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";s: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: 117 – Maestro Stevens on Inclusivity in Website Design Decisions";s:7:"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=155507";s:7:"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://wptavern.com/podcast/117-maestro-stevens-on-inclusivity-in-website-design-decisions";s: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:35766:"Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p>Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, inclusivity in web design decisions.</p>



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



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



<p>So on the podcast today, we have Maestro Stevens.</p>



<p>Maestro is an international speaker and managing director of The Iconic Expressions. His areas of expertise include digital marketing, brand strategy, web development, and project leadership.</p>



<p>In this episode, Maestro lays out the case for how inclusivity is not just something that we need to be concerned about at things like events, but also in our WordPress website designs.</p>



<p>Maestro recently gave a presentation at WordCamp Asia entitled unlocking universal creativity, the future of inclusive WordPress design. He wants to get people to think about making design choices with inclusivity in mind so that they&#8217;re representative of various cultures and varied backgrounds.</p>



<p>Maestro reveals the challenges and the pushback he is faced on his journey, telling us about the struggles and support he&#8217;s found within the community.</p>



<p>His approach includes utilizing AI to create unique imagery, reflective of a diverse population, and how he sees this as something new in the industry.</p>



<p>The discussion also gets into the practical side as well, with Maestro outlining some of the technical aspects and future plans for his ideas, extending an open invitation to listeners who wish to contribute or learn more.</p>



<p>If you curious about the intersection of creativity, representation, and the WordPress ecosystem, this episode is for you.</p>



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



<p>A quick note, before we begin, this was recorded live at WordCamp Asia. There was quite a lot of background noise to contend with, and I&#8217;ve done my best to make the audio as easy to listen to as possible.</p>



<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Maestro Stevens.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast by Maestro Stevens. How are you doing?</p>



<p>[00:03:16] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> I&#8217;m doing great. I&#8217;m doing excellent.</p>



<p>[00:03:18] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Very nice to have you with us. We&#8217;re at WordCamp Asia. We&#8217;re in the venue. Maestro is joining me on the second day of the conference, so it&#8217;s the third day, including contributor day. You&#8217;ve already done your presentation, which I think you did yesterday?</p>



<p>[00:03:32] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Yes I did.</p>



<p>[00:03:32] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It was entitled Unlocking Universal Creativity, the Future of Inclusive WordPress Design. We&#8217;re going to get into that, and have a conversation around that subject in a moment. Before we do that, Maestro, will you just spend a minute telling us who you are, and what your WordPress journey is, your relationship with WordPress.</p>



<p>[00:03:52] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> And all I have is a minute, Nathan?</p>



<p>[00:03:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Just one minute. Just a minute. The clock starts, no. As long as you like.</p>



<p>[00:03:59] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Well, first of all, thank you for having me again. This is an honor. And for us to be in person is another honor. As you mentioned, my name is Maestro Stevens, the fresh prince of WordPress. And my whole goal is bringing a fresh perspective to those who have a misunderstanding of what WordPress is.</p>



<p>In my spare time, I love to cook. I used to be a chef, in another life. I have a daughter. I love technology. I love creating opportunities. I love creating dreams for people, bringing people to WordCamp for the first time. That&#8217;s my spiel.</p>



<p>[00:04:31] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well, that&#8217;s really nice, and you&#8217;ve missed out something, which is that you&#8217;re also really into audio. And we spent a good 10 minutes before we hit record, just obsessing about the equipment that we&#8217;ve got. Which, as you can probably hear, dear listener, is not as good as it could be. But it&#8217;s what we&#8217;ve got. It&#8217;s portable, and it will do the job.</p>



<p>So tell us about the talk. Give us the nitty gritty on why you chose that title. What was it all about? And we&#8217;ll have a journey, a conversation, and dig into it.</p>



<p>[00:04:58] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Yeah. Well, I got a confession to make. The title is a little bit of a hook. You know, it&#8217;s nothing new that we don&#8217;t do. However, it&#8217;s still authentic, in as far as the presentation is concerned, mainly because I wanted to bridge the gap with helping people understand that, when it comes to diverse creators, people from ethnic backgrounds or different backgrounds, such as WordCamp Asia, that accessibility can be used interchangeably with the word inclusivity.</p>



<p>Because when you are making things accessible, you&#8217;re saying, I want to include others. And sometimes we separate those two terminologies. They have different meanings, but they are cousins or, you know, family related. So I really wanted to help people understand that our platform, Iconic Templates, which is what I was talking about yesterday, is a platform created for those who want to be included, and need to access certain tools and solutions, that typically would normally not have access.</p>



<p>[00:05:50] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> What you&#8217;ve just described, is this something that you find important on a personal level? Is this a journey, not just in the WordPress space? Is this something that you, I was going to use the word preach, but that&#8217;s the wrong word, adjacent to preach. Is this something that you talk about in other spheres as well?</p>



<p>[00:06:05] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Yes. I would say, well, one, to answer your question, it is a passion of mine. I ran into a lot of issues myself. I think us business owners, and entrepreneurs, and creators, a lot of the problems that we solve for others, stem from us. And something that I would say I did not see a lot of, when I was looking at something as templates on the internet, and I&#8217;m not going to point out any particular company but, you know, there&#8217;s just a lot of templates that I saw, that didn&#8217;t have imagery and representation that reminded me of me.</p>



<p>You know, I know it&#8217;s controversial, because I&#8217;ve got some backlash from this in certain communities. People are just going to take the content out anyway. They&#8217;re going to replace the images and replace the things. But the reality is, people want to see them. They want to hear them. They want to know that the company, that&#8217;s creating tools for them, thought of them in mind. Hey, we&#8217;re going to make this thing, and then we&#8217;re going to slap on some stuff.</p>



<p>Whereas, we&#8217;ve created everything. We&#8217;ve created with certain cultures, and certain industries in mind. From not just the imagery and the content, but even the structure and the layout. So we are coming from the forefront, and not the aftermath of adding others.</p>



<p>[00:07:10] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It sounds, from what you just said, as if there&#8217;s been a little bit of pushback from certain people. Is that the minority? Do you find WordPress, as a community, I mean obviously that&#8217;s a bit of an umbrella phrase, and you know, it&#8217;s made of millions and millions of different people. But, do you find the WordPress community, on the whole, receptive to what you are saying? Or is it more a case of, you are having to push back, and explain yourself over and over again, and being challenged and pushing back?</p>



<p>[00:07:37] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Well, Nathan, yes. I&#8217;ve been challenged a lot. To be transparent with you, when we launched a year and a half ago with this platform, inside of a couple communities, very small, we had good reception only because I made an adjustment, because I got scared.</p>



<p>The first thing that happened, when I said I&#8217;m going to create this platform for diverse creators and BIPOC communities, people, for lack of a better term, did not like that. They gave me a lot of negative feedback. So what I did is I said, okay, well let&#8217;s create the platform for everybody.</p>



<p>I spoke at WordCamp Europe. Then I spoke at WordCamp US. Now I&#8217;m here speaking at WordCamp Asia. And I realised that there are a lot of people that do want to see, I would say the type of, not product, but the type of solutions, and the type of representation. But I had to meet these people in real life, and I had to learn my tribe. And every WordPress community is not your tribe, even if they, quote unquote, liked your product before.</p>



<p>[00:08:34] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you get a sense that this is a case of the quiet majority who don&#8217;t speak up to support what you are doing? Do you get that feeling? Because it sounds like, when you&#8217;ve come to these events, you have met kindred spirits, people who are aligned with what you are aligned with, but you had to go and find them. Which kind of tells me they were always there in the first place, but they didn&#8217;t let you know that they were there.</p>



<p>So is it a case of that? You know, people just keeping quiet and putting their head under the parapet, to dodge the proverbial arrow.</p>



<p>[00:09:02] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Yeah, I think it&#8217;s a little bit of all that. And it&#8217;s crazy that I&#8217;m learning how to, I don&#8217;t want to say play the game, but be careful on the things that I say, because I can be very outspoken at times. That&#8217;s a gift and a curse, in some ways.</p>



<p>So with that being said, I do think that it is, when you say the word minority and majority, there are people that are afraid to speak up, and there are people who don&#8217;t want to speak up, because it will ruin their opportunities and their, what they&#8217;ve gained, I guess, growing in the ladder of WordPress.</p>



<p>Because there&#8217;s gatekeepers in WordPress. You know, there&#8217;s people that you have to appease in certain ways. And there&#8217;s people that don&#8217;t want to hear your voice all the time. So I do think, to your point, when you think about it, the majority versus the minority, it&#8217;s a little bit of all. But I do think there&#8217;s a lot of people who are afraid to say something, and there&#8217;s people who don&#8217;t want to say something, because they don&#8217;t want to ruin what they have.</p>



<p>[00:09:51] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That sort of feels a bit upsetting really though, doesn&#8217;t it? On some level, it feels like that&#8217;s a bit of a shame. But you&#8217;re right. We definitely have some strong characters in the WordPress community.</p>



<p>Are you talking about being online? So in, you know, groups, on various different platforms. Is it that kind of community that you&#8217;ve been involved in?</p>



<p>[00:10:09] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Yes.</p>



<p>[00:10:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, okay. And there are some definite characters, aren&#8217;t there? And some people who have fairly loud voices.</p>



<p>[00:10:14] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Yes.</p>



<p>[00:10:15] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay. So you&#8217;ve made the effort to come out and speak about these things. At these events, have you felt that you&#8217;ve had a nice reception? Has it been a different experience?</p>



<p>[00:10:24] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Good question. I would say, not to be redundant, but a little bit of both. Going to WordCamp Europe was an eyeopener. Athens, Greece, I mean, well, one, not a lot of people that live there that look like me. I stood out immediately, just from that perspective. And then actually going to WordCamp itself, where we&#8217;re told that they are looking at it from an inclusive lens and, you know, we want to involve everybody, make everybody feel comfortable.</p>



<p>When I actually got in the venue, in the building, I thought that the stares were going to stop. You know, I thought that the looks were going to stop, and they didn&#8217;t all stop. And that&#8217;s not everybody, but it was quite obvious, and quite a few. But I will definitely say, when I did my presentation, those people who joined the presentation showed love. When I did a presentation yesterday, those who joined showed love. I&#8217;ve been seeing random people say, hey man, I saw your presentation yesterday. I didn&#8217;t even know they did.</p>



<p>And then I got way more questions than I ever would&#8217;ve thought I would&#8217;ve gotten, because people were like, oh, he&#8217;s not afraid to talk about this. And so they&#8217;re raising their hands and they&#8217;re saying, well, what do I do? I&#8217;m hearing that from people from all across the world. And I love that. So that, to me, is what sticks out more than anything. The rest of the nonsense, for lack of a better term, I&#8217;m striving to kind of let that go.</p>



<p>[00:11:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you feel safe in these spaces?</p>



<p>[00:11:38] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Hmm.</p>



<p>[00:11:38] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It&#8217;s not an immediate yes.</p>



<p>[00:11:41] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> No, it&#8217;s not immediate yes.</p>



<p>[00:11:42] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. I mean, we don&#8217;t have to go down that path if you don&#8217;t wish to. But I am curious, because we are quite good as a community at congratulating ourselves, on how accommodating we are. And we definitely have people, and I know that you know many of the people that I&#8217;m not going to name, but you probably will intuit who I&#8217;m talking about, who fight this fight, and they make the effort.</p>



<p>But it is interesting to me that despite all of that, there&#8217;s still, it sounds like considerable amounts of work to be done. The example of WordCamp Athens that you&#8217;ve just described, that doesn&#8217;t sound like a particularly pleasant experience that you had there.</p>



<p>[00:12:19] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> I&#8217;m grateful that I had the opportunity to even go. That changed my life. I encourage anybody who is thinking of getting a different perspective of life in the world, it doesn&#8217;t matter what kind of pushback or resistance that you get, travel. Travel to places that you would&#8217;ve never been before. Even if you&#8217;re going to get looked at, and stared at, and feel uncomfortable, because you&#8217;ll learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, which will give you a different perspective.</p>



<p>So, to your point, and going back to the whole safety aspect of things, I would say I don&#8217;t always feel the safety net that I would love to be able to speak up. I will say that, for the most part, going to Athens, Greece, as an example, it reminded me of WordPress is also a reflection of the world too, to a degree. We still have some work to do in the world, you know, everywhere. And WordPress is doing what it can to help mitigate that. But I do think, to your point, there&#8217;s a lot of work to be done.</p>



<p>And just really quickly, I&#8217;ve called out some founders. And when it came to certain issues or certain things, to help support me and back me up, and I&#8217;ve noticed that they&#8217;ve chose profit over passion, you know, over mission. And the funny part is, the data shows, because I&#8217;m a data analyst, you know, I have an agency as well too. Data shows that most people, they want to purchase, and they want to deal with brands that actually are mission based. How ironic is that.</p>



<p>So it&#8217;s kind of a catch 22 that, you know, there&#8217;s these founders that don&#8217;t want to touch certain issues. Most people purchase based on, is there a mission, a value, the reasons? They&#8217;re not just purchasing on quality, you know, things like that. It&#8217;s, who is behind it? Why are they doing it? What are they doing it for?</p>



<p>[00:13:57] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. It&#8217;s interesting, I often end up at the about page, soon after I&#8217;ve gone to the pricing page, because I do want to know about the company that I&#8217;m buying the plugin, or whatever it may be. And it, yeah, it does play a certain part.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m going to ask this question. Feel free to ignore it, because I don&#8217;t know what pitfalls there may be inside this. Does geography play a part in this? Do you find that you can have this conversation more easily at home, for example, in the US? Is it a conversation that&#8217;s being more advanced, more acceptable to have, more straightforward?</p>



<p>We&#8217;ve obviously mentioned Europe, we&#8217;ve got Asia, there&#8217;s different complexities. They&#8217;ve obviously got their own things going on. But, do you notice that geography plays a part in this?</p>



<p>[00:14:36] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Yes, I think so. And I had some conversations today with a couple other founders from East Asia, and it was great to hear that I&#8217;m, they&#8217;re from a different country and different culture. They&#8217;re saying they find the same issues. I&#8217;m like, so I&#8217;m not crazy. You know, it&#8217;s not an American thing, you know what I mean? It&#8217;s not a US thing. It&#8217;s an everywhere thing, and global positioning does play a part in it.</p>



<p>However, I am grateful that WordPress has people like yourself, and people that are, I would consider allied. Creating platforms where people like me can talk, and speak about these issues, because otherwise people are normally just trying to kind of suppress the conversation.</p>



<p>[00:15:13] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. It&#8217;s interesting, isn&#8217;t it? Because, we&#8217;ve talked for probably about 15 minutes so far, and it feels like we might have been being very negative, but I&#8217;m not feeling that really. I&#8217;m feeling more like there&#8217;s a lot of goodness in the WordPress community, but no community is a hundred percent perfect, and there&#8217;s work to be done. And you have had experiences which are real. They happen, they existed. You&#8217;ve talked to these people, and you&#8217;ve got these receptions, so it needs to be addressed.</p>



<p>Your product, you&#8217;ve said, tries to address this. And I&#8217;m curious as to how templates, parts of a website, how we can map the conversation that we&#8217;ve just had, over to a product. So tell me about that. I mean, you alluded to it a little while ago, but just really flesh out what Iconic Templates is, and what it does, and why it&#8217;s different.</p>



<p>[00:16:04] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> I love this question, because it helps give me a different perspective of, how do I define it? And I&#8217;m learning, you know, based on the reception. I would say, for the most part, our goal with Iconic Templates, and this is the reason why some of our product lines have the word universal in them. For example, universal template themes, universal template library.</p>



<p>I believe that a big problem in the WordPress ecosystem, and in other ecosystems, is that a person says, hey, I like that look. I like that style, but I don&#8217;t use that tool. And so what we are trying to do, striving to do, because Yoda says, you do or you don&#8217;t, there is no try.</p>



<p>So what we&#8217;re striving to do is bridge that gap for people to say, you&#8217;ve made a style or a look that fits me. Whatever it is they do, whatever industry, vertical they&#8217;re in, whatever ethnic background they have. And they&#8217;re like, but I use the classic editor still, I don&#8217;t use full site, or I use the page builder. Do you have that look and that style in the page builder that I use? Do you have that look and that style with a plugin that I use? You know, there&#8217;s email plugins, there&#8217;s form plugins, there&#8217;s automation plugins.</p>



<p>So what we&#8217;re striving to do with Iconic Templates is create this universal tether. An ecosystem where you&#8217;re saying, I like that look and that style, but I may want to use this plugin versus this plugin. I want to use this theme versus that theme, but I want to keep the theme.</p>



<p>[00:17:25] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So, if we were to go to iconictemplates.com, and we were to look at your, I&#8217;m going to use the word library, because I think you said that, your library of patterns.</p>



<p>[00:17:34] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> So for instance, we have a library called Uni-Blocks. And so our Uni-Blocks library is block patterns. Keep it short and simple. Our Uni-Blocks library currently is created with Kadence Blocks, for example. So our next step would be creating it with Elementor widgets or Spectra, for example. That&#8217;s pretty much what we&#8217;re doing.</p>



<p>[00:17:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> What would I be seeing? I&#8217;m imagining I&#8217;m on the website, I know we&#8217;re doing audio, so it&#8217;s very hard to do this. Bear with us, we&#8217;ll try and get there. What would I be seeing that would be different from what I might see elsewhere? How would you explain the visual difference of what I might see with what you&#8217;ve got, than what other companies bring to bear?</p>



<p>[00:18:12] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Well, one, you&#8217;re going to see a lot of imagery of black and brown people, and people from other ethnic backgrounds. You&#8217;re going to see a lot of that. Two, you&#8217;re going to see a little bit of, we&#8217;ll say nerdiness, geekiness, mixes with cool, intentionally mixed with some coolness.</p>



<p>I have a background where, I love Hip-Hop. I haven&#8217;t seen anybody infuse Hip-Hop into their template platform. So when you go on our platform, you&#8217;re going to see these backgrounds. I said this in my presentation yesterday, one of my favorite artists is Jay-Z. And when we first started the platform, I didn&#8217;t know who I was. So we made our color scheme with a whole bunch of colors, all over the rainbow.</p>



<p>And I can&#8217;t make this up, one day this is going to be a famous story, but it was a reflection of who I was. I didn&#8217;t have my identity intact, so our company and our brand didn&#8217;t have its identity intact. It came to me in an epiphany, in a eureka moment. I was working with my designer Dessa, and she needed more inspiration from me, on how to create this design, or layout for our site.</p>



<p>I was stuck. I had a dream. I was like, man, who&#8217;s my favorite artist? Oh, Jay-Z. What album did he make that&#8217;s one of my favorite albums? The Blueprint. Aren&#8217;t templates blueprints, aren&#8217;t we as people, blueprints? So then I was like, oh, it&#8217;s blue, and the color of blue is solidarity. There&#8217;s meanings behind blue. And most companies use blue. You know, a lot of tech companies use blue.</p>



<p>So I said, what is the odds of that? That tech companies use blue, one of my favorite artists has an album called The Blueprint, and we are blueprints for others. So when you go to our website, you&#8217;re going to see a blue background with little templates. And that was inspired by Jay-Z&#8217;s album, The Blueprint.</p>



<p>[00:19:46] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> And so, you mentioned the imagery is a big part. You&#8217;re differentiating yourself by going out, and deliberately finding images, which represent the entire world. Does it also stretch to text? Are you surfacing text that you think is aligned in this way as well?</p>



<p>[00:20:02] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Well, Nathan, here&#8217;s the thing, I&#8217;m going to blow your mind here. One of our big value propositions, or values, is transparency. So, I say our process is a template, our website is a template, and we offer templates. What do I mean by that? Everything we&#8217;ve done, I&#8217;ve intentionally done in a way that can be duplicated for others. We&#8217;re going to teach from that. The process is a template.</p>



<p>People can go to our website, and literally look at our website and say, I want to copy what you&#8217;ve done. And what most people don&#8217;t know is, every image you&#8217;re going to see, is made with AI. We do a lot of experimentation. So we use Midjourney, for example. So you said the word find, no, we didn&#8217;t find, we created, generated, based on words, based on the text. So there&#8217;s not a single image on that website that you will see, that you will find anywhere else, in any stock library.</p>



<p>[00:20:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Right. So it&#8217;s unique. It isn&#8217;t from a stock library.</p>



<p>[00:20:50] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Not at all.</p>



<p>[00:20:51] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> How has the platform launched? Since the moment you went public with it, and you&#8217;ve put it out there, how has the reception been? I mean, I&#8217;m guessing by the fact that you are here in WordCamp Asia, and obviously are making a living out of this in some way, shape, or form, it must be going all right. But I don&#8217;t know, you tell me.</p>



<p>[00:21:06] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Well, we&#8217;re still in the beginning stages, I&#8217;ll say that. So I&#8217;m still learning to simplify things. One of our biggest problems that we had with our templates, which I&#8217;ve talked to a couple founders today, who are going to help solve this problem, I&#8217;m grateful. But it was cumbersome for people to import our templates.</p>



<p>So even though we have these different solutions, where you can import our form templates, email templates and automations, you had to do it all one by one. But we&#8217;re going to create a plugin, or a solution, where it&#8217;s a one click, you just click the button and you get to import everything.</p>



<p>So I&#8217;m saying this to say that, our reception, I can&#8217;t give a direct answer with that just yet, because I haven&#8217;t had enough time being able to get feedback. The feedback that I have gotten has been really well. But I&#8217;ve also gotten feedback that let me know, hey, you&#8217;ve got some room to grow. And so we made changes based on that.</p>



<p>[00:21:52] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Is there any element of this which is a community project? Because obviously you&#8217;ve built a company around it, or you&#8217;ve adapted, you know, it&#8217;s a part of your other companies. But do you welcome contributions or ideas? Do you have a form out there, where people can give you suggestions?</p>



<p>[00:22:07] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Heck yeah. I&#8217;m getting ready to work with another designer, a designer from BlackPress, shout out to Wyn. Anybody else who wants to contribute, involve, collaborate. I know I would appreciate it, I know my designer Dessa would appreciate it. Some help, you know, from others.</p>



<p>And the reason why I say that is because, to be, again, transparent, she&#8217;s from the Philippines. So to have a person who&#8217;s from a different country create imagery, or create designs for another culture, for people who are not them, it could be a little difficult.</p>



<p>[00:22:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Right.</p>



<p>[00:22:36] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> So I want to bring some authenticity into it. For instance, I want to bring people from their own countries, and their own cultures, to help tell me, hey Maestro, you need to do this with that. That&#8217;s not what my people like. You may be reading the blogs, and reading things, and watching videos, but that&#8217;s not what we look like. That&#8217;s not what we do. So I need people like that, so that way we can be authentic when we&#8217;re representing them.</p>



<p>[00:22:57] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Where would you signpost people to go in the WordPress community? If things that you&#8217;ve mentioned so far have turned a light on with them, and they think, oh, this is something I could get involved in. I think I&#8217;ve got a voice that would help Maestro out. This is something that I&#8217;m aligned with. What kind of places would you go? Maybe that could be, I don&#8217;t, Slack channels, or it could be something different. It could be an individual who you&#8217;ve been impressed by, who you thought, okay, they&#8217;re really perfectly aligned. Tell us where to go.</p>



<p>[00:23:26] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> BlackPress is one of the communities that I&#8217;m heavily involved in, and I respect, because the founders are aligned with a lot of my views. There are other communities as well, that I&#8217;m discovering that could be as much of an intricate part in our mission, in our journey. However, I don&#8217;t know enough now to say, you know, all those communities are, at this point in time. And the communities that I thought were that, I found out they&#8217;re not that. Right now I&#8217;m in a little bit of a transition of, who are my communities and tribes that I can pull from and find?</p>



<p>[00:23:57] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> But we can certainly, when we round off this podcast, we can reference you. And people can come and find you and, you know, maybe it&#8217;s a year from now, and you&#8217;ll have had a more solid idea of where you would want people to go.</p>



<p>It sounds to me like you&#8217;re at the beginning of this journey then. You&#8217;re still trying to crystallise everything. You&#8217;re still thinking about the roadmap, you&#8217;re still figuring it out, and all of that. Where would we go if we wanted to find you? What&#8217;s the website? I think I mentioned it, but tell us again. What social channels, email address, whatever you want to share, where can we find you, Maestro?</p>



<p>[00:24:27] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Well, at this moment in time, you can just go to the website, and go to our contact page. If you really care, and you want to be involved, we have a nice form there. You know, I strive to make it as welcoming as possible for people. Or you can contact me on LinkedIn. So it&#8217;s either iconictemplates.com, you can find me on LinkedIn, Maestro Stevens, is a one of one. I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s anybody else in the world with that name. So you can either Google me, you can LinkedIn, you can go to the website Iconic Templates, or you can send a bird, you know? We can go old school, send a pigeon.</p>



<p>[00:24:59] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Is there anything we missed? Do you want to say something that we missed out on?</p>



<p>[00:25:01] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> I think you hit a lot of things on the nail. I just want to say that it is great to be here to see you in person. I don&#8217;t know how long it was. Maybe, it feels like a year where.</p>



<p>[00:25:10] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think about a year.</p>



<p>[00:25:11] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Yeah, Yeah we had our first interview online. So now, a year later, we&#8217;re meeting in person. It just shows how you just never know, and showing up is half the battle.</p>



<p>[00:25:20] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. I love events like this. I get to meet fabulous people much like yourself. So, Maestro, thank you very much for chatting to me on the podcast today. I really appreciate it.</p>



<p>[00:25:29] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Thank you, Nathan. I really appreciate you. You&#8217;re doing a great job with your podcast, with your platform. You are consistent. You are a working horse.</p>



<p>[00:25:38] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I just wish had a better microphone at this event. But you can teach me all about that when we switch this one off.</p>



<p>[00:25:43] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> I&#8217;m going to give you some tips.</p>



<p>[00:25:44] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Take care, Maestro.</p>



<p>[00:25:45] <strong>Maestro Stevens:</strong> Alright. Thank you.</p>
</div>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/maestrostevens/">Maestro Stevens</a>.</p>



<p>Maestro is an international speaker and managing director of The Iconic Expressions. His areas of expertise include digital marketing, brand strategy, web development, and project leadership.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In this episode Maestro lays out the case for how inclusivity is not just something that we need to be concerned about at things like events, but also in our WordPress website designs.</p>



<p>Maestro recently gave a presentation at WordCamp Asia entitled, Unlocking Universal Creativity: The Future of Inclusive WordPress Design. He wants to get people to think about making design choices with inclusivity in mind, so that they are representative of various cultures and varied backgrounds.</p>



<p>Maestro reveals the challenges and the pushback he has faced on his journey, telling us about the struggles and support he’s found within the community.</p>



<p>His approach includes utilising AI to create unique imagery, reflective of a diverse population, and how he sees this as something new in the industry.</p>



<p>The discussion also gets into the practical side as well, with Maestro outlining some of the technical aspects and future plans for his ideas, extending an open invitation to listeners who wish to contribute or learn more.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re curious about the intersection of creativity, representation, and the WordPress ecosystem, this episode is for you.</p>



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



<p><a href="https://iconictemplates.com/">Iconic Templates</a></p>



<p><a href="https://iconictemplates.com/products/uni-blocks/">Uni-Blocks</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.kadencewp.com/kadence-blocks/">Kadence Blocks</a></p>



<p><a href="https://elementor.com/">Elementor</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wpspectra.com/">Spectra</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.midjourney.com/home">Midjourney</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2024/04/09/unlocking-universal-creativity-the-future-of-inclusive-wordpress-design/">Unlocking Universal Creativity: The Future of Inclusive WordPress Design</a> &#8211; Maestro&#8217;s presentation at WordCamp Asia</p>



<p><a href="https://blackpresswp.com/">BlackPress</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/maestrostevens/">Maestro&#8217;s LinkedIn</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 24 Apr 2024 14:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:1;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:80:"Do The Woo Community: Adding Public Relations to Your WordPress or Woo Biz Stack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=83077";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"https://dothewoo.io/adding-public-relations-to-your-wordpress-or-woo-biz-stack/";s: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:118:"Learn about PR within the WordPress community and the emphases of relationship-building over aggressive sales tactics.";s: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, 24 Apr 2024 09:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:2;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"HeroPress: How I Found My Place";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=6726";s:7:"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:114:"https://heropress.com/essays/how-i-found-my-place/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-i-found-my-place";s: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:5763:"<img width="1024" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/042224-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull quote: As I reflect on my journey, I am grateful for every stumble, every triumph, and every WordCamp that brought me here." /><p>I was never what you&#8217;d call a &#8220;techie.&#8221; Software development was a mystery to me, and JavaScript seemed like an alien language. But fate has a funny way of guiding us to unexpected places, and my journey into the world of technology began with a single WordCamp.</p>



<p>I had never been to a WordCamp, or any other tech-related gathering for that matter. But my husband was very active in the WordPress community in Riverside, California, and he had made a lot of good friends through Meetups and WordCamps. He had volunteered as one of the organizers for WordCamp Riverside one year and came back raving about what a great time he had, so the second year he volunteered, I decided to go. </p>



<h2 class="kt-adv-heading6726_59c270-91 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading">Meeting The Family For The First Time</h2>



<p>When I stepped into the event—held in an unassuming warehouse of a local solar panel company—the vibrant atmosphere greeted me like an old friend. Everywhere I looked, there were smiling faces, eager to share their knowledge and passion for WordPress. It was a community unlike any I had ever seen before. And while I didn&#8217;t have the technical skills, I was determined to soak up as much as I could.</p>



<p>During the day, I attended workshops and talks, my notebook quickly filling up with scribbled notes and newfound terms like CSS, plugins, and PHP. I even mustered up the courage to ask questions during the Q&amp;A sessions, feeling a sense of empowerment with each answer I received.</p>



<p>But it wasn&#8217;t just the knowledge that drew me in; it was the people. I made connections with designers, developers, and entrepreneurs alike, each one offering their support and guidance. They welcomed me into their community with open arms, assuring me that technical skills could be learned, and that my passion and enthusiasm were just as valuable.</p>



<h2 class="kt-adv-heading6726_099cf3-dc wp-block-kadence-advancedheading">Reaching Out</h2>



<p>Encouraged by this supportive environment, I sought out people who were like me, but had already made it in the tech world. People who could guide me. So I search for black woman entrepreneurs working in tech, and I found a group in Los Angeles. It was there that I truly found my tribe—a diverse group of individuals who shared a common goal: to make the web a better place. We met regularly, offering free help to each other, discussing ideas, and collaborating on projects.</p>



<p>Months turned into years, and my understanding of WordPress and web development grew with each passing day. I took online courses, attended more WordCamps, and devoured every book on the subject I could find. What started as a curiosity had become an all-encompassing passion, a flame that burned brighter with each webpage I built.</p>



<h2 class="kt-adv-heading6726_b86db4-a1 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading">Building A Company</h2>



<p>Soon, I was able to take on some of the work in what would later become my company, Brain Jar. At that time, it was my husband’s long-running side hustle. He had a small handful of clients, and he served them on the train on his way to and from his day job as a web developer for a local college. My work started simple; optimizing photos, changing text, fixing errors. As my skills grew sharp and my confidence grew, I started taking on bigger projects until finally I was doing as much work as my husband was.</p>



<p>Now that I was working in what was fast becoming a family business, we were able to start taking on more clients instead of referring them out and hiring part-time employees. So our clientele and development team started growing bit by bit. As we grew, we noticed we were naturally slipping into different roles in the business. I started managing the budgets, payroll, meeting with clients, doing our usability studies, web traffic analytics, and other research-related tasks. My husband started managing our employees, managing projects, assisting our developers. So we decided I’d assume the role of CEO, and my husband became the CTO.</p>



<h2 class="kt-adv-heading6726_fd5a0b-2f wp-block-kadence-advancedheading">Moving Forward</h2>



<p>Today I’m just as busy as ever with Brain Jar, plus we run an online coding bootcamp called WP Code Camp, hoping that we can help others get into the web development world that has been so good to us. But despite the hustle and chaos that comes with running two businesses, during an occasional quiet moment, I think back to that first WordCamp and the community that nurtured me. I owe my success to that community, the people who believed in me, who shared their knowledge and supported me on this incredible journey.</p>



<p>And so, with a heart full of gratitude, I continue to pay it forward. I speak at conferences, mentor aspiring developers, and volunteer for WordPress and other tech events in my community, all with the hope of inspiring others to follow their dreams, just as I did.</p>



<p>In this vast world of technology, I found my place—a place where passion, community, and a willingness to learn can shape the trajectory of a life. And as I reflect on my journey, I am grateful for every stumble, every triumph, and every WordCamp that brought me here.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/how-i-found-my-place/">How I Found My Place</a> appeared first on <a href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 24 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"Dr. Rhiannon Little-Surowski";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:3;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"Gutenberg Times: Exploring the latest version of the Create Block Theme 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:35:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=28344";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/exploring-the-latest-version-of-the-create-block-theme-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:4572:"<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/create-block-theme/">Create Block Theme plugin</a> was created to streamline block theme development by adding to the power of the Site Editor with theme specific goodies and workflows. The plugin aims to be a modern quick start tool for the world of block themes, allowing you to create your own or build upon existing themes without touching code. At a high level, here are the kinds of things you can accomplish with the plugin added to your site:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>Clone a Theme: Replicate an existing theme with a few clicks.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Add Style Variations: Enhance a theme with different style options.</li>



<li>Rewrite Global Styles Customizations: Modify Global Styles without touching the code.</li>



<li>Create Child or Blank theme: Generate child themes or start with a blank slate.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Explore the latest version of Create Block Theme</strong></p>



<p>A new version of the Create Block theme was released recently bringing some long awaited features that offer more advanced, streamlined, and open workflows:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>Theme.json inspector, allowing you to view your theme.json directly while building out a theme visually with the option to switch back and forth as you’d like.</li>



<li>Using the Site Editor itself to handle all theme building related actions (clone, add style variation, etc) removing the need to context switch and creating a more intuitive building experience.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Playground Preview available in the Plugin directory making it as simple as <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/create-block-theme">selecting “Live Preview” on the directory listing to get started</a> with this powerful tool.</li>
</ul>



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

</div>



<p><strong>Ease your way into what’s new</strong></p>



<p>If you’re new to block themes and haven’t yet used the plugin, this is an excellent place to start since you can quickly clone an existing theme to explore how to make it your own rather, perhaps by creating a specific style variation to use. Keep in mind that the plugin is meant for theme creation only rather than for use on a production site.&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/create-block-theme">Select “Live Preview” on the plugin directory listing to get started</a> and start exploring. For example, you can follow the video below to create a custom style variation:&nbsp;</p>



		
			<div class="jetpack-videopress-player__wrapper"> <div class="toolbelt-video-wrapper"></div></div>
			
			
		
		


<p><strong>Get access to early, theme specific features</strong></p>



<p>The Font Library, launched in WordPress 6.5, has its roots in the Create Block Theme plugin. While not every feature baked into the plugin is destined to make it into Core, it is a place where common problems facing theme authors are solved, and necessary workflows are built. Occasionally, this means early access to features that make it into Core or theme-specific enhancements. For example, in the plugin you can create and save a style variation <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/45371">long before this feature has come to Core.</a></p>



<p>The same is true of the recently released theme.json inspector mentioned at the beginning of this post.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Help shape the future</strong></p>



<p>Because the Create Block Theme plugin is a community run plugin and has a more narrowed focus to block theme authors, it’s the perfect place to discuss common pain points and improve what’s there. For example, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/create-block-theme/issues/287">pattern management has repeatedly come up</a> as an area needing iteration and better tooling.</p>



<p>This is now being explored in the Create Block Theme plugin to make it even easier to create your next block theme.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Resources</strong></p>



<p>For more in depth guides, we’ve got you covered with an <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/12/05/a-walk-through-tutorial-on-using-create-block-theme-plugin/">in-depth walkthrough on the Developer blog</a> and a <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/streamline-your-block-theme-development-with-create-block-theme/">Learn WordPress tutorial</a>. Want to see a feature added or find a bug in the experience? <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/create-block-theme/issues/">Open an issue</a> and share your feedback–this tool is by and for the community.&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:"Tue, 23 Apr 2024 16:04:09 +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:"Anne McCarthy";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:107:"Do The Woo Community: WordPress Meetup Wins, Challenges and Initiatives with Dave Loodts and Kasirye Arthur";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=83059";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:105:"https://dothewoo.io/wordpress-meetup-wins-challenges-and-initiatives-with-dave-loodts-and-kasirye-arthur/";s: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:197:"Dave and Arthur discuss their meetup experiences, highlighting diverse event formats, challenges in achieving diversity, and initiatives to engage the younger generation in the WordPress community.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 23 Apr 2024 07:15:44 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:126:"Gutenberg Times: Pattern Directory updated, Faster Web w/ WordPress, and Interactivity API in the wild — Weekend Edition 292";s:7:"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=28284";s:7:"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:130:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/pattern-directory-updated-faster-web-w-wordpress-and-interactivity-api-in-the-wild-weekend-edition-292/";s: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:15548:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>Greetings from WordCamp Leipzig! I didn&#8217;t get much time to work on this week&#8217;s edition, but I didn&#8217;t take a break either as I found some great articles, videos and tutorial, I wanted you to know about right away.</p>



<p><a href="https://leipzig.wordcamp.org/2024/">WordCamp Leipzig</a> was a great no-frills WordCamp. I arrived after a workday on Friday night, spend Saturday with my German WordPress community, talked to almost every attendee during the day, and I am on my home on Saturday night. I had a good time and will be back next year. As a side note: It&#8217;s been a while since I saw a <a href="https://wall.dewp.space/">Social Wall</a> at a WordCamp. </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br /><em>Birgit</em></p>





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



<ol><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/pattern-directory-updated-faster-web-w-wordpress-and-interactivity-api-in-the-wild-weekend-edition-292/#0-word-press-release-information">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/pattern-directory-updated-faster-web-w-wordpress-and-interactivity-api-in-the-wild-weekend-edition-292/#0-p">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/pattern-directory-updated-faster-web-w-wordpress-and-interactivity-api-in-the-wild-weekend-edition-292/#3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.</a></li></ol>
</div></div>



<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0mnyFcGrC04nSVFtWqXWH3AFzXwmEfUN">WordCamp Asia Videos are available now on YouTube</a>. Here is a list of Block related talks you might be interested in. </p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W226wXnMiIc"><strong>The elements of WordPress</strong></a>  with Tammie Lister</li>



<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBtHn1VDzT4"><strong>How to achieve an efficient workflow with the Site Editor</strong></a> with Benjamin Intal, Stackable</li>
</ul>



<p>The team organizing WordCamp Europe just published the <strong><a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2024/schedule/">presentation schedule</a></strong> for Torino. There are considerably more talks on the technical side and quite a few talks and workshops on block and block theme development. </p>



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



<p><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v18.2.0-rc.1"><strong>Gutenberg 18.2 RC</strong></a> is available now for testing, outstanding new features: Side-wide Background image tools, and Starter Pattern for Page in the Site Editor and many updates on Data Views. The final release will be on April 24. </p>



