tools section, which fixes a bug that now allows zero values for those theme.json styles. So the theme.json style generation. So, a quick side note. I had a conversation with a Jason Crist, who is on the theme team at Automattic and he said we need to make a more a &#8230; he didn&#8217;t say we need but I learned that it might be helpful to say, JSON, when you mean the JSON file, and Jason when you mean the person named Jason. It&#8217;s really hard to do this, or you change your name to JSON, like Jason Bahl did, the WPGraphQL plugin developer. Anyway, so what&#8217;s up with zero values in the theme.json styles?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> So global styles it&#8217;s like a new specification of CSS written in JSON. And you know that the issue was that it was possible to write the string 0px, like pixel, but when you were providing a number or the string with zero, it would filter it out because JavaScript or PHP would consider it empty. And so, they fixed that and those values are also allowed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> So like I could open that I don&#8217;t want any gradients by adding the gradient but leave the array empty and it would actually disable gradient?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Maybe, I don&#8217;t know about that basically. But for the field or property, it was quite important. To have padding equal zero is quite common if you don&#8217;t want to provide the unit all the time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Mm-hmm. Excellent.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Performance</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>And that brings us to the Performance section of the changelog, and there is one that now provides a batch function to the data module to batch actions. I recognize the words, but what does that mean?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> It&#8217;s like there&#8217;s a new API in the WordPress data package that allows you to combine several actions, which means changes to the state of the application. So that prevents that on every change, you would have re-render of your UI. So it just waits until other actions get applied and then sends the signal, &#8220;Okay, components, you can check out for changes now.&#8221; So instead of having several renders that most of them would be wasteful, it just waits for the better time for do it. And it&#8217;s pretty common technique that I&#8217;m surprised we didn&#8217;t have it before. And all agreed about that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, yeah. Okay, good. And does it add to performance gains?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, on the PR did. However, when I looked at that post and the metrics chart, at the bottom of it, I didn&#8217;t see any differences. So it&#8217;s really hard to see impact of one PR, because there are other that could downgrade the performance.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Good, excellent, thank you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> In theory, it should make a difference when applied on a larger scale.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> All right, now you&#8217;re going to take us into the Experiments?</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Experiments</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, I can talk about some of the experiments because I developed two of them, I guess. And so one change that we are looking into is when you have these blocks, like Gallery is now a good example. When you turn on the experiment, you have Gallery block and an Image blocks. Sometimes, you go to the Image block, and you just want to apply something to all blocks like let&#8217;s say, there&#8217;s some alignment option in the Gallery block you want to take the space of the full canvas, or the&#8230; how it&#8217;s called, a full and wide, or like regular. So it&#8217;s like going back and forth between parent and child block, it&#8217;s pretty annoying.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea is that you could do two things. One is dock the toolbar that it always is anchored to the parent block. The toolbar is always displayed in the place when you have the Gallery block. When you enable this option, then the alignment would be also actually shared with the child block. From the child block, you could change the alignment or alter the Gallery block. And yeah, this is something for the toolbar control that is already in place. It&#8217;s still experimental. We are looking also and adding the same functionality to the inspector control, so all the controls that are in the sidebar.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For now, there were also new refactoring to bring their groups. So that is also interesting from the plugin author&#8217;s perspective because if you have more structured way, then first you will be able to target those groups to insert your controls. At the moment, you can either add it to the general sections like next to all other controls or to the advanced one, which is pretty limiting. And in the future, we think that there will be a lot of groups that have more structured way of handling those controls.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One exploration is to add dimensions control so I can see a follow-up with the typography or colors. It&#8217;s a better way to have these controls distributed and the user experience also would be better because you could easily remember where to find something. And that also brings another possibilities like very frequent requests from the site owners to disable some of the controls, and we don&#8217;t have controls over third-party changes. So you could at least disable the group now, and that would be a great way. And usually, that&#8217;s what you want instead of doing granularly, just tell that this group shouldn&#8217;t be there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> No, it&#8217;s really helpful to have the single block also be part of the parent block toolbar to control those properties over all their child blocks, that&#8217;s really great. The next part was the blocks spacing. Now the global styles also have a block spacing gap configuration that you can control through the theme.json file. And it also adds support for the layout to control the gap between blocks. Tested out, global styles are still in the experiments as well. So you need to switch them on. But it&#8217;s getting really interesting now that global styles is prepared for 5.9. It&#8217;s not clear that it will be in 5.9. But we want to definitely test all those things for the user controls, and especially also to switch off user control.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Documentation</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>That brings us to the Documentation. There were mostly minor changes to the handbook, but one item got me excited that says, &#8220;Alphabetize the glossary entries.&#8221; Especially from a higher-level point well, there is a glossary. I looked at the PR and it&#8217;s actually the glossary on the core contributor&#8217;s handbook that has been alphabetized. So if you ever want to know what a committer is or what CRUD means or what a dev note is, the glossary, and I will put the link into the show notes, so you don&#8217;t have to dig it out.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, you can look it up there. It&#8217;s quite extensive, and I really like it. Now it&#8217;s alphabetized, so you might as well find stuff. Of course, for the alphabetization to work, you actually need to know what the name of the thing is that you look up. So it might be worth reading through the glossary from A to Z is probably a good way to expand on that. Yeah, anything else in that part that you want to point out?</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Code Quality</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> No, no, in fact, in the Code Quality section, that is next, there are eight items. But those are also some minor changes that I didn&#8217;t find anything to highlight.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Tools</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> All right, that brings us to the Tools section. And there are quite a few PRs that have the same beginning, and that is, &#8220;Automated Changelog&#8221; and I&#8217;m really happy about that, because we go through the changelog, and if it&#8217;s well organized and structured, Grzegorz and I, we can really work through this quite easily. So you have been working with people there as well or was it somebody &#8230; Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, that was quite a nice team like Dave Smith, Hector Pietro, myself, and Dan Richards. So yeah, we teamed up and everyone contributing in some way. So now the changelog you see in the release post, and also in the show notes we share, it&#8217;s mostly automated. So that&#8217;s very exciting that you can see everything in this form now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Excellent. Yeah. And then there were some changes on the GitHub contributor template, that the form to fill out an issue has been simplified for the bug report with a form template, so you can lead along and don&#8217;t miss any information. So it short-circuits the communication line. Once you report it, developers don&#8217;t have to come back and ask you for additional information. So filling that out is really helpful and speeds up the process. And you don&#8217;t forget anything when you fill out the bug report.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah. It&#8217;s a nice change from GitHub, that they provided a way to make this process more like filling a form. So it&#8217;s much simpler from the user perspective because they know what they have to provide rather than skipping the previous version, and everyone just ignore most of the points.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> &#8230; Yeah, yeah. And it&#8217;s easier, you don&#8217;t have to remove stuff from the issue template to get it all fixed up. Yeah. No, really good work.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, there&#8217;s one more change that I personally find very interesting. So whenever you have a block is parsed, then if the contents saved in the database no longer matches how the block should be represented in the post, there are some deprecation logs in the browser&#8217;s console. Most of the users they don&#8217;t see, but it&#8217;s important for developers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, it was after we introduced block patterns that they don&#8217;t get updated after they&#8217;re created, usually. So those logs started to pollute those browser consoles. So now, they are grouped together. Especially, it&#8217;s important when everything went well, so you don&#8217;t really have to report that however we do that for the information of the developers, maybe they want to update that. That&#8217;s a good reminder, but….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, yeah. I can see that the block patterns of course, changed all the time, even in the content and going back to the block patterns, not the same original. But I think that whole process is also a major pain point for developers to get into block development using JavaScript. The deprecation process per se, I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s unstable or it&#8217;s just very verbose and laborious. I know quite a few developers have decided to just use PHP for the rendering, and not go through JavaScript for the render, and create dynamic blocks, quasi-dynamic-static blocks, so to speak. And looking is going to be helpful, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> In this context, when you are using Cover blocks, and they get new features, and because of that, it requires new HTML markup to represent that, because you have those deprecations encoded, whenever someone inserts the button that was created two years ago, when you insert that into your post, you would get the most up to date version of that block, which is what we want to achieve and that&#8217;s why it&#8217;s so important. Of course, when you are working on a site that you have different needs, then dynamic blocks is probably something that you want to have, however, in the context of using patterns, that has some downside when it&#8217;s dynamic because you just need to have something that you&#8230;.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, yeah. Totally. Yeah, definitely. So there&#8217;s also one, well, pain point with that to just kind of surface it a bit more is when you have a changed block, the deprecations does not kind of go back to the block that was used two months ago and had a different HTML, it just does not recognize as a mistake, but it does not update the block, or the render or the content that was built with the block.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I think that&#8217;s was also something that it&#8217;s hard for a developer to&#8230; or it was hard for me to figure out, &#8220;Okay, I built this block. And now I make an update and a new version of it. But all the previous usages of the blocks are not getting updated.&#8221; And that&#8217;s how you do when you have server-side rendering, it always uses the latest codebase for that. So, that was an interesting problem that surfaced with the JavaScript blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, I know we deal with those issues all the time when we update the markup. It&#8217;s just the most painful&#8230; Also, for a core developer, believe me, it&#8217;s not simple, but the benefits which I covered are more important in this context.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> All right. Okay, so what&#8217;s next on our changelog? That&#8217;s it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> It&#8217;s kind of related.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Oh, no. Yeah.&nbsp;</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> Yeah. So in this section, What&#8217;s in Active Development or Discussed, we have a very interesting debate on the internet. It&#8217;s still related to building blocks, but from the different angle than we covered in previous episodes. So it all started with the tweet from Mark Jaquith. And so, he poses the idea, as he explained, &#8220;What if building custom blocks for the Block Editor was as easy as supplying attributes and a block of HTML? What if this produced React-editing code and PHP-rendering code without a build step?&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That&#8217;s just magic.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Magic. There was also a code snippet shared which was like a PHP class that had those attributes and a function that renders the aforementioned HTML. It&#8217;s a pretty nice idea. That&#8217;s funny because Riad was almost at the same time working on a prototype of something similar. And he shared his explorations on GitHub in the new repository he created there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the idea is almost the same. But instead of it using PHP, Riad asked, &#8220;Well, what if you use something that&#8217;s platform agnostic in a way that it doesn&#8217;t bound to a certain programming language, but something that we could use in PHP in JavaScript, but also in React Native or in any other languages you want?&#8221; So I really like how this discussion has developed. I also talked to Riad about his idea.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He walked me through, and it&#8217;s really interesting what he does is he just implements what Mark said. So he uses a JSON file. And in this JSON file, he also represents HTML, something sort of like HTML code, that then gets converted with the tool that he created into PHP, JavaScript and CSS that&#8217;s just represent your block. Yeah, a bit mind-blowing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, he calls it Blocky, and we&#8217;ll share certainly the link in the show notes that&#8217;s on GitHub, for youknowriad&#8217;s user base kind of forward slash blocky. It&#8217;s not an automatic thing or something or a WordPress thing. But yeah. And then there was another discussion. I think there was this discussion was between Mark and Helen Hou-Sandi as well. Yeah. And what does she tried to do? She blogged about it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, the idea was just to start discussion and set a good tone. I think that she shared also an example using Mustache-style tokens, which is something well known. It&#8217;s used in other projects like WP-CLI but also in Gutenberg in create-block tool. Yeah, but she does make the clear that it&#8217;s not about this particular templating system or the way it should be done. It&#8217;s more general. It&#8217;s like an example to better visualize the ideas.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But yes, I like the discussion, where it&#8217;s going, and the ideas that pop up. And there was also a comment from Lars Gersmann. And he said, &#8220;What if you would use pure ES6 template strings for rendering the components?&#8221; So it&#8217;s like just another way of represent. And this one is pretty interesting because people don&#8217;t like JSX when building blocks, which is a sort of another templating system to represent a code.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But in this context, there is something built by Jason Miller from Google. And it&#8217;s called HTM, and which basically, is something that some people use instead of JSX, which doesn&#8217;t require build step. So having this representation, of course, in PHP it doesn&#8217;t look so promising in that context. However, if you would have this templating system and a way to integrate that with PHP, you could do really interesting things. Like in JavaScript, you wouldn&#8217;t need a build step, you would just write this string as something that resembles HTML and it magically would convert to React components.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, yeah. I&#8217;m glad that now those conversations happen. But I think it also needed to have much advanced &#8230; you couldn&#8217;t have that conversation three years ago because you wouldn&#8217;t have the APIs in place to even do a proof of concept or kind of push it a little bit further. And so, it&#8217;s clear that that needs to have mature APIs and additional experience to push this a little bit further and make it more open for different variations to build blocks.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pascal Bichler also chimed in. And he had this additional approach to saying, &#8220;Okay, using React components in the editor, but use web components that use the same API to render the front-end.&#8221; So it sounds like duplication, but on the other hand, web components are maintained by a large standard body and are not dependent on the implementation of the framework, like the React framework, or you can use web component with other frameworks as well. So if you would change the &#8230; God forbid, the editor to a different component system, you still could use the same front-end. That&#8217;s kind of interesting way to &#8230; that&#8217;s a larger look at things, way larger than I&#8217;m capable of, but yeah, it&#8217;s just another way to organize things there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, it aligns with what Mark proposed, to have one our presentation don&#8217;t get like, it behaves differently in the editor, differently on the front-end. But maybe it could be different if you are in a native app, on your phone, it would could have a different representation. It&#8217;s very interesting times to be in and engaged in those type of conversations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, for some who do day-to-day development, it seems to be more an academic discussion. But I think it would be really helpful to read Helen Hou-Sandi&#8217;s blog post, and of course, we&#8217;re going to share it. And she made a big point of saying this discussion is not between two WordPress core committers, like Mark Jaquith is and she is. She has been a lead developer for quite a while on the open-source project. This is just a discussion on programmers who do agency work to organize how they do custom blocks within the team.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that certainly, should be interested to some of the agencies that also work with us and have been on the fence of using Gutenberg or have tried to solve some of the problems and to get additional input from those that Helen Hou-Sandi works for 10up and Mark Jaquith is, I think, a freelance developer. So from their point of view, it&#8217;s definitely worth a read.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>All right. If I look through our notes here, I have just one thing that I wanted to point out that is Matias Ventura, who is called the spark of Gutenberg in one of the publications, posted a short blog post, but it&#8217;s giving the theme.json file its horizon, pretty much. And he covers there when themes are going full-site editing, or using the theme.json file for controlling all the different places of the theme, it has some consequences on interactivity because you now can build an interface on top of it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>On consolidation, you can remove the overhead of repetitive declarations about block features, and then compatibility, that language of blocks is by default compatible with third-party blocks, which I find is a quite compelling argument to switch over to theme.json because the plugins then also can connect with the theme and be more&#8230;. We talked about it, Grzegorz before here, that if you have an additional custom post type or a different content that you want to put on the front-end, you can tap into the theme.json to style i, or keep it in style with the local theme without having to do a lot of your own CSS put to it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It definitely has a performance gain on rendering those block themes and starting to roll out them. And it has a flexibility component to it, a visual parity. Talking about patterns, he talks about portability, accessibility, and also the admin section. So it&#8217;s quite an interesting post to look at from a bird&#8217;s eye view on the theme.json and what it will mean for WordPress and WordPress development. So that&#8217;s my before you go, end of the show thing. Do you have anything that you want to point out, Grzegorz?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: No, I just wanted to emphasize the portability that we also discussed in the context of blocks, it&#8217;s just the same. How much this would change the landscape that you could have this meta language that allows you to write blocks that can be run in so many different places, not only inside the WordPress web app, but also on mobile devices, and in so many other places like in Drupal or whatever the future will bring.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, so I was wrong. I have two more things that are I wanted to just point out before we end the show. First&#8230; Oh, it&#8217;s actually three, no five&#8230; I never stop. Okay, so let&#8217;s wiggle that down. It&#8217;s Anne McCarthy has published the summary of the testing call for the header and the navigation block. It&#8217;s very interesting, the summary will be shared, but it also points out some of the pain points that still need to be resolved with navigation block and the screen.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then speaking of theme.json and portability, she is preparing with a team, also the next call for testing, which is not so much a testing of features, but a testing of a broader picture. And that is how themes switching will work or was supposed to work or what&#8217;s expectations about it? Because that&#8217;s certainly something would be relevant when we go into 5.9, or when it&#8217;s released, could be 6.0. But how does theme switching change now with theme.json and full-site editing? Meaning which of the templates that I as a user build, I want to keep when I switch the theme? Or is there a header that I want to keep when I switch the same kind of thing?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So how that&#8217;s supposed to work and that will be really great if you&#8217;ll have a lookout, we probably will talk about it at the next show. And then this third one, what I wanted to do is&#8230; And I totally forgot about it. So this is the end of the show. Yeah, no, it doesn&#8217;t come to me.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So thank you so much, Grzegorz. It was a great show again, and we got some very interesting technical insights in how to approach some of the harder work at developing Gutenberg. So I think that was really helpful for me, especially, I learned a lot today. And then as always&#8230; Sorry, go ahead.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> It&#8217;s always good to discuss those difficult topics, but it&#8217;s very inspiring, also to see how the community explores all those ideas, so I&#8217;m glad to follow all those discussions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. So as always, the show notes, and they will be quite long, will be published on the <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/\">gutenbergtimes.com/podcast</a>. This is episode 51 and if you have questions and suggestions on any of it, please send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. That&#8217;s changelog@gutenbergtimes.com. Well, thank you so much, Greg. It was good talking to you. And thank you to our listeners for being with us. If you like the show, please share a review on iTunes or on Stitcher or Google, so more people will get to be learning more about Gutenberg.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, thank you everyone for listening. And see you in two weeks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> See you in two weeks. Bye.</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, 16 Oct 2021 19:45:08 +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: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: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:127:\"Gutenberg Times: Changelog #50 – Preliminary Roadmap to WordPress 5.9, Gutenberg 11.3 release and Navigation Screen and 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=18774\";s:7:\"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:85:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-50-preliminary-roadmap-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:50907:\"<p>Birgit Pauli-Haack and Grzegorz Ziolkowski discuss the preliminary roadmap to WordPress 5.9, Gutenberg 11.3 and Navigation Screen and Block</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-49-drag-and-drop-flex-layout#shownotes\">Show Notes </a>/ <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-50-preliminary-roadmap-to-wordpress-5-9/#transcript\">Transcript</a></p>\n\n\n\n<span id=\"more-18774\"></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<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/13/preliminary-road-to-5-9/\">Preliminary Road to 5.9</a> by Matias Ventura</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMPKmh98XLY\">Designing Intrinsic Layouts</a> by Jen Simmons—An Event Apart video</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://tellmeaboutblocks.com/\">New Podcast: Tell me about Blocks</a> with Michael Schneider</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/08/17/proposal-brand-guidelines-for-learn-wordpress-content/\">Proposal: Brand guidelines for Learn WordPress content</a> Hugh Lashbrooke &amp; Courtney Robinson</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/08/11/fse-program-testing-call-9-handling-highered-headers/\">FSE Program Testing Call #9: Handling HigherEd Headers</a> by Anne McCarthy</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Gutenberg 11.3</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/18/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-3-18-august/\">What’s new in Gutenberg 11.3? (18 August)</a> </li><li><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-3-introduces-dimensions-panel-adds-button-padding-support-and-speeds-up-the-inserter\">Gutenberg 11.3 Introduces Dimensions Panel, Adds Button Padding Support, and Speeds Up the Inserter</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://riad.blog/2021/08/16/the-cost-of-wordpress-plugins-on-the-performance-of-the-editor/\">The cost of WordPress plugins on the performance of the editor</a> by Riad Benguella</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://mobile.blog/2021/08/11/building-an-editor-by-sharing-code-between-android-ios-and-web-with-react-native/\">Building an Editor by Sharing Code Between Android, iOS, and Web with React Native</a> by Matt Chowning</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/a-discussion-with-gutenberg-project-lead-matias-ventura-on-the-barrier-to-entry\">A Discussion With Gutenberg Project Lead Matías Ventura on the Barrier to Entry</a> by Justin Tadlock </p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-6172d8679075f wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<p>Did you like this episode? Please write us a reviewhttps://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog</p>\n\n\n\n<p> </p>\n\n\n\n<p><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></p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Please write us a review on iTunes! <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/itunes/\">(Click here to learn how)</a></em></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2>Transcript</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Hello, and welcome to our 50th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast. Today, we will talk about the preliminary roadmap for WordPress 5.9, the Gutenberg 11.3 release, and the navigation screen and block, and so many more things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at the Gutenberg Times, and I&#8217;m here with my co-host, Grzegorz Ziolkowski, code wrangler at Automatic and WordPress co-contributor. Good morning, Grzegorz. How are you? Thank you for agreeing to record this early and accommodate my in-laws&#8217; schedule. It&#8217;s fabulous weather for a bicycle tour tomorrow. So we&#8217;re doing it today. How are you?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Hello, Birgit. I&#8217;m great. It&#8217;s Wednesday, and we are before the official release of the Gutenberg plugin, but it looks like everything is ready. We are recording anyway. So the weather here is similar. It&#8217;s maybe not for bicycles for me, but there&#8217;s a lot of activities outside. I hope to play basketball in the evening with my friends. So that&#8217;s great, as always.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yes. Physical exhaustion in the heat. Yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> In fact, the weather is great, because it&#8217;s hot during the day, but the mornings and evenings, they are quite chilly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Oh, that&#8217;s awesome. Yeah. Good.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Announcements</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So first, we have some, I mentioned it, Matias Ventura published a preliminary roadmap for WordPress 5.9. Now, that 5.8 is out with some of the full-site editing in there, some block designs, block patterns, he has some thoughts on what needs to happen for the next release.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>His post divides up the work in six sections. We&#8217;re just going touch briefly on it, but do chime in Grzegorz anytime. So the first thing he mentioned is blocks and intrinsic web design, that he feels that the responsive tool, and of course not only he feels that, every theme developer feels that, that the responsive tools are still missing for blocks. And that needs to be addressed in regards to intrinsic web design, which is an evolution from the responsive designs and is about page layouts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And he considers, three context matters is really the point here, that if a block isn&#8217;t displayed on screen, or on the phone, it still needs styling to consider the context. So it would be displayed as an inner block in a column display. It definitely also needs a different styling than when it&#8217;s in a single row by itself. That needs to be addressed.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I looked up the expression intrinsic web design, because I wasn&#8217;t all that familiar with it. It was quite….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I don&#8217;t know that one as well. So I&#8217;m curious to hear more about that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. And it was coined by Jen Simmons, she brought the grid layout to us as a responsive design plus, and it&#8217;s fixing some of the shortcomings and hacks of the responsive designs. Without going any deeper, and here a couple of years ago, she did a great talk at the Event Apart, and we will have the video link in our show notes about that, where she breaks down how we address a flow layout or flex layout, grid layout, and then so forth.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But that&#8217;s definitely something that needs to get into the Gutenberg blocks, now that we are approaching page layouts with the site editor, there needs to be done some more work, as Matias says.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> In terms of technical aspect, is it less about using media queries to style your website and more about to make the design change according to the space it has? It&#8217;s more based on what&#8217;s the neighbors of your block, if it is something that is in the column, then classical media queries wouldn&#8217;t work because it&#8217;s still too narrow?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> That makes a lot of sense.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And the viewpoints, of hard coded viewpoints that you see in a lot of designs, they not always apply, because the tablets get bigger, the phones get bigger, the phones get smaller, and then you watch it on a big screen, which is beyond the normal computer screen. The context changes so much on that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know that there are brilliant people in the Gutenberg team that can address it, but you needed to have the whole thing. I hear the rumblings that a developer needs to override the block, or a theme developer needs to override the block styling to get it into his own theme displayed nicely and all that. That is all part of that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because the whole context of a page layout wasn&#8217;t yet clear how the column block or how a cover block with multiple inner blocks would be handling that. That&#8217;s certainly a problem to have and to be solved. I think that&#8217;s what I learned from Matias&#8217;s post, it&#8217;s very, very high on the priority there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also comes in with the panel directory now, that it&#8217;s available now, it needs to have a better integration with the inserter. And also get some multi-block transformer improvement, that you can transform maybe a cover block into a block pattern or a paragraph block or a quote block into a block pattern. And that flow also needs to be integrated into template parts and page layouts to add block patterns into those.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, I guess the most important part is that some of the block patterns that are in the directory aren&#8217;t so easy to use, because you need to copy them. I hope to see some improvements on that side. I guess that&#8217;s doable. It&#8217;s not that far away from that place.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And the meta team and the Gutenberg team worked on that already with the block directory, where you can search for a block in the inserter and then grab it and get it into your content. I think some basic architecture was already done there.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> But it was only for a subset of blocks that were marked as core specific. So that&#8217;s a different story to make it work for everything that is sent to the directory.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Well, the directory itself, the pattern directory right now only allows for core, for patterns that are built with the core blocks. It&#8217;s a similar process, there is no danger that the block that&#8217;s in the pattern wouldn&#8217;t be on the site. Well, unless it&#8217;s switched off. Yeah, there&#8217;s a block manager that it switch off&#8230; That&#8217;s definitely some issues that will need to be solved one way or other, or it will bubble up as a bug later on.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third section that the Gutenberg, it is the navigation menus that will be the main focus for 5.9. It&#8217;s the new navigation screen as well as within navigation blocks. And there are definitely still some experience and display improvements necessary and reduced complexity was an expression that Matias uses in his post. And also that definitely needs to be tested, tested, tested, with as many themes as possible.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of which, and you will hear me talk about it today multiple times, is that there is already a testing call. Anne McCarthy already posted the ninth call for testing for the full-site editing outreach program, and that is actually covering headers and navigation. We start with that already.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fifth one, section four, Ventura&#8217;s roadmap or WordPress roadmap then is creating an interface for the theme JSON file. Right now, writing theme JSON manually in code is tedious. And the next step is to actually finalize the UI and the whole system is, we talked about it before, we covered it under global styles, where the user gets the chance to set those theme settings and configuration with the interface in a sidebar, in the site editor, that is also coming to 5.9. And the team has been working on that for quite a bit.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fifth one is header design tools, colors, typography, spacing and layout. And one of the main goals would be a consistent access to the similar tools across blocks, and including third-party ones. And that the parameters and the settings are normalized between block JSON files and theme JSON file, when there&#8217;s block support or theme support, that they use the same taxonomy there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> We had a lot of experimental features enabled in 5.8. I hope all of that is going to be stabilized, and we will have a consistent API. We are on a good path towards this goal. I&#8217;m positive about this one.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And there&#8217;s a lot of testing also done, actually, I think Anne McCarthy also published a survey, we will highlight in the show notes, the results of it, where they connected with some theme developers on how they are using the theme JSON and what they liked and what they don&#8217;t like. So that is also great input for that phase of preparing for 5.9.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sixth section in Ventura&#8217;s roadmap 5.9 post was to formalize the editing flows for block themes and having a clearer information architecture for all the features, like editing templates, styling pages, creating whole template parts and all that. There was some great input from the full-site editing outreach program. So that will be iterated a lot, and also finalize the theme level blocks that have been experimental or have not been published for the&#8230; They&#8217;re in the plugin, Gutenberg plugin, but they&#8217;re not in WordPress core yet.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that concludes the preliminary. That&#8217;s a very big word there, roadmap for WordPress 5.9. The schedule is not out yet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, I guess the original plan was to have the release in December this year, but I don&#8217;t know, there isn&#8217;t a very detailed plan about that. So still probably involves and we will learn about that soon.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I&#8217;m thinking the core meeting later today would bring another preliminary schedule there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, so if it stays with the schedule for December, then there will be future release in October, eight weeks before the release. That&#8217;s only two months away. So that&#8217;s a big roadmap for that. I&#8217;m sure there will be a cutoff date where we say, &#8220;Okay, this comes in or it doesn&#8217;t come in, or it&#8217;s ready or it&#8217;s not ready,&#8221; like we had it for 5.8.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Community Contributions</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We have a few community contributions today, we want to talk about. First, there is a new podcast. It&#8217;s called Tell Me About Blocks. And it&#8217;s an interview podcast about building extensions for Gutenberg, the WordPress block editor. And you can learn from guest experiences, creating block plugins, themes and block patterns. Michael Schneider is hosting that. It&#8217;s a monthly podcast.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So July was the first episode and was with Keanan Koppenhaver. He&#8217;s a WordPress contributor and agency owner and plugin developer. He talks about his experience to do the Block-a-saurus plugin, which he just played around with the block editor to make it a little bit more fun. He&#8217;s also the maintainer of the Kanban for WordPress plugin that&#8217;s in the plugin repository.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the second episode, Michael Schneider interviews Rich Tabor, and talks with him about the making of the latest plugins, Markdown Comments, and the to-do list plugin for the block editor, which are more collaborative plugins for the admin section of the editor, rather than for front end. I haven&#8217;t listened to the second one yet. Have you heard about it Grzegorz?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I only learned about this podcast yesterday. I subscribed. So I&#8217;m planning to listen to both episodes, because this is the area I&#8217;m the most interested about, in the development of the block editor and WordPress in general. I&#8217;m looking forward to it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We talked about the contributions from Rich, in particular about the markdown comments block, and the path, the journey that he had to send all his work to the block directory. So I&#8217;m just keen to learn more about the process and the experience in the form of the podcast that we all love, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, and so we wish good luck to our fellow partner, Michael Schneider, in Tell Me About Blocks. And you can read up about it, tellmeaboutblocks.com. It&#8217;s all one word, no dashes, no underscores, anything, tellmeaboutblocks.com. So you can subscribe to yourself, because you are listening to our podcast, so you are interested in podcasts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s a second announcement in the community contribution, which is from a team, of the WordPress team from the learn.wordpress.org team. And Hugh Lashbroke and Courtney Robertson have a proposal for brand guidelines for the Learn WordPress content. They asked plugin and theme creators if they want to contribute a course to the site. And the proposal handles the brand guidelines.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if there is, how they will handle shoutouts to other products that are outside of wordpress.org, but in the space. I think that should have your attention, and read through it and see what you think about it. Because definitely, the training team could use some help from more practitioners. It should be worthwhile for the brands as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> And we need more tutorials how to build for the block editor, how to use the block editor. It&#8217;s all there, but it&#8217;s rapidly changing. We need to record new content. It&#8217;s only in your hands, and we are waiting for that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. You make some great impact if you contribute that way to the WordPress project, and it&#8217;s what you already know. So you don&#8217;t have to learn a whole new thing. But you can influence millions of WordPress developers who wait for your wisdom.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>What’s Released &#8211; Gutenberg 11.3</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So that brings us to Gutenberg 11.3 release.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski: </em>It&#8217;s still not out at the time of the recording. But we hope that it happens in any hour today. And anyway, we can cover what&#8217;s already in their release. This time, there isn&#8217;t anything in the changelog that would be marked as a new feature, although some of the enhancements listed are in the space of something that could be considered as a new feature.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Enhancements</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There is now a new color picker, an experimental component. We talked before about this project, that has this code, G2, like next generation of components. And the work is towards building a better UI for all those controls that you use with blocks, with global styles and such. And it&#8217;s still experimental. But the plan is to have different color pickers.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So you can check out this work to see the difference that is there and if you like it or not, give some feedback. It&#8217;s still in the works, in development. So you have impact on that and can drive the future work on that one.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> The G2 initiative is to make components much more accessible out of the box, so to speak, that a developer who uses those components, not only the Gutenberg developers, but also plugin developers and external developers can use those components and have an accessible experience, a more accessible experience out of the box. At least that was the new initial focus from Q and Sarah.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> And in general, there&#8217;s more to it. This concept of intrinsic web design, this is all about making this new set of components that they follow those principles. They adjust according to the context.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the other part is the team that is behind that. They are trying to unify the public API. At the moment, we must admit that some of the components were created a long time ago, and they were more like a realization of the current needs than the vision for the future. But this project helps us to bridge that gap, and make it much easier to use for all developers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Well, thank you. So one of the enhancements is also the post featured image block received basic dimension controls for the image, which was something that was requested quite a bit. And that is when you use the query loop block or the post template, where you display the series of blocks and the featured image with it. You can also use it in the single post template, if you have a block-based theme.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, so just to remove some confusion that we discussed before the recording, is that this feature doesn&#8217;t quite work with classic themes. So it doesn&#8217;t have any impact on post featured images, unless you start using block-based themes, and all those designs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> I think we need to, some of the enhancements that you said, we need to point out that this is not for classic themes.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> And there&#8217;s also a small change, a visual change, there are new icons for usable blocks and template part blocks. This is a special type of box that store the content in the database, and in the past, we had this logo looking like a Lego block. And now it looks like a stacked diamond. And the difference is only that one of them has the filled in background color, or something like this.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So a subtle difference, it shows that those two blocks are similar, but a bit different, the usage is different. It&#8217;s more for design and usable block is more for sharing the same content.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. And the stacked diamonds represent that it&#8217;s more a block collection than just one block. So the reusable block are the ones with just the outline of the stack diamonds, and the template parts display is the filled in stack diamonds. And you can distinguish them in the list view of the site editor or your post editor to identify them better.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I think that was the main motivation, because the list view is now persistent. When you have it opened, those visual cues are really important.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> The next item is for the block editor. Now, for the internal links, there&#8217;s also the rich previews enabled. So when you link to a post that&#8217;s on your own site, once you did the linking, and you come back to that post and hover over it, it gives you a nice little window with the title, the featured image and an excerpt. And it also gives you a little link where you can unlink that post again.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is similar to a Google Doc linking mechanism. It really speeds up the quality control of your content when you go back and double-check on some of the links, is it really the right post and all that. And it takes care of, it uses the meta description and the Open Graph meta tags for that rich preview. So if your site doesn&#8217;t use those, you won&#8217;t get the rich previews, and it wouldn&#8217;t show. But most WordPress sites use them out of the box anyway.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I think it&#8217;s a game changer for content creators. I use this command plus trackpad click feature to check if the link that I used is correct one. You no longer have to do it, you just hover over the link and you have the hint for visible at your….</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other thing is that the button block, it has now padding block support. This one is quite different in how it has changed, because it&#8217;s not only a new feature that was added to the sidebar, but I think this is also the one that introduces a bit different UI experience. Is it this one or did I miss that?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> No, it&#8217;s the next one. But this one is the padding. Now, padding has been around for quite a bit, padding and margin for cover block. And now it also comes to the button block. So it&#8217;s the sub block of the buttons block, where you can set the padding for all buttons or for the whole dimensions of the button, like the padding 20 and it adds them to the top, to the right, to the left and to the bottom.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or you can unlink those sections, and then individually change the top left, right and bottom padding, as well as the padding for the button. You were talking about the next piece, there was the dimensions panel.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Dimension panel.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s interrelated, because the new dimensions panel, it&#8217;s using two features, it&#8217;s controlling two features, which one of them is the padding and the other one is margin. The idea is that, with so many new controls showing up, for some blocks, it&#8217;s too much to process when you look at the sidebar. So there is this exploration that is already in the Gutenberg plugin, that allows you to use the drop down menu to pick what&#8217;s displayed inside the panel.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So you can decide whether you want to display both the paddings and the margin or only one of them. And there is also this reset all feature, that just goes to the default state. So according to the discussions that are in this PR, you can find out that this type of interaction is considered for all other panels like typographic and color.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m looking forward to how it changes, because it&#8217;s something that site owners requested for so long, to have better control over those features. Once we have that, apply to all features, it will be much easier to give also some coding APIs that will allow to control that from the code, so you could easily turn off all the features you don&#8217;t want to have on the side.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. And it&#8217;s also part of what Matias mentioned before in his roadmap post, that the consistency of having the controls all look alike. So once a user learns them, he can apply his knowledge to all kind of different places where that control can be used. And also how to handle a margin that is now different from a cover block to the theme parts sidebar. So that&#8217;s part of this normalizing and being more consistent in all the tools.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So those are the enhancements.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Bug Fixes</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Then we have a few bug fixes. There are quite a few bug fixes in this release. I just wanted to highlight one of them, that is that the custom gradient picker for left to right languages is now fixed. So now gradients work well, better again, from left to right languages. I&#8217;m a fan of gradients and everybody should have access to it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> It&#8217;s definitely a very nice feature. And there&#8217;s other bugs I want to mention in the template editor. And now, we show only post template actions for user with correct capabilities. So sometimes those features are very powerful. So you want to have better control who can access them. It&#8217;s something that is constantly looked at and improved. There&#8217;s so many new features added, it&#8217;s very easy to miss that part, that there should be permissions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, this alleviates some of the anxiety that theme developers have, that any user can mess up their beautiful theme with changing some of the templates. But it&#8217;s now only restricted to the admin. That angst can be alleviated.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Performance</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There were also quite a few performance improvements that come with this Gutenberg release 11.3, and one of them is the lazy render block types in the inserter. It only shows block types that are necessary now. Have we talked about it before? I think that is an additional iteration of that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> It might be something different. As far as I remember, this one is the same solution that was used for block patterns. So block pattern does the previews and so on. It&#8217;s a lot of data to process. There is a special handler that just splits the list of all block patterns into chunks, and this solution was implemented also to the block inserter and improved the performance, like perceived performance of the inserter immensely.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So the difference you can see is that you will see small parts of the block types in the inserter at first, and the rest will just be iteratively added as the browser has free cycles to process that. So that makes the experience &#8230; because you can already start processing the block items in the inserter as they are rendered. In the past, you would have to wait until everything is ready. That&#8217;s a big improvement.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> So what I see in that PR is that Riad created a little page or website that measures the block editor performance and it&#8217;s titled, Is Gutenberg Fast Yet? I think we talked about it before.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yes.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And where he sees the different items, how much time they use. And so he does some incremental improvements there and highlights all the different things that are keeping Gutenberg from being fast. It&#8217;s quite interesting for those who are interested in that kind of analysis, look at the PR in the site, and maybe you can help him figure out some of the performance hogs to make it even faster.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, also, speaking of Riad and all his efforts to improve the performance of the editor, he also posted on his blog, about the cost of WordPress lag is on the performance of the editor. So it&#8217;s a really good read, especially if you are one of the authors of blogs, and he just shows the results of measuring the impact of the most popular plugins.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, he covers the plugins that add the functionality to the blocks, like additional features and how it impacts the performance. He covers also some recipes, how you can measure it on your own, when you are developing. The state of major plugins is really good, it has improved. As he was preparing this post, he reached out to some of those plugins, and they improved the performance, based on his findings. So it shows how the community is really into these performance improvements. That&#8217;s really great to see how it evolves.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I recommend checking out this post. He shares his approach how to process all that. There is also, it&#8217;s a follow-up post, because in the past, he had another post when he explained all the impacts of different approaches that you take when building blocks, using data stores, using rendering, and it&#8217;s very complex.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are really into block development, those two posts is definitely a must-have, if you want to provide the great experience for users, because performance is one of the most important aspects of that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>I&#8217;m just scrolling through that, thank you very much for pointing out this post. I haven&#8217;t seen that yet. So definitely, we will share the link in the show notes. And it&#8217;s definitely an eye-opener in how plugins change performance. And he has some nice spreadsheets there, where you can look things up, and also how you can, as you said, how you can measure your own as well, if you develop a plugin for that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, thank you. It&#8217;s also improved performance through the parser of removing the automatic custom classnames handling. What does that mean? I&#8217;m not so quite sure I understand it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> It&#8217;s quite complex. But the difference here is that this was the responsibility of the block editor before, and Riad moved this logic to the block parser. It&#8217;s happening earlier in the process. And because of that, it allows to skip some of the….