus what I can create in the new block-based widget editor (below).</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video controls src=\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/classic-widgets.mov\"></video></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video controls src=\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/block-widgets-1.mov\"></video></figure>\n\n\n\n<h2>Intersperse Widgets and Custom Code Throughout Your Visual Designs</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Container blocks like Cover and Columns make it easy to weave dynamic or interactive elements into your designs. While this is a given for many widgets, the block versions of widgets can be easily wrapped and layered within container blocks to integrate them into your layout more fully.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the example below, I tried placing a Search block in front of a Cover block, which creates a nice layered effect. I also inserted Custom HTML blocks within a Columns block to display different messaging depending on the time of day. (<a href=\"https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31242051/show-content-based-on-time-of-day-timing-changes-on-different-days-of-the-week\">jQuery script</a>)</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video controls src=\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/custom-html-1.mov\"></video></figure>\n\n\n\n<h2>Use Traditional Widget Layouts (Or Not) With Lots of Flexibility Over Title and Structure</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Classic widgets have always had a lockup that includes a widget title. One cool thing about having blocks in widget areas is that you have complete flexibility over how titles appear. For example, you might choose to have a title over every widget, you might only want one title at the top of each widget area, or your design might not need titles at all.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note: Some themes, like <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwentyone/\">Twenty Twenty-One</a>, are designed to flow content horizontally within widget areas. If you’re having trouble with a theme splitting your layout into columns, you could try keeping the lockup together by containing it within a Group block.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/grouped.jpg?ssl=1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"632\" height=\"381\" src=\"https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/grouped.jpg?resize=632%2C381&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Side-by-side comparison of List View of a Sidebar widget area with and without grouped/nested lockups.\" class=\"wp-image-11122\" srcset=\"https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/grouped.jpg?w=1760&amp;ssl=1 1760w, https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/grouped.jpg?resize=300%2C181&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/grouped.jpg?resize=1024%2C618&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/grouped.jpg?resize=768%2C463&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/grouped.jpg?resize=1536%2C927&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/grouped.jpg?w=1264&amp;ssl=1 1264w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 632px) 100vw, 632px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" /></a></figure></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>Copy &amp; Paste Existing Layouts From the WordPress Pattern Directory</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While patterns haven’t been fully integrated into the widget editors yet, one thing you <em>can</em> do is copy and paste patterns from the game-changing new <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/patterns/\">WordPress Pattern Directory</a> into your site’s widget areas. I used this <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/patterns/pattern/horizontal-call-to-action/\">horizontal call to action</a> pattern from the directory almost exactly as is, with minor color and copy adjustments:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/footer.jpg?ssl=1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"632\" height=\"389\" src=\"https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/footer.jpg?resize=632%2C389&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Footer widget area with a black box that reads, “Become a monthly patron” with paragraph text and a “Join now” button in a separate column. A painted image of waves hitting rocks is directly below with no space between them.\n\" class=\"wp-image-11123\" srcset=\"https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/footer.jpg?w=1656&amp;ssl=1 1656w, https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/footer.jpg?resize=300%2C185&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/footer.jpg?resize=1024%2C630&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/footer.jpg?resize=768%2C473&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/footer.jpg?resize=1536%2C945&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/08/footer.jpg?w=1264&amp;ssl=1 1264w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 632px) 100vw, 632px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" /></a><figcaption><br></figcaption></figure></div>\n\n\n\n<p>FYI: Patterns have not been curated for or integrated into widget areas yet, so you may run into some unexpected behavior — consider this feature to be a preview of what’s coming next for widget editing!</p>\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"11115\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:19;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:57:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n			\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"The Month in WordPress: July 2021\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:68:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/08/the-month-in-wordpress-july-2021/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 03 Aug 2021 13:53:13 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:8:\"category\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Month in WordPress\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=11107\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:334:\"WordPress is global in reach and open source in nature. And you would assume that what allows the software to be used by anyone would also enable it to be built by anyone. After all, your location doesn’t matter, and who employs you also doesn’t matter. And your relative social standing certainly shouldn’t matter. As [&#8230;]\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Hari Shanker R\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15260:\"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>WordPress is global in reach and open source in nature. And you would assume that what allows the software to be used by anyone would also enable it to be built by anyone. After all, your location doesn’t matter, and who employs you also doesn’t matter. And your relative social standing certainly shouldn’t matter. As long as you can communicate with the others contributing to the project, there should be no obstacle to your participation.</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">That was <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/\">Josepha Haden</a> on the “<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/episode-13-cherishing-wordpress-diversity/\">Cherishing WordPress Diversity</a>” episode of the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/podcast/\">WP Briefing Podcast</a>, speaking about the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the fabric of the WordPress project. Her statement captures the spirit of the WordPress open source project, and we hope it resonates with you. Now, let&#8217;s dive in!</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" />\n\n\n\n<h2>Say hello to WordPress 5.8</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/tatum/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">version 5.8</a>, “Tatum,” came out on July 20. Version 5.8 is a major release that offers features like block-based widgets, a host of new blocks and patterns, a template editor, a duotone feature to stylize images, theme.json, and support for webP images, to name a few. Read more in the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/tatum/\">release post</a>, the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/03/wordpress-5-8-field-guide/\">field guide</a>, and the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/06/18/meetup-group-resources-talking-points-for-wordpress-5-8/\">talking points post for meetup groups</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to contribute to WordPress core?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Join the&nbsp; <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW\">#core</a> channel, follow the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/\">Core Team blog</a>, and check out the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/\">team handbook</a>. Don’t miss the Core Team chats on Wednesdays at <a href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=5&amp;min=00&amp;sec=0\">5 AM</a> and <a href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=20&amp;min=00&amp;sec=0\">8 PM</a> UTC.</li><li><a href=\"https://translate.wordpress.org/\">Translate WordPress</a> to your local language &#8211; here’s the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/07/09/wordpress-5-8-translation-status-july-9-2020/\">latest translation status</a>.</li><li>Contact the Marketing Team in the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C0GKJ7TFA\">#marketing</a> slack channel, if you wish to support <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2021/07/21/social-media-pack-for-5-8-ongoing-collaborations/\">social media engagement around WordPress 5.8</a>.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Gutenberg Version 11.0 is released</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Contributor teams released the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/09/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-0-0-9-july/\">11th version</a> of Gutenberg on July 9. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/09/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-0-0-9-july/\">Version 11.0</a>, which focuses heavily on backports and bug fixes, showcases some cool features such as an editing overlay for template parts and reusable blocks, and support for CSS shorthand properties in theme.json and block attributes. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/21/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-1-0-21-july/\">Version 11.1</a> was also shipped this month, on July 21. The release adds custom block borders as block supports and adds “drag and drop” to the list view.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to get involved in building Gutenberg? Follow <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/\">the Core Team blog</a>, contribute to <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/\">Gutenberg on GitHub</a>, and join the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02QB2JS7\">#core-editor</a> channel in the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/chat/\">Make WordPress Slack</a>. The “<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/21/whats-next-in-gutenberg-site-editing-status-check-late-july-august-2021/\">What’s next in Gutenberg</a>” post offers more details on the latest updates.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Returning to in-person WordPress events</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Community Team kicked off work to bring back in-person WordPress events. The team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/07/01/in-person-meetup-events-for-vaccinated-community-members/#comment-29654\">recently announced</a> that in-person WordPress meetups can be organized in a region if the local public health authority allows in-person events and if the region passes the in-person<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/2021-returning-to-in-person-meetups/in-person-meetup-decision-checklist/\"> safety checklist</a>. If the region does not meet guidelines on page one of the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/2021-returning-to-in-person-meetups/in-person-meetup-decision-checklist/\">safety checklist</a>, organizers can plan events for fully vaccinated, recently tested (negative), or recently recovered community members. Subsequently, the team also <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/07/27/proposal-how-to-return-to-safe-in-person-wordcamps/\">shared a proposal for the return to in-person WordCamps</a> in places that meet the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/2021-returning-to-in-person-meetups/in-person-meetup-decision-checklist/\">safety guidelines and the vaccination/testing requirements</a>. Please share your feedback on the post if you have any thoughts. For more context, check out the “<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/episode-12-wordpress-in-person/\">In Person!</a>” episode of the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/podcast/\">WP Briefing Podcast</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to contribute to the Community Team? Follow the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/\">Community Team</a> blog, or join them in the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X\">#community</a> channel in the Make WordPress Slack.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>BuddyPress 9.0 is out</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The BuddyPress team is busy! Within barely a month of their last major release (<a href=\"https://buddypress.org/2021/06/buddypress-8-0-0-alfano/\">version 8.0)</a>, the team shipped <a href=\"https://buddypress.org/2021/07/buddypress-9-0-0-mico/\">version 9.0</a> on July 19. Key features of the release include widget blocks and updates to the BP REST API.&nbsp; Download it from the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress/\">WordPress.org plugin directory</a> or check it out from its <a href=\"https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/browser/branches/9.0\">subversion repository.</a> Want to help build BuddyPress? Follow their <a href=\"https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/\">developer relations blog</a>, check out their <a href=\"https://codex.buddypress.org/participate-and-contribute/contribute-with-code/\">handbook page</a>, or join them in the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBYUG\">#buddypress</a> channel in the Make WordPress Slack.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>WordPress Event updates</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>WordCamp US is coming back on October 1, 2021, <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/wordcamp-us-is-back/\">as a daylong online event</a>!</li><li>Free tickets for <a href=\"https://floripa.wordcamp.org/2021/inscricoes/\">WordCamp Florianopolis</a> (August 11-12) are now available.</li><li>The <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wpdiversity/\">Diverse Speaker Training group</a> of the Community Team announced <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/07/26/announcement-and-call-for-volunteers-expanding-wpdiversity-to-three-programs/\">three new programs</a> for Meetup and WordCamp organizers. Sign up for the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/07/30/workshop-august-19-2021-allyship-for-wordpress-event-organizers-amer-emea/\">inaugural allyship program for event organizers</a> on August 19, 2021, at <a href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20210819T1700\">5:00</a> &#8211; <a href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20210819T1900\">7:00 pm</a> UTC!</li><li>The Polyglots Team is planning a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/tag/wptranslationday/\">month-long translation day celebration in September 2021</a>, with two weeks of “core events” from September 17 to 30. The team will announce more details on the event shortly, and you <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/tag/wptranslationday/\">can follow all the latest updates on their P2</a>.&nbsp;</li><li>Stay updated on <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/events/online/\">online WordPress meetups</a> around the world by following the Marketing Team’s <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/make-wordpress-marketing-team/\">WordPress Meetup roundup</a> every Monday.&nbsp;</li><li><a href=\"https://santaclarita.wordcamp.org/2021/\">WordCamp Santa Clarita 2021</a> was held online on July 17-18, 2021. The highlight of the event, which had 41 speakers, 19 sponsors, and 672 attendees, was a <a href=\"https://santaclarita.wordcamp.org/2021/schedule/\">dedicated track for WordPress accessibility</a>. Videos of the event will soon be posted on WordPress.tv.</li><li>The Hosting Team organized <a href=\"https://www.meetup.com/wphosting/events/278295555\">their first meetup</a> in June. Check out the <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4UCc1Bze5E&amp;t=702s\">event recording</a>.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Feedback requests from WordPress contributor teams</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Please help these WordPress contributor teams by answering their research requests:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>The Core Team has published a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/28/wordpress-5-8-tatum-retrospective/\">WordPress 5.8 release retrospective</a>. Share your release feedback as <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/28/wordpress-5-8-tatum-retrospective/#respond\">comments on the post</a> or by <a href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSei8fSLjV0um4hk_1JKwgu-8E6mpNwwxF3j43mInW7lnVOTDw/viewform?usp=sf_link\">filling out this form</a> before August 15. The team is also <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/21/request-for-feedback-updater-proof-of-concept/\">requesting feedback</a> on a “proof of concept” for the new WordPress updater.&nbsp;</li><li>The Training Team wishes to <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/07/30/learn-wordpress-user-survey-focus-groups/\">find what learners and potential learners would like to see</a> in the <a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org\">learn.wordpress.org</a> platform. To contribute, please <a href=\"https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LearnWordPress\">fill out an anonymous survey</a> (by August 13) OR <a href=\"https://forms.gle/jdk2qkkvGyszx1SG6\">join a short video call</a> to share feedback (on the week of August 2-6).</li><li>The Polyglots Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/07/19/polyglots-training-ready-for-testing/\">announced</a> that “Polyglots Training” (a course to help WordPress translators and communities) is now available for testing. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/07/19/polyglots-training-ready-for-testing/\">Sign up now</a>!</li><li>The Test Team wants to<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/07/30/help-shape-the-future-of-theme-design/\"> hear from theme authors</a> on how they use theme.json in order to shape its future. Help them by <a href=\"https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/block-theme-author-feedback\">filling out this survey</a> on or before August 13.</li><li>The Marketing Team is doing research on building engagement around WordPress releases. Please help the team by filling out <a href=\"https://forms.gle/4QFhX8fcNxKAfK8y5\">this quick, two-question survey</a> on how you search for release information. If you have any favorite features from the latest release (WordPress 5.8) let the team know by completing this <a href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd_2llymf79-h5sgTiprz7Kw4Gr4cbDHh-AAdAQfiArXlHksg/viewform\">short form</a>.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" />\n\n\n\n<h2>Further reading</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>The Meta Team launched the new <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2021/07/20/the-wordpress-pattern-directory-is-live/\">WordPress Pattern Directory</a> alongside the 5.8 release. 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The Google-sponsored WordPress contributors on his team are active in certain core projects and are leading <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/yoast-and-google-sponsored-core-contributors-propose-new-wordpress-performance-team\">WordPress&rsquo; new performance team</a> with the goal of improving core performance as measured by&nbsp;<a href=\"https://web.dev/vitals/\">Google&rsquo;s Core Web Vitals</a>&nbsp;metrics.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Basically I wanted to create a way to measure the impact of core WordPress improvements on WordPress sites (at scale),&rdquo; Silverstein told the Tavern. &ldquo;My team at Google is focused on helping improve the performance of the web at scale, and WordPress is a huge part of that! You may have noticed us working on features like lazy loaded images and iframes, WebP image support and now helping start the performance group. I wanted to find a way to see if our work is having a measurable impact &ndash; and not just on a vanilla WordPress site you might set up for testing, but in the wild, or real world websites that upgrade to the latest version of WordPress. That is the goal of the dashboard.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new <a href=\"https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/ab251873-b787-4a8e-b4c8-efccf4b9a911/page/HUaeC?s=vvFHFeV3n_Q\">dashboard</a>, which tracks WordPress CWV performance by version, is available to the performance team for monitoring their progress with each new WordPress release. Google-sponsored contributors are using it to measure the impact of their efforts across various performance initiatives.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 18 Nov 2021 03:15:35 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:2;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:53:\"WPTavern: Rank Math SEO Launches a Content AI Feature\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125464\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:151:\"https://wptavern.com/rank-math-seo-launches-a-content-ai-feature?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rank-math-seo-launches-a-content-ai-feature\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8496:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Last week, the popular <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-by-rank-math/\">Rank Math SEO</a> plugin received a major update that includes a new artificial intelligence system. The Content AI feature is a SaaS product that behaves like a personal writing assistant to boost search rankings.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We built Rank Math&rsquo;s Content AI feature to revolutionize the content production and optimization process with proprietary AI that gives SEOs and content marketers a competitive edge,&rdquo; said Bhanu Ahluwalia, Rank Math&rsquo;s CMO.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The system allows users to research what their content should look like based on a keyword. Each keyword analysis costs one credit. This data is stored on the user&rsquo;s server, so the same keyword used on multiple posts does not cost extra. Users get five free credits after signing up for a user account with Rank Math. However, they must upgrade to one of the three commercial plans, ranging from $59 to $499 per year, for more.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each of the <a href=\"https://rankmath.com/offer/\">commercial plans</a> comes with a specific number of credits. They are marketed as free extras, but they are not &ldquo;free&rdquo; for users who want to upgrade for credits alone. The team says they are working on a pricing solution to address this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Users should see a new Content AI module that they can enable from the plugin&rsquo;s Dashboard screen. Turning this on creates a new tab under the plugin&rsquo;s General Settings page for further configuration.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Content AI general settings.\n\n\n\n<p>The Content AI feature works with the WordPress editor, the classic editor, Elementor, and Divi. However, the team plans to extend this support to other page builders in the future</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Users can then enter a focus keyword from the post-editing screen and click the Content AI button. From there, they can research their chosen keyword, and Rank Math pulls up suggestions from their system.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Example post with Content AI score.\n\n\n\n<p>The scoring system is easy to understand. Above 80 (in the green) is considered &ldquo;good.&rdquo; Anything below might need some work based on the plugin&rsquo;s recommendations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The primary suggestions from the Content AI center on total words, links, headings, and media. When asked how the numbers were figured, Ahluwalia said, &ldquo;This is a computation performed based on the top-ranking content in search engine results pages (i.e., characteristics of content that ranks).&rdquo; It is a proprietary system, so maybe the team is not ready to give away the exact details.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The feature also lets users copy related keywords to use in their posts, offers questions that the content should answer, and lists potential links to use.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following video explains how Content AI works:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"are-content-scores-a-good-thing\">Are Content Scores a Good Thing?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">I am admittedly skeptical of any claims from SEO tools. There is value in most of the plugins in the space, and Rank Math is no different. However, I also want end-users to take SEO or content scores with a grain of salt. Hitting a specific word, link, heading, or media count is not going to make or break you. These should be guidelines, not goalposts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked how the score was calculated, I was pointed to a <a href=\"https://rankmath.com/kb/seo-score-vs-content-ai-score/\">knowledgebase article</a> on the Rank Math website. Nothing in the Content AI section explicitly explains the &ldquo;math&rdquo; behind the score. Essentially, the documentation references how the AI analyzes search results for various factors and describes how the tool works. There is some generally solid advice throughout, but it does not answer how those scores are calculated.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One particular area of concern was the recommended media count for each post. I had access to a full demo of the feature with a few dozen posts to check. Nearly all that I ran through the Content AI had a recommendation of using 18 media. The number felt off. While I cannot claim to be an SEO guru, I do not see why a typical 1,000 or 2,000-word post should need that many images or videos. Even with web-optimized media, that could bring page-loading speed to a crawl for many site visitors.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;That entirely depends on the focus keyword that you had set for your post,&rdquo; said Ahluwalia on how the recommended count is determined. &ldquo;Page speed is a ranking factor, but the media count and its associated guideline there is a super simple way to quickly see and consider whether that&rsquo;s something that you need to do to rank as well. If we&rsquo;re, for example, looking at the keyword &lsquo;SEO tools,&rsquo; the recommendation is as high as 26, which is unsurprising because the majority of ranking content hasn&rsquo;t just covered essential SEO tools, they&rsquo;ve covered the 15, 20, or even 109 &lsquo;best SEO tools.&rsquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;This concern with using media in content as it relates to page speed is surprisingly common, but the reality is that content without design doesn&rsquo;t typically perform particularly well (even if it ends up ranking, then not from a conversion/social sharing perspective because people leave with the impression of encountering a wall of text). A lot of the content on our site wouldn&rsquo;t be the same without the images in the posts to paint the full picture and distill what are complex SEO processes/ideas into something that&rsquo;s super simple for people to understand.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I generally agree that sites should use media alongside text. Looking over one of the demo posts I had access to, the content did not seem to warrant the recommended count.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This particular post had 1,199 words and 32 paragraphs. It also had six images, which presumably played a significant role in the 20/100 score. Content AI recommended 18 instances of media.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>Had the post met the recommended media count, there would have been one image for at least every two paragraphs. Even with half that number, visitors would unlikely think they are just &ldquo;encountering a wall of text.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe the analysis is correct. Perhaps it will help sites rank. But, that much media mixed in with text strikes me as a sub-optimal reading experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>My primary concern with tools like Content AI &mdash; this applies to SEO plugins in general &mdash; is that site owners are trying to make sure they are <em>in the green</em>. Instead of writing for readers, they are writing to rank. The two things are not mutually exclusive, but when end-users take recommendations as gospel, it can lead to stunted prose.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We completely agree, and while AI content has come a long way, we&rsquo;re very much also still fans of well-researched content that&rsquo;s put together by humans like you and I (as is all of the content on our own blog),&rdquo; said Ahluwalia. &ldquo;The goal with Rank Math&rsquo;s Content AI is assisted content production and optimization (streamlined by software).</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Broadly speaking, as you say, traffic-light style scores or numerical scores don&rsquo;t paint a full picture for most content. This was a very big motivation for the new content optimization suggestions that go beyond typical scoring (that is the same no matter what you&rsquo;re writing about). When writing something that isn&rsquo;t search-driven at all (i.e. targeting a keyword and search intent that has little demand and no competition with a thought leadership piece, for example) you&rsquo;re not writing for searchers, you&rsquo;re writing for a specific set of people you have in mind. This content is still incredibly valuable though.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He went on to say that for what the Rank Math team calls &ldquo;search-driven&rdquo; content, there are specific elements that well-ranking competing content has in common.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;It goes without saying that when using content optimization tools the consideration for still writing good content that&rsquo;s helpful has to be there for the end result to be truly exceptional,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;With the aim here being to aid the creation of content, ensuring it addresses search intent, and meets what search engines deem valuable and useful content.&rdquo;</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 18 Nov 2021 01:11:13 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:3;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:92:\"Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog #55 – Gutenberg 11.9, WordPress 5.9, Navigation Block\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:53:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?post_type=podcast&p=19591\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:104:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-55-gutenberg-11-9-wordpress-5-9-navigation-block/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4158:\"<p>Birgit Pauli-Haack, Grzegorz Ziolkowski discuss Gutenberg 11.9, WordPress 5.9 and Navigation Block. Surprise Guest: Riad Benguella</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Music:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://soundcloud.com/xirclebox\">Homer Gaines</a></li><li>Editor:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-reed/\">Sandy Reed</a></li><li>Logo:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://markuraine.com/\">Mark Uraine</a></li><li>Production:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://paulisystems.net/wordpress-consulting\">Pauli Systems</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-54-gutenberg-11-8#shownotes\">Show Notes </a>/ <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-54-gutenberg-11-8#transcript\">Transcript</a></p>\n\n\n\n<span id=\"more-19591\"></span>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Subscribe to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/\">Gutenberg Changelog</a>&nbsp;podcast via your favorite podcast apps!</strong><br />?️&nbsp;<a href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/620NwVKQJGdTupy36zYxvg?mc_cid=4b6c9f88fe\">Spotify</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9ndXRlbmJlcmd0aW1lcy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0\">Google</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gutenberg-changelog/id1469294475\">iTunes</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://pca.st/podcast/f8445ec0-7508-0137-f267-1d245fc5f9cf\">PocketCasts</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.stitcher.com/show/gutenberg-changelog\">Stitcher</a>&nbsp;|<br />?️&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/chi7j-9904a/Gutenberg-Changelog-Podcast\">Pod Bean</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://castbox.fm/channel/Gutenberg-Changelog-id2173375\">CastBox</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/gutenberg-changelog-878239/\">Podchaser</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/podcast\">RSS Feed</a>&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\" id=\"shownotes\"><strong>Show Notes </strong></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"announcements\">Announcements</h2>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"jerseypress-what-is-full-site-editing\">Nov 22, 2021 7pm EST / 0:00 UTC <br /><a href=\"https://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Montclair-Meetup/events/281915481/\"><strong>JerseyPress: What is Full-Site Editing?</strong></a><br />WordPress Meetup in Montclair, New Jersey </p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/full-site-editing/\">????? ????? (??? ??????????) Theme in the WordPress Directory</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"what-s-released\">What&#8217;s released: </h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/wordpress-5-8-2-security-and-maintenance-release/\">WordPress 5.8.2</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"gutenberg-11-9\">Gutenberg 11.9</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/11/12/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-9-0-10-november/\">What’s new in Gutenberg 11.9.0 (10 November)</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-9-focuses-on-navigation-menus-and-block-theming\">Gutenberg 11.9 Focuses on Navigation Menus and Block Theming</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"what-s-in-active-development-or-discussed\">What&#8217;s in active development or discussed</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/11/08/fse-program-testing-call-11-site-editing-safari/\">FSE Program Testing Call #11: Site Editing Safari</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">Stay in Touch</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-6195080784845 wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<ul><li>Did you like this episode? <a href=\"https://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog\"><strong>Please write us a review </strong></a></li><li>Ping us on Twitter or send DMs with questions. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/gziolo\">@gziolo </a>and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bph\">@bph</a>.</li><li><em>If you have questions or suggestions, or news you want us to include, send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. </em></li><li><em>Please write us a review on iTunes! <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/itunes/\">(Click here to learn how)</a></em></li></ul>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\" id=\"transcript\">Transcription</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Transcript is in the works</em></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 17 Nov 2021 13:47:43 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Birgit Pauli-Haack\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:61:\"HeroPress: Finding My Global Family – Samun iyali na duniya\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:56:\"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=4265\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:122:\"https://heropress.com/essays/finding-my-global-family/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=finding-my-global-family\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:17563:\"<img width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" src=\"https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/111621-min.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Pull Quote: I get to make an impact for good.\" /><p><a href=\"https://heropress.com/feed/#hausa\">Wannan makala akwai shi a cikin harshen Hausa.</a></p>\n<h2>Introduction</h2>\n<p>As I sit down typing this, I’m wondering what the heck do I write about (am I allowed to say that?)!</p>\n<p>Topher says I can.</p>\n<p>So back in May this year, I got a DM from this guy called Topher.</p>\n<blockquote><p>Hello there! Could I convince you to do a HeroPress essay?</p></blockquote>\n<p>It is now October and I&#8217;m finally writing this essay. Thank you for being so patient with me and giving me a topic to write about.</p>\n<h2>How I got into the WordPress</h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s 2017 and I&#8217;m bored with work. I&#8217;d been working in project management for over 15 years and I was no longer excited about the projects I was working on. My repeat clients could tell this, I did not challenge them on certain processes. Some might say I&#8217;d become wiser in picking my battles, but I just no longer wanted to invest my energy. When that happens, you know you need to do something. You don&#8217;t want your action, or in my case inaction, to be to the detriment of the client. I knew I still loved working with and in tech but I needed to do something different.</p>\n<p>On 29 December 2017, I enrolled on a course covering web development. After covering HTML, CSS, and a bit of JavaScript, I decided to try one of the course options: WordPress. My course instructor encouraged me to go to a WordCamp. She found one was scheduled for the following weekend in Brighton. So I booked my ticket and found an Airbnb. Worst case scenario I get to spend some time on the beach (even if it was a bit chilly). But I couldn&#8217;t go to a WordCamp with no knowledge of WordPress &#8211; I thought I&#8217;d look like an idiot. So I spent that week going through the introductory course, now I was ready. Don&#8217;t ask me how much I managed to take in, just know that at least I now knew what WordPress was.</p>\n<p>I attended my first WordCamp, a 2-hour drive, in October 2018. WordCamp Brighton (WCBTN) will always hold a special place in my heart. All the people I met (sponsors, attendees, organising team, and volunteers) were amazing. I walked in there all by my lonesome and they were friendly, took time to talk to me, explain things, and Jenny Wong encouraged me to join my local Meetup. I&#8217;m not sure if it&#8217;s being in a room with like-minded people or being able to geek out (or not for some) on tech but I was excited and had a lot of fun. When I got back to London, I joined my local (well what I like to call London local) Meetup.</p>\n<p>At the time that I joined, the team was starting to look for organisers for WordCamp London (WCLDN) 2019. I&#8217;m very much a believer in learning by doing and project management involves a lot of organisation. I spoke to Gary Jones told him I was a newbie and offered to help. I was in charge of Sponsors, eek! How the hell do I do that? Don&#8217;t be afraid to ask a lot of questions. We were a fairly new team so big thanks to Dan Maby and Barbara Saul for being patient with us and our endless questions. Big thanks to the outgoing team who were available to offer advice when asked. I learnt a lot about the community whilst working on the WCLDN and I had a great time doing it.</p>\n<p>Abha Thakor encouraged me to volunteer for WordCamp Europe (WCEU) 2019 and once again it was an amazing experience. I got to visit Berlin, contribute to the Marketing team desk and met even more people. I also got to rock my big yellow exclamation mark fluorescent earrings that scream the 80s at an 80s after party. It was during WCEU Contributor day that I was introduced to Jesse Owens and the Training team. When you contribute, you get to learn more about all the different teams that make up WordPress the project and WordPress itself. It&#8217;s a great way to learn and I would encourage you to join one of the<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/\"> Make teams</a> (you don&#8217;t need to be a developer) there are teams like Training, Accessibility, Documentation, Marketing, and Polyglots. If you want to test the waters before joining, find a virtual Contributor day (some companies are running them) or join one at a WordCamp when we are able to meet in person. I joined the Marketing and Training team at WCEU and I&#8217;m still there today.</p>\n<p>In November 2019 Josepha Haden Chomphosy sent out a call for an all-women release squad. I wanted to know more about accessibility so I was assigned to be the 5.8 Accessibility team cohort. The support our release squad got was amazing. The beauty of the WordPress community is that though we are all at different levels on our journey, someone is always quick to help you navigate that journey. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to make us feel welcome, explain things, are patient with us, and offer cake and chocolate when we need it. I’m still part of the Accessibility team and I’m still learning, it’s a big topic. We are a small team so if you’re an expert in that area and have time to spare, you want to teach others or want to learn, I encourage you to come and join us.</p>\n<p>Summer of 2020 was the soft launch of <a href=\"http://learn.wordpress.org\">Learn.WordPress.org</a>. Shortly afterwards, Courtney Robertson asked for help in preparing for the official launch of Learn. Learn WordPress is a learning resource for anyone who wants to learn how to use, build for and contribute to WordPress. It is an open-source platform that offers a range of materials and opportunities for you to use at your own pace and at a time that works for you. Once again, I put my hand up. Do you see a pattern here? When people have ideas that are of great value to those around them, I can’t help but say yes. Someone always has a great idea and I would love to say yes to everyone but I don’t know how to clone myself yet. Mind you, Michelle Frechette tells me cloning isn’t what I think it is, I need to do more research.</p>\n<h2>The life it now gives me and why I stay</h2>\n<p>Since discovering WordPress, I’ve been a part of a lot of different projects within Make and in the community.</p>\n<p>I am one of the Training Team Reps. I get to work with folks that I like and be involved in shaping Learn. As Courtney Robertson, my good friend and fellow Training Team Rep, puts it:</p>\n<blockquote><p>We want to democratise Learning and make Learn WordPress the primary open-source resource for anyone who wants to get started or level up their skills in WordPress.</p></blockquote>\n<p>I am proud to be involved in a project that is a cross-team initiative, props to marketing, community, meta, polyglots, accessibility, design, training, and<a href=\"http://wordpress.tv\"> WordPress.tv</a> who help shape Learn. Individuals can learn alongside other community members, connecting with the global network of WordPress users, developers and contributors. Check out<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/08/08/who-can-learn-help/\"> this post on who learn can help</a>, by Courtney Robertson. If you&#8217;re a training provider, business owner, or hiring manager, have a look at<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/05/03/high-level-roadmap-to-learning-wordpress-development/\"> our high-level roadmap to learning WordPress development</a>. Join us in:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Educating about WordPress</li>\n<li>Appreciating the power of WordPress and how it is made</li>\n<li>Celebrating everything that people are doing with WordPress</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Come take a seat at the table.</p>\n<p>I am a volunteer and Board member at the charity <a href=\"https://www.bigorangeheart.org/\">Big Orange Heart (BOH)</a>. I get to be a part of<a href=\"https://www.wordfest.live/\"> WordFest</a>, a unique 24-hour global online event that is a celebration of WordPress. BOH’s mission:</p>\n<blockquote><p>To support and promote positive well-being and mental health within remote working communities.</p></blockquote>\n<p>I get to talk to people from all walks of life, support and help build a community that cares for each other. I get to make an impact for good. If we don&#8217;t look out for each other, who will?</p>\n<p>I get to enjoy having a global family, learning, meeting new people, developing lifelong friendships and connections, and the extra bonus is that it doesn&#8217;t feel like work. I get to stay in the background churning the wheels and come out when needed. I get to have fun doing it!</p>\n<p>Photo by <a href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/globallandscapesforum/43847733385\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hamza Shaibu</a></p>\n<h1 id=\"hausa\">Samun iyali na duniya</h1>\n<h2>Gabatarwa</h2>\n<p>A yayin da nake zaune ina wannan rubutun, ina nazari akan wai shin akan wani batu zan ma yi rubutun (amma yarda in fadi hakan ma tukuna?)</p>\n<p>Topher yace zan iya fadin hakan.</p>\n<p>Toh akwanakin baya a watan Mayu na wannan shekarar, na samu wata sako daga wurin wani dan taliki da ake kira Topher.</p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Barka kadai! Zan iya jan ra&#8217;ayin ka ka yi rubutu akan HeroPress, wato rubuce-rubuce akan mutane da suka yi rawar gani a fannin wallafa labarai ta hanyar yanar gizo-gizo?”</p></blockquote>\n<p>Yanzu dai muna watar Oktoba kuma har na kai ga yin wannan rubutu. Ina gode maka saboda hakuri da kayi da ni da kuma bani batu da zanyi rubutu akai.</p>\n<h2>Yadda na samu kaina a cikin WordPress</h2>\n<p>Ana shekarar alib dubu biyu da goma sha bakwai, 2017 kuma ba na marmarin aiki. A wannan lokacin na riga na samu shekaru goma-sha-biyar ina aiki a fannin project management. Ko masu kasuwanchi da ne sun ga chanji a hali na. Wasu za su ce na zama mai hikima kuma na kara wayo a hali. Idan abubuwa haka suka fara faruwa a rayuwar ka, toh dole ka tashi sa’ye kayi wani abu a kai kafin ya kashe ma kasuwa. Ba ni da damuwa wajen yin aiki am’ma ina so in yi wani abu daban.</p>\n<p>A ranan ashirin da tara a watan Disamba ta shekaran alib dubu biyu da goma sha bakwai na fara wata sabuwar ilimi na web development. Bayan na kalmala Shashi na HTML, CSS da JavaScript, da na za’bi in gwada daya daga chikin shashin ilimin wato WordPress. Malami na ya bani shawara in shiga WordCamp. Ta sami labari akwai daya da za’a yi a sati mai zuwa a Brighton. Sai na siya tikati nawa kuma na biya wajen kwana. Saboda kada in ba kaina kunya, sai na shiga binciken da karatu a kan ma’anar Kalmar WordPress. A wannan lokachi ina iya bogun kirji na cewa a shirye na ke.</p>\n<p>Na shiga shashin WordPress na farko a watan Oktoba na alin dubu biyu da goma sha takwas, na yi tukin mota zuwa kusan awa biyu. WordPress a Brighton (WCBTN) za ta dade a chikin zuchiya ta da abobin ban sha’awa. Duk mutanen da na sadu da su (abokan fatan alheri, dalubai da masu bada umarni) sun bani farin chiki. Na shiga gurin ni kadai amma na hadu da jamma’a da suka yi mun maraba da zuwa, suka yi mun magana, suka bayyana mun abubuwa daban daban sannan wata mata Jenny Wong ta bani shawara in shiga wata kungiyar unguwa na haduwa. Da na koma London sai na shiga kungiyar da tafi kusa da ni.</p>\n<p>A lokachin da na shiga kungiyar, suna neman wakilai da zasu taimaka wajen tsara WordCamp London (WCLDN) 2019. Ni na yadda da kara samin ilimi ta wajen hanyar yin project management, domin tana bukatan tsari sosai wajen ambata komai. Na yi magana da wani mutum da ake kira Gary Jones na bayyana mishi cewa ni sabowar zuwa ce kuma ina so in taimaka. Sai na tambayi kaina da yaya zan iya kalmala wannan aikin? Ta wajen tambayoyi. Mun kasance sabuwar ƙungiya mai girma don haka godiya ga Dan Maby da Barbara Saul don haƙuri tare da mu da tambayoyin mu marasa iyaka. Babban godiya ga tawagar masu fita da suka samu ba da shawara idan aka tambaye shi. Na koyi abubuwa da yawa game da al&#8217;umma yayin aiki akan WCLDN kuma na yi farin ciki da yin shi.</p>\n<p>Abha Thakor ya ƙarfafa ni in yi aikin sa kai don WordCamp Europe (WCEU) 2019 kuma sau ɗaya sake abu ne mai ban mamaki. Na ziyarci Berlin, na ba da gudummawa ga ƙungiyar Talla tebur kuma sun sadu da ƙarin mutane. Na kuma yi jijjiga babban alamar motsin raina &#8216;yan kunne masu kyalli waɗanda ke kururuwa na 80s a cikin 80s bayan biki. Ya kasance a lokacin WCEU ranar mai ba da gudummawa da aka gabatar da ni ga Jesse Owens da ƙungiyar horo. Lokacin da kuke ba da gudummawa, kuna samun ƙarin koyo game da duk ƙungiyoyi daban-daban waɗanda suka haɗa WordPress ɗin aikin da WordPress kanta. Hanya ce mai kyau don koyo kuma zan ƙarfafa ku ku shiga ɗaya na <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/\">Ƙungiyoyin Yi</a> (ba kwa buƙatar zama mai haɓakawa) akwai ƙungiyoyi kamar Horarwa, Samun dama, Takaddun bayanai, Talla, da Polyglots. Idan kuna son gwada ruwa a baya shiga, nemo ranar mai ba da gudummawa ta kama-da-wane (wasu kamfanoni suna gudanar da su) ko shiga ɗaya a a WordCamp lokacin da muka sami damar saduwa da mutum. Na shiga kungiyar Tallace-tallace da Horarwa a WCEU kuma ina nan har yau.</p>\n<p>A watan Nuwamba 2019 Josepha Haden Chomphosy ya aika kiran a saki mata duka tawagar. Ina son ƙarin sani game da samun dama don haka aka sanya ni zama 5.8 Ƙungiyar haɗin kai. Taimakon da tawagarmu ta saki ya kasance mai ban mamaki. Kyawun al&#8217;ummar WordPress shine duk da cewa duk muna a matakai daban-daban akan tafiyarmu, wani yana gaggawar taimaka muku wajen tafiyar da wannan tafiya. Godiya ga duk wanda yana ɗaukar lokaci don sa mu ji maraba, bayyana abubuwa, haƙuri da mu, da ba da kek da cakulan lokacin da muke bukata. Har yanzu ina cikin tawagar Accessibility kuma har yanzu ina koyo, babban batu ne. Mu ƙananan ƙungiya ne don haka idan kun kasance gwani a wannan yanki kuma kuna da lokaci don spare, kana so ka koya wa wasu ko kuma kana son koyo, ina ƙarfafa ka ka zo mu shiga.</p>\n<p>Lokacin bazara na 2020 shine ƙaddamar da laushi na <a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/\">Learn.WordPress.org</a>. Jim kadan bayan haka, Courtney Robertson ya nemi taimako a shirya don ƙaddamar da Koyi a hukumance. Koyi WordPress hanya ce ta koyo ga duk wanda ke son koyon yadda ake amfani da shi, ginawa da kuma ba da gudummawa ga WordPress. Yana da dandamali mai buɗewa wanda ke ba da kewayon kayan aiki da damar da za ku yi amfani da su a cikin saurin ku kuma a lokacin da ke aiki a gare ku. Har yanzu, sanya hannuna sama. Kuna ganin tsari a nan? Lokacin da mutane suna da ra&#8217;ayoyin da suke da daraja sosai ga wadanda ke kusa da su, ba zan iya ba sai dai in ce eh. Wani ko da yaushe yana da babban ra&#8217;ayi kuma ni zan so in ce eh ga kowa amma ban san yadda zan clone kaina ba tukuna. Ka kula, Michelle Frechette ta gaya mani cloning ba shine abin da nake tsammani ba, ina buƙatar yin ƙarin bincike.</p>\n<h2>Rayuwar da take bani yanzu da dalilin da yasa na zauna</h2>\n<p>Tun da gano WordPress, na kasance wani ɓangare na mai yawa daban-daban ayyuka a cikin Make da cikin al&#8217;umma.</p>\n<p>Ni ɗaya ne daga cikin Wakilan Ƙungiyar horo. Ina samun aiki tare da mutanen da nake so da kuma shiga ciki tsara Koyi. A matsayina na Courtney Robertson, abokina na kwarai kuma ƙwanƙwaran horo Rep, yana cewa:</p>\n<blockquote><p>Muna so mu inganta Ilimi kuma mu sanya Koyi WordPress ya zama na farko tushen tushen albarkatu ga duk wanda ke son farawa ko haɓaka ƙwarewarsa a cikin WordPress.</p></blockquote>\n<p>Ina alfaharin shiga cikin wani aiki wanda ke da yunƙurin ƙugiya, mai tallata tallace-tallace, al&#8217;umma, meta, polyglots, samun dama, ƙira, horo, da <a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/\">WordPress.tv</a> waɗanda ke taimakawa siffa Koyi. Mutane na iya koyo tare da sauran membobin al&#8217;umma, dangane da duniya hanyar sadarwa na masu amfani da WordPress, masu haɓakawa da masu ba da gudummawa. Duba wannan <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/08/08/who-can-learn-help/\">post akan wanda ya koya zai iya taimakawa</a>, ta Courtney Robertson. Idan kai mai bada horo ne, mai kasuwanci, ko ɗaukar aiki manaja, dubi <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/05/03/high-level-roadmap-to-learning-wordpress-development/\">babban taswirar hanyarmu don koyon ci gaban WordPress</a>. Shiga mu cikin:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ilimi game da WordPress</li>\n<li>Godiya ga ikon WordPress da yadda ake yin shi</li>\n<li>Bikin duk abin da mutane ke yi tare da WordPress</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Zo ku zauna a teburin.</p>\n<p>Ni mai sa kai ne kuma memba na hukumar a kungiyar agaji ta <a href=\"https://www.bigorangeheart.org/\">Big Orange Heart</a> (BOH). Zan iya zama bangare na <a href=\"https://www.wordfest.live\">WordFest</a>, wani taron kan layi na sa&#8217;o&#8217;i 24 na musamman na duniya wanda shine bikin WordPress. BOH ta manufa:</p>\n<blockquote><p>Don tallafawa da haɓaka ingantaccen jin daɗin rayuwa da lafiyar hankali a cikin nesa al&#8217;ummomin aiki.</p></blockquote>\n<p>Ina yin magana da mutane daga kowane fanni na rayuwa, tallafi da kuma taimaka wa al&#8217;ummar da ta damu juna. San iya yin tasiri sosai. Idan ba mu lura da juna ba, wa zai yi?