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<p>&nbsp;📣 Reminder: Next <strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/04/hallway-hangout-lets-chat-about-whats-next-in-gutenberg/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hallway Hangout on what’s next in Gutenberg</a>&nbsp;</strong>to learn about some ongoing projects on <strong>April 24 at 23:00 UTC</strong> / 7pm EDT / 4pm PDT. </p>



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<p><strong>Aaron Jorbin</strong> announced the schedule for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/15/wordpress-6-5-3-an-upcoming-maintenance-release/"><strong>WordPress 6.5.3: An upcoming maintenance release</strong></a> to come out on May 7, 2024, with RC 1 a few days earlier. </p>



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<p><strong>Felix Arntz</strong> published an article on <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/04/how-wordpress-is-creating-a-faster-web/"><strong>How WordPress Is Creating a Faster Web</strong></a> in which he lists a few of performance enhancing features that made it into WordPress in the last few releases: faster loading of images, a faster translations engines, and improvements to the block editor resulted in 5x faster typing processing. What&#8217;s next from the performance team, you ask? Well, you need to read the article. haha. </p>



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<p><strong>Nick Diego</strong> announced that <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2024/04/17/the-pattern-directory-gets-a-refresh-and-is-now-powered-by-blocks/"><strong>the Pattern Directory gets a refresh and is now powered by blocks</strong></a>. &#8220;Over the past few weeks, the&nbsp;Meta&nbsp;team has been working on a new theme for the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/patterns/">Pattern Directory</a>&nbsp;as part of a broader effort to establish a consistent design language across&nbsp;WordPress.org. The updated site launched today. Congratulations to everyone involved in this effort.&#8221; Diego wrote. </p>



<img width="652" height="441" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/patterns-single.webp?resize=652%2C441&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-28323" />



<p class="has-accent-color has-light-background-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-b6fe42ed62408b6fe464d62777dc0282">🎙️ Latest episode: <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-98/">Gutenberg Changelog #98 – WordPress 6.5, Gutenberg 18.0 Community Theme Project and the Contributor Mentorship Program</a> with special guest Maggie Cabrera</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="0-p">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners<a href="https://twitter.com/TheSunitaRai"></a></h2>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/thenahidul">Md. Nahidul Islam</a> from Bangladesh release the newest single block plugin in the WordPress repository: <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/responsive-pros-and-cons-block/"><strong>Responsive Pro &amp; Con Block</strong></a>. It sports four different designs and lets you as many items on your pro and con list. </p>



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<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbipD9-Ci8E"></a><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/TheSunitaRai">Sunita Rai</a> </strong>explains in her video on YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NKUmSRBSho"><strong>How to Add Custom Fonts to WordPress? (Without a Plugin)</strong></a>. &#8220;If you&#8217;ve been looking to enhance the look and feel of your website, using custom fonts is a great way to do it.&#8221; Rai wrote. She covers, upgraded to WordPress 6.5 , where to find the Font Manager, how to install Google fonts or Custom fonts, and how to select the new fonts for the site design.</p>



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<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/i/bookmarks?post_id=1780674047237324933">Anders Noren</a></strong> has a new free WordPress theme out on the repository! It’s called <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/vermeer/"><strong>Vermeer</strong></a>, and it’s a profile theme with an eye-catching marquee across the top of the screen. The marquee is automatically disabled for visitors with their system settings set to reduce motion.  Vermeer includes 13 different color schemes. Change fonts and colors in seconds with WordPress built-in design tools. WordPress 6.5 allows you to choose from all fonts on Google Fonts out of the box.</p>



<img width="652" height="652" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/vermeer-wordpress-theme-1536x1536-1.webp?resize=652%2C652&ssl=1" alt="screenshot of theme: Vermeer by Anders Noren" class="wp-image-28313" />



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<p><strong>Rich Tabor, </strong>product designer at Automattic,<strong> </strong>published <a href="https://rich.blog/shaping-wordpress-001/"><strong>the first issue</strong></a> of&nbsp;<em><a href="https://rich.blog/shaping-wordpress/">Shaping WordPress</a></em>, a newsletter  where he shares &#8220;every two weeks on&nbsp;what’s top of my mind and what’s shaping up for WordPress.&#8221; he wrote. </p>



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<p>On <em>WP Builds,</em> <strong>Nathan Wrigley </strong>interviewed Lifter LMS founder Chris Badgett on <a href="https://wpbuilds.com/2024/04/11/368-driving-wordpress-education-via-full-site-editing-with-chris-badgett/"><strong>Driving WordPress education via Full Site Editing</strong></a>. They talk about Chris’s journey from humble blogging beginnings to crafting a comprehensive, integrated LMS platform that democratizes online education for experts and novices alike.</p>



<p>Badgett, &#8220;a non-developer by trade, has leveraged the capabilities of full site editing to empower his customers to design online education experiences without the need to write any code.&#8221; Wrigley wrote in the introduction. </p>



<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2024&#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. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly. The previous years are also available: <strong><strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/">2020</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2021/">2021</a></strong>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2022/">2022</a></strong></strong>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2023">2023</a></strong></p>



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



<p>If you want to streamline your block building experience, create-block is a fantastic scaffolding tool. <strong>Ryan Welcher</strong> published a <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/04/16/creating-an-external-project-template-for-create-block/"><strong>tutorial on how to create an external project template for create-block.</strong></a> With that knowledge, you can make use of the create-block tool even more and tailor it to your developers needs. &#8220;A default template provides a standard configuration for creating simple blocks.&nbsp; The real power of create-block becomes evident when you start creating external project templates.&#8221; Welcher wrote.</p>



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



<p>In the episode of the <em>ViewSource</em> podcast, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZnJvnpLf2A"><strong>Exploring the Interactivity API in WordPress Part 1</strong></a>, Aurooba Ahmed and Brian Coords discuss the Interactivity API in WordPress. They explore how to use the API, the challenges they faced, and the benefits it provides. They also touch on JavaScript modules and how they are used in the context of the Interactivity API. The conversation ends with a discussion about future topics to cover in the series as they build out the plugin using the API.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<div class="toolbelt-video-wrapper"></div>
</div>



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<p><strong>Jason Adams</strong>, also has an <a href="https://jasontheadams.com/wordpress-interactivity-api-a-noble-attempt/"><strong>opinion about the Interactivity API and calls it a  noble attempt</strong></a>: &#8220;It’s entirely new and independent. It doesn’t build on what devs learned, nor does it use any existing directives API out there. This means that not only do developers have to learn a completely new API, but when they do, it doesn’t directly translate to anything else. Not only that, but you’re limited to whatever the API supports —&nbsp;it’s nowhere near as powerful or flexible as a raw React component. If you want to do more with it then the API itself will have to mature.&#8221; he wrote.</p>



<p><strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s master branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. </p>



<p>Now also available via <a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https://gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/playnightly.json">WordPress Playground</a>. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? <a href="mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com">Email me </a>with your experience</p>



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



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



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



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<p>Featured Image: Getting ready for the Group Photo at WordCamp Leipzig 2024 by Birgit Pauli-Haack</p>



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


<form class="wp-block-newsletterglue-form ngl-form ngl-portrait" action="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/" method="post"><div class="ngl-form-container"><div class="ngl-form-field"><label class="ngl-form-label" for="ngl_email"><br />Type in your Email address to subscribe.</label><div class="ngl-form-input"><input type="email" class="ngl-form-input-text" name="ngl_email" id="ngl_email" /></div></div><button type="submit" class="ngl-form-button">Subscribe</button><p class="ngl-form-text">We hate spam, too, and won&#8217;t give your email address to anyone <br />except Mailchimp to send out our Weekend Edition</p></div><div class="ngl-message-overlay"><div class="ngl-message-svg-wrap"></div><div class="ngl-message-overlay-text">Thanks for subscribing.</div></div><input type="hidden" name="ngl_list_id" id="ngl_list_id" value="26f81bd8ae" /><input type="hidden" name="ngl_double_optin" id="ngl_double_optin" value="yes" /></form>


<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 20 Apr 2024 08:58:37 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"Do The Woo Community: Do the Woo is Sponsoring WordCamp Porto 2024";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=82989";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"https://dothewoo.io/do-the-woo-is-sponsoring-wordcamp-porto-2024/";s: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:85:"Do the Woo will be attending and sponsoring WordCamp Porto 2024 on May 17th and 18th.";s: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, 19 Apr 2024 09:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:11:"
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:63:"HeroPress: Quieting Chameleons, WordCamp Photography, and more!";s:7:"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=6700";s:7:"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:165:"https://heropress.com/quieting-chameleons-wordcamp-photography-and-more/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=quieting-chameleons-wordcamp-photography-and-more";s: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:14334:"<img width="771" height="1024" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/9426439119eac9f02.88475748-771x1024.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Black and White crossroad view on a Turin street between Via Dante Di Nanni and Via Valdieri" /><div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-6700_856b50-4d"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>


<div class="kb-row-layout-wrap kb-row-layout-id6700_53f5f4-15 alignnone kt-row-has-bg wp-block-kadence-rowlayout"><div class="kt-row-column-wrap kt-has-1-columns kt-row-layout-equal kt-tab-layout-inherit kt-mobile-layout-row kt-row-valign-top kb-theme-content-width">

<div class="wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column6700_cf9229-27 inner-column-1"><div class="kt-inside-inner-col">
<h2 class="kt-adv-heading6700_cdc57c-bf wp-block-kadence-advancedheading">Photos Of Torino Italy</h2>



<p>As of this writing there are 5 photos in the WordPress Photos Project of Torino Italy, where WordCamp Europe will be held this year.  Three of them are labeled Turin.</p>



<p>I&#8217;d LOVE to see many many more before WordCamp so people can use them in their blog posts.  So if you&#8217;re in Torino any time soon, please take pictures and post them!</p>



<p>Here&#8217;s what&#8217;s there so far:</p>




<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/22063164c689eea77.08637771-scaled.jpg"><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/22063164c689eea77.08637771-1024x576.jpg" alt="Torino view from Vittorio Emanuele I Bridge" class="wp-image-6704" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/22063164c6/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/mmaattiiaass/">Matias Benedetto</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/39464390faa4167b4.93017654-scaled.jpg"><img width="768" height="1024" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/39464390faa4167b4.93017654-768x1024.jpg" alt="Cinema Lux - Turin" class="wp-image-6705" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/39464390fa/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/elisascagnetti/">elisascagnetti</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/94663164be6d808d7.96920245-scaled.jpg"><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/94663164be6d808d7.96920245-1024x576.jpg" alt="Torino, Italy. Main square" class="wp-image-6706" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/22063164c6/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/mmaattiiaass/">Matias Benedetto</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/861643910234c0390.14265675-1536x2048-1.jpg"><img width="768" height="1024" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/861643910234c0390.14265675-1536x2048-1-768x1024.jpg" alt="Bicycles in Piazza San Carlo - Turin" class="wp-image-6707" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/8616439102/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/elisascagnetti/">elisascagnetti</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/9426439119eac9f02.88475748-scaled.jpg"><img width="771" height="1024" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/9426439119eac9f02.88475748-771x1024.jpg" alt="Black and White crossroad view on a Turin street between Via Dante Di Nanni and Via Valdieri" class="wp-image-6702" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/9426439119/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/photoironic/">Nicola @ironicmoka Paroldo</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.

</div></div>

</div></div>


<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-6700_ab3c96-a6"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>


<div class="kb-row-layout-wrap kb-row-layout-id6700_a2fbcf-69 alignnone kt-row-has-bg wp-block-kadence-rowlayout"><div class="kt-row-column-wrap kt-has-1-columns kt-row-layout-equal kt-tab-layout-inherit kt-mobile-layout-row kt-row-valign-top kb-theme-content-width">

<div class="wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column6700_253c93-14 inner-column-1"><div class="kt-inside-inner-col">
<h2 class="kt-adv-heading6700_5abd74-f1 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading"><a href="https://heropress.com/">HeroPress.com</a> &#8211; <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/quieting-the-chameleon/"><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/words-to-wordpress-the-uncharted-path-of-syed-laden/"></a>Quieting the Chameleon</a></h2>




<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<a href="https://heropress.com/essays/quieting-the-chameleon/"><img width="300" height="300" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Headshot2014-124sq-300x300.jpg" alt="Rebecca Gill" class="wp-image-714" /></a></div>


<p>Rebecca Gill grew up with fairly random adult guidance, but this gave her some gifts that most kids don&#8217;t get.</p>



<p><em>A village raised me and as I shifted from one group to another, I cultivated some hidden talents I did not know I possessed. The diverse environment taught me to read a room and become a chameleon of sorts. I would monitor those around me, watch for shifts in their demeanor, and adapt my behavior to match.</em></p>



<p>Rebecca&#8217;s&#8217;s essay is <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/quieting-the-chameleon/">available</a> on <a href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress.com</a>.</p>
</div></div>

</div></div>


<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-6700_a2731e-44"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>


<div class="kb-row-layout-wrap kb-row-layout-id6700_6fe228-65 alignnone kt-row-has-bg wp-block-kadence-rowlayout"><div class="kt-row-column-wrap kt-has-1-columns kt-row-layout-equal kt-tab-layout-inherit kt-mobile-layout-row kt-row-valign-top kb-theme-content-width">

<div class="wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column6700_ee3a72-cd inner-column-1"><div class="kt-inside-inner-col">
<h2 class="kt-adv-heading6700_8753c6-11 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading"><a href="https://wppodcasts.com">WP Podcasts</a></h2>





<a href="https://wppodcasts.com"><img src="https://heropressnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/pocket_casts_single_315.png" alt="Pocket Casts image" class="wp-image-4316" /></a>



<p>There were <em>Twenty-one</em> WordPress podcast episodes released this week! </p>



<p>We also have a new podcast this week from Anil Gupta! <a href="https://wppodcasts.com/podcast/peaceful-growth/">Peaceful Growth</a>.</p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/peaceful-growth/episodes/Tips-for-Virtual-Talks--Meetings-Brians-Insights-from-Hosting-400-Talks--Guiding-300-Speakers-e2ii69q#new_tab">Tips for Virtual Talks + Meetings: Brian’s Insights from Hosting 400+ Talks &amp; Guiding 300+ Speakers</a> from <a href="https://wppodcasts.com/podcast/peaceful-growth/">Peaceful Growth</a></li>



<li><a href="https://plugin-fm.simplecast.com/episodes/from-seo-maestro-to-investing-magician-joost-de-valk-on-the-power-of-raising-funds-in-bootstrapping-ecosystems-ZbeR5Dp9#new_tab">From SEO Maestro to Investing Magician: Joost de Valk on the Power of Raising Funds In Bootstrapping Ecosystems</a> from <a href="https://wppodcasts.com/podcast/plugin-fm/">plugin.fm</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.wppodcast.cat/podcast/versio-sabatica/#new_tab">24. Versió sabàtica</a> from <a href="https://wppodcasts.com/podcast/wordpress-podcast-catala/">WordPress Pòdcast (català)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wppodcasts.com/habits-of-self-care/">Habits of Self Care</a> from <a href="https://wppodcasts.com/podcast/wp-motivate/">WP Motivate</a></li>
</ul>



<p>There are new episodes every single day, so be sure to stop by <a href="https://wppodcasts.com">WPPodcasts.com</a> and search for things that interest you!</p>
</div></div>

</div></div>


<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-6700_59a563-96"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>


<div class="kb-row-layout-wrap kb-row-layout-id6700_18230f-2a alignnone kt-row-has-bg wp-block-kadence-rowlayout"><div class="kt-row-column-wrap kt-has-1-columns kt-row-layout-equal kt-tab-layout-inherit kt-mobile-layout-row kt-row-valign-top kb-theme-content-width">

<div class="wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column6700_35862b-80 inner-column-1"><div class="kt-inside-inner-col">
<h2 id="wpphotos" class="kt-adv-heading6700_59dd4c-be wp-block-kadence-advancedheading"><a href="https://wordpress.org/photos">WP Photos</a></h2>



<p>Here are some of the great photos submitted to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos">WPPhotos</a> project this week!</p>




<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/31466211c7ecb98b7.83283364-scaled.jpg"><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/31466211c7ecb98b7.83283364-1024x683.jpg" alt="Small child's hand petting a lamb through a gate" class="wp-image-6717" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/31466211c7/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/samalderson/">Sam Alderson</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/22766211aee1d9971.47075694-scaled.jpg"><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/22766211aee1d9971.47075694-1024x683.jpg" alt="Jelly fish floating around" class="wp-image-6716" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/22766211ae/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/samalderson/">Sam Alderson</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/16066211b500123f6.07530535-scaled.jpg"><img width="683" height="1024" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/16066211b500123f6.07530535-683x1024.jpg" alt="An arch of trees with someone walking their dog at the end" class="wp-image-6715" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/16066211b5/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/ramonvanraaij/">Rámon van Raaij</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/73966211fa95e7153.11370555-scaled.jpg"><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/73966211fa95e7153.11370555-1024x683.jpg" alt="Windmill against a blue sky" class="wp-image-6714" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/73966211fa/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/samalderson/">Sam Alderson</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/7606621158f23b305.73862075-scaled.jpg"><img width="683" height="1024" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/7606621158f23b305.73862075-683x1024.jpg" alt="A typical Dutch streetfood, the " /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/7606621158/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/yoastmaurice/">yoastmaurice</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/1706621186a6854a1.34063501-scaled.jpg"><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/1706621186a6854a1.34063501-1024x683.jpg" alt="Bright red and yellow cactus flowers with a blurred green background" class="wp-image-6712" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/1706621186/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/samalderson/">Sam Alderson</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.




<p>Be sure to check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">hundreds of other great photos</a>!</p>
</div></div>

</div></div>


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



<p>The banner at the top of this post is a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/9426439119/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/photoironic/">Nicola @ironicmoka Paroldo</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.</p>





<p>That&#8217;s it for this week! If you&#8217;d like to get this post in your email every week, <a href="https://heropressnetwork.com/newsletter">make sure you sign up</a>!</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://heropress.com/quieting-chameleons-wordcamp-photography-and-more/">Quieting Chameleons, WordCamp Photography, and more!</a> appeared first on <a href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 19 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"WordPress Foundation: Apply for the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship for WordCamp US 2024";s:7:"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:42:"https://wordpressfoundation.org/?p=1179110";s:7:"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:59:"https://wordpressfoundation.org/news/2024/kim-parsell-2024/";s: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:2344:"<p>The WordPress Foundation is proud to announce the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship for 2024. Kim was a valued contributor to the WordPress open source project, and this scholarship honors her legacy. The Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to one WordPress contributor who is a woman, has not previously attended WordCamp US, and requires financial assistance to attend <a href="http://us.wordcamp.org/2024">WordCamp US 2024</a>.</p>



<p>The scholarship provides travel assistance for the recipient to attend WordCamp US, including travel from the recipient’s home city, hotel stay for the duration of the event, and a ticket to WordCamp US.</p>



<p>WordCamp US is an unparalleled opportunity to connect with web professionals, build your skills in the WordPress ecosystem, and meet WordPress contributors from around the world. This scholarship offers the chance to be part of a vibrant community and make lasting connections.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Eligibility Criteria</h2>



<p>There will be one scholarship recipient in 2024. <strong>To be considered for the scholarship, applicants must meet the following criteria:</strong></p>



<ul>
<li>An active contributor to the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/">WordPress project</a></li>



<li>A woman</li>



<li>Not previously attended WordCamp US</li>



<li>Requires financial assistance to attend WordCamp US 2024</li>
</ul>



<p></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How to Apply</h2>



<p>If you meet the above criteria, we warmly invite you to <a href="https://wordcampcentral.survey.fm/kim-parsell-2024">apply for the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship</a>. <strong>The application is open through May 30, 2024</strong>. All applicants will receive notification by June 21, 2024.</p>



<p>For more information, please visit the WordPress Foundation’s page <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/projects/kim-parsell-memorial-scholarship/">About the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship</a>.</p>



<div class="wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-1 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link wp-element-button" href="https://wordcampcentral.survey.fm/kim-parsell-2024">Apply for the Kim Parsell Scholarship Today!</a></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:"Thu, 18 Apr 2024 23:55:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Julia Golomb";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:9;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:108:"Do The Woo Community: Client Relationships, AI in Agencies and Open Source with Rick McGarry and Jake Holman";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=82964";s:7:"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:106:"https://dothewoo.io/client-relationships-ai-in-agencies-and-open-source-with-rick-mcgarry-and-jake-holman/";s: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:311:"In this episode we have a chat with Rick McGarry and Jake Holman from Sleeping Giant Studios. They discuss the agency's history, approach to client relationships, the impact of AI in their agency, token migration challenges in e-commerce, and the benefits of the open-source nature of WordPress and WooCommerce.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 18 Apr 2024 11:22:09 +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:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:10;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:97:"WPTavern: #116 – Jonathan Desrosiers on the Challenges and Rewards of Contributing to 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:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=155403";s:7:"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:111:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/116-jonathan-desrosiers-on-the-challenges-and-rewards-of-contributing-to-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:53717:"Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p>Jukebox is a podcast, which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, the challenges and rewards of contributing to WordPress.</p>



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



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



<p>So on the podcast today we have Jonathan Desrosiers. Jonathan has been a contributor to WordPress core for many years, and a WordPress core committer since 2018. He currently maintains over a dozen core components. As a leader in the community, he advocates for new contributors through mentorship and active leadership. Jonathan currently works as a senior software engineer at Bluehost, where he is sponsored full-time to contribute to WordPress core through the five for the future program.</p>



<p>We talk about the challenges that come with contributing to such a large and multifaceted project. From the intricate process of decision-making, involving many stakeholders, to the occasional moments of feeling demoralized when contributions seemed like a dropping the ocean.</p>



<p>We discuss the importance of regular contributions, the challenges of implementing an accreditation system for contributors, and the role of privilege in the ability to contribute and showcase your work publicly.</p>



<p>Amongst the technical talk, including the future of collaborative editing, and the need for adaptability, we also get into the human side of WordPress. From the ways in which individuals can get involved without coding, such as teaching, video processing, event organizing, and documentation, to the personal satisfaction Jonathan finds in his work.</p>



<p>Towards the end, we chat about the sustainability of the open source ecosystem, emphasizing the critical role businesses need to play, and the potential risks when key contributors step back. But, as you&#8217;ll hear, Jonathan is confident about the future of WordPress, mentioning exciting development features on the horizon, like the new admin interface.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re curious about how you can contribute, what that looks like, and where it can take you, this episode is for you.</p>



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



<p>A quick note, before we begin. This was recorded live at WordCamp Asia. There was quite a lot of background noise to contend with, and I&#8217;ve done my best to make the audio as easy to listen to as possible.</p>



<p>And so without further delay, I bring you, Jonathan Desrosiers.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Jonathan Desrosiers. Hi, Jonathan.</p>



<p>[00:03:39] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Hi. How are you Nathan?</p>



<p>[00:03:40] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, really, really good. We are at WordCamp Asia. Jonathan, you gave a talk this morning.</p>



<p>[00:03:45] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> I did. This afternoon right after lunch.</p>



<p>[00:03:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay. How did it go?</p>



<p>[00:03:48] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> It went really well.</p>



<p>[00:03:49] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> What was it about?</p>



<p>[00:03:50] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> So I do a lot of the work around, we call it invisible work, around administration and things around the project, to make sure things continue to go smoothly and get released, and all of those things. And one of those things that I work on a lot is attribution for our contributors, and our community members. And mostly focused on the versions of WordPress and release to release, making sure the right people are listed on the credits page, and get the credit that they deserve. And so this was about why it&#8217;s extremely difficult. There&#8217;s lots of variables to consider when, you know, trying to be accurate in those representations.</p>



<p>[00:04:23] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay. And it was well received. You&#8217;re happy?</p>



<p>[00:04:25] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> It was, yes. Very well.</p>



<p>[00:04:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Nice. We&#8217;re going to talk a little bit about contributing to the WordPress project. And that, I know, is something that you&#8217;ve got a long history doing. Do you want to just tell us a little bit about your history with WordPress, and all the different bits and pieces? I know there&#8217;s too much to say, but we&#8217;ll paraphrase. What have you been doing with WordPress since you started using it.</p>



<p>[00:04:43] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yeah, I discovered WordPress in probably like 2007 or 8. And I was in college building little sites for family members and friends. And that turned into, when I graduated I, you know, started building websites for small agencies, and moved into university education, and built websites for them through WordPress.</p>



<p>And in 2018 I was hired by Bluehost as part of their Five for the Future initiative, to give back 5% of our resources, which is, if you are unfamiliar, encourage you to read about that. It&#8217;s a challenge from Matt Mullenweg to contribute 5% of your resources, to ensure we don&#8217;t have a tragedy of the commons situation, where we take too much from the project, and we don&#8217;t replenish what we use to make sure it&#8217;s better for the next people that come after us.</p>



<p>Week to week I work, I&#8217;m a core committer as well, so committing changes to the code base. Making sure things are tested and we&#8217;re not missing something that could be problematic in the release.</p>



<p>[00:05:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> And you are full-time.</p>



<p>[00:05:37] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> I am, yes. I&#8217;m a full-time sponsored contributor.</p>



<p>[00:05:40] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> How unusual is that in your, I mean, obviously for you it&#8217;s your day-to-day, this is quite normal. But, how unusual is it to have somebody able to donate 100% of their time, working hours, over to the WordPress project?</p>



<p>[00:05:52] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> It&#8217;s fairly unusual, that it&#8217;s not unicorns, but it&#8217;s very sporadic. You know, it&#8217;s not uncommon for someone to be sponsored 80% or 50%, you know, work on applying some initiatives to both WordPress, and internally to products.</p>



<p>So it&#8217;s not unheard of, but it&#8217;s definitely hard to come by, and I&#8217;m definitely very fortunate to have had the stars align when I saw the job posting go up for this, so yes.</p>



<p>[00:06:16] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So Bluehost, I&#8217;m guessing from what you&#8217;ve just said, they are committed to Five for the Future, and the intention there is to give 5% of, I&#8217;m just going to use the word resources, lets call it that. 5% of the resources available, and you are a part of that. You fall under that 5%, right?</p>



<p>[00:06:33] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yes, absolutely. And that&#8217;s, you know, through our global sponsorship, our presence at events to help the community, volunteering at events, contributing to core and the project itself, and many other things that we get involved with over the days and weeks.</p>



<p>[00:06:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;m guessing that most of the contributions to WordPress, are not done from the perspective of somebody who is paid to do it. I&#8217;m imagining the vast majority of contributions across the whole project, you know. So we could be talking about events, we could be talking about the code base. There&#8217;s all sorts of things that we could be talking about. But I&#8217;m guessing it&#8217;s done largely by volunteers, because that&#8217;s the nature of open source software.</p>



<p>Is that sustainable? Do you think that people&#8217;s value in the year 2024, do you think that people are valuing open source, contributing software, in the way that they did maybe at the dawn of the internet, you know, 25 odd years ago?</p>



<p>[00:07:23] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> I think that people do value it, they just don&#8217;t know it, in some cases. And we definitely need people to be more aware of how our businesses are powered and that the burden of maintaining these tools and libraries.</p>



<p>The Five for the Future program is, 5% is the goal, but it&#8217;s definitely, we should be doing more, and we could. Especially businesses that WordPress is where they play, where they set up in their ecosystem.</p>



<p>And so, is it sustainable? You know, we will always need some extra help, and I think that we&#8217;ll never refuse extra help anywhere we can get it. It&#8217;s going to ebb and flow as well, right? We might need more at certain times. And in the community, we&#8217;ve needed more help recently, when trying to revitalise our events after Covid, and all of that nonsense that we had to deal with.</p>



<p>And so it ebbs and flows, and the areas change where we need more attention than others. And I hope that people do value it as much as they say, and at least show it through their actions and giving back.</p>



<p>[00:08:17] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Let&#8217;s just talk about the code base for a bit. WordPress is changing all the time. Month by month, we&#8217;ve got new releases. We&#8217;re currently 6.5, thereabouts. And it&#8217;s constantly being updated. So that tells me that the work is being done. There are people that are doing that, and you are obviously part of that.</p>



<p>Are there enough people? Is it sustainable from that point of view? Do we have aspirations that the software would be better than it is, and we&#8217;re always stifled by the amount of time that people can put into it, and resources and what have you?</p>



<p>[00:08:46] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yeah I mean, if we had more people, we could always go through more issues, and more features, right? But it&#8217;s definitely a delicate balance because, if we had a release with 500 features, our users won&#8217;t be able to keep up. And so we have to strike that balance. And, you know, we challenge that sometimes, where we put more into some releases than others. Maybe one release will be more bug focused, and polish refinement we&#8217;ll call it.</p>



<p>Do we need more? Yes. We could always use more. We&#8217;ll never say no. But it&#8217;s always a balance with our users. We can&#8217;t release too quickly, not often enough. We&#8217;ve found that balance is pretty good at three releases a year.</p>



<p>It helps ensure that we have enough contributors to get what needs to get done, release to release. The features can, so-called, bake enough to be ready. We&#8217;ll have a good number of major features, and minor features available in that timeframe. That&#8217;s the balance that we&#8217;ve found works well for us right now.</p>



<p>[00:09:39] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Is it usually the same people that are doing this work? So for example, if we were to go back, I don&#8217;t know, let&#8217;s say a year, or project a year into the future. Obviously you are going to be part of that makeup. Does it tend to be the same faces showing up? And I wonder if that could be kind of an Achilles heel in a way. You know, because if one of those people decided to move away from the project, they had other things that they wanted to do in their life, all of a sudden, if those familiar faces disappear, we might have a bit of a weakness. Gaps start to appear in the roster of who&#8217;s going to do what. So is that a problem?</p>



<p>[00:10:11] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> I think that that&#8217;s always been a problem, right? We never want to see our all stars move on to other things, but it&#8217;s life and that happens. And I think if you go back all the way to the project, there&#8217;s people that built major parts of WordPress, that are still in it today, that have moved on. And largely we&#8217;ve survived and grown and continued.</p>



<p>I&#8217;d say that there&#8217;s probably a good percentage of people that are consistent, but there&#8217;s also a good percentage of people that are new, and willing to try new things, and help take on more responsibility.</p>



<p>[00:10:41] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Oh, that&#8217;s interesting. So there is always fresh blood, if you like, coming in. And you&#8217;ve noticed that, have you? It&#8217;s not like, you know, in one given year it sort of dries up, because I had an intuition that may be around the pandemic, it maybe lost a little bit of its luster, and the involvement in the community sort of ebbed a little bit. But it&#8217;s coming back, is it? And there&#8217;s always a pipeline of new people coming in, is there? That&#8217;s nice.</p>



<p>[00:11:03] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yeah. I think that there definitely was a good amount of computer burnout that happened. You know, we were all FaceTiming with our relatives and stuff, and work as well, and our coworkers. Friends at work, we were also zooming with. But things like the contributor mentorship program that&#8217;s being done, where we will take applications for people that need to know, just guidance, how to get started contributing, and how to be effective and efficient at contributing, in areas that we need them to.</p>



<p>They sign up, and we have mentors. People like me that will match up with them. And over the course of a month or so, we&#8217;ll onboard them, help them with learning on Learn WP, different things. And help them actually get involved, and get their feet wet contributing, so that hopefully we can start to replenish some of that, up and coming new blood as you say, to replace anybody that may need to move on.</p>



<p>[00:11:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, it really does feel like the project is taking that onboarding process, and the learning process, much more seriously, well, just in the last 12 months. So the idea of the mentor program, where somebody like you can guide somebody and give, presumably it would be adjacent to core committing or something.</p>



<p>You would take somebody who&#8217;s new to the project, and you&#8217;d show them the ropes, if you like. Explain where to find things, explain how the process is done. That&#8217;s a fabulous initiative. And also, like you say, lots of energy and time being put into the Learn materials.</p>



<p>So I&#8217;m guessing that somebody somewhere, at some point over the last two years or so, identified this as a problem. You know, we to encourage these people. But if they don&#8217;t feel supported when they come in, it&#8217;s pretty likely that, you know, you&#8217;ll lose people who would&#8217;ve stuck around. So that&#8217;s been great I think.</p>



<p>[00:12:41] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> As full-time people, we recognise that it&#8217;s, whether it&#8217;s when we take time off and we come back, or we change focus for a week or two, and then come back to something. WordPress is quite large, and there&#8217;s a lot of moving parts, and there&#8217;s a significant velocity there. And so it&#8217;s kind of like jumping into a moving train, right?</p>



<p>And so at times I have a hard time keeping up on certain areas of the project, and I rely on updates and summaries from various teams to catch me up. You know, it&#8217;s always important to keep that in mind when you&#8217;re working with people that have two hours a week, four hours a week, an hour a month that they contribute.</p>



<p>We think about how can we download that information for what we know, from being so involved in an easier way, to make it more accessible to people that have less time, but still want to help and participate.</p>



<p>[00:13:28] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So this question isn&#8217;t necessarily related to the topic at hand, but I&#8217;m kind of interested what your thoughts are on this. We have over the last, well, really since WordPress began, the user base. The number of installs has just gone up, and up, and up. And we have this percentage figure now which we&#8217;ve reached, which is roughly 43% of all the web. Let&#8217;s call it that. I know that there&#8217;s nuance there.</p>



<p>But 43% of the web is powered by WordPress. I mean, that&#8217;s just an astronomical figure. And I don&#8217;t think 10 years ago anybody would&#8217;ve guessed that that would be what would be achieved. But that&#8217;s where we are. Does it matter to you that that number, either, let&#8217;s say it flattens out and it never goes beyond 43, or if it goes down and we&#8217;re back into the high thirties, or if it goes up and we&#8217;re into the fifties. Does any of that matter to you? Are you in this project because it&#8217;s popular, or do you just enjoy being part of it, regardless of all those incredible numbers?</p>



<p>[00:14:21] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yeah I think, you know, obviously from a professional standpoint, I want it to grow and do good, because the company that I work for is a very firm stance in WordPress. We provide WordPress hosting, and that&#8217;s kind of our bread and butter.</p>



<p>I think that, personally, I do it because I enjoy it. I like problem solving these really difficult problems at scale, and it&#8217;s always very fascinating to have to tackle these. I think that, to me the number itself doesn&#8217;t matter, but the number is a signal to observe and learn from, right? So if we plateau, is it something going on around us? Like, is AI having this impact in some way? Where people are considering a blog, or a CMS website, less than they would&#8217;ve in the past.</p>



<p>You know, we saw a little bit of influx in covid, and everybody was rushing to make a website. And so, now is there a lull, because people made their websites already, and there&#8217;s less people that would&#8217;ve spread out over time, that did a gold rush right at that time.</p>



<p>It can tell us a lot about our society. It could tell us a lot about trends, business trends, economic trends. And we kind of just need to take that number in stride, and figure out why we&#8217;re plateauing, or why we&#8217;re growing, and understand that a little bit better, and help it influence our decisions.</p>



<p>[00:15:34] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Given the work that you do, and the communities, the Slack channels that you are in, and the GitHub issues that you are tracking and all of that, do you have a sense that contributing is still a popular thing to do? Or in the years that you&#8217;ve been doing it, has it been a bit of a struggle? I mean, we were talking about onboarding people, and all that kind of stuff. What&#8217;s your sort of gut feeling?</p>



<p>From the outside, I don&#8217;t commit in the same way that you do. I don&#8217;t really know. I see more and more articles coming up in the WordPress press, about whether the community is dissatisfied. There was something in Search Engine Journal just the other day, saying that, there was growing dissatisfaction amongst the WordPress users. I don&#8217;t really sense that, but I wonder if you did.</p>



<p>[00:16:13] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> I think there&#8217;s a level of that. I think that it&#8217;s hard to tell the whole story in one survey, right? And we kind of need to step back, and look at the answers objectively, and try to figure out why people are answering the way they are.</p>



<p>From a contributing standpoint, it&#8217;s really hard sometimes to see that you&#8217;re having an impact in your contributing, right? It used to be with a much smaller code base, it was much easier to put something in that you could see, visually that it&#8217;s there. Oh, it&#8217;s there, it&#8217;s doing what I trained it to do, and coded it to do.</p>



<p>And so in the project with many more moving parts, sometimes it&#8217;s not as obvious, or it takes longer to get something in, because there&#8217;s more things to test, that&#8217;s more intricate. We have a lot more different types of sites at scale. We have 43% of the web now, instead of 5 or 10. And we have NASA and the White House using it.</p>



<p>And so these are all things as committers we have to think about is like, how could this one line change, how could this negatively impact someone, and what are the bad things that this could cause?</p>



<p>And so sometimes, if you have an hour a week, or two hours a week, that can be really frustrating because your ticket might sit there for six months. And it&#8217;s not because we want to ignore it, it&#8217;s just that either, a, it&#8217;s not really fully aligned with our goals, and our project priorities at that time. Doesn&#8217;t mean it&#8217;s not important, it&#8217;s just we have a limited amount of resources, even the full-time people. And we have to have a percentage of our focus on these lighthouses that we&#8217;re heading towards.</p>



<p>And so, I guess all that to say that there is some dissatisfaction, but there&#8217;s always the opposite side as well. I always tell people, when I look at a product reviews, oh, this only has 4 stars or 3 stars, right? But you always have to keep in the back of your head that people that have a negative experience are also more vocal, right? They&#8217;re more likely to go and provide feedback because they&#8217;re aggravated, they&#8217;re mad at what they experienced.</p>



<p>And so, is that also a thing here? Where we&#8217;re not really getting all the positive stories, because the negative people are just a little bit more vocal? All stuff that I think about, but I think that there&#8217;s always frustrations. There&#8217;s always good stories in the community, but it&#8217;s just because we&#8217;re so complicated. And there&#8217;s so many moving parts that we shouldn&#8217;t ignore any of those stories, but we should take it with a grain of salt, and consider what it means, and what&#8217;s behind it as we evaluate that.</p>



<p>[00:18:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It would be nice to be able to say that every moment that you contributed to the project, whether that&#8217;s code or whatever, was fantastic, you know? It was really exciting. It was always great. You got fabulous feedback. Everything was executed perfectly. But I&#8217;m sure it must be, on some level, sometimes a demoralising process.</p>



<p>Like you said, you put a ticket in and nobody looks at it seemingly for six months. Or you are just in the weeds with code, and you can&#8217;t figure out what you&#8217;ve got to do. Do you have those moments where it can be, and I know it&#8217;s your job so it&#8217;s slightly different, but do you have those moments where it can be quite a demoralising experience?</p>



<p>[00:18:58] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Sometimes. I mean, you know, it&#8217;s a job, but it&#8217;s still something that I pour in a lot of time and effort, and I do care a lot about the project. I think that you&#8217;re never going to make everybody happy too, and that&#8217;s something that we always know in the back of our mind.</p>



<p>This week we had to make a decision about how to move forward with the fonts library feature. Where do we put our fonts? And so, on one side, we want to establish fonts and patterns as these first class objects and concepts in WordPress. But then a lot of hosting infrastructure doesn&#8217;t actually support putting it in the place that we wanted to put them right in the wp-content folder.</p>



<p>And so we kind of had to come up with a compromise there. Everybody&#8217;s not going to be happy, and we have to decide on what&#8217;s best for our users, the majority of people. And yeah, sometimes it stinks to see negative feedback, but we just have to know that we&#8217;re trying to do our best with the information we have, the data that we have available to make an objective decision, and move forward.</p>