</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In some cases, when you have the classic block or you have the HTML, I don&#8217;t remember, other blocks, you know that for some blocks, you don&#8217;t have to do this processing, because they are not using this automatic classname handling. So you can skip that, that&#8217;s one improvement from start.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But also this ensures that the logic is executed only when really necessary. So when the block is valid, you don&#8217;t have to run that at all. But with the previous solution, it also was always applied. It had a really big impact when the post was really big.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, it&#8217;s very technical, and it&#8217;s something that a small group of people can really help with. But Riad, he&#8217;s just the king of performance. He knows who to do all this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> He loves to hear that, the king of performance. No, but it also shows that it only can be an iterative part that you can get it perfect, and you can get it to be more performant after the fact.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Experiments</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>That brings us to the experiment section of these release notes. It will highlight the template part placeholder now when you create a new template part with the site editor. So experiments has the full-site editing in there, and the navigation screen are the only experiments right now in the Gutenberg plugin that you have to switch on.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The site editor itself is actually already switched on. I don&#8217;t know why it&#8217;s still in the experiments there. But when you create a new template part, say a header or maybe a sidebar item, it now asks you for a title as well in the create flow. So you don&#8217;t get as many untitled template parts as you got before. You can think about the title right when you create it. That&#8217;s definitely a improvement of the flow.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, I also hear that the template part is going to be promoted to the stable feature. So it means that will be included in WordPress 5.9, for sure. And maybe that even will happen in the next plugin release. So, 11.4. And that&#8217;s great, because this is a very exciting feature. It will open a lot of possibilities, even for classic themes.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, and now that it&#8217;s coming out of experimental means there are more eyeballs on it, to test it and to figure out what needs to be changed, or if it needs to be changed and what bug fixes are there.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So the navigation link block, that&#8217;s a child block of the navigation block, now actually also has the ability to remove a link, which is certainly in the process of creating a navigation, a useful tool. Now, it&#8217;s there.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Documentation</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I think that brings us to the documentation section. And there is one item I wanted to highlight. Because we have those block patterns that you can search from the block patterns directory. And of course, some site owners don&#8217;t want to have them. So now there is a document explaining how you can disable that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That part was missing, but it was possible from the release, WordPress 5.8. So it&#8217;s now covered. If you don&#8217;t like that, you can check out how to disable that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, as any WordPress feature that is new, not only needs a way to enable it, it also needs a way to disable it, to make it as flexible as possible for all the WordPress instances that are out there.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which brings us, so there are quite a few other smaller changes to the documentation that you can check out for yourself, because they are just changes to existing documentation pages.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Code Quality</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Code quality, there is one highlighted that is the remove of the experimental prefix, and rename the theme JSON files.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re theme developers, you now can remove the underscore, underscore experimental prefix on your theme JSON files as well. It will not read anymore from the experimental theme JSON file either.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yes. And there is a small change in the API. So in the core data, there was a method to get authors, and it wasn&#8217;t very flexible. But it&#8217;s now deprecated in favor of get users, that allows you to pass the flag to return only authors. But also, it has a lot of other features that makes it better use. So it&#8217;s only changed to consolidate the API and make it easier to discover.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Excellent. Thank you. Do you want to go through the tools section?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Tools</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> There is one big change in that regard. So there is a lot of complaints about build tooling. And you related to that, because I was one of a few folks that were involved in updating Webpack to version five, and it was a pain. We started the first try in January, I guess, but it failed because of several issues.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now we finally made it, and it&#8217;s going to be&#8230;. So the change is in the Gutenberg plugin already, and it has a good impact on the bundle size. It has decreased. It was 30 kilobytes or less that&#8217;s going to be sent to the user, which is a big win. So yay for Webpack 5.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> But there&#8217;s more to it. This change will also be applied in the WordPress scripts. We should expect NPM publishing for this package later this week. And so basically, if you are using default config files, everything should be good. If you are using your own custom config, then if you want to upgrade to the latest version, be prepared for some troubles, because it isn&#8217;t easy. Webpack isn&#8217;t backward compatible, to the degree that the WordPress is. It&#8217;s just what it is.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, as we say, there will be dragons.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> For sure, if you have a custom config, it&#8217;s not easy. I&#8217;ve been there already. And the next step, of course, will be to do the same update in WordPress core. There&#8217;s three places to update. I understand the frustration from people who try to use those tools by themselves. You have a lot of courage.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Testing</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And then there&#8217;s one other features that we will highlight from the testing section. And that is that the mobile team added a guide for integration testing, if I say this right, and it turns out to be quite complex.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, in general, we talked a lot last time about the barrier of entry for developing for WordPress. The way to start, even writing tests for the mobile apps is just on completely different level. It&#8217;s like a skier wrapper or something like that. It&#8217;s just so complex.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I guess this shows how the, not new web, but how the world evolves. You no longer only care about the browser, but there is also the phone, the tablet, and building apps for that. So if you are curious to learn how you could contribute to the native apps, if you are interested in this type of development, that&#8217;s definitely a good way to check and play with all those tools and see how complex the setup can be, if you are going outside of the web bubble.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> I&#8217;ve never really ventured into the native apps development. But I had hoped that React Native would be a path to go. And then I read, oh, by the way, this brings us to the end of the changelog. And we are now more in the section of active development, what&#8217;s discussed.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>What in Active Development or Discussed</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>And we will share a post to Matt Chowning that he wrote about building an editor by sharing code between Android, iOS and web with React Native. It only brings you so far to reuse code base. And it seems that the mobile team recreated some of the Gutenberg experience, recreated them from scratch, reusing components, but not reusing some of the code base.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s quite an interesting read, finding out how complex that whole thing is when you do it through a phone screen and operating system.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, but the good point that the team, the WordPress mobile team is very happy about choosing React Native, and they emphasize that the speed of development is really good, because they can share the logic part of the editor that is developed for the web version. All the JavaScript code, they can reuse, and they don&#8217;t have to write it from scratch.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And what&#8217;s even more important, whenever there is a performance improvement, they get the same improvement on their side. And also, from my perspective, whenever they find something that is not working properly, they contribute back, so all parties win here. That&#8217;s the beauty of that setup.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And everybody benefits from that. The mobile version is also part of the overall Gutenberg GitHub repository. So there is some synergy there as well.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>All right. So two weeks ago, there was this big discussion about barriers to entry. And in our weekend edition, 180 and 181, on the Gutenberg Times, I shared quite a few blog posts and discussions on podcasts about that topic. So if you want to dive into it some more.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Justin Tadlock from the WordPress Tavern, interviewed Matias Ventura, the Gutenberg Project lead on that. And it&#8217;s an interesting read, in that regard, that it really depends on the knowledge of who is developing for the web. And it&#8217;s a different perspective from someone like me who started with HTML, where only HTML was around. And it took about a couple of years before CSS came in. And then it took another couple of years before I needed to write some early JavaScript.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I only had to add one little thing to my whole toolset. But it was also the speed of things. But latest in 2004, &#8217;05 or &#8217;07, I was left behind on all the cool development. And now caught up with it through WordPress, because that&#8217;s when we started, in 2010, we started with WordPress. And it took me about five years before I even had to touch code on a WordPress install to make a feature work.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it really depends on where you come from. I jump from a ColdFusion development base to a very rudimentary PHP, to good JavaScript knowledge. The barrier is different for me, from someone to build a plugin, from someone who has 10 years of PHP experience and knows all the intricacies of WordPress, because for 10 years, she has been developing in that space. So that&#8217;s one thing.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Matias also points out that the theme creation, and the new on ramps for theme developers is so much lower than it was the last 10 years for theme development in WordPress. Because now you can start with the block-based templates, you can do block patterns, you have the theme JSON to control some of the features.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And you could basically write a new theme without touching code, because the site editor gives you all the tools with it, or at least that&#8217;s the vision in 5.8. The 5.9 will come close to it. And then with patterns, you can account any theme in any case very easily with just assembling a few blocks.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also mentioned &#8230; go ahead.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I think it&#8217;s very interesting to hear the vision from Matias, because he also shared this preliminary scope for WordPress 5.9. He knows what&#8217;s the end goal. And that&#8217;s much easier to see the landscape, how it will look in a few months when you will be able to fully benefit from all the latest development in the space of block themes. And that&#8217;s one way of looking at that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, I think that in general, if you look at the development for the web 10, 15 years ago, you didn&#8217;t compete with mobile apps, and they didn&#8217;t exist at all. Everyone was using Nokia or other phones that only allowed you to play Snake or something similar, that was it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so the mobile apps, tablets, they change the perception what you can do, how you interact with those devices, and all the gestures and stuff like this, and animations and the performance. That was so much better because it uses some native technologies. So if you combine all those aspects together, it&#8217;s really hard to tell that the development should be still simple and the barrier of entry should be simple.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It cannot be, because we have so much bigger expectation as users these days. So of course, there are some libraries that help with that, but exploring the libraries, finding the right one and integrating that, it&#8217;s another level of complexity here.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> I also think there&#8217;s a level of decision paralysis, because if you have too many choices on the libraries, the chance that you pick the wrong one is really high. And then for some people, that is an existential decision. And if your business depends on it, it makes it an existential decision that a lot of other people depend on that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can see that, but it&#8217;s not only WordPress. All we know is WordPress, but it&#8217;s in all the areas that are out there that develop for the web.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Go on.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Well, all I wanted to say was, when I look at what all needs to happen at the same time and play together, all the little pieces, it&#8217;s actually a miracle it works at all.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> That&#8217;s true.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Because so many things could work. We should all be blessed that we actually can get something together that works well for millions of people.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, I think we all were happy about the limitation of the web 15 years ago. You had the basic HTML, CSS was very basic. Now, there is CSS4. So the number of features that were added in the meantime is, scope is so gigantic, and you have to learn fifth method of positioning elements on the page. And also, you have JavaScript that has evolved, there are new features in the language.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even PHP, if you look back, PHP 4 or 5, it&#8217;s a completely different language than PHP 8 that you have now with types and some strict checks and so on. And the tools that are around, that we didn&#8217;t have the interest back in the day, now it&#8217;s wildly popular. And end-to-end testing was very hard in the past. Now, you have so many tools to pick from.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it&#8217;s up to you what you pick, because you could still use only PHP, HTML and CSS and some basic JavaScript and that should be fine. But the question is, if users will like it, or in terms of on the front end experience. But also, if the customers for all the businesses that WordPress supports, will be still happy to continue using very simplified interface, that is very technical.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. I think there&#8217;s so many things for many people. I think we will have a link to the WordPress Tavern article with the interview with Matias in our show notes. It&#8217;s definitely worth a read. And that brings us I think to the end of the show.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> One more thing, definitely look out for the Gutenberg Times newsletter, because it has a lot of links to those discussions. This week, you should expect more because those discussions still happen on the web, on Twitter, so be aware and look forward to it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> I&#8217;ll have those in the show notes as well. This week&#8217;s weekend edition is not going to happen until next week, because I&#8217;m still….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> A suspense, nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> A suspense on that, because I&#8217;m still on vacation and I&#8217;m visiting family in Europe. But before we end, again, please heed the call. If you have some time, heed the call to the FSE testing call for number nine, working with the headers and navigation coming to the site editor to Gutenberg. We will need your input, we need to learn from your experiences and also from your expectations. What you tried to do, what you were able to do, and what didn&#8217;t work and what you expected how it would work. I think that would be really, really helpful for the team to come out of experimental stage and get into the main plugin with the navigation screen and block.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As always, the show notes will be published on the Gutenberg Times podcast at <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/\">gutenbergtimes.com/podcast</a>. This is number 50. We&#8217;re halfway to number 100. And if you have any questions and suggestions or news you want to include, send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. That&#8217;s <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you so much, Greg, for spending this morning with me. I hope you have a wonderful afternoon. Thank you all for listening. I&#8217;ll say goodbye.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Thank you, Birgit. Thank you, all our listeners and see you next time.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> All right. Bye-bye.</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, 16 Oct 2021 19:45:08 +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:19:\"Gutenberg Changelog\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i: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:131:\"Gutenberg Times: Changelog #49 – Gutenberg 11.2, Drag and Drop, Flex Layout, Core Data Shortcuts and Modern WordPress Development\";s:7:\"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=18714\";s:7:\"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://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-49-drag-and-drop-flex-layout/\";s: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:34656:\"<p>Birgit Pauli-Haack and Grzegorz Ziolkowski discuss Gutenberg plugin release 11.2, drag and drop, flex layout, core data shortcuts and modern WordPress development.</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-49-drag-and-drop-flex-layout#shownotes\">Show Notes </a>/ <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-49-drag-and-drop-flex-layout#transcript\">Transcript</a></p>\n\n\n\n<span id=\"more-18714\"></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<ul><li>Chris Wiegman’s <a href=\"https://chriswiegman.com/2021/08/the-changing-wordpress-ecosystem/\">The Changing WordPress Ecosystem</a>,</li><li>Marcus Kazmierczak’s <a href=\"https://mkaz.blog/wordpress/modern-wordpress-development/\">Modern WordPress Development</a></li><li><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/about/philosophy/\">WordPress Philosophy</a>, Design for the Majority</li><li><a href=\"https://chrislema.com/using-wordpress-without-writing-any-code/\">Using WordPress Without Writing Any Code</a> by Chris Lema</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Gutenberg 11.2 </h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/05/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-2-0-4-august/\">What’s new in Gutenberg 11.2.0? (4 August)</a></li><li><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-2-expands-color-support-for-search-and-pullquote-blocks-introduces-experimental-flex-layout-for-group-block\">Gutenberg 11.2 Expands Color Support for Search and Pullquote Blocks, Introduces Experimental Flex Layout for Group Block</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>What&#8217;s in active development and discussed? </h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://codehealth-riad.vercel.app/\">Is Gutenberg Fast Yet?</a></li><li><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/33687\">Flex Layout Iterations&nbsp;</a></li><li><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/layout-grid/\">Layout Grid Block </a>by Automattic</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-6172d8679b02f wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<p>Did you like this episode? Please write us a reviewhttps://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog</p>\n\n\n\n<p> </p>\n\n\n\n<p><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></p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Please write us a review on iTunes! <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/itunes/\">(Click here to learn how)</a></em></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"transcript\">Transcript </h2>\n\n\n\n<p> </p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Hello, and welcome to our 49th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog Podcast. In today&#8217;s episode, we will talk about the Gutenberg plugin release 11.2, and drag and drop, flex layout, core data shortcuts, and modern WordPress Development.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at the Gutenberg Times. I&#8217;m here with my co-host, Grzegorz Ziolkowski, code wrangler at Automattic, and WordPress core contributor. Good morning, Grzegorz, how are you doing? I am so glad that we have the same time zone together for the next two or three episodes. And good morning to our listeners, we are glad you join us again for this episode. How are you this morning, Grzegorz?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Good morning, Birgit. I&#8217;m so happy to be recording this one in the morning for the first time, it&#8217;s such a refreshing experience and something new. Everything is great here, and I guess the weather is similar at your place now, like in Poland, it&#8217;s changing rapidly everyday. Yesterday it was sunny, then raining, today it&#8217;s cloudy. So, you have everything. How about your place? How do you enjoy it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. We are on the same weather, it changes through the hour, we have one hour, we have sunshine, then we have thunderstorms and then it comes back. It&#8217;s almost like Florida. But I&#8217;m here in the makeshift office at my parents’ house, it&#8217;s kind of working from home home. It&#8217;s a little bit different, because it&#8217;s a big household, of course. And it took us an evening to distribute the fast internet that comes in on the second floor to the basement. But there is something like, it&#8217;s wired through the power grids, it is actually spectacular. It hard lined in through the network, it&#8217;s very interesting what they put together.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> No, that&#8217;s really interesting. I&#8217;m keen to learn more after the show about that because I don&#8217;t have the cable to my office and sometimes the wifi isn&#8217;t great enough. And I miss that when I was preparing everything, I&#8217;m glad that there are some other ways to do it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> I&#8217;ll be happy to get deeper into that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Communication Contributions</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So, for our show today, the first section today is a community contribution, and I appreciate Chris Wiegman and Marcus Kazmierczak blogging about WordPress development in 2021. And they&#8217;re trying to define the barriers to entry for WordPress users, are they low, or they are high. I think we all are getting a few blurry lines, depending on what kind of stakeholders, or what kind of users you&#8217;re talking about. I haven&#8217;t read all of the blog posts, and I definitely need to read them again. But Chris Wiegman started the discussion on Twitter and I quote him, &#8220;The deeper I get with modern WordPress development, the more I understand why newer devs don&#8217;t like to work on it. This is not the same project that I was in, in the past. The learning curve is now extremely high, regardless of past experience.&#8221; Chris Wiegman on the Twitter verse, and we&#8217;ll link to that tweet in our show notes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And there are quite a few that chimed in on it. There was Alain Schlesser, Rich Tabor, and others.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Matias Ventura.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Matias Ventura&#8230;.Yes, Jessica Lyschik as well from Germany, and Marcus Kazmierczak, I might have put just his name, last name, but I need to ask him how to pronounce his name. He wrote a blog post about modern WordPress development and, pretty much as an answer to Chris Wiegman, and Chris Wiegman actually put some more thoughts into it on his blog, with changing WordPress ecosystems. What do you think about, you came from a different content management system to WordPress, how many years ago?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I started like with development with Drupal and it was like, maybe 10 years ago. And the entry level for Drupal is so high that going back to WordPress seems like you are in a familiar place and everything is so simple. So it really depends on your background, if you have a strong PHP background, then it might be easier to start with Drupal then maybe WordPress. If you don&#8217;t have any experience, it&#8217;s going to be hard no matter what you would like to do. So, it&#8217;s definitely a very complex topic. One thing that I would like to emphasize that WordPress has this badge with the fields of each of ours. So one of the sections is designed for the majority, it says that the way that WordPress is structured should be optimized for the end users rather for the developers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And this is happening with full-site editing. And that&#8217;s why there is no, this impression that writing for the, like extending the block editor is hard and it&#8217;s something that definitely needs more attention, but it&#8217;s also a very complex thing to operate in this area of a very rich user experience and having so many features that so tightly related to the DOM, to the browser. So, it&#8217;s not an easy place to be when you are a developer. So I suspect that if you would like to achieve even like half of the goals that the Gutenberg gives you in the classic editor, I don&#8217;t think that it would be doable at all.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: And I like how Marcus iterated that the competition between WordPress, is for WordPress and it has had a remarkable growth rate, even in the last four years, going up to 42% and the competition is not Drupal, or Wix, or Squarespace. The competition lies through the social networks who made it so easy to create a post like on Instagram connect with Venmo, and then have a shop up there. So, following that path, there is an expectation from the users to also make it as easy as possible, and intuitive as possible. And of course the block editor is for quite a few developers, a moving target, the goalpost kind of still moves, because the team hasn&#8217;t finished developing it. It&#8217;s still on its way. And listening to Matt Mullenweg, he says, it&#8217;s going to be a 10 years, two years or four years, into a 10-year project.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it would be that way and probably settle down quite a bit, but there is always keep moving, but I&#8217;m also wanted to outline, I found a tweet by Matt Edgar, who&#8217;s an editor and writer, and he says I fear that WordPress goes the Microsoft Ballmer way, where it&#8217;s all about developers, developers, developers, and not about users, users, users. So, that&#8217;s the whole other extreme there. And right now it seems to be on a middle path. I&#8217;m not sure it&#8217;s the right path, but it&#8217;s at least kind of, if you offset both sides a bit. There&#8217;s something new coming by.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Chris Lema actually posted a, his latest blog post was about using WordPress without writing any code. And so that&#8217;s the goal pretty much, but he is actually preparing for a presentation on a non-WordPress conference. And, that don&#8217;t use WordPress all that much, but wants to make a case for WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that blog post was very interesting to me as well, figuring out how to do this without, yeah. There&#8217;s a few plugins that he uses, but most of it is based on the native blog editor. So I think there is a great discussion going on and we all need to be a little bit more taking, and someone who has been successful with WordPress for 10 years and doing what they&#8217;re doing, bringing them all along, but bringing them piece by piece and also teach a lot about the new tools there, like react, yeah. MPM and all these new cool features that are hard to learn, sometimes when you haven&#8217;t been in this space for a long time. Yeah. I see it for myself, I came to WordPress from a total different programming language. And I programmed my own content management system until I saw WordPress offering so many features out of the box on their free plugins.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wasn&#8217;t able to charge my clients that much for custom developers when there is a different system out there that you can use that they can use. And I started WordPress 10 years ago and it took only four, five years until we actually had to write code, PHP code. But I was a PHP novice, I didn&#8217;t get into it, until writing code, about six years ago or something like that in PHP. And it was so easy for an implementer to do that. And it will still be that, but I will never say, but for our clients, it was never easy to use WordPress when we say that it&#8217;s easy to use WordPress 10 years ago, it wasn&#8217;t really. There were multiple, was it a Tammie Lister who did a run down from how to change a theme at the beginning of Gutenberg, I thinks she had 62 steps to change the theme.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: I can imagine that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, so, it&#8217;s getting really easier and easier, but of course there is a disruption there and we&#8217;ll use different tools there. So, I guess we have a lot of ready material for our listeners and we certainly wish that you communicate with us your ideas of what you think. And maybe also be a little bit more specific on, when you find it hard to work with WordPress. What exactly is it that trips you up, or that sometimes it&#8217;s small thing, sometimes it&#8217;s a big thing. And we all learn with that going forward, so we will have the blog, Chris Wiegman&#8217;s blog, his tweet and the thread around it, and Marcus Kazmierczak&#8217;s Modern WordPress Development, link to the WordPress Philosophy, and we also have Chris Lema&#8217;s Using WordPress Without Writing Any Code in the show notes for you to read.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which brings us to What&#8217;s released? The Gutenberg 11.2, do you want to get us into it?</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>What’s Released &#8211; Gutenberg 11.2</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Oh, sure. Let&#8217;s start with features.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Features</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So this plugin release, it doesn&#8217;t bring so many new features. It&#8217;s obvious the reason why it happens is because there is a summer on the Northern hemisphere and a lot of contributors that I engaged with on a daily basis we&#8217;re not present. So, there&#8217;s definitely some slow down. This is also a great time to do some improvements for the developers, so they don&#8217;t feel left out. And there are also some efforts to improve performance, on the features level. So most of the work is around blocks and adding support, functionality, which supports something like colors, or border, and similar features. And the biggest change is this for the search block. It&#8217;s a bit strange when I learn about that, that you can add color support, but for the button that is in the search form. So, you can modify something similar to other blocks, like the background color or the text color, but it&#8217;s only for the button, and there is also a border color support, are they there? I&#8217;m not quite sure it&#8217;s the border is only for the button as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> I tested it yesterday. I got a little bit sidetracked because I found a bug there, but not a bug, it&#8217;s the display thing, but the border color, as well as the support full border is actually for both the field, the input field, as well as the button. And you also can have different alignments for that. So it&#8217;s quite nice. You can actually, the example in the release notes or the make posts towards actually in a group block with, with image, background or color dual tone background, and then, search block on top of, it&#8217;s quite nice. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah. And we use the border edges functionality, they have very nice effects, that you don&#8217;t have to use rectangles anymore.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. Found the borders in fashion again, so every 25 years we have rounded corners.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> The good thing is that you need to use background images that swap with JavaScript on the fly like 20 years ago. But it&#8217;s back and the pullquote block, it also got board and color support. And the examples that were shared in the posts that described all the changes there is, includes very interesting effects, like you can use some sort of dotted border that use like very large dots and it creates a very nice FX for the pullquote. So I encourage everyone to give it a try and check some crazy values there and see how it looks like, because it might turn out that looks so nice that you would want to have it. And that&#8217;s basically all about features.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Enhancements</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>And we also have several enhancements, which one of them I would consider or other as a feature, this is a button that was added in the publishing flow.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So when you schedule or publish the post, there is the sidebar, that shows up on the, like, it goes from the right side. If you are in maybe a regular, no like, you&#8217;re using in English. And if you&#8217;re using Arabic, you will be go from the other side. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s confusing to explain. But anyway, the feature is that at the end, there is like summary, what has happened to which side you, you are using. And you can go and view the post there, but next to it, there is now a button that allows you to create another post. I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s very useful because at least for me, I don&#8217;t really write another post just after I finished the one, I rather celebrate.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. I think it&#8217;s more for the micro bloggers that kind of want to upload an image and then do the next image like an Instagram post. But I like that it&#8217;s now trying to keep a user in the block editor for some publishing flows. I need to check, so it&#8217;s in the second step. Oh, it&#8217;s in the last step of the publishing flow. So you get the view post and as you explained it, there&#8217;s the add a new post button there. I need to test this out, how that behaves in the two-step process for the publishing process. So one of my pet peeves is that I started with the block editor. Can I log into my website and then already have add new post, at the first screen that I get to.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I don&#8217;t have to look for all posts and add new and all that. Because all I do on a website once it&#8217;s set up is publishing posts. So, I might just want to start there, but this is the end of it. So after I do one, I can stay in the block editor with it and update.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;If you do photos, if you say, I want to just highlight certain links and then link out. I like it. So there is also some enhancements for the widget editor, and then for some of the components, but there seems to be a quite finite, not finite minuscule a little bit, not so obvious for people, but it makes the experience a little smoother. One of it is the core data, you can pass a query argument to a data selector shortcut. Could you explain that a little bit for me?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> So, the change for the core data is about passing. Mostly the context that is going to be used with the REST API. That was actually one of the missing features. So if you know how our REST API works, it allows you to fetch the data with different contexts. So let&#8217;s say to view, you get a different set of fields, then when you want to edit something and every REST API endpoint defines it differently. So thanks to this change, you can have full control over that when using core data.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Excellent. Excellent.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Bug Fixes</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Then we had some bug fixes. One is for the Featured Image, now authors can select images that were uploaded by other users. So, if an editor uploads an image, now authors can also use them for the featured image and their blog post. And that&#8217;s certainly helpful, and reduces the duplication of images, probably quite a bit, in the media library.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, definitely. One thing that I marked is that there was a change in the description of the embed block that was referencing Instagram. And I was surprised seeing that and turns out that Instagram is no longer supported as an embed in the block editor. So, that might be confusing. That was a fix, but it&#8217;s also good to know that Instagram embeds are no longer present in WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. I think that was taken out last October when Facebook changed, how they, that you now needed a developer account with Facebook to use some of the, while the embeds, they no longer an embed publisher. So, now they changed it. There are quite a few fixes and, we had quite a few recommendations for plugins, and I certainly can reference that in the show notes again, but I think there was just an oversight to use Instagram as an example on how to use the embed with the Instagram, not doing it anymore. But the bigger problem was that it was showing up in the inserter when you started typing in Instagram. And so that would come up. So, that was leading the user a little bit astray on their publishing process. So, the one bug fix, also was the most used terms, we were running into a 403 error for non administrators, that has been fixed. And then we kind of tripped up a few users, I would imagine.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> So, most of the bug fixes where a smaller changes closer to the code quality improvements, like for the FocalPointPicker component, there is now additional check that verifies the type is correct. Like NAN which stands for, Not-A-Number in JavaScript. So, nothing really interesting, like this is just everything to ensure that there are no unexpected behaviors in some edge cases.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. But I&#8217;m glad that the team takes the time to go through that and fix those little things as well.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Performance</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So then we had some performance updates and one of them pretty much only one that&#8217;s a drag and drop and it&#8217;s now, drag and drop is such a wanted feature. And it needs to work really well to be useful, and Kerry Lui did some changes there and fixes there. So I don&#8217;t understand exactly what the changes were there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I don&#8217;t know. I know, it&#8217;s very complex related to how the browsers work. So, if you are keen and learn how you can profile the performance of layouts and, CSS, how it works, the drag and drop, it&#8217;s very well explained in the PR that&#8217;s linked and Kerry, she&#8217;s doing fantastic job on that field. She has a lot of expertise. So you can follow along if you want to learn more.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So one thing that I checked, one when playing quiz is that in the last episode, I was wondering if it is possible to drag and drop a block from the list view to the editor canvas or the other way around.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it turns out that you can, and I was surprised. Yes, I don&#8217;t know how it works because I don&#8217;t think it contributed anything to that functionality at all. But it&#8217;s very well designed. If you can do so, so interesting interactions. One thing I noticed that there&#8217;s a bit of delay when you drag from the list view to the canvas, then it updates in the canvas and then the animation starts in the list view. So, it&#8217;s not the perfect experience, but you know, it was right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Birgit Pauli-Haack: Right. But it seems that that&#8217;s something that Kerry was working on to avoid layout and repaints, but you definitely need to have it. So it&#8217;s all in the right order when you drag it from one canvas to the list view and back. So I can see that that&#8217;s a great challenge for programmers to get right, yes.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Experiments</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So, and that brings us to the experimentation or the experiment section. And right now, Riad started to put in a prototype and this plugin for a flex layout supported by the block editor. You made some notes on that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah. Because I first wanted to try how it works, but it turns out that it&#8217;s not that simple to, that on your website. So first of all, it&#8217;s an API change and that API is hidden behind a special flags. So if you add the examples for the group block and to enable that you need to change the block JSON file, for the block, and there is experiment layout already present, but it&#8217;s set to true. If you want to use this new feature, you need to choose an object, and there is all over switching flags, but this API is still in progress in, we will change for sure, because Riad left a ton of notes, how it can evolve. So he said that we could introduce more layouts, such as grid or absolute position in container. So it&#8217;s really nice when you play with that, but there&#8217;s one more thing, it only works with full-site editing themes, that content theme JSON file.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> It needs to be set in the block JSON, black JSON, as well as on theme JSON?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> No, we don&#8217;t need to do anything in the theme JSON but you need to have a theme that have this file, because this experimental layout, it only works for you if it&#8217;s full-site editing. I know it&#8217;s quite confusing, but I learned the hard way trying to play with that. But once it&#8217;s there, it&#8217;s really nice. So when you change to the flex, then if you had rows, then you suddenly have items next in one row next to each other. And even if you go and try to move the one of the inner blocks, then the arrows, will be to left and right. So they adapt to the layout, which is pretty nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. I think there was, years ago, there was an issue that one that, that I also, and I put an actually in the actively discussed. So let&#8217;s talk about it again there. So for the Changelog, there&#8217;s a lot of testing updates and a lot of build tooling updates. Is there anything that stand out that you wanted to talk about today?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> There isn&#8217;t anything that would count my attention. So I don&#8217;t have anything to share. I mean I could but-</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Well, you could probably another hour or so about it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I&#8217;m thinking mostly about our listeners and what could be interesting for them? So I didn&#8217;t identify anything this time, but there&#8217;s a lot of them and mostly this is related to the constant improvements to-end-end testing. And the fact that it&#8217;s almost stable these days, which is a great improvement for all the contributors.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, absolutely. And there is actually a new testing team, not a new team, but the test team has more new reps. And Tonya Mark has written about that on the test blog. And so they all, some contributors that wanted to get deeper into testing of new versions of the WordPress core, as well as on Gutenberg and have more look at the tickets for needs tuner tests or needs E2E tests to, and add those flags to the tickets. So it can be quite a bit more stable, when it comes out in beta. So I think that&#8217;s a good development here too. And if you&#8217;re interested in that, I think that the test team can use your assistance there and your help and your expertise. Of course.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Tools</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> So I think I have one thing, Riad Benguella, he’s exploring a special website that would track performance metrics over time for the Gutenberg editor. So, It&#8217;s the same thing that you see every time when a new Gutenberg release post is published the bottom of every post, and that would be something that like a chart that would show you how it changes with every Gutenberg release. So, to save some historical data, if that&#8217;s working, that would be really nice to observe how it all changes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh, nice. I just clicked on the link that was in the PR. So I&#8217;d like it. It&#8217;s a website that&#8217;s on Versal, and talks about the different, the type speed, the inserting, the opening, insert opening, insert of hover items, the load of the whole editor, selecting block, selecting and insert a search. So it&#8217;s quite nice. Yes. I linked through the additional site as well in the show notes.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Documentation</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>And then there were some documentation changes. Some of them were as minuscule as adding a missing space or changing an intake, but one of them is the missing IATN, the internationalization filters for the documentation that was caught by one of the developers on Twitter and turned out it didn&#8217;t come over from when the documentation is automated or is imported into the WordPress developer handbook. So that has been fixed now. So you get all the filters that deal with internationalization of your block editor assets.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, that&#8217;s really nice for plugin or if they want to modify translations. And it existed there since WordPress 5.7. So, quite a while.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. Sorry, it wasn&#8217;t in the documentation. And there was one block API change where you, I think it was one of your PRs, how to improve block assets or versioned. And what&#8217;s the background of this and why was that important?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Oh, it was purely technical on the WordPress core side. So there were some concerns that we were using the file time function, which is based on the five system to generate version for style sheets, which when you have more complex setup, like several servers, then the value might differ when load balancer kicks in. So, it&#8217;s fine for a single website, but for more complex, it&#8217;s not so reliable. So, the idea is that, we now have in block JSON version field, so you can provide the version of your block, and that is used for style sheets to define whether browsers should load a newer version of the same style sheet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. It&#8217;s kind of to bust out of the cache, for the style sheets. that&#8217;s very interesting. Cool.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah. Even if it&#8217;s not provided, then the WordPress version will be used. So, it&#8217;s still not a big deal if someone forgets to do it, but in some cases, if you resolve, and then you probably should add that to our blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. It makes it definitely explicit, it&#8217;s probably better than just assumed.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Code Quality</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>And then there were some code quality issues that were resolved or checked. One of them is a performance issue, that&#8217;s the refactor of the post author component. But George Mamadashvili, short MamaDuka, he refracted it, so it only requests fields that are needed for the rendering, like the ID and the name, and that reduced the trend data transfer considerably by roughly 50%. So, these kinds of changes or behind the scenes, they&#8217;re very technical, but it&#8217;s really important to know that they are happening. Good. So this brings to the end of the changelog. Yeah. It&#8217;s a good release and try out all the new features. And there is one discussion that we mentioned earlier was about the flex layouts.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>What’s in Active Development or Discussed</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that the prototype is in the plugin, Riad Benguella who published that also opened another issue to discuss further iterations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And we&#8217;ll have it in the show notes for you. It&#8217;s 3-3-6-8-7, the issue. And he describes the current state of the floor layout and the flex layout. And then the, an experimental way to switch between the two, as Grzegorz mentioned earlier, and then also outlines concepts that were resolved in a refactoring of some of the blocks to a declarative behavior on context, but Matias Ventura also chimed in and mentioned the grid layouts to be worth exploring as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if you dear listeners want to get in an early discussion of a new feature, this is the time for this feature, subscribe to the issue, chime in in the discussion, and lend your expertise and your ideas to the developer team. I know that way back in 2019, for instance, I think in November &#8217;19, Automattic published a grid layout block. And I wonder how many of the learned lessons can be applied to the core editor. So I&#8217;m also linked to that particular plugin and had his last updates were three weeks ago. So it&#8217;s still on, and it has about a hundred thousand active installs. So it&#8217;s definitely something people are looking for, and your discussion, you can definitely contribute to that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> From my perspective, I think that the biggest advantage of the current exploration is that it or uses it an existing block and only add it as a feature.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Well, this is our bell, it&#8217;s the end of the changelog.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, we are at the end of the show, and I want to remind everyone too, if you have something that we should talk about, what questions or news that you want us to include, send them to email, <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. That&#8217;s <a href=\"mailto:changelog@Gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@Gutenbergtimes.com</a>. If you want to write a review, if you like it, write a review for us, please in either the iTunes or Stitcher, or any other of the podcast directories, it would really help us to spread this wide and far.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>All right. Well, thank you, Greg. This was a great time to spend with you again.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Thank you Birgit, and thank you for all our listeners, we are really glad to have your support. And so, see you all in two weeks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yes, two weeks, and thank you for listening. Bye-bye.</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, 16 Oct 2021 19:45:08 +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: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: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:105:\"Gutenberg Times: Changelog #48 – WordPress 5.8 Release, WordPress  Pattern Directory and Gutenberg 11.1\";s:7:\"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=18593\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:91:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-48-wordpress-pattern-directory-gutenberg-11-1/\";s: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:51307:\"<p>Grzegorz (Greg) Ziolkowski and Birgit Pauli-Haack talked about the release week with WordPress 5.8 out the door, followed by the new WordPress.org Pattern Directory and Gutenberg 11.1. They also discussed what’s next with Gutenberg.</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-48-wordpress-pattern-directory-gutenberg-11-1#shownotes\">Show Notes </a>/ <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-48-wordpress-pattern-directory-gutenberg-11-1#transcript\">Transcript</a></p>\n\n\n\n<span id=\"more-18593\"></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>Releases WordPress open-source project</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/tatum/\">WordPress 5.8 Tatum</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0-J2Rqwh4U\">Too Marvelous for Words by Art Tatum</a>  Indeed, marvelous! 🙂</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2021/07/20/the-wordpress-pattern-directory-is-live/\">The WordPress Pattern Directory is live</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://buddypress.org/2021/07/buddypress-9-0-0-mico/\">BuddyPress 9.0.0 “Mico”</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/buddypress-9-0-0-transforms-legacy-widgets-into-blocks\">BuddyPress 9.0.0 Transforms Legacy Widgets Into Blocks</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Gutenberg 11.1</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/21/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-1-0-21-july/\"></a><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/21/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-1-0-21-july/\">What’s new in Gutenberg 11.1.0? (21 July)</a> <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/21/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-1-0-21-july/\">&nbsp;</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-1-adds-drag-and-drop-support-for-list-view-and-upgrades-block-borders\">Gutenberg 11.1 Adds Drag-and-Drop Support for List View and Upgrades Block Borders</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2>What&#8217;s in Active Development and Discussion</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><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? Site Editing status check (Late July-August 2021)</a> by Hector Prieto</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Global Styles: <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/33447\">Design Tools Overview&nbsp;</a>by Matias Ventura</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Widget Editor: <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/33242\">Widgets editor refinement</a> by Robert Anderson</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/25940\">Gallery Refactor</a>: Convert Gallery block to use Image blocks instead of having its own nested image format</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-container-6172d867af32a wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<p>Did you like this episode? Please write us a reviewhttps://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog</p>\n\n\n\n<p> </p>\n\n\n\n<p><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></p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Please write us a review on iTunes! <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/itunes/\">(Click here to learn how)</a></em></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"transcript\"><strong>Transcript </strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Hello, and welcome to our 48th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog Podcast. In today&#8217;s episode, we will talk about the release week with WordPress 5.8 out the door, followed by the new WordPress.org pattern directory, and Gutenberg 11.1. We&#8217;ll also discuss what&#8217;s next with Gutenberg.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at the Gutenberg Times, and I&#8217;m here with my co-host, Grzegorz Ziolkowski, code wrangler at Automattic and WordPress Core contributor on the Core editor team. Good afternoon, Grzegorz. How are you doing?