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


";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"version";s:3:"2.0";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"channel";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:61:"
	
	
	
	




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"WPTavern: WordPress Polyglots Team Calls for Volunteers to Organize Global Translation Day Three";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=68066";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:107:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-polyglots-team-calls-for-volunteers-to-organize-global-translation-day-three";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2111:"<p>The WordPress Polyglots team is <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/03/29/global-wordpress-translation-day-3-call-for-organisers/">asking for volunteers</a> to help organize <a href="https://wptranslationday.org/">WordPress Global Translation Day Three</a>. The event may take place on September 30th, the same day as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Translation_Day">International Translation Day,</a> but the date is dependent on when organizing teams form.</p>
<p>Global Translation Day is a 24-hour event that includes live streaming, local, and remote activities. The first Global Translation Day was held <a href="https://wptavern.com/global-wordpress-translation-day-draws-448-participants-from-105-countries">in April, 2016</a> where 448 translators from 105 countries translated 40,350 new strings across 597 projects. These numbers increased to 780 translators with a total of 60,426 strings translated across 590 projects at the conclusion of Global Translation Day Two.</p>
<p>Activities during Translation Day include, on boarding new contributors, sharing knowledge, and discussing topics related to translating. There are a variety of roles available for organizers to fill, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Communication</li>
<li>Design</li>
<li>Outreach</li>
<li>Website/admin volunteers</li>
<li>Live Streaming</li>
<li>Local events mentors</li>
</ul>
<p>These roles are open to anyone who is able to dedicate the time and effort needed to run a smooth event. &#8220;If you have a couple of hours a week to spare, the Polyglots team would really appreciate your help,&#8221; organizer Petya Raykovska said. &#8220;WordPress Translation Day has been essential for many local communities around the globe and each edition helps more people to understand us better.&#8221;</p>
<p>For more information on what each role entails and to volunteer, check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/03/29/global-wordpress-translation-day-3-call-for-organisers/">official call for organizers</a> and leave a comment.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 29 Mar 2017 23:38:59 +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: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:89:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 269 – Interview With Daniel Ha, CEO and Co-founder of Disqus";s:7:"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=68064&preview=true&preview_id=68064";s:7:"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/wpweekly-episode-269-interview-with-daniel-ha-ceo-and-co-founder-of-disqus";s: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:2039:"<p>In this episode, <a href="http://marcuscouch.com/">Marcus Couch</a> and I are joined by <a href="https://twitter.com/danielha?lang=en">Daniel Ha</a>, CEO and co-founder of <a href="https://disqus.com/">Disqus</a>. Ha explains why he created the service, what his thoughts are on large sites disabling comments, and the state of comments on the web.</p>
<p>We also discuss the company&#8217;s monetization strategies and what opportunities exist to generate revenue around comments. Ha shares what the company learned from its Sponsored Comments experiment and what it&#8217;s doing to improve communication with customers.</p>
<h2>Plugins Picked By Marcus:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-cashback/">Woo Cashback</a> provides each user with their own personal wallet with a way to purchase items from your store while using their wallet money or credit.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/export-comment-emails/">Export Comment Emails</a> allows you to export the emails from comments to a CSV or XML file allowing you to import to MailChimp or ConvertKit.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-monitor/">WP Monitor</a> adds a dashboard to the WordPress backend that displays updates, site, and server information in one convenient place. You can monitor one or multiple websites on the go.</p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, April 5th 3:00 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: </strong><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via RSS: </strong><a href="https://wptavern.com/feed/podcast" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Stitcher Radio: </strong><a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wordpress-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Listen To Episode #269:</strong><br />
</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 29 Mar 2017 23:24:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:76:"WPTavern: Poopy.life Lets You Create Free, Unlimited WordPress Test Installs";s:7:"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=68070";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"https://wptavern.com/poopy-life-lets-you-create-free-unlimited-wordpress-test-installs";s: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:5773:"<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/poopy.life_.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Just when you think all the best domain names have been gobbled up by bots and squatters, <a href="http://poopy.life/" target="_blank">Poopy.life</a> emerges as the fastest new way to spin up a WordPress test install. Joe Guilmette, team lead at <a href="http://www.wpallimport.com/" target="_blank">WP All Import</a>, opened up Poopy.life to the public today, offering free unlimited WordPress installs for anyone who needs a temporary site.</p>
<p>After verifying that you&#8217;re not a robot, Poopy.life creates a test install and sends you to the admin where you can see credentials for logging in and sharing the site. The install expires after a week, unless manually extended with the button in the admin. It also allows you to create a sandbox template that can be shared via a URL so that others can quickly create a duplicate install.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/poopy-test-install.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The platform also has a secret menu, like <a href="https://www.thrillist.com/eat/los-angeles/the-in-n-out-secret-menu-ranked" target="_blank">In-N-Out Burger</a>, that allows you to add URL parameters to spin up sites even faster with certain actions already taken:</p>
<p><strong>No URL Parameters</strong><br />
<code>http://poopy.life/create/</code></p>
<p><strong>Copy an existing install</strong><br />
?src=[Sandbox ID]&amp;key=[auth key]<br />
<code>http://poopy.life/create?src=panicky-pheasant&key;=EuT9WPIm8122WCcq</code></p>
<p><strong>Redirect URL</strong><br />
?url=[redirect URL]<br />
<code>http://poopy.life/create?url=/wp-admin/admin.php?page=sandbox</code></p>
<p><strong>Send a welcome email</strong><br />
?email=[email address]<br />
<code>http://poopy.life/create?email=user@example.com</code></p>
<p><strong>Activate Plugins</strong><br />
?activate_plugins=[plugin_slug_1],[plugin_slug_2],[etc]<br />
<code>http://poopy.life/create?activate_plugins=akismet,wordpress-importer</code></p>
<h3>Poopy.life Platform Will Add a Commercial Tier at WPSandbox.io in the Near Future</h3>
<p>Although Poopy.life is both memorable and amusing, the team chose the domain to prevent people from using it in their own product demos and support channels.</p>
<p>&#8220;We chose poopy.life specifically because it is ridiculous and no one will be able to use it in a professional context,&#8221; Guilmette said. &#8220;Also it was shorter than the previous domain we were going to use &#8211; oxygen-is-really-amazing-and-everyone-loves-it.com.&#8221;</p>
<p>Poopy.life runs on CloudLinux and Guilmette said it is hosted on &#8220;a handful of very powerful dedicated servers and ~10 smaller helper instances/load balancers, and duct tape.&#8221;</p>
<p>WP All Import plans to introduce a commercial tier on wpsandbox.io to allow users to have installs on a custom domain, as well as control of the welcome notice and email. The poopy.life domain and landing page will live on, but Guilmette expects that it will soon be blacklisted by Google.</p>
<p>&#8220;The WordPress installs are real WordPress installs and you can install any plugin on them,&#8221; Guilmette said. &#8220;You can install a PHP shell and dig around the server and run whatever weird spammy malware you want. There really isn’t any way to prevent it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Guilmette estimates that Poopy.life is powering approximately 2,000 test installs right now. He doesn&#8217;t know how many their infrastructure can handle, but said they can easily scale it up.</p>
<p>&#8220;We don’t really monitor or throttle usage so much as try to make sure that one user isn’t able to negatively impact another,&#8221; Guilmette said. &#8220;If the service grows in popularity, there will probably be some pain points that we’ll need to address. But we’ve been doing this for a long time and have worked out many of the kinks.&#8221;</p>
<p>The team has been using a version of the Poopy.life platform on <a href="http://www.wpallimport.com/try/" target="_blank">wpallimport.com/try/</a> and <a href="http://www.oxygenapp.com/try/" target="_blank">oxygenapp.com/try/</a> for several years. In addition to being a fun, free tool they could offer to the public, the platform has also been critical to the success of the company. It allows users to test WP All Import and Oxygen products before purchasing.</p>
<p>&#8220;Poopy.life is basically magical golden dogfood we’ve been eating for years,&#8221; Guilmette said. &#8220;This platform is huge for us. Back before we got serious about this we were hosting it on a VPS at MediaTemple, just kind of hacking it together. It would go down all the time, and whenever it did it would throw our support channel into disarray and sales would drop by 50%.&#8221;</p>
<p>Guilmette said the most important thing WP All Import customers want to know is if the product will be able to import their files. The testing platform drives sales for the company and reduces refunds and buyer&#8217;s remorse, because customers know exactly what they are getting. It also has proven to reduce support requests.</p>
<p>&#8220;We get way fewer simple questions about the UI, because people can just try it,&#8221; Guilmette said. &#8220;So that clears support up for people who have real problems. It also makes those support requests easier, because the user can reproduce the problem on a debug install, and we can poke at it without worrying about breaking their site.&#8221;</p>
<p>Guilmette said the team is working on launching the commercial tier and may have something ready within a couple of weeks or sooner with the help of testers.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:36:21 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:40:"HeroPress: WordPress: A Tool for Success";s:7:"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=1672";s:7:"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:52:"https://heropress.com/essays/wordpress-tool-success/";s: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:12379:"<img width="960" height="480" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/032917-min-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: I was not an obvious choice for a successful web person, but WordPress helped me reach my goals." /><p>I was a college teacher for most of my life. When my fourth baby arrived, I gave up a travel-heavy university job and took a “mommy job” as a bookstore manager. I chose books, held teacher workshops, and read stories to children for 15 years. As the internet became important, we put up a website and I became the manager of that site. 18 months later, the bookstore’s owners went bankrupt and closed the store.</p>
<p>My initial reaction was, “They can’t do that – we’re #2 on Google!” We’d also gone from zero ecommerce sales to $5,000 a month. We had visitors to our blog from 192 different countries. Online, we were a success. But it was 2008, and lots of small businesses were going under. Lots of people were unemployed. I was unemployed for the first time in my life.</p>
<p>Being #2 or even #1 on Google had a different meaning in those days, before customized search results. For me, it meant that I had become skilled with SEO and content marketing, but I figured I’d have to return to the classroom when my job ended.</p>
<blockquote><p>“We couldn’t have done this without you,” the owner of the bookstore said. “There are other businesses that would benefit from your skills. Why don’t you go into business helping them?”</p></blockquote>
<p>I scoffed bitterly. I had kids in college and two more getting ready to finish high school. I clearly needed a higher level of security than self-employment could offer.</p>
<p>What’s more, I had already discovered that people who found out what I did with computers invariably looked at me oddly and said, “You don’t look like a computer guy.” They were right, although we now have a much more open minded idea of what computer guys can look like. Back then, though, I looked like someone’s mom. I was someone’s mom. This caused a high level of cognitive dissonance for some people, I knew.</p>
<p>But I was bold enough to do a little bit of helping other businesses while I looked for work. I wrote an essay at the site that was then SEOMoz and got a job offer in the comments. I picked up a couple of local clients, and then through an online marketplace found some international clients. I went to job interviews, of course, and was offered jobs managing various things. But nothing I was offered was as fun as the work I was doing online. I turned down all the offers I received.</p>
<h3>The Web People</h3>
<p>I clearly remember my last job interview. It was Halloween 2008. I was talking with the vice chancellor at a medical school about his online needs. This was my first IRL tech job interview and the vice chancellor had told me I was his favorite candidate. The secretary came to the door and said, “We need to take Rebecca down to the basement to meet the Web People.”</p>
<p>She was dressed as a witch. The hallways were full of cotton spider webs and spooky decorations. She was taking me down to the basement to meet the Web People. I was the only one who laughed.</p>
<p>You see the humor, right? They did not. I realized that I didn’t really want to go back to academia, I didn’t want to manage things, and I didn’t want to sit in a cubicle proofreading. I wanted to have fun with websites.</p>
<p>I talked with my family about the possibility of going into business for myself, and the possibility that I could fail and limit their college choices. My youngest son said, “You’ve always done what’s best for us. You should do what’s best for you.”<br />
I have great kids.</p>
<blockquote><p>At that point, I reviewed my income figures, saw that I was earning twice as much as I had earned as a bookstore manager, and decided that I would carry on as an independent Web Person.</p></blockquote>
<p>As a freelance web writer and SEO, I never met a CMS I couldn’t make friends with. If there wasn’t a CMS at a website, I used Dreamweaver. Drupal, Joomla, Mango, sticks and clay tablets, I didn’t care. I used WordPress along with all the other options my clients wanted. In 2009, after being featured in the Wall Street Journal, my freelance business boomed. I teamed up with designers and built websites in addition to writing for web designers and agencies and businesses on four continents.</p>
<p>My eldest daughter, Rosie, saw that I needed some help and came to work with me. “Saw that I needed some help” may be too kind a way to put it. I have some useful skills, but my main goal for my business was not to starve in the gutter and my main goal for accounting was to keep out of jail. We met with the local Small Business Association rep a couple of months after Rosie joined me and he said to me, kindly but firmly, “You’d be in trouble without her.”</p>
<p>But with Rosie as my partner, I was able to build a thriving business. In 2010 we built a WordPress site for K-12 teachers just in time for our first WordCamp. We needed a lab site, and I had just finished writing a bunch of lesson plans with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In the course of that project I had discovered how limited online STEM (science, tech, engineering, and math) options for K-12 teachers were. We built a website called FreshPlans to help fill that need and had a functioning WordPress site for WordCamp.</p>
<h3>0 to 8,000 in six months</h3>
<p>Six months later, Rosie and I were looking at the stats for FreshPlans – 8,000 visits a month – and she said, “Why aren’t we doing this for our own website? Why aren’t we doing this for all our clients?”</p>
<p>I didn’t have a good answer for why we weren’t doing it, but we went ahead and switched our business site to WordPress. We convinced our designer to give WordPress a chance and built WordPress websites for clients who needed new sites. We saw how much more sense the websites made to our clients. We saw how much more quickly we could build the sites and how much more value we could provide for our clients without the cost of bringing in a developer. We found that we were able to streamline our process for the clients whose blogging and social media we look after. We saw impressive results for our clients, too; not every website can go from 0 to 8,000 visits in six months, but we definitely see better results with WordPress than without it.</p>
<p>Within a year, we went from platform agnostic to a dedicated WordPress shop. It worked better for us. It worked better for the people whose sites we built and managed. We were also beginning to see the value of open source and to appreciate the WordPress community.</p>
<p>After that first WordCamp, I spoke at a couple of camps every year and our company sponsors and helps organize a couple of WordCamps nearly every year. Last year I spoke at three and I hope to continue expanding that service. WordPress has been good to us and we want to give back to the awesome WordPress community.</p>
<h3>WordPress Success</h3>
<p>Our business has grown. My eldest son graduated from college and joined the family business. My second daughter left us to work for Automattic. We’ve had some rough times, as every business does, but we can be proud of the work we do.</p>
<p>We have the privilege of working with awesome clients, both locally and around the world. They can share their brands and their bigger messages in ways that would have been difficult and costly just a decade ago. We’re able to get great results for them – with hard work and WordPress.</p>
<blockquote><p>WordPress is not a magic pixie dust you can sprinkle on your website for instant success.</p></blockquote>
<p>But there are some things about WordPress that set you up for success:</p>
<ul>
<li>It may not be true (okay, it isn’t true) that you can master WordPress with no tech skills, training, or effort. But you don’t have to be a programmer to get the results you want and need in WordPress. If you have something to say, you can get it published more easily in WordPress than with other platforms.</li>
<li>There’s no quality tradeoff. We usually build custom websites with talented and trained designers, but I’ve built dozens myself with pre-made themes and my own HTML and CSS skills (and great photos – the secret weapon for non-artists who want to create beautiful WordPress websites). Either way, you’re not limited by WordPress as you are by drag-and-drop sitebuilding tools.</li>
<li>Because updating and adding content is so easy with WordPress, you can accomplish the essentials of content marketing more easily. You can focus on your message with less worry about the medium. You and your Web People can shape the web experience you want for your visitors efficiently.</li>
<li>WordPress has the most supportive community you can find. We’re friends with local companies that we could also call competitors, because we spend time together in Meetups and WordCamp organizing meetings. We also have a large network of WordPress folks we respect and admire. It’s great to see them in person at WordCamps, but we also have the opportunity to get to know them better virtually. We help them and they help us.</li>
</ul>
<p>I can say from experience that WordPress has made a big difference in my life. I’m still a mom – in fact, I’m now a grandmother. But I’m also the owner of a successful web firm and a successful educational website. I write for and care for a number of websites I can be proud of.</p>
<p>Last year at WordCamp Kansas City a man came up to show me his new website. I had spoken the year before about how to get started with a WordPress website, and he had been able to build a site for his fantasy hockey league. He was excited to show it to me, and I was excited to see it. That capacity to help other people achieve their goals with WordPress means a lot to me.</p>
<p>If you’re just starting with WordPress, let my story encourage you. I was not an obvious choice for a successful Web Person, but WordPress helped me reach my goals. If you’re already a success with WordPress, find opportunities to help others reach their success, too.</p>
<p>It’s the WordPress way.</p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: WordPress: A Tool for Success" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=WordPress%3A%20A%20Tool%20for%20Success&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fwordpress-tool-success%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: WordPress: A Tool for Success" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fwordpress-tool-success%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%2Fwordpress-tool-success%2F&title=WordPress%3A+A+Tool+for+Success" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: WordPress: A Tool for Success"></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/wordpress-tool-success/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/032917-min-150x150.jpg&description=WordPress: A Tool for Success" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: WordPress: A Tool for Success"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/wordpress-tool-success/" title="WordPress: A Tool for Success"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/wordpress-tool-success/">WordPress: A Tool for Success</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 29 Mar 2017 11:30:02 +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:"Rebecca Haden";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:93:"WPTavern: Poedit 2 Introduces Direct Connection to WordPress, Adds Support for Twig Templates";s:7:"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=68041";s:7:"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:103:"https://wptavern.com/poedit-2-introduces-direct-connection-to-wordpress-adds-support-for-twig-templates";s: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:2392:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/poedit.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://poedit.net/news/introducing-poedit2" target="_blank">Poedit 2</a> was released today after two years in development. The app has a refreshed interface for translating .PO files, which Poedit creator Václav Slavík said was created by a professional designer. It is also the first paid upgrade for Pro users since the app <a href="https://wptavern.com/poedit-adds-pro-support-for-wordpress-theme-and-plugin-translation" target="_blank">added support for WordPress theme and plugin translations</a> in 2013.</p>
<p>Poedit 2 introduces direct connectivity support for WordPress, allowing developers to connect directly to the server instead of working with unpackaged plugins/themes locally.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/wordpress_connect@2x.png?ssl=1"><img /></a><br />
&#8220;Putting translation files on the server was the most common source of problems in Poedit (too many things can go wrong if you’re not yet very familiar with WP) and this feature should help a lot with that,&#8221; Slavík said.</p>
<p>This release adds support for <a href="http://twig.sensiolabs.org/" target="_blank">Twig templates</a> and <a href="https://upstatement.com/timber/" target="_blank">Timber</a>. In the past, users had difficulty extracting strings from Twig templates, requiring some fragile workarounds. Slavík said some users resorted to setting up Poedit to treat them as Python files. Poedit 2 has a new built-in extractor for Twig.</p>
<p>Poedit 2 also introduces a new pre-translation feature that allows for batch pre-translation of the entire PO file at once using Poedit&#8217;s online database and machine translation. After this has processed, users can then read through and correct any errors. Slavík said this feature saves a lot of time for many WordPress-related translations, such as themes, where a lot of strings are often repeated.</p>
<p>Poedit used to be available from the Mac App Store but is now distributed exclusively from the <a href="https://poedit.net/" target="_blank">Poedit.net</a> website. The latest release drops support for older operating systems and requires users to be on Windows 7 or newer, macOS 10.10 Yosemite, or a modern Linux distribution.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 29 Mar 2017 01:02:04 +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: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:105:"WPTavern: Data From Theme Reviews Shows Authors Need More Education on Developing Secure WordPress Themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=67987";s:7:"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:116:"https://wptavern.com/data-from-theme-reviews-shows-authors-need-more-education-on-developing-secure-wordpress-themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4489:"<p>Last week, we <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-theme-review-team-making-progress-on-clearing-out-1000-review-backlog">highlighted the progress</a> being made by the Theme Review Team in clearing out a 1K+ review backlog. In an effort to determine common problems with themes discovered by reviewers, Carolina Nymark, a member of the Theme Review Team, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2017/03/25/review-statistics/">reviewed 100 tickets</a> from 531 themes that were closed and marked not approved between December and February. Nymark cautions that the data does not assure statistical accuracy and is not representative of the entire directory.</p>
<p>Her assessment shows that the most common problems discovered by reviewers were:</p>
<ul>
<li>Missing escaping or using the wrong functions: 23 themes</li>
<li>Text that is not translation ready: 21 themes</li>
<li>Missing prefix: 20 themes</li>
<li>Scripts or styles are not enqueued: 18 themes</li>
<li>PHP notices, errors or warnings: 12 themes</li>
<li>Style tags does not correspond with theme functionality, or are deprecated: 10 themes</li>
</ul>
<p>Nymark also reviewed 100 out of 177 new themes that went live between December and February. Out of these themes, the most common problems were:</p>
<ul>
<li>Missing escaping or using the wrong functions: 51 Themes</li>
<li>Text that is not translation ready: 44 Themes</li>
<li>Missing prefix: 39 Themes</li>
<li>Missing license or copyright information for included assets: 34 Themes</li>
<li>Unused code or files: 25 Themes</li>
<li>PHP notices, errors or warnings: 20 Themes</li>
<li>Missing sanitization, or using the wrong functions: 18 Themes</li>
<li>Options in the customizer that are not working: 18 Themes</li>
</ul>
<p>Last Friday, Jose Castaneda, Ulrich Pogson, and Nymark participated in a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2017/03/27/chat-with-matt-about-the-future-of-theme-repo/">voice chat</a> with Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of the WordPress project, to discuss the future of the theme directory. The team discussed ideas around automation, improving the theme preview experience, and content portability. One of the experiments Mullenweg proposed is to remove the manual review process and rely more on user feedback. Feedback could include, tags, reviews, and other meta data.</p>
<p>&#8220;As we are not sure if the process will function without manual reviews, we will start working on getting better user feedback on themes,&#8221; Pogson said. &#8220;Once we have a good infrastructure in place we can experiment with how the repository reacts with no manual reviews.</p>
<p>&#8220;We discussed the process we would go about making decisions on changes to the theme repository and came to the consensus that a direct democracy is too fragile and representative democracy would be a better solution.&#8221;</p>
<p>Security, code errors, and prefixing, were also mentioned in the conversation as the most common issues encountered with themes. The team was given a series of tasks to complete and will report the results to Mullenweg at a later date.</p>
<h2>New Theme Check Plugin Will Detect Common Security Issues</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/handbook/about/">Theme Handbook</a> doesn&#8217;t have a chapter on security but it does link to a series of articles on writing secure themes in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/handbook/review/resources/">resources section</a>. Justin Tadlock, Key Reviewer, says work is underway on a new <a href="https://github.com/WPTRT/WordPress-Coding-Standards">Theme Check</a> plugin that will automatically detect security issues commonly seen during the manual review process. These include escaping and data sanitization.</p>
<p>&#8220;If we could get the greater theme developer community to pitch in and help get this finished, it would be awesome,&#8221; Tadlock said. &#8220;Even outside of WordPress.org, ThemeForest and commercial theme shops could really use this.&#8221;</p>
<p>Members of the TRT are testing the plugin behind the scenes and are working to eliminate false-positives. The best way to get involved in the project is to view the<a href="https://github.com/WPTRT/WordPress-Coding-Standards/issues"> Issue tracker</a> and submit pull requests. Once the new theme check plugin is live, it will give authors another tool at their disposal for developing more secure WordPress themes.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 28 Mar 2017 22:52:21 +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: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:93:"WPTavern: WordPress Relaunches Plugin Directory with New Design and Improved Search Algorithm";s:7:"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=68018";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:104:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-relaunches-plugin-directory-with-new-design-and-improved-search-algorithm";s: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:5396:"<p>The new <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/" target="_blank">WordPress Plugin Directory</a> went live today. Contributors have been working for the past year on rebuilding the directory with a new design and better capabilities for searching through the 45K+ available plugins.</p>
<p>The new landing page displays a search bar prominently at the top, followed by sections for featured plugins, popular plugins, and beta plugins.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/wordpress-plugin-directory.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The design changes to the individual plugin pages have received <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/advancedwp/permalink/1446257985436411/?match=YWR2YW5jZWQgd29yZHByZXNzLHdvcmRwcmVzcy5vcmcsd29yZHByZXNzLGFkdmFuY2Vk" target="_blank">mixed feedback from members of Advanced WordPress Facebook.</a> The screenshots slider and FAQ accordion UI are welcome improvements, but many are not fond of how the new single plugin display ditches the previous tabbed interface in favor of truncated sections with numerous &#8220;read more&#8221; links. This requires the visitor to click and scroll repeatedly through a massive wall of text. The experience of doing this to find information is much less efficient than the previous tabbed UI.</p>
<p>Many of the plugin header images appear to be stretched now with the new wider content area, but this may encourage developers to update their listings. Several users have commented that they are disappointed with the removal of stats, which are now viewable for admins only. Plugin team member Mika Epstein said they are waiting for more feedback from end users (not plugin developers) on whether to make them publicly viewable again.</p>
<p>The new design matches <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-launches-homepage-redesign" target="_blank">WordPress.org&#8217;s homepage redesign</a>, which went from sketches to prototype to live during the last few weeks of December 2016. The most exciting improvements, however, are found under the hood.</p>
<p>The plugin directory is now powered by WordPress, instead of bbPress, making it easier for plugin developers and reviewers to manage plugins, tags/categories, and committers. The submission and review process has also been streamlined so the plugin team will no longer reject plugins after 7 days. They also have to ability to rename plugin slugs prior to approval for easier handling of typos.</p>
<h3>New Plugin Search Algorithm Delivers More Relevant Results</h3>
<p>The most significant user-facing improvement in the redesign is better search relevance. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2016/08/30/initial-analysis-of-plugin-search-logs/" target="_blank">Analysis of plugin search logs</a> in August 2016 showed the directory handles 100,000 searches per day and receives more than 500k unique search queries per month.</p>
