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";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:73:"WPTavern: WooSesh Schedule Published, WooCommerce Team to Deliver Keynote";s:7:"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=84428";s:7:"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:83:"https://wptavern.com/woosesh-schedule-published-woocommerce-team-to-deliver-keynote";s: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:1835:"<p><a href="https://woosesh.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WooSesh</a>, the virtual WooCommerce conference, is now less than two weeks away. The two-day event will be held October 18-19 and is free for all attendees who join the livestream. Organizers Patrick Rauland and Brian Richards published the schedule this week with <a href="https://woosesh.com/#day1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">descriptions for each session</a>.</p>
<p>Day 1 will feature speakers on a variety of topics suited for all attendees who work with WooCommerce, including building stores for clients, designing sites, and developing plugins. Day 2 is geared towards developers and will focus on more technical topics.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/toddwilkens" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Todd Wilkens</a>, Head of WooCommerce, will be giving the keynote along with Aviva Pinchas and Kelly Hoffman. The session is titled &#8220;The Past, Present, and Future of WooCommerce&#8221; and it will be followed up with a Q&amp;A time.</p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://panel.socialpilot.co/site/video/eNiqGdpe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">interview</a>, Wilkens told Patrick Rauland that they have been working to rethink the merchant experience of the platform, as it has traditionally offered more of a builder style experience. This is one topic they plan to discuss in the keynote, in addition to where they see WooCommerce going as a platform, some recent successes, and how WooCommerce fits into other trends with WordPress and e-commerce in general.</p>
<p>Attendees can watch all sessions for free as long as they attend at least one presentation during the live event. Registration is open on the <a href="https://woosesh.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WooSesh</a> website.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 05 Oct 2018 05:58:04 +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:100:"WPTavern: If Deadlines Are Not Arbitrary, Why Not Release WordPress 5.0 in the Beginning of January?";s:7:"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=84466";s:7:"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:109:"https://wptavern.com/if-deadlines-are-not-arbitrary-why-not-release-wordpress-5-0-in-the-beginning-of-january";s: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:3933:"<p>The WordPress 5.0 release schedule <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-0-slated-for-november-19-2018">has been published</a> and not everyone is excited about the expected November 19th release. November 19th is three days before Thanksgiving, a major holiday in the U.S.</p>

<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just going to call bullshit on anyone claiming “every date is bad for someone” or “every month has holidays somewhere” when defending possible Nov-Dec WordPress 5.0 release. It is trying to be rammed in for WordCamp U.S. where those November and December holidays are major ones.</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/1047922585659461632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">So <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gutenberg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Gutenberg</a> is being rolled out the week of Thanksgiving? Do none of you have families or want to enjoy the holidays? What a terrible decision to push this during a holiday week&#8230;</p>&mdash; Jennifer Bourn (@jenniferbourn) <a href="https://twitter.com/jenniferbourn/status/1047845139912122368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

<p>Historically, WordPress has <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/category/releases/">shipped major versions</a> in early to mid December rather than November. Holidays were considered because of the sharp drop-off in volunteer contribution activity. These versions were also part of a rigid and predictable four month schedule to get <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/roadmap/">three major releases out per year</a>. </p>

<p>However, WordPress 5.0 is no ordinary major release. It will contain Gutenberg and completely revamp the content creation and editing experience. Not to mention, we won&#8217;t know the full extent of plugin and theme compatibility until it&#8217;s installed on millions of sites. </p>

<p>Looking at the proposed release date and <a href="https://2018.us.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp US</a> taking place on December 7th, it&#8217;s not out of the question to theorize the release occurring before and because of WCUS. It should be noted though that the <a href="https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-unveils-gutenberg-roadmap-at-wceu-wordpress-agencies-and-product-developers-sprint-to-prepare">roadmap Matt Mullenweg outlined at WordCamp EU</a> earlier this year originally targeted a late August release.</p>

<p>I think it would be a bummer if WordPress 5.0 was not released before WordCamp US. However, it would be irresponsible as a project leader to force a release for public relations reasons.</p>

<p>As Mullenweg <a href="https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-announces-5-0-release-plan-estimates-release-candidate-to-ship-in-november#comment-262936">commented</a> in a recently published article, he won&#8217;t release WordPress 5.0 until it&#8217;s ready. I don&#8217;t think releasing it to have a big moment on stage would qualify as being ready.</p>

<p>I think there should be consideration in pushing the release date to the beginning of next year. What better way to ring in the new year with a completely new editor in WordPress. It bypasses the holidays concern and allows people to apply all of their focus on making sure 5.0 is rolled out smoothly to sites they manage.</p>

<p>Gutenberg has been in development for more than a year and a half. Since the WordPress release strategy was thrown out the window last year and <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/philosophy/">deadlines are not arbitrary</a>, what&#8217;s a few more weeks of development and testing before pushing WordPress 5.0 to the public?<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, 05 Oct 2018 03:09:21 +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:"";}}}}}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:95:"WPTavern: WordPress Theme and Plugin Shops are Pioneering the First Layout Blocks for 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=84351";s:7:"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/wordpress-theme-and-plugin-shops-are-pioneering-the-first-layout-blocks-for-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:5995:"<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/layout.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/EWENELMHYR">Jeffrey Betts</a>
<p>Many WordPress theme shops started out with themes as their only products but over the years have moved into selling plugins that enhance their core products. This came about partially because theming standards evolved to encourage developers to <a href="https://wptavern.com/why-wordpress-theme-developers-are-moving-functionality-into-plugins" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">put non-presentational functionality into plugins</a>. For many, the revenue from plugins quickly eclipsed that of their theme products. In the past, theme shops have often partnered with page builder plugins to enhance their users&#8217; capabilities in customizing the themes. This may soon change, as the advent of Gutenberg is bringing new product opportunities to theme and plugin shops shops.</p>
<p>The first iteration of the new editor focuses on blocks and the post editing experience. After Gutenberg is in core, the project will move on to the second phase &#8211; full site customization. This will venture into page builder type functionality. Matt Mullenweg <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1037843717070057472" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">predicts this phase will happen much faster than phase 1</a>, since all of the infrastructure is already in place. The plugin already has a columns block in beta.</p>
<p>Gutenberg is scheduled to debut in WordPress 5.0 in November, but site customization functionality won&#8217;t arrive until 2019 at the earliest. In the meantime, plugin developers have been experimenting with various implementations of &#8220;section&#8221; and &#8220;container&#8221; blocks while the Gutenberg team <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/4900" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">explores a core container block</a> for phase 2.</p>
<p>Marie Comet&#8217;s <a href="https://github.com/MarieComet/WP-container-block/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WP Container Block</a> is a fork of the core columns block that offers columns structure, spacing, and backgrounds (with both image and color controls). Felix Arntz recently published a tutorial on how he built a <a href="https://felix-arntz.me/blog/building-a-reusable-gutenberg-section-block/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reusable Gutenberg section block</a>. Marc Lacroix created his own <a href="https://github.com/marcusig/gutenberg-section-block" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">container block</a>, out of necessity, with capabilities for spacing and background customization.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-03-at-10.26.43-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Section/container blocks are a precursor to using Gutenberg for building more complex layouts. Some of these explorations may inform the Gutenberg team&#8217;s implementation of a core container block in the future.</p>
<p>A few more full-featured layout blocks are starting to pop up on WordPress.org. Kadence Themes, a theme and plugin shop based in Missoula, Montana, released its <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/kadence-blocks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kadence Blocks &#8211; Gutenberg Page Builder Toolkit</a> at the end of August. The plugin brings the editor closer to delivering the features users expect from popular page builders, such as better control of columns for different screen sizes and a <a href="https://themes.kadencethemes.com/ascend-5/row-layout-block/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">row/layout block</a> with controls for padding, backgrounds, alignment, and overlays with gradients.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmtjc9lh6zA/" title="View on Instagram" target="_blank"><img src="http://instagr.am/p/Bmtjc9lh6zA/media/?size=l" alt="Instagram Photo" /></a></p>
<p>A live &#8220;Frontenberg&#8221; style <a href="http://demo.kadencethemes.com/kadence-blocks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">demo of Kadence Blocks</a> is available where you can see the plugin&#8217;s options for manipulating page layout.</p>
<p>Pootlepress, a WordPress plugin and theme shop, has added a new Layouts block to its free <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/caxton/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Caxton plugin</a>. The company is one of the earlier Gutenberg adopters in the WooCommerce space with its recent release of the <a href="https://wptavern.com/pootlepress-previews-upcoming-storefront-blocks-plugin-for-woocommerce" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Storefront Blocks</a> plugin.</p>
<p>Caxton bills itself as a &#8220;page layout plugin&#8221; for Gutenberg. Its layout block allows users to select from a number of preset layouts and then add blocks within those layouts. It supports nesting rows and row backgrounds. A Frontenberg <a href="http://demo.caxton.pro/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">demo site</a> gives users the chance to play around with the page builder functionality before installing the plugin.</p>
<div class="embed-vimeo"></div>
<p>Until Gutenberg adds core support for more layout capabilities, WordPress may see an influx of these layout blocks that introduce basic page builder functionality. Some of these plugins may need to be refactored once there is more direction for these features in core, but they offer a glimpse of what Gutenberg will bring to site customization. Combined with <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-3-9-introduces-reusable-exportable-templates-for-multiple-blocks" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gutenberg 3.9&#8217;s reusable, exportable templates for multiple blocks</a>, page layouts will become more portable than ever. In 2019, we may see new sites popping up that enable users and developers to share the layout designs they have created.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 04 Oct 2018 15:24:58 +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:"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:73:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 332 – The WordPress 5.0 Release Cycle Begins";s:7:"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=84436&preview=true&preview_id=84436";s:7:"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/wpweekly-episode-332-the-wordpress-5-0-release-cycle-begins";s: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:2241:"<p>In this episode, <a href="http://jjj.me">John James Jacoby</a> and I discuss the headlines making the rounds in the WordPress community. This includes the start of the WordPress 5.0 release cycle, the 5th annual Hacktoberfest, and theme developers marketing their themes as Gutenberg-compatible. Near the end of the show, I describe how much of the press surrounding WordPress security issues is poorly written and John talks about the benefits of being in the same physical space as your co-workers at least once or twice a year.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-theme-developers-begin-marketing-themes-as-gutenberg-compatible">WordPress Theme Developers Begin Marketing Themes as Gutenberg Compatible</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/first-wave-of-wordcamp-europe-2019-tickets-sells-out-in-3-hours">First Wave of WordCamp Europe 2019 Tickets Sells Out in 3 Hours</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/5th-annual-hacktoberfest-kicks-off-today-updated-rules-require-5-pull-requests-to-earn-a-t-shirt">5th Annual Hacktoberfest Kicks Off Today, Updated Rules Require 5 Pull Requests to Earn a T-shirt</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-announces-5-0-release-plan-estimates-release-candidate-to-ship-in-november">Matt Mullenweg Announces WordPress 5.0 Release Plan, Estimates Release Candidate to Ship in November</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/godaddy-hires-mike-schroder-to-contribute-to-wordpress-core-full-time">GoDaddy Hires Mike Schroder to Contribute to WordPress Core Full-Time</a></p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, October 10th 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 #332:</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, 04 Oct 2018 00:30:59 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"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: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:52:"WPTavern: WordPress 5.0 Slated for November 19, 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=84419";s:7:"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:62:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-0-slated-for-november-19-2018";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:5300:"<p>A tentative <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/10/03/proposed-wordpress-5-0-scope-and-schedule/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">5.0 release schedule</a> was published during today&#8217;s core dev chat. The official release is targeted for November 19, 2018 with beta 1 expected October 19 and RC 1 released October 30.</p>
<p>In addition to getting Gutenberg merged into core, the scope for 5.0 includes a few new items that Gary Pendergast outlined in his post:</p>
<ul>
<li>Updating the default themes to work well with the block editor, and creating the new Twenty Nineteen theme.</li>
<li>Creating an upgrade experience to remove the Gutenberg plugin and offer the Classic Editor plugin.</li>
</ul>
<p>November 19 is the week of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., when many are traveling or spending time with friends and family. As this is scheduled during a busy time of year and may have unexpected delays, the release leads have come up with a backup plan that includes a secondary schedule.</p>
<p>&#8220;We know there is a chance that 5.0 will need additional time, so these dates can slip by up to 8 days if needed,&#8221; Pendergast said. His post proposes an additional timeline that would have 5.0 land in January:</p>
<p>Secondary RC 1: January 8, 2019</p>
<p>Secondary Release: January 22, 2019</p>
<p>&#8220;The current release date is November 19, but it can be pushed as late as November 27 if needed,&#8221; Pendergast said. &#8220;To avoid the numerous holidays from the end of November through to January, we&#8217;ll move the release to January if more time is needed.&#8221;</p>
<p>Although the backup timeline should allay concerns about December holidays, if the release is at all delayed, it will run up against the Thanksgiving holiday.</p>
<p>&#8220;Should we need to switch to the secondary dates, this will be communicated as soon as we’re aware,&#8221; Pendergast said. &#8220;It’s also important to note that we have some updates for PHP 7.3 compatibility that must be released in 2018 regardless, and we would have a short 4.9.9 release cycle for them if needed.&#8221;</p>
<p>Contributors had the opportunity to ask questions of the release leads during today&#8217;s 5.0 kickoff meeting. There was some uncertainty in yesterday&#8217;s announcements about whether 5.0 will ship a new default theme. Matt Mullenweg confirmed that they are aiming to get Twenty Nineteen into 5.0.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s the biggest variable though, so if it takes longer we won&#8217;t delay the release for it,&#8221; Mullenweg said.</p>
<p>Twenty Nineteen development will happen on GitHub and contributors can join the discussion in the #core-themes Slack channel where regular meetings will happen.</p>
<p>Gutenberg engineer Riad Benguella posted a technical overview of the integration process for merging the new editor into core. He also laid out a plan for how Gutenberg development will continue in the future.</p>
<p>&#8220;After WordPress 5.0 is released, the Gutenberg plugin will continue to exist,&#8221; Benguella said. &#8220;Its purpose will be changed to the development and the maintenance of the WordPress npm packages, including the editor itself, and will also serve to develop the second phase (site customization) of the Gutenberg project. Plugin updates will continue to be released during the 5.0 cycle.</p>
<p>&#8220;The PHP part of the plugin won’t be needed anymore, as the plugin will just register new versions of the scripts of the packages to replace the ones already registered by Core.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mullenweg confirmed during the dev chat that the team plans to add a link to the Classic Editor plugin in the admin when 5.0 ships. Overall, contributors in attendance seemed excited about the prospect of finally having the new editor in core, despite the ambitious timeline proposed for release.</p>
<p>&#8220;A big benefit even beyond the user improvements is that plugin and theme developers will be able to truly use it as a base in a way that they can&#8217;t right now as a plugin,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;If previous adoption curves hold true, we&#8217;d be on 10m sites (20x current adoption) by new year.&#8221;</p>
<p>Gutenberg development has been moving quickly and after it is shipped to millions of WordPress users there are bound to be more issues discovered. Mullenweg said quick point releases may be an option for maintaining the flexibility to introduce fixes and improvements in a timely way for users.</p>
<p>&#8220;Since 5.0 will be very tight (just Gutenberg, PHP 7.3, and possibly theme) I am open to having 5.0.x releases that are like the 4.9.x releases that bring in some larger updates or improvements we push off, like servehappy stuff,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Gutenberg technical lead Matias Ventura has outlined the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/09/26/an-update-on-gutenberg-tasks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tasks remaining on the editor</a>. An updated <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-0/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">schedule for the 5.0 release cycle</a> is now available for the public to follow. Gary Pendergast, who is shepherding the merge, said he expects WordPress 5.1 will be available around March 2019.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 03 Oct 2018 23:23:08 +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: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:30:"Gary: WordPress 5.0 Needs 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:25:"https://pento.net/?p=2160";s:7:"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://pento.net/2018/10/04/wordpress-5-0-needs-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:6287:"<p>Yesterday, we started the WordPress 5.0 release cycle with an announcement post.</p>

<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<div class=" content_cards_card content_cards_domain_make-wordpress-org">
			<div class="content_cards_image">
				<a class="content_cards_image_link" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/10/03/a-plan-for-5-0/">
					<img src="https://pento.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/screen-shot-2018-10-02-at-8.39.21-pm.png" alt="A Plan for 5.0" />				</a>
		</div>
	
	<div class="content_cards_title">
		<a class="content_cards_title_link" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/10/03/a-plan-for-5-0/">
			A Plan for 5.0		</a>
	</div>
	<div class="content_cards_description">
		<a class="content_cards_description_link" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/10/03/a-plan-for-5-0/">
			<p>Usually during major releases of WordPress, the dedicated release lead chooses a few folks to help them through the time-consuming work of managing an excellent release cycle. We are blessed with s…</p>
		</a>
	</div>
	<div class="content_cards_site_name">
		<img src="https://s.w.org/favicon.ico?2" alt="Make WordPress Core" class="content_cards_favicon" />		Make WordPress Core	</div>
</div>
</div>

<div class="wp-block-image"><img /><a href="https://make.wordpress.org">Make WordPress</a></div>

<p>It&#8217;s a very exciting time to be involved in WordPress, and if you want to help make it the best, now&#8217;s an excellent opportunity to jump right in.</p>