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: Hi, good afternoon. I&#8217;m great, feeling relaxed. It&#8217;s the middle of the summer. The weather is good. It&#8217;s so nice to meet you again. How are things on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Oh, we are getting ready to jump over it on a plane to head to Germany in a week. We are glad that we finally can visit our parents after two years. We&#8217;ll stay for a while and work from home-home, like the real home. We think of our parents&#8217; homes as home still. We&#8217;re again quite excited, and we&#8217;ll stay for a long time, for five weeks to eight weeks. Really our parents are delighted, it is the least to say about it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</em>: That&#8217;s really exciting. Also we will be on the same side of the ocean when you fly to Germany, and also it&#8217;s the country next to Poland, so that&#8217;s exciting.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Right. Same time zone.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> We will be a few hours away. Same time zone.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Same time zone. Makes scheduling so much nicer. I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;re going to travel a lot to other places than just hometowns like Munich and Saarbrücken and Freiburg, Kenzingen, so it will be more on the southeast side than on the northwest side or northeast side, but I will go back to Poland very soon. I really loved Warsaw when I was there. It&#8217;s now five years ago. I met so many nice people there. It was really great. I want to go to Krakow, I want to go to Danzig. They&#8217;re a German word, so it&#8217;s really ….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> You should go visit Ratzwaf, my hometown. It&#8217;s eight hours away from Munich by car, so I recommend that one.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>What’s Released &#8211; WordPress 5.8</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. I&#8217;ll definitely do that, but getting back to our Changelog here, what&#8217;s being released? There were a lot of things happening in the WordPress space this week, especially around Gutenberg and the new features in WordPress 5.8. We will catch up with it also in upcoming episodes, but for this week, I&#8217;m quite busy from all the releases.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Who isn&#8217;t?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. I don&#8217;t know how you all do it. I think a lot of people are doing on it. WordPress 5.8 Tatum is out. It&#8217;s named after the American jazz pianist, Art Tatum. If you ever had hear him play, there are quite a few videos on YouTube that I played them. He&#8217;s a virtuous jazz piano player and it was just amazing to listen to it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The release is the reflection of hard work, of 530 generous volunteer contributors. Collaboration occurred on over 320 tickets on track and over 1,500 pull requests on GitHub. These are mind-boggling numbers, but that&#8217;s what Matt Mullenweg wrote in his release announcement. Yay contributors and yay Gutenberg team.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, that release is spectacular, in my opinion, one of the biggest at least since I joined the Gutenberg core team and I&#8217;m contributing to the core. This release is really packed with new features. As probably our listeners already know, because we talked about them quite a lot, this is the block widget editor, template editor, duotone feature, list view, and the new preference modal.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, it&#8217;s not only the WordPress 5.8, it&#8217;s also new WordPress packages. All the updates were published just after the release went out, so if someone is using pieces of WordPress in a different way, they also can benefit from all the same functionality to everything that was added to the Gutenberg plugin after the release was cut out.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That&#8217;s awesome. Those who use Gutenberg and Drupal or those who use Laraberg also get these updates in their system. On the evening of July 20th was the release date for 5.8, but on the evening, the meta team also announced that the first version of the WordPress pattern directory is live, and it comes with a ton of curated block patterns that were curated by the design team as well. Now you can just copy-paste them into your block editor. How cool is that?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Block patterns are available in 13 languages, so the polyglots not only had to translate the WordPress 5.8, but also block pattern sites. Many more languages will follow. Shout out to the polyglot team that had to work on a lot of more translations than usual for a release. I think 55 locales, not necessarily languages, but 55 locales are actually 100% already finished up the translation for 5.8. That&#8217;s really amazing.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, that&#8217;s impressive. It always amazes me.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> The pattern directory has, I don&#8217;t know, over 80 patterns in there and the patterns themselves are also released. There was a moment in time before the release where you saw the same pattern in 15 different languages, it was just interesting, where you had all the Korean signs and the Chinese signs and then the Hebrew. It was, I&#8217;d say, wow, this is amazing. It&#8217;s a worldwide project. Sometimes we forget about it, but when you see all the languages coming in, it&#8217;s so eye-opening for me.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, but this is not all because we had block widgets editor enabled. The BuddyPress team, they released a new version, 9.0.0, and it contains &#8230; they transform all the legacy widgets into blocks, so you can use them now on the widgets screen. That&#8217;s a great way to start with blocks when you try to convert shortcodes or widgets into blocks. Then, of course, on Wednesday the Gutenberg team released Gutenberg 11.1.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That&#8217;s a good point with converting widgets and shortcodes into blocks, yeah. I think you can connect with a BuddyPress team, and if you have trouble, connect with them and see what they did and how they did it and what trouble they had and how they overcome that. I think that will be a good way to start if you haven&#8217;t worked with blocks yet.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Gutenberg 11.1 &#8211; Enhancements</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, Gutenberg 11.1 comes with a lot of enhancements. I really like that release because some of the blocks actually got some additional features. It was more a content creator and those who work with blocks to actually publish things get a lot more features now again after many, many releases where it was more about foundations and it was more about the future of Gutenberg rather than the here and now.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I think that&#8217;s the benefit of having this big WordPress release out, that contributors can finally focus on bringing maybe not big features but some small enhancements, some small improvements about their workflows that improve that daily work for the whole group of people who are using Gutenberg, not only those who are waiting for full-site editing but also all the users that use it for a few years now and can benefit from all the feedback chart during that time and it&#8217;s now materialized into nice user experience.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Speaking about user experience, Ella van Durpe has added a PWA, and we talked about it I think on our last show, a little bit about it, but PWA is a progressive web app that you can install on your mobile phone. She has normally the front end of a website is installed as a PWA on a mobile phone, but the backend lives from the mobile responses side of the desktop version.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ella did something else and it allows the WordPress admin to be installed separately as a home screen and you have easier access, and it&#8217;s separated from the front end. I tested it yesterday quite a bit and it works very well for adding content to a site from your mobile phone. I used it together with the Hypernotes plugin, that&#8217;s a private notes-taking app, and it works very well with the PWA features there. I can make notes when I&#8217;m on the plane, on my phone. When I&#8217;m on the internet again, it updates the site when I&#8217;m back online, so that&#8217;s really cool.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I guess the offline support is only for the plugin you mentioned that Ella published together with this change, because I don&#8217;t think that it would work out of the box for the regular post or page publishing.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> I will need to test this. Right now it&#8217;s just theory.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, but I guess that&#8217;s the ultimate goal, to have the support. That would be a game-changer for all the content creators. They could just write wherever they want.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That&#8217;s the aim for it. I hope. There might be some overlap, just for those who test it out, with the PWA plugin that the WordPress team at Google put in the repository and has already add quite a few installs, I think about 40,000 installs, active installs, but I saw on those PR notes or issue notes that one of the developers, Wes Rutter, is actually actively working on the Google PWA plugin to avoid any possible conflict with the Gutenberg WA experiment there. We&#8217;ll see how that works out. Good.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> We have some enhancements also to the blocks. One of them is at least the block, it has now link color control. For instance, columns block, it has a new feature which allows to stack columns on the mobile screen. Instead of having six columns displayed in a tiny screen, now you can enforce the setup wherein just like every column tags the full width of the screen. It&#8217;s a very nice enhancement that probably many website owners had to work around with CSS now it&#8217;s natively supported.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, and it&#8217;s supported without actually mobile breakpoints because those are moving targets. You don&#8217;t have to set them out, but you could if you want to.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The PR that&#8217;s linked in the release notes, there were quite a few discussions and design testings, and everybody shared how they worked it out and what still needs to be done. I find it quite educating to go through that and read up about what the problems were, how they were solved and how they fixed the edge cases on it. Sometimes you just go and read up a bit some of those PRs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, in this release, the post term block now has support attribute for the separator. Sometimes, you want to separate them by comma. I think that&#8217;s the default. The separator of the post terms, so when you have multiple categories or multiple tags for a post, you can now also decide on the separator. You could even use emojis as a separator, I&#8217;ve seen. That&#8217;s quite funny.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I think there is also for the tag cloud block, there were some changes that removed editor styles that were causing the different presentation in the editor and on the front end. I don&#8217;t see that so often these days, but there are still cases that are actively being improved, and that&#8217;s great, because the goal is just to have one-to-one experience. Especially with the full-site editing view, that will be very important because people don&#8217;t want to jump between the preview and the editing mode too often and anywhere in one canvas, not like in Customizer when you have this sidebar and you edit inside there. It&#8217;s just one place to edit everything.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That&#8217;s a little bit different from the block editor in the post and page screen. When you go there on preview, you open up the front end and look at it, but in the template editor, that&#8217;s not how the preview works. It&#8217;s a little bit different for the template editor. Really, I just read it again, and I really like that you now have the ability to change the number on the tags that are shown. If an editor puts 20 tags on a post but your designer says, &#8220;We only show five of them,&#8221; so you can put those in as a setting on the tag cloud block.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s also for the link editing. It was a little bit cumbersome where you have to figure it out by osmosis, I guess, how to unlink a section from the link, and there is now an unlink button. It&#8217;s more on the link control pop-over. It&#8217;s more a link rather than a button, but now you can just click on it and the link disappears again, which I think is nice. It&#8217;s a fast way to do this.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> There is also a very important enhancement that we probably should mention earlier. This is for the change for the list view. Now, there is support for drag-and-drop functionality. Previously you would have to go to the canvas of the editor and just grab one of the blocks, which is, some blocks take a lot of space, so sometimes it&#8217;s really hard to precisely pick the place or scroll the screen.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now you have this much smaller handles because it&#8217;s just one row in the list view and you can just take it and drag it to another place. It&#8217;s much more smoother experience and much more easier to put the block exactly where you want, especially when there are a few levels of nesting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> It&#8217;s a really nifty feature. I tested it then I&#8217;m just, wow, this is a game-changer. Now you can put something that&#8217;s off the screen, grab it, and move it just up to a higher place on the post without having to screen things or if you don&#8217;t get it right in the selection, and then you just &#8230; it&#8217;s so much nicer because the drag-and-drop from off the screen to up the screen, off the screen, it was a little cumbersome, but if you use a list view drag-and-drop, it&#8217;s so much easier to change things around. Yay, good work, team.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> The one thing that I just thought about is, can you drag something from the list view to the editor, or the other way around?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> No. No, you just drag it up and down the list view, but it will be copied on the editor.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s something that people would want, but it&#8217;s a nice technical challenge, right?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. That&#8217;s a testing challenge. Good.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I just wanted to tell that there is one small enhancement. When there&#8217;s only one block in the drop-down menu in the block&#8217;s toolbar, that&#8217;s from the three dots icon, you could move to even there was only one block, which was impossible. Now this is fixed. It&#8217;s more like a bug-fixing in my opinion, but it&#8217;s also an enhancement for the experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> In the same region, it&#8217;s pretty much disable the post publish button if it&#8217;s saving non-post entities, if the meta tags or something like that is saved, non-meta box items that are in post meta. Also the preferences have publish label and consolidated option in the preference modal that was just released, and of course it&#8217;s the second iteration of it, and it gets some new updates then.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I really like this new &#8230; not that new, but the way how it evolved and everything is consolidated in one model. That makes it easier to discover all the options that are there.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> I&#8217;m just still not getting, for many, many years, now I can say it for many, many years, it&#8217;s more than three, I would like to have the block manager be a little bit more feature-rich because if I switch off a block, I would really want to know if I used it multiple times, especially when it&#8217;s a block that comes from plugins. If I want to do a review, which blocks did I use and all that, I need a separate plugin to do that. I think it would be really helpful if it were out of the box in the block editor, but yeah, I&#8217;ll try my best and there are some plugins out there that can be a good inspiration for it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I agree.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That&#8217;s my soapbox of the block manager.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>APIs&nbsp;</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> On this note, we can move to the new API section. There are two changes there. One of them is, in the Gutenberg plugin, we have now a new stable endpoint which allows developers to get the list of block editor settings. It&#8217;s more or less the same what is exposed from the server for every instance of the editor, but this one is a nice way to grab the same set of settings for a special way of dealing with the editor. The mobile app is a great example because this is the actual use case in this case, but it also gives the opportunity for other plugin developers to find ways to build their own instance of the editor and have all the settings.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other change is that we now have a new search control component that&#8217;s inside the WordPress components package or under WP.components.globalnamespace inside the editor. This control was used in a few places, so it was just extracted to make it available for third-party usage, which is a really nice simplification if someone needs that UI interaction.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Thank you, yes. Back to the block editor settings, what kind of settings would that be? Is it per block or is it the editor itself?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> No. It&#8217;s per screen. At the moment, there are two different screens out of the blocks. One of them is for the widgets and the other one is for that post/page editor which is hard to tell what will happen with the site editor if it will be a new screen in the future, but that&#8217;s the distinction.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What you get from there is there is a set of some default settings like all the types of the images you can use in the editor or you can get list of color presets, you can get the list of phone size presets. There is all those features that you have, and some of them can be customized and changed by the plugin with a big range of filters. In general, it&#8217;s all those things that you would like to customize for your site, and that&#8217;s set on the server.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> It would also be something like the screen has a full-site editing mode or the spotlight on or something like that? Is that part of that endpoint?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah, some of those settings might be there. If the full site editing team is enabled, that would be one of the settings, but for the spotlight, I think it&#8217;s only set on the client side.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. Right.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> The best way to check is just go to the WordPress code base and check all those options. Maybe it&#8217;s documented somewhere. If not, we probably should do that and expose in the developer documentation.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: I&#8217;m assuming then, from the list that you had, it reads the theme JSON file or from the theme as well, so you get all the color palettes and all that. Good.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah. It compiles from the different servers, so it&#8217;s not only that, but also some existing functions that are in the WordPress for quite long that you normally use like, for instance, a set of image presets like the thumbnail, large and so on. Just consolidated in one API. I know that the folder for the REST API endpoint, there is always an API schema. This is a good way. Probably this is how it will be documented because this will be published to the REST API documentation, so you have automatically generated docs.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Exactly. That&#8217;s definitely a place, when you write plugins or themes, to check it out and see if you can refactor some of your work before because that is now much easier to do.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Performance</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There were just some performance features. One is, we talked about the list view, and the team also improved quite a bit the performance on it. That&#8217;s all in one package, but it&#8217;s in different places here in the changelog.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Accessibility</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There are quite a few accessibility improvements here, but one is highlighted that the high-contrast mode is now available for the icon buttons. That certainly is for those who are visually a little bit impaired.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Bug Fixes&nbsp;</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Then there were 34 bug fixes and there are some of them are cosmetics, some of them are just some edge cases, like the search block button position drop-down had some accessibility issues that are fixed. Now you can change the border radii. Sometimes when the Italian word has a different plural, sometimes it makes it into English language and sometimes it doesn&#8217;t. Comma and commas, it doesn&#8217;t, but radius and radii, it does. That&#8217;s why I&#8217;m a little chuckling a bit as I&#8217;m reading through this.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> There was also a bug fix for the duotone feature. Now, it allows to avoid rendering duplicate style sheet and SVG files. As far as I remember, there was a change that consolidates all the changes to duotone and it&#8217;s moved to the footer, so that improved the readability of the DOM tree, which helps with CSS styling.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was also some technical changes. That was targeting the widget screen. That shows how the required compatibility is important in WordPress. In the past, long, long before the Gutenberg was a thing, there was the classic editor that was exposed under WP.editorglobal. When the Gutenberg was born, it was also put under the same namespace, which probably wasn&#8217;t the best idea in retrospect, but to work around that, there is now a special so-called “shin” that allows those two objects to coexist and they just merge together and show that all the functionality is exposed also on the widget screen.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Exactly. Thank you.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I know that there was also a last-time change for WordPress 5.8. There was this fix for select-all, if you are using mark comment A shortcut. The way it worked in WordPress 5.7 was if you wouldn&#8217;t have any selection, it would just copy all the blocks, whereas for WordPress 5.8, it didn&#8217;t quite work, but eventually the last approach was that if you click anywhere in the editor&#8217;s canvas, then it will copy all blocks, but if you use this comment A shortcut, when you click, for instance, on the header, then it would just work as in on other websites. There&#8217;s these distinctions that in my opinion make sense, but maybe it&#8217;s confusing for users if they are familiar with the old behavior.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Thank you for pointing that out. I didn&#8217;t realize that, but it makes total sense. What we heard from the tags block were the editor screen and the front end screen is matching the layout, that goes actually &#8230; some of the big fixes where these kinds of changes, where some of the styling that was applied to a block or after the block has been removed so it better matches the front end. It goes through quite a few of those updates.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For those who work on the theme JSON and try to switch off and on some of the features, like the color duotone or the spacing units, you now can add empty values in the JSON file to signal that there is no feature for that. All right, that brings us to the &#8230; there&#8217;s one item that&#8217;s highlight that extracts snack bars into a separate component. Is it lunchtime yet?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I&#8217;m after lunch.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> You&#8217;re ready for dinner.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> &#8230; but I guess it made you hungry.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Made me hungry, yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> It&#8217;s a funny name for this little pop-up that shows up in Gutenberg on the bottom left of the screen after you do some impressive action, like you publish a post. There was some issue with the layering, so this is Z index in CSS. It was covered with something, it was fixed, and it was also extracted to its own section in the abstraction that is built inside the block editor which is called layout in the interface package. There&#8217;s some planned follow-up work for all the notices to have a special handling, so they are always displayed on top of everything else.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Oh, yeah. Makes sense. It&#8217;s not covered up and people don&#8217;t know if it worked. Thank you.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Experiments</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Now we can go to experiments. We have 16 items in this section. It&#8217;s not the usual number we saw in the past because some of those experiments are now in Core, so that&#8217;s a great progress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Or are in the Gutenberg plugin. They&#8217;re not necessarily all in Core because the full site template editor is not yet in Core, the site editor stream, but it&#8217;s out of experimentation. The plugins, when you install it, you have it right away and don&#8217;t have to look in experimentation.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The experiments are actually only three sections now. That&#8217;s a component system, it&#8217;s a G2 we talked about quite often already, but it&#8217;s now getting into the plugin, and then there&#8217;s a navigation block and the screen and the global styles. They are still in experimentation.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> In the component system, we have a new experimental component, so to speak, and it&#8217;s called flayout. Flyout?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Flyout.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Initially, the idea was to call it pop-over, but this name is already taken by the existing component, but it has some different mechanics. It was really hard to map the new functionality to the old one, so the decision was made to just introduce a new one.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The follow-up work is planned to use this flyout in as many places as possible and figure out if the old components still need to exist or it can be duplicated or just maybe the name will be pop-over after all. It&#8217;s really hard, all those changes for the UI to make it happen, especially when you know that so many projects use those components, which is both handling but also brings this complexity.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> If a plugin developer develops a block or something like that, they could use all those components, right, and experiment with it?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Grzegorz Ziolkowski: Yeah. They can, but there is no guarantee that the API will stay and they are also prefixed with underscore, underscore experimental. Use it at your own risk.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Don&#8217;t try this at home.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> It&#8217;s always like when you are in States, you just need to sign a waiver before using any of the….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Experiments, yeah.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> &#8230; excursion of ….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. Navigation block is getting some attention now that all the widget things is at least released in its second iteration and has quite a few changes there, be it from color options for the sub-menu to improved handling of the overlay to the inheritance of the placeholder for the menu item. Also made it into the release is a refractor of the navigation block rendering using allocation attribute.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> The change is for global style. Sound very technical even for me.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> We talk about that a little bit on a higher level when we talk about what&#8217;s next for Gutenberg.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Documentation</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the changelog, we&#8217;re coming to the documentation section, and that definitely had quite some updates that are interesting for the developers that are working on extending Gutenberg.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I guess at least for the block API and for block editor API, this is something I worked on, it&#8217;s all the content that you would be familiar if you read Dev Notes for the same topic, but it&#8217;s brought to the documentation. I think the more interesting part, at least for myself, is the theme JSON changes. We have now examples and highlighted backward compatibility usage. That&#8217;s quite important I think to look at if you are experimenting with this theme JSON format.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> With that, of course came an update on the format with the WordPress 5.8 changes.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Also for the same topic, I think the biggest challenge now is that there is still an active development, so new features are added. In the documentation, it needs to be very clear what&#8217;s already in WordPress Core and what&#8217;s part of the Gutenberg plugin experience, so I think there is also an entry and a change that covers that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That&#8217;s a good point. I think the last few years, there was quite some confusion. Especially when you have plugins and you need to gear it towards multiple versions of WordPress, who is on 5.7, who is on 5.6 to make that all work was, even if the new features come, you need to go back and say, not for you, not for you, not for you in your code. It&#8217;s not for WordPress 5.1 or 2 or 3 or 4, but it&#8217;s only for 5.6 and 7.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Code Quality</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;re coming to code quality changes, and it seems that there are quite a few that you could be talking about that changed.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I highlighted changes for the API fetch that we discussed in the last episode. There was some follow-up on that front. Now there is a user auto-completer component in the block editor that doesn&#8217;t use this API fetch directly by the abstraction built on top of that. The same applies to the latest post block. Those things are in motion and very quickly are changed in the WordPress.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are new components that were &#8230; those components were experimental: the gradient picker and the custom gradient picker. Those two components are now considered stable, so everyone is encouraged to try them out and to use in their products. The backward compatibility will be assured from now on.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> This is the keyword for me is gradients! I love gradients, yes, and I like that we have them in Gutenberg so much.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Tools</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Then there were some additional tool changes, 16 of them for testing dependencies and workflows. Now, previously-skipped widget tests are now enabled.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> There&#8217;s some back and forth. I highlighted those items that I consider interesting, that some tests were enabled, they&#8217;re disabled, enabled again. It&#8217;s very important for the projects to have a reliable verification from end-to-end tests, unit tests and all sorts of tests that you can come up with. It&#8217;s a very strong emphasis to have that always be something that you can look at and say, &#8220;It&#8217;s working. I can just merge the change,&#8221; because otherwise, if there&#8217;s so many contributors, it will be impossible to keep the pace on the tests.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, keep the pace or not. I have to go back and do a regression testing as well, which you do.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> There are also some new tests other than that. I encourage everyone, if they want to figure out how they could contribute with code, so finding a piece of UI interaction that isn&#8217;t covered through this test and writing end-to-end tests is a great experience in both to see how this automation works, how you can see the interactive mode and look how computer is just doing user interactions in your Chrome browser. That&#8217;s really nice experience and really rewarding when you make it go and to test passes and all the verifications are checked.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> It&#8217;s instant gratification. What can be better than that? I have found that that&#8217;s my programming style is I need instant gratification. I can&#8217;t wait until everything is compiled and all that. That&#8217;s why HTML was so fabulous for me. I can see it right away.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> With CSS, it&#8217;s even better.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> It&#8217;s even better? Yeah.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> You just open dev tools and just change something and you know that it works.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, and you can change it only for you, and you don&#8217;t have to even publish a code for it.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> The last item I had is just mostly for us when we are going to the changelog is that now those, as I said, some of the experiments that were moved to the stable feature, so that&#8217;s why we don&#8217;t see as many items in that list.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> I think what also was on the list, but we skipped it, is that the changelog automation, when the plugin is released, there is now a process there to look at each automation process to look at each PR and classified at the different categories, and then put it into the block library, so when you read through the release notes, you can better identify what the change actually was about and have some of the changes clustered in one category. I really like that. There&#8217;s some great work to be done there.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I think that we should see that in two weeks, when the new changelog is generated, because it was too late to use those changes for the release. I&#8217;m really looking forward to it because it will have a better grouping, and that will improve the reading experience.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That was then the Gutenberg 11.1. Go out and test it and try it and work with it. I don&#8217;t know how many of you use Gutenberg actually in production. I do on many sites. I have yet to have to return to a previous version, but I also know where the pitfalls are that I can work around and say, &#8220;No, that doesn&#8217;t work. Don&#8217;t do it,&#8221; to some of the code editors.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>What’s in Active Development or Discussed</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>That gets us into what&#8217;s an active development and what&#8217;s discussed. Hector Prieto has skipped the What&#8217;s Next focus post that comes out every month for July, for beginning of July because of all the work that was to be done for WordPress 5.8, and everybody was focused on that. He published just also this week the new site editor status check for late July, so for one week, and then for the whole of August, which is the focus project. You had a quote that you found interesting.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Yeah. I reached out to Hector and asked him about the higher-level overview. The main idea is to turn a page after 5.8 from the classic FSA foundational work to a new iteration that focuses apart from remaining things like navigation, on design tools, patterns and all kinds of interactions that improve and ease the user experience as the editor complexity grows.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That means that for the site editing infrastructure, there were a few focuses. One is of course the template previewing, making it easier for people to see what they&#8217;re doing. Then the browse mode, that&#8217;s a new mode, I think. Then, mosaic view for theme template. You get cards from the theme template, so you can choose them and you hopefully also see &#8230; I saw some early mock-ups of that where you see some preview of how it looks, how each template looks, so you can select the right one.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, restrict the block editing capabilities based on context. That&#8217;s certainly important when you have a block that&#8217;s used on a page or a block that&#8217;s used, for instance, in a block template or a widget setting, and also if it&#8217;s an inner block or an outer block or with a query loop block. I think that comes very much into fruition there.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I&#8217;m looking forward to see the browse mode because it essentially allows you to navigate with the links that are on the page, so you can just go from the whole screen and see how it looks like, go to the About page, change something there, go to the contact page, change something there, it will be very smooth experience once this is in action.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That sounds almost like a front-end editing, but in the editor. I&#8217;d like to see that, yes.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Global Styles</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>One other part is certainly the global styles. Global styles was always two parts. One was what then became the theme JSON feature where you have a central place for theme developers to have all the settings for a certain theme, and that&#8217;s in a configuration file, but the second part was for user to change global styles with a user interface in the sidebar of the site editor, and has been in experiment I think since last December or November already, but that is now make it ready for more users to test it and get it out of the experiments into the plugin and then make it ready for 5.9 hopefully that will come out in December.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Just to clarify, is it this feature that has its own sidebar presence in the site editor, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yes. Yeah.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> That&#8217;s this section?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. That&#8217;s a global style.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski: </em>It probably builds on top of theme JSON, so that only shows the customizations you make to the theme.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Right. The theme could actually allow you to have multiple color palettes, but then, it gives you that interface to change it up and then react to it. I think it&#8217;s a big, big task to get this right and get it interesting for a user to actually pursue that, but also to not be all things to all people. That&#8217;s a balance to strike there, but yeah, that&#8217;s one of the focus items that Hector Prieto highlighted in his post. I&#8217;m just going to look on &#8230;.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He has other things as well, one as the theme blocks that have more of the post aid, post excerpt, post feature, post content kind of blocks for the query block, and also the site header, site title and the header thing are already in there, but they of course need to be refined. Then, the query loop block will get some enhancement. Then, another focus is the navigation block and editor screen and site editing gradual adoption, which needs to be seen how can a theme move from a classic theme over a hybrid theme to be a universal theme or a block-based full-site editing theme only. All those interactions are to be discussed and worked on.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are even more. The whole post is I think about 3,000 words long, but it&#8217;s a milestone to look at that, okay, we know that and what&#8217;s coming up and we are not done yet. We are not there yet and there are quite a few things to be done.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I think that&#8217;s so big because it more covers the scope of the WordPress 5.9 release, at least what&#8217;s in plans. Rather than something that you can realistically do in August, when people on the north of the globe spend time during summer vacation, so I don&#8217;t expect so much movement in that area, but it&#8217;s great to see the vision for the release, and everyone can just focus on their area of interest and drill down in it later throughout there and get involved in those parts.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> It&#8217;s really a great way to learn more about the details of all those things that might come for 5.9 or even 6.0, because we will have something like what we had in April, where we go look at all the features or the team is going to look at all the features that, is it ready yet, is it ready yet, or do we punt it for 6.0?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The feature lead, if such a thing is actually there, Robert Anderson talked about, has an overview issue on GitHub now with what&#8217;s next for the widget editor now that&#8217;s in Core, what are the things to be worked on. That&#8217;s definitely something to look through because it&#8217;s how to smooth out the rough edges, improve performance and stability, and improve extensibility for all the plugin developers out there that now want to extend the widget editor or widget sections.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s a good overview issue and see what&#8217;s all worked on. Of course, we&#8217;ll share that all in the show notes. What I found was a little bit put on the ways, on the side was the gallery refractor for the gallery block that switches from a &#8230; to have nested image blocks in the gallery rather than create the images over and over, but we haven&#8217;t gone further with that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It hasn&#8217;t been merged with the Gutenberg plugin yet. It&#8217;s still out there, but I&#8217;m really excited about it and I have been excited since I started testing it because it has so much more potential and I&#8217;m really looking forward to that. I think I&#8217;m going to go back to that and see if I can assist in some more testing there.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I think it&#8217;s mostly about the Core compatibility. That&#8217;s the only challenge that is making this process so difficult. That&#8217;s why it takes so long.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> No, I totally get it. I was not trying to be impatient. I know the last 10% normally take 80% of the time that it takes to build something like that. It would be such a rich experience for a content creator that it&#8217;s worth spending time on and getting it right, of course.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> I think everyone is aware that you could now use list view and use drag-and-drop to move your image to the gallery or move out of the gallery and reorder some of the images. There&#8217;s so much potential when you start using those concepts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Just to apply the image styles, that you have a gallery of head shots that you can make round for a conference or just a little event or so that you have, it&#8217;s just a nice experience, rather than….</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Or maybe groups inside the gallery. You could create columns, groups, whatever. It&#8217;s so exciting to think about all the possibilities that it opens.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> I like that creativity say, &#8220;When we can do that, can we do other things?&#8221; Yeah.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s pretty much we&#8217;re on the end of the show. For all those that are on holiday and a vacation and are outside and away from the keyboard and still listening to it, we&#8217;re so happy you&#8217;re here. When you get back to the computer, you have so many great things to test out and work on. Do you have any last announcements or things that you weren&#8217;t able to get in before that, Grzegorz?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> No, no. I think we covered everything.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Exactly, yeah. As always, the show notes will be published under GutenbergTimes.com/Podcast. This is Episode 48. If you have questions, suggestions or news you want us to include, send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. That&#8217;s <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> We would like also to hear about our show and whether you like it or not, so we are looking forward for all the reviews so we can improve what we cover in here. We are always happy to hear your feedback.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Good point. Thanks so much for taking that on. Thank you all for being here. Thank you, Greg, for spending time on this and working hard on this. It was a pleasure talking to you. Thanks everybody for this time. Goodbye.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Grzegorz Ziolkowski:</em> Likewise, thank you very much, Birgit. See you in two weeks.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> All right. Bye.&nbsp;</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, 16 Oct 2021 19:45:08 +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:19:\"Gutenberg Changelog\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i: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:92:\"Gutenberg Times: Go/NoGo WordPress 5.9, Pattern Palooza and Popover  – Weekend Edition 189\";s:7:\"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=19292\";s:7:\"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://gutenbergtimes.com/go-nogo-wordpress-5-9-pattern-palooza-and-popover-weekend-edition-189/\";s: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:18038:\"<p>Howdy, </p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a very busy week of meetings, news and live streams. The buzz around the next major WordPress version keeps everyone excited and alert. There is also hard to deal with FOMO*, as we can&#8217;t be at two or three places at the same time. And who has time to watch all the recordings? </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, next week won&#8217;t be any different: Monday, the <a href=\"https://pagebuildersummit.com/\">Page Builder Summit </a>will start with 35+ talks around freelance and agency business their tools. <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#pagebuilder\">Below is a list </a>of all Gutenberg related talks. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The WordPress teams published quite a few posts around the WordPress 5.9 release. It&#8217;s not yet Field Guide time, though. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hope, y&#8217;all have a great weekend with reduced screen time. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit</p>\n\n\n\n<p>PS: The recordings of the last two Live Q &amp; As are available on YouTube. The posts with resources and transcript are in the works. </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiIhJdFfamA&t=9s\">From Classic Themes to block-based Themes</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PZwfvtkQOM&t=10s\">How can we make building custom blocks easier?</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>PPS: In a very short video, <strong>Jamie Marsland</strong> shows us <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvM3kK6l2Y8\">Why WordPress Gutenberg is a threat to Elementor and Divi</a>. #shorts </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">*Fear of Missing Out</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Gutenberg and WordPress Development</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">In his post, <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/15/wordpress-5-9-feature-go-no-go-october-14-2021/\">WordPress 5.9 Feature Go/No-Go</a></strong>,  <strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/priethor\">Hector Prieto</a></strong> published the summary of the meeting, the list of features, the recording, and a transcript. The recording is particularly interesting for Matias Ventura&#8217;s demo of the current state of the major features: </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>List View &#8211; Expand-collapse, Drag &amp; Drop</li><li>Auto-Anchors on Headings</li><li>Border support for blocks</li><li>Layout &#8211; Gap spacing, Flex &amp; Row,</li><li>Typography Tools across Blocks and styles </li><li>Full-site Editing as opt-in, beta preview. </li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout the meeting, I heard the language shifting, in an attempt to simplify talking about the various features. </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Now: <strong>Block Themes</strong> (instead of Block-based Themes)</li><li>Now: <strong>Editor</strong> (instead of Site Editor or Template Editor)</li><li>Now: <strong>Styles</strong> (instead of Global Styles) </li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> wrote about it in the WPTavern:<strong> <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-9-go-no-go-update-all-proposed-features-are-moving-forward\">WordPress 5.9 Go/No-Go Update: All Proposed Features Are Moving Forward</a></strong></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The work on WordPress 5.9 is on track with <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/13/preliminary-road-to-5-9/\">The Preliminary Road 5.9</a>, Matias Ventura posted a couple month ago, except for the Navigation Screen, that did not get past the backwards compatibility issues. The Navigation Block as a major feature for site-building will be available for Block Themes in the new WordPress version. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to learn more about the status on the Navigation Screen and Block project, the team came together in a Hallway Hangout to discuss the priorities for the WordPress 5.9 release. <strong>Daniel Richards</strong> posted the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/15/summary-navigation-editor-and-block-hallway-hangout/\"><strong>Summary: Navigation Editor and Block hallway hangout</strong></a>, including the recording of the meeting. One meeting topic was Backwards compatibility with the current system for the Navigation screen. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The Gutenberg developers also release a new version of the Gutenberg plugin. <strong>Gutenberg 11.7</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Adam Zielinski,</strong> release coordinator for this version, published the release notes: <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/14/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-7-october-13th/\"><strong>What’s new in Gutenberg 11.7 (October 13th)</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> took it for a spin and reviewed it for the WPTavern: <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-7-iterates-on-global-styles-improves-adding-navigation-links-and-adds-column-spacing\"><strong>Gutenberg 11.7 Iterates on Global Styles, Improves Adding Navigation Links, and Adds Column Spacing</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Only two more Gutenberg releases (11.8 + 11.9) until Feature Freeze on November 9th, 2021. </em></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\"><strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/kellychoffman\">Kelly Hoffman</a></strong> and <strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/jameskoster\">James Koster</a></strong>  from the WordPress design team shared their ideas for <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/15/site-editing-ia-concepts-how-to-surface-and-access-new-features/\">Site editing IA concepts: How to surface and access new features</a></strong>. (IA = Information Architecture) <br />They wrote: &#8220;Do we want to begin down this path towards a single page app-like experience, or would it be better to keep things separate for now? It’s time to explore and design the IA (information architecture) so that we can begin to paint a picture of how we might merge this exciting functionality in to core.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can follow along the explorations via the <em>prototype links</em> on Figma. You are offered two ideas: All in one means one editor screen, reached via the “Appearance” Menu, and you edit templates, post, and pages, template parts or change the styles all on this screen that adjust for the various context.  The other idea is to keep post and page editing and site editing features separate, but surface some template parts to be reachable via the post/page editor. </p>\n\n\n\n<img />Example screen: <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/15/site-editing-ia-concepts-how-to-surface-and-access-new-features/\">Site editing IA concepts: How to surface and access new features</a></strong>.\n\n\n\n<p>I can see the all-in-one idea working, as it would hide the rest of the WPAdmin for the common content creation tasks, as that&#8217;s where many end users get lost or bombarded with plugins or theme upsell and update notices. I also enjoy the alternative design to the &#8220;Welcome Guide.&#8221; </p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not a quick decision to make. As the second one feels familiar, and the first one very new, I suspect my decision might be skewed by the &#8220;known&#8221; versus the &#8220;new&#8221;, instead which of the avenues makes the best sense for the End-User. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If you have an opinion formed, leave a comment on the post! </em></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>With WordPress 5.9 only two months away and Go-NoGo decisions made,  <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> started a second round of collecting questions you might have about Full-site editing. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/13/submit-full-site-editing-questions-by-oct-27th/\"><strong>Submit Full Site Editing questions by Oct 27th</strong></a>. McCarthy asked &#8220;As it’s possible, please focus questions specifically around WordPress 5.9 as those will be the highest impact to address and not on larger strategic decisions.&#8221;&nbsp;</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<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<h2>Creating and using Block Themes </h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/mjsdiaz1\">Marcy Diaz</a></strong> recounted in <a href=\"https://amethystwebsitedesign.com/custom-wordpress-full-site-editing-theme-now-live/\"><strong>&#8220;Custom WordPress Full Site Editing Theme Now Live&#8221;</strong></a> who she converted her site from a classic theme to a Block Theme. Along the way, Diaz shared her experiences interacting with tools and interfaces of theme.json or the Styles sidebar in the editor for templates. </p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>It started as an experiment, but it came together easier than I expected, and so it’s live on this site now.</p><cite>Marcy Diaz</cite></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/proposal-for-themes-to-highlight-block-patterns-from-the-directory\"><strong>Proposal for Themes To Highlight Block Patterns From the Directory</strong></a>, Justin Tadlock explores Kjell Reigstad&#8217;s idea:  Designers could not only provide patterns with their themes, but also highlight block patterns from the WordPress.org Pattern Directory to their users. It would reduce the bundle size of the themes, and exposes site builders to the broader range of Patterns in the directory. <em>What do you think about this?</em></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<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of WordPress Block Patterns, <strong>Tammie Lister</strong> added  14 more inspiring block patterns to her <a href=\"http://patternspiration.com/\"><strong>Patternspiration</strong></a> site. I love the alignment of text and photos in <a href=\"http://patternspiration.com/2021/10/06/006/\">006</a> and the <a href=\"http://patternspiration.com/2021/10/02/002/\">Chapter list of 002</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<img /><a href=\"http://patternspiration.com/2021/10/02/002/\">Tammie Lister, Patternspiration 002</a>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Many theme developers are taking their first steps on creating a block theme. <strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/carolinapoena\">Carolina Nymark</a></strong> has a few tips on <strong><a href=\"https://fullsiteediting.com/lessons/troubleshooting-block-themes/\">Troubleshooting block themes</a></strong>. Nymark has been working on block themes for little over a year and has tackle pretty much all problems, you could encounter at the beginning: From syntax errors in theme.json to Template issues. </p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Building Blocks for WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>On his Thursday&#8217;s on Twitch live coding session, <strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/ryanwelcher\">Ryan Welcher</a></strong> showed us <a href=\"https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1176495340\"><strong>how to create an accordion block that uses the InnerBlock component</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\"><strong>Herb Miller</strong>, developer and early adopter of block development, did a deep dive into <a href=\"https://herbmiller.me/internationalizing-and-localizing-block-based-plugins/\"><strong>Internationalizing and localizing block-based plugins</strong></a>. Miller first explains the difference between internationalization, translation and localizing, lists the tools, you&#8217;d be using and explains with code examples how to make your JavaScript and PHP code &#8216;translatable&#8217;. An excellent tutorial, that helps you offer your products to a broader audience and empowers translation teams to make your plugin available in many other languages. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p id=\"4-a-href-https-us-02-web-zoom-us-webinar-register-1016333846354-wn-v-e-xlr-fa-rcab-gz-78-jgj-8-ca-converting-classic-widgets-to-blocks-a\"><a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1016333846354/WN_v-EXlrFaRcabGz78jgj8CA\">Join us on October 28th at 12 pm EDT / 16:00 UTC</a> <br /><strong>Gutenberg Times Live Q &amp; A: <a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1016333846354/WN_v-EXlrFaRcabGz78jgj8CA\">Converting classic widgets to blocks</a> </strong><br />Learn from the BuddyPress team members, <strong>Mathieu Viet</strong>, <strong>David Cavins</strong>, <strong>Varun Dubey</strong>.</p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1016333846354/WN_v-EXlrFaRcabGz78jgj8CA\"><img /></a>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\"><strong>David Gwyer </strong>published another tutorial on his new site <em>InnerBlocks</em>: <a href=\"https://innerblocks.com/how-to-use-a-popover-component/\"><strong>How to Use a Popover Component</strong></a>. He starts off with using the official WordPress scaffolding tool for blocks <code>create-block</code> and then walks the process to add the Popover Component to our new block and includes handling of state to manage visibility of the popover. It&#8217;s a great real life example of block development. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<h2>WordPress Events</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>October 18 &#8211; 22, 2021</strong><br /><strong><a href=\"https://pagebuildersummit.com/\">Page Builder Summit</a></strong> Take a look at the <a href=\"https://pagebuildersummit.com/schedule/\"><strong>schedule</strong></a>!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is the list of Gutenberg / Block-editor presentations </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Forging the Future with Full Site Editing</strong> with Anne McCarthy (10/18 &#8211; 9am EDT)</li><li><strong>The Future of Building WordPress Websites </strong>with Brian Gardner (10/18 &#8211; 12pm EDT)</li><li><strong>What does Full Site Editing Mean for Page Builders?</strong> with Joe Casabona (10/19/ 9am EDT)</li><li><strong>Customizing WordPress Block Editor for Client Projects </strong>with Birgit Pauli-Haack (10/19/ &#8211; 10 am EDT)</li><li><strong>Mastering modern WordPress with Full-site Editing &amp; Custom Blocks</strong> with Rob Stinson (10/20/ &#8211; 5am EDT)</li><li><strong>How to Build Any Page Layout Using Kadence Blocks</strong> with Jake Pfohl (10/20/ &#8211; 12pm EDT)</li><li><strong>Building a Custom Blog Archive with Blocks</strong> with Mike Oliver (10/21/ 11am EDT)</li><li><strong>RIP Page Builders</strong> with Chris Lubkert (10/19 &#8211; 1pm EDT)</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>October 28, 2021 &#8211; 1 pm EDT /  17:00 UTC </strong><br /><strong><a href=\"https://bit.ly/3p6b0ir\">Post Status: Headless WordPress Webinar </a></strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>With Experts from WebDevStudios</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Brad Williams, CEO and Co-Founder</li><li>Lisa Sabin-Wilson, COO and Co-Founder</li><li>Greg Rickaby, Director of Engineering</li><li>Amor Kumar, Frontend Engineer</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>November 4th, 2021</strong>,  <br /><a href=\"https://events.wpengine.com/event/965784e1-7d9f-4ca4-b5c7-3186a468e125/websitePage:5bbe0ca6-fd0c-4e77-b99b-de21baff9062\"><strong>WPEngine Summit 2021</strong></a> (EMEA)<br />starts at 10 am UTC / 6am EDT</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With many fantastic speakers, among them CEO Heather Brunner, Chris Weigman, Rob Stinson, Hashim Warren, Grace&nbsp;Erixon, and Brian Gardner</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://events.wpengine.com/event/965784e1-7d9f-4ca4-b5c7-3186a468e125/websitePage:645d57e4-75eb-4769-b2c0-f201a0bfc6ce\">Schedule</a></li><li><a href=\"https://events.wpengine.com/event/965784e1-7d9f-4ca4-b5c7-3186a468e125/regProcessStep1\">Tickets</a></li></ul>\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\">&#8220;Building blocks&#8221;</a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/13998657@N02\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">jgbarah</a>&nbsp;is licensed under&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 16 Oct 2021 19:44:10 +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: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: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:89:\"WPTavern: Ask the Bartender: What Happens to the Customizer When a Block Theme Is Active?\";s:7:\"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=124368\";s:7:\"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:219:\"https://wptavern.com/ask-the-bartender-what-happens-to-the-customizer-when-a-block-theme-is-active?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ask-the-bartender-what-happens-to-the-customizer-when-a-block-theme-is-active\";s: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:7837:\"<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>Something on my radar right now is third-party plugins that have settings in the Customizer. What I gather of friends who are the devs working on Customizer and front-end stuff within a few plugin companies, global styles and block styles are not yet on their radar. So what happens if someone installs Twenty Twenty-Two or another block-based theme? The left admin menu for Customizer isn&rsquo;t there. The janky way to get there is via Appearance &gt; Themes &gt; Customizer. But the expectation is that third-party plugins and themes need to move settings over. In fact, this seems more like they need to duplicate settings in both places for a while.</p><cite>Anonymous</cite></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">For those out of the loop, let me provide a quick refresher on this topic. When WordPress 5.9 lands, <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-9-go-no-go-update-all-proposed-features-are-moving-forward\">we expect it to ship</a> with the new site editor and global styles interface. However, most users will not see this screen unless they are running a block theme.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given that the upcoming <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> is also shipping with WordPress 5.9 and judging the popularity of past default themes, we can expect many thousands of users will be transported into this whole new world. For some, this might be as shocking as the launch of the block editor in 5.0.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a block theme is active, links to access the old and familiar customizer will disappear from the user interface. The widgets and nav menu screens won&rsquo;t be around either. However, they will still be accessible if you know the URL for the screens.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We first learned this would be the case last year as part of the <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-3-provides-indicator-of-where-full-site-editing-is-going-a-future-without-widgets-and-customizer-screens\">Gutenberg 9.3 release</a>. There is also an <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/30496\">open issue</a> to ensure that the site editor has feature parity with some core WordPress settings.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is OK that these features are being phased out for block theme users. They were all early, disparate attempts at creating individual pieces of what the site editor will allow. WordPress is bringing all of these concepts together into a more cohesive user experience. It is a standard that contributors can continually iterate on. It will not be perfect out of the gate, but this first version in the core platform should fuel the feedback needed to improve it as more users start installing block themes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem presented here has more to do with the plugin market. The customizer was initially built as a theme-settings tool and has primarily been used for that purpose. But, many plugins have tied various settings to it over its nine-year history. A search for <a href=\"https://wpdirectory.net/search/01FJ2TGB2EZ4N867KXEA6TS6CJ\"><code>wp_customize</code></a> in the plugin directory pulls up over 1,400 results. The <a href=\"https://wpdirectory.net/search/01FJ34ZYJZTJ5MGNW4J82FBV4Z\"><code>customize_register</code></a> hook shows over 1,900. These are not necessarily exact matches for how many plugins actually add panels, sections, settings, or controls. However, it is an indicator that many are relying on it to present options to end-users.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, we are back to the question at hand. <em>What happens when a user installs a block theme, such as the upcoming Twenty Twenty-Two, while using a plugin that relies on the customizer?</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>It depends.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some plugins like WooCommerce have already conveniently placed a direct link to their customizer panel/section in the admin menu. This will be a non-issue for their users. However, for everyone else, the customizer will seem to disappear entirely.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />WooCommerce customizer options accessible with block theme.\n\n\n\n<p>In a matter of weeks after 5.9, depending on how quick the adoption of Twenty Twenty-Two occurs in particular, we could be looking at thousands of confused users. Of course, all of this could change in the time leading up to the release. However, this is a conversation that needs to happen now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;The concern here is for end-users,&rdquo; said the anonymous questioner. &ldquo;They will be looking at knowledgebase articles, directions in plugin settings, and more indicating where to look for the settings.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>At least at the moment, the onus is on plugin authors to address this for their own users. However, there are multiple pathways they may want to go down.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most straightforward method is to follow the lead of WooCommerce. The plugin checks the <code>gutenberg_is_fse_theme()</code> conditional (note that this <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32950\">function name may change</a>). If it returns <code>true</code>, the plugin adds a link directly to its customizer panel.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Linking to a customizer panel, section, or control is simple. Plugin authors can find the URLs in the <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/customize-api/the-customizer-javascript-api/#focusing-ui-objects\">developer handbook</a>. They can also just <a href=\"https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce/blob/2cf30b0190542ed097d0f2e9a607db10561d43e8/includes/customizer/class-wc-shop-customizer.php#L274-L289\">copy the technique</a> the WooCommerce team employed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a quick method to ensure users do not lose access to their options if plugin authors cannot make changes before WordPress 5.9 lands.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the long term, it is not the ideal solution. The customizer will be around for a long while, but plugin authors will need to deal with two sets of users: those running both block and classic themes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because each plugin is different, solutions will need to be different. Many can simply use the <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/settings/settings-api/\">Settings API</a> to build a custom options screen. If that is a workable solution, it will not matter what theme the user is running.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the reality might be maintaining two systems for both sets of users. One that integrates with the customizer and another that pulls options into the site editor. If the plugin has design-related features, block theme users will expect to see settings in the new interface.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the theming side of things, there should be fewer problems. A block theme does nothing with the customizer anyway. One outstanding issue would be converting starter content over, and there is an <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35680\">open ticket</a> to bring that to Full Site Editing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than anything, keeping open lines of communication with users will help ease the transition. Some of that should come from core WordPress. However, many users will need to hear it from their plugin and theme developers. This might be blog posts, knowledgebase or tutorial updates, and keeping up with support.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, there is the final solution, one that WordPress itself could implement. It is also the path of least resistance.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress should automatically detect filters or actions on customizer-related hooks. This should trigger a &ldquo;customize supports&rdquo; flag and maintain the admin menu and toolbar links to the customizer screen. This would give developers some time to catch up without confusing users in the process. There might be a few false flags or missed integrations, but it should be able to effectively catch the majority of use cases.</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, 16 Oct 2021 01:02:11 +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: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:81:\"WPTavern: WordPress 5.9 Go/No-Go Update: All Proposed Features Are Moving Forward\";s:7:\"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=124349\";s:7:\"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/wordpress-5-9-go-no-go-update-all-proposed-features-are-moving-forward?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-5-9-go-no-go-update-all-proposed-features-are-moving-forward\";s: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:2859:\"<p>The go/no-go deadline for deciding on features for WordPress 5.9 was set for October 12 but the conversation was pushed back two days. Today, the core leadership for this release <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/15/wordpress-5-9-feature-go-no-go-october-14-2021/\">announced</a> that everything in the <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-9-proposed-scope-major-push-towards-full-site-editing-plus-a-new-default-theme\">previously-proposed scope for 5.9</a> will be moving forward.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Users can expect block themes, template and template part editing flows, the new default Twenty-Twenty Two block theme, the Styles interface, design tools, the Navigation Block, all manner of UI improvements, and pattern insertion directly from the Pattern Directory. H&eacute;ctor Prieto, who is assisting with technical project management on the release, emphasized that many of these features are still in progress:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>To note, not all of the above are currently ready, but there is some level of confidence that they can be by the time of 5.9.</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>A new <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/projects/62\">WordPress 5.9 Must-Haves</a> project board on GitHub shows a broad overview of the issues contributors are focusing on to get the release ready.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prieto also published an exhaustive transcript of the meeting. There were no strong objections on specific features moving forward but there seemed to be a general acknowledgment that some features are still in a beta state. Those present at the meeting agreed that some kind of beta label might be advantageous where users could be directed to the Gutenberg plugin for faster updates to features that are still not fully polished. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>One particularly challenging feature has been navigation. &ldquo;I think from my perspective, the thing I was a bit worried about was the&nbsp;navigation menu&nbsp;flows, which I think we did a lot of progress over the last few weeks,&rdquo; Gutenberg lead engineer Mat&iacute;as Ventura said. &ldquo;And I think we need to set some good boundaries there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;There has been a lot of work in also supporting sort of mega menus where you have in your sub-menus, you have images and paragraph any sort of block, which is cool. But there&rsquo;s also like the 80% of cases where you just have a few links, and we need to ensure that that experience is as best as we can make it. I think we&rsquo;re in a better place. And I think we&rsquo;ll get there.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beta 1 is expected November 16, and the official release is <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/\">scheduled</a> for December 14. If you want to see an early demo of WordPress 5.9, check out the recording of the meeting below:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</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:\"Fri, 15 Oct 2021 21:28:29 +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: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:80:\"Post Status: Post Status Excerpt (No. 28) — A WordPress Core Performance Team?\";s:7:\"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=87933\";s:7:\"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/28/\";s: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:4602:\"<h2>&#8220;If plugin authors were better educated maybe they would make some different choices.&#8221;</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">In this episode of Post Status Excerpt, Cory and David talk about WordPress\'s reputation relative to its performance. This discussion unfolds in light of <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/12/proposal-for-a-performance-team/\">a new proposal for a Performance Team for WordPress core</a>. What should happen to improve the WordPress experience (for both the user and for search engines) on the front-end and the admin experience as well? Education? Notifications to the user? </p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Also covered in this episode: </strong>We are formally announcing the existence of <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/\">the new Post Status homepage</a>, which is still a work in progress. We\'re also 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.</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://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/12/proposal-for-a-performance-team/\">Proposal for a Performance team</a></li><li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/announcements/10-28-the-legend-of-the-headless-website-post-status-live/\">The Legend of the Headless Website — Post Status Live with Brad Williams, Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Greg Rickaby, and Amor Kumar</a></li><li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://poststatus.com/this-week-in-wporg-october-4-2021-2/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">This Week at WordPress.org (October 11, 2021)</a></li><li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/submit-2021-black-friday-cyber-monday-deals/\">Share Black Friday / Cyber Monday Deals With Post Status</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/corymiller303\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cory Miller (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/ithemes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow\">Wordfence</a></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Who can afford downtime, a black mark on their brand’s reputation, or the SEO impact of getting hacked? That’s why so many WordPress sites rely on the real-time protection provided by Wordfence Premium. Now, Wordfence Central offers Premium subscribers a powerful and efficient dashboard to manage security for all their sites from one central location. Try Wordfence today.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 15 Oct 2021 15:50:51 +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: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: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:102:\"WPTavern: WP Fastest Cache Patches Authenticated SQL Injection and Stored XSS Via CSRF Vulnerabilities\";s:7:\"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=124302\";s:7:\"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:249:\"https://wptavern.com/wp-fastest-cache-patches-authenticated-sql-injection-and-stored-xss-via-csrf-vulnerabilities?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wp-fastest-cache-patches-authenticated-sql-injection-and-stored-xss-via-csrf-vulnerabilities\";s: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:1586:\"<p>The Jetpack Scan team has <a href=\"https://jetpack.com/2021/10/14/multiple-vulnerabilities-in-wp-fastest-cache-plugin/\">published</a> a summary of two issues recently discovered in the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-fastest-cache/\">WP Fastest Cache</a> plugin &ndash; an Authenticated SQL Injection vulnerability and a Stored XSS Via&nbsp;CSRF vulnerability. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;If exploited, the SQL Injection bug could grant attackers access to privileged information from the affected site&rsquo;s database (e.g., usernames and hashed passwords),&rdquo; Automattic security research engineer Marc Montpas said. This particular vulnerability can only be exploited on sites where the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/\">Classic Editor</a>&nbsp;plugin is both installed and activated.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Successfully exploiting the CSRF and Stored XSS vulnerability could enable bad actors to perform any action the logged-in administrator they targeted is allowed to do on the targeted site,&rdquo; Montpas said. He also found that attackers could &ldquo;abuse some of these options to store rogue Javascript on the affected website.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WP Fastest Cache is active on more than 1 million WordPress sites, and the plugin also  reports 58,322 paid users. Emre Vona, the plugin&rsquo;s author, patched the vulnerabilities in version 0.9.5, released this week. Jetpack recommends users <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-fastest-cache/\">update</a> as soon as possible, as both vulnerabilities have a high technical impact if exploited.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 15 Oct 2021 02:14:18 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s: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: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:109:\"WPTavern: Gutenberg 11.7 Iterates on Global Styles, Improves Adding Navigation Links, and Adds Column Spacing\";s:7:\"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=124298\";s:7:\"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/gutenberg-11-7-iterates-on-global-styles-improves-adding-navigation-links-and-adds-column-spacing?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-11-7-iterates-on-global-styles-improves-adding-navigation-links-and-adds-column-spacing\";s: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:7573:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Released yesterday, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/14/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-7-october-13th/\">Gutenberg 11.7</a> is one of the more exciting releases we have had in a while. The Global Styles system iterations continue to impress. The lighter nav experience makes adding links easier, and a spacing control for the Columns block delivered one of my oldest wish list items.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Site Logo block <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35344\">supports duotone filters</a>, bringing it up to par with other image-related blocks. Plus, theme authors can <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34667\">set the default filter</a> via their <code>theme.json</code> files.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are several other changes to love, such as the refreshed <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34712\">gradient picker design</a> and typography controls for <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35324\">post navigation blocks</a>. The block alignment control in the toolbar now also displays a <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34710\">&ldquo;None&rdquo; option</a>. This should make it easier for users to revert from a previous choice.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Lighter Navigation Experience</h2>\n\n\n\n<img />&ldquo;Add nav item&rdquo; feature brings up search.\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Building nav menus has consistently been one of the frustrating experiences within the block system. Iterative improvements have made it better, but the actual process of adding links has been a painful one, at least until Gutenberg 11.7 rolled out yesterday.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In previous iterations of the block, users had to go through a two-step process for adding any menu item. This was an issue I called out in <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/fse-outreach-round-9-building-a-higher-ed-header\">Round #9 of the FSE Outreach Program</a>:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>This stage of testing calls for adding multiple page links as both top-level and sub-menu items. When clicking the + button to add a link, my first instinct is to search for the page itself. However, the available field is a block search rather than a page search.</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>In the latest version of the plugin, clicking the <code>+</code> icon allows users to directly search for or type a URL. There is no need to figure out which block (e.g., Page, Post, Custom, etc.) to insert first. This change is part of an ongoing effort to create a <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/34041\">lighter navigation experience</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the link-adding experience was much better, I could not initially figure out how to add a simple homepage link without typing the full URL. Typing &ldquo;home,&rdquo; &ldquo;index,&rdquo; or a simple &ldquo;/&rdquo; character all failed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>After realizing that the previous search did not work, I tried other known site pages. Posts, pages, categories, and tags all worked without issue. However, I could not pull up author/user archive URLs through the search field.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is one place to add a homepage link, and that is via transforming the menu item to a Home Link block by clicking on its icon in the toolbar. Other blocks are also available for this transformation process, such as Social Icons, Site Logo, and more.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Transforming a link to a &ldquo;Home Link&rdquo; block.\n\n\n\n<p>On the whole, this is a much-needed improvement to the Navigation block&rsquo;s user experience. It likely comes closer to hitting the 80/20 rule when deciding how a feature should be implemented.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Create New Pages From the Link Inserter</h2>\n\n\n\n<img />Creating a new page from the link popover.\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The user experience for adding links has been one of the highlights of the block editor this year. In June, <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-10-9-renames-the-query-block-adds-collapsible-list-view-items-and-rolls-out-rich-url-previews\">Gutenberg 10.9</a> introduced rich URL previews, which landed in WordPress 5.8. In the latest release of the plugin, developers have kicked it up a notch.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Users can now directly <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35083\">create new pages when adding links</a>. Previously, users could only achieve this feat while adding items inside of the Navigation block. Now, it is available for links added anywhere.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Mind the Gap</h2>\n\n\n\n<img />Custom spacing between columns.\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Users can now entirely control the gap between columns via the new <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34630\">Block Spacing option</a>. I knew it was coming &mdash; eventually. That it took three years since the release of the block editor for it to actually happen has been painful. I was still a full-time theme and plugin developer when I added this to my wish list. Granted, CSS flexbox support for <code>gap</code> was not widespread then, but we could have still managed with old-fashioned margins in the meantime.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am just happy that the long-awaited feature has finally landed. Now, I can begin phasing out the custom block styles I was using to replicate it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The feature works on top of the block gap feature that was first shipped with <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-4-overhauls-galleries-adds-axial-padding-for-buttons-and-lays-groundwork-for-global-spacing\">Gutenberg 11.4</a>. Theme authors may need to make adjustments if they have written custom code for controlling the spacing between columns.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Global Styles and Color Palettes</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">There is a push to improve the upcoming Global Styles feature, which <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-9-proposed-scope-major-push-towards-full-site-editing-plus-a-new-default-theme\">could land in WordPress 5.9</a> later this year. Gutenberg contributors have made massive strides in improving the experience, building off its overhauled navigation in <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-6-improves-the-global-styles-ui-adds-child-theme-support\">version 11.6</a> of the plugin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most notable interface change in this release is the new <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35109\">Color Palette section</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Colors panel with the Palette section at the top.\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of dropping the palette below the color options, it is now front and center. This is a feature that will ultimately empower users to customize their sites. The decision to focus on this part of the UI is welcome.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>After opening the palette section, users can edit the theme-defined colors or click the <code>+</code> icon to create new ones. These colors will all show up as options in the block and site editors.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Color palette editor in the site editor.\n\n\n\n<p>Users should also see the Layout section at the root level of the Global Styles sidebar. They can now <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35241\">adjust the padding</a> for the overall site.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am still running into an error when trying to adjust the typography at the root level. This was an issue I first noticed with Gutenberg 11.6.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would like the Blocks section of the Global Styles panel to show the icons for individual blocks. With dozens of blocks, it is hard to scan through the list.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Individual block styles list.\n\n\n\n<p>Another improvement, particularly if we forego icons, would be to alphabetize the list.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 14 Oct 2021 20:52:08 +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: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:93:\"WPTavern: Yoast and Google-Sponsored Core Contributors Propose New WordPress Performance Team\";s:7:\"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=124218\";s:7:\"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:231:\"https://wptavern.com/yoast-and-google-sponsored-core-contributors-propose-new-wordpress-performance-team?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=yoast-and-google-sponsored-core-contributors-propose-new-wordpress-performance-team\";s: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:7043:\"<p>Yoast and Google-sponsored WordPress core contributors are <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/12/proposal-for-a-performance-team/\">proposing</a> the project add a Performance team to improve core performance as measured by <a href=\"https://web.dev/vitals/\">Google&rsquo;s Web Vitals</a> metrics. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Users expect and prefer fast experiences (consciously or otherwise),&rdquo; Yoast-sponsored full-time core contributor Ari Stathopoulos said. &ldquo;Research shows that fast websites can provide a better user experience, increase engagement, benefit SEO, increase conversion, and be more economically and ecologically friendly.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no doubt that users expect and can benefit from improved performance, but there are a number of variables at play in any given WordPress site. Looking purely at core performance, Stathopoulos said WordPress is not holding up to the competition.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Compared to other platforms (e.g., Wix, Shopify, Squarespace), WordPress is falling behind,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Other platforms are on average faster &ndash; and becoming increasingly faster &ndash; than WordPress websites (see&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/55bc8fad-44c2-4280-aa0b-5f3f0cd3d2be/page/M6ZPC?params=%7B%22df44%22:%22include%25EE%2580%25800%25EE%2580%2580IN%25EE%2580%2580WordPress%25EE%2580%2580WooCommerce%25EE%2580%2580Shopify%25EE%2580%2580Wix%25EE%2580%2580Squarespace%25EE%2580%2580Duda%22%7D\" target=\"_blank\">The HTTP Archive&rsquo;s Core Web Vitals report</a>), and are actively investing in (and marketing)&nbsp;core&nbsp;performance-as-a-feature [<a href=\"https://twitter.com/igrigorik/status/1432400252305244162\">1</a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https://support.wix.com/en/article/understanding-your-site-speed-dashboard\">2</a>].&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The HTTP Archive, which&nbsp;provides a common data set for those conducting web performance research, found that only 21.5% of sites assessed have good Core Web Vitals scores as of September 2021. While that percentage has been increasing over time, competitors that are already outperforming WordPress sites are also rapidly improving their scores. Stathopoulos described it as a &ldquo;widening gap&rdquo; between WordPress and other platforms.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the main challenges is that WordPress site owners have a lot of freedom to use whatever themes and plugins they want on their sites, which makes performance tougher to tackle than the hosted platforms cited for comparison. The proposal states that &ldquo;achieving reasonable performance levels shouldn&rsquo;t be plugin territory, but part of core&rdquo; and that end-users should not be expected to become performance experts. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Achieving high levels of performance requires technical considerations to be &lsquo;built-in&rsquo; across the whole stack; and as this is often not the case with themes/plugins, performance solutions are limited to &lsquo;brute-forcing&rsquo; performance solutions over non-performant behavior (e.g., output buffering),&rdquo; Stathopoulos said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposal drew a strong response from contributors, SEO consultants, and representatives from hosting companies, offering help and suggestions. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress lead developer Mark Jaquith, who has a particular interest in this topic, said the biggest issues he sees today are related to frontend performance and the asset pipeline:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>WordPress has no (direct) support for deferring style loading. It has no system for critical theme styles. For&nbsp;JavaScript, it has no support for&nbsp;<code>defer</code>,&nbsp;<code>async</code>,&nbsp;<code>type=\"module\"</code>, or&nbsp;<code>nomodule</code>. The default is to load all scripts in the&nbsp;header. WordPress itself shoves its extra code for emoji and the&nbsp;block&nbsp;library into the header. WordPress injects&nbsp;JS&nbsp;code and styles that eschew the asset pipeline altogether and directly attach to&nbsp;<code>wp_head</code>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<code>wp_footer</code>. Plugins just directly barf out bespoke script tags that are difficult to alter. By the time that you&rsquo;ve added 10 plugins to your site, your odds of having jQuery loaded (in the header) on every single page load are extremely high. No one is incentivized to be a good citizen (including WordPress itself) because there&rsquo;s always someone else who is polluting worse than you. &ldquo;If jQuery is already enqueued by something else, I guess I better use it.&rdquo;</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Jaquith&rsquo;s summary describes a wider ecosystem problem and concluded with a sobering warning.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a huge problem, and fixing it is going to take a lot of effort, willpower and time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s worth doing. If WordPress frontend performance continues to decline, the project is going to cease to be a viable option for any site that cares about its SERPS.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One WordPress performance consultant, Eroan Boyer, suggested adding a dedicated tool in the Site Health screen that would show how much JS and CSS is loaded on each page type (front page, post, page, CPT), and where they originated. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Attributing where a given script or stylesheet comes from is something I&rsquo;ve been working a lot on in the context of the AMP&nbsp;plugin,&rdquo; Google Engineer Weston Ruter said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if the implementation in the AMP plugin would be suitable for&nbsp;core, but I&rsquo;m interested in this space.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;If we can correlate where given markup comes from to the (negative) impact on page performance, then we can begin to highlight offending themes and plugins to begin to provide some accountability for what is being added to the frontend.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gutenberg engineer Riad Benguella published some research in August on <a href=\"https://riad.blog/2021/08/16/the-cost-of-wordpress-plugins-on-the-performance-of-the-editor/\">the impact of plugins&rsquo; performance on the editor</a>. Chief offenders among popular plugins included WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, and Jetpack. This is another aspect of performance that affects WordPress users more than site visitors. Web developer Takis Bouyouris <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/12/proposal-for-a-performance-team/#comment-41989\">suggested</a> the creation of a performance framework that plugin developers could follow to avoid making products that negatively impact core performance, both on the frontend and in the admin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So far the proposal has not received any major objections and contributors seem eager to help in any way they can. Stathopoulos said the next steps will be to set up a Slack channel, a meeting schedule, and a space on make.wordpress.org. Once the infrastructure is in place, contributors can begin benchmarking performance, defining success criteria, and identifying priority projects for Core Web Vitals improvements.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 14 Oct 2021 15:24:43 +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: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:84:\"WPTavern: Take the Guesswork Out of Selecting Fonts With the Adrian 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=123897\";s:7:\"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:213:\"https://wptavern.com/take-the-guesswork-out-of-selecting-fonts-with-the-adrian-wordpress-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=take-the-guesswork-out-of-selecting-fonts-with-the-adrian-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:5893:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">As usual, I am always on the lookout for plugins that allow users to have fun with their websites. I like to mix it up from time to time here on the Tavern and not be all-business-all-the-time. And, that is where the new <a href=\"https://adrian.style/\">Adrian plugin</a> comes in. Its goal is to take all of the hard work out of selecting a font pairing for end-users.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plugin derives its name from Swiss typeface designer Adrian Johann Frutiger. The plugin author, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the typographer was one of their favorites.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;All plugins have such serious names stuffed with SEO keywords, and I just wanted something fun,&rdquo; they added.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of the typical route of submitting it to the WordPress.org directory, the author decided to launch a one-off site to showcase the plugin. The cost runs the price of simply subscribing to an email list to access the download.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adrian is essentially a font selector. However, instead of picking each font for various theme elements, users can select from curated pairings. And, taking it one step more, it provides unique names for all of them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, the Breakfast Cereal (yes, that is the actual name) option uses the big and bold Luckiest Guy font for headings alongside News Cycle for body copy.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Breakfast Cereal font option.\n\n\n\n<p>If nothing else, the plugin is simply a treat to test because of its fun names. With options like Cherry Soda, Cowboy, and Hollywood Lights, it adds a little flavor to the entire process.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;I think there are lots of people who would rather you hand them an option rather the ability to make the decisions themselves,&rdquo; said the plugin author. &ldquo;No one in their right mind looks at the 1.2K fonts in Google Fonts and says, &lsquo;I can&rsquo;t wait to pick a font pairing.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s overwhelming and out of most people&rsquo;s depth.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even as a former full-time theme designer, this could be a tedious job. I would often spend hours tinkering with pairings, attempting to find the right personality for a design.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plugin takes most of that work and boils it down to a little more than three dozen options.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a little something for everyone. For example, if you want a retro gaming feel, the Insert Coin pairing of the pixelated Press Start 2P font for headings and Roboto Mono for text can bring a little nostalgia to your site.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Insert Coin retro-gaming font pairing.\n\n\n\n<p>The plugin is built on top of the WordPress customizer. It adds a single section and control for selecting the font pairing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A downside to this might be for users currently running a block theme alongside the Gutenberg plugin. Menu links to access the customizer screen are hidden. However, there is still a button on the Themes admin screen, at least for now.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Customize button for the active theme.\n\n\n\n<p>One of the things I like about the plugin is that it does not ruin body copy. Far too often, such systems try to get too fancy with text for longer-form content, and they utterly fail. Instead, Adrian keeps this in check. The fonts that veer into the wilder territory are limited to headings.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plugin is not all fun and games. It has its serious side too. The World Literature option that pairs Vollkorn and PT Serif is elegant, creating an enjoyable reading experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />World Literature font pairing.\n\n\n\n<p>The Novella option is similar, replacing Vollkorn with EB Garamond.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most irritating thing about the plugin is that it requires a full refresh of the customizer preview panel each time the user selects a new font. This is par for the course, though. Most themes and plugins I have tested for WordPress have never utilized the customizer to its fullest potential.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With minimal JavaScript and the <a href=\"https://github.com/typekit/webfontloader\">Web Font Loader script</a>, the plugin could load the chosen font on the fly. It would make the experience much smoother. However, because the customizer is going the way of the dinosaur, I would use my time and effort to focus on a solution geared toward Full Site Editing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Success may vary from theme to theme. Typically, I use a three-font system with most of my theme design work. One font family for headings, one for body copy, and another for secondary text. While the plugin worked well enough to overrule the first two, it failed to alter the third. This is not necessarily Adrian&rsquo;s fault because it does not know the class name it must target in this instance.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is also the reason I favor design-related features falling squarely on the shoulders of theme authors. I like the forward-thinking of the plugin author &mdash; tackling font decisions in a way that does not overload end-users with seemingly infinite choices. However, I would rather see the system coming from the theme.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With that said, I could be singing a different tune as the global styles system matures. It has not yet shipped with WordPress, but it could land in version 5.9 later this year for block theme users. As the community builds more standards around the feature, there may be more opportunities for plugins like Adrian to add features.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plugin author is not quite ready to go that route yet. &ldquo;I imagine that this can be ported pretty easily to the new FSE interface if I happen to get enough users to keep it going,&rdquo; they said. &ldquo;Finding someone who knows the new system and is a freelancer is next to impossible, so I thought why not test the idea the old way.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For now, the plugin does its job pretty well, and most users still rely on the customizer. There is still plenty of time to figure out the rest.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 14 Oct 2021 00:14:13 +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: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:92:\"WPTavern: WordPress Global Community Sponsorship Program Will Not Include WordCamps for 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=124018\";s:7:\"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:209:\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-global-sponsorship-program-will-not-include-wordcamps-for-2022?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-global-sponsorship-program-will-not-include-wordcamps-for-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:4603:\"<p>The <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/10/08/proposal-2022-global-community-sponsorship-program/\">proposal</a> for the 2022 Global Community Sponsorship program will not include funding for WordCamps again this year, due to the unpredictability of hosting in-person events. The pandemic continues to make conditions unfavorable in many areas of the world where WordCamp and meetup organizers have opted to continue with virtual events. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past, the Global Community Sponsorship program has offered multiple tiers of funding in support of official, volunteer-organized WordPress community events. In 2020, before the program was <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2020/07/23/moving-forward-with-online-events/\">suspended</a>, global sponsorship tiers ranged from $40,000 &ndash; $160,000.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><img /></div>\n\n\n\n<p>The updated proposal knocks sponsorships back to a single annual package, billed at $10,000 USD per quarter. Sponsor benefits are similar to those offered in 2021. While the base package does not include WordCamp sponsorship, program participants can offer it by electing to pay an add-on, which is also billed quarterly. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;The proposed change for 2022 is that Global Sponsors who add on sponsorship for WordCamps will support&nbsp;<em>all</em>&nbsp;WordCamps (as opposed to choosing which WordCamps to sponsor a la carte), at the camp&rsquo;s top published level,&rdquo; WordPress.org community organizer Courtney Patubo Kranzke said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;In short, there would not be a community grant as we&rsquo;ve had in the past, but WordCamps will get credited global sponsorship funds at the top local level.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Patubo Kranzke said that volunteer engagement is currently low and the single package ensures sponsors have a centralized point of contact, as opposed to trying to coordinate with multiple teams of volunteer event organizers. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the potential availability of add-on funds, the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/09/13/announcement-updated-guidelines-for-in-person-wordcamps/\">updated guidelines for in-person WordCamps</a> state that organizers must be prepared to raise 100% of the expenses for their events. They are encouraged to keep their camps&rsquo; budgets lean with free or low cost venues that are fully refundable just in case. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;The expectation is in-person camps have to be able to cover all costs,&rdquo; Community team contributor Kevin Cristiano said. &ldquo;The global program will bring some relief to local organizers, but more so create a safety net for the entire program. What do I mean a safety net? We are navigating a world with risks on events like never before and we simply cannot afford another round of cancellations and lost deposits. It is our hope that once finalized the Global program can help bring stability and mitigate risks so we can have WordCamps begin in person again while being financially responsible.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress community events have been cut back significantly over the past two years. In 2019, local communities hosted 140 WordCamps and 805 WordPress meetup groups met more than 5,900 times. After the pandemic hit in 2020, the community hosted 31 WordCamps, most of which were held online. Meetup groups fell to 745 and met over 4,900 times. At the time of publishing in 2021, there have been just 14 WordCamps (all online) and 755 meetup groups met 2,400+ times. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the community team <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-opens-applications-for-in-person-wordcamps\">re-opening applications for in-person WordCamps,</a> all the remaining WordCamps on the books for 2021 have been scheduled as online events. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><img /></div>\n\n\n\n<p>In anticipation of returning to in-person events, WordPress Community Support has added a &ldquo;communicable disease liability coverage&rdquo; policy to its event insurance. Any in-person WordCamp that proceeds to the ticketing stage will have <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/10/11/legal-protections-for-organizers/\">a disclaimer on the purchase page</a>, aimed at protecting organizers against claims related to COVID-19.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/10/08/proposal-2022-global-community-sponsorship-program/\">proposal</a> for the 2022 Global Community Sponsorship program is still under discussion until October 15, and will be finalized by October 28, so WordPress can recruit sponsors by the end of the year.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 13 Oct 2021 03:10:09 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:27;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\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: Dynamic Social Images for Plugins, Themes, and Patterns? Yes, Please\";s:7:\"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=124175\";s:7:\"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:193:\"https://wptavern.com/dynamic-social-images-for-plugins-themes-and-patterns-yes-please?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dynamic-social-images-for-plugins-themes-and-patterns-yes-please\";s: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:4307:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Things move fast on social media. You get mere seconds to impress those who happen upon your posts promoting your latest project. You must also pack a lot of information into a small window that would potentially draw in an array of different users.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress has not been doing any favors for plugin and theme authors who share links to their directory-hosted extensions. Social cards for them include a simple image, title, and description. Instead, WordPress.org could dynamically generate the social images by populating them with other data, such as ratings, active installs, and more.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is just what GiveWP co-founder Matt Cromwell <a href=\"https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5926\">proposed today in a new ticket</a>. &ldquo;When plugin/theme/block/pattern authors want to share their work on social platforms, they want to link directly to their product on .org and have it look nice,&rdquo; he said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He shared an image of an <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GiveWP/status/1447964733747908622\">earlier tweet</a> from the GiveWP Twitter account today:</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>The goal is to piggyback off the concept that GitHub put in motion over the summer. In June, the platform launched a new <a href=\"https://github.blog/2021-06-22-framework-building-open-graph-images/\">framework for building Open Graph images</a>. The system generates an on-the-fly image with data specific to a repository, issue, pull request, and more.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the context of WordPress plugins, themes, and patterns, there are bits of information that could help highlight the projects:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Contributors (plugins only)</li><li>Locales/Translations</li><li>Rating</li><li>Installs</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This data is readily available on WordPress.org. All that would really be required is the code for generating the social images with it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cromwell shared a mockup of what this might look like for a plugin, which is also available through the <a href=\"https://www.figma.com/file/ZAggnVZ5bk0W27ihzQGdWt/Untitled?node-id=0%3A1\">Figma project</a> he created:</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Mockup for a plugin&rsquo;s generated social image.\n\n\n\n<p>He also has an annotated version:</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Annotated version of social image mockup.\n\n\n\n<p>Thus far, the feedback has been positive in the ticket. This is probably one of those easy wins that most people in the community could get behind.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d only add that I&rsquo;d love this to be automatically translated,&rdquo; said Jean-Baptiste Audras <a href=\"https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5926#comment:4\">in the ticket</a>. &ldquo;Which seems doable given the language/locale is provided by the URL.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea is to use the translated text for the generated image if the shared link is from one of the many locale-specific subdomains on WordPress.org. So, a Spanish URL would use the existing Spanish translation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We could even apply this concept to other pages on WordPress.org, particularly those that might not have an image associated with them. This is a treatment that Courtney Engle Robertson, Web Design and Developer Advocate at GoDaddy, <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/mathetos/posts/10223954958280286?comment_id=10223955011961628\">requested on Cromwell&rsquo;s Facebook post</a> about the idea. Workshops on the Learn section of the site, for example, could display the number of languages or length, so potential visitors have more information before clicking a link.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best thing about this idea is that the WordPress community likely already has the foundational code to make this happen. <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/automattic-acquires-social-image-generator-plugin-plans-to-integrate-with-jetpack\">Automattic purchased</a> Daniel Post&rsquo;s Social Image Generator plugin last month. The plan is to bundle the feature in Jetpack as part of its social media tools.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Generated image using dynamic data.