<p>Greg Ichneumon Brown, a Data Wrangler at Automattic, published an in-depth <a href="https://data.blog/2017/03/15/improving-relevance-and-elasticsearch-query-patterns/" target="_blank">article</a> on how he and contributors improved search fidelity for the new plugin directory. The eye-opening account explains just how opinionated search algorithms need to be in order to give users the best experience at this scale.</p>
<p>&#8220;In improving the fidelity of search results, it’s not just a question of how we satisfy a single user’s search query, but how we satisfy thousands of users for each unique search term: which plugins will support that volume of users and their requests for support?&#8221; Brown said. &#8220;Which are most likely to give all of these users a great WordPress experience?&#8221;</p>
<p>The new search algorithm delivers results based on this premise. Brown added a calculation for the lowest/highest ratio of active_installs to the number of times the search was performed. However, this isn&#8217;t the only factor that influences whether or not a users will have a good experience with the top results. The algorithm also includes signals that Brown said plugin authors have a lot more control over:</p>
<ul>
<li>Resolving support threads</li>
<li>Keeping the plugin update to date</li>
<li>Testing the plugin on the latest versions of WordPress</li>
</ul>
<p>Brown&#8217;s <a href="https://data.blog/2017/03/15/improving-relevance-and-elasticsearch-query-patterns/" target="_blank">post</a> breaks down the Elasticsearch query he developed for the directory and explains how text matching works to find relevant results for author searches, queries that include operators, and partial-word boosting.</p>
<p>The plugin directory relaunch has several known issues that the plugin team noted in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2017/03/28/the-new-directory-is-mostly-live/" target="_blank">announcement</a> today. Users are noticing many broken links, problems with SVN, and other bugs when navigating around the new directory. The team has a list of tickets on <a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=reopened&status=assigned&status=reviewing&status=new&status=accepted&group=status&milestone=Plugin+Directory+v3.0" target="_blank">Meta Trac</a> that they are working through and feedback is welcome. Plugin submissions are temporarily disabled while the transition is completed.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 28 Mar 2017 21:59:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:85:"WPTavern: UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd Links WordPress.com to the Spread of Terrorism";s:7:"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=67968";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"https://wptavern.com/uk-home-secretary-amber-rudd-links-wordpress-com-to-the-spread-of-terrorism";s: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:7298:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/wordpresscom-logo.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>UK government officials are targeting online service providers after terrorist Khalid Masood killed four people and injured more than two dozen in an attack in Westminster last week. In an <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/26/amber-rudd-social-media-firms-must-do-stop-terror/" target="_blank">article</a> published on the Telegraph Sunday morning, British Home Secretary Amber Rudd called on Google, Twitter, and Facebook to take action on extremist content. She also identified Telegram, Justpaste.it, and WordPress.com as smaller platforms through which terrorist activity is spreading.</p>
<p>&#8220;There should be no place for terrorists to hide,&#8221; Rudd told Andrew Marr in an <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04y2cnh" target="_blank">interview</a> over the weekend. &#8220;We need to make sure organizations like WhatsApp, and there are plenty of others like that, don’t provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other.&#8221;</p>
<p>Last week&#8217;s attack in London also seems to have reignited the UK government&#8217;s war on encryption, as Rudd said that the security agencies&#8217; inability to crack encrypted messages during an investigation is &#8220;completely unacceptable.&#8221; Masood allegedly used WhatsApp to communicate shortly before the attack.</p>
<p>The Home Secretary has summoned representatives from a list of online service providers, including Google, Twitter, Facebook, and smaller companies, to a meeting this week to discuss combatting terrorist abuse of these platforms. Automattic would not confirm whether the company has been summoned but it seems likely given that WordPress.com was one of the platforms Rudd highlighted over the weekend.</p>
<p>The Telegraph article strongly linked WordPress.com to terrorism, citing several claims from the Counter Extremism Project that the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/03/01/how-alleged-isis-videos-are-creating-a-headache-for-wordpress/?utm_term=.bb8acba3d6ff" target="_blank">published</a> earlier this month:</p>
<blockquote><p>But most such sites are publicly available and used to spread content. According to US think tank the Counter Extremism Project, WordPress.com sites have played host to beheading videos, firing squads, and a video of a man being shot in the head, emblazoned with the words &#8216;This In the Enemy Of Allah.&#8217;</p></blockquote>
<p>Historically, WordPress.com has been a strong supporter of free speech but posting terrorist propaganda is a violation of its terms of service. The site has a dedicated page outlining the platform&#8217;s stance on <a href="https://en.support.wordpress.com/terrorist-activity/" target="_blank">terrorist activity</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>While our service is designed to enable users to freely express their ideas and opinions, however controversial, safety is important to us. As such, we don’t allow websites of known terrorist groups or genuine calls for violence against individuals or groups on WordPress.com.</p></blockquote>
<p>WordPress.com users can <a href="https://en.support.wordpress.com/report-blogs/" target="_blank">report sites</a> they find to be suspicious but the page also emphasizes the platform&#8217;s commitment to free speech:</p>
<blockquote><p>Please note that the team behind WordPress.com strongly believes in freedom of speech. WordPress.com has a vast audience spread across many cultures, countries and backgrounds with varying values and our service is designed to let internet users freely express any ideas and opinions without us censoring or endorsing them.</p>
<p>We take all reports seriously, but we won’t remove sites just because they are offensive.</p></blockquote>
<p>WordPress.com also denies use to individuals, groups, or entities on the <a href="https://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sdnlist.pdf" target="_blank">Specially Designated Nationals</a> list, maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not yet clear what Home Secretary Rudd is calling for in summoning global tech company representatives to a meeting, but her comments on the Andrew Marr show indicate the government may request closer monitoring.</p>
<p>&#8220;What I&#8217;m saying is the best people &#8211; who understand the technology, who understand the necessary hashtags to stop this stuff even being put up, not just taking it down, but stopping it being put up in the first place &#8211; are going to be them,&#8221; Rudd said. She also said she is in conversations with the U.S. government to help get all of these companies around the table to agree to stop this kind of content from being published in the first place.</p>
<p>Automattic would not provide a comment at this time regarding its position on the UK government attempting to curb online extremism by targeting online services. However, the company has a long history of actively pushing back against requests that violate users&#8217; freedom of speech. In 2010, Automattic <a href="http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/support-the-first-amendment-with-1-for-all/" target="_blank">demonstrated its support for freedom of speech by raising awareness about the First Amendment</a>. Automattic&#8217;s General Counsel Paul Sieminski wrote about the company&#8217;s commitment to <a href="https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/striking-back-against-censorship/" target="_blank">strike back against censorship</a> in 2013 after taking to the courts to stand with users against DMCA abuse. In 2014, when tech companies all over the world joined forces to <a href="https://thedaywefightback.org/" target="_blank">protest NSA surveillance</a>, Automattic was among them.</p>
<p>If Rudd&#8217;s call for tech companies to take &#8220;a more proactive role&#8221; in tackling terrorist abuse ultimately means introducing monitoring that violates users&#8217; privacy and gives government more access, she will be hard-pressed to get cooperation. American companies like Automattic and Apple have already demonstrated they are willing to go to court to protect users&#8217; freedoms and privacy.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">To help keep our streets safe, we need to rise up against companies like <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Apple?src=hash">#Apple</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Whattsapp?src=hash">#Whattsapp</a> who provide space and comfort to terrorists</p>
<p>&mdash; Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorriesMP) <a href="https://twitter.com/NadineDorriesMP/status/846267877435035648">March 27, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>The anti-encryption rhetoric surrounding this issue seems manufactured to allow UK government officials to capitalize on a public tragedy in order to push a political agenda. Rudd is unlikely to find many companies in the tech industry that are eager to hand over users&#8217; freedoms and private communications, but hopefully the summit will serve to educate government officials on why it&#8217;s dangerous to legislate backdoors into consumer products.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 27 Mar 2017 22:30:41 +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: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:71:"WPTavern: WordCamp Miami 2017 Will Livestream All Sessions this Weekend";s:7:"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=67929";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-miami-2017-will-livestream-all-sessions-this-weekend";s: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:1577:"<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/wordcamp-miami-2017.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://2017.miami.wordcamp.org/" target="_blank">WordCamp Miami</a> kicked off today with its ancillary workshops for beginners, freelancers, and BuddyPress enthusiasts. The WordCamp is entering its 9th year and organizers are expecting more than 800 attendees. Tickets are once again sold out, but latecomers hoping to attend can sign up for the <a href="http://davidbisset.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8f9242549d66d09eceb714b54&id=6685084fbd" target="_blank">wait list</a>.</p>
<p>WordCamp Miami is one of the most well-established WordPress events and is known for having high quality sessions. This year&#8217;s <a href="https://2017.miami.wordcamp.org/schedule/" target="_blank">schedule</a> includes 60+ local and international speakers, a JavaScript learning track, and new AMA spots, featuring prominent people in the community. If you are unable to attend but want to join in remotely, the camp will be <a href="https://2017.miami.wordcamp.org/live/" target="_blank">live streaming</a> all sessions on Saturday and Sunday for free. There is no registration for the <a href="https://2017.miami.wordcamp.org/live/" target="_blank">live stream</a> and organizer David Bisset said it doesn&#8217;t have a limit on the number of people who can watch simultaneously. Participants can join in on Twitter with the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wcmia?src=hash" target="_blank">#wcmia</a> hashtag.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 24 Mar 2017 21:52:30 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:80:"WPTavern: Medium Aims to Fix ‘Broken’ Media with New $5 Subscription Program";s:7:"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=67900";s:7:"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/medium-aims-to-fix-broken-media-with-new-5-subscription-program";s: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:6399:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/medium.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Nearly three months after <a href="https://blog.medium.com/renewing-mediums-focus-98f374a960be#.xij39212w" target="_blank">laying off a third of its staff</a> and publicly admitting that its previous ad-based revenue model was broken, Medium has introduced a new <a href="https://blog.medium.com/upgrade-your-medium-924b74c36552#.8qjmspkzj" target="_blank">$5 per month subscription program</a>. The internet speculated freely about Medium&#8217;s next move after CEO Ev Williams said the company would be taking “a different, bolder approach” to the problem of driving payment for quality content.</p>
<p>It turns out the &#8220;bolder approach&#8221; he referenced is a subscription-based model, one that <a href="https://thenextweb.com/opinion/2017/03/23/ev-williams-lost-goddamn-mind/#.tnw_zZrtqFcj" target="_blank">skeptics</a> are already eager to <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/24/medium_five_bucks_a_month_for_nothing/" target="_blank">tear apart</a> as many media organizations have struggled to find success with paywalls. Early subscribers will receive access to curated content, a new reading experience, ad-free browsing, and an offline reading list. Medium will be using the subscription revenue to pay writers for content, some of which will be restricted to members only.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will be routing 100% of the revenue from founding members (those who sign up in the first few months) to writers and independent publishers who have important work to do,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;Those who have hard-won expertise, do exhaustive research, and think deeply. Those who make us all smarter. Those who maximize our understanding of the world but don’t necessarily maximize clicks — and, therefore, are at a disadvantage amongst the highly optimized algorithm chum being slung by the truckload by low-cost content purveyors.&#8221;</p>
<p>Medium&#8217;s new curated content stream will surface the most worthwhile articles from its network, which grew from 1.9 million posts in 2015 to 7.5 million in 2016 posts. Williams identified the types of content members can expect with their subscriptions in a <a href="https://blog.medium.com/our-approach-to-member-only-content-cfce188261d1#.ciyj1nlir" target="_blank">followup post</a> viewable only to subscribers:</p>
<ul>
<li>Politics. What’s happening behind the headlines. How to think about it. What to do about it.</li>
<li>Work. Lessons in business, startups, leadership, management, and money.</li>
<li>Self. Smart takes on how to be your best you — happier, healthier, more productive.</li>
<li>Future. Where the world is going — technology, trends, what it all means.</li>
</ul>
<p>For those who have long regarded Medium as the home of hot takes, open letters, and scintillating rants, the new curated content will feature pieces from those who Williams describes as &#8220;doing important work.&#8221; The list above indicates the platform will be promoting a hefty does of spoon-fed thought and self-improvement topics. In order to make money from the people who have it to spend, the blogging silo must focus on helping those with too much information and not enough time to figure out &#8220;how to think about&#8221; important issues.</p>
<p>Medium is currently <a href="https://medium.com/@adamhodgkin/medium-needs-a-business-model-550d3e2ff2ab#.f0ld2suga" target="_blank">soliciting writers via email</a>, according to one recipient, Adam Hodgkin. This move marks a change in the company where it is essentially becoming a publisher in addition to an aggregator, commissioning content that will deliver that trademark Medium flavor.</p>
<p>Authors should be aware that articles published behind Medium&#8217;s paywall will lose their potential to go viral. In addition to trading site and content ownership for convenience, those who agree to write for Medium&#8217;s members will be limiting the potential reach their content may have had if it was published in the open.</p>
<p>&#8220;Media is broken,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;And we need to fix it. I’m super passionate about this. Though we’ve changed our approach recently, this has been Medium’s mission from day one. We saw the feedback loops for publishing content to be a major problem, and we set out to build a new model. We’ve come a long way since — establishing ourselves as the platform for thoughtfulness, depth, and insight from independent thinkers. But the greater challenge — changing the incentives that drive our consumption of media online — has become even more pressing. It’s time to double-down.&#8221;</p>
<p>If there&#8217;s something new about this economic model, we have yet to see it. Spotify, Netflix, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other businesses have successfully implemented the subscription model. Using it to fund the type of content that Medium aims to highlight may not be feasible, however, as consumers tend to gravitate towards free content and news that is read and shared in the open.</p>
<p>If Medium&#8217;s only option for exiting the <a href="http://readwrite.com/2007/03/01/attention_economy_overview/" target="_blank">attention economy</a> is to further lock down users&#8217; content inside its proprietary silo, the remedy is worse than the disease. Instead of seeing ads on articles available to everyone, subscribers now pay to read content that is selected by and owned by Medium, a company that still needs to find a way to keep the lights on once all the VC money is gone.</p>
<p>Medium tried the ad-driven publishing model without success and then declared that it was a broken system. Was the model broken because it didn&#8217;t bring Medium enough money to keep paddling on? Or is it fundamentally broken because it &#8220;incentivizes the wrong behaviors,&#8221; as Williams put it? His newfound idealism behind the push to leave the domain of &#8220;ad buyers and social media echo chambers&#8221; appears to be a mask for the lack of a concrete monetization strategy.</p>
<p>Williams&#8217; closing appeal says everything: &#8220;Join us early, and help us figure it out.&#8221; Medium is still experimenting on publishers to find a way to stay afloat.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 24 Mar 2017 21:24:49 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"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:82:"WPTavern: How to Find the Age of a Plugin Hosted in the WordPress Plugin Directory";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=67923";s:7:"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/how-to-find-the-age-of-a-plugin-hosted-in-the-wordpress-plugin-directory";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1554:"<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/">WordPress plugin directory</a> provides information such as version requirements, compatibility, last updated, and active installs for plugins. What it doesn&#8217;t tell you is how old a plugin is. A new site called<a href="http://pluginage.ahmadawais.com/"> Age WP Plugin</a> created by <a href="https://AhmadAwais.com">Ahmad Awais</a> and <a href="https://maedahbatool.com/">Maedah Batool</a> makes finding this information easy. Simply type in a plugin&#8217;s slug into the search box and hit enter.</p>
<img />Hello Dolly is 8 Years Old
<p>Awais created the site after Batool inquired about the age of a plugin for an article she was writing. Using the WordPress.org API, Awais discovered that one of the data points was a plugin&#8217;s submission date. In addition to displaying a plugin&#8217;s age, the site also shows the number of downloads it has. In early 2015, the <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-plugin-directory-launches-new-design">plugin directory was redesigned</a> and replaced the download count with the number of active installs.</p>
<p>The site has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/advancedwp/permalink/1441868299208713/">received positive feedback</a> from plugin authors in the Advanced WordPress Facebook group. Something I&#8217;d like to see added is a list of 10 or 25 of the oldest plugins in the directory. Awais plans to redesign the site using a different color scheme and fix styling issues reported by testers.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 24 Mar 2017 19:12:11 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"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: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:57:"WPTavern: PHP 5.6 Is Now the Most Widely Used PHP Version";s:7:"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=67851";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"https://wptavern.com/php-5-6-is-now-the-most-widely-used-php-version";s: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:2510:"<p>PHP 5.6 usage has steadily increased over the past year and has now overtaken versions 5.3 and 5.4 to be the most widely used version, according to <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/history_details/pl-php/5" target="_blank">W3Techs&#8217; stats</a>. PHP is used by 82.6% of all the websites for which W3Techs can detect a server-side programming language. PHP 7 accounts for 3.1% of these websites and PHP 5.x makes up 95.3%, with version 5.6 usage at the top end.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/php-version-usage.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://php.net/usage.php" target="_blank">PHP.net&#8217;s usage stats</a> page hasn&#8217;t been updated sine 2013 but the project recommends W3Techs&#8217; stats for viewing PHP market share by version. W3Techs&#8217; methodology takes the top 10 million websites, according to Alexa rankings, to offer a representative sample of established sites without including domain spammers.</p>
<p>PHP 5.6 overtaking older versions is a significant milestone for the PHP community, since it still receives <a href="http://php.net/supported-versions.php" target="_blank">support for critical security issues</a> until December 31, 2018. The older versions that previously dominated usage reached End of Life in 2015 and 2016 and are no longer receiving security updates.</p>
<p>Adoption of supported PHP versions is somewhat slower in the WordPress community. According to the project&#8217;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/stats/" target="_blank">stats</a>, more than half of all WordPress sites (55.6%) are using unsupported versions of PHP (versions 5.2 &#8211; 5.5).</p>
<p>In early December 2016, WordPress updated its <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/" target="_blank">hosting recommendation</a> to PHP 7+, which should help new users who are approaching hosts to request their sites be put on newer versions of PHP. In addition to these recommendations, WordPress&#8217; strategy in the past has been to cultivate relationships with hosts to help improve host configurations for users. The project recently launched the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/" target="_blank">Make WordPress Hosting</a> community to facilitate collaboration among those with hosting experience. Participants are currently working on documenting best practices, including recommendations for PHP versions offered, and providing tools for the community.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 23 Mar 2017 19:15:29 +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: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:32:"Matt: On the James Altucher Show";s:7:"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=47188";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:49:"https://ma.tt/2017/03/on-the-james-altucher-show/";s: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:450:"<p>I <a href="http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2017/03/matt-mullenweg/">joined in for the James Altucher podcast in an episode that covered a lot of ground</a>. One clarification was the point of the story about my Dad not making much at his old job was that companies should be thoughtful about compensation especially for the people who stay with them the longest, not that loyalty is a myth or something to be avoided. It just needs to be two-way.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 23 Mar 2017 16:29:13 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:115:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 268 – Behind the Scenes of WordPress Development Course, Up and Running Second Edition";s:7:"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=67846&preview=true&preview_id=67846";s:7:"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:121:"https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-268-behind-the-scenes-of-wordpress-development-course-up-and-running-second-edition";s: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:2416:"<p>On this episode, <a href="http://www.marcuscouch.com/">Marcus Couch</a> and I are joined by <a href="https://alexdenning.com/">Alex Denning</a>, <a href="https://pressupinc.com/">Fred Meyer, and David Hayes</a> of <a href="https://wpshout.com/">WPShout</a> to discuss their WordPress Development course, <a href="https://wpshout.com/up-and-running/">Up and Running Second Edition</a>. We learn why the trio created the course and who it&#8217;s geared towards.</p>
<p>Later in the show, we have a great conversation surrounding the REST API and its potential impacts on WordPress. Near the end of the interview, we get their thoughts on the state of WordPress education.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/godaddy-acquires-sucuri">GoDaddy Acquires Sucuri</a></p>
<h2>Plugins Picked By Marcus:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-multisite-user-sync/">WP Multisite User Sync</a> lets you Sync/unsync users from one site (blog) to other sites (blogs) in a WordPress Multisite network.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-save-abandoned-carts/">WooCommerce Live Checkout Field Capture</a> plugin saves all activity in the WooCommerce checkout form before it is submitted. This enables you to see who has abandoned their shopping carts with the ability to contact them and remind about the abandoned cart.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/after-comment-redirector/">After Comment Redirector</a> lets you redirect to a custom page after commenting for all or new commentators. This is a handy way to say thank you to your most engaging readers. You can also give out a coupon, special e-book, or secret content when someone leaves a comment.</p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, March 29th 3:00 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: </strong><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via RSS: </strong><a href="https://wptavern.com/feed/podcast" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Stitcher Radio: </strong><a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wordpress-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Listen To Episode #268:</strong><br />
</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 23 Mar 2017 01:39:19 +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: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:33:"WPTavern: GoDaddy Acquires Sucuri";s:7:"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=67826";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:44:"https://wptavern.com/godaddy-acquires-sucuri";s: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:5541:"<p>GoDaddy <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/garage/godaddy/sucuri-godaddy-team-protect-websites/">has announced</a> that it has entered into an agreement to acquire <a href="https://sucuri.net/">Sucuri Security</a>. Sucuri, founded by Daniel Cid and co-founded by Tony Perez in 2010, is a website security platform that helps clean and protect websites. Details of the deal were not disclosed.</p>
<p>Like <a href="https://wptavern.com/godaddy-acquires-wordpress-site-management-service-managewp">ManageWP</a>, Sucuri will operate as a separate entity under the GoDaddy umbrella. Sucuri employees will transfer to GoDaddy while remaining under the leadership of Perez and Cid.</p>
<p>Out of all the companies that Sucuri could have chosen to be acquired by, why GoDaddy?</p>
<p>&#8220;Over the years we&#8217;ve seen them live up to their words to be a customer and product centric company,&#8221; Perez said. &#8220;As a product company it give us an opportunity to scale our product from a few hundred thousand domains, to millions. It&#8217;s something that we only ever dreamed of.&#8221;</p>
<p>The acquisition comes a few weeks after <a href="https://www.siteground.com/blog/sg-site-scanner-powered-sucuri/">SiteGround announced</a> its partnership with Sucuri and renamed its site scanner SG Site Scanner. It&#8217;s too soon to determine how this acquisition will affect Sucuri&#8217;s partnerships with hosting companies.</p>
<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t speak for our partners, but I truly hope they will trust in us, Sucuri, and in me personally,&#8221; Perez said. &#8220;If we can work to deploy our technology for GoDaddy, at their scale, then I have nothing but confidence we can do this for every other partner out there.</p>
<p>&#8220;GoDaddy made this investment because they believe in what we have built as a team at Sucuri, the product solves problems, that doesn&#8217;t go away and I hope all our customers and partners will give us time to prove this in our actions.&#8221;</p>
<p>Both companies acknowledged that nothing changes for existing Sucuri customers and that they can expect to see numerous improvements in the near future. Perez and Cid see the acquisition as version 2.0 of the company.</p>
<p>Aaron Campbell, WordPress Security Team Lead who is sponsored by GoDaddy to work on WordPress full-time, says the move should help make more sites secure.</p>
<p>&#8220;GoDaddy is committed to offering great services to its clients,&#8221; Campbell said. &#8220;You know as well as I do that Sucuri is exactly that; we&#8217;ve seen them be quite an asset to the WordPress community over the years.</p>
<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re going to remain a standalone product, but I&#8217;m excited to see them become part of the GoDaddy team to make some great stuff together. Keeping as many WordPress users secure as possible is obviously my goal and I really think this will help accomplish that.&#8221;</p>
<p>Reactions to the news on Twitter have mostly been positive with many congratulating Sucuri and its founders.</p>
<p>On the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/advancedwp/?ref=group_cover">Advanced WordPress Facebook group</a>, reactions to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/advancedwp/permalink/1440220396040170/">the news</a> are a mix between congratulatory and fears of Sucuri&#8217;s service declining. These are among the same grievances and fears expressed by ManageWP customers when <a href="https://managewp.com/managewp-joins-godaddy">GoDaddy acquired it</a>.</p>
<h2>ManageWP Customers Report No Noticeable Decline in Service</h2>
<p>Since being acquired, ManageWP has maintained and improved service levels while continuing to add features. Its most recent feature gives customers the opportunity to create backups, restore, and clone <a href="https://managewp.com/multisite-websites-in-managewp">multisite websites</a>.</p>
<p>Bob Dunn, of <a href="https://bobwp.com/">BobWP</a>, says the service has been stellar before and after the transition.</p>
<p>&#8220;To be honest, their services were great before and still are,&#8221; Dunn said. &#8220;I don’t manage a ton of sites, but for my needs, it has been rock solid since I first became a customer.&#8221;</p>
<p>Scott Buscemi, co-founder of <a href="https://lumenfoundry.com/">Lumen Foundry</a>, has had a similar experience.</p>
<p>&#8220;In all honesty, I haven&#8217;t noticed much of anything since they were acquired &#8211; and that&#8217;s a &#8216;win&#8217; in my opinion,&#8221; Buscemi said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve seen them push out a pleasant list of bug fixes and features that don&#8217;t affect me, so it&#8217;s great to still see active development on the primary system. GoDaddy has been working hard to get on the good side of developers and agency owners like me, so I can&#8217;t imagine they would go through the effort of the acquisition only to spoil the experience and turn things negative.&#8221;</p>
<p>Even those skeptical with the acquisition have reported no noticeable decline in the quality of service.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/jeffr0">@jeffr0</a> Me, I haven’t really noticed any change in the quality of the service (and I was skeptical)</p>
<p>&mdash; "so called" Jim Cook (@jm_cook) <a href="https://twitter.com/jm_cook/status/844657355035938816">March 22, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>GoDaddy has not announced how it plans to integrate Sucuri into its products and services.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 23 Mar 2017 00:53:46 +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:"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:62:"BuddyPress: BuddyPress at WordCamp London 2017 Contributor Day";s:7:"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=264902";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"https://buddypress.org/2017/03/buddypress-at-wordcamp-london-2017-contributor-day/";s: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:1688:"<p>Contributor Day is a big part of WordCamp London. This year it was held on Friday 17th March at London Metropolitan University. 100 contributors descended on the venue each aiming to make WordPress better in some wonderful way.</p>
<img src="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2017/03/room-back.jpg" alt="A room full of people" />Contributors at WordCamp London 2017. Photo by <a href="https://wpism.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pradeep Singh</a>.