<p>[00:19:51] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> What&#8217;s the hierarchy of the decision making process? You mentioned there about the font library and, you know, some people will have said one thing, other people will have said another. Who gets to suggest things, and who gets to make the final decision about whether this is a go or a no go? I think it&#8217;d be kind of interesting for the listeners to have some insight into what&#8217;s going on in the background, to make the decisions that push the project on.</p>



<p>[00:20:11] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yeah, I mean, anybody can make a suggestion. Anybody can open a pull request with an idea or a feature. The committers or the maintainers are always the people that will look at all the information and make the final call. And ultimately they&#8217;re responsible for the things that they merge, is essentially what it comes down to.</p>



<p>If there&#8217;s reasonable disagreement between them and it can&#8217;t get resolved, whomever the release leads are for, every release has a core tech lead and core editor lead. And so usually they will be a decider for the best way forward in those areas.</p>



<p>And then when there&#8217;s a stalemate like this, it goes up to either the release lead, or Josepha will come and talk to some people that are on each side and, you know, the leaders in the areas, and determine what&#8217;s the best compromise, and what&#8217;s the best way to go forward with our users&#8217; best interests in mind.</p>



<p>[00:20:58] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> And where do you spend your time doing this work? I mean obviously, in your case there&#8217;s a laptop involved, I&#8217;m sure, or some machine. Are you doing all of this via Slack? How&#8217;s all of that communication going on?</p>



<p>[00:21:09] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yeah, a lot of my time spent in Slack, but also a lot of time is in Trac or GitHub. You know, working in public is so important, and so, as much as possible you should be in shared channels, or in GitHub tickets and issues, pull requests. Because, like you said, like people come and go, and that&#8217;s just a part of life and business and work.</p>



<p>And it&#8217;s important that we leave that history for others that come after us, to be able to follow along. Because in 10 years, this font library decision, people will be saying like, well, why do we do this this way, right? And it&#8217;s important that it&#8217;s publicly documented, because then we have like a breadcrumb trail that people can learn from, and get into our minds today to know what we were thinking and why.</p>



<p>[00:21:48] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, nice. Your contribution is code. You write code, and you help with code, and GitHub, and all of that, and Trac. But there&#8217;s more to the bigger project, the WordPress project in general. So do you just want to spell out for the listeners, the kind of things that you could do? Obviously, if you&#8217;re in to code, that&#8217;s fine. We know that you can do that. What are some of the other areas that people contribute?</p>



<p>[00:22:07] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yeah. You know, if you&#8217;re a teacher or a trainer, we have Learn WordPress, which is a site where we have educational resources, whether it&#8217;s course outlines for you to use at a meet up or an event, to teach people how to use WordPress.</p>



<p>We have wordpress.tv, so if you are good with audio, video, you can review and process WordCamp videos. So like all the WordCamp videos from here will be available to everyone in the world, eventually. You can run events in your local communities. You can contribute documentation, whether that&#8217;s user or developer documentation. Going to make.wordpress.org, there&#8217;s a full list of all the teams that you can contribute to.</p>



<p>[00:22:44] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, there&#8217;s lots, and lots, and lots.</p>



<p>[00:22:47] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> We&#8217;re over 20 now I think.</p>



<p>[00:22:48] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. I mean essentially, it genuinely, there&#8217;s literally a role for everybody. If you rock up I think you&#8217;d struggle to find an individual that couldn&#8217;t fit into one.</p>



<p>[00:22:56] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Even if you like taking photos, can be on the photo and the photo directory.</p>



<p>[00:23:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, there&#8217;s so many different paths that you can go through. What do you get out of it? I know the job, but do you get a sort of sense of satisfaction doing this? Is there some part of you which just thinks this is good for humanity? You know, I&#8217;m involved in an open source thing, gives you the warm, fuzzy feeling that you&#8217;re doing something beneficial to the world, providing free software. Yeah, what do you, Jonathan, get out of it?</p>



<p>[00:23:19] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> You know, I always like puzzles and challenges like that, and trying to figure out how to fix things. I&#8217;ve always repaired computers since I was young and all that. And so these are just more interesting problems to learn from and tackle, especially at the scale that we&#8217;re at.</p>



<p>And I also think that, some of the smartest people in the industry, you know, WordPress is so big, they gravitate towards it because these are such interesting problems. And so the people I meet, the people I learn from, the people I interact with all the time, I step back sometimes, I&#8217;m like, oh, this is really cool. You know, I&#8217;m learning from some of the smartest people out there.</p>



<p>And throughout the community, in all the different areas, we have so many brilliant people that are great people, and they&#8217;re willing to teach you, and you can learn so much from them.</p>



<p>[00:24:01] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. It sounds like pride might be a good word. There&#8217;s sort of sense of pride in it. You get some badges as well.</p>



<p>[00:24:06] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yeah, and you know, sometimes I&#8217;ll go to a website and it&#8217;s, oh, it&#8217;s a WordPress website, you know. I help that person make a living, or I help that person have a business. You know, especially when it&#8217;s like mom and pop stuff, or my son&#8217;s school is a WordPress site. I&#8217;m like, oh, that&#8217;s really cool. You know, my work goes into them being able to have a website, and all those different things.</p>



<p>[00:24:25] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> We know that, in your case, Bluehost is funding you. And so thank you to Bluehost for that, that&#8217;s fabulous. But, do you know of any other ways that you can explore? If you literally can&#8217;t commit the time, because you are entirely busy, are there ways that you could seek funding, ways that you could be remunerated, maybe sponsored by a company? Let&#8217;s just go into that a little bit.</p>



<p>[00:24:47] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Sure, yeah. You can sponsor yourself. So one good way of doing that is, maybe you have a plugin that you build for a client, and you think it could be useful to other people. It&#8217;s not directly contributing to the project itself, but you&#8217;re contributing to the ecosystem if you open source that.</p>



<p>And there&#8217;s pros and cons of that, right? Because then you&#8217;re responsible to maintain it, or at least have to be transparent about what level of maintaining you&#8217;ll do. But you never know who could find that useful. And I know when I was at Boston University, we had a navigation plugin that we used internally with our authentication system. And so we made it open source, and there were some other universities that used the same authentication system that chose to use it.</p>



<p>And so you never really know what will be useful to other people. So sponsoring yourself in that sense is that you&#8217;re just giving something you work on, that you already have to work on, right? Because maybe it&#8217;s for a client. You can just open source that, and obviously check with the client first, you know, make sure they&#8217;re okay with that. But that&#8217;s a great way to do that.</p>



<p>There are sites like WP World, where you can, in a community, you can put yourself in that community as well. And it will list all the things that you work on, and all the, you know, where you&#8217;re from, who&#8217;s local to you, and what communities are local to you. And you can indicate that you are looking for work, or looking for freelance or employment on those types of sites.</p>



<p>I think sponsorship might be one of the options on there as well. Or on your GitHub profile, you can also accept donations and sponsorship on your GitHub profile. It&#8217;s another good way, especially if you&#8217;re a developer, to receive donations to fuel some of your contribution.</p>



<p>[00:26:17] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. There&#8217;s also the WPCC, the WP Community Collective. I think they&#8217;ve recently got these kind of little areas that you can go as a WordPress user. Somebody like me, and I can contribute some money to a particular thing. It might be accessibility, for example. And then the idea would be that somebody can make use of that pot of money, that&#8217;s been built up over time ,and somebody could then get sponsored, and use that money, and then give themself a wage whilst they&#8217;re working.</p>



<p>Speaking of that, and we talked a moment ago about, maybe the same faces keep coming back. There&#8217;s this idea, and I can&#8217;t remember exactly how to phrase it, but the phrase goes something like this. You can contribute to WordPress, or the people that do contribute to WordPress, are the people who can afford to contribute to WordPress. And I&#8217;m sure there&#8217;s a bit of truth in that, you know?</p>



<p>That if you are independently wealthy, then you can give up all of your time to the WordPress project. If you are in a position working for a company, and they second you to the project, that also works as well.</p>



<p>Do you have any intuitions on that? Do you feel that it is as democratic as it could be? Or do you feel like there is a little bit of, those that can afford, can contribute, so they get their voice heard, and the decisions are made by the people who are able to contribute, because they&#8217;ve got big, deep pockets?</p>



<p>[00:27:31] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yeah. I talked about that a little bit in my talk today, where my talk was focused on how we measure contributions, and we track them, and factors to that. And one of the things I talk about is that you can&#8217;t measure impact, right? So someone that contributes a three line code change, it may seem unimportant from a Git log perspective or like a commit log.</p>



<p>But maybe that&#8217;s their first contribution to open source. And then, from there they are able to get hired, because they have this new experience. And that might change their life, that might open doors that they didn&#8217;t previously have available to them.</p>



<p>And so, in that sense, it&#8217;s hard to say because we can&#8217;t measure that. And so, on the surface, it looks like they&#8217;re not really receiving anything, because they&#8217;re not contributing a lot, or very infrequently, right? But on the outside, from their perspective, they&#8217;re receiving a lot. Because the benefits to them are not necessarily directly related to the project, right?</p>



<p>They&#8217;re getting experience, learning how to maybe code PHP, or use an API, and then they go do a job interview and they can talk about that, and how that experience went, and what they learned. And they can show that they are easily teachable, and attractive to an employer.</p>



<p>And so, that&#8217;s only one part of it, right? It appears that only the people with a lot of time benefit from it, but there&#8217;s other benefits to just having their code frequently merged.</p>



<p>[00:28:54] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Would you like to see some sort of accreditation system? Well, I mean we have the badges on the WordPress profiles. But would it be nice to have some sort of an official accreditation system? Honestly, I don&#8217;t know how that would be managed. I don&#8217;t know how it would be made to be fair and equitable, so that what you actually put in was measured in some way, tracked in some way, and then was equated to, I don&#8217;t know, a badge or something that you could add officially to your CV, or what have you. Do you think anything like that would be useful?</p>



<p>[00:29:22] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Probably. But it also depends on another thing I talked about in my talk is, how do people expect to be recognised right? So, currently we collect all the contributors for our release, and it goes on our about page, that you see when you update.</p>



<p>But some people might not really, that may not really do much for them, right? Because you have to be in WordPress to see it, and they don&#8217;t really care about that. Maybe they want it to be, their profile to be, more like a CV, like you said. And so it shows to an employer, like how consistent they contribute, or what they&#8217;ve contributed.</p>



<p>[00:29:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s a good metric, isn&#8217;t it? You know, consistency, and the fact that you&#8217;ve showed up for month, after month, after month. There&#8217;s something in that, there&#8217;s something very valuable in that little bit of data, isn&#8217;t there?</p>



<p>[00:30:03] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Sure. But likewise, somebody could show up once every three months, but they&#8217;re, maybe they work for Google, and they build things into the browser. And so they show up once every three months, but they&#8217;re helping advise how to implement this new API that improves performance, or something of that nature.</p>



<p>And so regularity is not always a good measure. Volume is not always a good measure, because you could contribute 50 times, but it&#8217;s like 50, 1 word typo fixes, right? Or you could contribute once, and you&#8217;re contributing an entire API, or something that unlocks a feature for hundreds of themes, and makes the world a better place.</p>



<p>So it&#8217;s really difficult to get right. And I think accreditation, a lot of companies spend a lot of money and time on keeping up, because we&#8217;re in technology and web, and it changes so quickly. I worry that, we have to do it in a way that adapts as we adapt. And I wonder if the value of that is outweighed by the effort that it would take to kind of stay accurate over the months and years.</p>



<p>[00:31:03] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Every time this conversation comes up, almost immediately clever people chime into the conversation and point out why some sort of accreditation system would be very hard to do effectively. And I&#8217;m often very persuaded, you know? Like you said, do you measure time? Do you measure the frequency? Do you measure the thing that they did?</p>



<p>[00:31:21] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Impact.</p>



<p>[00:31:21] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> And it&#8217;s really, exactly, it&#8217;s really, really difficult. I think from my perspective, it would be nice if there was something, but I don&#8217;t know what that something would be, other than the sort of badge system that we&#8217;ve got at the moment.</p>



<p>[00:31:32] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> I think in most cases it just ends up like we&#8217;re open source, and so your public work just speaks for itself, right? The way you interact with other people that disagree with you on public discussions. The repositories that you have that are open for people to view. The plugins that you create. That&#8217;s the best way, in my opinion, to have an open track record of your skills and what you have to offer.</p>



<p>[00:31:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. And I suppose, in a way, every job interview that you go for, you are just going to write down the best bits that done, and so I guess maybe the traditional way that we&#8217;ve done it is probably still useful.</p>



<p>[00:32:03] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> But that&#8217;s also a privilege too, being able to be public about your work. And I&#8217;m privileged with that, because I work on an open source project right? But if you work at a corporation, you know, you can&#8217;t always show all of your work, talk about it. But it&#8217;s not something you could open source, you know, and let someone dive in and see your work, and the history of your work. So there&#8217;s also that aspect as well.</p>



<p>[00:32:21] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. Are you confident about the future for WordPress? I mean, obviously you&#8217;re working in the industry, you&#8217;re saturated by it, you&#8217;re completely immersed in it. Do you have an expectation that 10 years from now, WordPress will still be strong? We&#8217;ll have a community, it will still be being developed. Does it feel like it&#8217;s on rock solid ground? It does to me, but I don&#8217;t know what your thoughts are.</p>



<p>[00:32:42] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> I think there&#8217;s always going to be spots you step on, and you&#8217;re like, oh, should I put all my weight there, right? I&#8217;m very confident in WordPress. I think last year was one of the more exciting years in quite a while. And the reason was, when we&#8217;re in the process, it&#8217;s sometimes easy to feel like we&#8217;re not going anywhere, right?</p>



<p>I&#8217;m involved week to week, month to month. And so, even release to release, it feels like we&#8217;re not getting a lot done. And last year was so exciting, because we reached the end of a phase of Gutenberg. And it was the culmination of all these releases that came before it, to see site editing, right? It was the first release where we said, you can make a great website with this site editor now.</p>



<p>We took that beta tag off and now it&#8217;s ready to go. And so, you know, we see a lot with 2024. Some people are making such incredible websites using this base theme. They look nothing like what was shipped. And it&#8217;s just really great to see these blocks, these different APIs that get built. All combining to make this cohesive thing that is really quite powerful.</p>



<p>And I&#8217;m really excited to see what people do with it this year. The Interactivity API, block bindings. All these new things that are coming. It&#8217;s like I say in my talk is, we&#8217;re so creative as a community, there&#8217;s so many brilliant people, and we&#8217;re giving them the tools to run with. And I&#8217;m really looking forward to see what people build with WordPress over the next year.</p>



<p>[00:34:07] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> There is so much coming down the pipe very, very soon, isn&#8217;t there? So, obviously, we&#8217;re into phase three, collaborative editing at some point, probably not particularly quickly. But like you said, the Interactivity API, block bindings, and maybe a completely new admin interface.</p>



<p>It does feel like there is a lot of change about to happen. And so, if you ask me that same question, do you feel confident? It feels like there&#8217;s every reason to be confident at the moment, because there&#8217;s so much interesting stuff happening.</p>



<p>[00:34:37] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Sure. Kind of to circle back to one of the things we talked about earlier, about the sense of frustration out there. Change is hard, you know? If you&#8217;ve built a business around a specific thing, and maybe you have admin notices, right? That you sell a premium plugin through, or something like that. When we redo the admin, it may not be exactly the same experience, right? And so you kind of have to rethink it a little bit.</p>



<p>And so I think that that&#8217;s where some of, frustration with innovation in a way. And change is always very hard, and it&#8217;s harder for certain people than others, and in different ways. But you have to look at both sides, and see where we&#8217;re going, know where that end point is, where we would like to end up, and see how exciting that is.</p>



<p>And again, a privilege to have the time and the resources to invest in updating, and embracing new technology, and learning. And we just keep an open mind, and follow us along. And follow all the thought leaders, and the people that experiment with the new features, and demonstrate what&#8217;s possible. I think we&#8217;ll definitely end up in a better spot.</p>



<p>[00:35:32] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. I think it&#8217;s really difficult for those North Star, how to describe it, the big ticket items. It&#8217;s very hard to communicate those to the user base of WordPress. I mean, here we are, we&#8217;re at a WordPress event, so it&#8217;s pretty clear that everybody here is a bit nerdy about WordPress. So we understand that, because we&#8217;re talking about it all the time.</p>



<p>But the sort of end user, who&#8217;s suddenly confronted with, I don&#8217;t know, when the block editor came. Suddenly, what is that? Where did that come from? Being able to explain all of that to the wider public, I think is going to be an interesting thing. And I have intuitions that that&#8217;s going to be taken very seriously, in the near future as well. That communicating what&#8217;s coming, what the idea is, what the North Star is, going to become a big part in feeding that to the WordPress media, if you.</p>



<p>[00:36:14] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Talking too, we also have to listen. You know, it might not be the feedback we&#8217;re expecting, or want to hear, but we need to have open ears and listen to that, and process that appropriately as well.</p>



<p>[00:36:23] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Slightly going off on a bit of a tangent. What are your thoughts about collaborative editing? From a technical point of view, that feels like that&#8217;s a really difficult challenge, given that we have no idea what infrastructure any WordPress website could be on.</p>



<p>It could be on the most powerful server that has ever existed. Alternatively, it might be on something very affordable and economical. What do you think? Does it seem like a project which is going to be easy to ship, or it&#8217;s going to be keeping us busy for two, three years?</p>



<p>[00:36:51] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> It&#8217;s definitely not easy. You know, it&#8217;s very intricate, many moving parts, and it definitely is going to be a many months roadmap that we have to follow. I think that, like we mentioned before is that, we&#8217;re always improving, technology is always changing, and we&#8217;re trying to embrace.</p>



<p>We have our performance team that&#8217;s, year over year we&#8217;re seeing tens of percentage point increase in performance. And obviously that will plateau as well too, right? But we keep adding new stuff, so they&#8217;ll keep having new things to look at.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m confident that when we build software, we balance these things, right? We don&#8217;t want to be, we want to add these very powerful features, but we keep performance in mind. We don&#8217;t want it to be slow, that you don&#8217;t want to use it.</p>



<p>And so these are things that we&#8217;re just constantly evaluating, and keeping in mind. And in the end, we stick to our philosophies of building great software, that works out of the box, that&#8217;s performant, that handles very difficult technical topics, and concepts for the user, and makes the best decision for them, but while being flexible.</p>



<p>Something that&#8217;s really great about WordPress is, you can change it to be something that doesn&#8217;t even look WordPress, you know? Don&#8217;t even recognise it, and it&#8217;s still at the core, it&#8217;s still that software that everybody&#8217;s using.</p>



<p>[00:37:57] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. It sounds to me like you&#8217;re very bullish. You&#8217;re very confident that WordPress has a bright future, and we could well be sitting here in the year 2034.</p>



<p>[00:38:05] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Like I said, it might not be the smoothest road, there&#8217;s going to be bumps along the way. We just have to work together and listen, and constantly evolve, and don&#8217;t be stuck in our ways and get to that end point.</p>



<p>[00:38:14] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> If people have listened to this and they&#8217;ve thought to themselves, you know what, I fancy contributing in some way, but they want to talk to you about it, where can people find you, Jonathan? What&#8217;s the easiest place?</p>



<p>[00:38:23] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Sure. You can find me at desrosj, pretty much everywhere. WordPress Slack, Twitter, and all of those places. You know, if you want to get started contributing, I recommend just going to make.wordpress.org. I believe there&#8217;s a getting started contributing course on learn.wordpress.org. And worst case, just hop into Slack and say, hey, I&#8217;m new, I just would like a little push in the right direction. And there&#8217;s handbook pages that will link to you, and break down how to get started.</p>



<p>[00:38:48] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> There&#8217;s definitely a way to contribute, no matter what your station in life is, yeah. But thank you Jonathan for chatting to us today, I really appreciate it.</p>



<p>[00:38:55] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Of course. Thanks for having me Nathan.</p>
</div>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://jonathandesrosiers.com/">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>.</p>



<p>Jonathan has been a contributor to WordPress Core for many years, and a WordPress Core committer since 2018. He currently maintains over a dozen Core components. As a leader in the community, he advocates for new contributors through mentorship and active leadership. Jonathan currently works as a Senior Software Engineer at Bluehost, where he is sponsored full-time to contribute to WordPress Core through the Five for the Future program.</p>



<p>We talk about the challenges that come with contributing to such a large and multi-faceted project, from the intricate process of decision-making, involving many stakeholders, to the occasional moments of feeling demoralised when contributions seem like a drop in the ocean.</p>



<p>We discuss the importance of regular contributions, the challenges of implementing an accreditation system for contributors, and the role of privilege in the ability to contribute and showcase your work publicly.</p>



<p>Amongst the technical talk, including the future of collaborative editing, and the need for adaptability, we also get into the human side of WordPress. From the ways in which individuals can get involved without coding, such as teaching, video processing, event organising, and documentation, to the personal satisfaction Jonathan finds in his work.</p>



<p>Towards the end we chat about the sustainability of the open-source ecosystem, emphasising the critical role businesses need to play, and the potential risks when key contributors step back. But, as you’ll hear, Jonathan is confident about the future of WordPress, mentioning exciting development features on the horizon, like a new admin interface.</p>



<p>If you’re curious about how you can contribute, what that looks likes, and where it can take you, this episode is for you.</p>



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



<p><a href="https://www.bluehost.com/">Bluehost</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/">Five for the Future</a></p>



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



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/contributor-day/contributor-working-group/contributor-mentorship-program-for-wordpress/">Contributor Mentorship Program for WordPress</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.tv/">WordPress.tv</a></p>



<p><a href="https://thewp.world/">The WP World</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.thewpcommunitycollective.com/">WordPress Community Collective</a></p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/desrosj">Jonathan&#8217;s X / Twitter</a></p>



<p><a href="https://jonathandesrosiers.com/">Jonathan&#8217;s website</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 17 Apr 2024 14:20:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:11;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"Akismet: CAPTCHA vs reCAPTCHA vs Akismet: Which is Best?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://akismet.com/?p=283860";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:57:"https://akismet.com/blog/akismet-vs-captcha-vs-recaptcha/";s: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:27762:"<p>Any website that gets a lot of traffic also has to deal with a lot of spam. Enterprise-level sites require powerful solutions to protect both customers and company resources.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Are you satisfied with your current solution? Do you really understand the alternatives? Choosing the right anti-spam software can significantly improve the effectiveness of everything done through your site. In other words —&nbsp;a happier marketing department, security team, <em>and </em>executives.&nbsp;</p>


<p>With that in mind, pay close attention to this in&#8209;depth comparison of CAPTCHA vs reCAPTCHA vs Akismet to gain a clear understanding of these tools. You need to consider how efficiently they can block spam, how they impact the user experience, and whether they’ll affect your site’s performance (among other considerations). Only then will you be in a strong position to choose the right solution for your company or finally dump that under&#8209;performing option you’ve been falling back on for&nbsp;years.</p>


<p>This post will explain how CAPTCHA, reCAPTCHA, and Akismet work, outline their key differences and similarities, and provide a thorough comparison.&nbsp;</p>



<span id="more-283860"></span>


<h2 id="understanding-akismet-captcha-and recaptcha" class="wp-block-heading">Understanding Akismet, CAPTCHA, and&nbsp;reCAPTCHA</h2>


<p>If you’re tasked with selecting an effective anti-spam solution for your company, the stakes are high. When uncontrolled, spam can negatively impact your conversion funnel, damage your search engine rankings, put your visitors at risk, and skew your performance metrics.&nbsp;</p>



<p>You’ll need a reliable tool that can get the job done. Of course, it should also be easy to manage, so you won’t have to spend a tremendous amount of time training your security team, and easy to use, so visitors don’t get frustrated trying to perform basic functions on your site.<br />What’s more, choosing the right solution is only half the battle. You’ll likely have to justify your choice to key decision makers. So you’ll need to thoroughly research different options and explain your decision based on those findings.&nbsp;</p>


<p>That’s where this comparison comes in. It will start by providing an overview of the most popular anti&#8209;spam solutions: Akismet, CAPTCHA, and&nbsp;reCAPTCHA.</p>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Akismet: AI&#8209;driven spam&nbsp;protection</h3>

<p>Akismet is a tool that provides AI&#8209;driven spam protection. It uses machine learning to scan and filter submissions in real&nbsp;time.</p>


<img width="1600" height="856" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-8.png" alt="Akismet homepage with the tagline " />


<p>Akismet can protect your entire website. That includes blocking spam in comment sections and forums, while preventing fake user registrations and protecting contact&nbsp;forms.</p>

<p>Akismet boasts 99.99% spam detection accuracy. That means it’s very unlikely it will block out legitimate&nbsp;submissions.</p>


<p>Furthermore, Akismet is a “set it and forget it” style tool. It works on the back end, so after you configure it, you won’t have to worry about managing it.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Perhaps most importantly, it works without requiring any actions from your legitimate site visitors —&nbsp;no riddles to ponder, puzzles to solve, or boxes to check. The result is a much happier audience (and better conversion rates). We’ll discuss this more in a bit.</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">CAPTCHA: The classic anti&#8209;spam&nbsp;test</h3>

<p>CAPTCHA stands for “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart”. “Turing test” refers to the inventor Alan Turing, who created some of the first experiments to test a machine’s ability to show human&nbsp;intelligence.</p>

<p>But a CAPTCHA is actually a reverse Turing test. You’ve likely come across plenty of CAPTCHA tests&nbsp;before.</p>


<img width="1252" height="532" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-9.png" alt="traditional reCAPTCHA with mixed up letters" class="wp-image-283863" />


<p>As this is a reverse Turing test, its main purpose is to weed out malicious bots that try to spam your&nbsp;website.</p>


<p>The mechanism used in CAPTCHA is called <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2005/01/HIPSCHI2005.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">human interaction proof (HIP)</a>. It requires individuals to prove they are humans via a challenge. The task should be relatively easy for any human to complete, but near impossible for a bot.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Typically, visitors are presented with an image containing distorted letters and numbers, and they must decipher and input those characters in a field for approval. If they succeed, they can proceed with the action they’re attempting to complete (like submitting a&nbsp;form).</p>

<p>There are many other forms of CAPTCHAs, though, like audio CAPTCHAs that present challenges using spoken&nbsp;characters.</p>

<p>Historically, CAPTCHAs have been used to reduce form spam. They can be included as a final field in a submission form, or configured to pop up on the&nbsp;screen.</p>

<h3 id="recaptcha-an-evolution-of captcha" class="wp-block-heading">reCAPTCHA: An evolution of&nbsp;CAPTCHA</h3>

<p>In recent years, reCAPTCHA has become more common than CAPTCHA. Bots quickly evolved to be able to solve traditional CAPTCHAs, so Google created the&nbsp;reCAPTCHA.</p>


<img width="1600" height="954" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-10.png" alt="evolution of reCAPTCHA" class="wp-image-283864" />



<p>Here are the main types of reCAPTCHAs used by websites.&nbsp;</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">reCAPTCHA v1&nbsp;</h4>



<p>The original iteration, reCAPTCHA v1, showed combinations of characters. It pulled images from books (as part of a larger digitization project), or used an algorithm to generate them.&nbsp;</p>



<p>It also used a similar mechanism as a traditional CAPTCHA, but it provided site visitors with one control word and one ‘suspicious’ word. The suspicious word was selected via <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/ocr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">optical character recognition (OCR) software</a>. This was part of a larger process to rate and identify words for the reverse Turing test.&nbsp;</p>


<p>reCAPTCHA v1 could also leverage images instead of distorted&nbsp;words.</p>


<img width="1028" height="1282" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-11.png" alt="reCAPTCHA with the prompt to select all squares with sunflowers" class="wp-image-283865" />


<p>As you probably already know, there are some serious user experience and accessibility issues with these types of reCAPTCHAs. In fact, <a href="https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/versions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reCAPTCHA v1 was shut down</a> in&nbsp;2018.</p>


<h4 class="wp-block-heading">reCAPTCHA v2&nbsp;</h4>



<p>After reCAPTCHA v1, Google developed a more streamlined version called reCAPTCHA v2 or “noCAPTCHA”.&nbsp;</p>


<p>There are a few subtypes of this particular reCAPTCHA version. But since most of them are invisible, many people are only familiar with the “I’m not a robot”&nbsp;checkbox.</p>


<img width="1372" height="374" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-12.png" alt="I'm not a robot reCAPTCHA" class="wp-image-283866" />


<p>As you can see, this requires less effort on the part of site visitors. The goal of reCAPTCHA v2 was to provide a seamless&nbsp;experience.</p>

<p>Instead of a reverse Turing test, reCAPTCHA v2 analyzes user behavior on web pages. If a site visitor is deemed suspicious, they are presented with the checkbox prompt. Otherwise, they are passed through without being aware of the back&#8209;end&nbsp;test.</p>

<p>Another subtype of reCAPTCHA v2 uses an invisible badge. It works in the same way, but hides the checkbox behind a preexisting button on your website. When this type of reCAPTCHA is enabled on a website, you’ll see the&nbsp;following:</p>


<img width="976" height="308" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-13.png" alt="notice that says " />


<p>This version of reCAPTCHA also works for Android devices. But it’s important to note that it requires some form of user interaction, like clicking on a button, for it to be&nbsp;effective.</p>


<h4 class="wp-block-heading">reCAPTCHA v3&nbsp;</h4>


<p>As you can see, reCAPTCHAs have evolved to become increasingly discreet, which is certainly the case when it comes to <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2018/10/introducing-recaptcha-v3-new-way-to" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reCAPTCHA v3</a>. This version of Google’s anti&#8209;spam technology goes a step further and verifies requests in the larger context of your&nbsp;website.</p>

<p>It looks at visitor behavior (as with reCAPTCHA v2), but it also considers visitor history. In technical terms, it’s a JavaScript API that gives each request a score. Then website owners can take action based on those&nbsp;scores.</p>

<p>Google recommends that you use reCAPTCHA v3 to verify forms or “actions” (i.e. clicks). You can also run it in the background on individual pages to collect data on&nbsp;traffic.</p>


<p>Unfortunately, the newest version of reCAPTCHA has some serious flaws. First of all, legitimate users may not always have recourse if they’re falsely identified as spam —&nbsp;and it doesn’t report nearly as accurate of results as Akismet’s 99.99%. So you could be costing your company a shot at legitimate leads and customers.&nbsp;</p>


<p>And reCAPTCHA v3 also has some serious privacy issues as it essentially relies on surveillance of individual users&#8217; behavior beyond just their visit to your site. It’s caused a <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90369697/googles-new-recaptcha-has-a-dark-side">fair amount of controversy</a> that may bleed over to your&nbsp;organization.</p>


<h4 class="wp-block-heading">reCAPTCHA Enterprise</h4>


<p>Google offers reCAPTCHA Enterprise for larger businesses. It’s very similar to reCAPTCHA v3 in that it is frictionless for site visitors, working mostly on the back&nbsp;end.</p>

<p>The main difference is that reCAPTCHA Enterprise can be applied across an entire website, not just a simple form or web page. Additionally, it’s more precise and allows for more&nbsp;customization.</p>

<h2 id="captcha-vs-recaptcha-vs-akismet-key-differences-and similarities" class="wp-block-heading">CAPTCHA vs reCAPTCHA vs Akismet: Key differences and&nbsp;similarities</h2>


<p>This section will look at Akismet vs reCAPTCHA vs CAPTCHA, focusing on their differences and similarities. Keep in mind that this is just a summary. You’ll find a more detailed comparative analysis in the next section.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 id="captcha-vs recaptcha" class="wp-block-heading">CAPTCHA vs&nbsp;reCAPTCHA</h3>

<p>The main difference between CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA is that most versions of the latter are a lot more subtle than the&nbsp;former.</p>

<p>The only reCAPTCHA that employed a similar challenge to CAPTCHA was v1, and that version is no longer in use. <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/recaptcha-v2-vs-v3/">reCAPTCHA v2 and v3</a>, as well as the Enterprise version don’t interfere as much with the user&nbsp;experience.</p>

<p>In most cases, if a visitor is flagged as suspicious, they’ll be required to validate their legitimacy by simply checking a box or clicking on a button. And in the case of the invisible CAPTCHA, they may not have to perform any action at&nbsp;all.</p>

<h3 id="captcha-vs akismet" class="wp-block-heading">CAPTCHA vs&nbsp;Akismet</h3>


<p>If you put CAPTCHA and Akismet head to head, there’s no competition. They offer opposite types of anti-spam solutions.&nbsp;</p>



<p>CAPTCHA very overtly interrupts the user experience, requiring visitors who are filling out a web form to complete a test before they can proceed through the conversion funnel.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Meanwhile, Akismet works completely on the back end, using AI and machine learning to detect malicious spambots and stop them in their tracks. It won’t interfere with the experience of legitimate&nbsp;visitors.</p>

<h3 id="recaptcha-vs akismet" class="wp-block-heading">reCAPTCHA vs&nbsp;Akismet</h3>

<p>It only really makes sense to compare reCAPTCHA Enterprise and <a href="https://akismet.com/enterprise/">Akismet</a>. This is because reCAPTCHA v1 and v2 can’t compete with Akismet as they interfere with the user experience, just like CAPTCHA. And all non&#8209;enterprise versions of reCAPTCHA (including v3) can only be implemented on forms or actions (like button&nbsp;clicks).</p>

<p>Akismet offers complete solutions for both small businesses and enterprises. These tools won’t work on just one form or page, but on your entire website and everything it&nbsp;contains.</p>

<p>What’s more, the software is very user&#8209;friendly, both for your security team and your website visitors. Once you install and configure the tool, you won’t have to worry about anything else. It will work silently in the background, using AI and machine learning to identify and filter out multiple types of spam in real&nbsp;time.</p>

<p>Additionally, most versions of reCAPTCHA just focus on forms and button interactions, whereas Akismet <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/forum-spam/">blocks form spam</a>, <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/comment-spam/">spam comments</a>, and any type of text&#8209;based&nbsp;spam.</p>

<p>While reCAPTCHA Enterprise can offer a full&#8209;site solution, it still won’t give you the same level of sophistication and coverage as Akismet Enterprise. In fact, many <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/convertkit-customerstory/">well&#8209;known enterprises like ConvertKit</a> use Akismet for their anti&#8209;spam&nbsp;needs.</p>

<h2 id="captcha-vs-recaptcha-vs-akismet-comparative analysis" class="wp-block-heading">CAPTCHA vs reCAPTCHA vs Akismet: Comparative&nbsp;Analysis</h2>

<p>Now, it’s time to delve into a more in&#8209;depth analysis of Akismet vs reCAPTCHA vs CAPTCHA. This section puts these anti&#8209;spam solutions head&#8209;to&#8209;head on factors like effectiveness, user experience, accessibility, and&nbsp;more.</p>

<h3 id="1-effectiveness-against-spam-and bots" class="wp-block-heading">1. Effectiveness against spam and&nbsp;bots</h3>

<p>When you’re choosing an anti&#8209;spam solution for a business of any size, effectiveness is obviously a key consideration. So, how do CAPTCHA, reCAPTCHA, and Akismet compare in this&nbsp;area?</p>

<p>First, studies show that <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2023/08/17/captcha-tests-keep-more-humans-than-bots-out-study-shows/70609691007/">bots are now more effective</a> than humans at passing CAPTCHA tests.<br />That means CAPTCHAs are essentially&nbsp;obsolete.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, due to poor user experience and accessibility issues, reCAPTCHAs can hurt your bottom line. They can end up alienating legitimate visitors. Furthermore, CAPTCHAs and most reCAPTCHAs can only be implemented on individual forms and web&nbsp;pages.</p>

<p>Akismet is the most comprehensive option, and the most effective. It provides coverage for your entire website, not just a single web form or page. That includes protection against comment, form, and text spam. Plus, it doesn’t impact the user experience in any&nbsp;way.</p>


<p>While you can implement reCAPTCHA Enterprise across an entire website, and it will protect against multiple types of spam, the code behind it has some downsides. It uses a JavaScript API, which can slow down your website.&nbsp;</p>



<p>On the other hand, Akismet uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify, filter, and block spam in real time. Akismet maintains a huge spam database (probably the biggest in the world), but all of this data is stored in the cloud so it doesn’t impact your site’s performance.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 id="2-user-experience-and accessibility" class="wp-block-heading">2. User experience and&nbsp;accessibility</h3>

<p>If you run an online business, offering a top&#8209;notch experience is essential. Your site’s visitors should be able to navigate seamlessly through your website and its components, including forms and comment&nbsp;sections.</p>

<p>When visitors encounter issues, they may become frustrated and abandon the page. Plus, a poor website experience can damage your company’s&nbsp;reputation.</p>


<p>Unfortunately, CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA both fall short in terms of user experience.&nbsp;</p>



<p>CAPTCHA is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjD1gyFHULI">well-known for being frustrating at times</a>, as some of the character-based and image challenges can be difficult to solve. Legitimate site visitors may fail the test and end up blocked from completing an important action, like filling out a <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/lead-capture-form/">lead capture form</a>.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Furthermore, CAPTCHAs and some reCAPTCHAs (v1 and v2) present a major accessibility problem, as individuals with vision impairments may have trouble completing the reverse Turing tests. Likewise, anyone with a hearing impairment may be unable to complete audio&nbsp;CAPTCHAs.</p>

<p>Similarly, reCAPTCHA v3 can alienate any individuals who are navigating the web in alternative ways. For instance, if a site visitor is using a voice tool or keyboard navigation, their keystrokes or interactions could be unfairly flagged as&nbsp;“suspicious”.</p>

<h3 id="3-impact-on-form-conversion rates" class="wp-block-heading">3. Impact on form conversion&nbsp;rates</h3>

<p>When visitors can navigate seamlessly through your site’s conversion funnel, your company will be better able to maximize profits. On the contrary, if an anti&#8209;spam tool is causing friction, the business might lose&nbsp;conversions.</p>

<p>Most versions of reCAPTCHA can interfere with the steps in a sales funnel. For example, a site visitor may encounter a reCAPTCHA when creating a customer account, and another one when making a purchase. Both create opportunities for them to become frustrated and&nbsp;leave.</p>

<p>Only reCAPTCHA v3 and reCAPTCHA Enterprise can provide a solution as discreet as Akismet. But as mentioned earlier, reCAPTCHA’s JavaScript API can impact your site’s&nbsp;performance.</p>

<h3 id="4-impact-on-page speed" class="wp-block-heading">4. Impact on page&nbsp;speed</h3>


<p>Fast load times are an important aspect of a positive user experience. They also impact your <a href="https://jetpack.com/blog/wordpress-core-web-vitals/">Core Web Vitals scores</a>, and as a result, they may affect your search engine rankings.&nbsp;</p>



<p>With this in mind, you’ll want an anti-spam solution that minimally impacts your website’s loading times. Since reCAPTCHA uses JavaScript or a JavaScript API on the back end of your site, this will likely slow it down — especially if you’re using a lot of other scripts.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Google’s developers recommend that reCAPTCHA should be <a href="https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/loading">loaded asynchronously</a>. But this can require some advanced configuration, or adding another optimization tool to your site.&nbsp;</p>