\n\n\n\n<p>With a bit of custom code, it is not a stretch to think we could have better social images in short order. The plugin was already built with customization in mind when I <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/create-per-post-social-media-images-with-the-social-image-generator-wordpress-plugin\">reviewed it in June</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 12 Oct 2021 23:52:27 +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: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:83:\"WPTavern: WordPress.org Profiles Now Show Activity for Contributions Made on GitHub\";s:7:\"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=124100\";s:7:\"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:211:\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-profiles-now-show-activity-for-contributions-made-on-github?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-org-profiles-now-show-activity-for-contributions-made-on-github\";s: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:3263:\"<p>WordPress.org profiles got an <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2021/10/11/wordpress-org-profiles-now-show-github-activity/\">update</a> over the weekend that will make them a better reflection of contributors&rsquo; efforts on GitHub. Users can now authorize GitHub to detect their activity on the WordPress GitHub organization and display it on their profiles.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><img /></div>\n\n\n\n<p><br />&ldquo;Currently we&rsquo;re tracking New Issues submitted (by you), Closed Issues (by you), Pull requests submitted (by you), Pull requests merged (by you, and additionally the PR submitter gets a &lsquo;PR Merged&rsquo; event), and finally Pushes to default branches,&rdquo; WordPress lead developer Dion Hulse said. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a few reasons why one&rsquo;s contributions might not be visible after linking accounts. The meta team has not built an importer for all previous issues and pull requests, so WordPress.org only has data from last Friday and onwards. Early adopters who linked their accounts when the feature was first being tested may need to re-authenticate since the earlier version had <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/05/03/expired-github-and-wordpress-org-profile-connections/\">expired connections</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Linking accounts will help make it easier for the WordPress project to track contributions across multiple locations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;In recent releases, the process of collecting props for non-WordPress.org contributions (namely&nbsp;Gutenberg) has been highly manual and error prone, occasionally resulting in contributors not receiving proper credit,&rdquo; Jonathan Desrosiers said when rolling out the first version of the app in March 2020. &ldquo;Connecting your WordPress.org and GitHub accounts will allow automatic tooling to be built which reduces the burden on release teams to maintain a credit list.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Users who want to have their profiles include GitHub activity can navigate to the <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/profile/edit/group/1\">Edit Profile page on WordPress.org</a>, launch the app, and authorize their accounts with one click. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hulse is collecting feedback regarding adding more events (i.e. commenting on issues/PRs), combining events (i.e. Submitted &amp; Merged), and anything else that might improve the quality of activity tracked. Riad Benguella suggested adding a selector to filter the timeline by activity type. Hulse responded that the way profiles are currently set up, querying specific activities cannot currently be done in a performant way but that there are meta trac tickets (<a href=\"https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/479\">#479</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/518\">#518</a>) where they are discussing a broader overhaul for profiles.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a great deal more activity coming in from GitHub, the ability to filter these activities might make WordPress.org a more comprehensive tool for assessing job candidates or verifying Five for the Future contributions. If you have more ideas for the feature, you can <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2021/10/11/wordpress-org-profiles-now-show-github-activity/\">leave feedback on the announcement.</a></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 12 Oct 2021 01:26:24 +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: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: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:76:\"WPTavern: Proposal for Themes To Highlight Block Patterns From the Directory\";s:7:\"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=124111\";s:7:\"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:197:\"https://wptavern.com/proposal-for-themes-to-highlight-block-patterns-from-the-directory?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=proposal-for-themes-to-highlight-block-patterns-from-the-directory\";s: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:5275:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Should developers bundle block patterns with their themes or submit them to the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/patterns/\">WordPress.org directory</a>? That is the question that some will likely need to answer in the future.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, submissions are not open for the block pattern directory. However, that will change as the contributors eventually wrap up the pattern creation process. <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/pattern-directory/milestone/3\">The milestone</a> for this is set to October 15, but it is sitting at 25% completion at the moment.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are 146 themes in the directory with block patterns. Thus far, developers who have wanted to implement them have had no other choice but to bundle them. However, that may all change.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Core contributor Kjell Reigstad recently <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35364\">proposed an alternative method</a>. &ldquo;With the launch of the pattern directory (and the upcoming ability for folks to submit their own patterns to it), we should consider building a route through which themes can highlight specific patterns to their users,&rdquo; he said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reigstad proposed using the standard <code>theme.json</code> file to allow theme authors to surface or give special attention to patterns best suited to the theme&rsquo;s design.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He listed four primary benefits such a system would bring:</p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>It would cut back on theme code, creating a side benefit of simplifying the review process for the Themes Team.</li><li>Patterns could be updated, tested, and reviewed separately.</li><li>More patterns would be accessible for all users if theme authors jumped on board.</li><li>Multiple themes could make use of the same patterns, reducing redundancy in the pattern directory.</li></ol>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea would be an additional step to this sort of utopian future where users can mix and match various elements and have them <em>just work</em> with whatever theme they are using. I am excited about it, but we still have a long way to go. When all of the core blocks support a full suite of design options, this will be far easier to accomplish, particularly when it comes to layouts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea is built on the premise that themes have begun to create their own <em>de facto</em> standard of putting all of their patterns into a single category titled &ldquo;Theme Name.&rdquo; This is the part where the concept breaks down. The truth is that not many themes are bundling dozens of patterns yet, but I have no doubts that they will.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tove, a <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/tove-a-block-based-wordpress-theme-by-anders-noren\">recently-released block theme</a> by Anders Nor&eacute;n, includes over 40 patterns under seven custom categories. If the developer had put all of them into a single group, it would have been a poor user experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Tove patterns and categories.\n\n\n\n<p>I expect dozens of patterns will be common as they become a more vital piece of the theme development experience. If we build a system that encourages themers to highlight those from .ORG, it should be created with that reality in mind.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reigstad did mention another idea that might work better if themes are highlighting dozens of patterns. He proposed bubbling them to the top of the list and giving them a special badge of some sort. This method would keep theme authors from overfilling the &ldquo;theme category&rdquo; with dozens or hundreds of patterns.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If democratizing the site design process is the ultimate goal, this feature should help further it. The more pathways we can enable for end-users to build the sites they want, the better.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no reason for every theme to bundle a custom-made hero banner with a heading, paragraph, and button. Narrowing that down to a set of options that work everywhere gives users more power. They might also not feel locked out of a favored design element if they switch themes down the road.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It would give theme developers more flexibility too. When someone else has already created several of the patterns they wanted to bundle, they can simply highlight them and not write any code to, essentially, make them a part of the theme itself.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The biggest holdup for patterns is the existing interface for finding and inserting them. The experience is sub-par at best when you move beyond a couple of dozen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am still in favor of an overlay with tiled patterns that are easily explorable. An earlier concept by Shaun Andrews was <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35006#issuecomment-929605688\">shared in a recent draft ticket</a> for a new patterns explorer.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Potential block patterns overlay.\n\n\n\n<p>When we get an interface that is fleshed out like this, other ideas around patterns should feel like a natural part of WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There will likely always be a place for developers to build and bundle their own patterns. Some make use of specific styles or other design elements that are only present within the theme itself.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For now, I am looking forward to a time when I can mix and match patterns from different community designers on a single site.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 11 Oct 2021 23:48:28 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s: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:134:\"Gutenberg Times: How can we make building blocks easier,  New 2022 Theme, Persistent User preferences and more – Weekend Edition 188\";s:7:\"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=19226\";s:7:\"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:138:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/how-can-we-make-building-blocks-easier-new-2022-theme-presistent-user-preferences-and-more-weekend-edition-188/\";s: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:18850:\"<p>Howdy, </p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am so thrilled that I now have more time to work on community outreach, organize Live Q &amp; As and learn more about Gutenberg development. There is also a lot going on in the WordPress community. People are sharing plenty. Last week, the edition had more a theme related focus, this week, we have a developer focus, it seems, despite we just had our Live Q &amp; A on block-based theme. See for yourself! </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Did you see the <a href=\"https://wppodcasts.com/\">WPPodcasts.com</a> site by the team around the HeroPress network, Topher and Cate DeRosia! All WordPress podcasts in one spot! All because of RSS feeds. A standard published in 1999, now hardly mentioned anymore. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexhern/status/1445130867073032195\">The six-hour shutdown of Facebook</a>, helped many of us yet again to appreciate the open web, and the people who keep it that way. And yes, that&#8217;s all of you, dear readers, the theme, and plugins developers, site builders, content creators and site owners using WordPress.  </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep it up and keep creating! </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit</p>\n\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Table of content</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-sortabrilliant-guidepost\"><ul><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#3-using-gutenberg-for-content-creators-and-site-builders\">Using Gutenberg for Content Creators and site builders</a></li><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-theme-development-in-for-full-site-editing\">Theme development in for Full-Site Editing</a><ul><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#1-the-future-of-theme-switching\">The Future of Theme Switching </a></li></ul></li><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#2-custom-blocks-development\">Custom Blocks Development</a><ul><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#4-using-create-block-script\">Using create-block script to build blocks</a></li></ul></li><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#4-w\">WordPress Events</a><ul><li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#pagebuilder\">Page Builder Summit</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>\n\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<h2 id=\"3-using-gutenberg-for-content-creators-and-site-builders\">Using Gutenberg for Content Creators and site builders</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> collaborated with the Gutenberg developers and designers to describe the <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/06/core-editor-improvement-continued-progress-on-accessibility/\">continued progress on accessibility</a></strong> in using the block editor for existing and future features. She has details on the Navigation block&#8217;s accessibility as well as for the Gallery Block Refactor.  You&#8217;ll also find an asorted list of high impact improvements. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>In his post on the Torque Magazine, <strong>Will Morris</strong> shows you <strong><a href=\"https://torquemag.io/2021/09/use-wordpress-block-pattern-directory/\">how you can use the WordPress Pattern Directory</a></strong>. He explains first what Block patterns are and what the Directory entails. Then he walks you through how to make a block pattern from the directory usable on your site by copy/paste. Another way is adding a block pattern from the Inserter panel. Both variations are explained in a step-by-step way and should get a WordPress newbie or just someone who just switched from classic editor to the block editor, started. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/ClorithMJ\">Marius Jensen</a></strong> updated his <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/blockeditor-fullscreen-mode-control/\"><strong>Persistent Block Editor Settings plugin</strong></a> He added support for the following user settings: </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>&#8211; Block breadcrumbs </li><li>&#8211; Most used blocks </li><li>&#8211; Caret positioning </li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>All settings are stored with the individual user profile information, and persist in between computer or browser changes. </p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"0-theme-development-in-for-full-site-editing\">Theme development in for Full-Site Editing</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ben Dwyer</strong> described in his post the role <a href=\"https://themeshaper.com/2021/10/06/universal-themes/\"><strong>Universal Themes</strong></a> will play in WordPress ecosystem. He defined the term Universal Theme as a theme that works like a classic theme for a site that has not enabled Full-site editing, and act like a block-based Theme for those sites that do.  He shares code-snippets for templates. Dwyer also stipulates, that Universal Themes are a temporary measure, as their need will diminish with Site Editor&#8217;s improvements further down the line.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kjell Reigstad</strong> just <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/06/introducing-twenty-twenty-two/\">introduced the new Twenty-Twenty-Two</a></strong> theme. It&#8217;s bird themed, and I truly loved the backstory of this inspiration. Reigstad tells the story that an array of birds joined his family every morning for breakfast at their bird feeder, and the theme is a mediation over what he saw. My husband and I had a similar breakfast with wildlife experience. Our birds were a bit larger: a white duck, herons, ibises, and Limpkins. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The theme will be a pure block-based theme geared towards the Full-site editing with difference color palettes exposed to the Global Styles interface and interesting block-patterns. In the post, the images are mock-ups. The Themes still needs to be built. Reigstad teamed up with <strong>Jeff Ong</strong> for the development. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WPTavern</strong> published two posts about it, too</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/default-theme-releases-may-become-more-frequent-following-wordpress-5-9\">Default Theme Releases May Become More Frequent Following WordPress 5.9</a> by Sarah Gooding</li><li><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/first-look-at-wordpress-upcoming-twenty-twenty-two-default-theme-the-most-flexible-default-theme-ever-created-for-wordpress\">First Look at WordPress’ Upcoming Twenty Twenty-Two Default Theme</a> by Justin Tadlock</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>This week&#8217;s Live Q &amp; A recording &#8211;  <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiIhJdFfamA\"><strong>Going from classic to block-based Theme</strong></a> with <strong>Ellen Bauer, Anders Noren</strong> and <strong>Carolina Nymark</strong> &#8211;  is now available on <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiIhJdFfamA\">YouTube</a>. The blog post with resources and transcript will follow next week.  </p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiIhJdFfamA\"><img /></a>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Creating a scaled and fluid type system takes a bit of creativity, especially in the context of WordPress block themes, but <a href=\"https://richtabor.com/fluid-type-scale-theme-json/\">here&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve explored</a>.&#8221; <strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/richard_tabor\">Rich Tabor</a></strong> tweeted. <strong><a href=\"https://richtabor.com/fluid-type-scale-theme-json/\">Using a Fluid Type Scale in WordPress Block Themes with Theme.json</a></strong></p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"1-the-future-of-theme-switching\">The Future of Theme Switching </h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Anne McCarthy </strong>published the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/05/fse-program-block-theme-switching-summary/\"><strong>Summary from the Theme Switching Exploration</strong></a> in context of the FSE-outreach program and the 10th call for testing. It had some interesting insights, like the expectation that user created templates are thethered to the theme and don&#8217;t stay around after switching a theme. Or that custom block styles, font-color and type choices survive after the theme is changed. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>In her post <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/08/adventures-in-block-theme-switching/\"><strong>Adventures in Block Theme Switching</strong></a>, <strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/critterverse\">Channing Ritter</a></strong>, team member on the WordPress design team, used the comments from contributors as inspiration for three different approaches on the entrance for theme management: </p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>The first idea envisions a redesing of the <strong>Theme Live Preview </strong>to allow for switching theme after a preview with a way to apply existing styles and templates. </li><li>The second idea makes theme management available via <strong>Global Styles</strong> sidebar of the the Site Editor. </li><li>The third idea takes the idea of shipping more then one color schemes  from the Twenty-Twenty-Two Theme and envisions a way to actually use <strong>template parts from all installed themes</strong> on a site. </li></ol>\n\n\n\n<p>It definitely is easier to understand when you watch the video and here longer explanations for each idea. Share your ideas and comment on the once before us! This is the moment you can influence where the team is taking the next phase of development. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"2-custom-blocks-development\">Custom Blocks Development</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3316333825196/WN__4hq3dHuR5uT3ZSG7BnOqA\">Join us next week, Thursday, October 14th, 2021</a>, for a Discussion with <strong>Helen Hou-Sandi, Mark Jaquith and Riad Benguella</strong> on <strong><strong><a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3316333825196/WN__4hq3dHuR5uT3ZSG7BnOqA\">How can we make building blocks easier?</a></strong></strong> It&#8217;s a continuation of a discussion started by Jaquith a few weeks ago: </p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://twitter.com/markjaquith/status/1432461667187765251\">The tweet</a> about an exploration from Jaquith, inspired by Hou-Sandi&#8217;s blog post, spurred a flurry of conversation around custom block development. The premise? <em>“What if building custom blocks for the Block Editor was as easy as supplying attributes and a block of HTML? What if this produced React editing code and PHP rendering code without a build step?”</em>  All three panelists are long-time WordPress contributors who have been different approaches on tackling these ideas. We will have more links and resource for you on the Live Stream. </p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3316333825196/WN__4hq3dHuR5uT3ZSG7BnOqA\"><img /></a>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>This week, I published a proposal for a new event series on the Make Core Blog: <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/07/proposal-gutenberg-developer-hours-series-of-events/\"><strong>Proposal: Gutenberg Developer Hours series of events</strong>.</a> It would be great if you could comment on this idea and let me know if you are interested in being part of the panel. It&#8217;s meant to be a low-effort way to help out other developers, without getting into all the administrative part of organizing those sessions. That&#8217;s what I will do. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/leeshadle\">Lee Shadle</a></strong> was a guest on the WPTavern Jukebox podcast on <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/podcast/8-lee-shadle-on-how-blocks-create-new-opportunities\"><strong>How Blocks Create New Opportunities.</strong></a> Podcast host, <strong>Nathan Wrigley</strong> discussed with Shadle the world of Gutenberg blocks and the new world of WordPress product business. It worth listening to the show undistracted. Shadle and Wrigley go deep into change mangement and how business owners might be able to approach building for WordPress in the classic way and slowly move into the block-based way without jeopardizing their revenue or the time they spend with their families. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p id=\"4-a-href-https-us-02-web-zoom-us-webinar-register-1016333846354-wn-v-e-xlr-fa-rcab-gz-78-jgj-8-ca-converting-classic-widgets-to-blocks-a\"><a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1016333846354/WN_v-EXlrFaRcabGz78jgj8CA\">Join us on October 28th at 12 pm EDT / 16:00 UTC</a> <strong>Gutenberg Times Live Q &amp; A: <a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1016333846354/WN_v-EXlrFaRcabGz78jgj8CA\">Converting classic widgets to blocks</a> </strong>Learn from the BuddyPress team members, <strong>Mathieu Viet</strong>, <strong>David Cavins</strong>, <strong>Varun Dubey</strong>.</p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1016333846354/WN_v-EXlrFaRcabGz78jgj8CA\"><img /></a>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"4-using-create-block-script\">Using create-block script to build blocks</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/dgwyer\">David Gwyer</a></strong> started a new site on the domain <a href=\"https://innerblocks.com/\">Innerblocks.com</a> to share his experience developing for Gutenberg in tutorials and resources. The first tutorial is titled:  <a href=\"https://innerblocks.com/creating-a-new-block-for-the-gutenberg-editor/\"><strong>Creating a New Block for the Gutenberg Editor</strong></a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gwyer also curates <a href=\"https://github.com/dgwyer/gutenberg-development-resources\">Gutenberg Developer Resources</a> on GitHub. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/phil_sola123\">Phil Sola</a></strong> has experimented with the WordPress <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-create-block/\">create-block script</a> and found a way to use it also for a multi-block plugin. He published the code on GitHub: <strong><a href=\"https://github.com/phil-sola/multi-block-plugin\">Multi blocks plugin</a></strong>.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>In this Thursday-Twitch-Stream, <strong><a href=\"https://twitter.com/ryanwelcher\">Ryan Welcher</a></strong> also covered <strong><a href=\"https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1169960035\">using create-block for a multi-block plugin</a></strong> in a step-by-step video tutorial. <a href=\"http://Creating a plugin with @wordpress/create-blocks that has multiple blocks\">The GitHub repo is available here</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>For this I only got to listened for the first 10 minutes and learned about the <em>Dependency Extraction Plugin</em> for webpack that replaces references to external packages to reference to WordPress global script that are already available in any WordPress instance. Because of that all your plugin doesn&#8217;t need to bundle all the packages, and be kept really small.  </p>\n\n\n\n<p>In previous Twitch Streams Welcher covered: </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1163471262\">Converting a shortcode to a custom block</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1156915530\">Updating the block examples </a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.twitch.tv/ryanwelchercodes/clip/UgliestTalentedBeaverOSsloth-t7djXmqOz2ObzwO1\">First steam! Let&#8217;s mess with some custom blocks</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcher holds regular <a href=\"https://www.twitch.tv/ryanwelchercodes\">Live Twitch streams on Thursdays 10:30 am EDT / 14:30 UTC</a>. Follow him and you will be notified when he goes live. </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=\"4-w\">WordPress Events</h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"pagebuilder\">Page Builder Summit</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://pagebuildersummit.com/\">Page Builder Summit</a></strong> is coming back and will be happening <strong>October 18 &#8211; 22, 2021. </strong>Nathan Wrigley and Anchen Le Roux <a href=\"https://pagebuildersummit.com/schedule/\"><strong>just published the schedule</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is the list of Gutenberg / Block-editor presentations </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Forging the Future with Full Site Editing</strong> with Anne McCarthy (10/18 &#8211; 9am EDT)</li><li><strong>The Future of Building WordPress Websites </strong>with Brian Gardner (10/18 &#8211; 12pm EDT)</li><li><strong>What does Full Site Editing Mean for Page Builders?</strong> with Joe Casabona (10/19/ 9am EDT)</li><li><strong>Customizing WordPress Block Editor for Client Projects </strong>with Birgit Pauli-Haack (10/19/ &#8211; 10 am EDT)</li><li><strong>Mastering modern WordPress with Full-site Editing &amp; Custom Blocks</strong> with Rob Stinson (10/20/ &#8211; 5am EDT)</li><li><strong>How to Build Any Page Layout Using Kadence Blocks</strong> with Jake Pfohl (10/20/ &#8211; 12pm EDT)</li><li><strong>Building a Custom Blog Archive with Blocks</strong> with Mike Oliver (10/21/ 11am EDT)</li><li><strong>RIP Page Builders</strong> with Chris Lubkert (10/19 &#8211; 1pm EDT)</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The schedule is not out yet. <a href=\"https://pagebuildersummit.com/\"><strong>Sign-up for the waitlist</strong></a> to receive notifications.</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\" />\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 09 Oct 2021 05:47:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Birgit Pauli-Haack\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i: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:80:\"WPTavern: WPCloudDeploy Brings Site and Server Management to the WordPress Admin\";s:7:\"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=123646\";s:7:\"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/wpclouddeploy-brings-site-and-server-management-to-the-wordpress-admin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wpclouddeploy-brings-site-and-server-management-to-the-wordpress-admin\";s: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:8512:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">WPCloudDeploy recently <a href=\"https://wpclouddeploy.com/whats-new-in-wpclouddeploy-4-10-5/\">launched version 4.10.5</a> of its rapidly-maturing <a href=\"https://wpclouddeploy.com/\">WordPress plugin</a> of the same name. The project is a WordPress-native replacement for SaaS services like Cloudways, Ploi, SpinupWP, and others.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Customers still need to hook up to a cloud server provider, such as Digital Ocean, Linode, AWS, or elsewhere. However, the project seeks to cut out the middleman for developers and agencies running multiple sites. They are specifically targeting those who would routinely manage 20 or more.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a true plugin where everything you need runs on your own site (except, of course, the other servers you are provisioning and managing which reside at their respective cloud server providers),&rdquo; said WPCloudDeploy owner Nigel Bahadur.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Server list screen.\n\n\n\n<p>Technically, WPCloudDeploy opened to the public in March 2020, but Bahadur was not ready to aggressively start letting the community know about it. He said the team is now at a point where they have a core group of users who are happy with the plugin. They have been rolling out new functionality every month for a year and a half and feel like it goes above and beyond alternatives.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We were basically in stealth mode for most of that time &mdash; we did enough marketing to get a core group of users and then tried to make those users happy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We even offered a heavily discounted lifetime license last year during the Black Friday sales period &ndash;- the folks that purchased then are very happy right now.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a mature project, it is time to branch out into the larger WordPress developer and agency market.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plugin promises its customers that they can deploy unlimited WordPress-optimized servers and sites to any cloud or bare-metal server. It has direct integration with 10 of the most popular cloud server providers.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Server status and overview screen.\n\n\n\n<p>However, provider integration is limited to which <a href=\"https://wpclouddeploy.com/pricing/\">pricing plan</a> the customer decides on. The core tier, which costs $199 per year, only works with Digital Ocean. The business tier runs $499 and adds Linode, Vultr, and UpCloud to the mix. For the full range of providers, customers must upgrade to the all-access plan for $799. Both of the top tiers also have a lifetime purchase option.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each tier of the plan is not merely limited to integration with more providers. For example, agencies can sell site and server subscriptions via WooCommerce through the business or all-access packages. White label and teams features are available at all levels.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Selling Subscriptions through WooCommerce</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">WPCloudDeploy allows agencies to sell subscriptions to cloud servers or WordPress sites through WooCommerce. Because of the feature&rsquo;s recent interest, Bahadur said it will likely be a focus area next year for more enhancements.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;For servers, you can create subscription products where the user gets to choose the provider and location,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Or you can create them where each product represents a single provider (useful if you want to price your AWS servers differently from your DigitalOcean servers).&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>They have their own separate service that builds on top of this called <a href=\"https://wpcloudpanel.com/\">WPCloudPanel</a>. The team created it with Beaver Builder, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Subscriptions, and Ninja Tables. The entire site required no additional custom code.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />WooCommerce-integrated sales page.\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;For sites, you can create subscriptions where the site is automatically placed on a particular server in a particular region,&rdquo; said Bahadur. &ldquo;Or you can create them where the site is placed on any available server from an admin-defined list of servers. It&rsquo;s a great way to get a highly customizable end-user purchasing experience using a toolset you already know.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Developers and agencies are not necessarily limited to WooCommerce. Instead, they can take the team&rsquo;s code and port it to other eCommerce or membership plugins. One such customer is currently working on a MemberPress solution.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Since the WPCloudDeploy code is just hooking into various WooCommerce actions and filters, it&rsquo;s basically just finding a similar hook in their favorite membership plugin, copying the relevant parts of our WooCommerce integration code, and then ripping out and replacing the WooCommerce-specific function calls,&rdquo; said Bahadur.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>From Inception to the Future</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Bahadur said his team started the project to meet their own needs. &ldquo;We really liked the idea of being able to use our own servers for WordPress sites. But at the time, there were still a lot of security questions and other usability and support issues that we were running into from the usual pool of SaaS providers.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He then decided that his team would build something themselves. Jokingly, he said he completely underestimated the project and how far he would take it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say that, back in 2019, I looked too far beyond the WP ecosystem because what I wanted was WP-specific functionality,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Cloudways was one of a number of providers I was using at the time, and they offered other services beyond WP. But the overall concept was the same whether it was WP or a server that was suitable for another ecosystem. I think I looked at every WP option there was at the time, including command-line services like WordOps.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said he was not necessarily sure it was important to have such a project in the WordPress space.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;I think what is important is to constantly remind folks of how much WordPress can do, how powerful it is, and to keep battling against the perception that WordPress is less secure than other options,&rdquo; said Bahadur. &ldquo;If you can use a WordPress plugin to run and manage all your servers and sites and/or even act as a hosting service, then we&rsquo;ve pushed the WP boundaries far beyond what anyone thought of doing two years ago.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He thinks it is even more important that WordPress professionals to be able to build products that compete against the feature depth and &ldquo;sexiness&rdquo; of SaaS services.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Think about how much more capital would stay within the WP ecosystem if you had a project management plugin that was as good as, say Clickup.com or Monday.com,&rdquo; said Bahadur. &ldquo;Or a CRM plugin that was as good as Hubspot. But to build plugins with that level of polish requires lots and lots of capital in the first place. Even though WP is a billion-dollar ecosystem, somehow we still don&rsquo;t have the ability to finance the build-out of world-class functional components with a world-class UX experience, and I think that&rsquo;s a shame &mdash; and a major opportunity for VCs.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He does not think WPCloudDeploy has quite met the smoother UIs of SaaS services yet. However, he believes it can prove that it rivals or exceeds such competitors in terms of functionality.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;So the next time someone asks, &lsquo;can you really build that on WP?&rsquo;, maybe they can point to WPCD and say, &lsquo;Hey, if you can build this on WP, then, hell yeah, we can build that thingamajig that you want&hellip;,&rdquo; said Bahadur.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team maintains a Trello board with a <a href=\"https://trello.com/b/pYl53rvM/wpcloud-deploy-public-roadmap\">public roadmap</a>. The most-requested feature right now is support for OpenLiteSpeed, an open-source web server.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Bahadur said the most tantalizing possibilities for the long term come from working with the REST API.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Unlike SaaS tools, you&rsquo;ll be able to customize it using our built-in ones as a template,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Ambitious agencies will be able to add their own plugin to extend our REST API without waiting for us to add new endpoints that meet their needs.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eventually, the core plugin will be available on GitHub. Developers will be able to contribute new endpoints to the core product via pull requests.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 09 Oct 2021 00:26:50 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\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:114:\"WPTavern: Hacktoberfest Adds GitLab Support, Updates Participation Requirements to Combat Open Source Project Spam\";s:7:\"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=123630\";s:7:\"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:271:\"https://wptavern.com/hacktoberfest-adds-gitlab-support-updates-participation-requirements-to-combat-open-source-project-spam?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hacktoberfest-adds-gitlab-support-updates-participation-requirements-to-combat-open-source-project-spam\";s: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:4410:\"<p>The <a href=\"https://www.digitalocean.com/blog/hacktoberfest-is-back-2021/\">8th annual Hacktoberfest</a> is underway with a few important changes this year. <a href=\"https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/\">Hacktoberfest</a>, a virtual event sponsored by DigitalOcean and community partners, has traditionally encouraged open source contribution during the month of October by rewarding participants with a t-shirt for submitting pull requests. The initiative has added support for participation on GitLab this year, a highly requested expansion that will include more open source projects that aren&rsquo;t hosted on GitHub.  </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Participation has grown from 676 people the first year to over 150,000 in recent years. In 2021, the program has been changed to be only applicable to opt-in repositories after being linked to an <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jennericthunk/status/1311564600853241858\">influx</a> of <a href=\"https://twitter.com/henrylim96/status/1311357290486722560\">spam</a> for open source maintainers in previous years. Maintainers of popular projects were getting frustrated by wasting their time handling nonsense PR&rsquo;s and marking them as spam during Hacktoberfest. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ugh, oh no, October is starting. Prepare for a month of spam pull requests&hellip; whatwg/html has already been hit hard, at 5 in the last 3 hours.<a href=\"https://twitter.com/hacktoberfest?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@hacktoberfest</a>, please please stop this annual tradition of wasting maintainers\' time. You are a net negative for the world.</p>&mdash; Domenic Denicola (@domenic) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/domenic/status/1311355857465225218?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>Starting this year, pull requests will only count towards participation if they are in a repository with the &lsquo;<em>hacktoberfest</em>&lsquo; topic and once they have been merged and approved by a maintainer or labeled as &lsquo;<em>hacktoberfest-accepted</em>.&rsquo; Participants must contribute four accepted PR&rsquo;s to an opted-in repo in order to qualify for the free, limited-edition Hacktoberfest t-shirt.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Maintainers are the backbone of the open-source community and this year, we&rsquo;re focused more than ever on ensuring maintainers are receiving the love they deserve,&rdquo; DigitalOcean Senior Community Relations Manager Phoebe Quincy said. &ldquo;Our maintainer-friendly rules include allowing repos to opt-in to Hacktoberfest, ensuring only accepted pull requests count towards participants&rsquo; Hacktoberfest goals, and for the first time ever, enabling maintainers to receive a Hacktoberfest t-shirt without having to submit pull requests.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/hacktoberfest?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@hacktoberfest</a> is here! Contribute to your favorite open source projects and get awesome swag! What could be better? Since we know <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/ElasticPress?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ElasticPress</a> is your favorite project &#128521;, here\'s a handy link to our Hacktoberfest issues <a href=\"https://t.co/U11660zNAU\">https://t.co/U11660zNAU</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/WordPress?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WordPress</a></p>&mdash; ElasticPressIO (@ElasticPressIO) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ElasticPressIO/status/1443263706020732928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 29, 2021</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>Open source maintainers and contributors can join anytime during the month until October 31st. If you maintain a WordPress-related open source project, you can <a href=\"https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/resources/maintainers\">get your project ready</a> to receive contributions by adding the &lsquo;Hacktoberfest&rsquo; topic to your repository, tagging issues with the &lsquo;Hacktoberfest&rsquo; label, and adding a CONTRIBUTING.md file. Maintainers are also encouraged to select issues that have a well-defined scope and are self-contained. Merging PR&rsquo;s, adding the&nbsp;&lsquo;hacktoberfest-accepted&rsquo;&nbsp;label, and marking &lsquo;invalid&rsquo; or &lsquo;spam&rsquo; contributions will all count towards engaged maintenership participation.</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:\"Sat, 09 Oct 2021 00:20:42 +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: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:94:\"Post Status: Post Status Excerpt (No. 27) — CaboPress and Owning Your Own Content (For Some)\";s:7:\"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=87584\";s:7:\"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/27/\";s: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:3978:\"<h2>&#8220;While WordPress <em>does</em> democratize publishing there are people today that don’t or (perhaps worse) can\'t take advantage of it.&#8221;</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">In this episode of Post Status Excerpt, Cory comes back freshly tanned from <strong>CaboPress</strong> to share his experiences and one big takeaway point that everyone can appreciate. David brings up how Facebook\'s outage this week made him start to give pause before quipping on Twitter about &#8220;owning your own content.&#8221; He asks if or how WordPress and the open web can help the people for whom Facebook <em>is</em> the internet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Also covered in this episode: </strong>A shout out to <strong>WordCamp US 2021</strong> which was held virtually for the first time on October 1st — a fine virtual event after only eight weeks of planning!</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://twitter.com/search?q=%23CaboPress\">#CaboPress on Twitter</a></li><li><a href=\"https://cabopress.com/\">CaboPress.com</a></li><li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/wordcamp-us-2021-summary/\">WordCamp US 2021 Summary (Post Status)</a></li><li><a href=\"https://poststatus.com/think-first-before-saying-own-your-own-content/\">Thinking First Before Saying &#8220;Own Your Own Content!&#8221;</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/corymiller303\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cory Miller (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/ithemes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow\">iThemes</a></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Take the guesswork out of building, maintaining, and securing WordPress websites. Professional plugins and training from <strong>iThemes</strong> help you create and manage your sites. Secure, back up, and manage them quickly and easily. Master leading-edge WordPress skills to grow your business and make more money. Learn and grow with the experts at <strong>iThemes</strong>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 08 Oct 2021 03:59:50 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s: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: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:69:\"WPTavern: Contextually Display Content With the Block Injector 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=123057\";s:7:\"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:183:\"https://wptavern.com/contextually-display-content-with-the-block-injector-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=contextually-display-content-with-the-block-injector-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:5265:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Jamie Marsland, the founder of Pootlepress, reached out a few weeks ago, asking for feedback on a beta version of <a href=\"https://www.pootlepress.com/block-injector/\">Block Injector</a>.  It was a commercial plugin his team at Pootlepress was gearing up to launch. Earlier this week, they released an updated version that he said he was happy with as an initial release. For a first outing, it has proved to be a handy plugin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The concept is not new. Plugins for dynamically injecting content in various places have long existed. In the past, these plugins have allowed users to create content through settings panels, widgets, or even the customizer. Some themes provide such options too. However, Block Injector is the first I have seen that takes this concept and moves it into the block arena.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plugin creates a new post type for creating injectable content. Essentially, users can add any blocks they want via the editor and display them at a custom location on the front end.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Adding a coupon to show at the top of a specific post.\n\n\n\n<p>The plugin has four different conditional rulesets that users can define:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Location:</strong> Which pages of the site the content appears on.</li><li><strong>Position:</strong> Where on the page the content should display.</li><li><strong>Exceptions:</strong> Post IDs to exclude.</li><li><strong>Schedule:</strong> Date and time-based start and end dates.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Marsland published a six-minute video that breaks down how it all works:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>After <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/from-ecommerce-integration-to-location-based-controls-block-visibility-pro-expands-upon-its-free-version\">using Block Visibility</a>, a dedicated plugin for contextually displaying blocks, it is hard not to see anything else as inferior. Its location-based logic provides more flexibility than most will ever need. I have become accustomed to its granular controls. Block Injector&rsquo;s rules are limited in comparison but should work well for the majority of use cases.  I almost want to merge them to see what I can create.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Block Injector really shines when paired with WooCommerce. The development team added several shop-specific location options.  They also expanded on the positioning rules to utilize a range of WooCommerce hooks. This can create a powerful set of tools for store owners, particularly for seasonal sales. For example, users can display a coupon for the month leading up to Christmas.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Adding a coupon to show on the WooCommerce shop page.\n\n\n\n<p>One area where I hit a snag was with themes that had grid layouts on the homepage. When injecting content at the top or bottom, it would often get sucked into the post grid.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This issue is evident in the following screenshot when using the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/flock\">Flock</a> theme:</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>My expectation was that it would have spanned the area above the posts. However, I am not sure how easy this would be to fix from the plugin&rsquo;s end because there are only specific places where it is possible to hook into the front-end output. Attempting to correct this via CSS for all grid themes would be futile. However, as we continue to move toward 100% block themes in the future, it may open some alternative routes for injecting such content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the whole, I like the direction I am seeing from this first version. Having run theme and general WordPress support for over a decade, I had an untold number of users ask for similar solutions. I doubt there was a week that went by where I did not field such a question. Block Injector should save many a lot of time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would call the plugin <em>necessary</em> more so than particularly groundbreaking. The community needed someone to step up and build it for the block era.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, Marsland created a fake marketing video for the plugin if you are looking for a quick laugh:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Amazing to get this testimonial from Korean supergroup ELAST for our Block Injector plugin <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/wpfakes?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#wpfakes</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/gutenberg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#gutenberg</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/7kFdq3CzYY\">pic.twitter.com/7kFdq3CzYY</a></p>&mdash; Pootlepress &ndash; busy building Gutenberg Blocks (@pootlepress) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/pootlepress/status/1444301141551026182?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 2, 2021</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>That tweet is just one in a series of videos under the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/wpfakes\">#WPFakes hashtag</a>, one of my favorite things on the internet right now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Version 1.0.1, the copy I am currently testing, does have a few PHP errors when WooCommerce is not active in specific scenarios. These are trivial to fix, and I have passed along the details to the team. However, I did want to note this to readers who might consider purchasing this for use without WooCommerce. I expect the problems will be fixed in the next release.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 08 Oct 2021 00:39:32 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\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:81:\"WPTavern: Default Theme Releases May Become More Frequent Following 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=123925\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:207:\"https://wptavern.com/default-theme-releases-may-become-more-frequent-following-wordpress-5-9?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=default-theme-releases-may-become-more-frequent-following-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:3240:\"<img />photo credit: <a href=\"https://stocksnap.io/photo/birds-flying-MGGKWIS8CP\">Matt Bango</a>\n\n\n\n<p>The new <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 default theme</a> coming in 5.9 hasn&rsquo;t even been fully built yet but many WordPress enthusiasts who saw yesterday&rsquo;s design reveal are already eager to use it on their sites. Contributors have just 40 days before the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-9/\">scheduled Beta 1 release</a> on November 16 to get the theme ready. While that seems like an impossibly tight deadline, more frequent default theme releases may be ahead on the horizon.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a couple of short paragraphs tucked into the end of the announcement, Kjell Reigstad commented on the future of default theme release frequency:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>The community has produced a dozen best-in-class themes together, and we&rsquo;ve come to look forward to a new one arriving at the close of each year. That said, themes are in a transition period today, and it seems like this may be a reasonable time to step back and to re-evaluate the annual cadence with which we build default themes.&nbsp;</p><p>Innovations like theme.json, block templates, and block patterns are making theme development far simpler, and are providing new ways for users to customize their sites. There&rsquo;s reason to believe that the community can leverage all this to build more frequent and diverse theme and customization solutions for our users in the coming years.&nbsp;</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>It wasn&rsquo;t clear whether Reigstad meant that the cadence of default theme releases would be slowing down or speeding up. I asked him for clarification and he confirmed that the idea is to consider the possibility of speeding up.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;I hope these new tools allow us to create and release more frequently than we&rsquo;ve been able to in the past,&rdquo; Reigstad said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;The general idea came up as part of the ideation process for the default theme this year, and that part of the post is meant to give it a wider platform for conversation in the community. I&rsquo;m excited to hear what other folks think since this idea is in its very early days! I really think there&rsquo;s a lot of opportunity here.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;The ideation process he referenced, which varies from year to year, included early conversations with project leadership to plan and make sure the theme is aligned with the future of WordPress. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the discussion officially kicks off regarding increasing default theme release frequency, contributors are focused on getting Twenty Twenty-Two out the door. Reigstad said people can jump in on testing now, as the general structure is already in place. This includes fonts, colors, and basic templates, although details like spacing and specific block styles are still in progress along with block patterns. If you want to contribute to making Twenty Twenty-Two the best it can be, check out the <a href=\"https://github.com/wordpress/twentytwentytwo\">development happening on GitHub</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 07 Oct 2021 20:14:55 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\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: The HeroPress Network Launches as a Multi-Project Portal\";s:7:\"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=123904\";s:7:\"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/the-heropress-network-launches-as-a-multi-project-portal?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-heropress-network-launches-as-a-multi-project-portal\";s: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:5911:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Husband-and-wife duo Topher and Cate DeRosia announced the <a href=\"https://heropressnetwork.com/heropress-expands-into-the-heropress-network/\">launch of the The HeroPress Network</a> earlier today. It is a collection of content from various sites they are working on in a centralized location.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Its overarching goal is to be a hub,&rdquo; said Cate DeRosia. &ldquo;It will display the newest items from around the HeroPress Network, as well as news from the community (to be added in shortly). We can also post information that we think is helpful or educational.