<p>A critical goal of this release cycle is transparency.</p>

<p>As a member of the WordPress 5.0 leadership team, the best way for me to do my job is to get feedback from the wider WordPress community as early, and as quickly as possible. I think I speak for everyone on the leadership team when I say that we all feel the same on this. We want everyone to be able to participate, which will require some cooperation from everyone in the wider WordPress community.</p>

<p>The release post was published as soon as it was written, we wanted to get it out quickly, so everyone could be aware of what&#8217;s going on. Publishing quickly does mean that we&#8217;re still writing the more detailed posts about scope, and timeline, and processes. Instead of publishing a completed plan all at once, we intentionally want to include everyone from the start, and evolve plans as we get feedback.</p>

<p>With no other context, the WordPress 5.0 timeline of &#8220;release candidate in about a month&#8221; would be very short, which is why we&#8217;ve waited until Gutenberg had proved itself before setting a timeline. As we mentioned in the post, WordPress 5.0 will be &#8220;WordPress 4.9.8 + Gutenberg&#8221;. The Gutenberg plugin is <a href="https://gutenstats.blog/">running on nearly 500k sites</a>, and WordPress 4.9.8 is running on millions of sites. For comparison, it&#8217;s considered a well tested major version if we see 20k installs before the final release date. Gutenberg is a bigger change than we&#8217;ve done in the past, so should be held to a higher standard, and I think we can agree that 500k sites is a pretty good test base: it arguably meets, or even exceeds that standard.</p>

<p>We can have a release candidate ready in a month.</p>

<div class="wp-block-image"><img /><a href="https://wordpress.org/gutenberg">Try Gutenberg</a></div>

<p>The Gutenberg core team are currently focussed on finishing off the last few features. The Gutenberg plugin has evolved exceedingly quickly thanks to their work, it&#8217;s moved so much faster than anything we&#8217;ve done in WordPress previously. As we transition to bug fixing, you should expect to see the same rapid improvement.</p>

<p>The block editor&#8217;s backwards compatibility with the classic editor is important, of course, and the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/">Classic Editor plugin</a> is a part of that: if you have a site that doesn&#8217;t yet work with the block editor, please go ahead and install the plugin. I&#8217;d be happy to see the Classic Editor plugin getting 10 million or more installs, if people need it. That would both show a clear need for the classic interface to be maintained for a long time, and because it&#8217;s the official WordPress plugin for doing it, we can ensure that it&#8217;s maintained for as long as it&#8217;s needed. This isn&#8217;t a new scenario to the WordPress core team, we&#8217;ve been backporting security fixes to WordPress 3.7 for years. We&#8217;re never going to leave site owners out in the cold there, and exactly the same attitude applies to the Classic Editor plugin.</p>

<p>The broader Gutenberg project is a <em>massive</em> change, and WordPress is a big ship to turn.</p>

<p>It&#8217;s going to take years to make this transition, and it&#8217;s okay if WordPress 5.0 isn&#8217;t everything for everyone. There&#8217;ll be a WordPress 5.1, and 5.2, and 5.3, and so on, the block editor will continue to evolve to work for more and more people.</p>

<p>My role in WordPress 5.0 is to &#8220;generally shepherd the merge&#8221;. I&#8217;ve built or guided some of the most complex changes we&#8217;ve made in Core in recent years, and they&#8217;ve all been successful. I don&#8217;t intend to change that record, WordPress 5.0 will only be released when I&#8217;m as confident in it as I was for all of those previous projects.</p>

<p>Right now, I&#8217;m asking everyone in the WordPress community for a little bit of trust, that we&#8217;re all working with the best interests of WordPress at heart. I&#8217;m also asking for a little bit of patience, we&#8217;re only human, we can only type so fast, and we do need to sleep every now and then. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f609.png" alt="😉" class="wp-smiley" /></p>

<p>WordPress 5.0 isn&#8217;t the finish line, it&#8217;s the starter pistol.</p>

<p><a href="https://automattic.com/creed/">This is a marathon, not a sprint</a>, and the goal is to set WordPress up for the next 15 years of evolution. This can only happen one step at a time though, and the best way to get there will be by working together. We can have disagreements, we can have different priorities, and we can still come together to create the future of WordPress.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 03 Oct 2018 22:14:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Gary";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:79:"WPTavern: GoDaddy Hires Mike Schroder to Contribute to WordPress Core Full-Time";s:7:"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=84411";s:7:"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/godaddy-hires-mike-schroder-to-contribute-to-wordpress-core-full-time";s: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:986:"<p><a href="https://getsource.net/">Mike Schroder</a> known at <a href="https://twitter.com/getsource?lang=en">GetSource</a> on Twitter and Mike on WordPress&#8217; Slack instance <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/garage/mike-schroder-wordpress-core-contributor/">is joining Aaron Campbell at GoDaddy</a> to contribute to WordPress full-time. </p>

<p>Since 2011, Schroder has contributed to nearly every version of WordPress. In 2014, Schroder co-led the release of WordPress 3.9. In 2016, he lead the release of WordPress 4.5. He&#8217;s also <a href="https://wordpress.tv/?s=mike+schroder">an accomplished speaker</a> presenting on various topics at WordCamps across the world. </p>

<p>According to Gabriel Mays,  WordPress products and strategy leader at GoDaddy, Schroder will continue to work on the Media component in WordPress, lead the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/">WordPress Hosting Community work group</a>, and help merge Gutenberg into WordPress 5.0.  </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 03 Oct 2018 05:57:08 +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: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:110:"WPTavern: Matt Mullenweg Announces WordPress 5.0 Release Plan, Estimates Release Candidate to Ship in November";s:7:"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=84405";s:7:"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/matt-mullenweg-announces-5-0-release-plan-estimates-release-candidate-to-ship-in-november";s: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:3058:"<p>Matt Mullenweg has <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/10/03/a-plan-for-5-0/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announced</a> a plan for releasing WordPress 5.0 with a tentative estimate for a release candidate to ship in November.</p>
<p>&#8220;With known knowns and known unknowns, I believe we will be at RC in about a month,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;However, I’ll be keeping a close eye on feedback during the beta process and adjust as needed and keep the community fully up-to-date with our best estimate.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://Gutenstats.blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gutenstats.blog</a> shows that the beta plugin has passed 490,000 active installations, which Mullenweg said &#8220;far exceeds pre-release testing of anything that has ever come into core.&#8221; The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Classic Editor</a> plugin also has more than 400,000 installations, indicating nearly half a million site owners have already prepared to preserve their existing workflows.</p>
<p>&#8220;If we keep the 5.0 release to strictly 4.9.8 + Gutenberg, we will have a release that is both major and a non-event in terms of new code,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;It’s all battle-tested. In some ways 5.0 is already de facto out in the wild, with some forward-looking hosts already installing and activating Gutenberg for new installs.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mullenweg is leading the release but has designated 11 other leads to head up various focuses, including triage, design, JavaScript packages, REST API, merge process and several other important aspects of the release.</p>
<p>WordPress users can also expect a new default Twenty Nineteen theme to ship with 5.0. Designer <a href="https://www.allancole.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Allan Cole</a> will be leading that project, which involves adapting an existing Gutenberg theme for use as WordPress&#8217; next default theme.</p>
<p>Last week&#8217;s developer chat left many attendees wondering about the status of WordPress 4.9.9. Contributors <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-9-9-release-may-shift-focus-to-php-7-3-compatibility-gutenberg-merge-proposal-timeline-tbd" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">discussed the possibility of making it a quick PHP 7.3 compatibility release</a> but it now appears to be all hands on deck as the focus shifts to 5.0.</p>
<p>Based on today&#8217;s announcement, it seems very likely that WordPress 5.0 will land before the end of 2018, barring any major impediments. The timeline for this major release falls during a busy time of year for many who will be responsible for preparing their products and client sites. Mullenweg said he will keep the community up-to-date as the release cycle progresses. The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/10/03/dev-chat-agenda-october-3rd-5-0-week-1/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">agenda</a> for tomorrow&#8217;s dev chat will focus on 5.0 planning.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 03 Oct 2018 03:19:44 +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:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:33:"HeroPress: There Are No Shortcuts";s:7:"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=2633";s:7:"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:118:"https://heropress.com/essays/there-are-no-shortcuts/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=there-are-no-shortcuts";s: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:9844:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/100318-min-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: Do not let your gender, your race, or any of your biases define you." /><p>My name is JC and I make things for the web. I wear a lot of hats but my favorite one is as a WordPress developer. And I am here to tell you about my journey. It was not easy. There were no shortcuts. I had to crawl my way up every single step of the way. And I still have to, it did not become easier – not by a long shot. But I’ve accepted that in order to succeed I have to take the long way and that is basically two words long – <strong>WORK HARD</strong>.</p>
<p>When I was young, I wanted to be and do a lot of things. I wanted to be an astronaut, a lawyer, a geophysicist. I wanted a pet unicorn or a tiger or a lion or a snake. I wanted to be the first woman to roam the solar system, I wanted to be a world-renowned author. I never became nor did any of those but I did get a pet snake named Yudi and I have a lot of “pet” unicorns.</p>
<p>I studied engineering because it was the “IT” course during my time. Did I like it? Let’s just say that I had a lot of fun, a lot of heartaches, a lot of sleepless nights and leave it at that. But if you really want to know &#8211; what I really, really want to be right now is to be a TimeLord STAT, but I digress. I think, the main reason I took that course was because I didn’t want to be with a lot of girls. I didn’t want to compete and I was not really into all that girly-girly stuff. It all changed, by the way. I graduated and took the board – I did not pass. Much to the horror of my engineer dad. I never really wanted to be an engineer so I did not bother taking the board again, instead, I worked in a call center. My first work was as a tech support for Dell computers. I got to tinker with laptops and help seniors fix theirs thousands of miles away and I even got to experience them happily shouting telling me that I do not know what I am doing. Fun times.</p>
<blockquote><p>I did that for a year and I decided that that was not the life for me nor the life I wanted my daughter to see me in.</p></blockquote>
<p>So we went back home to Iloilo and had my second job there, this time as a Search Engine Optimization Analyst. Fancy title, but all I did was search Google for stuff and write stuff for Google to digest. My boss’ site was built on WordPress and I created content for him. That was my first contact with WordPress.</p>
<p>Working in that position for a few months bothered me, I know I am capable of more than just that (I am impatient and hard-headed and can’t keep my mouth shut – the perfect combination). So I read about web development. I didn’t know how to code – give me mathematical equations and I’ll solve it right away but all these HTML, CSS and whatnot were alien to me.</p>
<blockquote><p>But I persevered, I never took a shortcut.</p></blockquote>
<p>I studied for about a month and decided that I was ready. Plus, I’ve heard about this online job site where you can register to be a freelancer – it was quite new at that time but I gave it a go. If you’ve heard of oDesk (now Upwork), I was one of the first freelancers to join and I had the shirt to prove it. I don’t have the shirt now, but they sent it to me when they ran this contest for the freelancer with the longest work record.</p>
<p>I applied to one job and one of the requirements was WordPress. I didn’t know WordPress aside from using it as a blog, and I know HTML/CSS (in theory). Lucky me, the client who eventually turned into my longest online friend, took a chance on me. I did not exactly tell him that I did not know WordPress, instead I told him what he wanted to hear – That <strong>I CAN DO IT</strong>. And I did. I worked on designing and developing his website while studying WordPress.</p>
<blockquote><p>And that was when my love affair with WordPress started. I continued to learn and gain experience throughout the years.</p></blockquote>
<p>There are <strong>NO SHORTCUTS</strong>. Believe me, I tried looking for one and I failed. In order to succeed, you have to work hard and not take the easy way out. Learn, read, listen – do this every single day for as long as you can.</p>
<p>Although, my first client never really knew until now that I never had any idea what I was doing when I started working for him, I did get the job done (Dr. T, if you’re reading this – Thank you! I won’t say sorry, because that will denigrate all the things I’ve done and all the things I’ve learned over the years I was working with you). I persevered, I didn’t quit when the going got rough. Plus, WordPress has an amazing community and they are more than willing to help you out if you ever get stuck and I used them as a lifeline more times than I can remember.</p>
<p>Let me say this again, it was not easy. I went through a lot. Moving forward, all of my clients were from abroad, most of them naturally assumed that I am male because of my name. And I think that contributed to how they were responding to my emails or chat.</p>
<blockquote><p>They treated me as an equal and responded in a way they wouldn’t had they known I am female.</p></blockquote>
<p>And once they knew, it was really hard for them to back out since they know that I am capable of getting the job done.</p>
<p>I was brought up to always question the norm, to not back down simply because I am part of the so-called “weaker gender”. I speak my mind when I have to and when and where I choose to. Working in a male-dominated industry is pretty hard, gender bias is palpable in this industry. Plus, there are not a lot of women developers and that is really sad because without women – computing as we know it would not exist.</p>
<p>You see, women have a harder time getting into the world of information technology because it has become male-dominated. I have a first-hand experience in this, imagine me – a woman, an Asian and a Filipino at that working in a space where men are the be-all end-all. I will say it again, it was not easy.</p>
<p>Have you heard about the competence/likeability dilemma? The Heidi/Howard Roizen Case Study concluded that when women exhibit characteristics associated with leaders &#8211; like assertion, authority, and dominant behaviors &#8211; they tend to be disliked. Hence, women cannot be both competent and likeable.</p>
<p>So according to this study: My competence is inversely proportional to my likeability. Meaning the more competent I am the less my colleagues like me. I may completely and vehemently disagree with this conclusion on a personal level, but there is truth to it. What can we do about this? I guess the first step is to acknowledge that it exists and work from there. But do not just be aware of the problem, acknowledge it and make a conscious effort to see when you are unconsciously adding to the problem and act on it. I don’t have a magic solution, what I can do is help empower girls to realize that they are stronger than they think they are and that they can do more. I did it without any shortcuts, I studied, I persevered, I worked my ass off to get where I am right now and I am not done yet. I still have to study, to preserve and to work every single day.</p>
<p>My journey doesn’t end here, I still have a ways to go. I will continue to love what I do and I assure you, once you love what you do – you’ll work your ass off to make sure you continue to have and experience the joy of being able to do that thing that you love. Do not let your gender, your race or any of your biases define you. It is not a walk in the park, sure, but you have to always, always do your best to not regret doing something because you think you can’t. The only limit is YOU and nothing or no one else.</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: There Are No Shortcuts" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=There%20Are%20No%20Shortcuts&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fthere-are-no-shortcuts%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: There Are No Shortcuts" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fthere-are-no-shortcuts%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%2Fthere-are-no-shortcuts%2F&title=There+Are+No+Shortcuts" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: There Are No Shortcuts"></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/there-are-no-shortcuts/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/100318-min-150x150.jpg&description=There Are No Shortcuts" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: There Are No Shortcuts"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/there-are-no-shortcuts/" title="There Are No Shortcuts"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/there-are-no-shortcuts/">There Are No Shortcuts</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, 03 Oct 2018 00:00:23 +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:9:"JC Palmes";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:107:"WPTavern: 5th Annual Hacktoberfest Kicks Off Today, Updated Rules Require 5 Pull Requests to Earn a T-shirt";s:7:"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=84309";s:7:"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:117:"https://wptavern.com/5th-annual-hacktoberfest-kicks-off-today-updated-rules-require-5-pull-requests-to-earn-a-t-shirt";s: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:1555:"<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-10-01-at-5.58.26-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>DigitalOcean, along with GitHub and new partner Twilio, are sponsoring the <a href="https://blog.digitalocean.com/hacktoberfest-is-back-for-year-5/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">5th annual Hacktoberfest</a>. The event was created to encourage participants to make meaningful contributions to open source projects. Last year 31,901 completed the challenge, opening 239,164 pull requests in 64,166 repositories.</p>
<p>In previous years, participants were required to submit four pull requests to GitHub-hosted public repositories during the month of October in order to earn a limited edition Hacktoberfest t-shirt. The event&#8217;s organizers have increased the number of required PRs to five this year and only the first 50,000 will earn a t-shirt.</p>
<p>No open source project is too small to benefit from Hacktoberfest. Maintainers who want to attract new contributors can apply the &#8220;Hacktoberfest&#8221; label to issues that are appropriate for newcomers to work on. A few projects are highlighted on the event&#8217;s <a href="https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">homepage</a> and there are already more than <a href="https://github.com/search?q=label:hacktoberfest+state:open+type:issue" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">17,000 issues designated for Hacktoberfest</a> that are ready for contributors to tackle over the next 31 days.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 02 Oct 2018 02:07:46 +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: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:73:"WPTavern: First Wave of WordCamp Europe 2019 Tickets Sells Out in 3 Hours";s:7:"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=84342";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"https://wptavern.com/first-wave-of-wordcamp-europe-2019-tickets-sells-out-in-3-hours";s: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:1906:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-10-01-at-11.47.58-AM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The first batch of tickets for <a href="https://2019.europe.wordcamp.org/tickets/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WordCamp Europe 2019</a> were released early this morning and all 250 standard tickets sold out within three hours and nine minutes. Berlin won out as the next city to host the camp, in part due to the region&#8217;s strong local WordPress community. The city is international, diverse, and easily accessible for those traveling for the conference.</p>
<p>WCEU 2019 will be held at the <a href="https://www.estrel.com/en/home.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Estrel Hotel and Congress Center</a> from June 20-22. It is a large venue with a max capacity of 12,000 people, capable of hosting both conference days, the contributor day, and the after party. Local lead organizer Bernhard Kau said his team is currently planning for 2,500 – 3,000 attendees. A <a href="https://2019.europe.wordcamp.org/2018/09/06/book-your-stay-at-wceu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">discount is available</a> for those who want to stay at the Estrel Hotel.</p>
<p>The past six editions of WCEU have been so successful that it is now firmly established as a can&#8217;t-miss event in the WordPress world. Although the first set of standard tickets have already sold out in record time, a few dozen Micro-sponsor tickets are still available for €150.00. More standard tickets will be available on Wednesday, October 3rd. Subscribe for updates on the <a href="https://2019.europe.wordcamp.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WCEU 2019 website</a> and follow the <a href="https://twitter.com/WCEurope" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">official Twitter account</a> to be notified when the next batch goes on sale.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 01 Oct 2018 17:33:41 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:48:"Dev Blog: The Month in WordPress: September 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=6203";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"https://wordpress.org/news/2018/10/the-month-in-wordpress-september-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:4604:"<p>The new WordPress editor continues to be a major focus for all WordPress contribution teams. Read on to find out some more about their work, as well as everything else that has been happening around the community this past month.</p>

