a:4:{s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:3:"rss";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:3:"


";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"version";s:3:"2.0";}}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:1:{s:7:"channel";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:61:"
	
	
	
	




















































";s: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:16:"WordPress Planet";s: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:28:"http://planet.wordpress.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:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s: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:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.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:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;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:"WPTavern: Pootlepress Previews Upcoming Storefront Blocks Plugin for 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:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=83538";s: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/pootlepress-previews-upcoming-storefront-blocks-plugin-for-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:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6098:"<p>At the end of 2017, WooCommerce <a href="https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-explores-the-possibilities-and-challenges-for-e-commerce-in-the-gutenberg-era">published some of their &#8220;Wootenberg experiments&#8221;</a>, one of the first previews of what e-commerce might look like in the Gutenberg era. Gutenberg&#8217;s handling of meta boxes has greatly evolved since that time and the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-gutenberg-products-block/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WooCommerce Gutenberg Products Block</a> feature plugin is now active on more than 20,000 sites. The plugin provides a basic custom products area for featuring products.</p>
<p>Pootlepress has expanded on this idea of offering a configurable product display and is currently previewing its upcoming <a href="https://www.pootlepress.com/storefront-blocks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Storefront Blocks</a> plugin, created specifically for use with the WooCommerce <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/storefront/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Storefront theme</a>. The plugin allows users to easily customize more advanced layouts for various product displays that can be used anywhere in their content.</p>
<div class="embed-vimeo"></div>
<p>Storefront Blocks includes the following custom blocks:</p>
<ul>
<li>Product Masonry Grid block</li>
<li>Category Masonry block</li>
<li>Square Product Grid block</li>
<li>Slider block</li>
<li>WooCommerce default product</li>
<li>Carousel block</li>
</ul>
<p>Storefront Blocks lets store owners easily customize font, colors, label positioning and alignment, grid gap, product grid rows, and columns. The blocks can be expanded to be full-width. They can also be transformed and reused. One example shown in the video above demonstrates converting a product grid into a slider.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-09-05-at-4.04.37-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Check out the live frontend demo at <a href="https://storefrontblocks.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">storefrontblocks.com</a>.</p>
<p>The team at Pootlepress was aiming to release the plugin in first week of September but have pushed it back to the week of the September 17th, due to issues caused by Gutenberg 3.7.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Gutenberg 3.7 dropped today and broke some stuff. Trying to develop in prep for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gutenberg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#gutenberg</a> is like shooting at a fast moving target atm. Makes me agree  more and more with <a href="https://twitter.com/mor10?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mor10</a> that we need a 6 month freeze once the code base is stable to prepare properly.</p>
<p>&mdash; pootlepress (@pootlepress) <a href="https://twitter.com/pootlepress/status/1035574622840938496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Pootlepress founder Jamie Marsland said they plan to sell Storefront Blocks at several price points: $75 (single site license), $125 for 5 sites, $149 for 25 sites, and $199 for an unlimited license. The product is a natural extension of their current offerings, which include a page builder plugin used on more than 10,000 websites and a Storefront Pro plugin used on 5,000+ stores.</p>
<p>Marsland said he was previously a skeptic about Gutenberg but is convinced that a unified interface is going to be the chief benefit of Gutenberg in the long term.</p>
<p>&#8220;My skepticism was really based on how it was being rolled out to the WP community, rather than the technical approach of Gutenberg,&#8221; Marsland said. &#8220;I still feel that way actually. But from a end user point of view I’m convinced users are going to love it. 50% of our business is focused on running WordPress training courses for beginners, so we see first hand the issues that WordPress users have with the existing editor. The layout limitations of the current editor is the number complaint that users have with WordPress (from our experience of having trained thousands of end users over the past 7 years).&#8221;</p>
<p>Marsland&#8217;s team at Pootlepress has gone all-in on developing for Gutenberg. So far their greatest challenge in extending the new editor has been keeping pace with its rapid development.</p>
<p>&#8220;It feels a bit like developing for a moving target at times,&#8221; Marsland said. &#8220;The Gutenberg documentation is getting better but there are still gaps in it. The Slack channel has been really helpful though and the team have been great and responding to specific questions we have.&#8221;</p>
<p>Marsland doesn&#8217;t see Gutenberg impacting Pootlepress&#8217; WooCommerce page builder product, at least not until Gutenberg evolves further on its journey into site customization capabilities.</p>
<p>&#8220;At the moment Gutenberg is quite limited in what’s possible from a layout and design perspective,&#8221; Marsland said. &#8220;For example, our WooCommerce page builder plugin lets users change the design and layout of individual WooCommerce products. This isn’t possible with Gutenberg and may not be for quite some time. It feels like Gutenberg will stay more of a content editor than become a true page builder, especially given the current feedback from the community. That said, the ease of adding blocks within a unified interface like Gutenberg is perfect for a block approach like we are building for Storefront Blocks.&#8221;</p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve been wondering what Gutenberg will look like in a WooCommerce context, Pootlepress&#8217; upcoming Storefront Blocks plugin gives you an idea of the customization possibilities the new editor will bring. The plugin makes it easy for non-technical store owners to showcase their products in a compelling way and enables them to create and customize product layouts. Storefront Blocks is an impressive example of how Gutenberg-powered products can replace clunky shortcodes with a more user-friendly interface for building store pages.</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, 05 Sep 2018 21:27:02 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:58:"HeroPress: The Deaf World May Await, But It’s Not Silent";s: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=2616";s: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:160:"https://heropress.com/essays/the-deaf-world-may-await-but-its-not-silent/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-deaf-world-may-await-but-its-not-silent";s: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:15627:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/090518-min-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: The handicap of deafness is no in the ear, it is in the mind. -- Marlee Matlin" /><p>Have you ever wondered what it would be like if the world you lived in completely changed, turning your life upside down?</p>
<p>And for those who have gone through an experience like this, can you remember how it felt to wake up in a world you were not used to?</p>
<p>Even though life can throw many curve balls your way, the way you tackle them can redefine you as a person.</p>
<h3>From One World to Another</h3>
<p>I was just a toddler when I was diagnosed with a hearing impairment. My parents noticed my speaking skills lagged behind other toddlers of a similar age. I was diagnosed with a hearing loss at the age of 2 or 3.</p>
<p>Even though it’s something I’ve lived with my entire life, it has been (and still is) a long and confusing journey for me as I try to figure out how best to live with it.</p>
<p>You see, I’m not profoundly deaf. I can hear relatively well for now (I’ll get to that part in a minute), which means that I was brought up in a mainstream hearing environment.</p>
<p>This didn’t come without its challenges though as I experience inaccessibility issues regularly. For example, noisy environments such as bars and restaurants, bad audio at conferences and mumbling voices when listening to podcasts.</p>
<p>As a young child who didn’t know any better and acted naive about life, I just accepted it. But then as I got older and learned more about the world around me, well, that’s when things started to change.</p>
<p>Because I am part of the hearing world but also have one “ear” in the non-hearing world, it has been a confusing position to be in. I already know what it’s “supposed to” be like if I had normal hearing. But that’s the thing, I don’t have normal hearing and I’m not profoundly deaf either.</p>
<p>So where do I stand?</p>
<p>Well there was always the possibility that my hearing would get worse, which was something my audiologist told me as a teenager. I figured maybe that will give me a better idea of where I stand.</p>
<blockquote><p>But come on, as a teenager, I acted like a teenager – I was in denial about my situation and just wanted to fit in, like we all do as human beings.</p></blockquote>
<p>Nothing was going to stop me from playing football, playing the guitar, socialising with friends, going to restaurants (plenty of head nodding happens there) and going to the cinema (even if I had to pretend to enjoy the latter and act as if I could hear everything, which was awkward when everyone talks about it afterwards).</p>
<p>Over time, I learned to develop tricks to help me get by, living in both worlds. For example, when playing the guitar, I’m not able to fine-tune my music without the help of technology or someone else who can assist me. Or when I go to the cinema, I only focus on action movies so I don’t REALLY have to talk about the story line, so I talk about the graphics, car chases and explosions instead.</p>
<p>On top of that I was learning English, which is my second language (but now my main language), and I was having speech therapy sessions and attended countless audiology appointments.</p>
<p>But you keep going, right? You don’t let anything stop you. I made it through two universities, a number of jobs and navigated life in general throughout my twenties relatively unscathed.</p>
<p>Then one day, a few years ago, I realised my hearing had declined even further. Unexpectedly, I found myself in a much quieter world than the one I was used to.</p>
<p>Remember that warning from the audiologist? Well things got very real, very fast.</p>
<p>I realised there was no turning back. And so began a whole new unfamiliar journey over what to do next.</p>
<h3>Silent with a Loud Voice</h3>
<p>It’s quite common to see online creators documenting their lives using whatever platform is available, such as social media and personal websites. The same applies for those who are going through certain struggles and share them with the world. And I used to find that strange. For something so personal, why would you share this with strangers?</p>
<p>Many years ago, it’s not something that I would have thought of doing. And there was definitely no intention of writing about being partially deaf. Like I said, I was trying to fit in, so I told myself to keep going to the cinema and pretend that I enjoyed it.</p>
<p>But there comes a time where you have to stop pretending and start being real, like I did by creating a video to publicly declare my intention to do so (and I’ll talk more about that later).</p>
<p>I’m lucky to have a job that revolves around the internet. As someone who works in the digital marketing industry, it was natural for me to <a href="https://iamahmedkhalifa.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have my own website</a>. I remember there were a lot of experimenting and trying to work out how to start one, as well as trying to figure out what it should be about.</p>
<p>Having your own website sounds like a cool thing to have, but it wasn’t something I made a lot of use of in the early days. My priority was always on my clients’ or employers’ websites.</p>
<p>But over the past few years, I’ve grown more and more involved with WordPress and have a deeper appreciation for those who use the platform to find their voice.</p>
<p>And that made me curious.</p>
<blockquote><p>It wasn’t until I started my own business in 2016 that I took WordPress more seriously, both for me personally and for my clients.</p></blockquote>
<p>That is when I started to get more involved with the WordPress community. Because of my continued desire to contribute to the community and also how much I enjoyed helping others to make the most out of their WordPress sites. This inevitably led me to being one of the co-organisers of the WordPress meet-up group in Edinburgh as well as the current lead organiser for WordCamp Edinburgh.</p>
<p>My main WordPress site is my business site. It’s where I predominantly focus on the subjects of SEO, Google Analytics, WordPress (of course), online business, etc. You know, anything to help others use their WordPress site to grow their online visibility, engagement and conversion.</p>
<p>There is another side to being part of WordPress, and that is the community – it means you’re involved with a wide variety of people, mixing with different personalities and opening your mind to more experiences. It is where you can share valuable insights that can impact not just your life but the lives of those around you who are using WordPress in some shape or form.</p>
<p>And that includes the subjects of inclusivity and accessibility, two areas which have a direct effect on me. But with regards to accessibility, I do depend on subtitles/closed captions in certain situations. I’m thankful that TV is getting better at it, but outside the house, it’s not that simple.</p>
<blockquote><p>Having been to many meet-ups and WordCamps, the code of conduct is clear – it’s about making the environment welcoming and comfortable for everyone.</p></blockquote>
<p>The subject of online accessibility is becoming more important. Even though we are still behind in terms of understanding accessibility and making it a standard approach on websites, I’m starting to see people taking it more seriously, and rightly so.</p>
<p>So I should feel comfortable about the online world, right? Well, not exactly. Accessibility is still trying to catch up online and offline for everyone, not just for deaf people. For example, there are still campaigns going on to have subtitled screenings at cinemas as they tend to be limited and are often used during impossible hours like Monday mornings.</p>
<p>Because apparently, deaf people don’t have day jobs.</p>
<p>The combined effect of a lack of accessibility and various challenges means there is a nagging feeling that being deaf means my abilities are limited in an online world.</p>
<p>It’s a stupid thing, right? But imposter syndrome is a powerful thing. If you don’t have a firm hold on it, it can be beat the hell out of you.</p>
<p>Until one day&#8230;</p>
<p>“Enough! I’ve had enough.”</p>
<p>There came a point where I decided to let go of the very thing (my hearing impairment) that I felt was holding me back in life and to use that as the catalyst to move forward. I was reading a book called “Let Go” by Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income. He is someone I’ve admired from afar and I have learnt a lot from him, even before reading that book.</p>
<p>But that book was the first “soft” trigger for me in accepting the present and the future. Little did I realise how doing this would pave the way for a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities. And that’s when the second trigger happened. I had the opportunity of spending a day with Pat in San Diego – it was an experience I’ll never forget.</p>
<p>But just as importantly and for the final trigger, it allowed me remove those chains that shackled me and gave me the freedom to move forward and to take advantage of whatever life had to offer me, even if it meant things were “limited” because of my gradual hearing loss.</p>
<p>It’s amazing what can happen when you share your vulnerabilities and experiences with others. We can always learn from each other and sharing this experience has ended up helping many others. I have received private messages from strangers thanking me for creating videos that help spread awareness.</p>
<p>And I’m not stopping there either.</p>
<h3>The World Got Quieter</h3>
<p>If I am going deeper into the deaf world, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be silent, at least not in an online sense. I have created a dedicated website called <a href="https://hearmeoutcc.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hear Me Out! [CC]</a> to document my hearing journey. It’s a place to share other people’s stories and to provide advice on managing in the deaf world – whether you are deaf or not.</p>
<p>See, that’s the great thing about putting websites together. It’s about giving you the platform you never had before. It’s also the ethos of WordPress &#8220;to democratise publishing through Open Source, GPL Software”.</p>
<p>It’s a funny thing when you start documenting and talking about your life online. Many people use social media as a platform to help with that and to create a voice, but I prefer to use my WordPress site for that voice. And then I use social media to help elevate it.</p>
<h3>Your Voice Can Influence Others</h3>
<p>Since I’ve been using WordPress and been involved in digital marketing for almost 10 years, it made sense to use that experience to my advantage. I’m lucky that my business allows me to use my expertise to help other people with their sites.</p>
<p>But sometimes you have to be a little selfish and think about your own journey too, not just those of your clients or customers (as well as your friends and family).</p>
<p>Not only are you allowed to do that, but you should do that. Because if you don’t help yourself first, you can’t help anyone else around you.</p>
<p>Several years ago, I wouldn’t have thought of doing that. I mean, who the hell would want to listen to me? But I truly believe in the motto “your vibe attracts your tribe” – it doesn’t matter who you are, you’ve got something worth sharing online that your tribe, whoever they are, would love.</p>
<p>And it’s never too late to start.</p>
<hr />
<p>There is a quote I really like by American actress, Marlee Matlin:</p>
<blockquote><p>“The handicap of deafness is not in the ear; it is in the mind.”</p></blockquote>
<p>That quote applies to me perfectly, but you can also apply it to your own circumstances if deafness doesn’t apply to you.</p>
<p>It’s like that old saying we all heard as children: “You can do anything if you put your mind to it.”</p>
<p>It is kind of true in a way, but it has taken me a long time to realise it. Even though I wish I had started earlier, it’s about starting today rather than thinking about yesterday.</p>
<p>And I think that can apply to any situation.</p>
<p>I’m not just talking about creating a website. It’s also about finding the right time for you to let go of whatever is holding you back, and for you to understand what your next steps are.</p>
<p>That was my challenge. I had to redefine myself if I wanted to move forward. I see no reason why you can’t do that too.</p>
<p>So here is my message to you: if you have something that is holding you back, I urge you to write down what you are going to do about it. You need to stick it somewhere where you can see it all the time.</p>
<p>And if you are feeling REALLY brave, you can let me know in the comment section below what is holding you back in your life – and what you are doing to let it go.</p>
<p>My way of doing that was to create another WordPress site to share my stories and document my journey.</p>
<p>Because take it from me, once you do that, the world awaits you… online and offline.</p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: The Deaf World May Await, But It&#8217;s Not Silent" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=The%20Deaf%20World%20May%20Await%2C%20But%20It%27s%20Not%20Silent&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fthe-deaf-world-may-await-but-its-not-silent%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: The Deaf World May Await, But It&#8217;s Not Silent" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fthe-deaf-world-may-await-but-its-not-silent%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fthe-deaf-world-may-await-but-its-not-silent%2F&title=The+Deaf+World+May+Await%2C+But+It%26%238217%3Bs+Not+Silent" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: The Deaf World May Await, But It&#8217;s Not Silent"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/essays/the-deaf-world-may-await-but-its-not-silent/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/090518-min-150x150.jpg&description=The Deaf World May Await, But It's Not Silent" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: The Deaf World May Await, But It&#8217;s Not Silent"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/the-deaf-world-may-await-but-its-not-silent/" title="The Deaf World May Await, But It&#8217;s Not Silent"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/the-deaf-world-may-await-but-its-not-silent/">The Deaf World May Await, But It&#8217;s Not Silent</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" 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, 05 Sep 2018 08:00:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Ahmed Khalifa";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:108:"WPTavern: AMP for WordPress Plugin to Introduce User-Friendly Theme Support Settings in Upcoming 1.0 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:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=83671";s: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:119:"https://wptavern.com/amp-for-wordpress-plugin-to-introduce-user-friendly-theme-support-settings-in-upcoming-1-0-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:14488:"<p>In October, Google&#8217;s open source <a href="https://www.ampproject.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AMP project</a> (Accelerated Mobile Pages) will be heading into its third year. The initiative aims to improve performance on the mobile web and currently boasts usage on 25 million domains across publishing, advertising, e-commerce, and business websites.</p>
<p>WordPress had a rocky beginning with its <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/amp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">official AMP plugin</a>, which was originally developed by Automattic, one of the earliest publishing partners on the project. The first versions of the plugin were not easy to use, especially for heavily customized installations. It required site owners to invest considerable effort into optimizing AMP pages and fine tuning them for their needs. AMP for WordPress <a href="https://wptavern.com/amp-project-turns-2-automattic-partners-with-google-to-improve-wordpress-plugin" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">went without updates for 10 months in 2017</a>, was fraught with errors, and incompatible with many other plugins.</p>
<p>XWP began leading development of the plugin last year in partnership with Google, beginning with the 0.6 release. Weston Ruter is the tech lead with several XWP engineers contributing to development, design, and testing. Alberto Medina, Developer Advocate at Google, and his team have been leading the product management and outreach efforts.</p>
<p>&#8220;Around May last year, my team at Google started a long-term effort with a bigger scope than just AMP, which included significantly investing engineering resources on the development of the plugin,&#8221; Medina said. &#8220;We started investing development resources, and then teamed up with XWP to expand the engineering scope. During this phase of the project Google and XWP have driven all the execution of the project and the development efforts.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ruter said his team went through six months of the plugin&#8217;s support topics on WordPress.org and categorized them to figure out what issues users were struggling with most. They used that information to guide the focus for their first release and have been keeping a pulse on the support forum ever since.</p>
<p>The plugin has incorporated many changes since XWP began spearheading its development, putting AMP&#8217;s newer features to use within the context of WordPress. Earlier versions of the plugin only allowed posts to be served as AMP but the 0.6 release added pages to its capabilities. Version 0.7 introduced the ability for all URLS on a site to served as AMP (“Native AMP”) but lacked the ability for users to customize which types of content should be excluded from this format. The upcoming 1.0 release will allow users to have a native AMP site that excludes certain templates, such as a shopping cart or a category archive, from being served as AMP.</p>
<p>&#8220;AMP initially was limited in functionality,&#8221; Ruter said. &#8220;The AMP plugin was created when AMP was young. In the beginning it was focused on Accelerated <em>Mobile</em> Pages and it wasn&#8217;t able to recreate full responsive experiences that site owners expect. This has changed and AMP is able to do a lot. So that is what we have been focused on with the AMP plugin, is to bring it up to speed with the AMP project itself so that WordPress sites can take advantage of all the features and functionality that are now available.&#8221;</p>
<p>The team at XWP is aiming to release version 1.0 of AMP for WordPress in mid-September. The <a href="https://make.xwp.co/2018/06/09/amp-plugin-release-v1-0-alpha1/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1.0 alpha release</a> introduced extended AMP theme support with a more user-oriented approach to the settings. Previous versions of the plugin were more developer-centric, requiring edits to a theme or child theme to configure template support. Users can now enable Native AMP or Paired mode on the AMP settings screen and the <a href="https://make.xwp.co/2018/07/06/amp-plugin-release-v1-0-beta1/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">beta release</a> adds granular controls for selecting supported templates.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/amp-1-0-beta.png?ssl=1"><img /></a>image credit: <a href="https://make.xwp.co/2018/07/06/amp-plugin-release-v1-0-beta1/">XWP</a>
<p>Other notable updates in the alpha and beta releases include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Enhanced UI for handling AMP validation errors</li>
<li>Expanded Gutenberg support to surface AMP validation errors at a block level</li>
<li>Addition of AMP-specific functionality to core blocks</li>
<li>Redirection to non-AMP URL when unaccepted validation errors present</li>
<li>Beta brings back WP Admin Bar AMP menu with AMP error highlighting</li>
</ul>
<p>AMP for WordPress <a href="https://make.xwp.co/2018/08/06/amp-plugin-release-v1-0-beta2/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">v1.0-beta2</a> was released in August and is not yet ready for production use. The good news for those who want to use AMP is that the plugin is becoming more of a plug-and-play solution as development progresses.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is only one setting that the user needs to change to take advantage of the new theme support: switching from legacy to paired or native,&#8221; Ruter said. &#8220;Everything else is optional and just customizes the behavior. There will be a new admin pointer in 1.0 that will call out this updated admin screen.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ruter also said his team is considering implementing a wizard-type experience to minimize the number of tweaks users need to make. They are discussing automating the compatibility check of the various templates prior to enabling theme support so users can get a high level view of the areas of the site that would be best-suited for AMP.</p>
<h3>AMP Remains a Controversial Solution to Web Page Performance</h3>
<p>Many users encountered insurmountable difficulties in their first attempts at using the AMP plugin with highly customized sites, relegating AMP usage to sites with dedicated engineering teams. Early versions of the AMP project did not have the flexibility that many publishers required.</p>
<p>Brian Boyer, VP of Product and People at Spirited Media, home of The Incline, Billy Penn, and Denverite publications, gave a presentation at WordCamp for Publishers titled &#8220;<a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/08/22/brian-boyer-why-we-ditched-amp-and-other-ux-choices-we-made-for-launching-membership/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Why we ditched AMP, and other UX choices we made for launching membership</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;We need more control over our user experience than AMP allows &#8211; to build an unshitty, persuasive, native feeling, highly effective membership experience, I need a little more JavaScript,&#8221; Boyer said. &#8220;I need a little bit more control over the page and to be fair, we could probably make some of this stuff but we cannot afford to design, build, and most crucially, test multiple versions of our website.&#8221;</p>
<p>Boyer cited the expense of of building and testing multiple codebases as one of the primary reasons his team ditched AMP. The complication of maintaining a second user experience was &#8220;far too much to ask&#8221; for his development team, who had already produced a fast, lightweight WordPress setup with proper caching.</p>
<p>&#8220;An AMP page might load a little faster but our other needs far outweigh that minor performance improvement,&#8221; Boyer said. &#8220;We got over our FOMP (Fear of Missing Pageviews). If I can be better at making conversions, I&#8217;ll take the hit with pageviews.&#8221;</p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://xwp.co/an-introduction-to-native-amp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Enhancements to the AMP project and the plugin</a>, including the addition of components allowing for the creation of rich interactive experiences, continue to narrow the gap between the custom JavaScript many websites require and AMP&#8217;s limitations. This may be encouraging for those who have chosen to embrace AMP, but ultimately will not make a difference for those who fundamentally oppose the initiative as an affront to the open web.</p>
<p>Beyond the technical investment in fine-tuning an AMP setup to meet the needs of his publications, Boyer concluded the presentation by outlining his broader objections to the AMP project:</p>
<blockquote><p>By policing slow websites, Google has turned the big publishers&#8217; problem into my problem, but that fix comes at a high cost to me, a small publisher,&#8221; Boyer said. &#8220;AMP is not the Open Web &#8211; it&#8217;s a short term fix for bad choices. If you build a slow and terrible website that supports a creepy business model, like tracking the shit out of your users, then yes, AMP is one path to a better user experience. It is an escape hatch from your legacy code and the bad choices of your predecessors. I understand why that would be tempting, but it is also a deal with the devil. AMP and its cousin Instant Articles put even more control in the hands of companies that already have too much control, and I for one cannot abide by that. I just ask you, do the work, fix your websites, make them fast, friendly, and respectful.</p></blockquote>
<p>Other vocal critics are not comfortable with how Google is positioning AMP as a long-term solution, instead of addressing the root issues of web page performance. Jeremy Keith articulated this stance in his article titled &#8220;<a href="https://adactio.com/journal/13964" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AMPstinction</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;If the AMP project existed in order to create a web where AMP was no longer needed, I think I could get behind it,&#8221; Keith said. &#8220;But the more it’s positioned as the only viable solution to solving performance, the more uncomfortable I am with it.</p>
<p>&#8220;Which, by the way, brings me to one of the most pernicious ideas around Google AMP—positioning anyone opposed to it as not caring about web performance. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s precisely because performance on the web is so important that it deserves a long-term solution, co-created by all of us: not some commandants delivered to us from on-high by one organization, enforced by preferential treatment by that organization’s monopoly in search.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, decoupling AMP from Google&#8217;s influence would also mean separating the project from the leadership and resources that have so far driven its adoption across millions of websites. There may be other approaches to addressing performance but Alberto Medina and his team see AMP as serving a practical purpose for users and developers who wouldn&#8217;t otherwise be capable of optimizing their sites to the same degree. What he described is in a sense &#8220;democratizing performance.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The root causes of web performance problems are well known and there are tools, techniques, and web APIs, that allow developers to achieve awesome UX close to what AMP provides,&#8221; Medina said. &#8220;However, the reality is that doing so is very hard for most developers. Usually achieving it requires having solid engineering teams and enough financial resources. That is not fair for most developers and organizations that do not have the resources.&#8221;</p>
<p>Medina sees AMP as an answer to what he describes as the <a href="https://medinathoughts.com/2018/05/17/progressive-wordpress/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Capability/Usage gap</a>: the difference between what can be achieved in the web and what is actually done in the web.</p>
<p>&#8220;The problem is that as the power and complexity of the web increases, that gap has increased as well,&#8221; Medina said. &#8220;The problem is that as long as that gap exists, achieving the best UX is not possible. So, the goal is to close that gap. There are two options: developers do the right thing all the time, or we provide tooling/libraries that enable them to do the right thing in an easy and effective way. AMP served the latter purpose.&#8221;</p>
<p>Medina also emphasized that AMP is fully built on open web technologies. &#8220;Basically, it provides what developers could do by themselves but it is hard to do,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://art19.com/shows/recode-decode/episodes/3d56208e-a4b9-4c74-861e-8fec105a4ee8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Recode Decode podcast interview</a> with Kara Swisher, Matt Mullenweg also weighed in on the AMP project.</p>
<p>&#8220;It gets a bad rap because Google kind of botched the rollout a little bit,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;The underlying tech is open source and it&#8217;s actually quite good. Because for you as an independent publisher to have a future, we need you to load just as fast as something that&#8217;s embedded in an app. Facebook has done the bait and switch so many times that we need an independent alternative and I think AMP can be that.&#8221;</p>
<p>Google&#8217;s investment in the AMP plugin through its partnership with Automattic and XWP has made AMP more approachable for the average user, especially with the updates coming in version 1.0. Medina said Google chose to collaborate with WordPress because they share a similar goal of providing a better user experience for the platform.</p>
<p>&#8220;AMP is not an end goal in itself; the real objective is enabling all WordPress developers and site owners to provide awesome user experiences powered by WordPress,&#8221; Medina said. &#8220;AMP is just a component in that overall story, together with PWA capabilities, coding and performance best practices, Tide, etc.&#8221; In architecting the latest version of the plugin, Medina said the team is aiming to &#8220;enable native AMP experiences in WordPress without compromising content fidelity or surrendering the flexibility of the WordPress platform.&#8221;</p>
<p>Whatever your opinion of the AMP project, the user-friendly theme support options and better validation error handling are game changing improvements for the WordPress plugin. It is currently active on more than 300,000 sites. Updates coming in the 1.0 release will enable thousands of WordPress users to have a more successful experience with AMP.</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, 04 Sep 2018 21:28:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:45:"Dev Blog: The Month in WordPress: August 2018";s: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:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=6191";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"https://wordpress.org/news/2018/09/the-month-in-wordpress-august-2018/";s: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:5553:"<p>Many of the WordPress contribution teams have been working hard on the new WordPress editor, and the tools, services, and documentation surrounding it. Read on to find out more about this ongoing project, as well as everything else that has been happening around the WordPress community in August.</p>