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The &ldquo;hub&rdquo; will incorporate content from at least eight projects:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://heropressnetwork.com/\">The HeroPress Network</a></li><li><a href=\"https://heropress.com/\">HeroPress</a></li><li><a href=\"http://www.hallwaychats.com/\">Hallway Chats</a></li><li><a href=\"https://wppodcasts.com/\">WP Podcasts</a></li><li><a href=\"http://www.finditwp.com/\">Find It WP</a></li><li>Slack group</li><li>+2 additional projects in production</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The team launched WP Podcasts two weeks ago, making over 7,000 current episodes from dozens of WordPress shows available in one place. Find It WP is currently in beta and will be the next project to launch on or before October 19.  They will soon launch the public Slack group with dedicated channels for different types of professionals.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />The HeroPress Network homepage.\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;You could say it&rsquo;s like the portals of yesteryear,&rdquo; said DeRosia. &ldquo;With HeroPress expanding into 8+ or more entities, we wanted one place for people to go and get the most current glimpse of what&rsquo;s happening.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also teased the idea of expanding their educational offerings in the announcement post. However, news on that will have to wait until they build out the projects currently underway.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team will open funding options on October 24.  The HeroPress Network is a for-profit company, but its goal is to make all of its content available for free to the community as a whole.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The original HeroPress.com website <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/heropress-fails-to-attract-backers-cancels-kickstarter-campaign-ahead-of-deadline\">did not hit its funding goal</a> in 2015. It attracted 33 backers who pledged $21,855 of its $60,000 AUD goal on Kickstarter. There was <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/heropress-launches-kickstarter-campaign-to-highlight-wordpress-developers\">some early pushback</a>, particularly from WordPress lead developer Andrew Nacin <a href=\"https://twitter.com/nacin/status/558347928977145856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E558347928977145856%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwptavern.com%2Fheropress-launches-kickstarter-campaign-to-highlight-wordpress-developers\">who cited</a> its &ldquo;unambiguous hero worship&rdquo; and the initial male-only lineup of speakers as problems. However, much has changed in the six years since the fundraiser.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>DeRosia called the first fundraising event a test to see how the community would receive it. The project has never been funded financially since then. Hosting and resources have been provided for the project, and a few other companies have occasionally donated toward their time and tools.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite failing to raise their initial funds, the project continued onward. Today, HeroPress has been a success by simply providing a platform for people to share their journeys in the WordPress world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Andrey &ldquo;Rarst&rdquo; Savchenko wrote the <a href=\"https://heropress.com/essays/finding-your-place/\">first essay</a> in March 2015. Since then, the site has published over 200 others.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always been a challenge to figure out how to fund the project,&rdquo; said DeRosia. &ldquo;When the pandemic hit and sponsors had money they couldn&rsquo;t use on WordCamps, they started some conversations with us. We&rsquo;ve been kicking around ideas since then and feel The HeroPress Network gives us the best resource for reasonable funding. We want to be giving value back to both the community and supporters, and the diversity of what makes up the Network provides more options.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If everything falls into place, DeRosia herself or one of their daughters could have a salaried position for the project. Her background is in English and journalism, and she described it as a &ldquo;dream job.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I asked DeRosia why she was personally vested in this project. What was it that got her up every morning to build it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Topher and I both grew up rural poor here in the US,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We come from communities dying because there aren&rsquo;t jobs. WordPress has always been such an excellent answer to this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;With HeroPress.com we&rsquo;re able to provide a stage where people can tell their stories of how they&rsquo;ve built their lives regardless of where they lived or what circumstances they were living in. That&rsquo;s great, but it only goes so far.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Now with The HeroPress Network, we can provide simplified, searchable access to practical tools that anyone can use to craft the life they want using the WordPress platform. We can also demonstrate how community and business can work together to get the best for both.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;If the option for something better is out there, I want to help people find it. Helping new people get started in WordPress brings a richness to the community that it needs to thrive. Helping established businesses connect with people and resources continues the growth.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just so incredible to have the privilege to see people build relationships that allow them to flourish. And who wouldn&rsquo;t get out of bed every morning to do that?&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:\"Wed, 06 Oct 2021 23:44:29 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Justin Tadlock\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i: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:143:\"WPTavern: First Look at WordPress’ Upcoming Twenty Twenty-Two Default Theme: “The Most Flexible Default Theme Ever Created for 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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=123061\";s:7:\"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:311:\"https://wptavern.com/first-look-at-wordpress-upcoming-twenty-twenty-two-default-theme-the-most-flexible-default-theme-ever-created-for-wordpress?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=first-look-at-wordpress-upcoming-twenty-twenty-two-default-theme-the-most-flexible-default-theme-ever-created-for-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:4220:\"<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/06/introducing-twenty-twenty-two/\">Twenty Twenty-Two</a>, the new default theme coming in WordPress 5.9, was unveiled today on WordPress.org. The design goes full steam ahead in support of full site editing and new customization capabilities.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like its predecessor, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/09/23/introducing-twenty-twenty-one/\">Twenty Twenty-One</a>, the new default theme makes some bold design choices wrapped around a central theme. In this case it&rsquo;s bird illustrations, complemented by <a href=\"https://adobe-fonts.github.io/source-serif\">Source Serif Pro</a>&nbsp;for headlines, and a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/files/2021/10/Example-Layouts-scaled.jpg\">delicious array of patterns</a> for limitless combinations.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Image Credit: <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/06/introducing-twenty-twenty-two/\">Introducing Twenty Twenty-Two</a>\n\n\n\n<p>The theme will be <a href=\"https://github.com/wordpress/twentytwentytwo\">developed on GitHub</a> until it&rsquo;s ready to be merged into core. Kjell Reigstad, an Automattic sponsored full-time design contributor to WordPress.org, is leading the design with Jeff Ong leading development. In the announcement he sets expectations high for users to be able to make the theme their own.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;With the advent of Full Site Editing and Global Styles, themes are changing structurally and functionally to enable far more avenues for customization than users have come to expect in the past,&rdquo; Reigstad said. &ldquo;To take advantage of these new abilities, <strong>Twenty Twenty-Two has been designed to be the most flexible default theme ever created for WordPress.</strong>&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the wide variety of patterns expected to ship with this theme, Twenty Twenty-Two will offer a lively selection of six pre-designed color palettes. Reigstad shared a video preview of how they instantly change the character of the theme. (see below) Combine this with the promise of being able to manipulate every aspect of the theme&rsquo;s appearance through global styles, and users are in for a treat with WordPress 5.9.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Twenty Twenty-Two will take advantage of a wide&nbsp;network&nbsp;of page templates, headers, footers, and other patterns so that users can easily make the theme their own,&rdquo; Reigstad said. &ldquo;In another nod to the behavior of birds everywhere, these will offer a balance between fun and utility: some are irregular and unpredictable, while others are straightforward and traditional. Together, these patterns will act as a window into all of the possibilities that the theme enables.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The design preview for Twenty Twenty-Two has received overwhelming positive <a href=\"https://twitter.com/search?q=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fcore%2F2021%2F10%2F06%2Fintroducing-twenty-twenty-two%2F&src=typed_query\">feedback on Twitter</a> and in the comments of the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/06/introducing-twenty-twenty-two/\">announcement</a>. Many users were excited to see a default theme that can be quickly transformed for so many applications. Too many default themes have only been applicable to a narrow set of use cases. In the past, users had little hope of being able to change things around to make the design work for their needs. Unrelenting progress on the block editor and full site editing has made it possible for Twenty Twenty-Two to become the most user-empowering default theme in WordPress&rsquo; history.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reigstad said the theme will be &ldquo;built for Full Site Editing first,&rdquo; with as little CSS as possible, and all theme styles configurable through theme.json wherever possible, so users can edit them through Global Styles.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Twenty Twenty-Two is designed with the acknowledgement that its default appearance is not most people&rsquo;s endpoint,&rdquo; Reigstad said. &ldquo;Everyone deserves a truly unique website, built on a solid, well-designed foundation, and Twenty Twenty-Two aims to help them achieve that.&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:\"Wed, 06 Oct 2021 20:59:42 +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:38;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:11:\"\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:1:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:39:\"HeroPress: What’s Next For HeroPress?\";s:7:\"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:29:\"https://heropress.com/?p=4162\";s:7:\"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:115:\"https://heropress.com/whats-next-for-heropress/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=whats-next-for-heropress\";s: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:4748:\"<img width=\"1024\" height=\"685\" src=\"https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/nikola-jovanovic-OBok3F8buKY-unsplash-1024x685.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Closeup of a woman\'s hands holding a double handful of dirt with a green plant growing out of it.\" /><p>For years now people have been asking me &#8220;So what&#8217;s next for HeroPress?&#8221; and I didn&#8217;t have a good answer. I was content to let it just be inspirational essays forever. But as the years went by, I began to feel more and more that I wanted to go one step further, and start providing resources to those newly inspired people. Some direction, now that they&#8217;re convinced they that too can Do It.</p>\n<p>About a year ago my wife <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mysweetcate\">Cate</a> asked, &#8220;What if we were able to fund this, so I could take on the HeroPress work as my full time job? Then, we could start doing a lot more.&#8221; And thus began a series of conversations that still hasn&#8217;t ended.</p>\n<p>We didn&#8217;t want to ask people to help financially without offering them something more in return, so we started brain storming about what we could make that people would value. We came up with MANY ideas which we didn&#8217;t follow up on, but we also came up with some GREAT ones that we <em>did</em> do.</p>\n<h3>Great Ideas We&#8217;ve Acted On</h3>\n<p>Last week we released <a href=\"https://wppodcasts.com\">WP Podcasts</a>, which aggregates all the episodes from all the WordPress podcasts we can find, so you can search by keyword or tag and find individual episodes across all of them.  For playback and subscription we direct you back to the original site, driving traffic back to the podcaster.</p>\n<p>You probably already know about <a href=\"https://hallwaychats.com\">Hallway Chats</a>, and then there&#8217;s <a href=\"https://heropress.com/\">this site</a> (HeroPress.com).</p>\n<p>Soon we’ll be releasing Find It WP (think Yahoo for WordPress), a curated listing of everything in WordPress. A curated listing of everything in WordPress.  Every podcast, every email newsletter, every dev agency, every theme shop, and on forever. If it&#8217;s WordPress, it&#8217;ll be in there, assuming they choose to sign up. There are a couple more sites in the hopper as well, but I&#8217;ll tell you more about them another day.</p>\n<h3>Today&#8217;s Announcement</h3>\n<p>TODAY I&#8217;m excited to announce the next new thing for HeroPress: <a href=\"https://heropressnetwork.com\">The HeroPress Network</a>. This is a site that serves several purposes.</p>\n<ul>\n<li>To aggregate everything from all of the HeroPress properties into one site, the latest essay, Hallway Chat, WordPress Podcast episode, new thing on Find It WP, etc.</li>\n<li>A community news blog. Think People magazine, but less smarmy.</li>\n<li>A platform for video and text tutorials and training produced by the HeroPress team. You can go <a href=\"https://heropressnetwork.com/video/saving-a-wordpress-search-as-rss/\">see the first WordPress Tip Of The Week right here</a>!</li>\n</ul>\n<h3>Future Needs</h3>\n<p>As you can see, with what we have going on now plus what we have planned, we have MORE than enough work for a full time employee.</p>\n<p>For this reason, on October 24th 2021 we&#8217;re going to open up funding opportunities.</p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t an Event with a goal and a thermometer to track funds received, or balloons and a band. This is going to be more like a Patreon, where we&#8217;re looking for people who are willing to support the project long term. Don&#8217;t get me wrong, we won&#8217;t turn down one-time help, but if this is going to grow it needs long term support.</p>\n<p>On the technical side of funding, we&#8217;re choosing to use <a href=\"https://givewp.com\">GiveWP</a> instead of Patreon for a few important reasons.</p>\n<ol>\n<li>We&#8217;re all in on the WordPress ecosystem. We want to show that it can be done, and done well, in WordPress.</li>\n<li>Another is the old story of owning your platform. We don&#8217;t want to depend on other sites if we don&#8217;t have to. We&#8217;re going to have to write some code to make GiveWP work like Patreon, but that just means we&#8217;ll have one more thing to give back to the community.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>It&#8217;s been nearly seven years since HeroPress started, and I&#8217;m excited to see it blossom into something even greater.</p>\n<p><span class=\"_1K5LX _1ByhS\">Photo by <a href=\"https://unsplash.com/@danteov_seen?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText\">Nikola Jovanovic</a> on <a href=\"https://unsplash.com/s/photos/growing?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText\">Unsplash</a> </span></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 06 Oct 2021 20:07:44 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}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:57:\"WPTavern: WordCamp US 2021 Draws More Than 3600 Attendees\";s:7:\"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=123714\";s:7:\"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:159:\"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-2021-draws-more-than-3600-attendees?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordcamp-us-2021-draws-more-than-3600-attendees\";s: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:4687:\"<p><a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/\">WordCamp US</a> took place online last Friday. Organizers pulled off a successful one-day event with an engaging group of speakers who highlighted timely and important topics. There were 3,608 people registered for the event and the livestream had as many as 400 concurrent viewers at a time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Online events are notoriously difficult to get attendee stats for, particularly an event like WCUS 2021 where the audience is global and spans so many time zones,&rdquo; WCUS organizer Cate DeRosia said. &ldquo;Many people will watch what they can and catch the rest in their own time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We really love this as it makes for not only a more accessible event, but a more educational experience as it&rsquo;s so easy to rewatch a session as many times as an individual needs.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jati/status/1443978800010711045\">asked on Twitter</a> why the event&rsquo;s organizers didn&rsquo;t opt to use a more interactive event platform like Hopin or Veertly, organizer Jen Swisher said some of the platforms they looked into had accessibility issues or prohibitive costs. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>As part of the leadership trio for WCUS, Swisher said the team had three issues they focused on when choosing a virtual venue: cost, accessibility, and time for implementation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We had a $30K budget,&rdquo; Swisher said. &ldquo;To use one of these platforms would have doubled it minimum. There was also a strong chance we would have faced additional costs from our production company for our resources through them to learn this new platform and connect it with their equipment.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;This would have resulted in additional time and resources spent on fundraising or increasing the costs of our sponsor packages. This would have forced the volunteers on the sponsors team to do twice as much work to get the sponsorship necessary to fund other platforms.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even with the simple setup of two YouTube livestreams, organizers provided a high energy, welcoming reception to attendees. They managed to bring some levity during these challenging times apart from one another. Swisher highlighted a few deliberate choices organizers made to give this year&rsquo;s event a more lightweight feeling:</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t try to replicate the in person experience,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Making the choice to actively recognize that this isn&rsquo;t like in person events in any way gave everyone permission to think about this event differently. By throwing out &lsquo;the book,&rsquo; and starting from scratch, we were able to really &lsquo;dream&rsquo; for the event, instead of what it could have been.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of planning a big multi-day event, organizers opted for a single day focusing on a smaller subset of topics. They also selected chat moderators and emcees that would bring enthusiasm to the event and gave them the autonomy to make decisions on the fly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;The team agreed that a big event with multiple days and large numbers of tracks would be exhausting to plan and exhausting for attendees to sit through,&rdquo; Swisher said. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>After <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-2020-canceled-due-to-pandemic-stress-and-online-event-fatigue\">WordCamp US 2020 was cancelled</a> due to pandemic stress and online event fatigue, the organizing team needed to make some changes to avoid the pitfalls of the previous year. Organizers were drained, spread thin, and frustrated by delayed tasks and external stressors. The WCUS 2021 team turned this around to make it a more healthy culture for volunteers. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We fostered an atmosphere where stepping back to take care of yourself was strongly encouraged,&rdquo; Swisher said. &ldquo;This resulted in a team of folks that was well rested and able to handle the extra responsibility that comes with planning a WordCamp.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We gave the teams the autonomy necessary to get their work done. Decision making was done democratically, but decisions that didn&rsquo;t impact the whole team didn&rsquo;t involve the whole team, making it possible to move more agilely.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The speaker selection was outstanding this year and the recorded sessions will soon be available on <a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/\">WordPress.tv</a> after the production team finishes uploading them. In the meantime, if you are eager to watch or re-watch sessions now, one attendee, Marcus Burnette, has published a post with <a href=\"https://mburnette.com/blog/wordcamp-us-2021/\">direct links to session recordings</a> from the livestream.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 06 Oct 2021 15:29:11 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Sarah Gooding\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i: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:66:\"WPTavern: #8 – Lee Shadle on How Blocks Create New Opportunities\";s:7:\"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=123863\";s:7:\"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/podcast/8-lee-shadle-on-how-blocks-create-new-opportunities?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=8-lee-shadle-on-how-blocks-create-new-opportunities\";s: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:54420:\"<h2>About this episode.</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>On the podcast today we have <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/leeshadle/\">Lee Shadle</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lee is a WordPress developer at <a href=\"https://wpdraft.com/\">WP Draft</a>, and by his own admission is obsessed with building block based themes, plugins and websites. He&rsquo;s been using WordPress for many years and as soon as the Gutenberg project was announced, he decided he was going to explore it and learn how it worked.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He runs a small agency building sites with blocks as well as with 3rd party page builders.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I first saw Lee when he presented at WordCamp Europe earlier in 2021, and his passion for working with blocks and React was obvious. It&rsquo;s pretty clear that, right from the start, he&rsquo;s embraced the possibilities that blocks offer, both now and in the future.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time of recording this podcast, many are still unsure about what blocks are for, and what they will be able to do down the road, but Lee has thrown himself into figuring out what&rsquo;s possible, and it might come as a surprise just how powerful they are.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We start our conversation by addressing whether Gutenberg was something that the WordPress project actually needed. Was it necessary to build a new tool which would require people to learn new skills and new techniques?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We then get into some concrete examples of how blocks will add new capabilities to websites. Some of the examples show that complex operations can be handled within single blocks. These possibilities were once the domain of plugins and shortcodes, and now they can be deployed and configured by anyone who edits content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We talk about the obstacles which Lee encountered whilst learning how to build blocks. In his case, he worked on projects which he knew he would enjoy. We also touch upon some resources he used to assist in his learning.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&rsquo;s also a discussion about the commercial landscape for block developers and how blocks might become a new way of generating revenue. Although we&rsquo;re not there yet, it might well be that in the future, WordPress users will be on the lookout to purchase blocks in the same way that they now buy plugins and themes. Perhaps there&rsquo;s even scope for a market of inexpensive blocks which have limited functionality.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As you&rsquo;ll hear, Lee is very optimistic about the future of WordPress, with blocks at it&rsquo;s core.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Useful links.</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://twitter.com/leeshadle\">Lee&rsquo;s Twitter account</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://stimulusbenefits.com/\">Stimulus Benefits</a> &ndash; Lee&rsquo;s calculator block</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wpaino.com/\">Aino</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-visibility/\">Block Visibility</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://newsletterglue.com/\">Newsletter Glue</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://reactforbeginners.com/\">React for beginners</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://generateblocks.com/\">GenerateBlocks</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.nickdiego.com/\">Nick Diego</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://mikeoliver.me/\">Mike Oliver</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://briangardner.com/\">Brian Gardner</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 eighth 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, the events, the plugins, the themes, and the blocks. Every 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 like the podcast, please share it with your friends. And you might also like to think about subscribing, so that you can get all of the episodes in your podcast player automatically. 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 approach. If you have any thoughts about this podcast, perhaps suggestion of a guest or an interesting subject, then do head over to WP tavern dot com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox and use the form there. And 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 Lee Shadle. Lee is a WordPress developer at WP Draft, and by his own admission is obsessed with building block-based themes, plugins, and websites. He&rsquo;s been using WordPress for many years, and as soon as the Gutenberg project was announced, he decided he was going to explore it and learn how it worked.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>He runs a small agency building sites with blocks, as well as third party page builders. I first saw Lee when he presented at WordCamp Europe earlier in 2021. And his passion for working with blocks and react was obvious. It was pretty clear, right from the start, he&rsquo;s embraced the possibilities that blocks offer both now and in the future. At the time of recording this podcast, many are still unsure about what blocks are for and what they will be able to do down the road. But Lee has thrown himself into figuring out what&rsquo;s possible and it might come as a surprise to you just how powerful.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>We start our conversation by addressing whether Gutenberg was something that the WordPress project actually needed. Was it necessary to build a new tool, which would require people to learn new skills and new techniques.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>We then get into some concrete examples of how blocks will add new capabilities to websites. Some of the examples show that complex operations can be handled within single blocks. These possibilities were once the domain of plugins and shortcodes, and now they can be deployed and configured by anyone who edits content.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>We talk about the obstacles which Lee encountered whilst learning how to build blocks. In his case, he worked on projects, which he knew that he would enjoy. We also touch upon some resources, used to assist him in his learning.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>There&rsquo;s also a discussion about the commercial landscape for block developers and how blocks might become a new way of generating revenue. Although we&rsquo;re not there yet, it might well be that in the future, WordPress users will be on the lookout to purchase blocks in the same way that they now buy plugins and themes. Perhaps there&rsquo;s even scope for a market of inexpensive blocks, which have limited functionality.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>As you&rsquo;ll hear Lee is very optimistic about the future of WordPress with blocks at its core.</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 wptavern dot com forward slash podcast, and perhaps leave us a comment there.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>And so without further delay, I bring. Lee Shadle.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I am joined on the podcast today by Lee Shadle. Hello Lee.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:04:16]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Hey Nathan.</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> [00:04:17]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>It&rsquo;s lovely to have you on the podcast today. Before we get stuck into it, I&rsquo;ll ask the traditional set of mandatory questions at the start. Would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself, your background in WordPress, technology? You can go back as far as you feel necessary. Probably limit it to the WordPress side of things.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:04:35]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Okay. So I was born in Columbus, Ohio, but I shouldn&rsquo;t go back to Ohio days. Huh? I shouldn&rsquo;t go back all the way back to my birth. So I am a self-taught developer, mostly front end developer, and I&rsquo;ve been doing it for about 10 years. I started building custom client sites and I made my way to WordPress about five years ago. And really, the thing that actually really drew me in was when Gutenberg launched, because it really used all my skillsets of JavaScript, React, CSS. And so since then, I&rsquo;ve been really the last five years or so been focused on building blocks. I kind of nonstop, but kind of had an insane obsession with it. You could ask my wife, all I do is talk about blocks and building blocks. So to pay the bills, I&rsquo;ve been building client sites and I&rsquo;ve been trying to build tools with blocks to help streamline my processes of the client work. So that&rsquo;s what brings me here today. Is that black building obsession.</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> [00:05:39]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Very nice. Well, we will get thoroughly immersed in all of that in a little while. Just before that, I wanted to know what your thoughts are on whether or not WordPress needed to put this into core, the ability to build your website now let&rsquo;s say, but initially, to create your content around blocks. Did you feel at the time, obviously subsequently you&rsquo;ve gotten into it and been enjoying what it has brought to the table, but I&rsquo;m wondering if you can cast your mind back to that time when it did come in. Was there a light that went off and you thought, actually this is tremendously interesting or were you like many people were, and to some extent still are kind of reluctant to use it and keen to have the old editor back or move away to some sort of proprietary page builder?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:06:25]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Being a front end developer, when I started hearing about React being in WordPress, that really got me going, because to me, it really opens up a bunch of possibilities that can really allow you to build, you know, really snappy interfaces and really fun products and stuff that you couldn&rsquo;t build before.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>You can almost, I know there&rsquo;s been talk about WordPress being the OS of the internet. And I think it really opens up that possibility. I started dipping my toes into WordPress right before Gutenberg launched. And I did a deep dive into building themes and plugins the old way. And then right about a year into me learning how to do that, I started diving deep into Gutenberg. And, I definitely think it was a good move. Although all change, you know, change can sometimes be painful and there&rsquo;s definitely a steep learning curve, but I think the pain is going to be worth it in the long run.</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> [00:07:29]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I feel that at the moment, there is a lot of pain being experienced by a variety of different people. And some people like yourself have decided to absorb that pain and go with it. Other people have found it very difficult and there&rsquo;s been politics, shall we say has crept into WordPress in a way that I&rsquo;ve not really seen too much of before, and people wishing that it hadn&rsquo;t have been put into core and that it had of been a plugin instead. Other people obviously just wished that the entire thing would go away and ended up forking WordPress and creating this ClassicPress version of WordPress. So it has really divided the community. I feel that maybe talks like this, will address that a little bit because you&rsquo;ve obviously been exploring it and you&rsquo;ve probably got some great ideas about things that it will enable that perhaps the rest of us haven&rsquo;t really foreseen.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I know for my part, I&rsquo;ve seen a few videos of things that people are building. Products that are either just about to come out or have already come out and you just think, okay, that&rsquo;s interesting because that&rsquo;s totally wedded to the idea of a block and without the block methodology, that exact thing could not have been done, possibly even as a plugin. So I&rsquo;m just curious if you&rsquo;ve got any thoughts about what can be done with blocks that we could not have done before.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:08:44]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I&rsquo;m going to go as a bold as to say, I think, think of every traditional plugin or theme business in WordPress. I believe with the advent of Gutenberg, everything is ripe for disruption.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I think every single aspect, like think about forms or think about pop-ups or think about payments. Really any facet of the WordPress economy that you can think of, that people are making a living on, I think it could be disrupted with 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> [00:09:15]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Yeah. I think you&rsquo;re probably right. We&rsquo;ve certainly seen some . Of those things. I&rsquo;ve seen some projects certainly around the forms space where, you know, you just think, oh, well the interface of Gutenberg really does lend itself to creating sort of drag and drop form builder. It&rsquo;s really remarkable for that. Aside from those sort of more general ideas, do you have any concrete examples of things that you&rsquo;ve gotten yourself into and projects that you&rsquo;ve created, or been party to where there&rsquo;s been an end result that we could all identify with and understand why you&rsquo;re so excited about it.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:09:46]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I&rsquo;ve been building blocks, all kinds of different types of blocks, trying to uncover. I run a small agency, so my workflow and system of building a site for client is super important to me. And I know there are a ton of tools with the classic way of building WordPress built around optimizing that workflow. But that&rsquo;s really been my focus is how do we leverage the system to really like streamline the workflow of building sites for clients? I build a lot of sites for fun for myself. Really. I&rsquo;m all about building quickly.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I don&rsquo;t know if I told you this Nathan, but when I was in my previous life, I used to own a restaurant and I came up with, you know, the menu and the food, and imagine it was an Italian version of Chipotle at the early days of Chipotle, and, you know, I ran it for a couple years and it just failed miserably. I lost, I kind of lost everything in that. But I learned a lot of great lessons and one of those lessons was I want to be able to keep stepping up to the plate. And in order to do that, to keep trying, I needed to come up with systems and processes that allow me to do that in a way that it isn&rsquo;t heavy handed. And I can just hack away at an idea in a day. And I kinda think that is the essence of WordPress. And I think that Gutenberg is kind of taken us back to that essence of, okay, what can I hack away at? I think we&rsquo;re just starting to hit the point of stability with Gutenberg and with full site editing coming out and block-based themes where you&rsquo;re going to be able to build full blown prototypes and mock-ups of, you know, not just like static sites, but some pretty complex stuff pretty quickly. Imagine launching, you know, I don&rsquo;t know if you saw Flip WP, they&rsquo;re launching a marketplace for selling WordPress plugins and themes and WordPress businesses. I think something like that is going to become a lot easier to do. Like iterating on an idea like Flip WP, like say I want to try it, test the waters of building a marketplace for buying and selling WordPress businesses. I think, being able to build startups and more complex businesses is going to become a lot easier to do with 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> [00:12:10]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>When you&rsquo;ve been creating your blocks at the beginning, I&rsquo;m just curious as to how obviously you fell into it and you&rsquo;re now enjoying it. Were there any significant obstacles along the way that you encountered? So as an example, was there enough documentation? Was it fairly easy to get yourself up to speed with how to create your own blocks? Was there a lot of support around? Were there some channels or books that you perhaps ended up relying upon? I&rsquo;m just trying to get to the idea of how easy or difficult it was, or perhaps still is.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:12:39]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I&rsquo;ll be honest with you. It&rsquo;s been a challenge. It&rsquo;s been a frustrating journey. There&rsquo;s been documentation and there&rsquo;s been the Gutenberg GitHub repo has been a great resource for, learning as well. Just seeing how they&rsquo;re doing things, but it hasn&rsquo;t been easy. I actually, you know, a tool. I think you actually heard me talking about it at wpplugin dot com where you can quickly generate a block plugin. And the idea behind that is there&rsquo;s all these different mental models of building a block. I think the hardest part is learning, what can you do with a block? How can you do it? And shaping that mental model has really been a challenge. Honestly, I&rsquo;ve been very self driven and if it wasn&rsquo;t for that, that really has kept me going. I&rsquo;ve had a long-term view of where everything&rsquo;s going and from the place I&rsquo;m coming from being a front end developer, it&rsquo;s really made it, it has made it easier for me. I do think, if somebody really wants to learn blocks, they need to learn React. And I think something like taking like Wes Bos&rsquo;s React for beginners course, I took that course and it&rsquo;s a great resource for learning React. Just getting kind of the nuts and bolts of, you know, the underpinnings of 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> [00:14:00]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Would you say that, obviously it was fairly difficult as you&rsquo;ve described, but were you able to begin to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel fairly quickly? Or was it one of these learning journeys where it&rsquo;s more of a cliff climb until finally you reach the pinnacle? You&rsquo;ve acquired enough knowledge that suddenly it becomes, oh, I can do it all now. This is fabulous. Or were you able to get something out from your limited learning?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:14:24]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I feel like I&rsquo;m there now. I&rsquo;m at that place. I mean, I&rsquo;m still learning, but I feel like I&rsquo;m at a point now where I can kind of shape the editor to what my vision is. But it has been a lot of hard work, but I&rsquo;ve, I feel like I&rsquo;ve kind of seen the vision for where WordPress wants to go for a long time. It really resonated with me and I can really get behind where they ultimately want to go. I think that all of this, it&rsquo;s going to be worthwhile taking the time to really dig in and learn. And I don&rsquo;t know if you&rsquo;ve seen it, there&rsquo;s been some talk about creating. I know there&rsquo;s like Advanced Custom Fields has a block builder. There&rsquo;s been some talk about creating some PHP based tools for building blocks. I&rsquo;m not sure it might be a third-party. It&rsquo;s just a, some conversation I saw on Twitter there quite an extensive conversation about people testing out ways to build blocks from a more PHP standpoint, where the PHP would kind of generate the React for you. And so like this layer between, okay, we have Advanced Custom Fields for doing 80% of what you want to do. And then this other PHP solution potentially being like a similar tool that gets you most of the way there. If you really want to dive deep and do some more complex stuff, take you the rest of the 20% of the way, then you&rsquo;d really need to learn React and how it works in the 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> [00:15:46]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I feel maybe this is the point at which people who are struggling with the way things are going in WordPress at the moment. Maybe this is the point of contention, it was introduced and suddenly all of the skills and the techniques and, the years and years of expertise that they built up, it kind of felt like it was crumbling before their eyes. And they may be in a position where they&rsquo;re managing to carry on their business, whatever it is, something to do with WordPress, their agency, or what have you. And simply don&rsquo;t have the time to upskill and to learn new things. And maybe that&rsquo;s the problem is that there&rsquo;s a lot of people out there who simply don&rsquo;t have the time. They don&rsquo;t have the energy anymore. They don&rsquo;t have the desire. And they want to just sort of keep going with the same tools that they&rsquo;ve been using for a such a long time. Obviously it sounds like you, fairly driven, able to allocate enough time to do all of that and obviously fit it in around your business. But maybe there&rsquo;s, maybe there&rsquo;s some people for whom that is just too much of a stretch?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:16:41]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>You know, I can understand if all of a sudden Gutenberg was pulled out from under me, I think I&rsquo;d throw my hands up right now. Uh, I&rsquo;ve had a business, I was working on, pulled out from under me and I, it hurts. And it&rsquo;s like, ah, dude, you know, do I want to do I want to keep going? But, but here&rsquo;s the thing is I think Gutenberg is getting to the point where, we&rsquo;re hitting a stability that could be used in production for like client sites. I think we&rsquo;re hitting that point right now. Once Full Site Editing, I think after the next release. I&rsquo;ve started building, I&rsquo;ve kind of been doing both the old way of doing things for some clients and the new way of doing things. I&rsquo;ve been doing it simultaneously to see, okay, how stable are we for using this stuff in production versus using something like Elementor page builder or Beaver Builder or something like that?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I think we&rsquo;re coming up on that point where people can start making the switch and dipping their toes in. And I don&rsquo;t think you have to focus a hundred percent of your time or focus a big chunk of your time to start diving into that. The new block-based themes, it uses this thing called a theme bot json file and that really sets up. You just fill out this file, like basically a data structure with what you want and you have a full flesh theme in the block editor. I think that the tools and the tooling and WordPress and Gutenberg itself are all getting to this point where we can start using it, and it&rsquo;s not going to be a ton of time. And then once you start using these tools, You&rsquo;re going to want to start doing more and more with them, and you can start easing your way into building blocks with ACF or from scratch or whatever.</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> [00:18:33]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>It seems to me that it might be the case that many people who have not really dabbled too much in the block editor have gone in there at some point, installed vanilla version of WordPress, made sure that it was all up and running and what have you, and then when in, started typing and found that experience fairly decent, certainly from my part, it&rsquo;s much better for simply typing things than the classic editor ever was. Just for the ability to move paragraphs and things around. And then of course you notice this sort of curious sidebar, which is full of these blocks that you can put on to the page, and so, a paragraph is a block. A button is a block. A heading is a block. And so it kind of feels a bit like this text interface where the blocks are a bit like, okay, obviously I&rsquo;m using paragraphs now. That&rsquo;s fine. I can understand that. But then you sort of notice that there&rsquo;s a lot of stuff attached to the block and the block brings along with it, all these different settings. And so you can modify that one paragraph in its entirety, all in one, go by clicking some buttons, you know, that might be the color or what have you. And all of a sudden, your mind starts getting taken over with, oh, so the block has got settings with it. Oh, that&rsquo;s interesting. Okay. So what I&rsquo;m trying to say there is if you&rsquo;ve not been back into the block editor for a long time, and you&rsquo;ve just really seen it as a conduit to creating content, it is much more than that. And it&rsquo;s hard to express how much more it is unless you&rsquo;ve actually configured or played with a block that does a lot more than you could ever have done inside the classic editor. So I&rsquo;m wondering if you&rsquo;ve got any nice concrete examples of things that you&rsquo;ve achieved, the things that you&rsquo;ve been able to do inside of a block where people might go, oh, that&rsquo;s curious. I didn&rsquo;t realize that blocks could even do that kind of thing.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:20:25]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Actually, my brother is an accountant and, he does a lot of work with startups and when COVID first hit and they started doing the PVP loans and everything, I actually built a calculator for him, for his business to share with his clients. And I built it all in blocks and the calculator would, it would generate, you know, you would just put in whatever your income is and how many employees and it would generate. You can actually see it in the wild. If you go to stimulus benefits dot com, I have a calculator in there. That&rsquo;s it&rsquo;s a block. All this is all built in WordPress. You&rsquo;ll probably notice this theme. I think this was the 2020 theme. And honestly, it&rsquo;s pretty cool. It&rsquo;s pretty snappy. And this is just like something that I built for fun for my brother, you know? So if you want it to build, imagine, you&rsquo;re in the real estate business and you wanted to build out a full fledged mortgage calculator. I know there&rsquo;s a ton of realtors, real estate agents, real estate businesses that use mortgage calculators in their business to direct their clients to. I mean, you could absolutely do that. Very quickly and easily.</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> [00:21:36]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>The principle there is that your brother then has a block inside of his WordPress installed, which he can then just with the click of a button throw on to any post or page, uh, it&rsquo;s not a weird shortcode thing where he&rsquo;s got a plugin installed over there and he&rsquo;s got to go and find the right shortcode and then copy and paste it into the right part. It&rsquo;s just all of that functionality. The logic behind the calculator is all contained inside of a block. And so for him as the end user, presumably it&rsquo;s just really easy to deploy that.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:22:06]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>It&rsquo;s a custom plugin. He could add it to any, you know, any site anywhere and what you see on the front end, of the site is what you also see in the editor. And then in the editor, you can change things like the background color, the border radius, the font color, the text. I mean, all the texts editable, which was really important because, everything was always changing. The rules of the game were changing. So he needed to be able to go in and edit the content of the calculator. So to me, it&rsquo;s like, it&rsquo;s super exciting that here&rsquo;s this thing that, like you&rsquo;re saying it would have been a short code. You throw the short code in and then say you go to the customizer. If you want to change the background color, you know, the fonts and add some custom CSS. This no, you you stay in the block editor and you just click a button. Okay. If you look at the calculator now it&rsquo;s got a black background. It&rsquo;d be really easy to change it to a white background with black text and then change out the font. And really you can kind of go as far as you want to go with this, I could see endless just calculators alone. I could see endless business opportunity.</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> [00:23:13]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>In a way, the idea of blocks, just being a conduit for putting content on the website. Yes. But it&rsquo;s also in a sense it&rsquo;s like a mini it&rsquo;s like a mini little application it&rsquo;s as you said, you created a plugin and what have you, but the complexity really has no limits. It&rsquo;s only the limits of what you&rsquo;re capable of coming up with and whatever it is that you&rsquo;ve built with all of its amazing, difficult capabilities could just be dropped in ad infinitum all over the place. And the sky, as you say, is the limit. And I feel like we&rsquo;re just turning a bit of a corner and some of the ideas are starting to come into the marketplace. Now, some really curious ideas about a whole different functionalities that are being wrapped up into blocks that we simply couldn&rsquo;t have done before.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:23:55]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I&rsquo;m super excited because the fact that I could just create a calculator and drop it into a hundred sites, and then imagine I build a block base theme, say I build a block-based seam for like realtors, for example, I add this mortgage calculator, it&rsquo;s baked into it. I just can see all kinds of different, you know, additional tools like you&rsquo;re saying that you can get as complex as you want, but I also think blocks also offer this, a perfect canvas for constraint as well. You can go as complex as you want, but you also do want to make it easy for people to make changes to these little mini applications that we&rsquo;re building.</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> [00:24:35]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I think one of the concerns that I have, amongst many other people, I&rsquo;m sure is. It&rsquo;s just this notion of people getting a bit click happy when installing blocks. The idea that there&rsquo;s a plugin for that in WordPress could easily be flipped to, well, there&rsquo;s a block for that. Non-technical users going out and looking through the block repository and installing things, and then kind of having to scratch their head and say, Hmm. My site really does seem to be very slow and then ultimately blaming WordPress for that, because that&rsquo;s the software it&rsquo;s built upon. I think you&rsquo;re right. Is it a good point to raise the one of constraint? Just because something exists, it doesn&rsquo;t mean you should install 50 of them and use them all at the same time.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:25:13]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I do think that a certain level of constraint does breed creativity. So I think that, you know, the more we can focus on making it really easy for people. Make it as easy as possible to do something, the better. So I think like patterns, the block patterns for example, are going to be a huge boon to making it easy. Try multiple homepages or contact pages about pages or pricing tables or any part of a site that you can think of. It&rsquo;s going to be really easy to add that to your site.</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> [00:25:44]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Have you been playing with block patterns a lot? And if so, are you pleased with where the system is right now for making all of that and surfacing them in the UI for you?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:25:55]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I am super excited about where block patterns are going. I think they open up a ton of possibilities. If I were going to be dipping my toes right now, say I haven&rsquo;t started building blocks. That&rsquo;s where I would start honestly, is start building out some patterns because it&rsquo;s really cool to go into the editor and create this pattern and then be able to just move it from site to site seamlessly, and have it just work.</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> [00:26:23]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Do you feel there&rsquo;s a new marketplace, a new job, if you like, emerging? We&rsquo;ve traditionally in WordPress, we&rsquo;ve had lots of people employed building websites, that&rsquo;s one niche, if you like, and then had other people working within agencies, possibly building bigger websites and on the code side, if you like, we&rsquo;ve had people creating plugins and themes and making commercial products out of those. Do you see blocks in that way that there&rsquo;s going to be a nice commercial interest in people going out and finding affordable blocks that do the one or two simple things that they need?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:26:59]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I do think there will be. I just, I don&rsquo;t know if those are out there quite yet to find. What I&rsquo;m seeing a lot of though, is these ecosystems popping up around a set of custom blocks, and then patterns to use with those blocks and core blocks and then multiple themes. And so I see the business evolving into more of these like mini ecosystems and that&rsquo;s where I&rsquo;ve been building is focused on here&rsquo;s a set of custom blocks, custom patterns and themes for different types of use cases to get you quickly up and running.</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> [00:27:39]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>One of the things that I&rsquo;ve noticed is I&rsquo;ve seen that there are quite a few people at the moment trying to make a living out of this, and it seems, the most common way to do it at the moment is to come out with these block packs. And we&rsquo;re just going to use that phrase. I don&rsquo;t know if that&rsquo;s what these companies go by, but they release a suite of 5, 10, 15, 20 or so on, blocks that hopefully will cover almost every aspect.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Do you get yourself involved in any of those? Do you use any of the things which are available on the market at the moment, or are you all about just if I need it, I&rsquo;m going to make it myself?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:28:09]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I definitely do. I love to see, and use what&rsquo;s out there. I&rsquo;ve used a bunch of different block collections on different projects, such as CoBlocks. And I don&rsquo;t know if you&rsquo;ve seen Stackable, WP Stackable? I know we were just talking about the GenerateBlocks and I see a lot of chatter on Twitter about people using GenerateBlocks. I don&rsquo;t know if you&rsquo;ve seen another one, that I just think is it&rsquo;s just beautiful called Aino Blocks, A, I, N, O, WP Aino dot com. Ellen Bauer has put together. I used to buy her WordPress themes and her and her co-founder put together a set of blocks, a limited set of custom blocks and then patterns. And they&rsquo;re going to be creating themes as well. Right now it&rsquo;s free to start using I&rsquo;m sure there&rsquo;s going to be, you know, some way of them monetizing that product.