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

<h2>Further Enhancements to the New WordPress Editor</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/2018/09/21/whats-new-in-gutenberg/">The latest update for the editor</a> includes great new features, such as reusable content blocks, a dark editor style, export and import of templates, and much more. In addition, the Gutenberg team has published <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/09/26/an-update-on-gutenberg-tasks/">a comprehensive guide</a> to the features currently included in the editor.<br /></p>

<p>Users can test Gutenberg right now by installing <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/">the plugin</a>, which currently has over 450,000 active installs according to the new <a href="https://gutenstats.blog/">Gutenberg in Numbers</a> site. 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>Work Begins on WordPress 5.0</h2>

<p>After initially announcing a minor v4.9.9 release, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/09/28/dev-chat-summary-september-26th-4-9-9-week-7/">the Core team has shifted their focus to the next major release</a> — v5.0. One of the primary factors for this change is that Gutenberg is nearly ready to be considered for merging into Core, with the goal to complete the merge in v5.0.<br /></p>

<p>To maintain flexibility in the development process the final timelines are not yet determined, allowing work already done for v4.9.9 to be moved to v5.0 if needed. Ensuring that WordPress is compatible with the upcoming PHP 7.3 release is a high priority for the Core team. Once a final decision is made, the details will be announced on <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">the Core team blog</a>.<br /></p>

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

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

<h2>Further Reading:</h2>

<ul><li>The Community Team has some great updates on <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2018/09/25/wordcamp-incubator-2018-update-thread-september-edition/">the progress of the current WordCamp Incubator Program</a>.</li><li>A team inside the Drupal community <a href="https://drupalgutenberg.org/">is working on integrating Gutenberg into their CMS</a>.</li><li>There is a current discussion among community organizers about <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2018/09/17/proposal-to-increase-the-maximum-ticket-price-for-wordcamps/">plans to increase the maximum ticket price for WordCamps</a>.</li><li>The Mobile Team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2018/09/25/mobile-team-update-september-25th/">is looking for people</a> to grow the beta program for testing the iOS and Android mobile apps.</li><li>The Diversity Outreach Speaker Training group <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2018/09/13/input-requested-building-a-diverse-speaker-roster-document/">is looking for feedback</a> on their document to assist WordPress Meetups and WordCamps in building diverse speaker rosters.</li><li>The Theme Team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2018/09/26/new-requirement-regarding-affiliate-links/">has updated their rules</a> regarding sponsored and affiliate links inside themes added to the Theme Directory.</li><li>Meetup organizers <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2018/09/25/meetup-organiser-badge-assignments/">are now able to receive a WordPress.org profile badge</a> for their community work.</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><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, 01 Oct 2018 12:01:41 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:71:"WPTavern: WordCamp Tokyo 2018: Highlights, Recaps, Aftermovie, and More";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=84316";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-tokyo-2018-highlights-recaps-aftermovie-and-more";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3174:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/WordCampTokyo2018.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://2018.tokyo.wordcamp.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WordCamp Tokyo 2018</a> was held two weeks ago on September 14-15 and recordings of the sessions should be published to WordPress.tv soon. The theme of the WordCamp was &#8220;Challenge!&#8221;, a celebration of the challenges the WordPress project has overcome over the past 15 years, as well as a rallying call for embracing the challenges introduced by the new Gutenberg editor.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="ja" dir="ltr">WordCamp Tokyo 2018: Challenge! — ブログを投稿しました！ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wctokyo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wctokyo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WordPress?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WordPress</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WordCamp?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WordCamp</a> <a href="https://t.co/1cQ3rU9c6f">https://t.co/1cQ3rU9c6f</a> <a href="https://t.co/4XDc6HW9Pn">pic.twitter.com/4XDc6HW9Pn</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Paulo E. Aquino (@pauloeaquino) <a href="https://twitter.com/pauloeaquino/status/1041950336326545408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 18, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>WordCamp Tokyo is one of the largest camps in Asia, hosted by one of the most active international communities. The first edition of the camp was held in 2008 with 60 attendees. It was also the very first WordCamp in Japan. Since that time the WordPress community has exploded in the region, spawning dozens of local meetups and WordCamps around the country.</p>
<p>The official WordCamp Tokyo 2018 website has a growing list of more than <a href="https://2018.tokyo.wordcamp.org/2018/09/27/impressions_blog/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">40 recaps and articles</a> written about the event. Overall, attendees enjoyed the opportunity to connect and contribute back to WordPress. The after party was held at a disco-like club in Shibuya and you can <a href="https://www.tecking.org/archives/5629" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">listen to a selection of the songs</a> that the DJ posted to his WordPress blog.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="ja" dir="ltr">アフターパーティ大盛り上がりだぷー( ^ω^ U)<img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/2728.png" alt="✨" class="wp-smiley" /><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wctokyo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wctokyo</a> <a href="https://t.co/G6thGqCaq7">pic.twitter.com/G6thGqCaq7</a></p>
<p>&mdash; WordCamp Tokyo (@wctokyo) <a href="https://twitter.com/wctokyo/status/1040936683338792960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 15, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>If you are one of the many people across the globe who love the Japanese WordPress community and wished you could have attended the WordCamp, this aftermovie offers a glimpse of a few of the contributors, sponsors, organizers, and attendees who made the event a success. It captures a bit of the energy in the air and may inspire you to put WordCamp Tokyo on your calendar next year.</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:"Sat, 29 Sep 2018 01:21:58 +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:"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:83:"WPTavern: WordPress Theme Developers Begin Marketing Themes as Gutenberg Compatible";s:7:"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=84284";s:7:"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/wordpress-theme-developers-begin-marketing-themes-as-gutenberg-compatible";s: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:4729:"<p>WordPress theme developers are starting to advertise their themes as being compatible with Gutenberg, ahead of the new editor&#8217;s imminent merge into core. Work on the 5.0 release may be ramping up sooner than expected after yesterday&#8217;s announcement that <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-9-9-release-may-shift-focus-to-php-7-3-compatibility-gutenberg-merge-proposal-timeline-tbd" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">4.9.9 may be a quick release for PHP 7.3 compatibility</a> or possibly cancelled altogether.</p>
<p>Themeforest, the largest marketplace for commercial WordPress themes with more than 11,000 products, has a specific <a href="https://themeforest.net/tags/gutenberg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tag for Gutenberg-compatible theme listings</a>. Searching for themes that mention Gutenberg in the description turns up 139 products. But what does &#8220;Gutenberg compatible&#8221; mean?</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-27-at-3.44.38-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Gutenberg compatibility seems to be more of a buzzword among most of the Themeforest listings, indicating that the theme includes styles for all core blocks. However, in some instances theme authors have also tested shortcodes for compatibility with the new editor. A smaller number include access to premium blocks as part of their advertised Gutenberg compatibility.</p>
<p>Searching the WordPress.org Theme Directory for &#8220;<a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/search/Gutenberg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gutenberg</a>&#8221; produces 26 results where compatibility is mentioned in the theme descriptions. Themes are noted to be &#8220;fully compatible&#8221; with Gutenberg or specifically &#8220;designed to work with the new editor.&#8221; There is a wide spectrum of interpretation on those selling points &#8211; from basic styles for core blocks to themes that explore all the possibilities that Gutenberg opens up with features created specifically for manipulation inside the new editor.</p>
<p>Independent theme shops have been leading the charge in creating themes built to showcase what Gutenberg can do through pairing with plugins that offer block collections. Themes like <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/editor-blocks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Editor Blocks</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/atomic-blocks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Atomic Blocks</a>, and <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/coblocks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CoBlocks</a> all have accompanying plugins that add custom blocks. This particular approach of packaging blocks into collections may not last very long, as it tends to make individual blocks more difficult to find.</p>
<p>At the moment, advertising a theme as &#8220;Gutenberg compatible&#8221; is a temporary marketing strategy, as Gutenberg will soon lose its code name and become simply &#8220;the editor.&#8221; That special distinction will evaporate as soon as WordPress 5.0 lands. Gutenberg support will quickly become a matter of basic WordPress compatibility. The days of using it as a marketable feature are limited, and the pressure is on for theme developers to ensure their products are ready.</p>
<p>In the video below, an excerpt from the &#8220;Theming with Gutenberg Course,&#8221; Zac Gordon examines considerations for theme developers who are working towards making their products compatible with the new editor. Gordon emphasizes that Gutenberg should work out of the box with any theme. However, there are a few features, such as the full width cover image, that may require special styles in order to work on the front end. The bulk of the compatibility work is ensuring that the editing experience matches the frontend and that Gutenberg blocks are styled harmoniously with the rest of the theme&#8217;s features.</p>
<p>There are many tutorials available to help theme developers (and agencies preparing client sites) get started with making their themes ready for the Gutenberg era. Check out the resources below:</p>
<p><a href="https://weavertheme.com/make-your-wordpress-theme-fully-compatible-with-gutenberg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Things to consider when updating a WordPress theme for Gutenberg</a></p>
<p><a href="https://richtabor.com/gutenberg-block-unit-test/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Preparing WordPress themes for Gutenberg with the Block Unit Test</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.billerickson.net/getting-your-theme-ready-for-gutenberg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Getting your theme ready for Gutenberg</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:"Thu, 27 Sep 2018 23:12:40 +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:82:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 331 – Status Update on Gutenberg With Gary Pendergast";s:7:"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=84269&preview=true&preview_id=84269";s:7:"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/wpweekly-episode-331-status-update-on-gutenberg-with-gary-pendergast";s: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:1993:"<p>In this episode, <a href="http://jjj.me">John James Jacoby</a> and I are joined by <a href="https://pento.net/">Gary Pendergast</a>, Gutenberg and WordPress core contributor to get an update on Gutenberg&#8217;s progress. We discuss its rollout on WordPress.com, the feedback and sentiment shared thus far, and when we can expect to see it merged into WordPress 5.0. We also talk about what the future may hold for WordPress years after Gutenberg is merged into core.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/09/26/an-update-on-gutenberg-tasks/">An Update on Gutenberg Tasks</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenstats-blog-is-live-tracking-gutenberg-beta-testing-data">Gutenstats Blog Is Live, Tracking Gutenberg Beta Testing Data</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-cloud-a-cross-platform-community-library-for-custom-gutenberg-blocks">Gutenberg Cloud: A Cross-Platform Community Library for Custom Gutenberg Blocks</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-is-slowly-rolling-out-to-wordpress-com-users">Gutenberg is Slowly Rolling Out to WordPress.com Users</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/drupal-gutenberg-project-receives-enthusiastic-reception-at-drupal-europe">Drupal Gutenberg Project Receives Enthusiastic Reception at Drupal Europe</a></p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, October 3rd 10:00 A.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 #331:</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, 27 Sep 2018 21:03:32 +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:"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:84:"WPTavern: Lyft Open Sources ColorBox Algorithm for Building Accessible Color Systems";s:7:"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=84187";s:7:"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/lyft-open-sources-colorbox-algorithm-for-building-accessible-color-systems";s: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:2755:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-26-at-2.54.12-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Lyft has open sourced its color algorithm for creating an accessible color system. The company&#8217;s design team also packaged the algorithm as a web tool called <a href="https://www.colorbox.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ColorBox</a>. It makes it easy for anyone to produce color sets with accessible contrast ratios, as outlined in the <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WCAG 2.0</a> standards.</p>
<p>&#8220;We made accessibility a cornerstone of our new color system,&#8221; Lyft designer Kevyn Arnott said. &#8220;We wanted to remove the need to manually check color contrast using third-party tools, and we needed to make it dead-simple for everyone to create accessible products.&#8221;</p>
<p>Arnott&#8217;s post &#8220;<a href="https://design.lyft.com/re-approaching-color-9e604ba22c88" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Re-approaching color</a>&#8221; describes how his team created the algorithm and why it was necessary. As Lyft&#8217;s design and engineering teams grew, it became apparent that color naming and selection was not consistent across their products. With thousands of people building products that rely on color, scaling a color system becomes vitally important.</p>
<p>Lyft used what they had already done with color naming and selection and created an algorithm that would standardize the progression of lightness-to-darkness across color hues. The result is that every color 0–50 is accessible (4.5:1) on black and every color 60–100 is accessible (4.5:1) on white.</p>
<p>ColorBox is a mesmerizing and powerful tool to play with. It has inputs for the number of steps, hue, saturation, and luminosity. Each input also comes with different preset curve options, offering greater control over how colors progress in hue and saturation.</p>
<p>&#8220;This algorithm allows us to remove all the dependencies we previously had with color selection, so if we have a new designer working on this or we change tools or monitors, we’ll still have the same outcome,&#8221; Arnott said. &#8220;This algorithm also enables us to quickly modify or scale color as we need to over time.&#8221;</p>
<p>Many companies and open source projects seem to be short on accessibility experts, so a tool targeted at making accessible color systems more approachable is a welcome contribution. The <a href="https://github.com/lyft/coloralgorithm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">JavaScript color algorithm</a> is open source on GitHub (Apache 2.0 license) and can be modified for any project&#8217;s specific needs.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 27 Sep 2018 14:46:31 +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:"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:60:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 4.0 RC 1 Will Be Available in A Few Days";s:7:"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=84264";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-4-0-rc-1-will-be-available-in-a-few-days";s: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:2145:"<p>Matias Ventura, Gutenberg&#8217;s technical lead, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/09/26/an-update-on-gutenberg-tasks/">published an update</a> on the progress of Gutenberg 4.0 and what users can expect. This version will mark the project&#8217;s 40th release.</p>

<p>Ventura outlined a number of tasks that have been completed up to this point. These include, Full Screen, Unified Toolbar, and Spotlight modes to adapt to a user’s creative preferences, adaptive design, and autosave support.<br /></p>

<p>The list provides a great recap of the progress that&#8217;s been made since early 2017. Gutenberg 4.0 will initially be a release candidate that will be made available in the next few days. </p>

<p>Due to the &#8220;Try Gutenberg&#8221; callout <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-9-8-released">in WordPress 4.9.8</a> and the editor <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-is-slowly-rolling-out-to-wordpress-com-users">slowly making its way</a> to sites on WordPress.com, the team has received a lot of feedback leading to improved iterations. <br /></p>

<p>&#8220;The main feature set <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/4894">targeted for the first version</a> of the editor has been considered complete for a few releases now,&#8221; Ventura said. &#8220;Since then, however, the large amount of testing being carried out and the great feedback coming from multiple venues has resulted in several further iterations and additions to continue to improve the overall experience to wider satisfaction.</p>

<p>&#8220;This includes things like editor modes and tweaks to the inserter, transformation, and toolbar mechanisms. That has pushed us back a little in being able to fully focus on bug fixing.&#8221;</p>