<p>Attendees were asked to choose an area of interest. The options were Accessibility, BuddyPress, Community, Core, Design &amp; Flow, Documentation, Polyglots, Support and Themes. 5 of the 100 contributors chose BuddyPress. 2 of the 5 were new to contributing in general but all had used, or had at least heard of, BuddyPress at some point.</p>
<p>After a quick refill of coffee the team convened and began discussing how to get the most from the next 8 hours. Due to a diverse range of skills available within the group, we were able to focus on documentation, coding and localisation.</p>
<img src="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2017/03/buddypress-table.jpg" alt="People using laptops" />BuddyPress contributors. Photo by <a href="https://wpism.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pradeep Singh</a>.
<p>As a team we managed to identify an issue related to colour contrast in the Twenty Seventeen theme. <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/7471" target="_blank">#7471</a> was opened and a patch was submitted. We were also able to translate all remaining strings into Italian.</p>
<p>The day was a huge success and all team members indicated they will contribute again going forward.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 22 Mar 2017 21:26:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Henry Wright";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:71:"WPTavern: Foxhound Is the First REST API Powered Theme on 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:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=65646";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"https://wptavern.com/foxhound-is-the-first-rest-api-powered-theme-on-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:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3281:"<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/foxhound/" target="_blank">Foxhound</a> made its debut on WordPress.org yesterday. The React-based theme is the first in the directory to use the REST API endpoints included in WordPress 4.7. Foxhound sports a tasteful blog design with single-page app functionality that loads posts instantly. Check out the <a href="https://themes.redradar.net/foxhound/" target="_blank">live demo</a> to see how fast the content loads.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/foxhound.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The theme was designed and developed by <a href="https://themes.redradar.net/" target="_blank">Kelly Dwan and Mel Choyce</a>, who have collaborated on several free themes hosted on WordPress.org. They recommend installing the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-api-menus/" target="_blank">WP-API Menus</a> plugin, as the REST API does not yet support menus. After installing Foxhound, there are only two things required to make it look like the demo: Set the front page to display the latest posts and set up a menu. There are no additional customization settings.</p>
<p>Kelly Dwan notes on <a href="https://github.com/ryelle/Foxhound" target="_blank">Foxhound&#8217;s GitHub repository</a> that the theme should be considered &#8220;experimental&#8221; and users can expect a few restrictions:</p>
<ul>
<li>The theme does not display anything if javascript is disabled. (Should not affect SEO or accessibility)</li>
<li>The API cannot be blocked by a security plugin. Some plugins recommend blocking the users endpoint, but that is required to show the author archive. If you need to block the user endpoint, the rest of the theme should work but might be unstable if anyone tries to visit an author archive.</li>
<li>Permalinks for pages and archives are changed by this theme. They will be reset if/when you deactivate the theme. You might want to set up redirects using something like <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/safe-redirect-manager/" target="_blank">Safe Redirect Manager</a>.</li>
<li>This theme does not support hierarchical category archives &#8211; only parent category archive pages can be displayed. This <a href="https://github.com/ryelle/Foxhound/issues/30" target="_blank">may be fixed in a later version</a> of the theme.
<li>Plugins may not work as expected, especially if they add content to the front end of the site. Most Jetpack features do still work.</li>
</ul>
<p>Because Foxhound is so different from traditional WordPress themes, it could not go through the usual theme review process. Themes that require the WP REST API are currently reviewed outside of WordPress.org when a theme author pings the Theme Review team. They apply a &#8220;Special Case&#8221; tag that allows the theme to bypass Theme Check. (The tag is also used for other themes that break the rules in innovative ways.)</p>
<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t have a lot to go on yet with those types of themes,&#8221; Key Reviewer Justin Tadlock said. &#8220;Foxhound was the first. We&#8217;re supposed to be looking over another soon. As more of these types of themes come in, we&#8217;ll be able to figure out ways of making it easier to submit them.&#8221;</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 22 Mar 2017 19:21:50 +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: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:35:"HeroPress: A Blissful Driving Force";s:7:"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=1658";s:7:"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:52:"https://heropress.com/essays/blissful-driving-force/";s: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:9085:"<img width="960" height="480" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/032217-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: WordPress successfully justified my choice of not joining the job placement drive at college." /><p>As a college guy, I believed in being different and outperforming the best of my lot. Coming from a modest family background, the realization of achievement dawned over me. I never favored being a 9 to 5 corporate professional and a having a ‘boss’ was simply not my cup of coffee. I was never interested in the classes held in the college because I was being more productive at the ‘reality’ front of the life. I envisioned getting involved in tasks that were strongest at the core.</p>
<h3>Where It All Started</h3>
<p>Computer technology was in its nascent state in India the time I started my tryst with web pages. I began with designing my own college’s alumni website while pursuing MCA at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Eventually, I was assigned the task of the event websites too. I was happy because all this brought about a sense of power to me. Though not initially refine, my work still appealed to many and it also made me realize the power technology had.</p>
<h3>The Seed of Seriousness</h3>
<p>The very first seed of the idea of taking this up as a serious profession was sown by a friend who told me about how creating web pages and blogging could be a source of monetization. Google pages was my first shot as a techie, wherein I started with contributing content through blogs to several clients.</p>
<h3>Saw and Attempted</h3>
<p>I can still recollect the time I received my first pay cheque. Initially, I had tested all Content management systems and had started with Joomla and Drupal. With absolutely no knowledge about coding, I went forward to scale the web designing mountain. WordPress came and was well recognized as a blogging platform; suitable to what I worked on. I bumped into WordPress in 2009 and like many other users, utilized it for my blogging endeavors. Little did I know that someday it would be the answer to my ‘coding gap’. I remember working on a 6-month project for my MCA final where I took up WordPress as the core subject and in there I talked about custom plugins and themes. The teacher was happy to receive the unique project and awarded me good grades for my sense of initiation with new approach.</p>
<h3>That Leap of Faith</h3>
<p>Now, I knew how I had to take this WordPress awesomeness forward. With a little exposure to learning new technology, I was baffled for a while but had the will to scale this one too. 6 months, and I thoroughly decoded the WordPress codex for me. This was a giant step forward where my future lay in my own hands.</p>
<p>Personally, I feel that WordPress does not constrict you to a certain limit or a line of functionalities. If you have a core foundation, you can toy with it and make awesome end results. WordPress was now my pillar of strength. WordPress successfully justified my choice of not joining the job placement drive at the college.</p>
<h3>The Break-Out</h3>
<p>Now was the time to materialize my skills and have a material turnaround for the work I was capable of doing. After a 4-month hunt for some serious web designing projects with not a single task at hand, disappointment gripped me. The lack of proper work infrastructure due to poor Internet connectivity and local electricity supply were some of the other reasons I had to plan withdrawing my resources from Varanasi. I could have fallen or would have made a leap; it was about to be my choice for the rest of my life.</p>
<h3>Hello to New Beginnings</h3>
<p>It was frustrating because Varanasi had been my abode for 7 good years and leaving the place was a huge decision to make. I mustered up my wits to start afresh by withdrawing my base from Varanasi and shifted to Lucknow, India in order to try out seeking new opportunities yet again.</p>
<p>The work stars favored me and with the help of elance-oDesk (now, Upwork) and other freelancing platforms, I received many life-changing projects of my life. Things moved forward and with many clients in a row, another year went by. I collaborated with more people who were willing to join me on the platform – people who wanted to leave a mark; never to look back. What remained constant throughout these years was my capability to work hard each day.</p>
<h3>A Better Picture/ Wbcom Designs</h3>
<p>I upfront admire WordPress because it has been a driving force for my existence. Time has moved slowly and with 6+ years of experience and self-discovery, I now run a fully-fledged WordPress based company <a href="https://wbcomdesigns.com/" target="_blank">Wbcom Designs</a> that has many developers and freelancers onboard with me.</p>
<p>While additionally serving <a href="https://www.buddyboss.com/" target="_blank">BuddyBoss</a> as a Product and Support Manager, now I plan to infuse new changes in the pattern we operate at base as well as the firm through strategic planning. It’s time to give back to the WordPress community through the development of free plugins, theme customization and spreading the WordPress fandom at local level.</p>
<p>I recently took the <a href="https://2016.nashik.wordcamp.org/wbcomdesigns-is-our-bronze-sponsor/">opportunity to sponsor</a> <a href="https://2016.nashik.wordcamp.org/">‘Nashik WordCamp’ 2016</a>, <a href="https://2017.pune.wordcamp.org/sponsors/">WordCamp Pune 2017</a>, <a href="https://2017.udaipur.wordcamp.org/sponsors/">WordCamp Udaipur 2017</a>, and <a href="https://2017.kochi.wordcamp.org/sponsors/">WordCamp Kochi 2017</a>. I am glad I was able to take a step forward in my plans to pay back to the WordPress community. To set the ball rolling at local level, I have recently come up with a local <a href="https://www.meetup.com/Lucknow-WordPress-Meetup/">MeetUp</a> group at Lucknow, India so that locally organized, face to face events can be organized that will accelerate the understanding of the WordPress CMS among the masses. I also plan to bring about WordPress awareness at the school and college level in my zone so that more and more young people know why this CMS is so amazing.</p>
<p>To this day, my first love is my work desk. Whenever in an emotional or professional fix, I seek recluse through this amazing platform. Unlike others, working destresses me. There is a long way to go with this ideal because I want people to know how powerfully stable the WordPress is.</p>
<p>Like they say,</p>
<blockquote><p>“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”</p></blockquote>
<p>I want to see the developer community going for heights that have never been achieved before and I want to be a part of this huge step-up.</p>
<p>I am all open up for this WordPress community for contribution and assistance. For WordPress enthusiasts, I want to tell them that sky is not the limit. WordPress has accepted me as its own and it’s time for me and others to give back in the best possible manner.</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: A Blissful Driving Force" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=A%20Blissful%20Driving%20Force&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fblissful-driving-force%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: A Blissful Driving Force" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fblissful-driving-force%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%2Fblissful-driving-force%2F&title=A+Blissful+Driving+Force" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: A Blissful Driving Force"></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/blissful-driving-force/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/032217-150x150.jpg&description=A Blissful Driving Force" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: A Blissful Driving Force"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/blissful-driving-force/" title="A Blissful Driving Force"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/blissful-driving-force/">A Blissful Driving Force</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 22 Mar 2017 12:00:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Varun Dubey";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"WPTavern: Help Jesse Petersen and His Family by Donating to His Medical Leave Fund";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=67746";s:7:"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/help-jesse-petersen-and-his-family-by-donating-to-his-medical-leave-fund";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2774:"<p><a href="https://www.petersenmediagroup.com/">Jesse Petersen</a>, a longtime member of the WordPress community and founder of <a href="https://www.genesisthe.me/">Genesis The.me</a>, needs <a href="https://www.newlungsfor.me/medical-leave-fund-for-jesses-double-lung-transplant/">our help</a>. Petersen is battling <a href="http://www.cffatboy.com/what-is-cystic-fibrosis/">Cystic Fibrosis</a> and earlier this year after visiting a clinic, discovered that his lung function was at 22%.</p>
<p>Due to decrease lung function, Petersen missed five weeks of work, required home IVs, and visited many doctors. He is currently on a double-lung transplant list with a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_allocation_score">lung allocation score</a> of 38.859.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.unos.org/wp-content/uploads/unos/lung_allocation_score.pdf">United Network for Organ Sharing</a>, the LAS is a score used to prioritize waiting list candidates based on a combination of wait list urgency and post-transplant survival.</p>
<p>In order to maintain his health for a transplant, doctors have recommended that he work a maximum of two hours per day with quality rest.</p>
<p>His family has a small emergency fund available that they thought would allow Petersen to work up until his transplant surgery. However, there&#8217;s no estimated time frame for when a transplant will be available.</p>
<p>Outside of his product based business, Petersen is a work-from-home freelancer with contract work that needs to be completed. He and his wife have two adopted children. His wife volunteered to get another job to supplement their income but relatives rejected the idea as she is his primary support person.</p>
<p>Petersen has <a href="https://my.genesisthe.me/downloads/genesistheme-developer-starter/">two products</a> for sale on GenesisThe.me with two more ready for launch by the end of March.</p>
<p>His family is <a href="https://www.newlungsfor.me/medical-leave-fund-for-jesses-double-lung-transplant/">asking for $20K </a>to help pay for expenses and allow Petersen to take an extended medical leave to focus on his health. So far, the campaign has raised $5,075 or about a quarter of the amount needed.</p>
<p>You can donate as much as you&#8217;re able to or choose from one of five predetermined amounts ranging from $25 to $1K. You can also choose to donate monthly in six month increments.</p>
<p>Petersen is no stranger to the WordPress community&#8217;s generosity. In 2016, it helped him raise nearly $20K to help pay for costs associated with <a href="https://surpriseadoption.com/">adopting his second son</a>. If you are able, please consider donating to Petersen&#8217;s medical leave fund.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 22 Mar 2017 10:35:52 +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: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:74:"WPTavern: Adding Images to WordPress Sidebars Is About to Get a Lot Easier";s:7:"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=67667";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"https://wptavern.com/adding-images-to-wordpress-sidebars-is-about-to-get-a-lot-easier";s: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:4041:"<p>Adding images to sidebars in WordPress is a cumbersome task that requires users to upload an image to the Media Library, find the URL, copy it, and paste it into a Text widget along with additional HTML. Nearly two years ago, Mel Choyce <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/32417">opened a ticket</a> on WordPress Trac proposing that a media widget be added to core. This widget would allow users to easily add images to sidebars.</p>
<p>Throughout the discussion, the idea of creating a catch-all media widget was brought up that would allow users to add images, audio, or video to a sidebar. After developers spoke to Matt Mullenweg about the direction of the project, the team decided to create three separate widgets to handle each media type. Choyce outlined the benefits this approach provides:</p>
<ul>
<li>We can focus on creating more tailored experiences for each widget.</li>
<li>We&#8217;ll be able to launch new widgets without having to worry about constantly updating one central widget, or potentially breaking anything.</li>
<li>It&#8217;ll be easier for people to discover new media types since they won&#8217;t be buried within one widget.</li>
<li>This will more closely mimic the approach we&#8217;re taking to content blocks in the future, which should provide an easier transition.</li>
</ul>
<p>Out of the three core widgets in development, the Image one is nearly complete ready for user testing. To test, first download and activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-core-media-widgets/">Core Media Widgets</a> plugin. Once activated, navigate to Appearance &gt; Widgets in the WordPress backend and in the available widgets section, locate the Image widget.</p>
<img />Core Image Widget UI
<p>Clicking the Select Image button displays the media library modal where you can either select or upload an image. Once an image is selected, click the Add to Widget button in the bottom-right corner. This is what the widget looks like after an image is added.</p>
<img />Core Image Widget With an Image
<p>Here is what the widget looks like on a page using the <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/twentyseventeen/">Twenty Seventeen</a> default theme.</p>
<img />Core Image Widget in Action
<p>The core image widget is incredibly easy to set up and is a significant improvement over the Text widget approach. The user interface is much simpler compared to the <a href="https://jetpack.com/support/extra-sidebar-widgets/image-widget/">image widget</a> supplied by Jetpack. Jetpack&#8217;s image widget UI doesn&#8217;t take advantage of the media library modal and instead, requires the user to know the image&#8217;s URL.</p>
<img />Jetpack Image Widget UI
<p>Many of the fields are the same as what&#8217;s provided by the media library modal. Not surprisingly, WordPress.com <a href="https://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/image-widget/">uses the same interface</a> and requires the user to know the image URL.</p>
<h2>Core Image Widget May Be Ready in Time for WordPress 4.7.4</h2>
<p>The team is specifically seeking feedback from those who use image widgets provided by plugins on WordPress.org. Once the image widget is merged into core, the video and audio widgets will be added to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-core-media-widgets/">Core Media Widgets</a> plugin. Users can leave the plugin enabled until all three widgets are added to core.</p>
<p>&#8220;Once a widget has been thoroughly tested by users, we can then copy it into core for a release while then also disabling the widget in the plugin,&#8221; Ruter said.</p>
<p>If you encounter a bug or discover an incompatibility with a plugin or theme, please <a href="https://github.com/xwp/wp-core-media-widgets/issues">create an issue</a> on the project&#8217;s GitHub page. According to Ruter, the team is working hard to get the widget to a point where it can be merged into core. Depending on how testing goes, it could be merged into core as early as WordPress 4.7.4.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 22 Mar 2017 01:18:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"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: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:91:"WPTavern: WordPress Theme Review Team Making Progress on Clearing Out 1,000+ Review Backlog";s:7:"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=67582";s:7:"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/wordpress-theme-review-team-making-progress-on-clearing-out-1000-review-backlog";s: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:6259:"<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/planning.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/5ZMT04MIW6">Oli Dale</a>
<p>The WordPress Theme Review team (TRT) has turned a corner and is approaching a major milestone of getting the <a href="https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/report/2" target="_blank">review queue</a> under 100 themes. As of today, 189 themes are lined up in what was previously a 1,000+ backlog. Key reviewers are confident that number will be closer to zero in the near future.</p>
<p>Emil Uzelac, one of the key reviewers, shared the <a href="https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticketgraph" target="_blank">ticketgraph</a> for the backlog on Twitter today, demonstrating that the team is in a better place where new theme submission isn&#8217;t causing overload issues as it did before. Themes continue to flow in but are not significantly affecting the queue.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/theme-review-ticketgraph.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>In 2015 the TRT hit a wall with an influx of themes flooding into a legacy review system that wasn&#8217;t working. The team couldn&#8217;t keep up and was forced to spend much of 2016 changing the review process to better handle the large number of themes coming in. The TRT is working hard to make 2017 the year they get back on track.</p>
<p>Uzelac identified a few of the measures that have helped in taming the queue:</p>
<ul>
<li>One theme submission per author</li>
<li>More reviewers</li>
<li>A new guideline where reviewers close the ticket if the review surfaces more than <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2016/08/23/meeting-summary-2016-23-08/" target="_blank">5 distinct issues</a></li>
</ul>
<p>&#8220;Around Christmas was when many on the team started seeing a tiny sliver of light at the end of a long tunnel,&#8221; Key Reviewer Justin Tadlock said. &#8220;In the past few days, seeing the queue get below 200 themes has been a high point.  Folks on the team are excited because our ideas are paying off.&#8221;</p>
<p>Tadlock can&#8217;t say when exactly the team turned a corner but describes it as more of an iterative process that started with small ideas they could implement themselves. This has significantly reduced the wait time from 7 or 8 months a year ago to two months today. Themes also go through an admin queue that adds a bit to the review time but Tadlock said they hope to tackle that in the next Review Shindig, which happens on the first weekend of every month.</p>
<p>&#8220;That number is shrinking,&#8221; Tadlock said. &#8220;By the end of April, we could be looking at 3-4 weeks. I&#8217;m a bit optimistic, so don&#8217;t hold me to that. It could be May or June in reality.&#8221;</p>
<p>Tadlock said once the team gets to the 50-100 range they will be at the place where they&#8217;re really only handling new themes that are coming in, instead of working the backlog. Once they reach that milestone, they will be able to more accurately track how long it takes for a theme to make it through the review process.</p>
<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s where we&#8217;ll need to really start refining the process so that it works even better in the future,&#8221; Tadlock said. &#8220;A well-coded theme could potentially make it through the process in 2 months right now. Another theme might be 4-5 months. There are a lot of factors to consider. It&#8217;s my hope that we eliminate many of those factors that are holding up the process.&#8221;</p>
<p>The new rule that limited authors to submitting one theme at a time has had a significant impact on cutting down the queue. The rule was meant to be temporary and will be up for reevaluation when the queue is under 100 themes. Tadlock said the team will likely pull the rule, but it has been instrumental in rooting out copies that contained only minor changes to the original.</p>
<p>&#8220;For most authors, this [rule] is not a huge problem,&#8221; Tadlock said. &#8220;It definitely hurts a few of the more prolific authors in the short term. However, it helps stop the flow of theme companies who are just copying/pasting the same theme with minor changes. We&#8217;ve had theme companies with as many as 17 themes in the queue that were just copies.  This new rule has helped us find those and put a stop to the practice.&#8221; The team was able to track down an entire ring of theme authors with multiple accounts with dozens and dozens of themes.</p>
<p>Tadlock said most of the issues the team deals with in reviews are related to security. The content portability issues that were highlighted in the recent <a href="https://wptavern.com/zerif-lite-returns-to-wordpress-org-after-5-month-suspension-and-63-decline-in-revenue" target="_blank">Zerif Lite suspension</a> are more uncommon.</p>
<p>&#8220;The &#8216;draconian stuff&#8217; people talk about probably represents 1% of the issue,&#8221; Tadlock said, referencing Matt Mullenweg&#8217;s recent <a href="https://wptavern.com/zerif-lite-returns-to-wordpress-org-after-5-month-suspension-and-63-decline-in-revenue#comment-210935" target="_blank">comments</a> on the current requirements. &#8220;99% of the issues are the things people don&#8217;t talk about.&#8221; Tadlock has been speaking with theme authors about how they can &#8220;create&#8221; content within the guidelines, as there are ways to do it that are both future-proof and portable.</p>
<p>The team is currently spending a lot of time reviewing code that shouldn&#8217;t need to be manually reviewed. The next item on the TRT roadmap is incorporating better automation into the review process.</p>
<p>&#8220;The big thing we&#8217;re working on now is the new Theme Check plugin,&#8221; Tadlock said. &#8220;It&#8217;s going to solve lots of problems.  It&#8217;s based off the code sniffer (PHPCS, I believe). It&#8217;ll help theme authors start submitting better coded and more secure themes right off the bat. Humans easily miss those things looking through it with their eyes. This will definitely make theme authors better coders and users will have even more secure themes. Then, we can focus on those 1% issues.&#8221;</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 21 Mar 2017 21:53:04 +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: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:55:"WPTavern: Yoast SEO 4.5 Urges Users to Upgrade to PHP 7";s:7:"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=67676";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"https://wptavern.com/yoast-seo-4-5-urges-users-to-upgrade-to-php-7";s: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:4770:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/yoast-logo.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://yoast.com/yoast-seo-4-5/" target="_blank">Yoast SEO 4.5</a> was released today with a handful of improvements and, most notably, a big push for users to upgrade to PHP 7.</p>
<p>&#8220;In Yoast SEO 4.5, we are urging site owners whose sites run on servers with an outdated version of PHP to update to a more recent version,&#8221; Joost de Valk said. &#8220;To move the web forward, we need to take a stand against old, slow, and unsafe software.&#8221;</p>
<p>WordPress&#8217; minimum PHP requirement is still at <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/" target="_blank">5.2.4</a>, six years after PHP 5.2 <a href="http://php.net/eol.php" target="_blank">reached end of life in 2011</a>. This version is now <a href="https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list.php?vendor_id=74&product_id=128&version_id=106044&page=1&hasexp=0&opdos=0&opec=0&opov=0&opcsrf=0&opgpriv=0&opsqli=0&opxss=0&opdirt=0&opmemc=0&ophttprs=0&opbyp=0&opfileinc=0&opginf=0&cvssscoremin=0&cvssscoremax=0&year=0&month=0&cweid=0&order=4&trc=39" target="_blank">vulnerable to many security issues</a>. Current usage stats show 5.4% of WordPress sites are running on PHP 5.2. As this likely represents millions of users, WordPress&#8217; core leadership is reluctant to bump the minimum requirements. Only 8% of sites are on PHP 7+, as hosting companies are slowly adding support.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/wordpress-php-versions-march-2017-1.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>“Because web hosts are not upgrading PHP, we have decided to start pushing this from within plugins,&#8221; de Valk said. He contends that the WordPress ecosystem is losing good developers because the project is moving too slowly. He also makes the case for security and speed.</p>
<p>&#8220;WordPress is sometimes said to be slow, but it actually doesn’t have to be slow at all,&#8221; de Valk said. &#8220;If it’s running on old versions of PHP, however, it is, most certainly, slow. PHP 5.2 is more than 100% slower than PHP 5.6, and a whopping <a href="https://www.phpclasses.org/blog/post/493-php-performance-evolution.html" target="_blank">400% slower than PHP 7</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>De Valk decided to throw the weight of Yoast SEO, which he estimates to be 6.5 million active installs, behind the movement to push hosts to upgrade their customers to PHP 7. The latest release of the plugin displays a notice to WordPress administrators running sites on PHP 5.2, urging them to upgrade to PHP 7. The notice is &#8220;big, ugly, and non-dismissible,&#8221; de Valk said. It is generated by an error that auto-resolves when the user fixes their outdated PHP version.</p>
<p>&#8220;The notice will also encourage people to contact their host if they don’t know how to upgrade their PHP,&#8221; de Valk said. &#8220;Yes, this could be painful for some hosts. This notice is deliberately intended to make them work.&#8221;</p>