<hr class="wp-block-separator" />

<h2>WordPress 4.9.8 is Released</h2>

<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2018/08/wordpress-4-9-8-maintenance-release/">WordPress 4.9.8 was released</a> at the beginning of the month. While this was a maintenance release fixing 46 bugs, it was significant for Core development because it made a point of highlighting Gutenberg — the new WordPress editor that is currently in development (more on that below).<br /></p>

<p>This release also included some important updates to the privacy tools that were added to Core earlier this year.<br /></p>

<p>Want to get involved in building WordPress Core? Follow <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">the Core team blog</a> and join the #core channel in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">Making WordPress Slack group</a>.</p>

<h2>New WordPress Editor Development Continues</h2>

<p>Active development continues on <a href="https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/">Gutenberg</a>, the new editing experience for WordPress Core. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/08/31/whats-new-in-gutenberg-31st-august/">The latest version</a> features a number of important user experience improvements, including a new unified toolbar and support for a more focussed writing mode.<br /></p>

<p>Users can test Gutenberg right now by installing <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/">the plugin</a>, which currently has nearly 300,000 active installs. Along with that, <a href="https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/handbook/reference/faq/">the Gutenberg Handbook</a> has some very useful information about how to use and develop for the new editor.<br /></p>

<p>Want to get involved in building Gutenberg? Follow <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/gutenberg/">the #gutenberg tag on the Core team blog</a> and join the #core-editor channel in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">Making WordPress Slack group</a>.</p>

<h2>Planning Begins for the Next Global WordPress Translation Day</h2>

<p>The Global WordPress Translation Day is a 24-hour event held online and all across the world. It is designed to bring communities together to translate WordPress into their local languages, and to help them connect with other communities doing the same thing.<br /></p>

<p>There have been three Translation Days since April 2016, and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2018/08/29/global-wordpress-translation-day-4-preliminary-planning/">the fourth edition is in the planning stages now</a>. The Polyglots team, who organizes these events, is currently looking for input on the date, format, and content for the event and would love some feedback from the community.<br /></p>

<p>Want to get involved in translating WordPress into your own language? Follow <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/">the Polyglots team blog</a> and join the #polyglots channel in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">Making WordPress Slack group</a>.<br /></p>

<hr class="wp-block-separator" />

<h2>Further Reading:</h2>

<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/upgrade-php/">The Update PHP page on WordPress.org</a> has been revised and improved to make the reasons for upgrading more clear.</li><li>The Mobile team is looking for people to help test the latest versions of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2018/08/29/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-android-10-8/">Android</a> and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2018/08/28/call-for-testing-wordpress-for-ios-10-8/">iOS</a> apps for WordPress.</li><li><a href="https://wordbits.io/">WordBits</a> is a innovative new platform for publishing WordPress-based code snippets with the ability to download each snippet as a working plugin.</li><li>The Community Team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2018/08/27/wordcamp-incubator-2018-update-thread-august-edition/">has some updates</a> about how things are going with this year’s WordCamp Incubator program.</li><li>The WordPress Support Forums <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2018/08/august-16th-support-team-meeting-summary/">now include a feature</a> allowing forum volunteers to easily report a post to the moderators for a follow-up.</li><li>WordCamp Kochi, India <a href="https://2018.kochi.wordcamp.org/wordcamp-kochi-2018-is-postponed-to-november-3rd-2018-saturday/">has unfortunately had to postpone their event</a> due to floods in the region.</li><li><a href="http://www.wpglossary.net/">WP Glossary</a> is a new site that offers helpful definitions of words that you could encounter when using WordPress.</li><li>A few WordPress community members <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2018/08/13/in-the-words-of-the/">have started a working group</a> to tackle the idea of building diverse WordPress  communities all across the world.</li><li>A new <a href="https://editorblockswp.com/library/">Gutenberg Block Library</a> is available, listing the details of the many blocks available for the new editor.</li></ul>

<p><em>If you have a story we should consider including in the next “Month in WordPress” post, please </em><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/month-in-wordpress-submissions/"><em>submit it here</em></a><em>.</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, 03 Sep 2018 11:00:43 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Hugh Lashbrooke";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:59:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 3.7 Released, Introduces Spotlight Mode";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83662";s: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:69:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-3-7-released-introduces-spotlight-mode";s: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:1786:"<p>Gutenberg 3.7 <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/">is available</a> for download and contains a number of changes. The Fixed Toolbar has been renamed Unified Toolbar. This is an optional mode that fixes all of the toolbar icons to the top of the editor, similar to the Classic editor.</p>

<p>The team discovered that experienced users who don&#8217;t mind the disconnect between blocks and the toolbar preferred this layout. <br /></p>

<div class="wp-block-image"><img />Unified Toolbar</div>

<p>There&#8217;s now an animation and icon specifically tailored for the Block Converter action. Hovering the cursor over a block&#8217;s icon will display two arrows that represent the ability to change block types. <br /></p>

<div class="wp-block-image"><img />Change Bock Types Icon</div>

<p>For those who want to focus on one block of content at a time, there&#8217;s a new mode called Spotlight. When enabled, the blocks that are not being edited partially fade away and the block outlines disappear. This is an experimental attempt at introducing a <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-contributors-considering-a-focus-mode-for-writing">Distraction Free Writing mode</a>. </p>

<p>The <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/9152">icons have been updated</a> for Paragraph, Heading, and Subheading blocks to add clarity. Previous to 3.7, the Paragraph block icon looked like an alignment option causing confusion. </p>

<div class="wp-block-image"><img />Updated Icons for Paragraph, Heading, and Subheading blocks</div>

<p>You can find a complete list of changes and links to corresponding issues on GitHub by visiting the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/08/31/whats-new-in-gutenberg-31st-august/">Gutenberg 3.7 release post</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, 31 Aug 2018 21:34:08 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";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:85:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 329 – Gutenberg, Forks, and WordPress Development Cycles";s: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:58:"https://wptavern.com?p=83650&preview=true&preview_id=83650";s: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:90:"https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-329-gutenberg-forks-and-wordpress-development-cycles";s: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:3189:"<p>In this episode, <a href="http://jjj.me">John James Jacoby</a> and I discuss the news of the week. We have a candid conversation about what it would be like if Gutenberg were merged into WordPress trunk earlier versus developed as a plugin. We also talk about Classic Editor install numbers, praising forks of WordPress, and some new tools that are available to search Gutenberg blocks. This might be the first episode since Jacoby took over as co-host that we ended the show in under an hour.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-block-library-provides-a-searchable-index-of-individual-blocks">Gutenberg Block Library Provides a Searchable Index of Individual Blocks</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-and-classic-editor-plugins-pass-200000-active-installations-wordpress-4-9-9-planning-underway">Gutenberg and Classic Editor Plugins Pass 200,000 Active Installations, WordPress 4.9.9 Planning Underway</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-to-support-classic-editor-for-many-years-to-come-plugin-and-theme-markets-expected-to-drive-gutenberg-adoption">WordPress to Support Classic Editor for “Many Years to Come,” Plugin and Theme Markets Expected to Drive Gutenberg Adoption</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/gary-pendergast-praises-classicpress-extends-invitation-for-collaboration">Gary Pendergast Praises ClassicPress, Extends Invitation for Collaboration</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-for-publishers-2018-videos-now-available-on-wordpress-tv">WordCamp for Publishers 2018 Videos Now Available on WordPress.tv</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wpcampus-2018-videos-are-now-available-to-watch">WPCampus 2018 Videos Are Now Available to Watch</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/new-network-media-library-plugin-creates-a-shared-library-on-a-multisite-network">New Network Media Library Plugin Creates a Shared Library on a Multisite Network</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/new-wp-glossary-site-translates-wordpress-techspeak-into-plain-english">New WP Glossary Site Translates WordPress Techspeak into Plain English</a></p>
<h2>Picks of the Week:</h2>
<p>Jeff &#8211; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuhqf3xFlQcopapi4xHiTfA">WP Minute</a> by Malcom Peralty over at <a href="https://www.presstitan.com/">PressTitan</a> &#8211; A new video series by a longtime friend and former co-host, David Peralty that provides quick updates on stories making the rounds in the WordPress ecosystem.</p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday,September 5th 3:00 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738">WordPress Weekly via Itunes</a></p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="https://www.wptavern.com/feed/podcast">WordPress Weekly via RSS</a></p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wordpress-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr">WordPress Weekly via Stitcher Radio</a></p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Ir3keivkvwwh24xy7qiymurwpbe">WordPress Weekly via Google Play</a></p>
<p><strong>Listen To Episode #329:</strong><br />
</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 30 Aug 2018 09:11:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";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:75:"WPTavern: Distributor Plugin Now Publicly Available, Adds Gutenberg Support";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83634";s: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://wptavern.com/distributor-plugin-now-publicly-available-adds-gutenberg-support";s: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:2468:"<p>10up&#8217;s Distributor plugin has exited beta and is <a href="https://10up.com/blog/2018/distributor-wordpress-syndication-reuse/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">now publicly available</a>. The free plugin syndicates content across WordPress multisite networks and the web. It <a href="https://wptavern.com/distributor-plugin-now-in-beta-a-new-wordpress-content-syndication-solution-from-10up" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">went into beta</a> last year and 10up reports that more than 100 organizations and developers participated in the beta program.</p>
<p>&#8220;We’ve already integrated many improvements contributed by beta testers, including 10up clients,&#8221;  10up President Jake Goldman said. &#8220;Distributor has been approved for use on WordPress.com VIP and is ready for enterprise implementations. We have a roadmap of planned enhancements, with ambitious plans including more advanced media distribution and sophisticated &#8216;take down&#8217; features for the forced removal of distributed content.&#8221;</p>
<p>The public release of Distributor also introduces support for Gutenberg for the settings that are available in the edit screen. Users should be aware that this new feature is still in beta, as Gutenberg is still in active development and not has not yet been merged into WordPress core.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/distributor-gutenberg.png?ssl=1"><img /></a>image credit: <a href="https://10up.com/blog/2018/distributor-wordpress-syndication-reuse/">10up</a>
<p>&#8220;We’ve even considered interoperability between the classic editor and Gutenberg, and instances where custom blocks are not registered on remote sites,&#8221; Goldman said. &#8220;All aspects of the user interface have been carried over to ensure a coherent and cohesive experience.&#8221;</p>
<p>10up has also launched an Enterprise support package that offers faster response for issues, support for custom integrations, and white-labeling. Support packages fund ongoing development and customers have the opportunity to help shape the roadmap of the plugin.</p>
<p>Distributor is available at <a href="http://distributorplugin.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">distributorplugin.com</a> where users can register to get a free license key. The plugin is also <a href="https://github.com/10up/distributor" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">available on GitHub</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 29 Aug 2018 21:48:01 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:75:"WPTavern: Gutenberg Contributors Considering a “Focus Mode” for Writing";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83525";s: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:80:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-contributors-considering-a-focus-mode-for-writing";s: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:4462:"<p>After overwhelming <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/gutenberg/reviews/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">feedback from testers</a> indicating that Gutenberg is not well suited for simply writing posts, the project&#8217;s contributors are considering a few options for improving the writing flow. These proposals are spread across several tickets on GitHub.</p>
<p>Two weeks ago, Gutenberg technical lead Matias Ventura submitted a PR exploring the possibility of <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/8920" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">introducing a &#8220;Focus Mode&#8221; to the editor</a>. This mode would highlight the current selected block with all other blocks faded while the &#8220;fix toolbar to header&#8221; option is enabled. The video below shows an example of what that might look like:</p>
<p></p>
<p>&#8220;The aim is to provide a writing experience that can satisfy those that would prefer an environment with the least amount of distractions at the expense of tool clarity,&#8221; Ventura said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been testing this and personally find it a very enjoyable mode to toggle when I just want to write for a bit. Paired with a robust set of keyboard shortcuts it could be quite nice to use. In this sense, it&#8217;d be important to provide an easy keyboard shortcut to toggle the mode on and off.&#8221;</p>
<p>Automattic designer Kjell Reigstad opened another <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/9334" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ticket</a> that proposes transforming the &#8220;Fix Toolbar to Top&#8221; setting into a &#8220;Focus Mode.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;A key feedback point we hear is that Gutenberg’s interface can be a little overwhelming,&#8221; Reigstad said. &#8220;This often comes from users who more commonly focus on &#8216;writing&#8217; versus &#8216;building&#8217; their posts. They find the contextual block controls and block hover states to be distracting: When they&#8217;re focused on writing, they don&#8217;t necessarily want to think about blocks — they just want to write.&#8221;</p>
<p>Reigstad said this same subset of users also misses having the formatting toolbar at the top of the page, as it is in other applications like Google Docs, MS Word, and WordPress&#8217; classic editor. He proposed a solution that addresses these concerns by combining the &#8220;Fix Toolbar to Top&#8221; option with the following UI changes that would provide a more complete &#8220;Focus Mode:&#8221;</p>
<ul>
<li>The block toolbar would be pinned to the top of the screen.</li>
<li>The editor would be full screen.</li>
<li>Block outlines would be removed for both hover and selected states.</li>
<li>The block label would appear on a delay, and be toned down visually.</li>
<li>Block mover + block options would also appear on a delay.</li>
</ul>
<p>Reigstad also created a video demo of this concept:</p>
<p></p>
<p>This new &#8220;focus Mode&#8221; concept is also compatible with Ventura&#8217;s proposal for highlighting the current selected block and fading out the others. It could either be present in both modes or available as an add-on feature.</p>
<p>A couple of well-written reviews on the Gutenberg plugin <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/not-everyone-needs-everything-to-be-blocks-gutenberg-must-focus-on-writers/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">describe how the concept of blocks complicates the writing experience</a> and how Gutenberg&#8217;s current writing environment is <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/gutenberg-gets-wordpress-wrong-and-is-a-terrible-writing-environment/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">visually distracting and disruptive</a>. This has been a major concern since the plugin was first released for testing, as there are many users who depend on WordPress for its writing features more than the page building aspects.</p>
<p>The Gutenberg team&#8217;s new ideas go a long way towards decluttering the interface for writers. This is especially important for those who want to do their long-form writing inside WordPress, instead of beginning their work in an application that is dedicated to providing a distraction-free writing experience. Introducing a &#8220;focus mode&#8221; or &#8220;writing mode&#8221; will solve one of the most critical issues with the new editor and we&#8217;re looking forward to seeing how this develops.</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, 29 Aug 2018 18:32:08 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:8;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:31:"HeroPress: WordPress Is For You";s: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=2610";s: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:107:"https://heropress.com/wordpress-is-for-you/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-is-for-you";s: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:3215:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/OpenUpDoors-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: This one simple attitude adjustment, changing “no” to “let me look into that”, opened up more doors and possibilities than I ever thought possible." /><p>When HeroPress started, a stated intention was to be a voice for people on the fringe of the Western WordPress culture. In my head I thought this geographical, and involved places like Africa and Asia. I quickly came to realize that everyone is on the fringe of something.</p>
<p>This month&#8217;s HeroPress replay is titled &#8220;<a href="https://heropress.com/essays/doing-what-i-want/">Doing What I Want</a>&#8221;  by Becky Davis. Becky&#8217;s an American, but she doesn&#8217;t fit the American IT worker mold of young white male. In fact, her gender and age were regular friction points in her attempts to get jobs. She&#8217;s not old by any means, but she&#8217;s not 19 either.</p>
<p>WordPress became a place for her where things like age and gender don&#8217;t matter nearly as much as other jobs. Check out Becky&#8217;s essay and perhaps drop her a comment.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><p><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/doing-what-i-want/">Doing What I Want</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: WordPress Is For You" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=WordPress%20Is%20For%20You&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fwordpress-is-for-you%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: WordPress Is For You" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fwordpress-is-for-you%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fwordpress-is-for-you%2F&title=WordPress+Is+For+You" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: WordPress Is For You"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/wordpress-is-for-you/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/OpenUpDoors-150x150.jpg&description=WordPress Is For You" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: WordPress Is For You"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/wordpress-is-for-you/" title="WordPress Is For You"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/wordpress-is-for-you/">WordPress Is For You</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" 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, 29 Aug 2018 12:17:07 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}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:84:"WPTavern: Gary Pendergast Praises ClassicPress, Extends Invitation for Collaboration";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83608";s: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:94:"https://wptavern.com/gary-pendergast-praises-classicpress-extends-invitation-for-collaboration";s: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:2529:"<p>Gutenberg and WordPress core contributor Gary Pendergast has <a href="https://pento.net/2018/08/26/forking-is-a-feature/">weighed in</a> with this thoughts on <a href="https://wptavern.com/classicpress-gutenberg-not-included">ClassicPress</a>, a fork of WordPress created by Scott Bowler. Pendergast praises the fork and extended an open invitation to Bowler to collaborate in the future. </p>

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>As a member of the WordPress core team, I certainly hold no ill-feelings towards them, and I hope they’ll be open to working with us in the future. I hope we’ll be able to learn from their work, to improve WordPress for everyone.</p><p>Ultimately, we all share the same goal: creating a free and open web, 
for everyone to enjoy. While ClassicPress has styled itself as a protest
 against Gutenberg for now, I hope they’ll find their voice <em>for</em> something, instead of just <em>against</em> something.</p><cite>Gary Pendergast</cite></blockquote>

<p>In the comments of the article, Pendergast <a href="https://pento.net/2018/08/26/forking-is-a-feature/#comment-37409">received harsh criticism</a> for writing blog posts instead of working on Gutenberg&#8217;s 1K plus issues on GitHub. In an example of <a href="https://chrislema.com/grace/">showing grace</a>, Pendergast <a href="https://pento.net/2018/08/26/forking-is-a-feature/#comment-37412">responds</a> to the person&#8217;s question of whether or not Gutenberg&#8217;s development team is correctly prioritizing their time.</p>