</p>\n<p>Ina jin daɗin samun iyali na duniya, koyo, saduwa da sababbin mutane, haɓaka abokantaka dahadi na rayuwa kuma karin kari shine cewa baya jin kaman aiki. Ina samun zama a bango ina karkata da kafafun kuma in fito lokacin da ake bukata na. Ina jin daɗin wanan aiki.</p>\n<p>Photo by <a href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/globallandscapesforum/43847733385\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hamza Shaibu</a></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 17 Nov 2021 08:00:49 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Hauwa Abashiya\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:62:\"WPTavern: Wowmall: A Free Experimental WooCommerce Block Theme\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125449\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:167:\"https://wptavern.com/wowmall-a-free-experimental-woocommerce-block-theme?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wowmall-a-free-experimental-woocommerce-block-theme\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4922:\"<img />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The Wowmall theme was <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/wowmall/\">released to the public today</a>. It is the second 100% block theme that integrates with WooCommerce to land in the WordPress directory. <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/responsive-fse/\">Responsive FSE</a> was the first.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two weeks ago, a reader sent in a question for the Ask the Bartender column. He wanted to know <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/ask-the-bartender-where-are-the-woocommerce-block-themes\">where the WooCommerce block themes were</a>. Literally one day after publishing that post, Wowmall was submitted to the WordPress theme review system. Maybe it was fate or just luck, but I had no choice but to give it a test run.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The theme adds an admin-side welcome and notice page. The author makes it clear that the project is not currently intended for use on production sites. It is in an experimental state at the moment.  It is unclear who is actually behind the Wowmall project. The associated Twitter account has been suspended, and its other social profiles are devoid of information. And, the <a href=\"https://wowmall.store/\">Wowmall website</a> currently offers scant details.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will not pretend that Wowmall is one of my favorite themes. The design is far too busy for my tastes. I prefer something scaled back that focuses on content, but I do not fit into this theme&rsquo;s primary audience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For an eCommerce theme, it is much cleaner than others I have seen, and it leverages almost every piece of the block system. It ships over 30 block patterns. Six of those are headers, and another three are footers. However, the rest are for general use in the content, including call-to-action layouts and hero sections.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />A call-to-action pattern.\n\n\n\n<p>It also ships several custom block styles. Some of them offer design variations that make up for things like missing border controls for some blocks. Others, such as the Social Icon&rsquo;s &ldquo;Dark&rdquo; style, would be better left to the existing color options.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The question most people likely want to be answered is how well it works with WooCommerce. From what I have seen, it works like any other run-of-the-mill WooCommerce theme. You know the look, the default design as seen by 90% of the themes built for the eCommerce plugin. Maybe there is a custom color palette or simple stylistic changes. However, at the end of the day, you know it is a WooCommerce shop.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Wowmall <a href=\"https://wowmall.store/demo/shop/\">shop page</a>.\n\n\n\n<p>If it works, do not mess with the formula. The most egregious issue I saw with the WooCommerce part of the theme was the output of a comments section on the main Shop page and product category archives. I did not see specific block templates for these pages, so I am taking a wild stab and assuming everything is falling back to a single product or page template that would normally output comments.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wowmall does not work well as a pure blogging theme. It handles the basics well enough, but it has far too many characters per line for comfortably reading long-form content. A strict 18px font size, a variable-width content area (989px at full-width on my laptop), and a medium-gray text color make it hard to read anything other than short blurbs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, this theme is not touted as a blogging theme. It is hyper-focused on presenting an online shop.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where the theme flexes the most is its selection of block patterns. They are designed primarily for building out a unique storefront. Users can get a lot of mileage out of them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The breadcrumb trail in the theme is not really a breadcrumb trail at all. It just masquerades as one. Under the hood, it is a Navigation block with a homepage link followed by the current post/page title. At no point does it show the crumbs (e.g., parent pages) that lead back to the site root. Themes have notoriously offered sub-par breadcrumb navigation in the classic era. Perhaps, developers will leave this to plugin authors in their block themes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As far as I know, there are no breadcrumb navigation plugins on WordPress.org to integrate with. However, there is a <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/21943\">proposal to add a block</a> for it in core. And, for transparency, I have such a plugin under development and intend to release it on .ORG.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wowmall is not claiming this is a finished, production-ready WordPress theme. It is an ongoing project that is expected to improve over time. Plus, we are still waiting for WooCommerce to expand its support of the block system.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What I like more than anything is seeing theme shops push the envelope with blocks. What I see from Wowmall and recent block themes is that many of the limitations of the past year or so are simply no longer there.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 16 Nov 2021 23:35:13 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:6;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:89:\"WPTavern: State of the Word 2021 Will Be Broadcast Live from New York City on December 14\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125723\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:223:\"https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2021-will-be-broadcast-live-from-new-york-city-on-december-14?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=state-of-the-word-2021-will-be-broadcast-live-from-new-york-city-on-december-14\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4517:\"<p>WordPress executive director Josepha Haden Chomphosy <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/state-of-the-word-2021/\">announced</a> today that the 2021 State of the Word will be held on December 14, <a href=\"https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r/eventedit/copy/XzY0czNjZGhuNjhyNDJiYTE4NTMzMmI5azZ0MmsyYmEyNjBwNGFiYTE2c3IzZ2NhMjhvbzQ0Z3BrNm8gdHVhOWpudTg4ZHRiZnIzNGpzZGI5a3U1bGNAZw\">between 10 am and 12 pm ET/3 pm and 5 pm UTC</a>. For those who are new to the WordPress community, this event is where Matt Mullenweg reviews the milestones and progress of the past year and shares his vision for the open source WordPress project.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ordinarily, the State of the Word is delivered as the capstone to WordCamp US in the latter part of the year, with a live Q&amp;A session following the address. This year, <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-2021-kicks-off-online-in-48-hours\">WordCamp US was held online</a> in early October and concluded with Haden Chomphosy discussing trends she observed in 2020 and growth opportunities she sees for the WordPress community. In her most recent <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/episode-20-wordpressblogging/\">podcast</a>, Haden Chomphosy confirmed that the State of the Word 2021 will be an in-person event.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to join the growing list of in-person events that are on the calendar,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It will be in New York City but will also be live-streamed across the world as usual.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked about live event, Haden Chomphosy further clarified that it will be more like a mid-sized meetup. Mullenweg will be delivering the State of the Word at Automattic&rsquo;s New York office with approximately 30 people in-person, which is the capacity for the space.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll start with NYC community folks, but will try to keep the invitation process as open as possible,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Vaccinations will be required and more information will be available about that later this week.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today&rsquo;s announcement said that attendees and viewers can expect to hear about WordPress 5.9, Openverse (WordPress&rsquo; search engine project for openly-licensed media), and Web3 and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The last topic drew some early responses on Twitter from those who are keenly interested in Web3 and NFTs, as well as those who don&rsquo;t see any value in the WordPress project promoting or participating in these technologies. As WordPress is <a href=\"https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress\">closing in on 43% of the web</a>, it will be interesting to see what Mullenweg has to say about what the project&rsquo;s role is in this potentially polarizing issue.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\'Expect to hear about a range of topics, from WordPress 5.9 and Openverse to Web3 and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).\'<br /><br />All I want to hear about Web3 and NFTs is \'The WP project itself will do nothing to encourage these questionable technologies.\' <a href=\"https://t.co/T3LnU21HuZ\">https://t.co/T3LnU21HuZ</a></p>&mdash; Simon Dickson (@simond) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/simond/status/1459430909325807617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 13, 2021</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Annual State of the Word 2021 &ndash; an event to reflect on the WordPress project&rsquo;s progress and the future of open source. Expect to hear about a range of topics including <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Web3?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Web3</a> and non-fungible tokens (<a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/NFTs?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NFTs</a>). <br /><br />Software powering 42%+ of the entire internet + NFTs. Probably nothing. <a href=\"https://t.co/KfB9UtIBao\">https://t.co/KfB9UtIBao</a></p>&mdash; Brad Williams (@williamsba) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/williamsba/status/1460277517093425152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 15, 2021</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>Viewers will be able participate in the Question &amp; Answer session following the State of the Word by emailing&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:ask-matt@wordcamp.org\">ask-matt@wordcamp.org</a>, or asking during the event in the livestream chat on YouTube. Add the event to your calendar and watch for the livestream to be embedded on <a href=\"http://wordpress.org/news\">wordpress.org/news</a> on December 14.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 16 Nov 2021 00:49:12 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:104:\"WPTavern: “Skins” Are Back in Style, Proposal for Themes To Bundle User-Selectable Design Variations\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125725\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:239:\"https://wptavern.com/skins-are-back-in-style-proposal-for-themes-to-bundle-user-selectable-design-variations?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=skins-are-back-in-style-proposal-for-themes-to-bundle-user-selectable-design-variations\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4774:\"<img />Twenty Twenty-Two color and font variations.\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">A current proposal could spell the death of at least one form of child theming. The feature would allow themes to <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35619\">ship multiple <code>theme.json</code> files</a>, housing variations on a site&rsquo;s default styles. Essentially, it is the old-school concept of &ldquo;skins.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>How the feature would work is not yet defined. However, theme authors would presumably be allowed to bundle separate JSON files that create user-selectable &ldquo;global style variations&rdquo; or &ldquo;active styles&rdquo; via the site editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is almost as if we have come full circle. The original implementation of child themes allowed developers to create custom <code>style.css</code> files. The goal was to design skins that changed a site&rsquo;s look and feel without changing its markup. Child themes have become much more flexible since then and can overwrite anything from their parents.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many themers still build on top of that original concept. Their child themes are nothing more than a custom stylesheet with design modifications. The ability to bundle multiple style variations from a single theme could change how they approach design, perhaps even offering a better user experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kjell Reigstad first teased this feature last month when <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/06/introducing-twenty-twenty-two/\">announcing the upcoming new default theme</a>. &ldquo;Twenty Twenty-Two will ship with a range of alternate color schemes so that folks can drastically change the appearance of their site,&rdquo; he wrote in the post.  The following is a video of what this concept might look like:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>The UI in the video appears to be a mockup for the site editor. In the right sidebar panel, users can switch between alternate styles and find something that works well for them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposal would allow for more than color palette variations. Theme authors would be able to adjust typography, layout, and anything else controllable via <code>theme.json</code> &mdash; essentially, the entire theme design.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because the feature is not yet in the Gutenberg plugin or in the development version of WordPress, the only way to explore multiple <code>theme.json</code> files is through child theming. Yes, child themes are being used to test the very concept that could make them, at least partially, obsolete. Reigstad has an <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/pull/292\">open pull request</a> in the Theme Experiments repository to flesh out the idea.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Channing Ritter, an Automattic-sponsored WordPress contributor, <a href=\"https://critterverse.blog/2021/11/10/a-global-styles-switcher/\">shared three variations</a> of what the user experience may look like on her blog. My preferred option is the first. It is a drill-down panel that shows &ldquo;active styles&rdquo; that users can switch between.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Selecting active theme style from sidebar panel.\n\n\n\n<p>Building an active-style switcher into the global styles interface could offer that ideal user experience that child themes have never achieved. Users had to first understand how they worked, know if any existed for their active theme, install one, and activate it. Under this proposal, they could see all the styles available upfront and simply select one.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also gives end-users who are not as design-savvy some variety without forcing them to hand-pick an entire color palette.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a while now, I have been imagining a future where theme shops narrow their focus to one, two, or just a handful of core themes. They would then upsell access to support and a library of block patterns. Now, I envision a future where global style variations could play a part in the commercial market, offering value-adds on top of that core product.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is also a second ticket that calls for themes to <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/36304\">provide alternate color palettes</a>. This would likely be much easier to implement as a separate feature because it is much more scaled back. With only a month to get WordPress 5.9 and Twenty Twenty-Two out of the door with user-selectable color schemes, this may be the more reasonable of the two routes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whatever the case may be, I keep finding new pet features I want to see land in WordPress. Yesterday, it was block patterns. Today, it is &ldquo;active styles,&rdquo; or whatever it gets called. Tomorrow, who knows? New ideas around the block system continue to keep me impatiently awaiting what comes next.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 16 Nov 2021 00:04:36 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:64:\"WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 20: WordPress=Blogging+\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:53:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?post_type=podcast&p=11556\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:64:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/episode-20-wordpressblogging/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:10273:\"<p>In this episode, WordPress&#8217;s Executive Director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, answers two recently asked questions. Tune in to hear what those questions were and her response, in addition to this week&#8217;s small list of big things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Have a question you&#8217;d like answered? You can submit them to <a href=\"mailto:wpbriefing@wordpress.org\">wpbriefing@wordpress.org</a>, either written or as a voice recording.</strong></em></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"credits\">Credits</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Editor:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/dustinhartzler/\">Dustin Hartzler</a></li><li>Logo:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/beafialho/\">Beatriz Fialho</a></li><li>Production:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/\">Chloé Bringmann</a></li><li>Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"references\">References </h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress\">W3Techs WordPress Usage Statistics </a></li><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/\">WordPress 5.9 Development Cycle </a></li><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2021/10/22/team-rep-nominations/\">Call for Team Rep Nomination</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"transcript\">Transcript</h2>\n\n\n\n<span id=\"more-11556\"></span>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>00:10</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hello, everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go!</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>00:40</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I was in a meeting recently, which I realize isn&#8217;t saying much for me since I spend a quarter of my time in meetings. But in this particular meeting, I was asked a couple of questions that I absolutely loved. The first question was, “if there were one thing you could change in people&#8217;s minds about WordPress, what would it be?” And my answer, predictable though it may be, was that I want to change the idea that WordPress is just a blogging platform.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:06</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress has grown into a lot more than that. But the idea of a content management system, even now, sometimes gets a mental shorthand where content is a stand-in for the word writing or words. If you&#8217;re using WordPress today in an enterprise context, or as part of a governmental agency, or if you use it in a classroom setting, you know that your content cannot be confined that way. And if you&#8217;re supporting or building anything to hand off to clients, you know that timely, easy-to-ship changes on a site are considered a vital part of any overarching brand and marketing strategy. And when was the last time that any marketing strategy was literally only about the words?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:51</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that was the first question. And also my first answer. There is also this kind of annual, not fear, necessarily, but this annual question that is sort of related that is raised to me and has been asked of me recently, that I&#8217;m just going to give you a small answer to. One annual worry that I get every year around November and December is, &#8220;What are we going to do about the fact that the term blog and blogging are declining in search popularity?&#8221; And I was gonna say it&#8217;s been a while since I answered that in any sort of public format. But I think maybe I&#8217;ve never answered it in a public format at all. And so I&#8217;m just going to answer it here. Because I think maybe a lot of people have that same question.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:36</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So number one, I think that the way that people search now is different. There&#8217;s a lot more semantic cognition. This is not the way to answer this &#8212;  search engines are smarter now. So like, it used to be the case with early search engines that yeah, there was a lot of just like, individual search terms that were looked for. But now, people are asking full questions; they have, essentially, an entire sentence that they are searching for. And then, search engines are able to parse that information better and get more high-quality answers and information for them. So like, that&#8217;s one thing that I&#8217;m already not worried about. If people are searching for individual words anymore, it&#8217;s so that they can get a definition of that word. So I&#8217;m not specifically worried about a decline in search volume for the word blog or blogging for that reason. But the answer to my first question, if there is probably the real reason that I&#8217;m not actually super worried about any decline in search volume for the word blog, or blogging, is that WordPress has really moved beyond that. And since we have moved beyond that, then it doesn&#8217;t necessarily make sense for WordPress as an entity for WordPress as a project to get overly hung up on the idea that the term blog has gone out of fashion.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>03:52</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay, now that I did my first question, and the answer, and then an additional question that only ever gets asked in private and is being answered by me for the first time in public, I will tell you now, the second question that I loved, someone asking of me, and that question is this: &#8220;What is one thing you&#8217;d like people to see or experience, right when they first land on wordpress.org?&#8221; Now, I often don&#8217;t get asked questions about the wordpress.org website, like administrative tasks, things that we need to update, move around where they should go. Sure. But like, “Josepha, what&#8217;s the point and purpose of this site?” Never. I&#8217;ve never been asked that, and so I was really excited that someone asked me, and I&#8217;m going to give you a heads up. I think some of you might disagree with my answer.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:40</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So the primary thing that I want people to see or experience when they first get to wordpress.org, the website is the depth of WordPress. Not which audience segment they should belong to or that we believe they should belong to or raw data about the CMS or even how much we care about the freedoms of open source. Now the first thing I want people to see on that site is that WordPress has not only 18 years of learned knowledge that every single new user benefits from, but that it also has 1,000s of really smart people making sure it works and gets better every day, now.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:19</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress is a Goliath in its field. I know that we cite this bit of context. Frequently, we say that we are 42% of the web. And that is true that is the percentage by usage. But in its field, which is websites that are using a content management system, we actually have a 65% market share. This is very easy to find. It&#8217;s on the W3Techs website: I can put a link in the show notes, but you could find it just by searching for it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:46</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So WordPress is a Goliath in its field of websites that are run using a CMS. Because we have always brought our learnings forward with us with the understanding that knowledge, when shared grows rather than diminishes. But open source, the heart of what defines this project, open source is not a Goliath; it&#8217;s barely even David somedays. Even though the web is built on scads of open source software, there&#8217;s a pervasive public perception that it is built by and for hobbyists or that it is inherently risky, and that if there were if it were worth something, then people would pay something. And I just know that if the first impression of WordPress, we&#8217;re, &#8220;we&#8217;ve got 18 years of experience and learning that brought us to today,&#8221; the rest of the sale to adopt software that protects other people&#8217;s freedoms would take care of itself. And I guess, to quote John Oliver, at this point, &#8220;And now this.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>06:59</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alright, that brings us now to our small list of big things. There are actually quite a few big things on this small list today. So number one, we have reached the beta phase for the year&#8217;s final release, which means that WordPress 5.9 beta one is happening tomorrow, Tuesday, November 16. And then seven days later, I believe on the 23rd, if I recall correctly, comes beta two.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>07:24</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second thing on my list is that team rep nominations are happening all over the project right now. I&#8217;ve got a post that I will share in the notes below that I believe all the team reps have put their team&#8217;s nomination posts on. So if you have had an interest in learning more about that and what it means to help keep teams kind of running in the WordPress project, then this is a great opportunity to check those out.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>07:49</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the third thing, this last thing actually isn&#8217;t in the next two weeks, but it is very important, nonetheless. Matt&#8217;s annual State of the Word is coming up on December 14. So basically a month from today. It&#8217;s going to join the growing list of in-person events that are on the calendar. It will be in New York City but will also be live-streamed across the world as usual. Keep an eye out for additional updates about that for anyone who, like me, really looks forward to this particular presentation from our project co-founder every year.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>08:25</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress briefing. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I&#8217;ll see you again in a couple of weeks.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 15 Nov 2021 17:15:03 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Chloe Bringmann\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:9;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:70:\"WPTavern: Gutenberg 11.9 Focuses on Navigation Menus and Block Theming\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125689\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:185:\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-9-focuses-on-navigation-menus-and-block-theming?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-11-9-focuses-on-navigation-menus-and-block-theming\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9521:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Gutenberg 11.9 <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/11/12/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-9-0-10-november/\">landed on Wednesday</a>, and it is packed with dozens of enhancements. Contributors are speeding forward, getting in some of the final features before the release of WordPress 5.9, expected on December 14.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Version 11.9 is the last plugin release to include new features for the upcoming WordPress update. Bug fixes will continue to be ported over in the coming weeks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Site editing and theme-related blocks take up most of the spotlight. WordPress 5.9 will ship with its first default block theme, <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/first-look-at-wordpress-upcoming-twenty-twenty-two-default-theme-the-most-flexible-default-theme-ever-created-for-wordpress\">Twenty Twenty-Two</a>. For many users, this will be their first experience with template editing and global styles.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Navigation block received a lot of attention, and rightly so. Developers solved some vital data portability issues and created a more well-rounded user experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is still a lot of room for improvement on the whole, but Gutenberg has come a long way in the past few months. I am excited about what the new features will look like once they land in the general WordPress release.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"site-editor-scaled-back-its-menu-moved-and-renamed\">Site Editor Scaled Back, Its Menu Moved and Renamed</h2>\n\n\n\n<img />Site editor with Twenty Twenty-Two active.\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The site editor has been scaled back to the point where it is no longer the feature that Gutenberg plugin users have grown accustomed to in these last few months. It is essentially a pathway to the global styles feature.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to templates, only the site&rsquo;s homepage is accessible through the interface. Clicking the &ldquo;W&rdquo; icon in the top left of the editor <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/36194\">no longer opens the familiar templates panel</a>, which formerly allowed users to navigate, select, and customize individual templates.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clicking the &ldquo;Browse All Templates&rdquo; button carts users away from the site editor to a templates screen. It looks like a posts list and includes no instructions on how to, for example, overwrite an author archive or other theme templates. I know the system well enough to understand what is happening, but I can only imagine this would be shocking for the average user.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Users can jump to the Header and Footer areas in the site editor by clicking those in the dropdown. The editor simply focuses on those template parts without switching screens.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, I see no way of editing specific templates from within the site editor.  The result is a watered-down index template editor with global styles, the one redeeming feature.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The site editor menu item has also now been <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/29630\">moved beneath the Appearance menu</a> in the WordPress admin. It is now simply named &ldquo;Editor.&rdquo; Of course, the &ldquo;Theme Editor&rdquo; submenu is still there.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Two types of Appearance editors.\n\n\n\n<p><em>I do not expect this to be confusing to users at all&hellip;</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarcasm aside, this is the appropriate place for the new site editor, which will only appear if a user has a block theme active. However, the two submenu names clearly conflict. Could there be a better place to move the Theme Editor? One proposal would see it <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/36354\">dropped under Tools</a> in the admin menu.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One must wonder how much use there will be for directly editing theme files in a block world. Templates can be overwritten via the UI. <code>theme.json</code> settings are handled through the global styles interface. That mostly just leaves <code>functions.php</code> as the lone holdout. It might just be time to disable file editing by default in WordPress, at least for block themes.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"pattern-explorer\">Pattern Explorer</h2>\n\n\n\n<img />Block pattern explorer.\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Users on desktops and tablets can now enjoy a <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35773\">full-screen pattern overlay</a>. Instead of endlessly scrolling through dozens or even hundreds of patterns in the narrow inserter, they can click a new &ldquo;Explore&rdquo; button to <em>explore</em> patterns in an interface with a bit more breathing room.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I covered this new feature in a full <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/block-pattern-modal-explorer-coming-to-wordpress-5-9\">review earlier this week</a>. There are still a few kinks to work out with the design, but it works well thus far. It also lays the groundwork for a more extensive set of features down the line.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"navigation-data-saving-and-navigation-area-block\">Navigation Data Saving and Navigation Area Block</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Navigation block <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35746\">data is now stored</a> in a dedicated <code>wp_navigation</code> post type. By saving it separately, contributors have now corrected one of the longstanding issues with block-based nav menus: portability.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In previous iterations of the block, users lost their carefully-crafted menus whenever they switched to a new block theme. They would have to recreate content that typically does not change often.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alongside this improvement is a new <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/36178\">Navigation Area block</a>, which serves as a wrapper for Navigation. Theme authors will be able to define custom areas in their block theme templates with the following code:</p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>&lt;!-- wp:navigation-area {\"area\":\"primary\"} --&gt;\n&lt;!-- wp:navigation /--&gt;\n&lt;!-- /wp:navigation-area --&gt;</code></pre>\n\n\n\n<p>The nested Navigation block is associated with a <code>wp_navigation</code> <em>post</em>. This will be the preferred format for theme authors going forward.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a user switches themes and the &ldquo;area&rdquo; name matches their previous theme, the menu simply carries over and automatically appears. If they do not match, the user can assign a saved menu. The menu/area relationship is stored in the database.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the issues with the Navigation Area block is that it has no alignment controls. Technically, it does not output any HTML itself. However, its existence in the editor prohibits a user from selecting wide or full alignment for its inner Navigation block.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"duotone-filter-transparency\">Duotone Filter Transparency</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Duotone filters on blocks such as Image and Cover <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34130\">now support transparency</a>. Users will now see a slider control beneath the color picker when adjusting either shadows or highlights.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The feature opens the door for a double exposure effect or image mask by layering an Image block over a Cover. Alex Lende showed a few examples of how this could work in the ticket.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Image with transparent duotone layered over Cover block.\n\n\n\n<p>Developers also noted possibilities for a tritone option and <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35359\">other filter types</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"api-for-accessing-global-styles\">API For Accessing Global Styles</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Theme and plugin authors should have fun with this new <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34843\">API for interacting</a> with the global styles system. Previously, developers had to use the <code>WP_Theme_JSON_Resolver</code> class to pull data that they needed on the server side. Now, they have three new functions:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><code>gutenberg_get_global_settings()</code> &ndash; Returns settings.</li><li><code>gutenberg_get_global_styles()</code> &ndash; Returns style settings.</li><li><code>gutenberg_get_global_stylesheet()</code> &ndash; Returns the global stylesheet.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Presumably, these functions will be renamed before landing in WordPress 5.9 and not have the <code>gutenberg_</code> prefix. Theme authors should wrap any usage of these in <code>function_exist()</code> checks to be on the safe side.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"new-comment-blocks\">New Comment Blocks</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Several new comment blocks have landed in the latest plugin update. The <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35231\">Comments Query Loop and Comment Template</a> blocks work similarly to their post counterparts. However, the current result is a bare-bones feature that is not ready for production use. Nested comments are not shown, and there are not many options for customizing the output.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is a step toward block theme authors and users (via the site editor) controlling post comments output. Gutenberg 11.9 also includes new comment helper blocks that will be necessary for templating:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35774\">Comment Reply Link</a></li><li><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35965\">Comment Link</a></li><li><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35396\">Comment Avatar</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For a while, comments have felt like an afterthought. Any movement toward rounding out these missing theme-related blocks is welcome.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 13 Nov 2021 01:34:11 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:10;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:42:\"WordPress.org blog: State of the Word 2021\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=11567\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:58:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/state-of-the-word-2021/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4565:\"<img width=\"632\" height=\"474\" src=\"https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/11/SOTW-Post-2.png?resize=632%2C474&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11602\" />State of the Word 2021 is happening on December 14!\n\n\n\n<p>Howdy, World!&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://calendar.google.com/calendar/render?action=TEMPLATE&text=State%20of%20the%20Word%202021%20livestream&dates=20211214T150000Z%2F20211214T170000Z&details=State%20of%20the%20Word%20is%20the%20annual%20keynote%20address%20delivered%20by%20the%20WordPress%20project%27s%20co-founder%2C%20Matt%20Mullenweg.%0AJoin%20Matt%20as%20he%20provides%20a%20retrospective%20of%202021%2C%20celebrates%20the%20community%27s%20amazing%20wins%2C%20discusses%20the%20latest%20trends%20he%27s%20seeing%2C%20and%20explores%20the%20future%20of%20open%20source.%0AState%20of%20the%20Word%20will%20be%20live%20streamed%20from%20New%20York%20City%2C%20and%20is%20free%20for%20all%20to%20watch.%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fnews%2F2021%2F11%2Fstate-of-the-word-2021%2F\">Mark your calendars</a>; it’s almost time for State of the Word 2021!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>State of the Word is the annual keynote address delivered by the WordPress project’s co-founder, Matt Mullenweg. Every year, the event allows us to reflect on the project’s progress and the future of open source. This year will include that and more.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to the pandemic, we moved the State of the World online for the first time ever in 2020. This year, the event will be livestreamed from New York City. That will enable us to take as many folks as possible along for the ride!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Join Matt as he provides a retrospective of 2021, discusses the latest trends he’s seeing, celebrates the community’s amazing wins, and explores the future. Expect to hear about a range of topics, from WordPress 5.9 and Openverse to Web3 and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What:</strong> State of the Word 2021</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When:</strong> <a href=\"https://calendar.google.com/calendar/render?action=TEMPLATE&text=State%20of%20the%20Word%202021%20livestream&dates=20211214T150000Z%2F20211214T170000Z&details=State%20of%20the%20Word%20is%20the%20annual%20keynote%20address%20delivered%20by%20the%20WordPress%20project%27s%20co-founder%2C%20Matt%20Mullenweg.%0AJoin%20Matt%20as%20he%20provides%20a%20retrospective%20of%202021%2C%20celebrates%20the%20community%27s%20amazing%20wins%2C%20discusses%20the%20latest%20trends%20he%27s%20seeing%2C%20and%20explores%20the%20future%20of%20open%20source.%0AState%20of%20the%20Word%20will%20be%20live%20streamed%20from%20New%20York%20City%2C%20and%20is%20free%20for%20all%20to%20watch.%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fnews%2F2021%2F11%2Fstate-of-the-word-2021%2F\">December 14, 2021, between 5 and 8 pm ET/10 pm and 1 am (December 15) UTC</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How:</strong> If you’re watching from the comfort of your home or local watch party, the livestream will be embedded on wordpress.org/news.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Have a question for Matt?</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>State of the Word will be followed by a Question &amp; Answer session. If you want to participate, you can either send your question ahead of time to <a href=\"mailto:ask-matt@wordcamp.org\">ask-matt@wordcamp.org</a>, or ask during the event in the livestream chat on YouTube.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you’re new to State of the Word, the previous years’ recordings (below) will help you get a sense of what the event is about. Check them out:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2020/12/state-of-the-word-2020/\">State of the Word 2020 (online)</a></li><li><a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/2019/11/03/2019-state-of-the-word/\">State of the Word 2019 – WordCamp US, St. Louis</a></li><li><a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/2018/12/27/state-of-the-word-2018/\">State of the Word 2018 – WordCamp US, Nashville</a></li><li><a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/\">All recordings</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We hope to see you online on December 14th!</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Thanks to <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/anjanavasan/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>anjanavasan</a> <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/eidolonnight/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>eidolonnight</a> <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/rmartinezduque/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>rmartinezduque</a> for their work on this post. The featured image was created by <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/beafialho/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>beafialho</a></em>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 13 Nov 2021 00:38:05 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:7:\"Josepha\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:72:\"WPTavern: GoDaddy Acquires Pagely to Deploy New WooCommerce SaaS Product\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125660\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:189:\"https://wptavern.com/godaddy-acquires-pagely-to-deploy-new-woocommerce-saas-product?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=godaddy-acquires-pagely-to-deploy-new-woocommerce-saas-product\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3259:\"<p>GoDaddy has <a href=\"https://aboutus.godaddy.net/newsroom/press-releases/press-release-details/2021/Pagely-joins-GoDaddy/default.aspx\">acquired</a> managed WordPress hosting company Pagely to expand the company&rsquo;s expertise in hosting WooCommerce stores. Pagely, co-founded by Joshua and Sally Strebel, has been in business for 18 years, offering hosting for businesses and enterprises at the higher end of the managed hosting market.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We will be working closely with the amazing team of WooCommerce experts from SkyVerge (previous GoDaddy acquisition) on the GoDaddy commerce team to deploy a world-class WooCommerce SaaS aimed at powersellers,&rdquo; Pagely co-founder and CEO Joshua Strebel said in a post titled &ldquo;<a href=\"https://pagely.com/blog/we-did-it/\">We Did It</a>.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Strebel said Pagely received more than a dozen offers to buy the company over the years and was given the &ldquo;choice of every suitor in the space.&rdquo; This particular offer was the third from GoDaddy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We poured our heart and soul into Pagely, and PressNomics, and the market responded,&rdquo; Strebel said. &ldquo;First, shown by our own success and then that of all the followers that came along after.&nbsp;We built a company with industry-leading&nbsp;<em>everything &ndash;&nbsp;</em>that our employees and customers love and respect, and despite our diminutive size in comparison to the VC fueled giants, those same entities could not ignore us. And that pushed the entire channel to improve and do better, benefiting every WordPress user on the planet.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal. I spoke with both Pagely and GoDaddy representatives who would not elaborate on how the new WooCommerce Saas will be different from GoDaddy&rsquo;s current WordPress e-commerce hosting offering. WooCommerce stores at GoDaddy start at $15.99/month and include 75 extensions and daily back-ups, among other features. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>During an <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uE2s3Of_AU\">interview</a> with Post Status last night, GoDaddy product manager Beka Rice said Pagely will be involved in deploying the new WooCommerce product, which she described as a &ldquo;curated experience&rdquo; for merchants. GoDaddy will be relying on Pagely&rsquo;s infrastructure expertise to improve the company&rsquo;s ability to keep WooCommerce stores running smoothly. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked about a potential launch date for the new WooCommerce SaaS product, Rice said the project is still in the the planning stages. They have identified the teams and are interested in learning more about scaling WooCommerce from Pagely&rsquo;s enterprise customers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pagely co-founder and COO Sally Strebel confirmed that the company will continue sponsoring and hosting its annual Pressnomics conference, which has held six events since it began.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Our beloved conference,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://pressnomics.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Pressnomics</a>, may look a little different going forward, and will remain a Pagely hosted event with the same mission as always: to elevate and connect business owners in the WordPress ecosystem,&rdquo; Strebel said.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 12 Nov 2021 19:29:12 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:97:\"WPTavern: Proposed Web Fonts API Not Coming to WordPress 5.9, Possibly Landing in Gutenberg First\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125634\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:237:\"https://wptavern.com/proposed-web-fonts-api-not-coming-to-wordpress-5-9-possibly-landing-in-gutenberg-first?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=proposed-web-fonts-api-not-coming-to-wordpress-5-9-possibly-landing-in-gutenberg-first\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:6763:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">After what seemed like a shoo-in for WordPress 5.9, a <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/a-web-font-api-possibly-coming-to-wordpress\">proposed web font API</a> was put on hold. The feature would standardize how theme and plugin developers load fonts and lay the groundwork for future user-facing features.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jono Alderson <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/46370\">opened a ticket</a> for the feature in February 2019. In recent months, the proposal picked up speed. The <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/1736\">pull request</a> had over 200 in-ticket messages, 93 commits, and code approval from two core committers. The API seemed ready. However, it hit a standstill in the past few days.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Andrew Ozz, a lead WordPress developer, essentially <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/1736#issuecomment-963589490\">halted the possibility of the new API</a> landing in 5.9. He stated that he did not think the proposal was ready for WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Purely as code it looks good,&rdquo; he wrote in the ticket. &ldquo;It is really well documented (thanks [Tonya Mark]!). However I still cannot see how this would make WordPress better in the short and long run. We were chatting with [Andrei Draganescu] and he suggested that ideally this should have been a feature plugin, and I agree. Then it would have been possible to really test it in production, verify (or reject) the assumptions that were made while creating it, and make it into a really worthy addition to WordPress. Unfortunately it&rsquo;s too late for this now for 5.9.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the issues with testing feature plugins for APIs is that they are not often adopted, as others noted in the ticket. Developers would not rely on them in production in most cases. And, the average end-user would not install something specific to developers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Suggesting this be done as a feature plugin is an elegant way to delay something for a few years,&rdquo; <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/1736#issuecomment-963893355\">said Ari Stathopoulos</a>, one of the developers behind the API. However, he pointed out the REST API being one exception that performed well enough to get ported into WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The core WordPress proposal will likely be <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/46370#comment:111\">pushed into the Gutenberg plugin</a> for further exploration. This would be a sort of compromise between launching as a separate feature plugin and going into WordPress 5.9.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The web fonts API is not directly related to the block system. Both traditional and block themes, as well as plugins, could make use of the feature today. However, several Gutenberg proposals rely on the existence of the API, such as allowing theme authors to define web fonts via their <code>theme.json</code> files.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ozz listed several questions around the proposal, and several developers replied to each. However, his primary argument hinged on the practicality of why everything in the API was necessary, stating that prior replies had been &ldquo;in principle&rdquo; and seemed to be based on assumptions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the most basic level, the web fonts API would allow developers to register and load locally-hosted fonts or those from Google Fonts. Developers could also add custom providers outside of the two defaults. The first iteration of the proposed API was more about setting down a foundation to build upon in future WordPress releases.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The appeal of the feature is not simply loading fonts. Technically, theme authors could do that with a single line of code if they wanted to. Four lines of code if they wanted to follow current core WordPress standards, at least on the front end.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stathopoulos rattled off a list of improvements such an API would bring to WordPress and its extensions.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Themes could define fonts via their <code>theme.json</code> files.</li><li>Font previews in the font-family selector in the editor.</li><li>Showing valid font-weights and styles for a font-family.</li><li>Improved front-end performance.</li><li>Server-side localization for better performance and privacy.