</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> [00:29:03]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I&rsquo;m pretty sure that there&rsquo;s going to be more people dipping their toes into the commercial waters as time goes on, because it does feel as if this is the future for WordPress. And one thing that I&rsquo;m quite interested to see is, there&rsquo;ll be like an, almost like little micro blocks that just do one thing, but do it really well and go into some sort of different pricing structure. So as an example, on the PC or the Mac, if you buy an app, it&rsquo;s usually there&rsquo;s a reasonable amount of dollars expended on purchasing that app. I mean, if you go onto the iOS or the Android side, something much more slim is available and it costs significantly less, just a few dollars. And I&rsquo;m curious to see if this business model emerges, where we get an innovative block, which just does one small thing, but does it really well, I can&rsquo;t actually conjure anything up at the moment out of my head that may fulfill that bill, but I&rsquo;m really interested to see if those kinds of things start to emerge.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:30:03]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I definitely think there will. I personally, I would love to focus just on building those, but I feel like I almost feel like it&rsquo;s got a, it feels like things need to go broad first and then narrow down to the specific use cases. But I have seen one really cool niche plugin is block visibility by Nick Diego. If you, if you&rsquo;re not following Nick on Twitter, you should. His plugin makes it really easy to show and hide blocks depending on different use cases, even. For example, he has an integration with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. And you can set visibility based on a schedule and if a customer purchased a product or not. So say you bought a product and two weeks ago, and then you can have a block pop up two weeks later and say, Hey, how&rsquo;s it going? Would love your feedback if you&rsquo;re enjoying using our plugin, leave us a review. So I do think that we&rsquo;re starting to see those and that is, you know, one of the best examples that I&rsquo;ve seen out there.</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> [00:31:11]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>It&rsquo;s like a little application just inside of a block. There&rsquo;s a lot of heavy lifting going on there. Isn&rsquo;t that, you know, if it&rsquo;s checking, the conditions to be right to, to make itself visible. You can imagine all sorts of permutations for the usefulness of that. Certainly in terms of marketing or perhaps hiding content that you want to be invisible to people who aren&rsquo;t members of your subscriber base or whatever it might be.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>And that&rsquo;s kind of the point for me is that blocks bring all of this, as yet un thought-out, potential. Whereas previously, there was just essentially text on a page with a bit of formatting and some shortcodes thrown in if you wanted to add extra functionality. And now the functionality is all within the block. And so are the settings and it&rsquo;s all in one simple, hopefully, user interface. Speaking of the user interface, just staying on the block editor. So we&rsquo;re recording this kind of near to the middle of 2021. And I&rsquo;m just conscious that there&rsquo;s a lot of comparisons made all the time between what the commercial page builders can do and what the block editor can do, and I&rsquo;m always curious to know what people&rsquo;s opinions are about how easy it is to put things together, put complicated block layouts together and create things which are beautiful because, I certainly still experience moments where I&rsquo;m really not sure if what I&rsquo;m looking at in the block editor is going to look how I expect it to when I finally publish it and check it out on the front end. So just wondered if you had any thoughts about its utility as a sort of what you see is what you get, or if there&rsquo;s still a ways to go?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:32:43]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I think that ultimately that is going to come down to the themes and then any supporting block plugins that ship with those themes. With any page builder, any like major commercial page builder, there&rsquo;s a learning curve and yeah, what you see, what is, what you get out of the box with Elementor, but if you want to change something, if you&rsquo;re just getting started, it can feel daunting to dive into all those settings. I do think the responsibility falls more to the theme builders in and the plugin builders to make sure that that experience happens. Myself, I&rsquo;m working on what I&rsquo;m calling a minimalis page builder that I&rsquo;m hoping to shorten that learning curve. And to also, I want to take responsibility for making sure that what you see in the editor is what you see on the front end.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>So, you know, I do. It&rsquo;s up to me and everyone else that is building out these experiences to make that happen. Off the shelf, if you used, you know, a core WordPress theme, you get your experience in the editor and on the front end is pretty seamless. There may be minor differences, but I mean, you&rsquo;re, you&rsquo;re pretty much seeing what you&rsquo;re getting on the frontend.</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> [00:33:59]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Just curious because you dropped a few names earlier and I thought that was quite interesting because some of the people that you&rsquo;d mentioned I&rsquo;d heard of, and some of them, I hadn&rsquo;t. So I&rsquo;m wondering if you wouldn&rsquo;t mind just rattling off a couple of projects that you have seen and you thought that was good. And if you can attach some names to those as well, we&rsquo;ll try and make sure they go in the show notes along with this, on the WP Tavern website. So yeah, just a list of block projects that you think are worth keeping an eye on either because they&rsquo;re already fully fledged or they just seem like they&rsquo;re onto the cusp of doing something great. And some names to go with that.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:34:31]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Nick Diego, his block visibility, plugin block visibility wp dot com. And then I follow Nick on Twitter too. He&rsquo;s always sharing updates. And if you&rsquo;re into building blocks, valuable content there, Ellen Bauer with WP Aino A I N O dot com has some beautiful block patterns and custom blocks that you can start using right away. GenerateBlocks, of course, we mentioned Mike Oliver. He just released a new set of block patterns that, a beautiful set of block patterns that you can start using. And then I know you and I mentioned Brian Gardner&rsquo;s launching Frost WP. He&rsquo;s going to be launching a set, I think it&rsquo;s already launched actually at frostwp dot com.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>So I can&rsquo;t go without saying too that Rich Tabor, he is the creator of CoBlocks and he, I think he sold that to GoDaddy. He&rsquo;s always working on something interesting and sharing cutting edge stuff with regards to building blocks block-based themes and plugins. So he&rsquo;d be worth taking a look at.</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> [00:35:38]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>That&rsquo;s very nice. I will be sure to mention those. One which I&rsquo;ll drop in, which I think is quite an interesting block-based, well, it is literally like a little application within WordPress. There&rsquo;s something called Newsletter Glue. Don&rsquo;t know if you&rsquo;ve come across this, but&hellip;</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:35:52]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Lesley, how could I forget Lesley?</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> [00:35:56]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Lesley Sim and her colleague, her co-founder have created a mechanism whereby you can repurpose your blog posts and they will instantly become newsletters, which sounds like the sort of thing you&rsquo;ve been able to do by scraping an RSS feed or something like that. But there&rsquo;s a lot more to it. For example, you can drag in a block, which will only be visible inside the post or alternatively, you could make it only visible inside the newsletter. And it does a lot more than that, but just that one simple little thing that you can do means that you can create a newsletter and have it look completely different in the newsletter than it does on your, the front end of your website. It&rsquo;s really interesting for me, it demonstrates perfectly why the block editor is going to be so useful in the future, because this was unimaginable without the context of blocks. It couldn&rsquo;t have been made in what we used to use in WordPress.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:36:49]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>To think about making a newsletter you generally have to, I would think go off site. And I use Newsletter Glue in a lot of my clients sites and it really makes it effortless to put together a newsletter and send it out. When you hit that send button. So like, did that really just send that this from WordPress, this is crazy!</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> [00:37:07]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>But just the level of complexity going on there, the fact that it&rsquo;s doing a lot of heavy lifting, it&rsquo;s reaching out to third-party services and doing things, but only at the moment that you click publish and it&rsquo;s sending over HTML and telling the websites over there, right, go on, publish it right away to this list or that list. It&rsquo;s really remarkable. And it&rsquo;s, for me makes me feel that in the future, there&rsquo;ll be a lot more interoperability with SaaS platforms and other things like that built inside of blocks. So that I don&rsquo;t know, maybe your content management system, WordPress can reach out and have interactions with blocks with your CRM in some way, who knows?</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1\"> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>This is what I&rsquo;m finding exciting is that we&rsquo;re at the point where the technology is now available, but we don&rsquo;t yet have the history of developers trying out all their ideas. We did that with plugins. There must&rsquo;ve been a similar moment with plugins where it was a lovely idea. Look, we can extend WordPress, but there wasn&rsquo;t really so much out there yet. So plugins felt a bit like, well, it&rsquo;s a thing, but you know, I&rsquo;m not that bothered, but then look what happened. There really was a boom in plugins and they became&hellip; you know, you couldn&rsquo;t really have a functioning WordPress website without a few plugins here and there. And I feel the same will be true in the near future with blocks.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:38:19]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I really hope we can make building blocks easier because I think we&rsquo;re just starting to see, like you&rsquo;re saying some of these really neat things come out and you really could build anything you wanted in WordPress, if you know what you&rsquo;re doing. So excited for what the future holds.</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> [00:38:34]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Indeed, that feels like a perfect place to jump off this train. But before we do that, or before I do that, I always want to know where people can contact you. What&rsquo;s the best place for you to be reached. It could be an email address or a Twitter handle, whatever you&rsquo;re comfortable with..</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:38:49]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Twitter, it would be the best twitter dot com slash leeshadle. That would be the best place to reach 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> [00:38:55]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>I will make a hundred percent sure to put that into the show notes and all that remains for me to say is Lee, thank you so much for joining us today and telling us a bit about your journey and your excitement about blocks.</p>\n</div></div><div class=\"chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2\"><div class=\"chat-author chat-author-leeshadle vcard\"><cite class=\"fn\">Lee Shadle</cite> [00:39:06]</div> <div class=\"chat-text\"><p>Thank you Nathan, it&rsquo;s been so fun to talk to you today. I really appreciate you having me on the show.</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, 06 Oct 2021 13:23:13 +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:\"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:41;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:37:\"Post Status: WordCamp US 2021 Summary\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"https://poststatus.com/?p=87474\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:48:\"https://poststatus.com/wordcamp-us-2021-summary/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11498:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">After deciding not to hold the event in 2020, WordCamp US 2021 returned for a single day on October 1st. The entire event was planned in eight weeks — which was not widely known until mentioned by lead organizer Jen Swifter during closing remarks. This marks the first WordCamp US without Matt Mullenweg’s “State of the Word,” although due to the event being virtual it’s presumed Matt will be holding the SotW as a separate virtual “event” closer to the end of the year — similar to last year.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The two track event still brought fresh content and had what could be argued as one of the most diverse speaker lineups for a single day at WordCamp US — at least when it comes to “new to WCUS” speakers. New faces — even on screens rather than a stage — are welcome to see.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event sold over 3000 tickets, which for a WordCamp US and a virtual event with limited marketing time is quite good. Of course not everyone might have showed up but I could easily get the feeling that this was a large event from the activity in the online chat and from Twitter.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\"><strong>Update:</strong> WordCamp US released an official response when asked about registered and attending members.<br /><br />&#8220;<em>We had 3608 people register for the event and had as many as 400 concurrent viewers at one time.<br /><br />Online events are notoriously difficult to get attendee stats for, particularly an event like WCUS 2021 where the audience is global and spans so many time zones. Many people will watch what they can and catch the rest in their own time.<br /><br />We really love this as it makes for not only a more accessible event, but a more educational experience as it’s so easy to rewatch a session as many times as an individual needs.</em>&#8220;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is difficult to give highlights of the talks since I was part of the programming team that helped add these talks to the program. I decided not to watch pre-recorded presentations prior to the day of WordCamp US to make the experience as similar to a regular attendee’s experience as possible. For that reason, I couldn’t cover all the talks live, and there are still a few talks I need to go back and watch. But I can cover some highlights and point out some notable presentations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\"><strong>Note:</strong> Until WCUS talks are published on WordPress.tv, you can use <a href=\"https://mburnette.com/blog/wordcamp-us-2021/\">this guide</a> to view them timestamped in the live stream on YouTube thanks to Marcus Burnette.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bet Hannon’s talk on accessibility was well received by the audience at the start of the event. Bet noted that “25% of all adults in the US have a permanent or temporary disability,” so the subject material should apply to many site builders. Jill Binder came afterwards to give an inspirational story about her journey to being a diversity team leader for a team that in 2020 exists in 71 cities across 17 countries.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Cory Webb and Rich Tabor delivered what could be caled the “introduction” and “showcase” talks related to the block editor. Most talks in this particular track had some connection to the block editor or the latest major enhancements in WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were lightning talks after a <em>very</em> entertaining “musical break” — or what would be considered lunch for an in-person event. I wasn’t able to fully digest them all, but many of these performers featured rarely seen or new faces in the WordPress community:</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/speaker/sienna-svob/\">Sienna Svob</a> covered sustainability, recommending that WordPress designers use fewer resources when possible and lean on hosts that use renewable energy.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/speaker/lesley-sim/\">Lesley Sim</a> of Newsletter Glue offered a no-slide presentation on how to make friends with early customers, and she reminded product builders to “create the expectation you’re helpful and easy to reach.” Lesley also reminded us that “anything you do for the first time [in business and marketing] is going to be awkward.”&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are running an ecommerce site, <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/speaker/lax-mariappan/\">Lax Mariappan</a>’s talk is a good one to watch. In a similar vein, if you are running a community or are a WordCamp / Meetup organizer I would recommend <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/speaker/shusei-toda/\">Shusei Toda</a>‘s talk on lessons learned from WordCamp Tokyo 2021.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another presentation for designers and theme developers would be Tammie Lister’s “Let Themes Be Themes” talk which will likely find a special place in the heart of those yearning for inspiration as we head into the next-generation of WordPress themes with full site editing and the block editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For entertainment, <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/speaker/taco-verdonschot/\">Taco Verdonschot</a> scored some points for using his own green screen in his talk on recharging your social batteries. This was a timely talk when many of us still work almost completely remotely via Zoom and Slack.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second half of WordCamp US seemed to go by quickly. Two key talks about WordPress.org contributions were featured in one track. The first by members of the WordPress Training team focused on the Learn.WordPress.org resource. Support for Leearn will make a big impact in the coming days — we’ll do a deeper dive into this subject in the future — and I do agree that one day visiting a WordPress.org profile might be key part of the hiring process by companies looking for WordPress professionals.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other key talk was given by <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/speaker/amyjune-hineline/\">AmyJune Hineline</a> who covered how many ways you can contribute and reviewed all the available groups at make.wordpress.org.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Developers got a treat when <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/speaker/helen-hou-sandi/\">Helen Hou-Sandi</a> showed how the new White House site was built in six weeks with WordPress and over a dozen custom blocks.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>“[10up] did 12 weeks work of hours in 6. Q&A; as we went. People were trusted to Q&A; their own work, no additional layers. We did have external help and always kept moving.&#8221;&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>While mostly inspirational, she did show off some React code and revealed the entire talk including the live coding was done in the browser (thanks in part to Github’s Codespaces). Another treat was seeing the experiments that <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/speaker/kjell-reigstad/\">Kjell Reigstad</a> showcased in his talk about block styles.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile has-background\"><img width=\"250\" height=\"250\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/RtpKYzps_400x400.png?resize=250%2C250&ssl=1\" alt=\"Get Hired\" class=\"wp-image-85823 size-full\" /><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-normal-font-size\" id=\"h-get-ready-for-remote-work\"><strong>Get started today!</strong> Build your career in WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-small-font-size\"><strong>Build your network. Learn with others. Find your next job.</strong> Read the <strong>Get Hired</strong> <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/get-hired/#%f0%9f%93%a7-subscribe-to-the-get-hired-newsletter\">newsletter</a>. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2709.png\" alt=\"✉\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Listen to the <strong>Get Hired</strong> <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/podcast/get-hired/\">podcast</a>. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f399.png\" alt=\"🎙\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Follow <a href=\"https://twitter.com/gethiredwp\">@GetHiredWP</a>. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f426.png\" alt=\"🐦\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/speaker/josepha-haden-chomphosy/\">Josepha Haden Chomphosy</a> closed out the conference with a brief talk on “finding your own voice” with a fireside chat with Michelle Fran. Some tidbits:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>On acquisitions in the WordPress space: </strong>Josepha overall favors them and sees acquisitions as part of a maturing market ,but it’s not all about the money: “Sometimes companies being acquired need guidance. Large companies can provide advice and funds for the smaller company to get further. Mergers and acquisitions shouldn’t be looked at something that decreases the diversity in the ecosystem.&#8221;</li><li><strong>On diversity:</strong> “WordPress can be used by anybody ,so it should be able to be built by anybody.” However, Jospeha acknowledges that ventures similar to the all-womens release team (which took almost 2 years to plan) might not be happening anytime soon so it doesn’t turn into a “gimmick” and can be used more effectively to attract more diverse audiences to contribute.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>On individual vs. corporate contributions: </strong>“Always important to me in terms of volume, we aim for 2/3 contribution from individuals and 1/3 that are corporately sponsored,” although right now the numbers are closer to 50/50.</li><li><strong>On increasing openness and transparency:</strong> For decision making in WordPress and the posts on make.wordpress.org (including her updates), Josepha said: “Even if people aren’t reading what goes into the decisions of WordPress, it’s just as important for people to go back and read that content than it is to read more traditional documentation.”</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I’m biased, but I think overall the event was well done. Apart from Matt’s absence, it seemed to have a flavor of a WordCamp US throughout, complete with conversations happening on YouTube chat, Post Status Slack, and Twitter.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-get-involved-in-wordpress\">Get Involved in WordPress!</h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column grey-message\">\n<ul><li>Have you thought about what you can do that might lead to speaking at a WordCamp or local meetup yourself? <strong>Abha Thankor</strong> has <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/how-to-get-involved-in-the-wordpress-community-after-attending-a-wordcamp/\">some suggestions</a> for you.</li><li>Jobs in WordPress involve a lot of 21st century skills in digital literacy and digital citizenship. <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/10/episode-17-wordpressing-your-way-to-digital-literacy/\">In the latest <strong>WP Briefing</strong> podcast</a>, WordPress executive director <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy</strong> reflects on her WordCamp US keynote talk and discusses how participating in open source projects can help you learn these skills.</li><li>Get involved in <strong>Learn WordPress</strong>! Over at <a href=\"http://learn.wordpress.org\">learn.wordpress.org</a> there’s <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/08/08/who-can-learn-help/\">a lot of change going on</a>, and you can be part of it. Learn is for everyone, so no matter where you are in your life and career, you can benefit from and contribute to these educational materials that support the community project known as WordPress.</li></ul>\n</div>\n</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, 06 Oct 2021 03:32:29 +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: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:42;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:57:\"WPTavern: GiveWP Launches Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Add-On\";s:7:\"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=123231\";s:7:\"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:159:\"https://wptavern.com/givewp-launches-peer-to-peer-fundraising-add-on?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=givewp-launches-peer-to-peer-fundraising-add-on\";s: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:4415:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The GiveWP team announced an extension of its flagship donation plugin for allowing <a href=\"https://givewp.com/announcing-the-givewp-peer-to-peer-fundraising-suite/\">peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising</a> in late September. The solution should make the project even more appealing than before for those looking to break from third-party donation services and go the self-hosted route. The first version rolls out individual and team fundraising pages, leaderboards, campaign sponsor support, and more.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past, GiveWP offered a simple solution for setting up donations on a website. People could use it for everything from nonprofit organizations to fundraising smalltown baseball team jerseys. However, any efforts to raise money fell squarely on the site owner&rsquo;s shoulders.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://givewp.com/addons/peer-to-peer/\">Peer-to-Peer add-on</a> changes that by allowing people who support a particular cause to be both an evangelist and a fundraiser for the project.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Peer-to-Peer is a unique form of fundraising,&rdquo; said GiveWP co-founder Matt Cromwell. &ldquo;To date, GiveWP has been focused primarily on the single donation form. But Peer-to-Peer is about grouping individual fundraisers into teams, each with their own form and campaign goal.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Campaign fundraising page.\n\n\n\n<p>The extension allows site owners to create an overarching campaign while breaking it down into smaller individual or team-led sub-goals. For example, a campaign can have a donation goal of $100,00, but teams can reach for smaller chunks of that, such as $10,000. Ultimately, all donations are pooled together into the campaign total.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;This is a type of fundraiser that nonprofits use to raise significant funds,&rdquo; said Cromwell. &ldquo;These aren&rsquo;t one-off simple fundraisers typically.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The extension adds a bit of gamification to fundraising campaigns. Individuals and teams are both added to separate leaderboards, showing their rank among their peers.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Campaign leaderboards.\n\n\n\n<p>Individuals and teams can do more than just compete for the top rank on a campaign. They can customize their own fundraising page. It is this social element that helps bring a bit more humanity to a project.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Examples of this type of fundraising are the Susan G Komen &lsquo;Race for the Cure&rsquo; or the Boston Marathon,&rdquo; said Cromwell. &ldquo;Individuals sign up to be team captains, they recruit team members. Members have goals that lead to the team goal. All teams together go toward the total campaign goal.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are times when some fundraising efforts can feel a bit faceless, almost corporate-like entities asking for donations. When you start adding people from outside an organization to do some legwork, they may feel like part of something bigger.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Custom team page.\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Of course, we consulted with our customers, we held a Town Hall to get their input and feedback,&rdquo; said Cromwell. &ldquo;Our customers have been asking to do this type of fundraising for years. We have a lot of input on this in our feedback system. The human element is part and parcel to the success of this popular form of fundraising.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A P2P solution was the <a href=\"https://feedback.givewp.com/feature-requests/p/peer-to-peer-fundraising\">top-voted feature request</a> through the GiveWP feedback system. As for the future of the add-on plugin, it is easy to see what the GiveWP&rsquo;s users are asking for through its own <a href=\"https://feedback.givewp.com/give-peer-to-peer\">feedback channel</a>. Currently, there is no shortage of ideas.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We are dedicating at least two developers per development cycle over the next few cycles to continue to improve and enhance P2P based on the ongoing feedback we get from our users,&rdquo; said Cromwell.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He did not give any specific details about other projects the GiveWP team is working on. However, he did note that they are excited about providing more solutions for nonprofits.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;d love to see our team providing more solutions outside of only the donation form side of things,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Nonprofits need stable, beautiful, and performant websites, and we think we can help on that front now too.&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:\"Wed, 06 Oct 2021 00:42:11 +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:43;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:58:\"WordPress.org blog: The Month in WordPress: September 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=11327\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:73:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/10/the-month-in-wordpress-september-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:16048:\"<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>There’s a lot of tolerance in open source software for shipping slightly imperfect work. And that’s good. When we ship software that’s a little bit imperfect, it makes it clear how everyone can participate, how everyone could participate, if they could find this WordPress community that supports the CMS.</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/2021/09/episode-16-a-sneak-peek-at-wordpress-5-9/\">A Sneak Peek at WordPress 5.9</a>” episode of the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/podcast/\">WP Briefing Podcast</a>, talking about what goes into a WordPress release like version 5.9. Read on to find out more about updates on the latest release and the latest WordPress news from September 2021.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" />\n\n\n\n<h2>WordPress Translation Day 2021 Celebrations ran for 30 days</h2>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"632\" height=\"332\" src=\"https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/10/image.png?resize=632%2C332&ssl=1\" alt=\"WP Translation Day Matt Mullenweg Quote. Quote text: “Translation is so magical because it multiplies the work of all the other contributors of WordPress. If you care about freedom and the future of the internet, translating WordPress is one of the best things you can do for people who speak your language.”\" class=\"wp-image-11328\" />\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress Contributor teams, led by the Polyglots and Marketing teams, organized <a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/\">WordPress Translation Day celebrations</a> for the entire month of September. Contributors from across the world joined the celebrations by translating WordPress into their own languages. Additionally, the team organized a host of <a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/wptd-2021/global-events/\">global</a> and <a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/wptd-2021/local-events/\">local events</a>. Translation sprints were organized by the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/09/20/kicking-off-the-community-documentation-translation-sprint-from-september-20-to-24/\">Community</a> and <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/09/30/wptranslationday-subtitling-videos-on-learn/\">Training</a> teams, as well as local groups.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As part of the celebrations, nominations were invited for contributors who had made a significant impact on the translation of WordPress and its availability in so many languages worldwide. <a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/blog/call-for-nominations-polyglots-appreciation/\">More than 30 notable polyglot contributors were nominated for their contributions</a>. They will be featured in the coming month on the <a href=\"https://wptranslationday.org/\">WP Translation Day website, together with event recaps and more news.</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read the latest <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/09/people-of-wordpress-yordan-soares/\">People of WordPress feature on polyglots contributor Yordan Soares</a>, from South America.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>WordPress Release updates</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>WordPress security and maintenance release – <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/09/wordpress-5-8-1-security-and-maintenance-release/\">Version 5.8.1</a> came out on September 9, 2021. The release fixes three major issues and includes 60 bug fixes. You can update to the latest version directly from your WordPress dashboard or by <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/download/\">downloading</a> it from WordPress.org. The <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/04/wordpress-5-8-2-deferred/\">5.8.2 release has been deferred</a> and if needed a minor release will be added before 5.9.&nbsp;</li><li>Work is progressing towards WordPress 5.9, and the team released a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/03/wordpress-5-9-planning-roundup/\">planning round-up</a> along with a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/03/wordpress-5-9-planning-roundup/\">call for release leads</a>. October 14 is the go/no-go date of the release, which is planned to be <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/03/wordpress-5-9-planning-roundup/\">launched on December 14, 2021</a>.</li></ul>\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&min=00&sec=0\">5 AM</a> and <a href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=20&min=00&sec=0\">8 PM</a> UTC.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Say hi to Gutenberg Versions 11.4 and 11.5</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We launched Gutenberg <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-4-1-september/\">version 11.4</a> and <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/17/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-5-16-september/\">version 11.5</a> this month. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-4-1-september/\">Version 11.4</a> adds image blocks to the gallery block, duotone filters for featured images, and padding support for Button Blocks. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/17/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-5-16-september/\">Version 11.5</a> adds flex layout support to the group and social icon blocks along with <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/22/core-editor-improvement-introducing-the-widget-group-block/\">widget group blocks</a>. It will support the addition of a site logo or title directly into menus.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to get involved in developing 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/2021/09/17/whats-next-in-gutenberg-mid-september-2021/\">What’s next in Gutenberg</a> post gives details on the latest updates.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>New Guidelines for in-person WordCamps</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Community Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/09/13/announcement-updated-guidelines-for-in-person-wordcamps/\">published new guidelines</a> for returning to in-person WordCamps in regions where in-person events are allowed by the local public health authorities.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Community members can now organize in-person WordCamps for fully vaccinated, recently tested negative, or recently recovered folks (in the last three months) — provided their 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> OR if vaccines and/or COVID testing are accessible to all. Organizers can continue to plan online WordCamps if their region does not meet the guideline.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>New guidelines are also available on the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/09/27/announcement-returning-to-in-person-do_action-charity-hackathons/\">return of in-person do_action hackathons</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to get involved in the Community Team and help bring back in-person WordPress events? <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/\">Follow the Community Team blog</a> and join the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQC7RN\">#community-events</a> channel in <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/chat/\">the Make WordPress Slack</a>! Check out the following <a href=\"https://central.wordcamp.org/\">upcoming WordCamps</a> and <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/events/\">meetups</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Important Team announcements/updates</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>The Polyglots Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/09/27/sign-up-for-the-new-polyglots-monthly-newsletter/\">opened sign-ups</a> for their new monthly newsletter. The first edition goes out on October 15!</li><li>The<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/project/2021/09/10/suggested-iterations-for-the-five-for-the-future-program-and-tool/\"> Five for the Future program is being revisited</a> to identify opportunities for growth.&nbsp;</li><li>The Docs Team formally <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2021/09/15/announcement-new-workflow-for-reporting-documentation-issues/\">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 Plugins Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2021/09/20/change-to-how-long-active-reviews-remain-open/\">reduced the time period to complete active review requests for plugins</a> from six to three months.</li><li>The Community Team started work on the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/09/10/2022-global-sponsorship-working-group/\">2022 Global Sponsorship program</a>.</li><li>The Design Team is <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/09/16/document-status-and-visibility/\">working on a redesign proposal of the Inspector sidebar</a> in the WordPress post/page editor.</li><li>The Themes Team announced the results of the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/09/13/theme-upload-survey-results-next-steps/\">six-week Theme author survey</a>.</li><li>The Training Team also shared <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/09/14/learn-wordpress-needs-assessment-results/\">results of a third-party needs assessment exercise for Learn WordPress</a> which offers some excellent insights.&nbsp;</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Feedback/Testing requests from Contributor Teams</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Version 18.3 of WordPress for <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2021/09/20/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-ios-18-3/\">iOS</a> and <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2021/09/21/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-android-18-3/\">Android</a> are now available for testing!</li><li>Join the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/09/29/fse-program-testing-call-10-pattern-party/\">10th challenge</a> of the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/11/the-fse-outreach-program-is-officially-starting/\">Full Site Editing (FSE) Outreach program</a> &#8211; “<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/09/29/fse-program-testing-call-10-pattern-party/\">Pattern Party</a>”. Check out the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/09/29/fse-program-testing-call-10-pattern-party/\">announcement post</a> for testing instructions and join the fun in the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C015GUFFC00\">#fse-outreach-experiment</a> Slack channel. Deadline: October 13, 2021</li><li>The Training Team is requesting feedback on:<ul><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/09/27/proposal-ensuring-high-quality-video-contributions-to-learn-wordpress/\">Strategies to ensure high-quality video contributions for Learn WordPress</a>. Deadline: October 6, 2021</li><li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/08/10/proposal-learner-achievements-on-profiles/\">Learner achievements on profiles</a>: no current deadline</li></ul></li><li>Help the Test Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/01/test-team-chat-summary-28-september-2021/\">reach out to extenders to check if their test suites are compatible with the modernization of the WordPress Core PHP Test Suites</a>. Information on what the changes mean and step-by-step instructions are available over in the following post: <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/27/changes-to-the-wordpress-core-php-test-suite/\">Changes to the WordPress Core PHP Test Suite</a>.</li><li>The Polyglots Team is <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/09/19/how-to-handle-block-pattern-translations/\">exploring two different mechanisms on translating user-submitted block patterns</a>: GlotPress v/s forking patterns to locales and is requesting feedback from community members.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>WordPress Events updates</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://galicia.wordcamp.org/2021/\">WordCamp Galicia 2021</a> was held from September 30 &#8211; October 2, 2021 and <a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/\">WordCamp US 2021</a> ran on October 1.</li><li>Don’t miss these upcoming WordCamps: <a href=\"https://nicaragua.wordcamp.org/2021/\">WordCamp Nicaragua 2021</a> (October 8-9, 2021) and <a href=\"https://italia.wordcamp.org/2021/\">WordCamp Italia 2021</a> (October 22-23, 2021) </li><li>The Diverse Speakers Training group (<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wpdiversity/\">#WPDiversity</a>) of the Community Team organized an <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/09/15/wpdiversity-events-in-september-attention-india/\">allyship workshop, along with dedicated workshops focused on India in September</a>.</li><li>The Test Team organized a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/09/17/hallway-hangout-discussion-on-adoption-pathways-for-full-site-editing-16-september/\">Hallway Hangout on adoption pathways for Full Site Editing</a> where attendees mentioned how they use FSE and shared ideas for improvement. </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 Hosting Team recommended that all web hosts <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2021/09/15/wordpress-5-8-1-security-release-is-time-sensitive/\">test and push the WordPress 5.8.1 security update through to their users</a> as soon as possible.</li><li>The Training Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/09/21/should-learn-wordpress-contributors-be-gpl-compliant/\">clarified GPL compliance guidelines</a> for Learn WordPress contributions, and the <a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/meta/handbook/workshops/eligibility-of-workshop-presenters/\">guidelines for workshop presenters are available in the handbook</a>.</li><li>The codebase for Openverse, a search engine for openly-licensed media,&nbsp; i<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/2021/09/03/call-for-translations-i18n-in-openverse/\">s now available for translation</a>.</li><li>The Core Team implemented a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/28/implementing-a-webfonts-api-in-wordpress-core/\">Webfonts API in WordPress core</a> for simplifying the process of enqueuing external fonts on WordPress sites.&nbsp;</li><li>The Test Team rescheduled <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/09/23/5-9-end-to-end-e2e-working-strategy-session-agenda-for-29-sep-2021/\">the End-to-End (e2e) Test working strategy session</a> to October 6. More details <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/09/23/5-9-end-to-end-e2e-working-strategy-session-agenda-for-29-sep-2021/\">in the announcement post</a>.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Have a story that we could 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 September’s Month in WordPress: <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>webcommsat</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/chaion07/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>chaion07</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/dansoschin/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>dansoschin</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/harishanker/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>harishanker</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/meher/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>meher</a>, and <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/tobifjellner/\" class=\"mention\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>tobifjellner</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:\"Tue, 05 Oct 2021 20:01:02 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s: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:\"\";}}}}}i:44;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: Facebook Outage Rekindles Push for a Free and Open Web\";s:7:\"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=123719\";s:7:\"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:173:\"https://wptavern.com/facebook-outage-rekindles-push-for-a-free-and-open-web?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=facebook-outage-rekindles-push-for-a-free-and-open-web\";s: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:5825:\"<p>Facebook, Workplace, Instagram, and WhatsApp went down today for roughly six hours due to a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) configuration error. Cloudflare describes BGP as &ldquo;<a href=\"https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/security/glossary/what-is-bgp/\">the postal service of the Internet</a>.&rdquo; It is responsible for routing Facebook&rsquo;s traffic and making all of its domains accessible to visitors.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">To be more precise (and Geek Factor 5) the BGP routes serving Facebook\'s authoritative DNS were withdrawn, rendering all Facebook domains inaccessible. That\'s per <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DougMadory?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DougMadory</a> , who knows a few things about BGP/DNS.</p>&mdash; briankrebs (@briankrebs) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/briankrebs/status/1445081561536339970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>At first glance, the outage appeared to be a malicious attack following a Facebook whistleblower&rsquo;s revelations on 60 Minutes Sunday evening. BGP routing can be hijacked, but so far there is no evidence to suggest that it&rsquo;s anything other than an ill-timed configuration error. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook, and Facebook over and over again chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money,&rdquo;&nbsp; former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen told <a href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-misinformation-public-60-minutes-2021-10-03/\">60 Minutes</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Haugen copied tens of thousands of documents of internal research before leaving, one which stated: &ldquo;We have evidence from a variety of sources that hate speech, divisive political speech and misinformation on Facebook and the family of apps are affecting societies around the world.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Haugen&rsquo;s interview with 60 Minutes had already made Facebook&rsquo;s lack of ethical compass a hot topic at media outlets before all of its web properties went down earlier today. This outage is one of the most severe in the company&rsquo;s 17-year history, due to the cascading effects of Facebook&rsquo;s infrastructure being tied into so many aspects of every day life. According to <a href=\"https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/verizon-down-tmobile-ee-internet-b1932198.html\">The Independent</a>, reports of problems at internet and phone companies started rolling in, as Facebook and its related apps are often confused with the internet. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The whistleblower&rsquo;s evidence of the pernicious nature of Facebook&rsquo;s algorithms, combined with the widespread outage of the company&rsquo;s network of services, has sparked a renewed call for people and businesses to return to the open web. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Seems like a good time to remind every business owner that you do not own your audience on social media. Whether you have 10 followers or 10,000,000, they can be gone in an instant. Build your email list and create content on your own website.</p>&mdash; Quincy Zikmund (@quincyzikmund) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/quincyzikmund/status/1445075850320359426?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 4, 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\">Now is an excellent time to email your local authorities, school, camp, church, soccer league, whatever &ndash; and tell them: <br /><br />\"Please stop posting your updates on Facebook and Instagram, which are liable to disappear. Instead, use a website on the open web, and email updates.\"</p>&mdash; Mark Hurst (@markhurst) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/markhurst/status/1445135780171636736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>These kinds of outages disrupt those who have built their communications and commerce on top of Facebook&rsquo;s products. Businesses put themselves in a vulnerable place when they rely on a walled garden to deliver audience engagement, especially when that garden&rsquo;s algorithms promote divisive discourse and misinformation. Business owners should take recent events as a wakeup call and revoke all the permissions given to unaccountable platforms for short-term gains. It&rsquo;s time to invest in the long-term health of your online presence by building on the open web. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">While we\'re at it: if you don\'t have a Web site of your own and you\'ve been blogging and creating content on third-party platforms, now might be a good time to reconsider creating one and owning your own little corner of the internet. &#128273;</p>&mdash; Sara Soueidan (@SaraSoueidan) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SaraSoueidan/status/1445107375006945282?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>As good people work to expose the inner workings of companies that have abandoned principles in pursuit of profit, I am hopeful the web will right itself and applications will become more open and adept at helping people navigate these turbulent times. For those today who are remembering what it&rsquo;s like to have <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/automattic-takes-on-facebook-with-a-meditation-on-the-open-web\">a breath of fresh air</a> in Facebook&rsquo;s absence, challenge yourself to start creating content on your own site. Make your website the original source of your work and distribute it out to social networks where you want to extend your reach. </p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 05 Oct 2021 02:45:41 +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: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:45;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:75:\"WPTavern: The Next Web Publishes Storyblok-Sponsored Hit Piece on 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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=123712\";s:7:\"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/the-next-web-publishes-storyblok-sponsored-hit-piece-on-wordpress?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-next-web-publishes-storyblok-sponsored-hit-piece-on-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:6366:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Last week, under its news section, The Next Web published what could only be described as a hit piece: <a href=\"https://thenextweb.com/news/developers-hate-wordpress-so-should-marketers\">Developers hate WordPress &mdash; and so should marketers</a>. The claim was that, despite its current 40% market share, folks should start looking at alternatives for a better experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first developer interviewed for this piece was the CEO of Storyblok, Dominik Angerer. Storyblok is a headless CMS, a competitor to WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second person interviewed for the article was Doeke Leeuwis, the founder and technical director for Story of AMS. The agency focuses on headless eCommerce. <em>What is one of the three platforms it uses?</em> If you guessed Storyblok, you would have gotten it right. Bonus points if you predicted it was listed first of the three in their marketing material.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third developer interviewed was Mitchel van Bever, who also works for Story of AMS. The company has been featured multiple times on the Storyblok blog and is a featured case study.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Are you starting to see a pattern yet?</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you read through the rest of the article, you will note that the post was sponsored by Storyblok. At least they were honest about it.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p>Somehow I believe most readers would have skipped the article if that was posted before the content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is easy to find developers who dislike WordPress. But, you lose credibility when writing a piece that features interviewees who are either directly sponsoring or benefitting from the story.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The centerpiece for the entire story hinged on the <a href=\"https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019\">2019</a> and <a href=\"https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020\">2020</a> Stack Overflow annual developer survey. There is a lot to glean from the data provided by over 65,000 workers in the field. However, the article merely focused on a single point: WordPress was voted the most dreaded language or technology at 67% in the last year. Everything else centered on what those with a vested interest in Storyblok had to say.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We could talk about scalability, but with WordPress.com as a prime example of running the WordPress software at scale, do we really need to?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We could talk about flexibility, but when WordPress has more free third-party plugins (59,000+) than Storyblok has in total live websites (<a href=\"https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/Storyblok\">500+ according to BuiltWith</a>), is it really worth diving into?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a writer in the WordPress sphere, you may think I am entirely biased. That is at least partially true. However, I have worked with multiple systems. Laravel is one of my favorites, but its beautiful architecture does not always translate to quickly getting a job done in the same way as WordPress. I have helped friends and family launch projects on several non-WordPress services. It all depends on what the best tool for the job is.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have even created my own custom CMS for my personal blog. I felt like WordPress was overkill for what I needed. It is OK to use another tool even when you typically prefer working with something else. My custom blogging system was built just for me, but it now runs on two websites. I had another developer friend crazy enough to try it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>My love for WordPress is not absolute. It is not unconditional.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I still love it. There are 1,000s of others who love working with it too, and these developers are more likely to tell you what the <em>actual</em> issues with the platform are. We can criticize it honestly because we are down in the trenches, working with the platform every day. We know it is not always the ideal programming experience. We know it has some legacy baggage. Despite its warts, we have built something that most others only dream of doing. We have created a vast community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you thought it was all about who had the shiniest code, you would be wrong.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is about business competitors willing to communicate and even help others in their space.