<p>&#8220;Personally, I believe we’re doing a reasonable job, though we could probably lean a little <em>more</em> towards blogging than we are now,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There’s been valid criticism that the Gutenberg team has been less communicative than it could be, which we’re working to address.&#8221;</p>

<p>Additionally, Pendergast compared the number of open issues in other projects and dismissed it as a measurement of software quality or readiness. </p>

<p>Personally, I miss reading blog posts about WordPress from core developers. Many of the people on the <a href="https://planet.wordpress.org/">Planet WordPress feed</a> no longer work on the project or write about WordPress. </p>

<p>I always enjoyed when they shared their deep knowledge of the software or explained why they decided to lead the project in a certain direction. Pendergast&#8217;s post is a breath of fresh air and something I&#8217;d like to see more often from other core contributors.<br /></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, 29 Aug 2018 04:58:49 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";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:80:"WPTavern: New WP Glossary Site Translates WordPress Techspeak into Plain English";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83522";s: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/new-wp-glossary-site-translates-wordpress-techspeak-into-plain-english";s: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:3701:"<p><a href="http://www.andersnoren.se/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Anders Norén</a> has launched a new website called <a href="https://www.wpglossary.net/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WP Glossary</a> that contains definitions for terms that people encounter when using WordPress. The resource was born out of a need to provide documentation for client projects.</p>
<p>&#8220;The last time I updated the glossary for a new client documentation, in the middle of May this year, it hit me that there must be a website for this,&#8221; Norén said. &#8220;A list of WordPress definitions written not for WordPress developers, but for those who manage WordPress websites either as part of their work or in their spare time.&#8221;</p>
<p>Norén said he found resources written for developers but nothing satisfactory for regular WordPress users. Inspired to fill this gap, he bought a domain name and built the site over the next couple weeks. WP Glossary contains definitions for nearly a hundred WordPress-specific and industry-related terms, with more than 25,000 total words.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/wp-glossary.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>image credit: Anders Norén
<p>Norén, who has recently jumped into client work with a new agency, is better known for his popular minimalist <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/author/anlino/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">themes on WordPress.org</a>. His 17 themes have a cumulative rating of 4.97 out of 5 stars and <a href="http://wptally.com/?wpusername=anlino" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">more than 2.1 million downloads</a>. He designed the WP Glossary site, wrote all the definitions, and credits <a href="https://twitter.com/tdh" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Thord Hedengren</a> for feedback on the design and editorial assistance.</p>
<p>Each glossary term includes a plain English definition and common use cases with a bit of WordPress history sprinkled in. The terms also link to related documentation and some also have related WordPress.tv links. The <a href="https://www.wpglossary.net/word/default-themes/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Default Themes</a> term is the longest article on the site with 1,744 words. Each term has a &#8220;Send Corrections&#8221; link that visitors can use if they see a term that could be improved.</p>
<p>WP Glossary was enthusiastically received when Norén <a href="https://twitter.com/andersnoren/status/1033636227994533888/photo/1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announced it on Twitter</a>. Many commented that the site will be useful for meetups with members who are new to WordPress and need a quick way to look up some of the jargon they encounter.</p>
<p>Norén&#8217;s glossary project overlaps with a glossary the WordPress Marketing team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2018/02/28/wordpress-jargon-glossary/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">published</a> earlier this year. WP Glossary is more in-depth and contains less techspeak than the marketing team&#8217;s copy. It is also targeted at people who use WordPress as part of their job or as a hobby.</p>
<p>The sheer volume of terms on this site reveals how much insider language one encounters while managing a WordPress site. If you&#8217;re working in the WordPress world every day, it&#8217;s easy to forget how unfamiliar these terms are to new users. WP Glossary is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) so freelancers and agencies that want to duplicate, modify, and share the material have permission to do so with attribution.</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, 28 Aug 2018 20:25:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:84:"WPTavern: A Proposal for Improving the Change Block Type User Interface in Gutenberg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=83570";s: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://wptavern.com/a-proposal-for-improving-the-change-block-type-user-interface-in-gutenberg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3549:"<p>In Gutenberg 3.6.2, the development team moved the Convert Block option to the left most icon in the toolbar. As long as the toolbar is visible, so is the option to change block types. However, there are a few user experience issues with this approach.<br /></p>

<img />Convert Block Option

<p>The first is obvious. The paragraph block icon looks like an alignment option. The second issue is that the icon represents the current block being edited, sort of like a block label. Unless a user hovers their cursor over the icon, it&#8217;s difficult to realize that it&#8217;s for changing block types. </p>

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/kevinwhoffman" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Kevin Hoffman</a>, a WordPress developer and core contributor, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/9127#issuecomment-416058227">has proposed</a> a new user interface suggestion that aims to solve the issues mentioned above. </p>

<img />Suggested Changes by Kevin Hoffman

<p>Hoffman suggests changing the icon to a drop-down menu, similar to the one in the Classic Editor. The menu would make the ability to change block types more discoverable. It removes confusion associated with icons and is a workflow that&#8217;s already established. </p>

<p>Gutenberg developer Joen Asmussen <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/9127#issuecomment-416166190">thanked Hoffman</a> for the feedback and listed a number of things to consider with his approach. These include the editor&#8217;s <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/7479#issuecomment-410988762">need to be responsive</a>, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/9075">scale to editors</a> with thin columns, accessibility, and accommodating long block names. </p>

<p>Gutenberg technical lead Matías Ventura <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/9127#issuecomment-416206202">also commented</a> on the proposal.</p>

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Just wanted to say thanks for all the constructive voices here and willingness to find better solutions. If there&#8217;s anything that is fairly clear is that the current &#8216;block switching&#8217; interaction is not as obvious as it could be.</p><p>I think using the paragraph icon instead of the one that is easily confused as alignment, <a href="https://github.com/jasmussen">@jasmussen</a>&#8216;s update in <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/9310">#9310</a>, plus the addition of the drop-down arrow are a good baseline to check on the next release and see if we need something more involved. <a href="https://github.com/kevinwhoffman">@kevinwhoffman</a> it&#8217;d be great to expand on your proposal and see how it might look across more blocks and nested contexts.</p><cite>Matías Ventura</cite></blockquote>

<p>Depending on your workflow, changing block types will be a common action. For example, I often press enter at the end of a paragraph block which creates a new paragraph block automatically. Being able to easily identify and use the change block type option will improve my writing experience.<br /></p>

<p>Those with feedback on Hoffman&#8217;s proposal are encouraged to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/9127">respond to the issue</a> on GitHub. It&#8217;s also worth noting that the team is <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/9310#issuecomment-416210915">experimenting with using an icon</a> that&#8217;s designated specifically for changing block types. <br /></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, 28 Aug 2018 08:24:52 +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:13:"Jeff Chandler";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:137:"WPTavern: WordPress to Support Classic Editor for “Many Years to Come,” Plugin and Theme Markets Expected to Drive Gutenberg Adoption";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83528";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:141:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-to-support-classic-editor-for-many-years-to-come-plugin-and-theme-markets-expected-to-drive-gutenberg-adoption";s: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:7283:"<p>During the <a href="https://wordpress.tv/2017/12/04/matt-mullenweg-state-of-the-word-2017/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2017 State of the Word</a> address, Matt Mullenweg announced the availability of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Classic Editor</a> plugin for site owners who are not ready to adopt Gutenberg when it makes its debut in WordPress 5.0. Since its release, the community has speculated about what the plugin&#8217;s active installation numbers mean and how long it will be supported.</p>
<p>Matt Mullenweg has confirmed that support for the Classic Editor will be available for &#8220;many years to come,&#8221; which should come as a relief to those who feared that WordPress would drop support for the old editor after a year or two.</p>
<p>&#8220;I love that people are using the Classic Editor plugin!&#8221; Mullenweg said in <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-and-classic-editor-plugins-pass-200000-active-installations-wordpress-4-9-9-planning-underway#comment-257369" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">comment</a> on a recent post. &#8220;There is an infinite number of ways that WP can be used and not all will be ready for Gutenberg when 5.0 is released, Classic allows people to still be able to update core and stay current with releases, and with the click of a button try out Gutenberg again in the future if they want to. It’s also trivial to maintain because Gutenberg also uses TinyMCE, so Classic Editor users will still get improvements and updates to TinyMCE — I won’t say &#8216;forever&#8217; but I don’t see any reason why we can’t maintain classic for the edit screen for many years to come.&#8221;</p>
<p>These assurances about the continued availability of the classic editor mean that WordPress product developers will need to decide if they want to provide support for both editing experiences or go full steam ahead with Gutenberg, limiting support to WordPress 5.0+. We don&#8217;t yet know how many users will be installing the Classic Editor after WordPress 5.0 is released but that may inform more product decisions in the future.</p>
<h3>The Market Will Drive Gutenberg Adoption</h3>
<p>During the Q&amp;A following the State of the Word in 2017, WordPress developer <a href="https://twitter.com/kevinwhoffman" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kevin Hoffman</a> asked a question about the prospect of developers having to support two different editing interfaces:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hearing you suggest the Classic Editor plugin and different ways to undeclare support for Gutenberg leads me to this idea that we are headed towards a split admin interface with no finality to the transition, meaning that I don&#8217;t see a time in the future where everyone will be on Gutenberg. We will always have these people in classic mode. As plugin and theme developers, we will always have to support two different types of users. How do we reach that point where we are past the transition, however long it might take, where we can not have this box of chocolates effect where you click &#8220;edit post type&#8221; and you never know what you&#8217;re going to get?</p></blockquote>
<p>Mullenweg said his hope and expectation, based on how this has worked out with new interfaces in the past, is that over time product developers would adopt the latest interface. He cited the Customizer as one example where one is now very hard-pressed to find a theme developer who is rolling their own options panel after the Customizer was introduced as the new standard. It was just three years ago in 2015 when <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-now-requires-theme-authors-to-use-the-customizer-to-build-theme-options" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WordPress.org began requiring theme options to be built using the Customizer</a> and now it is used everywhere.</p>
<p>&#8220;The truth is, if you are a plugin or theme developer, people are going to expect things in Gutenberg, so you really need to develop for Gutenberg,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;And then, at some point, I&#8217;m totally ok if you drop support for the Classic [Editor]. There will be themes and plugins that will say you need to have Gutenberg, [WP] 5.0 or newer if you want to use this.</p>
<p>&#8220;We already have that existing now. Plugins only support so far back in PHP in WordPress. There will be plugins that don&#8217;t support under WordPress 5.0. It&#8217;s not going to be that much different from supporting different WordPress versions where people choose sometimes to go way way way back, sometimes a year or several years, and support WordPress 3.8 and 3.9. And some don&#8217;t bother anymore. There&#8217;s lots of APIs and other things that changed during that time. At some point you just have to make a cost benefit analysis and do things like maybe Yoast is doing for upgrading PHP, and say, &#8216;Hey, if you really want the best of this, check out this new thing.'&#8221;</p>
<p>As Gutenberg blocks become the standard way of extending WordPress&#8217; editing and customization capabilities, the market will drive its adoption. This is already happening with new blocks and block collections being released every day. The new <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-block-library-provides-a-searchable-index-of-individual-blocks" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gutenberg Block Library</a> offers a glimpse of that and there are many more blocks on GitHub that are not yet commercially marketed.</p>
<p>During that December 2017 Q&amp;A, developers seemed to be excited about the Gutenberg demos they had just seen but their uneasiness was palpable in their questions. Now, eight months later, the current proliferation of Gutenberg themes and plugins demonstrates that WordPress developers are ready to embrace the new editor and build the creative extensions that Gutenberg&#8217;s creators&#8217; had always anticipated.</p>
<p>&#8220;I’m really looking forward to seeing what the design and developer community can build with it and where their imaginations can take us from there,&#8221; Gutenberg technical lead Matías Ventura said when I <a href="https://wptavern.com/interview-with-matias-ventura-on-building-the-vision-for-gutenberg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">interviewed</a> him in June. &#8220;Core is going to supply the infrastructure and the main building blocks but it’s everything that can be built around it that’s going to be exciting, as always with WordPress.”</p>
<p>The extension ecosystem that made WordPress a success in the first place is going to be a key influence in driving adoption for the new editor. Major players in the product market are not waiting to see how users react to the new editor before building their Gutenberg-compatible interfaces. Users may not be compelled by the writing experience, but Gutenberg&#8217;s block model will provide a better framework for site customization and a core standard for page builders that interface with WordPress. If the blocks pouring into the ecosystem right now are any indication, the plugin market surrounding Gutenberg is going to offer an exciting variety of tools for site building.</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, 28 Aug 2018 04:28:28 +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:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:82:"WPTavern: Gutenberg Block Library Provides a Searchable Index of Individual Blocks";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83507";s: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:93:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-block-library-provides-a-searchable-index-of-individual-blocks";s: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:4439:"<p>An avalanche of blocks is pouring into the WordPress ecosystem ahead of Gutenberg&#8217;s inclusion in core. A few block collections, such as Atomic Blocks, Stackable, and CoBlocks, can be found on <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/gutenberg+block/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WordPress.org</a>, but it&#8217;s not easy to search the individual blocks they contain. Other collections and standalone blocks are spread across the web. WordPress theme developer <a href="https://twitter.com/dannycooper147" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Danny Cooper</a> has built a centralized <a href="https://editorblockswp.com/library" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">library of Gutenberg blocks</a> that are currently available to extend the new editor.</p>
<p>The library loads blocks into a grid with infinite scroll. It is searchable, so visitors can easily find individual blocks that are part of a collection. Blocks are also tagged, which makes it possible to compare a group of similar blocks. Individual listings display screenshots of the block in action and its settings panel, as well as a link to the author and a link to download.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/screely-1535383280324.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The Gutenberg Block Library currently has more than four dozen blocks. Visitors and block creators can <a href="https://editorblockswp.com/submit-block/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">submit a block</a> that is missing from the library.</p>
<p>Cooper is the owner of <a href="https://olympusthemes.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Olympus Themes</a>, a small collection of free and commercial niche-focused WordPress themes. He has also created his own blocks collection called <a href="https://editorblockswp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Editor Blocks</a>, which focuses on blocks for business sites. His corresponding <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/editor-blocks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Editor Blocks theme</a> is available for free on WordPress.org with support for all the business blocks.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a theme developer I&#8217;d been waiting for a way to build themes in a way where what you see on the backend matches what you will see on the frontend,&#8221; Cooper said. &#8220;That can be achieved to some extent using the Customizer, but it&#8217;s hard to craft more than one complex page using that method.&#8221;</p>
<p>Cooper comes from a PHP/jQuery background and said he didn&#8217;t have a strong enough understanding of ES6, Webpack, Babel, React to create Gutenberg blocks right away. The learning curve was a little steep but after getting a handle on the basics he is now able to make small contributions to the Gutenberg project.</p>
<p>&#8220;It felt like I was hitting a brick wall every five minutes when I started,&#8221; he said. &#8220;<a href="https://gutenberg.courses/development/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Zac Gordon&#8217;s course</a> helped me get past that stage. The #core-editor slack channel was a big help too. Other than that I just studied the code of the core blocks and used Google. As my knowledge increased I&#8217;ve tried to reach out by submitting bug reports to other Block Libraries and making minor contributions to the Gutenberg project on Github.&#8221;</p>
<p>WordPress.org may be able to benefit from a centralized block library in the future, as people will be frequently searching for blocks after Gutenberg lands in core. Cooper said if WordPress.org had a library like this it might even be possible to find and install blocks from inside Gutenberg.</p>
<p>&#8220;I could build a block that searches my library but it wouldn&#8217;t be able to install them as most are part of a &#8216;collection,'&#8221; Cooper said. &#8220;I&#8217;m not sure if in the future the &#8216;collections&#8217; will continue to grow or people will move towards releasing individual blocks.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the meantime, the Gutenberg Block Library provides a helpful resource for early adopters. Browsing through the listings, it&#8217;s exciting to see the variety of block functionality that the community is creating. Users who fully embrace Gutenberg in WordPress 5.0 will find dozens of blocks (and perhaps hundreds by that time) available for the new editor, if they know where to look.</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, 27 Aug 2018 16:45:26 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:57:"WPTavern: WPCampus 2018 Videos Are Now Available to Watch";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83466";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"https://wptavern.com/wpcampus-2018-videos-are-now-available-to-watch";s: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:1710:"<p>WPCampus 2018 was held July 12-14, 2018, at <a href="https://wustl.edu/">Washington University</a> in St. Louis, Missouri. Educators, staff, and those in higher-education gathered to learn how WordPress can be and is used in higher-education environments. </p>

<p>If you couldn&#8217;t attend in person or watch the live stream, you can now watch all of the sessions for free. Visit the event&#8217;s <a href="https://2018.wpcampus.org/schedule/">schedule page</a> and click the Watch Session button. Alternatively, you can click on a session&#8217;s title to read a brief description and then watch the embedded video.</p>

<p>Videos are hosted on YouTube which makes it easy to share and embed them. There are also links to view the presenter&#8217;s slides.</p>

<p>If you have time, I recommend watching <a href="https://2018.wpcampus.org/schedule/gutenready-for-the-gutenpocalypse/">GutenReady for the Gutenpocalypse</a> by Brian DeConinck and Jennifer McFarland who work at North Carolina State University in the Information and Technology Department. </p>

<p>In this presentation, the duo explain what they&#8217;re doing to get staff, students, and campus sites prepared for Gutenberg. <br /></p>





<p>In addition to the presentation above, I also recommend listening to <a href="https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-324-getting-nc-state-gutenready">episode 324</a> of WordPress Weekly where McFarland describes their experience so far in transitioning sites to Gutenberg, building custom blocks, and discussing what the future of themes might be like once the project is merged into WordPress. </p>

<p>WPCampus organizers are in the beginning stages of planning next year&#8217;s event. </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, 24 Aug 2018 19:10:47 +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:"Jeff Chandler";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:115:"WPTavern: Gutenberg and Classic Editor Plugins Pass 200,000 Active Installations, WordPress 4.9.9 Planning Underway";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83475";s: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://wptavern.com/gutenberg-and-classic-editor-plugins-pass-200000-active-installations-wordpress-4-9-9-planning-underway";s: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:6122:"<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/printing-letters.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>photo credit: reingestalter <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44668468@N00/115805043">numeral types</a> &#8211; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(license)</a>
<p>It has been three weeks since the &#8220;Try Gutenberg&#8221; prompt was sent out in WordPress 4.9.8 and the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">plugin</a> has now passed 200,000 active installations. The callout has increased the visibility of the Gutenberg project and brought necessary feedback to the development and design of the new editor.</p>
<p>Prior to WordPress 4.9.8, Gutenberg reviews held a 2.7-star average on WordPress.org. Negative reviews continue to pour in and the average rating has slipped to 2.3 stars. Users are reporting that the new editor is too complicated, cumbersome, and that it offers an inferior writing experience. A few positive reviews are sprinkled in between, calling the editor a &#8220;necessary step forward,&#8221; and those reviewers seem hopeful that others will feel the same once they get past the learning curve. The vast majority of reviews, both positive and negative, report that Gutenberg&#8217;s interface is not yet intuitive to use.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-24-at-10.32.49-AM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The Gutenberg team&#8217;s responses to reviews have improved to be less &#8220;canned&#8221; since the <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-plugin-garners-mixed-reactions-from-new-wave-of-testers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">initial reactions</a> a few days after the Gutenprompt went out. However, the team still appears to be combing the feedback for bugs with the existing interface. Overall, the team&#8217;s responses are unified in a general unwillingness to admit that there are critical flaws preventing the interface from being more well-received.</p>
<p>Active installations of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Classic Editor</a> plugin, the official antidote for those do not wish to adopt Gutenberg when it ships in WordPress 5.0, have climbed to more than 200,000. This number is about equal to the number of sites that have Gutenberg active. The Gutenberg team does not view Classic Editor installs as an important metric for understanding Gutenberg adoption or rejection but rather see these installs as a healthy intermediary step for sites keeping the same workflow while preparing for Gutenberg.</p>
<p>In response to recent discussion surrounding the <a href="https://wptavern.com/classicpress-gutenberg-not-included" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ClassicPress fork of WordPress</a>, Matt Mullenweg <a href="https://wptavern.com/classicpress-gutenberg-not-included#comment-256813" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a>, &#8220;No plans to ever have direct vote determine strategic direction in WP, but we are having a bit of a referendum in the adoption of the Gutenberg and Classic Editor plugins, people are voting with their usage. The people are deciding.&#8221;</p>
<p>This is essentially true in that users can decide if they want to adopt Gutenberg or not, for as long as the Classic Editor is supported. The Classic Editor plugin is an option people demanded but now the reality of two different admin experiences is nearer than before. The notion of a fork, though perhaps not a serious threat to the project, makes it painfully clear what some users are willing to do in order to avoid Gutenberg.</p>
<p>With the number of Classic Editor plugin installations on the rise, WordPress is headed towards a fractured admin experience. For some it may be a healthy transition option, but in the end, the number of Classic Editor installations indicates how many sites will be running an alternative editing experience because site owners are either not ready or not willing to adopt Gutenberg.</p>
<p>At some point in the future, WordPress will need to unite the editing experience, either by winning these users over to Gutenberg or by discontinuing support for the Classic Editor. In the meantime, WordPress product developers will need to provide support for both editing experiences or go all in on one or the other. It has the potential to erode WordPress&#8217; momentum for a few years, especially if Gutenberg doesn&#8217;t become more intuitive.</p>
<h3>WordPress 4.9.9 Is Expected to be a 6-8 Week Maintenance Cycle</h3>
<p>WordPress contributors met this week to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/08/24/dev-chat-summary-august-22-2018-4-9-9-weeks-1-2/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">discuss WordPress 4.9.9</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;As of now there’s no specific timeline for 4.9.9,&#8221; Jeff Paul said. &#8220;That will get set once release leads are in place. However, I’d like to try and finalize leads in next week’s meeting or shortly thereafter so that we can begin 4.9.9 planning and coordination as we get into September.&#8221; Paul requested contributor submit nominations for release leads, for themselves or others, ahead of next week&#8217;s meeting.</p>
<p>&#8220;Until we have a confirmed timeline and plan for 5.0, my assumption is that we’ll continue with our minor release cadence of ~6-8 weeks with specific focus on items needed in support of 5.0,&#8221; Paul said.</p>
<p>During his announcement at WordCamp Europe in Belgrade, Matt Mullenweg said WordPress 5.0 could happen as early as August. It&#8217;s now looking more likely that 5.0 will drop closer to the end of the year. This gives WordPress users and developers more time to prepare their sites to be compatible with Gutenberg and ready to take advantage of the new features it offers. The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-0/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">schedule for releasing WordPress 5.0</a> is not yet set but the release is expected to happen in 2018.</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, 24 Aug 2018 18:55:12 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:"WPTavern: WordCamp Kochi is Postponed to November 3rd Due to Extensive Flooding";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83465";s: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:90:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-kochi-is-postponed-to-november-3rd-due-to-extensive-flooding";s: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:2569:"<p><a href="https://2018.kochi.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp Kochi, India</a>, was originally scheduled for September 2nd, but due to heavy rains and extensive flooding in the area, the event has been <a href="https://2018.kochi.wordcamp.org/wordcamp-kochi-2018-is-postponed-to-november-3rd-2018-saturday/">postponed</a> to November 3rd. The venue is unchanged.<br /></p>