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This was a small sampling of the arguments in favor of including the API in core WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;There are many improvements in Gutenberg that are in limbo, waiting for a web fonts API,&rdquo; wrote Stathopolous in the ticket. &ldquo;Not having a web fonts API is a blocker at this point. It&rsquo;s not a good-to-have item in our wishlist, it is a requirement in order to move forward.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, no standard specifically relates to web fonts in WordPress. Theme authors piggyback off existing functions for enqueueing a third-party stylesheet or a custom one with <code>@font-face</code> rules. That has generally been an accepted practice in the theme author community over the years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, many have accepted it grudgingly. Several have created custom scripts to ease pain points. Many others just copy whatever method the latest default WordPress theme happens to be using.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the goals is to make it so that developers do not have to worry about doing all of the extra work involved with loading web fonts. There really should be no need for a theme to figure out how to load them in both the editor and the front end, handle preloading, or account for localization. As themes age and third-party APIs like Google Fonts change, there would be no need for themes to update if WordPress takes care of it under the hood.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem of how best to load web fonts multiplies when you throw plugins into the mix. Generally, themes do all the heavy lifting when it comes to design. However, some plugins leap into that side of the WordPress world to add extra style options. There is no way to solve conflicts when loading multiple copies of the same font. Nor are there any surefire ways to disable a theme&rsquo;s fonts and replace them via the plugin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One such plugin author emailed me to let me know the news I had already known. The web fonts API appeared to no longer be landing in WordPress 5.9. The developer was gearing up to launch a new website and service on top of the new feature. They even had a mascot. As of now, it might just have to wait.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The feature freeze deadline was two days ago. Therefore, it is unlikely the web fonts API gets added back to the WordPress 5.9 milestone. Maybe developers will see it when 6.0 lands. Maybe pushing it to the Gutenberg plugin breathes some more life into it, allowing contributors to move forward with new features that rely on it.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 12 Nov 2021 01:58:51 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:86:\"WordPress.org blog: Take the 2021 WordPress Annual Survey (and view the 2020 results)!\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=11551\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:99:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/take-the-2021-wordpress-annual-survey-and-view-the-2020-results/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4805:\"<p>Each year, members of the WordPress community (users, site builders, extenders, and contributors) provide their valuable feedback through an annual survey. Key takeaways and trends that emerge from this survey often find their way into the annual <a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/\"><em>State of the Word</em></a> address, are shared in the public project blogs, and can influence the direction and strategy for the WordPress Project.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simply put: this survey helps those who build WordPress understand more about how the software is used, and by whom. The survey also helps leaders in the WordPress open source project learn more about our contributors’ experiences.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To ensure that <strong><em>your</em></strong> WordPress experience is represented in the 2021 survey results, <a href=\"https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-english\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">take the 2021 annual survey now.</a></p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-619689ad4cea9 wp-block-buttons\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-english\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Take the Annual Survey! (English)</a></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<p>You may also take the survey in <a href=\"https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-french\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">French</a>, <a href=\"https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-german\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">German</a>, <a href=\"https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-japanese\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Japanese</a>, <a href=\"https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-russian\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Russian</a>, or <a href=\"https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/wordpress-2021-survey-spanish\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spanish</a>. These are the top five languages (other than English) based on the number of WordPress locale downloads. For 2022, additional languages may be considered for translation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The survey will be open through the end of 2021, and the results will be published in a future post on this blog for anyone to view. Next year, there will be a new format for this survey, including which segments and questions are included, so that your valuable time spent responding results in equally valuable information.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"2020-survey-results\">2020 Survey Results</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For the 2020 survey, more than 17,000 responses were collected, representing the highest submission volume in four years, up three times from the prior year. In the inaugural year of the survey (2015), over 50,000 responses were collected. Given the reach and adoption of WordPress, there is a significant number we have not reached. As you take the 2021 survey, consider sharing the link on social media and with other colleagues who use WordPress. Gathering feedback from more folks who benefit from WordPress will strengthen our project.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-619689ad4d27a wp-block-buttons\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2021/11/WordPress.org-2020-Annual-Survey.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">View the 2020 Survey Results (PDF)</a></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2020 survey results show that the pandemic has had a major impact on how we operate as a community. With few in-person events, many community members continue to find it challenging to balance community contributions with their own personal and professional obligations.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"footnotes\">Footnotes:</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Data security and privacy are paramount to the WordPress project and community. With this in mind, all data will be anonymized: no email addresses nor IP addresses will be associated with published results. To learn more about WordPress.org’s privacy practices, view the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/\">privacy policy</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like last year, the 2021 survey will be promoted via a banner on WordPress.org, and throughout the make blogs. However, taking a moment to amplify these posts through your own social media and Slack accounts will ensure broader participation. Each of the translated surveys will be promoted through banners on their associated localized-language WordPress.org sites.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Thanks to <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/dansoschin/\">@dansoschin</a> for the initial draft of this post, and to <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/\">@annezazu</a> &amp; <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/zackkrida/\">@zackkrida</a> for review!</em></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 11 Nov 2021 23:52:12 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:7:\"Josepha\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:14;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:49:\"WPTavern: Lemon Squeezy Launches WordPress Plugin\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125589\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:143:\"https://wptavern.com/lemon-squeezy-launches-wordpress-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lemon-squeezy-launches-wordpress-plugin\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4350:\"<p><a href=\"https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/\">Lemon Squeezy</a>, a hosted e-commerce platform for selling digital products, subscriptions, and software licenses, <a href=\"https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/lemon-drop-05/\">launched a WordPress plugin</a>. The plugin allows the platform&rsquo;s customers to sell their products directly on WordPress sites. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merchants sign up, create products, and manage customers and subscribers using the Lemon Squeezy platform. Then they use the plugin to connect via OAuth and display products within WordPress content areas. The first version of the plugin lets users add &ldquo;buy buttons&rdquo; for products using a block.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><img /></div>\n\n\n\n<p>For checkout, merchants can link directly to a secure hosted checkout page or show a checkout pop-up modal on their WordPress sites.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lemon Squeezy is also aimed at WordPress product creators as the platform includes the ability to ship auto-updates for commercial themes and plugins.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merchants pay a monthly fee to use the service based on features, plus 3.5% + 30c per transaction. These fees cover access to the hosted platform, which handles merchant accounts, payment gateways, taxes, VAT, and other administrative details as the merchant of record. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><img /></div>\n\n\n\n<p>Lemon Squeezy was created by veterans of the WordPress community who are looking to position the platform as a competitor to WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. In promoting the new plugin, Lemon Squeezy team member Mike McAlister, founder of Array Themes and creator of Atomic Blocks, explained why he doesn&rsquo;t see WordPress as the right tool for selling products anymore.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;These days, I can&rsquo;t imagine running a business inside wp-admin,&rdquo; McAlister said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just not built for it, in my opinion. Having sensitive customer records in the same database as site content and data stored by plugins with varying security practices just screams trouble.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lemon Squeezy was met with a cautious reception from the WordPress developer community. There was some discussion on it in the Post Status Club Slack instance where members noted that the plugin launched with no migration options. This means it&rsquo;s currently only available to new store owners or those with a few products they can easily recreate. Without a straightforward migration tool, the service will have a difficult time siphoning users off of existing WordPress-based solutions. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the plugin is still in its early days, it seems best-suited to simple stores that don&rsquo;t require more than just being embedded on a WordPress site. In that case, there are many &ldquo;buy button&rdquo; style of e-commerce plugins with lower fees that Lemon Squeezy will be competing against as it enters the market.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maintaining products on one platform and a store on a different platform may not be advantageous for some users, especially those who don&rsquo;t want to have to learn both to start selling. Lemon Squeezy&rsquo;s creators are marketing it as &ldquo;the easy-peasy way to sell digital products online,&rdquo; as the hosted service provides an attractive storefront and  takes care of all the extraneous financial details of running a store.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the plugin&rsquo;s name is Lemon Squeezy, its title on WordPress.org is &ldquo;<em>Easy Peasy Digital Downloads &mdash; Sell Digital Products, Subscriptions, and Licenses with Lemon Squeezy</em>.&rdquo; This seems tailored to ride on the coattails of Easy Digital Downloads&rsquo; well-established search placement as WordPress&rsquo; market leader for selling digital products. WordPress users looking to create a digital store likely would not be searching for this plugin by name unless they already knew about it from elsewhere. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next on the current roadmap for the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/lemon-squeezy/\">Lemon Squeezy WordPress plugin</a> is the ability to restrict content by using more features built into the Lemon Squeezy platform. The plugin is still under development and users are welcome to send feedback to the team <a href=\"https://twitter.com/lmsqueezy\">via Twitter</a> or <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/hello@lemonqueezy.com\">email</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 11 Nov 2021 18:43:25 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:91:\"Post Status: Post Status Excerpt (No. 32) — Diversity in Speaking, Organizing, and Events\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"https://poststatus.com/?p=89240\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:34:\"https://poststatus.com/excerpt/32/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5046:\"<h2>&#8220;Focus on the skills people bring, what projects they\'ve done that have been really great.&#8221; — Jill Binder</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">In this episode of Post Status Excerpt, David talks with special guest Jill Binder about diversity and inclusion — how can people in underrepresented groups leverage resources in the WordPress community to increase their confidence, exposure, and potential hiring value? Learn how organizers can make their events feel more open and how they can encourage those in under-represented groups to participate. If we see a speaker who doesn\'t look like us at a conference and simply appreciate their contribution as a speaker as a normal feature of our conferences, that is an achievable win.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Don\'t forget! </strong>We\'re encouraging listeners to check out the &#8220;<a href=\"https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/\">Week at WordPress.org</a>&#8221; — get the feed <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/feed/\">here</a> — and <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/submit-2021-black-friday-cyber-monday-deals/\">submit your Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals</a> to us at Post Status for us to share.</p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\">Every week <strong><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/\">Post Status Excerpt</a></strong> will brief you on important WordPress news — in about 15 minutes or less! Learn what\'s new in WordPress in a flash. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a1.png\" alt=\"⚡\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /><br /><br />You can listen to <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/\">past episodes</a> of <strong>The Excerpt</strong>, <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/\">browse all our podcasts</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe on <a href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/1m3xwXbe0MG5BzFVPtB0A7\">Spotify</a>, Amazon Music, <a href=\"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA\">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008\">iTunes</a>, <a href=\"https://castro.fm/podcast/c53552c6-1ee0-4fc4-9de4-08ed6bf1ee4d\">Castro</a>, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus\">YouTube</a>, <a href=\"http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast\">Stitcher</a>, <a href=\"https://player.fm/series/wordpress-post-status-podcasts\">Player.fm</a>, <a href=\"https://pca.st/05rR\">Pocket Casts</a>, <a href=\"https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/\">Simplecast</a>, or by <a href=\"https://feeds.simplecast.com/2JE9sc8P\">RSS</a>. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f3a7.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /></p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-mentioned-in-the-show\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f517.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://bit.ly/WPDiversity17Nov2021\">Allyship for WordPress event organizers </a>(AMER/EMEA (November 17, 2021 @ 6pm-8pm UTC)</li><li><a href=\"https://bit.ly/WPDiversity27Nov2021\">How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events Southeast to Southern Asia </a>(November 27, 2021 @ 7am-8:30am UTC)</li><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wpdiversityworkshops/\">How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events AMER/EMEA</a> &#8211; Held during first two weeks of December.</li><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wpdiversityworkshops/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WPDiversity on Make.WordPress.Org</a></li><li><a href=\"https://diversein.tech/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">diversein.tech</a></li><li>Creating a Welcoming and Diverse Space (Part <a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/creating-a-welcoming-and-diverse-space-part-1/\">1</a> and <a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/creating-a-welcoming-and-diverse-space-part-2/\">2</a>)</li><li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/jillbinder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jill Binder (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href=\"https://linkedin.com/in/jillbinder/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jill Binder (LinkedIn)</a></li><li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/dimensionmedia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">David Bisset (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/post_status\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Post Status (Twitter)</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h3><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f64f.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Sponsor: <a href=\"https://poststat.us/sandhills\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow\">GoDaddyPro</a></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Manage your clients, websites, and tasks from a single dashboard with <strong>GoDaddy Pro</strong>. Perform security scans, backups, and remote updates to many sites on any host. Check up on site performance, monitor uptime and analytics, and then send reports to your clients. <strong>GoDaddy Pro</strong> is free — and designed to make your life better.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 11 Nov 2021 05:45:06 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:12:\"David Bisset\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:99:\"WPTavern: Ask the Bartender: Is There Still a Space for Building With HTML, CSS, and Template Tags?\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125591\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:235:\"https://wptavern.com/ask-the-bartender-is-there-still-a-space-for-building-with-html-css-and-template-tags?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ask-the-bartender-is-there-still-a-space-for-building-with-html-css-and-template-tags\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5500:\"<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>I&rsquo;m still wondering about the best method to approach a new project.</p><p>As a background, besides the traditional way, I&rsquo;ve worked with Divi, love Bricks, and am loving Blocks. But I still feel that there is nothing like building a website from the root, with raw material: HTML, dynamic PHP, and CSS &mdash; even more now with the importance of performance and the new server-side of things.</p><p>Plus, the ability to play with dynamic data (and the database) with template tags is so smooth and efficient that it really feels like superpowers.</p><p>So, it feels a bit strange, but I&rsquo;m wondering if template tags are going to end too?</p><cite>Ricardo</cite></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">You are asking a guy who was so nostalgic for the &ldquo;simpler&rdquo; days that he built his own custom blogging system over a weekend. And, I actually still use that same code, albeit updated and refined, for my personal blog today. When I began that project, I laid the foundation with modern PHP and build tools. However, at the heart of it, I just wanted to get back to those foundational elements of the web: HTML and CSS. I feel where you are coming from.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That project was fun to build for my own edification and enjoyment, but it essentially has a user base of one. Designing the front end for it feels very much like WordPress of 10 &ndash; 15 years ago.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you said using template tags was like accessing &ldquo;superpowers,&rdquo; it brought on a wave of nostalgia of those days and weeks when I first started using them. It was such an elegant system. Anyone could grab some dynamic data by copying a code snippet and pasting it between some HTML elements.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For those with the skills or enough DIY grit, they can do anything with a little bit of code, trial-and-error, and time. However, if we are going to empower more people, developers need newer and more powerful technologies to make that possible. For WordPress development, that means embracing the block system, which seems like something you are doing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Template tags are not going away. They are just PHP functions for getting some type of data. They will be around for a long time, likely as long as WordPress itself is still kicking.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many blocks actually rely on these template tags for outputting dynamic data on the front end. For example, the Archives block is literally a wrapper around <code>wp_get_archives()</code>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you prefer working from a code editor, you could look at blocks as modern-day template tags for WordPress. They are merely snippets of HTML code with a bit of JSON mixed in as an HTML comment. Many also display dynamic data.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is really no difference between the following template tag:</p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>&lt;?php wp_get_archives() ?&gt;</code></pre>\n\n\n\n<p>And its block equivalent:</p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>&lt;!-- wp:archives /--&gt;</code></pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Both spit out dynamic data. The difference is the syntax.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Granted, that is one of the simplest examples. Sometimes the block code is more complex. Other times, not so much.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What makes blocks more flexible is that they are built on a standardized system that empowers users to interact with them on the admin side.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Web development is an industry where you must continually adapt, learning new syntaxes, programming languages, libraries, technologies, and more. Just when you think you have mastered one thing, something else comes along to toss your world upside down. It can be both frustrating and fun.  Over time, you just learn to roll with it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>While template tags are not going away, how front-end developers build will change in the coming years. For most projects, they will work with blocks. However, block theming is in its infancy, so it is not something anyone must rush into.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With that said, the beauty of WordPress is that there is no one way of using it. If you want to build with just the <em>raw materials</em>, you can always do that. It may even make some projects easier, particularly if you have a simplified scope.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As far as performance goes, WordPress is pretty fast out of the box. Plugins and the active theme can improve its speed or make it a lot worse. Thanks to some <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/01/block-styles-loading-enhancements-in-wordpress-5-8/\">improvements in 5.8</a>, block styles are far more efficient.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It sounds to me that we are kindred spirits. We appreciate the simplicity &mdash; at least what we personally view as simple &mdash; of just diving into the building blocks of the web. And, there is nothing wrong with that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as a professional, you are building themes for customers or performing a service for a client. The technology or the tools you use do not really matter as long as they allow you to cater to your users.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe that tool is a third-party page builder on a client site. Perhaps you are building a block theme for public release on top of WordPress. Or, it could be a personal project, an itch you have been wanting to scratch. You load your code editor and begin tapping the keys. After a weekend of caffeine and junk food, you realize you have built something new and exciting from the ground up.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whatever your new project is, approach it based on what the project itself needs.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 11 Nov 2021 01:52:08 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:68:\"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.8.2 Security and Maintenance Release\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=11546\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:84:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/wordpress-5-8-2-security-and-maintenance-release/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:2948:\"<p><strong>WordPress 5.8.2&nbsp;</strong>is now available!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This security and maintenance release features <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?id=54129%2C54323%2C54207&milestone=5.8.2&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&col=milestone&order=priority\">2 bug</a> fixes in addition to <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/54207\">1 security</a> fix. Because this is a <strong>security release</strong>, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 5.2 have also been updated.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress 5.8.2 is a small focus security and maintenance release. The next major release will be version&nbsp;<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/\">5.9</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can download WordPress 5.8.2 by downloading from WordPress.org, or visit your Dashboard → Updates and click Update Now. If you have sites that support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information, browse the <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?id=54129%2C54323%2C54207&milestone=5.8.2&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&col=milestone&order=priority\">full list of changes</a> on Trac, or check out the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-8-2/\">version 5.8.2 HelpHub documentation page</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"thanks-and-props\">Thanks and props!</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The 5.8.2 release was led by&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/\">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/circlecube/\">Evan Mullins</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the release squad members mentioned above, thank you to everyone who helped make WordPress 5.8.2 happen:</p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/aristath/\">Ari Stathopoulos</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/bradleyt/\">Bradley Taylor</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidwebca/\">davidwebca</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/circlecube/\">Evan Mullins</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/gziolo/\">Greg Ziółkowski</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/\">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jrf/\">Juliette Reinders Folmer</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/mukesh27/\">Mukesh Panchal</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/\">Sergey Biryukov</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/shimon246/\">shimon246</a>, and <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/fierevere/\">Yui</a>.\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right has-small-font-size\"><em>Props </em><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/circlecube/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>circlecube</a><em> and </em><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/pbiron/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>pbiron</a> <em>for peer review.</em></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 10 Nov 2021 18:20:45 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:19:\"Jonathan Desrosiers\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:120:\"HeroPress: Contributing To WordPress Without Being A Developer – Contribuire a WordPress senza essere uno sviluppatore\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:56:\"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=4242\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:176:\"https://heropress.com/essays/contributing-to-wordpress-without-being-a-developer/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=contributing-to-wordpress-without-being-a-developer\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:20094:\"<img width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" src=\"https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/110921-min.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Pull Quote: The WordPress community is inclusive so you\'ll always feel welcome.\" /><p><a href=\"https://heropress.com/essays/how-wordpress-made-space-for-me-as-a-kid-who-grew-up-with-ms/#italian\">Questo saggio è disponibile anche in italiano.</a></p>\n<h3>The beginnings trying various CMS</h3>\n<p>I&#8217;ve always been fascinated by the internet, I remember in the 90s going with friends to pubs where we could use a computer and understand how websites like the FBI&#8217;s were structured, or learning how to use the ancestors of today&#8217;s chats like, for example, mIRC.</p>\n<p>I started creating websites in 1998 for fun, and my first paid job was for the shop where I bought comics.</p>\n<p>Little by little I approached CMS to speed up the creation of sites: I tried Joomla and Drupal and they never fully satisfied me because of the scarcity of guides. Later, in a magazine, I read about a CMS for creating blogs that was beginning to be used to create incredible sites and which, moreover, had an international community that had created a very large documentation. Little by little, thanks to that documentation and the first sites in Italian, I started to use WordPress.</p>\n<h3>The turning point that changed my life, personally and professionally</h3>\n<p>Being an introvert by nature, I didn&#8217;t mind working from home, but I did have difficulty finding new clients and, at the same time, improving the quality of the work I was doing using WordPress, which had become the only CMS I was using to create sites.</p>\n<p>The discovery was to look at the dashboard and notice a label where it was written Events and news on WordPress, inside which were reported events among which one immediately caught my attention: the WordPress meetup in Rome.</p>\n<blockquote><p>The turning point was in November 2017 when I went, with great curiosity, to the first meeting of the WordPress Meetup in Rome.</p></blockquote>\n<p>I must admit that the impact was not at all easy since the first talk I listened to then, was about WP-CLI, a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/guides/installing/\">command line interface for WordPress</a>, and, for someone like me, who had done simple jobs and certainly not as a developer, it was a real trauma: I wondered if I was really suitable for this environment. Then, at the end of the meeting, someone mentioned WordCamp Rome 2017.</p>\n<h3>My first WordCamp</h3>\n<p>I tried to find out about this event and I found it difficult to understand how it worked: it was two days but, while I had read for the second day that it was going to be a day of talks, I had no idea what was going on during the first day. So I decided to write an email for information. The person who wrote back explained that it was a contributor day, a day called Contributor Day, and</p>\n<blockquote><p>in the end I chose not to participate because I thought to myself, &#8220;What can I do? I don&#8217;t know anything about WordPress&#8221;&#8230; a big mistake, which I later reflected on and understood.</p></blockquote>\n<p>The WordCamp was a great discovery: talks at all levels, from basic (suitable for me) to those for developers, even advanced or very advanced. I was immediately struck by the enthusiasm of the volunteers and the environment where I felt very comfortable, so much so that I asked myself how I could participate in some WordCamps. Asking around I was immediately informed about the possibility of applying as a volunteer.</p>\n<p>During the WordCamp I heard about Slack; I didn&#8217;t understand much about it, even if everyone encouraged me to sign up to join the WordPress community, but the doubt I had was always the same: what could my contribution be?</p>\n<h3>Slack and the choice to join the Polyglots</h3>\n<p>Once on Slack, the choice of where to go was simple: not being a developer, I opted for the Polyglots (the volunteers who <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/\">translate the whole WordPress ecosystem into the various languages</a>) starting with the translation of a theme I was using for my work at the time. Little by little I got interested in the plugin activities, attending all the meetings and offering myself as a translator for themes and plugins: now I&#8217;m a GTE (General Translation Editor) and I also take care of the WordPress Core translations.</p>\n<p>Participating in Slack has helped me enormously: I&#8217;ve met a lot of people who I now call friends. Moreover, by translating, I learned a lot about how themes and plugins work.</p>\n<p>As my work with Polyglots has grown, it has led me to join other teams, the latest of which is the group of translators for Helphub, the new official WordPress documentation system.</p>\n<h3>WordCamps</h3>\n<p>After WordCamp Rome 2017, I started volunteering starting with WordCamp Rome 2018; there I participated in the first Contributor Day where I could actively contribute as a translator. Since that WordCamp, given my passion for photography, I volunteered as a photographer for many other events in Italy organized by the WordPress community, and I must say that this commitment to the community also allows me to have fun: being a photographer means having the opportunity to walk around the halls and capture moments of the life of a WordCamp.</p>\n<blockquote><p>Participating in WordCamps has made me so passionate about it that I must admit I have been in crisis due to the lack of events during the pandemic.</p></blockquote>\n<p>A friend of mine, a WordCamp fanatic like me, once said to me: &#8220;Stefano, there&#8217;s nothing to do, we have to admit that we are WordCamp addicts: the more you attend, the more you want to go to other WordCamps&#8221;.</p>\n<h3>The WordPress Meetup in Rome and the pandemic</h3>\n<p>In October 2019 I was asked to become the organizer of the WordPress meetup in Rome; at the beginning there was the difficulty of finding the place to organize the meetings since the agreement with the coworking that was previously available was broken, but COVID made sure that the event didn&#8217;t take place at all. The new challenge was therefore the organisation of online events, and, to be honest, I had fun as I had the pleasure of contacting many friends of the community who willingly offered to be speakers for the meetup in Rome with always interesting talks.</p>\n<h3>The WordCamp Italy</h3>\n<p>COVID led to the deleting of Meetups and WordCamps. Fortunately, the Italian WordPress community didn&#8217;t give up and organised the WordCamp Italia online, which brought together the organisers of previous meetups and WordCamps, as well as new people like me with no experience of organising events. I took part in both editions as a member of the social &amp; communication team, where I took care of the social channels and website content together with the other two organisers who were part of the team, and the experience made me grow professionally because I worked with the best that could be among the members of the community.</p>\n<h3>Working together with community members</h3>\n<p>The best thing I got out of joining the WordPress community was the chance to collaborate with some people on a working basis and, I have to say, that was incredible. Being with many of them you have an incredible opportunity to grow in knowledge, you just have to be ready to learn&#8230; and with WordPress you never stop learning, there is always something new that is suggested to you by those who have more experience than you.</p>\n<h3>What did WordPress bring me?</h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Discovering the community: WordPress introduced me to the world of its community, both Italian and international; the WordPress community connects WordPress enthusiasts through monthly Meetups, annual WordCamps, virtual collaborations such as contributions to the WordPress project, and much more.</li>\n<li>Professional growth: the chance to work, but also the chance to learn more and more about its ecosystem</li>\n<li>Personal growth: WordPress and the community have helped my confidence and self-esteem; I still have the &#8220;impostor syndrome&#8221; and I fear it will never go away, as I always question all my choices (and often prefer to avoid exposing myself), but being in the community has helped me overcome many fears and fears, such as feeling eligible to apply for some position in WordPress companies, which I would NEVER have thought of doing before.</li>\n<li>Friends: Being in the community has made me discover that there are people like me who share the same thoughts about work and who are always nice to talk to, and I must admit that we could talk for hours because we always find topics to talk about. In the community I have discovered friends with whom I have formed an incredible bond, people who are always ready to stimulate and support, and give help when you are in difficulty &#8230; and this is a common feature of many communities that gravitate around the world of WordPress!!!</li>\n</ol>\n<h3>What can I recommend?</h3>\n<p>Join your local meetup or think about organising one, it will introduce you to an amazing world. Don&#8217;t be afraid to meet people at WordCamps and Contributor Days, because you will learn more there than in dozens of courses. Talk to people at those events and don&#8217;t worry, they&#8217;re people like you doing the same job as you and remember, the WordPress community is inclusive so you&#8217;ll always feel welcome, and you&#8217;ll see enthusiasm like you&#8217;ve never seen at other IT events.</p>\n<p>One last recommendation: sign up for Slack and join the local WordPress community.</p>\n<h1 id=\"italian\">Contribuire a WordPress senza essere uno sviluppatore</h1>\n<h3>Gli inizi provando vari CMS</h3>\n<p>Sono sempre stato affascinato da internet, mi ricordo quando negli anni ‘90 andavo con gli amici in pub dove potevamo utilizzare un computer e capire come erano strutturati i siti web come quello dell’FBI, oppure apprendendo l’utilizzo degli antenati delle attuali chat come, ad esempio, mIRC.</p>\n<p>Ho iniziato a creare siti internet nel 1998 per gioco, e il mio primo lavoro pagato è stato per il negozio presso il quale acquistavo i fumetti..</p>\n<p>Poco alla volta mi sono avvicinato ai CMS per velocizzare la creazione dei siti: ho provato Joomla e Drupal e non mi hanno mai soddisfatto appieno a causa della scarsità di guide. Successivamente, su una rivista, lessi di un CMS per la creazione di blog che iniziava a essere utilizzato per realizzare siti incredibili e che, inoltre, aveva una community internazionale che aveva creato una documentazione molto vasta. Poco alla volta, grazie a quella documentazione e ai primi siti in italiano, ho iniziato a utilizzare WordPress.</p>\n<h3>La svolta che ha cambiato la mia vita, personale e professionale</h3>\n<p>Essendo un introverso di natura, non mi dispiaceva lavorare da casa, andando incontro, però, alla difficoltà di trovare nuovi clienti e, al contempo, migliorare la qualità del lavoro che veniva da me svolta utilizzando WordPress, che era diventato, nel frattempo, l’unico CMS che utilizzavo per realizzare siti.</p>\n<p>La scoperta fu quella di osservare la bacheca e notare una etichetta dove era scritto <strong>Eventi e notizie su WordPress</strong>, al cui interno erano segnalati degli eventi tra i quali uno colpì immediatamente la mia attenzione: il meetup WordPress di Roma.</p>\n<blockquote><p>La svolta fu a novembre del 2017 quando mi sono recato, con molta curiosità, al primo incontro del Meetup WordPress di Roma.</p></blockquote>\n<p>Devo ammettere che l’impatto non fu affatto facile visto che il primo talk che ascoltai allora, parlava di WP-CLI, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/guides/installing/\">una interfaccia da linea di comando per WordPress</a>, e, per uno come me, che aveva svolto lavori semplici e non certamente come sviluppatore, fu un vero e proprio trauma: mi domandavo se fossi davvero adatto a questo ambiente. Poi, a chiusura dell’incontro, qualcuno accennò al WordCamp Roma 2017.</p>\n<h3>Il mio primo WordCamp</h3>\n<p>Cercai di informarmi su questo evento e mi risultava difficile capire come funzionasse: erano due giorni ma, mentre per il secondo giorno avevo letto che sarebbe stata una giornata dedicata ai talk, non avevo la minima idea di cosa si facesse durante il primo giorno. Così decisi e scrissi una email per avere informazioni. Chi mi rispose mi spiegò che si trattava di una giornata dedicata alla contribuzione, una giornata chiamata “Contributor Day” e,</p>\n<blockquote><p>alla fine, scelsi di non partecipare perché, tra me e me, pensavo: dicevo “Ma io che posso fare? Non so niente di WordPress”&#8230; un grave errore, sul quale ho poi riflettuto e compreso.</p></blockquote>\n<p>Il WordCamp è stata una grandissima una scoperta: talk di tutti i livelli, da quelli base (adatti a me) a quelli per sviluppatori, anche avanzati o avanzatissimi. Mi ha colpito da subito l’entusiasmo dei volontari e l’ambiente dove mi trovavo benissimo, tanto da chiedermi come fare per partecipare a qualche WordCamp. Chiedendo informazioni in giro fui subito informato della possibilità di candidarsi come volontario.</p>\n<p>Durante il WordCamp sentivo parlare di Slack; capivo poco di cosa si trattasse anche se tutti mi incoraggiavano ad iscriversi per unirsi alla community di WordPress, ma il dubbio che mi attanagliava era sempre lo stesso: quale poteva essere il mio contributo?</p>\n<h3>Slack e la scelta di unirmi ai Polyglots</h3>\n<p>Arrivato su Slack, la scelta su dove andare è stata semplice: non essendo uno sviluppatore, ho optato per i Polyglots (i volontari che si occupano di <a href=\"https://it.wordpress.org/traduzioni/\">tradurre tutto l’ecosistema WordPress</a> nelle varie lingue) partendo dalla traduzione di un tema che utilizzavo per il mio lavoro in quel periodo. Poco alla volta mi sono appassionato alle attività dei plugin partecipando a tutte le riunioni ed offrendomi come traduttore per temi e plugin: adesso sono un GTE (General Translation Editor) e mi occupo anche delle traduzioni in italiano del Core di WordPress.</p>\n<p>La partecipazione a Slack mi ha aiutato enormemente: ho conosciuto tantissime persone che ormai definisco amici. Inoltre, traducendo, ho imparato tantissimo su come funzionano temi e plugin.</p>\n<p>La mia attività con i Polyglots, man mano che è cresciuto il mio impegno, mi ha portato ad unirmi ad altri team, ultimo dei quali è il gruppo dei traduttori di Helphub, il nuovo sistema ufficiale per la documentazione di WordPress.</p>\n<h3>I WordCamp</h3>\n<p>Dopo il WordCamp Roma 2017, ho iniziato a fare il volontario partendo dal WordCamp Roma 2018; lì ho partecipato al primo Contributor Day dove ho potuto contribuire attivamente come traduttore. A partire da quel WordCamp, vista la mia passione per la fotografia, mi sono offerto come volontario fotografo per molti altri eventi in Italia organizzati dalla community di WordPress e devo dire che questo impegno per la community, mi permette anche di divertirmi: essere fotografo vuol dire avere la possibilità di girare per le sale ed immortalare attimi della vita di un WordCamp.</p>\n<blockquote><p>Partecipare ai WordCamp mi ha appassionato tantissimo, tanto che devo ammettere di essere andato in crisi per mancanza di eventi durante la pandemia.</p></blockquote>\n<p>Un amico, fanatico di WordCamp come me, mi ha detto una volta: “Stefano, non c’è niente da fare, dobbiamo ammettere di essere dei drogati di WordCamp: più partecipi, più ti viene voglia di frequentarne altri”.</p>\n<h3>Il Meetup WordPress di Roma e la pandemia</h3>\n<p>Nell’ottobre del 2019 mi è stato chiesto di diventare organizzatore del meetup WordPress di Roma; all’inizio c’era la difficoltà di trovare il posto dove organizzare gli incontri visto che era saltato l’accordo con il coworking che dava in precedenza la disponibilità, ma il COVID ha fatto in modo che l’evento non si svolgesse del tutto. La nuova sfida è stata perciò l’organizzazione di eventi online, e, a dirla tutta, mi sono divertito avendo avuto il piacere di contattare tanti amici della community che si sono offerti volentieri di essere speaker per il meetup di Roma con talk sempre interessanti.</p>\n<h3>Il WordCamp Italia</h3>\n<p>Il COVID ha portato all’annullamento degli incontri dei Meetup e dei WordCamp. Fortunatamente la community italiana di WordPress non si è arresa ed ha organizzato il WordCamp Italia online, che ha messo assieme gli organizzatori di meetup e WordCamp precedenti, oltre a gente nuova come me a digiuno completo di esperienza di organizzazione di eventi. Ho partecipato a entrambe le edizioni come componente del team social &amp; comunicazione, dove mi sono occupato dei canali social e dei contenuti del sito insieme con gli altri due organizzatori che facevano parte del team, e l’esperienza mi ha fatto crescere dal punto di vista professionale perché ho lavorato con il meglio che ci poteva essere tra i membri della community.</p>\n<h3>Il lavoro insieme ai membri della community</h3>\n<p>Il risultato migliore che ho ottenuto entrando nella community di WordPress è stata la possibilità di collaborare con alcune persone anche lavorativamente e, devo dire, che è stato incredibile. Stando con molti di loro si ha una incredibile possibilità di crescita nelle conoscenze, basta essere sempre pronti a imparare… e con WordPress non si finisce mai di imparare, c’è sempre qualcosa di nuovo che ti viene suggerito da chi ha più esperienza di te</p>\n<h3>Che cosa mi ha portato WordPress?</h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Scoprire la community: WordPress mi ha introdotto al mondo della sua comunità, sia italiana che internazionale; la community di WordPress collega gli appassionati di WordPress tramite Meetup mensili, WordCamp annuali, collaborazioni virtuali come i contributi al progetto WordPress, e molto altro ancora.</li>\n<li>Crescita professionale: la possibilità di lavorare, ma anche la possibilità di conoscere sempre più aspetti del suo ecosistema</li>\n<li>Crescita personale: WordPress e la community mi hanno aiutato nella sicurezza e nell’autostima; ancora adesso c’è in me la “sindrome dell’impostore” e temo che non se ne andrà mai via, dato che metto sempre in dubbio tutte le mie scelte (e spesso preferisco evitare di espormi), ma frequentare la community mi ha fatto vincere molte paure e timori, come sentirmi idoneo a candidarmi per una qualche posizione in aziende nell’ambito WordPress, cosa che, precedentemente, MAI avrei pensato di fare.</li>\n<li>Gli amici e le amiche: frequentare la community mi ha fatto scoprire che ci sono persone come me che condividono i miei stessi pensieri sul lavoro e con i quali è sempre piacevole poter parlare, e devo ammettere che potremmo discutere per ore perché troviamo sempre argomenti di cui parlare. Nella community ho scoperto amici e amiche con i quali si è creato un legame incredibile, persone che sono sempre pronte a stimolare e supportare, e dare un aiuto quando si è in difficoltà… e questa è una caratteristica comune a molte community che gravitano attorno al mondo di WordPress!!!</li>\n</ol>\n<h3>Cosa consigliare?</h3>\n<p>Partecipate al meetup della vostra città o pensate organizzarne uno, vi farà entrare in un mondo incredibile. Non abbiate paura di incontrare le persone ai WordCamp e partecipare ai Contributor Day, perché imparerete più lì che in decine di corsi. Parlate con chi partecipa a quegli eventi e non preoccupatevi, sono persone come voi che fanno il vostro stesso lavoro e ricordatevi, la community di WordPress è inclusiva per cui vi sentirete sempre ben accetti, e vedrete un entusiasmo come non avete mai visto in altri eventi di informatica.</p>\n<p>Una ultima raccomandazione: iscrivetevi a <a href=\"https://it.wordpress.org/slack/\">Slack</a> ed unitevi alla community locale di WordPress.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 10 Nov 2021 07:00:36 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Stefano Cassone\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:19;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:76:\"WPTavern: Radio Station PRO Launches, Offers New Tools for Live Broadcasters\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125089\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:195:\"https://wptavern.com/radio-station-pro-launches-offers-new-tools-for-live-broadcasters?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=radio-station-pro-launches-offers-new-tools-for-live-broadcasters\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8174:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">In June, netmix&reg; CEO Tony Zeoli <a href=\"https://radiostation.pro/radio-station-pro-is-just-around-the-corner/\">began touting</a> the release of the company&rsquo;s Radio Station PRO plugin. It would offer an upgraded experience over the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/radio-station\">free version</a> his team had maintained since 2019. At the end of last month, the company officially <a href=\"https://radiostation.pro/radio-station-pro-press-release-oct-21-2021/\">launched its commercial offering</a>, a plan that had been in the works since the beginning.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The commercial plugin was built for live audio broadcasters with a rolling show schedule. Its audience ranges from radio stations to live streamers to Clubhouse moderators. It allows listeners to browse generated show and team pages, playlists, and related information uninterrupted during a live stream. The goal is to create a more efficient scheduling and streaming system, saving broadcasters time and resources.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nikki Blight created the original Radio Station plugin but had stopped working on it in 2015. Zeoli adopted it in 2019 and picked up <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/majick/\">Tony Hayes</a> to handle its development.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;When I first stumbled onto Radio Station at WPVM, I saw the potential for broadcasters wrapped up in one free plugin that had been orphaned,&rdquo; said Zeoli. &ldquo;It just needed someone who could re-commit to it and bring it back to life. And it would surely help if they had an interest in streaming radio and broadcasting, which the other Tony and I both do. I don&rsquo;t think just anyone could have taken it over. It had to be someone with a passion and interest in the space.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The two did not launch with a free product. However, Zeoli said he realized the potential for a commercial version quickly after taking over the plugin.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"pro-plugin-upgrades\">PRO Plugin Upgrades</h2>\n\n\n\n<img />Table view of schedule and player from <a href=\"https://demo.radiostation.pro/\">Radio Station PRO demo</a>.\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The team had several features they had wanted to improve over the free version. The first order of business was improving the scheduling experience. For the free plugin, the team created a conflict catcher. However, they built a front-end visual schedule editor for the commercial version.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Another issue we needed to resolve was the audio player experience,&rdquo; said Zeoli. &ldquo;Radio Station free has a simple audio player widget that we created earlier this year. What really sets the PRO version apart here is the addition of a persistent (or &lsquo;sticky&rsquo;) header or footer player, so when the listener navigates the website while the stream is activated, playback is not interrupted.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hayes created a second plugin called <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/teleporter/\">Teleporter</a> to handle the persistent player. The free, WordPress.org-hosted extension is baked into Radio Station PRO, but it is open for other developers in their applications.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team also tried to tackle time zone issues in the global broadcasting world. PRO adds a switcher to help visitors set the schedule to their preferred time zone instead of performing &ldquo;brain gymnastics,&rdquo; as Zeoli joked.