<p>With the initial feature set complete and the WordPress 5.0 release cycle <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-9-9-release-may-shift-focus-to-php-7-3-compatibility-gutenberg-merge-proposal-timeline-tbd">about to begin</a>, a merge proposal appears imminent even though specific timelines <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-0/">have yet to be determined</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, 26 Sep 2018 23:26:16 +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: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:113:"WPTavern: WordPress 4.9.9 Release May Shift Focus to PHP 7.3 Compatibility, Gutenberg Merge Proposal Timeline TBD";s:7:"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=84255";s:7:"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:123:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-9-9-release-may-shift-focus-to-php-7-3-compatibility-gutenberg-merge-proposal-timeline-tbd";s: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:3553:"<p>The plans for WordPress 4.9.9 are currently in limbo after today&#8217;s core developers&#8217; chat. Here&#8217;s what we know right now: Discussions are underway regarding making it a quick PHP 7.3 compatibility release or cancelling it in favor of moving ahead with the 5.0 release cycle.</p>
<p>&#8220;Progress and communication on 4.9.9 has been very vague as of late, and I apologize for that,&#8221; WordPress 4.9.9 release co-lead Alain Schlesser said. &#8220;There were things that needed to be clarified first, but we can now finally share the big news with you: It&#8217;s just about time to begin work on the 5.0 release cycle.</p>
<p>&#8220;Because of this, @antpb and I will step back as release leads and we&#8217;ll wind down the 4.9.9 release. Over the next couple of weeks we will start coordinating the transition to ease into this major release cycle. This includes going through the hard work that teams are already in the middle of and planning how best to proceed. As we&#8217;ll figure out the next steps and the best path forward, we&#8217;ll share further details in future updates.&#8221;</p>
<p>After Schlesser&#8217;s announcement, there was some discussion about whether or not 4.9.9 is still needed, but the matter seemed to be already settled. Josepha Haden, who leads the open source teams at Automattic as a full-time sponsored volunteer on the WordPress project, is assisting in transitioning important items from the 4.9.9 release.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think we all know that a lot of work has gone into 4.9.9 planning already,&#8221; Haden said. &#8220;So the next couple of weeks will be all about reaching out to team reps and discussing what you&#8217;ve been working on and what we can do to keep things moving forward for everyone. But I will probably be helping with the 4.9.9 transition things, and I will say that the final timelines will almost certainly will be contingent on what I hear from team reps who were collaborating on 4.9.9.&#8221;</p>
<p>Haden confirmed that Schlesser was sharing the overall plan for the release but that feedback from the discussions indicated there may be items with earlier deadlines to consider. After gathering information from the team representatives, they will work to prioritize items that may need to land before 5.0. There may be time for a tightly-focused 4.9.9 release aimed solely at PHP 7.3 compatibility.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think it will be possible to wrangle a small 4.9.9 release with PHP 7.3 related bug fixes, while 5.0 is ramping up,&#8221; Gary Pendergast commented during the meeting.</p>
<p>&#8220;Given a good part of 4.9.9&#8217;s focus was on supporting things for Gutenberg, not sure we &#8216;need a 4.9.9 release if we would just include the work done to support Gutenberg with the Gutenberg merge proposal coming for 5.0,&#8221; Jeff Paul said. Gutenberg technical lead Matias Ventura confirmed that the plugin is ready for the team to begin collaborating on a merge proposal.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have kept development in the plugin for as long as possible for speed / convenience, etc, but it’s been ready for starting 5.0 process for a bit,&#8221; Ventura said. &#8220;From the Gutenberg side, things should be ready to start planning the merge.&#8221;</p>
<p>At the moment, a quick 4.9.9 release is under consideration for PHP 7.3-related bug fixes. It may happen while the gears are in motion for 5.0 or it may yet be cancelled in favor of going full speed ahead with the 5.0 release cycle. The decision has not yet been officially announced.</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, 26 Sep 2018 22:29:54 +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:18;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: The Hero’s Journey";s:7:"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=2629";s:7:"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://heropress.com/the-heros-journey/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-heros-journey";s: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:3427:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/100516-2-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: We cannot know the end of any journey until we find ourselves there." /><p>A couple years ago I noticed that someone had done a talk at WordCamp Brighton called &#8220;<a href="http://wordpress.tv/2016/08/09/tamsin-taylor-a-heros-journey/">The Hero&#8217;s Journey</a>&#8220;. As you can imagine it immediately caught my eye and I went hunting to find this cool person.  As it turns out it was Tamsin Taylor from Brighton and she had a great story. As I was re-reading it today I was struck by her point that great things are built from the foundation of many smaller things. Experience comes from years of simply doing. Maturity comes from years of growing. Heroism comes from many small acts of goodness.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s a journey involved in every destination. We face hardship, struggle, pain, and growth, and at the end we&#8217;re a different person in a different place. Often we don&#8217;t realize it until someone says &#8220;Wow, you&#8217;re amazing, how did you get so good at that?&#8221; and you realize you&#8217;ve just been doing it so long that it just feels like who you are.</p>
<p>Find the good things in life and do them over and over until they become who you are.  Also, read Tamsin&#8217;s excellent essay:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><p><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/bumpy-journey-becoming/">The Bumpy Journey of Becoming</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: The Hero&#8217;s Journey" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=The%20Hero%27s%20Journey&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fthe-heros-journey%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 Hero&#8217;s Journey" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fthe-heros-journey%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%2Fthe-heros-journey%2F&title=The+Hero%26%238217%3Bs+Journey" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: The Hero&#8217;s Journey"></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/the-heros-journey/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/100516-2-150x150.jpg&description=The Hero's Journey" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: The Hero&#8217;s Journey"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/the-heros-journey/" title="The Hero&#8217;s Journey"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/the-heros-journey/">The Hero&#8217;s Journey</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, 26 Sep 2018 14:57:46 +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: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:117:"WPTavern: Creative Commons Beta Search Tool Adds Access to 13 Content Providers, Improves Metadata with AI Image Tags";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=84213";s:7:"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:127:"https://wptavern.com/creative-commons-beta-search-tool-adds-access-to-13-content-providers-improves-metadata-with-ai-image-tags";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3609:"<p>In February 2017, Creative Commons <a href="https://wptavern.com/creative-commons-new-search-tool-is-now-in-beta-pulls-cc-images-from-multiple-sources" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">launched the beta version</a> of its new <a href="https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">multi-source search tool</a>, built on a lean budget by a single contractor over seven months. Since that time a new tech team has taken over the project to further the mission of finding and indexing all 1.4 billion+ CC-licensed works on the web.</p>
<p>The first iteration added access to images from Rijksmuseum, Flickr, 500px, the New York Public Library, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Today&#8217;s <a href="https://creativecommons.org/2018/09/24/big-changes-for-cc-search-beta-updates-released-today/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">update</a> to the search tool adds access to more than 10 million images and a total of 13 content providers, including Behance, Geograph UK, IHA Holiday Ads, several other museums, and a handful of smaller sources.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/screencapture-ccsearch-creativecommons.png?ssl=1"><img /></a>The search page is also sporting a new design, featuring Creative Commons&#8217; top categories and top images.</p>
<p>Previously, search results were displayed as a masonry style grid, supporting images of varying sizes and orientations. The updated results are displayed as a slice of a landscape-oriented image on mobile and desktop, which is not optimal for seeing what the image is without clicking on it. This doesn&#8217;t seem like an improvement, but the search tool&#8217;s development team is still working through bugs and the site is in active development.</p>
<p>This update to the search tool also adds AI image tags generated by <a href="https://clarifai.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Clarifai</a>&#8216;s image classification system. More than 10.3 million images have been tagged using the image recognition software, in addition to the user-defined and platform-defined tags gathered from web crawl data. This should make the search results more accurate for users in the future.</p>
<p>Lists and collections were a feature of the first beta but private lists are no longer available in the beta update. (Users can request they be manually retrieved by emailing Creative Commons.) The feature has been updated to allow users to create public lists of images without having an account. A new shares.cc link shortening system is now available for sharing images and lists.</p>
<p>The Creative Commons library is an excellent resource for finding images for blogging or for use in WordPress theme and plugin development. Images that are CC0-licensed are GPL-compatible for use within WordPress products. Creative Commons has a recommended implementation for <a href="https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/CC0_FAQ#May_I_apply_CC0_to_computer_software.3F_If_so.2C_is_there_a_recommended_implementation.3F" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">using CC0 to release software</a>.</p>
<p>A WordPress plugin for bringing images in from the Creative Commons library does not yet exist but there are many that pull CC-licensed images from resources like Flickr or Pixabay. For now, users will need to search directly on the <a href="https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Creative Commons beta search</a> website. The new search tool allows users to filter by collection, license, and license type.</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, 25 Sep 2018 23:45:42 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:85:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 3.9 Introduces Reusable, Exportable Templates for Multiple 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=84179";s:7:"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/gutenberg-3-9-introduces-reusable-exportable-templates-for-multiple-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:3107:"<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/09/21/whats-new-in-gutenberg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gutenberg 3.9</a> was released last week with a new feature that allows users to group multiple blocks into reusable templates. The templates can also be exported and imported as a JSON file.</p>
<p>The idea of reusable templates is an expansion of the concept of <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/1516" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">dynamic reusable blocks</a> that Gutenberg technical lead Matias Ventura proposed in June 2017. Reusability is even more powerful when applied to multiple blocks. The import/export capabilities make it possible for templates to be easily shared across WordPress sites.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-24-at-1.04.36-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>If you want to test it, you can select multiple blocks by selecting the content inside a block and dragging outside the boundaries of the block to extend the selection to multiple blocks. The <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/62" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">multi-select feature</a> was originally added for the purpose of deleting or moving multiple blocks but it has now become indispensable for creating reusable templates.</p>
<p>This feature lays the ground work for a full-fledged layout builder in the next phase of Gutenberg development. Reusable templates should make it a breeze to build WordPress sites with pre-defined layouts that users and developers can share. They are much more intuitive to implement than page templates.</p>
<p>&#8220;Holy wow, imagine this: wp-blueprints.com, where people can group blocks together and share their JSON strings with nice little copy buttons,&#8221; Gutenberg designer Joen Asmussen commented on the PR. &#8220;Categories for top rated, most downloaded, search, etc? This is going to happen because of this magic.&#8221;</p>
<p>Matias Ventura&#8217;s demo video shows the reusable templates in action. It also highlights a new tool for <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/7995" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">visually comparing possible ways to convert an invalid block</a>. The editor now includes a diff UI for blocks, which Ventura said could possibly scale in the future to provide an improved UX for revisions as a whole.</p>
<p></p>
<p>A few other notable additions in the 3.9 release include improvements to the drag and drop handle, collapsible groups for the block toolbar, and the ability to convert a cover image block to an image and back. <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/9683" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dark editor style support</a> is now available for theme developers, making Gutenberg more friendly for use with dark WordPress themes. Check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/09/21/whats-new-in-gutenberg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">3.9 changelog</a> to see a full list of enhancements and bug fixes.</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, 24 Sep 2018 23:32:53 +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:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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 commonWP Plugin Enables WordPress Sites to Use the Free jsDelivr CDN";s:7:"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=84046";s:7:"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-commonwp-plugin-enables-wordpress-sites-to-use-the-free-jsdelivr-cdn";s: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:5414:"<p>Milan Dinić, a WordPress developer based in Serbia, has released his <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/commonwp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">commonWP</a> plugin that enables WordPress sites to use the free, public <a href="https://www.jsdelivr.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">jsDelivr</a> CDN. Last year <a href="https://www.jsdelivr.com/blog/jsdelivr-reloaded-2017/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">jsDelivr was revamped</a> to allow any file from GitHub and npm to be served by the CDN. WordPress&#8217; mirror on GitHub made it possible for Dinić to create a plugin that works with the CDN.</p>
<p>commonWP aims to speed up performance by offloading JavaScript and CSS files to jsDelivr, including the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>All files from WordPress core (unless development version of WordPress is in use)</li>
<li>All files from plugins hosted by WordPress.org Plugins Repository (unless author of specific plugin doesn’t use SVN tags for releasing)</li>
<li>All files from themes hosted by WordPress.org Themes Repository</li>
<li>All files from plugins and themes hosted on GitHub that support GitHub Updater</li>
<li>All files marked as available on npm in any type of theme, plugin, or MU plugin</li>
</ul>
<p>Dinić said he designed commonWP with a emphasis on keeping it lightweight, easy-to-use, and secure. He claims the approach he used in the plugin is safer than any other plugin that employs a CDN for WordPress files:</p>
<blockquote><p>First, commonWP will only rewrite file to point to one on jsDelivr if that remote file is identical to local one. Second, during comparison, it generates <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Subresource_Integrity" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">subresource identity hash</a> of remote jsDelivr file and includes that hash in page’s source code so browser won’t load remote file if it doesn’t have exactly the same hash.</p></blockquote>
<p>Dinić recommends the plugin for users who are not already using a CDN, have limited budgets, or live in less developed countries.</p>
<p>&#8220;Using a CDN is generally recommended, and with this one they might get even more speed because some files might be already cached by their visitors,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Imagine if jquery.js, jquery-migrate.min.js (most common files) are always served from one place. You wouldn&#8217;t need to get them from each WordPress site you visit. You would get them once and they would be in your browser&#8217;s cache, and initial page load would be faster.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dinić referenced a Trac <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/44229" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ticket</a> where using a CDN is proposed for serving assets like jQuery, but no action has been taken on the proposal yet. One benefit he cites for WordPress&#8217; global user base is that a CDN like jsDelivr allows visitors to get files from their own content, country, or even the same city. jsDelivr has a large multi-CDN network with infrastructure built on top of other networks, including StackPath, Cloudflare, Fastly, and Quantil. It also has custom servers in locations like China where other public CDNs have little or no presence.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-21-at-2.39.40-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>commonWP doesn&#8217;t have any settings for users to configure. The plugin fills up its cache in the background after it is activated. Developers can fine tune it for their needs and Dinić has published some <a href="https://github.com/dimadin/commonWP#marking-files-that-exist-in-npm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">code examples</a> to GitHub.</p>
<p>In his release <a href="https://milandinic.com/2018/09/18/introducing-commonwp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">post</a>, Dinić referenced a Serbian site getting a 1-second loading improvement and has done other tests but said he&#8217;s still looking for a good way to present the data. The plugin&#8217;s FAQ outlines which factors influence whether or not commonWP can bring performance improvements:</p>
<ul>
<li>How many of your files are available on jsDelivr and can be rewritten &#8211; the more files on jsDelivr, the more speed; the more files used by the page are rewritten to jsDelivr, the more speed.</li>
<li>The further your site&#8217;s visitors are from the server your site is hosted on, the more speed you can get.</li>
<li>The slower your server is, the more speed it can get.</li>
<li>If your visitors already visited WordPress site(s) with commonWP activated, there is more chance that some of the files you use on your site are already cached by them so they can get more speed.</li>
</ul>
<p>Not every site will see drastic improvements for site owners testing performance, but visitors from other parts of the world may be able to load certain files faster. Dinić recommends users test their sites using webpagetest.org and select a higher number of tests to get an average. He also recommends testing with different locations and different connection speeds. Test with the plugin activated and deactivated and when the site has a full cache. In general, the further the location is from the server and the larger number of files sent to jsDelivr, the bigger the performance improvement will be.</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, 21 Sep 2018 20:19:34 +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:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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: Gutenstats Blog Is Live, Tracking Gutenberg Beta Testing Data";s:7:"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=84153";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"https://wptavern.com/gutenstats-blog-is-live-tracking-gutenberg-beta-testing-data";s: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:1455:"<p>Matt Mullenweg <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1042901193679241216" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted</a> out a link to <a href="https://gutenstats.blog/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gutenstats.blog</a> this evening, a new site dedicated to tracking Gutenberg beta testing data. The site shows there are currently more than 420,000 active installations of Gutenberg, a slightly more precise number than reported on the WordPress.org plugin page (400K+).</p>
<p>Gutenstats also tracked 213,000 posts written with the new editor and 8,142 posts written yesterday. These numbers were collected from posts made on WordPress.com and Jetpack sites since late August 2018 and a note on the site says the actual number is higher.</p>
<p>In June, Mullenweg unveiled a <a href="https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-unveils-gutenberg-roadmap-at-wceu-wordpress-agencies-and-product-developers-sprint-to-prepare" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">roadmap for Gutenberg to land in WordPress 5.0</a>. At that time the plugin was active on just 14,000 sites. He proposed 100K+ sites having made 250K+ posts using Gutenberg as a threshold for adequate pre-5.0 testing.</p>
<p>Gutenstats tracking shows testing has far exceeded the original goal for active installations and should reach the posts written goal in just a few days. Mullenweg said they plan to add some block stats to the tracking page in the future.</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, 21 Sep 2018 04:21:59 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:70:"WPTavern: ACF 5.0 Released with Updated UI and Gutenberg Compatibility";s:7:"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=84105";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"https://wptavern.com/acf-5-0-released-with-updated-ui-and-gutenberg-compatibility";s: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:2771:"<p><a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-5-0-release/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ACF version 5.0</a> landed on WordPress.org this week with Gutenberg compatibility now available for more than one million sites where the plugin is active. The release is a welcome update for developers who were concerned about what would happen in real world usage of Gutenberg on sites with ACF-powered customizations. ACF&#8217;s Gutenberg compatibility is arriving well ahead of WordPress 5.0&#8217;s TBD schedule for merging the new editor, giving developers time to get their clients&#8217; sites ready.</p>
<p>&#8220;You can expect to see lots of Gutenberg related items in our changelogs over the coming months as we edge nearer to WordPress version 5.0,&#8221; the ACF announcement stated. &#8220;You’ll also want to take note that ACF 5 is the only version that will provide Gutenberg support. Previous versions will not be compatible.&#8221;</p>
<p>The version numbers across ACF Pro and the free version on WordPress.org are somewhat confusing. This particular release is significant in that it brings several years of development from the Pro version into the plugin hosted on WordPress.org. Now both products are technically on v5.7.6.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hi guys. This version 5 release is for our “free plugin” on <a href="https://t.co/V7oUQSI5Ei">https://t.co/V7oUQSI5Ei</a> and does not affect ACF PRO. Now both ACF and ACF PRO are v5.7.6!</p>