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is about <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/\">Five for the Future</a>, a program where WordPress-related companies contribute to free software.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is about <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/support/\">support forum</a> volunteers lending a helping hand.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is about the 100s of folks on the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/\">Make WordPress</a> teams who contribute to various aspects of the project, everything from code reviews to translations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is about sharing a drink with a years-long friend you just met IRL for the first time at a <a href=\"https://central.wordcamp.org/\">WordCamp</a>, albeit mostly virtual for the last couple of years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is about the <a href=\"https://wppodcasts.com/\">podcasts</a> that people produce for the love of the platform and its surrounding projects.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is about quitting your nine-to-five to launch a new business as a plugin developer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is about taking part in a movement that has allowed millions to publish on the web.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>No, not every developer who participates in the annual Stack Overflow survey loves WordPress. Most of them may dread working with the platform, and that trend may very well continue. What we have is bigger. WordPress is its community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This smells like just another hit piece from a WordPress <em>competitor</em> <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wixs-negative-advertising-campaign-falls-flat-with-wordpress-developers-and-professionals\">like we have seen before</a>. At least some of the Wix videos were funny (<em>come on, you know you laughed at at least one or two of them</em>), and folks <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wix-takes-a-jab-at-wordpress-with-bewildering-new-marketing-campaign\">got free headphones from the deal</a>. This Storyblok-sponsored post just leaves a sour taste.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like my grandma &mdash; probably everyone&rsquo;s grandma &mdash; used to say, &ldquo;You catch more flies with honey.&rdquo; This was an opportunity to sell potential users on Storyblok&rsquo;s features. Maybe bashing competitors brings traffic, but I doubt it brings any goodwill or long-lasting benefits.</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, 04 Oct 2021 22:32:24 +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:46;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: WP Briefing: Episode 17: WordPressing Your Way to Digital Literacy\";s:7:\"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=11316\";s:7:\"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:88:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/10/episode-17-wordpressing-your-way-to-digital-literacy/\";s: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:29419:\"<p>In episode 17 of the WordPress Briefing, Josepha Haden Chomphosy reflects on her WordCamp US keynote and digs into how participating in open source projects can help you learn 21st Century Skills.&nbsp;</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://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/09/03/wordpress-5-9-planning-roundup/\">WordPress 5.9 Planning</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/13/preliminary-road-to-5-9/\">5.9 Target Features</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/\">WordCamp US 2021</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Transcript</h2>\n\n\n\n<span id=\"more-11316\"></span>\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. See, here we go!</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>00:42</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today I want to talk to you a little bit about the digital divide, where it is, maybe a bit of where it&#8217;s headed, and which parts of the WordPress open source project and CMS can help. This is a focused look, though, so I won&#8217;t touch on some of the hurdles that everyone is aware of when you get outside of in-person environments, things like parental modeling or supervision, education on the relevance of technology, etc. This is a follow-up to the conversation that I had at WordCamp US last week—and so doing a little bit of a deeper dive here. And we&#8217;re gonna start with what exactly is the digital divide.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:23</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So the digital divide is considered those who benefit from the digital age versus those who don&#8217;t; that feels like a really big concept. And the current discussion is primarily about access, or for years that has been about access anyway, especially physical access. So those who have computers versus those who do not have internet in their homes versus those who do not. But I don&#8217;t necessarily agree with that particular, really focused definition of the problem.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:59</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the only problem we see is access, then the solution becomes to get cheap devices and internet to everyone, which certainly has led to more people being connected than ever before.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:12</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With this proliferation of devices that are considered both smart and mobile (mobile in this context, meaning handheld or pocket-sized), the discussion over the last few years has been shifting. It’s been shifting into more of a discussion around the education around the relevance of internet access, discussions around the quality of access to the Internet, and also discussions around Wi-Fi and dial-up and the surprising cost of data.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:42</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But from my perspective, there are a number of really dangerous assumptions that we make when we boil it all the way down to who has access and the quality of that kind of access.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:54</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first dangerous assumption is that we run the risk of conflating being tech-savvy with being digitally literate, and they&#8217;re not really the same things. The second assumption that we run the risk of is assuming that access to cellular data equals access to the internet through any other means. And also assuming that cost is always the determining factor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>03:19</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the final fairly dangerous assumption that we&#8217;re making there is that we allow ourselves the ability to mark the digital divide is fixed in our minds. Once we get enough access to everyone, we&#8217;re just done. There is no more divide. But as a way of illustration, if you think about access, not in the context of technology, like high technology, digital technology, and in the context of like writing, you probably own a writing utensil, and you probably have access to paper of some sort, which is great. But just because you have like a pencil and a piece of paper doesn&#8217;t mean that I can send you home right now &#8211; I guess most of you are listening at home.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:07</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t mean that I can send you to your desk right now. And consider you prepared to write a best-selling novel, right? Because giving you physical tools no more makes you a novelist than handing me a computer when I was a teen made me digitally literate.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:24</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So let&#8217;s talk about what it takes to be digitally literate. I&#8217;ve lumped the following skills into three groups. It&#8217;s broadly defined as 21st-century skills, but the groups that I have them in is not a comprehensive list of those 21st-century skills.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:41</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first group that is a large component of digital literacy is critical thinking skills. So computational thinking and problem-solving. That particular one is not new, exactly. But the computational thinking part certainly is. Not all problems are solved with code, but the basis for thinking through things procedurally is increasingly important.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:04</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second one in that set is communication through multiple media, consuming communications or content through Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or any other format, but also creating the things that communicate—writing blogs, creating videos, both calls and standalone, and forums, things like that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:27</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third set in that group of critical thinking skills is around collaboration, which some people will say is more about communication. But I find that collaboration both online and in-person is a skill set all to its own. Communication only gets you so far when you&#8217;re learning to cook to collaborate with people that you don&#8217;t normally work with. And so, I have lumped that into critical thinking skills.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:54</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second big bucket for digital literacy is actually literally digital literacy. So I have three, three things in here as well. Evaluating information is obviously incredibly important in the environment that we&#8217;re in right now, for just information’s sake. But then things like understanding the differences between copyright versus copyleft licenses, understanding the difference between an .org ending URL and a .com ending URL, and evaluating the general veracity of sources that you&#8217;re finding on the web.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>06:32</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second part of that group is media use and creation, understanding the difference between folks who consume and folks who create the content we have, how to find information online, and the most sensible places to keep information online. And the third area of digital literacy that I find to be vitally important is the ethics of licenses both around use and access. So again, things like copyright vs. Copy, copyleft. And specifically for WordPress, that means understanding things like the Creative Commons licenses, GPL, MIT, but then also copyright is its own complicated question unto itself. But the other things that show up for us for WordPress that show up for us with technology are also things like open access versus proprietary information and sources. And things like plagiarism versus sampling.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>07:33</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And our third big bucket, which has become increasingly complex, but the third big bucket for digital literacy to my mind is actually considered something that I call life skills. So things like self-direction, knowing what you want to do next, and how to get it done. Time management is also in there, knowing how much time something will take and being able to make sure that you are getting things done over time, as opposed to trying to accomplish everything at the last second.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>08:03</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A big part of these life skills is cross-cultural and social communication. The internet is tricky, right? Because it&#8217;s simultaneously incredibly insular and increasingly global. Like you can if you wanted only ever read things that already confirm your existing biases. But the very nature of the internet, the very nature of the web, means that the world is much smaller. We have more ready access faster to everyone everywhere in the world than we used to have. This means, of course, that cultural awareness is an absolute must now more than ever. This is for what it&#8217;s worth the time of year when I give this talk. And that&#8217;s because of this last part of the life skills section, which is digital citizenship.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>08:54</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Digital citizenship generally is the second week of October 2 or the third week of October. And it&#8217;s one of my favorite weeks because it is something that comes up all the time in our ecosystem. It comes up all the time and open source in general, but certainly for WordPress. So those are our three big buckets of digital literacy, a subset of 21st-century skills as a whole.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>09:22</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s a lot of stuff, I know. And it&#8217;s also really hard to figure out how you can learn any of those skills, and from my experience, I really believe that WordPress as an open source project can help people learn those things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>09:43</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once upon a time, ages and ages ago, my mother told me that in order for me to become a better writer, I would have to read and in order to become a better communicator, it would probably help if I spent a little bit more time writing, and I have always felt that the same must be true for all the things that we learn, you find a positive example and study it to become better. Or, depending on what you&#8217;re learning and how you&#8217;re trying to learn it, you find a passive example of something that you want to be able to do better from an active standpoint and participate in that so that your active production of the other part is better.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>10:24</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are a few parts of the WordPress project and WordPress itself that can help with this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>10:31</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So there are first a few really specific teams; if you&#8217;re contributing to a team like Themes, or Plugins, or Core, the three areas of those digital literacy skills that you have an opportunity to learn there. For critical thinking, you&#8217;re going to run into problem-solving and computational thinking. You’re also going to run into distributed collaboration, which was really important as just a concept when I first wrote this talk. And now it is currently really important as a reality because we have a bunch of companies that are going to either remote work or partially distributed or fully distributed. And that&#8217;s the way that WordPress has worked for a pretty long time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>11:19</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I&#8217;ve always felt like it was important because it was important to WordPress, but it&#8217;s also becoming increasingly an important part of just how to exist in the world at the moment. For those three teams, the things that you can really tap into and practice for the life skill section are digital literacy, nope, digital citizenship, self-direction, and time management obviously comes up in any open source project because you are volunteering your time and it is up to you to kind of decide how much you can commit or not various other parts of time management and directing one&#8217;s own project. Now, but you also get the opportunity to test and practice your cross-cultural communication, social communication and learning what it means to collaborate across cultures in that way.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>12:15</p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the digital literacy side, you also get a little bit of that information evaluation and synthesis for what it&#8217;s worth. And then obviously get to learn more about the ethics of various types of licenses and how use and access relate to those things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>12:35</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also have a team or two; these are not really teams or twos. These are things that you can do that are either solo activities or group activities. One is working or checking out the support forums, and the other is blogging. We’ll start with support forums.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>12:52</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re doing this as a group activity, there are a couple of extra things that that you can practice here. But suppose you&#8217;re doing it as a solo, just way to give back to the project sort of thing or way to learn some of these skills sort of thing. In that case, you can get almost all of these digital literacy skills woven into working in the support forums, depending on what&#8217;s happening in the moment and the questions people have brought up. But for critical thinking, obviously, you get some problem solving in there, not as much the computational thinking as the procedural thinking part. But you certainly also get to tap into communication with multiple types of media, collaboration in person and online, depending on whether you&#8217;re doing this as a solo effort or a group effort. And then, of course, research, which I didn&#8217;t really bring up in any of those groupings for digital literacy, is certainly a very important part of it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>13:49</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the digital literacy grouping of skills related to digital literacy, you get to work on evaluating information and, depending on how complicated an answer might be. You can also get that opportunity to practice synthesizing complex information and research, a digital literacy skill. And then, once people have responded to a topic you&#8217;ve answered, you also get to tap into that life skill section. You get to be you get the opportunity to practice digital citizenship related to synchronous or asynchronous conversation. You also get to see more about how cross-cultural communication and collaboration works and social communication across those various boundaries that naturally show up when we&#8217;re working across cultures that way. And as I mentioned previously, information synthesis, as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>14:53</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second one that I have mentioned can be like a solo effort or a group effort, depending on what you do. Blogging, for most people who use WordPress, is probably the most common application of how WordPress can help you do stuff. So I often see it as the most relevant and the most immediately accessible to anyone. But you know, you got to meet people where they are. So, I would strongly believe that this is our best way to help people learn these things.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>15:30</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So blogging for the critical thinking sorts of things, you have an opportunity to practice communication across mediums. You will probably get an opportunity to practice your research skills, chances are, you&#8217;re going to get the opportunity to practice some problem solving, and honestly, like if you&#8217;re hosting your site, problem-solving is going to come up when using WordPress as soon as you add in plugins and themes, because you sometimes kind of have to figure out what&#8217;s working and what&#8217;s not, and what&#8217;s playing nicely with other things and what&#8217;s not. It&#8217;s possible that with blogging, you&#8217;re also going to have an opportunity to get to practice some distributed collaboration. But that&#8217;s probably going to depend on what you&#8217;re doing with your site as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>16:30</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Licenses and how they apply to the thing that you&#8217;re using feel a bit different when you are the one who&#8217;s creating. And so learning about how those things work and don&#8217;t work and how they can best suit what you&#8217;re trying to do. Blogging is absolutely an excellent opportunity to dig into that a bit and learn a bit more about that. As far as your life skills go,</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>16:56</p>\n\n\n\n<p>that&#8217;s where you, again, get to practice some digital citizenship by figuring out who your audiences are and also when you have to communicate with them via the comments or any other way that you have built up a feedback mechanism there.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>17:11</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Self-direction obviously will come into this, maybe time management if you are blogging on, I was gonna say on a paid basis, but that&#8217;s not really I don&#8217;t know, on a project basis, like some of us are students and have to write things based on deadlines. And so, you know, self-direction, potentially time management, always cross-cultural communication, social communication, research, all of these things show up in there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>17:41</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, you know, I really believe in this concept of how blogging and bringing people into maintaining a website can teach you all of these skills. Because when I was younger, I was a bad communicator. And now, I am across the board known for my effective communication and my ability to work across cultures. And so the defining moment, which was like a four-year moment, and so not necessarily a moment, but the thing that really made all the difference was when my mom challenged me to write every single day. She had noted that I was not necessarily great at getting from one point to the next. I wasn&#8217;t necessarily great at building my arguments when I had to explain something to people. And she suggested that writing every day would help me tap into this big thing about communication and working with other people collaboration, all of that. And as an adult on the other side of it. Like, I thought she was super wrong when I was younger, because don&#8217;t we all think our parents are wrong when we&#8217;re younger. But as an adult on the other side of it, not only was that an opportunity for me to literally learn how to communicate better. But it also, when I look at it, gave me access to opportunities to practice all sorts of 21st-century skills and digital literacy skills in an environment that was relatively safe. And so, I am a big proponent of this particular one.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>19:26</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another team that helps us tap into and practice a lot of our digital literacy skills is the Documentation team. I recommend that you let this be a supervised activity if you&#8217;re doing this with students because, you know, it&#8217;s a wiki. You can put weird things in there on accident or just inaccurate things. So for critical thinking, the primary skill that you&#8217;re going to be able to practice if you&#8217;re working on documentation is collaboration. You would think that it was also like information synthesis and information evaluation. But for a lot of the work that we&#8217;re doing, the documentation exists. And what we&#8217;re looking at is trying to figure out where it no longer matches what is currently in the CMS, or currently in the project or currently in the team, whatever it is that you&#8217;re working on at that moment. And so, it&#8217;s a strong collaborative effort in the WordPress project. You have to have done the general work to figure out what needs to be changed in the documentation. But a lot of times, you need to figure out who has access to make the changes, what has prevented us from making changes in the past, and things like that. And so I say, collaboration is the only one to learn and critical thinking, but it&#8217;s actually a really big one and can take a fair amount of effort in this particular context.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>20:49</p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the digital literacy aspect, of course, there is evaluating information. But this particular type of information evaluation is a little different for documentation. And this actually is true for the Documentation team, for the Training team, and also for the new Learn team. This question is true for all of them. There is a huge difference between presentation versus application of information. The way you present information for people who already know it and just need confirmation of something or are using it for reference material is really different from when people are looking at a piece of documentation that should be telling them how to accomplish something. And they try to apply it either to their own processes at the moment or apply it to teaching other people. And so evaluating information to make sure that what is presented can be applied, and all of the ways that that very complicated journey with managing information can kind of work or not, depending on how things are going in your section of the open source project at the moment.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>21:59</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third group of skills that you can really dig into in those teams, again, is digital citizenship, basically, everything is digital citizenship in WordPress because we&#8217;re just people online.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>22:24</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And this final grouping that we have this final team and group of skills. So the Community team is a substantial and far-ranging team; they have many things that fall into their area of expertise. And so this has traditionally kind of functioned as a linchpin around education and ensuring that that was all relevant for users and attendees of events. The Community team will remain pivotal to so many things that we do now. But now that we have really awakened the Learn team and re-enlivened that Training team, this will shift a little over time. But yes, so that grain of salt that depending on when you listen to this, if you listen to it in 2050, maybe it&#8217;s not accurate anymore. Hopefully, most of what I say is not accurate in 2050. But you know, still.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>23:27</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Anyway! Critical thinking that&#8217;s where we were. So the critical thinking group of skills inside the Community team, you are going to have an opportunity to practice problem-solving. And frequently also procedural thinking, depending on what you&#8217;re working on in that team. Multimedia communication is absolutely true. And that&#8217;s true, whether you contribute to the team itself and make sure that the team is functioning and doing their basic tasks. Or if you are organizing an entire event, whether it&#8217;s online or offline or however that is being accomplished.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>24:07</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Multimedia communication for this particular team is constant for all of their work and something that everyone who works on there gets to practice all the time. For digital literacy, this comes up a lot if what you&#8217;re doing is working through any sort of like programming plans, making sure that what we have in place for events is really excellent. It&#8217;s a really excellent opportunity for practicing the evaluation of information, learning more about media use and creation, and then naturally, everything to do with licenses copyright copyleft, not only for everything that we produce but then also for everyone in the ecosystem.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>24:55</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This team helps so many plugins, authors and theme developers, and other groups who participate in the ecosystem understand the nuances of the GPL and why it matters so much to WordPress. And then in the life skill section, there&#8217;s the obvious life skill section, life skills that have come up for all of them—so digital citizenship, cross-cultural and social communication. But also you have the opportunity to tap into that self-direction and time management practice, which probably should also be considered in all of these teams. But, you know, things change as we go.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>25:45</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those are the most likely digital literacy skills that you would end up practicing in the Community team, depending on how you are participating in the Community team at that moment.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>25:59</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I said that we would talk a little bit about where this is all headed and what to do next. And like I just said, when I got lost in my own reverie, they&#8217;re like, hopefully, everything that I&#8217;ve shared here is out of date by 2050. Like, if we can come back to this particular podcast, or this presentation, or anything I&#8217;ve ever said, about digital literacy over my time with WordPress. And if we could come back to that in 2050, or, you know, I was going to say, 20 years from now, 2041 feels really close. But, you know, come back to it in the future, and say, that was all really excellent information to know at the moment. And we did do those things. And now, WordPress has proven that open source contribution and collaboration can teach all of the necessary 21st-century skills that anyone would need to survive in the world. And we did do it, that would be really cool. But I don&#8217;t think that that&#8217;s where we&#8217;re headed. Not because I don&#8217;t think people believe in what I&#8217;m saying or care about what I&#8217;m saying. But because it&#8217;s very easy to kind of let these things go at some point.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>27:20</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if you at some point, were proficient in all of what is considered 21st-century skills, sometimes our skills don&#8217;t get used very much. And so we lose track of them. And we don&#8217;t know, or we don&#8217;t know how to teach them to other people and various ways to do that. So I hope that when we revisit this in the time capsule of the internet 20 years from now, we can say that was a great explanation. And we learned so much. And we made so many changes in such progress that now we need a new version of this. That&#8217;s really all we can do, always striving to leave the world in a better position than when we found it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>28:07</p>\n\n\n\n<p>All right, that brings us to our small list of big things. I don&#8217;t have a ton to share with you today. But what I do have to share with you is a really big deal. So we are about a week away from the Go/No-Go point of WordPress 5.9. That is the final release of the year. And as soon as we know what is a go or a no go from that meeting on October 12th,&nbsp; everyone is going just to hit the ground running. And so, if you are interested in contributing to that release, either by being a participant in the release squad or leading some part of the release squad. Absolutely. Drop by and let me know because I am interested to know who wants to learn more about doing that. And this is actually something that has gone by. I mentioned at the top that I spoke at WordCamp US.&nbsp; That is still true; I did do it. And so did a bunch of other really excellent presenters. If you missed WordCamp US on Friday, for whatever reason, because you know, life is complicated. Pretty soon, we will have the videos. We&#8217;ll have all the videos up with captions quickly and have those available for everyone to watch and learn more from as their schedule allows and as their attention allows. 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 Chomphos, 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, 04 Oct 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:47;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:84:\"Gutenberg Times: A Block Pattern Party in more ways than one – Weekend Edition 187\";s:7:\"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=19137\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:91:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/a-block-pattern-party-in-more-ways-than-one-weekend-edition-187/\";s: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:17739:\"<p>Howdy! </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Did you get to watch the fantastic presentations about the block-editor at WordCamp US? No? I am sure they will be posted on WordPress TV in no time. I&#8217;ll keep and eye out. The best presentations from my perspective? </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Helen Hou-Sandi</strong> talked about the adventure building WhiteHouse.gov site within 6 weeks. Her look behind the scenes and the thoughts behind the front page header block build, was a great case study, why to use blocks and not ACF. <a href=\"https://youtu.be/_6-yAZRXY8k?t=19298\">(Recording on YouTube)</a></li><li><strong>Kjell Reigstad</strong> showed some wonderful creative examples how you could use Block Styles for some funky and new way to display blocks. Most with no JavaScript, all in CSS. <a href=\"https://youtu.be/_6-yAZRXY8k?t=23716\">(Recording on YouTube)</a></li><li><strong>Rich Tabor </strong>did a phenomenal job diving into the seven realms of Full-Site Editing and Theme building, with an <a href=\"https://www.figma.com/proto/HAvCFREaCsvXAO1X71RDID/WCUS%3A-Building-Modern-WordPress-Websites?page-id=217%3A148&node-id=235%3A354&viewport=241%2C48%2C0.1&scaling=contain&starting-point-node-id=233%3A136\">exponentially spruced up slide deck</a> and a very soothing voice.  We were all more relaxed about the huge changes to come.  <a href=\"https://youtu.be/_6-yAZRXY8k?t=6725\">(Recording on YouTube)</a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>That was only one day, yesterday, but more things happened in Gutenberg land. What have you been working on? I want to know. Hit reply and tell me:-) </p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have some great posts and videos for you. Did I miss one or two? Let me know that too. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m excited to see you next week at our <a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4216223029678/WN_TShtABQnRYKrHN6ffMFpaA\">Live Q &amp; A on theme building</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are not a theme builder, maybe you are interested in our upcoming <a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4016325801172/WN_v-EXlrFaRcabGz78jgj8CA\">Live Q &amp; A on block building with members of the BuddyPress team.</a> </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be well, 💕</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Birgit</p>\n\n\n\n<p>PS: Huge Thank you to <strong>Rob Cairns</strong> for a conversation among friends about my start at Automattic, the beginning of the Gutenberg Times and catch-up  on&nbsp;Full Site Editing. Listen to <a href=\"https://the-sdm-show.castos.com/episodes/episode-154-talking-all-things-gutenberg-with-birgit-pauli-haack?mc_cid=00a6b66a45&mc_eid=09df171d7b\"><strong>Episode #154 of The SDM Show</strong></a> by <a href=\"https://stunningdigitalmarketing.com/\"><em>Stunning Digital Marketing.</em></a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>PPS: Monday, 10/4 at 9am EDT / 2pm UK Time, I&#8217;ll join Nathan Wrigley, Michelle Frechette and Rob Cairns on the <strong>WPBuilds</strong>&#8216; <strong>This Week in WordPress Show</strong>. <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9odrdX6dZA\">It will be live streamed on YouTube.</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>PPS: Don&#8217;t miss the fantastic <strong>Page Builder Summit! Oct 18 &#8211; 22, 2021</strong> &#8211; Schedule below.  </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<h2>Gutenberg Development and Team updates </h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Gutenberg 11.6 </strong>was released. Now you can lock certain blocks, edit the site logo image file within the Site Logo block (yay!) and child themes have now basic support for full-site editing and Global Styles. <strong>Nik Tsekouras</strong> has the details for you in his release post: <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/01/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-6-29-september/\"><strong>What’s new in Gutenberg 11.6 (29 September)</strong></a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Justin Tadlock gave the new version a spin for his article <strong><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-6-improves-the-global-styles-ui-adds-child-theme-support\">Gutenberg 11.6 Improves the Global Styles UI, Adds Child Theme Support</a>.</strong> </li><li>Sarah Gooding expanded on the <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-6-introduces-new-api-for-locking-blocks\"><strong>New API for Locking Blocks</strong></a>. </li></ul>\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<p><strong>Kelly Hoffman</strong> posted about the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/09/upcoming-gallery-block-improvements/\"><strong>upcoming improvements to the Gallery block.</strong></a> The silent video loops through many variations of how you can now configure the images in the gallery block. The total revamped Gallery Block is built from individual image blocks, that bring their features into the gallery: you can style each image differently, link each single image to a different URL, apply different duotone filters per image and crop images to fit into a pattern and more. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can enable this Gallery block from the <em>Gutenberg plugin&#8217;s Experiments page. </em>If you want to see what happens when your existing gallery change into the new Gallery Block, you click on <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/34606\">“Update” button</a> of the the Block&#8217;s Toolbar <em>(new in 11.6)</em>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The refactored Gallery block is slated to come to WordPress with the 5.9 release. If you are a plugin or theme developer, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/20/gallery-block-refactor-dev-note/\">Glen Davies published a Dev Note last month. </a></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Maggie Cabrera</strong> publish the <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/10/01/gutenberg-themes-week-of-september-27-2021/\">67th Gutenberg + Themes Round-up</a></strong> post from the Themes team with a list of ongoing discussions on Full-Site Editing, Global Styles, and Design Tools. Just as examples: </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>A discussion on <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/34717\">Implicit Text, Hover, Focus Colors as Part of Color Palette</a>, or </li><li><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35114\">Whether to allow targeting&nbsp;<code>settings</code>&nbsp;that are specific to the block in theme.json file</a>. </li><li>You can also <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/34574\">follow along the progress of the <strong>Global Style Interface</strong></a> via this overview issues. </li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There are quite a few more aspects listed, and they all could use your thoughts and ideas. It&#8217;s the place to be part of the discussion and influence development and designs. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Shaun Andrews</strong> posted the recording and summary of the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/09/30/sept-2021-show-tell-recording/\"><strong>Design team&#8217;s Show &amp; Tell meeting.</strong></a> The meeting is mostly meant to catch up all design contributors on various stages of their work. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this meeting </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Tammie Lister</strong> talked about Block Support and how it is handled for individual blocks, in theme.json and block.json</li><li><strong>Javier Arce</strong> shared his designs for editing background in an image block images, and </li><li><strong>Channing Ritter</strong> discussed her exploration around Theme switching in the Site Editor. </li></ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Full Site Editing and Themes </h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are now many conversations about Full-Site Editing and how can site builders, agencies, designers and freelancers get a handle on the various pieces, that make up Full-Site Editing. <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> published a longer post on <a href=\"https://nomad.blog/2021/09/29/sharing-approaches-for-fse-feature-adoption/\"><strong>Sharing Approaches for Adoption of Full-Site Editing</strong></a> in the WordPress ecosystem. She suggested a gradual adoption with increasing levels of complexity and maturity”. Quite an interesting read. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Andres Noren</strong> published and <strong><a href=\"https://andersnoren.se/introducing-tove/\">introduction to his new block-based Theme &#8220;Tove&#8221;</a></strong> in which he lets you look behind the scenes. I found remarkable the comparison of this new theme with his latest classic theme: </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Tove contains a theme.json file that specifies supported settings and styles, HTML template files and template parts used by the Site Editor, a couple of stylesheets, placeholder image assets, a folder with block patterns, and a functions.php file to enqueue assets and register block patterns and styles. That’s Tove. <em>Not a single line of JavaScript, and other than the functions.php file and a empty index.php file, no PHP either.</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Compare that to&nbsp;<a href=\"https://andersnoren.se/teman/eksell-wordpress-theme/\">Eksell</a>, my latest (and probably last?) free classic theme. Eksell has 1 700 lines of PHP in its functions.php and template-tags.php files, five PHP classes in five files, and over 1 000 lines of JavaScript (not counting the CSS variables ponyfill).&nbsp;“</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-secondary-color has-light-background-background-color has-text-color has-background\"><em>You will get an opportunity to connect with Anders Noren on Thursday together with Ellen Bauer and Carolina Nymark when we discuss going <a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4216223029678/WN_TShtABQnRYKrHN6ffMFpaA\"><strong>from classic themes to Block-based Themes on our Live Q &amp; A.</strong></a> Get your seat <a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4216223029678/WN_TShtABQnRYKrHN6ffMFpaA\">now!</a> </em></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://wpblockpatterns.com/\">WPBlockPatterns.com</a></strong> is a site where you can compare, how the Patterns available in the WordPress.org directory perform with each Full Site Editing theme. On the first page of the site, you see the list of the block patterns from the directory. Once you click on  the <em>name of the pattern</em> a new window opens, and you can then select the theme from a drop-down box on the top right. </p>\n\n\n\n<img />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Andrew Starr</strong>, owner of UX Themes and author of the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/hansen/\">Hansen theme</a>, created the site and <strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> connected with him for more details: <strong><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/preview-wordpress-block-pattern-and-theme-combinations-via-new-site\">Preview WordPress Block Pattern and Theme Combinations via New Site</a></strong>.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tammie Lister </strong>started a new project: <strong><a href=\"https://ephemeralthemes.com/2021/10/01/a-block-pattern-a-day/\">A Block Pattern a Day</a></strong>. On her new site, <a href=\"http://patternspiration.com/\">Patternspiration</a>, she will publish a new pattern every day to explore all the possibilities with Block Patterns, and to get an idea on what tooling would be needed around it. Definitely a place to watch. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> published the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/09/29/fse-program-testing-call-10-pattern-party/\">10th call for testing</a> out of the Full-site editing outreach program and calls you to <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/09/29/fse-program-testing-call-10-pattern-party/\">join the Pattern Party</a></strong>, too! You are invited to test all the Theme Blocks, some already in WordPress 5.8 and some to come in WordPress 5.9 and create patterns with them. <em>&#8220;This test is focused on pushing these lovely Theme Blocks to their limits to better determine what to prioritize and what features might remain to be documented. &#8220;</em> McCarthy wrote. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_peXesSoYRIOZUEd9eK0l-g\">Developing for the new wave of WordPress experience</a></strong> On&nbsp;<a href=\"https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_peXesSoYRIOZUEd9eK0l-g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tuesday, Oct 5 at 01:30 PM CST</a>, join <strong>Post Status </strong>CEO,&nbsp;<strong>Cory Miller</strong>, as he interviews&nbsp;<strong>Rich Tabor</strong>, Head of Product at&nbsp;Extendify, about the future of publishing with WordPress. Definitely a show worth watching! </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WordPress Meetup London</strong> met this week, and during their 2nd hour they held a <strong><a href=\"https://youtu.be/k3HGkySWESk?t=4269\">Roundtable on Full-Site Editing</a></strong> hosted by Dan Maby guest Paul Lacey, Diane Wallace and Anne McCarthy.</p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://youtu.be/k3HGkySWESk?t=4269\"><img /></a>\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>Using Gutenberg as Content Creator</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Istiak Rayhan</strong> shared with you the <a href=\"https://bloggingwizard.com/gutenberg-features/\"><strong>10 Interesting Gutenberg Features You May Not Know About</strong></a>. Rayhan pointed out most of my favorite features of the Block editor. He is also one of the authors of the Ultimate Blocks plugins, so it&#8217;s not a surprise to see it listed. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of the Document information page, I would pick the <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/09/core-editor-improvement-improve-your-workflow-with-list-view/\">List View</a></strong> next to it as the more useful tool for your workflow. You can identify blocks from their nested view and drag and drop them at a different spot of your post. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rayhan followed up with a <a href=\"https://bloggingwizard.com/gutenberg-block-editor/\"><strong>Beginner&#8217;s Guide for Gutenberg.</strong></a> I bookmarked his post to share it with others looking to get started with the block-editor. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" />\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"pagebuilder\">Page Builder Summit</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://pagebuildersummit.com/\">Page Builder Summit</a></strong> is coming back and will be happening <strong>October 18 &#8211; 22, 2021. </strong>Nathan Wrigley and Anchen Le Roux <a href=\"https://pagebuildersummit.com/schedule/\"><strong>just published the schedule</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is the list of Gutenberg / Block-editor presentations </p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Forging the Future with Full Site Editing</strong> with Anne McCarthy (10/18 &#8211; 9am EDT)</li><li><strong>The Future of Building WordPress Websites </strong>with Brian Gardner (10/18 &#8211; 12pm EDT)</li><li><strong>What does Full Site Editing Mean for Page Builders?</strong> with Joe Casabona (10/19/ 9am EDT)</li><li><strong>Customizing WordPress Block Editor for Client Projects </strong>with Birgit Pauli-Haack (10/19/ &#8211; 10 am EDT)</li><li><strong>Mastering modern WordPress with Full-site Editing &amp; Custom Blocks</strong> with Rob Stinson (10/20/ &#8211; 5am EDT)</li><li><strong>How to Build Any Page Layout Using Kadence Blocks</strong> with Jake Pfohl (10/20/ &#8211; 12pm EDT)</li><li><strong>Building a Custom Blog Archive with Blocks</strong> with Mike Oliver (10/21/ 11am EDT)</li><li><strong>RIP Page Builders</strong> with Chris Lubkert (10/19 &#8211; 1pm EDT)</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The schedule is not out yet. <a href=\"https://pagebuildersummit.com/\"><strong>Sign-up for the waitlist</strong></a> to receive notifications.</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>Featured image: <a href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/10104201@N00/4672495978\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Fire wood&#8221;</a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/10104201@N00\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rossbelmont</a>&nbsp;is licensed under&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0</a></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 02 Oct 2021 15:40:35 +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: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:48;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:103:\"WPTavern: Logtivity: A WordPress Activity Log Service With Customizable Charts, Alerts, and CSV Exports\";s:7:\"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=122600\";s:7:\"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:245:\"https://wptavern.com/logtivity-a-wordpress-activity-log-service-with-customizable-charts-alerts-and-csv-exports?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=logtivity-a-wordpress-activity-log-service-with-customizable-charts-alerts-and-csv-exports\";s: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:6238:\"<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Launched by Ralph Morris and Steve Burge in June this year, <a href=\"https://logtivity.io/\">Logtivity</a> is a plugin and service that allows site owners to track everything that happens on their WordPress installs. The duo has made continual updates to the plugin since. In the past couple of months, they have added deep integration with Easy Digital Downloads. They are also planning to build around more eCommerce-related plugins.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Burge mentioned that using the Logtivity service allows site owners to track and log activity at scale. While small sites could get by with an on-site solution, it can be harder to do while growing. &ldquo;This offers a strong alternative to using a plugin because you don&rsquo;t need to store huge amounts of data on your own server,&rdquo; he said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The service provides graphs so that end-users can visualize their data, but they can also dive directly into the logs and look at specific actions. Users can also set up unlimited alert notifications through email or Slack and download reports as CSV files.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Site dashboard showing different chart types.\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/logtivity/\">Logitivity WordPress plugin</a> is free to download and install, but it merely serves as a bridge to the commercial service. The <a href=\"https://logtivity.io/pricing/\">pricing page</a> has three tiers that start at $9.50/month and run to $49.50. The rates primarily differ on the number of logs generated, user access, and length of data retention. However, each tier can be used on an unlimited number of sites.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have been running the service on WP Tavern for a couple of weeks. There are not many things I would want to track specific to this site other than posts published and commenting numbers. The short-term data has not told me much that I did not know already. However, I could see how these logs could come in handy over months or years. If we were running an eCommerce website, the information could be invaluable.</p>\n\n\n\n<img />Viewing a specific set of logs based on an action.\n\n\n\n<p>Users can create reports of specific logs and display them as either bar or line charts. These can be generated based on an action, such as &ldquo;Post Published&rdquo; or &ldquo;Comment Created.&rdquo; Users can also add a specific context, such as a post ID. For example, a user could display a chart for each product file download through the plugin&rsquo;s deep integration with Easy Digital Downloads.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the type of thing that the team has in mind at the moment. The primary use case since launch has been logging eCommerce activity.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;People who run eCommerce sites need to track registrations, subscription changes, file downloads, license key activations, login activity, and more,&rdquo; said Burge. &ldquo;eCommerce site owners need this for customer support and also to deal with refund requests and chargebacks.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, each of the service&rsquo;s features is handled via the Logtivity site. The team has plans to bring them into the WordPress admin interface. However, it could be late 2021 or early 2022 before the integration happens.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;d love to bring Logtivity data directly into WordPress,&rdquo; said Burge. &ldquo;And because there&rsquo;s no need to worry about Logtivity slowing down your site, we have some interesting ideas for how and where user activity can be displayed in the WordPress admin area.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2>How It Started and Where It Is Going</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Burge serves as the marketing brains behind the project. His primary WordPress-related business is <a href=\"https://publishpress.com/\">PublishPress</a>, but his customers had asked for a project like Logitivity for several years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Ralph Morris started Logtivity for a customer at the web dev agency he works at,&rdquo; said Burge. &ldquo;The customer&rsquo;s site has around 100,000 users and gets a great deal of activity every day, from new registrations and subscriptions to resources being downloaded and cancellations. They were using a WordPress plugin to track customer activity, but as the number of logs grew, this process took longer and longer and became more clunky to perform. The final straw was when they were unable to perform the CSV exports, as it would keep timing out. Ralph scratched the itch and built a little MVP. After a few weeks, he showed it to his colleagues and got permission from his boss to offer it to the client to be the first user, and a little while later, the first paying customer.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the two connected thanks to Iain Poulson, who recently <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/alex-denning-and-iain-poulson-launch-flipwp-an-acquisitions-marketplace-for-wordpress-companies\">co-launched the acquisitions marketplace FlipWP.</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Ralph lives really close to where I grew up in Hampshire, England,&rdquo; said Burge. &ldquo;We got our heads together and decided on a partnership: Ralph as the developer and myself as the marketer.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Outside of integrating more directly with the WordPress admin, the Logtivity team has a roadmap that will keep them busy for a while. Topping that list are more integrations with third-party plugins.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&ldquo;Our primary use-case is eCommerce sites, so WooCommerce is central to our plans,&rdquo; said Burge. &ldquo;But we also plan deeper integrations with more plugins that WordPress eCommerce sites use, including LearnDash, MemberPress, Paid Memberships Pro, and more.&rdquo;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several players in the space are moving toward broad integrations across the ecosystem. Chris Lema talked about it being a vital strategy for business growth with StellarWP&rsquo;s recent <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/stellarwp-acquires-learning-management-system-learndash\">acquisition of LearnDash</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Burge also noted that his team plans to continue improving the service&rsquo;s alert system. &ldquo;In future versions of Logtivity, you&rsquo;ll be able to send more flexible alerts to more channels. We also plan to provide SMS alerts for your most important notifications.&rdquo;</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 01 Oct 2021 21:49:55 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s: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:49;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:71:\"Akismet: Version 4.2.1 of the Akismet WordPress Plugin is Now Available\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"http://blog.akismet.com/?p=2130\";s:7:\"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:50:\"https://blog.akismet.com/2021/10/01/version-4-2-1/\";s: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:559:\"<p>Version 4.2.1 of <a href=\"http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/\">the Akismet plugin for WordPress</a> is now available.</p>\n<p>This update contains a fix for a bug in version 4.2 that could cause AMP validation errors on some sites, depending on the template they were using.</p>\n<p>To upgrade, visit the Updates page of your WordPress dashboard and follow the instructions. If you need to download the plugin zip file directly, links to all versions are available in <a href=\"http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/\">the WordPress plugins directory</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 01 Oct 2021 18:31:07 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:17:\"Christopher Finke\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:\"type\";i:128;s:7:\"headers\";O:42:\"Requests_Utility_CaseInsensitiveDictionary\":1:{s:7:\"\0*\0data\";a:8:{s:6:\"server\";s:5:\"nginx\";s:4:\"date\";s:29:\"Fri, 22 Oct 2021 15:48:53 GMT\";s:12:\"content-type\";s:8:\"text/xml\";s:4:\"vary\";s:15:\"Accept-Encoding\";s:13:\"last-modified\";s:29:\"Fri, 22 Oct 2021 15:30:18 GMT\";s:15:\"x-frame-options\";s:10:\"SAMEORIGIN\";s:4:\"x-nc\";s:9:\"HIT ord 2\";s:16:\"content-encoding\";s:2:\"br\";}}s:5:\"build\";s:14:\"20210205134904\";}','no'),