<p>In contrast, Akismet is cloud&#8209;based, so it won’t have any negative impact on your page&nbsp;speed.</p>

<h3 id="5-integration-and compatibility" class="wp-block-heading">5. Integration and&nbsp;compatibility</h3>

<p>You might not want to use reCAPTCHA on websites that are already using a lot of JavaScript (unless you’re optimizing for speed with another tool). Additionally, reCAPTCHA Enterprise works with Google Cloud, so you’ll need to make sure it supports the infrastructure of your&nbsp;website.</p>

<p>Akismet and Akismet Enterprise can be used on WordPress and many <a href="https://akismet.com/support/getting-started/does-akismet-only-work-with-wordpress/">other platforms</a>, including Drupal, phpBB3, Joomla, and&nbsp;more.</p>

<p>In terms of compatibility, Akismet offers a more streamlined, hands&#8209;off solution. This is likely ideal if you’re a busy security professional with lots of other important tasks on your&nbsp;schedule.</p>


<p>If your business only has access to a small team, you might not have the personnel required for the services that reCAPTCHA Enterprise offers. Therefore, Akismet will be a better solution for you, as it doesn’t entail much work to run and maintain.&nbsp;</p>


<h2 id="captcha-vs-recaptcha-vs-akismet-the-bottom line" class="wp-block-heading">CAPTCHA vs reCAPTCHA vs Akismet: The bottom&nbsp;line</h2>


<p>Whether you run a small business or manage a team of security experts at an enterprise, you’ll need a robust anti-spam solution for your website.&nbsp;</p>



<p>As discussed in this article, there’s no reason to use CAPTCHAs anymore, as they are outdated and present serious issues in terms of user experience and accessibility.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Meanwhile, most reCAPTCHAs can disturb the customer journey, and unless you’re using reCAPTCHA Enterprise, you’ll need to implement them on individual forms and&nbsp;pages.</p>

<p>Akismet, on the other hand, offers a complete solution for your enterprise website. What’s more, it’s cloud&#8209;based and uses sophisticated AI and machine learning to get the job&nbsp;done.</p>

<h2 id="how-to-get-started-with-akismet-in-three steps" class="wp-block-heading">How to get started with Akismet (in three&nbsp;steps)</h2>

<p>If you’ve decided to use Akismet, here’s how to set it up on a WordPress&nbsp;site.</p>

<h3 id="step-1-install-and-activate-the-akismet plugin" class="wp-block-heading">Step 1: Install and activate the Akismet&nbsp;plugin</h3>


<p>First, you’ll want to navigate to your WordPress dashboard and go to <strong>Plugins → Add New</strong>.&nbsp;</p>


<p>You should see Akismet as one of the featured options. But if not, you can use the search tool to find&nbsp;it.</p>


<img width="1600" height="612" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-14.png" alt="Akismet plugin in the WordPress Plugins section" class="wp-image-283869" />


<p>Then click <strong>Install Now</strong>, followed by&nbsp;<strong>Activate</strong>.</p>

<h3 id="step-2-set-up-your-akismet account" class="wp-block-heading">Step 2: Set up your Akismet&nbsp;account</h3>

<p>After you activate the Akismet plugin, you’ll be directed to a setup page in your WordPress dashboard. Alternatively, you could click on <strong>Settings → Akismet&nbsp;Anti&#8209;spam</strong>.</p>


<img width="1600" height="859" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-15.png" alt="prompt to set up an Akismet account" class="wp-image-283870" />


<p>To proceed, simply hit the <strong>Set up your Akismet account</strong> button. Then you’ll be led to a page that shows all the different Akismet pricing plans. You’ll need to choose a plan and sign up for an&nbsp;account.</p>

<h3 id="step-3-enter-your-api key" class="wp-block-heading">Step 3: Enter your API&nbsp;key</h3>

<p>Once you’ve purchased an Akismet plan, you’ll be given an API key to connect your account to your WordPress website. Go ahead and enter this key into&nbsp;WordPress.</p>


<img width="1600" height="303" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-16.png" alt="field to enter an API key" class="wp-image-283871" />


<p>Then, click on <strong>Connect with API key</strong>, and that’s it! Akismet doesn’t require any configuration, but <a href="https://akismet.com/support/getting-started/confirm/">you can easily check to see if it’s&nbsp;working</a>.</p>


<p>Ready to improve your site and eliminate spam? Organizations both big and small can start here: <a href="https://akismet.com/pricing/">https://akismet.com/pricing/</a>&nbsp;</p>


<h2 id="frequently-asked questions" class="wp-block-heading">Frequently asked&nbsp;questions</h2>

<p>This article has covered everything you’ll need to know about CAPTCHA vs reCAPTCHA vs Akismet. To sum up the key points, here are some answers to frequently asked questions about these&nbsp;tools.</p>

<h3 id="what-is captcha" class="wp-block-heading">What is&nbsp;CAPTCHA?</h3>

<p>CAPTCHA stands for “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart”. It’s a test or “challenge” that a site visitor must complete in order to fill out a web form. The most common types of CAPTCHAs require individuals to decipher distorted characters or select specific&nbsp;images.</p>

<p>CAPTCHAs provide a poor user experience and can lead to accessibility issues. So you’ll likely want to look for a <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/captcha-alternatives/">CAPTCHA&nbsp;alternative</a>.</p>

<h3 id="what-are-the-different-types-of captchas" class="wp-block-heading">What are the different types of&nbsp;CAPTCHAs?</h3>


<p>There are a few different types of CAPTCHAs. In the past, the most common options were character-based or image-based. These required individuals to either decipher distorted letters and numbers, or select images that contain certain elements.&nbsp;</p>


<p>There were also audio CAPTCHAs, which required visitors to listen to a series of letters and numbers, then input them into the fields&nbsp;provided.</p>

<h3 id="what-is recaptcha" class="wp-block-heading">What is&nbsp;reCAPTCHA?</h3>

<p>reCAPTCHA is an iteration of the original CAPTCHA test. It’s more user&#8209;friendly than basic CAPTCHA, and tends to be invisible. At most, it may require site visitors to check a box to confirm their&nbsp;legitimacy.</p>

<h3 id="what-is akismet" class="wp-block-heading">What is&nbsp;Akismet?</h3>

<p>Akismet is a comprehensive anti&#8209;spam software solution that you can install on the back end of your site. It uses AI and machine learning to block form spam, comment spam, and any other text&#8209;based&nbsp;spam.</p>

<h3 id="is-akismet-better-than-captcha-and recaptcha" class="wp-block-heading">Is Akismet better than CAPTCHA and&nbsp;reCAPTCHA?</h3>


<p>Akismet is a better solution than CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA. It protects against a wide net of spam (not just form spam) and can be implemented on an entire site (not just an individual page). Akismet can do this thanks to AI and machine learning.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Plus, it’s user&#8209;friendly, accessible, and discreet. It doesn’t interfere with the user experience the way that CAPTCHAs and some reCAPTCHAs do. And since it’s cloud&#8209;based, it won’t negatively impact your website’s&nbsp;performance.</p>

<h3 id="how-accurate-is-akismet-at-stopping spam" class="wp-block-heading">How accurate is Akismet at stopping&nbsp;spam?</h3>

<p>Akismet offers a 99.99% accuracy rate when stopping&nbsp;spam.</p>

<h3 id="how-many-sites-use akismet" class="wp-block-heading">How many sites use&nbsp;Akismet?</h3>

<p>More than 100 million websites use Akismet, and the software has blocked more than 548,914,109,725 pieces of spam (at the time of this writing). Furthermore, plenty of well&#8209;known brands, like Microsoft and Bluehost, use&nbsp;Akismet.</p>

<h3 id="where-can-i-learn-more-about akismet" class="wp-block-heading">Where can I learn more about&nbsp;Akismet?</h3>


<p>You can learn more about Akismet by checking out its <a href="https://akismet.com/features/">full list of features</a> on the official website.&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:"Wed, 17 Apr 2024 13:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Jen Swisher";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"Do The Woo Community: New Show, Open Talk on Open Source with Robert Jacobi and Courtney Robertson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=82929";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"https://dothewoo.io/new-show-open-talk-on-open-source-with-robert-jacobi-and-courtney-robertson/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:209:"In the premier episode of Open Talk On Open Source Show, hosts Robert and Courtney discuss their open source journeys and the need for collaboration and understanding between different open source communities.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 17 Apr 2024 08:14:32 +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:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"Do The Woo Community: From a Full Stack Developer to a Product Developer with Alexander Gilmanov";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=82913";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"https://dothewoo.io/from-a-full-stack-developer-to-a-product-developer-with-alexander-gilmanov/";s: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:161:"Alexander Gilmanov shares insights into his journey in the WordPress and WooCommerce space, growing a plugin business and the importance of community and events.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 16 Apr 2024 09:59:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:14;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"WordPress.org blog: How WordPress Is Creating a Faster 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:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=17208";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"https://wordpress.org/news/2024/04/how-wordpress-is-creating-a-faster-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:6777:"<p>Today, WordPress powers <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management">more than 40% of the web</a>. That’s a massive reach—one that comes with a similarly large responsibility. With so many people using the CMS, the WordPress community should always consider strategies for improving the visitor experience. This is where website performance plays a crucial role.</p>



<p>How fast a web page loads, how quickly a page reacts when you click a button, or how smoothly it scrolls can all significantly impact the end-user experience. A more performant site can lead to <a href="https://web.dev/case-studies/vitals-business-impact">higher reader engagement and more conversions</a>. Thankfully, over the past few years, the WordPress project has made major performance improvements across the board for the core platform, plugins, and themes.</p>



<p>Many enhancements are available out of the box, with no configuration required. They improve the website frontend&#8217;s performance—the part visitors see—and various parts of the administrative experience, such as the editor.</p>



<p>Here’s a partial list of performance upgrades from the past year:</p>



<ul>
<li>WordPress 6.3 brought several <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/09/19/analyzing-the-core-web-vitals-performance-impact-of-wordpress-6-3-in-the-field/">enhancements to image loading</a>. This resulted in an improvement of up to 21% in loading time for any WordPress page with a hero image.</li>



<li>WordPress 6.5 launched with a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/11/08/merging-performant-translations-into-core/">more efficient translation engine</a>. In benchmark testing, it improved WordPress response time by 23% for all localized WordPress sites. <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/stats/">More than 55% of all WordPress sites</a> worldwide use a language other than US English and would benefit from this enhancement.</li>



<li>WordPress 6.5 also included several performance optimizations for the Block Editor, leading to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/57935">5x faster typing processing and 2x faster load times</a> when creating or editing content in the site and post editors.</li>
</ul>



<p>In addition to the Core enhancements listed above, the WordPress project continues to work on several efforts that indirectly benefit the ecosystem&#8217;s performance.</p>



<p>For instance, WordPress Core leverages <a href="https://codehealth.vercel.app/project/wordpress">automated tooling for continuously monitoring its performance</a>, covering every product update. This helps measure new features&#8217; performance improvements and enables contributors to detect potential performance problems during the development of a new feature or release so any issues can be proactively addressed long before end users are affected. A project is currently underway to make the same tooling used by WordPress Core developers available to plugin and theme authors as well.</p>



<p>Additionally, the new <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/plugin-check/">WordPress plugin checker</a> allows checking any plugin for performance best practices, among other requirements and recommendations. The plugin checker should lead to more performance awareness in plugin authors and, eventually, faster plugins. If you develop plugins, consider integrating this tool into your development and testing workflow.</p>



<p>Last but not least, WordPress 6.5 introduced the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/04/interactivity-api-dev-note/">Interactivity API</a>, which is a technical foundation that facilitates more performant user interactions. This new infrastructure drastically simplifies the implementation of interactive website features and can even centrally control certain aspects of performance, keeping multiple independent plugins operating efficiently.</p>



<p>These performance updates result from a collaborative effort from all corners of the community, including the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/performance/handbook/about-the-team/">WordPress Performance Team</a>. This team, founded in 2021, underscores the WordPress project’s commitment to performance. And the results are substantial: Compared to a year ago, 8% more WordPress sites <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/12/19/wordpress-performance-impact-on-core-web-vitals-in-2023/">deliver good load time performance at scale</a>—significantly better than the overall web’s 5.5% load time improvement. The web is getting more performant, and WordPress is leading the way.</p>



<p>WordPress contributors are determined to continue this trend by working on further performance iterations. Whether you’re a WordPress end user, administrator, site builder, or developer, you can contribute to this effort. Anyone can test the performance features before being released in Core through individual feature plugins. Each feature can be tested via the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/performance-lab/">Performance Lab plugin</a>, so please try them! Testing features early helps the team assess their impact and collect valuable feedback.</p>



<p>Are you eager for more WordPress performance news and updates? Then check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/performance/roadmap-2024/">2024 performance roadmap</a>. Thanks to the entire community for your hard work. Not only does it ensure WordPress’ continued improvement and growth, but it benefits the entire open web.</p>



<p class="has-text-align-right"><em>Thank you to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>annezazu</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/clarkeemily/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>clarkeemily</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tweetythierry/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>tweetythierry</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/swissspidy/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>swissspidy</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/westonruter/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>westonruter</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/adamsilverstein/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>adamsilverstein</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joemcgill/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>joemcgill</a> for content review and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/provenself/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>provenself</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dansoschin/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>dansoschin</a> for editorial review.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 15 Apr 2024 14:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Felix Arntz";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 77: Let’s Talk About Data Liberation";s:7:"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=17205";s:7:"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:78:"https://wordpress.org/news/2024/04/episode-77-lets-talk-about-data-liberation/";s: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:43639:"<p>Explore the WordPress Data Liberation project in this exclusive behind-the-scenes episode discussing WordPress migrations. Joining us is WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy, along with special guest and sponsored contributor Jordan Gillman. Together, they&#8217;ll look at how the project is expanding opportunities to benefit from the freedom and flexibility WordPress offers. Don&#8217;t miss this enlightening discussion!</p>



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



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



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



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2023/04/13/idea-translate-wordpress-org-tour/">Idea: translate.wordpress.org tour</a></li>



<li><a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/">WordPress Playground</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/data-liberation/">Want to get involved with Data Liberation?</a></li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/wordpress/data-liberation">GitHub &#8211; Data Liberation</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">Making WordPress Slack</a> &#8211; <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C069AKUBPHB">data-liberation channel</a></li>



<li><strong>Small List of Big Things</strong>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2024/tickets/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordCamp US 2024 Tickets are now on Sale</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/download/releases/6-5/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WordPress 6.5 Available to Download</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/08/dropping-support-for-php-7-1/">Dropping support for PHP 7.0 and 7.1</a></li>
</ul>
</li>



<li>Have a question you&#8217;d like answered? Submit them to&nbsp;<a href="mailto:wpbriefing@WordPress.org">WPBriefing@WordPress.org</a>.</li>
</ul>



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



<span id="more-17205"></span>



<p>[00:00:00]&nbsp;<strong>Josepha:</strong>&nbsp;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.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go!&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:00:28] (Intro Music)&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:00:40] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Today, I want to talk about the Data Liberation project that we first introduced at State of the Word. It&#8217;s a very big project with a lot of philosophical underpinning. So today, I have with me Jordan Gillman, who&#8217;s going to help us dig in a little bit deeper.</p>



<p>Jordan, welcome to the show. It&#8217;s so great to have you here.</p>



<p>[00:00:57] <strong>Jordan:</strong> Thank you. It&#8217;s lovely to be here.</p>



<p>[00:00:59] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Before we get started, why don&#8217;t you tell us a little bit about yourself? Like what parts of the WordPress project you contribute to, and how long you&#8217;ve been hanging around in open source?</p>



<p>[00:01:09] <strong>Jordan:</strong> Yeah, beautiful. I would love to. My name is Jordan. I live on the east coast of Australia, about an hour out of Sydney—about 10 minutes from the beach, which is a pretty great place to live. My relationship with WordPress began 19 or 18 years ago, I guess. I was tinkering with Movable Type, and they changed their license.</p>



<p>And I went, I need to find something that&#8217;s free. And at that point, I had no idea what open source was. I just knew that I could use this WordPress platform for free to you know, tinker around and build websites. At the time, I was a graphic designer and, so web stuff was just fun. But gradually, that kind of took over, and I ended up doing a lot of front-end development and eventually freelancing for about ten years, building WordPress sites for churches and schools and kind of non-profit organizations like that. And through that, I&#8217;ve also then ended up doing some support for WordPress and landed being lucky enough now to be sponsored to contribute full-time into the WordPress project. I do a lot of work with the support team, so working in the public forums, particularly on core WordPress plugins and themes like Gutenberg and bundled themes, Twenty Twenty-Four.</p>



<p>[00:02:15] <strong>Jordan:</strong> But also working with the team itself, trying to make sure the forums are a nice place for people to hang out and answer questions and get their questions answered. And I also help out with a few other things around the place. I have an eye on the work the plugins team&#8217;s doing, working with the WordPress Foundation on a few different things. I&#8217;m lucky to have my fingers in a few pies but the biggest pie at the moment I have is the Data Liberation project.</p>



<p>[00:02:36] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Yeah. So let&#8217;s talk about that. We&#8217;re going to give everyone a quick like starting line. If, for some reason, you have not read or seen anything about the WordPress project plans so far in the last four months, you may not know what the Data Liberation project is, and that&#8217;s fine, too. Because Jordan and I are here to help you understand what it is. But, the Data Liberation project is something that Matt introduced to the project at State of the Word last year in December. And you, Jordan, are the one who are really helping us to take this project into a space where we have everything that we need, all the kind of tools and guides that users will need in order to do what exactly? Like, let&#8217;s go through what this Data Liberation project is from your standpoint and what made you excited to work on it.</p>



<p>[00:03:27] <strong>Jordan:</strong> Thank you. Yeah, so the general idea of the Data Liberation project is it should be super duper easy for anyone to bring their site to WordPress. That&#8217;s the first main part of it, is that regardless of the platform you are on currently, be it something that&#8217;s pretty open, be it something that&#8217;s really kind of walls and closed, be it a social media platform, another web building platform, it should be really easy to bring your content over to a WordPress site, because once it&#8217;s in a WordPress site, it&#8217;s essentially free. You can then take it and do what you want with it once it&#8217;s in WordPress, but we want to make it as easy as possible to get it here, basically.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:04:03] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Free as in liberated, not free as in like, now the stuff that was in your mind has no value.</p>



<p>[00:04:10] <strong>Jordan:</strong> Yeah, free as in liberated, free as in you own it and can do what you want with it. So that&#8217;s a big part of it. It&#8217;s, let&#8217;s get, make it easier for people to come to WordPress. I think it&#8217;s also important that if we&#8217;re talking about Data Liberation and freedom of content and democratizing publishing, that also means we make it easier for people to take their content from WordPress and use it somewhere else if that&#8217;s the decision that they make. And there&#8217;s some moves we can make to make that easier and nicer for people as well.</p>



<p>[00:04:37] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, recently, we just finished up an outreach period where we were making sure that we were talking to, like, folks in the community and anyone, anyone who uses WordPress that wanted to talk to us about what they needed, what they were hoping for, what issues, what pain points they&#8217;ve had when they were looking at site migrations.</p>



<p>So, what, to the best of your knowledge at the moment, like what are the big themes that you got out of that feedback loop? Out of that outreach?</p>



<p>[00:05:08] <strong>Jordan:</strong> Yeah, thank you. That was really enjoyable, actually. I was lucky enough to, I got to speak to a bunch of people in person at WordCamp Asia, which was great. We&#8217;d done some, some online, did a hallway hangout, and we&#8217;ve had a survey out for a while to folks predominantly kind of in the hosting agency freelancer space. So, folks who are working with end users who are often the ones doing migrations. We got a lot of feedback about WordPress to WordPress migration and the challenges of different hosting platforms and access from users and a bunch of information, which is useful and interesting but not immediately relevant to the comparison to migrating to WordPress from another platform entirely.<br /><br />But at the same time, talking to particularly agencies who do a lot of big-scale migrations, there&#8217;s a lot of challenges just when it comes to, for starters, getting the content out of the platform. Some platforms are kind of helpful, and they&#8217;ll even provide a WordPress formatted export. For every one of those, there are&#8230;</p>



<p>[00:06:03] <strong><strong>Josepha:</strong> </strong>That&#8217;s very helpful.</p>



<p>[00:06:05] <strong>Jordan:</strong> Yeah, those are super helpful. For every one of those there are probably two or three who aren&#8217;t as helpful, and you start to resort to tricks with, you know, manually exporting databases or getting RSS feeds and trying to convert them, or a lot of agencies said, &#8220;You know what? Often, we end up just copying and pasting page by page from the source site into a brand-new WordPress site.&#8221;<br /><br />[00:06:27] <strong>Jordan:</strong> So, there&#8217;s challenges about the access to the content. There&#8217;s lots of challenges around getting the content from the shape of one platform into WordPress. What constitutes a page? What constitutes a post? How do we handle all of the extra metadata of images and dates and taxonomies, and anything else that might be associated with a blob of content in one platform?<br /><br />How do we translate that into the way WordPress likes to handle those things? And particularly taking that to another level, even just bringing it into the Block Editor? It was great to hear how many people are just migrating straight to the Block Editor like they want the content in blocks, which is wonderful to hear.<br /><br />[00:07:05] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Yay!<br /><br />[00:07:05] <strong>Jordan:</strong> But there are challenges. I know it&#8217;s great. But there are some, there are challenges with that and getting it to kind of format the way they expect, when it comes in particularly because there&#8217;s some kind of functional challenges with that in validating the way the content comes in because it all happens client side in the browser. </p>



<p>It&#8217;s hard to do that in big batches. So, there was some really great feedback around all of those kinds of places. It was really interesting to see how much of it centers around that getting the content and then getting the content, and yeah, for the agencies I spoke to, they do a lot of trial and error of, you know, custom scripts, and let&#8217;s try it. Oh, that did this. Let&#8217;s try again with a few tweaks. So I&#8217;m excited to see how we can kind of make that easier for them and, you know, maybe get it happening first time.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:07:49] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Yeah, absolutely. It has been a long time since I migrated any sites personally, but I remember the first time that I tried to migrate a site. So, I was on Xanga before Xanga was on WordPress, and I remember that when I was like, I can&#8217;t figure out this WordPress thing, but I think I need some stuff in it so that, like, I know what it&#8217;s going to look like.</p>



<p>[00:08:11] <strong>Josepha:</strong> I know what to move around cause I didn&#8217;t know the names for anything in, in CSS or HTML. Like I didn&#8217;t know what to look for in the code, but if I had a piece of content in it, I could be like, find the content in the code and then move that. And so I was like, I&#8217;m going to export everything because there was an export option in Xanga. And move it into WordPress, and WordPress was like if you can manage to get it out of Xanga, super easy to get it in. But it was actually really difficult to figure out how to get it out. And fortunately, I&#8217;d only been writing on it for like four years, three, four years at that point. So there wasn&#8217;t like, a huge amount of content, but also, I was a pretty prolific writer. I was a bad writer, but the only way to get better at things you&#8217;re bad at is to do it a lot. So, I did a lot of bad writing for three or four years. And I think that in the end, I did, like, just pay some service to scrape everything that was public on it, and then go through and get the private things and pull it out later.</p>



<p>[00:09:08] <strong>Josepha:</strong> I think later on down the road, I did an actual like full migration when it was easier to get it done and got all the content out, including like drafts and private posts and things. So that&#8217;s good. But yeah, it was really difficult then. And then, like, we have the blocks now that are supposed to help get a little bit more consistency in the way that you can move content in and out of a WordPress site.</p>



<p>And is that something that we are then focusing on with the Data Liberation project? Is that something that&#8217;s being done in concert with our Gutenberg plugin, or like how are we accounting for that?</p>



<p>[00:09:46] <strong>Jordan:</strong> That is a great question. The way things are looking at the moment, having come out of this feedback and the way we&#8217;re looking at going forward that, that work on getting content coming into blocks is going to be a really, really major part of Data Liberation. And it kind of sits in the middle of things to my mind.</p>



<p>[00:10:01] <strong>Jordan:</strong> The improvements that we can make with handling the way content is transformed into blocks gives us the potential of wins in a lot of places. So, as long as we can get to the content, this work on HTML to blocks for a better, lack of a better way of putting it, gives us wins with importing from another platform because we can take the content in whatever form it is, turn it into blocks in the post editor.</p>



<p>It gives us wins with migrating from classic editor because, similarly, we can take the HTML of the classic editor generates and turn it into blocks. That already kind of happens, but there&#8217;s definitely some work that we can do to keep improving that. It gives us potential wins around the spaces of moving from between proprietary builders and block libraries and things. Because if we start to have a better-standardized set of ways to handle HTML into blocks. </p>



<p>Then, you can essentially move from whatever form your content is in into, you know, core native blocks in the editor. So, I think work there is going to be really important because it gives us a foundation to aim for from whatever the migration is happening from.</p>



<p>[00:11:09] <strong>Jordan:</strong> So, there&#8217;ll be some work there. There&#8217;s already work happening on the HTML API. Like, ongoingly and regularly and so we&#8217;ll be talking to those folks. There&#8217;s obviously going to be a lot of overlap with the work within Gutenberg as well, which is doing you know, parsing of content into blocks. So, it&#8217;s going to take a lot of collaboration and a lot of work from everyone, but I&#8217;m really excited because if we can get that foundational platform of transforming HTML into blocks really, really smooth, then what we can do is we can, you know, activate contributors in the community say, we&#8217;ve got this part figured out. If you can get it to here, it&#8217;s going to come in beautifully. So what we want your help with is to say, how do I get out of this platform to a format that we can do the rest? So, hopefully, we&#8217;re getting a common flow for a big part of that important migration process. And then we can throw it open to others to say, &#8220;You&#8217;ve got expertise with this platform. That&#8217;s excellent. Can you get us to here? And we&#8217;ll take it from there.&#8221; And maybe we&#8217;ll get some wins by doing that work in parallel, and we&#8217;ll really start to see some movement.</p>



<p>[00:12:13] <strong>Josepha:</strong> And speaking of the, we&#8217;ll take it from there. I know that also, in addition to the work that you are doing with Data Liberation and that is happening on the Gutenberg side and WordPress core in general, we also have a little bit of work happening on the after you get it to here point.</p>



<p>So, the folks over at Playground have been doing a bit of research about how to use the guides and tools that are in the Data Liberation repo. To run all of that through Playground so that you can not only like import it, but you can put it into Playground and check it before you launch it in someplace else, which I think is a great user-facing, like, super important thing for an everyday user to be able to have at their fingertips that way.</p>



<p>But then also the tour plugin that was built, I think specifically for the Polyglots team, is where we are looking at using, and I can&#8217;t remember which little project we&#8217;re doing some research on to make this possible, but we&#8217;re looking at taking that tour plugin and making it so that anyone can build a tour on anyone&#8217;s version of something in a browser so that you can just say, okay, so I did these things. I got it to here as you requested. I&#8217;m moving it to here. But now that I have got it into WordPress, what are the literal buttons I have to press in order to make sure it&#8217;s live? What do I literally have to press in order to make sure that I&#8217;m in the right time zone? Like, things like that. And we tested it on Wix, and it was able to work.</p>



<p>[00:13:40] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Not that we&#8217;re trying to get anyone to Wix. But on the subject of, like, getting things out of WordPress and into someone else, that sounds counterintuitive for folks, like, you&#8217;re here listening to a WordPress podcast, and we&#8217;re talking about how and why we want to make it easier for people to get their content to us, of course, but then also, if needed, get it out of a version of WordPress and either into a different version of WordPress with a new host or, whatever.</p>



<p>Or if this is not your long-term destination, which we think it will be once you figure us out, but like, if it&#8217;s not, like, how to get out of it, too. So, from your perspective, how does that fit with the basic philosophies of open source or of WordPress in general?</p>



<p>[00:14:24] <strong>Jordan:</strong> Yeah, thank you. If I may, there&#8217;s a couple of things I wanted to touch on from what you&#8217;ve said. First of all the other work that is going on in the project at the moment that you mentioned, the tour guide and the Playground, I think both of those are going to be super important to the approach we take to Data Liberation.</p>



<p>I wanted to elaborate just a little bit on the Playground because I&#8217;m particularly excited about the potential that gives for two particular scenarios two particular use cases for migration. One is, where I&#8217;ve already set up a WordPress site, I&#8217;ve got the theme that I&#8217;d like, and I&#8217;ve got some, you know, some plugins, maybe I&#8217;ve got a little bit there, but I want to import content, but I want to check how it is the potential for the Playground to make essentially a staging copy of my site and migrate the content into that staging copy so I can see how it lands in my chosen theme and check everything out and then go, yep, that looks great. And apply it. That&#8217;s great for it&#8217;s safe. You can check how it looks before it&#8217;s, you know, committed. So that&#8217;s brilliant. I&#8217;m excited about that. I&#8217;m also excited about the potential it has for people who don&#8217;t know WordPress, or don&#8217;t have a WordPress site, or they don&#8217;t have a host, they don&#8217;t have anything.</p>



<p>[00:15:30] <strong>Jordan:</strong> But if they can say, I want to see how this would go in WordPress. Playground, through some platform, somewhere, will allow them to just have an immediate in-browser preview of what their site would look like on WordPress. And if they like it, we then move them. We help them find a host. We help them export that in a way that they can use, but it helps the people who already have sites.</p>



<p>But I think, more importantly, it helps those who don&#8217;t have a site yet. And they don&#8217;t have to set up an empty WordPress install in order to start migrating. They can just get into it.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:16:01] <strong>Josepha:</strong> And also, you don&#8217;t have to, like know who your host needs to be before you can take a look at the back end of a WordPress site and see if it makes sense to you. Like I think that that is a huge, huge win on behalf of users, current users, and future users of WordPress.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s the try before you buy. Come kick our tires without having to find a server. If you all don&#8217;t know what we&#8217;re talking about, if you have not heard of Playground yet, you can go to playground.WordPress.net and give it a try. It&#8217;s a one-click, serverless local version of WordPress that you can test out themes on and plugins, and just like put all your data into all your content into, and pretty soon also be able to export or just load directly onto the host of your choice. It&#8217;s really, really cool.</p>



<p>[00:16:44] <strong>Jordan:</strong> It&#8217;s, it&#8217;s pretty much magic, I think.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:16:47] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Yes, I remember the first hackathon where we took it because we took it basically on a hackathon roadshow for six months. I remember the first one we took it to. Routinely, we could get developers, not me, routinely, Adam Zieliński could get a developer to do the thing, and they&#8217;d be like, I can do it if you&#8217;re next to me telling me what to do, but it&#8217;s literal magic. I don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s happening. And he was like, okay, I&#8217;ll come explain it to you. And like, he was using English, but also I was like, that is still magic. I&#8217;m so glad someone understands it. It&#8217;s brilliant.</p>



<p>[00:17:18] <strong>Jordan:</strong> Yeah, so the Playground I&#8217;m super excited by. I think it&#8217;s going to be really important. The tour stuff the tour functionality is going to be really important as well. Because on some level, We&#8217;re going to have to wrap all of this work on improving HTML to blocks, the process of taking an export file and importing it into WordPress, the process of telling people how to get the content, all that&#8217;s going to have to be ideally wrapped up in a nice user-friendly way so that users aren&#8217;t having to, you know, read plain text articles and then going and installing a plugin and all of those kinds of things.</p>



<p>I think the potential for the tours is we may have some kind of wrapper plugin or something which will detect the platform of your existing site if you put the URL in, and it will start walking you through the steps. So, part of that might be action you need to take on your existing platform, and we have some of that information already in the guides on the Data Liberation site at WordPress.org/data-liberation. That information is already there, but I&#8217;m hoping that we can start pulling those guides into the WP Admin so you just get walked through it while you&#8217;re there. And we can start using the tour functionality to really specifically pinpoint: you need to go here, now you can do this, go and click this, and just walk users through that migration process a little bit more neatly.</p>



<p>[00:18:37] <strong>Jordan:</strong> I&#8217;m really excited that we&#8217;re going to be able to utilize a lot of these existing projects that are exciting and happening at the moment. And I think, ideally, they&#8217;re all going to make it much easier for users to not have to jump through so many hoops. And the hoops that they do have to jump through, we can hold their hand while they do it.</p>



<p>[00:18:54] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Yeah, absolutely. Create safe scaffolding for fun, I used to say.</p>



<p>[00:18:59] <strong>Jordan:</strong> So those are the two projects existing that are happening at the moment that I&#8217;m excited about rolling into and working with for the Data Liberation work.</p>



<p>[00:19:07] <strong>Jordan:</strong> You also asked about the getting content back out, which is something that I&#8217;m particularly passionate about, I suppose. Which may be ironic when a lot of the aim of this project is to get people into WordPress. But I&#8217;m a really firm believer that if our mission is to democratize publishing, then that doesn&#8217;t mean just get everyone onto WordPress and go, yes, now you&#8217;re trapped. It&#8217;s like the Hotel California, you can never leave. If we&#8217;re going to be, you know, fully all in on democratizing publishing, then that means giving folks the freedom to take their content to do with it, whatever they want. It&#8217;s fair to say at the moment that that is possible.</p>



<p>So you can export your content from WordPress. We don&#8217;t hang onto it. We don&#8217;t lock it down. You can take it. At the moment, the format that you get that content in has some limitations. It&#8217;s fair to say it doesn&#8217;t handle bringing the media of your site particularly well unless you&#8217;re turning it into another WordPress site somewhere else.</p>



<p>So, the export functionality is very, very focused at the moment on migration to another host, or to a local site, or to another WordPress installation, basically. But if you want to use that content for something else, maybe another platform. Maybe you just want to have a copy of your blog posts that you can.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:20:17] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Print it into a book.</p>



<p>[00:20:18] <strong>Jordan:</strong> Yeah, to put into a book. Maybe you want to put it on a thumb drive and put it in a lockbox somewhere. Maybe you want some kind of hundred-year archive of your intellectual property that you&#8217;ve written and created. And so I think we&#8217;ve got some room to make improvements there. Not only to the way we provide content for other platforms to pick up and bring in but also just in the ways that we provide content to users who just really want to have a physical, digital copy of what they&#8217;ve created.&nbsp;</p>



<p>There are some challenges at the moment when you get an export, if you&#8217;ve got shortcodes in your content, if you&#8217;ve got content that&#8217;s generated by plugins, all kinds of dynamic content that is great when it&#8217;s a website, and WordPress is wonderful. And there&#8217;s all of these options, but if you take an export, you have references to those functions, and you have references to those shortcodes, which aren&#8217;t actually fully realized. So I think there&#8217;s some room for us to investigate what does a better export for other platforms look like and what does a better export for &#8220;I want to print it out or turn it into a book or just have a static version of that&#8221; content look like. And so I&#8217;m particularly excited about that, even though it&#8217;s kind of, bring it in, and we want to let them get it out. But that&#8217;s part of the whole liberation of data, I suppose, is, you know, the freedom to do with it what you want.</p>



<p>[00:21:40] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Yes, absolutely. And everything that increases freedom on the open web, I think we are in favor of. So, I don&#8217;t know if you follow many, like WordPress futurists, our people who are out there saying, if only WordPress had these additional 2,500 hours worth of work, then we could do this with it. Like, I don&#8217;t know if you follow a lot of them.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:22:02] <strong>Josepha:</strong> But, a lot of them look at that thing that Matt said, like, I want to say, five years ago about WordPress becoming the operating system of the web and putting some thought into what would be required to make that possible. And when we look at composable CMSs, like the option to have something that is a framework and a core of what you are doing in your digital experience of the web. And making it possible to add anything to it required.&nbsp;</p>



<p>I think that also the work that we&#8217;re doing with Data Liberation to provide a little bit more consistency and just standardization of the way that content comes in and out, I think, can only help with that potential future implementation of WordPress as the operating system for the web so that you have this basic place where you hold and manage all your content and also not only does WordPress cooperate nicely with all these other tools and applications that you can put on top of it but also all of the content has standard conversational touch points and so everything moves quickly in and out including the dynamic content that is maybe being created inside your WordPress core itself. I think that is also a really important not primary focus, but certainly future-like, if only we could get to that state kind of focus.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:23:31] <strong>Josepha:</strong> I&#8217;m really interested. I think that the Data Liberation project is big, and I know that we expected primarily only new contributors to work on it, but honestly, we know that&#8217;s not the case. It&#8217;s you&#8217;re working on old WordPress in here and so not necessarily new contributors. But I think that you&#8217;re right that the place for new contributors to help us is saying like we can get the content to here, we can get the data to here, and then we need help getting it into WordPress or help getting it into something else.</p>



<p>So, as like a last question here, or if you have things to add to that, and then I can do last question.</p>



<p>[00:24:04] <strong>Jordan:</strong> Okay, so to loop back to your conversation about futurists and moving content and stuff, I am really excited about this idea that the open web at the moment, I think, is really, really exciting. I just started mucking around with federating my content in the fediverse. Again, recently, I tried it a little while ago and really struggled, but I&#8217;ve just started again, and it&#8217;s sitting really comfortably with me, and it&#8217;s, it&#8217;s feeling like it&#8217;s a great time for posting and owning your content, and then syndicating it elsewhere. I have seen a couple of really interesting conversations about what you were saying about, like I&#8217;ve seen the conversations in the past about, you know, operating system of the web, but also some talk and ideas recently about what would it look like if we stored all of our data in a WordPress instance?</p>



<p>What if all of my photos aren&#8217;t on Instagram? They are on my WordPress site. What if I pull in my Fitbit or my Strava information and just store it in WordPress so that I can do with it what I want once it&#8217;s there? What if I, I don&#8217;t know, what if I pull in kind of all of my different sources of data and I, and I house them in WordPress and then I can do with them what they want, would do with them what I want.</p>



<p>[00:25:08] <strong>Jordan:</strong> And that is when the Data Liberation stuff becomes especially important because if it&#8217;s your everything, you want to take your everything somewhere else. But I&#8217;m really excited for kind of all of that kind of space at the moment and giving people the freedom to own that data and when they create stuff.</p>



<p>In actual fact, this is one of the things that you said in your talk at WordCamp Asia, which has really stuck with me was, and I can&#8217;t remember the exact phrase, but you said if you&#8217;re going to do all of this work of creating something, you may as well do it somewhere where you own it and can keep it. And that, for me, is just such a strong driver for getting people onto WordPress. Particularly from, at the moment, social media platforms. I&#8217;ve got two young daughters who are just getting to the age where they&#8217;re creating videos at home, which aren&#8217;t being published anywhere, but they&#8217;re starting to. They&#8217;ve got friends who are doing YouTube channels, and they&#8217;ve got friends on Instagram.</p>