<p>Kochi is located in Southwest India in the coastal state of Kerala. The flooding has been so severe, the Kochi <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/kerala-floods-kochi-airport-closure-extended-flights-likely-from-next-wednesday/articleshow/65504855.cms">airport has been shutdown</a> since August 15th due to electrical damage. </p>

<p>In addition to WordCamp being postponed, WooCommerce has also postponed its <a href="https://workshops.automattic.com/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=WooCommerce">Women&#8217;s Workshop</a>.</p>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">In light of current events, we've decided to postpone the Women's Workshop. More info to come later today. <a href="https://t.co/TBfGGNWZW0">https://t.co/TBfGGNWZW0</a></p>&mdash; WooCommerce (@WooCommerce) <a href="https://twitter.com/WooCommerce/status/1032533215347712000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2018</a></blockquote>


<p>Organizers worked with WordCamp Community Support who agreed that the best course of action was to delay the event.</p>

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Besides, one of the ethos of conducting a WordCamp is to ensure a safe space for attendees and participants. Since the state is still recovering from the floods, conducting a big event poses a lot of threats/challenges, like rain-borne diseases, unpredictable weather, etc.</p><cite>Hari Shanker R</cite></blockquote>

<p>Tickets for WordCamp Kochi are <a href="https://2018.kochi.wordcamp.org/tickets/">still available</a> and can be purchased from the event&#8217;s site. Women who use the <strong>WCK18WOMAN</strong> coupon code will receive a 40% discount off the ticket price. There&#8217;s also a <a href="https://2018.kochi.wordcamp.org/discounts/">discounts page</a> with information on other ways you can reduce ticket prices.</p>

<p>Those who purchased tickets for September 2nd can use the same ticket to attend November 3rd. If you purchased tickets for September 2nd and can not attend November 3rd, you&#8217;re encouraged to <a href="https://2018.kochi.wordcamp.org/contact/">contact</a> the event&#8217;s organizers as refunds are not available. <br /></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, 24 Aug 2018 18:31:51 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:21:"Matt: Gulf Coast Soul";s: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:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=48319";s: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:38:"https://ma.tt/2018/08/gulf-coast-soul/";s: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:558:"<p>Brett Martin has an excellent longread in GQ, <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/houston-restaurants-capital-of-southern-cool">Houston Is the New Capital Of Southern Cool</a>. I moved to San Francisco when I was 20, I hadn&#8217;t ever even been old enough to drink in Houston, but when I returned in my late twenties and really made it my home I was blown away at how much the city had changed in the time I had been away. Or maybe I just grew up enough to appreciate it. Regardless, Brett captures the verve and paradoxes of the city well.</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:"Thu, 23 Aug 2018 22:23:39 +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: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:90:"WPTavern: New Network Media Library Plugin Creates a Shared Library on a Multisite Network";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83415";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:101:"https://wptavern.com/new-network-media-library-plugin-creates-a-shared-library-on-a-multisite-network";s: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:3950:"<p>WordPress core committer John Blackbourn has released a new plugin called <a href="https://github.com/johnbillion/network-media-library" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Network Media Library</a> that provides a shared media library across all sites on a WordPress multisite network. Blackbourn is an engineer at Human Made and the plugin is one he created for a client by forking Frank Bültge and Dominik Schilling&#8217;s <a href="https://github.com/bueltge/multisite-global-media" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Multisite Global Media</a> plugin.</p>
<p>By default, the plugin uses site ID 2 for the central media library, but the site ID can be customized via a filter hook.  Access to the network-wide library is currently restricted to users who have Author level permissions with the upload_files capability on the central media site. In the plugin&#8217;s description Blackbourn said the plan for future versions is to remove the need for users to be added to the central media library.</p>
<p>After testing it locally, I discovered what the plugin&#8217;s description meant by &#8220;transparently&#8221; uploading media to the central media site. Unlike other plugins that perform a similar function (i.e. <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/network-shared-media/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Network Shared Media</a> and <a href="https://github.com/bueltge/multisite-global-media" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Multisite Global Media</a>), there is no indication that files are part of a network-wide library. For example, Multisite Global Media adds a &#8220;Global Media&#8221; tab to the media library to indicate which files are aggregated from sites on the network. The Network Media Library plugin works in an invisible way without adding a separate tab to the media library.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-23-at-1.34.56-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Frank Bültge, co-author of the Multisite Global Media plugin, asked Blackbourn why he opted to fork the plugin instead of enhancing it. Blackbourn said the main difference is that the original plugin supports local media files and his fork does not.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">This was my original plan, but the main reason for the fork is the local media support in MGM means some bugs can't easily be fixed, eg. the featured image problem that we chatted about. The two plugins serve different purposes, MGM supports local media files, NML doesn't <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f60a.png" alt="😊" class="wp-smiley" />.</p>
<p>&mdash; John Blackbourn <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f1ea-1f1fa.png" alt="🇪🇺" class="wp-smiley" /> (@johnbillion) <a href="https://twitter.com/johnbillion/status/1032361281741893632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Developers who implement Network Media Library on their sites should be aware that it is still under active development. It currently has built-in compatibility with the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Regenerate Thumbnails</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-user-avatars/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WP User Avatars</a> plugins. The plugin also has been confirmed to be compatible with BuddyPress, Extended CPTs, Gutenberg, Stream and User Profile Picture. Blackbourn plans to test and support many more plugins in the future, including CMB2, ACF, and assorted gallery and media management plugins.</p>
<p>Network Media Library is MIT-licensed and <a href="https://github.com/johnbillion/network-media-library" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">available on GitHub</a>. It requires WordPress 4.9+ and PHP 7.0+. The plugin can be installed as a mu-plugin or network activated.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 23 Aug 2018 21:06:14 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:75:"WPTavern: WordCamp for Publishers 2018 Videos Now Available on WordPress.tv";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83394";s: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:86:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-for-publishers-2018-videos-now-available-on-wordpress-tv";s: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:2849:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-12.39.59-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://2018-chicago.publishers.wordcamp.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WordCamp for Publishers 2018</a> was held in Chicago earlier this month, bringing together a diverse group of people who use WordPress to manage publications. The event even <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2018/08/submissive-audiences-less-special-news-outlets-and-other-inspiring-thoughts-from-wordpresss-publisher-summit/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">got a nod from Nieman Lab</a>, who dubbed it &#8220;WordPress’ publisher summit,&#8221; and highlighted a few tweets from the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=wcpub&src=typd" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#wcpub</a> hashtag.</p>
<p>&#8220;As conference organizers, we challenged speakers to touch on whether an open web ever truly existed, what state it’s in now, the consequences of a closed web, and how publishers can protect and encourage an open web,&#8221; Alexis Kulash, one of the event&#8217;s organizers, said in her <a href="https://vip.wordpress.com/2018/08/16/wordcamp-for-publishers-recap/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recap post</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Overall, we saw common themes emerge around empowering publishers to innovate and evolve. There was a shared belief that ethical journalism depends on an open web, with inclusivity as a fundamental building block to creating responsibly for the future.&#8221;</p>
<p>Sessions included topics of interest to publishers both large and small, including AMP, Gutenberg, the effect of paywalls on the open web, communication between tech and editorial teams, newsletters, performance, and many other publishing-related topics.</p>
<p>&#8220;Given that this is the only single-vertical official WordCamp it offers a rare perspective into a limited but very serious set of issues in a space,&#8221; Pantheon Community Manager Dwayne McDaniel said in his <a href="https://www.mcdwayne.com/2018/08/13/wc-for-publishers-2018-chicago/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recap post</a>. &#8220;Having the official support and legitimacy of the WordCamp name brand I think adds a weight the organizers could not achieve otherwise, a claim I am going to support with the caliber of the participants as substantial evidence.&#8221;</p>
<p>By all accounts the event was one of the best media conferences participants had ever attended. Recordings of the sessions started rolling out on WordPress.tv today. The videos can all be found on the same page listed under the <a href="https://wordpress.tv/event/wordcamp-for-publishers-chicago-2018/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WordCamp for Publishers 2018 event</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 23 Aug 2018 03:08:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:65:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 328 – Gutenberg, Forking, and cPanel";s: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:58:"https://wptavern.com?p=83421&preview=true&preview_id=83421";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-328-gutenberg-forking-and-cpanel";s: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:1841:"<p>In this episode, <a href="http://jjj.me">John James Jacoby</a> and I start off by providing updates on some items from last week&#8217;s show. We discuss WordPress.com&#8217;s privacy policy change, the new detailed activity log in the WordPress for iOS app, and cPanel&#8217;s acquisition. We end the show with a thoughtful conversation about forking software.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-boots-sandy-hook-conspiracy-theory-sites-bans-malicious-publication-of-unauthorized-images-of-minors">WordPress.com Boots Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theory Sites, Bans Malicious Publication of Unauthorized Images of Minors</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-for-ios-10-6-adds-a-detailed-site-activity-log">WordPress for iOS 10.6 Adds A Detailed Site Activity Log</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/oakley-capital-to-acquire-cpanel">Oakley Capital to Acquire cPanel</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/drupal-org-migrates-developer-tools-to-gitlab">Drupal.org Migrates Developer Tools to GitLab</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/classicpress-gutenberg-not-included">ClassicPress: Gutenberg Not Included</a></p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, August 29th 3:00 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738">WordPress Weekly via Itunes</a></p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="https://www.wptavern.com/feed/podcast">WordPress Weekly via RSS</a></p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wordpress-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr">WordPress Weekly via Stitcher Radio</a></p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Ir3keivkvwwh24xy7qiymurwpbe">WordPress Weekly via Google Play</a></p>
<p><strong>Listen To Episode #328:</strong><br />
</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, 22 Aug 2018 23:56:16 +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:"Jeff Chandler";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:95:"WPTavern: Mario Peshev Explains the Advantages of Gutenberg for Users who Rely on Page Builders";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83348";s: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://wptavern.com/mario-peshev-explains-the-advantages-of-gutenberg-for-users-who-rely-on-page-builders";s: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:3970:"<p><a href="https://devwp.eu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mario Peshev</a>, CEO of <a href="https://devrix.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DevriX</a>, has published a video that explains how Gutenberg will change the way users create content. If your background as a WordPress user is maintaining your website with the help of a page builder like Beaver Builder, Divi Builder, Elementor, or a similar plugin, this video will acquaint you with a few advantages that Gutenberg will bring to content creation in the future.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Peshev demonstrates how Gutenberg will make it easier for users to add and arrange page content that actual websites need, such as call-to-action buttons, testimonials, headers, and columns. In the past, users have relied on page builders, page templates, widgetized areas, shortcodes, custom meta boxes, and a host of disparate ways of trying to place content in a certain arrangement on a page. All of these seem rather clunky now when compared to Gutenberg&#8217;s united interface, despite the new editor&#8217;s less than perfect implementation.</p>
<p>This video helps users understand the problems Gutenberg aims to solve. Peshev explains that page builder tools usually have heavy, complicated code bases in order to work around the problem of adding blocks of content to a page. Gutenberg is not replacing page builders. In fact, most of them are updating to provide a better experience for users in the Gutenberg era, so agencies should be able to utilize some of the same tools they have used in the past while setting clients loose in the new editorial framework.</p>
<p>&#8220;The video was first published on my LinkedIn feed, which is comprised of business leaders, marketing experts, freelancers &#8212; many of whom use WordPress at work or for their own businesses,&#8221; Peshev said.</p>
<p>&#8220;They are not WordPress experts by any stretch, and rarely spend the time to test the &#8216;latest cool thing.&#8217; Odds are, some may have heard of it, but 95% haven&#8217;t even seen screenshots or demos of the new editorial experience.&#8221;</p>
<p>As a digital consultant and the CEO of DevriX, a 30+ person agency, Peshev understands the need to assure users that their traditional content editing experience will still be available if they don&#8217;t want to use Gutenberg. He has been preparing his clients who fall on both sides of the 5.0 release &#8211; either to move forward with the new editor or employ the Classic Editor to maintain the old one.</p>
<p>&#8220;At DevriX, we&#8217;ve been testing every site we manage and maintain monthly,&#8221; Peshev said. &#8220;We want to ensure that there are no unexpected regressions or fatal errors we have to deal with last minute. That said, half of our customers can benefit by using Gutenberg &#8212; we&#8217;ve had continuous conversations with them and align the roadmap accordingly. Others, on the other hand, are purely content-driven, a traditional WYSIWYG experience, and we have the Classic Editor ready to go once Gutenberg is live.&#8221;</p>
<p>Peshev said his agency has had to find the balance between improving the editorial experience as needed (for things like landing pages and more robust sections), versus ensuring the stability and consistency of content development for traditional editorial teams. He urges other agency owners to push forward and embrace the custom work that Gutenberg will require.</p>
<p>&#8220;Gutenberg is still in its infancy; there&#8217;s a lot of work left for us, agency owners and developers,&#8221; Peshev said. &#8220;Just as we used to build custom widgets, shortcodes, and page templates, we should build a series of Gutenblocks for every customer, prepare the corresponding templates, design the resulting front-end experience, and a lot more. Realistically, the editorial experience alone is a tiny chunk of the scope of WordPress development as a whole.&#8221;</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, 22 Aug 2018 17:08:06 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s: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:33:"HeroPress: Have Faith In Yourself";s: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=2607";s: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://heropress.com/have-faith-in-yourself/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=have-faith-in-yourself";s: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:3622:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/081016-StaceyBartron-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: It may not all pan out, but I'm along for the ride with WordPress in my backpack & I cannot wait to see where I end up." /><p>A couple years ago I was at Prestige Conf in Minneapolis. I noticed a young woman sitting by herself, patiently waiting for the talks to start, and thought I&#8217;d say hi. Her name was Stacey, and she was a freelance web developer and design expert. She was had recently quit her job to go freelance and this conference was part of her self-education.</p>
<p>Our conversation brought back lots of memories of the excitement of when I first quit a good job to go freelance, but I was impressed by how much more attention to detail she&#8217;d paid than I had. I was a Bad Freelancer.</p>
<p>A few weeks later it occurred to me that she might be willing to make the header banners for HeroPress essays. I asked, and she agreed at a price I could afford.  For a couple years now all of the banners you&#8217;ve seen on HeroPress were made by Stacey Bartron. No-one else has ever told me this, but I think the banners are pretty important to the essays and she&#8217;s done a wonderful, meaningful job.</p>
<p>Stacey quit her job and went freelance because she had faith in her own abilities. Her skills were greater than the use to which they were being put at The Day Job. As it turns out, she was right.</p>
<p>Check out Stacey&#8217;s very own HeroPress essay here:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><p><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/finding-wordpress-fargo/">Finding WordPress in Fargo</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: Have Faith In Yourself" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Have%20Faith%20In%20Yourself&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fhave-faith-in-yourself%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Have Faith In Yourself" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fhave-faith-in-yourself%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fhave-faith-in-yourself%2F&title=Have+Faith+In+Yourself" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Have Faith In Yourself"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/have-faith-in-yourself/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/081016-StaceyBartron-150x150.jpg&description=Have Faith In Yourself" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Have Faith In Yourself"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/have-faith-in-yourself/" title="Have Faith In Yourself"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/have-faith-in-yourself/">Have Faith In Yourself</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" 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, 22 Aug 2018 08:00:54 +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: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:46:"WPTavern: ClassicPress: Gutenberg Not Included";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83360";s: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:56:"https://wptavern.com/classicpress-gutenberg-not-included";s: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:5995:"<p>Depending on how far and deep you look, there is not a lot of positive sentiment surrounding Gutenberg. For Scott Bowler, the notion of merging Gutenberg into WordPress 5.0 represents a shift so <a href="https://medium.com/@scott.bowler83/classicpress-a-hard-fork-of-wordpress-without-gutenberg-1eeb62dd879c">detrimental to the project</a>, he has forked WordPress into a new project called <a href="https://www.classicpress.net/">ClassicPress</a>.</p>

<p>&#8220;The team at WordPress have decided to force Gutenberg into v5 of WordPress despite <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/gutenberg/reviews/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">massive push back by the WordPress community,</a>&#8221; Bowler said.</p>

<p>&#8220;I’m in the &#8216;push back&#8217; camp. After my feedback on Gutenberg fell on deaf ears I realized that WordPress is no longer a community led project — major decisions are being made by an elite few.</p>

<p>&#8220;Sadly, I decided it was time to move to a fork that doesn’t have Gutenberg as part of the core code. A quick search revealed nobody had taken the initiative so I decided to stop complaining and take action.&#8221;</p>

<p>In addition to ClassicPress, Bowler has <a href="https://www.change.org/p/petition-to-wordpress-no-gutenberg-in-wordpress-core">filed a petition</a> on Change.org requesting that Gutenberg not be merged into WordPress 5.0. As of publishing, the petition has 10 out of 100 signatures.</p>

<p>&#8220;This petition is to ask the WordPress team to keep Gutenberg out of the core of WordPress and instead keep it as a plugin for users to install,&#8221; Bowler said. &#8220;In addition, this petition asks that Gutenberg does not get integrated into the core until the community agrees that the time is right.&#8221;</p>

<p>Bowler is not the only one who feels this way. Matt Cromwell, Head of Support and Community Outreach at <a href="https://wordimpress.com">WordImpress</a>, suggests that Gutenberg be bundled with WordPress as a plugin similar to Aksimet. </p>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The more I think about <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gutenberg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Gutenberg</a> as inevitable in WP Core, the more I am concerned that Core releases don't come often enough to support the kind of iterative improvements Gutes will need over the longterm.</p>&mdash; Matt Cromwell <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f393.png" alt="🎓" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/271d.png" alt="✝" class="wp-smiley" /> (@learnwithmattc) <a href="https://twitter.com/learnwithmattc/status/1030588894796865536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2018</a></blockquote>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Shipping <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gutenberg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Gutenberg</a> as a default plugin like Akismet makes a lot of sense for several reasons.<br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/2714.png" alt="✔" class="wp-smiley" /> Allows for more iterative improvements<br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/2714.png" alt="✔" class="wp-smiley" /> Allows for quicker development<br /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/2714.png" alt="✔" class="wp-smiley" /> Gives users more freedom of choice</p>&mdash; Matt Cromwell <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f393.png" alt="🎓" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/271d.png" alt="✝" class="wp-smiley" /> (@learnwithmattc) <a href="https://twitter.com/learnwithmattc/status/1030588896281653249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2018</a></blockquote>


<p>If Gutenberg ships with WordPress 5.0, Bowler says he is committed to maintaining compatibility with the WordPress ecosystem, keeping the project up to date with security fixes, and letting the community dictate its development.</p>

<p>ClassicPress is based on WordPress 4.9.8 and is not available to the public yet. It&#8217;s in a consultation phase that interested users can participate in through the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassicPress">ClassicPress subreddit</a>. <br /></p>

<h2>Forks Are a Good Thing, But This One Doesn&#8217;t Make Sense</h2>

<p>I used to think that forking WordPress is the equivalent of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_option">nuclear option</a>, but <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y6HcQcQWXU">a presentation</a> by John James Jacoby in 2016 during WordSesh changed my perspective.</p>

<p>Forking is a good thing as it allows people to take a project in their own direction. It opens the door for experimentation. If there are any lessons learned or improvements made, those can usually be pushed upstream to the main project.</p>

<p>There are <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/">solutions available</a> that allow users and site managers to keep the classic editor in place until a transition can be made. There&#8217;s also a Classic Editor block within Gutenberg that provides a similar user experience to the Classic Editor. </p>

<p>With options available to not use or at least delay Gutenberg from becoming the new editor, and that&#8217;s <strong>if</strong> it&#8217;s merged into WordPress 5.0, ClassicPress isn&#8217;t so much of a necessary fork but rather, a last ditch effort to raise awareness to not merge Gutenberg into core. And that&#8217;s an unfortunate reason to fork WordPress. </p>

<p>*<strong>Updated 8/21/2018</strong>* First paragraph was edited to &#8220;For Scott Bowler, the notion of merging Gutenberg into WordPress 5.0 represents a shift so <a href="https://medium.com/@scott.bowler83/classicpress-a-hard-fork-of-wordpress-without-gutenberg-1eeb62dd879c">detrimental to the project</a>, he has forked WordPress into a new project called <a href="https://www.classicpress.net/">ClassicPress</a>.&#8221; </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, 22 Aug 2018 01:40:53 +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:"Jeff Chandler";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:55:"WPTavern: Drupal.org Migrates Developer Tools to GitLab";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83338";s: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:66:"https://wptavern.com/drupal-org-migrates-developer-tools-to-gitlab";s: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:4323:"<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-21-at-12.36.38-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a>image credit: Drupal Association
<p>The Drupal Association announced this week that Drupal.org will be <a href="https://www.drupal.org/drupalorg/blog/developer-tools-initiative-part-5-gitlab-partnership" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">migrating its developer tools to GitLab</a>. In selecting a partner for modernizing the project&#8217;s tooling, the association aimed to preserve the most valuable parts of Drupal&#8217;s workflow. They also wanted a partner that would keep evolving its code collaboration featureset.</p>
<p>In December 2017, after evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, it appeared the association would be moving forward with Bitbucket. If the comments on that <a href="https://www.drupal.org/drupalorg/blog/developer-tools-initiative-part-2-comparing-our-options" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">discussion</a> are any indication, the Drupal community was not excited about the selection. GitLab reached out to comment on the status of some of the blockers the association had identified and worked privately with Drupal representatives to resolve those issues.</p>
<p>&#8220;They have escalated the internal priority of issues that blocked our adoption of GitLab, offered technical and financial support for the migration, and made a commitment to ongoing support for the Drupal project,&#8221; Drupal Association&#8217;s director of engineering Tim Hestenes Lehnen said. The team plans to migrate Drupal.org&#8217;s 45,000 projects to GitLab over the coming months.</p>
<p>&#8220;By adding merge requests, contributing to Drupal will become much more familiar to the broad audience of open source contributors who learned their skills in the post-patch era,&#8221; Lehnen said. &#8220;By adding inline editing and web-based code review, it will be much easier to make quick contributions. This not only lowers the barrier to contribution for people new to our community, it also saves significant effort for our existing community members, as they&#8217;ll no longer need to clone work locally and generate patches.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s easy to see how the WordPress project might also benefit from collaborating on a platform like GitLab. In October 2017, after the company <a href="https://wptavern.com/gitlab-raises-20-million-series-c-round-adds-matt-mullenweg-to-board-of-directors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announced a $20 million Series C round of funding</a> and appointed Matt Mullenweg to its board of directors, WordPress contributors speculated about whether the project would move to GitLab.</p>
<p>“It’s definitely something on our minds,&#8221; Mullenweg said when asked if GitLab and WordPress might collaborate in the future. &#8220;Core WordPress is still Trac and Subversion, so I think that it’s not our top priority this year, but in the future it’s definitely on the radar.”</p>
<p>In 2016, GitLab worked to establish itself as the most welcoming platform for open source organizations after GitHub  <a href="https://wptavern.com/gitlab-courts-open-source-project-maintainers-with-response-to-dear-github-letter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">failed to address open source maintainers&#8217; concerns</a> in a timely way. The company began actively courting disgruntled GitHub users following <a href="https://wptavern.com/gitlab-courts-disgruntled-github-customers-with-response-to-recent-pricing-hike" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">GitHub&#8217;s May 2016 pricing hike</a>.</p>
<p>GitLab&#8217;s efforts to resolve critical issues for Drupal.org demonstrates the company&#8217;s commitment to ensure open source projects have what they need. Drupal.org&#8217;s transparency throughout the decision to migrate its developer tools enabled the project to respond to the community&#8217;s request to make GitLab work. It also prompted GitLab representatives to reach out with more information on the project&#8217;s blockers. As WordPress will be looking to move its developer tools to a new platform in the future, following along with Drupal.org&#8217;s migration experience as it progresses should be a good learning opportunity.</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, 21 Aug 2018 22:25:32 +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:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:33:"Matt: Distributed Office Politics";s: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:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=48317";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:50:"https://ma.tt/2018/08/distributed-office-politics/";s: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:578:"<p><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/18/distributed-teams-are-rewriting-the-rules-of-officeless-politics/">This week I spoke with TechCrunch</a> about one facet of distributed work that differs from physical offices &#8212; the idea of &#8220;office politics.&#8221; I can&#8217;t claim that distributed work will solve everyone&#8217;s personal differences, but I do think it relieves some of the pressures that might come from forced cohabitation and environments that are prone to interruption. They also have some great points from Jason Fried and and Wade Foster.</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, 21 Aug 2018 16:38:34 +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: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:42:"WPTavern: Oakley Capital to Acquire cPanel";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83329";s: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:53:"https://wptavern.com/oakley-capital-to-acquire-cpanel";s: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:1850:"<p><a href="https://cpanel.com/">cPanel</a>, the makes of control panel software used by many hosting providers across the globe, has <a href="http://news.cpanel.com/oakley-capital-to-invest-in-cpanel-acquisition-will-accelerate-the-next-phase-of-product-development-for-cpanel/">announced</a> it has signed an agreement to be acquired by <a href="http://oakleycapital.com/">Oakley Capital</a>. Oakley Capital is a private equity investor that invests in companies primarily located in Western Europe. </p>