<p>&mdash; Advanced Custom Fields (@wp_acf) <a href="https://twitter.com/wp_acf/status/1041590825505849344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 17, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>ACF 5.0 introduces a redesigned UI, performance improvements, and the plugin&#8217;s new <a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/local-json/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Local JSON</a> feature, which saves field group and field settings as .json files within the user&#8217;s theme. This reduces database calls and allows for version control of field settings.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/acf-5-0-fresh-ui.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>image credit: <a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-5-0-release/">ACF</a>
<p>Version 5.0 adds six new fields, including a link, group, accordion, oEmbed, date time picker, and clone fields (an ACF pro feature). It also introduce a new Tools page where users can export and import field groups as JSON.</p>
<p>For more information on items related to upgrading ACF and add-on compatibility, check out the official <a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-5-0-release/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">5.0 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:"Thu, 20 Sep 2018 17:54:02 +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: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:61:"WPTavern: WPForms Acquires Pirate Forms, Plugin to be Retired";s:7:"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=84108";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://wptavern.com/wpforms-acquires-pirate-forms-plugin-to-be-retired";s: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:3737:"<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/pirates.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>photo credit: Reiterlied <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/126661502@N05/37773453702">Plundering San Francisco Bay</a> &#8211; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">(license)</a>
<p><a href="https://wpforms.com/wpforms-has-acquired-pirate-forms/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WPForms has acquired Pirate Forms</a>, a popular WordPress contact form and SMTP plugin originally created by ThemeIsle in 2015. The announcement coincides with International Talk Like a Pirate Day but the pirate branding of the plugin is set to be retired and its users will be given the option to migrate to WPForms.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/pirate-forms/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pirate Forms</a> was purchased in what WPForms co-founder and CEO Syed Balkhi describes as &#8220;an all-cash deal.&#8221; Although the plugin currently has more than 300,000 users on WordPress.org, its features and capabilities are inferior to the more modern WPForms and its creators lacked the resources to bring it up to speed.</p>
<p>Pirate Forms had gained popularity in its earlier days by providing a simple forms plugin (without all the builder functions) for sites that required just one contact form.</p>
<p>&#8220;Where most of the other plugins aim at &#8216;mega functionality&#8217; with tons of customizations, add-ons and whatnots, Pirate Forms has made a bet on simplicity,&#8221; ThemeIsle representative Karol K said in the plugin&#8217;s <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/pirate-forms-is-now-wpforms/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">farewell post</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;In other words, it just works(ed) right after the installation, with no particular setup required (other than adding your form to a contact page). This was a nice refreshment compared to the usual &#8216;get through tons of onboarding wizard screens before you can use the plugin&#8217; -approach.&#8221;</p>
<p>Pirate Forms could no longer deliver what users expect from a forms plugin in 2018 and ThemeIsle opted to find a buyer in order to free up resources to focus on releasing the <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/hestia-2-0/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hestia 2.0</a> theme.</p>
<p>&#8220;This acquisition further strengthens WPForms&#8217; position in the WordPress ecosystem,&#8221; Balkhi said. The expectation is that a large number of users will migrate their forms to WPForms as the result of Pirate Forms discontinuing active development.</p>
<p><a href="https://wpforms.com/docs/how-to-move-from-pirate-forms-to-wpforms/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A migration path to WPForms</a> is built into the latest version of Pirate Forms and Balkhi describes the process as a seamless transition. Users are also free to select another forms plugin but they will not have the benefit of the migration tool, which also imports the notification email and confirmation settings from users&#8217; existing forms. Those who have purchased Pirate Forms Pro will receive a free one-year license to WPForms Pro.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpforms-lite/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WPForms</a> has more than 1 million active installs and currently maintains a 4.9 out of 5 star average rating on WordPress.org. The drag-and-drop WordPress form builder is much more advanced than Pirate Forms and the free version allows users to create contact forms, subscription forms, payment forms, offline forms, multi-page forms, and many other types of customized feedback mechanisms. It is also compatible with all of ThemeIsle&#8217;s themes.</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, 20 Sep 2018 02:50:38 +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:90:"WPTavern: Big Bite Creative to Launch New Amnesty International Website based on 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=84074";s:7:"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/big-bite-creative-launches-new-amnesty-international-website-based-on-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:4776:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-19-at-10.39.11-AM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The team at <a href="http://bigbitecreative.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Big Bite Creative</a> has developed a new website for Amnesty International using Gutenberg, soon to be launched at <a href="http://amnesty.eu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">amnesty.eu</a>. The agency worked in partnership with <a href="https://vip.wordpress.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WordPress.com VIP</a> to provide the London-based human rights organization with the tools to create multiple sites that could be uniquely customized for their editorial needs.</p>
<p>After successfully using Gutenberg to launch a site for an international bank, Big Bite CTO Jason Agnew said his team gained confidence to use the new editor for the Amnesty site. The client approached Bite Bite around the time of WordCamp Europe when Matt Mullenweg unveiled a roadmap for getting a stable Gutenberg release before the end of the year.</p>
<p>&#8220;On top of this the Amnesty project suited Gutenberg,&#8221; Agnew said. &#8220;Their brief mentioned 14 components which could be used to build out multiple sites. I honestly think it would have been difficult to build something that required this level of flexibility with a field manager like Fieldmanager, CMB2 or ACF. Perhaps it would have been possible with page builders like Visual Composer, but these platforms are still figuring out how they will work with the WordPress 5.0.&#8221;</p>
<p>Through the use of a combination of prompts, custom blocks, nested blocks, and predefined styles, Big Bite made it possible for even non-technical editorial staff to create and arrange content to build out websites for various outreach locations.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been fascinating to give the client full control over the site structure compared to the more traditional development of templates,&#8221; Agnew said. &#8220;We are still in the early stages of launching sites with the new platform, but the client has built up the EU site on their own without much support, which should be going live early October. Now they are in the process building out websites for Mali and Iran, with the goal to launch around 20 sites initially. We&#8217;ve had the editorial team describe the experience as fun &#8211; that&#8217;s from a team who have used WordPress with ACF in the past, which does offer an intuitive UI but still requires a level of training of what fields relate to what pieces of content on the front-end.&#8221;</p>
<p>As many others have reported, one of the most challenging things Big Bite encountered in extending Gutenberg was the project&#8217;s incomplete documentation.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve had our challenges, and particularly the Gutenberg documentation is not up to standard, which leads to a lot of time being wasted,&#8221; Agnew said. &#8220;But I have to say once our team get over the first block or two it wasn&#8217;t an issue. It&#8217;s important to say that the Gutenberg team Slack have been a great help when we did run into problems. We did discover IE11 support is still a work in progress, for example, copy &amp; paste didn&#8217;t work, meta boxes wouldn&#8217;t render causing saving issues with posts.&#8221;</p>
<p>Agnew said for most issues there isn&#8217;t a lot one can do to resolve them apart from waiting for each update as the plugin improves, but it&#8217;s something agencies need to account for when working with clients. The Big Bite team also found that Gutenberg compatibility is still an issue for many of the plugins that they looked at using for the project.</p>
<p>&#8220;Apart from using Yoast we&#8217;ve mainly custom built the theme due to many plugins still requiring UI changes to work well with Gutenberg,&#8221; Agnew said. &#8220;Probably the most significant feature we wrote was language syndication system.&#8221;</p>
<p>Big Bite plans to open source Amnesty International&#8217;s full theme, which includes all of the custom blocks. Prior to that they are going to remove all the branding to avoid lots of new sites popping looking like the Amnesty brand. The agency is aiming for publishing the code the same day as WordPress 5.0 is released or earlier if the release is delayed beyond January.</p>
<p>For a closer look at the Amnesty International project, check out Big Bite&#8217;s announcement <a href="https://bigbitecreative.com/investing-gutenberg-amnesty-international/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">post</a>. The video below was created in partnership with WordPress.com VIP and offers a tour of some of the custom Gutenberg blocks they created for Amnesty.</p>
<p></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 19 Sep 2018 19:12:43 +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:26;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:46:"HeroPress: The “India is cheap” Stereotype";s:7:"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=2627";s:7:"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:125:"https://heropress.com/the-india-is-cheap-stereotype/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-india-is-cheap-stereotype";s: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:3284:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/MeasureSuccess-HeroPress-2-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull quote: Measure success in terms of the impact your work is making." /><p>In the early days of HeroPress there were quite a few Indian contributors, for a variety of reasons. India has long been a technology powerhouse, but the WordPress community was just beginning to get traction. I got to meet many Indians and even traveled there for <a href="https://heropress.com/going-to-wordcamp-pune/">WordCamp Pune</a>. The stereotype that &#8220;India is cheap&#8221; is a difficult one for Indians to deal with. What does it mean? How should it be responded to?</p>
<p>In October of 2015 Rahul Bansal, the owner of a world class WordPress agency named rtCamp, did a HeroPress essay where he talks about what it means to run an agency in India, charge properly, and turn our work that rivals any from anywhere else in the world.  Check out Rahul&#8217;s thoughts:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><p><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/wordpress-continues-inspire/">WordPress Continues to Inspire</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: The “India is cheap” Stereotype" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=The%20%E2%80%9CIndia%20is%20cheap%E2%80%9D%20Stereotype&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fthe-india-is-cheap-stereotype%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 “India is cheap” Stereotype" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fthe-india-is-cheap-stereotype%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%2Fthe-india-is-cheap-stereotype%2F&title=The+%E2%80%9CIndia+is+cheap%E2%80%9D+Stereotype" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: The “India is cheap” Stereotype"></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/the-india-is-cheap-stereotype/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/MeasureSuccess-HeroPress-2-150x150.jpg&description=The “India is cheap” Stereotype" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: The “India is cheap” Stereotype"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/the-india-is-cheap-stereotype/" title="The “India is cheap” Stereotype"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/the-india-is-cheap-stereotype/">The “India is cheap” Stereotype</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, 19 Sep 2018 14:59:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}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:89:"WPTavern: Gutenberg Cloud: A Cross-Platform Community Library for Custom Gutenberg 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=84045";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:99:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-cloud-a-cross-platform-community-library-for-custom-gutenberg-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:8949:"<p>During their <a href="https://wptavern.com/drupal-gutenberg-project-receives-enthusiastic-reception-at-drupal-europe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">presentation at Drupal Europe</a>, the <a href="https://www.frontkom.no/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Frontkom</a> team behind the Drupal Gutenberg project announced that they are working on a block management system called <a href="https://gutenbergcloud.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gutenberg Cloud</a>, a collective library of blocks online.</p>
<p>The library will offer a content repository for custom Gutenberg blocks, such as forms, a call-to-action section, product grid, or even a web component. Since the blocks are JavaScript-only, they would work across both Drupal and WordPress alike, so developers can build for both platforms simultaneously. The Gutenberg Cloud creators are aiming to facilitate a new level of cross-platform sharing that few envisioned when the Gutenberg project began.</p>
<p>&#8220;Gutenberg to us is much more than just another module,&#8221; Frontkom CIO Per André Rønsen said during their presentation at Drupal Europe. &#8220;We think of it as a platform for brand new features. We are very excited about the sharing/community aspect and the possibilities here. We want to make it easy to share and reuse custom blocks across pages, across projects, across companies, and even across publishing platforms. Drupal has always been great at sharing backend style of code. Now let&#8217;s make it great at sharing frontend code as well. This is why we&#8217;re working on a block managing system.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/gutenberg-cloud.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Gutenberg Cloud would provide a plugin for WordPress and a module for Drupal (and eventually other applications) that would enable users to browse, filter, and discover blocks within the admin and download the ones they select. Early mockups I previewed show an interface similar to the theme and plugin browsers inside the WordPress admin.</p>
<p>A cloud-based block service solves a few problems that Gutenberg early adopters are already experiencing when hunting for blocks. WordPress theme and plugin shops have have been releasing their own block collections bundled into a plugin, but it&#8217;s not easy to discover or browse the individual blocks. Having blocks available on Gutenberg Cloud would prevent developers from having to create a new module or plugin for each individual block. It also prevents users from having to download an entire collection of blocks in a plugin when they really only need one or two of them.</p>
<h3>Gutenberg Cloud Will Launch as a Community Project, Developers Contribute by Publishing Packages to NPM</h3>
<p>Rønsen said they plan to launch Gutenberg Cloud as a community project. Any developer can contribute blocks by creating an NPM package and tagging it with &#8220;gutenberg-cloud.&#8221; The description on the cloud service outlines their intentions: &#8220;Code once, use everywhere: As Gutenberg blocks are CMS-agnostic, we want to provide an ecosystem all systems can connect to.&#8221;</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-18-at-3.39.54-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a>An example Hero section block published to NPM
<p>&#8220;We imagine everything from freelancers to big agencies and even community minded non-profits to contribute,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;When people benefit from a better user experience, they tend to want to pay it forward. We have already talked to people in both communities wanting to contribute with code, so that is a great start for the platform.&#8221;</p>
<p>I asked if his team envisions block creators being able to sell access to their blocks in the future. He said his team is open to finding a payment solution for commercial blocks but only if the community demands it.</p>
<p>&#8220;Personally, I would be skeptical about committing to a community project that had a very commercial edge,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s important that the project stays focused on open source contributions, with a sharing-is-caring attitude. It&#8217;s the only language we know in Drupal. However, there is nothing wrong in providing high quality content and getting paid to do it. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s on our roadmap to facilitate a payment solution for premium blocks – if the community wants it. It&#8217;s not central to the success of the platform, but I imagine it could be a great way to make some money for a skilled designer.&#8221;</p>
<p>Rønsen said his team plans to launch Gutenberg Cloud sometime later this year after completing internal testing and an invitation-only closed beta with a different companies. One of the most challenging aspect of the project is creating a system that can handle updates.</p>
<p>&#8220;By default users will get the latest stable release for the block from the author,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;There will be a way to lock into a specific version and to version control that in Git, however. The plugin update system is a good analogy, but the infrastructure is completely outside of WordPress core. There are also some issues we haven’t solved yet regarding updates; it’s hard to make a system that doesn’t require a high maintenance effort for block developers.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Gutenberg Cloud project is contingent upon Gutenberg development continuing on a path towards being a library that is decoupled from WordPress. Last week Rønsen <a href="https://wptavern.com/drupal-gutenberg-project-receives-enthusiastic-reception-at-drupal-europe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told</a> the Tavern that his team hopes &#8220;that Gutenberg core devs will catch onto the vision of Gutenberg as the ‘editor for the open web’ — not just for WordPress.&#8221;</p>
<p>Gutenberg team member Gary Pendergast indirectly acknowledged this in a recent blog <a href="https://pento.net/2018/09/16/the-mission-democratise-publishing/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">post</a> that affirmed the Drupal Gutenberg project and reiterated WordPress&#8217; mission to democratize publishing.</p>
<p>&#8220;One of the primary philosophies of Gutenberg’s technical architecture is platform agnosticism, and we can see the practical effects of this practice coming to fruition across a variety of projects,&#8221; Pendergast said.</p>
<p>&#8220;From early experiments in running the block editor as a standalone application, to being able to compile it into a native mobile component, and now seeing it running on Drupal, Gutenberg’s technical goals have always included a radical level of platform agnosticism.&#8221;</p>
<p>If the Drupal community ends up adopting Gutenberg for its core editor, the shared library presents an unprecedented opportunity for deeper collaboration across the two publishing platforms. As an agency that has done client work for publishers on both CMSs, Frontkom saw the potential before many others and took it upon themselves to fork Gutenberg for Drupal. This is the beauty of open source software in action.</p>
<p>&#8220;WordPress has many advantages that make it so popular, but hoarding those to ourselves doesn’t help the open web, it just creates more silos,&#8221; Pendergast said. &#8220;The open web is the only platform on which publishing can be democratized, so it makes sense for Gutenberg to work anywhere on the open web, not just inside WordPress. Drupal isn’t a competitor here, we’re all working towards the same goal, the different paths we’ve taken have made the open web stronger as a whole.&#8221;</p>
<p>Rønsen said he could see other applications and e-commerce platforms like Magento benefitting from better page-building tools. His company has a special interest in publishers and plans to release a set of open source tools for building news front pages later in 2018. Rønsen said he is hopeful the Drupal Gutenberg project can evolve alongside WordPress as it enters into the site building and customization phase of the project.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m hopeful that the Gutenberg project will stay decoupled from WP one way or another,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;This will leave room for Drupal to innovate on top of it. It could even be the case that the page building tools and customizer integration in WP will play nicely into the current architecture. In any case, I believe the basics of the editor and block concept will continue to be a good fit for Drupal. There is already some consensus out there on how to use Gutenberg for page building. A great example, is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgF5ImDlCTw" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Big Bite&#8217;s work with Amnesty</a>. If the continued experience is anything like that, I think we have a perfect match.</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, 18 Sep 2018 22:38:31 +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:"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:29:"Matt: CEOs and the Real World";s:7:"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=48345";s:7:"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/2018/09/ceos-and-the-real-world/";s: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:4867:"<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The downside of Zuckerberg’s exalted status within his company is that it is difficult for him to get genuine, unexpurgated feedback. He has tried, at times, to puncture his own bubble. In 2013, as a New Year’s resolution, he pledged to meet someone new, outside Facebook, every day. In 2017, he travelled to more than thirty states on a “listening tour” that he hoped would better acquaint him with the outside world. David Plouffe, President Obama’s former campaign manager, who is now the head of policy and advocacy at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the family’s philanthropic investment company, attended some events on the tour. He told me, “When a politician goes to one of those, it’s an hour, and they’re talking for fifty of those minutes. He would talk for, like, five, and just ask questions.”</p><p>But the exercise came off as stilted and tone-deaf. Zuckerberg travelled with a professional photographer, who documented him feeding a calf in Wisconsin, ordering barbecue, and working on an assembly line at a Ford plant in Michigan. Online, people joked that the photos made him look like an extraterrestrial exploring the human race for the first time. A former Facebook executive who was involved in the tour told a friend, “No one wanted to tell Mark, and no one did tell Mark, that this really looks just dumb.”</p></blockquote>