<p>And I&#8217;m looking at all of that going, I get the urge to create, and I get the urge to publish, but I want them to have an alternative to do all of that so that in five years&#8217; time, ten years time, whatever it is, when they go, wow, I did all of this stuff. I don&#8217;t want that owned by someone else. I&#8217;ve created all this, and I&#8217;m excited by the possibility of having that become a simpler, more user-friendly, accessible option to folks, where it becomes just as easy to have a WordPress site, which is your Instagram feed or a WordPress site, which is your YouTube channel or something like that, where you own it, and you just create it, and it exists. And Data Liberation means you want to take a copy of all that stuff, go for it, download an archive, you know, print out the photos, do whatever you want, but they&#8217;re yours. You have them. And so, it&#8217;s really feeling like all of that is coalescing together a little bit at the moment. I think it&#8217;s a really exciting time.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:26:52] <strong>Josepha:</strong> And also, like, since we&#8217;re just meandering around in philosophical spaces, two philosophical thoughts. One, I really, really feel like it&#8217;s important and valuable for people to document their lives. I have a pretty private social media presence; mostly, if you&#8217;re following me on social media, it&#8217;s because, like, you have literally been in my living room or you&#8217;re looking for WordPress news. Like that&#8217;s it. But I am constantly am documenting my life just for myself, like the folks who are listening, which is everybody, because we don&#8217;t do video, will not know that I have back behind me a shelf that is nothing but journals from my leadership journey, like from the moment that I realized that like leadership was something that was a skill and could change people&#8217;s lives like I&#8217;ve done nothing but document like I ran into this problem. This is the research that I did to figure out what was happening and not, and just like it&#8217;s really mundane things in my work now. But the work and the process of documenting, like, what&#8217;s happening for you and with you in your life and how you&#8217;re interacting with it, like, it&#8217;s just important for your mental health and for your understanding of the passage of time.</p>



<p>[00:28:05] <strong>Josepha:</strong> But then also you were talking about, like, having a hundred-year archive of your thoughts and things, like, there will be a point at which digital information being ephemeral because it&#8217;s just electricity wandering around between screens, like, it&#8217;s prone to getting lost in the same way that physical things are prone to getting lost, but the loss is less acute in the moment.</p>



<p>And so you can accidentally lose it. And I think that that&#8217;s a real long-term not problem for society necessarily, but I think it is something from a societal standpoint where we&#8217;re gonna, at some point in the near future, realize that some of us have huge missing gaps where we, like just got rid of everything that we ever documented because we had a moment on social media or because it seemed like the only way to reclaim our content or our data or our privacy or whatever it was. And so I have a yeah. I love it. I love everything that we&#8217;re talking about, about the speculative future and WordPress. And so yes, now, well, now everybody knows all my thoughts on speculative WordPress.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:29:06] <strong>Jordan:</strong> There&#8217;s an interesting philosophical conversation which we&#8217;re like coming towards of what&#8217;s the equivalent in a hundred years, in 200 years of now, of the Library of Congress for philosophical and powerful writing. There is so much great stuff that is written on the web, and it just exists there.</p>



<p>In a hundred years, when people are writing about the early work of an artist or a politician or, you know, a notable figure, we don&#8217;t, we&#8217;re not going to have handwritten letters. We&#8217;re not going to have correspondence. But we&#8217;ll have tweets. We could have blog posts. Like, it interests me to think, like, the stuff that we take for granted of historical creation is happening digitally now. And so, equivalently, in the future, how, how is that gonna get retained? How much amazing knowledge and thinking is gonna just, you know, have their hosting account expire and get removed? And it&#8217;s an, it&#8217;s it&#8217;s a big conversation, but it&#8217;s an interesting one.</p>



<p>[00:30:09] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Yeah. Oh, what a fascinating discussion we&#8217;ve had today. So, by way of wrapping up our discussion here, why don&#8217;t you give us a sense for, like, if you are a user of WordPress and you were like, this sounds really interesting, I want to learn more, where can they go? But also, if you are someone who wants to learn how to contribute to WordPress and this sounds like a good opportunity for you to get started with that. Where can people find more about this project, about how to get started, how to contribute, all that stuff?&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:30:38] <strong>Jordan:</strong> If you are someone who is hearing about this for the first time and coming to it pretty fresh and haven&#8217;t been working in the WordPress community much before. The best place to go will be WordPress.org/data-liberation, that will give you not only access to the tools and guides that exist but also some information on where the development and discussion is happening.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s the easiest pathway to find your way into those conversations as well. For folks who already have a little bit of experience and, it may be contributed code or a part of discussions already. The place to go to would be github.com/WordPress/data-liberation. That&#8217;s where there&#8217;s a lot of discussion. That&#8217;s where the existing tools and guides are being managed and worked on. So, if you really want to dive in. Please come and join us there. There are discussions to be had. There are ideas to be floated. That&#8217;s where all of the boots-on-the-ground work is going to be happening.</p>



<p>[00:31:25] <strong>Jordan:</strong> The other great place is within the Make WordPress Slack organization. And we have a Data Liberation channel in there. That is primarily where we have higher-level conversations, and we chat about stuff, and I&#8217;m hoping that becomes a real hub for work-adjacent discussion. So GitHub is going to be for all of this is where all the work&#8217;s happening, but the Slack channel is where people can share their thoughts on what&#8217;s possible, and big picture ideas, and that kind of stuff. So those will be the three best places. WordPress.org/data-liberation for the overview, github.com/WordPress/data-liberation for where the work&#8217;s actually happening, and WordPress Slack in the Data Liberation channel. If you want to come and chat more about the possibilities and, you know, helping get the future of the open web happening.</p>



<p>[00:32:17] <strong>Josepha:</strong> I mean, that is an enticing call to action. We&#8217;ll have links to all of the, all three of those in the show notes, as well as links to everything that we kind of mentioned over the course of our conversation. But Jordan, thank you so much for joining me today.</p>



<p>[00:32:32] <strong>Jordan:</strong> Thank you so much for having me. It&#8217;s been great.</p>



<p>[00:32:34] (Music interlude)&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:32:41] <strong>Josepha:</strong> And now it&#8217;s time for our small list of big things. I&#8217;ve got three things for you this week.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The first thing on the list is that WordCamp US tickets are now on sale. So that event is happening from September 17th through the 20th in Portland, Oregon. There are general admission tickets and micro sponsor tickets available. And if you have seen the cost of the ticket but had not quite noted the length of the event, I just want to assure you that the cost per day is the same now as it was and has been for years. It&#8217;s still that same 25-dollar-a-day ticket that you&#8217;ve got; it&#8217;s just that it&#8217;s four days long this time. We&#8217;ll have a link to the tickets in the show notes, but then also you can always wander over to us.wordcamp.org, and it&#8217;ll take you right there.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The second thing on our list is that WordPress 6.5 is here. It is named Regina. If you listened to our show last week, you know that it was a huge release and kind of has something for everyone. So, if you have not yet downloaded it to take a look at it, do that. If you have not updated your sites yet, run a backup because you should always do a backup and then get that on your site and start testing everything out.</p>



<p>And the third thing on our big list, our small list of big things, is actually that we&#8217;re looking at dropping support for PHP 7. 0 and 7. 1 in upcoming releases of WordPress this year. It should not be too disruptive a change. However, it is going to take a lot of people to test it and make sure that everything&#8217;s working as we want it to work and as we need it to work. And so while we head toward that, I want to make sure you&#8217;ve got the resources that you need to know what&#8217;s happening, where it&#8217;s happening, how it&#8217;s going to affect you. I&#8217;ll leave some resources in the show notes for that as well.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:34:27] <strong>Josepha:</strong> And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Don&#8217;t forget to follow us on your favorite podcast app or subscribe directly on WordPress.org/news. You&#8217;ll get a friendly reminder whenever there&#8217;s a new episode. If you liked what you heard today, share it with a fellow WordPresser, or if you had questions about what you heard, you can share those with me at WPBriefing@WordPress.org. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Thanks for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing, and I&#8217;ll see you again in a couple of weeks.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:34:54] (Music outro)&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:"Mon, 15 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Brett McSherry";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"Do The Woo Community: All Things WordPress 6.5 with Anne McCarthy and Bud Kraus";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=82889";s:7:"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:78:"https://dothewoo.io/all-things-wordpress-6-5-with-anne-mccarthy-and-bud-kraus/";s: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:298:"In the latest episode of The WordPress Way, host Abha and guests Anne McCarthy and Bud Kraus deep-dive into the details of the recent WordPress 6.5 release. They discuss the new font library feature, enhancements in revisions, plugin dependencies, and the significance of data views plus a lot more";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 15 Apr 2024 10:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:11:"
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:53:"HeroPress: WCEU, Overcoming Limits, A Visit To Torino";s:7:"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=6676";s:7:"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:147:"https://heropress.com/wceu-overcoming-limits-a-visit-to-torino/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wceu-overcoming-limits-a-visit-to-torino";s: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:12370:"<img width="768" height="1024" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/861643910234c0390.14265675-rotated-1-768x1024.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Bicycles in Piazza San Carlo - Turin" /><div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-6676_e6503c-43"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>


<div class="kb-row-layout-wrap kb-row-layout-id6676_7d9033-94 alignnone kt-row-has-bg wp-block-kadence-rowlayout"><div class="kt-row-column-wrap kt-has-1-columns kt-row-layout-equal kt-tab-layout-inherit kt-mobile-layout-row kt-row-valign-top kb-theme-content-width">

<div class="wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column6676_75aa20-5c inner-column-1"><div class="kt-inside-inner-col">
<h2 class="kt-adv-heading6676_8ef415-a0 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading">WordCamp Europe 2024 In Torino Italy!</h2>



<div class="wp-block-kadence-image kb-image6676_750fd9-20"><a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2024/schedule/" class="kb-advanced-image-link"><img width="1024" height="296" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/wceu_updates-1024x296.jpg" alt="WCEU Latest Updates" class="kb-img wp-image-6680" /></a></div>



<p>This week the WCEU crew announced the <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2024/schedule/">schedule</a> for the event. Someone recently mentioned to me that we seem to have moved forward quite a bit regarding diversity, and I agree. </p>



<p>Contributor day <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2024/contributor-day/">registration</a> is also open. If you&#8217;ve never been to a contributor day at a big WordCamp I highly recommend it.  It&#8217;s quite different from a small camp.</p>



<p>Lastly, <a href="https://b09g9.r.sp1-brevo.net/mk/cl/f/sh/SMK1E8tHeG7uhthZ8hSlW9L0vytS/HPvqHlk-yGv5">Visa invitation letters are now available</a>, so if you need that to get to Italy I recommend starting that process as quickly as possible.</p>
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<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-6676_653e6c-d2"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>


<div class="kb-row-layout-wrap kb-row-layout-id6676_b27eb7-3e alignnone kt-row-has-bg wp-block-kadence-rowlayout"><div class="kt-row-column-wrap kt-has-1-columns kt-row-layout-equal kt-tab-layout-inherit kt-mobile-layout-row kt-row-valign-top kb-theme-content-width">

<div class="wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column6676_569127-df inner-column-1"><div class="kt-inside-inner-col">
<h2 class="kt-adv-heading6676_b7b26d-d0 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading"><a href="https://heropress.com/">HeroPress.com</a> &#8211; <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/words-to-wordpress-the-uncharted-path-of-syed-laden/"></a><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/the-time-i-left-my-island-quella-volta-che-sono-uscito-dalla-mia-isola/">The Time I Left My Island – Quella volta che sono uscito dalla mia isola</a></h2>




<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<a href="https://heropress.com/essays/the-time-i-left-my-island-quella-volta-che-sono-uscito-dalla-mia-isola/"><img width="300" height="300" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/matteo-min-300x300.jpg" alt="Matteo Enna" class="wp-image-6652" /></a></div>


<p>Matteo Enna was born and raised on an island, Sardinia in the Mediterranean. The sea protected him from people, the world, and everything.</p>



<p><em>My story begins here, with a strong introversion orchestrating my life, a passion for computer science, PHP which had been accompanying me for about 5 years, and some small attempts to overcome my shyness.</em></p>



<p>Mattero&#8217;s&#8217;s essay is <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/the-time-i-left-my-island-quella-volta-che-sono-uscito-dalla-mia-isola/">available</a> on <a href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress.com</a>.</p>
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<div class="wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-6676_d45f15-09"><div class="kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center"><hr class="kt-divider" /></div></div>


<div class="kb-row-layout-wrap kb-row-layout-id6676_e64ecb-bf alignnone kt-row-has-bg wp-block-kadence-rowlayout"><div class="kt-row-column-wrap kt-has-1-columns kt-row-layout-equal kt-tab-layout-inherit kt-mobile-layout-row kt-row-valign-top kb-theme-content-width">

<div class="wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column6676_cd0912-23 inner-column-1"><div class="kt-inside-inner-col">
<h2 class="kt-adv-heading6676_0a1329-f0 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading"><a href="https://wppodcasts.com">WP Podcasts</a></h2>





<a href="https://wppodcasts.com"><img src="https://heropressnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/pocket_casts_single_315.png" alt="Pocket Casts image" class="wp-image-4316" /></a>



<p>There were <em>thirty-six</em> WordPress podcast episodes released this week! Also, <a href="https://underrepresented-in-tech-1.castos.com/episodes/new-cohost-and-partner#new_tab">Underrepresented in Tech has a new cohost</a>! I&#8217;ve known Samah Nasr for a couple years now, and she&#8217;s a fantastic pick!</p>



<p>FURTHERMORE, The WordPress Podcast has added a <em>fifth</em> translation to their arsenal!  Check out the <a href="https://wppodcasts.com/podcast/wordpress-podcast-deutsch/">Deutch</a> version!</p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://dothewoo.io/introducing-groundbreaker-empowering-women-in-tech-in-uganda/#new_tab">Introducing Groundbreaker, Empowering Women in Tech in Uganda</a> from <a href="https://wppodcasts.com/podcast/do-the-woo-a-woocommerce-podcast/">Do the Woo &#8211; A WooCommerce Podcast</a></li>



<li><a href="https://share.transistor.fm/s/ad6e19da#new_tab">Looking ahead to WordPress 6.6</a> from <a href="https://wppodcasts.com/podcast/the-wp-minute/">The WP Minute</a></li>



<li><a href="https://unbilleteachattanooga.com/episodio-257-de-pintxos-por-wordcamp-bilbao-con-fran-madrillano/#new_tab">Episodio 257: De pintxos por WordCamp Bilbao, con Fran Madrillano</a> from <a href="https://wppodcasts.com/podcast/un-billete-a-chattanooga/">Un billete a Chattanooga</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wpcoffeetalk.castos.com/episodes/wpcoffeetalk-hazel-quimpo#new_tab">WPCoffeeTalk: Hazel Quimpo</a> from <a href="https://wppodcasts.com/podcast/wpcoffeetalk/">WPCoffeeTalk</a></li>
</ul>



<p>There are new episodes every single day, so be sure to stop by <a href="https://wppodcasts.com">WPPodcasts.com</a> and search for things that interest you!</p>
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<div class="kb-row-layout-wrap kb-row-layout-id6676_05f4fd-e9 alignnone kt-row-has-bg wp-block-kadence-rowlayout"><div class="kt-row-column-wrap kt-has-1-columns kt-row-layout-equal kt-tab-layout-inherit kt-mobile-layout-row kt-row-valign-top kb-theme-content-width">

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<h2 id="wpphotos" class="kt-adv-heading6676_f6d5b2-4b wp-block-kadence-advancedheading"><a href="https://wordpress.org/photos">WP Photos</a></h2>



<p>Here are some of the great photos submitted to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos">WPPhotos</a> project this week!</p>




<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/88166195b49103be7.73317852-scaled.jpg"><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/88166195b49103be7.73317852-1024x683.jpg" alt="Scottish highland cow walking in the heath" class="wp-image-6688" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/88166195b4/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/ramonvanraaij/">Rámon van Raaij</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/346661b9e0cb19533.76383018-scaled.jpg"><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/346661b9e0cb19533.76383018-1024x683.jpg" alt="A tiny spider of 1mm in size (cricket-bat orbweaver) touching and feeling two threads of it’s web, patiently waiting for it’s next meal." class="wp-image-6687" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/346661b9e0/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/ramonvanraaij/">Rámon van Raaij</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/95661a3b98e44915.97778049-scaled.jpg"><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/95661a3b98e44915.97778049-1024x683.jpg" alt="A black-orange bug (Cercopis vulnerata, en: Black-and-red Froghopper, dt: Blutzikade) on the tip of a green fern frond" class="wp-image-6686" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/95661a3b98/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/werkform/">werkform</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/417661a5b074b8106.10890799-scaled.jpg"><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/417661a5b074b8106.10890799-1024x683.jpg" alt="Brown longhaired cows with a calf in pasture with a river in the background" class="wp-image-6685" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/417661a5b0/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/ramonvanraaij/">Rámon van Raaij</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/531661ad94d12f749.22038538-scaled.jpeg"><img width="844" height="1024" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/531661ad94d12f749.22038538-844x1024.jpeg" alt="A close-up of a tabby cat with green eyes, slightly open mouth showing teeth, standing on a wooden floor." class="wp-image-6684" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/531661ad94/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/mbigul/">Bigul Malayi</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/5616618ae7c4966d5.43056222-rotated-1-scaled.jpeg"><img width="768" height="1024" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/5616618ae7c4966d5.43056222-rotated-1-768x1024.jpeg" alt="Statue of lord Krishna and Arjun representing the Mahabharat battle of Hindu religion." class="wp-image-6683" /></a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/5616618ae7/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/kafleg/">KafleG</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.




<p>Be sure to check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">hundreds of other great photos</a>!</p>
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<p>The banner at the top of this post is a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/8616439102/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/elisascagnetti/">elisascagnetti</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.</p>





<p>That&#8217;s it for this week! If you&#8217;d like to get this post in your email every week, <a href="https://heropressnetwork.com/newsletter">make sure you sign up</a>!</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://heropress.com/wceu-overcoming-limits-a-visit-to-torino/">WCEU, Overcoming Limits, A Visit To Torino</a> appeared first on <a href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 14 Apr 2024 17:40:09 +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:"";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:119:"Gutenberg Times: Grid Layouts are coming, Playground for preview, Interactivity API in the wild — Weekend Edition 291";s:7:"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=28216";s:7:"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:124:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/grid-layouts-are-coming-playground-for-preview-interactivity-api-in-the-wild-weekend-edition-291/";s: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:18048:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>Don&#8217;t forget to save the date for the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/04/hallway-hangout-lets-chat-about-whats-next-in-gutenberg/"><strong>Hallway Hangout: Let’s chat about what’s next in Gutenberg</strong></a> on April 24 at 11 pm UTC / 7pm EDT  / 4 pm PDT / 1 am CEST</p>



<p><strong>Rob Cairns</strong> and I chatted on his podcast about <a href="https://stunningdigitalmarketing.com/episode-405-wordpress-6-5-and-beyond-with-birgit-pauli-haack/">WordPress 6.5 and beyond</a>. </p>



<p>Spring is back in Munich and it&#8217;s beautiful. We are really pushing getting out and walking around town, along the river or in our big park, with 5,000 other individualists.</p>



<p>Have a splendid weekend ahead! </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br /><em>Birgit</em></p>



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



<ol><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/grid-layouts-are-coming-playground-for-preview-interactivity-api-in-the-wild-weekend-edition-291/#0-word-press-release-information">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/grid-layouts-are-coming-playground-for-preview-interactivity-api-in-the-wild-weekend-edition-291/#0-p">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/grid-layouts-are-coming-playground-for-preview-interactivity-api-in-the-wild-weekend-edition-291/#2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/grid-layouts-are-coming-playground-for-preview-interactivity-api-in-the-wild-weekend-edition-291/#3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor. </a></li></ol>
</div></div>



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



<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong>, and others collected for you <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/04/10/whats-new-for-developers-april-2024/"><strong>What’s new for developers? (April 2024)</strong></a> around WordPress 6.5, Core track and Gutenberg plugin. The table of contents listed 21 separate updates separated for Plugins developer and theme builders. </p>



<img width="652" height="334" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-1.png?resize=652%2C334&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-28263" /><em>Separate Color Style variations in sidebar. </em>



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<p>On April 9th, <strong>Aaron Jorbin</strong> and the merry band of Core contributors published the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/04/wordpress-6-5-2-maintenance-and-security-release/"><strong>WordPress 6.5.2 Maintenance and Security Release</strong></a>. &#8220;<strong>Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately.</strong>&nbsp;Backports are also available for other major WordPress releases, 6.1 and later.&#8221; Jorbin emphasized. Go and update if you haven&#8217;t yet. This can wait. </p>



<p class="has-accent-color has-light-background-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-b6fe42ed62408b6fe464d62777dc0282">🎙️ Latest episode: <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-98/">Gutenberg Changelog #98 – WordPress 6.5, Gutenberg 18.0 Community Theme Project and the Contributor Mentorship Program</a> with special guest Maggie Cabrera</p>



<p>Release lead, <strong>Ramon Dodd</strong>, published Gutenberg plugin version 18.1 and highlighted in his post <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/10/whats-new-in-gutenberg-18-1-10-april/"><strong>What’s new in Gutenberg 18.1? (10 April)</strong></a>:</p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/10/whats-new-in-gutenberg-18-1-10-april/#set-site-background-images-in-the-site-editor">Set site background images in the Site Editor</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/10/whats-new-in-gutenberg-18-1-10-april/#see-more-with-data-views">See more with data views</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/10/whats-new-in-gutenberg-18-1-10-april/#pattern-schema-and-insertion">Pattern schema and insertion</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/10/whats-new-in-gutenberg-18-1-10-april/#swap-and-edit-template-parts">Swap and edit template parts</a></li>
</ul>



<img width="652" height="376" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/18-1_background-1024x590-1.png?resize=652%2C376&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-28244" /><em>Sidewide background image</em>



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> demo&#8217;d in this video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN_LaenY8bI"><strong>WordPress Playground: the ultimate learning, testing, &amp; teaching tool for WordPress</strong></a>. WordPress Playground is an open-source project that makes makes WordPress instantly accessible for users, learners, extenders, and contributors.  Thanks to the easy creation of instant, temporary WordPress sites in your browser, you don&#8217;t need a server or a test site or local environment. &#8220;At a high level, watching this video will give you a glimpse of what it is, what it does, and how you can use it today. I highly recommend getting comfortable using it, especially as we look to the future of WordPress.&#8221; McCarthy wrote.</p>



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<p><strong>Estela Rueda</strong> invites designers and theme builders to provide feedback <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2024/04/09/the-new-grid-experience-feedback-needed/"><strong>The new grid experience</strong>.</a> The grid aims to enhance the visual layout capabilities within WordPress by making it more flexible and easier to use for various design needs. To gather a wide range of opinions and suggestions, the team is reaching out and encouraging people to participate in the feedback process. By visiting the provided link, users can learn more about the new grid experience and contribute their input to help shape this upcoming feature.</p>



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<p><strong>Joen Asmussen</strong> highlighted in his <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2024/04/08/design-share-mar-25-apr-5/"><strong>Design Share: Mar 25-Apr 5</strong></a> the design team&#8217;s work for the last two weeks, mostly about refinements of the data views.</p>



<ul>
<li>Site Editor animation refinements</li>



<li>Badge fields</li>



<li>Explore&nbsp;UX&nbsp;around customizing bundled data views</li>



<li>Bulk actions toolbar</li>



<li>WP.org Homepage Updates</li>



<li>Block&nbsp;Naming &amp; Connections</li>
</ul>



<img width="652" height="303" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/design-share-bundle-views.webp?resize=652%2C303&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-28264" /><em>Bundled data views</em>


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							<div class="ngl-article-featured"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/about-wordpress-6-5-all-in-one-list/" target="_self" rel=""><img src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Features-WordPress-6.5-scaled.jpeg?w=652&ssl=1" /></a></div><div class="ngl-article-title"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/about-wordpress-6-5-all-in-one-list/" target="_self" rel=""><span>About WordPress 6.5 &#8211; all in one list on blocks and site editor</span></a></div><div class="ngl-article-excerpt">This week, WordPress 6.5 certainly dominated the WordPress news cycle. Articles, Videos, Threads on X, and workshops are plenty available for every type of WordPress user. This list of resources&hellip;</div>							</div>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="0-p">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</h2>



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> highlighted the features of the Create-block Theme plugin on Automattic&#8217;s Design blog: <a href="https://automattic.design/2024/02/15/diy-block-theme/">DIY Block Theme</a> and invites you to &#8220;<em>learn to use the Create Block Theme plugin, like our designers do, to build your own block theme</em>&#8220;</p>



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<p><strong>Nathan Wrigley</strong> and <strong>Anchen Le Roux  </strong>announced that this year&#8217;s<strong> </strong><a href="https://pagebuildersummit.com/"><strong>Page Builder Summit 7.0</strong></a> is scheduled for <strong>May 20 through May 24, 2024</strong>. A stable for the last seven years, the Page builder Summit brings a large variety of experts together to help veteran and new site builders to get better at their craft. They provide insights into technology, business, and the design for freelancers building sites for others. The list of confirmed speakers is like the who-is-who of the business! </p>



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<p><strong>Jamie Marsland</strong> shows you on YouTube how to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvLctp65j-Y"><strong>Master the Grid Layouts</strong></a>. Most great-looking websites utilize some sort of grid pattern in their page layout. But while many designers accomplish this using CSS Grid, new WordPress blocks let you do it right in the editor.  Marsland shows you how to use Grid and Grid Layout blocks to create a beautiful, functional WordPress site.</p>



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



<p>In his article &#8220;<a href="https://kau-boys.com/3609/wordpress/adding-some-colors-to-the-block-theme"><strong>Adding some Colors to the Block Theme</strong></a>&#8220;,  <a href="https://twitter.com/2ndKauBoy"><strong>Bernhard Kau</strong> </a>discusses how to best add various color options to a block theme.  It&#8217;s a deep dive into the process, starting with selecting a naming convention and how they appear in theme.json as well as in the site editor&#8217;s color picker. Then Kau describes how to apply colors to various sections of the site via the color picker to maintain brand recognition. </p>



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<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 2024&#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. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly. The previous years are also available: <strong><strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/">2020</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2021/">2021</a></strong>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2022/">2022</a></strong></strong>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2023">2023</a></strong></p>



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



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/magda_paciorek">Magdalena Paciorek</a></strong> took a <strong><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/04/11/a-first-look-at-the-interactivity-api/">A first look at the Interactivity API</a>,</strong> and walks you through an examples code for a Donation Calculator. It&#8217;s a great way to take a first deep dive into the Interactivity API with a great instructor from Poland. Paciorek is also a speaker at WordCamp Europe 2024. </p>



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<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/polevaultweb">Iain Poulson</a></strong>, Advanced Custom Fields, mentioned in their release post for <a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-6-2-8/">ACF 6.2.8v</a>, that the team started <a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-6-2-8/">adding support&nbsp;</a>for Block Bindings API and Interactivity API. &#8220;From&nbsp;<a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/02/20/introducing-block-bindings-part-1-connecting-custom-fields/">Block Bindings</a>&nbsp;to the&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/04/interactivity-api-dev-note/">Interactivity API</a>, WordPress 6.5 brings new opportunities to use ACF data in core WordPress blocks, and new interactivity experiences to ACF Blocks. Some of these changes features require ACF to add compatibility, and this release begins that work.&#8221; Paulson wrote. </p>



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<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/scottkclark">Scott Kingsley Clark</a></strong> mentioned in his release post for Pods 3.2v update that the framework supports the new WordPress 6.5&nbsp;<a href="https://pods.io/2024/03/25/pods-3-2-feature-release-meta-revisions-and-block-bindings/">Block Bindings API</a>.  &#8220;Specify your source as&nbsp;<code>pods/bindings-field</code>&nbsp;and then just pass the same arguments you would pass for a normal&nbsp;<code>[pods]</code>&nbsp;Shortcode or block. This will bind that dynamic output to the block you are working with. &#8221; he wrote. </p>



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



<p>The recording of this week&#8217;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndW-Kz0iDdY"><strong>Developer Hours: Building custom blocks with the Interactivity API</strong> </a>is available on YouTube. Damon Cook from WP Engine demonstrates how he built a form submission block that leverages the API. This example will teach you how to kick-start a custom interactive block using the Create Block package, use directives to assign critical attributes to your HTML markup, create the store, and hook up the client-side JavaScript. <a href="https://github.com/colorful-tones/feedback-block"><em>The final plugin is also available on GitHub</em></a></p>



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<div class="toolbelt-video-wrapper"></div>
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<p><strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s master branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. </p>



<p>Now also available via <a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https://gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/playnightly.json">WordPress Playground</a>. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? <a href="mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com">Email me </a>with your experience</p>



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



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



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



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



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<p>Featured Image: City with giant WordPress logo AI generated via Noel Tock</p>



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


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<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 13 Apr 2024 04:44:00 +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:19;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"Gravatar: Maximize Your Instagram Bio: The Top Tools to Consider";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"http://blog.gravatar.com/?p=1340";s:7:"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://blog.gravatar.com/2024/04/12/maximize-your-instagram-bio-the-top-tools-to-consider/";s: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:18773:"<p>On Instagram, there are two places where you can put permanent and clickable links – your bio and your stories, which can become permanent highlights. Until April 2023, you could only put one link in your bio, but since then, Instagram has increased that number to five.&nbsp;</p>



<p>However, even with that change, the author bio is still quite restrictive and doesn’t allow you to customize your profile fully or add other elements.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The solution to that is to put a “transition” link – one that will open a new webpage filled with all the links your heart desires, whether it’s your blog, store, portfolio, or other relevant social media pages.&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/?hl=bg">Instagram</a> doesn’t come with this feature, so in order to get the multifunctional “link in bio,” you need a specialized tool for the job. In this guide, we’ll introduce you to 10 excellent tools for breaking free from Instagram&#8217;s limitations and expanding your online presence effectively.</p>



<p>Let’s start!&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>1. Gravatar&nbsp;</strong></h2>



<img width="660" height="403" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-21.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1342" /><em>Gravatar homepage</em>



<p>Instagram is just one platform, and if you want to create a permanent space on the internet, you need to think about your online presence beyond social media.&nbsp;</p>



<p>One way to do that is by creating a universal profile – an online identity that travels with you no matter where you go. <a href="https://gravatar.com/">Gravatar</a> by <a href="https://automattic.com/">Automattic</a> is a free tool that can do that and much more. While not exclusively a “link in bio” tool, Gravatar still brings a lot of useful features that you can use to expand your Instagram bio section.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Here is what you can do with it!&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Personalize your “About” section</strong></h3>



<p>It’s hard to describe yourself in a captivating way with just 150 characters, but that’s all Instagram gives you. With Gravatar, however, you have the opportunity to craft an “About” section brimming with personality. When users click on the Gravatar link, they’ll be redirected to your Gravatar profile which will look more or less like this.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="373" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-22.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1343" /><em>Gravatar profile bio section</em>



<p>It’s a space where you can tell <em>your story</em>, sharing not just a basic bio but also details, such as your name, pronunciation, and location.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>List your verified accounts</strong></h3>



<p>Linking and showing your verified accounts is important as it gives you more brand credibility, whether you&#8217;re an influencer, CEO, author, academic speaker, and so on. As a result, people who open your Gravatar profile will be more inclined to follow you on different platforms beyond Instagram, and they&#8217;ll know where to go.</p>



<p>With Gravatar, you can add multiple popular platforms, including <a href="https://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/x">X/Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/">TikTok</a>, <a href="https://github.com/">GitHub</a>, <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/">Twitch</a>, and more.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="383" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-23.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1344" /><em>Gravatar’s verified accounts list</em>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Add important links</strong></h3>



<p>Confined by Instagram&#8217;s solo link policy? Gravatar can help! Accentuate your profile with curated links pointing to your latest blog posts, eCommerce stores, or other important profiles and pages.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="429" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-24.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1345" /><em>Gravatar links feature</em>



<p>The way you display your links matters! To increase their visibility, put your most important links at the top of your profile.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Share payment links and cryptocurrency wallet addresses</strong></h3>



<p>Besides normal links, with Gravatar you can also create a versatile and personalized wallet, adding payment links and cryptocurrency wallets. This allows you to add another way of monetizing your online presence, as well as gather money for charity and important causes.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="446" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-25.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1346" /><em>Adding payment links to your Gravatar profile</em>



<p>Connect with websites like <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.paypal.android.p2pmobile&hl=en_US">PayPal</a>, <a href="https://www.patreon.com/">Patreon</a>, <a href="https://venmo.com/">Venmo</a>, <a href="https://bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://litecoin.org/">Litecoin</a>, and <a href="https://dogecoin.com/">Dogecoin</a> in seconds! And the best part is that adding wallets will not clutter your “About” section. Instead, a new button will appear called “Pay” that people will be able to click and choose the best payment option.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="339" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-26.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1347" /><em>The</em> <em>“Pay” button in Gravatar’s “About” section</em>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Add your contact information</strong></h3>



<p>With Gravatar, you can centralize your contact information and save users from the hunt and peck of tracking down your email or phone number.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="259" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-27.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1348" /><em>Gravatar contact information</em>



<p>Include only what you’re comfortable sharing publicly, striking a balance between transparency and privacy.&nbsp;Similar to the payment options section, instead of putting everything in the same profile area, a new “Contact” button appears, containing all your contact information.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Add photos</strong></h3>



<p>Curate a selection of images that enhance your profile’s narrative. For photographers, this is a great place to put some of your work. If you’re a thought-leadership expert, put some pictures from conferences or lectures that you’ve done.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="359" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-28.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1349" /><em>Gravatar uploading photos to the profile</em>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Customize your profile design</strong></h3>



<p>Your Gravatar extends the reach of your Instagram bio, so it’s very important to customize your profile to mirror your brand identity. With control over design elements such as background colors and imagery, you can align your digital profile across all social media platforms, ensuring a consistent brand journey throughout.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="338" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-29.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1350" /><em>Gravatar custom color background</em>



<p></p>



<img width="660" height="307" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-30.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1351" /><em>Gravatar custom background image</em>



<p></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>2. w.link</strong></h2>



<img width="660" height="405" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-31.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1352" /><em>w.link homepage</em>



<p></p>



<p><a href="https://w.link/">w.link</a> is a <a href="https://wordpress.com/">WordPress</a> tool for creating a “link in bio” page that allows users to deeply personalize the presentation of their links. It works the same way as a WordPress site, which means that you need a domain to launch it and know how the <a href="https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/">Gutenberg editor</a> works to get the most out of its features and customization options.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Its main features include:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>Customization with CSS. </li>



<li>Free themes and patterns. </li>



<li>Unlimited pages and users. </li>



<li>Built-in newsletter and RSS. </li>



<li>Brute force protection. </li>



<li>1 GB of storage (this can be upgraded if you opt for a paid plan).</li>
</ul>



<p>w.link has a free version, meaning you don’t pay for the tool, but you’ll still have to pay for a custom domain. It also has four pricing tiers, starting at $4/ month paid annually and going up to $45/month, all of which include a free domain for 1 year.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>3. Linktree</strong></h2>



<img width="660" height="324" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-32.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1353" /><em>Linktree homepage</em>



<p></p>



<p>As one of the pioneers in bio-link tools, <a href="https://linktr.ee/">Linktree</a> remains a strong contender in the market and comes with a free plan that offers a decent number of options. Still, its most important features, such as enhanced customization, priority links, and advanced analytics, such as click-through rates and audience demographics, are only included in the premium tiers.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Other features include:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>Ability to add QR code. </li>



<li>Unlimited links. </li>



<li>Tip jar and “Buy Me a Gift” option. </li>



<li>Button and font styles – only in paid plans. </li>



<li>Custom background images – only in paid plans.</li>
</ul>



<p>There are three pricing options: Starter, $5/ month; Pro, $9/ month; and Premium, $24/month.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>4. Lnk.bio</strong></h2>



<img width="660" height="314" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-33.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1354" /><em>Lnk.bio homepage</em>



<p></p>



<p><a href="https://lnk.bio/">Lnk.bio</a> is a tool specially designed to fit Instagram’s UI, making it easy for everyone to customize their link page and use the tool.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Other interesting features include:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>Instagram API. </li>



<li>Unlimited links and a personal URL. </li>



<li>Option to embed music tracks and videos. </li>



<li>Customizable profile pictures and image backgrounds (only available in the highest tier).</li>



<li>Reports that track link clicks and patterns in audience interactions over time (this is only for the paid plans).</li>
</ul>



<p>Their pricing structure is slightly different. You can use the free version, subscribe monthly for $0.99/month, or buy a lifetime subscription to the tool for $9.99 or $24.99, depending on the features you want.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>5. Link in Profile</strong></h2>



<img width="660" height="282" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-34.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1355" /><em>Link in Profile homepage</em>



<p>The unique proposition of <a href="https://linkinprofile.com/">Link in Profile</a> lies in its ability to use Instagram posts as direct transactional opportunities for eCommerce businesses.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Its main features include:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>Any URL mentioned in the post comments is sent directly to the landing page, transforming your Instagram feed into a marketplace. </li>



<li>High levels of automation it provides so that when new posts are created, new links are added without extra effort from the user. </li>



<li>Branded landing page with the Instagram profile picture and Instagram name. </li>



<li>Easy integration with major websites and shopping platforms like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.etsy.com/">Etsy</a>, and <a href="https://www.shopify.com/">Shopify</a>. </li>
</ul>



<p>Link in Profile is a tool that mostly targets businesses and individuals who are looking for a good Return on Investment (ROI) and are focused on using Instagram to sell their products and services.&nbsp;</p>



<p>There is no free version, but there is a free trial to their one plan, which is $9.99/month.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>6. Campsite</strong></h2>



<img width="660" height="355" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-35.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1356" /><em>Campsite homepage</em>



<p><a href="https://campsite.bio/">Campsite</a> is a versatile tool suitable for independent creators, agencies, organizations, and small businesses. Its paid plans come with detailed analytics that go beyond basic tracking to include metrics like bounce rate and visitor behavior, crucial for understanding the efficiency of your online content.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Other features include:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>User-friendly interface and easy navigation menus.</li>



<li>Bulk link editing. </li>



<li>Option to add images to links. </li>



<li>Pre-made themes and high customization. </li>



<li>SEO settings, UTM parameters, Google Analytics, and more marketing features for paid plans. </li>
</ul>



<p>You can choose between a personal account or an organization, both with two paid tiers – Pro and Pro+, starting from $7/month for a personal and $14 for organizations with two member profiles.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>7. Beacons.ai</strong></h2>



<img width="660" height="314" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-36.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1357" /><em>Beacons.ai homepage</em>



<p><a href="https://beacons.ai/">Beacons.ai</a> is an all-in-one creator platform with multiple apps and services, such as an Audience Manager, Media Kit, Email Marketing, W-9 Generator, and <a href="https://beacons.ai/i/app-pages/link-in-bio">Link-in Bio</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Its main features include:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>Fully customizable landing page. </li>



<li>Option to collect contact information from fans. </li>



<li>Ability to sell digital products with 1-tap checkout. </li>



<li>Traffic analytics. </li>



<li>Access to all Beacon tools. </li>
</ul>



<p>Beacons.ai is a dynamic social commerce tool that offers a lot, even in its free version. Still, for those wanting to upgrade, there are two options: A marketing bundle for $30/month and a VIP package starting at $100/month. The VIP plan comes with everything in the lower plan, a personal advisor to help you set up everything and a physical NFC business card for US and Canada users.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>8. Milkshake</strong></h2>