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plugin&rsquo;s widgets automatically refresh and dynamically display data, such as the next song in a playlist or a show title change. The hope is to bring this technology to the block world, but it must wait until next year. Zeoli said there is not a rush because most of their users are not there yet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team has added a new episodes post type alongside the plugin&rsquo;s original shows and playlists. Eventually, they plan to allow broadcasters to further break that down into segments. Radio Station PRO tacks on host and producer profile pages. It also has a built-in role manager, extended scheduling period, and additional layout views.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of the toughest competition in the space is against the commercial theme market. There are several live-broadcasting themes, but Zeoli says these can be both cost-prohibitive in the long term and lock users into a design that users may not want in the future.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;With so much data going into the Post Types, you really don&rsquo;t want to leave that in a theme if you want to switch for some reason,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Unlike SEO plugins, there are no conversion plugins for radio station themes or plugins, so it could pose a problem by being locked into a theme as opposed to having the flexibility of a theme-agnostic plugin.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover alignfull has-parallax\"><span class=\"has-gray-900-background-color has-background-dim-70 wp-block-cover__gradient-background has-background-dim bg-gray-900\"></span><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container\">\n<h2 class=\"has-text-align-center has-titanic-font-size text-5xl text-center\" id=\"from-boston-to-asheville-a-lifetime-of-radio\">From Boston to Asheville: A Lifetime of Radio</h2>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m originally from Boston, where my interest in radio evolved at an early age into a career as a nightclub and mix show DJ,&rdquo; said Zeoli. &ldquo;I listened to the radio all the time; news, talk, sports, and music, I was into it all. As I got older, I tuned in to college radio, and, as a senior in high school, I got the chance to intern at a local AM station and did guest mix sets on the largest commercial station, KISS 108.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He completed a two-year degree in Radio and Television broadcasting at a small school outside New York City. Then, returned home to Boston with a focus on DJing while working at record stores. He later moved on to work at a record label and DJ remix service.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;It was the early days of the World Wide Web,&rdquo; said Zeoli. &ldquo;And I saw the opportunity to marry my passion for DJing with streaming media and launched my first startup, netmix.com, which was the earliest effort to stream DJ sets from popular electronic music and hip-hop DJs.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He moved netmix&reg; to New York City, and the company was acquired by Polyverse, Inc in 2000. The company ceased operations during the dot-com crash, but Zeoli retained the domain name for 19 years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>After bouncing between various corporations and startups, he dove deeper into WordPress. He had stumbled upon it while working on a project for the Associated Press in 2003.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;That led to launching Digital Strategy Works, a WordPress and digital strategy agency (which I still run today), founding the WordPress Westchester Meetup, and presenting at early WordCamps in NYC and Raleigh, NC.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A chance encounter in Raleigh landed him a WordPress-specific job at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Some work at a large corporation followed, and he finally migrated to Asheville, NC.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;I got back into radio to re-engage in and merge my love of broadcasting with DJing with a new mix show, the Asheville House Music Society,&rdquo; said Zeoli. &ldquo;I was certainly getting back in the groove of broadcasting and streaming.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the spring of 2019, he had been helping with the <a href=\"https://wpvmfm.org/\">WPVM</a> website, which was using the original Radio Station plugin. He contacted Blight, the owner, after finding a theme conflict. He soon adopted the project, found a partner in Hayes, and had a new use for his decades-old domain.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;I just thought it was a very useful plugin and could see the groundbreaking potential for radio stations that really needed a comprehensive set of WordPress tools to help them publish search engine optimized content on their WordPress websites, but in a way that fit the station schedule formatting,&rdquo; said Zeoli. &ldquo;I figured, given my decades-long interest in and experience with streaming and broadcasting when combined with my agile product development experience, I could find a way to keep it going.&rdquo;</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 09 Nov 2021 22:43:26 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:48:\"WPTavern: New Block Plugin Displays Post Formats\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125453\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:141:\"https://wptavern.com/new-block-plugin-displays-post-formats?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-block-plugin-displays-post-formats\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3024:\"<p>Are you using post formats? Now there&rsquo;s a block for that! WordPress&rsquo; <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/support/article/post-formats/\">post formats</a> feature was introduced in version 3.1 as a way for themes to customize presentation of a post. It allows users to choose the way a post looks by selecting a post format from a dropdown list. WordPress has a fixed list of post formats available but not all themes support them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Post formats have maintained a smaller cult following. While I don&rsquo;t see them making a major comeback, many users who committed to using them long ago would like to continue. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress Core Committer Aaron Jorbin has created a plugin called <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/post-format-block/\">Post Format Block</a> that will display a post format in a block-based theme. His <a href=\"https://aaron.jorb.in/introducing-post-format-block/\">writeup</a> dives deeper into the technical details of how he created the plugin. The block allows users to change the color, font size and weight of the displayed post format. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><img />Post Format Block plugin</div>\n\n\n\n<p>Jorbin said he built the plugin to display post formats on his personal site and wanted to help others do the same.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;As someone that benefits greatly from Open Source, I view it as my responsibility to give back and it wasn&rsquo;t much effort to build it in a way that it could be open from the start,&rdquo; Jorbin said. &ldquo;Plus it gave me a chance to play with codespaces and explore some parts of Gutenberg I wasn&rsquo;t as familiar with.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are post formats relevant in the new frontier of blocks, where users have more control over the presentation of posts than ever before? They may not have a strong future in WordPress moving forward, but thanks to the plugin system, people can keep using them while using a block-based theme.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;I think Post Formats are in a weird position since looking back with hind sight, I don&rsquo;t think they should have been a part of core,&rdquo; Jorbin said. &ldquo;But for now, they remain in core and they are useful for me in this instance. I like them since for my personal site, they make sense. But I don&rsquo;t think they make sense on a lot of sites.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are using post formats and you want to be able to keep using them with a block-based theme, this plugin will give you that continuity. You will want to search for it using the name of it in quotes. (Otherwise you will be scrolling a long time to try to find it.) <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/post-format-block/\">Post Format Block</a> is available for free in the WordPress plugin directory but it requires some code that isn&rsquo;t in WordPress 5.8 to work. You will have to use the nightly build until 5.9 is released. The plugin is also <a href=\"https://github.com/aaronjorbin/post-format-block\">available on GitHub</a> for contribution or testing with Codespaces.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 09 Nov 2021 22:24:05 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:66:\"WPTavern: WordPress Polyglots Team Launches New Monthly Newsletter\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125458\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:177:\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-polyglots-team-launches-new-monthly-newsletter?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-polyglots-team-launches-new-monthly-newsletter\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:2177:\"<p>WordPress&rsquo; Polyglots team has published the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/10/15/polyglots-monthly-newsletter-october-2021/\">first edition</a> of a new monthly newsletter aimed at helping contributors stay informed and engaged with the team&rsquo;s activities.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress has been <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/about/history-of-the-team/\">translated by volunteers for more than 15 years</a> since version 1.2, with the earliest contributions from the Hindi, French, Japanese, and Norwegian communities. Since that time the Polyglots team has grown to include the work of 55,427&nbsp;translation contributors. They have also  adopted more efficient tools like P2 and Slack to stay connected, but some translators find it difficult to follow the constant stream of posts and meetings. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The monthly newsletter was launched to provide a short-format digest of all the significant happenings and discussions in the translation community. It will include news related to upcoming releases and Polyglots tools, condensed so contributors don&rsquo;t have to keep a close eye on the team&rsquo;s P2 blog, Slack channels, or RSS feed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first edition features a brief summary of the month-long WordPress Translation Day 2021 event, which brought in 697 new translation contributors. Altogether the contributor teams submitted 518,710 approved translation strings during 22 local and six livestream events.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The majority of people using WordPress are using it with a translation. As of October 2021, 55.36% of WordPress sites are running a translated site. That figure is slowly inching upward as WordPress adoption grows in the non-English speaking world.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><img /><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/about/stats/\">WordPress Locales</a></div>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if you&rsquo;re not a member of the Polyglots team, this newsletter is a good way to stay up-to-date with the exciting frontier of WordPress translations. Subscribers can <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/get-polyglots-news/\">sign up</a> to receive monthly Polyglots updates directly via email. </p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 09 Nov 2021 04:40:21 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:62:\"WPTavern: Block Pattern Modal Explorer Coming to WordPress 5.9\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125447\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:169:\"https://wptavern.com/block-pattern-modal-explorer-coming-to-wordpress-5-9?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=block-pattern-modal-explorer-coming-to-wordpress-5-9\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4485:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">It has been a long year since Paal Joachim Romdahl&rsquo;s proposed an <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/proposal-to-create-an-expanded-view-or-overlay-for-the-block-patterns-inserter\">alternative block pattern experience</a>. In November 2020, he <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/26905\">opened a ticket</a> on the Gutenberg GitHub repository to explore an overlay-based approach to viewing, searching, and inserting patterns into the content canvas. Late last week, a pull request for the long-awaited feature <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35773\">landed in the Gutenberg plugin</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A year ago, patterns were a new concept for the average WordPress user. WordPress 5.5 introduced them to the world, and we were only a month out from the next major release. I had hoped we could plug the new overlay in as soon as possible, but sometimes an idea needs time or the right people working on it to give it that necessary push.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first iteration of the pattern explorer will likely be a baseline experience that can be built upon in the future. Currently, users can search via the modal or filter by category (includes featured patterns in the list).</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Pattern explorer modal.\n\n\n\n<p>In the long term, the explorer should offer more features. An <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35006#issuecomment-929605688\">earlier mockup</a> of it showed user favorites by connecting with a WordPress.org account. This sat alongside featured and newest-pattern lists. The mockup also had a separate section for template part patterns, such as header, footer, and sidebar. With the WordPress 5.9 feature freeze coming on November 9, those extras will likely need to wait until a future release.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To access the explorer overlay, users will need to click the &ldquo;Explore&rdquo; button when viewing patterns in the inserter. It then pops up a full-screen overlay for navigating them.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />&ldquo;Explore&rdquo; button next to the pattern category dropdown.\n\n\n\n<p>This type of pattern navigation experience has already become a necessity. The narrow inserter has not held up well against themes that ship a lot of patterns, such as the <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/tove-a-block-based-wordpress-theme-by-anders-noren\">40+ bundled with Tove</a>. The problem will only grow exponentially worse as the pattern directory is opened to more submissions and other themes inevitably add dozens upon dozens of their own.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The experience is much nicer now. However, it still has a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out. Several patterns have scrollbars of their own within the explorer. As Anne McCarthy <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35773#issuecomment-948737083\">noted in the ticket</a>, it makes the &ldquo;experience very janky.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Patterns with scrollbars.\n\n\n\n<p>In my tests, the patterns butted against the explorer sidebar on the left. Fixing this should not take much work.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than once, I also ran into the dreaded &ldquo;Aw, Snap!&rdquo; browser error message after viewing the explorer&rsquo;s patterns. The error code: <em>out of memory.</em>  This happened when running a clean install alongside the Twenty Twenty-Two WordPress theme. I can only hope it is a non-issue when WordPress 5.9 rolls around and is live on production sites.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eventually, I want to see a quicker method for accessing this pattern modal. I am leaning toward a dedicated button in the toolbar for pulling up the overlay. Right now, it takes three mouse clicks to open it. First, users must click the &ldquo;+&rdquo; inserter button. Then, they must switch to the Patterns tab before hitting the Explore button. That is a lot of work for something that should be a first-class feature.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A keyboard shortcut would also be a welcome access point. I could live with that compromise if the development team is not yet ready to stick another item at the top level of the UI.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, I am happy with this upcoming feature. I may even try my hand at building some new ones. Those I had been tinkering with in my custom theme had become so unwieldy that testing them was a headache. This will open things up and should make it a lot more enjoyable to use.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gutenberg plugin users should see this land in version 11.9 later this week. It is also currently available in the trunk branch of WordPress.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 09 Nov 2021 00:38:56 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:23;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:94:\"Gutenberg Times: Life-improving development tools and Theme Revolution – Weekend Edition 192\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=19522\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:101:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/life-improving-development-tools-and-theme-revolution-weekend-edition-192/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:22219:\"<p>Howdy, </p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the US, November is the month of gratitude and a time of reflection and to  counts one&#8217;s blessings. I am grateful to be part of a diverse WordPress community, where I have made wonderful friends, even when we sometimes disagree. I learned to argue from a place of love. I am also grateful for you reading these roundup posts very week. Thank you for all the feedback you shared with me over the last year! I learned so much from you and the community. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next week, I will join my fellow developer advocates for an in-person meetup and Friday is my travel day home again. I won&#8217;t be able to compile a newsletter, though. The next edition with drop in to your inbox on November 20th.  Don&#8217;t use up all the links this week, so you still have some for next week. ?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yours, ?<br />Birgit</p>\n\n\n\n<p>PS: Here is a shout-out to the team at Post Status with an event you might be interested in. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-light-background-background-color has-background\">Join us in&nbsp;<strong>Twitter Spaces</strong>&nbsp;on&nbsp;<strong>November 19 @ 12PM EST</strong>&nbsp;for the<br />&nbsp;<a href=\"https://poststatus.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ff3456b27ebe0be0155087894&id=b8390ecb23&e=76a77eae7e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">First Annual State of WordPress News</a>&nbsp;event hosted by <strong>Post Status. </strong><br />We&#8217;ll be joined by&nbsp;<strong>Matt Medeiros</strong>&nbsp;(Matt Report Media),&nbsp;<strong>Jeff Chandler</strong>&nbsp;(WP Mainline),&nbsp;<strong>Joe Howard</strong>&nbsp;(WPMRR),&nbsp;<strong>Birgit Pauli-Haack</strong>&nbsp;(Gutenberg Times), and&nbsp;<strong>Sarah Gooding</strong>&nbsp;(WP Tavern). Hosted by&nbsp;<strong>David Bisset</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Dan Knauss</strong>&nbsp;(Post Status). </p>\n\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-sortabrilliant-guidepost\"><ul><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#tips-and-tricks-for-content-creators\">Tips and Tricks  for Content Creators</a></li><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#developing-gutenberg\">Developing Gutenberg </a></li><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#developing-blocks-and-themes-for-gutenberg\">Developing Blocks and Themes for Gutenberg</a><ul><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#tooltips-and-validation-for-json-files\">Tooltips and Validation for JSON Files</a></li></ul></li><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#full-site-editing\">Full-Site Editing</a></li><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#wordpress-events\">WordPress Events</a></li></ul></div>\n\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"tips-and-tricks-for-content-creators\">Tips and Tricks  for Content Creators</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you wondered what the difference is between Block Patterns, Reusable Blocks and Template part, <strong>Courtney Robinson</strong>, has the answer for you: <a href=\"https://www.godaddy.com/garage/wordpress-block-pattern-reusable-block-or-template-part/\"><strong>WordPress Block Pattern, Reusable Block, or Template Part</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> posted another short video on a cool feature of WordPress block editor:  <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o37jZN6KFM\"><strong>Connecting The Dots: Transparency (settings) for the win</strong></a>. She wrote: &#8220;This video touches on duotone, gradients, cover blocks, dimension controls, and more showing how an improvement in one area unlocks the ability&#8221;. Enjoy! </p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o37jZN6KFM\"><img /></a>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"developing-gutenberg\">Developing Gutenberg </h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Gutenberg team worked hard to get the last features into the <strong>Gutenberg 11.9 RC,</strong> so they make it into the next WordPress release. If you want to test the release candidate you&#8217;ll can download the <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/download/v11.9.0-rc.1/gutenberg.zip\">plugin.zip from GitHub</a>, with the <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v11.9.0-rc.1\">release notes</a>  on <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v11.9.0-rc.1\">this page</a>. This version will sport new blocks theme builders and template editors for the comment section, the post template blocks receive spacing controls and the new Gallery block finally comes out of experimental state and is ready to merge with core. More detailed information will reach you via the Gutenberg Changelog podcast and the usual sources of WordPress news. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>In her post, <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/11/02/core-editor-improvement-introducing-template-part-focus-mode/\"><strong>introduced the template part focus mode</strong></a> of the block editor. In this screen, WordPress users are empowered to modify template parts, like the site wide header or footer, and style them to their liking. The focus mode ensures distraction-free modifications.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Channing Ritter</strong> and <strong>Javier Arce</strong> of the design team share on their Make blog exploration around image cropping and <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/11/02/background-editor-improvements/\"><strong>improving the background handling for the Cover block.</strong></a> They presented a few variations and also identified breaks in the workflow. And they have a proposal for WordPress users to chime in and share their opinion. It&#8217;s not work that will go into WordPress 5.9. It seems that&#8217;s already work for the WordPress 6.0 version. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Beatriz Fialho</strong> and <strong>Kelly Hoffman</strong> shared with the WordPress community their <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/29/redesign-of-the-gutenberg-page/\"><strong>prototypes for the redesign of the Gutenberg Demo Page</strong></a>. Check it out and let them know what you think! </p>\n\n\n\n<img src=\"https://i2.wp.com/make.wordpress.org/design/files/2021/10/gutenberg_page_1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" /><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/29/redesign-of-the-gutenberg-page/\">Prototype of the new design for the Gutenberg Demo Page</a>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> also shared more details in <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-gutenberg-demo-page-is-getting-a-redesign#comments\"><strong>WordPress’ Gutenberg Demo Page Is Getting a Redesign</strong></a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Maggie Cabrera</strong>&nbsp;publish the&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/11/05/gutenberg-themes-week-of-november-1st-2021/\">71st Gutenberg + Themes Round-up</a></strong>&nbsp;post  with a list of ongoing discussions on Full-Site Editing, Global Styles, and Design Tools. She lists quite a few GitHub issues that could use more input from other theme authors and users. You can, for instance, learn about the Webfonts API implementation for  theme.json. (<a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35591\">#35591</a>), or the discussion on i18n: Localizing blocks in FSE themes&nbsp;(<a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/36061\">#36061</a>). </p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also consult the overview issue to gauge progress on major features. </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Default Theme (Twenty Twenty Two): Overview of Gutenberg issues:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/twentytwentytwo/issues/75\">#75</a></li><li>The Global Styles Interface&nbsp;<a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/34574\">#34574</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Post Comments&nbsp;Loop&nbsp;Block: Tracking issue&nbsp;<a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/34994\">#34994</a>&nbsp;</li><li>Site Editing block placeholders&nbsp;<a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35501\">#35501</a></li><li>Typography Tools: Tracking defaults for blocks&nbsp;<a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35604\">#35604</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>In&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-54-gutenberg-11-8/\">Gutenberg Changelog newest episode (#54)</a></strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Grzegorz (Greg) Ziolkowski </strong>and I talk about Gutenberg 11.8 release, the Navigation Block, Full-site Editing and the Plugin Machine. Listen in and <a href=\"https://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog\"><em><strong>write us a review. </strong></em></a></p>\n\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Subscribe to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/\">Gutenberg Changelog</a>&nbsp;podcast </strong><br />?️&nbsp;<a href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/620NwVKQJGdTupy36zYxvg?mc_cid=4b6c9f88fe\">Spotify</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9ndXRlbmJlcmd0aW1lcy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0\">Google</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gutenberg-changelog/id1469294475\">iTunes</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://pca.st/podcast/f8445ec0-7508-0137-f267-1d245fc5f9cf\">PocketCasts</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.stitcher.com/show/gutenberg-changelog\">Stitcher</a>&nbsp;|<br />?️&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/chi7j-9904a/Gutenberg-Changelog-Podcast\">Pod Bean</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://castbox.fm/channel/Gutenberg-Changelog-id2173375\">CastBox</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/gutenberg-changelog-878239/\">Podchaser</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/podcast\">RSS Feed</a>&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"developing-blocks-and-themes-for-gutenberg\">Developing Blocks and Themes for Gutenberg</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Aaron Jorbin</strong> created the Post Format block for Full-Site Editing theme and the block editor using Block Variations and wrote about it in <a href=\"https://aaron.jorb.in/introducing-post-format-block\"><strong>Introducing Post Format Block</strong></a>. In a follow-up post, he also discussed <strong><a href=\"https://aaron.jorb.in/three-life-improving-tools-for-wordpress-plugin-development/\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow\">Three life-improving tools for WordPress Plugin Development</a></strong>. Jorbin describes his experience with <a href=\"https://docs.github.com/en/codespaces\">Codespaces by GitHub</a>, declared <code><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-scripts/\">wp-scripts</a></code> the secret weapon of WordPress development, and explored <a href=\"https://github.com/features/actions\">GitHub Actions</a>. All very educational for aspiring WordPress developers. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p id=\"a-master-in-both-piano-and-wordpress\"><a href=\"https://github.com/readme/podcast/helen-hou-sandi\"><strong>A master in both piano and WordPress &#8211; How Helen found herself at the inspiring intersection of music and open-source software,</strong></a> is the title of a recent ReadMe podcast episode by the GitHub team with <strong>Helen Hou-Sandí,</strong> a Lead WordPress Developer and Director of Open-Source Initiatives at 10up.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dave Smith,</strong> developer on the Gutenberg team, posted a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6S5hmAmVdU\"><strong>video tutorial on how to get registered images sizes in Gutenberg</strong></a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>This week, <strong>Ryan Welche</strong>r live-streamed on how to add end-2-end test with Puppeteer to test blocks during development. He shared a recap and resources on his blog: <a href=\"https://ryanwelcher.com/2021/11/live-stream-recap-adding-e2e-tests-to-custom-a-gutenberg-block/\"><strong>Live Stream Recap: Adding e2e tests to custom a Gutenberg block</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2021&#8221;</a>&nbsp;</strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test and Meta team from Jan. 2021 on. Updated by yours truly.  </p>\n\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"tooltips-and-validation-for-json-files\">Tooltips and Validation for JSON Files</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of life-improving tools&#8230; <strong>David Gwyer</strong> published an outstanding tutorial on how to get &#8220;<a href=\"https://innerblocks.com/automatic-tooltips-validation-for-theme-json-block-json-files/\"><strong>Automatic Tooltips &amp; Validation for theme.json &amp; block.json Files!&#8221;</strong></a> via the schemas sent to SchemaStore. Gwyer shows you how to add the schema URL into the top of the file and then how your IDE shows you description and syntax for each property to be configured. </p>\n\n\n\n<img src=\"https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/m85D0K_J3ETVlRfFuhr6N3uPDv0a8TMKnhvX3-vtqOxbNkDt7T0_icsQtQnULOezAASw62wUnRt1iSe5H46oSphEJ3W1YbxJa_N7qkpJI_R1UAWSxXm4sBoz33OXtAucrLcwd4xg\" alt=\"\" /><a href=\"https://innerblocks.com/automatic-tooltips-validation-for-theme-json-block-json-files/\">Picture courtesy of David Gwyer.</a>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Marcus Kazmierczak</strong> integrated the <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35998\">schemas into the Gutenberg repository</a>, so they are version controlled, can also be used for testing and updating during development and, subsequently, also update documentation when more properties and features are added in future versions of the schemas. <br /><br />Current URLs are:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-normal-font-size\"><li><strong>Block.json:</strong> <a href=\"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WordPress/gutenberg/trunk/packages/schemas/json/block.json\">https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WordPress/gutenberg/trunk/packages/schemas/json/block.json</a></li><li><strong>Theme.json: </strong><a href=\"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WordPress/gutenberg/trunk/packages/schemas/json/block.json\">https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WordPress/gutenberg/trunk/packages/schemas/json/theme.json</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The ideal URL will be something like <a href=\"https://wp.org/schemas/block.json\">https://wp.org/schemas/block.json</a>, but that is still in the works. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>André Maneiro</strong> has been preparing the theme.json implementation for the upgrade from v1 to v2 &#8211; You can follow along on this GitHub issue (<a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/36154\">#36154</a> <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/36154\">Update&nbsp;<code>theme.json</code>&nbsp;schema migrations</a>)</p>\n\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/\">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s main (trunk) branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. <br />Have you been using it? Hit reply and let me know.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><img alt=\"GitHub all releases\" src=\"https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/bph/gutenberg/total\" /></p>\n\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"full-site-editing\">Full-Site Editing</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/ona-by-deothemes-just-raised-the-bar-for-wordpress-block-theme-design\"><strong>Ona by DeoThemes Just Raised the Bar for WordPress Block Theme Design</strong></a> headlined Justin Tadlock. He wrote: &#8220;We are now at a point where the block system can nearly match traditional theming in features. There are still some kinks to work out and a few missing pieces, but Ona embraces block templating and global styles like few have before. It is modern, almost minimalist, yet packed with potential for a site owner who wants to share their content in style.&#8221; <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/ona/\">The theme Ona is now available in the WordPress repository </a></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this week, I presented for the <strong><a href=\"https://training.ithemes.com/webinar/what-is-full-site-editing-in-wordpress/\">iThemes webinar &#8220;What is Full-Site Editing&#8221;</a>. </strong>After a quick run down of the new terms (probably a bit fast) I did a demo of the new Appearance &gt; Editor (beta) screen, and the query loop block. During Q &amp; A, I also showed the new Gallery block. On <strong>November 22nd, 2021 at 7pm</strong>, I will give a similar presentation at the <a href=\"https://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Montclair-Meetup/events/\">Meetup group in Montclair</a> with plenty of Q &amp; A afterwards. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/the-wordpress-block-theme-revolution-is-quietly-picking-up-momentum\"><strong>The WordPress Block Theme Revolution Is Quietly Picking Up Momentum</strong></a> to find Justin Tadlock, and in his article he gives a great overview of the current scene of themes built for Full-Site Editing in mind. From the Blockbase parent theme and its child themes by Automattic, built as universal themes that care to site with or with our full-site editing available, to the new default theme of Twenty-Twenty-Two that is still in development. &#8220;Having one of its most well-known theme authors build on top of the new system shows that maybe this whole block-based theme system&nbsp;<em>might</em>&nbsp;actually be worth exploring.&#8221; he wrote, after he mentioned Anders Norén&#8217;s block theme called Tove. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Aaron Jorbin</strong> share his <a href=\"https://aaron.jorb.in/full-site-editing-initial-thoughts/\">Initial Thoughts on Full Site Editing</a> in this blog post. He had just returned to WordPress as the foundation of his site, after a venture into Headless WordPress. While working with the Twenty-Twenty-Two theme, Jorbin notices a few missing features, like how to set the favicon for the site without the Customizer, and he felt it to be a step backwards to &#8220;Save and Surprise&#8221; where a faithful preview is not available, also missing fallback option for a missing featured image. </p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"wordpress-events\">WordPress Events</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>November 16th, 2021</strong> &#8211; 11am EST / 16:00 UTC<br /><strong><a href=\"https://events.godaddy.com/events/details/godaddy-events-godaddy-pro-online-presents-testing-the-latest-features-in-gutenberg/\">Testing the latest features in Gutenberg</a></strong><br />GoDaddy Pro Online w/  Andy Fragen, Birgit Pauli-Haack, George Mamadashvili</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>November 19th, 2021,  12pm ET / 16:00 UTC </strong><br /><strong>Twitter Spaces: <a href=\"https://poststatus.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ff3456b27ebe0be0155087894&id=b8390ecb23&e=76a77eae7e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">State of WordPress News</a>&nbsp; </strong><br />With&nbsp;Matt Medeiros&nbsp;(Matt Report Media),&nbsp;Jeff Chandler&nbsp;(WP Mainline),&nbsp;Joe Howard&nbsp;(WPMRR),&nbsp;Birgit Pauli-Haack&nbsp;(Gutenberg Times), and&nbsp;Sarah Gooding&nbsp;(WP Tavern). Hosted by&nbsp;David Bisset&nbsp;and&nbsp;Dan Knauss&nbsp;(Post Status).<br /><strong>Hosted by Post Status</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>November 22, 2021 &#8211; 7pm ET / 23:00 UTC<br /><strong><a href=\"https://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Montclair-Meetup/events/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Meetup Montclair, New Jersey</a></strong><br />What is Full-Site Editing? w/ Birgit Pauli-Haack</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>February 4+5, 2022<br /><a href=\"https://birmingham.wordcamp.org/2022/\">WordCamp Birmingham, AL</a></strong><br />Call for Sponsors and Speakers are open now. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>March 4th, 2022 all day<br /><a href=\"https://www.wordfest.live/2022/march/\">WordFest 2022</a></strong><br />a 24-hour festival of WordPress</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">On the<a href=\"https://wpcalendar.io/online/\">&nbsp;<strong>Calendar for WordPress Online Events</strong>&nbsp;</a>site, you can browse a list of the upcoming WordPress Events, around the world, including WordCamps,  WooCommerce, Elementor, Divi Builder and Beaver Builder meetups.</p>\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Don&#8217;t want to miss the next Weekend Edition? </strong></p>\n\n\n\n<form class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-form ngl-form ngl-portrait\" action=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/\" method=\"post\"><div class=\"ngl-form-container\"><div class=\"ngl-form-field\"><label class=\"ngl-form-label\" for=\"ngl_email\">Type in your Email address to subscribe.</label><div class=\"ngl-form-input\"><input type=\"email\" class=\"ngl-form-input-text\" name=\"ngl_email\" id=\"ngl_email\" /></div></div><button class=\"ngl-form-button\">Subscribe</button><p class=\"ngl-form-text\">We hate spam, too and won&#8217;t give your email address to anyone except Mailchimp to send out our Weekend Edition</p></div><div class=\"ngl-message-overlay\"><div class=\"ngl-message-svg-wrap\"></div><div class=\"ngl-message-overlay-text\">Thanks for subscribing.</div></div><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ngl_list_id\" id=\"ngl_list_id\" value=\"26f81bd8ae\" /><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ngl_double_optin\" id=\"ngl_double_optin\" value=\"yes\" /></form>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/13998657@N02/18526571462\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"></a><a href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01/38744499\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"></a>Featured image: <a href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/22098730@N05/3431570690\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Photo by&nbsp;</a><a href=\"https://unsplash.com/@kimsondoan?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText\">Kimson Doan</a>&nbsp;on&nbsp;<a href=\"https://unsplash.com/collections/987038/block?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText\">Unsplash</a></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 06 Nov 2021 07:13:33 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Birgit Pauli-Haack\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:83:\"WPTavern: AMP Has Irreparably Damaged Publishers’ Trust in Google-led Initiatives\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125191\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:205:\"https://wptavern.com/amp-has-irreparably-damaged-publishers-trust-in-google-led-initiatives?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=amp-has-irreparably-damaged-publishers-trust-in-google-led-initiatives\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14007:\"<p>The Chrome Dev Summit concluded earlier this week. Announcements and discussions on hot topics impacting the greater web community at the event included Google&rsquo;s Privacy Sandbox initiative, improvements to Core Web Vitals and performance tools, and new APIs for&nbsp;<a href=\"https://web.dev/progressive-web-apps/\">Progressive Web Apps</a>&nbsp;(PWAs). &nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul Kinlan, Lead for Chrome Developer Relations, <a href=\"https://blog.chromium.org/2021/11/chrome-dev-summit-2021-moving-toward.html?m=1\">highlighted</a> the latest product updates on the Chromium blog, what he identified as Google&rsquo;s &ldquo;vision for the web&rsquo;s future and examples of best-in-class web experiences.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>During an (AMA) live Q&amp;A session with Chrome Leadership, <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/jeremy-keith-resigns-from-amp-advisory-committee-it-has-become-clear-to-me-that-amp-remains-a-google-product\">ex-AMP Advisory Board member</a> Jeremy Keith <a href=\"https://adactio.com/notes/18584\">asked a question</a> that echoes the sentiments of developers and publishers all over the world who are viewing Google&rsquo;s leadership and initiatives with more skepticism:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>Given the court proceedings against AMP, why should anyone trust FLOC or any other Google initiatives ostensibly focused on privacy?</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The question drew a tepid <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNecNY6vDek&t=4261s\">response from Chrome leadership</a> who avoided giving a straight answer. Ben Galbraith fielded the question, saying he could not comment on the AMP-related legal proceedings but focused on the Privacy Sandbox: </p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>I think it&rsquo;s important to note that we&rsquo;re not asking for blind trust with the Sandbox effort. Instead, we&rsquo;re working in the open, which means that we&rsquo;re sharing our ideas while they are in an early phase. We&rsquo;re sharing specific API proposals, and then we&rsquo;re sharing our code out in the open and running experiments in the open. In this process we&rsquo;re also working really closely with industry regulators. You may have seen the agreement that we announced earlier this year jointly with the UK&rsquo;s CMA, and we have a bunch of industry collaborators with us. We&rsquo;ll continue to be very transparent moving forward, both in terms of how the Sandbox works and its resulting privacy properties. We expect the effort will be judged on that basis.</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>FLoC continues to be a controversial initiative, <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/google-concludes-floc-origin-trial-does-not-intend-to-share-feedback-from-participants\">opposed by many major tech organizations</a>. A group of like-minded WordPress contributors <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-contributors-propose-blocking-floc-in-core\">proposed blocking Google&rsquo;s initiative</a> earlier this year. Privacy advocates do not believe FLoC to be a compelling alternative to the surveillance business model currently used by the advertising industry. Instead, they see it as an invitation to cede more control of ad tech to Google.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Galbraith&rsquo;s statement conflicts with the company&rsquo;s actions earlier this year when <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/google-concludes-floc-origin-trial-does-not-intend-to-share-feedback-from-participants\">Google said the team does not intend to disclose any of the private feedback</a>&nbsp;received during FLoC&rsquo;s origin trial, which was criticized as a lack of transparency.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the developer community&rsquo;s waning trust in the company, Google continues to aggressively advocate for a number of controversial initiatives, even after some of them have landed the company in legal trouble. Google employees are not permitted to talk about the antitrust lawsuit and seem eager to distance themselves from the proceedings. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jeremy Keith&rsquo;s question referencing the AMP allegations in the <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/unredacted-antitrust-complaint-unsealed-google-internal-documents-show-amp-pages-brought-40-less-revenue-to-publishers\">recently unredacted antitrust complaint against Google</a> was extremely unlikely to receive an adequate response from the Chrome Leadership team, but the mere act of asking is a public reminder of the trust Google has willfully eroded in pushing AMP on publishers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/06/google-receives-demand-documents-doj-acknowledging-federal-antitrust-scrutiny/\">Google received a demand for a trove of documents</a> from the Department of Justice as part of the pre-trial process, the company was reluctant to hand them over. These documents reveal how Google identified header bidding as an &ldquo;existential threat&rdquo; and detail how AMP was used as a tool to impede header bidding. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The complaint alleges that <em>&ldquo;Google ad server employees met with AMP employees to strategize about using AMP to impede header bidding, addressing in particular how much pressure publishers and advertisers would tolerate.&rdquo;</em> </p>\n\n\n\n<p>In summary, it claims that Google falsely told publishers that adopting AMP would enhance load times, even though the company&rsquo;s employees knew that it only improved the &ldquo;median of performance&rdquo; and actually loaded slower than some speed optimization techniques publishers had been using. It alleges that AMP pages brought 40% less revenue to publishers. The complaint states that AMP&rsquo;s speed benefits &ldquo;were also at least partly a result of Google&rsquo;s throttling.&nbsp;<strong>Google throttles the load time of non-AMP ads by giving them artificial one-second delays in order to give Google AMP a &lsquo;nice comparative boost.</strong>&lsquo;&rdquo; </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the internal documents were not published alongside the <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.564903/gov.uscourts.nysd.564903.152.0_1.pdf\">unredacted complaint</a>, these are heavy claims for the Department of Justice to float against Google if the documents didn&rsquo;t fully substantiate them. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The AMP-related allegations are egregious and demand a truly transparent answer. We all watched as Google used its weight to force publishers both small and large to adopt its framework or forego mobile traffic and placement in the Top Stories carousel. This came at an enormous cost to publishers who were unwilling to adopt AMP.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barry Adams, one of the most vocal <a href=\"https://www.polemicdigital.com/google-amp-go-to-hell/\">critics of the AMP project</a>, demonstrated this cost to publishers in a graph that shows the percentage of articles in Google&rsquo;s mobile Top Stories carousel in the US that are&nbsp;<strong>not</strong>&nbsp;AMP articles. When Google stopped requiring AMP for the mobile Top Stories in July 2021, there was a sharp spike in non-AMP URLs being included.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>Once AMP was no longer required and publishers could use any technology to rank in Top Stories, the percentage of non-AMP pages increased significantly to double digits, <a href=\"https://www.newzdash.com/guide/amp-tracker\">where it remains today</a>. Adams&rsquo; <a href=\"https://www.seoforgooglenews.com/p/lets-talk-about-amp\">article</a> calls on the web community to recognize the damage Google did in giving AMP pages preferential treatment:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>&ldquo;But I&rsquo;m angry. Because it means that for more than&nbsp;<strong>five long years</strong>, when AMP was a mobile Top Stories requirement, Google <strong>penalised</strong>&nbsp;these publishers for not using AMP.</p><p>There was&nbsp;<strong>no other reason</strong>&nbsp;for Google to stop ranking these publishers in their mobile Top Stories carousel. As is evident from the surge of non-AMP articles, there are likely hundreds &ndash; if not thousands &ndash; of publishers who&nbsp;<strong>ticked every single ranking box</strong>&nbsp;that Google demanded; quality news content, easily crawlable and indexable technology stack, good editorial authority signals, and so on.</p><p>But they didn&rsquo;t use AMP. So Google didn&rsquo;t rank them. Think for a moment about the cost of that.&rdquo;</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Even the publishers who adopted AMP struggled to get ad views. In 2017, Digiday reported on how many publishers have experienced&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://digiday.com/media/publishers-find-google-amp-loads-fast-ad-views/\" target=\"_blank\">decreased revenues associated with ads loading much slower than the actual content</a>. I don&rsquo;t think anyone at the time imagined that Google was throttling the non-AMP ads.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;The aim of AMP is to load content first and ads second,&rdquo; a Google spokesperson told Digiday. &ldquo;But we are working on making ads faster. It takes quite a bit of the ecosystem to get on board with the notion that speed is important for ads, just as it is for content.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why Google is rapidly losing publishers&rsquo; trust. For years the company encumbered already struggling news organizations with the requirement of AMP. The DOJ&rsquo;s detailed description of how AMP was used as a vehicle for anticompetitive practices simply rubs salt in the wound after what publishers have been through in expending resources to support AMP versions of their websites.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"automattic-denies-prior-knowledge-of-google-throttling-non-amp-ads\">Automattic Denies Prior Knowledge of Google Throttling Non-Amp Ads</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2016, Automattic, one of the most influential companies in the WordPress ecosystem, partnered with Google to promote AMP as an early adopter. WordPress.com added AMP support and Automattic built the first versions of the AMP plugin for self-hosted WordPress sites. The company has played a significant role in driving AMP adoption forward, giving it an entrance into the WordPress ecosystem. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>How much did Automattic know when it partnered with Google in the initial AMP rollout? I asked the company what the precise nature of its relationship with Google is regarding AMP at this time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;As part of our mission to make the web a better place, we are always testing new technologies including AMP,&rdquo; an official spokesperson for Automattic said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This may be true but Automattic has done more than simply test the new technology. In partnering with Google, it has been instrumental in making AMP easier for WordPress users to adopt. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We received no funds from Google for the project,&rdquo; a spokesperson for Automattic said when asked if the company was compensated as a partner in this effort.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What did Google promise Automattic to convince the company to become an early partner in the AMP rollout? I asked if the company has an official response to the allegations that Google was throttling the load time of non-AMP ads by giving them artificial one-second delays in order to give Google AMP &ldquo;a nice comparative boost.&rdquo; The spokesperson would not respond to the specific claims but indicated the company did not have prior knowledge of any actions that might not be above board:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>We chose to partner with Google because we believed that we had a shared vision of advancing the open web. Additionally, we wanted to offer the benefit of the latest technology to WordPress users and publishers including AMP.</p><p>While we aren&rsquo;t able to comment on legal matters in progress, we can say that over the course of our partnership, we were not aware of any actions that did not align with our company&rsquo;s mission to support the open web and make it a better place.</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><br />The antitrust complaint also details a Project NERA, which was designed to &ldquo;successfully mimic a walled garden across the open web.&rdquo; When asked about this, Automattic reiterated its commitment to supporting the open web and gave the same response: &ldquo;We were not aware of any actions that did not align with our company&rsquo;s mission.&rdquo; </p>\n\n\n\n<p>In examining the weight of the DOJ&rsquo;s allegations, it&rsquo;s important to consider how this impacts WordPress as a CMS that is used by 42% of the web.