<p>Financial details of the impending acquisition have not been disclosed. Oakley Capital is the same investment firm that <a href="http://oakleycapital.com/acquisition-of-plesk/">acquired Plesk</a> in May of 2017. <a href="https://www.plesk.com/">Plesk</a> is also control panel software used to manage sites.</p>

<p>cPanel is based in Houston, TX with more than 220 employees. Employees will stay with the company and the headcount is expected to increase thanks to the investment. </p>

<p>Nick Koston, cPanel&#8217;s CEO, issued the following statement in a press release. <br /></p>

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>This investment reflects a great step forward for cPanel. Our team has developed software that contributes to the success of millions of websites operating globally and looks forward to continuing to do so with the same passion that you, our loyal customers have come to love. </p><p>This investment will give Internet infrastructure providers access to a wider range of software, features and support. I am excited about what the future holds for the company and the great team at cPanel.</p><cite>Nick Koston</cite></blockquote>

<p>Koston will remain as the company&#8217;s CEO and cPanel will continue to run as a separate entity. The acquisition needs to pass a governmental review before it is finalized.</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, 21 Aug 2018 05:10:47 +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:"Jeff Chandler";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:94:"WPTavern: How a Munich-based Game Studio is Using WordPress and Gutenberg to Power Its Website";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83280";s: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://wptavern.com/how-a-munich-based-game-studio-is-using-wordpress-and-gutenberg-to-power-its-website";s: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:8017:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-19-at-8.51.49-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.mimimi.games/">Mimimi</a>, an award-winning game studio based in Munich, has launched a new WordPress website that provides an interesting case study of Gutenberg in the wild. Although you may not be able to tell from the frontend, behind the scenes the new block-based editor is powering the layout with custom blocks, allowing the Mimimi team to easily update various sections of their website.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.luehrsen-heinrich.de/">Luehrsen Heinrich</a>, a local ad agency, built the site with a custom theme and seven blocks tailored to support the Mimimi team&#8217;s editing requirements.</p>
<p>&#8220;The general task was to create an elegant website that is very easy and fast to maintain and that will maybe later get a blog/news section,&#8221; Hendrik Luehrsen, CEO of Luehrsen Heinrich, said. &#8220;We knew our client has some amazingly creative and tech savvy people who trusted us. That made us confident to go into Gutenberg.&#8221;</p>
<p>The site uses a background block that enables editors to create different background patterns and wavy separators. Luehrsen said it works with ‘InnerBlocks’, similar to columns, so it can host any other block.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Bildschirmfoto-2018-08-19-um-00.37.07.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The site also has a custom Discord block that dynamically fetches some settings to display a set of users from Discord, which Mimimi uses for internal communication. The block displays an updated team roster. Social media and game blocks enable editors to easily update text and images with the layout already set.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Bildschirmfoto-2018-08-19-um-00.38.55-e1534729837643.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>&#8220;I am pretty sure we could do the same layout to about 80% by combining columns, paragraphs, and images, but we didn’t want our client to fiddle around like in MS Word when you try to place an image,&#8221; Luehrsen said. &#8220;So creating a simple layout block was a logical thing.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mimimi&#8217;s website also uses a custom Mailchimp signup block and a custom spacer block that offers more flexibility and responsive breakpoints.</p>
<p>&#8220;All in all we (and our clients) are very happy with the result,&#8221; Luehrsen said. &#8220;We can see the future of WordPress ahead with this block based editor. But there is still a very long way to go until we really have nothing to smooth out anymore. There are certain things, that still require a lot of work.&#8221;</p>
<p>From a development perspective, Luehrsen said his team still struggles with the backend styles for the editor and that frontend and backend styles differ wildly because of that. They also haven&#8217;t yet found a maintainable, stable way of applying global styles to the Gutenberg editor. Other than those outstanding issues, the agency has enjoyed building for the new editor and has another Gutenberg-page product launching soon for a different set of clients.</p>
<h3>Mimimi Games&#8217; Gutenberg Experience: Editors Appreciate the Block Concept but Still Encounter Usability Issues</h3>
<p>Johannes Roth, CEO of Mimimi Games, said his team has used WordPress in the past and sees Gutenberg as a major improvement for editing content.</p>
<p>&#8220;I absolutely love it, honestly!&#8221; Roth said. &#8220;It&#8217;s so much easier to understand the setup of the page and to customize it. If the Gutenberg editor gets a few user experience improvements, I definitely see it being the new state of the art for maintaining pages. But knowing that it&#8217;s still not officially released, it has been super robust and easy to understand from my point of view.&#8221;</p>
<p>Roth said his team appreciates the block setup, the ability to reorganize content, having small chunks of content to work on, and having custom tailored options per block.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are fewer distractions with weird toolbars and the focus is on content,&#8221; Roth said. &#8220;It also more closely resembles how we should think about splitting the formatting and decoration part from the content, as well as setting up proper pages for SEO friendliness.&#8221;</p>
<p>Roth identified two things that the Mimimi team misses from the previous editor:</p>
<ul>
<li>Pressing tab to indent bullet lists and shift tab to reverse</li>
<li>Using ctrl+a to quickly select all text inside a block (it sometimes selects the whole page, which doesn&#8217;t help).</li>
</ul>
<p>&#8220;The biggest issue with usability so far has been the combination of blocks and columns, which sometimes makes it really hard to hit the &#8216;&#8230;&#8217; icon because the mouseover zones get stacked,&#8221; Roth said.</p>
<h3>Enabling Storytellers on the Modern Web: Why Luehrsen Heinrich Took the Leap into Gutenberg Development as an Agency</h3>
<p>Luehrsen said his agency decided to board the Gutenberg train last year at WordCamp Europe, after ditching their own ideas for creating a new page builder.</p>
<p>&#8220;One or two months before WCEU in Paris, we were sitting on a concept and an alpha version of our own page builder system that was frighteningly similar to the block based approach,&#8221; Luehrsen said. &#8220;That Q&amp;A by Matt made us quickly realize that our project was already obsolete. We were lucky that we went pretty quickly through the five stages of grief (<a href="https://www.wp-munich.com/wordpress/gutenberg-structured-data/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this post</a> on structured data must have been “bargaining”). We reordered our priorities and started working with and on Gutenberg in the end of October or November of 2017.&#8221;</p>
<p>Luehrsen Heinrich is a small agency of just four people who are all involved with Gutenberg in different ways. Luehrsen is an active contributor on the project, submitting <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/4118">his first PR</a> over the Christmas holidays. The team also has a developer who knows block creation inside and out, a designer who designs the UX and style of their blocks, and a project manager who works with the clients on their Gutenberg editing requirements.</p>
<p>Luehrsen said being a Gutenberg contributor helped immensely with learning block creation, despite having no prior experience with React and ES6.</p>
<p>&#8220;Working with Gutenberg, contributing to the project and getting immediate feedback from the amazing Gutenberg team, helped us a lot in bootstrapping our process,&#8221; Luehrsen said. &#8220;Our current block creation process builds heavily on the work Gary, Adam, Matias, and all the others have done, maybe with the exception that we are using LESS internally, and not SCSS. But from folder structure, to the build process, to the structuring of the file, we try to follow the Gutenberg repo style as closely as possible, as that makes debugging and finding issues very easy.&#8221;</p>
<p>After successfully making the jump to build Mimimi Games&#8217; new Gutenberg-powered website, Luehrsen&#8217;s team is on board for building more client sites with the new editor. He sees it as a way to deliver a better user experience at a better value for the client.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our clients share our belief that storytelling in the modern web is much more than just writing text,&#8221; Luehrsen said. &#8220;TinyMCE as a &#8216;Rich Text&#8217; editor did an amazing job, but still, combining different types of media to a coherent story was a mess with metaboxes, shortcodes, and sometimes for teasers you even had to leave the edit screen. Gutenberg combines all of this in a nice, unobtrusive way. And, as always: If you can get to a good result in a faster way, that time saved is what the client is essentially buying.&#8221;</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, 20 Aug 2018 18:54:54 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:30:"Matt: Light Heretofore Unknown";s: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:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=48313";s: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:46:"https://ma.tt/2018/08/light-heretofore-unkown/";s: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:567:"<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Yes, it is a press, certainly, but a press from which shall soon flow in inexhaustible streams the most abundant and most marvelous liquor that has ever flowed to relieve the thirst of man! [&#8230;.] A spring of pure truth shall flow from it! Like a new star, it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light heretofore unknown to shine among men.</p><cite>— Johannes Gutenberg</cite></blockquote>

<p>From <a href="https://dan.knauss.ca/">Dan Knauss</a> via <a href="https://poststatus.com/">Post Status</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:"Mon, 20 Aug 2018 15:31:53 +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: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:45:"WPTavern: My Gutenberg Experience: Part Three";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83102";s: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:55:"https://wptavern.com/my-gutenberg-experience-part-three";s: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:4815:"<p>It&#8217;s been about four months since the last time I <a href="https://wptavern.com/an-update-to-my-gutenberg-experience">shared my experience</a> with Gutenberg. In that time, there have been sixteen releases. The more I use Gutenberg, the more nuances I encounter.</p>

<h3>Disruptive Writing Flow</h3>

<p>When writing a post, I press the enter key at the end of a paragraph. This creates a new paragraph block automatically. Sometimes however, I want the next block to be an Image block. The paragraph block does not have an option to be converted into another block.</p>

<img />No Option to Convert to Another Block

<p>I end up having to remove the paragraph block, look for the add block icon, and add the image block. This process of rearranging blocks disrupts the flow of writing. </p>

<p>There are a few ways to get around this issue. The first is to not press enter at the end of a paragraph so I can add the block that I want. </p>

<p>The second is to type /image inside the paragraph block which will automatically convert it to an image block. This is convenient but it&#8217;s a power user shortcut that&#8217;s difficult to discover without someone telling you about it. It&#8217;s weird that using a shortcut can convert a paragraph block to an image block but the user interface option to convert it doesn&#8217;t exist.</p>

<h3>Icons Not Associated With a Block Floating in Empty Space<br /></h3>

<p>In the image below is a CloudUp embed block that has a video and below it are three icons. I sometimes think these icons are related to the block above it but instead, these icons are part of the add block placeholder UI. </p>

<img />Block Icons Look Like They&#8217;re For Another Block

<p>Granted, a list, image, and quote icon has nothing to do with embedding videos. At-a-glance, seeing these icons can lead to a bit of confusion. I don&#8217;t want to see those icons floating in empty space when I&#8217;m working on a block they&#8217;re not attached too. <br /></p>

<h3>Losing Content Due to Autosave Disconnecting<br /></h3>

<p>While writing a post working remotely, I noticed the Autosave button in Gutenberg was continuously flashing. I&#8217;ve experienced something similar in the classic editor and suspected that a connection issue must have happened although I was browsing the internet without a problem.</p>

<p>I finished writing the post, added meta data, and a featured image. I copied all of the content on the post, refreshed the page, and confirmed I wanted to leave the page. It turns out, my suspicion was right. </p>

<p>At some point, the autosave process stopped working and I lost half the post, including the meta data. I was able to paste the lost content into the editor and go about my day. </p>

<p>The current editor has fail-safes in place to prevent the loss of content, such as using a browser&#8217;s local storage. I&#8217;m unsure if Gutenberg has the same fail-safes in place. So far, this has been the only time where I&#8217;ve lost content in Gutenberg due to autosave not working correctly. </p>

<h3>Digging Through the Junk Drawer</h3>

<p>In the classic editor, the tool bar stays in constant view. In Gutenberg, there are multiple areas on the screen where UI elements appear and disappear depending on where the cursor is. </p>

<p>If you want to see the code version of the editor, you need to click the ellipsis on the top right corner and select it from a drop-down menu. To add a new block, you have to click the + symbol and either search or select from a menu. </p>

<p>The combination of visiting different parts of the editor, browsing through menus, and selecting from multiple things sometimes feels like I&#8217;m going through the junk drawer in the kitchen looking for a utensil. This feeling occurs multiple times depending on the length of a post. </p>

<h3>There&#8217;s Still a Ways to Go</h3>

<p>I&#8217;ve been able to get used to the block concept and actually prefer it over the classic editor. However, there are certain tasks that are easier and faster to accomplish in the classic editor versus Gutenberg. </p>

<p>For example, if you want to create a heading using existing text in Gutenberg, you have to select the text, click the Paragraph icon, select the heading block, and choose which heading you want. In the Classic editor, you select the text, click the preferred heading from an always visible drop-down menu and continue writing. </p>

<p>These nuances to the writing flow, the user interface, and the experience of looking around for things is where I believe Gutenberg needs the most improvement. The bar has been set by the Classic editor but it has more than 10 years of iteration behind it. Hopefully, Gutenberg can reach or exceed that bar before it&#8217;s merged into core. <br /></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, 17 Aug 2018 22:32:58 +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:"Jeff Chandler";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:58:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 3.6 Adds New Icons for All Core Blocks";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83242";s: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:69:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-3-6-adds-new-icons-for-all-core-blocks";s: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:5014:"<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/08/17/whats-new-in-gutenberg-17th-august/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gutenberg 3.6</a> was released today, featuring a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/8916" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">design overhaul for the core icons</a> in the block inserter. The blocks now use <a href="https://material.io/tools/icons/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Material icons</a>, which offer more options than the Dashicons. This update also improves the icons for the core embeds, which now display the corresponding icon for each embed service.</p>
<p>Gutenberg testers <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/3736" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">logged an issue</a> regarding the limitations of Dashicons last year, citing the small number available, the inadequacy of their size, and the generic substitutions for embed service icons. The Gutenberg team <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/3736#issuecomment-355267596" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">closed the ticket</a>, saying there was no sign in testing that showed the icons to be a problem and that potential contributors would need to &#8220;revisit with evidence&#8221; if they wanted to re-open the issue.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear whether the team received the evidence or testing required to make this change but the icons become problematic in other ways. As the community started extending Gutenberg, block icon duplication became a problem, due to the limited number of Dashicons available.</p>
<p>&#8220;We really need block icons to move away from using dashicons as soon as possible,&#8221; Gutenberg technical lead Matías Ventura said in another discussion on a proposed solution. &#8220;We are already seeing plugins adding blocks where the icon overlap is very high just because of the limited icons set, which reduces clarity for users very drastically.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/8719" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Switching to Material icons</a> solves this problem, ensuring there are unique icons for each block. The inserter design has also been updated as part of this overhaul. Previously, icons appeared with a grey background, as seen below:</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-17-at-12.51.51-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The old design suddenly looks rather dated in comparison to Gutenberg&#8217;s 3.6 update, which allows for more whitespace around the icons:</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-17-at-12.53.39-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The new embed icons are also greatly improved from previous versions of the plugin:</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-17-at-4.09.01-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>&#8220;The new icons aim to encourage people creating their own blocks to supply their own SVG,&#8221; Ventura said. &#8220;The hope is to make sure we can avoid multiple cases of duplicated icons diminishing the overall ability to quickly scan blocks.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ventura said Gutenberg will retain the ability to specify a Dashicon slug in the Block API but he encourages developers to &#8220;supply custom SVGs (or draw from the material icon pool) as much as possible.&#8221;</p>
<p>Gutenberg 3.6 also <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/8279" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">adds several new keyboard shortcuts</a>, including inserting a new block before/after the current block, toggling the inspector settings, removing a block, and displaying a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/8316" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">new modal help menu</a>. The modal can be launched from the Settings button at the top of the editor and users can scroll through all available shortcuts.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-17-at-4.16.53-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>This release also fixes many bugs that users have reported. Gutenberg will now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/8446" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">open a new preview window</a> if the prior window has been closed. It will also <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/9015" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">bring the preview tab to the front</a> when clicking the preview button. Version 3.6 <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/9010" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fixes several usability issues</a> that testers found with the permalink UI. Check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/08/17/whats-new-in-gutenberg-17th-august/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">release post</a> for the full list of all the fixes and changes included in 3.6.</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, 17 Aug 2018 21:31:44 +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:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:31;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:29:"Donncha: WP Super Cache 1.6.3";s: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=89502017";s: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:49:"https://odd.blog/2018/08/17/wp-super-cache-1-6-3/";s: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:4891:"<p>WP Super Cache is a full page caching plugin for WordPress. When a page is cached almost all of WordPress is skipped and the page is sent to the browser with the minimum amount of code executed. This makes the page load much faster.</p>

<p>1.6.3 is the latest release and is mostly a bugfix release but it also adds some new features.</p>

<ul><li>Added cookie helper functions (<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-super-cache/pull/580">#580</a>)</li><li>Added plugin helper functions (<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-super-cache/pull/574">#574</a>)</li><li>Added actions to modify cookie and plugin lists. (<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-super-cache/pull/582">#582</a>)</li><li>Really disable garbage collection when timeout = 0 (<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-super-cache/pull/571">#571</a>)</li><li>Added warnings about DISABLE_WP_CRON (<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-super-cache/pull/575">#575</a>)</li><li>Don&#8217;t clean expired cache files after preload if garbage collection is disabled (<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-super-cache/pull/572">#572</a>)</li><li>On preload, if deleting a post don&#8217;t delete the sub directories if it&#8217;s the homepage. (<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-super-cache/pull/573">#573</a>)</li><li>Fix generation of semaphores when using WP CLI (<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-super-cache/pull/576">#576</a>)</li><li>Fix deleting from the admin bar (<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-super-cache/pull/578">#578</a>)</li><li>Avoid a strpos() warning. (<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-super-cache/pull/579">#579</a>)</li><li>Improve deleting of cache in edit/delete/publish actions (<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-super-cache/pull/577">#577</a>)</li><li>Fixes to headers code (<a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-super-cache/pull/496">#496</a>)</li></ul>

<p>This release makes it much easier for plugin developers to interact with WP Super Cache. In the past a file had to be placed in the &#8220;WP Super Cache plugins directory&#8221; so that it would be loaded correctly but in this release I&#8217;ve added new actions that will allow you to load code from other directories too.</p>

<p>Use the <strong>wpsc_add_plugin</strong> action to add your plugin to a list loaded by WP Super Cache. Use it like this:<br /></p>

<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">do_action( 'wpsc_add_plugin', WP_PLUGIN_DIR . '/wpsc.php' )</pre>

<p>You can give it the full path, with or without ABSPATH. Use it after &#8220;init&#8221;. It only needs to be called once, but duplicates will not be stored.</p>

<p>In a similar fashion, use <strong>wpsc_delete_plugin</strong> to remove a plugin.</p>

<p>The release also makes it much simpler to modify the cookies used by WP Super Cache to identify &#8220;known users&#8221;. This is useful to identify particular types of pages such as translated pages that should only be shown to certain users. For example, visitors who have the English cookie will be shown cached pages in English. The German cookie will fetch German cached pages. The action <strong>wpsc_add_cookie</strong> makes this possible.</p>

<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">do_action( 'wpsc_add_cookie', 'language' );</pre>

<p>Execute that in your plugin and WP Super Cache will watch out for the language cookie. The plugin will use the cookie name <em>and</em> value in determining what cached page to display. So &#8220;language = irish&#8221; will show a different page to &#8220;language = french&#8221;.</p>

<p>Use <strong>wpsc_delete_cookie</strong> to remove a cookie. Cache files won&#8217;t be deleted. It&#8217;s doubtful they&#8217;d be served however because of the hashed key used to name the filenames.<br /></p>

<pre class="wp-block-preformatted">do_action( 'wpsc_delete_cookie', 'language' );</pre>

<p>If you&#8217;re going to use either of the plugin or cookie actions here I recommend using <strong>Simple Caching</strong>. While the plugin will attempt to update mod_rewrite rules, it is much simpler to have PHP serve the files. Apart from that, any plugins loaded by WP Super Cache will be completely skipped if Expert mode is enabled.</p>

<p><strong>Related Posts</strong><ul><li> <a href="https://odd.blog/2008/10/24/wp-super-cache-084-the-garbage-collector/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: WP Super Cache 0.8.4, the garbage collector">WP Super Cache 0.8.4, the garbage collector</a></li><li> <a href="https://odd.blog/2009/01/09/wp-super-cache-087/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: WP Super Cache 0.8.7">WP Super Cache 0.8.7</a></li><li> <a href="https://odd.blog/2010/02/08/wp-super-cache-099/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: WP Super Cache 0.9.9">WP Super Cache 0.9.9</a></li></ul></p>
<p><a href="https://odd.blog/2018/08/17/wp-super-cache-1-6-3/" rel="nofollow">Source</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, 17 Aug 2018 16:36:51 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:66:"WPTavern: WordPress for iOS 10.6 Adds A Detailed Site Activity Log";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83231";s: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:77:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-for-ios-10-6-adds-a-detailed-site-activity-log";s: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:3569:"<p>In the past few months, the <a href="https://apps.wordpress.com/mobile/">WordPress mobile application</a> for iOS has quietly received a steady round of improvements. Version 10.5 increased its compatibility with Gutenberg. <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-for-ios-and-gutenberg-dont-get-along">Earlier this year</a>, Gutenberg and the iOS app didn&#8217;t get along particularly well. </p>