<img width="660" height="364" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-37.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1358" /><em>Milkshake homepage</em>



<p><a href="https://milkshake.app/">Milkshake</a> is an interesting tool that allows its users to create an “Insta website” with its card-style layout, which adds a layer of interactivity. Each card represents a different page – an about section, testimonials, or showcase of work – offering a full-fledged website experience.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Other features include:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>Easy customization from your smartphone. </li>



<li>Analytics similar to the Story Analytics page on Instagram. </li>



<li>Option to create multiple Milkshake websites for different Instagram accounts. </li>



<li>Integration with other social media platforms. </li>
</ul>



<p>Milkshake is a free mobile application.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>9. Shor.by</strong></h2>



<img width="660" height="386" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-38.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1359" /><em>Shor.by product page</em>



<p><a href="https://dash.shor.by/smartpage?&lp">Shor.by</a> is most popular for its dynamic feeds, which can auto-populate with content from blogs or online shops, making it a decent option for content creators and small business owners alike.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Other features include:</p>



<ul>
<li>Messenger links that allow direct communication with followers and customers. </li>



<li>Integration with popular services like <a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/">WhatsApp</a> and <a href="https://www.messenger.com/?locale=bg_BG">Facebook Messenger</a>. </li>



<li>Block editor with an option to add images, videos, texts, products, RSS, and songs. </li>
</ul>



<p>Shor.by plans start from $15/month up to $99/month for agencies.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>10. Tap Bio</strong></h2>



<img width="660" height="394" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-39.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1360" /><em>Tap Bio homepage</em>



<p><a href="https://tap.bio/@tap.bio">Tap Bio</a> is another tool that uses card-based profiles to engage audiences.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Its main features include:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>Accessible interface with a gradual learning process for those new to digital storyboarding. </li>



<li>Option to put additional cards and Instagram accounts. </li>



<li>Statistics and analytics. </li>
</ul>



<p>There is a free Basic plan and two paid tiers for $5/month and $12/month. You can also opt for an annual payment of $36 and $96, respectively.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Take the next step: Advance your Instagram bio with Gravatar</strong></h2>



<p>Whether you’re an independent creator, an agency, or a business, you don’t have to be confined to the restrictive nature of Instagram bios. Expand into a rich hub that fully represents you, your work, and your services.&nbsp;</p>



<p>There are many great options for a “link in bio” tool, but Gravatar truly stands out as one of the best options. Not only is it completely free, but it also comes with a lot of important features, such as linking your other verified profiles, adding payment links and images, and customizing your profile to fit your brand fully.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Ready to transform your Instagram bio into a dynamic portal? <a href="https://gravatar.com/">Step into a broader digital footprint with Gravatar</a> and define your universal online profile.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 12 Apr 2024 18:22:37 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Ronnie Burt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:90:"Do The Woo Community: Reimagining Affiliate Programs for Your Woo Biz with Alex Standiford";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=82067";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"https://dothewoo.io/reimagining-affiliate-programs-for-your-woo-biz-with-alex-standiford/";s: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:184:"This episode discusses affiliate programs in depth, emphasizing the need for personalized, collaborative relationships and exploring potential drawbacks of traditional affiliate links.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 12 Apr 2024 09:07:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:80:"Do The Woo Community: CRM Insights and the Future of WordPress with Adrian Tobey";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=81057";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"https://dothewoo.io/crm-insights-and-the-future-of-wordpress-with-adrian-tobey/";s: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:268:"In today's episode of Woo BizChat, Adrian Tobey from Groundhogg emphasizes the importance of CRM for businesses and the early adoption of CRM for WooCommerce shops. He also discusses potential barriers to CRM success and contemplates the future of content consumption.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 11 Apr 2024 09:55:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"Gravatar: Roadmap to a Killer Personal Brand: Essential Digital Tools";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"http://blog.gravatar.com/?p=1305";s:7:"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:61:"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/04/10/personal-branding-tools/";s: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:24424:"<p>Whether you’re a content creator, influencer, CEO, academic, artist, or entrepreneur, building your personal brand is essential. Your brand is a mark of your unique value, so giving it more visibility helps you stand out, gives more credibility to your professional resume, and opens up a world of opportunities.&nbsp;</p>



<p>You might already be thinking about your brand in your daily life, from the way you interact with your peers to the way you present yourself at networking events. But as we know, for a brand to be truly successful, it has to exist on the internet.&nbsp;</p>



<p>But how do you even <em>start</em> building your personal brand in an online space where everyone is trying to do the same? The answer lies in choosing the right digital tools and platforms that help you hit your branding goals. There are thousands of tools, and not all of them will be right for your needs, which can be daunting.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That’s why, to help you in your branding efforts, we gathered the best online tools to streamline this process, ensuring your personal brand reflects your true Unique Value Proposition (USP) and gets the visibility it deserves.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Website creation tools</strong></h2>



<p>Your website is the cornerstone of your brand. This is a given if you offer services or have an eCommerce platform, but if your brand centers around your online persona, you might be wondering whether you even need a website if you’re maintaining your social media profiles.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Social media is powerful for building an audience – there’s no doubt about that. But in reality, a website is still the granddaddy of online presence because of its dynamic and highly customizable nature.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Social media platforms will confine you to work within their limitations, which means you will need to adapt your content style to what works best for their algorithms. It can be hard to present a proper biography, an overview of your work, and evergreen content on such platforms.&nbsp;</p>



<p>On the other hand, a website can be whatever you want it to be – you are in full control of the way it looks and functions, and what content is posted.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Whether showcasing a portfolio, hosting a blog, or highlighting services, your site is where long-lasting impressions are made, and an essential part of creating an effective website lies in picking the right tools.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Build your website on WordPress.com</strong></h3>



<img width="660" height="378" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1308" />



<p><em>WordPress.com homepage</em></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/">WordPress.org</a> is <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress">the most popular Content Management System</a> (CMS), and it’s used by brands like <a href="https://slack.com/">Slack</a>, <a href="https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/">Disney</a>, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/">CNN</a>, and <a href="https://about.meta.com/">Meta</a>. If you want to build a site with WordPress, we recommend choosing <a href="http://wordpress.com">WordPress.com</a> as your trusted hosting provider, as it comes with built-in security and analytics tools and automatic updates.&nbsp;</p>



<p>With all the technicalities taken care of, you’ll have the time and opportunity to build a great site that fully reflects your personal brand and professional goals.&nbsp;</p>



<p>There are several tiers to WordPress.com, but the <a href="https://wordpress.com/pricing/">Creator plan</a> is the best option for professionals as it allows you to add unlimited plugins and themes. On the other hand, the integration with <a href="https://jetpack.com/">Jetpack</a> gives you essential tools to track engagement, monitor traffic sources, and understand your target audience&#8217;s demographics.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="429" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-1.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1309" />



<p><em>WordPress.com pricing</em></p>



<p>With the Creator plan, it is very easy to get started, and if you’re serious about personal branding, having unlimited access to plugins and themes will be extremely helpful. Customize to your heart&#8217;s content with design options that resonate with your personal aesthetic, or extend functionality with plugins that offer everything from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to social media integration.&nbsp;</p>



<p>With its automatic updates, scheduling abilities, and built-in analytics, WordPress.com lets you spend more time creating brand-centric content instead of worrying about admin tasks.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Add eCommerce functionality with WooCommerce</strong></h3>



<img width="660" height="330" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-2.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1310" />



<p><em>WooCommerce homepage</em></p>



<p>One of the beautiful things about WordPress is that you can easily turn your website into an online store thanks to <a href="https://woo.com/">WooCommerce</a> – the eCommerce platform <a href="https://barn2.com/blog/woocommerce-stats/#:~:text=The%20wordpress.org%20plugin%20repository,on%20the%20internet%20use%20WooCommerce.">used by more than 4 million websites worldwide</a> to effectively sell their products and services online!&nbsp;</p>



<p>This interactive commercial platform comes with many useful features, such as the option to add customer reviews to your product, build beautiful and categorized product galleries, upsell and cross-sell products and services, and fully customize product and checkout pages.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If you want to branch out to eCommerce, we recommend opting for the <a href="https://wordpress.com/pricing/#:~:text=power%20of%20WooCommerce.-,Entrepreneur,-Build%20an%20online">Entrepreneur plan</a> on WordPress.com, as it’s specially developed for people who want a full-fledged online store.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="569" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-3.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1311" />



<p><em>WordPress.com pricing plans</em></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Build a newsletter</strong></h2>



<p>Email marketing is powerful and still very popular among digital marketers. In fact, this marketing strategy is one of the most profitable, with a <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/804656/email-roi-perception/">mind-boggling ROI of $36 for every dollar spent</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Email gives you a direct line of communication with your audience and builds a longer-lasting relationship, which is especially true with newsletters. A periodic newsletter filled with interesting how-to guides, industry insights, or inspiring success stories not only provides immense value but also bolsters engagement with your brand.&nbsp;</p>



<p>WordPress.com includes a <a href="https://wordpress.com/newsletter/">newsletter feature</a> with every plan, and you can easily include one anywhere on your website by adding a “subscribe” block.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="198" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-4.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1312" />



<p><em>WordPress subscribe block</em></p>



<p>The placement is very important, so we recommend putting this form above the fold on your homepage or as a call to action at the end of a compelling blog post to boost subscription rates.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="299" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-5.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1313" />



<p><em>Example of placing a subscribe option above the fold</em></p>



<p>This functionality allows you to convert your blog updates into rich, engaging newsletters. With no cap on the number of emails you can send, WordPress.com hands you the reins to grow your subscriber base unconstrained, unlike other platforms that may restrict your reach.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Besides that, it also allows you to create gated content which is a strategy where exclusive content is provided to subscribers. The only thing you need to do is click on “Set up a paid plan” and a new window will pop up, allowing you to fully customize your paid newsletter.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="430" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-6.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1314" />



<p><em>Creating a paid newsletter with WordPress</em></p>



<p>This feature on WordPress.com helps you reward and retain your most loyal followers, cementing a strong community around your personal brand.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Unify your digital presence across all platforms with Gravatar</strong></h2>



<img width="660" height="403" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-7.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1315" />



<p><em>Gravatar homepage</em></p>



<p>When building your personal brand, you need to think of your online identity as a whole, not as different pieces independent of each other. Build your social media presence and blog as a cohesive online existence, which means syncing your information across platforms.&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://gravatar.com/">Gravatar</a> is an efficient tool that centralizes and streamlines your online identity across the web, powered by your email address.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Getting started with Gravatar is quick and user-friendly. With just a few steps, you’ll have a unique avatar that follows you from site to site, attaching a familiar face to your online commentary and interactions.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="373" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-8.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1316" />



<p><em>Example of a Gravatar profile&nbsp;</em></p>



<p>Instead of adjusting your profile for each platform, you’ll have a consistent identity everywhere, including important and up-to-date details such as contact information and events.&nbsp;</p>



<p>A single digital signature allows you to build a consistent online identity, making your personal brand more memorable and credible. By unifying your digital presence, Gravatar alleviates the hassle of managing multiple logins and profiles. This convenience is not only a time-saver but ensures your online identity is uniform and professional.&nbsp;</p>



<p>When you create your profile, you can fully customize it to fit your needs. Here are some of the great things you can do with Gravatar’s profile editor:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>Finetune your profile background with custom colors and images.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<img width="660" height="307" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-9.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1317" />



<p><em>Adding a custom background image to your Gravatar profile</em></p>



<ul>
<li>Connect your verified social media accounts and other profiles.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<img width="660" height="383" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-10.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1318" />



<p><em>Linking verified accounts to your Gravatar profile</em></p>



<ul>
<li>Add customized links to promote blog posts, featured articles, upcoming events, and products.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<img width="660" height="429" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-11.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1319" />



<p><em>Adding different links to your Gravatar profile</em></p>



<ul>
<li>Add your contact information so that people can easily get in touch.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<img width="660" height="259" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-12.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1320" />



<p><em>Adding contact information to your Gravatar profile</em></p>



<ul>
<li>There is a QR code feature so you can quickly share your profile during networking events or put it on your physical business card.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<img width="660" height="385" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-13.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1321" />



<p><em>QR code options for Gravatar profiles</em></p>



<p>Besides the QR code, you can also generate a short link to put on your social media accounts, serving as a versatile “Link in bio” landing page.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Leverage the social media platforms that make sense for your brand</strong></h2>



<p>We won’t go into too much detail about the different social media platforms, as you’re probably already aware of the most popular ones. But we do want to highlight two very important rules:&nbsp;</p>



<ol>
<li><strong>Don’t worry about being everywhere. Instead, go where your target audience is.</strong> If you’re building your personal brand as an eCommerce leadership expert, chances are your most loyal audience is on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/">LinkedIn</a> rather than <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/">TikTok</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/?hl=bg">Instagram</a>. On the other hand, if you’re a creative personality, like an artist or a musician, then social media platforms with a younger demographic would be a better place</li>



<li><strong>Be consistent in your posting. </strong>This is a universal rule among social media – you won’t be successful if you’re inconsistent with your posting schedule. What helps here is to create a social media calendar and plan out your content for the next month or two.&nbsp;</li>
</ol>



<p>Another thing you should remember if you use various platforms is that you want to retain some level of consistency in terms of how you present yourself, and furthermore, it should be easy for people to recognize your personal profile across different profiles</p>



<p>Gravatar can help you maintain this consistency by giving users a constantly updated overview of your professional identity, including a list of verified social media profiles like X/Twitter (the official one, not the fish one), TikTok, <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>, Instagram, <a href="https://bsky.social/">Bluesky</a>, as well as your personal WordPress website, adding even more credibility. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Other tools for content creation and sharing</strong></h2>



<p>Consistently creating great content is hard! Thankfully, there are plenty of tools to help you out at all stages of the content development process, like the organization and planning, ideation, creation, optimization, and promotion of the final product. With the right tools, you can create a workflow that is tailored to your needs and individual processes, allowing you to be consistent with your production.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Tools for organization and content mapping</strong></h3>



<p><a href="https://www.notion.so/integrations/asana">Notion</a> and <a href="https://asana.com/">Asana</a> are great for content planning, each offering unique benefits that can result in a more polished and professional brand persona.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="403" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-15.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1323" />



<p><em>Notion and Asana integration</em></p>



<p>Notion&#8217;s all-encompassing workspace allows for meticulous planning, crafting, and cataloging of ideas, ensuring a brand&#8217;s narrative unfolds with precision. Asana guides the creative process with its strong project management tools, improving the content production and delivery process.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s worth noting, however, that the richness of features in <a href="https://asana.com/apps/notion-asana">Notion and Asana</a> comes with a moderate learning curve, but there are many <a href="https://forum.asana.com/t/multiple-ways-to-integrate-asana-and-notion-2023-guide/482947">useful resources by brands</a> and other users, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0rYATuSYnI">especially on YouTube</a>, to help you get used to the tools.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Thankfully, if you’re already familiar with the Gutenberg WordPress Editor, you shouldn’t have any issues with Notion, as their interfaces are very similar.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Google Trends for ideation</strong></h3>



<img width="660" height="348" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-16.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1324" />



<p><em>Google Trends homepage</em></p>



<p>Diving into <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends/">Google Trends</a>&#8216; ocean of insights reveals a highly valuable tool that offers a glimpse into the collective consciousness. By leveraging such data, brands can adjust their content to match audience interests.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Interpreting the peaks and valleys of trending topics leads to informed decisions that anchor a content strategy in the present. For instance, a digital marketer might spot an emerging trend in sustainable living and weave this theme into their blog articles, social media posts, and podcasts.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Image and video editor tools</strong></h3>



<p>According to a study by the US Chambers of Commerce, <a href="https://gitnux.org/branding-statistics/#:~:text=The%20US%20Chamber%20of%20Commerce,recognition%20by%20up%20to%2080%25.">55% of first impressions of brands are visual</a>, which is another proof of how important your visual representation is. It needs to be engaging, unique, and, most importantly, represent your personal values and best qualities.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Not everyone is a designer but thankfully, there are tools to help every single professional to create a consistent visual brand. One of the most prominent platforms to do that is <a href="https://www.canva.com/en_gb/">Canva</a>, which offers a library of templates, photos, and illustrations that can be customized to align with your personal brand’s visual theme.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="348" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-17.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1325" />



<p><em>Canva design tool homepage</em></p>



<p>Canva Pro, the premium version, extends these capabilities with additional features like brand kits and background removal, providing an even more tailored design experience.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For people looking to enhance their video editing skills, <a href="https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere-rush.html">Adobe Premiere Rush</a> is a free mobile and desktop app that offers various features to help your brand grow. Its built-in camera, for example, allows for high-quality video capture, while intuitive editing tools help edit and share from anywhere, ensuring your visual narrative remains cohesive.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="386" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-18.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1326" />



<p><em>Adobe Premiere Rush homepage</em></p>



<p>For budding personal brands, this tool simplifies the creation of professional-looking content that can resonate with audiences across various platforms.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>URL Shorteners</strong></h3>



<p>URLs can be very long which makes the process of integrating them troublesome and not aesthetically pleasing. To resolve this, you can use a URL shortener. These are smart tools that allow you to create custom links with your brand name and can also track engagement.&nbsp;</p>



<p>A great URL-shortening tool is <a href="https://www.rebrandly.com/">Rebrandly</a> – an AI platform with more than 100 popular integrations.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="507" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-19.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1327" />



<p><em>Rebrandly homepage</em></p>



<p>It works by selecting a relevant domain name related to your brand and using it as a consistent base for all your short links. This practice not only reinforces brand visibility but also offers detailed analytics insights to evaluate the effectiveness of your shared content.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Using these analytics can transform raw data into strategic action. By examining click patterns and traffic sources, you can fine-tune your content scheduling and distribution strategies to better capture your audience&#8217;s attention.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Monitor and refine your results with analytics tools</strong></h2>



<p>Building a personal brand is a continuous process, and analytical tools can provide you with helpful performance indicators. These tools clarify which areas of your personal branding strategy are thriving and which require refinement.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For those just starting out on their personal branding journey, focusing on key analytics like engagement rate, follower growth over time, and website conversions can be incredibly insightful.</p>



<p>Most social media platforms come with their own analytics dashboards that show metrics such as engagement rates, best-performing content by reach, and follower demographics. These data points highlight which content truly resonates with your audience, informing not only what you create but also how you can create deeper connections. You can then use these insights by experimenting with content types and posting times, and then measure the changes in engagement for continuous improvement.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For example, when open rates for your newsletter seem low, consider A/B testing with different subject lines or content structures. Track the subsequent open and click-through rates to identify the most engaging approach, thus maintaining a dynamic and relevant correspondence with your audience.&nbsp;</p>



<p>When it comes to website analytics, <a href="https://accounts.google.com/signin/v2/identifier?service=analytics&passive=1209600&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fanalytics.google.com%2Fanalytics%2Fweb%2F%23&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fanalytics.google.com%2Fanalytics%2Fweb%2F&flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=ServiceLogin">Google Analytics</a> is the industry standard. However, for WordPress users, <a href="https://jetpack.com/">Jetpack</a> offers an accessible alternative and it’s included in both the Creator and Entrepreneur plans with WordPress.com. It provides intuitive metrics such as daily visitors, page views, and top-performing pages, all critical in gauging the traction of your online content without the daunting complexity of Google&#8217;s service.</p>



<img width="660" height="362" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-20.png?w=660" alt="" class="wp-image-1328" />



<p><em>Jetpack homepage</em></p>



<p>Conclude each analysis session with a commitment to apply what you&#8217;ve learned. Set regular intervals for review – be it weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly – to ensure your personal brand remains vibrant and effective. Remember, consistent analysis is a foundational practice that nurtures a strong and resonant personal brand, keeping you one step ahead in the exciting world of online branding.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Create a personal brand that stands out with Gravatar&nbsp;</strong></h2>



<p>Creating and maintaining your personal brand is a lot of work, but don’t be discouraged! With the right tools, patience, and consistency, you can craft a professional brand that makes you proud and opens up a world of possibilities.&nbsp;</p>



<p>One of the tools that will be with you every step of the way is Gravatar – your trusted online identity that travels with you no matter where you go.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Gravatar is not just another addition to your digital toolset but a fundamental component that connects the dots between your various online activities. With Gravatar, you receive a unique advantage – a consistent identity that travels with you everywhere and allows you to be easily recognized by your audience.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Why wait to consolidate your digital brand? <a href="https://gravatar.com/">Sign up for Gravatar for free</a> and take the first step towards a unified identity. It’s time to align your online presence with your professional aspirations.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 10 Apr 2024 21:27:18 +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:11:"Ronnie Burt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:23;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"WPTavern: #115 – Jamie Marsland on Turning Technical Know-How Into Popular Content";s:7:"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=155317";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/115-jamie-marsland-on-turning-technical-know-how-into-popular-content";s: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:47823:"Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p>Jukebox is a podcast, which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, turning technical know-how into popular content.</p>



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



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



<p>So on the podcast today, we have Jamie Marsland.</p>



<p>Jamie has a varied background in technical corporate leadership, and has been guiding Pootlepress for over a decade. Initially a training service, Pootlepress has become a product focused company known for its WordPress plugins. Jamie&#8217;s depth of experience in the industry is increasingly overshadowed by his visibility as a YouTuber, where, as you&#8217;ll hear, much of his attention is now focused.</p>



<p>In this episode, we&#8217;ll cover some new ground. We talk about a critical issue facing WordPress today, the fierce competition from platforms like Canva and Wix, and the marketing hurdles that WordPress must navigate to maintain its market share.</p>



<p>We also explore Jamie&#8217;s unconventional path to becoming a content creator, discussing how he went from teaching tennis to teaching tech, and how he&#8217;s leveraged YouTube to grow his audience and business. His perspective is that it&#8217;s important to make technical concepts accessible and easy to understand.</p>



<p>Making his content is a lot of work, most of which happens behind the scenes. We get into this a little more deeply, and Jamie shares his strategies for effective video creation, from planning to execution, along with his thoughts on sponsored content and its place in the YouTube ecosystem.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re curious about the future of WordPress, content creation, or the dynamics of digital learning this episode is for you.</p>



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



<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Jamie Marsland.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast by Jamie Marsland. Hi Jamie.</p>



<p>[00:03:08] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Hey there. How are you?</p>



<p>[00:03:10] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Very good. Thank you for joining me today. If you haven&#8217;t checked out what Jamie&#8217;s been doing, Jamie has had a really interesting career in the WordPress space. We&#8217;re going to talk about that. We&#8217;ll talk about his YouTube channel, and how he&#8217;s managed to grow that over the last couple of years. Before we do that Jamie, I wonder if you could introduce yourself, give us your quick WordPress bio.</p>



<p>[00:03:29] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> So quick WordPress bio. I&#8217;ve been running this business, Pootlepress for 14 years. Prior to that though, I had a corporate career in technical, both public businesses and private businesses, running businesses. But always in publishing, and in software publishing. I always say that because people just see me as a YouTuber these days, so I want people to understand there&#8217;s a bit more background to it.</p>



<p>And then the last 14 years, I&#8217;ve been running Pootlepress. And we started off as a training business, and then we morphed into a product business. Built some plugins, which we still provide. And then over the last three years, I&#8217;ve been committing to creating content, primarily over YouTube.</p>



<p>[00:04:04] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Tell us a little bit about Pootlepress. What were the bits and pieces that you got yourself involved in? And are you a coder? Do you write the code, or did you write the code yourself? Do any of those projects still have a life, or have they been shelved for now?</p>



<p>[00:04:16] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> As I said, it started off as a training business, which was literally, I left my previous job. I&#8217;d introduced WordPress into that business, and we had a very expensive development team. We were running a different CMS, which nobody would&#8217;ve heard of, it was called Ektron. But it was about $5,000 per site, per year, so it was, you know, in terms of WordPress. But that was at the very low end of the CMS market. But in terms of WordPress, which is obviously free, it was much more expensive.</p>



<p>And I introduced WordPress into that business. I could sort of see the market was shaking out a bit. And I looked at the WordPress market from that job, and seeing what was going on. And there were people running training courses in WordPress, but they were charging £500 a day for a WordPress training course, and selling them out.</p>



<p>And I thought, that&#8217;s quite interesting. But they were going after the sort of corporate market. When I left that business, they gave me a chunk of money, and so I had some time. So I thought, well, I could start a WordPress training business. And so I took out a Google ad, and I launched a WordPress training course, because I knew WordPress really well, because I&#8217;d been using it personally for a long time.</p>



<p>And I pitched a course, I think it was £99, or something like that. And within half a day I got my first order. I thought, well that&#8217;s interesting, there&#8217;s a market here. And then I ended up running 2 courses a week, with about 15 people in, traveling around the country. I ran them in London, where I&#8217;m based in Chatham. Ended up in Scotland, also Wales.</p>



<p>So all around the country, running these face-to-face training courses, with people in a room, training people on WordPress. And there&#8217;s nothing quite like seeing face-to-face people using WordPress to understand, I&#8217;m going to talk about the product business in a minute, but understand some of the issues people have with WordPress, when you&#8217;re actually training them.</p>



<p>I&#8217;ve traveled a lot of miles, and personally trained thousands of people now on WordPress, which is just an incredible experience to have, which you don&#8217;t actually realise until you&#8217;ve sort of gone through it.</p>



<p>And then, from that, we built some plugins, and we&#8217;re going back a while now. So we built some plugins around Woo, as they were, Woo Themes. And, yeah, those plugins are still going, and we still have customers, and they&#8217;re actively supported. And the plugins now we&#8217;re releasing are Gutenberg based, I guess you&#8217;d say. So block based plugins.</p>



<p>And we were there right at the start of that. So we have a free plugin called Caxton, which nobody understands, but it&#8217;s named after William Caxton. If you&#8217;re English, you probably know that. He was a, the equivalent of Gutenberg but English. And that was launched in Nashville, which Matt Mullenweg demoed actually, as part of his presentation of the launch of Gutenberg. So we were right there, right at the start of Gutenberg. So I&#8217;ve always understood that Gutenberg was going to be a big driver in the space.</p>



<p>[00:06:38] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It sounds like there&#8217;s a common thread running through quite a bit of that, which is educator basically. Do you have a sort of traditional background in education, or is it just something you find yourself drawn towards and capable of doing?</p>



<p>[00:06:50] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Well, I was a tennis coach when I was 19 to 23, to help fund uni education, partly. So played a lot of tennis. And I loved coaching, I loved teaching. And looking back on that experience, that was like, okay, that&#8217;s quite an interesting thing. So I&#8217;m thinking of redoing my, they lapse tennis coaching qualifications, I&#8217;m thinking of retaking them, and going back to it at some point. Because I absolutely love teaching. You realise this as you go through this career, but I love the teaching bit of it, so yeah.</p>



<p>[00:07:18] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you find there&#8217;s any, the same level of love for the online teaching? Because when you described your WordPress teaching, it sounded like you were in the room with the people. And so you obviously get that immediate feedback and, you know, it&#8217;s not done via an email saying, thank you, I enjoyed your course, or whatever. You&#8217;re actually seeing people&#8217;s faces light up and what have you.</p>



<p>But with the YouTube content, and all of the other bits and pieces, I just wonder if there&#8217;s any connection between your end users, your students, if you like. Do you get that same warm and fuzzy feeling?</p>



<p>[00:07:45] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Yeah, definitely is, because the videos on YouTube get tons of comments these days, and I get loads of personal emails, and it&#8217;s the same with teaching people in a room. You know, you teach people in a room and you literally, it sounds a bit overblown, but people do email you and say, this is, you know, I&#8217;ve built a business out of this teaching, thank you. And it&#8217;s changed the direction of my life.</p>



<p>And you definitely get that, it&#8217;s different on YouTube, but you definitely get that. Comments are fantastic, and the likes are fantastic as well. So yeah, I mean you do get that sense of fulfillment with it. And I think there&#8217;s, part of it is, tennis coaching is a really, you can teach people to play tennis properly very quickly. You see a lot of people, what I&#8217;m getting to is, I think there&#8217;s lots of ways to teach people well, which I think is a real interest of mine.</p>



<p>You know, how you can take a subject, and simplify it down to core elements, so they get the basics and start flying very quickly. With tennis, there&#8217;s like three things you can teach any beginner, to get them playing decent tennis within half an hour, no problem. But you see a lot of coaches will overcomplicate things and people won&#8217;t have the same improvement so quickly.</p>



<p>And I think that&#8217;s the real challenge in WordPress education as well. So I put a huge amount of thought into how I structure my videos in terms of, so people are going to be able to understand them, and do things more easily than just, this is this, this is this, this and this.</p>



<p>So in terms of my videos, huge amount goes into the preparation of planning how to lay them out, to try and get the best possible outcome for the end user. Whilst at the same time, with YouTube, you have to make them engaging enough that they&#8217;re going to click on the thing in the first place to watch it.</p>



<p>So there&#8217;s a lot. There&#8217;s kind of multidimensional, creating YouTube videos. You want to be educational, but if you just do a tutorial video, nobody&#8217;s going to potentially watch it, because it&#8217;s going to be boring as heck. So there&#8217;s multi-layers to doing YouTube education stuff.</p>



<p>[00:09:23] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> But you don&#8217;t have like a traditional, I don&#8217;t know, pedagogy. You haven&#8217;t got a, like a teacher training qualification, or anything like that? You&#8217;ve just learned over time the process of creating something that is what you wish to create. And obviously, now that you&#8217;ve got this huge uptick in your subscriber count on the YouTube channel, you&#8217;ve obviously hit on some formula which is working.</p>



<p>[00:09:40] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> And I actually don&#8217;t think the traditional approach works on YouTube anyway. I don&#8217;t think you can take, you can try, but I don&#8217;t think if you take a traditional teaching approach, and stick it on YouTube, it&#8217;s not going to work. So I wouldn&#8217;t, you know, if I was putting a video on the Learn WordPress website, I wouldn&#8217;t put that same video on YouTube, because it&#8217;s a completely different context that people are consuming that information.</p>



<p>[00:10:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So back in the day when you stumbled across WordPress in the business that you were working with, you probably had no intuition that it was going to work out quite so well, in terms of WordPress&#8217;s ascendancy in the CMS market. How do you feel about that?</p>



<p>We&#8217;re obviously at this pivotal point, where it feels that there&#8217;s maybe a little bit of slowdown in adoption. We keep talking about this number, this 43% of the internet. I can&#8217;t quite work out what that means, but it&#8217;s a big number. You know, it&#8217;s a giant proportion of the internet. Do you have any intuitions as to whether or not that&#8217;s going to keep going? Would it bother you in any way if it didn&#8217;t keep rising?</p>



<p>[00:10:33] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> A few things there, one is, when I was just starting off in WordPress, I could see it was going to fly, because it was starting to gain momentum. But I had all the same, you know, my developers were .net developers that were working for me. They were object orientated focused. They looked at PHP as some sort of dirt in the road, and they thought WordPress was terrible. So they&#8217;re very sneering about it.</p>



<p>That has led a lot of the, I guess, teaching I do as well. You know, there&#8217;s a lot of, people will dismiss WordPress still, for not being, what I&#8217;m trying to say is, WordPress has never won out because it&#8217;s been the best CMS. It&#8217;s won out because of the ecosystem, and the other market drivers that were driving it. Like there were CMSs that had amazing workflows, editorial workflows, back in the day, and WordPress didn&#8217;t have any of that stuff.</p>



<p>But WordPress won out because of the huge ecosystem, and the fact it was open source, and all these other drivers that were driving it. So I could sort of see that it was going to work back then.</p>



<p>In terms of where we are now, it&#8217;s not so much the market size that&#8217;s important to me. There was a slide shared by Noel Tock, as part of his keynote at WordCamp Asia. It was a fascinating slide actually, and it talked about market share, which we know is about 43%, and leveling off a little bit.</p>



<p>But then he overlaid that slide with search interest. So he looked at how many people were searching. And actually had a really interesting Twitter dialogue with Alex Denning about this as well. And that was basically showing how it grew in 2014, and then now its dived down quite steeply over the last, I think four years, in terms of search interest. So people aren&#8217;t searching for it so much. And then he also overlaid that with number of sites that are being built, which has also gone down a lot.</p>



<p>Now that, for me, is probably the most important metric, yeah. So that has gone down significantly as well, from where we were at the peak. And then he also overlaid that with another metric, which was maturity of sector. So in terms of how many people are actually engaged in building WordPress sites, or producing WordPress products. And that was kind of still going up.</p>



<p>So what we&#8217;ve potentially got here is the confluence of a declining market, which we&#8217;re not seeing quite yet. This is the kind of worst case scenario, with over suppliers. So if that is the case, if we do start to see some of that over the next few years, that&#8217;s going to cause a lot of pain to people, because we&#8217;re going to have a declining market, in terms of number sites being built. But we&#8217;ve got lots and lots of suppliers, lots of product people in that sector. So essentially not enough business for everyone.</p>



<p>Who knows, that&#8217;s conjecture. But my spidey senses are telling me, this is possibly where we&#8217;re potentially at. And I think, if you look at the strategy, there&#8217;s a few other things that play into my mind for this as well. One is, I was at Cloudfest last week in Germany, and a lot of the hosting companies now are pitching towards, deliberately, strategically, pitching towards the agency developer market. That&#8217;s where they&#8217;re going. And there&#8217;s two reasons for that, potential reasons for that.</p>



<p>One is, that&#8217;s where people spend the most money. The second reason for that is, they&#8217;re seeing a contraction of the DIY market, which would be my guess as well. So they&#8217;re seeing their overall market go down, in terms of revenue, my guess. But they&#8217;re seeing everyone trying to go after the agency developer market. Everyone that I speak to.</p>



<p>I had a conversation with Wix this week, because I&#8217;ve had a demo of their product. They are deliberately going after the agency market as well. So I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s just WordPress that are seeing this pinch at the moment, because I think there&#8217;s some recessional pressure on that stuff.</p>



<p>But I do think it&#8217;s potentially an issue for WordPress, that we&#8217;re, it&#8217;s a question of what is the canary in the mine? And I&#8217;m seeing some of those signals. So yeah, I&#8217;ve got some trepidation of where the market is going to head over the next few years.</p>



<p>[00:13:57] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Can I plumb a little bit further into that, and ask you what the signals are, if you&#8217;re willing to share them? The signals that you&#8217;ve said that you were able to see. Just moments ago, you said that you had this, whatever the canary in the mine was. And you had a few little signals that you thought were illustrative of the general argument that you were making. Can you share those?</p>



<p>[00:14:13] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Well, it was just those really. It just the fact that I&#8217;m seeing all the hosting companies that I&#8217;m talking to, because I talk to a lot of hosting companies, and we&#8217;ll probably come on to talk about wordpress.com. But everyone seems to have a strategy of going after the developer agency market.</p>



<p>Everyone I speak to, that&#8217;s their strategy. Which makes sense, but it&#8217;s kind of interesting that it seems like that&#8217;s the direction of travel right now. And I don&#8217;t have insider information, in terms of the numbers for hosting companies. That&#8217;s just my view from the outside.</p>



<p>[00:14:42] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, there&#8217;s been a lot of talk recently. Well, certainly over the last three or four years, from various different quarters, all about the sort of shattering of the community. And I think it was, maybe it was Joost, the person, as opposed to Yoast the company. Or maybe it was Marieke, I can&#8217;t remember.</p>



<p>But the idea that the community is sort of heading in two different directions. You&#8217;ve got this philanthropic side of the community, who pour lots and lots of their personal free time into the project, and wish it to grow in that way. And then you&#8217;ve got the other side, which is driven more by profit, and about how these two sides, in their estimation at least anyway, are getting further and further apart.</p>



<p>And so they&#8217;re having to shout across this void. And the void gets further and further, so that the shouting has to be done louder and louder. The takeaway from that, I guess is that, if you&#8217;ve got a community which isn&#8217;t working, those two sides are not working in tandem, that&#8217;s also a problem I think.</p>



<p>[00:15:30] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Yeah, absolutely. It was also interesting, because at Cloudfest, lots of hosting companies were there, because Joost was there actually. I was chatting to him and he was saying, actually one of the interesting things is that they need WordPress to succeed. If these like Wix, and Squarespace, and Shopify, if those guys start winning out, that&#8217;s going to affect the hosting company&#8217;s revenue as well. Because those are closed systems, that don&#8217;t host on their systems. There&#8217;s a lot at play in making WordPress work really, at the moment.</p>



<p>[00:15:54] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. He wrote a piece just the other day on the Post Status blog, all about how the hosting companies are, well, in many cases they&#8217;ve got their own onboarding system, and they&#8217;ve got their own page builder, or something adjacent to a page builder. And I think his central argument was, would it be a good idea if, rather than having these sort of rival system, so if you go with hosting company x, you&#8217;re tied in because you&#8217;ve bought into their package, and you understand their tooling and what have you. And if you go with hosting company y, you&#8217;re locked in over there.</p>



<p>And I think his central argument was, we need WordPress to succeed, not the proprietary bits and pieces within your own systems. And in order to do that, would it be a good idea to spend less on your proprietary things, and put that investment back into, I don&#8217;t know, Five for the Future or something.</p>



<p>[00:16:34] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Yeah, I think that&#8217;s a fair point. The onboarding of WordPress has been mooted a few times in the last few weeks as well. And it&#8217;s one of the big, when you train people, you realise there&#8217;s many hurdles of friction in terms of WordPress, which it&#8217;d be great to have solved, like domain names and hosting.</p>



<p>I mean, you go to a hosting page, and that&#8217;s the first hurdle. You&#8217;re like, you get the average person and. Well, you compare the experience of setting up a website on Canva, and setting up a website through any WordPress host. And Canva, it&#8217;s five minutes and they, my cats could do it frankly, it&#8217;s so easy. Whereas WordPress, you have pricing tables with all sorts of things in, which are like object cash and, oh, what was that? Do I need some of that?</p>



<p>There&#8217;s a world of difference in terms of the friction between WordPress and some of these no-code solutions out there. And I know historically, WordPress has always batted these things off. My worry is that might not last forever, I guess.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s probably where it needs to be. That&#8217;s the competition. I had this conversation with the head of Influencer Marketing at Wix. They&#8217;ve got 500 people in marketing at Wix. I think they&#8217;ve got 200 on the influencer, no, that can&#8217;t be right. But they&#8217;ve signed up about 400 influencers.</p>



<p>[00:17:37] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> And I know we always talk about Wix, and the fact that they put huge amounts of money into marketing. But you compare that to WordPress, who historically have been development companies, with the odd marketing person appended on the side of it. And they&#8217;re really serious. They&#8217;re really serious, and they&#8217;ve got this, quite a cool product that&#8217;s aimed at agency market.</p>



<p>So I do think that the opposition is lining up their ducks really well at the moment. If you were doing a competitor analysis, you look at, you know, I think Canva is a competitor to the brochure market. I&#8217;ve been saying this for a long time.</p>



<p>They&#8217;ve got a website builder. If they want to, they can go after a lot of the brochure market, which is a lot of WordPress business. Wix, doing some really cool stuff with their Wix Studio stuff. It&#8217;s really slick. Obviously Shopify, going great guns. And then you compare this to WordPress at the moment. I worry how quickly WordPress can react.</p>