<p>De Valk said the plugin will start displaying the notices for PHP 5.2 and will add 5.6 as soon as it is no longer supported. Through experience with his customers, de Valk has found that outdated, slower versions of PHP are damaging Yoast SEO and WordPress&#8217; reputations, as neither are optimized for PHP 5.2. Although older versions are not holding the plugin back from new features, it makes it difficult for the team to clean up the code.</p>
<p>&#8220;There aren&#8217;t many features I cannot build right now, but code quality is suffering because we can&#8217;t use namespaces, short array notation, etc,&#8221; de Valk said.</p>
<p>The Yoast SEO team has created <a href="https://github.com/Yoast/whip" target="_blank">WHIP</a>, a WordPress package to nudge users to upgrade their software versions and made it open source for plugin and theme developers to implement in their own extensions. The project includes a filter for linking to the WordPress.org hosting page, which includes a selection of hosts that offer PHP 7.</p>
<p>Most of the large hosting companies already have documentation for upgrading PHP versions. Ultimately, it&#8217;s the end users who will have the power to get more hosting companies on board. De Valk said he doesn&#8217;t know how big the impact will be but encourages users to vote with their pocketbooks by leaving hosts that are unwilling to assist in upgrading PHP.</p>
<p>&#8220;It might be entirely possible that your host is not willing to work with you,&#8221; de Valk said. &#8220;If so, think about moving web hosts. A web host provides the engine your site runs on and that better be a damn good engine.&#8221;</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 21 Mar 2017 19:56:57 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:119:"WPTavern: PressShack Forks Edit Flow to Create PublishPress, Aims to Improve Multi-User Editorial Workflow in WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=67574";s:7:"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:129:"https://wptavern.com/pressshack-forks-edit-flow-to-create-publishpress-aims-to-improve-multi-user-editorial-workflow-in-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6808:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/publish-press.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Last week Steve Burge and the team at <a href="https://pressshack.com/" target="_blank">PressShack</a> released <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/publishpress/" target="_blank">PublishPress</a>, a fork of Automattic&#8217;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/edit-flow/" target="_blank">Edit Flow</a> plugin. PressShack is operated by the same team behind <a href="http://ostraining.com/" target="_blank">OSTraining</a> with a focus on creating publishing plugins for larger organizations.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/edit-flow/" target="_blank">Edit Flow</a> has more than 10,000 active installs but is updated sporadically and is not very well supported. The PressShack creators saw an opportunity to fork the plugin and sell commercial support and add-ons. <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/publishpress/" target="_blank">PublishPress</a> is now available on WordPress.org with a seamless <a href="https://pressshack.com/publishpress/docs/migrate/" target="_blank">migration for Edit Flow users</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/edit-flow-publishpress-migration.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The first release offers the same features as Edit Flow along with a complete face lift, making interaction with the plugin&#8217;s settings more user-friendly. The new tabbed interface puts all the settings on one screen. PressShack has also tweaked the language of the plugin, changing Story Budget” to “Overview”, and simplifying other terms.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/publishpress-ui.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>PublishPress introduces a few changes to the calendar, allowing users to click anywhere on a date to add content. It exposes the iCal or Google Calendar feed and uses icons to show post statuses, saving space for other information.</p>
<p>Burge said that PublishPress will be making a fresh start and will not be following and incorporating updates from Edit Flow. The team plans to add a host of new features that improve the publishing workflow to handle multiple users:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Multisite and multiple site support</strong>: Content creators log into one site but can publish to multiple sites</li>
<li><strong>Pre-publishing checklists</strong>: For example, featured image, word count, Yoast SEO green light</li>
<li><strong>More use cases beyond media sites</strong>: In addition to magazine-style user groups for reporting, PublishPress plans to add more use cases, such as WooCommerce products, EDD downloads, bbPress topics, and The Events Calendar listings</li>
<li><strong>Multiple authors</strong>: Assign multiple author bylines to a story</li>
</ul>
<p>Most of these feature are slated for release in mid-2017 and will be <a href="https://pressshack.com/publishpress/" target="_blank">offered as commercial add-ons</a>. The team is currently still focused on writing unit tests for the core plugin and adding improvements to it on WordPress.org.</p>
<h3>PressShack Takes Inspiration from Drupal for Expanding Content Workflows</h3>
<p>PressShack&#8217;s creators also work closely with other open source publishing platforms. Burge said the team took some inspiration from the Drupal ecosystem, which offers more advanced features for modifying editorial workflows.</p>
<p>&#8220;In Drupal, the workflow features are being demanded and developed by large organizations that use the platform,&#8221; Burge said. &#8220;As a result, Drupal does have a very big head start in this area. &#8220;In Drupal 7, the main workflow module was called <a href="https://www.drupal.org/project/workbench" target="_blank">Workbench</a>. It was built to meet the needs of large customers such as universities, media outlets, and government agencies who have many different content managers.&#8221;</p>
<p>Prior to having editorial workflow tools available, Burge said that Drupal agencies kept losing projects to rivals such as Adobe and OpenText, because they had publishing workflows built for multiple users. Building better publishing tools became a necessity for Drupal agencies that wanted to win projects from large organizations.</p>
<p>Drupal 8 moves many of these editorial workflow improvements into core. Drupal 8.3, which is slated for April 2017, will <a href="http://buytaert.net/moving-the-drupal-8-workflow-initiative-along" target="_blank">introduce the ability to create multiple types of content workflows</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;What’s really interesting about the Drupal 8 implementation is that they are thinking beyond just content publishing,&#8221; Burge said. &#8220;It will soon be possible to put whole sections of your site into a workflow. The demand for these features is still coming from enterprise customers: much of the work is being done by a team of Drupal developers inside Pfizer.&#8221;</p>
<p>Burge cited a few examples of typical users requiring more elaborate publishing workflows:</p>
<ul>
<li>A university with 50+ academic departments and several hundred content creators</li>
<li>A pharmaceutical company with hundreds of products and a micro-site for each one</li>
<li>A newspaper that employs writers and at least one layer of editors</li>
<li>A publicly-listed company that needs approval from several staff members to ensure that the content it publishes is 110% accurate</li>
</ul>
<p>WordPress core is tailored to a single-author blog workflow, and there are relatively few plugins that modify the default editorial workflow for large teams. <a href="https://wptavern.com/coschedule-a-viable-alternative-to-the-edit-flow-wordpress-plugin" target="_blank">CoSchedule is one alternative to Edit Flow</a> and PublishPress that has 10,000 active installs. It takes a SaaS approach and has more of a content marketing slant. Burge said he thinks the WordPress ecosystem&#8217;s scarcity of options for extending publishing workflows may be due to current limitations in core.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s possible there are some technical hurdles: for example, WordPress core has fairly limited user permissions,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It’s also possible that now is the right time for WordPress to start adding these features.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;WordPress agencies are building more enterprise sites and these demands are popping-up,&#8221; Burge said. &#8220;Matt just announced the <a href="https://ma.tt/2017/03/wordpress-collaborative-editing/" target="_blank">Google Docs integration</a> as a quick way to bring some collaborative features into WordPress. I think we’ll see more and more tools available for teams, rather than single authors.&#8221;</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 20 Mar 2017 21:21:19 +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:45:"Donncha: How to Auto Schedule WordPress Posts";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://odd.blog/?p=89500175";s:7:"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://odd.blog/2017/03/18/how-to-auto-schedule-wordpress-posts/";s: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:3543:"<p>If you post to a WordPress blog on a regular basis like I do on <a href="https://inphotos.org/">In Photos dot Org</a> you&#8217;ll no doubt recognise the fatigue that comes from adjusting the publish date every single time on a new post so it appears a day later. If you have multiple posts like on a daily photoblog you have to remember what day the last post was made and adjust the date accordingly. </p>
<p>A few years ago I wrote a small plugin that I never released to help schedule posts. In the media uploader you could select multiple photos and click a few buttons to be brought to a new page where you could enter title, content and tags for each image. Based on this experience, I suggested it as an idea to one of the teams at Automattic who built <a href="https://postbot.co/">Post Bot</a>. I used that for a long time and it has its strengths. If you&#8217;re posting content that has the same or similar tags you can copy and paste the tags from one post to another. I posted lots of black and white street images from my home town this way and it was super useful! </p>
<p>I got tired of manually typing out tags, and unfortunately the site broke a few times, with posts not scheduling or one time they scheduled all in one go. Luckily the problems were quickly fixed. However, I started using the WordPress post editor again and scheduling a bunch of photos that way.</p>
<p>Manually editing the publish date quickly became a chore. Lazarus, the form saver Chrome extension, would sometimes popup if I didn&#8217;t click exactly on the date, or as I said before I had to remember when the last post was made. They say there&#8217;s a plugin for everything, and there is for this too. Check out <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/publish-to-schedule/">Publish to Schedule</a>.</p>
<p>You tell &#8220;Publish to Schedule&#8221; which days and how many posts should be published and when you go into the post editor the next available date is picked for you! The date doesn&#8217;t change until you hit Publish but I already used it to schedule a number of posts and it works really well.</p>
<p><a href="https://odd.blog/files/2017/03/Screen-Shot-2017-03-14-at-17.21.11.png"><img /></a></p>
<p><strong>Edit:</strong> I forgot to mention <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/daily-image/">Daily Image</a> a new plugin by Sam Hotchkiss that does the same sort of job as Postbot but it runs on your own server. The first time you load the plugin it will show you every single unattached image in your media library which can be quite a number of images but it allows you to enter tags and quickly schedule images for posting in a simple manner.</p>
<p>Since my focus here is on image posts I should really mention the <a href="https://apps.wordpress.com/lightroom/">WordPress Export Plugin for Lightroom</a>. When installed you can create a new export target that will resize and sharpen your image and upload it to your blog, even if it&#8217;s not a WordPress.com site.</p>

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";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:90:"WPTavern: GitHub Adds Plain English Explanations to License Pages for Open Source Projects";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=67550";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:101:"https://wptavern.com/github-adds-plain-english-explanations-to-license-pages-for-open-source-projects";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2475:"<p>GitHub took another step towards beefing up its support for open source projects this week with <a href="https://github.com/blog/2335-open-source-license-descriptions-and-metadata" target="_blank">a new feature that makes it easier to understand a project&#8217;s license</a>. If the project is using a popular open source license, GitHub will automatically add a short, plain-English description of the license and its permissions, conditions, and limitations. This allows GitHub users to see the implications of a project&#8217;s license at a glance.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/github-license-display.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>GitHub pulls this data from <a href="http://ChooseALicense.com" target="_blank">ChooseALicense.com</a>, the site it created in 2013 to help developers understand and select an open source license. The license descriptions and metadata are also open source and developers can incorporate them into their own projects using GitHub&#8217;s <a href="https://developer.github.com/v3/licenses/#get-an-individual-license" target="_blank">License API</a>.</p>
<p>This new feature follows GitHub&#8217;s release of <a href="https://opensource.guide/" target="_blank">Open Source Guides</a> in February. The guides are a collection of 10 resources to help people get involved in open source, start their own open source projects, and manage large communities. The documents include helpful stories and tips from maintainers of successful open source projects.</p>
<p>It was around this time last year that GitHub was <a href="https://wptavern.com/open-source-project-maintainers-confront-github-with-open-letter-on-issue-management" target="_blank">confronted by open source project maintainers with an open letter</a> of complaints regarding issue management. Nearly 2,000 maintainers signed the letter, requesting that GitHub prioritize features that open source project maintainers need. The company dragged its feet before eventually responding, while competing code hosting service GitLab capitalized on the situation with a new initiative focused on “<a href="https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/8938" target="_blank">making GitLab the best place for big open source projects</a>.” Over the past year, GitHub has consistently released new features and improved existing ones in affirmation of its continued support for open source projects.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 18 Mar 2017 03:03:24 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:44:"WPTavern: In Case You Missed It – Issue 19";s:7:"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=67590&preview=true&preview_id=67590";s:7:"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://wptavern.com/in-case-you-missed-it-issue-19";s: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:5660:"<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ICYMIFeaturedImage.png?ssl=1" rel="attachment wp-att-50955"><img /></a>photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/112901923@N07/16153818039">Night Moves</a> &#8211; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">(license)</a>
<p>There’s a lot of great WordPress content published in the community but not all of it is featured on the Tavern. This post is an assortment of items related to WordPress that caught my eye but didn’t make it into a full post.</p>
<h2>Apple Pay for WooCommerce</h2>
<p>WooCommerce <a href="https://woocommerce.com/2017/03/apple-pay-woocommerce/">announced</a> that Apple Pay is now available for stores accepting payments using Stripe. According to Marina Pape, WooCommerce is the first open source platform to integrate with Apple Pay.</p>
<blockquote><p>We’re also proud to be the first open source platform to integrate with Apple Pay. Open source is the default for us, but it’s exciting to continue that level of openness with such an important payment solution.</p></blockquote>
<h2>Human Made Makes Two Big Hires</h2>
<p><a href="https://hmn.md/">Human Made</a>, a web development agency based in the UK recently announced two big hires. The first is <a href="https://hmn.md/2017/03/16/mike-little-joins-human-made/">Mike Little</a>, co-creator of the WordPress open source project, as a WordPress Specialist. The second is <a href="https://hmn.md/2017/03/17/jenny-beaumont-joins-human-made/">Jenny Beaumont</a>, who will take on the role of Senior Project Manager.</p>
<h2>Editor User Experience Survey</h2>
<p>The WordPress core development team has <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/03/15/editor-experience-survey/">published a survey</a> seeking feedback and data on how people use the editor. The editor is likely the most commonly used feature in WordPress. This is an opportunity for those who use it to provide feedback.</p>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/03/15/editor-experience-survey/">Editor Experience Survey</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<h2>Behind the Scenes of how Search works on the New WordPress Plugin Directory</h2>
<p>Greg Brown <a href="https://data.blog/2017/03/15/improving-relevance-and-elasticsearch-query-patterns/">published details</a> on Data.blog on how he improved the search relevancy for the new WordPress plugin directory using Elasticsearch. The post is technical in nature but provides great background information into how it works.</p>
<blockquote><p>In improving the fidelity of search results, it’s not just a question of how we satisfy a single user’s search query, but how we satisfy thousands of users for each unique search term: which plugins will support that volume of users and their requests for support? Which are most likely to give all of these users a great WordPress experience?</p></blockquote>
<h1 class="entry-title">NextGEN Gallery Surpasses 17 Million Downloads</h1>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">NextGEN Gallery just reached over 17 million downloads. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WordPress?src=hash">#WordPress</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Imagely (@imagely) <a href="https://twitter.com/imagely/status/842532503265185792">March 17, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<h2>MainWP Reaches 1K Five-star Reviews</h2>
<p>After three years of being on the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/mainwp/reviews/?filter=5">WordPress plugin directory</a>, the MainWP plugin has received <a href="https://mainwp.com/mainwp-reaches-1000-5-star-reviews/">1,000 five-star reviews</a>.</p>
<h2>Heather Burns HeroPress Essay</h2>
<p>Heather Burns, founder of <a href="https://webdevlaw.uk/">WebDevLaw</a>, published an <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/going-back-roots/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=hand-made&utm_term=going-back-roots&utm_content=first-tweet">incredible essay</a> on HeroPress this week. Burns describes the hardships encountered with her first job and how it and other circumstances led her down the path of discovering WordPress.</p>
<blockquote><p>By this point I’d started playing around with WordPress, and I learned about a local meetup group. I tiptoed in one night and awkwardly introduced myself and was welcomed right in.</p>
<p>I realized over time that this was a very different sort of group. Everyone was grassroots volunteers, putting in the effort because they wanted to learn, not because they wanted social status. There was no tiresome hierarchy, no obsession with &#8216;prestige&#8217;, no kowtowing to the person with the sexiest car (in fact, we all took the bus.) If you had a question, you could ask it without being laughed out the room. No one was obliged to give anything more than they were able to give.</p></blockquote>
<h2>HeroPress Wapuu!</h2>
<p>In what is a traditional part of this series, I end each issue by featuring a Wapuu design. For those who don&#8217;t know, Wapuu is the <a href="http://wapuu.jp/2015/12/12/wapuu-origins/">unofficial mascot</a> of the WordPress project.</p>
<img />HeroPress Wapuu
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>I present HeroPress Wapuu in celebration of HeroPress recently publishing <a href="https://heropress.com/heropress-at-100/">its 100th essay. </a>If you&#8217;re a fan of HeroPress and want to see it flourish, please consider <a href="https://heropress.com/sponsorship/">being a sponsor</a>.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s it for issue nineteen. If you recently discovered a cool resource or post related to WordPress, please share it with us in the comments.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 17 Mar 2017 21:52:21 +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:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WPTavern: Take the WordPress Editor Experience Survey";s:7:"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=67499";s:7:"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://wptavern.com/take-the-wordpress-editor-experience-survey";s: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:2410:"<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/two-pencils.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/TBLSDTI1UL">Joanna Kosinska</a>
<p>WordPress core contributors have published a <a href="http://wordpressdotorg.polldaddy.com/s/editor-survey" target="_blank">survey</a> to collect feedback on how people are using the editor. The results of the short 15-question survey will assist the team in redesigning the editing experience in the WordPress admin.</p>
<p>Participants are asked to identify how they use WordPress and if they use certain features like formatting buttons and distraction-free writing. The survey also asks how easy-to-use they consider the current editor to be and how organized it is. Users are also asked if they have ever installed a plugin that adds features to the editor, presumably to determine if there are features missing that should be considered for core.</p>
<p>One question asks participants if they use any assistive technologies along with a screen reader. WordPress Accessibility team member Amanda Rush <a href="https://www.customerservant.com/wordpress-editor-experience-survey/" target="_blank">published some tips for screen reader users who want to take the survey</a>. It includes several questions with radio buttons and screenshots that are not so friendly to screen readers. Rush provides a general walk-through with more explanation for those who are using screen readers to participate.</p>
<p>So far, this survey has been more widely shared than the design team&#8217;s recent customizer survey, which was <a href="https://wptavern.com/initial-customizer-survey-results-reveal-majority-of-respondents-dont-use-it" target="_blank">published after receiving just 50 results</a>. WordPress contributors rely heavily on these surveys to make decisions about projects they are working on, as they do not have any telemetry data about what features people are using or not using. This is one example where data could quickly demonstrate how widely the distraction-free writing mode has been adopted and show what editor formatting buttons people are using.</p>
<p>If you have a few minutes over the weekend and want to contribute to the future of WordPress, take the <a href="http://wordpressdotorg.polldaddy.com/s/editor-survey" target="_blank">Editor Experience Survey</a>.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 17 Mar 2017 21:01:58 +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: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:67:"WPTavern: How to View Upcoming WordCamps in the WordPress Dashboard";s:7:"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=67572";s:7:"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/how-to-view-upcoming-wordcamps-in-the-wordpress-dashboard";s: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:2067:"<p>Over the course of a year, WordCamps take place nearly every weekend. Although you can view <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/">upcoming events</a> on WordCamp Central, a relatively new plugin exist that enables you to see upcoming WordCamps on the WordPress Dashboard.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s called <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wc-dashboard-widget/">WordCamp Dashboard Widget</a> developed by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ajitbohra/">Ajit Bohra</a>. Once activated, a new widget appears on the dashboard that lists upcoming WordCamps. Data is retrieved by using the public <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/wp-json/posts?type=wordcamp%29">JSON API</a> available on WordCamp Central, is stored in a transient, and refreshed every day to reflect new data.</p>
<img />Upcoming WordCamps Widget
<p>Users can adjust the number of camps shown per page, sort events by location, date, or Twitter information. You can also display this information on any post or page using the [wordcamps] shortcode. The locations are linked to the event&#8217;s official WordCamp page. The @ symbol links to the official Twitter account associated with the event and the # symbol links to the official hashtag.</p>
<p>During testing I noticed that the Twitter account for some events was either missing or incorrect. For example, WordCamp London links to <a href="https://twitter.com/wcldn">@wcldn</a> when it should link to <a href="https://twitter.com/WordCampLondon">@WordCampLondon</a>. I&#8217;m not a fan of the way dates are presented in a Day/Month/Year format as I prefer Month/Day/Year.</p>
<p>Bohra is continuing to improve the plugin with an option to refresh data, improve data fetching, and more filtering options for 1.0. I tested the plugin on a site running WordPress 4.8 alpha and didn&#8217;t encounter any issues. If you encounter a bug or have feedback, you can submit a new issue on the <a href="https://github.com/lubusIN/wordcamp-dashboard-widget/issues">project&#8217;s GitHub page. </a></p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 17 Mar 2017 20:09:37 +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:"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: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:131:"WPTavern: Jetpack Introduces Theme Installation from WordPress.com, Sparks Controversy with Alternative Marketplace for Free Themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=67531";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:141:"https://wptavern.com/jetpack-introduces-theme-installation-from-wordpress-com-sparks-controversy-with-alternative-marketplace-for-free-themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12403:"<p>Today Jetpack <a href="https://jetpack.com/2017/03/16/165-beautiful-free-themes/" target="_blank">announced</a> that its users now have access to a collection of 165 free themes from WordPress.com. Jetpack users can browse, preview, and activate themes by visiting the <a href="https://wordpress.com/design" target="_blank">WordPress.com Theme Showcase</a>. WordPress.com has also added the ability for Jetpack users to upload a theme from its interface as well, a feature that targets those who are heavily using Jetpack Manage instead of the WordPress admin.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/jetpack-theme-install.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Many of the free themes are already available from <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/author/automattic/" target="_blank">Automattic&#8217;s account</a> on the WordPress.org Themes Directory, but the limitations of the preview functionality doesn&#8217;t present themes in their best light. The Theme Review Team added a new rule last year that theme authors can only upload one theme at a time and will have to wait for it to pass through the queue before submitting another. This severely restricts individuals and companies that are prolific theme authors, requiring them to wait months in the queue. Authors can realistically expect to only publish one or two themes per year on WordPress.org.</p>
<p>After Zerif Lite, one of the most popular themes on WordPress.org, was <a href="https://wptavern.com/zerif-lite-returns-to-wordpress-org-after-5-month-suspension-and-63-decline-in-revenue" target="_blank">suspended for five months</a> for violations of content portability requirements, Matt Mullenweg was one of the most vocal opponents of what he <a href="https://wptavern.com/zerif-lite-returns-to-wordpress-org-after-5-month-suspension-and-63-decline-in-revenue#comment-210935" target="_blank">called</a> &#8220;draconian requirements.&#8221; In 2015, Mullenweg went so far to <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/themereview/p1432861605003292" target="_blank">say</a> that he is &#8220;completely okay with having something in the directory that breaks every guideline, as long as it’s interesting.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Theme Review Team has not made significant changes that would give authors more freedom. Instead, much of the Team&#8217;s time seems to be spent looking for ways to reduce the queue. It&#8217;s no wonder that a company like Automattic, with the infrastructure of Jetpack Manage and WordPress.com, would choose to distribute themes via a more efficient route. However, this move has left some WordPress.org theme authors wondering if WordPress.org improvements will be less of a priority in the future.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Can you blame him? No. They (he?) needs to wrangle in the experience, avoid fragmentation, compete with other consumer hosted platforms.</p>
<p>&mdash; Matt Medeiros (@mattmedeiros) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattmedeiros/status/842406199551221760">March 16, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">But what does it all mean for us surviving off of the .org distribution? Tough cookies, that's what.</p>
<p>&mdash; Matt Medeiros (@mattmedeiros) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattmedeiros/status/842406347324948481">March 16, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>&#8220;Today&#8217;s announcement is the glue that holds together Matt&#8217;s vision for the future .org experience, delivered via Jetpack,&#8221; WordPress.org theme author <a href="http://mattreport.com" target="_blank">Matt Medeiros</a> said. &#8220;Solving the dark cloud above the repo seems a lot less critical when we can throw Jetpack in front of users as an alternative. It&#8217;s a calculated measure to control the on-boarding experience of new users, which WP desperately needs for continued growth amidst a field of competitors like Wix and Squarespace.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to Jetpack team member Richard Muscat, WordPress.com has &#8220;no immediate plans to sell themes at this time.&#8221; Jetpack users have access to free themes but will not, in the foreseeable future, be invited to purchase WordPress.com&#8217;s commercial themes. The team also plans to continue its presence on WordPress.org.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have no plans to stop releasing themes into the .org directory,&#8221; Muscat said. &#8220;We just believe this makes an even nicer, more integrated experience for accessing the themes we offer on the WordPress.com side of things.&#8221;</p>