<p>About a month ago in 10.4, an activity log was added that allows users to see a detailed list of activities on their sites. In 10.6, the most recent version, the activity log is now available for free WordPress.com sites and those connected with Jetpack.</p>

<img />WordPress for iOS Activity Log

<p>As you can see in the screenshot above, comment activity, post and page activity, and generally all site activity shows up in the log. </p>

<p>Selecting an activity displays detailed information such as who performed the action, their role, IP address, and other information depending on the activity. The log displays the last 20 activities performed on the site.</p>

<p>It&#8217;s unclear exactly what data the activity log monitors, where or if it&#8217;s saved, how it&#8217;s generated, and how users can turn it off. Browsing around the mobile app, I was unable to find a way to disable the activity log.</p>

<h2>The WordPress Mobile Team is Quiet But Busy</h2>

<p>If it weren&#8217;t for the change logs on the iTunes Store, it would be difficult for users to know what&#8217;s going on with the app. The project&#8217;s <a href="https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordPress-iOS">GitHub page</a> is buzzing with activity, but more public facing means of communication are not. <br /></p>

<p>The WordPress for iOS app <a href="https://twitter.com/wordpressios?lang=en">Twitter account</a> has been dormant since May. The <a href="https://apps.wordpress.com/blog/">WordPress Mobile apps blog</a> hasn&#8217;t published a new post since 2016 and some of the posts that highlight new features are on the official <a href="https://en.blog.wordpress.com/">WordPress.com blog</a>.</p>

<p>Sure, not every release requires a full-featured post, but the activity log is a feature that I think warrants one. An explanation of why it was created, how it works, and how users not interested in it can disable it. </p>

<p>The WordPress for iOS app is <a href="https://apps.wordpress.com/contribute/">open source</a> and available for free from the <a href="https://search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZContentLink.woa/wa/link?mt=8&path=apps%2fWordPress">Apple iTunes App Store</a>. You can also find links to the Android and Desktop apps on the <a href="https://apps.wordpress.com/">WordPress.com Apps site</a>. </p>

<h2>*Update*</h2>

<p>After this article was published, I was given a <a href="https://jetpack.com/support/activity-log/">link to a support document</a> on the Jetpack website that explains the activity log feature in more detail. The document <a href="https://jetpack.com/support/activity-log/#data-retention">links to a list of activities</a> along with their retention periods which vary based on the plan attached to the user&#8217;s WordPress.com account. </p>

<p>Only the most recent 1,000 events are displayed in the log. As noted at the end of the article, once the retention period ends for activity data, it&#8217;s moved to long-term storage where it is retained indefinitely. Data held in long-term storage is removed from the activity log.</p>

<p>According to the document, there is no way to deactivate this feature. <br /></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 16 Aug 2018 22:12:44 +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:13:"Jeff Chandler";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:125:"WPTavern: WordPress.com Boots Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theory Sites, Bans Malicious Publication of Unauthorized Images of Minors";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83171";s: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:135:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-boots-sandy-hook-conspiracy-theory-sites-bans-malicious-publication-of-unauthorized-images-of-minors";s: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:13585:"<p>WordPress.com came under fire this week for hosting a site with conspiracy theories claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax. The New York Times published an article titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/business/media/sandy-hook-conspiracies-leonard-pozner.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">This Company Keeps Lies About Sandy Hook on the Web</a>,&#8221; setting off a hailstorm of angry posts on social media that demanded Automattic take action.</p>
<p>“Posting conspiracy theories or untrue content is not banned from WordPress.com, and unfortunately this is one of those situations,” Automattic told the New York Times in a statement. “It is a truly awful situation, and we are sympathetic to the Pozner family.”</p>
<p>Leonard Pozner, father of Sandy Hook Elementary shooting victim Noah Pozner, claims that images of his son were being misused on a WordPress.com-hosted site where the author denied the tragedy and called his son a crisis actor. He filed copyright infringement claims on the images used on the conspiracy site in an attempt to get the content removed.</p>
<p>Automattic examined the images and determined that there was nothing illegal about their use on the site. The company sent Pozner a reply that said, &#8220;because we believe this to be fair use of the material, we will not be removing it at this time.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the New York Times article, Automattic admits its insensitivity in handling the situation, apologizing to the family, but said the posts in question &#8220;are not violating any current user guidelines, or copyright law.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The pain that the family has suffered is very real and if tied to the contents of sites we host, we want to have policies to address that,&#8221; Automattic told the New York Times.</p>
<h3>WordPress.com Updates it Privacy Policy, Banning Malicious Publication of Unauthorized, Identifying Images of Minors</h3>
<p>After consulting with the Internet Archive&#8217;s Wayback Machine, it appears WordPress.com has quietly updated its privacy policy, which now includes unauthorized images of minors on the list of things the platform considers private information. The <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180201091159/https://en.support.wordpress.com/private-information/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">previous policy</a> appears below:</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-16-at-8.29.14-AM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The <a href="https://en.support.wordpress.com/private-information/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">updated policy</a> adds &#8220;the malicious publication of unauthorized, identifying images of minors&#8221; to that list.</p>
<p>Searching Twitter for discussion surrounding Sandy Hook conspiracy sites turns up a slew of tweets calling on people to boycott WordPress.com and other Automattic products. However, there are also responses on the other end of the spectrum, with Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist supporters retweeting a user who claims that WordPress.com has shut down his site.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Minutes ago this morning, I discovered that WordPress has unilaterally and without warning shut down Fellowship of the Minds for alleged violations of "Terms of Service". I will explore finding another server for FOTM. Please pray for America.</p>
<p>&mdash; Eowyn (@DrEowyn) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrEowyn/status/1029338304376795136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 14, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">WordPress just suspended my interim blog The Fundamental Option as well. That blog has been active for only the past 2 days, so what possible "terms of service" could have have violated? It's war, folks. America is entering into very dark days. Be prepared.</p>
<p>&mdash; Eowyn (@DrEowyn) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrEowyn/status/1029788566459625472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 15, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>The site in question (fellowshipofminds.com) appears to have been removed, along with an interim site the author created following the first suspension. <a href="https://twitter.com/memoryholeblog/status/1029415973500137479" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A number of other related sites</a> have also recently been removed. These events are outlined in <a href="http://memoryholeblog.org/2018/08/14/wordpress-automattic-shuts-down-fellowshipoftheminds/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a post on memoryholeblog.org</a>, a site maintained by James F. Tracy, a former professor of journalism and media who became known for his research questioning the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and Boston Marathon bombing. Tracy&#8217;s blog was also removed from WordPress.com in 2016 for violation of Automattic’s Terms of Service.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-16-at-8.48.40-AM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Automattic did not detail specific infractions in either case of removal. It&#8217;s not clear whether the site referenced in the New York Times article was removed for a new offense or a previous one. The removals seem to have coincided with WordPress.com&#8217;s updated privacy policy, but Automattic&#8217;s PR department has not responded to a request for comment on the matter.</p>
<p>&#8220;As with Automattic’s treatment of MHB, FOTM’s disappearance strongly suggests how WordPress.com’s policies are being tailored to placate outside parties whose foremost interest is in stifling political speech on potential high crimes, and how in this instance such poorly-founded grounds for censorship have triumphed over free speech,&#8221; Tracy said.</p>
<p>Historically, Automattic has been a stalwart defender of free speech on the web. It&#8217;s outlined as part of the <a href="https://en.support.wordpress.com/user-guidelines/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WordPress.com&#8217;s User Guidelines</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>WordPress.com strongly believes in freedom of speech. We have a vast audience spread across many cultures, countries and backgrounds with varying values and our service is designed to let users freely express any ideas and opinions without us censoring or endorsing them.</p></blockquote>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear whether Automattic changed its policy in response to this situation or whether this situation revealed holes in it that the company wanted to improve. In either case, the policy change seems to have enabled Automattic to do what outraged onlookers wanted them to do, except outside of the emotional mandate issued by the New York Times.</p>
<p>Without the new privacy policy in place, removal of a site based on offensive material constitutes censorship. Automattic had already determined that the post using the child&#8217;s image, while distasteful and offensive, was fair use for the material. The image had likely already been used thousands of times by news organizations with a different narrative attached to it that is more in alignment with the majority&#8217;s view of the tragedy.</p>
<p>As it is a private company, Automattic&#8217;s terms of service do not have to reflect the full freedom of speech allowed by the law. However, the company has always upheld its reputation in the past as an uncompromising defender of its users when presented with requests for censorship.</p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180206/10271639166/why-allegedly-defamatory-content-wordpresscom-doesnt-come-down-without-court-order.shtml" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">post on Techdirt</a>, Automattic general counsel Paul Sieminski and Holly Hogan detail how WordPress.com handles its role in managing intermediary liability when the company receives complaints regarding defamatory content:</p>
<blockquote><p>Making online hosts and other intermediaries like WordPress.com liable for the allegedly defamatory content posted by users is often criticized for burdening hosts and stifling innovation. But intermediary liability isn&#8217;t just bad for online hosts. It&#8217;s also terrible for online speech. The looming possibility of writing a large check incentivizes hosts like Automattic to do one thing when we first receive a complaint about content: Remove it. That decision may legally protect the host, but it doesn&#8217;t protect users or their online speech.</p></blockquote>
<p>That article explains the level of nuance involved in handling complaints and the costs associated with protecting its users&#8217; freedom of speech. Automattic&#8217;s counsel concludes with an observation that &#8220;leaving such important decisions to the discretion of Internet hosts is misplaced and tilts the balance in favor of silencing often legitimate voices.&#8221;</p>
<h3>WordPress.com is a Host for Websites, Not a Social Media Silo</h3>
<p>WordPress.com&#8217;s platform is distinct from social networks in that it is not a social media silo. It acts more as a host and cannot have one-off shutdowns of sites anytime there is a public outcry.</p>
<p>&#8220;WordPress.com is much closer to being a common carrier than Facebook and other social media,&#8221; Dan Kennedy, associate professor at Northeastern University&#8217;s school of Journalism, <a href="https://twitter.com/dankennedy_nu/status/1029343514243616769" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> in response to the NYT article. &#8220;That difference really doesn’t get highlighted here.&#8221;</p>
<p>Self-hosted WordPress (.org) user and data journalist Matt Stiles also <a href="https://twitter.com/stiles/status/1029220655013609472" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">commented on the distinction</a>, and followed up with me privately, identifying WordPress.com as &#8220;a free-speech sidewalk for the Internet.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;WordPress.com needs to make clear to the public that it&#8217;s a host, not a place that controls &#8212; through algorithms or other curation, and revenue — content,&#8221; Stiles said. &#8220;I am NOT a supporter of sites like this. I just want WordPress to thrive as an open-source tool and as an important paid host for web sites. I&#8217;m also worried about WordPress.com having to make arbitrary decisions about content. It&#8217;s tough to define hate speech. We know it when we see it, but I worry about censorship on private platforms.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dave Winer also <a href="http://scripting.com/2018/08/16/132055.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">commented</a> that the article failed to capture the distinction of WordPress.com as a host for websites:</p>
<blockquote><p>WordPress.com isn&#8217;t like the others, it isn&#8217;t a silo, so banning him from that service will not necessarily have any affect on the presence of his site. He will be able to export his site, set up his own server, point the DNS entry at that server, and proceed on the open web and it will appear to outside viewers as if nothing happened. This will be the end of the discussion, unless the anti-speech advocates try to exert pressure on the open web. There they will find there is no CEO, no corporate headquarters, no shareholders afraid of losing value, none of the usual pressure points.</p></blockquote>
<p>This particular situation regarding the Sandy Hook conspiracy site seems to have hit a nerve due to the fact that there are children involved. Despite WordPress.com&#8217;s quick privacy policy change in this instance, Automattic is still a rare outlier among publishing companies when it comes to support of free speech on the web. Media outlets and tech companies are increasingly clamoring for offensive content to be removed, instead of taking a principled stand against censorship.</p>
<p>Today <a href="https://www.poynter.org/news/200-newspapers-will-write-pro-journalism-editorials-will-they-also-listen" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">more than 200 newspapers</a>, including the New York Times, are coordinating to publish editorials calling out President Trump&#8217;s characterization of the press as the &#8220;enemy of the people.&#8221; Corporate-owned news media is ready to decry attacks on free speech, but do they really believe in it when it counts? That freedom isn&#8217;t predicated on whether the speech is true or unoffensive to readers.</p>
<p>Calling out a free speech platform like WordPress.com, without any distinction for its vital role in enabling journalists across the globe, is a coercive attempt to exact a desired result. What WordPress.com has done is groundbreaking in democratizing publishing and enabling bloggers to break news on their own sites.</p>
<p>The New York Times raking WordPress.com over the coals for its refusal to censor its users is an egregious double standard. A publication cannot call for free speech for itself while eating up the rights of everyone else they don&#8217;t agree with. Principles aren&#8217;t principles if they only serve you when they are convenient.</p>
<p>Forcing the censorship of offensive speech may feel like swift justice in the short term, but it weakens the fabric of a free society. Let discerning readers make up their own minds when they come across sites disseminating conspiracy theories.  Although it may be an unpopular stance, the tragic nature of this particular offense cannot bypass the principles that underpin our basic freedoms.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 16 Aug 2018 16:58:35 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:72:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 327 – Truth, Misinformation, and Good Ideas";s: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:58:"https://wptavern.com?p=83205&preview=true&preview_id=83205";s: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:77:"https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-327-truth-misinformation-and-good-ideas";s: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:2980:"<p>In this episode, <a href="http://jjj.me">John James Jacoby</a> and I discuss what&#8217;s new in the world of WordPress. First, we talk about Syed Balkhi&#8217;s growth accelerator fund and learn that Jacoby pitched a similar idea to Balkhi at WordCamp Miami 2017.</p>
<p>We discuss the new feedback surrounding Gutenberg thanks to the call out in WordPress 4.9.8. Near the end of the show, we have a thoughtful conversation around misinformation, truth, and the fine line of allowing freedom of speech on private platforms.</p>
<p>I apologize for the audio quality in this episode. During the Live hangout, there were no issues detected. However, once the video was encoded by YouTube, audio issues were present, the video was choppy, and the length of the show was shortened.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I&#8217;ve been complacent with Google Hangouts&#8217; reliability and have not been recording my audio locally. Beginning next week, Jacoby and I will record our audio locally so if this issue happens again, we&#8217;ll be able to combine the audio tracks. Although there are parts of this episode that are difficult to listen too, I believe there is enough good audio in the show to warrant its publication.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/syed-balkhi-launches-a-wordpress-focused-growth-accelerator-fund">Syed Balkhi Launches A WordPress-focused Growth Accelerator Fund</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-plugin-garners-mixed-reactions-from-new-wave-of-testers">Gutenberg Plugin Garners Mixed Reactions from New Wave of Testers</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/mythic-a-wordpress-starter-theme-by-justin-tadlock-now-in-open-beta">Mythic: A WordPress Starter Theme by Justin Tadlock Now in Open Beta</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/advanced-custom-fields-to-add-gutenberg-compatibility-in-version-5-0-slated-for-september">Advanced Custom Fields to Add Gutenberg Compatibility in Version 5.0, Slated for September</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/ephox-creators-of-tinymce-rebrand-to-tiny-technologies-inc">Ephox, Creators of TinyMCE, Rebrand to Tiny Technologies Inc.</a><br />
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/business/media/sandy-hook-conspiracies-leonard-pozner.html">This Company Keeps Lies About Sandy Hook on the Web</a></p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, August 22nd 3:00 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738">WordPress Weekly via Itunes</a></p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="https://www.wptavern.com/feed/podcast">WordPress Weekly via RSS</a></p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wordpress-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr">WordPress Weekly via Stitcher Radio</a></p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Ir3keivkvwwh24xy7qiymurwpbe">WordPress Weekly via Google Play</a></p>
<p><strong>Listen To Episode #327:</strong><br />
</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, 15 Aug 2018 23:07:51 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";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: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:30:"HeroPress: India and HeroPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://heropress.com/?p=2604";s: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://heropress.com/india-and-heropress/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=india-and-heropress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3554:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/082317-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: Nothing is better than a girl who writes code." /><p>It&#8217;s no secret that HeroPress was greatly helped in its early days by people from India. Jeet, <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/ill-keep-looking-for-a-cms-unless-i-find-wordpress/">Saurabh</a>, <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/wordpress-my-passport-to-open-source/">Aditya</a>, <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/growing-wordpress-india/">Alexander</a>, and <a href="https://heropress.com/?s=india">many others</a> gave deep and meaningful advice on how I, as a white American male, should approach the task I had set before me. This is one of the reasons it makes me so happy when I hear stories of how WordPress changes lives there, especially for women.</p>
<p>This week&#8217;s HeroPress replay is from Juhi Patel, from Gujarat, in northwestern India. As I recall, hers was also the very first HeroPress essay to be multi-lingual, something I&#8217;ve always wanted.</p>
<p>Juhi&#8217;s culture isn&#8217;t too keen on women doing Professional work, a problem not all that uncommon throughout the world. Not only did she have the courage to move against that belief system, WordPress gave her the tools to practically make it happen, and thereby be an example to other women around her. There are still good things happening in the world, and Juhi is helping to make them happen.</p>
<p>Check out her essay here:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><p><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/wordpress-good-indian-women/">Is WordPress Good for Indian Women?</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: India and HeroPress" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=India%20and%20HeroPress&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Findia-and-heropress%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: India and HeroPress" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Findia-and-heropress%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Findia-and-heropress%2F&title=India+and+HeroPress" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: India and HeroPress"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/india-and-heropress/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/082317-150x150.jpg&description=India and HeroPress" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: India and HeroPress"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/india-and-heropress/" title="India and HeroPress"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/india-and-heropress/">India and HeroPress</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" 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, 15 Aug 2018 11:00:20 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;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: Yoast SEO 8.0 Introduces Gutenberg Sidebar Integration, Revamps Classic Editor Meta Box";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83162";s: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:107:"https://wptavern.com/yoast-seo-8-0-introduces-gutenberg-sidebar-integration-revamps-classic-editor-meta-box";s: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:3396:"<p><a href="https://yoast.com/yoast-seo-8-0-introducing-the-yoast-seo-gutenberg-sidebar-a-revamped-meta-box/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Yoast SEO 8.0</a>, featuring the plugin&#8217;s first pass at integrating with the Gutenberg interface. This major update also revamps the classic editor&#8217;s meta box for those who do not have the Gutenberg plugin installed.</p>
<p>In the past, the Yoast SEO meta box was displayed below the post editor. In the Gutenberg UI, the meta box has been redesigned to fit in the sidebar. Those testing Gutenberg will also temporarily find an additional meta box below the post, as the Yoast team has not yet added all optimizations to both yet. In the future, users will have the option to choose between the two.</p>
<p>The updated design displays individual optimizations in collapsible panels with colored smiley face indicators for feedback at a glance. The snippet preview and social previews feature can still be found in the meta box below the post editor. They will be integrated more tightly into the Gutenberg UI in a future round of updates.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/gutenberg-sidebar-yoast.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>image credit: <a href="https://yoast.com/yoast-seo-8-0-introducing-the-yoast-seo-gutenberg-sidebar-a-revamped-meta-box/">Yoast SEO</a>
<p>Yoast SEO 8.0 also brings some of the meta box UI improvements to the one displayed in the classic editor. It organizes all of the Yoast SEO tools into collapsible panels for a look that is cleaner than the tabs found in the previous UI.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-14-at-1.04.17-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Version 8.0 is the first step towards Gutenberg integration. The Yoast SEO team is working on using modals to display previews for snippets and social posts from the sidebar so the interface isn&#8217;t split across two meta boxes. Users will eventually have the option to toggle either meta box display option into view, including those who are using the classic editor. The team is also working on allowing users to create blocks with the correct structured data automatically attached for things like books, recipes, products, and other specific content types.</p>
<p>WordPress.org has a handful of popular SEO plugins and Yoast SEO is currently leading the pack when it comes to integration with the Gutenberg UI. In a recent support <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/gutenberg-12/#post-10379255" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">thread</a>, All in One SEO Pack creator Michael Torbert said his plugin is &#8220;compatible with Gutenberg and will be getting new features to work with it in time.&#8221; Torbert doesn&#8217;t have full <a href="https://github.com/semperfiwebdesign/all-in-one-seo-pack/issues/1122" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gutenberg integration</a> assigned to a milestone on GitHub yet.</p>
<p>The SEO Framework, another SEO plugin growing in popularity, appears to be in the same boat if <a href="https://github.com/sybrew/the-seo-framework/issues/235" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">GitHub activity</a> is any indication. The plugin&#8217;s author, Sybre Waaijer, has discussed the possibility of inserting the meta box into the Gutenberg sidebar, similar to the Yoast implementation.</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, 15 Aug 2018 04:19:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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: Syed Balkhi Launches A WordPress-focused Growth Accelerator Fund";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83179";s: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://wptavern.com/syed-balkhi-launches-a-wordpress-focused-growth-accelerator-fund";s: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:1716:"<p>Syed Balkhi, founder of WPBeginner, has announced a <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/news/announcing-the-wpbeginner-growth-accelerator-fund/">growth accelerator fund</a> aimed at helping companies focused on WordPress prosper. </p>

<p>The fund will provide between $100K-500K to a small group of selected companies. In addition to the funding, selected companies will be able to take advantage of Awesome Motive&#8217;s media presence, network of business associates, and receive guidance.</p>

<p>&#8220;The problem is that the WordPress market is not very well understood by investors,&#8221; Balkhi said. &#8220;And frankly, the majority of WordPress businesses are not large enough to meet their criteria.</p>

<p>&#8220;But this doesn’t mean that WordPress businesses don’t have the potential. It’s quite the opposite – they have a lot of potential. There are tons of opportunities to grow in the WordPress ecosystem with the right playbook, and I want to help prove that.&#8221;</p>

<p>Founders will be given a lot of advice although they won&#8217;t be required to act upon it. Backers of the growth fund will also maintain a hands-off approach, interfering as little as possible with day-to-day operations. </p>

<p>Five companies will be hand-selected to receive funding. To be eligible for investments, WordPress-focused companies must be at least six months old. To apply, founders need to fill out the <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/news/announcing-the-wpbeginner-growth-accelerator-fund/#wpbfund">following form</a>.</p>