<p>Let&#8217;s say I was watching your WP Builds chat today, and you were saying, what happens if it goes down to 40 and then 35? Let&#8217;s say, that did happen. Is WordPress match fit to react to that? And my worry is, at the moment, we are not, because we haven&#8217;t had to be.</p>



<p>[00:18:43] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s a really interesting point, isn&#8217;t it? We literally haven&#8217;t had to be. It&#8217;s been growth, upon growth, upon growth, year on year. And obviously these rival platforms, Wix et al, they&#8217;ve obviously also had growth year, on year, on year. It hasn&#8217;t been of the same magnitude, but in terms of finance, and the bottom line, it has been.</p>



<p>And if they can employ a sophisticated marketing team, that can put adverts, you know, in the Super Bowl and things like that, then that&#8217;s going to be a very difficult hurdle to overcome. Because if people do stop Googling for WordPress, or it just, you know, the mind share just disappears, and whenever somebody thinks about a website, that little three letter word pops out of everybody&#8217;s mouth. Oh yeah, Wix, I&#8217;ve heard of that. That&#8217;s going to be hard to compete with. And I think you&#8217;re right, interesting.</p>



<p>[00:19:31] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> If you compare brand searches, I mean, Canva is the big one. Canva completely dwarfs. You know, I think actually, if I was Wix, I&#8217;d be scared silly of Canva, frankly. I think Canva is such a behemoth in terms of it&#8217;s got, I think it&#8217;s got 165 million monthly users now. Generating cash, always been profitable, and people have grown up with it, people are using it. So, you know, my kids know how to build a website, because they&#8217;ve used Canva. And it&#8217;s the same interface, so there&#8217;s no learning curve. So, personally, I think Canva, if they wanted to, they could go and eat a lot of the Squarespace, and a lot of the Wix market, and a lot of the WordPress brochure market, if they wanted to.</p>



<p>Canva have got an event coming up. The Canva Create event, which is titled Changing Work, or something like that. So we&#8217;ll see if they, because they have a, like a one page website builder in Canva at the moment. Pretty slick. You can only build a one page website, so it&#8217;s very limited. If they extend that, then that&#8217;s going to be a really interesting thing to see.</p>



<p>[00:20:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You clearly are fairly optimistic. Well, I say you are, obviously we&#8217;ve just had the conversation that we&#8217;ve just had. But, given the content that you are creating, I suppose there must be a part of you which is optimistic about WordPress&#8217;s future as well. Because your YouTube channel, and we will link to everything that we mention in the show notes, so you can check that out on the WP Tavern website. We&#8217;ll link to all of Jamie&#8217;s bits and pieces, properties and what have you.</p>



<p>But you&#8217;ve been creating a YouTube channel. I don&#8217;t know quite how far that goes back. But I think it&#8217;s fair to say that, at the moment, you&#8217;ve got lots of heads turning in your direction. The subscriber count is on a fairly rapid rise. So bravo, well done for that.</p>



<p>But the content, that I&#8217;ve seen at least anyway, is very much aligned with kind of Core WordPress. What can WordPress out the box do, without needing to bundle a bunch of plugins? So given that you are doing that, you must have some confidence in its capacity to challenge the likes of Wix and Squarespace, or maybe not.</p>



<p>[00:21:22] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> I mean it&#8217;s miles ahead of those things at the moment. It is important to say that, in terms of how many people are using it, and market share. I was just talking about where I look at it from a, if we were starting today, where we&#8217;re at in terms of just the marketing.</p>



<p>I think WordPress is in a place where it needs to step up a gear, which it&#8217;s doing. And that&#8217;s partly why I&#8217;m optimistic about it. So, you know, my videos, a lot of them are like, I do some website recreations where I take a famous website, and I show you how to rebuild it using just Core WordPress.</p>



<p>So I&#8217;m hugely optimistic about it. It&#8217;s got some hurdles to get over. But the core, imagine if we didn&#8217;t have Gutenberg right now. Imagine where we&#8217;d be if we didn&#8217;t have Gutenberg. I know there&#8217;s lots of people that don&#8217;t like Gutenberg, but imagine that situation.</p>



<p>And actually also, interestingly, WordPress has doubled, and I&#8217;m not saying this is down to Gutenberg, but it&#8217;s doubled its market share since Gutenberg was released. So at the very least, it hasn&#8217;t harmed the growth of WordPress.</p>



<p>[00:22:12] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So the content that you are creating is around the block editor, and what have you. I&#8217;d love to get into the process of that, because your videos, and again, pause this, go and watch some of Jamie&#8217;s content. You&#8217;ll know what I&#8217;m talking about as soon as you&#8217;ve got three minutes into it.</p>



<p>You obviously put a real value on quality. I&#8217;m imagining there&#8217;s quite a lot of editing and retakes, and all of that. You&#8217;ve mentioned before that you spend a long time planning everything out. Why are you doing this? What is the point of having a YouTube channel? What do you get out of it, aside from the pleasure that you may derive? What&#8217;s your north star with that project?</p>



<p>[00:22:44] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Yeah, well, originally it was just to create some content that kind of countered the narrative that you couldn&#8217;t do stuff in the block editor, I think, probably. So I just started producing some content just with, I guess a slight experiment, I suppose. And then it started to get some traction and feedback, so I carried on. I just carried on.</p>



<p>And it was actually a post by Chris Lema, that talked about trying to become a content machine. I think it was something like that. Which kind of inspired me to really start committing towards it. And I could just sense that there was something happening in terms of creating the content.</p>



<p>And now it&#8217;s got to the point where it&#8217;s generating revenue. It&#8217;s generating more revenue than the other bits of the business, which wasn&#8217;t the plan. But then people start emailing you and saying, well, we&#8217;d like to sponsor this. We&#8217;d like to put our name to this content.</p>



<p>And the last two contracts I&#8217;ve signed, in terms of the description of what it was, one had talent in quotes at the top, which is bizarre. And the other had influencer, which is really bizarre. And now that&#8217;s driving revenue. It&#8217;s driving revenue back to the product business, and it&#8217;s driving revenue back to the training business. That was not the intention of why I started it.</p>



<p>[00:23:48] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, that&#8217;s really fascinating. So it was just done out of a desire to put content out there. It transformed itself into something that was getting the eyeballs. And then I presume, off the back of that, yeah, the sponsorship, emails start arriving and what have you.</p>



<p>A difficult decision must have been had, or a difficult decision must have been, had to have been made at some point. How much time does Jamie put into this in the future, you know? Okay, it&#8217;s successful now. Will it continue to grow? Should I be concentrating on the business? Should I be concentrating on the videos? Yeah, I guess you&#8217;ve got to sit the family down and have that conversation.</p>



<p>[00:24:21] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Well it&#8217;s a bit strange to say, you know, when you&#8217;re 50, what do you do for a living? And you have to say, I&#8217;m a YouTuber. It was hard enough to explain to my mother what I did in WordPress, and now it&#8217;s, she just looks at me blankly like I&#8217;m crazy. But I think the other thing is, I absolutely love it. So it wasn&#8217;t like I was drawn to the challenge of creating interesting creative content, and that was the prime thing that got me to create lots of video content. I absolutely love the creative process, and challenge of creating video content. So it was like, oh okay, this is maybe what I should have been doing a while back.</p>



<p>[00:24:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Does the sponsorship bring with it a different approach to creating content? What I mean by that is, when you were just doing the content because you enjoyed doing the content, you could put things out on any schedule, I guess. You know, miss a month, it doesn&#8217;t matter, it was just a bit of fun. But then as soon as the sponsorships start to come in, I guess you&#8217;ve got to be a bit more methodical about it, bit more timely about it, and they&#8217;re going to want a return on that investment. So has it changed your opinion of it, as a thing that you do?</p>



<p>[00:25:21] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Not yet, but I&#8217;m quite early into it, so ask me maybe in a couple of years time. And I think the thing with the sponsorship, all the sponsored content I&#8217;m doing so far is stuff that I&#8217;ve pitched it to them actually, a lot of it. Even though people will email me a lot these days, and ask for sponsored content. I&#8217;ll often have ideas of an interesting piece of content, and then, because I know most people in the WordPress market now.</p>



<p>And having a YouTube channel is a great way to network, by the way. So you know, for example, a good example is with the guys over at Stellar. I&#8217;ve done a few pieces with them. But I had the idea, wouldn&#8217;t it be great fun to do a piece of content which was, I think we&#8217;re going to call it, I hired an ethical hacker to break into my website and here&#8217;s what happened. You know, which is like a really interesting idea as a piece of content.</p>



<p>So I&#8217;ve actually found an ethical hacker, he&#8217;s based in Malaga, and I&#8217;m going to go and see him, and that&#8217;ll be part of the video as well. The interesting thing about the sponsorship is how you take an idea and make it interesting, and compelling for people watching the content, so they still want to watch it. That&#8217;s a really creative challenge as well. But in terms of, it hasn&#8217;t changed my opinion yet, but I&#8217;m very early to the financial bit of it.</p>



<p>[00:26:21] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well let&#8217;s hope you still maintain the enthusiasm. What does the process look like then? You mentioned that you&#8217;ve come up with some innovative titles, and you&#8217;re obviously telephoning people up, and trying to find hackers here, there, and everywhere. But what is the process, to put out a half an hour, an hour long piece of content? Just give us an insight.</p>



<p>Because I think everybody has the impression that, oh, YouTube, it&#8217;s easy. There, he&#8217;s staring at the camera, he&#8217;s talking, he&#8217;s making it up as he goes along. And I&#8217;m sure it&#8217;s not like that. I&#8217;m sure there must be hours, and hours, and hours. What does it take to put out one of your videos?</p>



<p>[00:26:49] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> As an example, I&#8217;ve got a video coming out today with wordpress.com. It&#8217;s a five minute video and it probably took two days. That sort of magnitude. There&#8217;s like the initial idea, and then I always, always now, get the title and thumbnail sorted first. If anyone&#8217;s going to do this stuff, you&#8217;ve got to do that first with YouTube. It sounds a bit crass, but you&#8217;ve just got to do it. So get the packaging right. And I think only once you&#8217;ve got that right do you know the video&#8217;s going to fly. So that&#8217;s a really good process to go through.</p>



<p>And then it&#8217;s just around, planning is everything, and the creative idea behind the flow of the video. I&#8217;ve developed a blueprint now, which I use on a lot of my videos, which is about having a hook, and then adding loops into the video, so you keep people engaged throughout the video. So it&#8217;s almost like this layer that you layer on top of a video. So when you&#8217;re seeing the video, you&#8217;re seeing somebody talk about something, but actually there&#8217;s hopefully a blueprint behind it.</p>



<p>[00:27:36] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> There&#8217;s a story in there somewhere. There&#8217;s a methodology behind it all.</p>



<p>[00:27:39] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> That is getting natural to me now. So when I&#8217;m planning videos, I understand, I don&#8217;t have to think. When you first start doing YouTube, you have to think about everything like that, because it&#8217;s not natural. It is to some people, but it&#8217;s wasn&#8217;t to me. So you&#8217;ve got to plan it, in terms of that blueprint. How to structure it. Hook people at the start, keep them engaged throughout, plus educate them along the journey. So there&#8217;s quite a lot going on.</p>



<p>[00:27:58] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. Do you do sponsor bits inside the video? What I mean is, is the sponsorship clearly defined in the content that you do? So there&#8217;s an ad for hosting company x, or whatever it may be. And then you get back to being in the video, it&#8217;s Jamie talking to the camera and what have you. Or are you open to creating sponsored videos about particular product or company?</p>



<p>[00:28:17] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> So both really. So at the moment I&#8217;ve got pre-rolls that go on the front of all my videos, which is, at the moment, InstaWP are sponsoring that space. But I&#8217;ve also done videos where I do website recreation, with certain tools. So I&#8217;ve done one with Kadence and GiveWP, where I recreated the Charity Water website using their tools.</p>



<p>So they give me a challenge, and I try and rebuild it using Kadence and their tools. And I did one with Spectra One as well. So that&#8217;s kind of how that works. The one I&#8217;m doing with Stellar and SolidWP will be, it&#8217;ll be sponsored by them and it&#8217;s going to be, this is the challenge, but this is what happens when we try and hack into a website without any security, this is what happens when we try and hack into a website with some security. It kind of varies in a way.</p>



<p>[00:28:57] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, so you&#8217;ve got a, you can, approach Jamie if you want to make content.</p>



<p>[00:29:01] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> And I&#8217;ve also got, if you go to my YouTube sponsorship page, I&#8217;ve also got this series of videos going on at the moment where we give my daughters a challenge with a product. We&#8217;ve got five people lined up actually, who have signed up. And the first one we did was Kadence AI. So, can Meg and Lily build a website in 10 minutes, using Kadence AI?</p>



<p>And that&#8217;s another sponsorship opportunity as well. And that&#8217;s them using the Kadence tools to try and do a task, and we just film them doing the task. And I think that&#8217;s really interesting from a content point of view, but it&#8217;s also really interesting from a product point of view. Because they&#8217;re beginners, they&#8217;re not web pros, how beginners use their plugins.</p>



<p>[00:29:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That&#8217;s really fascinating, and you get your family involved as well.</p>



<p>[00:29:37] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Well they get the money actually with that one as well, because they&#8217;re both at universities now. I&#8217;ve got another daughter called Hetty who wants in on the action, she hasn&#8217;t done it yet. But yeah, the money goes to them to fund their accommodation at uni, which is really helpful.</p>



<p>[00:29:50] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That is so nice. That&#8217;s so great. One thing that we should mention is, of course, and you did mention it before. But you know you&#8217;re doing something right. Well, you didn&#8217;t mention this bit before, but you know you&#8217;re doing something right when people such as Matt Mullenweg drop your name in the State of the Word. And off the back of, I guess being seen by Matt, you&#8217;re now creating content, or you&#8217;re about to create content.</p>



<p>[00:30:11] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Yeah, we&#8217;ve done three, fourth one going out today.</p>



<p>[00:30:14] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So this is wordpress.com. You&#8217;re making videos in that space. How&#8217;s that process going? Are you enjoying that?</p>



<p>[00:30:19] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s great. Basically it&#8217;s a series of videos called Build and Beyond. So I&#8217;m partnering with them for a series of videos, kind of aimed at the sort of developer agency market again, which is interesting. Because there&#8217;s lots of stuff going on in wordpress.com that people don&#8217;t know about. So it&#8217;s trying to show some of that stuff, but also just kind of speak to the broader market about the cool stuff you can do with WordPress actually.</p>



<p>And obviously I&#8217;ve got resources of some amazing people in wordpress.com to lean on, in creating content. It&#8217;s kind of like a fabulous thing to happen. And obviously it&#8217;s great from my point of view, because it gets my name on wordpress.com, I&#8217;m on their blog.</p>



<p>And hopefully it&#8217;s adding value to their brand, which is the idea. Part of my plan with that is to kind of shine a light on some of the cool stuff happening in WordPress, in the broader community. So hopefully a video&#8217;s going out in a few hours, which talks about some of the developers you should follow in the WordPress ecosystem. It&#8217;s trying to shine a light on the cool stuff that&#8217;s happening out there as well.</p>



<p>[00:31:12] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I don&#8217;t quite know how to phrase this question. I&#8217;ll ask it, and maybe I&#8217;ll change the wording of it. Do you think there&#8217;s something different about you. Do you think the route to success, in the way that you are doing it with WordPress content, do you think that&#8217;s something you were born with, if you know what I mean? Do you have that capacity? Were you always able to be a raconteur? Can you control the room? Have you always had the ability to talk? Do you understand kind of where I&#8217;m going? Do you believe that this is something that anybody could do with a little bit of hard work and patience, or is there something a bit special about you?</p>



<p>[00:31:39] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> There&#8217;s nothing special about me, but there&#8217;s definitely, a lot of my roles in, especially before Pootlepress, were being the communicator between the technical people, and the commercial people. I was that person that could take technical ideas, and then translate them to non-technical people, so they could understand from a business point of view why they were important to do. So I&#8217;ve definitely enjoyed being in that spot, taking really complex ideas, and make simple for people to understand.</p>



<p>[00:32:05] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think it also takes a certain amount courage to push through with something like this. Because the idea of putting things out, and thinking, well, I&#8217;ve made it, people will watch it. That takes a certain level of courage I think, because it&#8217;s easy to think that people will watch it, feel great disappointment if they don&#8217;t. But in your case, it didn&#8217;t turn out that way.</p>



<p>[00:32:22] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> No. We have this running joke with my wife, which is, there&#8217;s three types of people in the world. People that think they&#8217;re worse than they actually are. People think they&#8217;re about right, in terms of their opinion of themself, and people that think they&#8217;re better than they actually are. My wife thinks she&#8217;s slightly worse than, she&#8217;s got far more talent than she thinks she has. I think I&#8217;m probably slightly above, which I think helps in this space.</p>



<p>[00:32:44] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think that&#8217;s great. Thank you for joining me today, Jamie. It&#8217;s been a real pleasure. It&#8217;s been an absolute delight watching your videos, and watching your popularity grow. Let&#8217;s hope that if we were to have the same conversation in 2, 3, 4, 5 years time, it would still be on an upward spike. Let&#8217;s hope that&#8217;s the case. Jamie, thank you for joining me today.</p>



<p>[00:33:02] <strong>Jamie Marsland:</strong> Thanks very much.</p>
</div>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/JamieMarsland/videos">Jamie Marsland</a>.</p>



<p>Jamie has a varied background in technical corporate leadership, and has been guiding Pootlepress for over a decade. Initially a training service, <a href="https://www.pootlepress.com/">Pootlepress</a> has become a product-focused company known for its WordPress plugins. Jamie&#8217;s depth of experience in the industry is increasingly overshadowed by his visibility as a YouTuber, where, as you’ll hear, much of his attention is now focussed.</p>



<p>In this episode we cover some new ground. We talk about a critical issue facing WordPress today, the fierce competition from platforms like Canva and Wix, and the marketing hurdles that WordPress must navigate to maintain its market share.</p>



<p>We also explore Jamie&#8217;s unconventional path to becoming a content creator, discussing how he went from teaching tennis to teaching tech, and how he&#8217;s leveraged YouTube to grow his audience and business. His perspective is that it’s important to make technical concepts accessible and easy to understand. Making his content is a lot of work, most of which happens behind the scenes.</p>



<p>We get into this a little more deeply and Jamie shares his strategies for effective video creation, from planning to execution, along with his thoughts on sponsored content and its place in the YouTube ecosystem.</p>



<p>If you’re curious about the future of WordPress, content creation, or the dynamics of digital learning, this episode is for you.</p>



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



<p><a href="https://www.pootlepress.com/">Pootlepress</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/caxton/">Caxton</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/state-of-the-word/">State of the Word 2023</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/JamieMarsland/videos">Jamie&#8217;s YouTube channel</a></p>



<p><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/session/the-future-of-wordpress/">Noel Tock at WordCamp Asia</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/podcast/98-marieke-van-de-rakt-on-uniting-the-wordpress-community-for-a-stronger-future">Marieke van de Rakt on Uniting the WordPress Community for a Stronger Future</a></p>



<p><a href="https://poststatus.com/the-future-is-open-source/">The future is open-source</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.canva.com/canva-create/">Canva Create</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 10 Apr 2024 14:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"Akismet: reCAPTCHA V2 vs V3: Key Differences (And the Best Alternative)";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://akismet.com/?p=283843";s:7:"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:44:"https://akismet.com/blog/recaptcha-v2-vs-v3/";s: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:23605:"<p>Every website needs spam protection. If you’re part of an enterprise&#8209;level team, you know the shocking number of resources companies actually have to devote to this. Without some kind of software that helps filter out spam and bot activity, teams might spend more time dealing with fake activity than real&nbsp;visitors.</p>


<p><a href="https://www.google.com/recaptcha/about/">reCAPTCHA</a> is one of the most popular options for organizations that want to protect their websites from spam. It’s relatively easy to implement on most websites — you just need to know which version is best for your site.&nbsp;</p>


<p>However, it can disrupt the user experience and provide less&#8209;than&#8209;perfect results. That’s why anti&#8209;spam solutions like <a href="https://akismet.com/features/">Akismet</a> (which works completely in the background with AI technology) are quickly becoming the preferred option for organizations looking to streamline the UX and maximize the effectiveness of their online presence. We’ll discuss that option a bit&nbsp;later.</p>


<p>In this guide, we’ll introduce you to reCAPTCHA and help you pick the right version for your organization’s needs. We’ll also show you to Akismet, the best reCAPTCHA alternative on the market.&nbsp;</p>



<span id="more-283843"></span>


<h2 id="what-is recaptcha" class="wp-block-heading">What is&nbsp;reCAPTCHA?</h2>

<p>You’re probably familiar with a CAPTCHA, even if you don’t know it by name. CAPTCHA stands for ‘Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans&nbsp;Apart’.</p>


<img width="1102" height="408" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image.png" alt="reCAPTCHA homepage with information about the tool" class="wp-image-283844" />



<p>That name is a mouthful, but it describes precisely what a CAPTCHA does. It’s a system you can implement <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/how-to-add-wordpress-contact-form/">alongside forms</a> to ensure that only humans can use them. Created at the turn of the 21st century, a basic CAPTCHA simply distorted letters and asked the user to identify them. The technology has continued to evolve over the years and is now known as reCAPTCHA. That’s what we’re looking at today. Google purchased this technology in 2009 and continually works to improve upon it.&nbsp;</p>


<p>As a website admin, if there’s a submission that can’t pass a reCAPTCHA test, then you may be dealing with a&nbsp;bot.</p>


<p>Or a human.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Unfortunately, as reCAPTCHA has evolved to stay ahead of the ever&#8209;increasing sophistication of bots, the tests have become so complicated that, in many cases, real humans are prevented from using&nbsp;forms.</p>

<p>Despite the potential drawbacks, systems like this are essential in today’s digital landscape. Any popular website deals with huge numbers of spam attacks, including unwelcome comments, <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/forum-spam/">fake registrations</a>, and login&nbsp;attempts.</p>

<p>Quality reCAPTCHA systems are capable of filtering out many bot submissions. You’ll still need to deal with spam, but in much smaller&nbsp;numbers.</p>

<p>Though not originally invented by the organization, <a href="https://www.google.com/recaptcha/about/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reCAPTCHA</a> is now a free service (with some limitations for enterprises) that Google provides, and that you can implement for any website or web application. You even get to choose between different versions, depending on the type of protection you want to&nbsp;implement.</p>


<img width="1274" height="546" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-1.png" alt="reCAPTCHA v3 vs reCAPTCHA v2" class="wp-image-283846" />


<p>These versions offer very different experiences and reCAPTCHA implementations. In the next section, we’ll explore what those differences are, and discuss the evolution from the first version of reCAPTCHA to the current&nbsp;model.</p>

<h2 id="the-evolution-of-recaptcha-from-v1-to v3" class="wp-block-heading">The evolution of reCAPTCHA from V1 to&nbsp;V3</h2>

<p>reCAPTCHA has evolved fairly dramatically since its inception. The changes in how the reCAPTCHA system works reflect new developments in the technology used to combat bots and spam. Let’s take a look at the three major&nbsp;versions.</p>


<h3 id="recaptcha-v1" class="wp-block-heading">reCAPTCHA V1</h3>


<p>The first version of reCAPTCHA launched in 2007, and it displayed images with distorted textual characters. You can still see this type of CAPTCHA in many places on the web. You’re unable to copy the text, and the letters are heavily distorted to deter programs that might try to analyze the image’s&nbsp;contents.</p>


<img width="760" height="294" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-2.png" alt="CAPTCHA with instructions on entering two words" class="wp-image-283847" />


<p>This type of CAPTCHA also fulfilled a secondary purpose. A lot of the images of text were taken from digitized books. If you resolved this type of CAPTCHA, you not only proved that you’re human, but you also helped software better recognize the language in digitized&nbsp;books.</p>

<p>Overall, this is the most straightforward type of reCAPTCHA you can implement for your organization. It’s relatively easy for most people to solve (as CAPTCHAs should be). However, it’s also become outdated over&nbsp;time.</p>

<p>These days, there’s plenty of software and bots that are sophisticated enough to recognize the letters that images contain. That means reCAPTCHA V1 is no longer an effective&nbsp;option.</p>


<h3 id="recaptcha-v2" class="wp-block-heading">reCAPTCHA V2</h3>



<p>reCAPTCHA V2 is where Google stepped in. They acquired the software in 2009 and launched V2 in 2014.&nbsp;</p>


<p>This version of reCAPTCHA offered a <em>very </em>different experience from anything else on the market. Instead of having visitors solve a puzzle to prove they’re human, reCAPTCHA V2 shows a simple checkbox that says, “I am not a&nbsp;robot”.</p>


<img width="948" height="566" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-3.png" alt="reCAPTCHA with a checkbox for I am not a robot" class="wp-image-283848" />


<p>As an end user, all you have to do is click on the checkbox. reCAPTCHA V2 analyzes the user behavior during that process, and only presents further challenges if the system suspects it’s dealing with a&nbsp;bot.</p>

<p>Those subsequent challenges typically involve image recognition tasks. reCAPTCHA V2 might ask you to select all the images that contain a specific element, like vehicles or&nbsp;stairs.</p>


<img width="874" height="634" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-4.png" alt="grid of images to review" class="wp-image-283849" />


<p>The goal of these changes was to make CAPTCHAs more user&#8209;friendly. reCAPTCHA V1 is often frustrating for visitors, since it’s easy to mistake some of the characters shown in the&nbsp;images.</p>

<p>In other words, visitors often needed multiple tries to resolve a V1 reCAPTCHA. With V2, some visitors will still need to solve rote verification challenges, but most can just check a box and&nbsp;proceed.</p>


<h3 id="recaptcha-v3" class="wp-block-heading">reCAPTCHA V3</h3>


<p>V3 is the latest version of reCAPTCHA and the current industry standard. It launched in 2018, and it offers human verification that works entirely in the background of a&nbsp;website.</p>

<p>With reCAPTCHA V3, visitors don’t need to solve any challenges or tick any verification boxes. The software analyzes user behavior and gives each visitor a score. Depending on the score, it can determine whether a visitor is a human or a&nbsp;bot.</p>

<p>As the administrator, you can lower or raise the threshold for human verification with reCAPTCHA V3. The software gives you control over how strict it is, and whether it should completely block traffic it deems to be from&nbsp;bots.</p>

<p>Overall, reCAPTCHA V3 is better from a user&#8209;experience standpoint. Instead of forcing visitors to interact with a CAPTCHA system or solve random challenges, V3 simply analyzes their behavior behind the scenes. A human visitor may be locked out if they are incorrectly determined to be a bot, but this should be rare (depending on your chosen&nbsp;settings).</p>

<h2 id="understanding-recaptcha v2" class="wp-block-heading">Understanding reCAPTCHA&nbsp;V2</h2>

<p>These days, it doesn’t make sense to use reCAPTCHA V1, whether it’s for a small business or an enterprise&#8209;level website. That version of the software is deprecated, which means your choice will be between V2 and V3 (or a completely different&nbsp;alternative).</p>

<p>reCAPTCHA V2 aims to minimize the number of visitors who need to solve challenges to prove they’re human. With V2, most visitors will only see a simple checkbox they need to tick to prove that they’re not&nbsp;bots.</p>

<p>This can seem like a rudimentary approach, but it works because V2 also analyzes user behavior in the background. If it sees suspicious activity, it will also ask visitors to resolve visual&nbsp;challenges.</p>

<p>In practice, only a small number of human visitors should be presented with those additional challenges. This can be a safer approach than using a CAPTCHA system that works fully in the background because it provides a second chance for humans falsely labeled as robots. Plus, it doesn’t allow the site admin to reduce the level of strictness, as is the case for&nbsp;V3.</p>


<p>The downside of reCAPTCHA V2 is that it will inconvenience visitors in some cases. However, presenting challenges can also help to keep your organization’s website safer.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Aside from the occasional annoyance for visitors, versions of reCAPTCHA that rely on visual challenges can present accessibility issues. reCAPTCHA offers audio versions of its challenges for visitors with visual impairments, but the system is not&nbsp;perfect.</p>


<p>Google provides support for <a href="https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/display" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">implementing reCAPTCHA V2</a> on your website using JavaScript. It’s worth noting that while the service is free, it only supports up to one million assessments per month.&nbsp;</p>


<p>If you do require additional assessments, you’ll need to budget for a <a href="https://cloud.google.com/recaptcha-enterprise/pricing">reCAPTCHA Enterprise</a>&nbsp;plan.</p>

<h2 id="understanding-recaptcha v3" class="wp-block-heading">Understanding reCAPTCHA&nbsp;V3</h2>

<p>reCAPTCHA V3 is the latest version of the CAPTCHA software. It does away with human verification challenges, and instead uses a score system that works entirely in the&nbsp;background.</p>

<p>When you implement reCAPTCHA V3 to protect a form, it automatically analyzes the behavior of any user who tries to access it. The software uses an algorithm to determine if a visitor is a human or a bot, by scoring them using specific&nbsp;criteria.</p>

<p>The approach of V3 is completely different from previous versions of the software. You can calibrate the scoring system for your site to decide what is an acceptable threshold for determining ‘human behavior’, and block traffic the system thinks is&nbsp;suspicious.</p>

<p>This version of the software offers the most user&#8209;friendly implementation of CAPTCHA. That’s because visitors don’t need to deal with challenges or interact with any elements to prove that they’re&nbsp;human.</p>

<p>The downside of this approach is that it can lead to more false negatives. No bot detection system is perfect, and without challenges, your organization might end up dealing with more spam&nbsp;submissions.</p>

<p>In terms of integration, you can <a href="https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/v3">implement reCAPTCHA V3</a> on your website using JavaScript. The code is different from V2, and you get a lot of control over how the implementation works and how sensitive it is when it comes to scoring user&nbsp;behavior.</p>

<h2 id="choosing-between-recaptcha-v2-and v3" class="wp-block-heading">Choosing between reCAPTCHA V2 and&nbsp;V3</h2>

<p>Any organization with a significant online presence needs some sort of protection against spam and bot activity. reCAPTCHA V2 and V3 are among the most popular options because they’re relatively easy to implement, and they have generous free&nbsp;plans.</p>

<p>Using V3 might seem like the logical option, since it’s the latest version of the reCAPTCHA software. In practice, though, V2 continues to be an incredibly popular version of the&nbsp;software.</p>

<p>Both V2 and V3 provide comprehensive protection from spam for your website, but they do it using two different approaches. Despite being older, V2 offers a more secure experience, since it still implements a challenge system for suspicious&nbsp;visitors.</p>

<p>V3, on the other hand, can be more prone to false positives/negatives. Since you can configure what the software does if it detects suspicious activity, there’s more room for potential human error during the implementation&nbsp;process.</p>

<p>Overall, reCAPTCHA V2 offers a more secure experience that is ideal for sensitive forms. If you have forms dealing with sensitive user data, having the option to present challenges can help you avoid problems like fake ecommerce&nbsp;orders.</p>

<p>reCAPTCHA V3 can be incredibly effective, but it prioritizes user experience over higher levels of security. This makes it a better option for less sensitive forms and user submissions, such as comments&nbsp;sections.</p>

<p>You <em>can </em>configure reCAPTCHA V3 to be more strict in detecting bot activity. The downside of this approach is that it can increase the rate of false positives. If you use reCAPTCHA to block bot traffic, and it mistakes a human visitor for a fake one, they’re unlikely to be happy with the&nbsp;experience.</p>

<p>Ultimately, there is no single best version of reCAPTCHA. You’ll need to consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of each one to determine which is most appropriate for your website. (There are also alternative tools you can use, which we’ll discuss&nbsp;shortly.)</p>

<p>When it comes time to implement one of these systems, Google provides plenty of useful documentation for both reCAPTCHA V2 and V3. Your organization can set either one up manually, or via plugins if you use a content management system (CMS) like&nbsp;WordPress.</p>

<p>Both versions of reCAPTCHA are free for up to one million validations per&nbsp;month.</p>

<h2 id="exploring-the-alternatives-to recaptcha" class="wp-block-heading">Exploring the alternatives to&nbsp;reCAPTCHA</h2>

<p>reCAPTCHA is not the only option at your disposal. If you’re not happy with the approach that either V2 or V3 uses, then it’s smart to consider <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/captcha-alternatives/">alternatives to CAPTCHA technology</a> for your spam&nbsp;protection.</p>

<p>While there are a variety of anti&#8209;spam solutions available, <a href="https://akismet.com/features/">Akismet</a> is the only one that rivals reCAPTCHA in terms of how easy it is to implement <em>and</em> its success rate. With Akismet, you get bot protection with 99.99%&nbsp;accuracy.</p>


<img width="1243" height="846" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-5.png" alt="stats about Akismet's success" class="wp-image-283850" />


<p>More importantly, Akismet doesn’t rely on challenges to separate humans from bots. It offers a solution that works in the background to protect your website from spam, and it provides a fully free plan for personal websites and&nbsp;blogs.</p>

<p>For professional websites, <a href="https://akismet.com/pricing/">there’s flexible pricing</a>. Small businesses can get the protection they need via the Pro plan for just $9.95 per month (when billed yearly). For <a href="https://akismet.com/enterprise/">enterprise&#8209;level spam protection</a>, organizations can get plans and pricing that’s customized around their specific&nbsp;needs.</p>

<h2 id="akismet-the-leader-in-spam protection" class="wp-block-heading">Akismet: The leader in spam&nbsp;protection</h2>

<p>No matter which spam protection solution you choose for your organization, it needs to fulfill two key criteria. The first is to protect you against as much spam and bot activity as possible, with the fewest false positives along the way. The second is to protect a strong user&nbsp;experience.</p>

<p>The importance of that user experience can’t be discounted. Some CAPTCHA solutions, like reCAPTCHA V2, are aggressive when it comes to presenting challenges after they detect suspicious activity. In some cases, reCAPTCHA V2 can force visitors to solve multiple challenges before giving them the green&nbsp;light.</p>

<p>That aggressive approach to spam detection can keep your website safe. The downside is that it can scare visitors away because solving multiple CAPTCHAs is not an enjoyable&nbsp;experience.</p>

<p><a href="https://akismet.com/blog/convertkit-customerstory/">Akismet solves this problem</a> by providing behind&#8209;the&#8209;scenes detection based on machine learning. It analyzes data from real spam on over 100 million websites to provide the most accurate detection&nbsp;possible.</p>


<img width="1126" height="628" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-6.png" alt="Aksimet page with the text " />


<p>Akismet provides simple integration with all kinds of websites, and it’s particularly easy to implement if you’re using WordPress. Your website administrator can <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">install the Akismet plugin</a>, activate it, and start filtering spam right&nbsp;away.</p>


<img width="1097" height="508" src="https://akismet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-7.png" alt="Akismet plugin listing" class="wp-image-283852" />


<p>Although Akismet filters spam and bot activity in the background, you can also check to make sure it doesn’t flag any real submissions as spam. This is rare, but it sometimes happens, and Akismet learns from these situations to avoid flagging similar activity in the&nbsp;future.</p>

<h2 id="frequently-asked questions" class="wp-block-heading">Frequently asked&nbsp;questions</h2>

<p>If you still have any questions about spam protection and what solutions to consider, this section will aim to answer them. Let’s start by recapping the key elements of&nbsp;reCAPTCHA.</p>

<h3 id="what-is recaptcha" class="wp-block-heading">What is&nbsp;reCAPTCHA?</h3>

<p>reCAPTCHA is a CAPTCHA solution offered by Google. You can choose from reCAPTCHA V2 or V3 for your website, and implement either option using&nbsp;JavaScript.</p>

<p>Both versions of the software offer unique approaches to how they protect your website from spam. You can use either version for free for up to one million validations per&nbsp;month.</p>

<h3 id="what-is-the-primary-goal-of-recaptcha-in-website security" class="wp-block-heading">What is the primary goal of reCAPTCHA in website&nbsp;security?</h3>

<p>The primary goal of reCAPTCHA is to stop spam form submissions. That includes spam comments, brute&#8209;force attacks through login screens, fake payment information, and other types of&nbsp;attacks.</p>

<p>The software does this by helping to distinguish between real interactions on a website and bots. Different versions of reCAPTCHA use unique approaches to achieve this&nbsp;protection.</p>

<h3 id="how-have-captcha-mechanisms-evolved-over-the-years-leading-up-to-recaptcha-v2-and v3" class="wp-block-heading">How have CAPTCHA mechanisms evolved over the years, leading up to reCAPTCHA V2 and&nbsp;V3?</h3>

<p>Over time, CAPTCHA mechanisms have evolved to rely less on challenges and more on behind&#8209;the&#8209;scenes analysis. With reCAPTCHA V1, visitors were forced to solve challenges to prove they were human. Whereas the newest version of the software (V3) analyzes behavior without any input required from&nbsp;visitors.</p>

<h3 id="can-bots-still-bypass-recaptcha-systems-and-if-so-how-do-newer-versions-mitigate this" class="wp-block-heading">Can bots still bypass reCAPTCHA systems? And if so, how do newer versions mitigate&nbsp;this?</h3>

<p>CAPTCHA systems are always in a race to stay ahead of newer, stronger bots. There’s a community of malicious actors who work to bypass reCAPTCHA protections, as well as other similar systems. This is because <a href="https://akismet.com/blog/what-is-a-spambot/">spambots</a> and automated attacks can be incredibly lucrative, and there’s significant interest in programs that can bypass well&#8209;known&nbsp;CAPTCHAs.</p>

<p>Newer versions mitigate this risk through continued development. Any CAPTCHA solution you choose needs to get regular updates to both the core software and its spam database, in order to stay ahead of attackers. If the solution you’re using doesn’t do this, it will quickly become&nbsp;outdated.</p>

<h3 id="can-i-use-recaptcha-v2-and-v3-simultaneously-for-added security" class="wp-block-heading">Can I use reCAPTCHA V2 and V3 simultaneously for added&nbsp;security?</h3>

<p>Yes, you can use reCAPTCHA V2 and V3 on the same website to protect different pages and assets. Google includes information on how to implement both versions of reCAPTCHA in its developer&nbsp;handbook.</p>

<h3 id="what-is-the-best-alternative-to recaptcha" class="wp-block-heading">What is the best alternative to&nbsp;reCAPTCHA?</h3>

<p>Akismet offers the best alternative to reCAPTCHA for both small business websites and enterprise&#8209;level projects. You can easily implement Akismet on any type of website, but it’s particularly easy to do so if your organization uses&nbsp;WordPress.</p>

<h3 id="how-does-akismetâs-approach-to-spam-protection-differ-from-traditional-captcha methods" class="wp-block-heading">How does Akismet’s approach to spam protection differ from traditional CAPTCHA&nbsp;methods?</h3>

<p>Akismet uses machine learning to analyze spam from the millions of websites that use it. This gives it access to one of the largest databases in the world for spam and bot activity, which means fewer false&nbsp;positives.</p>

<p>With Akismet, visitors also don’t need to solve challenges to prove they’re human. The software can analyze their submissions and use its training to determine what’s spam and what&nbsp;isn’t.</p>

<h2 id="akismet-the-most-trusted-solution-for-spam protection" class="wp-block-heading">Akismet: The most trusted solution for spam&nbsp;protection</h2>