<p>There seem to be three communication gaps outlined here in Evan Osnos&#8217;s <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/17/can-mark-zuckerberg-fix-facebook-before-it-breaks-democracy">revealing profile of Mark Zuckerberg</a>: one is getting unvarnished feedback from your employees. Speaking as a fellow CEO and founder, it&#8217;s certainly hard to pop that bubble &#8212; see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAxAVusStCg">&#8220;the bear is sticky with honey.&#8221;</a> There are a few techniques like skip-level 1:1 meetings, anonymous feedback forms, interviewing new hires, and 360 reviews you can do to try to counter this, but there&#8217;s no panacea and this one requires constant work as you scale.</p>

<p>The second gap is getting the unvarnished truth from your users &#8212; much easier, as they&#8217;re quite happy to tell you what&#8217;s what. I&#8217;ve recently started cold-calling (yes, on the phone!) some of our Jetpack customers just to understand what they love and don&#8217;t love about the experience and about how we can help them solve their business challenges. There&#8217;s a casual intimacy to phone conversations that just can&#8217;t be replicated in other user feedback forums. Pair this with good instrumentation throughout your product so you see what people do and not just what they say and you&#8217;re golden.</p>

<p>The third and last communication gap is the connection to the world as most people experience it. If your status, wealth, or celebrity reach a point that they are shutting you out from &#8220;real&#8221; experiences, take some risks and get outside of your comfort zone. As it turns out, <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/the-untold-stories-of-paul-mccartney">this new GQ profile of Paul McCartney offered a tip on that: </a></p>

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>McCartney tells me a further such story of a time he took the Hampton Jitney, the slightly upmarket bus service that runs from the Hamptons into Manhattan, because he was deep into Charles Dickens&#8217;s Nicholas Nickleby and he wanted to finish it, and how he then took a local bus uptown, and when a woman blurted from across the bus, &#8220;Hey! Are you Paul McCartney?&#8221; he invited her to sit next to him and chatted all the way uptown. &#8220;It&#8217;s a way of not worrying about your fame,&#8221; he says. &#8220;It&#8217;s a way of not turning into the reclusive rock star. I often say to Nancy: I get in their faces before they get a chance to get in mine.&#8221;</p></blockquote>

<p>Makes me wonder if <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/12/jack-dorsey-bus-bubble/">Jack Dorsey still rides the bus to work every day</a>. I think this is what Zuckerberg was attempting with his 30-state tour, and hopefully it was helpful even if the optics didn&#8217;t appeal to everyone — the daily habit of his 2013 resolution to meet someone new every day feels more powerful than the touristic 30-state one. But for an entity as large as Facebook maybe it&#8217;s moot, as Casey Newton pointed out <a href="https://www.getrevue.co/profile/caseynewton/issues/the-trouble-with-mark-zuckerberg-profiles-133299">in his newsletter last week</a> it can be quite hard to pin the answers to Facebook&#8217;s real problems, and our democracy&#8217;s real challenges <a href="https://ma.tt/2018/09/responsibility-of-technology/">in the face of targeted online propaganda</a>, to just one person.</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, 18 Sep 2018 21:35:20 +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: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:95:"WPTavern: Hybrid Core 5.0 Offers a More Modern, Modular Approach to WordPress Theme Development";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=83987";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:99:"https://wptavern.com/hybrid-core-5-0-offers-a-more-modern-modular-approach-to-wordpress-development";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3877:"<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/coffee-computer.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>image credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/JFPYO9HEZR">Shopify</a>
<p><a href="https://themehybrid.com/weblog/hybrid-core-version-5-0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Version 5.0</a> of Hybrid Core, one of the longest-running WordPress theme frameworks, is now available. Justin Tadlock celebrated 10 years with his Theme Hybrid community last month and <a href="https://wptavern.com/mythic-a-wordpress-starter-theme-by-justin-tadlock-now-in-open-beta" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">released his new Mythic starter theme into beta</a>. Mythic was built on top of Hybrid Core and developed in tandem with version 5.0.</p>
<p>The framework has been rewritten almost entirely from scratch to be a leaner, more modern starting place for theme development. Tadlock describes it as &#8220;a fundamentally different framework, rewritten from the ground up, that supports more modern PHP practices.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I started 5.0 with a goal of bringing the framework up to date with more modern PHP practices and code,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The first iteration of the framework was built in 2008, so it was time to get us ready for the next era of theme building.&#8221;</p>
<p>In nearly a decade of supporting the framework, Tadlock found that users didn&#8217;t always know how to get started building something from scratch. Many copied one of his existing themes and would add and remove things from it based on their own needs.</p>
<p>Version 5.0 doesn&#8217;t necessarily make it easier to build on top of Hybrid Core with its new, more complicated method of bootstrapping, new <a href="https://themehybrid.com/weblog/working-with-the-view-class" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">view system for templating</a>, and requirement for using <a href="https://getcomposer.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Composer</a>. This is why Tadlock is officially recommending <a href="https://themehybrid.com/themes/mythic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mythic</a> as the path for building a theme with Hybrid Core in the future. Most of the documentation and tutorials he plans to create in the future will be centered around the Mythic starter theme, which is nearing a 1.0 release.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">We just closed all tickets on the 1.0.0 milestone for the Mythic starter theme! It feels pretty good.</p>
<p>Barring any OMGBBQ issues between now and tomorrow, you should see an announcement post from me.<a href="https://t.co/J4CGLKa1y5">https://t.co/J4CGLKa1y5</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Justin Tadlock (@justintadlock) <a href="https://twitter.com/justintadlock/status/1041808697813598208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 17, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>For many theme developers, Mythic&#8217;s use of the BEM (Block-Element-Modifier) CSS class-naming system is their first introduction to a system of non-hierarchal, component-based CSS. Because BEM doesn&#8217;t rely on nested selectors, it&#8217;s easier for users to overwrite CSS that they want to change. Tadlock explains the benefit for child themes in a recent post about <a href="https://themehybrid.com/weblog/why-mythic-uses-bem" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">why Mythic uses BEM</a>.</p>
<p>A handful of the Hybrid add-ons are now available as Composer packages, including one for breadcrumbs, customizer controls and settings, Google fonts, and a featured image script. Tadlock plans to split more parts of the framework off into packages in the future for an increasingly modular core.</p>
<p>Hybrid Core 5.0 requires PHP 5.6+ (with 7.0+ recommended) and WordPress 4.9.6+. Tadlock will support Hybrid Core&#8217;s 4.x series for at least another year to give theme authors time to adapt.</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, 18 Sep 2018 04:07:44 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}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: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:81:"WPTavern: Yoast SEO 8.2 Adds How-To and FAQ Gutenberg Blocks with Structured Data";s:7:"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=83822";s:7:"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:92:"https://wptavern.com/yoast-seo-8-2-adds-how-to-and-faq-gutenberg-blocks-with-structured-data";s: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:2422:"<p><a href="https://yoast.com/yoast-seo-8-2/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Yoast SEO 8.2</a> was released last week with the plugin&#8217;s first tools designed specifically for Gutenberg. It includes two new How-To and FAQ structured data content blocks for early adopters of the new editor.</p>
<p>Structured data is content that can be marked up with a shared vocabulary, such as the one provided by <a href="http://Schema.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Schema.org</a>. Content like products, books, reviews, podcasts, events, and recipes lend themselves well to this specific type of organization. Structured data helps search engines index the site more effectively and communicate results in more compelling ways, such as rich snippets, rich cards, or voice search.</p>
<p>Structured data is not easy for most WordPress users to implement without the help of a plugin. Now that more content is being created in Gutenberg, users who want their content to display as enhanced search results will need to seek out plugins that make that an automatic part of the content creation process.</p>
<p>The plugin outlines all the necessary data the users needs to add in order for the How-To and FAQ content blocks to appear as valid pieces of structured data.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/faq-structured-data-yoast-seo.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Alongside this release, Yoast&#8217;s <a href="https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/local-seo/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Local SEO</a> and the <a href="https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/local-seo-for-woocommerce/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WooCommerce SEO</a> plugins have also added two new structured data Gutenberg blocks: an address block and a Google Maps block.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/local_seo_content_blocks.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>image credit: <a href="https://yoast.com/yoast-seo-8-2/">Yoast.com</a>
<p>In the future the Yoast team plans to create many more structured data blocks.</p>
<p>&#8220;We’ll work first on blocks which we can dogfood on Yoast.com, like Job posting and Event,&#8221; Yoast CTO Omar Reiss <a href="https://yoast.com/content-blocks-future-benefit-seo/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a>. &#8220;After that, we’ll just go for the popular ones, like Recipe.&#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, 17 Sep 2018 17:43:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:41:"Gary: The Mission: Democratise Publishing";s:7:"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:25:"https://pento.net/?p=1909";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"https://pento.net/2018/09/16/the-mission-democratise-publishing/";s: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:5406:"<p>It&#8217;s exciting to see the <a href="https://drupalgutenberg.org/">Drupal Gutenberg</a> project getting under way, it makes me proud of the work we&#8217;ve done ensuring the flexibility of the underlying Gutenberg architecture. One of the primary philosophies of Gutenberg&#8217;s technical architecture is platform agnosticism, and we can see the practical effects of this practice coming to fruition across a variety of projects.</p>

<p>Yoast are <a href="https://yoast.com/yoast-seo-8-2/">creating new features for the block editor</a>, as well as <a href="https://yoast.com/yoast-seo-8-0-introducing-the-yoast-seo-gutenberg-sidebar-a-revamped-meta-box/">porting existing features</a>, which they&#8217;re able to <a href="https://twitter.com/aaronjorbin/status/1040988210682318848">reuse in the classic editor</a>.</p>

<p>Outside of WordPress Core, the Automattic teams who work on <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso">Calypso</a> have been <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso/search?q=gutenberg">busy</a> adding Gutenberg support, in order to make the block editor interface available on WordPress.com. Gutenberg and Calypso are large JavaScript applications, built with strong opinions on design direction and technical architecture, and having <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso/issues/27034">significant component overlap</a>. That these two projects can function together at all is something of an obscure engineering feat that&#8217;s both difficult and overwhelming to appreciate.</p>

<p>If we reached the limit of Gutenberg&#8217;s platform agnosticism here, it would still be a successful project.</p>

<p>But that&#8217;s not where the ultimate goals of the Gutenberg project stand. From <a href="https://github.com/youknowriad/standalone-gutenberg">early experiments</a> in running the block editor as a <a href="https://gutenberg-standalone.surge.sh/">standalone application</a>, to being able to compile it into a <a href="https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/gutenberg-mobile">native mobile component</a>, and now seeing it <a href="https://www.drupal.org/project/gutenberg">running on Drupal</a>, Gutenberg&#8217;s technical goals have always included a radical level of platform agnosticism.</p>

<h2>Better Together</h2>

<p>Inside the WordPress world, significant effort and focus has been on ensuring backwards compatibility with existing WordPress sites, plugins, and practices. Given that WordPress is such a hugely popular platform, it&#8217;s exceedingly important to ensure this is done right. With Gutenberg expanding outside of the WordPress world, however, we&#8217;re seeing different focuses and priorities arise.</p>

<p>The <a href="https://gutenbergcloud.org/">Gutenberg Cloud</a> service is a fascinating extension being built as part of the Drupal Gutenberg project, for example. It provides a method for new blocks to be shared and discovered, the <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/@frontkom/g-hero-section">sample hero block</a> sets a clear tone of providing practical components that can be rapidly put together into a full site. While we&#8217;ve certainly seen similar services appear for the various site builder plugins, this is the first one (that I&#8217;m aware of, at least) build specifically for Gutenberg.</p>

<p>By making the Gutenberg experience available for everyone, regardless of their technical proficiency, experience, or even <em>preferred platform</em>, we pave the way for a better future for all.</p>

<h2>Democratising Publishing</h2>

<p>You might be able to guess where this is going. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f609.png" alt="😉" class="wp-smiley" /></p>

<p>WordPress&#8217; mission is to &#8220;democratise publishing&#8221;. It isn&#8217;t to &#8220;be the most popular CMS&#8221;, or to &#8220;run on old versions of PHP&#8221;, though it&#8217;s easy to think that might be the case on the surface. That these statements are true is simply a side effect of the broader principle: All people, regardless of who they are or where they come from, should be able to publish their content as part of a free and open web.</p>

<p>The WordPress mission is not to &#8220;democratise publishing with WordPress&#8221;.</p>

<p>WordPress has many advantages that make it so popular, but hoarding those to ourselves doesn&#8217;t help the open web, it just creates more silos. The open web is the only platform on which publishing can be democratised, so it makes sense for Gutenberg to work anywhere on the open web, not just inside WordPress. Drupal isn&#8217;t a competitor here, we&#8217;re all working towards the same goal, the different paths we&#8217;ve taken have made the open web stronger as a whole.</p>

<p>Much as the block editor has been the first practical implementation of the Gutenberg architecture, WordPress is simply the first practical integration of the block editor into a CMS. The Gutenberg project will expand into site customisation and theming next, and while there&#8217;s no requirement that Drupal make use of these, I&#8217;d be very interested to see what they came up with if they did. Bringing together our many years of experience in tackling these complex problems can only make the end result better.</p>

<p>I know I&#8217;m looking forward to all of us working together for the betterment of the open web.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 16 Sep 2018 04:48:44 +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:4:"Gary";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:55:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 3.8 Released, Adds Full Screen 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=83861";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-3-8-released-adds-full-screen-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:2254:"<p>Gutenberg 3.8 is <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/">available for download</a>. This release features a full screen mode that hides both the admin bar and the menu. Unlike previous versions of Distraction-Free-Writing mode where things would fade in and out of view, these two items stay hidden until full-screen mode is disabled.</p>

<p>User Interface elements have been added to manage reusable blocks in bulk. Theme authors are now able to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/9008">register editor styles</a> for blocks by targeting the blocks themselves. This avoids combating CSS specificity and doesn&#8217;t require knowledge of the internal DOM structure for the editor. </p>

<p>The block settings icon has been moved from the right side of blocks to the toolbar. This change sets the foundation for refactoring the toolbar and it reduces clutter by keeping the icons together.<br /></p>

<img />Block Settings Moved to The Right Side of The Toolbar

<p>Gutenberg 3.8 also contains a significant increase in performance thanks to a new <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/8083">hand-coded default</a> block parser. </p>

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Having a formal specification of the Gutenberg block grammar has allowed us both to maintain a stable core during the almost 40 releases of the plugin and lately to allow competing parser implementation to evolve and be compared in terms of performance and correctness. </p><p>In concrete terms, we are shipping <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/8083">a new default implementation</a> that is hundreds of times faster than the spec and has been stress tested with really long posts (including Moby Dick). These tests are also available for anyone to run against. Memory consumption has also gone down dramatically for server side operations. I’d like to specially thank Dennis Snell and Ivan Enderlin for their great work improving this area.</p><cite>Matias Ventura </cite></blockquote>

<p>To see a complete list of changes along with links to their corresponding pull requests, check out <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/09/12/whats-new-in-gutenberg-12th-september/">the 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:"Sat, 15 Sep 2018 00:08:32 +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:"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:64:"WPTavern: Gutenberg is Slowly Rolling Out to WordPress.com Users";s:7:"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=83331";s:7:"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:75:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-is-slowly-rolling-out-to-wordpress-com-users";s: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:1483:"<p>As part of <a href="https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-unveils-gutenberg-roadmap-at-wceu-wordpress-agencies-and-product-developers-sprint-to-prepare">the roadmap</a> unveiled at WordCamp EU earlier this year, WordPress.com has started rolling out Gutenberg to a subset of users. </p>

<div class="wp-block-image"><img />Try Gutenberg Call-out on WordPress.com</div>

<p>According to a <a href="https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/information-on-gutenberg-implementation/#post-3173840">WordPress.com Happiness Engineer</a>, the team is testing the implementation to determine the best way and time to enable it. Users will not be able to use Gutenberg unless their theme is updated to support blocks and the various alignment options. </p>

<p>Theme Wranglers are already in the process of adding support to WordPress.com&#8217;s nearly 100 free themes.</p>

<p>A <a href="https://en.forums.wordpress.com/search/gutenberg/">quick search</a> of the WordPress.com support forums for Gutenberg provides some insight into what users think about the new editor. For example, <a href="https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/new-gutenberg-editing/">this user provided feedback</a> on the use of so many icons without displaying their textual equivalent. </p>