<p>The WPBeginner growth accelerator fund could be the jump start that gives a handful of companies the opportunity to take things to the next level. <br /></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, 15 Aug 2018 00:15:57 +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:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"WPTavern: Sami Keijonen’s Foxland Themes and Plugins are Now Available for Free";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=82882";s: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://wptavern.com/sami-keijonens-foxland-themes-and-plugins-are-now-available-for-free";s: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:3674:"<p>WordPress theme designer and developer <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/samikeijonen" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sami Keijonen</a> has made all of his theme and plugin products at Foxland <a href="https://foxland.fi/foxland-products-for-free/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">available for free</a>. Keijonen&#8217;s WordPress.org-hosted themes are active on more than 10,000 websites.</p>
<p>During the past three years he began taking on more client work, which gave him less time for theme building and maintenance. Last month he accepted a front-end engineer position at 10up that is keeping him busy.</p>
<p>Fans might remember Keijonen&#8217;s <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-mina-olen-free-wordpress-theme-experiment" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mina Olen Free WordPress Theme Experiment</a> when he made the theme available for free on GitHub to see if potential customers would be inspired to purchase after being able to test drive the theme on their own sites. At that time he said he struggled to support his theme shop, because the business aspect of it wasn&#8217;t one of his strengths.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s easy to get lost in all the competition in the WordPress theme industry, especially when major players have more money to drop on advertising and support staff. The days of building a beautiful theme and selling it without any kind of marketing are long gone. Prospective theme developers have to be ready to embrace the challenges of competing in a much wider market in 2018.</p>
<p>&#8220;Foxland isn’t a gold mine,&#8221; Keijonen said in his announcement. &#8220;Foxland brings about 3,000 to 4,000 Euros per year, which is OK but my goal was 10,000 euros.&#8221;</p>
<p>Customers appreciated Keijonen&#8217;s attention to detail, accessibility, and performance. Respected WordPress theme author <a href="https://tungdo.github.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tung Do</a> said Keijonen&#8217;s themes are &#8220;great examples of best practices.&#8221; Many of them also include support for popular plugins.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://foxland.fi/downloads/checathlon/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Checathlon</a>, one of his best works, is active on <a href="https://foxland.fi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">foxland.fi</a>. It offers built-in styles for Easy Digital Downloads (including product and account pages), Custom Content Portfolio, and Jetpack (testimonials, portfolio, and email subscription widget).</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/checathlon.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The <a href="https://foxland.fi/downloads/category/themes/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Foxland collection</a> includes several beautiful minimalist free themes with previously-pro versions that enable additional Customizer settings, page templates, and widgets. All of Keijonen&#8217;s custom <a href="https://foxland.fi/downloads/category/plugins/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">plugins</a> (created to accompany the themes) are also available for free.</p>
<p>The Foxland shop has cancelled all the recurring subscriptions but will continue to support existing purchases up to a year from the purchase date. Keijonen said he will maintain most of the old themes and plugins with small updates coming in the future but plans to deprecate some as well.</p>
<p>The landscape of WordPress theming is about to change quite a bit when Gutenberg is merged into core. Keijonen said he plans to embrace these changes by creating new free themes with Gutenberg support, built on more modern code.</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, 13 Aug 2018 23:46:08 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:39;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:"WPTavern: New BackYourStack Tool Drives Financial Support for Open Source Projects";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83100";s: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:93:"https://wptavern.com/new-backyourstack-tool-drives-financial-support-for-open-source-projects";s: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:2606:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-11-at-5.17.24-PM-e1534026554562.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://opencollective.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Open Collective</a> launched in 2017 as a new organization that helps groups raise funds and manage them transparently. The service is now widely used by many open source projects. Webpack, one of the first major Open Collective success stories, was able to fund its first full-time developer through the service and is now <a href="https://opencollective.com/webpack" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">operating on an estimated annual budget of $331,471</a>. The <a href="https://wptavern.com/how-the-san-francisco-wordpress-meetup-is-using-open-collective-to-fund-activities" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">San Francisco WordPress meetup</a> (WPSFO) is one example of a WordPress group that successfully uses the service to <a href="https://opencollective.com/wordpress-sf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">receive sponsorships</a> that help cover expenses for events.</p>
<p>Open Collective has launched a new tool called <a href="https://backyourstack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">BackYourStack</a> that helps people and organizations become aware of projects they use that need funding. The tool scans GitHub accounts (for individuals and organizations) and identifies projects that have already set up accounts on Open Collective. The tool shows all detected dependencies and the repositories where they are used.</p>
<p>Here are a few sample results you get from scanning the WordPress GitHub account:</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-13-at-11.36.42-AM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The results display where project is used, the number of full-time maintainers, progress to reach the next goal, and a few organizations that are already backing the project. Open Collective also allows backers to support multiple dependences in bulk via a lump sum as an alternative to backing each project individually.</p>
<p>Not every open source project listed on Open Collective will have the need to fund salaries and events, but even a small yearly budget can reduce out-of-pocket costs for open source maintainers for things like hosting and promotional costs. Many widely used open source projects go without funding because users are not aware of their needs. BackYourStack helps people and organizations make a direct connection to the projects they depend on.</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, 13 Aug 2018 17:38:43 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:40;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:34:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 3.5.0 Released";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83084";s: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:45:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-3-5-0-released";s: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:1260:"<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/">Gutenberg</a> 3.5.0 <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/08/09/whats-new-in-gutenberg-9th-august/">is available</a> for download and polishes existing features. This release adds an edit button to embed blocks that allows users to edit the source URL. </p>

<img />Edit URL Button on Embed Blocks

<p>The contrast has been increased for input fields and check boxes have visually more distinct states as the following video shows. </p>



More Distinct States for Check boxes

<p>One notable change is the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/8640">addition of a warning</a> that displays if Cloudflare blocks REST API requests. This issue <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/2704">was reported</a> last September and it turns out that the PUT request is sometimes blocked by Cloudflare.</p>

<p>Gary Pendergast <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/2704#issuecomment-410563259">reached out</a> to Cloudflare and the company deployed a fix earlier this week. </p>

<p>To see a full list of changes in this release, check out <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/08/09/whats-new-in-gutenberg-9th-august/">the changelog</a>. </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:"Fri, 10 Aug 2018 21:16:15 +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:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:"WPTavern: Ephox, Creators of TinyMCE, Rebrand to Tiny Technologies Inc.";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83078";s: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://wptavern.com/ephox-creators-of-tinymce-rebrand-to-tiny-technologies-inc";s: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:1948:"<p>Ephox, the creators of the <a href="https://www.tiny.cloud/features/">TinyMCE editor</a> library that&#8217;s been used by WordPress for more than 10 years, has <a href="https://go.tiny.cloud/blog/a-tiny-name-change/">changed its company name</a> to Tiny Technologies Incorporated. </p>

<p>The new name provides an at-a-glance view of what the company does and establishes a tighter relationship with its flagship product. </p>

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>To make it easier for you to understand who we are and what we are working on, we have decided to put all of our efforts behind the Tiny brand. Renaming our company to Tiny Technologies Inc. demonstrates the efforts we are making to have TinyMCE the best choice for online rich text editing.</p><cite>Andrew Roberts, CEO and Co-founder of Tiny<br /></cite></blockquote>

<p>In addition to the name change, the company has migrated its web presence to a new domain, <a href="https://www.tiny.cloud/">tiny.cloud</a>. The Cloud top-level domain is managed by Aruba PEC SpA, a wholly owned subsidiary of <a href="https://www.aruba.it/en/home.aspx">Aruba S.p.A.</a>, one of the largest webhosting providers in Europe. </p>

<p>According to Andrew Roberts, CEO and Co-founder of Tiny, existing customers and vendors of Ephox Corporation don&#8217;t need to do anything different since the company is registered to do business under both names. </p>

<p>Roberts also shared insight into the work being done on <a href="https://textbox.io/">Textbox.io</a>, the company&#8217;s mobile-first text editor. &#8220;We continue to support and release updates to our mobile-first online rich text editor, Textbox.io,&#8221; he said. &#8220;By the end of 2019, we do see both TinyMCE and Textbox.io coming together but for now, they are independent projects.&#8221;</p>

<p>TinyMCE is an <a href="https://www.tiny.cloud/download/">open source project</a> that is licensed under LGPL 2.1. </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Aug 2018 23:07:20 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"WPTavern: Yoast SEO Team is Testing Gutenberg Integration Coming in Version 8.0 Next Week";s: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://wptavern.com/?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:100:"https://wptavern.com/yoast-seo-team-is-testing-gutenberg-integration-coming-in-version-8-0-next-week";s: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:5899:"<p>Joost de Valk tweeted a sneak peek of the Gutenberg integration the Yoast SEO team is currently testing. The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">plugin</a> has more than 5 million active installations and is one that packs a lot into its wide meta box. Users have been curious about what compatibility with the new editor will look like for Yoast SEO. de Valk tweeted a preview of the plugin working inside the Gutenberg UI:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Officially still on holiday&#8230; But, testing our <a href="https://twitter.com/yoast?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@yoast</a> SEO Gutenberg integration as the first real integration piece is due next week, this is making me happy (and extremely proud of our team):<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gutenberg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#gutenberg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wordpress?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wordpress</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/yoast?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#yoast</a> <a href="https://t.co/UHFAdH0wAt">pic.twitter.com/UHFAdH0wAt</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Joost de Valk (@jdevalk) <a href="https://twitter.com/jdevalk/status/1027284212511109131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>For the past several months the team has been making progress on the plugin&#8217;s <a href="https://github.com/Yoast/wordpress-seo/issues/9189" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gutenberg integration roadmap</a>. Yoast SEO 8.0 is coming next week with the first round of compatibility in place.</p>
<p>&#8220;8.0 is coming on Tuesday with most of it, some bits are relying on the integration of an annotations API in Gutenberg, which is not entirely under our control,&#8221; de Valk said. &#8220;We need that to do markings like we do in the classic editor to highlight where your errors are. Feature complete is quite a while off &#8211; we want to do a LOT. Gutenberg is opening a whole new playing field for us in terms of more in context, actionable feedback.&#8221;</p>
<p>Future versions of Yoast SEO will offer more features inline, instead of housing them in a single meta box.</p>
<p>&#8220;We started by breaking down all our features, and seeing where we could integrate them into Gutenberg,&#8221; de Valk said in a <a href="https://yoast.com/gutenberg-integration/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">post</a> outlining Yoast SEO&#8217;s planned approach back in October 2017. &#8220;We don’t think holding on to a single, massive box below the editor will best serve our customers. We’d much rather integrate right where the action happens, and Gutenberg offers us that chance.&#8221;</p>
<p>For example, readability analysis can be shown on a per-block basis to provide more fine-grained feedback:</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/readability-analysis.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>image credit: <a href="https://yoast.com/gutenberg-integration/">Yoast SEO</a>
<p>&#8220;You’ll get actionable feedback in context,&#8221; de Valk said. &#8220;You don’t have to scroll down to a meta box to see the advice and scroll up again to the place where you should implement it. If we give feedback per block, you will get a better understanding of all the factors that influence SEO.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Yoast SEO team has been enthusiastic about what the Gutenberg era will bring to WordPress. In a recent <a href="https://twitter.com/jdevalk/status/1026084237508788225" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter thread</a>, de Valk summarized his thoughts on the project and described the direction the Yoast SEO plugin is headed:</p>
<blockquote><p>[I&#8217;ve] been thinking about Gutenberg more lately, as discussion about it is growing now that it&#8217;s near to WordPress core inclusion. What is most important in what we&#8217;re doing is something I think most people don&#8217;t see yet: The new &#8216;blocks&#8217; that Gutenberg introduces allow us to, much more easily, make content items instead of web pages the smallest particle of the web.</p>
<p>Questions and answers, how to&#8217;s, recipes, suddenly all of them can much more easily have metadata, and be reused. This is particularly important to SEOs: the search engines, driven by voice search requirements, are searching for answers, more than for &#8216;just&#8217; URLs to send traffic to, and blocks allow us to give them those answers, in a format both they and users can understand. While doing this, it allows us to keep the separation of content and design, something we definitely need to think more about.</p></blockquote>
<p>With Gutenberg compatibility on its way from widely-used plugins like ACF and Yoast SEO, users can have confidence more plugins they depend on will follow suit. These major players are the first cracks in the ice across the ecosystem that will soon make Gutenberg-support the standard for any product that wants to compete.</p>
<p>de Valk encouraged users to look at the advent of Gutenberg as a door to new opportunities during this transition time.</p>
<p>&#8220;Gutenberg is not &#8216;done,'&#8221; de Valk said. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s ready to ship, but I also think it opens up a world of new opportunities and discussions. It&#8217;s not all &#8216;right&#8217; yet either, so there will have to be changes as more people use it and get used to it. I do realize this is a drastic change in some ways. But it&#8217;s also not half as bad as people think it is. I have seen people use it for the first time, most people get used to it very quickly. Last but not least: you don&#8217;t have to switch now. The classic editor plugin exists for a reason. You can put off your switch for a year, or even two. But eventually I think everyone will see the power of the new editor and will switch.&#8221;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Aug 2018 21:54:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:43;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:100:"WPTavern: Advanced Custom Fields to Add Gutenberg Compatibility in Version 5.0, Slated for September";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83016";s: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:110:"https://wptavern.com/advanced-custom-fields-to-add-gutenberg-compatibility-in-version-5-0-slated-for-september";s: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:4880:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-08-at-10.50.38-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Advanced Custom Fields</a> (ACF) team published an <a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/the-state-of-acf-in-a-gutenberg-world/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announcement</a> today, assuring users that Gutenberg compatibility is in the works and will be available in version 5.0 of the free version in September 2018. The plugin, created by Elliot Condon, makes it easy for developers to add custom fields to WordPress edit screens, including posts, users, taxonomy terms, and media.</p>
<p>ACF is widely used with more than a million active installations. Developers have been concerned about whether or not their custom fields would continue to work on their clients&#8217; websites after the new editor makes its debut in WordPress 5.0.</p>
<p>Gutenberg treats legacy metaboxes as second class citizens in the interface, stuffed at the bottom of the new edit screen. Metaboxes should, however, continue to work as expected. The ACF announcement lets developers know what to expect for how their metaboxes will appear inside Gutenberg:</p>
<blockquote><p>By default, our beloved metaboxes are pushed all the way to the bottom of the screen in an awkward attempt to retain compatibility. This placement feels very much like an afterthought from the Gutenberg developers and creates a disjointed editing experience for those of us (1+ million awesome ACF users) who extend the edit screens with extra fields.</p>
<p>While this setup isn’t ideal, we will continue to work within the system to ensure that ACF is integrated into the Gutenberg UI to the fullest extent possible.</p></blockquote>
<p>The free version of ACF will introduce Gutenberg compatibility in its version 5 release, which is slated for early September 2018. The compatibility update will only apply to version 5 and later, so the ACF team urges developers to running 4.x to upgrade to 5 as soon as it becomes available. Developers can also elect to upgrade early by turning on ACF&#8217;s <a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/upgrade-guide-version-5/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Early Access</a> feature.</p>
<p>The most surprising news is that ACF is introducing its own &#8220;ACF Blocks,&#8221; an <code>acf_register_block()</code> function that allows developers to register their own custom blocks without having to learn JavaScript.</p>
<blockquote><p>One of the big selling points of Gutenberg is the ability for developers to create custom blocks. The challenge is that the process is very JavaScript-intensive and not so friendly to PHP developers. But never fear, because ACF Blocks is here to turn that narrative upside down!</p>
<p>We have been hard at work building a PHP friendly game-changer for you to quickly create new block types using ACF fields to power PHP templates!</p></blockquote>
<p>ACF Blocks may be an unexpected development for those using the plugin, as the ACF team&#8217;s recent tweets have frequently communicated their disappointment with Gutenberg.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just spent the day working with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gutenberg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#gutenberg</a>&#8230; <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f915.png" alt="🤕" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f624.png" alt="😤" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f626.png" alt="😦" class="wp-smiley" /> Frustrated, annoyed and surprised at how buggy the editing experience is.</p>
<p>&mdash; Advanced Custom Fields (@wp_acf) <a href="https://twitter.com/wp_acf/status/1026724444327178240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>The availability of the ACF Blocks function is a strategic move that continues to make ACF indispensable for users who may not have made the time to improve their technical skills with regards to extending Gutenberg.</p>
<p>&#8220;Using ACF to make custom blocks was something I thought could happen, but not necessarily would happen,&#8221; WordPress developer Roy Sivan <a href="https://twitter.com/royboy789/status/1027199624669327360" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a>. &#8220;They proved me wrong, and its a big deal.&#8221;</p>
<p>The news should come as a relief for developers who have used ACF liberally on client sites and feel under the gun with Gutenberg&#8217;s proposed time frame for inclusion in core. The ACF team is working to make sure developers&#8217; customizations continue to work as seamlessly as possible when WordPress 5.0 is released.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Aug 2018 04:57:18 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:44;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:67:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 326 – Long Live the Fields API Project";s: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:58:"https://wptavern.com?p=83037&preview=true&preview_id=83037";s: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://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-326-long-live-the-fields-api-project";s: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:1687:"<p>In this episode, <a href="http://jjj.me">John James Jacoby</a> and I are joined by <a href="https://www.scottkclark.com/">Scott Kingsley Clark</a>, lead developer of the <a href="http://pods.io/">Pods framework</a>. Clark describes what it was like to lead the Fields API project, the difficulties of working hard on a project and not getting core buy-in, and why building the Fields API into core first would have made the transition to Gutenberg easier for users and developers.</p>
<p>He looks back and describes what he possibly could have done differently and provides an update on Pods Framework&#8217;s compatibility with Gutenberg. To wrap up the show, Clark played us a song on his electric ukulele. To hear more tunes from Clark, check out <a href="https://soundcloud.com/soft-charisma">his channel on SoundCloud</a>.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-core-fields-api-project-is-seeking-new-leadership">WordPress Core Fields API Project is Seeking New Leadership</a></p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, August 15th 3:00 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738">WordPress Weekly via Itunes</a></p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="https://www.wptavern.com/feed/podcast">WordPress Weekly via RSS</a></p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wordpress-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr">WordPress Weekly via Stitcher Radio</a></p>
<p>Subscribe to <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Ir3keivkvwwh24xy7qiymurwpbe">WordPress Weekly via Google Play</a></p>
<p><strong>Listen To Episode #326:</strong><br />
</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Aug 2018 02:34:03 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"WPTavern: Mythic: A WordPress Starter Theme by Justin Tadlock Now in Open Beta";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=83029";s: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/mythic-a-wordpress-starter-theme-by-justin-tadlock-now-in-open-beta";s: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:4765:"<p><a href="http://justintadlock.com/">Justin Tadlock</a>, founder of <a href="https://themehybrid.com/">Theme Hybrid</a>, has <a href="https://themehybrid.com/weblog/mythic-your-new-starting-point-for-theme-design">released Mythic</a>, a starter theme that provides modern tools to get theme developers started on the right foot. </p>

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote  is-style-large"><p>Theming in 2018 is much different than theming in 2008. Without the right tools, it can be overwhelming to simply get started building even the most basic theme.</p><cite>Justin Tadlock</cite></blockquote>

<p>While starter themes are nothing new in the WordPress space, Mythic and <a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-rig-a-wordpress-starter-theme-and-build-process-in-one">WP Rig</a> take things to the next level and relatively share the same goal of providing a modern foundation to develop on top of. </p>

<p>Part of the inspiration to build Mythic began two years ago. In trying to revamp the <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/news/">News theme</a>, Tadlock became frustrated with how difficult it was to use old coding methods and dropped the project.<br />><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />&#8220;In a lot of ways, it was the catalyst that started me down this road toward Mythic,&#8221; Tadlock said. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t realize it at the time. But, that&#8217;s where some of my frustration began with modern theme building.&#8221;</p>

<p>Mythic supports PHP 5.6+ although Tadlock is strongly pushing developers towards PHP 7+. &#8220;Anything earlier than 5.6 means for clunky code that’s just a headache to maintain,&#8221; he said. &#8220;WordPress, as a community, needs to be pushing people to update.&#8221;</p>

<p>Support for SASS, LESS, CSS, and Stylus are built-in and developers can choose which language they prefer for builds. ES6+ was chosen for JavaScript and is commonly used for building Gutenberg blocks. </p>

<p>Mythic comes with <a href="http://getbem.com/">BEM</a> or Block-Element-Modifier. BEM is a methodology that enables developers to create reusable elements and sharing code in front-end environments. </p>

<p>&#8220;BEM is a popular solution because it goes hand-in-hand with modern CSS pre-processors,&#8221; Tadlock said. &#8220;It also allows you to keep your styles flat and not get lost in <em>specificity hell</em>. This means smaller, faster stylesheets that are easier to override when you, a child theme author, or user need to do something custom.&#8221; The starter theme uses <a href="https://webpack.js.org/">Webpack</a> in combination with <a href="https://github.com/JeffreyWay/laravel-mix">Laravel Mix</a> to manage assets and modules.<br /></p>

<p>Mythic has an <a href="https://themehybrid.com/weblog/working-with-the-view-class">extended View class</a> that allows theme authors to use their preferred folder structure. Theme authors can also add custom data to theme templates. According to Tadlock, both features are not part of WordPress&#8217; native templating system. </p>

<p>In addition to Mythic, Tadlock has continued to work on the <a href="https://themehybrid.com/hybrid-core">Hybrid Core </a>framework. Hybrid Core is a required dependency that is added via Composer. </p>

<p>Using Mythic with Hybrid Core exposes developers to features of the framework that they otherwise may not discover. &#8220;I rewrote nearly all of HC5 from scratch,&#8221; he said. &#8220;As a result, it’s leaner, more organized, and more cohesive.&#8221; The starter theme is also Gutenberg-ready.<br /></p>

<h2>Tadlock Experiments with Sponsorship Pricing Model<br /></h2>

<p>Mythic is in open beta and available for free via <a href="https://github.com/justintadlock/mythic">GitHub</a>. The <a href="https://themehybrid.com/themes/mythic">pricing model</a> is an honor system experiment. Tadlock is asking those who build projects for clients and generating a profit, to make a $99 sponsorship purchase. For commercially-sold themes, he is asking for $199. Both packages come with one year of support and access to the company&#8217;s Slack channel. <br /></p>

<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m still taking feedback on the payment system,&#8221; Tadlock said. &#8220;It could change. There have been a few suggestions more of a lifetime/flat fee. I&#8217;d prefer to just get some generous sponsors and keep it all $free. We&#8217;ll see where that goes in this next month of the beta process.&#8221;</p>