<p>Jetpack&#8217;s announcement has also reignited fears of what the plugin&#8217;s commercialization might do to the WordPress ecosystem. In the past, Mullenweg has <a href="https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-powers-42-of-all-online-stores" target="_blank">identified both Jetpack and WooCommerce as &#8220;multi-billion dollar opportunities&#8221;</a> that could each individually be larger than WordPress.com. If WordPress.org is failing to attract new users with its theme previews, then Jetpack/WordPress.com is likely to pull even more eyes away with its separate marketplace.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a small business (a label that&#8217;s critical) product creator, I see this as a motion in the direction to increase the visibility of Jetpack&#8217;s free/paid feature set, above the rest of us trying to desperately make a living out here,&#8221; Medeiros said. &#8220;Jetpack will be marketed as the one-stop-solution for all of your small business website needs, if that hasn&#8217;t already been woven into the fabric of it&#8217;s current messaging. It is ultimately positioning itself as the trusted source of functionality for new users, versus us &#8216;third-party&#8217; plugins. After all, who wouldn&#8217;t trust the company &#8216;behind WordPress?'&#8221;</p>
<p>Ionut Neagu, CEO at <a href="https://themeisle.com/" target="_blank">Themeisle.com</a>, and the author of Zerif Lite, shares Medeiros&#8217; concerns about Jetpack&#8217;s more recent commercialization efforts.</p>
<p>“What worries me more is the speed at which Automattic is pushing Jetpack,&#8221; Neagu said. &#8220;The Personal plan was introduced, and yesterday I got a cold email from some company they work with promoting their affiliate program. Today themes were introduced. It makes me wonder how far they plan to go and how this will affect theme and plugin developers.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, Neagu takes a more optimistic stance on self-hosted users installing themes from WordPress.com.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a theme author, I am not that worried about this particular aspect. Right now those themes are quite hard to find (it took me 10 minutes), are more targeted towards people using Jetpack Manage, and as far as I can see lots of them are looking a bit outdated.&#8221;</p>
<p>Neagu sees a disconnect between what WordPress.org thinks users want and what they are actually looking for. Based on his research and experience selling themes, Neagu has found that users still expect complete solutions from themes. WordPress has grown beyond being just a blogging platform. Neagu said he hopes WordPress.org&#8217;s research for the new editor will reveal how many people are actually using the software for business.</p>
<p>&#8220;We run a themes directory as well and we did extensive heatmaps to understand what kind of themes/screenshots users click on/ like,&#8221; Neagu said. &#8220;Looking at the results of a &#8216;business&#8217; query, I am quite sure that users won’t be excited.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/business-themes.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>This is likely the first iteration, and data from more Jetpack users should help WordPress.com refine the queries to present a mix of newer and popular themes. At the moment it looks to be simply a way to offer all of their available themes without the red tape of WordPress.org.</p>
<h3>Automattic Addresses Confusion Over WordPress.org Plugin Directory Guideline Regarding Executable Code and Installs</h3>
<p>The news of WordPress.com installing and updating themes for Jetpack users gave rise to speculation about whether or not this move is a violation of the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/detailed-plugin-guidelines/" target="_blank">plugin directory guidelines</a>. Discussions centered around guideline #8, which states that plugins may not send executable code via third-party systems:</p>
<blockquote><p>Serving updates or otherwise installing plugins, themes, or add-ons from servers other than WordPress.org’s.</p></blockquote>
<p>Jetpack representative Richard Muscat gave us the following statement on behalf of Automattic:</p>
<blockquote><p>The guidelines prohibit _plugins_ from installing third party code directly but Jetpack doesn’t do that for this feature. The guidelines state that: “Executing outside code within a plugin *when not acting as a service* is not allowed.”</p>
<p>The service Jetpack provides with respect to themes is via WordPress.com which _is_ acting as a service. This is identical to how Akismet operates with respect to spam-filtering and other Jetpack services such as data sync and backup, content delivery (Photon), and plugin installation/updates.</p>
<p>We ask users to opt-in to WordPress.com services when connecting Jetpack and all our services follow established guidelines.</p></blockquote>
<p>The public discussions also prompted WordPress.org Plugin Directory representatives to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2017/03/16/clarification-of-guideline-8-executable-code-and-installs/" target="_blank">post</a> an article clarifying that Jetpack is not in violation for installing themes.</p>
<p>&#8220;The trick here, and this is what is about to sound like hair splitting, is that it’s not the plugin UI on your site that does the install,&#8221; Mika Epstein said. &#8220;In order for Manage WP and Jetpack to work, you have to go to your panel on their sites and install the items.&#8221;</p>
<p>As SaaS products have not yet been used extensively in the WordPress ecosystem, developers are still figuring out how this type of implementation can interact with WordPress sites via plugins installed from the official directory. The plugin team clarified that if you are pushing plugin or theme installs or updates from a third-party service on its website, then it is no longer a third-party service but rather a first-party service where you are directly initiating those actions.</p>
<p>However, not all developers agree that this distinction makes any difference.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/daljo628">@daljo628</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TheJeffMatson">@thejeffmatson</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/williamsba">@williamsba</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/chriswallace">@chriswallace</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/mattmedeiros">@mattmedeiros</a> Saying SaaS can install plugins but plugin cannot install plugins is silly.</p>
<p>&mdash; Carl Hancock <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/72x72/1f680.png" alt="🚀" class="wp-smiley" /> (@carlhancock) <a href="https://twitter.com/carlhancock/status/842485294863712256">March 16, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Gravity Forms founder Carl Hancock contends that ManageWP is different in that it doesn&#8217;t provide users with themes and plugins &#8211; it&#8217;s just a service for managing your sites.</p>
<p>&#8220;You can install plugins from the WordPress.org plugin and theme repository, you can connect your Dropbox account and install plugins from your Dropbox account, or you can upload your own plugins,&#8221; Hancock said. &#8220;The key is it’s either plugins and themes from WordPress.org OR bring your own. Just like WordPress itself.</p>
<p>&#8220;They [ManageWP] do not provide an alternative repository of themes and/or plugins that competes with the WordPress.org repos.&#8221;</p>
<p>This is where much of the controversy lies for WordPress.org theme authors who depend on the official directory for distribution. Competing with equally free themes that are hosted on WordPress.com with a much better sorting UI and preview functionality is a new challenge they will have to embrace.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 17 Mar 2017 00:08:20 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:123:"WPTavern: U.S. Department of Defense Launches Code.mil Open Source Initiative, First Release Tests Impact of AGPL Licensing";s:7:"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=67451";s:7:"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:132:"https://wptavern.com/u-s-department-of-defense-launches-code-mil-open-source-initiative-first-release-tests-impact-of-agpl-licensing";s: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:7190:"<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/department-of-defense.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft flies over northern Iraq Sept. 23, 2014, after conducting airstrikes in Syria. &#8211; photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/39955793@N07/15172530147/">U.S. Department of Defense</a>
<p>The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1092364/dod-announces-the-launch-of-codemil-an-experiment-in-open-source" target="_blank">experimenting with open sourcing more of its code</a> on GitHub. <a href="http://Code.mil" target="_blank">Code.mil</a> invites developers from around the world to collaborate with federal employees on unclassified code. The Defense Digital Service (DDS), which brings in experts from top technology companies like Google, Amazon, and Netflix for short assignments, is organizing the initiative to open source more government code.</p>
<p>&#8220;Open source and free software (which refers to software freedom, not free of cost) are industry best practices and integral parts of modern software development,&#8221; the department said in a <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1092364/dod-announces-the-launch-of-codemil-an-experiment-in-open-source" target="_blank">statement</a> announcing the initiative. &#8220;They, however, are concepts yet to be widely adopted within the department. With Code.mil, DoD can access a depth and breadth of technical skill previously underutilized while offering software tools created by the government for free public use.&#8221;</p>
<p>The FAQ document for the initiative states that &#8220;modern software is open sourced software&#8221; and that the department is aiming to more actively participate in the open source and free software communities.</p>
<p>Licensing is one of the unique challenges of making government code open source, as code written by federal employees is not protected by copyright under U.S. laws. After consulting the Open Source Initiative and Free Software Foundation, the DoD devised an open source licensing strategy where code written by federal employees will fall under the public domain with no restrictions. DDS developed a GitHub webhook to ensure commits from government employees follow the <a href="https://developercertificate.org/" target="_blank">Developer Certificate of Origin</a> process. Private sector contributions will be protected by standard OSS licenses. This is outlined in the <a href="https://github.com/deptofdefense/code.mil/blob/master/Proposal/INTENT.md" target="_blank">INTENT.md</a> document on the Code.mil repository.</p>
<h3>Code.mil&#8217;s First Open Source Project Released Under AGPL to &#8220;Test GPL as an Approach&#8221;</h3>
<p>In addressing one person&#8217;s <a href="https://github.com/deptofdefense/code.mil/issues/19#issuecomment-282333798" target="_blank">feedback</a> advocating for all Code.mil projects to be MIT-licensed, DDS engineer Tom Bereknyei confirmed that the team will leave this decision to each project&#8217;s leadership.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve had these same discussions internally,&#8221; Bereknyei said. &#8220;We did not want to endorse a particular license and we intend each project to decide which license is appropriate for them. Some may choose MIT, BSD, Apache, or eventually GPL. We did not want to take that choice away from them.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/deptofdefense/eMCM" target="_blank">eMCM</a>, a web-based viewer for the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM), is the first open source project to be released on Code.mil. It provides a canonical &#8220;live&#8221; edition of the manual that is easier to access and maintain than previous versions. eMCM was released this week under the AGPL license.</p>
<p>&#8220;We chose to use the Affero General Public License (AGPL) for the eMCM because every military member has the right to know how the raw legal code (i.e., MCM) will be transformed or manipulated by the eMCM,&#8221; the Defense Digital Service stated in the <a href="https://medium.com/@DefenseDigitalService/code-mil-an-open-source-initiative-at-the-pentagon-5ae4986b79bc#.f9bw1s2ha" target="_blank">announcement</a>. &#8220;Applying the AGPL is a small but important way to help ensure the public has that freedom and transparency to the process.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the pull-request for <a href="https://github.com/deptofdefense/eMCM/pull/5" target="_blank">updating the license on the project</a>, Bereknyei explained why he proposed the AGPL:</p>
<blockquote><p>It&#8217;s a user-facing project, not a library. Ultimately it would be good to preserve the rights of the public to inspect how the raw MCM is transformed by the viewer.</p>
<p>Among the projects we have, this seems to be the best candidate for a GPL test. It is fairly self contained, doesn&#8217;t integrate with any systems, front-end heavy, small enough that a corporate rewrite is easy, and uses only a few libraries. My goal is only to test GPL as an approach. If this project isn&#8217;t suited, I&#8217;m sure we can find another.</p></blockquote>
<p>When Bereknyei was questioned by DDS colleague Nicholas Small about why he opted for AGPL over MIT, he said he wanted to protect the code from being redistributed as closed-source.</p>
<p>&#8220;MIT would allow someone to fork, improve, and release closed-source,&#8221; Bereknyei said. &#8220;The rule of thumb I am trying to apply is that when the rights/convenience for developers are more important, go with MIT/BSD/ISC. When the rights/convenience for users are more important, go with GPL.&#8221;</p>
<p>Historically, the DoD has <a href="http://dodcio.defense.gov/Open-Source-Software-FAQ/#Q:_When_a_DoD_contractor_is_developing_a_new_system.2Fsoftware_as_a_deliverable_in_a_typical_DoD_contract.2C_is_it_possible_to_use_existing_software_licensed_using_the_GNU_General_Public_License_.28GPL.29.3F_Can_the_DoD_used_GPL-licensed_software.3F" target="_blank">used GPL-licensed software extensively</a> and even <a href="http://dodcio.defense.gov/Open-Source-Software-FAQ/#Q:_What_license_should_the_government_or_contractor_choose.2Fselect_when_releasing_open_source_software.3F" target="_blank">recommends government contractors select a GPL-compatible license</a> when developing software as a deliverable in DoD contracts.</p>
<p>One beneficial byproduct of the DoD&#8217;s initiative to open source more code is that the public can watch and participate as federal employees discuss license selection in the open. The department is finally recognizing that taxpayer-funded code is a public good and inviting private sector professionals to the table to build modern software together. Anyone can open an issue or pull request, regardless of their background, location, or formal qualifications. The DoD plans to expand <a href="https://github.com/deptofdefense/code.mil" target="_blank">Code.mil</a> to include projects from other DoD offices and may develop it into a full-fledged website instead of simply redirecting to GitHub.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 16 Mar 2017 04:50:43 +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: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:97:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 267 – Interview With Aaron D. Campbell, WordPress Security Team Lead";s:7:"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=67502&preview=true&preview_id=67502";s:7:"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:102:"https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-267-interview-with-aaron-d-campbell-wordpress-security-team-lead";s: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:2380:"<p>In this episode, <a href="http://marcuscouch.com/">Marcus Couch</a> and I are joined by <a href="https://aarondcampbell.com/">Aaron D. Campbell</a>, WordPress Security Team Lead. Campbell provides insight into who&#8217;s on the team and what they do behind the scenes to coordinate security releases. We discuss the complex nature of <a href="https://aarondcampbell.com/tag/disclosure/">disclosures</a>, when to publish them, and how much information they should have.</p>
<p>In light of <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2017/01/wordpress-4-7-2-security-release/">WordPress 4.7.2</a>, Campbell shares the lessons he learned and how they&#8217;ll be applied to future releases. If you&#8217;ve ever wondered about the security aspects of WordPress, this is the episode for you.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-3-0-0-scheduled-for-release-april-4th">WooCommerce 3.0.0 Scheduled for Release April 4th</a></p>
<h2>Plugins Picked By Marcus:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/fb-live-chat/">Facebook Live Chat for WordPress</a> makes it easier for customers to connect with businesses via Facebook Messenger.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/cf7-database/">Contact Form 7 Database</a> saves submissions from Contact Form 7 to the database for future reference. You can also view them in the WordPress backend.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/total-spent-by-customer-for-woocommerce/">Total Spent by Customer for WooCommerce</a> adds a sortable column to the users list to show how much the user spent on your WooCommerce Store. This is useful to figure out who your top customers are.</p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, March 22nd 3:00 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: </strong><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
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<p><strong>Listen To Episode #267:</strong><br />
</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 15 Mar 2017 22:36:53 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:33:"HeroPress: Going Back To My Roots";s:7:"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=1650";s:7:"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://heropress.com/essays/going-back-roots/";s: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:16907:"<img width="960" height="480" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/031517-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: Thanks to the WordPress Community, I've made friends for life, travelled to new places, and had adventures I never thought possible," /><p>“Get out there and look at that f****n car. <em>Look at that f****n car!</em>”</p>
<p>And all of the good little office girls jumped up and ran outside to ogle and coo over the chairman’s latest “prestige motor.”</p>
<p>Me being me – someone who couldn’t care less about cars, or massaging the needy egos of the men who feel a need to show them off – I stayed sat at my desk and carried on with my work.</p>
<p>My absence outside would be noted, and would not do me any favours.</p>
<p>I had taken a job at a local business support organisation because I needed the work. I’d been told that my experience and abilities could benefit the organisation and, by extension, the local business community. The joke was on me.</p>
<p>In truth, the organisation was a back-slapping boys&#8217; club which didn&#8217;t even have a business plan. Its main income source was, and remains to this day, the revenue from a vanity awards dinner, where members nominate themselves for meaningless awards and then pay thousands of pounds to find out if they won. Beyond that, its sole purpose was to provide the board and management with &#8220;prestige and status&#8221; (my manager&#8217;s words, not mine.) The office atmosphere was so toxic that the HR manager, faking every excuse in the book, hadn&#8217;t bothered to show up in months, which meant that I never saw a job description, had a performance review, or was signed up for the company pension; in fact, the only way I got a contract was by going in on a Saturday to type it up myself. It was all pretty ironic for an organisation which officially exists to support other businesses.</p>
<p>But bills need to be paid, so I kept my head down and did my work and breathed deeply through the increasingly dysfunctional dramas of the board and management.</p>
<blockquote><p>Believing that you can keep calm and avoid office politics in a dysfunctional workplace is a unique form of denial.</p></blockquote>
<p>By showing up for work in the morning, observing the backstabbing behavior around you, and keeping your nose above the parapet, you make yourself easy pickings.</p>
<p>It did not help that my job required me to read certain documents, pass on certain email exchanges, see certain expense receipts, and take minutes at certain meetings. I knew everything. I knew what everyone was up to. I knew too much.</p>
<p>The things I knew too much about erupted violently in the space of a fortnight. Sackings, retaliatory sackings, accusations, slanders, backstabs, screaming, lies, people literally being escorted out the back door, people breaking into file cabinets and document storage, the whole ugly lot.</p>
<p>I decided life was too short to put up with that nonsense and scurried off the sinking ship. Unemployment was preferable to working in a dysfunctional war zone.</p>
<p>A few days later I was sitting in my living room in my pajamas (as unemployed people do), staring blankly at the Christmas tree, barely aware if it was day or night, my head still spinning about what had just happened and what I was going to do next. Then there was a knock at the door. The postman, I assumed.</p>
<p>No, it was the police. They wanted to come in. So they did.</p>
<p>Allegations had been made. Statements had been taken. Criminal charges would be filed.</p>
<p>Against me.</p>
<p>Merry Christmas.</p>
<p>Merry Christmas to you too, I replied as I saw them out.</p>
<p>Because that’s how office politics work, folks. You don&#8217;t walk away from egomaniacs on your own terms. That implies there is something wrong with them. They have to take you down on their own terms. That implies there is something wrong with you. You may think you have left the backstabbers to get on with their petty games without you taking the meeting minutes and processing the strip club expense receipts. You&#8217;re wrong. They have got to find a way to take you down and make you keep your mouth shut. And they will.</p>
<h3>Moving On</h3>
<p>I moved on with my life. I found a stable temp job which had the option to go permanent, and I was quite content with it. I even almost forgot about the police visit. The Scottish justice system, you see, is notoriously slow. So when a letter arrived four months later informing me that I would be standing in a criminal trial at the local sheriff court, I threw up.</p>
<p>I was throwing up all the time at that point because I had just found out I was pregnant.</p>
<p>Most women spend pregnancy in a dreamy haze surrounded by friends, family, and affection. I spent it taking unpaid breaks from my temp jobs to meet with a legal aid solicitor (being unemployed and on a temp wage, I couldn’t afford to pay a lawyer) to plan my defence. He was nice enough, but was clearly not sure what to make of the whole situation. He was used to dealing with actual crimes – stabbings, domestic assaults, and the like. And there was a five foot two pregnant lady in front of him explaining all the plot twists and characters in this pathetic real-life soap opera. He probably looked forward to getting back to the stabbings.</p>
<p>In the meantime, for health and safety reasons, I had to inform my temp employer about the pregnancy. The permanent job offer evaporated instantly.</p>
<blockquote><p>I spent the rest of my time taking whatever demeaning temp admin jobs a heavily pregnant woman could get in order to work the minimum number of days required to qualify for the basic state maternity allowance, which at the time was £106 a week for six months.</p></blockquote>
<p>Suffice to say my dignity took a bit of a beating that year.</p>
<p>By the time the date of preliminary hearing rolled around – again, the Scottish justice system being as slow as it is – I was on the edge of my third trimester. And so there I was, standing alone in the dock in a criminal courtroom, in sheriff court, next to drug dealers and knife thugs, wearing a hideous Marks and Spencer maternity dress, to plead not guilty to something that had never happened.</p>
<p>All of that because of office politics.</p>
<p>Now, the thing about legal aid is that you get what you pay for. My solicitor didn’t show up. He faxed an instruction to one of the solicitors at the sheriff court who acts on behalf of others in those matters. In hindsight, this was a strategy to suggest to the court that the case was so stupid it was not worth showing up for. On the day, though, I was completely, totally, alone, left to stand up and speak for myself.</p>
<blockquote><p>The only person I had in the world to support me was kicking furiously in my stomach, as if to say: go, mum, go.</p></blockquote>
<p>At that moment I had an insight. This, I realised, is it. This is the low point of my life. This is absolute rock bottom. It does not get any worse than this. From here, you can’t go any lower. It is only up from here. And that, standing there in that dock, was strangely liberating.</p>
<p>Now here’s the thing about elderly male judges in curly 18th century wigs. They’re not stupid. He took one look at the charge sheet, one look at the folder of statements and evidence against me, and one look at me. He asked the befuddled prosecuting solicitor what on earth was going on here; the solicitor replied that they were looking to gather more evidence against me. “And how much longer are we to wait for that? This was ten months ago,” he replied to her, very, very cross. This is all very interesting, I thought.</p>
<p>Two days later my solicitor phoned: the judge had ruled the case was “not in the public interest.” That is Scottish legal parlance for “an absolute load of crap.” All charges were dropped; I would have no criminal record; I was done. I was finished. I was free.</p>
<p>Well, free, unemployed, heavily pregnant, destitute, my reputation had been destroyed, and now I had a large hole in my CV which would be awfully difficult to explain. Other than that, I was fine.</p>
<h3>Moving On Again</h3>
<p>I went on state maternity pay early and took some time to get my head back together. That gave me the breathing space to realise a few things.</p>
<p>One was that I was done with office life. That meant I would have to find something to do on my own.</p>
<p>Two was that I was pretty good with this web stuff – I’d been making web sites since 1997, had been running a very popular web site since 1998, and had always been the go-to girl for the web site in everywhere I’d ever worked – and so I might as well do that for a living.</p>
<p>And three was that I had learned the law is bloody terrifying if you let other people blindside you with it. If you know what you are looking at, where you stand within it, and how others are seeking to use it to further their position, you are no longer a hapless bystander to it. You are an equal participant with a fair chance. That is your choice to make.</p>
<h3>Setting Up Shop</h3>
<p>So I set up shop as a self-employed web designer, working quite happily from home with my biggest fan babbling next to me in the playpen. The money wasn’t great, but my stress levels were non-existent, and I had no co-workers to stab me in the back.</p>
<p>Lack of co-workers should never mean lack of colleagues, though, and after a few years I realised local business networking groups simply weren’t for me. I also needed people other than the members of an ancient listserv to bounce questions and ideas off of in real-time. By this point I’d started playing around with WordPress, and I learned about a local meetup group. I tiptoed in one night and awkwardly introduced myself and was welcomed right in.</p>
<p>I realised over time that this was a very different sort of group. Everyone was grassroots volunteers, putting in the effort because they wanted to learn, not because they wanted social status. There was no tiresome hierarchy, no obsession with “prestige”, no kowtowing to the person with the sexiest car (in fact, we all took the bus.) If you had a question, you could ask it without being laughed out the room. No one was obliged to give anything more than they were able to give.</p>
<blockquote><p>In short, it was my kind of group, and these were my kind of people.</p></blockquote>
<p>After a few years we got ambitious enough to decide to put on a conference (which due to various reasons was a WordPress conference but not a WordCamp – ah, the good old days.) We were short of speakers. I suggested to Martin, the lead organiser, that someone should do a talk on that “cookie law” thing that at the time was coming into play very shortly.</p>
<p>“Thank you for volunteering,” said Martin.</p>
<p>“You’re a b*****d, you know that, Martin?” I replied.</p>
<p>So Martin sent me off to do my homework and put together this conference talk. I thought it would just be a simple slide deck: what the law is, how it works, how to comply. Much to my surprise, putting that talk together changed my life.</p>
<h3>The Old Becomes New</h3>
<p>As I sat at my laptop, doing the research, I felt something strange stirring. It was old me.</p>
<p>Old me, who had done an undergraduate degree in international politics. Old me, who’d been a policy intern at think tanks and research centers. Old me, who’d sat in Congressional committees and worked on the Hill and ate politics for breakfast. Old me who’d trained very hard to do one thing and had gotten sidetracked by real life and was now doing something else because something bad had happened. Old me was now new me reading the full text of a piece of EU legislation about how the internet is supposed to work while shouting at my laptop screen, “there is no bloody way that is ever going to work,” while my biggest fan looked at me baffled and then asked me for a cup of juice.</p>
<blockquote><p>Whoever I was now, and whatever crap had happened to me in those intervening years, I was back.</p></blockquote>
<p>That conference talk turned into an obsession. I began writing about law and policy issues that impact our work – be it regulations on accessibility, e-commerce, privacy and data protection, taxation, UX, contracts, copyright, geoblocking, or any of the smaller issues that touch our work every day. I even became a student again and earned a postgraduate certification in internet law and policy from the University of Strathclyde. I still did the client-facing web work but my enthusiasm for it waned by the month.</p>