&nbsp;<a href=\"https://wptavern.com/yoast-and-google-sponsored-core-contributors-propose-new-wordpress-performance-team\">A new performance team for WordPress core</a> is being spearheaded by Yoast and Google-sponsored employees. The initial proposal is to improve core performance as measured by&nbsp;<a href=\"https://web.dev/vitals/\">Google&rsquo;s Core Web Vitals</a>&nbsp;metrics. These metrics are a set of specific factors that Google deems important for user experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Without questioning the personal integrity of the contributors on that team, I think it&rsquo;s important that Google leadership acknowledge how AMP has damaged publishers&rsquo; trust in light of recent events. Many of these contributors are heavily involved in building AMP-related resources for the WordPress ecosystem. Are their contributions purely aimed at making WordPress core more performant or is there a long game that serves Google&rsquo;s interests being woven into this initiative? Would these employees even be aware of it if there were?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are important considerations if Google defines the performance metrics WordPress is measuring against. The company&rsquo;s alleged misdeeds seem to be buried high up in the command chain. Those tasked with peddling AMP may have had no knowledge of the alleged anticompetitive practices identified by the DOJ in Google&rsquo;s internal documents. The WordPress community should continue to be vigilant on behalf of publishers who depend on WordPress to remain an unadulterated advocate for the open web.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 06 Nov 2021 03:40:22 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:104:\"WPTavern: Patchstack Releases Free Security Plugin, Its Red Team Found 1,182 Vulnerabilities Since March\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125147\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:259:\"https://wptavern.com/patchstack-releases-free-security-plugin-its-red-team-found-over-1182-vulnerabilities-since-march?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=patchstack-releases-free-security-plugin-its-red-team-found-over-1182-vulnerabilities-since-march\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5249:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">In September, Patchstack released its <a href=\"https://patchstack.com/patchstack-red-team-report-1067-vulnerabilities-7700-in-rewards/\">six-month report</a> on the vulnerabilities found with WordPress and its extensions. At the time, it listed over 1,000 issues &mdash; the company has shared the updated numbers with WP Tavern. It soon followed that up with a free vulnerability-reporting plugin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the banner of WebARX, the company launched the first version of its security platform in 2018. After growing beyond its original SaaS offering with services like its PlugBounty and acquisition of ThreatPress, the company <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/webarx-rebrands-to-patchstack-combines-services-to-focus-on-wordpress-plugin-and-theme-security\">rebranded to Patchstack</a> in March this year.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/patchstack-whitepaper-582-wordpress-security-issues-found-in-2020-over-96-from-third-party-extensions\">2020 whitepaper</a>, the security company found 582 vulnerabilities for the year. This report covers issues from both Patchstack and third-party vendors.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, issues found in 2021 have multiplied from the previous year. <a href=\"https://patchstack.com/red-team/\">Patchstack Red Team</a>, a community bug-hunting program that pays out monthly bounties, has reported 1,182 vulnerabilities from March through October. Bounty payouts have reached $9,150 thus far.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are merely the problems found through Patchstack Red Team. When combined with security issues reported through other vendors that the company tracks, the vulnerability count jumps to over 2,000.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we need to be worried,&rdquo; said Oliver Sild, Patchstack founder and CEO, when asked how much of a problem these numbers are. &ldquo;I think we should be grateful and glad that we have ethical hackers and researchers who have been investing more of their time helping plugin developers to improve their code. From one angle, you could see a record year in terms of new vulnerabilities found, but what we see is a record year of security issues fixed in the WordPress ecosystem. The majority of these issues have been sitting there for years.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several security plugin vendors and hosting companies, including Pagely and Cloudways, are supporting the Patchstack initiative. In return, they have access to the <a href=\"https://patchstack.com/solutions/#feed\">Threat Intelligence Feed</a>, an API to warn their customers of newfound vulnerabilities.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Patchstack is ultra-focused on plugin vulnerabilities,&rdquo; said Sild. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what we focus on and thrive to do best. Our competitive advantage is the fact that we have less features, which means less bloat and no impact on the site&rsquo;s performance. Meanwhile, we solve probably the #1 security issue in the WordPress ecosystem.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is referring to third-party plugins and themes as being the primary security issue. Over 96% of the vulnerabilities in the company&rsquo;s 2020 whitepaper were from WordPress extensions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In October, Patchstack <a href=\"https://patchstack.com/robert-joining-patchstack-security-advocate/\">brought in Robert Rowley</a>, a former head of security at DreamHost and Pagely, in a new &ldquo;security advocate&rdquo; role. Sild said that his knowledge would bring a lot of experience to the table.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;He will help us make Patchstack better for both hosting companies and to plugin developers,&rdquo; the CEO said. &ldquo;At the same time, he&rsquo;ll be helping us to narrow the gap between plugin devs and ethical hackers by spreading awareness and helping both sides understand each other (and challenges) better.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past week, the company released its <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/patchstack/\">Patchstack plugin</a> to the WordPress directory. The free version is essentially a warning system for site owners of security issues.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;You can think about the Community (Free) version as an option for anyone in the WordPress ecosystem to be alerted about new vulnerabilities found in plugins, themes, and WordPress core,&rdquo; said Sild. &ldquo;It comes with a central dashboard where you can add up to 99 websites for free, so you&rsquo;ll have all the analytics and alerts about security issues on all your sites in a single place.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The free version does not include hotfixes or patches. Its goal is to detect issues and provide alerts. Patchstack has upgraded features in its <a href=\"https://patchstack.com/pricing/\">Pro and Business plans</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Pro comes with automatic virtual patching for those vulnerabilities which provide active protection against the vulnerabilities that are being discovered,&rdquo; said Sild. &ldquo;Business plan is great for agencies who have more than 100 sites and want to have full protection against plugin vulnerabilities on all of their websites.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sild also teased &ldquo;something very cool&rdquo; for developers and ethical hackers in the pipeline to create a more secure plugin ecosystem. However, he refrained from providing any details.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 06 Nov 2021 01:27:05 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:67:\"Post Status: Business Names, DBAs, and Trademarks with Nellie Akalp\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"https://poststatus.com/?p=88924\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:76:\"https://poststatus.com/business-names-dbas-and-trademarks-with-nellie-akalp/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5399:\"<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Learn about Trademarks and Doing Business As names (DBAs) for your freelancing or small business.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\"><strong>Nellie Akalp</strong> joined <strong>Cory Miller</strong> to discuss trademarks and DBAs for small businesses. Nellie has dedicated her career to helping other entrepreneurs and business professionals succeed at business ownership. Nellie previously discussed <strong><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/expand-your-business-to-another-state-nellie-akalp/\">expanding your business to another state</a></strong>. Business owners and freelancers will benefit from these live presentations and discussions where audience participation is encouraged.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nellie is a business expert, professional speaker, published author, and mother to four amazing kids. As CEO and Co-Founder of CorpNet.com, she has helped more than half a million small businesses and licensed professionals get their businesses and clients off the ground.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-about-nellie-akalp\">About Nellie Akalp</h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\"><img width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/author-nellie-akalp.jpg\" alt=\"Nelie Akalp\" class=\"wp-image-85688\" /></div>\n\n\n\n<p>Nellie has dedicated her career to helping other entrepreneurs and business professionals succeed at business ownership. She is a business expert, professional speaker, published author, and mother to four amazing kids. As CEO and Co-Founder of <a href=\"https://www.corpnet.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CorpNet.com</a>, she has helped more than half a million small businesses and licensed professionals get their businesses and clients off the ground. CorpNet.com is an online legal document filing service and recognized Inc. 5000 company. At CorpNet, Nellie assists entrepreneurs across all 50 states to start a business, incorporate, form an LLC, and apply for trademarks. She also offers free business compliance tools for any entrepreneur to utilize. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nellie has a strong following within the small business community and has been honored as a Small Business Influencer Champion. She was named the 2016 Woman Business Owner of the Year by the National Association of Women Business Owners\' Ventura County chapter.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Connect with Nellie on <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/nellieakalp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">LinkedIn</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/corpnetnellie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Twitter</a>.</li><li>Nellie\'s <a href=\"https://www.corpnet.com/about/nellie-akalp/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Small Business Corner</a> at CorpNet.com.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\">Every week <strong><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/\">Post Status Live</a></strong> will brief you on important WordPress news — in about 15 minutes or less! Learn what\'s new in WordPress in a flash. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a1.png\" alt=\"⚡\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /><br /><br />You can listen to <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/\">past episodes</a> of <strong>Post Status Live</strong>, <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/\">browse all our podcasts</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe on <a href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/1m3xwXbe0MG5BzFVPtB0A7\">Spotify</a>, Amazon Music, <a href=\"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA\">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008\">iTunes</a>, <a href=\"https://castro.fm/podcast/c53552c6-1ee0-4fc4-9de4-08ed6bf1ee4d\">Castro</a>, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus\">YouTube</a>, <a href=\"http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast\">Stitcher</a>, <a href=\"https://player.fm/series/wordpress-post-status-podcasts\">Player.fm</a>, <a href=\"https://pca.st/05rR\">Pocket Casts</a>, <a href=\"https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/\">Simplecast</a>, or by <a href=\"https://feeds.simplecast.com/2JE9sc8P\">RSS</a>. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f3a7.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /></p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-mentioned-in-the-show\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f517.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/PostStatus.com\">PostStatus.com</a></li><li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/corpnet.com\">corpnet.com</a></li><li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/CorpNetNellie\">Nellie Akalp</a></li><li><a href=\"https://corymiller.com\">Cory Miller</a> (<a href=\"https://twitter.com/corymiller303\">Twitter</a>)</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-sponsor-gravity-forms\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f64f.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Sponsor: <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/partner/gravity-forms/\">Gravity Forms</a></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Gravity Forms is the easiest and most trusted advanced forms solution for your WordPress website. Packed with time-saving tools and features, Gravity Forms is the only WordPress form management plugin you will ever need. Stop losing valuable leads and grow your business with Gravity.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 05 Nov 2021 04:19:45 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Olivia Bisset\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:27;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:79:\"Post Status: Post Status Excerpt (No. 31) — State of the WordPress Job Market\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"https://poststatus.com/?p=88930\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:34:\"https://poststatus.com/excerpt/31/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3779:\"<h2>&#8220;My best advice is to get to know as many people as you can — network.&#8221;</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">In this episode of Post Status Excerpt, David talks with special guest Michelle Frechette about the current landscape of the WordPress job market. What trends should a WordPress professional pay attention to right now? What should newcomers to the WordPress ecosystem do to stand out and be trusted by companies, especially for remote work? Michelle also shares a few tips for anyone trying to navigate their way to the right role and employer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Also don\'t forget: </strong>We\'re encouraging listeners to check out the &#8220;<a href=\"https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/\">Week at WordPress.org</a>&#8221; — get the feed <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/feed/\">here</a> — and <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/submit-2021-black-friday-cyber-monday-deals/\">submit your Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals</a> to us at Post Status for us to share.</p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\">Every week <strong><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/\">Post Status Excerpt</a></strong> will brief you on important WordPress news — in about 15 minutes or less! Learn what\'s new in WordPress in a flash. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a1.png\" alt=\"⚡\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /><br /><br />You can listen to <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/\">past episodes</a> of <strong>The Excerpt</strong>, <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/\">browse all our podcasts</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe on <a href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/1m3xwXbe0MG5BzFVPtB0A7\">Spotify</a>, Amazon Music, <a href=\"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA\">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008\">iTunes</a>, <a href=\"https://castro.fm/podcast/c53552c6-1ee0-4fc4-9de4-08ed6bf1ee4d\">Castro</a>, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus\">YouTube</a>, <a href=\"http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast\">Stitcher</a>, <a href=\"https://player.fm/series/wordpress-post-status-podcasts\">Player.fm</a>, <a href=\"https://pca.st/05rR\">Pocket Casts</a>, <a href=\"https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/\">Simplecast</a>, or by <a href=\"https://feeds.simplecast.com/2JE9sc8P\">RSS</a>. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f3a7.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /></p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-mentioned-in-the-show\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f517.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://casabona.org/2021/10/wordpress-writing-app/\">StellarWP</a></li><li><a href=\"https://wpcareerpages.com/\">WordPress Jobs</a></li><li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/dimensionmedia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">David Bisset (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/michelleames\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Michelle Frechette (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/post_status\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Post Status (Twitter)</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h3><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f64f.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Sponsor: <a href=\"https://poststat.us/sandhills\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow\">Gravity Forms</a></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Gravity Forms is the easiest and most trusted advanced forms solution for your WordPress website. Packed with time-saving tools and features, Gravity Forms is the only WordPress form management plugin you will ever need. Stop losing valuable leads and grow your business with Gravity.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 05 Nov 2021 04:02:31 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:12:\"David Bisset\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:28;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:56:\"WordPress.org blog: The Month in WordPress: October 2021\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=11501\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:71:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/the-month-in-wordpress-october-2021/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:21866:\"<p>October 2021 brought a lot of new things to WordPress, from release updates to new versions of Gutenberg. More notably, in the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/10/episode-18-the-economics-of-wordpress/\" target=\"_blank\">latest episode</a> of <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/podcast/\" target=\"_blank\">WP Briefing</a>, Executive Director <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/\" target=\"_blank\">Josepha Haden</a> reminded us about the importance of freedom in open source platforms like WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>Free speech has with it a lot of responsibility, just like being a part of a community. Governments or communities, or in our case, <strong>this software is built by the people who show up. </strong><br /><br />For WordPress, at 42% of the web, every small choice we make can cause huge changes in the way that people experience the web today and tomorrow.</p><cite>Josepha Haden, Executive Director of the WordPress project</cite></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Last month was yet another chapter in this journey. So keep reading to learn what&#8217;s new. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" />\n\n\n\n<h2>WordPress 5.9: All proposed updates will likely be included</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>We announced the<strong> </strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/15/wordpress-5-9-feature-go-no-go-october-14-2021/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>go/no-go for WordPress 5.9 features</strong></a><strong> </strong>in mid-October. The release will probably include all the proposed features—though not all of them are ready yet, they should be by the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/03/wordpress-5-9-planning-roundup/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">proposed release date</a> (December 14, 2021).</li><li><strong>WordPress 5.9 will include a new default theme called </strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/06/introducing-twenty-twenty-two/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Twenty Twenty-Two</strong></a><strong>! </strong><span>The theme&#8217;s foundation will be strong, and the unpredictable yet reliable behavior of birds inspired the intentionally subtle design. </span></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><img width=\"632\" height=\"433\" src=\"https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/11/WordPress-Twenty-TwentyTwo-Theme.jpg?resize=632%2C433&ssl=1\" alt=\"WordPress Default Theme Twenty Twenty-Two released with WordPress Version 5.9\" class=\"wp-image-11509\" /></div>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>5.9 bug scrub sessions began in September and will continue each week until the release on December 14, 2021. <strong>View the full </strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/18/bug-scrub-schedule-for-5-9/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>bug scrub schedule</strong></a><strong>. </strong></li><li>Many of you requested a few <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/25/wordpress-5-9-editor-update-26-october/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;must have&#8221; enhancements</a> for the 5.9 release—follow the <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/projects/62\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">5.9 Must-Haves project board</a> to track their status.</li><li>The Test Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/27/overview-of-the-5-9-test-leads-approach/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shared an overview</a> of the team’s approach to testing WordPress 5.9.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-style-default\"><p><strong>Interested in contributing to WordPress core?</strong> Join the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">#core</a> channel, follow the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Core Team blog</a>, and check out the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">team handbook</a>. Also, don&#8217;t miss the Core Team’s weekly developer chat on Wednesdays at <a href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=20&min=00&sec=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">8 PM</a> UTC.</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>Gutenberg releases: 11.6, 11.7, and 11.8 are here</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We released three new versions of the Gutenberg block editor between the end of September and October:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-6-29-september/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Version 11.6</strong></a><strong> </strong>brings site logo cropping and rotation, block-level locking, improvements to Query Pagination block, support for child themes and <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/29/thunks-in-gutenberg/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">thunks</a>, template focus mode, and enhancements to the writing flow.</li><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/14/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-7-october-13th/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Gutenberg version 11.7</strong></a><strong> </strong>includes bug fixes and polishes to the navigation block and editor, global styles and full site editing (including a handy back button that lets you quickly return to the site editor), and columns block support, among other improvements.</li><li>Finally, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/28/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-8-0-27-october/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Gutenberg 11.8</strong></a> is the second to last version to make it into the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WordPress 5.9</a> release, and it comes with plenty of developments to the editing experience: featured Block Patterns, new animations for a few elements (like Dropzone and Insertion Point), spacing tools for heading blocks, and a lot more.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><strong>Want to get involved in developing Gutenberg? </strong>Follow <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the Core Team blog</a>, contribute to <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gutenberg on GitHub</a>, and join the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02QB2JS7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">#core-editor</a> channel in the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/chat/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Make WordPress Slack</a>. For details on the latest updates, follow the &#8220;<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/17/whats-next-in-gutenberg-mid-september-2021/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">What&#8217;s next in Gutenberg</a>&#8221; post.</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>WordCamp US returned virtually this year with more than 3,600 attendees</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WordCamp US</a> 2021 was on October 1, and it was online for the first time. The event drew more than 3,600 attendees, 27 sponsors, and 18 remarkable speakers on topics ranging from accessibility and sustainability to e-commerce, to name a few. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Matt Mullenweg&#8217;s “State of the Word” is expected to be held as a separate event later this year, rather than being part of WordCamp US.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center\"><p>If you missed the live event, <strong>you can still watch the <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vkq4BFZbhI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Yukon Track</a> and the <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6-yAZRXY8k\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Columbia Track</a> of WordCamp US 2021.</strong></p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>Team Updates: Polyglots monthly newsletter, a new Performance team, and more</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>The <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/10/15/polyglots-monthly-newsletter-october-2021/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">first edition</a> of the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/09/27/sign-up-for-the-new-polyglots-monthly-newsletter/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Polyglots monthly newsletter</a> went out on October 15, 2021.</li><li>The following teams opened up their call for team representatives last month, and more are coming soon: <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/26/nominations-for-core-team-reps-2022/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Core</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/10/11/community-team-rep-nominations-for-2022/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Community</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/10/27/nominations-call-for-the-themes-team-representatives/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Themes</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2021/10/30/call-for-team-rep-nominations-3/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Accessibility</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/support/2021/10/team-representative-nominations/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Support</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/11/02/nominations-for-training-team-reps-2022/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Training</a>, and <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2021/10/30/nominations-for-hosting-team-reps-2022/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hosting</a>.</li><li>A draft of the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/10/08/proposal-2022-global-community-sponsorship-program/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2022 Global Community Sponsorship program proposal</a> was released on October 8, 2021. </li><li>The October 2021 edition of <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/10/people-of-wordpress-ecommerce-ronald-gijsel/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">People of WordPress</a>, featuring WordPress e-commerce specialist Ronald Gijsel, went live.</li><li>Following excellent responses to the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/12/proposal-for-a-performance-team/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">initial proposal</a>, members of the Core Team announced the next steps in <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/28/wordpress-performance-team-kick-off/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">launching a performance team</a> that aims to increase the performance (speed) of WordPress.</li><li>The Polyglots Team kicked-off <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/10/12/new-glotpress-meetings/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bi-weekly Glotpress meetings</a> aimed at improving the functionality of the plugin that powers <a href=\"https://translate.wordpress.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">translate.wordpress.org</a>.</li><li>A <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/10/27/documentation-sprint/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sprint</a> is planned on November 10-12 to explore a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/10/04/a-dedicated-volunteer-program-for-the-training-team/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dedicated volunteer program</a> for the Training Team, similar to the Deputy program in the Community Team.</li><li>WordPress.org profiles now display <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2021/10/11/wordpress-org-profiles-now-show-github-activity/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">activity from the WordPress GitHub organization</a>.</li><li>The Test Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/21/fse-program-pattern-party-summary/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shared results</a> of the tenth Full Site Editing (FSE) Outreach Program: Pattern Party. </li><li>Answers from the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/28/fse-program-answers-from-round-three-of-questions/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">third round of questions</a> from the FSE Outreach Program are now out!</li><li>The Docs Team is<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/docs/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> consulting with independent legal experts</a> to explore whether there are issues with having Gutenberg (which is dual-licensed GPL + MPL) coexist with other contents in WordPress (our documentation has a CC0 license and the code is GPL). </li><li>The Themes Team shared a recap of work happening on <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/10/14/theme-tools-and-requirements-recap/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">automation and improvement processes</a> for the WordPress Themes directory. The Team also shared a p2 post highlighting the performance impact of<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/10/04/the-performance-impact-of-using-jquery-in-wordpress-themes/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> jQuery on WordPress themes</a>.</li><li>The Marketing Team participated in a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2021/10/21/make-marketing-workshop-contributor-ladder/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">contributor ladder workshop</a> to help plan their future activities.</li><li>The feature<a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/blog/celebrating-wordpress-translation-day-2021/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> recap of the WordPress Translation Day 2021</a> is out from the Polyglots and Marketing teams, with the results of the <a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/wptd-2021/polyglots-appreciation-nominees/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Polyglots appreciation nominations 2021</a>.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center\"><p><strong><a href=\"https://wordpressfoundation.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=0f93eb6000a019fcbd53d10be&id=04c6fa5c90\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sign up </a>for the Polyglots monthly newsletter</strong>, if you haven’t already.</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>Feedback/Testing requests: Deadline for redesigned Gutenberg landing page is November 5, 2021</h2>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"632\" height=\"396\" src=\"https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/11/WordPress_Gutenberg_Page.jpg?resize=632%2C396&ssl=1\" alt=\"WordPress.Org redesigned Gutenberg page\" class=\"wp-image-11519\" />\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>The Design Team is </strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/29/redesign-of-the-gutenberg-page/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>working on redesigning</strong></a><strong> the </strong><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>wordpress.org/gutenberg</strong></a><strong> landing page, and has already shared a </strong><a href=\"https://www.figma.com/proto/Gl653sYvO3RBhVtWSFwMcD/Gutenberg-Page?page-id=1865%3A12926&node-id=1919%3A14707&viewport=241%2C48%2C0.15&scaling=min-zoom&starting-point-node-id=1919%3A14707\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>prototype</strong></a><strong>. </strong></li><li>The team has also shared a few other concepts where they have requested feedback from contributors:<ul><li>Site Editing iA Concepts: <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/15/site-editing-ia-concepts-how-to-surface-and-access-new-features/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Part1</a> and <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/22/site-editing-ia-concepts-part-2/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Part 2</a></li><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/08/adventures-in-block-theme-switching/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Block theme switching</a> concepts</li></ul></li><li>Version 18.5 of WordPress for <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2021/10/18/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-ios-18-5/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">iOS</a> and <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2021/10/19/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-android-18-5/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Android</a> are now available for testing!</li><li>The Accessibility Team is <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2021/10/30/accessibility-team-meeting-notes-october-22-2021-2/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">requesting feedback</a> on a new Gutenberg Pull request that <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35896\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announces formatting changes or screen readers</a>.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center\"><p><strong>Share your feedback on the new Gutenberg landing page design in </strong><a href=\"https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5600\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Trac</strong></a><strong> or by </strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/29/redesign-of-the-gutenberg-page/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>commenting on the blog post</strong></a><strong> by November 5, 2021.</strong></p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2>Keep an eye out for WordCamp Spain, Sâo Paulo, and Taiwan 2021</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We had several WordPress events in October, and several more to look forward to the rest of the year:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>We’re seeking a new host city for <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/wordcamp-us-update-city-search-2022/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WordCamp US 2022</a>.</li><li>WordCamp Europe 2022 has extended its <a href=\"https://europe.wordcamp.org/2022/porto-is-calling/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">call for organizers</a>.</li><li><a href=\"https://italia.wordcamp.org/2021/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WordCamp Italia 2021</a> was held online on October 22-23, 2021. The event had 23 speakers, 17 sponsors, and more than 1,000 registrants. Check out its <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGdoJtlsv9BhODCQ71cOFnQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube channel</a> to watch the event replay.</li><li>Another highlight of the month was <a href=\"https://nicaragua.wordcamp.org/2021/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WordCamp Nicaragua 2021</a> which was held on October 8-9, 2021.</li><li>The <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wpdiversity/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">#WPDiversity</a> working group of the Community Team organized an <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/10/15/workshops-from-wpdiversity-october-and-november-2021/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Allyship workshop for event organizers</a> on October 28. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/10/15/workshops-from-wpdiversity-october-and-november-2021/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sign up now</a> for the diversity events planned by the team for November! </li><li>A <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/10/29/contribute2wp-learn-training-contributor-day/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">two-day contributor event</a> focused on <a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Learn WordPress</a>, took place on October 29 and 31, 2021. There was also another <a href=\"https://yoast.com/about-us/events/yoast-contributor-day/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">contributor day</a> on October 8, 2021, which involved working groups across the board, from accessibility to user testing.</li><li>The Test Team organized the following Hallway Hangouts this week—check out their recaps:<ul><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/06/hallway-hangout-pattern-party-testing-walkthrough-6-october/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pattern Party Testing Walkthrough </a></li><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/20/hallway-hangout-5-9-go-no-go-site-editor-ia-and-more/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">5.9 Go/No go, Site Editor Internal Audit, and more</a></li></ul></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center\"><p><strong>Don’t miss the following upcoming online WordCamps: </strong><a href=\"https://spain.wordcamp.org/2021/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>WordCamp Spain 2021</strong></a><strong>, </strong><a href=\"https://saopaulo.wordcamp.org/2021/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>WordCamp Sâo Paulo 2021</strong></a><strong>, and </strong><a href=\"https://taiwan.wordcamp.org/2021/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>WordCamp Taiwan 2021</strong></a><strong>!</strong></p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Have a story that we could include in the next ‘Month in WordPress’ post? Let us know by filling out </em></strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/month-in-wordpress-submissions/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>this form</em></strong></a><strong><em>.</em></strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The following folks contributed to October 2021’s Month in WordPress: </em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/anjanavasan/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>@anjanavasan</em></a><em>, </em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/harishanker/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>@harishanker</em></a><em>, </em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/rmartinezduque/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>@rmartinezduque</em></a><em>, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/callye/\" target=\"_blank\">@callye</a></em>, <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/\" target=\"_blank\">@webcommsat</a></em>, and <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/chaion07/\" target=\"_blank\">chaion07</a></em>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 04 Nov 2021 23:35:37 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:12:\"Anjana Vasan\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:68:\"WPTavern: Ask the Bartender: Where Are the WooCommerce Block Themes?\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125083\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:177:\"https://wptavern.com/ask-the-bartender-where-are-the-woocommerce-block-themes?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ask-the-bartender-where-are-the-woocommerce-block-themes\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8805:\"<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>At what point are FSE theme developers going to start integrating and considering WooCommerce for their themes? WooCommerce has almost always seemed to lag behind all other considerations. It&rsquo;s a bit like it&rsquo;s an afterthought to simply scramble in the elements of a solid WooCommerce store. Where is a persistent cart header? Where are the templates for <code>/single-product</code>? There&rsquo;s all kinds of elements which <em>can</em> be developed right along side of other teams working on FSE, but it seems to (again, <em>consistently</em>) not happen.</p><p>I&rsquo;ve taken Blockbase and all the other FSE themes for a spin on LocalWP, and none of them have any WooCommerce elements in them. Again, one should not expect perfection at a &ldquo;developmental&rdquo; stage. However there does seem to be a behavioral pattern of WooCommerce elements being a bit of an &ldquo;afterthought&rdquo; that simply brings up the rear about a year or year-and-six-months afterwards.</p><p>Why not get everyone on the same page immediately? That way theme authors can address putting the cart elements in the header template. (Yes, WC can be run, but w/out a cart header, shoppers don&rsquo;t know where to click after an item is in their cart). And, if theme authors and WP core developers always, Always, ALWAYS started simultaneously <strong>with</strong> one or two WooCommerce folks on board, it would absolutely shorten the time needed for store owners to receive the benefits of FSE (and remove some of their pagebuilders!) and for WordPress to get more Shopify business over to WooCommerce. But that seemingly never happens because WooCommerce always seems to be the &ldquo;afterthought.&rdquo;</p><cite>Brad</cite></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">First, I want to make sure all of our readers are on the same page. <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce/\">WooCommerce</a> is a third-party plugin. It is unrelated to the core WordPress and Gutenberg projects. Granted, WooCommerce is owned by Automattic, one of the largest contributors of resources and people. So, there is likely some crossover among developers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is still crucial that we make a distinction between the two. When looking at some of the recent block themes that other developers have released, I have yet to see any integrate with the WooCommerce plugin. I cannot say whether any of their authors have plans to do so in the future. I imagine that some will and others will not. Like with any third-party plugin that outputs something on the front-end (e.g., bbPress, Easy Digital Downloads, etc.), it is the theme author&rsquo;s choice of whether they want to take on the burden of supporting integrations with projects that are not their own. It can be a maintenance nightmare at times, particularly when it comes to free themes. However, I have no doubt that we will see more block theme authors catering to WooCommerce users as we move forward.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>All of this is a long-winded way of saying the responsibility of WooCommerce working in a block world is on WooCommerce itself. When it gets to that stage, theme authors will follow.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the things I love about the block system is that it creates a standard for all themes and plugins to build from. The long-term goal of plugins like WooCommerce should be to work without theme support.  If a user wants a cart item in their nav menu, it should be as simple as adding a block via the site editor. The same should be said for any other element of creating an online shop.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I reached out to Darren Ethier, an engineering team lead within Automattic who works on the intersection between WooCommerce and Gutenberg. He agreed that the block system could make it easier for things to simply work without specialized theme support.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s definitely the target we&rsquo;re shooting for,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Whether or not we will land it in the first iteration is still unknown.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the answer is more complex than that. WooCommerce is a heavy plugin with a history entrenched in the pre-block era of WordPress and has an ecosystem of third-party add-ons it must be careful not to break. The team is making progress and has a few things shooting through the pipeline. It will take some time, but you will not see block themes showcasing WooCommerce shops without the plugin first laying the groundwork.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Block templates are a high priority. Top-level templates like <code>single-product.html</code>, <code>archive-product.html</code>, <code>taxonomy-product-cat.html</code>, and <code>taxonomy-product-tag.html</code> will be available to any block-enabled theme soon.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;This <em>initial</em> iteration will be a straight port of the existing PHP templates and have a placeholder for the rendering of the template in the editor,&rdquo; said Ethier. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re essentially wrapping the rendered PHP template in a dynamic block. This is definitely <em>not</em> the end goal. It just is the initial step of moving towards our vision of &lsquo;Store Editing&rsquo; where merchants are able to completely customize the layout of their stores using all the opportunities available through the block and site editors.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is more of a stopgap measure than full-blown support. However, it is a step in that direction.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We decided to take this approach because it more quickly helps bridge the gap between the current PHP-based templates and block themes so that folks can start to see the potential (and still add blocks around the PHP-rendered content),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We also know it&rsquo;s going to be a complex job to more fully implement the vision of Store editing with block themes while supporting (and inspiring) the rich existing ecosystem of WooCommerce extensions. So, this allows us to incrementally improve things over time.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This may not be the news all block theme authors want to hear, but the changes will be enough for them to start exploring tighter integration with the plugin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team is currently aiming to add block template support in the next release of the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-gutenberg-products-block/\">WooCommerce Blocks</a> plugin. If all goes well, the feature will be ported to WooCommerce 6.0, which should be in time for the WordPress 5.9 release.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important to set expectations, though (which is why I&rsquo;m mentioning this again),&rdquo; said Ethier. &ldquo;This initial iteration definitely will <em>not</em> be the final iteration of Woo Block templates.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also highlighted several things from the roadmap:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>&ldquo;Product Element Blocks&rdquo; &ndash; which are the Woo equivalents to the WP template blocks. So, things like &ldquo;Product Title,&rdquo; &ldquo;Product Description,&rdquo; &ldquo;Add to Cart Button,&rdquo; etc.</li><li>Integrating with the WP Query Loop Block (for products).</li><li>&ldquo;Mini-Cart Block&rdquo; &ndash; which should allow for insertion into header/footer template parts.</li><li>Commerce Patterns.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;All these things (and more) will help us with iterating on the various components of a store that are visually represented via templates, template parts (i.e., think of things like reviews on the single product page, etc.),&rdquo; said Ethier.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a deeper look at what is ahead, read <a href=\"https://developer.woocommerce.com/2021/08/31/peek-into-the-woocommerce-blocks-roadmap/\">Peek into the WooCommerce Blocks Roadmap</a>. Warning: it is dense and geared toward developers, but it must be. The solutions for a project the size and scope of WooCommerce are not simple.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;One key strategy we&rsquo;re trying here is to provide default WooCommerce store editing templates and functionality out of the box with Woo Core that should in theory &lsquo;just work&rsquo; with any block theme,&rdquo; said Ethier. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s so much that <code>theme.json</code> and global styles unlock to make this possible. Themes will still be able to override the default WooCommerce templates and template parts if they want, but they won&rsquo;t <em>need</em> to.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it may feel like block-based storefronts are lightyears away, we must remember that block themes are in their infancy. There are only about a couple dozen in the directory, and most of those are experimental.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am as excited as anyone about what this could mean for projects like WooCommerce. At the same time, I also know that the road might be longer than what we have in mind, but the WooCommerce team is already traveling down it.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 04 Nov 2021 23:13:20 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:30;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:78:\"WPTavern: Automattic Acquires WPScan, May Be Rolled Into Jetpack in the Future\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125252\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:199:\"https://wptavern.com/automattic-acquires-wpscan-may-be-rolled-into-jetpack-in-the-future?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=automattic-acquires-wpscan-may-be-rolled-into-jetpack-in-the-future\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3055:\"<p>Automattic has <a href=\"https://jetpack.com/2021/11/04/jetpack-acquires-wordpress-vulnerability-database-wpscan/\">acquired WPScan</a>, a ten-year-old service that provides a database for WordPress core, plugin, and theme vulnerabilities. The company has sponsored WPScan for a number of years and has already been white labeling its use in Jetpack Scan.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pricing for <a href=\"https://wpscan.com/\">WPScan</a> is based on API requests per day, with a free version limited to 25. Monthly pricing is tiered based on requests and additional features. The pricing matrix estimates that WordPress websites have 22 plugins installed, on average, and each one makes an API request, as well as one each for the core version and themes. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Our goal for this acquisition is to make malware data and APIs more open source,&rdquo; Jetpack marketing representative Rob Pugh said. &ldquo;We want to ensure that WPScan continues to be a high-quality security resource for the entire WordPress community. To that effect, we&rsquo;ll be exploring ways to make the API completely free for non-commercial sites.&rdquo; </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some users may be wondering whether the WPScan plugin offers more than what is built into Jetpack Scan. The two provide complementary features and can be used at the same time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;[WPScan] does do some different checks that Jetpack Scan doesn&rsquo;t do such as&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpscan/\" target=\"_blank\">weak passwords and https</a>,&rdquo; Pugh confirmed. &ldquo;Conversely, Jetpack Scan does some things that WPScan doesn&rsquo;t, such as a library of signatures checking for malicious code.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Automattic has not ruled out requiring WPScan users to have Jetpack installed in order to use the plugin in the future. When asked if Automattic is considering the possibility of requiring Jetpack&nbsp;in order to access WPScan, Pugh said, &ldquo;We still need to evaluate what makes the most sense for Jetpack and WPScan long-term.&rdquo; </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the product was announced on the Jetpack blog as a Jetpack acquisition, it seems likely that Automattic will merge the branding under Jetpack Scan, rather than leave them separate. There is too much confusion regarding which security product offers which set of features and customers are more likely to respond to a streamlined, simple security package. It&rsquo;s also possible the product could be combined and offered as a standalone plugin, <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/jetpack-launches-commercial-backup-feature-as-a-standalone-plugin\">like Jetpack Backup</a>, Jetpack CRM, and Jetpack Boost. This may or may not require the core Jetpack plugin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For now, there are no changes planned for the service. WPScsan founders Ryan Dewhurst and Erwan Le Rousseau will continue their work on the product at Automattic.