<p>Mythic&#8217;s beta ends on September 3rd in which he&#8217;ll release version 1.0. Until then, he is trying to get as much feedback as possible from developers. To file issues, submit feedback, and contribute, visit the <a href="https://github.com/justintadlock/mythic">project&#8217;s GitHub page</a>. <br /></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Aug 2018 00:40:09 +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:"";}}}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:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:61:"WPTavern: Watch the Top 10 Sessions from WordCamp Europe 2018";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=82962";s: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:72:"https://wptavern.com/watch-the-top-10-sessions-from-wordcamp-europe-2018";s: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:3937:"<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/WCEU-2018.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wceu/41176987410/">Val Vesa</a>
<p>The results of the <a href="https://2018.europe.wordcamp.org/2018/08/07/results-of-the-wceu-2018-attendee-survey/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WCEU 2018 Attendee Survey</a> are in: 98% of the 566 respondents from 49 countries said they would recommend WCEU to a friend and 90% are very likely to attend the next event in Berlin. Of those who participated in the survey, 49% were attending WCEU for the first time and 37% of them were attending their first WordCamp. Overall, attendees reported overwhelmingly positive experiences, which is a big affirmation of the organizing team that continues to lift the bar higher for WordCamps around the world.</p>
<p>If you missed out on the WordCamp, the good news is that you can catch all of the sessions on WordPress.tv. The top 10 sessions have been curated by attendees who responded to the survey. These sessions cover some of the most important topics for WordPress professionals in 2018 and beyond:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/07/04/matt-mullenweg-a-summertime-update-keynote-and-qa/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Keynote and Q&#038;A</a> – Matt Mullenweg</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/07/11/joost-de-valk-technical-seo-to-grow-your-wordpress-business/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Technical SEO to grow your WordPress business</a> – Joost de Valk</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/07/06/morten-rand-hendriksen-the-ethics-of-web-design/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Ethics of Web Design</a> – Morten Rand-Hendriksen</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/07/09/matias-ventura-beyond-gutenberg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Beyond Gutenberg</a> – Matías Ventura</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/07/08/alberto-medina-thierry-muller-progressive-wordpress-themes/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Progressive WordPress Themes</a> – Alberto Medina, Thierry Muller</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/07/08/noel-tock-wordpress-in-2019/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WordPress in 2019</a> – Noel Tock</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/07/05/maja-benke-accessible-design-3/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Accessible Design</a> – Maja Benke</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/07/09/adam-silverstein-javascript-apis-in-wordpress/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">JavaScript APIs in WordPress</a> – Adam Silverstein</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/07/06/john-maeda-wordpress-and-inclusive-design-2/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WordPress and Inclusive Design</a> – John Maeda</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/07/08/tammie-lister-anatomy-of-a-block-gutenberg-design-patterns/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Anatomy of a block: Gutenberg design patterns</a> – Tammie Lister</li>
</ol>
<p>Attendees were also big fans of the workshops introduced at this event. 78% of respondents said they would like to see them again next year. A couple of the workshop recordings have yet to make it to WordPress.tv but may be available at a later time. The three most popular workshops attendees identified were all related to Gutenberg:</p>
<ul>
<li>(Gutenberg) Block Development with React – Zac Gordon, Julien Melissas</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2018/08/07/lara-schenck-lets-build-a-gutenberg-block/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Let’s Build a Gutenberg Block</a> – Lara Schenck</li>
<li>Roundtable with the Gutenberg team – The Gutenberg Team</li>
</ul>
<p>WordCamp Europe 2019 organizers are working on providing a more efficient registration process for workshops, as well as a greater capacity for attendees.</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, 08 Aug 2018 18:33:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;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:"WPTavern: First Look at Live Demo of the Gutenberg Content Editor for Drupal 8";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=82899";s: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://wptavern.com/first-look-at-live-demo-of-the-gutenberg-content-editor-for-drupal-8";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9601:"<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/drupal-gutenberg-project-e1533679727741.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.drupaleurope.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Drupal Europe</a> has just announced its <a href="https://www.drupaleurope.org/program/sessions" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">program</a> for the upcoming event in Darmstadt, Germany, September 10-14. The conference will host more than 1,600 Drupal professionals and enthusiasts for 162 hours of sessions and 9 in-depth workshops.</p>
<p>Automattic is sponsoring the <a href="https://www.drupaleurope.org/program/open-web-lounge" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Open Web Lounge</a> networking space and Matt Mullenweg will be joining Dries Buytaert and Barb Palser on a panel discussing <a href="https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/future-open-web-and-open-source" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the future of the open web and open source</a>.</p>
<p>One interesting WordPress-related session on the program is titled <a href="https://www.drupaleurope.org/session/introducing-gutenberg-content-editor-drupal-8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Introducing the Gutenberg content editor for Drupal 8</a>. This new module ports WordPress&#8217; Gutenberg editor over to Drupal. It was created by Per André Rønsen and his team <a href="https://www.frontkom.no/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Frontkom</a>, a digital services agency based in Norway.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://drupalgutenberg.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Drupal Gutenberg</a> project aims to provide a new publishing experience based on WordPress&#8217; Gutenberg editor. The <a href="https://drupalgutenberg.org/demo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">live demo</a> on the site currently provides a frontend interactive implementation of Gutenberg inside Drupal, similar to WordPress&#8217; &#8220;Frontenberg&#8221; demo on <a href="https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wordpress.org/gutenberg</a>. The latest implementation of the module will appear there but Rønsen said it is currently being revamped, as lots of things have happened with Gutenberg in the past few weeks.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/drupal-gutenberg.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<h3>How the Drupal Gutenberg Project was Born</h3>
<p>Rønsen told us he first saw Gutenberg in 2017 and was inspired to use it for one of Frontkom&#8217;s media clients.</p>
<p>&#8220;The thought of forking it came mid-2017, as we explored using Gutenberg as a lib for making a front page builder sponsored by the Google Digital News Initiative,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;We ended up using it, and the Drupal module is a natural spin off.&#8221;</p>
<p>Frontkom tailored the Gutenberg-based page builder for the media industry. It adds extra functionality to Gutenberg that allows users to position and tweak articles for the front page of an online newspaper. Rønsen said the project went well and his team plans to open source it but it&#8217;s too early to share anything right now.</p>
<p>Following this successful experience using Gutenberg for a client, Frontkom began work on the Drupal Gutenberg project in early January 2018.</p>
<p>&#8220;The main part of the work was to make Gutenberg more CMS agnostic,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;First we forked it and maintained a fork. Later we started using Gutenberg as a dependency, testing a more maintainable approach.&#8221;</p>
<p>Rønsen opened a ticket on GitHub, requesting that the Gutenberg team consider <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/2780" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">structuring the project to be more CMS-agnostic</a>. The ticket was closed fairly soon with the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/2780#issuecomment-342569414" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">explanation</a> that it &#8220;doesn&#8217;t relate directly to the work going on with the project and its goals.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;We have very little, if any, upstream commits so far, as the WP core interest has been to just cater to WP needs so far,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;But that just changed.&#8221;</p>
<p>Gutenberg is moving towards making it easier to use outside of WordPress. The team is working on <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/3955" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">publishing all the React modules as npm packages</a>. Rønsen said he anticipates that decreasing the number of globals needed to make Gutenberg work will be a huge help for other CMSs.</p>
<p>So far the Drupal Gutenberg project has not been shared widely but Rønsen said his team has seen a lot of interest from the Drupal tech community.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have a blog post coming in English with more detail; we kind of saved it for after holidays,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;But then it blew up, and devs keep contacting us wanting to help out.&#8221;</p>
<p>Frontkom has been involved in the Drupal community for more than 10 years and WordPress for the past three years. Rønsen and his team believe that Gutenberg fills a gap in the Drupal space.</p>
<p>&#8220;Drupal doesn&#8217;t have all those fancy WordPress page builders,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So that is really more interesting than just a new post edit UI – we want a unified way to build complex layouts.&#8221;</p>
<p>Drupal already has an initiative for revamping its admin UI using React, and Rønsen said he thinks Gutenberg might contribute to how this can happen in Drupal core. In an ideal world, many open source projects could greatly benefit from a CMS-agnostic Gutenberg, with all of them contributing together towards its improvement.</p>
<p>&#8220;To us as a company, it is extremely interesting to build out front-ends that can easily be moved between CMSs,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;For open source CMSs in general, I think there will be a lot to learn from the implementation process. For example, D8 has the concept of &#8216;everything is a block.&#8217; This has made it easy for us to make Drupal core blocks available in Gutenberg – we just need to do some magic to expose block settings.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Frontkom team are not only enthusiastic fans of Gutenberg&#8217;s interface, but also appreciate the way the project is run. Rønsen hasn&#8217;t been following the <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-plugin-garners-mixed-reactions-from-new-wave-of-testers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">community reaction to the latest round of Gutenberg testing</a> but said he thinks WordPress users will love it long term, since &#8220;most of the page builders out there have issues.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Drupal can learn a lot from WordPress, the way they actually built the Gutenberg project – a transparent design process, lots of collaboration, and still highly efficient,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;So, WordPress is definitely ahead of Drupal with regards to their admin UI/JS work. Since there is already a lot of interest in the Drupal community to do something similar, it is very refreshing to see someone go through it and succeed (hopefully).&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/stevector" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Steve Persch</a>, lead developer advocate at Pantheon, spoke at DrupalCon in Nashville 2018 about <a href="https://events.drupal.org/nashville2018/sessions/whats-possible-wordpress-50" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">what&#8217;s possible with WordPress 5.0</a> and also gave a session at Twin Cities Drupal Camp titled &#8220;<a href="https://2018.tcdrupal.org/session/everything-block-how-wordpress-rewrote-wysiwyg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Everything is a Block: How WordPress Rewrote the WYSIWYG</a>.&#8221; In response to buzz on Twitter about the Drupal Gutenberg session, Persch <a href="https://twitter.com/stevector/status/1026461967630983169" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> Drupal needs an editorial UX improvement to stay competitive, but not necessarily by adopting Gutenberg.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have in-progress initiatives toward that end,&#8221; Persch said. &#8220;Gutenberg itself could turn into a distraction from that work. In both [presentations] I also mentioned that Paragraphs or Layout Builder could be better data model starting points for Gutenberg-like functionality. Delivering exactly the same thing as WordPress would be self-defeating. Structured content is the heart of Drupal. I see Gutenberg (or something like it) as a better UI for the corner of the data model (the Paragraphs part) that Drupal sites have had for years.&#8221;</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how different open source communities approach Gutenberg and how more diverse feedback from outside of WordPress could impact the project.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.drupal.org/sandbox/marcofernandes/2981601" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Drupal Gutenberg module</a> can be downloaded from the project page. It&#8217;s currently marked as an experimental module and is recommended for developer use only. The <a href="https://drupalgutenberg.org/demo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">live demo</a> for the project will soon be revamped to reflect the latest updates with Gutenberg. You can also <a href="https://github.com/front/drupal-gutenberg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">follow the project&#8217;s development on GitHub</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 07 Aug 2018 22:28:18 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:48;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:"WPTavern: Gutenberg Plugin Garners Mixed Reactions from New Wave of Testers";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=82891";s: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:86:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-plugin-garners-mixed-reactions-from-new-wave-of-testers";s: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:15811:"<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ship-bottle.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>photo credit: KaylaKandzorra <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/48077358@N02/4952091078">i miss you grampa.</a> &#8211; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-9-8-released" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WordPress 4.9.8</a> was released as an automatic update last week, featuring the &#8220;Try Gutenberg&#8221; callout. The goal of the prompt is to get more users testing the new editor and to raise awareness. Within the first 72 hours of the prompt going into user dashboards, sites with Gutenberg installed have shot up to more than 80,000, a 300% increase. The plugin has been downloaded more than 147,000 times in the past week.</p>
<p>Gutenberg feedback is pouring in from a wave of new testers, most of whom are finding out about the new editor for the first time. Reactions have varied widely across multiple social networks. The announcement on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WordPress/posts/10156301634992911" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WordPress&#8217; official Facebook account</a> attracted many drive-by style comments that included negative reactions, confusion, and questions, with a few positive comments peppered in between.</p>
<blockquote><p>Blocks aren’t doing it for me. Will classic continue to be available permanently? If I want a block visual editor I promise I will install one voluntarily.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>I’m hoping gutenberg will be totally optional.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>I see only few users who are exited from Gutenberg. The rest is for leaving as it is. Why the guys from WP still want to implement it in the core? Make it a plugin. Why not a plugin whyyyyyy?</p></blockquote>
<p>Twitter users trying Gutenberg for the first time were more enthusiastic about the potential of the new editor.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Absolutely love the new Medium-like Gutenberg WordPress editor. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f60d.png" alt="😍" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f60d.png" alt="😍" class="wp-smiley" /></p>
<p>&mdash; Content Marketing Consultant (@Ebun_Oluwole) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ebun_Oluwole/status/1025827102401200128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 4, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="es" dir="ltr">me encantó Gutenberg, grande <a href="https://twitter.com/WordPress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WordPress</a> !!</p>
<p>&mdash; Ale̶x̶ Zamorano (@alex_zamorano) <a href="https://twitter.com/alex_zamorano/status/1025752512593358848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 4, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hey <a href="https://twitter.com/WordPress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WordPress</a> Gutenberg is dope I approve <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f44d-1f3fe.png" alt="👍🏾" class="wp-smiley" /></p>
<p>&mdash; Bodega Hive <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f3a8.png" alt="🎨" class="wp-smiley" /> (@breezeSZN) <a href="https://twitter.com/breezeSZN/status/1025538848439394304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 4, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>While some testers are quietly <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reporting issues on GitHub</a>, others have written long missives in the plugin&#8217;s reviews, begging WordPress not to force the new editor on users. Gutenberg reviews are currently at a 2.4-star average, slipping from the 2.7-star average it held prior to the 4.9.8 release. Those who have written reviews tend to have reactions at both ends of the spectrum.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-06-at-3.26.57-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>At this point in the testing phase, the reviews in the official directory paint a grim picture of WordPress dragging its users kicking and screaming into the Gutenberg era. However, there are many reasons why a tester might be motivated to write a negative review. Some may have ignored the advice not to use it in production, some may be testing it with incompatible plugins, some may not want any changes to their established workflow, and some may simply not like the interface.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-05-at-10.24.03-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>While it may seem that the plugin has been widely panned by new testers, those who are the most critical tend to be more motivated to write a review. Those who are pleasantly surprised at something that works for them don&#8217;t tend to comment publicly. Reviews cannot possibly tell the whole tale, but they are important to monitor for feedback that could help Gutenberg succeed.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Month 14 of Gutenberg on <a href="https://t.co/zWh3po88LS">https://t.co/zWh3po88LS</a> and I will keep the tradition of posting a summary of the reviews. Sadly neither time or quantity of reviews is not helping the score. Are the review biased? Is this something users like but admins hate? <a href="https://t.co/OMvIdUgfP4">pic.twitter.com/OMvIdUgfP4</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Andrew Roberts (@andrew_roberts) <a href="https://twitter.com/andrew_roberts/status/1025452116024807424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<h2>&#8220;Try Gutenberg&#8221; Callout Succeeds at Bringing More Testers and Feedback</h2>
<p>WordPress 4.9.8&#8217;s &#8220;Gutenprompt&#8221; is doing exactly what it was intended to do &#8211; bring out more testers. The invitation has already succeeded at pulling out some quality feedback if you can sort through all the casual, angry one-liners.</p>
<p>Steven Peters opened a lengthy <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/in-one-word-no-please-read-full-review/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">review</a> with the following observations about the more cumbersome and unintuitive aspects of Gutenberg&#8217;s interface:</p>
<blockquote><p>The interface is not cohesive in its design. For example, To place a block of a paragraph, a heading, a subheading, a bullet list and every other block, the user must click the + sign every single time, making it that much harder to ‘go with the flow’ of writing, and is cumbersome and time-consuming. Time-consuming: a click for each block instead of just writing. More clicks equal wasted time.</p></blockquote>
<p>In a review titled &#8220;<a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/lots-of-potential-but-too-soon-for-core/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lots of potential but too soon for core</a>,&#8221; Mark Wilkinson details several specific usability issues:</p>
<blockquote><p>The interface I find confusing – I think it is because it is too minimal. I found that it was all too easy to add a block by mistake and then not knowing what the block was or why it was there.</p>
<p>There is too much reliance on hover effects, with things appearing and disappearing all the time. I also find it hard to know where the focus is on the screen as it just uses a faint grey border.</p></blockquote>
<p>Several reviewers were candid about their distaste for the concept of putting content into blocks. The Gutenberg team has readily communicated its vision for the block-based editor, but this tends to speak more to developers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Why does every little thing have to be in a separate block?&#8221; one reviewer <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/im-not-change-resistant-but-this-has-a-way-to-go/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">asked</a> before describing multiple usability issues with current block behavior. &#8220;That is a feature I think I actually detest. I do not want 50 zillion little fussy blocks on a page. I had entire blocks just disappear on me and a lot of the time, I was initially unsure of exactly what I did to make them disappear. This is bad. Some of the time it was placing a block, like an image block, and then deleting the image … the entire block went, which meant I had to go through the motions to add the block, then add an image block again, and then add my image again. Lame.&#8221;</p>
<p>Multiple reviewers commented that previously simple tasks are much more complicated in Gutenberg. Others said after reading official replies to reviews, they felt that leaving specific feedback was a waste of time. Canned responses from the Gutenberg team gave some the impression that their feedback wasn&#8217;t heard or valued.</p>
<blockquote><p>My feeling while reading the WordPress developer responses is that that they have no intention of either stopping or postponing Gutenberg no matter what bug or problem is given to their attention. &#8211; <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/can-i-just-interject-here/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@lauritasita</a></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>I have read all the reviews (and also the Gutenberg-lovers’ replies) and it seems that it is not really a discussion. The question on what is missing in this editor is useless if people simply do not want such a feature in their install. All you do is trying to convince people that it would only take time to get used to a modern technology. In my eyes this is bullshit. I myself love new features – if they are useful. &#8211; <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/time-to-respect-your-users-matt/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@peg20</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Based on the responses to reviews, it isn&#8217;t clear to testers whether the Gutenberg team is willing to make major changes to re-design features that are not easy to use or whether they are simply combing the reviews for feedback on bugs with the existing interface.</p>
<h3>Classic Editor Plugin Installations are on the Rise as Users Prepare for WordPress 5.0</h3>
<p>In the days following WordPress 4.9.8&#8217;s release, active installations of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Classic Editor</a> plugin have jumped from 7,000 to 60,000, a 757% increase. However, none of these figures in isolation can tell the whole story of users&#8217; experience with the new editor.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/advancedwp/permalink/1986704551391749/?comment_id=1986914094704128&reply_comment_id=1986943451367859&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">response to criticism</a> on the Advanced WordPress Facebook group, Gutenberg contributor Gary Pendergast said he doesn&#8217;t see users installing the Classic Editor plugin as a negative reaction. &#8220;People ensuring that their site is ready for WordPress 5.0 is absolutely a good thing,&#8221; Pendergast said. &#8220;For a lot of sites, that means sticking with their current workflows for now.&#8221;</p>
<p>Pendergast also said the growing number of Classic Editor installs is a good indication that WordPress users are &#8220;proactively maintaining their sites, and a reasonable indication that they intend to upgrade to WordPress 5.0.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;People certainly have strong feelings about it, and &#8216;fear of change&#8217; is absolutely a legitimate feeling: we need to provide the right tools to empower everyone who uses WordPress,&#8221; Pendergast said. &#8220;Some people will jump right into the brave new block-based world, some people will prefer to use the Classic Editor plugin as a way to keep their existing workflows. When WordPress 5.0 lands, neither way should be seen as the &#8216;correct&#8217; way &#8211; they&#8217;re both entirely legitimate.&#8221;</p>
<p>One major theme in both positive and negative reviews of the plugin is the desire for Gutenberg to be opt-in for WordPress 5.0, instead of having it auto-enabled for all users.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The "Try Gutenberg" callout in WordPress 4.9.8 looks great! Would love to see this be the official approach when WordPress 5.0 is released vs auto-enabling. Give the users time to check it out before forcing it on them. <a href="https://t.co/QBiPh7IROe">pic.twitter.com/QBiPh7IROe</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Brad Williams (@williamsba) <a href="https://twitter.com/williamsba/status/1025025636149157889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Developers and agencies are expected to control that experience for their clients by installing the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Classic Editor</a> or <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg-ramp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gutenberg Ramp</a> for installations that may have compatibility issues. For millions of other WordPress users without their own developers or engineering teams, discovering Gutenberg auto-enabled after updating to WordPress 5.0 will be a moment of reckoning. On the other hand, phasing the new editor in over time may severely limit adoption and extinguish the ecosystem&#8217;s impetus to offer Gutenberg-compatible products.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Not auto-enabling it should be strongly considered for 5.0 and also why setting a specific release number for it was a mistake. These reviews have been absolutely brutal and the uptick in 1 stars has been from average users and not disgruntled or vocal developers.</p>
<p>&mdash; Carl Hancock <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f680.png" alt="🚀" class="wp-smiley" /> (@carlhancock) <a href="https://twitter.com/carlhancock/status/1026542036936056832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>The development community, along with thousands of WordPress users who now have Gutenberg on their radar, will be watching to see how the team evaluates feedback from this new wave of testing. Up until this point, only the most curious and motivated WordPress users have taken Gutenberg for a spin. Widespread testing has just begun and we&#8217;re not yet seeing a complete picture of how well the new editor will be received.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-new-gutenberg-editor-now-available-as-a-plugin-for-testing" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">initial impression</a>, after first trying it a year ago, was that Gutenberg is the most exciting thing to happen to WordPress in a long time. After reading hundreds of negative reviews, I still believe in the block concept but am convinced that Gutenberg needs to deliver a beautiful writing experience in order to win people over.</p>
<p>If WordPress is my home for writing on the web, I want to feel at home in the interface. I don&#8217;t want to have to hunt for actions buried two-clicks deep. When I use the editor I want to have the feeling of &#8220;I love writing here.&#8221; Gutenberg doesn&#8217;t deliver that yet.</p>
<p>WordPress has an opportunity to provide the best writing experience on the web, instead of relegating it to the <a href="https://wptavern.com/bear-app-users-want-wordpress-publishing-integration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">myriad of dedicated writing apps</a> that don&#8217;t have publishing capabilities. A supremely well-designed editor for writing posts, in recognition of the platform&#8217;s blogging roots, would be the promise that hooks users to willingly sign on for years of dealing with Gutenberg&#8217;s shortcomings as it matures into a full-fledged site builder.</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, 07 Aug 2018 03:23:57 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:49;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:"WPTavern: WordCamp Ann Arbor Cancelled, Organizers Set Sights on 2019 Event";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=82921";s: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://wptavern.com/wordcamp-ann-arbor-cancelled-organizers-set-sights-on-2019-event";s: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:1284:"<p><a href="https://2018.annarbor.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp Ann Arbor MI</a>, is an annual Fall tradition that takes place each October. This year however, the event won&#8217;t be taking place. In an email sent out August 3rd, organizers explained why they cancelled this year&#8217;s event. </p>

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Why did we decide to cancel WordCamp Ann Arbor this year? It&#8217;s a long story. The most significant factors involve issues with our venues. Then eventually finding ourselves with too little time to put together an event meeting the standards we strive for. None of us were interested in throwing together a last minute, half-baked event. So we made the call early and turned our attention to 2019.</p><cite>Kyle Maurer &#8211; Co-organizer of WordCamp Ann Arbor</cite></blockquote>

<p>Organizers are already in the planning stages for WordCamp Ann Arbor 2019. Jackson, MI, about 45 minutes west of Ann Arbor is hosting a <a href="https://2018.jackson.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp</a> this weekend. Tickets are $20 each with 35 remaining. </p>

<p>For a detailed look into what it&#8217;s like to organize WordCamp Ann Arbor, check out <a href="http://kyleblog.net/2016/11/wordcamp-ann-arbor-2016-recap/">Maurer&#8217;s post</a> from 2016. <br /></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, 06 Aug 2018 21:01:21 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";O:42:"Requests_Utility_CaseInsensitiveDictionary":1:{s:7:"*data";a:8:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Thu, 06 Sep 2018 12:03:24 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Thu, 06 Sep 2018 11:45:28 GMT";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:4:"x-nc";s:9:"HIT ord 2";s:16:"content-encoding";s:4:"gzip";}}s:5:"build";s:14:"20130911110210";}