<p>If you’re looking for the easiest solution to implement with the most accurate results and absolutely zero interference for your visitors, your best choice is Akismet. It’s blocked over 500 billion instances of spam and is used on over 100 million sites.&nbsp;</p>


<p>reCAPTCHA offers some additional customization, but also comes with risks like false positives that lock out real users and an annoying experience that could reduce your conversions. You can integrate Akismet with any system via an open API, or take advantage of its popular, pre&#8209;built plugin for WordPress&nbsp;sites.</p>


<p>Many website owners can use Akismet absolutely free. <a href="https://akismet.com/pricing/">Explore Akismet plans</a>.&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:"Wed, 10 Apr 2024 13:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Jen Swisher";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"Do The Woo Community: Leveraging WooCommerce for Wyrmwood Gaming with Douglas Costello";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=81053";s:7:"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://dothewoo.io/leveraging-woocommerce-for-wyrmwood-gaming-with-douglas-costello/";s: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:123:"The Woo team and Douglas discuss Wyrmwood's journey, Kickstarter success, challenges of growth, and multi-channel commerce.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 10 Apr 2024 09:49:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"Donncha: Speculating on what to load next";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://odd.blog/?p=89590546";s:7:"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:61:"https://odd.blog/2024/04/10/speculating-on-what-to-load-next/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1974:"<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/speculation-rules/">Speculative Loading</a> plugin for WordPress is a plugin you should probably try out on your site, especially if you use <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-super-cache/">WP Super Cache</a> or <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack-boost/">Jetpack Boost</a> to cache things. It uses the new speculation API that Chrome/Edge supports to load pages in the background if you even hover over a link.</p>



<p>It will dynamically prefetch or prerender pages before they&#8217;re requested by the visitor on your site, which means that the page will show instantly when the visitor actually clicks the link.</p>



<p>It doesn&#8217;t work in Firefox yet, but it won&#8217;t hurt either, as the browser will just ignore the extra bits and pieces added to the page.</p>



<p>The default &#8220;moderate&#8221; eagerness works fine for me. The &#8220;eager&#8221; setting appeared to load links if the cursor got anywhere near them, which was a little too aggressive.</p>



<p>You won&#8217;t notice your browser loading the page in the Network tab of the webdev tools, but if you <code>tail</code> your access_log, you&#8217;ll see the requests go through when you hover over the links.</p>



<p>Browse around this site, or take a look at my <a href="https://inphotos.org">photoblog</a> for a feel of what it does.</p>



<p>There&#8217;s more info in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/09/speculative-loading-in-wordpress/">make blog post</a> about it, and this <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/09/speculative-loading-in-wordpress/#comment-46522">insightful comment</a> about the wastefulness of loading pages that might not be used, especially for visitors on limited data plans, or low powered devices. That&#8217;s definitely something to think about before using this plugin. I may yet remove it later, and I&#8217;ll update this post if I do.</p>



<p></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 10 Apr 2024 09:43:28 +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:7:"Donncha";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:27;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:24:"Matt: Beeper &amp; Texts";s:7:"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:23:"https://ma.tt/?p=113285";s:7:"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:35:"https://ma.tt/2024/04/beeper-texts/";s: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:1124:"<p>It&#8217;s such a delight when a plan comes together and unfolds, especially when it&#8217;s something you&#8217;ve been working on for many years. Today the <a href="https://automattic.com/2024/04/09/automattic-acquires-beeper/">announcement went out</a> that we&#8217;re combining the best technology from Beeper and Texts to create a great private, secure, and open source messaging client for people to have control of their communications. We&#8217;re going to use the Beeper brand, because it&#8217;s fun. This is not unlike how browsers have evolved, where solid tech and encryption on top of an open ecosystem has created untold value for humanity. <a href="https://blog.beeper.com/2024/04/09/beeper-is-joining-automattic/">Eric Migicovsky has written well about the plan going forward</a>.</p>



<p>A lot of people are asking about iMessage on Android&#8230; I have zero interest in fighting with Apple, I think instead it&#8217;s best to focus on messaging networks that want more engagement from power-user clients. This is an area I&#8217;m excited to work on when I return from my sabbatical next month.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 10 Apr 2024 00:00:55 +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:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 6.5.2 Maintenance and Security Release";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=17195";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"https://wordpress.org/news/2024/04/wordpress-6-5-2-maintenance-and-security-release/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4851:"<p><strong>Note: Due to an issue with the initial package, WordPress 6.5.1 was not released. 6.5.2 is the first minor release for WordPress 6.5.</strong></p>



<p>This security and maintenance release features <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&id=!60398&milestone=6.5.2&group=status&order=priority">2 bug fixes on Core</a>, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/60577">12 bug fixes for the Block Editor</a>, and 1 security fix.</p>



<p><strong>Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately.</strong> Backports are also available for other major WordPress releases, 6.0 and later.</p>



<p>You can <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.5.2.zip">download WordPress 6.5.2 from WordPress.org</a>, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”. If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.</p>



<p>WordPress 6.5.2 is a short-cycle release. The next major release will be <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-6/">version 6.6</a> and is currently planned for 16 July 2024.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Security updates included in this release</h2>



<p>The security team would like to thank the following people for responsibly reporting vulnerabilities, and allowing them to be fixed in this release:</p>



<ul>
<li>A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting the Avatar block type; reported by <a href="https://johnblackbourn.com/">John Blackbourn</a> of the WordPress security team. Many thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/stealthcopter">Mat Rollings</a> for assisting with the research.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Thank you to these WordPress contributors</h2>



<p>This release was led by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion/">John Blackbourn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/isabel_brison/">Isabel Brison</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorbin/">Aaron Jorbin</a>.</p>



<p>WordPress 6.5.2 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver maintenance and security fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.</p>



<p class="is-style-wporg-props-medium"><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorbin/">Aaron Jorbin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/wildworks">Aki Hamano</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/andraganescu">Andrei Draganescu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/artemiosans">Artemio Morales</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/iCaleb">Caleb Burks</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/colind">colind</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/talldanwp">Daniel Richards</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ocean90">Dominik Schilling</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fabiankaegy">Fabian Kägy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mamaduka">George Mamadashvili</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gziolo">Greg Ziółkowski</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/isabel_brison">Isabel Brison</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb">Jb Audras</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joemcgill">Joe McGill</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion">John Blackbourn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/thelovekesh">Lovekesh Kumar</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mmaattiiaass">Matias Benedetto</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mukesh27">Mukesh Panchal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/swissspidy">Pascal Birchler</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/peterwilsoncc">Peter Wilson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sean212">Sean Fisher</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/SergeyBiryukov">Sergey Biryukov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code/">Scott Reilly</a></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How to contribute</h2>



<p>To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/report/6">pick a ticket</a>, and join the conversation in the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW">#core</a> channel. Need help? Check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/">Core Contributor Handbook</a>.</p>



<p><em>Thanks to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion/">John Blackbourn</a>, <em><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ehtis">Ehtisham S.</a>,</em></em> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb">Jb Audras</a>, <em>and <em><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/angelasjin/">Angela Jin</a></em> for proofreading.</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, 09 Apr 2024 22:00:18 +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:12:"Aaron Jorbin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"Do The Woo Community: Simplifying Crypto Payments for WooCommerce with Stijn Paumen";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=81046";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"https://dothewoo.io/simplifying-crypto-payments-for-woocommerce-with-stign-paumen/";s: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:119:"The conversation with Stijn Paumen, CEO of Helio, explores cryptocurrency, stable coins, and their impact on merchants.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 09 Apr 2024 09:02:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:30;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:90:"Do The Woo Community: Increase Your Woo Product Sales Using Admin Demos with Vikas Singhal";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=81040";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"https://dothewoo.io/increase-your-woo-product-sales-using-admin-demos-with-vikas-singhal/";s: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:121:"Vikas Singhal from InstaWP shares insights on the significance of admin demos in the WordPress and WooCommerce ecosystem.";s: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, 08 Apr 2024 08:23:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:31;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:120:"Gutenberg Times: WordPress 6.5, register Font collections, working with templates, or playground — Weekend Edition 290";s:7:"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=28091";s:7:"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:124:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/wordpress-6-5-register-font-collections-working-with-templates-or-playground-weekend-edition-290/";s: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:13157:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>This week, WordPress 6.5 certainly dominated the WordPress news cycle. Articles, Videos, Threads on X, and workshops are plenty available for every type of WordPress user. <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/about-wordpress-6-5-all-in-one-list/">I compiled a separate list for your perusal or to point people to wandering about</a>.</p>



<p>As a reader of this newsletter, you have kept up with all the changes, for sure. &nbsp;😍 The newsletter is a little shorter today, so enjoy the rest of the weekend. </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br /><em>Birgit</em></p>



<p><em>PS: I am experimenting with AI summaries, I slightly edited, mostly for brevity.  The two pieces are marked. Please reach out to me, how you think about it&#8230; </em></p>



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<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>



<ol><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/wordpress-6-5-register-font-collections-working-with-templates-or-playground-weekend-edition-290/#0-word-press-release-information">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/wordpress-6-5-register-font-collections-working-with-templates-or-playground-weekend-edition-290/#0-p">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/wordpress-6-5-register-font-collections-working-with-templates-or-playground-weekend-edition-290/#2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/wordpress-6-5-register-font-collections-working-with-templates-or-playground-weekend-edition-290/#3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor. </a></li></ol>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="0-word-press-release-information">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</h2>



<p>With the release, core contributors are starting to work on WordPress 6.6. <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> invites you to a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/04/04/hallway-hangout-lets-chat-about-whats-next-in-gutenberg/"><strong>Hallway Hangout: Let’s chat about what’s next in Gutenberg</strong></a>. The discussion/demos will cover Dataviews, synced pattern overrides, Zoomed out view, Grid layout, Pattern styles and Style inheritance. The virtual meeting will take place on <strong>April 24 at 23:00 UTC</strong> / 7 pm EDT / 4pm PDT.</p>


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<p class="has-accent-color has-light-background-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-b6fe42ed62408b6fe464d62777dc0282">🎙️ Latest episode: <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-98/">Gutenberg Changelog #98 – WordPress 6.5, Gutenberg 18.0 Community Theme Project and the Contributor Mentorship Program</a> with special guest Maggie Cabrera</p>



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



<p><strong>Wes Theron</strong>, contributor to the training team, published a series of videos on  <strong>how to work with templates </strong>on YouTube </p>





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<p>In his video, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICMir7dO9M4"><strong>WordPress Block Themes in 250 seconds</strong></a>, <strong>Jamie Marsland</strong> provides a concise but comprehensive overview of Block Themes in WordPress. He covers the basics of how Block Themes work, demonstrates their flexibility and ease of use, and explains how they differ from traditional WordPress themes by enabling users to have more control over their site&#8217;s design without needing to write code. Jamie also gives a quick tour of the WordPress editor with a Block Theme enabled, highlighting its features and capabilities. <em>(AI, slightly edited) </em></p>



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



<p>Now the Font Library is part of WordPress, Justin Tadlock&#8217;s latest tutorial is on <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/04/01/how-to-register-custom-font-collections-for-the-font-library/"><strong>How to register custom font collections for the Font Library</strong></a> with the built-in API. &#8220;By default, WordPress ships with a single collection that lets you install fonts from the Google Fonts library. But as a developer, you can offer a more curated experience by building custom collections.&#8221; he wrote.</p>



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<p>In <em>WP Jukebox</em> podcast episode titled <a href="https://wptavern.com/podcast/114-tammie-lister-on-the-journey-through-design-and-theming"><strong>Tammie Lister on the Journey Through Design and Theming</strong></a>, Tammie Lister discusses with <strong>Nathan Wrigley</strong> her experiences and the evolution of her career in design and WordPress theming. The conversation sheds light on the changing landscape of WordPress design, the introduction of new technologies, and how these shifts have influenced the approach to creating engaging and effective themes. Throughout the episode, Lister offers insights into her process and reflections on the future of design in the WordPress ecosystem. <em>(AI summary slightly edited for brevity)</em> </p>



<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2024&#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. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly. The previous years are also available: <strong><strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/">2020</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2021/">2021</a></strong>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2022/">2022</a></strong></strong>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2023">2023</a></strong></p>



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



<p><strong>Jeremy Holcombe</strong> wrote a tutorial on <a href="https://kinsta.com/blog/headless-wordpress-gutenberg/"><strong>How to parse Gutenberg content for headless WordPress</strong></a> and explained how to parse Gutenberg content as&nbsp;HTML&nbsp;using the&nbsp;WordPress REST API&nbsp;in a&nbsp;Next.js&nbsp;static site. </p>



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<p><strong>Artur Piszek</strong> shared a quick tip:  <a href="https://piszek.com/2024/03/19/get_comment_delimited_block_content/"><strong>Writing serialized Gutenberg blocks in PHP</strong></a> on using the <code>get_comment_delimited_block_content</code> function. </p>



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<p><a href="https://wordpress.github.io/wordpress-playground/"><em>WordPress Playground</em></a> is so much bigger than Blocks. It&#8217;s a fascinating, if not mind blowing tool for developers and product companies. Ronny Shani wrote an <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/04/05/introduction-to-playground-running-wordpress-in-the-browser/"><strong>Introduction to Playground: running WordPress in the browser</strong></a>. She covers the basic some built-in features and how to create a blueprint. She also has plenty of examples and links to learn more for you.</p>



<p>You can use Playground to test the <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Gutenberg Nightly</a>. </p>



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<p>In his live stream, <strong>Ryan Welcher</strong>  worked on a playground blueprint to for a live preview of his plugin Advanced Query Loop. He used various methods, to add content to a Playground site: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz2INc3_yAw"><strong>Using Playground to preview plugins | Gutenberg 18.0 Review</strong></a></p>



<p><strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s master branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. </p>



<p>Now also available via <a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https://gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/playnightly.json">WordPress Playground</a>. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? <a href="mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com">Email me </a>with your experience</p>



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



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



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



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<p>Featured Image:  Elephant-cement-blocks by Pooja Derashri, <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/32765c4d4c/">found on WordPress Photos</a></p>



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


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<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 06 Apr 2024 11:30:30 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"Gutenberg Times: About WordPress 6.5 – all in one list on blocks and site editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=28104";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:63:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/about-wordpress-6-5-all-in-one-list/";s: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:16759:"<p>This week, WordPress 6.5 certainly dominated the WordPress news cycle. Articles, Videos, Threads on X, and workshops are plenty available for every type of WordPress user. </p>



<p>This list of resources if for all who need to dive deeper into certain aspects or have to field questions about the new release. I didn&#8217;t aim for completeness, I might have missed past publications for sure. If I did, feel free to email a link to pauli@gutenbergtimes.com. If you are seeking information not posted here, Anne McCarthy has you covered:</p>



<p>📗 <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> published the ultimate&nbsp;<a href="https://nomad.blog/2024/03/13/wordpress-6-5-source-of-truth/"><strong>WordPress 6.5 Source of&nbsp;Truth</strong></a>&nbsp;for you. In this over 10,000-word opus, you’ll find the updates tagged for each group of WordPress users. They would be relevant to end users, theme or plugin authors, developers, site admins, and enterprises. For selective reading, you could use your browser’s “Find on page” feature and search for these tags. McCarthy lists 15 priority items, with an array of 26 sub-items, and then another 23 additional items, and closes with information about items that didn’t make it into the release for one reason or another.</p>



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<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/15/wordpress-6-5-field-guide/">WordPress 6.5 Field Guide</a></blockquote>
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<p class="has-large-font-size"><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>



<ol><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/about-wordpress-6-5-all-in-one-list/#general-information">General Information</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/about-wordpress-6-5-all-in-one-list/#design-tools">Design Tools</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/about-wordpress-6-5-all-in-one-list/#font-library">Font Library</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/about-wordpress-6-5-all-in-one-list/#block-bindings-api">Block Bindings API</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/about-wordpress-6-5-all-in-one-list/#block-hooks-api">Block Hooks API</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/about-wordpress-6-5-all-in-one-list/#interactivity-api">Interactivity API</a></li></ol>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="general-information">General Information</h2>



<p>🎉 <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/04/regina/"><strong>WordPress 6.5 “Regina”</strong></a> Official Release Post</p>



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<p>🛬 <strong><a href="https://wordpress.org/download/releases/6-5/">WordPress 6.5 Landing page</a></strong> Check out the new&nbsp;WordPress 6.5 page&nbsp;to learn more about the numerous enhancements and features of this release—including short demos of highlighted features.</p>



<p>📗 <strong>Leonardo Nurugha</strong>, documentation co-lead of the release, posted: <a href="https://www.hostinger.com/blog/wordpress-6-5"><strong>WordPress 6.5 “Regina” Is Here – Key Features and Changes</strong></a></p>



<p>📗 <strong>Carlos Daniele</strong>&nbsp;took a deep dive into the most important features for the Kinsta Blog:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.therepository.email/?mailpoet_router&endpoint=track&action=click&data=WyI1NTYiLCIxam9oNGRrYjZ2Zm84dzRvb293ZzRvczg4Z2swNHM0dyIsIjEwMTgiLCJkYjkzYzgwOWZlZmIiLGZhbHNlXQ"><strong>What’s new in WordPress 6.5: Font Library, DataViews, Block Bindings, Interactivity API, and much more!</strong></a></p>



<p>📗 <strong>Courtney Robertson</strong>&nbsp;published a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.godaddy.com/resources/news/whats-new-in-wordpress-6-5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>What’s new in WordPress 6.5</strong></a>&nbsp;walk-through and separated the updates for site builders and users from those relevant for developers.</p>



<p>🧵 <strong>Rich Tabor</strong> created an <a href="https://twitter.com/richard_tabor/status/1775477094031741249"><strong>18-message Twitter thread</strong></a> listing the main highlights of the release together with mini-videos. <a href="https://rich.blog/wordpress-6-5/">The list</a> is also available on his blog</p>



<p>📘 <strong>Matt Medeiros</strong> has some sound advice for WordPress users around 6.5 in his video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5aYK1MPbWA"><strong>Watch BEFORE You Update to WordPress 6.5 &#8220;Regina&#8221;</strong></a></p>



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<p>📽️ Learn.WordPress contributor, Wes Theron, posted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtJwcJF9LM8">walk -through the WordPress 6.5 version on YouTube</a>. He covered:</p>



<ul>
<li>Improvements to the Cover block</li>



<li>Renaming blocks and improved drag and drop functionality </li>



<li>Box shadow support</li>



<li>New powerful views in the Site Editor</li>



<li>Robust revisions  </li>



<li>Using the Font Library </li>



<li>General UX improvements</li>
</ul>



<p>&nbsp;📽️ <strong>Jamie Marsland</strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf8w0xMNToY"><strong>explains WordPress 6.5 in 250 seconds</strong></a>.</p>



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<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://dothewoo.io/all-things-wordpress-6-5-with-anne-mccarthy-and-bud-kraus/">All Things WordPress 6.5 with Anne McCarthy and Bud Kraus</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/09/miscellaneous-editor-changes-in-wordpress-6-5/">Miscellaneous Editor changes in WordPress 6.5</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/05/unification-of-the-site-and-post-editors-in-6-5/">Unification of the site and post editors in 6.5</a></blockquote>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="design-tools">Design Tools</h2>



<p>📽️ <strong>Dave Smith</strong> published a video to show off <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySyJRYAbU_M"><strong>these tiny link editing changes that just made WordPress 6.5 so much better</strong></a>.</p>



<p>📙 <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/03/21/drop-shadow-updates-in-wordpress-6-5/"><strong>Drop Shadow updates in WordPress 6.5</strong></a> &#8211; WordPress 6.5 brings drop shadow options to the end user. This post summarizes how to use the controls for various blocks, and how to remove core presets.</p>



		
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<p>📙 <strong><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/04/01/how-to-register-custom-font-collections-for-the-font-library/">How to register custom font collections for the Font Library</a> </strong>&#8211; WordPress 6.5 will ship with the Font Library. Learn how to use a built-in API for registering custom font collections. <em>(WordPress Developer Blog)</em></p>



<p>📽️ <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong>&nbsp;posted a new video:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnx_nkB-O2E">No Code, All Fonts thanks to the Font Library in WordPress 6.5</a>.</strong>&nbsp;She wrote in the description:</p>



<ul>
<li>The Font Library operates globally, similar to the Media Library, allowing you to easily install, remove, and activate fonts across your entire site.</li>



<li>Whether a font is installed by you or provided by your theme or plugin, the Font Library provides seamless selection across your editing experience.</li>



<li>Google Fonts is integrated into the Font Library experience, offering various typography options and quick uploads.</li>



<li>This new ability empowers you to control a foundational aspect of your site’s design without the need for coding.</li>



<li>Extenders can provide their font collections and manage permissions, including turning the feature off.</li>
</ul>



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<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/14/new-feature-font-library/">New Feature: Font Library</a></blockquote>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="block-bindings-api">Block Bindings API</h2>


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<p>📙 <strong><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/02/20/introducing-block-bindings-part-1-connecting-custom-fields/">Introducing Block Bindings, part 1: connecting custom fields</a> </strong>&#8211; The first tutorial in a two-part series that introduces the Block Bindings API in WordPress 6.5. Part 1 focuses on custom fields. <em>(WordPress Developer Blog)</em></p>



<p>📙 <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/03/06/introducing-block-bindings-part-2-working-with-custom-binding-sources/"><strong>Introducing Block Bindings, part 2: Working with custom binding sources</strong></a> &#8211; The second tutorial in a two-part series that introduces the Block Bindings API in WordPress 6.5. Part 2 focuses on registering and using custom binding sources.<em>(WordPress Developer Blog)</em></p>



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<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/06/new-feature-the-block-bindings-api/">New Feature: The Block Bindings API</a></blockquote>
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<p>🗞️ <strong>Brian Coords</strong>&nbsp;reported for the WPTavern on&nbsp;<a href="https://wptavern.com/the-block-bindings-api-brings-dynamic-data-to-blocks"><strong>The Block Bindings API Brings Dynamic Data to Blocks</strong></a>. “As the block editor continues to evolve its content management capabilities, the lack of support for custom fields has been one of the key roadblocks for users and developers. While custom fields in WordPress are still widely used, in the block editor they’ve been relegated to a drawer at the bottom of the screen, and haven’t been as deeply integrated as many would like. With the coming&nbsp;Block Bindings API, things are about to change in a very good way.” he wrote.</p>



<p>📽️ In his latest video on YouTube, <strong>Brian Coords</strong>&nbsp;shows you how he uses&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD5U7TNUKTQ"><strong>Block Variations with the Block Bindings API</strong></a>&nbsp;and how you can offer a “no-code” experience for your users with Block Variations. Coords shared&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/bacoords/example-block-variation">his code via GitHub</a></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="block-hooks-api">Block Hooks API</h2>



<p>📽️ <strong>Bernie Reiter</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Nick Diego</strong>&nbsp;took participants of the Developer Hours on the journey&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezPHiyhhaoQ">exploring Block Hooks in WordPress 6.5</a>. In addition to covering the basics, they looked at practical examples that you can implement in your projects.</p>



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<p>📙 <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/03/25/exploring-the-block-hooks-api-in-wordpress-6-5/"><strong>Exploring the Block Hooks API in WordPress 6.5</strong></a> &#8211; The Block Hooks API is an extensibility mechanism that allows you to dynamically insert blocks into block themes. Learn how to use the API in your projects in this comprehensive overview. <em>(WordPress Developer Blog)</em></p>



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<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/04/updates-to-block-hooks-in-6-5/">Updates to Block Hooks in 6.5</a></blockquote>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="interactivity-api">Interactivity API</h2>



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<p>🎙️ If you don’t have a lot of time, but are curious about the Interactivity API, you and listen to&nbsp;<strong>Mario Santos</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Ryan Welcher</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy</strong>&nbsp;on the 73rd episode of the<strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/02/episode-73-inside-the-interactivity-api">WP Briefing discussing the Interactivity API</a></strong>. “a new foundational tool that helps developers create memorable interactive front-end experiences.” and the show notes lists a ton of resources.</p>



<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/02/episode-73-inside-the-interactivity-api"><img width="652" height="367" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/WPBriefingInteractivityAPI.jpeg?resize=652%2C367&ssl=1" alt="Cover image of the podcast episode in Interactivity API" class="wp-image-27606" /></a>



<p>🗞️ On the WPTavern site,&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://twitter.com/jamesgiroux">James Giroux</a></strong>&nbsp;reported on&nbsp;<a href="https://wptavern.com/interactivity-api-prepares-for-its-official-debut-in-wordpress-6-5"><strong>Interactivity API Prepares for its Official Debut in WordPress 6.5</strong></a>. “The Interactivity API and how it uses WordPress could be a pivotal moment in the Project’s history. It could create a new way of working with WordPress.&nbsp;” he wrote. And he might be right. It’s definitely exciting, and I am excited about all the tutorials and case studies that will be written in the upcoming months.</p>



<p>📙 <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/02/29/an-introduction-to-block-based-mega-menus/"><strong>An introduction to block-based mega menus</strong></a> &#8211; In this tutorial, we’ll explore how to build a Mega Menu block that integrates with the Core Navigation block using new features coming in WordPress 6.5. <em>(WordPress Developer Blog)</em></p>



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<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/04/interactivity-api-dev-note/">Interactivity API in 6.5</a></blockquote>
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<p>📗 <strong>Jonathan Bossenger</strong>&nbsp;experimented with the Interactivity API and used&nbsp;<a href="https://jonathanbossenger.com/2023/12/wordpress-as-a-game-development-platform/"><strong>WordPress as a game development platform.</strong></a>&nbsp;It’s a fun game, where the logos of other web development platform chase after the WordPress logo. I lasted 25 seconds. How long did you last?</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 05 Apr 2024 15:46:32 +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: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:33;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"Do The Woo Community: Introducing Groundbreaker, Empowering Women in Tech in Uganda";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=80862";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"https://dothewoo.io/introducing-groundbreaker-empowering-women-in-tech-in-uganda/";s: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:168:"During CloudFest 2024, BobWP met with Groundbreaker, a nonprofit empowering young women in Uganda for tech careers through scholarships. Find more on groundbreaker.org.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 05 Apr 2024 08:59:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:75:"Do The Woo Community: Accessibility Comes to Do the Woo with Anne and Taeke";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=80839";s:7:"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://dothewoo.io/accessibility-comes-to-do-the-woo-with-anne-and-taeke/";s: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:231:"Anne and Taeke discuss the expansive realm of web accessibility, covering its intersection with profitability, society, and legal compliance. They invite listener engagement and promise a diverse range of topics in future episodes.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 04 Apr 2024 08:48:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"WPTavern: #114 – Tammie Lister on the Journey Through Design and Theming";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=155234";s:7:"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://wptavern.com/podcast/114-tammie-lister-on-the-journey-through-design-and-theming";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48061:"Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p>Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, design and the future of theming in WordPress.</p>



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



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



<p>So on the podcast today, we have Tammie Lister. Tammie is a product creator focusing on WordPress. She has a hybrid background across product, design, psychology and development. She contributes to WordPress and is passionate about open source and the community. If you&#8217;ve been in the WordPress space for awhile, Tammie&#8217;s name is likely a familiar one. She&#8217;s an 18 year veteran of the project. A talented designer, developer and a key contributor to the project. Her journey has made her wear a variety of hats in both agency, life and product development.</p>



<p>Today, Tammie shares insights that span from the practical, to the philosophical within the open source landscape. We get to hear Tammie&#8217;s perspective on this crucial experimentation phase in WordPress theme development. The balance she seeks between minimalist design and functional complexity, and active roles, including the default theme task force.</p>



<p>Our discussion takes us into the evolving WordPress editor experience, user roles and interface design. We discussed the future of WordPress UI and UX, touching on visual configurations and how the Gutenberg site editor continues to shape our digital toolkit.</p>



<p>For those inspired by themes, Tammie reveals her passion for them from preserving the essence of classic themes, to ways that the project might break new ground.</p>



<p>She also introduces us to some of our own projects, such as Composition Themes and discusses her Classic to Block Themes project as well.</p>



<p>Tammie shares some of the resources that she recommends for both beginners and seasoned developers alike, bringing to light the many pathways that you can now choose to learn about WordPress.</p>



<p>Looking over the horizon of collaborative editing and design systems, Tammie&#8217;s excitement for what&#8217;s next is palpable.</p>



<p>So, whether you&#8217;re a developer, a designer or a WordPress aficionado this episode is for you.</p>



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



<p>A quick note, before we begin, this episode was recorded live at WordCamp Asia. There was quite a lot of background noise to contend with, and I&#8217;ve done my best to make the audio as easy to listen to as possible.</p>



<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Tammie Lister.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast by Tammie Lister. Hello Tammie.</p>



<p>[00:03:44] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> Hello. How are you?</p>



<p>[00:03:45] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, good. Thank you for joining me today. We are at WordCamp Asia. I actually don&#8217;t know the name of the venue, but we are at WordCamp Asia. And Tammie&#8217;s giving us a presentation during the event. But before she tells us about that, just give us a little bit of a background. Give us your potted biography. Tell us who you are, where you&#8217;ve been, whatever you like.</p>



<p>[00:04:04] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> Ah, yeah. So my name is Tammie Lister. I have been involved in project, oh, I think 18 years or so now, a little while. I have been pretty much, designer, developer, worn most hats around the project. I&#8217;ve been a full-time contributor, I&#8217;ve worked on phase one of Gutenberg, and I&#8217;ve also worked in agencies. And currently, I am working a kind of hybrid function, working with products, and also doing some sponsored contribution.</p>



<p>[00:04:32] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You&#8217;ve been around the houses, haven&#8217;t you, basically? You&#8217;ve been there, done that. What&#8217;s your talk about? It&#8217;s called The Elements of WordPress, but I&#8217;ve got it written down in front of me, so I know what it&#8217;s about. But you want to, just for the sake of the audience, maybe somebody listening to this will be able to watch it on WordPress TV. Tell us what you&#8217;re intending to say.</p>



<p>[00:04:48] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> Yeah. So my talk is specifically looking at the elements of WordPress, going up from blocks, to patterns, to template parts, to templates, and then styling. And looking at how they all come together. So everything on the front end of the site, but also the hidden design system as well.</p>



<p>[00:05:03] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So that&#8217;s the talk. You haven&#8217;t done it yet, have you?</p>



<p>[00:05:06] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> Yes.</p>



<p>[00:05:06] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You have. And how did it go?</p>



<p>[00:05:08] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> It went really well. I was really pleased to be able to deliver it and, as of all these talks, I think it&#8217;s a good idea to kind of deliver it. I always like writing blog posts, so I&#8217;m hoping to write a blog post about it, and then iterate on it. And some of the conversations are really interesting afterwards as well.</p>



<p>[00:05:22] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. A little bit off piste, but how do you manage the nerves for things like that?</p>



<p>[00:05:26] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> I am atrocious with nerves. I am not one of those people that ever doesn&#8217;t have nerves. I would probably worry if I didn&#8217;t have nerves.</p>



<p>[00:05:33] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well, it&#8217;s something that I couldn&#8217;t do, so bravo. Thank you for doing that. So I&#8217;ve got a list of questions here, and I&#8217;ll go through them, and we&#8217;ll tackle them one at a time. So my first question to you, and because I know of the history that you&#8217;ve had, this question seems like on message, but we&#8217;ll see.</p>



<p>I&#8217;ve written down, over the last 10 years let&#8217;s say, WordPress, well, let&#8217;s maybe go for 5 years. WordPress has changed a lot. Tell us what you make of everything that&#8217;s happened since your involvement, you know, phase one, and all of that. What sticks out as the most important moments?</p>



<p>[00:06:02] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> The word at the moment that I&#8217;m focusing on is patterns. I love patterns because they, and I kind of said this in my talk, because when people think of a site, they don&#8217;t think of blocks, they think of patterns. If you shut your eyes and you think of a site. So that, to me, is really significant because it&#8217;s starting to deal with the science and deal with the interface as people see it.</p>



<p>A lot of the work that we&#8217;ve done, is dealing with it as people see it, because a lot of phase one, and a lot of all that work was foundational. I kind of use the term iceberg. And it was all that kind of groundwork, or that big foundational pieces. And you don&#8217;t see that, and you don&#8217;t recognise that.</p>



<p>The work now is refinements on top of that, and it can seem bigger, but it&#8217;s making all of that hidden work visible. So I really like that. I like it when something that I made is changed, I get great delight in that. I like it when the language is firmed, both visually and also that we start having solid names for things, and the name stick, rather than the names changing.</p>



<p>[00:07:03] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> We&#8217;ve had a a lot of changing of names, haven&#8217;t we?</p>



<p>[00:07:05] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> Yeah. I really like that we are using proper things, so we&#8217;ll get examples, reusable blocks, and then patterns, and syncing, and all those kind of things. That we&#8217;re also making things in response to how they&#8217;re being used, is really important as well.</p>



<p>Initially, you&#8217;re going to make the best bet that you can be. So phase one was very much a, well, we know we need the editor, we know we need this, the block kind of needs it, this is how an editor kind of should work, rough bet, you know, throw something.</p>



<p>But then you only know when people are using it how to refine it. And then, even more so when site editor, the site editor and block editor are very different. So all of that kind of information refines and changes it as well.</p>



<p>[00:07:44] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You mentioned an iceberg, and whilst I don&#8217;t want to sort of open up Pandora&#8217;s box a little bit, how well do you feel the whole of the Gutenberg project, from phase one, was communicated? Because it feels, right now, 2024, it feels like a lot of things are beginning to land, and are beginning to be understood. I&#8217;ve got the intuition that, for the last five years or so there was, just maybe the communication wasn&#8217;t what it could have been, or something like that. So it was difficult for people to understand, and that leads to all sorts of interesting conversations.</p>



<p>[00:08:13] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> I think communication is a conversation, and conversations need to happen between two, both ways. That&#8217;s where I come back to. I think everyone has learned in this, you know, we didn&#8217;t even really have a concept of developer relations. You know, we were asking the people who were building it to do developer relations, who weren&#8217;t doing developer relations, who didn&#8217;t know how to do developer relations, right? Or we were asking people to build it, whilst also advocating for it.</p>



<p>You know, all these kind of different things. And we&#8217;ve learned over time, and how to do an awful lot in this project. And we&#8217;ve had to learn a lot of, we have things like hallway hangouts, now and we have all these amazing, like the developer blog, and we have all these amazing resources that we didn&#8217;t have in phase one.</p>



<p>We had, just had some like user feedback sessions, and we didn&#8217;t have the FSE program, the outreach. That kind of didn&#8217;t happen, that started happening later. We didn&#8217;t have specific people who were specifically focused on things. That was the people who were building it as well.</p>



<p>So I think we&#8217;ve learned from having those conversations and refining it. But also, it&#8217;s really hard to communicate what you don&#8217;t know yet, whilst you are learning how to do it. So if you&#8217;re like, I need to experiment and I need to explore this thing, but you need to give me time to experiment and explore this thing, that&#8217;s a completely different conversation.</p>



<p>[00:09:31] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I was having, a chat with somebody yesterday, and sort of explaining that if WordPress was a, I don&#8217;t know, a blue chip company, and it was a for-profit entity, and you had a hierarchy with the CEO at the top, you could communicate everything down with just a memo. But the nature of the WordPress project, given that there&#8217;s loads of volunteer hours, and contributor hours, and people are in different time zones, I think that&#8217;s a really difficult thing to manage.</p>



<p>[00:09:51] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> Well you couldn&#8217;t say like, hey, can everyone just go into experimentation mode for like four years, and just everyone not judge anything that&#8217;s going to be produced. That&#8217;s a whole different conversation. And then who&#8217;s going to get the memo that we&#8217;re actually all in experimentation. And then if Bob in the corner, and then Mary in the other corner doesn&#8217;t get that memo, they&#8217;re going to be judging something. Bob and Mary are super awesome people, but they&#8217;re not going to have that knowledge to make those judgements on different things.</p>



<p>[00:10:15] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. I have no intuition as to whether anything&#8217;s changed in the background, but it sounds, from everything that you&#8217;ve said and the messaging that I&#8217;m receiving, that that message has been understood, in the places where it needs to be understood. That getting the message out, getting buy-in from people who are using it, communicating it, setting up things like the FSE program as you mentioned, and the Learn WordPress, and the mentor sponsorship.</p>



<p>[00:10:37] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> It&#8217;s maturing of the project as well, and maturing of concepts and learning, like we all learn. I think that&#8217;s one of the things in the open source projects, you learn by doing. And it&#8217;s as safe a place as you can have as any to learn from, and as gentle a place.</p>



<p>But we all need to be very gentle with allowing that learning, and just give that consideration of, we&#8217;re all learning together, we&#8217;re all reflecting on what we do. That ability to experiment, if we can kind of replicate that and keep that, I think that&#8217;s going to serve us well in the future as well.</p>



<p>[00:11:10] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I haven&#8217;t been in the WordPress ecosystem since day one, probably more like 12 years or something like that. So long enough to know a bit, but not long enough to know everything. But it does feel like when phase one began, that was probably the moment where WordPress changed beyond all recognition, in a way that it had never done before. So there may was no need to communicate on such a deep level.</p>



<p>[00:11:33] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> I think there&#8217;s always been pivotal changes. They&#8217;ve just sometimes not, if it&#8217;s not impacting your area, impacted so many areas, I think if it impacts your area, it may have impacted a smaller area, so it would&#8217;ve felt huge in that smaller area, to that group of people.</p>



<p>Because it impacted so many people, it&#8217;s the editor, right? The editor is where you go to write things. You want to impact a big area of WordPress, impact the editor. It&#8217;s pretty much impacting the heart, right? In a beautiful way.</p>



<p>It really is important to think about, there&#8217;s been, you know, from plugins, to themes, to different things. There&#8217;s been so many areas that have had pivotal changes from day one that, I&#8217;m sure different people would have this on this day, and this time. This was this change that shook me, right? And I can think of many little kerfuffles, that kind of people would&#8217;ve felt, or little blips that people felt.</p>



<p>But we kind of have learned along the way to have those, and learn from those. And each one you learn from, and each one as a community. I think one of the big things to do is think, okay, how do we then progress? How do we then take those learnings? How do we then get better? And I do think we have some strong learnings from this project.</p>



<p>[00:12:49] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. I also feel the footprint is important, because back 12 years ago, let&#8217;s just use that number. I don&#8217;t know what the percentage was, but it wasn&#8217;t 43 that this number, this percentage of the internet&#8217;s being used. So obviously the impact.</p>



<p>[00:13:00] <strong>Tammie Lister:</strong> The footprint and the businesses that are established on it, and the livelihoods, and the families, and the people that depend on it, you know? And the children, and the partners, and there&#8217;s passion, and there&#8217;s the depth and the roots, and the people that have been on it for decades, or whatever. That leaves a lot of change. You know, trying to change things when someone has been very used to something for 15, whatever years, is quite a change.</p>



<p>[00:13:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> How confusing do you think the editing experience is at the moment? So I&#8217;m in WordPress all the time, I have this subset of things that I need to achieve. And so for me to do that is really straightforward, because I&#8217;ve spent the time to understand the things that I need to do.</p>