</p>\n\n\n\n<p> &ldquo;WPScan will continue to operate independently in the near term and may be integrated into Jetpack Scan in the future,&rdquo; Pugh said. </p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 04 Nov 2021 21:51:59 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:31;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:73:\"WPTavern: Birmingham to Host First In-Person WordCamp, February 4-5, 2022\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125186\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:187:\"https://wptavern.com/birmingham-to-host-first-in-person-wordcamp-february-4-5-2022?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=birmingham-to-host-first-in-person-wordcamp-february-4-5-2022\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3131:\"<p><a href=\"https://birmingham.wordcamp.org/2022/\">WordCamp Birmingham</a> is the first in-person WordCamp on the schedule for 2022. The event will be held at the Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema in downtown Birmingham on February 4-5. It is one of the first cracks in WordPress&rsquo; iced over event landscape after the pandemic brought in-person gatherings to a halt.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;WordCamp Birmingham was one of 40 or more WordCamps that needed to cancel or postpone in 2020,&rdquo; lead organizer Ryan Marks said.&nbsp;&ldquo;We had intentions of just postponing until 2021.&nbsp;During WordFest 2021 in July, Matt Mullenweg said, &lsquo;I encourage people to start planning.&nbsp;As soon as you feel safe to do so, do so.&rsquo;&nbsp;The proposal to return to in-person WordCamps was announced within a week of that interview.&nbsp;The local team met in August and targeted early February for our event. When the announcement updating the guidelines for in-person WordCamps was posted in September, it gave us a green light to keep moving forward.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The updated guidelines for in-person WordCamps require that attendees be fully vaccinated, recently tested negative, or recently recovered in the last three months. Marks said the organizing team has not made a decision about whether to require masks but will be monitoring local health guidelines and communicate any expectations with attendees in January.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordCamp Birmingham secured a flexible arrangement with the venue in case they need to cancel. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;The contract with Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema gives us the flexibility to cancel without any loss of deposit as long as we give notice more than 7 days before the event,&rdquo; Marks said. &ldquo;This was sufficient for our local organizing team and WordPress Community Support.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marks reported that the process of getting the WordCamp approved was &ldquo;quite smooth&rdquo; thanks to assistance from their mentor, Kevin Cristiano, who worked with them on budget review.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the maximum capacity of the venue is 300, the organizers have capped attendee numbers at 200 as a precaution.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://birmingham.wordcamp.org/2022/tickets/\">Tickets</a> are on sale and the calls for speakers, sponsors, and volunteers is open. Organizers expect that it will sell out quickly since it&rsquo;s the first in-person WordCamp since all the pandemic cancellations. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;The best thing about WordPress isn&rsquo;t the software, it&rsquo;s the community,&rdquo; WordCamp Birmingham speaker wrangler Nathan Ingram said. &ldquo;And WordCamps are where the community meets, shares, and learns together. Virtual WordCamps have been necessary, but just aren&rsquo;t the same as being together face to face.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;WordCamp Birmingham is the oldest WordCamp in the Southeast &ndash; our first WordCamp was in 2008. I hope that this year&rsquo;s WordCamp Birmingham is a family reunion &ndash; a place where friends and colleagues can gather and enjoy the community that makes WordPress so great.&rdquo;</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 04 Nov 2021 04:15:10 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:65:\"WPTavern: WordPress Has Never Offered an Ideal Writing Experience\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125207\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:175:\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-has-never-offered-an-ideal-writing-experience?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-has-never-offered-an-ideal-writing-experience\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:6757:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">It needed to be said. I know some of you loved writing in the classic editor. I know some of you enjoy the current block editor. Some of you may have even been thrilled with the platform&rsquo;s earlier attempt at a distraction-free writing mode.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, for actual writing, WordPress has always been kind of, <em>sort of</em>, OK &mdash; maybe even <em>good</em> &mdash; but not great.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coupled with a content-focused theme with great typography and a registered editor stylesheet, both the classic and block editors could be equals. They would offer an interface and experience of editing the content as seen on the front end. However, having the back and front ends meet does not necessarily mean you have an ideal <em>writing</em> experience. It can be a top-tier platform for layout and design. However, for typing words on a screen, there are better tools.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I talk about writing, I am generally referring to mid or long-form content. If you are penning 200-word posts, dropping in photos, or designing a landing page, WordPress is as good as it comes. For publishing software, it is a powerhouse that few systems can rival.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, publishing and writing are two different things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was a time that I wrote pages upon pages of essays, fiction, and everything else by hand. With a pen and pad, I spent hours drafting papers for my college classes. Even in my final two years, as I took four or five English and journalism courses at a time, I clung to what I knew best. The feel of the pen in my hand was a source of comfort. It glided atop the page in legible-but-imperfect cursive.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was not until an ethnography class that I had to put down the pen and move on to the technological upgrade of the computer. Don&rsquo;t get me wrong. I was a speedy typist at the time and was well on my way to becoming a WordPress developer. I did not come of age with computers, but I picked up the skills I needed quickly. I was even writing blog posts in the OG classic editor back then.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, writing was such a personal act for me, and the keyboard and screen felt impersonal. A 30-page ethnographic paper on modern literacy changed my view on the matter.  Since then, I have not looked back.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are concerned that I will say that you are stuck in the past, that is not the case. The tools we use can be a great comfort to us. I would not tell a pianist not to compose their next piece on the old church piano they have played since childhood. That may be one source of their inspiration, likewise, for someone&rsquo;s favorite writing software.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What I have learned is to try out new things once in a while. I am very much the type of person who gets stuck using the tools that I am comfortable with, so I remind myself to mix it up from time to time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The classic WordPress editor and I never clicked. Eventually, I learned to write in Markdown and port those posts to the WordPress editor. Mark Jaquith&rsquo;s <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/markdown-on-save/\">Markdown on Save</a> plugin was a godsend for many years. Eventually, I switched to Jetpack&rsquo;s Markdown module. Today, the block editor converts my preferred writing format to blocks automatically as I paste it in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As much as I love the block editor, I rarely use it during the drafting process. I am literally writing this post in Atom.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />My writing workspace (Atom).\n\n\n\n<p>Atom is known more for being a code editor, but its packages come in handy for Markdown enthusiasts. I also like using something with quick folder access for traversing through various ongoing stories and projects. I use a simple &ldquo;bucket&rdquo; system for working, published, and trashed posts to organize everything. Once I finish drafting and running the first edit, I copy and paste the text directly into the WordPress editor. Then, I dive into the final editing rounds. This is where WordPress becomes far more beneficial to my flow. I can make adjustments that I did not see in plainer text format, and dropping in media is simple.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am sure many people would dislike my choice of writing tools or my workflow. Some people enjoy writing in Microsoft Word &mdash; <em>really, I have heard such people exist.</em> Others publish via email, apps, or other computer programs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, I am giving Dabble a try during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I wrote via Atom the last time I participated in the writing challenge. However, the tool I enjoy most for writing blog posts offers a sub-par experience for something as complex as a 50,000-word manuscript.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Writing a novel manuscript in Dabble.\n\n\n\n<p>Dabble is a platform specifically built for writing books. I wish it was open-source, but it is hard to come by equivalent software without restrictive licensing. Nevertheless, it does its job and sticks in its lane. It also does not hurt that it updates word counts through the NaNoWriMo API.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus far, I am loving the Dabble experience. It is also imperative that those who work on the WordPress platform step outside our bubbles and try related software. We should learn and grow from it. Then, bring those experiences back into the WordPress fold.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I cannot imagine writing a novel in WordPress without first creating a plugin that added the extra bits, such as scene and character cards, and cut away almost everything else. The editing canvas might be acceptable with the right style adjustments. <em>Note: if anyone wants to build this, I would be happy to offer direct feedback.</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress may never be the ideal writing experience for all people. However, it should always offer a pathway toward publishing, regardless of what tools its users prefer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It should also continue striving to create a more well-rounded writing experience. Besides a few oddities, the block editor seems to be on this path. Every now and again, I write a post in it. It is part of my promise to step outside my comfort zone. Each time, the experience is better. It continues to be in that &ldquo;sort of good&rdquo; zone, and I am OK with that. WordPress is making progress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue the conversation. This post builds on the following articles:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Justin Ferriman &ndash; <a href=\"https://justinferriman.com/matts-page-builder\">Matt&rsquo;s Page Builder</a></li><li>Jose Casabona &ndash; <a href=\"https://casabona.org/2021/10/wordpress-writing-app/\">Should You Really Write in the WordPress Editor?</a></li><li>WP Mainline &ndash; <a href=\"https://wpmainline.com/2021/10/25/i-hope-this-is-all-worth-it/\">I Hope This Is All Worth It</a></li></ul>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 03 Nov 2021 22:37:13 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:33;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:79:\"WPTavern: #9 – Tara King on Encouraging Developers Towards a Gutenberg Future\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:48:\"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=125126\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:201:\"https://wptavern.com/podcast/9-tara-king-on-encouraging-developers-towards-a-gutenberg-future?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=9-tara-king-on-encouraging-developers-towards-a-gutenberg-future\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:61675:\"<h2 id=\"about-this-episode\">About this episode.</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>On the podcast today we have <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/sparklingrobots/\">Tara King</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tara has recently begun working for Automattic in the developer relations role. Tara will lead a newly formed team who will get out and about; trying to understand the pain points which people are having with the new Block Editor and Full Site Editing. They will then report their findings back to the developer and contributor teams, and hopefully establish a feedback loop to make the editor better.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>They are also creating blogs, podcasts, courses and many other types of content to help people get up to speed with the Block Editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&rsquo;s no secret that whilst there are many people who love the Block Editor, there are many who remain unconvinced. Unconvinced might not be a strong enough word, but you get the idea. I wanted to hear about the purpose of this new team and how it&rsquo;s going to be working. Will it have a real impact upon the future of the Block Editor? What will they be offering? How can they be reached? Who is deciding what&rsquo;s included and what&rsquo;s left out? What motivations are behind all these decisions?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also get into a chat about the fact that WordPress is changing; moving away from a legacy of easy-to-understand PHP code and moving towards a JavaScript and React based future. Is the pain of learning these new skills going to be worth it, and is there going to be any support to help people get there?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&rsquo;s a wide-ranging discussion at an important moment in WordPress&rsquo; history.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Time will tell if Tara&rsquo;s team can win the hearts and minds of unconvinced developers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Have a listen to the podcast and leave a comment below.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"useful-links\">Useful links.</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Tara&rsquo;s email address: tara.king [at] automattic [dot] com</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.thedigitalnomad.io/job/automattic-developer-relations-wordpress/\">Automattic: Developer Relations Job Description</a></p>\n\n\nTranscript<div><div class=\"chat-transcript\"><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:00:00]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Welcome to the ninth edition of the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley. Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress, the people, events, plugins, themes, blocks, and in this case developers and Gutenberg. Each month we&rsquo;re bringing you someone from that community to discuss a topic of current interest.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>If you liked the podcast, please share it with your friends. You might also like to think about subscribing so that you&rsquo;ll get all of the episodes in your podcast player automatically, and you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player, or by going to WP Tavern dot com forward slash feed forward slash podcast.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>You can also play the podcast episodes on the WP Tavern website if you prefer that. If you have any thoughts about the podcast, perhaps a suggestion of a guest or an interesting subject, then please head over to WP Tavern dot com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox, and use the contact form there. We would certainly welcome your input.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Okay, so on the podcast today we have Tara King. Tara has recently begun working for Automattic, in developer relations, and it&rsquo;s an important role within the WordPress community. Tara will be leading a newly formed team who will be getting out and about, trying to understand the pain points which people are having with the new block editor and with full site editing. They will then report this back to the developer and contributor teams and hopefully establish a feedback loop to make the editor better. They are also creating blogs, podcasts, courses, and all sorts of other content to help people get up to speed, and perhaps begin using, or better understanding, the block editor.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>It&rsquo;s no secret that whilst there are many people who love the block editor, there are many who remain unconvinced. Unconvinced might not be a strong enough word, but you get the idea.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I wanted to hear about the purpose of this new team and how it&rsquo;s going to be working. Will it have a real impact upon the future of the block editor? What will they be offering? How can they be reached and who is making the decisions about what&rsquo;s included and what&rsquo;s left out? And what motivations are behind all of these decisions?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>We also get into a chat about the fact that WordPress is changing. It&rsquo;s moving away from a legacy of easy to understand PHP code and moving towards a JavaScript and React based future. Is the pain of learning these new skills going to be worth it? And is there going to be any support to help people get there?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>It&rsquo;s a wide ranging discussion at an important moment in WordPress&rsquo;s history. Time will tell if Tara&rsquo;s team are able to win the hearts and minds of unconvinced developers.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>If any of the points raised in this podcast, resonate with you, be sure to head over and find the post at WP Tavern dot com forward slash podcast, and leave a comment there. And so without further delay, I bring you Tara King.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I am joined today on the podcast by Tara King. Hello, Tara.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:03:54]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Hello. Thanks for having me.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:03:55]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>You are very welcome. It is an absolute pleasure. We&rsquo;ve spent the last couple of minutes just getting to know one another. We haven&rsquo;t ever spoken before, so this&rsquo;ll be a really interesting chat. We&rsquo;ve got a lot of ground to cover. And first of all, I&rsquo;d like to congratulate you on your brand new, shiny new job over at Automattic. I wonder if you might spend the first couple of minutes telling us what your new job is and what your title is and what you do.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:04:22]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Yeah. So I&rsquo;ll give you the short version first, which is that my job is to lead a team that is basically going out into the community to hear where people are struggling with Gutenberg, struggling with full site editing. Bring that context back into the development teams and the contributor teams that are building the product and then make it better. And in addition to that feedback cycle part of things, we&rsquo;re also creating content, courses, blogs, podcasts, all kinds of things to help people get up to speed with where Gutenberg is right now, where it&rsquo;s going to go next and how to make the leap over from the Classic Editor.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:05:04]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>That&rsquo;s really interesting. I did actually read the job description that was posted on the website. I don&rsquo;t know obviously what the final job description entails, but I was really fascinated to see that it was very much bolted on to the Gutenberg project as opposed to something a bit wider. And that is fascinating. It does feel at this moment in time, we&rsquo;re recording it towards the latter end of 2021. And it does feel at this time that there&rsquo;s quite a lot of, disagreement shall we say about how the WordPress project is being taken forward? And a lot of that disagreement is centering around Gutenberg and it seems that a few new roles, not just your role, but some others have been created particularly to handle the way that the community interact and the way that they feel and the way that they&rsquo;re receiving knowledge about it. Have I got that right? Are Automattic putting jobs out there for people to do exactly that.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:06:06]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Yeah, I think my team especially it came out of the 5.0 retrospective. So when Gutenberg came out and it was pushed out into the community, I think anybody who was around at that time of the WordPress community was aware of the pushback and the unhappiness in the community, around some of the things that happened.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>And looking at that, I was not part of the project in a serious way, at that point, I was actually doing support, so I was hearing all of the people who are unhappy tell us how can I change away from Gutenberg? How can I fix this? So that was my role in it at the time was just living through person by person with the impact of it.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>What I&rsquo;ve heard is basically they looked at the 5.0 release and said we need to communicate better, first of all right, but it&rsquo;s not just pushing information out, it&rsquo;s also, we need to listen better. We need to be aware of what people are feeling earlier so that when we&rsquo;re trying to make this work, it&rsquo;s not only perceived as, but I think experienced as a one-way street kind of thing, because I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s ever been the spirit of the WordPress project, and I don&rsquo;t think Gutenberg actually was meant to change that feeling, if that makes sense. But it did so for some people it really did. And so my team especially is really about listening and trying to engage more people, bring more people into the room to be part of those discussions, to be part of those decisions, because I don&rsquo;t think anybody wants Gutenberg to succeed just for Gutenberg&rsquo;s sake.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I think it&rsquo;s a really good tool. And so we&rsquo;re trying to make sure that everyone can be involved. So that&rsquo;s my team in particular, but I think in general, there is a sense that Gutenberg is still struggling to be understood. It&rsquo;s a really big change for the community on a technical level. And so we just need to be putting more energy and more attention to helping people bridge the gap between where they are now and where they need to be for Gutenberg.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:07:55]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Just dwelling on the team for a moment you may be allowed, you may not be allowed I don&rsquo;t know, to describe how big that team is and what the specifics are about how it&rsquo;s going to be implementing that. I&rsquo;m just wondering if you can give us some insight, because it would be interesting, certainly from my part, it would be interesting to know how many people are on the ground now, doing that kind of work specifically in your team.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:08:16]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Yeah, there are four people aside from myself, so five people in total. We have people doing specific programs. Anne McCarthy has been doing amazing work around the full site editing outreach program. So that&rsquo;s been part of this team before I started, they were doing that work. And then we have other folks doing courses and meet up presentations. Daisy Olson has been doing those also for a while. We have two new teammates, so Birgit from Gutenberg Times, which is a very amazing connection to have, is going to keep doing that. We&rsquo;re basically supporting Birgit to do more and more Gutenberg Times as much as she&rsquo;s willing to do. And then we have Ryan Welcher, a new hire from TenUp, who is helping on the sort of more technical side.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>So we have four people which means each person is responsible for, I think, 10 and a half percent of the internet. So it&rsquo;s quite a big job, I would say.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:09:09]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>That&rsquo;s a fascinating way of actually thinking about it. Forgive me, I&rsquo;m going to quote from the Automattic job description that came to you. This is the thing that you applied for. And again, please forgive me if this has now morphed in some way, but it basically says &ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking for someone to join our Automattic team dedicated to aiding the WordPress open source systems effort, specifically around developer relations. Your focus will be communicating with community developers about WordPress, Gutenberg and the surrounding ecosystem to build a positive and sustainable relationship with WordPress developers and reduce barriers to Gutenberg adoption&rdquo;. And then there&rsquo;s a bullet point list of what the ideal candidate will have, which presumably you met admirably. Congratulations. The thing that jumps out for me, there is the word developer is used multiple times. And is that where your efforts are going to lie? You&rsquo;re reaching out to developers as opposed say to end users or perhaps people that are new in the community who are unfamiliar with how Gutenberg and WordPress works.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:10:10]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Yeah. So we are one month in. So we&rsquo;re still working out the details, but very much focused on developers. I think I&rsquo;ll say for myself, I am actually from the Drupal project, I&rsquo;ve been in WordPress for a long time, but I have a much deeper kind of contributor history in Drupal actually. And in the Drupal project, it&rsquo;s always like developers first. Basically it&rsquo;s not official, but it&rsquo;s very focused on the developer experience and, coming to WordPress, I was always looking around&hellip; who&rsquo;s talking about developers and WordPress, where are they meeting? Where are they talking? So it&rsquo;s a very natural thing to focus on developers for me. But I do think it&rsquo;s a little bit new in the WordPress project. Certainly not developer first. I think the user is still always, maybe even the visitor is always going to be first, but the user of WordPress is always going to be the primary audience. But I think Gutenberg is really a product, a tool for the user, but in order to get it out there, I think developers really need to adopt it. Especially anybody who&rsquo;s extending WordPress. We need them to understand how to make Gutenberg work with that. Because that really does, I am blown away every time I use Gutenberg, and I know that&rsquo;s my job to say that, but it&rsquo;s actually also true. It&rsquo;s part of why I took the job. I think it&rsquo;s such a fantastic tool when you&rsquo;re giving somebody a site and they&rsquo;re going to be managing it. Without any code, they can do really advanced things in terms of layout and display.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>We need all the developers in the community to get on board and make it available via their various extensions. So we really are focused on developers and that goes everywhere from, so there&rsquo;s the theory of care in the WordPress community? I don&rsquo;t know if you&rsquo;re familiar. It&rsquo;s there&rsquo;s the leadership. There&rsquo;s the contributors. There&rsquo;s the extenders. Users and visitors, I&rsquo;m kind of sticking with that model. There&rsquo;s developers all the way down to the user level. People who are not writing a lot of new code necessarily, but maybe a little bit here and there. So we&rsquo;re talking to those folks. We&rsquo;re talking definitely to the extender group. So people who are writing plugins and themes, people who are running hosting companies or agencies, large universities, anybody kind of working with WordPress at a larger scale. And then of course the contributors who are literally developing the project. So it doesn&rsquo;t sound very focused when I say it like that, because that&rsquo;s a lot of people, but it&rsquo;s everybody who&rsquo;s writing code to support WordPress, whether that&rsquo;s for one site or for all of WordPress.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:12:33]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I am really interested by the fact that this role in this team now exists. As far as I&rsquo;m aware it&rsquo;s the first time that your role has existed. That&rsquo;s right, isn&rsquo;t it? You are the first person to.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:12:46]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>That is correct.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:12:47]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Okay. So that speaks to me that the team over at Automattic, as you said, they&rsquo;ve listened and they&rsquo;ve realized that this team needs to exist. WordPress is growing and fortunately Automattic have the capability to put this together. I suppose later on in the podcast, we&rsquo;ll get into the problems that people are experiencing and some of the things that presumably you&rsquo;re going to be addressing, but I am also keen to understand how people will be interacting with you.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>So in the future, how are they going to be getting their concerns in front of you and your team. Is it all about outreach from you or is it doors open, you can email me. How are people going to make contact with you and your team and express what it is that they need to express?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:13:32]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Yeah, that&rsquo;s a great question. Going back to the 10.5% of the internet per person. It&rsquo;s a really hard problem to solve. We can&rsquo;t be everywhere at once. As much as I would like to have someone who&rsquo;s on every WordPress related Stack Overflow or Stack Exchange, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, I could keep going with where we might go to listen to the community.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>We&rsquo;re still working that out in terms of the details. We&rsquo;re in Make Slack all the time, but I know Make Slack isn&rsquo;t always terribly welcoming. It&rsquo;s welcoming, nobody&rsquo;s mean, but it&rsquo;s a bit confusing, I think when you&rsquo;re new to the community or new to that space, there&rsquo;s always meetings happening. I know I personally have had the experience of, I don&rsquo;t know when I&rsquo;m supposed to talk with, if I&rsquo;m interrupting a meeting.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>You know, there are places that we definitely are. I think my email is going to, I assume it&rsquo;ll be in the podcast notes, it&rsquo;s tara dot king at automattic dot com. I am happy to hear from folks. I may regret saying that I don&rsquo;t know how many emails I&rsquo;ll get, but I think for me right now, especially because I am transitioning from having one foot in both Drupal and WordPress into being more WordPress focused, I&rsquo;m really looking to meet people and genuinely hear what folks are struggling with because it&rsquo;s wide. So my mandate is Gutenberg focused, but, that&rsquo;s not the only thing that causes problems. You might be also struggling with some particular part of Core that isn&rsquo;t Gutenberg. Like it&rsquo;s a very tangled knot in terms of when you&rsquo;re having issues with WordPress. So I like to hear about it because maybe right now the radar is focused on Gutenberg, but we&rsquo;re not going to be focused on Gutenberg forever. We can expand out from that narrow focus.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>So long story long, I wish I had a super simple answer other than to email myself personally. We are listening as much as we can or going to events, camps, and meetups and things. We are listening on Twitter. We&rsquo;re listening on Post Status. We are trying to be in all the major places, but feel free to reach out to myself or anyone else on the team that you feel comfortable with.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>There&rsquo;s a lot of people out there for a very small team, but we are trying to listen. One other thing I&rsquo;ll say before I finish on this topic, is there are very specific calls for testing that we&rsquo;re doing. So if you want to be more involved in the full site editing development before it happens, right? So a lot of people have a very reactive approach, which is, it comes out and they&rsquo;re unhappy, but actually there are pathways to be involved sooner. And this was one of the easiest ones. You can go to the Make Slack, there&rsquo;s a channel called F S E dash outreach. And if you join that channel, you will be presented with calls for testing that are, in my opinion, I hope that other people find this to be true as well, fairly clearly outlined. You know, step-by-step how to do the test in question. And then where to give your feedback. This is helping with everything from how a navigation block works from how widgets work. There&rsquo;s been some open-ended ones around what themers, theme builders needs. So that&rsquo;s one way to get a very specific kind of feedback, right? It&rsquo;s not general, but it&rsquo;s very effective to get specific feedback.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:16:29]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I sometimes feel that despite the fact that those channels are publicly available and anybody can hop in, I do sometimes wonder if things like the Make Slack and Github and so on, I do wonder if there&rsquo;s room for improvement there. And I don&rsquo;t mean throw the baby out with the bath water, but they can be quite intimidating. It is difficult to backtrack and figure out where the conversation began that&rsquo;s currently going on. The interface for Slack is excellent if you&rsquo;re a part of a team and your daily grind is to be in a particular Slack channel, and you&rsquo;re constantly checking in and you see where the conversation has flowed from and where the conversation is right now. But I feel it&rsquo;s difficult for people who are just hopping in to make almost any sense of those conversations at all. And so of course, the easy thing to do is to glance in open the door at a tiny bit, stare through the crack and then just run away in fear and continue to feel annoyed.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:17:25]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Yeah, I totally agree. I think, here I am barging in kinda new to the community. It was lots of opinions. I&rsquo;ve been feeling very much like the Make Slack and the Make blogs are more welcoming to people who are contributing because they&rsquo;re in it every day. It&rsquo;s easy for them to understand what&rsquo;s happening. Whereas I don&rsquo;t actually feel like we have a great location for developers at large. We have documentation. We have the Github for Gutenberg, but again, they&rsquo;re very contributor focused. There are people who just need to know how to build a plugin. How to build a block pattern on WordPress in general. And I don&rsquo;t feel like we have a great place for those discussions to happen right now. I don&rsquo;t know what we&rsquo;re going to land on, but that&rsquo;s one thing that this team is working on, trying to figure out what would be the right way to consolidate conversations for that community. Because right now it does feel like if you&rsquo;re a developer who has a WordPress problem, you shout into the void and you hope somebody hears. That might happen on Twitter. It might happen at a WordCamp. There are ways to be heard, but they&rsquo;re hard to find. I think we need much better pathways. To have those conversations.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:18:28]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I am not committing you to any particular platform or any particular piece of software, but it&rsquo;s just, it is nice to hear though, that you have that, on the radar, you&rsquo;re thinking about that because I think that&rsquo;s really important. Many of us are used to different platforms, probably more social in nature that seem to work in inverted commas, better, but that&rsquo;s fascinating, thank you.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Okay. Let&rsquo;s get stuck into the side of Gutenberg where people are concerned. Feeling disgruntled. Now I do want to definitively spell out at this point that you are not responsible for the way that Gutenburg is right now. I really want to make that very clear. So anybody listening to the podcast, it is not your fault, but people have concerns.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I think right now we seem to be seeing more concern than ever before. I&rsquo;ve been using WordPress for about, I&rsquo;m going to go for nine years, that feels more or less, right. Prior to that I was using a piece of software, which you just mentioned, Drupal. And I was extremely happy with Drupal. Drupal did everything that I wanted to do. It really was fabulous. In fact, if you could rewind the clock, I was telling my clients that Drupal was probably going to overtake WordPress in its use. How wrong could I have been? But there came a moment in time where that community became something that I no longer was part of. And it was because of the fact that Drupal deals with point releases, so from five to six to seven. There is a real line drawn in the sand. Drupal five doesn&rsquo;t sit well with Drupal six and six doesn&rsquo;t sit well with seven and so on. And I left at the point where there was one of these moments. It was from Drupal seven to Drupal eight, and I couldn&rsquo;t cope with the fact that I was going to have to do an enormous amount of work, just to keep things that had already built, up and running. Now the parallels that are there are fairly major I think, WordPress has done an unbelievably good job of being backwards compatible, but now we have what feels like, I&rsquo;m going to call it a Drupal moment. Where we are at an inflection point, something radical has changed in WordPress, and it really is bifurcating the path. Some users extremely happy, giving it a go, getting involved, loving it, other people, disliking it, not wanting to be a part of it and ultimately, just stopping being part of the community and not using WordPress at all. So I hope my analogy there with Drupal sits and you understand what I&rsquo;m saying?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:20:53]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Yeah, it does. Yep. I was in the community of the Drupal community when that happened as well. It is very interesting. I think for a long time, I&rsquo;ve talked to people in both communities, I&rsquo;ve talked to people using both software. And one of the differences, when people ask what&rsquo;s the difference is that WordPress is backwards compatible and Drupal&rsquo;s not. And the seven to eight was Drupal becoming object oriented, was the main change. And so people were used to writing procedural PHP, and now they had to write object oriented and they weren&rsquo;t used to it. And, not only were they not used to it, it was just unbelievable amount of work to update all of the extensions and make everything work. And then there&rsquo;s no migration path that&rsquo;s very clean between seven to eight in Drupal. Having lived through that, the Drupal project forked at that point, there&rsquo;s now a separate fork of the project called Backdrop. It was a very painful time. It was honestly a very painful time for me personally. I&rsquo;m sure it was painful for other people as well, but it was painful for me because I had gotten into Drupal in Drupal six and I was essentially a solo shop. I was building sites by myself, occasionally getting in a contractor and I could make sites pretty cheaply and pretty easily for lots and lots of people on Drupal. And like you said, loved, I just loved the software. I loved it so much. And the switch to Drupal eight felt very personal, like we don&rsquo;t care about people like you Tara. Obviously, no one&rsquo;s said that to me, but that&rsquo;s what it felt like. It felt like I don&rsquo;t have the resources to make this kind of a change for my clients. And I think ultimately it led me to stop freelancing and start working for agencies because they did have the resources. So it actually did change my career trajectory. So it&rsquo;s very serious for people. These kinds of changes in a software project, it seems kind technical or niche, but it&rsquo;s not, it&rsquo;s people&rsquo;s livelihoods and it&rsquo;s people&rsquo;s entire way of being in the world. Like you&rsquo;re changing how someone is working, you&rsquo;re changing, what kind of work they&rsquo;re able to do.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>So I think it&rsquo;s a really relevant parallel to draw to Gutenberg because I think a lot of people are feeling that same way now, and it&rsquo;s no surprise that they&rsquo;re going to have very strong reactions when their livelihood is threatened. I don&rsquo;t play a single person for having that struggle. The reason I took when I was talking about the job and interviewing and things like that, it definitely feels like we&rsquo;re starting a little bit behind because the community is already upset. It would have been nice if we could&rsquo;ve started before we Gutenberg came out and built those relationships earlier, but hindsight&rsquo;s 2020.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>And I thought to myself, there&rsquo;s so many people doing so many cool things with WordPress right now. I think Gutenberg is a really powerful tool. And if we can help people make that bridge. Not have to build the bridge to becoming a Gutenberg developer themselves, but have one provided. If we can help people feel heard and welcomed and important again. Cause I think that&rsquo;s why we come to these communities as we feel that way, we feel like we&rsquo;re important and we have somewhere to matter. So anyway, for me, long story short, it&rsquo;s very emotional and I really want to honor and respect people and meet them where they&rsquo;re at because I&rsquo;ve been there in the Drupal project.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:23:53]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>A couple of quotes. I should say that I reached out to a few of my friends. I am going to name no names. They didn&rsquo;t ask me to not to name names, but I won&rsquo;t. Just a few little things just to give you an indication of where people are at. So this is from somebody who creates WordPress websites for a living. I don&rsquo;t think they would describe themselves as a developer, but they say, &ldquo;Push and you get push back. If Gutenberg had been developed as an add-on plugin, for example, which was optional, where folks could opt in, then it would have become something that they could choose. And that for me is what made WordPress so successful&rdquo;.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>So that was from one person, and then from another person who is involved in themes shall we say, &ldquo;To every new feature or whatnot, which is added to Gutenberg, there&rsquo;s a but to go with it. And those things are never addressed. All in all, that is why I&rsquo;m losing passion for WordPress&rdquo;.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>It&rsquo;s those kinds of feelings I think, I could probably have put in some stronger ones, and certainly there were some ones which were less strong than that, but it gives you an indication. This is really, like I said, bifurcating the community and it really isn&rsquo;t a case of people just tutting a bit and being a little bit annoyed and then just shrugging it off and getting over it. This is genuinely people who&rsquo;ve been doing things for a long time, are dedicated to WordPress, commit to WordPress, use it every day, promote it. And they&rsquo;re thinking of walking away are, like I did with Drupal.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:25:14]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Yeah. Yeah. It&rsquo;s really hard to hear quotes like that, but it&rsquo;s also just so important. Honestly, I find that the WordPress community has been very patient. Gutenberg came out now, I think three years ago. And obviously some people were not patient, some people took off. But I do feel like people have been pretty patient. And whereas in Drupal before Drupal eight even came out, people were like, I made a fork. I&rsquo;m leaving. Here&rsquo;s my talk at DrupalCon about how Drupal&rsquo;s terrible. I really hope, I&rsquo;m not here to try to save people.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Everybody has to make their own decisions about what software project is the right for them. I think in general, this is about people&rsquo;s passions, whatever that might be, it&rsquo;s not necessarily about WordPress. They want to be able to do what they need to do. I&rsquo;m not trying to save every last person, but I do think it&rsquo;s important to hear when people are having these reactions and to really hear it right, to let it sink in.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I hope if my team can&rsquo;t counteract some of these feelings about the software being pushed onto people about development, ignoring the feedback that&rsquo;s coming in, I think we will have failed. I am very optimistic at this time, one month in, to say that I think we have some really good people who are really passionate and very deep in the community who know what people need. They&rsquo;re on the other side too, they&rsquo;re also developers. We&rsquo;re not hiring marketing people, no offense to marketing people, but that&rsquo;s not what this team is. We sit inside the product team. We&rsquo;re talking to the developers of the product. We&rsquo;re talking to developers in the community. And like I said, there&rsquo;s four of us, 42% of the web. Can&rsquo;t really hear everyone, but I&rsquo;m hopeful that as we listen. One person who stands up and says, I&rsquo;m losing passion for WordPress because of this, represents a hundred people who didn&rsquo;t or a thousand people who didn&rsquo;t, I don&rsquo;t know what the numbers actually are, but if we can address these people, one-to-one with personal caring, with strong, clear feedback to the product teams that are working on WordPress. I am hopeful that we can make this feel more like a collaboration, more like you&rsquo;re opting in, and it&rsquo;s your choice to use this cool tool instead of, oh, I have to. So that&rsquo;s the goal for the team.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:27:23]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>The two things that keep coming up in the conversations that I have on this side of the fence are that it was pushed into Core without the sort of necessary time for it to be examined and the entire community to have their say on it.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>And the other one seems to revolve around the fact that it&rsquo;s now been going on for such a long time, and it feels like almost like a public beta that&rsquo;s been going on for two, nearly three years where we are asked to use a piece of software, which is still very much in development. And so concerns around those. And I&rsquo;m interested, you may know, you may not know what the decision-making processes were in the past for how that happened. You may be able to talk about that again, you may not, but I&rsquo;m wondering if you have any thoughts on whether the decision-making process for how things are going to be implemented, are going to change. Is there going to be more openness about what&rsquo;s coming up? Are we able to communicate directly with the people who are making these changes? I think the feeling is it&rsquo;s top down. That a few people who make very big decisions and they make them, and the rest of us have to go along with that. And I think people would like to understand whether that governance model is up for debate. That&rsquo;s my question really.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:28:37]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s up for debate, to be honest, in terms of the very highest levels of the project. I don&rsquo;t think it is. I think that we have Matt, we have Josepha and they&rsquo;re the leaders. And I think almost every major open source project has one or two people, typically one person in that position.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>And I&rsquo;m not in the room for those discussions. I should say there&rsquo;s anything that&rsquo;s it is going to change there. I don&rsquo;t know about it. That said, I think it&rsquo;s very clear to me, I actually have not yet spoken with Matt, but I spoken with Josepha who&rsquo;s in dot org. Like we work together very pretty closely. And I can tell that Joseph is really listening. It&rsquo;s obviously hard for someone who&rsquo;s not seeing her regularly to know that. I fully understand why people think that it&rsquo;s very top-down, but that is part of this team is to go out and to try to listen and to help people understand how their feedback can come in.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>That&rsquo;s why I feel kind terrible that I can&rsquo;t say to you, this is exactly how you can give us your feedback, but that&rsquo;s absolutely the top list of priorities. Hopefully by the end of this year, we can have something clearer. There&rsquo;s the obvious ways of you can go in and contribute. But it&rsquo;s a pretty high barrier to entry.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>And I think what most people actually want is just to be able to give a little feedback. They don&rsquo;t want to write new code to fix something, they want to be able to say, oh, this didn&rsquo;t work for me because X, so that&rsquo;s what my team is going to be doing. And maybe it&rsquo;s not fair to call it a beta, I don&rsquo;t think, but it is ongoing development in public because that&rsquo;s the open-source way. But it&rsquo;s very challenging, having come from the Drupal community where people are making these big changes all the time, it feels, yeah, that&rsquo;s what we do. But I know in WordPress that hasn&rsquo;t been the case. What we are trying to do very specifically with my team is, get ahead of the release. So 5.9 is coming out in December. We are working right now on documenting exactly what is and is not going in. Is there any kind of breaking change? Those are pretty rare still, but if there is anything like that, we want to get ahead of that. We want to know, is there education that needs to happen around a certain technology to make this a success.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>And we&rsquo;re trying to push that out, to, I think right now we&rsquo;re going to try to push it out to things like large agencies, universities, big groups that can then disseminate it internally just for purposes of scaling. Not because we don&rsquo;t care about individuals, it&rsquo;s just hard to reach them. So we&rsquo;re trying to work that process, get that smoothed out. While that is getting refined, also building ways for individual developers of any kind to opt into that kind of information. So it is very much an experimental piece of software at this point. It&rsquo;s production ready to, it&rsquo;s both. It&rsquo;s very interesting to be in this middle, the middle of it all. And I know it feels like it&rsquo;s been going on for a long time and I know it feels like it&rsquo;s never going to end, but it actually is going to end.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>And as somebody whose mandate is to work on it, there&rsquo;s even almost a little bit of not dread, but existential sort of conundrum when Gutenberg ends. What do I do then? So as much as it feels like it&rsquo;s never going to end it. It is, it will be done, it will finish.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:31:46]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Moving the debate ever so slightly, but more or less the same wheelhouse really, there seems to be this under current, and in a sense, it feels a little bit, I&rsquo;m going to say conspiratorial. Seems to be a lot of people who are equating the Gutenberg project with, so the dot org side of things with the dot com side of things, almost as if the people on the dot org side are the Guinea pigs, for want of a better word that, is probably entirely the wrong word, but you get the idea, for the project and that the dot com side obviously has a financial model, which the dot org side doesn&rsquo;t. And I just wondered if you had any thoughts on that, whether those concerns could be assuaged as well, whether there is in fact a problem there or not.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:32:30]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>You know, I don&rsquo;t see. I have only been there a month, I don&rsquo;t have this sort of deep WordPress roots that other folks do. So I&rsquo;m like new, I guess I&rsquo;m an outsider still a little bit. And so I was concerned, I&rsquo;m not going to, when I took the job, I was a little concerned about that because when I&rsquo;m not working, before I worked at Automattic, I was constantly, oh, it&rsquo;s so annoying that there&rsquo;s a dot org and a dot com. It&rsquo;s so confusing. It&rsquo;s so annoying. So coming from the outside of the company and from like a fairly commercial place, honestly, from my interactions with WordPress, I don&rsquo;t see it. I have not met anybody from the dot com side. And I mean that literally like the entire non.org side I&rsquo;ve met one person because she lives in my hometown. We had coffee, that&rsquo;s it? So, no one has told me anything from the dot com side needs to be implemented on our side. If anything, I almost feel like it&rsquo;s inverted, which is that, I would guess if you talk to folks who work on dot com, they are just maybe not just as frustrated, but close to as frustrated as folks outside the company, as they&rsquo;re waiting to ingest information from dot org, I&rsquo;ve heard that from folks like we need training, we need to be able to, to train dot com customers. So there&rsquo;s frustrations there too. So I hear the conspiracy. I see where that comes from and why it exists. My experience has been completely not that way.