<p>At WordCamp London 2015 I gave a talk on various digital policy issues, then spent the rest of the time sitting in the track devoted to charity and not-for-profit web sites, as that was what my business did. As the speakers gave their superb talks I felt myself sinking lower in my chair. Another insight. Oh, woman, you’re in the wrong job. This isn’t what you are supposed to be doing. For the first time I asked myself why I was devoting such passion to the digital policy side while still carrying on with a web design business I started up to give myself a job with a newborn baby. A few months later I was flown out to Seville on a few days’ notice to speak at WordCamp Europe, where I replaced a speaker who had been hospitalised. I felt a tremendous sense of obligation because of that – it was deeply humbling to be given an opportunity because of someone else’s illness – and I resolved to do more to give back to the WordPress community.</p>
<p>I hung up my web design mouse in the autumn of that year. I still do odd bits and bobs for a handful of existing clients but I now focus entirely on digital law and policy. My blog is read by the UK Parliament, the European Commission, and the US Department of State. I speak to non-WordPress groups ranging from Joomla developers to Ruby programmers, but WordPress remains my home and my community. I encourage members of the community to respect the law and to work within it, not to fear it. I think, all things considered, I’m more than qualified to understand why that’s true.</p>
<p>Thanks to the WordPress community I’ve made friends for life, travelled to new places, and had adventures I never thought possible. I’ve built a new career while connecting with the important things I thought I had left behind. And last year when I was pickpocketed en route to a conference talk, the WordPress community in that city – none of whom I had ever met – leapt into action to provide me with food, beer, and hugs. In a strange city where I didn’t speak the language and had no money, being part of the community meant I didn’t have to be scared and alone.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve come a long way from that lonely courtroom dock.</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: Going Back To My Roots" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Going%20Back%20To%20My%20Roots&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fgoing-back-roots%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Going Back To My Roots" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fgoing-back-roots%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%2Fgoing-back-roots%2F&title=Going+Back+To+My+Roots" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Going Back To My Roots"></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/going-back-roots/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/031517-150x150.jpg&description=Going Back To My Roots" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Going Back To My Roots"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/going-back-roots/" title="Going Back To My Roots"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/going-back-roots/">Going Back To My Roots</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 15 Mar 2017 12:00:22 +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:"Heather Burns";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:86:"WPTavern: Bocoup Launches Study to Measure Impact of Open Work on Developer Well-Being";s:7:"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=67447";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:97:"https://wptavern.com/bocoup-launches-study-to-measure-impact-of-open-work-on-developer-well-being";s: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:1980:"<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/survey.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/FI3UYVGNFD">Lukasz Kowalewski</a>
<p><a href="https://bocoup.com/" target="_blank">Bocoup</a>, an open source technology and design consulting company, is recruiting for a new study that aims to &#8220;measure the impact of open work on developer well-being and productivity.&#8221; The company is partnering with MIT and UCLA to develop an open work email-bot that will interact with organizations that sign up to participate. The study is open to teams that use source control.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re defining &#8216;open work&#8217; as a project where tasks/work product are/can be shared outside the group immediately responsible for those tasks,&#8221; Bocoup Director of Research Boaz Sender said.</p>
<p>Participating organizations will get hooked up with Bocoup&#8217;s email-bot, which offers tools for recognizing team members or open source community members for their contributions to projects. Bocoup plans to publish the average results with the goal of educating businesses and policy makers about the value of open source work. Data from organizations participating in the study will be anonymized and untraceable.</p>
<p>With all the new ways of working together on the web (GitHub, Slack, GitLab, etc.) it&#8217;s good to see a company prioritizing research on how this impacts developers. The study begins in March and will end in June. If you&#8217;re interested to have your organization be a part of it, you can find out more on the <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9sYreLFTZDxn-LuUhGCl043QDcagls9g0t_TbZ3Pd3ZnYNA/viewform?c=0&w=1" target="_blank">signup form</a> and get a better understanding of the time commitment on the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EWD9c4cmIfyNVe4pGFsvPiLO83i1ZOij4mpF-cLVfTc/edit" target="_blank">FAQ</a> page.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 15 Mar 2017 02:10:06 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:59:"WPTavern: WooCommerce 3.0.0 Scheduled for Release April 4th";s:7:"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=67438";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-3-0-0-scheduled-for-release-april-4th";s: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:4981:"<p>Big changes are on the way for <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce/">WooCommerce</a>. Mike Jolley, lead developer of WooCommerce, <a href="https://woocommerce.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/important-update-regarding-the-upcoming-woocommerce-release-2-7-will-be-3-0-0/">announced</a> that WooCommerce 2.7 will be versioned 3.0.0 with a scheduled release date of April 4th. During the 2.7 beta testing phase, the team discovered a <a href="https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce/issues/13498">significant bug</a> in the way that timestamps are handled.</p>
<p>&#8220;Essentially, some developers need a way to reliably get UTC timestamps as well as dates according to the site’s timezone,&#8221; Jolley said. &#8220;To resolve this we’re working on a solution which accepts <em>either</em> a UTC timestamp, or an ISO8601 datetime string, and returns a <a href="http://php.net/manual/en/class.datetime.php">DateTime object</a> so timezone information can be retrieved if needed. This approach is not compatible with the <code>get_date_x</code> getters found in 2.7 beta.&#8221;</p>
<p>Beginning with WooCommerce 3.0.0, the project will use semantic versioning or <a href="http://semver.org/">SemVer</a>. WooCommerce has incrementally versioned its releases similar to WordPress. For example, WooCommerce 2.5, 2.6, 2.7. Semantic versioning allows for three digit version numbers and should make it easier to discern major versions from maintenance and bug fix releases. The three digits stand for major, minor, and patch.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://semver.org/">SemVer site</a>, each number is incremented when:</p>
<ul>
<li>MAJOR version for incompatible API changes.</li>
<li>MINOR version when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner.</li>
<li>PATCH version when you make backwards-compatible bug fixes.</li>
</ul>
<p>Under this system, WooCommerce 3.0.0 is a major update with 3.1.0 being a minor update. The next major update will be 4.0.0. Developers should take note that in 3.0.0 RC1, the versioning and @since properties are relabeled to 3.0.0. &#8220;If you have used version_compare statements in your code, they will still work since 3.0.0 is greater than 2.7.0, however, you can change these for clarity,&#8221; Jolley said. Themes with template files versioned 2.7.0 may need to be updated to use 3.0.0 to prevent reports of outdated template files.</p>
<p>In addition to version changes and fixing major bugs, the team is allowing up to three weeks for 3.0.0 RC1 to be tested. The amount of time to test has been extended from one week to three <a href="https://woocommerce.wordpress.com/2017/02/17/woocommerce-2-7-beta-3/#comment-2589">based on feedback </a>from extension developers.</p>
<p>&#8220;An RC is really the first point in time when people can look at the code and feel confident it&#8217;s probably not going to change a lot before the official release,&#8221; Brent Shepherd, founder of <a href="http://prospress.com/">Prospress Inc</a>. said. &#8220;With that in mind, having 3 months of beta testing, but only 1 week for the RC, doesn’t make a lot of sense. It makes sense to give more time in that later stage after the RC.&#8221;</p>
<p>Josh Kohlbach, a WooCommerce extension developer, <a href="https://woocommerce.wordpress.com/2017/02/17/woocommerce-2-7-beta-3/#comment-2604">also agreed</a> with extending the RC testing time. &#8220;Currently from our company’s perspective we’ve had to put other priorities on hold in order to put WC2.7 changes ahead,&#8221; Kohlbach said. &#8220;The 2.7 changes we were holding off on doing until RC, which is what we normally do.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;However, when it was announced that there would be only one week between, we figured that wouldn’t be enough time for proper testing and pushing updates on all of our products so we’re compatible on day one,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It just isn’t enough time so we, like many others by the sounds of it, started making our compatibility fixes around Beta 2 this time even though we knew there might be more changes coming down the pipe before RC gets here.&#8221;</p>
<p>Extension developers are praising the team for changing to a semantic versioning system and extending the time to test Release Candidates. &#8220;I’m very happy to see these changes,&#8221; Shepherd said. &#8220;Big props for making the tough call late in the release cycle. Hopefully it will help ensure a smoother release for all WC users of this version.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I think this is a really positive move forward for WooCommerce,&#8221; Kohlback said. &#8220;I for one want to thank you on behalf of all the third-party developers for being so open and taking on board all of our various points, really makes us happy to be part of the community!&#8221;</p>
<p>If all goes well, you can expect to see an update for WooCommerce in your WordPress dashboard on April 4th.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 14 Mar 2017 22:23:12 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"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:93:"WPTavern: Varying Vagrant Vagrants 2.0.0 Introduces YAML Configuration, Revamps Documentation";s:7:"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=67436";s:7:"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:103:"https://wptavern.com/varying-vagrant-vagrants-2-0-0-introduces-yaml-configuration-revamps-documentation";s: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:4545:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/vvv-github.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://varyingvagrantvagrants.org/blog/2017/03/13/varying-vagrant-vagrants-2-0-0.html" target="_blank">Varying Vagrant Vagrants 2.0.0</a> was released yesterday with support for a <a href="https://varyingvagrantvagrants.org/docs/en-US/vvv-config/" target="_blank">YAML configuration</a> file. This is a major improvement that gives VVV users more flexibility in customizing their configurations. The new <code>vvv-config.yml</code> file includes the defaults and users can create a <code>vvv-custom.yml</code> file to change the default provisioning. Utilities have been broken out into their own repository, allowing users to specify PHP 5.6, 7.0, or 7.1 for new projects.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the past, it was often difficult as a maintainer to say no to feature requests because I knew that the customizations would either be really annoying for someone to implement on their own or would require a fork, possibly losing the benefit of future changes,&#8221; VVV Project Lead Jeremy Felt said. &#8220;At the same time, it was hard to say yes because not everyone needs the same features. Those two clash, and the easiest answer is to stall. The new changes provide a pretty straight forward way of providing these custom changes and make it easy to stay in sync upstream.&#8221;</p>
<p>Version 2.0.0 was also released with <a href="https://varyingvagrantvagrants.org/docs/en-US/" target="_blank">new documentation on the VVV website</a>. Contributors are migrating docs from the wiki on GitHub to the new website and plan to make them translatable in the future.</p>
<p>Felt also recently <a href="https://jeremyfelt.com/2017/03/05/documenting-vvvs-governance-model/" target="_blank">documented VVV’s governance model</a> and promoted Lorelei Aurora to the role of Lead Developer on the project. VVV has 108 contributors, by Felt&#8217;s count, and he estimates approximately 100 clones of the project per day based on GitHub&#8217;s analytics. For the past five years, Felt has cultivated VVV’s growing community of contributors by developing a friendly and welcoming culture within the project.</p>
<p>&#8220;Very early on I read something about OSS project maintenance that inspired me to always greet new commenters, issue creators, and developers in an effort to make them feel welcome from the beginning,&#8221; Felt said. &#8220;Removing even the smallest hurdles of contributing to open source goes a long way. Being friendly encourages people to stick around. Even in small projects like VVV, it can be overwhelming to figure out if you&#8217;re doing things right.&#8221;</p>
<p>Felt said he wished he would have written the governance document sooner, because it provides a roadmap for contributors. He found that having this information available to the community from the beginning may be just as important as having a license in place.</p>
<p>&#8220;It starts to answer the &#8216;what kind of impact can I have&#8217; question when someone is getting started,&#8221; Felt said. &#8220;The current list of committers is a little misleading in that they are all people who were very active early in the project, but not as much now. Their input continues to be trusted, but commit access probably won&#8217;t be used very much. This isn&#8217;t a bad thing, as a project goes through cycles, but something to keep track of as a maintainer. Having a process is a healthy thing. I&#8217;m hoping it attracts even more contributors!&#8221;</p>
<h3>What&#8217;s Next on the VVV Roadmap?</h3>
<p>The next focus on the VVV roadmap is building out the rest of the documentation on <a href="http://varyingvagrantvagrants.org" target="_blank">varyingvagrantvagrants.org</a>. Felt said he hopes it will become a great place for basic setup, detailed guides, and frequent troubleshooting tips. Translated docs is the next item that Felt said he hopes can be a huge benefit to the project and the community.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are a couple things that would be fun for flexibility,&#8221; Felt said. &#8220;A long-running pull request that introduces PHP Brew would be nice to finally tackle. Introducing MySQL Sandbox would be cool. And who knows? Everyone should stop by and <a href="https://github.com/Varying-Vagrant-Vagrants/VVV" target="_blank">leave a note</a> with the feature they&#8217;d like to see most. I&#8217;m more comfortable saying &#8216;no&#8217; now.&#8221;</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 14 Mar 2017 19:28:13 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:81:"WPTavern: WordPress.com Updates Its Post Editor With a Distraction-Free Interface";s:7:"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=67429";s:7:"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/wordpress-com-updates-its-post-editor-with-a-distraction-free-interface";s: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:3321:"<p>WordPress.com has <a href="https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/a-distraction-free-writing-space-at-wordpress-com/">unveiled a refreshed post editor</a> that makes content front and center.</p>
<p>The most noticeable change is the user interface. The sidebar of meta boxes is now on the right-hand side instead of the left. Clicking the Post Settings link hides the sidebar, providing a cleaner interface. The preview and publish buttons are no longer in a metabox and are permanently displayed.</p>
<img />New WordPress.com Post Editor
<p>Drafts are quickly accessible by clicking the number next to the Write button. Hovering over a draft title displays a small excerpt of the post. Unlike the distraction-free writing mode in the self-hosted version of WordPress, sidebars and other items on the screen do not disappear and reappear. This animation has <a href="https://wptavern.com/whats-your-first-impression-of-distraction-free-writing-in-wordpress-4-1#comment-62784">been described</a> by some as a distraction.</p>
<p>Joen Asmussen and Matías Ventura, two Automatticians based in Europe, helped create the new interface. In an interview conducted by John Maeda, <span class="st">Global Head of Computational Design and Inclusion at Automattic, Asmussen describes what he&#8217;s most excited about with the improvements. </span></p>
<p>&#8220;Everything has a right place,&#8221; Asmussen said. &#8220;In this iteration, we’ve tried to find those places for the preview and publish buttons, as well as the post settings. By making the buttons permanently visible and the sidebar optionally toggled, my hope is that the combination will provide a seamless flow for both the person who just wants to <i>write</i>, as well as the person who needs to configure their post settings.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ventura says he is happy to bring the focus back on the content by placing it in the center. &#8220;I’m also fond of the recent drafts menu next to the &#8216;Write&#8217; button, as it provides a quick way to carry on with your unfinished posts,&#8221; he said. &#8220;These editor refinements have the potential to let your work on WordPress keep you deeply in the productive state of flow.&#8221;</p>
<p>The core team continues to <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-core-editor-team-publishes-ui-prototype-for-gutenberg-an-experimental-block-based-editor">work on a block based editor</a> for the open-source WordPress project and <span class="st">Asmussen</span> hints that this approach to writing could one day end up in the WordPress.com post editor.</p>
<p>After testing the new editor on WordPress.com, I can say that it&#8217;s more enjoyable to use than the distraction-free writing mode in WordPress. There&#8217;s less distraction, meta boxes are either on the screen or they&#8217;re not, and I enjoyed writing without interface elements disappearing and reappearing on the screen.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;d like to try the new editor on a self-hosted WordPress site, you can do so through Jetpack. Visit the Jetpack dashboard in the WordPress backend, click on the Apps link, then click the Try the New Editor button.</p>
<p>After using the new editor, let us know what you think. How does it compare to the writing experience currently in WordPress?</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 14 Mar 2017 02:03:50 +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:"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: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:90:"WPTavern: John Maeda’s 2017 Design in Tech Report Puts the Spotlight on Inclusive Design";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=67406";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"https://wptavern.com/john-maedas-2017-design-in-tech-report-puts-the-spotlight-on-inclusive-design";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6207:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/design-in-tech-2017.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://maedastudio.com/" target="_blank">John Maeda</a>, Automattic&#8217;s Global Head of Computational Design and Inclusion, presented his third annual &#8220;<a href="https://designintechreport.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Design in Tech</a>&#8221; report at SXSW over the weekend. The previous reports have received more than two million views and this one is equally loaded with thought-provoking information about the future of the design industry.</p>
<p>&#8220;Design isn’t just about beauty; it’s about market relevance and meaningful results,&#8221; Maeda said. He highlighted how design leaders are increasingly top hires at major corporations, due to market demand. Businesses are beginning to embrace design as a fundamental tool for success. Design used to be relegated to extra-curricular clubs in business schools, but many schools are shifting to include design in the curriculum.</p>
<p>Constant connectivity in the digital era has brought the idea of &#8220;computational design&#8221; to the forefront, which Maeda describes as &#8220;designing for billions of individual people and in realtime.&#8221; Designing at this scale requires an approach that is inclusive of the widest number of consumers, essentially designing for everyone.</p>
<p>Maeda believes that &#8220;design and inclusion are inseparable&#8221; and he is on a mission to prove that inclusive design is good business. </p>
<p>&#8220;When we separate inclusion into essentially an HR compliance topic, it loses its energy,&#8221; Maeda said. &#8220;It&#8217;s important, of course, but it loses the creativity that&#8217;s intrinsic to inclusion.&#8221; His 2017 Design in Tech report focuses on how inclusion matters in business. Maeda admits there are not many examples of how inclusion drives better financial outcomes, but one of his professional aims is to demonstrate how inclusive design can make a financial difference.</p>
<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s why I joined Automattic,&#8221; Maeda said. &#8220;My hope is that this approach can lead to better business outcomes for the WordPress ecosystem. I don&#8217;t know if it will be possible but that&#8217;s my goal. I want to show that it&#8217;s possible numerically.&#8221;</p>
<p>Making inclusive design profitable hinges on the principle that if you want to reach a larger market, you have to reach people you&#8217;re not already reaching by being inclusive. This new frontier of design requires some technical understanding outside of purely classical design. The hybrid designer/developer, often referred to as a &#8220;unicorn&#8221; in the tech industry, is often relied upon to bridge that gap.</p>
<p>Maeda predicts that the scarcity of hybrid designer/developers will soon decrease, due to how things are changing in the industry. After surveying design leaders in 2016, Maeda found that 1/3 had formal engineering/science training, suggesting that &#8220;hybrid&#8221; talent has considerably increased in recent years. He shared his observations from surveying Automattic designers and developers about JavaScript competency. He found a significant segment of designers approaching moderate fluency in JavaScript after WordPress&#8217; 2015 initiative to encourage JavaScript mastery.</p>
<p>&#8220;The world is moving, and moving with the world is what designers do,&#8221; Maeda said. He also made a bold recommendation for those who are maintaining a design-only skill set:</p>
<p>&#8220;I encourage you, if you&#8217;re a pure pure designer, to &#8216;impurify yourself,&#8217; because it&#8217;s a whole new world and there&#8217;s a lot to learn,&#8221; Maeda said. &#8220;Anyone who&#8217;s in this game, if you aren&#8217;t watching videos and learning, you get behind in two months.&#8221; </p>
<p>Maeda also encouraged listeners to shed biases that prevent them from seeing important trends and changes on the web. He addressed misconceptions about how products &#8220;made in China&#8221; are often thought of as something cheap or copycat, but China is moving forward in the mobile revolution in a far more advanced way than many other countries. He highlighted some major design trends pioneered by Chinese designers and how they are impacting the tech industry. </p>
<p>Maeda closely monitors design-related M&#038;A activity and funds that are design and/or inclusion oriented. His data shows that tech companies are finding more value in design tool companies and design community platforms, with acquisitions steadily increasing every year. The value of design companies is especially evident in China where Maeda noted three designer co-founded Chinese companies have a combined market cap of over $300 billion. </p>
<p>He also shared what he has learned about designers since taking his position at Automattic, which employs more than 500 people working remotely across 50 countries.</p>
<p>&#8220;People want to have challenging work; they want to make change happen,&#8221; Maeda said. &#8220;With creative people this is their main driver. If that can&#8217;t be sated, they get unhappy and they leave. The problem is this kind of work is the kind that seems like bonus work, not the main work. So my question as a manager is, &#8216;How do I put the two together in some constructive way?&#8217; How do you make time to learn and grow? That&#8217;s something I didn&#8217;t know was pervasive in a busy busy tech company.&#8221;</p>
<p>Maeda concludes that it is a good time to be a designer, especially if you&#8217;re willing to make up for the design education gap and teach yourself new skills online. His 2017 Design in Tech report is a must-read, not just for designers but for anyone working in tech or hiring tech talent. Check out the <a href="https://designintechreport.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">full report</a> on WordPress.com. You can also <a href="https://designintechreport.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/design-in-tech-report-2017-video/" target="_blank">listen to the audio of Maeda&#8217;s presentation</a> while viewing the slides.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 13 Mar 2017 20:07:08 +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: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:75:"Post Status: JavaScript frameworks in a WordPress context — Draft podcast";s:7:"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=35232";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"https://poststatus.com/javascript-frameworks-wordpress-context-draft-podcast/";s: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:2808:"<p>Welcome to the Post Status <a href="https://poststatus.com/category/draft">Draft podcast</a>, which you can find <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008">on iTunes</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/m/Ih5egfxskgcec4qadr3f4zfpzzm?t=Post_Status__Draft_WordPress_Podcast">Google Play</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast">Stitcher</a>, and <a href="http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1061/rss">via RSS</a> for your favorite podcatcher. Post Status Draft is hosted by Joe Hoyle &#8212; the CTO of Human Made &#8212; and Brian Krogsgard.</p>
<p><span>Live from the A Day of REST workshops, Brian, Joe, and Zac talk about the state of working with JavaScript &#8212; including several popular JavaScript frameworks &#8212; and WordPress. They go through the pros and cons of using each one, what to watch out for when working with them and WordPress, and ways they think the process can improve.</span></p>
<p><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');</script><![endif]-->
<a href="https://audio.simplecast.com/62575.mp3">https://audio.simplecast.com/62575.mp3</a><br />
<a href="https://audio.simplecast.com/62575.mp3">Direct Download</a></p>
<h3>Links</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://javascriptforwp.com/">JavaScript for WP</a></li>
<li><a href="https://facebook.github.io/react/">React</a></li>
<li><a href="https://vuejs.org/">Vue</a></li>
<li><a href="http://backbonejs.org/">Backbone</a></li>
<li><a href="http://underscorejs.org/">Underscores</a></li>
<li><a href="https://angularjs.org/">Angular</a></li>
<li><a href="https://adayofrest.hm/boston-2017/">A Day of Rest</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Sponsor: WP Migrate DB Pro</h3>
<p><span>Today’s show is sponsored by</span><a href="https://deliciousbrains.com/"> <span>Delicious Brains</span></a><span>.</span><a href="https://deliciousbrains.com/wp-migrate-db-pro/"> <span>WP Migrate DB Pro</span></a> <span>makes moving and copying databases simple. They  also have an exciting new project for merging databases, called Mergebot. Go to</span><a href="https://mergebot.com/"> <span>Mergebot.com</span></a><span> for updates on that, and</span><a href="https://deliciousbrains.com/"> <span>deliciousbrains.com</span></a><span> for more information on WPMigrate DB Pro. Thanks to the team at Delicious Brains for being a Post Status partner.</span></p>
<h3>Special Thanks: Bocoup</h3>
<p><span>Special thanks to <a href="https://bocoup.com/">Bocoup</a> for allowing us to record this podcast episode in their office. Bocoup was a partner and workshop host for A Day of REST, and were incredibly hospitable. Checkout <a href="https://bocoup.com/">Bocoup</a> to learn more about how they embrace open source as a consulting agency.</span></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 13 Mar 2017 00:56:04 +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:14:"Katie Richards";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"WPTavern: Hacker News Question: Developers with kids, how do you skill up?";s:7:"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=67259";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"https://wptavern.com/hacker-news-question-developers-with-kids-how-do-you-skill-up";s: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:9488:"<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/child-theme.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/R0C7A5M4WB">Leeroy</a>
<p>By now you&#8217;ve probably seen the viral <a href="https://twitter.com/JOE_co_uk/status/840165524038377472" target="_blank">clip</a> of a father getting interrupted by his children while giving a live interview on BBC. Working parents everywhere, especially remote workers, could identify with the humorous embarrassment of the situation. Even those who have had pets interrupt Skype calls know the feeling. You want to be thought of as a professional and taken seriously but little home office invaders have other plans.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">This BBC interview is amazing. Just wait until the mum rushes in&#8230; <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/72x72/1f602.png" alt="😂" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://t.co/LGw1ACR9rg">pic.twitter.com/LGw1ACR9rg</a></p>