<p>For now, Gutenberg is opt-in but eventually will be opt-out. Once Gutenberg is made available to a wider audience, support documents and official blog posts will be published to inform users about the new editor. <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, 14 Sep 2018 23:24:52 +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: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:83:"WPTavern: Drupal Gutenberg Project Receives Enthusiastic Reception at Drupal Europe";s:7:"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=83854";s:7:"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/drupal-gutenberg-project-receives-enthusiastic-reception-at-drupal-europe";s: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:6188:"<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-14-at-2.59.59-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The <a href="https://wptavern.com/first-look-at-live-demo-of-the-gutenberg-content-editor-for-drupal-8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Drupal Gutenberg</a> project is gaining momentum after Per André Rønsen and Marco Fernandes gave a presentation at Drupal Europe this week titled &#8220;Introducing the Gutenberg content editor for Drupal 8.&#8221; Rønsen and Fernandes are representatives of Frontkom, a digital services agency based in Norway that has ported WordPress&#8217; Gutenberg editor over to Drupal for use with client projects. They also created the <a href="https://drupalgutenberg.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Drupal Gutenberg</a> project, which aims to bring this new publishing experience to Drupal core.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Building landing pages in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Drupal?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Drupal</a> has never been easier. Coming soon to a Drupal site near you! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/drupaleurope?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#drupaleurope</a> <a href="https://t.co/LLpH91AY9n">pic.twitter.com/LLpH91AY9n</a></p>
<p>&mdash; drupalgutenberg (@drupalgutenberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/drupalgutenberg/status/1040203765452820480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>The Frontkom team gave a live demo of the Gutenberg module added to the page content type and showed how a few of the core blocks work. They concluded the presentation by hailing Gutenberg as an exciting new tool that will bring companies new business, make happier clients, and inspire more code reuse and sharing among developers.</p>
<p>&#8220;The reception has been amazing,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;A lot of different speakers have referred to Gutenberg both before and after the session. Bigger organizations and companies have expressed interest in implementation and contributing. I was told the session was one of the most well visited (after the keynotes) in the whole conference.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Gutenberg for Drupal looks good <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f4a5.png" alt="💥" class="wp-smiley" /><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/72x72/1f4a5.png" alt="💥" class="wp-smiley" /> GoGo <a href="https://twitter.com/frontkom?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@frontkom</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DrupalEurope?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DrupalEurope</a> <a href="https://t.co/rV6dRT76Rk">pic.twitter.com/rV6dRT76Rk</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Daniel Andersson (@moppedanne) <a href="https://twitter.com/moppedanne/status/1039852251173543936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Overall, the Drupal community gave the Gutenberg editor a positive reception. However, Rønsen said he received feedback from some who are concerned about how it stores data. He said the general consensus was that &#8220;the UI is awesome,&#8221; but that the Drupal Gutenberg project would need to make sure data is stored in way that is as structured and portable as possible.</p>
<p>&#8220;Some developers are skeptical about storing too much data unstructured like Gutenberg does,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;This also means we might integrate Gutenberg closer to some key Drupal modules used for structured page building today. Gutenberg can serve as a UI for embedding existing structured content, and that is something we are looking into.&#8221;</p>
<p>Rønsen said the next steps are centered around getting a stable release that will handle the core Gutenberg blocks and the core D8 blocks in a way that is future proof. In order to do this, they are waiting for the project to be merged into WordPress core.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will delay a stable release until Gutenberg is in WP core,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;Things are moving very fast still with Gutenberg – and that’s a good thing. As soon as we have a stable release, we will introduce tools we have built in top of Gutenberg for publishers. These will be available to WordPress, too.&#8221;</p>
<h3>Gutenberg as the “editor for the open web” — not just for WordPress</h3>
<p>One of the most exciting aspects of the Frontkom team&#8217;s presentation was the idea of sharing a project across publishing platforms.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is key for us that Gutenberg stays decoupled from both CMSs as a library, and our hope is that Gutenberg core devs will catch onto the vision of Gutenberg as the &#8216;editor for the open web&#8217; — not just for WordPress,&#8221; Rønsen said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Drupal core developers are however planning a React-based revamp of the Drupal admin UI, too. It will take at least two years to release it, and even then, I’m of the opinion that the content edit UI and page building features should be done last, and rather leave room for third party solutions like Gutenberg. This is an open question, but at least the key decisions makers for the new UI will consider how Gutenberg works and learn from it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Drupal decision makers are also taking interest in Gutenberg and seem open to considering it as viable option for improving the CMS&#8217;s editing experience.</p>
<p>&#8220;When the Drupal project owner was asked directly in a Q&amp;A what he thought about solutions like Gutenberg coming into Drupal, he said he liked it, and that it’s a good thing for Drupal,&#8221; Rønsen said. &#8220;Dries is very open minded and not afraid of the concept of &#8216;Proudly built elsewhere.'&#8221;</p>
<p>Rønsen and Fernandes have <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Rm1tiXR9sAVqasT8L8SZCg1LBVuTTuG3otNj_3Sj2r8/edit#slide=id.g321e3b1fbe_0_57" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">published the slides</a> for those who want to view them, although most of the session was devoted to the live demo. The official recording has not yet been posted but should be available shortly.</p>
<p>Update: The official recording has been published:</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, 14 Sep 2018 22:31:50 +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:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"BuddyPress: BuddyPress 3.2.0 Maintenance Release";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://buddypress.org/?p=276415";s:7:"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://buddypress.org/2018/09/buddypress-3-2-0-maintenance-release/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:463:"<p>BuddyPress 3.2.0 is now available. This is a maintenance release that fixes 25 bugs and is a recommended upgrade for all BuddyPress installations.</p>
<p>Update to BuddyPress 3.2.0 today in your WordPress Dashboard, or by <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress/">downloading from the wordpress.org plugin repository</a>. For details on the changes, read the <a href="https://codex.buddypress.org/releases/version-3-2-0/">3.2.0 release notes</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, 14 Sep 2018 15:14:20 +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:10:"Paul Gibbs";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:66:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 330 – WPShout, Community, and Burnout";s:7:"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=83932&preview=true&preview_id=83932";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-330-wpshout-community-and-burnout";s: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:2001:"<p>In this episode, <a href="http://jjj.me">John James Jacoby</a> and I are joined by Fred Meyer, David Hayes, and Alex Denning of <a href="https://wpshout.com/">WPShout</a> to learn about <a href="https://wpshout.com/announcing-pro-community/">WPShout&#8217;s Pro Community</a>. This community aims to bring people together to learn from each other and provide one-to-one mentorship opportunities with David and Fred.</p>
<p>Later in the show, John and I discuss why it&#8217;s a matter of when and not if, Dark Mode will be added to WordPress. We round out the show by discussing burnout and some other personal things.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/dark-mode-is-possibly-coming-to-a-wordpress-dashboard-near-you">Dark Mode is Possibly Coming to a WordPress Dashboard Near You</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-coding-standards-1-1-0-released">WordPress Coding Standards 1.1.0 Released</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/meetup-group-organizers-can-now-earn-a-wordpress-org-user-profile-badge">Meetup Group Organizers Can Now Earn A WordPress.org User Profile Badge</a></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/marcel-bootsman-is-walking-700km-to-wordcamp-europe-to-raise-funds-for-donatewc">Marcel Bootsman is Walking 700km to WordCamp Europe to Raise Funds for DonateWC</a></p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, September 26th 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 #330:</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, 13 Sep 2018 22:24:36 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:99:"WPTavern: WordPress 4.9.9 Release Focus Items Include Site Health Project and Gutenberg Preparation";s:7:"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=83892";s:7:"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/wordpress-4-9-9-release-focus-items-include-site-health-project-and-gutenberg-preparation";s: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:2819:"<p>The WordPress 4.9.9 release leads published a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/09/12/wordpress-4-9-9-minor-release-roadmap/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">roadmap for the release</a> this week. The minor release will be led by Anthony Burchell and Alain Schlesser. It is targeted for November 5 with the first beta arriving near the end of October.</p>
<p>The leads identified four key focus areas for the upcoming release: accessibility, internationalization, the Site Health Project, and Gutenberg preparation. The internationalization focus is aimed at improving translations and RTL support, as well as ensuring that date/time values work. The roadmap doesn&#8217;t identify any specific accessibility items but Burchell said the leads see lots of ways they can &#8220;drastically improve the experience for a lot of people with minimal effort.&#8221;</p>
<p>Contributors to the Site Health Project, previously known by the &#8220;Servehappy&#8221; code name, will be working on resolving issues that will allow users to stay on WordPress 4.9.9 while they prepare for 5.0 and still have access to the important information about how to update their PHP versions.</p>
<p>&#8220;It will be crucial to get the Servehappy components included: WSOD protection, update dashboard notice, plugin version requirements,&#8221; Burchell said. &#8220;The reason for this focus is because, when 5.0 ships, users who decide not to upgrade will be on 4.9.9 for a potentially extended time period. If we don’t have these Servehappy components included in 4.9.9, getting rid of old PHP versions will only happen after 5.0.&#8221;</p>
<p>Another major part of WordPress 4.9.9 will be landing items that lay the groundwork for anything necessary for Gutenberg&#8217;s merge into 5.0. Two items identified include <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/44758" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">user locale support in REST API endpoints</a> and <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/44862" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">endpoints to lock/unlock and release posts</a>.</p>
<p>With an unusually quick turnaround, WordPress 5.0 could arrive before the end of 2018. Development will kick off in mid-November, one week ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE 9/13/2018 &#8211; 8:13PM:</strong> The wording on the roadmap document has been updated to more accurately reflect the intentions of contributors regarding the work outlined for the Site Health Project. The roadmap now reads:</p>
<p><em>&#8220;We will investigate the work remaining for the Servehappy project and determine how to get it in people’s hands as soon as possible. WSOD protection, update dashboard notice, plugin version requirements are the hot items pending.&#8221;</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 13 Sep 2018 17:58:37 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:11:"
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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: Diversity of Thought";s:7:"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=2623";s:7:"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/diversity-of-thought/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=diversity-of-thought";s: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:3237:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/092017-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: I became completely inspired by the mission of WordPress. I had become a part of something bigger than myself." /><p>About a year ago, Christie Chirinos wrote the essay &#8220;<a href="https://heropress.com/essays/what-i-do-does-not-define-who-i-am/">What I Do Does Not Define Who I Am</a>&#8220;. It felt like a big deal at the time, and it was, but like most big deals, it slowly faded from memory. That&#8217;s one of the reasons I do these replays, for the benefit of my own memory as much as anything else.</p>
<p>As I&#8217;ve mentioned, part of the goal of HeroPress is to speak to those with less privilege and show how WordPress can help overcome that. That message shouldn&#8217;t come from me, a white American male. I simply don&#8217;t have the experience. I can read about it, but I&#8217;ll never actually have the experiences.</p>
<p>The story really needs to come from someone with experience. Christie has some of that experience, and she does a wonderful job talking about how WordPress helped a little bit. I hope her story helps.</p>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><p><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/what-i-do-does-not-define-who-i-am/">What I Do Does Not Define Who I Am</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: Diversity of Thought" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Diversity%20of%20Thought&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fdiversity-of-thought%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Diversity of Thought" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fdiversity-of-thought%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%2Fdiversity-of-thought%2F&title=Diversity+of+Thought" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Diversity of Thought"></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/diversity-of-thought/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/092017-150x150.jpg&description=Diversity of Thought" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Diversity of Thought"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/diversity-of-thought/" title="Diversity of Thought"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/diversity-of-thought/">Diversity of Thought</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:"Thu, 13 Sep 2018 16:21:38 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:39;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:54:"WPTavern: Official WooCommerce Android App Now in 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=83859";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"https://wptavern.com/official-woocommerce-android-app-now-in-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:3827:"<p>The first official <a href="https://woocommerce.com/mobile/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WooCommerce Android app</a> is now in open beta. The companion mobile app allows users to manage their WooCommerce stores on the go. Store owners who want to test the unreleased version of the mobile app can <a href="https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.woocommerce.android" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">sign up with the Google Play Store</a>. The WooCommerce app <a href="https://woocommercehalo.wordpress.com/faq/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">requires Jetpack</a> to connect stores to the app.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Manage-Orders@2x.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The beta introduces a basic set of features for managing orders, viewing store stats, and receiving sales notifications, including the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Check basic orders and revenue statistics with time period selection.</li>
<li>View orders list in chronological order, with status and total value.</li>
<li>Review individual orders with all the standard details, and contact customers.</li>
<li>Perform basic order fulfillment.</li>
<li>Get notifications about orders and reviews, and the ability to moderate them.</li>
<li>View a list of the top-selling products on your store.</li>
</ul>
<p>The app&#8217;s real-time order alerts even include an optional &#8220;cha-ching&#8221; sounds for new orders.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Push-Notifications@2x.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Over the past few years, the WooCommerce community has demonstrated a demand for mobile apps on both platforms. A <a href="http://ideas.woocommerce.com/forums/133476-woocommerce/suggestions/6172593-android-equivalent-of-woocommerce-ios-app" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">suggestion for an Android app</a> received 533 upvotes on the WooCommerce ideas board. There is also a motley assortment of unofficial WooCommerce store management apps available on the Google Play Store. Some of the more popular ones include <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.woostore.wooforce" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">StorePep WooCommerce App</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pinta.woocommerce.woocommercemobileadmin" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WooCommerce Mobile Admin</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mstoreapp.wooadmin03" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Admin app for WooCommerce</a>, and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lxrmarketplace.woocommerce" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dashly &#8211; WooCommerce Dashboard</a>.</p>
<p>None of the third-party mobile apps seem to be very highly rated, nor are they consistent with the WooCommerce branding. A cursory glance at the reviews for these apps shows that most of them are slow, buggy, and not very well supported. However, they have temporarily fulfilled a need in the absence of an official app from WooCommerce.</p>
<p>Considering the options currently available, an official WooCommerce app will be a welcome addition to the tools available for store owners. An iOS app is also in the works. At the end of July, the WooCommerce development team put out a <a href="https://woocommercehalo.wordpress.com/2018/07/31/call-for-testing-first-ios-beta/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">call for testing the first iOS Beta</a>. Anyone interested to test the apps can check out the <a href="https://woocommercehalo.wordpress.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Woo Halo</a> site and <a href="http://eepurl.com/dv-oo1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">register</a> to be part of the testing group.</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, 13 Sep 2018 16:19:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:37:"Post Status: WordPress and Blockchain";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=47409";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://poststatus.com/wordpress-and-blockchain/";s: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:5235:"<p>WordPress is one of the driving forces and great success stories of the open web to date. As an open source platform, it&#8217;s become a dominant CMS used by 30% of the web to publish content — on websites large and small.</p>
<p>WordPress has grown up in an era of evolving challenges: ushering in web standards, adapting for publishing and viewing on all device sizes; building for accessibility by all; establishing its place in the era of expansive and centralized social media platforms; and more.</p>
<p>Today, we’re faced with a new generation of technologies coming down the pipe, ready to disrupt the current ecosystem. These technologies include blockchain, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, the internet of things, and more I&#8217;m sure. It’s the first of these that is the focus of this post and the following conversation.</p>
<p>I was approached by David Lockie of <a href="https://pragmatic.agency/">Pragmatic</a> to discuss how WordPress and blockchain technology may fit together, and how they may not. David and I have both been interested in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space over the past couple of years, and have over time encountered a lot of projects that aim to disrupt or enhance various elements of the web: from DNS to CMS.</p>
<p>David gathered a group of people for an initial online, open, honest conversation about how WordPress could be impacted, disrupted or take advantage of distributed ledger and blockchain technologies.</p>
<p>Examples include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Blockchain platforms impacting people’s choice to use WordPress e.g. <a href="https://steemit.com/">Steemit</a></li>
<li>Blockchain projects impacting people already using WordPress e.g. <a href="https://www.basicattentiontoken.org/">Basic Attention Token</a> or <a href="https://www.po.et/">Po.et</a>, <a href="https://vip.wordpress.com/2018/07/11/client-spotlight-civil/">Civil</a></li>
<li>Cryptocurrencies’ impact on eCommerce and the wider ecosystem, e.g. the Coinbase Commerce merchant gateway</li>
<li>What we can learn from blockchain projects’ governance systems and lessons learned</li>
<li>Ideas for improving security, integrations, etc</li>
<li>Various identity-based projects</li>
<li>New environments which may be used to run WordPress, such as decentralized web technologies e.g. <a href="https://substratum.net/">Substratum </a> or <a href="https://www.maidsafe.net/">MaidSafe</a>.</li>
<li>Impact on the talent pool for WordPress professionals</li>
<li>General <a href="https://speakerdeck.com/dcent/wordpress-and-blockchain-threats-and-opportunities">threats and opportunities</a></li>
<li>Discussion of anything new, interesting and relevant in the blockchain/cryptocurrency space</li>
<li>All of the above as it relates to open source and the web generally, outside of WordPress</li>
</ul>
<p>Our aim for the initial conversation, as well as future conversations, <strong>is not</strong> to advocate specifically for any existing project or to necessarily endorse blockchain as appropriate for WordPress to somehow integrate in any way. It&#8217;s to explore what&#8217;s out there now, how it could impact WordPress today and in the future, and down the road perhaps how WordPress may take advantage of potential opportunities. We are approaching this like a discovery phase — not to get overly excited, but to be informed. And we welcome participants in this conversation.</p>
<p>This first conversation included the following participants:</p>
<ul>
<li>David Lockie, <a href="https://pragmatic.agency/">Pragmatic</a></li>
<li>Brian Krogsgard, Post Status</li>
<li>Bradford Campeau-Laurion, <a href="https://alley.co/">Alley Interactive</a></li>
<li>Zac Gordon, <a href="https://zacgordon.com/">Deeply</a></li>
<li>Christie Chirinos, <a href="https://calderalabs.org/">Caldera Labs</a></li>
<li>Josh Pollock, <a href="https://calderalabs.org/">Caldera Labs</a></li>
<li>Brad Williams, <a href="https://webdevstudios.com/">WebDevStudios</a></li>
</ul>
<p>I attempted to reiterate it in the call, but I believe it&#8217;s important to address this topic with a skeptic&#8217;s hat on. By no means do any of us think that it&#8217;s a great idea to just go head first in trying to integrate blockchain technology to WordPress. The jury is still very much out in terms of where, how, and even if blockchain brings significant advantages to web applications.</p>
<p></p>
<p>If you are interested in future discussions, we welcome you! There is currently a channel (#blockchain) in Post Status Slack where people can discuss, and we&#8217;ll also announce future video-conference discussions. We may make a more independent place to discuss, blog, etc, in the future depending on how these early conversations go.</p>
<p>We don&#8217;t know exactly where this conversation will go. It may fizzle out, or it could evolve into a much broader community effort. The first thing to do, if you are interested to continue this conversation, is just follow along with future conversations, which will be posted here. If you would like to be on the next video call, please <a href="https://pragmatic.agency/contact/">contact David</a> or <a href="https://poststatus.com/contact">me</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, 12 Sep 2018 22:58:40 +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:"Brian Krogsgard";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:65:"WPTavern: WordCamp Wilmington Cancelled Due to Hurricane Florence";s:7:"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=83851";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-wilmington-cancelled-due-to-hurricane-florence";s: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:2572:"<p>Hurricane Florence <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at1.shtml?cone#contents">is forecast</a> to make landfall as a major hurricane near Wilmington, North Carolina bringing potentially catastrophic flooding and strong winds to the region. </p>