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:33:51]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Okay. It&rsquo;s definitely something which gets raised from time to time. So I thought it was worth bringing up. But again, the caveats that we mentioned at the top of the podcast, that you&rsquo;ve just begun in your line of work and so.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:34:01]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Exactly, I&rsquo;m very new. And the thing about conspiracy theories is you can&rsquo;t really prove them wrong. Most of the time, they&rsquo;re unable to be proven wrong. So I can&rsquo;t prove it. I just don&rsquo;t see it.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:34:11]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>One of the things that I guess you are going to have repeatedly over the next year or so is the chatter about the move into new technologies in WordPress?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>So React, increased reliance on JavaScript and the move away from PHP. And this also speaks to the debate about people moving away and getting alarmed that their websites that they&rsquo;ve already built and their capability to build things and have a business that&rsquo;s easy for them to manage in the future, is going to be difficult. And I wonder what you thought about those horizons. I wonder if you&rsquo;ve got any words of comfort for people who have those concerns. And a related question, I wondered if there was possible responsibility, that again maybe too strong, a word, but I&rsquo;m going to use it, a responsibility on Automattic to provide guidance, training, materials, whatever would be needed to help people cross that bridge and to ease the burden of learning these new things.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:35:15]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Yeah. So I&rsquo;m a PHP developer, I taught myself PHP and I always held JavaScript at arms length, right? It was like, nope, that is too far. I will not do it. When JavaScript started becoming more and more popular, I just was like, nope, I don&rsquo;t have to, I know PHP. So I feel very much the pain of why do I have to learn JavaScript again?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I think the concerns I&rsquo;m hearing, and again, I said my email, I&rsquo;ll say it again at the end of the podcast, but the concerns I&rsquo;m hearing and the concerns I&rsquo;ve had are, yeah, it&rsquo;s just, I don&rsquo;t want to learn JavaScript because I don&rsquo;t need to, why do I need to? There&rsquo;s a build step, right? There&rsquo;s often a more, a slightly more complicated kind of environment needed to Gutenberg development versus just straight PHP. You just write it, hit save and I&rsquo;ll see if it works. So there&rsquo;s additional complications of writing Gutenberg code. Not every host necessarily well, set up if you wanted to do that remotely or something like that. For some of us, I thought we stopped compiling things. I have to compile things. It feels a little, old. So I hear all of that and I&rsquo;m sure there&rsquo;s other objections people have. The things that I&rsquo;m excited about with it, now that I&rsquo;m having to do more of it, I&rsquo;m realizing JavaScript&rsquo;s not that hard. We&rsquo;re all going to be okay. It&rsquo;s not that hard. And it opens up so much in terms of greater web technologies.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>And again, this feels very parallel to Drupal seven, to Drupal eight, which was moving to object oriented programming actually made me a better developer. I was a fine PHP procedural programmer. I was a reasonable developer and then having to learn it, which I know it&rsquo;s frustrating when you have to learn something, but I don&rsquo;t regret having done it. It made it easier actually for me to get into Gutenberg development, it&rsquo;s made my whole development life much easier. I don&rsquo;t think JavaScript is going away on the web in general. I think if anything, it&rsquo;s going to continue to eat the web. As an individual, it&rsquo;s powerful to have that tool in your toolbox as an agency, it&rsquo;s powerful to be able to sell that work. Talk to people, have a more diverse kind of set of skills on the team. I&rsquo;m pro learning in general, right? It&rsquo;s I think something that helps every open source project grow. I think the backwards compatibility with WordPress, I hesitate to say it, but it feels like it&rsquo;s gone a little bit too far. At some point, if you maintain backwards compatibility, the software can&rsquo;t move forward because the old stuff is pulling it back.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I think it&rsquo;s a wonderful model and Drupal is moving more towards it. It&rsquo;s kind interesting to see the two communities converge there, but this might just be a case where there&rsquo;s going to be a few pain points. Every web developer, no matter what tool they&rsquo;re working with is going to have pain points where they have to learn something new.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I think it&rsquo;s useful on an individual level. And then in terms of offering support for the transition, that is absolutely something that I think needs to happen. Whether or not it&rsquo;s Auttomatic&rsquo;s responsibility. I think it&rsquo;s best when these things are community-wide efforts. I would love to see WordCamps and meetups offer, people volunteering to run&hellip; hey, this is how I got started. That happened a lot in Drupal. I have a friend who ran a talk about how Pokemon can teach you object oriented programming. Very accessible. And so I think, it&rsquo;s not necessarily Automattic&rsquo;s responsibility, but that said it is something that my team is actively working on right now is what kind of materials are needs to help people get over there. Is it, we need to help people understand how to make, build environment, that dev environment that can do the build steps for React, or is it just general JavaScript knowledge? So we&rsquo;re actually, this week, looking at what options are currently out there. What&rsquo;s up to date. There were, when Gutenberg launched, there were a number of products and educational things that came out from the community that were great, but have not been updated. And people are still being directed to stuff that&rsquo;s two years old, and doesn&rsquo;t help them now? So my team is actively working on this.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>How can we help people do this? Because like I said, it&rsquo;s actually not that hard, but we don&rsquo;t give the tools people need. I tried to build a Gutenberg plugin recently entirely just from wordpress dot org documentation. I was like, no blog posts, no outside resources, just wordpress dot org. And it was not easy. So whether or not it&rsquo;s Automattic&rsquo;s responsibility, it&rsquo;s something that we&rsquo;re taking on, because it needs the community does need it. So look for something better in that space, soonish.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:39:44]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Thank you. Encouraging, just to hear that the flag has been raised and the concern has been written down and it does sound to me like you are actually planning to bring something to the table and it&rsquo;s been thought about, so that&rsquo;s really encouraging. Thank you for that.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>It feels like we&rsquo;ve been bashing for a long time, we&rsquo;ve probably spent half an hour dissecting all the bad. So before we draw to a close let&rsquo;s flip that entirely. Let&rsquo;s turn it to the good. And I just want to offer you a platform to say why it is you&rsquo;ve taken this job with Gutenberg as the sole focus. What is it about Gutenberg that you feel is better? Why do you think it&rsquo;s the future? In other words, what I&rsquo;m saying is, here&rsquo;s a crowd of naysayers, here&rsquo;s a crowd of people in front of you, they&rsquo;ve got their pitchforks out, they are furious about the way that things are going, you&rsquo;ve got an opportunity now to just address that crowd and see if you can turn some heads.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:40:38]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Oh, I wish I had practiced. WordPress has always been about freedom and empowerment of people, of individuals. This is my personal take on it, this is not the Automattic take on it necessarily, it&rsquo;s just how I feel. When I was building small sites, I used to run a consultancy for artists, artists are famously, not necessarily wealthy. Don&rsquo;t have a lot of money to put into these things. And they&rsquo;re also a very do it yourself kind of group. So I was making websites for artists. And if I could just get them started, give them a little push, install, some WordPress on a server, maybe pick out a theme for them. They could do it. People who almost refuse to touch computers because they&rsquo;re just busy off making their art could come back and use WordPress and share their work, talk about it, sell it, do really cool things.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>And I think I&rsquo;ve always been very passionate about that kind of end user being able to make their own website. I am personally just so not interested in having to go to a developer to say I need to post my new blog post. I need to add a little widget here with my new event. It&rsquo;s feels so old fashioned to me, and it&rsquo;s so disempowers, like I said, the user of the website. And so when I was looking at this job, thinking to myself, self, nobody, like everybody&rsquo;s mad about Gutenberg. Do you really want to talk about it and try to make them like it, what it really came down to was a genuine feeling, when I was interviewing and talking to people at Automattic, genuine feeling that they wanted this to be a collaborative experience, that they wanted it to be in conversation with the entire community, which is really where my passion derives from. And then Gutenberg itself as a tool is just incredible. I wouldn&rsquo;t have taken it if I didn&rsquo;t think the tool was worth it. If it was like, oh, there&rsquo;s this like terrible piece of software, but it&rsquo;s okay. I&rsquo;m getting a salary. I&rsquo;m not going to work 40 hours a week on something like that. So the tool allows people to do really powerful things and really control stuff that I haven&rsquo;t seen in other CMS&rsquo;s. I&rsquo;ve built sites for clients in Wix and Weebly and Squarespace and Drupal and WordPress and other more niche platforms. And I just see my clients over and over again, bumping up against, oh, I just want to put two pictures next to each other. And they can&rsquo;t because they don&rsquo;t know HTML or they don&rsquo;t know how to make a table.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I just want to be able to make all my pictures, have a little, like a header cover image with some text on it and they have to call me and I have to code that in and put it up there. And obviously Gutenberg doesn&rsquo;t have every kind of block and every kind of pattern that you might imagine. But having now built several sites, just with vanilla WordPress, I haven&rsquo;t installed any themes or anything like that, and just a couple of block packages that are out there, you can get pretty far, I think much farther. Yesterday I was watching a video on YouTube about, it was 10 minutes to a block theme, and it was like, make these five files and now you can put a block widget as your header, which means the users can make their own headers. And I don&rsquo;t have to go in and do all of those little things for them all the time. I think that&rsquo;s scary for some folks because they rely on that work. They rely on it being difficult. But ultimately, it&rsquo;s really empowering. It makes more people able to make more websites. Like it really grows the size of the pie if you will. Drupal&rsquo;s like jealous of it and there&rsquo;s a Gutenberg port to Drupal and it&rsquo;s really very cool. It&rsquo;s very powerful. And I think, the community can really benefit from it. We just need to be able to actually speak to each other and hear each other and work together. And that&rsquo;s the part that my team is really trying to build that bridge and to make that a reality, obviously we can&rsquo;t fix everything for everybody, but we can fix more things than we have been fixing.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:44:35]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>That, I feel is a really excellent place to call it a day. You mentioned just before we finish, you did mention earlier that you were going to drop your email in once more. It may be that people have heard it and haven&rsquo;t written it down. Can I encourage you to do that once again?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-taraking vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Tara King</cite> [00:44:51]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Absolutely. My email is t a r a dot k i n g at automattic dot com. And there are two T&rsquo;s on the end of that. So it&rsquo;s a u t o m a t t i c dot com. I&rsquo;m also sparklingrobots on Twitter. Like I said, R I P my inbox let&rsquo;s see how this goes. But I, I believe my DMs are open on Twitter or you can just tweet at me because I am actively looking to have conversations in the community. One-on-one conversations actually move things forward quite a bit. So I&rsquo;m excited to have those.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:45:25]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Tara thank you very much for coming on the podcast today.</p>\n</div></div></div></div>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 03 Nov 2021 14:00:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Nathan Wrigley\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:64:\"HeroPress: Grief, Stuff and Netflix – Rouw, Spullen en Netflix\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:56:\"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=4227\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:168:\"https://heropress.com/essays/grief-stuff-and-netflix-rouw-spullen-en-netflix/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grief-stuff-and-netflix-rouw-spullen-en-netflix\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9696:\"<img width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" src=\"https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/110121-min.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Pull Quote: Stuff is worthless, people are valuable.\" /><p><a href=\"https://heropress.com/feed/#dutch\">Dit essay is ook beschikbaar in het Nederlands.</a></p>\n<p>This post is not about web accessibility, it’s about mental health. About trying to cope with grief and burnout.</p>\n<p>I’m not the first within the WordPress community who lost someone they love. People within the community lost a spouse, a sibling, a parent, a child. People that cannot be missed but died anyway. Life and death happens to all of us. And everyone copes in a different way. How can you help them? And how can you help yourself? I don’t have all the answers, but I’d like to share some of my experiences.</p>\n<h3>My story</h3>\n<p>I remember WordCamp Helsinki 2019 as the last WordCamp where things were normal. I was in a good place, at home with my husband and son and in my career, working in a job I like.</p>\n<p>Shortly after that my mother was diagnosed with cancer and my husband Marc died of a heart attack. My father had to move to a nursing home because of his Parkinsons. In the middle of the first lockdown my mother died, just at the same time my kitchen was being renovated. At that point I burned out.</p>\n<p>What did grief do to me? It drained all of my energy and made me feel lonely, overwhelmed and in a constant state of panic. Marc and I were together for 35 years, I had no idea how to live without him. Suddenly there were a ton of things to do and to decide. Decisions I had to make alone, important decisions we used to make together. Mortgage, pension, stuff, the leaking roof and for God’s sake that bloody new kitchen.</p>\n<p>I spent a lot of evenings on the couch watching Netflix. Shutting down my brain. Re-watching all the SciFi they offer. And yes, I love Michael “Let’s fly” Burnham.</p>\n<h3>What can you do for someone who grieves?</h3>\n<p>Just listen and ask questions. Don’t force decisions on them, just listen. In the conversation you may discover how to also help in a practical way. Like Job, who bottled Marc’s last batch of home brew beer. Monique, who took me to an exposition of cat paintings to cheer me up. Or colleagues who gave a hug when I returned to work, and friends who just called out of the blue to ask how I was doing.</p>\n<h3>What not to do?</h3>\n<p>Taking over the conversation and telling about your sister-in-law’s brother’s neighbour who had cancer too and blablablabla. I don’t have the energy for that and besides, what’s the point?</p>\n<p>Assuming things, like the advice to stop working for a while. I burned out, not from my work, but from all the stuff I needed to do at home while being tired and sad as fuck. Work was actually a relief, a way to escape. I could not work as much, but I needed to be there to feel my old self again.</p>\n<h3>What can you do for yourself?</h3>\n<p>What worked for me? Professional counseling. Really. Get a professional, not some mumbo jumbo alternative therapy. A wonderful psychologist taught me to live in the moment, reduce the stress in my body and take care of myself. To accept that healing takes time. And she helped me to properly say goodbye to Marc and my mother and to not feel guilty about my dad being in a nursing home.</p>\n<h3>Stuff is worthless</h3>\n<p>Last year I had to sort out the things of Marc, my mother and my father. Stuff is worthless. It may sound cliche and very Marie Kondo, but a lot of items went through my hands. I thanked them and brought them to the charity shop. And yes, thanking helps. It felt disrespectful to throw things away without giving them a proper goodbye. Getting rid of so much stuff gave me a different perspective on what is important and what brings me real joy.</p>\n<p>The Dutch poet Lucebert wrote: “Alles van waarde is weerloos”. That translates as “Everything of value is defenceless”. Stuff is worthless, people are valuable. Colleagues, friends, family, the memories of holidays, important events in life, having dinner or just hanging out at some WordCamp and talking about WordPress or make-up. People are indispensable, even though they are fragile.</p>\n<h3>So how am I now?</h3>\n<p>I’m ok-ish. My energy is still not 100%. I get tired easily and need to listen to my body. Healing takes frustratingly longer than I want, but I’m getting there.</p>\n<p>I am blessed to be part of 2 communities, the WordPress and the Accessibility community. Both showed up at Marc’s funeral and looked after me during the time after.</p>\n<p>And I’m very thankful to <a href=\"https://twitter.com/taekereijenga?s=20\">Taeke</a>, my CEO, for giving me the time to heal.</p>\n<h1 id=\"dutch\">Rouw, Spullen en Netflix</h1>\n<p>Dit artikel gaat niet over webtoegankelijkheid, het gaat over mentale gezondheid. Over het proberen om te gaan met rouw en burn-out.</p>\n<p>Ik ben niet de eerste binnen de WordPress-community die iemand verloor van wie ze houden. Mensen binnen de community verloren een partner, een broer of zus, een ouder, een kind. Mensen die niet gemist kunnen worden, maar toch stierven. Leven en dood overkomt ons allemaal. Maar iedereen gaat er op een andere manier mee om.</p>\n<p>Hoe kun je helpen? En hoe kun je jezelf helpen? Ik heb niet voor alles een oplossing, maar ik wil graag mijn ervaringen met je delen.</p>\n<h3>Mijn verhaal</h3>\n<p>Ik herinner me WordCamp Helsinki 2019 als de laatste WordCamp waarop alles normaal was. Ik was gelukkig, thuis bij mijn man en zoon en in mijn carrière, met een leuke baan.</p>\n<p>Kort daarna kreeg mijn moeder kanker en stierf mijn man Marc aan een hartaanval. Mijn vader moest vanwege zijn Parkinson verhuizen naar een verpleeghuis. Midden in de eerste lockdown stierf mijn moeder, op hetzelfde moment dat mijn keuken werd gerenoveerd. Op dat moment stortte ik in.</p>\n<p>Wat deed verdriet met mij? Het putte me volkomen uit, ik voelde me eenzaam, overweldigd, in een constante paniek. Marc en ik waren 35 jaar samen, ik had geen idee hoe ik zonder hem moest leven. Plotseling waren er een heleboel dingen om te doen en te beslissen. Beslissingen die ik alleen moest nemen, belangrijke beslissingen die we vroeger altijd samen namen. Hypotheek, pensioen, spullen, het lekkende dak en sodeju, die verdomde nieuwe keuken.</p>\n<p>Ik heb vele avonden op de bank naar Netflix zitten kijken. Om mijn piekerende hoofd stil te zetten door alle SciFi te kijken die ze hebben. En ja, ik hou van Michael &#8220;Let&#8217;s fly&#8221; Burnham.</p>\n<h3>Wat kun je doen voor iemand die rouwt?</h3>\n<p>Gewoon luisteren en vragen stellen. Druk geen veronderstellingen door, luister gewoon. Tijdens het gesprek ontdek je misschien hoe je ook praktisch kunt helpen. Zoals Job, die Marc’s laatste batch zelfgebrouwen bier bottelde. Monique, die me meenam naar een tentoonstelling van kunst over katten, om me op te vrolijken. Collega&#8217;s die me een knuffel gaven toen ik weer aan het werk ging en vrienden die zomaar opbelden om te vragen hoe het met me ging.</p>\n<h3>Wat je niet moet doen?</h3>\n<p>Het gesprek overnemen en vertellen over de buurman van de broer van je schoonzus die ook kanker had en blablablabla. Daar heb ik echt de energie niet voor en bovendien, wat heeft het voor zin?</p>\n<p>Dingen veronderstellen, zoals het advies om even te stoppen met werken. Ik kreeg geen een burn-out van mijn werk, maar van alle dingen die ik thuis moest doen terwijl ik moe en verdrietig was. Werk was eigenlijk een verademing, een manier om te ontsnappen. Ik kon niet zoveel werken, maar ik wilde er wel zijn om me weer een beetje de oude te voelen.</p>\n<h3>Wat kun je voor jezelf doen?</h3>\n<p>Wat werkte voor mij? Professionele begeleiding. Echt, zoek een professional en geen een of andere vage alternatieve therapie. Een goede psycholoog leerde me om in het nu te leven, de stress in mijn lichaam te verminderen en beter voor mezelf te zorgen. Ze leerde me accepteren dat genezing tijd kost. Ze heeft me geholpen om fatsoenlijk afscheid te nemen van Marc en mijn moeder en me niet schuldig te voelen omdat mijn vader in een verpleeghuis zit.</p>\n<h3>Spullen zijn onbelangrijk</h3>\n<p>Vorig jaar moest ik de bezittingen uitzoeken van Marc, mijn moeder en mijn vader. Spullen hebben geen waarde. Het klinkt misschien cliché en heel Marie Kondo, maar er zijn veel spullen door mijn handen gegaan. Ik bedankte ze en bracht ze naar de kringloopwinkel. En ja, bedanken helpt echt. Het voelt respectloos om dingen weg te gooien zonder ze een goed afscheid te geven. Het uitzoeken en wegdoen van zoveel spullen gaf me een ander perspectief op wat belangrijk is en waar ik gelukkig van word.</p>\n<p>De Nederlandse dichter Lucebert schreef: “Alles van waarde is weerloos”. Spullen zijn onbelangrijk, mensen zijn waardevol. Collega&#8217;s, vrienden, familie, de herinneringen aan vakanties, belangrijke gebeurtenissen in het leven, samen eten of gewoon rondhangen bij een WordCamp en praten over WordPress of make-up. Mensen zijn onmisbaar, ook al zijn ze kwetsbaar.</p>\n<h3>Hoe gaat het nu met mij?</h3>\n<p>Ik ben een soort van oké. Mijn energie is nog steeds geen 100%. Ik word snel moe en moet goed naar mijn lijf luisteren. Beter worden duurt frustrerend langer dan ik wil, maar ik kom er wel.</p>\n<p>Ik ben bevoorrecht deel uit te maken van twee communities, de WordPress en de Accessibility-community. Beiden kwamen naar de uitvaart van Marc en beiden keken naar me om, in de tijd daarna. En ik ben <a href=\"https://twitter.com/taekereijenga?s=20\">Taeke</a>, mijn CEO, erg dankbaar dat hij me de tijd geeft om te genezen.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 03 Nov 2021 06:00:48 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Rian Rietveld\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:79:\"WPTavern: Ona by DeoThemes Just Raised the Bar for WordPress Block Theme Design\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125092\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:203:\"https://wptavern.com/ona-by-deothemes-just-raised-the-bar-for-wordpress-block-theme-design?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ona-by-deothemes-just-raised-the-bar-for-wordpress-block-theme-design\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5033:\"<img />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">No sooner than I said the <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/the-wordpress-block-theme-revolution-is-quietly-picking-up-momentum\">floodgates of block theme development</a> would be open, a couple of more <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/full-site-editing/\">FSE-capable themes</a> landed in the WordPress.org directory. I checked the review system, and three more were queued up.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It took mere days for me to find another favorite: <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/ona/\">Ona by DeoThemes</a>. When the author mentioned it, I checked the source code to ensure it was a 100% block theme. It was hard to believe at first glance.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The theme has been approved for the directory, but it has not yet been set live. It should be available soon, but anyone can grab the <a href=\"https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/107617#comment:9\">ZIP file from its ticket</a> if they want to give it a spin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are now at a point where the block system can nearly match traditional theming in features. There are still some kinks to work out and a few missing pieces, but Ona embraces block templating and global styles like few have before. It is modern, almost minimalist, yet packed with potential for a site owner who wants to share their content in style.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of the free block themes available, less than a handful could be named its equal. But let&rsquo;s give it a few weeks and see what else lands. I could be eating my own words shortly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ona&rsquo;s design leans heavily toward modern-day fashion, lifestyle, and travel blogs. However, that is not a hard requirement. It is balanced enough for use on a range of sites. It works well as a blog, but small businesses could get a lot out of it with block-built landing pages. It does lend itself well to storytelling with a mix of large, in-content images.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Single post view.\n\n\n\n<p>The change that users will need to make out of the gates is with the site branding. The default <code>18px</code> of letter-spacing for the site title does not work well for more than a few characters. This is easy to adjust in the site editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ona does not have a lot of patterns, but it makes up for it with a well-rounded set. It ships with two headers, one footer, and five for general usage. Most of them are in use on the <a href=\"https://ona.deothemes.com/\">demo&rsquo;s homepage</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Inserting Ona&rsquo;s &ldquo;Promo Boxes&rdquo; pattern.\n\n\n\n<p>Looking through the theme&rsquo;s source code, I noticed a couple of additional registered pattern categories titled &ldquo;Ona Pages&rdquo; and &ldquo;Ona Posts.&rdquo; There are no block patterns defined for them, so they do not appear in the inserter. The author may have forgotten to remove them or has plans for a more extensive set in the future.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of putting everything into patterns, the theme also offers extra About and Contact page templates. Such custom templates were commonplace in traditional theming, but their usefulness was impeded by the lack of a standard editing interface. That is a non-issue with block themes.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Contact page template.\n\n\n\n<p>With the template and site editors, Ona showcases how custom page templates could see a resurgence. I still lean toward block patterns as the primary way to offer custom layouts, but having full-page designs ready to go through the templating system is much nicer than in the classic era.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem with templates is that it can be hard to judge where structure and layout end and the content begins. For an About or Contact template, this is usually not a problem. Those two are likely to only be used once on a site. However, when you get into templates meant for use with multiple pages, there should be a clear separation of the two. Patterns are going to make a lot more sense for the content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I rarely judge a theme entirely by its fancier features. What I truly want to know is whether its typography makes for comfortable long-form reading, and Ona does well in that department. I am not a fan of the oversized default blockquote design, but that can be easily adjusted.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The biggest issues I had with the theme were the font and color slugs. However, this is more of a personal grievance about nonexistent standards. Right now, slug naming is a free-for-all affair for block themes, and I do not see that changing any time soon.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Users will also encounter 404 errors from the theme&rsquo;s default images. Again, this is not specific to Ona; it is a WordPress/Gutenberg issue. A fix only <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/33217\">landed in the development version</a> of the Gutenberg plugin five days ago. Maybe when the theme&rsquo;s next update rolls around, it will be able to make use of it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If this is the quality we are seeing at this stage, I cannot wait to see what the rest of the theme design community has in store. DeoThemes just raised the bar.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 02 Nov 2021 22:48:24 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:64:\"WPTavern: WordPress’ Gutenberg Demo Page Is Getting a Redesign\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125010\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:167:\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-gutenberg-demo-page-is-getting-a-redesign?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-gutenberg-demo-page-is-getting-a-redesign\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:2825:\"<p>The official <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/\">Gutenberg demo page</a> on WordPress.org may soon be getting an update that better reflects the editor&rsquo;s capabilities and showcases the design creativity available through patterns.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Automattic-sponsored designers Beatriz Fialho and Kelly Hoffman have <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/29/redesign-of-the-gutenberg-page/\">submitted a prototype</a> for consideration with explorations of both light and dark modes and three different variations for typography.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><img /></div>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Now that&nbsp;Gutenberg&nbsp;has been a part of WordPress for a few years, it makes sense to update it, shifting the message from what used to be the new post editor to the editor that can power all parts of your site,&rdquo; Fialho said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Practically speaking, this works out to a more polished landing page with less focus on the demo being a playground that can be manipulated by visitors. Headings like &ldquo;Say Hello to the New Editor&rdquo; are now outdated, as the editor is no longer new. It has been nearly three years since Gutenberg was introduced in WordPress 5.0.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the time the demo page was first launched, the use of pattens has become a centerpiece in designing pages with Gutenberg. The updated demo will highlight blocks and patterns and will add a new section dedicated to helping new users get connected to resources for learning WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><img /></div>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;It is intentional that the page looks more like a landing page rather than an open canvas &lsquo;playground&rsquo; page,&rdquo; Fialho said. &ldquo;While it can still be interactive, allowing people to click around and explore, it shows what is possible to achieve with the editor, remaining ultimately informative.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few contributors have commented on the post to offer critical feedback. Some refinements in wording on the page may be necessary to be appropriate for newer audiences. Dan Soschin, an Automattic-sponsored marketing team member, suggests rephrasing terms like &ldquo;WordPress Editor&rdquo; and &ldquo;blocks&rdquo; and &ldquo;patterns,&rdquo; so that understanding them is not a requirement for choosing WordPress as a CMS. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Soschin also suggested the design include more variety of visuals for showing different types of websites, such as e-commerce, media portfolios, and news sites, to demonstrate the flexibility of the platform beyond just blogging.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Feedback on the proposal will be open through November 5 before the next iteration. Contributors are also welcome to jump in on the Meta Trac <a href=\"https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5600\">ticket</a> where previous discussions have been held.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 02 Nov 2021 19:18:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:37;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:61:\"WPTavern: NaNoWriMo? NaBloPoMo? A Month of Writing Challenges\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=125086\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:163:\"https://wptavern.com/nanowrimo-nablopomo-a-month-of-writing-challenges?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nanowrimo-nablopomo-a-month-of-writing-challenges\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4503:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">It is November, and that only means one thing. It is <a href=\"https://nanowrimo.org/dashboard\">National Novel Writing Month</a> &mdash; NaNoWriMo for short.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Autumn is my favorite time of year. Football is in full swing. Warm mugs of coffee replace the cold brew. Eggnog cartons line supermarket fridges. There are weekend hayrides, face paintings, corn mazes, ring-toss games, and more as fall festivals and fairs are underway. Local farmers&rsquo; markets are selling off the last of the summer crop. Many of us can begin switching our thermostats over to heating mode &mdash; anything below 60&deg; in my home state of Alabama is jeans and jacket weather. Walks around the neighborhood or park are ablaze with reds, browns, and oranges as the yearly cycles start to wind down. It is always a magical time that offers one last explosion of life before winter comes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>November is smack in the middle of it all. While it can be a busy month for many, it is always the ideal time for writing. The changing season creates moments worth capturing and stories to savor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Between the hustle and bustle of autumn activities and upcoming holidays, the season also has those quiet moments that allow us to reflect on the world around us. There is a calmness in the cooling air for those who slow down and simply observe.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the season where I get the itch to write fiction. While I enjoy the work I do here at the Tavern, I am a novelist at heart. If I am fortunate, I will one day publish a novel. Until then, there is this worldwide movement known as NaNoWriMo. It is an event where 1,000s of people attempt to write a 50,000-word first draft.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is also a massive community around the challenge. It is sort of like group therapy for those crazy enough to attempt it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is a wild ride that is only driven by grit and coffee. There are no guaranteed publishing deals or trophies at the end of the road. The reward is a printable certificate, self-pride, and a month of household chores you likely skipped out on. You may bask in the glory of an achievement few others have accomplished. Many crash and burn by the end of Week #1.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, if you are a writer, the techniques and lessons you learn along the way are well worth it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have a B.A. in English and am a published tech book author. Nothing has taught me more practical writing skills than my participation and victory in NaNoWriMo 2018. School gave me the foundation, but NaNoWriMo taught me about word sprints and how to disable my inner editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will once again participate in NaNoWriMo. I was unable to do so over the past couple of years because of preexisting obligations. But I have that itch again and need to see this thing through.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>While NaNoWriMo is not directly related to WordPress (though many participants blog their journey via the platform), there is a spin-off of the event for bloggers:</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>National Blog Posting Month.</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>NaBloPoMo does not roll off the tongue quite as well, and it has never reached the global success of NaNoWriMo. There is not even an official website dedicated to the month-long blogging challenge. However, it was once popular enough that WordPress.com <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/tag/nablopomo/\">hyped it for several years</a>. The last announcement seems to be <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2014/10/24/the-namos-are-coming-the-namos-are-coming/\">from 2014</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2006, blogger Eden Kennedy began NaBloPoMo in response to the NaNoWriMo mania. Not everyone has the time or desire to write 50,000 words in a month, but many want to up their writing game. Instead of averaging 1,667 words per day, the challenge is merely to blog something &mdash; anything &mdash; every day throughout November.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our frenemies over at <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/\">Post Status</a> have also been running a similar event called #ClickPublish throughout the year via Slack. Today is the start of a new month-long challenge in which WordPress professionals might participate. <em>Side note: &ldquo;Click Publish&rdquo; is much better branding than NaBloPoMo.</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are looking for an excuse to wipe the dust off your WordPress blog, what better reason than a 30-day publishing challenge?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Any of our readers up for it? Feel free to let us know in the comments, and share your articles if you jump on the bandwagon.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 01 Nov 2021 22:22:48 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:38;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:69:\"Akismet: Introducing New Self-serve Options for Enterprise Plus Plans\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"http://blog.akismet.com/?p=2134\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:97:\"https://blog.akismet.com/2021/11/01/introducing-new-self-serve-options-for-enterprise-plus-plans/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3329:\"<p>We’re all about making it easy to keep spam off your site, from the initial signup process to the protection we provide for years to come.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year, we introduced Enterprise Plus plans, designed for businesses that have over 60K API calls each month. But until now, you had to contact our sales team to register. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don’t get us wrong, our sales team is pretty awesome. But time is money and the sooner you’re registered, the sooner you’re protected.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, we’ve made signing up for an Enterprise Plus plan easier than ever.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Three new Enterprise Plus plans</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The three tiers are based on monthly API calls. We define an API call as any time a request is made to our servers – basically when&nbsp;we check your content for spam. The larger your site and the more visitors, comments, and form submissions you have, the more API calls you’ll use.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, customers with less than two million per month can now sign up automatically.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<h3>60K – 350K API calls per month&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This tier costs $250 per month. Simply choose the plan, agree to our terms and conditions, and you can check out right away.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And there’s a bonus: Sign up for an annual subscription and you’ll get a 16% discount — $500 back in your pocket!&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3>350K – 2 million API calls per month&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Woah —&nbsp;that’s a lot of spam-fighting power!&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This plan is $1,250 per month. Sign up for a year and save $2,500 with the 16% discount.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3>2+ million API calls per month&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you expect more than two million monthly API calls, you should speak to one of our spam-fighting experts to get a custom plan. Just <a href=\"https://akismet.com/signup/#enterprise-plus\">let us know</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Exceeding API call limits&nbsp;</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes it’s hard to accurately predict your exact needs. Plus, things outside of your control can temporarily impact the number of API calls you use.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That’s why, if you exceed your plan’s limit for a couple of months, there’s no reason to worry. We’ll continue to fight spam while we see if your usage normalizes. However, if you exceed the limit for more than three consecutive months, future requests in excess of the monthly limit will be denied until you upgrade your plan.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember: the number of API calls is tracked based on the calendar month,&nbsp;not the date you registered or renewed. You can monitor your API usage by going to the bottom of your account page, clicking the prompt that says, “<strong>click here for account-wide spam stats</strong>,” and checking the <strong>Total API Calls </strong>column.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://docs.akismet.com/akismet-api-usage-limits/\">Learn more about API limits and reducing API calls</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Get started with Enterprise Plus&nbsp;</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our new self-serve options for less than two million API calls mean one less barrier to great spam-fighting power.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Less talking, less spam, more time.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pretty great, right?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Get started with an <a href=\"https://akismet.com/signup/#enterprise-plus\">Enterprise Plus plan</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 01 Nov 2021 16:28:29 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"David Schwister\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:39;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:68:\"WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 19: The People of WordPress\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:53:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?post_type=podcast&p=11368\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:70:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/11/episode-19-the-people-of-wordpress/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8205:\"<p>In this nineteenth episode, WordPress&#8217;s Executive director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, discusses and expresses gratitude for the inspiration behind the People of WordPress series, HeroPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Have a question you&#8217;d like answered? You can submit them to <a href=\"mailto:wpbriefing@wordpress.org\">wpbriefing@wordpress.org</a>, either written or as a voice recording.</strong></em></p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Credits</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Editor:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/dustinhartzler/\">Dustin Hartzler</a></li><li>Logo:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/beafialho/\">Beatriz Fialho</a></li><li>Production:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/\">Chloé Bringmann</a></li><li>Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>References </h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/category/interviews/\">People of WordPress series</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://heropress.com/\">HeroPress</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://heropressnetwork.com/\">HeroPress Network</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/\">WordPress 5.9 Development Cycle</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2021/10/22/team-rep-nominations/\">Call for Team Rep Nomination</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Transcript</h2>\n\n\n\n<span id=\"more-11368\"></span>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>00:11</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hello, everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing. The podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go!</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>00:29</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The month of November includes the Thanksgiving holiday in my part of the world and in my familial traditions. And one of the things that November always brings up for me is the concept of gratitude. I have a gratitude practice that lasts throughout the year. But this time of year always kind of lets me look outside what makes me feel routinely grateful and explore areas that I don&#8217;t always notice.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:05</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year, I&#8217;m taking some time to do that in the context of the WordPress project, and it&#8217;s reminded me of one of the foundational things I talk about a lot that may be a little harder for folks to see. I am routinely grateful, of course, for the people who show up to maintain WordPress, the people who keep the back office work going, the contributors who contribute directly to the WordPress CMS and project, the folks who routinely go out and tell other people about WordPress and make sure others know how to use it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:35</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there&#8217;s another group that I talk about a lot that is a little harder to grasp. And that&#8217;s this conceptual group of people whose lives have been changed by WordPress. I used to run into people like this all the time when I was organizing WordCamps. And the small but meaningful successes that they share year after year made me realize that my small contribution of organizing these events was really quite valuable; valuable to them, and I assumed also valuable to just other people in the WordPress project.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:09</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, if you&#8217;re contributing in a way that doesn&#8217;t let you have contact with the same users consistently over time, or if contributing doesn&#8217;t quite balance out in your ledger at the moment, it can be hard to put names to faces in a way that lets you see how your contributions are making an impact. To help with that, a few years ago, the WordPress project partnered with the community Marketing team and the HeroPress team to share the People of WordPress series which you can find monthly on wordpress.org/news. For me, this series provides a glimpse into the humanity of the people who use WordPress, and for me, that&#8217;s enough. If all the series ever did was to remind us that WordPress was made for people whose needs matter, that would be enough to continue to have that series forever. But fortunately, the series does quite a bit more than that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>03:04</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The People of WordPress series also lifts up the stories of people who we don&#8217;t always hear from in technology. It highlights the wide array of origin stories that lead people to WordPress. It reminds us of the global nature of what we&#8217;re doing. It reconnects us to the hopefulness of our own first WordPress successes. And it draws a direct line to why we should care about refreshing the commons of this open ecosystem. I&#8217;m sure that there are more things that do as well. But those are just the things off the top of my head, we draw all of the people of WordPress stories that are inside that series directly from the HeroPress essays that have been submitted by users. And I was gonna say users like you in a kind of Reading Rainbow way. But I actually don&#8217;t know if any of you are everyday users who are also using WordPress but maybe not contributing yet. If you are then like I&#8217;m talking to you. And if you&#8217;re not, I&#8217;m probably still talking to you. Because all of these stories that go to HeroPress are very valuable and very important for us to know. Anyway, I digress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:14</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/topher1kenobe/\">Topher DeRosia</a>, who founded HeroPress, is among the first people I met in the community lo these many years ago. And I think the impact that HeroPress has on the WordPress community as a whole is not always well recognized. So in the spirit of expanding the scope of my gratitude, and in the context of refreshing the commons, I would encourage you to head over to HeroPress.com and their newly launched HeroPress Network and see if there&#8217;s any little way that you can contribute to their commons, submitting your story donating to their network offering a small bit of volunteer time if you happen to have any spare time lying around. I know that the team would be delighted to hear from you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:01</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That leads us now to our small list of big things. We are about a week away from the feature freeze for WordPress 5.9, the final release of the year. Feature freeze caused a little confusion last time. So I just want to clarify there won&#8217;t be a package released with this milestone. But no more enhancements or features will be worked on at that point. And bug fixing will become the primary focus. That will be on November 9, which I believe is next Tuesday. It&#8217;s definitely next week whenever the calendar turns to nine of November 2021. That&#8217;s the day that we&#8217;re going into feature freeze.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:38</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second big thing in our small list of big things is that team rep nomination season is upon us. If you are a team rep or want to learn more about being one, now is the time to kind of look at what&#8217;s going on and how to keep everything moving in that way. I&#8217;ll include a link to the announcement post of that in the notes below.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:57</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And finally, Daylight Saving Time movements are also upon us. Some parts of the world are ending Daylight Saving Time others are starting it and some have already started or stopped that already. So no matter where you are, don&#8217;t forget to check and double-check the timing of things across time zones for the next few weeks.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>06:21</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I&#8217;ll see you again in a couple of weeks.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 01 Nov 2021 12:00:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Chloe Bringmann\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:40;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:108:\"Gutenberg Times: Changelog #54 – Gutenberg 11.8-Navigation Block, Full-site Editing and the Plugin Machine\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:53:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?post_type=podcast&p=19499\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:63:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-54-gutenberg-11-8/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:55589:\"<p>Birgit Pauli-Haack and Grzegorz (Greg) Ziolkowski &nbsp;discuss this week&#8217;s Gutenberg 11.8 release, WordPress 5.9, the Navigation Block, Full-site Editing and the Plugin Machine. </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Music:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://soundcloud.com/xirclebox\">Homer Gaines</a></li><li>Editor:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-reed/\">Sandy Reed</a></li><li>Logo:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://markuraine.com/\">Mark Uraine</a></li><li>Production:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://paulisystems.net/wordpress-consulting\">Pauli Systems</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-54-gutenberg-11-8#shownotes\">Show Notes </a>/ <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-54-gutenberg-11-8#transcript\">Transcript</a></p>\n\n\n\n<span id=\"more-19499\"></span>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Subscribe to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/\">Gutenberg Changelog</a>&nbsp;podcast via your favorite podcast apps!