<p>&mdash; JOE.co.uk (@JOE_co_uk) <a href="https://twitter.com/JOE_co_uk/status/840165524038377472">March 10, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Many developers who work from home with children know the daily struggle of balancing family life with work, which generally leaves very little time for improving professional skills. A popular question on Hacker News this week asks, <strong>&#8220;<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13816627" target="_blank">Developers with kids, how do you skill up?</a>&#8220;</strong>: </p>
<blockquote><p>I recently had one of my colleagues comment on my GitHub account graph &#8211; &#8216;There won&#8217;t be many green boxes in your account once you have a kid&#8217;. This was in response to my suggestions on how we should all keep learning. I argued many good programmers have family with kids and still manage to keep up. They brushed me off saying it&#8217;s just not possible or they don&#8217;t look after their kids.</p>
<p>When I look on the internet I find people doing full time jobs delivering products while having a family and some still find plenty of time to blog or write books. How is this possible? Are these people super-human? How are you all doing or managing if you have kids/family?</p></blockquote>
<p>The question received nearly 500 replies with tips and stories from those who are making it work. One of the first participants on the thread is <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13821164" target="_blank">Rachel Andrew</a>, who shares how she learned Perl as a single mother, launching a new career in web development. She said found success by &#8220;simply working every possible moment&#8221; she could and learning to be organized and focused with her time.  </p>
<p>One common theme among the replies is that having kids is like getting a crash course in time management. When your available time is significantly reduced, you are forced to become more purposeful about how you spend it.</p>
<blockquote><p>What I learned: your time does get reduced drastically, but you spend the remaining time with more focus/direction. Also, you use your time smarter, e.g. I used to do sports (indoor climbing), but now I just cycle every day from/to work (~1 hour) to stay fit. It takes approximately the same time as going by train or car.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>If i have clear priorities in my head &#8211; what I want to achieve in the &#8216;extra time&#8217; that I have got. The clearer the goal, the better the results.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>&#8230;due to lack of free time and the newfound need to use it efficiently, I&#8217;ve found that I&#8217;ve probably read more actual physics in the last four years than in the previous many years of dreaming about it.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>Time management, to me, is a more powerful &#8220;skill up&#8221; than anything that could keep your GitHub green. When you know you have limited hours in the day and you have hard time commitments, you have no choice but to learn and work efficiently.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>
I&#8217;d add that kids have taught me to be a better planner, and to break my priorities down into small, well defined chunks that can be slotted into a busy life. This has been valuable in general, not just for programming.</p></blockquote>
<p>One commenter said he misses the days when he could stay up all night working and exploring new technologies; now it seems the world is going on without him. Other commenters reject the idea of &#8220;skilling up&#8221; entirely and encourage the original poster not to get too hung up on shiny new frameworks.</p>
<blockquote><p>I agree with you about the need to remain buzzword compliant for jobs, but are we &#8220;skilling up&#8221; or spinning our wheels? There is some worthwhile learning, but a lot of it is just BS status signaling. Learning another SPA framework that solves the problems of the last framework, while introducing new problems? Learning yet another way to bundle your web content? A new transpiled language to patch the holes in JavaScript?</p>
<p>A lot of what we regard as &#8220;skilling up&#8221; is just a product of our immature dev culture-learning stuff for the sake of buzzword compliance that doesn&#8217;t improve anything in the long run. And the high failure rate of software projects shows that we aren&#8217;t gaining a lot from this culture anyway.</p></blockquote>
<h3>Combatting the Myth that You Can&#8217;t Do Anything with Just 15 Minutes</h3>
<p>Another theme among the comments is the &#8220;myths&#8221; parents create that keep them from using the short increments of time that pop up throughout the day. One commenter <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13822865" target="_blank">summarizes</a> the self-limiting mindset that many adopt after having children:</p>
<blockquote><p>New parents create limitations for themselves in their belief that it is utterly impossible to do anything outside of parenting. The OP is saying that meaningful work can be done in the 15 minutes your baby might be asleep. A year of 15 minutes adds up to a lot.</p></blockquote>
<p>The key to productivity is being able to take those 15 minute increments and string them into bite-sized accomplishments towards a larger goal. Developer Chris Dawson shared how he wrote an app late at night while caring for his first child. </p>
<p>&#8220;I only have ten minutes here, fifteen minutes there. I need focused hours of time to build something. That is just a story,&#8221; Dawson said. He used these short bits of time to create <a href="http://blog.teddyhyde.com/2013/04/03/teddy-hyde-the-no-compromise-extensible-one-handed-jekyll-blog-editor-for-android" target="_blank">a one-handed blogging tool</a>, because he needed a way to blog with one hand while holding his sleeping son.</p>
<p>&#8220;When my daughter was born two years later, my wife was so exhausted she would go to bed at 8,&#8221; Dawson said. &#8220;I&#8217;d get my son to sleep and then promised myself I would write for just fifteen minutes before bed. That usually turned into an hour or two and three years later I had written <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/mobile/0636920043027.do" target="_blank">a book for O&#8217;Reilly</a>.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;There are so many times I&#8217;m exhausted after getting the kids to bed and I just browse the Internet,&#8221; Dawson said. &#8220;If I was really intentional about my time, even that fifteen minutes could be used to work towards my goals. But there is a powerful story telling me that it won&#8217;t make a difference if I just waste that time.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dawson doesn&#8217;t consider himself an extraordinary high achiever. He found success by changing his perspective about the sleep he was losing.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not the greatest developer &#8211; I struggled with the Google interview I got,&#8221; Dawson said. &#8220;But, success is 90% perspiration and 10% ingenuity. Who cares if you are sweating because you are exhausted and sleep deprived caring for infants as compared to pulling all-night coding sessions?&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Most of what we think of as being &#8216;too busy&#8217; for any particular thing is a cognitive bias for forgetting just how much time we waste,&#8221; JavaScript engineer Sean McBeth said.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/samlittlewood" target="_blank">Sam Littlewood</a>, senior architect at V-Nova, offered a few practical tips on the thread:</p>
<ul>
<li>Don&#8217;t use the computer to waste time &#8211; if I need decompression time, try and make it doing something w/ kids (LEGO!)</li>
<li>A solid dev. environment where you can walk up, crank an iteration, and walk away. (Like in the time it takes a kettle to boil)</li>
<li>Learning to code in my head &#8211; basically planning the path of changes/tests I will make next time I am back at my machine. It feels to me somewhat like the &#8216;method of loci&#8217; &#8211; a definite journey. Often times, the plan goes awry, but the successes make it worth it. After 12 years of reading to the kids, I can do this whilst reading a story to them.</li>
</ul>
<p>The comments are full of inspiring stories and ideas for routines and tips that can help parents be more productive. There&#8217;s no magical path to success but, as many working parents have discovered, you may find more time than you thought you had.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 11 Mar 2017 23:32:07 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:39;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:44:"WPTavern: In Case You Missed It – Issue 18";s:7:"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=67263";s:7:"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://wptavern.com/in-case-you-missed-it-issue-18";s: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:7020:"<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ICYMIFeaturedImage.png?ssl=1" rel="attachment wp-att-50955"><img /></a>photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/112901923@N07/16153818039">Night Moves</a> &#8211; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">(license)</a>
<p>There’s a lot of great WordPress content published in the community but not all of it is featured on the Tavern. This post is an assortment of items related to WordPress that caught my eye but didn’t make it into a full post.</p>
<h2>The REST API Democratizes Reading</h2>
<p>Mika Epstein <a href="https://halfelf.org/2017/rest-api-democratizing-reading/">explains</a> how the WordPress REST API democratizes reading by making content more discoverable and accessible.</p>
<blockquote><p>When you look at a website you see the design and the layout and the wonderful beauty. When an app reads your data, however, it doesn’t want or need any of that. An app needs the raw data. And the REST API does that. It outputs the data in a super basic and simple way. Furthermore, it lets you add on to this and output specific data in special ways.</p></blockquote>
<h2>TechSPARK Interviews WordCamp Bristol Organizer</h2>
<p>Bristol, UK, is gearing up for its <a href="https://2017.bristol.wordcamp.org/">first WordCamp</a> and local media is taking notice. TechSPARK, a digital publication that covers tech in Bristol, Bath, and the West of England <a href="https://techspark.co/wordcamp-bristol/">published</a> an interview with Janice Tye, one of the lead organizers of the event.</p>
<p>In the interview, Tye explains what a WordCamp is and how people can get involved. WordCamp Bristol takes place May 13-14th, 2017 and has a limited <a href="https://2017.bristol.wordcamp.org/tickets/">number of tickets</a> available.</p>
<h2>Fishing Guide&#8217;s Site Used by Hackers for eCommerce Fraud</h2>
<p>TechCrunch <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/03/woe-are-the-great-fish-of-cape-cod/">published</a> an interesting story of how a Cape Cod fishing guide&#8217;s website that runs on WordPress was hacked and used to host an eCommerce store. The moral of the story is to keep WordPress and its plugins and themes updated. An additional safety measure is to enable two-factor authentication.</p>
<h2>Being a Full-time Contributor Through Sponsorships</h2>
<p>Late last year, John James Jacoby <a href="https://jjj.blog/2016/12/%f0%9f%92%af%e2%88%9e/">outlined his goal</a> for his 100 initiative. &#8220;My goal is be a fully funded independent ambassador for WordPress and the surrounding initiatives, backed by many of the best companies who continue to push WordPress beyond its limits on a daily basis,&#8221; Jacoby said.</p>
<p>Jacoby provided <a href="https://jjj.blog/2017/03/january-february/">an update</a> on what he&#8217;s been working on since obtaining sponsorship from Pagely and Pantheon. He plans to take a two-week break in March to attend WordCamp Miami and will be speaking at other events. If you&#8217;re interested in sponsoring Jacoby to work on WordPress full-time for a month, please get <a href="http://jjj.me/">in touch with him</a>.</p>
<h1 class="entry-title">Mode Effect Builds Website for WordPress.com&#8217;s Affiliate Program</h1>
<p><a href="https://modeeffect.com/">Mode Effect</a>, a web design agency, <a href="https://modeeffect.com/wordpress-com-creators-select-wordpress-agency-mode-effect-to-build-affiliate-program/">built the site</a> for <a href="https://refer.wordpress.com/">WordPress.com&#8217;s affiliate program</a>. According to Jon Burke, team lead for events, marketing, and advertising at Automattic, the agency was chosen based on recommendations and its previous work with the <a href="https://vip.wordpress.com/">WordPress VIP program</a>.</p>
<h2>New Features for WordPress.com Stats</h2>
<p>WordPress.com unveiled a <a href="https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/your-stats-page-updated/">number of new enhancements</a> to WordPress.com stats. More insights, summaries, and better use of wide screens are just a few of the improvements that were made.</p>
<h2>Remembering HostReviews.io</h2>
<p>Kevin Ohashi, founder of Review Signal, takes a <a href="http://reviewsignal.com/blog/2017/03/06/goodbye-hostingreviews-io-i-will-miss-you/">look back at </a><span class="skimlinks-unlinked"><a href="http://reviewsignal.com/blog/2017/03/06/goodbye-hostingreviews-io-i-will-miss-you/">HostingReviews.io</a> created by Steven Gliebe that was recently acquired by HostingFacts.com. </span></p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m truly saddened because it&#8217;s disappearing at some point &#8216;soon.&#8217; The only real competitor whose data I trusted to compare myself against. So I thought I would take the opportunity to write about my favorite competitor,&#8221; Ohashi said.</p>
<p>He compared the data that was manually curated by Gliebe to the data on Review Signal and discovered it was similar. Ohashi says he will miss having a trustworthy competitor to compare his data too.</p>
<p>&#8220;It has been nice having <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">HostingReviews.io</span> around when it was actively being updated (the manual process is certainly overwhelming for any individual I think!). I will miss having a real competitor to compare what I&#8217;m seeing in my data.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Challenges of Security Disclosure</h2>
<p>Aaron Campbell, WordPress security lead, <a href="https://aarondcampbell.com/2017/03/the-difficulties-of-security-disclosure/">provides insight</a> into the challenges associated with security disclosure. Campbell describes disclosure as a constant balancing act.</p>
<p>&#8220;But security isn’t a single balancing act,&#8221; Campbell said. &#8220;Many of the decisions we must make require finding the right balance. Each requires thought and consideration, as well as a clear set of priorities. Especially when it comes to disclosing vulnerabilities.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Every situation is going to be unique, but knowing the right questions to ask will help. The time to think through these questions is now, hopefully long before you are faced with them.&#8221;</p>
<p>On the topic of security disclosure, I recommend reading <a href="https://nacin.com/2014/05/30/security-is-nuanced/">Security is Nuanced</a> by Andrew Nacin.</p>
<h2>WordCamp Auckland Wapuu!</h2>
<p>In what is a traditional part of this series, I end each issue by featuring a Wapuu design. For those who don&#8217;t know, Wapuu is the <a href="http://wapuu.jp/2015/12/12/wapuu-origins/">unofficial mascot</a> of the WordPress project.</p>
<p><img /></p>
<p>WordCamp <a href="https://2017.auckland.wordcamp.org/">Auckland, New Zealand</a> is this weekend and the event&#8217;s Wapuu is appropriately enough, holding a Kiwi.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s it for issue eighteen. If you recently discovered a cool resource or post related to WordPress, please share it with us in the comments.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 11 Mar 2017 02:07:14 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"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: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:42:"Matt: Review: From Plato to Post-modernism";s:7:"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=47161";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"https://ma.tt/2017/03/review-from-plato-to-post-modernism/";s: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:2379:"<p><img />One thing I&#8217;m going to try this year is to write a review of every book I get a chance to read. It&#8217;s March already so I&#8217;m a bit behind and the next few will be out of order, but this seems like as good a place to start as any.</p>
<p>One new thing I&#8217;ve been doing this year is listening to audiobooks with an Audible account, so this first book review is actually an audiobook. <a href="http://www.thegreatcourses.com/">Great Courses</a> is actually an old school thing where you could order college lectures on tape. From the references throughout the lectures I listened to, my guess is that the recordings are from the 90s. This one is called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DTO6LZ2/">From Plato to Post-modernism: Understanding the Essence of Literature and the Role of the Author</a> ($25 on Audible, $9.99 on cassette tape <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/72x72/1f643.png" alt="🙃" class="wp-smiley" />).</p>
<p>I really enjoyed this series. Some of the early lectures covering Aristotle, Longinus, and Sidney&#8217;s &#8220;Apology for Poetry&#8221; were quite brilliant. Later ones from Foucault and Derrida on were weaker and harder to follow, which I think is a function of both the material, which can be dense when it starts getting into Modernism, the length, fixed at 30 minutes, and the lecturer, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Markos">Louis Markos</a>. Markos teaches <a href="https://www.hbu.edu/contact/louis-markos/">at Houston Baptist University</a> and his asides can sometimes be a little traditional, but in an adorable grandpa way. He has an infectious enthusiasm that makes even the slower chapters on Kant and Schiller bearable, but his love of and fluency in the earlier classics is really a pleasure.</p>
<p>It made me curious to look into more online lectures and sometime this year I&#8217;m going to check out <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/wi-phi/wiphi-value-theory">this one on Value Theory at Khan academy</a>. I also picked up a used copy of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0155055046/">Critical Theory Since Plato</a> which had the original text for many things discussed in the lecture, so was a great reference point when I was at home in Houston, where I end up listening to most audio content since it&#8217;s a driving town.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 10 Mar 2017 20:48:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:66:"WPTavern: “Open Source in Brazil” eBook Now Available for Free";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=66404";s:7:"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/open-source-in-brazil-ebook-now-available-for-free";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3365:"<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/brazil.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Ccarelo&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="User:Ccarelo (page does not exist)">Ccarelo</a> &#8211; <span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0" title="Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40606618">Link</a>
<p><a href="http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/files/open-source-in-brazil.pdf" target="_blank">Open Source in Brazil</a> is a new free eBook from O’Reilly Media that offers an inside look into the growth of Brazil&#8217;s free software community despite the country&#8217;s unique barriers. Brazil has a vibrant IT and startup culture and hosts the largest open source conference in Latin America, <a href="http://softwarelivre.org/fisl16" target="_blank">Fórum Internacional Software Livre (FISL)</a>. The conference has been running for 17 years and had 5,200 participants in 2016.</p>
<p>According to Andy Oram, the book&#8217;s author, open source software is ubiquitous in the country but challenges in business, education, and government have slowed its wider adoption. The book offers a fascinating account of how the free software movement won political favor in the early 2000&#8217;s, launching many governmental initiatives to use open source solutions instead of proprietary software.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the government was unable to deliver on these initiatives due to lack of expertise in evaluating software and working with open source communities. These factors, combined with a scarcity of local companies to help bridge the gap, and eventually corruption, caused more delays to converting government operations to open source software. These setbacks resulted in what Oram described as &#8220;inertia and corruption that leave companies and government agencies feeding huge amounts of money into proprietary software that was designed for the North American market.&#8221;</p>
<p>Brazil has also struggled to keep highly skilled developers who can mentor the next generation due to a &#8220;brain drain&#8221; to international cities with higher wages:</p>
<blockquote><p>The education of developers that takes place in many developed countries is hampered in Brazil, as in many countries, by a brain drain. Basically, if you become an expert in your technological area, you can get a foreign job that pays more than Brazillian jobs and offers the enticements of living in a major tech center such as London or San Francisco. Thus, the people who could be attending meetups and mentoring the next generation of experts are drawn away.</p></blockquote>
<p>Despite the free software community&#8217;s temporary loss of momentum, its unique challenges have prompted Brazilian developers to rely less on government support and find new ways of promoting open source software. &#8220;Open Source in Brazil&#8221; is available for free in both <a href="http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/files/open-source-in-brazil.pdf" target="_blank">English</a> and <a href="http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/open-source-no-brasil.csp" target="_blank">Portuguese</a>.</p>
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";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:45:"BuddyPress: BuddyPress 2.8.2 Security Release";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://buddypress.org/?p=264593";s:7:"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://buddypress.org/2017/03/buddypress-2-8-2-security-release/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:843:"<p>BuddyPress 2.8.2 is now available. This is a security release. We strongly encourage all BuddyPress sites to upgrade as soon as possible.</p>
<p>BuddyPress 2.8.1 and earlier versions were affected by the following three security issues:</p>
<ol>
<li>Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) in the XProfile administration Dashboard panel.</li>
<li>Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) in a number of user-facing AJAX endpoints.</li>
<li>Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) when dismissing a pending email change.</li>
</ol>
<p>These vulnerabilities were reported privately by <a href="https://dk.linkedin.com/in/skansing">Ronnie Skansing</a>. Our thanks to Ronnie for reporting security issues in accordance with <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/testing/reporting-security-vulnerabilities/">WordPress&#8217;s security policies</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, 10 Mar 2017 16:04:12 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Boone Gorges";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:74:"WPTavern: WeFoster Launches Hosting Platform Catered to Online Communities";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=67151";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"https://wptavern.com/wefoster-launches-hosting-platform-catered-to-online-communities";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5536:"<p><a href="https://wefoster.co/">WeFoster</a>, co-founded by <a href="https://wefoster.co/profiles/marion/profile/">Marion Gooding</a> and <a href="https://wefoster.co/profiles/bowromir/profile/">Bowe Frankema</a>, is a new managed hosting platform fine-tuned specifically for online communities.</p>
<p>The duo came up with the idea for WeFoster <a href="https://wefoster.co/about/">two years ago</a> at WordCamp London 2015. &#8220;Bowe and I sat down and thought of ideas on how we could contribute to the open source community,&#8221; Gooding said. &#8220;We eventually decided on BuddyPress and to build a business around it. We brainstormed on the basic premise of growing awareness, interest, and the user base of BuddyPress.&#8221;</p>
<p>While BuddyPress is at the core of what WeFoster does, it isn&#8217;t limited to it. The hosting provider caters to all kinds of community building tools whether its <a href="https://www.peepso.com/">Peepso</a>, <a href="https://s2member.com/">s2Member</a>, or <a href="https://www.memberpress.com/">Memberpress</a>.</p>
<p>One of the things that sets WeFoster apart is its community creation wizard. Customers are asked a series of questions related to their community. For example, one of the questions asks if you&#8217;d like to have discussion forums. If you answer yes, bbPress will automatically be installed in the background. This process replaces the need to manually search and install a variety of plugins after installing WordPress.</p>
<img />WeFoster Community Creation Wizard
<p>When creating a community, customers can select from a set of partner templates. Partner templates are pre-configured WordPress installations setup specifically around a product. Partner templates include a white labeled dashboard allowing partners to brand it to match their product. Partners also receive a variety of other perks.</p>
<p>The partner program is not an affiliate program and partners are hand selected. The team is looking for partners that are in line with the company&#8217;s vision of building better communities. For more information and to apply to be a partner, check out the <a href="https://wefoster.co/platform/partners/">partner application</a> page.</p>
<h2>WeFoster Uses Google&#8217;s Cloud Platform</h2>
<p>WeFoster is built on <a href="https://cloud.google.com/">Google&#8217;s Cloud Platform</a> enabling each site to be hosted in a container separate from others. The technology stack consists of PHP7, Nginx, Redis/Memcached, and MariaDB. If for whatever reason you need to downgrade to PHP 5.6, you can do so at the click of a button.</p>
<img />Switching PHP Versions
<p>WeFoster uses a custom caching solution dubbed CommunityCaching that it claims loads sites up to six times faster than traditional shared hosts and almost twice as fast as Managed WordPress hosts.</p>
<p>The host is also a certified CloudFlare partner taking advantage of CloudFlare&#8217;s data centers located across the world. The partnership provides access to free SSL certificates. All sites created on WeFoster have SSL enabled by default and are served over the <a href="https://www.cloudflare.com/http2/what-is-http2/">HTTP/2 protocol</a>.</p>
<p>Sites are actively monitored for malware and are backed up to Amazon Secure Storage. Site owners can restore to any point in time since backups are stored indefinitely.</p>
<h2>Tools for Developers</h2>
<p>Although WeFoster has focused on eliminating technical hurdles experienced by those who manage online communities, the company didn&#8217;t forget about developers. Each site has a developer section that includes a code editor, database manager, an area for debugging, and other related tools. The code editor is a full-featured IDE that works in the browser. This eliminates the need use an FTP client to upload files to the web server.</p>
<img />Developer Tools
<p>Those who manage sites using a command line interface will be happy to know that WeFoster supports <a href="http://wp-cli.org/">WP-CLI</a>.</p>
<img />WP-CLI Support
<h2>The WeFoster Community Hub</h2>
<p>In addition to hosting communities, WeFoster itself <a href="https://wefoster.co/platform/community-features/">is a community</a>. The WeFoster community hub is a place where community builders share advice, network with other builders, and gain access to exclusive resources. Prospecting developers can join the <a href="https://wefoster.co/profiles/type/developers/">developer directory</a> and be part of <a href="https://wefoster.co/platform/community-care/">Community Care</a>. Community Care enables community managers to submit tasks that are then completed by one or more experts from the developer directory for a fee.</p>
<h2>Co-Founders Give a Guided Tour</h2>
<p>WeFoster offers a <a href="https://wefoster.co/platform/launch">seven-day free trial</a> for all <a href="https://wefoster.co/platform/pricing/">its plans</a> and will migrate existing communities for free. Prices start at $29 per month for the Village plan and go as high as $249 for the Metropolis plan. If at the end of the trial period you decide not to use the service, remove your payment information so you don&#8217;t get charged.</p>
<p>What I&#8217;ve highlighted above is only scratching the surface as to what WeFoster offers. To learn and see how it works, watch this 47 minute video where Gooding and Frankema give a guided tour and explain the thought process behind many of its features.</p>
<div class="embed-wrap"></div>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 10 Mar 2017 06:23:27 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:118:"WPTavern: Stack Overflow Jobs Data Shows ReactJS Skills in High Demand, WordPress Market Oversaturated with Developers";s:7:"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=67202";s:7:"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:128:"https://wptavern.com/stack-overflow-jobs-data-shows-reactjs-skills-in-high-demand-wordpress-market-oversaturated-with-developers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4805:"<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/stack-overflow.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Stack Overflow published its analysis of <a href="https://stackoverflow.blog/2017/03/09/developer-hiring-trends-2017/" target="_blank">2017 hiring trends</a> based on the targeting options employers selected when posting to <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/jobs" target="_blank">Stack Overflow Jobs</a>. The report, which compares data from 200 companies since 2015, ranks ReactJS, Docker, and Ansible at the top of the fastest growing skills in demand. When comparing the percentage change from 2015 to 2016, technologies like AJAX, Backbone.js, jQuery, and WordPress are less in demand.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ChangesinDemand.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Stack Overflow also measured the demand relative to the available developers in different tech skills. The demand for backend, mobile, and database engineers is higher than the number of qualified candidates available. WordPress is last among the oversaturated fields with a surplus of developers relative to available positions.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/HighDemand.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>In looking at these results, it&#8217;s important to consider the inherent biases within the Stack Overflow ecosystem. In 2016, the site surveyed more than 56,000 developers but noted that the survey was &#8220;biased against devs who don&#8217;t speak English.&#8221; The average age of respondents was 29.6 years old and 92.8% of them were male. </p>