<img />Hurricane Florence Forecast Track From the National Hurricane Center

<p>Because of the hurricane, <a href="https://2018.wilmington.wordcamp.org">WordCamp Wilmington</a> which was scheduled to take place September 22nd and 23rd <a href="https://2018.wilmington.wordcamp.org/2018/09/11/canceled-2018-wordcamp-wilmington/">has been cancelled</a>. </p>

<p>&#8220;We wish all of our WordCamp Wilmington enthusiasts a minimum of impact from Hurricane Florence,&#8221; Helen Rittersporn, one of the event&#8217;s organizers said. <br /></p>

<p>&#8220;On behalf of my fellow Organizers for 2018 WordCamp Wilmington, we are looking forward to seeing everyone in 2019!&#8221;</p>

<h2>Safety of Attendees, Speakers, and Sponsors Takes Priority<br /></h2>

<p>Peter La Fond, one of the event&#8217;s lead organizers, says the decision to cancel the event has been mentally taxing to him and the team.</p>

<p>&#8220;From the beginning, the decision making was really hard,&#8221; he said. &#8220;How we made the decision about this was very fluid. The entire team has been texting back and forth every several hours on various decisions over many days.</p>

<p>&#8220;We ended up having to set thresholds in advance for canceling.  Then on Monday morning, we started to get inquiries and cancellations of attendees, vendors and speakers so we had to make a call.&#8221; </p>

<p>Although a lot hours were spent by volunteers to organize the event, speaker, attendee, and sponsor safety took priority. <br /></p>

<p>&#8220;The organizing team is totally bummed about canceling the event considering the amount of effort we put into organizing it,&#8221; La Fond said. &#8220;However, we’re more concerned about the safety and security of our family and friends. Especially those who chose to stay.&#8221;</p>

<p>Those who purchased tickets are eligible for a refund. But due to evacuations and the length of time the storm is expected wreak havoc in the area, organizers will not be able to fulfill refund requests until after the storm has passed. <br /></p>

<p>This is the second time a tropical weather system has postponed or cancelled a WordCamp in the US. In 2016, <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-orlando-cancelled-due-to-hurricane">WordCamp Orlando was postponed</a> due to Hurricane Matthew. </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, 12 Sep 2018 22:05:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"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:70:"WPTavern: MetaSlider Plugin Adds Gutenberg Block for Inserting Sliders";s:7:"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=83865";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"https://wptavern.com/metaslider-plugin-adds-gutenberg-block-for-inserting-sliders";s: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:4203:"<p>If you <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/slider/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">search for &#8220;slider&#8221;</a> in the WordPress plugins directory, <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/ml-slider/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MetaSlider</a> is the first result that comes up. The plugin, created by the team at <a href="https://updraftplus.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UpdraftPlus</a>, is active on more than 900,000 sites, more than any other free slider plugin, and averages a 4.7-star review. It includes four different types of sliders: Flex 2, Nivo Slider, Responsive Slides, and Coin Slider.</p>
<p>An update released today introduces Gutenberg support with a block for inserting sliders. Users can access their sliders via the block insertion tool.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/metaslider-gutenberg-block.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Clicking on the MetaSlider block allows users to select from among the sliders that they have already created in the admin.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-12-at-12.46.10-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>After the user selects a slider, a preview will appear instantly in the Gutenberg editor.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/metaslider-in-gutenberg.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Previously, the process of inserting a slider into content involved copying and pasting a shortcode. Joe Miles, director of Business Strategy at UpdraftPlus, said the team sees the Gutenberg editor as a major improvement especially for those who are new to WordPress.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think Gutenberg makes it much easier for novices to web design to make changes and insert sliders,&#8221; Miles said. &#8220;I know people who&#8217;d be comfortable using a Gutenberg block but not comfortable using a shortcode as it looks scary.&#8221;</p>
<p>Miles said the company is currently working on adding the ability for users to create and edit sliders within Gutenberg and hope to include it in the plugin before WordPress 5.0 lands. The UpdraftPlus team includes 13 developers who are devoted to the company&#8217;s WP-Optimize and MetaSlider products. Miles said adapting to Gutenberg was fairly simple relative to some of the other projects the team is working on.</p>
<p>UpdraftPlus plans to continue to maintain and improve the shortcode-based slider insertion method, as demonstrated in the changelog. Users who opt to stick with the Classic Editor will still be able to keep their same workflow. Meanwhile, the product&#8217;s development team will be working on integrating all of the pro version&#8217;s front-end features with Gutenberg.</p>
<p>In addition to Gutenberg support, the team is also going to be <a href="https://updraftplus.com/metasliders-bringing-out-new-slider-themes-and-theyre-completely-free/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">adding the concept of themes to sliders</a> so users can build a slider and change its theme in a couple of clicks. They plan to release free and commercial themes and all will be built to be compatible with Gutenberg.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/smart-slider-3/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smart Slider 3</a>, MetaSlider&#8217;s next closest competitor with 300,000 installs, is <a href="https://smartslider3.com/blog/gutenberg-and-smart-slider-3-how-to-add-sliders-to-wordpress/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">also compatible with Gutenberg</a> with a similar workflow for inserting sliders. Both slider plugins are not yet capable of providing the slider creation and editing process inside the Gutenberg interface but the capabilities should evolve as WordPress gets closer to the 5.0 release.</p>
<p>&#8220;I personally love the idea of Gutenberg since Matt Mullenweg announced it at WordCamp EU 2017,&#8221; Miles said. &#8220;I understand why experienced developers don&#8217;t want the change, but too many people are going for inferior website solutions like WIX because they&#8217;re used to WYSIWYG. So adapting MetaSlider was a no-brainer.&#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, 12 Sep 2018 20:59:26 +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: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:89:"WPTavern: Marcel Bootsman is Walking 700km to WordCamp Europe to Raise Funds for DonateWC";s:7:"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=83797";s:7:"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/marcel-bootsman-is-walking-700km-to-wordcamp-europe-to-raise-funds-for-donatewc";s: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:3272:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-11-at-3.37.12-PM.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>In May 2019, <a href="https://twitter.com/mbootsman" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Marcel Bootsman</a> will be lacing up a pair of hiking boots and walking 700km (435 miles) from his home in Rotterdam to WordCamp Europe in Berlin. Bootsman, a WordPress consultant and WordCamp organizer, is walking to raise funds and awareness for the <a href="https://donatewc.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DonateWC</a> organization.</p>
<p>The DonateWC initiative provides a global fund for helping people in need of financial assistance to attend a big WordCamp. Donations go towards individually-tailored sponsorships that help selected attendees purchase a WordCamp ticket, door-to-door transportation, food and drink, and internet access.</p>
<p>&#8220;Imagine for a moment that you are not backed by a company that will pay for you to go to a community event,&#8221; DonateWC founder Ines van Essen said. &#8220;You work hard at being a valuable community member but are never able to actually meet the others in your team. This means you are less likely to get a job, less likely to get recognized as a worthwhile member, you’re unlikely to be at the front-end of changes that impact your work significantly.&#8221;</p>
<p>DonateWC aims to keep the larger WordCamps from being unintentionally exclusive of those with lesser financial means. Bootsman said he believes in the organization because it is community-driven and enables the greater WordPress community to do something for their fellow community members.</p>
<p>So far, Bootsman&#8217;s walking journey has raised €116.57. He set up a <a href="https://walktowc.eu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">walktowc.eu</a> website to track his progress and the <a href="https://walktowc.eu/donate/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">donation page</a> displays a live update of donated funds. Contributors have the option to designate their donations for DonateWC or for Bootsman&#8217;s personal needs on the trek. He plans to deliver all of the funds raised for the organization when he arrives in Berlin. In the coming weeks he will also open up sponsor packages to better motivate companies to donate.</p>
<p>Bootsman does not plan to work during his trek. He will be on the road for approximately 30 days and plans to walk 30km per day. He is traveling light with just a backpack and is looking for places where he can sleep along the way. Bootsman will update the <a href="https://walktowc.eu/route/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Route page</a> on his website with the places where people volunteer a bed for him to spend the night.</p>
<p>If you want to keep track of his progress, follow the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/walktowceu?src=hash" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#walktwceu</a> on Twitter. Bootsman has published his first vlog about his training sessions (see video below) where you can hear in his own words why his making the long journey on foot. When I asked him if he&#8217;ll be walking home after WordCamp Europe, he said, &#8220;You&#8217;re kidding, right?&#8221;</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:"Tue, 11 Sep 2018 22:25:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:26:"Matt: WP Dev on Chromebook";s:7:"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=48342";s:7:"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:43:"https://ma.tt/2018/09/wp-dev-on-chromebook/";s: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:256:"<p>Dan Walmsley has an interesting <a href="https://developer.wordpress.com/2018/09/11/developing-wordpress-jetpack-and-calypso-on-chromeos/">walkthrough on getting set up for WordPress and Calypso development on the new Linux mode on a Chromebook</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, 11 Sep 2018 18:29:48 +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: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: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:48:"WPTavern: Hemingway Theme 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=83790";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:59:"https://wptavern.com/hemingway-theme-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:4178:"<p>Anders Norén has <a href="http://www.andersnoren.se/hemingway-meet-gutenberg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">added Gutenberg support</a> to his popular <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/hemingway/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hemingway</a> theme in the latest update, version 1.66. The theme has a simple, timeless design that appeals to both bloggers and business owners alike. It is active on more than 30,000 websites and some of those site administrators are using Gutenberg.</p>
<p>What does Gutenberg support look like for Hemingway? Norén styled the editor to match the front-end design, with the same colors and fonts. He also added support for specific Gutenberg blocks, such as cover images, full-width elements, and pull quotes.</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/hemingway-gutenberg-e1536683158337.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>image credit: Anders Norén
<p>Norén said he knew since Gutenberg was announced that he would need to add support to all 17 of his themes in a substantial update at some point but had put it off because developing for the new editor felt &#8220;like aiming for a moving target.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I don’t think it was any single thing that made me realize that I needed to get going with Gutenberg, but rather that the Gutenberg volume knob in the community has been turned up at a steady pace,&#8221; Norén said. &#8220;After the &#8216;Try Gutenberg&#8217; prompt in 4.9.8, I also started to receive a lot more support requests regarding Gutenberg. When regular WordPress users – not developers – started to ask when they can expect Gutenberg support in my themes, I knew that I couldn’t push it ahead of me much further.&#8221;</p>
<p>Hemingway is the first of his themes to support the new editor and Norén is aiming to have his entire collection Gutenberg-ready by the time WordPress 5.0 is released. (This does not include the <a href="https://wordpress.com/theme/hemingway-rewritten" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hemingway Rewritten</a> version, which was created by Automattic and is available on WordPress.com.)</p>
<p>Norén sees the new editor as a significant improvement over the current editor and said he thinks it is the right way forward for WordPress.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s always easy to speculate about the road not travelled, but the Visual Editor needs replacement, and Gutenberg will be a good replacement for it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It’s better at everything the old editor can do (except editing raw HTML, perhaps), and it also brings with it new possibilities for WordPress developers and users. There are a lot of issues in Gutenberg still to be worked out, but when they are, I think Gutenberg will be a big step forward for the WordPress community.&#8221;</p>
<p>Norén said his chief concern is not about the editor itself but about how WordPress will handle the transition period for users, especially for those who would benefit from continuing on with the Classic Editor.</p>
<p>&#8220;I hope that the upgrade notice for 5.0 will be accompanied by clear messaging around the changes included in 5.0, along with the option to install the Classic Editor in Gutenberg&#8217;s stead,&#8221; Norén said. &#8220;Similar to the &#8216;Try Gutenberg&#8217; prompt, but presented more clearly as an either-or option before the user actually updates to 5.0. It was encouraging to see Matt Mullenweg say that the Classic Editor will be maintained for many years to come.&#8221;</p>
<p>Norén&#8217;s 17 free WordPress.org-hosted themes have an estimated 100,000 active installs. Those using his products can be confident that the author behind the themes has Gutenberg-support among his immediate priorities for updates. Users who opt to move forward using the Classic Editor should not notice a difference in how the themes work.</p>
<p>&#8220;I hope that Gutenberg is received with excitement and widespread support when 5.0 is finally released,&#8221; Noren said. &#8220;I also hope that the WordPress team does whatever it can to make sure that end-users don’t feel ambushed by the new editing experience.&#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:"Tue, 11 Sep 2018 18:04:17 +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: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:81:"WPTavern: Meetup Group Organizers Can Now Earn A WordPress.org User Profile Badge";s:7:"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=83806";s:7:"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:92:"https://wptavern.com/meetup-group-organizers-can-now-earn-a-wordpress-org-user-profile-badge";s: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:2241:"<p>The WordPress Community team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2018/09/10/new-tool-for-community-deputies-meetup-tracker/">has unveiled</a> a new tool called Meetup Tracker. This tool replaces the Meetup Status Document and will enable Global Community Team members to more easily track all Meetup.com groups.</p>

<p>There&#8217;s also a <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/meetup-organizer-application/">new application form</a> available for organizers looking to join the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/community-deputy/meetup-program-basics/">WordPress Meetup Chapter Program</a>. Groups that are part of the program have their Meetup.com fees paid for by WordPress Community Support PBC.<br /></p>

<p>Thanks to the new system that is hosted on the backend of <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp Central</a>, the community team is able to award badges to meetup organizers which will be displayed on their WordPress.org user profiles.</p>

<div class="wp-block-image"><img />Example of Contribution Badges Displayed on WordPress.org User Profiles</div>

<p>In order to receive a badge and to fill the new system with updated information, organizers with meetups that are part of the chapter program are required to add the following information to this <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LYnNDDpBQC7przZyufG4W5mdO67BcTTy_yz8eHY24lc/edit#gid=0">Google Document</a>.</p>

<ul><li> <strong>WordPress.org username for main contact</strong> <br /></li><li><strong>WordPress.org usernames of all organizers</strong> <br /></li><li><strong>Whether or not the contact’s WordPress.org email address is still valid</strong> <br /></li></ul>

<p>Badges were added to WordPress.org <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-profile-redesign-is-live">user profiles as part of a redesign in 2014</a> and are a quick way to gauge a person&#8217;s activity and or interests across the WordPress project. </p>

<p>The meetup organizer&#8217;s badge design has yet to be determined. For more information or if you have questions, please leave a comment on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2018/09/10/calling-all-meetup-group-orgnisers/">announcement 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:"Tue, 11 Sep 2018 02:52:41 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"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: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:51:"WPTavern: WordPress Coding Standards 1.1.0 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=83804";s:7:"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:62:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-coding-standards-1-1-0-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:688:"<p>The WordPress Coding Standards version 1.1.0 has <a href="https://github.com/WordPress-Coding-Standards/WordPress-Coding-Standards/releases/tag/1.1.0">been released</a> on GitHub. This release includes more stringent function call formatting checks which are <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/best-practices/coding-standards/php/#multiline-function-calls">explained</a> in the handbook. There&#8217;s also stricter checks for overrides of WordPress global variables. </p>

<p>To see a full list of what was changed, fixed, and added, check out the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress-Coding-Standards/WordPress-Coding-Standards/releases/tag/1.1.0">changelog</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, 11 Sep 2018 01:16:34 +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: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: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:36:"Matt: Seth Godin on Customer Service";s:7:"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=48340";s:7:"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://ma.tt/2018/09/seth-godin-on-customer-service/";s: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:236:"<p>This morning <a href="https://seths.blog/2015/03/what-is-customer-service-for/">I&#8217;m enjoying Seth Godin&#8217;s classic on Customer Service</a>. <cite>Hat tip: <a href="https://andrewspittle.com/">Andrew Spittle</a>.</cite></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, 10 Sep 2018 16:39:42 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:34:"Matt: Responsibility of Technology";s:7:"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=48337";s:7:"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:51:"https://ma.tt/2018/09/responsibility-of-technology/";s: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:834:"<p>There&#8217;s <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/daveyalba/facebook-philippines-dutertes-drug-war">fascinating and terrifying feature article about Facebook, Duterte, and the drug war in the Philippines</a>, written <a href="https://twitter.com/daveyalba/status/1036917302061608960">by Davey Alba</a>. My first trip there was actually to Davao, and having been to the country several times and met so many bloggers there it&#8217;s hard to imagine what&#8217;s described. There are definitely echoes of <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-facebooks-rise-fueled-chaos-and-confusion-in-myanmar/">the Wired feature on Facebook and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar</a>. Both are good reminders that as technologists the tools we create can be used and leveraged in ways we wouldn&#8217;t imagine in our worst nightmares.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 09 Sep 2018 17:46:02 +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: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:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}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:"Mon, 08 Oct 2018 02:17:05 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Mon, 08 Oct 2018 02:00:28 GMT";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:4:"x-nc";s:9:"HIT ord 1";s:16:"content-encoding";s:4:"gzip";}}s:5:"build";s:14:"20180315160444";}