</strong><br />?️&nbsp;<a href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/620NwVKQJGdTupy36zYxvg?mc_cid=4b6c9f88fe\">Spotify</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9ndXRlbmJlcmd0aW1lcy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0\">Google</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gutenberg-changelog/id1469294475\">iTunes</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://pca.st/podcast/f8445ec0-7508-0137-f267-1d245fc5f9cf\">PocketCasts</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.stitcher.com/show/gutenberg-changelog\">Stitcher</a>&nbsp;|<br />?️&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/chi7j-9904a/Gutenberg-Changelog-Podcast\">Pod Bean</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://castbox.fm/channel/Gutenberg-Changelog-id2173375\">CastBox</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/gutenberg-changelog-878239/\">Podchaser</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/podcast\">RSS Feed</a>&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\" id=\"shownotes\"><strong>Show Notes </strong></p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Announcements</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://json.schemastore.org/theme-v1.json\">Theme.json</a> and <a href=\"https://json.schemastore.org/block.json\">block.json</a> now available through <a href=\"https://schemastore.org/\">SchemaStore.org</a></li><li>GitHub Issue: <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35927\">Create a Schemas Package</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Community Contributions</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://kinsta.com/blog/gutenberg-blocks/\">Building Custom Gutenberg Blocks: The Definitive Block Development Tutorial</a> by Carlo Daniele from Kinsta</li><li>Updated: <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg-examples\">Gutenberg Example Blocks</a></li><li><a href=\"https://pluginmachine.com/how-it-works/\">Plugin Machine</a> by Josh Pollock</li><li>Video: <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u4R9zIMoU8\">Live Q &amp; A Converting classic widgets to blocks </a>with Mathieu Viet, Varun Dubey and David Cavins from the BuddyPress team</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Gutenberg 11.8 is a massive release!</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/28/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-8-0-27-october/\">What’s new in Gutenberg 11.8.0? (27 October)</a></li><li><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-8-adds-dozens-of-features-including-featured-patterns-and-automatically-generated-heading-anchors\">Gutenberg 11.8 Adds Dozens of Features, Including Featured Patterns and Automatically-Generated Heading Anchors</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>What&#8217;s discussed or in active development</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>New Gallery Block will come out of experimental for 11.9 (<a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34979\">#34979</a>)</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Audit of experimental APIs is on the way (<a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35920\">#35970</a>)</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Template Parts are almost there (<a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/33926\">#33926</a>)</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">Stay in Touch</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-6195080790f93 wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<ul><li>Did you like this episode? <a href=\"https://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog\"><strong>Please write us a review </strong></a></li><li>Ping us on Twitter or send DMs with questions. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/gziolo\">@gziolo </a>and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bph\">@bph</a>.</li><li><em>If you have questions or suggestions, or news you want us to include, send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. </em></li><li><em>Please write us a review on iTunes! <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/itunes/\">(Click here to learn how)</a></em></li></ul>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Transcript</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Hello, and welcome to our 54th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast. We are recording this on October 29 in 2021. In today&#8217;s episode, we will talk about Gutenberg 11.8, navigation block, full-site editing and the plugin machine. I&#8217;m Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at the Gutenberg Times and developer advocate for WordPress at Automattic. And I&#8217;m here with my co-host, co-worker fellow European and friend Grzegorz Ziolkowski, JavaScript developer at Automattic and WordPress core contributor. Howdy howdy Grzegorz, how are you doing today?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Howdy, howdy Birgit? I&#8217;m great today. Oh, that&#8217;s a good way to begin that. Today I met with my co-workers from Poland; we met in a co-working space, that was really nice to meet them again about, I guess two years. That&#8217;s a lot of time and a lot has changed. So we had spent a lot of time catching up, and meet some new co-workers. So very exciting. And yeah, I&#8217;m ready to talk about what&#8217;s happening in the Gutenberg world. And how are you today Birgit?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, I&#8217;m excited. My new pixel six pro phone will be delivered this weekend, and I&#8217;m looking forward to sunset-setting my old phone that&#8217;s from 2018. And it seems like it&#8217;s too long, although it&#8217;s only four years, right? Yeah. So I will plan to test the new camera features over the weekend. And it&#8217;s a good excuse to get out on a photo tour downtown or around town. Yeah. So&#8230; yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: I&#8217;m looking forward to see some footage from your walks in Florida.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yes. So maybe I need to start a little photo blog and not put them all on Instagram. Yeah-</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: That&#8217;s a good way to use Gutenberg and create a gallery using the gallery blog. That&#8217;s going to be in using inner blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Right. Yeah, but it&#8217;s still not as easy. And I like WordPress to be as easy as Instagram, but it&#8217;s not yet with the photos. So maybe I should switch teams.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah, maybe to the mobile team that is working on the Gutenberg app and they have some features that will help with that in the future. I hope so.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Announcements</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I will try that out, definitely, yeah. So we have a few announcements that theme.json and block.json are now available through the schemastore.org. And you can add the location, the URL of the schema on the top of your JSON file, and then your code editor supports this with your suggestions for the keys and values. You don&#8217;t have to look up exact syntax, and can avoid missing commas and end quotes. Grzegorz, you and Marcus are working on the canonical version for the Gutenberg ripple to integrate. So how does that work?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Birgit, we are still discussing how to approach that, because at the moment we are using an external project, that has a URL that could change one day for whatever reason. And WordPress prefers to have control over everything. Also, if we have it stored locally, then we will be able to integrate that in the process. So when there is a change in a core block, we can validate that and ensure that it&#8217;s always up to date. And you already count a few issues with existing blocks, which is a good testament that the tooling is really solid. And yeah, so probably one of the ways we could approach that, and Marcus discovered that Microsoft is using this approach, that we could just create a redirect to a URL, that would be like something in the wp.org domain, I don&#8217;t know, it&#8217;s something that we will find out. But I&#8217;m really excited about that, because this will help a lot, especially with the theme.JSON, which is a huge file to maintain. And it also shows hints, so if you provide&#8230; There are descriptions, so it explains what the given properties about, what values are available there. So also people will be able to contribute to that, and improve the hints, so this is really exciting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. So I&#8217;m glad we talked about this here quite there, early in the process. So whoever, if you want to use it more and you want to contribute, yeah. Grzegorz and Marcus are the person to-</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah. So just to be clear, so the credit should go to Alex Lender from Automattic, he originally submitted the first version of schema for theme.json file. And then the follow up was for the blog.json. So great work on that, and the idea was excellent.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And Alex Lender, there&#8217;s also the developer who did the whole duotone feature, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yes, that&#8217;s him.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Okay. So, but WordPress 5.9 is coming up fast, FeatureFreeze is November 9th, that&#8217;s less than two weeks. And Gutenberg 11.9, which is the same date, November 9th.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: What a coincidence.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Will be the last version with features to get into core. The release candidate has been rescheduled for the plugin, has been rescheduled for November 5th instead of November 3rd. But the final release will be after FeatureFreeze on November 10th, but the release candidate is the version that will get into core, for the first FeatureFreeze kind of. Then between November first and ninth, the team will be working on merging all the packages and code with core for the 5.9 release. Are you going to do it before that, like a dry run too? Or you&#8217;re just going to use this, the whole thing in one scoop into one core?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Oh, so I don&#8217;t know about this one. I didn&#8217;t follow that so closely, because I&#8217;m working on another project. I&#8217;m working on new version of the comments, query loop block, which is going to be responsible for displaying comments and comments form. But from my experience, it might be a few comments on the WordPress core site, because it&#8217;s quite complex, it&#8217;s&#8230; So the packages that update only JavaScript, but there is a lot of features that require PHP changes, which is more complex to tackle. I don&#8217;t know, I guess it will take a few days, hopefully they have enough boundaries to finish that on time. But also FeatureFreeze, it&#8217;s mostly about making a cut that this is what we provide for the release. And I wouldn&#8217;t be so worried if the merging is delayed a little bit, because what matters here, is the date for Beta one, which is November 16, right? So there will be a couple of days to make sure that everything is solid enough.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. So as you said, Beta on November 16th, and then the final release of WordPress 5.9 will be on December 14th, 2021. All right, so we got that out of the way.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Community Contributions</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to start now building blocks and need kind of a rundown, what all needs to be there. Of course there is a developer handbook, but Carlo Daniele from Kinsta has actually published a great tutorial, building custom Gutenberg blocks for definitive block development tutorial, and we will share the link and the show notes. So he walks us through all the prerequisites, and then all the tooling, and then also get into one block, an example block.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah, it&#8217;s a more complex block than the one that is provided in the official block development tutorial in the block editor handbook. And it&#8217;s also really is collected in one article that you can just process, and it provides a different option. So it&#8217;s not that step by step, but you have options in every step that you can take. For instance, you can use WPN for building your WordPress local environment, but you could also use the other option that as provided, I don&#8217;t remember what exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, Kinsta has their own local development tool, and then there is local as well. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Recently the WordPress repository of the Gutenberg examples has been updated. Ryan Welcher went through all the examples and updated them to the newest APIs, and make them work. I think you also have found one, a few that are a little bit more complicated than the &#8216;hello world&#8217; examples. So it&#8217;s definitely now another repository to go to, to have examples that work, and you can learn from in your journey to developing the blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. So, he did that, most of the work he did live streaming on Twitch, which is also recorded on his YouTube account. And it&#8217;s really a great way to see the steps he does to update everything. And the nice thing about that is also that the examples use up to the syntax, the latest APIs, and the most correct recommendations from the Gutenberg core team. So he did exciting work, very great work there, but also he is now looking and integrating some tooling that helps developers like code formatting, code linking. So, there are now integrations with IDEs, so everything is much simpler than before, and he is even looking and integrating very basic end to end test, using the same tools that Gutenberg uses. So that&#8217;s very helpful for someone that wants to explore block development.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yes. Yeah. So Ryan has actually settled on Thursdays 10:30 Eastern, which is 4:30 UTC PM to do his Twitch live streaming and live coding session. So if you want to put this on your calendar, Thursdays at 10:30 on Twitch, and his&#8230;. We have the links and the show notes. His username is Ryanwelchercodes, all one word. And yeah, for those who listen and will not just keep it in memory.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, yesterday, a whole new tool popped up on my radar and that is by Josh Pollock. It&#8217;s an electronic app for plugin developers to get a head start on boilerplate on. He wrote, &#8220;It can create plugins with blocks, editor sidebar, custom admin pages, remote updater, common actions and filters, custom content, post types, local development, tests, GitHub actions, and any other things.” So it&#8217;s more like an all encompassing tool. “The UI for creating plugins, managing features, modifying generated files, and downloading development versions of the plugin, is nearly done.&#8221; He wrote on his new site, &#8220;And I&#8217;m also making good progress on the CLI, I&#8217;m almost ready to start early access.&#8221; That was Josh Pollock on his websites. I signed up for the early access and I&#8217;m excited for Josh&#8217;s new app, because Josh pollock was one of the early JavaScript educators in WordPress community together with you Grzegorz, Zack and Brian Richards at WordCamp Miami in 2018, which was in spring 2018.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Josh Pollock is also the original creator of Caldera forms that he sold in 2020 to Ninja Forms. And that plugin will reach end of life at the end of the year. It&#8217;s a shame that because it was one of the few form builders who actually offered a lot of features beyond creating forms for the end user, because other plugin developers could connect with it and create processes, for the submitted form data. So, Josh certainly knows what a plugin developer might be looking for, so will keep an eye out for this new tool that comes on the website. He also said, of course, this tool can come for free, but it&#8217;s also going to increase your or improve plug-in developer&#8217;s processes. So especially in agencies, so it definitely will be worth its investment.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: It sounds very intriguing. I hear for the first time about that, but I believe that Josh did great work, because he has all the necessary knowledge to do that. And he was one of the early adopters and educators in the space. So, he&#8217;s definitely someone that has credit to do this type of work. And also, it sounds really interesting to have an app that you can install on your machine. I guess it will work with Mac and with Windows, and then you will just install that and does all the job for you. Sounds very exciting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yes, it is. Yes. Also exciting, we had a very good conversation yesterday. A lot of things happened yesterday, with Mathieu Viet, Varun Dubey and David Cavins from the BuddyPress team, when we discussed how they were converting their classic widgets to blocks and what the advantages are now, and what they learned, when they were using blocks. And one thing stood out, and I didn&#8217;t know why I wasn&#8217;t zeroing in on that, but Mathieu Viet, he mentions that he likes programming just a little block, a one unit kind of content unit. And if you stay within your own lane, you only do what this block does, and you&#8217;re not messing with everything else, like the post content or the sidebar, or any other place on the WordPress, it&#8217;s very isolated, but you can also focus on it. And I think it wasn&#8217;t really that clear to me until you said it, but that see atomic nature of the blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And he&#8217;s also said that it&#8217;s so much easier now setting up a BuddyPress site for end users, because they see, they just drag the blocks over and it just works. Yeah. And they don&#8217;t have to learn short codes or widgets and all that, because&#8230; Yeah, I think David said that widgets are very hard for end users to grasp the concept of that and to apply it to their site building. So it was an interesting conversation. We will have the YouTube video, the recording available in the show notes, and also some of the tools and the resources that they mentioned, how they got into it and what helped them to move forward with the blocks. Yeah, and now we come to Gutenberg 11.8.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>What’s Released &#8211; Gutenberg 11.8</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yes, the last one that goes into WordPress 5.9 release.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yes, the second last.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yes, second last.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, Vincente Canales has managed to release for this version and highlights plenty of great features in the release post on the make blog. And it had 166 PRs merged, excluding all the mobile version PRs that were released, and it has 80 enhancements. We are not going to talk about all of them.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Enhancements</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah, 80, it&#8217;s an impressive number. And it&#8217;s for real. And a lot of those enhancements are really great, so we should start right away.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. So the&#8230; go ahead.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. You probably wanted to say something there, it&#8217;s like there&#8217;s a lot of integration with global styles and this product evolves so fast, and it really gives a lot of power to block developers, because you just need to provide one entry in the JSON file, and suddenly you have this feature enabled. So this way is like, now you can add spacing controls to all heading blocks, which is pretty interesting that you can now control the margin or padding depending on your needs. So it&#8217;s under the dimension section in the sidebar of your block.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. Well, that&#8217;s one that was missing for a long time for the spacing part. I think the most used block was actually the spacer block, to make up for the missing pieces there. But now many blocks have actually the space controls and blocks like the buttons block, where you have inner blocks, as you have the buttons block outside, and then you have multiple buttons inside the block. You also have a vertical margin support and the gap. So you can, and we also saw that last version 11.7, the columns had that as well. So this is going to be rolled out also to the feature image and block, and those other blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah, in general, the idea is that most of the blocks to occupy the full role, they need to have some ways to declare spacing. So you don&#8217;t have to use the spacer block anymore. And that&#8217;s the most important change. And I think at the time of the release, we also have the space gap. However, the name which will stick at the end of take this gap, will be also in all blocks that group other blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. So the category block got an enhancement by supporting now only top level categories. So when you use the categories you can change that, the column block has now this specification that you can actually have specifications for the blocks within the columns. So which we&#8217;re allowed and which are not, and all that. And also how they are placed into the columns, there&#8217;s a common content block that now has typography color and pattern support. And then there were quite a few changes to the cover block, and it has now the allowed blocks and template block attributes for the cover blocks. So you, as a developer and theme developer can now determine what the cover block can entail. That&#8217;s through the block.json right from the cover block, or is it through theme or both?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: I guess this is from through the block attribute, so you can define that. So for instance, when you are using a block pattern, then you can encode that, and you can set a lock now for the block, so once that is like combined together, the user won&#8217;t have a way to change that, so you have a very nice control on how those block will behave after they&#8217;re inserted.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. I just looked at the PR and it&#8217;s through the blocks register block type area there. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, that&#8217;s something that a lot of theme developers and plugin developers are really worried about, is how they can control and block things down, especially when you do development for a larger editor team. So they are guided through their editing experience there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah, I think those APIs will major soon because we have so many use cases for that these days, and those features are added. And as soon as we have enough blocks to make a good decision, then this API will be improved, and this is how it all happens in the block editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Right, right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. So for the features, we now also have a new embed integration is for Pinterest, that was missing as it looks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And it was also added to core, so the embed provider is also available for classic editor, not only the block for the block editor, it&#8217;s a new variation on the embed block. I just want to go back just a little bit to the cover block, there were also so a few changes and gradual changes to the opacity for background colors. So now you could have a background color, or a background image, and then the opacity of that, you are really in control of it. There are dim ratios and they have controls over that. And that&#8217;s really good way when you create more creative block patterns. What we have seen for instance from Tammie Lister, she has a few block patterns, the pattern inspiration, and this is a place where I go when I need a little bit inspiration, is she had a background and then an image on it, and then a duotone attached to it, and made that a block pattern.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it&#8217;s really fascinating, what you can do with those tools already, in terms of your visual layouts on your post or pages. So yeah, just saying that, yeah. It&#8217;s now in the plugin available now. So feature image got more spacing controls for the image block, and also the heading while we talked about this, but what I missed talking about the heading, was that it also now auto generates heading anchors. So you can, when you create subheaders, you can get a link to those subheaders that you can use, not only to drive people to end and say, okay, check out this little header there, or section of my blog post, or of my page, it also enables the finishing the table of content block that has been in process.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: On hold.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: &#8230; on hold for quite a while, until that feature is actually available. And I read a little bit through the PR, and if it is already at anchor, it will not override it. So in your existing pages and posts, don&#8217;t worry that some automation is now making your work redundant or make your work more, it only creates new anchors and not override existing anchors.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, it&#8217;s just to ensure that every heading has an anchor, that is already rendered on the front end. So you can use as URLs, but also you can provide your own name, I guess so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, you can.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: The last version I saw it was working this way, so it&#8217;s very flexible.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And I really love that, but sometimes you have longer blog posts, but then you only want to kind of have share one paragraph of it or one quote or yeah, kind of put a heading on it, and you get an auto generated anchor for it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. It&#8217;s also, sometimes you have to write a very long heading and then just autogenerate writes out of the text, how the heading is, the anchor how it&#8217;s named. So it&#8217;s also very good experience for the user because they don&#8217;t have to type almost the same name again.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Right, yeah. So there are some other things I wanted to just point out, the post comment author, now add link settings, and to the block support as well as the comment dates, those are also link&#8230; I always like links, yeah. It&#8217;s kind of….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Because you can link both, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: For the author that links to the website that is provided in the user&#8217;s profile, and for the date, that&#8217;s just getting through to the comment.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And to the comments of that date, yeah. And then there&#8217;s some&#8230; Now we come to the more theme-related blocks, the site. Well, the comment author and data already important for the theme, the site logo received some improvements. And now there is a basic example in the site logo block. And there was some interesting back and forth on the reset button and the replace, the menu drop down, and then back and forth. But it works now really nicely, all this back and forth had the benefit that everybody who worked on it now has a better hands on how the site logo works, and how it can be added to the navigation block or to the head up block and head on template part. All right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: And there are also changes to the social links or social icons. I don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s the name, but the titles use both versions. And so the change there is that you can now set the top and bottom margin for those icons, and the other change, there is some changes to the styling. So when you have only logos, you don&#8217;t display any texture, then it looks better than before.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. It got a Polish.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Polish, a Polish slack.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: A Polish slack. It&#8217;s not in polish. No, of course we are making a pun here from Polish and polish, it&#8217;s a polish logo style. But sometimes when you travel in multiple languages, these things kind of pop up at you at very different times.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So the global styles, and they&#8217;re now called styles. So yeah in language, in 5.9, you will see that everybody&#8217;s only talking about site styles, not the global styles, but the big change is now that the child theme, JSON file will be merged with a parent theme, JSON file. And that is important because a lot of people think about&#8230; yeah. So when you always have to build a child theme, so when the parent theme gets an update, things are not overwritten, and you can change some of the settings in the same JSON file in your child&#8217;s name.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it applies to styles on top of those from the parent theme. And you can&#8230; so the parent space is maintained. If no theme.JSON file is present as child theme, all the parents standards are applied, or the other way around, because you can actually use the theme.JSON file and classic themes. So it works, yeah. If you have a classic theme, you can create a child theme and then put a theme.JSON file in it to configure all the settings for the block editor. So that&#8217;s a very good enhancement, and I&#8217;m glad that it will make it into 5.9.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. Because theme.JSON file is about the styling, and to specify that a given theme is a block theme, you need to provide templates in a special folder. That&#8217;s the distinction. It might be a bit confusing, even for me wrapping a head around that is a bit hard.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. I don&#8217;t think that is the last word yet spoken in on the parent theme, the child theme, because we really need to consider that this is the first version where a block theme is actually in core or as a default theme in core, and the handling of a block theme will be in core with 5.9, but it&#8217;s the first version. And as you listeners probably have already noticed, there&#8217;s always the minimal and a first version to get the functionality right, and then iterate fast on it. And what&#8217;s going to happen also with the block themes, and the handling of it in terms of extensibility and all backwards compatibility. So, always through the….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: We can move to&#8230; you know we are not done yet. We can move to patterns and a big change there, that there is now a new category which feature patterns that come from the pattern directory that is hosted on wordpress.org. So, that&#8217;s a big change because now the patterns that are submitted by the community, they are somehow, I don&#8217;t know, selected to the special category, and every website that is using the block editor will be able to show them on the list, and user will be able to insert them directly from the editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: From the inserter, yes. And there&#8217;s also a change in the query loop block, where the number of items per page for the default block has actually increased. So it&#8217;s not only six, but you can change that as well. The query loop block pattern. It&#8217;s one of my most favorite block patterns, because that&#8217;s where you show your….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> The query loop.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. It&#8217;s so extensible and it&#8217;s&#8230; well, so flexible that you can really make a lot of different pages out of it and showcase your content. So the block editor also got animations for the insertion point and drop zones and other elements. So the drag and drop improvements have been merged there. I didn&#8217;t see anything, well, the template editor itself, it comes totally&#8230; it&#8217;s out of experimentation for this third version, I think. And you get a lot of different updates there, as one of them is to now handle template areas with the template inspector, and have more options for them. And the other one is there for just some cosmetic items, and now it uses a dark background, but though if you have a light background on your theme, yeah, you hardly see it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s going to be a&#8230; the background of the editor is not white, it&#8217;s actually black. I don&#8217;t know if it makes a difference. And then the components, there were quite a few update on the story book. That&#8217;s a place where you can look up components, and see the attributes and how they change, and you can kind of copy and paste code from there. So that&#8217;s as good that there are some nice updates there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. And I also notice that change in the navigation block, that is going out of experimental phase. So, on the mobile screen, if you use that block, you would see the hamburger icon. So now, the changes that you can also enforce then on the desktop or the wider screens, you can also always show this hamburger. It&#8217;s something that, for instance, some Twenty Twenty family of themes, they use that feature very often. So that&#8217;s interesting change that user can use now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Absolutely, yeah. And then there are some, the great block package, got some changes and one of them is really helpful for people using that to create blocks, as it allows now local directory to pass to a template as a relative path. So, you don&#8217;t have to submit your template to NPM to actually use it in your grade block. You can just have it in a particular directory on your own machine, and reuse it for the next one of your grade block features here. And the pascal case, you can now have a Pascal case slug on your template strings as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: So that changes mostly for using PHP classes. So it follows the conversion. So you can just use that to start your class name, and then provide the rest of the class name if you are using a PHP file in your templates. So those two features are related to each other. If you are using those templates and you can build local folder with templates that generates PHP files. And I think there&#8217;s one more thing I wanted to mention. So the one is, last time we talked that for the navigation block, there was a change that allowed using a slash inserter.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So you need to make inserting a certain type of blocks easier in the navigation menu. And this feature was extended now for the heading list and core blocks. So, for the heading it looks quite funny because if you are using H2, then the font is big, but you are able quickly to insert a different block from that as well. So, sometimes it could be useful to do this type of operation. Maybe in the future, the slash insert might support a different type of action. So, I saw some explorations that could use machine learning. So it could like for instance, Siri or Cortana just to understand what you want to say. And like you could start typing, like insert heading with, find me a pattern with certain characteristics. So I&#8217;m looking forward to how the slash inserter will evolve now that it can be used in more places.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. The slash inserter was actually the&#8230; it has been around since the beginning of Gutenberg, and it has a few nice for the post editor, but I didn&#8217;t realize that you actually have to enable it also for the other screens. And I saw that PR in the list and I didn&#8217;t highlight it, because it&#8230; hmm, I didn&#8217;t understand it quite what the significance was this time around, but now thank you for explaining it to me. I also know that some of the tools that deal with the second brain editing, like Roam Research or Logseq, they use the slash command also to add a to do list item, or to add a to do list to a certain date, or just kind of reference date. So there&#8217;s a lot that can be done with slash insert, the slash commands.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And for the heading, if you use it in your post, just a little secret from the treasure chest of your Birgit’s secrets, if you say slash H3, it actually gives you a heading three. So you don&#8217;t have to control the heading through the block tool or H5. Yeah, you can do that as well. But now we going back to our changelog here.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Bug Fixes</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Then there were 42 bug fixes in that release, and I&#8217;m pretty sure there are quite a few coming up also in the next release. There was actually none that really stand out where I said, okay, that took a long time to fix, or that makes it now much easier or something like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah, it&#8217;s definitely in recent releases, we have so many new features and enhancements that show up, that is really hard to find a bug fix that stands out. And those are small things or some something that is a bit of improvement, it&#8217;s not like sometimes it&#8217;s hard to classify. And many of them are related to how it displayed visually inside the editor, because with so many the features you sometimes miss something less important.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. I think in total they make a real improvement on the quality of life, of the experience, kind of the workflow. But when you isolate them to just one line item, then it&#8217;s not that clear how the improvement really affects a normal user in the block editor. But I&#8217;m always looking out for those items that are kind of significant in that area, but I didn&#8217;t see one in this one in that regard.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah, just in the meantime. So during the Go/No-Go Meeting that was held two weeks ago, Helen Hou-Sandi she mentioned that the biggest difference for her is that, the editor that was a couple months back, feels less buggy, like the experience overall has improved, not because something significantly changed, but because those small interaction has been improved a lot. And the difference between what you see in the block editor and on the front end doesn&#8217;t differ so much, and that&#8217;s the biggest change. This is where those little bug fixes come from, and as you pointed out in isolation, they don&#8217;t seem significant, but the amount of work done is really important, because it improves the first impression for the user.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Absolutely, yeah. Thank you for pointing it out. I heard Helen saying that as well, also in the discussion that we had with her, and Mark Jaquith and Riad Benguella, that the block editor has come such a long way now, that the underlying structure, as well as the look and feel and the usage.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Documentation</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So we come to a documentation, there are 21 changes in documentation. Of course, some of the things with new features comes new documentation, and there&#8217;s now a section on how to use this theme in JSON schema, that we mentioned above, and also update the block categories and the clarifying documentation about the inner blocks orientation prop, and what else? So, there&#8217;s some package documentation updated, and quite a few components didn&#8217;t have any read-me files. And that made it hard to have the automated documentation flow that goes from the GitHub repo into the WordPress meta site on the make block a little harder. And when the information is not in the code, it can&#8217;t be in the documentation either. So there&#8217;s, well, quite a few efforts there to bring the information out of the components into the documentation there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah, to fill the missing gaps, because there are still a few, however, it has improved significantly in the last few weeks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Mm-hmm. And that also covers the grade block documentation that has been updated with the new features.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Code Quality</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: And there were also code quality related changes, and there are 17 of that, and it&#8217;s related to maintenance and to bring some libraries up to date, or replace some libraries. So one of the works is to replace tiny color libraries, color D, which is more up to date and is a better fit for the project. And also part of the change to the color picker, that had some refactorings and it looks a bit different than before.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Do you know why the color picker was changed? Was it&#8230; I think we discussed it, that we both were kind of….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I still know.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Accessibility.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> But yes, and performance, and also flexibility of the new library.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Tools</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Okay. And then there were some 11 changes to the tooling or for tools. And these are way over my head anyway, but then I only marvel at the nice naming there, which is now we have flaky test.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Flaky test.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Which kind of isn&#8217;t funny.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: There is a tool, so maybe not tool. So when end to end tests fail, there is a special script that processes those failures. And it tries the test, if the test succeeds on the second or third attempt, then there is an issue opened called flaky tests, and it just reports what went wrong. So someone could look at that and try to fix the failure, or decide that is not an issue and close that one. So that&#8217;s the backstory for that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Mm-hmm. Well, that&#8217;s very interesting, yes. Well, thank you for that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. I think we reached to the end of the list, and we can now talk about what&#8217;s in active development, or discussed in the community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Right. And they have….</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>What’s in Active Development or Discussed</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: And I think he wanted to talk about project APTA is that, people shared on the core editor meeting on Wednesday, which is very related to the upcoming FeatureFreeze.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Right. And first this was about the navigation block and navigation editor. You might remember the listeners that the navigation editor screen won&#8217;t make it into 5.8, and the navigation block has been scaled down a bit for that. And the architecture of the navigation block has changed a little bit, because now it will be saved as a&#8230; the storage of it has been changed. And there are some&#8230; it&#8217;s underlying architecture, and it&#8217;s interesting that it&#8217;s very late in the process for these to come in, but the team feels quite confident to get this, get through it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: So are you talking about the idea to use a new post type or WP_template? WP_navigation to solve the navigation issues.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, that PR has already been merged, so it&#8217;s not in this version, but it&#8217;s in the next version, so it can go get into 5.9, and it allows the same navigation items to be used in multiple places on a site, but with a potential to have each different visual presentation. So the that&#8217;s kind of how they approach it. So you could have a menu in your header and footer, but if you use it on the sub-site, and just want to point it out, you can style it differently, but you use the same links. You only have one place to edit that. And then with it comes also the facilitation of the WP navigation area as a part of the facilitating that from the classic menus. So it preserves its nature on theme switch, that&#8217;s one of the hard things that are now in the work that theme switching should not make you have to redo your menus and your navigation from the website, and that&#8217;s part of the feature parity with the existing one. And then here have some transforms on the links, and they split up the URL and the text in the link. So it can have a rich preview as well. So that was for the navigation editor reports. Do you want to talk about the template editor or the styles?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: For the template editor?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Mm-hmm.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: So, I think that the template editor is a template part editor is the thing that had a lot of iterations, like the focus mode, which displays this template part inside, like removes everything that is not the template part from the view, so you can focus on that. And yeah, it seems like it&#8217;s almost there, and it will be moved out of the experimental phase, and you&#8217;ll launch in WordPress 5.9.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Did I miss anything there?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: No, there was a tracking issue, that&#8217;s actually what is linked there to the template focus mode by Matias, and he had quite a few issues from the design issues that need to be merged, before it all comes together. And it&#8217;s still pretty hard to have the template editor, template part editing should work. And the overview issue has also been closed. So all the things that were in the works have actually been merged, and this overview issue has been closed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. When we talked about improvements to the template part editor last time, it looked pretty solid for me. So, I&#8217;m not surprised that it has been closed since then. And also it&#8217;s very interesting that this navigation will have its own post type, the same applies for the template part. In some ways they could use this template far for navigation, but I think it&#8217;s conceptually different, that&#8217;s why they decided that should be a different post type.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. I think so, that it&#8217;s a single purpose of concern, I think it&#8217;s a better approach than mixing things, just because they&#8217;re technically similar, it doesn&#8217;t have to be that they are same. We have a similar discussion actually between reusable blocks, block patterns, and template parts. And to figure out the differences and what&#8217;s the same, because the end users will have that question as well. And there is a big discussion on how to rename the reusable blocks, and to what name, but it&#8217;s not&#8230; I don&#8217;t think it has come to an end yet, so we can&#8217;t link it in the show notes, I think it&#8217;s ongoing right now for two weeks, but yeah, any opinion is welcome, and every reasoning is welcome, in terms of how this should be called. But what I also learned about in that discussion was that there is definitely quite confusion, or it&#8217;s not particularly clear the purpose of each of them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So reading through that has quite a bit of that. That can be&#8230; oh, that&#8217;s why epiphany is in there. So, I think I also read another discussion somewhere, I forgot, that&#8217;s my life now, I read something and then I forget where I have, and when I read it, I bookmark it, but then I still, if I don&#8217;t know where the bookmarks are, I&#8217;m at the same place. So, I have not yet found a solution to it, but I will navy through.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jorge posted an update on their global styles in the meeting. And they have a PR that actually propose a new color palette editor. So it makes multiple color palettes from different sources available to the user. And that&#8217;s actually also something that came out of the Go/No Go Meeting, when the team in there was thinking about how can this be improved or what&#8217;s the next step for it, when they showed the color sidebar for a template editing screen. I think it was something that Matt Mullenweg just had loaded outside. Oh, isn&#8217;t there a website out there like color palette.com where you can select different color palettes? And wouldn&#8217;t it be cool if we could get it in? So I&#8217;m definitely looking through those PRs and see how they&#8217;re progressing there or what they suggest in there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yes. Similar cases for the patterns, explorer, and a new way to browse them, it would be in the modal. So the exploration that is in very advanced phase now, just provides an icon that you can click in the sidebar, and it just moves all the patterns to the modal and you have almost full screen to see them, and so that should help to pick your pattern, like spend more time and have better preview of them, not limited by the very narrow space that the sidebar gives you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh yeah, you&#8217;re right, that&#8217;s a big underscore exploration now, because most page builders have that, third party page builders, and also early layout block plugins collections had some of the full model Windows to select full page patterns. When you come to full page patterns, you need a bigger space to display than the&#8230; Sidebar preview is definitely not going to be enough. Well, that&#8217;s in the discussion, what else do we have? One of preparing for the WordPress 5.9, the technical leads for the editor release leads, Robert Anderson and George Mamadashvili, are conducting an audit of experimental APIs of the various Gutenberg packages that need to come out of experimental to be merged with core. And they have a one issue list that&#8217;s 35920 is the issue number. And it&#8217;s a list of quite a few experimental methods and APIs, but only a few of them. And I know there are a few developers who actually created the features, are already preparing those to come out of experiment. They&#8217;re working on that. This is just the issue list with all the experimental methods, and when you go through the comments, you&#8217;ll see which one are already work in progress to be bring out of experiment.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Yeah. Just wanted to explain what this experimental status means for those methods. So, as long as they&#8217;re experimental, then there is no guarantee that this method will have the same signatures. So, plugin developers, or theme developers, they use it and at their own risk, it happens, but those&#8230; I know that people who use that, they pay attention to ensure that, as long as it&#8217;s stabilized, they update their codes. So it still works as they should. And yeah, so the idea is that as soon as you change the name and remove this underscore experimental prefix, the method gets integrated with the block editor handbook and all the like method name, description, patterns, they get included there so people can easily find them later. So it&#8217;s just a way to ensure that the Gutenberg plugin can move very fast, and check out if given API makes sense, and use that with core, usually with the block editor or with the block library for core blocks, and it worked pretty nice. However, the list of experiments has grown over time, and probably it would be a good idea to soon take step back and clarify what the future of some of those APIs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Will be, yeah, absolutely. Speaking, coming out of experimental, the new gallery block will come out of experimental for 11.9. It was a little bit delayed because when found that there was a problem with the mobile app, if you have a lower mobile app than 18.2, there was some content loss there. So now there is a little notification on the gallery block placeholder, that if you have a different mobile version, make sure that you don&#8217;t use it, so you&#8217;re not encountering any content loss. That&#8217;s the only&#8230; it is from the developers, is the estimation that by the time 6.0 comes around, the people that are on lower mobile apps have upgraded by then, and it&#8217;s not an issue anymore, but it&#8217;s just for this release, but it definitely will come to 11.9 for everybody else. And so I&#8217;m really looking forward to that, because having image blocks within your gallery, is so much easier to handle so much better concept than having images that don&#8217;t have all the features like it has now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And they also have&#8230; so the developers, Glen Davis, mostly spearheaded that effort, he took care of quite a few backwards compatibility issues that happened with existing galleries, that are normally not touched, but when you open up the post again, it will be automatically changed. And we have not finished our outreach to the plugin developers yet, to alert them to that change. But most of them that we have contacted, about 15 of them, 80% actually knew about it and had already adopted their gallery extensions. All right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: That&#8217;s great to hear that people are following the progress on their blog.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I think a big part is they&#8217;re listening to our podcast. I&#8217;m ju