<p>For two years running, Stack Overflow survey respondents have <a href="https://wptavern.com/stack-overflow-survey-results-show-wordpress-is-trending-up-despite-being-ranked-among-most-dreaded-technologies" target="_blank">ranked WordPress among the most dreaded technologies</a> that they would prefer not to use. This may be one reason why employers wouldn&#8217;t be looking to advertise positions on the site&#8217;s job board, which is the primary source of the data for this report.</p>
<p>Many IT career forecasts focus more generally on job descriptions and highest paying positions. Stack Overflow is somewhat unique in that it identifies trends in specific tech skills, pulling this data out of how employers are tagging their listings for positions. It presents demand in terms of number of skilled developers relative to available positions, a slightly more complicated approach than measuring demand based on advertised salary. However, Stack Overflow&#8217;s data presentation could use some refining. </p>
<p>One commenter, Bruce Van Horn, <a href="https://stackoverflow.blog/2017/03/09/developer-hiring-trends-2017/#comment-3194770754" target="_blank">noted</a> that jobs tagged as &#8220;Full Stack Developer&#8221; already assume many of the skills that are listed separately: </p>
<blockquote><p>I wonder how many of these skills are no longer listed because they are &#8220;table stakes&#8221;. You used to have to put CSS, jQuery, and JSON on the job description. I wouldn&#8217;t expect to have to put that on a Full Stack Developer description today &#8211; if you don&#8217;t know those then you aren&#8217;t a Full Stack Web Developer, and I&#8217;m more interested in whether you know the shiny things like React, Redux, and Angular2.</p></blockquote>
<p>It would be interesting to know what is meant by tagging &#8220;WordPress&#8221; as a skill &#8211; whether it is the general ability to work within the WordPress ecosystem of tools or if it refers to specific skills like PHP. Browsing a few jobs on Stack Overflow, <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/jobs?sort=i&q=wordpress" target="_blank">WordPress positions</a> vary in the skills they require, such as React.js, Angular, PHP, HTML, CSS, and other technologies. This is a reflection of the diversity of technology that can be leveraged in creating WordPress-powered sites and applications, and several of these skills are listed independently of WordPress in the data. </p>
<p>Regardless of how much credibility you give Stack Overflow&#8217;s analysis of hiring trends, the report&#8217;s recommendation for those working in technologies oversaturated with developers is a good one: &#8220;Consider brushing up on some technologies that offer higher employer demand and less competition.&#8221; WordPress&#8217; code base is currently <a href="https://www.openhub.net/p/wordpress/analyses/latest/languages_summary" target="_blank">59% PHP and 27% JavaScript</a>. The percentage of PHP has grown over time, but newer features and improvements to core are also being built in JavaScript. These are both highly portable skills that are in demand on the web.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Mar 2017 23:16:02 +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: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:45:"WPTavern: Google Launches Invisible reCAPTCHA";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=67177";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://wptavern.com/google-launches-invisible-recaptcha";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4216:"<p>Three years ago Google introduced its new <a href="https://wptavern.com/googles-new-recaptcha-api-replaces-distorted-text-with-a-checkbox" target="_blank">reCAPTCHA v2 API</a>, replacing distorted text challenges with a simple &#8220;I&#8217;m not a robot&#8221; checkbox for validating users. This was a welcome improvement over the fuzzy text in a box that frustrated and infuriated real humans.</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/recaptcha.png?ssl=1"><img /></a>reCAPTCHA v1
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/nocaptcha.gif?ssl=1"><img /></a>reCAPTCHA v2 photo credit: <a href="http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2014/12/are-you-robot-introducing-no-captcha.html">Google Online Security Blog</a>
<p>reCAPTCHA v1 is no longer supported as of May 2016 and most sites have moved on to use v2. WordPress.org was one of the early adopters of reCAPTCHA v2 and still uses it to validate users on its <a href="https://login.wordpress.org/register" target="_blank">registration form</a>. </p>
<p>The evolution of reCAPTCHA technology continues, as Google <a href="https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin" target="_blank">opened up registration</a> for its new Invisible reCAPTCHA today. With the exception of the &#8220;Protected by reCAPTCHA&#8221; badge on forms, the newest implementation is invisible. It doesn&#8217;t require the user to click anything. Invisible reCAPTCHA validates users in the background and is invoked when the user clicks on an existing button on the site. It can also be invoked by a JavaScript API call. If it deems the traffic to be suspicious, it will require the user to solve a captcha. </p>
<h3>Invisible reCaptcha for WordPress</h3>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/invisible-recaptcha/" target="_blank">Invisible reCaptcha for WordPress</a> is the first plugin to implement the new API. It was launched in December 2016, shortly after Invisible reCAPTCHA went into beta. The settings page lets users paste in the site key and secret key Google issues after <a href="https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin" target="_blank">registering on the reCAPTCHA site</a>.   </p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/invisible-recaptcha-settings.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Invisible reCaptcha for WordPress has options to enable protection on the WordPress login, registration, comments, and forgot password forms. It is compatible with WooCommerce for protecting the login, registration, product review, lost password, and reset password forms. The plugin also works with Contact Form 7 to protect form submission.</p>
<p>On the frontend users will see the &#8220;Protected by reCAPTCHA&#8221; badge. I&#8217;m not fond of the sticky badge on the right side of the viewport that slides out on hover, as it seems too obtrusive. It looks better in the context of the form, and the plugin offers an option to display it inline and add custom CSS.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/invisible-recaptcha-plugin-frontend.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>After testing the plugin and seeing Invisible reCAPTCHA in action, I was impressed with how easy it was to set up. It took less than a minute to get my site added at Google and the plugin configured. However, I was disappointed that the captcha is not truly invisible. Google&#8217;s overt branding on what is meant to be an invisible product makes it only a slight improvement over the v2 checkbox implementation in terms of what the user sees when interacting with the form. It is possible to hide the badge using CSS but this may violate reCAPTCHA&#8217;s policies, as the badge links to Google&#8217;s terms and privacy documents.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/invisible-recaptcha/" target="_blank">Invisible reCaptcha for WordPress</a> is free on WordPress.org and should greatly reduce the spam coming through WordPress forms. The plugin is compatible with Multisite and can be activated network-wide or on a single site. Detailed instructions for extending it to protect any plugin or custom form are available on WordPress.org.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Mar 2017 05:13:46 +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: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:101:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 266 – Clef Is Shutting Down, Configuring User Avatars, and WPCampus 2017";s:7:"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=67181&preview=true&preview_id=67181";s:7:"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/wpweekly-episode-266-clef-is-shutting-down-configuring-user-avatars-and-wpcampus-2017";s: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:4263:"<p>In this episode, <a href="http://marcuscouch.com/">Marcus Couch</a> and I discuss the stories that are making headlines including, Clef shutting down, WordPress 4.7.3, and WordPress.com&#8217;s new add-on for Chrome. I shared two lessons I recently learned from managing a site that has open registration and uses BuddyPress. We also share details of WPCampus 2017.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-3-patches-six-security-vulnerabilities-immediate-update-advised">WordPress 4.7.3 Patches Six Security Vulnerabilities, Immediate Update Advised</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/clef-is-shutting-down-june-6th">Clef is Shutting Down June 6th</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-releases-chrome-add-on-for-google-docs">WordPress.com Releases Chrome Add-On for Google Docs</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/freemius-launches-insights-for-wordpress-themes">Freemius Launches Insights for WordPress Themes</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/configuring-a-user-avatar-in-wordpress-is-not-as-easy-as-it-should-be">Configuring a User Avatar in WordPress Is Not as Easy as It Should Be</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/buddypress-core-contributors-working-on-a-way-to-safely-edit-a-groups-permalink">BuddyPress Core Contributors Working on a Way to Safely Edit a Group’s Permalink</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/wpcampus-2017-to-take-place-july-14-15-in-buffalo-ny">WPCampus 2017 to Take Place July 14-15 in Buffalo, NY</a></p>
<h2>What&#8217;s on WordPress.tv:</h2>
<p><a href="http://wordpress.tv/2017/03/06/wordpress-community-interview-with-jenny-beaumont/">WordPress Community Interview With Jenny Beaumont </a></p>
<p>Jenny Beaumont is a multicultural, multidisciplinary maker and writer of things. She is a leader of people and of projects, who values communication above all else as a means to successful collaboration. Jenny and Paolo Belcastro, are the co-organizers of WordCamp Europe. She is the team lead of the local WordPress Community.</p>
<p><a href="http://wordpress.tv/2017/03/05/rob-ruiz-admin-experience-the-new-ux/">Rob Ruiz: Admin Experience – The New UX</a></p>
<p>This presentation is part of WordCamp Omaha 2016. Too often, User Experience is only considered on the front-end of a WordPress site design. Although that is very important, too many WP Designers/Developers stop there. This video goes over tricks and methods to make updating and administrating WordPress sites much more user-friendly for the admin/site-owner/client.</p>
<p><a href="http://wordpress.tv/2016/10/27/chris-klosowski-democratizing-inspiration/">Chris Klosowski: Democratizing Inspiration</a></p>
<p>This presentation is part of WordCamp Phoenix 2016. All businesses and stories start as an idea. WordPress is a democratized platform for that inspiration, where ideas are empowered to evolve into meaningful products and stories that shape and create the world we want.</p>
<h2>Plugins Picked By Marcus:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/clone-menu/">WP Clone Menu</a> enables you to clone menus using existing menus.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/list-images-to-optimize/">WordPress List Images to Optimize</a> gives users an idea of which ones need to be optimized or re-uploaded.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-raffle/">WP Raffle</a> fully automates an online raffle. Simply install, start the appropriate raffle and prizes, and this plugin does the rest; picking the winners at the designated raffle draw date.</p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, March 15th 3:00 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: </strong><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
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<p><strong>Listen To Episode #266:</strong><br />
</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Mar 2017 02:49:36 +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: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:73:"WPTavern: Google is Retiring Its Adsense for WordPress Plugin in May 2017";s:7:"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=66886";s:7:"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/google-is-retiring-its-adsense-for-wordpress-plugin-in-may-2017";s: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:3035:"<p>Google <a href="https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/3380626?hl=en-GB" target="_blank">announced</a> that it is retiring its <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-publisher/" target="_blank">official Adsense plugin</a>, previously known as the Google Publisher plugin. For the past three years it has allowed WordPress users to easily add Adsense ads to their sites, enable mobile-specific ad layouts, and manage ads with a point-and-click interface. </p>
<p>&#8220;After reviewing the AdSense Plugin for WordPress, we&#8217;ve decided that in the future we can support WordPress publishers better with new innovative features like our automatic ad formats and other upcoming initiatives,&#8221; Google said. &#8220;As a result, we will be deprecating the AdSense Plugin for WordPress in May 2017.&#8221;</p>
<p>Google published the following timeline for sunsetting the plugin:</p>
<ul>
<li>Early March 2017: New publishers will not be able to sign up for AdSense by using the plugin.</li>
<li>Early April 2017: Existing publishers will not be able to change their ad settings or ad units through the plugin.</li>
<li>Early May 2017: Google will no longer provide support for the plugin.</li>
</ul>
<p>Although Google&#8217;s Adsense plugin was used by more than 200,000 WordPress sites, the company has not provided support for the plugin for the past two years. It has been poorly reviewed throughout its three-year listing on WordPress.org and is currently hovering at 2.7/5 stars.</p>
<p>This change will also affect <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/search.php?type=term&q=google+adsense" target="_blank">dozens of other Google Adsense plugins</a>, as Google is changing its ad display recommendations and does not endorse or support using any other WordPress plugins for this purpose.</p>
<p>Affected publishers received an email with information on how to display ads without the plugin. Google recommends deactivating and removing the plugin, followed by using the QuickStart option or creating and placing ad units by inserting the ad code into text widgets. Those who are manually placing ads using widgets will need to make sure they comply with Google&#8217;s detailed <a href="https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/1346295" target="_blank">ad placement policies</a>. </p>
<p>The new <a href="https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/7171740" target="_blank">QuickStart</a> method is a <a href="https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/6245304" target="_blank">page-level ad format</a> that automatically displays ads at &#8220;optimal times&#8221; when Adsense deems they will perform well and provide a good experience for visitors. These ads can be turned on by placing the QuickStart code within the  tag. It&#8217;s easier to set up but not nearly as flexible as placing ads in text widgets, which can be conditionally displayed or hidden on pages, categories, tags, and post types using widget visibility rules offered in Jetpack or another plugin.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 08 Mar 2017 21:23:17 +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: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:37:"Matt: WordPress Collaborative Editing";s:7:"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=47145";s:7:"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:54:"https://ma.tt/2017/03/wordpress-collaborative-editing/";s: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:2390:"<p>I&#8217;m really excited about the <a href="https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2017/03/07/introducing-wordpress-com-for-google-docs-a-new-way-forward-for-collaborative-editing/">new Google Docs integration that just launched</a> &#8212; basically it builds a beautiful bridge between what is probably the best collaborative document editor on the planet right now, <a href="https://www.google.com/docs/about/">Google&#8217;s</a>, and let&#8217;s you one-click bring a document there into a WordPress draft with all the formatting, links, and everything brought over. There&#8217;s even a clever feature that if you are copying and pasting from Docs it&#8217;ll tell you about the integration.</p>
<p>I think this is highly complementary to the work we&#8217;re doing with the new Editor in core WordPress. Why? Google Docs represents the web pinnacle of the WordPerfect / Word legacy of editing &#8220;pages&#8221;, what I&#8217;ll call a document editor. It runs on the web, but it&#8217;s not native to the web in that its fundamental paradigm is still about the document itself. With the new WordPress Editor the blocks will be all about bringing together building blocks from all over &#8212; maps, videos, galleries, forms, images &#8212; and making them like Legos you can use to build a rich, web-native post or page.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re going to look into some collaborative features, but Google&#8217;s annotations, comments, and real-time co-editing are years ahead there. So if you&#8217;re drafting something that looks closer to something in the 90s you could print out, <a href="https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2017/03/07/introducing-wordpress-com-for-google-docs-a-new-way-forward-for-collaborative-editing/">Docs will be the best place to start and collaborate</a> (and better than Medium). If you want to built a richer experience, something that really only makes sense on an interactive screen, that&#8217;s what the new WordPress editor will be for.</p>
<p>One final note, the <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wordpresscom-for-google-d/baibkfjlahbcogbckhjljjenalhamjbp">Docs web store</a> makes it tricky to use different Google accounts to add integrations like this one. To make it easy, open up a Google Doc under the account you want to use, then go to Add-ons -&gt; Get add-ons… -&gt; search for “Automattic&#8221; and you&#8217;ll be all set.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 08 Mar 2017 20:12:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:22:"HeroPress: Coming Home";s:7:"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=1634";s:7:"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:41:"https://heropress.com/essays/coming-home/";s: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:13077:"<img width="960" height="480" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/030817-min-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: I love that the WordPress community wants everyone to feel welcome and included," /><p>When I was 17, I attended the school for graphical design and printing. I remember one time a teacher yelling at me: ‘With an attitude like that, you won’t get very far in life’.</p>
<p>I don’t know why this pops into my mind at the very moment I started to writing this piece for HeroPress. I guess I always wanted to do things my way. I have had pretty strong thoughts about how and why I wanted to do things in life, both personally and work wise.</p>
<p>I’ve felt a great love for the DIY and making industry all my life, and was surrounded by people in small alternative ecosystems in my early twenties. Doing printing, music, squatting, cooking… those were the days. After a while, I sort of drifted apart. My career and life seemed to go a different way from what I actually loved. However, I did some small DIY internet projects on the computer that I got halfway through the nineties. I built some blogs and figured out how to do html. I was all on the side though, never professional.</p>
<h3>A New Beginning</h3>
<p>Around 2002, I really wanted to go away from what I had and dream, make plans and start a new life. So I ditched my management job, husband and newly built house. With a new love in my life, I bought a 150 year old farmhouse in a rural part of the Netherlands. We were busy doing it up and dreamt about starting our own business someday. Not to depend on a time &amp; place based 9-5 job anymore.</p>
<p>In 2007, we started our own webshop in organic gardening and sustainable, handmade garden tools. I experimented with code, Open Source Systems and SEO. I did graphical design, e-mail marketing, text writing, photography… we grew and grew and grew. And then we hit the ground. We got struck by the crisis and everything fell apart.</p>
<p>It made me rethink my career and 2011 was the start for me working with WordPress. I had built websites , but never designed a website with a content management system (besides the webshop). I knew WordPress from the dot com blog I had, so after comparing a few systems and asking for advice on Twitter, I decided to have WordPress as a basis for my future work.</p>
<p>At the time, I didn’t know what WordPress was. I mean, what WordPress really was. Basically it was the software I chose to work with, but that was that. I spent a lot of time finding out about the plugins, themes and adjusting code and css.</p>
<blockquote><p>But I never knew about the WordPress community that was there, and I wish I had.</p></blockquote>
<p>Although I’ve learned a great deal from my research and mistakes, it would have been so much easier having the supportive community around in the early days of my life as a web designer.</p>
<p>It took me quite a while to find out about the WordPress community. I had discovered WordPress support, but never realised these were all hardworking people like me, giving back some time and knowledge to the community without getting paid for it. I guess the anonymity of the internet was part of the reason for me not knowing. At some point I heard about these web developer and design conferences in general, not WordPress specific. It never occurred to me to go there, because I thought I wouldn’t fit in. I didn’t see myself as a real professional, because nearly all my knowledge was self taught. (Later on, I found out that’s the story of nearly everyone I met within the WordPress community). Besides that, designing websites was just part of my job. I also did graphical design, print work, marketing and copywriting. Another reason to feel like a fool among all these smart guys speaking code to each other!</p>
<h3>A Revelation</h3>
<p>Only in 2015 things changed. One of my friends told me about Meetups and was surprised I hadn’t heard of it, since I was her geeky friend. But I had been so busy with keeping my head up after breaking up with my boyfriend, building my company, starting a part time study (I decided to get my bachelor on Media, Information an Communication). In the meantime, I had moved to a new part of the Netherlands again. Looking at local Meetups, I found a WordPress Meetup in Rotterdam, approx. 15 minutes by train from where I lived. On a Monday evening, I decided to go there, not knowing anyone attending. I’m not a shy person at all, but sometimes stepping into a new network can be tough, even for extroverts like me.</p>
<a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/rotterdam_meetup-min.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-1636" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/rotterdam_meetup-min-1024x633.jpg" alt="Scene from the back of the room, Monique with her hand up to ask a question." width="960" height="593" /></a>Asking a question at the Rotterdam meetup.
<p>Arriving in the pouring rain, I stepped into the elevator bringing me to the right floor. A friendly women called Marleen stepped in with me and we started talking. We had a good click right away and chatted all evening. She then told me I should go to WordCamp Netherlands later on that year, convincing me I would fit in and it wouldn’t be all development and code boys, but all kinds of people like bloggers, marketeers, teachers or entrepreneurs.</p>
<blockquote><p>So October 2015 I went to my first WordCamp ever and had a really good time. It definitely was an eye opener.</p></blockquote>
<p>Finishing my thesis (and moving houses again!), I was too busy looking around, so unfortunately I couldn’t attend any other Meetups after that, but I was determined to go to the next Dutch WordCamp. I started following their Twitter to stay updated. At some point I saw them mentioning a WordCamp Europe. By that time, I hadn’t really figured out this whole WordCamp thing (and certainly hadn’t realised the impact it would have on me later).</p>
<p>But what? WordCamp Europe? Vienna? End of June? Well that would be a great graduation present after three years of hard work! So I bought myself a ticket. And started to look forward going to a lovely city. As the date got closer, I realised this was much bigger than I expected. Wow, are there really people flying in from all over the world to be here? So it’s not just a Europe-thing? I was getting more and more impressed (and excited) by the day.</p>
<h3>WordCamp Europe 2017</h3>
<p>To have some pre-travelling fun, I started following the WordCamp Europe hashtag (<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23wceu">#wceu</a>) on Twitter. Soon, I found out there were all these warmup events and I hooked up with some Dutch WordPressers for a cycling trip through Vienna in the scorching heat. For three hours, we chased our guide Franz through Vienna and I had the best time of my life. Immediately I felt at home with this group that I had never met before, apart from speaking to one of them briefly on WordCamp Netherlands. Apparently they had done a bike tour in Sevilla the year before, and as real Dutchies, they thought to continue the tradition.</p>
<p>For the next few days, we sort of met on and off, having dinner or drinks with other people they knew. I was impressed with WordCamp itself as well. I don’t think I’ve ever been to an event organised this well. The catering was great, the talks were great and the weather was perfect. The social on Saturday night was unforgettable. All volunteers were so dedicated and the atmosphere all through the event was the best ever. After returning I was so enthusiastic about being part of this, but it was difficult to describe how I really felt. I guess you have to be part of it to know what WordPress really is.</p>
<blockquote><p>Because WordPress in fact ís the community. I seriously doubt it would exist without the community.</p></blockquote>
<p>What I found truly amazing about it, is that there is so much respect. People make an effort to make the WordCamps accessible for everyone. Disabled, bad eyesight or hearing: WordCamps are accessible for wheelchairs, have live subtitles on the talks or someone who knows sign language. Children? Of course there’s a child care department, so parents can enjoy the talks as well. Crazy diets? Not one diet is too crazy for WordCamp. Event managers should definitely attend a WordCamp or sign up as a volunteer because they could learn a great deal.</p>
<p>I love that the WordPress community wants everybody to feel welcome and included. And this is what I thought of when this remark of my teacher popped into my mind. Ever since I was a child, I have a great feeling for justice. I want people to be equal and not being judged on whatever. That’s my attitude he had problems with, because he thought I should adapt to what big bosses would tell me in life and that they would never accept the different opinion I had. Within the WordPress community, I feel that people live by this rule of justice (the code of conduct I think helps a great deal) and it goes without saying. I believe this is very very welcome in times like these and I feel happy that I’ve discovered the WordPress community. It really felt like coming home and meeting people on WordCamps help me keep faith in humanity.</p>
<a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/wordcamp_netherlands2-min.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-1638" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/wordcamp_netherlands2-min-1024x536.jpg" alt="WordCamp Netherlands Volunteers" width="960" height="503" /></a>WordCamp Netherlands Volunteers
<p>I went to the Dutch WordCamp last October, this time giving back a little bit by volunteering. And at the time of writing, I’m looking forward to my next WordCamp which will be in London from 17-19 March. It will be great to go to one of my favourite cities, but I’m excited to go to this WordCamp for more than one reason: I applied and got selected as as speaker! Not that I’m so keen on standing on that stage, but because it’s a great opportunity to for me to share knowledge and learn. Because that’s what WordCamps are for aren’t they?</p>
<h3>Your Turn</h3>
<p>So this is a shout out to all WordPress newbies: get your arse over to the nearest WordCamp, you won’t regret it! We were all newbies once too, and we’re all still learning everyday and willing to teach you. We could probably learn from your expertise too!</p>
<p>At the same time it’s a shout out to the WordPress community too: make it as easy as possible for new people to attend WordCamps. Invite them, buy tickets for them. Make them aware of the added value of the lively WordPress community both offline and online. Maybe it could become part of WordPress news in new installs? A link to all the great resources on <a href="http://wordpress.tv/">WordPress.tv</a> and support, and a notification of <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/">upcoming WordCamps</a>? I definitely have intentions of visiting as many WordCamps as possible in the years coming, so hopefully I&#8217;ll meet you at one of them!</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: Coming Home" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Coming%20Home&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fcoming-home%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Coming Home" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fcoming-home%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%2Fcoming-home%2F&title=Coming+Home" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Coming Home"></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/coming-home/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/030817-min-150x150.jpg&description=Coming Home" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Coming Home"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/coming-home/" title="Coming Home"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/coming-home/">Coming Home</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, 08 Mar 2017 12:00:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17:"Monique Dubbelman";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";O:42:"Requests_Utility_CaseInsensitiveDictionary":1:{s:7:"*data";a:8:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Thu, 30 Mar 2017 11:37:35 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Thu, 30 Mar 2017 11:15:12 GMT";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:4:"x-nc";s:11:"HIT lax 249";s:16:"content-encoding";s:4:"gzip";}}s:5:"build";s:14:"20170310010635";}